CBR16 Book 59: "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" by John Carreyrou

Page count: 352 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 37 minutes

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: From a genre you've never read (true crime)

CBR16 Bingo: Fiasco (Theranos was a massive fraud and a fiasco)

I've owned this book since 2020 and am pretty sure I picked it up in an e-book sale because of the many Cannonball reviews I've read about it over the years. Not being particularly interested in the tech world or medical science, and certainly, not someone who reads a lot of business news, I didn't really hear about this case as it was unfolding, and I'm aware that there have been podcasts, a documentary and a mini-series starring Amanda Seyfried about the scandal, but this book was pretty much forgotten in my e-book collection until the Nowhere Books bingo required me to find a book from a genre I've never read.

Readers of my reviews will know that I have certain genres I prefer - romance, fantasy, YA, the occasional mystery or sci-fi novel. If I read nonfiction, it's usually historical biographies, celebrity autobiographies or something I need to read for work. Nevertheless, I like to challenge myself, so over the years I've read a LOT of different books in so many different genres. It was genuinely a challenge to come up with one I hadn't already tried. My husband suggested I look up subgenres of nonfiction, as it was clear that was where I'd find something that might fit the bill. When True Crime came up, I realised that would work. I know that lots of people find True Crime fascinating, but I just don't really see the appeal in exploring grisly murder cases or other horrific crimes. This book, which I remembered that I had on my shelf didn't seem to involve any murders, so it would probably not traumatise me too much. 

John Carreyrou is the journalist who wrote the Wall Street Journal articles which began to expose Elizabeth Holmes as a fraud and brought attention to the very shady business practices of her tech company Theranos. He later developed his thorough research into this book, where he details how Miss Holmes, a young and charming Stanford dropout managed to bamboozle the tech and business world for years, promising her company could deliver quick, accurate and almost pain-free blood tests with devices so small and portable they would be possible for the public to have in their homes. At one point, Theranos was valued at 10 billion dollars, without ever having actually managed to produce the testing machines or blood testing results they were promising.

Holmes was beautiful and persuasive, and clearly excellent at fundraising for her company. Along with her boyfriend, Sunny Balwani, who was COO of Theranos, they managed to perpetrate their fraud for so long by intimidating and threatening their employees, firing anyone who spoke up about their suspicions of underhanded dealings, and because very few of their investors actually understood the science behind what they were trying to do. Holmes was featured in a number of highly flattering articles, and the board of directors of Theranos at various points included several senators, former secretaries of state (including Henry Kissinger), a former secretary of defence, an admiral, and a general - all seduced by Holmes' promising tale of deception. 

Once Carreyrou started investigating the case, he had a hard time finding people willing to talk to him, since Holmes and Balwani made all their employees sign iron-clad NDAs and were fiercely litigious towards anyone they thought might be a threat to their company. However, Carreyrou were able to publish several critical articles, which again led to investigations into Theranos' business practices and inspections of their laboratories. The results were disastrous for the company, proving that not only were the test results their labs produced extremely unreliable and could endanger patients because of it, but they were mostly using equipment from other producers to get their results since none of the proprietary machines made by Theranos worked at all. They had not only misled their investors, they had put countless patients' lives in danger with their inaccurate blood tests. 

It was a fascinating story, and I will probably check out the HBO documentary and the mini-series at some point as well. Now, having read this, I can't really think of any genres I haven't tried at least once.

Judging a book by its cover: Some editions of this book feature a gloved hand holding up a tiny vial of blood, but my edition, and most that I've seen, have this fully black cover with the bold red title. Not exactly the most exciting, but the contents of the book more than might up for it.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 57: "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov

Page count: 448 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo: Banned books (Wasn't published until 27 years after Bulgakov's death, and only then in a censored version. )

CBR16 Bingo: Cult (cult classic, and there's the whole Devil and his entourage as a central plot point - that's pretty cultish, right?)

I can't remember exactly how long The Master and Margarita has been on my TBR list, but it's certainly more than twenty years. A quick glance on Goodreads shows me that 15 of my friends have rated it four or five stars, with several naming it one of their favourite books. So why has it taken it so long for me to read it? Some of my reticence comes from having tried to read translated Russian novels in the past, and in on one memorable occasion, nearly losing my will to read anything at all (Anna Karenina, I am absolutely looking at you). So the idea of tackling another Russian classic wasn't always that appealing. Knowing that so many people whose opinions I respect and trust rate it so highly, also makes me nervous - what if I don't like it and they'll be disappointed in me?

I made an attempt to read my mother's Norwegian translation of the novel for the first couple of chapters, but because the copy she had was translated in the 1970s, the language was heavy and archaic enough that I struggled. So instead I read the 50th Anniversary edition, translated into English by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky. Once the language flowed more smoothly, reading became a lot less like unpleasant homework. As readers of my reviews know, I mostly read genre fiction like romance, fantasy and science fiction, where the plots are light-hearted and the books are very easily digestible. That is not the case with this book, written in the 1930s and up until the author's death in 1940, and finally published in 1996. It's an allegorical political satire, written in a very different time and culture, and getting into it felt like a bit of a slog.

I feel like I'm letting down all of my bookish friends and acquaintances when I confess that the first part of the novel mostly either bored and/or confused me. So much of it is absurdist and strange, and there is a long series of, to me, mostly interchangeable men with long Russian names either dying or ending up in an asylum, as a result of their encounters with Woland (the Devil). Nor was I particularly interested in the sections that involved Herod and Yeshua.

The novel finally got interesting to me in the second part, where the reader finally gets to meet the eponymous Margarita, and discovers the lengths she will go to to be reunited with her beloved, the Master. This section seemed more like a dark fairytale for the most part, and while it also had some odd twists and turns, I was mostly enjoying what I read. I can also faithfully say that at no point could I predict where the story was going to go next, and certainly not the way it was going to end. 

If the entirety of this book had only been the main story of part two (which involved Margarita and her beloved), I think I would have liked the novel a lot more. 20th-century history was never an area that particularly interested me, and while I know some of the atrocities committed in the Soviet Union under Stalin, I am in no way well-versed enough in the background of this novel to get the many layers of satire that the author has created. I found all the digs at literary intellectuals and various officials tedious. 

I don't regret finally reading the book, even though the first part was very hard going. However, I think I can also conclude that great Russian literature is not for me. I have tried several authors now, and if this, which so many of my bookish friends rate five stars, only for about half the novel, entertained me, it may be time to accept that I'm just not cut out for the Russian greats. I can see why it has been a controversial novel since its publication, not just for the political critique, but for prominently featuring the devil and witchcraft as part of the plot. 

Judging a book by its cover: There are 1229 (!) different editions of this listed on Goodreads, so obviously there are also a huge amount of different covers available. Most of them seem to have a black cat somewhere on the cover (Behemoth is a very striking character, who can blame them?). My e-book edition seems to have the black cat in upper corner and the face of a young woman (obviously Margarita) in the lower one. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 55: "Touch Not the Cat" by Mary Stewart

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 3 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: From the decade I was born (1970s)

Smart Bitches Book Bingo: Published in 2000 or earlier (first published 1976)

CBR16 Bingo: Vintage (published 48 years ago)

Briony Ashley is working in Portugal when she recieves word that her father has died, in what appears to be a hit-and-run accident. Her father didn't die instantly, but had time to ramble some strange and slightly mysterious things, among them a warning that Briony needs to be careful. She goes home to what is now her cottage, bordering Ashley Court, the large and expensive estate her father could really only keep by renting out parts of it to wealthy Americans, and letting the National Trust conduct guided tours in other parts of it. Briony is rather relieved that the estate will no longer be her responsibility, and doesn't begrudge her male cousins the inheritance at all. However, she is a bit taken aback when she discovers that several valuable artifacts have been removed from the house. Have they been stolen?

It seems to be an occasional family trait in the Ashley family, going back generations, that some of them have the "sight", that grants them premonitons, and sometimes the ability to telepathically communicate with other family members. Briony has been using this gift since she was a child, able to transmit words and emotions to another, who by now she just calls 'lover' in her mind. She doesn't know the actual identity of her secret telepathic friend, but since the "sight" only seems to be shared by other Ashleys, this 'lover' is most likely one of her three male cousins. Since Briony in time also becomes convinced that one or several of these cousins were responsible for her father's untimely death, the whole telepathic soulmate that she's never actually confirmed the identity of, but who may be a close blood relation gets a bit squicky. 

I've only read one other Mary Stewart mystery, and Madam, Will You Talk? was a lot more batshit than this. In the previous novel, in between chain-smoking from waking up to literally being in bed in the evening, the heroine thought the love interest might be a murderer stalking her through Europe. Here the potential love interest's true identity isn't revealed until about two thirds of the way through, but it's strongly implied that said person may also be a murderer, and even overlooking that, he's one of Briony's cousins. 

There was a much more convoluted plot in the previous book I read, here a lot of the plot is quite slow, and while I see what the author was trying to do with the little snippets of a story from the late 19th Century included at the end of each chapter, I don't think it worked very well and felt rather unneccessary on the whole. Because I bought a whole load of Mary Stewart mysteries in an e-book sale a while back, I'm sure I'll be reading more of them eventually. At the moment, however, I finished this book mainly because it fit into three different bingo challenges. 

Judging a book by its cover: This book came out in the 1970s and consequently has had a number of covers, some of them more baffling and crazy than the next. The cover of my edition is a fairly boring one, with a grave in the foreground and some houses from an English village in the background. Nothing here screams romantic mystery with mild paranormal elements. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 52: "Sanctuary" by Ilona Andrews

Page count: 152 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Nowhere Bingo: Takes place during a holiday/holiday season (this is set around Christmas/a bunch of pagan midwinter rites)

362 days of the year, Roman, Black Volhv of Atlanta, dutifully serves Chernobog, the god of Destruction, Darkness, and Death. He just wants a few days of peace, to enjoy his stew, eggnog, and cookies, but it is not to be. One of the infernal paranormal critters that loves him has cleaned out both his eggnog and cookie stash and to make matters worse, there's an injured teenager on his property, begging him for sanctuary. The youth, protectively clutching a puppy, promises his sister will come for him soon, and though he really doesn't want any trouble, Roman isn't about to let the defenseless young man and his pup be harmed. 

It doesn't take long before Roman has to deal with elite mercenaries, combat mages, and mysterious priests, all very determined to stop at nothing to get their hands on the kid. Roman rolls out his unwelcome mat and shows his visitors that while it may be the holidays, he's not some helpless recluse in the woods. The Black Volhv possesses a lot of power, and he's going to need it to keep the trespassers from his door.

Roman, dark priest of Chernobog was first introduced to fans of Ilona Andrews in Magic Slays, but only appeared briefly. He was a much more prominent character in Gunmetal Magic,  a spin-off book from the Kate Daniels series. Popular from the start, he ended up appearing in a number of the later books in the series, along with his large and opinionated family. While appearing rather gloomy at times, Roman often acted as a comic relief character and seemed to never take anything too seriously. Here, the authors (Ilona Andrews is the pen name of a husband and wife duo) show us that Roman is in fact a very serious and depressed individual, whose life is not especially easy, since Chernobog is a demanding god to serve, and despite his mother's nagging, maintaining any sort of romantic relationship when you're often taken away to the pagan underworld to serve a dark deity is unlikely to work out long-term. 

One of the things I really like about Ilona Andrews' books in the Kate Daniels universe is just how much folklore and mythology they explore and occasionally reinterpret. When it comes to Roman and his sprawling magical family, Slavic mythology is the main one that is explored. As with many religions and mythologies, light and dark isn't necessarily synonymous with good and evil. Balance is the name of the game, and you cannot have one without the other. In the Slavic pantheon, Belobog is the god of Light and Creation, and his twin brother Chernobog is the god of Destruction, Darkness, and Death. Chernobog is married to Morena, the goddess of Winter and Death. Neither of these deities is evil, as everything that lives needs to eventually die and decay, or there will be chaos. In Slavic paganism, the world is separated into three (a lot like in Norse mythology). There is Prav, where the light gods (like Belobog) reside, Yav (the world of humans) and Nav (the world of the dark gods, where Chernobog and Morena reside - and keep the Chaos which is outside Nav from invading and destroying all of creation). 

In his previous appearances, it has become clear that while he's not exactly thrilled about his vocation, Roman serves his dark god because he takes his duties seriously. In this novella, we find out more about how exactly he came to be the Dark Volvh and some of what that actually entails. Humour helps him cope with his calling. Roman is not evil, nor is his god, and he's not about to let an innocent young man be taken against his will by bloodthirsty mercenaries. However, he's been a soldier, and he is willing to take lives if that is the only way to keep his property and those he protects safe. As with a lot of other Ilona Andrews stories, there is adventure, humour, action and some impressive violence in this story.

This novella started in weekly instalments on Ilona Andrews' blog. Once they decided to publish it, they took down the story and it has gone through edits, and the finished story includes an epilogue, where it becomes clear why this is part 1 of The Roman Chronicles (note the plural). It looks like the authors, gracious as they are, are considering expanding the Kate Daniels universe with more stories about one of our favourite supporting characters. Roman's adventures clearly aren't over, and there are new characters (including a likely love interest) introduced over the course of this story. There are quite a lot of other stories that the authors have stated they need to write before we are likely to get more Roman, but since I love everything they have published so far, it's not like the wait is too onerous. 

Judging a book by its cover: Here is yet another example that Ilona Andrews only ever has good cover art when they self-publish. This cover is simple, yet really cool and very atmospheric. Absolutely perfect for the story it illustrates. Why do traditional publishers keep getting it so wrong?

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR16 Book 47: "Gemina" by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Page count: 672 pages

Rating: 5 stars

CBR16 Sweet Books: Binge

Nowhere Book Bingo: A YA novel

Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: Epistolary romance

CBR16 Bingo: Part 1 and Part 2 (the book has more than 600 pages)

This is the second book in a series, and starting with this one means a lot of stuff won't make much sense. I also don't think it's possible for me to review this book without spoiling the previous one, so if you're not up to date, start with Illuminae.

After the disastrous events, first on the mining colony of Kerenza, and then on the space fleet evacuating survivors, the only remaining ship, Hypatia, is on its way to Jump Station Heimdall, hoping for aid. BeiTech, the organisation which launched the attack on Kerenza and utilised the bioweapon which led to a plague, cannot risk word getting out about their heinous deed and therefore need to make sure that they eradicate the Hypatia. To do so, they will need to use the jump station's wormhole, and later make sure that there are no survivors on Heimdall left to reveal the truth.

Entirely unaware of BeiTech's sinister goals are two teenagers aboard the Jump Station, Hanna Donnelly and Niklas "Nik" Malikov. Hanna is the station captain's beloved and pampered daughter, Nik is part of the Malikov crime family, and Hanna's occasional drug dealer. There's clearly an attraction between them, but Hanna is in a relationship with the dashing Jackson Merrick, one of her father's officers, and consequently doesn't really have time for more than some light flirtation with Nik. Life onboard a space station surrounding a wormhole obviously isn't very exciting for either of them, but Hanna tries to pass the time by studying, parties and working out, while Nik reluctantly assists with his family's business.

Both of their lives are irrevocably changed once an elite team of BeiTech mercenaries arrive, and very rapidly take control of the station. The mercenaries start by wiping out the people who helped their ship get onboard (Nik's family) and Nik only survives because he's on his way to deliver party drugs to Hanna. Thankfully, while she's annoyed that Nik is late for their deal, Hanna is also spared from seeing her father shot in the head when the mercenaries take control of the majority of the station. Now, Hanna might seem like nothing but an airheaded, fashion-obsessed teen, but being the daughter of a military commander with a keen interest in history, she's picked up a lot of useful knowledge about strategy, tactics and how to be stealthy. Nik, meanwhile, has only one family member left alive and is determined to avenge the Malikov crew in any way he can deal hurt to the mercenaries. Unfortunately, in all the sudden danger, both Nik and his computer genious cousin Ella completely forget about the very dangerous alien parasites hatching in a secluded part of the station (long story, the drugs the Malikovs sell are derived from some truly scary creatures, who should not be left unattended and allowed to crawl through space station vents and the like). Of course, the BeiTech baddies don't know about them either.

The BeiTech kill squad need to take control of the wormhole so that a second kill team can be sent through to deal with the Hypatia. They were not expecting to be foiled by a few teenagers and a few officers having sealed themselves on the bridge of the space station. Can Hanna, Nik, and Ella with a few ragtag allies foil their enemies, warn the Hypatia, save the remaining crew and thwart BeiTech's evil schemes? (This is book 2 of 3, what do you think?)

Fans of Ezra and Kady (her dad is the chief of security on Heimdall), not to mention AIDAN, will be pleased to know that in the latter half of the book, they do appear, although they are not the focus of this story, that would be Hanna and Nik. While Kady and Ezra had a past, and many months of separation with only computer chats to make the heart grow fonder, Hanna and Nik's attraction to one another is basically put to a boil in an insanely tense and demanding situation, where they are fighting for survival, grieving loved ones and trying to find a way to help complete strangers aboard the Hypatia. 

Hanna is unbelievably badass, and Nik may seem like he's got a dangerous and ruthless past but is really just a big, tattooed cinnamon roll (who will still do what is necessary if his or others' lives are in danger, he just needs more time to process it than Hanna). Ella is more of a secondary character, but the girl is fierce, especially since she's not really able to move around except via her computer. I love all of them and am so glad that Kaufman and Kristoff had the surviving characters from Illuminae take a backseat so readers could get to know these guys as well.

I am also grateful that while the lanima (super creepy alien parasites) are scary and unpleasant, any scene involving them (including the early ones where it's explained how they incubate) was a pale shadow of all the horror with the virus rage zombies of the previous book. I really liked how the book includes the photos and call signs of all the BeiTech mercenaries, and how as the book proceeds, more and more pictures are just crossed out (they may be teenagers, but Hanna, Nik and Ella are NOT messing around). 

Having now read two of these books, I have absolutely no idea what the authors are going to come up with next, but I'm hopeful that eventually the BeiTech corporation will be brought to justice for all the horrible things it has done. Having now heard so many cool things about the audiobooks, I may do the third and final book partly in audio.

Judging a book by its cover: While the first book was all warm colours, red and orange, this one is all cold, with a cloud of something (dust? smoke?) blue over a black background. I think this entire series has a very well-done cover design, with the covers of the trilogy complementing each other so well. 

CBR16 Book 44: (Trust) Falling for You by Charish Reid

Page count: 145 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: A novella

Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: The Great Outdoors   

Yolanda Watson tries her best to be an engaging and motivating English professor, she is well-liked by both her colleagues and her students. However, writing grant applications are not her strongest suit and she is upset that she lost out on a generous grant that could have helped a lot of her disadvantaged students.

Samuel Morris knows he's not popular, and doesn't particularly try to be either. He believes in working hard, following rules and taking things seriously. He's aware that Yolanda seems to dislike him, but doesn't really know it's because he was awared the grant she had also applied for, which he also needed the grant to help many of his own disadvantaged students. On his part, he finds Yolanda both exasperating and confounding, and wishes she'd be on time for committee meetings and show signs of taking issues seriously occasionally.  

Now the two of them are forced to share a cabin while on a team-building retreat in the woods of Wisconsin. Not only that, the people who share a cabin are Team-Building Buddies for the whole retreat and are supposed to do a lot of different bonding activities together. Samuel is a neat freak, Yolanda is chaotic and messy. Can they endure a week together? How long before their dislike turns to like, and possibly lust? And will Yolanda, very much a city girl, survive challenges like grasshoppers, spiders and even bears?

It can be tricky to write a satisfying romance in a novella, since you have a lot less space and time to get the characters together. Since Yolanda and Samuel are already coworkers and know each other, to a certain extent, they already have an established connection. Then there's the forced proximity, and various challenging situations where one of them has to help or assist the other, and since this is a small scale story without too much drama, it's not like there needs to be a third act breakup or some sort of grand gesture for them to get together. It's very quickly established that their dislike of each other comes mostly from them being very different people, and once they get a chance to talk and get to know each other better, those differences don't really matter. Over the course of the novella, Yolanda helps Samuel relax and let go a bit, while he helps her get more focused and organised (and promises to help her improve her grant applications in the future). 

This novella has been on my TBR list for a while, and seemed like the perfect choice when the Smart Bitches Summer Bingo had a square for "The Great Outdoors". Since the Nowhere Book Bingo had a square for "Novella" this worked as a two-fer, which is great.  The only other Charish Reid I've read is The Write Escape (also for the Nowhere Book Bingo, clearly Reid just writes books that fit that challenge well) and I like both stories, although the one set in Ireland is probably more to my taste than this one (like Yolanda, I'm not very comfortable outside in nature). Based on the two stories I have now read, I'll probably be moving some of my other Charish Reid books higher on my TBR. 

Judging a book by its cover: This is a pretty cute cartoony cover, although I'm pretty sure the woods described in the novella are nothing like the weird tall and strangely spaced beech trees on here. I especially like the bear peeking out from behind the bush in the background (IYKYK). 

Crossposted by Cannonball Read                                                                                       

CBR16 Book 43: "Don't Want You Like a Best Friend" by Emma R. Alban

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: 2024 Debut Release

Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: New to Me author

CBR16 Bingo: Scandal (Gwen and Beth's friendship lead to a scandal in the latter half of the book)

Beth is the daughter of the Viscount Demeroven, but has no brothers, and as a result, the title will pass to her cousin. If Beth doesn't find a wealthy and suitable husband during her first season, she and her mother will be left with barely anything (because her father was a very unpleasant man who didn't settle any money on them in his will). She hates being out in society, though, smiling and nodding and pretending to be a ninny just so some man might like her.

Her season gets a bit more bearable when she befriends Gwen, the daughter of a notorious rake. Gwen is in her fourth season, but since her father is wealthy, there is no real need for her to marry, and with each passing year, she becomes more certain she probably doesn't even want to. She takes an instant shine to Beth and promises to help her find a suitable match. The young ladies also notice that there is something strange going on with their parents, and discover that Beth's mother and Gwen's father were friends, and possibly more, back before Beth's mother got married. Now they seem determined to avoid one another, which is difficult as their daughters are becoming best friends.

Beth wouldn't have to get married if her mother married someone wealthy, so the young ladies start scheming (rather ineffectually) to get their parents to fall in love. While trying to push their parents together, the girls grow ever closer, and it becomes obvious that one of the reasons neither of them want to get married, is because they are madly in love with each other. Meanwhile, Beth has managed to catch the attention of a very eligible young man, and their matchmaking plan isn't going as well as they are hoping. Will our young lovers be separated because of Beth's need to secure her future?

A Victorian romance novel with a pair of lesbians with a title inspired by a Taylor Swift song? Sign me up. The book is set shortly after the introduction of the crinoline, or hoop skirt, so there is quite a lot of descriptions of the intricate garments the ladies have to wear during the various balls and such. Both young ladies, upon discovering their queerness, are able to be open with their various family members and instantly accepted, which seems unlikely for the time period, but also avoided some of the angst often present in queer historicals.

The story is mostly frothy and fun, some of the dialogue and attitudes felt anachronistic, but the characters (both the protagonists and the supporting cast) are very charming and I really enjoyed readin it. As is often the case with historical romances (hi Jane Austen!), women's rather unfortunate situations if left without generous male relations are highlighted. Beth's mother was in a similar situation to her daughter before she got married, and since Gwen's father was an untitled nobody at the time, he felt heartbroken when she chose to marry Viscount Demeroven rather than him. Sadly, the now late viscount was abusive and Beth is very aware that her parents' marriage was less than ideal. She dreams of being able to marry for love, but is all to aware that a lot of the eligible men of the ton might hide cruelty and unpleasantness behind their well-dressed facades. Gwen's father is in Parliament and trying to gather enough support to pass a bill that would make it possible for wives to divorce their husbands in cases of abuse or cruelty. Unsurprisingly, there there are a lot of noblemen opposing the bill, and as such, are not big fans of Gwen's father. 

This is Ms. Alban's debut novel. In the final part of this, she pretty heavily foreshadows the sequel, where Beth and Gwen discover that their male cousins (one of them the new Viscount Demeroven) both seem to be gay, and while they are trying to hide it, rather interested in one another. So they decide on another matchmaking scheme. I'm already looking forward the the hijinks that will no doubt ensue. 

Judging a book by its cover: Yet another wonderful cover by Leni Kaufmann, although based on their descriptions, I think Beth (the dark-haired one) should quite a bit shorter than Gwen (the blond one). Their dresses are lovely, and it's a nice touch that the main colour choices can also be found in the lesbian Pride flag. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read 

CBR16 Book 42: "To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Connie Willis

Page count: 512 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: Award Winner (Won the Hugo and Locus awards in 1998, plus a bunch of others)

Smart Bitches Summer Bingo: Scene on a boat or body of water (there's a lot of rowing on the river)

CBR16 Bingo: Tech (time travel requires pretty specific technology)

This is the second book in the Oxford Time Travel series, but you really don't need to have read the first one, Doomsday Book, to understand and enjoy this one.

In the universe these books are set in, time travel was discovered, but once it was further discovered that no items could be taken back to the future, so it couldn't be used to gain riches or plunder the past of treasures, the technology became used solely by historians, and there are strict rules that must be followed when doing it for academic pursuits.

Ned Henry is an Oxford historian in the 2050s who feels like he's going mad. Lady Schrapnell, a frightfully wealthy and extremely demanding woman is funding the recreation of Coventry Cathedral (in Oxford, for reasons not really explored in the book) and is demanding that absolutely everything is exactly like it was before the Cathedral was destroyed in an air raid during World War II. Ned has been sent on countless missions back to the past to locate something known as the bishop's bird stump (I had to google this, it turns out it's an incredibly ugly vase shaped like a tree stump with decorative birds on it), because that was one of the items apparently present in the church at the time. Because he has been unable to locate it, Ned has had to go back to the past and visit any number of church bazaars and jumble sales in the hopes of finding the blasted relic. If people are sent back too often, they start getting delerious and behave very oddly, so Ned is ordered by his boss to get some rest.

He can't get the required rest in the present, however, because if tyrannical Lady Whatsherface discovers his whereabouts, she'll just demand that he keeps looking for the bird stump. So Ned's boss sends him back to the Victorian age, to hide out for a few weeks and get the much-needed break he requires. In the Victorian age, he encounters a fellow Oxford historian, Verity Kindle, who is trying to undo an unfortunate mistake, and if they don't manage to set things right, it could have consquences for the entire future timeline. While working together to fix Verity's mistake, she and Ned also have to try to make sure that Lady Schrapnell's ancestor, a truly dimwitted girl, doesn't fall in love and marry the wrong person, a task that proves more complicated than one might first have imagined.

I read Doomsday Book back in 2016 and don't remember it very fondly. It was far too long, the plot meandered a lot and because most of the story takes place during the Black Plague, it was also pretty depressing. This book is much lighter in tone, and a lot of the plot plays out like a farce, with humorous mix-ups, misunderstandings, mistaken identities, and a fairly large cast of rather ridiculous characters. The book is also full of literary allusions and clever references to all sorts of academic things, at least 50% of which went entirely over my head. I'm not sure I'm clever enough to appreciate this book on as many levels as the author intended.

Ned and Verity are both extremely likable characters, and my main complaint about the book is that there is so much faffing about and preventing romances between other characters, so there isn't enough time for them to spend together on page, developing their own romance. Nevertheless, this was a fun read, and I'm very much looking forward to my book club's discussion of it in August (we were supposed to have the meeting in June, but too many people were sick or busy, so we just postponed everything over the summer, which also gives more people the chance to read the book). Considering some of the books we've had in the previous months have been rather disappointing, this one felt like a breath of fresh (albeit confusing) air. 

Judging a book by its cover: This book has been out for decades, and as such, there are a lot of different covers for it, most of which I dislike. The cover for my e-book copy isn't great either, but at least I like the warm colours on it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 41: "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me" by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell

Page count: 304 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo - Graphic novel

Official plot summary, because once again I have waited to long to review the book: Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley's dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There's just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend.

Reeling from her latest break up, Freddy's best friend, Doodle, introduces her to the Seek-Her, a mysterious medium, who leaves Freddy some cryptic parting words: break up with her. But Laura Dean keeps coming back, and as their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it's really Laura Dean that's the problem. Maybe it's Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever. Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnists like Anna Vice to help her through being a teenager in love.

This is one of those books that I heard a lot about when it came out and bought as soon as it was available in paperback (I don't like reading comics and graphic novels digitally), then put on my bookshelf and forgot. Since we have a full floor to ceiling bookshelf dedicated entirely to comics and graphic novels, once something is shelved there, it's no longer out in the open to remind me. I probably shouldn't have waited years to read it, but at least it didn't disappoint once I got to it.

The only other graphic novel I've read by Mariko Tamaki was This One Summer, which was lovely, but had a subplot that hit a bit too close to home for me and made it a rather painful reading experience for me. This one, with its focus on (tragic) romance and friendship was more to my taste. I started reading it during a day I actually had quite a lot to do and had only intended to make a start on it, but instead ended up having to rearrange my schedule, because I once I started, I couldn't really put it down. In This One Summer, the illustrations are done by Mariko's sister Jillian, here she collaborates with Rosemary Valero-O'Connell, who captures the characters beautifully. A really good story accompanied by bad art can be enjoyed, but it's so much better when both the writing and art are both high quality.

Teenagers are often rather self-centred and selfish, caring mostly about themselves and their own issues and as such, Freddy felt very realistic. She is happy to hang out with her friends, but because she's so caught up with her own drama, she doesn't really seem to notice or care about what is happening with others. She has gotten used to her friends, including her best friend Doodle, always being there for her, listening to her and supporting her through her multiple dumpings and getting back together again with Laura Dean, but not really that Doodle and the others are clearly getting frustrated with the constant back and forth, and Freddy's complete inability to see how bad Laura Dean is for her. 

Personally, I couldn't really see what was supposed to be so great about Laura, but then I'm an asexual lady in my forties, who spends much of my working year around teenagers and their drama, so I try to live a very drama free existence the rest of the time. I shared the frustration of Freddy's friends that she would wake up and smell the toxic girlfriend sooner, but I suppose there would have been a lot less plot if the book was 'I'm sick of Laura Dean using me and stringing me along, so I'll dump her once and for all and get on with my life'. 

I think Freddy's friend Doodle was my favourite character, and I felt really bad for her, trying to support Freddy through yet another inevitable break-up with the same person, while she herself really needed a friend and support because of a complicated and sad situation of her own. The rest of the supporting cast (with the exception of Laura Dean, who is clearly the antagonist, of sorts) also added to my enjoyment of the book. 

While Freddy herself had me rolling my eyes possibly one time too many, this book in some ways reminded me of Heartstopper, because it's a story of relatable and realistic-seeming teens, many of whom are queer, including the protagonist, but it's not about awkwardly coming out, or having to struggle for acceptance among parents and friends. These teens are just allowed to be who they are, without facing hatred and bullying. I'm glad I finally read this, and will be recommending it to others looking for a quick read. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover gives a little taste of Rosemary Valero-O'Connell's art, and while it only shows the back of Laura Dean, her jacket, posture and haircut all suggest her cool mean-girl attitude. We only get to see one eye of Freddy's, which looks a bit anxious and unsure. It's a really well-done image. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR16 Book 27: "In Memoriam" by Alice Winn

Page count: 379 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR16 Bingo: Liberate (our protagonists are fighting in World War I to keep the world safe from the Germans)

Official plot summary, because I finished this book in early April:

It's 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that Ellwood is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt's German mother asks him to enlist as an officer in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, Gaunt signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood.

The front is horrific, of course, and though Gaunt tries to dissuade Ellwood from joining him on the battlefield, Ellwood soon rushes to join him, spurred on by his love of Greek heroes and romantic poetry. Before long, their classmates have followed suit. Once in the trenches, Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, but their friends are all dying, right in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.

I read about this in a book review in a Norwegian newspaper months and months ago and thought it sounded interesting. I put myself on the waiting list for it and completely forgot about it until my hold came in, and I had to actually look up why I'd wanted to read this book in the first place. Two public school boys who secretly love one another and can't realise their feelings for each other until they're also soldiers in the First World War? Well, that sounds like a laugh fest, doesn't it? 

Obviously, this book is utterly harrowing and made me cry a bunch of times. Throughout the book, there are fictional snippets of the school newspaper from the boarding school Gaunt and Ellwood attended, which include lists of the fallen and injured, and looking at the ages of most of them (very few over the age of 25) is just heartbreaking. Because the world is a depressing and terrible place, I tend to read a lot of light-hearted escapism. This certainly wasn't that. It is a beautiful novel, though, showing so much of the banality of war and how utterly awful trench warfare was. Ellwood and Gaunt were wonderful protagonists, and it was very difficult not to get attached to them, and a number of their friends and acquaintances, most of whom die horribly over the course of the novel. I'm not going to lie, I actually had to peek at the final pages of the book to see if both protagonists survived, just so I wouldn't be too emotionally compromised if one of them didn't make it. I'm not going to spoil here what the outcome is - you'll have to read the book for yourself. 

It's remarkable to me that this is a debut novel. Maybe it's deeply unoriginal and derivative if you've read a ton of novels set during World War I, but I haven't, so to me, this was beautiful, and difficult to put down (even when I wanted to, because if I wasn't reading, then characters couldn't keep dying) and very sad. I highly recommend it. The young men in this are clearly fictional, but they are also obviously modelled on actual men who sacrificed so much. Now I'm going back to closing my eyes tight and holding my hands over my ears going la-la-la-la-la with regard to all the horrifying conflicts currently happening right now in various parts of the world, because my sanity can only take so much. 

Judging a book by its cover: This is the cover of the book I got from the library, and I just don't think it in any way captures anything about what this book is about. This looks like it's a book about young men who work in the stock exchange or something, not a harrowing tale of bravery, camaraderie, trauma, and love during the First World War. There is another cover of the book in black and white, with the bombs flying over the battlefield looking almost like fireworks which is very striking and evokes the feel and content of the book so much more.  

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 25: "Delilah Green Doesn't Care" by Ashley Herring Blake

Page count: 375 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: Book with a LGBTQIA+ author and main character

CBR16 Sweet Books: New (author and series)

CBR16 Book Bingo: Pride

Delilah Green grew up in Bright Falls, in the care of her wealthy, but emotionally cold stepmother (after her father died), and never managed to forge a connection to her always perfect stepsister Astrid either. Astrid had her two best friends, Claire and Iris, and more than once Delilah overheard them saying mean things about her. When she got the chance, she left Bright Falls for New York and has rarely been back since. She lives for her photography, and after many years, her career finally seems to be taking off. 

But now Astrid is getting married and insists on having Delilah be the wedding photographer. The promise of a very large paycheck and heaping on a fair amount of emotional blackmail means Delilah can't really say no. Imagine her surprise, when on her first night back, she's propositioned at the local bar by none other than Astrid's BFF Claire, who doesn't even recognise Delilah at first. Suddenly the next few weeks before the wedding are looking more entertaining, and if she manages to piss off Astrid by seducing her friend, so much the better. 

Claire Sutherland has been a single mother for most of her eleven-year-old daughter's life. The girl's father has proven unreliable and is more often than not away. So Claire runs the Bright Falls bookstore and tries to provide stability and order to both her daughter's and her own life. She doesn't like the man her best friend is engaged to, and really needs to get laid. So she takes a challenge from her friend Iris to approach an interesting-looking woman at the bar, and is rather shocked when she realises it's Delilah that she's hit on. 

While Claire tries to resist Delilah, spending more time with her as an adult shows Claire that while they grew up in the same town, and Claire and Iris spent a lot of time in the same house as Delilah and Astrid, they never really knew Delilah, and certainly not who she has made herself into after she left town. Since the guy Astrid is marrying is absolutely awful, Claire, Iris and Delilah agree to team up to make Astrid come to her senses and call off the wedding, which obviously means spending more time together during the wedding preparations. What's the harm in spending some alone time with Delilah at night as well? 

I'm not sure why it took me so long to read this book. I'd heard great things about it on so many corners of the internet. As so often happens, I bought it in an e-book sale and then got distracted by something else tempting and shining on my insurmountable TBR-list. The Nowhere Book Bingo gave me an excuse to read the book, and thanks to my complete inability to keep up with my review backlog, I'm now also able to use it to fulfil the "Pride" square for the Cannonball Read 16 Bingo card as well. Being slow sometimes pays off. 

I really liked most things about this book, and probably Claire most of all. She's a hard-working single mother, who had a kid before she was really ready for it, with a man who certainly wasn't ready for fatherhood or commitment. She runs a bookstore and doesn't want to start anything that might ruin the stability of her daughter's life. She's kind and loyal, and once Delilah actually lets her in a bit, she understands how much she, Astrid and Iris misunderstood Delilah when they were growing up. 

Delilah has not had an easy life and is definitely prickly and slow to trust because of it. Having lost both her biological parents at an early age, with the only parental figure left to her being Astrid's cold and callous mother, she has developed a "leave them before they can leave you" attitude, and all her sexual conquests are purely of a temporary nature (usually only one-night-stands). Having worked hard to become a recognised photographer, she is presented with an excellent career opportunity at the start of this book, which is complicated by her promise to Astrid to photograph the upcoming wedding.

Astrid initially seems like a perfectionist ice queen, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that the rejection Delilah felt growing up wasn't necessarily one-way. Delilah was just too caught up in her own feelings to notice Astrid's attempts at reaching out to her stepsister, and if she'd been a bit more willing to speak to her sister as an adult, a lot of the negative feelings between them could have been resolved with a conversation or two.

The secondary plot of this novel is all about how Delilah, Claire and Iris decide to team up to show Astrid what an absolute douché-canoe her fiancé is, through a series of elaborate plots. As the second book in the series seems to have Astrid finding love with someone NOT her horrible boyfriend in this one, I was pretty sure their scheme would probably meet with success eventually. 

I really liked this, but didn't feel I could give it a full five stars, mainly because of how much of the plot could have been resolved by some frank conversations between some of the characters, be it Delilah and Claire or Delilah and Astrid. Situations like that always frustrate me. Nevertheless, this was a really enjoyable book, and I'm looking forward to reading Astrid and Iris' stories at a future date. 

Judging a book by its cover: In a world with so many dreadful book covers, Leni Kaufman keeps knocking it out of the park, and she always draws really good representations of the actual characters in the book. Delilah and Claire both look absolutely phenomenal here and the hand-holding is so cute. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR16 Book 15: "The Write Escape" by Charish Reid

Page count: 291 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: A book with a BIPOC author and main character

CBR16 Sweet Books: Cozy

In very short order, Antonia Harper has lost her job and discovered that her fiancée was cheating on her, very shortly before the wedding. The honeymoon was supposed to be in Ireland, and Antonia decides to travel there by herself. Her spiteful ex has cancelled their original reservations, but she rents a cottage to stay in instead. With nothing else to distract her, Antonia decides to make a stab at writing more of the romance novel she's been dreaming of completing (but never had time for, what with her busy job as an editor and trying to plan a wedding). She isn't exactly happy with men in general at present, but the handsome professor in the cottage next door is making her reconsider her wish to be alone.

Aidan Byrnes is a literature professor who is finding his job difficult at the moment. He's rented a cottage in the little town of Tully Cross to get some peace and quiet and to finally have the time and focus to complete an important academic paper. He first runs into Antonia in the tiny supermarket nearby and is both surprised and delighted to discover that she is staying in the cottage next to his. Still slightly weary of romantic entanglements after his girlfriend dumped him a year previous, Aiden nevertheless can't stop thinking about Antonia, who he discovers is not only gorgeous but clever, educated, and funny as well.

What starts out as a bit of a holiday fling begins to turn serious pretty quickly. Neither Antonia nor Aidan were expecting to meet anyone, let alone start falling for them in the sleepy village of Tully Cross. Yet Aiden has a job at an Irish university, and Antonia's life is back in America. Can their fledgling romance turn into something more permanent, with an entire ocean between them?

This is my first novel by Charish Reid and it was fun, but not exactly a perfect read. I really liked Antonia and Aiden as characters, both apart and together. Both are hard-working and devoted to their jobs (but obviously Antonia is unemployed for much of the book since she loses her job early on). Antonia is also very close to her family, especially her sister, which made it difficult when they clearly weren't enthusiastic about her upcoming wedding. I would love to read a sequel novel about her sister.

The majority of the book is set in Ireland, and while I'm sure Irish villages are very quaint and welcoming, it seems like a slightly exaggerated ideal of the place. No one is unpleasant, racist, or rude. I understand that those aren't exactly things that you would want in a fluffy escapist romance, but from my experience, not all small-town folk anywhere are open-minded and whole-heartedly welcoming to any strangers, certainly not those with darker skin colours. 

This was a quick breezy read, and I liked it a lot. There were a few things that annoyed me a bit, but nothing serious enough for me not to want to read more of her books. Firstly, Antonia is obviously using her vacation in Ireland to work on her romance novel. At one point, Aiden uses her computer and can't help himself from reading what she's written. Considering how unsure she is of her writing and how personal a book manuscript can be, this felt like he was reading her journal. When she eventually discovers what he's done, she seems to forgive him very quickly. SPOILER! Antonia also seems able to relocate her entire life to Ireland on very little notice, to be with a guy whom she's known for less than two weeks. Good to know that it's that easy to make a major life change when you finally meet the hot guy you decide is Mr. Right.

Judging a book by its cover: I really like the visible joy on the faces of both of the cover models here. This is exactly the sort of novel that would have a jewel-toned cover with cute cartoony characters on it now, and I'm not sure that trend is as great as publishers think it is. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 14: "Illuminae" by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Page count: 602 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: An epistolary novel

CBR16 Sweet Books: Binge (I have already bought the next two books in the series in paperback, so I can read all of them as soon as possible.)

Official book description:

Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the worst thing she'd ever been through. That was before her planet was invaded. Now, with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating craft, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But the warship could be the least of their problems. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their biggest threat; and nobody in charge will say what's really going on. As Kady plunges into a web of data hacking to get to the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: Ezra.

Kady is a talented hacker and is fully aware that the evacuated passengers aren't being told much of anything. She is determined to find out the truth of what is going on, especially after the AI of the leading evacuation ship, AIDAN, blows one of the other two up unexpectedly. Naturally, the remaining ship's crew are rather nervous about the incident being repeated and the AI needs to be shut down until they can figure out why it acted so erratically. Ezra is recruited as a fighter pilot, working to defend the evacuation fleet, not exactly a job without significant risks.

As Kady becomes more and more isolated, and the losses really start affecting her, her illegal communication with Ezra becomes one of the things that keep her going. Neither of them has anyone else significant left in their lives, and it becomes clear that the reasons why Kady dumped Ezra in the first place become very insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and now they would just like to be reunited, before they quite possibly die. 

As the back of the book says, the novel is "Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more". I am very glad I got the paperback from the library, I'm genuinely not sure how in the world this book would work in audio, and I don't think I would have found it as engrossing a read on an e-reader screen. There were sections where I literally had to keep turning the book sideways or on its head to be able to read everything. It's a very interesting take on the epistolary format. 

I can absolutely see why this book wouldn't be a 5-star read for some people. It was a bit slow to catch my interest in the beginning, but since it's not divided into chapters like a traditional book, but interview transcripts, memos, chat logs, and the like, it's very easy to get tempted to read just a little bit more, since each individual section is so short. Once things really started escalating, I had trouble putting the book down. I stayed up until far too late o'clock on a work night just to finish it (and had to actually peek at the ending about halfway through the book because all the tension was going to kill me if I didn't know how it all turned out). So to me, this was a five-star read, even though some of the characterisation probably could have been deeper, and parts of the book were pure horror, and really upsettingly graphic when it came to the violence perpetrated by those afflicted with the virus. 

I have now bought this book for my keeper shelf, along with the two sequels, if they're even half as gripping as this one, I want physical copies of them for my very own. Also, having read the first one in a physical format, I'm not even sure it would be possible to get all the necessary information if you read them as an e-book or listened to it in audio. 

Judging a book by its cover: The reds and oranges are very eye-catching and I'm not entirely sure what the cover is supposed to show, but I think it might be a firestorm, suggesting either the original attack on Kady and Ezra's home world or the subsequent explosion of one of the evacuation ships. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 13: "Bride" by Ali Hazelwood

Page count: 410 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: One-word title

CBR16 Sweet Books: Exciting (This was one of my most anticipated book releases of the first half of 2024)

Misery Lark is the only daughter of a powerful vampyre councilman, and for much of her life, she lived among human strangers as a diplomatic hostage, to maintain the fragile peace between vampyres and humans. To make her a bit less lonely, an orphan named Serena came to live with her, and now that Misery is all grown-up, Serena is her only friend. She also has a twin brother, but since she's lived away from him for so long, they don't really know each other particularly well.

Misery is no longer a hostage, but Serena has gone missing and Misery is desperate to find her friend. When her father wants to use her to secure another alliance, this one a rather fragile one with the volatile werewolves, her first instinct is to say no. But then she discovers the name of the new werewolf Alpha, Lowe Moreland, and remembers a clue she found in Serena's apartment. Convinced that the werewolves must have something to do with her BFF's disappearance, Misery agrees to marry a complete stranger, a man she won't even meet until the wedding ceremony. 

Early in their marriage, Misery is convinced that Lowe is disgusted by her, and he tries to keep his distance from her as much as possible. It's difficult for her to snoop around and investigate since there are guards watching her at all times. A lot of the werewolves are suspicious and distrustful of Misery, but Lowe's little sister seems delighted by her and takes any opportunity to spend time with her (much to Misery's initial annoyance, she has no idea how to relate to a child, let alone a constantly chirpy one). 

While Misery is a very skilled hacker, she sucks at subterfuge and sneaking around. She also fails to account for her husband's excellent sense of smell - it's not really difficult for him to tell when she's been snooping in his quarters. She's forced to tell him why she agreed to the marriage, and while he's never even heard of Serena, he promises to help her search for her friend. Once they start working together, Misery and Lowe obviously have to spend a lot more time together, and once they do, Misery is about to discover that the reason her husband has been keeping her at a distance isn't because he hates her - rather the opposite.

By now, it should be clear to readers of my reviews that I am a big fan of Ali Hazelwood. I've read everything she's published, and when I found out she was doing a paranormal, I nearly lost it. I keep joking that I'd like her to switch things up and finally write a book with a short, shy, introverted hero. A novel featuring werewolves and vampires was never going to have that. Of course, Lowe is big and imposing, he's an alpha werewolf. However, Misery is at least not a petite waif with some sort of chronic condition, she's described as nearly six feet tall, which is a bit of a change from Hazelwood's normally pocket-sized heroines. 

I am vaguely aware that there is something out there called the Omegaverse, but I haven't really wanted to mess up my search history by actually looking up what it entails, and as far as I'm aware. I also don't read fan fiction (far too little time to read actual books, I don't have time to get distracted by fan fic), but I have read a fair amount of paranormal romance, many MANY of them which feature shapeshifters and were-creatures of some form or another. Even so, I have never come across the concept of 'knotting' before this book. It wasn't like I didn't understand from the sexual situations described in this book entailed, but I had to go on the interwebs and look up where the term originated, and this is the first book where I can say I've come across its use. Gotta say I'm not a fan. Apart from that, I really enjoyed this book, even with the fated mate stuff that's clearly happening (just because Misery doesn't understand what's going on, and keeps misunderstanding all the conversations involving Lowe's mate, doesn't mean that it's not pretty obvious from pretty much the wedding ceremony to anyone who's read any paranormal romance at all).

Hazelwood has in the past had some characters appear in more than one of her STEM romances, but so far she doesn't really seem to do sequels. However, now that she's written this paranormal, I'm desperate for her to write at least one more book set in this world, preferably two. It seems pretty obvious, from the final scene in this book, that Serena is likely to get her own novel. I want one for Owen, Misery's twin brother, as well though, as he's an intriguing character from what we get to see of him in this book. I want to see what romantic match Hazelwood has in mind for him. 

Judging a book by its cover: Compared to Hazelwood's previous novels, which all have bright almost candy-coloured covers with the lovers in fairly traditional embraces, this is very monochrome. The black, white, grey, and red colour scheme here is clearly yet another nod/wink to Twilight, however, and I for one think it's a fun one. Could it have had a more interesting image? Possibly, but I really like the wolf in the background with the glowing eyes. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 12: "Raiders of the Lost Heart" by Jo Segura

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: A Nowhere Book Club Pick

CBR16 Sweet Books: New (Jo Segura is a debut author)

Official book description: 

When archaeologist Dr. Socorro 'Corrie' Mejía is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig in the Mexican jungle, she thinks her wildest dreams have come true. It's her life goal to lead an expedition in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But as the world-renowned expert on the topic, Corrie should be leading the expedition, not sharing the glory with her disgustingly handsome nemesis.

Dr. Ford Matthews has been finding new ways to best her since they were in grad school, yet he isn't exactly thrilled either - with his life in shambles, the last thing he needs is a reminder of their rocky past.

As the dig begins, it becomes clear they'll need to work together when they realize a thief is lurking around their campsite, forcing the pair to keep their discoveries - and lingering attraction - under wraps. With money-hungry artifact smugglers, the Mexican authorities, and the lies between them closing in, there's only one way this all ends - explosively.

This is a debut novel where the heroine keeps being compared to Lara Croft and the hero is apparently named for Harrison Ford because his Dad loved the Indiana Jones movies. Doctor Corrie Mejía is a very intelligent and highly trained archeologist, but keeps having trouble being taken seriously because she's also a very attractive woman, and due to some recklessness in her past, there are all sorts of exaggerated stories about her wild adventures. A mysterious guy shows up in her office and tells her about a dig in Mexico, which she only discovers is headed by her career nemesis, Doctor Ford Matthews.

Ford has been digging in the Mexican jungle for three months, without anything real to show for it, and has had no choice but to recommend to his employer that they bring Corrie in on the job, as she is the expert on Chimalli, the warrior whose resting place they are trying to locate. In fact, she would have been the best person to lead the job, but desperate for money because his mother needs expensive cancer treatments, and his father died leaving a bunch of unpaid debts, Ford convinced the financial backers that he knew just as much, if not more than Corrie. Naturally, this lie and the subsequent deception are some of the things that present obstacles in the way to Ford and Corrie's eventual HEA.

As the cover promises, this book has quite a bit of adventure, as Ford and Corrie need to set off into the jungle to find the correct dig site (the reason Ford and his crew didn't find anything for three months is that they were looking in the wrong place). Their multi-day trek presents several dangers, like near-drownings, snake attacks, and a rather complicated situation that leads to "only one tent". Then there's the mystery of the possible artifact thief and trying to figure out the culprit before their expedition is sabotaged.

There's a lot to like here, and some fun supporting characters. Once Ford and Corrie stop ignoring their obvious chemistry and act on the massive sexual tension between them, the book also gets pretty steamy. There are still elements that make it pretty obvious that this is Ms. Segura's first novel, for instance, a strange fake-out towards the end that seemed unnecessary to me, since one of the protagonists, no matter how much danger they appear to be in, is going to end up dead just before the epilogue. It was still a fun novel, with an unusual premise, so I'll keep a look out for other novels by Ms. Segura in the future. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover is colourful and cute, and you can really see the pop culture references clearly in the way the two main characters are portrayed (although I'm pretty sure Ford is holding a rope rather than a whip). I like it a lot more than a lot of cartoony covers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 11: "Canadian Boyfriend" by Jenny Holiday

Page count: 384 pages

Audio book length: 10 hrs 52 mins

Rating: 4 stars

This was an audio ARC from Netgalley. My opinions are my own.

CBR16 Sweet Books: Exciting (I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and was VERY excited to get an ARC shortly before the release date. 

Nowhere Bingo: A book with multiple POVs

When Aurora "Rory" Evans was a lonely teenager, she ran into a handsome Canadian hockey player while she was selling coffee at the Mall of America. She took his name and pretended to have an actual Canadian boyfriend, making her loneliness and ostracism seem more bearable, because even if she had been invited to things, she wouldn't have been able to come, since she was probably visiting her boyfriend, in Canada. And obviously, he couldn't come to school dances or her ballet recitals, living in Canada and all. To keep up the ruse, she also wrote her fictional boyfriend long letters, basically making them a sort of journal for some difficult years in her life.

Now an adult, having given up on ballet as it was making her sick, Aurora works as a dance teacher in a small town. She still struggles with her years of disordered eating, and occasionally gets panic attacks, but she's doing a lot better and enjoys teaching children the joys of dance. To her great surprise, the tragically widowed Mike Martin, whose daughter comes back to dance classes after some time away (what with the grief and the dead mum and soforth), is none other than the handsome young man she took as inspiration for her fake boyfriend. To her credit, it takes her a while to confirm to herself that the Mike she met as a teenager and this Mike are the same person, but even when she does, she doesn't tell him the truth about her teenage coping mechanism. 

Mike loved his wife and is still dealing with a lot of emotions after her sudden death in a car accident. Olivia, Rory's dance student, is his step-daughter and while he's the only father she's ever known, he's had to fight his parents-in-law for custody, which hasn't exactly made the grieving process easier. It's clear that Olivia adores her father, but she's also a tween who lost her mother and is prone to tantrums and sudden outbursts. Dance classes with "Miss Rory" are one of her favourite things. Mike likes that Aurora doesn't fawn over him (unlike many of the dance mums) and he sees the easy rapport she has with Olivia, and when he discovers that Aurora is working multiple jobs to make ends meet, offers to hire her to be Olivia's sort-of nanny while he's off resuming his hockey career. 

So the romance here takes a while to develop. Aurora is keeping the secret that she basically used Mike as a template for a fantasy boyfriend for a long time as a teenager, a truth that becomes more difficult to tell the longer she knows him and the closer they become. Mike is also Aurora's employer (she refuses to take a paycheck, but lives in his basement, has access to a car whenever she needs it, and gets health insurance) for a lot of the book, which certainly complicates the situation between them somewhat. Mike also feels like he can't date again until his daughter is older, possibly even until after she's old enough to move out. He doesn't feel like he can introduce a new woman into her life, in case they break up and she would have to deal with losing another person. When they do finally decide to become more than friends, they do address the employer/employee complication, so it's very much not a case of anyone being exploited or taken advantage of. 

There's so much to like in this book. The close friendship between Aurora and her best friend (who owns the dance studio where she works). Mike has been in therapy since his wife died, and once Aurora gets health insurance, she can also afford to see a therapist. She has a long list of reasons as to why she needs to, beginning with the relationship with her very controlling mother, who still makes her feel guilty for giving up a career as a dancer, because of all the time and money her mother put into "supporting" her daughter. There's the disordered eating, which still creates problems for her occasionally, although I liked how she tried to get more comfortable with allowing herself sugary things and her anxiety. And after a while, it's actually her complicated feelings about her relationship with Mike. 

By the way, notice how I keep calling the male protagonist simply Mike in my review? My major complaint about this book, the main reason I cannot give it five stars, even though I really enjoyed it and it did so many things well, is that consistently, throughout the entire book, up to and including the epilogue, Aurora calls Mike by his full name. He is Mike Martin EVERY single time she refers to him. I get it when they are still just acquaintances, and he's the father of one of the girls she teaches. But once she moves into his house to take care of his daughter? Once they actually start engaging in spicy recreational activities? Why? Who does that? 

I do not call or think of my husband as Mark Patterson, he's just Mark. Possible exception if I have to fill out official paperwork or something, then I guess I'd use his full name. Why, Aurora? What is your deal? What is up with that? This strange quirk started bothering me about halfway through the book when I really started noticing it, and by the end of the book, I was annoyed enough that it made me want to scream. So no five stars for you, book. 

It's been a while since I listened to an audio book with two narrators, but to me, this had an unusual audio format. I'm used to romance novels that have alternating POVs between the protagonists, and if the audiobook has two different narrators, they read the entire chapter from "their" character's POV. That is not the case here. Emily Ellet narrates the chapters where Aurora is the POV character and Joshua Jackson narrates Mike's. In all the chapters, Ellet does all the female voices and Jackson does all the male voices. So it becomes a sort of hybrid between a standard audio book and an audio drama. I really liked it. I've now come across another romance audio that did the same thing. If this is a new trend in dual-POV books in audio, whether romance or not, I'm a big fan. It makes the whole thing a lot more entertaining. 

Both narrators for this are really good and make the story more engaging. Normally, I only listen to audiobooks when I'm going to and from work, or am out doing errands, or if I'm doing chores. Now, I kept finding excuses to listen more. I know there was a lot of excitement on social media because THE  Joshua Jackson (of Dawson's Creek and Fringe fame) was doing the male part. Is this actually his first time doing audiobooks? If so, he did a good job. I enjoyed the audiobook enough that I used one of my precious Audible credits on it once I finished listening. So even if this was an ARC originally, Ms. Holiday got another sale.

Niggles about Aurora's weird name quirk aside, this was really good and I liked how Mike's character actually got the space and time to work through his many issues because of his wife's death. Neither Aurora nor Mike are magically healed by the love of another, and keep going to therapy because even once they work through the final act complications, both of them need mental health support. In so many books, one or both of the main characters should have intense and comprehensive therapy to deal with their MANY issues - that is not the case here.

I think the next book in the series is about Gretchen, Aurora's best friend. I can't wait. Hopefully, she'll not refer to her romantic partner with first and surname constantly. 

Judging a book by its cover: By now, I can pretty much recognise a Leni Kaufmann-illustrated cover at a glance. I always love her covers, and this one is particularly cute. Not entirely sure why the guy (clearly Mike) looks like the twin of Andy Dwyer from Parks and Recreation, but the pink and the mint-green and Aurora's lovely ballet slippers - the playful way she sits and glances over at Mike. It works for me on every level. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.