Lightning Reviews: Princesses in Love, Bartenders, & Romantic Suspense

Admittedly, this might be one of my favorite batches of Lightning Reviews we’ve done. There are princesses, Elyse taking photos of questionable objects in public, and a new romantic suspense from a contemporary romance author. Enjoy!

Any Time, Any Place

author: Jennifer Probst

The second book in the Billionaire Builders series is definitely going to appeal to HGTV fans and lovers of hot contemporary romances alike. When Raven Stratton moves home to open a bar/ restaurant she’s got a dual purpose in mind: run a successful business and also avenge her father. He dad died in a car accident running off with an “other woman,” and Raven has never forgiven that woman’s family for making her father out to be a con man and manipulator. So when her antique bar needs repair in time for a magazine shoot and Dalton Pierce shows up to do the work, it seems like karma. Dalton’s mom was the woman with Raven’s dad–although Dalton doesn’t know that.

Sound complicated? It is. And I was never sure how Raven was going to avenge her father anyway (although a portion of the book is coming to terms with a parent’s imperfections).

The best parts of this book are the wonderful details about Raven getting her business up and running. I felt like I could get up and walk into Raven’s bar and recognize it on site. There are similar details about Dalton’s woodworking business but my understanding of home improvement is so limited that I once thought a newel post cap holding cash in my local Starbucks tip jar was a butt plug.

A silver object (possibly butt plug, possibly newel post cap) sits on top of a pile of cash in a clear box outside a Starbucks drive through.
Newel post cap or butt plug? You decide.

Raven is also amazing despite the Inigo Montoya bit. She’s tattooed, she does martial arts training, and she’s a mixologist. She’s the type of ultra-cool, nuanced heroine you want to be friends with. Dalton is more of a playboy stereotype but there is some excellent slow burn chemistry happening.

So while the revenge part and the woodworking (hur) wasn’t a huge draw for me, the sexiness, the heroine and the restaurant environment made this contemporary stand out.

Elyse

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Of Fire and Stars

author: Audrey Coulthurst

Of Fire and Stars is a YA about two princesses who fall in love. It’s a fantasy-romance crossover that has delightful characters and a charming romance, but it needs more world building to fully succeed.

Princess Dennaleia (also called Denna) is sent to the kingdom of Mynaria to marry the Mynarian prince. It’s a marriage that was arranged when she was born, and she has been raised to be a paragon of propriety at all times. However, once she gets to Mynaria, Denna forms a bond with her fiancé’s sister, Princess Amaranthine (nicknamed ‘Mare’). Mare is Denna’s opposite – she wears men’s clothes, works with horses, and rebels against her own fate as a princess with all her might. The two women fall in love, and while gender is not a problem – in this kingdom, homosexuality and bisexuality are accepted – Denna has magical powers that she must conceal, as working magic is punishable by death in Mynaria. And oh yes, there is the pesky detail that Denna is supposed to marry Mare’s brother.

I liked the romance, especially the way Denna imparts some common sense to Mare and Mare wakes up Denna’s rebellious side. The book has one of the most delightful last lines of all time. That said, the romance is fairly lightly sketched in the midst of political drama, and without sufficient world building the political drama is just noise. I have no sense of what these kingdoms are like or why I should care about their alliances. Mynaria seems consist of a castle, a stable, a market, and a pub. I’m not looking for 1000 pages on the culture of the various kingdoms at play, but I do want these places to have more character so I can care about what happens to them. Despite this story leaving me wanting more, I definitely want more stories like this one.

Carrie S

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The Devil’s Daughter

author: Katee Robert

The Devil’s Daughter is a romantic suspense that is heavy on thrills and fairly light on romance. I enjoyed the mystery elements, but the romance between the two main characters felt flat to me.

The mystery centers around a group called Elysia in a small Montana community. Supposedly worshippers of Persephone and led by a woman named Martha Collins, the group is most definitely a cult — and some of their rituals are terrifying (you’re in a cult, call your dad). When a young woman turns up dead and tattooed with symbols meaningful to the cult, local sheriff Zach  Owens has to investigate. Then Martha’s adult daughter, Eden, arrives. Eden fled her toxic mother and the cult years ago and has since become a FBI agent. Someone sent her a message regarding the murder and Eden is determined to see her mother and her followers face justice for once. Then another girl goes missing. And another.

I didn’t find the romance between Eden and Zach especially engaging, mostly because so much time was spent focusing the cult, Eden’s childhood, and the mystery, there wasn’t a ton of character development for Zach. Still the suspense plot was very well done and I would happily have read this book as a straight mystery.

The Devil’s Daughter is high on tension, but light on gore and scares, so readers typically leery of suspense might consider this novel.

Elyse

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Comments are Closed

  1. coves says:

    SSDGM

  2. Allie says:

    Was the Devil’s Daughter recommended on here earlier this week? Read the review here, decided yesyesyes, then went to buy it but turns out I had already bought/checked it out (I don’t know the proper term for getting books from KU) on the 23rd!

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