Review: Heated Rivalry

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I buddy read this on StoryGraph but quick thoughts, 

We were supposed to stand alone at the top, but we will always be there together. We will keep climbing until no one else can reach us, but it will always be together. There had been nothing apologetic in Hollander’s eyes, but there had been no gloating either. And by the time Ilya had shaken the last Canadian hand in the lineup, he was smirking to himself. Because soon the real battle between himself and Shane Hollander would begin. And he couldn’t fucking wait. 

An erotica with good tension and hockey talk! I liked how the story started with a grab you bang and then went back and showed how the eight years had progressed for the two. 

Shane started off the vulnerable hurt your heart with him walking that shame and safety line while Ilya was the more outgoing, you can see how both of their personalities gave and received from each other. As the story goes on, their roles kind of reverse and we get Shane having to be there for Ilya as he deals with emotional abuse from his family and the danger of his home country of Russia. I thought Shane was a little naive here, thinking about/understanding the danger Ilya could be in but his character has that cloak of sheltered throughout; not sure it totally fit. 

I love when erotica has deeply emotional moments, it makes the sex scenes better. Instead of trying to get readers blushing with dirty words, the emotional groundwork has you feeling the connection, which makes the sex scenes feel more intimate, leading to hot scenes and that was done here often. 

He wanted to tell Shane that the closest he felt to home was when he was with him. 

YesYesYes, this always what I want to feel between my leads in romance! 

I liked the ending, it had them together in a HEA way but also one that emotionally resonated in a believable way. 

The old 24/7 Pens & Caps HBO doc shoutout, was much deserved, MASTER PIECE lol

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Review: The Gilded Heiress

The Gilded Heiress by Joanna Shupe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

The Pendeltons ruined my father's life and my family's future. I'd never forgive it. And someday, I'd find a way to even the score. 

The Gilded Heiress had the beats of the Anastasia cartoon movie, with great historical additives but the romance lacked intimacy and depth for me. Told in dual first person pov's, Leo lives in Boston, hustling as a confidence man to try and take care of his mom and five sisters. His father used to be a gardener for a rich family in New York but when their toddler daughter was kidnapped, an investigation started to point fingers at him and he was sacked without references. This made it hard to find a job and he ended up drinking himself to death. Leo knows his father was innocent and holds a huge grudge against the Pendletons, so when he sees a young woman singing on a corner in Boston that closely resembles Mrs. Pendleton, a scheme is hatched. 

I would need to be more careful with Josie. She had a strange power to make me confess things, apparently. 

Even though this told in both Leo and Josie's povs, I got more of a sense of Leo's character, his scheme to pose as Josie's singing manager to get her to New York and then somehow introduce her to Mrs. Pendelton, convincing both Josie's the kidnapped baby and collecting the reward money, is the plot of the book. We get the bare bones of Josie's character, she grew up in a Boston orphanage, she has a bestfriend Pippa, who we barely see, and she's very judgmental about Leo's past and how he's made money to help his family survive. Josie can hardly lie, could barely understand what would possess someone too, and is that all round sweet, good-hearted character that comes off a little too goody-two shoes, to me anyway. The reader knows the third-act break-up is going to be Josie finding out about Leo's original plan, even though Leo falls in love with her and plans on telling her his original scheme but, obviously, not in time. 

“Careful,” I warned, my voice husky. “Or I might attempt to corrupt you.” 

Her mouth twisted slyly, like she had a secret. “Perhaps I'll let you, tomcat.” 

The romance was pretty much insta-lust, a lot of gazing at lips and body parts that make them have the hots and want to jump into bed together. I struggled with feeling the depth in their romantic relationship, I believed them as friends, but if you're more into the physical, these had some good open-door scenes. If you've been a historical romance reader for years, this will feel like a clearly written stylistic choice to try and catch a newer reader, if the dual first person povs didn't already tip you off. I'm not sure how years long fans of the subgenre will take to it and I'll be vastly interested if the change to pick up new readers works. 

Looking down, I used my pinkie finger to lightly touch the back of her hand---and her breath hitched. 

Shupe is always great with her historical additives (Lotta Crabtree plays a decent part!) and I had a fun time catching things I knew and going on to learn about things I didn't. I wish we could have gotten more scenes with Leo and his family, who he's doing this all for, and gotten Joise's character a little more flushed out, more out of the “I'm here to be lusted after by Leo and shame him for having been a confidence man”. Romantic relationship depth wasn't really here to be found for me, but if third person historical romance hasn't worked for you, this would be something different for you to pick up and if you were looking for some Anastasia movie beats.

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Tip Review: Heart Quest

Heart Quest by Robin D. Owens
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Do not attempt to jump into the series here like I did, save your sanity and start at the beginning.

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Reading Update: 20%

 

I can struggle with Shupe but an Anastasia retelling will always get me to come running. 

I'm thinking more about how this is going to be received, it's clearly written stylistically trying to update historical romance for booktok/new readers and that's already telling me there's a problem in my lack of getting emerged into the story. 

(Y'all I didn't bat an eye at the 3some, that fit to me, lol)

TBRChallenge Review: Callista

Callista by Cordia Byers
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

*This is a #TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub discussion. 

This month's TBRChallenge was “Back in my Day” and since I'm perpetually behind, I just dove into my garage sale box of books and looked for a publishing date that matched my birth year. I paid for my laziness. Let me save everyone some time, don't read this book, don't even feel you have to read my review, just click away and waste/save your time elsewhere. 

But, since I'm an informed decision reviewer who personalizes what worked and didn't work (ALL OF IT) for her personally, for inquiring minds..... 

There had been no one to protect her, and there would be no one. 

That quote is patently false, men come out of the woodwork for this empty vessel of a female main character. 

Anyway, our “young breasts” (I deserve something! for how many times I had to read these two words together) FMC is currently working to escape her Aunt Nesseilda (this name might be the only thing I liked) after her aunt betroths her to Lord Condor, an evil man old enough to be her grandfather. There was also the beating she took from her cousin Edwin when she refused to marry. In what starts off as the first of cliches/tropes (although 1983 so maybe more fresh?) Callista decides to hie off to the docks to pose as a cabin boy and get passage back to her home, Tallanton, in Scotland. She was with her aunt because her dad abandoned her after mother died and went off to search for fortune. 

“You won't escape, Callista, until I decide to let you go.” 

On the docks, Callista ends up with a man named Rawlings, they get drunk together and as first mate, he hires her to be cabin boy on his ship. Like me, Callista pays for just jumping in and the ship is going to America, not Scotland. The Captain, Corbin Wolfram is a woman hating, mommy issues from her leaving his dad for a Lord Condor (don't get exited for this plot weaving, it doesn't come into play until last 10%), psycho. We get the elements of her having to wash his back scene and her falling ill for him to realize she's a woman. From there he rapes her (I don't think dub-con can be rightfully argued here), Rawlings and Wolfram fight because Rawlings has, obviously fallen in love with her, Rawlings gets swept out to sea (I seriously almost laughed at how abrupt this was), a hurricane shipwrecks them, they boat to Georgia. 

Callista at this time has those “confusing” feelings of maybe she likes Wolfram, they sex on the beach, they fight, he leaves her, she now gets rescued by a Native American, Brave Fox, he falls in love with her, Wolfram finds her, Brave Fox leaves her to him, Wolfram beats her unconscious, they get to Savannah where a deal is struck that she'll be his mistress for six months. 

Callista also has “visions” and she “saw” her dad mining for gold. It's 1820s Georgia, Gold Rush!, so obviously he's going to be around. Things are seemingly going on track for Callista and Wolfram until he brings back a woman to be her lady's maid that he couldn't get it up for because his head was full of Callista and Callista gets jealous and breaks her promise to stay and leaves. She meets up with John Ross, who she met at a dinner with Wolfram and his business associates. Ross gets the hots for her! He takes her along with a Jim, a Scot who has fatherly feelings for her, to the gold panning area to try and find her dad. She bangs Ross trying to get over Wolfram. 

She meets up with her dad! Ross leaves for some reason but says will be back. Historically the 40 acre lottery is going on and guess who wins the lottery for Callista's dad's plot of land? But she's prego with the woman hating/beating/raping Wolfram. She at first plans on giving up baby after born but falls in love with it and Wolfram again when he shows up to take her dad's land. They talk, Wolfram says he'll sell the land to her dad but comes back beaten up because daddy mad. Callista goes out there to talk to her dad and finds him dead with his wife. She collapses. 

Brave Fox comes back into the picture to rescue her but her baby is stillborn. Brave Fox leaves the picture again. When Callista goes to check on her stepbros, she sees Wolfram and loses her shit calling him a murderer. He cries over the loss of their baby and leaves. 

“Callista, can you ever forgive me for the misery I have put you through?”

“FUCK NO.” You'd think this would be the answer given here, but it wasn't. Scot Jim comes back into the picture along with Ross to take Callista and her stepbros home to Tallanton in Scotland. Jim is a big ole' softy and he books passage on Wolfram's ship to get these two love birds back together, Callista believed him when he said Wolfram didn't kill her parents. On the ship Callista and Wolfram admit their love for one another (?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????), making Ross angry. 

Evil old man Condor comes back into the picture when Ross kidnaps Callista and her stepbros, Ross turns out to be Reaper, a man we saw Condor hire to find Callista (spoiler: he murdered her parents). Condor gets Callista to tell Wolfram she won't marry him. There's a shoot out between Reaper, Wolfram, and Condor. Callista and Wolfram live happily ever after with an epilogue that has Callista saying “Welcome home, my beloved.” to Wolfram when they make it to Tallanton (Screaming into the abyss) 

This was full of racism, physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault (the random trauma dump of the lady's maid talking about how her older brothers raped her?!?), and hopped from one over used romance genre element after the other. Callista was not a fully formed character and came off airy as one man after the other moved her from one situation to another. Because of the rape and beatings, it's not like I really wanted Callista and Wolfram to spend time together but they hardly do, there is no development to their romance (I feel sick even typing that word to describe anything between them). Numerous povs and side characters that felt empty and made situations feel dangling as some plot threads seemed to want to weave together but didn't quite come off cohesive and abruptly ended. Recycle this one, don't waste time reading it. 

*I almost forgot, John C. Calhoun, as vice president makes an extremely random quick appearance, in case that's a clincher for anyone

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Review: In the Veins of the Drowning

In the Veins of the Drowning by Kalie Cassidy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

For nearly three decades now, he had refused to worship the Great Goddess Ligea— the Queen of Sirens. He claimed Sirens were vicious and pitiless as the sea, that they took joy in destruction, and over time he’d stopped honoring the Great Gods all together. He made blood offerings to his water deity, Eusia, instead. 

In the Veins of Drowning was an impressive debut that I hope doesn't get lost in the sea of endless romantasy being published right now. I really enjoyed the world building where kings rule but serve gods and magic plays a role in good and evil. This is adult and for the most part I felt it read that way, you'll get gory and open door scenes for some horror and romance. This was mostly told from our main character Imogen, who in her later twenties is engaged to be married to a captain of King Nemea's guard, who she has been a ward of since she was a baby. The atmosphere clues readers into the fact that not everything is right in this fantasy medieval feeling world, along with the tension bleeding through Imogen's thoughts and feelings. It's when she accidentally exposes herself to her fiance that she's a Siren, beings hunted in this kingdom, that the story kicks off with romance and thriller aspects. 

“No.” I looked him squarely in the eye— I had nothing left to lose. “I came to bind myself to you.” 

Even though Imogen is King Nemea's ward, she has reason to fear him, so with a first meeting that struck something between them, Imogen decides that the King of Varya, Theo, is her way out. They end up doing a blood binding, Theo becomes immune to Imogen's siren calls and they feel a sense of protection towards each other and make a deal that Theo will get Imogen safely to his kingdom, also asking three things of her. They plan on breaking the binding once in his kingdom because Theo is engaged to a powerful empress' daughter. So you can kind of see where this is going, some road adventure with Imogen and Theo starting off a little at odds with one another but trying to fight that physical and binding attraction. I liked the byplay between them but overall I still wanted a feeling of more depth between their emotional connection. 

“Your purpose— the reason I agreed to bind myself to you— is to ensure that you will help me track down and kill King Nemea’s water deity, Eusia. And it’s your power that makes me believe you can. That silent lure you possess is Gods’ power. It’s beyond what a normal Siren can wield.”

While the romance builds between the two with obstacles stacked between them, the worldbuilding takes shape and I was pretty fascinated by it all. Imogen doesn't have all the facts or the truth about her origins and as she learns more, it builds the plot. I don't want to give too much away but her siren abilities point to a greater role she's destined for and the years she spent forced to worship the god King Nemea made her, Eusia, has empowered Eusia in such ways, she may be impossible to defeat. The imagery of sirens and how the wings tear out of Imogen's back, getting a prophecy from the mage seerer, and the nekgya, dead bodies powered by Eusia that hunt sirens in the water, was really cool and had me sinking into this world. 

“There’s too much against us,” I whispered. 

Even though this was mostly from Imogen's pov, I did think we got enough of Theo's backstory to get a good feel for him as a character. There was also a slight secondary romance between Agatha and a commander of Theo's that helped add to the world and made me wish we had a novella of their first time around romance. The romance could have had deeper depth but the fantasy lore building was more than worth the price of admission. This is the first in a duology, though, so prepare for that cliffhanger until next summer.

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Review: Silver Lining

Silver Lining by Maggie Osborne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I buddy read this over on Storygraph, but a few thoughts and feelings... 

In the end, their marriage was everyone's fault and no one's fault. 

For a book that started off with oozing pustules and vomit, this had my eyes watering at times. This is only my second Maggie Osborne (The Wives of Bowie Stone) but I'm catching a theme, hard tough exterior women with hurt vulnerable insides who survived trauma, and I am here for it. 

I'm going to be labeled a son of a bitch, and you're going to be seen as an unscrupulous temptress. At least in the beginning." 

Her eyebrows soared."Me? A temptress?" It was the most thrilling thing she'd ever heard. 

This starts off with the aforementioned vomit as Low Down is the only person that has stayed in the small gold mining town to take care of all the small pox sick. After the men recover, they need to find a way to repay her and ask her what her one wish is, Low Down replies with “have a baby”. This leads to the men drawing a marble marked with an X to see who will marry Low Down and give her a baby. You'd think all these men would be jumping at the chance to “poke” Low Down but remember the little thing of no indoor plumbing and Low Down has never cared for her appearance and, you know what, just go with it, lol. 

Instead, a solitary silver spoon stood against the wallpaper in the center of the mantel, propped against a scratched pewter watch case. 

One of the men Low Down took care of was Max and even though he's leaving the town that night to return to his fiancée, he gets pushed into the drawing. (I know, just go with it). Low Down knows Max from the letters to his fiancée and has a desire to be wanted like that and finds him good looking, so there's a little bit of foundation that from her that she'd be open to him. He, of course, draws the x marble and we have a forced marriage. 

But take a hard look, son. When you see that woman working up a sweat pitching hay like a hired hand … you're looking at character. 

Max doesn't treat her awful but he's cold and moody because his fiancée was a rich girl who's dad runs the town where Max's family ranch is and he knows the repercussions are going to be huge. As they journey and arrive at Max's ranch, we get the two talking and start to see the slow build of friendship that even more slowly builds to romantic attraction. Max spends some time with his head up his butt because of an unforeseen surprise reveal for him and it makes it harder for him to open up to Low Down. I wish we could have gotten more of Max but he gets some flushing out with issues about growing up seeing his dad controlled by his strong mother and so he's even more resentful about getting pushed into marriage by Low Down. 

"They're treating me squarely, not for my sake, but for yours, and that's all right. But it's true that I could die right now standing here about to wash up the supper dishes, and no one would weep a single tear. That's how it's always been, and that's a fact!" 

Abruptly Max realized that he had no idea what they were arguing about. Not an inkling. 

Max's mom just about stole the show, if strong capable women do it for you, prepare thy self. She comes up with the plan to try and save face with the rich family, forced into doing something because of a surprise reveal, and the jilted fiancee ends up marrying Max's younger brother. The jilted fiancee ended up playing an over the top villain to me, you'll want to dive in and rescue the younger brother, lol. 

  

Now Sunshine laughed. "You do lots of good things, Aunt Louise! I 'spect you always have." 

"I 'spect so, too," Max said quietly, gazing at her above Sunshine's head. 

Her stomach tightened, and her heart pounded against her rib cage. His expression was unreadable, but he looked at her as if he really saw her, as if his sharp blue eyes penetrated to regions others couldn't see. 

I did literally laugh (a little bit of that lighthearted goofy like a historical Garwood) and cry during this. The story Low Down tells about how she got that nickname and telling Max her real name is Lousie Downe and how he reacts was hit you in the heart, it's vulnerable and subtle in that hurt you so good deep way and then Max getting flustered with Louise's huge nightgown was the laughing feel good relief. 

She had family. 

I do wish the romance side of this was a tad more deeper and played out but Louise's journey to getting a family was hurt so good. This will always be the book of a spoon and a marble making me emotional, so if you're looking for a little western feeling atmosphere and subtly in characters' connection and vulnerabilities, this would be one to go find. *A+ to the later descriptions of Max wearing a duster and Stetson

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Review: A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children

A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

A group of fierce grandmothers formed the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, dedicated to finding the stolen infants and seeking justice from a nation that betrayed them. 

A Flower Traveled in my Blood is an historical and emotional account of how the dictatorships, juntas, and upheavals in 1970s Argentina lead to forty years of searching for disappeared family members and fighting for justice. Written by journalist Haley Cohen Gilliland, it takes into account historical documents and first hand accounting from people who lived it. When I started this, I thought the focus was going on to be solely on the group Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, but so that the reader gets a full understanding, Gilliland gives a full accounting and goes through the timeline of political events that lead to the forming of the Abuelas and the political atmosphere affecting their lives. It gives a fuller picture but also felt too scattered at times, it seemed like the story didn't know what it wanted to focus on. If you know nothing of the history of Argentina at this time, you might appreciate the context but others not looking for a full complete history lesson and more of a singular focus on the Abuelas, may get lost in all the historical players. 

The armed men who now roved the city as agents of the dictatorship were at once secretive— driving cars without license plates and obscuring their faces with women’s stockings— and brazen, abducting people off the street in broad daylight. 

While the story lays out the historical events and details about the Abuelas, it also has a solid backbone taking the reader through the timeline by following the Roisinblit family. Rosa was one of the founders of the Abuelas and came into it by searching for her daughter, Patricia. Patricia was earlier on politically active with her partner, Jose, but then had a daughter and was pregnant again, trying to stay off the radar. She was taken, her young daughter left, Rosa ends up taking care of her, and thus begins Rosa's search for her. With the government unstable, and others searching for the desaparecidos, we see how out of necessity Rosa and the other older women, join together to try and find their children. So, while we travel through the timeline of historical events starting in the 1970s, El Proceso (National Reorganization Process), Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, Noche de los Lápices (Night of the Pencils), Operation Condor, etc, we also follow the forming of the Abuelas and some of Patricia's, her children, and Rosa's journey. 

While the armed forces claimed to be targeting “terrorists,” they employed a conveniently loose definition of what that meant. In their crosshairs were not only militants but those on the further peripheries of the left. Students. Artists. Journalists. Union leaders. Lawyers who defended unions. Musicians. Poets. Priests who ministered to the poor. Nuns who helped desperate families looking for their missing relatives. In the eyes of the dictatorship, they were all “subversives.” 

The small beginning of the Abuelas to the organization it grew to was emotional and inspiring. There were the bonds of grief, the infighting from growing pains, the danger from the government and their infiltrators, and their sheer determination to never forget their children. When they start to get help from outside organizations, like the Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas, CLAMOR (Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in the Countries of the Southern Cone), and eventually an American scientist Mary-Claire King, you'll start to feel the power and achievement of collective power. 

The junta had tried to make thousands of people disappear, and to erase the identities of their children. But mtDNA was like an indelible ID tag that every mother seals in her children’s cells. What the Abuelas needed to find their grandchildren was already within them. In their blood, just as in Gelman’s poem, traveled a hardy flower, the mitochondrial DNA that contained the story of every mother that had come before them, and every child they had borne—no matter where in the world they had been taken. 

The later second half focused on the search for the grandchildren of the missing Abuela's children and how DNA research was the hope they were looking for. An important aspect I liked being touched on was how this didn't just devastate the Abuela's lives but the easy answer of finding DNA matches wasn't easy at all. The grandchildren ranks were full of children who had no idea about their origins, sometimes not wanting to know and others feeling torn up about feeling like they were betraying their adoptive parents by getting to know their biological families. Rosa's family thread continues as they find Patricia's child she was pregnant with when she was taken and he talks about how learning his true origins shredded his life. Injustices like this never happen in a vacuum and I'm glad the generational reverberations were shown. 

“It was an honor to scream when everybody else held silence,” 

There were at times I thought the organization of the storytelling felt too scattered but if you don't mind a pretty thorough relaying of the political historical events of the time, the eye-opening and emotional journey is worth it. The Roisinblit family doesn't get a full happy ending, no such thing exists in circumstances like this, but you'll learn some of what happened to Patricia. As the story takes us all the way up to present day, you'll learn about some of the court cases trying to get justice for these families forty years later, how the ESMA (Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada) prison is now a museum to try and tell some of the desaparecidos stories and serve as a warning when eyes turn away, and how many grandchildren have been found and how many are still missing. It's a time in history we shouldn't look away from and hopefully, learn from, and this covered the emotional toll of living through such time and standing up to it pretty well.

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Review: The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

The Strawberry Patch Pancake House by Laurie Gilmore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Archer Baer had just become a father in the most unimaginable way possible. 

Archer is living his dream as a chef in Paris that he has worked so hard for when he gets a call that completely changes his life. It seems five years ago, the restaurant front house woman he had a fling with, got pregnant and never told him. Tragically, she has died in a car accident and with his name on the birth certificate, Archer suddenly finds himself back in the states and in the small town of Dream Harbor trying to raise his young daughter Olive. Iris has always been flighty and doesn't like to settle into things, which makes life exciting but isn't great for her ability to pay rent. Even though she's not the greatest fan of kids, taking on the job of live-in nanny for Archer and Olive, seems like a great summer job. Until the chemistry between boss and nanny gets to be too much. 

He didn't know how to make pancakes, or raise a child, and he certainly didn't know how to say no to Iris Fraser. 

Fourth in the Dream Harbor series, this could still be read as a standalone, as the setting remains the smalltown but you wouldn't have to know the ins and outs of returning characters relationships, readers of the series will enjoy seeing some old friends. Like with all the Harbor books, this had some sweet moments and spicy. If you're a fan of The Bear for the “Yes, chef” tension, this is steeped in it (a bit repetitive at times). Even though there's a baked in power dynamic favoring Archer as the boss and Iris living in his home, he constantly asks for consent and lets Iris call all the shots on how much and how fast. Iris tries to stay away, thinking she could be messing up Archer's chances at getting full custody of Olive after the six month probationary period but while she spends some of the first half thinking about it, she doesn't put up too much of a fight and teases and pushes until they finally crumble and get physical. 

She had every intention of leaving, she really did, but right as she went to turn around, Archer lifted his head. 

Olive had her cute moments and brought some emotion with her and Archer's getting to know you vulnerable relationship and Iris realizing she could not only tolerate kids but like them, Olive anyway. The story was over 350pgs and I have to say the beginning later second half did drag as we “Yes, chef” and “we can't, but touch me!” got dragged out too much, there just didn't seem to be enough tension and angst to keep these two apart for more than 200pgs. 

He didn't know what Iris wanted in the long run, but if there was an inkling of a chance that she wanted him, then he had to take it. 

The ending went a direction that I can't tell felt off and betrayed Iris as a character (there's a little lead in with her evolving relationship with Olive) or if the current real world climate made me personally dissatisfied with it. The majority of the book had Iris not feeling kids were right for her and while she grew to love Olive, it felt somewhat off that in the last 15% she, without much discussion, would decide keeping a baby from a brand new, not even certain relationship, was totally the way to go. I don't know, it just raised some questions for me, but your mileage may vary. Similar to the tone, characterization, and pace of the others in the series, with Archer falling first and trying to play it cool to not scare Iris away and Iris deciding that a life she couldn't fathom before was actually perfect for her, fans of the series will no doubt enjoy this one as much as the others.

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Huh?

I just saw Lord of Hawkfell Island by Catherine Coulter centered in one of those book graphics and an arrow pointing at it saying Historical Rom-com.

Granted, I read this sometime in the mid 90s but, rom-com??? 

This is the one where the MMC is a Viking who takes the FMC Viking captive and his family is trying kill her?

I understand nothing about new marketing deployment of terms and how people are using/understanding them.

Any wild ones (you felt anyway) other readers have seen out there?