I soaked mine overnight, sweet and feels more dessert than breakfast
Monday, March 29, 2021
Reading Update: Page 1
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Review: Wild Women and the Blues
Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. BryceMy 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.
Wild Women and the Blues is a historical fiction story that starts us in 2015 from the first person point-of-view of Sawyer Hayes as he tries to finish his thesis. He thinks he has discovered an Oscar Micheaux film in his grandmother's things and while the film is being restored, he travels to Chicago to interview Honoree Dalcour, a chorus girl he thinks is in the film going by other clues in his grandmother's box. When Sawyer meets the one hundred and ten year old Honoree, we then get chapters from her third person point-of-view during her life in 1925 Chicago. Honoree's chapters start off with some who's who of the people that lived at the time (Lil Hardin Armstrong, Josephine Baker, Capone) that felt a little name-dropping at first but ultimately evened off to create the atmosphere and shape a vibrant personality for the setting.
Something happened in Chicago in 1925. Something she doesn't want me to know. Doesn't want anyone to know.
Even though he starts us off, Sawyer's chapters are less than Honoree's and 1925 Chicago quickly becomes the star of the show. Honoree's first chapters set up the atmosphere but as they go on, they slowly meld with Sawyer's plot as relationships, friendships, and love bring together the story. Honoree is nineteen and alone in Chicago trying to move up in the dancing chorus line world, she gets a try-out at the Dreamland Cafe and from there good and bad plague her decisions and outcomes. Ezekiel, a childhood sweetheart, reappears in her life after disappearing three years ago, she witnesses a murder, and befriends a younger girl, Bessie Palmer, who eventually moves in with her.
Every time she had a shot at the good, the bad was on its heels.
Honestly, if Sawyer's point-of-views were left out and this was just told completely from Honoree's point-of-view and maybe just telling the story to her nurse Lula, I wouldn't have minded. Sawyer interrupted at times that I was getting into 1925 Chicago and I'm not sure I was ever fully immersed in his family issues. The death of his sister, him seeing her ghost felt out of place and unresolved, and his strained relationship with his dad eventually fit into the overall story but fairly minuscule as the star was clearly the events happening in Honoree's past.
Love was better the third time around.
This novel did have the ability to sweep you away and provided an atmosphere that brought Chicago in the 1920s alive. From the music, to Bronzeville, the Policy rackets, mobsters, and nightlife, Wild Women and the Blues brings it all to life through the people that lived it.
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Reading Update: Page 1
What is everyone else eating and reading?
I love these, make sure you like the champagne you use, can really taste it
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Review: Band of Sisters
Band of Sisters by Lauren WilligMy 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.
Band of Sisters is a historical fiction account of the Smith College Relief Unit that brought aid to French villagers during World War I. In the author's note, Ms. Willig states that she took real events as inspiration for fictional twists. Instances that happen in the book are all taken from researched materials, particularly the Smith girls' letters to back home, and reshaped with some artistic license to create this story while character names are changed but heavily inspired by the real women.
Debutante nonsense, her mother called it. Good enough for those that don't have to worry about getting their living.
While the Unit was comprised of over ten women, the author brings the central focus to two, Kate Moran and Emmie Van Alden. They were former roommates and great friends during college but have drifted apart the six years after graduation. The chapters begin with letters from different Smithies, providing the reader with a more rounded look at the personality of the Unit, while the chapters alternate between Kate and Emmie's point-of-view. Kate went to the college on a scholarship, where Emmie comes from a powerful rich family; their falling out stems from Kate overhearing Emmie's cousin Julia, who is a doctor for the Smith Unit and gets a strong secondary character focus, calling Kate a charity case. Kate's feelings of inadequacy and not feeling like she fits in anywhere has her restless and agreeing to join the Unit when Emmie calls to ask. Emmie has her own feelings of inadequacy because of how respected and known her mother is, a powerful suffragette. Their friendship, finding themselves, and coming into their own is more the core of the story than I expected with the War more as a strong setting.
To decency, the officer had said, and those who persist in practicing it.
She would persist. She would.
Knowing that the Smith Unit was real and the events I was reading that they endured and achieved were real, of course, add a richer and deeper feel and experience to the story. From the Unit traveling to France hoping not to be torpedoed, having to create plan z when nothing planned works out quite the way it had been envisioned, and to realizing they're going to have their homebase at Grecourt, in the Somme, which was much closer to the front than any had anticipated had me locked into the story. A few villagers grew close to the women but for the most part, the focus of the story stayed on Kate and Emmie and the navigating of their friendship and their self-growth. There was also a slow building relationship added between Emmie and an English solider that had him popping in and out, because of this you could say there was a romance element but I wouldn't go the full step of adding the romance tag.
She looked at the six other remaining members of the Unit, huddled together around the trucks, each and every one of them a wonder, each and every one of them her sister. They had been strangers to each other when they arrived seven months ago, but now she knew each of them down to the bones, just as they knew her, better than she had ever known anyone.
The ending brings the War more out of simply being the setting and into the story with the Smith Unit having to retreat from Grecourt, in what we now know was the Ludendorff Offensive. The War begins to touch the Smithies more personally and presently as instead of trying to help the French villagers rebuild, they are with them fleeing for their lives. Here is where I thought the story's emotions were felt the most and meet more of what I was expecting with a World War I setting in the Somme during 1917-1918. The ending felt somewhat abridged but the epilogue gives us answers and closure with a few letters to let us know where Kate, Emmie, and the rest of the Smithies highlighted find themselves after the War. Band of Sisters doesn't necessarily bring World War I to you but it does provide a well written way to sink into a historical fiction account, mainly through the eyes of two women, of the Smith College Relief Unit and learn about the real ways these women made a difference.
Monday, March 22, 2021
Reading Update: Page 1
Historical fiction is my favorite genre to read after romance.
What’s everyone else’s second favorite genre?
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Review: Anything for Love
Anything for Love by Connie BrockwayMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read this for the #TBRChallenge, previous updates with my full thoughts, comments, and quotes can be found:
This is one of Brockway's very early pubs and while I do think you can tell, there was still some of the Brockway magic. The hero is the softy and the one declaring his love and trying to get the heroine to marry him. He was rescued by her father from the slums of New York as a young Irish boy and then sent to Yale. The father decided that he didn't like that his daughter had a friendship with him and decided to pull his financial support and give the draft office the hero's name which causes the hero to fight in the American Civil War before then going back to school on his own dime. The hero ends up surveying for the Smithsonian and trying to get a law in place that would make land in Colorado into a National Park (what is now Yellowstone).
The heroine ends up in the same CO town as she's trying to prove to her father that she can run or be apart of their companies charitable foundation. The whole father pulling support to the hero wasn't exactly written crisply along with the heroine's motives toward proving herself and way she was going about it.
The small western town in CO in the late 1800s vibe is sort of there and some secondary characters, like the Gold Dust owner Katie add some personality. The highlight though is the relationship between the hero and heroine, they have some funny, cute, and sweet byplay. The hero is the softy here and has no problems declaring his love. The ending drags some with the heroine using her parent's love lost at the end marriage as the angst to keep them apart.
#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 100%
Chapters 17 - end discussion (spoilers in updates)......................
Oh, maybe not the fairy tale, ever-after sort of love. That didn't exist. He loved her enough to be jealous of her; loved her enough to want to touch her, kiss her, hold her; loved her enough to follow her into the mountains so that he could make sure she was safe. It was more than she'd ever had… or hoped for. "Adventures are dangerous only if you don't have a knight in shining armor standing by," she said softly.
Not fairy tale, ever after sort of love??? Venice is goofed. From here on out, the angst between them is all from Venice thinking, because of how her parent's marriage went, that marriage between her and Noble is doomed to end up with them hating each other. Really used to seeing this from the hero and kind of refreshing that it is the hero here who is constantly spouting the love lines, saying he'll keep fighting for the heroine, and trying to break down her wall.
Venice finally admits that she loves Noble to him and while he is worried that she could get disowned by her dad and friends, he decides to just accept it and, like I said, all the angst/difficulty comes from Venice.
We have some scenes with their Ute guides that doesn't really move away from trite or caricature Native Americans, from speech patterns to not understanding how the white men coddle the woman and other simplistic looks at culture clashes.
"Trevor hated Juliette. That's why he divorced her."
"What?" Noble straightened and looked down at the older man in disbelief. "I thought Venice's mother was dead. That she died when Venice was a baby."
"That's what everyone was supposed to think. That's what Trevor made Venice tell everyone."
So we get this little bomb, Venice's mother didn't die when she was a baby but her dad divorced her. But then just a few minutes later we learn that her mom is dead, she just died when Venice was sixteen. I'm not sure I get why this was written in. It's not a surprise that created any emotional pull from me and then it doesn't really change any thinking or different understanding with Venice's character, she still has the same issue of her parent's marriage being "bad". Very meh on this.
I don't know if it was how busy I was or if the ending of this did drag but drag it did for me.
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 60%
Chapters 11-16 discussion (spoilers in updates).....................
He didn't want to watch her concern become pity. He really did not think he could stand her pity.
Now that Venice knows who Noble is, our new hurdle is some of that popular "I'm not good enough for her" from Noble. He still refuses to tell her about her father cutting him off and how he was drafted into the war. You know all things that could explain matters instead of letting antagonisms feed off confusion.
She'd expected he would take her to his uncle, she'd expected he'd want to be with her, she'd expected they'd pick up the friendship that had been left hanging ten years ago. She twisted her fingers in her skirt, her childlike sense of betrayal still fresh and raw. You'd think she'd have learned not to expect things from people by now.
I really liked this moment because it shows how Venice gets lost in her own head with her own wants and expectations. She wanted Noble to do all those things and that became expectation, instead of her stopping and listening and understanding who the man Noble is today.
"Cook's kid? Is that what he told you?" Venice asked. "He didn't tell you we were friends?"
"Ah, no. He just said his ma used to work for your daddy and he had to, ah, wipe your nose."
Had to?! So that was all she'd meant to him. A snotty-nosed brat he'd had to keep an eye on. That was probably why he was so loath to take her to her uncle. He didn't want to resume old responsibilities.
I think Venice's pain gets lost a bit in the slightly humorous tone here, but it shows that from Venice's side their friendship was genuine. Noble expressed his emotions more sweetly in the beginning but this shows that he's not alone.
"You mean he's going after her?" Katie asked, wide-eyes with confusion.
"Yup. Told me so when he came into the bar. He's going to trail them to make sure nothing happens. He isn't all that happy about it, though."
"I'll be damned! But if he ain't so happy about it, how come he's doin' it?"
Tim, still watching Noble striding up the mud-choked street, shook his head. "I don't think he can help himself."
Besides themselves heroes, gah, I love. So, obviously, Noble isn't let Venice take her trip to her uncle with just the two Ute guides and Reed (who we learned gambled away his family fortune and that is why he is pursuing marriage with Venice so hard). I sense some Reed villainy and Noble rescuing.
It was okay. It was all right. Venice was safe. He stood, eyes closed, head thrown back. The heat behind his eyes turned into tears of relief, mingling with the cold rain streaming down his cheeks. "Venice!" She turned. There was no surprise in her eyes, just an overwhelming gladness.
************
He loved her. It didn't matter if she was Trevor Leiland's child and as beyond his reach as the moon. He loved her. He always had. He closed his eyes. Loving Venice didn't make her any more attainable. He could never say the words. But he could no longer deny it to himself.
So our boy kind of goes through it. Reed paid off the Ute guides to leave him alone with Venice but he leads them into a flash flood. I need to back up a second and say Reed did do one good thing, he unknowingly told Venice, he didn't know her father was the one who started to pay for Noble's Yale schooling, that Noble's sponsor had pulled his funding and given Noble's name to the drafting office. So now Venice knows more of her father's underhandedness and what Noble went through.
Back to the flash flood, I love how when Noble sees that Venice is ok, he cries! Man tears! But of course back to the "I'm not good enough" a little while latter.
Reed is in danger and Noble being noble (ha!) fights to save him but of course Reed being the villain of the piece makes it show Noble ends up in the raging waters. Venice demands they have to stay and search for Noble but Reed is all peace out and eventually decides Venice isn't worth it because he know thinks she slept with Reed. Who knew men who want to marry you for your money could still be so slut shame-y?
Venice finds Noble and through the grit and fight in both, they end up finally safe as Noble seems to have some bad injuries.
All the secrets seem to out between these two, I guess still questions about the rich girl Noble seemed to have fling with, and I'm waiting for the bedroom (tent?) scene to happen. I sense some Noble loving Venice then pushing away in "I'm not good enough" third act drama coming but hoping it's not too dragged out.
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 40%
Chapters 6-10 discussion (spoilers in updates)......................
"You're just another thrill-seeking society hussy."
Did I mention our hero's feefees are hurt? 'Cause they are hurt. He's angry over her not recognizing him, makes him feel like she hasn't thought about him once since they parted 10yrs ago, and he's going off the only knowledge he has of her since those years, which are gossipy newspaper articles. He bouncing back and forth a bit much and this aspect could definitely be refined.
He was glad Trevor had barred him from the Leiland mansion… and Venice.
Another alluding that something went down that neither the reader or Venice knows about. I wish in the prologue could have given us this scene, as a reader I would have liked to know. But I'm a nosy a**.
"Ten years ago I was drafted into the union army, sweetheart."
Well, there's our American Civil War mention. I guess it has been brought up with soldiers looking for work, too. I feel like there is some story that has happened off screen that I wish we could have read to solidify these characters more.
"I'll tell you what I mean! You promised you'd always, always, be my friend and then you left, disappeared without a word, not one word, in ten years!" She had taken a step closer and Noble found he'd backed up.
Well, there's that emotion and evidence of feeling that Noble was looking for. I liked how this read because Noble has been feeling pretty justified with his angry and selfish with it and him backing up shows his shock and hopefully leads to him relaxing towards Venice.
"You are so! You sweep in here without so much as a by-your-leave, kiss me, and then start shouting at me because I didn't recognize you!"
"That is not why—"
"How could I have recognized you! You're six inches taller, sixty pounds heavier, and—" she reached up and grabbed his ponytail, "—you have hair!" She gave it a sharp yank.
"Ouch!"
She put her hands on her hips. "And, I might point out, you didn't recognize me either!"
He had begun to feel a bit sheepish, uncomfortably aware that her accusations were justified. But the reminder of her wanton behavior rekindled his righteous indignation. "I would have recognized you if you hadn't been hiding in the shadows, whispering throaty come-ons to me."
A muscle jumped in her cheek. "Well," she said stiffly, "I may have acted impetuously in whistling at your ridiculous masculine posturing earlier today, but I certainly wasn't whistling out the window a few minutes ago."
"Ridiculous masculine—!" Noble sputtered. "You seemed to like it all right when you were sighing from your balcony. In fact I thought you were gonna throw yourself off the damn—"
"You awful man! The way you're acting, one would suppose I'd set this dratted place on fire myself, just to lure you out of whatever hole you've spent the night in, for the extremely dubious pleasure of being slobbered on by you!"
She pulled his hair! I wonder if the cover artist read this scene! Lol. I love this scene, it's light, they're expressing and getting some emotion out, and it showcases their back and forth by play. It's like watching a dance. This moment also reminded me of The Songbird's Seduction which I thought had a similar beat as this moment.
It was a male-dominated world and women— even rich, privileged women such as herself—had been given a completely unsatisfactory arsenal with which to compete. A woman would have to be a fool or a saint not to use every weapon at her disposal. Venice didn't claim to be either.
I feel wishy-washy on Venice but then I try to remind myself that she is twenty-three. She shows maturity and immaturity, which at that age, is probably a battle for a lot of us.
"It wasn't like that," Venice said. "Mr. McCaneaghy is not at all what I expected."
"Better?" Katie asked in an awed voice.
Katie thinks Venice had sex with Noble, so the awed "Better" is hilarious. Katie is a secondary character that I could probably read a novella about.
We get more alluding with Venice thinking back to her father telling her that Noble had dropped out of Yale stating that he just didn't have the fortitude to complete his degree. We know that Noble was drafted into the Union Army and then returned to complete his degree.
When Venice receives a letter from her uncle she decides that she must trek out to him to find his ledgers that document the financials of the spur line and town. She offers to pay Noble to guide but does it because she thinks he is poor and could use the money. She's naive, idealistic, and rich girl to save the world about it all and this of course makes Noble bristle to where he rejects her. But our old pal Reed (aka Thorny) says he'll take her and this makes Noble bristle more because he still feels protective over Venice and obviously cares for her.
To the side we still have Venice throwing the town a party, which kind of makes sense, I guess, the mercantile bros sending her Frankenstein fossils which is scaring her, and Reed trying to worm his way into a marriage with Venice. It's shy of feeling frenzied but definitely unrefined.
Monday, March 15, 2021
#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 20%
Chapters Prologue - 5 (spoilers in updates).........
I have to start by saying that I love that this couple is smiling/laughing at each other, usually these covers have the couple have either lustyface or seriousface, so this is a nice, sweet little alternative. I can appreciate the heroine's grip on the hero's hair, too. Hey-o!
The prologue starts us off in Manhattan in 1862 and I'm wondering if there is going to be some American Civil War in this, the blurb didn't have me thinking that but, we'll see.
The thought of being unable to watch over her cut him like a knife. And it twisted his gut that nobody else seemed to give a damn whether or not she was safe.
Our hero's thoughts have him calling himself Noble but the heroine calls him "Slats" but Noble is seventeen and the heroine Venice is 12yrs old. Venice's dad, Trevor Leiland seems to be a philanthropist and do-gooder. He seems to have taken Noble from the "slums" and given him a job. Noble is annoyed how Trevor is so trusting and so he tries to keep an eye on Venice. He does some rescuing (the villain Noble rescues her from is the target of constant fat shaming) she isn't aware of it sets up their dynamic of worldly boy and spunky gal.
The first chapter then fast forwards us 10 yrs in the future and Venice is on a train to Salvage, CO. She's looking for her paleontologist uncle that hasn't been heard from in 6months and wanting to prove to her father that her adventures that the New York papers have twisted to make her seem naïve rich girl aren't true. Her father's trying to get elected to a council and just wants her to get married. Venice realizes she'll have to eventually get married but wants to prove that she deserves a seat on her father's foundation to help write grants. Her uncle hasn't found any bones in the area so far and so the spur line that the Leiland pays for into Salvage, a tiny town in the Rockies, will probably be shut down. This will obviously devastate the town so Venice wants to come up with a way to make the town self-sufficient.
On the train, Venice meets a Katie Jones who won The Gold Dust Emporium in a card game. They have some fun women bonding but when they get to the town, the Salvage Ladies' Conviviality League of the town's nine "proper" women are there to greet Venice and end up thinking she's Katie. The ladies are mad and the townspeople think Venice is there to show their town isn't worth keeping the line going and so Venice isn't exactly welcomed.
The body looked like some sort of rodent, but the head was definitely a bird's, possibly a crow's. What made it so revolting was that someone had fitted the bird's head onto the rodent's body, securing it with a twist of wire threaded through the base of the skull. The wire was all but invisible until you turned the gruesome thing over. Somewhere in this town lurked some mighty disturbed children. Or perhaps, Venice thought, some perverse cult. The thought raised gooseflesh on her arms
Brockway gives the town a handful of characters that help set the small late 1800s town in the Rockies vibe. There's two brothers who got lucky and ended up owning the town's mercantile store and made a lot of money. They think if Venice finds skeletons, she'll keep the train line open and that gives us the previous scene. I had no idea what to think about it when I was reading it, lol.
There, arms braced on either side of the trough, just about to plunge his head once more into the muddy, grass-flecked water, was the most extravagantly masculine being Venice had ever seen.
EXTRAVAGANTLY MASCULINE
He was a Greek Olympian, a satyr, a pagan deity, and a Christian saint all in one.
All I can say, is girl is feeling it.
There was no way such a physical ideal could contain a mind worthy of it, she thought. Please, don't ruin it by doing something stupid, Venice silently begged the man. Like talking.
LOL. Who among us has not whispered this wish?
I don't think I'm going to surprise anyone but the guy Venice is jonesing over is Noble. Talk about coinky dinks! It seems Noble has been doing some scouting to help get a federal law to create some land around Savage into a National Park. I forgot to mention that while on the train, Venice had a thought about "Slats" but it was with her thinking about how he said he'd never leave her and he lied. So, some drama/angst there but we're left in the dark so far. Since it's been ten years, Venice doesn't recognize Noble because of all the muscle and manness he's packed on.
With a sound of annoyance, the man wrenched the shirt from the rail and started to push an arm through a sleeve. Overwhelmed by the fear that he was going to cover all that wonderful sculptured flesh, Venice, without conscious volition, pursed her lips and let loose a low, clear, absolutely unmistakable whistle of appreciation. The man's head snapped up. This time Venice caught the flash of amber-colored eyes as his gaze moved across the verandah, seeking her. An expression Of puzzlement replaced his wariness. He punched his other arm through a sleeve. Venice sighed. "Why do you want to go and do that for?" she said softly, not recognizing the low, throaty drawl as her own, certain she had lost her mind but unable to stop the words from coming. "You're so… so… pretty just as you are!" The words arrested him in mid-motion. He stood still; not a nerve twitched. Slowly, captivatingly, a boyish smile spread across his face. A quiver of pure attraction nearly brought Venice to her knees. With a shrug, the man pulled the shirt off and casually tossed it over the rail.
Looking up, he parted his lips. His straight teeth gleamed whitely. "Lady," he drawled on a grin, "you ain't seen nothin' yet."
I had to put this little scene up, it was so cute and then Noble getting playful and flexing his muscles and posing for her. A bit cheesy but still some cute playfulness. Venice is on a balcony and shadowed so he can't see her and then since she is at the Gold Dust he thinks she's a prostitute and they have some misunderstanding, sending Noble grumpily away.
"Venice is here, in Salvage?" The whispered words were drawn from his throat against his will.
Ooooh, the way Noble reacts to learning Venice is in town. The boy is still clearly so smitten with her. I know she was 12 and he 17 and there was no sexualness behind his protectiveness of her but he has read the newspaper accounts of her over the years and he is still clearly interested in her. It's obvious how his feelings will morph when he sees her grown up.
When he shows up to see Venice, Noble runs into a Cassius Thornton Reed, that he calls "Thorny" and obvious no love lost between the two. Reed's clearly there to get Venice to marry him and lined up to be our villain by the way he is portrayed.
Whatever she'd become, she'd been the one bright spot in the gray, dirty world of his youth. And he hadn't realized she'd left an empty place in him, until she returned to fill it.
*********************
"Darling, you don't have to defend yourself to me. I thought all those newspaper stories I read about you would make a difference in how I feel, but they don't. I don't give a damn about them or what you think you are." Lord help him, it was the truth. "All I know is that you're here and it seems like I've spent the past decade waiting for you."
*********************
"I know you like I know the rhythm of my heart."
See, smitten! Off hand, I can't think of a hero who so early on delivers some hell of lines, that show him deeper than the heroine. I mean, "All I know is that you're here and it seems like I've spent the past decade waiting for you." and "I know you like I know the rhythm of my heart." Gah!
Venice didn't know who he was, Noble realized. It was an odd sensation. As though all of his flesh was hardening into stone, while inside he was shattering into thousands of lethal, piercing shards. He kept his eyes on the crown of her head. He couldn't look into her eyes. It was all he could do to stand before her.
And then you have the heroine still not recognizing him. The dude's feefees are mega hurt and look, I've read enough stories where the heroine is in this position, so I kind of enjoyed it. But dang, after the spouting off he did, ouch, my man. Noble leaves without telling her who is and I just hope this not knowing doesn't go on too long.
His golden eyes gleamed; the moonlight washed over his clean, angular features. They were set in a fierce, familiar expression. And suddenly she knew. "Slats McCaneaghy," she breathed.
Ok, well, yay! Her not knowing doesn't last long.
There seems to be a parent's messed up marriage that could be affecting Venice and some rich girl burned him from Noble to create some angst to keep them from simply getting together. The town and it's people are nicely vibed, we have a villain set-up, a heroine that could veer into annoying territory but seems to have depth to back up her actions and thoughts, and a hero who seems to be a pining mess. I'm liking!
#TBRChallenge: Mar. Book By a Favorite Author
It's another TBRChallenge! This one came up fast for me, March is my birthday month and my favorite holiday, St. Paddy's Day. I've had such incredible luck with my selections so far, so fingers crossed. 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 decided to make a personal rule that a book had to be in my TBR for at least 5 years.
March's theme is Book by a Favorite Author. My mind immediately went to the new Courtney Milan that has been sitting on my Kindle (I preordered this!) but only for a second because I knew it wouldn't meet my personal rule of 5yrs. So then my mind skipped to Connie Brockway who has written some of my all time favorite stories. There aren't many books left of hers that I haven't read but one of her very first (possibly the first?) Anything for Love has been sitting on my tbr for probably around 15yrs. The reviews aren't the greatest for it, so I go in with some trepidation but hopeful that there will be at least some promise of the Brockway spark that has made me gobble up her other books. For the curious, if I had time to only save ONE Brockway book in a fire, it'd probably be Bridal Favors (I wouldn't like leave him to die but I'd shove my partner aside for The Rose Hunters Trilogy if I could save more books).
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. I'll just be tweeting out my final review link on Wednesday.
TBRChallenges:
January - Unbound by Cara McKenna
February - Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Review: Down Comes the Night
Down Comes the Night by Allison SaftMy 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.
War had made orphans of them all.
Down Comes the Night is a standalone story marketed as young adult, fantasy, romance, and Gothic. I don't often venture into young adult but I was surprised when there was a sex scene in the last ten percent of the story, but maybe this isn't unheard of. The characters are around nineteen which, with the overall tone, made me think this fit more in New Adult, just less sex than I'm used to seeing in that sub-genre. With our characters having magic abilities, Wren, who is our main protagonist, can heal and Hal, the enemy-to-lover, can kill with his eyes, the fantasy element was there. The world building gives us three countries, Danu, Vesria, and Cenos, with Danu and Vesria currently in a truce after warring for centuries. This is why the military ranks are full of young adults, as there has been mass casualties on both sides. The war seems to be about religious differences and power struggle between the magic empires. Cenos has remained neutral as their citizens don't have magic abilities.
“It’s uncomfortable, yes, to be so aware of you.” Good, she wanted to say.
Suffer with me.
The story is told from Wren's point of view and she is the illegitimate daughter of the queen of Danu's sister. With her mother and father both dead, Wren is sent to a holy cloister until she is twelve years old and then sent to the military academy to train in the medical corps as her magic heals. There she meets Una, and with a little hero worship in their relationship from Wren, they become friends and eventually have one night together before Una declares it can never happen again because she is Wren's superordinate in the military. When three soldiers of Danu who were patrolling the border between Danu and Vesria go missing, one who happens to be Wren's friend, the queen sends Una and Wren to investigate. Wren's sense of mercy allows a lead to escape and she ends up getting punished by the queen and sent back to the holy cloisters, feeling let down by Una. There she receives a letter from Lord Alistair Lowry III, a noble in Cenos, asking her to come help cure a servant and use her status as an almost royal to work as a liaison between their countries as he wants Cenos to side with Danu and defeat Versia. Wren, wanting to finally prove her worth, goes against the queen and Una and leaves to help the servant.
Something was undeniably rotten in Colwick Hall.
Wren arrives in Cenos, around the twenty percent mark, is where the Gothic tone creeps in more as Lowry lives in a dark and forbidding castle that is rumored to be haunted. It started off with Gothic promise but I'm not sure it was fully sustained but if this is written for young adult minds, then the howling and mystery of the closed off East wing could hit the mark for them. When Wren goes to heal the servant, she discovers that the servant is in fact Hal Cavendish, The Reaper of Vesria, a soldier that has killed thousands of her country brethren and supposedly in line to become the ruler of Vesria. While at Colwick Hall, Wren discovers that Hal's sickness and Lowry are not all they seem and she finds herself growing to care for Hal as she battles the desire to deliver Hal to the queen and become a hero in the queen and her country's eyes.
But it would never be simple. He was Vesrian, and she was Danubian.
I thought around the fifty percent mark, when Wren finally begins to trust Hal as he says that he is also investigating disappearances but of Vesria soldiers, that the pace started to slow down. The newness of the world ebbed and I started to look for more depth behind certain elements, the queen's obsession of clocks, the queen herself, the war, Severance (taking away someone's magic), and world itself. Wren trying to figure out what exactly is going with Lowry had her going in circles for too long and then Wren and Hal running from the castle felt needless and pointless to the overall plot. At first, the story felt set in some kind of fantasy medieval time but when it moves to Cenos, it switches to Victorian, which with Cenos supposed to be more technologically advanced, I guess could make sense but really it just made the fantasy and Gothic elements not mesh right and neither ended up feeling developed fully.
I believe you, he’d said, with more trust and affection than she thought she’d ever deserve. Now she had to believe in herself.
The author's messaging was clear, endless wars cause horrible suffering, the lies from leaders at the top usually have self-serving purposes, and mercy and caring are not weaknesses. Wren and Hal getting to know one another and dispelling rumors and lies about each other, clearly built up their friendship. Their attraction had sweet moments that I thought fit into young adult but their physicality sometimes leaned into New Adult for me. The messaging was good but I thought it got lost in some slow pacing that could have been trimmed up. As fantasy novels usually come in trilogies though, Down Comes the Night does deliver a good story in a one-stop.
Saturday, March 6, 2021
Reading Update: Page 1
Hope everyone has as great plans!
Friday, March 5, 2021
Review: The Duke Heist
The Duke Heist by Erica RidleyMy 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.
It was the visual representation of what they'd found in each other. Happiness. Unconditional love. The ability to be oneself and to be bigger than oneself---to be a team, and a family. That was the most magical part of all. The painting was their soul on canvas.
The Wynchesters might have all been adopted by a baron but society still rejects the six siblings. When their adopted father, Baron Vanderbean, affectionately called Bean, dies from small pox, it becomes even more important for them to recover Puck and Sprites. The painting hung over their mantel until it was stolen by the Duke of Faircliffe, the man who originally sold them the painting. He left an angel vase in replacement but the siblings want the painting. When efforts to speak to Lawrence Gosling, the new Duke after his father's death, keep meeting a brick wall, the Wynchesters come up with a plan, lead by Chloe Wynchester, to steal the painting back.
Chloe the Chameleon, disappearing seamlessly into the background.
The Duke Heist begins the Wild Wynchesters series with somewhat of a frenzied pace, convoluted plot, and tint of silliness. The six siblings are said to all have their special talents, the older brother is an acrobat, while our heroine Chloe can disguise herself to fade into the background, making her unmemorable allowing her to create many personas. It seems that they individually and collectively use these special talents to sneak and run around London being good Samaritans, all a little too much for me at times. This heist requires Chloe to get invited to a book talk salon hosted by the woman, Philippa, that the Duke of Faircliffe, Lawrence, is said to be courting because it's rumored that he is going to gift Philippa with Puck and Sprites. Chloe plans on switching the painting out with a forgery painted by one of her sisters and stealing the family's painting back. This plan sounds fairly straightforward but the beginning was so full of character introductions, descriptions, background, and planning that it took awhile for me to cut the wheat from the chaff.
He was conscious every day that the Gosling name teetered on the edge of respectability.
Our duke's story was more straightforward, Lawrence needs to marry an heiress to replenish the family's coffers as his wastrel father bankrupt them and embarrassed the family name. He was ridiculed in school and isolated because of his father's actions and has some social anxiety now because of his childhood. This was actually a nice tie-in with Chloe and how growing up poor she felt isolated and then becoming one of the “wild” and “scandalous” Wynchesters isolates her from ton society. Lawrence's title affords him some protection but he's only ever wanted a loving family and Chloe has the loving family but wants to be “seen” for herself. It's easy to see how these two at first clash but then fit together.
He didn't see a pseudonym or a mask or a blank slate. He saw Chloe. And he wanted her to see herself, to be herself.
Chole's plan ends up going awry when she leaves the book salon with the stolen painting, only to have the Duke in the carriage and now thinking she is abducting him to force marriage. She plays along until she gets a promise for a favor from him for not compromising him. When Chloe gets home, they look at the painting and realize it's not their exact Puck and Sprites and they have to come up with another plan. Chloe calls in her favor and tells Lawrence that she wants him to tutor her in society manners and introduce her to eligible men. This will give her and her Great-Aunt Wynchester (who is just one of her sisters in costume) access to Lawrence's home where they can find their painting and steal it. Again, this comes off a bit convoluted to get these two together and added to the slapdash overall feel to the story.
He couldn't do it. Not to her and not to himself. He would not become the devil she feared in the night. Not even for a dukedom.
For the most part, we spend a lot of time in our couple's heads, instead of action. Chloe's wanting to be “seen” is ruminated over and over and became more of the lead than the romance. There are two bedroom scenes but this had almost a Disney feel, so if you like lighter, silly, and whimsical stories set in Regency times, this could fit the bill. I found the plot to be weak, the Bow Street Runners angle and how important the angel vase was to Lawrence's father was never flushed out and then having Lawrence spout a line of thinking for 90% of the story only to have an incredible in the very next chapter one-eighty turn around without writing/showing the thinking and emotion growth to get there was disappointing. If the lighter side and other siblings interest you though, I'd take this more as a introduction to the Wynchester family and anticipate the next in the series.
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Reading Update: Page 1
This cover is so gorgeous 😍 These goodies helping me make it through the midweek hump!
Mediterranean Salmon Bowl recipe
Added lemon juice and red pepper flakes to broccoli and used red pepper hummus 😋
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Review: Jackson
Jackson by LaQuetteMy 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.
He renamed it Restoration Ranch because the land that was once his condemnation to a brutal life became his redemption.
Aja Everett left her high powered lawyer job in New York to start Restoration Ranch, a project of her heart, on her family's land in Texas. It's supposed to be a place where people can get a second chance but as sabotage instances keep mounting, someone clearly doesn't want Aja to succeed.
When Texas Ranger Jackson Dean gets called in to work a case as a favor to a judge friend of his boss, he thinks the judge's niece is playing the spoiled princess card.
The danger turns out to be all to real though, along with the sparks between Aja and Jackson.
Jackson closed his eyes again as he tried to control his breathing. He’d hoped for short and simple. But this woman standing in the middle of his office, looking the picture of a poised, dominant professional mixed with a touch of down-home goodness, was as complicated a start to this case as Jackson could imagine.
Jackson is the first in the Restoration Ranch series and I loved the backstory the author created for the idea behind the Ranch. The backstory involves Aja's great-great-great-great-grandfather and his start as a free man, it grounded the setting for me and infused the purpose of what Aja is working to do, give parolees an opportunity for work and a second chance to succeed. We're plunged right away into the sabotage plot and I was a bit disoriented with what was happening as we don't get to see the scene that has caused Aja to be on edge, creating a feeling that I was missing some of the story. This doesn't last long however, and we soon learn that the town sheriff isn't taking Aja's concerns seriously, doesn't want convicts in his district, and in fact wanted to buy the ranch before Aja came from New York. These issues with the sheriff cause Aja's uncle to call in a favor and brings the Texas Rangers into the picture.
Why did a Texas Ranger with dusty jeans and boots make her mouth water and her mind wander to places it had no business going?
Jackson Dean (seriously, how sexy is that name?) doesn't take the case seriously until a bomb goes off in Aja's barn and she is injured. They decide to do an undercover case (only Aja knows they're TX Rangers) with Jackson and his two colleagues, Colton and Storm, with them pretending to be ranch hands while they work to uncover who wants Aja dead. After the bomb and Jackson is on the ranch, the focus shifts some from the mystery suspense and onto Aja and Jackson's attraction for one another. They have more than insta-lust but just by a smidgen, I would have liked to have more scope to their relationship. Obviously, a lot of the story takes place at the Ranch and I felt they weren't really growing beyond the just get to the bedroom depth. There were times that their sexiness did give me hints of Alisha Rai and Tessa Bailey.
Who would’ve thought Jackson Dean, the big, burly Texas Ranger, needed someone to make him feel safe?
I connected with Aja quicker as we get more of her character up front, how her relationship with her sister, family, and experiences have shaped her personality and drive to start Restoration Ranch. Jackson's story is doled out slower and if I had known about how his previous marriage and the issues that stemmed from it had went down and his mother's abandonment, I might have been more into or forgiving of his “I can't trust any women” very used hero trope. This might be another weird like of mine but I adored how Jackson said “Daddy” instead of father or dad, good father-son relationships are more in absence and this just added some love to theirs. In fact, I thought this author's strong point was in her familial relationships, added so much richness to her characters and story.
“All right, Ranger. I’m game if you are. But are you sure you can handle me?”
He pulled her into his arms, cupping her cheek, and leaning in close. “I can handle anything you’ve got.”
The pace of this was a little different, the mystery/danger plot seems to be wrapped up around the 70% mark and then Aja and Jackson start dating; when I would expect their relationship to hitting their climax of coming together, instead it feels like they're starting the build. The mystery/danger has it's obviousness and some anti-climatic as the villain is mostly off-screen and then some forced surprise as it ends in a cliffhanger to connect and lead into the next of the series. Jackson's friends and colleagues, Colton and Storm along with the two friends and parolees, Brooklyn and Seneca, Aja is helping, are obvious series set-up characters. The pacing didn't always work for me but the idea behind Restoration Ranch and the relationships behind and being built from it pulled me in and I'm curious to see where Colton's protectiveness of Seneca leads.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)