Tag: romance

books

Book of the Week: The Other Side of Disappearing

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A new release pick this week and I think if you saw it on the list last week you might have predicted this because I do love Kate Clayborn.

The heroine of The Other Side of Disappearing is Jess. She’s been bringing up her half sister Tegan on her own for the last decade, since their mum ran off with a boyfriend she had only know for a few months. She’s also been keeping a secret – that her mum’s boyfriend was a con man who was the subject of a true crime podcast. At the start of the book she discovers that not only has Tegan worked out the secret, but she’s contacted the podcast’s producers and is planning to go and search for their mother. Jess isn’t going to let Tegan face whatever is out there without her, so she joins her on the road trip with the podcast host and her producer Adam. Adam is a former college football star and recent journalism graduate. He’s working on this podcast for reasons of his own, but when he meets Jess he has to rethink what he has planned.

This is a road trip book, but with a larger cast than you usually get on road trip romances. And it is still a romance, but this is probably edging closer to what you might call Women’s Fiction than Clayborn has before. Because as well as being the story of Jess and Adam it’s also about Jess and Tegan and their relationship, the way they have built their own sort of family together – and the damage that their mother’s disappearance has done to them. But now I’ve written that I realise that I’ve made it sound like it’s a sad and miserable book, but it’s not! It’s actually pretty uplifting and as well as the romance you’re dying to know what happened to the con man and if they’re going to find their mum. So that’s a romance, a mystery, a road trip and a side of self discovery. It’s a really lovely read.

My copy of The Other Side of Disappearing came from NetGalley, but it’s out now in Kindle and Kobo and I can see copies available for Click and Collect in most of the central London Waterstones stores too.

Book of the Week, books

Book of the Week: When Grumpy Met Sunshine

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A big old stack of reading last week because: holiday, so a few things to chose from, but this was easily my favourite – although I have one reservation if you read on!

As the title suggests, this is a grumpy-sunshine romance, where the sunny half of the couple is ghost writer Mabel and the grumpy is her latest subject, former footballer Alfie who has been persuaded to write his memoirs. Except that he doesn’t want to reveal anything about himself and he doesn’t do emotions. So Mabel’s job isn’t going to be easy, but she tries and they start snarking and squabbling as they try to get something down on paper. And then they’re spotted together in public and the press decides that Mabel and Alfie are a couple. And of course the first rule of ghost writing is that no one can know that you’re a ghost writer so they pretend to be in a relationship. Except that there is a lot of chemistry going on and Mabel is in very real danger of catching feelings for Alfie. But he couldn’t really be interested in a girl like her, could he?

And therein lies my problem with this book. Because it is absolutely clear that Alfie really does have feelings for Mabel and he has them from quite early on, and she is just the most obvious person that was ever oblivious not to see it. And obviously that’s how she has to be for the plot to work, and Charlotte Stein does make a good attempt at trying to give a reason why Mabel might not think he’s into her and it does make his grand gesture at the end very grand but still. For a smart woman, Mabel is very stupid when it comes to noticing how into her Alfie is. But the banter was so fun and it was so funny I forgave it because it really was a lot of fun. And it is also really quite steamy during the fake relationship portion of it – I had to put it down while I was on the plane home because I was worried the person next to me was going to read it over my shoulder and then I would have died of embarrassment!

This is the first Charlotte Stein novel that I’ve read – and from what I can see it’s her first novel in this sort of area – she’s written a couple of dozen romances before but the rest of her back catalogue seem to be in the ménage/erotica end of the genre which is not really what I read, so I will be keeping an eye out for what she writes next if there is going to be more like this!

I’ve seen When Grumpy Met Sunshine in the shops all over the place – and of course it’s on Kindle and Kobo too.

Happy Reading!

books, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: February Quick Reviews

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We’re into March so here we are with another set of reviews of a couple of books that I read last month that I haven’t already talked about. And I’ve already talked about a lot of books, so points to me for finding three more to talk about!

A Murder Inside by Frances Brody

This is the first in a new series from the author of the Kate Shackleton series. This though is set in the 1960s and our lead character is the newly appointed governor of a women’s open prison which is taking over the premises of a former borstal. And of course there’s a suspicious death – and the newly arrived residents come under suspicion. I really enjoyed this – I ended up staying up way too late on a work night trying to get to the end, before I eventually gave up and I’m looking forward to a sequel, although I hope it doesn’t mean no more Kate Shackleton books.

Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau

This is the first book of Lau’s pair of books about the Kwan sisters. The sister in this is Naomi who needs a fake boyfriend to take for a long weekend at a Lake House with her friends – and her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend. The fake boyfriend in question is Will, a massive introvert and science fiction author who happens to be friends with Naomi’s brother. Will is only doing this because he doesn’t have many friends and doesn’t want to risk losing one of the ones he has, but despite the fact that the two of them are chalk and cheese, there’s clearly some sort of spark between them. I liked the split narrative in this one – and watching the two of them figure out how to navigate a relationship – fake or otherwise – all while under the full glare of Naomi’s friends. It’s not the longest novel but it’s great fun and it zips by. I read it in a day and went straight on to the second book!

Lady Thief of Belgravia by Alison Gray*

This features a thief and an aristocrat teaming up in 1870s London to try and steal back some important documents. And firstly, let me just say that the cover is beautiful. But beyond that this is a bit of a weird one for me because I just couldn’t figure out what it was trying to be – and that’s why my plot summary is so short! The pacing was wrong for it to be a romance, and equally the espionage plot was too thin for it to be a mystery. And because of the fact it hadn’t decided what it wanted to be, both sides fell flat for me. There’s not enough characterisation and character development in either of the leads – you don’t really ever know why Della and Cole are into each other or what they like about each other. The turning Della into a lady lessons are a nice device but she seems able to grasp a ridiculously large amount of knowledge in not a lot of time and the combination of all that just made it all just a stretch too far for me. Never mind.

And that’s your lot – the BotW were The Belting Inheritance, Knife Skills for Beginners, The Love Wager and At First Spite. And the other recommendsday posts were about mid-twentieth century careers books and xxxx.

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: First Lady

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I said yesterday that whatever I chose today was going to be tricky for one reason or another, so I’ve gone for a rule breaker on the repeat front, rather than tell you (again) how much I love the Peter and Harriet books in the Wimsey series. If you want to know about that, you can go and read this post. So, instead I’m back on the Susan Elizabeth Philips train with a book from her Wynette, Texas series.

This plot is quite a lot, so hold on and bear with me. Our heroine is Cornelia Litchfield Case, widow of the President of the United States and also daughter of a former vice president. She’s found herself being pushed back into the role of First Lady and it’s killing her from the inside. So she gives her secret service minders the slip and escapes DC for a cross country road trip. Our hero is Mat Jorik, a disillusioned journalist whose ex wife has just died and is now taking charge of her children – but only to deliver them to their grandmother on the other side of the country. Nealy and Mat’s paths cross at a service station, and soon they’re on a cross country road trip together -in an RV with a surly teenage girl and a baby. The sparks fly between them – and this is the first time ever Nealy has had the chance to get to know a man who doesn’t know all about her baggage and her background, and who has no expectations of her. What could possibly go wrong?

So this is a road trip romance with a side of found family. I loved Mat from the start – he’s an absolute softie with a heart of gold that he hides behind a bit gruff exterior. And Nealy is one of the more interesting heroines you’ll encounter – her backstory is wild. I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to work itself out at the end, but it did and it was really quite neatly done – although it did all happen quite quickly, which is always annoying. But basically this is a fun read with a bit of an unusual set up and is all the better for it. I have the next two books in the series lined up (because they were on offer, although this was not) so I look forward to reading more of the series – and maybe seeing a bit more of the Wynette of the name!

I have no idea if it’s possible to get this in paperback for a reasonable price – but it’s available on Kindle and Kobo. And yes, I did break my usual pricing rules while buying it, but I’m blaming the jet lag!

books, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Romances with grovelling

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After reading At First Spite last week I started thinking about other romances where one of the couple has to do some serious grovelling to redeem themselves. Because as I said yesterday At First Spite has an absolutely epic grovel in it – but it also has some mental health issues that may mean that some people want to avoid it. So here are some other options.

It also turns out that maybe romances with grovels are my thing – because a lot of the books that I came up with were already books of the week! Let’s start with Sarah Maclean because she is maybe queen of the grovel – in most of her series there is a man who has done something awful and who you think is irredeemable and then in the final book of the series, she pulls it off. I could only pick one though so I’ve gone for Day of the Duchess because it is so good – but also because I know some people have had issues with Daring and the Duke because they don’t think Ewan is redeemable – so I think Day of the Duchess is the more reliable recommendation. Of course it’s going to work best if you read the whole series, but it does work on its own as well.

Next up, another historical romance and it’s Sherry Thomas’s Luckiest Lady in London. I can’t really explain this book any more than I did in that book of the week review but trust me, it’s good. A much more recent BotW is Devil in Winter – which is a classic of the historical romance genre and is totally worth reading if you like this sort of thing. And finally in the historical section there’s Romancing Mr Bridgerton by Julia Quinn – which is about to be the third season of Bridgerton and you can read now to get ahead. And if you want to know what he’s got to grovel for, just watch the trailer for the new series…

And now because At First Spite is a contemporary romance, I have to offer a few of those. But I did find this tricky. There are a couple of grovels in the Chicago Stars series, but they tend to be in the earlier books in the series with the most alphahole-y heroes and that’s not necessarily my thing at all. There is also Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood, which continues to come up in my posts despite the fact that I have reservations about Tiny Heroines and Giant Heroes (and tell you about that every time!). Then there is Glitterland by Alexis Hall, which I should say I have only read the original version of, so may have changed a bit since I read it but hey. This has a depressed former literary golden boy and someone who Hall describes as a sunshiney glitter pirate. I really enjoyed it a couple of years ago and I really should go back and check the new version. Maybe this is the push I needed? We’ll see.

And finally it’s sort of cheating but I think Olivia Dade’s Shipwrecked also sort of counts for this – although the hero in that hasn’t so much done something wrong as much as waited a long time to prove to the heroine that he’s the guy for her.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, books

Book of the Week: At First Spite

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Now I didn’t intend for this to be the BotW because I’ve already mentioned it a few times, but it has one of the best grovels that I have recently seen in a romance so I couldn’t help myself so here we are!

How does Athena Grayson find herself living in a tiny house in between her former fiancé and his brother? Well it’s because she impulsively bought the spite house as a wedding gift for her husband before the engagement imploded. Now she’s stuck living in it – attached to her ex’s house and with the man who is the reason her fiancé broke up with her across the alley from her – and visible from every window. So she does what every woman living in a house with spite in the name would do – tries to get petty revenge. Except that Doctor Matthew Vine the Third may not be quite the uptight judgemental jerk she thought he was.

You know where this is going, but I will admit to having my doubts when I read the blurb about how Matthew was going to be redeemable. But luckily it’s pretty clear early on what his issue with his brother’s marriage is and that makes it all better or easier for the reader anyway. This has however got a portrayal of serious depression in it, which there is a warning for at the front so I’m not spoiling anything, and may mean that you need to approach with care depending on your own situation.

This is the first book in Olivia Dade’s new series set in Harlot’s Bay and it sets up a delightful community and set of secondary characters for the reader to revisit in the next books in the series. I’m really interested to see who the next person to get a book is – it feels like it maybe should be Athena’s ex, and yet I’m not sure how I feel about getting on board with him as a hero – he doesn’t seem to fit the sort of hero that Dade creates. So I look forward to seeing what the next one is when we get more information on that – whenever it maybe!

I had my paperback copy preordered, but you can also get it on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

bingeable series, books

Series I love: Chicago Stars

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I said yesterday that I was going to try and resist buying the new Mary Russell mystery if I could – and so far the main reason I could is because I had pre-ordered the latest Chicago Stars book and it dropped onto the Kindle on Tuesday morning, just in time for my post Super Bowl slump- and so I’m taking the opportunity to write about them today!

So this is a series of connected romance novels what the characters are linked to the (fictional) Chicago Stars NFL team. Susan Elizabeth Phillips has been writing these for a while now (twenty-ish years) so we’ve been through a generation (in sports terms) of players at this point, but I think that’s a good thing! What thus series specialises in is feisty women and men who are used to having it all their own way – and’s that’s a dynamic I can really get on board with. I’ve written about couple of the other books in the series already, so I’m going to focus on the latest one next.

Simply the Best is the story of Rory, half sister of the Stars’ quarterback and Brett, a hot shot sports agent. They definitely shouldn’t have hooked up at a party, but even worse they’re now having to work together to try and track down a missing football player and solve a murder. There’s tones of snark and banter – and I loved the addition of a mystery to the plot. The last couple of books in the series, I’ve thought they might be the last one, but I’m fairly optimistic that there is going to be another one after this one at some point!

Happy weekend everyone!

books, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Low Angst Second Chance Romances

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This whole post was inspired by the first book – which I’ve already mentioned on the blog so I’m breaking my own rules again, but hey, who cares!

Knowing Me, Knowing You by Jeevani Charika*

This is a second chance romance with a sciencey twist: Alex spent a perfect New Year’s Eve in a bar together five years ago – but for what we shall call Romance Reasons it went no further and now New Year’s Eve guy is the one who got away. Until he turns up in her lab as the man charged with trying to get the medical tech start up she works for out of trouble. There was a little bit of “a simple conversation have solved all this” air to some of the conflict in the novel. That said, it’s charming and because you have sections from both the hero and heroines point of view it’s pretty low stress for the reader (even if maybe not always for Alex!) and as a bonus if you’ve read the previous two books from Charika you get to see some of the characters from those again.

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

Cover of The Ex Hex

This one has magic and a curse – but actually turns out to be less dramatic and angsty than you would expect from a plot like that. Rhys comes back to his old town because the key lines are running out of magic – but once he gets there the curse Vivienne put on him when he broke her heart. This has banter and is really quite sweet – much less angst and violence than you usually get in paranormal romances.

Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

This was a BotW back in 2022 (you can read that review here) but this is a second chance romance between two former high school best friends who meet again a decade after their friendship turned into something more for a week and then end up temporarily living together for some more of those Romance Reasons. This suffered a bit from Just Have A Conversation syndrome and One Too Many Conflicts, but it also has wit and warmth and is a lot of fun to read.

And that’s your lot for today, but I’ve realised I have a ton of second chance romances still on the tbr pile – so you never know, I may be back with this trope relatively soon!

book round-ups, books, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: 50 States Mop-up

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For today’s Recommendsday I’m taking the opportunity to talk about a couple of books from last years read the USA that I hadnt got to yet!

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

This is the story of an aviatrix in the first half of the twentieth century but intercut with the story of the Hollywood actress who is playing her in a biopic. Given my reputation with award winning bond, it may not surprise you that this was a slog for the first half. It has took me literal months to read this despite having bought it on Kindle to try and get it finished because I wasn’t prepared to lug the paperback around everywhere with me. The early stages of Marion’s story are so depressing and such hard work it made it hard for me to spend too much time with it at once. But once we got to the Second World War it really came alive and I read the last couple of hundred pages in a few days and the end was more satisfying than I had feared it would be.

Wild Dances by William Lee Adams

So this one is a little unusual because I know the author. William is one of the preeminent Eurovision bloggers but also someone u work with in my day job. This is his memoir about growing up in Georgia with a profoundly disabled mother and an undiagnosed bipolar mother, and that’s only the half of it. William discovered learning as his escape and it took him to Harvard and then eventually to the UK. It is a brilliantly written and almost heartbreaking in places, but I know that because I know William I might be biased. Anyway, even though it’s sold as how Eurovision helped him, it’s actually about much more than that, and if you know him as a Eurovision figure, don’t go into this expecting lots of ESC info because it’s mostly about William and his life from childhood onwards.

When in Rome by Sarah Adams

This is another famous person and normal person romance – in this case a slightly Taylor Swift- y popstar and a small town baker. This was my first Sarah Adams and I quite liked it although it was more New Adult than I was expecting I think, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. I liked the small town vibe, I liked famous people and normal people romances (go read Nora Goes Off Script if you haven’t already, it’s wonderful) and I liked the twist of it being the heroine that’s famous and the guy that’s normal. But something just didn’t click to tip it over into great for me. Hey ho.

And there you are, three more books and we’re done. If I was going to put links to all the other books from Fiftyt States that I’ve already talked about I’ve been linking all day, so I’m just going to point you at the wrap up post which had them all there’s for you already.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, books

Book of the Week: Hello, Stranger

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The list last week was long, but actually today’s pick is the last book I finished at the weekend – and in fact read in less than a day while snuggled up on the sofa trying to will the cold I have to go away (it’s not Covid, I did several tests…) and it’s also not a Christmas book but won’t worry there are plenty of those coming up over the next few weeks!

I mentioned Hello Stranger when it came out a few months back, hard on the heels of the UK release of Katherine Center’s previous book, The Bodyguard. And Hello Stranger is about Sadie, a portrait painter who has got a spot in the final of a prestigious competition. The only problem is that hard on the heels of this news, she discovers some less good news: she needs (minor) brain surgery. And then when she wakes up she can’t see faces any more. That is to say, the faces are there but her brain can’t make any sense of them and she doesn’t recognise anyone anymore. Which as a portrait painter is a bit of a problem but it’s also a pretty big problem for everyday life too. But she doesn’t want anyone to know about it so she heads back out into a new and different world where she meets a handsome vet and spars with the obnoxious neighbour in her building – but could either of them turn into something more?

As I said this was the last book I finished last week and I basically read it across the afternoon and evening – stopping only to cook dinner, eat and pack my suitcase for the week. And it really does hook you in – and is one of those books where it’s so fun that you can ignore the slight bonkers of it all. And there’s a fair bit of bonkers here – most of which could be solved by Sadie just telling people what her issue is and I never quite understood why she didn’t, except for her pathological dislike of admitting that she needed help and the fact that if she did the plot would disappear. And as someone who works in audio, I found it hard to believe that she didn’t recognise people’s voices more than she did – but again, I went with it because it is a lot of fun.

Sadie also has a really difficult relationship with her step sister and I wanted a bit more resolution to that – or at least more comeuppance for her sister but Sadie definitely comes out on top so that’s good. And overall I liked it a lot – and more than I did The Bodyguard, where I had a few issues that boiled down to having read a lot of celebrity and normal person romances this year and others being better and not really understanding what the hero saw in the heroine. And Hello Stranger has a really quirky premise and is first person in Sadie’s eyes and she has a lot to deal with so you don’t have time to worry about what the hero sees in her!

I also went off and did a quiz about face blindness as soon as I finished the book – and I actually did much better at it than I expected to, given that I think of myself as being bad at faces and names! And I suspect a lot of readers will go off and do the same thing. So in conclusion, if you’re not on the Christmas book train yet this would make a nice read – although given that it’s set in sunny Texas it’s not exactly a cozy winter read!

You can get Hello Stranger on Kindle and Kobo. It’s not out in paperback in the UK until May next year, but if you’re in the US it’s available in hardback.

Happy Reading!