fiction

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

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The Bookshop on the Corner book coverThe Bookshop on the Corner is lovely, even if the name doesn’t quite fit. The main character’s bookshop is too unique to be that simplistically summed up.

I should mention that this isn’t a romance, but there is a significant romance in the book—it just doesn’t really get going right away. So it doesn’t follow the traditional course of a romance novel, even if it does start off with a major problem for the heroine.

Nina Redmond is a librarian passionate about her job—she adores the matchmaking process of finding the right book for the right person. So it’s pretty devastating when she’s laid off. She doesn’t have a lot of options because the library system in Birmingham (that would be the one in England) doesn’t care about books anymore. They’re trying to cater to the younger crowd and focus on different media. The library offers all the staff made redundant a team-building/career training and during the training, Nina admits to always wanting to own a bookshop. Somehow this idea warps into owning a mobile bookshop.

Despite her friends’ reservations, Nina seeks out a van, finding one in Kirrinfief, a village up in the Highlands in Scotland, that looks perfect and affordable. She travels there and the owner of the van balks when he sees she’s “just a tiny woman,” someone he can’t envision driving his van. She goes back to Birmingham downtrodden and van-less, only to find out that a couple of the men she met at the local pub before meeting the van’s owner have offered to buy it from him and sell it to her. Everything seems great—until she can’t obtain the permits she’d need to park the van on her street in Birmingham. So she makes another decision that surprises everybody: she moves to Kirrinfief. She’s lucky enough to find a lovely modernized barn apartment on Lennox Farms, which is run by a gruff farmer (that would be Lennox himself).

Nina meets a variety of people through an early mishap involving a deer, her van, and a train and through her work, which goes pretty well. There’s a love interest in Marek, a lonely Latvian train driver, before Lennox really comes on scene for the main course. Nina’s life seems to be turning around. A lot of things are going well, but there are still a few challenges she has to face.

As I implied earlier, it’s a charming book. The setting of the Scottish Highlands is wonderful and so well-drawn. Colgan puts in just enough of the local flavor to give us the sound of the language with her ayes, coudlnaes, disnaes, an occasional Scots word, and even some overheard Gaelic, all without overdoing it. She paints the rural countryside and farm colorfully, too. It all made me miss being there.

The characters are all excellent and highly distinctive. Nina herself is so likable and relatable. She’s shy but got a streak of bold buried in her. Her best friend Surinder is entertaining. Marek is interesting and Lennox is intriguing from the beginning, even before I was sure he’d be a love interest. There are a few stereotypes among the secondary characters, but Colgan’s populated a whole town, so it’s all in fun. My favorite was the sullen teenager who Nina befriends.

I was not familiar with Colgan before this book, but I can say I’m definitely likely to read another one by her when I’m looking for something feel-good. I can recommend it to anyone who likes a complicated love story, hearing about books, or reading about rural Scotland.

Coming in from the Cold (Gravity #1) by Sarina Bowen

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Coming in from the Cold book coverI’ve had this book a little while and was sort of saving it, not wanting to run out of Bowen’s novels. She’s prolific, but not that prolific. (If only…)

This is a slim book—not even 250 pages with a larger font than you sometimes see. And probably for that reason, there’s not as much going on in the book as there sometimes is in hers. That made this a lighter read for me, even though it did delve into some emotionally demanding territory.

Willow Reade’s made some non-ideal life choices that have landed her in rural Vermont with an underwater mortgage. She’s alone after her boyfriend left her for a rich girl. Something Willow is not. One of her bad choices was to “temporarily” abandon her Ph.D. in psychology.

Some kind of wasting disease runs in Dane Hollister’s family, and he assumes he’s got only a few years of mobility left. He’s trying to make the most of it by living as a sponsored downhill skier competing at the world level. He’s training in Vermont this season to be close to his brother, who’s in a nursing home.

Willow and Dane’s paths cross at the onset of a nasty winter storm, where they nearly wreck their cars and both end up stuck. They decide to huddle together in Dane’s car in the hopes of a snow plow coming by. When one does but doesn’t help them (it’s dark), they know they’re there for the night. So they chat. Dane reveals more about his life than he normally does to strangers and Willow tells the latest chapter in her sad story. Soon they act on their attraction and make the most of their confinement—but not before Dane makes it clear it’s a one-time thing, as he’s not a relationship guy. After all, he knows he can’t put anyone else through what he’s going through with his brother.

The consequences of their tryst shake up both of their lives. Dane in particular has to face his fears. Willow has to do some soul-searching, too, but not as much as Dane. As I sort of implied earlier, I feel like this book doesn’t go as deep as some of her others. The chemistry between Willow and Dane is good, but not amazing. This is one of her earlier books, though, so it’s not shocking. The book’s still very good. And the love scenes are definitely up to her standard.

Any fan of Bowen will want to read this. And anyone who likes books that deal with challenging, real-life issues will also enjoy it.

Beard in Mind (Winston Brothers #4) by Penny Reid

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Beard in Mind book coverNow it’s finally Beau Winston’s turn. The overly pleasant, charming guy has been watching his brothers and sister get their HEAs started and he’s a little more jealous than he’d like to admit to himself.

Enter Shelly Sullivan. She’s not the kind of woman Beau usually goes for. I mean, she’s gorgeous, but she’s troubled and very unpleasant to be around. She’s rude to Beau and to the customers of their auto shop. She’s awkward, has no filter, and doesn’t shake hands. She has a foul-mouthed parrot and big dogs that attack people with slobbery enthusiasm.

So they don’t seem particularly “suited” (in Winston brothers’ terminology). However, when Beau notices that she’s a cutter, or at least has been in the past, he worries about her. He’s unearthed a secret of sorts, and she gives him to full story soon after he talks to her about it. She’s got OCD (the real one, not the term we casually throw around) with severe touch aversion.

You might think that wouldn’t make for a good romance, but Reid pulls it off. It starts off a little rocky with an awkward proposition from Shelly, which Beau fends off. But once Beau starts to see her as more of a flawed human than a rude bitch, things shift. Fortunately for Beau and Shelly (and readers), she’s not opposed to all touch… and it turns out that Beau’s willing to help her with some tough therapy that’s supposed to get rid of the aversion altogether.

There is a big Winston family news bombshell that’s dropped on us in the middle of the book that some readers may not love, because it’s a big deal and kind of distracts from the main story. However, it added complexity to the story that I liked. I always enjoy books with a lot going on, and this definitely counts. On top of that one, Shelly’s got her own family issues that need to get resolved. It’s wonderful and satisfying to watch everything unfold.

I love the fact that Reid gave us a kind of character we don’t often see in a romance in this book. She did a great job of making Shelly believable and real. And I also loved to see how Beau went from being a kind of average ignorant-about-mental-illness kind of guy to an informed and helpful one. That too was believable.

Any fan of Reid’s will want to read this book. If you’re interested in reading about a very unusual heroine (or just curious about how that will play out), you’ll want to pick it up, too. I’m looking forward to the next ones.

Anything for You (Blue Heron #5) by Kristan Higgins

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Anything for You book coverEven though usually the main main character of an mf romance is the female lead, Anything for You is Connor O’Rourke’s story. Jessica Dunn is important, but we start and end with Connor and it was kind of fun that way.

Connor’s been in love with Jess ever since she rescued him from being mauled to death by her family’s mean pit bull when they were both twelve. But she was never interested in him back when they were kids, too busy handling her own tough life to really consider him.

And Jess has had a very tough life. She grew up in a trailer park with criminally neglectful and drunk parents and a younger brother (Davey) born with fetal alcohol syndrome. She has taken care of him basically all his life. And it hasn’t been easy. She felt the need to seek external protection for him from the boys in her high school, and her approach to this was to sleep with them to earn a favor. So she became known as the Manningsport town slut, all while being probably the most decent, hard-working person in the whole town and not remotely interested in “a good time.”

Connor, on the other hand, hasn’t had it too bad. Although he’s never been close to his jerk of a father, said father’s a well-off lawyer and Connor’s been pretty comfortable. He has disappointed his parents by going to culinary school, however. But then he and his twin sister received an inheritance that allowed them to open a new restaurant in Manningsport so he moved back.

When the book opens, they’re both thirty-two and Connor is proposing. Jess doesn’t take it seriously, calling him a “doofus” and “big guy” in the process of saying no. They’ve been secretly dating on-and-off for ten years and he’s done. He wants their relationship to be real and in the open. But the way Jess sees it, she has responsibility for her brother, who hates Connor. Because Davey blames Connor for the death of Chico, the dog that mauled him, and Davey loved Chico more than anything. So, since Davey comes first, that’s that.

Although the story starts there, in the next chapter, we drop straight back to the mauling incident twenty years earlier. Then we see the first time Connor and Jess hang out and hook up, at a wine class he’s teaching at the culinary institute (her boss at her waitressing job sent her). He ruins it by saying something stupid and hurtful. She says goodbye and that’s that for a while. The book proceeds by telling the rest of their history before jumping back to after the proposal.

As usual for a Higgins book, there’s a lot going on in both Connor’s and Jess’s lives. Jess has worked so hard and is living in a rental house working toward buying her own. She’s managed to go to college and even get a master’s in marketing. And now she works at the Blue Heron winery in Manningsport and is well-loved there. Connor’s busy with his restaurant and attempting to get a brewery started up. Then he finally comes up with an idea to win Davey over, which he believes will change everything for him and Jess. It’s not a bad idea, even if it doesn’t go quite as planned.

The book’s loaded with humor that doesn’t come at anyone’s expense and a fair amount of sexy times. Higgins is a master of details that appear to effortlessly pull the reader into the story. Her dialogue is crisp and entertaining. There are numerous interesting side characters—most notably Colleen, Connor’s twin, and a new hire at the winery.

Overall, it’s a great read that any fan of a good romance will enjoy.

Friends Without Benefits (Knitting in the City #2) by Penny Reid

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Friends Without Benefits book coverThe first Penny Reid book I read was the first in this series and I loved it, so I was anticipating reading the rest of the series (in order, of course). So Elizabeth’s story came next.

Elizabeth Finney was the friend Janie stayed with at the beginning of book #1, so we got to know her a bit there. She’s finishing up her residency as an ER doctor, so she’s obviously a smart and high-achieving person, which makes her instantly likable. I definitely liked her in the first book, especially since she was so supportive of Janie.

In this book, we get to know her a lot better. Part of her backstory is very important to the book—specifically, that she was in love with her boyfriend Garrett who died when she was fifteen and he was sixteen. She still feels heartbroken over it, fifteen years later. As a result, she considers herself someone who just uses men she’s not genuinely interested in because love is out of the question for her (even though her number is very low).

The other part of her backstory is Nico Manganiello. Nico was Garrett’s best friend while they were all growing up, so Elizabeth knows him well. In fact, she lost her virginity to him a couple years after Garrett died and right before she moved to Ireland—and she hasn’t seen Nico since. Despite that ending to their relationship, most of her memories of him are negative, as he tormented her over the years. She finally finds out why after Nico and his mom and niece show up to the hospital for the little girl to join a study to help her cystic fibrosis. Elizabeth hasn’t seen him in nearly fifteen years, and Nico acts really weird at first. But when she sees him again, he proposes they become friends. She makes him clarify that that’s without benefits because she’s so surprised and confused by him. Because apparently, he’s been in love with her this whole time.

From there, the story develops with Elizabeth basically repeatedly turning Nico down while he tries in every way to convince her that she loves him, too. I have to admit that I grew a little frustrated with Elizabeth here. I didn’t fully understand her inner conflict—why she resisted so much when she was definitely attracted to him. It kind of bugged me throughout the book and I kept wishing she would just give in and go out with him, even if it would make the book shorter. However, the story continues and finally one of the subplots comes to a head in an exciting way, making her see things more clearly.

Still, I’m glad I read this, as I really do like the series and the women in Elizabeth’s knitting group. The book’s told entirely from Elizabeth’s point of view (except for the epilogue). And it’s definitely funny like the rest of Reid’s books are. Both characters are reasonably complex, even if we don’t get to see as much of Nico’s internal struggle as we might if we got his perspective, too. Nico’s mom and niece are both enjoyable, as well.

You’ll definitely want to read this if you are into the series, even if you end up a little frustrated with Elizabeth, too. Personally, I’m looking forward to Sandra’s story in book #3, which I have in a stack on my desk.

A Night to Surrender (Spindle Cove #1) by Tessa Dare

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A Night to Surrender book coverI’m pretty sure this is the first regency romance I’ve read (excepting Jane Austen) since I usually stick to contemporaries. This book reminded me of why that is—the men in that time were pretty horrible. Even the “good” ones. Also, corsets. Why do people think those are romantic? You can’t breathe in them. Breathing is important. It keeps you from passing out and stuff.

Anyway, Dare still does a good job with the story, even if it isn’t really for me.

Susanna Finch is pretty awesome. She’s clever and highly accomplished in a range of pursuits and very respected in the village (Spindle Cove) near the estate she lives on with her father. Her father is a well-known inventor, especially for his gun which is used extensively by English troops. And Susanna has grown up trying to please him, for example by learning to shoot, even though she can barely get his attention.

Enter Victor Bramwell. He’s an oversized officer with an injured leg who’s humoring Susanna’s father in an effort to get his command back. The man wants Bram to gather a militia in order to help him get back to the war. The problem? There aren’t too many men in Spindle Cove, as it’s basically a resort town catering to unusual or sickly ladies, thanks to Susanna’s efforts.

Susanna and Bram clash early on in this enemies-to-lovers story. She has no real interest in men, who failed to impress her during her one season in London. She’d much rather reign over the town as the helpful Miss Finch, solving any and all problems. Bram finds her irresistible but keeps telling himself that he’d better stay away from her since angering her father could endanger his career. Still, they keep running into each other and Susanna finds that she too is powerfully drawn to him.

As I’ve mentioned, I really liked Susanna, even if she was a little naïve in a way that didn’t quite fit her character in the beginning of the book. But Bram was another story. He wasn’t the worst kind of man for his times, as he liked the fact that Susanna was smart and capable. But he was still always wanting to possess her in a way that annoyed me. And he took liberties he shouldn’t have, such as when they first met, when he tackles her (for acceptable reasons) and kisses her (for fun). And he was always saying things like, Go over there and sit with the women, where you belong. She calls him a beast when he does stuff like that but basically laughs it off. Still, Bram grew on me a little and bugged me less in the second half of the book. The story itself gets more fun in the second half, too, when the women of the town get involved in helping the militia come to be.

Despite my reservations with Bram, Dare is a talented writer, creating a good story with witty dialogue and interesting secondary characters. And something happens with Susanna’s father that I wasn’t expecting, and I appreciated the surprise. The world-building is great, as I was definitely taken back to 1813. There are several laugh-out-loud moments, too. Perhaps more importantly, this is a steamy book and Susanna and Bram get creative when necessary.

If you’re like me and don’t enjoy being reminded of how horrible things used to be for women, this book probably isn’t for you. However, I can easily recommend it to fans of spicy regencies with believably strong heroines.

My (Not So) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

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My (Not So) Perfect Life book coverWho doesn’t love a story set in modern-day, crazy London?

Kinsella starts us off basically on the tube with Katie Brenner, who’s recently rebranded herself “Cat” in an attempt to escape from her country roots. Because being rural is just not cool in London. She works for a marketing (branding?) agency as a very junior research assistant, but she has hopes of moving up. She has the skill, but maybe not the luck.

Anyway, back to the opening. We get a hilarious picture of the morning commute. You might not think that could be funny, but in Katie’s voice, it definitely is. “Commuting in London is basically warfare,” but she still manages to provide us with some laugh-out-loud moments and this just sets the tone for the whole book, which is full of these moments.

Katie’s boss is a frazzled woman named Demeter who has a mild case of face blindness and can’t keep her employees—or her calendar—straight. Despite this, she’s known to be a bit of a branding genius and Katie’s constantly trying to get noticed by her. So she’s not happy when Demeter calls her in for some special task, only to find out she is to touch up Demeter’s roots in the office. Soon after that, she meets Alex, another rock star branding guy, but he’s actually young and pretty cute and even seems interested in Katie. She soon makes what appears to be a little headway in the office, getting herself into an important meeting. Then one of the other women in the office invites her to hang out. Things start to look up. Friends. Career growth.

Then the bottom falls out when she gets fired (I guess technically, laid off) by Demeter. She ends up back at her dad’s farm in Somerset, helping him get a new glamping business started. (Glamping is “glamour camping” for those not in the know.) She throws herself into that while desperately searching for a new job. Imagine her surprise when Demeter shows up at the newly opened glamping site… At first Katie actually goes a little mental and exacts some pretty funny revenge on Demeter, who doesn’t recognize her. But then everything changes when she finds out more about Demeter. And the book goes off in a direction that genuinely surprised me. When Alex appears at the farm, Katie doesn’t know what to think. Things are definitely not as they seem. I enjoyed the mild intrigue that follow.

The book’s really about being true to yourself and doing the right thing, and Katie’s a great character to experience it with. As I mentioned, it’s very funny throughout, but I should also mention that the dialogue is wonderful (humorous of course, but real and clever, too) and the characters are relatable. Katie’s great, Demeter’s surprising, Alex is sufficiently enchanting, and Katie’s dad and stepmom are both funny and engaging.

If you’re in the mood to laugh while getting a story that will still move you, then pick this one up.

It’s Your Move, Wordfreak! by Falguni Kothari

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It's Your Move, Wordfreak! book coverI stumbled across It’s Your Move, Wordfreak! on a list of Indian romances. The book has a lot going for it. It’s a cute premise—Alisha and Aryan meet online playing Scrabble. They really hit it off and decide to go on a semi-blind date. Alisha’s a smart and successful divorce lawyer who’s a little commitment-phobic due to her own parents’ failed marriage. Aryan’s a hot man-about-town who also happens to be a wildly successful architect.

The characters are interesting and likable enough. It’s all a nice setup for the story, but I think the fact that the date is the opening scene is a critical problem. For one, we don’t get to see any of the original courtship, which is a shame. We know from later that their online chats were witty and at times risqué. It would have been fun to see this. Then, the date itself goes very well. She meets his family and they love her. He meets hers and they love him. Etc. There’s basically no conflict at all until about halfway through the book. The seeds of later conflict are set in the first half, sure (Aryan has issues with his father and Alisha has a difficult client). But everything goes swimmingly until a sudden breakup. That’s where things finally really get started.

Once that happened, the book got more compelling because it finally felt like things were happening. (Reading it was kind of an interesting lesson in plotting. Even though lots of ”stuff” happened in the first half, it didn’t feel that way because of the lack of conflict.) The subplots are interesting and get resolved nicely. As I mentioned, the characters are good—they’re compelling and believable and I definitely rooted for them once things started going wrong.

I did have to make some allowances for cultural differences, especially because one of the subplots has to do with domestic violence, and it’s just not handled the same way it would be in the US. Something happens to Alisha at one point and Aryan’s and the others’ reactions were hard for me to stomach. His ultimate response was to sort out the problem with old-fashioned testosterone-fueled violence, with some Indian bribery thrown in for good measure. Still, the novel stayed fairly cute as that was somewhat glossed over.

In summary, this book could easily appeal to fans for English romance set in India (Mumbai to be specific). Just beware a slow start.

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

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Queens of Geek book coverQueens of Geek is technically a YA romance, not something I usually review here (generally they’re too tame, but I made an exception because it was what I read this week and the characters are all eighteen so it could be considered New Adult, which I would review here). So.

As the title implies, there are some serious geek themes in this book. First of all, it’s set at “SupaCon,” a fictional ComicCon, that’s in San Diego, I think. It’s about three best friends from Melbourne, Australia making the journey to the US for the first time. It’s narrated by the two women, Charlie and Taylor.

Charlie’s an upcoming movie star with a popular video blog. Her parents are from China, though her race has no relevance to the story from what I could see. It just makes everything more realistic, as Australia is diverse, too. Charlie also has pink hair and is bi, though her last relationship was with her male co-star, making it a very public one. The breakup was painful and also public and she’s a little gun-shy now. She has a crush on another up-and-coming star, Alyssa, who’s also going to be at SupaCon.

Although Taylor is one of Charlie’s best friends, they aren’t very alike—Taylor is shy and anxiety-riddled. She’s also on the spectrum, having been diagnosed with Asperger’s only a few months earlier. But she’s hoping to step a bit out of her comfort zone at SupaCon, even if she doesn’t know how. She doesn’t have a lot of confidence in general, but especially body confidence because she’s not some stereotypical sexy mama. She’s a little “curvy.” She credits Charlie with helping her to avoid falling down the well of self-loathing.

The third friend is Jamie, who also happens to be the guy Taylor’s been in love with for ages. Not that she’s going to say anything, because she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship, which she values dearly. The friends all plan to move to LA in the fall. Taylor and Jamie have applied to UCLA and Charlie is moving there for her career.

A lot of reviewers have admired this book for its positive messages about women and girls. Throughout the book, they support, protect, and help each other out. And it is great, since a lot of books show a more negative view of female relationships. At times, I did think the book got so caught in all the good it was trying to do that the story itself suffered. Nothing ever got too dire—things mostly went at least okay for the characters.

Also, I have to mention that this book has some of the best two-way communication I’ve ever seen, even between Taylor and Jamie. Much of the dialogue could be sample conversations in a self-help book about how to communicate effectively. People say what they feel and what they mean and they actually understand each other. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I noticed it.

Charlie and Taylor are both good characters, though I think Taylor is a little more complex and developed than Charlie. This is probably because her anxiety is explored in great depth. Jamie isn’t as developed as the other two, which I thought was a bit of a shame. I’d liked to have seen more of him. He’s also Hispanic and originally from Seattle but we don’t get much of him except to see how supportive he is of Taylor.

For those who live in geekdom, this book’s a dream. There are so many pop culture references that you’ll have to appreciate it. I’m not as in the mix as I used to be, but even I got a lot of the references. Overall, this was an enjoyable read with a lot of positive representation of things that frequently get a pass in the romance world. Still, it was light and fun.

Neanderthal Seeks Human (Knitting in the City #1) by Penny Reid

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Neanderthal Seeks Human book coverWhat’s better than a socially-awkward but very smart heroine hitting rock bottom before meeting the guy who’ll change everything? If you’re me, that’s a recipe for a highly entertaining romance.

This was the first Reid book I read and it made me an instant fan. I just reread it so I could write this review, and enjoyed it just as much the second time.

Janie is awesome. Not in the she’s-a-martial-arts-master way. She’s a dork, but a very lovable dork. As I mentioned, she’s socially awkward, which manifests in an especially amusing way: verbal diarrhea of random facts. These aren’t run-of-the-mill facts, either—Janie knows a ton about a lot of things. She’s not just socially inept, but kind of awkward in general. This can sometimes bug me (the whole Silly Woman thing), but in this case it worked because she wasn’t really that blundering and when she did encounter these moments, she was hilarious in reporting them. Case in point (after she’s just been laid off and is surprised to be getting sent home in a car):

The car was a limo.

I’d never been in a limo before, so of course I spent the first several minutes in shock, the next several minutes playing with the buttons, then the subsequent several minutes after that trying to clean up the mess made by an exploding water bottle.

We learn pretty early that Janie doesn’t have a lot of body confidence because she’s tall and curvy. But she’s not a withering flower. When someone comments, “You’re very big,” she quips, “Yes, I ate all my vegetables as a child.”

Before the book starts, Janie regularly admired a security guard at her building. And he’s the one who escorts her out and arranges the limo when she’s laid off. Then suddenly he—Quinn—is in her life all the time and she doesn’t know what to think because he’s the most attractive man she’s ever known. After his intentions become clearer, she and her friend decide he’s a “Wendell”—a hot player you’d never actually date, but can have loads of fun with anyway. We also get another useful term: “slamp,” the kind of girl who is willing to partake of a Wendell’s services.

Watching everything unfold is a lot of fun. The book’s told entirely from Janie’s perspective. I usually like the guy’s perspective too, but in this case, the single viewpoint works really well because Quinn is meant to be very enigmatic.

As I’ve implied before, the book’s also very funny. Dialogue is clever and fresh and Janie’s obscure-fact monologues really are hilarious if you appreciate nerds at all. Reid bills all her books as romantic comedies but to me they’re just contemporaries that happen to be funny. But that’s just splitting hairs.

The book’s also sexy, even though the love scenes aren’t as detailed as in some of Reid’s later books. Also, these scenes are full of over-analyzing gems like this: “My reactions were entirely medulla oblongata-based.” A sentence later she clarifies what she means—that her brain is malfunctioning because of what’s currently happening. It’s funny and doesn’t dissipate the heat like you might think.

I think any romance reader who’s got a bit of the nerd in them would love this book, but that’s not a requirement. It’s just a funny novel with a likable heroine and a sexy and appealing hero. Who doesn’t enjoy that?

A Distant Heart by Sonali Dev

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A Distant Heart book coverI enjoyed Dev’s first three books and was looking forward to this one. It features two minor (but important) characters from A Change of Heart, so I was excited to see their story.

Kimi was confined to a sterile room for most of her childhood. As a result, she doesn’t really have friends—except for the boy who clean bird crap off the side of the house. Rahul lost his father at fourteen and became the man of the house. Kimi’s father is a wealthy ex-Bollywood star and because Rahul’s father died protecting him, he tries to help Rahul’s family out. But Rahul is stubborn and doesn’t like the handouts, so he does work around Kimi’s house (”The Mansion,” as he calls it). 

Their friendship develops over time and although Kimi is clearly in love with him, he’s holding back for some reason. She doesn’t know why and it frustrates her. When the book opens, Kimi has recently had a heart transplant—and professed her love for Rahul and been shot down. But for some reason, a particularly vile gangster who ran a black market of organs from people he had killed has it out for her. As Rahul is a police officer, he ends up protecting her and they get out of Dodge. There’s more to it than escape, but I won’t give that away. Still, it forces them to be together even though Kimi told him to stay away after he rejected her. 

This one is more or less a romantic suspense. But I’m not sure it’s all the way there, partially because of Dev’s chosen narrative style. It’s a little different from her others because it relies much more heavily on flashback in order to show the development of Kimi and Rahul’s early friendship. That may be the reason that the book was slow to get going for me. I read her others fairly quickly, but I was only doing a chapter or two a night with this one until I got about a quarter in. But then it picked up.

Anyone who’s read the others, particularly A Change of Heart, will enjoy this one. You don’t have to have read her others, but I think you’d get more out of it if you have. 

The Art of Running in Heels (Chinooks Hockey Team #7) by Rachel Gibson

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The Art of Running in Heels book coverFor anyone who enjoyed the first six books from this series, the release of a seventh is pretty exciting. It’s been seven years since #6, after all.

This book follows Lexie Kowalsky, the now-grownup daughter of Georgie and John from book #1. She’s started her own business, making clothes for dogs. In order to get more exposure for her company, she signs up for a Bachelor-style show with a country flavor called Gettin’ Hitched. Then she ends up winning, with the culmination being a required wedding to the bachelor in question. But Lexie realizes she can’t go through it at the last minute and absconds.

Sean Knox is a new member of the Seattle Chinooks team. He has a frustrating and manipulative mother who’s convinced him to fly back to Canada to see her because she’s “dying” (something that happens over and over until she makes yet another miraculous recovery).

The two meet when the pilot of the small plane Sean has chartered insists on waiting for another passenger, who turns out to be Lexie literally running from her wedding. She manages to get into the plane, but it’s a comical ordeal in her poofy dress. So the setup’s funny enough and there are lots of subsequent laughs to be had. After some media developments, Lexie convinces Sean to be her fake boyfriend that made the Gettin’ Hitched guy a rebound relationship.

However, I had trouble with the book. For one thing, I could never relate at all to Lexie. She’s way too different from me. A bigger problem was Sean, who I never really liked. He keeps her in the dark about who he is for too long. The chemistry between them wasn’t as good as in Gibson’s other books. I felt like I was being told they were really into each other rather than shown. Additionally, I didn’t love the way the romance developed and I really thought the book was a little longer than necessary (and once we had Lexie on the actual plane, it was a little slow to develop).

Despite that, the characters are believable and realistic. Lexie will be familiar because she’s a lot like Georgie, with a lot of the same attitudes and speech patterns (this isn’t a criticism), which are quite unique in the book. Sean is true to the laconic hockey player type in dialogue and in his head. The storyline of Lexie’s business is both funny and nice to watch as she’s basically successful, even if the resolution is a little underwhelming.

Fans of the series will probably want to read this one, but I wouldn’t recommend starting in the series with it.

Brooklynaire (Brooklyn Bruisers #4) by Sarina Bowen

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Brooklynaire book coverFirst off, I love the title of this book. It’s so perfect.

Of course anyone who’s read any of the other Brooklyn Bruisers books knows about Becca and Nate. Nate is a very successful tech mogul and Becca’s been his assistant for seven years. A couple years earlier, he moved her to the Brooklyn Bruisers office when he bought the NHL team. Becca doesn’t know why and has always thought she did something to fall out of his favor. Because they were buddies for so long.

Becca’s a distinctly nice girl. She had to drop out of college when her father died and that’s when she landed the job with Nate’s company. Now, she’s helping to support her younger sister while she goes through college—by letting the sister and boyfriend and baby all live with her. It’s a bit wild and crazy at home, but she can’t imagine not helping out. In the midst of this chaos in her life, she slips and falls on the ice at work, hitting her head and giving herself a concussion.

Back in the early days, Nate had a fiancé, but something went wrong with that. And soon after, he started lusting after Becca. But she seemed inaccessible for one reason or another, and he never did anything about it. But when Becca gets hurt, he’s unable to keep himself from stepping in to help. His help is to offer her a place to stay away from her crazy apartment, so she can get some actual rest.

She’s a little weirded out at first, but when she does get some genuinely restful sleep, she’s in. But then she still doesn’t get better, and Nate’s sends her to a specialist who says she has additional, rarer damage from the fall. Dealing with this requires multiple therapy sessions a week that she struggles to pay for. (This is one thing that kind of annoyed me: Becca’s head injury would be covered by worker’s comp.)

It’s not in Nate’s house where they finally kiss. No, that takes place in a hotel room far away from New York. And it’s both hot and a little funny, because it catches Becca totally by surprise. But then there’s some confusion:

“Bec, listen—I will apologize again and get the fuck out of your room. But for the love of god, help me understand—are you pissed off about the kiss? Or are you pissed that I stopped?”

“That’s not an easy question!” Obviously.

His handsome face wrinkles with confusion. “But it’s multiple choice!”

Both Nate and Becca are well-drawn and deep characters. The sexual tension is great throughout and the release of that tension is also (should-be-)trademarked Bowen quality. I was a tiny bit meh about the grand gesture at the end, but I won’t spoil that for you. Other than that, it was perfect.

If you have read any of Bowen’s Brooklyn Bruisers books, you need to read this one. If you like hockey romances you should read it. And of course, if you like Bowen, you should read it. And although romances can actually be read out of order, to fully appreciate this one I’d recommend reading the first three Brooklyn Bruisers books first, since book #1 is really where this one starts.

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

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Wedding Date book coverThere’s been a fair bit of hype about The Wedding Date. So I went into it wondering if the book would live up to it. I think it does.

The main reason the book was so hyped up is that it features a black heroine and white hero. They’re definitely not the first multiracial couple to people romances, but this is the book that sort of broke through. Probably because it’s good (though I’ve read other good ones too—chalk it up to luck). And it addresses the race issue directly but doesn’t hit you over the head with it. The issues are sort of subtle and cleverly integrated with the plot. Also, I should mention that there aren’t that many romances featuring black heroines, regardless of the race of the hero. So seeing a book like this going mainstream is exciting. I hope it’s the beginning of a trend because I love reading about different kinds of people.

Alexa is chief of staff to Berkeley’s mayor and she has a lofty goal at the beginning of the book: to get a new program for at-risk youth going. She’s got to first convince the mayor and even after that, she’ll have to deal with the council of mostly privileged people. Drew’s goal at the beginning of the book is more mundane: survive the wedding of his ex-girlfriend and work buddy. Awkward. And he’s even in the wedding. Alexa and Drew meet when they get stuck in an elevator at the hotel the wedding party is staying in. Alexa’s heading up to visit her sister with a snack haul, and she and Drew teasingly fight over her cheese and crackers. By the time the power comes back on, Alexa is going to be Drew’s date for the wedding since his bailed.

Their chemistry’s great and it goes where you’d think it might (and good for Alexa—she was due). Neither of them has any intention of making this a long-term thing, but they start up a long-distance relationship anyway, flying back and forth (he’s in LA). Initially they spend time only with each other, but the longer it goes on, the more entrenched in each other’s lives they get. Eventually, Alexa goes to party with Drew at one of his ex-girlfriend’s houses. Alexa, who is “curvaceous,” is intimidated by all the beautiful, thin white women (who are also mostly blonde). I loved that part because I could so relate—I’ve never been one of the beautiful people either.

Race comes up several other times in the course of their relationship. First off, she asks Drew if she’ll be the only black person at the wedding. It hadn’t even occurred to him. Later, she cracks a joke about coffee and skin color and Drew reacts like a lot of white people would—he’s awkward and apologetic. The most significant moment is when they’re discussing the program she’s trying to get started in Berkeley. She has to school Drew on why it’s different when brown kids get up to the same shenanigans white kids get away with, with maybe a slap on the wrist. Not so for the brown kids. Another thing Drew just hadn’t thought of. It’s clear that he’s a good guy at heart, just kind of oblivious of the privilege his whiteness (and maleness and money) has granted him throughout life. The way we know he’s decent is that he listens to Alexa when she explains these things to him, rather than getting defensive. So there’s a lot of serious stuff in there, but there are also plenty of funny and light moments, too.

There was one thing that I found a little lacking in the book: the love scenes. They were basically nonexistent. Well, that’s not quite true—but there were few details. We get a little of the foreplay, but then we get told more or less what happens between one sentence and another. I’m used to a play-by-play. And I miss that because I actually think what they do in the bedroom (or wherever) really does matter to the story. But plenty of people will be more than satisfied with what’s there.

So, if you want a nice contemporary with an interesting storyline involving two smart and successful people, you’ve got it in The Wedding Date.

Kissing Tolstoy (Dear Professor #1) by Penny Reid

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Kissing Tolstoy book coverKissing Tolstoy is the short first book in a new series from Reid, one of my favorite romance authors. It might qualify as New Adult because it’s set on a college campus and Anna’s about to graduate, but the hero, Luca, is in his early thirties. And we do get his perspective, even though it’s mostly narrated by Anna. But whatever you call it, it’s cute and sexy.

Anna’s an electrical engineering junior, but she has a huge soft spot (borderline obsession?) with Russian literature. She’s also a nerd, which made me love her. As she points out, unlike the depictions on TV might lead you to believe that nerds never have sex, Anna clarifies: “Nerds do it. A lot.”

The set up is cute. Anna’s friend Emily gives her a friend’s address telling her she should email him for a blind date. Anna summons some courage and sends an email to a guy named Lucas. He agrees to meet her at a bar. She goes and is blindsided by the appearance of a super-hot motorcycle guy (leather pants, leather everything, and the bluest eyes she’s ever seen). They have a sort of strange interaction (he grills her about her background), during which she envisions herself having all sorts of fun with him, until he eventually tells her he’s not who she thinks he is—he doesn’t even know their supposedly common friend. She’s mortified as they conclude that she simply emailed the wrong guy. So, understandably, she basically runs away.

So when she shows up for the first day of her summer Russian literature class, she’s mortified again when she sees that sexy motorcycle guy is the professor. He spots her too and the next few classes are more awkward. He ignores her even though she knows all the answers. This is stressful for her:

Being perpetually ignored and then rejected by a person I admired made me want to cry into a big pillow and listen to The Cure while watching Old Yeller and reading the world statistics about the Zika virus.

She finally confronts him. Things progress from there and involve lots of kissing and heated debates about Russian literature.

The book’s in first person, alternating between Anna’s and Luca’s viewpoints (though it’s mostly Anna’s). The voice is great, with each of them quite identifiable. Luca’s is serious and terse. Anna’s is indeed pretty nerdy, but it’s where most of Reid’s trademark humor comes in. For instance, after she’s discovered that her professor is the guy from the bar, she’s at work and her boss observes that she’s anxious, this happens:

I tried to swallow, but I rushed it, and experienced a swallow misfire. It took every ounce of my self-control not to cough.

Anna’s silly, but not in that unnaturally-dumb-girl way that annoys me so much.

So this book would be great for any fans of Reid plus those who like college romances, even if this one involves a professor (and for the record, those relationships usually aren’t forbidden—just discouraged).