Reading Update: Page 1

Improving my Monday with cheese filled dinner rolls and a contemporary romance. I might have to cover up with an afghan to complete the comfort trifecta.

 

Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson pre-order (May 19) link

 

Garlic & Herb Cheese Bombs recipe

Reading Update: 5%

What mattered was they were never getting out. He was safe. That was what he thought then. Of course, he also thought he would never take a drink, not after seeing what it had done to his father. Sometimes we just get it wrong.

Eesh, this is forbidding as all get out.

Also, of course it had to be Mrs.freakingMassey that starts this off, what/who I found the most disturbing from The Shining.

Review: Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rereading this 20yrs after the first time was quite a different experience, I wish I had time to reread a lot of other books.

Catherine's nativity was more pronounced, John and Isabella Thorpe made my blood pressure rise, the Gothic satire portion didn't play as big a part as I remembered, Henry was an intuitive dear but Austen also delivered a fourth wall breaking line that killed the romance for me, and the ending felt rushed.

For quotes, comments, and a deeper discussion of thoughts and feelings: Northanger Abbey buddy read

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Review: First Comes Scandal

First Comes Scandal by Julia Quinn
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.

Georgiana was kidnapped by a fortune hunter but even though she managed to save herself, her reputation is in tatters.
Nicholas is called down from medical school in Edinburgh by his father who orders him to marry their neighbor and Nicholas' childhood friend, Georgiana.
It's a marriage of convenience but a close quarters carriage ride with a grumpy cat might turn it into a marriage of love.

“There is only one thing to be done,” his father said. “You must marry her.”

First Comes a Scandal is fourth in the Rokebys series but I think you could jump into the series here, it would probably be even better to read the Bridgerton series before this. Rokebys is a prequel to Briderstons and heroes from the first couple books in the Bridgerton series make an almost center stage showing in this. As much as I enjoyed seeing the heroes as little kids, it was too much. Instead of focusing on the leads of this story, the little Bridgertons got too much of the spotlight; it started to feel like a cheap trick to get readers to like this book, trading on the Bridgerton love. If you haven't read the Bridgerton series, you'd probably be bored and think a good chunk of the first half was filler.

“She doesn’t need your time. She needs your name.”

I'm a sucker for little sister/big brother's friend trope but this was a little different with neither having a hidden or long standing crush on the other and we don't get much of Nicholas and Edmund (Georigana's brother) friendship. Not getting much, unfortunately, was a problem I had for the majority of the story. I had a problem with feeling Nicholas and Georgiana were strangers, to me and to each other. It wasn't until after the 50% mark that our two get married and then it is a carriage ride to Edinburgh. However, instead of scenes of these two bonding and dialogue to provide emotional and relationship building blocks, we get pointless cat drama, medical dramas needing Nicholas, and the story just seemed to want to focus on everything but Nicholas and Georgiana.

He’d been married a day and he’d barely even kissed her. He was going to have to do something about that.

The sentence structure had a tendency to veer to shorter and this made a good amount feel choppy but even though I didn't feel engaged with the story or characters, the pace did ping pong through pretty quickly. There was also a couple times where Nicholas or Georgiana expressed themselves a certain way that felt too casual of verbiage, not creating the historical feel I tend to look for when reading this sub-genre. This was also set in the late 1700s and besides some talk of hoop skirts to visit the Queen, it was indistinguishable from Regency set romances.

She liked being near him. She liked his quiet strength, his sense of purpose. And when his hands had been on her hips, even just to help her down from the saddle, she’d liked the way it had made her feel like she was his.

Georgiana and Nicholas felt like strangers to me and therefore, I wasn't invested or felt any emotional attachment to the conclusion of their romance. If you like some slapstick humor, there were a couple scenes when they take their carriage ride that might help drawn you into the story more than I. There were couple moments where I felt a hint of the chemistry between Georgiana and Nicholas but they were so buried in the numerous insignificant scenes the author decided to add, that it couldn't save the story for me. I went into this anticipating more of a focus on exploring their marriage of convenience and instead got a grumpy cat in a hammock.

I buddy read this, for more quotes and comments while I read: First Comes Scandal buddy read 

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80%

Henry, with the friends of his solitude, a large Newfoundland puppy and two or three terriers, was ready to receive and make much of them.

Darcy who? Henry has a Newfie puppy!

 

More quotes and comments:  Northanger Abbey buddy read

Reading Update: 15%

My buddy read for the month, discussing the new Rokesby over in The Hopeful Readers Group on GoodReads.
A grilled cheese and historical romance for this Tuesday

First Comes Scandal by Julia Quinn purchase link

Bacon, Brie, and Apricot Grilled Cheese w/ Balsamic Reduction recipe

I used turkey bacon, loved the Brie, basil, and Balsamic reduction combo

Review: Beach Read

Beach Read by Emily Henry
My rating: 4 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.

January has lived her life with an open heart and rose colored glasses. Her mother's scares with cancer taught her to hide her fears while the way her parent's loving and romantic relationship taught her that outpouring happiness and love made life glow. When her father dies and a big secret is revealed, she can't manage to see only the glow in life. Her boyfriend dumps her and with her writing career in danger, January takes off to Michigan to come to terms with who she thought her father was and try to get her life back on track. When her next door neighbor turns out to be college rival and crush Augustus Everett, she winds up getting in a pseudo competition about who can write the best book in the other's genre. January's trying to come to terms with the past and she might just build a future while doing it.

From now on, it was the ugly truth or nothing.

Beach Read is a standalone contemporary that melded women's fiction and romance together perfectly. Told entirely from January's point of view, the reader is brought into her life as it's falling apart. January had a good childhood but not a perfect one, her mother had two cancer scares but the way her father showed his love for the family and constantly romanced her mother, taught January that love and happiness makes everything better. A little later in the story we learn that January's parents did have a couple month separation and it becomes apparent that while January knew there were cracks in her ideal world, she glossed them over. I liked how the author flushed out this trait of January's, not simply having her be a head in the clouds happy but having this aspect of January's develop in part to being a child who had a parent with cancer and emotionally deciding to keep in complicated feelings because you want every moment with them to be “happy”.

I wanted to know whether you could ever fully know someone. If knowing how they were—how they moved and spoke and the faces they made and the things they tried not to look at—amounted to knowing them. Or if knowing things about them—where they’d been born, all the people they’d been, who they’d loved, the worlds they’d come from—added up to anything.

The core of the story is January coming to terms with the fact that her father cheated on her mother and had a mistress, which she doesn't find out until after her father has died. The swirling emotions of January are felt, the anger, the disillusionment, and the pain. Her mother knew about the mistress but doesn't want to speak to January about it and while I liked this no easy, messy, tangle of emotions from two characters, I wish we could have gotten more from and between January's mom and her. This seemed like such an important relationship for January and it wasn't worked out enough for me. I did like how Sonya, the woman January's father had been involved with, became a fully fleshed out character and their relationship wasn't black and white.

The worst part of being college rivals with Gus Everett? Probably the fact that I wasn’t sure he knew we were. He was three years older, a high school dropout who’d gotten his GED after spending a few years working as a literal gravedigger.

I'm typically am not a fan of only one pov in a romance but it worked for me here, possibly because of the women's fiction aspect and probably because the author was able to convey Gus (Augustus) as solid, well rounded out character who's emotions I could grasp on page. From the moment January is angry at her next door neighbor grump to when Gus tells her “I lied,” he whispered against my ear. “I have read your books.”, these two sparked and burned. Their past relationship in college and how they misread each other's thoughts and feelings was a perfect bridge to January learning to look into the shadows and Gus discovering that he can bring light to the dark. I enjoyed their wit and snark that had such an ease to it; they weren't “on” for each other, it was just their chemistry. I did think at times their cutesy knee bumping while sitting felt a bit juvenile but overall I liked their friendship and that had me believing in their love.

“I don’t need you to be Fabio,” I said, voice thick with emotion, like it wasn’t the single stupidest sentence I’d uttered in my life.

This had me chuckling and my eyes misting, the emotion is felt but with more of tingle and lightness, rather than diving into the trenches with it. As I mentioned, I wish we could have gotten more in regards to January and her mother's relationship and felt the same way with January and her bestfriend Shadi, who ended up feeling more like a guest star than integrated into the story. However, the relationship between January and Gus amused and attracted as they waded through their own issues and each others. If looking for a great blend of women's fiction and romance, Beach Read would be a perfect pick.

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Reading Update: 25%

I’m only 25% in and I want to say those magical words “Pre-order!” I’m not a typical laugh or cry reader and this has already had me gauff out loud and get eyes a bit misty.

I’m reading through lunch!

Beach Read by Emily Henry pre-order (May 19th) link

Baked Honey Cajun Shrimp recipe

Love the flavoring of this one. I just about doubled the cajun, added avocado and rice, and made into tacos :)

Review: Leave Me Breathless

Leave Me Breathless by Jodi Ellen Malpas
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.

Former MI5, Ryan has been working for an exclusive protection agency for the last couple years and he is weary. Deciding that it is time to retire, he can't wait to get home and spend more time with his daughter but a new woman in town is disturbing his peace.
Hannah is constantly on the move and knowing she is only going to spend six months in this new town, she doesn't want attachments. When the town hottie almost runs her over though, all kinds of complications arise, the biggest starting with her heart.

Ryan's a good man. He deserves my all. But one thing I have to accept is that he can't have one piece of me. My secrets. No one can ever know that part of me. That alone could ruin everything.

Leave Me Breathless is a stand-alone but readers of The Protector will remember Ryan and enjoy the little appearances from that couple. Readers will also notice how similar this story line is to Protector; protective man falling in love with a woman who has secrets about an abusive man in her past. What hurt this story the most was the tried and true but nothing new formula. Told in alternating chapter first person povs, the beginning drew me in with Ryan quitting his job so he can spend more time at home relaxing and spending time with his daughter. While Hannah's past is not fully revealed until the second half, there are enough hints that the reader has a good idea what she is running from. The second half dragged as Hannah kept hiding her past from Ryan and their sexcapades took over for plot.

Hannah was a character that came close to a form of manic pixie girl, she is so adorably clumsy (to the point at times I worried she had vertigo), so sweet, and look how cute she is when she always has paint on her and doesn't care about make-up or appearance. It also made no sense that she would go to the trouble of setting up a paint store when she only planned on staying in town for six months.

Ryan was a hero that I probably would have liked more in my teens but older me was cringing at times at his controlling attitude; there were moments I felt his actions weren't that different or far off from the abusive husband Hannah was running from. His relationship with his ten year old daughter was nice, even though I thought his daughter's personality seemed a bit advanced for a ten year old.

Hannah and Ryan did have a nice feeling of fitting together, they did lack some foundation or solidness to their relationship that had me thinking their love was too quick to come to fruition. They did play off each other well, I just wish some of Ryan's “protectiveness” had been toned down.

There's a tiny bit of ex-wife drama but the characters' acted in a way that I appreciated, not overly dramatic about it and the resolution was pretty quick. The danger from Hannah's past was hinted at, slow to fully reveal, and then quickly (and a bit worrisome how Ryan immediately wanted to and dealt with it) wrapped up. If you like the classic story of woman in danger and protective man this would fit the bill, just don't expect any freshness to the tale.

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