I started weeping during the first chapter of The Bewildered Bride and never stopped. It’s a poignant, heart-wrenching, and important novel to read. The protagonists have undergone unimaginable suffering, and watching them find their happily-ever-after is both difficult and emotional. Even though I loved the heroine Ruth and her unwavering mission to seek justice for herself and her child, I never warmed up to the hero due to his inexplicable decision to deceive Ruth about … Continue reading The Bewildered Bride by Vanessa Riley →
A respectable widow of means seeks resourceful frontiersman for the purpose of matrimony. The lady seeks passage west to land owned in Mokelumne Hill, California. The advertiser presumes her manner and appearance will recommend her and expects applications from responsible parties only. Interviews are scheduled for the 6th of next month, beginning at nine o’clock in the morning, in the front parlor of the Grand Hotel. Please be prompt. What a premise! Yes, please! Welcome … Continue reading Bound for Sin by Tess LeSue →
Jill Shalvis is one of my go-to “feel good” authors, so when I needed a lift I picked up The Lemon Sisters, and, man, it did not disappoint. This book was cathartic. It made me laugh and it made me cry, and it helped me let loose some of my own bottled-up feelings. I left this book feeling recharged and satisfied, which was exactly what I needed. The third book in the Wildstone series can … Continue reading The Lemon Sisters by Jill Shalvis →
The Blacksmith Queen is my very own Dragon Age video game fantasy come to life. There are powerful women, plus quippy banter between friends and family, and a talking dragon. It’s fantastical, fun, and I’ll immediately be buying a physical copy to add to my own library. The Old King has died, sending the kingdom into turmoil as his sons murder one another for the throne. However, the Witches of Amhuinn have prophesied that the … Continue reading The Blacksmith Queen by G.A. Aiken →
Turning Darkness Into Light is a new standalone sequel to the Memoirs of Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan. It would be difficult for a reader to jump into this book without having read at least one of the Lady Trent books. That series starts with A Natural History of Dragons and it is AMAZING. I admit to bias in my reviews because the author has always been very sweet to me at conventions even … Continue reading Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan →
Ten Days with a Highlander is a good pick if you want a quick read with some top notch sexy banter. There are some elements, though, that lacked convincing emotional depth. Georgia Paxton has ten days to convince grumpy Callum MacGregor that his quaint, Scottish hotel would benefit from joining the Airbnb-esque company she works for. Callum isn’t a fan of change and is worried that increasing awareness would cause an increase in tourism, which … Continue reading Ten Days with a Highlander by Hayson Manning →
Veronica Mallick is a damn good surgeon and knows she’s on track to eventually run the whole hospital. The next step in her plan is to have her protege installed as head of the Trauma unit, but that’s blown to pieces when the job is given to an outsider. Cassie Taylor is excited to step back to civilian life in London after years doing surgery as a medic in Afghanistan. While she doesn’t expect to … Continue reading Major Surgery by Lola Keeley →
I read this novella about two years ago, had fond memories of it, and then spotted the audio version. Adding it to my library on a whim yielded four hours of deep relaxation in Beltway traffic (not an easy feat), on my patio while cross stitching (pretty easy) and while cooking (always good). The plot is simple and complicated: Penric is a good-hearted dude on his way to his betrothal when he stops because a … Continue reading Audiobook: Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold →
We all have our auto-buy story premises. Age gap, or May/December romances, are one of my top three and I’m always on the lookout for the next great one. Harper Bliss wrote one of my very favourites a few years ago, In the Distance There is Light, and she’s actually written a bunch of others that I’ve enjoyed too. When I saw she had a new age gap romance coming out, I did a little … Continue reading A Lesson in Love by Harper Bliss →
Sea Witch Rising is the sequel to Sea Witch, which was a very loose retelling of The Little Mermaid with an impressive twist. Like Sea Witch, Rising is a hot mess, and, yet, also like Sea Witch, I just gotta have it. There is romance in the story but the book is not a romance. It’s about mermaid witches and an octopus witch and some human witches fighting the Germans and also patriarchy above and below the … Continue reading Sea Witch Rising by Sarah Henning →
The summers when I was 11 and 12 years old stand out more clearly in memory than other points in my childhood; I was too young to have even a babysitting job, but old enough to roam the neighborhood with my friends largely unsupervised. It was a stage where I was starting to be aware of the adult world, but was still pretty naïve. The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone taps into that period of … Continue reading The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean →
