Amanda
The premise is a little silly - surely there are more direct ways to figure out if a map was fraudulent than by posing as a footman in the mapmaker's home? But Romance Reasons and all that. I really like Diana Quincy's writing and I've enjoyed this series a lot. The plot got a little crowded towards the end, but this was a lot of fun.
A bit of a slow starter for me, but fluffy and delightful all around. If the next book is in fact Belle and Peggy (apparently it's Peggy, at least), I need Belle to dial back the drama about 50%, because she was pretty insufferable until the last 20% or so (and that's a generous estimate). Everything about this book is ridiculous and over-the-top, but she was just a pill. Anyway, other than the kind of slow start, I really enjoyed this. Alexis Hall does both humor and emotion so well, he's probably top of my instant-preorder list.
3.5, rounding up. Also, this COVER, so good! One of the MCs here is a bisexual powerlifter, so I was fully prepared to love this, and I did love the ... not quite a slow burn, since they get together relatively early, but the mutual pining and crushing on each other was a lot of fun to read. The character dynamics got pretty repetitive and frustrating to read, and it felt like they were having the same argument over and over with no resolution. I have legitimately no idea what happened at the end of the book - like did Sophie end up doing the TV show? Is the restaurant still open? I kind of wish the book had been in close-third person instead of alternating first-person narration, because I don't think the narrative voice was super-well differentiated between the two MCs. I enjoyed this overall, and I'm definitely enjoying the mini-trend of cooking/restaurant-themed romance, though it does make me hungry.
Shelving this as romance because that's what the library has it under, but I don't think it really fits there - going to come back after my thoughts have settled a bit, but I did enjoy this one.
(3.5 stars, rounding down.) Enjoyed the marriage of convenience trope here, but this didn't really have the heat level I've come to expect from Katee Robert - it's still definitely high heat, but nonetheless it's a step down from [b:Neon Gods 54659771 Neon Gods (Dark Olympus, #1) Katee Robert https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1610505010l/54659771.SX50.jpg 85280448] (though most things would be, honestly). I wanted a little bit of a slower burn from marriage to actually falling for each other, and I wanted a little more development of Eros as a character - I don't need on-page murdering or whatever, but some more about why he keeps calling himself a monster would be good. Having said that, I do love Psyche and I also love the relationship between all the women in her family, as fraught as it is sometimes. Eurydice better get herself a book, just saying.
Yet another Pride and Prejudice retelling (that's not shade, I can just think of at least three others I've read in the past few years, so it's a popular mini-genre at the moment). This is a modern era retelling, set in and around the NYC burlesque scene, and it dispenses with Mr. Collins/Charlotte/the Bingley sisters altogether. I liked the setting and of course, the story is a classic. The plot/timeline changed a little as well, specifically Lizzie and Darcy have hooked up and are basically together when the whole Wickham thing happens, at which point the story shifts to saving the burlesque company and doesn't have the whole aspect of family disgrace that was so powerful in the original P&P, which kind of shifts the stakes of the story in a way I didn't love. (Also I just realized there's no equivalent of Lady Catherine in this book either, which is a legit bummer.) All in all, this was fun, but as far as retellings go, I would recommend [b:Ayesha at Last 43124133 Ayesha at Last Uzma Jalaluddin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1544037862l/43124133.SX50.jpg 57683370] or [b:Unmarriageable 39926661 Unmarriageable Soniah Kamal https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1524485741l/39926661.SY75.jpg 61800121]. Probably 3.5 stars overall, rounding up. (2022 Summer Romance Bingo: dance. Would also work for property inheritance, loosely for architect.)
Very cute New Adult romance - pacing was a little bit off, as I would've liked the whole subplot about the drive-in being slated for demolition and Derick knowing all along to show up earlier than about the 90% mark. Overall, though, this was fun and easy to read.
(2022 Summer Romance Bingo: graduation. Would also work for second chance.)
Very enjoyable, mostly low-conflict contemporary romance set in DC between a lobbyist and an actress. I liked that there was no question of her giving up her career/quitting her current role, especially because of the nude scene situation. The pacing was a little strange for me -there was never a big blowout argument/conflict/conflagration like there usually is in romance. It wasn't necessarily bad, and probably more realistic to actual life, but not quite what I expected. I would've liked a bit more of both protagonist's backstories, especially Alicia's, but some of that may have been laid out in the first book in this series. This is an author that wasn't familiar to me until I was looking for books to read for this year's Bingo, and I'm so glad I did!
(2022 Summer Romance Bingo: protagonist smells like laundry. Would also work for bath.)
(3.5, rounding up.) Brief note on the cover: this doesn't look like Tommy and Philippa as described in the book - Tommy is NB (with she/her pronouns), wears more pants than dresses, and has short hair, and Philippa is described as curvy and heavier, and shorter than Tommy. Normally I'd be annoyed at this, but I'm going to cut some slack for this being a pandemic release, plus this is actually an adorable cover with a sweet backstory: https://twitter.com/LaurenAbramo/status/1452983027664052240 Anyway. Never really got the McGuffin here but you don't really need to in order to follow the plot, which is full of heists and disguises and dramatic reveals and is a lot of fun overall. Somehow I missed that this is the second in a series, so I'm going to go back and read [b:The Duke Heist 53916141 The Duke Heist (The Wild Wynchesters, #1) Erica Ridley https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1591923531l/53916141.SY75.jpg 75327400] now that I know, because I do enjoy the Wynchesters as characters and the family banter. I wish there'd been a little more exploration of Tommy's NB identity, but what there was seemed well done to me. I wasn't really sure about the tone of some of the stuff with Philippa's parents - it seemed like it was supposed to be funny in a lot of places, but locking your daughter in her room until she agrees to marry someone you choose for her isn't great, actually?. A few minor nits, but I enjoyed this one a lot overall!
My least favorite E. Lockhart, but since she's my favorite YA author, an average E. Lockhart book is still excellent.
Much better than the second book in this series but not quite as good as the first, still glad I read it.
I feel like the MMC's secret was 1) WILD, but somehow also 2) completely irrelevant to the plot? It just seemed like it needed to be a thing so that there was a plausible reason for them to think the threats were for him, not her, but it's wrapped up so neatly it seems like it could've been taken out. And also, HOLY SHIT dude, this is like Mr. Rochester levels of fucked up behavior and that's never really addressed? I finished this book and immediately started rereading because the pacing was so weird - I honestly thought I'd missed something.
Most of what I want to say here is a spoiler, so I guess I'll just cut it here (CWs for this book also under cut): first of all, MAJOR warning in this book for child sexual abuse/child porn, also abduction and forcing someone into an asylum (sorry, I know there's better phrasing, but that's what it's called here), plus early on there's people held at gunpoint and also there's blackmail/threats. I don't feel like this book knew what it wanted to be - I was definitely here for the boss/assistant trope, with a side of "helping the person you love find their spouse." Then it took detours into secret sex club, sex to get it out of their systems, and ended with blackmail/Terrible Secrets, and of course there's an HEA. I got to the reveal of the blackmailer and was like "...wait, who?" and it's not like it took me forever to read this book, it was just SO overstuffed I forgot who this guy was supposed to be. He shows up in the Secret Sex Club portion of the book and then not again until the end, so if it was supposed to be a big shock, it completely flopped for me. I don't know. I liked what I thought this book was from the blurb, but not what it ended up being. Penelope was a great character, and it's kind of a shame, because this ended up not being that much about her at all.
Meh. The essays on books I had read were pretty good (though there was distractingly bad copyediting throughout), but I feel like I'm a little younger than the target audience for this book and a lot of the YA novels written about I'd never heard of, let alone read.
One thing this book does well: representation of life with an invisible disability/chronic illness (both the author and the FMC have ME/CFS). I also liked the tone - this was a romcom in the actual sense of the word, not “book with an illustrated cover and unclear heat level that actually gets really dark” sense that it's often used these days. Not that that annoys me or anything.
Like I said in my placeholder review, I wanted to like this book more than I did. I am very much here for underrepresented voices in romance! Holiday romances aren't usually my thing but I liked the premise here! But I was really disappointed. The big conflict/reason for the MC's rift is one of those “just talk to each other” moments and also if Rachel and Mickey have been such amazing friends for so long you'd think they might have discussed this before now, and also they were twelve, who expects their camp crush at age twelve to be The One? They both have completely different interpretations of what happened back then, and it ends up with the MMC being pretty mean to the FMC in the early part of the book, which wasn't all that fun to read, even if he didn't do it with actual malicious intent.
Anyway. I didn't think the characterization was really there, either - this is technically dual perspective but it read more like an omniscient narrator than close third-person. I never really felt like there was much insight into either MC's thoughts on a deeper level. Rachel could've been a much more interesting character; I was really interested in her inner conflict about being the daughter of two prominent members of the local Jewish community and also a secret Christmas obsessive/romance novelist, but that was really underdeveloped and resolved in basically an aside at the very end that's not explained. I grew up in a close-knit religious community (not Jewish, but evangelical) and I thought that could be really fascinating as a reason for conflict, but it just sputtered out, sadly. I can't speak to the accuracy of the Jewish representation here, but I did want to highlight a review I found illuminating on that issue.
Also, this book does not bang (in the @HEA_doesitbang sense), which is fine if you're into that but you might want to be aware of. And in writing this longer review I've realized this is probably a two-star instead of a three-star book for me. Why do I always have more to say on the books I didn't like??
Suffers a bit from the novella problem - insta-love, not quite enough characterization. Still a lot of fun and I need to read more from her!!
Liked this one better than [b:You Had Me at Hola 52886627 You Had Me at Hola (Primas of Power, #1) Alexis Daria https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1586364913l/52886627.SY75.jpg 71755402] but then I seem to be alone in not loving Hola that much. Thought the conflict with Gabriel's family was wrapped up a little too easily (especially after almost ten years of no contact), wanted more of Michelle's family, but definitely liked this one and can't wait for the next!
4.5, rounding up, a delightful mix of Edwardian queer romance and fantasy with a gorgeous cover. Got this from the library but I may need to buy it to reread.
Finally, something I can rate above two stars this year!! 4.5, rounding up. Longer review to follow, but this was excellent and so sweet.
Second chance isn't usually my thing, but I definitely enjoyed this one - loved the setting and the side characters, and the reveal of Jeremy's dukedom was amazing.
(2022 Summer Romance Bingo: second chance. Could also work for mistaken identity, property inheritance, maybe high tea.)