CBR15 Book 77: "Two Wrongs Make a Right" by Chloe Liese

Page count: 351 pages

Rating. 3.5 stars

Official book description:

Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn't be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.   Soon their plan is in Fake date obnoxiously and convince the meddlers they’re madly in love. Then, break up spectacularly and dash everyone's hopes, putting an end to the matchmaking madness once and for all.   To convince everyone that they’ve fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing lovers becomes easier than not, they begin to What if Cupid’s arrow wasn’t so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?

This is an opposites attract contemporary romance, that I've also seen marketed as enemies to lovers. The protagonists are never enemies, they just really dislike each other a lot the first time they meet, and said evening keeps going more and more disastrously wrong until they find themselves locked in a cupboard together and kind of feel like kissing each other. Both Jamie "West" Westenberg and Beatrice "Bea" Wilmot are single by choice. West suffers from anxiety and is the only pediatrician in a family of successful and highly ambitious surgeons (his family, even his Mum, are all awful). His ex-girlfriend chose a position working for his father over him, so now he's just a workaholic so he can't be set up on dates. Bea's former boyfriend turned out to be a controlling, emotionally abusive d*ck, and she doesn't really feel comfortable telling her twin sister Jules, or any of their friends the truth about how the relationship ended. Bea is also autistic and has a bunch of sensory issues. There's a whole bunch of stuff she can't eat, and a lot of clothing she just cannot bear to wear. West comes across as a buttoned-up, disapproving know-it-all to Bea, she comes across as overly clumsy (she literally spills two different things over him the first night they meet), chaotic, opinionated, and a picky eater.

West's roommate Jean Paul and Bea's twin sister Jules are dating, and in fact, get engaged on the evening West and Bea first meet. They then trick them into texting one another under their middle names for a week and agreeing to a blind date, because they are so convinced the two will be perfect together. West and Bea both come to really enjoy their flirty text conversation, only to be filled with disappointment and, in Bea's case, righteous fury once they show up for their date and discover that they've been tricked. Not entirely sure why fake dating is going to get them revenge, but all of these stories have to get the couple to come up with a preposterous plan for some reason. 

Of course, it turns out that while they are very different, they also complement each other really well. Bea doesn't care that West works a lot, because he's a doctor helping children, and that's a very noble calling. West keeps trying to find ways to take care of Bea without making her feel smothered, like filling his freezer with frozen vegetable soups he's made, because she finds it so hard to eat vegetables, and even soups are sometimes horrible to her. 

So the main romance is actually quite sweet, and the whole fake dating thing is just a way for them to stop disliking one another and actually spend some quality time together. I really didn't like the subplot with Jules and Jean Paul, however. He seems to have a complete personality transplant from the start of the book to the latter half, and his motivations for setting up West and Bea seem rather unhinged, frankly. West's entire family of condescending, rich people surgeons were also implausibly awful.

I've seen this book on a bunch of Best of 2023 lists, and it's been given rave reviews by authors I like, such as Ali Hazelwood, Helen Hoang, and Talia Hibbert. It was a perfectly ok book, but I'm not sure I see myself ever re-reading it. There are better romance retellings of Much Ado About Nothing out there, such as The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson, and Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George. Both of those are YA though, so if you want sexy times in your romance, this might be the one for you, after all. 

Judging a book by its cover: I don't know why, but I really dislike the art style of this cover. I don't know why I hate the way the characters are drawn, but I do. Which is a bit strange, as they look a lot more like the protagonists are described than on a lot of these sort of cartoony covers. I can't tell you why, there's just something that rubs me the wrong way about this. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 76: "Kindred in Death" by J.D. Robb

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Spoiler warning! This is book 29 in the series, it's not necessarily the best place to start.

Eve Dallas has a couple of days off due to a national holiday and is planning on spending it with her gajillionaire husband Roarke. But murder doesn't take days off, and when Eve is specifically requested to lead a case, she neither can nor wants to refuse. A newly promoted police captain whom Eve has worked with in the past returned home from a weekend away with his wife to find their teenage daughter tied up, sexually violated, and brutally murdered in her own bed. The crime is an especially gruesome one, and the abuse and violence cannot help but remind Eve of her own dark past. 

The security at the captain's house was state of the art, and his daughter, while innocent in many ways, was also the daughter of a cop, so didn't trust easily. She wouldn't have let a stranger into the house, yet as far as her parents knew, she didn't have a boyfriend and would never have arranged to have a party or similar while they were away. It's not an easy thing to track down a murder suspect, let alone figure out the motive for such a gruesome crime. After another young woman, a realtor is found similarly murdered in an apartment she was showing to a potential buyer, the clues start to add up, and while the murderer might think he's clever and untraceable, Eve Dallas and her team aren't going to rest until they track him down and deliver justice to the grieving families. 

There's also a subplot with Eve's friend Louise getting married and her being completely puzzled by the many duties she's supposed to perform as the matron of honour. Thankfully, she has the trusty Peabody to assist her, both with professional duties and to navigate tricky social situations she doesn't entirely understand.

It's been years since I read an In Death book, but since they're basically like self-contained episodes of a familiar police procedural series, it wasn't exactly difficult to slip back into the series. Even if I only vaguely remember some of the characters mentioned, as a reader, you've given enough information to be able to follow along. 

It wasn't like I liked reading about bad things happening to children even before I had one of my own, but since I became a mother, I tend to react very badly to children in peril. The first victim in this story is only sixteen, and more pertinently, is her parents' only child. I fight the anxiety of something bad happening to my little boy all the time, and reading about a couple losing their only daughter was difficult. One of the reasons I've not read as many mystery and suspense novels in the past decade or so is that I just cannot emotionally deal with the sort of harrowing crimes that are often depicted in these novels, whether they involve children or not. It seems like the victims are predominantly women, and that there may be sexual violence involved, which is just deeply depressing to read about.

Nevertheless, it was fun to revisit the futuristic world of Robb's future New York (even though I find it highly implausible that the soft drink of choice in the future will be Pepsi), and since I'm planning on mood reading a lot more next year, I'll probably read a few more of them. 

Judging a book by its cover: Obviously, considering how long J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts has been writing these books, they've had a number of cover redesigns over the years. The one I read had the block of a solid colour on top - in this case a delicate yellow, not sure if it is a good fit considering the horrible crimes committed in the book - and a series of images that are connected to the plot in some way on the bottom. Apart from the running woman (the first victim liked to run in the park), I'm not sure what the ones here are supposed to represent. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 75: "It Takes Two to Tumble" by Cat Sebastian

Page count: 304 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Captain Philip Dacre believes in total order and discipline and knows that everyone on his ship will listen to and obey his every word. He hasn’t been home for several years and has trusted his sister, as well as a series of tutors and governesses to take care of his children. He’s due a few month’s leave and the latest letter from his sister suggests that things are getting pretty dire with his offspring.

Ben Sedgwick enjoys his life as a quiet country vicar. He’s engaged to be married to Alice, his best friend since childhood, but she keeps postponing the wedding because she’s suffering from a mysterious wasting disease, which makes her very easily tired and makes it difficult for her to walk. She wants to be a good wife to him, not just be married out of pity. At the moment, Ben’s biggest worry is all the unhappy parishioners complaining about the out-of-control Dacre children. Their latest tutor fled, and their terrible reputation has spread far and wide, making it impossible to hire anyone else.

Ben’s future father-in-law, an influential lawyer who helped him get the parish living, tasks Ben with helping out until Captain Dacre can return and take them in hand. Having grown up with an artist father who had two wives and was far more concerned with his career and his wealthy patrons than his many children, Ben had to be responsible and spent a lot of his life raising his younger brothers. Consequently, he has more experience with spirited children than many single gentlemen.

Naturally, when sunny and optimistic Ben Sedwick meets the strict and emotionally withdrawn Captain Dacre, there are some personality clashes. However, the attraction between them is undeniable and the more time they spend together, trying to get the Dacre children to trust in their father, so they can be persuaded to behave a bit less recklessly, the more obvious their feelings for one another become.

This book is very low-angst and while it’s not quite as «homophobia probably doesn’t even exist» as Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall, despite the characters living in a little town, it doesn’t seem like judgment or legal trouble is going to come our characters’ way for deciding to live happily ever after together by the end of the book. This is the first book in a new series, Seducing the Sedgwicks, and we meet one of Ben’s brothers and hear of a third. Since I’m late to the party reading this, I already know that each of these men gets their own book, both of which I’ll probably read in the future.

Judging a book by its cover: This cover is an eye-sore. Neither of the characters look anything like they are described in the book, and the blond one, who I'm assuming is supposed to be Ben, looks especially sad and unlike his description. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Books 73-74: "The Archduke" and "Daindreth's Outlaw" by Elisabeth Wheatley

Total page count 339 pages

The Archduke: 4 stars

Daindreth's Outlaw: 3 stars

The Archduke is a short novella, that can be found free on Elisabeth Wheatley’s website. It tells the first few chapters of Daindreth’s Assassin from the point of view of Daindreth, from his first meeting with Amira, when she tries to kill him and ends up fighting the demon inside him, to the negotiations with her father to change the marriage contract. Since the entirety of the first novel is from Amira’s POV, I liked the idea of getting to see how Daindreth experienced the same events. It also gives the reader more insight into how much he suffers with the demon inside him tormenting him, and how much energy he has to expend to remain in control.

Daindreth’s Outlaw, the second book in the series starts pretty immediately after the end of Daindreth’s Assassin. Having spent most of her life without full autonomy, since a magic curse had her bound first to her father (who turned her into an assassin and commanded her to murder his enemies) and later to her betrothed, after the controlling curse was transferred with the signing of the marriage contract, Amira was finally able to break the enchantment. When Daindreth was in danger and nobly tried to sacrifice himself, he ordered Amira and his cousin Thadred (also bound to him with the same type of curse) to leave the palace and get as far away as they could. Amira was not going to let the man she had fallen in love with die and after a gruelling internal battle was able to return to the palace and rescue her man, leaving countless dead bodies in their wake.

Now the three of them are fleeing the capital as fast as they can, trying to escape the grasp of the power-hungry empress. They need to track down the small tribe of exiled sorceresses who created the curse that led Daindreth to being possessed by a demon. While everyone says the curse can’t be broken, Amira has just proven that there are possibilities, however implausible. They need to travel incognito, as the empress has sent out her ruthless assassins to find them. She needs Daindreth alive, but Amira and Thadred are expendable. 

The second book is absolutely more of a bridging book. The POV shifts between Daindreth and Amira, with the occasional chapter from Thadred, since he gets separated from the main group after a while. To keep the vast empire successful and safe from natural disasters and the like, the dowager empress, Daindreth’s mother made deals with demons. Amira rescued Daindreth before the next part of the demonic deal could be struck, and now the consequences are starting to show in terrible ways, like earthquakes, landslides, massive storms, and the like. 

Amira and Daindreth are growing closer, and Amira clearly wants their relationship to become more physical, yet Daindreth is still far too aware of the demon lurking inside his mind, watching and waiting. Daindreth doesn’t intend to share and wants to wait until his curse is broken to do anything more than the occasional kiss. 

If this had been the first book in the series, I doubt I would have kept going with the series. It’s clear that it’s setting up a lot for future books, and Thadred is clearly going on to have his own adventure, probably separate from Amira and Daindreth until I’m sure they are reunited at some later point. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 72: "Check & Mate" by Ali Hazelwood

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Eighteen-year-old Mallory "Mal" Greenleaf used to love chess and showed great potential, but hasn't played for four years because it reminds her of her father, and the less said or thought about him the better. While her friends are headed for college, Mallory is trying to earn as much money as possible working as a mechanic. Her mother suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and can't really work anymore, and Mallory isn't about to let her sisters Darcy (twelve) and Sabrina (fourteen) suffer and miss out on extra-curricular activities. Her best friend Easton persuades her to play one charity tournament (using emotional blackmail masterfully). Even though she hasn't played since she was fourteen, Mallory ends up beating Nolan Sawyer, the current world champion of chess, and reacts by running away. 

It doesn't take long before Mallory is approached by Dafne, herself a chess grandmaster and the owner and manager of Zugswang, a chess club in New York City She loves that Sawyer was beaten by an entirely unrated player and wants to offer Mallory a year-long fellowship, to train her up to realise her untapped potential as a chess player. Mal refuses the offer, not wanting anything to do with chess (her father really did a number of her emotionally), but after she's fired from her mechanic job, she doesn't really feel she has a choice, the fellowship pays well. She lies to her family, saying she's gotten a new job in New York working in a retirement home. 

Nolan Sawyer, dubbed "the bad boy of chess" by the press, rumoured to be very temperamental and clearly doesn't suffer fools, doesn't seem upset at all about being beaten by a petite blonde. In fact, he seems very determined to meet Mallory again for a rematch. He even shows up in person on her doorstep one afternoon and ends up spending the afternoon, hanging out with her sisters and eating enough of her mother's meatloaf to feed three. Mallory still thinks it's crazy and tries to ignore his interest, but as they keep meeting at chess tournaments, it becomes harder for her to tell herself he's deluded. 

This is Hazelwood's first YA novel, but apart from the fact that the protagonists are slightly younger than the ones in her previous books, and the sex scenes are fade to black, it's in a very similar vein. Mallory is another petite heroine (described as a look-a-like of Alexis Rose) and Nolan is of course very tall, physically imposing, dark-haired, and brooding. He has few real friends and is clearly demi-sexual (having never shown any interest in anything romantic before meeting Mallory). Her older heroines tend to have friends or found family, but in this story, Mallory's remaining family is very important. It helps that Darcy and Amanda are well characterised and not just annoying plot moppets. 

I also think this is Hazelwood's funniest novel to date. I laughed out loud several times, and while I've seen some reviewers be very annoyed by the many different pop culture references, they didn't bother me at all. The main reason I've withheld half a star is some of the complications in the last act, which felt needlessly forced.

Judging a book by its cover: Probably my least favourite of Ms. Hazelwood's book covers. I get that Nolan is supposed to be quite a bit taller than Mallory, but his posture is ridiculous. The chess pieces also seem badly photo-shopped on top of the rest of the cover. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Books 70-71: "Daughter of the Pirate King" and "Daughter of the Siren Queen" by Tricia Levenseller

Total page count: 672 pages

Daughter of the Pirate King: 3 stars

Daughter of the Siren Queen: 4 stars

Alosa is a famous pirate captain in her own right, leading a crew of almost exclusively women. She also happens to be the only daughter of the Pirate King, who rules the seas with cruelty and intimidation tactics. Her father has one piece of a legendary treasure map, which will reveal the location of untold riches to the one who can locate and unite the missing pieces. Alosa needs to get herself taken prisoner by a rival pirate crew, so she can sneak around the ship at night and try to locate the missing piece for her father. 

Draxen, the pirate captain, and most of his crew are generally dismissive of Alosa, she’s only a woman after all. Only Riden, the captain’s younger brother and first mate, refuses to let his guard down around Alosa. He observes her closely and suspects that she’s hiding things (he’s not wrong), but none of the rest of the crew seem to heed his warnings. 

In Daughter of the Siren Queen, Alosa has succeeded in her mission, and her father, the Pirate King, seems pleased with her for a change. She’s located and united the three pieces of the legendary treasure map, and defeated not only Draxen, the pirate who held her prisoner in the first part of her quest, but Vordan, another rival pirate captain who held Alosa and Riden prisoner and tortured both of them. Riden is fully aware of Alosa’s siren abilities now (I would spoiler warn, but the title of the book is a pretty big clue as to the identity of her maternal parent), which seem to frighten him, yet he seems determined to serve her loyally as part of her crew. The handsome young pirate is proving both a help and a distraction. When Alosa seems in danger of being overwhelmed by her siren powers, merely a word or a touch from Riden can bring her back to herself. 

While unable to lie, because he was enthralled by Alosa’s siren powers, Vordan revealed certain facts about Alosa’s father. Taking Riden and a few trusted crew mates to snoop around the Pirate King’s quarters, she discovers that not only was Vordan right about her father hiding something that gave him an advantage against other pirates, but it’s also a much bigger secret than Alosa ever expected and she won’t be able to lie to herself about her father and his lifelong abuse of her, which according to him was only to make her the strongest and most fierce she could be. Alosa can no longer allow her father to be the first to reach the fabled treasure and sets off to beat him there, even if it might endanger her own life and that of her crew.

Daughter of the Pirate King is Tricia Levenseller’s debut novel, and it reads a bit like it. None of the characters feel that well developed and while there is promising world-building and some good chemistry between Alosa and Riden, Alosa is quite an unpleasant character early on, and clearly still very much conditioned by the harsh upbringing she’s had at her father’s hands. I was surprised at how dark some of the plot went for a YA novel, but it also made the story more entertaining. 

Daughter of the Siren Queen is a much stronger book and where Alosa really comes into her own as a character. After spending a lot of her life either trying to deny or fight not to be overpowered by her half-siren side, she learns to control it while working closely with Riden (because this is a YA novel and the young woman hasn’t really known much love or affection from anyone) it obviously takes her WAY too long to figure out why he’s the only person who seems to keep her connected with her human side. Some of the siren stuff Alosa can do is very cool and that aspect of the world-building I really enjoyed. 

Alosa’s pirate crew isn’t really a major part of the first book, since she spends a lot of time onboard Draxen’s ship, trying to find the piece of the treasure map. Her crew of swashbuckling women, the few men who are also accepted on the ship, not to mention the surprisingly non-annoying child onboard, were all fun characters and I gather that there’s a third book recently published, set in this world, focusing on two of the other crew members. I’m probably not going to rearrange my TBR to read it any time soon but will be open to buying it if I see it in an e-book sale in the future. 

Judging the books by their covers: The new covers for this series are SO much prettier than these (look them up), which are cartoony and rather simplistic and I'm really not excited about them. At least I only own the books in e-book format, so I don't actually see the covers very often. 

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