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Just Like This
Just Like This by Cole McCade is $1.99! This is part of today’s Kindle Daily Deals, and features an opposites attract romance between two teachers. This is the second book in the Albin Academy series, but I think it would work fine on its own. Correct me if I’m wrong!
Rian Falwell has a problem.
And his name is Damon Louis.
Rian’s life as the art teacher to a gaggle of displaced boys at Albin Academy should be smooth sailing—until the stubborn, grouchy football coach comes into his world like a lightning strike and ignites a heated conflict that would leave them sworn enemies if not for a common goal.
A student in peril. A troubling secret. And two men who are polar opposites but must work together to protect their charges.
They shouldn’t want each other. They shouldn’t even like each other.
Yet as they fight to save a young man from the edge, they discover more than they thought possible about each other—and about themselves.
In the space between hatred, they find love.
And the lives they have always wanted…
Just like this.
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Wintersong
RECOMMENDED: Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones is $2.99! This has some hefty Labyrinth and Phantom of the Opera vibes. There’s also a quasi-cliffhanger if you aren’t a fan of bittersweet endings. We did a fantastic podcast episode with the author and discussed her writing a heroine with a mental illness. I did a cocktail for this one, too! And…I gave it an A- grade on the site.
Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.
All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.
But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.
Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.
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The Chocolate Touch
RECOMMENDED: The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand is $1.99! This contemporary romance was a Sizzling Book Club pick in September 2013. For many, Florand is an auto-buy author and the descriptions of chocolate were downright dangerous. A few readers felt that some scenes dialed up the angst too high, but the book maintains a 4-star rating on GoodReads
La Vie en Chocolat
Dominique Richard’s reputation says it all–wild past, wilder flavors, black leather and smoldering heat. Jaime Corey is hardly the first woman to be drawn to all that dark, delicious danger. Sitting in Dom’s opulent chocolaterie in Paris day after day, she lets his decadent creations restore her weary body and spirit, understanding that the man himself is entirely beyond her grasp.
Until he touches her. . .
Chocolate, Dominique understands–from the biting tang of lime-caramel to the most complex infusions of jasmine, lemon-thyme, and cayenne. But this shy, freckled American who sits alone in his salon, quietly sampling his exquisite confections as if she can’t get enough of them–enough of him–is something else. She has secrets too, he can tell. Of course if she really knew him, she would run.
Yet once you have spotted your heart’s true craving, simply looking is no longer enough. . .
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Dreaming of You
Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas is $2.99! This is book two of the Gamblers of Craven’s series and is a lot of readers’ favorites on account of the hero, Derek Craven. However, some felt the heroine lacked the depth that the hero received. After seeing all the love for this book on Twitter, I read it and I totally understand.
She stood at danger’s threshold–then love beckoned her in.
In the shelter of her country cottage, Sara Fielding puts pen to paper to create dreams. But curiosity has enticed the prim, well-bred gentlewoman out of her safe haven–and into Derek Craven’s dangerous world.
A handsome, tough and tenacious Cockney, he rose from, poverty to become lord of London’s most exclusive gambling house–a struggle that has left Derek Craven fabulously wealthy, but hardened and suspicious. And now duty demands he allow Sara Fielding into his world–with her impeccable manners and her infuriating innocence. But here, in a perilous shadow-realm of ever-shifting fortunes, even a proper “mouse” can be transformed into a breathtaking enchantress–and a world-weary gambler can be shaken to his cynical core by the power of passion. . . and the promise of love.
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Cole McCade is an auto buy author for me but JUST LIKE THIS (which can be read on its own) is one of his weaker books imo. It’s needlessly descriptive – and I’m the first one to admit that his writing style can be very purpleish – and that took away from the enjoyment of the book. In my notes about this book I wrote:
“It’s like he turned in the manuscript to the editor and his editor liked it but reminded him his contract was for a book with 70k words and not 55k. So instead of him adding more scenes, he highlighted every description and decided to expand about it in excruciating detail with all five senses in mind. And that wasn’t enough: he wrote an epilogue that could have wrapped the book up at three separate points but didn’t and kept going and going and going.”
The plot has some holes, but his traditional romances are more character than plot driven so I’m more than willing to let that go since I really enjoyed both of the MCs. Overall, I gave it 3 stars. I read this book on Hoopla and am still debating if I actually want to purchase it – even on sale.
Still Life by Louise Penny is $2.99
I did not enjoy DREAMING OF YOU and could not figure out why it’s a fan favorite. The plotting is kind of blah and it’s a “man is made good by the love of a good woman” plot trope. Derek also manhandles Sara when he’s upset in a way I found pretty upsetting. The first half is definitely much better than the second, but on the whole, meh.
I can’t read Derek Craven’s accent without picturing Bert from Mary Poppins. Unfortunate, but true. I do wish American authors would never attempt to write British working class dialects. Your nobility all speak like Americans! Just make the peasants all American too! Or say something like: “She spoke with a strong West Country burr” and then just write the character’s dialogue plainly.
I also disliked Dreaming of You, and the universal acclaim has always made me wonder what I’m not getting! Derek was not memorable to me, he read as very boilerplate historical hero, but I found Sara both boring and self-righteous (which is actually an issue I have with a lot of Kleypas heroines, come to think of it).
McCade’s an enormously talented writer but I had a similar issue as M with the first book in the series—lovely prose that really needed a red pen taken to some of that loveliness. I’ll probably give this one a try anyway, but I was hoping for some improvement in the second book.
I also have never understood the wide acclaim for Dreaming of You, and it’s kind of making my day to discover multiple readers who felt the same way! It usually feels like I’m the only one.
Derek wasn’t especially memorable to me, but I was willing to chalk that up to having read similar heroes before, when iirc there weren’t actually too many heroes of that stripe at the time of writing, so I could imagine him making a stronger impression on me had I read it when it first came out. Sara was the bigger problem, and I agree with @Annie Kate that she was both boring and self-righteous. This really made me hate their romance, because it basically made it seem like her only real attraction for Derek was that she was a virginal gentlewoman, and that is incredibly problematic for me. Not only does it reduce her down to her status and her chastity (at least the latter of which is not long for this world, so… how is she going to keep his attention longterm?), but it also implies by extension that the lower-class women in Derek’s world are all unworthy at best, and I’m not okay with that.
Kleypas doesn’t work for me as an author in general, though, so.
Underneath It All, the first book in the Walsh series by Kate Canterbary, is currently FREE on Kindle. If I’m remembering correctly, this author and series have received a lot of love from DiscoDollyDeb in Whatcha Reading? (And if I’m misremembering…it’s a free book.)
Taking a chance on the Cole McCade book, new author for me. I am supposed to not be buying any new books for a while, oops.
I don’t think I am going to read Just Like This but I like the daring of the extremely moody cover — that close-up on the distant stare and above all the color. Not a fashionable hairstyle (though a pleasing one); is the book set a few decades ago?
“Dreaming of You” was one of the first romances I ever read, way back in the 1990s when it was first published (I still have the paperback from 1994 and it shows the publish date as May 1994). At that time, he was a different type of hero and I, too, fell in love with him. He may not stand up so well almost 30 years later but I think a self-made man was not so common then.
@Deborah: Yes, yes, yes! I love the Walsh Family series and strongly recommend it and all of the various offshoots that Canterbary has written. Highly recommended.
Re Kleypas: I know I’m in a tiny minority, but only one Kleypas book has ever worked for me, her very early (possibly very first) book, GIVE ME TONIGHT, published in 1989. It’s a time-travel romance set in Texas in the late-1800s and the Depression era. It’s never been converted to ebook, so I’m not sure if Kleypas has simply disavowed it or doesn’t think it’s worthy of her later work…but I loved it. The rest of Kleypas’s oeuvre…not so much.
I wasn’t a big fan of Kleypas back in the day (I was more a Julie Garwood/Johanna Lindsey/Jude Deveraux/Amanda Quick kinda girl) EXCEPT for Dreaming of You, and yup, it was because of Derek. He was the heroine’s best friend in another book and I remember finding him much more interesting than the hero. I loved his book. Him and the hero in Karen Robards’ Tiger’s Eye may have started my fascination with underworld kingpins.
Dreaming of You was my first foray into HR and I was sufficiently tantalized to get pulled into the genre. In the meantime I’ve read other Kleypas that I like even more but will always have fond feelings for Dreaming of You and its role in sending me down the HR path. IMO the prior book, Then Came You, features characters that are more interesting and complex. Derek Craven in Dreaming of You is pretty swoonworthy though.
I know I’ve said this before BUT! I was very much liking and near the end of the Audible version of “The Chocolate Touch” when WhatevreTHF happened with licensing and again, WhatevrTHF, it was removed from my library, mid-listen.
I should think we need better warning and at least let the books one is already listening to be completed.
Le sigh. I’ll just assume they LHAF and wish them well.
I also didn’t like Dreaming of You, mostly because I didn’t like either Sara or Derek. I liked one of Kleypas’ Wallflowers books, the autumn one, but I read it ages ago. I didn’t continue with the series because I think it ends with a rape attempt or threat by someone who becomes a hero in later books and that was a nope from me. After that I mostly gave up on Kleypas.
The Chocolate Touch does have a lot of angst, but also a lot of funny moments, and there’s a lot of delicious food.