Have you ever felt like a book was fighting with you? I had such a hard time with my innocent-seeming paperback copy of Lady Traveller’s that you would have thought it was one of the feisty books in the Terry Pratchett universe that have to be chained to the shelves. It wouldn’t lie flat. It kept worming its way under couch cushions and blankets. Every time I picked it up I dropped it, and every time … Continue reading The Lady Traveler’s Guide to Deception With an Unlikely Earl by Victoria Alexander →
What the Parrot Saw is about a biracial female pirate who enlists the help of a white Englishman in her efforts to help enslaved people escape from Florida to the Bahamas in 1839. In the process she takes him to a beach and teaches him how to fight with knives while a parrot yells at him. You know full well that you are going to buy this and I can tell you that you won’t … Continue reading What the Parrot Saw by Darlene Marshall →
Bad Blood will officially be known as the slump-breaker. Sometimes, I need a break in my romance reading. If I read too many books—back to back—in the same genre, I hit a wall. After my lovely roommate patiently listened to my whining about having nothing to read, despite owning 500+ books, she suggested Bad Blood. She knew I had wanted to read it and a coworker had just lent her a copy. I devoured it. … Continue reading Bad Blood by John Carreyrou →
The holidays are over, but if you’re in the mood for a short, sexy contemporary romance with an emotionally-fluent hero, then I recommend Dance All Night by Alexis Daria. The novella opens up with professional dancers Jess Davenport and Nik Kovalenko meeting at a New Year’s Eve party and sharing an explosive midnight kiss. Nik is looking for more, but Jess is firmly settled in LA and he’s about to go on an off-Broadway tour. A … Continue reading Dance All Night by Alexis Daria →
I learned about this book through an email group, and wasn’t entirely sure it applied to me, as some business books don’t exactly fit what I do (this is understandable; I made up my own job in a few ways). This book ended up addressing a lot of what I already do on a macro level and inspiring ideas to do more of it, and also inspired me to re-examine my own connections and colleagues … Continue reading The Connector’s Advantage: 7 Mindsets to Grow Your Influence and Impact by Michelle Tillis Lederman →
Nicola Cornick’s writing continues to suck me in and it’s very difficult for me to put her books down. The writing is atmospheric in a way that’s both vivid and eerie, as are the descriptions of place and of slightly menacing suspense, which is often formed within the history of a location repeating itself in multiple timelines. The Woman in the Lake follows three women in two different timelines. Fenella Brightwell is in the present … Continue reading The Woman in the Lake by Nicola Cornick →
(TW/CW: dubious consent, statutory rape, coercion) Way back when, I started the Masters Unleashed series by Sparrow Beckett. The first book, Finding Master Right, got a B+ grade. I went on to read the next two books, which follow the initial hero’s two best friends. Each book was less enjoyable than the last. When I saw that the co-writing Beckett team would be returning to Masters Unleashed, I felt this was a great opportunity to … Continue reading Master in Shining Armor by Sparrow Beckett →
This review is for the audiobook version of Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen. Bittersweet has been on my TBR pile for ages and I was nudged into finally reading it for one of my Goodreads challenges. (You can hear me talk about Goodreads challenges here! I think they’re a great way to decide what to read next). Bittersweet is also part of the Romance Audible Package and features dual narrators, which I prefer. Since one of my … Continue reading Audiobook: Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen →
My Boyfriend is a Bear is a graphic novel about a woman whose boyfriend is a bear. Not a shifter, but rather an actual, non-metaphorical bear. They meet when the narrator, Nora, goes on a camping trip with a soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend who berates her for bringing fashion magazines with her (he thinks she should read “London or Kerouac”). Nora marches off to the woods and buries her magazines. She goes home to LA, dumps the boyfriend, … Continue reading My Boyfriend is a Bear by Pamela Ribon and Cat Farris →
The Governess by Christi Caldwell is the third book in the Wicked Wallflowers series, and I found out the hard way that this series really, really has to be read in order. I found myself confused by the first three chapters; as a reader unfamiliar with the world or the characters, I was dropped in without a lot of explanation. By chapter four I’d gotten my bearings, but the book never quite clicked with me. … Continue reading The Governess by Christi Caldwell →
We have a guest review for you all! This review comes from Claudia. Thanks, Claudia! At sixteen, Claudia found her older cousin’s stash of Barbara Cartlands and assorted Harlequin-type romance housed in an old sewing cabinet and life was never the same! Claudia loves history, so she mostly reads historical romance. Favorite authors include Meredith Duran, Mary Balogh, Miranda Neville, Elizabeth Kingston, and Rose Lerner. … Elizabeth (Bess) Stoughton is a widow and a lady-in-waiting … Continue reading Guest Review: Forsaking All Other by Catherine Meyrick →
