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Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure
RECOMMENDED: Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan is 99c! Catherine wrote a guest review for this one before coming on as a regular reviewer. She gave it an A:
This is a novella that masquerades as a cheerful, vengeful romp, as a sweet, sort-of second-chance love story between two women. And honestly, it is enormously satisfying on this level, and it is laugh-out-loud funny, even on a second or third reading.
Mrs. Bertrice Martin—a widow, some seventy-three years young—has kept her youthful-ish appearance with the most powerful of home remedies: daily doses of spite, regular baths in man-tears, and refusing to give so much as a single damn about her Terrible Nephew.
Then proper, correct Miss Violetta Beauchamps, a sprightly young thing of five and sixty, crashes into her life. The Terrible Nephew is living in her rooming house, and Violetta wants him gone.
Mrs. Martin isn’t about to start giving damns, not even for someone as intriguing as Miss Violetta. But she hatches another plan—to make her nephew sorry, to make Miss Violetta smile, and to have the finest adventure of all time.
If she makes Terrible Men angry and wins the hand of a lovely lady in the process? Those are just added bonuses.
Author’s Note: Sometimes I write villains who are subtle and nuanced. This is not one of those times. The Terrible Nephew is terrible, and terrible things happen to him. Sometime villains really are bad and wrong, and sometimes, we want them to suffer a lot of consequences.
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Ben’s Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle
Ben’s Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle by Penelope Peters is $1.99! This one was mentioned in a previous Book Beat and it sounds super cute. I believe this is a dollar or so off from its normal price. Is it too early to start talking about holiday romances?
This Hanukkah, it’s love with a side of latkes.
Former ice hockey star Adam Bernard has spent the last ten years caring for his ailing father and coaching his pee-wee hockey team. He doesn’t have time to brood over what could-have-been since leaving the NHL draft – and he sure doesn’t have time for a love-life. When his team is invited to a prestigious tourney in Boston – and it’s during the week of Hanukkah – he can’t find it in his heart to tell them no. Adam hates the idea of leaving his dad alone during the holidays – but a promise is a promise.
Ben Daniels wasn’t running from his almost-Olympic past when he started up a kosher-style bakery three years ago. Deciding to stick to Hanukkah-themed treats, though, was probably running from the truth, which is that he’s one bad month away from bankruptcy. An infusion of donut-hungry preteens is exactly what his register needs – but their adorable and mysterious coach might be exactly what Ben’s heart has been yearning for.
Adam’s life is back in Montreal – but the more time Adam spends with Ben, the less he wants to leave Boston. Ben might have spent the last three years avoiding the ice – but Adam could be the key to melting his resolve.
When Adam gets an offer from the NHL, it’s a chance for them both to rewrite their histories. But Ben hasn’t been entirely truthful with Adam – and Adam’s got some prejudices that might just extinguish what’s burning between them.
With Adam’s future at a crossroads, and Ben’s past out in the open, will they find a way to prove that miracles aren’t only found on the ice?
Ben’s Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle is a m/m romance with a HEA ending. It features two sexy and sincere Jewish guys, match-making 12-year-old hockey players, and lots of yummy kosher donuts.
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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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In Bed with the Earl
In Bed with the Earl by Christi Caldwell is $1.99 at Amazon! This is book one in the Lost Lords of London series and I’m super curious about it. It has amnesia, but the hero seems to have it prior to meeting the heroine. Also, the heroine is a reporter!
Christi Caldwell, USA TODAY bestselling author of the Wicked Wallflowers series, combs London’s underground and finds romance and danger for a missing lord and the lady who loves him.
To solve a mystery that’s become the talk of the ton, no clues run too deep for willful reporter Verity Lovelace. Not even in the sewers of London. That’s precisely where she finds happily self-sufficient scavenger Malcom North, lost heir to the Earl of Maxwell. Now that Verity’s made him front-page news, what will he make of her?
Kidnapped as a child, with no memories of his well-heeled past, Malcom prefers the grimy spoils of the culverts to the gilded riches of society. Damn the feisty beauty who exposed the contented tosher to a parade of fortune-hunting matchmakers. How to keep them at bay? Verity must pretend to be his wife. She owes him.
The intimacy of this necessary arrangement—Verity and Malcom thrust together in close quarters—soon sparks an irresistible heat. But when the charade ends, the danger begins. Will love be enough to protect them from a treacherous plot devised to ruin them?
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Ben’s Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle was cute in a lot of places, but the visiting hockey player lead is kind of awful about shaming the other lead for not being a good enough Jew, so I can’t quite recommend it.
Less pertinent to the review, but very distracting for a person who grew up there and still visits family frequently, it’s set in the Boston area, but reads like someone who visited Boston 20 years ago (they use tokens on the T and one of the leads has a standing friend gathering at Vinny Testa’s – which closed in 2010), so I wish the author had a had a local do a beta read on that.
(There’s other things that aren’t quite so jarring as these kind of archaisms, such as the author appears to think there are no Jewish bakeries in the metro area (which indicates she didn’t get to Coolidge Corner in her visit).)
Adding Ben’s Bakery to my TBR list!
Oof, or maybe not, thank you omphale!
Book recs needed. I really need some cozy, low-angst queer romance with fall vibes right now. On top of the election stress, I am trying to buy a house, just had to put down my 12.5 year old cat I’d had since she was 3 months old on Saturday because she was very sick, and came back after to find one of my other cats (aged 15) got out of the house and she’s still missing. When I am not out looking for her, I need something to read to lower my stress/anxiety levels.
@HeatherS: I just finished Boyfriend Material (Alexis Hall) and it was hilarious and lovely and very low stress. Not really an autumn vibe but so very good. Like Austen good for ridiculously funny side characters. Also How to be Human (TJ Klune) which I think might have been from a Rec League of funny romances that was earlier this year? I did not stop laughing during that one.
@HeatherS: Have you read any Amy Lane? Winter Ball’s timeline starts about now (just before Halloween), as does Homebird (Octoberfest). I loved both of those. Some others to look at:
Vincent’s Thanksgiving Date by R. Cooper (Thanksgiving)
Status Update by Annabeth Albert (Thanksgiving to New Years)
Frog by Mary Calmes (Christmas – not Fall but I love this one)
I hope that helps!
@HeatherS I recently read R Cooper’s A Little Familiar and I thought it was a nice cozy autumnal read. There’s cider making and pumpkin carving and magic and a lot of feelings. Also, it’s a novella, which I know I always prefer when I’m feeling stressed out.
Heather, I recommend Annabeth Albert’s Portland Heat series for cozy vibes. Also Eli Easton. Some one already mentioned TJ Klune.
I read the Bookish Life of Nina Hill, and found it…meh. None of her problems ever felt like real problems except one, and the solution they presented for it never felt like a real solution.
Also she has a lot of economic privilege, and it made me grind my teeth a bit.
Seconding Annabeth Albert and Eli Easton for sweet comfort reads.
I like a lot of TJ Klune but his tone is all over the place (also, avoid Tell Me It’s Real) but if you haven’t read House on the Cerulean Sea, it definitely got a few audible “awws” from me.
I’d say that Cat Sebastian’s “Tommy Cabot Was Here” from the “He’s Come Undone” anthology fits the bill perfectly!
@HeatherS I’d say that Cat Sebastian’s “Tommy Cabot Was Here” from the “He’s Come Undone” anthology fits the bill perfectly!
@HeatherS I’m reading Roan Parrish’s Better Than People right now, and it’s SO gentle and kind!
@HeatherS and @Stephanie Burgis: I was going to recommend another Roan Parrish book, The Remaking of Corbin Wale. It starts off angsty, but is just so lovely. One hero (Corbin) is neurodivergent (and maybe magic), and the other hero, Alex, just rolls with it in such a lovely way.