70%

Lady Harriet was still in London. And he had a second chance. This time, knowing what it felt like to imagine a life without her in it, he was going to be more careful with her. He was not going to let her slip through his fingers again.

50%

A chill trickled down his spine. How had it got this far? How had he reached the stage where they were being frank with one another? As though they were intimate?

Reading Update: 20%

‘What devilish schemes,’ he said in alarm, ‘are running through that pretty head of yours?’ 

Pretty? She looked up at him sharply. And met his eyes, squarely, for the first time that night.

Review: Never Forget You

Never Forget You by Fiona Lucas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

'Don't worry,' he said. 'I've got you.' 

Never Forget You was a heavy toned contemporary fiction story about losing and finding yourself, and not giving up on second chances. Five years ago, Lili and Ben had a chance meeting that had them spending the whole day together and then making a promise to meet in the same meeting spot one year later. Through mishap, Ben losing his phone and Lili not having the self-esteem to show-up, they miss their first second chance. The story is told from both Lili and Ben's point-of-view but has chapters that mostly alternate between the Now (current time) and Before, with a countdown to a wedding. The different timelines slowly start to converge as the story goes on. 

Because she didn't know what her name was. She just didn't know. 

Readers get to see Lili and Ben's first meet and then with the Before chapters, get to read what happened to Lili after Ben never calls her and she decides not to meet up with him. The Now Ben is living back home, after putting aside his job as a travel photographer and instead now taking care of his niece. When a woman claims to not know who she is at a cafe he's in, he's drawn to help her and thinking she has a striking resemblance to the woman he met as Lili five years ago. He ends up helping her with a place to stay after a doctor is concerned Lili has dissociative amnesia and they are waiting for a referral to a psychiatrist. The two have a sweet beginning bonding that reminds him how he felt with Lili but Ben, with the doctor's suggestion, he doesn't bring up to the woman his niece named “Alice” (Alice in Wonderland) that he might know her. 

She might not know her name or her address or her date of birth, but she knew – remembered – what it meant when you sat a few feet away from someone and all you could do was notice them. 

Eventually, a clue emerges in the form of a wedding invitation found in Alice's possession, and Alice and Ben end up traveling together from Ben's hometown in Scotland to a city outside of London as it looks to be the best way for Alice to find people that may know her. Around halfway through the story, Ben has a good idea if Alice is his Lili and readers will be able to glean a definitive answer by that point, too. While Ben and Alice have their moments of getting closer as they travel to London, the wedding countdown pov chapters drive the tone of the story and why I would say to not read this for romance. Lili's pov chapters are about her meeting an older man named Justin and falling into a romance with him. Those chapters have a heavy tone that cloaks the story as it becomes obvious readers are getting a textbook look at the unfolding of an abusive relationship. The small controlling that leads to bigger, the erasure of Lili's self made over to what Justin wants her to be, the preying on a vulnerable person (Lili) by a predator (Justin), and manipulation of Justin towards Lili and her parents. Lili's sister Lo, is the only one to have an inkling as to what is going on but gets manipulated out of the picture by Justin. 

'And when I was lost and alone, when I was most vulnerable...' She looked up and met his eyes. 'I came and found you.' 

It makes your heart hurt and give a sense of anxiety as each wedding countdown chapter progresses the abuse and readers know how bad it has the potential to get. This abusive relationship and Lili's journey through it is the bulk of the story being told here and while Ben's a balm to those dark, heavy emotions from Justin's presence, his starting romance with Alice plays second fiddle. The last twenty percent brings the timelines together in the Now with Alice regaining her memory but then losing the time she spent with Ben. Alice and readers get the full picture about what caused her dissociative episode and then get a few chapters on how she righted her life. I would have liked a few more chapters here as it would have felt great to see a person in an abusive relationship readers saw building, get to experience their moments of strength. The last few pages bring in a happy for now ending, to leave on hope. This was heavy toned with a look into a building abusive relationship but did have those sprouts of hope that eventually flowered to leave readers with a tender smile.

View all my reviews

Sob story

Desert Island Duke by Kate Bateman


I'M OBSESSED WITH THIS COVER 

The tone of colors, the tropical-ness, LOVE 

The cruelty to not offer this in paperback (I thought I was being generous not REQUIRING oil paintings as swag with every purchase and I'm still getting hit with the no hard copy). 

*If you can't tell, covers I Love have become more rare than standard for me lately

View all my reviews

Reading Update: Page 1

 

Pasta and a second chance romance! 

Lili and Ben meet at the wrong time but make a deal to return in one year. However, one of them never shows up. 

Five years later, Ben still can't stop thinking about the one who got away and then Alice shows up in his tiny hometown, no memory of how she got there and wearing a necklace Ben bought Lili. 

Three lives weaving together and apart for second chances, love, and forgiveness. 

It's about to get emotional up in here, isn't it? 😭 

Never Forget You by Fiona Lucas purchase link

Ravioli with Pistachio Pesto recipe

The recipe calls for around 1/4 cup of pistachios, I added a cup because I have a LOVE of pistachios.

Review: The Thorns Remain

The Thorns Remain by J.J.A. Harwood
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 figure extended a graceful hand. 'Join the dance.' 

It's 1919 and while the War has ended, the danger and threat of the Spanish Flu still lingers. Moira Jean's little village in Scotland keeps dwindling as boys and men were lost to the war and others to the lure of more opportunities in the cities. Moira Jean and her six friends toil as tenets to a rich family that hasn't even visited their estate in years and always with the threat of eviction hovering. When they decide to let off some steam in the woods, drinking and carrying on, a new danger reveals itself. Now Moira Jean must deal against The Dreamer, trying to get her friends back and keep herself and the rest of the village safe. 

'Careful, Moira Jean. You are safe if you are ignorant. Do not stray too close to that which you do not understand.' 

The Thorns Remains was a magical realism and fantasy story that brought back all the reasons why people line their windows and doorways with iron. I loved how all the different kinds of fae folk were added in, kelpie, brownies, changelings, glaistig, etc and The Lord of Land Under the Hill, a.ka. The Dreamer, didn't sparkle so much as be painful to look upon because of his beauty that bordered on and could shift to grotesque. 

Dying from the flu as he was trying to make his way back home, Angus, Moira Jean's fiance, has her weighed down with grief and wearing his Victory Medal. A medal that has just enough iron in it to keep her from completely falling under The Dreamer's spell when he starts the music up, after he catches her and her friends in the woods. Moira Jean sees the creatures for what they are, antlers coming out of eye sockets, vines coming out of mouths, and refuses to keep dancing and follow everyone to The Dreamer's halls. She wakes up in the morning at home with an awful hangover and no one in the village missing the six friends as they're under a spell thinking their kids are just somewhere else. This leaves Moira Jean to return to the woods and make deals with The Dreamer to get her friends back. 

'Of course we are equals,' he said, his voice low, 'but that does not make you any less mine.' 

The Dreamer is just intrigued enough with Moira Jean to bargain with her and the story starts to get a Tam Lin essence to it, until Moira Jean reads the actual story to The Dreamer and then we spin a different direction. Moira Jean bargains one of her letters from Angus to The Dreamer for one of her friend's return and we see The Dreamer be fascinated with human emotion. The story then has The Dreamer acting as if he is starting to feel love for Moira Jean and this could have easily spun into a romance but I loved the direction this took with instead having Moira Jean eventually recognizing all the ways The Dreamer had been manipulating her and how it was selfish, obsession, and controlling and not love The Dreamer was feeling for her. 

Brudonnock was alive with unseen things, and she could see them all. 

While I enjoyed how we got to know the townspeople and Moira Jean's relationship with her mother, so we could get a feel for the community Moira Jean was living in, this story was four hundred pages and a good chunk of her working, doing chores (so much laundry washing!) could have been edited out, it dragged the middle and beginning second half down so much. There is a deadline to the bargains Moira Jean is making with The Dreamer, Beltane, and that is six weeks away. Instead of a steady pace of her trying to come up with ways to get her friends back, the pace slows and feels meandering as she has to do chores. I don't think streamlining this would have cut out any feelings and instead would have vastly improved the pace and therefore story. 

She stepped into the Land Under the Hill. 

The latter second half speeds up as Moira Jean stands up to the The Dreamer and his warnings of a “tithe” and The Queen come to fruition. We get fascinating fantasy scenes in The Dreamer's world and danger from The Queen. This was told in five parts, no chapters, with a writing style that pulled me into the story and if Moira Jean had focused a little more on getting her friends back with less scenes showing her doing her chores, the return to fae being something to fear would have this a favorite read of the year, but I still did enjoy the places this went. 

He wanted her afraid, uncertain – it was how he'd always wanted her. But she had finished giving him what he wanted. 

The exploring of Moira Jean's grief, touching on how culture can be stripped from a people (Mrs. Iverach), economic opportunities, and how all love isn't good love were themes all explored in this magical realism world. The ending could easily be the last we see of Moira Jean but I can't help thinking that her last glance at the dock could lead to a sequel and I'd definitely sign up for more from the woman with iron in her soul.

View all my reviews

Reading Update: Page 1

 

It's cloudy and misty out with a slight chill, perfect soup and fantasy reading weather! 

It's 1919, Moira Jean lost her lover to the war in France, and now the fae have spirited her friends away. 

The darkly handsome Lord of the Fae is out to make himself known and Moira Jean finds herself in a bargain with him to save her friends. 

I'm so excited for this one, Highland charm, a dark romance, and magical fantasy! 

The Thorns Remain by J.J.A. Harwood preorder (Releases next Tues. May 2nd!) link

Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup recipe

Review: Star Splitter

Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

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

“What happened to you?” I whispered. 

Six years ago, Jessica's scientist parents left to do research in space and now they are making the decision to have her join them. Seventeen years old, Jessica doesn't want to leave her life, she's happy with her grandparents and trying to work up the courage to tell her friend Avery she cares for her more than a friend. Teleportation will have Jessica's body getting printed fourteen light years away on a ship where she will meet up with her parents and then they will spend a year on a planet to study before Jessica will return to her home planet. But even though teleportation is constantly touted as safe, space is still a final frontier where anything can happen. 

She was me. 

Told almost all in first person point-of-view from Jessica, Star Splitter was a scifi mystery thriller that worked to take on some Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind themes of memories, stories and what makes us, us, all in a space setting. Besides having the younger lead, I'm not sure I would categorize this as Young Adult, it felt more fitting to just be scifi fiction. The story was structured in alternating chapters of Before and After, so a mish-mash of linear timelines. Readers first meet Jessica as she wakes up from the printer but not where she was supposed to. She's alone, but she sees a bed someone made that looks to have watched over her as she was printed, and she's not on the ship but a lander of the ship and it's wrecked, with bloody handprints smeared down the corridors. It's a great start to giving the reader a shiver and want to know how and why it all went wrong. 

There are things only one of us can know. 

After the opening, the timeline flips back to Jessica arriving on the ship and everything seems to be going right. The reader then follows as the story chapters flip back and forth as Jessica in the “seems to be going right” timeline and Jessica in the “bloody handprints smeared down the corridors” linear timelines continue on until the ending has them converging and readers get the full story. I enjoyed most of the story's journey, as what teleportation would require of people; their original bodies getting burned up with the scanned “data” (think mind of thoughts, personality, memories, experiences) getting imputed into a new 3D printed body. Having the ability to live again if something happened to your body but only having the memories/experiences of your last data scan. It's the ultimate question this story works to wrestle with, what makes us, us, and if we had the possibility to “erase” bad memories, should we? It's not a theme I think the story accomplished grappling with fully, it got lost in the alien aspects that were added, the “haunting” aliens, corrupted data, and unknown alien civilization. 

“We have to get off this ship.” 

I flew through the first half of this story wanting to know where and how it all went wrong but Jessica is really the only character readers really get to know. Duncan, the ship captain's son and Jessica's age, gets filled out a little more than the rest of the crew and Jessica's parents but he ultimately felt fizzled out on in the end. A feeling I had in the second half and ending of the story; I enjoyed most of the journey but the destination never felt fully reached (realized) in the end. While the looming setting of space, isolation and danger of it, helped to create a good atmosphere, not all the aspects (alien additives) or main theme of how our “data” impacts us, came together in the end. The ending was abrupt in a way that probably served the story but I was left feeling unsatisfied with dangling threads and lack of how it all came together.

View all my reviews

Reading Update: Page 1

 

Scifi and pizza to start my week off! 

🌌🍕 

Sixteen yr old Jessica has just crash landed on a desolate planet lightyears from Earth. 

Set to meet up with her scientist parents who left six years ago, teleportation is supposed to be safe and routine in 2198. Jessica wakes up in the lander of the ship she was supposed to rendezvous with her parents. 

A lander, with bloody handprints covering the corridors and crash landed on a planet with graves outside. 

I've got shivers just thinking about it! 

Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby (Releases tomorrow, April 25th!) purchase link

Peach BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe

I love rattling pizza tables, you thought pineapple was scary...!