I have to admit, I liked most of this book, except for the hero’s backstory. I’m getting really tired of “hero cannot love because of abusive parent,” even when it’s reasonably well done. It just feels overdone to me. Nicholas Lyon was never meant to be a duke. He was the unfavorite second son, and after leaving his childhood home of Enderley, he made his own fortune by opening a gambling den and collecting the … Continue reading A Duke Changes Everything by Christy Carlyle →
I finished this book and thought to myself, “What the hell just happened?” The answer: A LOT. A lot happens in this book. There is so much that if I attempted to recap it, even with the broadest of summaries, the text would be miles wide and tens of thousands of words long. The plot starts, throttles up to “I can’t comfortably open my eyes” speed and doesn’t stop until the end, with one or … Continue reading Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch →
Solace Island is a book that isn’t entirely sure what it wants to be. It starts off reading very much like a romantic comedy and finishes up as romantic suspense. This didn’t greatly bother me since those are both things I enjoy, but I could see how another reader could feel like they started one novel only to finish an entirely different one. Maggie Harris is trying to figure out her future after her fiancé … Continue reading Solace Island by Meg Tilly →
Sophie Appersett is engaged to Edward (Ned) Sharpe. She’s the daughter of a baron; he’s a very wealthy merchant, and their alliance is built over a massive class chasm, one that she’s trying to cross with continued conversation, while he remains silent and withdrawn in all of their outings together. Sophie decides she’s not willing to continue the engagement because they don’t suit. She wants more for herself, and from his behavior she’s pretty sure … Continue reading A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews →
If you were to put a holiday novella under a box, propped up by stick that had a string tied around it in order to form a great Elyse-trap, Heartstrings would be the book you’d want to choose. This novella features: A sexy British actor who plays villains in every movie. A young woman who is obsessed with Wonder Woman and Gal Gadot. Sex in a heated pool. You don’t need to read any of the other … Continue reading Heartstrings by Belinda Williams →
Close to the Bone by Kendra Elliot is the first in a romantic suspense novella duology and features a creepy cold case on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. Cate Wilde is a FBI Special Agent who is taking some time off after being shot on the job. She’s staying with her grandmother on Widow’s Island, where she grew up, when a skeleton of a young woman is found on nearby Ruby Island. Cate … Continue reading Close to the Bone by Kendra Elliot →
Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life is a relatively new release and yet it reads like a biography from the 1970’s or 1980’s. There’s a lot of fat shaming. The Edwardian period is heavily sentimentalized. Several parts of the story are imagined in a dreamy, poetic manner. The author sides with Christie on all fronts, minimizing her racism and anti-Semitism (as was typical of her era, Christie disliked Italians as well, which is also minimized) and justifying … Continue reading Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson →
We have a guest review from Lara! Thanks so much, Lara! Lara is a teacher, feminist, knitter and proud co-parent to the greatest three-legged black cat in the southern hemisphere. … CW: There are discussions of child abuse and neglect in this novel. There is also a suicide attempt in the novel. The title is a lie, or rather, it is the lie that Eleanor tells herself. She has retreated (understandably) into a rigid routine … Continue reading Guest Review: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman →
The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy is so much fun. It’s a sequel to The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue but it works on its own. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was an adventure story as well as a romance. The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy keeps the adventure but is not a romance, although romance is discussed. Set in the mid-1700s, it features Felicity Montague, who wants to be a … Continue reading The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee →
Long ago, the cover for Gabriella turned up in Cover Snark. Everyone was hoping that the book was about a cat, and I Googled and discovered that the book is actually about a Regency woman who wants to be a veterinarian (which was a profession back then – I checked). Undaunted by the Photoshop, I read the book and it’s pretty good, although it falls apart near the end. Brie (short for Gabriella) and her … Continue reading Gabriella by Brenda Hiatt →
I really, really love a contemporary romance that features an emotionally fluent hero and real conflict that’s handled with respect and intelligence. Sleepover by Serena Bell hit both these nails on the head, making it one of the best, most emotionally satisfying contemporary romances I’ve read this year. It’s also got some crazy-hot sex scenes which is a nice bonus. Sawyer Paulson and his son Jonah move into a Seattle suburb two years after the death of … Continue reading Sleepover by Serena Bell →
