CBR17 Book 34: "The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam" by Megan Bannen

Page count: 432 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Orbit Books for this ARC. My opinions, are as always, my own.

This is the third book in the series, and as such, not the best place to start reading. This review may contain some spoilers for the previous two books in the series, and the place to begin is with The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy. 

Tanrian Marshall Rosie Fox can't die. Or at least she doesn't stay dead, because she's a demigod, daughter of the Trickster. She is 157 years old, and has died more times than she can count. Every time it happens, it tends to freak out the people around her, and it gets mighty lonely watching everyone you care about grow old and die, while you just stay the same. Rosie's most recent death, from electrocution, happened after she stuck her hand into the wiring of one of the portals that allow people from outside to cross into the magical area of Tanria. The portals keep short-circuiting, and Rosie thinks she can see a strange, shadowy vine tangling in the machinery. It's when she's trying to "investigate" this that she, once again, dies.

The trouble with the portals is serious enough that they have to call for the inventor himself, Dr. Adam Lee. Rosie remembers meeting the impeccably dressed gentleman five years ago, but doubts he'll even remember her from so long ago. Of course, a statuesque woman over six feet tall, with long rust-red hair and "eyes like garnets", is difficult to forget, and Adam Lee remembers her very well. Not that he is willing to admit this at first, he seems shy and almost stand-offish.

Because of the trouble with the portals, which all seem to be breaking down, everyone in Tanria needs to be evacuated. Due to a complicated series of events, Rosie, Dr. Adam Lee, Rosie's partner Penrose Duckers and Duckers' ex-boyfriend Zeddie Birdsall are all stuck in Tanria when the final portal breaks down. Rosie notices that the shadowy vines seem to be spreading and growing thicker on the ground. The various animals and wildlife in Tanria can also clearly see and interact with the vines, but presumably, none of the other people can see what Rosie sees. 

Now, Adam, Rosie, Duckers and Zeddie have to work together to try to get the portals working again, or risk being trapped in Tanria, potentially forever. To begin with, animal messages can cross the magical border (it's a whole complicated thing, I can't begin to explain it here) and bring messages, supplies and food from the outside, but as the vines proliferate and thicken, it gets harder and harder for even them to cross over.

Duckers is very amused to see his normally unflappable partner so taken with Dr. Lee, and teases her mercilessly. He also tries to avoid his ex-boyfriend as much as possible, which isn't easy when there's just the four of them there, and Zeddie cooks almost all the food they eat. How can Rosie even hope to have a chance with Adam when she's over a hundred years old and will possibly never die? No one would want to complicate their life with someone like her, would he?

This is the third and final book in the Hart and Mercy trilogy, and while I enjoyed the second book, The Undermining of Twyla and Frank, it didn't enchant me in the way that The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy or this one did. Exploring some more of the mythological sides of this strange and original fantasy world, the story of exuberant demigod Rosie and the reticent and lonely inventor she falls for was an utter delight to read, and I loved finding out more about the portals, how they worked, and how they came to be invented in the first place.

Penrose Duckers has been an amazing supporting character in each of the three books so far, and part of the joy of reading the series has been seeing how he has developed over time. He is young and inexperienced when he partners with Hart in the first book, he goes through a lot of personal turmoil in the second book, and in this one, set seven years after the end of book 2, he has to rethink some of his former decisions and life choices when Zeddie Birdsall comes back into his orbit (Duckers breaks up with him in book 2 because he needs space). 

With every story featuring characters who have some form of immortality or can just live a terribly long time, I find myself so grateful that I will never have to deal with something like that. While Rosie has a nice life, there are very few people who can even begin to understand how hard it is to keep dying and resurrecting, seeing friends and loved ones drift away, or grow old and die around you. She's starting to get sick of the whole thing, and the Trickster's sudden reappearance in her life, claiming he wants to be a proper father to her (after most of a lifetime of being neglectful of her and her mother), isn't making the situation any better.

A friend of mine constantly complains that there are very few tall heroines with short heroes (I'm still waiting for Ali Hazelwood to change things up in her writing and try it), so I'm going to recommend she read this book. Rosie is six-foot-five, while Dr. Adam Lee is a full foot shorter than her (five-foot-five). Duckers keeps calling him her pocket boyfriend. At one point, he stands on a little step to reach up to kiss her (it's adorable). 

This was a wonderful ending to the trilogy, and very nicely wraps up the story not just of Rosie and Adam, but pretty much all the significant characters we've met over the course of the whole series. If you liked the first two, this one is well worth the wait. 

Judging a book by its cover: I'm not a huge fan of the colour orange (even before it became irrevocably associated with THAT one), and I really don't think the shade of blue of the background patterns, and then the bright pink of the heart at the centre of the cover go well together. They all sort of clash. Nevertheless, it continues the very whimsical tradition established on the previous two covers in the series. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR17 Book 33: "These Summer Storms" by Sarah Maclean

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR17 Book Bingo: Family

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

Alice Storm hasn't had any contact with her family for five years, since she went public with some unsavoury company secrets and her father disowned her. Now her larger-than-life father, Franklin Storm, is dead, and she has to return to the family's private island off Rhode Island to pay her respects. She isn't planning on staying past the funeral, but it seems even in death, Franklin is determined to control his family.

He has left his widow and Alice's three siblings letters with specific instructions. They all have to stay on the island for a week, performing the various tasks and challenges, or neither of them will inherit anything at all. Alice doesn't get a letter and is quite happy not to inherit a cent, but is told in no uncertain terms that if she leaves before the week is over, neither of her siblings (or her mother) will inherit anything at all. Now, she has no choice but to stay on Storm Island with what remains of her deeply dysfunctional family, with the stern and worryingly attractive Jack Dean, her father's right-hand man (who she had a one-night stand with before she discovered who he really was). 

It becomes very obvious that in the five years Alice has been cut off from her family, a lot of things have changed, but far too many things have seemingly stayed the same. Along with Alice, her mother Elizabeth, her brother Sam and her sisters Greta and Emily, there are also Sam's children, his greedy wife (who everyone hates) and Emily's wife (who seems to be everyone's favourite, and the only one who seems entirely unfazed by the terribly family dynamics playing out over the course of the week. 

While Sarah Maclean usually writes historical romance (many of which I have really enjoyed in the past), this seems to be her debut in contemporary fiction. There is a strong romantic subplot in the novel, but while Alice and Jack and their developing relationship is a compelling story, the heft of the novel is about the four Storm siblings, their mother Elizabeth having a final reckoning, grieving their father and eventually revealing deeply buried secrets which will change everything for them going forward.

There are some pretty strong Succession vibes to this story, and I'm sure Franklin Storm and Logan Roy would have gotten on like a house on fire (or tried to kill each other, it could go either way). Neither of the Storm siblings, nor their in-laws (with the exception of Sam's wife, she's odious), are as absolutely deplorable as the Roy siblings (or their spouses). I found Maclean's cast of characters very compelling, however, and while Alice has the main POV in the story, each of her siblings gets their own chapter, giving the reader more insight into each of them.

While there are twists and turns and several long-buried secrets coming to light in the novel, I'm not sure the point is for the reader to view this as a mystery. Knives Out, this ain't. Some of the reveals seem quite obvious, while others were fun surprises. This book may not work for everyone (just as her romances don't), but I really enjoyed Maclean's first foray into contemporary fiction and would love to read more from her in the future (although I really do want the fourth Hell's Belles novel at some point as well). 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover of this book is clearly not that of a traditional romance novel. We see the four Storm siblings walking along a beach, in an image a lot more like a photograph, there is no clinch cover, or even cutesy cartoony people showing our romance protagonists. Alice and Jack aren't the main feature here; Alice and her siblings, on the other hand, are. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 32: "Manic Pixie Dream Earl" by Jenny Holiday

Page count: 320 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 15 mins

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thanks to Jenny Holiday, Netgalley and Tantor Audio for this ARC. My opinion is my own.

Edward "Effie" Astley, Viscount Featherfinch, is a poet and a terrible disappointment to his father. Thankfully, he's about to set off on the annual "Earl's trip" with his two best friends, who support him come what may. So they don't ask any questions when Effie asks them to help him store a broken printing press, nor why he's so preoccupied with letters from a Miss Evans. Effie doesn't really want to confess to having become infatuated with a non-aristocratic lady, who coincidentally thinks he's a woman too, called Euphemia. 

Miss Julianna Evans loves the magazine she publishes, but hates that her odious brother insists on weekly editorial meetings and keeps questioning every decision she makes, constantly cutting her budget. Normally, she's far too busy to ever consider taking a brief holiday, but when there is a delay at her printers, and the alternative is waiting impatiently at her sister's house, generally just being in the way, she impulsively decides that she's going to spend some of her hard-earned savings to go to Brighton to meet her best friend Euphemia, who she knows will be staying there with her friends. 

Brighton isn't a big enough place for Effie and Julianna to avoid each other for very long (nor would this be a particularly effective romance novel if they did). Considering Effie has been lying about his identity to Julianna for the past five years, she gets over the deceit remarkably quickly. Effie's two best buds also take it in their stride that their slightly unorthodox bestie is in love with a magazine publisher who is quite a few years his elder.

The publisher claims that this book is Ted Lasso meets Bridgerton meets The Hangover. I have complained in the past that absolutely everything set in the Regency era is now marketed towards "fans of Bridgerton", and I can only surmise that the Ted Lasso comparison is made because this book features non-toxic male friendships and guys who support each other in wholesome ways, while The Hangover is thrown in there because it's the most famous dudes on a road trip story out there, even now, sixteen years later. I despair at these sales pitches. 

There is a lot to like here. Effie is bisexual and has no problem admitting this to his friends, although his friends seem to have suspected him to be gay and/or asexual before he reveals his feelings for Julianna. There's the aforementioned non-toxic male friendships. We have an age gap, where the heroine is about a decade older than the hero (Effie is in his late twenties, Julianna is in her late thirties). Most of the book takes place in Brighton rather than London, and the more unusual location made for a nice change. 

Harry Frost does a good job with the narration of the book, but I find that about a month after finishing the story, I don't remember too much of the overall plot. While I've liked several of Jenny Holiday's contemporary romances, I'm not sure I liked her rather unusual take on the historical genre. Nevertheless, I already own Earl's Trip, the first book in the series, so I'll probably get round to reading it at some point. I also hope she gets round to writing about Effie's friend Olive in some future instalment, she was the most interesting supporting character here. 

Judging a book by its cover: This cover is rather busy, and features a number of people in various situations, not all of which take place in the actual story, unless my memory entirely fails me. I think there are too many things going on here. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 31:"It's a Love Story" by Annabel Monaghan

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and G.B. Putnam for this ARC. My opinion is my own.

Jane Jackson spent her adolescence as the comic relief character "Janey Jakes" on a popular teen sitcom. Now she's a creative executive at a movie studio, and really trying to get a script she loves turned into a movie. Frequently crippled with anxiety and self esteem issues, Jane has learned to "fake it till you make it", but she may have faked it too far this time. Desperate to get the movie script approved by her boss, she lied and claimed that Jack Quinlan, one of the hottest pop stars around, promised to write a song for the soundtrack. 

Except Jane hasn't seen or spoken to Jack for twenty years, since they recorded a hit song for her sitcom. His agent refuses to pass on her messages to him, and her only way to possibly get a chance to talk to him is to track him down at a music festival in Long Island. To accomplish this, she will need to ally herself with the man she briefly crushed on and now loathes, artsy cinematographer Dan Finnegan. His family lives in the town in Long Island where Jack will be playing, and he offers to take Jane, since he needs to go to a family reunion there anyway. 

Jane, having assumed that Dan is from some rich and elitist family, is surprised to discover that his family are all farmers and construction workers, and he's the odd one out, an introverted artist in a family full of outgoing and gregarious labourers. While it's obvious that Dan loves his parents and brothers, he's also not entirely comfortable among them, and that everyone automatically assumes that Dan and Jane are dating further complicates matters. 

Jane is forced to realise that her second impression of Dan (after finding him very appealing at their first meeting) as pretentious and judgmental is quite incorrect, and that her first impression, that he's a charming and interesting person whom she could possibly fall for, is much closer to the truth. Unfortunately, Jane has never been lucky in love before, and doubts that there could be anything serious between her and Dan, even if they do succeed in their wild quest to track down Jack Quinlan. 

As is far too often the case with me, I'm really behind on my reviews and trying desperately to remember the plots of books I read months ago. Honesty forces me to admit that despite my having finished this book a mere month ago, I'm having real trouble remembering a lot of details of the story. I had to read both the official synopsis and glance at several reviews on Goodreads to remind myself of what actually happens.

I remember that Jane has self-esteem issues, not helped by her father abandoning her and her mother when she was younger. She became a teen TV star to help pay the bills, and her crush ended in a rather humiliating experience. She keeps following her co-stars from the sitcom on social media, and they all seem to have vastly more successful lives than her. 

Dan is a cinematographer who made a very critically acclaimed, but otherwise mostly overlooked, movie. He also takes a lot of photos, and that's how he and Jane first met. They had undeniable chemistry, but before they had a chance to get to know each other, Dan shot down a script idea in a meeting with Jane's boss, and now she resents him. 

While they're in Long Island they stay in bunk beds in Dan's old room (the whole house is full of his brothers and in-laws there for his parents' wedding anniversary) and chat a lot, and they take bike rides and go to the beach and do all sorts of adorable things, and yet it all blends together in my head, and I can't remember what episodes happened in The Love Haters (a vastly less entertaining book, which nevertheless had a heroine with anxiety and self-esteem issues, and was set by the sea, so had scenes involving bathing) and what happened in this one. There were quite a few nice, heart-warming scenes with Dan's family, I think?

I don't really feel like I can rate a book I have such a hazy memory of any higher than 3.5 stars, but I am absolutely open to reading more of Monaghan's books in the future. 

Judging a book by its cover: A lot of times, these covers have absolutely nothing to do with anything that happens in this story. But the curly-haired woman, with the blue polka-dotted bathing suit, is exactly like Jane is described in the book. So while it's yet another animated cover (le sigh), it at least fits the content of the story.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 30: "Along Came Amor" by Alexis Daria

Page count: 512 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR17 Pie Chart Challenge: Diversity

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Ava is nursing her hurt feelings over the dissolution of her marriage in a hotel bar, when a handsome man approaches and offers to make her a better drink than the one she currently has (she made a face when sipping it). The man clearly has bartending experience, and after a brief conversation, Ava discovers that the charming man in fact owns the hotel she's currently in (not to mention a whole chain of them). Ava decides to do something entirely out of character for her, and agrees to a one night stand with Roman, which turns out to be a lot more memorable than either of them expected.

Roman Vasquez barely ever takes time off; he lives and breathes for his business empire, always striving for more and better. Yet the chance meeting with the downcast, but lovely Ava at the bar makes him uncharacteristically order his assistant to clear his entire schedule, and while they agreed it was to be a one-time thing, the two continue to meet up every few months or so, when Ava is feeling especially upset and dejected. At first, Roman doesn't mind being this beautiful woman's comfort hookup, but with every new meeting, he begins to fall more and more, and wants to pursue a proper relationship with Ava. He's always been hard-working and goal-oriented, and now his goal is to win Ava.

Ava has a very meddling family with a lot of strong opinions, and was basically made to feel like it was her fault that her husband cheated and that their marriage dissolved. She therefore wants none of her friends and family to find out about Roman, to avoid endless speculation and mean-spirited gossip about a relationship she doesn't see leading to a long-term future anyway. So it complicates matters rather a lot when she discovers that Roman is the best man at her cousin Jasmine's upcoming wedding (where Ava is the Maid of Honour). How is she going to keep their hook-ups secret when she can barely keep her eyes and hands off him every time he is near, and now they have to spend a lot of time together wedding planning?

This is only the second Alexis Daria novel that I've read, the first one being Take the Lead, a reworking of her debut novel. That was a perfectly good read (although I remember very little about the plot a year later), but it took me much longer to get through than many romances, since the plot and characterisation weren't really grabbing me. That is certainly not the case in this book. Eva is a really interesting protagonist, Roman is an excellent foil for her, and from their first meeting, I just wanted to keep reading to see what would happen next. 

Some of the supporting characters in this story are the couples from the previous two books in the Primas of Power trilogy (both of which I own, but haven't gotten round to reading yet). While Ava's cousins Jasmine and Michelle are ride or die for her and would support her through anything, it's quite obvious that most of Ava's family are really toxic and constantly make her feel like a failure. In contrast, Roman's mother and sister (who both live with him in his swanky apartment, at his insistence) are extremely supportive of him - they just want him to find a better work-life balance (in fact, get any sort of life outside of work) and do so much for them. 

I read this book after having finished some books that were either frustrating and rather boring or merely fine. So it's possible that my very high rating of this is because it was just so delightful to find an entertaining and well-written book as a palate cleanser to those other ones. I'm pretty sure that if I re-read it, I'll stand by my rating, though. It's not a full five stars (Ava takes a bit too long to wake up and realise that Roman is perfect for her), but this book balances some heavy themes and a lot of emotional topics in a good way. It's rare to find an author who can skillfully balance genuine emotion and romance, with cringeworthy embarrassment, cathartic long-overdue emotional confrontations with overbearing family, and still manage to include more than one laugh-out-loud moment. Yet in the final chapters of this book, Daria manages to do just that. 

That excellent balance also makes it possible for me to ignore the "baby in the epilogue" of it all (much easier to do now that I'm no longer involuntarily childless). This book seems to have more endings than the movie version of Return of the King, but I guess that might be natural, since this book finishes up Daria's entire Primas of Power trilogy, and it doesn't just show us Ava and Roman's continued happiness, but what happens to the other two couples, as well. Now that I've read and thoroughly enjoyed this, I'm absolutely going to add the previous two books in the series to my reading list over the summer. 

Judging a book by its cover: I really like the style of the covers for this trilogy, making the covers look like old-time movie posters. They're all distinct and suitable for the book in question, but eye-catching with bold colours, and the couple front and centre in a passionate embrace. I'm so very ready for the drawn covers to move on to something else, but these are better than a lot of other romances out there right now. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 29: "My Name is Emilia del Valle" by Isabel Allende

Page count: 289 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

Emilia del Valle Claro grows up in San Francisco in the latter half of the 19th Century. Her mother, Molly, is of Irish descent and was a nun before she was seduced by an unscrupulous young Chilean aristocrat, who left her pregnant and entirely without support (she obviously had to leave the convent). She married Francisco Claro, the intelligent and kind-hearted teacher at the Aztec Pride School, and he's the only father Emilia knows growing up. 

Emilia is a sponge for learning, encouraged by her stepfather, and as she gets older, she helps support the family by writing and selling melodramatic and gory pulp novels. Her dream is to become a journalist, which is almost impossible for a young woman in the 1890s. She manages to persuade an editor to publish some of her work under the pseudonym she's been using for her pulpy novels. Once the Chilean Civil War breaks out in 1891, she is able to use her Chilean paternity to her advantage. The newspaper agrees to send her to Chile to report, along with her friend and co-worker, Eric Whelan, and now, they'll even let her publish under her own name.

In Chile, Emilia is able to eventually reconnect with her biological father, who by this point is destitute and near death's door. She and Eric are separated for the first part of the war, covering different aspects of the fight, and when they finally reunite, they realise that their friendship has developed into stronger feelings. They share a short interlude of passion before Eric goes off to follow one of the upcoming battles in closer detail. While they are separated, Emilia volunteers at one of the local hospitals until she is arrested, suspected of being a foreign spy. She suffers enough to give her serious emotional scars before Eric returns from the battlefield to get her out. He wants to take her back to her family in San Francisco, but Emilia isn't ready to go home until she's explored the mysterious plot of land her biological father left her in his will. 

Isabel Allende wrote on of my favourite novels of all time, The House of the Spirits, and I've enjoyed so many of her other novels as well. She tends to write engaging stories featuring interesting women, who live lives that often challenge the gender and societal norms of the day. Emilia is a very ambitious and confident woman, who even at a time when most women ended up housewives and homemakers insists on going out and making a career for herself. She doesn't allow anyone to fob her off with frivolous pieces of society gossip, she wants to write about things that matter, and isn't afraid to put herself in danger to get a good story.

This book was a nice read, but the only character who really seemed to be fully realised was Emilia herself. Everyone else, including her love interest, is just loosely sketched out, like stock characters who exist in the story to show up another facet and aspect of Emilia's character. As such, it didn't feel quite as rich and complex as some of the other Allende novels I've read. If you've enjoyed her books in the past, though, you're likely to like this one as well. 

Judging a book by its cover: This is a pretty cover, and I like the colour choices on it. I am, however, slightly confused about the scale of certain things. Is the sailing ship a toy behind Emilia? If not, why not have it in the background so it could look like it was closer to the horizon? Are the clouds metaphorical in some way? 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 28: "The Love Haters" by Katherine Center

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 2.5 stars

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

Katie Vaughn is worried about being fired, so she lies about being able to swim, and is persuaded to go to Key West to film a recruitment video about the coast guard. There she meets Tom "Hutch" Hucheson, the seemingly perfect older brother of her co-worker Cole, who has not been informed that his brother has weaselled out of filming the video. Katie is also pretty much adopted by Hutch's "Aunt" Rue and her vibrant and colourful gang of pensioners who hang out in the apartment complex that Rue owns and manages. 

Katie is a "love hater" because her boyfriend cheated on her and broke up with her right as his career as a musician took off, so she's pretty much done with men. Now her ex's songs are playing on the radio constantly, and his most recent hit is literally called "Katie" and seems to be all about how he messed up and wants her back. Katie also has self esteem, a very complicated relationship with food and because of fat shaming by her stepmother early in life, she pretty much hates her body. She literally has a near-panic attack when she has to put on a swimsuit. 

Hutch isn't really a love hater, it's just that his brother Cole doesn't really know his brother at all, he just seems to be jealous that his brother is easy-going, kind, very handsome, has a very impressive job (and became virally famous briefly for saving Jenifer Aniston's dog). So anything he says is likely to be untrue. Hutch agreed to have his work featured, because the coast guard really does need new recruits, but he wanted his brother to do it, so they could spend more time together, and more importantly, with Rue. Nevertheless, he adapts without too much complaint and also agrees to give Katie swim lessons.

Obviously they catch feelings over the course of the book, but now, about a month after I finished the book, I can't actually remember what it is that complicates matters and makes it so that they can't be together. I'm guessing it's probably that Hutch lives and works in Florida and Katie is from somewhere else (again, no memory of where)? The first half of the book is slow, and while I can sympatise with a heroine with some quirks, some of Katie's issues are clearly serious enough that she should have been (and probably still be) in intensive therapy, rather than just have her supportive bestie try to talk her down whenever she has a wobbly. When they dominate the story quite that much, it would be nice if there was some sort of resolution over the course of the story. But there isn't. Although she learns to appreciate colourful clothing and doesn't freak out when she has to wear a bathing suit, so that's good enough, right?

The second half of the book, especially the last third, is when I seriously considered just giving up. If I had a physical copy of the book, I would have been tempted to throw it at a wall. Cole suddenly shows up out of nowhere and pretends that he and Katie are dating. Their boss, who is bitter after an acrimonious divorce, also shows up, and the fake relationship has to happen or Katie and/or Cole might get fired? I think Cole is meant to be charming, I found him to be human garbage. There's also a whole thing about a hurricane and needing to evacuate and Katie making incredibly stupid choices.However, I persevered, hoping that maybe the story could be saved - alas, it was not to be. 

I've only read one book by Katherine Center previously, The Rom-Commers, which I liked enough to rate it 4.5 stars, despite a rather shaky final act there too. This, I can only give 2.5 to, and that's mainly for aunt Rue and her Golden Girls-esque group of friends, and the fact that being a coast guard is a more unsusual profession to give your hero. If this had been my first attempt at Ms. Center's writing, I would not read any more of her books, despite owning several of them as e-books. I did really like The Rom-Commers, though, so I will give her at least one more chance. 

Judging a book by its cover: I have no idea what's going on with this cover, but it doesn't in any way fit with the contents of this book. This makes it seem like it's about people lazing about and enjoying themselves on vacation, which isn't the case at all. Katie gets an anxiety attack just having to put on a bathing suit, there is no way she'd ever display herself so openly on a pool floatie. Hutch is a professional rescue swimmer who doesn't seem to have time for this sort of leisurely relaxation. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 27: "Time Loops & Meet Cutes" by Jackie Lau

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, Jackie Lau and Atria Books for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Noelle Tom feels like she's in a rut. She's underappreciated at work, she doesn't have much of a social life to speak of, and she's pretty much given up on love and dating. Having worked late yet another Friday evening, Noelle goes to the night market and buys some dumplings from a mysterious old woman who claims they will "give her what she needed most". 

Unfortunately, eating the dumplings causes Noelle to be trapped in a time loop. Every morning, no matter what she tries or does, she wakes up on Friday the 20th of June. All of her work is reset, any conversations she has are forgotten the next day. She can cut and/or dye her hair, and it's back to her usual length the next morning when she wakes up. Any money she spends, no matter how big a sum, is back in her bank account as well. When she tries to return to the night market, the old woman's food stall is nowhere to be found, even if everything else plays out the same for her, every day. Only Noelle remembers all the things she has tried and experienced. She needs to figure out what will break her out of the time loop.

After some time, reliving the same day on repeat, Noelle locates another woman, Avery, who also ate the mystery dumplings and is stuck in the same time loop, if possible in an even worse situation than Noelle (she has her period and has discovered that she wants to break up with her boyfriend - and every morning she wakes up in bed with him again). Avery and Noelle bond over their unusual situation, and while everything else resets each morning, they remember the conversations and experiences they have have together, allowing them to slowly develop a firm and supportive friendship.

Noelle keeps running into Cam, a friendly and handsome brewery owner. Every time he sees Noelle, he seems to almost remember her, prompting Noelle to believe he might be able to help her get out of her predicament. She orchestrates a long series of different meet-cutes, and as she gets to know him in a series of dates, she falls in love with him, while he has to be reminded of who she is with each new reset. 

I've been reading Jackie Lau's novels for a few years now, and she keeps getting stronger and more sophisticated as a writer. Normally, her novels are straight contemporary romances, set in Canada. Here she introduces an element of magical realism with the time loop, and in the first half of the novel, especially, the focus of the story isn't so much on the romance between Noelle and Cam, but the friendship between Noelle and Avery, who both very much need someone else to listen to and support them in their lives. While Noelle is trapped in the time loop, as she gets to know Cam a bit more with each new encounter, he keeps forgetting her, and it's not possible for their relationship to really progress.

In the second half of the novel, Noelle and Avery are faced with a new challenge, as they are unexpectedly freed from the time loop, but instead of waking up on June 21st, it's January 24th. More than seven months have passed, and some version of them seems to have lived through these months, without either of them having any memory of the passing time. Avery seems to actually be engaged to her boyfriend and will need to deal with that. Meanwhile, Noelle needs to figure out why her sister doesn't seem to want to see or speak to her anymore, but also has a real chance to build a proper relationship with Cam. 

Because of the time loop element, this novel is a rather unusual romance. If the friendship developing between Avery and Noelle doesn't work for you, this book might seem slow and frustrating, since most of the actual romance stuff comes in the second half. I really liked it, though, and recommend it to fans of Lau's previous novels. 

Judging a book by its cover: I think the cover is cute, and the dark blue background with what looks like little golden dots gives it a more magical, whimsical feel. I like how we get three versions of Noelle and Cam, growing increasingly closer to one another as the story progresses.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 26: "The Gods Time Forgot" by Kelsie Sheridan Gonzales

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 3 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

Rua remembers nothing from before she woke up in a muddy hole in upstate New York. Her maid and everyone around her claims that she's Emma Harrington, missing for two days, but Rua while Rua may look just like her, she is certain there is nothing of Emma in her. Emma's wealthy parents are determined to try bury the scandal of Emma's behaviour, which isn't made easier when Rua in Emma's body behaves in ways a debutante from the 1870s most certainly shouldn't. 

Finn Somethingorother (cannot be bothered to go back to the book to find his actual surname), Lord of Donore, is in New York trying to secure lucrative business deals so he can secure his position in society, and use his wealth and privilege to support a hospital and an orphanage. One of the wealthy magnates would like him to marry his daughter, but at every social gathering, Finn can't take his eyes off the scandalous Emma Harrington, who insists he should call her Rua. He also can't understand why he seems like he knows her from somewhere. 

According to the publisher: "Irish mythology collides with Gilded Age New York in this sweeping debut enemies-to-lovers historical romantasy, perfect for fans of Outlander and A Fate Inked in Blood." I'm a sucker for creative use of mythology in a story, I read far too few books set during the Gilded Age, despite loving historical romances, and I tend to really enjoy a good enemies to lovers plot.

Sadly, I should have remembered that most of the time, publishers have an extremely creative interpretation of what the book they're selling actually contains. Is there Irish mythology in this? Yes, and I thought it was rather creatively used, and wish there had been more of it. We also get an insight into New York in the 1870s, but it mostly involves very snooty and controlling mothers with lofty social ambitions for their offspring. Occasionally Rua wanders around unaccompanied in an inappropriately informal outfit, and gets herself into more trouble as Emma Harrington is more deeply embroiled in scandal. 

Is this enemies to lovers? Not even close. This is former lovers possibly trapped in the bodies of other people and trying to remember how they fit together and what the heck has happened to bring them to where they are now. The romance is probably the least interesting plot of this book, and once the whole convoluted mess of who Rua and Finn really are to one another and how they came to be in New York at this time is explained, the book is pretty much over, and there isn't really any time for the reader to see how their romance is likely to work out now that they know the truth.

There are absolutely elements that work, but as a whole, this book is unsatisfying and leaves you wanting a more fleshed out story with more complex characters and character dynamics. 

Judging a book by its cover: There are a lot of interesting elements incorporated in this cover (the knot work arch, the clock face in the background, the ravens, Rua's beautiful dress. However, I really don't like the way the artist has drawn the people, especially Finn, who looks more like a sinister villain than a romantic hero. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 25: "Thank You for Listening" by Julia Whelan

Page count: 400 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 15 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Sewanee (pronounced Swanie, several characters call her Swan) Chester was a child actress on a popular sitcom, but a serious injury while filming her big break as an adult led to her losing an eye and becoming permanently scarred, so now she makes her living as an audiobook narrator. While it may not be as glamorous as acting, she's very good at it and has won several awards. Early in her career, she also narrated romance novels, but now her cynicism makes it too hard for her to believe in Happily Ever Afters, and so she's retired the pseudonym she used to narrate that genre with. 

Normally, Sewanee doesn't go to big conventions, but her boss Mark, is unable to make the Vegas Book Convention and sends her instead. It also gives her a chance to hang out with her best friend, Adaku, who is still an actress and a rising star in Hollywood. Adaku has just been given a very lucrative job offer, and wants Sewanee to come stay in her swanky, all-expenses-paid suite so they can properly celebrate. However, Adaku has to fly to LA to meet with a movie producer, leaving Sewanee alone in a bar, nursing her drink and trying to drown her disappointment, both at not being able to spend more time with her friend, but also because of the way her life has turned out. Her evening looks up as a handsome stranger, Nick, approaches her and insists on buying her a drink. Since his flight is due to leave in a few hours, they are only supposed to have a brief window together, but a freak snowstorm strands him in Vegas for the night, and he and Sewanee spend it together. 

Sewanee's beloved grandmother has Alzheimer's, and the nursing home she is in is expensive, so when Sewanee is offered a frankly staggering amount of money to return to romance narration, unearthing her old pseudonym, she doesn't really have much choice but to accept. The fact that she gets to work with probably the sexiest and most mysterious male narrator in the business, Brock McNight, doesn't hurt either. The two of them gradually strike up a friendship via e-mails and messages, but even with the undeniable chemistry she seems to have with Brock, Sewanee can't quite get Nick out of her head. Of course, she has no contact details for the man, and told him her name was Alice and that she was a book editor, so he would have no way of tracking her down either, should he so want to. 

Sewanee has a choice to make when it turns out Brock is coming to LA for a weekend. She agrees to meet him for dinner - never suspecting what strange plot twists life has in store for her.

This is Julia Whelan's second novel, but to anyone who listens to audiobooks, she's much more famous for her narration. According to her website, she has performed in over 600 audiobooks, and the New Yorker called her the "Adele of audiobooks". You are sure to have heard her voice at some point. While there are several similarities between Sewanee and the author (who is a famous audiobook narrator who also used to act on a popular TV show when she was younger), Whelan is very clear in her author's note that this is in no way autobiographical, it's just another example of write what you know. I did discover that in the aftermath of writing and publishing this, Whelan actually wrote a version of the romance novel that she has Sewanee and Brock narrating, so fans of the novel can actually hear the whole thing, should they so wish. 

Sewanee's motivation for taking the new narration job is that her grandmother has dementia, is starting to deteriorate and needs to be moved into the full-time care ward at her care home. This costs considerably more money, and Sewanee's father isn't inclined to help, as he thinks she could be moved to a cheaper home. My mother passed away two years ago. She had Lewy Body dementia, and as she deteriorated, she was no longer able to live by herself anymore and had to be moved into a closed dementia ward, where she could have 24-hour care. Sewanee's grandmother seems to really love the care home she's in, which is why Sewanee is so determined to let her stay, despite the costs, but my Mum was miserable and kept asking us to take her home, which we obviously couldn't, cause she kept getting hurt or wandering off and getting lost when she wasn't monitored. So reading the parts of this book that dealt with Sewanee's grandmother's worsening condition was really hard, and even writing this paragraph is harder going than I was expecting. 

Even with this subplot, I really enjoyed this book. Julia Whelan obviously knows a lot about audiobook narration, and it was nice to get a glimpse behind the scenes, so to speak. Romance novels where the heroine doesn't have female friends seem really strange to me, so a good and close friendship is always a plus. 

Having really enjoyed this, I think I will also check out Whelan's debut novel, My Oxford Year. 

Judging a book by its cover: A romance cover not featuring people is unusual, but I like it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 24: "The True Love Experiment" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 5 stars

StoryGraph Easy Reading Challenge 25: A book with two authors

Felicity "Fizzy" Chen loves her life and career as a romance writer. The problem is that she's suffering from a bad case of writers' block, and when she's asked about her personal life in interviews or author panels, it's not like she can confess to never actually having been in love, right? A romance writer should surely have experienced romantic love at some point? With all of her friends happily coupled up, she's also getting pretty tired of her casual dating lifestyle. 

Connor Prince is a divorced documentary film maker whose boss orders him to create a successful reality TV dating show, or he'll get fired. Losing his job would force him to move, and that would mean not seeing his daughter very often, which is an unacceptable option, in his eyes. After a run-in with Fizzy, he's pretty sure he has the perfect pitch - one of the reigning queens of romance finding her own Prince Charming. Fizzy is fairly unimpressed when she first meets him (it's clear that he has very litte understanding or respect for romance novels as a genre, and he clearly hasn't read a single one of her books), and sends him an absolutely ludicrous list of demands. He agrees to pretty much all of them, and suddenly, Fizzy is about to become a reality TV star.

Before the show can start filming, they need to locate a suitable selection of dates for Fizzy, and she has insisted that the various "romance heroes" represent many of the tropes found in the genre. She also discovers that her first impression of Connor, as a money hungry media guy couldn't be further from the truth, and as she spends more time with him during pre-production of the show, it becomes clear that no matter how many charming men the production team manage to scrounge up - her ideal man may in fact be the one whose career depends on her finding happiness with another guy. 

Fizzy was an awesome supporting character in The Soulmate Equation and while I liked that book a lot, I absolutely loved this one. Fizzy and Connor are just such great characters, both seperately and apart. We obviously get cameos from Jess, River and Juno (who happens to be good friends with Connor's daughter - he coaches their soccer team) and it's lovely to see their continued HEA as a side story. Since Juno was never an annoying plot moppet, but felt like an actual human girl, I was relieved to see that Christina Lauren continued their streak of believable and likeable tween girls in this book. Connor's ex-wife and her new boyfriend were great additions to the supporting cast, as were several fun members of the reality TV production team. 

While this is probably not a perfect romance novel for some, it just worked really well for me, which might be a bit strange, considering I've never watched a single episode of any dating show, ever. That should tell you how great this is. I saw someone on Goodreads saying that Connor is clearly based on Brett Goldstein, and that's certainly not a bad mental image to have of him. If I have to mentally cast Fizzy, it would probably be someone like Sherry Cola from Nobody Wants This, she and Fizzy seem to have the same kind of energy to me. 

Judging a book by its cover: This is fine, I guess? I like purple and red, and who doesn't like fireworks? It also doesn't feature cartoon depictions of the main characters, so I guess I'm happy they did something different.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 23: "The Soulmate Equation" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

StoryGraph Easy Reading Challenge 25: A book with two authors

Jess Davis is a single mom who tries to make ends meet doing freelance statistics work, mostly working at a local coffee shop, with her best friend writing her romance novels right next to her. She lives in a small apartment on the ground floor of the apartment building her grandparents manage, and they help her raise her daughter, just as they raised her after her irresponsible mother gave up on Jess. 

While Jess very much enjoys listening to her best friend Fizzy recount her many and varied dating encounters, Jess herself has lived through enough abandonment to want to risk herself on the dating market. Especially because she wants to shield her beloved daughter from getting attached to someone and suffering the same feelings of disappointment as Jess. However, once Fizzy hears about GeneticAlly, a new matchmaking app using DNA results to find their users their perfect matches, she insists that they both try it out - after all, Jess believes in statistics, is she going to deny a chance for science to find her a possible partner?

Shortly after Jess submits her DNA sample, she is contacted by the founders of GeneticAlly. It seems Jess' sample showed a 98% compatibility with someone. Not only is that the highest match the company has ever seen, but her match is one of the company's founders, Dr. River Peña, a very handsome geneticist. River comes into the same coffee shop, where Jess and Fizzy work, at the exact same time every day, ordering exactly the same thing. In her previous encounters with the scientist, Jess has determined that he is stubborn, arrogant and unpleasant. He cannot possibly be her soulmate, no matter what the numbers say. 

GeneticAlly really could use some good publicity before the company goes live, and they are willing to pay Jess to go on a few dates with River, take part in some interviews and keep an open mind about getting to know him. As Jess is pretty strapped for money, she doesn't really feel like she can refuse their generous offer. Of course, as soon as the two of them start actually seeing each other regularly, relaxing and spending more time together, Jess discovers her first impressions of River might have been wrong, and starts wondering if science might have found her perfect match.

I've read a lot of Christina Lauren's romances over the years. It's been a long time since I enjoyed one of their books as much as this one. The set-up for the romance is interesting, and likeable protagonists who are both very good at their jobs also help make this book a winner. In addition, the supporting cast is all pretty great, from Jess' BFF Fizzy, her grandparents and even her daughter, who actually seems like a realistic (if possibly a bit precocious) child, not just an annoying plot moppet. 

There is a third act complication which splits our lovers up for a bit, but unlike in a lot of novels, it didn't seem crammed in just to add to the drama, and there's a very satisfactory grovelling scene by one of the protagonists before they happily reunite. The author duo's books can vary in quality, but if you have enjoyed some of their books in the past, I would absolutely recommend this. I thought it was one of their best ones so far. 

Judging a book by its cover: A romance cover that doesn't feature cutesy cartoon people? How unusual. As a matter of fact, the UK covers for these books do feature cartoony people, and it's one of the reasons I dislike them more. The cartoon style is not to my taste, and the colour choices are odd. So I'm happy my book comes with this cover. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 22: "Lady Knight" by Amalie Howard

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo 25: Book by an author you've never read

Thank you to Netgalley and Joy Revolution for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Lady Zenobia "Zia" Osborn and several of her female friends have started a secret society, calling themselves Lady Knights, and at night, they dress up as highwaymen and rob the carriages of Lady Zia's brother's rich friends. They need to collect enough money to ensure the survival of their boarding school, not to mention the orphanage next door to the school. The rents keep being raised, and if the nuns who run the orphanage can't pay, they and all the helpless children will be evicted. 

One of Lady Zia's teachers is a progressive young woman who allows her charges to read controversial literature, like Mary Wollstonecraft or Frankenstein. She also encourages the young women's intelligence and critical thinking and encourages Zia's interest in music. Despite their best efforts to disguise themselves, someone recognises Zia, and can't for the life of him figure out why the daughter of a duke would risk her life at night, robbing noblemen.

Mr. Rafi Nasser, nephew to the unscrupulous nobleman who wants to evict the orphans, also happens to be the best friend of Zia's older brother. As such, he's had plenty of opportunities to observe Zia, and he can recognise her distinctive perfume and her voice, even when she's dressed up and robbing him at gunpoint. Even when he finds out why Zia and her friends (none of them from families as rich and influential as herself) are doing their dangerous nighttime raids, he encourages her to stop, before anyone gets hurt. 

Even Zia's daytime pursuits are enough to make her father upset with her, wanting her to settle down and find a suitable husband. Rafi has a vested interest in keeping an eye on Zia, Zia needs someone her parents like as a suitor, so they agree to a fake courtship to get Zia's parents to calm down. As is always the case with fake courtships, it doesn't take very long before the feelings are all too real.

I know Amalie Howard has written a number of historical romances for adults, and this is her second one for a YA audience. While I own several of her books, including Queen Bee, the companion novel to this one (featuring Zia's brother and the woman he eventually ends up engaged to, in a YA Regency twist on The Count of Monte Cristo, if the description is to be believed), I have never actually sat down to read one of her books. So getting this ARC was a good thing because it forced me to actually commit to reading one of her books. I'm now really glad that I have a large back catalogue of her books to dive into, because this book was delightful.

While it may seem like Zia and her friends get up to all sorts of anachronistic lady shenanigans, it seems like Howard has actually done her research pretty well, although as with the Bridgerton TV series, the English nobility of Howard's fictional universe is certainly a lot more diverse than I suspect was the case in real life. Zia's formidable duchess mother is from India, and Rafi's mother is Persian. One of Zia's best friends is Asian, and there is also some very nicely done queer representation in the book, including Zia's asexual best friend, who's known her intended (also ace) husband since childhood. Representation matters, people, especially in YA books. 

Since this is a YA novel, it is a rather chaste affair. I think there was some kissing between Zia and Rafi, but nothing beyond that. Their romance was very sweet, though, and I can't wait to go back to read the story of Zia's brother and future sister-in-law. 

Judging a book by its cover: Not only does this have yet another animated cover, but it looks a bit like it was made as a colouring book template. The whole thing looks like it may be from a "Regency colouring book for adults". The couple on the cover at least look like they might be Zia and Rafi, though, so I guess that's a good thing. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 21: "A Duke Never Tells" by Suzanne Enoch

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Lady Margaret "Meg" Pinwell is about to start her first season when her father announces that he's spoken to his old friend, the Duke of Earnhurst, and secured her a coveted match with said duke's son and heir. Before Meg has a chance to even go to London and have any fun during the Season, the Duke promptly dies, and forces Meg into a year of mourning, since she is now affianced with the new duke. 

A year later, with absolutely no contact from the man she is contracted to marry, Meg is unsurprisingly a bit fed up. A missive to her parents assures them that the new Duke still intends to honour the agreement and Meg will become a duchess without ever even having been to London. The new Duke is rumoured to be quite the rake, with a reputation for gambling, carousing and womanising before his father's death. He didn't even show up to his own father's funeral. Meg asks her aunt Clara (her mother's younger sister) for advice, and they think up a scheme, where they will go to the ducal country estate, pretending to be ladies on the way to London, touring country estates. With Meg disguised as Clara's impoverished companion, they will hopefully get the chance to ask the duke's staff about him, so Meg can get a clearer idea of whether she wants to marry this man at all.

Unbeknownst to Meg and Clara, James Clay, the current Duke of Earnhurst is in fact residing at his country estate, arguing with Elliot Riniken, his father's former (now his) estate management about how his irresponsible behaviour has led to the estate being an overgrown mess, with a manor house that's falling apart. Water leaks have led to several holes in the ceiling, the library is partially covered in mould, and most of the staff have run off to get new positions, with the former butler having stolen a lot of the more valuable silver. The reason the estate is in such a dreadful state is that the former Duke wanted his son to return home, and face his responsibilities for a few years before his death. Both men were incredibly stubborn, James refused, while his father just gave up on any and all upkeep of the house or surroundings, because he decided it was up to his son to fix things. Now they're about to host a wedding in six weeks, and Rinikin can't authorise any repairs until the new duke signs off on them. James seems mostly happy to drink himself into a stupor. 

Since there are barely any servants left on the premises, the duke himself opens the door when Clara, not actually a noblewoman but the younger sister of a woman who has married an earl, arrives, disguised as a highborn lady, Lady Sophronia, accompanied by her paid companion, Mabel (Meg). Having recently raided the wine cellar, James thinks it will be a great idea to claim he is the butler of the estate, and he takes the two ladies into the duke's office, claiming that Mr Riniken is the duke. Riniken, a former army officer, is a good ten years older than James, so the two ladies are quite shocked by his appearance, not to mention the ramshackle state of the building, and the fact one of the only servants they can see appears to be drunk in the middle of the day. 

Since the ladies are pretending to tour country houses, they agree to go on a tour of the premises (in some of the rooms that aren't actively dangerous to enter), but they've not been there long before Meg tumbles down half a staircase, due to a rotten bannister, and injures her foot badly. The doctor proclaims that she needs complete rest for at least one week, probably two, and suddenly James' practical joke will need to be maintained for the duration of the ladies' stay, lest gossip spread to London that the new Duke of Earnhurst is a drunken madman who pretends to be a butler to visitors. 

Four people, lying about their true identities, two of them also about the reason they're even at the estate in the first place, are stuck in a house that's falling apart, forced into close proximity while maintaining an increasingly more elaborate deception. Since Meg/Mabel is forced to stay bedridden for a lot of the stay, Clara/Sophronia spends a lot of time trying to get to know the "Duke" better, so they can find evidence to present to Meg's parents for why the match must be broken. Finding herself gradually falling for the man she believes is her beloved niece's intended isn't exactly ideal. Rinikin, on his part, is fighting his attraction to what he believes to be a woman of a much higher status than himself. James, seemingly the world's worst butler, would also be a deeply inappropriate match for Lady Margaret Pinwell, or even Mabel the ladies' companion - but they also can't seem to stop being drawn to one another, kissing whenever the opportunity arises.

In your standard romance novel, you sometimes get romances featuring the mistaken identity trope. Well, in this book, not only do you get two romances for the price of one, but you get mistaken identity times four. Not only that, but you get multiple POVs. Not only do the readers get to see the story through Meg, Clara, James and Elliot's eyes, but there are a few chapters from the POV of James' very supercilious and long-suffering valet. 

It's been years since I read a romance by Suzanne Enoch, and this was quite different from any historical romance I've read before. Sometimes you have secondary romances taking place in the background while our protagonists find their HEAs, but in this book, there are four protagonists and both romances come with a number of complications, getting more and more farcical as the story progresses. 

While we are given reasons for why James Clay has been completely ignoring his responsibilities for years, causing his country estate to deteriorate so badly, they just seemed rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things. His father was too hard on him, he seemed to always prefer the opinions of Rinikin and treated him as a replacement son (at least in the eyes of James). Because of the weird power struggle between the former duke and his son, most of the staff went without wages and were forced to find jobs elsewhere. Rinikin is at his wits' end trying to keep the business side of the dukedom afloat. It's not until a beautiful woman is badly hurt falling down the stairs that James seems to see that the house is a wreck and he needs to do something to fix it. Not only does he authorise Rinikin to handle craftsmen to come to repair it, but he does a lot of the physical labour himself, especially when it comes to restoring the gardens (this also seemed rather out of character for a privileged nobleman). 

Obviously, everything works out fine in the end, with everyone's true identities being revealed in plenty of time for a double wedding and HEAs all over the place. This was a fun enough book, but I think four people running around lying about their identities was a bit too much for me. I don't mind a light-hearted romp, but there were a bit too many complications for me to be likely to want to reread this in the future. 

Judging a book by its cover: While I'm delighted to see something other than yet another cartoony cover on a romance novel, I'm not sure that this is a great improvement. The hot pink, the lurid green, the teal of the cover model's cravat. It's all a bit of an eyesore. The guy's smirk isn't exactly helping, either. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 20: "To Steal from Thieves" by M.K. Lobb

Page count: 400 pages (DNF at 35 %)

Rating: 2.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Books for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

In an alternate version of Victorian London, magic exists and can be used to improve technology. It's known as alchemology, and requires the magic-user to sacrifice some blood and life force to create the magical element known as primateria. It means that alchemologists tend to have shorter lifespans, which was certainly the case with Zaria Mendoza's father. Now she's an orphan struggling to complete her father's outstanding commissions to unsavoury individuals in the London underworld. Soulsteel, the material required to create primateria is rare and expensive, and she keeps having to postpone her rent payments. If her landlord wasn't the father of her best friend, she would probably be out on the streets already.

Kane Durante has been tasked by his patron, the sinister underworld kingpin Ward, to find a particular necklace coming in on one of the boats in the port. He and his best friend, Fletcher, have been working undercover on the docks, trying to intercept the necklace before it goes on display at the Royal Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, because having to steal it from such a public place will be a nightmare. Unfortunately, neither he nor Fletcher are successful and it seems like they have no choice but to pull off a dangerous, nearly impossible heist. If Ward doesn't get his necklace, he promises to do all manner of unpleasant things to Fletcher. So a-heisting they will go.

Having fetched a magical firearm from Zaria while undercover, he decides she is essential to the success of their endeavour, and manages to persuade her to cooperate through a combination of threats and promises. Zaria desperately needs enough money to get her and her best friend Julian out of London, and if she can help Kane rob the Crystal Palace, her share of the loot will be enough for them to live comfortably and get away from the squalor that is their current lives. 

Of course, Kane and Zaria are both cynical, distrustful individuals used to relying on no one but themselves. They both plan to betray the other before the end of the heist, with no misgivings about how this could affect the other. 

Does the heist succeed? Do Kane and Zaria turn from reluctant allies who snipe flirtatiously at each other to potential lovers? Does Kane discover that his patron and boss, Ward, clearly had more to do with his parents' death than has previously been revealed?

I don't know, because I just couldn't with this book. While I thought the magic system introduced was really interesting, I really didn't care about Kane or Zaria at all. It's nice that they both have a platonic best friend they're willing to risk everything for, to the point of stupidity (it's obvious that both Jules and Fletcher would be deeply unhappy knowing how many dangerous things their friends are willing to risk for their sakes), but having spent three days forcing myself through only the first third of the book, I decided to peak ahead to see if things got more exciting further on in the book - and I still wasn't convinced. 

From what I can see, the book ends in a way that suggests at least one sequel (or the ending will be very unsatisfying), but I have absolutely no wish to read more books about these characters. Both the characters and setting felt like they were strongly inspired by Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, but unlike those books, where I pretty much gave up on food and sleep to get through the books faster, there was nothing here to hold my attention. I haven't read anything else by M.K. Lobb, so I can't say if the writing style is similar to their previous works, or something new they're trying. I'm sure this will make for an exciting heist narrative for another reader, but for me, this was a DNF. 

Judging a book by its cover: I'm guessing the necklace that dominates the centre of the cover is the item they're planning to steal. I'm not entirely sure why the cover artist chose to portray him looking like a spoiled prep school boarder, but that's just not at all how he's described in the book. The girl, who I'm guessing must be Zaria, appears to have her own wind machine since her curls are so out of control. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 19: "Love at First Flight" by Janine Amesta

Page count: 257 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo 2025: Book Dedicated to a Parent

Thank you to Janine Amesta for granting me this ARC. It has not influenced my review, my opinions are my own. Thank you also, Emmalita, who tipped me off about this author. 

Selah Moreno's beloved stepfather always wanted to be an airline pilot, but couldn't become one for a number of reasons. So he flew hot air balloons instead. Selah trains to become a pilot instead, but when her father unexpectedly dies, and her mother and younger sisters need help, she puts her dream of flying planes on hold to take over the air balloon business. Things are not made easier when she discovers that the man she idolised made several unwise financial decisions shortly before his death. Now the family business is in serious trouble.

Selah meets the handsome park ranger Dex Westerly when he books a hot air balloon ride to propose to his influencer girlfriend. The proposal does not go well, and when the balloon lands at the end, some unexpected complications result in Selah landing on top of the humiliated man, in what would otherwise possibly have been quite an interesting embrace. When Selah and Dex next meet, he's still processing his failed relationship, but the spark that was obvious when they first met is still there. Selah doesn't have the time or inclination to become anyone's rebound girlfriend, but the park ranger is handsome and they keep running into each other. She also finds his unusual roommate, Harper, a rescued crow, amusing.

Dex and Selah agree to work together to try to raise money for a wildlife rescue program in the park. It will also help raise the profile of the Moreno family's air balloon business, which really needs more customers. The initial event is a hit, and soon, thanks to a social media post by Selah's sister which goes viral, a lot of people think that there is a budding romance between Selah and Dex, and they get more than one enquiry from the media to appear on air.

Selah has been bottling up her emotions about her father's passing since his death since she has had to be the one keeping the business afloat and supporting her mother and sisters. Nevertheless, she has made no attempt to hide that she plans to go off to be an airline pilot as soon as she can find someone suitable to help her family with the business, and her 'one foot out the door' attitude is really impacting her relationship with her sisters. 

Dex is dealing with the aftermath of his rather humiliating breakup but discovers that he doesn't really miss the woman he was trying to propose to. He is sad that he won't have a chance to build the life with her that he had been envisioning (without really ever considering her wants or wishes at the time, she clearly did not want cosy domesticity with a dude whose half-tame crow shows up to cause chaos pretty much daily). Having grown up with very distant and rather cold parents, he's drawn not just to the vibrant Selah, but her loving and affectionate family as well. 

The main complications in this story are caused by Selah being so set on fulfilling her stepfather's lost dream of flying airplanes, that she won't let herself ever consider a different future for herself. Her mother is still struggling with coping without her husband, and her sisters feel like she is rejecting them and their family by planning to leave the second she gets the chance. This also means she's unwilling to really commit fully to her relationship with Dex, even though the man is clearly a treasure, telling herself that it's only a temporary, rebound relationship anyway.

Thankfully, as is always the case in romance, they find their happy ending. Harper was a cool and unusual animal companion, clearly not actually a pet, but a discerning (she didn't like Dex' ex much, but clearly loves Selah) and amusing presence in the story. After losing my own mother two years ago, the exploration of grief in books always hits me a bit differently than it used to, but there was nothing too triggering here. 

Selah's relationship with her sisters and mother was very well done, I thought. Her youngest sister comes across as rather irresponsible and bratty at first, but Amesta takes the time to make the reader (and Selah) understand why she has been acting the way she has, and the sisters find a deeper understanding of each other over the course of the book. I'm very excited to see her sisters find their own happy endings in the coming books, and will absolutely be checking out the author's previous romance novels. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 18: "Tress of the Emerald Sea" by Brandon Sanderson

Page count: 479 pages

Audio book length: 12 hrs 27 mins

Rating: 4.5 stars

Buzzword Cover Challenge 25: Celestial (there is a big moon and several stars on the cover)

What if in The Princess Bride, Buttercup didn't sit at home and mourn for Westley when he was captured by pirates, but instead went off to try to rescue him? Of course, that would mean Buttercup had any agency at all in either the novel or the film, and she really doesn't. But if Buttercup was a young woman named Tress, from a barren and fairly desolate island, who washes windows at the duke's mansion and collects cups, with the only thing making her life worthwhile being her friendship with the duke's son (who pretends to be a gardener), and one day, Charlie, her best friend (who she's only recently discovered that she's also in love with) is taken away by his father to be married off (a poor window washer girl is not a suitable match for him)? Charlie promises to be so dreadfully boring to every suitable bride he meets that no one will want to marry him, and every time is rejected by another bride, he will write to her and send her another cup from his travels. 

However, after some months, the letters stop coming. Then the duke returns, but Charlie isn't with him. Charlie has been kidnapped by the Sorceress, and it doesn't seem like anyone cares except Tress. First, she needs to figure out how to get off the island (no one but the duke's family is ever allowed to leave). On the first ship she travels on, she meets a talking rat, who she takes with her when the ship is attacked by pirates. It's important to note that in this world, while there are ships and long voyages, the oceans are made up of spores that react very violently to the presence of any liquids. Very occasionally, the spore currents still for a time, and it's possible for brave, or exceedingly foolish, individuals to walk along on top of the spores. This is how Tress gets from the attacked ship onto the pirate vessel, where she gradually befriends more of the crew and works her way up in rank, despite the misgivings of the blood-thirsty pirate captain. 

Tress isn't entirely sure how she's going to help the motley crew of pirates from becoming exploited by their captain, and persuade them that they really want to assist her in travelling across the Crimson Sea to the Midnight Sea (the two most dangerous areas on the planet), and face the terrifying Socreress to rescue the boy she loves. But she knows that if she gives up, Charlie has no one coming for him, and that is unacceptable to her.

This is an adventure story with a plucky heroine, who keeps succeeding against all odds, sometimes because she just won't quit.While Tress has had a sheltered and rather uneventful life until she decides to leave the safety of her home to go off and rescue Charlie, she's not stupid, and her determination to get to him makes her face challenges that would make others quake. Occasionally, her lack of experience also makes her less afraid of dangers than she probably should be, since she just doesn't realise what the consequences of the potential threats. She's also kind-hearted and determined to help those who show her kindness along the way, even if it might delay her ultimate goal of getting to the Sorceress.

This is the first of the four secret projects that Brandon Sanderson announced that he wrote when he suddenly had a lot of extra downtime during the Pandemic. While most of us binged TV shows and perfected our sourdough loaves, Sanderson apparently wrote four entire novels, in addition to all the work he was already contracted for. The man is a machine! This led to probably the biggest Kickstarter campaign in history. Sanderson started writing this story for his wife, after wondering what The Princess Bride could have been like if the heroine wasn't just a passive player, having the plot happen to her. 

I didn't have the finances to get all four secret projects in hardback (not only did the books themselves cost quite a lot, but the shipping to Norway was incredibly expensive), so I only got Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, because these two books were the ones that looked the prettiest and most interesting to me. I did get digital and audio copies of all the other books, though, which allowed me to listen to parts of this in audiobook as well. 

Most of Sanderson's many many novels fit into a larger fictional universe called the Cosmere. That means that a lot of his books are vaguely interconnected. Since this book fits into the Cosmere, but there are more than twenty other works that come before it, I had this grand plan last year, to do a re-read of the Sanderson novels I had read (most of them a very long time ago now) and catch up on all the ones I hadn't read, so I'd be able to properly enjoy the various secret projects, and not be confused by the references. Sadly, this failed almost at the first hurdle, when I had finished the brilliant Mistborn, and then just couldn't get past the opening chapters of The Well of Ascencion, the next book in the series. Then this got selected as the February read in The Dark Corner, my real life book club, and it became clear that I was just going to have to ignore references to events or characters from other Cosmere books. 

One such character is Hoid, who narrates the story of Tress and Charlie to us readers. He has apparently appeared in a bunch of Sanderson's novels (some of which I have read, if the wiki article I read is correct - and I don't see why it wouldn't be) in various different guises. In this book, he's a cabin boy who has been cursed by The Sorceress (who is also a character from the wider Cosmere universe) becaue of a bet. He speaks and behaves nonsensically for much of the story because of this curse. Some of the members in my bookclub found the way the story was told (Hoid frequently breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the reader) incredibly annoying. The 2-3 people who didn't like the book cited Hoid's storytelling style and all three felt it wanted to be Pratchett, but didn't succeed. 

Most people, however, really liked the book, and since this was our February choice, we had a very interesting discussion about whether this could be classed as a romance, or whether it was more accurately a love story. The general consensus was that Tress' love for Charlie is completely central to the plot, it's the force that drives her to change her life and leave the island, it's what keeps her going even when things seem almost impossible, and that the book wouldn't work without the love story at its centre. We also agreed that if the book had been sold to us as a great romance, we would probably have been disappointed. 

Personally, I didn't find Hoid all that annoying, and very much like when I was reading To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, I decided to just enjoy the story on its own terms, and ignore any references that went over my head. Knowing that this was at least in part inspired by The Princess Bride (one of my favourite films, and books, I had fun seeing the many ways in which the story resembled, or subverted the plot of that story. 

As always, Sanderson's world building and approach to magic systems is fantastic, and even the ones who didn't like the book that much had to admit that the oceans of spores idea was great. If anything, there was quite a bit of grumbling because the book claimed there were twelve different kinds of spores, and we only got to learn about five of them in-story. The characters were interesting, and even the Pirate Captain, who by some could be seen as villainous, had very clear motivations and it was made obvious why she might have chosen to act as she did. Some of the bookclub members highlighted her as one of their favourite characters,

Reading Sanderson again did remind me that his writing has always worked for me, and gave me further motivation to actually continue my "Reading the Cosmere" project this year. I'm not going to try to give myself a set time limit this time, that clearly did NOT work, and he has such a big back catalogue of mostly very long books, but I do want to revisit some of the ones I read in the past, and continue the various series. The people who love Sanderson, love him SO much. I'm trying to focus on quality over quantity in my reading now, and not get freaked out if I don't get to read a set number of books per year, but rather focus on the things I read being enjoyable.

Finally, I wanted to end this review by mentioning how utterly gorgeous my Kickstarter-funded hardback is. It is illustrated throughout, with some beatiful drawings, and, as I discovered as I got further through the book, colour coded to which of the seas Tress finds herself at the time. When she travels the Emerald sea, the chapter headings and page numbers are in a beautiful green, when she travels into the Crimson sea, the colours change to red, and then to inky black when she crosses into the dreaded Midnight sea. Having such a pretty edition of the book makes the exorbitant cost of shipping sting slightly less. 

Judging a book by its cover: My hardback is a lovely, clothbound book with different textures for the patterns of the various elements of the cover. As far as I can tell, most of the editions of this book feature Tress and some varation on a giant moon on the cover, but I think this is one of the prettiest versions. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.