I started reading this novella on an unusually cool spring day in Los Angeles when it was actually overcast and spitting rain—pretty much as close to Christmas weather as you can get in that part of the country. I made tea, curled up on the couch with my iPad and everything was lovely. Then life intervened (like, twenty minutes later, as it does), we moved three hundred and fifty miles north and I’m finally getting … Continue reading A Yorkshire Christmas by Kate Hewitt →
“Will You Be My Wi-Fi” by Caroline Linden is one of four stories in the At the Billionaire’s Wedding anthology , though you can now get the story on its own. In the anthology, all four novellas take place (obviously) at a billionaire’s wedding. The characters to be wed—though they aren’t super important aside from facilitating the location where all these stories take place—are Silicon Valley tech billionaire Duke Austen, and romance novelist Jane Sparks. … Continue reading “Will You Be My Wi-Fi” by Caroline Linden →
“A Game of Brides” started out in a promising way with its vivid prose. Emmy Mathis is in shock after meeting Griffin Hyatt, her childhood crush, again while traveling to her sister’s wedding to be her maid of honor. The strongest selling point with this novella is the writing. I’ve lived in Montana, but I was pretty amused that Crane’s descriptive rendering paints the place as some kind of alternate universe paradise. But as the … Continue reading A Game of Brides by Megan Crane →
This selection was nominated in the Romance Novella category; I don’t read many novellas, because I tend to prefer characters with deep questions that I can watch them struggle to answer throughout the book. Shorter novellas do not usually fulfill me in that regard. Now that I’ve shared that bias, here’s my review: We are first introduced to Harper, a free-spirited artist who hates to sit still. While both of those adjectives would not be used … Continue reading Pushing the Line by Kimberly Kincaid →
This story could have made an excellent full length novel. The tale begins with a two page journal entry written by the hero detailing his entire backstory. If this was a novel, it would have taken chapters but to keep the page count down the author tells us everything we need to know about him in 3 pages. Starting a book off by showing not telling tends to drive me crazy. Our heroine, the Duchess … Continue reading The Last Wicked Scoundrel by Lorraine Heath →
I’m really the wrong person to review this novella. First of all, I’m not a huge fan of novellas, because I like an author to have space to really expand on his or her characters and settings. I love showing rather than telling and strong sensory impressions of person and place, and the novella format requires a certain efficiency that can seem sparse. Furthermore, I am not a huge fan of inspirational romance. In fact, … Continue reading A Love Letter to the Editor by Robin Lee Hatcher →
I was obviously practicing family law on the wrong side of the Potomac River. Maryland seems to have the only hot Scot attorney with a sexy burr and a cat named ‘Fat Bastard’. Here in Virginia, I only seemed to encounter the fat bastards. (Just kidding, my colleagues were all agreeable people to work with, even if they weren’t Scottish.) Divorce lawyer Jane DeLuca finds herself in the enviable position of being attracted to, and … Continue reading Kiss and Tell by Grace Burrowes →
“Her Best Laid Plans” is a fun (and sexy) novella set in Ireland where broken-hearted Jamie meets hot bartender Connor and the sexy times ensue! Did I mention this was sexy? It is! Jamie has had her life on hold for four years, moving to California to support her boyfriend by waitressing while he finishes medical school. She believed that once he had finished his studies, he would then support her as she began her … Continue reading Her Best Laid Plans by Cara McKenna →
My first impressions of “His Road Home” were as follows: If the blurb is to be believed, there is A LOT going on in this story. It’s going to have to be pretty tightly constructed to fit that much plot into a novella. Catnip alert – I cannot resist a wounded protagonist. I’m especially vulnerable to a wounded hero, but I’ll take a wounded heroine as well (especially if there’s a caretaker alpha involved). OMG, … Continue reading His Road Home by Anna Richland →
10 Rules to Sex Up a Blind Date is…problematic. Or at least it was for me. It’s a “Cosmo Red Hot Read,” and it feels very Cosmo-ish. It’s very short, very heavy on the sex, and kind of tries to shoe horn in some emotional depth at the end. You know, like when you were in college and you’d stay up all night with a guy (or girl) and in between bouts of sexytimes, you’d … Continue reading 10 Rules to Sex Up a Blind Date by Heidi Rice →
