On the first read, I very much enjoyed Faith, a YA about a plus-size superhero who loves animals, her two best friends, her grandma, and fictional TV show The Grove, not necessarily in that order. Unfortunately, as soon as I tried applying thought to the book, it failed to make any sense. There’s a f/f romance, but this book is the first in a planned duology, so expect an inconclusive ending, and expect minimal superheroics … Continue reading Faith: Taking Flight by Julie Murphy →
I laughed so hard at this wonderful book, and I cried a little as well. Boyfriend Material is a contemporary m/m romance/rom-com set in England. Because it’s all told from one character’s point of view and is focused on that character’s personal and romantic development, it fits the rom-com structure more than romance. Either way you look at it, prepare to laugh and be prepared to swoon. The story is told by Luc, a twenty-eight-year … Continue reading Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall →
Content warning: The heroine’s father has Alzheimers and her caretaking and grief over this are a big part of the plot. Also, there’s a bit of a dysfunctional family (absent mother, charming but useless brother). Not Like The Movies is an odd book to review. It’s a RomCom set against the backdrop of a lot of pain and grief and insecurity, and I found it fairly depressing to read, perhaps because aspects of Chloe’s personality … Continue reading Not Like The Movies by Kerry Winfrey →
Content warning: Torture of a main character. I’m pretty sure that if I start by saying ‘genderswapped Princess Bride where the Princess rescues the stable boy’, about half of you won’t read any further in this review because you will be too busy one-clicking the book. Certainly, that was my reaction when I saw this title appear on NetGalley. And if genderswapped Princess Bride is what you are looking for in a book, you will … Continue reading The Princess Will Save You by Sarah Henning →
Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean, is one of those novels that has popped up in the comments and in book recommendation posts a lot of times and never gotten a full review. I figured I’d use some of my quarantine time to tackle it and what a long, strange book it was – sort of a romance, sort of a fairytale, and mostly a book about college. I feel like I’d need to read it … Continue reading Tam Lin by Pamela Dean →
So I loved Take a Hint, Dani Brown. How much? I joined the Bad Decisions Book Club on the reread. Which started right after I had finished it the first time. Yes. I knew exactly where the book was going to go and I could not put it down. Honestly, I’m reading it a third time. We here at the Pink Palace love Talia Hibbert. Kiki wrote a very beautiful review of the first book … Continue reading Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert →
The House in the Cerulean Sea charmed me to pieces even though I’m not quite sure who the book is for. It’s written almost like a fable for children, with simple language and many heavy-handed explanations of its morals. However, the main character is an adult and themes include grinding bureaucracy and the numbness of everyday life. The book is not a romance novel specifically but it does involve a lovely m/m romance. I recommend … Continue reading The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune →
When I really love an author, I often try to pace out diving into their back list as much as my own self-control will allow, leaving me with some guaranteed, go-to winners for when I really need them. This strategy definitely paid off with Jeannie Lin’s The Dragon and The Pearl, the second book in her China-set Tang Dynasty series. Two deliciously complex characters locked in a steamy battle of wills in a well-rendered non-European … Continue reading The Dragon and the Pearl by Jeannie Lin →
CW: general violence, discussion of past child abuse, off-page murder Are super dramatic connections between mates your catnip? This is your book! Want to solve a mystery? Again, pick up this book! Are you okay with mild to moderate violence? Good, because this book has that too. Ethan Night, an Arrow, and Selenka Durev, the Alpha of the BlackEdge wolf pack, mate in the opening scene of the book. Not in the sense of sexy … Continue reading Alpha Night by Nalini Singh →
Content Warning: Child abuse, sexual abuse, attempted suicide, torture (all off the page) Every moment of this book made me feel better. I’m in an ocean of chaos at the moment (as many of us are*) and this book was the door to which I clung in these frigid waters. Did it magically solve my problems? No. But as with all the best escapist fiction, it made me feel like things would be okay again … Continue reading Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian →
This guest squee is from Heather M. Heather M lives in Florida. You can find her on Twitter @NotThatHeatherM. … (A note: there are what seems like one hundred characters in this show/book, and most of them have three names. While there are specific reasons people are called different names at different times, for the sake of clarity I’ve chosen to stick to what seems to me to be the most commonly used name for … Continue reading Guest Squee: The Untamed →
