CBR18 Book 4: "I've Got My Duke to Keep Me Warm" by Kelly Bowen

Page count: 352

Rating: 4 stars

Buzzword Reading Challenge 26: Me/My

Buzzword Cover Challenge 26: Wearable accessories (the cape!)

Defeating the Goblin TBR: The Dusty Book (has been on my TBR since 2016)

Monthly Keyword Challenge: Keep

Reading Rainbow - White Cover

Everyone believes that Giselle Whitby, is dead. Four years ago, she had to fake her death to escape her sadistic, controlling and abusive husband, the Marquess of Valence. To make sure there was no doubt of her demise, Giselle made sure the boat she and her stepdaughter were on exploded, in sight of half of London society. Conveniently, Giselle was wearing a very expensive diamond necklace at the time, meaning she escaped with a large share of her husband's fortune. Since her disappearance, Giselle has been in hiding, establishing a network of associates, helping other women in abusive relationships escape their husbands. Now she has discovered that Lord Valence plans to marry another young lady, and she has less than a week to stop him. 

Because one of her usual co-conspirators is off to Scotland to get married (to the stepdaughter who also escaped four years ago), Giselle needs to find another man who can help her foil her erstwhile abuser's marriage plans. She finds James "Jamie" Moncrieff drunk in a tavern and decides he will serve their purposes well enough. Once he sobers up and has a bath, Giselle and her partner (her husband's former valet) discover that he is a former war hero, still struggling with PTSD and guilt from the Napoleonic War. He is also the illegitimate son of a duke (because his father, the duke, married his mother a few hours after he was born. So he's the eldest son, but has no claims to the title. He is tall, muscular, handsome, charming, intelligent, deeply honourable, excellent at cards, great with horses and looks spectacular in evening wear. Does this man have any flaws at all?

Aiding Giselle in her plans is the Dowager Duchess of Worth, who is tremendously wealthy and appears mad as a box of cats every time she appears in public. To support her eccentric reputation, she collects chicken memorabilia (everything from carved birds, porcelin and even jewelled chickens) and even has a pet chicken with her every time she leaves the house. Her son, the current Duke of Worth, is concerned for his mother and keeps trying to get her to move in with him, without any luck. 

Giselle is described as a beautiful and accomplished woman, a bit of an ice queen, but thanks to her sadistic ex, is covered with scars on parts of the body fancy gowns would normally cover. With the impressive collar of diamonds she escaped with, she could have fled far away from England and made sure there was no chance her husband could ever find her. Instead, she has the Dowager Duchess sneakily selling off the diamonds to fund her rescue operations, and has gathered a network of concerned helpers from all layers of society to give these battered women safe havens when they've been successfully disappeared.

As far as I can tell, this is Kelly Bowen's debut romance novel, the first in her Dukes of Worth trilogy. Goodreads tells me that I read the third book in the series back in 2017, but didn't find it too impressive. In her later romances, Bowen basically has all her heroines be impressively competent in a number of fields, and all the men who fall for them are happy to play a supportive role in these women's lives, while clearly also adoring them. There are traces of that here as well, but since the entire plot takes place over the course of about a week, I think Giselle and Jamie fall for each other implausibly quickly, especially considering Giselle's previous abusive relationship. I was entertained enough that I'm going to want to read the second book in the series as well, featuring the Duke of Worth and his mother's mysterious ladies' companion. Also, I wish Bowen still wrote traditional historical romance; she was really good at it. 

Judging a book by its cover: I literally have NO idea what this cover has to do with the book, except for the cover model being a blonde. This is a fairly dark novel, with protagonists who have gone through a lot. Absolutely nowhere in the book does Giselle put on a big red fur-lined cloak and dance about in the snow. She mostly stays hidden and wears plain clothing so as not to attract attention. I also don't think the book is set in the winter. What were the design team thinking here? With all the red and white, it also makes it seem like a Christmas book. It is not. 

 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR15 Book 69: "A Lady for a Duke" by Alexis Hall

Page count: 460 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

For most of her life, Viola Carroll was forced to live a lie. Then she went off to the Napoleonic wars, with her best friend and constant companion Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood, and because of a horrible accident where she was presumed dead by everyone who knew her, she decided to just let most people assume her former self was indeed dead (so her title and estates could pass to her brother), making it possible for her to finally live as her true self. For the past two years, she has been living with her brother and his family, acting as her sister-in-law, Lady Marleigh's companion. Then her sister-in-law gets a letter from Miranda, Gracewood's younger sister, and it's clear that neither she nor he are doing well. Stuck by herself in a big, lonely castle in Northumberland, Miranda is about to go all "Gothic heroine", according to Lady Marleigh, and something needs to be done.

Viola isn't exactly thrilled about the idea of being out among other people than her family, and is absolutely terrified of facing Gracewood again. Lady Marleigh doesn't suffer fools, however, and since she is literally Viola's employer, Viola has to reluctantly agree to accompany her. When they arrive at his imposing castle, Gracewood is clearly so drunk and/or drugged that he thinks they are ghosts and actually fires a gun at them (thankfully, due to the inebriation, he's a terrible shot, so no one is injured). His dreadful state makes Viola see that he can't possibly be left to moulder, grieve, and destroy not only the rest of his own life but most likely that of Miranda too, as she refuses to leave her brother. 

Gracewood has a badly healed leg injury, so can't move about without a cane. He has severe PTSD and survivor's guilt because he lived and his best friend died. He's been dulling both his physical and emotional pain with alcohol and laudanum and generally withdrawn so much that most of his servants have quit and the only one left who cares for him is his teenage sister Miranda, who was clearly always an original and unconventional individual but is now becoming decidedly peculiar. Lady Marleigh wants to take her to London and make sure she has a season, but Miranda won't leave her brother, so Lady Marleigh needs to get Gracewood to a state where his sister can see she doesn't have to stay constantly by his side. So Viola starts to try to nurse Gracewood back to health, and the chemistry between them is palpable, even before Viola reluctantly tells him the truth about who she is.

Gracewood doesn't take the news about Viola well at first, and she is heartbroken and goes back to her family. His main objections are really very selfish, and he feels betrayed because he's been grieving for years and feels guilty for dragging Viola to war in the first place, and now it turns out that Viola has been alive this whole time and never let him know (oh, and she lied to him throughout their entire friendship). Obviously, because he'd be a terrible romance hero otherwise, Gracewood comes to his senses, realises that he's being an ass, and he needs to apologise to Viola. He also acknowledges that Lady Marleigh is absolutely right, his sister cannot be left to wither away in some Northumbrian castle, she deserves a season and to meet possible suitors. He quits laudanum cold turkey, packs up his sister and takes her to London. Then he seeks out Viola and performs a most satisfactory grovel.

Once he stops being butthurt, Gracewood basically doesn't want to waste another second away from Viola. He wants to make her his wife, but Viola refuses him. She has always loved him, first as a friend and then romantically, even before she allowed herself to admit the truth to herself, but she doesn't feel she could ever marry someone, and certainly not become a duchess. Now Gracewood not only has to prove himself a worthy brother to Miranda, but persuade his best friend that they should spend the rest of their lives together, society's opinions be damned. 

Alexis Hall is a very talented writer. Not all of his books work for me, but when he's on form, his books are a delight. Something Fabulous, a previous novel of his is also set in the Regency period, but that book can most accurately be described as a romp, and the setting is more fantastic, with no negative consequences for the queer characters ever having to be dealt with. This book is a much darker story, with a lot more angst, but Hall has stated that he wanted to write a book with a trans heroine, without her transness being the main issue. That certainly applies to this book.

My main gripe with this book, and the reason I don't feel I can give it a full five stars, is a subplot involving Gracewood's sister Miranda, and some shenanigans involving her in the final third of the book. There's an abduction plot to be unraveled and it all felt needlessly melodramatic and tacked on, not really contributing much to the rest of the plot. Without it, the book would have been pretty much perfect.

Judging a book by its cover: I think this cover is so pretty, and the cover models are really selling the devotion and affection between the protagonists. I was very happy when I discovered that the cover model portraying Viola is a trans woman. Her name is Violet - almost the same as the character she portrays. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR13 Book 51: "Ubesvart anrop" (Unanswered call) by Nora Dåsnes

Page count: 283 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Official book description (translated by me):

Oslo, late summer 2011

Barely a month after the terror attacks on the 22nd of July, Rebekka and Fariba are starting high school. Rebekka doesn't know any of the people who died, and thinks she should be one of the ones who are ready to claim back their peace of mind. So when Fariba signs up for the Labour Party Youth Movement, Rebekka tries to get involved with drama club, with Daniel with the curly hair, with parties and school and friends. 

The only problem is that Rebekka thinks about it (the 22nd of July) all the time. 

Unanswered call is a graphic novel about being a teenager in the time after the 22nd of July. It's a story about looking for reason in the face of the unreasonable, about being an outsider, about grief and anxiety. About how hard it is to reach out to one another, and how important it is when we manage it. 

It's been ten years since one very determined and angry Norwegian man planted a car bomb in the very heart of the capital, right outside the building where the prime minister's office is located. At 3:25 pm on the 22nd of July 2011, the bomb went off and caused tremendous amounts of damages. The sound of the explosion and the shock wave resulting from it could be felt all over greater Oslo, and even in some neighbouring counties. A total of eight people are killed, nine people were critically injured and more than two hundred sustained physical injuries in some way. Pretty much every window in the buildings nearby is shattered. Police and emergency services work quickly to try to evacuate as much of the area as possible and the police start working on figuring out the culprit and motive for the attack.

As it turns out, the bomb was just a distraction, if a frightfully effective one, at that. The terrorist, 32- year-old Anders Behring Breivik (he has since changed his name) was already on his way out of Oslo when the bomb went off and by 5:20 pm, he had made his way to Utøya, a small island about an hour's drive from the capital, where the Labour Party Youth Movement held their annual summer camp. He was dressed as a police officer and told the driver of the boat that took people out to the island (it is still only accessible by boat) that he was there to help secure the island after the attack in the capital. He was finally arrested at 6:35 pm, having wandered the idyllic little island shooting, killing or injuring as many people as possible. After his rampage, 69 of the 564 people on the tiny island were dead. The youngest victim was only 14. 32 of the dead were under 18. As well as the people who died, about 32 people were critically injured and there are hundreds of people, direct victims or their loved ones, who even now live with the physical and psychological trauma that the event caused.

I was also 32 years old when it happened, and while I didn't know anyone directly involved in any of the attacks, it's one of those events that has left scars. I still get affected talking about it or reading about the event. In about a week's time, the 10th graders in my school are all going to visit Utøya, where there is now a visitor's centre, and we're in the process of teaching them more about the attacks and their aftermaths. The kids I teach were only 5 at the time it happened, so for most of them, it's not in any way as affecting or upsetting for them as it is for me and several of my colleagues. Let's just say I'm probably going ugly cry when we have to watch the Norwegian film version of what happened later this week, and I suspect I'm going to be very shaken by the visit to the island as well.

This graphic novel came out earlier this year, and the author/artist was herself about to start high school about a month after the attacks took place. The entire country was still reeling, and the feelings of collective grief and trauma were strong. The book features three different teenagers, and the ways in which they try to go about their lives, trying to process the shocking events and pretending to be unaffected, despite being everything but. Rebekka, our androgynous protagonist, suffers occasional panic attacks and spends a lot of time online doing research to try to figure out why one young man got angry enough to perpetrate something so horrific. Fariba, her best friend, gets involved with youth politics and joins the youth organisation that was so cruelly targeted on the island. She wants to ensure that the world is a better place going forward. Daniel, the slightly older student Rebekka meets as part of drama club is more of a supporting character, but he, like so many others, is having trouble just moving on. 

This proved to be an excellent book to introduce the students to, as the art is very clear and easy to follow and a lot of the story is told by wordless panels and the body language and facial expression of the characters. While most of the panels are done in a bluish grey and white, all the flashbacks that characters have to the 22nd of July, thinking about where they were during the attack, are in a vivid red and white. Even the students who really struggle with reading managed to read and comprehend the story perfectly well, and we had some really good discussions as a result. 

Myself, I read the whole book in less than an hour. I borrowed it at our school library, planning to check it out a week or two before we were going to talk about it in class, and after looking at a few pages, I was sucked in and read the whole thing in one sitting. I think my only complaint about the book is that the ending feels rushed, and a lot of the story threads wrap up a little bit too quickly and neatly for my taste. I wish the author would have added ten-twenty more pages to make the ending a bit less sudden, but otherwise, this was an excellent read and I may buy myself a copy once it's released in paperback. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover shows the book's protagonist, Rebekka, as well as her best friend Fariba and Daniel, the boy that Rebekka fancies. The cover gives a good impression of the art style the author uses throughout the book. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR12 Book 81: "One and Only" by Jenny Holiday

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Official book description:

With her bridezilla friend on a DIY project rampage, bridesmaid Jane Denning will do anything to escape - even if it means babysitting the groom's troublemaker brother before the wedding. It should be a piece of cake, except the "cake" is a sarcastic former soldier who is 100% wicked hotness and absolutely off-limits.

Cameron MacKinnon is ready to let loose after returning from his deployment. But first he'll have to sweet talk the ultra-responsible Jane into taking a walk on the wild side. Turns out, riling her up is the best time he's had in years. But what happens when the fun and games start to turn into something real?

For way too much of this year, it feels like I've been playing catch-up, reviewing books I read three, two, or one month ago. I don't think I can remember reviewing a book right after I finished it. It's certainly made the work more challenging, and sadly, I suspect it makes my reviews a lot less informative and useful. So I'd like to hereby apologise to the writers whose books are possibly not being picked up because I'm not adequately conveying how good they are, and to my readers for harping on about the same complaints in too many of my reviews this year. I'd promise to do better in 2021, but large backlogs just seem to be how I roll these days. Sigh.

At least it's only been two months (pretty much to the day), that I finished this one. I read it as part of one of my many reading challenges, and it was a nice palate cleanser from some of the more heavy books that seemed to take me ages to get through. It only took me a little over a day to read the whole thing, and while this is my first Jenny Holiday contemporary romance, I can absolutely see why I've seen her name on a lot of recommendations lists in the last few years. 

The pairing in this romance is one we've seen many times before, in both contemporaries and historicals. The trustworthy, bookish, and sensible heroine whom everyone sees as possibly a bit boring, with the rakish, irresponsible bad boy hero. Jane is a successful YA author who works from home, so when one of her demanding best friends is getting married and asks her for a huge favour, she agrees just to get out of a million other crazy bridesmaid's duties. While Jane in actuality has a fairly tight schedule working on her newest book and getting her costume ready for an upcoming con, she also can't say no to her friend Elise, and she also can't stand the thought of spending all of her free time doing DIY wedding favours.

Cameron is the brother (possibly half-brother, I forget) of the groom, with a terrible reputation. They say he knocked up his high school girlfriend and abandoned her, that he set fire to his family's barn and that he's been dishonourably discharged from the army. The bride is terrified that he'll end up in some kind of trouble, and pretty much asks Jane to babysit him and keep him on the straight and narrow. As Jane gets to know Cameron in the time before the wedding, he discovers that there are some truths to the rumours, but that Cameron's entire family have no idea who he really is and should probably give him much more of a chance.

Cameron did get dishonourably discharged from the army because he punched a superior officer who tried to sexually assault one of the female soldiers in Cameron's unit (and Cameron's friend). In defending his friend, he ended up fired from one of the only things he'd found meaningful. He got back to the US to discover that his girlfriend (who he'd been hoping to make a future with) had been cheating on him. So now Cameron is single, fully aware of how much of a disappointment he appears to his family and just wanting to have some fun. He's hiding his PTSD and refusing to actually confide his real situation to anyone in his family. He has plans to get drunk and laid a lot, but Jane is there at every turn, making sure he can't hook up with anyone. He discovers that he enjoys teasing her, and they end up making a bet. He won't go carousing and hooking up with random women before the wedding if she comes with him on a series of unusual adventures. They bungee-jump from the highest point in Toronto, take a road trip to Niagara Falls, go to an amusement park and a bunch of other stuff, and get closer with each "date". 

There's a lot to like in this romance. While Cameron can seem like a bit of a selfish jerk at the beginning, the reader quickly comes to see why he has the attitude that he does and that he's been a victim of his own bad reputation and low self-worth for a very long time. While I'm not into making costumes and going to Comic Cons, I think I identified a lot with Jane, the responsible and loyal friend who's willing to drop everything to help out high maintenance friends just to keep the peace. Both she and Cameron clearly need people who see who they actually are, and take time to challenge their established ideas of themselves.

I suspect the author has done some research into how discharged soldiers deal with PTSD because that aspect of the book felt very real and very well done. It's an issue plaguing far too many ex-soldiers and there is no quick and easy fix, certainly not something that will be instantly fixed by "the love of a good woman". 

This book is the first in a trilogy (I think there may also be a bonus novella or two) and I will absolutely be reading more of them. I love discovering new voices in romance, and Jenny Holiday deserves the praise she's been given. 

Judging a book by its cover: I always like romance covers where the cover models look at each other as if they actually felt affection towards one another. The posing of these two people is very well done, their smiles feel genuine and I like how they're gazing deeply into one another's eyes. I also like the female model's dress, I can only see it from the side, but it looks cute.

Crossposted by Cannonball Read. 

#CBR12 Book 47: "Bitterblue" by Kristin Cashore

Page count: 576 pages
Audio book length: 16 hrs 33 mins
Rating: 3 stars

#CBR12 Bingo: UnCannon (YA fantasy, written by a woman, about dark-skinned heroine, with several queer characters as supporting cast)

Official book description: 

Eight years have passed since the young Princess Bitterblue, and her country were saved from the vicious King Leck. Now Bitterblue is the queen of Monsea, and her land is at peace.

But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisers, who have run the country on her behalf since Leck's death, believe in a forward-thinking plan: to pardon all of those who committed terrible acts during Leck's reign, and to forget every dark event that ever happened. Monsea's past has become shrouded in mystery, and it's only when Bitterblue begins sneaking out of her castle - curious, disguised and alone - to walk the streets of her own city, that she begins to realise the truth. Her kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year long spell of a madman, and now their only chance to move forward is to revisit the past.

Whatever that past holds.

Two thieves, who have sworn only to steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck's reign. And one of them, who possesses an unidentified Grace, may also hold a key to her heart . . .

This book, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Graceling and Fire, came out in 2012, three years after the release of Fire. Now, in some book circles, like those of us who are STILL waiting (albeit a lot less patiently and now just sort of sadly resignedly) for books from authors like George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss or Diana Gabaldon, a mere three years is nothing, but it's still long wait between books. This means that when this book finally came out, I'd sort of moved on from Cashore's universe and was busy with other things (there's always so many more out there to distract me). I wasn't really expecting it to stay on my TBR list for eight years, but here we are. I think that if I'd read it upon release, my disappointment would have been all the greater. I loved the first two books in the series, and Bitterblue was a very interesting character when she was introduced, so having a whole book centred around her seemed promising. 

Sadly, while it was lovely to see young princess Bitterblue all grown up (although still young) and now a queen, determined to be the best ruler possible to her subjects, the book as a whole was a bit of a disappointment, and I'm pretty sure that if I'd read this as it just came out, the disappointment would have been all the greater. The book is simply far too long, and the plot takes ages to get anywhere and there are several sections where it feels like nothing is happening. If the book had been a more standard length, of 350-400 pages, with the story stream-lined a bit more, I think it would have been a much better book.

There is absolutely a lot of things to like about the book. Cashore is good at creating memorable characters and an interesting atmosphere. The subject matter that this book deals with, grief and PTSD, for an entire country even, is unusual. Bitterblue is a great heroine. She's lived a sheltered life, so is inexperienced in so many areas, but really works to learn and develop. She wants to be the best queen she can possibly be to her subjects and she wants more control of her life, only to discover that most of the people who she is meant to rely on and trust keep lying to her at every turn. The long and utterly terrifying reign of her father has left so many people devastated both mentally and physically, and there are a lot of people in her kingdom and on her council who would prefer it if the past was left entirely forgotten and unexplored.

Another high point of the novel is the inter-personal relationships, between friends and family members. Bitterblue feels rather lonely and longs for connection and affection, and sees how happy other people are with their families and loved ones. She is an orphan without siblings, whose awful tyrant of a father murdered her mother right in front of her when she was a child. As Bitterblue goes rebellious and starts sneaking out of the palace at night, befriending actual commoners and regular people, she learns so much about the horrors that her father inflicted on people, and as she investigates further, she comes to realise that his atrocities were truly shocking, and there are good reasons why the surviving members of his court would want to just forget about all the things that happened and just move on without further delving into it.

Speaking of the atrocities committed by king Leck, they are manifold and as the book uncovers them, truly horrifying. The fact that he literally possessed a kind of mind control meant that he didn't even need to do all the terrorising himself, he could (and did) get others to do it for him, leaving survivors of his reign with a number of physical and emotional scars. I was surprised at just how graphic and detailed the descriptions of his various misdeeds were, in a book aimed at young adult readers. 

While Bitterblue sneaks out and starts exploring her own capital city, she befriends two young men, who turn out to be thieves. However, they only steal back things that king Leck or people influenced by him already stole from other people, trying to reunite the former owners with their lost possessions. Sadly, in a lot of cases, the stolen items are children or other family members, now lost forever because of Leck's cruel experiments and psychotic games. While I'm very glad to see the sex positivity of the previous books continued, where a young woman can take control of her own desires and take a lover without there being anyone shaming her for it, I didn't really like the romance sub-plot between Bitterblue and the Lienid former sailor, Saf, all that much (mainly because he was a bit too cagey and also judgy of her). I much preferred the hints that in the future there may be something between Bitterblue and Giddon, Katsa and Po's friend and co-conspirator. 

I've seen rumours that Cashore is writing another book set in her Graceling universe, set to be released in the next year. I hope it's more tightly plotted and edited than this one was, and hopefully focuses on slightly less gruesome topics for most of it. 

Judging a book by its cover: The American edition of this book has three keys on the cover, which is suitable, because keys, both literal and figurative (used in code-breaking) play an important part in the story. This UK edition has another female cover model in a bit of an action-heroey pose, which seems a bit out of character for Bitterblue. The hooded cloak is absolutely fitting, as is the dagger (she's been trained in self-defense by Katsa for years), but there's something about the pose that still seems too aggressive and brash for our heroine.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 34: "Trust Me" by Laura Florand

Page count: 274 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

This is the third book in a trilogy, and while you can read each of these books completely independently of each other, this book references an pretty significant event in the previous book, Chase Me, and readers who want more details may want to check that book out first (it's also the better romance of the two). Be aware that I spoil part of the plot of that one in the very first paragraph of this review, though.

Lina Farah has had to fight her entire life, to prove her worth and make it in a deeply competitive business. At the age of 26, she is the top pastry chef at a two star Michelin restaurant and she can hold her own against anyone who wants to go up against her. When a Muslim extremist cousin of hers attacks the restaurant where she and her best friends work and try to kill them all, Lina didn't hesitate to defend her loved ones. Throwing the liquid nitrogen she was working with at the terrorists, she helped make sure that no one was lethally hurt and the guilty parties were brought to justice quickly. Now she's been questioned by not only the police, but a number of French and American security operatives. As a Muslim woman, with a family connection to the main terrorist, Lina is worried that they may suspect her as well. Why else would one of the burly special ops guys take it upon himself to follow her around, observing her every move?

Seeing her very best friend (and said friend's new lover) injured and hospitalised, while she herself escaped unscathed, is not easy for Lina, and with their restaurant closed, she's going a bit stir crazy. She's working on ice sculpting with a chain saw to work off stress, but most of the time ends up decapitating the ice dragons she's trying to create. She has always been proud of her resilience and self-sufficiency, now she is scared of every shadow and sudden noise. Having a silent, six-foot, be-freckled ginger escort, who may or may not be trying to prove she has terrorist leanings, is not making her rest easier.

Special forces operative Jake Adams has been a soldier for a long time, and seen some pretty scary situations. He first laid eyes on Lina Farah when the woman acted with grace under (literal gun-) fire and threw liquid nitrogen at her cousin. As all the restaurant staff now get security escorts for the next six months, in case they draw the ire of other extremists, he takes it upon himself to guard Lina. Having never really stayed in one place for very long, and having seen first-hand more than once what a secret agent life like his can do to long-term relationships, he's never really had more than causal hook-ups and for a long time, he enjoyed himself a lot. Now, after all these years, Jake is getting ready for something more serious and permanent, and so when Lina approaches him and proposes a short-term hook-up to help her deal with her PTSD, he is actually rather hurt, having wanted to be more than used for his body with this formidable woman that he's so come to admire.

There is very little outside conflict in this book, just Lina having to deal with the aftermath of the brutal attack that left her physically unharmed, but deeply emotionally scarred. She hates being afraid and unable to sleep through the night. She hates seeing her best friend in a hospital bed and tries to deal with her fears by beating them into submission, and by creating new and wonderful dessert creations for Violette, Chase and the assorted special ops guys in Chase and Jake's crew, who all seem to congregate at the hospital every day.

Jake, while he's a big and capable soldier, who as an army sniper has dealt death to countless people all over the world, in missions he can't ever tell anyone about, is clearly a protector, and more of a beta hero than an alpha. While Chase was all loud, brash self-confidence and macho bravado in the previous book, Jake is a much more quiet and laid-back guy. He's also a lot more insecure on how to actually approach a woman he cares about, in large part because he's used to women throwing themselves at him and his team mates every time they go out - he's never had to work to impress someone. Now that he's mightily sick of one-night stands and being used for his hot body, he wants to connect with Lina, and he's at a bit of a loss as to how to do it. That Lina herself is adamant that she prefers "shy, nerdy guys" doesn't help, nor does the fact that most of Jake's team mates do their best to charm Lina as well, at least until he makes it very clear that he's not just flirting, but deadly serious about her.

While there is a lot to like in this book, it's also a bit slow and much of the early part of the book, before Lina and Jake really start to communicate properly with each other is rather frustrating. I liked the second part of the book a lot better, and I am very glad that Florand chose to have a Muslim heroine, making her strong, capable, intelligent and driven, as diversity and representation is so very important and I can't recall coming across all that many Muslim heroines (or heroes, for that matter) in my books.

I continue to enjoy Florand's contemporaries and while this isn't one of her best books, she's still more than entertaining enough that I don't regret my pre-order of this. There's still a whole bunch of Chase and Jake's team mates who can find love in future books and I look forward to their stories (especially if they involve food in some way - Florand writes about food and cooking in a marvellous way). I always want to re-visit Paris and eat myself sick when I've finished one of these novels. TL, DR - not one of her top efforts, but very enjoyable nonetheless and extra points for a Muslim heroine.

Judging a book by its cover: I know that Laura Florand self-publishes these, but still think she could have found a better stock photo to use for the cover. While at one point in the story, Lina does wear a hat to go out, this whole silly, dragging it into her eyes fits badly with the contents of the book, giving a much more light-hearted and frivolous impression than the story warrants. I also don't think the cover model appears much like the descriptions of Lina in the book.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read