Tag Archives: contemporary romance

Play: New Adult Sports Romance (Completion Book 1) by Holly S. Roberts

book review March 31, 2016 Comments: 2

A New Adult romance about a professional football player and a woman in her last year of university on a track scholarship, Play was an odd read. As happens sometimes with this genre, it felt like the version of romance conjured up by an awkward teen who has never been kissed other than that one time at a 13th birthday party, “but that was on a dare, so it doesn’t count.”

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I have some notes, but the first one is the showstopper:

Opening with an attempted sexual assault when a professional football player forces the heroine to her knees, “The scunt owes me a sblowjob”, she is rescued by the hero who offers to go to the police with her. The assailant’s friends dismiss the behaviour as a product of drunkenness. At the end of the book, the assailant, having apologised for his violent attack, is one of the groomsmen at the hero and heroine’s wedding.

[insert mic drop here]

Other items of note in Killian and Rebecca’s book are below. Direct quotes are in italics:

Scant minutes after a sexual assault and still shaken, Rebecca is overwhelmingly aroused in Killian’s presence and very concerned about how she looks.

There’s a lot of slutshaming both by Rebecca of her sister and by Rebecca of Rebecca. Something needs to be done about the “but those other women who are having sex and aren’t the main character are whores” situation in these books.

Killian and Rebecca find each other physically attractive.  No other reasons, rationalizations, explanations, or elucidations for their emotional connection are provided.

Every time they go somewhere, Killian fastens Rebecca’s seat belt for her.

Killian hadn’t mentioned anything about the hair on my lady bits, but I wanted to do this for him anyway. She gets her privates waxed as a gift for him to make herself more attractive. Is that really a thing?

“I’m changing one rule and letting you have a hair tie while you run.” He said to the ELITE ATHLETE! Sidebar: Who says “hair tie”?

In addition to requiring she wear her hair down at all times, Killian has other rules; for example, Rebecca is also supposed to walk around naked whenever they are at home because he finds her so amazingly beautiful.

“Killian, please, I don’t feel comfortable.” Mortification caused tears in my eyes. Many times, the hero makes Rebecca feel this way and she is just supposed to accept that he knows best because he loves her so much and she comes around to agreeing with him.

Killian gets injured and pushes Rebecca away by vilely requesting a sex act.  When he comes to his senses, he stalks her – with the help of his severely disabled brother – until she gives in.

The temporary break up is so painful for Rebecca that it improves her running, so she gets the boy and wins races.

Rebecca wants to get married and have babies which is, of course, totally up to her, but she’s only 21.

The next time I read a romance in which a heroine complains about being thin, my head ass is going to explode.

Play has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars on Amazon.

If you want to read a good New Adult romance featuring athletes, I suggest one of the following:

  1. The Off Campus Series by Elle Kennedy: The Deal and The Mistake
  2. Him by Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen
  3. The Ivy Years Series by Sarina Bowen
  4. The Game on Series by Kristen Callihan, especially The Game Plan

More New Adult romance recommendations can be found here.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

Romance Authors and Their Themes

book review March 20, 2016 1 Comment

The link in the author’s name will take you to either a summary of their catalogue or a relevant review.

Carla Kelly – People are inherently good and their kindness will surprise you.

Caroline Linden – Fortune favours the bold.

Cecilia Grant  – Live life on your own terms and be willing to accept the consequences.

Christina Lauren – Find someone with whom you can be your true self and who calls you on your bullshit.

Courtney Milan – Only you get to decide who you are. Fear is a waste of energy.

Jennifer Ashley – Love heals all wounds.

Julia Quinn – Marry your best friend.

Julie Anne Long – You must be willing to be emotionally vulnerable to find a true partner.

Kresley Cole – Misogynists need love, too, baby. He only hurts you because he loves you so.

Laura Florand – Sincere love gives you the courage and freedom to embrace your true self and someone else’s. You are braver than you know.

Lisa Kleypas – Make your own life and your own luck. Hard work is rewarded. To find a true partner, you will need to leave your comfort zone.

Lorraine Heath – Damaged people finding strength in each other and themselves to persevere and succeed. B-list author.

Loretta Chase – Find someone who challenges you and life will never be dull.

Mary Balogh – Broken people finding someone to fit their pieces to and moving forward with their lives.

Tessa Dare – Life is an adventure! Be bold.

Suggestions are always welcome.

Links to reviews can also be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

 

 

 

 

Us by Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen

book review March 17, 2016 1 Comment

A follow-up to the

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new adult romance Him, Us follows up five months later with Ryan “Wes” Wesley and Jamie Canning. Living together in Toronto as Wes skates through a stellar NHL rookie season (doomed to failure and disappointment as the Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since the year I was born) and Jamie is establishing his career as a coach. They don’t get to spend enough time together and when they do, they are constrained by the need to mask their relationship. Wes just wants to get through his first season without becoming known as the first out gay man in professional hockey. The burden of Wes’s travel, hiding their relationship, and lack of time together is wearing on the couple.

Many adults try to figure out how to manage new careers and a serious relationship, but Wes and Jamie’s efforts are further complicated by the arrival of the world’s largest plot moppet in the form of Wes’s teammate, Blake. He moves in upstairs and takes to dropping by at inopportune times to interrupt sex and ratchet up “we can’t tell anyone I’m gay and you’re bisexual and we can’t even be ourselves in our own home” tension before proving he has a heart of gold when everything hits the fan.

The guys are still likable and sympathetic, if not especially well fleshed out characters, and their intimate scenes are still hot, but Us, while it does provide some realistic feeling situations, wasn’t really anything surprising. It’s an enjoyable, but not particularly memorable, trip down a familiar road with some nice guys doing the best they can. Honestly, the most notable thing about the story is the unbelievable suggestion that Toronto Maple Leafs ticket holders would give up their seats, even if only for one game:

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Those tickets are worth their weight in gold!

Note: I have re-read this book a couple of times since posting my review and I feel that I didn’t give it enough credit. It’s a good one and I recommend it if that wasn’t clear. Read its predecessor first.

I highly recommend Sarina Bowen’s new adult romance The Ivy Years Series and suggest you buy the box set, including the classic novella Blonde Date, but skip The Fifteenth Minute entirely. She is an author to watch.

Elle Kennedy’s new adult romance Off Campus series consists of The Deal  (great, recommended), The Mistake (good),  The Score (no), and The Goal (fine).

New Adult romance recommendations can be found here.

LGBT romance recommendations can be found here.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

The Tuscan’s Revenge Wedding by Jennifer Blake

book review March 1, 2016 Leave a comment

You know, if I am going to keep reviewing free books, I should stick to the ones my friend Malin gives me. Someday, I will learn. I feel like the woman on the cover –

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The Tuscan’s Revenge Wedding by Jennifer Blake is a trite contemporary romance.  As the first book in the Italian Billionaires series, it sets a tone for the subsequent novels that I will not be reading. I am heartily sick of the number of billionaires thick on the ground in the genre and the fact that they tend to be autocratic alpha males does not help.

Nico de Frenza appears suddenly in Amanda Something’s life when her brother is in a car accident. Nico’s sister was in the car, too, and he has appeared in Atlanta to bring her to Tuscany and her brother’s bedside. To say Nico is highhanded is an understatement. Shortly after meeting, when he senses Amanda’s tension, “Her fingers turned as white as the Carrera marble of his home region as she gripped them together….Nico reached to the brandy snifter and put it into her hands…When she made no move to drink, he lifted the glass to her lips …tipping it with slow insistence.” Be still my heart.

The Italian billionaire has already spoken to Amanda’s employer to arrange for time off. “A leave of absence has been approved for you. An agency that monitors apartments while tenants are away has been contacted, and will send someone to water your plants and retrieve your mail. If you like, I can have your clothing packed and sent after us, though it would be more practical to buy a few things after you arrive.” In WHAT WORLD would her employer let some stranger speak on her behalf and what services would contract work in someone’s house with anyone other than the owner? Amanda’s reaction is, and I QUOTE, “It would be ungrateful of her to fling all of his careful planning in his face.” Thus Amanda is not technically kidnapped, but it is an incredibly well-organized absconding.

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Thank you, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

She packs a small bag and he whisks her off on a private jet which is under a strict schedule despite, you know, the fact that they are the only passengers. He does actually send someone out to buy her clothing once in Italy. The choices are, of course, perfect.

When they get to Tuscany, both worried over their respective siblings, they visit the hospital and are beset by paparazzi. Nico is a billionaire count with an olive oil fortune after all and Amanda’s brother is a Formula One race car driver. So other than the victim of circumstance who has been dragged into the lap of luxury, these are not exactly humble folk. Amanda has to stay at Nico’s estate for privacy, naturally, and meets the whole family who, how could they not?, take to her immediately. Events proceed predictably and imperiously from there.

It should come as no surprise at this point in my review that I did not like this book. The old school romance tropes that ran through it got my back up from the beginning and I didn’t change my mind as I kept reading. Jennifer Blake is a prolific author with a well-established career. I am sure she will have no trouble persevering in spite of this one disappointed reader.

Note: The Tuscan’s Revenge Wedding contains neither revenge, nor a wedding.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

 

His Road Home by Anna Richland

book review February 29, 2016 Leave a comment

There are a lot of wounded heroes in romance novels, but His Road Home must be the first one I’ve read in which we meet the hero straight from the battlefield. Often, the men are well away from their traumatizing experience, left with a dramatic facial scar or bad dreams that can be eased by the love of the right woman and heal them. This contemporary romance novella is not that book.

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While serving in Afghanistan, Rey Cruz invented a fiancee to simplify a negotiation. To bolster his story, he used a photo of a real woman from his home town that he he knew only vaguely. When he was wounded helping a child, his story gained traction in social media and suddenly his photoshopped engagement picture went viral. No one will listen to Grace Kim when she says she doesn’t even know Rey and she finds herself with a free plane ticket from Seattle to his bedside at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Rey has lost both his legs, one below and one above the knee, and his ability to speak. His cognitive functions are fine, but he has great difficulty communicating both in writing and with his voice. He manages single words mostly. Grace is overwhelmed, but decides to take the week she has been given to stay with Rey and help him at the hospital. It’s an absolutely lovely use of a marriage of convenience.

As this is a great book, sensibly Rey and Grace do not fall in love during that week. They establish a bond that continues to grow after she returns home. Discovering he can type his thoughts without trouble, they build a sufficiently close and intimate relationship through daily texts that when Rey is ready to go home to Washington state months later, Grace agrees to drive his car cross-country with him. This is when they truly come together in a partnership.

Over the course of the road trip, Grace finds that being outside her comfort zone with Rey is exactly what she needs and he confirms that she is a strong and wonderful woman. His Road Home neither shies away from nor wallows in the details and ramifications of Rey’s injuries.  He is not magically cured, he manages his physical challenges. His speaking, while it improves, remains limited. Heartfelt and down-to-earth, I loved the story. Rey is a whole man who has found a woman who can see past any supposed limitations to the great guy who is still there.

His Road Home won Romance Writers of America’s 2015 RITA® Award for Best Romance Novella and I can certainly see why. In fact, I am going to keep this list of finalists in all categories handy as a resource for finding new authors.

Later Review Addition: Because it is part of why I picked up the book and diversity is something I and my fellow readers have sought out in the genre, I want to mention that both Grace and Rey are children of immigrants and first generation Americans.

Other Novels with Wounded Men Done Well:

Let me know if I’ve missed any.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

 

 

Knitting in the City Series: Ninja at First Sight and Happily Ever Ninja by Penny Reid

book review February 23, 2016 1 Comment

My reaction to Happily Ever Ninja is why Penny Reid continues to be on double-secret probation with me, a situation that started with The Hooker and the Hermit, deepened with Elements of Chemistry and was cemented by Truth or Beard. I wasn’t going to buy Happily Ever Ninja. I WASN’T. No matter what joo-joo a couple of earlier books in the Knitting in the City series possessed or how much I liked Beauty and the Mustache. Penny Reid’s status as an autobuy was over. Then I read Ninja at First Sight and it intrigued me. I followed with a sample of Happily Ever Ninja and enjoyed the set up. Giving in, I bought the full length novel. Boy, was I disappointed. The strong beginning devolved into a Truly Silly and Pseudo Serious Adventure acting as a metaphor for marriage. Thinking again, I’m placing Reid on triple secret probation. I don’t really know what that means, but I won’t be paying for any more of her books.

Happily Ever Ninja

From Amazon: There are three things you need to know about Fiona Archer… I would tell you what they are, but then I’d have to kill you.  But I can tell you that Fiona’s husband—the always irrepressible and often cantankerous Greg Archer—is desperately in love with his wife. He aches for her when they are apart, and is insatiable when they are together. Yet as the years pass, Greg has begun to suspect that Fiona is a ninja. A ninja mom. A ninja wife. A ninja friend. After fourteen years of marriage, Greg is trying not to panic. Because Fiona’s talent for blending in is starting to resemble fading away.  However, when unexpected events mean Fiona must take center stage to keep her family safe, her response stuns everyone—Greg most of all. It seems like Greg’s wish has come true.

Greg and Fiona have spent the entirety of their marriage, and most of their relationship before that, living far apart. Years of long distance life have taken their toll and on Greg’s latest, brief visit home he realises Fiona is slipping away from him. When his professional life takes a Very Dramatic turn, she works to set everything to rights.

Fiona was consistently, wonderfully competent which was her blessing and curse. While a riot, Greg was dismissively autocratic when dealing with her. Not in a rude or high-handed way, he was just won’t listen to her. She is more capable than him, he really should clue in and when he continues not to it is very frustrating. I know that was the point, but it was overplayed. The two end up on a whirlwind adventure and how Fiona makes it through without slapping him is beyond me, even if I understood why there were together.

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Ninja at First Sight

I liked this prequel to Greg and Fiona’s novel and wish it had been longer, although some gaps from it were filled in during the full length book. Having recently read a bunch of new adult romances, this story of two university students filled that bill nicely. Fiona has chosen to go to college far away from her parents. It’s her only hope for independence from their pressure and ongoing concern as a result of a serious health crisis she suffered as  a teenager. Incredibly shy and a bit awkward, she is dragged around her residence by a well-intentioned roomie and meets Greg. He’s older, British, and attached. He also knows a good thing when he sees it and is gone on Fiona from day one. Their courtship was sweet and involving. I blame it for getting me to overlook my Penny Reid book-buying embargo and buy Fiona and Greg’s full length story.

Penny Reid’s Catalogue gives an overview of her published works , some of which I recommend and some of which I dislike intensely.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

Christina Lauren’s Catalogue

book review February 22, 2016 1 Comment

Themes: In Christina’s Lauren’s world, the person who lets you be your true self and calls you on your bullshit is your best match.

The Wild Seasons Series:
Sweet Filthy Boy – liked it
Dirty Rowdy Thing – really liked it, the sex was distracting
Dark Wild Night – good
Wicked Sexy Liar – fantastic, my favourite of the group and their books
A Not-Joe Not-So-Short Short – for completists only

The Beautiful Series:
Beautiful Bastard – lots of ihateyou sex
Beautiful Bitch – more ihateyou sex
Beautiful Stranger – surprisingly romantic exhibitionists
Beautiful Bombshell – ihateyou sex bachelor and bachelorette parties
Beautiful Player – A Rake Is Reformed by a Girl with No Filter – GUILTY PLEASURE
Beautiful Beginning -ihate you sex, we’re getting married
Beautiful Beloved – exhibitionists getting back on track after having a baby
Beautiful Secret – quiet guys need love, too
Beautiful Boss – Meh.
Beautiful – only makes sense if read as a series finale

Dating You/Hating You – very good
Roomies – It’s $8 and the story doesn’t appeal to me.
Autoboyography – two dudes, will likely buy it

The Wild Seasons Series: Wicked Sexy Liar and A Not-Joe Not-So-Short Short by Christina Lauren

book review February 22, 2016 Leave a comment

Finally, a Christina Lauren couple that doesn’t scream the house down in the throes of passion. Quiet people need love, too.

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In the first three books of the new adult romance Wild Seasons series, each of a trio of close friends made impulsive marriages on a graduation trip to Las Vegas. The aftermath of each of these choices was the basis for Mia, Harlow, and Lola’s novels. Book four brings Lola’s surfer roommate, London, to the fore and pairs her with Mia’s ex-boyfriend, Luke. I have enjoyed the Wild Seasons series and I think Wicked Sexy Liar may be my favourite. It struck the right balance of romance, sex – which is important given that Christina Lauren writes novels billed erotic – and character development.

Luke Sutter is a protector-type in rake’s clothing. He has been playing the field, sowing his oats, and tapping everything in sight for the past few years. A legal intern about to undertake law school, he’s 23 years old and out for fun. In Mia’s book, Sweet Filthy Boy, he was portrayed as a total player who had broken her heart. Of course, his heart was broken, too, and while he has created the impression that he handled it well by seeing a succession of women, he hasn’t been in a relationship since the “Great Breakup of 2010”. As the one with Mia lasted about 7 years, the reader quickly realises he has good boyfriend potential once he decides to grow up.

London has completed university with a degree in graphic design. Rather than toil for peanuts and build a clientele, she is taking some time to figure out what she wants to do as she surfs by day and tends bar by night. When Luke approaches her and they have a one night stand, he is smitten, but she is wary of the delicious man in front of her.

I have railed against the plot I call “The Pig Becomes a Person“, but that is not the case here. Instead of being some louche douchecanoe waiting for a magical transformative female to attach himself to, Luke has proven that he is capable of a steady and healthy relationship, he just needs to climb out of the hole he has dug himself into. Often, those heroes who have been chasing any and all willing females, but have never met The One and don’t change until they do. Luke had and lost his One and Lauren does a really good job of his slow recognition that he has turned into a skeevy guy who needs to do some rearranging with his life. Convincing London of this takes a while. She sees him as a potential boff buddy, but nothing more and, after a distasteful public encounter, not even that. She also struggles with her obligation to her circle of friends. It felt realistic within the heightened reality of a new adult romance. Liking both of them, and the sister who gives Luke endless sh*t about his life, Wicked Sexy Liar made for a relaxing, romantic read.

A Not-Joe Not-So-Short Short after the jump

Continue reading →

The Doctor Wears a Stetson by Anna Marie Novark

book review February 19, 2016 Leave a comment

The heroine actually says, “Take me now.”

My original plan for this review was to lay my head down on the keyboard as though I’d fallen asleep and let the random characters speak for me, like this: vgftbzxdfh dskjfsuir eso9=-fsdklasejl;.

The Doctor Wears A Stetson hit all of my romance novel reading choice shame buttons. It was tedious and humdrum, but I still read it and was disappointed in myself for doing so. Technically, I read most of it, but not all, as I was not hopeful for improvement and if I am going to wallow in escapist genre fiction it should at least be good.

Looking on Amazon for a plot summary to decrease any effort associated with my review, I found the only interesting thing about this book – Novark wrote both “sweet” and “steamy” versions. “AUTHOR’S WARNING: This is the hotter and sexier version of The Doctor Wears A Stetson. The love scenes are steamier and more graphic. For a sweeter read, check out The Doctor Wears A Stetson in The Diamondback Ranch Sweeter Series.” For the record, I never want the sweeter read. 

Thinking it might be a fun departure for me, I bought The Doctor Wears A Stetson because it was free and had good ratings:

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Either people are idiots or like different things, likely both.

From Amazon:  Jessie Kincaid was fifteen and innocent when Cameron asked her to the prom. She lost her heart that night, but his plans didn’t change. He left their small town to pursue his dreams. Seventeen years later, a trip home leads Cameron McCade back to Salt Fork, Texas and the newly widowed Jessie Devine. Since his return, the fire between them burns as hot as ever. Can they take up where they left off? Can Jessie risk her heart again?

The reunion plot is familiar set up, all romance plots are, but this one felt particularly plodding. Jessie and Cameron went on exactly one date in high school, granted it was the epicocity of a small town prom, but that was the extent of their relationship. It was their only interaction. I fail to see how someone you spent six hours with more than half a lifetime ago  can be the one that got away. The reader is meant to take to on faith that this was a love for the ages despite lacking evidence other than the characters claiming it to be so as the hero and heroine take turns having declarative thoughts and making statements of intent. Obvious and on-the-nose, Novark’s writing provided a boring, paint-by-numbers romance of quiet longing and sexual tension, although neither of those things was conveyed in a fresh or compelling way.

Trite and facile, the best I would allow The Doctor Wears A Stetson is that it was competent. Schlumping through in a state of ennui punctuated by desultory sighs, I was insufficiently motivated to go so far as rolling my eyes. Not even so bad it looped back around to fun, it had the banality not of evil, but of mediocrity. I couldn’t finish it, not even to be a review purist. I skipped ahead to the end to confirm that, of course, the heroine’s fertility challenge was of the bait and switch variety common to unimaginative romance and counted myself lucky to have missed the middle pages of Cameron and Jessie’s so-called relationship obstacles and got right to the specific happy ending that a reader could see coming a big sky country mile away.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

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London Celebrities Series: Act Like It by Lucy Parker

book review February 17, 2016 Comments: 3

READ THIS BOOK.

257505461When an obnoxious stage actor needs a boost to his reputation which will both encourage business and improve his public standing, his costar is selected as just the right woman to be able to put up with him for the media’s gratification while secretly being rewarded with money for her charity at the same time.

There are several ways an author can reform an asshat, but a partner who gives as good as he/she gets is the most fun, as is a reverse Taming of the Shrew. Starring together in a West End play in contemporary London, the hero and heroine are both talented and successful. He is higher up the ladder than she, but as a theatre purist whose aspirations of influence in the arts are in conflict with his complete and utter inability to suffer fools gladly, he is in a spot of bother. Richard is rich, insanely talented, gorgeous and, as the saying goes, difficult. Lainie is droll, sharp, and sincere. They spar their way to a genuine, romantic relationship without sacrificing the arch by-play that makes them so enjoyable to begin with.

I will not be the only one reviewing this first book from Lucy Parker, nor will I be the only person encouraging you to buy it. With this novel, Parker has arrived on my “fingers crossed for huge potential” list. Her writing is fresh and sublimely funny and her talent for wry asides and wonderful banter will take her far. Admittedly, Act Like It does fall back on a couple of tropes to get the job done, but with prose this witty who cares?

Having said all I need to, I’m just going to regale my ones of readers with some select quotations. (Speaking of which, Richard quotes my favourite line of all time, in fact it’s the tagline for my blog, to Lainie. I screamed like a Beatles fan at Shea Stadium.)

You make Mr. Darcy look like the poster child for low self-esteem.

I wouldn’t have to lose my temper if people weren’t such morons.

Lynette looked as though a few silent prayers for patience were taking place behind her bland expression.

…he was quite gracious with her niece Emily, although clearly uncomfortable with – well, humans, really.

London Celebrities Series:
Act Like It – SO GOOD! see above
Pretty Face – EVEN BETTER!
Making Up – Good, I’ll get to a review, I have re-read it
The Austen Playbook – Great

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful, or my  streamlined recommendations list.