Review: Night in Eden

Night in Eden by Candice Proctor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I read this as a buddy read, to see all my thoughts, comments, and quotes: Night in Eden Buddy Read 

This started off really strong for me, Bryony is sentenced in the murdering of her husband and sent to Australia. There's ample description of how horrible it was for the women convicts there and I liked how the author incorporated real historical people and places (it made me search out historical non-fiction about these women). I liked how the wildness of Australia called to Bryony and that brought a connection to the man, Hayden, who ends up taking her as his servant. 

You're going to have to accept and like power dynamic play, there's a fair amount of scenes where Bryony finds herself attracted to Hayden with his position of power over her mingled in the desire. This is where the heat comes from between the two in the beginning and I could go along with it because I 'knew' Hayden wouldn't force her and it's all in fictional play in my mind. 

The second half dragged for me because the heat scenes between Bryony and Hayden were repeated too much and there was nothing new there or growing. The author didn't seem to know how or why she was incorporating Aboriginal people and it came off clumsy. There was an ending reveal to add some angst but it made me roll my eyes more than anything. 

I liked this, until I didn't.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Saturday read and eats! Can’t wait to meet this Texas Ranger ⭐️

Jackson by LaQuette preorder (Feb 23) link

Firecracker Chicken Meatballs recipe

These aren’t saucy but they have a nice kick to them if you get a little heavy handed with some ingredients

30%

"Everything's so different here. It's ..." She searched for the right word. "Exciting." 
A peculiar expression shaded his eyes. "You think it's exciting?" 

"Yes. Don't you?" 

"Yes." He urged the big bay forward. 

 Look out, these two have the same fire in their blood. 

Thoughts, comments, & quotes Buddy Read

Reading Update: 15%

 

Captain Hayden St. John stood beneath the overhanging eaves of the ugly Parramatta prison block and watched the matron and a male guard drag the woman toward him through the teeming rain. 

Love beginning sentence, how immediately pulled me into the story! 

Thoughts, Comments, & Quotes - Buddy Read

Review: A Lady Awakened

A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

  

Reading Update: Chapter 1 

Reading Update: 20% 

Reading Update: 40% 

Reading Update: 60% 

Reading Update: 80% 

Reading Update: 100% 

This definitely reads different than the majority of romance out there and I can see why people loved it and didn't enjoy it. Our widow Martha has more cold than warmth and is more of an analytical personality than emotional and her actions have to be looked at in the grey area to be able to sympathize with her. When her husband dies, she learns that his brother set to inherit raped at least two housemaids, so she sets out to get pregnant to keep the estate from him. 

Theo, our hero, is sent to the country by his father to learn some maturity and responsibility. He maybe bats an eyelash at Martha's proposition but he still follows her to the bedroom that day. From there they have sex everyday to try and get her pregnant and their sex scenes are definitely frigid and mechanical. As they get to know one another and through actions they take throughout the story with tending to their tenants or trying to improve the people's lives on their estates, Theo learns maturity and how to care for Martha, while Martha thaws and learns the very basics of caring. 

This is a very quiet show and not tell story, a lot of it is in the little details. I thought a few chapters in the middle slowed the pace too much and Martha and Theo's first loving sex scene wasn't quite lead into right and felt, at least off the page, anti-climatic. However, the secondary characters were on point and added so much to this story, I will cry for years for a Mrs. and Mr. Weaver novella. 

If you can't get passed the coldness of Martha and frigid bedroom scenes, you probably won't make it to the 20% mark and I can definitely see why some wouldn't. If you can absorb those, though, you'll find a different romance story ripe in the little details.

View all my reviews

#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 100%

 

Chapters 16 - End discussion (spoilers in updates)....

If only they did not have wives and children to share in the punishment for their wrongs.

*********

“I know. Only I expected to feel grand and righteous, doing so. I had no thought of all its feeling so mixed-up and awful.”

James Russell finally makes his appearance and I actually enjoy how the author makes him seem ineffectual and doesn't ascribe to him a domineering presence. Along with Martha we learn that he's married and has two sons. Moral dilemma time with Martha feeling bad about disinheriting the sons and actually liking his wife. 

Mrs. Weaver nodded once as her husband, beside her, put a coarse knuckly hand over hers. 

****************

 “I’ll put it plainer still.” Mrs. Weaver lifted a gaze that could give a man nightmares. Her voice shook with sentiments too dark to have names. “If you stay in this country I’ll stick a knife in your foul throat. Though I go to the gallows for it and leave my children orphans, I promise you I will.”

Did I mention how much I want a Weaver novella? I WANT A WEAVER NOVELLA. 

Martha comes up with the idea to bring everyone together to lay it out for James Russell and tell him that if he does inherit they will make life miserable for him and Mrs. Weaver puts it out there even more. This scene of them inviting James in and them all sitting at the table ready to confront him really worked to make my eyes water, mostly because of Mr. and Mrs. Weaver but gah, the support and determination in this scene. But, yeah, WEAVER NOVELLA.

Such tricky business, being a husband. Knowing when to be your wife’s champion, and when to stand back that she might be her own. So many large and small skills to master beyond simply pleasing a woman in bed. Yet one more unexpected lesson from his time in Sussex.

Wonderfully said. This is where I think this book excelled, it gave me the depth and emotion, not just the sex. The sex was actually probably where this turned out to be the weakest. 

After the confrontation scene and knowing James had sons, I knew where this was going to head and I almost was yelling out for Martha to hurry up and come to the conclusion. Theo gets a good grown-up and stand-up to daddy scene with some lovely supporting from sister. It's a bit of a quiet ending but this story was definitely all show and not tell and I greatly enjoyed that. 

#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 80%

Chapters 12 - 15 discussion (spoilers in updates).........

She’d been lovely the first time he’d spied her, distant and disapproving in church. She was lovely each time he peeled away her clothing, and when she lay in his arms, and when her features went dim and unfocused as he lost himself. But she was never lovelier than when she spoke this way, all afire with the knowledge of wrongs to be righted and good to be done.

Lovely, lovely writing.

So, I think I was right on the whole curate trying to edge in there for a love triangle. The curate caught a little something between Martha and Theo and Theo has caught a little between Martha and Mr. Atkins. 

With the move to Theo spending the night, we are getting some good sharing of confidences before sleep and you can see how that has brought these two together even more. Discussions, actions, and emotional sharing, not just sex scenes and I think this couple is all the better for it.

But one bore what one had to bear. Could never entered into the bargain. Though sometimes…perhaps…one might share out one’s burden among friends and well-wishers, and feel it lightened by the sharing.

In the previous chapters, when Theo was going around his estate and such, he started to talk to the women and obviously was gently directing them towards Martha. Here, they visit her and Martha gets friends and it's one of the best presents and things a hero has done for his heroine, he got her friends, which is really a support system. 

“My Livia worked there for a time. Has she mentioned it?”

Livia is Mrs. Weaver and ooofff, we get some background information on her and how it fills out her role of secondary character even more is such a delicate thing to see. Really impressed with how secondary characters are utilized here.

“She was lucky to make any marriage at all, after what befell her. No one expected Mr. Weaver to renew his proposals. No one would have blamed him if he turned his back on her. But he loved her just that much.”

Mmmkay, really going to need that Mr. and Mrs. Weaver novella now. Please put in the pig too.

There's more estate management talk in this section, a dairy scheme Theo comes up with and while it does show Theo growing and becoming the man he can be, this late in the book, it felt kind of meh. I'm ready for our couple to be hammering on the emotion. At 70% there is what I'll call their big sex scene, Martha finally orgasms, which is what we've been waiting for because it's a little tie-in to alerting to their emotionally connection but it felt like this puzzle piece didn't quite fit right. There was more land management focus leading up to it and that kind of threw off the transition to the bedroom scene for me, just didn't mesh.

“One day Mother simply told Father he’d agreed to Oxford. And his memory was such that he never knew he hadn’t.” 

Her gloves might split along the seams, she was clenching her fists so hard. Her heart might crack her ribs. She would be candid now. They would build a better friendship, a real one, with truth and forthrightness where deceit and evasion had been. “Mr. Atkins.” Her voice vibrated with hope. 

“Mrs. Russell.” His hand came up, palm toward her. His face didn’t turn her way. “I cannot know. You understand, do you not? I cannot know.” Gradually, in response to her silence, his hand slid back down to the grass as the shears snipped on. 

But he did know, obviously. Perhaps she’d never deceived him at all. And the message was plain: openness between them could go only this far

Holy shit, this scene!!! I mean, is Martha going to end up with Mr. Atkins??? Because this scene had me thinking it could maybe, possibly be a better choice for her??? It ends with them choosing a not honest relationship but if they had a romantic one, they could be honest? I don't know, this scene shook me, lol.

“Then I have only to wish you happy.” One more ignoble sentiment came, settling like a sharp missile in his throwing hand. “And wish the curate happy too, I suppose.”

BOOM. Theo throwing down!! At 70% Martha has finally orgasmed and they've achieved some great closeness and at 80% Theo says "I love you" out loud. Martha thinks she's pregnant now and is tied up in securing her estate to save the tenants and housemaids from the villainous bro-in-law. With only 20% left, I'm all anxiousness over here for how this is going to end.

#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 60%

 

Chapters 8-11 discussion (Spoilers in updates)..........

So, I think I was right with there being something to the Mr. Atkins angle, this starts off with Martha alluding/talking about how, a sort of shady version of him, was the star of her fantasies but now Theo is replacing him and that makes her panic. Fantasizing about the local curate, naughty girl!

The pig came jogging from behind the house, clearly scenting opportunity.

I make no guarantees that this pig doesn't show up as a Romancies Favorite Secondary character nominee.

“Don’t berate yourself so. I don’t want to hear it. You were mistaken in what you expected, and now you know better. We learn that way, don’t we?

This is said by Theo to Martha and what a conversation we could have on how Theo, and a lot of us, give so much love and understanding to others but never that same leeway to ourselves.

Her smile went through him like a fever-chill. What a strange, strange thing, to give a woman such pleasure without touching her.

I'm one of those reviewers that has put "too much sex" in their reviews before and I know some take this as prudishness but what I'm also saying is that the couple didn't have enough emotional depth outside the bedroom. Especially in historicals, I'm showing up for the delicious mental and emotional banter and foreplay. I love how this line gives us some heat through mentally developed emotional heat.

How did one go about saying these things gently? “You’re not a bad man, Mirkwood. I do think you have promise. But while I find I can be cordial with a man who lives for pleasure, and even come to feel a certain regard for him, I cannot, in the end, truly admire such a man. And I don’t care to give myself up to a man I don’t admire. Pardon my frankness.”

Yeeeouch! Martha hasn't learned the old 'honesty without tact is cruelty'. Martha's not purposefully cold and rude, she just never learned better, kind of like Theo isn't purposefully ignorant and spoiled. See what the author did there? Similarities between characters that can create bonding and areas for them to make the other better.

It could have been worse. He didn’t beat you. He wasn’t cruel. That stern self-reproach never did have the bracing effect one would wish.

We get more on Martha's coldness, specifically towards Theo in the bedroom, her husband had a drinking problem and it lead to him forcing himself on her and then not remembering the next day. Martha was thawing towards Theo but then tasted alcohol on his breath and this caused her to grow frigid again. But they talk about it and through that conversation she cracks open even more than before. Building blocks for character growth!

I would say this was probably the, for lack of a better word, slowest group of chapters. We finally learn that Theo is 26yrs old; such young characters for how mature they and the story feels. We also get Martha learning that Mrs. Weaver is pregnant and mentally making a note and vaguely planning out in her mind if she bought the baby if it was a boy to pass off as her own. It's methodical and cold, at the same time in line with Martha and sort of not as she's learned some emotional intelligence. I don't know, she's at the core a very analytical person, so maybe it does fit. 

Theo's spending the night now, they're talking more and their sex is getting better and less insert slot A into slot B. There's only 40% left and still feels like a good amount of work needs to be done between these two, curious what is going to happen!

#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 40%

 

Chapters 5-7 discussion (spoilers in updates)..........

If he wasn’t a man who knew how to please women, then what was he at all?

Theo really has an issue with feeling unworthy and useless and in a way that is no fault to his own, born privileged, and in a way that is his fault, choosing ignorance. It's interesting how our characters are going through their own separate journeys, sometimes helping each other, other times figuring it out on their own.

He’d come here with honorable intentions, and indeed, he could feel the first sparks of anger struck within him—but they were promptly smothered by thick, poisonous shame. What man could stand under Mrs. Weaver’s awful gaze and not suspect a monster lurked deep inside him after all?

Oh this scene. Theo's went back to the house that Christine, the intellectually disabled girl I mentioned in my last update and brought gifts. Her mother Mrs. Weaver sees them close together and obviously thinks Theo is trying to seduce her with gifts. Theo's angry and disgusted, at the situation and himself and I know we're probably supposed to feel bad for him but I was all about Mrs. Weaver in this scene. She breathes the fire at him in a way that she doesn't have to say a word, he owns the estate her family lives on, but Theo knows he's not getting pass this warrior to take advantage of her daughter. The guts, because of consequences, the love, and the bravery showcased by Mrs. Weaver here, just LOVE. 

“Also, I suppose I was afraid of appearing ridiculous.” A few at a time, she got the words out, her voice awkward even to her own ears.

These chapters have Martha starting to make an attempt at some form of affection when Theo comes over for the daily try to make a baby. It's starting off mechanical as there are not emotions behind her actions, yet, but she's learning. 

“Who was there to love you, then?”

A pretty devastating line to ask someone and you can tell it hits a mark in Martha. We learn that she was pretty much wholly raised by her governess. Martha never learned tender feelings and this why she doesn't know or understand them. 

How to word this constructively? She frowned at the far wall. “I consider you rather fortunate to be under his tutelage.” No reproach. Only suggestion

This may seem like an innocuous line in their conversation but I love how it gives us thoughtfulness and intention behind lines, which as our characters' thoughts, gives depth of character.

in hopes she’d look at him as a woman looked at a man who knew all the best ways to surprise her.

I just love this line and the sentiment behind it, imagining that beaming look directed towards someone you love.

“I’ve said you cannot. Now put your hand somewhere respectable while I read.”

“You make things worse, you know, when you speak to me that way.” 

*********

Help him? What fresh indecency was this?

More of that dry wit that I just love.

We get Martha lying some more, telling the curate Mr. Atkins that the maybe heir, James, her husband's brother, told her that he would support a school, which I can see coming to a head. The solicitor also gives Martha a warning that James told him to watch her because he's heard rumors that some widows miraculously are pregnant when their husbands die and they end up retaining the estate in their son's name. Looks like James might be making an appearance soon, so that dread is hovering at the edges. 

I don't know if I'm smelling this whiff right either but there seems like there could be something between Martha and Mr. Atkins? She's offhandedly reminisced of the life she could have if she married him and then these chapters had a hint of something possible between them. I'm wondering if the author is setting up for an "easy" choice to quietly marry Mr. Atkins and a more life to the fullest option of Theo.

#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 20%

 

Chapters 2-4 discussion (Spoilers in my updates)......

“I can get you funds, Mr. Mirkwood, in exchange for something from you. I need to conceive a child.”

Well, then. Like I said in my previous update, I like how she's open and honest with him. We get a better look at Theo here, too. He's being, for all intents and purposes, babysat by a Mr. Granville who is supposed to teach him estate running and some responsibility. At first I thought I would have liked a London scene with his father showing the conversation but now I think I like this slower lead-in to Theo.

Honey-colored hair, just on that border between blonde and brunette. The kind of hair that went luminous under sunlight, but kept its secrets indoors.

Some of that gorgeous writing I was talking about and gah, I could talk about this line and description all day.

We learn that Martha was only married for 10 months and that she agreed to the marriage because her father was dying, her mother died in childbirth, and she didn't want to be a dependent of her brother, call back to beginning and strengthens her "mutinous" attitude. 

They were conspiring against him, the virtuous people of the world. Plainly they did not want him among their number. Well, who was he to battle on when such might was arrayed on the opposing side? Between respectable Mrs. Russell bribing him into her bed, and worthy Mr. Granville all but ordering him back there, what could he do but succumb?

*********

One goose approached, stretched out its neck, and hissed at him, a distinctly triumphant look on its face.

There's little dashes of humor in this that I'm really enjoying, Theo and Granville's cross-talk about cottages, Granville saying he should spend more time with Martha because she is so respectable and Theo could learn some estate running while Theo is thinking about the real reason he is going over to see Martha. I also found myself giving an actual laugh out loud when Theo and Granville were visiting his renters and the pig was trying to get in. I'm notorious for never laughing at books that people find hilarious, but that scene made my weird funny bone tick. 

How much of this nonsense would she be obliged to endure?

The sex scenes are emotionally rough because of how distant and mechanical Martha forces them to be and Theo flirting, trying to get to know Martha and warm her up but then giving up and just giving her what he wants. Making it through them requires you to keep in mind the bigger picture and how we're starting at ground zero in their emotional journey. 

“The precipitating incident, if you would know, was my expenditure of two months’ allowance to buy a single snuffbox. Sèvres.”

**********

“You see my ignorance. But at least I have some idea of what a gentleman ought and oughtn’t to stand for, and it plain strikes me as a shabby way of doing things. Doesn’t it strike you?” On these last words, he raised his head to face her again, eyes lit with earnest appeal. He could not have said anything more right; anything more exquisitely tailored to win her sympathy, her support, her better regard.

Theo is clearly ignorant of his privilege but the juxtaposition of him saying, talking about the snuff box and then his thoughts during and after the visit to his renters, shows a man starting and willing to think and make a change, which I love reading. Characters that grow and don't start off perfect are always more of a personal favorite. I'm only in the first four chapters, but I'm happy Theo is already starting this journey, it gives him dimensions and makes me more interested in him because he can improve. I also like some of the economical threads woven in, the ideals and period placing it provides.

Of course no girl in this cottage was likely to attend balls, but the simpleminded daughter might have to remain here always, watching her younger sisters grow past her to contrive their own establishments.

These chapters managed to not only get a laugh out of me but also some watery eyes. This observation, thought, and feeling from Theo hit hard. I feel like a lot of the time the compassion and empathy is directed to the family of an intellectually disabled member, instead of the person themselves. Usually, the hero or heroine is caring for them and it's always, "How noble of you!". The last of this little thought feeling was just, watery eyes.

“I don’t believe you’re listening.” Her voice dropped a good dozen degrees in warmth. 

“Not to the words.” He bent his head to brush his lips over the thin, blue-veined skin. “But you’re rather lovely when you speak so. All ardent and crusading.” 

Could any woman on earth really welcome such a remark?

I mean, Theo, my man, No. But also, good for characterization and not having Theo do a 180, he's changing but he's not changed and I'm anticipating the emotional journey we'll, hopefully, be reading for him to get there, not to mention Martha's shell cracking open. I'm getting a slight whiff of Henry from Northanger Abbey to Theo, don't take me wrong, a highly sexualized difference between the two but he sprang to mind when I was reading Theo. 

(Or maybe I'm just wilding, lol)

They've had sex five times and on the sixth Theo has problem with the mechanicalness of how Martha is trying to keep it. I think I can see why some didn't like this, it starts off pretty cold and you have to have the patience for the engine to warm up. If you read my reviews, you'll know I love my building block journeys, so I'm a happy camper. After that last bedroom scene, I can just feel the crackling tension wanting to spark.

#TBRChallenge: Feb. New-To-You Author - Reading Update: Chapter 1

 

I had a great time participating in January's Comfort Read challenge, so I'm back for more! This #TBRChallenge is set-up by @SuperWendy (blog). Besides the theme months, this is a pretty relaxing challenge. On the third day of every month participants are encouraged to use the hashtag TBRChallenge and discuss the book they plucked from obscurity. I thought it meant discuss the book all day, so I kind of bombed the hashtag, lol. Now I know people just post one review :) I decided to make a personal rule that a book had to be in my TBR for at least 5 years.

February's theme is New-To-You Author, so I tried to think of an author that I've seen friends talk about a lot but I haven't managed to read yet. Last year @miss_batesreads had a buddy read on Twitter of A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant and I caught a few tweets discussing the book that captured my interest. With this in mind, I checked my GoodReads TBR and lo and behold, A Lady Awakened has been on there since 2016, just making my 5 year rule. Glancing at friend reviews (not enough to spoil!) and ratings, it looks like this is a book that people either love or hate, so many 5 star but also 1 star ratings. This is an author that I feel like I hear something about at least once year, so I can't wait to see where I fall.

For the #TBRChallenge, I'll be making posts like how I do for Buddy Reads. The longer, all my thoughts/comments with book quotes posts will be on my blog and GoodReads will get shorter snippets with a link to blog post. So I don't bomb the hashtag this time, I'll just be tweeting out my final review link on Wednesday.

January's TBRChallenge read was Unbound by Cara McKenna and I ended up loving it, hope I have the same luck!

 Chapter 1 discussion (spoilers will be in my posts)........

I’m sorry, too. I wish I could want what you offer. I don’t know why I can’t. She swallowed, and kept the words down.

I don't know why, but when I saw this was about a widow, I thought she'd be older but Martha is only 21yrs old. It looks like we're coming in right after her husband has passed away and she finds out that her husband mismanaged her dowry, so there's only 1,000 left of the original 10,000. She at least seems to have a decent brother who is upset on her behalf ands says she can live with him. Martha doesn't like the sound of that dependency, bringing in the acknowledgement of how controlled and limited choices women had at this time.

Of course if she were truly mutinous…well, one heard tales of what desperate childless widows occasionally did.

Martha knows she isn't pregnant but after spending the day fearing for the new school she's been instrumental in starting and learning that her husband's brother who is going to inherit the estate raped at least two housemaids, she decides to take a chance to change that. Definitely could be looked at as black & white choice but I see this more as grey and I'm not going to lie, I'm all "Be mutinous, woman!" over here.

Women could only pray for mercy…That wasn’t true. Women could do more. A desperate woman could do more. Women could only bear what came. But a chance had come. A chance had come and looked her in the eye that very morning.

So, first impression of Theo Mirkwood, we meet him as he's falling asleep in church and wakes up to give Martha a sensual smile, is obviously young and immature, which we're supposed to get. He's the son of the neighboring estate sent to learn some responsibility and away from temptations of London. 

When Martha came right out and told him her plan, I loved her honesty and am looking forward to the two bonding without the secret of why Martha wants a baby hovering on the edges. Theo seems to go along with the deal quickly but the set-up of him being a bit of a scapegrace fits.

I can see some not liking the writing style, descriptive with some poetry flow, but I'm loving it right now, it comes off gorgeous to me. A whole book of it? I might feel differently, we'll see. A promising start :)

Quickie Review: A Season Beyond a Kiss

A Season Beyond a Kiss by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

So it's probably obvious but it's not a good idea to take some 20yrs break between books in a series. Really not a good idea with this series, this picks right up after Flame and the Flower and I was lost for a good portion of the beginning before I could grasp and remember how F&F ended and what it was all about. 

This would also work as a deterrent against anyone wanting longer epilogues or novellas about couples that have already gotten together. The beginning half is the main couple living in honeymoon bliss and I found it boring af. Around the 40% mark, a murder mystery plot happens and our heroine thinks the hero did it and she goes off half-cocked and the rest is the heroine thinking through if her husband could really murder someone, with some connecting conspiracy danger left over from the heroine's life in England. 

This was confusing (must read the first in the series and in a timely matter), boring, and Gone with the Wind racist and when I accidently turned three pages instead of one, I just kept on. Not a hidden gem.

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Review: SAS: Red Notice

SAS: Red Notice by Andy McNab
My 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. 

An on the run tried and convicted war criminal, Laszlo Antonov has an international Red Notice warrant on him and UK officials think he is hiding out in London. After a mission to capture him goes bust, he's on the move again. Tom Buckingham was part of the SAS force that tried to capture him and after his night gets extended with another commitment to the Regiment and his brothers in arms, he finds out that his girlfriend Delphine is leaving him. Not wanting to let her go, he races to make the Eurostar train she's on, and passes none other than Antonov on the same train. Hostage situations, bombs, guns, and war criminals are nothing new to Tom but this time, the love of his life is in the mix. 

With a prologue that starts in 1996 and from the pov of Antonov, the author set-up a heartless villain that had no problem killing children and raping woman, while also throwing in a mystery Englishman to plant a double crosser seed. Antonov is South Ossetian and his hate of Georgians killing his countrymen sent him on the path of being funded by the Russians for a paramilitary group that gets dubbed the “Black Bears”. Later in the book, readers also learn that Antonov was secretly supported by some UK officials because of an oil pipeline and was in fact trained by SAS forces. He's a villain that brings the violence, double-crossing, and government conspiracies. 

Surprisingly, I didn't feel as if I knew our hero Tom as well. This is the first book in a series, so some of Tom could be held back but I never felt like we really penetrate his personality. There are some flashback scenes interchanged with the current action that show how him and Delphine met, their relationship, some moments with his teammates, and his parents but he mostly still came off wooden to me. Later on when he's working to put a stop to Antonov and save Delphine, we get some more emotion but I still felt I couldn't pick him out of a military fiction line-up; he doesn't quite spark enough to want to follow along in a continuing series. 

The beginning was a little bit rough to get through, there is a lot of jargon, acronyms, and lingo (described and explained) that I'm sure is second-hand for the author but for the uninitiated it was a bit much to start off with and try to retain and get involved with. The chapters were very short, which I thought worked for all the pov changes we get but, along with some of the flashbacks scenes, there were a couple misplaced because they cut into the action flow and stalled any suspense and thriller feelings that were building. I also thought that the decision to have Antonov's character, somewhat, grudgingly grow to respect Delphine and drag her along, ruined the previous work done to set-up him up to be so ruthless. Any child killings began to feel more for simple shock factor instead of character building. 

As for the series, this left some dangling threads, political maneuverings, double-crossing, and the start of a revenge plot for Tom to follow. With a whiff of Die Hard, I can see why this is going to be made into a movie and I do think it will translate over well.

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Reading Update: 30%

 

Rewarding myself midweek with a thriller and some enchiladas. 

Can’t wait to see where Tom Buckingham ranks in the Bonds and Bournes of the literary world.

SAS:  Red Notice by Andy McNab purchase link

Honey Lime Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas recipe

A favorite, takes more time but the flavoring is top for a Wednesday day meal

Review: Love at First

Love at First by Kate Clayborn
My 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. 

“It's the golden hour.” 

Will is fifteen when his mother takes him to the apartment of an uncle he never even knew existed. He's outside about to talk to a girl on a balcony, that unknowingly dropped tomatoes on his head, when he overhears his mother begging her brother to take him. His uncle refuses saying Will is probably like her, rash, reckless, and selfish. Hearing all this dramatically impacts Will and he decides then and there to grow-up, which he does as his mother and father cling even more to each other through his father's sickness and then the ten months after his father's death, his mother passes away too. When he sends her obituary to the uncle and never hears anything back, Will begins calling himself an orphan at seventeen. 

 The girl on the balcony from sixteen years ago, and the woman he met this morning. That...could not be. 

Nora loves her hour of quiet time on her balcony, four a.m., or the golden hour, as she likes to call it. When the person that inherited the downstairs apartment comes onto their patio, she can't help but try and take a peek. After accidentally knocking some potting soil on him, she meets Dr. Will Sterling. There's an instant awareness but after she inherited this apartment from her nonna, she and the other apartment dwellers are worried about this new guy, they love their little community and don't like change. When Will reveals that he plans on using the apartment as a sort of Airbnb, Nora declares war to get him to change his mind. She first plans to kill him with kindness but when that doesn't work, she plans on showing him how unsuitable this apartment building would feel to vacationers because of how weird and quirky the building dwellers are. It's a battle between two sides that can't help consorting with each other. 

Everything he saw when he looked at Nora, it was still a problem: his weakness, his past, his fear for how he figured he was destined to turn out, if he let himself get too close to her. 

Love At First, is a story that is all sweetly aching heart. The story fabric is woven a little differently, the set-up alludes to fate and soulmates, so the love between Will and Nora feels present by the third chapter. Since the love already feels developed, their journey is more about navigating the emotional pitfall maze to reach it. Will's parents all consuming loving each other to the point of ignoring him and then his abrupt loss of childhood has made him a self-sufficient but tender and scared to love man. Nora's parents were dedicated to their career but she had her grandmother and the apartment building's residents to create a family with. Their parental similarities and Will's gentle pushing to get Nora to accept change enough to live her own unique life and Nora showing him that human connection doesn't have to be scary showcased how well these two went together. 

She laughed quietly, the sound somehow so intimate. What else could it be, really, to laugh with someone in your bed? It felt like the most secret, private, special thing. It felt like a fever dream. She gave up on thinking there was anything normal or casual about it. 

Some of the first half had me questioning how Nora and Will already had these deep feelings, which I think is where the soulmates comes in, but the middle had the characters opening up more and layers get colored in and understanding why Nora and Will were the way they were becomes more clear. This story also had some of the best use of secondary characters I have ever read. They were stars in their own right and provided emotional heft not only in support of Nora and Will but the overall story. The residents of the apartment provided heartfelt depth to some of the underlining message of the importance of human connection and how valuable found family is. Gerald, Will's boss, who dances between a pseudo father and friend, ends up slyly softly giving the story and Will one of it's most important messages, that loving can be learned and unlearned, as long as you put the acknowledgment and effort in. 

You don't have to love people the way you learned to love at first. 

This enemies-to-lovers was all about the gentle emotions instead of sparking heat and it really worked. These two do have some open door bedroom scenes but I got the most hits to the heart when every time Nora made Will feel and that connection made him pull away in fear. Nora and Will's first two meetings, sixteen years apart, were sweetly cute but their second chance romance ending balcony scene, will have your heart aching in all the best ways. If you're looking for something a little quiet, a little soft, and a little subtle, Love At First will deliver. 

She thought about his laugh and his way of making conversation with almost anyone; she thought about the secret, tender heart that hid behind his practicality, and she thought about how he pushed her, so gently, in the directions she always wanted to go herself. She thought about the way she wanted him, the way she could be a certain version of herself with him, some different from who she was with anyone else in her life, ever.

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Reading Update: 30%

 

Thanks to dailywafflebooks on Instagram for the heads-up that this was offered at Bookish First and GoodReads friend Sam(AMNReader) for loving Clayborn’s work so much I had to read it. 

Romance, it’s a village ❤️ 

This is in 3rd person, which I love and not only does the hero seem to be a cinnamon roll but the heroine and the whole story, ooey gooey sweet emotions happening 🥰 I’m 30% in and can’t wait to see how these two cinny rolls come together.

Love At First by Kate Clayborn preorder (Feb. 23) link

One Skillet Sausage & White Bean Gnocchi recipe

Good on a cold day, used turkey sausage. White beans didn’t seem like they totally went but still yummy

Review: Hit Me With Your Best Scot

Hit Me With Your Best Scot by Suzanne Enoch
My 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. 

 Perhaps he wasn’t Macbeth, but Coll MacTaggert might have been some perfect, pagan god of the old Highlands, lit by yellow lamplight and chiseled to stunning perfection by some unknown hand. Trouble, her heart beat in a fast tattoo. Trouble. 

Third in the Wild Wicked Highlanders series, eldest brother Coll MacTaggert, Viscount Glendarril, is the only brother to have not found a bride. If you've read the other two books in the series, you'll know that the three MacTaggert brothers have come to London from the Highlands to fulfill a contract that their parents signed when they married. Their mother, Francesca, left the Highlands seventeen years ago after a fight with their father and they haven't seen her since. The contract stipulates that the three brothers all have to be married before their younger sister Eloise or their mother's money will stop funding their home Aldriss Park. With Eloise set to marry in four weeks, Coll is feeling the pressure as his other two brothers have found their wives. When he is escaping two women his mother is pushing at him at the theater, he ends up backstage and meets the one woman who makes him want to get to know her. 

“If you’re not careful,” she said aloud, “I’m going to begin liking you.” 

Persephone is the toast of the London stage and has been for the last eight years after she seemed to come out of nowhere. She's used to having to dodge unwanted attention but when the striking Highlander saves her from a particularly ardent aristocrat and doesn't force anything from her, she's interested. She's protective of her independence but when a string of accidents that seem to target her, she starts to think someone is after her and keeping Coll close is a good idea. Coll would never leave a damsel in distress and tweaking his mother by claiming her contract didn't say a he had to marry a Lady Englishwoman has him claiming to be Persephone's protector and fiancé. It's a fake relationship that is starting to get some emotional strings attached. 

 He’d saved her life at least once, had left a grand ball and his best chance to find a wife to be certain she wasn’t injured. No, she didn’t quite know how to classify him, but she did know one thing. She trusted him. 

After reading and enjoying the first two in the series, I was a little worried that “let my fists do the talking” Coll might stomp about too much for me, but while he bloodies some noses, he's the strong but listening hero Persephone needed. The first half wanders a bit that slows the pace down while the author sets the story and makes sure to give Persephone's theater setting time and spotlight, if you're willing to sit and settle instead of wanting to rush, it does fill out instead of bog down the story. By the 30% mark, Persephone and Coll have hit the sheets (or rather the hay cart) and their hearts are well on the way to love, even if their minds are still caught up in actress and Viscount. Throughout, there is a some alluding to Persephone having a big secret and the hints drop to a reveal at about 60%. The reveal is nothing surprising for seasoned romance readers as the way to a happily ever after is clear.  

Persephone Jones was the lass he wanted. Damn all propriety and tradition that said he couldn’t have her. And damn anyone who tried to stop him. 

Persephone and Coll are, rightly, the best part of this book and at times I wished they could have just been left to be together. There's some of the emotional angst from Coll and feelings of abandonment from his mother and since this was the connecting thread throughout the series, I do think we should have gotten more of a conversation healing this not only between Coll and his mother but all three brothers hugging it out or something together with her. I just felt like there was still some unresolved angst from this. I also thought the wrap-up and danger from Persephone's secret didn't quite stick the landing at the end. When something is slowly carried throughout a story and built up to have importance, it's easy for it to feel too quickly wrapped up and anti-climatic when it only takes a couple pages to reveal and deal with villains, which happened for me here. 

Evidently, she’d been luckier than she deserved. She’d hoped to find a capable man. What she’d found had been an honorable one. 

There were times I thought the story could have been tightened and cleaned up because of how it favors a slower pace instead of snappy but I greatly enjoyed how Persephone and Coll dealt with each other honestly (Persephone has her secret but she's honest with her intentions) and with care. I can't help but hope for Eloise to get her own book, with the appearance of their father Angus I hope she travels to the Highlands to replace her English fiancé with a Scot. The MacTaggerts are a family I became fond of and would gladly read more about.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Saturday smoothie and a Highlander romance for this morning. It’s time the eldest MacTaggert brother finds his love, can’t wait to read who matches up with him!

Hit Me With Your Best Scot by Suzanne Enoch preorder (Feb 9) link

Kale Spinach & Berry Smoothie recipe

Love this smoothie, I use Greek vanilla yogurt

Review: Wild Rain

Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins
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.

Spring Lee was seemingly as untamed as the Wyoming mountains, and frankly, just as impressive.

Second in the Women Who Dare series, Wild Rain, returns to the town of Paradise in the Wyoming Territory. Frequent readers of Ms. Jenkins will recognize a lot of characters and relations of former stars from previous books but I would only suggest Tempest, book three in the Old West series, as a possible book that you might want to read before this. The starring heroine here is Spring Lee, the sister of Dr. Colton Lee from Tempest but our hero Garrett McCray is a new character from out east, coming to interview Colton for his father's sundown newspaper. Spring comes upon Garrett after he is thrown from his horse and with an early spring blizzard, normally surly Spring lets Garrett stay at her cabin until his knee heals.

He’d left her feeling treasured, desired, something she’d never experienced before. It awakened a long-buried part of herself to the possibility of what could be, and that scared her.

Spring was the star of the show for me, she's fiercely and competently independent, strong willed, has some bite, and a little bit of vulnerability. When she was eighteen her grandfather threw her out of the house when she wouldn't marry the man he'd chosen for her. She ends up working on a ranch where the owner makes her trade sexual favors for the job and even “shares” her with his son. There's no flashbacks to this but the few times Spring thinks back to it, clearly shows how traumatic it was for her but how she survived and fought for the independent life she has now. Spring is one of those heroines who is deeply clear, what you see is what you get but there's an ocean to her thoughts and feelings.

Being enslaved, who he wanted to be had been beyond his grasp. Now free, his life, ambitions, and dreams were his own. He’d not turn the reins over to anyone else.

Spring was such a strong character that Garrett paled in comparison. A little farther into the book, we learn that he ran away from enslavement when he was fourteen and joined the Union Navy, read law because that was what his father wanted but ultimately became a carpenter for his own self-fulfillment. The author calls him a “cinnamon roll” hero and while he sweetly loved Spring and introduces her to foreplay and desire, he was too blankly just there for a lot of the story. There was some instant love going on too, he's ready to move out west to be with Spring already at around the 40% mark.

She’d chosen him for now, so he contented himself with holding her close and listening to the rain.

As always, Ms. Jenkins shines with her family dynamics and the second half provides that with Garrett having a heart-to-heart with his father about how he wants to live his life his way (it's a pretty emotional conversation as Garrett's father explains why he tries to control and hold so tightly to his two children) and Spring having to deal with unresolved issues with her grandfather. There's some drama with the son of the man Spring worked for, which I thought added good angst, but he brought along another character that wanted to build a saw mill and that whole storyline and its characters never felt settled in right and broke up some cohesive story structure for me. Along with emotional family dynamics, you'll always get interesting historical portions that help create a feel for the setting and characters. There's mention of sundown newspapers, the Sandy Creek Massacre, a Civil War ship battle, and the beginning of Jim Crow.

Being around Garrett McCray had altered her thinking about life and her place in it in ways that were new and challenging: from how she defined respect, to what she deserved from a man in bed. In his calm, quiet way he’d changed her, not necessarily into a better person but a different one.

With Spring and Garrett's love feeling too instant for me, I never fully felt the emotion in their bedroom scenes and those were what was left to carry the heft of their relationship in the second half. There's some ending angst with Spring not wanting children that gets resolved fairly quickly but still in a way that left me feeling their relationship was more of a happily for now instead of a happy sigh ever after. Ms. Jenkins does the old west vibe wonderfully, this couple just didn't strike any heavy emotionally chords for me.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Monday meal is a Salmon burger with a side of historical romance 😍 

 What meal and book is everyone else enjoying?

Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins preorder (Feb9) link

Salmon Burgers w/ Sriracha Lime Mayo recipe

I did 6tsp of sriracha for more heat and did 2tbls of Mayo with rest Greek yogurt. These were delicious!