CBR18 Book 46: "Dominion" by Jean Kwok

Page count: 448 pages

Rating: 4 stars

CBR18 Bingo: 26 (published this year. This month, in fact)

Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is on sale now.

Rubi is an azure, a group of displaced and badly treated refugees. In this fantasy world, there are four dominions, each with its own specialities. There is the Azure Dragon dominion, which can control plants and all things growing, and many of their people can shapeshift into animals; the Scarlet Phoenix dominion, which controls fire; the Silver Tyger (yes, that's how they spell the name of the magical animal) dominion, which can manipulate metal; and the Onyx Tortoise dominion, which controls water and ice. The various dominions also seem to have very different views on gender equality. The Scarlet Dominion is fully matriarchal; in the Azure Dominion, men and women seem to have been treated as equals; in the Silver Dominion, there is a strong bent towards misogyny, with the current king being extremely dismissive of his only child, a daughter. Finally, in the Onyx Dominion, women are entirely subservient to men, and their magic is used to fuel the male wielders. 

The azures became refugees and had to shelter among the other three dominions after something known as the Annihilation, which was supposed to be a joyous and special event, when the Crown Prince of the Azure Dominion wed the Crown Princess of the Scarlet Dominion in a rare love match. However, demons poured forth from the ground, killing and/or devouring a lot of the guests, including the bride, the Scarlet Crown Princess, and the King of the Onyx Dominion. The whole Azure royal family disappeared and is believed to also have been devoured by the demons. Because of this, all cross-dominion alliances are considered an impossibility, and the Azure people who have had to flee to other parts of the world are mostly seen as second-class citizens and set to do all the hardest jobs. 

Rubi lives in the woods with her foster mum. She was orphaned when fleeing from the Annihilation and has more or less total amnesia. Occasionally she has dreams where a woman's voice sings her a song with a prophecy, but she can never remember the woman's face when she wakes up. Rubi runs into Blake Axefire (yes, that's his name), also known as the Ambush Master, the king's chief enforcer, when he is in the woods near the cabin where she lives, looking for an escaped tyger. When trying to defend herself from said tyger, Rubi stabs it and is promptly arrested because it is a deadly offence to injure one of the king's magical tygers. Not only that, the tyger is basically the queen tyger, the only adult female able to bear cubs. The last queen tyger died after its mate died (they're bonded for life and can't live without their mate), along with its bonded rider, Blake's twin brother Zayden (yes, also that name) during the Annihilation. 

But of course, Rubi is our super special romantasy heroine, so despite the fact that azures can't bond with tygers, and that no female tyger has bonded with anyone for centuries, Flame, the current queen tyger, bonds with her. This does not sit well with a whole bunch of people, including the king, his bruthish nephew and heir, Ire, or the princess, Malissa. They pretty much all want Rubi killed, so Flame can bond with someone else. But queen tyger makes it very clear that she'll refuse to mate and have tyger babies if they kill her chosen mate, so now Rubi has to train to be a fighter with the elite silver tyger riders.

As if that wasn't enough, a divine messenger appears and announces that the Annihilation will seem like a child's birthday party unless all the various Dominions gather a band of champions each and work together to stop a potential apocalyptic event. Despite their differences and enmities, it's very important that all four Dominions are equally represented. There's a big public challenge about it, and obviously Rubi is one of the chosen warriors. So is her best friend, Quinn, who can shapeshift into a wolf. Rubi not only has amnesia, but she also seems to have very weak magic and is not able to shapeshift.

Also, Blake doesn't hate her at all, all his grumpiness at the beginning is apparently because he was trying to fight his attraction to her. He loves her, and Jace, the Captain of the King's guard, seems to be very into her as well. 

I don't like the term romantasy. I don't particularly like the new publishing trend that means so many of these books get churned out, and all feel like they are following the same checklist. In November 2024, my bookclub read Fourth Wing, which felt like it owed a LOT of debts to A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (heck, this entire sub-genre owes its popularity to Sarah J. Maas and her books. Most of them even have titles along the lines of "A noun of nouns and nouns".) This book had so many tropes from both of these books. Rubi injures a magical creature and is taken away by a brooding man because of it. Her life will never be the same. There is a super special girl who magically and implausibly bonds with the most impressive of all the magical animals. There's a tortured guy with a very dumb name who is obviously crazy about the heroine.

I know a lot of female authors who started writing about a decade or two ago were pretty much forced to market their books as young adult to get them sold, complete with being persuaded to insert love triangles into the plot because that was what sold back then. This felt like the opposite, a YA fantasy where the author just inserted a bunch of sex scenes in the second half of the book because romantasy has to have spicy scenes and fade to black just won't cut it. 

This book felt so derivative at first, and by about 40%, I decided that if the plot hadn't improved by the halfway point, I was going to just skip to the end and read the final chapters to see what happened. As it turns out, it did get a bit better in the second half, but a lot of the plot was still quite predictable, and oh so tropey. I was all set to give this book 3.5 stars, but then in the final three chapters or so, the author suddenly revealed a bunch of stuff that was surprising enough that I was forced to reevaluate my opinion and went from not being very bothered about seeing where this series is going, to suddenly being quite intrigued. Unfortunately, the twists came a bit too late to save my overall opinion of the book. I can't bring myself to rate something 3.75, though, so a grudging upgrade to 4 full stars it gets. I most likely will read the next book in the series, but I will get it from the library, unless I can score another ARC. 

Judging a book by its cover:

Not going to lie, the cover was one of the things that made me request this ARC. The defiant posture of the girl, the blue hair and swirling fabric (which I now know are Rubi's ribbons). The hint of the tiger in the background. The cover intrigued me, so well done, cover designers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 45: "Witch Season" by Julia Bianco

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 4 stars

CBR18 Bingo: Refuge (The Aestas coven works hard to be a safe haven and refuge for young witches who have snapped and would normally be ostracised by other witches) 

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC. This book is on sale now. 

There are two types of witches (in this world, all magic users are called witches, regardless of gender). The ones who are born from families with established magic, who grew up as part of a coven, and who are therefore guided and helped through the process of manifesting their magic, and then there are "unsettled" witches, who manifest their magic in their late adolescence or early teens in an explosive "snap", usually in a stressful situation or when they lose their temper about something. These snaps can cause immense injury and even death, and tend to be very traumatic for the young witch in question. 

Katherine Barnes, who is now the enforcer for the Aestas coven in Los Angeles, was one such witch, and when she snapped as a teenager, she collapsed an entire wing of her high school, leading to three deaths and countless injuries. Katherine ran from her home, abandoning her family, and ended up helpless and desperate in Los Angeles, where Sylvia, the leader of Aestas, found her and helped her through the very turbulent first years until Katherine's magic settled. Now she has a new name, a magically altered appearance and lives in constant fear and guilt about her past catching up to her. 

Katherine is trying to figure out who is manufacturing and selling magical drugs to regular humans. She's also trying to help a newly unsettled teenage girl named Lily come to terms with her recent snap. On top of everything, Aestas is expecting its annual "audit" from Noctis, the most powerful coven of the United States. Sylvia, Katherine's boss and mentor, is on edge and stressed. She's noticed her own powers fading and is having trouble keeping up with her responsibilities as coven leader. She fears that Silas Khatri, heir to the Noctis coven, is there to replace her (she's not entirely wrong - his parents have sent him to find faults with Sylvia's leadership so he can replace her, but he really doesn't want to take over the coven) and becomes desperate to find a solution that will allow her to retain control.

It's been quite a while since I read any new paranormal/urban fantasy, but this was a very promising start to what seems to be a new series. Katherine, our protagonist, lost her biological family when she snapped and has managed to find a new family among the Aestas coven. She takes her job enforcing the coven's rules very seriously, but her loyalty and sense of gratitude towards Sylvia also make her willing to overlook a lot of very questionable behaviour, which she would clearly not have tolerated from anyone else. 

On the surface of things, Silas Khatri might seem like the antagonist. He's rich, handsome, comes from what basically amounts to witch royalty, and there is clearly bad blood between his parents and Sylvia because of things that went down when Sylvia first discovered her own magic powers (she never snapped, despite coming from a non-magical family). However, Silas has no wish to be the heir to the Noctis coven; he just wants to live a quiet life and teach magically adept teenagers. He has no desire to snoop into the daily workings of the Aestas coven and replace Sylvia as leader. He is immediately attracted to Katherine, but also understands why she is so distrustful of him. She doesn't realise that he is a much harsher critic of himself than she can ever be. 

After there is a massive explosion in a shopping centre in Los Angeles, Katherine and Silas have to work together to figure out whether it was caused by rogue magic or something else. This proves to be a dangerous job, since someone is trying to murder Silas, and Katherine is caught in the crossfire. 

This first book establishes some of the world-building of the series, and the plot developments leave both of our central characters, Katherine and Silas, in new and difficult positions by the end of the book. I'm excited to see how Ms. Bianco further develops the series. 

CBR18 Book 44: "Scandal of the Summer" by Alexandra Vasti

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC. This book is on sale now.

Lady Ruby Ballimore has tried her very best to be the perfect debutante, but no matter how hard she tries, she can't be quiet and biddable and seemingly empty-headed. After yet another disastrous dinner party, which has shown off her unladylike academic prowess to the Ton and enraged her father, she decides that she needs a change of setting.

Ruby's father is the ambassador to a small European principality, and Ruby happens to know that the Princess has a mansion in Cornwall that's just conveniently standing empty. She forges a letter of introduction from her father, claiming that she and her two best friends are ladies-in-waiting to the Princess and have been sent to prepare the house for her possible visit in the future. 

The ladies are not prepared to find a mostly derelict house full of an odd assortment of supposed staff. Malcolm Archer has, in fact, been hired as the steward of the estate, but none of his former crew, who are basically his family, have been officially hired. They are squatting in the house and running multiple smuggling schemes to make enough money to survive. None of them was expecting the arrival of Ruby and her friends, so they set a number of schemes in motion to try to scare away the ladies. Terrible food, an infestation of beetles, and a made-up sea monster. Nothing works. The ladies keep ignoring the discomforts and work diligently to make the mansion habitable again. Which turns out to be good, because it seems like the Princess may be making an unexpected visit, and her arrival will force the deceptions of both groups of occupants of the house out in the open.

I've been lucky enough to read several of Ms. Vasti's romances as ARCs. They are usually well-researched and very entertaining. In this, we get the unlikely pairing of a bluestocking wallflower and a disgraced naval captain turned smuggler. Both protagonists have found families of sorts. Ruby has her ride-or-die friends, both of whom I'm assuming will be getting books later in the series. Malcolm has a number of former crew members who left the navy when he was dismissed, and while he may be a former privateer and now a smuggler and occasional con man, all his lies and schemes and his considerable charm are used to support his people and create a safe haven for them. Unfortunately, he is so used to lying and tricking people that even when he may be hurting those close to him with his deceptions, he sometimes has trouble being truthful.

Ruby is the eldest daughter of an earl, and no matter what she says or does, she ends up making a mess of things. She has travelled through Europe with her father and younger sister (who is now a viscountess) and is very well-educated, but lacks the necessary social skills to be a hit on the Marriage Mart. One of her two best friends, Alice, is the daughter of a man who was accused of treason and therefore mostly shunned by polite society. She's rather shy and soft-spoken, but also a keen entomologist (and hence is delighted by the bugs, rather than scared off). Ruby's other BFF, Tamsin, is a self-proclaimed sapphist, has cut her hair into a pixie cut and prefers to wear trousers. The aunt she had been living with got married and conveniently moved to Cornwall, so Ruby lied to her father about spending the summer there. 

As well as being rather run-down when the ladies arrive, the manor house is also full of dogs, since Wall, one of Malcolm's former crew members, has begun to specialise in veterinary medicine, and keeps adopting stray litters of puppies. So there's a surprising number of dogs for a historical romance, some even prove central to the second half of the plot. 

If you haven't read any Alexandra Vasti before, this is a good place to start. If you have read any of her books and enjoyed them, this is another delightful read.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 42: "The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield" by Claudia Gray

Page count: 336

Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for this ARC. This book is on sale now.

Jonathan Darcy is getting tired of his parents nervously hovering around him and keeping him from doing anything more strenuous than sitting in front of a fire, reading. So when a letter arrives from his aunt Jane at Netherfield, who is feeling rather inundated with Bingley's sisters and their spouses, and his mother is unable to go, he eagerly volunteers to go in her stead. He has not stopped thinking about Juliet Tilney, but his parents think it is best that they have no further contact.

Poor Juliet Tilney hasn't really been able to leave her home for months, and now it seems unlikely that she'll ever find a husband, certainly not Jonathan Darcy. So when she is unexpectedly called to Netherfield to assist Jonathan in yet another unsolved murder, she knows it's unseemly, because someone (in this case, Bingley's brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst), but she's just so happy to be reunited with him and investigating once more. She refuses to consider her grandfather's suggestion that she entrap the young man to secure her future. She knows she can never be accepted as a suitable daughter-in-law by the Darcys after the scandalous events in London. 

The young investigators find an unexpected supporter in Jane Bingley, however, who sees how much they clearly love one another, and is deeply saddened that Juliet's life has been so negatively affected because of a cruel prank. Jane still remembers the months she was separated from Bingley because of the scheming of his sisters and Darcy, and doesn't want any young couple to ever have to face anything like that. While she may be rooting for the young couple, Mrs. Caroline Allerdyce, Charles Bingley's sister, is still determined that her daughter, Priscilla, will be the future mistress of Pemberley, and keeps trying to push them together at every available opportunity.

I had to catch up with the previous two books in the series before I read this one, and I'm glad I did, as it meant I hadn't forgotten any major details from the previous two books that might be relevant in this story. I would absolutely not recommend anyone start with this book; it is very much a fifth book in a series, and if you haven't read some of the others, especially book 4, The Rushworth Family Plot, there will be plot lines that don't make as much sense.

While the previous book focused on characters from Mansfield Park, here Claudia Grey shows us the lovely and kind-hearted Bingleys many years into their marriage. Their daughters have moved away and are married, and now they are playing host to two of Bingley's sisters, with their husbands. When Juliet comes to help with the investigation of the poisoning of Mr. Hurst, Jonathan is noble enough to surrender his room at Netherfield and goes to stay with his grandparents at Longbourn, a place he has never felt at home, and he's determined that Juliet never realises what a sacrifice he is making for her sake. Even though all her five daughters found husbands (three of them even very well-off ones), Mrs. Bennett is still displeased about all sorts of things in her old age, while Mr. Bennett cares for little other than his books. Neither of them has any understanding of what they see as Jonathan's peculiarities, and he can never be at ease in that house.

Ms. Gray's authorial voice really is very close to Austen's own, and while you are aware that you are basically reading fan fiction about the continued lives of all of these characters, she captures the essence of them so well, and it seems like such plausible lives for these characters to have. Charles and Jane Bingley have clearly had a very happy life together, and still bend over backwards to help all of their various family members, even at the cost of their own comfort. With so many characters early in the series having been disapproving of either Jonathan, Juliet or their relationship, it was a great comfort to have these two characters wholeheartedly supporting the young couple and refusing to judge or blame Juliet in any way for her unfortunate circumstances. 

Having checked Ms. Gray's website, because it was unclear to me how long she was planning on continuing this series, it does seem as if she's contracted for at least one more book about our young sleuths. Without wanting to spoil too much, there was at least SOME romantic development in this book, and while I was frustrated for a while, I am now very excited to see where the next book takes our characters (I'm guessing they may have to solve murders among the characters of Persuasion, that's pretty much the only book that hasn't been featured much). 

Judging a book by its cover: Dare I hope, based on the silhouettes on the cover, that this book will finally have some sort of forward momentum in the glacially slow romance between our protagonists? Or is it a cruel trick from the publishers to fool me into committing to another book? 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

 

CBR18 Book 41: "The Antiquarian's Object of Desire" by India Holton

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Amelia Tarrant and Caleb Stirling are both history professors at Oxford with a speciality in magical antiques. They have been best friends since childhood, but any hint of affection between them could be ruinous to Amelia's reputation and the careers of both. As a result, they have to appear to be enemies and stage elaborate public fights every so often to make sure all their colleagues believe them to be bitter rivals.

One such fight, involving a volatile magical teaspoon, causes a big enough explosion that their careers may still be on shaky grounds. The head of the history faculty sends them to a manor house in Cumbria to assist a local nobleman in cataloguing his extensive collection of magical artefacts. 

If maintaining their ruse of being enemies is tiresome and occasionally tricky in Oxford, having to do it while secluded in a haunted country manor proves even more frustrating to them. Amelia and Caleb both feel, unbeknownst to the other, rather more than friendly towards the other, but wouldn't dare to presume that the other returns such lustful feelings. 

All the books in India Holton's Love's Academic have been delightful, cosy reads, but this one is probably my favourite. Caleb is another very Howl from Howl's Moving Castle-coded hero (although he is more like the Howl of the original book than the Miyazaki version). He's vain and a bit self-centred, but clearly just worships the ground Amelia walks on. She doesn't seem to realise that all his life choices have been determined by what keeps him close to her. She's the one who actually cares about a career in history; he's just muddling through because it makes it easier for him to spend as much time with her as possible. 

Amelia is a capable woman in a male-dominated field, and she constantly has to deal with her overbearing and sexist colleagues and superiors. Caleb really is her only friend, and it annoys her to have to pretend to loathe him just so she won't be dismissed as an emotional and love-struck female, who must marry and go tend house. Over the course of the book, Amelia and Caleb realise that their long friendship has mutually developed into something deeper, but they are unable to act on their feelings since it's impossible for them to get some time alone.

Throughout the book, there is a subplot about a magical teaspoon that reacts to strong emotions and tends to cause sudden explosions if tensions are too high. Amelia comes to the conclusion that she mustn't just reevaluate her feelings for and potential future with Caleb, but come to a decision about whether or not she can keep being underestimated and mansplained to by most of her very sexist colleagues, or whether she should quit the history department and do something else. 

The "cosy" label is found all over the speculative fiction genres nowadays, and a lot of the time, it's not entirely earned, or the author tries too hard with quirky characters and tiresome hijinks. However, Holton really does write lovely, low-stakes cosy romances, and as this was one of my more anticipated releases of the first part of 2026, I am happy that it was worth the wait. 

Judging a book by its cover: All the books in this trilogy have had lovely covers, but this is by far my favourite. The midnight blue and the golden yellow, with the lovely, ethereal night sky in the background, with the stars seemingly dancing - it's just so pretty.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

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

The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

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

The Rushworth Family Plot

Page count: 336 pages

Rating: 4 stars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CBR18 Book 28: "The Familiar" by Leigh Bardugo

Page count: 385 pages

Audio book length: 12 hrs 57 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Dark Corner Selection: March 2026

Defeat the Goblin TBR 26: The Bog book - A book you started, but never finished (started it in May 2025, but only made it about 30%)

Buzzword Cover Challenge 26: Metallic element

In a different version of 16th-century Spain, young Luzia Cortado works grudgingly as a scullery maid for the miserable and petty Doña Valentina. Luzia can use what she calls "small magics" to make her life easier. She can mend seams, multiply the groceries, unburn bread or reassemble broken things. She performs these little spells, learned from generations of her Jewish ancestors, by singing quietly. Luzia is a convert; she dutifully goes to Mass and hides any traces of her Jewish lineage to escape the clutches of the Inquisition. 

However, when Doña Valentina discovers Luzia's powers, she sees an opportunity to increase her social standing. She makes Luzia perform for dinner guests, and before long, powerful and ambitious men show interest in Luzia's abilities. To improve her abilities, she is put under the tutelage of the mysterious Santangel, rumoured to be immortal. 

This book, a medieval alternate history, is very different from all of Leigh Bardugo's previous books. As someone with a Master's degree in European medieval history, I was really interested in this book, yet when I first tried reading it, in 2025, I couldn't get very far into it, and eventually decided to put it down until the time was right.

This year, my book club decided to vote for most of our books of the month. When The Familiar became the book of the month for March, I figured it was a sign from the universe that now the time was right. While I made it all the way through this time, I can see why I put it down the first time. It has a very slow start, something that was also remarked on by many of the members of my book club. I did discover that had I just kept going for a few more chapters the first time, I would have finished it. 

I really liked the unusual setting for this book. I liked that it tells the story of three very different women (Luzia, Valentina, and Luzia's aunt), who are all just trying for a better life. The magic used is interesting. I agree with several of the members of my book club that the romantic subplot involving Luzia and Santangel is entirely unnecessary, and that the conclusion of it is frankly quite disturbing, if you think about the power dynamics of the whole thing. There is also a lesbian subplot introduced towards the end that was definitely a bit unexpected, and considering how much is made of the power of the Inquisition and how feared they are, it seemed unlikely that these women would have been able to safely and rather publicly make a life with one another. But that's a minor niggle. 

I hope this remains a standalone book and that Bardugo doesn't decide to write a sequel at some point. 

Judging a book by its cover: Even with the scorpion crawling out of the lacy sleeve, this cover seems more like it belongs on a historical literary fiction book. Except for the name of the author, there is really nothing that marks this out as fantasy. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 26: "The Magician's Daughter" by H.G. Parry

Page count: 372 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Defeat the Goblin TBR 26: The Magic book - A book with a magic system, or magic-related system (this one has both)

Buzzword Reading Challenge 26: Occupations

Buzzword Cover Challenge 26: Wings

Biddy lives on a small, magically isolated island off the coast of Ireland with her guardian/foster father, Rowan, and his familiar, the rabbit Hutchincroft. No one who doesn't know that it's there can find it. While Biddy has no magic of her own, she has grown up with it all around her. Yet magic is fading in the outside world, and far too often, Rowan has to leave Biddy to go to the mainland in bird form to find some small reserves of it. She hates it, but he is always back before dawn.

Then one night, Rowan doesn't come back, and Biddy, desperate to find him, uses a magical ring that allows her to travel through his nightmares to find him. He's been captured by powerful enemies and can only escape with Biddy's help. Once he returns home, shaken and weak, he tells Biddy a lot of things previously kept hidden. Not only that, but after telling Biddy that she cannot leave the island, because it wouldn't be safe, he now needs her to go to London, in disguise, to act as a distraction for his enemies. 

The real world is a big and scary place, and it doesn't take long for Biddy to discover that Rowan may not have been telling the whole truth, or has possibly just badly underestimated the forces against him. Rowan ends up captured once again, while Biddy is in terrible danger. Nevertheless, she needs to be brave and resourceful in order to not only save Rowan's life, but possibly restore magic to the world once more. 

Back in 2020, my book club read The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heap, and while it was fine, it also didn't make me run out and read more from the author. I'm not actually sure I remembered what else I had read by the author when I picked this out in a 3 for 2 sale. I just really liked the pretty cover, and the title sounded interesting. As so often happens, it went on a shelf, and I forgot all about it. Then it turned up on my friend Ashley's Vlog, as one of 11 underrated books more people need to read, and since Ashley and I still like a lot of the same books, a recommendation from her means I need to read it (unless it's horror, of course, I'm most likely not going to want to read those). 

Once a year, five of my friends and I try to take a weekend away from our families, and we go on a cabin trip. While two are childless by choice, the rest of us have children, and just getting a weekend away to relax is a massive luxury. So of course, I was going to get lots of reading done, and this was one of the books I brought along. I think I made it to page 25, because I was busy chatting and catching up with my friends, and was too tired by the time bedtime came around to get anything much read at all.

So it took me a while to properly start this book, but when I finally did, it didn't take long before I didn't want to put it down. Biddy is an engaging heroine. She's curious and spends the first part of the book restless and frustrated that Rowan won't ever let her leave the island to explore. She's inquisitive and lonely, but when it finally becomes time to leave her safe home for the first time, it's with the knowledge that she's basically "bait" and could be in a lot of danger. To help Rowan, she's nevertheless willing to do it. She makes one of her first friends ever at the depressing, poverty-stricken children's home she's sent to live and work at. 

Once the danger ramps up, she is naturally very scared, but doesn't let it stop her from acting. She meets several people from Rowan's past; one very sinister, one deeply terrifying and one who may turn out to be a useful ally. 

My favourite supporting character was Hutchincroft, Rowan's bunny familiar. He can use magic to turn himself human, on occasion, so he and Biddy can speak (he speaks telepathically to Rowan), but a lot of the time, he's just a big, soft rabbit. I wish the reader could have got a bit more insight into his and Rowan's connection, but with the entire POV being from Biddy, I guess we can't have everything.

Parry has a lovely turn of phrase, and this story was unusual and went some unexpected places. While I wasn't too curious about her other writing after the Uriah Heap book, this makes me think I should give her other books another chance. 

Judging a book by its cover: I really like the silhouettes on the cover, all very suitable. Young woman, bird, rabbit. I like the vines and flowers and the swirling patterns on the green background. What I don't like are the weird yellow spikes, like some sort of halo behind the woman's silhouette. Could absolutely have done without that. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 25: "Change of Plans" by Sarah Dessen

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is out on May 5th, 2026.

Finley is graduating from high school, and is worried about several weeks away from her charismatic boyfriend, Colin, their friend group and her entire social circle. Most of all, she would have wanted to join Colin and his family on a Disney cruise, but her distant mother, Catherine (her father has custody and she only sees her Mum a few times a year), has declared that they are spending time together in New York City, and that the dates cannot be changed.

So imagine Finley's surprise when she is told on the morning of their departure that New York will have to wait. Instead, they are going to her mother's home town, Lakeview, to sell a house neither Finley nor her father knew existed. Catherine was estranged from her parents until they died, and has kept up the distance to her two sisters, but for reasons she refuses to go into, the old family home needs to be cleared out and sold as soon as possible. 

Once they arrive, Finley discovers that "Cat" has been in communication with her sisters but refused to make any decisions for months, and this sudden change is a surprise to absolutely everyone. 

Her aunts are very happy to see Finley again, though. She hasn't really seen anyone from her mother's family since her grandmother's funeral, and that is long enough ago that she barely remembers anyone, certainly not her cousins, who are all grown up now. 

Cell reception is pretty unreliable in the middle of the woods, and Finley worries that she can't get in touch with Colin. Although when she finally does, it's because he calls her, from the boat, to break up with her via video chat. Since Colin has been the centre of Finley's life for the past two years, and featured in all of her plans for the future (she deferred all her other college choices to go to the same place as him), she is absolutely devastated, and shortly after, throws her phone in the lake in a fit of drunken impulsiveness. 

One of Finley's aunts co-owns a diner, the Egg, where it seems most of the teens she's met during the last few days work. Heartbroken and without real purpose, Finley starts helping out during the breakfast rush, when most of the tourists come in to eat, and soon she's making money and has made new friends. There's Clark, who runs the grill, and whose now deceased father founded the Egg with Finley's aunt. There's Lana, who sneaks into the old house where Finlay and Cat are staying and sleeps on the couch, leaving before anyone else wakes up. She takes it upon herself to become Finley's BFF after Colin dumps her, since she has considerable experience with romantic disappointments in her past. And finally, there is Ben, the shy guitarist who helps Clark in the kitchen and claims that he's super awkward around new people, but seems to warm to Finley immediately. 

I've only read two Sarah Dessen books, The Truth About Forever and Just Listen, but as a many-year follower of Forever Young Adult, I am aware of how highly a lot of people rate her books. While it seems like she writes a lot of YA romances, the central plot of this story was more about family and estrangement, and long-buried truths that needed to come into the light. Catherine left Finley and her father when Finley was about four years old, and while she has seen her daughter a few times a year since, she has never been a stable part of Finley's life, and certainly not anyone she has felt able to properly talk to or confide in.

Rather shy and retiring, Finley was shocked when handsome and popular Colin noticed her on her first day in Junior year. They were teamed up for a school task, after which Finley acquired the nickname "Idaho", and not long after, was swept off her feet by Colin. His friends became her friends. His close-knit family, so very different from her own chaotic home life (distant mother, stressed father and stepmother, six-year-old twins and a toddler), became her safe haven. When he dumps her after a few days of no contact, her entire world implodes. She has no idea who she is without Colin, but thankfully, helping out at the Egg, making new friends in Lakeview and getting to know her mother's family are good distractions. Nevertheless, it takes her most of the summer to realise that Colin dumping her might have opened up opportunities she would otherwise not have had.

I liked this a lot, and having re-read my reviews for the other two Dessen books I read (many years ago now), it's clear that I should make an effort to read some more of the books of hers I have in my e-book collection. The world is a dark and scary place, and wholesome YA contemporaries are a slightly different brand of escapism from all the fantasy I tend to gravitate towards. 

Judging a book by its cover: This cover feels extremely generic, and could be put on pretty much any YA book with a female protagonist. There is nothing to really distinguish it from so many other books out there. It's perfectly fine, but nothing more than that, either

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 23: "Margo's Got Money Troubles" by Rufi Thorpe

Page count: 320 pages

Audio book length: 10 hrs 21 min

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: Adapted into movie or TV show (on Apple+ now)

19-year-old Margo Millet has an ill-advised affair with her English professor at college and gets pregnant. Against the advice of absolutely everyone, including her mother (a former Hooters waitress), she decides to keep it. Unfortunately, being pregnant and then a young single mother isn't especially attractive on the job market, and before she knows it, two of her roommates have also moved out, because they just can't handle the noise and the whole baby being there now of it all. She's at her wits' end, and while she loves her son, Bodie, she's also pretty sure she's made a huge mistake.

Then her estranged father, Jinx, a retired pro-wrestler, shows up on her doorstep and asks her if he can stay at hers, after yet another round in rehab. Since she needs both rent money and help with child care, she agrees to let him stay. She also decides to try making money through OnlyFans, where she uses advice from Jinx to craft her online persona. Soon she's making enough money to keep her head above water, but her English professor is threatening to sue her for sole custody of Bodie and her mother, who is getting married to a Christian pastor, threatens to disown her if she doesn't shut down her OnlyFans account immediately.

This book came highly recommended from many of my online friends, so when I saw it in an audiobook sale, I picked it up, despite being a bit dubious about the pastel-coloured cover and the unusual plot synopsis. Contemporary fiction with serious real-world problems?  Ill-advised affairs with your lecturer? Desperate young single mother? OnlyFans? Was this really a book I was going to enjoy? As so often happens, I then forgot I owned the book for quite a long time, until I read the announcement that the book was being turned into a TV series on Apple+, starring Elle Fanning, who also narrates the audiobook.

Apple+ has proven itself to be very good at adapting books I like in the past (I promise I am not being paid for this; I wish I were so lucky), and since I prefer reading the source material before seeing the adaptation, reading this in March seemed like a good idea. Since I listened to it in audio, it took me about a week to get through it, but I suspect that if I'd been reading it with my eyes, I would have got through it a lot faster. Despite its many serious issues, it is ultimately a very uplifting book. Margo may be young (and discovers fast that having a baby is for life, not just for Christmas), but she's very clever, and because of her unusual family situation (Jinx wasn't exactly a stable feature in her life growing up), she's learned to be independent and resourceful. She does the very best she can for her baby, even if that means coming up with creative ways to make people pay her for nudes on the internet. 

While two of Margo's roommates leave, one of them stays behind and even starts helping Margo in her new "working from home" career. Suzie is into fantasy cosplay and is able to lend Margo outfits and advise her on makeup and video ideas. She gets along well with Jinx, as well, which helps. Margo eventually meets and makes friends with other OnlyFans creators, and starts having actual fun when she comes up with a storyline involving a strange and horny space alien to attract more followers.

I wouldn't say that female empowerment is one of the main themes of the story, but it is absolutely a factor. Margo refuses to be dismissed by her baby daddy and his rich and condescending family just because she is young and does online sex work. She proves herself a fit and capable mother both to the custody lawyers and eventually to the CPS (who have had an anonymous tip that Margo's home life may not be safe for Bodie). 

Since I had seen the trailer for the show before I got around to reading the book, it was pretty difficult to create my own mental images for the characters. With Elle Fanning already voicing Margo in the audio, it would have been harder to picture her as someone else. Michelle Pfeiffer as her mother and Nick Offerman as her father also seem like spot-on casting, so I didn't mind them being my mental images for Shyanne and Jinx, either. Ironically, now that I have finally read the book, I'm too busy with correction work to actually watch the show until later this year. I'm glad I listened to the book when I did, though. 

Judging a book by its cover: Before I read the book, I always thought this was a really strange image to choose for the cover of the book. Now that I have read the book, I see how perfect it is, and how well it captures poor Margo's utter exhaustion.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 22: "Rules for Ruin" by Mimi Matthews

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Monthly Keyword 26: Ruin

Official plot summary (because I read this in February):

On the outskirts of London sits a seemingly innocuous institution with a secretive aim—train young women to distract, disrupt, and discredit the patriarchy. Outraged by a powerful politician’s systematic attack on women’s rights, the Academy summons its brightest—and most bitter—pupil to infiltrate the odious man’s inner circle. A deal is bring down the viscount, and Miss Euphemia Flite will finally earn her freedom.

But betting shop owner Gabriel Royce has other plans. The viscount is the perfect pawn to insulate Gabriel’s underworld empire from government interference. He’s not about to let some crinoline-clad miss destroy his carefully constructed enterprise—no matter how captivating he finds her threats.

From the rookeries of St. Giles to the ballrooms of Mayfair, Euphemia and Gabriel engage in a battle of wits and wills that’s complicated by a blossoming desire. Soon Euphemia realizes it’s not the broken promises to her Academy sisters she should fear. . . . It’s the danger to her heart.

Euphemia "Effie" Flite doesn't have any grand plans for her life, but she wants her independence and enough money to settle down in the country, away from the intrigues and stresses of London. Yet Miss Corvus, the headmistress of the unorthodox school where Effie was raised, has one last mission for her before she will allow Effie her freedom. Miss Corvus needs Effie to pose as a debutante and befriend the daughter of a prominent viscount, so she can find incriminating evidence against him and ruin his reputation. 

However, Effie has to contend with the imposing Gabriel Royce, a betting shop owner from London's East End, who needs the viscount's wealth and contacts to help him source money to make improvements to the slums of St. Giles. He quickly realises that Miss Flite isn't the innocent miss she pretends to be, especially after she keeps shaking off the people he sends to tail her. However, he can't figure out what her motives are, and he can't let her meddling interfere with his plans.

Both Effie and Gabriel are stubborn and very independent, characters who believe they are perfectly content to be alone. Which, of course, makes it so much more satisfying when they fall for each other and discover that they may, in fact, want and need someone to share their life. 

I wish I could remember more specifics of the plot right now, but I've read 24 books (at least one of them, more than once) since finishing this, and my memory is getting a bit hazy. I remember enjoying the banter between the protagonists, and especially how Effie keeps frustrating Gabriel with her refusal to be easily spied on. I liked Effie's friendship with one of the other Crinoline Academy students, now a teacher there. I remember Effie being terrified of heights, and the rather heartbreaking reason for it, which is revealed towards the end of the novel. The villain is suitably dastardly, and it feels satisfying when they take him down. 

I already own the next book in the series (about Effie's friend) and am looking forward to getting to it, later this year. 

Judging a book by its cover: This cover is lovely, and I love that I see new things in it every time I look at it. I especially like that it is obviously an intricate garden gate, but also suggests the crinoline skirts of a lady's gown. The fact that the dominating colour is teal doesn't hurt either. I love teal. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 21: "Black Sun" by Rebecca Roanhorse

Page count: 453 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Dark Corner selection - February 26

Defeat the Goblin - The pebble book - a book that was gifted to you

Monthly Keyword 26: Sun

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book with multiple POVs

Read the Rainbow: Black

This is a book with a number of different POV characters. There is Serapio, a blind young man whom we first encounter as a child, being horribly mutilated by his mother (who subsequently throws herself off a building). All this horrific violence is to make him a suitable vessel for the Crow God. He is trained by three mysterious individuals who continue his grooming to fulfil his mother's twisted goals. There is also Xiala, who is a Teek sea captain, tasked with taking Serapio via ship to Tova, the capital city of the empire. The other sailors on the ship seem sceptical about Xiala, but all Teek have a special connection to the sea, and because of this, she can get the ship through storms and other dangers, and they are forced to accept her as their captain. Our third major player is Narampa, who was the unlikely candidate to succeed the previous Sun Priest, and who now wants the priests to make a difference in society. Some of her fellow priests can only be said to be rather hostile to her ideas of reform, and plot behind her back to get rid of her. Our final protagonist is Okoa, son of the Crow clan matriarch. He's called back to Tova from his warrior training after his mother dies, and he has to take his place as his sister's chief bodyguard, basically. 

I finished this book in mid-February, so my memory of all the intricacies of the plot is now rather vague. The opening chapter was almost a deal-breaker for me (I just cannot with children in peril), but because several people I trust had assured me that this book is worth reading (I was gifted my paperback copy of it by the lovely Rochelle), I persevered. The first third or so was rather slow, and I found Narampa's chapters, especially, to be hard going. I liked Xiala from the start, and she is one of the reasons why I will probably continue with the series, even after there were bits that I wasn't wild about.

We had an interesting book club discussion about the book, and while the majority of the people who came in February liked it, I don't think any of us loved it. We appreciated the unusual setting; it's always nice to read something a bit different from the Eurocentric medieval fantasy worlds we often find in the genre. Since I am literally one of only two members in the group who has a child, none of the others was as bothered by the brutal mutilation of a young boy as I was. There was general agreement that Narampa was the dullest character, and that both Serapio and Xiala might technically be adults, but they have both had such weird lives that it's no wonder they make some truly inadvisable choices. While I liked Xiala, she seems rather self-destructive and Okoa and his giant crow (who he can ride on) may be my favourites of the lot.

I probably will continue the series (I own all three books, after all), but I'm not in a hurry to read the sequels. Some of the others in the book club continued, and seemed to think book two was a bit slower, but that the series ends well in book three. So we'll see.

Judging a book by its cover: I don't like this cover, I think it looks bad, and the UK publishers have chosen to go with exactly the same ugly image, so I don't even have the option to get an alternate one.  The Broken Binding special editions are absolutely gorgeous, but they also cost an arm and a leg, so that's not a suitable option, either. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 19: "Marry Me by Midnight" by Felicia Grossman

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book that takes place outside of the US

Monthly Keyword Challenge 26: Midnight

Defeat the Goblin TBR 26: The Locket Book - a romance or a book with a lot of yearning

Reading Rainbow - Blue cover

Isabelle Lira wants to take charge of her deceased father's business, but is hindered from doing so both because she is a woman and because the Jewish community she lives in finds it unacceptable. So she must find a husband who will not object to her controlling her family's interests, and who won't be cruel, abusive or who will take advantage of her and her wealth. In order to find a suitable match, she is arranging three festival events, where all eligible Jewish men are invited. 

Aaron Ellenberg is certainly not one of these eligible suitors. He works as a custodian for the synagogue, having failed to learn anything useful in a number of apprenticeships. He is about as lowly a member of the Jewish community in London as you can get, but he's handsome, polite, and unfailingly kind to the elderly, children and animals, down to even the rats and mice. He is known to everyone, yet not really noticed much. Isabelle offers to pay him to be her spy at the festivals; she needs him to observe her various matrimonial candidates and report back to her whether they might be men she could consider as suitors. 

Of course, every time they meet to talk, sparks fly. Their chemistry is undeniable, and while he may be far too lowly for Isabelle to consider him as a possible candidate, she feels safe and comfortable around him, as well as tingly in all the right places. Aaron, meanwhile, is baffled that such a beautiful, wealthy woman is even giving him the time of day, and with the money he will make helping her, he might be able to emigrate to America to make a new life for himself.

Marry Me by Midnight is the first of Felicia Grossman's fairy tale retellings, set in the Jewish community in London's East End. This book is a Cinderella retelling, with Isabelle being the prince to be wooed at a series of balls, while Aaron is our lowly scullery boy (of sorts). This story has adorable animal friends, an unexpected fairy godmother, and various fancy outfits to allow our hero to go to the ball. 

While I have read a lot of historical novels, I am not really familiar with the Jewish enclave of London during the Victorian era, so this book gave me some new and interesting insight, while also putting a spin on a familiar tale. Isabelle and Aaron are a lovely pairing who banter and yearn for each other, and eventually decide to act on their attraction (in some cases, in locations that seem somewhat exposed). The course of true love needs some obstacles in its way, and in this case, there is someone who seems determined to stop Aaron from finding his happy ending with Isabelle, using violence if necessary. 

There are three books so far in this series, and I know that the next one features one of the men who might have ended up as one of Isabelle's suitors, had she not pretty much had eyes only for Aaron from the start. The third one appears to be about Isabelle's friend, who is medically trained and works as a midwife, and both these books also really appeal to me, so this will certainly not be the only of Ms. Grossman's books that I read. 

Judging a book by its cover: While the exact scene depicted on the cover doesn't take place (because, really, why would they be dancing on the stairs?), it captures some of the book's magical atmosphere. The many shades of blue are lovely, and the couple on the cover seem to be really besotted with one another. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR18 Book 16: "The Love Feud" by Janine Amesta

Page count: 255 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer! This was an ARC from the author. My opinions are my own. 

Hailey Moreno thought it was quite exciting to be secretly dating the son of her family's company's chief rival, but once her father died, and said rival (with the help of his son) tried to offer to buy the Moreno's air balloon business, she felt deeply betrayed and told Ryland Selene to take a hike.

Four years later, she still hasn't told her mother or any of her sisters that she used to date Ryland, and had her heart pretty thorougly broken by him. Hailey is the youngest of the Moreno sisters, and had a wild temper and a tendency to stir up drama when she was younger. She loved to make videos on her social media feed, but at 26, she's growing up and wondering about her future. As the only unmarried daughter, she is the one who still lives with their widowed mother, and does her best to make her anxious mother socialise more. It seems as if her mother expects her to just stay unmarried and living in her childhood home forever, and Hailey is beginning to feel trapped.

Having clashed a lot with her older sister Selah in the past, and now really wants to contribute to the company in a way that will earn her sister's approval. She suggests arranging a hot air balloon festival in Central Oregon, and unfortunately, since theirs is not the only hot air balloon company in the state, her sister insists that she extend an olive branch to their main competitors. Which means talking to her ex again.

Ryland "Ry" Selene has never gotten over Hailey Moreno, and felt so guilty about making her life more difficult in the weeks after her father's death, that he reevaluated his own life to the point where he quit his dad's company, got himself a business degree, and is now working for a local brewery. He tries to tell himself that he doesn't miss piloting hot air balloons, but deep down, he very much does. The fact that one of his closest co-workers at his new job is his former high school bully is not improving his life. So when he discovers that Hailey e-mailed his dad about this air balloon festival, he takes it as an opportunity to see her again.

Soon Hailey has convinced him that to drum up promotion for the event, which they only have a few months to plan, they should have a fake hating relationship on social media. They should play up the rivalry between their families and their companies, and pretend to be fighting in a series of videos, planned out by Hailey. Because Ry pretty much wants any excuse to spend more time with Hailey again, he reluctantly agrees, encouraged by his roommate, who thinks having staged fights with his ex-girlfriend might help Ry get more assertive and likely to stand up for himself against the office bully. 

Of course, making the videos bring Hailey and Ry into contact with one another a lot, and spending time bickering on camera makes it obvious that their previous chemistry isn't just still present, it may actually be even more incindiary than before. It doesn't take all that long before they may be fighting on camera, but kissing as soon as the videos are done. But Ry didn't really like the idea of their relationship being secret four years ago. He's even less thrilled about the idea now, when he finally has a chance to win Hailey back.

This is the third and final novel in Janine Amesta's Love is in the Air trilogy, about the Moreno sisters finding their happy endings and saving their family business after the sudden and unexpected death of their father. In Love at First Flight, Hailey was the bratty younger sister who got her sister's relationship in trouble by gossiping too much on social media. As the youngest sister, Hailey was still in a very emotionally unstable place when their father died, and some of her actions in the aftermath, when trying to cope with her grief, led to her making some questionable decisions. Hailey and Selah do talk it out and reach a better understanding of each other, but even several years later, Hailey still feels like the black sheep, who's not as talented and useful as her sisters.

Ryland is a rather shy and very non-confrontational guy. One of the rare occasions when he pushed himself to be brave was when he first saw Hailey and made himself go over and talk to her, even though he was convinced he'd be firmly rejected. He feels a lot of guilt about how much he hurt Hailey shortly after her father's death, to the point where he convinced himself he needed to change his whole life and future plans. Reconnecting with Hailey confirms to him that he's not over her, and even though he thinks her social media fake feud is ridiculous, he just can't help saying yes to her, because he loves her special brand of crazy.

I feel very lucky that I've gotten to read this entire series as ARCs, and once again extend my thanks to Janine Amesta for the reading copy. This book releases today, and in these depressing times, a contemporary romance that focuses on family, personal growth and a sweet second chance romance is a balm for the senses. 

Judging a book by its cover: I think this may be my favourite of all the covers in this series. I really like the lit balloon, and Hailey reaching down towards Ryland. Even though this isn't a scene that actually appears in the book, the vibes feel right, and the Romeo and Juliet reference is pretty obvious.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

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.