Alexandria Bellefleur’s The Fiancée Farce is another of her sweet, sparkly contemporary romances – this time, about a fake engagement that ends up turning all too real. The tropes may be familiar, but the warmhearted treatment of them won’t be. It definitely coasts on charm and is low-stakes, but sometimes charm is all you need….
This sequel to Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown is satisfactory, but didn’t win me over in the same way as its predecessor. Muna wakes up on a beach in Janda Baik, a fictional island near Indonesia, with no memory of how she and her sister Sakti came to be there, or of the curse…
Whenever I finish a book by Gregory Ashe and open my laptop to write a review (after I’ve scooped my insides up and put myself back together) I wonder how on earth I can possibly encapsulate everything he’s packed into the book in a mere few-hundred words… and then wonder how I can possibly do…
A.J. Demas’ Sword Dance is the first book in a trilogy set in an imaginary/alternate ancient world that reads rather like Ancient Greece, so I thought it would be a good fit for this month’s “unusual historical” prompt. There’s mystery and a slow-burn romance, lots of wry humour and a superbly realised setting to enjoy,…
Peacemaker is the first book in the Sharps & Springfield series of historical paranormals set in the US near the end of the nineteenth century. It boasts an interesting central mystery and a well-developed setting, but the characters are barely two-dimensional and the romance is pretty much non-existent. The book is also labelled as ‘steampunk’,…
Detectives Valor and Doyle are back in Defying Logic, the fifth book in Nicky James’ series of clever, suspenseful and consistently engrossing romantic mysteries set in Toronto. Five books in, and the two leads are as captivating as ever, they’re still growing as characters and their relationship continues to evolve in a most satisfactory way….
I read Unwritten Rules, KD Casey’s début for Carina Press, back in October 2021, and I’m afraid I wasn’t very impressed – I gave it a C-. I found the romance lacklustre, the chemistry lukewarm (at best) and the characters ill-defined – although it was very clear that the author has a great deal of…
Like its predecessor (Something Fabulous), Alexis Hall’s Something Spectacular is a delightful read with some very pertinent observations to make while being a witty, laugh-out-loud funny, campy, over-the-top and unabashedly queer romance that takes place in a very modern “Regency” setting. As with the previous book, “basically everyone in it is LGBTQ+”, the author (in…
H.L. Day’s Demon Inside is a fast-paced, action/adventure paranormal romance set in London featuring likeable but flawed protagonists, an interesting plot and plenty of snark and steam. It has a few weaknesses – the romance feels a bit rushed and some elements of the story are a bit predictable – but it’s an entertaining read…
It’s the rare romance that features a character or characters without emotional baggage, so I had an embarrassment of riches to choose from when deciding on my book for this month’s TBR Challenge prompt. Kelly Jensen’s Block and Strike (2017) is a character driven hurt/comfort slow-burn romance that features two men who’ve been dealt crappy hands in life, and…
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