3 stars I received an ARC of this book from the publisher. I enjoyed the other two books I read in the Sisterhood of Secrets series (#1 & #3), but I can’t help noticing my reviews earn fewer stars each time I read one of her books. It makes me hesitant to read the next one. It also makes me wonder whether the first was as good as I thought at the time. This one is about Jenny and Nicholas Dowding, the Earl of Deception. As usual, the male lead is given a clever moniker that barely represents the reality of who he is. In one of the previous books, Jenny threw her handkerchief over her shoulder to represent an end to unnecessary flirtations and the beginning of maturity. Nicholas picked it up and exacted a promise from her to help him at some future date. Neither can get the other out of their minds and eventually, Nicholas decides to cash in on the promise in this book. Jenny has been enamored with Nicholas since their first meeting, to the point that her internal dialogue is rife with schoolgirl fantasies of happily-ever-after with him. Granted, she is a school girl, but she is on the verge of leaving school, and I would have expected a bit more maturity and less impulsiveness. In his relationship with Jenny, Nicholas, although motivated by the desire to exact revenge from his enemies based on his father’s deathbed wishes, is primarily driven by his reluctance to fall in love because he was once hurt. Who hasn’t been? His reaction seemed a bit histrionic to me. Both characters lack depth, although Nicholas is a bit more realistic. Jenny’s head seems to be filled with air, peppered with hopes, dreams, and suspicions. She jumps from believing Nicholas loves her to thinking he is using her, simply based upon whatever circumstances within which she finds herself. One moment, she is impervious to the implied duplicity of Nicholas made by Lady Ayes, the one who broke his heart. The next moment, she has fallen for it hook, line, and sinker for the lies and refuses to allow him to explain. And the exclamation points! I feel certain I’ve mentioned this in the past, but there are entirely too many exclamation points in this book! An author should be able to convey emotions without resorting to punctuation to do so! Maybe try using some action verbs, or simply allow the words to speak for themselves! I’m tempted to give this book only two stars, but I’ll err on the side of generosity. Still, I cannot recommend it. July 30, 2022
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5++ stars This is one of those books in which I reach the end, and I’m just speechless. As a fan of Sarah Cradit, I am fortunate to be part of her advanced reader team. I don’t think I’ve ever rated one of her books at less than five stars, and I don’t imagine I ever will. Because even though I think her earlier books are exceptional, I have to admit, she keeps getting better and better. This one had me on the verge of a panic attack more times than I can mention. I was ready to break out the Xanax on more than one occasion, but settled for an edible. What I’m saying is that the tension was extreme—and it wasn’t about someone dying, but just trying to figure out what the hell was going on and what the eventual outcome would be. I couldn’t figure out who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. In a way, it kept changing. Ultimately, the plot gets high marks from me. It’s unique and intriguing. And did I mention? TENSE. There were some wonderful statements made by characters that I want to share. Tyreste is a childhood friend in love with Rhaian, but he’s poor. He tells her, “If desire were currency, I’d have more than enough gold to make you my wife.” As a woman, Rhaian has few choices in her life, and she struggles to express herself within the confines of the strictures that confine her. For example, when told something she dislikes, “Rhiain rolled through her catalogue of contrived dispositions and decided bland derision fit the scenario best.” Without giving away too much of the plot, this image of Tyr’s abode was wonderful: “If he was especially silent, he could hear laughter beyond the thick stone walls, dripping into the earth encasing them.” And when Rhaian has a disturbing encounter with him, she discovers, “There was only one way to keep the tumult of emotion out of her voice when she spoke, which was to not speak at all.” Rhaian finds a great friend and confidant in Sesto, her “lady’s maid,” for lack of a better word. He shares some profound words of wisdom: “You’re only discovering what most of us discover all too early in our lives. That life takes and takes from us. If we let it, it will take everything. When it gives, we’re expected to grovel and then lie back and accept the next loss like it’s a gift and not reparation.” He also tells her, “It’s the men in your life who will get you into the same trouble they’ll later punish you for.” Also, when learning of her love for both Tyr and Asterin, Sesto wryly comments, “Asterin has a preference for redheads. You have a preference for men fluent in the language of brooding.” Rhaian, the heroine of the book, travels a painful journey of self-discovery. This journey shows her that she cannot trust those charged with protecting her. As she determines who can be trusted and who truly loves her, she becomes self-sufficient and proves she is a survivor. Those who decide to help her, do so because they love her and not because she needs them. Initially, she wishes to take on the pain she believes she caused Tyr, before being told, “That’s not how pain works, Rhiain. It belongs to us, like a gift we never asked for but cannot return.” This is just one of the revelations made to her during her quest to uncover the truth. Do I recommend this book? Absolutely, and unequivocally. With so many outstanding books to Sarah Cradit’s credit, I cannot say this is the best, but I can say this is currently my favorite. July 27, 2022 I received an ARC of this book from the authors. I’m a loyal fan of Autumn Birt so I was expecting great things, and I was not disappointed. To be honest, I didn’t love the prequel (?)to this book, The Rift and the Mage. I found it confusing. This one was so much better. Descriptions were clear, characters were complex and relatable, even if this takes place in a fantastical place, and the plot was intriguing. One of the descriptions I loved was this one because it did such a great job of describing how I feel when I’m forced to wake up: “For a fleeting moment, his rise from heavy slumber weighted his head. The cool air of the room slipped underneath his bed covers. He shivered.” I also loved this one: “Fear found him, whispering in his ear with an old cackle.” Roar, the main character, is described as being on the autism spectrum. He doesn’t know how to interpret facial expressions and he avoids touching anyone. I found the authors’ depictions of Raor captivating and affecting. His unwillingness to experience any emotions is frustrating, yet understandable, as anyone who has ever been hurt can attest. The reader never really knows if he is the way he is because he was born that way or because he made himself that way to protect himself. He feels a strong connection with Rosalyn and will do anything to help her, but he cannot acknowledge that what he feels is love. On his quest, he meets Koss Mal, an Ember Dwarf (universally despised by all other species), who is described as a being disgusting in every way imaginable. He smells, he looks greasy and gross, he grunts and dribbles while eating, and so on. However, he is loyal and becomes a reliable friend to Raor, despite Raor’s constant criticisms. Near the end of hte book, Koss says to Raor, “Do you know how difficult it be to fit in when you don’ know the people you are living amongst?” Raor yawned again before answering, “Believe it or not, I completely know what you mean.” Another person who probably knew how they felt was Dramna, the White Elf sent to collect the Primer held by Raor, and by the way, also kill him. She is a blind assassin who wants nothing more than to go back to teaching young White Elves how to be assassins. The descriptions of her interactions with the world are fascinating. Without sight, she has more reliable perceptions of her surroundings than most with sight have. Even Raor makes the silent observation that without an ability to read peoples’ facial expressions, he feels as blind as Dramna. So, we have three misfits. Roar, who may have ASD, Koss, who is an outcast because of his ancestors, and Dramna, who is blind. Each is a misfit, in slightly different ways, yet each manages to overcome their challenges. Although Dramna is not present at the end of the book, I suspect she will reappear in the next one. This story is incomplete, but it’s not a horrible cliffhanger. It’s clear this is meant to be an ongoing saga, a long hero’s journey for Raor, and it would be unfair to expect it to conclude in one book. However, I won’t be tortured by images of Raor about to die, or experiencing some other significant challenge, as I wait for the next book in the series. I appreciate that. This book has the best kind of cliffhanger—really, the only acceptable kind of cliffhanger. July 24, 2022 5 stars I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. This is my first time reading something from this author. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised. It’s an incredible read which left me in tears by the end. I mean, sure, I knew it was impossible that this story could have a happy ending, considering the circumstances. It was 1948. I don’t think there was anywhere in the United States where Eva and Courtland could have found their happily-ever-after, but hope springs eternal, I guess. In true Shakespearean tragedy fashion, Eva and Courtland are destined for heartache, but like Romeo and Juliet, they know what their hearts want, even if no one else wants them to have it. But there’s something about Eva and Courtland’s story that’s even more heartbreaking because it’s not make-believe, and still within recent memory. It’s not some silly family feud kind of situation. It’s reality. It’s our shameful history. And it makes that history concrete and palpable, something that the reader can easily feel and suffer along with the characters, which is something that can never be gleaned from a history book. This is living history, in that the reader is compelled to live something that happened countless times to countless people over too many years. Fiction is a tool to help the reader feel the experiences of other people, possibly people with whom they have nothing in common. What we discover is that the human experience is what ties us all together. It takes a monster to be offered a window into the struggles of someone else and think they deserved it. To be unaffected by the pain of someone else is to show a total lack of compassion, and really, humanity. There are those who would like to take us back to this time—a time when America was “great.” Unfortunately, I don’t think reading something like this can have an impact on minds that have already been closed to anything that contradicts their worldview. I’d like to be wrong about that. Luckily, there are others, people like me, who feel compassion on a mostly theoretical level because we have never personally experienced the struggles of those who are different. This is where books like this, fictional in only the strictest sense of the world, can have the biggest impact. Sure, every situation is different, but having a touchstone for comprehending things is enormously helpful to those who want to understand. Add this to your list of books to read before it gets banned for revealing too much history. July 20, 2022 5 stars “If every, single, filthy thing I’ve learned from the internet was distilled into an expression, it would be this smirk.” I loved this statement by Olivia so much that I’m using it to start my review. This is the story of Massimo and Olivia,“Via,” as only Massimo calls her, and their rocky path to happiness. Let me preface this by saying, I always knew Massimo would be my favorite. There were times when I read his brothers’ books that I wondered because they made dramatic transformations, but Massimo had shown himself to be reliable and true over and over again in the other books, so this was exactly what I expected. One of the things I like best about this story is that Massimo never has any doubt about his feelings for Olivia. No matter how stupidly she continues to deny her feelings for him, to the point of Olivia questioning herself, wondering why she is such an idiot, Massimo is the rock to her flailing life choices. He’s always there for her, even when she thinks he’s not. Sure, he’s a man of his word, and he’ll do what he’s promised to do, but he continues to try to figure out a way to get everything they want without letting anyone down. Unfortunately, every time he presents one of these possibilities to Olivia, she shoots him down. I don’t want to ruin any of the details of this story because, even though I knew it would be a happy ending, I did not anticipate the twists and turns it would take to get there. And I felt anxious waiting for it to happen. I can’t tell you how many times I questioned why Olivia had to be so dense and self-absorbed. But L Steele knew what needed to happen, and my complaining only served to make this a stronger and more rewarding story. I hope that my editing helped. I highly recommend this story, but like all books from this author, it’s for mature audiences only. July 12, 2022 5 stars I received an ARC of this book from the author. This is the first book from her that I’ve read, but I loved it, and I’ll be sure to read more. It’s short; it felt to me like a novella, but I’m not sure. For such a short book, though, it packs a punch. The characters are well-developed and relatable, and the plot is really good. Actually, some of the plots from Harrison Daniels’ horror books are mentioned and those are truly horrific (he’s the dead guy in this story). For that reason, I wouldn’t want to read any of them, but they do add some spice to this story. Speaking of spicey… This book definitely falls into that category, so I’d recommend it for the mature reader (whatever that means). I don’t always mention this, but this time, I didn’t know the author’s style so I didn’t know what to expect. Here it is, in a nutshell: Genevieve is married to Harrison, a very successful author, but still in love with Tyler. She wakes up one morning to find her husband is dead, or more precisely, killed. And she is the primary suspect. Enter: Tyler. Naturally, Tyler is still in love with Genevieve and wants to help her, but he’s angry with her for leaving him. Until he finds out why she married Harrison. He’s still not happy about it, but when they discover some things about Harrison, neither is Genevieve. It’s pretty obvious that Genevieve didn’t kill Harrison, even though she occasionally wonders whether she might have and doesn’t remember. I’m not saying it’s impossible that she thought that, but it’s a ridiculous thing for her to think. So the question is, who did? Luckily, Tyler is just the person to figure that out. On that subject, I have to admit, I wasn’t entirely clear on what Tyler did for work. I know that’s what interfered with their relationship and drove Genevieve and Tyler apart four years ago, but I still don’t know what he was doing. I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s enough to know that he has some experience in what I’ll call espionage and fighting bad guys. Tyler has some funny inner dialogue that I enjoyed. It all happened when he went back to Genevieve’s house to look for evidence. He finds a picture of her and Harrison together and says, “I turn it face down out of spite and continue my self-guided tour.” When he enters Genevieve’s closet, he thinks, “It smells like her in here, only wealthier.” And when he discovers Harrison’s password, he thinks, “What a sucker, using his wife’s birthday as a password. Never mind that I too use his wife’s birthday as a password as well.” It’s easy to identify with some of his sentiments and this makes him a more likable character. Genevieve is a little more “damsel in distress,” but that doesn’t make her any less likable. After all, she just found her dead husband’s body and is accused of murdering him. It makes sense she’d be in need of support. Overall, the characters’ actions were believable. Combined with a compelling plot, I can’t help but recommend the book. July 16, 2022 2 stars I’m not really sure where to start with my review of this book. The editing was sub-par and the writing was sometimes repetitive, with awkward sentence construction, and altogether too many exclamation points!! But the story itself was fascinating. Damina was a bit slow to figure things out. She had all of the same clues as the reader, so she really should have been able to piece things together earlier. The story seemed really long, and that would have been okay if some of that time had been spent creating a real connection between the reader and the characters, but I thought it fell flat. I never really understood Damina on a deep level. I never understood her actions. For example, why was she so easily aggravated by other people saying things she didn’t like? Why was she so annoyed by the people trying to help her? I didn’t believe the emotions conveyed early in the book. We’re told how much she loves Jackson, but if anything, he sounds controlling and judgmental. I mean, he tells a group of friends and family that when they marry, she will become Mrs. Jackson Nash! What year is this anyway? We’re told how much Damina loves her cousin Dacari, but Dacari may be the most annoying character in existence. She seems so self-absorbed and so self-centered, I couldn’t understand Damina’s love of her company or why she felt guilty for taking care of her own needs, but when Dacari accused Damina of being selfish, that was over-the-top. Upon reflection, I understood somewhat, but to me, it seemed like Dacari thought the sun rose and set upon herself and was hardly in a position to make that kind of statement. At one point, Damina thinks, “Nothing she (Allyson) can say will relieve me of the selfishness I feel at mourning my separation from Jackson when my cousin needed me the most.” Damina had just gone through an extremely painful betrayal that broke her heart, but she feels guilty for not being there for her cousin. In an ideal world, she would have been there, but to feel guilty about it makes no sense. There were problems with the wrong word being used, like: reside instead of subside, sorted past instead of sordid past (twice!), dawns instead of dons, and “hardly doubt” is used, creating a double-negative which negated the intent of the sentence. Sentence structures were sometimes confusing, as with this whopper of a dangling participle: “I slip out of the parlor as everyone begins to congregate to hear him speak and head to the bathroom.” Here’s an odd dialogue tag that mixes up the verb tenses: “Dalcour says as he leans against the door and staring at me as if he wanted to laugh.” Even my spellchecker wants to correct it, which makes me wonder if it was purposefully ignored. Here’s another poorly-worded sentence: “Gratefully, the courteous bartender notices my angst and places a menu in front of me.” Since “gratefully” modifies “the bartender,” I have to wonder what he was so grateful for. There were many of these types of things, and they detracted from the reading experience. Going into it, I knew this was book one in a series, but I was annoyed by the cliffhanger ending. There are ways to motivate the reader to read the next book in a series without introducing a loose end at the end. Most things seemed to be resolved, but not enough. The problem is, I don’t feel compelled to read the next book in the series. I’m afraid it will just consist of more times that Damina will wax poetic about Dalcour’s raspberry lips and his enticing floral scent of lavender and jasmine. And if I’m being honest, she kept referring to him as sexy, but every description seemed to bely that, with his childlike giggles and innocent expressions of joy, and so on. I’m glad he was joyous, but I have a problem seeing a childlike or innocent man as sexy. The book was tedious from the beginning, but about one-third of the way into it, it picked up momentum and I found myself looking forward to reading more of it. Perhaps I had simply acclimated myself to the level of writing contained within the book. I’ll admit, the writer was skilled at describing scenes, if not emotions, and the more action, the more compelling it became. Still, I’m not sure I can recommend it without revisions. July 15, 2022 4 stars I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley, and since it’s a Pride & Prejudice-based story, I was excited to read it. It differs greatly from the original, and ties itself to its inspirations by including characters with the same names as the original. Beyond that, there is very little similarity to the original. Truthfully, I enjoyed the story and I thought the writing was good, but I'd have preferred if the Pride & Prejudice connection were forgotten altogether. It’s a good story on its own. Elizabeth Bennett is employed as a governess, since her family fell on hard times after her father’s death. She turned down marriage to her father’s heir, Mr. Collins. This would have allowed her family to continue living in the home where they’d grown up, but she couldn’t stand the idea, so her family was forced to live off the generosity of other relations. Feeling guilty, she left to become a governess. This background portion of the story sounded extremely familiar to me, since she refers to her friend who decided to marry Mr. Collins instead. There are a few other tidbits that made me think I must have read another book in this series, but if I did, it was so long ago that I didn’t write a review. At the beginning of the story, the handsy son of her employer tries to corner her and ends up falling down the stairs and breaking his leg. Naturally, his mother assumes Elizabeth tried to seduce him and immediately discharges her from her position. Colonel Fitzwilliam, also visiting the house, speaks out on her behalf, but the woman refuses to listen. He decides to take Elizabeth with him for the Christmas holidays to visit his family and tells her she can meet his family and he’s certain she’ll receive a glowing referral from his mother. Meanwhile, we meet Mr. Darcy, the widower who will be hosting the guests at his home. He immediately falls for Elizabeth, but the colonel’s letter led him to believe they are betrothed so he quashes his feelings. At the same time, Elizabeth develops feelings for him, but feels he is above her station so she tries to keep her distance. It’s actually a fun story that reminded me more of a Shakespearean comedy of errors than a Jane Austen novel. To me, it had a Midsummer Night’s Dream flavor to it. Everything that the colonel tells his mother and his cousin, Mr. Darcy only reinforces their impression that he has promised himself to Elizabeth, and everything she says serves to confirm that. Of course, the reader knows the misunderstanding that is taking place, and it is compounded by the fact that Mr. Darcy’s younger sister is enamored with the colonel, and keeps trying to gain his attention. And naturally, there’s a young woman valiantly, and annoyingly, vying to receive a proposal from Mr. Darcy. There are a few other couples with potential romances happening in the background, but it’s really about Elizabeth, Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Georgiana, Darcy’s sister. I really liked it. I just don’t think it’s a retelling of Pride & Prejudice. I thought the ending became a bit overlong and didactic, with everyone making verbose speeches, but there was one quote earlier in the book that I thought was great. Darcy and Elizabeth determine that “Together we will disprove the naysayers who do not understand happiness does not come from expectations of its arrival, but rather from the acceptance of the delight in its timely appearance.” July 10, 2022 5 stars I got an ARC of this book from Netgalley. It’s really just a novella, part of a bigger series called Siren’s Retreat. I love Erica Ridley so I was happy to receive this. This is the story of Deborah, the proprietress of Siren’s Retreat, and Patrick, man of business for Lord Edgewood. Lord Edgewood has determined that he will buy the land upon which Siren’s Retreat sits and sends Patrick to facilitate the transaction. Despite being on opposite sides, he and Deborah fall in love. If Patrick doesn’t finalize the deal, he will lose his job, but if he does, he will leave Deborah homeless and heartbroken. The challenge is to figure out a way to keep Deborah’s brother-in-law Stanely from selling the property, and for Patrick to keep his job. Stanley has received a very generous offer for the property and it would be foolish for him to turn it down. He tells Deborah that her rent will be doubled if she wishes to keep it, so she works to figure out how to make that happen. Patrick helps her because he can't help himself. He wants her to win even if that means he will lose. It’s a sweet, romantic story with lovable characters. I recommend it and would love to read more in the series. July 9, 2022 4 stars I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. It sounded interesting, but it was nothing like what I expected. Although extremely well-written, it was also extremely unpleasant to read. The memoir tells the story of a young woman named Kathy, or rather, Marina (but no one knows) who is a virgin by choice. She allows this label to define her and wears it defiantly, allowing herself to be offended by anyone and everyone who thinks differently than she does. She goes through dozens and dozens of men, kissing all of them, and from my perspective, leading them on and setting traps for them. The moment one of them wants more, she wants nothing more to do with him. There seems to be nothing that any of them can do to please her, and it got to the point where I was dreading the demise of each relationship because I thought she was totally unreasonable and self-sabotaging. Her adoptive mother is, in a word, a bitch. She’s rotten to Kathy—mentally, emotionally, and spiritually abusive/negligent. And Kathy wants her mother’s approval so desperately. It’s depressing to read. I really did feel for her, but I also wanted to protect myself. I’m glad that she finally escaped. There are some great insights and observations about misogyny prevalent in society, and as I said, it was extremely well-written, but I cannot recommend it because it’s so damned unpleasant. I have to give it four stars because of the caliber of writing, but I can’t give it five because I hated it. Nevertheless, there are some quotes I think are worth sharing. A few of the brief quotes are just so profound, while some are just so cleverly stated. Kathy thinks her virginity will protect her from the intimacy she fears, but then she realizes “...my virginity is bait, not a boundary.” Thinking about her mother Ann: “...I wonder why it is Ann who gets to mother me. Why does she get to mis-mother me?” “Time subtracts the space that separates us.” She says this about her proximity to a boy she likes. And this one is just so depressing, yet so reflective of what her adoptive mother has created. “That’s what love ends up being: barbed wire that traps and tears and hurts.” I hope she has changed her view on this. I think she has. Describing one of the boys she dates, Kathy observes, “There is an urgency in his movements, a persistence that takes me off guard and then puts me on guard.” When she stands up to her mother, she thinks, “She knows I will give in to her, come crawling for forgiveness, be the obedient girl I have served up to her each and every time I find myself invisible in her presence, trapped in the tethered and austere knots of her disapproval like a bug fastened to the sticky webs of a mother-spider awaiting to devour her prey.” And also regarding her mother: “I take it like a victim because I don’t know what else to do. Because she hasn’t seen me yet, and I know that deep down, she loves me, and one day, she will see me. She shames me because she loves me. She accuses me because she loves me.” Kathy is an excellent student and an avid learner. She wants to “...eat knowledge in fistfuls without napkins, utensils, or any kind of proper etiquette, licking my finger at the taste of what I have learned.” When she describes her relationship with John, the longest relationship she has had, and one in which the two of them love one another, she says this, “John and I have been playing a game. I’ve been waiting for him to say the words, and he’s been waiting for me. Neither of us wants to say them. He’s a coward, but I am selfish, willful. I want to force him to break up with me because I know how hard it is for him. Breaking up with a virgin because she’s a virgin. What a cad. I win.” This was a great description of how some men (and boys) see women, though it is a bit dark: “...I see how guys watch her, and sometimes I have to push them away, disgusted by the arousal I witness them licking off their lips as they fantasize about her—a girl they do not know.” This sums up the story though. It was never about her virginity. It was about her secrets and trying to find the person who would treat them with care and love her no matter what ugliness lay beneath the surface. “He doesn’t say anything, as if he knows I’ve never told a soul before. That these are virgin words. That he’s the first to receive them. And he waits, holding his breath, ready to cup them in his hands and nurture them like rare gems that have never seen the light before.” July 8, 2022 |
Elizabeth J ConnorWriter. Editor. Proofreader. Archives
September 2022
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