#TBRChallenge 2024: The Perfect Bride

The Books: The Perfect Bride by Kerry Connor

The Particulars: Gothic romantic suspense, 2013, Harlequin Intrigue #1421, First book in duet, out of print, available in digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Seriously? Look at the cover. Also, I've read and liked books by Connor in the past.

The Review: There was a brief stretch of time when the Intrigue line would slip in the occasional Gothic or Gothic-adjacent story. There's definitely some Gothic vibes here, what with a dead bride and a mysterious old manor house, but this struck me more as Gothic homage. The Scooby Doo version of Gothic. Which hey, nothing wrong with that. Honestly this book was a lot of fun until the end when things kind of ran off the rails for me.

Jillian Jones is at Sutton Hall for two reasons: to solve her best friend's murder and guilt. Guilt because Courtney was the only "family" that Jillian had and Jillian made excuses to avoid making the trip to help plan Courtney's wedding at Sutton Hall because, ugh - she'd rather be boiled in oil than deal with planning a wedding. Now Courtney is dead. Having fallen off the balcony attached to her room. It was windy that night, dark, Courtney got too close to the ledge. At least that's what the official report says since the cops found no evidence to suggest it was anything other than a tragic accident. However, Jillian knows better. Courtney was deathly afraid of heights. No way in hell would she have opened the doors to that balcony let alone go outside on it! She has no choice in the matter. She's going to travel to Sutton Hall herself, pose as a prospective bride, and find out what happened to her friend.

Adam Sutton inherited the hall with his sister, Meredith, whose dream it was to start a wedding planning business and venue. Adam let his sister down before so he is determined to help her realize her dream. That said, he doesn't trust Jillian Jones as far as he could throw her. Their first bridal client died tragically on-site a month ago and suddenly here comes Jillian with no reservations about holding her wedding in a venue where another bride just died. She's also asking a lot of "innocent" and "I'm just curious" questions and oh look, there she is snooping around again. To aggravate him even further? He's attracted to her. Yes, even though he doesn't trust her and even though she's "engaged." 

The plot and suspense are confined to Sutton Hall and the cast of characters who work and live there. Adam, Meredith, a handyman, cook, housekeeper, gardener, and the gardener's 20-something son.  The author does a good job of casting suspicion on all of them, even though yes, this is a romance so of course Adam didn't do it.  Jillian is typical amateur sleuth, being sneaky, thinking on her feet when it comes to lying, and bungling a few things along the way. She reads very Every Woman and you can't help but admire her tenacity and determination with wanting to do right by her friend.

This is a romance though that doesn't stand up to too much scrutiny. The elephant in the room is that Jillian is supposedly engaged, everyone thinks she's engaged, and yet there's this chemistry pinging off of her and Adam.  However while there's some "standing too close" moments, they don't actually succumb to any of their mutual lust until after the truth comes out.  Which is one element that really works here - when it's time for Jillian to come clean, she comes clean. It makes sense within the framework of the story when that actually happens. Also, while I'm not entirely sure the sex scene fits in the narrative (I would have leaned more towards hot n' heavy just kisses here I think), the author doesn't try to do too much with the HEA. No snap marriage proposal, no sweeping declarations of true love. It leans more on the Let's See Where This Goes Happy For Now spectrum than full-blown Happy Ever After with Wedding Proposal and Heroine Pregnant with Triplets in the Epilogue (in fact, there is no epilogue....)

The Sutton Hall setting is great, I'm a sucker for the whole Gothic house vibe and this is a pretty fun and nostalgic ride until the ending when it all kind of falls apart. Of course our killer is unstable. Of course there's a history of mental illness.  And how our bad guy is dispatched? It's exciting, but if Adam and Meredith thought their business might not survive Dead Courtney, I'm not sure how they're going to spin things after the ending here.  Although obviously they figure it out because Meredith is the heroine of Book 2, although after reading that plot description it sounds like she's got bodies dropping left and right.  And before you ask, of course I'm curious enough to read it. Which as far as unearthing books from my TBR, I'm counting this one as a success.

Final Grade = C+

Review: The Scandalous Spinster

I love historical romances featuring unconventional heroines. What I don't love are historical romance heroines who flaunt the rules, get caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and then are shocked (SHOCKED!) when the consequences of their actions bite them in the butt. Look, history is obviously littered with women who flaunted convention and broke the rules - but that didn't make them stupid. They knew the world they were living in, knew what the societal mores of the time were, and they understood that being unconventional could have very real consequences. Which means they either had to not care or be very sneaky about it. Romance heroines who don't know this are just stupid. Blessedly that is not the type of heroine we have in The Scandalous Spinster by Alyxandra Harvey. She's very well aware of the rules and is very sneaky about circumventing them.

Lady Clara Prescott is a woman who contains multitudes. She's a very proper, downright prudish, spinster. Firmly on the shelf. And that's all she wants you to see. Lady Clara's real talent is being invisible. Dismissed. Wholly ignored.  It's the perfect disguise for her and her work with The Spinster Society, a group of women who help women by making known the names of men who are not what they seem. Fortune hunters, cads, privileged louts who think nothing of defiling innocents and robbing heiresses blind, among other things. 

Clara's disguise is perfect. She's 29, firmly on the shelf, and attends society events mainly out of pity. She's the type of woman who blends into the wallpaper. Nobody notices her other than to hurl the occasional snide remark her way, and her painfully proper no-fun reputation (butter wouldn't melt in her mouth) provides the perfect cover to be sneaky, gather information and eavesdrop. Unfortunately this disguise is so good that even her comrades in The Spinster Society underestimate and under-utilize her. She's desperate for some excitement. She gets her chance when a colleague, working to protect and rescue an heiress being held captive by her guardian, goes missing.

Clara's job is to infiltrate a notorious country house party. Much debauching, much gambling, the kind of place you wouldn't expect Lady Clara to be. Coming with her on this mission is Captain Bram Thorn, a former scarred, tattooed, Navy man who works for the Spinsters mainly out of gratitude for helping his sister out of a spot of trouble. The fly in the ointment? These two are painfully attracted to each other. But Bram, a low born Scottish former sailor, on the other side of forty, knows that any attraction to the very proper, well above his station, and frankly too young for him, Clara Prescott is madness.

What happens next is that these two get to the house party, which is stuffed to the gills. Thrown into the Dower House on the property, they begin snooping around, only to discover a series of baffling clues left behind by the missing Spinster, Sybil. There's also rumors flying around that the heiress, ward to the man hosting the house party, is not the first girl to go missing at the manor. 

This is one of the better historical romances I've read this year, and Clara is a sneaky, conniving delight. Bram is a hero in protector mode, there to keep her safe but who doesn't hold her back. He's not one of those heroes who wants her to step aside, hide in a corner, while he takes on all comers. Yes, she goes off snooping and yes he gets irritated (he can't protect her if he's not there), but these are two characters who don't want to hold each other back.

My only quibble with the book is that the plot is too busy. Clara, Bram, the missing Sybil, heiress and two other girls (it turns out) is more than enough - especially for a book that only clocks in around 250 pages. Instead, we get a kitchen sink tossed in.  Clara, among her other talents, writes salacious novels under a pen name.  Someone has uncovered her true identity and is now blackmailing her. This blackmail plot truly is an afterthought, tossed in on occasion, and while Clara is concerned (being unmasked would blow her cover sky-high, not to mention the real consequences to her reputation) it's not like she's sitting around, wringing her hands over it. The missing Sybil and heiress are the main driving force here. I suspect the blackmailer, who is unmasked at the end, is mainly tossed in to sow seeds for a future installment in this series, but that's a guess. Regardless, if felt wholly unnecessary to this story.

Quibble aside, I enjoyed this story and have plans to not only keep up with this series but read more by Harvey. It was a lot of fun, with good romantic chemistry, a compelling plot, and some light mystery elements tossed in for flavor. 

Final Grade = B

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is October 16!

We're down to the last three months of 2024 (!) and our next #TBRChallenge Day is Wednesday, October 16.  This month's optional theme is Spooky (Gothic)

Gothic has been a suggestion on the last couple of annual theme polls and this year I decided to pull the trigger...sort of. I like the themes to be as expansive as possible to give participants a lot of options, so along with Gothic, I threw in the descriptor of "spooky."  Certain breeds (ha!) of paranormals, urban fantasy, romantic suspense, and yes, Gothic - let your Spooky Season flag fly this month! 

However, remember that the themes are totally optional. Life is hard enough as it is, maybe you just want some brain candy fluff this month. That's fine! Remember the themes are always optional. The goal is to read something, anything, out of your TBR.

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: Nobody's Sweetheart Now

Sometimes my TBR truly is like being on an archeological dig. Will I uncover a precious gemstone? An old coin of moderate value? Or heaven forbid, animal dung. Nobody's Sweetheart Now by Maggie Robinson is the first of four books in her Lady Adelaide historical mystery series and it is one of the gemstones. This book was a pure delight from start to finish.

It's been six months since Lady Adelaide Compton buried her husband Major Rupert Charles Cressleigh Compton. Rupert was dashing, charming, and a bonafide war hero (a pilot!) in World War I. He was also, and this cannot be overstated, a first rate cad. Rupert died after crashing one of his cars in the Cotswold countryside, with a French mademoiselle in the passenger seat. 

Adelaide has spent her mourning period bringing the country house up to scratch and is ready for a house party, much to the horror of her mother, the very proper Dowager Marchioness of Broughton. But, quite frankly, Rupert played Adelaide for a fool so why should she hang on to outdated notions of "mourning." It's 1924 after all.

Unfortunately just as her guests are about to arrive, Rupert, rather his ghost, makes an inconvenient appearance. Blathering on about how he cannot cross over to the other side until he does a few good deeds. Addie is, quite naturally, concerned for her sanity, but before she can start making plans to see a doctor (obviously it will need to be a discreet one!), a murder interrupts her house party. 

The victim, who was not invited, is the ex-wife of one her neighbors, who was invited. Lady Kathleen Grant is found dead in one of the estate's barns, naked as the day she was born. She was also the very definition of a good time girl, a flapper who took many lovers, consumed a fair amount of drugs, and made her way through life being brash and unapologetic. Plenty of people, including nearly all the members of Addie's house party, had motive - but then her gardener, Mr. McGrath, turns up dead in his bed, and not from natural causes. Who would want the kindly Scottish gardener dead?

The local law makes a total muck of things, so riding in to solve the case is Devenand Hunter, an Anglo-Indian police inspector who has to somehow solve the case without ruffling anymore blue blood feathers. He's immediately intrigued by Lady Adelaide, even though he knows any attraction to her is disastrous, but also she seems rather eccentric. Always talking to herself...

I'm going to be honest, yes this sat in my TBR for a long time because of the "ghost thing." I have a hard time with paranormal anything as is, but ghosts in mystery novels have this unfortunate way of acting as sleuthing shortcuts - which just annoys me. I want the humans to actually put in the work and puzzle things out for themselves. And while Rupert naturally does do some noising around, his contribution is mainly to help Addie take the blinders off. There's quite a bit about some of her house party guests that she didn't know, just making her feel even more naïve in light of Rupert's disregard to their martial vows. Rupert's main purpose is largely comic relief and yes he was a cad in real life, but as a ghost cad it's all very funny - especially with Addie trying to stop herself from bickering with him for fear of her own sanity.

Inspector Hunter serves the role of intelligent outsider who has to come in and puzzle the whole mess out and for that he knows he needs some help. Despite her eccentricities, he rules out Lady Adelaide as a potential murderess fairly quickly, and comes to appreciate her insights on the victim and the potential suspects. She also has a stake in wrapping up the mystery, not only because the victim was found on her property, but also because her gardener was likely murdered because he saw something he shouldn't have seen.

The world-building is top notch, truly it cannot be overstated how well the author writes about the time period and sets her stage. There's also a very light romance brewing between Inspector Hunter and Adelaide that will undoubtedly further develop over the course of the next three books in the series. 

My only quibble is that certain events take place off-stage (the local constable mucking up things for example) as the author moves her story ahead, but it's all so charming, delightful, really such a perfect blend of cozy and traditional British mystery, that it's hardly worth harping on. Truly a delight from the first page to the last. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Final Grade = B+

Fall-ing in Love: Unusual Historicals for September 2024

If there's one thing I miss since moving to California it's autumn. It was always my favorite season growing up in Michigan: the leaves turning, the crisp air, apple cider, homemade donuts, caramel apples.  Pumpkin spice my Aunt Petunia, everyone knows the superior fall flavor is apple.  However as much I like southern California, autumn leaves (ha!) a lot to be desired.  Mainly because "crisp" generally means the state is burning down around our ears. But while I might not have all the joys of autumn, I've still got the beauty of historical romance. Here's some unusual historicals debuting in September.

The Finest Print by Erin Langston

One sensational love story.

American journalist Ethan Fletcher traversed the globe to claim his late uncle’s Fleet Street print shop, only to find his unexpected inheritance is shackled by ruinous debt. To save his business and finally direct his own course, he needs to raise capital, and quickly. Good fortune comes in the form of Belinda Sinclair, the eccentric daughter of a respected London judge—and she just so happens to be a beautiful failure of a novelist.

Bruised by scandal, Belle has spent years writing a gruesome courtroom mystery no respectable publisher will touch. Until she meets Ethan—barely respectable, barely a publisher, but with two broad hands that can work a press and an enterprising spirit that breathes new life into her pages. Emboldened by the prospect of seeing her story in print, Belle agrees to Ethan’s plan: she will transform her grisly manuscript into a serialized penny dreadful, and he will sell it as a means to settle his accounts.

In the close confines of the print shop, Ethan and Belle discover their partnership is conducive to far more than fiction. Helpless to deny their deepening devotion, they dare to compose a future free of his financial burdens and her social constraints. But when a series of punishing obstacles jeopardizes the story they’ve been writing off the page, they must confront how much they are willing to lose… and what it will take to save everything.

A hero desperate to save an inherited print shop and forge his own future finds his savior in the scandalous daughter of a respected judge who has written a gruesome courtroom drama no one wants to touch with a ten-foot pool.  That's when the hero has the idea to serialize it as a penny dreadful. This story has Wendy Catnip written all over it, I'm looking forward to it!

A Naval Surgeon to Fight For by Carla Kelly

Return to her respectable life…

Or take a scandalous path to marriage?

As her snobbish aunt’s companion, penniless vicar’s daughter Jerusha Langley is sent to take a donation to the local naval hospital. There she meets dashing surgeon Jamie Wilson and embarks on a secret mission—sneaking out to help him care for injured sailors!

With his life in peril fighting Napoleon, Jamie has never considered taking a wife, yet he’s impressed by Jerusha’s nursing ability—and beauty inside and out. Jamie knows she’s risking a scandal by helping him. Can he risk his heart and save her reputation with a marriage offer? 

Oh happy day, a new Carla Kelly! A vicar's daughter with zero prospects throws caution to the wind and starts sneaking out to volunteer as a nurse. Kelly's characters are always interesting and never run-of-the-mill. I'm expecting more of the same here.

The Trouble with Inventing a Viscount by Vivienne Lorret

Honoria Hartley enjoys flirting far too much to consider marrying. And besides, she’s been betrothed since birth to the long-lost Viscount Vandemere. But no one has actually ever met the viscount and, without an heir, the title will soon become extinct. So she’s willing to do anything to keep her viscount alive, even if she has to invent him herself.

Oscar Flint is a first-rate gambler. Estranged from his father’s side of the family his entire life, he grew up beneath the tutelage of a legendary con artist. There isn’t anyone who could pull the wool over his eyes. Not until he crosses paths with Honoria. Losing to her puts him in a bind… Until he remembers her story about a lost heir to a viscountcy. An heir that no one has ever met. Not yet, anyway.

When Oscar arrives on Honoria’s doorstep, claiming to be Vandemere, she is thrown for a loop. This rogue is not her viscount. The only problem is, he’s quite convincing, and when he kisses her, the line between the lie and the truth becomes hazy in all the steam they create. Honoria refuses to gamble with her heart. But Oscar has never played by the rules and he’s determined to win, no matter the cost.

The second book in the author's The Liars' Club series finds our gambler hero getting even with the heroine by pretending to be the long lost heir to a viscountcy, oh who just so happens to be her betrothed. Our heroine knows he's a liar but damn if the man isn't convincing...

The Scandalous Spinster by Alyxandra Harvey

From Spinster to Scandal…

Lady Clara has a secret.

She may play the part of a proper wallflower, but in reality she writes the scandalous romances taking Society by storm. No one knows, not her fellow members in the Spinster Society, not her friends.

Only her blackmailer.

Luckily, the Spinster Society takes great delight in knocking down the fortune hunters and powerful lords of Mayfair. Who better to deliver a comeuppance than the very ladies who are overlooked and ignored?

So when the need arises for someone to attend an extremely notorious house party, Clara jumps at the chance. One of the Spinsters has gone missing on assignment, and Clara knows no one will even notice her.

Except for Captain Bram Thorn.

He knows there is more to Clara than meets the eye. And he refuses to let her walk into danger—or scandal—alone.

This first book in the author's Spinster Society is a spin-off of her earlier Cinderella Society series. Our heroine is a secret novelist being blackmailed and agrees to take an assignment to find a missing comrade at a notoriously wicked house party.  She didn't plan on having a protector, our hero, along for the ride. AztecLady reviewed this earlier in the month and it's my next read on tap.

Temptress by Jade Lee

COMPETITION TO BECOME EMPRESS

The time has come for Emperor Xian Feng to choose a wife. All noble virgins must come to the Forbidden City to compete, hoping to become Empress. They will endure three trials of purity before they meet their emperor. And they must find favor from the dowager empress, her greedy eunuchs, and most dangerous of all…the Master of the Festivity. Sun Bo Tao.

THE FOX IN CHARGE OF THE HEN HOUSE

Sun Bo Tao is the emperor’s best friend and the only other male in the Forbidden City who is not a eunuch. He has no time for virgin games. Not with a rebellion in the north, a Dutch envoy seeking trade status, and opium choking the country. But the emperor cannot trust the greedy eunuchs to help select his bride, and so Bo Tao must weed out those who are weak, spoiled, or stupid. He never expected to find a brilliant mind in the delectable body of a virgin.

THE VIRGIN DETERMINED TO WIN

Chen Ji Yue is prepared to be a political wife. She knows how to appear chaste, bribe where appropriate, and navigate the bitter rivalries inside the Forbidden City. But she never learned how to resist the temptations of the emperor’s best man. Sun Bo Tao holds her future in his hands. He also touches her body with reverence and kisses with passion. How can he stir such desire in her when she knows her purpose?

The second book in Lee's Forbidden Pleasure series tells that age old story of a heroine vying to become an Emperor's wife and making the mistake of falling for his best friend instead. These heroines, they'll never learn...

Her Secret Vows with the Viking by Sarah Rodi 

“The lady is already married.

To me.”

A year ago, Viking Stefan’s clandestine marriage to Saxon maiden Ædwen was torn apart by the shocking discovery that her father murdered his family. Unable to forgive his wife for hiding the truth, Stefan left. Until word reaches him that Ædwen is about to wed again…

Forced to marry at her father’s command, Ædwen’s stunned when Stefan bursts through the church doors and announces that she’s already wed—to him! As the warrior steals her away, passion reignites, but can Ædwen ever trust him again, when Stefan left her alone, devastated—and carrying his baby…!

Speaking of heroines who never learn, the heroine in Rodi's latest stand-alone secretly marries our hero, has it all go horribly wrong, and is about to commit bigamy because, well, Daddy when she's "saved" from that predicament by getting kidnapped by her husband. Only in romance AMIRITE?!

 

Counting on Love by Carol Coventry

When the Honorable Reginald Taverston, third son of the Earl of Iversley, is unceremoniously dumped by his mistress, what bothers him most is how little it bothers him. To the amusement of his older brothers, Reginald prefers translating ancient Greek texts to the hedonistic pursuits of his peers. Nominated “the brilliant brother,” Reginald is assigned the task of balancing the account books after the death of the family’s steward. He dutifully tackles the work, only to be perplexed when the numbers don’t add up.

Lady Georgiana Stewart, a duke’s daughter who possesses beauty, wit, and a dowry of twenty thousand pounds, is dreading a second London Season. She knows she can’t keep rejecting suitors just because they’re…boring, but wonders what is it that makes a young lady look at a gentleman and think: Yes, this is the one!

Georgiana is pressured by her mother to encourage the attentions of Lord Jasper Taverston. The handsome heir to the ailing Earl of Iversley is the most eligible man in the ton, and he believes Lady Georgiana will make a perfect countess. She goes through the motions of courtship, bored by the lord’s easy charm and frustrated that their betrothal seems to be a foregone conclusion. Until she discovers Jasper’s younger brother struggling to solve an arithmetical puzzle. Numbers are Georgiana’s secret passion. When Reginald accepts her help rather than scorning it, she learns that poring over ledgers together can be more seductive than a sultry waltz or stolen kiss.

An heiress heroine bored by every suitor that's been paraded in front of her has resigned herself to the fate of marrying a boring son of an Earl when she gets her head turned by, oh darn it all, his brother. I mean, really, she can't help it. He's trying to clean up the estate's accounting books and she can't say no to a mathematical puzzle. 

The Ruin of Evangeline Jones by Julia Bennet (Reprint)

Alex Stanton just inherited a dukedom, but his true passion is uncovering charlatans and frauds wherever he finds them. Spiritualist and medium Evangeline "Evie" Jones is the biggest fake of all, and he's determined to expose her lies for all of London to see. Her prim manner and ladylike airs don't fool him. He sees the hunger beneath and recognizes a worthy opponent. He can't deny the dark undercurrents of lust between them.

Evie worked her way up from the gutter, and she's not about to abandon the life she's built for fear of this aristocratic dilettante. She knows his type. She sees the attraction simmering beneath his animosity, and she knows how to use it to keep him off balance. They strike a bargain. He has one week to prove she's a fake. If he fails, he has to abandon all further attempts. If he succeeds, she'll not only retire but make a public statement explaining all her tricks.

Neither expects to find anything in common, not to mention anything to love, in the other. Both are blindsided by the affinity and blossoming tenderness between them. But even if it were possible for a lowly charlatan to live happily ever after with a duke, more is going on than either suspects. Someone else has brought them together for a sinister purpose of his own.

Check your TBRs, this second book in the Harcastle Inheritance series was first published in 2020 by Entangled. A Victorian-set Gothic, this one features a hero determined to expose the medium heroine as a fraud and to do that, he proposes a wager he's sure he'll win. Naturally she has other ideas.

And there we have it, eight potential books to add to the TBR to keep us warm on the encroaching winter nights.  What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to?

Library Loot Review: Funny Story

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the hotter an author gets, the more readers gush, the more likely Wendy is going to dig in her heels. I may seem fairly easy going but I've got an obstinate streak a mile wide. So I was on schedule to read an Emily Henry book sometime in the next ten years. That is, until, I read Willaful's review for Funny Place and damn her eyes, I put myself on an insanely long library wait list and waited. After I finally scored a copy of the book it sat unread until it was due in 5 days and given that I waited such a long time for it, I knew I couldn't just return it untouched. What started out as "read the first few chapters before bed" quickly devolved into the latest entry in Wendy's Bad Decisions Book Club, not coming up for air until 3:00AM, having finished the last sentence. Thank the Lord I had the good sense to not do this on a "school night" but I still woke up hungover (in the best possible way) in the morning.

Daphne Vincent is a children's librarian whose life has turned to shit. She met her fiancé, Peter, in Richmond, VA. They fell in love and he convinced her (it didn't take much) to move to his hometown of Waning Bay, Michigan (fictional, but set around the real-life Traverse City area). She finds a rewarding, albeit underpaid, because of course, job at the local library, settles into the house Peter buys in his name, and they're on the cusp of the wedding when on the night of his bachelor party Peter returns home to tell Daphne he's leaving her for his "platonic" best friend, Petra. Oh, and she needs to move out but he doesn't want to make this hard for her, so he and Petra will be taking a fabulous week-long vacation to the Amalfi Coast. 

She could run home to her supportive single mother - but Daphne is loathe to pull up roots immediately because she's planning this amazing All-Night Readathon library fundraiser, which is still several months out. Nope, she needs to stick around, at least for a little while, and decides to move in with Petra's ex-boyfriend, Miles Nowak.  Miles comes off as a no-direction, pot-smoking slacker but in truth he's much like Daphne, a broken-hearted mess.  Then they both get wedding invitations to their exes' wedding and they hit the town to drown their sorrows. In their drunken haze they both decide to RSVP to the wedding, as you do. Naturally Peter calls all tutting-tutting and "I didn't want to hurt you" and generally being the absolute worst and Daphne, in her epic hungover state blurts out that she didn't RVSP with a plus-one because her plus-one ALSO got an invitation. Yep, she's seeing Miles.

The set-up is pure Tropey Goodness but what I really loved about the book is that the trope isn't doing any heavy-lifting for the conflict or developing romance. Miles finds Daphne's lie hilarious and is quickly game for it, mostly because they both want to get back at their exes. Everybody else in their life is in on the gag, including Miles' sister and Daphne's new BFF at work. What happens because of this lie is that these two hurt people start spending time together and Miles is determined to show Daphne how great Waning Bay is, that she shouldn't let her feelings about the area be colored by Peter.

Daphne is a heroine wound fairly tight, the kind of person who keeps a white-board calendar for their schedules in the kitchen. She's also buried a fair amount of pain regarding her emotionally absent father and Peter's abandonment adds to that angst. Dad had a way of not showing up when something better came along and Peter dumps her for another woman, ergo Daphne is, once again, "second best."  Miles has his own childhood baggage that has resulted in him locking away messy emotions (his sister calls him "Chronically Fine"). Daphne is perfect for him because she shows him it's OK to not be OK.

My biggest gripe with a lot of current romance is that it's All Trope With No Heart, and while this one certainly is tropey, it's a story not hinging on that flimsy a house of cards.  Also, while it straddles the These People Need Therapy Not A Romance line for me, it never crosses that line, probably because for all their baggage these are two characters with at least a modicum of self-awareness about their baggage.  It's just hard for them to put said baggage down once in a while.

Daphne's emotional journey is in larger focus than Miles', but it's a big-hearted read featuring two characters who grow over the course of the story and find a happy ending with each other. It also has a legit, frothy romantic comedy feel to it while not being pure fluff. Seriously, I really loved it.

Final Grade = A

Mini-Reviews: I Contain Multitudes

It's time for another patented round of Wendy Mini-Reviews, this time out featuring two books that could not be more different if they tried.  All this to say that yes, as a reader, I can contain multitudes.

Last year I read Sleepless City, the first book in Reed Farrel Coleman's Nick Ryan series and fell, hook, line and sinker. I hoped and prayed it would find enough of an audience to turn into a series, so I about broke a finger one-clicking the second book, Blind to Midnight, when it popped on NetGalley. 

Look, I can't fully explain why I have a soft spot for "tough guy noir" but I do. I think because, like Gothics, they're "atmospheric" and that's what gets me. Anyway, Nick is a decorated former soldier (joining up after 9/11) and a cop from a family of cops whose father's reputation (Dad ratted out corrupt cops) and his brother's addiction issues (booze) follow him around. He also has a Baby Mama (affluent and rich to his working class) and a Secret Baby daughter that he can't be with, despite wanting to, because they would become targets and collateral damage. Nick works undercover for very powerful and mysterious men - he's basically a "fixer" for the NYPD and Nick has learned to live with a target on his back.

This time out Nick's bosses want him to look into an unsolved murder - the only documented murder that happened on 9/11 that wasn't the result of the World Trade Center attack.  Of course Nick isn't told exactly why his mysterious bosses want this case solved, but they quickly become displeased with their fixer when he's distracted by a personal matter.  A family friend and former cop, Nick's "Uncle Tony" and his wife are found brutally murdered in their home. Execution style. Who would want his Uncle Tony dead? 

A couple years ago I practically inhaled Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series, and from a tone perspective this series is scratching that itch for me. It's very New York City, very gritty and grim. These are books with no heroes but it's hard to not get sucked into the plots. Coleman is one of those writers who brings 2-4 different plot threads on board that seem completely unrelated but eventually he ties them all together in a fashion where you realize it's all connected.  It makes for riveting reading.

A couple of quibbles, one being that I read the first book a year ago and my memory was a little hazy.  Things that happened in Book 1 pop up in this new book and it took a few moments for my memory to get jogged. Also Nick is one of those Tough Guy Noir-types who is pure poison to female characters. I'm hoping Coleman wraps it up quickly because I can tell you the stuff with his Baby Mama was annoying in the first book when it was introduced, and it just gets more annoying here.  Also, Nick hooks up with a former flame / f*ck buddy (female cop) in this book and the pure panic I'm feeling that I'm going to get a tedious love triangle because Nick is emotionally unavailable and hung-up over the Baby Mama makes my eyes cross. Finally, this book ends on a total cliffhanger. The main plot is put to bed, our mystery solved, this is more a cliffhanger that is spurring Nick into the next book in the series - which sweet baby Jesus, there better be one!

Final Grade = A-

Improbably and unbelievably, my Detroit Tigers are currently clawing their way through the final games of the baseball season trying to snag the final Wild Card spot in the playoffs - so I'm feeling a wee bit romantic about baseball at the moment, which is why I picked up Out of Left Field, a semi-autobiographical graphic novel by Jonah Newman.

Jonah is in the 9th grade and a nerd. I mean, the kid loves history class and epic fantasy movies (think Lord of the Rings - although the author "renames" the pop culture references throughout the book, some of which are humorous).  He also has a crush on a boy who is on the baseball team. Unfortunately Jonah is about as athletic as a rock and knows nothing about baseball, but that doesn't stop him from joining the team.

There are two types of adult readers: those who like to read young adult fiction and those who would rather be boiled in oil because dear Lord, who wants to relieve the awkwardness and angst of that time in their lives?!  This book should be avoided by the latter at all costs 😂.  The story follows Jonah through his four years of high school, as he struggles with his identity (sexual and otherwise), the drama of his feelings and friendships, the feelings he bruises and his own bruised feelings. Jonah does have a support system (we never see his parents anywhere in this story, but he has a best friend, his baseball coach, and a favorite teacher...) and while the story does have an uplifting ending, it's not all rainbow farting unicorns. There's homophobia (internal and otherwise), outing and a heaping pile of misogyny (there's a girl on Jonah's baseball team and I spent this entire book mad for her).  And just like in real life? A lot of this goes unchecked. 

I did enjoy this story, even as I was uncomfortably squirming in my seat - which doesn't sound like a compliment but actually is in this case. The author does a great job of conveying the uncertainty of that time in your teenage life when you're struggling to find out who you are, your place in the world, etc. And like all teenagers, Jonah makes some cringey mistakes and there's a heaping amount of secondhand embarrassment for the reader to experience. If it had been Teenage Wendy reading this? I probably would have clutched the book to my chest and swooned a bit from the emotional impact the story left on me. As an adult all I could think was that for the first time in a long time I was happy to be "old" 🤣.

Final Grade = B+