Review: Things I Wrote About

Things I Wrote About by Kelsey Humphreys
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Sadie met Shep when she tried to sneak into a party. He was newly transferred to her school, a football genius, already revered by half the school and lusted over by the half. Although he told her effectively 'go home little girl' she couldn't forget him and couldn't wait to go to high school.

Flip forward twenty years. Sadie is a best-selling romance novelist and several of her novels have been turned into films, Shep is a big-time football agent and they have history, the bad kind. Sadie's sister Sam is getting married to a fabulously wealthy British businessman and throwing a luxury destination wedding for 600 people over an entire week. Not only is Shep one of the groom's best friends, so is her ex-fiancé Dennis. There aren't enough Margaritas to ease that sort of pain, if Sadie drank anymore. Shep and Sadie have always had sharp banter and digs at each other, but can they keep their turbulent past under wraps for one week?

Told through flashbacks from both their points of view and present day (ditto) this book meanders back and forth through their will-they, won't they romance. It is also (I now see) the third in a series, so there is also a lot of reminders about other people's back stories and Sadie's four sisters, all of whom seem to have names beginning with S which makes it hard to tell them apart. Kelsey Humphreys seems to adopt the 'throw the kitchen sink' approach to novel writing because this book has everything death, abuse, addiction, divorce, miscarriage, and a bit more talk of praying to god than I am truly comfortable with.

All of the above mean that although I did enjoy this book it also felt awfully long (unfortunately I can't see how many pages) as we flashback to Sadie and Shep doing a rinse-and-repeat meeting, kissing, fighting, parting over the years.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.



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Review: Phoebe

Phoebe by Minerva Spencer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Phoebe Bellamy is the small, plump, ordinary sister in a family of beauties and extraordinary talents. Their father is an inveterate gambler and spendthrift who is in danger of losing everything if he can't find a tenant for the family's ancestral home.

Viscount Paul Needham might have a title, but he's only the second man to hold it and he knows that everyone regards him as 'trade', especially with his dark features and big nose, he's hardly an oil painting (which is a funny saying because often oil paintings are warts and all).

When Paul agrees to lease the dilapidated house from the Bellamys it gives the family a small respite. But Phoebe's father sees Paul's fabulous wealth and is determined that Paul should marry one of his daughters, that way he can contrive with Paul to break the entail and sell the property outright (thus robbing his son Doddy of his inheritance).

Paul is aware of Phoebe's father machinations, and delights in informing the family that his mistress and illegitimate daughter will be joining him at the house once it has been repaired, but even that isn't enough to stop Phoebe's parents from matchmaking. On his part, Paul realises that the only way to stop the aristocracy from looking down their noses at him is to marry one of them, but he doesn't have to like them. Realising that if she doesn't do something one of her sisters will be forced to marry Paul Phoebe offers herself as tribute (sorry wrong book).

Paul and Phoebe may have gotten off on the wrong foot but the sparks fly when they argue, which is near on constantly. But how long until Paul installs another mistress in the house, or more by-blows? Phoebe knows she must guard her heart before he breaks it entirely.

This felt very slow, I recall looking at my kindle and seeing I was 71% through the book and pretty much nothing had happened. They got married, they argued, Paul introduced Phoebe to physical pleasure, they argued, she gets the wrong end of the stick (gosh I'm ploughing through these old phrases today), they make love, blah, bah, blah.

Then all of a sudden the plot explodes and there is high drama and danger aplenty.

I did enjoy this, but I couldn't help drawing comparisons to the one and only Georgette Heyer who has done may similar storylines and (obviously) this is not as good, although still a good historical romance.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Not That Kind of Ever After

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Bella dreams of being a writer but the closest she's got is a job as receptionist at a publishing house. Back in the day she won best receptionist of the year (or some such title) in the firm four years running, but nowadays she's just going through the motions. Bella has been looking for 'The One', her own Prince Charming, for years with no luck, then two life-changing events (for her) make her decide to change her tune and have fun instead, which turns into a series of unfortunate one-night stands.

When an obnoxious client gets a small fortune advance on his new book, based on his posts about his awful dates on a site called B-Reader, Bella is intrigued enough to go onto B-Reader to see what's there and feels it is the ideal forum for her to try writing because you only post one chapter at a time, and what better source of material than her terrible dates - they are the stuff of fairy-tales, just not the good ones.

As Bella's readers climb ever higher her chapters take over her life, leading her to do things she would never normally do, like fall out with friends and take reckless risks (question is there any other kind of risk?). What the reader can see but Bella can't is that there is her own Prince Charming waiting in the wings, and he's not a fairy-tale.

It took me a while to get into this. Bella is very immature, despite her age, and has a lot of the 'me, me, me' vibe about her which didn't immediately endear her to me. But the book is genuinely funny, as are the situations that Bella gets into trying to increase her readership.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Below Zero

Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hannah was failing High School, a true rebel without a cause, until a pathetic chat-up line from another student piques her interest in space (specifically, why would sunsets be blue on Mars, aka the Red Planet?). From then on Hannah was fascinated by space and dreamed of joining NASA.

Hannah is in a remote area of Norway testing out equipment for the next Mars expedition in an environment as close as to that of Mars as can be achieved on Earth, but she has slipped and fallen down a crevasse, twisted her ankle, and her only hope of rescue is the man who vetoed the funding for her invention in the first place.

I think this could have worked better as a full length novella as Hannah appeared to have a lot of backstory which was never properly explored, like why she only does one-night stands and feels that people would get bored of her/disgusted by her if they got to know her - I think this would have worked better if perhaps we had seen this rather than being told it.

Ian, a distant relative of Hannah's friend Mara, was an infant prodigy, a member of the Mars Curiosity Rover team at the tender age of eighteen. Mara pulls a few family strings to get Ian to agree to be interviewed by Hannah for a paper she has to write for college (interview someone who has your dream job) and it's insta-lurve.

This novella has all the classic Ali Hazlewood clichés and it is part of a trilogy featuring three female best friends which ae all a bit same-same.

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Review: Virtual Strangers

Virtual Strangers by Sam Canning
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ada returns to Edinburgh to live with her mother when a love affair goes horribly awry and sets up her own PR company, even if at the moment she only has one, rather flaky, client. Ada's best friends are a married couple with two small children, compared to them she feels like she's not really adulting, especially when she is sleeping in her childhood bedroom. Ada doesn't feel she can tell her friends what really happened to bring her back to Edinburgh, she's too ashamed, and they keep trying to get her to go on dates.

Rather than get under her mother's feet all day, Ada rents a space in the back of a local café to work, as do several other regulars. After complaining bitterly when a new man takes what Ada considers to be 'her table', she and the man, Fraser strike up conversation. It turns out that Fraser is a journalist for a local newspaper, tasked to write about unusual local events and attractions. With time on her hands Ada starts to accompany Fraser on some of his wild and wacky adventures. But although they have great conversations, neither of them shares anything very personal.

Meanwhile, while searching through her childhood bedroom Ada finds a pile of Agatha Christie fan-fiction that she wrote as a teenager and after rereading a few, decides they are actually not too bad and submits them to a low-key Agatha Christie fan-fiction website. Imagine her astonishment when one of the other site users nominates her for fan-fiction of the month. Ada and this person Myster-E begin messaging back and forth about their Agatha Christie obsessions and develop a real friendship, exchanging quite personal details about their lives.

This was another riff on You've Got Mail (or The Shop Around The Corner for the old-timers), I have no idea why I have read so many of these book recently. This one worked very well. I liked the way in which Fraser and Ada showed each other different parts of their personalities in person and online. Again, I wasn't pleased that both Ada's friend and Fraser blew things out of proportion and 'hit the nuclear button', although I did like the way in which both conflicts were resolved.

I haven't read any books by this author before, but I will definitely look out for more.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Love, Theoretically

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Elsie is a theoretical physicist, one year post-grad she is barely scraping by as an adjunct professor teaching multiple classes in three separate colleges. Even then to afford the rent on her crummy apartment she has to work as a fake date for sad losers. Elsie is particularly good at being a fake girlfriend because she has spent her entire life being what other people want her to be, agreeing with their opinions, hiding her own views for fear of being rejected. The only one of Elsie's clients that she actually likes is Greg Smith, although his older brother Jack seems to heartily dislike her. Elsie has broken her one date rule for Greg because the rest of his family is so obnoxious, and she told them she was a librarian.

She blames this sorry state of affairs on Jonathon Smith-Turner, an Experimentalist physicist who wrote a pseudo-paper on theoretical physics which was published in the Annals of Theoretical Physics journal which made theoretical physicists, and Elsie's mentor Dr Laurendeau especially, a laughing stock.

When a tenure position comes up at MIT Elsie is beyond excited, a chance for a job with a decent salary, no teaching, and best of all full health insurance to cover her Type 1 diabetes insulin. But it seems like the physics department at MIT is equally divided between theoretical and experimental physicists. But when Elsie meets the physics department for dinner as part of her interview process she makes a terrible discovery. Jonathon Smith-Turner is no other than Jack Smith, Greg's older brother. Even worse? He sees straight through Elsie's people-pleasing ways, and he thinks she's some kind of scam artist. Elsie hates Jack so much for what he did to her beloved theoretical physics that she feels no desire to hide her true self from him, with him she lets rip and she's not giving up this job without a fight.

I'm afraid this has all the Ali Hazlewood clichés, Elsie's a tiny girl, Jack is huge (she thinks he's some kind of lumberjack when she first sees him, but then thinks he's a PE teacher), Elsie likes to reference nerdy science stuff, she can't believe that Jack likes her, even when he explicitly states it, etc. But I don't care. This really worked for me, I loved the snark and the weird flatmate, the nerdy science talk and Jack was such a sweetie. I'm so glad I requested this book.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Magic Tides

Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What can I say, Kate and Curran need no lead in.

Kate gets called upon to find a kidnapped boy which brings her into close proximity with the Knights, the vampires and a possibly divine being while Curran and Conlan protect their home from a variety of creatures.

Not full five stars because its only a novella (boo! Even if it is a long novella) and Kate and Curran are apart. But yay Hugh!

This couple are an auto buy for me, and they just can't write fast enough to keep up with the Book Devouring Hoard clamouring for more.

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Review: A Mischief of Rats

A Mischief of Rats by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dr Nell Ward's family is hosting its annual classic car event at their stately home. Nell is more invested than usual as she has an interest in a vintage car which has been restored and fitted with an electric engine. Unfortunately, the driver, Jack Rafferty, seems to be less invested than the rest of the team and more interested in partying and drinking and tabloid attention with his model wife. Meanwhile, Nell has invited Rav's family to the classic car show, hoping to to dispel their fears that she is a racy socialite (to be fair the two previous murders she has been involved in do give credence to their fears) who will lead their son astray.

Whilst multi-tasking helping out a friend take samples from a local pond, Nell makes a grisly discovery, Jack's flashy car has veered off the road and plunged into the pond. In addition, Nell notices Rav's younger sister's distinctive earrings on Jack's dashboard - was she in the car? Or was she somehow involved in the crash?

Nell's ex, DI James Clark, is also at the weekend car event with Nell's cousin and gets roped into investigating jack's death. But it seems he was universally disliked - its more like looking to see who didn't have a motive. Then James gets told that there is a separate investigation, centred around the car event, related to forgeries - do the two investigations overlap?

This series is growing on me, although I have some sympathy with the police suspecting Nell since she either finds the body or is closely connected with every case so far LOL. Also, Nel seems to be in mortal danger at least once (I think three times in this book) in every book which becomes a bit repetitious.

This series straddles the line between cosy mystery and police procedural. I will definitely look out for the next one.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Not in a Million Years: A totally hilarious and feel-good enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy

Not in a Million Years: A totally hilarious and feel-good enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy by Sophie Ranald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kate has a great job (Risk Management Consultant), great friends, and the possibility of a new boyfriend in the form of ex-colleague Claude. Okay, so their first date didn't go too well ... but he's still keen.

The only fly in the ointment is that Kate's best friend Andy seems to have gone AWOL, none of their friends have seen or spoken to him for weeks and he's not posted anything to social media either, something unheard of for Andy. Since Andy has struggled with addiction in the past his friends are worried that he may have started taking drugs again. Then Daniel, less of a friend and more of a frenemy, thinks he's found a clue to where Andy was last, Greece. Since Daniel is self-employed and Kate has five weeks between assignments it only makes sense for the two of them to go to Greece and try to find Andy. Even if they hate each other's guts, they've managed to keep it civil when out with their other friends, surely they can do the same to find Andy?

But travel niggles aside, Kate finds Daniel isn't the monster she thought he was, and as their search leads them to traipse around Greek hotels looking for Daniel there could be a spark of romance. But there is still the matter that led them to become sworn enemies ...

I was very much enjoying this while Kate, Andy and Daniel were in Greece. Unfortunately, once they got home to London I felt the novel started to drag, although the snarky banter between Kate and Daniel was awesome. Also the backstory about why Kate and Daniel fell out seemed weak. (view spoiler)[I felt that basically Kate and Daniel in their own different ways had enabled Andy's addiction, whilst also trying to help him get sober. Daniel gets all sanctimonious because Kate helps to keep Andy's secrets, which is against the Ten Steps, and Kate basically agrees that she was totally in the wrong. WTF? This is a big secret, one that no-one should ever reveal about someone else, something that people agonise over and he thinks Kate should just have told everyone? Not cool. (hide spoiler)] Basically, I felt the backstory with Andy kind of overshadowed the romance and was too much, the book would have been better without all that drama.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Riverside Murder: A Dorset Crime Story

The Riverside Murder: A Dorset Crime Story by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A short story which Rachel McLean wrote to support people affected by the war in Ukraine.

A body found in the River Frome could be accidental death. But when DCI Lesley Clarke learns that the man went missing, presumed dead, over twelve years ago it seems that murder is more likely, especially since his body was found close to the family's old farm.

This was a fun read, but because of the shortness of the book it was over very quickly, no room for red herrings or dead-end investigations. Also, I have some questions about how the murderer perpetrated the crime ...

Anyway, it was nice to read about Lesley and the Dorset gang again.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: The Comeback

The Comeback by Lily Chu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Ariadne Hui is putting all her effort into making partner at her Canadian law firm. It doesn't matter if she works 14 hour days and weekends, just to see her father's pride in her achievement will be worthwhile. But it's an uphill battle, the law firm is snooty and old-fashioned. She's been offered more rewarding jobs by clients, jobs that appeal to her more than corporate law, jobs with a better workplace culture, but her father is old-fashioned and has set his heart on her making partner at the most prestigious firm in Toronto.

One night Ari gets home to the apartment she shares with her friend Hana only to find a strange man sleeping on their sofa. After the initial shock Hana tells Ari that the man, Choi Jihoon, is her cousin from Korea who has had a messy breakup and has escaped to Canada to get away from it all. Most importantly, no-one from the family can know he is in Toronto.

At first Ari is annoyed that she will have to act as hostess to a stranger, particularly when she is working so hard to get promoted, but over time she finds Jihoon to be a fun companion, thoughtful, as well as strikingly attractive. But just as the two of them start to fall in love, Ari makes a shocking discovery, Jihoon has a secret identity which will change everything.

Overall, I enjoyed this, but it did start to drag about two-thirds of the way through and I think that's because there was too much angst. Ari has sibling angst, parental angst, career angst, racism angst, and boyfriend angst. It seems to be a theme of the (admittedly small) sample of books I've read featuring Asian heroines that their parents have huge expectations of them, so I can understand that may be a cultural norm but the rest of it was too much. I think TBH the HEA could have come without the trip to Korea and the angst that ensued, there was enough work and family drama to sustain the plot.

I felt that all the other characters did a lot of psychoanalysing of Ari and her behaviour, but not in a kind way. Her sister, her 'friend' and even Jihoon on occasion berated her for her behaviour when IMHO Jihoon's behaviour was far more heinous and damaging to Ari both personally and professionally. Also, why do so many romances require the female MC to abandon high-flying jobs because the realise that actually they are more fulfilled doing something more creative (like organising walking tours)? It feels misogynistic as if we poor delicate little flowers are only good at creative things like cooking and sewing and should leave all the difficult stuff to the men (grrr).

I wanted to read The Stand-In but never got round to it. I understand this is the same author.

Anyway, I enjoyed the story, I enjoyed the education about K-pop and Alex's staunch defence of the genre was an eye-opener (more Alex please), i wasn't so keen on the 'all white people are racists' undertone, but perhaps it was just 'all snooty lawyers are racists'. I would definitely read more books by Lily Chu.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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