The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman is $1.99! Several of us were excited for this one because we’re all suckers for bookishness and bookstores. However, this falls more toward women’s fiction than a contemporary romance. Have you read this one?
The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.
When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn’t he realize what a terrible idea that is?
Nina considers her options.
1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)It’s time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn’t convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It’s going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.
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RECOMMENDED: Frankly in Love by David Yoon is $2.99! This is a Kindle Daily Deal and Carrie gave this one an A-:
I would not recommend this to anyone expecting a romance novel but I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a story about family, immigration, race, and becoming an adult. It’s a lovely, painful, frustrating, funny, sweet story and I wish Frank all the best. You do you, sweetie.
This smart, romantic, and totally original coming-of-age YA contemporary debut about a Korean-American teen falling in (and out) of love is perfect for fans of The Sun is Also a Star, Eleanor & Park, and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.
High school senior Frank Li is a Limbo–his term for Korean-American kids who find themselves caught between their parents’ traditional expectations and their own Southern California upbringing. His parents have one rule when it comes to romance–“Date Korean”–which proves complicated when Frank falls for Brit Means, who is smart, beautiful–and white. Fellow Limbo Joy Song is in a similar predicament, and so they make a pact: they’ll pretend to date each other in order to gain their freedom. Frank thinks it’s the perfect plan, but in the end, Frank and Joy’s fake-dating maneuver leaves him wondering if he ever really understood love–or himself–at all.
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We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Lady Sarah’s Sinful Desires
Lady Sarah’s Sinful Desires by Sophie Barnes is $1.99! This is a historical romance with the Big Secret trope. Some readers took issue with the heroine’s characterization, as she’s described as independent and strong-willed but doesn’t seem to reflect that. However, many enjoyed the sweetness of the romance (despite the “sinful” title) and the friendships that are secondary to the romance.
Welcome to Thorncliff Manor, where London’s elite mix, mingle, and may even find their heart’s desire…
There are thousands of things Christopher, Viscount Spencer, would rather do than hunt for a bride, especially since experience has taught him that women are not to be trusted. Then he finds the intriguing Lady Sarah scrambling around in Thorncliff’s conservatory and he is instantly charmed by her passionate nature. But why is she so intent on avoiding him?
Lady Sarah would make the perfect bride for a peer—if not for a tarnished past that she’s hiding from the ton. A stay at Thorncliff Manor was meant to help her plan for her future, not fall in love. Yet Christopher’s kisses are irresistible, his gallantry enticing. When her secret stands to be revealed, will the truth ruin their dreams of happiness?
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Toil & Trouble edited by Jessica Spotswood and Tess Sharpe is $3.99! This is an anthology, which I’m gravitating toward a lot right now, given the ease of dipping in and dipping out. Though this is YA, I have a feeling that it skews older. I’ve read another anthology edited by Spotswood (A Tyranny of Petticoats) and there was some heavy stuff.
A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.
Are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.
History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.
Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.
A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.
From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely–has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored.
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There’s another of Ellis Peters’s Cadfael medieval mysteries on KDD today: SAINT PETER’S FAIR is $1.99.
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is lovely and witty, even when everything that happens seems too good to be true. Who doesn’t need a dose of that today?
I read The Bookish Life of Nina Hill last year. I have limited capacity for anything serious these days and our last 2 bookclub selections were a bit too heavy for me so I picked this for our next meeting. It’s fun and quirky, sometimes veering close to too precious but it never crossed that line IMHO. It’s not a romance, but there is a cute one going on in the background and if you like bookish things (as I think many people on this blog do!) I think you’d totally relate to Nina.
I enjoyed Toil and Trouble, particularly the stories by Tess Sharpe and Brandy Colbert. Also, My Once and Future Duke by Caroline Linden is on sale for $1.99.
Heads up that The Bookish Life of Nina Hill has a lot of problematic, ill-thought-out jokes, starting with a transphobic joke on page 9 and including jokes about Rwandan child soldiers and African stereotypes farther in. Nina felt like more of a caricature than a person. I loved Waxman’s debut but this was a big miss for me.
Getaway Girl by Tessa Bailey is FREE on Kindle, Nook and Apple Books this week. I downloaded it last night, it’s really good so far!
Halfway Girl is 99 cents or free on Kindle Unlimited, Runaway Girl is 3.99.
I loved The Bookish Life of Nina Hill! So much so that I immediately read everything else the author had written. I also wouldn’t classify it as a contemporary romance. I’m on the wait list at my library for Waxman’s new book-I Was Told It Would Get Easier-can’t wait!
I wish I’d waited before buying The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. I read the first couple of positive comments and decided to buy it immediately. Transphobia, jokes about Rwanda and stereotyping Africans? No thanks. I wish there was a way to return or exchange a book since I have no time for that and would never be able to look past it while reading. Thank you, Leigh Kramer, for the heads up.
Just a quick follow up – I returned The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. It never crossed my mind one could return an ebook for some reason, but after posting my comment, I realized I should check if I could.