Following up from It Ends With Us, Hoover follows the interaction of Lily and Atlas, as they navigate what a new, adult relationship could be like while dealing with all the baggage of their lives without each other.
The continuing saga of Jamie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp Fraser, their family and friends and neighbours. If you've read any Outlander, you don't need a synopsis from me. If you haven't, why not?
A new twist in the land of epic and fairy tales. A mix of modern and classic, with a lot of spice. This book takes us on a new road inspired by Aladdin and The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, focussing on the story of Jasmine, Jafar and Ali after the loss of her father. First in a series of books that focus on the naughty side of the heroines in conjunction with the villains of their story.
Second Harlequin novel of the day. A perfect read for a sleepy Sunday. Single woman meets rich single dad. Gets attached to the daughter. Both have past issues that affect their ability to love anyone. Both carry immense guilt for something that's not their fault. They convince each other to let themselves love, to release the guilt. She does, he doesn't, there's a misunderstanding and she flees. He eventually figures out his issue and goes to her and they live happily ever after.
Typical Harlequin style romance - woman meets man, both are immediately attracted to each other and fall in love, but have something that is holding them back. Usually past circumstances. They overcome their reluctance, and then there's a misunderstanding after which they are together happily ever after.
*dreamy sigh*
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
This one was unexpected. Another one that I picked up because it was on sale at Book Outlet, and it was seasonal, but I really, really enjoyed it.
I don't think I even read the back cover before I started reading; if I did, it definitely didn't leave an impression that was close to how this book unfolded.
It's fun and quirky with some romance and a little bit of "time travel." (And yes, I put quotes on that for a reason. It's not really time travel, but there's not an easier word for what it is.)
The characters are believable, and it's fun to read how they adapt to crazy situations.
Fun holiday read? Definitely CHECK.
#98-2021
The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss
Book Outlet had a sale that included a bunch of quirky holiday romance novels, so I gained a few of those this year. This was the first of them that I read. It's a cute book, and even if you know where it's going to end up, it's fun to play along with the story.
Maybe it's just me who likes to guess the final outcome though. The characters are well enough written for the speed of the book, and even the town and a car become characters of their own. I admire the author's ability to bring a scene to life even when it's not really consequential to the grander story.
Fun holiday romance? Check.
#97-2021
Heading into the Christmas season, this one was a free download on my Kobo app, so I grabbed it as a quick read. I needed a bit more seasonal joy as the month of December started.
It's a typical Harlequin-style romance and is apparently the second in a series. I don't imagine the first book is seasonal like this one, but I also don't really have any intention of reading any more of the series. It was enjoyable, but I wasn't captivated enough to want to know more about the characters.
Easy-to-read holiday romance - check. Nothing more is required.
#94-2021
Her Heart for a Compass by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
A historical fiction/romance novel written by an actual Duchess? Yes, please.
I was super excited to read this when I got it because I had read that its inspiration came from Fergie's own family history. For me, that makes it so much more authentic. And that she's actually a part of the world that she's written about, be it a century or more later, adds something to it as well.
I really wanted to love this. I found out about it because Jensen Ackles tweeted about how his good friend Kris Polaha had written a book. He hadn't read it but needed someone to do so and let him know how it was. It's definitely not a book that I would expect Jensen to read. But I was interested - I've seen Kris Polaha in movies and TV shows, and so thought, what could I lose?
Well... I could lose the time it took to read the book, and the money to buy it in the first place. But it's not awful. I was just disappointed. Polaha's co-author is actually a writer. Gomez has work on her biography, she's written before. So when I'm reading this and thinking that it feels like an amateur, I'm surprised.
Continuing my journey through the Aurora Teagarden series. Charlaine Harris rarely disappoints. And while her characters are unique, and sometimes really strange in their perceptions or ideas, that's what makes them interesting. So while Aurora is full of weird foibles and headstrong in unusual ways I can get over it, because it's character-driven, not just strange.
This is a fun series, and I've gotten over the need to mentally put Candace Cameron Bure into the story because she plays "Roe" in the Hallmark series based on these books.
My mom gets a Harlequin subscription box monthly. It's actually my fault - I signed up for a many, many, many years ago and then transferred it to her when I realized I wasn't that interested. On occasion, she saves one of the books for me to read, when she thinks it's particularly cute.
I'll admit this one was a good distraction from what I've been reading lately - the perfect lazy Sunday Valentine's Day read actually. Romance, in a cute little tidy 250 pages. And it took me about the length of a Hallmark movie to read. Which is really what it easily could have been.
#21-2021
Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
I don't really know what to say about this one. I've read Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed, and Something Blue and picked this one up when it was on sale somewhere because I knew I enjoyed her light style of writing, even when she was writing about heavy and realistic situations.
I enjoyed this book, but I'm also stuck on the thought that had one thing been different here - and I feel like it's a pretty logical thing - this entire book would have been a non-starter. I don't want to give away the plot in any way, so I won't share my thought but if this was a real-life situation, I definitely know what advice I would have given Tessa in the first few chapters. And it would probably have stopped the entire situation from becoming a situation.
No secrets here - I enjoy young adult books. One of the authors I especially like is John Green. I hadn't read any Maureen Johnson until this past year, but I've very much enjoyed her online presence for several years already.
I picked this up solely because John Green was included in it. And I had aspirations of actually reading Maureen Johnson, so I thought a short story might be the way to start. Thankfully I had read a couple of novels before I read this.
This will be short - I'm still missing the show Castle, and I'm still trying to finish the series of books that went along with it. It's been far too long that these books have been sitting on my shelf, and as I read them I remember how they weren't quite as satisfying as watching the show, even if I can imagine the actors from the show playing the characters in the book that they're supposedly based on.
The story behind this book is good - I enjoy the angle, but like all the Richard Castle novels, I feel like the writing is somewhat lacking. That could be because Castle was supposed to be a pulpy, super popular writer, or it could just be the invisible writer behind the fictional character's style. I choose to think it's a choice by the invisible writer to make the writing not as good. I haven't picked up the invisible author's actual work, and I don't intend to. I want to imagine that he's actually better than Richard Castle.
Sanditon by Jane Austen
This is an unfinished work by Jane Austen. I started reading because PBS was showing a mini-series and I was interested to see what had inspired it. Now that I'm completed it, I'm intrigued and wish I could know where Austen was planning to go with it.
It's a typical Jane Austen style novel, and I'm sure she was making social commentary on the women and their lives, or the way that life was conducted. But with only 12 chapters completed, it's hard to know exactly what that was. The characters are many in this work, and I did find myself very much more attached to some than others. Some didn't seem to have much point at all.
The estimate is that what is available is about 1/5 of the completed novel as Austen would have written it. I'm not sure that another 4x this much would have enlightened me much further, but I would have loved the opportunity to know where she was taking this story.
I haven't completely read much of Austen's work to this point. I used to get very tied up in the language and her use of the larger and more foreign words in older style English. But I have come to an appreciation of that language at this point, and will try to read at least one of Austen's work per year from here forward.
#70-2020
Wild Storm by Richard Castle
I realized recently that while I was lamenting the loss of the show Castle, I still had several of the novels based on the work of the character on my shelf to read. So I thought what better time to read them! (I could also re-watch the show, the DVDs might exist on my shelf too.)
Honestly, I've always kind of felt the books were a bit lacking. Especially the Derrick Storm ones. But that could be because I'm less attached to that character - it isn't based on anyone from the show, just on Richard Castle's back catalogue when we join the show. There isn't anything about Storm that really made me excited to read about him, but the books aren't bad either.
