Someone To Love is an interesting romance novel because it deals with two people who are highly skilled at concealing their emotions. This book is relatively slow and calm and quiet but with so much emotion just beneath the surface. Overall, I loved it, but when it had problems… boy, were they big ones. The story involves Anna Snow, who was raised in an orphanage. Unlike many institutions of the day, the establishment was well … Continue reading Someone to Love by Mary Balogh →
TW: discussion of rape and sexual assault I’ve felt like I’ve had a vitamin deficiency for the past few months, and I finally realized what I needed to correct it. I needed crazysauce. I needed banana-crackers. Luckily, two people came to my aid to recommend something. Ellen DeGeneres took Michelle Obama to CVS to help re-introduce her to civilian life, and they stopped by the bookshelf, and pulled Lady Pirate off the shelf. Michelle was dubious, … Continue reading Lady Pirate by Lynsay Sands →
TW for descriptions of emotional and physical abuse. You ever have the sense when you’re reading a book in a series and think, “Oh, boy am I missing something here?” It’s even more disconcerting when you know you’ve read the other books in the series (or related series, as the case may be) but can’t remember much other than, “Uh…this seems familiar?” That’s what reading this book was like. The primary story – the perfect debutante … Continue reading The Rebel Heir by Elizabeth Michels →
Do You Want to Start a Scandal is good. It’s so, so good. How good is it? It’s this good: I wake up at the ass crack of dawn on a Saturday because a big storm is rolling in and I’m getting pre-migraine twinges, so I take my usual migraine cocktail of Excedrin, ibuprofen and a muscle relaxer and plan on sleeping until noon. While I’m waiting for drugs to kick in, I start the book. … Continue reading Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare →
Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown is not a perfect book, but it was exactly the book I needed. It was this beautiful, restful story that transported me somewhere else and soothed my brain. It’s the literary equivalent to just floating in a warm pool, listening to soft noises. First of all, Beautiful Wreck is a time-travel historical, which is my shit. It opens in the near future, a time when people immerse themselves in sophisticated virtual … Continue reading Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown →
Mary Balogh’s re-release of her former Signet Regency titles are a gift. I’ve read several while traveling over the past 2 weeks, and each is like sinking into a warm and soft comforter made of words. Really, really good words. This one (so far – there are more I haven’t read yet) (which, THANK GOODNESS because I have more plane travel ahead) is my favorite. Piers Westhaven and Alice Penhallow were childhood friends who grew up … Continue reading A Certain Magic by Mary Balogh →
This book should have been my catnip. Brooding Egyptologist hero! Well-travelled curator heroine! Manorial espionage and mystery! I was there for that like you wouldn’t believe. Unfortunately, the book wasn’t really there with me. This is, again, a part of a series—the fourth installment by all appearances. The framing narrative is the presentation to a young woman of unspeakably judgmental shoes (they only fit if she’s worthy of true love?!) by a professional matchmaker (fairy … Continue reading Bella and the Beast by Olivia Drake →
Oof. You guys. I apparently did not know what I was doing when I was picking my RITA review books. I honestly probably would have DNFed it, but I’d already DNFed my other pick and I was feeling weirdly self-conscious that the Bitchery would judge me for not being able to finish a book. So I pushed through. And now I just feel depressed and negative. Earls Just Want to Have Fun was never going … Continue reading Earls Just Want to Have Fun by Shana Galen →
Trigger warning: mentions of violence. Maxwell Derring, Earl of Dane hates the poor. They’re lazy, stupid, immoral, and “barely human.” He blames them for his father’s death—not because a poor person shot or stabbed his father, but because somebody robbed one of his father’s houses, and two weeks later he died of pneumonia. Now, you might be thinking, as I did, that that seems a very weak and specious chain of logic for deciding to … Continue reading Earls Just Want to Have Fun by Shana Galen →
When Jo Beverley passed away last month and we were discussing recommendations, several people mentioned Emily and the Dark Angel. I realized I had a copy but had never read it. It was just the sort of charming, quietly hilarious comfort read I needed. It has the best meet-cute I’ve read in a long time, too. Emily Grantwich is walking through her hometown, Melton Mowbray, when a man bumps into her. Another woman in an upstairs window, … Continue reading Emily and the Dark Angel by Jo Beverley →
The Warlord’s Wife by Sandra Lake is a deliciously Old-Skooly historical romance set in 12th century Sweden. The hero was occasionally an alphahole, but like a lot of Old Skool heroes, it made his redemption all the more satisfying. The book opens with widow Lida being beaten and dragged in front of her father-in-law. Lida is very pregnant, which is a problem because she was only married a short time. Her mother-in-law accuses her of … Continue reading The Warlord’s Wife by Sandra Lake →
