Donna Smith
Huh. Zany, because Evergreen joyfully folded in Every Single Mad suggestion made for an off-the-wall Christmas romance, under girded with her usual self-aware genre bending. I wouldn't say you should start reading here, but it is fun if you are familiar with her usual tone. Witty in a... ...zany way. Yeah: I'm sticking with zany.
Sweet and clever gender inversions in a dozen ways that mostly didn't feel modern or contrived but smart, interesting, contributing to character conflict and growth.
I shall track down more in this series.
I thought it was the first by this author I've read, then I dug deeper and found a DNF in another series which I quit because of flat characters and the utter unrealism of a modern author writing about subsistence skills like hauling water, lighting oil lamps, cooking on wood... Apparently none of that unpalatable-to-me vibe was present in Snapdragons to make me twitch, so--different domain? More author skills since Ashes on the Moor? Either way, I'll read more in this series and see what this author can do.
Eh...don't bother with this one. But--DO READ other Camilla Evergreen books! The main characters here seemed flat and unrealistic, with problems that I wasn't feeling and solutions that didn't quite get there. HOWEVER, I have found others of her books to be UTTERLY delightful, especially How to Find Love if you are Weird.
I like this author! The second by her I've read.
Complex and interesting, and there was actually a moment where I didn't know which trope was going to be engaged and who the romantic lead would actually be--because Evergreen is witty and skillful at acknowledging ALL the tropes in the genre and playing fast and loose with them in the most engaging ways.
Ugh: NO.
Begins with a rape--apparently between the romantic leads of the book!?!, though I quit reading before that became absolutely clear so I may be mistaken--then continues with unrealistic coincidences to move the plot along, relies on a "hooker with a heart of gold" to glamorize sex work, which sticks in my craw because of how dehumanizing and abusive the industry is. Also has a child who is angelic. I didn't like or believe in any of the characters
DNF at 14% My first by this author; probably my last.
Two MC who are definitely autism-coded and whose special interest is...wait for it...trains. Huh. Is it too on the nose on purpose like a kind of post-ironic, like, "I can be passionate about trains and count by prime numbers when I'm stressed because that's who I am, regardless if I fit into all the stereotypes you have!"? I kept trying to decide if the non-autistic author did or did not have autistic friends/family in her life.
Probably I should have just taken it on it's merits as a sweet romance where a community of quirky people and comedic events push together two (+ kid) well-intentioned people. And defeat an evil property developer. (Again: too on the nose? or post-ironic?) I liked that all the core relationships *were* sweet and supportive. I didn't feel buckets of realism sluicing off any situation or relationship here, but it was sweet and I read the whole thing to the denouement. Which--spoilers!--takes place with a special train.
Ehh...I liked the characters, but this was a draft that needed more editing for continuity issues (had they met only once before, or...twice because they went to that restaurant with her uncle?!?) and to make the "marriage of convenience" trope believable. But, the turtle research was interesting, and I like other stuff this author has written.
I don’t know why I wasn’t emotionally engaged in their journey, but once I realized that I was skimming whole pages, DNF.
I should have liked this book because it contains a teacher who does actual teacher things, and children who act like children… yet I found myself skimming paragraph after paragraph, especially the descriptions about how each main character found the other hot. I get it: apparently they’re hot. <shrug> Come to think of it, it’s probably because I’m fried at the end of a school term and have the attention span of a cricket. Time for a comfort reread probably. Maybe I should reread Olivia Dade’s teacher characters in her Maryville books…
DNF at 60%. Consent: she keeps pushing his boundaries to get what she wants, a more sexual relationship than he is comfortable with. Initially promising eccentric characters devolved in interest to me past where I would put up with their immaturity. I love nerdy wallflowers who prefer chess to flirting; I don't like immature, self-centered manipulators who break rules irregardless of consequences and push other people's sexual boundaries, even people 10 years older than them.
I might give Bowman another try as other aspects of the writing were strong, but these MC were not for me.
Eeeh...nope. I've read almost everything Reid has written except these collaborations with Cosway, and I'm a big Reid fan, auto-buy for sure. I read this on in the Beach Reads Box Set V collection.
In contrast to other top picks by Reid, this reads like under-edited juvenilia and I shan't seek out any others in the series.
Yuck to the lack of consent modeled in the “Her words say no but her sexy lips say yes and I'll crowd her into an airplane bathroom” kind of relationship they have. Creepy, and: no. I want everyone in this book to go to therapy for a few years and then try again to have healthier relationships with every one (self, siblings, workmates, etc.). “‘Hey, I'll behave on this trip. I promise'” he tells her, knowing that he's lying as he says it, crowding her personal space and crossing boundaries she's set. “For several seconds I was wracked with indecision. I'd told her I'd behave on this trip, but the temptation to follow her was too much.” Uh, no, dude: the temptation is NOT too much. You are just too selfish and immature to respect boundaries. What you should say is, “I know I made a promise to respect her boundaries, but I don't want to be self-controlled and so I'm choosing to put myself first over her.”
Eh...I liked the idea of this book, but the reality was very meh for me. To me, it read like fan-fiction for a fandom I didn't know where the point was just to write sexual tension devolving into sex scenes, not to do such traditionally novelley things like, say developing plot, character, setting, conflict, or resolution. I started skimming pretty hard around 30% because I wanted to follow the treads of this book that were interesting to me (the amputee, the bestfriendship) but ended up DNF around 50% because, just–blah. I want this author to get a really good editor and make a few more drafts and I might be willing to try again because–not enough double amputee/best friends romances out there, right??
Hazelwood is just...so skillful at the writing things I care about. She writes characters with realistic problems who are already on the road to growing into who they should be, not having to be convinced by 75% through the book that they should take the first baby steps on the road to recovery. Friends are loyal to each other, and friendships between peers and men and women feel real. Believably quirky and believably smart people interacting in believable ways. Interesting, interesting problems (professional, personal, systemic). Sex isn't a decoration but literarily a tool of developing character, plot, conflict, etc. (It's not gratuitous, though may I say–the content warning should be heeded.) Skillfuly plotted (and edited–I see you there, editor, shaping this so tightly and making every scene and paragraph count) with believably complex conflict...which is a subject in need of a verb, but I'm going to bed, so, whatever.
Anyway, I'm still processing, and since the last few books I've gotten though have been fine but also kind of meh, I'm re-reading this one instantly to appreciate how all the threads are woven together, and because I'm in the bush for a month and want to re-read something so I shall. Maybe I'll go back and re-read Bride. Just because Hazelwood is skillful and insightful and good.
I those “Hazelwood is not for me” reviews and I feel you, as that's been my chief reaction to about 8 books I started in the past few weeks. However, “Hazelwood's books are for me” might be the TL;DR of this review.
Edit: I re-read the book the day after I read it the first time I'm in the bush and there's not a lot to do, so why not re-read a book I gobbled down too quickly the first time? I also wanted to pick appart what about it worked so well for me, to wit:
-Gender relations. I love how men and women treat each other (the heroes, not the villains) with honesty, friendship, in integral community.
-Multiculturalism/multi-nationalism assumed. The interesting last (and first) names! The people in any of Hazelwood's worlds are just varied in nationality/ethnicity in a totally assumed way where nobody is a token. This matches my world (I'm an expatriate American living in the western Pacific).
-No wasted background characters, scenes, details, or conflicts, and no tropey tropes. The details are complex and interesting and exist to further the characters and plot. Anything that approaches a trope is of sufficient complexity to make me think, “Ah! This kind of poignant situation is why this devolved into tropes, but this just feels like life.”
-Honesty is sexy. What does he like about her? “incessant honesty.” What is he like, asks her friend? “Honest.” Swoon! I love, love characters who tell the truth.
-Communication is sexy. These characters know their own minds pretty well and are willing to communicate. I LOVE that.
-But also: I wish there were fewer sex scenes and f-bombs; my preference would be for fewer (or none; I'm in this genre for the emotional journey not the sex details).
OK, now I'm off to re-read some other Hazelwood. Woot!
Ehhh... So, I was really interested in this title. Religiously celibate adults exploring relationships! Complex relationships to the meaning of sexuality and identity! The potential for really interesting, deep character development! Smartypants is usually a good bet!
Alas.
I wanted something nuanced and really revealing of what would be in the mind of someone who had chosen to join then leave a religious order, remained religious after leaving, and was making decisions post-institutional life about sexuality and independence, etc. Instead, this book is just a rom com, where “just” means “fairly flat characters that don't demand that much of you” (“...except a suspension of disbelief just a scritch too far for me.”)
While there were a few points of world building that showed the author had done some research (a dispensation from the Vatican to leave the order, the difference between novitiates and sisters and nuns, etc.), by and large I DNF at 40% convinced she hadn't read any biographies of people leaving the religious life, or really knew any Christians who were at any point in their lives committed to celibacy as a spiritual practice. (Such as I, for instance.) And it would have been SO INTERESTING if so, and I would have read the whole book in that case. Instead, the club of former nuns all seem to have opinions about sexuality that feels formed by a culture not in contact with the Church, and this seemed unlikely and uninteresting. I mean, of course “not all former celibate religious” and all that, and yet...
The scene that made me put down the book was someone who had previously been introduced as super observant of all the details around him as a habit of mind and a requirement of his job wandered into a mall store (while tailing someone!!) without realizing what kind of store it was and then clumsily knocking down displays. Blah. I don't want a bumbling comedy, I want a smart comedy! Poor me.
Maybe I should go back to reading non-fiction theology of sexuality (I see you there, Debra Hirsch!) and stick to romance books that don't engage religiousity at all because I just can't with this. Sexuality is SO interesting and so is spirituality!! Come on, Romancelandia, I want more nuanced characters who are actually religious, or who have a relationship to celibacy that is shaped partly or largely by religious convictions. I'd like to read those! (And, queue my usual rant about being unable to find any romance books published in the “Christian” genre with good character development and smart authors, blah blah blah, feel free to correct my misapprehensions.)
I've been hearing (positive things) about this book for a few years; a copy finally ended up in my possession; I've got to chapter 2 so far; I can see it becoming a standard book on my shelf and for many missiologists in Melanesia. I've appreciated Bartle's work in journals (2005) and now I'm glad to have a chance to absorb this longer case study. (How am I the first person reviewing this book? Thanks, Bartle, for your scholarship.)
And: can I give a shout-out to the Melanesian Institute and the Point series, which have been the source of so many insights that have guided my research during my student years? Cheers, guys! Keep publishing.
I gave up half-way through–just kind of drifted on to other books and never came back. This was nominated for a best of the year in the romance category? Maybe I should keep reading...but I wasn't in love enough with the heroine to put up with her need to grow up, trust others, make changes in her life rather than being passive. I found the hero charming, but not enough to keep going. What can I say? Maybe if I'm looking for big doses of emotional maturity and owning one's own baggage, I should re-read Role Playing again.
I'm still totally into this series. Many little details add up to a very satisfying reading experience because they are true to my own experience across places/cultures. For example, people who are learning language in Red Wolf talk like you actually would. The pre-industrial world everyday life details also feel true. The fights feel real. The hierarchical vs. egalitarian culture clashes (and all the other culture clashes) feel real. The political and economic details–so well researched. I live cross-culturally and am an historian, so I get fussy about these things, and I am just really impressed with Chase's achievement here! And also, you know, exciting, quickly-plotted, and character driven with arcs and growth of all the main characters.
It's been maybe 6 months since I read the previous ones, so I kind of forgot who some of the characters are (and there are a lot now), and I still feel like these would be better when they are all published together in one volume–they're bite-sized at present–and I don't have to put up with CLIFFHANGER ENDINGS, but I'm down for the next ones, for sure.
So interesting! Realistic romantic fiction that explores some fascinating social realities without at all being preachy or a tract. Very dimensional characters. Well-crafted characterisation, something I require in this kind of genre fiction. I really liked it! I believed the characters, bought their motivations and back-stories, was glad for their growth–yup, down for all of it. I also very much loved how the kids were REAL KIDS!
This was my first book by Paton but won't be my last.
So, my library bought a bunch of Harlequin books, and I was dubious. Rightly so, it turns out. I guess I'm not the audience for this kind of too-escapist, calmingly predictable romance with 2D characters and 2D settings.
This book reads more like a travel advert to Bali, Perth, etc. than a book that wants to help you actually feel these real places. The characters had lots of interesting features, but read kind of flat to me. I mean, I finished it...but I won't be going back for more. I've been to a lot of countries, and I know what it feels like to travel in a new culture, and none of that was portrayed beyond the backdrops being pretty. No cross-cultural nitty-gritty, and I do love that in a book.
Want some more real-feeling travel-the-world including settings in Australia? I remember Evie Snow's books doing that well.
So, I've recently finished Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score, and then found myself quibbling at traumatized characters in fiction who were not acting traumatized like the people described in psychologist van der Kolk's book. Not so with the Bollywood bride, which I'll give 4 1/2 stars because, despite some plausibility gaps that bothered me a tiny bit, I found the depiction of trauma in the main character utterly believable, and was there with her for her journey toward wholeness, supported by realistically-reacting people who loved her in a real way.
(But I still don't get the title. I mean, she's not the bride.)
This review contains spoilers.
I can't summarize what this book is about to others without laughing aloud at the ridiculousness. Of course a runaway programmed-from-childhood Russian assassin was rescued deep under the sea by an autistic uni-diving water mage entrenched in her rural idyll created by a found family of other (probably) elemental mages, because: what else? Oh, and she has a pyromaniacal stalker. And survived the foster system.
Despite the over- over- over-the-topness of it all, this one zipped along (except for the pages-long sex scenes, which I started skimming because: I get it. You're into each other.). Also, so interesting were the detailed descriptions of diving/urchin harvesting on the California coast! Very nifty.
But: tone! Every time someone pontificated about the heroine's disabilities because of autism, I flinched a bit. It's like the nuance between being an autistic person and a person with autism. To everyone in this book, including the heroine, she's an autistic person. She “had some form of autism, yet she had carved out a life for herself in spite of all the odds...” “If she was autistic, she was too high functioning not to have had some help as a child.” “There would be a few people in her life who appreciated her quick mind and bravery facing the challenges of a world she was born too sensitive to function in properly–yet she managed, carving out a life for herself against impossible odds.” Maybe because this is 2010 and autism awareness has shifted just that much in 13 years, these quotes sound cringey? But if I were picking fiction to represent the successes and difficulties of life on the spectrum, this wouldn't be on my list.
I liked a lot about this book, and might try the others in the series once I absorb the ridiculous elements a bit more. (Runaway Russian assassins!!) I like stories of healthy found families and the urban fantasy elements, so I may be up for more. (This is my first Feehan.) I agree with other reviewers that some things were just repeated tooooooo many times. (Like: I get that she has BLACK EYES because we are told a dozen times or more...but what colour was her hair again? I can't picture her in my mind except as too skinny (also oft repeated) and with BLACK EYES, or maybe they're BOTTOMLESS black eyes. (Which to me sounds like her pupils are blown because of chemicals, trauma, etc., but what do I know? Bottomless like the sea, no doubt.) 3 1/2 stars
I find emotional intelligence sexy. This book, therefore, is not.
DNF at 80% because I just couldn't take another person being determined to be foolish and not wise.
To give Novak her due: the characters are realistic, the conflicts they have stem from real human choices that I completely believed; every character had strong motivation which and a believable back story which guided their actions. However: drama, drama, drama of the emotionally unintelligent variety and I just couldn't take it anymore. There were sparks of the heroine making good choices based on having processed her life...but she waffled and believed lies and I just couldn't.
I don't want ANY of these people as my friends. If, however, you like tangled family drama and realistic interpersonal conflict, then this may be the book for you. If you prefer more emotional intelligence, try out Chloe Liese or Penny Reid.
DNF at 40%. It was kind of interesting and clever and I liked what it was doing with subverting tropes, but then I switched to another book and never got back to it and didn't miss it, so... bye. I loved Meg Cabot comedic, witty style when I first came across her books 25 years ago (Princess Diaries, etc.).
It's probably a mistake to read fanciful romance at the same time as reading Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score because I have in my head detailed descriptions of the myriad ways humans react to complex trauma, and Kleypas' heroes don't react consistent with the detailed and gripping exampels in van der Kolk's influential text. They bought and paid for their HEA far too easily and were messed up far too little for the trauma Kleypas describes.
However, they did feel like real humans with some real reactions set in a well-researched world written by a skillful author–and maybe the genre isn't really about realistic trauma reactions, and ploddingly working through the years and years of re-writing brain and body reactions to overcome trauma before a stable, loving, mutual relationship can be earned and believable? There definitely were some true-to-life trauma reactions–the hero's trouble sleeping and violent nightmares, the heroine's reaction to teenaged abuse of freezing (one of the fight/flight/freeze reactions to danger).
I'll keep reading Kleypas, whom I've enjoyed in the past...but maybe I should read non-fiction alongside van der Kolk for a while unless I wish to be unduly critical of the whole fantasy world of a romance script.
3.5 stars