All Aboard! Sign-Up for the 2025 #TBRChallenge

I want to thank everyone who took the time to fill out my poll soliciting theme suggestions for the 2025 TBR Challenge. Every theme for 2025 was born out of that poll with a couple being suggested twice (Older couple and Monsters) and one theme being tweaked slightly be yours truly (Change of Plans). Also, while most of these are obvious, some others aren't quite as self-explanatory. More details and the method to the madness below.

For those of you stumbling across my blog for the first time, you're probably wondering - what is the #TBRChallenge?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: once a month pull a dormant book out of your TBR pile and read it.  On the 3rd Wednesday of the month, talk about that book.

Participation is as easy as being on social media!

• If you're on social media all you need to do is use the #TBRChallenge hashtag - there's no need to sign-up and your participation can vary throughout the year.
• You can use this hashtag on any day, at any time - but we're still going to concentrate on the 3rd Wednesday of every month to kick our commentary into high gear.  
• The idea is to have at least one day a month where we can always count on there being book chatter.

Want to let your blogging freak flag fly?  If you have a blog and want to post TBR commentary there, drop me a comment on this post with a link to your blog or hit me up on Bluesky or Mastodon.  I like to post links to the various blogs on my TBR Challenge page so those who follow along can start following you.

Sound good?  Of course it does!  So what are the themes for 2025?  So glad you asked!

January 15 - New Year, Who Dis? (suggestions: a debut, a new-to-you author, character looking for fresh start)
February 19 - Previously, In Romance... (suggestions: part of a series, author you haven't read in a while, Old School)
March 19 - Rizz (If you're old like me, this is slang the kids are using for "charisma" - I'm thinking playboys, rakes, heroes that have charm for days....)
April 16 - Location, Location, Location (interesting settings, unusual historicals etc.)
May 21 - Older Couple (self-explanatory)
June 18 - Road Trip (suggestions: couple traveling together, character who recently moved/relocated)
July 16 - Back in My Day... (suggestions: historical, Old School, I might go with a book that was published when I was in high school or college 😭)
August 20 - Do the Hustle (suggestions: single moms trying to make ends meet, work-related struggles, shady characters with ulterior motives / agenda).
September 17 - Friend Squad (self-explanatory)
October 15 - Here There Be Monsters (suggestions: monsters, Gothic, paranormal, fantasy, romantic suspense - humans being the biggest monsters of all quite frankly....)
November 19 - Change of Plans (suggestions: the character who has a wrench thrown in the works - sudden custody of kid(s), time travel, death in the family, accident, dystopia, left at the altar etc.)
December 17 - Celebration! (suggestions: weddings, parties, masquerade balls, holiday stories)

I know some of these are going to require a bit of planning on my part, but remember - if it all seems like too much bother - the themes are always optional. The goal of this challenge isn't so much what you read, so long as you're reading something (anything!) out of your TBR.

My hope is always for this Challenge to be low-key, stress-free and fun!  So I hope you'll consider joining this year. Be like me - use this Challenge to delude yourself into thinking you're actually making some progress on your book hoarding 😉.

Review: Ladykiller

As I've spent the better part of 2024 cleaning out neglected mystery/suspense ARCs from my Kindle, I have managed to learn one thing: I really need to stop getting sucked in by promotional NetGalley emails. Ladykiller by Katherine Wood is one of those debut novels that's not really a debut - the author having published three previous books under the name Katherine St. John. It came out in July, has a cover and blurb that screams beach read, and I'm nothing if not predictable. Of course I downloaded it, only to curse my one-click finger the minute I finished the final page.

Gia and Abby have been BFFs since childhood. Gia, a poor little rich girl with a distant father and mentally ill mother and Abby, the daughter of the cook. Gia's father, seeing the good influence that Abby could have on his impulsive daughter, pays for her schooling - an opportunity that Abby does not take for granted as it wasn't until this particular job that she and her mother were able to crawl their way out of poverty. Further bonding Gia and Abby together is a tragedy that occurred on a tiny Greek island (Gia's father owns a villa there - because of course he does) when they were 18, when a young man ends up dead. The incident was deemed as justifiable homicide and of course Gia goes on to publish a pseudo-memoir about the incident that gained her some notoriety, which has since faded into Where Are They Now? territory.

Then, Gia's father dies and ultimately leaves the bulk of his fortune to charity. Abby is a fledgling new attorney working 16-hour days while Gia continues to drift through her life until she falls head over heels in love with Garrett. They marry just a few short months after meeting and when Abby doesn't drop her life to fly to Europe to attend the quickie nuptials but also has the gall to say to Gia that she might want to slow down just a wee bit - the friends don't speak again for months. That is until Gia talks her into going on a bucket-list vacation to see the northern lights in Sweden. Abby is all set to say no again (work, work, work) until she finds out Gia's brother, Benny, is also coming. Naturally there's unrequited, complicated feelings there, but Abby shuffles some things around at work, digs out her passport, and hops a flight to Sweden.  Except once she and Benny arrive, there's no Gia. Benny was in Greece a month ago visiting Gia, Garrett and some new friends staying with them. Between the weird scene that Benny experienced on his visit and the fact they can't get ahold of Gia now? Yeah, they change plans to fly to Greece to find out what's going on.  Where is Gia?

The book is told in alternating points of view - Abby's and through a series of manuscript pages written by Gia that details her life in Greece with Garrett.  They're staying in the family villa for a few months, getting some renovations done, in preparation for selling the place to Gia's stepmother. Gia doesn't want to sell but she needs the money - apparently so does Garrett, who is in more financial trouble than he's letting on to his new wife. These manuscript pages eventually become the main clue in helping Benny and Abby find out what happened to Gia. 

Rich people behaving badly, Greece, and a load of secrets - this sounds like a perfect beach read. Except, unfortunately, it is not. It's really slow to get moving along.  It takes about half the book to really cook and by then you just want to scream at Gia for being such a trusting dumb bunny. You'd kind of expect Abby to be the moral center to take up the slack, except you'd be wrong. That incident that happened on the island when they were both 18 and a guy ends up dead?  Yeah, let's just Abby doesn't come off looking real good there and I'll leave it at that.

But things do eventually heat up and Lord helped me I got sucked in once it's clear that Gia is missing.  Unfortunately the whole thing is undone by my least favorite plot device in suspense novels and thrillers.

That's right folks, we have a "you as the reader decide" ambiguous ending. 

Like a "romance novel" without a happy ending - these need to be lit on fire and shot into the sun afterward for good measure.

What did our "bad guy" know and when did they know it? Is our "bad guy" Machiavellian or just a delusional narcissist? Did our "bad guy" have intent? 

No idea. Couldn't tell you. It's an ending without being an ending and I hate everyone here thanks for asking.

There's a reason I read genre fiction folks and ambiguous endings ain't it. If it wanted this kind of shit I'd spend a lot more of my leisure time reading general fiction. 

So a book I wasn't madly in love with but was easily a "it's OK, YMMV may vary" ends up sinking like a stone with that ending. Oh well, one more off my catch-up pile I guess?

Final Grade = D

Giving Thanks: Unusual Historicals for November 2024

I'm not sure if it's just the fact of getting older (I have a big milestone birthday hitting next year - yikes!), the general stress of the last several years (2020, if not longer, to now has been a lot for all of us I think!) or that I'm closing out Year 21 (!) of this blog's existence - but I'm feeling maudlin. In honor of Thanksgiving, I want to thank all of you who still visit this most dinosaur of mediums (people still blog?!), take the time to occasionally comment, and just show your support in a multitude of ways. I appreciate all of you and you're a big reason why I haven't just thrown up my hands and let this space collect permanent mothballs. Now, let us give thanks and show our appreciation for some intriguing Unusual Historical titles landing this month:

The Muse of Maiden Lane by Mimi Matthews

Stella Hobhouse is a brilliant rider, stalwart friend, skilled sketch artist—and completely overlooked. Her outmodish gray hair makes her invisible to London society. Combined with her brother’s pious restrictions and her dwindling inheritance, Stella is on the verge of a lifetime marooned in Derbyshire as a spinster. Unless she does something drastic…like posing for a daring new style of portrait by the only man who’s ever really seen her.

Aspiring painter Edward “Teddy” Hayes knows true beauty when he sees it. He would never ask Stella to risk her reputation as an artist’s model but in the five years since a virulent bout of scarlet fever left him partially paralyzed, Teddy has learned to heed good fortune when he finds it. He’ll do anything to persuade his muse to pose for him, even if he must offer her a marriage of convenience.  

After all, though Teddy has yearned to trace Stella’s luminous beauty on canvas since their chance meeting, her heart is what he truly aches to capture….

An overlooked heroine starring down the barrel of spinsterhood decides to pose for the only man, an artist, who has ever truly seen her. What she gets instead is a marriage of convenience. This is the fourth book in the author's Belles of London series.  Miss Bates posted a recent review.

Duchess Material by Emily Sullivan

Phoebe Atkinson is what society might call unconventional. Instead of marrying well like other women born to wealth, she chose to be a schoolteacher. Not to mention she lives in a leaky flat in an unfashionable part of town rather than stay in her parents’ mansion. But when her most promising pupil goes missing she has only one option: beg her sister’s best friend, the powerful Duke of Ellis, for help. 

The last thing William Margrave ever expected was to inherit a dukedom. But now that he has it, he’s determined to act the part perfectly—and that includes marrying the perfect duchess. A bluestocking Bohemian schoolteacher is decidedly not duchess material. But he can’t resist her plea for help regarding her missing student. 

As they fall further into the mystery, William discovers that he never got over his childhood crush on Phoebe, and he doesn’t really want to.

A wealthy, unconventional heroine who lives in a leaky flat and is a schoolteacher (!) has no choice but to go to a powerful Duke (our hero) for help when one of her students goes missing. Our Duke needs to find a suitable wife, not get tangled up with some schoolteacher - but of course, tangled he gets. This sounds positively delightful, and oh look - another review from Miss Bates.

Her Warrior's Redemption by Michelle Willingham

They fought for their lives 

Now they must fight for their love!

Trapped in Constantinople’s brutal fighting pits, Brian of Penrith forms an unbreakable bond with his fellow captive, resilient maiden Velaria. Yet once they escape home to England, Velaria’s highborn status keeps her out of the humble warrior’s reach. 

But their shared struggle in returning to their former lives connects them once more. Though Brian is haunted by past guilt, and Velaria is destined to marry a nobleman, a thrilling attraction ignites! Soon Brian discovers the truth about his past, which gives him hope for redemption and could forever change their fates…

Constantinople! A hero and heroine imprisoned together! And then, of course, despite the bond they share, once back in England society deems him "not good enough" for her. This is the third book in Willingham's Legendary Warriors series and seriously, I just need to binge read them.

The Scandalous Widow by Elizabeth Rolls

She’s determined never to marry again… 

Is he the gentleman to change her mind? 

Left penniless by her late husband and disowned by her family, widow Lady Althea withdrew from polite society, and became infamous for indulging in not-so-secret liaisons with gentlemen of the ton. These days, Althea lives quietly with her beloved dog, Puck, and secretly pens salacious novels instead! 

Then handsome solicitor Hugo Guthrie arrives, with her orphaned nieces in tow, and turns her life upside down. For the girls need a home, and working with Hugo is making every emotion Althea thought she could live without come crashing back to life!

Please, please for the love of all that is holy let this heroine truly be "scandalous." Please, please let it be that she truly has taken a series of lovers, it's not some elaborate ploy and she's really not pure as the driven snow hiding a Big Secret - because hot damn this blurb is 100% pure Wendy catnip.

Mentor to the Marquess by Melissa Kendall

A survivor of spousal abuse, matchmaker Olivia Heather, the Dowager Countess of Allen, devotes her time to preventing the young ladies of society from following in her footsteps—until a series of newspaper articles accuse her of murdering her late husband.

Her plan to use her feminine wiles to convince the man responsible for the attacks to stop is stymied when the man in question, the infuriatingly handsome Thellusson Vaith, Marquess Lowell, requests that she find a love match for his daughter.

Nonetheless determined to make him pay for his misdeeds, Olivia vows to ignore the attraction simmering between them—until she learns that he hasn’t bedded a woman since his wife’s death nearly twenty years prior. Unable to resist the sensitive, guilt-ridden marquess, she takes on a new role: Mentoring him in the ways of pleasure.

But when they discover letters that suggest someone is manipulating Thel’s daughter using the same techniques that Olivia’s husband once used against her, they must delve into Olivia’s wounded past and resolve old family conflicts before the marquess’s daughter is in danger and Olivia is arrested for a crime she did not commit.

This is the second book in the author's Seductive Sleuths series and I'll be honest, the whole "she mentors him in the bedroom" thing just seems like piling on in a blurb that has more than enough plot going for it. But I'm intrigued by the set-up of the heroine trying to help women so they don't fall into the same trap she did so I'll undoubtedly give this one a whirl at some point.

The Countess's Christmas Groom by Fenna Edgewood

A festive house party, a forbidden attraction…

Returning home for the holidays, Lady Katherine Colworth hopes that the cozy glow of Christmas might bring her a reprieve from the painful rumors of her husband’s death. Instead, she finds herself drawn to an unlikely confidant—a handsome, young footman serving in her family’s household.

A man out of place but captivated…

Ashley Spencer has worked his way up from the stables to a temporary post inside the manor, but the glittering holiday gatherings seem worlds away from his life. Until he meets the countess. Beneath the festive garlands and candlelit halls, he discovers a woman he’s bound to protect—even as he’s falling deeply in love with her.

A love that defies all expectations…

Under mistletoe and moonlight, Katherine and Ashley cross the boundaries of class and age, drawn together by a love as fierce as it is unlikely. But with Katherine’s past threatening to shatter their newfound happiness, will the season’s magic be enough to protect their hearts?

A house party and an affair between a Lady and a footman.  These are the kind of holiday romance shenanigans I can totally get behind! This is also the first book in a series.

Knight of Mayhem by Sherry Ewing

As one of Empress Matilda's most trusted knights, Lord Richard Grancourt helps plan his monarch's escape when Oxford Castle is held under siege by King Stephen’s army. When a woman in Stephen’s forces discovers their plan, Richard is tasked with remaining behind and keeping her silent.

Lady Annora de Maris will do anything to save her son, who has been King Stephen's hostage since his men killed her husband and took her home. Though she’s forced to raise her sword against King Stephen's enemies, her loyalties are secretly with the Empress she’s compelled to fight against.

Richard takes Annora captive, but his tactics challenge his beliefs about honor and justice, and his feelings for Annora conflict with his duty.

The fourth book in the author's Knights of Anarchy series features a heroine hiding her true motives and a hero who takes her captive when she discovers his plans. I love that this series is set during The Anarchy and I really need to read Book 1....

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know by Mary Jo Putney (Reprint, novella)

He was going to be hanged on Tuesday

English-born Andrew Kane had enjoyed the adventurous life of a gambler in the Wild West, but after winning a ranch in Colorado, he was ready to settle down. Then his attempt to protect a young tavern girl led to a shoot out and a wrongful conviction for murder.

On his journey to the gallows, he meets despairing young widow Eliza Holden who intervenes when he's being beaten by his guards. Together, they find comfort and a stunning sense of connection. Can Eliza create a Christmas miracle for them both?

Originally published in the 1993 Rakes and Rogues anthology, I believe this might be Putney's only published western?  I love reading westerns and I like reading short so this one is going on the pile.

Christmas Through the Ages by Carla Kelly (Reprint, novellas)

In Christmas Eve Proposal, Christmas gets interesting when naval war hero Ben Muir returns home and takes lodgings in the village teashop with Mandy Mathison. For when her scandalous past is revealed, only he can save her future!

In A Father for Christmas, when Marine Ezra Eldridge manages to escape a hijacked ship, he knows he must complete his dangerous mission. But when he manages to find an empty house, he discovers beguiling widow Lissy and her young son… and they agree the perfect cover is for him to pose as her husband!

And in Christmas Dance with the Rancher, stranded, spirited Katie becomes chore girl on Ned Avery's ranch. When Ned asks her if she would marry a rancher, she laughs it off and teaches him to dance, promising him he will soon find a wife. But she’s unaware it’s her Ned has set his sights upon!

Christmas With a Naval Captain by Carla Kelly (Reprint, novellas)

In The Captain’s Christmas Journey, Captain Everard is escorting Verity to her governess job—and for propriety’s sake that means a convenient engagement!

In Captain Grey’s Christmas Proposal, Captain Grey had been fighting malarial fever in Savannah when he was nursed back to health by the captivating Theodora Winnings. He proposed by letter—but her reply was lost for a decade. The answer was “yes!”—but is she still willing to become his Christmas bride?

And in Christmas Promise, now that peace has broken out, Captain Jeremiah Faulk is at odds over what to do this Christmas, let alone with his life. Until a simple act of charity reunites him with his lost love—the unattainable Ianthe Mears …

Finally these last two anthologies by Carla Kelly feature stories that have all been previously published in multi-author Harlequin Historical anthologies, but it's the first time they've been packaged together. Kelly's Christmas stories are fan favorites and this is a great opportunity to have all of these stories in one place or pick them up if you missed them the first time around.

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to?

Review: Murder In Westminster

2024 has been the year I've desperately been trying to clean out languishing mystery and suspense ARCs from my Kindle. While I'm not going to be totally caught up by the end of the year, I've put a serious dent in that pile and next up on the hit parade is Murder in Westminster by Vanessa Riley.  Riley has also written romances and historical fiction, but this is the first book in her Lady Worthing historical mystery series.

Lady Abigail Worthing is at the theater with her cousin getting ready to enact a bit of subterfuge in order to slip away to a secret abolitionist meeting. The movement has stalled out politically (in large part due to Haitian independence...) and Abigail is hoping to jumpstart the cause by sharing first-hand accounts on the atrocities her husband has seen while traveling.  She slips away from the theater only to get word that 1) the meeting is cancelled and 2) her estranged sister is supposedly on her way to Abigail's home to talk.  Abigail hurries home to meet her sister only to discover the dead body of her insufferable neighbor's estranged wife lying in her back yard.

Stapleton Henderson is the insufferable neighbor who was erecting the fence that his wife, Juliet, was found hanging from. The fence was going up because Abigail's yippy, ill-trained dog wasn't getting on with Henderson's well-trained, much larger greyhounds.  Anyway, Juliet was his estranged wife but was found on Abigail's property, oh and Abigail is a black woman. Needless to say they both have very real concerns that the magistrate is going to try to pin the murder on one of them so they sorta, kinda, team up.  Mainly though this is Abigail's show. With nothing but time on her hands, and her husband off god knows where, she's gotten in the habit of helping the magistrate solve a few cases.

There's a good story here. The world-building is excellent. It was nice to read a diverse account of Regency England during this period and the state of the abolitionist movement at that time.  Unfortunately it all suffers from a preponderance of backstory that's just dropped in and never fully developed.  How bad is it?  Let's put it this way, before I started this book I "knew" it was Book 1 in a series. However after a few chapters I thought, "I must be wrong. Let me look up to see if I picked up Book 2 or 3 by mistake."

Narrator: Wendy did, in fact, pick up Book 1.

Here's some of what is floating around the periphery:

• Abigail has second sight and visions - inherited from her Jamaican mother

• Abigail has helped the magistrate solve multiple crimes in the past. That's pretty much it. It's hinted at that the crimes were "thefts" but if you want more detail you're out of luck.

• Abigail apparently saved her husband from some false accusation? And when he was freed he married her, but then promptly took off to sail the world leaving her alone. What? Huh?

• Right around the time of her marriage, her sister got upset about something or other (What you might ask? No idea. Literally NO IDEA) and took off. Nobody knows where she is except for Abigail's godfather apparently.

• Speaking of, sounds like the godfather was in love with Abigail's mother but instead she married Abigail's father and honestly I have no idea what the point of any of this is given so little of it is actually fully addressed by the end of this book.

Backstory is fine. In fact it's needed with most stories as it helps with character development. The problem is that there's a ton of it just dropped in here and none of it is fleshed out. At all. Presumably it may be fodder for the rest of the series, but all it does here is distract from the main plot.

You know, the dead woman found hanging on a half constructed fence. Remember her?

The world-building is certainly good enough to leave me curious for the next book in the series but I was so frustrated by the lack of care with the backstory I'm not sure if I'll continue on. All in all, this was a bit of a frustrating reading experience for me.

Final Grade = C-

#TBRChallenge 2024: Parting Gifts

The Book: Parting Gifts by Lorraine Heath

The Particulars: Historical romance, Berkley Jove, 1994, Out of print - sort of. Available digital-only, 2010 Harpercollins reprint. Fun fact: this is Heath's second published book.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: When I started reading romance back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, ebooks weren't a thing, and the only way you could find old, out of print romances was by scouring used bookstores or the Internet. This was one of my white whales. Heath's early westerns tended to be recommended a lot in those days and were hard to find, but I somehow got my hands on a used copy and proceeded to keep it in my TBR for probably 20 years because that's just the kind of sick person that I am.

The Review: I have no idea what I thought of this story. The plot is straight-up early 1990s WTF-ery but damn if the execution doesn't mostly work even as I was cringing in parts. A lot of readers I know love this book and I'm not saying they're wrong - but it is rather eyebrow raising in parts.  Expect some spoilers folks. 

Maddie Sherwood has hit the end of the line. Her father and brother dead, she has traded or sold everything she has of value (meager as it was) and the only thing left is her body. Hungry, cold, and desperate, she goes into a well-known brothel and the madam quickly starts the bidding for who will get to deflower the virgin. Almost immediately a bid of $1000 is entered and that seals the deal. The winner is Charles Lawson and impotent from an accident, he doesn't want to bed Maddie, he wants to marry her. His wife, the love of his life died in childbirth. Charles himself has a terminal illness and three young children, who he doesn't want to grow up without a mother. Does he tell Maddie this? Well partly. He leaves out the part about him dying (our first Big Secret). With no other options, other than the brothel, Maddie says yes to Charles. They quickly marry and make the trip from Fort Worth to Waco.

Charles owns a stagecoach stop / inn, which is where he, his three children and his older brother Jesse live.  Jesse is a former Texas Ranger and is gobsmacked when Charles comes home married to a stranger. He's even more put out that he's attracted to her himself even though his lawman instincts tell him something is rotten in Denmark. The attraction is mutual, with both Jesse and Maddie rubbing each other the wrong way, until over time feelings grow as Charles' time on this Earth slowly ebbs away.

So hey, like I did, you're probably thinking that Charles dies within the first 50 pages and the rest of the 200+ pages are spent on building the love story between Jesse and Maddie. Narrator: Well, you would be dead wrong. Folks Charles LIVES for the majority of this book. It's only in the last few chapters when he finally pushes up daisies - so readers are regaled with Jesse and Maddie falling in love while she's married. MARRIED TO THE HERO'S BROTHER!

The author tap dances around this by having Charles still being desperately in love with his dead wife. Also, he's impotent so can't bone the heroine, but they do spoon and sleep in the same bed. Charles is also not a terrible person. He's desperately, hopelessly nice. He was honestly my favorite part of the story until he slips into Gary Stu Martyrdom territory in the final chapters. The friendship between Maddie and Charles is really well developed and frankly not the sort of thing we see a lot in romance.

Hot mess original cover

But that's not the romance. Jesse, Charles and a long-lost sister have very interesting backstory that involves them being separated as children, split up after their parents die. This, along with Jesse's time in the Army (he fought for the Union during the Civil War) have made him the man he is - a very black and white, suspicious character who protects those he loves. Naturally he doesn't trust Maddie a lick, which ends up being a smart move since about 30% in a bomb goes off and we find out Maddie has a Big Secret. Literally it's just dropped in. No foreshadowing, no nothing. Anyway, she's tight-lipped about it and says her past "won't hurt the children" and you know she's lying through her teeth.

Kisses happen as do declarations of feelings ALL WHILE CHARLES IS STILL ALIVE mind you, but consummation doesn't happen until the final chapter. Which honestly, even with good chemistry between the couple I largely skimmed.

Y'all, it's skeevy in that special way 1990s romances could be skeevy. So why do so many readers gush and love this story?  Even with all the skeevyness, Heath executes her story well. The characters are well-developed, interesting, and while I felt that Maddie's Big Secret could have been foreshadowed better in the early chapters, it's compelling. I had to keep reading.  Also, damn my black soul, I cried. When Charles nears the end I got choked up and leaked out tears. Hey, maybe I'm not completely dead inside after all?

So where does that leave us? Lord, I have no clue. It's interesting, it made me cry, but dude - she's married while she and her brother-in-law are both getting mutual pants-feelings for each other. Look, Charles is dying, he's in love with his dead wife, he's not blind, he's not even upset about it - but it's still skeevy. I said what I said.

But I cried. Over a book. And frankly that usually only happens once or twice every year.  This is definitely a Wendy review one should read and not just skip to the final grade, because Lord even knows what I'm doing anymore.

Final Grade = B-

Note: At the time of this posting, this book was available via Kindle Unlimited.

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is November 20!

We're down to the last two months of 2024 (!) and our next #TBRChallenge Day is Wednesday, November 20.  This month's optional theme is It Came From the 1990s!

Bless whoever suggested this one in last year's Theme Poll because I have been looking forward to it ever since I placed it on the calendar. It's a twist on the former "Old School" theme I ran with for a while, focusing on books that made their initial bow during the 1990s. 

However, remember that the themes are totally optional. Maybe you've already burned through the older backlist in TBR (if so, I'm jealous!). Maybe you've been eyeing a book that was just published a year ago. That's OK! Remember the goal of the challenge is to read something, anything, that's been languishing in your pile.

A reminder that the poll for theme suggestions for the 2025 (!) TBR Challenge is now open, and will remain so until the end of this month.  If you have some ideas, no matter how wacky you may think they are, please consider filling out the poll.

It is certainly not too late to join the Challenge (to be honest it's never too late).  You can get more details and get links to the current list of participants on the #TBRChallenge 2024 Information Page. 

Review: His Unexpected Grandchild

I'm not gonna lie, the initial reason I picked up His Unexpected Grandchild by Myra Johnson is because of the word "grandchild."  Even if the couple in this romance were on the young side, chances were more than favorable they were going to be in their 40s (I can't recall if the author actually comes out and says it, but I got the impression they were pushing 50).  Also, I was intrigued by the plot description.

Lane Bromley used to be a hot-shot, up-and-coming lawyer, but after his wife dies he takes their infant daughter, Shannon, and moves into the mountains of Montana to live off the grid. Shannon left home the minute she could and communication with her father has largely been non-existent until she shows up one day with her toddler son, Tate, in tow. She was married and her husband, Steven, died in a motorcycle accident right before Tate was born. Shannon is struggling to the point that she voluntarily commits herself (it's not clearly spelled out, but basically severe depression) leaving Lane to take care of his grandson.

The story opens with Lane dropping by to see one of the local veterinarian's in Missoula, Dr. Julia Frasier. Lane recognizes he's a bit out of his depth, plus having no way to know when Shannon will be "better," he feels it's time to talk to Steven's mother.  One small fly in the ointment, Julia is still grieving and had NO CLUE her son had gotten married, let alone that she had a grandchild.

There are over 2 million children in the United States being raised by grandparents and yet it's something we rarely see addressed in romance novels (probably because we'd then have to read about "old people"). To add more realism to the conflict, Julia is firmly a member of a sandwich generation. She's struggling to keep the family veterinarian practice afloat while her father's health continues to deteriorate and her office manager mother needs to pull back on her work hours. Now she's got a grandson she didn't know existed which just heaps on more stress when she's barely hanging on by her fingernails.

Unfortunately the great conflict is lost in a very flat romance. This is an inspirational romance featuring Eunuch Christians. Lane and Julia immediately start butting heads over what's best for Tate, Lane being able to offer some stability and a work schedule not running him into the ground, and Julia having concerns about how isolated Lane's home is, the man doesn't even have reliable phone service! Somehow when they're not bickering about this (yes, it's understandable bickering) they supposedly catch feelings and fall in love. How? Good question. I have no idea. I can't stress this enough people, just because a story is just-kisses there can and should be tension and chemistry between the romantic couple. There's none of that here.

Since this is an inspirational romance, I want to mention The God Stuff. On my scale of 1 to 10 (1 being squint and it might be there to 10 the author is trying to convert the reader) this is around an 8. Both Lane and Julia have lost their faith but at the drop of a hat they pick it up again leaning in on the whole "God has a plan" thing and prayer. This felt especially jarring with Lane who quite literally moved off the grid after his wife's sudden and tragic death - all of the sudden his mentally ill daughter shows up with a toddler and that has him rushing right back to faith?  Sorry, not buying.

Mix in one rescue dog and Tate who speaks in Romancelandia Plot Moppet and the dynamite conflict just wasn't enough to carry the story as a whole for me. A+ conflict meets a very blah romance.

Final Grade = C-