A quick little roundup of several smaller reviews I wrote in Summer 2024. Beware of spoilers!
Title: The Burning
Author: Linda Castillo
Series: Kate Burkholder #16
Much thanks to Linda Castillo, St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to use free ARCs in exchange for an honest review.
Not much to say, this book was great! The mystery was very intriguing and brilliantly framed the dilemma of victim blaming, how easy it is to fall into. The pace was fast but not rushed; the book wasn’t short, but it seemed to fly by. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I love Kate and Tomasetti being all domestic, thinking about kids. And Skid and Mona? Cute. I don’t remember Kate circling back to Skid’s suspicious explanation, but perhaps that’ll be a subplot in the next book. I also love how Castillo humanizes the Amish people as well as honors them. From a distance it’s easy to generalize them as sanctimonious or stupid or stubborn, but they have all the same emotions and conflicts we English do. It’s fascinating.
Overall, can’t wait for the next one!
Title: The Heiress’s Daughter
Author: Anne Gracie
Series: The Brides of Bellaire Gardens #3
Thanks to Anne Gracie, Berkley, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Sadly, this book was meh. The plot boils down to an heiress learning to trust a man who’s reputation suggests he’s untrustworthy, while he endeavors to convince her she can trust him. It’s a cycle that loses its intrigue quickly. The heroine is timid and self-conscious about everything except her sisters, which is the part I liked most about her. The hero is nice and charming but seems to do nothing with his time aside from try to get her to take him seriously.
Overall, boring plot, boring heroine, boring hero.
Title: The Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets
Author: Kate Khavari
Series: Saffron Everleigh #3
Much thanks to Kate Khavari, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
It took me a short while to get into this book; I had largely forgotten what had happened in the previous two so I felt a little lost until I’d gathered enough exposition and memories to make sense of things. I need to reread the series before book 4.
The closer I got to the end, the juicier the plot got. It definitely ended well. My only complaint is—Bill? Is there a more un-sinister name? When he said it, I almost laughed out loud. Definitely made a face.
There’s a lot of wonderful character building in this book. Saffron’s trying to have her cake and eat it, too, occupation-wise, or at least that was how I understood the sitch. She’s still heartbroken over losing her first love, but starting to let Alexander in. Speaking of, we learn so much about Alexander. And Elizabeth! I wanted to give her a hug so bad. Stupid jackass psychopath brother.
My only disappointment, really, is that I did not feel any chemistry between Saffron and Alexander. They seem well suited, but for some unknown reason I don’t feel romance between them.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next!
Title: A Game Most Foul
Author: Alison Gervais
Series: n/a
Much thanks to Alison Gervais, Blink YA Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Jules goes to London for a writer’s workshop and finds out her professor is THE Dr. John Watson. But how? And who is locked in the professor’s office binge-watching sitcoms? One of her classmates has gone missing, and Jules and her new friends Percy and Suruthi try to investigate…..but they could use some help.
I adored this book, save for how it ended. It was written with charm and energy, with a steady pace that kept things moving but also gave you time to absorb information. The mystery and intrigue hooked me.
I loved Jules as the lead. Relatable, down-to-earth, girl-next-door. I love when characters are hearing impaired, I find it so fascinating. Percy and Suruthi were decent secondaries, but I’m afraid I didn’t find them as endearing as Jules. Percy was bland and dorky and awkward, but not in an endearing way, more like I wince every time he opens his mouth. Suruthi brought the energy, but again, she just struck me wrong. A bit pushy, a bit forward. Unfortunately I felt no chemistry between Percy and Jules; I could see his shy little crush on her, but her interest in him felt more like pity. Their kisses felt cringy and forced, their relationship trite.
As for Holmes and Watson, I liked Gervais’s portrayal of them. What I didn’t like is how they took over the narrative. It became their story. The worst part? It was very half-assed. They found most information in Watson’s journals and made assumptions. I don’t remember them hunting down Ashley and demanding answers. I don’t remember them finding many answers about Ashley in general. They just wanted to know how to end their stasis and were willing to cut corners to do it. Holmes, not obsess about the whys and hows? Hmm…
They didn’t conclude the writer’s workshop. We didn’t learn if they completed their manuscripts and if they were any good. It’s suggested that Jules got over her writer’s block, but we don’t actually know if she was able to successfully write again. We get almost no conclusion to her story.
And that epilogue. Really? You want the reader’s last impression to be that the decayed corpses of the beloved detective duo were found by a stranger because a neighbor complained about the smell? Not a whole lot of dignity in that. I just found it so bizarre that that was how the author killed them. We’re to believe they’re dead, anyway.
Overall, I loved the promise of this book—the premise, too—but I was left with a bitter taste. Holmes and Watson’s plight took over and the investigation into them was underwhelming.
Title: Nice Work, Nora November
Author: Julia London
Series: n/a
Much thanks to Julia London, HarperCollins Focus, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
To preface—I’ve been battling chronic depression for nearly twenty years now. Well, that’s how long I’ve been on antidepressants; the depression itself likely started before that. I’ve been going through a really debilitating bout of it for the last six months or so. I was very curious to see if Nora and I had a lot in common.
And I wanted to love this book. I so, so did. It was uplifting, it was engaging, it was well-paced, I loved the characters.
But….it’s not what it thinks it is. It thinks it’s a book about a woman who fights depression and overcomes it, changing her life for the better.
Sorry, no. This book has no idea what it’s talking about.
Where was the crippling depression in the narrative? Nora had a few doubtful moments, a few misgivings, some short bouts of low self-worth, a boat load of guilt, but I didn’t see much depression. Nora seemed pretty ordinary to me, with short-lived low moods that everybody gets. In exposition she described depression pretty well—“Days of feeling like her body was filled with lead and suffocating under the weight of it. Days when depression gripped her in a vice and wouldn’t allow her to generate the slightest bit of energy. She’d felt empty and useless and like an abject failure. Her life had felt completely out of her control”—but we never saw that.
Because the story’s about her “after” life—after her near-death experience, which unearths her confidence. Direct quote. (Well, no, verbatim it’s: “And then, somehow, in the aftermath of a terrible accident, her confidence had been unearthed”)
So according to this book, depression is a lack of confidence, and dying will cure that.
Yes, it is suggested that:
1. Dying is a successful way to fight depression. Dying will completely change your brain chemistry so that you feel an inner peace and drive you’ve never felt before.
2. You’re not successfully fighting depression if you’re not making huge changes in your life and taking on responsibilities that will bring several new layers of stress to your life. Because if you’re depressed, you need to try harder and do more, you lazy, self-centered bum.
Overall, this book seems to suggest depression is a choice. An attitude. And that is false.
This is not a story about a woman overcoming her depression. It’s just another women’s fiction about a self-perceived fuck-up gaining confidence in herself, while also being about a woman dissatisfied with her life making changes to become satisfied. And it utilizes the nearly-dying-sparks-epiphany trope. And at that, it’s excellent! If depression had been left out of it, I’d have rated it five stars.
But as it is, it will only perpetuate the misconception plaguing mental illnesses.
Then again, maybe Nora didn’t seem to have depression because her antidepressants were working. If so, I need to know what she’s on.
Title: The Quit List
Author: Katie Bailey
Series: related to Season’s Schemings
Thanks to Katie Bailey, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Holly’s on the hunt for her perfect partner but only finds jackholes on dating apps. Doesn’t help that she’s stuck on her boss, who’s also her ex. Tending bar where she often has her dates, Jax has a front row seat to the loser parade. When one date looks to turn nasty, he steps in and somehow ends up agreeing to be Holly’s dating coach. Sparks fly and yada yada.
This was a pretty good book. Funny, relatable. Well-paced, but I got a bit impatient around the time Holly and Jax both knew they wanted each other and hooking up was inevitable, yet he was still resisting and she was still looking for dates. It was also a little annoying how this was very clearly a sequel to Season’s Schemings, which I did not know going in or I probably wouldn’t have requested this book. Quit List can be read alone, but starting with book one could only help.
Overall, a good if cliche romance.
Title: All Our Tomorrows
Author: Catherine Bybee
Series: The Heirs #1
Thanks to Catherine Bybee, Brilliance Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Me, considering whether or not to request this book: on one hand, it’s about disgustingly rich characters, a trope I don’t care for. On the other, it’s Catherine Bybee, and I have yet to read a bad Bybee. Mmmm… okay, let’s give it a shot.
And it was good! Loved the characters, loved the mystery, loved Piper’s dilemma. Still don’t care for the richer-than-god trope, but I understand its ex machina uses. Usually that trope means the characters are immediately unrelatable, but Piper’s frugality countered it, along with Chase and Alex’s somewhat-discovery of their father’s wealth.
Chase was a sweetheart, but I feel that he put Piper on too high a pedestal. She could do no wrong in his eyes, and once he’d decided he was into her, he was IN. Done. Ready for it all. No hesitation, no misgivings. Some uncertainty would have humbled him a bit.
In that vein, the only blemish on Piper’s character was that she had doubts about her pregnancy. Well, and that she had a random hookup. Otherwise she was a little too perfect.
Overall, while the characters were a bit too squeaky clean, they were likable and endearing, and I still have yet to read a bad Bybee.
Title: A Daughter of Fair Verona
Author: Christina Dodd
Series: Daughter of Montague #1
Much thanks to Christina Dodd, RB Media, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I was pretty leery of this one. I’ve never read Romeo and Juliet and have no desire to. Would this still be accessible to me? I’ve read books that took beloved classic characters and butchered them in the effort of a fresh angle. Would that be the case here? I haven’t been super into Dodd’s work lately, would this also be lackluster? The doubts piled up, and I ignored review copies of this book for months. Then the audiobook became available, and I was still intrigued by the blurb. All right, fine, gimme.
And I liked it. A lot. A LOT. It wasn’t inaccessible—actually, I foresee many complaints about anachronisms and modern language, though I had no problem with it. It’s not only for Romeo and Juliet fans; I fell in love with them, with all the characters. There will be readers who don’t like Dodd playing with the lovers, but I was a blank slate, as it were, and I adore Dodd’s version of them. They’re wonderful parents and wonderful people. They got their happily ever after! I don’t view it as butchery at all, but again, I wasn’t attached to the OGs.
As for lackluster—there was a section after the death of the duke where I tuned out, almost wanted to DNF. I suspect my lack of interest was due to: Lysandre, whom I could tell was not endgame and I found him annoying, so I had no interest in watching Rosie moon over him; and the bigger problem, the narrator, Suzy Jackson, was not to my taste. She’s very talented, but she’s not a good fit for Rosie. She made Rosie sound immature, reactionary, at times shrill and shrewish. Rosie’s supposed to be mature, rational, practical, intelligent. Also Italian, and I’m not confident Jackson pronounced all the Italian terms accurately; she sounded rather awkward when they came up.
But when I tuned in again this morning, I couldn’t stop. I’m chucking my brief disinterest up to being tired before. No, despite the narrator, I was enthralled with the rest of the book, and I’m so frustrated with the end. I want the next book, stat! There had better be a next book.
Overall, I had a surprisingly great time in fair Verona, and I hope Dodd doesn’t get swamped by OG loyalists.
Title: Highland Games
Author: Evie Alexander
Series: Kinloch #1
Much thanks to Evie Alexander, Emlin Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I’m relieved to report this book is great! I was leery of the cover art that, while funny, lacks finesse, as well as the narration by the author. But it sounded fun, so I gave it a shot.
We could have used a glimpse of Zoe’s life before she moved to the cabin; we’re told she needed a change, but not shown. Not vitally necessary, but it might have helped me understand her baffling determination to live in the cabin, which sounded little better than a cardboard box under a bridge. I know she had fond memories of her uncle, but still….yikes.
Rory was a great grumpy hero; his POV helps the reader understand why he was treating Zoe so poorly, why he was resisting her. Meeting Lucy and being shown, not told, what she was like might have helped me decide how to feel about her. I didn’t know if she was supposed to be a “bad guy” or a good person who was just getting pushed around by Rory’s mom. I didn’t feel like I quite had closure on the Lucy conflict at the end.
As a character Zoe was a bit ridiculous, and I rolled my eyes at her a few times. Mistaking the man for a bear and throwing a loaf of bread at him? Ramming his truck because he’d omitted one aspect of his identity? Immediately assuming the worst without asking for an explanation? Yeah, she could be dramatic, but other traits redeemed her—her instant love for the rat, her good relationships with her friends and family, her determination to live in that hovel. So, immature at times, but also endearing.
I’m left with questions at the end, and I really hate when that happens. The audiobook ended and my first thought was, Wait, what happened with the castle?? The conflict Rory’s entire subplot revolved around? Nada. Also, more minor, how did his mom know Zoe rammed his truck? No one saw it, and Rory wouldn’t have told her.
If it didn’t say on the cover that the author was also the narrator, you wouldn’t guess it. She sounded like a professional to my ear. Maybe she has a background in voice acting, I don’t know. The only thing that was weird was a couple times she pronounced something awkwardly as if she wasn’t familiar with the phrase, and I sit there thinking, You wrote this, right? Why didn’t you know how to inflect it? But it’s a very very minor complaint.
All that said, this really was a fun, charming story with likeable, endearing characters, a classic setting, and delicious smut. And hilarious animals—the highland cattle, the rat, the dog. Zoe’s very lucky that those highlands weren’t as playful as my mini, or she’d have been either skewered or trampled, entirely by accident.
Title: Love Ad Lib
Author: Evie Alexander
Series: Foxbrooke #1
Thanks to Evie Alexander, Emlin Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I didn’t care for this one as much as I did Highland Games. Very different stories, save for the bankrupt estate. This isn’t necessarily a bad book or even badly written, it’s mostly just not to my taste. I don’t tend to like corporate blah blah—see, I can’t even talk about it without getting bored—so starting out with that wasn’t great for me. Plus that workshop went on and on and on—it definitely could have been one annoying exercise shorter. I understand why that scene introduced the narrative, but that doesn’t make me like it any better.
In addition to the corporate malarkey that started the book out—actually, even before the corporate malarkey, considering the unnecessary prologue—well, debatably; the prologue could also just have been the first chapter—anyway, in addition to the corporate setting, the Foxbrookes gave me such an icky feeling. Not creepy-icky like Lucas, the Foxbrookes all seemed like very nice, caring people, but rather I-don’t-want-to-touch-that-surface-because-you’ve-told-me-what-happens-on-it-regularly kind of icky. I mean, you do you, love is love, I’m not judging their relationships or what they do behind closed doors. But the walking around without tying your robe while you have guests, speaking freely to your children about fucking their mothers, disregarding any wishes for privacy—those are the icky things. Those are not funny to me. That’s just being self-involved and disrespectful of everyone around you. So while I thought Arthur (for he was the main offender) was a genuinely kind and loving man, I also wanted to punch him in the face. And take him to see a professional about his severe sex addiction.
Those two things aside, I enjoyed watching Henry and Libby fall in love. It seemed to go on a bit longer than it needed to—the cat-sitting scenario started to test my patience; I mean jesus, Libby, get a clue; and jesus, Henry, you couldn’t just get a nice kitty from a rescue? (nice DOG, actually, because your scheme is one thing, but filling your friend’s home with allergens? *beats head against wall*)—but otherwise was a fun journey. Henry’s contract was hilarious, and he was so adorkably cute and earnest about making sure she felt safe in the arrangement. Libby’s love for Jane Austen, particularly Pride and Prejudice, was cliche but endearing.
So yeah, didn’t love it but didn’t hate it, either. The Foxbrooke situation is over the top, but you’re rooting too hard for Henry and Libby to care overmuch. If you don’t mind some over-the-top and love funny rom-coms, this book—and Alexander’s work in general—could be up your alley.
Title: A Deceptive Composition
Author: Anna Lee Huber
Series: Lady Darby Mystery #12
Much thanks to Anna Lee Huber, Berkley, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this installment! I loved seeing a softer side to Lord Gage, loved seeing him dote on Emma and grow fond of Kiera. Loved learning more about Gage’s family, if distant. I loved that Bree and Anderly are together. I loved the intriguing mystery, I had no idea who did it or why. Keira is just as lovely and feisty as ever, Gage just as dashing. Overall, I’m not tired of this series yet!
