Category: B reviews (Page 10 of 74)

Strange Love by Ann Aguirre

February 13, 2020 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I am a subscriber to Ann Aguirre’s newsletter. Even though I received this in serial format, I wanted to wait to read the whole thing because I’m like that. So I bought it. It seems to be Amazon only at this point.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) He’s awkward. He’s adorable. He’s alien as hell.

Zylar of Kith B’alak is a four-time loser in the annual Choosing. If he fails to find a nest guardian this time, he’ll lose his chance to have a mate for all time. Desperation drives him to try a matching service but due to a freak solar flare and a severely malfunctioning ship AI, things go way off course. This ‘human being’ is not the Tiralan match he was looking for.

She’s frazzled. She’s fierce. She’s from St. Louis.

Beryl Bowman’s mother always said she’d never get married. She should have added a rider about the husband being human. Who would have ever thought that working at the Sunshine Angel daycare center would offer such interstellar prestige? She doesn’t know what the hell’s going on, but a new life awaits on Barath Colony, where she can have any alien bachelor she wants.

They agree to join the Choosing together, but love is about to get seriously strange.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): This was such a fun book! Zylar is a very beta hero – his chitin (he’s a kind of insectoid alien so has what I imagine to be a thick outer shell like a cockroach’s but stronger?) might be hard but inside he’s all marshmallow. He has low self-esteem because he’s not very attractive. Barathi are prized for their colours and Zylar is a dull brown and he doesn’t stand out in a crowd. He has also always been outshone by his nest-mate (aka sibling) Ryzven (who is an asshole). It is not ever made clear just why Ryzven hated Zylar so much and that is one of my few criticisms of the story. Continue reading

If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane

December 17, 2019 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I’ve been meaning to try this author for ages now and I love a fake relationship.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When Laurie’s partner of eighteen years, Dan, dumps her to ‘find himself’ (and leave her on the shelf at 36), she is blindsided. But not as blindsided as when he announces that his new girlfriend is now pregnant.

Working in the same office with Dan is soon unbearable – until the day she gets stuck in the lift with her handsome colleague Jamie. Jamie is looking for a way to improve his reputation in the company and what better way for Jamie to advance and Laurie to give the rumour mill something else to talk about than a fake relationship?

As Laurie and Jamie progress from Instagram snaps to dates, dancing and more, Laurie feels herself falling further for her unlikely hero. But you can’t break your heart in a fake relationship. Can you?

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Even though this is a romance and there is most definitely a HEA at the end, the romantic relationship between Jamie and Laurie takes a very long time to get going. When the book begins, Laurie is still with Dan and then it all hits the fan. Then she’s heartbroken and it takes a while before Jamie and she get stuck in a lift (which sparks, eventually, the idea to have a fake relationship). If I didn’t dislike the term I’d say this was more “women’s fiction”. The book is as much about Laurie’s own journey to rediscover herself than her relationship with Jamie. In many respects, the former is far more detailed. Continue reading

November Round Up

December 3, 2019 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Vendetta in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen – B Book 49 in the series takes place in about 4 days from start to finish and is obviously heavily inspired by #MeToo. At first I was a little worried about the killer being a woman who calls herself “Lady Justice” and abducts, tortures and kills men she has judged as being lacking. The first victim was certainly someone who inspired little sympathy (very much a Harvey Weinstein/Roger Ailes type character, albeit in a different industry). I didn’t want to read a story where the victims were all horrible men – I felt like that would have been too on the nose for me. However, after a while I saw that Robb did something clever here. There were a couple of victims/targets who did little more than divorce their wives (we aren’t privy to all the circumstances, though in some cases we can guess) and this served to illustrate that Lady Justice wasn’t really about “justice” at all. It was not a case of the punishment necessarily fitting the “crime” – in some cases, there was no crime. There were also multiple stories about women who had been assaulted by men, sexually or otherwise. Their stories were (sadly) more familiar and here, justice bent toward them – actual justice; because Eve Dallas and Delia Peabody were on the case. There was a a strong believe women vibe and no endorsement of toxic male behaviour. So it wasn’t the book I feared at all. Continue reading

American Fairytale by Adriana Herrera, narrated by Sean Crisden

November 22, 2019 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This is one from my TBL.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Fairy-tale endings don’t just happen; they have to be fought for.

New York City social worker Camilo Santiago Briggs grew up surrounded by survivors who taught him to never rely on anything you didn’t earn yourself. He’s always dreamed of his own happily-ever-after, but he lives in the real world. Men who seem too good to be true usually are. And Milo never ever mixes business with pleasure until the mysterious man he had an unforgettable hookup with turns out to be the wealthy donor behind his agency’s new, next-level funding.

Thomas Hughes built a billion-dollar business from nothing: he knows what he wants and isn’t shy about going after it. When the enthralling stranger who blew his mind at a black-tie gala reappears, Tom’s more than ready to be his Prince Charming. Showering Milo with the very best of everything is how Tom shows his affection.

Trouble is, Milo’s not interested in any of it. The only thing Milo wants is Tom.

Fairy-tale endings take work as well as love. For Milo, that means learning to let someone take care of him, for a change. And for Tom, it’s figuring out that real love is the one thing you can’t buy.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I haven’t yet listened to American Dreamer, the first book in the series (though I have it on my TBL now), however, American Fairytale, the second book in the series, stands alone well. Each book, features one of a group of four close friends, most of whom are gay/queer and living in New York. None are white.

There is a vibrancy to the writing, which illustrates the diversity in New York. There is a marked difference to American Fairytale as compared to the all-white (or almost-all-white) New York-set contemporary romance which is commonly available and it was both authentic and so much more interesting to me. It felt more like the real world and less like a construct and the characters showcased different experiences and points of view than my own white experience. I loved it. Continue reading

October Round Up

November 3, 2019 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Selkies Are a Girl’s Best Friend by Molly Harper. Narrated by Amanda Ronconi & Jonathan Davis – B Sonja Fong has moved to Mystic Bayou to help her best friend Jillian Ramsey with running the office for the League for Interspecies Cooperation. The daughter of a Chinese diplomat-type father and a Russian particle physicist mother (I’m not entirely convinced the model on the cover is an accurate representation of her ethnicity), Sonja is scarily competent, fearfully organised and super smart. She’s also gorgeous, kind and generous.

Will Carmody is a Mystic Bayou native and selkie shifter. He’s been away from the bayou for decades but has recently returned. He’s a doctor and the town desperately needs one. Jillian is delighted to offer him a job with the League as the town’s doctor and Sonja helps Will organise his new premises and get all set up. They don’t get off to the most auspicious start but this is quickly sorted out and they start working together and exploring their chemistry and growing attraction.

The main conflict between them is Will’s fear (born from witnessing the trainwreck that was his parent’s marriage) of being trapped by his selkie pelt.

In amongst that is the ongoing mystery of the ever-expanding Rift which is causing humans to spontaneously develop supernatural abilities and the League’s ongoing research into it and their attempts to stablise and minimise the Rift. Sonja finds herself at risk after she begins investigating some shifty financial dealings. While the mystery contained in this book wasn’t particularly hard to decipher, there were some interesting developments with the wider story arc and I’m curious as to how it’s all going to work out. Continue reading

Desire and the Deep Blue Sea by Olivia Dade

September 14, 2019 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I pre-ordered this one as soon as it was up and recently carved out time to actually read it.

Content Advisory: Anxiety

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) They’re pretending. Until they aren’t.

Thomas McKinney has never wanted a woman the way he wants Callie Adesso. Since she started working alongside him at the Colonial Marysburg Research Library, he’s spent his desk shifts fumbling pencils, tripping over his own feet, and struggling to remember both the Dewey Decimal System and the existence of her inconvenient boyfriend. Now, however, Callie is suddenly single–and in need of a last-minute faux-boyfriend for an episode of HATV’s Island Match. Thomas is more than happy to play the part…and in the process, convince Callie that a week together isn’t nearly long enough.

Callie has never found a man as irritating as she finds Thomas. He may be brilliant, kind, and frustratingly handsome, but the absent-minded librarian also makes every workday an anxiety-inducing exercise in stress. Even seven days in paradise by his side won’t change her opinion of him. Really. No matter how attentive he is. And gentle. And sexy.

One plane ride later, the two of them are spending long, hot days under the sun and on display, pretending to be in love for a television show. This may be a vacation, but it’s also an act–as well as Thomas’s last chance to persuade the woman of his dreams to include him in hers. And soon, the island heat isn’t the only thing steaming up HATV’s cameras…

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Thomas McKinney was such a delightful hero. It was something of a surprise actually because initially I only had Callie’s description of him and he was certainly making life very difficult for her at work. It all came from a place of good intentions and being lovestruck and it could also have easily turned into way-not-okay stalker territory. Callie has only been at the library for six months. She struck up a friendship quickly with Thomas but became frustrated with him because he’s very bad at multi-tasking and tended to get caught up in whatever question he was asking for a patron and taking ages to do it. This left Callie doing most of the actual work and not getting many of the interesting questions to answer. Callie has been trying to work with other librarians for the past few months but for some reason she is always on shift with Thomas. This has meant she has had little chance to build relationships with anyone else and has been very isolating for her. So, initially, Thomas comes across as a bit of a jerk. Continue reading