I didn’t start reading Nalini Singh until her most recent book, Silver Silence, the first book in her Psy-Changeling Trinity series. I was okay starting there (enough of her world was established for me), but you really do need to read that book before you read Ocean Light. Ocean Light is a fated mate romance largely set in a sci-fi-rrific undersea base and it involves marine shifters. Shut up and take my money, right? My only … Continue reading Ocean Light by Nalini Singh →
I normally don’t devote an entire review to a novella, but One Wild Night had issues. GIF worthy issues. This is a celebrity romance, a sub-genre I’m always drawn to, but only seems to work out for me half the time. As SB Sarah has said, I’m interested in stories that feature public vs private lives. Movie stars, royalty, rock stars, all of that intrigues me. Now, I’d really like to read about celebrity romances with … Continue reading One Wild Night by A.L. Jackson and Rebecca Shea →
Sarah: I went to see this movie on Friday, 8 June. That morning, one of my neighbors mentioned hearing that all the reviews she’d seen were really terrible, that it was a “missed opportunity” or some such whatever. I, slightly less-than-entirely caffeinated and therefore lacking neighborly diplomacy, asked if the reviewers who wrote those reviews were men, and if so, I didn’t plan on listening to them because for a large percentage of male critics … Continue reading Movie Review: Ocean’s 8 →
Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World is a nonfiction book without a single boring moment in it. It’s a great portrait of the two women and of a world experiencing change at a dizzying rate. In 1873, Jules Verne published Around the World in Eighty Days. In this novel, Phileas Fogg and his servant Passpartout make a bet that they can go all the way around the world in … Continue reading Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman →
I’ve been a rom-com mood lately, a void that Hollywood (despite their plethora of Chrises) refuses to fill, so I picked up I Flipping Love You by Helena Hunting. It was described to me as a romantic comedy with a case of mistaken identity and a lot of sexy fireworks. The problem was, I wouldn’t say this book is actually very funny and some of the devices used to try and make it humorous didn’t work … Continue reading I Flipping Love You by Helena Hunting →
When Sarah asked me in an upcoming podcast episode how I felt about The Kiss Quotient, I had a sudden spout of verbal constipation. All of the words tried to escape my mouth at once. Sarah also would not let me submit a review that simply read, “Buy it. Read it.” I apologize for the squeeing that is about to coat your eyeballs, as I tell you a million reasons why this book is the … Continue reading The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang →
Perfekt Order by ST Bende is the first book in the Ære Saga, and (in my opinion) it borrows pretty heavily from Marvel’s Thor movies. Not Thor: The Dark World though. We’ve all agreed that that movie doesn’t exist. This is a YA adventure / romance with plenty of sequel bait handy for future books. It’s pretty uneven in a lot of areas, but it made me really nostalgic for Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the sense that a teenage … Continue reading Perfekt Order by S.T. Bende →
This book contained a lot of my catnip. There was walking, personal journeys, internal conflict, external challenges, larger meaning to simple interactions, and a deliberately paced travel story and romance that meanders through two countries. It’s a slow moving travel romance, and I love those. The main characters are two people who decide for individual, personal, or spiritual reasons to walk the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James), or the Chemin, which is a very … Continue reading Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist →
The Widows of Malabar Hill is a mystery set in Bombay, India in 1921. It’s not a romance. Romance does not go well for the main characters. However, it’s a very good female-centered historical mystery. The story takes place before Independence and before Partition, during a period when the Indian independence movement was gaining traction. The sense of rapid social change on many levels pervades the novel. The story follows two plotlines. In 1921, Perveen, … Continue reading The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey →
NB: If you’re in the market for a fun contemporary romance, check out this guest review of Feud by Sally Kilpatrick! Kilpatrick hails from the rural South and still remembers the magic of the Book Mobile. While she’ll read anything from eighteenth century literature to the back of cereal boxes, she has a special place in her heart for romance. That love affair began when she graduated from Nancy Drew to filching her mother’s Harlequins … Continue reading Guest Review: Feud by Phyllis Bourne →
This is what I would call a quiet sort of romance. I loved the hero and heroine, and I loved the layers of repair and reevaluation that go on during the course of the story. There is not a lot of massive, tumultuous tension between them, but there is a lot to undo and restore. Trix Lane is an aerialist starring in a theatre production (think Cirque du Soleil) trying to piece her life and … Continue reading Making Up by Lucy Parker →
