I am posting in the interest of 2025 TBR challenge completeness. This is not a celebratory post and I will touch briefly on distressing events. I will provide few details, no links and no images of the events included. However, if you need a pause from sad news, it is best to not read further.
Continue readingSuperWendy TBR challenge
TBR Challenge – Change of Plans: Reading Note 94
It is TBR Challenge time again and I am only a week late. This month’s theme is Change of Plans. My choice this month was to read an early 21st century Sarah Morgan novel. She has been a favourite author who used to be an auto-read for me until she moved away from romance fiction to women’s fiction. Sarah Morgan wrote one of my favourite ever Harlequin/Mills & Boon novels Playing by the Greek’s Rules so I was interested to read an earlier iteration of its theme: a gazillionaire power-broking Greek male protagonist, a much poorer though determined (feisty???) English female protagonist, settings that go between an Anglosphere country and a (sometimes made-up) Greek island, dysfunctional family backstories, and the power of lurrrrrve to overcome all the money-mongering, maniacal, master-manipulated machinations by the mercurial and macho main-man (I am LOLing at my stupid alliteration).
Did I approach this novel with a jaded, exhausted soul? Yes, I did. Did the storytelling carry me away, wiping the cynicism far from my heart? Wellll…read on, my friends. You will find out. And turn away if you don’t want any spoilers (seriously, it is a 20 year old book – it’s perfectly fine to reveal all at this point).
Sarah Morgan’s The Greek’s Blackmailed Wife
“Zander Volakis is a ruthless tycoon who’s used to getting all he desires. Now, in order to secure the Greek island resort he’s always wanted, he needs an image change—fast!
The only person who can help him is the woman who betrayed him five years ago: his wife, Lauranne O’Neill. But Lauranne refuses to work with Zander again. He ruined her life once and he has the power to do it again. The sexual chemistry between them might be sizzling, but Lauranne knows that to play with Zander is to play with fire. As for Zander, her refusal to help leaves him with only one option…”
Continue readingTBR Challenge – Friend Squad and Here There be Monsters: Reading Note 93
So I am going to cheat here and I am going to use two (yes two!) TBR challenge themes for the one book. WILD! Has this ever been done before? I don’t know but maybe SuperWendy will know. Am I breaking the TBR rules??? I don’t know but also I am throwing caution to the wind. Because when it comes down to it, the book I read had sooooo much going on, has two distinct parts to it, that it deserves two themes.
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT, MAJOR CONTENT ALERT, MAJOR BLUE LANGUAGE ALERT! I am going to be discussing disturbing and upsetting details including abuse being part of the backstory for one of the characters. And I am giving away MANY plot details so just don’t read further if this is on your TBR.
The Book: Swept Away by Beth O’Leary
The Blurb: Lost at sea . . . with your one-night stand
Lexi is looking for no-strings-attached fun with a stranger. She deserves one night for herself, doesn’t she? Zeke is looking for love. But for one night with a woman like Lexi, he’ll break his rules. Sparks fly at the pub, one passionate kiss leads to another and they end up stumbling home to the marina together. The next morning, hungover and shaken by an amazing night together, Lexi is more than ready for Zeke to leave. There’s just one small problem . . . the houseboat they stayed on has been swept out to sea. As their supplies start to run dangerously low, and the waves pick up, Zeke and Lexi soon realise there’s much more on the line than their new relationship. How long can they really survive on a drifting houseboat in the North Sea? Will search and rescue find them? And who will they be if they both make it back to dry land?
This novel is written in two parts. There is the lost at sea section and then there is the back on land section. Each of these sections are quite distinct from each other.
Continue readingTBR Challenge – Do the Hustle: Reading Note 92
I am behind on my TBR challenge for this year so I am going to try to write several posts over the next few days to play catch up. This post is actually on the topic for August. And a BIG SPOILER ALERT! should you be planning on reading this book.
Reading Note 92: August 20 – Do the Hustle
Promise me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
The blurb: Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Her best friend, Lou, recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her death has left Lenny feeling completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with Lou, and the list of things she’s supposed to do to help her live again. The only thing she can do is temporary babysitting gigs, and luckily, she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. It’s not perfect: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of… a huge jerk. But if Lenny acts like she has it all together, maybe no one will notice she’s falling apart.
Miles sees right through her though. Turns out, he knows a lot about grief and, surprisingly, he offers her a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her “live again” list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doubts anything can fill the Lou has left behind, but she begins to spend more time with Miles, Lenny is surprised to discover that, sometimes, losing everything is only the first step to finding yourself, and love, again.
Continue readingTBR challenge – another catch up post: Reading Notes 87-91
It has become a terrible habit of mine to blog only a few times a year, and most often, just to catch up on Wendy the Super Librarian’s TBR Challenge. And just like clockwork, I am doing it again. A full admission that I am just matching books I read to the themes. Few of them were actually read in the month I have listed them under.
Reading Note 87: February 19 – Previously, In Romance…
Any Trope but You by Victoria Lavine. This was so fun and cheeky. A burnt-out cynical yet successful romance author Margot Bradley is outed on social media as a fake by her angry fans so she travels to Alaska to escape the criticism and to try to write a book in a new genre. In Alaska she meets Dr Forrest Wakefield who ridiculously encompasses every romance trope. Margot eventually discovers that tropes are too surface level and people can be complex beyond the stereotype.
My favourite line in the book is “Cradled against his warm chest, I am a woman transformed. Never again will anyone catch Margot Bradley scoffing at a trope. If I were wearing a bodice, I’d rip it myself”.
Continue readingCatch up TBR – August September October November December: Reading Notes 80-84
This IS NOT my 2024 best of list. I am just playing catch up for Wendy’s TBR Challenge. In a conscious effort to post on all the TBR topics for 2024, I put together a quick post for the previous 5 months.
Reading Note 80: August – Everyday Heroes
Hello, Stranger by Katherine Center
I became a bit obsessed with Katherine Center this year. I have yet to read one that tanked. In Hello Stranger the protagonist Sadie is a portrait artist who after winning a place in a national competition has a critical head injury when she has a fall in the middle of the street. When she comes to, the result of the fall is that she has aphasia – face blindness. Which, as a portrait artist, is a bit of an issue. While she is trying to navigate her new world, Sadie meets her grumpy neighbour Joe who somehow helps her through the various issues she is experiencing. And of course, they fall in love but not without their own issues.
Sadie has so many circumstances that go against her. An absent father, an evil step-sister, an ambivalent step-mother. A friend who seems supportive but is not at all, sometimes bordering on cruel. When Sadie gets into the portrait competitiion, Sue says to her “You’ve been tragically failing at life for years and years! We have to celebrate!” Sadie thinks “Tragically failing at life seemed a bit harsh. But fine. She wasn’t wrong.”
Continue readingTBR challenge – What a Wonderful World (July not September): Reading Notes 78-79
This month, I have decided to ignore the usual order, and I am backtracking to July’s theme of SuperWendy’s TBR challenge and I am going to post on the theme of What a Wonderful World. I will find a way to catch up on August and September at another time.
July – What a Wonderful World
Reading Note 78: In July, I found myself reading Kate Clayborn’s The Other Side of Disappearing. This novel is not the focal point of this TBR post but I will discuss it in short.
I am a big fan of Kate Clayborn with several Shallowreader posts proselytising about her books and I waited several months on the library holds list before getting access to this novel. It is a story about two age-gap half-sisters whose shitty mum has abandoned them. Jess has been caring for Tegan for many years, and now that Tegan has come of age, she wants to seek out her mother who ran off with a con-man. With the awkward involvement of two journalists, Adam and (secondary but important character) Salem. The four of them go on a road-trip, following the trail of the few postcards sent by shitty mum. The road-trip allows for the slow reveal of the characters motivations, soul-searching and psyches, as well as their relationships with each other. And of course, it builds up to Jess and Adam’s romance.
I was expecting a wonderful story, however, unlike most of my romance blogger friends, I was left unmoved by the novel. It was an OK story, I could see the complexity of the numerous characters development and their story arcs but it didn’t give me the joy that Claybourn’s other books have given me. If anything, it left me frustrated, as the storytelling felt disjointed which I will attribute to the function of the “he said/she said” structure where each chapter alternated the point-of-view of each protagonist, both of which were told in the first point-of-view and in a mostly linear trajectory.
I personally love two point-of-view/head-jumping romances where you get an insight into each character’s thoughts. The last decade (and more) trend towards a first point-of-view and only from one of the main characters, annoyed me immensely. It was like romance fiction had reverted to the 1970s and 1980s when this was the standard. I loved the 1990s which shifted the storytelling to allow for multiple characters’ perceptions of the relationship build. I am glad that we are now seeing a return to two (or more) perspectives, however it is like a pendulum. The he said/she said style of alternating chapters are jarring to read as they move from one character to the other.
Continue reading6 Months of TBRs: Reading notes 72-77
At the end of last year, I once again committed to taking part in Wendy the Super Librarian’s TBR challenge. I don’t know if and where Wendy is posting everyone else’s posts but I rarely go to my old social media haunts (I still have accounts but I am rarely posting). I am not across the older apps these days. If anyone knows, or if Wendy is reading this :: waves wildly ::, I would love to know where I can follow along in the laziest possible way (because I know I can just click on everyone’s link on the TBR link but shhhhhhh!).
I have been too lazy to write full reviews with blurbs and plots synopses. Instead I am just giving you my irrational, emotional reader-reacts. Hold on to your hats. There will be swearing!
Reading Note 72: January – Once More With Feeling
The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Agguire.
This book had been recommended to me by many readerly friends. I had several false starts and I found myself dragging my feet rather than read it. I borrowed it from the library three times until in January, I fully committed myself to reading it once more with feeling. And the feeling was loveliness.
This story didn’t overwhelm me with intense with emotions, it didn’t make me swoon or get angry or cry. And though it wasn’t intense, it went deep into the feelings of being on the outer in your own family, to finding your own place at your own pace. The story was gentle and lovely, set in our real world and the paranormal elements weren’t so fantastical that I cringed (Yes – I am thinking of the Black Dagger Brotherhood et al., of yesteryears).
Continue readingMay June July Reading 2023: Observation note 118 and Reading note 66-71
A belated post which will cover my three months of quiet.
Observation note 118: Pain Again. I have come to realise that winter is not my best time to write. For many years now, I start with semi-regular posts early in the year, just to drop the ball when I actually have the most time to write. I think it is because I am a sunshine person. It drives me and invigorates me and even though it is usually quite bright in winter Sydney, it still is not bright enough for me. In Observation note 117, I had discussed my couple of months of pain, having just started limping after sciatic and intercostal pain. Well, it ends up pain likes the number three because I thought the limping was muscle strain with perhaps some arthritis in my ankle, was much more. As the x-ray showed nothing, I assumed it was arthritis, so I kept moving my foot, even going to a Fat Boy Slim concert trying to get circulation to counter arthritic stiffness. I eventually I got an MRI which showed my ankle was broken (gah!!!!), and possibly I shouldn’t have tried to dance (or walked or moved).
So I was in a moonboot for 8 weeks (!). This also kept me from driving during that time because it was my braking/driving foot. Housebound in winter is crappy but this year I was living with my mum and “caring” for her. I couldn’t shop, I couldn’t clean (lucky!) so we spent the weeks talking and watching old Greek movies and soaps, as well as spending time on mum’s weirdass tiktok feed (all octagenarians should have one!!!). This was much more complex than what I write here and for the most part I was deep in busy-ness in that time. I am happy to be home again and reading again while preparing for Spring semester teaching starting in a few days. The moonboot is off and I even went for a super-long walk on the weekend.
Meanwhile, throughout May, June and July, I managed to read 18 books. I won’t discuss them all but I will point out a few which stay on my mind. And I would stop reading now if you object to spoilers. Here are some pretty book covers to give you time to look away.
A quick TBR challenge post: Reading Note 63
In my attempt to write a post every month addressing SuperWendy’s TBR Challenge, I am mentioning ever-so-briefly the one and only Unusual Historical I have read this year (in February). Having seen so many readers laud this book, I feel that I am an outlier. And a heads up – the blurb to this book is longer than my commentary.
Reading Note 63: India Holton’s The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels.
A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance.
Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.
Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he’s under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.
When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her–hopefully proving, once and for all, that she’s as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.
Sooooo….this paranormal historical romance novel was a rather unremarkable read for me. Floating houses, strong magic women, enemies, foes, lots of tea drinking and rules of decorum? I felt like I should have loved this book but instead I gave up after ten chapters (I think?) when a house lands in a field where Cecilia is sparring with love interest Ned Lightbourne. I skim read the rest. My biggest impression is that I had this book on my TBR since 2021. I feel let down by the nearly two year wait. I couldn’t lose myself in the story.
PS After I wrote the above paragraph, I thought I would return to my GoodReads entry and this is what I wrote:
I liked the concept, I liked the way the chapters were introduced, and it was rather clever however the cleverness overwhelmed the story and I ended up skimming the second half of the book. That said, I really liked the last chapter. Jolly library ending and all that.
I guess that I couldn’t even remember that I thought it tried for cleverness. This may have been its downfall. Oh and the romance….totally forgettable too. I gave it two Goodreads stars.
Shallowreader 