Back when we used to take vacations (sigh, those wild pre-Covid days, how fun-filled they were…) they often began badly, what with trying to get packed in time and flying in coach and all the other bother of getting from one place to another. However, after a certain transitional period, the vacation would become enjoyable, perhaps even emotionally meaningful and moving. This is the experience I had with People We Meet On Vacation, a book … Continue reading People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry →
Do you like cruises and wish The Love Boat was queer? Do you want to read about two women who are very attracted to one another, but have to sneak around on a ship pretending that they’re strangers? Can you put up with some disrespectful representation of Caribbean countries in order to enjoy these things? I thought I could, but it turns out that I loved the idea of this book more than the actual … Continue reading Not Since You by Fiona Riley →
The Write Escape is a delicious vacation romance with a heroine who runs away to Ireland as her life is falling apart. This had everything I need from a travel story: Evocatively described location? Check. Handsome local who charms you off your feet? Check. A heroine in need of a fresh start? Yep. Entertaining characters who subvert cultural stereotypes? Oh yeah. Flirting using literary references? Did not know I needed this, but YES Antonia is … Continue reading The Write Escape by Charish Reid →
Even for my neck of the woods, this winter has been pretty miserable. February was one snow storm right after another, which is hell on my Fibro, but great for a Goodreads reading challenge, I guess. Kids here are probably going to school into July. Even the hardiest farmer, getting a fill-up and coffee from the Kwik Trip, will tell you, “It’s a badun out there.” So while buried under blankets and cats, drinking hot … Continue reading The Ruthless Gentleman by Louise Bay →
I am not a crier by nature. I follow the much healthier (that’s sarcasm) path of pushing my feelings down deeply inside of me until they eventually swell up, geyser-like, and get all over everyone. I sobbed while reading Against All Odds. I’m talking full-on, mascara smearing, snotty tissue, alone by the light of the Bookmas Tree sobbing. It was wonderful and cathartic, and honestly, I think this is my favorite book of 2017. Here’s what you … Continue reading Against All Odds by Jezz de Silva →
I read travel guides like any other book. In a world where people seeeeeeeeeeem to think Oh, no, who uses Lonely Planet anymore when you’ve got the internet in your pocket, let me tell you, internet. Browsing through a travel guide is worth your time. You’ll find at least one thing that you may not have found on Expedia’s Top Ten Things to do in London that is clearly a perfect trap set personally for … Continue reading Romance Readers Guide to Historic London by Sonja Rouillard →
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 →
This was such a sweet little movie, y’all. It’s a romance on paper, but it’s really a meditation on immigration, homesickness, and what does “home” mean. Eilis Lacey is a young woman in 1950s Ireland, with no job and no real prospects. Her sister asks an Irish priest in New York to sponsor her immigration to America. She leaves her sister and mother behind, and moves into a boarding house, finds a job in a … Continue reading Movie Review: Brooklyn →
Pam G. read a book she really enjoyed, written by the author who wrote one of Pam’s favorite comfort reads. Here’s Pam’s review. … I was totally tickled when Dictatorship of the Dress showed up on my Kindle recently. Jessica Topper’s Louder than Love is one of my favorite comfort reads and has created a sly hunger for rock romance in this old broad. The blurb of Dictatorship described something quite different from the earlier … Continue reading Dictatorship of the Dress by Jessica Topper – a Guest Review from Pam G →
