romance fiction

ShallowreaderBINGO! March edition!

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It’s March and Willaful won the ShallowreaderBingo!!!! Woooooot! Big shout out!

 

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To this, I say congratulations!

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Meanwhile, I didn’t even manage a straight line! However here are the squares that I did score:

Screen Shot 2016-03-31 at 11.11.25 pmLeonetti’s Housekeeper Bride

by Lynne Graham

Bingo Square: It was a dark and stormy night

Oh Lynne Graham novel, how do I love thee! Let me count the ways:

  1. Poppy, the Goth M&B heroine!
  2.  Heroine Chin Swag (see Miss Bates)
  3. Lots of Genre Meta
  4. Lynne Graham Zingers!
  5. Fake Fiance!
  6. Childhood crush!
  7. Virgin!
  8. The phrase “a dark, stormy night”
  9. And of course, lurve!

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What I Love about you or The story of the romance who knew it was none of their business

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Firstly, I would like to point out that I have gone with a new look Shallowreader and I would love to know what you think. And secondly, I read Rachel Gibson’s What I love about you  and I have lots and lots of thoughts about it. I have loved many a Rachel Gibson book and I have liked many too. She is one of my favourite romance authors so I was quite excited to se that she had a new book out. So let’s start with the blurb:

Rachel Gibson's What I love about you

What I love about you

by Rachel Gibson

GIMMEE A B-R-E-A-K!

Ex high school cheerleader Natalie Cooper could once shake her pom-poms with the best of them. But she’s paid for all that popularity-her husband’s run off with what’s left of their money and a twenty-year-old bimbo named Tiffany. Leaving Natalie to manage a photo store (and having to see some pictures she, well, really shouldn’t!) and just trying to be a good mom.

GIMMEE A S-H-O-T

Then she comes toe-to-manly-chest with Blake Junger. Exiled to a remote cabin in Truly, Idaho, Blake wants nothing to do with anyone.Instead, he’s determined to struggle with his demons and win-all on his own. But he doesn’t count on a pint-sized five-year-old visitor-or on Natalie, the kid’s lusciously curved mother-to break down his barriers

GIMMEE Y-O-U-R H-E-A-R-T

So Blake (damaged military man) meets cute kid (Holly? I can’t remember and I can’t be bothered to look her name up or reach across to my bookshelf to check) and speaks to her in such an asshole way that straight away I knew that Gibson wanted him to be so awful that he needs to redeem himself both to the heroine and to the reader because that is the way that the hero trajectory goes in a contemporary romance. Natalie (mother of child with generic name – dammit if it was Vassiliki I would NOT have forgotten it within a day) considers him a creep because on top of swearing at the cute *ahem* kid he gives her a freeakin’ puppy that he desperately wants to offload (because that is what sentient adults do, right?) Continue reading →

Recommended reading and an ever growing library TBR

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It’s Wendy the SuperLibrarian’s Reading TBR Challenge time again and this month the theme is a book that has been recommended to you. Now most of my library loans tend to be the books I have sought out due to someone’s recommendation. I am loathe to spend money on a recommendation unless I have tried it first as I read way too much to purchase books without a thought. I am soooo far away from a One-Click reader but I do end up chasing library copies down constantly and this leaves me with reader anxiety.

A fortnight ago I stood at my shelves looking at my library loans trying to decide what I was going to read next when I was overwhelmed by the number of books I had amassed. With 28 library books to choose from, I knew I had reached that moment of terror that so many avid readers experience – I was about to declare reading bankruptcy and return every single book to the library just to rid myself of the pressure of reading and reviewing each one. And then I realised – I am a shallowreader and I don’t need to engage with my books in a critical manner. I just need to read them. So I embarked on a book-a-day reading bonanza! As of today, my library loan TBR now stands at 18 items! Yay! Of the 10 books that I read recommendations came from that wonderful (and at times scary) space Twitter where I have met so many like-minded readers who have recommended these authors to me such as: Miss Bates and Roz and Anna Campbell and Rachel Bailey and SuperWendy herself as well as probably many other people. And I thank them all! And yes – I will quickly run through all 10 books that I read:

Molly O’Keefe

His Wife for One NightHis Wife for One Night

So this one had a mashup of my favourite tropes: friends-to-lovers, marriage-of-convenience, cowboys (well…cowgirls?). Jack had married his BFF Mia 5 years earlier but he is a bit thick and doesn’t pick up on her “I lurve you” vibes until she asks for a divorce and suddenly they are having hot sex. Mia walks out on him and there is a big bomb blast and lots of damaged characters and lots of healing to be had. It was an angsty read and despite some loose ends that I would have liked to have seen resolved, I enjoyed this book and I particularly liked its ending.

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Molly O’Keefe’s Indecent Proposal

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I have had many people tell me that Molly O’Keefe is a MUST read author that I would love. Though I Indecent Proposal over 18 months ago, I left it languishing in my TBR as I read other books. I finally managed to read it in February and it is so wonderful that I have proceeded to order in as many Molly O’Keefe books as I could find. But first, the blurb:

 

Screen Shot 2016-03-07 at 10.19.10 AMWith his chiseled jaw and thick blond hair, Harrison Montgomery was born to lead. Four generations of Montgomery men have served the state of Georgia, and now he’s next in line. Harrison, though, is driven to right wrongs: namely to clean up the political mess left by his father’s greed and corruption. But Harrison must first win his congressional bid, and nothing can get in his way—not even an angel who served him whiskey and gave him a shoulder to lean on and a body to love for a night. Problem is, she’s pregnant. Scandal is brewing, and there is only one solution: marriage.

Damage control? Ryan Kaminski can’t believe that a cold, calculating political animal now inhabits the body of the emotionally vulnerable stranger who gave her the most unforgettable night of her life. Really, she doesn’t want anything from Harrison, except to be left alone to have her baby in peace. But Ryan is broke, jobless, and essentially blackmailed by Harrison’s desperate family to accept this crazy marriage deal. For two years, she will have to act the role of caring, supportive wife. But what is Ryan supposed to do when she realizes that, deep in her heart, she’s falling in love?

 

This novel was ultra intense. Just like in category romances, the novel applies a microscopic focus on the events leading to two unlikely people coming together. Each pivotal scene changes their relationship trajectory is studied deeply and heavily. O’Keefe writes with such a depth of understanding her characters motivations that as the reader I felt engrossed in these two characters whose lives were led by lies that they had to perform either for themselves of for those around them.

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ShallowreaderBINGO! February edition!

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Congratulations to the ShallowreaderBingo! February winner – Sandra Antonelli. Read about Sandra’s winning reads here: ShallowreaderBINGO–It’s Better Than Winning a Meat Tray!
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As for my own Bingo card – here is how I fared:

Jane the VirginJane the Virgin

Bingo Square: Netflix and Chill

I absolutely adore Jane the Virgin. It is currently my favourite show ever. It is like a mash up between Days of Our Lives, Harlequin Presents/Sexy Mills & Boon and Arrested Development. What has this got to do with reading, I hear you ask? Well, my sons are also obsessed with the show and my sons watch everything on TV with closed captions turned on. Everything! It drives me batty! But it does mean I read all my viewing. I have also become somewhat obsessed with every news article and interview I can find on Jane the Virgin’s writer Jennie Snyder Urman. I find it unbelievable that she did not grow up watching soaps and telenovelas as she has hit every single bell that as a watcher I enjoy. I am totally in love with Rafael in the show. He is the ultimate Harlequin Presents Lynne Graham gazillionaire. He’s hot, he’s suave and he wears faded salmon oh-so-well. Swoon with me people! Swoon!

 

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The Return of La McAllister

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Anne McAllister’s The Return of Antonides

Importantly: There are HEAPS of spoilers! This is going to be one long, bumbling mess of a mind dump spoilers post because I can’t bear to pretend that I can contain my thoughts.

I adore Anne McAllister. I love her books and she ranks up there with Lynne Graham and Charlotte Lamb in category romance author love from me. I have spent the last 3 years going back and forth on her blog waiting and anticipating the arrival of this book and I am so glad that it was wonderful!

I love this cover. It says so much. The NY taxis with the business man back from the outback.

I love this cover. It says so much. The NY taxis with the business man back from the outback.

Crossing the line between love and hate…

Widow Holly Halloran’s fresh start is only a plane ride away. Until Lukas Antonides — the man she hates but has never been able to forget — strides arrogantly back into her life…

Lukas was her late husband’s best friend and he openly disapproved of Holly. Then one unforgettable night their acrimony ricocheted into the bedroom!  

Now the arrogant Greek is kicking the hornets’ nest again — he offers Holly a job. Holly agrees, determined not to let Lukas get beneath her surface this time. But as the tension mounts between them so too does that bubbling attraction of old…

Widowed Holly finds out that her husband Matt’s best friend Lukas is back in New York after close to twelve seemingly itinerant years. Holly’s memories of Lukas are not pleasant – from being ignored by him when she was 9 to his and Matt’s 11, the two boys often heading off to adventures without inviting her to the memory of one night when they both betrayed Matt.

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The ditty of Lyon Redmond

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Wendy the SuperLibrarian’s TBR challenge for this month is a series catch up book.

I read The Legend of Lyon Redmond by Julie Anne Long. Unlike many other readers I know, I have not read every other book in the series. I have read Between the devil and Ian Eversea (which I enjoyed) and I have also read  What I did for the duke (which was fab!). Maybe I am cheating and its not really a series catch-up in only reading 3 in the series (I own another 3 which I will get to eventually). From the first book in the series, the reader knows that Lyon Redmond has gone missing and that Olivia Eversea pines for him. Their storyline is hinted at throughout the series, thus building up the anticipation for their coming together. Perhaps due to having only read 2 books from this series, I didn’t have that long drawn out vested interest in the “missing” Lyon Redmond storyline that spanned all 11(!) books in this series. And though I was certainly interested, it is just as well I didn’t care all that much! But first, the blurb:

imageBound by centuries of bad blood, England’s two most powerful families maintain a veneer of civility…until the heir to the staggering Redmond fortune disappears, reviving rumors of an ancient curse: a Redmond and an Eversea are destined to fall disastrously in love once per generation.
An enduring legend
Rumor has it she broke Lyon Redmond’s heart. But while many a man has since wooed the dazzling Olivia Eversea, none has ever won her—which is why jaws drop when she suddenly accepts a viscount’s proposal. Now London waits with bated breath for the wedding of a decade…and wagers on the return of an heir.
An eternal love
It was instant and irresistible, forbidden…and unforgettable. And Lyon—now a driven, dangerous, infinitely devastating man—decides it’s time for a reckoning. As the day of her wedding races toward them, Lyon and Olivia will decide whether their love is a curse destined to tear their families part…or the stuff of which legends are made.

Though I have enjoyed the Pennyroyal Green series, unike Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, I did not feel compelled to buy them all in one fell swoop and then spend a month reading them in one breath. And it was particularly disappointing that this last book, the one that had been built up to deliver an explosive love story, rather than fireworks, delivers a partly spent sparkler.
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Getting Lost in LibraryLand

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I got lost getting to work yesterday. It was my first ever shift at this particular branch and even though I gave myself an hour to get there, I found myself dismally lost, rushing through the shopping mall where the library is located. I walked into 4 shops to asked staff for directions and they all were surprised and had no idea that there was a library in the mall. I asked 2 separate people sitting reading (my thought being that “hey -they read. They’ll know where the library is”) and they too were surprised and did not know of the library’s existence. At this point I was not only stressed but I was also despairing of the kind of people that go to a jam packed mall (it had airconditioning on a 38C/100.5F day). I called my colleagues who were very understanding and suggested I asked for directions to McDonalds which is right next to the library. I turned to the person walking past me, asked for where the Maccas was, and of course, they knew. Not even a few minutes later I was at work. Flustered due to the heat and my run around but also saddened by the lack of people who were even aware of the library’s existence.

I can’t really blame the people walking in the mall. For such an important institution (well, important to some of the population), libraries rarely have advertising budgets for their whole services. Most libraries do a fair job in promoting events and in marketing aspects of their services but as a whole, libraries don’t have some big blockbuster ad campaign on buses, in the media etc. How can they, if you look towards the dystopian future of libraries in England where 441 libraries have been closed in the last 5 years with another 149 earmarked for closure, I think librarians everywhere are squeamish in looking over their shoulder and spending money on services and collections that their patrons need rather than on some expensive ad campaign.

Once I found the library, my lovely colleagues told me that EVERYONE’s first shift at that branch results in a stressed out Lost episode. And then, I got to do my favourite thing – a first shift at a library explore! I have worked at this particular library network for over two years and in this time I have browsed the catalogue many times, reserving and transferring materials from this new (to me) branch many times. But, as many digital information designers will let you know, there is a keen difference in the way that we search for books on the shelves and books in a physical library.

Library Haul
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MORE Lynne Graham to kick off the TBR challenge 2016

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My pleasure reading disappeared in December of last year. After posting my 2015 Favourites at the beginning of the month, though I planned on continuing reading, my physical self took a big long sigh, caught a summer virus that left me in bed for 3 weeks during which I didn’t pick up a single book. So, just like bike riding and swimming, when I reentered my reading shallows I did so with my favourite type of reading – category romance novels by the venerable Lynne Graham which luckily also matches the “We Love Shorts” theme for SuperWendy’s TBR Challenge 2016! I read Graham’s interconnecting novels The Greek Demands his Heir and The Greek Commands his Mistress, featuring the consecutive romances of two Greek half-brothers Leo and Bastien Zikos and their English rose heroines Grace Donovan and Delilah Moore.

Screen Shot 2016-01-21 at 2.41.27 PMThe Greek Demands his Heir

“Don’t be silly, Leo. Strangers don’t get married.” Leo Zikos should be celebrating securing a perfectly convenient fiancée, but it’s left him cold. Instead it’s stranger Grace Donovan’s impeccable beauty that fires his blood. So he decides to pursue one last night of freedom… But that night and the two little blue lines on the pregnancy test that follow blow Leo’s plans apart. Now he must break with his fiancée and marry Grace. She might resist marrying a man she barely knows, but Leo will claim his legacy and has all the riches and influence he needs to ensure his demands are met!

Grace Donovan, a medical student who is indebted to an uncle and aunt who gave her shelter (but not much love) from when she was eleven, has been coerced to go on a holiday to Marmaris Bay in Turkey with her spoilt cousin Jenna. She is a tagalong and once her cousin hooks up with a guy, Grace finds herself sleeping in their hotel’s foyer. After several nights of this, her cousin insists they go clubbing where she catches the eye of club owner and Greek billionaire Leo. The sparks fly, Leo (unbelievably) claims that he cannot dance but hells yes he is up for one last hook-up before he marries Marina, his betrothed. The reader meets Marina in the opening chapter and already knows that their engagement is a business agreement between two friends who have agreed that having intimate liaisons with others until they actually marry is fine. Leo, considering his hook up with Grace as a one-night stand doesn’t mention his engagement to her. The two of them get down and boogie and oooopsies! the condom they are using breaks. (In classic Lynne Graham dry delivery) Leo accuses Grace of “straining it” because…you know…her virginity was so tight the latex couldn’t take it. Continue reading →

Victoria Dahl and Taking the Heat

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Victoria Dahl's Taking the HeateIt will come as no surprise to regular readers of my blog or my twitter, or even people who have met me in person, that I love Victoria Dahl’s novels. Do a search for her in my lookitupdooblidob to the side and you will find many mentions of her. So when she told me she was writing a male librarian – YES! a male librarian – I ordered her book when it finally came out and bit my lip in anticipation. Would he even come close to the hotness that is Richard Hindon in Lillian Peake’s The Library Tree. This would not be a difficult task.

I had my reservations. This book was perhaps too close to my own professional life. From the outset, I need to say that I mean no disrespect towards any of my current and former male colleagues, but I have never thought anyone in the LIS sphere to be particularly attractive. So the absolutely amazing, hot, sensitive, buff, amazeballs librarian Gabe MacKenzie in this book truly felt like a fantasy man. He didn’t feel real. He was so far from real that he started to edge toward a paranormal romance hero (this is as close as I can get to this month’s TBR challenge for SuperWendy) – he could climb rockfaces, he creates digital (*snort*) magic in the library, he has a talented tongue in the bedroom and a sexy trim beard as his mild superpower to help him out. He is a figment of Victoria’s imagination! No such man exists! This was becoming such a reading block for me, I decided I needed to discuss this travesty with my husband. Here is our exchange: Continue reading →