This year is my year to review stuff that I am mostly unfamiliar with. I tried to choose titles that no one else had yet signed up for (all but one), and lest you think me puffing off my virtue, I’ll admit that just about every slot for historical anything was filled before I even saw the list. But—what the hey—I’m up for a challenge! “One Little Kiss” is a novella that takes place in … Continue reading One Little Kiss by Robin Covington →
I applaud the effort but “Desert Heat” didn’t work that well for me. Novellas can be a difficult format to write. Longer than a short story, not quite a novel. With a short story, you can do a tightly focused tale focused on a single incident or subject. A novel gives you a chance to explore a story – dig into the characters or plot, even add sub-characters and sub-plots. With a novella, it’s hard … Continue reading Desert Heat by Merline Lovelace →
Before reading this, I had only heard good things about this novella. Scratch that – amazing things. So I was prepared to be either blown away or severely disappointed. Thankfully, it was the former. This book induces Good Book Noise™ something fierce. It is both deeply harrowing and one of the sweetest books I have read in a long time – and both those aspects are melded seamlessly throughout the story. The story is set … Continue reading Let It Shine by Alyssa Cole →
I have been in a major reading rut lately, and have had a hard time finding a story I could get lost in. I picked up “Her Secret Prince” because it was (a) short, and (b) combined the second-chance/reunited lovers trope with a secret royal heir, neither of which are my usual fare. This story is the second of four novellas in the Royal Holiday series. Each book is written by a different author, and … Continue reading Her Secret Prince by Madeline Ash →
The Stars Change is a gorgeous illustrated novella with art by Jack Kotz that is very hard to categorize and describe. It’s science fiction, with romantic and erotic elements. It’s not a romance per se, but romance readers who are also drawn to other kinds of fiction will appreciate the emphasis this book places on the importance of all kinds of love. At the University of All Worlds, humans (mostly colonists from Southeast Asia), non-humanoid … Continue reading The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj →
For me, Kissing the Captain was bad. It was mind-numbingly, throw-against-a-wall bad. While many historical romances are gloriously cheesy and I adore them, this romance was not ‘so bad it’s good’ – it was just bad. The dialogue was clunky and false, no one behaved in an even remotely plausible manner, the hero was a jackass, the heroine vacillated between being a kickass woman and a doormat, and the villain was cartoonishly one-dimensional and relentlessly fat-shamed. … Continue reading Kissing the Captain by Kianna Alexander →
Full disclosure: I have a huge block when it comes to BDSM. As a result, I did not expect to like Sated, which is the third book in a trilogy about members of a BDSM club. I tried it anyway, because it had a lot of my personal catnip components, including diverse and geeky characters. Surprise, I LOVED IT. The book was respectful of geeks, people with disabilities, people of color, and the BDSM community, and … Continue reading Sated by Rebekah Weatherspoon →
I am super creeped out by the Elf on a Shelf thing. A creepy pervy elf that moves around your house, reporting to Santa if you’ve been good or not? Talk about preparing kids for life in the surveillance state. Happily, this is not about that. It’s about a woman who’s been “on the shelf” for years, and suddenly a former classmate of her 21-year-old daughter blows into town for Christmas, and between his extremely … Continue reading MILF on the Shelf by Nico Rosso →
Christmas Yet to Come is a great stocking-stuffer of a novella. It mixes the darker elements of A Christmas Carol with a sweet romance and some suspense to surprisingly good effect. Jason is a banker who lives alone. He doesn’t socialize during Christmas and he gives all his servants the day off. He doesn’t decorate or anything because he figures there’s no point in celebrating by himself. On Christmas Eve, Jason is astonished to discover … Continue reading Christmas Yet to Come by Marian Perera →
I’m generally meh on Christmas romance because I’m kind of meh on Christmas itself. It’s a really busy, stressful time of year for me and at some point during our family Christmas celebration, I inevitably wind up in tears. Plus Christmas romance tends to be treacly sweet. When I saw A Pirate for Christmas I decided to take a risk on it because Scottish pirate! Plus–shit, it was 99 cents! This Regency novella takes place in … Continue reading A Pirate for Christmas by Anna Campbell →
Like most Jane Austen fans, I focused my Austen attention on her six fully completed books. I really thought I had my Austen down, but then I thought I better look at some of her earlier writing and OMG HAVE YOU READ LADY SUSAN? This is a book that Austen sort of kind of finished – I mean, it looks kind of done but it reads like she planned to do some major edits and … Continue reading Lady Susan by Jane Austen →
