Reviews by Caroline Russomanno
I wanted to read Karla Sorensen’s Baking Me Crazy because I’m always looking for good representation, and the heroine of this book uses a wheelchair due to transverse myelitis. The story, a friends-to-lovers romance, takes a realistic look at disabled life, but I’d have preferred the confl ...
Note: As the author has done so, I have used a character’s ‘deadname’ (or pre-transition name) in this review.Viola Carroll was raised as the Viscount Marleigh. She joined the army with her dearest friend, Justin De Vere, the Duke of Gracewood, and after being presumed dead at Waterloo, to ...
Caitlyn Lattimore, the heroine of Sophia Singh Sasson’s Boyfriend Lessons, is rich and gorgeous but socially awkward. She asks a friend of a friend, Dev Malik, to give her the lessons of the title to help her learn to date - but clearly, the two of them are going to fall in love. This book suffers ...
Jeannie Lin’s Lotus Palace Mysteries are back, and they continue to be satisfying, well-crafted reads. They’re best read in order, so I suggest not starting with this one; however, this review doesn’t have spoilers except for identifying previous couples.Song Yi is the lead courtesan at th ...
Once Upon a K-Prom is a spin on the “ordinary girl meets famous boy” YA story, incorporating the recent global success of K-Pop. Elena Soo’s childhood best friend Robbie Choi moved home to Korea when they were both ten. While Elena feels adrift, without anything to make her special, Robbie bec ...
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Début novels can be a bit of a gamble, but I’m glad to report that Lily Chu’s The Stand-In is a risk worth taking.Gracie Reed is the biracial daughter of a white Canadian man and a Chinese mother now struggling with dementia. First, her boss sexually harasses and then fires her. Next, a pap ...
Carla de Guzman’s A Match Made in Lipa is the sequel to Sweet On You and features another shopkeeper on the street called the Laneways, but you don’t have to have read Sweet On You to enjoy this one. And oh, how you will enjoy this one!Anton Santillan (Santi) and Kira Luz grew up together in ...
The Iron Warrior Returns is one of a number of medievals I’ve seen slowly making a comeback at Harlequin Historicals (new full-length mass market medievals remain elusive). Unfortunately, it isn’t a good example of the genre.Lord Robert of Penrith, his illegitimate half-brother Piers, and th ...
Once upon a time, I read some Grace Burrowes books I really loved. They were rich and historical and character-driven. Never a Duke, unfortunately, is none of those things.Ned Wentworth is the adopted brother of the Wentworth family because he saved the life of their brother Quinn, now the duke, ...
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Set in Oklahoma Territory in 1907, on the brink of its statehood, Pamela Morsi’s Wild Oats makes for a lovely bushel. (Oats come in bushels, right?). Divorced and impecunious Cora Briggs is the town scandal, so when young undertaker Jedwin Sparrow feels ready to, well, sow some oats, she seems lik ...