I really, really wanted to like this anthology. Jewel heists? Oh, yes, please. Any kind of heist, really, but jewel heists have additional romance-friendly elements like wealth and potential world travel built in, coupled with a rather low risk for entrails, sexual assault, or crime elements that would preclude me from reading them. Alas, while one of the three stories was fun and another was sort of meh, there was the one that gave me … Continue reading Caught in the Act: A Jewel Heist Anthology by Ainslie Paton, Emma Sinclair, and Michelle Dayton →
The first thing that you should know about this book is that it is YA romance, which I didn’t realize when I signed up for it since it was under the “best first book” category. Abby and Zeke’s ages are never actually given, although their French professor ensures they are both over 17 due to some explicit course content. It is difficult to review it because certain things that are hallmarks of YA don’t work … Continue reading The Distance from A to Z by Natalie Blitt →
I was excited at the thought of snagging a book for the Smart Bitches Trashy Books RITA Reader Challenge. SBTB is the first book blog I read, and a great example of what I want our blog to be when it grows up. I carefully went over the list (well, what was left of the list, it was kind of slim pickings by the time I looked) and Enchanted Warrior stood out. The King Arthur … Continue reading Enchanted Warrior by Sharon Ashwood →
On the surface You Were Here is all of the Elyse-bait. It’s a psychological thriller set in present and past, a story about infidelity and family lies. It also features a heroine who dreams of some tragic event long-ago, nightmares that are so vivid they disrupt her life. All of those elements are there, but they fail to gel together to make a story that’s cohesive. You Were Here opens with Abby Walter’s having one of … Continue reading You Were Here by Gian Sardar →
Dating the Undead had a premise I was excited about: a dating website for vampires. That sounds pretty cool, right? And I’m always trying to find romances that do something new with the paranormal romance genre. However, as fun as watching ancient beings attempt to use modern technology to date sounds, that’s not what I got. What I got was disappointment and a bad case of agita. Silver Harris is the heroine and she’s having a … Continue reading Dating the Undead by Juliet Lyons →
I selected this book to expand my literary repertoire – I am admittedly not the target audience for a contemporary set on a ranch in Texas. However, the premise seemed interesting, and it stands alone, even as part of a series. But I had so many issues with this book that, despite the interesting set-up, I spent most of my time with this story shaking my head and muttering in irritation. The premise: First we … Continue reading Lone Heart Pass by Jodi Thomas →
Katie Stone is back in Fairfield, the small Georgia town in which she grew up, after four years away to help her parents deal with her mother’s recent MS diagnosis. The problem is that Katie doesn’t want to be back home because she’s filled with all sorts of self-loathing and guilt over the wreckage she left behind when she hightailed it out of town in the middle of the night after doing the very horrible, … Continue reading My Hope Next Door by Tammy L. Gray →
Searching For Disaster had a premise that I was excited for, but then everything spiraled into a disappointing into a pile of WTF and alphahole nonsense. I will put a disclaimer here – Searching For Disaster is the seventh and final part of the “Searching For” series so I’m sure there’s things I’m missing. That said, I’m not exactly tempted to go back and catch myself up. Our Hero and Heroine are Officer Liam Devine, … Continue reading Searching for Disaster by Jennifer Probst →
All you really need to do to get me to give a contemporary a shot is put some pointe shoes on the cover. Casey Alexander was a ballerina in New York, but after an injury ends her career, she goes home to her small hometown of Angel Falls, Alabama, to take over the local ballet school. Back in that hometown is her former best friend Melody, who is married to Casey’s former high school boyfriend Ben … Continue reading Angel Falls by Babette De Jongh →
I decided to step outside my comfort zone with this book and hoo boy do I have Thoughts and Feelings. Spoilers and gifs ahead! First off, the plot is needlessly convoluted. Essentially Crista’s father put shares in a diamond mine in Crista’s name but never told her about it. The mine is now rumored to be worth millions, so Vern is marrying Crista without a prenup in order to get his hands on the shares. … Continue reading His Stolen Bride by Barbara Dunlop →
How we ended up here I picked this book because I love a good forced proximity via snow romance. There’s nothing better than a good snow day when you’re all stocked up on food and books and you’re probably not going to lose power. I’d hoped for a novella with good character development pushed along by forced proximity. But this book? It did not do it for me. The okay things Holly and Sam end … Continue reading Let It Snow by Jeanette Grey →
