CBR18 Book 1: "Only on Gameday" by Kristen Callihan

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

Introverted and shy Penelope Morrow grew up an only child, but was more or less enveloped by the five children of the Luck family (all named, rather implausibly, for months - the boys, January, March and August, with the twin girls being called May and June), since their mothers were best friends. Outgoing, charming and overachieving, all three Luck boys are handsome and very talented American football players, like their father before them, but the only one who ever really interested Penelope was August. Not that she would ever going to admit this to any of his siblings, and certainly not to the man himself. Her shyness and awkwardness were perceived as disdain and coldness, so not even her best friends, August's sisters, suspect that she secretly always had a crush on him.

August Luck is the top draft in the NHL, and struggles with the pressures of living up to the legacy of his father and older brother. As a result, he goes a bit off the deep end with partying, and after yet another party video of him, this one falling off a table while doing the chicken dance, he needs a bit of an image clean-up. When he opens the front door of his parents' house to see Penelope again after several years, he is stunned by how beautiful she has become, and starts making a rather foolish plan. Like Penelope, August has also had an unrequited crush, but his awkwardness was seen as arrogance, so Penelope has never realised how strongly he felt for her. August's brothers, January and March, however, seem to have some idea of the extent of his feelings. 

Both of Penelope's grandparents worked in Hollywood, and when they bought their house, it wasn't especially expensive. By the time Penelope inherits it, it's worth about ten million dollars, and she has no idea where she's going to get the money to pay the property taxes. Her mother refuses to lend her the money, and can't understand why Penelope won't even consider selling the house. Penelope, on the other hand, doesn't really care about the property value, the house is just the only place she's ever really felt at home, and she can't bring herself to part with the house. So when August (who she believes is at best indifferent to her, at worst kind of hates her) approaches her with a rather far-fetched scheme that can help both of them, she is tempted against her better judgment.

August has decided that the perfect image overhaul would be for him to present Penelope as his long-time secret sweetheart, whom he has now proposed to. The fact that they grew up together will only help sell the story to the press. In return, he wants to pay the property taxes for Penelope, although she only grudgingly accepts a loan, and promises she will find the money to pay her own taxes, not wanting to be beholden to a man she's been crushing on her entire life. 

Any secret engagement story in romance has to end with the couple catching feelings for one another. In this case, both of the protagonists already have the feelings; they've just both bottled them so deeply that only a very few people even suspect they are anything but almost antagonistic towards each other. Once August and Penelope actually start loosening up and spending some time together, they are obviously completely gone for each other almost instantly (while still denying this to themselves for far longer than the plot needed). 

There was a lot to like in this story, even though the pining gets to the point of ridiculousness, and I just wanted them to have an actual, honest conversation so we could get to the part of the book where they get to be an actual couple. The author uses a lot of pop culture references throughout, which I'm not sure are going to age well, and might be off-putting to some readers who don't catch all of them. This is partly because Penelope is obsessed with movies, and there are so many movie references throughout. 

On the other hand, the supporting cast, mainly consisting of the large and loving Luck family are great. I'm wondering if Callihan is planning on writing a romance for each of the remaining siblings. There's January, whose career as a football player ended after a car accident (shortly after which he and his fiancée split up). There's March, the younger brother who seems to be quite resistant to any thoughts of settling down, not to mention the twin sisters who seem vastly different, but both quite quirky. 

It's been a long time since I read any of Callihan's books. Some of the previous Game On books were five-star reads for me; it would be fun to revisit them. 

Judging a book by its cover: I was sort of hoping that the cover of this was a placeholder, since I was reading an ARC. But no, it appears that this rather bland and badly computer-illustrated cover is what the publishers have chosen to market this book with. I think the only thing worse than little faceless, cartoony characters on a cover is uninspired computer renditions of the main characters. At least they look as described in the story, which is not always a given. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

Year in review 2025

Good riddance to 2025, it was an awful year in so many ways. I don't like having to wake up every morning thinking "Is he dead yet?" and "What other horrible thing has happened now"? Although the world is becoming more of a very poorly plotted dystopian novel every day, means that reading becomes a coping strategy, and I did a LOT of it.

I mostly did mood reading and some reading challenges, mainly to help me pick which books to read every month. I also managed to review almost all the NetGalley ARCs I received, which is a new record. I did the Goodreads and StoryGraph challenges, as always. I also completed the Nowhere Bookshop Bingo, both of the Buzzwords challenges (Title and Cover), the CBR 17 Pie Chart Challenge, and the CBR17 Bingo Challenge. Without being signed up for any formal challenges about it, I've tried to be good about reading diverse books (82 that qualified, in the end) and from my TBR list (68 in total). I also listened to 28 audio books. 

Total books started: 147

DNF-d: 4

New to Me books: 18

Re-reads: 129

Average rating: 4.0

My best reading month was December, because I was off sick from work for most of the month, followed by a two-week vacation, so I managed to finish 18 whole books, six more than in May and November, when I managed 13. April and June were the months I read the fewest books, but even those months, I managed ten, so I am generally very happy with how much reading I got done this year.

My top ten books from 2025:

The Raven Scholar - Antonia Hodgson (I didn't have the words, so this is a friend's review)

The Undercutting of Rosie & Adam - Megan Bannen

In a Rush - Kate Canterbary

Along Came Amor - Alexis Daria

Deep End - Ali Hazelwood

The River Has Roots - Amal El-Mohtar

These Summer Storms - Sarah Maclean

Great Big Beautiful Life - Emily Henry

Mate - Ali Hazelwood (Another well-written review by a friend)

Zomromcom - Olivia Dade (Yet again, saved by the reviewing skills of my friends)

Four books in my top ten were ARCs, so I've been really lucky with those this year, but then again, my worst book of the year was also an ARC. 

My top ten books from before 2025 (in the order they were read):

• The True Love Experience - Christina Lauren
• Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brandon Sanderson
• The Change - Kristen Miller
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, vol 3 - Kanehito Yamada and Tsutsaka Abe
• The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna
• The Warm Hands of Ghosts - Katherine Arden
• Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
• Den fantastiske bussen (The fantastic bus) - Jakob Martin Strid
• The Long Game - Rachel Reid

My worst books of 2025:

Third worst: Stargate: En julefortelling/Brightly Shining - Ingvild H. Rishøi

Second worst: The Love Haters - Katherine Center (this author's previous novel was in my top 10 for 2024 - how does that even happen?)

Absolute Worst: To Steal from Thieves - M.K. Lobb (didn't even finish it, had to DNF @ 35%)

CBR17 Book 70: "In a Second" by Kate Canterbary

Page count: 505 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

This was an ARC from the author. I am very grateful, but my opinions are my own. 

Audrey Saunders has not seen her former boyfriend, Jude Bellessi, since he showed up at the church, only moments before she was due to get married, to ask her to run away with him instead. Because of a whole host of reasons, Audrey couldn't tell Jude why she was getting married, and why she broke up with him in the first place and moved across the country. About a decade later, she certainly didn't expect him to show up at their high school reunion, but there he is, larger than life and handsomer than ever.

While once he was the motorcycle-driving bad boy her parents disapproved of, now Jude is an aerospace engineer and single dad, trying to gain sole custody of his son (it's complicated). He is attending the reunion because he needs a pretty big favour from Audrey, and figures she owes him for the way their relationship crashed and burned all those years ago. Jude's mother was dying of cancer, and he may have lied a whole lot and claimed that he and Audrey were not only happily reunited, but were due to get married. Of course, now Jude's mum is fully recovered and delighted that she will get to plan her son's wedding to the woman he couldn't forget.

Matrimony did not work out for Audrey, and she has no intention of ever getting married again. She does feel like she has a debt to repay, however, so she agrees to play fake fiancée to Jude for a week. After that, she never needs to see Jude again, and she'll go celebrate one of her best friends' weddings. Jude plans to wait a couple of months, then he will tell his mother that they broke up, and that will be that. Neither of them had taken into account flight cancellations, a cross-country road trip, or being trapped in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, in the most depressing motel room you could possibly imagine - which obviously only has one bed. 

This is the third book in the Friendship, Rhode Island series, which all have heroes and heroines who have to go through a fake engagement for complicated reasons. Jamie, who is both one of Audrey's best friends and also a fellow teacher, just laughs hysterically at how optimistic Audrey is about this being a brief transaction, after which she and Jude will never see each other again. By now, it's quite clear that fake engagement equals an eventual happy ever after for all of these women (who all became friends because they worked at the same school). 

All of the books in this series are long; it is very rare that a romance needs to be longer than 400 pages. I thought the plot dragged out for too long in In a Jam, and I thought the plot dragged out too long in this one, too. I understand that there is a whole lot of angst to get through on both Audrey and Jude's part. One of the reasons the book is clearly so long is that Canterbary seems to want the readers to not only get the main romance, but also time to reconnect with characters from previous books. Which is fine, but I'm not sure we needed as much of it as here, and I'm not sure I would care for it much if this was the first book in the series that I picked up. I also don't know if we needed as many complications and obstacles thrown in their way as Audrey and Jude have.

Going forward, I'm now very curious whether Canterbary intends to write a romance starring Jamie, who seems very attachment-averse and keeps taking part in polyamorous orgies. She doesn't seem like the sort of person who will want to settle down with one (or several) people, but I would love to be surprised. What I want most of all right now, and the author seems to be heavily setting up for, is a book about Ruth, one of the sisters of Ryan from In a Rush. She's a prominent supporting character in this one, and has clearly got up to some shenanigans which may lead to a HEA eventually. 

Judging a book by its cover: This is my favourite of the Friendship, Rhode Island covers so far. It doesn't hurt that it's pretty much all shades of purple. The violets are a lovely touch, once it becomes clear what the colour and flower mean to Audrey. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 69: "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller

Page count: 369 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 15 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 25: Reimagining or retelling of a classic

CBR17 Pie Chart Challenge: History

Patroclus is exiled from his father's kingdom after he accidentally kills a boy and is sent into fosterage with King Peleus. Here is where he meets Achilles, whose mother is the sea nymph Thetis. Achilles is supposed to become the greatest warrior who ever lived, and trains diligently to achieve this goal. While they are vastly different, Patroclus and Achilles become sworn companions, and Patroclus accompanies Achilles to train with the legendary centaur Chiron.

The boys stay with Chiron for several years, until they become young men. Their bond deepens, and they become lovers. Unfortunately, their pastoral life is cut short. Helen, rumoured to be the most beautiful woman in the world, has been abducted by Prince Paris of Troy. All the kingdoms of Greece are oath-sworn to accompany King Agamemnon and Menelaus to rescue her. Thetis takes her son and attempts to hide him away in a distant kingdom, since there is a prophecy that if he faces Prince Hector of Troy on the battlefield, he will die. However, Achilles is tracked down and seduced by the chance to fulfil his destiny. He can't become the greatest warrior ever if he doesn't go to Troy. He figures he'll just stay away from Hector, and then he can't be killed.

The quick and decisive victory the Greeks were expecting instead becomes a gruelling siege that lasts over a decade. Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, grows ever more resentful of Achilles, who refuses to show him the respect he believes he is owed. The tension and conflict between them keep escalating, eventually ending in tragedy. Prophecies can only be evaded for so long before the gods decide to manipulate matters to end as they have been foretold. 

Ok, fair warning, I'm not going to spoiler tag a myth that is literally thousands of years old. If you don't know the story of Achilles and how and why he eventually met his tragic end, that's really not on me. They even made a big movie starring many hunky men! Of course, in that one, Patroclus is Achilles' "cousin", and they give our dashing hero a female love interest and everything. No homo when you're Brad Pitt. Suffice it to say, in this book, which is frequently found in the top ten of banned books every year, Patroclus and Achilles are NOT cousins. They come of age together, yes, but they are in no way related, and their feelings for one another are most definitely romantic and sexual. Pretty sure no one would bother banning this book if they were just cousins and bros, happily seducing the various priestesses they captured as prizes of war. 

Having finally read this, which I have owned for oh so many years, I won't say that I was disappointed, because it is a very well-written book, but neither was I swept away by the story. Since Patroclus is the narrator of the book, I was idly curious whether he would keep narrating from the afterlife (turns out, I was right!). This is a good book, but I had read so much about how it had people in floods of tears. I felt no such emotions, probably because I knew when I started the book how it would end. Miller's other mythological novel, Circe, affected me much more strongly. I should re-read that and The Odyssey before Christopher Nolan's movie comes out next year. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover for my audiobook is this fairly simple teal green one, with a golden Greek helmet on it. I much prefer it to the alternate cover with the big shiny golden breastplate. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 68: "One of Us is Lying" by Karen M. McManus

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR17 Bingo: School (The Breakfast Club with murder. So much high school drama)

On a Monday afternoon, five high schoolers find themselves in detention after someone planted phones in their bags. They all claim the phones are not theirs, but the teacher is not listening. There is Cooper, the star athlete, with a promising career in baseball ahead of him. There is Addy, always perfectly put together and the homecoming princess. There is Nate, the school's bad boy, who is on probation for dealing drugs. There is Bronwyn, most likely to become valedictorian and hoping for a spot at Yale, where several generations of her family have studied. And finally, there is Simon, who runs the school's extremely accurate, and frequently cruel, gossip app. Everyone follows it, and while he may ruin reputations in the process, Simon never lies.

Less than an hour later, only four remain, after Simon is taken to the hospital after suffering severe anaphylactic shock. Strangely, while everyone was scrambling to try to save him, he didn't appear to have an EPIPen in his bag, and every single EPIPen in the school nurse's office was also found to be missing. By Monday evening, Simon is dead. The cause of death appears to have been peanut oil at the bottom of the paper cup he drank from, just before he collapsed. It was well known at school that he was deathly allergic to peanuts. The police don't think his death is accidental, and as the four remaining students from detention are questioned by the police, it becomes clear that Simon had planned to reveal a deep, dark secret about each of them the next day, so they all have motives for wanting him dead. He just hadn't had time to post the entry yet, but it's there on his computer for them all to see. 

Four teens, who previously barely spoke to one another, are now cast into the spotlight, all suspects in a murder investigation. Is one of them a ruthless murderer, or did someone else manage to sneak inside the classroom while everyone in there was distracted by a collision in the parking lot?

Mostly, I only read historical mysteries, set in the Victorian era, with lady sleuths. However, this year, not only have I read a lot more mysteries in general (24 so far), but the majority of them have been contemporaries. Thanks are due to Richard Osman and Karen M. McManus. This book was entertaining and twisty enough that I immediately ignored my planned TBR list for October to read the two sequels (which I won't be reviewing, because I don't need to). Book 1 is still the best, book 2 was a bit weaker and book 3 was pretty good again. 

McManus alternates chapters for each of the protagonists, the Bayview Four, as they come to be known in all the news reports. It allows us to share in their fears and insecurities, and makes us as readers understand why Simon revealing their secrets would be so devastating to them. One of them is likely an unreliable narrator, because it wouldn't be much fun if we found out who the killer was too early in the story. Very shortly after Simon dies, someone starts writing anonymous Tumblr posts claiming to be Simon's killer, revealing things that it seems only someone in the detention room would know. It also becomes obvious that Simon must have shared his password with someone, because all those secrets Simon didn't have time to reveal before his death are published, showing the world exactly what may have motivated one (or several) of the Bayview Four to want to poison Simon.

I've read quite a few mysteries, so there were a couple of twists in the story that I had predicted before they were revealed, but part of why this book is so entertaining isn't even the central mystery, it's getting to know Bronwyn, Nate, Addy and Cooper, and seeing these four very different people form an unlikely friendship because they are now murder suspects. It was also why I wanted to keep going with the series, I really liked all of them, and wanted to find out what more was in store for them.

I saw on the internet that this book was also turned into a TV series. It looks like they made big narrative changes to the story, though, which did not appeal to me. There are far too many good things out there that I don't have the energy or will to watch right now, I'm not going to watch a disappointing adaptation of a book I really enjoyed. 

If you're not put off by YA books and want a fun, slightly twisty read, this is worth picking up. 

Judging a book by its cover: I have the UK paperback cover, and I much prefer it to the American cover with the four faces in a grid (where the faces are all cut out, creepy much?) This is sparse and elegant, and while the tag lines are a bit hokey, they fit with the contents of the book. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 67: "Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow" by Jessica Townsend

Page count: 480 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Nowhere Bingo 25: A middle-grade book

CBR17 Bingo: N (a book starting with the letter N)

Morrigan Crow is a cursed child, born on Eventide (think New Year's Eve, but unlucky) and as such, is due to die at midnight on her 11th birthday. She keeps being blamed for everything bad that happens in her surroundings and spends a lot of time writing apology notes. 

However, before she can meet her doom, a mysterious stranger called Jupiter North appears and takes her away, chased by shadowy monsters hunting them, to a different world (or alternate dimension) and a city called Nevermoor. Now, Morrigan gets to live in the magical hotel that Jupiter runs, and starts making friends for the first time in her life. Jupiter intends for Morrigan to join the Wundrous Society, where he is also a prominent member. But to be accepted, she has to compete in four different and very challenging trials over the course of the year, and the final one consists of showing off one's extraordinary talent. Everyone keeps telling her that her talent will be revealed in due course, but Morrigan is pretty sure that being cursed is not what the leaders of the Society are looking for. 

To complicate matters further, it turns out that Jupiter has illegally smuggled Morrigan into Nevermoor, and if she doesn't pass the trials and get accepted into the Wundrous Society, she'll be returned to her own world, just in time for her previously scheduled midnight death. 

This is the sort of book that I'm pretty sure my son will really enjoy in a few years, when I either read it to him or he picks it up for himself (he currently loves reading comics, like the Dogman books or Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur). Morrigan, who is pale and constantly wears black, even when everyone else is in riotous colours around her, feels very inspired by Wednesday Addams, but she has a more cheerful disposition, and doesn't seem to actively resent making friends. 

Nevermoor is a very intriguing fantasy world, and there are lots of strange, magical things, including sentient talking animals and chandeliers that grow from the ceilings. For a child who has never really known any kind of warmth or affection, it's a big adjustment for Morrigan to live in a place where people seem to care about what her wants and wishes are and treat her with kindness and curiosity. Jupiter is very nice to her, but he is secretive, and also extremely busy, and has to be away a lot. He has a nephew, Jack, who stays at the hotel during the holidays, and he and Morrigan do not get along. There are hundreds of children taking part in the first trial for the Wundrous Society, but about half get eliminated with each new challenge. While Morrigan makes a very good friend, there are also some mean girls who would like nothing more than to see her fail and be forcibly evicted back to her own world. 

Since the series has been out for quite a few years now, I think I've acquired at least the first three in e-book sales, so they're just waiting for me on my TBR. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that by the end of the book, Morrigan discovers that there are good reasons why Jupiter decided to rescue her from certain death, and she has an interesting future ahead of her. I'm looking forward to seeing where the series goes next. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 66: "Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen

Page count: 464 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 25 mins

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR17 Bingo: Black (a book with a black cover)

I had completely forgotten that I read and reviewed this book back in 2016. My original review can be found here. 

My plot summary of the more than 200-year-old novel can be found in my previous review. Nevertheless, my reading experience this time around was different enough from earlier times that I wanted to write about some of my thoughts and observations, not to mention some of the points of discussion that came up during my book club discussion about it recently.

There are some rather uneducated modern beliefs that there were no neurodivergent individuals in the past. Because there has been a sharp rise in the number of people (especially children) diagnosed with either ADHD or Autism, many believe that this is something new, and not something that has always been around, just unacknowledged by people, because they didn't have the diagnostic tools to identify it. Case in point, some now suspect Jane Austen may have been on the autism spectrum, and eagle-eyed readers claim that there is at least one autistic-coded character in each of her published novels. The reason I'm opening with this is because one of the members of my book club, who is on the autism spectrum, posited that Marianne Dashwood is clearly also neurodivergent and, over the course of the novel, forced to adapt and conform to societal pressures and learn to mask her true self. Based on my own experiences, with an autistic husband and a son with ADHD, I'm now more convinced than ever that Mr. Darcy is on the spectrum, so once this member explained her reasoning, it seems likely that she might be right about Marianne as well. 

According to her, Marianne's complete disdain for the thoughts and opinions of others, to the point where she is frequently brusque and rude at social gatherings, her inability to govern her emotions (or "sensibility") and her hyper-focused love of her own interests, at the expense of anything else, are all very autism-coded. She has difficulty with social cues, which is one of the reasons she causes a scene in public when she finally sees Willoughby again at the ball in town, after months of no contact. By the end of the book, heartbreak and prolonged illness have made her a mere shadow of her former self, and she seems to accept that she needs to be a quieter, more moderately behaved young woman.

Another thing that was strange and a bit uncomfortable when re-reading the book this time is realising that I'm now older than most of the characters. Colonel Brandon, who is frequently described as old, set in his ways and fussy, is only 35 years old! Also, it is mentioned more than once that he like wearing a flannel waistcoat, as if this is something negative, and not proof that the man dislikes the cold and likes to be comfortable. I totally defend his desire to be snug and warm. At 46, I am now older than Mrs Dashwood, the girls' widowed mother, and the character I am probably most like in social status and age is the meddling, yet ultimately kind-hearted Mrs Jennings, a matron with two grown daughters. So all I can look forward to now is trying to match-make and chaperone younger women. 

Another point of discussion was the fact that all the men in this, yes, EVEN Colonel Brandon, are kind of awful. He is the least worst, but his attraction to Marianne does seem to be based on her similarity to his doomed first love, rather than because of her own personality. And every single character, even Marianne's mother and beloved sister Elinor, seems to think that it's only right and proper that he get Marianne as his wife for being patient and pining, without really considering Marianne's agency in the slightest. Marianne seems so exhausted and dejected towards the end that she's clearly willing to go along with anything, especially if it means she will stop her family from worrying about her. He does get points for raising his dead love's illegitimate child, ignoring all the gossip that whispers that she is his child out of wedlock. 

I think it's only because of Hugh Grant's adorable puppy dog portrayal of Edward Ferrars, Elinor's love interest, that I didn't recall that he is one of the dullest people I have encountered in fiction. He is described as not particularly attractive physically, he makes absolutely no attempts to try and influence his life, and even though his mother treats him appallingly, he never stands up for himself. He's not brave enough to confess to Elinor about his secret betrothal when they first meet, and he falls in love with her; she has to find out in the worst possible way from conniving snake Lucy Steele. He doesn't even end his own unhappy engagement; he waits around until he is dumped by Lucy Steele, cast off for his own brother. If she hadn't eloped with someone else, he would just have dully suffered in silence in a dreadful marriage of unequal partners. 

Then there is Willoughby, who, one of the members in my book club feels, is actually even worse than Wickham, who is despicable and an absolute predator, but at least owns his own actions. Willoughby not only knocks up and callously abandons Brandon's ward, leaving her absolutely no way of contacting him (ghosting was WAY easier in the 1800s, you just had to move to a different part of the country and leave no forwarding address), and actually seems surprised and dismayed when his elderly aunt takes him to task for this. He never makes any concrete promises to Marianne, and when she is on her deathbed, he shows up and drunkenly rants at Elinor about how sad he is, because while he loves Marianne, he loves himself and his financial security more. He HAD to marry the extremely wealthy young heiress with 50,000 pounds a year, because true love doesn't pay for expensive horses and fancy carriages and the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. We were all in agreement that if he lived now, he would have a podcast and be a manosphere influencer. No taking responsibility for his own careless actions and owning up to his mistakes for Willoughby. 

We also agreed that while Lucy Steele is a conniving, mean girl, if the ultimate goal for Regency women was to marry someone who could secure them for the rest of their days, she is absolutely the winner. Her constant "worried" confessions to Elinor about her secret engagement to Edward are obviously meant to taunt and torture the other woman, and she is obviously a social-climbing opportunist. She even takes all of her poor sister's money when she runs off to marry Ferrars the younger. We all hoped her boring sister ended up happily married to her doctor eventually. 

Some of the members of my book club were rather surprised at this being categorised as romance, and those of us who are long-time fans of Austen had to explain that because SOME of her novels have a strong romantic plot, it would be more accurate to classify them as social satires. Because Pride and Prejudice is so very romantic, and her most popular one, all of her books have been labelled by publishers as romance, because that sells more. This book is more a family story, and a coming of age novel, and the plot would have worked just as well if all the suitors were taken out of the equation. Marianne would certainly have been better off because of it. 

Judging a book by its cover (and illustrations): The cover I have chosen to feature is that of my older paperback edition (because it is actually mostly black, except for the lady faces). These women seem much older than 17 and 19, though. The edition I actually read, this time, was my tiny pocket-sized hardback, the 250th Anniversary Edition, which has a red and green cover, and cover illustrations inside by Hugh Thompson. While they are lovely, the pedant in me got annoyed that they are not period-appropriate. Austen's novels are famously set in the Regency era, while all the clothes and hairstyles from the illustrations were clearly from the Georgian era, several decades earlier. It's a stupid niggle, to be sure, but it annoyed me throughout. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.