This read like a Tiktok influencer wrote it. Or one of those cheesy click-bait short drama serials with bad acting put into book format (am DNF @ 40%
This read like a Tiktok influencer wrote it. Or one of those cheesy click-bait short drama serials with bad acting put into book format (am I the only one seeing those ads on Instagram?). I could handle cheesy but the writing is awful. All the pop culture references/world events dropped in here trying to make the characters sound educated did the exact opposite. Ex: Putin, Covid, Gen Z mentions, the hero is an older guy lusting for a 18 year old but "he's not like Epstein" y'all! ...more
Now I know why nobody touched this book since it's release besides the ARC readers who gave it glowing reviews. This is a sequel to Devil of Dublin whNow I know why nobody touched this book since it's release besides the ARC readers who gave it glowing reviews. This is a sequel to Devil of Dublin which was a DNF for me. I remember the first book got so much hype on Bookstagram and Booktube and literal crickets on this sequel. The author said this sequel can't be read as a standalone and being the chaotic reader that I am, I ignored that. This wasn't bad but it's not for me. (view spoiler)[I had no personal attachment to Kellen and Darby from Book 1 and probably why I powered through this but I gotta say, killing off your couple in the opening chapter only to have them reincarnated as another couple who look "the spitting image" of said dead couple who were murdered is not romance in my book. If I were a fan and came into this only to see the couple I loved killed off for some Romeo + Juliet forever soulmates drivel I would be pissed. STOP FUCKING WITH HEAs. I don't understand this morbid fascination of killing off your characters just for shock value? Making your characters miserable and suffer is not beautiful. It may be someone else's kink but it's not mine. (hide spoiler)] I generally don't like apocalyptic war themed stories and I knew going in this would be dark but didn't realize how dark and ridiculous. The story opens up with Ireland getting bombed and invaded by Russia as retaliation for a mafia war that happened 20 years prior between the United Irish Brotherhood and the Bratva. A whole war over an old mafia vendetta where bombs are dropped on unsuspecting civilians and Irish cities and drones shooting down people and girls and elderly taken hostage and raped and brutalized gleefully by Russian soldiers. It was just a little too much and triggering where the violence and gore seemed heavily focused on for no reason. Not the kind of escapism I was looking for.
And the author makes her heroine Clover Doyle do some very questionable stunts in this book where her naivete veers straight into TSTL. Clover honestly was dumb as a box of rocks in her insistence on some things that made no sense. Why would you go off on your own and knock on doors of your evacuated city? Does she get captured by soldiers? Yup. Does she nearly get gang raped and unalived again? YOU BET. I hate when characters are dumbed down just to put them in dire situations of gruesome violence/assault with no help in sight. Awful shit happens all the time in real life. Do I want to read about it? No. Does it elevate this story? Also no. Neither did it make any sense for the heroine to dig her heels in refusing to leave their war-torn country just so she can solve what happened to her in her past life. Listen Nancy Drew, y'all got unalived so many times running for your life with no clothes or shoes or money with literal soldiers after you and now you want to say in a deserted town being invaded? No common sense. The TSTL ran deep in this book with characters lacking agency at the most bizarre times no less. Facing 25 drones armed with rifles about to shoot you down on a rooftop and ya'll just run into a helicopter to have sex instead while bullets are literally flying? WUT? O_o This was *thee* climactic face off with the villain that readers were waiting for but instead it's bow chicka wow wow time? Really? Bizarre as fuck. And I still would like to know how the hero Damien who nearly bled out from 2 separate gunshot wounds just magically heals from those grave wounds with nothing but some whisky and bandages applied to him? The hero is also a virgin but no mention of that whatsoever whenever these two have sex. B.B. Easton creates this huge political atmosphere and war torn landscape but her attention to details and word building is near nonexistent in times that is drastically needed. So yeah, I tried but this author isn't for me....more
Sometimes I really really really wish I just stuck to the books I originally wanted to read from a series as a standalone without going back and readiSometimes I really really really wish I just stuck to the books I originally wanted to read from a series as a standalone without going back and reading previous installments. Ugh, why did I do that?
Merged review:
Sometimes I really really really wish I just stuck to the books I originally wanted to read from a series as a standalone without going back and reading previous installments. Ugh, why did I do that?...more
Single dad-nanny books really do it for me. And a Hockey sports romance on top of all that? Yes please. This hit all the right buttons. Gru4.75 stars
Single dad-nanny books really do it for me. And a Hockey sports romance on top of all that? Yes please. This hit all the right buttons. Grumpy Goalie widower Will Perry and kindergarten teacher Chloe Knot were adorable. And his little girl Ava was cuteness overload. I loved that she wanted to play Hockey just like her Daddy. ...more
“Is it really you?” I ask into his neck. “Yeah. It’s really me.”
How can something so simple be so perfect? To think I originally 4.5 stars
“Is it really you?” I ask into his neck. “Yeah. It’s really me.”
How can something so simple be so perfect? To think I originally DNF'd this. I'm so glad I went back. Majority of this novella is through email format. That's what initially threw me off. But my absolute weakness is epistolary romances so I had to see how it would play out till the end. I just love that trope so so much. This story covers 10 years of what starts off as an email being accidentally sent to the wrong email address which becomes a yearly tradition between 2 strangers checking in every Valentine's Day only to find each other in real life. So sweet, adorable and feel good. The execution is so straightforward and so simple but worked. I didn't want to say goodbye to these two when they finally just found each other. Their first face to face after she finally figures out it's him? *chef's kiss* I have never swooned harder over a hug. So much meaning punched into just one hug. I felt it....more
So so so much better than Hail Mary (Leo sweetie I'm so sorry you were done dirty). Clay and Giana were a treat. Very adorable. I just really4.5 stars
So so so much better than Hail Mary (Leo sweetie I'm so sorry you were done dirty). Clay and Giana were a treat. Very adorable. I just really wish this author would lay off the 3rd act drama in her books that takes up 100 pages. I'm fine with break ups and conflict but why is it always family drama and adults being so fucking awful and toxic to their kids in Steiner's books? Or whatever 3rd act drama there is, it's always dragged out for much too long IMO. And parents getting excused for abusive behavior to their kids cause they "mean well" and need help isn't it. Absolutely not. Don't care if it's his mom who raised him, that shit with Clay's bitchy conniving ex-girlfriend and her interfering father was ridiculous. But shout out to that breakup scene cause a hero crying because he can't stand hurting the heroine and leaving her? THE ANGST. ❤️ Emotional heroes are my kryptonite. Just hits different....more
“Fadat besham, Asal.” Three words paralyzed me. I am willing to sacrifice myself for you, Honey.
Just so wonderful and feel good.4.75 stars
“Fadat besham, Asal.” Three words paralyzed me. I am willing to sacrifice myself for you, Honey.
Just so wonderful and feel good. A persian flight nurse heroine? I mean come on. I knew I had to give this book a try after learning Layla is Persian and her hero is calling her "asal" in Book 2, that had my antennas go up and eager to go back and read this. I was nervous but I have to give Maggie C. Gates her brownie points for really doing her research with all the details as far as language and customs, either she knows someone Persian who helped her out or she really did her homework. Some things were a bit exaggerated as far as customs go and religious practice and how phrases are used in what context but even so, I was very surprised and impressed by her thoroughness and care.
“But I’m most thankful that you spent your life making your soul just as beautiful. Dooset Daaram, hamsar-am.”
I just love and adore bilingual romances, whisper sweet nothings in my ear in another language and it really does things for me. I mean a hero who learns Farsi to tell the heroine how he feels? COME ON. Heart melting. Ovaries gone. He learned how to make her chai with nabat. This book made me want to squeal out loud like a lunatic. GIVE ME A CALLUM FLETCHER PLEASE. ...more
The hero was terrible. His daughter was annoying and the heroine deserved way better. I've read my fair share of asshole heroes but this guy takes theThe hero was terrible. His daughter was annoying and the heroine deserved way better. I've read my fair share of asshole heroes but this guy takes the cake in being belligerent, oblivious, unfeeling, selfish, contrary and dismissive. I'm a pretty forgiving reader when it comes to mercurial HR heroes but this was just too hot and cold and dismissive for my tastes. He almost gave me bodice ripper vibes with how mercurial and contrary he was. The number of times he gave the heroine mixed signals just makes your head spin.
The heroine Norah Linton sails all the way from England to Ireland in the hopes of meeting her future groom who she has corresponded with through letters. She was desperate to get out of the clutches of her cruel stepfather in England who was planning to marry her off to a welp of a boy. She thought she was writing to Sir Aidan Kane a bereaved widower looking for a mother for his little girl. What she discovers however once she arrives at his gloomy castle doorstep is that his 15 year old daughter Cassandra was the one writing those letters and hoping to "surprise" her Papa with a Birthday gift of a new bride for him. He's furious and blusters but not at his willful spirited daughter for literally catfishing and luring a woman out under false pretenses but rants and raves at the poor heroine who was an innocent party in all this. He even taunts Norah for being "brainless and desperate enough to marry a stranger". That should have been my first red flag.
I was really hoping this would be a grand sweeping HR of old where a jaded rakehell hero falls for the plain-faced wallflower heroine looking for a home and family to love. This is that but not much is given or shown in character development and romance. Words are given but barely any action is shown to prove it. I really felt for Norah who was so eager and yearning to find someone to love her and have a home of her own. I just wanted to hug her so bad. Every time this woman shows patience and kindness to Aidan it gets ignored or thrown in her face later on when he's triggered by Feelings™️. I tried to wait it out and kept going but it didn't help that the writing is so long winded, where it's pages of endless exposition and internalizing and repeating events just to get to dialogue. I just didn't care for Aidan and how he treated Norah, being sweet and seductive one moment promising to make her happy and protect her but then going back on his word 5 minutes later. The number of times this man disappoints and crushes her hopes was one too many for my tastes and made me wish this man to Hades. It was the same thing over and over again. From rushing her to the altar and treating the wedding vows like a headache he needs to get through after promising to make her happy and give her "the wedding of her dreams" ...more
The perfect nanny/single dad book does not exist. Liz Tomforde: WANNA BET??!
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“I simply stopped running when the t
⚾️ *5 Golden Stars* ⚾️
The perfect nanny/single dad book does not exist. Liz Tomforde: WANNA BET??!
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“I simply stopped running when the two best boys I know caught me.”
Wowie did I love this. Happy New Year to meeee! This was a complete home run and yes I just used a baseball analogy for a baseball book I don't care. lol I need to sue Liz Tomforde for emotional distress. Her books keep stomping on my ovaries, flambéing, frapeying, just kaboom boom booming them to smithereens. ...more
This was adorable and charming all around and I get the fanfare over this series if4.5 Stars
"Sometimes the quietest love is the loudest."
This was adorable and charming all around and I get the fanfare over this series if this was anything to go by. Ryan Shay and Indy Ivers just melt your heart, two extreme opposites forced to live as roommates who slowly fall for each other was so sweet and satisfying to see. This definitely was one of those books that checks off all kinds of tropes and I personally didn't mind it because it felt like little surprises that popped up and didn't feel forced in.
What I loved: -Hero Ryan Shay is a NBA basketball player who looks like a cross between Stephen Curry & Michael Ealy (in my head at least). -Heroine Indy is the hero's twin sister's best friend who is coming off an awful break up when she caught her fiance cheating on her and now needs a new place to live. She's a flight attendant who is a caretaker by nature and wears her heart on her sleeve and the embodiment of sunshine and firecracker. She's hilarious and adorable in trying to fluster the uptight OCD hero. -Heroine's full name is Indigo so hero gives her the nickname Blue. (it's a recurring joke) -Hero builds heroine a bookcase to hold all her romance books. -Hero learns ASL to communicate with heroine's father who is deaf. -Hero makes sure to bring veggie food to a camping trip with his General Manager's family who didn't know she's vegetarian. -The praise kink. (The way these two hype each other up is really sweet too) -Care taking when heroine is sick. -Fake dating shenanigans including one bed scenario and a jealous hero. (I have never laughed so hard over a guy confusing the craft store Michael's for a real man ...more
You know when you try an author that everyone raves about with that one very popular overhyped book and it's an underwhelming fail, so you decide to tYou know when you try an author that everyone raves about with that one very popular overhyped book and it's an underwhelming fail, so you decide to try her again to see maybe if it was just a fluke and a case of a bad book for you? Welp, this was my attempt at that. And I can now say with 1000% clarity, Ali Hazelwood is not for me.
I snort at his wide-eyed I-didn’t-know-the-essay-was-due-today-and-my-dog-ate-it-anyway expression.
I laugh at his old-man-yells-at-a-cloud eye roll.
I am but a cornucopia of regret. Because we’re all bad bitches—till a scowling Were stands outside the bathroom door while we’re washing our hair.
If you are a Hazelwood fan who has loved all her books, then you will probably love this. If you are an Adult Paranormal Romance fan, then you probably won't. I fall in the latter category. I'm putting emphasis on 'adult' because this didn't feel or read like an adult PR for me and that falls heavily on the writing. For obvious reasons the blurb intrigued me and what pushed me to give this author another try. A Vampire heroine and Were Alpha hero thrown together in an arranged marriage to help broker peace between the two feuding species? Sign me up. I will give Ali credit for stepping out of her comfort zone and trying something different from what she normally writes. But this really felt like her STEM characters cosplaying as paranormal characters. The same fumbling tension, the same irreverent snarky awkward humor, same single-POV driven story with an oblivious heroine not realizing the hero is smitten with her, same poor communication and stilted awkward conversations.
I don’t consider myself a sensitive person. As a rule, I’m not opposed to people implying that I am a disappointment to my family and my species. But I do ask for one thing: that they keep that shit away from me.
The heroine Misery Lark has been used as collateral by her father who runs the Vampyre council since she was 8 years old. She was sent to live in human territory for 12 years as a trade off/peace treaty and returned back reviled by her own people and labeled as a traitor. She's had humans, Vampyres and Weres who have attempted to kill her. Because of this she returned to the human territory to live with her human best friend Serena until her Father summons her back to be collateral once again by marrying a Were, Lowe Moreland. Misery works in tech coding(?) in the human world, can't cry at all and finds everything either weird or gross and has the vocabulary of a med student. Words like "zygomatic" "ontological" "exsanguinate" and "phenotypes" are a mouthful and doesn't really fit with this setting or character who literally doesn't even understand her own species much less humans. It felt like Hazelwood's own voice coming through or just one of her STEM heroines talking. Why is your Vampyre heroine talking like a PhD student?
This friendship, or lack of enmity, appears to be highly rewarding to my dopaminergic system.
People who shared a placenta for nine months should not talk about this stuff.” Am I flushing? I am. “We’re dizygotic twins, which means that we never shared a placenta or an umbilical cord. A womb at best, really.”
“I could have poured triazolopyrimidines in your blood bags a million times over in the past twenty years.”
“You realize that’s not a sentence, right? Just a temporal subordinate clause.”
“Is it another Alpha thing? And your motor proteins are suuuuper dominant?”
This is a single POV book, all from the heroine's perspective and that's a big disadvantage. I really don't want to be in your heroine's head for 400 pages. Unless the writing is really good and engaging. And it's just not here. I'm not asking for mind blowing or deep shit, I just want a readable story and the readability factor with this author is very low. It's headache inducing. The limited narrative perspective doesn't really do the story or the hero here any favors. Lowe Moreland is the Alpha of his wolf pack, he's visually intimidating but has the demeanor of a golden retriever beneath the stoic face which at times is sweet and at other times falls short and left me wanting. I was expecting Rawr rawr rawr! instead I got soft puppy. I love softie cinnamon roll heroes just as much as the next person but I need some semblance of emotional insight or an edge of some kind to go along with it. I mean why have your hero reject the heroine at the 80% mark out of nowhere with no explanation or motive and just have him bashfully shrug his shoulders when the heroine realizes he lied to her? If you are gonna have your hero dump/reject the heroine with no warning then you need to give us a reason or motivation for it. The heroine nearly dies from poison and is unconscious for 5 days and the most we get from the hero when she wakes up is "My felicitations"........ ...more
“I’m done pretending to be head over heels in love with you because I’m legitimately head over heels in love with you. And acting lik
4.5 stars
“I’m done pretending to be head over heels in love with you because I’m legitimately head over heels in love with you. And acting like I’m not tears me up.”
I'll be honest I'm a little conflicted on the rating for this. It's between a 4 and 5 stars. Which is still great either way. This was a 5 star for a good chunk of it but the steam factor and the last 20ish% kind of made that last star fall off a bit for me. I've been in a not great head space the past week so reading was a struggle in general. But even so, this grabbed my attention and the distraction I needed from reality. Beau and Bailey were adorable and so sweet. Two lost souls trying to find themselves and their way in life and finding comfort in each other. Bailey was a great combination of innocent, vulnerable yet smart mouth and guarded. I loved the age gap here. Beau is 35 and Bailey is 21. Beau is a special ops soldier who is back home after a rescue mission left him with burned scarred feet and a serious case of PTSD. He's the jovial "goofy" Eaton brother but underneath the bravado is someone who is very weary and lost. Bailey Jansen is the misfit outcast that everyone in Chestnut Springs treats like a pariah given her last name. Her family is a bunch of drug addicts, petty thieves and bullies that the entire town find a nuisance. Bailey has been getting the burnt end of her family name when she's just trying to make her way on her own. I felt for her. Did the conflict in the end feel overblown and a bit silly? Yes. I was expecting it. It was overblown considering the timeline of it. But thankfully it didn't drag on too long and they talked it out. I love how slow burn this felt. Elsie said this was her "least" slow burn book from this series and frankly I disagree. I'm a little confused what she meant by that because this felt pretty slow burn in my book. The amount of pining/yearning/edging that drags on is both delicious and frustrating at the same time. lol
You don’t tell a person you love them with the expectation they’ll say it back. You tell them because you want to. You tell them because it’s true.
I personally love shy virgin heroines who find their own voice and independence. Bailey fit that bill. I just wish the steam was a bit more exciting in this rather than focused solely on "I wanna get rid of my virginity now, a sex toy already got rid of my hymen". It felt heavy handed. I know I'm in the minority when I say this but I absolutely hate when virgin heroines are portrayed like this in romance, specifically CR. Like it's some big shocking annoying thing a young girl in her 20s should be ashamed of? It's a weird gross narrative that I'm seeing more of and I truly don't get it and so tired of seeing it. A woman in her 20s (or any age for that matter) being a virgin is not gross or shocking please stop treating it that way authors, it's insensitive and utterly ridiculous. But that's a rant for another time. Also the porn thing, do all of Elsie Silver's heroines love to watch porn? I'm not knocking porn fanatics and normally don't even care but it feels very disingenuous here because these are women from different lifestyles and backgrounds but all of them just casually watch porn when they are horny or bored, in every. single. book. With uptight "ice queen" Winter it felt weird and very forced and here it felt forced too given how much it was brought up. Like yes, the heroine is a virgin but she's a COOL virgin ya'll! She watches porn and has a box of sex toys to prove it. RME. Please stop. It was doing too much IMO. Also, when you have an experienced hero and a virgin heroine who is eager to try things and discover sex, why not show some of that sexual exploration? *cries into my pillow* That's the part I felt let down the most TBH. This book kinda felt like a big ol' tease in many ways in that regard. And I want to throw my shoe at people who labeled that bathtub scene as "steamy" all over social media because it built up expectations in my head I wasn't aware of until I got to it. (view spoiler)[ Your man helping you shave your pubic hair is sweet but standing in a bathtub full of floating pubic hair (I really didn't need that visual Elsie Silver thanks) while he performs oral sex on you is not my idea of sexy time. But that's just me. (hide spoiler)]...more
Not really what I had in mind. I went into this hoping it would be like that Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves movie, no not Speed (my absolute fave), INot really what I had in mind. I went into this hoping it would be like that Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves movie, no not Speed (my absolute fave), I'm referring to The Lake House. Where two people end up living in the same house but in different years and communicating through letters back and forth and falling in love. Intriguing right? The blurb really reminded me of that and lured me in. Did that happen here? Eh. Not really. I wouldn't really label this book as a true "romance" since the romance felt very secondary to the heroine's grief over losing her Aunt Analea and the ins and outs of her career as a book publicist. Aunt Analea died 6 months ago but she very much felt like a whole character and third wheel in this book for me. This felt more like Contemporary Fiction because of that, 65% of it at least did because the author bogged the book down with so much mundane information that added nothing to the overall story and had nothing to do with the romance between our leads Clementine West and Iwan Ashton.
“Universal truths in butter. Secrets folded into the dough. Poetry in the spices. Romance in a chocolate. Love in a lemon pie.”
My biggest issue was the writing. It's very idealistic and dreamy but also incredibly repetitive. From the constant focus on the mundane office happenings at her work, to detailed descriptions of her building, to hanging out with her friends, to what is in everyone's office cubicle, this took verbal foot dragging to a whole new level. So much time is spent on Clementine reminiscing about her late Aunt and their adventures together and apart, her Aunt's love life and the many anecdotes of Clementine traveling across the world with her. I'm pretty sure I was told the same 3 travel stories at least 6 times through the book. Why was this even necessary? And the constant referencing of food, my g-d. I can't even call it food porn. The descriptions of food, the weird food analogies/metaphors, the restaurants and street vendors the heroine and her friends eat at, what the heroine would order every year for her Birthday, what the hero puts on his menu, etc. yada yada. It was just endless. This is my first read by Ashley Poston and her prose is definitely idealistic but with a heavy dose of cynicism and grief mixed in. The writing here just takes itself too seriously. The whole "disillusioned millennial" heroine is not my jam. Poston loves her some poetry, as in *literally* loves it. I needed her to find another word for "poetry". I mean even the sex scene which is very brief and PG, was heaped in purple overtones that made my whole body cringe:
He tore the condom wrapper open with his teeth—which was so much sexier than I thought it could be—and put it on before he slowly, savoring me, slipped himself inside of me, murmuring psalms of my body as he traveled it, and I knew I was falling.
“Alessione,” he breathed into my throat. My heart turned over at the pet version of my name, one Italians used in fondness. I swallo
4.75 stars
“Alessione,” he breathed into my throat. My heart turned over at the pet version of my name, one Italians used in fondness. I swallowed hard, suddenly unable to speak. I kept perfectly still, soaking in his attention like a plant starved of rain.
It took me one whole month to finish this. If I wasn't so invested in this series and Knockemout characters I 100% would have DNF'd t2.75 stars
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It took me one whole month to finish this. If I wasn't so invested in this series and Knockemout characters I 100% would have DNF'd this. It took the last 70 or so pages out of a 648 page book to finally see chemistry, sincerity and sweetness between the couple. Which is not a great ratio. Just want to preface this by saying I did not go into this one with eager anticipation like everyone else as I was not a big fan of either characters or their supposed "sizzling tension" in the previous books. *ducks for flying objects* I found Lucian "Suit Daddy" Rollins a walking stereotype and Sloane felt OTT with her sassy "spitfire" persona before even going into this. I just wasn't convinced or sold on their chemistry and here they didn't do a great job in convincing me otherwise for a good chunk of it. And I know I'm in the minority on that one. I have never seen so much work and set up put into selling a couple in the previous books where every character be it the bartender or nosy grandmas having to comment how "hot" these two were for each other underneath the hurling insults. You may as well fly a banner in the sky in case you missed it the first 100 times it was mentioned. It was giving performance for me. And here was pretty much more of the same unfortunately and I was really hoping they would prove me wrong. The bickering and antagonism carried on for much too long in this book and came off childish and petty instead of sexy and heated like the author tried so hard to pull off. They acted so juvenile around each other. I mean fighting over who can handle period cramps better? Really now? I'm sorry but that scene came off so stupid and embarrassing instead of funny. There are only so many times/ways two 40 year old adults can sling "asshole" "assface" "shut up" and try to convince me that's sizzling chemistry. ...more
A strong and enjoyable story just wish the last 60 or so pages lived up to the rest of the book. Starchy Duke vs American scandalous hellion 4.5 stars
A strong and enjoyable story just wish the last 60 or so pages lived up to the rest of the book. Starchy Duke vs American scandalous hellion was very fun to see. This reminded me a lot of Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart which is one of my favorite books with this exact trope. I think Shupe did a pretty good job in showing her MC's differences but connecting emotionally and showing that layer of vulnerability underneath. That vulnerability chip is what usually makes it or breaks it for me especially when it comes to hate to love dynamics. I can't stand when characters are just sniping at each other and nothing more and it's used as sexual foreplay. What surprised me the most is that the hero the Duke of Lockwood is actually very sweet and a gentleman. Which also surprises our jaded heroine too who believes he's nothing but an arrogant prig at first. I wasn't expecting our starchy Duke to fall so fast but that he did. I normally hate insta-love but here it was believable for the most part considering the time lapse and it's endearing how crazy he is for her and wouldn't change a thing about her.
Andrew has come to America in search of an heiress to marry to help save his crumbling ducal estate and huge debt no thanks to his irresponsible father. He's had very little luck in America (3 rejections to be exact) until he accidentally meets infamous party girl heiress Nellie Young. Nellie is the "love'em and lose them" type of woman, she has no use for men beyond a good time in the sheets and loves her freedom and life in NY until she meets a Duke who pushes her buttons and gets underneath her skin and heart. I love this type of shit. While she's very set in her ways and guarded she's also pragmatic and looking out for others even when they don't deserve it (looking at you Maddie dear). I loved seeing our independent hellion heroine falling in love for the first time and worrying about the hero and trying to fight it. Like I said, it's that underlying sweetness that really worked. From their accidental meet cute during a swim in the ocean to their time bonding in a swimming pool was the highlight for me. And yes this did that thing that I love where the heroine is the only one who calls the Duke by his first name Andrew and he calls her Eleanor instead of Nellie. Ugh loved that. I loved seeing her fuss over his heart condition and pushing him to get second opinions about his heart. The fact that you have a virile Duke who was diagnosed with a poor heart condition believing he's going to die young added a layer of urgency to the love story and him finding a wife. Joanna Shupe's world building when it came to economy, politics and science during 1890s felt very well rounded and handled with care. Maybe parts were anachronistic even for late 1800s America, I'm not an expert but it worked for me either way.
I was expecting a lot more butting heads from both hero and heroine given their extremely varying lifestyles and backgrounds but it was a great combination of bickering and flirting and real feelings peaking out that made it cute. The one who does the most bucking and denying is the heroine. Which did get a little frustrating the longer it went on. I felt like the whole town of New York had to talk this girl into taking a chance on love and willing to take a risk on the man she loves. I can deal with obstincancy but up to a certain point. It gets annoying when the same conversations happen over and over again until the very end to push someone into taking action. That and the suffrage theme just played a little too heavily for me in the last part with the heroine making some reckless questionable choices that kind of made me roll my eyes. It felt like this plot came out of nowhere? It doesn't play into the book until a good 70% in so it threw me off guard a little. I like the topic of women's suffrage just fine but not in my romance books. ...more
My dad and brothers did it to me without even realizing that putting baby sister up on a pedestal was some real patriarchal bullshit.
“I d
2.75 stars
My dad and brothers did it to me without even realizing that putting baby sister up on a pedestal was some real patriarchal bullshit.
“I don’t need you to coddle me. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
This wasn't what I was expecting. Leave it to Billie Black to be the most sensible character in this book when I couldn't stand her in Book 1. I just did not like how the heroine Violet was written in this. And it pains me to say that because I love the Eaton brothers so so much from Chestnut Springs series, so I thought I would love their baby sister just as much. But gosh, she gave me serious whiplash. She's supposed to be sweet and bubbly with a generous heart but I really didn't see much of that sweetness here. The whole hardened "tough love" persona didn't work for me and ruined moments that would have otherwise been emotional and meaningful. It felt trying too hard. When you are dealing with a character who is struggling with severe crippling anxiety, trauma and PTSD? Then I think being a little reasonable and sensitive is not asking for too much is it? The hero Cole Harding is a former marine who served in Iraq through 4 deployments and came back with trauma and an injury that he's hidden. (view spoiler)[He lost his leg and wears a prosthetic leg which he has kept a secret from everyone including his own brother and very insecure about it. I thought the slow reveal of this injury was nicely done, I wasn't expecting it. You see small hints alluding to something being off but it takes a while to reveal it. (hide spoiler)] While struggling with that and being pretty much a recluse who shut himself off from the world, he is also still dealing with grief over losing his father a professional jockey rider who died during a race when he fell off his horse. The heroine Violet is an up and coming jockey rider, so clearly the tension is there. I was expecting an overbearing controlling alpha hero who bulldozes his way over people and control the heroine but that's not what is happening here at all. Cole is actually a very sensitive, deeply insecure, ashamed and closed off man who has been going to therapy for years to work on himself and just wants to keep to himself. This character had so many layers and emotional vulnerability that it actually surprised me. I really thought I was gonna get a rude and overbearing asshole from Cole but he wasn't either of those things. I wish he had a heroine who matched him in vulnerability and sensitivity while also being his champion at the same time. The nuance I was hoping to see just wasn't there. There's nothing wrong with giving your loved one a kick in the pants when they need it....but all the time? That's not healthy nor is it realistic. I just can't buy or believe this was a loving HEA with the way Violet kept brushing off Cole's feelings and in some cases his trauma.
Frustration surges up in me, fueled by our interaction. Fueled by my embarrassment. I can’t be this close to him right now. “Can you just throw me a fucking bone and not tell me what to do?” “Drive carefully, please.” His voice is all gravel with a pleading tone to it. I snort and continue to the driver’s side. He looks shocked, and I don’t care. I need some fucking space.
We keep being told Violet isn't giving up on him or trying to change him but actions speak louder than words. When she pushes him away cause "she needs her space" but literally gripes about him ignoring her. Like....? I couldn't keep up with her. How are you gonna tell the man you love who witnessed his father die on the horse track to get over it if they want to be together? No darling, YOU get over it and give the man some grace?
Violet Eaton in a nutshell: [image]
What kills me is Cole doesn't even tell her what to do or try to control her, he was surprisingly not the overbearing type. He just tells her how he feels and where he's coming from, that's it. Telling someone your feelings is not the same thing as telling someone what to do. Like it really felt like I was supposed to pat the heroine on the back for her hard stance on everything and suck it up buttercup attitude but I just wanted to shake her instead. I'm not sure what was in Elsie Silver's cereal when she wrote this series but her heroines are so over the top in their belligerent "don't tell me what to do" independent attitudes. Billie had blinders on when it came to her job and having things her way. And Violet was very much the same. It's either their way or no way. The 0 to 180 reactions just feel like you are getting smacked in the face. It's so excessive and so repetitive. Violet grew up on a farm with her 3 older brothers and father who "smothered" her with their love and were overbearing in their protectiveness to the point she moved out to find her independence and branch out on her own. I love an independent heroine just as much as the next person but the number of times this girl rants about how she "doesn't want to be coddled" if someone even breathes on her wrong was so extreme and over the top. Like it came off almost petulant. Your hero isn’t ever allowed to fuss over the heroine? Not ever? Is Violet's feminist card gonna be revoked if Cole wants to help her out of the car when her foot in is in a cast? ...more
Too lazy to do a full review. Here are just some scattered thoughts while reading of what worked and what didn't for me.
-Nash and Lina made3.75 stars
Too lazy to do a full review. Here are just some scattered thoughts while reading of what worked and what didn't for me.
-Nash and Lina made a cute couple. Did they excite me? No, not really but they were cute. To be honest I started to mentally check out at the 40% mark which is pretty early on. This is not a bad book and I would still recommend it but compared to Book 1 this didn't really hold up in comparison as far as high stakes. I needed more from the plot and the couple. The secrecy surrounding Lina's occupation and why she showed up in town felt kind of overblown for what it was. (view spoiler)[ All that secrecy and hush hush over looking for a stolen car? Really?? Snooze. (hide spoiler)] I did like her backstory about her heart condition and how she connected with Nash through his struggle with severe panic attacks. And yes that bonus epilogue was touching and insanely sweet. Probably my favorite epilogue that Score has written so far because I'll be honest I don't love when books flash forward so far into the future in epilogues.
-Knox and Naomi stole the spotlight for me still. I was cracking up in his scenes. He's so ridiculous and unintentionally hilarious. And their wedding with that moment between Knox and Waylay? Ugh my heart. ...more
This was a mixed bag. What do you do when you start really enjoying the book 70% in? lol
My very first time traveling romance and it was inter3.5 stars
This was a mixed bag. What do you do when you start really enjoying the book 70% in? lol
My very first time traveling romance and it was interesting. I'm not a fan of this trope and generally avoid it so to have the heroine herself put into words exactly why I’m not a fan I thought was funny and rather ironic:
I didn’t want to be in a place where he didn’t exist. I couldn’t go back knowing he was long dead and buried, while I still had decades of life left to live, and I couldn’t chance going back for even a short time because I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to return.
[image]
It's so morbid and exactly why I generally avoid this particular trope. And it's brought home even harder near the end. I've been trying to spread my wings and try new things this year with my reading choices and the cover and the blurb of this intrigued me so I took a chance. This started off strong but this had serious pacing issues that ruined whatever intrigue I initially had. The first 30 pages is the heroine Meggie moving from NY to Scotland to lick her wounds after an ugly break up with her fiance and helping her Nan do chores on her farm and describing the landscape, the weather, tea drinking, market shopping and how lonely she is in navel gazing detail. Only for her to fall through a cave portal and end up in 1658 Scotland with barefoot, bare chested, kilt wearing brawny Highlanders (why do these guys go hunting barefoot and bare chested…?) with a hero Colin who is all smiles and easy charm. My first immediate red flag and complete surprise was when we have the hero spitting out sweet nothings not even 5 minutes after meeting the heroine in the woods:
"Ask me for the stars, and I’ll pluck them out o’ the sky for ye."
[image]
Whiplash anyone? Instant-lust is an instant mood killer for me. The pacing is odd because the author is so meticulous in setting up the plot and world building and building up scenes and yet the romance for more than half the book is rushed as hell and underdeveloped. You can give me lengthly detail of Colin going on hunts in flashbacks (I didn't understand why this was so important?) and how the heroine describes all the ingredients to put in her macaroons and figure out how to make ice cream using a barrel but you can't do the same with the romance? The heroine is a baker and she loves her sweet tooth. We get it. But if you are gonna give me a time traveling romance I'd rather more page time spent on the hero and heroine together than her love for cooking and her bond with the castle's ornery cook. Honestly it almost felt at times like Meggie and Cook's love story than Meggie and Colin's. lol There was just so much talk about her baking and what ingredients were used and descriptions of food that it got a little absurd. Like I said this didn't really grab my attention until 70% in and that was in large part because of the action and kidnapping and the adrenaline suspense of the heroine trying to escape a hellish dungeon and nearly getting raped by her captor. This author is very talented in involving all your senses and descriptive prose but she really needs to work on her pacing. She takes her time with scenes but you need patience. I won't lie I skimmed parts because of this. The endless expositions and meandering long winded monologues are a lot. I finally managed to feel something for our couple when things got really dire near the end. Which comes to my next issue and why I struggled to rate this.
This did that thing in the end that I hate which was disappointing. Yes there is a HEA but (view spoiler)[ at the expense of the hero's history. (hide spoiler)] This is the other reason why I don't like time traveling in my romances because there's always the difficult choice of one half of the pairing having to give up literally their whole life just to be with the person they love in a different century. I can overlook it if the compromise/sacrifice feels fair, for me it didn't here. (view spoiler)[ I felt Colin had more to lose than Meggie considering he will never see his brother, his family or his clan ever again. Meggie literally has no one but her Nan and nothing to go back to, not even a job. She had no ties left in the present day and we see her build relationships and connections with the entire clan in Colin's time for the majority of the book so to have all that be for nothing in the end felt wrong and dissatisfying. This is also where I point out that Meggie always had that option to go back to her time, every solstice the cave opens up that portal. Colin does not have that option to ever return and that just breaks my heart to pieces. The fact that Colin and Malcolm will never get to see each other again really guts me. (hide spoiler)] It's just depressing as hell and just puts a cast over the happy ending for me. Like oh sorry boo your whole family and friends are long dead and compost but welcome to the future! Now lemme show you how to drive!
[image]
Anywho, first half was a long winded boring mess, second half was better. I want to give Malcolm's book a go. Arranged marriage to a witch sounds super intriguing. The main reason I dug my heels in and kept going was because I wanted to see how the end would play out but also because I was intrigued by the hero's older brother the Laird of the keep, Malcolm. I loved this dear sweet man and how lonely but selfless he was. I've never seen a sibling go to such lengths to save his brother like this character does. (view spoiler)[ This is the first time I've seen a male sibling showing zero hesitation in trying to nurse his ill hypothermic brother by giving him body heat. That was well done by the author IMO. (hide spoiler)] It was so touching and bittersweet. ...more
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