Enjoy the week, everyone!
I used Stubbs sticky sweet and original, the pretzel bun was a great additive
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Reading Update: Page 1
Review: An Affair at Stonecliffe
An Affair at Stonecliffe by Candace CampMy 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.
Noelle could hardly breathe. Her heart hammered, and she stared at the pouch as if it were a snake. Thorne thought she would sell Gil to him.
Noelle has just become a widow with a new baby, as she's laying out all her worldly goods to see what she can sell, Carlisle Thorne arrives at her door. Carlisle was the childhood friend of her husband, but like her husband's aristocratic parents, he didn't approve of her husband marrying a commoner. Thorne is hurt and grieving over the loss of his friend and sees Noelle as a gold-digger, he thinks she won't want to be weighed down with the caring of a child, so he offers her money so that he can take Gil, the baby, back to England to be raised by his grandparents. Noelle is horrified that he thinks to “buy” Gilbert and then becomes terrified Thorne will take Gil and never let her see him again. She decides to go on the run to keep Gil with her.
“I've found her, sir.”
After Noelle decides to go on the run, the story then jumps five years and we learn that Noelle has been on the run all this time with Thorne's man trying to catch up to her. The men that Noelle thinks Thorne has sent after her all over Europe, have tried to snatch Gil away and been rough with her. When Noelle goes back to London because of an opportunity for more stability in Gil's life, even though it puts her in the same city with Thorne, she finally gets caught and learns that Gil's grandfather has died and Gil is now the Earl. As Noelle finally settles down and stops running, she realizes that Gil needs to learn how to run his estate and that Thorne and Gil's grandmother don't want to rip him from her and that she'll be able to live with him. The prologue with the anger, animosity, and feeling of danger, did immediately pull me into the story but as the story went on, Noelle started to be annoyingly distrustful of Thorne and the Misunderstanding between the two will probably want you to tie them down to chairs to force them to sit and talk.
“But...if it was not you who tried to abduct Gil, that means...”
He nodded. “That someone else is after you.”
Around 30% the story switches gears a bit and the characters and reader learn that it wasn't Thorne who was trying to snatch Gil away from Noelle but someone else and it's all tied into a tontine. A group of aristocrats, including Gil's grandfather, put money into a trust that would eventually go to the last alive male descendant of the men. This plot thread was all a little, just go along with it, especially when it was vaguely, 'they did put a time limit!'. It kept the danger feeling going throughout the book and introduced, brought in a character named Sloane, a cousin who has a shady past and obvious unsettled feelings with another character named Annabeth, but other than giving me Sloane, the whole tontine had many sections that made my eyes want to glaze over.
Yes, she was flirting with this dour man. Even more strangely, he was flirting back. It was mad; it was exciting.
I'm pretty far in the review and I haven't mentioned the romance yet, you're going to have to have patience, besides the distrusting animosity between Noelle and Thorne, these two don't really get going in the romance department until around the 60% mark. Then they just kind of start secretly sleeping together as they journey around England investigating the descendants of the tontine to see who would want Gil dead to inherit it. I can't say I ever felt the romance between them, either because they didn't have chemistry or because the story was muddled with all the distrust and tontine business. I wish three or four times of Noelle not trusting Thorne and scenes with the tontine descendants would have been cut; this story felt too long. Even though this couple takes until the second half to even get the romance engines revving, there was still a little bit of third act angst, which, of course, was Noelle not trusting Thorne's intentions when he asks her to marry him, even when it was fairly obvious why he was asking.
The last 85% ramps up and brings to head the action and danger and bouncing from reveal to not so fast to reveal. It kind of felt exhausting after a longer story that had a fair amount of moments that had the aforementioned eye glazing. Then the ending gave the romance aspect a very abrupt ending with quick “I love yous” and a marriage proposal. There was too much continuous distrust from Noelle, the romance took a bit too long to get going and then didn't provide the emotions I wanted, the danger to Gil was mostly what this story was about, and by the time I got to the ending it felt exhausting. I am, however, very curious and wanting more about the black sheep cousin Sloane and the quietly suffering Annabeth, I just hope there is no tontine in their story and it's more about the romance.
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Reading Update: Page 1
Surprise! An Affair at Stonecliffe releases today! 🥳
The synopsis had "a feisty commoner and a ruthless aristocrat spar in all the right ways"
I mean, just take all my money
I've got my afternoon reading and pizza lunch, hope you all are similarly blessed this extravaganza Tuesday ❤
Review: The Legal Affair
The Legal Affair by Nisha SharmaMy 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.
It was her blinding confidence, and a woman that confident pressed all his buttons.
Before you start this one, you'll want to read the first in the series (The Takeover Effect) as this picks up right where that one left off. The Singh family company, Bharat Inc., is still dealing with the fallout of some corporate espionage from WTA, a business trying to do a hostile buyout takeover. Ajay is the middle Singh brother and the one picked to takeover as CEO of Bharat when his father retires, which is soon. He's seen as more easygoing but with his new responsibilities, he's confidently stepping up to the plate. When he meets Rajneet Kaur Hothi at a Gen One Foundation gala, he's instantly drawn to her. Raj is bestfriends with Ajay's older brother Hem's girlfriend Mina (book 1) but also the one who alerted them to the corporate espionage that could have lost them the company because Raj's soon-to-be ex-husband Robert was the leak. Ajay's younger brother Zail blames Raj for getting one of their coders fired, a woman he seems to be in love with, and threatens to pull his support for Ajay's nomination to CEO if Ajay pursues a working relationship with Raj. If you couldn't tell, the Singh Family series is full of high-stakes family and business drama.
“Soni,” he said, knowing that the Punjabi word for beautiful fit her more perfectly than any English endearment could.
You're going to have to like some corporate world drama to like this series, it's about half of the story. I like how it gives the setting a sleek contemporary feel with high-level drama with all the power and money at stake. It also gives our characters something to do and provides a way for all our characters to interact. Raj was a fantastic strong character and I loved how it started off showing her arriving in America alone at eighteen, getting scammed, having to take those first steps alone, and then thriving and in charge with her own security business, RKH Collective. Her relationship with Robert is already on the outs when readers come in, remember he was part of the corporate espionage in book one, and they are getting a divorce. It also helps to put that relationship in the distance when Raj discusses how it was more of a partnership where they both benefited from each other's business connections, instead of a romance. This is also an Avon Impulse, so it leans more on the steamy side and my oh my is there a couple hot scenes in this. Raj owns her sexuality and a membership at an exclusive club, which leads to a possessive Ajay and some voyeurism.
Ajay grinned as he rolled his sleeves to his elbows. “You’ve made things more interesting since you’ve showed up, Rajneet Kaur Hothi. I’ll give you that.”
Ajay wasn't quite as captivating a character as Raj, he gets shadowed a lot by the business plot and I missed more scenes with his brothers, we get some battles with him and Zail over Raj but I wanted more of their loving bond. Raj has a little bit of her own family drama, we get introduced to her brother Guru, who turned her family against her when she refused to want to associate with their opium drug trading business or go back to Punjab and marry who they wanted. I liked the filling out of her character with this background but Guru just kind of hangs around getting ignored by Raj and then just leaves? The ending to Raj not going back to see her sick mother felt dropped off/open ended enough to feel very dissatisfying. Maybe Guru will show up in a spin-off series? Raj's family servant Kaka also didn't get enough scenes with her to solidify or satisfy me with the bond that could have provided some great emotions. The family connections laid out in the first book were there but not strengthen with emotional scenes in this one for me.
He grinned, pulling her close. “Soni, basa tusi itaraza karo.” Just you wait.
By 50% Ajay seems to already be all-in with Raj, he says a couple lines that allude to her being it for him and then at 60% when Raj gets scared, Ajay says she has to be the one to start things back up. Their separation doesn't last long and then they're working together again as Raj decides selling her business to Ajay will help him secure CEO and she can focus more on philanthropy work, which she has always wanted to do. The espionage is revealed to not quite be over as wrongly identified and yet to be identified moles are still a problem for Bharat, Inc. Raj takes care of business though, when her ex-husband, with some help from some of those Bharat, Inc. problems, gets a hit piece published on her. It was great how she handled it but also put Ajay more in the shadows as his character and their romance didn't shine as bright.
This was a glossy contemporary that had a lot of corporate espionage and a quick but steamy romance. The younger brother Zail looks to have some groveling to do with the misidentified mole and their cousin Bhram seems to have a tumultuous relationship with Ajay's assistant Rafael, the Singh family looks to have plenty of family, romance, and business drama on the horizon.
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Reading Update: Page 1
The first book in this series delivered on the sparking romance and the family and business drama. Looks like this one is planning to do the same 🥵
Review: Siren Queen
Siren Queen by Nghi VoMy 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.
You might say my family is in the business of immortality.
Divided into three acts and told from her point-of-view, this is the story of a 12 year old Chinese girl who works at her family's laundry in San Francisco in 1932 and dreams of obtaining her own immortality and freedom by making it in Hollywood. The first act shows her family life, quiet mother, emotionally absent father, and younger sister, and how fate has her wandering onto a movie set filming in the streets by her home, the actress that bestows a silvery kiss on her forehead, and the director that wants to use her for his own gains. After doing some bit parts as a child, she turns eighteen and having some idea how Hollywood treats Asian actresses, she searches out an older actress to gain some insider knowledge to learn how to navigate the dark waters coming up to face her. With a magical bargain, Mrs. Wiley takes 20yrs of her life and tells her how to gain some power and footing. She blackmails the director to get her a meeting with the head of Wolfe Studios, Oberlin Wolfe, and with her own pride and that silvery kiss, gets him to give her a three year contract. She's on her way but it cost her 20yrs and stealing her sister's name, Luli Wei.
It was done, and I was Luli Wei.
I was going to be a star.
The beginning part was a little tough to get into, the magical realism world is not explained at all and I never had a clear understanding of it. Act 2 has Luli living on the studio grounds and learning the studio life, along with her first romance with a golden siren actress Emmaline. There's talk of Friday Night Fires, people gathered in their groups for parties, and The Hunt where studio heads and big wigs chase down their prey. A lot of this section deals with Luli's roommate, Greta, a half-woman, half-animal being that was kidnapped from a Nordic country and had to have her tail cut to be acceptable for movies. Greta falls in love with someone Oberlin Wolfe has special interest in, winds up getting pregnant, and then has to meet with Mrs. Wiley to gain knowledge to learn how to rescue herself and her love from Wolfe's clutches. Luli is in the middle of it all while trying to gain roles that will lead to what she sees as immortality.
“You better know who you are,” she said, “because you don't look strong enough to be me.”
I would suggest not reading this for the Magical Realism, because, as I said, that aspect of the world-building is not developed. It's clear that beasts and the overall supernatural elements are added to be allegory for the real life predatory Hollywood world. I'm sure it was no accident that author used magical realism and fantasy to portray this world and Wolfe is a beast who preys on young people coming to him to be a star, it's not hard to see a Harvey Weinstein there. Luli also being Chinese adds the layer of racism she must also face and I liked how her stubbornness wouldn't let her play the racist roles she had seen other woman of color play but that when she interacted with actresses that had taken on those roles, they were at turns angry that she wouldn't play the game, jealous, and also supportive and trying to be helpful to the path she was trying to blaze. There was a great scene where an actress tells Luli that she better blaze her own trail because Luli wasn't strong enough to take on the roles the actress had and Luli agreed that she couldn't do what that actress was doing to support her family.
“The world lets you get away with some thngs. Oberlin Wolfe does too. But darling, she's too much, she's too much, and you know it, don't you?”
Too much, too strange, and I knew right away that she had a truth between her teeth. Like I knew earlier that pretty was a painted target that Tara lacked, I knew this too.
Act 3 had Luli achieving success on getting a role she wanted, playing a monster that commanded the screen and audiences. With this success though, all her family and the friends she had made at the studio are all gone. The ending was a speed through of how her life ended up, we learn who the Jane is that Luli has seemingly been telling this life story to, and, as with any life, there were some highs and lows for Luli as she hurt, angered, scared, inspired, and blazed a trail as a woman of color. The first half took sometime to understand the world and realize the role magical realism was playing, the middle was better with Luli making connections with other characters and learning how to live her truthful way in Hollywood, and the ending was rushed. If you go in realizing this is more a commentary on the predatory, racist, and bigotry of Hollywood told in fantasy/magical realism elements, you'd enjoy this more than looking for a magical realism world set in Hollywood.
Friday, May 20, 2022
50%
Like we understood to make wide circles around the drunks on the streets and how calico cats were the luckiest of all, we understood immortality as a thing for men. Men lived forever in their bodies, in their statues, in the words they guarded jealously and the countries they would never let you claim. The immortality of women was a sideways thing, haphazard and contained in footnotes, as muses or silent helpers.
"But things are different here," my mother always said.
She had never set foot in China, would pass all her life on American soil, but she knew how different things could be. She clung to that, and so did we.
but she knew how different things could be. She clung to that, and so did we.
💓
Thursday, May 19, 2022
Reading Update: Page 1
I'm excited to read this one about Golden Age Hollywood where there's supernatural monsters!
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Review: Uncertain Magic
Uncertain Magic by Laura KinsaleMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
2.5 stars
*This is a TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub discussion.
"You think I'm mad. I think you're mad. We're meant for each other, my love."
This month's TBRChallenge was Tales of Old, so I went with this bodice ripper that has probably been on my tbr for around 20yrs.
It's 1797 and Roderica (Roddy) is dressed as a stable boy watching a horse race. The reader learns that she has a “gift” that allows her to hear the thoughts and feelings of humans and animals. The horse winning the race is in severe pain and even though he wins, Roddy knows if he runs again, he will die. As any good romance heroine does, she pushes and shoves her way to get to the horse and jockey and tries to tear the reins out of his hands and starts stating that the horse can never run again. The jockey hits her and the owner of the horse shows up.
For the first time in her life, Roddy felt herself reaching out instead of turning away, probing for emotion or thought instead of rejecting it.
Iveragh. The Devil Earl of Ireland. Aka Faelan Savigar. He's a man known and reviled for his dastardly deeds, duels, and seducing innocent maidens. But, when Roddy tells him about the danger the horse is in, he agrees to never run the horse again, even though it will cost him a huge amount of money, money that he direly needs. Roddy is immediately drawn to his trust in her and most importantly, the fact that he is a blank slate to her, she can't read his thoughts or feelings. This is a huge relief to her, her family knows about her gift/curse because it effects the females from her dad's side. With her mother, father, and four older brothers, she tries to live in solitude in the Yorkshire countryside because of the toll it takes on her to try and keep her walls up so that she isn't constantly hit with others emotions and thoughts. Since she is an heiress, she decides to throw out that she and Faelan should get married. Even though she fears Faelan's reputation she wants a family and doesn't want to fall into the pit of despair one of her aunts did, who ended up killing herself because of her ability.
"Good God, man," he exclaimed. "Are you in love with her?"
Roddy bit her lip in the long pause that followed, afraid that Iveragh would miss another golden opportunity.
But this time the earl took his cue. In a strangely subdued voice, he said, "It's quite possible that I am."
They've only had a handful of conversations by this time but Kinsale, even in this obviously earlier work of hers, is great at showing those emotions under the rubble of damaged characters. The strangely subdued voice is a big clue that Faelan does have feelings. This story is all told from Roddy's point-of-view, it partly gets away with it because through Roddy's gift, we the reader can read other characters' thoughts and feelings, but Faelan is the exception. This is obviously done to keep him a mystery, is he really as evil as everyone says? But, like I said about Kinsale's skills, the reader can glean his true feelings in the subtleties.
She sat up and looked at him. "You're not a rake," she cried. "I believe you're a bloody farmer!"
By 12% we have the start of our marriage of convenience and by 20% they are married. I was excited because they were married so quickly, part of liking marriage of convenience trope is getting the part where they are forced together and have to learn one another. I think it was around 17% Faelan knows that Roddy has a gift, more in regards to her knowing emotions of animals, he's not afraid of it because he grew-up in Ireland and believes in the fae, which he considers Roddy a link to. This first half I liked how Faelan was considerate of Roddy, she's 19 to his 35, and his double speak goes above her head sometimes but it came off gentle teasing and I liked it. You can also tell he is hungry for love and when Roddy isn't afraid of him, he naturally leans toward her like a flower towards the sun (oof, reading purple prose is infecting my writing, lol).
His hand touched hers, covering the pale shape with another, larger one, entwining their fingers in a gesture that was no less intimate for being muffled by two layers of kidskin. He remained silent. He did not even look at her. Though he pressed his palm to hers steadily, she sat still, afraid to misinterpret. It was so strange, to have that touch and not be certain of the thought behind it.
More hand holding scenes in romance! These two are sweet together but, of course, we have a whole second half to fill and, unfortunately, it gets filled with misunderstanding after misunderstanding that a quick conversation and stating of intents could have solved. The big one is Roddy's childhood friend Geoffrey, who is also Faelan's childhood friend as he once saved Geoffrey's life. Faelan is sweet and caring towards Roddy but his character also flips and has seething jealously, he constantly thinks Roddy wants to or is sleeping with Geoffrey. When he then is cold towards her, Roddy instantly thinks Faelan doesn't love her and she's all alone in her feelings. This gets repeated/rehashed over and over.
Because if he was human and not marble; if his heart and his mind were flesh and blood— then he said hurtful things because he was hurting. And he hurt now because she had the power to wound him.
Roddy thinks this at 32% and I was excited because I thought she had Faelan's number but nope, this thought happens but then goes back to repeating lack of communication misunderstandings. The second half moves to Ireland because that is where Faelan's estate is and building that back up is what he wanted Roddy's money for and since this is 1797, the Irish Rebellion comes into play. Geoffrey has guns he wants Faelan to smuggle on his property for the United Irishmen and this leads to danger from British soldiers. Faelan doesn't want anything to do with either side and just wants to farm his estate land but outside players keep disrupting that. I enjoyed the history incorporating of this rebellion but with the whole fae and magic threads coming in and, honestly, kind of confusing matters, it made this second half feel more manic. The paranormal/fantasy really comes into play with fae stealing characters away for days at a time and playing with characters lives.
Fionn smiled, her sly smile, bright and somehow terrible to look upon. "Ah. You think to bargain. Your wife. Do you care for her so much?"
From around 65% on, the story gets really manic with trying to weave and tie-in the fae, rebellion, and Faelan's mother and uncle plots. I haven't talked about the rumor that Faelan killed his father and his relationship with his mother and how it seems her and his uncle scammed him out of Faelan's money for the estates because I'm not quite sure I understand it myself. It gets quickly dumped and wrapped up at the end with a reveal but again, I'd probably only get a C on a test about it. Just know, it also ties-in to why Roddy can't read Faelan's thoughts and emotions and all this doesn't get answered until 10mins left in the book.
MacLassar made short work of a loaf of hard bread. She lifted his foot and inspected the bandage, made of a ripped cravat and tied with careful skill. Faelan did this, she thought, and suddenly her eyes went blurry and her throat closed.
MacLassar was Roddy's pet pig and again, a sweet moment that happened after a miscommunication that had Faelan thinking Roddy cheated on him with Geoffrey and leading to Roddy thinking Faelan turned in Geoffrey and her brother to the British. So much repetitive misunderstandings, that made a mess of the second half! I did think modern romance could learn a thing or two from this couple's first long sex scene, slowed down and emotion that brought the heat rather than rushed slide part A into part B but the mixture of paranormal/fantasy elements, historical rebellion, and marriage of convenience needed to be edited down from misunderstanding after misunderstanding. The ending was a little surprising and abrupt from the paranormal/fantasy angle and I think my head is still trying to work out Faelan's family reveals from the last 10mins. Unless you're craving some old school-ness, I'd skip this one and read Prince of Midnight instead.
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
50%
"You love me, do you?" He caught her cheek and turned her. The savagery had faded from his hard features, but his eyes were still as light and cold as winter frost. "Little girl," he mocked. "You love this---" He moved his hand between her thighs, and Roddy drew in her breath. "You love the devil's touch, cailian sidhe. Not the devil."
Could do w/out "Little girl" :/ But this has improved since beginning 10%
Faelan had me noting how caring he was with Roddy, mostly in regards to age difference (35,19) life experience but then he flashes to '80s bodice ripper hero/self-published mafia boss in a blink of an eye. It's making me reading this in 2022 see him as incredibly immature.
Monday, May 16, 2022
#TBRChallenge: May - Tales of Old
This #TBRChallenge is set-up by @SuperWendy (blog). Besides the theme months, this is a pretty relaxing challenge and you can join at any time. 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.
It's already May and this is the first time I've been able to be enough ahead of the game to post early about what I'm reading for the challenge. Whoooeee busy bee. May's theme was Tales of Old and, of course, I took this to mean ye ol' Bodice Rippers. Laura Kinsale is one heck of a polarizing author, folks are loving or hating. Her style is definitely different, you'll have to search under the rubble for meaning and emotions. I've been meh on her (Shadowheart) to losing my emotional mind (Prince of Midnight - seriously read this and then come talk to me about it). Kinsale doesn't have a large backlist but Uncertain Magic has been on my tbr for what I'll guess to be around 20yrs, so I decided to pick it for this month.
I'm 10% in and it's showing its 1987 publishing date. Roderica, Roddy, (I can't tell if I hate this name or love it) has a "gift" that allows her to read human and animal! emotions and thoughts. She once read her mom's thoughts about cheating on her father, EEK. Surprisingly, or should that be devilishly?, she can't read anything from Faelan Savigar (how 'bout that name), The DEVIL EARL. This is refreshing for Roddy and once she learns he needs money, she suggests they marry. Everyone seems to fear the Earl, whispers of murder!, but Roddy is all-in.
Like I said, this first 10% has been a bit rough getting into but there's a scene where Faelan is asking her dad for her hand in marriage and the dad asks if Faelan loves Roddy and he kind of bewilderingly says yes, Roddy overhears this and thinks he's being a great actor but I think Kinsale is doing her Kinsale trademark emotions under the rubble and I feel that he is already having those "where did you come from, dazzled, you're nice to me??, and what is this heart thing in my chest beating harder?" emotions.
It really could go either way at the moment, meh to losing emotional mind. Can't wait to discuss on Wednesday!
TBRChallenges:
January - Riskier Business by Tessa Bailey
February - A Kiss At Midnight by Eloisa James
April - The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Review: The Virgin and the Rogue
The Virgin and the Rogue by Sophie JordanMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
1.5 stars
The first 40% of this wasn't for me. The heroine gets awful cramps and her sister makes concoctions to help with the cramps, except this time her tweaking of it creates an aphrodisiac which causes the heroine to get horny af. She's the quiet sister and has been engaged to a childhood neighbor, who I thought she was kind of friends with but later in the story they don't seem to have that relationship at all. At the same time this aphrodisiac hits her, our hero shows up to stay at his step-brother's house, even though they don't really have a relationship but he's a lost soul right now. At night they meet up in the hallway and the heroine jumps the hero's bones and grinds on him to completion. The first 40% is pretty much the heroine in heat and the hero benefiting?/enduring? it.
There was about 10% in the middle that I enjoyed, because our heroine and hero actually talk and show some development of feelings. I love how historical romance can show the heat and emotions in the subtleties and I'm a sucker for innocuous scenes like this:
She moistened her lips and pressed, “What is your name?”
He sent her a small smile. “You know my name.”
“Kingston is a surname.”
“It’s all anyone ever calls me.”
She frowned. “I’d like to call you by your name. Your true name.”
“You’d be the only one to use it.”
The only one. At that, she hesitated. She knew she should let the matter drop. It would be far too intimate to be the only person using his Christian name. She didn’t want that intimacy to exist between them. Still, she heard herself saying, “I don’t mind that.”
After several beats of silence, he answered. Over the chirping of birds and wind rustling in the branches, he said, “It’s Samuel. Sam.”
When they call each other by their first names, gah, I love it because of the closeness/intimacy it shows.
Anyway, after that middle, the second half has the heroine still dealing with her childhood betrothal, she begins to question it around 65% and then breaks it off 75%, which is too late in the story for me; it doesn't leave enough time to give me what I want from my mains. The heroine and hero don't spend enough time together in the second half to develop the emotion I wanted between them and then when the hero comes back after leaving and puts his heart out there to ask her to marry him, she brushes him off until an extremely hurried scene of the hero, kind of stupidly, risks his life and “Oh! I just realized I love him!”. MEH.
I feel like this tried to meld erotic and historical romance but the beginning was goofy, am I supposed to be laughing at her being in heat? instead of hot, steamy, she's horny and then absurdly their penetrative sex scene was almost blink and you miss it. If I want erotic, I read erotic, this wasn't hot enough to me for that, when I want historical romance, I read historical romance but this didn't have near enough the character development for me to enjoy it in that aspect (Jess Michaels does a better job of melding hot historical). So, yeah, this was a fail for me but I see a lot enjoyed it and thought it was steamy hot, so ymmv!
**************************************************************************
How do I feel about the title, can't really answer that. But broke a nail clicking on the cover to enlarge.
To be polite about it, I'm a cover looky-lou and this is on my to-read list for that alone.
View all my reviews
Review: Girl in Ice
Girl in Ice by Erica FerencikMy rating: 3 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.
Anxiety: the crippling kind. I'm tethered to the familiar, the safe, or what I perceive as safe.
Girl in Ice was a mystery, thriller, and touch of scifi story that took an intriguing idea but didn't completely deliver on all of its executions. Told in first person from Val, a linguist who has anxiety that keeps her from deviating from the known, she eats the same meals, can't bring herself to travel to new places, and lost her twin brother to suicide five months ago. She receives a phone call from her brother's mentor who he had been studying climate change with on a small uninhabited island off Greenland's northwest coast, Wyatt claims he found a young girl frozen in the ice and she has miraculously thawed out alive and is frantically speaking a language that no one can understand. Wyatt wants Val to put her linguistic genius to use and help him figure out what the girl is saying. Val's anxiety makes it nearly impossible for her to travel but she never believed the story of her brother's suicide and her father is pressuring her to go to the Arctic Circle to find out the truth of what really happened.
What is she saying, what does she want, what has happened to her?
The Arctic Circle setting with it's isolation helps to add a sense of eerie and helplessness and the small cast of characters, Val, Wyatt, the brusque mechanic Jeanne, the married couple scientists, and the girl found in the ice, Sigrid, narrow the focus and add to the thriller feel of urgency for Val to figure out what is going on before it's too late. The story was a bit bottom heavy with the slower creeping of Val arriving in the Arctic Circle, introduction of characters, very gradual growing of understanding between Val and Sigrid, and then the rush to understanding and some reveals in the last 20%. That very ending rush left some answers in its wake, the scifi component and some of the mystery but left others missing, like the ultimate answer about some deaths. The author almost gave too much backstory to some characters because their inclusion left some threads dangling. I also was a little disappointed in how Jeanne's character was utilized and the ending.
To be encased in this glacial prison, eyes frozen open in terror, how long had she been like that?
The use of a very real crisis, climate change, and then adding in some danger of ice winds (a changing of temperature so quick it instantly freezes people) and then adding in the scifi-ish elements made this story's basics intriguing but the rushing in the ending gave this more of a deflated balloon feeling. Some side stories and secondary characterizations ending up not feeling needed because of how they weren't wrapped up, not puzzle piece explained, and ultimately felt needed to be edited out. However, there were some memorable scenes, like the mass grave site of flash frozen people caught in mid-battle, and the mystery/thriller feeling of dread is definitely felt in the middle with questions of is Val's anxiety the culprit or is she really in danger. If looking for a touch of scifi in your mystery and thriller reading, this would provide an easy afternoon chilling read.
Friday, May 13, 2022
Reading Update: Page 1
🧀🍻🧊🕵♀️
It's finally warming up in my neck of the woods and I'm deciding to read a story set in the Arctic Circle 😂
Val doesn't believe her twin brother committed suicide and she's going to search for the truth while being the only one who can speak a dead Nordic language to a girl that has just defied science by thawing out alive from the ice.
Sounds coldly intriguing!
Review: All Fired Up
All Fired Up by Dylan NewtonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
2.5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Zander Matthews.
Yep, she remembered him, all right. He was her first and only one-night stand. Well, technically, it was two nights, two mornings, and one long, glorious afternoon, nine months and twenty-five days ago. But who was counting?
All Fired Up stars the youngest brother of the hero and best friend of the heroine from How Sweet It Is. I didn't read that first book but the author relays enough information, Imani and Zander had a two-night stand after the main couple's wedding, that I had a an idea of what happened between them. Both appear to have had feelings after their time together but Imani panicked and ghosted Zander, ignoring all his texts and calls. When Imani has to come back to the town everyone lives in to help her grandmother Gigi after she has knee surgery, there is no avoiding Zander as he's intertwined with her life now as her bestfriend's brother-in-law.
“Look, I want to know if Imani Lewis is renting space in my head because she's 'the one' everyone says will someday appear, or if she's only intriguing because she ghosted me.
I do think not reading the first book and enjoying that couple's romance did hurt my enjoyment of this, especially the first half. A good chunk of the beginning is about the gender reveal/baby shower of the past main character bestfriend, in fact, a lot of this book deals with her pregnancy, the reveal shower and delivery. I didn't really care about that character and wished the focus could have been more on Imani and Zander. I was also missing a little bit of those beginning romance feelings as they seem to have already developed those feelings from their two-night stand, I wish we could have gotten a prologue or some flashback scenes to see some of those two days. I'm not sure if those scenes were shown in the first book but that would probably help set the foundation for this one.
“Will you go on a first date with me, Zander Matthews?”
Basically, Zander was in the Marines, been to war, and helped his middle brother recover from a war injury, which has taught him that life is fleeting and to live in the moment. He owns three ceramic stores (All Fired Up) but is known as the guy who doesn't make plans and keeps everything light and breezy, making some think he is irresponsible. Imani's mother had Bipolar Disorder and she lost her to a fire when candles burned down the apartment, this has caused Imani to be strict about always having a plan and keeping things structured so they don't get unmanageable, out of hand. Seems like opposites attract but Zander is pretty much all in with Imani right away and decides that he will let her set the pace and just constantly be doing things for her that she needs done or starts stressing about. It makes it kind of lopsided then with Zander constantly giving and Imani not sure she even wants to give him a chance. Imani constantly claims she wants to keep things just friends but then gets grumpy when Zander does that, even has a trying to keep the anger down jealous moment. These two never quite jived for me with their different vibes and even though the cover has a fun cartoon-y cover, there are some heavier topics in here, the bipolar disorder I mentioned along with death of parent, Imani's panic attacks, Zander and his brother's PTSD from war, and a fraught birthing scene. Imani's grandmother has a parrot that likes to curse (says b*tch a lot) that I think was supposed to lighten the mood but those antics didn't quite do it for me. The inside does make good on the cover's promise of hot air balloons, though, with a romantic date scene.
If you read the first, you'd probably enjoy this more as the first book's couple has a strong showing in this and I missed some scenes of Imani and Zander's first two nights together that could have shown me those romantic feelings developing.
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Review: The Jade Temptress
The Jade Temptress by Jeannie LinMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
4.3 stars
I buddy read this, for full comments and thoughts: Jade Temptress Buddy Read
I'm going to tell you all now, get those bets in on Mingyu for my favorite lead in the Romancies awards. She's a powerhouse in this and I'd read this a million times over solely because of her.
That blow had quieted her momentarily, but it did not silence her forever. Mingyu had never forgotten.
I have some complaints and struggled with the ultimate way the murder mystery wrapped up, it felt really loose with some reveals and even though they were red-herrings some characters really faded away to the sides making the ending of the murder mystery feel really sedate. Xi Lun's character purpose really fell apart for me.
The romance was restrained underlining emotion but the last 20% I spent wanting to wring Kaifeng's neck and some of the previous work done, especially by Mingyu felt ignored, which was really disappointing.
But, that last 5%ish had my eyes watering because of how Mingyu and Kaifeng were together.
Saturday, May 7, 2022
80%
“I want Inspector Xi Lun,” she declared. “I want him destroyed.”
YES!!!! Mingyu really is a powerhouse and I feel her inner rage-strength in this moment. There is no way flames didn't flare up behind her when she said this, lol.
Friday, May 6, 2022
Reading Update: Page 1
Having some lunch and then settling in with my weekend reading. They had a one-night stand a year ago and are now going to fix up a house together. But they're totally going to keep it friend zone. For real. Totally.
(Lucky for us, I just bet that doesn't happen 😉)
Have a great weekend, everyone!
65%
but it wasn't peace. It was silence.
Gawd, this scene. Mingyu's quiet desperation is heating up.
Maybe current issues had this scene hitting hard but, ooof, Mingyu wanting to say to hell with silence.
More comments and quotes: Jade Temptress Buddy Read
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Review: The Hanged Man's Tale
The Hanged Man's Tale by Gerald JayMy 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.
Dangling from the steel beam, the dead body must have appeared as an eerie vision. Hanging upside down. The ankle swaying at the end of a rope.
Second in the Inspector Mazarelle Mystery series, The Hanged Man's Tale, has our Commandant Paul Mazarelle getting a promotion to join the Brigade Criminelle, which are the top 100 detectives in France. Along with his Lt. Jeannot and detail man Maurice, they are assigned to a murder case that had the body displayed hanging upside down in a tunnel and a hanged man tarot card in his jacket pocket. The victim turns out to be a former a police officer currently working as a PI. When everyone around Mazarelle wants the easy win with pinning the case on a Mafia Romani man, Mazarelle doesn't like how everything is adding up and soon begins to unravel a tangled web of far-right white supremacists, dirty cops, and newspapers paying for inside information to cases.
On the third floor the plaque on the wall announced La Brigade Criminelle with its thistle emblem and motto: “Qui s'y frotte s'y pique.” Meaning, as they say, “If you play with fire, you might get burned.”
I didn't read the first in the series but as this is more of a police procedural, focus more on the following and working the clues of the case, I didn't have a problem jumping in here. I did think the beginning felt jumbled with sentences trying to pack in numerous characters, setting the scene, and police organization names and structures. Around 30% the story evens out as the introductions are out of the way and we follow Mazarelle around. I felt like I did get to know Mazarelle, his wife dying of cancer, the numerous mentions of how big he is, and his general outlook on life, but, even as the lead, he's didn't become a character I necessarily grew to care about, the police procedural and solving the mystery are the stars of the story, so I can't say I'd be enticed to follow the character on another murder mystery.
Still, it was becoming clear---someone was messing with his investigation.
Definitely.
But who? And why?
When the story starts, it's from the pov of a character named Max, who has been radicalized and is setting up to assassinate the president of France, he fails when Mazarelle catches him and then dies when he tries to escape during transport after his arrest. The story then moves a few weeks into the future and the new murder case of the hanged man starts and you have to keep Max in the back of your mind until much later when his thread comes back into play. The threads I mentioned of far-right, dirty cops, and murder are credibly put together by Mazarelle and I liked how some of the connections were written out but I did think that the murderer/s was a bit sensational, mostly because the tone of story and Mazarelle's character was more grainy, low-key. The murderer/s story does give it a pop of lurid thriller but not sure it completely sat right in the overall tone of story. The guilty and innocent aren't obvious right away and side-characters come and go to muck about but Mazarelle shifts through it all, while surviving his own attempted murder. If you like police procedurals set in France, then the solving of a hanged man murder and all the tangled threads it brings together would be a good way to spend the afternoon.
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
45%
“Are we truly supposed to forget?” he asked quietly.
There was no need to mention what he spoke of. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“Then it did happen.”
He reached for her, but went no farther than the edge of her sleeve. He let the silk slip along his fingertips before releasing it.
Mingyu followed his every movement with her eyes.
More comments and quotes: Jade Temptress Buddy Read
(You'll get to read my conspiracy theory!)
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Reading Update: Page 1
Going to cheer for this Inspector to catch the serial killer and lose myself in some mystery and enjoying the freedom to read.
Monday, May 2, 2022
Reading Update: 15%
“Why did you spare me that night?” she asked him now.
Oh my god, Yes! We finally get a peek at what went down between Mingyu and Kaifeng in the last book.
Also, yes, because I have great enabler friends, I'm buddy reading this already, lol.
If want to join or follow along: The Jade Temptress Buddy Read comments
Review: Never a Duke
Never a Duke by Grace BurrowesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
But Lady Rosalind had sought him out because his native language was Cockney and his home shire was the stews.
We first met Ned when he was a boy in Newgate, helping Quinn Wentworth (My One and Only Duke) survive. If you've read the previous six books in the series, you've seen Quinn and the whole Wentworth family adopt Ned, give him the family name, and have him work up to manager at the Wentworth bank. As this is closing out the Rogues to Riches series, about the Wentworth family, I'm not sure new readers would want to jump in here. The family members all make appearances and have their own separate scenes, usually discussing Ned, readers of the series will enjoy this last look at the family but I can see newbies missing a lot of family dynamics and feeling lost or bored. I enjoyed this last look at the Wentworth family growing, healing, and coming together.
“[...] Is that why you kissed me, because I exchanged some small talk with her and his loathsome lordship?”
“Because you put her in her place,” Rosalind said, “because you got even with Lindy for me, because I can ask you to escort me, and because you read stories to little girls and pine over their lost affections, and because...” Rosalind fell silent, appalled that tears were threatening.
The story starts right away with Ned getting a letter from a mysterious woman asking for him to meet in the park. When he shows up, he sees Lady Rosalind Kinwood, an earl's daughter known for being a bit of a termagant in the ton. She claims her lady's maid is missing and she is worried for her. Ned is in the ton's world, he's invited to events but not truly accepted, with his background gossiped about, Rosalind thinks he's the perfect person to help her search for her maid. Right away, from their first meeting, Rosalind and Ned have that delicate reach and retreat, spark, and yearning for what's behind that glimpse of something more relationship that Burrowes' is so good at. This couple is never loud but have that quiet, underneath those words, emotions are burning quality that make them a subtle treat to read.
As she pulled off her gloves and hauled him closer, her last rational thought was that maybe with Ned Wentworth, she could have more of celebration, and much, much less settling.
The mystery and search is threaded throughout the story, I liked at how at 14% we get a scene with the missing women, as the investigation goes on they find more lady's maids and companions are missing, so the reader is let in a little more of the mystery. This is not quick paced, the searching for the women might feel a little slow at times as the Wentworth family and Ned go through some growing pains with where adult Ned fits in now and the romance between Rosalind and Ned is given soft, tender time through carriage rides and picnics to grow. Around 50% there is already marriage talk between these two but the search for the women and Rosalind's bad tempered father and brothers work to keep the two apart.
He kissed her gloved fingers, and some of the bleakness left his eyes. “You are a marvel, Rosalind Kinwood. A blazing, beautiful marvel.”
You'll feel for Ned when he holds himself a bit apart from the Wentworth family as he can't quite shed the adopted kid feeling and see how Rosalind shares his feelings of feeling apart as she lost her mother young and her father and brothers move from ignoring her, sending her away, using her, and picking on her. I thought the ending, with the reveal and wrap-up of the mystery felt a bit too quick and with the way it was tied with certain characters came off somewhat slapdash. I also felt this with reveals about Ned's family, there were some big emotional moments that were way too rushed and if we're not getting a series spin-off set in Australia, I'll feel even more disappointed in what the point of it all was. Overall, though, I'm so happy Ned got his happily ever after and a heartfelt talk with Quinn that had him more settled in the Wentworth family. This had a kissing scene that made my eyes want to water, a soft vibe with gentle banter and flirting, and a late kidnapping for a touch of danger. I'll miss the Wentworth family but enjoyed this last look at them.
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