Three out of Ms. Martin’s four football romances have earned DIK status from me and her debut novel received a solid B, so I think it would be fair to label me a big fan of her work. Which is why Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes was a surprise. This women’s fiction story has some…
I’ve read more than a few category romances (mostly Harlequin Presents) set in lush, tropical locales. However, many of those books featured Western tourists discovering themselves and finding love in a beautiful, foreign place. In this novel, the fictional island of St. Eustace is where the lead characters live, and they work at a hospital,…
We have had numerous conversations on this site about how a readers’ ‘mileage’ may vary in terms of suspension of disbelief. I’ve always thought that contemporary romances had the hardest row to hoe in that regard because people who live in the country/time the story takes place in can always spot the only-in-a-romance novel tropes…
Emiko Jean’s Tokyo Ever After is listed for grades 6-8 on Amazon, and it will be fine for that intended audience, especially in a library that is working to diversify. I do not, however, see it having what it takes to reach audiences beyond that maturity level, or to become a classic when a better…
The best literary retellings take us to new places and bring new worlds to light. So Many Beginnings does a beautiful job of applying the basic background of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and adding a whole new layer of emotions and experiences to it. I have read many retellings of the story, but this…
Certain Dark Things is a re-released 2016 novel by best-selling author Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Part noir and part horror story, this vampire tale takes place in an alternate reality Mexico City where two lonely souls try to survive the dangerous streets of a town riddled with trouble. Domingo doesn’t mean to start a conversation with the…
The blurb for A Blues Singer to Redeem Him, promising a perilous interracial romance between the son of a Mafioso and a blues singer in a Jazz Age speakeasy amid the looming threat of the KKK, earned this title an instant high place on my TBR. Sadly, it failed to live up to my expectations…
Romeo and Juliet meets really good-sounding food in Sera Taíno’s A Delicious Dilemma, the charming story of a chef and a land developer who manage to tumble into bed and then have to deal with some uncomfortable truths when the morning after arrives. Val Navarro has a bustling family life, a booming family restaurant to…
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic was one of my favorite books of 2020, so I was excited to review her latest novel, Velvet Was the Night. This classic noir narrative is a beautifully written snapshot of one of the darkest times in Mexican/American history. 1970s, Mexico City. Maite has a dead-end secretarial job and is barely…
The Dating Playbook is the delightfully funny second tale in Farrah Rochon’s The Boyfriend Project series. You can read this without reading the first book. Taylor Powell experienced her proverbial fifteen minutes plus of fame when her acerbic tweets about a date from hell turned into a viral video takedown of a catfisher in a…
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