CBR18 Book 40: "Daugther of Tides" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Defeat the Goblin TBR: has a dark/stormy vibe

Naia is a very young water nymph, born directly from the Dreaming, but she has the memories and experiences of so many who have lived before her who had any connection to the sea. Einar was once a mortal man before he became the immortal pirate lord known as the Kraken, tied to his magical ship and his equally immortal crew. Aleksi is the most charming and beloved of all the gods; he is literally The Lover. After the events in Queen of Dreams (a book I read and very much enjoyed, but apparently didn't have the energy to fully review, Aleksi is feeling strange and unsettled. He keeps having strange visions, he doesn't instantly heal when he is injured, and he's started to worry that he is dying.

These three individuals are sent on a diplomatic mission to an icy kingdom, trying to broker a peace with Gwynira, the Ice Queen, who was previously one of the now imprisoned Sorin the Betrayer's allies. Einar has secrets he's keeping from the other two about his connection to the icy island kingdom they find themselves in, Naia is welcomed as a reborn version of the old goddess of the natives there, while Aleksi just wants to enjoy himself for as long as possible by hiding his impending death from the other two. 

I loved both the books in the Bound to Fire and Steel duology. I loved the world-building, I loved the pantheon of interesting deities (of which Aleksi and Einar both belong), and I found the tension between Ash, Sachielle and Zanya both interesting and sexy. Since I knew this was going to be a duology, I held off on reading this until close to the release date of the sequel, Prince of Storms (I have an ARC and need to read and review it by the end of this week). Unfortunately, whatever magic made the first two books in this world so incredibly appealing and immersive to me seems to have faded. I found this book slow to start, I found it difficult to really care about the characters or the mission they have been sent on. In addition, I found myself rather exhausted by how horny the three protagonists constantly are for each other. Maybe it would have been more exciting if they actually acted on their feelings until pretty much the very end of the book. Instead, it just felt annoying. 

The book picks up in the second half, but I never got the feeling of not wanting to stop reading, which was frequently the case with the first two books in this world. Maybe it's just that it was hard for me to feel any worry about Aleksi, since it's incredibly obvious that he's not actually going to die. He's part of the triad at the centre of this duology, which is a romance first and foremost, and the next book won't end with him actually dying and leaving the other two to grieve. While the various stakes were really high in the previous two books, I find it hard to get particularly invested this time around. It made me very sad, because I really had been looking forward to revisiting this world. 

I'm crossing my fingers that the sequel, which I will be starting soon, is better and that the duology as a whole works better for me once it's been completed. 

Judging a book by its cover:

We've got the churning sea, we've got a whole lot of tentacles. They seem to belong to more than one creature, so maybe the cover designer thought Einar had a bunch of friends to help him when he goes all Kraken-y?

CBR18 Books 38-39 : "The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh" and "The Rushworth Family Plot" by Claudia Gray

The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Since Mr Jonathan Darcy, son of the esteemed Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Miss Juliet Tilney, daughter of Henry Tilney, have now solved not one, but two murders among their extended acquaintance, word has gotten around, and as a result, Lady Catherine DeBourgh has summoned the young Mr Darcy to come to Rosings Park to help her identify the person who is trying to kill her. He insists that Miss Tinley be invited as well. Both young persons are accompanied by their fathers, who, unfortunately, take an instant dislike of each other. Mr Tilney thinks Mr Darcy is a supercilious snob, while Mr Darcy thinks Mr Tilney takes things too lightly and jokes too much at inappropriate times, not at all a suitable manner of behaviour for a clergyman. 

Some of the people surrounding the dowager suspect she may be exaggerating the danger she is in. She claims her carriage was sabotaged, then someone tried to shoot her, and when this failed, they nearly pushed her down the stairs. As the two young people start investigating, it becomes obvious that someone is indeed trying to do away with Lady Catherine, and that their attempts are becoming more aggressive. Because Lady Catherine rarely leaves Rosings Park, it also means the culprit is someone very close to her, a family member or loyal retainer. Can our young detectives figure out the identity of the would-be murderer before they actually succeed in doing away with the old lady?

The Rushworth Family Plot

Page count: 336 pages

Rating: 4 stars

While Mr Jonathan Darcy and Miss Juliet Tilney have been very clear with each other about their mutual fondness and hopes for a future match, their fathers developed a mutual dislike during their stay at Rosings Park. General Tilney, Miss Tilney's tyrannical grandfather, who normally isn't known for his generosity, is incensed enough by the perceived snub of his grandchild by the Darcys, so he is determined she will make a grander match during the London season. Juliet and her authoress mother is ordered to London to purchase a new wardrobe of clothes for her, and find her an appropriate suitor.

Jonathan, meanwhile, is also in London, staying with the family of Edmund and Fanny Bertram, since his family had to return to Pemberley after his younger brother broke his arm. He knows his parents would like him to find some suitable young lady to court, but he has no intention of asking anyone but Juliet Tilney to marry him. However, the ambitious Mrs Allerdyce (who was Caroline Bingley before her marriage) is determined that if SHE couldn't be the mistress of Pemberley, then her daughter will instead. Jonathan may be a keen investigator of murders, but in social situations involving young ladies, he is far too clueless to realise he's being manipulated. 

Claudia Gray also reintroduces some of Austen's most scandalous characters (how can Mansfield Park be so painfully dull when it also has the dastardly Henry Crawford and the whole running off with Maria Rushworth, nee Bertram subplot). Maria Rushworth, now many years divorced, shows up in London with her aunt/companion in tow, along with a daughter who was clearly born out of wedlock. Maria swears that Rushworth is the father, but anyone with eyes can see the strong resemblance to Henry Crawford. Maria claims that she and Rushworth are going to reconcile and marry again soon, but lo and behold, it doesn't take long before Mr Rushworth is found brutally strangled in his townhouse. Jonathan and Juliet promise the Bertrams they will do their best to find the murderer before the scandal surrounding the whole thing further tarnishes the family.

I have long complained that Gray is being far too slow and dragging out the romance between Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney too much. I get that they are unlikely to surrender to the throes of passion while investigating murders (or attempted murder, in the case of Lady Catherine), but I would still have liked some stronger declarations from both parties. Gray keeps throwing obstacles in our young sleuths' way. In The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, both young people are accompanied to Rosings Park by their fathers, who are vastly different and dislike each other pretty much on sight. Their antipathy towards each other does not get better as the story goes on. 

In The Rushworth Family Plot both the elder Mr Darcy and Mr Tilney are safely away in their homes, and the only parental figure around is Juliet's mother, Catherine Tilney, now a famous author of Gothic novels.  She sees the warmth and attraction between the two and is very surprised by her husband's impression that Jonathan Darcy is cold and indifferent towards Juliet. She is very impressed with how he seems to genuinely listen and trade ideas with her daughter, never seeming dismissive or overbearing. She can see that they have a very good partnership while investigating and is convinced they would make a very good match. Unfortunately, because as soon as the parental disapproval may have been dealth with, there need to be other difficulties, Juliet is embroiled in a scandal of her own, through absolutely no fault of her own. Because of the careless and opportunistic acts of someone else, her reputation may be absolutely ruined. Jonathan Darcy, who is appalled by this turn of events, challenges the besmircher of Juliet's honour to a duel to prove her innocence. It all went a bit melodramatic, and I really hope Gray can let these two have a happy ending soon.

With Juliet falling victim to the Regency version of a manipulated photograph, which marks her as utterly unsuitable as a wife to anyone with taste, as well as Mrs. Caroline Allerdyce's scheming to get her daughter married to Jonathan, it just felt like too many things still muddying up the works.

One of the very fun things with these books is obviously how Gray takes the minor Austen characters from various novels and gives them more prominence. In The Perils of Lady Catherine DeBourgh, we see that Lady Catherine's sickly daughter in no way minded that Mr Darcy chose someone else. She has married his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam and seems mostly very happy with him. They are both very sad that their young son has been sent away to boarding school (because no heir of Lady Catherine is to be homeschooled), and there are certain communication difficulties leading to friction, but it all gets sorted out in the end. We also see how Charlotte and Mr. Collins are managing in their marriage. They now have two children, a son and a daughter, and there is something strange in the son's behaviour that neither Jonathan nor Juliet can figure out at first. 

In The Rushworth Family Plot, we meet Edmund and Fanny Bertram again (who were also supporting characters in The Murder of Mr Wickham), as well as Edmund's older brother, now the head of the family, his dog-obsessed mother, their vivacious non-scandalous sister, and, of course, Maria Rushworth and Henry Crawford. Fanny is deeply depressed after a failed pregnancy, and Edmund is unaware that she overheard the doctor say she is unlikely to ever bear children. Edmund's brother has been persuaded that selling their plantation in Barbados is the only humane thing to do because of the evils of slavery. He is also courting Caroline Allerdyce's eldest daughter. Gray does a good job of showing the readers that Caroline Bingley never really wanted Mr Darcy, only the wealth and prestige of being mistress of Pemberley. She has clearly been very happy in her marriage to Mr Allerdyce, but now that Jonathan Darcy is present and available in London, she can't help but scheme and manipulate to try to make her daughter mistress of Pemberley in the future instead. 

I have an ARC of the fifth book in the series that I need to read in the next couple of days (it's also why I finally needed to knuckle down and review these two books. I really hope that Gray is bringing the series to an end soon, I don't know how much longer I can wait for Jonathan and Juliet to get their happy ending. 

CBR18 Book 37: "Let's Make a Scene" by Laura Wood

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Cynthie Taylor needs some positive publicity, fast. Once it was revealed that not only was the film director she recently broke up with married, but his wife is pregnant, former good girl Cynthie is now seen as a manipulative home wrecker (the cheating director is obviously not getting the same negative press, what with being a man and all).

Fired from a high-profile superhero movie, Cynthie may have found a new and unexpected career rescue. The writer and director of Cynthie's first-ever movie, A Lady of Quality, the one who made her a breakout star, wants to make a sequel, as in the thirteen years since it was made, it has become a cult classic on streaming, and now the funding is in place to make a follow-up. Most of the original team will be in place to make it, and filming in the UK will take Cynthie away from the most aggressive press attention. It would also mean working closely with Jack Turner-Jones again, a man Cynthie has a complicated past with. 

Thirteen years ago, Cynthie was a relatively unknown actress selected for her role in A Lady of Quality in a series of auditions. Jack Turner-Jones was the son of two acclaimed and beloved British actors, who had very high career expectations for him. He's worried she's going to ruin the whole movie with her stage fright and inexperience. Cynthie overhears him complaining to one of the directors that he wants her fired, and finds his arrogance infuriating. They start off on the wrong foot and keep getting more antagonistic as the shoot progresses. The studio execs, however, want Cynthie and Jack to pretend to be a couple to drum up publicity for the movie. So while they privately loathe each other, they not only have to pretend to fall in love in the movie they're filming, but off-screen as well. 

Now Cynthie's PR people think it would be very beneficial for her reputation if she rekindled this fake romance with Jack, which will also create advance publicity and excitement for A Lady of Quality 2. Jack Turner-Jones is up for contract negotiations for the next season of Blood/Lust, and wants to make sure his character isn't killed off. Fake dating Cynthie will raise his media profile considerably. Since the world already thinks they used to love each other back in the day, selling the relationship now should be easier. There is the added complication that the streaming service that's funding the movie wants there to be a behind-the-scenes documentary accompanying the release, so Cynthie and Jack would have to pretend to be affectionate a lot more of the time.   

Career-wise, Cynthie is now basically where Jack once hoped he would end up. She's starred in a number of prestigious films, been Oscar-nominated, won several other major acting awards, and until she was unfortunate enough to get romantically involved with a man who chose not to divulge that he was married, she was box office gold. Jack, on the other hand, is a constant disappointment to his exacting parents, being perfectly happy as an ensemble player in a supernatural TV show about vampires. 

As is the case with every fake relationship story in romance, especially because this is ALSO a second-chance romance, there's no way that Cynthie and Jack don't fall madly in love with each other. The book alternates between the present day and thirteen years ago, so the readers first get to see the older actors meeting again (and being instantly smitten with one another), but also get the whole complicated backstory of how the filming of the first movie and their fake relationship back then ended so catastrophically. 

One of my favourite things in Under Your Spell was the supporting cast of characters, like Clem's mothers and sisters, and Theo's micro-managing personal assistant. Here, Cynthie has a wonderful team of people taking care of her, including her best friend Hannah, who has been her personal assistant from the start. While Jack's parents are the absolute worst, he, too, has a lot of supportive friends, and then there's the crew of the movies, who also provide a lot of entertainment.

I literally bought this for my e-reader as soon as I finished Under Your Spell, and ended up liking it even more, possibly because a lot of different scenes in this reminded me of several of Lucy Parker's London Celebrities books, which remain some of my favourite contemporary romances. There were also references throughout to several of my favourite rom-coms, including While You Were Sleeping. Laura Wood is an author I will be eagerly searching for new releases from, based on the two books I read these last few days. If she writes another one as good as these, she may be a new auto-buy author for me.

Judging a book by its cover: This one has a much more traditional romance cover than Under Your Spell, and it gratifies me to see that the little cartoon people are actually wearing outfits as described in the book (that is so often not the case). 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR18 Book 36: "Under Your Spell" by Laura Wood

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Monthly Keyword 26: Spell

Buzzword Cover 26: Music

Clementine "Clemmie" Monroe has a lot of trust issues, and they're all because of the men in her life. Clemmie is one of three sisters, born within three months of one another, from three very different women who all got knocked up by her carefree rock star father, Rip Harris. Instead of being jealous or upset about the fact that her husband had been unfaithful, Clemmie's mother divorced her father, bought a large house and invited the two other women to live with her. So while Clemmie has been unlucky in the father department, she's basically had three mothers and two ride or die sisters supporting her while growing up. 

Unfortunately, even when her father proved time and time again that he couldn't really be trusted to remember things like visitations or special events in his daughters' lives, Clemmie kept hoping against hope that he would someday be better. Her trust issues with men did not get better after her first relationship ended with the guy, who had already been emotionally manipulating her for a long time, dumping her to go take a job as a drummer in her father's band. Clemmie has sworn to never have anything to do with musicians ever since.

Going in a vastly different direction with her next long-term relationship, Clemmie chose someone reliable and safe (and extremely boring, according to her sisters), but ended up heartbroken all the same. Her very boring boyfriend of several years not only dumped her to move in with another woman, but even had the audacity to take her cat when he left! Then she is fired, and has no idea how she's going to keep paying for her flat, since she now has to cover all the rent herself.

The first time Clemmie went through a bad breakup, her sisters supported her, and they had a witchy ceremony casting what they named "the Breakup spell", where they cursed the man who wronged her and each made wishes for what the future would bring for her. Now they get her drunk and resurrect the spell. It involves a lot of candles, Fleetwood Mac on a portable speaker, and then the women cast three wishes and a curse. The curse is for Clemmie's disappointing boyfriend to never satisfy anyone sexually ever again (and have a permanent itchy groin rash). Clem's record executive sister wishes her to have hot sex (both her sisters feel that some casual hook-ups would be exactly what the doctor ordered, mainly because Clem has never done casual in her life), Clem herself wishes for a job doing what she loves, while Clem's sensitive indie musician sister Lil wishes for "big love, the unconditional, wholehearted, soul mate kind."

After completing the ritual, the sisters get bad news. Their 'uncle Carl', their father's manager and the man who frequently stepped in when Rip once again completely forgot about important things in his daughters' lives, has passed away. After his funeral, Clem tries to hide away in her childhood bedroom, only to find that an extremely hot man has already hidden in there. After some flirty bantering and quite a bit of tequila, Serena's wish for Clem comes true. She has a one-night stand with the man she thinks is called Edward, and then sneaks away in the morning, leaving him a note.

Of course, this wouldn't be much of a romance novel if things didn't get complicated. Clem's wish was for a job, and her sister Serena has one for her, which will pay extremely well and allow her to hang out in their grandmother's house in Northumberland (which is being renovated for holiday rentals). All she has to do is babysit one of the world's most famous rock stars for six weeks, making sure he actually completes the album for the record company Serena works for. Despite one sister being a cutthroat record company exec and the other a darling on the indie music scene, Clem's dislike of all things music means she needs to be reminded who this Theo James even is. On the other hand, this is why Serena is convinced she will be perfect for the job. Theo James may be world-famous and extremely good-looking, but Clem's aversion to anything to do with the music business will ensure things will stay professional. 

It will surprise no one who has read more than a few books in their life that the man Clem is going to be paid to spend six weeks in a remote location is none other than her one-night-stand (who was never called Edward, but hadn't even realised that Clem got his name wrong until he saw the note she left the next morning).

So Clemmie and Theo, and their sizzling sexual chemistry, are living in forced proximity in a remote area of the north of England, and need to keep things entirely professional. At first, they barely speak, but then they gradually develop a friendship. Even when Clem is starting to reconsider her rule about never getting involved with musicians, Theo keeps things friendly but platonic. Whoever heard of a superstar musician who respects boundaries? 

This book started out slow, but even before the main romance (and its many complications) was introduced, Clemmie and her two sisters had me hooked. I would happily have read a non-romance book about their relationship. Since the majority of contemporary romance novels I read are set in the US, it's also always nice to read something set in the UK, and especially a part of it I'm actually quite familiar with.

Clem and Theo are very sweet together. This book has one of my favourite tropes, where one of the characters has to nurse the other one back to health. There are also some background subplots involving Clem's sisters, who, over the course of the book, get exactly what they wished for when casting the breakup spell, which is nicely done by the author. 

I had never even heard of Laura Wood when I bought this book in an e-book sale several years ago, and if it hadn't been for it fitting into several of my reading challenges, and I felt like reading a romance over some of the other options available, this may have stayed forgotten on my digital bookshelves for years. Instead, I put my entire reading list on hold after completing it, so I could purchase the sequel/companion book, about Theo's best friend and binge-read that too.

Judging a book by its cover: While I complain a lot about modern romance covers and the interchangeable pastel-coloured covers with little cartoon characters on it, I think this may just be a bit too plain and non-descript. One of the reasons I kept forgetting this book exists is that the cover just isn't very exciting. If it hadn't fit into one of my reading challenges, I would possibly never have gotten to it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 35: "Game of Rogues" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is out on June 3rd, 2026. 

Guinevere "Ginny" Woodville travels alone and unchaperoned to London to confront the man known as "The Reaper", Gabriel Marchand, owner of one of the most exclusive gentlemen's clubs/gaming hells in the city. Her newly come of age younger brother, who also recently became the Earl of Highgrove after the death of a cousin, got drunk one evening and gambled away not just the entire newly acquired fortune, but also mired himself in debt. Since some of that money was going to provide dowries for the Woodville women, so they could secure good marriages, it's imperative that Ginny get the money back within the month.

Marchand offers to forgive her brother's debt of several thousand pounds to him if Ginny agrees to spend a whole night in his bed. Naturally, she refuses his offer and hopes to never have to see him again. As fate and the sort of coincidences that usually only happens in romance novels to throw our lovers together would have it, Marchand and Ginny are both staying at the Grand Palace of the Thames, where the rules of the proprietresses require all guests to dine together and socialise in the parlour at least four nights each week. 

Ginny manages to identify the person her brother lost a whopping 15,000 pounds to (in addition to the 4000 he owes Marchand), and he's none other than the Earl of Sydenham, her father used to call friend, but who also seemed to never have forgiven that Ginny's mother married Woodville instead of the Earl. If Ginny manages to locate a rare Ming vase, part of the inheritance her brother would have gotten from the late Earl of Highgrove, Sydenham is willing to forgive the debt. Otherwise, he wants it paid in full in a month.

The Woodville siblings became orphans when Ginny was sixteen, after her father drove his high-flyer too quickly around a corner. Ginny's mother survived her husband by two days, and on her deathbed, Ginny promised to always take care of her younger brother and twin sisters, and make sure they all made good marriages someday. Having single-handedly spent the last eight years raising her siblings, taking care of the family finances, managing their crumbling estate, basically taking on the responsibility of both her deceased parents, Ginny is determined to find the vase so she can restore the fortune that her brother lost. Unexpectedly, Marchand proves to be a valuable help in this search, both helping to locate possible places the vase may be, and providing protection when she insists on going to more unsavoury areas of the city to look for it.

Of course, all this galivanting around unchaperoned with a devastatingly handsome rogue, while also seeing softer sides of him when they spend evenings together in the cosy parlour of their boardinghouse, means that Ginny not only stops hating Marchand, but also realises that she may be ruined for all other men, not least Francis, the carefully respectful third son of a duke she had assumed she would marry until she had to go off to London to save her family. Marchand is equally surprised to find that this stubborn and unusual young woman, who refuses to be afraid of him and constantly challenges him, is making him yearn for a very different future, one that doesn't involve him eternally striving to acquire more wealth and influence. 

Really good historical romance is getting harder to find. Meredith Duran is no longer writing. Sherry Thomas is writing historical mysteries. Tessa Dare's last novel was published in 2019, and fans are still waiting for the promised fourth book in that series. Julia Quinn is busy with the TV adaptations of her work and is now apparently making luxury hardback editions of romance novels for collectors. Loretta Chase and Courtney Milan publish a new book every few years. Julie Anne Long, however, is still reliably publishing a romance a year, and while I thought the first few novels of her Palace of Rogues series were merely good, not great, the last three have been absolute stone-cold classics, and I'm happy to say that this book continues her streak. I was both happy and surprised when I was granted an ARC, and because of my terrible memory and my tendency to fall behind on reviews, I waited to read it until just before the release date.

Some books take a while for me to get into. Not so Ms. Long's books. Within the first few chapters, reading one of her books feels like a soothing escape from reality. Each new book in the Palace of Rogues series introduces us to a new main couple, but also lets us come back to the comfortable found family of regulars to see how they are getting on (we're getting closer and closer to a romance between Pike the footman and Dot the maid with each story). Delilah and Angelique, their handsome husbands, Mr. Delacorte, Mrs. Pariseau - it's like seeing old friends again, while also getting to experience a new and exciting love story each time I pick up one of her books. 

We're rapidly nearing the end of term, and I have a lot of work to do and many grades to finalise, yet once I started this book yesterday morning, I pretty much ignored all of my other responsibilities until I had finished it before lunchtime today. Julie Anne Long writes interesting characters, and frequently her heroines are people who have been shouldering a huge amount by themselves, and have spent their lives fixing things for others, until they finally find the man who wants to ease their burdens and take care of them. Her heroes are often intimidating, powerful men who have troubled backgrounds and finally find the woman who sees their insecurities, refuses to be intimidated by them and makes them soften, without really losing any of the things that make them powerful. 

I don't know how many books Ms. Long has planned for in this series, but her Pennyroyal Green series ended up being twelve books and a novella, so I'm hoping I can keep visiting this comfortable and charming corner of the fictional Regency for many years to come. If you've enjoyed other books by her, this is another keeper, which I can see myself returning to for re-reads, if not as many times as with What I Did for a Duke, in my opinion, her best book, and one of my favourite ever romances. And I only just now realised that both of the heroines have very similar-sounding names. No wonder reading this made me want to reread it, for the umpteenth time. 

Judging a book by the cover: Since these books will no longer be printed in mass market paperback format (a development that makes me very sad), it seems that Avon decided to introduce a new cover design entirely, which means this book won't match its predecessors. Since some of the covers earlier in this series have been, at least in part, really awful (usually the portrayal of one or several of the people on said covers), this isn't necessarily a bad thing. But as someone who hates it when my physical books don't match, this radical difference in cover design also annoys me. That said, the choice to make the cover look like a playing card, with very stylised silhouettes rather than realistic images of the couple, works for me. It feels classier than the traditionally illustrated covers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 34: "Shrunkation" by Janine Amesta

Page count: 235 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

This was an ARC I received from the author, Janine Amesta. My opinions are my own. 

Catalina and Trey's marriage is in trouble. Catalina is exhausted from her demanding work, nearing burnout, and incapable of forgetting some foolish and hurtful things Trey said to her months ago. She's feeling unappreciated and ignored, not to mention misunderstood. Trey knows that he screwed up, but he thinks all they need is some quality time together. He won a weekend stay at a luxury resort in Cancun, and hopes that in this new and exciting place, he will be able to persuade Catalina to fall in love with him again.

Things take a turn when the arguing couple find themselves shrunk to a quarter-inch size by the whims of an arrogant tech billionaire. Now, as well as trying to figure out a way to reconcile, the couple need to dodge enormous obstacles like crabs, sand fleas, and hungry gulls, as well. They have very little food and water, and have to make their way back to the hotel, hoping they can attract the attention of someone who might be able to help.

As well as Catalina and Trey's POVs, we also get to follow Sasha, a minion of the evil tech billionaire. Even when she's had misgivings about the company, she still stayed in the job to make enough to help pay for her dad's hospital bills. She's the only one who figures out what happened to Catalina and Trey, and she goes against the advice of the company to stay behind at the resort to look for the teeny-tiny missing couple.

This is a fun book, clearly inspired by Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. However, that was not a movie that made much of an impact on me. I know I watched it a very long time ago, when I was little, and while I know many have fond memories about it, it never made much of an impact on me. On the other hand, if there was such a thing as shrinking technology, I find it terrifyingly plausible, in today's political and financial landscape, that some moronic tech bro would callously use it for fun, never bothering to think about the dangers or wider consequences.

When they get to the resort, the rift between Catalina and Trey is getting wider, made worse by their failure to communicate clearly with one another. Catalina is overworked and exhausted, and Trey, for all that he clearly adores his wife, has not been shouldering as much emotional labour as she. Once they end up in an unusual and perilous situation, they are forced to work together to survive, but even that starts out as fraught because of the tensions between them. After being exposed to repeated danger and starting to communicate more honestly with one another, it turns out that a lot of their problems have been made worse by their own unspoken insecurities that they've been projecting onto the other person.

This book was entertaining, and the concept is very novel. I liked it well enough, and Amesta writes engaging characters. I just don't see myself wanting to pick it up for repeated re-reads, which is what characterises my favourite romances. 

Judging a book by its cover: Apparently, when Ms. Amesta tried to post images of this cover on Threads, her posts were flagged as inappropriate, and she was in danger of having her account shut down. I genuinely don't see why. There is no more nudity than you see on a lot of romance covers, and this one is cute and clever and funny as well. Go home, algorithm, you're drunk!

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 33: "A Marvellous Light" by Freya Marske

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Monthly Keyword 26: Light

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: LGBTQIA+ rep

Buzzwords Challenge 26: Parts of a house

Buzzwords Cover Challenge 26: Featuring a silhouette

Sir Robert "Robin" Blyth ends up in a civil service position he is vastly unprepared for, as it turns out, he is supposed to be a liaison between the secret magical world and the more mundane regular world. Usually, the post is held by an individual from a magical family just unlucky enough not to have any magic of their own (seems like there are quite a few such "duds" in the magic-wielding families of society). Robin, on the other hand, is both shocked and rather intrigued when his co-liasion, Edwin Courcey, has to reveal the existence of magic to him. 

Edwin Courcey is both annoyed and worried at the disappearance of Robin's predecessor, especially when it becomes clear very quickly that something sinister is probably to blame. When Robin is attacked and a curse is placed upon him, a side-effect also appears to be that he can now receive visions of the future. Unfortunately, they are vague and usually seem to involve strangers. The curse is visible as a strange tattoo on one of Robin's arms, and with each new excruciatingly painful attack, the tattoo climbs higher up his arm, and the pain increases. Edwin can't leave an innocent man who didn't even know magic existed, least of all, where some magical artefact that the villains are searching for is located, suffer and potentially die. Unfortunately, most of the reference books he requires are at his family home, and Edwin doesn't exactly love returning to the bosom of his family.

Edwin may have magical powers, but he is seen as a huge disappointment in the Courcey family. He reluctantly goes back home, bringing Robin with him, to try to find a way to lift the curse. Edwin's plan is basically to get rid of Robin's pesky curse and then magically make him forget he ever even heard of magic (which seems to be the standard way magicians deal with regular humans). There is also the mystery of where Robin's predecessor disappeared to, the identity of the shadowy individuals who cursed Robin, and exactly what the artefact they are looking for is. 

This has been on my TBR list for a long time. I was initially waiting for the trilogy, of which this is the first part, to be completed, but by the time that happened, I sort of forgot about the whole series. This year, it fit into several of my reading challenges, however. As so many online friends whose opinions in books I trust have rated it highly on Goodreads, it felt like it was time to pull it off my shelf (I keep all of my unread dead tree books in a bookshelf in my bedroom, in the hopes that it might make me read them faster. Once I finish one, it gets moved up to the living room, where the majority of our fiction books are located.) Since I read this in mid-April and have since completed 22 other books, some of the finer details of the plot are now rather hazy to me. The book starts a bit slow, but once Robin is attacked and cursed, and Edwin realises that he has no choice but to help this handsome golden retriever of a man, I was pretty hooked. 

The book is set in Edwardian times, in an alternate history England where magic obviously exists. Robin and Edwin are pretty much opposites, with Robin being, as I previously mentioned, much like a golden retriever, while Edwin is a skittish black cat. Because Edwin has always been made to feel like a failure in his own family and generally lacking among his magical peers, he's got quite a big chip on his shoulder, and Robin's charming himbo ways are both attractive and frustrating to him. 

This is a slow-burn romance, but once the men actually admit their feelings for one another (and Edwin gets over a lot of his trust issues), the relationship between them is so beautiful. I also very much liked several of the supporting female characters, including Robin's younger sister (who I think is one of the protagonists of the second novel) and Robin's extremely overqualified and underestimated secretary in the civil service. They were both great.

There's clearly an overarching plot to the series, and some sort of mysterious cult of bad guys who will need to be stopped. However, this book also has a self-contained ending, and I didn't feel the need to rearrange my entire TBR list to read the two sequels right away (I will try to get to them before the end of the year, though). 

Judging a book by its cover:

I think the cover of this book is my least favourite thing about it. I have never liked the colour orange, and the orange silhouettes, accompanied by the most hideously busy wallpaper pattern covering the rest of the book, it gives me a headache if I look too closely at it. I would never ever have picked up this book if I hadn't been assured by several people that I trust that it was excellent. I find this cover very ugly. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.