We’re about a third of the way through this year’s RITA® Reader Challenge and I want to thank everyone so far for participating! We’ve had some great reviews! However, we also understand that life happens, and we have some books still needing to be reviewed and are passed their deadline. On the sign-up sheet, if you see a book with a gray-shaded square, that means we’re still waiting on the book to be reviewed and … Continue reading RITA Reader Challenge Update
I first discovered Sarah Mayberry last year with her self published novel Satisfaction . I enjoyed that so much that I started picking up some of her earlier backlist. When I saw this one was up on the RITA Reader Challenge list, I had already picked up a copy but hadn’t had time to read it yet. I’m delighted to be able to review it for SBTB (and knock another book off of Mt.TBR in the process). … Continue reading Her Kind of Trouble by Sarah Mayberry
Usually when I approach a book for review, I carefully analyze the positive and negative qualities of said book and then determine a grade, often with a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing. In the case of Her Kind of Trouble, I knew from the first that the grade was going to be a nice, solid B. For one thing, I’ve read a lot of Sarah Mayberry, and she’s a go-to comfort read for me. … Continue reading Her Kind of Trouble by Sarah Mayberry
I knew nothing about this book going into it. My selection process was, “Let’s try something new, oh, I think I might’ve read and liked something by Nancy Warren five years ago, let me give that one a try.” I didn’t even read the cover copy beforehand. That can be good, but in this case, it would have been better for me to know what I was going to read. The book opens with a … Continue reading Blueprint for a Kiss by Nancy Warren
She’d never make it to Chicago alive. Not unless she got some coffee. Stat. Friends, if I had read those first lines before I signed up for this, I never would have reviewed this book. Nothing screams twee-I’m-a-special-snowflake-reader-fill-in than coffee pandering. Maybe I’m grumpy because I’m not a coffee drinker. I wanted to like this more than I did. I LOVE gothic novels and their melodramatic creepy goodness. But this read more like a contemporary … Continue reading The Headmaster by Tiffany Reisz
The good: Well, almost everybody we meet. The hero, Sebastian, is one of the nicest, kindest heroes I have ever read. When we meet him, he’s apparently already added a parenthetical (retired) behind his title of rogue extraordinaire, and is drowning his sorrows in a poor man’s drinking hell so as to spare his family the embarrassment of getting drunk. I know, the logic is a bit convoluted there, but it kinda-sorta makes sense if you … Continue reading In Bed with a Rogue by Samantha Grace
I jumped at reviewing this book for the RITA® Reviewer Challenge because I just happened to be in the middle of reading the Maiden Lane series. This series mostly centers on a poor part of London called St. Giles and the problems gin has caused for that area. And most of the guy characters wear wigs, which I find so not attractive. But I’ve highly enjoyed the series. It has such a diverse set of … Continue reading Darling Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt
This is not the worst book I’ve ever read, but it’s tedious and cliched. We open on a dark and stormy night. Widowed Ivy Powell is watching the weather with her rifle close at hand, ruminating on some recent “troubles.” Suddenly, a shadowy figure appears on her porch. It’s Gideon Black, a “giant of a man” with a “hard jaw and glittering eyes.” Ivy’s brother (who has an injury that prevents him from assisting personally) … Continue reading The Cowboy’s Reluctant Bride by Debra Cowan
For this year’s RITA® Reader Challenge I read Enemies with Benefits by Louisa George. It is the fourth book in the A Flat in Notting Hill series, all of which are by different authors. I finished reading Enemies with Benefits with a smile on my face — definitely a good thing. But it took some time getting there. Maybe I was expecting too much seeing as it is a short romance, and the ones I have … Continue reading Enemies with Benefits by Louisa George
One of my favorite things about reading historical romances is stumbling upon all of the ridiculous anachronistic bits or the items/actions that are plainly in the wrong time period. So imagine my surprise and initial delight when I not only found something anachronistic in the contemporary romance Enemies with Benefits, by Louisa George, but that the anachronistic bit was the heroine herself, Poppy Spencer. It honestly feels like Poppy stepped straight out of a romance … Continue reading Enemies with Benefits by Louisa George
I decided to read this book as it’s part of the Harlequin mini-series entitled “At Cain’s Command” for which I had read one of the prior books. The underlying storyline tying the books together is the search for a previously unknown illegitimate Cain daughter, the half sister to the male protagonists in the books. “A Bride for the Black Sheep Brother” starts with a strong prologue that solidly establishes the moment our hero, Cooper Larson … Continue reading A Bride for the Blacksheep Brother by Emily McKay
