Reading Fanatic Reviews
All Romance ReviewsThe Duke and the Damsel by Cinnamon Worth and Kay Springsteen
Available at Amazon only
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The Duke and the Damsel*
Not Able to Get Past Not Liking Hero
In a departure from most Regency books about a compromise, both the hero and heroine at the heart of the story are determined not to be thrust into an unwelcome marriage. The heroine had decided that being a spinster was her best course of action after she lost an early love. If she is to marry, she wishes to do so only for love, but that is becoming more and more unlikely the older she gets. When they are discovered in a compromising state, the hero believes that he can buy the silence of the observers, but the heroine’s uncle has other ideas. To help the young woman, the hero decides to choose potential suitors from amongst his friends that might make an ideal husband for her.
I felt like this story had several plot holes. We’re told a little about the heroine’s first love, but we don’t really know the full story of their romance and what their relationship was truly like that would make her decide it was best to remain a spinster. There’s also a bad guy in the story, of course, but that just kind of fizzled out without any resolution. I found the language of the book to be somewhat stilted. I imagine the author is trying to mimic what she believes are Regency speech and language patterns, but it just doesn’t work and is more distracting than engaging. When the hero and heroine first meet, he comes across as a real jerk, and since the story is of novella length, I didn’t learn enough about his character or see enough of a growth arc to get past my initial bad feelings about him. For me, for a romance to work, I have to like the hero—finding him swoon-worthy is even better—and I have to believe that he is the best choice for the heroine. Unfortunately, that did not happen here.
A Wallflower’s Folly by Amanda Mariel
Available at Amazon, iBooks, Google Play, Scribd, Thalia, and Bol.de
A Wallflower's Folly*
A Poorly Written Regency
I love a good Regency Romance—it is my favorite sub-genre of historical romance—but unfortunately, this is not one of them. The book is very short and suffers from a malady common to novellas: the dreaded information dump. And this happened not just once but twice. First, there was a data dump from the heroine and then a data dump from the hero. Despite that this excessive and repetitive information, I still didn’t feel like I got to know these characters. The book is full of so many errors with grammar, punctuation, spelling, and usage that it was exceedingly distracting. Did the heroine have “ill-manors”? The wrong form of too/to was used on more than one occasion. Words like “deuce” were misspelled (duce… really??). I could go on for paragraphs at how many things were just wrong, wrong, wrong. The book ended very abruptly as well.
I actually thought this was a good premise for a Regency romance (and was even looking forward to reading it), but it was so poorly executed that I cannot recommend it at all.
The Way We Met by Patricia M. Jackson
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
The Way We Met*
The Meet-cutes of Ten Couples Across Time
What a lovely collection of ten somewhat long short stories that each highlight how a particular couple met. The stories range in time from the late 1800s to now. They are written alternating between the hero’s and the heroine’s perspectives in the first person. I would have liked to have seen the POV mixed up a little in these stories, as the first person can be a little tedious to read for such a long time, especially when you’re constantly switching characters. In these stories, the author is able to give a real sense of both time and place, from Ellis Island in the late 1800s to Midwestern farms. Even though these are relatively short, she is able to make each of the characters distinct. In the brief span of time that we see these couples, I felt like I got to know the characters and became invested in their stories. Each story could be read in about the time of a break or a lunch, perfect for reading while at work.
Lacewood by Jessica James
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Smashwords, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
Lacewood*
An Odd Combination of Parts
I am not quite sure what to make of this book. I think the author had an interesting premise, but it was not fully realized on several fronts. I found the first part of the book to be so dull that I almost did not continue. Nearly 10% of the book is just taken up with how the heroine got to New Hope and her walk around Lacewood manor. Another significant portion just following this seemed to just detail home repair and the heroine’s growing involvement with the future hero. Things get more interesting when the heroine finds out more about the old home’s previous owners through artifacts and letters.
But then the book does a strange flip. Part 1 takes place in the present, and then part 2, which doesn’t happen until after the 75% mark, takes us back to the Civil War past of the manor. The last 7% or so is part 3 and takes place in the present again. These broad jumps in time made the book feel disjointed. Rather than have parts, and such lopsided parts, I think the book would have been better if the past storyline had been integrated with the present one. For example, the author could have interleaved pertinent past chapters within the current storyline as interrupters, especially if they illuminated what the current heroine found. It would have made for a more cohesive story and overall plot line. I also felt that the author’s prose was too flowery in places, especially in the beginning section, and was a little too heavily dependent on descriptive words like adjectives and adverbs that actually distracted from the reading because it was overloaded with unnecessary details.
While I completely bought into the Civil War romance (even if the hero of that arc seemed too good in general and an unbelievably fantastic love letter writer), I didn’t get any chemistry from the contemporary couple. Their romance didn’t hit all the right notes (conventions and obligatory scenes) that a love story should have. The big themes that the writer promised would be shown in the blurb were not realized in the book itself (though we were TOLD they were addressed by the characters). In all, I found this book unsatisfying.
For This Knight Only by Barbara Bettis
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
For This Knight Only*
Middle Good; Beginning and End Need Work
In this novel, I had a hard time liking Sir Roark at the beginning. I didn’t like the way he treated Lady Alyss with such a heavy hand when he was the one who was lying to her to get her castle and land. Through the middle portion of the book, I thought he became a better character as he grew and learned that the true treasure he had lied to get was actually Lady Alyss. I did like Lady Alyss’s character, though I thought she was a bit stupid at times. She often acted without thinking, putting herself in danger more often than I think a woman would have in those times. At the beginning of the story, in one of the first chapters, the author takes Lady Alyss right to the point of nearly killing a man as the chapter cliffhanger, and I was sorely disappointed that the author did not bring us back to that point when Lady Alyss’s perspective resumes. Rather, her story started up again some weeks later; as a reader who had seen the terror of the moment, I think the author owed us the end of that scene!
I thought that the beginning and the end of this story were weak, the beginning for what I mentioned with both Sir Roark and Lady Alyss. The ending had a series of surprises that came one after the other in rapid succession, and I think everything wrapped up too quickly. So much happened in so little time that it didn’t seem or feel realistic. More time was needed to fully explore the many facets of the end.
A Good Dragon is Hard to Find by Joynell Schultz
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
A Good Dragon is Hard to Find*
Sorry to See the End of Ruby and Ty’s Adventures
This installment wraps up the story of Ruby and Ty. As I had hoped at the end of the last installment, we learn much more about the magical realm that Ty comes from. It is a much harsher, darker world than I had imagined. Ty and Ruby had to make hard decisions as they ventured to the magical realm in order to try to figure out how to close the tears that caused unnatural passages between the realms. Their relationship grew by leaps and bounds, and it was a delight to watch unfold even if there were difficulties. Ruby also learns more about first father. I am actually sad that this is the last book of this series, as I did enjoy Ruby and Ty’s adventures. At the end of the book, though, the author says that we will continue to learn about Ruby and Ty as she starts another series that revolve around some of the other characters from this series.
As always with Ms. Schultz’s stories, she is able to combine some humor with personal growth and conflict in a way that engages and keeps you turning the pages. She has envisioned a difficult magical realm that has far more depth than one would expect in a series like this. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the rest of the series.
Hope’s Dream by Peggy Jaeger
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Hope's Dream*
Lovely Little Holiday Romance
This is a sweet little romance that reminds me very much of a Hallmark made-for-TV holiday romance. Hope is a driven and compassionate young lady who works two jobs to help support her and her mother. Unfortunately, her mother was in a bad accident that actually killed Hope’s father, and she is in a wheelchair and requires a lot of expensive medical treatment. The hero, Tyler, is a lawyer for a small New York firm. He has been tasked to get Hope to sign an agreement for her to receive an inheritance from her father’s side of the family. She and her mother have been estranged from them because they disowned their son, her father, when he chose to remain with and marry her mother. They thought she was a gold digger who was beneath their family. The hero had been trying to contact Hope, but she did not respond to the firm’s letters. He figured since she was so reticent, she needed a delicate and personal touch to get it all sorted out. The hero is a sweet guy who is too involved in his job to have a personal life. So he falls pretty quickly for the kind and lovely Hope. He fears that his little secret will destroy their budding relationship.
I actually enjoyed this lovely little romance. It is relatively low angst, and the characters are both delightful, kind-hearted people who deserve each other. I quite enjoyed watching their story unfold. I can tend to read some pretty intense books, so every now and then it is lovely to read a book that is simply pleasurable. If you like the Hallmark-type of love story, you may very well enjoy this book.
Asking for a Friend by Shay Quin
Unknown where this book is available. At the time of review, it was not at Amazon, Kobo, or Barnes & Noble. Will continue to check on this and will update when I know more.
Asking for a Friend*
I Didn’t Feel the Romance
I had enjoyed the first book I read by this author, Marrying Mars, which was a quirky little book about a woman in a The Bachelor style romance setting that had to do was a man who lived on Mars. I didn’t find this book nearly as enjoyable. Since the reader is stepping in late to the hero and heroine’s courtship, where he is on the cusp of asking her to marry him, I found the first part of the book simply fell flat for me. Then the hero makes several mistakes, keeping them from their HEA. I didn’t really sense any chemistry between the couple, so on all fronts, I pretty much found this book to be a disappointment.
The Rogue’s Bride by Jayne Castel
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
The Rogue's Bride*
Sadly, The End of the MacLeod Sisters’ Series
Since I had read the previous two stories in this series about the MacLeod sisters, I was definitely curious to see what Caitrin’s story would be. It was evident in book one (as well as book two) that she had suffered much at the hands of her husband, who died in the first book. Because of her brutal treatment by her husband, she is loath to marry again, and she simply wants to remain as chatelaine at Duntulm and raise her son. But that will not be simple when Alastair MacDonald returns to Duntulm to claim the role of chieftain and laird of the manor. When Alastair and Caitrin were young, they were the best of friends, but for him, it turned to love. When he proposed, she laughed in his face, choosing to wed his brother; she didn’t see them as anything more than friends. When he returns home, it is clear that he has neither forgiven nor forgotten.
Vengeance plots like this one are sometimes hard to read. As a reader of romance, I want to be able to fall for the hero like the heroine is supposed to, but Alastair is not that swoon-worthy hero because he truly cannot let go of the past–even if at one point in the book it seemed like he did so as they called truce and started rebuilding their friendship. I think I was as heartbroken as Catriona at his final act of vengeance, and I wondered if the author could truly convince both Caitrin and me of his worthiness after this rather heinous act. I will say that the author surprised me. All along she had shown his flaws and weaknesses without restraint–he definitely had PTSD after a particularly bad and losing battle against the English near Durham, and I could understand him and his actions more than I thought I would when he confessed all to Caitrin at that pivotal juncture. I still think after all of her suffering that Caitrin deserved a better hero, but the route the author chose works well enough even if I found it a little unsatisfying. I think when an author makes a heroine such a sympathetic person because of all that she has gone through, as she has done here, she needs an equally sympathetic hero to balance her out, and I don’t think that was achieved. That said I have enjoyed this series of books, and I am looking forward to the next series that she teased about at the end that promises to have romances for two of the characters that were in this book. I’m quite looking forward to Sorcha and MacNichol’s romance.
Blow by Tracy Ewens
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Blow*
Didn’t Like the First Part; Second Part Much Better
Millie is just hoping for some time away to write her first, what she calls, serious book–one that her father would respect. She is actually a best selling romance writer, and her father sees such books as trash. What she hopes will be quiet times to inspire her muse turns out to be quite loud because of her next-door neighbor’s penchant for loud music as he runs his glass-blowing business. They butt heads for a while, but as they get to know each other, their attraction grows. They both have inner demons that they wrestle with. Which will triumph, inner demons or love?
As a sometime writer myself, I enjoyed all of the author-ly bits in this book. (I loved the discussion on romance covers!) I am actually quite familiar with this part of coastal California as I lived for ten years north of the story setting in Fort Bragg. Having been a foggybottom in a tourist town, I was a bit put off by the way the author portrayed life in a small coastal village. In our city, we didn’t treat tourists like the author has Drake and some of the others treat Millie (and as they refer to having done to other tourists). The book definitely had some formatting issues (words ran together) and errors with grammar and punctuation (comma splices aplenty).
I also thought that Drake just acted so rude for the first part of the book–so selfish and unrelenting–that I almost stopped reading because I couldn’t get past his attitude and see him as a potential hero. However, I’m glad I stuck with it, as he does have a stream of revelations as he wrestles with his demons that made him reevaluate himself, making him more interesting and allowing me to stick with the story. As the characters got to know each other, the extent of their personal issues (their backstories and how they were impacting them in the present) became apparent gradually, and this was actually masterfully done by the writer. By the end, I was wholly invested in the characters and cared about what happened to them. Drake’s gift at the end was lovely and heartwarming; while it didn’t end the book, it was probably the most satisfying part of the end; the symbolism and the beauty of his words was a delight. There are several heartrending and poignant moments in this book as well as some humor; I like a book that can have both. I thought their first sex scene was perfectly done because it was so true to these characters as they had been developed. The road to romance is rocky for so many reasons, and after being put off by the first part, I was completely pulled into their evolving relationship because of the depth of the characters and the emotional honesty of their portrayal. That is rare to see in a romance book.
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