Reading Update: Page 1

 

A gorgeous day outside calls for gorgeous writing and gorgeous (😉) tacos!

I'm Waiting for You and other stories by Kim Bo-Young purchase link

Vegan Buffalo Cauliflower Tacos recipe

I would go a cup of buffalo sauce for more taste. Definitely make the cashew sauce, so good.

Review: Firekeeper's Daughter

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

It’s hard to explain what it’s like being so connected to everyone and everything here … yet feeling that no one ever sees the whole me. 

Daunis Fontaine is eighteen years old the year her uncle dies from an apparent drug overdose and her GrandMary Fontaine has a stroke. Daunis has decided to go to a local college that is closer to help her mother through the grief of it all. Jamie Johnson is the new senior transfer and hot new hockey player but while Daunis is drawn to him, he never answers questions and always asks them. Daunis has always felt the divide between her Zhaaganaash and Anishinaabe parentage sides, especially now more than ever as she must decide if she is helping or betraying. 

To know zoongidewin is to face your fears with a strong heart. 

Firekeeper's Daughter is a slice of life fictional story that is told solely in first person point-of-view from our main character Daunis. It was an absorbing tale that had me knowing Daunis inside and out but left some other characters feeling a little vague. When Daunis' mother was sixteen, she got pregnant by Levi Firekeeper, it was the tale of rich white girl who's family looked down on the Anishinaabe boy, even though he was an elite hockey player for the local team. More angst follows when Daunis' mom catches Levi cheating, he crashes his car breaking his legs and ending his hockey career and Daunis' grandparents do their best to keep Levi away. Levi ends up dying when Daunis is seven but she has a half-brother, Levi Jr, that she is close with and her Aunt Teddie from her dad's side keep Daunis connected to the Firekeepers. Daunis also has a bestfriend Lily who has a similar background and they bond over how they are descendants but not enrolled members of the Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribe. This push and pull Danuis experiences, sometimes from her own family members, was a big part of the fabric of the story and I thought the author did a great job portraying the emotions that Daunis had to learn to deal with when the racism came from strangers and her own family members. 

Jamie Johnson is not who he says he is. And this is not a dream. 

With this slice of life story, we get a little bit of romance, mystery, and some thriller. There's an immediate attraction between Daunis and the new guy Jamie. As Daunis is wary but trying to get to know Jamie, we see her friend Lily dealing with her ex-boyfriend Travis, who was also friends with Daunis. Travis is dealing with an addiction to Meth and we learn that the community has been dealing with an uptick of this. When Daunis witnesses a traumatic event, she sees Jamie and it finally clicks that he's an undercover cop. This is where the mystery comes in and Daunis is now acting as a confidential informant for the FBI and the task force investigating where a batch of meth that severely sickened kids in Minnesota came from and who is selling it. Daunis' activeness and the whole investigation, especially Jamie and his pretend Uncle, is very slow moving and not always front and center. It's a slow burn investigation that focuses more on how drugs come into this community and affects them through Daunis' eyes. There were times I wanted the investigation to be taken more seriously or more action but the focus here is more on Daunis learning how to honor both sides of her heritage and help without betraying her Anishinaabe family. 

In this Newer New Normal I am living a lie as a confidential informant for the meth investigation connected to the deaths of my uncle and my best friend. 

Daunis' newer new normal begins about 20% into the story, so Daunis working in the investigation encompasses most of the book. The book is also broken up into five parts and I saw Part One as the intro to Daunis and into the community and sets up Part Two where Daunis is a confidential informant, Part Three we know the investigated players and get a little bit of thriller, and then Part Four is the aftermath of what the investigation revealed. This takes place in 2004 and in a town in Michigan that rests on the border with Canada and I thought the author did a great job setting the time, place, and feel for the community. As I said earlier, Daunis is the standout character and I would have liked some others to be filled out more. I'm not sure we ever really got to know Jamie as much as I would have liked, Danuis' Aunt Teddie deserves to have her story written, and if this gets another book for a series, I want it to be about Daunis' ex-boyfriend T.J. Kewadin. 

Wisdom is not bestowed. In its raw state, it is the heartbreak of knowing things you wish you didn’t. 

I thought the ending was rushed and there's a little bit of info dump when players are revealed and motivations explained. There was also a rape scene that I'm not sure was handled as carefully as it could and should have been; it ended up feeling abruptly put in for some heaviness. I think this might read a little slow for young adults but has elements that will work to keep their attention, reading it as an adult, it kept me locked in. This window into Daunis' life was an affecting slice of life story and strong debut, I will definitely be on the lookout for future works by this author.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Cold and rainy weekend for me. Warming up with this new YA and some meatballs :)

Happy weekend, everyone!

Fire Keeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley purchase link

Cheesy Enchilada Meatballs recipe

Quickie Review: The Man Tamer

The Man Tamer by Cindi Myers
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

When hero first sees heroine eating a chocolate covered strawberry and moaning, he comes up and says "I'll have what she's having." Fine, cute, whatever. BUT, when the chocolate is dripping down her arm, he takes this STRANGER'S hand and LICKS up her wrist and fingers. Whatever the opposite of "your kink" is, this is my opposite. I've seen too many people in public restrooms leave without washing their hands. I know fantasy world and all but this wouldn't leave my mind. 

Also, the heroine is rude and not loving or gaga over the hero's dog until the ending where she seems to move to tolerating. I don't think I need to explain why I was not a fan of her. 

The whole man-taming behavioral psychology "playfully" compared with dog training joking wasn't fun or funny to me and each chapter starting with the Dear Abby-esque letters from the heroine's magazine column made me cringe more than laugh. This book flirted and romanced sexism more than love between the couple for me.

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Review: An Unlikely Governess

An Unlikely Governess by Karen Ranney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Someday, when I have the time (LOL), I'm going to reread this book. When I started it I was incredibly busy and even when I could steal some short reading time, my concentration was poo. I also stopped and read a bodice ripper in the middle. So, this quickie review is going to probably sound scattered but I want to talk about this book. 

He folded his arms, ignoring the cold as he watched the carriage begin the descent to the village. She was going to be a problem. 

I don't know if the first half of this was boring, vague, and meandering or if the personal issues I mentioned played a bigger role but I almost gave up on this book. Going by the cover and title, I was shocked when I started reading and the vibe was completely Gothic, not expected. Our heroine Beatrice lost her parents and friends to a sickness epidemic (think it was cholera?) and she's been on her own for a while now. She's poor and starving trying to get any job when someone tells her the castle on the hill is looking for a governess. It's dark, gloomy, storming, and the castle feels haunted. We meet Gaston, a servant to the uncle of the seven year old duke (Robert) she's to be a governess to, Cameron the uncle, and the son of Cameron and cousin to Robert, Devlen. I'm not going to even lie and admit I spent a good portion of the beginning not really knowing who the heroine was going to be paired up with or knowing what the heck was going on. (Right before I read a book, I don't usually read the back cover so I'm not spoiled on stuff) It's dripping with Gothic mystery; Robert's parents died in a carriage accident that left his uncle Cameron in a wheelchair and now someone is trying to kill Robert. Maybe. The vast majority of the story doesn't really dive into that, it was simultaneously the focus and to the side. I'm sure that's clear as mud but that's how it felt to me. 

He breathed against her ear. She turned her head and brushed her lips against his bristly cheek. He'd traveled all night to be with her. He traveled in the darkness like a demon, and in the dawn light, he offered her a hint of depravity. Dear God, she wanted it so. 

Now, either my attention finally could be focused or the story improved but the second half of this, particularly the last 35%, was richly good and all because of the relationship between Beatrice and Devlen (yes, the hero was finally obvious to me). 

"Do you believe in love at first sight, Miss Sinclair?" 

"No." 

He laughed softly. "Now who's the cynic?" 

"Why fall in love with someone's appearance? People get sick, or grow old. The character matters more than looks, Mr. Gordon. Wit, intelligence, kindness, all matter more than appearance." 

"So, you would have love come after a conversation?" 

"Perhaps." 

"How long would it take?" 

"The conversation?" 

His smile chided her. "Falling in love." 

"How should I know if it's never happened to me?" 

"Perhaps we should talk longer, Miss Sinclair, have a few more conversations." 

He looked away, and it was just as well, because she didn't know how to answer him. 

Y'all. I mean, this stopped me in my tracks. Our stoic contained Devlen, just dropped a huge emotional bomb in a way that delighted the hell out of me. This was a hidden depth moment that always make me sit-up and pay attention. 

Neither of these two hold titles and their first sex scene was not enjoyable to Beatrice (she was a virgin and there was a good padded thread to them dealing with this and to her enjoying the next time), and along with the Gothic vibe, this felt very different for what is usually found in this subgenre. 

The mystery of/if and who could be trying to kill Robert was pretty meh, not flushed or highlighted enough for me and then the resolution is left to the very very end and answers we get were convoluted eye-roll-y for me. But dang, Beatrice and Devlen really hit me in the second half. The other characters never were clear or filled in enough (what even was Devlen's relationship with his dad??), probably to keep the mystery going but it just made the first half hard for me to get into until the romance really started going. 

I also want to put this moment up because I thought the writing was beautiful and made Beatrice's character shine more: 

 Her eyes tickled with unshed tears. An odd moment to cry. Or perhaps the best moment, after all. There was so much loveliness in the world, the same world in which there dwelt so much horror. A paradox, one in which they were forced to live. She wanted something at this moment, something she couldn't quite define or explain. Something that would answer the restlessness deep inside her. She was either hungry or lonely or distraught and more than a little curious as to why she couldn't identify the feelings completely. Perhaps it was because all this time, she'd cocooned herself, protecting herself from the grief and fear that were too painful to experience on a daily basis. Perhaps she was separated from her own discomfort, like stubbing her toe and not feeling the pain until hours later. Was she just now recognizing the full extent of her own loneliness? 

It may be hard to see why I felt like this was beautiful and defining for Beatrice without having read previously to this point but Beatrice was stoic too and this cracked her shell and you feel her grief over losing so many and her endurance to survive when she had no money. 

The beginning was slow for me but the ending had me sitting up and taking notice and some scenes and Beatrice and Devlen will be lingering in my mind. 

I hope Robert gets/got his own book!

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Review: Sweet Savage Love

Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

1.2 stars 

For this month's #TBRChallenge, the prompt was Old School, which to me, means bodice rippers. This is not an area for some to enter but my first entry to romance was rippers and I maintain a complicated relationship with them today, and still they remain on my tbr. I can't say when this exactly was put on there but I'd say I've been meaning to read it for over 20yrs. 

As I've called this a bodice ripper, I'm not sure it needs to be said but trigger warnings abound (racism, rape), especially sexual assault trauma. I also rushed to read this in two days, so if I sound a wee bit punchy in the review, please excuse. 

This starts us off in 1862, first in France with 16yr old Virginia Brandon where her coming into womanhood has her cousin getting afflicted with guilty confused dick syndrome. We get ground work on Ginny learning to flirt and control men with her looks, which are so beautiful that lust abounds around her. We also learn that her father is a US senator of California and when the US Civil War is over, he promises to send for her. Her mother was French and brought them back to France after feeling abandoned by her husband but then dies, leaving Ginny in the care of her uncle. 

The next introduction then moves to 24yr old Union Captain Steve Morgan guarding the senator's new wife in New Orleans. Sonya is tantalizingly scared of Steve and a southern belle resentful of the Union soldiers but when they get stuck in a cabin in a storm, “animalistic” urges take over. That's right our hero is now banging our heroine's stepmother. Which, yeah, I know, but after reading the whole book, sounds a little more bodice ripper whackadoodle than it turned out be; Ginny didn't grow-up with Sonya in mother-daughter relationship and then only knows her for a couple weeks and then Sonya is out of the story for the vast majority. Sonya really seems to just be an introduction to Steve's nonconsenual and consensual bangboi persona. And what a bangboi persona it was. If you're a woman who appears on page, you getting Steve. Not even godmother's are safe, but more on that later. Steve ends up killing a superior officer in a duel over his mistress and gets recruited by a man named Bishop to be a spy in a ring he has set-up. It's orchestrated to look like he escaped and off to spy and bang he goes. 

Part two moves us forward four years and has Ginny in America. She first sees Steve from her hotel window as he shoots a man in the street, more of that tantalizingly scared attraction. We've moved on from the US Civil War and now are dealing with the second intervention Franco-Mexican War. Ginny's senator father supports France and has a plan to supply them with gold and guns, which he brilliantly decides to have Ginny and step-mother Sonya deliver under guise of traveling to California. Him being safe in D.C. I'm sure doesn't factor. Ginny is excited for the adventure until she sees one of their scouts is the guy she saw kill a man in the street. Steve Morgan and his spy ring, still working for the US, side with Mexico and they know all about the senator's gold. His mission is to ride with the wagon train and then steal the gold for their side. Now, you'd think this would be a great a time for some ripper wildness but Sonya just mainly wants Steve to keep his mouth shut about their affair in the past and they don't really talk with each other. I actually enjoyed how Ginny and Sonya had a good relationship. Steve first meets Ginny when he mistakes her for a prostitute. They cat fight and the groundwork for their enemies-to-lovers relationship is set. 

“I should hope not, for men in love get far too sloppy,” Ginny retorted. “And then, they become too, too boring.” 

In their wagon train, there is a man named Carl that Ginny practices more of her “womanly wiles” on and she gets some taste of adversity as trail life is rough. There's some of that doing tstl moments from her that have her coming off as a brat and allow for Steve to show his manly alphaness that is common in this era and ripper type and then Ginny's body betraying her mind as she asks Steve to take her virginity. Their first sex scene (and the vast majority of sex scenes to follow) starts off with non consensual vibes as we all know women have to be pressured into sex because wanting it would make her a slut, or so the messaging goes from this era. Again, with the sex scenes in this book, after the first initiating, it's fade to black and after the clothes come off, they're laying satisfied. 

“Sometimes I feel that being a woman is worse than being a child—we have the intelligence and the feelings of adults, but we aren’t permitted to show them.” 

There's a fight with Apaches and then Steve and his merry men are stealing the gold, Ginny manages to rip his face covering off, exposing him and Steve is taking her captive. This is where the story got really slow for me and kind of boring as they seemed to move around but we don't really get any setting and god help me, I'm going to be forced to say it, Ginny is nothing but shrill personality and Steve is a wooden alpha bangboi. Steve rapes her, he takes her to brothel to hide out for awhile, he sleeps with another woman then after climbs into bed with Ginny, Ginny knifes him and then they have sex with his blood getting on them both, some Stockholm Syndrome, and then he takes her to his home in Mexico. We're about 45% in. 

Steve Morgan, the man she had so contemptuously called a half-breed—the man she’d believed to be nothing more than a professional gunfighter and a thief—he was the grandson of a Spanish grandee, the heir to millions? 

Part three and four gives us more on Steve's background, he's half America from his father's side and half Mexican from his mother's. He's an heir and while both his parents are dead, his grandfather still tries to control him. This part was, again, slower for me as Steve's mainly out of the picture and it's all Ginny learning Steve has a sixteen year old fiance, growing close with Steve's cousin, and then being introduced to his grandfather. Learning a little bit about Ginny, the grandfather decides that Steve must marry her. Wedding preparations and waiting on Steve but also, never fear, we get a scene of Steve sleeping with a servant. Steve eventually comes back and is totes angry that Ginny has orchestrated him being engaged to her. There's some “gypsy dancing” that Ginny is just a siren at, a childhood friend appearance (you guessed it, Steve bangs her!, but also one of the few consensual sex to happen), and a marriage. Yep, Steve decides that he'll marry Ginny but it must be immediately and happen Right Now. Steve wanting this wedding completely comes out of left field and I'm not sure I fully understand why he decided this because he then leaves without saying goodbye to Ginny that night. 

My God, he thought suddenly, I was in danger of falling in love with the woman, and I didn’t even know it. What a trap! 

Enter a wily French soldier who has Steve and all his spy personas figured out and decides to take Ginny prisoner to flush Steve out. Banging his childhood friend has given Steve the clarity he needed to decide he loves Ginny and even though he knows it's a trap he decides to give himself up to save Ginny. But not so fast, when he is lead to the French soldier's room, he see's Ginny in only her robe and smiling at the French guy, Ginny set him up! Steve, doesn't know the French guy is wily. Steve then drowns in his feels. Meanwhile, Ginny will do anything to save Steve (she loves him too now. How? Why? Don't ask me). Ginny says she will sleep with the French guy and become his mistress if he spares Steve. They make the bargain but the next day as the soldiers are moving out a guy named Tom, a baddie you sort of meet earlier in the story, comes to take Ginny and makes her watch as the prisoners are shot and she thinks Steve is dead. 

The ending of part four and then as we move onto Part five is where most of you are going to want to bow out, trigger warnings for rape and sexual trauma are grossly abundant. As I said, Ginny made a deal with the French guy, but it's a rape scene and then the next day Tom comes to take her as the French guy thinks he'll transport her to him but Tom decides to keep her and Ginny is then gang raped and made a camp follower where she daily is assaulted and sometimes sold by Tom to other men. Look, can rape and the trauma from it be done well in romance stories? Yes. Is it done well here? No. Ginny just isn't a well enough developed character for the gravity of this to work. It doesn't come off salacious, which, thank goodness, but the way her character has been a pretty empty vessel up to this point, makes this very cringing to read in a romance genre story that I'm mostly reading for emotional love (and some historical adventure). In a mental breakdown, Ginny ends up killing Tom and winds up in the arms of Michel, a previous French soldier admiring of hers. Anyway, if you wanted to skip part five all together, I wouldn't blame you. 

Part six has Ginny being labeled a French courtesan and Michel's mistress. We get some real historical names and told Ginny parades around with them and brief mentions of the war. Another solider enters the picture, Miguel, and while Ginny is now Michel's mistress, he's off fighting the war, and Miguel thinks he must have Ginny. Miguel was actually a character I would have liked to know more about, about the only character that intrigued me. Ginny doesn't really care because she loved Steve and now that he's dead, she doesn't care what happens to her (I'd say it's all the trauma but what do I know?). Miguel is the one to finally reveal a secret to Ginny. 

Steve Morgan was alive only because his body insisted upon survival. It was as simple as that. 

What a reveal! The pov then shifts to Steve and we get to learn all about his trauma now. What fun! This is also where my Kindle decided to stop saving my notes, so it's going to be fast and probably vague from here on out. Instead of being killed, Steve was taken to the mines (the French guy might be wily but he's no liar!) to work where he endured horrific physical and mental torture and almost endured his own rape. His identity gets revealed and they decide to move him from the mines to building railroads. He goes from horrific conditions to awful. He also serendipitously sees Ginny riding by and smiling with Michel, he's all in with his theory that she set him up and his hatred is white hot. Miguel somehow learns where he is and while he's telling Ginny Steve is alive, he's having Steve and a couple other prisoners moved to a home to help rebuild a wall. Stay with me. There Steve has his own mental breakdown and kills a guard while the other prisoners kill the other guards. The woman who owns the home turns out to be his godmother and she recognizes his blue eyes and spares his life. He ends up banging his godmother (thought I forgot abut that, didn't you?) because bangboi. We then go back to Ginny and how she's Miguel's mistress now so she can get info on Steve. She ends up meeting Bishop, the one who recruited Steve for the spy ring and blackmailing him to send her to Steve. Part seven has her showing up at the house Steve has been staying at and while he's not there, his childhood friend is and Ginny loses her mind over the other woman. 

Here is finally where Ginny's character got interesting and she took action and instead of being an empty vessel for things to happen to, she shows emotion and autonomy. She knife fights for her man, as one does, and kicks the other woman out. Steve shows up and still thinking she betrayed him, strangles her, but stops before he kills her and you guessed it, they have sex. There's a, umm, interesting scene, I guess you'd call it, where Ginny holds a knife to Steve's throat and makes him undress because she thinks to break through his anger and show him she loves and didn't betray him by having sex with him. Steve then precedes to blame her for all the men that raped her, leaves, has a trauma inducing return to the mines he was a prisoner at that also gives him a clarity breakthrough and he decides that while he's still angry that so many men had Ginny, he also can kind of see how it wasn't her fault and he loves her. Stand-up guy, I tell ya. 

Most of this book only takes place over a year, which is wild to think about because so much happens to Ginny and Steve but so much is just meandering on the pages. There's historical names and the occasional events listed but the vast majority is to the side and for all the traveling these two do, I thought the setting and places were underused, never really felt their destinations. Same with the “epic adventure” that this and bodice rippers are supposed to have, we get a lot of mentions of Steve on his back but for being an adrenaline junkie, we sure miss out on all his spy missions and guerrillas activities. The ending, last 20-10%% gave me more of what I was looking for and Ginny's character came alive and we got some action but it didn't make up for the wandering and meandering that was the middle. Ginny is 21 and Steve 29 when this book ends and I know their story continues on, so maybe some of the growing they did here would be paid off in the next but I probably won't be continuing on. At no point did I believe in their love, Steve wants her in the beginning because of her beauty and he's a bangboi, Ginny is young and anger intrigued by him and ready to lose her virginity, sort of. He kidnaps her, she has to depend on him for survival, then trauma for everyone, then it's decided that they both love each other. Not enough history or love for me in this one.

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Reading Update: 20%

 

This has a Gothic vibe that I wasn't expecting but I like it :)

Review: The Duke's Privateer

The Duke's Privateer by Amy Jarecki
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. 

When she became a debutante, Eleanor discovered that her family was in financial ruin. Her father is a viscount but when he came back from the war, he sunk into a depression that left him uncommunicative for a decade. The Baroness of Derby took Eleanor under her wing and from there Eleanor manages to build a smuggling empire. The Prince of Wales may be on her side but when Sherborn Price, the Duke of Danby is given the role to oversee the task of clearing England's shores of smugglers, Eleanor knows she's in trouble. 

She was Eleanor Kent, a woman with nerves of steel, who needed no man, especially a man who stood to ruin the empire she had spent years building. 

This is third in a series but I had no problems starting here; there is clearly characters from previous books but they weren't intrusive. What I did have some problem with was how little Eleanor's privateer aspect played a part. The beginning explains the hows and whys of Eleanor becoming a privateer, even mentions how she went on some runs and brings in the Prince of Wales for some real historical figure addition as he knows and helps her avoid authorities, but by the time the reader comes into the story, Eleanor is more of an interior designer. The style of chinoiserie is said to be popular at this time (you will read this word over and over) and Eleanor is supposedly the authority on it. Sherborn comes into the story as he meets Eleanor and the Prince leads him to think Eleanor could be smuggling items into England, ending smuggling is a new task he has been charged with. His curiosity and attraction have him inviting Eleanor to his home under the guise that his mother wants to redo a salon in the chinoiserie style. 

He was as beautiful as nightshade and the jumping in the pit of her stomach was nothing but a warning. 

I'm not sure if, because of the title, I was looking for more action, maybe even some high seas, that this story ended up feeling a little dull and meandering. As the attraction grows between Eleanor and Sherborn, she gets angsty over thinking Sherborn is just faking it so he can get close to her and get evidence of her smuggling. Sherborn isn't the greatest detective and for the most part overhears some things and then hires a Bow Street Runner to do the investigating for him and then his focus is him liking Eleanor. 

The middle gives us a baby found in a park that Eleanor decides she must keep, her father talking for the first time in ten years because Sherborn reads to him from a dirty book, and then Sherborn deciding that he must marry Eleanor to protect her when/if she gets in trouble for smuggling. Feeling put out about the lack of any high seas action or smuggling danger action, I turned to the romance but while there were some felt hints of attraction between the two, their physicality scenes were uncomfortable to read. Their first kiss scene reads as dubious consent as Eleanor kept telling Sherborn “No.” and trying to refuse his kisses, which he just kept ignoring. I could see some calling it weaker dubious consent but it was still dubious consent. The last 20% has Sherborn working to court his wife but Eleanor dealing with the housekeeper and maids butts in at times and takes away from the romance. The last 10% has their first sex scene and starts off with a little of the dubious consent again, has a sick baby interruption, and then Eleanor finally getting into it. There's one more ending sex scene that felt out of place before Eleanor and Sherborn get their happily ever after. If you don't go in expecting some privateer action like I did and have enjoyed previous books in the series, you'd probably enjoy this more gradual paced story.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

It’s going to be 80 degrees today but I don’t care I’m still eating this fish stew. 

Also heating up the day with a Duke hunting smugglers and a spinster who’s side activities he may interested in. 

☀️🥣📚 

Have a great week, everyone!

The Duke's Privateer by Amy Jarecki purchase link

Brazilian Fish Stew recipe 

One of my favorites to make

Review: Thick as Thieves

Thick as Thieves by Sandra Brown
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. 

 After leaving her home twenty years ago with her father missing and older sister now responsible for her care, Arden Maxwell is back in Penton. Pregnant and wanting to fix up her childhood home to start fresh, Arden suddenly loses the baby. With her sister Lisa hounding her to leave Penton and come live with her, two months later Arden is rising out of her grief and deciding that she needs answers to the night her father disappeared. 

Ledge Burnet knows that Arden is in town and has been trying to keep an eye on her while keeping his distance. He's always been waiting for the truth of that night twenty years ago to come out but he doesn't want Arden to get caught in the crossfire. 

The past with all its lies and history swirl in the Texas bayou. 

“Talking about it is the surefire way to get caught.” 

Thick as Thieves starts with a prologue from twenty years ago as four individuals meet after robbing a large family goods store. From there we jump to present time and interspersed with Arden and Ledge's point-of-view chapters, we get flashbacks to the robbery night from the individuals involved. The main robbery outline is revealed early and instead the finer details of the night are left to be colored in as you read. For the most part, the reader knows more than Arden, which I liked, and we're following along as she discovers what happened and who to trust. 

“One of these days I'll probably have to kill him.” 

The leader of the robbery group, Rusty Dyle, had a credible role as villain but while he had the power, sheriff's son and then District Attorney, he lacked a strong motive or a certain je nais sais qoui to his thoughts and actions; he fell a little flat as the bully for the sake of being a bully villain. Ledge as our cool, solid, but shadowed hero that almost had more chemistry with his hate relationship with Dusty than his lusty one with Arden. There's some underlining sizzle between the two but the romance thread felt forced with Ledge instantly lusting after Arden and Arden feeling strong caution but physical attraction seeping through. They lacked an emotional and relationship development closeness and we mostly just get in kisses and “I want you” forced in between the robbery and murder mystery and Arden searching for answers. 

He lowered his head and focused on the one stair step between them. “Because I would be seeing you every day, but having to keep my hands off you.” He looked up at her from beneath his brows and spoke from the heart. “And I don't think I can do that.” 

I thought the mystery, thriller aspect of this was paced well, it's gradual with answer reveals but the story pulls you in. As this read more as a mystery/thriller to me, I did like it but anyone reading this for a strong romance plot, I would say lower your expectations as Arden and Ledge's relationship depth isn't there. A big reveal was left to the very end that made me want to go back and read the story to see if there were clues I missed and while there was some surprise to it, I felt more irked deceived than enjoyed deceived because of how late it was left to be revealed. While I enjoyed the easy pace for the vast majority, I did think the ending left too much for the very end and made it feel piled on, especially for the character of Arden, who don't get to really see work through the reveals. 

“I take to you, Ledge.” She hugged him tighter. 

This had a strong beginning and middle with a gradual paced mystery that gives a lot of answers but saves big truths until the very end. The romance felt forced for the most part but the overall story will definitely capture your attention and have you contently wandering in the slow mysterious Texas bayou for hours.

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