tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10565986780895465212024-03-19T09:46:55.794+01:00Malin's Blog of BooksThis is my book blog, where I review books I read as part of Cannonball Read 16, where members compete to be the first to reach 52. We also try to get people excited about books and reading, and make money for cancer charities. This year, I will be reading and reviewing in memory of friends and family who died of cancer in the past few years. I managed 104 reviews last year, let's see if I can repeat the feat. Wish me luck!Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.comBlogger1673125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-22764444865698714432024-02-25T19:53:00.000+01:002024-02-25T19:53:11.633+01:00CBR16 Book 13: "Bride" by Ali Hazelwood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6AoNog8X9vlRRfIsz930vJlC1j-AbNOPc5ROpwKApxWJlxmGNv_Ouq0wnENdHICeWgR3tqnW1hRmcS7_eK2OG69i-s747eQjshLkZa0OPM9C-PtR8evWn9h3QuEdZyY82hFOor8ewTPKaXihuiq-y6AIJmxMr7lQ7ARrNTh5LzizHEZcGQjvhxqQPAg/s500/Bride.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6AoNog8X9vlRRfIsz930vJlC1j-AbNOPc5ROpwKApxWJlxmGNv_Ouq0wnENdHICeWgR3tqnW1hRmcS7_eK2OG69i-s747eQjshLkZa0OPM9C-PtR8evWn9h3QuEdZyY82hFOor8ewTPKaXihuiq-y6AIJmxMr7lQ7ARrNTh5LzizHEZcGQjvhxqQPAg/w133-h200/Bride.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Page count: 410 pages<div>Rating: 4 stars</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Nowhere Book Bingo:</b> One-word title</div><div><b>CBR16 Sweet Books:</b> Exciting (This was one of my most anticipated book releases of the first half of 2024)</div><div><br /></div><div>Misery Lark is the only daughter of a powerful vampyre councilman, and for much of her life, she lived among human strangers as a diplomatic hostage, to maintain the fragile peace between vampyres and humans. To make her a bit less lonely, an orphan named Serena came to live with her, and now that Misery is all grown-up, Serena is her only friend. She also has a twin brother, but since she's lived away from him for so long, they don't really know each other particularly well.</div><div><br /></div><div>Misery is no longer a hostage, but Serena has gone missing and Misery is desperate to find her friend. When her father wants to use her to secure another alliance, this one a rather fragile one with the volatile werewolves, her first instinct is to say no. But then she discovers the name of the new werewolf Alpha, Lowe Moreland, and remembers a clue she found in Serena's apartment. Convinced that the werewolves must have something to do with her BFF's disappearance, Misery agrees to marry a complete stranger, a man she won't even meet until the wedding ceremony. </div><div><br /></div><div>Early in their marriage, Misery is convinced that Lowe is disgusted by her, and he tries to keep his distance from her as much as possible. It's difficult for her to snoop around and investigate since there are guards watching her at all times. A lot of the werewolves are suspicious and distrustful of Misery, but Lowe's little sister seems delighted by her and takes any opportunity to spend time with her (much to Misery's initial annoyance, she has no idea how to relate to a child, let alone a constantly chirpy one). </div><div><br /></div><div>While Misery is a very skilled hacker, she sucks at subterfuge and sneaking around. She also fails to account for her husband's excellent sense of smell - it's not really difficult for him to tell when she's been snooping in his quarters. She's forced to tell him why she agreed to the marriage, and while he's never even heard of Serena, he promises to help her search for her friend. Once they start working together, Misery and Lowe obviously have to spend a lot more time together, and once they do, Misery is about to discover that the reason her husband has been keeping her at a distance isn't because he hates her - rather the opposite.</div><div><br /></div><div>By now, it should be clear to readers of my reviews that I am a big fan of Ali Hazelwood. I've read everything she's published, and when I found out she was doing a paranormal, I nearly lost it. I keep joking that I'd like her to switch things up and finally write a book with a short, shy, introverted hero. A novel featuring werewolves and vampires was never going to have that. Of course, Lowe is big and imposing, he's an alpha werewolf. However, Misery is at least not a petite waif with some sort of chronic condition, she's described as nearly six feet tall, which is a bit of a change from Hazelwood's normally pocket-sized heroines. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am vaguely aware that there is something out there called the Omegaverse, but I haven't really wanted to mess up my search history by actually looking up what it entails, and as far as I'm aware. I also don't read fan fiction (far too little time to read actual books, I don't have time to get distracted by fan fic), but I have read a fair amount of paranormal romance, many MANY of them which feature shapeshifters and were-creatures of some form or another. Even so, I have never come across the concept of 'knotting' before this book. It wasn't like I didn't understand from the sexual situations described in this book entailed, but I had to go on the interwebs and look up where the term originated, and this is the first book where I can say I've come across its use. Gotta say I'm not a fan. Apart from that, I really enjoyed this book, even with the fated mate stuff that's clearly happening (just because Misery doesn't understand what's going on, and keeps misunderstanding all the conversations involving Lowe's mate, doesn't mean that it's not pretty obvious from pretty much the wedding ceremony to anyone who's read any paranormal romance at all).</div><div><br /></div><div>Hazelwood has in the past had some characters appear in more than one of her STEM romances, but so far she doesn't really seem to do sequels. However, now that she's written this paranormal, I'm desperate for her to write at least one more book set in this world, preferably two. It seems pretty obvious, from the final scene in this book, that Serena is likely to get her own novel. I want one for Owen, Misery's twin brother, as well though, as he's an intriguing character from what we get to see of him in this book. I want to see what romantic match Hazelwood has in mind for him. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>Compared to Hazelwood's previous novels, which all have bright almost candy-coloured covers with the lovers in fairly traditional embraces, this is very monochrome. The black, white, grey, and red colour scheme here is clearly yet another nod/wink to <i>Twilight</i>, however, and I for one think it's a fun one. Could it have had a more interesting image? Possibly, but I really like the wolf in the background with the glowing eyes. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-68674670702616404642024-02-18T09:28:00.000+01:002024-02-18T09:28:12.945+01:00CBR16 Book 12: "Raiders of the Lost Heart" by Jo Segura<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAix93FyVF5Q4oksIwJwZ2vmZZo9hKPZ2qc9GHwYZmq9GMa2TYna9Kplfd4dXB2hgkScpYehR_8G7B7_y9gZqHLkMM6v2p6EUxrdgfL6CVffQFV430iVGBtIpAMP3mybnZ-MUKi7tMAHQKaXs8-fpEx_fJBEDyFVkFq_pUPnTHXuo6VEGeP2p-qE8lmw/s2159/Raiders%20of%20the%20Lost%20Heart.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2159" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAix93FyVF5Q4oksIwJwZ2vmZZo9hKPZ2qc9GHwYZmq9GMa2TYna9Kplfd4dXB2hgkScpYehR_8G7B7_y9gZqHLkMM6v2p6EUxrdgfL6CVffQFV430iVGBtIpAMP3mybnZ-MUKi7tMAHQKaXs8-fpEx_fJBEDyFVkFq_pUPnTHXuo6VEGeP2p-qE8lmw/w130-h200/Raiders%20of%20the%20Lost%20Heart.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>Page count: 368 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 3.5 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Nowhere Book Bingo: </b>A Nowhere Book Club Pick</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>CBR16 Sweet Books: </b>New (Jo Segura is a debut author)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Official book description: </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><i>When archaeologist Dr. Socorro 'Corrie' Mejía is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig in the Mexican jungle, she thinks her wildest dreams have come true. It's her life goal to lead an expedition in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But as the world-renowned expert on the topic, Corrie should be leading the expedition, not sharing the glory with her disgustingly handsome nemesis.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Dr. Ford Matthews has been finding new ways to best her since they were in grad school, yet he isn't exactly thrilled either - with his life in shambles, the last thing he needs is a reminder of their rocky past.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>As the dig begins, it becomes clear they'll need to work together when they realize a thief is lurking around their campsite, forcing the pair to keep their discoveries - and lingering attraction - under wraps. With money-hungry artifact smugglers, the Mexican authorities, and the lies between them closing in, there's only one way this all ends - explosively.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>This is a debut novel where the heroine keeps being compared to Lara Croft and the hero is apparently named for Harrison Ford because his Dad loved the <i>Indiana Jones</i> movies. Doctor Corrie Mejía is a very intelligent and highly trained archeologist, but keeps having trouble being taken seriously because she's also a very attractive woman, and due to some recklessness in her past, there are all sorts of exaggerated stories about her wild adventures. A mysterious guy shows up in her office and tells her about a dig in Mexico, which she only discovers is headed by her career nemesis, Doctor Ford Matthews.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ford has been digging in the Mexican jungle for three months, without anything real to show for it, and has had no choice but to recommend to his employer that they bring Corrie in on the job, as she is the expert on Chimalli, the warrior whose resting place they are trying to locate. In fact, she would have been the best person to lead the job, but desperate for money because his mother needs expensive cancer treatments, and his father died leaving a bunch of unpaid debts, Ford convinced the financial backers that he knew just as much, if not more than Corrie. Naturally, this lie and the subsequent deception are some of the things that present obstacles in the way to Ford and Corrie's eventual HEA.</div><div><br /></div><div>As the cover promises, this book has quite a bit of adventure, as Ford and Corrie need to set off into the jungle to find the correct dig site (the reason Ford and his crew didn't find anything for three months is that they were looking in the wrong place). Their multi-day trek presents several dangers, like near-drownings, snake attacks, and a rather complicated situation that leads to "only one tent". Then there's the mystery of the possible artifact thief and trying to figure out the culprit before their expedition is sabotaged.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's a lot to like here, and some fun supporting characters. Once Ford and Corrie stop ignoring their obvious chemistry and act on the massive sexual tension between them, the book also gets pretty steamy. There are still elements that make it pretty obvious that this is Ms. Segura's first novel, for instance, a strange fake-out towards the end that seemed unnecessary to me, since one of the protagonists, no matter how much danger they appear to be in, is going to end up dead just before the epilogue. It was still a fun novel, with an unusual premise, so I'll keep a look out for other novels by Ms. Segura in the future. </div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>The cover is colourful and cute, and you can really see the pop culture references clearly in the way the two main characters are portrayed (although I'm pretty sure Ford is holding a rope rather than a whip). I like it a lot more than a lot of cartoony covers. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-4839058479544725222024-02-17T16:35:00.000+01:002024-02-17T16:35:39.207+01:00CBR16 Book 11: "Canadian Boyfriend" by Jenny Holiday<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOkES70rc7QH4fCQoV5MvZbuH88yKabuBozWDSdxoCo99FF4zIN-LiyT5zqhHUpy6_0mwLhS-BpqPX7mNHBYtt0ErHnbMyjDlE8arBF6-MeuIQGStn2mMieV4_OizhV_ihFsGR-bva5FwLAZJJcrOXNCx-zzpsIEemmLbD-Eyi4uGBVwjTZq5-2l1CEQ/s1500/Canadian%20Boyfriend.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="987" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOkES70rc7QH4fCQoV5MvZbuH88yKabuBozWDSdxoCo99FF4zIN-LiyT5zqhHUpy6_0mwLhS-BpqPX7mNHBYtt0ErHnbMyjDlE8arBF6-MeuIQGStn2mMieV4_OizhV_ihFsGR-bva5FwLAZJJcrOXNCx-zzpsIEemmLbD-Eyi4uGBVwjTZq5-2l1CEQ/w132-h200/Canadian%20Boyfriend.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>Page count: 384 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Audio book length: 10 hrs 52 mins</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>This was an audio ARC from Netgalley. My opinions are my own.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>CBR16 Sweet Books:</b> Exciting (I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and was VERY excited to get an ARC shortly before the release date. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Nowhere Bingo: </b>A book with multiple POVs</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">When Aurora "Rory" Evans was a lonely teenager, she ran into a handsome Canadian hockey player while she was selling coffee at the Mall of America. She took his name and pretended to have an actual Canadian boyfriend, making her loneliness and ostracism seem more bearable, because even if she had been invited to things, she wouldn't have been able to come, since she was probably visiting her boyfriend, in Canada. And obviously, he couldn't come to school dances or her ballet recitals, living in Canada and all. To keep up the ruse, she also wrote her fictional boyfriend long letters, basically making them a sort of journal for some difficult years in her life.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Now an adult, having given up on ballet as it was making her sick, Aurora works as a dance teacher in a small town. She still struggles with her years of disordered eating, and occasionally gets panic attacks, but she's doing a lot better and enjoys teaching children the joys of dance. To her great surprise, the tragically widowed Mike Martin, whose daughter comes back to dance classes after some time away (what with the grief and the dead mum and soforth), is none other than the handsome young man she took as inspiration for her fake boyfriend. To her credit, it takes her a while to confirm to herself that the Mike she met as a teenager and this Mike are the same person, but even when she does, she doesn't tell him the truth about her teenage coping mechanism. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mike loved his wife and is still dealing with a lot of emotions after her sudden death in a car accident. Olivia, Rory's dance student, is his step-daughter and while he's the only father she's ever known, he's had to fight his parents-in-law for custody, which hasn't exactly made the grieving process easier. It's clear that Olivia adores her father, but she's also a tween who lost her mother and is prone to tantrums and sudden outbursts. Dance classes with "Miss Rory" are one of her favourite things. Mike likes that Aurora doesn't fawn over him (unlike many of the dance mums) and he sees the easy rapport she has with Olivia, and when he discovers that Aurora is working multiple jobs to make ends meet, offers to hire her to be Olivia's sort-of nanny while he's off resuming his hockey career. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So the romance here takes a while to develop. Aurora is keeping the secret that she basically used Mike as a template for a fantasy boyfriend for a long time as a teenager, a truth that becomes more difficult to tell the longer she knows him and the closer they become. Mike is also Aurora's employer (she refuses to take a paycheck, but lives in his basement, has access to a car whenever she needs it, and gets health insurance) for a lot of the book, which certainly complicates the situation between them somewhat. Mike also feels like he can't date again until his daughter is older, possibly even until after she's old enough to move out. He doesn't feel like he can introduce a new woman into her life, in case they break up and she would have to deal with losing another person. When they do finally decide to become more than friends, they do address the employer/employee complication, so it's very much not a case of anyone being exploited or taken advantage of. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There's so much to like in this book. The close friendship between Aurora and her best friend (who owns the dance studio where she works). Mike has been in therapy since his wife died, and once Aurora gets health insurance, she can also afford to see a therapist. She has a long list of reasons as to why she needs to, beginning with the relationship with her very controlling mother, who still makes her feel guilty for giving up a career as a dancer, because of all the time and money her mother put into "supporting" her daughter. There's the disordered eating, which still creates problems for her occasionally, although I liked how she tried to get more comfortable with allowing herself sugary things and her anxiety. And after a while, it's actually her complicated feelings about her relationship with Mike. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">By the way, notice how I keep calling the male protagonist simply Mike in my review? My major complaint about this book, the main reason I cannot give it five stars, even though I really enjoyed it and it did so many things well, is that consistently, throughout the entire book, up to and including the epilogue, Aurora calls Mike by his full name. He is Mike Martin EVERY single time she refers to him. I get it when they are still just acquaintances, and he's the father of one of the girls she teaches. But once she moves into his house to take care of his daughter? Once they actually start engaging in spicy recreational activities? Why? Who does that? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I do not call or think of my husband as Mark Patterson, he's just Mark. Possible exception if I have to fill out official paperwork or something, then I guess I'd use his full name. Why, Aurora? What is your deal? What is up with that? This strange quirk started bothering me about halfway through the book when I really started noticing it, and by the end of the book, I was annoyed enough that it made me want to scream. So no five stars for you, book. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's been a while since I listened to an audio book with two narrators, but to me, this had an unusual audio format. I'm used to romance novels that have alternating POVs between the protagonists, and if the audiobook has two different narrators, they read the entire chapter from "their" character's POV. That is not the case here. Emily Ellet narrates the chapters where Aurora is the POV character and Joshua Jackson narrates Mike's. In all the chapters, Ellet does all the female voices and Jackson does all the male voices. So it becomes a sort of hybrid between a standard audio book and an audio drama. I really liked it. I've now come across another romance audio that did the same thing. If this is a new trend in dual-POV books in audio, whether romance or not, I'm a big fan. It makes the whole thing a lot more entertaining. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Both narrators for this are really good and make the story more engaging. Normally, I only listen to audiobooks when I'm going to and from work, or am out doing errands, or if I'm doing chores. Now, I kept finding excuses to listen more. I know there was a lot of excitement on social media because THE Joshua Jackson (of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson%27s_Creek" target="_blank">Dawson's Creek</a></i> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_(TV_series)" target="_blank"><i>Fringe</i></a> fame) was doing the male part. Is this actually his first time doing audiobooks? If so, he did a good job. I enjoyed the audiobook enough that I used one of my precious Audible credits on it once I finished listening. So even if this was an ARC originally, Ms. Holiday got another sale.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Niggles about Aurora's weird name quirk aside, this was really good and I liked how Mike's character actually got the space and time to work through his many issues because of his wife's death. Neither Aurora nor Mike are magically healed by the love of another, and keep going to therapy because even once they work through the final act complications, both of them need mental health support. In so many books, one or both of the main characters should have intense and comprehensive therapy to deal with their MANY issues - that is not the case here.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I think the next book in the series is about Gretchen, Aurora's best friend. I can't wait. Hopefully, she'll not refer to her romantic partner with first and surname constantly. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>By now, I can pretty much recognise a Leni Kaufmann-illustrated cover at a glance. I always love her covers, and this one is particularly cute. Not entirely sure why the guy (clearly Mike) looks like the twin of Andy Dwyer from Parks and Recreation, but the pink and the mint-green and Aurora's lovely ballet slippers - the playful way she sits and glances over at Mike. It works for me on every level. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a>.</div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-54724483465195088062024-02-12T00:09:00.000+01:002024-02-12T00:09:15.905+01:00CBR16 Book 10: "En enda natt" (All In) by Simona Ahrnstedt<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWArKdM1MLDoOplsw4RvASa4s57FHtoTPh0CWxc_RBWhvsaWUujzKPXPoYjWSbYXhej_eaFRsemojHzwez4OGSUl0SOx5LjpuD4QdynWPNZr4Q3aCeGQVF3QTtxgidhULez1vWIA8GWewdoxEk302dszumBaGjBL0IT-dfP0D3j9svIvD5ixfAcAMskA/s453/En%20enda%20natt.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="280" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWArKdM1MLDoOplsw4RvASa4s57FHtoTPh0CWxc_RBWhvsaWUujzKPXPoYjWSbYXhej_eaFRsemojHzwez4OGSUl0SOx5LjpuD4QdynWPNZr4Q3aCeGQVF3QTtxgidhULez1vWIA8GWewdoxEk302dszumBaGjBL0IT-dfP0D3j9svIvD5ixfAcAMskA/w124-h200/En%20enda%20natt.jpg" width="124" /></a></div>Page count: 495 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Nowhere Book Bingo: </b>First in a finished series</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>CBR16 Sweet Books: </b>New (new author AND first time reading romance in Swedish)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Financial bad boy and seemingly ruthless venture capitalist David Hammar is a self-made man and has acquired his wealth and power for one purpose, which he is close to achieving. He is determined to take over Investum, one of the biggest companies in Sweden, owned and controlled by the powerful De la Grip family. Since the takeover might go smoother if his company has at least one member of the family on their side, he arranges to meet the daughter of the family, Natalia De la Grip, for a business lunch. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Natalia is extremely good at her job and keeps getting great references from current and previous employers. Working as a financial analyst, she desperately wants to prove herself capable and skilled enough to earn a place on the board of Investum. After her fiancée left her, she more or less lives at her work. She has no idea why David Hammar, considered a dangerous young upstart by her father, would want to meet with her, but is curious enough to go to the appointment (especially after her best friend Åsa goes on about how handsome and sexy David is). It doesn't take David long to conclude that Natalia is far too eager to please her father to ever betray the family name and join his revenge plot. The two have undeniable chemistry, however, and although he knows it's a terrible idea, he goes out of his way to do her a personal favour, even though he should forget about her and continue with his takeover plans.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Natalia knows her father and brother consider David Hammar some sort of personal nemesis, but when he claims to have double-booked so he won't be able to attend a concert (this is a total lie), offering her the tickets instead (an intimate concert with her favourite artist), they start texting, and soon he's invited her to dinner, which ends with them spending a passionate night together. It's only supposed to be one single night (the Swedish title of the book, in fact), but despite both knowing it's a terrible idea, they keep meeting and gradually falling for one another. David's best friend and business partner, Michel, is deeply uncomfortable about the rapidly escalating situation and keeps asking his friend to let Natalia down gently, before she discovers he's been lying to her the whole time, and his major personal and professional motivation is to ruin her family.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So this book has been on my actual physical bookshelf since 2016. I tracked down a copy and bought it in paperback after reading <a href="https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/all-in-by-simona-ahrnstedt-2/" target="_blank">this very favourable review</a> over on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and since then it's lingered unread. More fool me, this book was a cracking read, with so many soap opera elements. It not only kept me up far too late at night reading after I started reading it, but I spent most of a Sunday doing almost nothing but reading to finish it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm trying to severely limit my reading challenges this year, after a few years of having most of my reading choices dictated by them. Nevertheless, I need to set myself SOME guidelines, especially to keep chipping away at my TBR list, and one of the goals I've set for myself is to read at least one of the Swedish or Norwegian books on my shelf per month. I barely ever read anything but English, which I'm starting to feel rather guilty about, especially considering how many Norwegian and Swedish language books have accumulated on my shelves. I've made some attempts at reading Norwegian contemporary fiction, much of it very critically lauded, and with very few exceptions, I'm bored senseless. One would think the answer would instead be to read the genres I enjoy in my first and second languages, especially since I literally already bought and paid for the books. Romance, fantasy, historical fiction - it's all there, being ignored because of all the shiny English-language books I let distract me. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>TL, DR</b> - I decided to finally read this book, and should clearly have done so sooner. Ahrnstedt started out writing historical romances (must see if I can track those down as well) and it clearly made her good at research. I don't know all that much about high finance or corporate shenanigans, but all of the stuff included in the book felt very realistic. It probably doesn't hurt that I spent much of the second half of last year finally watching all four seasons of <i>Succession. </i>So many deplorable rich people, intrigue, double-dealing, and betrayal. It made all of the stuff that happens in this book seem highly plausible.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Being used to reading English-language romance, I'm used to there being only one or maybe two POV characters. We usually only get the story from the heroine and/or hero's perspective. Here, Ahrnstedt gives us insight into quite a few characters, not just Natalia and David, our protagonists, but also Natalia's best friend, Åsa; David's best friend and business partner, Michel, occasionally also one of Natalia's brothers. There's a also very slow-burn secondary romance developed between Åsa and Michel, who used to be friends in their university days. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Because of some seriously bad stuff in his and his family's past, David's anger towards Gustav and Peter De la Grip (Natalia's father and eldest brother) is understandable, but even his best friend and partner doesn't know the full extent of his animosity and why he's so determined to take over their company and ruin their lives. He keeps being told by his best friend and mentor that vengeance won't actually give him the satisfaction he thinks it will, especially if it means absolutely devastating a woman he clearly cares for. It takes him a long time to realise that they are correct. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Natalia is a very engaging romance heroine. She's driven and very competent, and while I don't know anything about high finance, the author clearly did her research and shows us in a number of ways, rather than just telling us how capable Natalia is. She really wants to work for the family business, unfortunately, her father, the CEO of Investum, is infamously sexist and doesn't believe women can hack it in business. He keeps proving this to himself by occasionally hiring women, making it so difficult for them to do their jobs, ending with them quitting, usually utterly crushed. The only one of his children he even vaguely has to have time for is his eldest son and heir, Peter, and only because he wouldn't dare do anything to piss off dear old dad. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Both Natalia's mother and Peter's wife are women who support Gustav's old-fashioned and draconian view of gender roles, happily staying at home and expressing disbelief over women like Natalia who want careers and professional recognition. Why can't she just find herself a nice, rich husband who will support her, so she can live a life of leisure and settle down to have babies?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Basically, if Natalia wasn't so likable, I think I would be entirely in David's corner, cheering on his plan to take down and humiliate the De la Grip family, who are also part of the Swedish nobility and pretty much perfect examples of selfish and clueless rich assholes. Natalia has always felt like the odd one out of her family. The only one who seems to care for her at all is her younger brother Alexander, the handsome wastrel son who revels in drinking and carousing and never seems to stay in one place for very long. Her only friend is another driven career woman, who due to terrible personal losses early in life, seems to have difficulties showing affection or closeness to anyone (and hence acts like a b*tch a lot of the time when Natalia could use support).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Becoming more socialist with every passing day, a plot to take down and humiliate rich people very much appeals to me. The fact that David is a superwealthy venture capitalist tarnishes his halo a tad, and he ends up really breaking Natalia's heart. I do not think he groveled nearly enough towards the end of this novel and that Natalia was far too quick to forgive him for his many thoughtless actions, which is why I can't rate this higher than four stars. That, and the book just felt too long. I'm very glad I have the next two books in the series on my bookshelf, though. The next one is about Alexander, the playboy who is apparently haunted by mysterious shit, and a beautiful doctor lady who works in wartorn countries, and who from their encounters in this book seems to loathe him. So that promises to be fun.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>It's not that the red evening dress on the cover isn't striking, and I love the way it flows down like some lush wave to the bottom of the cover image, but our heroine wears exactly one red dress over the course of the story, and there is a detailed description of how much leg said dress shows. This dress, for all its prettiness, shows absolutely no leg. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on Cannonball Read</div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-85736336429366409452024-02-11T20:30:00.000+01:002024-02-11T20:30:28.219+01:00CBR16 Book 9: "The Widow of Rose House" by Diana Biller<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCj4qzbkizYh-UJjPNn5_0ABw85N4AdUwG1YaUpj5sK78CJGS4gF8VqtZ0EPlalVUidn7HcGTBZ99V-_GVtQlcLPGsD-entDqjOwo5fl-Dg7tzBlOjNMwdKezTIdoHB3k31azVolIO6Qsg1GWVmVtuDcwKMwqvwkVXc0bM3PogYA-54zShBFu6bdG9g/s475/Widow%20of%20Rose%20House.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="309" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCj4qzbkizYh-UJjPNn5_0ABw85N4AdUwG1YaUpj5sK78CJGS4gF8VqtZ0EPlalVUidn7HcGTBZ99V-_GVtQlcLPGsD-entDqjOwo5fl-Dg7tzBlOjNMwdKezTIdoHB3k31azVolIO6Qsg1GWVmVtuDcwKMwqvwkVXc0bM3PogYA-54zShBFu6bdG9g/w130-h200/Widow%20of%20Rose%20House.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>Page count: 352 pages<div>Rating: 4.5 stars</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Nowhere Book Bingo: </b>Came out more than 4 years ago</div><div><b>CBR16 Sweet Books: New</b> (new author)</div><div><br /></div><div>It's 1875 and Professor Samuel Moore is doing marvellously, thanks to the many inventions he and his family are coming up with. What he really wants to do, though, is investigate and possibly prove the existence of ghosts, and to do that, he requires an introduction to the infamous Mrs. Alva Webster, a widow with a scandalous reputation. Sam doesn't really care about Mrs. Webster's apparently lurid past, he just wants to set up his instruments and investigate the old house she has purchased in upstate New York. Liefdehuis is rumoured to be haunted, possibly by multiple ghosts and he'd love a chance to make new discoveries. He does notice that Alva Webster is very beautiful, but at least initially, the science angle is the most important to him.</div><div><br /></div><div>Alva Webster does indeed have a terrible reputation and a dead husband. All the rumours and scandalous gossip were started by her abusive husband after she took the courage to leave him once they lived in Paris. She was even looking into getting a divorce when he was killed during a robbery in Monte Carlo. Now her dream is to restore the once grand mansion, Liefdehuis, and document her process while doing so, hopefully resulting in a book on decorating and interior design. However, her odious brother-in-law is blackmailing her and the contractors she hired to start the restoration work at the house refuse to work, claiming there are ghosts there who scared them all nearly out of their wits. Samuel Moore keeps sending her letters, wanting access to the house, and eventually, she relents and lets him have access to the house, provided he promises to exorcise any ghosts he may discover as part of the process. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sam Moore is clearly a scientific genius, and while he's largely oblivious to social cues and what is considered polite and proper, he's also very observant and good at reading people. Having grown up in a loving family who all share a love of science and exploration, his life has been a very different one from that of Alva. The daughter of rich, but cold and status-hungry parents, she was married off to her husband (who needed a rich wife) after he seduced her when she was only 17 and who certainly didn't want anything to do with her once all the scandalous rumours reached them from across the ocean. The few times she's tried to contact them, her mother sends a harried maid out to shoo her away. She went from an emotionally abusive home to a physically abusive husband and even when she's trying to move on with her life and pick up the pieces of her tattered reputation, she's unable to forget because of her blackmailing brother-in-law. So she's naturally rather bitter and skittish, and while it's obvious that Sam finds her very attractive (he's not a man to hide his intentions or feelings), she is reluctant to get involved with anyone new.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is set in the Gilded Age, mostly in New York, but with some flashbacks to Alva's life in Paris. While not as wealthy as her parents, Alva still has some of the fortune she came into her marriage with, but if she keeps having to pay her unscrupulous brother-in-law every month, she will struggle unless she manages to get her book finished and published. She keeps the truth from Sam as long as she can, since she's not used to having anyone to rely on or to support her.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sam Moore is basically a big golden retriever of a man. He's tall and blond and clearly neuro-divergent in some way (most of his family seem to be, as well). Most of the time, he is accompanied by his best friend, Henry Van de Berg, a lawyer who makes sure that his patents are registered and that he and his family are paid what they are supposed to for their brilliant engineering solutions. Henry isn't exactly sure that making Mrs Webster's acquaintance is a good idea, but once Sam gets an idea in his head, he will pursue it tirelessly. So despite the potential complications of Sam's involvement in Alva Webster's life, he supports his friend. </div><div><br /></div><div>A novel featuring ghosts and a haunted house might be more of a paranormal fantasy. This is more of a straight historical romance with some supernatural elements. Minor spoilers, Alva's house actually IS haunted, and she and others are not imagining the horrible experiences they have with the ghost. But it's not the main focus of the story, for all that it plays an important part.</div><div><br /></div><div>I really enjoyed this book and loved pretty much all the characters in the story. As far as I can see, Biller has written a novel about Sam's brother, but I hope she decides to give Henry a novel in the future as well. Possibly Sam's younger sister, as well. Either way, this delightful book ensures that I will check out Biller's other novels sometime later this year. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>Based on the cover image, I would have believed this book to be a much more straightforward historical novel. I certainly didn't expect a romance with paranormal elements. I suspect some readers picking this up would be surprised at getting a romance, while a lot of romance fans may have missed out on this one since it looks rather very different from most historical romance covers.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-43860704973724414182024-02-11T16:19:00.000+01:002024-02-11T16:19:20.261+01:00CBR16 Book 8: "The Secret Service of Tea and Treason" by India Holton<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLByk5F3hNhi6SiAfGMMZ38egUE6Wt2iX8mG_fNDPodiqyqmXbOLfM5jj3cWQ7yORxmPML1svq2aHqRYIc3VOiLUgzUiyqgmR_CtHIhLvQ7JGe6tQmRoeN-Ed_RuezMjxg3KbYi0jjUvBMm2yR31yjKPooaD_Tcyzz9RCyB3RKMVYpLDUy6eHsfrrWA/s700/Secret%20Service%20of%20Tea%20and%20Treason.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="467" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLByk5F3hNhi6SiAfGMMZ38egUE6Wt2iX8mG_fNDPodiqyqmXbOLfM5jj3cWQ7yORxmPML1svq2aHqRYIc3VOiLUgzUiyqgmR_CtHIhLvQ7JGe6tQmRoeN-Ed_RuezMjxg3KbYi0jjUvBMm2yR31yjKPooaD_Tcyzz9RCyB3RKMVYpLDUy6eHsfrrWA/w133-h200/Secret%20Service%20of%20Tea%20and%20Treason.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Page count: 368 pages<div>Rating: 5 stars</div><div><br /></div><div>Alice Dearlove works for the secret organisation the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, or A.U.N.T., staffed by spies and agents disguised as ladies' maids, butlers, footmen, and other household staff who mostly go unnoticed by the higher classes, but are usually in a position to see and hear everything. She's one of their top agents, known within A.U.N.T only as Agent A. Usually, Miss Dearlove works alone and gets excellent results while doing so.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now she faces one of the biggest challenges of her career. Not only does she have to cooperate with someone on her next mission, but her partner is none other than her biggest rival within A.U.N.T., the elusive Agent B, Daniel Bixby. Now Agents A and B have to learn to work together, while also pretending to be married. There's a plot to assassinate the queen, and Alice and Daniel have to pretend to be pirates, happily married, and fool an entire houseparty full of eccentric, murder-happy ladies and their husbands while trying to locate the potential weapon and foil the plot. </div><div><br /></div><div>Since they're consummate professionals, both Alice and Daniel are determined to complete the job quickly and efficiently while remaining strictly platonic the whole time. When more public displays of affection aren't necessary to play their parts, of course. Obviously, wanting to be convincing in their assumed roles, they might have to practice the duties of husband and wife in the privacy of their own rooms, as well. It's not like they'd get carried away and fall for one another, just because they are forced to be fake married, sharing a bedroom (with just one bed). After all, A.U.N.T doesn't allow for any affection between agents, and once their mission is done, Alice and Daniel will be going their separate ways, possibly never seeing one another again.</div><div><br /></div><div>This might not be a 5-star book for all readers, but as the culmination of the <i>Dangerous Damsels</i> trilogy that India Holton started with <i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/10/cbr15-book-53-wisteria-society-of-lady.html" target="_blank">The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels</a></i> works on pretty much every level for me. Alice Dearlove and Daniel Bixby, whose acquaintance the reader makes briefly in <i>T<a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2024/02/cbr16-book-7-league-of-gentlewomen.html" target="_blank">he League of Gentlewomen Witches</a></i> get their own novel and a chance at their own HEA, since clearly from their first meeting in the previous novel, they are perfect for one another. </div><div><br /></div><div>Both found in orphanages by A.U.N.T and raised under the strict tutelage of the organisation's teachers and trainers to become secret agents for the crown, neither Alice nor Daniel have ever really felt like they fit in among their fellow spies or people in general. It's quite clear from the description of them, and their reactions to and thoughts about certain things, that they are both neurodivergent, and while this is not something likely to have been acknowledged in Victorian times, be they the real ones or the alternate history one we meet here, it's nevertheless a fact and makes them both excellent at their jobs, but not very good at making personal connections. </div><div><br /></div><div>Daniel Bixby worked undercover for several years as the butler of charming pirate captain Alex O'Reilly, gathering intel for A.U.N.T and making sure the pirates never caused too much havoc and destruction. He has great difficulty admitting that he and Alex actually became friends and that he cares for both the now-reformed rogue and the witch the pirate fell in love with. </div><div><br /></div><div>Alice Dearlove is the perfect ladies' maid and can serve the most infuriating of spoiled aristocrats, devious pirate matrons, or meddling witches. She hasn't really ever had any friends since the organisation doesn't exactly encourage emotional attachment to anything or anyone. She also gets very defensive by light touches and has no understanding of idioms or metaphorical language. Once Daniel discovers this, he's very helpfully tells her "Idiom" every time someone uses figurative language that baffles her. It was a very cute recurring gag and endeared me further to the man.</div><div><br /></div><div>In various flashbacks, the reader is given insight into the rather dark upbringing both agents have had, in an organisation that doesn't really care for its employees as people, only pawns to move about on a large political gameboard. It helps that they share a lot of the same experiences, albeit in slightly different ways, but it also makes them both very aware of how difficult a potential happy ending would be for them, as A.U.N.T certainly wouldn't let them marry and be together.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, Alice and Daniel, helped in parts by Ned, Cecilia, Alex, and Charlotte, end up with a very lovely HEA in the end. Alice has actual friends who care about her and they're all part of a bigger found family they have dreamed of for their entire lives. This book was a very quick read and made me very happy. India Holton's writing has gotten sharper and wittier with each book, and I'm very excited to see what she will publish next. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>Once again, it is an adorable cover and I really love the lavender shade of the background. I especially like the traditional spy movie poses of Bixby and Dearlove, with them in period-appropriate servants' attire instead of evening wear. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-71220828677390728112024-02-04T23:24:00.000+01:002024-02-04T23:24:12.031+01:00CBR16 Book 7: "The League of Gentlewomen Witches" by India Holton<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo8HG1Yt155izRrOLMVC-TSor7LUR1SEQei1jhrwdzDfSQ6ugo6fGgEy-mct8Lf7A6sNB4_7lYs0nDhPa5hVrClk42jOknpmAatL0LF0Rug6wdCdcaoSO46j80dE_Xkhyn7IYhH4Ft2-Q1jH72nlc2RdG4F3bN-2RujLoCwQSwfFwdJ8T7HK3rLX8m-A/s475/League%20of%20Gentlewomen%20Witches.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo8HG1Yt155izRrOLMVC-TSor7LUR1SEQei1jhrwdzDfSQ6ugo6fGgEy-mct8Lf7A6sNB4_7lYs0nDhPa5hVrClk42jOknpmAatL0LF0Rug6wdCdcaoSO46j80dE_Xkhyn7IYhH4Ft2-Q1jH72nlc2RdG4F3bN-2RujLoCwQSwfFwdJ8T7HK3rLX8m-A/w133-h200/League%20of%20Gentlewomen%20Witches.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Page count: 336 pages<div>Rating: 4.5 stars</div><div><br /></div><div>Everyone knows there's no such thing as witches, but if there were, they probably wouldn't use magic in flashy and extravagant ways to fly houses around and try to rob and assassinate one another. If there were witches, they would probably use their magic in tidier ways, ensuring polite society was functioning properly. Possibly liberate those who have excessive financial resources of some of it to the betterment of those with less of it (like say, themselves). If there were witches, Charlotte Pettifer would be the next prospective leader of their League. There's even a prophecy that she's the natural successor to Black Beryl, the woman who first discovered the magic spell that the pirates use to make their houses fly. </div><div><br /></div><div>Charlotte makes the acquaintance of the dashing pirate captain Alex O'Riley when she is, in fact, trying to liberate him of his briefcase. After a very exciting pursuit, she manages to fly away on a bicycle, only to discover that the briefcase is empty. When the legendary amulet of Black Beryl is found and exhibited in a museum, Charlotte and Alex's paths cross once more, since any witch or pirate worth their salt is trying to be the first to get the amulet. When both are thwarted in their goal, Alex to his dismay, discovers that Charlotte has stowed away in his flying cottage, and refuses to leave until they retrieve the amulet together. </div><div><br /></div><div>Soon rumours are flying that Charlotte has been abducted by the roguish pirate, when all the witches know full well that Charlotte must have been the one doing the abducting. Neither group of opinionated, magic-wielding women is going to suggest that something untoward has taken place, as a marriage between a prominent witch and a pirate would possibly lead to peace between the two factions, a fate much worse than a young lady (or rakish gentleman) maybe being compromised. All the while, Charlotte and Alex are fighting and kissing and doing a fair bit of acrobatic compromising of each other, beginning to dread what will happen if they actually do manage to find the amulet and have to stop chasing it together. Because the future leader of the witches, and a prominent pirate, couldn't actually have a future together? Perish the thought.</div><div><br /></div><div>While the <a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/10/cbr15-book-53-wisteria-society-of-lady.html" target="_blank">first book</a> in the <i>Dangerous Damsels </i>series was full of Brontë references, this one leans heavily into Jane Austen. Charlotte has lived a lonely life, strictly regimented to become the perfect leader of the League, and certainly hasn't been allowed to indulge in anything so frivolous as strong emotions or close friendships. So, like many other lonely people, she has sought solace in books and keeps wondering what Elizabeth Bennet, Eleanor Dashwood, Anne Elliot, or even Fanny Price would do, and early on, at least, she keeps comparing Alex to Austen's heroes (who surprisingly quickly come up short to an actual, living, breathing, fencing, flirting and bantering man). </div><div><br /></div><div>While there has long been an animosity between witches and pirates, Alex's reasons for disliking witches are more personal than most. Having lost his mother at an early age, and acquired a wicked stepmother of the witch persuasion instead, he has sworn never to get near any more witches but finds his promise difficult to keep once Charlotte invades his cottage and starts tidying up his abode and life. </div><div><br /></div><div>It took me a while to figure out what in the world was going on when I read the first book in the series. I don't know if it had a much more far-fetched storyline (probably not) or that I'm now just much more attuned to the sort of delightful quirkiness that features in India Holton's writing. Maybe I just liked "Lottie" and Alex more as a couple. Austen references are also always going to be more of a hit with me than Brontë ones. </div><div><br /></div><div>I already know that the third and final book in the series is about Alex's very efficient butler, Bixby, and the ladies' maid with unusual abilities, Miss Dearlove. I can't wait to see what silly shenanigans the two of them get up to. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>The covers for these books are adorable. I love the little details in the margins, such as Alex's cottage (which looks rather cozy, and not at all as run-down as a lot of people in the story would have you believe), the teacup, the broom, and so forth. And obviously Alex and Charlotte fencing at the bottom. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-59982295964722328262024-02-04T14:49:00.001+01:002024-02-04T16:15:47.776+01:00CBR16 Book 6: "Winter's Orbit" by Everina Maxwell<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaSALToToZFyxktGFVhOVVFzM_461u7z_Tpjt_IQCzerRIsetwv3lggec1vIMko34uTw-ohMc24W3S8WOZRwPnIIdO1sVD9ay89R15pcG0YOt_ckpXcG8uyj84VrGfIXqSV50HmNm_Bde7criQiN60bSzUl9yLgCqEbwd3t0eJkU9G4bWwTY4wdoqAvg/s2550/Winter's%20Orbit.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaSALToToZFyxktGFVhOVVFzM_461u7z_Tpjt_IQCzerRIsetwv3lggec1vIMko34uTw-ohMc24W3S8WOZRwPnIIdO1sVD9ay89R15pcG0YOt_ckpXcG8uyj84VrGfIXqSV50HmNm_Bde7criQiN60bSzUl9yLgCqEbwd3t0eJkU9G4bWwTY4wdoqAvg/w129-h200/Winter's%20Orbit.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>Page count: 496 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Audio book length: 15 hrs 24 mins</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Nowhere Bingo Card: A book that's been on my shelf for more than a year</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Prince Kiem, a minor royal in the Iskat Empire is called before the Emperor and told in no uncertain terms that he will be getting married to secure a valuable political alliance. The Empire is about to renegotiate its treaty agreements with all the planets in its dominion, and the representatives all have to be married to be accepted (that bit wasn't entirely clear to me). So Kiem has to marry his cousin Taam's widower, a Thean called Jainan. Oh, and he has to do it the day after he is told.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So the outgoing and exuberant Kiem, who has quite a reputation as a playboy and for getting into scrapes finds himself married to Jainan, a reserved and extremely polite man, his exact opposite. Jainan has multiple degrees and is knowledgeable about engineering and advanced mining techniques, Kiem barely made it through school without getting expelled. Kiem assumes Jainan is still grieving his partner of five years, so tries to keep his distance. Jainan is certainly still affected by memories of his former partner and also assumes that a handsome, charming man like Kiem could never be attracted to someone as quiet and boring as him.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Both men are actually very attracted to the other but keep misunderstanding each other's signals and therefore growing further apart. To add to the complications, it turns out that their hastily arranged marriage might also have been for nothing, as the other-worldly arbitrators might not even accept them as representatives. It turns out that there is suspicion that Prince Taam was murdered, and Jainan is the main suspect. There's also a whole bunch of unique alien artifacts that have been replaced with convincing fakes, making the arbitrators furious. If Kiem and Jainan can't figure out whether Taam was actually murdered, and if so, by whom, as well as help the Empire locate the stolen artifacts, the whole Empirial alliance could be dissolved and war is likely to break out.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I mostly really liked this, and it's narrated very well by Raphael Corkhill, who does a really good job of giving the characters distinctive voices and accents. However, it also made it clear that extreme slow burn just isn't the trope for me. Reading about two characters who clearly care for each other and find one another attractive, but keep misunderstanding the other for a large part of the story just annoys me. Drawn-out mutual pining might work for some readers, but to me, it decreases my enjoyment of the story. That's not to say that very good in-story reasons are given for the miscommunications. Being thrust into a marriage of convenience to a stranger isn't necessarily going to make for lots of honest and open conversations right off the bat, and given Jainen's previous marriage, it's no wonder he's careful and has difficulties trusting Kiem at first. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The world-building in this story is nicely done, even though I didn't entirely understand how the various political alliances worked. The titles are all non-gendered, from Emperor to Prince to Count and so forth, no matter what gender identity the individual has. There's also a whole system of wearing wood or glass or flint to indicate which gender every individual is, and in the Thean culture, it involves tying scarves in different ways. The author possibly overdoes the explanation with the gender markers, it's repeated quite a few times throughout the story. Trust your readers, lady.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This book is full of political intrigue, there's a murder mystery, and there were clearly suspicious things going on with the mining operation that Prince Taam was involved in (so they have to figure out what that was all about too). Throughout the story, there are near-death experiences, having to trek through the wilderness (there's only ONE tent), someone gets abducted by villains and having to be rescued by a band of rag-tag heroes, as well as the arranged marriage and opposites attract tropes as previously mentioned. So the book has a lot going on. For me, it would have been better if the pining had been resolved earlier in the proceedings, but to each their own. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I already have the sequel to this, <i>Ocean's Echo, </i>on my bookshelf, but having really enjoyed the audio version of this, I may end up having to get it in audio at some point soon as well. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>The cover is fine but I think it's also a bit non-descript. It's obviously a sci-fi novel, with strange vistas and multiple heavenly bodies in the sky. I don't know if I'm projecting about the colours of the bisexual flag being used in the title, but considering that this is an unashamedly queer romance, I would be surprised if it wasn't intentional. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-80243178744781139892024-02-04T01:19:00.000+01:002024-02-04T01:19:07.733+01:00CBR16 Book 5: "The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen" by KJ Charles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbSTZlWXVDuDSutC9vs5dcjcZzmjOZvVWbq0Y7BABhmRyDH7TAa0zdyv7MW4ug0qURedLVn80v7qEmmuNwXb09dUuRxRXu0022elpYWW-QNqdMmHOnf1oSDmz_7LvYzZ-qCZQyUARtO3VfGxdf-4ENVdI5fwUKQov5O2KcdX87vErsvxXuveZhnpDw7Q/s900/Secret%20Lives%20of%20Country%20Gentlemen.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbSTZlWXVDuDSutC9vs5dcjcZzmjOZvVWbq0Y7BABhmRyDH7TAa0zdyv7MW4ug0qURedLVn80v7qEmmuNwXb09dUuRxRXu0022elpYWW-QNqdMmHOnf1oSDmz_7LvYzZ-qCZQyUARtO3VfGxdf-4ENVdI5fwUKQov5O2KcdX87vErsvxXuveZhnpDw7Q/w133-h200/Secret%20Lives%20of%20Country%20Gentlemen.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Page count: 353 pages<div>Rating: 4 stars</div><div><br /></div><div>Gareth Inglis was abandoned by his father when he was about six years old, sent to live with his uncle, who clearly didn't much care for him. Now he works as a clerk in his uncle's company but dislikes his job. When his father suddenly dies, Gareth becomes a baronet and inherits a home in Romney Marsh, a remote area on the coast. There he discovers that he has a half-sister whom he'd never previously heard of (who'd also never heard of him) and that neither the young lady nor her aunt, his father's housekeeper and former mistress have been left a penny. Gareth promises to do right by the women, who in their own way were also abandoned by his father.</div><div><br /></div><div>Being a gentleman of leisure agrees with Gareth, who never really liked living in London. He spends his days trying to figure out his father's finances and reading through his research into local flora and fauna. Soon he finds himself rambling, trying to explore the nature his father loved so much. While Gareth very much disapproves of law-breaking and smuggling, his housekeeper calmly informs him that such things are a way of life in Kent, especially in Romney Marsh, where the Doomsday smuggling clan controls pretty much everything. Once Gareth finds himself about to testify in court against a young woman he witnessed smuggling one evening, he finds himself threatened with blackmail by a former lover, a handsome man he only ever knew as Kent back in London. </div><div><br /></div><div>Kent is in fact Joss Doomsday, the de-facto leader of the Doomsday clan, who is not about to let his sister get convicted of smuggling. He didn't really want to confront his former lover in a public courthouse, but having tried to contact Gareth by messenger earlier and being rebuffed, he didn't have much choice. Gareth is naturally rather embarrassed and angry about the whole thing, and it takes quite a bit of apologising from Joss before they become friendly, and then more.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously, there are a number of obstacles in the way of Joss and Gareth's eventual happy ending. Gareth is fiercely law-abiding, and Joss basically makes his living illegally. There is also the class difference, not to mention their love for each other being seen as a crime. Gareth's father was apparently up to nefarious things before he died, and now a rival smuggling band keeps threatening him and his family. Gareth's uncle and odious cousin show up to visit him, making it obvious that they were also involved in the underhanded dealings somehow, and Gareth and Joss have a hell of a time sorting dealing with no-good uncles and all sorts of shenanigans.</div><div><br /></div><div>KJ Charles is an excellent writer, and I very much enjoyed this historical romance. According to an overeager publisher, this is <i>Bridgerton </i>meets <i>Poldark</i> in a sweeping LGBTQIA+ Regency Romance. I'll give you the <i>Poldark</i>, at least a bit, but this is pretty far from the drawing rooms of Julia Quinn's <i>Bridgerton </i>novels - but everything set in the Regency era now gets the <i>Brigerton</i> description. I'd also not really call it sweeping. Who gets paid to come up with these tag lines, anyway?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>I really like the shade of blue on the background and the little borders with plants and various wild animals are a nice touch considering how taken Gareth is with all the nature on the Marsh. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-40256647229015893122024-02-03T21:48:00.000+01:002024-02-03T21:48:00.585+01:00CBR16 Book 4: "You, Again" by Kate Goldbeck<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgFGv4Oeub62iARO9RPxsmAhMEzDsg6cqWvFUa7SuObrMuDGHzuSZr_JnSA6D2PZGi5IQa-64CNRDUvGJEQPlc_HlhNQbvgQAwzPl6xDOmDxYKAIrSTDHqpJ47mJ9TgQahjvh1Pc4fOvVeTcUoRYuxxrxd8ezJlpWfjSwZYzeJPGFI3BjZHPJs7Q97A/s2400/You,%20Again.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="1556" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgFGv4Oeub62iARO9RPxsmAhMEzDsg6cqWvFUa7SuObrMuDGHzuSZr_JnSA6D2PZGi5IQa-64CNRDUvGJEQPlc_HlhNQbvgQAwzPl6xDOmDxYKAIrSTDHqpJ47mJ9TgQahjvh1Pc4fOvVeTcUoRYuxxrxd8ezJlpWfjSwZYzeJPGFI3BjZHPJs7Q97A/w129-h200/You,%20Again.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>Page count: 448 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Nowhere Book Bingo: Starts with J, K, Q, U, V, W, X, Y or Z</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ari and Josh first meet and develop an intense dislike of one another when Josh arrives at the apartment where Ari is staying, to cook a meal for his girlfriend, who happens to be Ari's roommate and occasional hook-up. Ari likes to keep things very casual, never spends the night with her hook-ups and is trying to make it as a stand-up comedian. Josh is quite neurotic, a trained chef, who wants to become world famous. Unlike Ari, he's a romantic and he really wants to impress his girlfriend by cooking something really complicated for her.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The two keep meeting over the years and don't exactly become more friendly with one another (one time, Josh overreacts and fires Ari's best friend after blaming her for messing up a dish for a food critic), until the time when they are both depressed and getting over failures both personally and professionally. They form an unlikely friendship and soon they are texting each other daily, often watching movies together while talking on the phone and trying to encourage the other to get back into dating. Things are going great until one New Year's Eve when they end up kissing and it becomes clear that their feeling for one another is clearly more than platonic. Unfortunately, Ari, previously commitment-phobic, now recovering from a disastrous marriage, can't really handle the emotional upheaval she feels for Josh and avoids dealing with it by taking a job away from New York. Is the connection between her and Josh strong enough that it will survive her emotional cowardice?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Confession time. While I like <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Harry_Met_Sally..." target="_blank">When Harry Met Sally</a></i>, I don't love it. It's probably not even in my top 10 romantic comedies, mainly because I find both Harry and Sally too annoying to really care about either of them much (and certainly not whether or not they become a couple). I appreciate the movie as the genre classic it has become, and I adore Carrie Fisher in it. I think there are a lot of very funny and well-observed scenes in it, but I don't rate it all that highly as a romance. Because the couple are just friends for most of it. This is the same reason why, although I really wanted to love this book, I merely like it. Parts of it were great, but Ari and Josh spent far too much of the book, especially the second half when I wanted them to just be a couple, apart and wallowing. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There are some very fun supporting characters, most notably Ari's best friend Radhya (and Josh's sometime nemesis, after being fired by Josh that one time. She does not react well when she discovers that he and Ari are becoming friends) and Josh's little sister Briar, who appears to be an airhead influencer initially but turns out to have hidden depths. Ari's friend Gabe keeps being mentioned, but I never really felt like he appeared enough to become a proper character. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I also thought the book was just a bit too long. Sections of it dragged. I don't want to think "just get on with it" when I'm reading a romance. Nevertheless, I don't regret going across town to a specific bookstore just to track down my copy, and there is a lot to like here. I will absolutely be looking for future books from Ms. Goldbeck. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>While I absolutely love the autumnal colours of the trees on this, there is something about the way the two characters (who are clearly supposed to be Ari and Josh are depicted that completely rubs me the wrong way. They look unfinished somehow, it's like their faces lack proper definition. It's one of the reasons I took so long to actually pick up this book, I just didn't like the way the cover looked. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-89226086436064519902024-01-27T21:09:00.000+01:002024-01-27T21:09:25.555+01:00CBR16 Book 3: "Dance with the Devil" by Kit Rocha<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_STgI1CQ6U8NyhMxOjAU5K8Q8o6oxnqCgVrw1qndcLulLUBRxuarK8qFVZpqqEfjQR-XM2artBdBEkuvWmxSGMhY68hfWMCc27sBQZi-M9kAWo2YHh2c0UJ5t6POD1q6Y8V_0Mkak0cgZ8Z3sCtSrZuBCeZy77CQiJ5iGxt9g4eEjRo-1oKUS3bsbqA/s500/Dance%20with%20the%20Devil.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="332" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_STgI1CQ6U8NyhMxOjAU5K8Q8o6oxnqCgVrw1qndcLulLUBRxuarK8qFVZpqqEfjQR-XM2artBdBEkuvWmxSGMhY68hfWMCc27sBQZi-M9kAWo2YHh2c0UJ5t6POD1q6Y8V_0Mkak0cgZ8Z3sCtSrZuBCeZy77CQiJ5iGxt9g4eEjRo-1oKUS3bsbqA/w133-h200/Dance%20with%20the%20Devil.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Page count: 416 pages<div>Rating: 4.5 stars</div><div><br /></div><div>After his father died, Rafael "Rafe" Morales basically sold himself to TechCorps and agreed to become a technologically enhanced supersoldier, so he could make enough money to keep his widowed mother and younger siblings safe. He didn't really know what signing away his life would entail, and given the choice again, he probably would have chosen differently. He hasn't been able to see them for years, certainly not since he and his team, the Silver Devils, had to fake their own deaths to get away from their cruel superiors.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unlike Rafe, Danijela "Dani" Volkova didn't really have external pressures that made her sign up with TechCorps. She was just curious and driven, and once their scientists had experimented sufficiently on her, she became super fast, agile, and graceful and lost the ability to feel pain, at all. This made her the perfect elite bodyguard for the rich and powerful, until she just couldn't handle the cruelty and corruption she was witness to and broke away. She joined Nina and Maya to become one of the mercenary librarians of Atlanta. Dani feels like TechCorps turned her into a monster. She appreciates the love that her chosen sisters and the former supersoldiers who share their lives offer her, but deep down she knows she doesn't deserve it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Since their very first meeting, when Dani may have "accidentally" stabbed Rafe a little bit, the chemistry between them has been off the charts. But Rafael doesn't want a quick fling, Dani doesn't do long-term commitment, and neither is willing to risk screwing up their new big, unusual family unit with relationship drama. Keeping everything casual and platonic becomes a lot more difficult when the two have to go undercover among the rich and deplorable of Atlanta. After the death of Tobias Richter, the VP of Security for TechCorps, and the one who sat with most of the power, the organisation is desperately scrambling to maintain control, and our enhanced heroes and heroines have decided that it's time to start fighting back. </div><div><br /></div><div>Having come into unexpected wealth at the end of the previous book, Maya is using all of her considerable resources and brains, her wealth of sensitive information burned into her brain after growing up in the loving arms of TechCorps and learning a lot of its dirty secrets, as well as calling in all the favours from her vast network of informants and allies. It's one such ally, a head researcher at TechCorps, whom Rafe and Dani are trying to contact when they go undercover, as a married couple. Once on the mission, they not only discover that Rafe's little sister is in terrible danger, but it also becomes impossible for them to keep their hands off each other. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is the third and probably final (there is a suggestion at the end of the epilogue in this one that there may be new dangers facing our intrepid band of heroes, but it seems like the author duo has moved on to new projects now) novel in the <i>Mercenary Librarians </i>series. As such, it's not the best place to start. This might very well not be an almost five-star read to someone else but as the end chapter of all that has been established in the previous two books, with all the seeds sown and the principal cast, as well as the various supporting characters, joining together to launch a full-scale revolution, I loved this book. The romance between Dani and Rafe has been teased from the beginning and didn't disappoint. </div><div><br /></div><div>Both Dani and Rafe got turned into lethal weapons by TechCorps, but Rafael grew up in a loving family and always knew that the sacrifices he made were for them. Dani was rejected by her parents once they realised the choices she had made, and was honed into a ruthless killing machine by the scientists. She is fiercely loyal and has vast capacities for love and emotion, all of which she is worthy of, but takes her quite some time to come to terms with. </div><div><br /></div><div>I loved this book, and its action-packed and thrilling finale, where the downtrodden of Atlanta join with our protagonists to kick ass and take names, in order to secure a better future, free of the dominance of TechCorps and their controlling ways. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>The cover for this one at least has slightly more of a sci-fi feel than the last one, but it's still a pretty generic image and I certainly would never have picked up this book from the cover alone. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-13881735516340871372024-01-27T15:53:00.000+01:002024-01-27T15:53:45.718+01:00CBR16 Books 2: "The Devil You Know" by Kit Rocha<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy6ta_0EKsQYHGERBpLP73hOMFwgv-AS-pf_vU3Wp8jM0tEqCTr-tHPzbYgICh5wRgfntQxHhb9s0F28njUWtX83QJjcjoe9hM4OZ5CvA_Dxq0KkJNg7vKgDlZN0kejP_dI-DrXXnGifgkStW3zhPEP1h8FdiCxPO6n66JYohR0lVZzb2wTxzBZioYag/s2769/The%20Devil%20You%20Know.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2769" data-original-width="1839" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy6ta_0EKsQYHGERBpLP73hOMFwgv-AS-pf_vU3Wp8jM0tEqCTr-tHPzbYgICh5wRgfntQxHhb9s0F28njUWtX83QJjcjoe9hM4OZ5CvA_Dxq0KkJNg7vKgDlZN0kejP_dI-DrXXnGifgkStW3zhPEP1h8FdiCxPO6n66JYohR0lVZzb2wTxzBZioYag/w133-h200/The%20Devil%20You%20Know.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Page count: 416 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Maya used to be Marjorie Chevalier, but had to change her identity after she escaped the evil super scientists at TechCorps, where she was trained as a data courier (basically a human hard drive), with her senses specially enhanced to remember flawlessly everything she hears, reads, sees, hears and experiences. She used to work for one of the Vice Presidents of TechCorps who was secretly orchestrating a rebellion, However, her boss (also the only maternal figure Maya ever knew) was caught and executed, and Maya had to be smuggled to safety. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">She found that safety with <a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-books-92-95-bunch-of-romantic.html" target="_blank">Nina</a>, now one of the sisters she never had. Along with the lethal Dani, they have been working to help the residents of post-apocalyptic Atlanta by passing on free information (books, videos, music) and technical know-how. They also occasionally go off on adventures to recover more books and resources. After the events of the previous books, their little found family has expanded a lot, with the former supersoldiers from the Silver Devils squad having settled down in a warehouse next to the librarians' headquarters. The group is hired to retrieve what turns out to be a genetically modified child, and it turns out that Rainbow (which is the name the child chooses for herself) is not the only one. Since Maya doesn't have super speed or strength, she stays back home holding the fort, accompanied by Grey, the former sniper of the Silver Devils, who can't be trusted on a tense mission since his body might betray him.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">All the Silver Devils have technical implants that have enhanced their senses. Supersoldiers like them don't normally have a very long lifespan, but in rare cases, their bodies might start rejecting the implant after decades of being used to them. This is what is happening to Grey now. He can suddenly be struck with seizures and an operation to replace the implant has a less than 5% chance of survival, even if they could find a surgeon skilled enough to perform the operation. So Grey is accepting that he doesn't have long to live. One of the things he wants to do with his final days is make sure Maya has the skills and confidence to defend herself and keep herself safe. She's always been told that she needs to be careful not to overload her brain, or she can pretty much short-circuit, but Grey suspects that she's limiting herself out of fears told to her to control her and keep her from reaching her full potential. He shows her that not only is she an absolute wizard with all things technical, but her perfect recall is a superpower in itself, if not as physically intimidating as those of her chosen sisters.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There is a very strong attraction between Maya and Grey, however, the only man Maya ever loved before was literally tortured to death in front of her in an attempt to get her to reveal the secrets buried in her brain after her boss was executed. She's also prone to sensory overload and doesn't really know how she'd react in a physically overwhelming situation, like having sex. Letting herself fall for a man who's dying is bound to lead to heartbreak, but not acting on the attraction before it's too late might be a bigger mistake than keeping her distance.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While Maya and the Silver Devils all had very skillful people hiding their tracks and faking their deaths (complete with falsified bodies with their DNA planted), Tobias Richter, the VP of Security at TechCorps is a ruthless and deeply driven man, convinced (rightly so) that he can find them if he searches hard enough. When a video from a farmer's market surfaces, proving to him that his quarries are still alive, Maya and Grey's days together might be numbered sooner than they think. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I enjoyed <i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-books-92-95-bunch-of-romantic.html" target="_blank">Deal with the Devil</a>, </i>which introduced the world and all these characters to each other. Now the super soldiers and the high-tech murder ladies all live together as a big, ruthlessly efficient, and deadly family, doing their best to right wrongs and improve their local community. Maya has always felt like the weakest of the group, and the lies to her by her former boss to keep her from showing too much of her excellence to Tech Corps means she hasn't been able to reach her true potential until Grey comes along and makes her see how truly remarkable she is, even in a dangerous situation. She's not just brains and perfect recall. Their romance develops slowly since Grey is likely to die soon, and Maya has some understandable emotional scars from her first and only romantic relationship so far.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The villain in this book is a complete psycho, and once he discovers that Maya and the Silver Devils are alive, he lures them into a trap to get his clutches on Maya. Of course, Maya is no longer a delicate flower raised in a sheltered environment and beats Tobias Richter at his own game. Things look dicey for Grey for a while (who to be fair already thought he was dying, so wanted to save Maya with the grandest of gestures), but this is a romance, and our brave, self-sacrificing hero doesn't actually end the book dead. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">By the end of this book, our altruistic heroes and heroines have some difficult choices to make. Their attempts to stay hidden from TechCorps have clearly failed, and a confrontation is inevitable. Are they ready to go to war?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>This is about as generic as covers go. Nothing about this says post-apocalyptic action adventure with kick-ass murder ladies and supersoldier dudes. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-22357430990183798552024-01-14T19:26:00.001+01:002024-01-14T20:06:11.732+01:00CBR16 Book 1: "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" by Toshikazu Kawaguchi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_asBMk06iWeF9qCnJ7OZKdKQj7OByZhHVkhxQzs8eiG26fmaql_d61pEOrPtI11aJVGqrxl2CHxsXLhAdrdt3icNbiYgU8B-yoIhE-1Wx9Q-gSLis9j45EA7uwflyiaC5y8PmlGuDwQA5VqVZpCLk_a8gjgfsz-IqrxHngmsCVNo4W2NH7zMmkDwog/s600/Before%20the%20Coffee%20Gets%20Cold.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="396" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_asBMk06iWeF9qCnJ7OZKdKQj7OByZhHVkhxQzs8eiG26fmaql_d61pEOrPtI11aJVGqrxl2CHxsXLhAdrdt3icNbiYgU8B-yoIhE-1Wx9Q-gSLis9j45EA7uwflyiaC5y8PmlGuDwQA5VqVZpCLk_a8gjgfsz-IqrxHngmsCVNo4W2NH7zMmkDwog/w132-h200/Before%20the%20Coffee%20Gets%20Cold.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>Page count: 224 pages<div>Rating: 1.5 stars </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Warning! </b>This review will contain spoilers, because after my book club discussion yesterday, I'm actually quite cranky about this book, and it's impossible for me to rant properly if I can't spoil the heck out of these stories. Don't worry, you don't actually want to read this book anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a small, dark basement café in Japan, visitors can travel briefly back in time, if they observe a series of very careful rules.</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>They can only go back to meet and interact with someone who has also been to the café. </li><li>Nothing that happens in the past will change the present. No matter what they go back to do or say, the present will remain unchanged</li><li>They have to sit in one specific seat in the café. This seat is usually occupied by a silent lady reading a book. The lady is in fact a ghost, and if you try to forcefully move her, she will place a curse on you. She leaves her seat about once a day, to visit the toilet (and yes, you can keep giving her coffee to speed the process along), that's when a person has their chance.</li><li>You cannot leave the seat when you are in the past, then you will immediately be returned to the present.</li><li>You travel back to the past when you are poured a cup of a special coffee. You have only until the coffee gets cold before you have to return. You also have to drink the entire cup of coffee, or you become a ghost and replace the current ghost lady.</li><li>You only get to do the time travel thing ONCE - no do-overs.</li></ol></div><div>Suffice it to say, most people can't actually be bothered, considering all the rules and how short a time they get to visit a past moment in their lives. Nevertheless, this book is split into four stories, with four different people who choose to use the magical option. </div><div><br /></div><div>The first story is called <i>The Lovers</i>. At the start of it, a couple go to the café and the man dumps the woman. Quite a lot is made of how beautiful and accomplished the woman is (she could apparently be a model on the cover of magazines). Nevertheless, she is dumped by her programmer boyfriend who is going to America for a job. A week later, she's back at the café, desperate for a chance to go back in time, because she froze when confronted by the bad news, and she never got a chance to tell her man "Don't go!". You'd think a beautiful, successful woman (who it is described always has guys trying to get her attention) would look at what a big sea there was out there for her to explore, and how many figurative fish there were in said sea for her to potentially date. But no, even knowing that going back in time will NOT CHANGE the present, so her man will still be off in America pursuing his career rather than being with her, she chooses to go. </div><div><br /></div><div>By the end of her time travel meeting, he tells her to wait, and he'll be back in three years. The point of a lot of the first story is obviously info-dumping for the readers how the time travel thing actually works. We also get flashbacks to the couple's early days of their relationship. It seems it took something like ten coffee dates for the guy to even realise they were dating, so he wasn't the most perceptive of dudes. Our beautiful, kind, and successful career lady, who could clearly find a more deserving man at the drop of a hat is perfectly happy to be kept on the hook for THREE years, waiting for a guy who didn't have the guts to tell her he was going to America until the SAME DAY he was leaving. </div><div><br /></div><div>The second story is about a husband and wife, who have both appeared as supporting characters in the first story. The husband is a landscape gardener who suffers from Alzheimer's. He frequently spends his days in the café, reading gardening magazines and taking notes. His wife, a nurse, comes in to pick him up, but a lot of the time recently, he no longer remembers who she is. Someone overhears him saying he wants to use the time travel chair to give his wife a letter. So she decides to go back in time instead, and while you can't change anything about the present by visiting the past, you can apparently take back objects without any difficulties. She meets her husband of several years ago, and he gives her a letter. The letter is significant because, in their relationship, she was always the one who wrote long intricate letters. He is apparently barely literate and would normally respond to her with just a sentence or two. But now he's written her a letter, and it's all about how he knows that he's sick and his greatest fear is that she because she is a nurse, will stop being his wife once he stops remembering her, and just act in the role of his carer and nurse. He doesn't want that, and pretty much gives her his blessing to move on with her life, if need be. Wifey is very touched and insists that everyone go back to calling her by her married name. She proceeds to basically go on dates with her husband, whether he remembers her or not</div><div><br /></div><div>The third story is about two sisters. Another of the recurring characters in the stories is a woman who frequently sits at the counter with her hair in curlers. She runs a hostess bar nearby and is clearly an exuberant person. It's mentioned that she makes people feel comfortable and welcome, and that's one of the reasons the little hostess bar she runs is so successful. Hostess lady has a younger sister, who comes around every few months, trying to see her older sister. During her most recent visit, Hostess lady hid behind the counter for several hours, just to avoid seeing her. This is because Hostess lady is convinced her younger sister must hate her. Their parents owned a successful inn somewhere in the countryside and always expected older sister to take over and run it one day. But she wanted no such thing and left the family about a decade ago, so now her parents have pretty much disowned her, and it became the younger sister's duty to run the inn. Hostess lady is convinced her younger sister hates her because she is stuck fulfilling the wishes of their parents, while Hostess lady is off in the big city, enjoying a life of independence. </div><div><br /></div><div>The reason Hostess lady suddenly wants to travel back in time is that younger sister dies. She's killed in a car accident on her way back from the city, and now Hostess lady's parents hate her even more, because they blame her for their youngest daughter's death. Hostess lady feels bad that she kept trying to avoid awkward conversations, so she wants to go back to her sister's last meeting and tell her she loves her. This time, when the sister arrives, Hostess lady is sitting in the magic time travel chair and they have a heartfelt conversation. Turns out little sister doesn't hate Hostess lady, she just misses her and had always dreamed of the two of them running the inn together. Which is sweet, I guess. Now comes the bit that's less sweet. After returning to the present, Hostess lady (who has spent the last decade or so happily living an independent life in the city, desperately avoiding having to run an inn in the countryside just to please her parents) decides that she must return and beg her parents' forgiveness and take over running the inn in the countryside, because it was her sister's dying wish. Which it wasn't even! Her sister (now dead) dreamed of them running the inn TOGETHER. Little sister is dead, it's sad and tragic and a horrible waste. Hostess lady pretty much ran away from home so she wouldn't have to ever succeed her parents and become an inn manager. They already hate her - so what if they hate her a bit more and blame her wrongfully for her sister's death? Instead of staying in the city, enjoying her single lifestyle, and doing her dream job, she goes back home and becomes an inn manager. But it's ok, she sends the people at the café a picture where she looks happy - so everything ended up OK in the end? Really... that's the moral here?</div><div><br /></div><div>The fourth story is about the wife of the café owner, who is portrayed as this friendly, cheerful woman, who has always been sickly and in and out of hospital because of a weak heart. Now she's pregnant, but it's obvious that the pregnancy is taking a massive toll on her. Her husband doesn't want to make a choice between his wife or the baby (i.e. tell her to get an abortion), and the wife wants this baby, even if she is most likely going to die giving birth to it. Wifey wants to use the very unusual option of going FORWARD in time, a much more tricky situation, as when you go back in time, you can think about a specific event, where you know the person you want to meet will be there. Going forward in time - who knows what will happen? </div><div><br /></div><div>The waitress who works at the café, and who is always the one to pour the special coffee for the time travelers, promises Wifey that she will make sure her daughter is in the café at the agreed-upon time and place in the future. Even so, there is a mix-up, with the date and time, and neither the waitress nor Wifey's husband is present when she pops into the future. The café even seems to be run by someone else. However, in a stroke of luck for Wifey (it's her only chance to travel in time, remember?), her daughter appears to be working in the café part-time and enters with enough time for her mother to see her and talk to her. Instead of jumping forward to when her daughter would be about ten, Wifey has jumped to when her daughter is a teenager. A teenager who has actually appeared in the café as a time traveler to the past, showing up to take a selfie with herself and Wifey (no one understood the significance at the time). Wifey is reassured that her daughter is doing well and that neither she nor her father seems to resent Wifey for the choice of having a baby, and then leaving her husband as a widower and single father, and her daughter mother-less. In fact, it seems like the woman from story nr one, <i>The Lovers</i>, now works in the café and has been something of a foster mother for the daughter. So maybe she doesn't get back with her dead-beat boyfriend? Who knows? </div><div><br /></div><div>One of the members of my book club ended up listening to the entire series of these books (there are four translated into English so far) and while he agreed that on the surface, some of these stories might seem quite nice, the core values expressed by the author throughout the stories are deeply conservative and pretty much all amount to women conforming to the traditional values of good wives and daughters. If a sacrifice has to be made, it's always the woman who makes it. I didn't think too hard about the various stories as I read the book (during the two days before our book club meeting), but during our one-hour discussion, we discussed each of the stories in more depth and agreed that most of them ended up being quite unsettling. This was supposed to be a nice, cozy winter read, and instead turned out to be a rallying call for the patriarchy, apparently. So I'm not going to apologise for spoiling all the stories. I don't plan to read any more from the author, and I don't think anyone else should either. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>The cover image doesn't capture the fact that on the hardback copies at least, the teal green is all shimmery, and the wallpaper looks like actual brocade. This is still a cozy cover, but the hardback book is so pretty. The cat on the cover is a total lie, however. There is no cat at any point in any of the stories. They'd probably be better if there had been. Most books are better with cats.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-90281923714044447682024-01-01T22:34:00.003+01:002024-01-01T22:34:39.322+01:00My year in review: 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2uYTuOhfocvh5SdabKMIsX0rCy0LdnmX775juj2Djg1aaYb5AyugBTgt5aJ-ExBb7y_Z1uyZoTGXx6H8yckkNt_9jlBKzljGNPWLhgDUf_ImXo3-uh26b70B2uMgWkMSRQEFdqHYWTniRdgmmXpkqtDgCFuUssbTqeiqHkdh6_l_sTJCn6jBxsWT3Vg/s725/2023.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="725" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2uYTuOhfocvh5SdabKMIsX0rCy0LdnmX775juj2Djg1aaYb5AyugBTgt5aJ-ExBb7y_Z1uyZoTGXx6H8yckkNt_9jlBKzljGNPWLhgDUf_ImXo3-uh26b70B2uMgWkMSRQEFdqHYWTniRdgmmXpkqtDgCFuUssbTqeiqHkdh6_l_sTJCn6jBxsWT3Vg/s320/2023.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Happy New Year! It's unlikely that 2024 will be any better than the horror shows of the previous few, but we can always hope. I've been told I need to be less pessimistic, so let's start the new year with some optimism. May 2024 be better than the year that preceded it. <p></p><p>In terms of reading, this has been a much better year for me than 2022 (when I was also too generally exhausted to even do a round-up of my reading), so I'm tentatively hoping to read at least as much and to manage my standard 52 reviews, but possibly as many as 104. It took a lot of dedicated review writing in the latter half of December to make my double Cannonball happen. As always, I usually had a fairly sizeable review backlog hanging over me for much of the year, I'm going to try to be better about reviewing as I go along (as I have said every year since the beginning of time, it feels).</p><p>I am also going to try to curb my Reading Challenge obsession this year. The occasional challenge to help me make reading lists and make sure I actually go through my ever-expanding TBR will probably be useful, but I'm not going to officially sign up for any, just do the Cannonball-related ones. In 2023, I signed up for and completed 21 different challenges - too many rules to abide by at any given time.</p><p>Reading challenges I completed:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Single Cannonball - 52 reviews</a></li><li>Double Cannonball - an additional 52 reviews, totaling 104</li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/38472412" target="_blank">Goodreads Reading Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/dashboard/malin12ccf" target="_blank">The Story Graph Reading Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://cannonballread.com/2023/01/passport-challenge/" target="_blank">Cannonball Passport Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://cannonballread.com/bingo/" target="_blank">Cannonball Bingo</a></li><li><a href="https://twimom227.com/2022/12/2023-audiobook-challenge-sign-ups.html" target="_blank">Audiobook Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2022/11/2023-color-coded-read-it-again-sam.html" target="_blank">Backlist Reader</a></li><li><a href="https://leticiatoraci.wordpress.com/2022/12/21/2023-bingo-reading-challenge/" target="_blank">Book Bingo on My Reader's Journey</a></li><li><a href="https://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2022/11/2023-color-coded-read-it-again-sam.html" target="_blank">Colour Coded Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://luktenavtrykksverte.blogspot.com/2022/11/annoncing-2023-diversity-reading.html" target="_blank">Diversity Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://celebrityreaders.com/2022/11/25/2023-finishing-the-series-reading-challenge/" target="_blank">Finishing the Series</a></li><li><a href="https://foreveryoungadult.com/tag/reading-challenge/" target="_blank">Forever Young Adult Reading Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://www.girlxoxo.com/2023-monthly-key-word-reading-challenge-sign-ups/" target="_blank">Monthly Keyword Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://www.girlxoxo.com/2023-monthly-motif-reading-challenge-sign-ups/" target="_blank">Monthly Motif Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2022/11/2023-mount-tbr-reading-challenge-sign-up.html">Mount TBR Reading Challenge</a></li><li><a href="https://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2022/11/2023-read-it-again-sam-my-sign-up.html">Read It Again, Sam</a></li><li><a href="https://chantelklassen.me/announcing-the-2023-read-your-bookshelf-challenge-reading-prompts-for-every-month-of-the-year/" target="_blank">Read My Bookshelf</a></li><li><a href="https://www.kimberlyfayereads.com/2023-tackle-my-tbr/" target="_blank">Tackle My TBR</a></li><li><a href="https://carolinabooknook.wordpress.com/2022/12/12/whats-in-a-name-2023-sign-up/" target="_blank">What's in a Name?</a></li><li><a href="https://readingchallengeaddict.blogspot.com/p/about.html" target="_blank">Reading Challenge Addict</a></li></ol><p></p><p>Thanks to my nifty spreadsheet, which I acquired over on <a href="https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2023/01/track-your-2023-reading-with-our-community-built-spreadsheet/" target="_blank">Smart Bitches, Trashy Books</a>, it's been a lot easier to track my reading over the past year. I had quite a few DNFs, which I've decided not to count. My total ended up being 122 books, and my lovely spreadsheet also claims I read 42624 pages, which isn't too shabby. It's certainly a lot more than I managed in 2022.</p><p>New books read: 97 Re-reads: 25 (includes a lot of books adapted by <a href="https://www.graphicaudiointernational.net/" target="_blank">Graphic Audio</a>)</p><p>E-books:<span> 72 (59%) </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> Hardback/paperback:<span> 34 (27.8%)</span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> Audio: 16 (13.1%)</span></span></p><p><span><span>I obviously also acquired a whole lot of books in 2023. 411 in total. 71.5% were e-books, 22.6% were dead tree ones (includes paperbacks, hardbacks, comic books, and manga), and 6.8% were audiobooks. Of the 411, ten were free (I'm very fond of a 3 for 2 offer on books) and five were gifts.</span></span></p><p>My favourite reads of 2023 (listed in alphabetical order by author, because I don't want the headache of ranking them):</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/10/cbr15-book-58-folk-med-angest-anxious.html" target="_blank"><i>Anxious People (Folk med ångest)</i> - Fredrik Backman</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/01/cbr15-book-5-undertaking-of-hart-and.html" target="_blank"><i>The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy</i> - Megan Bannen</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/10/cbr15-book-55-lessons-in-chemistry-by.html" target="_blank"><i>Lessons in Chemistry</i> - Bonnie Garmus</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-book-79-for-never-always-by.html" target="_blank"><i>For Never & Always</i> - Helena Greer</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/08/cbr15-book-38-love-theoretically-by-ali.html" target="_blank"><i>Love, Theoretically</i> - Ali Hazelwood</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-book-86-make-you-mine-this.html" target="_blank"><i>Make You Mine This Christmas</i> - Lizzie Huxley-Jones</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/08/cbr15-book-35-gender-queer-by-maia.html" target="_blank"><i>Gender Queer</i> - Maia Kokabe</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/02/cbr15-book-7-last-graduate-by-naomi.html" target="_blank"><i>The Last Graduate </i>- Naomi Novik</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/03/cbr15-book-10-golden-enclaves-by-naomi.html" target="_blank"><i>The Golden Enclaves</i> - Naomi Novik</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-book-81-consort-of-fire-by-kit.html" target="_blank"><i>Consort of Fire</i> - Kit Rocha</a></li></ul><div>Other notable mentions:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-books-96-99-more-books-i-read.html"><i>With the Fire on High</i> - Elizabeth Acevedo</a></li><li><i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/01/cbr15-book-4-magic-tides-by-ilona.html" target="_blank">Magic Tides</a></i> and <i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/08/cbr15-book-39-magic-claims-by-ilona.html" target="_blank">Magic Claims</a></i> - Ilona Andrews</li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/05/cbr15-book-18-georgie-all-along-by-kate.html" target="_blank"><i>Georgie, All Along</i> - Kate Clayborn</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/09/cbr15-books-43-44-psalm-for-wild-built.html" target="_blank"><i>A Psalm for the Wild-Built</i> and <i>A Prayer for the Crown-Shy</i> - Becky Chambers</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/04/cbr15-book-14-legendborn-by-tracy-deonn.html" target="_blank"><i>Legendborn</i> - Tracy Deonn</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/07/cbr15-book-31-emily-wildes-encyclopedia.html" target="_blank"><i>Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries - </i>Heather Fawcett</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-book-104-emily-wildes-map-of.html" target="_blank"><i>Emily Wilde's Map of the Underworld</i> - Heather Fawcett</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-book-69-lady-for-duke-by-alexis.html" target="_blank"><i>A Lady for a Duke</i> - Alexis Hall</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-book-70-check-mate-by-ali.html" target="_blank"><i>Check & Mate</i> - Ali Hazelwood</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/07/cbr15-book-30-happy-place-by-emily-henry.html" target="_blank"><i>Happy Place</i> - Emily Henry</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/01/cbr15-book-3-highly-suspicious-and.html" target="_blank"><i>Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute</i> - Talia Hibbert</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/07/cbr15-book-26-nettle-bone-by-t.html" target="_blank"><i>Nettle & Bone</i> - T. Kingfisher</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-books-92-95-bunch-of-romantic.html" target="_blank"><i>Knockout</i> - Sarah Maclean</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/10/cbr15-book-62-marquis-who-mustnt-by.html" target="_blank"><i>The Marquis Who Mustn't</i> - Courtney Milan</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/05/cbr15-book-20-miss-buncles-book-by-de.html" target="_blank"><i>Miss Buncle's Book</i> - D.E. Stevenson</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/12/cbr15-books-100-102-three-audiobooks.html" target="_blank"><i>A Tempest at Sea</i> - Sherry Thomas</a></li><li><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/10/cbr15-book-57-network-effect-by-martha.html" target="_blank"><i>Network Effect</i> - Martha Wells</a></li></ul><div>After some consideration, I have decided not to list my worst reads of the year, I don't really want to name and shame anyone. Besides, none of the books I read in 2023 were so egregiously bad that I really wanted to write a scathing hate review, some were just a bit underwhelming. </div></div><p></p>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-50377118616551396862023-12-31T14:18:00.001+01:002023-12-31T14:18:41.337+01:00CBR15 Book 104: "Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands" by Heather Fawcett<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj36Ix03qYi3akyq31wJQic62k2rNV0-z1_zMvhdyI7uRrDW8Xo-jpOZ3owVn-92qj9k1Ys6LEADJeXC8XiJsNB06qhjSbZkTbmK9-2igD1aYQSOhBRG-Qqp6icjFLGhJnEKV6J6vF9_U3hjdRKs2Wa7qwwBvIJy4rmXcksELbuiw_PZpPQn7hbODvIRA/s769/Emily%20Wilde%202.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj36Ix03qYi3akyq31wJQic62k2rNV0-z1_zMvhdyI7uRrDW8Xo-jpOZ3owVn-92qj9k1Ys6LEADJeXC8XiJsNB06qhjSbZkTbmK9-2igD1aYQSOhBRG-Qqp6icjFLGhJnEKV6J6vF9_U3hjdRKs2Wa7qwwBvIJy4rmXcksELbuiw_PZpPQn7hbODvIRA/w130-h200/Emily%20Wilde%202.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>Page count: 352 pages<div>Rating: 4.5 stars</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Spoiler warning! </b>There will be some spoilers in this review for the first book in the series, so if you're not caught up, stop what you're doing and go read <i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/07/cbr15-book-31-emily-wildes-encyclopedia.html" target="_blank">Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries</a></i> immediately. This review will be here when you return. </div><div><br /></div><div>Emily Wilde is back at her university in Cambridge, pleased with the success of her Faerie Encyclopedia. The proposal from her best friend Wendell Bambleby is still something she needs to consider, but after having her suspicions confirmed, that he isn't just a faerie, but a Faerie King gives her pause. Usually, nothing good happens to humans who get romantically involved with the Fey. She's determined to help him find a door back to his kingdom, though, and this is what most of her current research focuses on, when she's not working on her comprehensive map of the realms of Faerie.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sadly, Bambleby's true identity wasn't just revealed to Emily, but to a whole host of villagers back in Hrafnavik as well. Now it seems the information is spreading, and his wicked stepmother, who usurped his throne and exiled him is sending assassins after him. Emily decides they need to get proactive about locating a back door to his kingdom, so they can stop his stepmother once and for all. This involves another journey, this time to the village of St. Liesl in the Austrian Alps, where several Faerie researchers are rumoured to have gone missing in the past. Along for the journey is Emily's niece Ariadne, who also wants to be a Faerie scholar, as well as Farris Rose, the head of Dryadology at Cambridge, who has pretty much blackmailed his way onto the expedition, threatening to have both Wendell and Emily discredited for falsifying sources for their academic publications (very much true in Wendell's case, very much not in Emily's). </div><div><br /></div><div>Will Professor Rose survive the dangerous expedition he has strongarmed his way onto? Will Wendell persuade Emily to actually be his wife? Will Emily manage to locate a door back to his kingdom? Will they manage to stop his wicked stepmother and counteract the poison affecting Wendell so that he and Emily even have a future together? </div><div><br /></div><div>I may have actually uttered an unladylike squeal of joy when I discovered this book on a shelf in the Waterstones in Morpeth (the English town where my parents-in-law live). I had seen on Heather Fawcett's Instagram that some UK readers got their pre-orders delivered early and some bookshops had received early deliveries of the book but never dared to hope that I was going to be lucky enough to go to one of those stores. Was I planning on buying this in hardback? No, now it doesn't go with my pretty paperback at all. Is the Norwegian kroner at a record low to the British pound (I seriously can't remember it being this bad for literal decades)? Absolutely. Did I snatch the book up and buy it anyway? Of course, I did! The book doesn't officially release until January 16th and I've wanted to read it pretty much since I finished book 1. There wasn't even a question in my mind.</div><div><br /></div><div>Did it live up to my expectations? Yes, I am glad to say. I think I like it even better than the first book, even though it was a bit slow in parts and meanders a bit. I also wasn't as interested in the subplot about the missing scholars, but YMMV. Emily and Wendell are a delight together, and I liked that while Wendell had to rescue Emily in the first book, she was very much the rescuer here, even at the risk of her own safety and sanity. I don't know how many books Ms. Fawcett is planning for the series, but I was very happy to see that there will be at least one more book before I have to say goodbye to the characters. This was a really lovely book to finish off my reviewing year. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>Isn't this just the prettiest thing? The green is one of my favourite shades and the flowers and mushrooms and little items are so delicate and dainty. It also complements the colours of book 1 beautifully. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-34179099258540283942023-12-31T12:28:00.000+01:002023-12-31T12:28:38.577+01:00CBR15 Book 103: "Heartstopper, vol 5" by Alice Oseman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42pZe0x6bstTm1DkUAL7bY-YZXxIjGNGagW5K_5h3f9y22_70JegxB1c8gfru8nQgu0xSMw9_3tufnhEGxsfaDCE0C53Bvvi3cGAZPNq8tExOnSf5_2piNn0mY5pVmSDtD1zhdlqg1Ua__cfzouD6Pn-3epZEJy-0efhQSfrAVg8vNqibO9X67A6Bzw/s1507/Heartstopper.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1507" data-original-width="980" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42pZe0x6bstTm1DkUAL7bY-YZXxIjGNGagW5K_5h3f9y22_70JegxB1c8gfru8nQgu0xSMw9_3tufnhEGxsfaDCE0C53Bvvi3cGAZPNq8tExOnSf5_2piNn0mY5pVmSDtD1zhdlqg1Ua__cfzouD6Pn-3epZEJy-0efhQSfrAVg8vNqibO9X67A6Bzw/w130-h200/Heartstopper.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>Page count: 336 pages<div>Rating: 4 stars</div><div><br /></div><div>Nick and Charlie are closer than ever, but despite what their friends think, they still haven't done THAT. Lately, it's probably all either can think about, but it's a big step and neither wants to pressure the other.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nick is also a year older than Charlie, and is having to consider which Universities he's going to apply to next year. His first inclination is living at home and going to his local Uni, so he'll be close to Charlie, but he goes on a road trip with Elle and Tara, and discovers that there are very appealing places elsewhere in the country too. Elle finds her dream University, and it will mean a long distance relationship with Tao. Can Nick and Charlie manage the same?</div><div><br /></div><div>Mr. Farouk is encouraging Charlie to apply for Head Boy in his final year, saying that a lot of students at the school could use a role model like him. He also wants to have the occasional sleepover at Nick's, but his mother is feeling overprotective and her reluctance causes tension between them. In the end, she agrees that he can stay over at Nick's once he's done with exams.</div><div><br /></div><div>Charlie, not exactly the most extroverted or confident, thanks to all the bullying, also agrees to play drums for a queer band during the end-of-year summer féte. It's a much more public role than he's ever been in before, and he's both nervous and excited about the opportunity.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hadn't realised that there was going to be a volume of <i>Heartstopper</i> out this year, so finding out that this was coming out in December was a pleasant surprise (even more that I found the book at half price at a shop in the UK while visiting my parents-in-law for Christmas). As it turns out, I had already read a lot of the issues collected in this book online on Tapas. The only reason I hadn't read all of them is that I took a break so more issues of the webcomic could be collected (one issue a week is too short). Oseman has announced that volume 6 will be the final one, and I'm now thinking that I may just stop reading the webcomic, so as not to be spoiled for the ending. </div><div><br /></div><div>I love this comic. It's so heartwarming and cute and the issues in this book are very low angst, even with questions of long-distance relationships being discussed. Nick and Charlie and their friends are such great characters and I'm glad queer youth have some nice examples of LGBTQIA fiction to comfort them. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>All the other covers have shown Nick and Charlie from the back, getting a bit closer with each volume. This is the first one where they are actually fully embracing, and I think the image is adorable. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-88855805190071150372023-12-31T00:11:00.005+01:002023-12-31T00:11:58.922+01:00CBR15 Books 100-102: Three audiobooks narrated by Kate Reading<div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidD0_DTMOFwrydeanXA4wZEWLJrgMpg6z0WInePI0Zeo8-r8vs5hTVRLRrYSNePnBU12ijSCsH9FXoLpYQA7zCp03UR5oQc8GdqrMUE16kQ46O01lQZDwMcEJHjXVIVWdhWjUZKp-PTK8m_I-hr2r2ktAuYSE5KJ7LqAfoYtyJLWguN7lQ4_Kof_PvcQ/s500/The%20Strange%20Case%20of%20the%20Alchemist's%20Daughter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidD0_DTMOFwrydeanXA4wZEWLJrgMpg6z0WInePI0Zeo8-r8vs5hTVRLRrYSNePnBU12ijSCsH9FXoLpYQA7zCp03UR5oQc8GdqrMUE16kQ46O01lQZDwMcEJHjXVIVWdhWjUZKp-PTK8m_I-hr2r2ktAuYSE5KJ7LqAfoYtyJLWguN7lQ4_Kof_PvcQ/w133-h200/The%20Strange%20Case%20of%20the%20Alchemist's%20Daughter.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter - </i>Theodora Goss</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Page count: 402 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Audio book length: 13hrs 38mins</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 3 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mary Jekyll finds herself orphaned and nearly destitute. Most of the servants have to be let go, and she's sold off most of what's valuable around the house. She hopes she can get some money by tracking down Edward Hyde, her father's infamous friend, but instead finds a young woman, Diana, who is apparently Hyde's daughter. The girl was raised by nuns, with monthly financial support from Mary's mother. Diana refuses to stay in the convent any longer, and mary has no choice but to bring the girl home with her. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While trying to assist Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in investigating the gruesome murders of several women on the streets of London, Mary and Diana meet and befriend a number of unusual young ladies, all the results of strange experimentation - Beatrice Rappachini, whose touch and breath is poisonous; Catherin Moreau, literally a cat-woman, and Justine Frankenstein (Doctor Frankenstein did in fact create a bride for Adam, she decided not to marry him). The young women are all the results of unscrupulous experimentation by immoral scientists, and now it seems like the recent murders are also connected to the secret society of these scientists. Mary, Diana and their new friends have to help Holmes and Watson bring true monsters to justice. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If this story hadn't been narrated by Kate Reading, I don't actually think I would have stuck with it. There are a lot of cool concepts in this book, but the execution of the story just didn't work out for me. I think it just took too long for the various parts to come together and for the various backstories of the women to be explored. Once they got to the point where they created a found family of sorts and continued the work with Sherlock Holmes, I became more interested. So I might check out the sequel and hope that the story gets better in that.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxAW7Ef8XfjdN1siFYMtOxhOkUlQJkW-Ngk4paxorLd3559msYGZMTc79yTW84LlEGJInxIrOhBsF2jmH4yWsG2G1pqolaRT5XACuEysCwojxjnloWM9Kz5u4rPnzPWwhDloYfnXNOcZwX7THpXtiCHIN4d1DvhX1NkaTC2dCgdaz_3P43WEtEKLMcw/s525/Miss%20Moriarty,%20I%20Presume.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxAW7Ef8XfjdN1siFYMtOxhOkUlQJkW-Ngk4paxorLd3559msYGZMTc79yTW84LlEGJInxIrOhBsF2jmH4yWsG2G1pqolaRT5XACuEysCwojxjnloWM9Kz5u4rPnzPWwhDloYfnXNOcZwX7THpXtiCHIN4d1DvhX1NkaTC2dCgdaz_3P43WEtEKLMcw/w133-h200/Miss%20Moriarty,%20I%20Presume.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Miss Moriarty, I Presume? - </i>Sherry Thomas</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Page count: 357 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Audio book length: 13 hrs</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Listening to Ms Reading narrate a historical fantasy book set in Victorian times, featuring Sherlock Holmes, made me remember that I had two <i>Lady Sherlock</i> books to catch up on, and they would actually be entertaining. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Charlotte Holmes is contracted by Moriarty himself to track down his daughter, who seems to have joined a cult in a remote village in Cornwall. Charlotte's sister Livia is trying to decipher a clue left by Moriarty's son, Mr. Marbleton, and Mrs Watson and Lord Ingram are just trying their best to assist Charlotte in whichever way she best requires it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I really like how Charlotte and Ash's relationship develops in this one. Much as I like Livia, I don't really care about her tragic romance with Mr. Marbleton. I also don't understand why these books are so preoccupied with Moriarty, who is a boring character, no matter which version of Sherlock Holmes one encounters (I very much liked what <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_(TV_series)" target="_blank">Elementary</a></i> did with the character, but even there, Moriarty did not dominate the plot as much as here). I don't care about the character and his stupid machinations. He's also barely in any of the original <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> stories. I want Charlotte and her crew to deal with other mysteries and just move away from this tedious storyline. Sadly, based on the developments of this book, I doubt I'm going to get my wish any time soon.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB7HQOCROel1FASSpANlVvFoYVY_sZepYCEQwYrWHls9_SICM_NcEmky5zroikFifUytlcuRD7_ZlTIWyu_9YRSdEj83Tg_72VOaa_Q6-YyOsDhEsfUp5i2ciNSIJtrxMc1d5WV6JFTJd3E2xMdeSmKvS_xydF0h5f2XGCs9ofopGRhxikgiHzB-bNlQ/s2888/A%20Tempest%20at%20Sea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2888" data-original-width="1925" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB7HQOCROel1FASSpANlVvFoYVY_sZepYCEQwYrWHls9_SICM_NcEmky5zroikFifUytlcuRD7_ZlTIWyu_9YRSdEj83Tg_72VOaa_Q6-YyOsDhEsfUp5i2ciNSIJtrxMc1d5WV6JFTJd3E2xMdeSmKvS_xydF0h5f2XGCs9ofopGRhxikgiHzB-bNlQ/w133-h200/A%20Tempest%20at%20Sea.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>A Tempest at Sea </i>- Sherry Thomas</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Page count: 353 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Audio book length: 13hrs 47mins</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4.5 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Charlotte is on a boat! Disguised as an outrageous old lady (for reasons that are obvious if you've read the previous book in the series, but I don't want to spoil that part). Mrs. Watson and Lord Ingram are also there, obviously. Charlotte and Ash are still bonking (yay!) For reasons of extreme plot contrivance, it seems like a large part of the people who have crossed paths with Charlotte in earlier books are also present on this voyage, including Livia and her mother; whatshisface who deflowered Charlotte and whose wife then made a massive scandal out of it; as well as the police detective who investigated the murder case involving Inspector Treadles. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Surprising no one, there's a murder (during a terrible storm) and Charlotte cannot get directly involved. Lord Ingram has to act as stenographer for the police inspector who takes it upon himself to question everyone, to see if they can solve the murder before reaching land (where they have to let the passengers disembark, and the murderer will have a chance to escape). While there were quite a few early plot contrivances, I'm happy with it, because this book was a lot of fun, and the dreaded Moriarty was mostly entirely absent from the plot. I totally called the identity of plot moppet nr 2 relatively early on, but I'm sure lots of other people did too, this was clearly not supposed to be one of the central mysteries of the story. Charlotte had to solve a murder while having to remain in disguise and only gathering clues indirectly was really interesting. More like this, Ms. Thomas. Moriarty sucks. Fun, clever stories like this instead. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-53149928252072707852023-12-30T21:27:00.001+01:002023-12-30T21:32:00.440+01:00CBR15 Books 96-99: More books I read this summer and am only reviewing now to make it to 104<b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsJb5tmWiBoa-mButD-Est6tvYOcfwuc0tT_PlijFb7vk81pV_lAkMR9X-DEsh4IkePi47m4KMLCcJSKkfOaGwGt0Owl5_AVBimESl_jWruvukUgUmYjiJk9IjvCuH6XdivdE5bl2PWqM9JM6yAUxFHT19vbYSxy0lZuwwumPp1i0HXM3kpMNQe1Okcw/s809/Cassiel.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="809" data-original-width="536" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsJb5tmWiBoa-mButD-Est6tvYOcfwuc0tT_PlijFb7vk81pV_lAkMR9X-DEsh4IkePi47m4KMLCcJSKkfOaGwGt0Owl5_AVBimESl_jWruvukUgUmYjiJk9IjvCuH6XdivdE5bl2PWqM9JM6yAUxFHT19vbYSxy0lZuwwumPp1i0HXM3kpMNQe1Okcw/w133-h200/Cassiel.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Cassiel's Servant</i> - Jacqueline Carey</b><div>Page count: 576 pages</div><div>Rating: 3.5 stars</div><div><br /></div><div><i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2023/10/cbr15-book-52-kushiels-dart-by.html" target="_blank">Kushiel's Dart</a></i> is one of my favourite fantasy books, and books in general, of all time. It stands up, I re-read it this summer in preparation for the release of this. Has Jacqueline Carey done exactly the same thing as Stephenie Meyer and E.L James did, and retold her already existing novel from the POV of another central character? Yes, she has. Was I pretty sure that this was going to be a lot more worthwhile and actually better written than those other books? Also yes. So much so that I pre-ordered this pretty much as soon as I heard about it. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is clearly a book written for Carey's existing fans. I'm not sure that a new reader would get as much out of the story, three-quarters of which is indeed a retelling of <i>Kushiel's Dart, </i>told through Joscelin's eyes. In case you are entirely unfamiliar with Carey's epic fantasy story, Joscelin is the loyal and oath-sworn bodyguard and companion to Phédre, our courtesan spy protagonist. Since he's a warrior priest sworn to celibacy, falling in love with a woman who considers sex an act of worship isn't exactly ideal.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first section of the book gives us entirely new material, with Joscelin's childhood and training with the Cassiline brotherhood, which he has to join while still very young. The training is rigorous and while he makes some friends, it's not a life in which he makes many lasting connections. Seeing certain specific sections of the novel from Joscelin's POV certainly adds more depth to them, and Carey makes it clear that there was a certain understanding between Hyacinthe and Joscelin which Phédre wasn't necessarily aware of.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not sure this book needed to be written, but it's a nice gift to Carey's fans, and it brought me a lot of joy. I really wouldn't recommend it to new readers of her work, though.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9BbpSuqlivlBEpDS1ZU-2_LKwdJZU1G0cNUJZ8W97_SzD9KZbRwOtB8swJ8CCVcbWY9g3sp0nb5vxa-GeFKJ6nfwx_xOX8XjKGuubEgU5xC2Vb-dPxG7FuP1rIQPIFSt4lwhvfkKgKdHsjaQ-PqRyZdHkDGWJ30KBQu_FcO3fjv0ir9ZeV7J-8O4hcg/s400/Codename%20Charming.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="266" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9BbpSuqlivlBEpDS1ZU-2_LKwdJZU1G0cNUJZ8W97_SzD9KZbRwOtB8swJ8CCVcbWY9g3sp0nb5vxa-GeFKJ6nfwx_xOX8XjKGuubEgU5xC2Vb-dPxG7FuP1rIQPIFSt4lwhvfkKgKdHsjaQ-PqRyZdHkDGWJ30KBQu_FcO3fjv0ir9ZeV7J-8O4hcg/w133-h200/Codename%20Charming.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Codename Charming</i> - Lucy Parker</b></div><div>Page count: 382 pages</div><div>Rating: 3.5 stars</div><div><br /></div><div>I love <i>Battle Royal. </i>I agree with some people that it should have more Bake-Off scenes, but I absolutely adore it, and the baking-related challenges grouchy Dominic and cheerful Sylvie face while falling in love. Towards the end of that book, Dominic's diminutive younger sister Petunia "Pet" DeVere saves the life of Johnny Marchmont, then fiancée to Princess Rose. Marchmont's bodyguard, Mathias Vaughn, feels very guilty that she got injured on his watch. By the time this book starts, Princess Rose and Johnny Marchmont are married and Pet works as Marchmont's personal assistant. The man is clumsy to the point of parody, and when the ruthless press starts writing scurrilous gossip pieces that suggest that there may be something between Pet and her employer, Princess Rose concocts a scheme where Pet and Matthias start fake dating, preferably being spotted canoodling in public, so the gossip dies down. </div><div><br /></div><div>Pet thinks Matthias finds her irritating. Matthias keeps being called ugly and brutish and is dealing with a lot of demons from his past. The two like and respect their employers enough that they go along with the preposterous plan, and hijinks ensue. Since both protagonists have been pining for each other, the fake dating gives them the excuse to finally give in to their feelings. </div><div><br /></div><div>Normally I devour a Lucy Parker novel in 24-48 hours. That was also the case with this one, but because it's slow to start and there are absolutely parts that didn't entirely work for me, they were just too farcical. Don't get me started on the reverse parrot heist (IYKYK) and getting locked in a closet. Is it Parker's weakest novel? No, that would still be <i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/search?q=Lucy+Parker+Making+Up" target="_blank">Making Up</a></i> (which is still a perfectly fine novel, it just doesn't manage the greatness of most of Parker's other books).</div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69LV8gWcQLeIKIOXPDDkDuKkS24vc8EYQ1cZGZgy1Xnm1XtyOBBGGOC4fEyran8up8hib68o8x2laXOVRZEzaz6_p27dV4CowgV3JmaAZf3o4d32bJ13YoDNI7GjaZSu07Rqp0abeDL9TStOpZYTtIH1_rDz7zYK5eQfvD0-_-xB0tukDIl6U7CcRHA/s2719/With%20the%20Fire%20on%20High.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2719" data-original-width="1800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69LV8gWcQLeIKIOXPDDkDuKkS24vc8EYQ1cZGZgy1Xnm1XtyOBBGGOC4fEyran8up8hib68o8x2laXOVRZEzaz6_p27dV4CowgV3JmaAZf3o4d32bJ13YoDNI7GjaZSu07Rqp0abeDL9TStOpZYTtIH1_rDz7zYK5eQfvD0-_-xB0tukDIl6U7CcRHA/w133-h200/With%20the%20Fire%20on%20High.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>With the Fire on High</i> - Elizabeth Acevedo</b></div><div>Page count: 400 pages</div><div>Rating: 4 stars</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Emoni Santiago isn't exactly like other high school seniors. She's half African American, half Puerto Rican, and as well as juggling school and a part-time job to try to supplement her family's income, she's also raising her daughter Emma (whom she calls Babygirl). They both live with Emoni's Abuela, who raised Emoni after her mother died in childbirth. Emoni's father was absolutely devastated by the loss and left them both to go back to Puerto Rico. He returns every so often to visit, but Emoni has a very complicated relationship with her father. She has some contact with some relatives from her mother's side, but mostly, it's just her, Babygirl, and her Abuela, fending for themselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Emoni loves to cook, and frequently experiments with recipes, giving them her own twist from what feels right. People who eat her food often experience strong emotions, and she dreams of becoming a professional chef one day but also realises that it's a very far-fetched dream. However, when she gets a chance to take part in a special cooking elective in high school, and even travel abroad for a week to Spain, her horizons broaden and her dreams don't seem so impossible after all.</div><div><br /></div><div>This was a lovely book, with some touches of magical realism. It wasn't quite the emotional gut-punch to me that <i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2022/11/cbr14-book-35-poet-x-by-elizabeth.html" target="_blank">The Poet X</a></i> was, but it was a wonderful read and I can see why Acevedo is so highly rated among YA reviewers. I'm looking forward to reading more of her stuff.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIVWe5ZR0JdjGzoYf4zSwKO2pEg7KT9BsqcYRm9YYjz8qrIPrxvLnhGlzxLnpsCSg8YteW7E9V9dHdTHcUzjgDaaNy-iaOQi5pLNop7SM41jxbDWsPzdrlfuENxCvtSL_DqPBqkn5AH4MPacrwNFAHMeK4I3GLMuAZzUWmhXePKc9Resco4QAxAIyWg/s400/Sleep%20No%20More.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="265" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIVWe5ZR0JdjGzoYf4zSwKO2pEg7KT9BsqcYRm9YYjz8qrIPrxvLnhGlzxLnpsCSg8YteW7E9V9dHdTHcUzjgDaaNy-iaOQi5pLNop7SM41jxbDWsPzdrlfuENxCvtSL_DqPBqkn5AH4MPacrwNFAHMeK4I3GLMuAZzUWmhXePKc9Resco4QAxAIyWg/w133-h200/Sleep%20No%20More.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Sleep No More</i> - Seanan McGuire</b></div><div>Page count: 368 pages</div><div>Rating: 4 stars</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Spoiler warning! </b>This is book 17 in the series, and absolutely under no circumstances the place to start. There will also be some spoilers for <a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2022/10/cbr14-book-30-be-serpent-by-seanan.html">book 16</a>, because I don't think I could review this book without mentioning what happened to Toby at the end of that one.</div><div><br /></div><div>October "Toby" Daye doesn't remember her real life. She doesn't remember her husband Tybalt, or her many friends and allies. She believes herself to be a lowly changeling servant, handmaiden to her pureblooded sister August, and living a sheltered life in her mother Amadine's tower. She is not a hero of the Faerie realms or a brave and resourceful fighter. She is meek, and timid and doesn't do a thing without permission. Her entire life is a lie created by a vengeful Titania, determined to shape all of Faerie to her demands. </div><div><br /></div><div>It thankfully doesn't take too long for things to start unravelling, little by little. When she accidentally tastes her own blood, she sees things that entirely contradict her current memories. A lot of people start telling her unbelievable things, about who she is and what she has done before. Even so, it takes four months for Toby's friends to reach her and start the complicated work of defeating Titania. Sadly, it takes her far too much of the book to remember her life with Tybalt and the poor man can barely look at her because it hurts him so much.</div><div><br /></div><div>McGuire also published a book from Tybalt's POV, where we find out what he did in those four months and how he coped with the challenge of losing his beloved. I haven't read it yet, because there's usually pretty much a year between new books in the series, and I want to spread out the goodness so the wait for book 19 won't be so interminable. </div><div><br /></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-27079876118963054702023-12-30T12:29:00.000+01:002023-12-30T12:29:06.747+01:00CBR15 Books 92-95: A bunch of romantic books I read this summer and didn't get round to reviewing<div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw3d_nac3QB5WVF2ScNsTnqFsvXsf2x1Mh6OLT_dEr_qy2JQLB9oexqwuFy7yZxVx-kV5HS6YsK1Qrole8vAXFdt15NKGOMinb3sF2U0S6Yk-31JARs8P3mZuAqYi25MuL6dk-rSM2sZfsfaJfgkJqqhS82UhwO2gFqsZlMKzNpAAW7eXeM4HCqU1eog/s2000/Fangirl%20the%20manga%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw3d_nac3QB5WVF2ScNsTnqFsvXsf2x1Mh6OLT_dEr_qy2JQLB9oexqwuFy7yZxVx-kV5HS6YsK1Qrole8vAXFdt15NKGOMinb3sF2U0S6Yk-31JARs8P3mZuAqYi25MuL6dk-rSM2sZfsfaJfgkJqqhS82UhwO2gFqsZlMKzNpAAW7eXeM4HCqU1eog/w140-h200/Fangirl%20the%20manga%203.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>Fangirl, the Manga: Volume 3 - </i>Rainbow Rowell and Gabi Nam</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Page count: 224 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This August saw the release of the third installment of Rainbow Rowell's manga version of <i>Fangirl, </i>my absolute favourite of her books (did I just buy a fancy tenth-anniversary edition, even though I own it in three other formats, NOT counting the mangas? You betcha). Cath is still struggling at college. Her writing partner Nick steals the story they've been working on together and makes her seem unreasonable for being upset about it. Her father has a mental breakdown and has to be hospitalised, and she has no choice but to ask Levi for a ride to visit him, even though she'd rather avoid him now, considering what she saw in his kitchen during the party. Now she's considering dropping out, so she can go back home and take care of her father. She's also feels betrayed by Wren, who wants to reconnect with their estranged mother.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is a much more emotional issue to read, because Cath isn't exactly having a great time of it, and there are a lot of emotional stakes for her, what with this coming three-quarters through the story of the novel. She manages to talk things through with Levi, however, and her Dad forbids her from giving up and quitting college to take care of him. Her professor also refuses to let her quit the course and extends her deadline to make sure she can submit something wholly original to her fiction writing class, not just her fan fiction. So things are looking better by the end of the issue - and at least now she knows that Nick is a manipulative, lazy weasel. The interludes with Baz and Simon from this fictional universe's versions of Baz and Simon (not to be confused with Rainbow Rowell's OTHER versions of <a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2015/10/cbr7-book-108-carry-on-by-rainbow-rowell.html" target="_blank">Baz and Simon</a>) also feel less frustrating than they do in the novel, as they are very cute in the manga illustrations.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJ5CQEAlHHcWh14miSsivMC9IjBpGipFoDG_9d_ywIs_zKx0fsCdQBcjKZiwLgveswqqyv2w9DwrvqIRlHH_DtJt8B217dsbxWFjY3N0ARi0ejxOiv55GL2ywyQ4BOKsBT3Ro5dX2TrBRxpqcy_D3yXSy4vljJVnYRXq05_sHJKGRVeJHi5pib4K-9A/s898/Deal%20with%20the%20Devil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="595" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJ5CQEAlHHcWh14miSsivMC9IjBpGipFoDG_9d_ywIs_zKx0fsCdQBcjKZiwLgveswqqyv2w9DwrvqIRlHH_DtJt8B217dsbxWFjY3N0ARi0ejxOiv55GL2ywyQ4BOKsBT3Ro5dX2TrBRxpqcy_D3yXSy4vljJVnYRXq05_sHJKGRVeJHi5pib4K-9A/w133-h200/Deal%20with%20the%20Devil.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Deal with the Devil </i><span style="font-weight: bold;">- Kit Rocha</span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Page count: 336 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In a post-apocalyptic version of America, Knox, the leader of a group of genetically enhanced supersoldiers has a difficult choice to make. He and his elite strike force went AWOL because they were sick of being used to terrorise and murder innocent civilians, but that also means that the implants they have that give them their enhanced powers can't be adjusted without help from a very talented hacker. If the implants aren't adjusted regularly, the soldiers with eventually die, painfully. Their hacker friend has been kidnapped, and to get her ransomed, Knox needs to deliver Nina, the leader of a group of high-tech librarians.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Nina is a clone who escaped from a secret research facility. As is Nina. All of their clones are dead, due to the experiments carried out on them. Maya is their third partner and a technical wiz with perfect recall of everything she's ever read or heard. The three women act as high-tech librarians, offering free information (music, books, videos) to the population of post-apocalyptic Atlanta, but to pay the bills, they also basically act as archeologists for other groups who want to find hidden vaults, like the lost Library of Congress servers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This book is a lot of fun and has two groups of really enjoyable characters. The tagline claims it's "<i>Orphan Black </i>meets the post-apocalyptic <i>Avengers</i>" and for once, that's actually a fairly good description. We have two groups of tight-knit found families who start out nominally working towards different objectives, but who then have to join forces and cooperate. The series is a trilogy, and the authors are not really very subtle about hinting about which characters will be paired up in future novels. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I liked the world-building, and the chemistry between the various characters and the main couple have understandable obstacles to work through since one is luring the other one into a trap to save his teammates. That several of his teammates think this is a dumb idea and they should just let the clever and resourceful women they've met work out a better plan speaks in their favour. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I own all three novels in the series and look forward to reading more of them in the next year. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-aPlammbINHTWzFaYyRHxeZ8n0bl9bTO-pM_vKjZ8EglQEHBH_jYpPRB2aIDSQUTuPqndfVExeu8nsZOpzeRARLEg5GlaS3nl_caYldKbJWr8kjItDqBMHefaV8AJLagPq0ahmvG20cOJYGtEoRGcWkOe9L7GrsCtzBueaVhdpUNo1YTrzEbs3kVK1w/s900/How%20the%20Wallflower%20Was%20Won.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="567" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-aPlammbINHTWzFaYyRHxeZ8n0bl9bTO-pM_vKjZ8EglQEHBH_jYpPRB2aIDSQUTuPqndfVExeu8nsZOpzeRARLEg5GlaS3nl_caYldKbJWr8kjItDqBMHefaV8AJLagPq0ahmvG20cOJYGtEoRGcWkOe9L7GrsCtzBueaVhdpUNo1YTrzEbs3kVK1w/w126-h200/How%20the%20Wallflower%20Was%20Won.jpg" width="126" /></a></div>How the Wallflower Was Won - </i>Eva Leigh</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Page count: 380 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 2.5 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is another of those historical romances where the hero has to get married in a certain amount of time to not get disinherited/inherit a bunch of money, and from what I can gather, this entire series is about three different men in the same pickle. Finn Ransome has been told he's stupid his entire life (he has dyslexia), but has no problem calculating the odds at the gambling tables, where he makes enough to allow him to live comfortably. He starts the novel planning to set his friend (who also has to get married to inherit money) up with a prim bluestocking, but of course, ends up falling for her himself. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Tabitha Seaton wants to join the Stirling Society, a snooty group full of influential thinkers (all men, naturally). She needs to be married for them to even consider allowing her into the group, and she much prefers Finn to his brooding friend Dom. They get married, and obviously, it's supposed to be a marriage of convenience only, with them never likely to ever catch warmer feelings for one another. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I barely remembered this book two months after I read it. Now, nearly six months after I finished it, I could only make a summary after looking at reviews on Goodreads. I have downgraded my rating of it accordingly, because I can't really give 3 stars to a book I have this much trouble remembering the plot of. I seem to recall that the hero kept bringing the heroine to libraries, and making sure their new house had a really nice library - which is an excellent quality in a man. Tabitha kept trying to impress the idiotic white men of the Stirling Society, who were never going to accept her in a million years. In the end, she and Finn create their own, much more inclusive society and live happily ever after. I think. I don't care enough to look up further details. Eva Leigh has written some romances I really enjoyed in the past (I seem to recall there are cameos from some of her previous couples in this one), but this was a very forgettable one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWDynJ28ORa33R2aLsQnAwcjLtVZJvm5pKuXK9q0NOBIUHB6DRCs7X_SmbTcuayW1s8kn3krnwp9v-Pd5vM4e_TMBt0J2gNURvitTiFewyqmmEJwxLmBdhdwKWII_0UJvO2QBu_m_HH3ByHEWYda4rzNteB3zEzCinKjAE-jIlIEHB9qiGiOcEsFWWw/s400/Knockout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="255" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWDynJ28ORa33R2aLsQnAwcjLtVZJvm5pKuXK9q0NOBIUHB6DRCs7X_SmbTcuayW1s8kn3krnwp9v-Pd5vM4e_TMBt0J2gNURvitTiFewyqmmEJwxLmBdhdwKWII_0UJvO2QBu_m_HH3ByHEWYda4rzNteB3zEzCinKjAE-jIlIEHB9qiGiOcEsFWWw/w127-h200/Knockout.jpg" width="127" /></a></div>Knockout</i> - Sarah Maclean</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Page count: 404 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We have finally reached Lady Imogen's book, and what a delight it was. In her current series, Sarah Maclean writes about four clever young women who have worked to create vast network of women all over London, to help their sisters in need. They save young noblewomen from disastrous marriages, they take down corrupt individuals and they make sure there is justice when the poor and helpless are taken advantage of. The press has dubbed them <i>Hell's Belles</i>. In the previous two books in the series, Lady Sesily Talbot finally persuaded Caleb Calhoun to be her husband, and puzzle-solving Adelaide Frampton, daughter of one of London's most notorious crime bosses, ended up marrying a duke. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Lady Imogen Loveless is the daughter of an eccentric earl who didn't mind his only daughter learning about science and chemistry. As a result, Imogen is really good with explosives and uses her knowledge to help the Belles. When her father died, her much older brother inherited the title, and he never really knew how to relate to his brainy sister. He wants her to keep out of trouble, and possibly find a husband, and hires detective Thomas Peck to act as her bodyguard and keeper. Of course, Thomas Peck is the last person who should be guarding Imogen's virtue, and he certainly doesn't relish the thought of her finding herself a husband who isn't him. But Thomas is a commoner and could never be good enough for Imogen, could he?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've enjoyed the majority of Maclean's historical romances, and even consider some of them <a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2013/02/cbr5-book-11-one-good-earl-deserves.html" target="_blank">essential reading</a> for anyone interested in this subgenre, but she's also written some real duds. Thankfully, this series has been very enjoyable, and I think <i>Knockout </i>is my favourite one so far. Maclean is also great at teasing the final book in a series with a heck of a cliffhanger, which she also does here. Thanks to the final lines of this book, I'm now impatiently awaiting the release of Duchess' book, hopefully out in August 2024. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Speaking of releases - I was lucky enough to find a paperback copy of this in a US bookstore more than two weeks before its actual release date, to much rejoicing. I was visiting my BFF Lydia in Vermont at the time and had time to read half before I sadly forgot the book in the stress of packing and returning home, so had to wait until she had a chance to ship it back to me (which was some time actual the release date). It was probably hubris for being too smug about getting it early. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-11939699019580294252023-12-29T23:43:00.001+01:002023-12-29T23:43:33.269+01:00CBR15 Books 87-91: "Spy x Family, vol 1-5" by Tatsuya Endo<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbJV5mhEErnlodPziW4CTMMxUFFhvhcxHllZ_eJL3Pcgg-G8lE-SSzspZJjyU_Uwm0aWII04bjcYUYRMVjNJ3p4is6LeRC9M4w4c-nZHAFc5T-feoCT_FmEdLQyBQDS__ddGnYhRTAUL2KTRB-ZB-C7OPbzFeso7z_SSrnnHnuRaMah1KeU_TUWGdzrQ/s2100/Spy%20x%20Family.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2100" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbJV5mhEErnlodPziW4CTMMxUFFhvhcxHllZ_eJL3Pcgg-G8lE-SSzspZJjyU_Uwm0aWII04bjcYUYRMVjNJ3p4is6LeRC9M4w4c-nZHAFc5T-feoCT_FmEdLQyBQDS__ddGnYhRTAUL2KTRB-ZB-C7OPbzFeso7z_SSrnnHnuRaMah1KeU_TUWGdzrQ/w133-h200/Spy%20x%20Family.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Total page count: 1040 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 4 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Agent Twilight is the best spy in the business and he's willing to do absolutely anything to protect his country. For his latest mission, Operation Strix, he needs to get close to high-ranking politician Desmond Donovan. To do this, he needs to be married and have a child and said child needs to be admitted to the prestigious Eden Academy, where Desmond Donovan's son Damien is a pupil. Agent Twilight creates the alias Loid Forger, a clinical psychiatrist, to complete the mission. Since he has to have a child, he adopts a young girl from an orphanage. The adorable Anya turns out to be a telepath and can read minds. She desperately wants a family and reads Twilight's mind to try to be the perfect daughter to him. Twilight/Loid also requires a wife, and so enters into a marriage of convenience to Yor Briar, seemingly a timid office clerk. Unbeknownst to Twilight, Yor is also a skilled assassin, working under the code name "Thorn Princess". Only Anya knows about the secret identities of her adoptive parents, and neither of them knows she can read their minds. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In the first volume, Twilight needs to create his Loid Forger persona and acquire the family necessary to pull off his mission. He adopts Anya, who he needs to tutor well enough to pass the entrance exam to Eden Academy. He marries Yor Briar, to have a suitable wife and stepmother to his "daughter". After a lot of shenanigans, they get through the family interview at Eden Academy, but it's unclear whether Anya will actually get accepted.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In volume 2, it becomes clear that Anya has in fact got a spot at the Academy. Twilight/Loid wants her to befriend Damien Desmond, the son of his target, but that really doesn't work out too well. The children pretty much become antagonists, but Anya befriends the wealthy Becky instead. Twilight/Loid is a bit despondent, but being a master spy, doesn't let small obstacles hinder him from achieving success. Yor's younger brother Yuri comes to visit the family and is deeply jealous of anyone taking away his sister's attention from him. Twilight/Loid discovers that Yuri works for the Secret Police.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">At the beginning of volume 3, Yor and Twilight/Loid have to work together to convince Yor's brother Yuri that they are a happy couple, and have in fact been married for over a year. Yor asks her co-workers for help to be a better wife, and Twilight/Loid is reassured that despite her brother working for the Secret Police, his wife is not a threat to his mission. Anya manages to earn a Stella star, an important academic achievement at school and tells Twilight/Loid that she wants a dog as a reward.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In volume 4, the Forger family acquires a dog for Anya, the fluffy and courageous Bond, who can occasionally see the future. Bond is part of a gang of dogs trained by terrorists (who also kidnap Anya for a while), but Bond and Anya work together to foil the terrorists, with some assistance from both of Anya's parents.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In volume 5, Yor tries to become a better cook, since her cooking efforts hitherto have been dreadful. Anya manages to help Damian win an art prize at school but is terrified when she realises she will have to sit the midterm during the dark of the moon, the one time of the month when her telepathic powers don't work. Yuri, trying to impress his sister, offers to tutor Anya. Twilight/Loid is prepared to break into the school to alter her results, making sure she passes, but instead runs into another (much more inept spy) who is trying to alter the exam results of the Desmond brothers, making it seem that they would fail. Anya passes her exams, and Twilight/Loid makes sure that the Desmond brothers' results remain unaltered. In the final chapter of the story, we are introduced to Fiona Frost, one of Twilight/Loid's fellow spies. She secretly loves Twilight and wants to scare Yor away, so she (Fiona) can take her place in the mission as Twilight's wife. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">These manga adventures are ridiculously entertaining, and I've had a lot of fun reading them since I started this summer. I know there is also an anime series, but since it's a right faff making my VPN work properly so I can watch them, I haven't yet gotten around to watching the show (my BFF Lydia loves it, though). I would love for there to be more actual romance between Twilight/Loid and Yor (everyone knows that marriages of convenience eventually lead to actual love, right?), but these stories are so much fun and I can't wait to see where the story goes next. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Judging the books by their covers: </b>I really like the art style of this manga, and each volume features one of the characters on the cover. Volume 1 has Agent Twilight/Loid Forger on the cover, volume 2 has Anya, volume 3 has Lor (dressed in her elegant assassin costume), volume 4 has Bond (best doggo!) and volume 5 has Lor's extremely unhealthily attached brother Yuri. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-29329921196871875382023-12-28T23:08:00.000+01:002023-12-28T23:08:12.385+01:00CBR15 Book 86: "Make You Mine This Christmas" by Lizzie Huxley-Jones<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxj-8J_wziQKyh21iv74s41bJ-dlONwYQfzVZwbcmjCZ_PPF9TjcR6sa9-DMR1MVHVff1Vph023PF9jo89ZVPLOSXKndWbRKImPqmVHpZlXgdiWuqVnmf-qvnDiioLQ_ZQsYlVPasTzkmP4MumOZ9ivDU91vtRsUYYsW2uewlLNZN6Bd0KJ9r3u4JzAg/s1205/Make%20You%20Mine%20This%20Christmas.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1205" data-original-width="780" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxj-8J_wziQKyh21iv74s41bJ-dlONwYQfzVZwbcmjCZ_PPF9TjcR6sa9-DMR1MVHVff1Vph023PF9jo89ZVPLOSXKndWbRKImPqmVHpZlXgdiWuqVnmf-qvnDiioLQ_ZQsYlVPasTzkmP4MumOZ9ivDU91vtRsUYYsW2uewlLNZN6Bd0KJ9r3u4JzAg/w129-h200/Make%20You%20Mine%20This%20Christmas.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>Page count: 352 pages</div><div style="text-align: left;">Rating: 5 stars</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>#CBR15 Passport Challenge: Recommended by a friend</b> (I'm not sure if I would have ever discovered this book if it wasn't for the amazing <a href="https://cannonballread.com/author/narfna/" target="_blank">Narfna/Ashley</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A lot of contemporary romances get described as rom-coms, and in a lot of cases this is just lies, spouted by the publishers to get more people to pick up the books. <i>Make You Mine This Christmas, </i>on the other hand, is both romantic and very funny. I could easily see it as a film in my head.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Haf (it's a Welsh name) lives in York and is overworked and underappreciated doing social media for an environmental charity. She's depressed because her parents are going to Madeira for Christmas, and she is probably going to have to face Christmas all alone. Her non-binary flatmate and best friend Ambrose drags her along to a holiday party, where she meets the handsome Christopher, who is clearly very posh and admits to working in finance in London. The two hit it off, in a deeply platonic way, but quite a bit of booze makes them decide to kiss (awkwardly) under a piece of mistletoe anyway. Because fake relationships have to start somewhere, they are seen kissing by Christopher's ex-girlfriend Laurel, who is there with her boorish new boyfriend Mark, and Laurel just assumes that Haf is Christopher's new girlfriend. To save her new pal from a mortifying explanation to his ex, Haf plays along and agrees that yes, they are dating.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">By the next morning (the two fell asleep on Haf's couch watching TV), Laurel has apparently told everyone who knows Christopher about his new flame, and his parents insist that he bring her along to family Christmas. Haf doesn't have any plans, Christopher clearly doesn't feel comfortable telling his parents that what Laurel saw was just a big understanding, and the agreement to fake date is formed. Ambrose thinks they are both idiots. Ambrose is not wrong.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">On her way to meet Christopher in London, Haf browses a bookstore at a train station and has the perfect meet-cute with a very beautiful and mysterious woman, with whom she flirts awkwardly, and who recommends she buy <i>Carol </i>by Patricia Highsmith (excellent lesbian flirting strategy there). Unfortunately, the alluring bookshop woman disappears before Haf can get any contact details from her. Cue a little time later, when it turns out that the sexy bookshop lady is none other than Christopher's older sister, who will also be spending Christmas with the family. Haf is pretending to date Christopher but fancies the pants off his sister. Neither sibling seems able to be entirely honest with or able to stand up to their wealthy, but well-meaning parents, who welcome Haf into the family with open arms. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This book has:</div><div style="text-align: left;">- Fake dating, and the many lies that accompany such a scheme</div><div style="text-align: left;">- A whole bunch of excellent queer representation, including our bisexual heroine and her non-binary bestie (Ambrose is amazing, and they steal every scene they are in or mentioned in)</div><div style="text-align: left;">- Lovely fat representation. Haf is plus-size and entirely unashamed about it. The imposing Laurel ends up sewing her a ballgown (for reasons) and there is quite a bit of conversation about how hard it is for larger-sized women to find clothing that isn't either a sack or purchased online</div><div style="text-align: left;">- A very nice sibling relationship between Christopher and Kit </div><div style="text-align: left;">- The awkwardness of pretending to date one sibling (who you feel nothing sexual about at all) and wanting to jump the other sibling (who you very much feel a lot of sexual things for)</div><div style="text-align: left;">- A lot of rich people, who mostly are very nice, if a bit clueless</div><div style="text-align: left;">- Disastrous gingerbread house construction</div><div style="text-align: left;">- Successful gingerbread house construction</div><div style="text-align: left;">- A ridiculous chase sequence through an outdoor Christmas fête, which ends with our heroine having to wade into an icy cold and slimy duck pond to save a baby reindeer from a vicious goose</div><div style="text-align: left;">- A fair amount of pining</div><div style="text-align: left;">- An actual, honest to god, Christmas ball</div><div style="text-align: left;">- Loyal dogs</div><div style="text-align: left;">- Children forced to pull on their big-person pants and be honest with their parents about what they want to do with their lives</div><div style="text-align: left;">- Some final act complications, resulting in a very touching declaration of love at a London train station</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There were absolutely parts of this that gave me the same feeling as when reading <i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2020/09/cbr12-book-63-boyfriend-material-by.html" target="_blank">Boyfriend Material</a></i> by Alexis Hall. That is by no means a bad thing. I absolutely see why Narfna/Ashley was so enthusiastic about this book, and the many quotes she included in her own review of the book are so much funnier in context. This is clearly going to be a book I revisit for comfort re-reads in the years to come. Now I need to see what else this author has written - I want more!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>As cartoony covers go, I actually think this one is very sweet. We only see the characters from the back, yet to the reader, it's very obvious who each of them is supposed to be. I love that the little cartoon Kit has her walking stick and emerald green coat and that it's obvious that Haf is indeed plus-size. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-32157013494816364582023-12-28T22:38:00.004+01:002023-12-28T22:40:34.911+01:00CBR15 Books 84-85: "The Shepherd King duology" by Rachel Gillig<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0PYd5mCaAoDo4FidTDVB7P3f3GdX8d5FIAH4yihlVonWuT6Mys04k91LlgABPH8XaTKYkDe1H4tzAhMOJN4yHlS895lQvoZpNtjhT6E0YB3GUyWzA2YXlzixW2Wn_3q_BZSoOTejYhhhHhUiIedWrEx6VgiKp9o25zS_5Pvm3I6rW7tJ4dWYloG0P4w/s300/The%20Shepherd%20King.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="300" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0PYd5mCaAoDo4FidTDVB7P3f3GdX8d5FIAH4yihlVonWuT6Mys04k91LlgABPH8XaTKYkDe1H4tzAhMOJN4yHlS895lQvoZpNtjhT6E0YB3GUyWzA2YXlzixW2Wn_3q_BZSoOTejYhhhHhUiIedWrEx6VgiKp9o25zS_5Pvm3I6rW7tJ4dWYloG0P4w/w200-h130/The%20Shepherd%20King.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Total page count: 913 pages<div><i>One Dark Window - </i>3.5 stars</div><div><i>Two Twisted Crowns - </i>4 stars</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Spoiler warning! Some minor spoilers for <i>One Dark Window</i> in this review. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>20-year-old Elspeth Spindle (all the noble families have surnames taken from trees) lives in the kingdom of Blunder, most of which is now enveloped in a thick, sinister fog. Most people who venture out into the fog without a talisman (bones, feathers, animal feet, braided horsehair, etc) go mad and run off into the forest, never to be seen again. The only ones who seem able to walk in the fog without nasty side effects are the survivors of a mysterious fever (which also grants the survivors some sort of magical ability), but such survivors are few and far between since the king has ordered all afflicted with the disease to be rounded up and taken to the palace (where they are experimented on and killed). Being found to have harboured a fever survivor is considered treason. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, Elspeth is one such survivor. Her father used to be the captain of the king’s Destriers (think a Royal Guard crossed with Secret Police). He couldn’t bring himself to have his eldest daughter killed, so sent her into the woods to live with her aunt and uncle. Remember how I said all survivors of the fever gained a magical power? Elspeth’s ability made it possible for her to absorb the essence of Providence cards, which is why she has an unwanted cohabitant in her head – known as the Nightmare.</div><div><br /></div><div>A brief history lesson: Back in the olden times, Blunder was ruled by The Shepherd King (also the name of this fantasy duology). In the woods of Blunder there was an ancient power, The Spirit of the Forest, who people used to turn to for help and who could grant wishes and the like. All magic had a price, because balance is necessary and such trades with the Spirit should not be undertaken lightly. The Shepherd King, in an attempt to safeguard his kingdom, negotiated with the Spirit of the Forest and created a magical deck of cards, called Providence Cards. To create each of the cards, he had to sacrifice something, like years of his life, his memories, his ability to sleep, all his hair, and eventually his own soul. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Twelve different Providence Cards made up the Deck. Chronicled in our ancient text, The Old Book of Alders, Providence Cards were not only Blunder’s greatest treasures but the only legal way of performing magic. Anyone could use them – all it took was touch and intention. Clear your mind, hold a Card in your hand, tap it three times, and the Card is yours to wield. Pocket the Card or place it elsewhere, the magic would still hold. Three more taps, or the touch of another person, and the flow of magic would halt. But use a Card too long, and the consequences were dire. The cards were exceptionally rare, their numbers finite."</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>With some of the cards in the Providence Deck, there are multiple copies. There are only two Nightmare Cards, which grant the user the ability to speak telepathically to others. Eleven years ago, Elspeth touched a Nightmare card in her uncle’s library, and basically absorbed its essence, the werewolf-like creature depicted on its surface. The creature speaks to her, gives her warnings, and in cases of extreme danger, she can grant The Nightmare control over her body, so she gets stronger, faster and can defend herself. Of course, everything has a price, so each time she does this, The Nightmare gains a bit more control over her, and she starts having trouble controlling her own body. When Elspeth is in control, she has dark, nearly black eyes. When The Nightmare is in control, her eyes are yellow. </div><div><br /></div><div>Elspeth has stayed far away from the royal court for years, afraid that anyone will discover that she is a survivor of the fever. This Solstice, however, her uncle has finally decided to trade his very precious Nightmare card (the second one is believed to be lost – but is it?) to the King, in return for his daughter, Elspeth’s beloved cousin Ione, to be betrothed to the Crown Prince, a psychotic bully. Ione gets access to a Maiden card, which turns the user flawlessly beautiful but is rumoured to have the side effect that the user becomes cold and heartless. Obviously, with her uncle’s family suddenly guests of honour, Elspeth also has to join the festivities at the palace. She meets a number of new people, like Prince Elm, the younger prince, who doesn’t seem particularly fond of his father or brother. She also comes into contact with Elm’s cousin, Ravyn Yew, the current Captain of the King’s Destriers. He figures out that she’s a survivor of the fever, but doesn’t arrest her. Instead, he invites her to be part of a plot that can only be described as treasonous.</div><div><br /></div><div>Raven Yew and most of his family are working with Prince Elm to locate one card of each of the ones that make up the Providence Deck. If all twelve cards of the deck can be united, the curse on Blunder will be lifted and the fog will no longer threaten the land. It is believed that those suffering aftereffects of the fever will also be cured. Elspeth obviously can’t reveal to anyone that she has The Nightmare lurking around in the back of her brain, but reveals to Ravyn and Elm that she can «see» Providence Cards. Thanks to The Nightmare, Elspeth can see the colours of the various cards, even when a person has them hidden. This makes her incredibly useful to the conspirators, and they promise to keep her safe if she agrees to help them. </div><div><br /></div><div>It’s agreed that Elspeth come stay at the residence of the Yew family, under the pretext that Ravyn is courting her. Of course what starts out as pretense doesn’t take long before it becomes a reality, although Elspeth has to keep lying to her new friends, and the man she’s falling for about the extent of her magical abilities. </div><div><br /></div><div>Things got really complicated after Elspeth had her wrist broken when Ravyn, Elm, and their gang of fake highwaymen tried to stage an ambush to steal another Providence Card. Elspeth came into close contact with the Crown Prince, who broke her wrist. Elspeth only got away because she let the Nightmare take over, and he clawed the Prince savagely. While everyone claims Elspeth broke her wrist falling off a horse, this cover story isn’t really very convincing to anyone, least the cruel Crown Prince. He may be a psycho, but he’s sadly not stupid. He’s suspected his brother and cousins of being up to something treasonous, and he gets his claws into Elspeth both to question her and use her as bait to capture her co-conspirators.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a result of that rather unpleasant encounter, Elspeth has to let The Nightmare take over permanently, and the Crown Prince is found nearly torn to pieces. Elspeth is taken prisoner, but the Nightmare, now in total control, reveals to the enraged King that he knows where the Twin Alders, the only unique card in the Providence Deck is hidden. It will be impossible for anyone to unite the Deck and break the curse on Blunder without this card. Ravyn pretends to still be loyal and offers to take The Nightmare/the husk that was once Elspeth to find the card. The blood of someone afflicted by the fever will also need to be spilled to break the curse, and the King plans for that to be Elspeth, once the card is found.</div><div><br /></div><div>Prince Elm, who hates his family, now has to step up and act as heir, as his elder brother is horribly injured and may not survive. He’s unable to accompany Ravyn to find the final Providence Card, but to make his time back at the palace more bearable, he makes a deal with Ione, his brother’s unwilling betrothed, to help her find the missing Maiden card that still has her under an enchantment. Thanks to Ione, Elm also discovers a previously unknown benefit the Maiden card grants those under its spell.</div><div><br /></div><div>Will Ravyn manage to locate the missing Providence Card required to unite the Deck and break the curse on Blunder? Will he be able to exorcise The Nightmare from Elspeth’s body and save his beloved from being sacrificed by the king? Will Elm and Ione find the missing Maiden card, and return Ione to her former self? Will our stalwart heroes triumph over corruption and evil and live happily ever after? </div><div><br /></div><div>While <i>One Dark Window</i> is told entirely from Elspeth’s POV (with little snippets from <i>The Old Book of Alders</i> at the start of each chapter, giving us helpful information about the magic system and the Providence Cards), <i>Two Twisted Crowns</i> is told through Elm, Ravyn and The Nightmare’s POVs. There are brief glimpses of Elspeth's consciousness, but she's pretty firmly stuck deep in what seems to be The Nightmare's subconscious.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><i>One Dark Window </i>was the November pick in my fantasy book club. For the first half of the book, it was really only the interesting magic system that kept me going. Elspeth is not the most dynamic of heroines and her romance with Ravyn really didn't grab me all that much. Her strange connection with The Nightmare helped keep me interested, and I really wouldn't have expected the first book to end the way it did. The second book is miles better, especially because all three POV characters are more interesting, especially Elm. He develops a romance with Ione, which is complicated because she's promised to his loathsome brother. Since I liked both Elm and Ione a lot more than drippy Elspeth, that storyline worked better for me than Elspeth and Ravyn's. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm always happy when a fantasy series can be contained in two, rather than three books. In this case, I would highly recommend readers stick with it, even if <i>One Dark Window</i> isn't entirely grabbing them. The world-building and magic system is very interesting, and everything develops so well in <i>Two Twisted Crowns, </i>finishing off the story in a really satisfying way. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging the books by the covers: </b>I think the cover for <i>One Dark Window</i> is supposed to be a red-clad woman (most likely Elspeth) in the middle of a bridge. The black smoke is probably something to do with the Nightmare? It's not a great choice - it looks like a tiny volcano. The cover for <i>Two Twisted Crowns </i>is much better, with the twisty trees adding to the spooky atmosphere. If the woman on the cover is supposed to be Elspeth, her hair should really be cut short - but you can't have everything.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div><div><br /></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-39601521127264968152023-12-27T21:49:00.000+01:002023-12-27T21:49:56.731+01:00CBR15 Book 83: "Forget Me Not" by Julie Soto<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrKzAw_8cH15UXI_V8Tgs7jrbNvea3hUWjW9dsaWqd6f4sqCZBqpcD8MybpoufJRwCn70w8yQm1u7F3fYTKZUKMKjs2B7wbPLHAlsCNQQ-DWCKBD0y9PQNwHa8WPpwMQ_DZHq4SUfRVzHp7re_TyatweVCU2oE2BuMroe3a8tMsPBK-Z4qddI-un4XSg/s2318/Forget%20Me%20Not.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2318" data-original-width="1500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrKzAw_8cH15UXI_V8Tgs7jrbNvea3hUWjW9dsaWqd6f4sqCZBqpcD8MybpoufJRwCn70w8yQm1u7F3fYTKZUKMKjs2B7wbPLHAlsCNQQ-DWCKBD0y9PQNwHa8WPpwMQ_DZHq4SUfRVzHp7re_TyatweVCU2oE2BuMroe3a8tMsPBK-Z4qddI-un4XSg/w129-h200/Forget%20Me%20Not.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>Page count: 352 pages<div>Rating: 4 stars</div><div><br /></div><div>Ama Torres is an excellent wedding planner, who really gives her all to make sure the weddings she arranges go off without a hitch. However, personally, she doesn't believe in marriage or in relationships that really last a lifetime. Probably because her mother has been married so many times (Ama has arranged a lot of her weddings). Now she has a whole host of former step-siblings, some of which she works with, others who she can rope in when she needs a favour. Despite Ama usually doing fairly small, intimate weddings, she is contracted to arrange the wedding of a famous Instagram star (a woman Ama sees as a personal role model). It will be Ama's biggest job yet, and her former employer is making things difficult by booking up a lot of the available vendors on the date in question.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another complication is that the brides have contracted Elliot Bloom to do the flowers for the wedding. Ama and Elliot have a history - which ended when Ama broke Elliot's heart several years previous. Now she's going to have to arrange the biggest, most high-profile wedding of her career while working closely with a man who most likely hates her. </div><div><br /></div><div>Romances starring commitment-phobic wedding planners seem to be a subgenre of its own. Ama (not going to tell you her full name, but it's a great one) has a lot of issues with relationships, mainly due to her mother's many many marriages. She prefers simple flings until she meets Elliot, who is the complete opposite. When Elliot falls for someone, it is forever - which doesn't work out so well for either of them.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a really fun second chance romance, where about half of the story is told in flashbacks, so we see the beginning of Ama and Elliot's relationship, and discover what finally went wrong between them. The present-day story, with Ama ultra-competently finding solutions to all of the wealthy brides' many demands, even being sabotaged by her former boss, is a lot of fun too, although it becomes painfully clear that Ama needs a ton of therapy. She is far too much of a workaholic, and then there are all the commitment issues because of her mom's serial monogamy. I would have liked there to be some kind of acknowledgment that at some point, after the story's end, she would deal with some of these issues, to make sure she doesn't get cold feet and hurt poor Elliot again.</div><div><br /></div><div>I know Ms. Soto has another romance coming out in the summer of 2024, but nothing about what it will be about. I hope she at some point in the future writes a book about Ama's beautiful and funny photographer stepsister, because she seems like she would be a great heroine. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>The US cover for this makes it seem like Reylo fan fiction because the guy on the cover is yet another Adam Driver look-alike. The UK cover has both characters looking far too cutesy (although Ama is described as looking a lot like a teenager). I don't think either cover really fits the book very well. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-77181521862304357292023-12-27T20:34:00.000+01:002023-12-27T20:34:45.581+01:00CBR15 Book 82: "A Christmas Affair to Remember" by Mia Vincy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcKFR4K0_-mM_lVIn1HTbzeUoqXfy_nXavJGnT8bq5xkuNRSM7Ak1uiDXAyaWbO5JbRu92ryDzigPVVBhTX6YbLEioX-mLVTZvrIztZei8Q2nZc3AFA-UTEmSwjh4Mbp2mOECiaR-M6hwtWXDEfuv11bgyOqHaWP3VyYImJOeL_FYnKWt6bjALSGEBAg/s2025/A%20Christmas%20Affair%20to%20Remember.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2025" data-original-width="1350" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcKFR4K0_-mM_lVIn1HTbzeUoqXfy_nXavJGnT8bq5xkuNRSM7Ak1uiDXAyaWbO5JbRu92ryDzigPVVBhTX6YbLEioX-mLVTZvrIztZei8Q2nZc3AFA-UTEmSwjh4Mbp2mOECiaR-M6hwtWXDEfuv11bgyOqHaWP3VyYImJOeL_FYnKWt6bjALSGEBAg/w133-h200/A%20Christmas%20Affair%20to%20Remember.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Page count: 202 pages<div>Rating: 4 stars</div><div><br /></div><div>Sylvia Ray was married to a charming, persuasive man, who died and left her destitute. Because he lied to his family, they believed she was the reason he had ended up with massive debts, so they refused to give her any financial assistance after his death. After years of trying to support herself and keep herself from starvation, she's found a man who wants to marry her, and who can give her a secure future. </div><div><br /></div><div>Isaac DeWitt went to see as a young boy and was forced to leave his career in the navy when he damaged his leg. Now he works as an investigator and would like to settle down with a wife - but having grown up surrounded solely by men, women are a complete mystery to him. He enjoys flirting, but has absolutely no idea how to go about actually kissing or wooing a woman - what if he turns out to be disappointing?</div><div><br /></div><div>Sylvia discovers Isaac's dilemma, and though she knows she shouldn't, she makes him a wicked proposal. The man she is marrying is sickly and her future union is unlikely to be passionate. Having one final fling before she marries again may be irresponsible, but she can't help herself. Isaac is more than happy to take her up on her offer, he'll get experience and confidence enough to find himself a wife, and she'll get some pleasant memories to think back on once she's married in the countryside, taking care of a hypochondriac.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's been a few years since I read any romances by Mia Vincy, but she always writes her characters so well. In this holiday novella, which was free on her website, we meet the younger brother of Joshua DeWitt, the erstwhile grouchy hero of <i><a href="https://kingmagu.blogspot.com/2020/03/cbr12-book-12-wicked-kind-of-husband-by.html" target="_blank">A Wicked Kind of Husband</a>. </i>Here he is an affectionate older brother and dotes on his wife and children. </div><div><br /></div><div>Several of my reading challenges for December asked for books set around winter and/or holiday time. This seemed like a good fit (and made me realise I probably want to re-read some of Vincy's novels). The older, experienced partner who offers to tutor the younger, virginal character in the amorous arts isn't an unusual trope, but the gender reversal where the woman is the experienced one and the man is the virgin is not one I can remember coming across very often. Of course, Sylvia is a widow and all of 33 years old. That's an OLDER woman in historical romance. I'm basically a crone now. </div><div><br /></div><div>Isaac and Sylvia have excellent chemistry and of course, start to fall for one another. The main conflict in the story is Isaac's inability to understand why Sylvia is determined to go through with her marriage to a sickly man who will never appreciate her, and why lust, and even love, isn't going to be enough to make her change her mind.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you haven't read any Mia Vincy, this is a nice place to start. While there are cameos from other couples from her books, you don't need to have read any of their stories to enjoy this one. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>Mia Vincy's covers always seem to be done in gentle watercolours, with one specific colour dominating. On her other covers, there's pink, yellow, purple, and blue, while here the dominant colour seems to be a sepia-tinted orange. The covers always seem to suggest much more gentle stories than Vincy often delivers, but they are pretty. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056598678089546521.post-37084312913213329162023-12-27T13:06:00.000+01:002023-12-27T13:06:36.694+01:00CBR15 Book 81: "Consort of Fire" by Kit Rocha<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQVAWAEfAz5ugAIcV51F9vawIvr50kb9VOsO9y6Cnt-PrgR_JAVhIC4ATytMWN1o9A6WHrIK9lT6GgLKi6219M47ZRd0i16oEgOUvGMBIhvUO7vR6II08gJ0V32ean3xOU8BtrZdx0zo5IDIx1pcSK1WWtyldfOrbJ4EgedA0_1gH8EofDLa73ttzb0A/s2550/Consort%20of%20Fire.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQVAWAEfAz5ugAIcV51F9vawIvr50kb9VOsO9y6Cnt-PrgR_JAVhIC4ATytMWN1o9A6WHrIK9lT6GgLKi6219M47ZRd0i16oEgOUvGMBIhvUO7vR6II08gJ0V32ean3xOU8BtrZdx0zo5IDIx1pcSK1WWtyldfOrbJ4EgedA0_1gH8EofDLa73ttzb0A/w129-h200/Consort%20of%20Fire.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>Page count: 398 pages<div>Rating: 5 stars</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Disclaimer! </b>This was an ARC from Netgalley (but I have also paid to buy the book myself, after reading it). My opinions are my own.</div><div><br /></div><div>Every one hundred years, the king of the Sheltered Lands has to send one heir to serve as consort to the ancient dragon god who acts as its protector and guardian. The previous consort went mad with fear not long after bonding with the Dragon, and Ash, the Dragon, worries that history will repeat itself. Ash has lived for over three thousand years, and even with successful unions, his consorts, being mere mortals, grow old and die. Yet the tradition must continue or the protective spells on the land can't be renewed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The consort is obviously supposed to be of royal blood, but this time, the king has sent an impostor. Sachielle and her handmaiden Zenya were orphans, adopted, and trained to be the perfect weapons. Sachi has been trained to seduce and beguile, Zenya to be a ruthless and highly efficient assassin. Both young women have faced a very harsh and torturous upbringing, with the safety of the other used to keep them under control during training. Their secret mission is to murder the Dragon when he is most vulnerable, and they have only five weeks to complete their task. If they fail, the king's high priest has placed a curse on Sachi. She will die painfully and her soul will be consumed. Zenya has never known love in her life, except from Sachi, and will do anything and everything to keep her safe - even something as impossible as murdering a living god.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, Ash turns out to be nothing like what the young women have been led to expect, nor are the other living gods of the pantheon, all of whom do their best to make the young women feel welcome. The Dragon is not the ruthless tyrant that they feared, he is beloved of his followers and treats both of them with kindness and solicitude. Nor is he even vaguely threatened when he discovers that his bonded bride and her handmaiden are lovers - he just becomes determined to seduce both of them. The more time they spend together, the more willing Sachi is to just give up on the assassination plot, but Zenya isn't going to let her beloved be consumed by the curse, no matter how charming and hot the Dragon is.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've only read one previous book by Kit Rocha, and while it was entertaining, it was nothing like this. The <i>Mercenary Librarians </i>is a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy, this is pure fantasy. I found the world-building intriguing and loved pretty much all the characters (except the dastardly high priest - but he was clearly supposed to be pond scum). All the living gods were once mortals who did something great and self-sacrificing to protect the land and/or their people, and now they're like a big, vaguely incestuous family who tease each other and hang out at each other's palaces. The other gods are all aware of Ash's melancholy and worries about his new union. Sachi and Zenya are not the first to try to assassinate him either, so none of them are too worried until it becomes clear that if she gets her hands on the right weapon, Zenya could actually present a real threat.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are a fan of clean romance, this is not the book for you. This book is so steamy that it should possibly be kept in the freezer when you're not reading it. So many sex scenes, including an actual orgy at one point. Yet as is the case with good writers, every sex scene also furthers the plot in some way.</div><div><br /></div><div>I wasn't expecting to be so completely engrossed by this. The second I finished the book, I went online to order the sequel, which sadly isn't out until August. I think the series was originally going to be a trilogy, now it looks like it may just be a duology. I'm not complaining, as long as I get more smexy fantasy in this world. I would love sequels featuring others in the pantheon as well. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Judging a book by its cover: </b>As covers go, there is little here to suggest how steamy (and fun) the contents are. The hourglass with the red sand is very central to the plot, however. Each moment of Sachi's remaining life until the curse takes her is shown in a magical hourglass that Sachi and Zenya carry with them. Sachi prefers not to look at it too often, Zenya is almost obsessed with it. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Crossposted on <a href="https://cannonballread.com/" target="_blank">Cannonball Read</a></div>Malinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343500310968022313noreply@blogger.com0