A bit of a struggle in the middle of this week – no idea why. And as I started a run of five nightshifts on Sunday evening, expect light, non-taxing reading next week!
Read:
Trouble at Melville Manor by Mabel Esther Allen
Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander
A Demon Summer by GM Malliet
Curtain Up by Noel Streatfeild
Man on a Rock by Grant Sutherland
A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody
Started:
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
Still reading:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
3 second hand books bought – one to replace a book I lost a while back, two to read.
This week’s BotW is Sarah Morgan’s latest book – Sunset in Central Park. This is the second book in her new series – about three young women who leave Puffin Island (the location of her previous series) for the bright lights of New York and a career in events management.
This is Frankie’s story – and Frankie is extremely wary of relationships after watching the fallout from her parents’ divorce when she was a teenager. She avoids emotional attachments to anyone except her two closest friends – who she works with – and garden designer Matt, one of her friend’s brothers and the owner of the brownstone where they all have flats in Brooklyn. She’s determined to keep their relationship strictly platonic, even though he makes her insides feel a bit odd, because all relationships end and she wants to keep him in her life. But what she doesn’t know is that Matt’s been crazy about her forever, but has kept quiet because he knows how fragile she is. But as he finds out more about her hidden depths as they work together on a project, the sparks fly. Will he be able to convince her to take a chance on what they have?
This is romantic, fun and satisfying. You know where it’s going, but it’s so much fun watching the characters work through all their issues to come to a happy conclusion. Sarah Morgan has created a great group of strong competent women and is busy pairing them up with the men they deserve – equally strong and competent, and who compliment the girls – who definitely don’t need a man to complete them or fix their lives. They can fix their own lives and problems, but the men will support and help them as they do it. I did want to give Frankie a bit of a slap at times, but I always understood why she was behaving the way that she did. I think I preferred the first book in the series slightly* – but that’s because I’m more of a Paige than I am a Frankie.
I don’t have a paperback copy of Sunset in Central Park, but I do have other Sarah Morgans!
If you asked me, I would probably tell you that I don’t like contemporary romances, but that’s because when people say contemporary romance I think of billionaires and secretaries, doctors and nurses, nannies and lonely widowers, secret dukes and princes, secret babies and accidental pregnancies – none of which float my boat. I like smart heroines getting a happy ending – and if the books have a touch of humour, so much the better. Thinking about it – and looking at the downstairs keepers bookshelf – there’s a lot of contemporary romance there – the sort of books that 10 years ago would have been called chick lit. I don’t like chick lit as a term – but women’s fiction is too broad a description – so they probably would fall under the contemporary romance banner.
I only started reading Sarah Morgan because I met her at Sarah MacLean’s London tea-party and got given a free copy of one of the Puffin Island books (although I then went out and bought the first in this series and read that first after hearing Sarah Morgan talk about it on Smart Podcast, Trashy Books at the end of May) but it turns out that her latest books are exactly what floats my boat. There was a sampler for Eva’s book at the end of this one and it left me desperate to read a Christmas-themed book – in July. And you know my feelings on starting to read about Christmas too early.
My copy of Sunset in Central Park came from NetGalley – but you can get a copy from Amazon and Kindle (actually cheaper in book form at the time of writing) and I suspect possibly in supermarkets and other bookstores. Don’t be put off by the Harlequin logo on the spine – if you are, you’ll be missing out. I’m off to mine more of Sarah Morgan’s back catalogue – although I’ll never get through all of it and some of them are medical romances…
Happy reading!
*I read Sleepless in Manhattan the same week that I read The Rogue Not Taken or it would probably have been BotW that week.
A fair mix (for me) of reading this week – romances contemporary and historical, mysteries contemporary and historical, non-fiction, a children’s book and a comedy of society and manners. But as you’ll notice, I’m still mostly on books with resolutions and happy endings. And expect I will be until silly season finally gets underway – if it ever does.
Read:
Only a Kiss by Mary Balogh
Sunset on Central Park by Sarah Morgan
The Secret by Lorna Hill
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
Dead is Best by Jo Perry
Death of an Avid Reader by Frances Brody
Queen Bees by Siân Evans
Started:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Still reading:
n/a
One ebook bought – and Gail Carriger’s next Custard Protocol novel (Imprudence, out on Thursday this week) pre-ordered along with a cookbook to get myself free postage!
As I said yesterday, it’s been a tough decision about what to pick as BotW this week. In the end I settled on Ms Marvel, because it was my favourite thing that I read last week, even though I don’t always have a lot to say about graphic novels/comics when I write reviews. But then as I’m thick with cold and cough (in July! I know! So ridiculous) perhaps its the lurgy blocking my creative juices. Lets stick with that.
So, Ms Marvel. I am not up on the Marvel Universe – I’ve seen a few films (they didn’t have Ms Marvel or Captain Marvel in them), but then who hasn’t, but I think this may be my first actual Marvel Comic. I believe – although I may be wrong – that this is a reboot of an earlier character, but I haven’t read any of the earlier stuff so I don’t have the full back story. But then I don’t think it affected my enjoyment not knowing any of the rest of the history.
So, the story. Kamala Khan is a Pakistani American teenager in Jersey City. She’s Muslim and her parents are very protective of her. She chafes at some of the restrictions placed upon her by her family – and ends up with superpowers after an incident at a party she sneaked out to. In the first trade – No Normal – she gets her powers and starts to get entangled with the Inventor (who we assume is a villain).
I enjoyed this – Kamala is fun and multi-dimensional and she has real-life as well as superhero-y conflicts in her life. The supporting characters are also great and I learnt a few things as well but in a subtle way. It ends in a bit of a cliff-hanger and I’m fairly sure I’ll be buying Volume 2 when I next get to the comic book shop. I’m not putting any links to buy – because I want you to go down to your comic bookstore and do it there. Find your local comic book store here.
Such an easy decision for BotW this week – I absolutely loved Annie Darling’s Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts. It is so much fun, and ticked so many of my book buttons.
Posy Morland loves her job at Bookends – a crumbling bookshop tucked away in a Bloomsbury mews. But when the shop’s owner, Lavinia, dies and leaves the shop to Posy her life is turned upside down. Posy’s got lots of plans to turn the ailing bookshop around, but she’s also got to contend with Lavinia’s autocratic grandson Sebastian – nicknamed The Rudest Man in London by one of the papers, and seemingly searching for the national title. With her friends and co-workers to help her, can Posy turn the shop around as well as dealing with Sebastian’s machinations? And why is she having lurid fantasies?
Isn’t my proof copy gorgeous? I do love a good cover – and the proper cover looks lovely too.
The back of my proof copy says it’s for fans of Georgette Heyer (waves) and Jenny Colgan (waves) and for people who’ve dreamed of opening their own bookshops (falls over waving so hard) and I would totally agree. Posy is a great heroine – she’s likeable, a little bit damaged and totally relatable. It was great fun reading about her figuring out what to do with the bookshop and trying to stand up to Sebastian. It’s also crammed full of gems for the romance reader – whether it’s obvious ones (like name checks for historical romance authors) or more subtle ones (not telling, find them yourself).
This whistles along at a tremendous pace, with twists and turns and heaving bosoms in empire line gowns (you’ll understand if you read it). I was cross it was over so quickly – because I could have spent another 200 pages with Posy and her band of misfits at the bookshop and as there’s an ad at the end for a sequel, my wish may yet come true. The back of my advance copy also has the author’s top five novels in it which include Heyer’s Regency Buck – which I adore – Pride and Prejudice (ditto) and a Courtney Milan. What’s not to love. And on top of that it has a bookshop list which includes not one but TWO name checks for my beloved Chalet School so basically I think Annie Darling and I would really get on.
I got sent an advanced copy by a publicist who I chat to on Twitter – who had spotted that I love Georgette Heyer. It’s not out in paperback yet (August 25th) – but it is out in Kindle (£2.99 at time of writing!) and you can pre-order the paperback on Amazon and Waterstones and Foyles will email you when they get it in stock. I suspect as it’s published by Harper it may make it to the supermarkets too. I would’ve saved my ravings for closer to the time, but as the Kindle is out and I think that this would make a great beach read I thought I’d alert you all now. Go forth and read it!
A lovely week of reading – there’s some really charming romance in there, some relatively undiscovered classic children’s stories and a fast-moving thriller. It’s all good.
Read:
The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Can’t Buy Me Love by Jane Lovering
The Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts by Annie Darling
A Gentleman Never Tells by Eloisa James
Some Kind of Wonderful by Sarah Morgan
The Escape by Mary Balogh
The Wild Lorings – Detectives by Gwendoline Courtney
The MacIains of Glen Gillean by Mabel Esther Allen
Started:
Total D*ck by Christina Saunders
Still reading:
Queen Bees by Siân Evans
Hmmm. I may have bought three books and a trade comic on Thursday. But that was still June – so my resolution to do better in July still stands!
Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 451 (I don’t have copies of all of these!)
I was doing so well on the purchasing front – and then it got to the end of the month and I got stressed so started bookshop. Not good considering that I haven’t read as much this month as I wanted either. I’ll try and do better in July…
*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (3 this month)
I retreated into the world of happy endings this week – and treated myself by letting myself read the new (well relatively new) Sarah MacLean which I have been saving for a Time Of Real Need.
This is the first in her new series – Scandal and Scoundrel – and after the massive high of the surprise reveal and general excitement of the final book of the Rules of Scoundrels, I wasn’t sure this could live up to my massive expectations. And then I found out that the new series was inspired by celebrity scandals of today and got a bit worried. But I really didn’t need to. Sarah MacLean knows exactly what she’s doing.
The cover model is just a bit to… meh. All downcast eyes and no personality – completely un-Sophie like!
Sophie Talbot is the youngest of a line of scandalous daughters of a noveau riche peer. Her sisters revel in their notorious reputations, but she’s not keen. She’s the most retiring member of the family right up until she pushes her elder sister’s cheating husband into a pond at a party. He’s a duke – old family, old money – she’s not. Suddenly she’s the biggest scandal in society and facing being an outcast. So she makes a run for it. But she makes her escape it using the carriage belonging to the Marquess of Eversley, who’s fairly scandalous himself. He thinks she’s trying to trap him into marriage. She knows she definitely isn’t. But then Things Happen.
I enjoyed this so much. The characters are engaging, the dialogue is witty and fun. There’s lots of proper plot – no wishy-washy misunderstandings that could be solved by one person asking the other a question. And just when you think it’s nearly fixed, MacLean throws in another twist to the tail. I was a little hesitant about one of these which happened towards the end of the book, but it was dealt with so neatly and resolved so satisfactorily that by the time the book was over I’d almost forgotten it had annoyed me. I was also desperate to read the next in the series which isn’t out until August, but I’ll try and contain my impatience.
I still prefer the US cover to the UK one – cheesy thought the American romance covers are, they have no shame about what they are – there’s heaving bosoms, unlaced corsets that improbably reveal no under garments, ridiculous muscles and flowing locks, but they’re unapologetic about it, where as the ones here are misty and coy and undersell the contents. But hey, at least with a British edition we don’t have to pay silly money to get them shipped in anymore. Although – full disclosure – I got my copy from the publisher who gave them to everyone who went to Sarah MacLean’s London teaparty (she’s lovely) so I may yet buy a US version to match the rest of my books of hers…
Get your copy from Amazon, Foyles or Waterstones, or for Kindle or on Audible. If you’re in the States, it should be everywhere fine, fine romances are sold (to quote Sarah Wendell.). Happy Romancing!
I gave up on the Elizabeth Jane Howard this week. I’ve been hanging in there trying to plough through because I love the Cazalets so much, then my Mum said I didn’t have to keep reading it if I wasn’t enjoying it – and that if she was trying to read something she wasn’t enjoying, I would be the first person to tell her to give up and move on so she was returning the favour for me. I have a great mum.
Read:
Once a Soldier by Mary-Jo Putney
Poison or Protect by Gail Carriger
Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins by James Runcie
An American Airman in Paris (short story) by Beatriz Williams
Sleepless in Manhattan by Sarah Morgan
The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean
Started:
Queen Bees by Siân Evans
The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Still reading:
n/a
I bought six books on Friday. It was very naughty of me, but I don’t regret it at all. I’ll try and restrain myself this week though.
