A quick little roundup of several smaller reviews I wrote in Spring 2024. Beware of spoilers! Sorry these first two are duds.
Title: Lady Charlotte Always Gets Her Man
Author: Violet Marsh
Series: n/a
Thank you to Violet Marsh, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Soooo in the approval email, there was a bolded paragraph about how much they wanted feedback on the audio production in addition to the book. Which is incredibly ironic because the audiobook was faulty; multiple chapters were cut short. I have no idea how much was missing, but I’d guess it was a healthy chunk.
I deleted the file and redownloaded, thinking I had done something while downloading. Nope, same thing. The approval email had said we shouldn’t hesitate to contact Nita Basu if we had problems or questions—but it didn’t list an email or any way to contact her. I’m not on Twitter or Facebook, so I just googled her with crossed fingers. I found her LinkedIn page and sent her a note, but didn’t hear back days later. Don’t invite us to contact you then not give us a way to.
If it had been just one chapter, fine, I’d have listened to the rest. But all except perhaps one of the first six chapters was cut off, and it wasnt just me; other reviews remarked on the faulty audio as well. No. I’m not fucking around with that. If they provide a janky audiobook, I’m not wasting my time trying to make sense of it. Sorry, Ms. Marsh.
What I did manage to absorb of the story was strange. It opens on Charlotte getting fitted for a dress and being told she was to marry such and such, then cuts out and chapter 2 opens on her running away in said dress. You’d think she’d be fixated on her forced engagement, but her mind jumps to wanting a coffee shop women could go to. She goes to a coffee shop and proceeds to very tediously negotiate a deal with a cousin…… It was jarring and weird.
My condolences to Katy Sobey, whose narration was the best part of this unfortunate experience. Since I listened to less than 10%, I didn’t rate it.
Title: If the Tide Turns
Author: Rachel Rueckert
Series: n/a
Thank you to Rachel Rueckert, RB Media, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I’m so furious with myself. I have to start paying more attention to the historical fiction I request, because for the second time in about a week, I’m DNFing a book that probably won’t end well.
I was 40% in when for shits and giggles I decided to google Sam Bellamy; I was curious about his life and if there really had been a Maria—a.k.a., I was looking for spoilers.
First I noticed he died in 1717. Well, crap—didn’t I see the book was set in 17-teen-something? I check, and yes, the book begins in 1715. Chances that Sam survives to the end greatly decreased. I hate when sweet romances end in tragic death; that’s why I don’t read Nicholas Sparks.
As I’m imagining him drowning in the squall that takes his ship, I read that Maria’s existence is only rumored. Part of that rumor is that her and Sam’s baby dies.
Yep. Nope. I’m out. That’s a lot of heartbreak I do not want to partake in. I can’t have my escapism depressing me; that would be incredibly counterproductive.
Apologies. I will abstain from rating.
PS – The narration was fine, but either I missed something about Sam’s background or the narrator made him sound waaaaayyyyy too upper crust.
Title: Beastly Beauty
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Series: n/a
Much thanks to Jennifer Donnelly, Scholastic, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I’m always up for a Beauty and the Beast retelling. I enjoyed this one and appreciated Donnelly’s efforts to make it her own. She worked hard to make it even more metaphorical and relatable than the original tale.
I’m sure it’s not the first retelling to focus on self-love rather than romantic love, but it’s well-earned in this narrative; also, it rather saved the story, because while Donnelly did her best to develop Beau and Arabella’s relationship, it was not done well enough, in my opinion, to believe they could truly love each other so quickly. But as someone who lives with chronic depression and anxiety, Arabella’s need to accept herself despite her “faults” was that much more relatable. I’ve struggled with a bout of lack of interest this winter, so watching Arabella rediscover her love of architecture was supremely gratifying.
Some of the metaphors are clever and some are a bit on the nose. The book takes the expression of holding court with one’s emotions very seriously. Some readers may think that it’s cheating not to have Arabella in constant beast form, but the physical beast is beside the point, so if a reader’s fixated on that aspect, a lot of the book is going to go over their head.
I liked Beau, but I don’t understand why he didn’t just tell people that he needed to leave because of his sick and possibly dying brother; he kept his brother a secret and I’m not really sure why. He let them think he wanted to leave because he either just didn’t like being there or wanted to steal stuff and get away quickly. Which were true, mind, at least initially, but a dying brother might have garnered him more support. It might have seemed insincere while he was a stranger, but as he developed friendships with the staff I wish he’d opened up to them.
As for the end, I liked that Arabella continued to struggle with self-love from time to time; that’s realistic. I wish there’d been some kind of explanation as to how the world reacted to the sudden disappearance and reappearance of the castle’s inhabitants, who should have been long dead. I realize magic was at play, but still. Also, how did those inhabitants reintegrate with the changes one hundred years would have wrought? It did acknowledge that they couldn’t just pick up where they’d left off, that everyone they knew was dead, but my logic would have liked a few more consequences.
Overall, I thought this was a good, thoughtful, and clever retelling—though not good enough to flaunt a “Wish for it” feature on NetGalley. Thaaaat was a bit conceited.
Title: What Walks These Halls
Author: Amy Clarkin
Series: n/a
Thank you to Amy Clarkin, Bolinda Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Usually I’m most into the characters of a novel, but this time around I was in the mood for some scares, and this book was way more about character. Which isn’t a bad thing, but I was sold a story about paranormal investigators and this big, bad ghost; I was not looking to drown in an ocean of angst and feelings of inadequacy. Yeah, the characters need conflict and growth, but I need the shit scared out of me. It seemed there was less paranormal investigating and more dealing with personal issues among the group. Hey, I can get the latter in any mainstream YA; I read this book for the former. Not helping was the fact that none of the characters much endeared me. Éabha (the narrator pronounced it like “Ava”) came closest, but I don’t know, none of them impressed me with charisma or personality. I had a bit of a hard time keeping the female characters/male characters straight in my mind, they blended together so much. So as a ghost story, this was just okay. Read it because you’re interested in the character conflicts.
[I have to say, the “final battle” was pretty cheesy, and a snoozefest. Speaking through a Sensitive, siphoning energy—that’s all been done. That was more supernatural than paranormal, at least to my mind. An actual quote from the villain: “Haha, I’m evil!” (Just kidding, but it was that bad.) (hide spoiler)]
Surprisingly, NetGalley failed to tag this book as LGBTQ+, so fyi, it is.
Overall, I wanted more haunted house and less “I have to get to class.” Ugh, talk about an atmosphere-killer.
Oh, wait, they wanted me to talk about the audio and narration. A+++ Usually, if I have a problem with the audio quality/narration, I’ll mention it. If I don’t, then it’s safe to assume I had no problems with it because it was excellent. Róisín Rankin was great, her Irish accent lilting and lyrical but not so thick I couldn’t understand her.
Title: Mind Games
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: n/a
Much thanks to Nora Roberts, MacMillan Audio, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for allowing me use of free galleys in exchange for an honest review.
*thumbs down fart noise*
DNF 34%—about 5 hrs of listening. 5 hrs of plodding through a story that couldn’t find a plot with three editors and a diagram.
Some might call this a “slow burn,” but I feel that phrase gets used more and more as a cop-out for a pace that’s somewhere between boring and mindnumbing, a story that takes the scenic route toward making any kind of point, and a word count goal that holds a manuscript hostage until its requirements are met. So sure, we can call this a slow burn, but I definitely mean the cop-out kind.
Roberts likes to tell her stories in a straight line, which speaks to my heart, but I wonder if a prologue and strategic flashbacks instead wouldn’t trim the fat in her style. She includes soooo much useless information. A mere sample of the straw that broke my back in this instance was “[A]t fourteen, she cut her hair to chin length, an impulse she regretted for months after. She won an award in math, an accomplishment that both thrilled and embarrassed her. When she was fifteen, they lost Aster and grieved. The best of best friends, Maddie brought them flowers. They called the new cow Betty Lou.”
Now, it could be that the climax of this—what genre is this supposed to be, anyway? So far the story would suggest paranormal thriller, but I doubt it was marketed as such—hinges on Thea’s bad style choices, the death of an old milk cow, or the name of her replacement. But somehow, I doubt that as well.
A huuuuuuge chunk of the 34% I managed to get through could have been cut out. And I decided not to let Roberts’s ego waste any more of my time.
Title: The Keeper of the Irish Secret
Author: Susanne O’Leary
Series: Magnolia Manor #1
Thank you to Susanne O’Leary, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Shrug. This was okay. Not bad but not memorable either. Same for the main character, Lily–not bad but not memorable. To me the grandmother came off like an asshole, avoiding her granddaughters and withholding important information from them, for the sake of the plot, of course. Dominic wasn’t anything special as the love interest. Overall a romance that checks the boxes but isn’t remarkable.
Nothing wrong with the narrator, though! Aoife McMahon is great.
Title: The Hollow
Author: Kiersten Modglin
Series: n/a
Thank you to Kiersten Modglin, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
“Psychological thriller”? Not even a little bit. This is 90% an angsty, melodramatic love triangle among two brothers and a girl they grew up with. It’s YA playing dress-up in grownup clothes. You could say the mystery is present throughout, but it mostly takes the vague, baiting form of “until THAT day” and “after IT happened” for a big chunk of the beginning. It’s never the focus.
Guess what? I. Hate. Love triangles. The blurb says nothing about a love triangle. I thought one of the brothers would be Carmen’s first love and heartbreak and the other one would have something to do with a sinister secret. Which is kind of not really half accurate.
Thank god it’s a short book.
And the reveal of the big bad and the truth? Are you kidding me? The setting up of the main red herring was decent, but the true culprit had no foreshadowing. The opposite, actually. Very lazy. The secondary red herring was okay, except that scene in the water. You know, when they’re drunk and swimming at midnight, because that sounds safe. That scene needs to go the way of the dodo, because wtaf? It serves no purpose but to make the reader uncomfortable, the love interest sound like a creep with creepy friends, and Carmen seem less respectable. It just hurts the reputations of the characters and the book.
Shall we discuss the jackholes who are the characters? Jack (no pun intended but we’ll go with it) is one of those indecisive entitled brats who wants to have his cake and eat it too. And by cake I mean Carmen. He’s the ultimate player and what’s so damn sad is that I don’t think he means to be, it’s just who he is. He may not be a horrible person but he’s definitely not someone you want to try to have a relationship with; his grass may not be green enough on any given day. Until he’s horny, then any grass will do.
Dean’s supposed to grow on the reader as his knight-in-shining-armorness becomes more apparent. Um, no thanks. He’s a martyr and wants you to know how endlessly he’s suffered on your behalf, even though you were oblivious to his thoughts and feelings. He might wait a while before outright telling you, but he’ll watch you with longing from afar. “You and Jack were the same age and great friends, so I decided for you that you should have nothing to do with me.” Excuse me while I genuflect.
In complete honesty I hoped so hard that Carmen would realize she deserved better than either brother and wash her hands of both of them. Speaking of—Modglin does her damnedest to make Carmen relatable, and I suppose she is on some level. But I wanted to her realize that both brothers were yanking her around and put a stop to it. But it never occurred to her that it was toxic. She—all of them—just fell into the same pattern as before and played the same damn games. Barf. Also Carmen seemed to want to blame everyone else for everything shitty in her life. The more time I spent with her, the more I didn’t want to spend more time.
Aside from that, I’m trying to imagine finding the mutilated body of a good friend on my parents’ acreages and if the trauma would be so great as to keep me from wanting to come home for ten years. That’s tough, but I daresay not. I mean if my parents could go on living there knowing a murder might have occurred on their property—a remote, locked-up, and forgotten part at that—I hope I’d at least have the balls to visit for the holidays.
So yeah, don’t do what I did and see the cool cover image and think this will be a juicy murder mystery in a spooky setting with some found-family dysfunction thrown in. No. It’s two toddler boys fighting over a flashy new toy. Period.
Title: The Lady Plays with Fire
Author: Susanna Craig
Series: Goode’s Guide to Misconduct #2
Thank you to Susanna Craig, RB Media, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book was okay. Longer than it needed to be; the pace plodded a bit in the beginning and I was bored enough at 45% to want to quit it, but told myself to push through to at least halfway. Then I got busy doing something, the story got more interesting, and I decided to finish it.
I grew fond of tragic Graham but remained indifferent to Julia. She didn’t seem to have much personality aside from love of theatre, and Elizabeth Jasicki’s narration didn’t do her any favors, often delivering her dialogue without finesse. “Shrewish” comes to mind but is a little too harsh to be accurate. She just didn’t endear me.
Jasicki’s a very talented narrator, but I’m afraid she’s not to my taste. I don’t think she’s that old irl, but she sounds it, and I struggled to reconcile her voice with the young heroine. It took me out of the story.
Overall, a pretty standard historical romance that lacked energy, blathered a bit, and largely failed to draw me in.
Title: Wild Scottish Beauty
Author: Tricia O’Malley
Series: The Enchanted Highlands #5
Much thanks to Tricia O’Malley, Dreamscape Select, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
First and foremost, the VIP of this novel is Clyde the ghost coo. My mom has a miniature highland steer as a pet and he’s as playful as any puppy; Clyde reflected that, and I absolutely adored it. Clyde alone elevates this four-star book to five stars.
I really enjoyed this cute romance, but it had its faults. It was packed with cliches—friend’s little sister is off limits, coworker is off limits, village dance, etc. The most egregious was Ramsay pushing Willow away for her own good—I cannot roll my eyes hard enough. Ramsay’s misplaced gallantry and traces of chauvinism were probably the worst things about him, otherwise he was a great hero. Willow was a good heroine, as well as an underdog I loved rooting for. Her brother was a fucking dick to her, I don’t think she was nearly as angry with him as she should have been.
Another fault was the fantasy subplot that involved some legend and kelpies and powers. I honestly did not understand it, but it didn’t matter much so no need to sweat. It was clearly tossed in there to make the story longer and more interesting. Felt super half-assed and wasn’t any kind of resolved, being the over-arching plot for the series.
The narrators Amy Landon and Will Watt were great. Watt’s Scottish brogue certainly sounded authentic—maybe too much. It was so thick that I was forced to listen at x1 speed; the next speed up, x1.25 (the NetGalley app has few playback speed options), made Watt sound garbled. That was the first time I listened to an audiobook at normal speed in . . . years.
Overall, if you want a fun romp with charismatic characters, an adorable psychic cat and ghost cow, and you don’t mind overused tropes, look no farther. I totally want to read the others in the series. I want more Clyde.
Title: Dead Tired
Author: Kat Ailes
Series: Expectant Detectives #2
Much thanks to Kat Ailes, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me use of free ARCs in exchange for an honest review.
I think I liked this book better than the first, and I liked the first a lot. Alice is so down-to-earth and relatable I can’t not love her. Ailes’ writing is hilarious, from the recalcitrant Helen to the puking babies to the fumbling detective work. More, please!
Title: Riley Thorn and the Dead Guy Next Door
Author: Lucy Score
Series: Riley Thorn #1
Thanks to Lucy Score, Sourcebooks Bloom Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this book was pitched as Stephanie Plum meets Charley Davidson. Relatable, reluctant, overpowered heroine? Check. Obnoxiously egotistical hero who the heroine deserves better than but will obsess over? Check. Police-adjacent occupation? Check. Hilarious secondary cast? Check. The manic energy of several espresso shots? Check.
If you think the Stephanie Plum and/or Charley Davidson series are wonderful, you’ll think Riley Thorn is too. But I’ve had issues with both series despite my love for them, and not surprisingly, I’m having similar problems with this one. Like the OP heroine (Plum’s OP is Ranger, or sheer luck)—does Riley really need to see the future and read minds? It makes things too easy for her, and I also had a hard time discerning what was dream, what was prediction, what was mind-reading, etc. It all kinda swirled together into a murky psychic ex machina soup.
The hero—Nick was a dumbass. Give me the quiet confidence of a mature adult, not the swagger of a fool who thinks his shit don’t stink. Nick had the personality of a cocksure teenage boy who hasn’t figured out which head to think with. No, thanks.
The plot itself is pretty good. It could be argued that it was overly complicated, or that there was too much plot going on. And the chase at the end got to be ridiculous.
Overall, if you’re a Plum or Davidson fan, Riley Thorn is worth checking out, but be warned, it’s par for the course.
