Reading Fanatic Reviews
Romantic FantasyFinding Our Way Back by Marianne Rice
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Finding Our Way Back*
A Beautiful Story with Incredible Characters
This has been a day for reading books that really tug at the heartstrings. The author has created a slow burn, sweet, and sad second chance at romance that definitely delivers on all the feels. The hero and heroine had been married before when they were in their early twenties, and their marriage couldn’t survive a personal tragedy. They are changed people when they happen to meet again seven years later. He has never stopped loving her, despite another intervening failed marriage, and she is not sure she is willing to forgive the part that he played in their tragedy. The characters in this book are fantastic, and not just the hero and heroine. I loved the heroine’s circle of friends; each woman was unique and able to provide the support the heroine needed. I also absolutely adored the heroine’s relationship with the elderly man that she was taking care of. Their relationship showed her kind nature and generous heart. I thought that the author did a particularly good job with dialogue. It seems realistic in terms of the word themselves and how they reflected the relationships of the people involved in the conversations. Exceptionally well done; a beautiful story with incredible characters.
Should’ve Been Us by Jess Bryant
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, Smashwords, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Should've Been Us*
Unrequited Love and Enemies to Lovers… Heck Yeah!
Oh, my gosh, what a delightful contemporary romance! I loved that this book had two popular romance tropes: unrequited love as well as enemies-to-lovers, and the man in question was different in both. The heroine was so relatable. Her pity parties and moments of self-reflection are so believable for a woman who is watching the man she has loved for a long time marry another woman. She is fragile and vulnerable but also at the perfect place in her life to learn more about herself so she can move on. Connor, the hero, has loved her for a long time even though he has kept up the charade that they are enemies. But his actions speak so loudly of his true feelings as he is protective of her even in her moments when she self-sabotages. He’s a great hero. Of course, they are not really enemies; there has definitely been some mild antagonism between them. Not I think that the opposite of love isn’t hate but rather indifference, and these two are far from indifferent to each other even at the beginning. In fact, I would say their chemistry sizzles off the page from the first time we see the two of them together, even if the heroine doesn’t want to admit it. Between these delightful characters and the blending of two romantic tropes, the author has delivered all the feels on the emotional level as well. If you like contemporary romance, this is a hard book to beat.
Isabel by Martha Keyes
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Isabel*
Regency Tale of Honor and Manners…Sigh!
This is the second Regency romance that I have read by this author, and I really like her style. She has a way of writing historical language that feels somewhat elevated but is still accessible and in no way stilted. From my vast reading in Regency, I think this is a hard balance to strike, but this author does it with flair. At first, the premise for this particular book seemed a little silly, until the day after the setup when you realize that the hero has regrets. The author has created an elaborate plot that focuses on honor and self-respect, mirroring some of the best of Regency in its play on manners. I absolutely adored both the hero and the heroine. The hero appears sometimes at war with himself; what is the meaning of honor and true love, and how does that mark him as a man when he acts on those principles? The heroine is sweet, so kind and compassionate despite being treated like a second-class citizen by just about everybody because she isn’t as beautiful as her younger sister. This hit all the right spots for a good Regency novel, and I ended up staying up way too late reading this book.
Arsenic and Ole by Jessa Archer
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Arsenic and Ole*
Problem of First in Series Plagues Second
I have read books from several different series by this author, and I find myself somewhat amazed that I don’t have a single opinion about her as a writer. When I read a lot of books by one author, I tend to develop an impression that covers all the books I’ve read. With Ms. Archer, it changes for each series I read, it would seem. For instance, I absolutely adore the hand lettering series. This is now the second book I have read of this Coastal Playhouse series, and it isn’t sitting well with me. This book suffers from the same problem that the first one did. Namely, the book has far too many chunks of straight-out backstory about a variety of characters and circumstances littered throughout the first half of the book. I just do not like information dumps. With her skill, the author could definitely have spread this information around more evenly throughout and only when needed; I don’t think all the background itself was necessary. I do like the world she has created in this quirky little community. I like Tig (even if I still can’t stand her name) and her relationships with those around her, especially with her daughter and her former high school boyfriend (now local law enforcement). All in all, I would say that this series is not the author’s best work, but if you don’t mind data dumps, it is actually a very serviceable and enjoyable cozy mystery.
A Kiss for the Marquess by Bianca Blythe
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A Kiss for the Marquess*
The Bachelor, Regency House Party Style
This is a relatively light and fluffy Regency romance set in a later year of that period, after the Napoleonic Wars. Right from the first chapter, it seems a little over the top and not at all serious. If you just take it as that, and you enjoy Regency romance, you might find this book fun. I didn’t like some of the writing style. I like my historical romances to have multiple sentences in a paragraph, not just a word, phrase, or sentence. To me, historical romance needs to have slightly elevated language, and I associate that writing style more with contemporary romance. I’m also not a fan of the word “chit” used to describe young women. It seems vaguely insulting to me and was used a lot in this book. The heroine is actually Austrian, not English, which is unusual for a Regency. I never quite warmed up to the hero, which is necessary for me to really enjoy a book. (I did like his friend Jasper, though; he was definitely comedic relief.) However, if you enjoy slightly farcical and melodramatic light regencies, you may enjoy this book.
Graze by Paul Dowling
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Graze*
Uneven Collection of Recipes
There is a multiplicity of ideas out there currently about the best ways to eat healthfully. One of the concepts is grazing, which means to eat small, frequent meals throughout the day. This book purports to be a collection of recipes that will assist you if you want to follow that eating practice. I found this book to be an odd combination of recipes. Compared to later meals, there is a LOT of breakfast recipes. While I love a good breakfast recipe, that’s just one meal. Given that you’re meant to eat more than three meals a day if you graze, it seems odd to split a recipe book on the topic into the traditional three-meal structure. (Odd, too, that the author was VERY specific about the times of lunch and dinner in the Table of Contents.) Maybe split it into times of the day or group likes together (egg dishes, chicken dishes, soups, etc.). Most of the breakfast recipes themselves seemed either relatively simple or like any generic recipe of the type that one could find on the internet (like mug recipes or McMuffin variants). Sometimes, a recipe seemed nonsensical, like pasta salad for one. Pasta salad is definitely a dish that improves with age, so why not make it easier on yourself as a grazer and make a large batch that you could enjoy over the course of several days? That is one of the problems with many of these recipes; part of the difficulty of grazing is having to make so many dishes. Some in this book, especially in the lunch and dinner portion, are quite complex. I couldn’t imagine making four, five, or six of these recipes in a day. All I would be doing was cooking!
The recipes themselves seemed to have no consistency in format. Some recipes use imperial measurements while others use metric ones, both for quantities and oven temperatures. To make the recipes the most useful to a broad audience, each recipe should have both forms of measurement, but I would just be happy with consistency.
The book is mostly recipes. There is a very brief introduction that in places just seemed odd. For instance, here is a quote from it where I can’t really figure out the meaning the author was intending because something was left off the second half of the sentence: “After eating, you should feel satisfied and before you graze again, you want to feel, without regret.” All in all, I don’t see how this is necessarily a book that will help people who want to graze as a healthful eating technique.
How to Be F*#%ing Amazing by Deborah Lucero
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
How to Be F*#%ing Amazing*
A Little Too Much of Author’s Story in Self-Help Book
I am drawn to self-help books as I am curious about other people’s insights into life, and I found myself intrigued enough to want to find out what this author might offer as her healing insights. The book comes from a 70-day course that the author has. The author has been through much in her life, and we learn a lot about that in this book. While I think that the author’s life should be reflected in an intensely personal book like this, I think that her story actually overshadows her insights. Each insight starts with her own story about it, which is usually quite lengthy with a fair amount of graphics and somewhat overshadows the rest of the information contained in the insight. Some of the insights themselves didn’t seem particularly “insightful.” After some initial paragraphs on thought, beliefs, and hope, the book is divided into 5 main chapters that contain the healing insights: detox, releasing emotions, mindset, reprogramming your mind, and exercise/physical activity. To me, the sections on mindset and reprogramming overlap greatly; I didn’t quite see the distinction she was trying to draw. I think this book would have been better if the author had taken herself out of it just a little bit. Again, her story seems to overwhelm the insights.
Star-Crossed with Scarlett by Shelley Munro
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, Scribd, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Bol.de
Star-Crossed with Scarlett*
Main Characters Lacked
I have read at least one other book by this author, and I enjoyed that one, so I thought I would give this book a go. I liked the dramatic beginning and appreciated that it wasn’t weighted down with too much backstory. However, the two main characters never really became “real” for me, and I didn’t sense chemistry between them (most likely because of that fact). As so much of the book relied on their evolving relationship, that made the entire book fall flat for me.
Irish Magic by Susan B. Jamies
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Irish Magic*
Setup Doesn’t Pass Reality Check
Contemporary romance with a dash of the supernatural. I thought that the setup of this book was contrived, which kind of spoiled the rest of the book for me. It might sound silly, but even in fiction with fantastical elements, I expect a book to pass a reality check of sorts. So what in the setup bothered me so much? As someone who writes, I found it odd that the heroine would need to take a trip to find a new model for the hero of her book, which was supposedly in the revision stage. (Oh, and the snippets we read of the heroine’s “book” seem like stereotypical bad historical romance, which feels like a bit insulting to those of us who enjoy good historical romance.) If a writer really based characters so heavily on real people, she doesn’t have much imagination! And there is no way someone who quit her job and is living off her advances could do this. To me, it just seemed like a plot device to get the heroine to Ireland so the rest of the book could happen there. Once all players were in Ireland, the book did have some humor, and I did like the paranormal aspect and the concept of the heart wish and its fulfillment.
Gullible’s Travels & Taxing Rabble by Rachel Ford
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Gullible's Travels & Taxing Rabble*
Good Concept, Not Well Realized
What an odd book! As the title suggests, there are some references and subtle nods to the original Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. The book opens with a scene where the protagonists are before an intergalactic/interdimensional council that is looking into their inappropriate uses of a time machine. They can either surrender the machine or become enforcement agents who track down people much like themselves and try to right their wrongs. I like the concept of this book, but I don’t think it was well realized by the author. Parts of it seem quite slow, and sometimes the humor falls flat. They’re also definitely issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage. I found multiple mistakes, like missing commas that made for problems with meaning and wrong words/misspellings (e.g., curios/curious). I did receive an ARC copy, but the ones in my first 10% were still in the original at Amazon, which is always a disappointment.
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