#TBRChallenge 2019: Holiday Kisses Anthology

The Book: Holiday Kisses by Jaci Burton, Shannon Stacey, HelenKay Dimon and Alison Kent

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Carina Press, 2011, three out of four stories part of series (exception: Alison Kent), stories available in anthology edition and sold separately.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had a print copy of this, which means I must have picked it up at an RWA conference...but it's not autographed. Maybe I picked it up as part of a Carina/Harlequin spotlight? My personal cataloging notes are sketchy (to put it mildly).

The Review: I've always liked anthologies as a way to "sample" authors without having to expend a lot of time and energy.  I don't read nearly as many of them these days because thanks to digital many shorts are now available separately. I've obviously had this anthology languishing for a while, short works well for me this time of year (even more so than usual) so I landed on it pretty quickly for this month's challenge.

A Rare Gift by Jaci Burton kicked things off and suffered a bit because I personally have issues with the sibling's ex trope.  As someone who has sisters, the idea of boffing one of their exes (not to mention an ex-husband!!!) is an immediate no-go for me.  Calliope Andrews moved back home and started up a daycare center.  She's outgrowing her space though and wants to add an addition.  For that she calls Wyatt Kent, whose family runs a small construction outfit.  Wyatt was married to her sister, Cassandra, and they divorced two years ago.  It was not a happy fun-time divorce (are they ever?), he's still surly over it, and Calliope has had the hots for Wyatt since she was 15 (because, of course).

Cassandra isn't a dead ex (it works better for me when they're dead) and Wyatt, while not pining over his ex, still obviously has not "let it go."  So while I appreciated that Calliope was a heroine who knew what she wanted and went after it - the neatly tied up ending, the rushed "lets get married and start making babies yesterday" in the last chapter - it just didn't work for me.  Gurl, HE HAD A DISASTER MARRIAGE WITH YOUR SISTER!  Holidays are gonna be awkward.  But I'm a big enough person to admit that this is very much a personal preference thing and YMMV.

Final Grade = C

Mistletoe and Margaritas by Shannon Stacey was a novella that damn near ripped my guts out and was my favorite in the anthology.  Justin McCormick has loved Claire Rutledge since he first laid eyes on her.  The problem being that his BFF got there first. Brendan and Claire dated, got married, and had five years together before he died in an accident. Claire has been grieving for 2 years and during that time her and Justin have become inseparable BFFs.  It's getting harder for Justin to hide his feelings and Claire's starting to have very not-just-friend thoughts about Justin.  One holiday party, a couple of cocktails and some mistletoe kicks open the door.  This one features another fast marriage proposal, but works a bit better given the long friendship.  My only quibble in what is an engaging and emotional romance.

Final Grade = B+

The only reasons I didn't DNF It's Not Christmas Without You by HelenKay Dimon is because it's a novella and Dimon is an engaging writer.  Carrie Anders left her small West Virginia hometown for a dream job at a museum in Washington D.C. two hours away.  She broke it off with her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Austin Thomas, who runs a Christmas tree farm with his father and brother.  Austin thought that Carrie would get this crackpot idea of moving to The Big City out of her system and come home...but it's been six months.  So he drops serious cash, persuades his brother, and they rent a lot outside the heroine's apartment building to sell Christmas trees.  He's going to convince her to quit her job, come home, and marry him.

The hero in this story is a thundering jackass, borderline Neanderthal who completely disregards that the heroine has dreams and ambitions of her own separate from his precious man fee-fees.  To make matters worse, the heroine doesn't knee him in the giblets and send him packing. She puts up with his BS and keeps coming around the lot because she can't stay away.  I stuck with this story because I like Dimon's writing and it's short and it's kind of worth it in the end when the light finally dawns for Austin and he realizes he's an ass.  The problem being that I'm not sure I believe that he's reformed.  I mean, what are we talking here: a long distance relationship that consists of a 2 hour commute. This is not insurmountable IMHO and yet he's bound and determined to haul her home by her hair.  He sees the light but he's such a jackass for the majority of the story I'm not convinced they survive the first rough patch that happens after the happy ending.  And knowing Austin?  That rough patch probably happened within the first week.

Final Grade = C-

This Time Next Year by Alison Kent is a well done snowed-in-cabin-romance.  Brenna Keating is driving through the North Carolina mountains on the way to her grandmother's for Christmas when the predicted snow forecast shows up early. She's almost there when she swerves to avoid a deer and lands in a ditch. She's trapped, the snow is falling fast, and she probably would have frozen to death in her car if local doctor, Dillon Craig didn't happen upon her.  He's friends with her grandmother, and knows she's expecting Brenna. He frees her from her car and, the weather still terrible, takes her back to his cabin.  What you think happens next...happens next.

Brenna, a nurse, is spending one last Christmas with her grandmother before heading to Malawi for volunteer work. Her grandmother and her parents have all done similar work - kind of like a family calling.  Yet Brenna knows that her grandmother isn't getting any younger and this could very well be their last Christmas together.  Dillon served in Afghanistan as a medic, haunted by his war experiences and the fact that he was thousands of miles away from home when his father (who left him the cabin) died of a heart attack.

This is a nice, emotional, engaging romance featuring two grown-up characters who talk to each other.  I liked these two kids together and they form a partnership that naturally makes sense in my mind.  I've read several stories by Kent over the years and this is probably my favorite to date.  It's a nice contemporary romance.

Final Grade = B

Whew! Another year and another TBR Challenge complete.  I hope you all had fun participating and/or following along.  We're doing this again in 2020!  Be sure to check out this blog post for more information.

#TBRChallenge 2019: Her Knight in the Outback

The Book: Her Knight in the Outback by Nikki Logan

Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Romance #4466, 2015, Out of print, Available in digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: It's not autographed and I've switched over to digital for nearly all my Harlequin reading desires - so I suspect I picked this up impulsively in a used bookstore (yes, those do still exist) or a library book sale.  The cover and back cover blurb caught my eye.

The Review: I have a fair amount of baggage that I lug around thanks to my love of Harlequins. Not only do I take crap from people who sneer at romance in general, but I take crap from romance readers who sneer at Harlequin. Fun times!  This book though - this is the sort of book I like to keep in reserve and chuck at people (aiming for their heads, although they are obviously empty and it probably wouldn't do much damage - but whatevs...) when they dismiss category romance out of hand.  There's an emotional heft to this story (yes, despite the cutesy cover image) and the ending is not pat nor easy.  I'll be thinking about this book for a while.

Evelyn "Eve" Read's younger brother is missing and the police aren't remotely close to potentially finding him.  He's 18 (still a kid in Eve's eyes) with a history of depression and anxiety.  Their alcoholic mother dead thanks to a motorcycle accident (that Travis witnessed) and their father broken down by life, Eve decides to sell her house, quit her job, and buys a converted bus/RV.  She's going to paper every town in Australia with fliers of her missing brother, hunt up leads, find him and bring him home.

It's on a lonely stretch of highway that she meets Marshall Sullivan after his motorcycle has an altercation with an emu.  He's dressed in leather (smart man) with an overgrown beard and at least one tattoo (that she can see).  She's naturally wary.  Words are exchanged, bargains struck, and Eve drives him to the next town for help.  Of course their paths keep on crossing and of course they are soon traveling together.

Marshall is one of those great heroes who isn't who he appears to be.  He's hit the road on his bike for work.  He's a meteorologist (yes, really) who volunteered to check out various weather stations across the country.  It's a way for him to separate himself from his past, a brother and mother he's cut off communication with (for reasons...) and an ex-girlfriend who did him wrong.  So he knows something about being closed off emotionally and he immediately connects with Eve on that level even though our girl is a mess.

Eve is a woman on a desperate mission, consumed by her brother's disappearance, desperate to find him, and is basically no longer living any sort of life.  Marshall knows she cannot keep going down the path she's traveling, but our girl is stubborn and HER BROTHER IS MISSING!  It's hard to think of more compelling conflict and it's easy to understand why Eve is the way she is even if, intellectually, you know that Marshall is right on a basic level.  They slowly and cautiously develop a connection and relationship in just a few short weeks, but when feet are put to the fire, how can they possibly move forward?  Eve will never give up her quest to find Travis and Marshall knows this.

The Black Moment in this book is suitably black and simply gut-wrenching.  It's one of the few that I've read in a long while that feel utterly hopeless.  As in "how the heck can this story end happily?" hopeless.  And I think that's what makes this romance so notable.  Here's the thing, I've criticized many a romance in my day where the characters didn't need a romance - they needed therapy.  And these characters?  Yes, they do need therapy.  But here's the important distinction - while I do think life won't necessarily be sunshine and roses all the time for them?  I think they're stronger together and that these two crazy kids will actually weather any storm that comes their way.  She has issues, he has issues, and while I see arguments and more hurtful Black Moments in their future?  I have every confidence that they're a couple that could come out the other side, stronger for it.

There's some passionate kissing in this story, but true to the Harlequin Romance line the sex is of the closed door variety and the mystery of what happened to brother Travis is resolved (nondescript spoiler: he's found alive).  While I love a good road romance, what I'll remember most about this book is how emotionally gut-wrenching The Black Moment is - when the hero and heroine are driven apart and need to find their way back to each other.  It does come perilously close to a hero "telling" the heroine what's best for her, but Logan writes it the only way I think she possibly could have and both characters need to meet in the middle to close the distance between them.  Very well done, and now I've off to scour my unorganized digital TBR to see if I've got any more Nikki Logan books waiting to be discovered.

Final Grade = B+

#TBRChallenge 2019: Stone Cold Undercover Agent

The Book: Stone Cold Undercover Agent by Nicole Helm

The Particulars: Romantic Suspense, Harlequin Intrigue, 2017, Book #2 in trilogy, out of print, available in digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I picked this up at an RWA conference (2017 most likely) and at that time I think Helm was fairly new to Harlequin Intrigue.  I have enjoyed some of her SuperRomances, and neither here nor there she's a baseball fan.  So we chat on occasion.

The Review: Let me preface this by saying that I've enjoyed Helm's books in the past and she has the kind of style that I sink into.  And when you couple that style with the Intrigue line?  If the author is hitting her beats it's pretty much a guarantee that I won't come up for air until I finish the last page.  Which is what happened here.  Even though this book is a hot mess that defies logic.  Seriously.  Some of that can probably be chalked up to being book 2 in a trilogy, when I haven't read book 1, but there are elements in play with this book that don't make a whole lot of sense.

Gabriella Torres was kidnapped 8 years ago by a madman whose motives are never made clear.  For one thing, we never find out why he's kidnapping women (because there are others besides Gabby).  "The Stallion" seems to be looking for "the perfect woman" - even resorting to taking measurements.  He has a collection of creepy dolls he coos over.  Oh, and he doesn't rape his captives nor does he allow his henchmen too.  Look, on one hand it's refreshing to read a romantic suspense novel where the heroine isn't an abuse survivor - but rape is about power, not sex.  So Gabby being untouched in 8 long years of captivity, when "The Stallion" seems to want to "break" her - um, how does this make any sense?  I know this is an insane thing to quibble about but with so many high publicized cases, all the true crime TV shows and podcasts out there...This. Doesn't. Make. Sense.

Anyway, The Stallion is some kind of evil crime lord.  But we never get any details about his "business" other than "drugs."  He has the kidnapped girls doing some work (sewing drugs into pillows, stuffed animals and the like) and he's got hired goons running around doing hired goon stuff but other than that?  Yeah, we got nothing.  And he's not raping any of the women nor prostituting them (Gabby isn't special) - which begs the question of WHY IS HE KIDNAPPING THEM?!?!  I don't know much about the drug business but I'm thinking he could probably get plenty of willing workers without resorting to kidnapping.  But, who knows?  It's not a business model I've explored for myself so what do I really know?

Jaime Alessandro has been undercover in The Stallion's organization for two years, and is starting to crack up.  But he's finally worked his way up the ladder and has been "gifted" Gabby by his boss.  Why The Stallion finally thinks it's OK for Jaime to do the dirty with Gabby when he's protected her from Every. Single. Other. Henchman. and has never prostituted her out via human trafficking in the previous eight years?  Also not explained.  At all.  Apparently readers just need to roll with it.

Gabby has paid attention, noticed patterns to The Stallion's movements and Jaime needs her help to ferret out his various hideouts and uncover evidence.  The information she shares with him isn't exactly earth shattering, nor does it lead to some crazy stash of cash or a mass grave of dead bodies - but whatever.  Just roll with it.  Anyway...Gabby thinks Jaime is there to rape her, but eventually pieces together that he's an undercover cop.  But when they're around other henchmen or The Stallion - they need to act like she's scared and he's roughing her up.  So the power dynamic here is all sorts of squirky.

These two don't need a love story - they need years of therapy.  The human spirit is an amazing and resilient wonder, but Gabby has been in captivity for eight years.  It's great that she's feisty but dude - she's too feisty.  And Jaime has been deep undercover for two years.  Doing bad things.  Witnessing bad things.  I don't care who you are Mr. Macho Romance Hero - nobody walks away from that clean.  So to have these two hot for each, burning up the sheets (yes, there are sex scenes), and declaring they love for each other after less than one week of knowing each other AND factoring in their respective baggage?  I cannot suspend that much disbelief.

And yet?  I read this book straight through.  As in picked it up, didn't put it down, went to bed late on a school night.  Why?  Lord, I don't know!  And while I have no interest in reading the first book in the series (about Gabby's sister), I'm going to track down book #3 which is about another kidnapped woman who becomes slightly unhinged over the course of this story.  I mean, I need more Alyssa is my life apparently.

Helm can obviously write because I tore through this during a time when I've been reading books slower than usual (which, for me, is extra slow since I've never been a fast reader).  It's hard to explain if you're not a category reader, but an author can write a mess of a book and if the beats are hit at just the right moments?  It's darn near impossible for me to stop.  There's a reason Intrigues are my go-to reading when I'm traveling and stuck on airplanes. 

So for that reason, it feels wrong to slap this with the grade I'm going to, but seriously - this plot is a dang mess.  Helm's written better.

Final Grade = D

#TBRChallenge 2019: Day Late and a Couple of Dollars Short

The Book: Morgan's Woman by Judith E. French

The Particulars: Historical western romance, Ballantine, 1999, Out of print, available in self-published digital edition

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Who knows at this point - seriously, this has been buried in the TBR for a ridiculously long period of time. My best guess?  It's a historical western and I enjoyed another novel by French when I reviewed it for TRR.  While in good shape, I can tell my print copy was bought used.

The Review: In my experience, historical romances hold up better over time than contemporaries because you're a lot less likely to run up against pop culture references that haven't aged well (there was a time when Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise were major heart throbs).  But that doesn't mean there aren't potential land mines lurking, which is exactly what happened with this book.  I was met with a cold bucket of ice water at the 30% mark and while I might have let such insult slide had I been reading a bodice ripper from 1978, in 1999 the genre really, really should have moved on.  Which is a shame, because the heroine is a legit widow in this book and 1999 we were still Buried In Virgin Heroines for the most part. Alas...

It's 1865, the War is finally over, and Tamsin MacGreggor's husband is blessedly dead. She isn't exactly mourning his loss.  However, when she finds out that her not-dearly departed hubby managed to squander everything her grandfather built, only leaving her with two prized thoroughbreds (one stallion, one mare) - she's even less sorry he's dead.  The lawyer thinks she's nuts, but she decides to take the two horses and head to California.  She can start a new life out west.

Original Cover

She lands in Sweetwater, Colorado for the night and when she goes to collect her horses from the livery in the morning she discovers they've been stolen.  She finds out who has them, but he's the brother of the town judge and...yeah.  She heads out to his place anyway only to interrupt an argument between the man and brother judge.  She sneaks back in the middle of the night to steal back her horses only to discover the man dead, shot in the back in his own barn.  It doesn't look good for her, so she takes her horses and hits the road.

Ash Morgan is a bounty hunter who has been tracking Tamsin because he thinks she's an outlaw's paramour.  Then he's hauled before the judge who tells him that she murdered his brother and asks Ash to track her down.  Which...he does.  She's innocent, he doesn't believe her, and we're off to the races.

Honestly, this was fine for a while.  The plot is kind of all over the place and there are instances where I felt like the author left out bread crumbs in the trail (the whole Tamsin being an outlaw's lady thing takes a while to circle around), but it was fine.  Then it slides south rather quickly starting in Chapter 9 and I never made it to Chapter 10.

Ash doesn't trust Tamsin to begin with, and when she beans him over the head with a log that doesn't endear her any further.  So needless to say, he's going to restrain her going forward.  She resists, they tussle, she throws a punch, he pins her to the ground and then we get these touching moments (imagine all the sarcasm in the world - like Wendy firing the sarcasm cannon):

Having her helpless beneath him shattered the barrier he prided himself on possessing.  He shuddered, caught in a sudden rush of primitive lust that any decent man should keep in check. In vain he tried to smother a devilish urge to lift Tamsin's skirts and drive himself between her warm, soft thighs. 

The woman scent of her filled his head. He knew he was stronger than she was. He could have her here and now. Maybe she even wanted him to do it. Ash groaned and swallowed the sour gorge that rose in his throat. 

Maybe he was no better than the scum he'd vowed to destroy - the outlaws who'd raped and murdered his wife.

GOLLY GEE, YA THINK?!?!?!?!  

A few paragraphs later our "hero" heads to the nearby stream to cool off:

The frigid water couldn't wash away his desire, but it did keep him from making a total bastard of himself. He glanced back at her to make certain she wasn't stalking him with a rock. "You pack a mean right," he said. 

Tamsin's freckles stood out starkly against milky white skin. "I'm sorry," she stammered. Fear was still evident in her expression. She looked at him as if she expected him to tear off her skirts. 

The hell of it was, he wanted to.

THE HEROINE IS OFFICIALLY FRIGHTENED OF THE HERO (because, OBVIOUSLY!!!) AND HE'S STILL THINKING ABOUT RAPING HER!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope. Nope, nope, nopity nope nope.  I hit that last line, closed the book and am moving on.  Life's too short, my TBR is too big, and short of Tamsin ramming a fork through his eye socket and lighting his pants on fire using a blow torch there is literally no redeeming this "hero" for me.

Final Grade = DNF 

#TBRChallenge 2019: Bound To You

The Book: Bound to You by Shawntelle Madison

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, first in series, 2016, In Print, Self-published reprint, originally published by Loveswept (check your digital TBRs folks!)

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I have an autographed copy I picked up at RWA 2018.  I cannot recall specifics, but I think I may have purchased this at the Literacy Signing.

The Review: Books like this one depress me. Look, part of this is Wendy being Wendy.  There are BDSM themes in this book and anyone who has been reading this blog for any stretch of time will know that I was over BDSM by the time That Trilogy got a hold of the public consciousness.  So some of this on me.  But the rest of it?  There are bones of a good story here, one I think I would have really enjoyed - but the execution, what was focused on and what was not?  Oh, what might have been...

Sophie Ashton lives in Boston and is a personal concierge.  She's used to dealing with demanding clients who have more money than good sense. Her latest client is Xavier Quinn, a tech start-up hotshot visiting from the west coast.  He's trying to land a deal with a Japanese firm, and getting rebuffed as an "upstart" at every turn. His fish is currently in Boston, so Xavier makes the trip to hopefully get a sit-down and close the deal.  And for that he needs Sophie.  The problem?  They're both attracted to each other.  Xavier is cognizant of that fact that Sophie is his employee (even if only temporarily) and Sophie has been burned before by mixing business with pleasure - a relationship that ended poorly and that she's still not quite over.

So where does the BDSM fit in? Well, Sophie is "kinky" and a sub. Xavier is "kinky" and a Dom.  And naturally Sophie has a BFF and roommates all with various leanings - because, of course.  As far as how heavy the BDSM is?  It's pretty light.  Sophie is still wearing the leather cuffs given to her by her former lover and likes to be tied up in bed, given orders etc.  That's about the extent of it - and that's probably what my problem was.  It didn't always feel organic.  Like it was tossed in for "kinky flavor" but not really delved into too deeply as part of the character development.  Where it was interesting was in relation to Sophie's and Xavier's past relationships but the author only gives us teasing glances which added to my frustration.

Given the way the relationship ended, and WHY it ended, a "showdown" with Sophie's ex is inevitable.  When it arrives on the page?  It's a couple of pages.  That's it.  Oh, Sophie's part in it is great - she pretty much verbally slaps the guy into next Tuesday, but it could have been so much more.  And Xavier's ex?  She got ill and died.  It's teased that Xavier is still haunted by her death but the extent of that revelation was epic disappointment.

I was one of the richest men in the world, yet I couldn't even save a woman who didn't love me as deeply as I loved her.

THAT'S IT?!?!?!  You drop a bomb like that and don't go into any past history of why Xavier felt like his ex didn't love him as deeply as he loved her?  HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PROCESS THIS?!  And this isn't the only way Xavier's character gets short-changed.  He has a strained relationship with his family.  He was once the golden child, something happened, now he's no longer the golden child.  The author dashes of an explanation at the end, but it's weak sauce and not delved into very much at all (an injury ended his athletic career which was apparently a big deal to his mother? I guess? Why? Who knows!).  Xavier's family doesn't come into play until the last couple of chapters and frankly that dynamic was just screwy and interesting enough that I felt like the author ended up short-changing it by not spending more time developing that angle.

Look, I get that the author was aiming to create a world and that a lot of romance readers get frustrated when the hero and/or heroine lack friendships.  But those friendships shouldn't come at the expense of the meat and potatoes of the romance. You know...the thing we're all reading romance novels for. Just when I thought I was going to get a deeper dive into the characters, their pasts, their complicated relationships with family and exes, the author veers left and skates around the edge of it.  It ends up being fairly surface and teases of so much more that never really pays off.  At only 263 pages (I read a print copy), I alternated between wanting a red pen to cut out filler or wishing this was beefed up to 300+ pages to flesh everything out.

Which makes it sound like I didn't like this book.  I did like it, but I could have loved it and that's my issue.  I was all geared up for some emotional heavy lifting and it just didn't bear fruit.  Oh well.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge 2019: Losing to Win

The Book: Losing to Win by Michele Grant

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, 2013, Kensington Dafina, still in print (although stock number shaky at time of this posting), available in digital.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  I impulsively picked it up at the one and only RT convention I went to (in Las Vegas - whatever year that was...).  It was up for grabs, the model on the cover caught my eye, and the back cover blurb intrigued.

The Review: I watch very little reality television, finding the majority of it pretty gross.  But when used for the backdrop of a romance novel?  I'm all in.  It's ready made conflict (in the form of competition) for the hero and heroine and oftentimes it requires them to work as a team.  It also means they're thrown together a lot and if the author plays their cards right?  It can be a great way to start building tension.

Losing to Win is an amalgamation of contemporary romance, chick lit and women's fiction. Let me explain.  Carissa Wayne lives in tiny Belle Haven, Louisiana, an area still reeling from Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill.  Belle Haven is a small town, with limited resources, and frankly just the type of place that was largely forgotten in the wake of the devastation in larger, glitzy, flashier, New Orleans.  It's the last day at the school where she teaches.  She's kind of grungy from cleaning out her classroom when she's called into the gymnasium.  What does she find waiting for her?  A camera crew.  A cheesy TV host.  Her family and friends.  Yeah, they've blindsided her with the "opportunity" to go on a reality TV weight loss show called Losing to Win.  Lose some of those pounds she's packed on over the years and a chance to win a pile of money while doing it.  Carissa is hot though.  Really not happy.  Until she learns the finer details.  The show will film in her home town.  Publicity.  Dollars.  Opportunities for the local businesses (she's friends with many of them) to make some cash.  Literally she can't say no.

But she almost reconsiders when she finds out her ex-fiance', Malachi "Mal" Knight, will be her partner on the show.  Mal was a star athlete that made it all the way to the NFL.  He and Carissa were an item since junior high.  But then he got into professional football and started believing his own hype.  Carissa was expected to wait at home and be the good little woman.  One day, sick of being treated like crap, she left.  Taking Mal's brand new BMW with her.  Her heart broken, his heart broken, both single ever since.  And now here he is - on the show with her.  Along with other folks from her past and present (her BFF, a former friend from college, her high school nemesis etc.).

Written in dueling first person point of view from Carissa's and Mal's perspectives, the tone and vibe of this book reminded me a lot of chick lit from back in the day.  Carissa is funny, sassy, and self-deprecating.  It's also a bit women's fiction - with Carissa still smarting over her failed relationship with Mal, but also being her own woman, knowing her own mind, and having her own dreams.  Carissa wants what she wants and frankly?  Mal treated her badly, taking her for granted, steamrolling and disregarding her dreams in favor of his own.  In other words, he was a selfish ass taking her for granted and she left.

Mal sees the show as his ticket back.  A knee injury sidelined him after Carissa left and those two events led to a downward spiral.  He packed on the pounds and while he's lost some, he's go about 40 more to go to get back into playing shape.  He's not ready to give up on his NFL dream just yet, but he's a 33-year-old wide receiver (ancient in NFL terms).  His agent has gotten him a try-out with a team, but he's got a lot to prove.  And there stands Carissa.  The woman he can't forget and wants back.  But damn, what will happen when she finds out why he's doing the show?  Will she feel railroaded all over again?

I liked the humor, I liked the authorial voice and the tone of the story - but that said?  It's not perfect.  This reads very Small Town Romance most of the time which means there are eleventy billion characters.  No, not just the show's contestants, but also the people working on the show, local townspeople not on the show, various family members etc.  I felt like a lot of this fat could have been trimmed (ha!).  Also, Mal flat-out did Carissa wrong and for a while I wasn't sure I wanted him to win her back.  I mean, girlfriend had a legit beef.  The author does do a good job of showing Mal "growing up" but then a new problem comes in...Carissa.

One of the contestants on the show is a guy Carissa knew in college.  He had a thing for her back then, but she was with Mal.  Well, now Carissa is no longer with Mal and he's divorced.  He's going to make a run at her.  Carissa still has the hots for Mal, but recognizes that Jordy is a nice guy.  They also share a steamy kiss that has her intrigued.  So what does she do?  Strings Jordy along with the ol' "I Need Time" argument and knocks boots with Mal because they can't keep their hands off each other.  She's not fooling around with Jordy (she's monogamous with Mal) but damn - SHE'S STRINGING THIS GUY ALONG!!!!  And for real, he's a NICE guy.  The kind of guy you'd want to take home to meet Mom.

Between this and some minor pacing issues I had (it sags a bit in the middle) - this makes the book a B-.  I get it.  Carissa was badly burned by Mal.  So she doesn't want to close the door on Jordy and she's still running a little scared.  But then The Black Moment comes and by that point I was just so disgusted with her.  Again, I was with her for a while - but over the course of the story Mal was saying all the right things.  He was doing all the supportive things.  And then this chapter happened and ugh!!!!!!  The only saving grace (and I mean ONLY) is that the author doesn't drag out Carissa's boneheaded move.  It's all pretty well resolved before the next chapter ends.  But still.  Girl, get yourself together.

And just like that?  What was a B- read slipped down to a C- read.  There was a lot I liked here, the voice, the plot, even the "small town" vibe plays well if you gravitate towards those types of stories.  But Carissa's running scared move at the end of the book that basically further drags Nice Guy Jordy under the bus AND completely disregards the positive steps Mal has made to repair their relationship?  I wanted to slap her into next Tuesday.  Even more insulting?  She needs her BFF to clue her in to what an idiot she is after said BFF eavesdrops on a conversation.  Not sorry I read it but disappointed it didn't work better for me.

Final Grade = C-

#TBRChallenge 2019: Passion's Song

The Book: Passion's Song by Farrah Rochon

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Kimani Romance #461, 2016, out of print, available in digital.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had a print copy, which means I must have picked it up at a conference since I went digital with Harelquin ages ago. But my copy wasn't autographed and my personal notes on where I got this were lacking. Best guess? It was sitting in the Goody Room at some past RWA conference.

The Review: On Friday it dawned on me that the TBR Challenge deadline was Wednesday and do you think I had started a book, let alone picked one out?  Ha ha ha ha! It is to laugh.  Given the short timeline I knew I had to go with a category romance, pulled this book out of the depths, liked the sound of the back cover blurb, and I've got at least 2 other print books by Rochon in a pile, plus a few ebooks - so I'd stay on theme! Boy, did I hit the jackpot!  This wasn't a keeper for me, but it hit a lot of my sweet spots and I sailed through it in less than a day.

April Knight grew up in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, became a celebrated cellist and traveled the world.  But, she's ready for less travel, to place firmer roots, so moving back home, post-Katrina, is what she does. She's determined to help rebuild the city by reaching out to kids just like her.  She still works in music, but she spends a lot of time volunteering at A Fresh Start - a summer program designed to keep kids off the streets and out of trouble.  Her and the other volunteers are always scrambling for funding and want to find the resources to offer the program year-round.  They're losing too many kids.  And that's when opportunity knocks on April's door.

Damien Alexander grew up in the Ninth Ward just like April, and while he still lives in New Orleans, the old neighborhood doesn't hold many happy memories.  He got out thanks to a football scholarship and his friendship with April.  In high school they were best friends and she tutored him so he'd pass English.  He's now a big shot construction guy and was just named one of the city's most eligible bachelors.  He has plans for a piece of property he just bought in the Ninth Ward, but for what he envisions he needs funding.  To get the funding he needs to attend some high roller events among the city's elite.  And for that? He needs arm candy.  Someone who can run interference thanks to the whole "eligible bachelor" thing and someone sophisticated, charming, cultured...someone just like April.  Plus, they're old friends! No distractions for his libido! It's the perfect solution! (Poor, dumb dumb hero man - will these guys never learn?).

April had a crush on Damien for years and while slightly insulted with his proposal, she's nobody's fool. She sees an opportunity when one presents itself.  She'll be Damien's arm candy and in exchange he'll teach a class in money management at A Fresh Start to help round out their offerings and make them look even better on their grant application.  Damien isn't wild about spending so much time in the old neighborhood but he knows he's been bested.  A bargain is struck.

Two of my favorite tropes are in this story: Friends To Lovers and Pretend Relationship.  I couldn't believe my luck when I happened to pull this book blindly out of my TBR!  It's also a book with an excellent community feel to it.  Look, I know a fair share of readers who like to bag on small town contemporary romances.  I'm not a huge fan of them in single title, but I understand the appeal.  What Rochon has done is given readers a "community-based" romance in a big city.  New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles - these are all cities with "neighborhoods" and Rochon is highlighting a slice of New Orleans by setting her story in the Ninth Ward.  The wonderful sense of place gives the romance a very strong backdrop on which to build.

The romance itself is fairly low-key.  It's largely character driven, with Damien having baggage regarding the old neighborhood and his plans for the land he's purchased are straight-up gentrification.  When April finds out the details, she has definite strong opinions and Damien finds himself re-evaluating.  Is this truly what he thinks is best for the Ninth Ward, or is he letting his past cloud his judgment?

Given the friendship between April and Damien there's a tenderness to the romance I enjoyed, the sex scene hit all the right emotional beats, and I felt immersed in the world, the neighborhood, that Rochon created.  It's a well-crafted, well-executed short contemporary and I'm obviously an idiot for letting this book languish for as long as it did.  I need to go back to the pile and unearth my other collected Rochon books...

Final Grade = B

#TBRChallenge 2019: Going Full Spoiler on Texas Daddy

The Book: Texas Daddy by Jolene Navarro

The Particulars: Inspirational contemporary romance, Love Inspired #1085, 2017, First book in trilogy, Spin-off from previous series, Out of print, Available in digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I heard the author speak on a panel about cowboys at RWA.  There were several authors on this panel but Navarro lives in Texas and touched on Mexican cowboy culture (and Mexican rodeos) and that was enough to intrigue me and pick up this book.

The Review: For this month's Something Different theme I decided to go with a New-To-Me Author and a category romance line I had never read before.  I've read Love Inspired Historicals and Love Inspired Suspense, but have never read anything from the contemporary line.  This reminded me a lot of the Special Edition line...just with more God Stuff.

This is one of those books that left me feeling disoriented and out of sorts.  There's stuff I really liked in this book and then there was stuff that enraged me to the point where my head almost exploded.  So, this should be a fun review.  Anyway, there's no way for me to talk about the problematic crap without giving spoilers so you've been warned.

Adrian De La Cruz is a single father to his 10-year-old daughter.  He got his girlfriend pregnant in high school, gave up his dreams to travel the rodeo circuit (he was pretty good) and with the help of his family got down to the business of raising Mia and starting a construction business with his twin bother.  Mia's mother, being young, sinking into addiction, and with a crappy home life, willingly gave up custody to Adrian and took off for parts unknown almost immediately after giving birth.

Nikki Bergmann is back home in Clear Water, Texas not because she wants to be, but because an accident has jacked up her knee.  Nikki is a travel guide, one of those outdoor adventure types who takes folks on tours in the Grand Canyon. Past ready to leave Texas in the dust, she decides to take her busted up knee off-road biking on her late mother's ranch, gets in an accident, jacks up her bike and knee (again) oh...and a storm has blown in.  Adrian was checking a downed fence line on the border of the property and rescues her.  He had a terrible crush on her in high school, but she was three years older (translation: out of his league) and blew out of town before he had the guts to approach her.  He hadn't heard she was back in Clear Water, which is pretty amazing since it's a small town where everybody is up in all y'alls business.

This story starts off in a very uninspirational way.  For one thing Nikki has got to be the most prickly, standoffish heroine I've read in a dog's age.  Adrian is Mr. Nice Guy who tends to let his mouth run away from him - one of those that can't seem to let a silence just linger.  So she's on her guard and he's trying to stop himself from sounding like a blithering idiot.

The small town world-building is great, the characters are well drawn, and the relationship between Nikki, her younger twin sisters, and youngest half-sister is dynamite.  Mia is just enough kid and "wise beyond her years" without being a plot moppet.  She is also recovering from a knee injury, the result of a rodeo accident that has turned up all of Adrian's over-protective instincts - so she and Nikki take to each other right away - despite Nikki's wariness and Big Secret.

And that's where this book went to Hell.  Nikki's Big Secret is that she fell for the wrong boy when she was 17 and got pregnant.  He was using her and two-timing on his girlfriend (a woman he later married and knocked around before she dumped him).  When she tells him she's pregnant he's like "get rid of it" and "if you tell anybody I'll deny it's mine and everybody will know you're a lying slut."  Things aren't great at home for Nikki at that time thanks to her stepmother so she hides the pregnancy from her Dad, her sisters and goes to live with her Mom's aunt who gets her through the pregnancy and has the baby boy adopted by distant relatives who want children but are unable to conceive.  Nikki stays away from home and builds a life in Arizona - only to have an accident and another disastrous relationship send her back to Texas to recover.

So yeah. We all know where this is going right?  Nikki knows she has to tell her family the truth of why she left home and why she hasn't been back in, like, 12 years.  Adrian does not think highly of his Baby Mama for "abandoning" Mia to his care and she, naturally, blows back into town - now sober for 3 years - and hoping to meet her daughter.  Adrian freaks his shit out, which Nikki witnesses.  So when Adrian finds out about Nikki having a baby, and giving that baby over to another family to adopt?  He freaks his shit out.

And...that's the rub.  The author may want me to think that Adrian is this dynamite, sacrificing single father but he is so blindingly insensitive that I started screaming at my Kindle screen.  He's completely incapable of looking at anything outside of his own perspective.  He doesn't "get" that his Baby Mama was scared, young, not ready to be a Mom, and had NO family support.  He thinks, "Well, she had me and my family and she left anyway so she sucks."  He doesn't think that Nikki was young, scared, her life at home was strained and the boy she thought loved her used and abandoned her.  No, Nikki just threw away her baby without so much as a by-your-leave.

By this point in the story Nikki goes from prickly to a bit too downtrodden for my tastes, but at least once the light dawns for douchecanoe Adrian and he goes running off to beg her forgiveness, she gets a few choice words in.  Not nearly as forceful as I would have liked, but frankly I felt like Adrian should have suffered mightily, crawling over broken glass through colonies of fire ants.  Mores the pity.

Since this is an inspirational, let's talk God Stuff.  On a scale of 1-10 this is probably hovering around a 6.5.  The characters believe that God has a plan for their lives.  They attend church.  They socialize with people they attend church with.  They pray.  The God Stuff is fairly light in the beginning but gets heavier starting around the halfway point.

All in all I'm left with conflicting feelings.  Navarro is a good category-length writer, hitting her beats, building an interesting world, writing interesting characters, and throwing in some good smooching scenes to build romantic tension.  But OMG, Adrian's reaction and judgmental attitude towards his Baby Mama and once Nikki's Big Secret comes to light ENRAGED me.  I have no idea how to assign one grade to encapsulate my yo-yo emotions so I'm assigning this a catch-all C grade and calling it done.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2019: Wayward Widow

The Book: Wayward Widow by Nicola Cornick

The Particulars: Historical romance, Harlequin Historical #700, 2004, third book in trilogy, out of print, available in digital.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Several years back I discovered Cornick and proceeded to hunt down her entire backlist.

The Review: I'm a sucker for romance heroines with dubious reputations (whether they be earned or not).  Lady Juliana Myfleet has the intriguing distinction of falling into both categories.  Good Ton think she is the wickedest sort, with her dubious friends, gambling habit, and outrageous behavior.  Having met before as teenagers, the hero makes her reacquaintance at a house-party-slash-bachelor-party where Juliana, quite literally, is presented on a silver platter, naked as the day she was born, with strategically placed fruits and icing sugar.  Juliana loves to shock, but is she truly the "bad girl" that she seems?

Martin Davencourt had been living abroad when he's summoned home after his father and stepmother die in an accident.  He's now the guardian to his 7 younger half-siblings, which is turning into a bit of a trial since the two oldest girls are fighting their chaperone every step of the way and the oldest boy has up and quit Cambridge with no explanation whatsoever.  Honestly, he's got enough on his plate without being distracted by Juliana Myfleet, but distracted (of course) he is.

This is a fairly low-key Regency in that not a lot happens in terms of plot.  The crux of it is that Juliana has spent her whole life making herself wholly unsuitable and Martin borders on sanctimonious prig.  I mean, honestly?  The entire fun of this story is these two bantering back and forth, and Juliana completely calling Martin out on his bullshit.  To add to his undoing?  Once his younger siblings meet Juliana they're completely entranced with her, even though she's about as far away from Mary Poppins as you can get.  There's a forthrightness to Juliana, her willingness to call a spade a spade, that makes her an exceedingly delightful heroine.  This is a bad girl who makes dreadful choices but she also doesn't take flack from anybody.  I'll be frank: she's not terribly "likeable" and that's what makes her pretty great.

Ah, but you hear the "but" in that don't you?  So where did it slide sideways for me?  Juliana's past is dealt with in a very perfunctory manner.  Husband #1 was a love match and she was devastated by his death.  And yet we hear very little about him beyond, "She loved him so."  Husband #2 was the exact opposite, a liar and wastrel who abandoned her in Italy and died in debtor's prison.  Given that she ran off with Totally Unsuitable Hubby #2 - this is where the bulk of her reputation was earned.  Then she returned to London and was unwilling to cow-tow and act repentant sinner. That sealed her fate.  This is all dealt with in a very bare bones manner. Basically what I just described in this paragraph?  That's basically what you get in the book.  There's no expounding...at all.

There's also the matter of her relationship with her father.  Yes, as refreshing as Juliana is as a heroine, she's one of those who wasn't loved enough by Daddy hence her dubious life choices.  Also, I'll admit that while Juliana does do "some bad things" - a lot of what people think about her is simply untrue.  An illusion she cultivates because she abhors hypocrisy, she's lonely, and Daddy didn't love her enough.  Oh well...can't win 'em all.

But this makes a book a B-.  What makes a book a C?  When it's all carrying on just fine and then it's like someone told the author, "Love, you ain't made your word count yet," and the last two chapters take a bizarre turn and we get hastily added external conflict.  For the last 20% of the book.  It feels weird, rushed, and frankly relies on an amazing coincidence.  It does tie everything up and the author does bring things full circle, but it strains the seams considerably.

So it ends up being a mixed bag for me.  Cornick can write her face off and the dialogue in this story is A+ top-notch.  Also, even though it's the last book in a trilogy, I never felt like I was trying to keep my head above the waters of Series-itis Ocean.  There's memorable elements at work here, but oof those last couple of chapters are a doozy.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2019: Saved by the CEO

The Book: Saved by the CEO by Barbara Wallace

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Romance #4507, 2016, Eighth (and final) book in The Vineyards of Calanetti continuity series, out of print, available digitally.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: 1) I'm a sucker for the Harlequin Romance line 2) I tend to enjoy Wallace's books and 3) I picked this up at an RWA conference...because of course I did.  It was a Harlequin and not tied down.

The Review: Never let it be said that Wendy half-assed the "Series" prompt for this month's challenge.  The eighth and final book in a multi-author continuity series when, you guessed it, I haven't read a single entry preceding this one.  I'm happy to report that while, yes, it's glaringly obviously that this part of a series, Wallace did a good job of keeping an ignorant newcomer engaged, and there's enough past characters here that I think those already familiar with the series will be happy.

Louisa Harrison went through a publicly humiliating divorce.  As a naive 21-year-old she fell for her older, rich boss.  She thought she was Cinderella, finding her Prince Charming.  Turns out the Prince was emotionally abusive, isolated her from everybody she loved, and in his spare time was running a Ponzi scheme.  Never mind that Louisa was the one who unearthed the evidence against him and hustled it straight to the authorities - as they say, never let the truth get in the way of good gossip.  After a messy divorce, where the tabloids crowned her "Luscious Louisa," she runs off to Tuscany, where it just so happens she inherited a distant relative's falling down palazzo.

Nico Amatucci is the successful vintner who grew up in the shadow of the palazzo, watched it succumb to neglect until the American heiress could be bothered to show up, and keeps the vineyards operational.  Well, more than that, he's turned them into a raging success - in no small part to his wine being the talk of the recent royal wedding that was hosted at the palazzo.  Sparks have been flying since he met Louisa, with tension aplenty, and it spilled over during the wedding when they shared a steamy kiss.  Then she got spooked and ran.

He finds out why she ran over the course of this story.  Thanks to the royal wedding Louisa has been found by the tabloid press and her reputation as a gold-digging hussy who led her "poor husband" to ruin is coming back to haunt her.  Nico, with his take-charge attitude, along with the fact that he's smitten, wants to protect her - not realizing that his "take-charge attitude," coupled with her ex's isolating, emotionally abusive ways, is going to send Louisa running as far and as fast as she can.

As already mentioned, this is the final book in a long-running continuity, but it doesn't take a genius to realize that the chemistry between Louisa and Nico has been simmering for a long time (especially since two previous books featured his siblings as main protagonists...).  So fans would be more than primed to finally get this romance.  As a newcomer, Wallace did a great job of introducing past couples without them sucking the energy out of THIS romance and I never felt like they were unnecessary filler to keep fans happy.  Every past character who shows up serves a purpose in this story.

I also really liked the world-building.  Wallace made me believe in this small, romantic Tuscany village that was seeing an uptick in tourist traffic thanks to a royal wedding.  The atmosphere was really lovely, to the point where I'm half tempted to run away from home.

What didn't work?  Well, this is one of those books where I felt like the characters needed a good therapist before a romance. Nico, bless his heart, is only doing what well-meaning Alpha heroes have done since the dawn of time. As the reader I knew he was only doing what he thought best because he cared for Louisa.  But to Louisa, who has lived through her nightmare of a first marriage?  She sees it as Nico wanting to control her.  She's wrong, of course, but you can see why she would jump to those conclusions. Which signals to me that she's still unpacking the majority of the baggage from her Evil Ex and yes....she needs a therapist.  She's got friends, but nobody she's felt comfortable enough to confide in until the paparazzi ferret her out.  And then she, naturally, confides in Nico.

For his part, Nico has baggage from his parents who had a love/hate/make-up/break-up relationship and he has vowed to never let "passion" rule his good sense.  He found a nice, steady, low-drama girl, got engaged, but when she got tired of being treated like a potted plant, she broke their engagement.  And Nico?  Well, he didn't love her, was mostly with her because there wasn't any of that messy ol' passion, and has pretty much resigned himself to being alone...because he doesn't see it being any other way.  Honestly?  I get it - but damn, I felt sorry for his ex.  I mean, she never shows up on the page, but she sounds like a positively lovely, low-drama kind of gal.  I hope she's somewhere in Italy getting her groove thang on.

I enjoyed the setting, the world-building is very good, and I loved spending a few hours getting swept off my feet.  I poked a few holes in the romance, but this was still very much a Calgon Take Me Away sort of read.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge 2019: Wendy Goes On A Spice Briefs Bender

Work has been busy to start the new year which has resulted in lagging reading mojo.  How lagging?  Let's just say that sustaining my attention span for a category length romance for this month's challenge was too much for me.  No, I needed to go really short - and thanks to Harlequin for mucking up their ebook delivery system, I discovered a small pile of Spice Briefs languishing in my TBR.  This line no longer exists, in part because Harlequin's pricing on the shorts was terrible at the time (over $2 for stories that clocked in on the high end of 50 pages) and also because the line never was clearly defined.  In other words: sometimes you got erotica and sometimes you got erotic romance.  That's fine by me since I read both, but Harlequin largely caters to romance readers so...yeah.  No surprise Spice Briefs folded even though I did my best to single-handedly keep it going.  So it was on a lazy Saturday afternoon that I found myself inhaling four of them back-to-back-to-back-to-back and feeling more than slightly drunk from the fallout.

The Revolutionary Mistress by Leia Rice is all sorts of problematic, is definitely erotica, and I enjoyed every minute of it (don't judge).  With the French Revolution bubbling to full boil, Mariette is a tavern barmaid who has had to resort to prostituting herself to earn any sort of living. Then she meets Rene, and our girl falls hard and fast.  But danger lurks in the form a Sebastian, a regular customer who has her ensnared in his revolutionary activities.

For such a short story (around 50 pages), the author does an excellent job with developing her setting with all the tension you would expect for a story set during the French Revolution.  It ends happily in the respect that the heroine is safe and she's going to be on the receiving end of what will surely be months, if not years, of incredible sex - so while a stretch to consider this a romance, it's definitely what I would consider female-centered erotica.  My only real quibble is that Mariette is what I call a reactionary heroine.  Stuff happens, she reacts.  She never really takes matters into her own hands and for most of this story she's at the whims of men.  Could I understand that given the world she was living in?  Yes. But I can't help thinking what this story could have been had Mariette been a more wily sort of character.

Final Grade = B-

The Lady's Bargain by Leslie Dicken was less successful for me, largely because the heroine does something unbelievably stupid and because the hero is a cad.  Lady Christine Claybourne needs to stay unmarried until her next birthday, only one month away, in order to inherit the only home she's ever known. So when her uncle arranges her betrothal, she runs away and poses as a shy governess.  She's discovered by William Preston, Lord Kingston, her betrothed's younger brother.  Turns out she inadvertently accepted a governess post in her future father-in-law's home. She ran away from a guy she doesn't want to marry only to end up at his parents' house. Seriously.

Here's the thing, I get the girl doesn't want to marry - but she basically prostitutes herself to the "hero" to keep her secret and the brother she is engaged to?  Yes, he wants her dowry (because of course he does), but it's not like the guy is a horrible monster.  So you've got William cuckolding his brother, the heroine determined to go through with the marriage after one night of passion with William because she's in lurve and realizes either way she's destined to be alone forever so what does it all matter anyway, and the author tries to spin it all out as a great love match romance.  Nah, not buying.  On the bright side? The sex scenes are very well written.

Final Grade = D+

Tuscan Seduction by Amber Carlsbad was very well written but ultimately not very satisfying because of it's brevity.  Gina has come to the realization that she is wasting her youth, so she breaks up with her steady, older (read: boring) beau, quits her job that she won't miss, and takes off to Italy.  She meets Carlo on the train, sparks fly, and we get a hot sex with a hot stranger story.

This is very, very brief.  It's basically an interlude between two characters that morphs into them deciding to spend more time together once the train ride concludes.  It works as erotica, but not really as a separate stand-alone story.  Honestly?  This would have been right at home in a Cleis Press anthology, and was even written like it.  Not bad, not great, just sort of there.

Final Grade = C

I had originally planned to just read three shorts for this month's Challenge, but I was well and truly drunk at this point and just didn't know when to quit.  So that's how I came to read The Devilish Duke by Alice Gaines, which led me to sobering up quickly.

Miss Rosalind Weaver's father is a degenerate gambler who wants to sell his daughter into marriage to a man she cannot abide. So her answer is to arrive on the Duke of Fallon's doorstep (he had also asked for her hand, but was outbid by the odious guy) and propose they marry. She'll give him the heir he desperately wants (Fallon's got two dead wives under his belt...) and she doesn't have to marry the odious lecher.  He agrees, but wants to sample the goods first.

The author is shooting for romance here, but instead readers are regaled with Sex and Crazy.  The "Crazy" comes in the form Dead Wife #2's Evil Sister who the hero had a menage a trois with - and yes, of course the sisters were incestuous.  There's also the backhanded comment the hero makes about Dead Wife #1 being frigid, dying in childbirth, and the baby (a girl) dying a few days later.  He makes a snide comment about being happy "at the time" that the baby died so he could start over.  What. A. Prince.

Not.

And after that I'm supposed to believe he's a great guy and he's got this great love match, finally, with Rosalind and OF COURSE we get a childbirth epilogue where OF COURSE Rosalind squirts out a baby boy and WENDY MAD! WENDY SMASH!

Look, were girls devalued during historical times?  Heck, we're devalued now!  Doesn't mean I want to read about it and it doesn't mean I want the author to give the hero a free pass over it.

Final Grade = F

Not a good way to end my gorging at the Spice Briefs trough, but it did succeed in getting me to sober up.  Plus reading so many shorts in a row helped kick start the mojo.  Not a rousing success, but I'll take it.

Announcing the 2019 #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 Twitter and I'll post it on the information page so followers and other participants can find you.

Sound good?  Of course it does!  So what are the themes for 2019?  So glad you asked!

January 16 - We Love Short Shorts! (shorter reads)
February 20 - Series (book that is part of a series)
March 20 - Favorite Trope
April 17 - Something Different (unusual setting, sub genre you don't read all the time, etc.)
May 15 - Backlist Glom (author with more than one book in your TBR)
June 19 - Historical
July 17 - Contemporary
August 21 - Random Pick
September 18 - Kicking It Old School (original publication 10+ years ago)
October 16 - Paranormal or Romantic Suspense
November 20 - Sugar or Spice (closed door "just kisses" or super steamy!)
December 18 - Holiday (any holiday!)

As always, the themes are optional.  Don't like 'em, don't have to use them.  See how easy this is?  I mean really, how could you not want to join in on the fun?