Lightning Reviews: Women’s Fiction, Rogues, & Super Soldiers

We have a fresh crop of Lightning Reviews this week with all sorts of reads! We have a book by a Great British Bake Off winner, a dystopian romance between a doctor and a super soldier, and a historical romance with forbidden love!

Ashwin

author: Kit Rocha

Ashwin is the first book in the Gideon Rider’s spinoff series from writing duo Kit Rocha. I was so excited about this book that I even made a strong and very tasty cocktail to go along with it.

If you haven’t read their previous Beyond series, you should still be fine with this one. Those who are familiar with the world will probably have a deeper appreciate of certain details in Ashwin, but it’s definitely not a make or break requirement.

The heroine, Kora, is the doctor to Gideon’s Riders – part motorcycle gang, part religious warriors. Ashwin is a Makhai soldier, a government creation who isn’t allowed to feel. His only motivation is fulfilling orders. Kora and Ashwin have a past; she used to be his doctor before she escaped to build a home amongst the Riders. Ashwin was been tasked with infiltrating the group, not knowing he’d reunite with Kora. This is a second chance romance in a dystopian setting with all sorts of neat cultural aspects.

What I really loved about this romance is all the female friendships. There are so many strong women that inhabit different roles with the Riders – princesses, doctors, warriors. It’s a diverse cast with plenty of sequel fodder. The care given to the world building is just as fascinating, and it’s easy to pick up on various cultural influences that inspired the religion, the leadership, the temples, etc.

However, a lot of the action disappeared once Ashwin and Kora meet again at the Rider’s camp. Instead, most of the book is given to introducing all of the characters and showing the routines of the Riders. I wanted more conflict, more badass fights. Ashwin is also keeping a big secret from Kora and though I expected it to culminate in a rather intense showdown, I found the reveal to be really anticlimactic.

Though the pace of the book slowed in favor of character introductions and fleshing out the setting, I’m looking forward to the subsequent books, since the details have already been established. And if you’re a reader who loves to ship characters together, Ashwin will send your mind into overdrive.

Amanda

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The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters

author: Nadiya Hussain

One of the important things that books do for us is provide a window into other lives. What Nadiya Hussain does in her debut novel is give us a window into a Bangladeshi family that lives in a small village in England, with four daughters (and a son) and a number of secrets.

Fatima is the eldest, near 30, still living at home, and trying to figure out where her path as a dutiful daughter is leading her, and if that’s somewhere she really wants to go. Farah got married to a nice Bangladeshi boy, like she was supposed to, but can’t seem to start the family they’re supposed to have. Bubblee, Farah’s twin, is an artist living in London (gasp!), by herself (GASP!), and is determined not to fall into a traditional life. And Mae is still in high school, and has a rather popular YouTube channel, starring her family, who don’t seem to realize how much of their lives are shown through Mae’s filter.  A tragedy brings them all together, and a lot of those secrets come out, shaking everyone out of the ruts they found themselves in.

What I liked about this is how normal this family was in all of their messiness. There’s some melodrama, and some of it derives from their Bangladeshi roots, but most of it is caused by the ordinary messiness of people and their lives. We see the story from the point of view of each sister, so we get to see how each reacts to being the hero of her own story. Some are supremely confident as protagonists, and others are not at ALL. As someone who struggles with writing more than one PoV, I was very impressed with how clearly drawn each sister was.

Nadiya Hussain is most well-known around these parts as the winner of season 6 of the Great British Bake Off, and here she uses her visibility to show people a window into the lives of immigrants from her community.  Like her, it’s warm and funny, but with depth and purpose.

Redheadedgirl

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Stealing the Rogue’s Heart

author: Erica Monroe

Stealing the Rogue’s Heart is the fourth book in the Rookery Rogues series. I loved the first book in the series, A Dangerous Invitation super hard. The series is set in London’s East End and follows the lives of people who—gasp!—are not in the aristocracy. I so want more historicals that don’t follow only the upper classes. You don’t have to read the series in order, but a lot of the characters from previous books make cameos so it’s fun to have that context.

This particular installment is a forbidden love romance, which is totally my catnip. Mina Mason is basically a mafia princess; her older brothers run the Kings, a dangerous and powerful gang. Mina is going to be married off to an old man in order to help secure their power, which, other than sucking in general, is a problem because Mina is in love with Charlie Thatcher.

Charlie and Mina were best friends as children but now have to avoid each other. Charlie is part of a rival gang, The Chapman Street Thieves, making him strictly off limits to Mina. Neither character is particularly involved in the underworld dealings of these gangs, though. Mina is just part of the Kings by family association. Charlie, formerly a child of the streets, is a bartender who became involved with the Chapman Street Thieves as a means of survival. Since Mina and Charlie can’t have each other, they of course fall in love even though it means they could both be killed for it.

Stealing the Rogue’s Heart is a nice departure from historicals set in the ballrooms with ducal heroes. The only thing I wanted was more time with Charlie and more character development on his part. We get a lot of Mina, but I’m a sucker for a lot of detail and deep POV with the hero. If you like gritty historicals or the words “underworld romance” make you giddy, then you should totally check this book out.

Elyse

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Comments are Closed

  1. Jacqueline says:

    @Amanda I bought and read Ashwin DIRECTLY because of your post about it, AND REALLY LIKED IT! I hadn’t read Kit Rocha before but I had a damn blast live tweeting as I read it.

    That said, I don’t feel like the story is confusing to read, but I do feel like you miss out on like 50% of the romance by not having read the other series. There’s so many little scenes and backstory moments with out OTP that are referenced which still effect them. Not getting to read those kinda bummed me out. But other than that, OH MY GOD BOOK WAS CRACKTASTIC AS HELL!

  2. Carolyn says:

    I was really interested in the Hussein book, but it’s not available in eBook. 🙁

    Unfortunately i have to have eBook so I can enlarge the print.

  3. Betsydub says:

    @Carolyn – if you click on the B&N link below the review, you should come up with a Nook book
    (e-pub) for $7.76. In case you’ve never Nook’d before, the app is a free download. However, for anyone looking for a paper copy through the B&N page, the links to hard-& softcovers are a mess: Copyrights in the 1980’s? Anne Rice’s “Feast of All Saints”? Definitely nope.

  4. SB Sarah says:

    Carolyn: you and me both. It’s a bummer when things are not digitally available.

  5. Karenmc says:

    I’ve enjoyed Erica Monroe’s Rookery books. It’s refreshing to have a series set in the backstreets of London, where the prejudices can be just as strong as those in the Ton.

  6. genie says:

    @Jacqueline – all of the Kit Rocha Beyond books are free on Kindle Unlimited if you have a subscription (or want to sign up for a free trial and binge) to get caught up….

  7. Jacqueline says:

    @genie That’s so sweet of you to give me the heads up!

    Alas, my romance novel/romance Asian drama YouTube channel means I can’t binge anymore :(. And since I normally read dead trees, it wouldn’t pay to have a subscription. But I SO appreciate you letting me know! 🙂

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