Sunday, January 31, 2021

2020 Romancies Wrap-up

 *Clicking on book cover brings you to the post with all the nominees


Favorite Cover                            Favorite Secondary Character

                         


Favorite Scene                            Favorite Quote

                        


Favorite Heroine and Hero

        


Favorite Couple               Favorite Contemporary and Historical

              


Favorite Book of 2020








Saturday, January 30, 2021

Review: About a Rogue

About a Rogue About a Rogue by Caroline Linden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

Bianca resolved before noon on her wedding day that she would hate and despise her husband for the rest of her life. 

About a Rogue kicks off the Desperately Seeking Duke series with an intriguing start. Readers might be thrown at first as we get the story first and then the characters, which is different from the more typical introduction to characters and then we follow them to get the story. Here, we are first introduced to the Duchess of Carlyle and her man Mr. Edwards and through their discussion and the duchess' musings, we learn that her younger son has just died. This is particularly important because her husband is dead and her oldest son is intellectually disabled, an heir is needed for the vast and rich Carlyle dukedom. Mr. Edwards has discovered three possible heirs, “An army man, a cardsharp, or a Frenchman,”, choices the duchess isn't particularly excited about. When the army man, Captain Andrew St. James and the cardsharp, Maximilian St. James show up, she interviews them and explains that she will give them an allowance and keep a watch over them to see how responsible and settled they are and in six months time they are to report back to her. Max is the second heir behind the captain but he has had at least one foot in poverty all his life and is determined to not let this opportunity pass him by, he's going to find a way to turn the duchess' allowance into a permanent flow of money he can control. 

He suspected they had both acted on impulse, even if her impulse sprang from passion and fury while his came from an iron-willed determination not to let this opportunity slide through his grasp.

Bianca has lived in Perusia all her life, a town founded by her father's pottery works business, she loves creating new glazes and working there. When a man starts coming around and her father is impressed with his fine London ways, connections to a dukedom, and seems to be trying to court her older sister Cathy, Bianca is instantly on her guard. Bianca knows that Cathy is in love with the local curate and when their father approves a marriage between them, Bianca helps Cathy plan her elopement. When the day of the wedding comes and there is no bride, Bianca and her father fight and push each other until Bianca agrees to marry Max in Cathy's place, thinking Max will refuse. Max just wanting to accomplish a stakehold in Perusia, agrees to marry Bianca. 

Even in his plain, sober clothing, wearing spectacles and reading a dust-dry contract. Obviously he knew he was a handsome man. Bianca was wildly annoyed that she had to know it, too. 

With the marriage of convenience, there is also some enemies-to-lovers and Taming of the Shrew. Bianca only calls Max “That Man” and will test your resolve with her very caustic and borderline bratty attitude. Max through it all just plays the calm and unruffled husband trying to build and implement some new ideas to improve Perusia, while also non-confrontationally challenging Bianca. It's around the 40% mark that Bianca starts to thaw towards him and their relationship takes over as the focus of the story as they travel to London for some Vauxhall sexiness and then come home for what turns out to be some foreplay in the form of a competitive game of cricket. There's obviously some slow burn to this couple but what I really enjoyed was how there felt like purpose to their sex scenes. Max decides early that he won't push anything or in fact act on any signs from Bianca until she is all in with her desire, which can be read as Max wanting that emotional connection from her. They start off oil and water but as each emotional connection is built, so is the feeling of desire and it made the eventual physical scenes have that much more heat to them. 

No one had ever spoken to her like that. No one had ever looked at her this way. It made her feel wild and beautiful and powerful, that this man wanted her. 

This story was more about the present time and Max and Bianca connecting. There is some background to Max, his father being a wastrel, his mother writing to the Duke of Carlyle for financial help and only receiving a five pound note, and his aunt ending up caring for him, that explained aspects of his personality and helped fill out his character. Bianca was outshone by him as her beginning attitude was aggravating in The Shrew way. I also thought that the ending issue with Max's aunt had a bit of forced in drama, instead of adding to the story, feel. Overall, though, this had an appreciated different feel to it while still giving the tried and true Vauxhall but adding in some interesting pottery works elements. Max and Bianca were a sparking spot to stop off at for a while in the overarching plot of finding an heir for the Carlyle dukedom. The ending brings us back to the beginning with the Captain and, as of now, first in line heir, not heard from for a while and missing. This series started off fresh and intriguing, I'm looking forward the next. 

He smiled, that lazy rogue’s smile that both put her on guard and made something inside her soften treacherously.

View all my reviews

Monday, January 25, 2021

Reading Update: Page 1

 



Good morning ☀️ It feels like -6 right now where I live but the sun is shining, I’ll take it! 

Starting my week off right with a historical romance and donuts 😍 

Hope everyone is having as great a start to their week, but warmer!


These go great with tea (and I imagine coffee :)!

Sunday, January 24, 2021

Quickie Review: SEAL's Promise

SEAL's Promise SEAL's Promise by Sharon Hamilton
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This says #1 but it must be a spinoff and I would highly suggest anyone check out any possible previous books before tackling this one. My face as I got about 7% in,
 
There were a lot of characters that I'm not sure I fully made heads or tails of and the ones I could with their relationships...umm, No. It seems like the bride and bestman are going to end up together after the groom dies. I'm going to spout the company line of this writer's voice just doesn't seem to be for me.

View all my reviews

Quickie Review: Enemy Mine

Enemy Mine Enemy Mine by Megan Mitcham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

Interesting romantic suspense Kindle Freebie. Common format with a secret group of agents working for the government, Branch, our heroine works for them and she was totally butt kicking. Hero is a childhood love who seems to have turned evil working for his father, the same father that killed heroine's parents. 

Action, undercover, and fast paced. I thought towards the end one too many bedroom scenes interrupting the good action that was going on but these two probably deserved that time :) 

Some editing mistakes but this looks to be self-published and, again, I downloaded as a Kindle Freebie, so I can look a little past since they weren't completely glaring and/or ruined the flow of story. I'll definitely be checking out the next in series.

View all my reviews

Review: Someday My Duke Will Come

Someday My Duke Will Come Someday My Duke Will Come by Christina Britton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

But she would not allow that passionate side of herself to gain the upper hand. She had vowed long ago never to let it rule her again; she was not about to lose that battle now. 

If you read the first book in the Isle of Synne series, A Good Duke is Hard To Find, you'll remember the hero's cousin and ward, Lady Clara, and his business partner and friend Quincy. I'm a newcomer to the series and while I missed seeing some of Quincy's sea adventures and business building that could have been shown in the first, I didn't have a problem starting here. Quincy is back in London for the first time in decades after his father's death and overhearing his mother say she was going to force him into the Navy at 15yrs old. He decided to run off and join an American merchant ship on his own terms. His mother is still hateful towards him but he learns that his three older brothers have died and he is now the Duke of Reigate. 

Following her heart had given her nothing but ruin and shame, and a secret heartache that haunted her to this day. 

Clara is 31yrs old and due to an instance in her past, never thinks she will marry but now that her younger sister is getting married, she doesn't know what she will do with herself. She's always felt a connection with Quincy and when his mother tries to force an engagement on him, she jumps in and says he is already engaged to her. Thus, we have our “just friends” fake engagement. The first half of the story spends more time in our characters' heads, a lot with Clara and this mysterious issue from her past (more frequent historical romance readers will probably guess). I thought the first half was pretty slow moving but with the fake engagement set-up and a jump to the Isle of Synne, Clara and Quincy started to spend more time together. 

She laughed, and the happiness lighting her face nearly had him stumbling on the walkway. He knew in that moment he would do everything in his power to keep that light in her eyes. 

I never really felt like Quincy's character gave me anything beyond a penciled outline; like I mentioned, though, I didn't read the first book and more of his sea adventures could have been covered there. Clara had more to her but so much of it was the constant hovering of her mysterious past mistake. I read a good amount of Regency romance, so that could have affected my enjoyment, but the characters and storyline, unfortunately, felt like going through the Regency motions. Clara has a great-aunt that could be Lady Dansbury's (of Bridgerton series fame) understudy, the sprung on you dukedom, hidden scandal, and mean/evil parent. All these are elements that, in some way, over and over bring readers to the Regency sub-genre but there just wasn't any life or feeling delivered behind them for me here. 

Yet there was a steadiness to his gaze that grounded her. Just then he smiled. It was a small thing, barely even lifting the corners of his lips. But it gave her the encouragement she needed to do what had to be done. 

In the latter half of the story, when Clara and Quincy are internally saying they love the other, I can't say I felt why or saw how. For the most part, there isn't a lot of physical contact between the two, there are two bedroom scenes, descriptive but quick, and because of the lack of prior physicality, they feel sprung upon. The overall tone and pace of the story was placid, towards the ending there is some strife with Quincy's mother trying to dig up dirt on Clara but even that gets resolved fairly sedately. In fact, Clara's past issue, Quincy's insolvent dukedom, and a late reveal by Quincy's mother all just kind of work out with bows. There's not a lot in this story to get excited about but readers of the first in the series may want to pick this up to see any sparks from Clara and Quincy realized. 

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Reading Update: Page 1

 



Celebrating a new day in America and the 21st day in the ‘21st year in the 21st century! 
🎉💃🏻 
 Maybe we should all go play blackjack 😄


I love meals like this, simple and tasty. It's vegetarian but could easily as some chicken

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Review: Unbound

Unbound Unbound by Cara McKenna
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.7 stars 
 
I read this for the # TBRChallenge, previous updates with my full thoughts, comments, and quotes can be found: 





In it's outline, this is a grumpy + sunshine (with a life saving doggo!) with a heroine taking a trip to Scotland to find herself. She comes upon a hermit (who's hot!) and ends up having to stay with him when she gets sick. 

In author McKenna's hands it becomes so much more with characters who have layers and layers. Rob our hero is an alcoholic which is partly caused by his personal kink of needing to be tied up and wanting to be submissive and feel used in the bedroom. This ends up fitting perfectly with our heroine Merry as she is in the process of discovering who she really is and wanting to exert her power. Notice those dynamics, a big strong manly man who is submissive in the bedroom and our less physically powerful heroine alone but wanting to feel powerful? Brilliant. 

Along with the character layers there is depth and emotion. I had endless lines, quotes, and scenes to highlight and discuss in my reading updates. I did think Rob held back from telling Merry he was an alcoholic for too long as it gave a little bit of a rushed feeling to the end. I was disappointed we didn't get to "see" Merry and her friends have a moment or Rob with his brother. 

Overall, though, this hit me in the feels and if you can handle some sexy SEXY times, Unbound is a book you need to read, then come talk to me about it :) 

TBRChallenge Reading Update: 100%

 

So this starts off with Rob agreeing to hike the rest of the trail to Inverness with Merry and while YEAH also he still has NOT told her he's an alcoholic.

“It was my brother.” His gaze dropped to the ground between their legs. “She left me for my brother.”

WHAT??? Holy hell. Are we going to get to meet Rob's brother???

“I felt angry. Really angry.”
“At?”
“At all these people who cared about me. Because they cared about that man I was pretending to be, whose shoes I never felt at home in. I resented my wife every time she begged me to get help so I could go back to being the man she’d married. Because that man had only ever been an act. She’d never even met the me you have, let alone loved him.”

Oh the pain of this but I like how it doesn't place blame on his wife for not being caring enough. It's a messed up situation of stupid 'accepted' and not 'accepted' societal rules and Rob not having the strength or maturity yet to be himself. 

Rob pointed to a sign hanging above the display. “Going out of business.”
“Oh, what a shame. If I were a millionairess, I’d buy it myself.”

Oh my god, Rob is going to buy this for her, isn't he??? This is how she's going to end up staying in Inverness!!!!

Ok, at 80% Rob finally tells, well let's be honest, he's forced to tell Merry that he is an alcoholic. I don't know how I feel about such a late reveal to Merry. 

How could he have pretended they’d shared such a real connection, when he’d hidden half of who he was to her?

Yep, I knew this was going to be a problem. I don't know, when I think back on it, I do think he shared the elements of this even if he didn't outright name it. I don't know, I don't like the late reveal but I think I can live with it. But I definitely see how Merry would have anger.

You’re a broken man, Robert Rush, not fit for this world. He flipped off the lights and shut the door quietly at his back. Don’t let yourself forget that ever again.

NOOOOO, WHYYYYYYY How does he just leave???? This scene was awful and I'm so angry at Rob.

So Merry ends up leaving and going back home and I feel her shell shocked. There's really none of that friend settling I was looking for from the beginning and I wish we could have gotten some scenes from that. 

Write to arrange a date if you like, or to tell me to fuck off. But unless I hear from you, I’ll be waiting every Tuesday, hoping maybe I’ll see you walking toward me down the pavement.

Eight months go by and then Merry receives a letter from Rob. Rob explains some things but I still feel like his alcoholism reveal came too late for a longer settling out that I need from it.

A good idea? She couldn’t say, but it was the only one her heart was going to let her make. She knew that, surely as she knew the sky above Inverness today was blue. Surely as she felt acceptance and admiration every time Rob’s gaze alighted on her. Attraction, affection. The seeds of love, already planted, ready to grow if only they could find their way to fostering them.

There is some warring in Merry but she comes to this conclusion pretty quick but I guess this would be where those eight months come into play, she's had time to process. 

When they meet on the street in Inverness, I almost lost it. These two have come so far and I liked how McKenna captured all those new feelings and old that they had already fostered. Ending still wrapped up a bit too quickly for me.

TBRChallenge Reading Update: 70%

 


How sad, the things she’d let herself settle for, and for so long.

Oh, Merry. This is some heroine and hero showing their secret parts to each other and them being only their true selves with one another wonderfulness. 

It was true—she didn’t care about who he had been, only who he was with her, right now. Here, together, they were in a unique position. A magical bubble containing exactly two inhabitants, with no past and no future. No witnesses to their former selves, only the people they’d become. Who they were.

NOoo, I can feel the lead up to their "bubble" getting burst. I'm now 70% in and Rob still has NOT told Merry that he is an alcoholic! I feel like the use of bubble was very intentional here.

I love your body. I love your body. She let the words dance around her brain and make her dizzy. Then maybe I ought to love it, too.

The author has given Merry enough inner strength and power that I think this outside validation is ok. It shouldn't be end all but dang it, sometimes it feels good and like I said, Merry has a good enough foundation. It shows Rob giving back to Merry too, instead of always taking.

This section has some calmness to it, not as intense as previous. I'm getting frustrated how they're not in total commitment mode because of how well they seem to fit together but my feelings are the usual points in a story I would complain about in a review, Merry and Rob have only known each other for four or so days at this point. Holy cow, less than week, McKenna does such an amazing job packing in emotions and depth that I didn't even fully comprehend how short their time has been together.

This section, obviously, really hits on the sex and there is some role playing degradation, Rob loves to be tied up and feel like he is only a sexual object to Merry. It never felt salacious to me but heads-up that this story has some sexy SEXY times in it, if you're more of a closed door reader. 

This man she knew, he wasn’t an alcoholic. Not an active one at least, and rarely even a pining one. Not these past few days. Telling her would serve no purpose whatsoever. Let her freeze him in her memories exactly as he was now.

WRONG. TELL HER ROB. How are we 70% in and Merry still doesn't know he's an alcoholic? This is going to blow up so hard.


#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 50%

 


Let her have such power—the power to render a man as self-possessed as Rob completely helpless

I love how you can tell there is thoughtfulness planned out in this story. There's the sexiness but there is thought behind it, Rob's desire and need to be tied up, especially loving the rope, and wanting to feel in servitude to his bedroom partner compliments Merry's desire to feel and express/perform her new sense of power.

She did, and he slid a forearm beneath each of her thighs, tilting her hips up. She held her breath. Broad palms warmed her ribs, and she felt cradled, like a goblet tipped to a man’s mouth. He was going to taste her—sample her. Consume her. Make a banquet of her.

I mean, HELLO.

She scared him for knowing, but she scared him more for the way she’d smiled when she’d asked it. That she could read Rob’s thoughts, the ones that came second only to the urge for a drink in their ability to unnerve him, the ones that had haunted him his entire life, and . . . and smile. That she could find some measure of delight and curiosity in it, when all it had ever brought Rob was shame and rejection.

Oh, Rob :(  Don't mess this up with your fear. I love this moment, the sexiness, the fear, our characters revealing themselves, the connection, gah! All of it.

Deep down, he could hear his own voice whispering, Don’t go. Deep down, he wondered which hurt more—shame or loneliness.

Gawd, the swirling emotion. Also, I'm only halfway in and for McKenna to have this much of me invested and this heavy of emotion is amazing.

Scary as this was . . . telling her these things was like a bloodletting. The initial cut hurt like hell, but with it done he could feel the toxins escaping, making room for relief.

Ok, this scene of Mary not letting Rob shied or hide away from what she sensed in the bedroom made my eyes water. The way Rob not only finally gets what he wants but realizes that he doesn't have to be ashamed of it. It's obviously not a full turn around because the shame he holds is a lifetime accruement but the beginning in there and I love when the romance genre gives readers this.

He’d unnerved his mother with the games he played, got caught too many times with some manky old rope in his mouth or wound too-tight around his fingers. She’d sent him to therapy. Your father’s not to know. No one’s to know.

Ahh, so this is where his relationship with his mother broke down. 

The oddest Russian nesting doll ever, Rob was. A gruff and self-sufficient shell snapped closed to hide a happily spineless wretch. Though inside that wretch, the gleefully belittled one of his fantasy life, slave to his fetish . . . there was another man still. The drunk. The outcast. A man too weak and damaged and loathsome to even inhabit those degrading fantasies. But he’d cracked open quite enough of himself for Merry to pick through for one afternoon.

I constantly harp on wanting layers and depth to characters and not only is McKenna giving it, she comes right out and says it, lol. 

Where were you when I was twenty? How different might his life have been, if he’d known someone like Merry before he’d met his wife? But at twenty he’d never have shared what he wanted, not even with an eager ear such as Merry’s listening. She’d have been wasted on him back then.

Oh my gosh, how true is this?! I'm in my late thirties and I'm not sure I would have appreciated the layers in this story and characters in my early twenties.

This was quite the section, reveals between Merry and Rob, his sexual kink in the bedroom and some reveals to the reader, how serious his alcoholism was (cirrhosis & DUIs). 

#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 30%

 


The dog backed up. Not cowering, not growling, but nervous. She stopped, not wanting to scare it. 
“He’s a bit odd with strangers,” Rob said, giving it an encouraging nudge in the backside. “Don’t take it too personally.”

The dog or you Rob? I think we know what the author is doing here. 

Rob looked just as gruffly sexy this morning, blue eyes bright in the morning sun, assorted gray hairs lending him a worldly air, forearms flexing as he pressed the loose dirt flat. She’d never kissed a man with a beard, and suddenly her life seemed to depend on discovering how it felt.

Flannel, sweat, and forearms. That sizzling heat McKenna is known for is starting to appear. Very few authors can hit that right amount of depth of characters, story, emotions, with sex like McKenna can for me.

Is your back stiff? I’ll rub it for you. It was probably all muscly from wood-chopping and potato-harvesting and all sorts of things that made Merry feel like a giddy pervert. “Nice shirt,” she said. Can I sniff it? It must smell like . . . labor.

Emotions, heat, and don't forget the humor! 

There’s a lovable person hiding somewhere inside you, Rob Rush. And I’m going to make his acquaintance if it’s the last thing I do.

Some of that sunshine and grumpy. There's an archery scene where Rob is teaching Merry to shoot that was great for showcasing her poking/prodding him to get peeks into his personality and have him open up to her more. 

We get some reveals of similarities between the two, how both were playing a part or role in their lives, Merry the chubby happy girl and Rob the trendy bar owner, that helps give some basis why they are, will be connecting. 

"By the time I was thirty I was like, Jesus. If I’d charged these people for all the therapy I doled out, I’d be a millionaire by now.” 
He smiled. 
“And the thing is . . .” Her eyes narrowed as she made the discovery. “I bet they didn’t even want to be happy. I bet they just wanted an audience for their misery.”

Yeesh, the way some people need to hear this and realize this. But another example of Merry is coming into her own.

It was only when he’d gone off to university and learned to drink that he’d felt capable of the socializing necessary to foster friendships. Alcohol was like a secret he’d finally been let in on.

We're getting more Rob here and touching on his alcoholism. He seems to have had a caring dad and brother but more than a touch of "outsider" to his personality. This line is all too real and again humanizes Rob while also giving him realness and depth.

And the man he was out here . . . Rob didn’t self-reflect often these days, but this was the most he’d liked himself, ever in his life. Well, not liked. But this was easily the least he’d ever loathed himself. He wasn’t the awkward, unnerving child, or the self-medicated charmer, or the monster that charmer was doomed to become.

We learn Rob has been out here for two years, at this point he hasn't mentioned that he's an alcoholic to Merry. She's more of the mind that he is out here escaping and he thinks more of it as hiding. Merry's so open that is in turn causes Rob to be so and make him freeze up. 

He balanced a fat log and brought the axe down, splitting it in two. The halves fell to either side of the stump and he placed the next one. Merry laughed, watching, and crossed her slender arms over her chest. “Goddamn, you’re manly.”

Ok, so the scene with Merry handling a rope and Rob's reaction, I think the setting and how Rob is living is a definite Choice by the author. The duality of strength and "manliness" with, what looks like is going to be, Rob's subservient nature in the bedroom. I'm enjoying how to each other they are unaware of the others attraction and the dial that seems to slowly be turning up in each chapter. 

“Hurt them how?” she asked, more curious than fearful. Nothing about Rob got her serial killer alarm wailing, but she did want to understand. 
“Not physically,” he said. “Like I said, I was a miserable arsehole. I hated myself, and I think I drove people away, annoyed that they even cared.”

"annoyed that they even cared"  Oof. More of Rob not wanting to be seen and ashamed of who he is, which is looking like the majority of it can be due to his bedroom desires. 

Merry felt that way, from time to time. She knew she couldn’t have overindulged herself to 240-plus pounds if she weren’t seeking to quiet something—sadness or anxiety, some cold, echoing depth she hadn’t known how to muffle except with food. And more recently, with the all-consuming project of losing the weight. The hole was still there, demanding satiation. And she still didn’t know how to fill it, not permanently.

Another similarity, her addiction was food and his alcohol.

“I can’t remember the last time anyone seemed eager to know me.” 
A pang of heartache passed through her, chased by something softer. Affection, perhaps. Longing. “Maybe because you never answer when they knock.”

I like this exchange simply for the soft hit back Merry gives to his little bit of wallowing here. 

“I want to, if you do,” she whispered. 

Another intentional moment, I think from the author, Merry is the one who initiates physicality. It balances out the moment and between them; Merry a woman alone with a strange physically more powerful man. 

This section had a more earthy and tactile feel to it with some break throughs between Merry and Rob. I have a feeling the dial is about to go up to 11 in the heat department. 

Saturday, January 16, 2021

The Romancies - Part 7: Favorite Contemporary, Historical, and Book of 2020

 

The following are my top ten contemporary and historical books I had the privilege of reading this year. (In no particular order) 

*The books eligible could be published in any year, they simply had to be read by me in 2020. 
Clicking on book cover brings you to my review if I wrote one or Goodreads page if I didn't.



Nominees:






Winner:





















This drew inspiration from Elizabeth and Darcy's personality conflicts from Pride and Prejudice and added some fake relationship to produce an actual romcom. The opposites attract was clear right away and I loved Elle and Darcy's connection was apparent to be building with each meeting; they emotionally fit into each other's grooves. This was a character driven and open bedroom door story and I loved going on their emotional journey, the bit of spice, and the funny, sweet, and heartfilled romcom tone. Definitely want to pick this one up!


2018 Winner














Nominees:






Winner:


I'm sure you all are surprised. I still feel wrung out from reading and discussing this book! I'm almost glad not all romance is this intense, I'd only be able to read four books a year if they were all this emotional. The characters had more depth and layers than most people I know in real life, the plethora of emotions swirling around, and the sheer talent of story and character crafting going on here make this a book I'll never forget. If you can find this book, grab it with both hands and don't let go. Then find the buddy read posts I did on GoodReads for this and come talk to me about it, I'll never tire of discussing Bliss.


2018 Winner







Favorite Contemporaries and Historicals






What were your favorite books read in 2020?