Review: Scot and Bothered

Scot and Bothered by Alexandra Kiley
My rating: 2 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 

He’d been the one person she’d trusted with her dreams and he’d single-handedly unraveled them. 

Scot and Bothered was a second chance story told in alternating Then and Now chapters, that pretty much last throughout the whole book. Brooke is an American who is studying at the University of Edinburgh in their English program, she has the dream of being a writer. Jack is a Scotsman who is in the MBA program, he supposed to help with his family's tour guide business when he graduates. When they meet at a party, they're both instantly drawn to each other, until Brooke shows up to class one day and Jack is one of the T.A.s in the class. They know they shouldn't start anything but they can't help themselves and when Jack feels like his hand is forced and makes a decision without telling Brooke, they both feel the consequences. It's not until seven years later that these two are forced together to collaborate on Jack's aunt's memoir, Brooke's mentor, that old wounds are finally healed. 

It was easier to slip into someone else’s story, someone else’s voice, than to admit she’d lost her own. 

I'm not a strict linear reader, so I don't mind alternating timelines that are simultaneously showing our characters in present time and pushing the story forward while also going back in time to show how they got where they are and why they are the way they are. However, I usually like the past timeline to be wrapped up around midway point, having gotten the foundational information needed to understand but then fully in the present so the characters have time to work out what they need to and fall in love again. The alternating timelines kept up until, almost the very end of the book and I was left feeling like Brooke and Jack didn't spend that great gritty time working out what they needed. When Brooke and Jack are forced together, Brooke's writing her mentor's memoir, while Jack's taking the photos for his aunt's book, Brooke is still extremely angry over how everything went down seven years ago. She does not take her foot off his neck for awhile but it seemingly takes one, I'm finally getting angry line, from Jack and she kind of lets it go. It's an apology of sorts but I still felt she let that strong anger go kind of quickly. 

“I feel bound to a life I didn’t pick. I have never felt free.” 

The anguish in his voice broke her heart in two. And spoke to something she never felt allowed to voice. 

Considering the set-up of Jack being not her specific T.A. but a T.A. in her class, I'm not sure I felt the desperate “we must be together” even though we could wait and there would be no consequences. I could see Jack caving but Brooke's character is described as very by-the-book and she's there on scholarship and talks a lot about how important this all is to her. I know she's in love for the first time and likes how Jack brings out her adventurous side but it still felt a betrayal to some of her characterization, because they wouldn't have to stay away forever, just for the semester or even two. I spent more of the Then chapters shaking my head and thinking the big blow up coming could be easily avoided. How unromantic of me, but there it is. 

“I fucked up. So badly . I wish more than anything I could take it back. I know I broke your trust and it’s unforgivable.” 

Around 30% is when Brooke loses her red mist of anger and they start to talk. They're hiking the Skye Trail in Scotland, the mentor/aunt founded the trail and the memoir is focused on that. If you read the first in this series, you'll remember the amazing way the author incorporated aspects of Scotland, geography, historical facts, and legends. We mostly get geography here and while I didn't find it as encompassing as the first, I still enjoyed how the setting, the land and trail, added atmosphere to the story. We get some secondary characters that are hiking and a little bit of Jack's family, what connects the series, but mostly this was focused on Brooke and Jack.

It wasn’t the look of someone who’d never cared. It was the look of someone who still cared. 

Around 70% Brooke is ready to try with Jack again and like I said, I never felt like there was much working out the emotional problem in the Now chapters, Brooke felt like she just kind of mellowed and their instant connection from the Then chapters was what I felt left with to explain and feel why they were giving in to this second chance. It felt odd that Brooke's over what happened in the past before readers even find out how everything blew-up, which is revealed around 80%. How could I the reader move on with her if I didn't even know what happened yet? 

“Sometimes we have to fuck it all up to know how to do it right.” 

The alternating timeline chapters went on too long for me and I didn't get the knuckle down and work it out for this second chance romance, it felt like it came too easily (lower angst readers would enjoy more). The Skye Trail descriptions gave good setting but the pace dragged in the later second half as I felt the characters were stagnating because the Then chapters were still behind where the Now Brooke and Jack seemed to emotionally be. There was a brief upset moment to add late second drama but gotten over quickly and a two years in the future epilogue to cement the HEA. This didn't quite hit like the first for me but I'll definitely be returning to the series for the third brother's romance.

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Review: Broken Country

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
My rating: 3 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 farmer is dead, he is dead and all anyone wants to know is who killed him. 

Broken Country was the story of Mess, told in literary style and awash in melodrama. It centers on Beth, a young woman that grew up in the English countryside and how the decisions she makes shapes and twists her life. Told in five parts (four named for the males in her life) and alternating three timelines, readers are started off with a murder. It's obvious that there's lies to be figured out as Beth's point-of-view clues us in but then we're taken back to the months before the murder and the arrival of Beth's past love Gabriel. When a horrible incident has Beth entering his life again, by way of watching his young son as he's a new single dad, readers can feel Beth being pulled into trouble. The story then jumps to Beth and Gabriel meeting as young teens and from there the alternating timelines are set, the beginning in 1950s with Beth and Gabriel's romance, the past in 1968 with Beth and Gabriel entering each other's lives again, and the present in 1969 with a murder trial.

But we are not who we once were. 

The alternating timelines weave the reader in and around the characters' relationships showing how they were formed and their emotional ties. The literary style works to elevate the tone but the way Beth goes about things is pure Mess. There's the alluring rich boy Gabriel, the country girl Beth who doesn't feel worthy but has big dreams, and the strong stoic farm boy Frank who yearns and loves Beth from afar until he gets his chance with her. Even though these characters do fit into these common molds, I did think the author infused them with enough depth to keep you absorbed into their characters and lives. Frank's stoicism was probably the most I wanted to break out of, feeling a little noble poor idealistic. The secondary characters of Frank's younger brother Jimmy, Jimmy's girlfriend, and other friends and family appear and provide enough to give a good rounding out of the main characters' world. 

Our love triangle – the farmer, his wife and the famous author – has been prodded and picked over and sensationalised out of all proportion in Fleet Street. 

This started off with me trying to work out the mystery of the who, what, and whys of the murder mystery, but I slowly drifted from that to becoming more invested in how Beth's grief (there are content warnings in this for death of a child, death of an animal, murder, and alcoholism) had her pulling from those close to her and trying to escape into a past idealized life that was no longer there for her. The last twenty percent delivers reveals readers were waiting for and one that felt hinted at but will still shock some, and an ending that will first hurt until an epilogue delivers the healing. If you enjoy melodrama mess in literary style that takes you on an alternating timeline journey as the murder mystery is slowly untangled, then you'll want to pick this one up.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Salmon and secrets for a late lunch! 

Beth and her husband are happily married, but that all relies on the past staying buried. 

When Gabriel, a past love who broke her heart, suddenly comes back into her life, tensions start to rise. 

Danger, deadly secrets, and jealousies are resurfacing with consequences. 

Beth is going to have to make a choice between the woman she once was and the woman she has become. 

A love story with thriller twists! 

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall preorder (March 4th) link

Gochujang Salmon recipe

Review: Gate to Kagoshima

Gate to Kagoshima by Poppy Kuroki
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

1.5 stars 

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

She was here on a mission: to find her third-great-grandfather’s history. 

Gate to Kagoshima was a time travel historical fiction feeling, through internal observation and introspection of 1877 cultural Kagoshima Japan, with a romantic element story. Isla grew up in Scotland but has ancestral roots in Japan, roots that she feels a pull to search for more information about. When she has some free time from her study aboard courses in Tokyo, she takes a trip to Kagoshima. Armed with some vague knowledge that her third great grandfather was one of the famed Samurai of the Satsuma Rebellion, she travels there to try and research more about him. Only she gets more than she bargained for when she gets lost exploring a shrine and goes from 2005 to 1877. 

Isla tried to remind herself that Takamori Saigō died one hundred and twenty-eight years ago, along with the rest of the last samurai, but knowing this didn’t make the man she was staring at seem either a fluke or trick. 

The first half of this was somewhat slow going, it leaned heavily into the historical fiction aspects. I enjoyed the mixture of real life historical figures and events with fictional characters but, as this was told mostly from Isla's point-of-view, with Maeda Keiichirō having a good amount of pov passages and then one or two from other secondary characters, most of the story was told from inside her head, relaying her thoughts about what she was seeing. This was more observational introspection, with not much dialogue (we do get more in the second half). I like inclusion of historical elements but this felt like focusing on the research for spouting facts purpose; it was a story about setting instead of characters, readers who came for a more character journey would struggle with this first half.

History was unfolding before her eyes. 

The story did get going with the time travel right away, Isla was in 1877 by 20% in and she met Keiichirō right away. He gets tasked with sheltering her and watching her as they think she could be a spy. After Isla integrates herself into the community life a bit, the second half did pick up some steam with the historical march and fighting at Kumamoto Castle. There we get some jarring, for what the tone of the story felt like previously, gory scenes of death and fighting and Isla worrying over Keiichirō. The romance wasn't really romancing for me as it wasn't too focused on in the first half and then the second half just kind of tries to force the reader that they feel this incredible love for each other. In his own words Keiichirō summed it up for me: They had never touched unless by accident, or talked about deeply personal things, or even stared into each other’s eyes. And yet Keiichirō knew his life would be less if Isla wasn’t there, and her absence would be like draining all the colour from the world. He just knew. 

You're just supposed to know that they have this intense love, because there wasn't any development for it. 

The rain pelted the hillside, the torii gate waiting on top. 

The latter second half had some awkward time jumps, feeling like jumbled scenes together, an open-door scene that also did not feel like it fit at all, and some reveals. One of the reveals involved Keiichirō's sister and it honestly was so incredibly not needed and because of the time period I'm living in right now, it felt pointed jammed in a way that had my hackles raising all the way up. I'll put what it was in spoiler tags 

****SPOILER***

Years ago when Keiichirō's dad found his sister pregnant, she told him that she was raped. The dad slices the rapist's throat in his sleep, which makes the killing not honorable and so as a samurai, the dad commits seppuku, kills himself. Towards the end it's found out that the sister lied about the rape to hide her promiscuity and there's some relaying at how this lying destroys so many people. Just personally not in the mood for this kind of messaging when we know the percentages of fake rape accusations and prevalence of rape 

****SPOILER****

If this doesn't raise your hackles, you'd probably not have the bad taste in your mouth like I did towards the end. The ending stayed true to the real historical event and the romance gave a Knight in Shining Armour by Jude Deveraux-ish end. The first half was slow paced but could interest observational historical fiction readers but the second half and ending was a jumbled mess of pace, tone, and scenes.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Lazy day Sunday eating and reading. 

Isla is in Japan researching her family history when a typhoon sends her back in time to the Satsuma Rebellion. 

She meets her ancestors and a samurai named Kei, who might just be the love of her life. 

But Isla knows the rebellion is looming, and what Kei's fate is. 

Does she try to find a way back home, or change fate? 

Gate to Kagoshima by Poppy Kuroki purchase link

Smoked Sausage and Mozzarella Pasta recipe

Review: Les Normaux

Les Normaux by Janine Janssen
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

Les Normaux was a Webtoon series turned graphic novel about late twenty something characters trying to find their place in the world. Centered on human, but has the magical capabilities of a wizard, Sébastien has just moved to magical Paris and meets vampire Elia. They're both taking a moment in a hidden alcove in a club when instant chemistry hits them and they're making out, only for Sébastien to call a halt to things and run off. Which would have been less embarrassing if Sébastien didn't run into Elia the very next morning, as they both live in the same building now.

   

The story started off immediately with them meeting and readers are thrown into the world without a lot of context. Later in the the book, we get a little nugget of worldbuilding when it's relayed that a wizard created, built this magical Paris parallel to the human Paris, as a haven for supernatural beings that may feel lost. We do get some backstory on Sébastien and Elia as we get to know they're characters separately. Sébastien's parents tried to get him to suppress his magical abilities as the magical gene skipped them, this, along with being gay in an environment he thought he had to hide it, has left Sébastien having some social anxiety, being an overthinker, and just wanting to run away when things feel overwhelming. His first step to independence is him moving to magical Paris, his aunt and uncle who do have magical abilities are there to support him, and attending university, where he'll study and learn about his wizard magic. Elia seems to come from a storied, wealthy family where he helps with their fashion line business. We don't get as much about his background but he seems to feel immense pressure from his family and this causes him to dissociate when he gets overwhelmed.

   

Along with our main couple's story, we get some secondary character side-story lines from Elia's three girl friends, with a focus on Ronnie's budding romance, and an introduction to two male friends that Sébastien meets at university. There's also a few side-story inserts about Sébastien's bunny Pierre (a normal rabbit that was given infused magically by Sébastien's grandmother) and how he seems to be about world domination. It was cute but not fully making sense to me.

   

The jump from scenes sometimes didn't feel smooth, I was left questioning how much time had passed between scenes but the artwork added to the characterization and world, giving it a more inclusive and lively reading experience. This was volume one and that was felt in it's more introductory feeling, I do wish world-building had been laid out a bit more. If you're looking for a different kind of reading experience than you're usual written novel, this graphic novel had magic, budding romances, friendships, familial and personal issues working through, and a bunny bent on world domination.

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Reading Update: Page 1

Afternoon tea out of my 2002 Campbell's Olympic hockey mug in anticipation of tonight's game and a graphic novel for some fun reading. 

If you're into Webtoons, then you'll probably recognize this story about friendship, love, and magic. 

Sébastien is new to supernatural Paris, he's trying to get away from his troubles and peacefully learn magic. 

But what's a boy to do when when the really hot vampire he made out with last night is now his neighbor? 

You fall in love with a monster! 

Les Normaux by Janine Janssen with S. Al Sabado

#TBRChallenge Review: The Liar's Dice

The Liar's Dice by Jeannie Lin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 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. 

“Who is he?” I asked Zhou Dan as we moved to where he’d left the carriage. 

“No one you should associate with,” he replied abruptly.

I took one final glance back over my shoulder at Gao. He stood still and tall in the middle of the street, watching me. It wasn’t long before his tall figure faded into the darkness. 

This month's TBRChallenge theme was “Previously, in romance” and I knew immediately this was my chance to return to The Pingkang Li Mysteries series. Remember when I lost my mind reading The Lotus Palace in 2022 for a TBRChallenge theme? I've been itching for the chance to read the rich girl and the boy from the wrong side of the tracks next in the series romance. I'm also a very, very behind book blogger and only remembered the third Wednesday of the month was today around 9pm last night, so while I knew I couldn't finish The Hidden Moon, I knew I could the novella prequel to it, The Liar's Dice.

I shouldn’t have wanted for anything, yet I wanted. I stared down at my hands and how soft and empty they were. I didn’t even know what I wanted. 

If you haven't read the previous two books in the series, Wei-wei is the rich sheltered sister of Huang (book 1) and Gao is the street kid who kind of works with/for Huang but also stabbed him once. When I found out these two were going to be paired up, I lost my mind, lol. This prequel would work to jump into the series here, as you get to know Wei-wei and Gao, previously secondary characters we got glimpses of. This novella delivered a mini murder mystery and a tantalizing look at the beginning of their romance. 

“Your brother pays me whenever he needs things done, Lady Bai. We are not friends.” 

Wei-wei is twenty-five and realizes she's a sheltered rich girl and is starting to itch against some of her restraints, while also realizing that she doesn't want to move out of her parent's home. She's created a niche where she helped her older brother Huang and now her younger brother study for the Imperial exams. This takes place in the Tang Dynasty China, so there was a wealth of new historical elements that will have you wanting to go down rabbit holes on. She has purpose but is starting to realize it feels for other people and not herself but she also has some freedom, she can get one of their servants, Zhou Dan, to keep secrets for her and her parents kind of let her do her thing. 

“You want me to stay away,” I said. 

“I want you to stay away.” 

Wei-wei doesn't want to marry and lose what she has at her home but her favorite tale, The Butterfly Lovers about Zhu and Liang, has her wondering if she could also dress like a male and experience life outside her home walls. She tests these limits one night by getting Zhou Dan to take her to Mingyu's (book 2) tea house and while she enjoys the conversation she gets to overhear, if not yet participate in, she also gets lost when trying to find Zhou Dan. In the alleyways she meets Gao and comes upon a murder victim. From here, we get a murder mystery that twists and weaves, involving Huang and gives Wei-wei opportunity to be in Gao's presence. 

I reached out to him, just my hand against his chest for no reason other than that I wanted to. Just so he’d know, and so I’d know, but this time it was Gao who moved away. 

This was all told from Wei-wei's pov but we get enough from her observations of Gao to know his feelings and how hard he's trying to repress them. Y'all, from the first time they meet and he puts his hand on the small of her back (screeching!) I was losing it for this couple. It's obvious Gao likes her, finds her actions and thoughts interesting and frustrating when they put her in danger and some of that she's the sun warming him and Wei-wei finds him intriguing in that he's supposed to be dangerous but why do I feel safe with him and why does he bring out a side of myself that I try to quiet. In case you didn't know, I'm goo for this kind of dynamic. They have a kiss but Wei-wei is too thrown by it to really react and Gao's insecurity has him thinking Wei-wei is probably doing a version of slumming. 

When I was around him, I could be fearless too. 

The murder mystery has Wei-wei land in danger and Huang and Gao have to come in to rescue. We do get a wrap-up to the who and why of the mystery, which was honestly pretty strong for a novella, but the romance is left drifted off for it to continue in the next book. Wei-wei and Gao both had a quiet intensity to them but also a sweet playfulness that I'm dying to read in their full story. If anyone wants to buddy read The Hidden Moon in March, let me know! This was a perfect appetizer novella and great if you wanted to jump into the series here (but don't, the first two books are so good!) 

A simple message, one without words that held all the promise in the world. It had been folded into the shape of a butterfly 

(Gao knows Wei-wei's favorite tale is the Butterfly Lovers!!! He's sending her a message he hasn't forgotten about her, at the end of this.)

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Review: Dream Girl Drama

Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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

Somehow, he knew that she wasn't a choice. 

If you read The Au Pair Affair, you'll remember Sig and Chloe and their, ….are they? In Dream Girl Drama we get a look at how they first met and why the tension felt so turned up between them. Sig's on his way to dinner with his father, who he didn't meet until he was eighteen because his mom says the guy abandoned them, when his truck breaks down. He makes it to a country club that doesn't want to admit non-members when a blonde comes out of nowhere and claims Sig's with her. From there it's stolen champagne, a kiss on the green, and love at first sight. Until Sig finally makes it to dinner and finds out that his father's newest wife-to-be has a daughter and it's Chloe. 

Leave...them to chance? Can't do it. 

Look, I can't say I found it wildly taboo that a twenty-nine year old man who didn't grow up with his father and only communicates with him a handful of times in a decade is in love with a twenty-five year old future step-sister that he only met the night before. They're strangers who are adults and will never live in the same house developing a familial relationship. So, fair to say that part of the angsty start-crossed aspect was lost to me. I'm also not one for insta-love, so when Sig is thinking/feeling in love immediately, I wasn't exactly getting the tingles with him. However, I do think that Bailey shows and gives us those falling in love emotions as the story progresses, it just might not be everyone's cup of tea of why/how Sig is in love with her. Chloe grew-up 1%er rich, so she has no concept of taking care of herself, she's also a harp prodigy and used to gliding by on her talents. At twenty-five, and I think a push from meeting Sig, she decides that she wants to spread her wings and move out of her home and to Boston. This puts a bit of a wedge between her and her mother, thus putting a wedge between Sig and his dad, but they're not really in the story, just some occasionally coming in from the sides. Sig's love language is taking care of and he does it all for Chloe, helping pay rent, buying groceries, basically what you learn to do for yourself when you first move out. Chloe's pretty oblivious to it all until the beginning of the second half, so if you can't handle immature, flighty female main characters that take a while to grow, you'd probably struggle with this one. 

They were a messy pair. Everything about what they were doing was messy but stopping seemed impossible. 

This had that trademark Bailey heat, mostly on the back of the repression the two have to observe towards each other. They don't want their reputations ruined, Sig is a professional hockey player who's team is about to make captain and offer a lucrative contract and Chloe is trying for first chair in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I get we're in the TMZ era of being in people's business but since I didn't fully feel the step-sibling taboo-ness, I felt like it was somewhat overplayed (NHL is no stranger to drama, Martin Brodeur's past mess, anyone?) It was a lot of we're not staying away from each other but we can't physically act on our feelings, while Sig hires a private investigator to dig up dirt on his dad so Chloe's mom won't want to marry him. If this is your type of back and forth, you'd be in heaven. 

Had she ever heard him this raw and honest before? Is this what he'd been holding back? 

If you showed up for a sports romance or worried there would be too much for you, hockey features maybe 2% in this, we don't even find out Sig's a winger until 60% and see Chloe at like one game. The scene where they snap and give into their lust was hotly great but there was some, to me anyway, immature actions and feelings that took this a little over-the-top fluffy fun. The whole baseball versus hockey players rivalry game came off pretty goofy to me. When it seems like things are going to be impossible for our couple, a surprise reveal has them getting their happily ever after, which we see in a five years later epilogue, that also teased the next book couple. I didn't completely feel the angst keeping these two apart but I felt their lust and sometimes that's enough.

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Quickie Review: Escaping from Houdini

Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.5 stars 

"The show must go on." 

NO00000. 

This was a locked boat mystery where a carnival full of contortionist, fire breathers, palm and tarot readers, and Houdini (???) perform every night on the trip from England to America. The beginning was flashy and mystical with the carnival and it's people, the mysterious ringmaster who gets involved in a love triangle with our couple, kept me intrigued but when a murder occurs each night of the show and the whole point of this series, with the romance, is that our couple are forensic detective apprentices and there was barely any detecting going on and no one seemed overly concerned about the murders, enough to stop the shows, it all began to feel deeply unserious and I had a hard time investing in the story and characters. 

Ok, I did start this continuous same couple series at book 3, so I missed some foundational emotion between this young couple but, meh, to feeling much between them. 

The carnival delivered some flashy described cool scenes but the plot was structurally messy af and the characterization was wonky; a lot of elements didn't track. 

I'm exhausted trying to figure this book out and so thankful I buddy read it with thevintagechronicles over on Fable because I had someone to whine, complain, and get my frustrations out with, would have lost my mind otherwise, lol.

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