Review: Deception By Gaslight

Nothing will strike fear in the heart of a romance reader faster than these two words:

Girl. Reporter.

It is a scientific fact that if you wander over into the Too Stupid To Live borough of Romancelandia, 60% of those heroines are girl reporters. 

So it's a wonder that I impulsively downloaded Deception by Gaslight by Kate Belli many moons ago thanks to a Netgalley promo email (yes, another one). Even more shocking? I borderline loved this.

Genevieve Stewart is an heiress, her family members of the Astor 400.  However, firmly on the shelf, she has been making her way in New York City as a reporter for the Globe newspaper. While part of the monied and privileged set, the Stewart family is rather eccentric and it was that eccentricity that led to Genevieve's broken engagement some years before. That lesson learned, she's a talented reporter, but being a woman, has been shoe-horned into insipid assignments.  To break free? She's determined to track down the "Robin Hood of the Lower East Side" - a thief who has been stealing baubles from the wealthy, then sending letters to the Globe full of screeds against wealth and avarice.

While snooping around Five Points (I know, stay with me here...) she overhears some men talking about Robin Hood. Naturally she follows them and naturally she gets into a spot of trouble - but not before seeing a dead body lying in the alley and one of the men, whom she takes to calling Mr. Pineapple Waistcoat, saves her bacon.

So naturally it's a teensy bit of a shock when, while attending a society ball, she sees none other than Mr. Pineapple Waistcoat, who turns out to be Daniel McCaffrey, heir to the vast Van Joost fortune.  Daniel is impossibly handsome, and certainly his fortune makes him attractive to matchmaking mamas, but nobody knows his story. He spent his youth and most of his adult life over in England and from what people can piece together, he was not blood-related to Old Man Van Joost. No doubt about it, there's a story there and given that Genevieve met him in Five Points? She's convinced he's Robin Hood.

Daniel has little use for reporters and frankly dislikes the breed given how they hounded him after he inherited, but of course he's intrigued by Genevieve. "For reasons," he doesn't want her snooping around his life and she's like a dog with a bone on this Robin Hood thing. So he tries to throw her off by dangling another juicy morsel in front of her - that of a newly formed city housing commission looking into living conditions in the city's tenement buildings.

The author basically has three mysteries going at once in this book: 1) Daniel's past 2) Robin Hood and 3) political corruption.  And once Genevieve starts sticking her nose into things, it doesn't take long for the bodies to start dropping and the danger to ramp up. In order to get to the bottom of things her and Daniel need to team up, which is a neat trick since he's not entirely convinced he can trust her with his various secrets.

Not gonna lie, the various mystery angles here did make for a disjointed read at times but Genevieve and Daniel make such a great team and have enough sexual tension to make this one sizzle. Firmly marketed as historical mystery, truly I cannot recommend this one enough to historical romance fans, albeit the Daniel / Genevieve romance is obviously going to carry over for the next three books in the series. 

The historical detail and world-building is pitch perfect, the author hitting all the high and low points of Gilded Age New York City excess and poverty. Plus all the secondary characters add something to the story, my favorites being Daniel's best friend, an impoverished British earl, and his new money society heiress fiancée, who is desperate to escape from under her mother's social climbing thumb.

The various mysteries get tied up at the end (we find out about Daniel's past, Robin Hood is unmasked, the political corruption plot is brought to light) but readers should be warned this one does end on a cliffhanger.  The purpose of the cliffhanger is to lead the reader by the nose directly into starting Book 2, which definitely worked on me since I downloaded it and plan on starting it next.  

Final Grade = B+

Review: The Highlander's Substitute Wife

Depending on what I think I'm in the mood to read, odds are more than favorable I'm going to find something that fits the bill in my TBR. I figured I was past due for another historical read, so I went diving into my obscene stash of Harlequin Historicals and just randomly picked a title.  My blind pick worked out fairly well, given that Terri Brisbin tends to be reliable and The Highlander's Substitute Wife is the first book in a multi-author trilogy.  This was a very solid read until it ran off the rails for me during the third act break-up.

After a surprise raid by the Campbell clan, Ross MacMillan is the new chieftain of the MacMillan clan after his childless uncle dies in battle. Besides his uncle's death, the costs were high and Ross knows the Campbells will be back. There's nothing for it, he and his two siblings need to marry (and fast!) to secure the necessary alliances to rebuild and protect their clan. Ross doesn't entirely trust the man but he goes to Iain MacDonnell and strikes an agreement to marry his eldest daughter.

Ross though, well he's a busy man rebuilding and reinforcing their holdings for the next, could happen at any moment, invasion.  So he sends a man in his place to wed Lilidh by proxy. One small fly in the ointment, it's not Lilidh hiding behind the veil, it's her younger sister Ilysa, the one with a whispered about deformity (a malformed arm) who has spent the last several years banished to a nunnery. 

Ilysa admits to the duplicity to Ross's man just as they're crossing into MacMillan territory, so this doesn't drag out for too long. Ross is decidedly not happy - mainly because he doesn't know what Ilysa's father is driving at by having him marry the other daughter.  But the fact remains he needs a MacDonnell bride and thus far her father seems to be keeping his promises with gold, supplies and fighting men.  It's just Ross is now waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Ilysa loved the nunnery if only for the fact that she was away from her vile father and equally duplicitous sister. Why is Ilysa in a nunnery? Because of her sister. How does she end up married to Ross and not her sister?  You guessed it, her sister. Ilysa whose self-worth is nothing, blossoms with the MacMillan clan and naturally what we want to happen in a romance novel, happens.  These two fall in love.

A heroine with quiet strength but a mountain of insecurities and a smitten hero who helps to rebuild her confidence. So what's the problem? Nothing, until the third act break-up when our, up until that point, sensitive, understanding and competent hero turns stupid, believes lies when, quite frankly, he should know better and hangs our heroine out to dry. I just couldn't with this stupidity, especially when up to that point the hero doesn't display any of these tendencies to be, well, stupid. Picture me making a disgusted huffing noise when I got to this point in the book.

Of course the hero eventually realizes his error and is suitably contrite, but honestly I wanted him to have to crawl naked over over hot coals to earn the heroine's forgiveness, although honestly I'm not sure even that would have been enough for me.  The romance ends happily, although the overarching conflict of the villainous Campbell clan sticks around as fodder for the next two books in the trilogy.

So what are we left with? A really solid medieval romance until the third act break-up comes along to ruin everything. Could be I'm softening in my old age, but honestly this feels better than a C read to me, even with my problems with the last third of the story.  Brisbin has proven herself more than capable of writing good stories to this reader, albeit the execution of this one didn't entirely work for me.

Final Grade = B-

Full Bloom: Unusual Historicals for May 2025

Y'all I felt like January was three months long and ever since the year seems to be zipping by. My unheard of, super rare, two planned vacations this year are coming up fast (July and September) and I'm starring down the barrel of end of fiscal year deadlines at work. Also, after a rough slump in late April / early May, I'm hoping to stay inspired and get some reading done through the summer months.  Just in time for that? A really interesting crop of Unusual Historicals landing in May, some of which are already in my TBR.

Copper Script by KJ Charles

Detective Sergeant Aaron Fowler of the Metropolitan Police doesn’t count himself a gullible man. When he encounters a graphologist who deduces people’s lives and personalities from their handwriting with impossible accuracy, he needs to find out how the trick is done. Even if that involves spending more time with the intriguing, flirtatious Joel Wildsmith than feels quite safe.

Joel’s not an admirer of the police, but DS Fowler has the most irresistible handwriting he’s ever seen. If the policeman’s tests let him spend time unnerving the handsome copper, why not play along?

But when Joel looks at a powerful man's handwriting and sees a murderer, the policeman and the graphologist are plunged into deadly danger. Their enemy will protect himself at any cost--unless the sparring pair can come together to prove his guilt and save each other.

A new KJ Charles is always cause for celebration, and this stand-alone romantic suspense is set in 1924 London. Also color me intrigued by the pairing of a police detective and a handwriting expert!

A Showgirl's Rules for Falling in Love by Alice Murphy

It’s 1897, and a new fashion for thin threatens to end the career of proudly fat vaudeville performer Evelyn Cross. Enter Thomas Gallier, the man behind the new palace of entertainment promising to be the apex of New York City’s theatrical scene. He’s in search of a star for his vaudeville spectacular, and when he hears Evelyn sing, he knows exactly who he needs to grace his stage.

 In a grand finale, present-day narrator Phoebe steps in to reveal secrets and show readers what it really means to claim self-love. Inspired by the true story of a Progressive Era troop of plus-size dancers, this is a story about the spirit of community and the power of romance.

A late-Victorian set against the New York City vaudeville scene that features a present-day narrator as a framing device. I'm not sure how this is gonna work, but I'm intrigued by the premise enough to already have this book locked and loaded on my Kindle. This one is what I call a "pseudo-debut" the author being a "pseudonym of a bestselling author."

Seduced by a Scoundrel by Alyxandra Harvey

Sometimes all you need is a nefarious plot.

And a handsome marquess.

Sybil Taunton has no interest in resting after her last mission, never mind that it left her chained in a cellar. Rest is boring. And when someone begins targeting members of the Spinster Society, Sybil is ready to storm London’s most exclusive gentlemen’s club, steal the infamous betting book, and force her grumpy, oh-so-proper neighbor into helping her.

Keir Montgomery, Marquess Blackburn, prefers order, quiet, and a scandal-free life. Sybil is none of those things. But when her latest scheme pulls them both into the sights of a rival society, he’ll do anything to protect her… including breaking every rule he holds dear.

::Kermit flail:: The third book in Harvey's The Spinster Society series about a secret society of women who protect other women from unscrupulous and dastardly men. Sybil was the "agent" who went missing in the first book in the series, so it's only natural she would eventually turn up as a heroine in her own story.  In order to protect The Spinsters she needs to team up with her neighbor, who I can guarantee is not prepared for the likes of Sybil....

Manic Pixie Dream Earl by Jenny Holiday

When not writing, poet Edward Astley, Viscount Featherfinch, spends his time fending off the young ladies of the ton—and some of its young men—and avoiding his cruel father. As heir to the earldom, Edward knows he must marry someday. Alas, he is already hopelessly in love with someone. Hopeless because not only is Miss Julianna Evans not a member of the aristocracy, she is employed. She is a magazine editor—the only one to publish his work. Also, in all their years of increasingly personal correspondence, they’ve never met.

 

Also, she thinks he’s a woman. Named Euphemia.

 

Julianna is baffled. How can her soul mate not want to meet? Could it be that Euphemia is not the simple country girl she claims to be? Perhaps she’s wealthy. After all, she’s never cashed any of the bank drafts Julianna has sent. Perhaps Euphemia simply doesn’t want rank to come between them. Well, no more. Having extracted the details of a trip Euphemia is planning, Julianna squanders her meager savings and surprises her at the scene.

 

He is very, very surprised. As is she.

 

Now the two will have to decide what is true, what is not, and whether the truest thing of all—love—just might be worth an earldom . . .

He's an heir and secret poet, in love with a wholly unsuitable woman.  The woman in question is his magazine editor, feels as if they are soul mates and slight wrinkle here - thinks he's a woman.  I mean, what could possibly go wrong?  This is the second book in Holiday's Earls Trip series.

Doxy of the Ton by Emily Royal

Mimi La Fleur has survived heartbreak and destitution. The girl she once was is long gone and she never wants to be owned by a man again. She uses her body to earn a living, but her heart, and her pleasure, are not for sale. When she saves the life of a drunken duke, she’s reminded of a world long forgotten. He makes her an offer she can’t refuse—enough money to set her free, provided she agrees to be his mistress for six months.

Alexander Ffortescue, fifth Duke of Sawbridge, is notorious among the ton for indulging in all the vices London has to offer, but after he causes the death of his best friend in an accident, he’s disowned by all. When he’s set upon by brigands outside a tavern, he finds an unlikely saviour in a doxy, whose warm embrace and soft body give him much-needed comfort.

But Mimi is no ordinary doxy. Beneath the façade is a caring, compassionate woman who sees through Alexander’s rakish exterior to the lost soul within.

OMG SHE'S A DOXY!!!!!!!  He's a Duke on the outs with society after a tragic accident, it's the seventh book in the Misfits of the Ton series blah, blah, blah. THIS IS NOT A DRILL, SHE'S A DOXY!!!!!  I broke a nail one-clicking this.

The Lady Makes Her Mark by Susanna Craig

Known only as “Miss C.” Constantia Cooper creates satirical cartoons for Mrs. Goode’s. But her anonymity hides a more shocking secret—one that requires she remain elusive. When a scandal at the magazine threatens to expose her, Constantia packs up and flees. But in her haste, she is struck by a carriage and suffers a blow to the head. Fortunately, she’s rescued by a gentleman. Unfortunately, he is all too familiar. Feigning amnesia seems Constantia’s best strategy . . .

 

Alistair Haythorne, Earl of Ryland, would never turn away a lady in distress—even if he’s often the target of said lady’s biting satire. In fact, while “Miss C.” recuperates, he will have her teach his sisters to draw. Perhaps it will inspire a more flattering portrait of him . . .

 

But secrets make interesting bedfellows and as Constantia and Alistair grow closer, their opinions of one another change—drastically. With love in the air, two things stand between them: Alistair’s need to marry an heiress to keep his family’s estate intact . . . and a series of threats that endanger Constantia’s life. Can what keeps them apart ultimately bring them together?

She's a cartoonist who fakes amnesia when she comes face to face with her favorite subject, the hero. While he's not a fan of her satire, he sees the opportunity to have her teach his sisters to draw while she recuperates from her accident. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? This is the, presumably, final book in the Goode's Guide to Misconduct series / trilogy.

The Chef and the Countess by Karyn Gerrard

Liam Hallahan, illegitimate son of a disreputable duke, carries hidden scars from a childhood living on the streets. Through sheer determination, he acquired an education, took the gaming hall he’d inherited and successfully turned it into a respectable restaurant. Liam isn’t usually surprised by life’s twists and turns…until a widowed Countess is unceremoniously dumped on his doorstep.

Men have ruled Celia Gillingham’s life for as long as she could remember. Orphaned at a young age, her uncle negotiated a marriage for her with an old earl. After her husband’s death, Celia, now alone and penniless, goes back to her uncle’s home, only to find herself dropped off at an East End business by her viscount cousin. He tells Liam that Celia will work off his gaming debt. Instead, Celia asks Liam for a job. And Liam reluctantly agrees, putting the countess to work in his kitchen.

The unlikely pair soon discover a growing respect and a simmering passion—not only for cooking, but each other. Only Celia’s loathsome uncle and cousin haven’t forgotten about her.

An illegitimate son of a Duke inherits a gaming hell and decides to turn it into a restaurant. I mean, a hero who inherits a gaming hell and doesn't make his living off enflaming gambling addictions? WHAT MAGIC IS THIS?!?!?  She's a discarded widow dumped off to pay an odious cousin's gambling debts. This is the second book in The Duke's Bastards series.

The Lady Needs a Rogue by Tara Kingston

She’s happily on the shelf . . .

Heiress MARY CATHERINE MASON has no need of a husband. Shipped off to London to hunt a title—and the pasty lord who would unfortunately come with it—the talented photographer has dodged every suitor her tycoon father has thrown at her. A minor scandal here, a costume malfunction there—Macie has outsmarted the heiress-hunters at every turn. But she doesn’t count on being saddled with a bodyguard, much less a rogue like her brother’s friend, Finn Caldwell. Years earlier, the young rake had been the bane of Macie’s girlish existence. Now, Finn is a man. Taller. More handsome. And even more infuriating. Striking a bargain with her tempting protector, Macie enlists Finn in a romantic charade—surely a besotted bodyguard would deter the stuffy nobles hungry for a taste of her father’s fortune. But when a mysterious threat forces them together, Macie realizes Finn might just be the rogue her secretly tender heart craves.

Her rogue and protector . . .

FINN CALDWELL had one job—seal a crucial business deal with an old friend. But now, the bargain rides on Finn’s ability to keep his friend's sister out of trouble, a feat easier said than done. Macie attracts wolves in gentleman’s clothing and stumbles upon danger while toting her camera through the city. Macie’s unlike any woman he’s ever known—as clever and independent as she is beautiful, she challenges and intrigues him like no other. He wants her in his arms. In his bed. In his heart. But Macie is off-limits—especially to a rogue like him. Until she’s caught up in a perilous mystery, and Finn must put everything on the line to protect her.

Can he prove he’s the man she wants . . . the man she needs? Not for one night, but for the rest of their lives.

This is the second book in the Rogue of Her Own series and features a late Victorian heiress heroine who has no desire to marry and just wants to be left alone to pursue her photography.  She didn't plan on getting stuck with a bodyguard, especially when it's her brother's friend tasked to keep her out of trouble.

Miss Tiffany Has a Secret by Bronwen Evans (Reprint, Updated)

Miss Tiffany Deveraux is more than just a bluestocking, she’s a financial genius hiding behind the plain façade of an orphaned ward. Society sees a penniless, unremarkable girl under the Earl of Marlowe’s care, and Tiffany intends to keep it that way. Her quiet fortune, earned through sharp wit and savvy investments, is a secret she’ll protect at all costs. Because the only way to know if a man truly loves her… is if he believes she has nothing to offer but her heart.

Slade Ware, Marquess of Wolfarth, has the Midas touch, or so the ton believes. Lauded as a brilliant investor, his success is largely luck, and that luck may have just run out. When he learns of Tiffany’s hidden talents and growing wealth, a marriage of convenience seems the ideal solution. She gains protection. He gains stability. Simple. Logical. Unemotional.

But emotions have never followed logic.

As friendship deepens and hidden wounds come to light, what begins as a calculated match risks turning into something neither of them anticipated. Because what Tiffany truly wants isn’t his title or protection, it’s his heart. And that’s the one thing Wolfarth swore he’d never give again.

The first book in The Season of Secrets series is an updated reprint of A Lady Never Surrenders, and this edition also includes the prequel novella, Miss Serena Wakes Up which was previously published as A Lady Never Concedes. Confused yet? Anyway, she's a financial wizard hiding her talents to protect her heart from dishonest men and he's a Marquess whose luck in the financial markets has finally run out. He discovers her secret and a marriage of convenience is born.

A Rogue in Firelight by Susan King (Reissue, Updated)

Ronan MacGregor, laird of Glenbrae, lawyer, distiller, and sometime smuggler, cools his heels in Edinburgh’s dungeon as the city prepares for King George IV’s visit. But when the king asks to meet the distiller of his favorite Highland whisky, Ronan is released into the custody of the deputy lord provost. The Gaelic-speaking Highland rogue must be tidied up for the royal occasion—but he is not what he appears to be.

Ellison Graham, the deputy provost’s widowed, reclusive daughter, agrees to transform the rugged Highlander into a gentleman before the king arrives. Sequestered in the Highlands with MacGregor, she discovers he is highly educated, needs no lessons, refuses a royal audience—and has quickly stolen her heart.

Temporarily free, Ronan strives to help his friends and save his whisky business, never expecting to fall in love with beautiful Ellison, a secret novelist longing for passion and excitement. When a bitter rivalry threatens them, Ellison must face her fears while Ronan must choose between his freedom and his heart.

He's a lawyer, whisky distiller and smuggler rotting in a cell until he's sprung because of King George IV's impending visit. She's a heroine who thinks she's in a Pygmalion trope, but turns out our hero does not need a makeover, and he also has no desire to meet the King.  This is an updated reprint of Laird of Rogues, which is the third book in an out of print trilogy, the first two books featuring fantasy elements (fairies, legends, blah blah blah). However, this updated reissue is now listed as Book 1 in The Whisky Rogues series and nothing in this blurb screams fantasy elements to me. All this to say, I have no idea but it's already downloaded on my Kindle.

Another month with a bonanza crop of Unusual Historicals to be intrigued by and investigate. What are you looking forward to adding to your TBR?

#TBRChallenge: Silver Belles

 The Book: Silver Belles by Sarah M. Anderson, Ros Clarke, Laura K. Curtis, Yasmine Galenorn and Suleikha Snyder

The Particulars: Contemporary romance anthology, 2016, Self-published, Out of print, two stories (linked below in review) available separately in digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Disclaimer that I know Sarah M. Anderson and Laura K. Curtis. Anderson and I presented a workshop together at an RWA conference a million years ago and Curtis and I have hung out together at various events. I suspect Anderson might have sent me a copy of this book once upon a time.

The Review: I had a completely different book picked out for this month's Challenge but when I went looking for it, I couldn't find it. What I did find was this holiday anthology that I had totally forgotten I owned, it fit the theme perfectly, with characters all over the age of 40, and I'm nothing if not an opportunist.

The Christmas Pony by Sarah M. Anderson gets things off to a good start thanks to a very funny meet-cute of an opening. Alice is a divorced teacher with a grown daughter who acts like she's decrepit even thought she's only 50 ("Mom I worry about you all alone..."). She likes her life in her Midwest town and she's friendly with her neighbors. Maybe too friendly since one of them shows up and leaves a pony (yes, a pony) on her doorstep. One of his daughters is her student and while his wife and daughters are citizens, she thinks he may be undocumented. Which she suspects is why he's leaving a pony on her doorstep about one step ahead of the local law.

Kirk Douglas (yes, really - it's joke fodder in the story) lands on Alice's doorstep after getting an anonymous call that someone is keeping a farm animal within city limits. The fact that it's Alice, this attractive, single, straight-arrow school teacher doesn't fit. There's obviously more to the story, and he's more than happy to investigate, as well as ask Alice on a date to an ugly sweater party.

This was a charming story with a fun rom-com style vibe and a very light mystery about the pony (Where did it come from? How did Alice's neighbor come to have it?).  Although not gonna lie - the undocumented neighbor plot element really hits differently in 2024 given current events.  Frankly the happy ending feels positively quaint.

Grade = B

Midnight Clear by Ros Clarke is essentially an inspirational (no sex, but the characters aren't dead below the waist) given the importance faith plays in the story. Allison is a single mom to two teenage boys, having left her unfaithful ex-husband back in South Africa, she's now in rainy, cold England for her first Christmas post-divorce when her dreary mood is interrupted by an rambunctious Irish setter at the local park.

The dog's owner is local vicar Peter. The two soon strike up a friendship and Allison is feeling tingly for the first time since her husband ran over her ego and self-worth. The fly in the ointment? Allison's faith is badly shaken....did I mention her philandering husband was also a vicar? Who cheated on Allison with members of his own congregation?  Yeah, great guy that one.

The presence of this story, with it's strong inspirational themes, is an interesting inclusion in this anthology. The short word count isn't enough to convince me that Allison is really moving on from the betrayal of her ex, but it's a quiet story that packs a punch. It petered out a bit at the end, but still - very interesting.

Grade = B

Sparks by Laura K. Curtis finds Kate Bellows returned home to her small upstate New York town to pull a local moving company back from the brink. The business is losing money and it's her job to right the ship. She starts by interviewing staff, including Adam Miller, the IT guy on staff and local volunteer firefighter. He's also very attractive, but given that she's now his boss - well that's a complication.  It gets even more complicated when her house catches on fire and Adam offers her a temporary place to stay.

I fell right into the first two stories but this one took a couple of chapters for me to find my sea legs. However once Kate's house catches on fire I was settled in.  This is a closed door romance and its strength lies in the details. I have a passing familiarity with upstate New York and Curtis does a fantastic job with the setting. I knew this town and could immediately picture it in my mind. I also loved the inclusion of a volunteer fire department. A good, solid romance with some added workplace complications to juice up the conflict.

Grade = B

The Longest Night by Yasmine Galenorn features the Winter Solstice and a practicing pagan heroine. Merilee Johansson has just gotten out of a bad marriage - her husband changed, she didn't. Things turned emotionally abusive until one day Merilee decided it was time to walk away.  She's relocated to a small artist community in Washington hoping to pick up her paints again - just as soon as she finds her muse. What she didn't expect to find was Chris Hunter, the handsome tech geek who comes to her new home to install her Internet. 

Not much happens in this story as it's mainly internal conflict.  Merilee and Chris like each other, go on dates, the end. Galenorn doesn't try to do too much with a short word count and it's well executed. Mileage will vary on this one. I zipped through it at a fast clip but it felt a little hippy-dippy new age-y for my tastes and anytime "fate" is mentioned in a romance novel my eyes tend to roll back in my head.

Grade = C

A Taste of Blessings by Suleikha Snyder features a lower angst forbidden romance against the backdrop of the Bengali Hindu celebration of Durga Puja. A book editor based out of Chicago, Tiya Chatterjee is coming home to Ohio for Durga Puja. A breath away from 40, single, and with no prospects on the horizon, Tiya is bracing herself for well-intentioned matchmaking, nosy aunties and her mother's disapproval over just about everything in life. She's also bracing herself to see Arnav Biswas, divorced father of two, sexy as sin, and her unrequited crush.  He's single, she's single, sparks start flying right away, so what's the problem?  He's divorced, she's never been married, and well that just won't fly with most of the folks in their community, including her parents.  Given the importance of community and family to both of them, this isn't something to take lightly, even if they want to tear each others' clothes off.

Another story that took me a moment to settle in, mainly because there are a number of secondary characters. But once I figured out who was who it was off to the races.  The fun is in the flirtation between Tiya and Arnav and the sly humor that Snyder infuses into the story.  The forbidden romance trope is not a favorite of mine, but in a novella where the angst is tempered by humor and banter?  It really worked for me.

Grade = B

This was a really strong anthology and a nice way to pass the time. I've been in a slump, put off my TBR Challenge read to the last minute, but had no trouble getting through all of these stories in two sittings. It's a shame that the anthology is no longer for sale and that three of the stories are currently unavailable.  Here's hoping the authors can make them available again down the road.

Review: The Request

I've since learned my lesson, but there was a stretch around 2020 where I got sucked in by Netgalley promo emails and as I've been slowly working through that backlog I have been nothing if not burned by my impulse. The latest in the slog parade is The Request by David Bell, a domestic suspense novel where the theme is "with friends like these, who needs enemies?"

Ryan Francis has the perfect life. A wife and young son at home. A thriving career in marketing, and he's part owner of a local bar / pub. Then one night, leaving the pub after checking on operations, out from the darkness steps his old college friend, Blake. There was a falling out several months back, when Blake demanded to hold the baby and bonked the child's head against a lamp - at which point Ryan's wife, Amanda, put her foot down. It was the last straw - given Blake's general rich boy attitude and his propensity to drink entirely too much.  But Blake is now sober and he's finally, after a long stretch of on-again-off-again, is getting married to his long-suffering lady love, Sam. He just needs to ask Ryan one small favor...

During one of his "off" periods with Sam, Blake was seeing a woman named Jennifer, who he met through happenstance because she was an almost-client of Ryan's marketing firm. In fact, Jennifer tried to start a flirtation with Ryan through Facebook Messenger, which he nipped in the bud. Blake was so comfortable around Jennifer, and deep in his cups, wrote letters to her unburdening his soul and spilling secrets. Now that he's set to marry Sam, he wants those letters back - and Jennifer is refusing to cough them up.  He asks Ryan to break into her house (he has the alarm code) to get them back. Ryan, naturally, balks at the idea, but Blake twists his arm using the time honored tradition of blackmail.

What is Blake blackmailing Ryan with? When they were in college they were members of a "social club" (a fraternity, it's a fraternity) and in a night of drunken hazing they, and a pledge, get in a car accident that kills a girl and seriously disables another. Ryan was driving and basically black-out drunk - so Blake took Ryan out of the driver's seat and put the pledge, Aaron, behind the wheel. Aaron goes to jail and eaten up by the guilt, Ryan starts leaving anonymous donations in the mailbox of the family with a now disabled daughter. Blake tells Jennifer the truth about that accident in those letters and if the truth comes out? Ryan's perfect life will go up in flames.

So, Ryan goes to Jennifer's house - and what do you think he finds?  Not the letters, but Jennifer, dead on her bedroom floor. And then, while standing over Jennifer's body, his phone pings. It's a Facebook friend request...from Jennifer.

What we have here is a story where you can't root for anybody. Ryan who wants everybody to think he's "a good person" but isn't and Blake who is your prototypical silver spoon frat boy whose fortunes have now changed so he's going to use whomever he can (Ryan, his fiancée) to claw his way into the life he thinks he deserves. The villain in this story is actually the "hero" and our villains are those wronged by these two assholes. 

Compounding all this is that the writing is cliched and lumpy (a house being locked up "like Fort Knox" and don't get me started on the final line in the book that mentions opposable thumbs being good for many things, like deleting social media apps) and one of the "villains" who monologues for chapters (they're short chapters, but still). We also get some ham-fisted commentary on social media being bad. I should have DNF'ed this fairly early but, of course, I didn't. Why? Because I wanted to find out who killed Jennifer and of course once I found that out I just got more annoyed.  

It's a story about man babies who won't take responsibility for their actions and the wreckage they leave in their wake. Seriously boys, man up.

Final Grade = D-

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is May 21!

If you're wondering why this blog has been a dead zone lately, well it's a combination of work being an absolute goat rodeo and me being mired in a terrible reading slump. But like the sun rising in the east, the TBR Challenge waits for no hostess to get her act together. Our next #TBRChallenge day is set for Wednesday, May 21 and our theme is Older Couple.

This suggestion came out of my annual theme poll, and is all about characters who are past the first blush of youth. Characters on the other side of 40, who may or may not (depending on circumstances) seem somewhat "settled." Hey, romance and falling in love just ain't for the youthful!

I'm going to be honest, this theme took some research on my part to see what was buried in my TBR that would qualify and if this all seems like too much work for you remember that the themes are completely optional.  Remember our goal with this challenge is always to read something, anything, that has been languishing in your TBR piles.

Also, a reminder that it's not too late to sign-up for the Challenge (fun fact: it's never too late to sign up!).  For more details and for a list of participants, you can check out the 2025 #TBRChallenge page.

Mini-Reviews: Back In My Day

I just wrapped up two reads that were the literary equivalent of injecting nostalgia directly into my veins and while I had a good time with both of them, I'm not moved enough for full scale reviews which means, yes - it's time for another patented round of Auntie Wendy mini-reviews!

Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour is an oral history, featuring interviews from multiple people who were there (musicians, promoters, agents, you name it...), for the music festival that helped kick alternative music and "grunge" into the mainstream. The book covers 1991-1997, when Perry Farrell was heavily involved, with the rebirth of the festival (2003) getting touched on in what serves as an epilogue chunk of chapters.

I never attended the traveling music festival (which is what made it very unique when it launched in 1991) despite being the key demographic for the middle years.  This was a real nostalgic trip for me for my formative late teens / early twenties and a stark reminder of how gross the 1990s could be. This was the era that gave us the notion of the "romantic" heroin addict musician after all, with a fair amount of misogyny tossed in for added flavor.  And don't get me started on the freak show thing - I got feelings y'all. 

Despite all that, I enjoyed this, especially all the behind the scenes stuff.  That first year felt very much like "hey gang, let's put on a show!" and the fact that this band of misfits managed to not only pull it off, but make it a success is a perfect example of stranger than fiction. At turns funny and tragic, a window to a different time - when you could attend a day-long festival for around $30 and see up to nine bands just on the main stage (a second stage was introduced in year 2).  I listened to this on audio and it took a moment to get my sea legs given the oral history format, but really enjoyable from start to finish.

Grade = B

Smoke on the Water by Loren D. Estleman is the 32nd adventure for Detroit private investigator Amos Walker, and look you just can't think too long or hard about these books. The character has aged (a bit) but has largely stayed frozen in time. I mean, the first book in the series debuted in 1980 and even if you put Amos on the young side back then, this guy should now be in his 70s - assuming he'd even be alive (I'm talking a lot of concussions folks, in real life this guy would not still be walking around). 

I read Estleman because he's one of the last guys writing old school gumshoe noir, plus his atmosphere and sense of place is always pitch perfect. This go-around he ups things a notch with a post-pandemic Detroit and smoke blowing across the river from the Canadian wildfires. Honestly, it's great stuff.

Amos is hired by a law firm who need him to track down a case file that's gone missing. It's an important enough file that the lawyer who was in charge of its safe-keeping turns up dead thanks to a hit-and-run, and the bodies continue to drop once Amos, fool that he is, agrees to take the case. 

For Book 32, this stands alone reasonably well, but character development is minimal and certainly the relationships between some of the characters isn't going to be entirely fleshed out for newcomers. At this point I feel like these books are for the fans - which honestly you can say about 99% of all long-running series.

Estleman doesn't write mysteries in the true sense of the word, these are very much crime stories and the plots can sometimes stray into vague or convoluted (which it does here), but it's not why I'm reading these books. Besides being the last of a dying breed, Estleman is what I call "a professional writer." If the book contracts dried up he'd probably write ad copy for breakfast cereal. He's a pro, and I like reading books by pros. They can spin a yarn and turn a phrase. Estleman's added bonus is that he cracks wise and I love the way he writes about Detroit. If there's a next book in this series, I'll be reading it.

Final Grade = B-