Caz Owens, Author at All About Romance

About Caz Owens

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So far Caz Owens has created 31 blog entries.

A Daring Pursuit by Kate Bateman

Kate Bateman returns to the world of the feuding Davies and Montgomery families for this second book in her Ruthless Rivals series. The protagonists this time around are Carys Davies and Tristan Montgomery, sister and brother respectively of the hero and heroine from A Reckless Match – but while the leads are attractive and the writing is strong, the humour and witty banter I so enjoy from this author is missing and there simply isn’t enough story to carry a full-length novel, especially as the rivalry between the families has been rendered moot by the marriage of Maddie and Gryff in the previous book.

Since being seduced and immediately dumped by the man she’d believed herself in love with, Carys Davies has been doing everything she can think of to avoid marriage. To keep potential suitors at bay, as well as a way to distract attention from her still unmarried state, she’s spent the past couple of […]

By Caz Owens|2022-05-20T06:11:50-04:00May 27th, 2022|4 Comments

Coming Soon – The Romances We’re Most Looking Forward to Reading in June 2022

Time for our regular look at the new and upcoming releases the AAR team is most excited about reading over the coming weeks. As usual, this is in no way a comprehensive list, but is rather based on the information from authors and publishers available at time of writing – and we always like to hear about which new releases YOU’RE most looking forward to getting stuck into in June!

Releasing week of 1st June 2022

By Caz Owens|2022-05-22T16:03:18-04:00May 23rd, 2022|Categories: Eagerly Awaiting|Tags: coming soon, Coming Soon 2022, upcoming books|15 Comments

TBR Challenge May 2022 – Tales of Old

For someone who started out their romance reading career with historicals, a prompt like “Tales of Old” is the perfect catnip. Lynn and Caz took this prompt in rather different directions, with Lynn heading way back into the past with a tale of ninth century Vikings carving out a living in what is now Scotland, while Caz headed for Victorian England. So, where do you like to travel for your Tales of Old?

Tempted by Her Viking Enemy by Terri Brisbin

The prompt Tales of Old made me think of medieval right off the bat. I hit my TBR piles eagerly – and ended up DNF-ing a few medievals, so after that experience, I just wanted an author whose books normally work for me. Terri Brisbin’s books usually hit the spot, and while not my favorite […]

By Caz Owens and Lynn Spencer|2022-05-18T08:01:17-04:00May 18th, 2022|Categories: Caz AAR, Lynn Spencer, Romance reading, TBR Challenge|Tags: historical romance, Reading Challenges, Sebastian Nothwell, TBR Challenge, TBR Challenge 2022, Terri Brisbin|5 Comments

Temporary Partner by Nicky James

Temporary Partner, the first book in a new series of romantic mysteries from Nicky James, features two rival detectives who team up to solve a missing persons case. It’s a thoroughly entertaining read and I raced through it in a couple of sittings; it’s fast-paced, tightly-plotted and the sexual tension between the two leads is off-the-charts.

In the short prequel, Department Rivals (available through the author’s newsletter), we were introduced to detectives Quaid Valor of the Missing Persons Unit and Aslan Doyle (yes, his mother was a Narnia fan!) from Homicide. There’s a long-standing and not at all friendly rivalry between Homicide and the MPU at the Toronto Police Service, and in that story, the higher-ups arrange a team-building exercise in which a detective from one division partners with a detective from the other in order to solve a case-like puzzle. Of course, the department playboy – Doyle – is partnered with the standoffish, anally-retentive Valor, and while neither is […]

By Caz Owens|2022-05-16T13:06:39-04:00May 16th, 2022|5 Comments

Everything for You by Chloe Liese

Everything for You – book five in Chloe Liese’s Bergman Brothers series – is the first entry in that series to feature a same sex couple and is also the author’s first m/m romance. As I haven’t read anything by Ms. Liese before, I decided to rectify that by picking it up for review. It’s an antagonists-to-lovers romance set in the world of professional football – or soccer as it’s termed on The Other Side of The Pond – between a newly established star of the game and a veteran player facing the prospect of retirement, but while age-gap and grumpy/sunshine are among my favourite tropes – and I appreciated the way certain aspects of the storyline are handled, especially with respect to Gavin’s fears over his future – the book as a whole is too problematic for me to be able to offer a recommendation.

At twenty-four, Oliver Bergman is a new star on the soccer scene. He was […]

By Caz Owens|2022-05-12T05:03:52-04:00May 12th, 2022|12 Comments

Out of the Ashes by Jenn Burke

Out of the Ashes is the third and final book in Jenn Burke’s Ashes & Dust series of paranormal romances set in and around Toronto, featuring vampire investigator Evan Fournier, his lover Colin Zhang – a phoenix – and their extended family of werewolves, vampires, witches – and a god. The author does include information about the previous instalments for readers new to the series, but I’d advise reading the books in order so as to fully understand the character backstories and the emotional impact of past events.

Please note that there are spoilers in this review.

At the end of House on Fire, Colin made the decision to break the bond that had accidentally formed between himself and Evan (in All Fired Up). It was risky, but he’s come through it okay – mostly; while he’s retained his memories and knows who Evan is, he has no emotional attachment to those memories, and Evan […]

By Caz Owens|2022-05-14T22:03:52-04:00May 11th, 2022|5 Comments

The Reluctant Companion by H.L. Day

The first book in a new series by H.L. Day, The Reluctant Companion is a light-hearted fantasy adventure featuring an opposites-attract romance between a snarky farm boy and a handsome charmer who team up – reluctantly, as the title suggests – to undertake a quest, and fall for each other along the way. It’s a lot of fun with plenty of action and adventure, a nicely evoked faux-medieval setting and two engaging leads; it’s a great start to the series and I really enjoyed it.

Jack Straw is twenty-six and has lived pretty much his entire life in his small village on his family farm. But when we meet him, he’s sitting somewhat forlornly in a tavern miles from home wondering whether to continue the search for his missing sister, Annabelle, or if his dwindling resources mean he will have to return home without finding any news of her. His musings are interrupted when a small monkey drops onto the […]

By Caz Owens|2022-05-14T22:05:10-04:00May 7th, 2022|2 Comments

Dipped in Sunshine by Fearne Hill

Fearne Hill’s Dipped in Sunshine is a fun, sexy/sweet age-gap romance with a lot of humour and an endearing grumpy/sunshine pairing. It picks up right after the previous book – Brushed with Love – ended, and although it’s not essential to read that book before this, I’d recommend it because a) it’s a great read and b) it introduces the main players in this story and readers will benefit from knowing a bit about them in advance.

Ragnar Eggebraaten – Eggy – and his boyfriend Clem have relocated to the Spanish island of Fuerteventura where Eggy and his best friend Fifty have set up a surfing business. Right at the end of Brushed With Love, Eggy meets his youngest brother, nineteen-year-old Otto, at the airport, believing him to have come for a short visit. When Dipped in Sunshine begins Otto is quick to disabuse Eggy of that notion and tells him he’s not there for a holiday, […]

By Caz Owens|2022-04-27T20:10:24-04:00April 29th, 2022|9 Comments

Book Boyfriend by Kris Ripper

After reading the blurb for Kris Ripper’s Book Boyfriend, I was looking forward to reading a slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance about a somewhat hapless writer who has been in love with his best friend forever, who ends up pouring out his feelings on paper because he’s too scared to say them out loud. Well, that last part is largely true – but the romance and the love interest character are basically relegated to the background while the PoV character stumbles his way through life and into becoming a best-selling author through lots of inner monologues which, while they can be very funny, are also chaotic and rambling.

PK Harrington (who works as an assistant editor at an unnamed publishing house) is called to the lobby of his apartment building one evening to find his best friend and former roomie Art standing there, bedraggled (it’s raining) and looking very upset. Art has just broken up with their boyfriend – about which PK […]

By Caz Owens|2022-04-26T17:43:57-04:00April 27th, 2022|1 Comment

The Long Game by Rachel Reid

Note: As this book is both a sequel and the finale to a long-running series, there will be spoilers for earlier books in this review.

Rachel Reid’s The Long Game is the final book in her Game Changers series of romances set in the world of professional hockey – and, most importantly, the long and eagerly awaited conclusion of the epic love story between Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov begun in the second book, Heated Rivalry. If you, like me, are a fan, you’re going to need no encouragement from me to rush to buy this one as soon as it’s available, so I suppose what you really want to know is – does The Long Game deliver everything we’ve been waiting for? I’m pleased to be able to give an unequivocal “yes” in answer; Rachel Reid has done herself, her readers and these two much loved characters proud with a story that brings […]

By Caz Owens|2022-04-26T16:58:19-04:00April 26th, 2022|28 Comments

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