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Someone Perfect
RECOMMENDED: Someone Perfect by Mary Balogh is $2.99! Elyse, a majorly Balogh fan, gave this an A-:
If you’re looking for a slower romance with a hero who has a lot of work to do emotionally, then you’ll enjoy this book.
Sometimes, just one person can pull a whole family apart. And sometimes, it just takes one person to pull it back together. For fans of Bridgerton, New York Times bestselling Regency Romance author Mary Balogh shows how love truly conquers all in this new Friends of the Westcotts novel.
As a young man, Justin Wiley was banished by his father for mysterious reasons, but now, his father is dead, and Justin has been Earl of Brandon for six years. A dark, dour man, he, nonetheless, takes it as his responsibility to care for his half-sister, Maria, when her mother dies. He travels to her home to fetch her back to the family seat at Everleigh Park.
Although she adored him, once, Maria now loathes Justin, and her friend, Lady Estelle Lamarr, can see, immediately, how his very name upsets her. When Justin arrives and invites Estelle and her brother to accompany Maria to Everleigh Park to help with her distress, she begrudgingly agrees, for Maria’s sake.
As family secrets unravel in Maria’s homecoming, Justin, too, uncovers his desire for a countess. And, while he may believe he’s found an obvious candidate in the beautiful 25-year-old Lady Estelle, she is most certain that they could never make a match…
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Jackson
Jackson by LaQuette is $1.99! This is book one in the Restoration Ranch series and seems to have some elements of suspense. It also has an opposites attract romance!
From celebrated author LaQuette comes a sizzling opposites attract Texas Ranger romance that will leave you breathless…
Aja Everett longs to turn her old family ranch into a place where anyone can find rest and healing. But her big heart’s bound to get her in trouble if she’s not careful—someone wants her gone, and they’ll do whatever it takes to drive her away from the land that’s her lifeblood. Whether she’s willing to admit it or not, she needs help.
She needs a man like Ranger Jackson Dean.
Jackson doesn’t trust love. He once made the mistake of following his heart and all he’d gotten was pain in return. But when city-slicking do-gooder Aja Everett asks for his help, he can’t stay away…and as attraction sizzles and protective instincts flare, she may be the only woman able to restore the heart of this Texas Ranger.
Get out your fans for this steamy contemporary romance which features a hunky Texas Ranger with trust issues and a confident, sexy, full-figured heroine who believes in the best in people. Sometimes oil and water are meant to mix.
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The Year of the Witching
RECOMMENDED: The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson is $1.99! Given the themes, this could be a cathartic read or one you may want to avoid. Ellen gave this one an A-:
The Year of the Witching is a very, very good book. It’s unsettling and horrifying, beautiful and incisive, and ultimately, radiantly triumphant.
The Handmaid’s Tale for a new generation . . .
In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy.The daughter of a union with an outsider that cast her once-proud family into disgrace, Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol and lead a life of submission, devotion and absolute conformity, like all the women in the settlement.
But a chance mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood that surrounds Bethel – a place where the first prophet once pursued and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still walking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the diary of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.
Fascinated by secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realises the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her . . .
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If We Were Villains
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio is $2.99! This is contemporary fiction with a mystery and is highly recommended for fans of Shakespeare. My roommate loved it and was completely taken aback by the ending, but said it took a while to really get into at first.
Enter the players. There were seven of us then, seven bright young things with wide precious futures ahead of us. Until that year, we saw no further than the books in front of our faces.
On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it.
Ten years ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extra. But in their fourth and final year, the balance of power begins to shift, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students’ world of make believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent.
Part coming-of-age story, part confession, If We Were Villainsexplores the magical and dangerous boundary between art and life. In this tale of loyalty and betrayal, madness and ecstasy, the players must choose what roles to play before the curtain falls.
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As I have said before here, Mary Balogh is an auto buy for me. I like her later books much more than the early things. The Wescott series is very good. (This is book 9 I believe.) There are a lot of complicated family relationships in this series and I would not recommend starting with this book, although I do recommend the series. In my opinion this book is probably one of the lesser ones in the series, but still very enjoyable.
Completely agreeing with @Laurel about Mary Balogh and later books. I love the Westcott series along with other recent (well in the past ten to twenty years) series like the Survivors’ Club, the Simply quartet (my fave), and the Bedwyns. I just tried to read something from 1989 of hers, and it was rough and not to be attempted with others.
I love her character development in this book (Someone Perfect), but I agree that there’s a lot going on with family stuff that may be a bit too much; this is definitely also Westcott adjacent but really that’s about it.
Agree on Mary Balogh! Her books aren’t pushing any boundaries or doing anything unexpected, but they are (at least from the Bedwyn series on, I’ve read basically everything since then – many times over – but haven’t read any of her older stuff) pretty much without fail just warm, enjoyable, comfort reads with characters/families that are easy to like and solid romances. I like some more than others but there’s not a single one I dislike. This one isn’t my favorite in the Westcott series, but I really liked it.
Also worth noting – grab them on sale when you can if you like Balogh at all! Her publishers (I guess? IDK how pricing works exactly) apparently think a lot of her – not that it’s not deserved, but her books pretty rarely go on sale, and the regular prices are on the higher end of the ebook scale. Mostly at $7.99 or $8.99, which is reasonable IMO, comparable to mass market paperback, but some of hers stay at $11.99 and while I normally happily auto-buy her new stuff at full price, the preorder on her newest is $14.99, which is pushing it a little, for me.
Echoing all these other beautiful readers about this particular Balough. Low steam a little angst but always tender and sweet stories.
Writing in defense of some of Mary Balogh’s earlier books. The Notorious Rake is one of my most frequent rereads, and for me at least it broke new ground. It pretty much starts with the hero and heroine having sex in a thunderstorm, and the relationship must grow from there. Pretty radical stuff for a trad Regency from back in the day. Irresistible, The Temporary Wife, and several other early books didn’t necessarily fit into standard RomanceLand tropes of the day. I’ve certainly not loved all her books, but there’s a reason she’s an auto buy for me.
Need to read the Year of Witching; get the Balogh, it’s incredible!
@Susan/DC oh she’s an auto buy for me, too.
Loved ‘If We Were Villains’ so much that I bought the new edition in hardcover when it came out, even though I hardly ever read DTBs anymore (the eyeballs, they are old and tired). It’s an academic mystery that unfolds slowly, with hardly any action and barely a whiff of romance, but for Shakespeare lovers this is, IMO, a can’t-miss. I would instantly read a sequel, because the conclusion was like OMFG YES MORE.
I really enjoyed the latest Balogh. The cast of hundreds didn’t intrude. Then again, I liked Estelle from Someone To Care, which is my favorite Westcott book. She just kicked her dad’s butt, and it was great to see her grown up and making her own decisions. And fine, I adore bloodhounds, too.