Reading Update: Page 1

 

One of my secret desires in life was to be a ballerina, unfortunately, I live the awkward clumsy life instead. Fortunately, I get to enjoy the talent of others. 

Everyone knows Misty Copeland, but the first to break out is usually not the First. Lydia Abarca had major success during her time but I've never heard her name before! 

Time to learn about the Dance Theatre of Harlem and all their accomplishments that helped pave the way for others. 

The Swans of Harlem by Karen Valley preorder (April 30th) link

Romano Chicken with Lemon Garlic Pasta recipe

Review: Here We Go Again

Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

She’d been publicly ridiculed and dumped, Joe was injured, and she’d rear-ended the shit out of her childhood best friend turned nemesis’s car. 

Here We Go Again was a story of second chance love, grief, and shedding those childhood hurts. Logan and Rosemary were childhood friends who's friendship ended when a kiss throws confusion and misunderstandings into the mix. Now, as adults teaching at their old high-school, they carefully try to avoid each other. Logan wanted to travel and see the world but when her mother up and left her father, she didn't want to hurt her father by leaving him too, so she still lives at home and has a string of meaningless relationships. Rosemary was the dedicated student who left and taught at a prestigious school, until her dedication was amplified by her anxiety and always having to be perfect, all leading to her having a break down and coming home. When a teacher that made a huge difference in both their lives, ropes them into a cross-country trip, they're forced to confront each other and themselves. 

She is thirty-two, crashing into Logan. Always crashing into her. Three years of friendship, four years of hating each other, ten years of not talking, and then this. 

I'm not going to lie to you, you're going to hurt when you read this. The teacher, Joe, has cancer and he's decided to not do another round of chemo, so he only has a few weeks to live. The road trip starts in the first half and we get “I've made a binder for the trip” Rosemary and “Let's detour!” Logan and Joe, butting up against each other. The clashing personalities help readers learn more about the characters, Rosemary is scared of not being perfect and her ADHD plays into this, her father dying young, and having a workaholic mother, have made her insulate herself because she can't handle surprises. Logan also has ADHD and with her mother just leaving and not staying in her life, she's scared to really get close to someone in fear of the hurt she'll endure if they leave. Individually, these two have issues to work out and then there is the hold-over of the “kiss”. Logan doesn't even know that Rosemary is a lesbian until a little before the midway point. 

Because Logan was everything she wasn’t: tall and loud and goofy; brave and unfiltered, quick to laughter, quicker to tears, every big feeling inside her worn boldly on the outside. 

The road trip has Logan and Rosemary calling a friendship truce for Joe and as they detour more, their walls start to break down. This was told in povs from Logan and Rosemary but Joe is a big part of the story and half-way through, he gets his own second chance when one of his life's regrets takes them to Mississippi and an old love. Rosemary and Logan have their own break through and we get an open door scene as they come together. I thought the story slowed some as they stayed in MS but then it rushes as the reality of Joe's illness hits and they quickly make their way to Maine where he wants to die in his cabin on the water. 

Rosemary kisses Logan Maletis in the rain outside an Albuquerque hospital, and dammit, she tastes like strawberries. The grief that's been building hits hard in this last half ending and while Rosemary has pretty much dealt with her issues after a session with her therapist, Logan still struggles, especially with Joe's reality finally hitting her. We get, kind of a rushed, moment with Logan seeking out her mother and finally trying to put that pain to bed. 

Everything is beautiful and painful. 

Even though some levity pops up here and there with Logan and Rosemary playing off each other, there is so much grief in this (not that romance can't have grief!) and Joe plays such a big part, that I hesitate to strictly call this romance genre, it's more fiction with romance to me but your mileage may vary and all that. The, still, realities of being gay in America were a part of the story instead of being ignored and added a fabric layer, there were some flashbacks to Logan and Rosemary in high-school that I thought helped fill out their background, and we got an epilogue that showed these two were on the HEA road. If you want to read a road tripping, second chances, putting childhood hurts away, with it's going to make you hurt grief, then you should pick this one up.

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15%

It took her papou a decade or so to come around to the idea of having a lesbian granddaughter, but her dad embraced it instantly, kept the delicious food, and ditched the religious trauma. 

On leaving the Greek Orthodox Church. 

IMHO, the way to do it regarding culture and religion. 

*loukoumades getting a shout-out!

Reading Update: 50%

“There’s four things a real man has to be able to do for a woman.” 

“Exactly how many man-lists do you have?” 

He let my wrist go and ticked the items off on his fingers. “Fix her car. Grill her a steak. Kick the ass of any guy who makes her cry. And fuck her so hard she wakes up half-crippled.”

I started the After Hours Buddy Read over on GoodReads and, well, I've read half the book already. McKenna can pull me in like no other. 

Review: Morning Glory

Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 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. 

WANTED—A HUSBAND. Need Healthy man of any age willing to work spread and share the place. See E. Dinsmore, top of Rock Creek Road

April's TBRChallenge theme was No Place Like Home, so I chose Morning Glory, a book on my tbr for decades. A drifter who's never had a home but works hard to make one with a widow, sounded like a perfect fit to the theme. The first half of this, I raced through. There's a prologue of a young mother bringing her baby home and her parents locking her up in the house because they're ashamed of her “sin”, it's 1917 and unwed mother's are not looked upon kindly. The story then quickly jumps to 1941 and to a drifter named Will about to be fired from a sawmill because it's found out that he served five years in prison for murdering a woman. I had to pause to imagine one of those graphics with arrows pointing at the book listing tropes, “Murderer!” “Shut-in recluse!”. 

Will Parker's eyes were drawn to her stomach as she rested a hand on it. He thought about how maybe there was more than one kind of prison. 

Will starving and having no money, decides that he will check out the widower at the edge town “Crazy Elly” and her newspaper ad asking for a husband. When I tell you, the pain of these two, gah. Will's constantly thinking, please let me stay, knowing he looks like a half-starved vagabond, who Elly knows, because he told her, that he served jail time for killing a woman but drawn to something warm in Elly's aura. The house and property are run down but Elly and her two small boys seem happy and for someone who was abandoned as a baby and on his own his whole life, Will can't help but want to be welcomed into that magic, even if Elly is pregnant with a third child. Elly for her part knows she needs help and is constantly thinking, please stay, even though she knows she's not pretty, has children and pregnant, run down farm, and is called “Crazy Elly” because of her past. They're both yearning for what the other can give and I honestly felt like a voyeur reading their relationship this first half as they slowly grew to trust one another. 

She was a good mother, a fine woman who'd been locked in a house and called crazy, and if he didn't tell her she wasn't, who would? 

The first half also gives a pov from a woman in town called Lula, who is said to run “hot” and wants Will but he rebuffs her because he knows those kind of women can lead to trouble because of his past. Readers do learn about the murder he went to jail for and it's, probably of course, nothing that makes him nonredeemable. Lula is that classic “other woman” villain that makes you uncomfortable reading because she's backed by a whole lot of slut-shaming, but it's, pretty obvious, why she's included and while she disappears for the majority of the middle of the story, her set-up comes into play for the last half. There's also a Miss Beasley, librarian, that was a great character (Mentally, I've given her a novella HEA with the lawyer) but, geez, yeah for women with facial hair being talked about but did the hair on her upper lip have to be mentioned, SO MANY times? Like, damn, give the gal a break. Anyway, by midpoint, Will and Elly have decided to marry and they have grown to the I love yous. I can say, even if it didn't feel over-the-top passionate (which can be considered better by some romance readers) I did believe they loved each other. Elly growing up locked up in her home, constantly being told she's a sin, until the law forced her grandparents (side question: I thought it was going to be directly said but am I the only one who thought her grandfather raped her mother and that was what was with the “drawn shades” business?) to let her go to school, but she was considered “crazy” because of her lack of socialization, and only getting befriended by her first husband (he died a'la Bridgerton, bee stings) had never really had a man care for her the way Will did, or turn her on. Will was never cared for either and had no one to care for, so when they meet, it's a pretty simple scenario of two people deserving love and finding the person that connects with them to give it. It felt real their feelings and why I said it gave a voyeuristic feeling for me. 

She smiled into the bluebird's painted eye, her own shining with delight. "A bluebird...imagine that." She pressed it to her heart and beamed at Will. "How did you know I like birds?" 

He knew. He knew. 

The second half is where things really slowed down for me. Pearl Harbor gets bombed and Will gets drafted. There's a couple chapters of letter writing between Will, Elly, and Miss Beasley and then a really great scene where Elly has to rush to see Will before he gets shipped to the Pacific. She's had the baby by now (the birth scene was something else with Will playing doctor) and while they managed to have sex once before he left for boot camp, these two are ramped up. I love how the author described their attraction, from how Will was sitting in the chair and Elly eyeing him up and Elly breastfeeding with Will seeing her exposed boob, could definitely feel the tension in the air. Will gets injured and he's eventually sent home after being medically discharged because of shrapnel in his leg. The townspeople view him differently and he gets the respect he's craved but he's also suffering from PTSD and that delivers some strain between him and Elly until he eventually opens up to her. We're at around 80% when Lula comes back into the picture and Will's suddenly arrested for her murder. The ending was the court case and Elly trying to help prove him innocent until the last 5% gives us the HEA. 

He wanted to take her close, cradle her head and rub her shoulder and say. "Tell me...tell me what it is that hurts so bad, then we'll work at getting you over it." 

The first half, a slower moving but pulling you in with these two and their hurts and pains, learning to come together but the second half was a slower moving left me kind of disinterested ending. I read this in almost one shot and kind of glad I did, because even though slower moving usually calls for savoring, pacing out, I feel like this would be one that would be hard to pick up again, so my two cents of advice. These two will linger with me because of how real they felt but I'm not sure I could recommended, maybe just the first half and that meet-up in Augusta. Hope springs eternal for a Donald Wade, Thomas, and Lizzy P. spin-off series! (Elly's kids) 

Guess what I'm watching tonight? (Hint: check out what's on Tubi)

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Monday calls for a jazz up, so Firecracker Chicken dipping and a road romance! 

Logan and Rosemary were childhood bestfriends, but an incident in the summer before high school turned them bitter rivals. 

Which makes being teachers in their thirties at their hometown high school awkward. 

But when a former English teacher they both loved, only has a few months to live, they're forced together for a cross-country trip. 

I have a feeling this is going to be emotional, old hurts and buried deep feelings, all while forced proximity makes them deal with these issues. 

Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun purchase link

Firecracker Chicken Wraps recipe

Review: Orphia And Eurydicius

Orphia And Eurydicius by Elyse John
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Snuffing out the voices of women. It was how they set up the game so that we would lose, even as we convinced ourselves that it was our fault. If we could shout for help, then we might take the hands of our sisters, swim ashore, and manage to win. 

Orphia and Eurydicius was a gender swapped Orpheus and Eurydice myth reimagining that had Orphia battling her father Apollo, men (gods and human), and systematic sexism. The beginning shows us an early twenties Orphia as she was taken by her father and placed on the Whispering Isles to learn combat and battle the men. This has lead to Orphia being looked at with some sneer in regards to, what is perceived in their society, as a more man like build, features, and mannerisms. Told she won't be able to leave until she beats the Prince, Orphia does have one friend Jason, who then introduces her to Eurydicius, a shield maker. 

What I was looking, I realised, was a man who appreciated my manner. The desire in his eyes mangled with awe and something surprisingly soft. 

Respect. That was the word. 

It's instant attraction between the two and he gives Orphia some confidence to explore her wanting to burst free poetry side. Even though it's one of her father's powers, Apollo has forbid Orphia to take up the lyre, so when she does, she understands the danger but can't contain that part of herself any longer. Apollo, of course, finds out and it's godly anger, he whisks Orphia away to Mt. Olympus and destroys the Isle, leaving Orphia to think Jason and Eurydicius are dead. With a new setting of Mt. Olympus, numerous gods and goddesses come into scene and it becomes apparent that the goddesses also live in a sexist world, their stories, only told by men, are skewed and told through a lens of sexism. Orphia learns her mother is Calliope, Chief of the Muses and Orphia was not given up by her but taken. With some help from Hera, Orphia gets her wish to tell poetry and goes to live with the Muses. 

The thrill of expressing myself had driven me into fresh imaginings, until I could not see the risk I took. 

The middle of the story was a lot of Orphia spending time with different Muses and learning from them, always discussing how sexism comes into play. It's then learned that Jason and Eurydicius did not die on the Isle and we get some romance interludes, focuses on how Eurydicius likes to be lead by Orphia, exploring the general societal gender swapping, which eventually leads to them quietly and hurriedly married. While the story was mostly focusing on Orphia and introducing other characters through her journey, the second half begins with Orphia being betrayed into going with Jason on his quest (Argo, Golden Fleece) and separating from Eurydicius. I thought some of this veered a little bit too much into “see how much mythology research I did” and it felt less like Orphia's story. 

I wanted to tell stories of men who were soft when they were supposed to be hard; of women who were loud when they were supposed to be docile; of people of every nature who felt scarcely visible, and wished to make themselves whole through my stories. 

The ending brought us back to more of the love story and we get Orphia trying to rescue Eurydicius from the Underwold, the Underworld providing some good atmospheric setting. The vast majority of this followed the traditionally known myths, some events mixed around here and there but all told through a focus on sexism. A gender swapping adds some new angles and layers to this myth and if you're interested in some goddesses getting their due, some righteous anger, and challenging of sexist norms, then this could be a new one to pick up.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

It's a snow day Monday for me! Obviously, calls for soup and a book. 

Historical fiction, Greek mythology to start the week off.  

Orphia's a warrior who dreams of poetry and when a chance meeting with Eurydicius, a shield maker, gives her the courage to defy her father, it changes the course of history. 

Argonauts on quests, angry Gods, dragons, and fighting for love. I love a retelling, reimagining of an adventure tale! 

Orphia and Eurydicius by Elyse John preorder (April 2nd) link

Tomato Orzo Soup with Turkey Meatballs recipe

Review: The Emperor and the Endless Palace

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

No, the question is not whether fox spirits exist. The question is: If one comes for you, can you resist it? 

The Emperor and the Endless Palace was a drug and sex fueled Cloud Atlas like story woven from Chinese fables, mythology, and historical fiction. Following three timelines from individual point-of-views, Dong Xian 4 BCE, He Shican 1740, and River Present day, the reader is taken on a reincarnation journey as three souls are forever intertwined. 

“To put it as simply as possible, our souls are caught in an endless loop. No matter how many lifetimes we endure, we will not be released from an ancient curse. And once upon a lifetime, I made a promise to you that I would break it.” 

As the reader travels in and out of each time period, commonalities are revealed and a picture of tangled love and a magical force working to interfere becomes apparent. What is not always so apparent is which reincarnated soul belongs to whom and who are the souls that truly belong together. There's some initial good vs. evil going on but I liked how as the story went on, it does murky up some of that conventional thinking and shows the battles of temptations and freedom of will playing their part. 

Dong Xian, this whole time you thought that you were playing the game, only to realize you are the game. 

Each timeline, whether it was Dong trying to strategize for power and influence in the Emperor's Palace against the Emperor's grandmother and cousin, He Shican trying to find where he fits in life and escaping his father's disappointment and unrequited from a doctor who took care of him, or River exploring his sexuality and living out for the first time, provided inner workings and deeper layers into these souls. I thought Dong Xian's timeline was the most thought out and worked the best, He Shican's was the most fantastical and River's looped and jumped around a bit too much creating a “does this all make sense?”. 

And I don’t know how else to describe a bittersweet feeling inside me— in this moment that I meet him, I realize I might be lonely for the rest of my life. 

His name is Joey. 

I would consider this at least straddling the erotic line, sex, and drugs, are constantly playing their part. I don't think I could say I felt the, modern conventional, love between the souls but the endlessly drawn to feeling came through. The writing created an easy pace, if not the story always being clear, and I flew through this. If looking for a reincarnation story that plays with temptations and freedom of will, the setting and influence of Chinese fantasy and historical fiction make this an interesting one to pickup.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

What a busy week! I'm looking forward to snuggling inside reading and eating as a snow storm hits this weekend. 

Following three different timelines, 4 BCE, 1740, and present day, two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime. 

Twist and turns as their timelines are woven together with treachery and love. They're drawn together and constantly tested. 

How fascinating does this sound!?! I'm thinking of a kind of Cloud Atlas? Can't wait to dive in! 

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang preorder (March 26th) link

Lemon Pesto Pasta with Shrimp recipe

#TRBChallenge Review: Ice Planet Barbarians

Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon
My rating: 2 of 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. 

This months #TBRChallenge theme was Not in Kansas Anymore, Ice Planet Barbarians immediately came to my mind. The female main character in this is abducted by aliens and then crash lands on another alien planet and since this is erotic and she ends up going to town with an alien, it's a subgenre of romance that I don't frequently dabble in. The heroine and I, Not in Kansas Anymore! 

First off, just let me say this: 

Y'all. Wut. 

That off my chest... 

It wasn’t a monster come to eat me. It was this monster. Who’s come to eat me out. 

Georgie wakes up groggy and confused, only to find out that she has been abducted by aliens. She's on a space ship in a holding cell with other young women and talking with one named Liz, she learns they are all young, healthy, and women who don't have any close familial ties from earth. The women in the holding cell seem to be “extras” as there are other women unconscious in pods. 

Ok, I'm with you. 

Then when another woman wakes up, she starts screaming, causing the other women to try and quiet her down, they're scared. The abducting aliens come into the room and grab the screaming woman and proceed to rape her repeatedly in the room in front of the other women. It's a very early scene and incredibly cringe worthy as the tone of this scene of rape did not fit in with what turns out to be a romance – erotic story; the way the whole thing was treated created a wonky vibe for me. 

Georgie is an intrepid heroine, she sets a plan to get the aliens to come into the holding cell and then the women will attack and, I guess, try to take over the ship (??). The plan involves throwing the women's poop and pee bucket on the alien coming into the cell to stun it and then attack. The pee and poop gets thrown, covering Georige too, but as she's trying to battle the alien, the women abandon her in fear and don't help. Fortunately, the ship gets some problem with it at that moment and the aliens decide to ditch the prisoner pod and Georgie and the other women are now crash landed on an alien planet. 

A lot of the women survive the crash but they're weak, cold, and starting to starve. One of the women was tagged with an interpreter sort of device to her ear (convenient!) and she heard the aliens say they were dumping them but going to come back for them with another ship. So pee and poop (I'm going to keep bringing this up) covered Georgie is sort of volunteered and picked to leave the ship to search for help. The world is close enough to Earth that Georgie can breath the air but it's temp is extremely cold. Just when she thinks she's going to freeze to death, she gets caught in a snare and a ribbed for her pleasure alien comes to the rescue. 

We do get Vektal's pov, which I liked and helped to add to the humorous, winking at the reader that this is kind of ridiculous, tone of the story. On Vektal's planet, you need to accept a worm like thing into your body, or you'll die from the atmosphere and this worm like thing makes your eyes glow and picks out your soulmate for you (convenient!). It starts rattling/purring at the first sight of Georgie. So, naturally, Vektal begins eating out Georgie (who is covered in pee and poop) as she's still passed out from being in the snare. Georgie wakes up to what Vektal is doing to her and we get this line: “It’s ticklish and it makes me squirm and I should be screaming no, help, rape and instead, I have the giggles.” 

Ok, I'm not really with you anymore. 

Do you all see what I mean about cringing and wonky vibes in a winking humor, romance – erotic tone story delivering this line? 

Georige's intrepid and smart (and still covered in pee and poop) and decides that Vektal is her best bet. They have a language barrier but kind of communicate enough to get some things across. Vektal's driving need is to feed and take care of Georgie, who he sees as his soulmate, while Georgie is trying to just not anger him and get him to go back up the mountain to help rescue the other women. Georgie bathes off the pee and poop! (I'm sorry, but I could not forget this and it ruined any chance I had of getting into the story up to this point until it was dealt with) 

Vektal's dick is basically a Rabbit 7000 and after some sex, Georgie's starting to get attached to the big blue horned, tailed guy. A snow storm has them going to “The Cave of the Elders” which turns out to be a space ship that wrecked centuries ago and stranded Vektal's people on the plant. Georgie learns this because she some how activates the ship's computer who tells her all this and uploads Vektal's language to her brain so she can communicate with him (convenient!). 

When Georgie is now able to tell Vektal about the other women, he is ecstatic, his people are dying because lack of available females. However, Georgie makes him promise that the women will have a choice in accepting their “soulmates” or not and since Vektal is the chief of their group (convenient!), he agrees. They go to Vektal's home to pick up more guys and then go to rescue the women. 

At the crashed spaceship they deal with the abductor aliens coming back and then decide if they're going to stay on this planet, accept the worm like thing, or fly?? Vektal's cave of elders space ship back to Earth???? Staying, is obviously, the more convenient choice. The story leaves with someone else being a soulmate and ample women and big blue guys to eventually soulmate up for future books in the series. Vektal and Georgie's relationship is sort of there if you want sex and a little bit of friendship connection and the worldbuilding is sort of there if you want a couple paragraphs of alien lore. I would have rated this higher as a romance erotic story, it's quick and gets the job done but that rape scene and Georgie's thoughts, really jarred that feeling for me (not to mention the continued existence of Georgie covered in pee and poop).

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Review: Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty by Judith Ivory
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 stars 

This will always be the HE BROKE DOWN THE DAMN DOOR TO GET TO HER book to me. 

An older former courtesan/mistress and the up and coming scholar that refuses to go away, fall in love despite the challenges. 

Beginning has a vague vibe of screwball comedy, the middle has hot chemistry/building friendship, later second half has a villain trying to mess things up for them, and then the ending returns to some screwball comedy vibes to deliver the HEA. 

I buddy read this so for my thoughts and comments on it Sleeping Beauty buddy read This author always gets me talking, she's so good at depicting love in all it's highs and lows and never fails at the emotion. 

The pacing did feel off in the later second half but this is a rich story if you like the plot working to enrich the romance, which did make some moments feel a little slow. 

Read this solely for their first sex scene but stick around for all those little emotional moments that can hit you right in the heart. Then go to the buddy read and talk about it with me because I'll never tire of discussing this!

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Review: The Enemy at Home

The Enemy at Home by Kevin O'Brien
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

The Enemy at Home was a World War II story that took a popular historical fiction time period but placed readers in a nontypical place. The story centers Nora, a late thirties woman living in Seattle taking care of her teenager son, preteen daughter, and starting a job at a Boeing B-17 plant. Her husband is a doctor in the military and somewhere in Northern Africa and she has a brother in the Navy currently recovering from an injury in San Diego. The story divulges Nora's background through her povs, thinking about her mother's mental illness, having to be raised by her grandparents, and then feeling guilty for leaving her younger brother when she got married and moved away. Nora seems an average woman of her time, dealing with ration cards, racism from having to do with a Japanese-American couple she rented a garage apartment to, single mother, and sexism in the workplace. An new fear gets added when a serial killer seems to be attacking and killing woman plant workers. 

It was interesting to read a home front WWII story and the author did a good job of including all those specific big and small time period additives, especially Japanese-American interment camps. The first half was more about getting readers into Nora's life and introducing characters. There were povs from the victims of the serial killer, to bring in that ominous threat, when in the second half it becomes the main storyline. 

The author did a credible job of supplying redherrings to keep readers guessing and looking for clues, it doesn't become crystal clear who the serial killer is until the latter second half, even though you will have some guesses. Nora's strained relationship with her son is a big worry for her and I thought in favor of keeping this vibe, the character of the son was left too broadstrokes. Other secondary characters did their part with adding but not distracting to the world and story. The ending delivered a bit too perfect stars aligning to have things work out a certain way and took away from some of it's impact, a decrescendo of, well, life goes on. If you were looking for a homefront WWII, this would deliver on setting and atmosphere, with an added bonus of serial killer mystery plot.

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60%

Excuse me, but why are we not always and forever talking about their first sex scene in this???

HE BROKE THE DAMN DOOR DOWN TO GET TO HER!

Anyway, the Sleeping Beauty BR continues on GRs, and you can all tell that I'm having a total normal one with it.

GRs Buddy Reading Update: 15%

She looked away finally, not sure whether to laugh or cry. Dear God. At least seven, perhaps more, years her junior. A proper knight and blessed hero of the realm, for goodnessakes. Who hadn't an ounce of reason in his head… chasing after her, of all people.

She's 37 and she's older than him! 

This kind of has a 1920s/30s screwball comedy beat to it? Not like goofy humor but the beat?

Anyway, he's getting frustrated becomes she's not taking him seriously and I'm so ready for that dynamic. 

Also, did chapter four end with him having a wet dream??? 😭

Sound like an intriguing story? Come read along and chat it up with us on GoodReads!

GoodReads Sleeping Beauty Buddy Read link

Reading Update: Page 1

 

Taco Thursday with some historical fiction! 

🌮📖 

It's WWII, but while the time period may be common in historical fiction, the setting is not. Seattle, 1943, and Nora works at the Boeing B-17 plant while her husband is a doctor stationed in North Africa. A change from being a comfortable housewife, she now works on an assembly line and discovering the terrifying pattern of her female co-workers being targeted by what looks to be a serial killer. 

WWII but Seattle and a serial killer? Sounds intriguing 

The Enemy at Home by Kevin O'Brien purchase link

Slow Cooker Queso Chicken Tacos recipe

Pretty easy for a lazy day

Reading Update: 20%

“This is quite the enterprise you have here, Miss Dearing.”

She preened. “Thank you.” 

He lazily sorted through a rack of costumes she kept on hand. “I think you must be very passionate about photography.” 

“I am.” There was no question of that. She loved everything about the process—posing the subject, picking props and costumes, developing the image—all of it fascinated her. 

Saint’s dark gaze was bright as it met hers. “I am beginning to suspect you are passionate by nature.” 

She thrilled—just a little. “I am beginning to think you are a terrible flirt, Mr. Saint.” 

“How many times must I beg you to not call me ‘mister’? It annoys me.” 

He sounded so put upon she couldn’t help but chuckle. He had no objection to being called a flirt, only to being called mister.

Review: Kilt Trip

Kilt Trip by Alexandra Kiley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

For someone who traveled light, Addie carried a hell of a lot of baggage. 

Addie's mentor has brought her and her bestfriend on the tough ride of starting a new business. Addie's been around the world as a travel consultant but never to Scotland, where her parents honeymooned. After losing her mother in her teens thirteen years ago, Addie also emotionally lost her father as he pulled away from her in his grief. This taught Addie that she needs to protect herself from love, as losing one person can cause someone to lose everything, and why her job is so ideal for her, always moving and making no lasting connections. When she's sent to Scotland to help overhaul a family run tour business, her mom is on her mind even more, as pictures of her mom at Scottish sites from her honeymoon are some of Addie's most prized possessions. Addie can't let emotional issues ruin her business strategies, though, as her mentor is counting on her to streamline this tour business quickly and efficiently to add to their new portfolio. Which makes the chemistry she's feeling with the owner's son, even more dangerous. 

It wasn’t just his family conspiring against him. The universe was in on it, too. 

Logan can't help but feel betrayed when his father brings in an outsider to help overhaul their tours. He once tried new ideas to revamp their tours and failed miserably, feeling like his lost his two brothers when they then left the business. He's proud of Scotland and doesn't want to lead visitors around just to the gimmicky tourist sites and wants to keep the family and friends feeling to his tours. Which makes fighting Addie's ideas even more imperative, and more complicated as he starts to develop feelings for the trying to be emotionally walled up American. 

That spark she’d been trying to smother since she’d first set foot in the office was looking for any opportunity to catch. 

Kilt Trip was an immensely enjoyable contemporary romance that felt cozy, emotional, delivered on the setting, and sizzled with some heat. I went to check out this author's back-list immediately after finishing this and was shocked to see this is what looks to be a debut. You all are going to want to pick this book up and then keep this author on your radar; I'd say she's in the Kate Clayborn alike circle. The first half has a pace that I don't want to give the negative connotation of slow but the pace is slower; there's some romance lit fic feeling without the lit fic language, if that makes sense. We get povs from both Addie and Logan, which I love, and the first half has a little more of Addie trying to remain walled up from her developing emotions towards Logan and feeling, thinking about her grief from losing her mother so young, missing her and how it destroyed her relationship with her father. Addie has her mentor and bestfriend but they all three travel and she doesn't have a solid landing place to rest and feel loved, she's lacking deeper connections but also fears them. 

He was a dangerous combination of sensitive and challenging, and Addie was having a hell of a time feigning disinterest. 

Logan was the perfect other half that she needed, he pokes at her sparking side, they have good teasing and back-and-forth but also knows when to back off a bit to allow her to regain her equilibrium and not scare her away. Logan has his own emotional issues, since his attempt to change the family business almost ruined it and his brothers left the business, he's scared of change and dealing with some abandonment issues with his brothers. I loved Logan's character but there could have been a little more flushing out of him, more conversations with his brothers would have been great and even though I liked how he realized when Addie needed a break, I kind of wanted more gritting out pressing need from him, too. 

“If you think I’m delightful when I’m mad, you should see me when I’m not.” He tugged her closer, his fingers slipping below the soft black bow. 

Her soft intake of breath sent fire through his veins. She stilled in his arms, wet her lips, and looked up at him through her lashes. “Then, let’s stop fighting.” 

The later second half picked up the pace, enough of a not smooth change to make the overall pacing feel a bit disjointed to me, but all of the story's previous developing heat between Addie and Logan lead to, thank-you for including open-door in contemporary romance like the good old days, scenes. These two were cute, scrappy, flirty, and had delightful chemistry that I could read all day. The danger of Addie's job and her and Logan's emotional issues does eventually come to a head, they were great with addressing, talking, and trying to deal with at first when they admit to each other deeper feelings but that third act breakup is a persistent beast and a seen as a betrayal development separates the two. This was left close enough to the end that I thought the eventual HEA development didn't get enough time to give me the depth in it I wanted (here too I wished for Logan's character to have more) but there was an epilogue that jumped a year to show more to readers. 

He offered her the one thing she hadn’t been brave enough to admit she wanted: belonging. 

I loved how the setting was actually utilized, you'll get some facts, legends, history, and atmosphere feelings of in and around Edinburgh to transport you away and some of that delightful smile inducing back and forth chemistry and building heat tingling that delivers on the promised steaminess. The emotional was there with Addie's grief over her mother and Logan's awareness, ability, and caution to know how to care for Addie. Logan's gone for Addie pretty quickly but was wary of causing her to run away, it was nice to see the guy fall first but Addie's walls want and start to crumble pretty quickly too, so this also delivered with romance aspects. The I love yous maybe developed a little too quickly, missing more foundation there, but like the pace issues I had, ultimately not a deal breaker. If wanting to read a cute, fun, set in Scotland, romance that deals with grief but also delivers on chemistry and heat, you need to pick this one up.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

I'm closing out this Monday with some sandwiches and what looks like a super cute romance. 

Addie's a travel consultant whose emotional baggage has had her avoiding Scotland. When she's sent on assignment to help a struggling family-run tour company in the Highlands, she finds herself butting heads with someone who thinks she needs to see the magic and hidden gems of the land. 

Logan loves sharing Scotland's beauty, and after discovering Addie's secret, he's determined to help her find closure by taking her to the places in the pictures of her mother. 

Their truce is not only holding but starting to shift to what ifs.. 

Kilt Trip by Alexandra Kiley (Releases tomorrow, March 5th!) purchase link

Slow Cooker Italian Chicken Sandwiches recipe

These were so good! Definitely making them again.

Review: Heartless Hunter

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Because wherever Rune Winters went, her carefully crafted reputation came with her. 

She was an informer. A witch hater. A darling of the New Republic. 

Rune was the girl who betrayed her grandmother. 

The Crimson Moth series is a planned duology (so brace yourself for that cliffhanger) about a fantasy world where witches once ruled but two years ago, there was a revolution by the Blood Guard and the ruling three witch queen sisters were killed. Now, The New Republic has outlawed witches and the Blood Guard have hunted them to the point that very few are ever seen, identifiable by their scars cut into their bodies to supply the blood they need for their spells. Rune was sixteen when the revolution happened and forced into an impossible situation that had her surviving but drowning from guilt. She also gets a shock when, as a later bloomer, she gets her menses and it's revealed she's a witch. Knowing her survival depends on staying hidden, she uses her aristocrat lineage to pretend to be an empty headed society miss, but wanting to fight back, Rune also becomes the Crimson Moth, a vigilante that rescues captured witches and ships them away to freedom. 

Gideon Sharpe. 

Rune’s lip nearly curled at the name of Alex’s older brother. Devoutly loyal to the New Republic, Gideon was a ruthless, bloodthirsty witch hunter who’d sent more of Rune’s kind to the purge than any other member of the Guard. He’d also famously helped assassinate the Sister Queens, sparking the revolution into a blaze. 

The older brother of Rune's bestfriend, Alex, is Gideon a captain in the Blood Guard and helped start the revolution but killing two of the witch queens. When they were kids and Rune met him for the first time, she had a crush on him, until he was rude and dismissive to her. Now that she's eighteen and he's twenty, Rune tries to avoid him as he could be the cause of her death if he ever found out what and who she is. With chapters that alternate giving us Rune and Gideon's point-of-view, we get a good luck at Gideon's character and learn important information about his past, thoughts, and feelings. His family was poor until the queens favored his parents for their dress designs and while that should have made things better for their family, it was their downfall. Gideon catches the eye of the youngest queen, Cressida, and from there he's forced into a relationship that he initially wanted but then can't escape as she becomes murderously jealous and Gideon can't escape people knowing about his relationship with the witch queen and knows he has to stay with her for his remaining family member, Alex's, safety. Gideon has reasons to hate the witch queens and when Nicolas, the commander of the Blood Guard, lays out a way to get his revenge, he takes it. 

He was a witch hunter. He suspected her. He was closing in on her even now. 

And yet. 

I flew through the beginning first half of this, the world-building that was starting to be laid out with Rune having to remain hidden for her survival but having two friends, Alex and Verity, a girl Rune becomes friends with after Verity tells her the story of how she's not a witch but her two sisters were and her mother turned them in, set-up magic, danger, and then intrigue when Gideon came into the picture. Verity pushes Rune to find someone to court and then marry who has access to information so they can safely rescue even more witches, but does think Gideon could be too dangerous. Alex also has tried very hard to never betray his brother and refuses to completely side with Rune against him. However, since this is romance along with fantasy, Rune has a little bit of that drawn to Gideon and tells herself and friends that she's only going to use Gideon for information. Since we get Gideon's povs too, readers also know that Gideon's friends Harrow and fellow guard Lelia, also encourage him to pretend court Rune for information, when it's found out that Rune's family business of ships helped the last witch escape. So a really great cat and mouse dynamic is set-up with Rune and Gideon trying to use each other but also ultimately developing real feelings. 

The hunted had fallen for the hunter. 

The second half slowed down for me some as the romance became more of the focus and it stagnated with rinse and repeat of Gideon feeling he couldn't give into his feelings for Rune because he knows his brother Alex has romantic feelings for her and Rune, rightly so, scared that Gideon would turn her in to be killed if he discovered she's a witch. There was an open-door bedroom scene but I thought the best scenes between the two was when the tension ramped up because both are trying to fight their chemistry and both have some fear, Rune getting discovered and Gideon thinking he could be getting played and wanting to protect his brother. The latter second half also brought in some love triangle that I really didn't like and lead to a component of the ending that didn't quite deliver on the desired emotional impact for me; I'm not sure that character was flushed out enough. 

She was the Crimson Moth— a wanted criminal, not to mention a witch, hiding in plain sight. 

The last twenty percent picked up the stagnated pace and we get a rush of movement with a reveal that some will probably guess early at, some battle, and Rune and Gideon more divided than ever. This is tagged as a YA and it has some of that feel in the beginning but by the end I'd say it was more New Adult, the open-door scene and the method of how they kill the witches might be a little gruesome for the lower end of YA (but for YA/NA I loved that Rune used her menses blood for a source of power, using that blood so she wouldn't have to cut herself and have scars signaling she was a witch). There were characters I would have liked flushed out more, The Good Commander had such an impact on Gideon's life that I really missed seeing more scenes of the two together, not to mention Gideon and Alex. As I mentioned in the beginning, this ends with a cliffhanger and while I wanted more depth in some places, I'll definitely be in line for when the second comes out as in one aspect Rune got what she wanted but it may have just put her in danger from another foe and Gideon is going to want revenge even more.

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2024 Reading Romance Challenge

I decided to add another challenge to my list this 2024 and  That's What I'm Talking About (Twimom227) posted about this on Mastodon, and I'm going for it! 

As it goes on all year, there is still time to signup (Sign-up Post). 

You all know I can't say no to a bingo game :)  Join us!

My reading has slowed down so much because of hockey playoffs but I'm still ticking away at this! 

Clicking on book title takes you to my review

STEM/Bluestocking - Principles of (E)motion by Sara Read

Animal on Cover - The Bright Spot by Jill Shalvis

Sports - Undecided by Julianna Keyes

TBR over 1 year - Gold Ring of Betrayal by Michelle Reid

SciFi/Fantasy - Lord of the Fading Lands by C.L. Wilson

Fake Relationship - Her Adventures in Temptation by Megan Frampton

Celebrity - When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein

Blue Dress on Cover - The Blackest of Hearts by Emma V. Leech

Waterfront on Cover - The Summer Book Club by Susan Mallery

MC name starts with "S" - Pack Challenge by Shelly Laurenston

Witch/Warlock - Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

Small town - Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer

LGBTQ - Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun

Reading Update: Page 1

 

What is everyone else adding on this bonus day? I'm, of course, sneaking some reading in! 

The start of the Crimson Moth series, we've got a cat and mouse set-up with a witch and a witch-hunter. 

Rune has to hide that she's a witch after they lost a devastating revolution and went from rulers to being hunted. 

But even in the shadows, Rune tries to fight back by rescuing other witches. In danger of being found out, Rune decides to court the notorious witch hunter, Gideon, to gain intel if they're onto her. 

Gideon has his own agenda, finding out the socialite Rune has her ships being used to smuggle witches to safety, he decides to court her for information. 

They both think they're using each other, but when the truth becomes murky and feelings start to develop, there might be a new revolution. 

This sounds amazing! But it's a duology, so prepare for that cliff! 

Heartless Hunter (The Crimson Moth) by Kristen Ciccarelli purchase link

Blackened Shrimp recipe

Review: A Change in Destiny: Dark Choices

A Change in Destiny: Dark Choices by Janet K. Shawgo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

“I think he is going to kill me or have me killed,” Charlie told her. 

A Change in Destiny: Dark Choices was the story of how a woman can find herself in an abusive relationship and the dark choices that can come up because of it, with some serendipitous circumstances helping out along the way. Charlie lost her parents and then her relationship with her fiance broke off, leaving her feeling vulnerable. Even with her close relationship with her twin sister, Jon, a good friend to Charlie and her ex-fiance moves in and within the year they are married. Coming from a high society banking family, Jon soon reveals what's under his suave mask and Charlie finds herself slowly being isolated as Jon tries to ruin her relationship with her sister, friends, and colleagues. 

She knew as an investigator there were no perfect crimes. 

Charlie's an investigator for the Houston medical examiner, she has friends in law enforcement, is very good friends with the state attorney, and has a sizable inheritance from her deceased parents. I thought it was mindful to show how a woman who seemingly has all the outs and backbone, still could find herself into an abusive relationship; it could happen to anyone. The story relays multiple povs, so readers get more of a surrounding view of the world and it gets going right away with a quick look at the present before going back six months and showing why Charlie is now at a pig farm. 

Now the games begin. 

I'm not sure I'd tag this as mystery or thriller, the reader is let in on every aspect of the whys and hows. This also read kind of dry to me, there wasn't much emotion coming from out characters, when Charlie straightforward tells her sister what she plans to do, it's all so matter-of-fact for such a heavy dangerous situation. I would tag this a procedural story, as Charlie's knowledge from her job comes into play at times and it becomes a story of steps Charlie systematically takes to come out from under her husband's thumb, without consequences. The serendipitous part comes in when, Charlie's ex-fiancé who works for the FBI shows up, and Jon, along with his father and bank, are served warrants and are now under investigation for bank fraud. It brings some attention Charlie wasn't expecting at first but ultimately works, I think, for her betterment. The investigation brings in more procedural story telling, almost no emotion from Charlie and her ex in the FBI worked into the story. 

I've read/watched my fair share of true crime and horror movies, so I can't say I was personally surprised or horrified by some of the events, but this was a story I enjoyed taking the journey. I would have liked a little less of Charlie Scooby Doo dumping it all on her sister how she was going to get rid of her abusive husband problem and rather went more of an engaging mystery/thriller slow revealing. The ending jumps some time with enough divulging to give readers an answer to Charlie's fate. If you don't mind less emotional and more procedural (with pigs in the mix!), this could be one to pick up.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Thursday afternoon treats 

🥗📚 

Charlie discovers that her husband is not only cheating on her but has a plan to kill her and get inheritance. 

Turning to her identical twin Dani for help, they try to stay one step ahead of the husband and a former fiancée FBI agent that is now investigating Charlie's husband for bank fraud. 

The synopsis talks about using an outhouse and pig farm to stay one step ahead?? Y'all, this could be one wild ride of deception and danger! 

A Change in Destiny: Dark Choices by Janet K. ShawgoSriracha purchase link

Honey Lime Chicken and Pineapple Salad recipe