Review: The Wrong Marquess

The Wrong Marquess by Vivienne Lorret
My rating: 2 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. 

Even though they had never been formally introduced, there wasn’t a woman in society who didn’t know of London’s most elusive bachelor, the Marquess of Hullworth. 

When their friend Prudence gets outcast to the country because of a labeled scandalous moment with a man she'll only identify as Lord F., Winnie, Jane, and Ellie decide to write a book to warn other debutantes of the dangers of men. With Winnie and Jane married, it's up to Ellie to take over writing the marriage habits of the native aristocrat, but Ellie hopes to very soon have her own wedding to look forward too. As neighbors, Ellie and George grew-up together and with them both orphans, at age seven, George promises to marry her so they both can have a family. However, at age twenty-five, Ellie is still waiting for George to sow his wild oats. 

But surely, considering the parasol came from London’s most elusive bachelor— a man who was neither interested in marriage nor willing to trust his sister’s newfound friend— it meant nothing at all. 

The Wrong Marquess was a story that started off with very common elements that readers enjoy in the Regency sub-genre, began to highlight the skill Lorret has with chemistry and dialogue between her leads, and gave a latter second half that left me frustrated with the heroine. Ellie was a character that grew up with her two loving aunts but had several fears and phobias because of losing her parents so young; she feared death around every corner. This explained why she found comfort in the steady presence of George in her life and latter it's revealed that she knew she didn't fully love George, because how can a woman love a man-child, but that was what made him safe. Still, the whole plot hinged on Ellie wanting to marry George and just waiting for him to propose, instead of diving at the more mature Marquess of Hullworth. There just wasn't enough there for me to support a full novel, I got a little bored and restless for Ellie to wise up. 

She was his. The only problem was, she didn’t know it yet. But Brandon was willing to do whatever it took to have her fall in love with him. 

Our wrong marquess Brandon comes on the scene in all his odious and grumpy glory. He's had a lifetime of marriage minded misses contriving to be his wife and had his heart broken over a woman who refused him when he was younger because she wanted to marry up, so he has instant distrust of Ellie. His distrust attitude went on a bit long, again, not enough to support it for so long for me, but when he decides that he wants/loves Ellie, around the half-way point, Brandon gives us a pretty sweet hero. He gives Ellie gifts that show how much he pays attention to her wants and needs and knows that he has to gently ease his way into her heart. 

“This is all your fault. Every time I’m near you, I feel like I’m coming apart at the seams.” “I’ll hold you together,” he rasped, even as he tugged her spencer from her shoulder. 

I thought the beginning was slow and especially in the latter second half, you'll want to take Ellie aside and give her a shake. Lorret wrote George so obviously uncaring and man-child, that it's no competition between him and Brandon, unless you're dragging things out for page count. The only plot is really the attraction between Brandon and Ellie and Ellie eventually getting over her revealed fear to truly love someone. This simpler plot can work and, like I said, Lorret has skill with chemistry but this easily could have been a novella. 

“Well, for starters. No more calling me sweetheart and no more mentions of inevitability.” He nodded, but in the back of his mind he was already planning an I told you so on their tenth anniversary. 

In terms of connecting to the series, we get a few appearances by prior series heroines, Winnie and Jane, and finally a look and reveal regarding shunned Prudence. There was also an epilogue giving a Devil in Winter vibe between Prudence and a Lord Savage that more than peaked my interest. If you read a lot of Regency romance, you'll like some elements here, but the overall effect left it feeling uninspired to me. The hero has some heartfelt and sweet moments but when the heroine declares her love around eighty percent, I couldn't help feeling it should and could have happened around forty percent.

View all my reviews

Reading Update: 50%

 

Good morning ☀️! 

Is there any better way than to start your day with a woman that says “his grumpy little heart” towards the love interest? 

I love a grump about to be shaken up 😍

The Wrong Marquess by Vivienne Lorret purchase link

Strawberry Smoothie with Mango recipe

I added a little more strawberry

Review: All the Lonely People

All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

Because the truth was Hubert Bird was a liar. And a practiced one at that. 

All the Lonely People is the story of Jamaican immigrant Hubert Bird. With alternating chapters that show Hubert in the present time and past, readers get an encompassing look at Hubert's life. I thought the alternating chapters was a perfect structural choice as it pulled readers in with questions in the now, why is Hubert alone and answers revealed in the past chapters. 

A whole week had gone by since Rose's announcement and now, because of his lack of friends, Hubert was faced with an almost impossible choice: disappoint his darling daughter or force himself back out into the world from which he had retreated. 

The main plot has octogenarian Hubert wanting to make friends because for the last couple years he has been lying to his daughter Rose during their weekly phone calls. He has a notebook filled with notes about his friends and all that they do, but it's all lies. Rose suddenly tells Hubert that she is coming to visit from Australia in a few weeks and Hubert panics, not wanting Rose to feel bad or worry about him and leave her job to come take care of him in England. So when a new neighbor, single mother Layla knocks on his door to introduce herself, he starts his mission to try and gain some real friends. 

And in that moment, as he attempted to stem his tears, Hubert realized something he hadn't quite understood before now: he was lonely, really lonely, and most likely had been for a very long time. 

I thought the first half of this really showed what we'll do for the people we love but not for ourselves. Through Hubert and all the characters that have been in his life, his friend Gus, his wife Joyce, children Rose and David, neighbor Layla, and even the delivery man he befriends Emils, the reader gets welcomed into Hubert's world and who and what makes a life. The author opened up Hubert in a way that I felt he was real and that I knew him. While the majority of the chapters are from Hubert's point-of-view, there are a handful from secondary characters and I thought those greatly colored in Hubert's world even more. 

“You mean you don't think it's a daft idea?” “What? Helping lonely people? There's nothing daft about that, darling. Nothing daft at all. Count me in.” 

The second half delves more into Hubert's world and begins to answer the questions of how he lost touch with his circle of friends and why he doesn't like to talk about his son David. There was also Hubert's new circle of friends creating a group with the mission to end loneliness in their city. This group and the promoting of it takes over for a while and I'm not sure it completely fit in the flow of the story. It works to add some uplifting flair but it all felt a little idealistic and taking over a story in which it was a plot thread that didn't completely feel like it fit. With this though, there were also some latter second half shocking reveals that amp up the emotion and will get your eyes watering. 

“Joyce Bird,” said Hubert between fits of laughter, “featherweight champion of the world!” 

Overall, this is a story that will have characters who stick with you long after you've closed the book. It's a story about a life, it was uplifting and tragic and it was heartbreaking and reaffirming.

View all my reviews

Reading Update: 40%

 

Happy Saturday! Starting the weekend with good food and a story that’s really highlighting what we’ll do for others happiness but not our own. 

A little while ago I read Wild Women and the Blues by Denny Bryce, this has that same format of having a central character in the now and then alternating chapter of going to their past. Really working to give a well rounded look at the character. 

What is everyone else reading and eating?

All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle (July 13) preorder link

Mahi Mahi with Crunchy Coleslaw recipe

I used Swai fish

Review: Pestilence

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

And so it was, and so it shall be, for the Age of Man is over, and the Age of the Horseman has begun. 

This started off so cool, with the idea that the four horseman of the apocalypse arriving on earth. After their initial showing, where it seems they knocked the majority of electricity and communications out, they disappear for five years, until Pestilence the Conqueror arrives alone, riding his steed and spreading the Messianic Fever, a plague that kills everyone. Sara is an early twenties firefighter in Canada and we meet her as she draws the short straw and has to stay behind to try and kill Pestilence. 

“Oh no, I’m not letting you die. Too quick. Suffering is made for the living. And oh, how I will make you suffer.” (Anyone else get some Pinhead vibes here?) 

Sara shoots and burns Pestilence and his horse, feeling horribly guilty as she does it but then comes to the realization that while he may suffer from the violence impacted on him, he can not die. Pestilence decides to take Sara hostage, dragging her behind his horse and make her bear witness to him spreading the plague. Why Pestilence decides to take Sara hostage over all the other humans that tried to kill him? Not sure. The pov is all from Sara, which, I find to be a bit of a cop-out by the author because it allows her to not have to develop Pestilence and his world as much as I would have liked. 

“Why sleep at all?” Why wait at all? “There was the possibility …” He trails off, lost in some thought. 

“What possibility?” I prod. 

 He rouses himself. “The possibility that humanity would redeem itself.” He grabs his glass and swirls it. “But alas, not even the End of Days can alter the depraved nature of your cursed kind.” 

The idea of the story carried me fairly swiftly through the first half, the end of days and Sara riding with a four horseman but the second half made the lack of world building glaringly obvious. Pestilence himself doesn't seem to have a clear idea of the whys, he knows he was crafted for this one purpose and that humans do have a chance to halt everything if they change “things” around to God's satisfaction. Since this is a series, I'm not sure if the author is saving answers for future books but the lack of some answers made the world building really shallow and bereft. 

A horseman of the apocalypse is watching me pee. 

The parlance was very casual, it really brought out the New Adult feel in the second half with the above quote and then: He’s not going to be chill about it either, I can already tell. Sara thinks this after they have sex and it just didn't fit for me with how this is the apocalypse and she just had sex with an angel thing. If it was supposed to be humorous, levity, or whatever, it didn't fit for me. 

He knows he’s broken my will to escape him. 

This was thought by Sara around 20%. Pestilence is gorgeous and even though he gives people puss filled boils, she gets the hots for him. I didn't really feel or see the depth of emotions between these two, I'm not sure why either one fell in love with the other. Again, without Pestilence's pov, it made it extremely hard to see how and why an ageless immortal would fall in love. They also have their first kiss immediately after she pukes. Y'all. I never quite recovered from that moment. 

He’d make a good dad. Can’t believe I just had that thought …

This quote felt so batshit crazy when I read it that I just had to include it. Pestilence had told her this:“How do I know English?” he says. “Or wield a bow and arrow? Why do I wear breeches and a breastplate and look like a human? I, like God, have been fashioned into something you can understand. “But this,” he gestures to his body, “is not what I really am.” 

“It’s … not?” Having trouble with this one. 

“I am pestilence, Sara,” he says softly. “Not a man. I have a body and a voice and a sentience not for my own benefit, but for yours.” 

You don't even know what kind of nephilim thingy could be created and you're just in lalal land imagining he'd be good at peek-a-boo (or something)????? I'm telling you, this second half didn't not deliver on any promises. 

This whole time, I’d assumed that love would redeem the horseman and save us all. I should’ve known it would only ever damn us to our grisly fates. 

Anyway, endless plague spreading traveling and then people trying to kill Pestilence, obviously start to try and kill Sara. Pestilence gets angry, we briefly meet death, Sara has crisis of conscience because love hasn't seemed to change Pestilence, more Poe poetry reciting, and some religious stuff that at times felt like very undercover preaching but I'm prickly as a cactus to stuff like that so maybe not too preachy. The ending felt like more of a big cop-out with Pestilence just deciding he “has served his purpose.” Did God tell him that or did he just come up with it on his own out of the blue or love? I have no earthly idea. He just decides to stop spreading plague, wear flannel, and live with Sara until she dies. I'm not sure what kind of romance I was looking for in a four horseman apocalypse story but come on. The epilogue jumps us five years and the arrival of War. Again, the concept intrigues the hell out of me but I'm not sure I'm going to continue on in the series as reviews don't look promising regarding the world building.

View all my reviews

Review: Hard to Forget

Hard to Forget by Incy Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

If you caught my update, you'll know I blasted through half the book in one night. The thriller plot of the story starts right away, Lowry a former black ops agent is having an art showing and Jack, her former commanding officer is there to warn her to keep a low profile because of her former agent status. The sparks fly between them, anger, hurt, betrayal, and attraction, their antagonistic relationship has that quality that keeps your eyes on them. At the art showing, Lowry spots the man who raped her and her flight or fight goes full flight, Jack chases her down and from there, the running and gunning is on. 

When I started this, I couldn't help feeling I had read it before, turns out I read the next in the series a couple years ago, probably why the group of Assassins that work at the Cube as part of the clandestine faction of the UK military/government sounded familiar. The third book I stated that I probably should have read in the books in order because I was lost in the world building. I read a lot of romantic suspense, so the general elements I could hang in there on this one but I still felt like I was coming into a story a few chapters late, or as this is second in the series, a book late. I guess, I'm saying, read these in series order. 

Lowry joining the Assassins but immediately not fitting in because of her attitude and convinced there were turncoats at the Cube, is covered in retelling/reminiscing, why you feel like you're coming into the story late. She goes off on a solo mission to try and get the evidence she needs to prove her theories right, she gets captured by the sex traffickers' and raped by their leader before Jack and his crew can come in and rescue, a rescue that has Jack shooting Lowry to save her. Again, this is all relayed by the characters reminiscing, some flashbacks in there. 

The retelling is happening while Lowry is trying to run to stay safe from the leader of the sex traffickers that raped her and Jack trying to get her to tell him the full story so he can help her. This is 90% suspense thriller, your romance comes in the form of Jack gritting his teeth and/or clenching his hands and Lowry finding Jack sexy but angry and hurt he didn't believe her about the mole at the Cube. If you read Anne Stuart rom-suspense, it's a bit like that. Lowry comes off a bit young and flighty at times and Jack closed off stoic, but they were still charismatic characters, separately and together. 

There were times I wanted things to slow down, so I could get a footing in the world but the pace was also what kept me reading. Not romancey romance but charismatic at the least.

View all my reviews

30%

 

"It knew things, that smile."

I forgot how much happens, gets laid out in the first five chapters, still loving the story set-up years later. 

More comments and quotes: Beauty and the Spy buddy read

Reading Update: Page 1

 

What else are you going to have for breakfast on July 5th if not July 4th dessert? 😉 

Over on GoodReads I started a buddy read of the series in the Romance Book Buddy Reading group, come join in the talk! 

I loved the first book in the Holt Sisters Trilogy, so I can’t wait to revisit this series again ❤️

A Night with a Rogue by Julie Anne Long preorder (July 27) link

Fireworks Sugar Cookie Cake recipe

Quickie Review: Blaze

Blaze by Susan Johnson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.4 stars 

This read probably/exactly how you would expect a bodice ripper of 1986 to. The hero is banging everyone (but not the heroine's mom this time!) in beginning, he alpha af but also pretty dang sensitive/loving to heroine's needs, the heroine is a virgin but this time she takes her agency in both hands and shoves it at the hero until he bangs her, there is adventure, but the Absarokee tribe (hero) was actually shown in a culturally sensitive light and seems to be fairly well researched, thee drama with relationship Betrayal (misunderstandings forced), and the start of an epic family dynasty. 

You can start to see the cringe elements from '70s & '80s bodice rippers falling away and the '90s heroine emerging. 

Adventure in the west (modern day Montana), epic leads, villains being villainous, annoyingly forced that made the story feel dragged out Misunderstanding, and, wait for it, FOOTNOTES. I love footnotes, especially historical ones, in historical romance because I'm a geek. 

Bodice ripper lite, an interesting story in regards to it's transitional feel.

View all my reviews

Review: Falling in Love on Willow Creek

Falling in Love on Willow Creek by Debbie Mason
My 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. 

She'd been bailing her baby brother out of trouble for years. 

Third in the series, I had no problem jumping in with this small town romance even though I haven't read the others. We start off with a very pregnant Sadie Gray working in her grandmother's I Believe in Unicorns store and trying to suss out if her brother on the run from the law is squeezing her grandmother for money. Her brother got mixed up transporting drugs with the local gang and now is wanted by them and the police. She's got that to deal with while she's pregnant and deciding that it is finally time to kick her baby's father to the curb. 

The pov then jumps to FBI agent Chase Roberts, who happens to be watching the store and catches Sadie in an embarrassing moment but receives a phone call before they can meet. Their meet-cute then ends up with Sadie getting into a minor car accident and Chase, with his new undercover partner Nate Black, delivering Sadie's baby because she goes into labor on the side of the road. 

And for the first time in his career, he thought he might be in over his head. 

This started with a lot of different elements thrown at the reader, I had a hard time keeping up with everything. The undercover case Chase is working with Nate Black, who he isn't sure he can fully trust, as they try to find Sadie's brother and see if he really was a criminal informant for Nate's buddy that was killed and if the local sheriff's department is dirty and working to ship drugs with the gang is the main plot but there were so many intangibles added that it started to feel kitchen sink and not cobbled together quite right. Around the 20% mark, I started to feel like I was settling into the story more. Sadie's grandmother's second sight, Sadie's friend Abby and her YouTube channel ideas, and Sadie's baby preferring Chase all the time, were seemingly small additives but they were all thrown in, in such a way, that it disrupted the flow and took away from the romance. 

“Thank you.” he said, then held her gaze. “I meant what I said, Sadie. I care about Michaela, and I care about you.” 

The romance was fairly mild, with the baby almost always between them, Sadie and Chase felt like an already married couple and with more of a dulled spark. This was also a kisses only, the sex scene is completely off screen. Both characters were raised by their grandparents and I thought that was sweet commonality but because Sadie and Chase had to share the focus in so many directions, I felt we never got to see them sit and deepen together. I had that problem with a lot of the characters, they went beyond cardboard individually but their relationships with each other were lacking and I missed more emotion. About 40% Sadie learns that Chase is undercover and a little bit of fake relationship trope happens as he pretends to be her boyfriend so he can stay with her at her house. I thought we would get more spark but these two just settled into the comfortable couple even more, with Sadie getting naps in and Chase doing the laundry. 

If you've read the other books in the series, you'll enjoy the appearances of past and future couples as they have some important roles in this. I felt the execution wasn't quite right on this as the beginning had me feeling scattered and pulled in a lot of different ways, Chase and Nate never felt like they were searching intensely enough for Sadie's brother, and Sadie's baby got in the middle a lot. The story ends fairly abruptly but with the bonus story edition, you get a novella of Sadie and Chase's wedding, which helps give an epilogue feel. This would be a comfortable read for some, though, if you like a little detective work and wanting to visit the small town of Highland Falls again.

View all my reviews