Review: Roommates: A totally uplifting, dramatic and emotional women's fiction novel

Roommates: A totally uplifting, dramatic and emotional women's fiction novel by Ola Tundun
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Warning - CLIFFHANGER.

One day, without warning Ariella Mason comes home from work packs her belongings and moves out of the gorgeous flat she shares with her fiancé Jasper and moves into Caleb Black's spare room. Caleb and Ariella both work for the same events company where Ariella is seen as aloof and Caleb .... well lets just say he knows most of the women there intimately.

Caleb was really looking for a male lodger to help pay his mortgage, but when Ariella offered 20% above his asking price (which was already higher than he expected to get), he can't say no, especially when it means she cooks him Michelin-quality dinners every night.

Gradually Caleb discovers why Ariella left Jasper and the two of them just might be falling for each other, but everything seems to conspire to keep them apart.

I was enjoying this at first but it seemed to go into a holding pattern just after halfway through, Caleb and Ariella kiss then retreat. They kiss, then either Ariella meets up with Jasper or Caleb meets up with one of his legion of women. There are misunderstandings. They kiss and then retreat. Over and over.

Then ... it just ends with a promise that the story is continued in the next book. Not cool.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Scarlet

Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Eleanor was a maid servant in the house of Lady Sophie, a vampire, until her mistress gave her to Sir Percy Blakeney and his wife. Little does she know that she bears a striking resemblance to the former Queen of France, Marie-Antionette, and Sir Percy and his League of the Scarlet Pimpernel intend to use that resemblance to rescue the Queen and the Dauphin from prison and the Guillotine.

So its like The Scarlet Pimpernel but for a YA/NA audience, with vampires, and sorcerers.

I can't believe I started reading this nine months ago. I got to about 22% and was just meh. Last night I decided to read to 25% and then DNF - instead I finished the book! Just goes to show that sometimes its not the book its the time that makes you lose interest.

I requested this because I absolutely adored The Scarlet Pimpernel as a teenager, I also loved the film version starring Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour, but of course treading in the footsteps of your heroes is a dangerous game. Genevieve Cogman does it well, but this is for a YA/NA audience and not for die-hard fans of Sir Percy. Although thinking about it, in the books Sir Percy always appears without warning in some brilliant disguise, its just this time he rarely saves the day ... that is left for Eleanor.

Overall, I liked it but I didn't love it, also acknowledging that I am not the target audience.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Things I Read About

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

Sally Canton is the youngest of the five Canton sisters. She was very young when their mother was killed and her sisters have always tried to make up for the loss and make sure Sally is happy. Accordingly, Sally feels responsible for never letting her sisters or father know when she isn't happy or doesn't like something. Kelsey Humphreys has one of Sally's sisters say that she is like Julia Roberts' character in the film Runaway Bride, its not that Sally doesn't know which way she likes her eggs cooked, she just doesn't want to upset anyone by telling them she doesn't like the way they make them/like them.

Somewhat of a child prodigy, Sally is following in her mother's footsteps by training to be a doctor, where she wants to specialise in neurosurgery, but she is also a talented pianist. After yet another family meeting where her father and sisters discuss her as if she were six years old instead of twenty-one years old, deciding what she can and can't do, Sally decides that this Spring Break she will act like the lead character in her own life, instead of the cute little sister or side-kick. And that includes approaching the dangerous-looking guy with all the tattoos giving off an assassin vibe, drinking at the bar in the Ski Lodge where she and her two BFFs are staying for Spring Break.

Nate Brenner is ex-military turned security consultant. When Sally approaches him in the bar he knows she's acting more sultry and sophisticated than she really is, but he's intrigued nevertheless. After a few dates and an expected night stuck on the mountain Nate and Sally spend an amazing time together, but when Sally is called home unexpectedly she decides it is better to leave without leaving Nate a note. They had a wonderful time but there's no long-term future for them, this was just am amazing fantasy escape.

Fast forward a few months and there has been a credible threat made against the Canton family, although no-one is sure of the target. Nate's firm is brought in by Emerson Clark to provide security to the Canton family and Nate just happens to have been assigned to Canton 5. Imagine Nate's horror when the woman he's been looking for ever since that weekend turns out to be yet another spoiled rich-kid princess who told him a pack of lies.

As a bodyguard Nate sees everything, and he sees Sally just fine, if only he can get over his hurt pride and his feelings of inadequacy.

I liked this. I read another review which note that each of the Canton sisters has some weird quirk, with Sally it's knowing the origins of idioms. I could happily live without these quirks but in this case it does at least serve a purpose to show how much Nate loves Sally.

Now I'm totally up-to-date and just eagerly awaiting oldest sister Susan's story.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: Four Silences Broken

Four Silences Broken by H.L. Marsay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third book in a series although it can be read as a standalone, based around the North Yorkshire village of Hartwell.

Jo Ormond, the London police detective is in a relationship with the local pub landlord Jack, although she wants to return to her job in London she is also desperate to find her birth mother and thinks that the Hanley coin her mother left with her at the hospital is a clue that her mother came from the village. Dr Meera Kumar is planning her wedding to the local vet Ben. Rachel Foxton is living with her girlfriend Sarah, an archaeologist, and all appears to be well. Lady Lucy Hanley's abusive aristocratic husband Rupert is dead, and her stalker Guy (the former MP for the area) is in a psychiatric hospital awaiting trial. Lucy is in a relationship with Rob, whilst trying to bring up her son Freddie and run Hanley Hall as a business.

When Lucy discovers that the local women's shelter is losing its central government funding, an issue very close to her heart, she badgers the prospective candidates to replace Guy to take up the cause. When none of them will make it their cause she decides to run as a candidate, purely to force the others to take a stand. But her decision doesn't please her husband's former friend who is the front-runner and he starts stirring trouble about Rupert's death.

I haven't read the two previous books in this series but I didn't find that an issue. The mystery of Rupert's death is finally resolved, and more than one secret is revealed.

Recommended for fans of Julie Houston or Kate Hewitt's Holley Sisters of Thornthwaite series.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Block Shot

Block Shot by Kennedy Ryan
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 45%.

Jared Foster and Banner Morales were friends in college, until Banner was deliberately humiliated by Jared's 'friends'. A decade later they are both highly successful sports agents. Jared runs his own agency, with the help of his brother, whilst Banner runs the Los Angeles branch of the Bagley & Associates agency. Their paths rarely cross until Jared and his brother move their agency to LA from San Diego when his brother signs with the LA Waves NBA team.

Jared has tried on numerous occasions to apologise to Banner and explain that he was no part of the plan to humiliate her, in fact the exact opposite. But as an overweight Latino girl Banner was unwilling to listen. Now Banner may still be bigger than 90% of the women in LA, but she's toned and curvaceous.

Banner's first client was before she was even licensed, a young Spanish-speaking player who had recently lost his entire family requested an interpreter for his discussions with Cal Bagley and then refused to sign unless Banner was his agent. All these years on, she and Zo became friends and have recently gone public as a couple.

Jared has lived up to his playboy reputation and (barely) dated a series of hot women, but he feels nothing for any of them. Heck, he doesn't even like many of them. The only woman he can tolerate was the girl who he spent one night with in college and then thought she was some sick joke initiation challenge.

Try as she can to hate him, when Banner and Jared are thrust together to organise a charity fundraiser on behalf of their respective clients, the sparks still fly. Fr his part, Jared will do whatever it takes to get back the only woman he has ever had feelings for.

I was really enjoying this. Sexy, sassy, sports, and a kickass FMC - what isn't to love? Then Banner did something I can't get over and *poof* I don't want to read this anymore. (view spoiler)[Banner is so overcome by her feelings that despite living with her biggest client, and best friend, Zo, she kisses the head of a rival agency. Then they perform sex acts in a drive-in theatre. Its stupid, she risks her career and her friends because she can't control her hormones. And he's just an entitled pr*ck. (hide spoiler)]Also, this had degenerated from a story with a plot to being just a rinse-and-repeat series of vaguely coercive make-out scenes where Jared physically intimidated Banner by pushing into her space, pinning her against surfaces etc. If it isn't cool for (for example) Cal Bagley to do that then it isn't cool for Jared to do it. Predatory behaviour isn't okay when they guy is young and good-looking. Sorry, rant over.

I had thought that I had read some of Kennedy Ryan's books before, which is one of the reasons I requested this book, but it seems I was mistaken.

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

View all my reviews

Review: Emergency Contact

Emergency Contact by Lauren Layne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When New York lawyer Katherine is in a car accident just before Christmas her employer calls her next of kin contact - which just happens to be her ex-husband Tom. Tom was literally on his way to the airport to fly home to his family in Chicago for Christmas where he intends to propose to his girlfriend Lolo when he gets the call. Despite his misgivings and their antagonistic relationship, Tom can't leave Katherine to spend Christmas in hospital alone, especially not since her father died in hospital on Christmas Day, but with a concussion she can't be left at home. The only solution? Take Katherine with him to Chicago.

What follows is reminiscent of that 1980s film Planes, Trains and Automobiles as Tom and Katherine's travel plans are thwarted at every turn and they adopt ever more ludicrous ways to get to Chicago. Now, I am not a fan of that film and I am afraid I wasn't a great fan of this book, despite being an avid reader of Lauren Layne's books. It all felt too contrived, too ridiculous. I can see this as a cheesy Hallmark Christmas film all too easily. I think I got over-excited at seeing a Lauren Layne book and just requested it without reading the blurb.

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

View all my reviews

Review: The Murder Affair

The Murder Affair by Alice Castle
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

Beth is shocked to be asked by her mother Wendy to accompany her to a funeral. Even more shocked to discover that her mother was engaged to the deceased. However, when they get to Len's funeral there seems to be a disproportionate number of female mourners, including his wife!

Although the police think Len died of natural causes, Wendy suspects foul play (by Len's wife) and demands Beth investigates. Soon Beth uncovers that not only was Len a serial philanderer with multiple women hanging off his arms, he also wasn't averse to borrowing large sums of money from them. Moreover, his job as a local councillor seems to have lent itself to Len helping or hindering planning applications for a 'fee'.

The police still don't suspect foul play, not until Len's secretary Bella is found dead in the street. Now everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else and Wendy wants her name cleared before her Bridge tournament.

Sadly for me this series has become very rinse-and-repeat. Too much dog walking and Year 8 disco, too many of Beth's friend Nina's malapropisms (which aren't in the least bit funny). All the characters, including Beth, are just two-dimensional. All of which I could probably live with, but the plots always seem to end the same way, with Beth finding 'something', which is not shown to the reader, and then willingly/deliberately be alone with the murderer so that they can attempt to murder her.

I'm afraid this is the last book I will be reading in this series. Like the Stephanie Plum series it has become a parody of itself.

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

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

View all my reviews

Review: Codename Charming

Codename Charming by Lucy Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pet(unia) De Vere is the vertically challenged sister of Dominic, cake-maker extraordinaire of the first book in this series. She has landed the job of PA to Johnny Marchmont, spouse of the King's youngest granddaughter Princess Rosie of Albany. Now Johnny maybe lovable, a breath of fresh air, and the love of Rosie's life, but he is also a terrible klutz who seems to trip up and fall on/push Pet on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, this has led some elements of the gutter press to speculate about Pet and Johnny, especially after a picture was published of Johnny being kissed by another woman not so long ago.

Luckily for Pet, the stoic, inscrutable, and extremely large royal security officer Matthias Vaughn is there to catch her, sometimes 'catch' is a bit of a stretch and 'break her fall' is a better descriptive, leading some people on social media to start shipping them as a couple. So the royal couple come up with a plan to defuse the speculation, Pet and Matthias will pretend to be a couple operation Codename Charming (as in Prince Charming).

Can these two opposites ever pull off this deception?

This was charming by name and charming by nature. Full of Lucy Parker's trademark good humour and lovable characters. My only gripe is that I liked the sound of C.W. Tallen's book and was disappointed that it was not available on the Zon LOL.

View all my reviews

Review: Things I Should Have Said: An Introvert/Extrovert Romantic Comedy

Things I Should Have Said: An Introvert/Extrovert Romantic Comedy by Kelsey Humphreys
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Meet Skye Canton, introverted artist, keen to tell you she's nothing like Zooey Deschanel. She doesn't like talking to people and she doesn't want people to know that she's one of the Oklahoma Cantons that own the national brand Canton Cards.

On a turbulent flight to New York Skye meets Matt James, a hoodie wearing numbers guy into IT and app development. A brief encounter, a connection, but they part ways without exchanging numbers. Until Matt turns up at Skye's art exhibition three months later. Matt is smooth, a people-person, Skye's exact opposite, and it turns out that they aren't just on opposing sides when it comes to (American) football.

As I've said, I'm reading these out of order and this is not my favourite so far. Some of the reveals seemed a bit obvious. Matt was really not fleshed out as a character in the same way as say Emerson or Dennis are in the second and fifth books. Also, Skye just seemed to have too many issues, TBH I didn't really see why Matt fell in love with her. But putting aside those negatives (which are only in comparison to the latter books) this was a fast-paced, engaging opposites attract romance.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: Things I Overshared

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

I'm reading this series totally out of order and while they can be read as stand-alone novels there are references to things that happened in the previous novels.

Sam Canton has been badly burned in the past by boyfriends who recorded their most intimate moments. She feels like the family failure, while all of her (numerous) other sisters have found their vocations she has never really been able to settle on anything and while she is very good at her job in sales for the family business Canton Cards, it isn't really fulfilling her.

When her boss announces that he will no longer be going on the European sales trip Sam has organised and that she can go in his place Sam is initially ecstatic, until she realises that she will be forced to spend her dream trip to London and Paris with the only person in the world who seems to dislike her, Canton Cards' CFO Emerson Clark, the cold, analytical, quiet, English friend of Susan's husband Adam.

Sam decides the only way to make the trip bearable is to melt Mr Frosty's iceman persona by becoming his best friend. But every effort fails. He acts like even being in the same room as her is torture and he rejects every one of her attempts to win him over. Trouble is when Sam gets nervous her usual bubbly personality goes into overdrive and she tends to wildly overshare. She may have told Emerson he's a robot and used the nickname Frosty to his face.

An introvert and an extrovert on a trip round Europe ... sounds like fun!

This was lovely, an age-difference, opposites attract, romance featuring two great characters.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: Things I Forgot About

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

Kat Canton does it all. Single mom, businesswoman, entrepreneur, handywoman, hotel receptionist, bartender, and organiser of various events in her small home town. Attending (under protest) her father’s quarterly board meetings for his Canton Tracking shipping company, she is astonished to see British Billionaire Dennis DeLane in attendance. Last time she saw him was at a Canton family wedding shouting abuse at her cousin Sadie. Now apparently he’s here in the Ozarks helping dig her father out of the financial mess he’s created, and apparently failing to recognise Kat at all, thinking she’s the intern.

Kat’s always been a rebel, mostly just to annoy her abusive father, so she plays up the image with neon coloured hair, biker boots, goth t-shirts and lots of eyeliner. Dennis on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be able to wear anything but a three-piece suit and tie, even at the weekends.
No matter where Kat turns, there is Dennis. All the hotels in town are full, so he has to stay at the Roadside Inn where she works. Her father sends him to the Roadside Inn for dinner, he hits it off with Kat’s daughter Lucy and offers to give maths tutoring. If only he weren’t such a stuffed shirt, pompous *ss.

I loved this, I’m a sucker for opposites attract romances and Kat and Dennis were such great characters.

Thank you to Kelsey Humphreys for sending me an ARC in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews