Monday goodies :)
Fantasy and chickpeas; I needed a lighter meal after all the turkey.
Have a fabulous week, everyone!
Delicious and easy to make
Monday, November 30, 2020
Mini Quick Review: The Orchid Throne
The Orchid Throne by Jeffe KennedyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm not totally convinced that this wasn't written just to describe Queen Euthalia's outfits and make-up.
A baddie, a wizard, an enslaved prince, and a virgin queen.
Never see the baddie but know he conquered all the lands twenty years ago.
Enslaved prince building his rebellion and grudgingly following his wizard's prophecy.
Some worldbuilding but mostly definitely first in a trilogy skimping to stretch out.
Virgin queen and enslaved prince have their thing.
Basically, meets and greets story that felt YA but characters late twenties and some sex added in to jazz it up for adults.
Sunday, November 29, 2020
Review: When a Rogue Meets His Match
When a Rogue Meets His Match by Elizabeth HoytMy rating: 3 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 that was the point: Messalina was his weakness. There was no way he could've let her go.
Second in the Greycourt series, this picks up where the first (Not the Duke's Darling) ended, Gideon Hawthorne spirits Messalina Greycourt to London on her uncle's orders. Gideon has been the Duke of Windemere's factotum for the last ten years and is rumored to do all sort of shady deeds for him. Messalina fears him and does her best to stay away from her uncle and Gideon. When she learns that she is to marry Gideon, her plans for running away from her uncle and taking her sister Lucretia to America rush to the forefront. With more threats to Lucretia, Messalina ends up marrying Gideon and we have a forced marriage of convenience, enemies-to-lovers, and some unrequited love.
An aristocrat such as she would never give her heart to a baseborn blackguard such as he.
The first book in the series introduced us to the feud between the Greycourts and de Morays; Messalina's sister Aurelia is thought to have been killed by Ran de Moray. This shattered their group of friends and has set-up underlining secrets and mysteries for the series. While I do think it could be possible to start the series here, you'd miss specifics about characters and emotions, you wouldn't get the full understanding and feel for some characters' thoughts and actions. The other big storyline from the first was an ancient society called the Wise Women, no worries there as it's barely discussed and only to say it has disbanded. While the first was too busy with numerous storythreads and plots, this slows down and focused on Messalina and Gideon.
His voice when he replied was husky. “Perhaps I do it for you.”
Focusing on Messalina and Gideon would have worked for me as Gideon's wrong side of the tracks unrequited love for the rich girl could have provided some great angst and tension but for as much as I wanted these two to spark and burn, they more often than not, fell flat. I would have loved a prologue showing a younger Gideon pining for Messalina, showing us why he grew to love her and provide some burning emotion. Messalina, for her part, seems to have always shunned Gideon, so we don't get her really seeing him until they are married. There's some rich girl naivety that Gideon calls out as he is from St. Giles, but there was too much back and forth from Messalina and that caused more of a dragged out feeling than slow burning. Messalina makes the deal that they won't consummate the marriage for one month and the day after, Gideon will give her some of her dowry, which then Messalina plans on using to escape with Lucretia to America. Messalina's plans never truly form, as she's fairly wishy-washy but there is some foreboding tension from the last task Messalina's uncle wants Gideon to complete and why he offered Messalina in marriage to Gideon. The Angst Big Misunderstanding comes and it felt forced in a way that had Messalina looking like she was overreacting and more so to just add some angst.
Then Messalina looked at him with dancing gray eyes, her mouth pursed sweetly to keep from laughing.
She was worth all the trouble in the world.
Overall, I did think this was better than the first that had way too much going on in it. This focuses more on the couple but while there is alluding to storylines dealing with Messalina's siblings for future books, I'm going to flip and say there wasn't enough going on in this one. Messalina and Gideon didn't give me enough for them to carry the book. I never felt why Gideon loved Messalina, besides loving that she smelled like bergamot which was repeated over and over, when Gideon was trying to bond with Messalina she thought he was playing her and when Messalina pushed Gideon to tell the truth about the task her uncle gave him, she punished him for actually telling her. I do think the underlining threads and plot for the overall series, was cleaned up and feels more on track; Aurelia's death that separated the Greycourts and de Morays is obviously going to tie the characters and series together. Messalina and Gideon were adequate but missing that usual Hoyt deliciousness.
Monday, November 23, 2020
Reading Update: Page 1
This first time I made this, I let the oats soak for about three hours and didn't think that was long enough. I made it a second time and let it soak for two days and thought that was perfect
Friday, November 20, 2020
Review: Written in the Stars
Written in the Stars by Alexandria BellefleurMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
4.5 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.
“I’m at my wits’ end with my brother’s matchmaking,” Darcy explained. “And you . . . you want your family to think you can hold down a relationship?”
Written in the Stars draws a little inspiration from Elizabeth and Darcy's personality conflicts from Pride and Prejudice and adds some fake relationship to produce a fantastic romcom (I know Romancelandia is wearing thin on everything being called a romcom but I swear, this is actually one). Elle, along with her roommate Margot, run Oh My Stars on social media sites, they produce astrology content. They've recently teamed up with OTP (One True Pairing), a dating app, to help match people. Brendon is the genius behind OTP and as Elle and him work together and get to know one another, Brendan decides Elle would be perfect for his sister Darcy. Elle is a sweet free spirit and even though she thinks about the ramifications of getting involved with her boss' sister, she agrees to go on the date with good intentions. Darcy on the other hand, is tired of being sent on blind dates that her overly romantic brother keeps forcing on her and after Elle is late to the date, she's already over it.
“Just because it started out fake doesn’t mean it can’t become real, right?”
The opposites attract is clear right away but what I enjoyed about Elle and Darcy's connection was that with their initial and mutual physical attraction, with each meeting, it was clear how emotionally they were fitting into each other's grooves. Elle was the more free spirited one but I liked how the author kept her from being the tired silly naive trope who needed the more serious and buttoned up Darcy to mange her and get her life on track. Elle is smart and in a serious career and financial deal with OTP, her family doesn't respect her career and that leads to feelings of inadequacy for her but she has control in her life. While on paper, Darcy would come across as the more stable one, she's actually the one who needs the most help. Her issues stem from her mother being emotionally crushed by their father and never recovering, leading Darcy to equate love with pain and she's coming off a broken engagement where her partner was cheating on her. Darcy has a tough exterior wall but with each date with Elle, it cracks and she lets her in more and more.
Elle loved herself, but what a feeling it must be, being loved by someone else exactly as you are, quirks and warts and all.
Darcy wants Brendon to stop looking at every woman as a potential life partner for her and Elle is sick of being single at family holiday get togethers, so the fake dating trope fits to get these two together. This is a character driven story and I enjoyed how through that, we actually get to see their relationship develop and go on the emotional journey with them. Secondary characters played their roles well but I could have stood for even more background and personality from some, Margot, Annie, and even more Brendon; they seem like they could be future stars of their own books in the series, so getting even more of them to entice interest would have been good. This was an open door romance to spice it up a bit but the funny, sweet, and heartfilled romcom tone was strong throughout. This is definitely a romance I would recommend and I'll be anticipating the always on the lookout for that HEA brother of Darcy, Brendon's book.
Darcy had miscalculated; she wasn’t falling, she’d fallen.
Friday, November 13, 2020
Reading Update: Page 1
This just released on Tuesday, can’t wait to dive in!
Have a great week, everyone 🙂
Great fresh taste to this
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Review: The Truth About Dukes
The Truth About Dukes by Grace BurrowesMy rating: 3 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.
His eyes...a mere pencil sketch would never do justice to a gaze that complicated. Rothhaven was both calm and turbulent. Distant and intensely present. To study him made Constance thirsty for a glass of wine---or something stronger.
This fifth installment in the Rogues to Riches series could be read as a standalone but I'd suggest at least reading the previous, A Duke by Any Other Name, to settle and familiarize yourself with the family dynamics and emotions going on. Constance is one of the sisters in the Wentworth family, whose members the series is about, and she has been the wallflower one, hovering on the edges. Robert is the older brother of Nathaniel, hero of previous book, and the actual Duke of Rothhaven. Five years ago, Nathaniel discovered that his brother was indeed alive and he rescued him from a private hospital. Their father had placed him there because Robert had the “falling sickness” (epilepsy) and was ashamed and didn't think he could handle the dukedom. When Nathaniel and Althea, Constance's sister, begin their romance, Constance and Robert are not, in fact, introduced but reunited.
Because in some way, he knew her. Not from long acquaintance, but from shared experience.
If you're a frequent reader of Burrowes, like I am, you'll know to expect a more calm, quiet, and loving tone. The dramatics (arguably some theatrics drama at the very end) are left out in favor of a soothing read where you're pulled in by virtue of already being attached to the family by reading previous books. I wish we had gotten flashback scenes of when Constance and Robert first meet and their initial bonding. Burrowes does a good job of having Constance and Robert relay what their friendship meant to them when they first met but that already connection left a lot of the first spark and burn out of the story and the romance feel of this suffered because of it. The first half of this was more about the backstory than readers being involved in real-time of Constance and Robert falling in love. However, the backstory of Constance running away to elope at fifteen but getting abandoned and having to work in the kitchens of the private hospital Robert was held, along with both having abusive fathers, gave me the hows and whys for their bond, it just didn't feel like I was involved in the emotion of it.
“[...]The power of that, of being seen and cared for by a person with the courage to act, made all the difference in the world.”
The second and latter half has our couple solidly together and is more about them dealing with a threat from a crooked solicitor who wants to get Robert declared mentally unfit so he can be declared guardian of his estate and skim some profits for himself. There's also a reveal of a secret Constance has held from most of her family. These two things pull and have Constance and Robert working together, showcasing how well they work together. There's some one-eighty turning from one “villain” and the ending had a thwarting of another villain that felt a bit slap-happy. Constance and Robert were both more still waters run deep characters, especially Robert, I would have liked a bit more from him and you're going to have to find conversation more intimate than a kiss (this statement was even worked into the text) to enjoy their story. There were some truly touching moments but be prepared for this to be less romance and more of a family drama.
“Now I know I can never let you go.” Then he kissed her, with no self-restraint, whatsoever.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Reading Update: Page 1
Happy release day to the fifth book in the Rogues to Riches series 🎉
Constance Wentworth, the more wallflower sister, finally gets her chance at a happily ever after with the mysterious Robert Rothmere 💕
Monday, November 9, 2020
Review: Recipe for Persuasion
Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali DevMy 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.
She was the one who couldn’t be the kind of daughter who made her mother want to stay. She was the daughter who wasn’t enough for her father to give up whatever it was he got from his scotch.
Recipe for Persuasion continues an intimate look into the lives of the Raje family members, an Indian royal family living in California who readers were introduced to in Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. Newcomers could jump in here, as while past characters still remain a part of the story, this focuses on a different branch. Ashna is the daughter of the younger Raje son, a man who let being a prince and the indulgences of such a position lead him to more selfish and easier decisions, choices that greatly affected Ashna's childhood and turned her into an extremely closed off and dealing with depression and anxiety induced by PTSD now adult. Ashna met Rico when they were in highschool and the two secretly dated for two years before there was a major blow-out involving her father. Twelve years later, Rico decides that he wants at least some closure with Ashna and decides to get on the reality cooking show “Cooking With the Stars” where Ashna will be competing as a chef.
She was with him even when she wasn’t with him.
The beginning sets up our characters with Ashna still reeling and dealing with the fallout of her alcoholic father's suicide twelve years earlier. To escape after the suicide, Ashna went to culinary school in Paris, leaving her father's restaurant, Curried Dreams, in the hands of employees who in turn embezzled money and has her still trying to stave off bankruptcy. While Ashna's intensely private and gets severe panic attacks whenever she tries to alter her Baba's (father) recipes, severely hampering her cooking ability, another fight with her mother has her agreeing to be on the show.
We get less of an in depth look at Rico's life, currently, he's just retired from being a star football (soccer) player and musing over the fact he is godfather to more than one ex-girlfriend's children. He lost his parents young and while his mother was his father's mistress, they loved each other and he had a happy childhood. There's some drawing out, in regards to the pain he felt as a child over his father never really being able to claim him publicly, through Ashna wanting to keep their relationship secret in highschool and feeling like she choose her father over him, to give his character's emotions some depth. However, he's more to the side and why I'm not sure I'd fully call this genre romance but more of a mashup of women's fiction and, what I call, literary romance.
Have you ever thought about what it means to hide what’s important to you from those you love?
What isn't immediately apparent but instead is slowly, onion layers peeled away, is that the main relationship of the story isn't about romantic love but mother and daughter. Most of the first half showcases Ashna's point-of-view of how her fierce advocate for girl and women's rights mother, Shoban, constantly abandoned her and how that made her feel unloved and unwanted. The second half gives readers Shoban's side of the story, with flashbacks and her current thoughts and feelings. Shoban's character came very close to stealing the show, if not doing so at times, and I found myself almost wishing this was her story.
She’d finally listen.
If you're going into this strictly for the romance, you'd end up missing what makes Sonali Dev's writing so beautifully piercing at times; the profound way it speaks family relationships and how quietly devastating and loving they can be. Ashna's aunt, Mina, calmly speaks this to Ashna:“I like to believe we changed things at least a little, your mother more than me. But in this changed world, you girls can’t seem to see how it was for us. You can’t see our obstacles because we removed them for you. And now you get to judge us from a perspective that we weren’t lucky enough to enjoy.”. It is a fairly quick moment but has such power when Ashna relates it to her mother.
“Do you mean it?” Her voice was a whisper.
He swallowed, his thickly stubbled jaw tightening. “Mean what?”
“Everything you say to me with your eyes?”
Along with the poignant writing, I took delight in some of the little details, like how Dev continues with her Jane Austen tie-ins. As you can guess by the title, Ashna and Federico 's second chance love story is inspirit of Anne and Frederick from Persuasion. The closeness of their names is cute but the hashtag that grows from fan's love of the pair on the reality cooking show, #Ashico, “which when said out loud sounded far too much like the Hindi word ashiquo which, disastrously enough, meant “lovers.””, is a perfect book's cultural little tie-in bow.
While I didn't quite get all I needed from Rico and his relationship with Ashna, this story was more about the forest than the trees for me. The overarching look at how familial relationships shape and define us and how that leads us to shape and define our own relationships. Dev's writing always has a beating heart underneath it that never fails to move and connect with me some way, I'm looking forward to going on the next emotional journey with the Raje family.
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Reading Update: Page 1
Spending this Sunday, that seems brighter than it has in four years, with some goodies 🥰
Sonali Dev never fails to bring the emotion, can’t wait to revisit the Rajes!
These are delicious and not really that hard to make. The sauce is 😋
Review: Vision in White
Vision in White by Nora RobertsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
2.5 stars
This isn't really a review, but, in a nod to timing, I wanted to alert anyone that still might have some Steve Kornacki thirst that the hero in this could help carry some of that weight. Dr. Maguire is a high school Lit teacher and a competent cinnamon roll.
The rest of the characters and story, meh, a lot of wedding talk with acronyms (ex. MOB-mother of bride) that ruined the smoothness of reading for me, I couldn't quite sink into the romance, and overall this just had some caustic chaotic energy.
I leave you with some favorite quotes:
The taste of her, the feel . That moment of lips and tongue, and the heat rising in the blood. In the quiet of snowfall, that elemental hush, the sound of her breath sighing out broke in his mind like thunder. A storm gathering.
#KorsnackiAlert
She stopped, threw her hands up again. “Grandfathers wear tweed. Old guys in old British movies wear tweed. Why do I find it sexy that he wears tweed? This is a question that haunts me.”
“Haven’t heard from Carter?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you’re going to buy shoes, which is comfort food for you. Have you called him?”
“To say what? I’m sorry? I already said that. I was wrong? I was, I know I was wrong, but it doesn’t change what I feel.”
“Which is?”
“Confused, afraid, stupid. Double all of that because I miss seeing him,” she admitted. “I miss talking to him. So I think it’s better if I don’t see him or talk to him.”
Saturday, November 7, 2020
Review: Notorious
Notorious by Minerva SpencerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
2.5 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.
Could there be anything more pitiful than a homely wallflower yearning for an arresting, attractive Corinthian?
The first in the Rebels of the Ton series, Notorious pairs together Drusilla Clare, an heiress but the daughter of a tradesman and Gabriel Marlington, the son of an Englishwoman and the late sultan of Oran. Some of the names in the story may appear familiar, Gabriel's mother and stepfather starred in a previous series (Outcasts – Dangerous). I have not read that book and, in the beginning, I wondered if I missed some of Gabriel's background that was given in that book. We eventually get more of Gabriel's background regarding his family in Oran and what transpired there but it is more towards the end of the story and I felt placing it thus, gave the story some disjointed and pacing problems.
She behaved as though he were a savage libertine with no self-restraint. Restraint was probably her middle name---or perhaps it was Censorious.
I liked the beginning set-up with Drusilla's unrequited love for her friend Eva's stepbrother, Gabriel, and then they're forced marriage to save Drusilla's reputation. However, Drusilla is determined to keep her love for Gabriel a secret from him because she doesn't think there is anyway he could ever feel that way for her, in doing so, she is very caustic and quick to shut him out. They started off with some biting back and forth that felt like it could have some smoldering heat underneath but for the majority of the book, it kept getting dampened instead of building to flames. In the middle, Gabriel did reach out a couple times and try to build a friendship in their marriage but, even though Drusilla beat herself up over it right after, Drusilla kept being biting towards him. It is not until the latter half that we get her warming up and the author writes most of the thawing in very open door sex scenes.
But she could not tell him what she truly feared: that she would be married to a man she loved who would never love her.
The driving force to get these two together is a man named Lord Godric Visel, he hates Gabriel for some reason and creates the scene that has Gabriel offering for Drusilla's hand and a duel. After that scene, Visel hovers more on the edges, a murky danger for Gabriel and Drusilla but that storyline never truly develops as we get no reason for Visel's hate other than he might be “mad”. I would let this go more as the author alludes to racism being a possible reason but Visel looks to be lined up as the hero in the next in the series, and if that was his reason, I can't imagine readers enjoying his story. Visel also has a cousin that is friends with Drusilla that has some shady doings going on, works to help fill out the slight mystery and danger plot but I almost could have done with more scenes of Gabriel and Drusilla's growing friendship to romance more.
I found the way some of the story's plot threads and reveals of characters, Gabriel's past in Oran revealed more towards the end, helped to create some pacing issues; the middle and latter half dragged for me. Drusilla stayed caustic towards Gabriel for too long and their bedroom antics didn't make-up for an emotional connection I was missing. I'm curiously interested in Gabriel's friend Thomas Byer but, as I said, the next in the series seems to pair Gabriel's stepsister Eva with the villain of this story, Visel, which to the way he was portrayed here, I have questions.
View all my reviews
View all my reviews
Sunday, November 1, 2020
Reading Update: Page 1
Ringing in November with good food and a good book ❤️
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)