To Love Jason Thorn by Ella Maise

 

To Love Jason Thorn by Ella Maise
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**Borrowed through Kindle Unlimited**

Synopsis (written by me): When Olive was a child, her brother made friends with Jason, a new kid in the neighborhood. From the first time she saw him, her young heart was smitten. Unknowingly he broke her heart and Olive did her best to get over him. Fast-forward to both of them in their 20s, with Olive a recent college graduate who just wrote a book and Jason the star who is set to start in the movie adaptation of said book. Considering that Olive never really did get over Jason, this has the makings of an awkward situation.

I picked up this book after watching a glowing video review by Izzy (Happy for Now on YouTube). Normally, I avoid the "sibling's best friend" trope but I do enjoy celebrity romances and authors as heroines. I was hoping my likes would balance out my dislike, and for the most part, they did.

My biggest gripe about this book was that all the secondary characters were either bland or unlikable to me. This disappointed me because I enjoy stories where the main characters have their loyal tribe or found family that they banter with. Even the heroine's best friend Lucy annoyed me, which is unfortunate because she is at the center of the second book so I guess I won't be reading it. I could tell that the author wanted Lucy to come across as exuberant, goofy, and fun, but she just rubbed me the wrong way with her constant invasive questions.

I kept reading because I really enjoyed the relationship between the hero and heroine. A character who has been pining for someone since childhood usually turns me off, but it was well handled in this book. Watching the hero slowly come to the realization that he loved the heroine was satisfying, and I would recommend this book for that if nothing else.

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The Queen's Line (Inheritance of the Hunger #1) by Kathryn Moon

The Queen's Line by Kathryn Moon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Synopsis (written by me): Bryony is the next in line to become the queen of Kimmery. All the queens of this magical land have had something called the Hunger, a ravenous sexual appetite that is supposed to bring prosperity to the kingdom and its people. Unfortunately, Bryony is five years past the age of majority and still hasn't felt any stirrings of the Hunger yet. If she can't manage to find it within herself, her grandmother and younger sister are more than ready to take over and rule with an iron fist, to the detriment of the common people. So she picks a small group of men and retreats to the royal family's decrepit Winter Palace in the north, where she learns what is really going on outside the capital while trying to figure out how to keep her crown.

I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy or reverse harem, but Kathryn Moon writes in a way that makes me enjoy both. For her books, I ignore my general rule of no more than two sex scenes per book because she writes them well. Each male has a distinct place among Bryony's Chosen and they don't come across as interchangeable. As for the fantasy, Moon didn't make the world, the magic system, or the names so complicated that I got confused (something that often turns me away from fantasy and sci-fi). She also has the ability to write a story where I care about what happens outside the romance. I really am interested in seeing how Bryony saves the kingdom helps her people, so I can't wait to read the next book.

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Nicole by Sarah Monzon (Sewing in SoCal #3)

Nicole by Sarah Monzon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Received digital ARC from Netgalley

Publication date: 07 Jan 2021

Book 3 in the Sewing in SoCal series

Genre: Contemporary Christian romance

Synopsis (my own): Nicole is a plus-size single mom who is also an ultra-serious, save-the-planet, vegan do-gooder. Her circle of friends keeps trying to get her to date, and she attracts the attention of fun-loving Drew, who is the best friend of her friend's fiance. Of course, sparks fly 😊.

I started my Netgalley account ages ago, back when I still read a lot of inspirational romance. My tastes have changed since then, but whenever I revisit Netgalley I find that inspirationals are still the easiest ARCs to get. So that is how I ended up reading another one. Anyway . . .

On an objective level, this is a well-written book. I didn't run into any of the problems that I find with indie books, such as misspellings and grammatical errors. The pacing was nice and the characters were fleshed out well enough for the word count. The steam level matches what you would expect from a contemporary Christian romance: the hero and heroine didn't act like they weren't physically attracted to each other, but they didn't go any further than kissing. I would have no problem handing this to any of my aunties, my daughters, or my Christian friends.

My personal enjoyment is another matter. I found the heroine Nicole to be self-righteous and abrasive. There is more than one person in my life who has the "save the planet" mindset, but they are not in my face with it. After being confronted with Nicole's attitude right off the bat, every other political issue (and there were a few) introduced in the book got my back up a little, even if I agreed with the stance. It almost felt like the author included issues just to say that she was aware of what is going on in the world because they didn't move the story along. The one thing the book didn't get too preachy with, strangely enough, was the subject of Christianity. There were a few Bible verses but no "come to Jesus" moment like I've seen in most of the inspirational romances I've read in the past.

This is the third book in a series but it is meant to be a standalone. However, if you are anything like me, reading this out of order will bother you like an itch in an awkward spot. I can always tell that I have jumped into the middle of a series even if the author does her best to make each book stand on its own. In this case, I had the niggling feeling that I should know all the side characters and their personalities because they were in other books. This installment might be more enjoyable if readers hold off on picking it up after reading the first two.

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Bitterburn by Ann Aguirre

Bitterburn by Ann Aguirre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read as part of my Kindle Unlimited subscription

Part 1 of the Gothic Fairy Tales series

Finished 13 Dec 2020

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 

Amarrah Brewer is desperate and grief-stricken.
For ages, the town of Bitterburn has sent tribute to the Keep at the End of the World, but a harsh winter leaves them unable to pay the toll that keeps the Beast at bay. Amarrah volunteers to brave what no one has before—to end the threat or die trying.

The Beast of Bitterburn has lost all hope.
One way or another, Njål has been a prisoner for his entire life. A monstrous evil has left him trapped and lonely, and he believes that will never change. There is only darkness in his endless exile, never light. Never warmth. Until she arrives.

It's a tale as old as time... where Beauty goes to confront the Beast and falls in love instead.

The tone of the book was more sinister than what I usually read, but Ann Aguirre has a way with words that made it enjoyable. Her prose had a lilting fairy tale quality that made me want to read the words out loud. This was totally different from the other Aguirre book that I read -- Strange Love -- but it was fitting for this type of story. It helped me keep going because, outside the hero and heroine, the nicest characters in this book were the goats. Njal's caretakers were awful and Amarrah's father and stepmother were indifferent, which can be its own kind of awful.

Although some would say this is a romance, to me the hero Njal wasn’t fleshed out enough to put it in that category. The real story for me was about Amarrah throwing off the shackles of her previous life and coming into her own power. This was underscored by the fact that the entire book was written in the third person from Amarrah's point of view. I know this was to maintain some of the mystery that is expected in a gothic-style novel, but I have become so accustomed to romances where the point of view alternates between the hero and the heroine that I felt like I was missing something by only getting Amarrah's side. 

The love scenes in this book are "open door" but the writing isn't as explicit as many novels I've read. Aguirre makes it plain as far as who put what where -- no flowering buds like in 1980s romances -- but they weren't exactly working their way through The Joy of Sex. I think I could hand it to my adult daughter or a maiden aunt without blushing.

I would recommend this book to my fantasy-loving friends who think romance gets in the way of a good story because it does take a back seat here. This story is the Disney version's goth cousin, so be aware of that, as well.

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A Rational Arrangement by L. Rowyn

A Rational Arrangement by L. Rowyn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book 1 of the Arranging Paradise series
Read 10 Dec 2020

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Wisteria Vasilver does wish to marry. Truly. But though she lives in Paradise, arranging a match is full of traps and pitfalls for the unwary ... or perhaps just for her.

Nikola Striker, Lord of Fireholt, expects he'll wed -- someday. But not now, and never to a rich icicle of a woman like Miss Vasilver. No matter how much his parents might want the match, or his house might need her dowry. Besides, he has his own problems -- most of them people who need his help as a mind-healer.

Lord Justin Comfrey, Viscount of Comfrey, would be more than happy to help Striker with his financial troubles, and not just to ensure that Miss Vasilver's dowry doesn't tempt Striker into marriage. If only he could find some way to make his proud, stubborn friend accept the money!

Can three people of such different temperaments ever find their way to a more perfect Paradise?

The synopsis above did not give me a full idea of what I was letting myself in for with this book. At first, I thought it was set in Regency England, but it is actually set in an imaginary world called Paradise that has a similar social structure to the Regency and Victorian periods with fantastical elements added. The main ones are Blessings and greatcats. In this world, certain people have been given Blessings for either healing or working with natural objects. This is where greatcats came from: a person with the Blessing of mind-healing many years ago went into a regular cat's mind and unblocked the parts that would allow them to talk and reason like humans. Although the author didn't mention it, the healer must have  unlocked something else, too, because the great cats are as large as horses.

Speaking of leaving stuff out, Rowyn didn't leave much out of this book. She created an interesting world, but the book was far too long for my taste. It was 642 pages and I felt every one! I found myself skimming a lot of the explanations of how the world works and the descriptions of the buildings and the clothing. There weren't any of the problems with grammatical errors or poor word choice that I often come across in indie books, but another pass by an editor to cut down the page count wouldn't have gone amiss.

This was shelved by 27 readers on Goodreads as a romance, and by 26 readers as fantasy. I would definitely side with those labeling it as fantasy (I labeled it as paranormal because I'm too lazy to create a fantasy shelf). There are explicit sex scenes and a happily-ever-after, but the parties in question spend more time apart than together. I think if all the sex and romance was taken out and the author had made them all friends, I would have enjoyed it just as well -- provided she reduced that word count by about 400 pages!

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Someone by Kendra Danielle

Someone : A Novella by Kendra Danielle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read 01 Jun 2020

Synopsis (from Goodreads): When retired NFL star Colton Rivers takes over his father’s business and becomes the CEO of Rivers Digital Solutions, he quickly develops the hots for Whitney Jones, the company’s most valued application developer. After learning of her resignation, Colton uses the company’s Dating App to woo her back into his arms. Their time together reopens a past that explains why she hates his guts.

**I read this book with my Kindle Unlimited subscription**

I enjoyed this story a lot more than I expected to. Normally, I shy away from romances where the characters knew each other in high school or college and get back together years later because they usually smack of small-town memories. I think this one was saved by the fact that it is set in NYC so the characters aren't visiting all their old haunts and such.  

The author did a great job of not overloading her limited word count with sex scenes. I have to say that the sex that IS in the story is SPICY! Readers might want to keep a glass of iced tea handy :-). The couple is interracial, but thankfully the author shied away from describing their contrasting skin colors in an almost fetish-like manner that some authors do. I'm looking forward to reading more of Kendra Danielle's work.

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The Curves Ahead by Kate J. Squires

The Curves Ahead by Kate J. Squires
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Part of a series: No

Read April 2019 (free on Wattpad)

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Curvy Evianna has it all- as the host of a number one talk show, she's adored by millions of Australian TV viewers, has a gorgeous co-star and cash to burn. But the plus-sized model is desperately lonely, battling the body issues that keep her isolated while lusting hopelessly over the delectable man beside her on screen. Realising she can't experience love until she learns to make peace with herself, Evi decides she needs to make some big changes to her life, leaving her safe chair behind the desk and embracing a new adventure. She'll discover self-love, passion and a whole lot about herself as she explores what it really means to be beautiful on the inside.

I struggled with what rating to give this book. There were glaring errors that I'm sure would have been caught by a good editor, but for the most part, I've learned to look over typos and such when reading stories on Wattpad. What was more difficult to bypass was the overt agenda that the author was pushing. While I don't have anything against a heroine who goes on a search for good health and self-acceptance, there were passages in this book that switched from storytelling to full-on teaching mode and it was off-putting.

Still, there were good things that kept me reading to the end. The relationship between our heroine and her personal assistant was warm and engaging. All of the dialogue was vibrant enough that I could hear the Australian accents in my head, and there were many passages that "hit me in the feels", as the kids say. I plan to try another book by this author to see if she has another book that captures all these fun elements without the preaching.

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Series in Progress: The Blessings Series by Beverly Jenkins

The Blessings Series by Beverly Jenkins

Ongoing series, Book #10 published March 2020

I read the first book of this series (Bring on the Blessings) back in 2017 and gave my impressions of it back then. You can read the review here. 

This series, which follows the exploits of the residents of a historic black town in the midwest, is so easy to read that it is like the black equivalent of a Hallmark TV show (Chesapeake Shores comes to mind). There is a town on the brink of bankruptcy, a town savior with a bottomless purse, and a group of kids that need loving role models to turn their lives around. It is a gentle series that is more akin to women's fiction than romance and there is no sex on the page. Unlike Hallmark, Beverly Jenkins does not shy away from serious issues like abuse and broken homes. However, she doesn't linger on them long enough to warrant a content warning and the villains do get dealt with. 

I don't know why it took me two years to get back to the series, but I sped right through books #2 through #9 in the space of a month (April 2019). I'm currently waiting in my library's queue for my chance to chance to check out book #10 because reading each book in this series is like visiting with old friends. This is definitely a series I plan on continuing, and I think it would be a solid choice for a buddy read with your mother or auntie.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katrina Bivald

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Synopsis (written by me): Sara, a young woman living in Sweden, has been pen pals with an elderly woman named Amy in Iowa and they have bonded over their love of books. Sara decides to visit Amy, only to arrive and find that Amy died recently. Instead of turning right around and going home, Sara sets about selling Amy's books and trying to introduce the townspeople to her love of reading.

I checked this out from my local library because I saw the title popping up in the bookish sections of the Internet and being referred to with warm regard. This is one of my repeated attempts to read something other than romance. I just finished reading it and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

While the book itself was written well enough (there were no grammatical errors and Bivald did provide an interesting turn of phrase or two), I struggled with a few aspects of the book that I believe related more to my particular taste than a failing on the author's part. The book is set in a failing town, which made the tone a touch too melancholy for me. All the reviews of this book talk about how quirky the characters are, but I found them to be slightly odd at best. (Of course, I spent my early 20s devouring Tom Robbins novels, so my bar for "quirky" is set pretty high.) There were a few slight nods to romance that, as a romance reader, were not satisfying at all.

Still, the book was not quite as navel-gazing and slow-moving as I find a lot of literary fiction to be. Also, it was nice to read something outside my usual choices and not totally hate it. This is a gentle book that I could hand to anyone who would enjoy a story where an entire small town pulls together to achieve something.

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Bad Ass by Jasinda Wilder

Badd Ass by Jasinda Wilder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book 2 of the Badd Brothers series
Read: 14 Mar 2019

Synopsis (written by me): This is the story of the second Badd brother, Zane. He was a Navy SEAL before going back home to Ketchikan, Alaska to help with the family bar. He meets Mara, a former combat medic, who is in town on vacation. Both of them have been doing one-night stands for so long that they don't even know how to date, so they decide to practice on each other while she is in town and then go their separate ways. Yeah, right.

I enjoyed this installment of the Badd Brothers series more than the first book. The relationship still smacked of insta-love but that was mitigated somewhat by the fact that Zane and Mara consciously spent time trying to get to know each other instead of spending all their time having sex. Both of them had issues that they needed to talk through, and that added substance to the story. Still, the sex scenes are prominent and so frequent that I started to skip over them after the first or second one. Wilder does a decent job writing sex scenes; I just find it difficult to stay interested if there are more than two sex scenes in a book. The characters can banter about sex all they want, but I don't need to read about every lovemaking session in detail.

Although this story was a bit deeper than the first one, there is still a sameness to it that does not compel me to read every book in the series as I usually would. Like they said in Lake Woebegon, all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children (in this case, the youngest Badd brothers) are above average. Looking ahead to the other books in the series, it seems like each one will be about how the hero and heroine are commitment phobic. I will probably skip ahead to book #8 because Xavier, the youngest Badd brother, has a different disposition than the other siblings and I'm hoping his romance will not be a carbon copy of the others.

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Radiance by Grace Draven

Radiance by Grace Draven
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book 1 of the Wraith Kings series
Read: 12 Mar 2019

I sought out this book at my library solely on the recommendation of a YouTuber and Goodreads member who goes by Fangirl Musings. Although I don't read much medieval-style fantasy these days, she gave this book such a glowing review that I decided to check it out mainly for the romance. Thankfully I wasn't disappointed.

Radiance is the story of Ildiko, a low-ranked member of Gauri royalty and Brishen is the brother of the Kai heir apparent, commonly known as the "spare heir". They were joined in a contract marriage designed to strengthen an alliance between the Gauri (a human race) and the Kai (a humanoid race with razor-sharp teeth and talons and grey skin). The Gauri and the Kai find each other repulsive physically, but Ildiko and Brishen were able to look past that right away to find personality traits that they vibed with. Furthermore, there were none of the tedious misunderstandings between the couple that are present in other romances. The drama came from the heroine Ildiko learning to adjust to being the only human living among her husband's people as well as the political tensions.

If you are a fan of the slow-burn romance, this is for you. As I mentioned, the two races do not find each other attractive physically, and that extends to the hero and heroine, Brishen and Ildiko. They enjoyed bantering with each from the very first day, however, and this along with their mutual respect slowly changes the way they view each other physically.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I don't know if I will continue with the series. The second book, Eidolon, seems to put the battle between the races at the forefront, and I'm really just here for the romance. However, the love story in this book was enjoyable enough that I don't think I will miss continuing on.

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Badd Motherf*cker by Jasinda Wilder

Badd Motherf*cker by Jasinda Wilder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Synopsis (written by me): Our heroine Dru is ditched at the altar in a shocking fashion, so what does she do? Get drunk and end up in the middle of who-knows-where in her wedding dress. Luckily, a handsome bartender named Sebastian comes to her rescue.

My only other experience with Jasinda Wilder's work was trying to read the first book from her Big Girls Do It series. I've enjoyed my share of what other readers affectionately call "smut", but that book didn't hold my interest. I'm not sure why I decided to pick up another Wilder book -- probably because my library keeps recommending her.

Anyway, this book is slightly better than the first Wilder I read. I would have just given it two stars based on the main relationship which smacked of insta-love. However, it was the B-plot that paves the way for the rest of the series and the well-developed characters that earned the book a third star and pushed me to check out the second book in the series. While I may not be a fan of insta-love, I am willing to suspend my disbelief when reading about characters who are impossibly good-looking and competent at their jobs to the point of being nearly supernatural. The Badd brothers definitely fit that description.

In case you missed the word "smut" in the first paragraph, let me spell it out for you: the sex is front-and-center in this book. There is no open or closed door because half the time the hero and heroine don't even make it to the bedroom. You should definitely save the recommendation of this book for your adventurous auntie, the one who shows up with a different boyfriend at every family function :-).

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A Man of Character by Margaret Locke

A Man of Character by Margaret Locke
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Book 1 of the Magic of Love trilogy
Read: 26 Nov 2018

Synopsis (written by me): Catherine has never taken time out for romance because her failing bookstore is her life. Then suddenly she is being asked out left and right by men who bear an eerie resemblance to characters from stories she wrote as a teenager. Suddenly she is forced to confront what her current idea of Mr. Right is.

I felt that this story dragged a bit. There was a lot about why Catherine wasn't looking for romance and how she was still pretty much grieving over the loss of her father. Romance is my primary genre, so I am accustomed to knowing who the heroine is going to end up with from page five. It is what happens between the beginning and the end that makes a romance worth reading and this one didn't feel like it had much. It took a while to get to the point where our heroine Catherine finally realized that she had a magical gift.  The book was all setup with very little payoff.

The other two books in the trilogy appear to deal with time travel more than this one did. Since Locke's writing is decent, I would be willing to give one of those books a try. I just hope that the pacing is a bit faster.

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Shopping for a Billionaire 1 & 2 by Julia Kent

Shopping for a Billionaire by Julia Kent
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Read: 09 Mar 2019

Shopping for a Billionaire is a romantic comedy where Shannon, a mystery shopper, and Declan, a wealthy businessman, "meet cute" in a men's room when Shannon has her hand down a toilet. Hilarity ensues, or so we are supposed to think.

When I saw this title in the table of contents of an anthology that I downloaded on Valentine's Day, I started reading it to remind myself of the plot. According to Amazon, I downloaded the individual ebook in 2015 and I remember deleting it from my Kindle app just a few months ago because I was sure I had read it. I discovered within a few paragraphs that I hadn't read this at all.

This is listed as a 15-book series, but calling these installments full-length novels seems a bit of a stretch. They may have the word count, but plot-wise they are just new episodes of a continuing story. I don't have an issue with that, but I think they should be labeled as such.

My feeling about the content is mixed. While I enjoy snappy banter between a hero and heroine, it is less appealing to me when it is part of a character's inner monologue. Our heroine Shannon's thoughts were filled with so many pop culture references that it was slightly off-putting. I read this roughly five years after the original publication date and some of the references already sounded dated.

For the most part, I like the portrayal of Declan, the hero. However, there wasn't enough of the couple getting to know each other. Declan seemed willing to throw business Shannon's way and reschedule plans after just a couple of witty exchanges. If there had been even a sentence or three telling the reader that Shannon and Declan had spent a few hours sharing stories, then that would have been more believable. Shannon questions why Declan likes her several times, and I am inclined to agree with her because by the end of the second installment, they still haven't really gotten to know each other yet.

On the plus side, the first two installments were a quick read and there were some laugh-out-loud scenes, especially involving Shannon's inappropriate mother. If the other installments ever hit my library or Kindle Unlimited, I may finish the story, but I am not going to seek them out.

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The Tennessee Waltz trilogy by Bella Street

Read: 02 Jan - 06 Jan 2019

I read this trilogy when I was nearing the end of my time-travel phase. As of this writing all three books are still available on Kindle Unlimited. These are supposed to be standalone novels but I couldn't really sort out my feelings about the books individually, so I thought I should write a review of the trilogy as a whole.

The first book in the trilogy is Kiss Me, I'm Irish. It features a girl named Emily in England during the Regency era who get transported to modern-day Tennessee. The second book, Kiss Me, I'm Yours, is about a modern-day yoga instructor named Sophie who is flung back to the post-Civil War era. The third book, Kiss Me, I'm Home, wraps up the story with Morgan, a travel agent who has never really gotten along with those around her and can't figure out why.

I am the type of person who has difficulty giving up on a TV show or movie, even if it is something corny like an episode of The Brady Bunch. I just have to see how it is going to end, and Bella Street's writing activated that part of my brain. In Kiss Me, I'm Irish, Street keeps everything just vague enough that I felt like I had to push through the book even when I wasn't sure if I was enjoying it. There was no clue as to why the hero Liam was so moody, and the relationship between him and his sister Tinker seemed strange. By the time the situation is made clear and I started to enjoy the characters and wanted to spend more time with them, the book was over.

Kiss Me, I'm Yours was particularly tough for me to get through because the bulk of it was set in a miserable period of time. Some people may enjoy reading books where characters go through a struggle, but I read for escapism. I didn't enjoy spending time with characters who were dirt poor in a one-room shack and had no friends at all in the surrounding area. "Bleak" would be my word for 90% of this book, but it does have necessary threads that connect the trilogy.

One good thing that can be said about Kiss Me, I'm Yours is that it was more straightforward than the first book. However, the vagueness came back in the third book, Kiss Me, I'm Home. Perhaps I am unaccustomed to writing like this because I read books where the reader usually knows up front who has a secret identity or magic powers or whatever. I will say that by the end of this book, everything from the first two books has been resolved.

Overall, I think this trilogy satisfied my time-travel itch, especially the first book. The aspect that draws me to time-travel novels is reading about people from the past dealing with modern society and there was plenty of that in Kiss Me, I'm Irish. If I were to recommend only one book out of the trilogy, it would be the first one.

Cocktails in Camelot by Marianne Mancusi

Cocktails in Camelot by Marianne Mancusi
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Book 1 of 3 in the Timeless Hearts series
Read: 20 Jan 2019

Synopsis (written by me): Katherine Jones, who goes by Kat, is an editor for a New York fashion magazine but she is pretty low on the ranking list, so she is sent out to a renaissance fair because medieval styles are supposedly the next fashion trend. She has no desire to be there and is not enjoying herself, so when she gots knocked back to the actual 12th century, she is miserable and tries to find her way back home without altering history too much.

I picked this up on Kindle Unlimited because I was looking for a light time travel romance. Unfortunately, this one was a little too light for even my tastes. It is basically a retelling of Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court but not as much fun. I ended up skimming large chunks of it, only to find that it ends in a cliffhanger, but I am not interested enough in the outcome to wade through the second book.

The first thing to hit me was the pop culture references. There were so many of them that I couldn't help but think that they will make the book feel dated in no time. In fact, a couple of them made me wonder about the age of the author. For instance, the heroine Kat is supposed to be in her 20s but she makes a reference to the old TV show Dance Fever. I am in my 50s and I barely remember that show (which ended in 1987); I can't imagine that my 20-something kids or any of their friends have even heard of it.

Secondly, this is supposed to be a romance but I didn't feel any chemistry between the hero Lancelot and the heroine Kat. When Lancelot gave this big speech about how he is attracted to all the goodness in Kat, I couldn't figure out where he got that from because it didn't show on the page. Kat had spent the entire time up to that point complaining.

Despite the book's faults, I got the feeling that the author has enough skill to write a decent book in a different genre. For instance, all the pop culture references probably wouldn't feel as jarring in a YA book. I did a small amount of research and found that author currently writes middle-grade and YA fantasy under the name Mari Mancusi, which is probably a better fit for her style.

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Out of the Past by Dana Roquet

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Synopsis (written by me): Torie Mills is a successful author and genealogy buff who buys her family's 150-year-old ancestral home in small-town Iowa as a quiet retreat from her hectic life. She hires Dave Cameron, a local renovation expert to help her make the house livable again while respecting the original design of the house. Once the renovation is complete and Torie moves in, she discovers a portal to the past. Soon she is taking Dave along with her and they discover a dark side to their trips into the town's history.

This is one of those books that has been hanging out on my Kindle for a little while, although not as long as some others; I think I found it for free on Amazon about a year ago. Since I'm always on the lookout for a good time travel story, I'm sure that is why I picked it up. Anyway . . .

I made it to the 29% mark before I gave up. The style of writing was uneven to me, what with the heroine's chapters being written in the first person and the hero's chapters being written in the third person. There was a lot of unnecessary details that dragged the book down. The history and genealogy parts, in particular, droned on, a bit like the "begats" in the book of Matthew in the Bible.

The scenes where the author describes the attraction between the hero and the heroine were just good enough to feel like they were written by someone else, especially in comparison to the other scenes. Several reviewers on Goodreads said that the sex scenes in this book made them blush, but the few scenes in the part of the book I read weren't that graphic to me. I later learned that this book has an original version and a PG-13 version where all the sex is toned down. Either I have the clean version or I'm just too accustomed to steamy books!

However, the part that made me abandon the book was the time travel. My favorite style of time travel story is when a person gets dumped into a different time and doesn't know what is going on, so there is a "fish out of water" aspect to it. In this book, the heroine actually inhabits the bodies of different people in her family, so there was definitely the potential for that but the way it was written didn't allow for it. Instead of letting the reader watch the time travel scenes unfold, the author has the heroine give us a synopsis of a few of her trips. It was like a coworker telling you about her latest vacation.

This is the first book of a trilogy and I was really hoping to immerse myself in this world, but I can't do it. As of this writing, the first book is still free on Amazon if you want to give it a try yourself, but I wouldn't recommend it.

The Tea House on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens

The Tea House on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Format: audiobook from the library

The Tea House on Mulberry Street is a nice, light bit of women's fiction. The plot follows the owners of Muldoon's Tea Rooms and their troubled marriage, as well as several other people who patronize the tea house while trying to work through problems of their own. Unlike a book such as The Friday Night Knitting Club, however, the characters don't all become friends and insert themselves into each other's lives. Because of this, I could have flipped right past the chapters of characters I didn't care to follow because their stories didn't affect other stories in the book. There was a mix of predictable, unbelievable, and a twist or two that I didn't see coming. One of the predictable storylines was still satisfying because I wanted to see certain characters get their comeuppance.

The narrator for the audiobook was very good. I appreciated hearing an Irish accent in a book set in Belfast; I still can't shake the audiobook I listened to that was set in Australia and used Aussie slang, but neither of the readers did an Aussie accent. I'd rather hear a bad accent than no attempt made at all.

The book includes a recipe for cheesecake, but if this book were on the tea house menu, it would more likely be angel food cake -- a sort of retro dessert that I don't see people eating much these days. The book was published in 2003 but it had the feel of a 1980s movie, especially at the end where the author wraps up everyone's situation. It is also not as racy as some women's fiction I've picked up that has been written in the past couple years. I would have no problem handing this book to my maiden aunt or even my friend who only reads Christian romance.

This was my first time reading a book by Sharon Owens, and I'm on the fence. It wasn't a bad book but I'm not compelled to seek out her other work. However, if it was on the free table at work (yes, my husband's job has such a thing) or I was on a cruise without reading material, I'd pick up another of her books.

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Roomies by Christina Lauren

Roomies by Christina Lauren
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Expected publication date: 05 Dec 2017

**Received free ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Christina Lauren (actually the writing duo of Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings) keeps popping up in BookTube videos and other sites where I get book recommendations, especially with the title Beautiful Bastard. Being the contrarian that I am, I usually put off reading the very authors that are suggested to me. So you know that me requesting a Christina Lauren book from NetGalley was an accident. Anyway ...

Roomies by Christina Lauren is a modern marriage of convenience romance with something of a women's fiction element. Our heroine Holland has a crush on our hero Calvin, a street musician who doesn't know she is alive. She is so impressed with his guitar playing that she gets him an audition with her uncle, who happens to be a successful music director on Broadway. Calvin is perfect for an opening in the uncle's latest show but there is a hitch -- Calvin is in the country illegally. So of course, Holland asks Calvin to marry her and the adventure begins.

I thoroughly enjoyed the romance. A marriage of convenience is one of my favorite romance storylines but it is difficult to pull off in a contemporary story. Many times the reason why a couple has to get married feels contrived, but the reason Holland and Calvin got married felt believable. I am also a sucker for an Irish accent, and Lauren did a great job of helping me hear Calvin's Irish accent in my head without making it a caricature. The passage of time was handled well; there were plenty of scenes of Holland and Calvin getting to know each other in different ways so that when they fell in love it was believable. I liked the banter between the hero and heroine and how the attraction between them felt strong without being too angsty.

Outside of the romance, Holland was grappling with trying to figure out her worth, why her life seemed to stall after college graduation, and whether she was holding on to things that were no longer helping her. This was the part that felt like women's fiction to me, in a good way. It made the book a little more well-rounded and not just about the relationship.

AUNTIE TEST: I would say this book was hotter than warm but not scalding. The book is written in the first person, so there is a lot of descriptions of Holland lusting after Calvin's body but the language used isn't as graphic as it could have been, even in the open-door sex scenes. I'd say you could hand this to your maiden aunt and pretend that you forgot the sex was in there; it's mild enough that she probably won't call you on it :-).



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American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis

American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of slightly twisted stories about the things that housewives get up to during the day. I don't read short stories very often, so I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this. After several of the stories, I wished I could grab someone and say, "Listen to this!"

I experienced this on audio and I think the accents and fast pace of the reading (I listened at 1.25x speed) added a little more humor to the prose. If I had read the print version, I suspect I would have found some of these stories a bit more creepy. There were four different readers -- Kathleen McInerney, Lisa Cordileone, Rebecca Lowman, and Dorothy Dillingham Blue -- and they all did a fine job. A southern accent used to comic effect without being insulting is a fine thing, and the readers put it to good use here.

I had two favorites in this collection. "Dumpster Diving with the Stars" is set on a reality competition show and that is one of my favorite story settings; I wish it was a full novel. "The Fitter" was both weird and touching, and the accent the reader used was perfect. My least favorite was "Hello! Welcome to Book Club", probably because I know some kids on the autism spectrum so I had trouble finding some of the references in that story amusing.

The running length of the audiobook is three hours and 46 minutes, which makes it a fun choice without a huge time investment.

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