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Book Review: The Gift by Tiffany Reisz

December 26th, 2019

The Gift by Tiffany Reisz

My rating: 3 stars

I want to start this by saying this novella is NOT a romance in terms of genre. Romance novels and novellas end with an HEA or HFN wherein the main characters end up together.

The Gift is not that. It’s erotica, which I don’t read much of to be honest, and is entirely character driven. It’s one of the novellas in The Original Sinners series by Tiffany Reisz. (For her suggested reading order for this series, check out her post where she answers the question of what order to read all of the books.)

With this book, the first of Reisz’s Original Sinners novellas, we get a glimpse into an incident in the younger Nora Sutherlin’s life. Since I haven’t finished reading The Original Sinners novels yet (I made the mistake of reading this novella at the same time as The Siren), I can only surmise that said incident is a formative experience in Nora’s life.

The Gift is a quick read and one I’ll probably be returning to in the future, for more than one reason.

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Quote of the Week

December 25th, 2019

You could never mistake the sound of grief, once you had felt it yourself. It made the mettle of the soul ring in sympathy, like one bell softly chiming whenever its neighbor was struck.
– The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
Currently Reading

December 24th, 2019
It’s Tuesday, and here’s what I’m currently reading:

The Duchess War by Courtney Milan

Blurb: A bespectacled wallflower meets a Duke and figures out what he’s up to. Has the Duke met his match?

I just started reading The Duchess War today. (Despite holiday obligations with family, I still plan to read as much as I can.)

This is my first book by Courtney Milan, a romance author beloved by many readers. It certainly won’t be my last!

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

Blurb: As Lucy Muchelney watches her ex-lover’s sham of a wedding, she wishes herself anywhere else. It isn’t until she finds a letter from the Countess of Moth, looking for someone to translate a groundbreaking French astronomy text, that she knows where to go. Showing up at the Countess’ London home, she hoped to find a challenge, not a woman who takes her breath away.

I was super excited about The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics when I first heard about it. Historical romance novels featuring female/female pairings are fairly rare in my experience. An f/f historical romance featuring an astronomer heroine? Count me in.

Happy holidays to those who celebrate! What are you currently reading?
Book Review: Grounded for Christmas by Savannah J. Frierson

December 23rd, 2019

Grounded for Christmas by Savannah J. Frierson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Joseph, a commercial airline pilot, and Mary, a STEM heroine(!), “run into each other” on a flight that gets grounded due to bad weather and have to share a place to wait out the storm. (Come on now, you gotta love it.) Shenanigans ensue.

This was a fun little read. It features my dream heroine—a STEM badass who will not be treated like a doormat. It also involves a kind of second chance romance, a favorite trope of mine.

I was impressed by the writing. Despite the limited space, the story is well paced. It’s clear from the beginning that the two MCs have feelings for each other, but each of them has a lot to process before they can make it work. The author adeptly conveys all of this. I especially enjoyed seeing Mary’s internal arc.

Just delightful.

*An eARC was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.*

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Book Review: Murder Takes the High Road by Josh Lanyon

December 19th, 2019

Murder Takes the High Road by Josh Lanyon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You know how sometimes you go back to reading a book, and it’s the right place and right time for you to be reading it? Despite reading the first few pages before November, it wasn’t until after I started my novel for National Novel Writing Month that I got into Josh Lanyon’s mystery romance.

For various reasons, this book just clicked with me during my reading “breaks” from grinding out words. Maybe it was that I wanted to escape into a world quite different from what I was writing, and I was looking for that frequently elusive thing called inspiration at the same time.

It was definitely the fact that this book is freaking good. I didn’t want to put it down. I’ve come to expect a tightly constructed mystery or suspense B plot from a Lanyon novel, as well as a fairly satisfying–though not necessarily swoon worthy–romance A plot. Murder Takes the High Road; however, provided a little extra. It’s a lot about books and fandom, but it’s also about the nature of the relationship between an author and her readers/fans. What does an author owe her readers and vice versa? Is an author to be viewed separately from her work, or all of a piece?

As for the romance between the main characters, it was expertly paced within the short time frame of the narrative. Their chemistry felt believable, and their HFN was earned.

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Book Review: Her Naughty Holiday (Men at Work, #2) by Tiffany Reisz

December 19th, 2019

Her Naughty Holiday by Tiffany Reisz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m not crazy about the holidays, but I’ve recently found that I like watching uplifting Christmas themed romance movies a la Hallmark and Netflix and reading holiday romances. (Maybe it’s because they help me deal with the sad?)

I picked up this holiday romance on a whim one night after hearing about it on the podcast Fated Mates. They did an episode about holiday romances, and Her Naughty Holiday was one they touted. It did not disappoint. Tiffany Reisz knows how to write a steamy category romance. But, never having actually read anything by Reisz before, I didn’t know to expect the hard hitting commentary about the familial and societal expectations of women that came across in this book.

One of my favorite quotes: “Welcome to the world of being a woman. We’re not supposed to have sex, but we’re also supposed to have kids. And we wonder why so many women are on Xanax.” Clover, the heroine, delivers this line, and I found myself nodding my head while reading it, as well as nodding my head along to other passages from the book.

Clover is in a tough position–one many women can relate to. She loves her family of origin, but they don’t accept her as she is because she’s unmarried and child free and DOESN’T see marriage and having children as the be-all end-all of her existence. And her family is constantly a-holes about it. And it’s her turn to host the Thanksgiving dinner.

Enter single dad contractor Erick who, unbeknownst to Clover, has a crush on her. He agrees to be her pretend boyfriend for Thanksgiving so she can finally maybe get some relief from her mother always hounding her about her biological clock. Because it’s a Blaze novel, there are a lot of sexy times. (Erick is fire, by the way.)

All in all, recommended if you like: steamy holiday romance, fake dating/fake relationships, “plain Jane” heroines, and quick reads.

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Book Review: Connection Error (#gaymers, #3) by Annabeth Albert

March 12th, 2018

Connection Error by Annabeth Albert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though this isn’t the best of Albert’s books, I still stayed up way past my bedtime consuming it last night and then proceeded to get no work done today as I instead read this on my Kindle while curled up in a semi-comfortable armchair at the library.

My favorite thing about Albert’s writing is her way with characterization. The MCs are often complex, flawed people who are nonetheless trying their best in less than ideal circumstances (kind of like real life). From these less than ideal circumstances and the characters’ fears and flaws come the conflicts, so the conflicts often feel believable. Connection Error is no exception. I loved the two MCs. I loved how they came together and how they struggled to figure out how to make things work. Their life situations (one dealing with ADHD and the other injured in the line of duty) were sensitively and gracefully handled.

I will happily read whatever comes next from this author.

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His Royal Secret (His Royal Secret, #1) by Lilah Pace

March 11th, 2018

His Royal Secret by Lilah Pace

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well this was fun. And hot. And well-written.

A prince (the Prince of Wales, to be precise) gets his own prince charming in the form of a rugged Israeli journalist with abandonment issues and a penchant for denial.

Their chemistry is off the charts. The external conflict that keeps them apart is believable. James, the prince, is not out and doesn’t think he can ever come out, for various reasons. Ben, said rugged journalist, is fine with this because he doesn’t want anything serious. He values his freedom above all else, and, due to a previous messed up relationship, he thinks that romantic relationships and independence are mutually exclusive.

Overall, I really liked this, and I found reading about the life of a royal fascinating, but I also found myself wondering at the end how it was they actually fell so deeply in love. The resolution to this first book in the duology is emotional but not totally satisfying.
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Broken Protocol (Smoke & Bullets #2) by A.R. Barley

March 6th, 2018

Broken Protocol by A.R. Barley

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I wish I could say I liked this more than I did, but I DNF’d it at about 70%.

It wasn’t really the book; it was me. I wasn’t much of a fan of Dante, one of the MCs, who came across as unlikable at the best of times. I thought further reading would change my mind about Dante; however, the opposite happened, unfortunately. Also, in my opinion, the story got off to a somewhat rocky start in the very first scene in terms of how it was described. The scene ended up being a bit jumbled in my head.

Ultimately, I couldn’t seem to care enough about what happened to the characters to finish, especially when there are so many other books waiting to be read.

I received an eARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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