A life of books . . .
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this review. You can go back and read my original from May 2020. I decided to re-read this to see if it held up for me and it really did.
More “issues” arose this time around with some stilted dialogue and weird time jumps, but those didn’t detract from my sheer joy at reading it. It’s a tame and totally adorable romance with a little bit of external drama to really make Finch and Benedict get their shit together.
I ended up grabbing this one after spending a bit of time looking for Two for Trust. I was really hoping to find it at the library so I could read it a year later and see if it held up as the OMG SQUEEEEEE I remember. When I couldn’t find it, I figured I may as well try another one by Brownlee since I enjoyed most of hers I’ve read.
This is Wiley’s story. He had to move back to his hometown when his grandmother got ill and he never left and all of a sudden his childhood best friend, Kit, and his reality tv show with his brother, Holt, are returning to town to film a special episode. Well Holt decides to pretend Wiley is his fiancé and it’s their wedding episode the brothers are there to film.
Continue reading “Book 825: Say Yes to a Mess – Elle Brownlee”
I’m slowly coming to expect great things from Roan Parrish. Every time I pick up a novel by her I know there’s going to be a decent chunk of it dedicated to emotional turmoil of some sort and another good chunk of it dedicated to really making you feel the setting of the novel. And she did not disappoint with this one.
In the Middle of Somewhere introduces us to Daniel, a PhD candidate looking for his first job as a literature professor who has a chip on his shoulder from a rough upbringing, and Rex, a quiet woodsman with so much love to give and his own burdens to share. They meet when Daniel is in town for an interview and he hits a stray dog and crashes his car. There’s a kiss and longing, but then they both move on because neither knows for sure Daniel is going to take the job.
Continue reading “Book 793: In the Middle of Somewhere (Middle of Somewhere #1) – Roan Parrish”
Oh how the tides of turned, these days I’m like GIVE ME ALL THE MM Holiday Romances, whereas when I first read Lane’s Christmas Kitsch back in 2013 I was much more cautious and actively staying away from them. At last check as I write this, I have over 22 books tagged with holiday romance. HA!
I have no memory of that first book I read which mostly tells me that it wasn’t bad. Looking back over my review and my rating of three-stars just reiterates it was a middle of the road book with no major problems and I kind of feel that’s where this one ends up too: probably not the most memorable book, but nothing so egregiously wrong that I’ll remember it only for that.
Continue reading “Book 787: Winter Ball (Winter Ball #1) – Amy Lane”
This was a weird novel. I checked it out because of the cutie on the cover and the whole baking thing (there’s apparently a newer, hotter cover on Cochet’s website). It ended up being an amnesia spy thriller romantic comedy serendipitous mash-up that mostly worked.
Joe owns a pie bakery in NYC and has a traumatic past and when he finds “Tom” knocked out in his garden with no memory, he takes him in and trusts that he’s not a crazy person who is going to kill him in his sleep and the story goes from there.
Continue reading “Book 721: Forgive and Forget – Charlie Cochet”