Something we reviewers often say is that the hardest books to review are the middling ones; the ones that aren’t terrible but aren’t great and are just kind of okay. Unfortunately, Jack Strange’s début, Look Up, Handsome, doesn’t quite get to ‘okay’ levels; it’s billed as a rom-com but is neither romantic nor funny, the…
Narrated by Pete Cross Every so often, you come across a story that feels as though it shouldn’t really work – and yet it somehow just does. Maybe the premise requires too great a stretch or simply doesn’t make sense, or maybe there’s something that gets a big side-eye – but the overall story is…
Eden Winters’ entry in the Carnival of Mysteries series, Lighting the Darkness, is a sequel, of sorts, to the urban fantasy/sci-fi/procedural Darkness that came out earlier this year. Darkness wasn’t a perfect book, but I had to applaud the author for the solid worldbuilding and intruguing storyline, for taking risks and coming up with a…
Having really enjoyed AJ Rose’s The Family Man (book one in The Mind Hacker series) I’ve been looking forward to reading The Phantom, which promised to be another compelling read. The suspense plot is interesting and well-constructed – I like the way the author balances the moments of action with the painstaking research and the…
J.L. Merrow’s Fall Hard is an atmospheric romantic mystery set in Iceland, with lots of local colour and enough uncertainty and suspicion to keep me guessing right up until the reveal. Eight months before the story begins, Paul Ansell, an English academic working and studying in Iceland, had a terrible accident which left him badly…
Rachel Langella is a new-to-me author, and I picked up Airs Above the Ground, her second entry in the Carnival of Mysteries series, because the premise intrugued me. It’s the story of someone who has lived much of his life in the Carnival and performs there as part of a family trapeze act, and who…
The Seduction of James Gray, the first book in new-to-me author Colette Rivera’s Moonlight Falls trilogy, is a captivating story of magic, mystery and romance that bristles with a genuine sense of creepiness and foreboding. The mystery is compelling, the romance is nicely done and the ending is satisfying, but while some questions are answered…
Briar Prescott’s Until series of contemporary romances has become one of my favourites, and this third instalment is one of my most anticipated books of the back half of 2024. Maybe You is a terrific read that bears all the author’s trademarks – it’s emotional, funny, sexy, and insightful, the characters are flawed yet incredibly…
Andie Burke’s Fall For Him is a charming antagonists-to-lovers contemporary romance that actually deserves the ‘rom-com’ label because it delivers on both fronts. It’s warm and funny, the romance is beautifully developed and the two leads have depth, complexity and off-the-charts chemistry. Dylan Gallagher has moved – temporarily – into his uncle’s apartment to do…
Authors Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen keep up the pressure and the action in this third instalment of their compelling Chaos Station series. Where the first two books were really Zed’s story, with Lonely Shore focusing predominantly on his failing health, the team’s efforts to help him, and on his rekindled relationship with Felix, Skip…
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