Meg Shaffer - The Book Witch

Rainy March is a proud, third-generation Book Witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps in and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes like a modern-day magical Nancy Drew.
Book Witches live by a strict code: Real people belong in the real world; fictional characters belong in works of fiction. Do not eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don’t even think about it.
Which is why Rainy has been forbidden from seeing the Duke of Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite mystery series. If she’s ever caught with him again, she’ll be expelled from her book coven—and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name.
But when her beloved grandfather disappears and a priceless book is stolen, there’s only one person she trusts to help her solve the case: the Duke. Their quest takes them through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, King Arthur, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.

Comment: This is the most recent book by Meg Shaffer, whose previous books The Wishing Game and The Lost Story were very appealing to me, especially the first one, which was really wonderful. Of course, I expected more of the same...

Rainy March is a book witch, meaning that she can travel to the fictional stories and deal with necessary things, such as if someone is interfering with how the story is supposed to go. Rainy is very dedicated and she wants to follow the rules just like her late mother, who used to be known as the best of the book witches. But with the same specificity of good outcomes when the rules are met, there are consequences if something doesn't go according to plan, and Rainy will learn her lesson when her new task sends her to a book in the Duke of Chicago series. The thing is, Rainy has always considered the duke to be her "book boyfriend" but everyone knows one of the main rules of this job is that one should not fall in love with a fictional character, especially if they need to work together to solve some mysteries...

I had a lot of hope for this book, not only because I had the experience of having enjoyed the other books by the author and kind of anticipating her style, but also because the plot seemed to hit on the perfect fantasy for a book lover, such as it is to think one could visit beloved stories.

The plot is divided into several sections, labeled as literary genres, starting with romance, then mystery, and so on. This was clever and a good indication of what type of situation the main characters would find, and I think all were suited for the situations presented. The plot focus on the idea that rainy and the fictional duke go on to solve some mysteries which turn out to have connections with other things and the more they discover, the more complex the story becomes. On the way, they fall in love.

I should say that, in regards to the other books by Shaffer I had read, the magical elements are, as it seems to be the pattern, not fully developed and explained. This can be tiring because I do like some sense in how certain things can happen. However, I think I accepted this element better here than in The Lost Story. Still, I must confess that, out of the three books, this is the one I liked less and my personal grades have gotten lower with each book, with The Wishing Game being an 8, The Lost Story a 7 and this now a 6.

Unfortunately, my biggest issue is that the romance element was incredible vague and too subtle, which means that felt poorly engaging. Then, the second section with the mystery aspects taking the focus was very confusing at times and, sadly, dull at others. I struggled to maintain my attention on what was happening and only when that section ended and new information was shared, did I feel things improved. Still, the somehow confusing scenes continued - along with the lack of explanations for some magical things - and I think the characters never got the depth I think such a story deserved. There are emotional scenes but the characters' attitude was often so all over the place that made it difficult to connect with them.

Then, another element I found a little poorly done was the whole jumping into books and so on element. I mean, as a possibility, this is great and whimsical and dreamy and who is the reader who never dreamed of such an idea? However, the choice of having Rainy and others going from this place to that and so on and never really making is special or memorable and almost only a prop for what Rainy was supposed to be doing for work, was a little disappointing. This element also reminded me too much of The Astral Library by Kate Quinn, a book with a similar premise and plot point, which I had read in July and that I graded low (4/10). The idea just didn't really convince me as I imagined, in either book.

Therefore, this book was good enough in terms of entertainment, it had good details but as a big picture it didn't seem that strong and, honestly, I don't think I'll ever re-read it, not even parts of it.

Grade: 6/10

Julie A. Richman - Reel love

The moment I laid eyes on Finn Parker's headshot, I knew that if this guy could act, I wanted him for the hero role in the film being made from my book, Fleeing an August Moon.
The tall, blond, and ruggedly handsome actor looked exactly like the picture I'd seen in my head the entire time I was writing the book.
The studio, however, had different thoughts on a leading man. Box Office crusher, Maverick Dailey, made it clear that he wanted the role. The producers, studio, and everyone involved were thrilled to score such a celebrity. Well, everyone except me.
And it's my vote that counts since, according to my contract, I get final say on casting. Maverick is amazing, yet I'm just not sure...
It certainly didn't help that Finn Parker and I seemed destined to cross paths. We ran into each other all over Hollywood. And the more time we spent together, the more the sparks between us flew. We had an intense chemistry, something I'd only ever read about in books like mine.
Which made me wonder, was I really falling for Finn or just living out a fantasy with a red-blooded, live version of my hot hero character?
It's easy to confuse fiction for reality in Hollywood. Everything is not as it seems in this town.
Not to mention, Finn's life would forever change if he landed the role. Which made me question how good of an actor he really was? Was he interested in me, or the role I had the power to give him?

Comment: I got this book for free from a site I have subscribed to several years ago. Each month a book is made available, all contemporary romances, and some seem interesting, others not as much. I thought the idea of a romance writer and the actor she meets when her book is about to be adapted might be interesting.

Francesca "Frankie" Simonelli has written a wonderful romance which has resonated with readers beyond the label is was sold for. Now, the opportunity to adapt it to the big screen is about to happen and actors are auditioning which is quite exciting for Frankie too. She even has the chance to be part of the process and while everyone seems to expect this to be a formality considering there's a big name indicated to be the protagonist, Frankie can't help but be drawn to Finn Parker, a not so known name. A chance meeting near the beach only solidifies this and they even seem to be come friends, but is Frankie feeling this because of how good an actor he is or because she likes him as Finn? And will Finn finally have his big break or will his feelings for Frankie cloud his goals?

I've started this story without many expectations, and only really thought it would be a good chick lit type of plot, with the usual tropes/situations. In a way, it was precisely so, but until a certain point, everything was being quite interesting and I thought that while it wasn't spectacular, it was quite entertaining.

For some reason, I could not connect with Frankie that easily, though. I can't explain it, after all she is a protagonist I should sympathize with right away, being her a writer of romance and enjoying books and such and being in Hollywood coming from Texas, which means she should feel a little out of place. Well, I thought this seemed to be happening at first, but then, among all the glamour of most scenes, she behaved in such a way that I just could not see it being that easy to be realistic. I suppose I wanted her to act with a bit more doubt in what she should be like in such a different place.

Finn I liked more and his thoughts on what it's like to be in a industry that demands a lot and presents an image of actors and then in real life not everyone has it easy as the movies and social media make it sound. I think his personality was very appealing and I liked how he was dedicated to the potential role, not knowing if he would get it. Perhaps his dealings with his family were a little under developed, considering some scenes towards the end.

As a couple, these two were fine enough but I liked it better when they were getting to know each other and in the process of thinking about the other as more than just a friend or someone to talk about in regards to the movie and how to deal with the glamour aspects of the events they had to attend. Once they got intimate, I just could not see the connection anymore, I cannot explain it well. I didn't see the vibe nor why they would make it in the long term. Although, considering there's a HEA, they will get to have one, of course.

The scenes related to the movie and the acting business, and how there are so many people involved in ways that never get to be obvious for the public, was both interesting and stressful because I could tell some kind of obstacle would happen for the protagonists. Well, this didn't happen as I imagined, but by the time this took place in the story, I wasn't as captivated by the plot and didn't really feel these subjects mattered that much for my enjoyment of the book.

In the end, reading this was good enough because there were some moments that gave me food for thought in regards to themes I don't really pay attention to, but thinking about the romance and the details I thought I'd like, it wasn't as great.

Grade: 6/10

Amanda Eyre Ward - The Lifeguards

Austin's Zilker Park neighborhood is a wonderland of greenbelt trails, live music, and moms who drink a few too many margaritas. Whitney, Annette, and Liza have grown thick as thieves as they have raised their children together for fifteen years. While each of them has their own set of values and backgrounds, they share the belief that they can shelter their children from an increasingly dangerous world. The women's three teenaged sons are about to begin a carefree summer as lifeguards. Whitney, Annette, and Liza's friendship is unbreakable--as safe as the neighborhood where they've raised their sweet little boys.
Or so they think.
One night, the three women have been enjoying happy hour when their boys come back on bicycles from a late-night dip in their favorite swimming hole. The boys share a secret--news that will shatter the perfect world their mothers have so painstakingly created.
Combining three mothers' points of view in a powerful narrative tale with commentary from entertaining neighborhood listservs, secret text messages, and police reports, The Lifeguards is both a story about the secrets we tell to protect the ones we love and a riveting novel of suspense filled with half-truths and betrayals, fierce love and complicated friendships, and the loss of innocence on one hot summer night.

Comment: I cannot remember why this book was in the pile for the past two years, perhaps related to the mix of cozy vibes and light mystery...

In a well established neighborhood in Austin, we meet three friends, Liza, Annette and Whitney, as they go on through her days in the follow up of a crime which happened nearby. A young woman was found dead but the reasons aren't clear, although it seems their sons Charlie, Bobcat and Xavier, respectively, were in the area at the time the woman apparently died. While this situation brings surprising fears and reactions which might have been overlooked before, each woman also needs to deal with personal issues related to who they are and to their roles in their families. Is this too much for them to bear? How will their friendship resist all the surprises?

This is the first book by the author that I try and, therefore, I had no way to compare to other things by her, but I will be honest and say that there were times this story reminded me of Big little Lies by Liane Moriarty, only in the sense we have the POVs of different characters and they are dealing with a secretive situation while dealing with personal issues, some of which feel very bland and almost silly. This gave the story a cozy feel, actually, and I felt easily invested in learning more about the protagonists.

An interesting fact is that while we get to know what each protagonist is thinking, only Liza's is in first person. Perhaps because she was the most necessary protagonist? Perhaps because we are meant to root more for her and her difficulties? We also have two or three times small chapters, let's call them that, from the boys' POVs, which is helpful to understand their personalities, and to give us a better setting to the events that led to their presence near the spot where the woman died.

The three friends have some things in common but their inner thoughts hide a lot more than they let the others see. Are they really friends, then? I liked these differences between them and knowing about what they fear, about their backgrounds and their family dynamics made for a very rewarding read, that is true. In fact, if the story had been a straight woman's fiction without as much attention to the secondary investigation, perhaps I'd have liked this for the women's journeys alone.

Still, in a way, I cannot say the combination of things didn't work, because for the most part, it did. I was really into the plot and even having the police detective Salvatore and his family dramas, as well as the potential of his character in relation to one of the female protagonists, was another good feature. Everything seemed intriguing, but then the author added two or three more elements and that is where things started to feel they were losing focus.

I think what disappointed me in this book was, ultimately, the execution of the last chapters. To be fair, the resolution of the dead woman's case wasn't a big factor for me because the events are understandable and I was more focused on other things. But these things, namely some issues related to the protagonist's lives and situations they had to deal with, seemed to lead to a climax, a high point and then it all fizzled out. The author hints at possibilities and then, that was it! An epilogue follows, some things I could infer, but the majority of loose threads remains exactly so! I mean, in another type of book, fine, but here, after all the build up, that was frustrating.

Thus, I've finished with a slightly disappointing feel, because I wanted better and/or more suitable choices for the end, considering what the premise promised. I also think that most characters were interesting but many were also under used, such was the potential.

Anyway, this had its good moments, but what a pity the author didn't go in a different direction at the end.

Grade: 6/10

TBR Challenge: Julie Klassen - The Secret of Pembrooke Park

Abigail Foster fears she will end up a spinster, especially as she has little dowry to improve her charms and the one man she thought might marry her--a longtime friend--has fallen for her younger, prettier sister.
When financial problems force her family to sell their London home, a strange solicitor arrives with an astounding offer: the use of a distant manor house abandoned for eighteen years. The Fosters journey to imposing Pembrooke Park and are startled to find it entombed as it was abruptly left: tea cups encrusted with dry tea, moth-eaten clothes in wardrobes, a doll's house left mid-play . . .
The handsome local curate welcomes them, but though he and his family seem to know something about the manor's past, the only information they offer Abigail is a warning: Beware trespassers who may be drawn by rumors that Pembrooke contains a secret room filled
with treasure.
Hoping to improve her family's financial situation, Abigail surreptitiously searches for the hidden room, but the arrival of anonymous letters addressed to her, with clues about the room and the past, bring discoveries even more startling. As secrets come to light, will Abigail find the treasure and love she seeks...or very real danger?

Comment: August is here and I, for one, can't wait for it to end. I'm not a fan of hot weather ( I was born in the wrong country for certain) and at work, this is the busy season, so.... anyway, the theme for this hot month at the TBR Challenge is "backlist banger" and I've picked an author whose work I have enjoyed and of whom I still have several books in the pile to read.

Abigail Foster and her family have had a terrible blow because some of her father's investments have proven to be disastrous and now they need to downsize and Abigail is in charge of dealing with the finances. They find a promising house away from London due to a specific connection but it seems the house and the family members who were there before hid some secrets in the propriety. However, Abigail enjoys this new challenge and even makes friendships with their neighbors, namely the young parson, and things seem to go well, until a new person shows up claiming to be a direct descendant from the house's owners. As things muddle up, Abigail's mother and more attractive younger sister arrive too, and Abigail sees herself in a confusing situation...

I have read several books by this author by now and I have liked many of them while others weren't as great for me, in the sense of comparing them all. The author writes Christian fiction but this isn't the element that makes me like a book less, although it did affect some reader's opinions. To me, the biggest flaw has been the focus on negative/sad aspects, probably to highlight the Christian content. Sometimes this doesn't bother me because the narrative is incredibly captivating. Other times, it only makes the story feel a little boring.

I think this book falls into that slot, as opposed to the ones I gave higher marks to, because it just drags. At some point the central plot point, related to the family who used to live at Pembrooke Park, simply drags and drags and I started thinking to myself "when will this be solved" which is not a good indication, because the same story could have had less 60 or 70 pages and we would loose nothing about it. Some more editing would have helped, I think.

The whole thing is related to a supposed treasure the previous owner hid or wanted to keep protected. Things get to a point I could see right away what treasure it was, but by then all the moves had been in play and the characters kept doing things that instead of looking consistent to what would be an obvious step, just delayed concluding something. I wanted to yell at them to hurry up, because I wanted to finish the book and start my next one.

Some situations related to the mystery of the treasure and to what happened to the previous owners seemed to become more confusing as things went along. At some point I confess I no longer cared for this, because I knew it would be easily solved, and the explanations in the end proved me right. I suppose that for books that mix different genres, some elements always seem to be presented better than others.

I liked the heroine and her sense of self, her awareness of why certain things didn't happen easily for her. I thought the obvious contrast to her more flirtatious sister would be used later on in a more effective manner, but nothing happened in the way I imagined. Still, I liked her for being quiet, considerate, thoughtful and for understanding her surroundings. I also liked the romance and the person she ends up with. The romance is certainly on the sweet and demure side but I think the author manage to portray their compatibility well.

The end of the story is not very surprising but I liked how some loose threads were put together and I liked knowing that the characters I wanted to find their happy end, did so. I place this book in the middle of the pack, in my personal list of what I've read by the author until now. I do appreciate the consistency and the ideas but sometimes I also wish the author would be more daring in what should happen, plot wise, and less keen on dragging gloomy stuff.

Grade: 6/10

Melissa Ferguson - Meet Me in the Margins

Savannah Cade is a low-level editor at Pennington Publishing, a prestigious publisher producing only the highest of highbrow titles. And while editing the latest edition of The Anthology of Medieval Didactic Poetry may be her day job, she has two secrets she’s hiding.
One: She’s writing a romance novel.
Two: She’s discovered the Book Nook—a secret room in the publishing house where she finds inspiration for her “lowbrow” hobby.
After leaving her manuscript behind one afternoon, she returns to the nook only to discover someone has written notes in the margins. Savannah’s first response to the criticism is defensive, but events transpire that force her to admit that she needs the help of this shadowy editor after all. As the notes take a turn for the romantic, and as Savannah’s madcap life gets more complicated than ever, she uses the process of elimination to identify her mysterious editor—only to discover that what she truly wants and what she should want just might not be the same. Melissa Ferguson’s latest—a love letter to books, readers, and romance—will leave fans laughing out loud and swooning in the same breath.

Comment: I think I've decided to read this book after seeing some positive opinions, plus it would feature a story with content related to books and those are usually something that I enjoy.

Savannah Cade comes from a family of overachievers but she doesn't seem to be able to accomplish as much as easily. She works for a publishing house that hasn't been doing very well to stay competitive and the owner's ideas about what type of books to provide also limits them a lot. In the meantime, Savannah wants to be a writer and she has a sort of deal with an editor from a romance publisher but her manuscript wasn't up to par. She promised to deliver the perfect corrections but will she have enough time to meet a deadline? Thankfully, it seems that a secret editor found the hiding place of her manuscript and is helping her out. The question is, who is this man, Sam her co worker with whom she can't make enough eye contact or Will, the owner's son who came to help the company improve?

As so often happens with books we want to like, I think the idea of this one was extremely promising and seemed to mix several things I thought would mesh well, such as the couple who would fall in love through words without knowing while in a book related setting. I mean, pretty great idea, but to me, sadly, the execution wasn't as optimal.

This is my first attempt with this author's work so perhaps I have not chosen the best one, but I really imagined the story to be a little more consistent and objective. This is actually rather funny because the heroine, Savannah, is writing a book, and one of the criticism she is given is that her story feels to be all over the place sometimes. I don't think this happened here that much, but it certainly came to mind in several moments. There are many situations to keep track of and not all felt they were important for the plot's development.

I liked Savannah as a heroine because she is a likable and friendly person, has her dreams, does everything she can to do things properly, but her family dynamics tell us that she isn't seen by who she is, and that some people always find flaws in her. I've figured this would be a topic to explore and that was true, namely because Savannah wants her manuscript to work, and in that process she gets to interact with a secret helper  - who, by the way, is very obvious - and that starts off a reaction in the way she sees herself.

In terms of romance, I cannot say this is incredible, things meet the necessary goals. However, I must say that the way this element plays out, along with the whole book improvement thing, feels very contrived most of the time. The way they exchange messages in the manuscript pages, and never meet each other in the process and Savannah even assumes someone else was doing it instead of the person we all know who is... well, there were times this was a bit cringe. I don't think this was working out sometimes.

The book related content, the information about publishers and editors and how things work, seemed realistic enough when compared with things I've read in other books with similar content. But since most scenes where this type of content would be concluded would also contain silly stuff, my attention was easily lost about this too.

As expected, the end is very fluffy and cute and all the doubts we saw the characters have throughout the novel become solved. If I think about the several elements on their own, I cannot say that this was a very balanced story or that those things were placed together in a way that was being delivered well most of the time. I liked some things, I think some scenes were well done, true, but thinking about the big picture, I don't think this was that well accomplished. Sadly, I think that this will be a forgettable story to me.

Grade: 6/10

Heidi Swain - The Book-Lovers Retreat

Sometimes a book grabs you by the heart and grows to mean everything to you. That’s what Hope Falls is to friends Emily, Rachel and Tori. So, when they get the chance to spend a whole summer at the cottage in Lakeside where the film adaptation was located, they know it is going to be the holiday of a lifetime.
Spending six weeks away will give them a chance to re-evaluate their life choices. For Emily to decide which way her career will go – the safe route, or the more risky creative option? And for Rachel to decide whether to move in with her partner Jeremy. Then Tori has to drop out at the last moment, and her space is offered to another Hope Falls afficionado, Alex.
But when Alex turns out not to be who they expected, the holiday takes an unforeseen turn. And as the summer develops, so does their friendship. Could this be where they uncover their future selves, find love in all its forms and where their lives will change course forever…?

Comment: I decided to add this book to my TBR because it would feature characters who love reading. This month it fits a prompt in a challenge I'm reading, so...

Rachel, Emily and Tory are friends who have always loved everything connected to the book Hope Falls, centered in a group of three friends, just like them. They have also loved the movie based on the book and have planned for months the trip to the cottage where the movie was done. The place is very requested there is a waiting list as well, which means that when Tory tells them her father will no longer give her money as he has always done, they fear they cannot go. However, a solution is presented by the cottage's owner, perhaps they can accept a third person to help with the expanses, since Tory cannot go. They accept and that is how Alex takes Tory's place, but.... a surprise is definitely waiting for them. Will the three enjoy staying there as much as they dreamed?

This is the first book I try by the author, so I had no solid expectations except for a pre-conceived idea based on the author's prolific work and the cute covers of the books. I imagined the books would be more chick lit and not as much woman's fiction, but it seems that is precisely the mix.

The premise is interesting and starts off with a fictional excerpt of the fake book Hope Falls but I must not be paying enough attention because then the action jumped from characters Rosie, Laurie and Heather to others, whose names were Emily, Tory and Rachel and I admit I was very confused. Thankfully, this didn't last long and I quickly got on track  with what the story really was about, which is how the three friends deal with their holiday, so longed for and the unexpected that comes with it. 

Of course, another element is how each main character - Rachel, Emily and Alex - face personal issues and what it means to process many things in their lives has any importance to how much they enjoy the holiday or not. Certainly, there is plenty of stuff to compare with the reasons they claim the fake book is so special and we can infer the lesson to be that: life might imitate life but a person's journey is always personal and not really simple to see in a book.

There isn't much I can say about the plot that would surprise any reader, for that isn't the goal here. In fact, for anyone who has read other woman's fiction books, this is rather predictable. The sequence of events, since the main characters meet at the cottage and how their days go on after that follow very obvious patterns and the end is also calculable for this type of story. The supposed lessons aren't really special, and in part I suppose it has to do with the writing, which I've found to be competent but not really remarkable.

The real interest here sets on the characters, and how their personal little journeys seem impactful or not, depending on how much we like them. Rachel is a sweet woman who has a controlling boyfriend. This is obvious to everyone but her, so her story is centered on whether she realizes this or not. Clearly she does by the end, I don't think this surprises anyone, but considering the amount of time it takes, when she does see that feels rather anticlimactic.

Emily was more complex, mostly because the story is told only through her POV. She is debating on accepting a boring job or trying to start a patchwork business and her thoughts on this felt realistic. However, at first, she felt a little selfish in regards to her feelings about the cottage and expectations she had, even though I understand why she would act like that, and it took me some to warm up to her. Her dealings with Alex also seemed a little too hard to see positively and I did not buy into how their relationship evolved.

In the end, everything happens in a way we might consider as being positive and what a book in the genre requires. All the expectations were met but, honestly, nothing about it will likely be easily remembered.

Grade: 6/10

Gregory Ashe - Triangulation

After a recent case with a treacherous client, North and Shaw are ready to go back to work building Borealis Investigations. They’re also ready to go back to dodging their feelings for each other, with neither man ready to deal with the powerful emotions the Matty Fennmore case stirred up. Everything is getting back to normal when their secretary asks for help: her girlfriend’s boss has gone missing.
Shep Collins runs a halfway house for LGBTQ kids and is a prominent figure in St. Louis’s gay community. When he disappears, however, dark truths begin to emerge about Shep’s past: his string of failed relationships, a problem with disappearing money, and his work, years before, as one of the foremost proponents of conversion therapy.
When Shep’s body turns up at the halfway house, the search for a missing person becomes the search for a murderer.
As North and Shaw probe for answers, they find that they are not the only ones who have come looking for the truth about Shep Collins. Their investigation puts them at odds with the police who are working the same case, and in that conflict, North and Shaw find threads leading back to the West End Slasher—the serial killer who almost took Shaw’s life in an alley seven years before. As the web of an ancient conspiracy comes to light, Shaw is driven to find answers, and North faces what might be his last chance to tell Shaw how he really feels.

Comment: This is the second installment in the Borealis Investigations trilogy. I thought the first book to be rather average and too focused on elements I wasn't as fond of but I had hopes this one would improve on them.

Shaw and North are back to their regular work, even though the effects of the case they just solved are still being felt by them, in how they are dealing with each other. Then, while each one of them comes to terms with how they really feel about the other, a new case comes along. Their secretary Pari asks for help when her girlfriend's boss Shep goes missing and they learn he manages a youth house for LGBT kids, but in the past he had worked for a group that did "conversion therapy". Thinking this might be connected, they look into everyone who knew Shep and the more they learn, the more complicated everything becomes. While investigating, they also find a clue connecting this case to the one that caused Shaw to have been the surviving victim of a serial killer. What is going on, and what will come next?

I liked this story a little more than the first, overall, but I will grade it the same anyway because the element I wish I could see improved wasn't, which is how the personal relationship between the characters is portrayed. I get it that this author probably imagines countless ways for the characters to deal with serious and deep emotions, but I think this is dragged too much and the constant verbal battle between them is more often tiring than amusing for me.

In fact, while things change and we get to see how their feelings for one another keep demanding their attention, and the need to deal with them as things progress in all aspects of their lives adds up the drama, it also becomes difficult to see why North and Shaw cannot simply have a conversation, especially since they both learn stuff that should give them the impulse to do it. But no, the aim here is to drag on the drama, the tension and to make them suffer before they feel stable in becoming a couple.

If things between them had been presented in another way, perhaps this would not distract me this much, but the banter between them and the things they deal with, and what we learn from their inner monologues makes me think they should be in therapy and not looking to become boyfriends. I know the next book is the final one, so I think we will have closure and an HEA, but the road there didn't have to be this complicated, I think.

Regarding the plot, the story was quite interesting, actually. I liked the case they were investigating and the way the clues started to fit, especially when the method seems to be the following: Shaw and North are given a case with someone telling them about it in their own way, and then an idea here, an idea there, it turns out that the version they had wasn't not the full truth. If not for the constant bantering between the main characters, which I find too distracting in inopportune moments, I think the development of the investigation would be even better.

While the central case is being exploited, another situation is ongoing, which I've noticed here more than in the first book. So, one of the reasons for the guys to have started their investigation agency is partly caused by an experience Shaw had in the past, with a guy who targeted gays, and killed them, as it happened to someone Shaw had a date with once. Shaw is still dealing with the trauma of all that, and it seems things were not as solved as it seemed. Thus, in this book, we got to have some scenes about it and I think it will also be a key element in the last book.

This book had good things, and others were a little too much for me, both for exaggerated elements or the lack of consistency in them. I'm still curious to see the guys reach a stable life together so I'll finish the trilogy.

Grade: 6/10

L.H. Cosway - Six of Hearts

Step right up and meet Jay Fields: Illusionist. Mentalist. Trickster.
I think in triangles. You think in straight lines.
I show you a table and make you believe it’s a chair.
Smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand, misdirection. I trick and deceive.
But most of all, I put on a good show.
The world thinks I killed a man, but I didn’t. Bear with me. It’s all a part of the plan.
Revenge is what I want. I want it for me and I want it for her.
I want it for all six of us.
She doesn’t remember me, but she’s the reason for everything. She’ll be my prize at the end of all this – if I can hold onto my willpower, that is. Maybe I’ll slip up a little, have a taste, just a small one.
So go ahead and pick a card. Come inside and see the show. Look at my hands, look so closely that you can’t see what’s happening while you’re so focused on looking. I’ll be destroying your world from right here in the spotlight.
You’ll never see me coming until it’s too late.
I’ve only got one heart, and after I’ve pulled off my grand deception I’ll hand it right to her.
So, sit back, relax, and let my girl tell you our story. You’re in for one hell of a ride.

Comment: One more book by this author, whose blurb had caught my eye, to add to the list of things I have read by her. My experience has been mixed, some books seemed great, others less so. This one stays in the middle.

Matilda lives with her lawyer father and she helps him with his work, although he doesn't have a big office. To help with the money, her father decides to accept a lodger, and in comes Jay Fields, a charismatic man, an illusionist who had a lot of success in the US and is now in Ireland, apparently for work. Her connection with him is immediate and they become friends, but there's always this weird tension between them and it doesn't seem to be explained only by sexual attraction. What is Jay hiding and why, of all places, did he choose to stay with Matilda and her father? When some problems seem to come to light in regards to a trial case Jay is involved with and in which Matilda's father is helping too, will the truth be too much for Matilda?

Overall, what comes to mind when I think of this novel is "average". Everything felt kind of average to me, even though the fact Jay is an illusionist is quite the detail. In a way, this author is very clever in deciding which job/area to give to her characters, all of them are somehow linked to some cultural or artistic field. But an original activity can't be enough to sustain a plot.

This story is also told in first person by Matilda, as is the author's style. Unfortunately, here I could not fully disconnect from it and there were times where, as so often happens to me, the focus on Matilda's inner monologues was too much and gave the story an almost sense of lack of maturity. Matilda is 23, Jay is four years old, but following her thoughts made me imagine them much younger, juvenile. Of course, life experience has made them seem more mature at times and if I think about certain scenes, this is visible, but having only her POV, in this novel, kind of brought the grade down for me.

Although it is a little obvious how the characters are connected, I was still interested in seeing how the author would play out the journey until we finally have explanations. I think Jay has an interesting path in life and I can understand the reasons why he behaves the way he does while the plot develops. Matilda is less complex, but for the most part I thought she was a genuine and friendly person and while I wasn't particularly motivated to see them become a couple, I was glad they found happiness.

The romance is OK, I suppose, but it didn't impress me because it felt like they were teenagers. All of Matilda's thoughts about Jay and the weird stuff they do together go on and on so that we could have scenes with them both flirting and getting close enough for falling in love to be believable from her POV alone (she goes to a seminar to practice being comfortable talking to guys and he randomly is able to go with her). This becomes repetitive and, frankly, a little annoying after a while. I wanted more nuance and inner development, not only sexy thoughts.

The plot about the reason why Jay came to Ireland and a lawsuit he is involved with is intriguing enough, and has some cute scenes, but this is all very superficially presented. I didn't exactly mind this, but then the resolution of the legal case sets too much on situations that are too coincidental or simplistic. I liked the idea but the execution seemed a little too simple to me.

All things considered, this was an entertaining novel, had fun scenes and some silly but cute things, but it didn't really meet all the expectations I had on it. I will keep on reading things by the author, but I hope I will appreciate the next one more, whenever that happens.

Grade: 6/10

Jayne Castle - Midnight Crystal

For many earthly centuries, a legendary curse has plagued the Winters family, stemming from the tumultuous founding of the Arcane Society. But now, on the futuristic world of Harmony, the curse's final mystery will be unraveled... Head of the ghost hunters guild Adam Winters and dreamlight reader extraordinaire Marlowe Jones must break the curse, save Harmony's entire underworld-and fight a passion that could destroy them both.

Comment: This is the 7th installment in the Ghost Hunters series by Jayne Castle. It can be confusing to place the installments, actually, because the author does plenty of crossovers with other series she has under other names and pseudonyms and this title is also listed as part of two others. 
Still, I have only been interested in this specific Ghost Hunters one.

Marlowe and Adam come from families which have historically been adversaries. Now that their descendants live in Harmony, they are the ones who need to deal with sort of curse, which can only be fixed by finding the midnight crystal, a device of a kind that has special powers. If the wrong people find it, they might cause harm to many people, but the problem first is to find it. Marlowe and Adam join forces after a clue about is location is shared but will they get to it on time before someone else does it? And will they be able to separate the task at hand from the personal feelings they suddenly start having for one another?

I'm certain I have said this before, but the books in this series are both comforting and predictable if one has read more than one, but also full of great ideas and descriptions if it's a new discovery. This said, for me it is already like a comfort read although I should say that it also means some things are just too repetitive and don't really seem very stimulating anymore.

The plot is quite simple, the main characters are seeking a special artifact, created a long time ago by members of their families, and because they were enemies back then, they have always been in opposed sides of what it meant to find it. Now, with a way of life that is so different from anything their ancestors knew, Adam and Marlowe, the youngest of both their families, are finally putting an end to the "curse". In fact, there is no curse, only some forces at hand, derivative of alchemy.

I liked this story enough but to be honest, it wasn't as incredible as others in the sere have been. The setting and everything related to it, yes, and the dust bunnies remain as wonderful as ever, no doubt about it, but the plot is quite repetitive. As I've said, this doesn't have to be an issue, if one starts reading already expecting this, but there were still some transitions here and there that felt a little dull. I also think the two or three scenes we got from the POV of secondary characters were avoidable, and having them just made those sections feel jarring.

Perhaps, an element the author could improve on - but I can already guess this won't happen, since it is her trademark, in all of her pseudonyms (I have tried three) - is the romance development. These stories all revolve around the same pattern/formula, whether the protagonist just met each other or not, which is like this: they talk because of business, they immediately have the "magical" vibes letting them know the other person is their intended soulmate, they face some tasks and problems, they help each other, they have sex and they just accept they are it for one another.

There's nothing wrong with a formula if it works, and it certainly does work for the types of plots the author envisioned for these series, but even allowing for this, there is a lot an author can still do in terms of romance. In my opinion, the author relies too much on the formula and her characters simply seem cardboard of one another, everyone is pretty much the same, apart from names, physical descriptions and one or two other minor details. I just wish the romance part would be more exciting and the characters would have more personality and depth. Even interactions with others would improve the story but every character is a little stereotypical.

This aside, reading this book was entertaining enough and it does fit a purpose, in the sense that I knew what I would get and I knew this would be a quick read. However, it wasn't the most interesting installment for me.

Grade: 6/10

Kristin Hannah - The Four Winds

Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.
In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

Comment: This is the third book by the author I try this year. Of her four most recent books, which are all labeled as "women's fiction" and "historical fiction" (opposed to her earlier novels which seem more a mix of romance and woman's fiction), this is the one I have liked the least.

Elsa Martinelli and her family live in Texas, in the early s, when the Great Depression hits their farm, as well as everyone else's. Things become practically impossible but most farmers hold on to the hope that next year, surely, rain will come and the land will start to recover. Elsa gained everything when she married Rafe even though their relationship wasn't set on love. She gained a father and mother in law and a daughter, and then a son, and a land she loves with all of her being. The only reason she contemplates leaving for California, where the opportunities seem to be there for everyone who seeks them, is due to her son's health. Little Anthony won't last long in a place where dust is everywhere, but will the price to survive be too high for this family? Will they make it?

Just like all the other readers going into this book, I knew the plot would not be a happy one for most of the time and if things were to follow the same pattern I had seen in the other books I had read by this author, then it would be obvious that a lot of despair and sadness would co-exist with simple happy moments.

In fact, it was so and more: I think this book had a much higher amount of despairing scenes than the other way around and a good part of the reason I didn't enjoy it as much was due to this. I can see why the story couldn't be light, and I can understand why the author felt like stressing out the terrible possibilities of what happened in real life for countless people during those times, but as a fictional novel I also expected some balance. However, everything seemed to be too harsh, all the time.

I'd say the only time things seemed easier were at first, when Elsa leaves her family to live with her new one. Still, even this was not easy to go through, but I always thought the author would find a way to counterbalance the bad things with some later period of more calm or stability, like in The Great Alone and The Women, which also had heroines going through very harsh periods and then, at some point, even without a traditional HEA one sees in romance novels, they found ways to have a life in which they could think and plan and have some peace, even at a personal cost.

I don't think I saw that here and felt that Elsa just suffered through so much in a way that felt unbalanced because she had no real support system while she was in California, at least not like when she had while in Texas. Of course, this has to be intentional, so that we can try to imagine how many suffered with things we now feel are way too far from our reality, but while reading I've kept thinking that Elsa and the others being dealt a terrible fate were shown only a version of events and it shouldn't. I get it that the point was to highlight the traumas and the unfairness of those who lived what Elsa did, but the quiet, happy moments weren't enough. Reading this novel was tiring by how sad it was.

Personally, I'm not fond of misery to simply make one emotional. I don't mind characters going through hard times if at some point that pays off somehow. I don't really feel we were given this here, considering how the book ends. I really feel annoyed at that, but I can accept why it works for other readers and why the author might have imagined it would increase the ideas she conveyed. Perhaps, if the characters surrounding Elsa had really been good secondary characters... the way things happened, apart from her son Anthony, everyone else felt too distant from her, as if only playing a role, to better contrast with per personality.

After finishing, I've checked some negative reviews - to see if it was for the same reasons I felt like giving this a 3 star rating - and saw that no, the majority of negative reviews I saw were so because of how the author portrayed Communism in the book. I really won't go into it because it would certainly offend someone but... what a ridiculous reason to downgrade this book. I mean... well, I should not care because everyone can have an opinion, but some people really have a very short span of awareness.

This book was certainly a very realistic one regarding the time period portrayed and how many families were affected without having much to hope for. I understand, but I still wish the author had included some more positive slices of life or even a conclusion to the Martinellis.

Grade: 6/10

TBR Challenge: Lisa Sandlin - The Do-Right

1959. Delpha Wade killed a man who was raping her. Wanted to kill the other one too, but he got away. Now, after fourteen years in prison, she's out. It's 1973, and nobody's rushing to hire a parolee. Persistence and smarts land her a secretarial job with Tom Phelan, an ex-roughneck turned neophyte private eye. Together these two pry into the dark corners of Beaumont, a blue-collar, Cajun-influenced town dominated by Big Oil. A mysterious client plots mayhem against a small petrochemical company-why? Searching for a teenage boy, Phelan uncovers the weird lair of a serial killer. And Delpha -- on a weekend outing -- looks into the eyes of her rapist, the one who got away. The novel's conclusion is classic noir, full of surprise, excitement, and karmic justice. Sandlin's elegant prose, twisting through the dark thickets of human passion, allows Delpha to open her heart again to friendship, compassion, and sexuality.

Comment: It's July already and time for another TBR Challenge post. The theme for this month is "freedom!" and what came to mind right away was a story with someone gaining freedom, therefore when I realized that this book had a heroine who had just gotten out of prison.... ta-da!

In this book we meet heroine Delpha Wade, who has been in prison for 14 years for manslaughter. Delpha killed a man who had raped her and she just barely missed killing the other one, who had been the father of her rapist. Delpha paid her dues and now is out and she only wants to have  quiet life and for that she needs to have a job which, she is aware, will not be easy to get. Still, somehow, she finds herself getting two, helping with Jessie who is a n old lady in need of a carer for the nights and then becoming the secretary of private investigator Tom Phelan. Delpha is eager to prove her skills and her worth, in spite of her prison record, and she soon finds out that life in Beaumont, Texas, has people being connected in many situations....

It shouldn't be a thing for me to be this interested in protagonists who leave jail and then have to get a whole new life. Still, it seems this is, indeed, a theme I'm interested in and I confess that when I saw the blurb for this, although the labels mention historical fiction and mystery, my first reaction was to assume that Delpha might find love too and that this story would include some romance. 

Sadly for me, it wasn't exactly so and Delpha's journey is really more about her getting back her sense of freedom than anything else. The plot is also more focused on the protagonists solving the little mysteries they need to investigate and not as much on their personal lives. I get it even if it disappoints me a little, but then I've started to become a bit confused because there were plenty of tasks both Delpha and Tom had to do, and I thought this big amount of subjects seemed to be rather random.

Of course, we learn it isn't so and most of the cases they look into are somehow related, even if in a simple manner. We also get to see them deal with little things, in Tom's case, more cases and his personal relationships, and in Delpha's mostly with her other job. Somehow, even these things are connected but things got to a point where I felt lost. The biggest issue for me ended up being the writing style. It's very jarring, not always offering a linear sequence of events and sometimes I was thinking "what does this matter, why is this relevant now?" and many things were certainly too subtle for me to understand.

Thus, my issue with the writing style. This is the first book by this author that I have tried but I think the choice of writing things in the (I suppose) traditional style of the south in the early 1970s, with both expressions and references, made this a complicated task for me in terms of language. I did not understand some things nor how they would be perceived and I think my lack of knowledge was more because of the semantics and expressions than plot issues. It was sometimes frustrating how the characters would go from one scene doing something/thinking a certain idea and in the next paragraph the reference was already about something else.

Due to this, reading the book became like going through a task and it was not fun to get to know these characters as much as I imagined. All personal musings and experiences were shared in such a way that I don't feel compelled to want to know more besides what has been told in this book. I wanted Delpha to go through situations which would validate her past experiences so that she would feel her freedom as something even better than what she tells us. I wanted Tom to be more sensitive to what happened to her and for them to be more clearly a team.

The resolution of the several mysteries and how everything was related was done well enough. I think the bones of this story were great and the many elements were all intriguing on their own. I just didn't really appreciate how the story was told, even though it does seem the writing was competent.

Grade: 6/10

Mini - Comments

These are two books I've read in Portuguese by Portuguese authors. I don't think either is translated but even without specific information in English, I still want t leave a register of having read them.

Ala Feminina by Vanessa Ribeiro Rodrigues is literally translated as Female Ward and is a non fiction book based on a collection of notes the author, a reporter, did on female prisons and who are the women there and what it means for them in all their roles (woman, wife, mother, daughter...) to be away from their families. It was interesting to read this book because the point was never to focus on the women's crime and why they are in jail. Well, we do know why but the ladies whose stories we have are just a little sample, and the prisons the reporter had access to seemed to be destined for crimes that aren't the highest security or however one would call this. Most ladies were doing time for drug trafficking but what really united them all was the dream to leave and go back to their families, to be with those who loved them in spite of what happened. It Obviously, the book not being long, we cannot really "know" the women mentioned, but what they are facing and their thoughts are similar for the most part. It really makes one think....

Grade: 8/10

O Lugar das Arvores Tristes by Lénia Rufino could be literally translated as The Place of the Sad Trees.

It is a small book, the author's debut, and it is an apparent simple story. The setting is Alentejo (one of the regions of Portugal, which happens to be where I live) and the main character is Isabel, who has a quirky personality and weird interest in spending time at the cemetery looking at the graves. One day she notices one that provides very little information and no one seems able to explain how that person died. Upon investigating, she realizes it has to do with her own mother's past... I liked the book until the end because I did recognize a lot from my own family's experience, well, that I have heard family members tell me, since the story of Isabel's mother happens in the early 70s and I wasn't born yet. The author really did a good job when it comes to cultural and historical factoids but the end was abrupt and left too much to the imagination, almost as if this was an unfinished story... this was frustrating after all the hints pointing at a resolution.

Grade: 6/10

Gregory Ashe - Orientation

Shaw and North are best friends, private detectives, and in danger of losing their agency. A single bad case, followed by crippling lawsuits, has put them on the brink of closing shop. Until, that is, a client walks into their Benton Park office.
Matty Fennmore is young, blond, and beautiful, and he’s in danger. When he asks for Shaw and North’s help foiling a blackmail scheme, the detectives are quick to accept.
The conspiracy surrounding Matty runs deeper than Shaw and North expect. As they dig into the identity of Matty’s blackmailer, they are caught in a web that touches politicians, the local LGBT community, and the city’s police.
An attack on Matty drives home the rising stakes of the case, and Shaw and North must race to find the blackmailer before he can silence Matty. But a budding romance lays bare long-buried feelings between Shaw and North, and as their relationship splinters, solving the case may come at the cost of their friendship.

Comment: This is the first book in a trilogy by Gregory Ashe, an author whose work is now familiar to me. I have found most of his books to be good but not great, but considering that I had this trilogy already anyway, I've figured, why not.

North and Shaw are best friends who also have a detective agency together. They are both gay which helped in finding a niche, one that specializes in cases aimed for the LGBT community, whose members are often discriminated. The story starts  with Matty Fennmore, who tells him the story of how he's being blackmailed by someone he trusted and who now is demanding money in exchange of keeping a certain video, one Matty didn't know was being recorded. However, the case isn't as simple as finding the blackmailer, something they learn when they meet the police near the guy's apartment. At the same time, things are stressful between North and Shaw, since their friendship is also hiding some more deeper feelings neither assumes...

I confess I was a little apprehensive with starting this trilogy. I have enjoyed some books y the author, but his style is clearly one that aims for a lot of psychological development and his protagonists go through a lot before any HEA is on the horizon. Then, he also has another series (I've tried the first book) which is lighter, but the protagonist was a little OTT. I hoped this one would more balanced.

In this first book we get to know the investigator duo, and what we learn about them in between the lines is as telling as what they share through dialogue. This is probably what the author does best, and I'm saying it after having read about protagonists in three different series. The intensity and the drama and the tension - not always sexual - can be felt constantly. On one hand this is what makes the reading quite captivating, this need to see one scene or detail that proves everything, but on the other it can be a bit exhausting being on the edge.

Shaw and North have quite the history between them, and in their personal lives. I liked learning tidbits about them all the time but it does get a little tiring to keep track of each nuance and hint too. Also, I must say that for people who know each other for so long, their repressed feelings seem to be highlighted a lot and I could not help wonder how could they even go on through their days, considering that every action in the book always had the "weight" of their personal thoughts regarding the other. I suppose this is done so that it can be even more rewarding to see the HEA, but it's obvious it won't be easy.

I guess that, perhaps, this won't take as long as in the other series I've read, since now it's only three books.. besides, North is dealing with a personal issue that cannot be easy to deal with, much less solve. Things now seem to be too difficult to be solved. It also doesn't help, in my opinion, that every character somehow, protagonist included, is almost too complicated, too brainy and complexity of characters seems to be synonym with personality. I don't think this is the best approach as often as it's used.

Regarding the case they are investigating, I won't go into spoilers but the culprit becomes easy to guess once a certain situation takes place. I don't know if the goal was to do something shocking or not, I think the tactic was clever enough and provided interesting interactions and development. As for the reasons of the villain and the method in which the crimes were committed... part of me always felt some detachment from what was going on, but it turned out to be a good element of this book.

All said, this was quite captivating in general, but I cannot let go of the fact it was tiring to read about characters who were always on the go, always on the edge of learning/doing something and it's as if they don't have a personal life. Plus, with drama... still, I felt I had to try, so I will finish the trilogy, I just hope the next installment is more balanced.

Grade: 6/10

Kate Dramis - The Odds of You

Sage Collins knows a thing or two about odds. A year ago, she was a data analyst until she burned it all down to pursue her dream of becoming an author. One whirlwind bestseller and a struggling second book later, and Sage isn’t sure she’ll ever write a novel again.
But then an accidental encounter with an irritating passenger on the flight to Comic Con leaves Sage in an untested position. That passenger is Theo Sharpe: a breakout actor on the cusp of fame. And, unfortunately, the paparazzi have mistaken her for his girlfriend.
Armed with signature British charm and a smile that could tame oceans, Theo wears fame like a well-fit coat…though Sage can see there’s something deeper held in his eyes. But his fans are too involved in the drama, the pressure to deliver the next bestseller is on, and Sage and Theo both must agree there’s nothing between them. They don't have to acknowledge that saying it doesn't make it true.
When Sage decides to flee to Scotland to clear her head and write her novel, she expects to find fresh air and the stillness to think. What she doesn’t expect is Theo Sharpe to come back into her life…and how he may be her greatest miscalculation of all.

Comment: It was the cover of this book that made me pay attention to the blurb. Although it is a recent release (for my usual average, six months is recent) I've added it to my list for July because it would fit a topic in a challenge I'm doing.

Sage Collins and her best friend are traveling to New York for Comic Con, for Sage published a dystopia that became very successful. On the plane she starts talking/flirting with one guy who she learns is the rising actor Theo Sharpe. It just happens that their interaction is caught on camera and rumors about them flood their social media. Theo apologizes for his more obsessive fans and they start exchanging messages which leads to them acting on their attraction. However, misunderstandings separate them until they meet each other again in the isle of Skye, of all places. It seems they can patch things up, but will their personal careers and expectations be too much for such a new relationship?

It seems this is the author's first attempt at contemporary romance. In her notes at the end of the book she says she is mostly known for her romantasy novels, which I haven't read, and that this book was inspired by a book she loves, a romance novel. Knowing this does make it easier to think of the elements I didn't enjoy much, because the writing style wasn't too bad for me.

Sage is a new author, her first book was a success and now she is dealing with all the demands of how people expect her to be as great with her second novel. She is also dealing with a lot of personal issues related to how her parents see her new career, because before being a writer full time she worked in accounting and for her parents this is what makes sense. Throughout the book, we get to see how much this worries her and affects her focus, causing her to simply feel writer's block. I think this was all very realistic, even though I'm not a writer myself.

Theo is also an interesting character, although we only see things from Sage's POV (on third person, at least there's that) and his worries and emotions were also quite valid, his father is his manager and he had an older brother who was also a starting actor but he died. Theo also feels he needs to be an actor not stuck to only one type of role, although his good looks seem to point him pretty much for the "leading hero" expectations. I liked his personality and perception of life.

The romance wasn't always smooth because they have their issues and at a world where famous people are so easily exposed to everyone, including those who only criticize, I've felt this was an interesting element to develop and to think about. I also kind of liked their interactions with secondary characters and how they seemed to gain another layer just for that, which means there were times I felt the author did a great job in adding nuance and emotions to analyze in between the lines.

It all points to this being an apparently great book, but my grade wasn't as high as it seems to be implied. To be honest, I cannot pinpoint exactly why but I'd summarize it to two main things: the inner conflicts, mainly Sage's, dragged the plot, and I was a little tired of her POV while she dealt with others. I do respect how realistic her attitude was i most situations, but it was also a little boring to go through them in a romance novel. I can't explain what I'd have preferred instead, but the way the text is presented didn't make me feel eager to read more. Perhaps it is a case of the isolated elements working out wonderfully, but as a whole, not really.

It might also be that I wasn't in the right mood for this book now but sage sometimes was a little tiring to follow. There were moments I could not really see what Theo saw in her, which feels unfair because her worries and thoughts were certainly easy to sympathize with and I probably would feel similar things if it was me facing those issues. I also would have liked more romantic scenes and less inferring over messages exchanged and self doubt inner monologues, no matter how valid.

This said, the book was OK, had great ideas, but the things I thought would be developed more weren't in a way that felt engaging all the time. Perhaps one day, if the author publishes more contemporary romance, I might try it to compare.

Grade: 6/10

L.A. Witt - Rebound

Officer Geoff Logan has his plate full. His cop’s salary and Marine retirement aren’t enough to make ends meet. He’s got war wounds and demons that are in it for the long haul. His teenagers are, well, teenagers, plus they’re pissed that he left the boyfriend they loved. Can’t a guy catch a break?
Seattle Snowhawks center Asher Crowe has it all. A seven figure salary. A literal house on a hill. A stable, loving relationship with an amazing boyfriend. At least, that’s what the world sees. Behind closed doors, he’s been living in a private hell, and when he finally works up the courage to end things, his boyfriend refuses to go quietly.
One call to the cops, and suddenly Geoff and Asher’s paths cross. But is the connection between them simple chemistry? Kindred spirits? Or just a pair of lonely hearts looking for a hot distraction?
And even if it’s more than physical, is there really a future for two men from such vastly different worlds? Especially when the past comes knocking?

Comment: This is the first book in the Puck and Rainbows trilogy by author L.A. Witt, which I have decided to read because I had tried the author's books before and liked them, so... why not try some more?

Geoff Logan is a 40 something police officer who answers to a call with his partner and they meet hockey player Asher Crowe and his boyfriend Nathan, who seems to be the aggressor. Geoff quickly realizes Asher needs help and makes it possible for him to leave and he follows up on his promise, checking in with Asher in the days after, becoming aware Asher and Nathan have finally broken off. As their meetings pile up, so does the fact Geoff and Asher have a lot in common, in spite of their age difference and the numbers on their paychecks. But Geoff's experience through a similar situation is enough to give him hindsight in how to be with Asher?

It is rather obvious that hockey romance in m/m books has had quite a boom lately, but let it be said this title was released in 2019 and it does seem to show. I say this because I have loved the m/m hockey series that have taken the world by storm lately but in this book by mrs Witt, hockey isn't really the focus of the plot. In fact, it seems to be more a convenience and not a necessary item.

In general, I cannot say this is a bad story but it wasn't always very thrilling to read either. Probably, the element I wasn't as amazed by was the romance, which felt a little mechanical and a little superficial, considering the amount of personal issues they both had, and then adding the age gap and the different interests/work fields, made things seem to be too focused on their shared history of having an abusive partner. I mean, I understand their initial link, but the romance felt almost secondary.

Geoff is a man in his 40s, with two children, he still gets along with his ex, their mother, and he is still dealing with some PTSD from his days in the marines, and now the end of a six year relationship with a man who manipulated him, mostly through financial issues. He has baggage but he is still a likable person, he is aware of his limits and problems and he tries his best to do the right thing. Basically, a sweet man! I was, of course, rooting for him and for Asher.

Asher is a 20 something, has a great paycheck and is known in all of Seattle, as expected. His physique matches his job as a professional hockey player but he hides the fact his boyfriend has been abusive for a long time, which he knows would clash with the idea others have of him. Asher is a sweet guy too and quite mature for his age, which we learn why when he shares his more humble origins and the stable family background.

As individuals, these two were great on their own and I think their personal stories were worth of more depth, more development, which didn't happen. I can understand that it's not easy to include so much in one romantic dynamic, but the truth is that none of the elements used seemed to have been developed with the intensity or the depth they merited. Perhaps the author only wanted to let if be obvious why the guys would take their time, why they would be careful with one another, why they would respect boundaries and such, which is wonderful, but then the chemistry and romance seemed to be missing.

There were too many elements to keep track of, things that deserved more air time. Thus, the plot included too many important things for the romance to feel it was center stage. I liked the scenes between Asher and Geoff but did I fully believe in their falling in love? Not really... and the age gap, Geoff's children, their jobs... all these things were like props, it felt. I am certainly being harsh, but I kind of wanted more from this, considering the memories I have of having enjoyed the author's other books I had tried.

All in all, a good enough effort, it did entertain me. I wanted more out of it, though, and for that, for the potential, I think the author could have done better.

Grade: 6/10

Rebecca McKanna - Don't Forget the Girl

We never remember the dead girls. We never forget the killers.
Twelve years ago, 18-year-old University of Iowa freshman Abby Hartmann disappeared. Now, Jon Allan Blue, the serial killer suspected of her murder, is about to be executed. Abby's best friends, Bree and Chelsea, watch as Abby's memory is unearthed and overshadowed by Blue and his flashier crimes. The friends, estranged in the wake of Abby's disappearance, and suffering from years of unvoiced resentments, must reunite when a high-profile podcast dedicates its next season to Blue's murders.
Tense and introspective, for readers of Megan Goldin and Heather Gudenkauf, Don’t Forget the Girl is an astonishing debut thriller that mines the complexities of friendship and the secrets between us that we may take to the grave.

Comment: I was seduced by the cover of this book and immediately imagined the tone and vibe of it. I also liked the idea of a thriller that would focus on the victims and not the killer.

Several years ago a serial killer was found guilty of murdering several young women but nothing could prove he also killed Abby Hartman, who simply disappeared one day and her body had not been found. Now, the killer is about to be executed and Abby's friends Bree and Chelsea revive that 2003 year, when everything changed, following the media interest on the case. Abby is only a possible victim but a podcaster chooses her as a possible focus for her new show, especially if the friends agree to share their side of things. But are they ready to share all of their memories... and guilt?

I really liked the idea of this novel. I thought the story would be moody and tense and that the real goal would be to understand, through Chelsea and Bree, if Abby had been a victim or not, of that killer. I was eager to see how the author would develop the plot without giving too much attention to the killer.

In a way, the pace and choice of how things play out are good elements and having the three girls' POVs in the past - Abyy's is in second person, which was sometimes too jarring - allows the reader to get a very good grasp on their behavior, personality, decisions, state of mind and so on. Everything shared helps us to making up an idea of what happened and why it was possible for Abby to be a potential victim. However, it soon became obvious this would not be a traditional thriller.

The story seemed to me to be more a character study and not a real investigation or step-by-step description of what happened. This is fine, I don't mind it exactly, but then the author also included some weird interlude passages between some of the girls's chapters, which were alternated between Bree, Chelsea and Abby in this order, and Abby's were also all in the past, of course. I just don't see the need for those interlude sections, which included post messages in forums and similar stuff, but short things, so.. why? It made for a welcome interruption, I've personally concluded.

Apart from the real lack of thriller vibes, at least until the end when we finally have some more definitive information, the whole story, including the current podcast idea based on Abby and her friends and how they might be linked to the killer, is pretty much all focused on the girls' thoughts and actions and why they are the way they are. Honestly, after two, three chapters on their attitudes I was already annoyed. I'm afraid I could not connect with none of them and found both Chelsea and Bree's adult choices and behavior to be disagreeably, morally at least. 

I liked it that at the very end, once we know what happened to Abby, Bree and Chelsea are able to finally mourn their youth years, kind of, and this is like a catharsis and I liked the closure feel the last two chapters gave me. I liked who they seemed to be evolving into but who they were as 20 years olds did not seem engaging at all. It was a slight struggle in some moments to read about their feelings and choices. In regards to their connection with the killer, when it becomes obvious how they knew him I was, like "oh", but perhaps this was because I wasn't really paying attention.

I think this option to focus on the victim, or the possible victim, was a bold choice but I can't say the result was that rewarding. I might be biased since I didn't like the main narrators that much, but Abby in particular was not such a great person, and the biggest secret she had along with why she might have been a victim seemed a little too unimportant, although, of course, it would always depend on how the narrative is presented. I don't think this was a successful element.

All things considered, this was an interesting story but I will be honest and say I probably won't remember much about it in the future. 

Grade: 6/10