One Wedding and an Earl by Tracy Sumner

One Wedding and an Earl by Tracy Sumner

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

"'I like plants because they change. I transform them.
'I like stars because they're constant. I transform nothing."

Dear reader, it's thanks to this book that I personally know my historical romance limit-- 2 a week is enough for me, 3 is really pushing it. I'll definitely be reviewing different genres in the coming days, but I wanted to finish reading this and get a review out before it publishes tomorrow!

This novel follows Necessity, the best gardener in London, and Oliver, an Earl whose fraught childhood and horrible father have left him with all kinds of scars.

These two had explosive chemistry from their first meeting. The tension between them was palpable and I couldn't wait for the fireworks between them to finally go off. Watching them both slowly bring their walls down was a delight, and I loved how multi-faceted they both were-- I was never sure what exactly one of them might say or do next.

Sumner has a deft hand with detail and description. We know that Necessity smells of rain and earth, and that Oliver's eyes are moonlight striking stone. She also gives each chapter a diverting title-- sometimes I wanted to skip ahead just to see what the next one would be. My personal favorite was 'Where an Intrepid Gardner Seethes and an Arrogant Earl Persists."

Necessity is a very strong main character, the exact kind of female I love to read about in this time period. She is independent and would rather remain so than settle; she's interested in exploring in the bedroom and not ashamed of that, and she has many interests outside of Oliver to keep her busy and happy-- though of course, she just might come to decided that she's happier with him. 

Despite this, there were a few things that prevented me from giving this a 5-star rating. One is superficially petty--I could not fully get over the heroine's name. I understand the concept of virtue names, but this one is so uncommon as to be confusing. Often paragraphs would begin with her name and I'd initially not fully grasp that they meant a person-- I'd be thinking what necessity? Where? The cutesy nickname of 'Nessie' bestowed on her by Oliver didn't make the name any better for me, but at least eliminated my confusion.

My other complaint concerns the wider story beyond the romance. I feel that it's incredibly important for books in historical romance series to be able to stand alone. If you following a series and are able to gain additional enjoyment from seeing the characters you fell in love with in prior books again, that's amazing, but it shouldn't be necessary to the book you are currently reading. When it is, I think it's a huge barrier to new readers and even to old ones who may not vividly remember characters from prior books. There were several moments when it was difficult for me to follow the dynamics and relationships between Oliver, his friends, and their wives. I found myself first trying desperately and fruitlessly to understand what was going on with these characters backstories, and then just skimming past them to focus on the romance and the relationship between Oliver and his brother. I wish the author had done the same.

I would recommend this to fans of Historical Romance, but if you haven't read the other books in the Duchess Society series I think you have to brace for not always fully understanding who's who and what's going on with the wider cast of characters.

I received a copy from NetGalley and BookBuzz.net in exchange for an honest review. 

Love on the Line by Anabelle Bryant

 

Love on the Line by Anabelle Bryant

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

"It was the spark that set the inferno ablaze."

This novel follows Lola, a tightrope walker at Vauxhall who is trying to outrun her past, and Theodore, an Earl who only wants to solve the murder of his best friend. The twist? Lola saw the murder happen while she was walking the rope. Who did it will keep you guessing for the rest of the book as Lola and Theodore investigate-- and, of course, fall in love along the way.

I was immediately swept into the beauty and magic of Vauxhall, where Lola preformed. More than once, I found myself wishing that it was still open so I could travel to London and visit myself. After reading this book it's actually incredible to me that more authors don't exploit Vauxhall as a setting in their own Regency Romances. I loved experiencing it on the page and am eager to read further books in Bryant's Vauxhall Voices series, even if only to hear about the waterfall again.

Often, when there's a mystery in a romance book I grow frustrated and just want to see more of the romance, but that was not the case here. I absolutely loved the main mystery of who had killed Theodore's friend, and I also enjoyed the secondary mystery regarding Lola's own past and what exactly had happened to her. Her story is revealed slowly over the course of the book and really held my attention throughout. While both threads were ultimately resolved extremely neatly, I didn't anticipate either resolution and had a lot of fun guessing along the way.

However, the romance itself was mediocre to me. Lola and Theodore had many sweet and tender moments that drew me in, such as her telling him she finds him remarkably attractive in his spectacles. However, their relationship in reality could most accurately be described as insta-lust. Theodore in particular is an incredibly upstanding and moral person, the kind of man any woman would want to be with. But the truth is that Lola has no awareness of that or reason to believe that the first several times that she falls into his arms, overcome by lust. For his part, Theodore spends most of the book not knowing a huge secret Lola is keeping from him-- in fact, you could argue he barely knows her at all. He doesn't even know her real name.

Despite this, their story is sweet, and their love scenes are steamy (in the case of the spectacles, at one point quite literally). I would definitely recommend this to fans of Historical Romance who don't mind a murder mystery featuring quite heavily in the plot.

I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

NetGalley Check-In #1

This past week I finally went ahead and joined NetGalley after hearing about it for years. I always assumed it was for bloggers who were more 'professional' and had bigger followings than me, so I gave it a pass. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately given the backlog of books that I already have there) someone tipped me off that they also have a Read Now section, so I decided to give it a try and join up.

I immediately completed the rookie mistake of requesting way too many books, so I guess at least that's out of the way and I can proceed to the fun part-- the joy of reading and reviewing!

FEEDBACK RATIO

First I'm going to go ahead and share my current feedback ratio-- a whooping 38%. NetGalley recommends that this number be above 80%, so that's a little cringe, but I'm working hard to catch up!

BOOKS I READ THIS WEEK

I managed to read 5 books that I was approved for or grabbed from the Read Now section during the past week. I'm mostly going through my NetGalley Shelf in order by Publication Date, but I mixed it up a bit. 

I absolutely loved Not Your Valentine by Jackie Lau. It comes out on January 24 and you should absolutely RUN to read it. The Pact by Roberta Kagan and The Runaway Viscount by Darcy Burke sadly left less of an impression. I enjoyed sharing both Animal Opposites by Nikolas Ilic and Booook! A Spooky High Contrast Book by duopress labs with my 2 year old, though she's growing too fast and has outpaced high contrast now :) I'll have reviews of those up closer to their release dates.

BOOKS TO READ

I still have 8 books on my shelf, though I'm just about halfway done with Love on the Line by Anabelle Bryant and One Wedding and an Earl by Tracy Sumner, both of which come out in a few days.

The other 6 books patiently waiting on my shelf are Love a Lady at Midnight by Charlie Lane, Dinner Party by Sarah Gilmartin, Your Dream For Me by Alison Schaffir, The Lady Knows Best by Susanna Craig, The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane, and Hotel Laguna by Nicola Harrison. Hopefully I'll have more to share next week about how much I enjoyed some of these!

Not Your Valentine by Jackie Lau

 

Not Your Valentine by Jackie Lau

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

"I can't help but kiss him. I feel him smile broadly against my lips, and then he's kissing me back. Gentle and slow, but building in intensity. His mouth is warm compared to the cold around us. My body liquefies, and he holds me close so I don't collapse on the ground. No, I'm staying right here..."

This is sweet perfection, the exact book you're going to want to have with you this Valentine's Day as you curl up with  some chocolate and wine.

The premise of the book is simple. Helen's family and friends are worried about the fact that she doesn't have a boyfriend. What could possibly be better than pretending she does have one until after Valentine's Day blows over? Luckily she has the perfect candidate in mind-- her friend Taylor, who she totally has no romantic feelings for-- until she does :)

I blew through this book in a few hours during which I most definitely should have been doing other things-- I could not put it down.

Helen's narrative voice is HILARIOUS. She's the kind of person who thinks one heart emoji is excessive, that non-anatomically correct hearts are bizarre, and that it's important to have enough time alone to be cranky. She's also not above fantasizing about Taylor wearing nothing but bowling shoes. But beneath her quirkiness and pessimism, she's a smart, funny, kind, and interesting person who deserves everything good that the book ultimately gives her. As a bonus her mother is hilarious too-- the kind of meddling mom who is too pure hearted in her intentions to be truly annoyed with.

When the romance finally comes it is the sweetest thing in the world. And when the sex comes it's incredibly sexy too. I loved how Lau described their first kiss-- I felt myself melting right along with them. And I appreciated how naturally the relationship flowed and developed-- in this trope you know what's coming, but the execution here was seamless and had me smiling along every step of the way.

Even though the book is light and funny and fluffy, I absolutely loved that the characters also opened up to one another about serious topics, particularly race and micro aggressions. You truly could feel that there was substance in their relationship and way more between them than fluff and sex.

While my rating would have been the same either way, I also adore how Lau describes Toronto. I've never been there but she made me wish I could go. Her love for the city and the little things that make it beautiful really came through the page.

I recommend this to absolutely anyone who enjoys contemporary romance with some humor thrown in, as long as you can stomach the fake relationship trope. But actually, give it a chance even if you can't stomach the fake relationship trope-- Lau might just be the person to change your mind.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

The Pact by Roberta Kagan

The Pact by Roberta Kagan

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

"That's what I love about reading. You can go to places that are scary and dangerous without ever leaving the safety of your room."

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I was incredibly excited to pick this book up. I have relatives who are Jewish and novels set in the WWII time period are incredibly resonant to me. This time period also, almost by definition, tends to provide a lot of drama and conflict that it's easy to sink your teeth into.

The book opens with a bang in 1940, and if the first chapter were the only thing I had to go on I would have said this could surely be an international bestseller. In it, the main protagonist  (Anna) and her family are discovered by the gestapo. I was immediately on the edge of my seat and dying to know what happens next.

Unfortunately what happens next is that we are taken back to Anna's childhood and her relationship with two friends, Elisa and Bernie, and one frenemy, Dagna (who bizarrely is not currently mentioned in the book description despite being a huge part of the story). We flash forward to the 1940 capture again only twice-- once about a third of the way through the book and once at the very end. These sections were gripping. The book ends on a cliff-hanger so amazing that it made me want to read the next book in the series, something I'd have said was unlikely 10 pages before. 

Despite the problems I am about to describe, the book generally held my attention, and I think Kagan is a writer with solid ideas for plot and it's execution. 

Unfortunately, all of the main characters but one were unlikable. Anna vacillates between almost too naïve to be believed and profoundly observant-- for instance she literally does not know that lesbians exist, and truly thinks an anti-Semite she's dating won't care once she tells him she's a Jew. But! as a child, she's able to divine that her maid is upset with her not for anything actually having to do with her, but because being around her makes the maid's daughter want expensive things. It was sometimes hard to feel like Anna was a real person.

In the meantime, Dagna is a raging anti-Semite, unbelievably manipulative, and cruel. Elisa is shallow, vain, and incredibly stupid, as well as disloyal. It was hard to feel any sympathy for them. Bernie was kind, principled, and level headed, but forgettable for much of the book, as the main focus of the book is Anna and she thinks far more about Elisa and Dagna. 

While there's hope that some of the following points may be cleared up in the final print edition, the way the dialogue was written throughout was stilted and awkward. The characters all spoke to one another very formally and unnaturally, even for the time period. A lot of the text was repetitive or told instead of showing. For example at one point we are told Anna loves books; one sentence later we are told Anna loves to read. This could have been effectively shown by her regularly going to a library or reading, and in fact it was later, so this felt pointless. Descriptions were often simplistic. For example one character is simply described as having  "a chubby face, bright blue eyes, and light brown hair". I don't think authors should wax poetic about every little thing, but it felt forced, not like I was coming upon information naturally in the course of the story.

A final pet peeve was that, whenever a Jewish character would say a Hebrew or Yiddish word out loud to another Jewish character, they would immediately verbally follow it with the English translation, as though another Jewish person would not know what the word goyim meant. I understand the desire for the audience to understand the dialogue but I think it would have been better to let them figure it out from context, or from another character's thoughts on the remarks made, or even, if necessary, from Google. 

I would recommend this to fans of historical fiction set during WWII, and those who are all about a good cliffhanger. 

The Runaway Viscount by Darcy Burke

The Runaway Viscount by Darcy Burke
Rating: 3 stars out of 5

I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

This was a zippy and sweet little romance that made me want to read more in the Matchmaking Chronicles series.

The book begins in a snowed in inn (see what I did there?) where Juliana, an intelligent and witty widow, and Lucas, who can probably best be described as a rake with a heart of gold who isn't very good at the rake part, encounter one another for the first time. Sparks fly and clothes fly off, but when the snow dissipates Lucas leaves without a word. A few years later they encounter one another at a house party and Juliana might have held just the tiniest grudge. The rest of the book is dominated by will-they-or-won't-they and misunderstandings, which are generally very well done.

I especially loved the wildly entertaining house party shenanigans. Juliana and Lucas' efforts to get one another's attention when, in fact, they already had one another's full attention were both heart-warming and hilarious. It was so obvious that they were besotted with one another that it always felt more like a when will they than a true will-they-or-won't they, but waiting for the when became so very satisfying. The Blind Man's Bluff game, in particular, was perfection.

I also appreciated the author's relatively realistic approach to sex-- clitoral stimulation is needed, when he is carrying her Lucas needs to set Juliana down to open doors and doesn't just kick them in, and the sex itself, while steamy enough, doesn't consist of feats that people who have actually had sexual partners know aren't possible for mere mortals.

However, a few things really weighed on me while I was reading and prevented a higher rating.

The first two chapters, which set the scene for everything that comes, were by far the weakest part of the book, and I actually thought about DNF toward the end of the second chapter. This would have been a mistake, but having never read Burke before I had nothing but those chapters to go on, and I wasn't impressed with them. These chapters were dialogue heavy, without describing much either about the setting or the main character's feelings. Juliana and Lucas did say in the dialogue why they were attracted to one another, but at that point in the book this was very much told and not shown-- for example, Lucas tells Juliana that he is impressed with her wit, but at that point we had not see her be the slightest bit witty. Brazen, perhaps, but not witty.

I also really couldn't buy into the book's stated main conflict. Juliana and Lucas were both very clear during their encounter at the inn that they only intended to be together sexually, and only until the weather improved enough for them to travel. Maybe it's because I'm in my 30's and don't have time for the pettier things life has to offer any more, but I struggled to understand why Juliana was so upset that a one-time sexual partner, who she herself only wanted to be a one-time sexual partner, failed to say goodbye to her and left when he explicitly said he would leave. Did she really have nothing better to stew on in the ensuing 2 years? It would have been different if she had wanted more to come of the liaison, but at that point she was quite insistent, even in her own mind, that she did not want more.

Now, there was a secondary conflict that was in fact far more compelling-- the fact that Juliana "was afraid to acknowledge her true feelings, let alone embrace them." At one point, after finally having this realization, she muses that maybe she is the "Runaway Widow" rather than Lucas actually being the Runaway Viscount, and that resonated with me and gave more dimension to why she was actually so upset that Lucas left. But there was no hint of this whatsoever in the book before her epiphany about it-- in fact mere pages before she was declaring loudly to Lucas and to anyone else who would listen that she didn't want to marry again. I wish this epiphany had somehow been hinted at instead of coming out of the blue.

Finally, there were a few plot threads that left me with very mixed feelings. Minor spoilers do follow. I appreciated that Burke chose to grapple with infertility in the book. I can only recall one other Historical Romance that I've read that approached this topic, and I liked how it was handled during the courtship here-- somehow both matter-of-factly and with the nuance and consideration it deserved, especially in that time period for the nobility. I also appreciated the existence of Lucas' illegitimate daughter. This is something that is also almost never written about in Historical Romance, and given how prevalent illegitimate children actually were during that time period, it was nice to see the topic get attention.

However, I wish the author had the courage to follow the infertility storyline through to its logical conclusion rather than reverse course to give the cliché happily ever after we all already know and love. And it was very hard for me to believe how overjoyed Juliana was at the existence of Lucas' illegitimate child. The fact that she had no mixed feelings about this bombshell after he failed to mention the child's existence for the whole of the house party, even after they were engaged, was really too much for me.  Perhaps, though, it's more a matter of the fact that I can't relate to the things Juliana is upset about versus those she isn't--most of what really gets her going in this book seems petty beyond belief to me, but she just accepts things I'd think of as potential deal breakers of epic proportions with barely a word.

I would recommend this to fans of Historical Romance with a slightly humorous bent and a super sweet Happily Ever After.

Entwined by Heather Dixon

Entwined by Heather Dixon
Rating: 2 stars out of 5

I don't really remember how this book came onto my radar, but I was super optimistic when I picked it up.  Going in, I knew it combined three of my favorite things: pretty covers, fairy tale adaptations, and a strong female protagonist.

I shouldn't have gotten so excited.  This book was extremely hard to get into.  It took me over a week to read the first half of the book, and I am a quick reader. At times I contemplated just giving up, but then the certain doom of needing to read something serious while preparing for trial overtook me and I decided it was a bad idea.

The basic premise of this book is that Azalea (yes, that is really her name... and her sisters have similarly awful names, including my personal favorite, Bramble) and her 11 sisters (all alphabetically named, coincidentally) need to go into mourning for their mother, the Queen, who dies giving birth to Lily, princess number 12.

As part of the mourning process, horror of horrors, they need to stop dancing until mourning is over. To them, this is a fate far worse than death and hands down the worst thing about their mother dying.  Also, did I mention, they are terribly poor even though their country seems wealthy and it makes zero sense whatsoever why they would be poor. Really that's pretty irrelevant to the overall plot, but so much is made of it by the author that I figured I should mention it too, just for kicks.

They figure out how to dance secretly, but that's not enough for them! Instead, they need to find a secret (and magic- did I forget to mention this book has magic, but only some magic, and only when it is convenient for the author) passageway where a creepy dead spirit named 'Keeper' lives.  Not smart enough to be put off by his obvious shadiness, the girls are all too happy to come dance with him every night so that no one can, God forbid, put a stop to them dancing when they are supposed to be in mourning for their mother.

When this all goes south, it is a total surprise to them, despite the fact that the stupidest five year old child could have seen it coming a mile away.

While this may seem like me giving away the whole plot, this is all basically background information in the context of this 500 page tome that could have probably, now that I think of it, been cut to 300 pages. How the girls get out of their tangled web is where the real fun begins.

I am only giving this book 2 stars because, as we all know, I'm a sucker for a good romance, and the tail end of the book had three of them, with three smashing resolutions and delightful quotes that made my sappy heart sing, like the following:

"He's around the twist," said Azalea.  "Breaking all the windows? He's mad."

"Ah, no," said the King.  "It's only madness if you actually do it.  If you want to break all the windows in the house and drown yourself in a bucket but don't actually do it, well, that's love."

That's love indeed.