2.5 stars. Jean Webster, best known for her charming 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs, also wrote this 1907 bit of fluff novel, Jerry Junior. Jerry (Junior)2.5 stars. Jean Webster, best known for her charming 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs, also wrote this 1907 bit of fluff novel, Jerry Junior. Jerry (Junior) is a wealthy upper-class American, a handsome young man whiling away several days in an Italian village, waiting for his sister and aunt to arrive. He's getting very bored, so when the hotel waiter tells him about a lovely young American woman staying in a nearby villa, he decides to drop by (without an invitation or introduction, gasp!) and meet her.
Unfortunately, Jerry and Constance get off on the wrong foot, and she dismisses him without a whole lot of thought. Jerry, angry and a little humiliated, is about to leave town when he overhears Constance discussing him with her father at the hotel's restaurant, admitting he was handsome and slightly regretful about how it played out. Since Jerry's attracted to her, he decides not to leave town after all. When he also overhears her asking for an Italian guide for some hiking the next day (“He must have curly hair and black eyes and white teeth and a nice smile; I should like him to wear a red sash and earrings.”) Jerry - in a burst of dubious inspiration - decides to disguise himself as their guide (though he speaks almost no Italian).
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The next day during the hike, Constance makes him almost immediately but decides not to let on that she recognizes him, and flirts with several handsome Italian officers just to make Jerry jealous. Jerry digs himself deeper with lies and scheming, but also manages to do some close-up flirting with Constance. When Jerry's sister finally arrives, the plot thickens further.
So this one didn't appeal to me all that much, though readers of old-fashioned romances might get a kick out of it. There's some amusing dialogue, but I was too annoyed with Jerry and Constance's relentless game-playing with each other. I got kind of bored with the whole story and started skimming after a while, though it picks up a bit toward the end. There's also a strong dose of unexamined classism and stereotyping of Italian characters, nothing wildly out of line (it's pretty typical for a century-old novel) but it didn't help Jerry Junior's case.
This is a Gutenberg and Amazon freebie, but I'd only recommend it to those who really love retro romances ... which I generally do, but not so much in this case. Too bad! The Gutenberg version does contain some charming Gibson Girl-type illustrations.
Kindle freebie romance time again! A weak 3 stars for this one, which had a very cute if contrived concept but kind of stumbled in the execution. ThisKindle freebie romance time again! A weak 3 stars for this one, which had a very cute if contrived concept but kind of stumbled in the execution. This one is for non-critical, sweet romance fans only.
Lisette is gorgeous and brilliant (though you wouldn't know it from most of the choices she makes ...) and speaks several different language fluently. After graduating and getting dumped by her idiot boyfriend - from his limited dialogue, it's hard to understand what she saw in him - she comes up with a business plan: language immersion services for business people trying to learn a new language. She shadows them all day long, helping with the language. After too many clients try to pick her up and harass her, Lisette gets herself a "make-under": wearing an awful wig, makeup that ages and uglifies her, and schlumpy clothing.
All works well, until Erik comes along: a hot, Icelandic dude and successful businessman. Suddenly Lisette wants to dump the whole make-under and show Erik her real self. But she's afraid of ruining her business and her friendship with Erik.
Both the characters and the storyline are pretty shallow and improbable, and the plot gets disjointed, giving some subplots short shrift (like the whole thing with Lisette's mother and the guy who wants her, and how that got resolved in the end, which should have been developed a lot more fully or just left out) and skimming over time periods that could have used some more delving into. But it's a cute, very light romance if you want to just put your brain on autopilot and roll with it....more
Six pleasant and very fluffy historical romance novellas, of the squeaky clean variety, and all Christmas-themed. They weren't particularly memorable Six pleasant and very fluffy historical romance novellas, of the squeaky clean variety, and all Christmas-themed. They weren't particularly memorable for me and I wasn't really feeling most of the romances, but they were fun enough for a few hours' diversion. I picked these up on a 99c Kindle sale.
3.25 stars. "Fairy Christmas" by Lucinda Brant - a spin-off of Brant's Salt Hendon novels, involving a penniless young woman taken in by the Earl of Salt Hendon and his wife, a somewhat scandalous aunt, and a Russian aristocrat. The misunderstanding was a little silly but there was a surprising shift in focus that I thought was fun and different.
3.25 stars. "A Christmas Promise" by Sarah Eden - Sean Kirkpatrick, on his way to a new job in a new area of Ireland, takes a wrong turn onto the Butler farm and finds Maeve Butler ... and her very protective dogs and brothers. Sweet and charming, in a very Irish-flavored way.
4 stars. "Twelve Months" by Heather Moore - Lucien Baxter's longtime friend Will is a roguish player, with a pregnant wife that he's cheated on several times. On his deathbed, Will asks Lucien to marry Cora (and, by the way, treat her better than Will did). But Cora doesn't want to be anyone's pity project. Something in this story touched me, so it was a winner. (view spoiler)[I think there was a bit of glitch with the baby being born 9 months later; I might be wrong (and I'm too lazy to check right now) but I thought she was supposed to be something like 3 months pregnant when she and Lucian first meet. (hide spoiler)]
2.25 stars. "A Fezziwig Christmas" by Lu Ann Staheli - Young Ebenezer Scrooge and his friend and co-worker Dick Wilkins romance the Fezziwig daughters. Cute but superficial, and knowing what later happens with Scrooge and his romance with Belle gave this one an oddly unsatisfying vibe for me, though the story focuses mostly on his friend Dick.
3.75 stars. "A Taste of Home" by Annette Lyon - Claire Jennings is taking the train back home to Utah to spend Christmas with her much-missed family. Claire is looking forward to her mother's holiday cooking, especially her walnut-topped toffee. She's a little irritated to be escorted home by a young man, William Rhodes, who teased her terribly when they were growing up (he really did do some pretty awful things!). But when Claire's visit home goes off track, it might be William who saves her Christmas. The story raised some interesting family relationship issues that I wished had been delved into more deeply.
3 stars. "A Modern Girl" by Becca White - In 1924, Margie leaves behind her coal miner beau Henry and heads to New York City, where she's sure she's going to find the exciting new life she's always longed for. When she's hired as a clerk at Macy’s department store in New York City, she's delighted. Though she's mostly enjoying her independence and city life, she begins to see the drawbacks in it as well. This story was weak in the romance department but enjoyable as a slice of 1920s life for a NYC shop girl....more
Kindle freebie Victorian era romance, sweet and clean and so very, very fluffy. Pretty much it's the literary equivalent of this cute little pup:
[imagKindle freebie Victorian era romance, sweet and clean and so very, very fluffy. Pretty much it's the literary equivalent of this cute little pup:
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Larken was orphaned in a terrible train accident at age 14, sent to an awful orphanage in London, and taken in by a foster family that beat her and worked her to the bone and stole the few remaining possessions she had from her parents. This is all told in a rush in the first ten pages or so. Her foster parents force her to marry some random gentleman advertising for a mail order bride. Not to worry, though, he's only looking for a MOC (Marriage of Convenience) and is probably mean and ugly to boot.
HAHAHAHAHA!
The plot had some potential for something deeper, but every possible bit of drama was smoothed over and resolved (or set aside without comment) before it could gain any substance, sometimes so quickly my head was spinning. (Wait! what about that incipient laudanum addiction?) Everybody's good-looking and kindhearted, except for the obligatory villains. Plus there's a delightful 5 year old boy, the reason for the MOC.
Anyway, it's fine for Kindle freebie romance brain candy if that's what you're looking for. I whipped through it in about an hour and a half. :)...more
I bought this sweet contemporary romance as a 99c Kindle special, thinking that this sounded like a nice change of pace from the "he done her wrong anI bought this sweet contemporary romance as a 99c Kindle special, thinking that this sounded like a nice change of pace from the "he done her wrong and is now trying to win her back" type of plots that Jennifer Peel tends to gravitate to. Kenadie (she of the "sable-colored eyes") is the owner of a successful personal relationship company (matchmaking, though she hates the word), but she's refused to date any man since she was abandoned at the altar seven years ago, after her fiancé made a cruel, dismissive statement. Still: seven. years. ago. And she won't give any man the time of day.
Enter Jason, the best friend of Kenadie's work partner Zander. Jason clearly wants to get to know Kenadie better, but because he's aware of her personal issues he plays the long game: becoming a client of their company, asking Kenadie to go out with him on a trial basis, inviting her to go on platonic-ish outings with him, dating the ladies she sets him up with ...
This story dragged on and on, and Kenadie took forever to start to take off her armor, even in the slightest degree. It was highly frustrating and veered into boring territory for me; I had to start skimming to get through this book. I liked Jason, he's a nice guy, but I spent most of the book wanting to slap Kenadie upside the head. And I've never seen a heroine who's so blind to what's going on in her life, right in front of her face. Okay, she's purposely put blinders on, but I just couldn't buy into that degree of obliviousness, at all.
Now where's another good "he done her wrong" book?...more
Kindle freebie romance time again! A weakish 3 stars for this pleasant but extremely fluffy little Old West mail order bride short novel/novella. BonnKindle freebie romance time again! A weakish 3 stars for this pleasant but extremely fluffy little Old West mail order bride short novel/novella. Bonnie Blue has always felt overshadowed by her lovely younger sisters, self-confident Gwen and shy Libby. None of the guys in town cares that she's the most capable and intelligent sister (best cook, best seamstress, etc.). Bonnie decides she's had enough, and signs up to be a mail order bride. Three triplet brothers want to get married (at least one of them does, and he's going to drag the other two along), and Bonnie figures that she can rope a couple of friends into going along with her.
But when a terrible scandal breaks out, centering around Gwen but touching all three sisters, and their father decides to force them to marry three lecherous older church deacons, Bonnie decides to rescue herself and her sisters from a fate worse than death, and they sneak off into the night. Gwen and Libby are quickly claimed by the first two brothers who meet them at the train station, and plain Bonnie is left for the third brother, Bart, an avowed drifter who has absolutely no idea that his brother has ordered him a bride, and absolutely no intention of marrying, ever. But maybe Bonnie can talk him into a marriage of convenience ...
It's a sweet and squeaky clean romance, pretty much lacking in any kind of real intensity or drama. Troublesome issues and relationships get worked out unrealistically quickly, with a wave of the author's Magic Cure-all Wand.
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And isn't it a wonder how all the men who order mail order brides in these books are young and handsome? Kind of like all the hot, single dukes in Regencyland ...
Anyway, if you like to turn off your brain and escape to Romancelandia, well, this will do the trick. I kind of enjoyed Bonnie as a main character, probably far more than I would have enjoyed her sisters. This is part of an interlocking series (you can read Gwen's and Libby's stories in the prior volumes, and their three brothers' stories in the later ones). But this worked okay as a stand-alone read, other than a teaser right at the end, which you can feel free to ignore (I certainly did)....more
[image] I saw this time travel romance on BookBub as a Kindle freebie and went to Amazon to check out the online sample before downloading (I've gotte[image] I saw this time travel romance on BookBub as a Kindle freebie and went to Amazon to check out the online sample before downloading (I've gotten leery that way). Somehow while I was looking at the sample I accidentally downloaded it to my Kindle. Did my finger brush the wrong place on my iPad? Was I supposed to read this book? Was it a sign?
Well, if it was a sign, it should have said STOP. Or maybe "Do Not Enter."
So in the first book in this series, Nicky's BFF Kimberley answered an ad for a mail order bride, and surprise! she goes from the 21st century to 1879 to meet this guy. (There are these people with magical time-travel keys.) Nicky goes back to 1879 for the wedding, meets Shaun, the brother of Kimberly's husband, and they hit it off, enough that they become VERY long-distance pen pals (the magic keys can also send letters back and forth in time, conveniently enough).
But Shaun is nursing a sense of disillusionment in women, and is also protective of his part-Native American daughter, and unwilling to trust that a woman from the future would stay with them permanently. There's also some subplot about someone trying to steal the Magic!time-travel keys, but by then I'd checked out mentally.
The writing is painfully amateurish and simplistic, and the hero's explanation for pushing the heroine away from him made my eyes roll so hard. There are several happy romance novel lovers who rated this 4 and 5 stars ... though as I take a closer look at them, most of them look suspiciously alike, with bolded headlines (Wonderful! Fantastic! Awesome series! etc.) and glowing although very brief reviews. I suspect a case of Friends & Family of Author and/or Sock Puppets.
Seriously, only download this book if you are an extremely non-critical reader and are inordinately fond of fluffy clean romances.
1.5 stars, sorry, rounding down. I don't rate books 1 star lightly, but even though I did a ton of skimming and skipping, I still felt like I'd wasted my time. [image]...more
This P&P variation is a Kindle freebie as of June 13, 2017. I have a hard time resisting these kinds of freebies, and most of the time I chastise myseThis P&P variation is a Kindle freebie as of June 13, 2017. I have a hard time resisting these kinds of freebies, and most of the time I chastise myself later for wasting my time. But yes, I've downloaded it. Because I need a little extra Mr Darcy in my life!
[Later] 2.5 stars. One more for the "marshmallows are less fluffy" shelf.
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Read this if: 1. A story where Darcy spends the whole book pining after Elizabeth and wanting to kiss her face off and run his hands all over her body sounds like a good use of your reading time. 2. You aren't a stickler for historical accuracy. At all. 3. You like shallow romantic fluff. 4. The idea of reading about Darcy and Elizabeth kissing with tongue action doesn't squick you out. 5. You don't mind if characters from the original P&P have had a personality transplant. Or maybe a partial lobotomy?
2.5 stars. Brain candy for alpha guy romance novel lovers, with a glossy veneer of fantasy. I have to admit that I read the Kindle sample and totally 2.5 stars. Brain candy for alpha guy romance novel lovers, with a glossy veneer of fantasy. I have to admit that I read the Kindle sample and totally got sucked in, enough that I actually paid $4 for this book. But this one is best left to romance readers who like sexytimes with take-charge guys and don't mind much if they make a few serious douche moves.
Seoafin Wilde, who goes by Finnie, has deeply missed her parents since they died in a plane crash when she was a teen. When a witch finds Finnie and tells her that there is a parallel world where her parents are still alive, and that Finnie's twin in that world would like to trade places with her for a year, Finnie jumps at the chance, and even pays a million dollars to do it.
The good news: Her twin Sjofn is a princess in a winter wonderland.
The bad news: Sjofn is gay and didn't tell Finnie that she wanted the trade because she was entering into an arranged marriage with a powerful, tough guy known as The Drakkar. Which happens within an hour of Finnie's arrival in this world. Frey Drakkar, none too pleased with having his hand forced into marrying a (he believes) lesbian, dumps her in a filthy dirty hunting cottage way up in the mountains and leaves her, totally alone, for six weeks while he goes off and Does Important Stuff. Finnie is NOT happy but decides to make the best of things. She cleans up the cottage, and when Frey shows up six weeks later she's thriving, having the time of her life with people in the local village, hanging out at the pub and playing cards. <---I loved this part, which is what tempted me into downloading the book.
As one might expect, there's hot (married) love, though it takes longer to get to than you might guess. Also lots of adventures of the romance novel sort, in a fantasy world with magical elves, dragons, and people who want to take over the kingdom and get other people (like Sjofn's parents, Frey Drakkar, and even Finnie) out of the way.
This one is for readers who like:
✲ alpha males -- and this one has a bad habit of making huge, fundamentally life-changing decisions for a woman without her knowledge, let alone her agreement. He's terrifically protective, and he has his kind moments, but they're surrounded with some eye-rollingly bad "Me Tarzan, You Jane" kind of stuff. Seriously, don't bother with this romance novel if this kind of thing is a deal-breaker for you.
✲ Mary Sue heroine: gorgeous, stacked, beloved by all who meet her, talented at (almost) everything. Except her vocabulary is lacking a little. "That is so cool." "Unbelievably cool!" "Absolutely freaking cool." "Super-freaking-scary." You get the idea.
✲ fluffy worldbuilding -- "winter wonderland" pretty much describes it. It's medieval-lite: all of the citizens are happy and prosperous in the kingdom ... though how they're prospering with so much snow covering their land was a question that crossed my mind. No one ever seems to get dirty unless they're housecleaning, but then they can jump in the handy-dandy hot spring by the cabin. And the clothes and underwear are AWESOME. Plus: sexytimes for all, despite the medieval-like setting. The fantasy world was supremely unrealistic and you have to be willing to just roll with that.
✲ romance-novel explicit love scenes. Also Finnie throws around F-bombs when she's upset. Which, understandably, happens quite often with Frey. ...more
Last night I decided to start reading Jorge Luis Borges' Ficciones for my 2016 Classics Bingo Challenge. It's very intricately written and I think truLast night I decided to start reading Jorge Luis Borges' Ficciones for my 2016 Classics Bingo Challenge. It's very intricately written and I think true enjoyment of it requires more in-depth knowledge of philosophy than I have at my fingertips. On about page 25, the trumpet sounded in my brain and I retreated in confusion. While regrouping, I hopped over to the other end of the literary spectrum and spent an hour with this fluffy romance (just resting my brain before attacking Ficciones again. Yup. That's it.).
Alyssa is a well-known photographer, living in Hawaii, with a painful past due to a sleazy father. The gimmick here is that when she was a teenager, Alyssa and her girlfriends wrote down a pact to marry billionaires and live happily ever after. But really Alyssa hates rich guys and thinks they're all users like her dad (she's had some really bad experiences). Can retired hockey player/wealthy and (of course) handsome businessman Beckham change her mind? And what if Beck finds out that when Alyssa was a starving young photographer years ago, she took some pictures of him coming out of his dad's funeral for a sleazy tabloid?
This is what it is: a Kindle freebie fluffy romance, sprinkled with punctuation and grammar errors (e.g., "Who's [instead of "whose"] granddaughter are you?"), that stays pretty superficial throughout, despite Alyssa dealing with some PTSD-type issues from her father's awful treatment of her when she was younger. It had its moments (Alyssa's Granny was a great character), and non-critical romance readers will probably love it, but I can't recommend it to anyone else. Even for free.
Powder and Patch is ... wait for it ... about guys wearing makeup, not women. This is Georgette Heyer's second-published novel, originally published uPowder and Patch is ... wait for it ... about guys wearing makeup, not women. This is Georgette Heyer's second-published novel, originally published under the title The Transformation of Philip Jettan in 1923.
Philip, a straightforward, plainly dressed country gentleman, gets totally shot down by Cleone, the girl he loves, for not being sophisticated enough. So he gets in a huff and hares off to Paris to learn how to be a charmer in the Georgian period ... which means white wig, makeup (face powdered, rouge, strategically placed beauty patches on the face), fancy clothes and high heels, and also learning to sweet-talk the ladies.
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Ooh la la! It's a Cinderfella type of story, and Philip - once he's finally convinced to go along with the fashions of the time - throws himself into it wholeheartedly. Within six months, he's fluent in French, suave with the ladies, expert with the sword, and the darling of Parisian high society. It's all highly unrealistic but good fun.
But Philip is still nurturing the hope in his heart that Cleone will love him for who he really is. When he meets up with her again in London, he decides to give her his best French dandy mannerisms. Hah! Served her right! Unfortunately it all backfires, and the two of them spend most of the rest of the book at cross purposes, trying to make each other jealous, saying hurtful things they don't really mean, and other types of nonsense like that.
I did like Philip as a main character (except when he got a little too carried away with the high fashion routine) but Cleone was one of those silly heroines who acts like an idiot too often for me. Other than her being lovely, there's really not much to recommend her. She's not memorable in any good way.
Now this novel was written almost 100 years ago, BUT. It still was a jaw dropper for me when Cleone's Aunt Sarah spent about 3 pages lecturing Philip on how to handle Cleone and win her love. A sampling of her good (NOT) advice:
♥ "You walked off when you should have mastered her. I'll wager my best necklet she was waiting for you to assert yourself. And now she's probably miserable."
♥ "You should know by now that no woman means what she says when it's to a man."
♥ "Women don't reason. That's a man's part. Why, do you suppose that if Cleone thought as you think, and had a brain like a man's you'd be in love with her? Of course you'd not. You'd not be able to feel your superiority over her."
♥ "Take that girl and shake her. Tell her you'll not be flouted. Tell her she's a little fool, and kiss her. And if she protests, go on kissing her."
No. Just no. Even for a hundred years ago, this advice is appalling, especially when it's coming from, and written by, another woman.
Also, Aunt Sarah has a little black page who speaks with, apparently, a southern drawl, and whose name, it pains me to say, is Sambo. Luckily he only shows up in two extremely brief scenes.
Finally, it's very helpful if you speak French, because there's a lot of it in this book, including a whole poem written by Philip to a French lady's little pearl earring, and Heyer rarely bothers to translate it for the reader.
There were some cute moments in this story, and it's kind of a fun, frothy, silly romp of a romance, but you have to make major allowances for old-time societal norms and values.
A soft 3 stars for me, maybe 2.75.
Bonus content: When this book was originally published, it had a final chapter that Heyer and her publisher decided to drop when they republished it several years later under Heyer's own name. I'm firmly in the camp that the story is better without this last chapter (unusual for me; I typically like epilogues), but it's worth reading to see how Heyer's view of the later lives of Cleone and Philip seems to have changed as she got a little older. (view spoiler)[ In one version they presumably settle down at Philip's country estate; in the other they go to Paris and re-enter high society there, with Philip letting loose his inner fashion hound again, spending 4 hours personally getting Cleone ready for her first Parisian ball. (hide spoiler)] You decide which ending you prefer! Here's the lost chapter, from an old copy of the first edition of this book found in the British Library by a diligent Heyer fan and copied by her for our benefit: http://www.shelaghlewins.com/other_st...
I picked up this Regency romance at the library because it was a sequel to a book I read last week, A Lady of Esteem, and because the premise sounded I picked up this Regency romance at the library because it was a sequel to a book I read last week, A Lady of Esteem, and because the premise sounded very cute, if very contrived. Lady Miranda has been using her brother's friend as an imaginary friend for years, writing him letters that she then hides away in a trunk under her bed. Both her brother and his friend, by the way, are young, handsome dukes (it never ceases to amaze me how many of those there are in Regencyland). Then one day her brother's new valet comes across one of her letters ... Slightly spoilerish discussion of the first few chapters follows: (view spoiler)[ The valet is actually the duke who is her brother's friend! He's masquerading as a valet so he can spy his friend's household to figure out who's the traitor to England in the Napoleonic Wars. He finds out that his friend's lovely sister has been using him as an imaginary friend for years, writing her innermost thoughts to him, and then hiding the letters in a trunk under her bed. There's a whole stack of these secret letters in the trunk! which our spying duke has to open up and check out, for England, you know. Charmed, if a little mystified, he decides to answer her latest letter. (hide spoiler)]
It was lightweight and fun, but then it fell apart for me in the second half. Once the big reveal happened, the heroine started acting silly, and then another plot twist kind of came out of left field. I guess something had to happen to keep our hero and heroine apart until the end, but it failed to sustain my interest, and I started skimming. I probably would have liked this novel much better if the second half had been much shorter and more focused on the same issues as the first half.
It's a mix of romance and mystery/suspense, complete with a couple of kidnappings, but then it also has some farcical elements to it, so it's helpful if you like heroines who are sometimes awkward and are also willing to punch a guy out if he makes them angry ... even if he is a duke. The ending got a little better, and sweet romance readers who aren't as picky as I sometimes am will probably enjoy this. Those who like a high degree of realism in their Regency reading, though, should stay far away.
This was a clean Christian romance, but the spiritual element was limited to the main characters praying and talking about God's guidance in our lives. Not overtly preachy....more
This is one of those silly marriage of convenience romances that I'm kind of a sucker for, but this was tedious beyond belief and completely failed toThis is one of those silly marriage of convenience romances that I'm kind of a sucker for, but this was tedious beyond belief and completely failed to suck me in. It's a Kindle freebie, but don't waste your time....more
Rachel Marconi dumps her Italian (<---- this will become significant) boyfriend who just confessed that he has a wKindle freebie romance of the week!
Rachel Marconi dumps her Italian (<---- this will become significant) boyfriend who just confessed that he has a wife and family back in the old country. He doesn't want to leave her and gets kind of stalkerish, but she says tough beans, get lost forever (you go, girl!).
Just as Rachel is swearing off men completely, she meets Graydon, a pretty much perfect guy, and an ex-hockey star, for you sports romance fans. And who looks like Vin Diesel, only taller and with hair.
Well. I have to say that the idea of Vin Diesel with hair proved a little difficult for me to imagine, but luckily Google is there to help me out. And since I am all about the background research, I went to work and found some old pictures of Vin Diesel with hair. It was a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.
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You're welcome.
Anyway, since Rachel's Italian mother is dying to marry her off and her brothers are huge sports fans, she's reluctant to get involved or to introduce him to her family. But Graydon the Vin Diesel lookalike hockey player dude likes her and will not be put off by lame excuses.
It's a cute story for the most part (stalker showdown excepted), and pretty much clean. Like most contemporary romance novels, it's pretty superficial, a quick and easy read, but sometimes that's just the type of brain candy you're looking for. The writing is a tad amateurish in spots, and I caught a few typos and grammar errors, but not enough to really annoy me. It won't stick with me longer than a day or two but it was decent for a freebie romance, if a little long-winded at times.
The plot is thickened in this case by the stalker subplot, and by Rachel's dessert business, Sweet Confections, and her desire to compete in the Food Network's dessert-making challenge. Which makes my marshmallows-are-less-fluffy shelf and baby marshmallow gif particularly appropriate here, so yay!
Kindle freebie, a squeaky clean romance set in the Old West. This one was too silly and superficial for me to even finish. I gave up on it about the tKindle freebie, a squeaky clean romance set in the Old West. This one was too silly and superficial for me to even finish. I gave up on it about the time the kind, plucky British heroine helped save the manly, brooding hero from a cornered coyote. For non-critical sweet romance readers only....more
[image] Yet another book for the "marshmallows are less fluffy" shelf.
It's Kindle freebie romance time again. This is a Victorian era novel with some [image] Yet another book for the "marshmallows are less fluffy" shelf.
It's Kindle freebie romance time again. This is a Victorian era novel with some cute echoes of both Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. Rosamund is the lovely, poor orphan living with her aunt and uncle and three young lady cousins and forced to serve them. One of her cousins is mostly kind but the other two are catty beyond belief, and her aunt and uncle are less than helpful. There's also an incredibly handsome servant, Joseph, the coachman's son, who's in love with Rosamund, though at least for now she's firmly friend-zoned him.
When her aunt's family heads to London for the Season, Rosamund, left to fend for herself, takes a job for a neighboring dowager duchess, acting as a companion to her grandson the duke, a young man in his early twenties who lost his parents and only sister in a tragic boating accident and has lost the will to live. When Rosamund meets Aubrey Whittingham, he looks like a mountain man: unwashed, scraggly beard, taciturn, and wasting away. She gradually manages to pry him out of his shell and both Aubrey and his grandmother start to make plans for her -- after all, she's the granddaughter of a viscount, even though he disinherited her mother for marrying out of her class. Complications ensue, of course, but Rosamund somehow lands on her feet in London, acting as a living mannequin for a dressmaker and invited to various high society events to show off the modiste's latest fashions. Will Aubrey still want her when he finds out she's a mannequin? Or will Joe win her heart?
People, I'm a little torn with this one. I'm by no means a stickler for absolute historical accuracy, but the plot of this novel is contrived and unlikely beyond belief. Joe the servant manages to get engaged (view spoiler)[and quickly unengaged (hide spoiler)] to a high society young lady, a rakish baron agrees for no discernable reason to escort Rosamund to all the London balls and events, characters sometimes act entirely out of character just to move the plot along in a certain direction, the dialogue is at times truly eyeroll worthy, everyone seems to disregard the social rules of the time ... I could go on.
And yet. It gave me warm fuzzies and made me smile a few times. (And the grammar and spelling were unexceptionable, which is one area where shortcomings are guaranteed to make me scowl and knock off stars.)
So as literature this is probably a 2-star book, but I'm going to give it 2 1/2 romance stars, rounding up to 3, even though it's a frothy, kind of silly story. It's sweet and totally clean (other than some discussions of kept women and men who sleep around). I'd recommend this only to my romance-loving friends who want a handsome hero, a lovely sweet heroine, a few smiles and a HEA, and aren't inclined to be critical. If that's all you're looking for, this is a cute, heartwarming story....more
Another Kindle freebie from my historical romance binge the other night. Here we have an engagement of convenience between Kitty and Philip. Kitty wasAnother Kindle freebie from my historical romance binge the other night. Here we have an engagement of convenience between Kitty and Philip. Kitty was one of the shining stars of the London season, but she's rejected a few too many suitors -- including one who turns out to have a strong vindictive streak -- and is now labeled a heartless flirt and is getting the cold shoulder from society. Philip is a second son who's trying to buy a property from his father and is being forced to prove he's respectable, which in this case means get serious about marriage and starting a family. The engagement of convenience turns into a marriage, because of reasons, but both Phillip and Kitty start to think getting married is actually a good idea. Until things go wrong.
It's a fluffy, simplistic, predictable tale, chock-full of the typical tropes and cardboard characters. I didn't get irritated enough to DNF it, but there's nothing really compelling about this story.
Winner of my "Marshmallows are Less Fluffy" Award of the week. [image]
Highly, highly improbable Regency sex romp about a 20 year old woman who was kidnapped by a London street gang as a 5 year old and forced to learn to Highly, highly improbable Regency sex romp about a 20 year old woman who was kidnapped by a London street gang as a 5 year old and forced to learn to pick pockets, run scams, etc. An investigator finds her fifteen years later and kidnaps her back, after determining that she's the long-lost daughter of a lord. Elizabeth (now "Marlowe") has forgotten her past and fights tooth and nail, swearing like gutter scum. The investigator inexplicably dumps Marlowe on his brother, the earl, while he goes off to investigate something else. Marlowe (of course) turns out to be lovely once all the dirt is washed off. And she's still a virgin!! But notwithstanding that she's somehow retained her chastity all those years in the London slums, she gives it up to the earl after knowing him just a few days. o.O The mind, it boggles.
I'd rather either she'd stayed out of his bed, or have the book -- and the earl -- deal with her having slept around (or having been raped at some point in her life in the slums, likely as not).
Also, if I never hear the word "bubbies" (Marlowe's slang for her breasts, which she mentions All. The. Time) again in my lifetime, it'll be too soon.
Kindle freebie right now, but I can't recommend it unless you like this genre. I skimmed most of it (I was mostly interested in the reunion with her parents) and deleted it....more
If Andy Weir isn't a little more careful with the short stories he writes and shares online, he's going to erase all the good will that he built up wiIf Andy Weir isn't a little more careful with the short stories he writes and shares online, he's going to erase all the good will that he built up with The Martian.
Usually I reserve my use of the word "fluffy" for romance novels, but this short story?
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Yes. That.
P.S. (view spoiler)[A couple of reviews have mentioned a possible additional twist, like Doris really is a chef and the doctor is, for some unknown reason, trying to brainwash her. That would make the story mildly more interesting but ... I don't buy it. (hide spoiler)]...more
It's Kindle freebie romance time again! Local TV co-hosts Megan and Adam have been spatting on the air, with Adam trying to get a rise out of Megan atIt's Kindle freebie romance time again! Local TV co-hosts Megan and Adam have been spatting on the air, with Adam trying to get a rise out of Megan at the instigation of their smarmy producer, Leon. But really Adam just wants Megan to like him. And even though Megan can't stand Adam when he's baiting her, we still get this by page 10:
Oh, heavens. She was falling for Adam Warner.
And somehow we go from here to dates that are streamed online, and some kind of weird Bachelorette shenanigans, and a televised marriage, and two people who can't communicate about their real feelings...
Anyway, this one is silly but harmless. Off to the "fluffier than marshmallows" shelf it goes.
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Usually you get what you pay for, and this book is no exception. Recommended for hardcore sweet-and-clean romance readers only....more
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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