A Midnight Dance

author: Lila DiPasqua

A Midnight Dance by Lila DiPasqua is complete ridonkadonk historical crazy sauce. The cover and title suggest that it’s a Cinderella story, but I’m not sure it really qualifies.

The story takes place after The Fronde in France. The heroine, Sabine Laurent, is suffering: her father (a once successful playwright/ theater owner) is dead, her sister is missing, the theater is gone, and she owes more in taxes than she can ever hope to pay. Sabine and her brothers hatch a crazy scheme to rob some pirates of trunk loads of silver–Sabine will pretend to be a prostitute “Elise” and lure their leader into a false sense of security, and then they’ll get the men to drink drugged wine so they pass out.

Turns out one of those “pirates” is a man Sabine used to see at the theater and fantasize about as her Dark Prince, Jules de Moutier. Jules’ father was accused of treason and his family lost their standing. Jules became a pirate (I think?) and the silver is going to be used to help clear his family name.

So anyway, the plan goes awry when Jules forbids his men from drinking the drugged wine and Sabine has to sleep with him for real. It’s okay though–Jules has a magic peen and the sex is real good…which didn’t totally make up for the fact that the whole thing was kinda squicky.

Jules is shocked to learn that Sabine/Elise is a virgin, but again, the sex is real good, so…yeah. What follows is more crazy scheming to get the silver and then Jules finding out Sabine’s real identity and getting pissed and then some running around because they have to find Sabine’s missing sister and clear Jules’ family name.

A lot of things happen in this book fairly rapidly. New characters are introduced so quickly it’s difficult to tell them apart. When I got to the conspiracy involving Jules’ dad, I was pretty much lost. This book suffers from a case of Way Too Much Plot Held Together By Sex Scenes. Rather than focus on the internal conflict between Sabine and Jules, the external conflicts (and boning) drive the novel. And Jules seems to fall in love with Sabine because she’s so great in bed and they have sexual chemistry.

Overall the novel suffered from a crazy, meandering plot and a use of sex in place  of emotional development. Jules wasn’t particularly likeable either–he spends most of his time thinking about Sabine and how sex-able she is and doesn’t fully see her as a person until she’s almost raped by another man. I love a good Cinderella story but A Dance at Midnight wasn’t it.

– Elyse

Historical: European, Romance

The Drafter

author: Kim Harrison

A new scifi/urban fantasy series by Kim Harrison?! Well, yes please. When I first read the blurb, it described the book as Minority Report meets The Bourne Identity, but with a woman protagonist.

Peri Reed is a drafter for the government. She has the ability to alter time after it’s happened, but the longer she drafts and the more time she attempts to change, the larger the toll it takes on her body. She loses memories, which is where an anchor comes into play. Anchors are paired with drafters to help stabilize and ground them, rebuilding and refilling the gaps they lose while drafting. At the start of the book, Peri has a romantic and longstanding relationship with Jack, her Anchor. And then he fucks her over. They always do.

Essentially, Peri goes on the run, though she’s trying to be recruited by an alternate organization hoping to expose how the government uses their drafting teams to do some pretty shitty things.

While trying to figure out how deep this rabbit hole of backstabbing goes, the alternate organization I mentioned before enlists the help of a doctor, Silas, to bring Peri over to their side. Through the book, it’s hinted at that this doctor and Peri have some sort of previous history, though Peri has no recollection of this at all. For me, that was the real driving force for the book. I wanted more interactions, more revealed glimpses of their pasts, anything.

Though I enjoyed the concept of the book and the world Harrison created, I think there’s such a thing as too much detail. I didn’t care about the sumptuous fabric of Peri’s favorite coat when I just wanted to see more of her kicking ass and interacting with Silas. A lot of time also goes toward explaining how everything works, which I’m still not solid on entirely.

Definitely a great sense of action and characterization, but the progression of the plot often stalled for things that seem unnecessary. Oh, and beware of a cliffhanger.

– Amanda

Science Fiction/Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Painting the Moon

author: Traci Borum

The cover of this book got to me. Then I read it was about a small town in the Cotswolds, and off I went. I’m not lying when I say travel within books is 212% my catnip.

Noelle inherits her great-aunt’s estate and takes a short leave from her life in San Diego to settle matters. Her great-aunt had been an up-and-coming painter with a potentially huge art career in front of her when she had a dramatic spat with her sister, Noelle’s grandmother, and shut herself away, refusing to let anyone in, and refusing to let any of her paintings, if there were any, out. Noelle puts her life on pause so she can fix up and sell the property, but when she finds some deeply hidden secrets in the house, she stays a little longer, reuniting with old friends she’d spent the summers with when she was a girl, including a man she’d had a crush on for years as a teenager.

This book had a good balance of revealing the mystery, introducing the town and the way of life in the Cotswolds, and allowing Noelle to figure things out at a pace that was interesting for the reader and didn’t make Noelle look like an idiot. If anything, she was very smart and emotionally savvy, and navigating grief and family secrets is exhausting for anyone. The story of her reclusive great aunt is a part of the development, as is Noelle’s own realizations of what constitutes her happiness, and what she’d like to do with her life. Her life makes several major changes during the course of the novel, and she was for the most part a pretty chill adult about most of it.

My problem was the love interest. This guy needed to put on his big boy pants and man up already. He was unwilling to risk himself, unwilling to be honest, and way, WAY too willing to compromise his morality and Noelle’s for what he wanted in the moment. His uncertainty is part of the tension, but it carried on WAY too long. There’s a note in my copy of the book that reads, “SHIT OR GET OFF THE POT YOU DICKBAG,” which pretty much sums up my mid-book ire at this guy.

That said, I’m curious about book 2, Finding the Rainbow, enough to want to go visit the town and the ancillary characters sooner rather than later.

 

– SB Sarah

Contemporary Romance, Romance

The Paris Key

author: Juliet Blackwell

I love any type of book that promises an immersive experience in another place, culture, or world that is different from my own. My desire for travel doesn’t match my travel budget any more than by reading desires are satisfied by my book budget, so books like this one are always tempting to me.

Unfortunately, there were two parallel storylines in this book, and I didn’t like one of them. Genevieve is getting a divorce, and has inherited her late uncle’s locksmith shop and apartment in Paris, so off she goes to end one life and start another. While she’s there, she finds traces of a mystery surrounding her late mother’s trip to Paris before she was born, and investigates the past while learning about her new life. This is all my catnip, though there wasn’t enough romance for me.

The mystery surrounding Genevieve’s mom didn’t do that much for me. Her mother, even in the warmest of recollections from Genevieve, seemed selfish and foolish much of the time, and I wasn’t that excited about the chapters devoted to her story in the past.

Plus, Genevieve heads to Paris to take over her uncle’s locksmith business. He trained her when she was a teenager, and she’s kept up with lock repair and lock picking (her estranged husband used to grouse that she’d mess around trying to break into old locks while they were watching tv together), so she’s not ignorant of the trade. For me, there wasn’t enough lock picking! More lock picking! More competence porn! I wanted less flashbacks of maudlin, selfish mom, and more lock picking. There wasn’t nearly enough lock repair and lock picking going on – which would have, obviously, unlocked a lot of doors and potential stories. But there were only a few that Genevieve was focused on, and they weren’t as interesting to me.

The present day conflict and regeneration of Genevieve’s life was much more interesting, though much less dramatic, than the past flashbacks that focused on the mystery connected to Genevieve’s mother. I liked this book enough to finish, but there wasn’t enough Paris, and there wasn’t enough locksmithing.

– SB Sarah

Women's Fiction

Risky Game

author: Tracy Solheim

So I bought this title back when it was on sale for $1.99, and those $2 were worth it (alas it’s no longer on sale). When I sat down to write this lightning review, I realize the plot sounded very similar to that of Takes Two to Tackle. There’s an athlete hero with health concerns and a heroine who helps take care of him, while posing as his girlfriend. But how do these two young scamps get themselves into this situation?

Shay is struggling financially. She’s trying to finish up her PhD program in nutrition, so she’s doing an internship with the Baltimore Blaze football team. On top of that, she’s working at a local bar, teaching water aerobics, babysitting, etc. I know those feels. When a mysterious blogger offers her money in exchange for some sort of scoop on any of the Blaze team members, she camps out in the locker room, hoping to get some dirt. There, she overhears our hero, Brody telling his trainer about his diabetes. He wants to keep it quiet for the rest of the season, until he’s positive his contract will get renewed.

Shay, being the kind woman that she is can’t go through with it. So that’s part one. Part two, the fake relationship part, involves a bunch of leering jerkholes in a supermarket and Brody pulling the old “kiss the girl to deter other dudes” trick. Minor, personal rant: why does another guy have to “stake his claim” for men to get the point that a woman isn’t available or interested?

I digress. But with Brody being a noticeable figure in the community, their little kiss makes the news circuit.

In the end, the two work out a deal. Shay keeps his secret and helps him with his nutrition, and she gets some research out of it for her PhD. Brody thinks that Shay is still somehow working with the blogger who’s saying some really personal things about players, which is the crux of their relationship. They both grow to actually like each other, but since Brody doesn’t really trust Shay, she refuses to sleep with him. Good for her. (And she remains steadfast on that for a majority of the book.)

The book had some pacing issues, with things happening at breakneck speed toward the end of the book. Big fights, Shay’s virginity is revealed, family issues that have existed for years miraculously get resolved. Plus, Shay has a thing for storming off when Brody sticks his damn foot in his mouth without letting him explain.

Overall, though, it’s a sweet and cute romance. I haven’t read the previous books and I got by fine, but I might recommend reading them to make it easier to keep the cast straight. I’d love to go back and read the book before this, Foolish Games, because it has a secret baby plot!

– Amanda

Contemporary Romance, Romance

The Sport of Baronets

author: Theresa Romain

I haven’t made a secret of my love of Theresa Romain or my love of horses, and when Romain announced that her new series involved Regency horse racing, I declared that she had hit upon the perfect RedHeadedGirl bait, and if this is a plot to get me kidnapped due to being told that an ARC is down a dark alley somewhere, it’ll probably work.

Please don’t, though.

This is a novella to set up the series, and the story of Sir Bartlett Crosby and Hannah Chandler- scions of families that have been feuding for years and years, and also both families raise racehorses.  The Crosby family has been in a decline, and Bart has pinned all of his hopes and dreams of restoring the family fortune on one colt, Golden Barb. But then Hannah, daughter of his nemisis shows up with a bill of sale transfering ownership of Golden Barb from Bart’s mother to her, Hannah.

This doesn’t go over well.

It goes over even worse when Golden Barb is stolen while they’re fighting, so they must join forces to find the colt, sort out their shit, and maybe, by accident, get their families to stop this stupid feuding.

I’m usually not a fan of novellas. If the hero and heroine don’t already know each other, I often don’t buy the progression of relationship in such a short length. The fact that Hannah and Bart knew each other already (and they were well into “I hate you, I hate you, I can’t stop thinking about your hair”) helps make the relationship seem organic and reasonably paced. My only wish was that it was longer.

I loved that the resolution appears to be a homage to my favorite Sherlock Holmes story (which I’m not going to name because spoilers) (but if you’re smart you can probably make an educated guess) and I’m a sucker for a good burying the hatchet trope, and I am SUPER thrilled to have this series start. YAY HORSIES

 

– Redheadedgirl

Historical: European, Novella, Romance