I’ve always loved The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, the 1947 film about a widow who falls in love with the ghost of a sea captain, but I greatly dislike a certain plot complication that occurs near the end of the movie. The Ghost and Mr. Moore is a gender-swapped version of the story that avoids the complication and is entirely optimistic, with love conquering all. It’s a warm, sweet, comforting story with solid storytelling and … Continue reading The Ghost and Mr. Moore by Wendy Dalrymple→
After I finished reading The Seat Filler I had two important questions: 1. WTF did I just read and 2. Is Adam Driver ok? The Seat Filler turned out to be a self-insert RPF (real people fiction) about actor Adam Driver and it had the most ridiculous conflict ever. It had moments where it was genuinely cute, but I couldn’t get over the squickiness of the RPF angle or the fact that the conflict could easily … Continue reading The Seat Filler by Sariah Wilson→
When I read A Spindle Splintered, I had completely forgotten what it was about. I tore through the whole novella in one night and was blown away. And while I know you’re here to hear all about it, this is one of those few times when I want you to trust me and read this book without knowing anything else because that was a big part of the magic for me. In case I’ve persuaded … Continue reading A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow→
Payback’s a Witch was a fun, spooky, sexy way to kick off my autumnal reading. With enjoyable characters with clear development, a sultry queer romance, a delightfully magical setting, and beautiful prose, there’s lots and lots to like here. At the outset of the story, Emmy Harlow is returning to her magical hometown of Thistle Grove after a whopping nine-year absence, during which time she has not seen any of her family or childhood friends … Continue reading Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper→
Well, colour me pink and call me tickled. This was a read that was worth waiting for. I had squirreled it away in my TBR knowing that the publication date was only in September (HOW are we past September already?!) and past me did present me a real solid in that respect. This is a slightly creaky but charming romantic comedy that had me smiling at the pages. Olive is a graduate student in the … Continue reading The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood→
When You Wish Upon a Duke is a historical romance with Peter Pan references. Given that the heroine is named Isobel Tinker, I feared a whimsy overload. However, I ended up having a wonderful time with this ridiculous yet utterly enjoyable novel, in which a female travel agent and a duke who is doing one last job for the Foreign Office are forced to confront pirates in Iceland. I told you it was ridiculous! This … Continue reading When You Wish Upon a Duke by Charis Michaels→
Catch is a romance set in Bodega Bay, one of my favorite places. In fact I read some of this in Bodega Bay by complete coincidence. So I was primed to like this contemporary romance and I was not disappointed. I also found that this romance, which deals with pain and rejection, family of both blood and choice, and growing up with an alcoholic parent, touched me in personal ways that I only understood when … Continue reading Catch: A Love Story by Tracy Ewens→
Feral Creatures is the sequel to one of my favorite books, Hollow Kingdom. I liked Feral Creatures a great deal, but it very much has the feel of a middle book in a series (which it is) given that it relies too much on Hollow Kingdom to work as a stand alone and it has a cliffhanger ending. As a stand alone, it probably is good but not life-changing, but as part of a series … Continue reading Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton→
Trigger warning for on-page suicide attempt Claudia and I (CarrieS) are suckers for good historical fiction, good historical romance, and Beauty and the Beast retellings. So we were excited about At Summer’s End, in which an artist (Bertie, short for Alberta) takes a job at an English estate following WWI and meets an isolated, traumatized, and scarred survivor named Julian. While this book did a decent job with the tricky themes of PTSD and disfigurement … Continue reading At Summer’s End by Courtney Ellis→
Along Came A Lady is ridiculous, but initially I found it to be ridiculous fun. This Regency romance pits an etiquette teacher against a stubborn miner in a “Pygmalion” type story with a battle of wits and wills, plus a dash of “The Prince and the Pauper” and a smidgen of Poldark. Alas, the story went off the rails at around the 75% mark and soon began making even less sense than it did at … Continue reading Along Came a Lady by Christi Caldwell→
The Duke Who Loved Me is a friends to lovers romance between James Cantrell, the new Duke of Tereford, and Miss Cecelia Vainsmede, the daughter of the man who acted as his guardian during his minority. It has some fun and interesting things going on in the background to the story, but it missed the mark for me for two reasons. The first was James’s insufferable self-centredness, and the second was the failure to resolve … Continue reading The Duke Who Loved Me by Jane Ashford→
