Beth and Amy is a pitch-perfect retelling of Little Women / Good Wives from the point of view of Beth, Amy, and occasionally Abigail March. It completely captures the personalities of the March girls and their friends and family, while bringing them convincingly into the modern era. I loved it. Amy is returning to Bunyan for her sister Jo’s wedding to Eric Bhaer, and is apprehensive about seeing Trey Lawrence again. She has had a … Continue reading Beth and Amy by Virginia Kantra →
Real Men Knit is a contemporary romance set in Harlem. Mama Joy was the owner of Strong Knits, one of the few older Black-owned small businesses in Harlem. She was also the foster mother to Jesse, Noah, Lucas, and Damian, and mentor and mother-figure to Kerry, all of whom are now adults. When Mama Joy dies, Jesse and Kerry decide to try to keep the store open as a tribute to Mama Joy and because … Continue reading Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson →
Beautiful Burn by Jamie McGuire is an angsty New Adult romance that takes some of the tropes prevalent in the subgenre and flips them upside-down. Generally speaking, I’m still iffy on New Adult: to me it often feels artificially dark, with characters (generally the hero) who seem “broken” for no good reason. Beautiful Burn has that darkness, but provides a satisfying context for it. It also deals with substance abuse in a serious and thoughtful way. It’s a … Continue reading Beautiful Burn by Jamie McGuire →
Oh how I enjoyed Seven Nights to Surrender by Jeanette Grey. It’s a lovely travel romance with incredibly hot, empowering sex scenes. It plays on some of the New Adult tropes I typically hate–Hero With Tragic Past Who Cannot Love, for example–but it does them well. I was so prepared to give this book an A complete with confetti cannon… and then…and then…. CLIFFHANGER. I mean, I’m trying to be fair here. I even consulted … Continue reading Seven Nights to Surrender by Jeanette Grey →
Fighting to be Free by Kirsty Moseley is an over-the-top, angsty, dark New Adult novel. I know that all appeals to a lot of readers, but it didn’t work for me. It also features a seventeen-year-old heroine and an eighteen-year-old hero, but it is NOT YA. I repeat, NOT YA. It’s basically a “boy from the wrong side of the tracks meets poor little rich girl” with humping and sadness. The humping is explicit and … Continue reading Fighting to be Free by Kirsty Moseley →
I’m admittedly very cynical when it comes to New Adult. I haven’t read very much of it that I’ve liked with the notable exception of anything by Kylie Scott. I found Just a Girl by Ellie Cahill to be exactly what I was looking for: a romance about people in their young twenties who live and behave like they are in their young twenties, without a ton of navel-gazing. The book is told first person POV, … Continue reading Just a Girl by Ellie Cahill →
The Hurricane by RJ Prescott is aptly named: it’s a book that’s going to blow you strongly in one direction or another. I personally enjoyed the first three quarters of the book and the THE THING happened and it disappointed me immensely. I’m fairly iffy on New Adult, largely because I think there’s so much of it in the market right now that you have to filter through a lot of sub par writing to … Continue reading The Hurricane by RJ Prescott →
If you like books with awkward, slightly shy, completely inept and uncomfortable dudes falling in love, then Beautiful Secret by Christina Lauren is all your catnip. I’m iffy on New Adult but I loved this book because I loved Niall Stella, the seemingly arrogant and wooden hero who is secretly just super nervous around women. Think uber posh British dude who isn’t cool as shit but rather peeing in his designer undies a bit when a pretty woman … Continue reading Beautiful Secret by Christina Lauren →
RECOMMENDED: Chase Me by Tessa Bailey is $2.99! I’m a little on the fence whether to call this a contemporary romance or a new adult romance, because I feel like the latter is trying to get its footing as a genre. But that’s beside the point. I thought the book was a quick read and it was fun, silly, and emotional at all the right moments. The hero, Louis, is definitely a beta hero, though some of the book’s events seemed a little unnecessary. If I had to assign it a grade, I’d give it a B.
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The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo is 99c! This is a mixture of historical fiction, fantasy, and romance. The Ghost Bride has actually been recommended to me by so many friends that I had to take notice, though I haven’t had a chance to read it just yet. Readers can’t say enough good things about the setting and Chinese folklore, though some mention the book reads more like a young adult novel, which they weren’t really expecting. It has a 3.7-star rating on GR.
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READER RECOMMENDATION: This Crumbling Pageant by Patricia Burroughs is 99c! This is a fantasy romance set in historical England. A reader sent us a glowing recommendation of the book:
One of the very best books I’ve read in a while is on sale for a ridiculous ninety-nine cents for Kindle. I can’t understand it because it is worth so very much more. It is volume one in a trilogy and I pray this silly price means volume two is on its way because I would pay full price for volume two because volume one was that good. I believe I gave it a four star review.
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