Category: Romance

Review: Choosing You

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tl;dr: novella that’s short, sweet, and spicy

The story:

There are a few writers out there that can impel me to click on the purchase button with very little debate, and Jenny Trout (or her pseudonym Abigail Barnette) is one of them. This short and sweet novella is new adult, meaning that it is a stepping stone between young adult and regular adult (old adult?) fiction, so basically this story is about college-age adults, who are so new to adulthood that these stories usually present with a few themes, like finding careers, discovering themselves as individuals, and immaturity.

Madison is taking a 6-week course in Wales, partly because she enjoys the subject of Arthurian literature, but let’s be real: mostly she wants to make goo-goo eyes at her devastatingly sexy professor. She’s shocked when it turns out that her desires aren’t unrequited, and they embark on a pretty sexy affair. Madison, however, begins to realize that the daydream of banging her professor and the reality of it are not quite the same, and she needs to do some soul-searching during her 6-week trip.

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Review: A Fare To Remember

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tl; dr: no plot, just badly written porn

The story:

I’m no stranger to a racy novel. In fact, some of my favorites have some pretty explicit content. However, I do tend to require some kind of plot with my novels, and this book … did not have one. It had just as much plot as I imagine a pornographic film would, meaning it was pretty thinly developed and barely made sense, stringing together the erotic scenes rather than composing a story.

The description for this book is 100% inaccurate, especially since ‘Rex’ is not a character in this book. The handsome billionaire is Reid, and what the description also doesn’t say is that Stevie becomes entangled in a menage-a-trois with Reid’s roommate and business partner, Dylan (who is also a billionaire, but he’s different, he’s ‘bad’ because he has tattoos).

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Review: Coming Home

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Ugh.

So the cover is beautiful.

But this was not a novel. Or even a novella.

This was a very rough draft of an interesting story, that started near the very end of it. I wasn’t invested in any of the characters, because all the backstory was filled in by a bunch of info dumps scattered throughout. The characterization, particularly for the heroine, was scattered and hard to follow, and honestly, not very well thought out. I mean, is she tough or not? Can she take care of herself or not? Is she sassy or sweet? And her BROTHERS. OH. MY. GOODNESS. They may have well have bartered for her worth with the hero, because that whole scene was cringeworthy at best.

The emotions didn’t resonate because they weren’t earned. The smut took turns being sorta hot and then being completely weird. (Second book in a row where the lines “and she loved it!” feature during a sex scene. Just… why? If she’s encouraging it to continue, the reader can figure it out.)

A lot of this book made me cringe. “If Kansas were his woman she wouldn’t be walking the streets by herself late at night.” HIS WOMAN?

and

“Kansas was naturally beautiful and didn’t need the layers of makeup some women felt the need to trowel on.” But some women DO need it?

and “He went to her bookshelves and perused what was there. You could tell a lot about a person from their personal belongings.” Or he could ask her?

And then Tobias goes back and forth several times on how his past experiences in the DEA affected him. He says that he hated the man it made him, that it didn’t even help anyone, but in the end he’s proud of the work he did?

Ugh. I just can’t go on.

***FREE EBOOK COURTESY OF NETGALLEY.COM***

Review: The Wingman

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Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a fun romance with some minimal drama, and I was eager to finish it. It wasn’t boring, and the writing is solid.

There were a few things that confused me a little, and partly it’s because I had a really hard time placing the book until about 20% in. It takes place in South Africa, a place I am wholly unfamiliar with. The cultural aesthetic seemed to be in between British and American, and so I kept wondering over and over where exactly this story was taking place. Finally, ‘Cape Town’ was mentioned, and I got it. I think that should have been cleared up within the first chapter. And because of my unfamiliarity with South African culture, some of the words choices may have been spot on but seemed a little too formal or too crude. For example, the words ‘bitches’ and ‘bitch’ were tossing around like pronouns, and it seemed excessive for what I’m used to. But maybe the word *is* tossed around a lot in South Africa?

The middle of the book was pretty good. Lots of believable family drama, and the insertion of Mason into the family dynamics was solid. Where the book lags is in the set up and in the conclusion. The set up was disjointing because there was a lot of exposition in weird asides, things that could have been weaved into the main storyline better. The conclusion felt laggy but rushed at the same time. I didn’t quite understand Mason’s reasons for pushing Daisy away. And of course, Daisy ending up in the hospital caused them to come together which is a little tropey, but it also made sense with the story and early plot developments.

Now, what most of you are here for: the smut. Ah, it needed a little work. Most of the foreplay was great – hot, leaving the reader wanting more, just enough to push the plot forward. But the actual sex was riddled with strange dialogue/thoughts from the characters. Example: “It was crazy, hot, and sexy, and Daisy loved it!” Complete with exclamation point. Also, it takes me aback when male bodies are referred to as “furry” and that’s supposed to be complimentary (in that instance it was his balls. I mean…?).

Overall, it was a quick read and I enjoyed it, despite the minor things that sometimes took me out of the story. Also, there’s a pomeranian named Peaches and a black lab named Cooper who fall in love. That’s excellence, right there.

**free book courtesy of NetGalley.com**

Review: Hard Knocks

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The problem with reviewing this book, and others like it, is that it wasn’t very memorable. Nothing was glaringly awful about it, but it also wasn’t so great that all I can do is wax poetic over it. Partly, I think that’s because the most interesting parts about it were glossed over as the setting. Writing this review, I can hardly even remember the heroine’s name (it was Helen).

The author dances around the topic of her dad’s illness and subsequent descent into dementia, and having her try to battle her inward struggle between her attraction to a hockey player who likely could end up with the same time of brain injury from a violent sport. But there are all these reasons for her reluctance to pursue Adam the hockey player that don’t seem worth wasting the ink on. Her fear of brain injury should be enough. And then, the subplot where they duke it out in public over whether hockey should be banned and the weird Russian mafia guy who has apparently a cadre of concubines on every continent just made the whole thing weird. All of these little pockets of plot could really have been eliminated because they weren’t all that interesting.

I like a enemies-to-lovers trope as much as anyone, but this just seemed way too manufactured. We also get glimpses into Adam’s relationship with his own father but barely enough to go on. The author didn’t let the characters breathe in amongst the plot.

Also, I feel cheated that the adorable scene of ice skating on the cover was not in the book.

Review: See Jane Score

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This book was one of those mediocre books that capture your attention just enough to keep going although the technical aspects aren’t so great. There were some weird choices in wording, strange repetitions, and the plot kind of rushed forward then stalled out a bunch of times. The characters were really great, though, even if the romance itself didn’t seem to be very believable.

Okay, I take that back. Everyone but the heroine was believable. I didn’t understand her motivations or her behavior at all, and I think that is the major shortcoming of the book. There’s a lot of her friend just telling her how she is about relationships, but that doesn’t really make it true to the character. Her development wasn’t very well done. Luc and the rest of the hockey players were great though, I enjoyed them, and I found Luc’s storyline fairly believable and true to an arc. I also loved his interactions with his sister, and how their relationship changes through the book. Jane was too plain.

Review: Bet Me

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I really wanted to like this book. It was on so many lists of great romance novels, and was even mentioned on a podcast that I enjoy, but it just didn’t live up to the hype.

Aside from the really bizarre character names, the whole thing reads like a rough first draft. Turns out, this was Crusie’s first novel after she read 100 romance novels for her dissertation. The bones of the story are good and have a lot of potential, but the descriptions are bad and the characters flat. I had a really hard time picturing almost everything. I can’t for the life of me conjure an image of those bridesmaids dresses. The side plot with David and Cynthie was exasperating and way too mustache-twirly. When I start rewriting scenes in my head as I’m
going, that’s not promising to me.

Despite my inability to imagine anything going on, the book was a fast read and the plot moved along at a pretty good pace. There were some points that I was thinking “oh, just get on with it”, but those were few. It just needed to be heavily massaged by a good editor. Considering that she has gone on to write many more books, I hope that her craft has improved, but I don’t know if I’ll be checking out more of her books.

Review: A Bright Red Ribbon

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fernmichaels_images_cover-abrightredribbonThis was seriously the most terrible book I’ve read in a long time. It was definitely worse than the “bad” book that I read for this challenge. It was really short, and that is the only positive thing that I can say about it.

Morgan (“Mo” – yes, seriously) is an adult woman who has legit waited two years without hearing so much as an “I’m alive” from her former boyfriend. She spent these two years making herself over into a supermodel, curating a wardrobe of fancy clothes and working out to make herself super hot, so that IF Keith keeps his promise to meet her at her parents’ Christmas tree, they can get engaged and live happily ever after. Just, what? No, she isn’t certain that he will actually show up. It’s been two years! Anyways, her town gets hit with a ridiculous blizzard and because she is insane, she begins driving to her parents’ house anyway. Of course, she gets stranded. She decides to walk somewhere (???) and right when she is about to collapse from frostbite and exhaustion, a dog finds her and gets her to follow him by waving a red ribbon and biting her.

So she winds up at some guy’s cottage. He is in a wheelchair, and yells at her to take a shower and not fall asleep and die of hypothermia. She falls asleep after her shower and wakes the next day. They exchange weird dialogue that’s mostly antagonistic, but somehow get drunk and end up doing it on the floor in front of a roaring fire. Neither of them have been taught how to be grown-ups apparently, because they are super awkward the next day and even though one night of passion and barbs made them head over heels, they both pretend they feel nothing.

Mo (gosh I hate that nickname) breaks it off with Keith the next day when she realizes that he is a man child. But even then, she and Marcus dance around their feelings forever. One day, Marcus shows up at her doorstep with the dog and then disappears. She tries to contact him for ages, but can’t get in touch. She has to move to accommodate having a dog, so he can’t contact her either. So then, the next Christmas, she breaks into the cottage so that the dog can go home for Christmas. (Yep…) And then Marcus shows up – but now he can walk! They exchange some more flirtatious insults, and the book ends.

Uh…

1 star.

The book fulfills the book set at Christmas and the book with a color in the title requirements for the challenge.

I’M DONE!

Review: Lady Chatterley’s Lover

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9781411432505_p0_v1_s260x420It took me three months to finish this book, and not because it was particularly dense or long. Imagine a somewhat tame erotica novel, and then add pages and pages of ranting about Bolshevism, industrialism, and classism. That is Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

After reading an essay about the book and having it contextualized in the time in which D.H. Lawrence wrote the book, it makes sense why this may have an important stepping stone for modern romance novels. Despite any importance in the literary canon, however, this book is terrible. The characters are shells of characters, the plot meanders and jumps ahead in the future without warning, and there is too much unrelated ranting. There is a somewhat interesting story buried in between all the rest, but it really needed to be massaged out of it.

The book is very nearly autobiographical, as it takes many elements – including its setting – from Lawrence’s own life. Lawrence’s father was a collier, and the book is based adjacent to a mining town. The adultery in the book is also mined from his life, as his wife was married when they became entangled. The gamekeeper is supposed to be the author’s mouthpiece in the book, and most of his opinions are those of Lawrence’s.

I thought the book could have been better if it had included more exploration of the relationship between Connie and her husband, Clifford. Why did she decide to marry him at all? What drew her to him? Was their relationship lukewarm before his paralysis, or did that ruin it? There is a sense of the pompous, self-righteous attitude that Clifford has and that worsens as he feels more powerless and impotent, which is very interesting, but instead we get pages about how he feels about spirituality or transcendence. And Connie, for that matter, doesn’t seem to feel much of anything until she just decides that she is going to ditch Clifford for Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper.

This book does not age well. I’m sure it was scandalous for the time as it has some fairly graphic depictions of the relationship between Connie and Oliver, but between the rantings and outdated references, it is pretty vanilla and boring.

2 stars.

This book fulfills the classic romance and the banned book requirements for the challenge.