REVIEW: The Bully by Willa Nash
Contemporary Romance published by Devney Perry LLC 3 Mar 22
I’ve really loved this Calamity, Montana series by Willa Nash. Each story is as unique as its characters, and I don’t get bored with the same old tropes I’ve been reading in romance for the past four decades. Even if it’s a friends-to-lovers story like The Bully, it’s written with a new edge to make it interesting as well as heart breaking.
REVIEW: The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews
Stevie‘s review of The Siren of Sussex (Belles of London, Book 1) by Mimi Matthews
Historical Romance published by Berkley 11 Jan 22
Obviously I love historical fiction that shines a spotlight on the less represented groups in society, but throw in a hint of the scandalous side of more commonly represented groups as well, and I’m totally sold. So it is with this novel by a new-to-me author, and also the beginning of a new series. Taking inspiration from the real-life ‘pretty horsebreakers,’ a group of Victorian courtesans, this series follows a quartet of more respectable, but still highly accomplished, equestriennes, as they negotiate the Season: its social highlights, dramas, and restrictions on behaviour, all the while preferring to spend their time with their horses on Royton Row. This novel follows Evelyn Maltravers as she seeks out a riding habit that will win her attention from the fashionable members of Society for all the best reasons, in the process befriending and then falling for her tailor, Ahmad Malik.
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REVIEW: At First Sight by M.S. Parker
Contemporary Romance published by Belmonte Publishing 14 Jan 22
I’ve been trying to keep my list of new-to-me authors going lately. So this is the first time I’ve read M.S. Parker. I didn’t realize this particular story is Book 9 of a series, but that doesn’t make any difference when it comes to Drake and Maggie. Most especially Drake. His part of the story is more emotional to me, though Maggie has her own issues to get through. I enjoyed getting to know both of these characters.
REVIEW: The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti by Jennifer Probst
Contemporary Romance published by Berkley 22 Feb 22
Ms. Probst delivers another winner full of human emotion that just touches your heart, has difficult relationships and a beautiful setting. The story hits true to home as three sisters, now adults, have grown apart, their mother’s sudden death and secret love letters makes them question what had been a sure thing before. The journey of discovery will do a lot more than help them find the truths their mother had long kept secret.
REVIEW: Someone Like You by Marie Force
Contemporary Romance published by HTJB, Inc. 15 Feb 22
This is the kind of book I really enjoy from Marie Force, one so full of emotion you have no idea if either you or the characters you’re reading about will come out on the other side intact. The first two reads by Ms. Force that had me feeling that way are Five Years Gone and One Year Home. Since I read those, I’ve hoped she’d eventually have more such books in my future, and here they are. Prepare to have your heart broken…and then realigned just in time.
REVIEW: Goodbye Again by Mariah Stewart
Contemporary Romance published by Montlake 08 Feb 22
A wonderful second-chance-at-romance, feel-good book. Liddy Bryant has spent her entire life in the small beach town where she was born. She thought she had an idyllic life until her only daughter unexpectedly committed suicide and her husband left her within the year of the event. Determined to pick up and move on with her life, she buys the only bookstore in town, bringing not just the bookstore but herself back to life and open to romance.
REVIEW: One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
Women’s Fiction published by Atria Books 01 Mar 22
I discovered Rebecca Serle just about two years ago when I read In Five Years. That book was an absolute delight, surprised the hell out of me as I read, and I still remember a lot of it to this day. I believed then that Ms. Serle had outdone herself with that story. I wasn’t totally wrong, although this latest release comes very, very close to proving perhaps I was full of hot air back then. Very close. But IFY is still one of my favorite reads, and OIS is not too far behind.
REVIEW: A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
Stevie‘s review of A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
Historical Fiction published by Faber 20 Jan 22
The disaster at Aberfan on the 21st of October 1966 left a mark on many in the UK and resonates with those born long after the event. One aspect I hadn’t really considered before was what happened to the bodies after they were pulled from the wreckage but before the funerals took place. This novel tells the story of one of the embalmers involved in that part of the events and how his life was impacted in the years that followed.
REVIEW: Phantom Game by Christine Feehan
Paranormal Romance published by Berkley 01 Mar 22
Ms. Feehan takes us back to Team One of the Ghost Walkers and rekindles some of the magic that I first felt when I started to read this series. Jonas has an interesting stew of characteristics, some of which he hasn’t shared with his team, despite how much he trusts them, and some of which he just doesn’t understand. Camellia is that perfectly engineered match for him, but she’s wary of him and of the other members of the original two teams and their wives, whom she grew up with in Whitney’s labs. Camellia and Jonas will soon be challenged and tested. Will their bond prove true to the challenge?
REVIEW: The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown
Stevie‘s review of The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown
Historical Gothic Mystery published by Viking UK 13 Jan 22
I love a good atmospheric gothic mystery, and the southwest of England is one of my two favourite settings for the genre (the other being Yorkshire). While the Victorian era is particularly well-suited as a backdrop, the First World War is a great period for ghost stories and unexplained deaths. So this book set alternately in 1888 and 1918 has all the elements we could possibly need, especially when you throw in a fatal fire at a crumbling country house. Our narrator is Ivy, the daughter of the local doctor in 1888, and it’s clear from the outset that she’s hiding something. However, she will also come to realise that her memories of events are coloured by the lies of at least one of the other people involved.
