CBR18 Book 14: "A Girl Like Her (Deluxe Edition) by Talia Hibbert

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 4 stars

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

Evan Miller has recently moved to Ravenswood, and while he appreciates his job as a metalworker and many of his co-workers, he's less of a fan of the boss's son trying to ingratiate himself with him. Especially once said nepo-baby keeps throwing condescending hints about Evan's next-door neighbour, Ruth.

Ruth Kabbah is shunned by most people in Ravenswood because of events in her past. She barely ever leaves her house, except once weekly, to have lunch with her mother and sister. She's autistic, has very little patience for anyone else's nonsense, and is obsessed with comics. When her new neighbour, a tall, hot, bearded guy, knocks on her door, presenting her with a Shepard's Pie to boot, she is deeply suspicious. On the other hand, she's not going to turn down free food. Her stove was removed after an accidental fire, and she really only lives on cup noodles and fast food. So delicious, home-cooked meals outside of her mother's dinners are a rarity.

Despite Ruth's initial hostility, Evan finds her fascinating and keeps showing up on her doorstep with food. Ruth decides she can lend him comics in return, and is rather surprised that Evan is not only reading them, but is quite happy spending hours discussing them with her. As their friendship grows, so too does the attraction between them, but Ruth's only previous relationship was a very toxic one, so she's wary about getting involved with anyone else. She's both grateful and frustrated that Evan keeps being a gentleman who respects her boundaries and backs off the minute she has hesitations. 

Can Evan convince Ruth that she's not, in fact, a "jezebel" who should be afraid to leave her house? Can he prove to her that she is worth loving, just the way she is?

A Girl Like Her was originally self-published by Talia Hibbert in 2018. Now they have been picked up by a big publisher, and she's had a chance to revise and improve them, and they will hopefully reach a wider market than previously. I have liked, or loved, every novel of Hibbert's that I've read before, but I haven't had a chance to check out the earlier novels that she published before The Brown Sisters series. It's been quite a few years since I read it now, but I thought there were quite a few similarities between this and Get a Life, Chloe Brown. Both feature self-employed plus-size black women who barely ever leave their houses, and handsome, tattooed craftsmen who fall in love with them. Both have neurodivergent heroines (I think all of Hibbert's novels may feature at least one protagonist on the autism spectrum) and heroes who patiently wait for them to be ready to be loved. Despite the similarities, it didn't feel like Hibbert was plagiarising herself, just writing variations on a theme.

Based on the author's note at the back of the book, one of the novellas in the series is being expanded into a full novel, and she's working on improving the second book in the series (about Ruth's sister). I am most likely going to wait until the new editions are out. 

Judging a book by its cover: The new cover of this Deluxe edition feels like the publishers are trying to "rebrand" Hibbert's books to a wider market. The previous editions either had pictures of a couple embracing or just went with a buff, tattooed shirtless dude, leaving the woman out of the equation entirely. All of these previous cover designs were pretty typical of romance, and with this more demure cover, I think they're hoping to catch more of the "women's lit" market. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 13: "Better Than a Duke" by Suzanne Enoch

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4 stars

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

Beckett Raines, the Marquis of Hentrose, has been widowed for ten years, leaving him a single father to young Rebecca (who would like to be known as Lady Becks). He's been aided by a number of loyal servants, but now his meddling mother has decided that it's time for him to marry an appropriate woman who can be a good role model to the girl. Because Beckett was guided by his emotions the last time around, and his wife turned out to be very pretty, but rather vapid, and then died in childbirth, he's determined that his next marriage will be a partnership, with no romantic feelings involved. 

Iris Silbern has been widowed for four years and currently has to reside with her ten-year-old son, Edmund, with her aunt and uncle, in the house neighbouring Beckett's, and their first meeting isn't exactly flattering to her. She comes storming into his house, threatening him with a shovel, with her hair like a haystack around her head and her clothes wrinkled from a long time travelling. She accuses him of having abducted Edmund (when in fact, the rascal came up with a sob story about being a starving orphan), but calms down once she sees how happy her son is playing with Rebecca. It doesn't take long before the children are pretty much inseparable, and Beckett and Iris are bonding over being widowed single parents. 

It doesn't take long for Rebecca to discover that while the lady her father is possibly going to marry may look pretty and pleasant while there are other adults around, she's clearly planning to have Beckett to herself. She strongly implies that Rebecca will be sent off to boarding school and that her father will be all the happier for it. Meanwhile, Iris is hoping to borrow money from her uncle to buy herself a house in the country, where she plans to take in lodgers. They, on the other hand, believe she should get married again, even though she has no wish to ever remarry. They introduce her to the Duke of Trent, who is over seventy, already has two sons and several grandchildren, but is nevertheless looking for Duchess number six. Marrying the lecherous old man would ensure that Iris got enough money to secure a good education and a decent future for Edmund. And while he's outlived five wives so far, surely he'll not outlive Iris as well?

Obviously, neither child is happy with their potential step-parents, especially since it would mean Rebecca and Edmund would be separated. They'd much rather be siblings and decide to get their parents to marry each other, and their plans are forced to get ever more elaborate as Beckett and Iris stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that their perfect partner is right there on the other side of the garden wall.

Last year, I got an ARC of A Duke Never Tells, Suzanne Enoch's previous novel, and it was a perfectly fine read, but I can't really remember a thing about it now, except that two different couples were romancing each other while assuming other people's identities. It certainly didn't make me smile, and even laugh, as much as this one. The previous book became a bit too messy to be a fun romp; this one succeeded better. A lot of romance novels, movies and television have done parent trap retellings, or stories with similar tropes. A few years ago, I read Don't Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban, but here the scheming children are debutantes who try to get their parents to marry so they themselves don't have to. This one was a lot more entertaining, which isn't always an easy feat when two of the characters concerned are children of nine and ten. 

Even when they start acknowledging that they are growing to be more than just friends, neither Beckett nor Iris considers the other as a suitable future spouse. Beckett wants a lady of impeccable pedigree and breeding who can help advise and guide Rebecca and ensure that she fits into polite society. While he tries to ignore his overbearing mother, her constant criticism is starting to wear on him, and he's worried that growing up without a mother is damaging Rebecca. Because he was blinded by love and made a rather poor choice of first wife, he now wants a marriage without romantic entanglements. He wants a marriage of convenience, a platonic partnership, more to offer a maternal influence for his daughter than for himself. Iris is stubborn, has a terrible temper, is not afraid to speak her mind and has, on occasion, punched men who offended her. While he admires her spirit, he doesn't want his daughter to behave that way. 

Iris, meanwhile, married a man she thought needed her help and guidance, only to discover that he had a gambling problem even before they got married, which only got worse as their marriage continued. He fell when drunk and drowned in a ditch. Iris' father-in-law allowed them to stay in one of the houses on his estate, but as soon as he passed, her brother-in-law kicked them out, leaving them homeless and helpless. She knows what Beckett is looking for in a new wife and understands why she's not suitable. While she feels happier in his company than in years, she also wants him to have a wife who will be accepted in society, rather than constantly shocking and causing minor scandals. 

If the book had been longer, I suspect I would have been annoyed with the length of time it took for the other marital candidates to be neutralised (and while she is clearly an unpleasant person, I think the consequences for Beckett's first choice ended up being more horrible than she deserved) and for Beckett and Iris to finally get together. This is also one of the times when an epilogue would have been nice, to see how the new family was getting along. It is possible to have epilogues in romance that don't involve pregnancies, and one would have been nice here. 

Judging a book by its cover: I don't think smug-looking dude in a cravat is the way to sell a romance, but I'm not mad that it's not a cutesy cartoon cover. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 12: "In Which Winnie Halifax is Utterly Ruined" by Alexandra Vasti

Page count: 196 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Reading Rainbow - Purple/violet cover

It's 1811. Winnifred "Winnie" Wallace just wants to settle down in a small town in Wales and raise sheep. She has a modest amount of money, given to her by her con woman mother before said woman absconded to France. However, being a single woman trying to establish herself leads to a lot of suspicion, so Winnie fibs a tiny bit and claims to be married, but estranged from her husband. She literally makes up a name and an address for her fictional spouse, and suddenly she's welcomed into the community.

Ten years later, Spencer Halifax, the Earl of Warren, is told by his solicitor, Henry Mortimer, that it has come to his attention that a woman claims to be married to Spencer, and has copies of banns that very much seem to suggest that the wedding took place. Because all the church records of the place where they supposedly got married were lost when the church burned down, legally speaking, there is no way to disprove the claim, and Spencer may in fact have a wife in Wales. 

Spencer has to rescue his fake wife from the local jail, where she's ended up after punching a rival farmer who accused her of theft. Once she cleans up all the grime, he is, of course, stunned by her beauty (they are never just plain and average in these stories). She convinces him that she in no way wanted to defraud or entrap him in any way, and is rather shocked to realise that her clever lies and external circumstances might mean they are actually legally married. She agrees to accompany him to London, but there is a chance they may have to ask for an actual annulment.

Margo's novella was the shortest of the three stories, and the one I liked the least. Matilda's is probably the longest, and the one I liked the most. That puts Spencer's novella smack bang in the middle, at four stars. It's the most farcical of the three stories, and the plot just keeps getting more and more preposterous as the story progresses. There's the fake marriage to be dealt with, and Winnie's secret plan to return the stolen necklaces her mother gave her to their rightful owners, which involves showing up at dinner parties and hiding in broom closets, and sneaking about at the opera, and what have you. It's not quite insta-love in this story, but it comes very close. Winnie and Spencer don't spend a lot of time together before it becomes clear that their fake marriage should become a real one, and that both of them are sick of being alone and terribly responsible apart, when they have so much fun together. 

I'm really glad that I have discovered Alexandra Vasti as a writer. I have an ARC of the novel she's releasing in June, and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Judging a book by its cover: The covers of Vasti's self-published novellas are a lot less elaborate than her current romance covers. I do really like the shade of purple used for the background and the little white flowers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR18 Book 11: "The Halifax Hellions" by Alexandra Vasti

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Novella 1: In Which Margo Halifax Earns Her Shocking Reputation (3.5 stars)

Novella 2: In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint (4.5 stars)

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

This book collects two previously self-published novellas of Alexandra Vasti's, and includes an additional epilogue which has never before been available.

Margo and Matilda Halifax are identical twins, the wealthy younger sisters of an Earl and have basically been seen as outrageous scandals for the years since they made their debut. Both are fiercely loyal and protective of the other; however, neither of them knows that the other has grown rather weary of being seen as shocking and extreme, and they mostly now long to settle down and live quieter lives.

Lady Margaret "Margo" Halifax shows up, soaking wet, on the doorstep of Henry Mortimer, her brother's solicitor and best friend. She believes Matilda has eloped with a dangerous and unpleasant man, and wants to intercept her sister before she gets to Scotland to get married. Henry has been a responsible and steady presence in her life since they met seven years ago, and he's the only one she can think of to ask for help in this situation. 

Henry Mortimer has been in lust with Margo since the first moment he saw her, tying a cherry stem into a knot with her mouth, while fending off suitors in her family's drawing room. He's been in love with her almost as long, because as her brother's best friend, he has seen other sides to Margo than most people in the ton have. The thought of being alone in a carriage with Margo for days on end is pure torture, because he's not sure he'll be able to keep his feelings hidden, but he can't let her endanger herself by running off alone to rescue Matilda.

I'm sure it will be no surprise to anyone that Henry's absolutely right, and that after days in close confinement, they are ready to jump each other's bones. Margo is less in tune with her feelings than Henry, so it takes her a bit longer to realise that she doesn't just want a quick fling with Henry, she'd like to spend the rest of her life with him (whether they manage to stop Matilda or not). 

My notes show me that I read this novella in August 2024, and despite this, I only barely remembered any details. It felt like I was reading it for the first time, not re-reading an old favourite. I can only imagine I was in a very strange headspace when I first read it, which made the details of the story slip from my mind. 

Margo and Henry's novella is the shorter of the two, taking up the first third of the book. Towards the end of the story, our bumbling pursuers actually manage to catch up to Matilda and her potential groom, and it's clear that the sisters should have been a lot more honest and forthcoming with one another. 

Matilda has not been entirely truthful about her true relationship to Christian de Bord, the Marquess of Ashford, who has a very fearsome reputation and possibly murdered his wife. Ashford normally resides alone with his sister in Northumberland, but travels to London because very erotic images of him have been printed in a lewd pamphlet, and he has identified the artist as none other than the infamous Matilda Halifax. She's rather shocked when he confronts her, and while she proves to him that the original drawings have been tampered with, probably to sell more pamphlets, she also feels compelled to confess that he was the inspiration for a lot of her drawings (she's been illustrating erotica in secret for years). Our Matilda has heard rumours about Ashford that he may share certain sexual proclivities of hers, and has apparently been nursing some pretty spicy fantasies about the reclusive nobleman.

Because of the drawings and his already rather dark reputation, Ashford hasn't been able to find an art tutor for his younger sister. Matilda, who is an accomplished artist (she doesn't only draw erotic images) and feels guitly about her part in his difficulties. So she offers to go with him to his estate in Northumberland to tutor his sister, and hopefully persuade her that she might want to travel to London in the near future. Instead of explaining this to her sister, however, Matilda concocts a lie about eloping, and the situation is further complicated because Margo disguised herself as her sister and tried to confront Ashford. Feeling rather irritated because of his inconvenient attraction to the young lady, Ashford said some very shocking things, only to realise shortly afterwards that he'd made suggestive and rather threatening remarks to the wrong twin. So Margo believe her sister to be running off to marry a deranged, perverted wife-murderer. 

While Margo's novella takes place in quite a short space of time, Matilda's story is spread out over a longer time period. There is delighful bantery letters exchanged between her and Ashford, and there's all sorts of mutual pining, Matilda adopting a cat she plans to give to Christian's sister (and him allowing the cat to stay, despite being violently allergic). There's also winning over the Mrs. Danvers-esque housekeeper and trying to befriend Ashford's painfully shy younger sister. I liked the second novella a lot more, mainly because I felt the relationship between Christian and Matilda had time and space to develop properly.

I enjoyed both novellas, though, and am glad I also have the third one Ms. Vasti self-published, where we find out how the elder brother of the twins meets and falls for his wife. 

Judging a book by its cover: I like the bright colours and whimsical details on this cover. The dark and forboding castle in one corner, with the implication that Matilda has been carried off by the brooding Christian, while Margo and Henry pursue them in a carriage. The cherries and the cat are also nice touches (although the cat decribed in the story seems a lot closer to a Persian than the cat on this cover). 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 10: "The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook" by Matt Dinniman

Page count: 534 pages

Audio book length: 16 hrs 54 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Carl, Donut and Mongo have made it to the fourth level of the dungeon. This time, there are trains. So many trains. The game appears to have constructed a labyrinthine tangle of all of the world's underground railway systems, and there are new and strange rules to get used to. There are bounties awarded to anyone who kills any of the players in the top ten, which now include both Carl and Donut. 

There are all manner of strange monsters on the various trains and platforms, and while the stairways are apparently on clearly announced stations, most of the crawlers are on trains going to much higher stations, and no one seems to know how to get to the end stations and back to the start of the loop. Carl gets an unexpected advantage from a seemingly useless reward box, The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook, where countless previous crawlers have noted down their tips and tricks and useful modifications about the dungeons. He just can't let anyone know where he's suddenly getting all of his new and clever ideas.

Just as determined that he won't allow the system to break him as before, Carl manages to get more of the crawlers to cooperate and work together on this level. Of course, it also means pulling off some truly insane plans in an attempt to help as many crawlers as possible make it out alive and down to the next level. 

This book was long and dragged in places, but I still very much enjoyed it because by now I adore Carl, Donut, Mongo and poor Katia, who is really put through the wringer in this one. Let's just say her character ended up developing in all sorts of ways I was not expecting. I think she should put her foot down and refuse to wear a Mohawk, no matter what Donut suggests. 

I keep being amazed at the narration, and while I am still happy I have all the audios, I will probably be able to re-read the books on paper, since I now have the voices from the audio so completely internalised. With some books, that might be a problem. Here, it is not. 

Judging a book by its cover: I love the new cover design, and will quite possibly buy the whole series in hardback if it keeps being as good as it is now, partially because I like the design so much. However, it was also fun to see a depiction of the Mantaur that Carl and the others had to fight on the old cover, as well. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 9: "How to Train Your Dragon" by Cressida Cowell

Page count: 241 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Read the Rainbow - Red

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III may be the least intimidating Viking in several generations, which is a bit of a problem, since he's the son of the Chief, and therefore meant to lead the Hairy Hooligans when he gets older. He's skinny, puny, bookish and not even slightly intimidating, and when he has to compete in the traditional manhood trial of the tribe, and sneak into a cave to capture himself a dragon, he ends up with the smallest, least impressive dragon of the lot. Hiccup should have an advantage over the other youths when it comes to taming and getting a dragon to do his bidding - he can speak Dragonese. He can't really tell anyone about that, of course, since Dragonese has been forbidden in the Hairy Hooligans for over a hundred years. Also, Hiccup's dragon, Toothless, is stubborn and selfish and couldn't care less about listening to Hiccup.

When the day of the dragon trials finally arrives, a massive fight breaks out among all the recently tamed dragons, and in an unprecedented event, all the youths of the tribe (and their rivals) are supposed to be banished to the wilderness. However, before that can happen, the tribes are faced with a new, much bigger challenge - a very large, very hungry sea dragon has awoken and now wants to eat all the humans. How are they going to defeat something so enormous and dangerous?

I was already at university when these books came out, and I have only watched the first two movies, which are clearly VERY loosely based on this source material. So loosely that pretty much the only thing they've kept is the names of Hiccup and his dragon Toothless (who is not black, super rare and very playful), and maybe some of the vikings in the tribe. So, at least I didn't have anything spoiled for me when I picked this up to read it for a bonus book club meeting we had about dragon riders. Of course, while Hiccup discovers that it's possible to ride dragons in the first movie, nothing like that happens in the book. They mostly use the dragons to intimidate each other and to catch fish. 

Nevertheless, it was a fun book, and I think my eight-year-old son would probably enjoy it. I will probably read it to him at some point in the next year, after the husband and I are done reading him children's classics from our own childhoods. I don't see myself continuing the series for my own sake, but if the kid enjoys them, I will probably read more of them. They are short, action-packed and feature dragons? What's not to love?

Judging a book by its cover: This is a children's book, so I would have thought you'd want something more colourful and exciting to catch the eye of the potential reader. Red, red, maroon and gold is certainly a choice, but I'm not sure I would have grabbed this off a library shelf if I hadn't already known what the book was about. Hiccup also looks nothing like he's described in the book. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read 

CBR 18 Book 8: "Beast Business" by Ilona Andrews

Page count: 205 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Augustine Montgomery is the head of a very successful investigative agency and a deeply private man. He is an illusion Prime, who can alter his appearance at will, and there are very few people alive who know what he actually looks like. Augustine presents himself to the world as calculated, efficient, ruthless and detached. He is never swayed by emotion and has very few friends as a result. 

Diana Harrison is the Head of House Harrison and a very powerful animal mage. Like Augustine, she is seen as cold, detached and seems to care more for animals than people. Her brothers and niece are the only exceptions. She comes to Augustine because she needs help with an urgent personal matter, and she can't hire anyone from the Baylor Agency, since then her niece Matilda might discover what House Harrison has lost. 

Diana and Augustine are both deeply private and secretive, but when working together, it will be impossible for them to keep their abilities hidden. Nevertheless, a helpless baby animal has been stolen and needs to be reunited with its mother soon, or the unique tiger cub might die, and its loss would hurt both its supernatural mother and Diana, who is bonded to the mother tiger. 

Even when busy writing the second book in their new traditionally published fantasy series, Ilona Andrews (the husband and wife writing team) are generous to their devoted fans and wrote this bonus novella, set in their Hidden Legacy paranormal fantasy universe. Augustine and Diana have both appeared as supporting characters in the previous books, with some speculating that there was a romantic connection between the two. This novella confirms that the speculation was right, but it also ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, which I know left some readers frustrated and feeling cheated that they didn't get more of Augustine and Diana as an actual couple. (Yes, Des, I'm talking about you, among others). 

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me comes out at the end of March, and for those of us not lucky enough to have been granted an ARC, it's very good to have something to distract us from the long wait. As I have said many times before, I would pay for anything Ilona Andrews publishes (frequently in more than one format) and more from the Hidden Legacy universe, especially since this also contains a bonus short story about Arabella Baylor making a new friend, which was very entertaining. 

Judging a book by its cover: Once again, proof that Ilona Andrews only gets good covers when they commission the art themselves. While I think Diana is looking a bit too much like a helpless damsel here, rather than a deadly force to be reckoned with, I really like the cover, and who doesn't love a blue baby tiger?

Crossposted on Cannonball Read