CBR18 Book 60: "Dina Gets Lucky" by Uzma Jalaluddin

Page count: 285 pages

Rating: 3 stars

This was an ARC from Union Lake Publishing and NetGalley. My opinions are my own. This book is on sale now.

Dina Haq is the eldest sister and, as such, has always felt like she has to be the perfect one. She is a successful lawyer in her parents' law firm, and she married the right man (on paper). Dina has not told her family that she is, in fact, divorced and has not been living with her ex, Arshad, for more than a year. She's very worried they will be disappointed in her, and she also doesn't want anything to overshadow her younger sister Hania's spectacular wedding celebration.

Hania is an online influencer, which means that every aspect of the wedding celebrations is being streamed online, including the arrival of the groom and his family in Toronto. Dina is shocked to discover that the man she actually had a crush on back in law school, Lucky, is the best man. Not realising that her scheming narcissist ex-husband manipulated the situation so that Dina and Lucky both believed the other to be indifferent, so that he could swoop in and woo Dina instead (because her wealthy background and her dad's law firm fit perfectly into his plans for the future), they are still feeling that perceived betrayal, but keep being forced to work together, because Hania has a long list of absolutely ridiculous demands, and as the maid of honour and best man, Dina and Lucky are the ones sent to sort things out.

Dina and Lucky are clearly incredibly attracted to one another, but Lucky believes Dina to still be married to his former best friend, so he's not exactly going to make any romantic overtures towards her. Dina's best friend keeps telling her to just tell everyone the truth, so she and Lucky can reunite and make sweet, sweet love, but instead, there are all manner of misunderstandings and thwarted yearning, while Dina's ex is allowed to be an absolute asshat, who keeps threatening to spill the truth and make a scene.

Dina and Lucky have been kept apart, and Dina has spent years unhappily married to an emotionally abusive narcissist, because both of them were foolish enough to trust Arshad to act as a go-between instead of being direct with each other about their feelings. Now they keep flirting and having pants feelings during the various wedding events, but Lucky doesn't think he's worthy of Dina (even if she were single), since he works in construction rather than as someone with a career worthy of her. Dina, on the other hand, is continuing to let her skeevy ex-husband have power over her, because she is too scared to tell her family the truth about her divorce (which I gather took place long enough ago that she could have come clean before the wedding stuff kicked off). To be fair, from the descriptions of her father and mother throughout the book, they are both status-obsessed snobs, so they probably would be appalled that their perfect eldest daughter got divorced, but still, it's annoying. As is the fact that in all of the various encounters, Dina and Lucky keep hinting at the hurt they feel the other caused them, without ever going so far as to talk about what actually happened. As a result, it takes far too long for them to figure out that they could have been happy all along. 

Another frustrating aspect of this book was Hania, who seems like an absolute brat. I have no idea what Lucky's best friend sees in her, or why he would ever marry her, let alone agree to have every aspect of their wedding celebrations be carefully choreographed, directed and live-streamed for other people's entertainment. Lucky seems like a perfectly nice guy, but he's also not shy about flirting with and lusting after a woman he believes to be married. Samir, Hania's husband-to-be, and his parents are the only truly sympathetic people in this book.

This is probably my least favourite of Jalaluddin's books that I've read so far. I have heard really good things about her new cosy mystery series, though, so I might give that a try instead. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 59: "Queen of Lombard Street" by Lisa Kleypas

Page count: 448 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for this ARC. It has not influenced my opinions in any way. This book is on sale now. 

Reina Martin is the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish dancer and a prominent banker. She's an intelligent child and understands early on that her father has another, official family, while Reina and her mother have to be kept secret. Her mother is determined that Reina will have opportunities she never got, and makes sure to hire her tutors who work at the nearby boys' school. As an adult, Reina successfully gets a law degree, but is prevented from working as a lawyer. She becomes the protegee of wealthy banker William Farlow, and wants to use her financial acumen to open a bank for women, since they are constantly discriminated against at other banks. 

John Pembroke is a police detective from Manchester, who is sent on an undercover mission in Reina's household. London Police suspect William Farlow of embezzling large amounts of his clients' money, and they are uncertain if Reina is one of his accomplices, or whether she's one of his pawns. The fact that most of Reina's household is staffed by paroled criminals doesn't exactly make her seem less complicit in Farlow's corruption. Pembroke has a history of domestic service and is therefore the perfect man to send to pretend to be a paroled criminal wanting the position as butler in her household. 

Pembroke is both charmed and baffled by Reina, clearly a deeply intelligent and very financially savvy woman, who has absolutely no idea how to get the disparate band of individuals in her household to work together and behave appropriately as servants. The only one who actually knows how to do her job is the cook, who is Reina's childhood friend. It becomes very clear almost immediately that neither of these former inmates would be good recruits in any kind of criminal conspiracy. However, it's also very obvious that when the police eventually show up for a routine inspection of the various parolees, Reina's servants will be sent back to prison immediately. 

Pembroke tries to keep a professional distance from Reina, their growing relationship complicated both by their difference in social standing and the fact that Pembroke is there to spy on her, and as a result, has to constantly lie to her. The more time he spends with her, and her household of chaotic misfits, the harder he finds it to be objective. 

As far as I can tell, this is Lisa Kleypas' first romance novel since Devil in Disguise, the final book in her Ravenels series. This book also reads more like a standard historical fiction novel than a romance. Yes, there is a strong attraction between Pembroke and Reina, and so much yearning, but they barely even kiss until the final quarter of the book. There is also a lot of focus on the various members of Reina's household, the found family vibe is much stronger than the romantic subplot. I enjoyed it, and was very happy to be granted an ARC, I just struggle with writing reviews in a timely manner these days.

One benefit of having waited to publish my review is that I came across some news online about the book earlier this week. John Pembroke is described as being very dark, and not fitting in where he grew up in Wales, but very little attention is given to his father. In the notes at the back, where Kleypas lists all of her various historical inspiration for the book (there was indeed a woman who founded an all women's bank in Victorian Era England), she mentions the first black police officer in England. Due to the various, rather vague physical descriptions of Pembroke, and this historical tidbit, Kleypas was asked point blank at a signing whether Pembroke was supposed to be a man of colour. She confirmed that yes, Pembroke is supposed to have been mixed race, with a black father and a Welsh mother. However, the publishing company asked her to take out some of the mentions of John's ethnicity. I think it's a great shame, because while there are exceptions, there is still very little representation for people of colour in historical romances, and a kind, clever, competent hero with biracial heritage in a novel by one of the acknowledged queens of historical romance would have been great. 

So I can't deny that I'm a bit disappointed that Ms. Kleypas chose to omit details that would have made it clear to the reader that some of the struggles Pembroke has faced over the course of his life are not just because he comes from a poor, working-class background, but because of his obvious racial difference from the majority of people around him in Wales (and later Manchester and London). It would also explain some of John's convictions that his and Reina's union would be difficult, since despite her Spanish mother, she is still clearly a white woman. 

While I enjoyed reading the book, we find out very little of how Reina went from being a strong-willed girl who realised her father wasn't a very principled man, to the financial genius she is presented as as an adult. She mentions a bit about studying law, but there is a lot of tell and not enough show here. It also seems super convenient that every single paroled convict she took into her household just needed patience, love and understanding to eventually become a perfectly good servant. This felt a bit like a fairytale vibe to it. 

Not Kleypas' worst book, by any means, but also not exactly a thrilling return to form. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 58: "How to Kill Your Rival" by Effie Campbell

Page count: 272 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for this ARC. This has not influenced my review in any way. This book is on sale now.

Eliza Hamilton (yup, that is her name; not sure if the author is a fan of the musical or if the name is a coincidence) is the heir apparent to the Death Council, a secret organisation full of hired killers. While her father is battling cancer, she is to lead in his place, but most of the other members of the Council are sexist old men (or their equally sexist sons), so she's fighting an uphill battle.

In addition to having to fight with the bullheaded Council Members, someone is sabotaging her missions and stealing her kills. She briefly suspects her stepbrother James (her father is married to his mother), but he so vehemently denies it and is so determined to kill whoever's doing it on her behalf that she quickly rules him out. 

James has clearly been madly in love with Eliza for years. Since there are a bunch of references to things that happened in the first book in the series, and I don't know how much of their backstory was established there, the opening of the book was rather abrupt and confusing to me. Trying to impress her and make her notice him has made James compete professionally with Eliza for about as long, and it seems like Eliza's feelings towards him are finally changing. 

As part of an underworld crime syndicate, it's not like Eliza has a lot of people she can trust. It becomes clear that Eliza isn't going to figure out who is targeting her by herself, and James is fiercely protective of her and insists on using all of his computer skills to help her track down whoever is plotting against her. 

The plot summary for this book makes it seem like a rather different story from what we actually get. It makes it seem like there isn't already a very potent attraction between Eliza and James, and that the rivalry between them is a lot more hostile than the playful one-upmanship they have clearly been engaged in for several years. It makes it seem as if they are forced to work together, which is also not the case. Eliza doesn't want to confide in her father, who is ill. Her elder sister isn't in the family business (nevertheless, they have a lovely and very supportive relationship), and she feels too protective of her younger brother to want to involve him. So James is pretty much the only person she can turn to for help, and he would cut his own throat before he in any way betrayed her. 

For the first 15% or so, I wasn't sure if I was going to keep reading. I genuinely don't know if the weird opening chapters would have made more sense if I'd read the first book, but in a series like this, the stories need to be able to be read in any order and make sense to the reader, even if they've not started at the beginning. It probably doesn't help that I was expecting a slightly different story, based on the plot description. 

The book is in dual POVs, with some chapters from Eliza's POV and some from James. At first, I didn't like Eliza at all; she seemed abrasive and too arrogant for me, but thankfully the chapters from James were easier to read, and before I knew it, I wanted to keep reading just to see how the story played out.

Just in case it wasn't obvious from the review so far, this book is a dark romance, with protagonists who are extremely skilled at doing very bad things to people, and seem to get off on it too. It is explained that the Hamiltons (and James, who is married into the family) only take contracts on really despicable people; they don't just off anyone for money, but they still literally murder people for a living, and both James and Eliza torture several people over the course of the book to get answers when they are trying to figure out who is trying to sabotage Eliza. So if you don't like graphic violence mixed in with your romance, this is probably not the book for you.

Not sure if I want to read more from this author or not. Once I got past the clunky beginning, it was a quick read. I just don't know if I'm interested in reading about the other two Hamilton siblings. 

CBR18 Book 57: "Love in the Time of Wildfires" by Janine Amesta

Page count: 284 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to Janine Amesta for the ARC of this book. It is on sale now.

Firefighter Logan "Sonny" Sonelli is a Sierra Hotshot, working hard both to prevent and fight disastrous forest fires. During "fire season", he knows that he can't really make any plans; he and his team could be called away at any moment. It's an unreliable life, and difficult to combine with family life. His marriage dissolved because of it, and he is neither looking for nor expecting to find another relationship. He wants to save as much money as possible to build himself a remote cabin in the woods, where he can live in isolation.

River Alfaro has dreams and ambitions, and none of those involves children or being a housewife, which her former fiancée seemed to expect from her. So, shocking both him and her entire family, she broke up with him and moved to South Lake Tahoe to start a new job and a new life. 

River moves in next door to Logan and uses her positivity and cheery disposition to disarm his pessimism and grumpiness until he comes to accept her friendship. One of River's dreams is to spot an endangered red fox species in the wild, and Logan insists on accompanying her on hikes so she doesn't get lost in the woods. Neither of them is looking for a relationship, but they fall in love despite themselves.

This is my fourth ARC from Janine Amesta, and I have come to really appreciate her writing. She writes realistic, multi-faceted adult characters with believable flaws, who do the best they can in this world. I liked a lot of the supporting characters, especially several of the other Sierra Hotshots who work with Logan (and some will hopefully have their own books later in the series). 

Not wanting children is a major factor in why both River and Logan's previous relationships ended. Logan's ex-wife now has a new man and the baby she always wanted, and it was nice that she could appear in the story without being the heartless shrew who did him wrong. They just wanted different things from life, and Logan's job took him away from home for too much of the time - so they got a divorce. While a lot of River's family members are upset that River dumped her ex and moved away, she also has family who support and understand her, like her sister. 

I know next to nothing about wildlife conservation or firefighting, especially massive forest fires, so it was interesting to learn new things while reading this book. I'm already looking forward to more stories about the Sierra Hotshots. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 56: "Life Out of Order" by Audrey Niffenegger

Page count: 544 pages

Rating: DNF @ 18%. 3 stars for the bits I read

This was an ARC. Thank you to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press. My opinions are entirely my own. This book is on sale now.

In recent years, legacy sequels, coming out several decades after the previous movie, have become popular. Some are surprisingly great, like Creed and Blade Runner 2049, while others make you wonder why they exist in the first place (The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Practical Magic 2: Family Legacy, to name two that I watched over the summer). Life Out of Order comes out 23 years after the mega-successful The Time Traveller's Wife and, as such, I think it's fair to compare it to a legacy sequel. Unfortunately, I can't really tell you whether it's a legacy sequel like the first examples I mentioned, or the second, since I didn't even make it a quarter of the way through the book. 

This time, we follow Alba DeTamble, Clare and Henry's daughter. Like her father, she has chrono-displacement syndrome, which means she is involuntarily thrown back (or sometimes forward) in time to any point in her own lifetime. It makes life very difficult for her, and those close to her. 

According to Goodreads, I haven’t actually read The Time Traveller's Wife since 2011, although I remember really liking it. I rated it five stars. Unfortunately, I don’t remember that much about it anymore, and I no longer remember how I reacted to the fact that the characters are often so jumbled in each other’s timelines. 2011 was long before smartphones and social media, the scourge of reading stamina and deep concentration. All I know is that when I tried to read Life Out of Order now, the fact that every chapter starts with information about the various character’s ages and what year the plot is currently taking place in, got very confusing very fast. It doesn’t help that the book is clearly set in a depressing alternate reality, where society is a lot more fascist than it currently is, and there seems to be something rather cataclysmic coming later in Alba’s life. I kept putting it down and then reluctantly picking it back up again. Sadly, I DNF-d it at 18%. It may be a perfectly good book. It just wasn’t the right one for me at this point in time. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 55: "Trust Fall" by Lynn Painter

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 4 stars

CBR18 Bingo: Season (this is set in the autumn/fall in New York, the word 'fall' is literally in the title and there is an actual literal 'season' - like in Regency England, for the rich prep school kids in the story)

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book will be released on the 29th of September

Julia Lowell can't believe how much her life changed, almost overnight. One day, she was in her small Nebraska town, heartbroken because her boyfriend Will had found someone else, the next, she's living in a gorgeous building on the Upper West Side in New York City, the beneficiary of a will no one in her family knew about. The reclusive old man her family had been delivering groceries to for years, who occasionally came to their holiday celebrations, left them not only his stunning building in New York, but a fortune of millions of dollars. However, to secure the inheritance, Julia, her twin brother Liam and her parents have to live in New York for at least six months, and Julia and Liam have to enrol in a fancy private high school for the same amount of time. 

Unfortunately, while Julia was never exactly popular back in Nebraska, and her tiny group of friends got even smaller once Will left her for another girl, at Gardenwood, most of the filthy rich student body are like starving hyenas, and Julia is a tasty and wounded gazelle. To make matters worse, her brother Liam seems to instantly settle in, charming everyone and making friends. Julia, on the other hand, has two girls in the entire school not treating her like a pariah, and is barely passing maths. Low test scores could get her expelled from the school, jeopardising one of the clauses in the will instantly. The kindly headmaster promises to discreetly arrange for a tutor to help her.

If Julia wasn't utterly desperate, she would never accept help from Damion Rutledge, the boy whose nose she nearly accidentally broke during their first meeting, before Julia and Liam had even started school. Damion is the great-nephew of the man who left the Lowells a fortune, and he and his parents refuse to believe that the old man wasn't scammed by a bunch of money-grubbing country bumpkins. Damion hates the idea that strangers are living in the house his great-uncle had one day promised him, and wants to figure out how exactly a family of complete strangers inherited the majority of Uncle Remington's wealth. Tutoring Julia in maths allows him to enter the house he so misses, while investigating what the Lowells might have done to scam his uncle. He also gets to tease Julia, which is quickly becoming his favourite thing in the world.

Because it needs to be kept secret that Damion is tutoring Julia in maths, none of the other students at Gardenwood knows exactly why he keeps spending so much time with her. Rumours are flying around school, and sadly, they make the mean girls all the more determined to put Julia in her place. Of course, the more time Damion actually spends with Julia and observing her family, the more he discovers that they are probably much more worthy recipients of his great-uncle's fortune than his already wealthy and status-obsessed parents. He also seems to be falling for Julia, the girl he had declared his enemy...

I have heard a lot of good things about several of Lynn Painter's YA books, and bought some of them in e-book sales these last few years. However, this ARC of her most recent book is the first one I've actually read. This makes me feel more optimistic with regard to the ones I have from her backlist.

Julia is introverted and clearly suffers from social anxiety, something it appears no one in her family really appreciates. They seem to think she exaggerates her discomfort. She is smart and well-read and while she considers herself stupid when it comes to maths, it's also clear from how quickly she improves from Damion's tutoring, that she just needed the subject explained to her in a different way. She is both excited and terrified about the idea of moving to New York, having consumed so much media focused on the city. 

She certainly does not deserve to be treated the way she is by almost everyone at her school, and she is a stronger person than me for putting up with so much harassment for so long. Considering how protective her brother comes off about her in the last quarter or so of this book, I am rather surprised that he doesn't notify anyone about all the crap his twin is subjected to. Yes, it's clearly a condition of them getting the inheritance that the twins attend the fancy school for six months, but there is nothing legal anywhere that says they're not allowed to tell the school's management about all the bullying that Julia is subjected to. That her brother just happily seems to settle in with his little circle of friends, without telling his parents, their legal adviser Bernard or the headmaster about Julia's problems, makes me think less of him. 

Damion is clearly a worthwhile person deep down, although it is hidden under a lot of privilege and snobbery. He initially wants to hate the Lowells because he believes they conned his Uncle Remington somehow, and he believes they have what he had expected would one day be his. Julia becomes the target of most of his focus, since he is asked by the headmaster if he can tutor her to improve her maths skills. While part of him wants her to suffer and fail, he is also fascinated by her, and helping her with her schoolwork will also allow him to spend time in the house he has so many happy memories of. He claims to not care what anyone thinks of him, and since he is rich, handsome and popular, the gossip about him and Julia doesn't negatively impact him in any way, while it makes her social standing even more precarious.

Thankfully, Damion, who comes off as a bit of a spoiled and entitled jerk to begin with, does a lot of growing as a person throughout the book. Julia doesn't really need to change, but Damion comes to see that Julia is right about him, and that while he refuses to join any of the judgemental cliques of the school because he's such "a rebel", he also doesn't condemn their words or behaviour. For the second half of the book, he improves considerably, and he proves himself a master of the grand gesture in the end. 

I think I'm far too Scandinavian and socialist for most of the rich people shenanigans throughout this book. Instead of prom, they have a series of social events, ending in an actual high society ball, complete with elaborate costumes. That sort of nonsense doesn't appeal to me, although as a reader of historical romance, who doesn't like it when the hero sees the heroine in a gorgeous gown and goes weak at the knees because of it? That part was nice. My favourite parts were when Julia goes back to Nebraska, away from the stress and mistreatment in New York, to a much nicer environment in her old hometown. Her cousin and friend seemed lovely and very supportive, and even her ex-boyfriend eventually realised that he had behaved badly towards her (without ever wanting her back - no one wants that). 

I was unsure of where this was going at first, mainly because Damion was a hard character to read, whose constant teasing of Julia seemed more like manipulation than flirting. In a good romance, the characters change because they see that it is necessary, not because they are asked to, or rescued by the love of a good love interest, and that is what happens here too. By the time he and Julie actually kiss, I was absolutely hooked. I'm glad I followed my whim and requested this ARC. It was a delightful autumnal read. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR18 Book 54: "Revenge of the Sunshine" by Jackie Lau

Page count: 250 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

CBR18 Bingo: One (This is book one in a new series; it's also a romance - "You're the One")

Thank you to Jackie Lau for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is on sale now. 

Zoe Shen's plans for the evening get cancelled, and as a result, she walks in on her boyfriend and roommate having sex in the kitchen. Naturally, she wants nothing to do with either of them, but as she's camping out on her brother's couch, she decides that she wants revenge.

Bennett Chung lives a fairly quiet life, managing a successful Asian grocery chain. He hasn't dated in years and lives alone with his elderly cat. Imagine his surprise when a pretty stranger shows up on his doorstep with a crazy scheme. Zoe explains that his younger brother, who he doesn't exactly have a high opinion of in the first place, cheated on her, and now she wants to pretend to date him to get revenge. 

Because Zoe is basically homeless, Bennett invites her to stay in his spare room. At first, he is annoyed at having to share his space with anyone, especially someone as chatty and whimsical as Zoe, but he soon gets not only used to having her there, but comes to appreciate it. Of course, as is always the case with fake dating stories, Zoe and Bennett start falling for each other for real. According to their agreement, they will go their separate ways once Zoe's revenge plot is complete. But do they really have to, if the feelings they have for each other are no longer pretend?

Zoe is sweet and clearly wants to believe the best in everyone. So she is shocked when she comes home to discover that her boyfriend and roommate (whom she also considered her best friend) are betraying her, and that the affair has been going on for at least a month. Because her roommate's parents are the ones who own the apartment, Zoe's only option is to move out. She stays on her recently-wed brother's couch until she concocts the plan of contacting Bennett. The fact that he offers to let her stay in his guest room free of charge is a definite bonus to her plan. 

If I were to list some prominent tropes found in this novel, I would have to name fake dating, opposites attract, and grumpy and sunshine (even referenced in the title). Bennett is eight years older than Zoe, but hasn't dated in a very long time. Because of events in his romantic past, he is very wary of falling for anyone. This is also what leads to the third-act breakup and one of the reasons I didn't really feel I could give the book four stars. For a rational man like Bennett, his reasons for breaking up with Zoe seemed very irrational.

My favourite parts of the book were probably Zoe forcing whimsy and delight into Bennett's rather stern and predictable routine. She loves decorations and has a llamacorn mug he considers hideous, but nevertheless accepts, because it's hers. He is persuaded to take part in a couples' Halloween costume, without complaining. 

At the end of the book, the next book in the series is set up. It involves one of Zoe's friends and what appears to be one of Bennett's only friends, who clearly have some kind of romantic history. It's out early next year, and I'm already looking forward to it. 

Judging a book by its cover: I don't have a lot to say about this cover, except to say that it's very cute, and I'm glad Mittens makes an appearance front and centre. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read