Tammie
I wanted to like this so badly. The description sounded good and that cover is gorgeous. I wanted to pre-order the hardcover because it was so pretty, but unfortunately I did not like this book. My biggest issue with it is that I disliked the main character, Kasira for most of the book. Besides that, I thought Allaster was kind of lackluster as a male lead, and I felt zero chemistry between them.
The story was also very slow, and I found myself getting bored with it. I did appreciate the reveal at the end but nothing was ever shown in this book. Lots of things happened between the pages and we're just told about these events. We are told how good Kasira is at conning people but we're never actually shown her doing that, just told about it later. Also, this is supposed to be an adult fantasy but it reads like a YA fantasy. Overall, this was a huge disappointment for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
I'm sorry to my friends who liked this book. I really wanted to like it too and I wish I had but unfortunately, this wasn't for me. Going into this I was actually hoping the villain wasn't really a villain, but a Robin Hood type instead. In some ways that's kind of true, but Robin Hood didn't torture people, so this villain was actually a villain in my opinion. It seems a lot of other reviewers felt the opposite about him, that he wasn't villainous enough, and I can see where they're coming from if they picked this up hoping for a character that did lots of dark things. I can also see where they are coming from because this villain is written in a way that doesn't make sense. A person who likes torturing people would be a lot more hardened than this guy was.
I not only have problems with the way The Villain is written in this book, but I also have problems with the way the book is written as a whole. It was supposed to be funny, and I know other people found it funny, but the humor fell flat for me. It's also seems like it's supposed to be either cozy fantasy, romantasy, or satire, and in my opinion it fails at being any of those things. I'm not really sure if the author knew what she wanted it to be. The villainous acts of The Villain (though not as villainous as some people wanted him to be), make this not a good cozy fantasy, and the lack of any real romance in the book makes it a poor romantasy. There's a lot of longing and admiring that goes on but only one kiss and a couple of hugs actually take place. This could have worked as a satire if the author would have fully gone for that, but it doesn't lean into it heavy enough. There's also the fact that it reads like a middle grade or YA novel, and it's supposed to be written for adults. It felt very juvenile, but with cursing and dead tortured bodies thrown in. It just didn't work for me.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
This is a good but not great start to the series and I'm curious about how things will develop with the characters. It's more TV drama feeling than The Keera Duggan series by Robert Dugoni, as in not as realistic feeling, but there are some similarities between the two series that I think is going to have me getting them confused if I read them close together. Also, I don't like the audio narrator for this series at all, but I'm going to listen to this instead of eye read it anyway because I need more books to listen to while I'm busy working, and mysteries are easier for me to pay attention to on audio than other genres.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
I've really enjoyed some of this author's other books but this one was just so unbelievable with very little suspense. Everything was pretty obvious from the beginning, and while I found the other books by this author easy to predict, they were still enjoyable, with characters I liked. This book had a main character who was too stupid to live with a husband who was floundering and not very supportive. The very ending of the book involved a huge coincidence that was disappointing.
I swear half the book was listening to the narrator say the sounds of the weapons. Bang, bang, bang! Pow, pow pow! Bap, bap, bap! Ping, ping, ping! Boom, boom, boom! Pop, pop, pop! Lol. Every book in this series has this but this one seemed like it had a lot more of it. I've never read another series that includes so much of this. Despite that, this was pretty good but I didn't like it as much as the two previous books in the series.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, and I would say this one was just as good. One thing I'm really loving about this series is the friendship between the three women, and how they're there for each other. I'm also enjoying the love interests that have been introduced. There were a couple of surprises in this one that I didn't see coming. One involves the ex-husbands of two of the women, and the brother-in-law of the third one. Oh boy, let's just say I can't stand them. The other thing that surprised me involved a switch-up, but that's all I'll say, except that I liked how it ended up. I'm looking forward to book three!
Thanks to the author for providing me with an ARC of this book.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
This was a standalone novel in the Cass Leary series. We will be reading this series in 2026, I think starting in January. I don't know where this novel fits into the timeline of the series but it was a good standalone with very little spoilers for the rest of the series. There were some spoilers involving relationships but as far as I could tell that was it. It let me wanting to read more of the series, which is always a good thing. I enjoyed reading the Christmas theme at Christmas time. The courtroom drama was little too Hollywood and not quite realistic enough, but that didn't bother me enough to matter too much. Though I hope that won't be a regular occurrence. I didn't care for the narrator of the audio but will probably keep listening to these on audio instead of eye reading anyway. This is the genre I enjoy listening to the most, and I need some audio books to listen to while I work around the house.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
I love this author's books and this one was no exception. I do think this one lacked a little bit of the humor that I love in these, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I'm looking forward to the next book my this author.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
This will probably be an unpopular opinion but I've had quite a few of those over the years. I've purposely avoided this author's books in the past because, quite frankly, my gut instinct was that I would find them boring. The only reason I read this one is because it got picked as our book club read for this month. It turns out I was right, this was so incredibly boring. How do you make a trip through hell boring? Somehow this author found a way.
Not only did I find this book boring, I also found it to be pretentious, with characters I didn't like. I never warmed up to the main character. I did warm up to Peter but it took far too long for the book to reveal his secrets. And that's a problem I have with this book in general. Information is withheld for no good reason, and things are revealed slowly over the course of the book for no good reason. To me it didn't make any sense that they were going to hell to find this professor. I'm not going to say why it didn't make any sense because I'm trying to avoid spoilers.
There was a lot of academia in this book and it read like a textbook at times. I really couldn't relate to people who wanted to spend most of their lives in academia, especially someone who would give up 30 years of their life to go to hell and get a professor so he could help them academically. Not worth it! If you want to take a slow stroll through hell while philosophizing and reflecting on unpleasant life experiences, then this book is for you.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
I've read three books in this series. Books one, three, and four. I liked book one, Love Comes Again ok but it wasn't a favorite. I skipped book two because I wasn't as interested in it, with the thought that I could go back and read it later if I changed my mind. The main reason I decided to read book three, Love Comes Quietly is because it fit the criteria for a reading challenge I was doing. I liked it better than book one, and despite its flaws, I could relate to the main character to an extent. I met the main female character in this book in that story. She immediately annoyed me, and if anyone had told me I would want to read a book with her as the main character I would have said no way! However, Calliope learns a thing or two by the end of it. Then there is the accident, and I knew going into this book that the main love interest was going to be the driver of the car that caused the accident. I was intrigued.
Unfortunately, this could have been so much better. It could have been a deeply emotional read with a lot more meaning if we had been allowed to read about Rowan's struggle and triumphs with learning to walk again and saving his company, but we get none of the details. I was hoping this was going to be about Calliope helping him through all those struggles, with the reader getting to witness them falling in love and making a connection through that. What we end up with is the beginnings of that with a lot of drama that I could have done without, and then the book skips the actual hard stuff. Most of the book takes place in just two weeks and there was a lack of any real reason for them to have connected so quickly other than he's handsome, she's beautiful, and he finds her personality different and uplifting despite the fact that she's really obnoxious in the beginning, and is basically trespassing into his home. I know the title of the book is Love Comes Swiftly, but falling in love in a week was way too swift for me. If the story had been set over several months time, and if Calliope hadn't barged her way in at the beginning of things, I would have liked this more.
There were also a few times in this book that I said to myself, what is going on? Because some of the character actions and reactions didn't make much sense. What I mean by that is, there were really overblown reactions by more than one character to things that didn't seem all that big of a deal. One of the best examples of this is Calliope's best friend, Flora's reactions to Rowan's best friend, Darcy. It didn't make sense to me that she was having such strong negative reactions to the things he said. The things he said weren't really that big of a deal. She's attracted to him one minute and then flaming mad at him the next and it was overblown. And then he reacts to her anger with his own. It all just felt forced. Minor spoiler here***I figured out really fast that this was a setup for the next book that was definitely going to be an enemy to lovers trope but to me, it was nonsensical.
Add on top of these things the fact that every one of the books in this series needs a good proof reading to fix multiple typos and character inconsistencies, like character's hair and eye color changing, (in this one Flora started out with brown eyes and then at the end of the book they are blue) I think I'm going to abandon the rest of this series. Book one and three were sweet and I enjoyed the characters in those despite these things but this one just didn't work for me at all.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
3.5 stars.
I read book one in this series several months ago and was on the fence about continuing. The main reason I decided to read this book is because it fit the criteria for a reading challenge I was doing. So I read this one despite not having read book two. It's a companion series so it doesn't really matter all that much because the stories stand on their own. I ended up liking this one better than book one, and despite its flaws, I could relate to the main character to an extent. She was a quiet introvert with a calm and steady presence. The male love interest in this one was Charlotte's brother Theodore from book one. I ended up really liking him and could sympathize with what he went through losing his best friend and helping and supporting his sister in the first book.
One of the main things I disliked about this book is that the main female character acts a little too childlike at times. There are several times in the book that she blurts something out that she didn't mean to say out loud, is embarrassed by it, and covers her mouth with her hands. She's 30. What 30 year old woman does this? Another thing that I found ridiculous is the total mess she makes while trying to paint a wall. Painting a wall isn't as hard as this book makes it out to be. There is also the issue of typos and inconsistencies in the character descriptions. Elyse is described in the beginning as having light brown hair and dark eyes. Later she's described as blonde with blue eyes. Then yet again, later her hair is back to light brown but her eyes are still blue for the rest of the book. It's like the author decided to change her appearance but forgot to go back and change it in the earlier parts of the book. A good proof reader or two would be very beneficial.
I did enjoy the way the romance came about in this book with the characters being acquainted with each other from a distance, and attracted to each other but not acting on it at first because of past experiences. I do think these tropes get overwrought at times and it was the same for this book.
There's a point in this book when one of Elyse's sisters comes to stay with her and I was so annoyed by this character. I wanted Elyse to say something to her from the minute she showed up but Elyse was far too nice to her. I was however, pleasantly surprised when she finally does speak up for herself, and that this sister begins to see where she is wrong and tries to make some changes. The end of this one has me very interested in the next book, and I never thought I would want to read a book with this annoying sister as the main character.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
I was hooked from the beginning. The world was very interesting even though the main character was very unlikable for the first half of the book. In the end I liked her, but it took a while to get there. I found the supporting characters to all be interesting. With the way this ends, there could definitely be more written in this world.
I've read and liked some of Kasie West's YA books, so I was thrilled to find out she was writing an adult romance book. Because her YA books are sweet romance, I automatically assumed this would be sweet romance as well. Needless to say, when I read the opening paragraph I realized that wasn't the case. This book is spicy, and it's spicy from the very beginning. I was really wanting to read a sweet romance written for adults because that's what I like, but I stuck with this and read the whole thing anyway. It ended up growing on me.
My biggest complaint about this book is the main character, Margot. She comes off as desperate and horny. I had a hard time liking her, especially when she lets her boss use her the way she does. Even after she knows it, she still ends up having to talk herself out of letting him. She did eventually grow on me but I wish she had been written differently.
I really liked the main male character, Oliver a lot. He's the reason I'm rating this book three stars instead of two. I liked that despite the spicy beginning between these two characters, the book actually ended up taking the slow burn route before it got spicy again. I liked the banter of the messages between them and the way the relationship evolved.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with and ARC of this book.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite the fact that the a huge portion of the 1914 timeline infuriated me, but more on that in a minute. From almost the very beginning we know that the 1774 timeline is the timeline that our main character, Libby feels she belongs in and she is planning to choose that timeline to stay in permanently on her 21st birthday. I enjoyed reading about Colonial Williamsburg and I liked the way the author wove that part of history into the story. I enjoyed the characters from this timeline a lot. I loved how supportive Libby's mother in this timeline is, and the fact that she gave up a lot to live her life there with her children was admirable.
As for the 1914 timeline, Mother Wells was a real piece of work, the complete opposite of the mother Libby has in 1774. The emotional, psychological, and physical abuse she perpetrated was bad on it's own, but the father in this timeline infuriated me just as much by totally failing to protect his daughter. He acted powerless in a time when men had all the power. As for the marriage contract, I'm not buying that a contract signed on his behalf by his wife would have been held as valid. Libby loves her father throughout the book and never comes to see that he could and should have done more to protect her. It bothered me that this was never addressed in the book.
Having faith, following Gods will, and forgiving others were big themes in this book and I struggled with the way some of this was applied. Particularly on the subject of forgiveness. At one point in the book when Libby is writing letters to her family, we find out that she is writing to mother Wells. Why?! Forgiving someone doesn't mean you have to let them back into your life if they are a toxic and abusive person. I liked the way God's will played a part in some of the twists in the story, but not how it was portrayed all the time. At times I thought that got too heavy-handed.
I did end up predicting pretty much every plot twist in this book but despite that I enjoyed how they enhanced this story. I found the end particularly impactful and it had me crying just a little bit. If some things had been addressed that weren't, like Libby's father; if some of the characters had been a bit more nuanced, instead of so black and white; and if the Christian themes had been presented slightly different, then I think I would have given this 5 stars. That being said, 4 stars means I really liked this and will be reading more in this series. Be sure to read the author's note at the end of the book where she tells about how she got the idea for this book and the inspiration for the main character in the colonial era.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
I thought this one was ok, but not great. I'm hoping the next book is lighter on the SA content. It wasn't described in great detail, but enough to be disturbing. I skipped some of the details in those three scenes. In this one, Tori irritated me with her immature behavior and I can't blame Braddock for seeing some red flags there, especially because of his son. Braddock continues to be my favorite character in this series.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook
This was free on KU so I decided against my better judgement to try it since so many people love it. I already knew litrpg was not for me, but I thought maybe this one was different, maybe it was better. So many people love this, it has to be, right? Nope. I couldn't even finish this. Litrpg is still not for me, and I can say for sure that I'm done giving this genre a chance.
"Books didn't burn. Books ignited. They lit the burning in others. Not with paper and match. With ideas."
Roseanna M. White has become one of my favorite authors. I love the historic details that she includes in her books. I very much enjoyed this one. This is one of her rare standalones and it was a departure from her previous books in that it takes place during WWII. I liked this change, although I have to say that I still enjoyed the books set during WWI the most.
I liked the slow burn of the romance in this book. I thought the characters were very well drawn, and I genuinely liked them. There are times when I felt like certain characters got away with things they probably wouldn't have during the Nazi occupation. Things felt a little too easy, although I appreciate the fact that this was meant to be a romance that left me feeling good, so it was a more gentle read than a historical fiction book set in this time would have been.
There were also some actions taken by the main female character that I thought didn't make a lot of sense, like hiding coded messages in books that were banned and could possibly be confiscated. Still, despite those quibbles I enjoyed the story and the author's excellent writing. I think besides the romance, the thing I appreciate the most about this author's books are how historically accurate they are. The Christian themes are always present as well and those give the books an inspirational aspect that I enjoy. I especially like that this author includes historical accuracy in the religion that is included in each of her stories.
Most of this author's books have some connection in one way or another, and I was looking forward to seeing how this one would be connected to her other works. When it happened it was such a treat!
I'm looking forward to reading the next historical Christian romance by this author.
“When a people stopped entertaining opposing ideas, when they condemned the different as evil, then it was a short step from closed-minded to violently oppressive.”
3.5 stars.
This was not one of my favorites in the series. I liked the autistic girl, Lydia, and I thought she was portrayed well. Things probably went a little too easy for her with getting jobs and such, but I could ignore that. Tracy did some really stupid things in this one. Going off on her own, not communicating with Dan about certain things, and not telling the nanny what was going on and to stay inside was unbelievable. This stuff made me knock a half star off my rating.
You can also follow me at:
Recordings of a Reader on Youtube
Writings of a Reader at Blogspot
Writings of a Reader on Facebook