#TBRChallenge 2024: A Trio of Christmas Novellas

The final TBR Challenge of 2024 snuck up on me to the point that it was Sunday morning before I remembered my own deadline. Not a good look for the hostess. The other fly in the ointment? I haven't been reading - much of anything. This is an affliction I've struggled with all year but December, always being busy, has just exacerbated it. So I did what I always do when I'm caught with my TBR Challenge pants down - I did a deep dive into my Kindle, found three short stories that fit the bill, and read them back-to-back-to-back.

First up is Letters at Christmas by Amber Lin that our Evil Overlords at The 'Zon tell me I downloaded (undoubtedly) as a freebie back in 2014. Gently born Sidony has had three Seasons, but her heart wasn't in it. Her heart was already spoken for, to her brother's BFF, Captain Hale Martin. These two crazy kids were madly in love and carrying on in secret, but Hale, with limited prospects, knows he needs to change his fortunes if he wants to ask for Sidony's hand. He enters into the shipping business and tells Sidony he's setting sail for one year, she'll have her one Season, and then they'll reunite. And of course he'll write her constantly! That was three years ago, and Hale has sent word that he's coming home and will be spending the holidays with Sidony and her brother. Gone two years longer than expected and oh yeah, there were no letters. Zero. None. Zilch. Boyfriend just straight up ghosted her. Of course she's still in love with him but she's also really angry - and naturally in waltzes Hale determined to win her back.

I stuck with this story because the writing is just that good. It's polished with well-done tension and character development. Unfortunately, the plot doesn't do these two any favors.  It's basically "I loved you, I'm really mad at you, I don't know if I can forgive you, oopsie doodle now we're having sex." Speaking of the sex, there's a lot of it.  Which is fine if you're looking for a steamy read, but given the short word count I wanted more time spent on the emotional heft of these two finding their way back together and the heroine's anger, and forgiveness, towards the hero.

What's even more unfortunate? This author seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth. Her website is down and according to Goodreads she hasn't published anything in 10 years - which is a shame because the writing is certainly more than good enough here to make me pick up another one of her stories.

Final Grade = B-

I downloaded A Merry Royal Layover by Teri Wilson via Amazon back in 2021, but it no longer seems to be available - well, anywhere. Maybe it will become available again some day? Maybe as a freebie via the author's website or newsletter? But until then, sorry folks - if this sounds good you're out of luck unless you already have it in your TBR.

Cindy's fiancé broke her heart on Christmas Eve and since then the holiday season has been rough thanks to well-meaning family. So this year she's decided to travel to Tiny Made-Up Country in Europe That Only Exists on Romancelandia Maps to volunteer at an animal shelter - Cindy being a veterinarian. She arrives at Heathrow Airport in London only to discover inclement weather has delayed and cancelled all flights. Luckily her father pulls some strings and gets her access to a posh airport lounge and that is where she has a meet cute with none other than Prince Tristan, from Tiny Made-Up Country in Europe That Only Exists on Romancelandia Maps. Prince Tristan is on his way home after volunteering at a sloth sanctuary because of course and naturally these two tap-dance around each other by not acknowledging he's a frickin' Prince.

This is a sweet, just-kisses bon-bon of a holiday read, the stranded/layover premise is great and Wilson certainly has the romantic comedy chops to pull it off.  Unfortunately the story itself leans hard into the movie of Love Actually. The whole story basically hinges on it and Lord help you if you haven't seen the movie and/or you hate it. But if you're fan? It'll probably work better for you. For me, personally, it was all a little too cutesy-wootsy for my tastes.

Final Grade = C

I have no idea how A Countess for Christmas by Anthea Lawson came to be in my TBR, but it was the caboose bringing up the rear in my holiday read-a-thon. Miss Cecilia Fairfax is not looking forward to the holidays. She's now in charge of running the household, her mother having passed and the family just coming out of mourning. Her father is in declining health and her oldest brother's family is about to descend on them - which includes her sour sister-in-law and her barely housebroken nephews. Then she gets word that her younger brother, Marcus, has been injured in an accident, rendering him temporarily blind, while visiting Liam Barrett, the Earl of Tarrick. What follows is Cecilia and Liam exchanging a series of delightful letters to exchange news of Marcus' recuperation. Seriously, the letters are the very best part of this story.

Anyway, Marcus recovers enough to head home and to show his gratitude he invites Liam to join him. Does he tell his sister he's bringing home a houseguest? You have to ask? Of course he doesn't. 

This is when the story starts to falter for me. There's just not enough of Liam and Cecilia together on page and developing a relationship to get me to buy into the happy ending. There's a potentially great emotional scene where Liam comes across a wrung-out Cecilia having a cry in a linen closet but it doesn't go far enough. Then there's some tacked on bits involving a ghost haunting the house and an added twist of suspense when Cecilia gets locked in the cellar - leading to Marcus rescuing her, proposing marriage, and then The End. Look, I realize people married back in the day not knowing much about each other, but this was the very definition of hasty. The delightful letters in the beginning were not enough to sell me on the romance. There was just too much left unanswered for me.  Great beginning leading to an ho-hum at the finish line.  But have I mentioned the letters in the beginning are great?!

Final Grade = C+

And there you have it, the final TBR Challenge of 2024.  I want to thank everyone who participated and followed along this year - and hey, let's to it again in 2025.

#TBRChallenge 2024: Parting Gifts

The Book: Parting Gifts by Lorraine Heath

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hot mess original cover

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

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

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

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

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

Final Grade = B-

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

#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+

#TBRChallenge 2024: The Spaniard's Last-Minute Wife

The Book: The Spaniard's Last-Minute Wife by Caitlin Crews

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Presents #4139, Book 2 in connected duet, out of print, available digitally (at the time of this blog post this was also available via Kindle Unlimited)

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Crews is quickly becoming an autobuy for me in Presents, not because all her books work for me in that line, but because she leans in on the Cuckoo Bananapants that can make Presents compulsively readable. This was a library book sale purchase that I just added to the TBR back in April and THE HEROINE IS A LIBRARIAN! Also, look closely at the cover, the heroine in the clinch is wearing glasses which is HOW WE KNOW SHE'S A LIBRARIAN!

The Review: This month's TBR Challenge theme is Drama! and being in a reading slump it was a forgone conclusion that I was going to pick up a Presents (seriously, are you new here?).  As fate would have it, this book foretold me liberating it from my Harlequin TBR Cupboard:

But Geraldine had decided that the situation called for a little bit of drama. Surely the man deserved it after what he’d done.

Seriously, amen Geraldine the Librarian. A-frickin-men.

The book opens with our perfectly sensible Midwestern librarian heroine, Geraldine Gertrude Casey, crashing the small Lake Como wedding of Spanish billionaire, Lionel Asensio. Why would she do such a thing? Well when she heard he was getting married, in what was sure to be an opulent lavish Italian wedding, she snapped. Geraldine is raising her beloved cousin's daughter, Jules, and said cousin, on her deathbed, said Lionel was the Baby Daddy. He may have treated her poor cousin shabbily, but Geraldine is determined that Lionel do right by his daughter.

However, a funny thing happens as the bride walks down the aisle....a man shows up to spirit her away (see Book 1) and between the absurdity and the jet-lag Geraldine starts laughing. Uncontrollably. Drawing the attention of the jilted groom who for some reason is now standing in front of Geraldine and not chasing after his kidnapped bride. What the deuce?

Next thing she knows, bingo-bango - Geraldine is being hustled down the aisle and in a daze finds herself married to Lionel. Because apparently our groom needs a bride, doesn't really matter who the "lucky lady" is. Why? To please his beloved grandmother on her birthday. Or something. Look, does any of this make any kind of logical sense? No. But it's a Presents so just roll with it y'all. 

What follows is the charade of a sham marriage to please his grandmother, Lionel's Presents Hero Baggage (Mommy didn't love him, Dad and Granddad were notorious playboys, lather rinse repeat), and Geraldine agreeing to the whole farce to secure a paternity test and support for Jules. Of course these two crazy kids end up catching feelings and the best laid plans all go to hell.

There's a fine line between Presents Logic and Completely Preposterous, and unfortunately this plot crosses that line. I love me some Cuckoo Bananapants as much as the next Presents fan, but this one was a bridge too far for even me. How does Geraldine find out about the wedding and yet Lionel's grandmother has no clue? And Geraldine waltzes right on in and there's barely any security and no paparazzi around? For a billionaire's wedding?! And the bride-to-be is an heiress in her own right?! Sure Jan. And look, I don't know anything about getting married in Italy but surely they have to sign some kind of marriage license there? I'm not convinced Geraldine simply saying "yes" in front a priest is enough to find her suddenly married to a complete stranger.

But, whatever. It's a Presents Wendy. Don't overthink the Cuckoo Bananapants. 

The first half is a bit of slog with not enough dialogue between our couple to convince me they're catching feelings. However things perk up after grandmother's birthday party when our couple, at Granny's behest, take somewhat of a staycation honeymoon. That's when conversations are had, they spend time with wee Jules, and the sexy times come into play (which, boy howdy). Also the story of Geraldine's cousin's downfall and death is particularly heart-wrenching - a gorgeous girl who became a model and ended up eaten by the sharks. (Spoiler: turns out Lionel is NOT the Baby Daddy)

Is this book marginally insane? Yes. Is it completely devoid of any hint of logic? Also yes. But I read it in a couple hours in a stunned, wide-eyed way that only Presents and Bodice Rippers seem to illicit from me. 

Oh, and somehow I made it to the end of this review without mentioning that our librarian heroine is a virgin. But of course she is. She's a Presents heroine. You probably didn't need me to disclose that.

Final Grade = C+

#TBRChallenge 2024: A Rendezvous to Remember

The Book: A Rendezvous to Remember by Geri Krotow

Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Everlasting #20, 2007, Out of print, Available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: My print copy is brand new and unsigned but I'm fairly certain I must have picked this up in either a conference goodie room or a local RWA chapter event. That means it was a freebie and a category romance so of course it was in my TBR.

The Review: Everlasting originally started out as a mini-series within the sadly departed and still deeply mourned Harlequin SuperRomance line. Eventually Harlequin spun it off into it's own short-lived (about a year?) line where the marketing was "Every great love has a story to tell." That translated to non-traditional "historical" settings (mid-20th century in some cases) and present-day settings featuring older couples and plots that leaned in on second chance, marriage in trouble etc. I collected a few of these but it was never a line I was actively drawn to or mourned after Harlequin pulled the plug.

Melinda Thompson is a speech writer for a senator, now living in D.C., after her husband, Nick, is deployed for a second tour in Afghanistan, their marriage in the final death throes. She's upset he hasn't left the Army Reserves yet and that they've been unable to get pregnant. He's upset that she wants to chuck her teaching job to move to D.C. and write speeches for the senator. They haven't been speaking, Nick being overseas and Melinda dealing with a demanding job and the recent death of her beloved grandmother, who essentially raised her. Well now Melinda is back home in Buffalo, New York - the senator grudgingly allowing her two weeks off so she can look in on Grandpa Jack. What Melinda didn't expect was to walk into her own house, the one she used to share with Nick, to discover he too is back in town.

When Melinda goes to check on Grandpa Jack he gives her two journals, one belonging to him and one belonging to her grandmother - both written during and immediately after World War II.  Jack implores Melinda to read them right away, it was her grandmother's wish - which Melinda, of course, does. Melinda always knew her grandparents met during the war - what she didn't know was that her beloved grandmother was a member of the Belgian Resistance, that her grandfather worked for British Intelligence, and Jack was not Grammy's first husband....

The story is told in dual timelines, present day Buffalo and through the journal entries of Jack's and Grammy Esmèe's journals. There's a good, compelling story here with what should be high stakes conflict. Unfortunately it's wasted on a present day couple who were generally terrible and the poor execution of the World War II storyline told through journal entries.

Here's the problem with the journal entries: It's tell, tell, tell. A more elegant way to put this is to steal from Miss Bates who recently wrote in a review for a completely different book, that that writer "recounts without telling at the reader." Folks, what we have in A Rendezvous to Remember is the opposite. It's all tell, no show. And because it's all tell and no show I have less than zero investment in either couple or their conflict. I should have been on the edge of my seat reading about Esmèe's work with the Belgian Resistance, her first marriage to a vilely abusive husband, of Jack's dangerous work behind enemy lines and his eventual time served in a horrid POW camp.  I've been more riveted reading dry-as-dust nonfiction treatises.

The present day storyline doesn't help matters. Nick has lost the lower half of his left leg to an IED explosion but is hiding that (somehow?!) from Melinda because he doesn't want her to come back to him out of pity. I realize that there have been amazing advancements in prosthetics but really?! He had served her with divorce papers but she still didn't find out about his injury? Either from his family or the Army? There's not a dashed off mention in the story that she was removed as his next of kin notification so how?!  Granted, I don't know much about prosthetics but this one strained for me. I mean, maybe it's possible but I wasn't buying it - which still makes it a problem. I wasn't convinced that she just wouldn't notice something like that.

Original cover

Before you think Melinda is the bad guy here, not supporting Nick's    military service and just running off to D.C. - Nick is no prize either. He doesn't understand why she'd want to take that job for the senator anyway when she could stay in Buffalo and keep being a teacher, no matter she obviously isn't feeling challenged or fulfilled by this career path.  Then he implies that she's only taking this job because her biological clock is ticking and they haven't been able to get pregnant. The vibe I got from him was that a wife with any ambition that doesn't involve staying where he wants to stay, doing what he wants to do, is an issue for him.

Great, I hate both of them. She's selfish and whiny and he's an ass.

Of course in the end it's all right as rain. Melinda gets through the journals. Her and Nick find their way back to each other and we get an epilogue where she squirts out a kid at age 41.  There's no confirmation (!!!) but presumably she's given up her high-pressured demanding job for the senator and is back in Buffalo playing happy homemaker.  Or maybe she went back to teaching. Whatever. There's several mentions in the book that she wanted "more," wanted to "escape" Buffalo, and it's a big factor on why their marriage hit the skids in the first place but in the final chapter nothing is confirmed. I'm assuming she quit the senator and moved back to Nick and Buffalo because Nick mentions he wants to leave behind accounting and open his own landscaping / garden center business. 

Besides hating both Melinda and Nick (which I guess means they maybe deserve each other? Hey, maybe this book does work?) the World War II storyline isn't half-bad but there's absolutely no juice behind it. It's like a cake you take out of the oven too soon. The edges are close to done but you still have raw batter in the center.  It's a quick read and I got a kick out of the Buffalo setting (having lived there in my late teens / early 20s) but that's really about it. Oh well, one more off the pile.

Final Grade = D+

#TBRChallenge 2024: Captured

The Book: Captured by Beverly Jenkins

The Particulars: Colonial Historical Romance, 2009, Avon, Book 3 in Le Veq Family series.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I enjoy Jenkins' historicals more often than not and hello? This is a pirate romance. My print copy isn't autographed so I suspect I either bought this new or was sent a copy by the publisher.

The Review: I struggled a bit with what to read for this month's What A Wonderful World theme and while randomly digging through my print shelves I found this book by Jenkins. Hey, pirates! Pirates sailing the high seas! Traveling the world! So on that score this one fits. What doesn't fit is the heroine being a slave and how prominently slavery fits into the story, which is set at the dawn of the Revolutionary War, right around the time the French threw their support behind the rebel Americans. I'm more than well aware there's nothing wonderful about slavery, but this book has been in my TBR forever and a day and hello? A big chunk of the story either takes place on a ship or a Caribbean island near Cuba.

Dominic LeVeq is a notorious privateer, the product of a white French father, and African mother, one of the man's former slaves on the island of Martinique. Former because, even though he was married, he fell desperately in love with Dominic's mother, freed all the slaves and was set to live happily ever after until his wife, not all that happy with the arrangement, poisoned Dominic's mother. In response his father took Dominic and sailed the high seas until his death, and we've got two villains right out of the gate in this story: his father's wife and his odious half-brother, Eduard. 

Dominic is making his way back to his island home when he spots a gem of a prize, a British frigate. Among the spoils is the stunning Clare Sullivan, slave to a spoiled Savannah miss who is traveling back from England with her twin brother. Dominic cannot abide slavery and is gobsmacked by Clare, so naturally, he takes her.

This isn't exactly welcome news for Clare. She's drawn to Dominic almost immediately once she realizes he and his crew mean her no harm, but she has two children (a boy and a girl) back in Savannah. Her odious mistress and brother sold the children to a neighboring plantation, but Clare is able to see them on Sundays. She's been away for months in England and like any mother she is desperate to see her children. Once Dominic realizes this he promises Clare to take her back to Savannah as soon as he is able, but first he and the crew must return to their island home.

Naturally what happens, happens. Clare and Dominic fall in love, fall into bed, and come up with a plan to rescue her children.

This is a historical romance with high stakes conflict (boy howdy!) basically told in three parts. The first third on the ship has adventure and steamy chemistry. The second third on the island does bring a lag in the action but the world building (Jenkins excels at writing "communities") is lush and interesting, and the final third is action-packed, with our couple returning to Savannah to rescue the children but things not going exactly as planned. 

The romance here is heavy on Insta-Love, which honestly, not my favorite. Dominic is smitten right away and the romance just sort of happens. Certainly there's relationship building, but there's not a ton of heavy lifting here. It just...happens.

Also, some of my personal pet peeves crop up in this story - namely the Evil Other Woman (one of Dominic's former mistresses) and Not Like Other Girls Nonsense. Have I read more egregious examples in other romances? Yes, but they're still there. Dominic is basically a man-whore but one look at Clare is enough for him to change is profligate ways. There's the Evil Other Woman, cheating on her elderly husband she married for his money and other mentions of Dominic's many, previous lovers.  Clare is different. Clare isn't like all those other women Dominic slaked his lust with. Jenkins doesn't beat you over the head with it, but read between the lines and it's definitely there. Look, is this stuff rampant in romance? Yes. Am I in my Old Cranky Sea Hag Era and allowed to be annoyed by it? Also yes.  

Still, I enjoyed this and gulped it down in two sittings. I can always tell when I'm in the hands of a pro, and Jenkins is a pro. The middle does sag a little bit, but the island world-building is very good and the action adventure "stuff" bookending the story is great. Also, while part of Jenkins' Le Veq Family world, it stands alone very well, essentially being a prequel. Not my favorite of Jenkins' work to date but still an enjoyable read.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge 2024: Expecting a Royal Scandal

The Book: Expecting a Royal Scandal by Caitlin Crews

The Particulars: Harlequin Presents #3438, 2016, Out of print, Available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I have an autographed copy, which means I picked this one up at an RWA conference.  Over the years I've gotten a bit more selective with grabbing freebies at conferences, except when it comes to category romance. I'll grab any that aren't tied down. 

The Review: It was pretty much a forgone conclusion that I was going to read a Presents for this month's Bananapants theme. As the old adage goes, Bananapants in Presents is like shooting fish in a barrel. Even when an author is somewhat "restrained" in the Presents universe, a certain amount of eyebrow raising shenanigans will creep their way in, and let me tell you, this book by Crews did not disappoint on that score.

His Serene Grace the Archduke Felipe Skander Cairo of Santa Domini is the last of his family line, the exiled King of a tiny alpine country lost thanks to a military coup. He is also a man in want of a wife. Not just any wife, but a wholly unsuitable, scandalous wife. Having spent years proving to the world how ill-suited he is to take back the throne with his playboy antics, Cairo has decided that marrying a laughably inappropriate woman will drive home the final nail in the coffin, thereby keeping him and his loyalist subjects safe. Or something. Frankly our boy is operating solely on what I call Presents Hero Logic, so just roll with it.

Brittany Hollis is damn near perfect for the job. Poor white trash from Mississippi she's made herself over by becoming a reality TV villainess and then marrying a much older, fabulously wealthy man near death just so he could tweak the noses of his grasping children. Oh, and he was Husband #3. To add to Brittany's unsuitable qualities, she's a stripper, now performing a show at a rundown Paris nightclub after Hubby #3's children ensure she got absolutely nothing after his death. Now all Cairo has to do is convince her to accept his proposition, which proves difficult to do as Brittany is surprisingly resistant the idea.

“Maybe I dislike spoiled rich men who waste my time and think far too highly of their overexposed charms.” The edge to her smile and that glittering thing in her gaze grew harder. Hotter. “I’ve seen it all in the pages of every tabloid magazine every week for the last twenty years. It’s about as thrilling as oatmeal.” 

“I must have misheard you. I thought you compared me to a revoltingly warm and cloying breakfast cereal.” 

“The similarities are striking.”

Brittany resists the proposal, at first, mainly because Cairo scares the hell out of her. The instant attraction, the intense need she feels around him - she's never felt like this around any man ever before. The proof?  Our girl, despite growing up poor white trash, whose mother had a series of unsavory "boyfriends" and who has been married THREE times, is still a virgin.

Because of course she is. She's a Harlequin Presents heroine. 

Have I read wackier? Yes. Is this still pretty damn bananapants? Also yes.

But you know what? The banter is rip roaring fun, especially in the first half as Cairo and Brittany are circling around each other like a pair of feral alley cats.

“I’d say I’m flattered,” Brittany was saying coolly, “but I’m not. I’m not interested in being any man’s mistress. And not to put too fine a point on it, but your charms are a bit...” She raised her brows. “Overused.” 

He blinked, and took his time with it. “I beg your pardon. Did you just call me a whore?” 

“I’d never use that word,” Brittany demurred, and though her voice was smooth he was sure there was something edgy and sharp lurking just beneath it. “But the phrase rode hard and put away wet comes to mind.” She waved a hand at him. “It’s all a bit boring, if I’m honest.” 

“Do not kid yourself, Ms. Hollis,” Cairo advised her quietly. “I’ve had a lot of sex with a great many partners, it’s true.” 

“That’s a bit like the ocean confessing it’s slightly damp.”

Eventually, of course, Brittany accepts his proposal because he can give her the one thing she's truly been working towards - money and security. Her plan has been to gain enough notoriety, make enough money, to eventually retire to a tropical island and never be bothered again. Agreeing to Cairo's transactional marriage gets her to the finish line that much quicker.

“You don’t actually want to get married, then. You want to inflict your wife on someone—the world, perhaps? As any girl would be, I’m of course delighted to be considered an infliction. It’s all my dearest fairy-tale fantasies made real, thank you.” 

As fun as the banter is and even though I fell a little bit in love with Brittany, the story isn't perfect. Too much repetition on some of the internal dialogue and not enough deep dive scenes showing Brittany and Cairo truly getting to know the real people behind the masks they wear for the public. We're "told" this is happening, but it's hastily sketched out on the page. A couple of emotionally angsty heart-to-heart scenes were all that was needed to really put this romance over the top, but as is it barely scratches the surface.

In the end I'm going to remember this one for the fun banter in the beginning that had me chuckling more than once, and while I zipped through it in one sitting, it felt a bit too much like empty calories in the end. Cotton candy over a decadently creamy slice of cheesecake. As a reader I always seem to prefer the latter.

Final Grade = B- 

#TBRChallenge 2024: Runabout

The Book: Runabout by Pamela Morsi

The Particulars: Early 20th Century Historical Romance, 1994, Berkley Jove, Book 2 in series, Self-published reprint 2019

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I've got 3 books by Morsi in my keeper stash (Simple Jess, Courting Miss Hattie and Wild Oats) so needless to say I have others by her peppered throughout my TBR.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The Review:  This book was originally published in 1994 and I started to consistently read romance in 1999.  This is another fine example of a book I would have LOVED (all the heart-eye emojis) had I read it as a Baby Neophyte Romance Reader.  The problem is that I'm now in my Jaded Sea Hag Romance Reader era and folks, there's just too much problematic 1990s BS in this story that I could not overlook, even with Morsi slathering on her consistently charming world-building.

This is a sequel to an earlier book, Wild Oats (which I loved!) and takes place a decade later. Our hero, Luther Briggs, is the son of Cora Briggs' (the heroine of Wild Oats) ex-husband and some of the characters in the earlier book put in an appearance here.  I do think this story stands alone fairly well, but I also think I got a bit more out of it being familiar with the first book.

Dead Dog, Oklahoma is now Prattville and the latest hot topic of gossip is the preacher's daughter, Tulsa May Bruder who has been jilted by Dr. Odie Foote. An old maid of 24, this was seen as Tulsy's last hope for her dream of marriage and children given her carrot-colored hair and slight gap in her front teeth. She's not hideous or anything, but pretty? No. Tulsy's pride is hurt and being the subject of gossip breaks her heart, much like her currently broken Buick Model G Runabout that she got from her BFF, Luther Briggs.  In fact she's on her way to church, her first Sunday service since "the jilting" when she babies the Runabout into Luther's bicycle and automotive repair shop. Childhood friends since his odious grandmother turned him and his brother away after their parents' deaths, Luther wants to help Tulsy and hits upon an idea. What if they pretend to be courting? That will direct talk away from her being jilted by Moldy Odie and once the town gossips find something else to talk about, they can quietly "break up" with Tulsa May doing the "breaking."

This is a pretty straight forward friends-to-lovers set-up and follows the well-worn path that romance readers have come to know and love about this trope.  Two friends who have already "caught feelings" beyond friendship but just don't know it yet.  Add in Morsi's homespun charm, the dynamite country small town world building, and this should have been a surefire success for me.  So what went wrong?

The problem is this book features three romances, Luther and Tulsa May, Doc Odie and Emma Dix (local fallen woman), Arthel (Luther's brother) and Maybelle Penny (the prettiest girl in town and daughter of the town's head gossip), and each romance features a trash human being.

When the book opens Luther is in bed with Emma, who he has been "seeing" for a while. But then his BFF Tulsy shows up, he proposes his plan (while Emma is WAITING IN HIS BED mind you), we're off to the races and....he never sees or says another word to Emma ever again. He just ghosts her. Emma got into a spot of trouble when she was younger, running off with a married man (who she didn't know was married). She only came back to Prattville to care for her sickly father, whom adores her (and she him). Luther is the handsomest man in town, owns his own business, and she had hopes that their "good times" would lead to more.  Much hay is made that Luther never made her any promises, that he told her he wasn't ready to marry yada yada yada.  But you know what?

I DON'T CARE!  I know it takes two to tango but I still think Luther is trash in this scenario.

Eventually Emma enters into Doc Odie's orbit, since he's the town doctor and her father is sick.  Odie takes a shine to Emma (because she's so good to her father, I guess?), confronts Luther about his shabby treatment of her, and gets his shabby treatment of Tulsy thrown back in his face. I mean, Luther has a point. Two trash men, two romances, same book.

Finally, there's Maybelle who used to have a powerful crush on Arthel. He crushed her feelings for him when they were younger, and now both at 18, they have a very adversarial relationship.  Part of the back-story in this duology, and the reason that Luther and Arthel were never received by their grandmother after their parents' death is because they are part-Cherokee. Their father (the ex-husband from Wild Oats) fell in love with their Cherokee mother, creating quite the scandal. Luther strongly resembles his father but Arthel has prominent Cherokee features.  Since their falling out years before, pretty spoiled Maybelle now calls Arthel names like "Geronimo" and "Chochise."  Instead of finding this problematic or, I don't know, racist as hell, Arthel isn't bothered by it and instead seeks out ways to ruffle Maybelle's feathers as a schoolboy would with his first crush. 

My print copy clocks in at 295 pages, which means none of these romances gets a ton of room to breath and grow, but the Emma/Odie and Maybelle/Arthel romances are very lightly sketched. I can't see either marriage working because all I know about Emma and Odie is that he admires her for taking care of her sick father and that Maybelle's idea of an endearment is racism.  Then there's Luther, who I'm supposed to think is some great guy and he'll do right by Tulsy, but we never see him owning up to his past mistakes and behavior with Emma, nor do he and Tulsy have any kind of conversation about his past dalliances. (There's a scene later in the book where Tulsy hears innuendos about Luther and Emma but she's so sunny and naïve that it's not entirely clear if she puts two and two together, which means no confrontation scene other than Emma getting a "suitor" who nearly rapes her afterward to beat the tar out of Luther. Sorry not sorry, I couldn't help thinking he deserved the beating). 

When I picked this book for the With a Little Help from My Friends TBR prompt I had high hopes.  I tend to love Morsi's brand of homespun Americana, but the fact that Arthel nearly gets lynched towards the end (the only thing that saves the menfolk from tracking him down is Tulsy deflecting the drama away from Arthel to her and Luther) kills a lot of the charm. Historically accurate? Absolutely. What I want to necessarily read in a book where the tone is shooting for charming homespun Americana? Yeah, no. 

I'm torn on the final grade. The mob mentality that uncomfortably felt like a brewing lynching at the end meant I could no longer justify a B- grade even if I softened my opinion on the three trash characters. However, this also wasn't as bad as a D grade for me. There's still some Morsi charm here but I'm sorry, fair or not, I just expect more. For all those reasons...

Final Grade = C-

#TBRChallenge 2024: Sweet Mercy

The Book: Sweet Mercy by Jean Brashear

The Particulars: Harlequin SuperRomance #1339, part of series, 2006, out of print. The author later self-published this book as Dream House and given that she changed the hero's name, it stands to reason that maybe other changes happened?  I read the SuperRomance edition of this story and this review is about that edition.

Why Was It in Wendy's TBR?: I got my copy at a used bookstore and liked the sound of the back cover blurb. 

Spoilers Ahoy!

The Review: This cannot be overstated: I am utter trash for romance heroines who have "reputations." Add in a gooey vulnerable core and some stand-up-for-yourself feistiness and I'll be a goner before you even get me out of the first chapter. All the enjoyment I got out of this book is entirely because of our heroine, Jezebel Hart. Too bad she falls for a hero who isn't even remotely good enough for her.

Gamble Smith was a jackass in a previous book, breaking that particular heroine's heart. He's working as an artist in New York City, his career is starting to take off, and then he gets word he has to go home to East Texas.  It's his mother's birthday and his siblings are throwing a party.  However, once he arrives in Texas he learns the party had to be cancelled because Mom has been in a fairly serious car accident.  This just compounds his guilt.  He left Texas years ago after his one twu wuv, his first wife, died.  They were childhood sweethearts, he built them a dream home (a lovely cottage) and they were happy.  Then, against doctor's advice, she got pregnant. Think Shelby in Steel Magnolias.  She's overjoyed, Gamble is not because 1) she's so frail and the doctor said it was a bad idea and 2) because she got pregnant without consulting him (she stopped taking her birth control behind his back). Naturally what everyone fears will happen, happens. Wife #1 and the baby die and Gamble is swallowed up by his grief, leaving a lovely cottage to rot as penance, a shrine to everything he's lost.

It should be noted here that Gamble's grief seemed entirely wrapped up in Dead Wife #1. The unborn baby's death gets short-shrift.

Enter Jezebel Hart. A former stripper and cocktail waitress, she came to Three Pines, Texas looking for a fresh start and found a family.  The bar's owner gave her a job and she's now running the place while he recuperates from an injury.  She would love nothing more than to get him out of the nursing home he's currently in and into a real home - and of course Jezebel has fallen in love with Gamble's abandoned cottage. She meets Gamble when he lands back in town and sparks immediately fly.  She doesn't know who he is right away and he has no idea that she's the one who approached his brother about buying his cottage.  Naturally they end up in bed and naturally once he finds out who she is things get complicated.

Words cannot express how much I loved Jezebel. If she had a theme song it would be Brick House by The Commodores. She doesn't have the red hair, but I pictured her looking like the actress Christina Hendricks.  She's the kind of woman with curves for days and who has spent her entire life dodging leers (and other things) from asshole men. She's also a woman who can take care of herself, getting a lifetime of practice growing up in foster care and doing the type of work she's done. But underneath the siren's body is a woman who wants the white picket fence. If there's a stray within a country mile she'll take it in.  And Gamble with his haunted eyes, his grief and pain - she doesn't stand a chance.

The problem here is that Gamble is nowhere near good enough for her. Look, I get it. He's grieving. However, grief does not give anyone a free pass to be a hateful jackass - and the slut-shaming in this story enraged me.  Gamble has sex with her and then says awful things when he finds out she's the one interested in buying his cottage.  His sister accuses her of using her body to manipulate her poor grieving brother.  To add insult to injury, while Jezebel doesn't back down from Gamble, and gets more than one scene where she rips him to shreds, his vile sister never does show up on page again with Jezebel to apologize for what an evil witch she was to her.  

Seriously, I would take a bullet for Jezebel.

Two other issues with this story: the first time Gamble and Jezebel bone the condom breaks.  She knows this and immediately thinks she's pregnant (because she's clairvoyant apparently?) but has to wait a few days for the pregnancy test. And since this is a Harlequin of course she doesn't even have a single thought about emergency contraception.  Of course Gamble is all butt-hurt when he discovers the pregnancy test in her apartment and that leads to Drama Llama in our final act - but dude, she knew the condom broke and you didn't? When you were the one WEARING IT?!  Then there's the final separation to spur our couple to the happy ending. The author has to get Jezebel out of town for Gamble to have his Come to Jesus moment, and that's done by having Jezebel go back to Reno to be a trial witness for a mob hit she witnessed before hightailing it to Texas to lie low. 

Seriously.

The witness to the mob hit thing is very tacked on and screams CONVENIENT PLOT DEVICE. It's so tacked on that to keep Jezebel safe from eventual mob retribution it's disclosed she ended up not having to testify and the bad guy was convicted without her testimony. Ergo the mob has no reason to want her dead and she can go on with her life. Which begs the question - why fly a witness all the way to Reno and then not use her testimony?  This nugget in the story is mentioned early on to explain why Jezebel is in Three Pines and then leveraged at the end to be the third act separation. Other than that it does nothing and goes nowhere.

What am I left with?  With no idea how to grade this story. I loved the heroine. Her immediately thinking she's pregnant and no thought of emergency contraception did annoy me - but she's in a Harlequin, so yeah.  But the rest of her? Insert all the heart-eye emojis.

It's just unfortunate I hated Gamble. The pining for his saintly first wife. His behaving like a jackass while he and everyone around him uses his grief as an excuse. I've seen people grieve. I've known grieving people. They don't behave like this asshole does. And while I'm at it, his vile sister who slut-shames Jezebel should have been drop-kicked into the sun, not fall in love with the ex-con who works at her mother's garden nursery. Seriously, she's terrible.

I read it in two gulps, but it gave me emotional whiplash. Love ya Jezebel, but the rest of it is kind of a mess.

Final Grade = C+

#TBRChallenge 2024: When Somebody Loves You

The Book: When Somebody Loves You by Shirley Jump

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Berkley, 2015, first book in The Southern Belle Book Club series (that didn't survive past this book and one novella), out of print, available in digital

Why Was it In Wendy's TBR?: I've read and liked Jump's books in the past. My print copy isn't autographed (so I didn't get it at a conference) and looks pristine, which means either I bought it new or the publisher sent it to me 🤷‍♀️

The Review: I zipped through this book in roughly 24 hours but in all honesty it's because I started skimming chunks of it.  It's not bad per se, it's just...flat. Very flat. I kept thinking this would have been a stronger romance had a lot of the single title series fluff been dispatched and the author wrote this story for Harlequin Special Edition instead.

Elizabeth Palmer is finally shooting her shot. A Jersey girl, she was raised by a single mother who was big on dreams but short on practicality. Her childhood was being shuttled from one dreary "new" apartment to the next and taking over paying the bills by age 8. Naturally this childhood had Elizabeth going in the complete opposite direction - she's exceedingly practical. She has a boring job as a bookkeeper and a boyfriend who just threw her over for one of their neighbors. When her boss takes away the one part of her job she doesn't hate (writing the company newsletter) she realizes life is passing her by. After hundreds of rejections she finally gets a freelance gig to write an article for a horse magazine.  Her subject is Hunter McCoy, a quarter horse breeder whose ranch had fallen on hard times but is slowly rising from the ashes.  His aunt tells Elizabeth to come on down to Georgia, she thinks the publicity will be great!  Hunter though, he takes one look at Elizabeth in her slacks and silky blouse and hates the idea.

Hunter is a hero who is all about the work.  Yes, the ranch was in serious trouble - his father having almost run it into the ground. The ranch is in Hunter's blood, his family having lived on the land for generations and his grandfather starting the horse breeding operation. That's not the only reason Hunter is all about work though. No, he's a man still struggling after a tragedy claimed the life of his fiancée two years ago, and naturally he's got a heaping dose of guilt over that. He takes one look at Elizabeth and falls back into the same bad habits - which is he keeps trying to push her away.  Little does he know, Elizabeth needs this interview, she needs this job, and no surly cowboy is going to deter her from living her dreams.

We all know what happens next. A quick day-trip turns into several thanks to a bad storm (that naturally lands Elizabeth staying in Hunter's sprawling ranch house) and Hunter's uncooperative attitude. These two are drawn to each other immediately but resist: Hunter because baggage and Elizabeth because this is her first freelance gig and she's not about to fall into bed with her subject. Talk about unprofessional! 

Surrounding our couple are a myriad of secondary characters there to prime the series pump: the group of women who are members of the The Southern Belle Book Club who meet in the small, local bookstore.  Hunter's aunt Barbara Jean, who raised him and his sister after their mother died, a ranch hand, Carlos, sweet on Barbara Jean, and Hunter's 18-year-old sister, Amberlee, who wants to be a horse trainer but has severe asthma triggered by horses and stamps her foot a lot because she's not a baby anymore and she's tired of being treated like one! (Look, it's never good when a series is killed before it's finished but I can't say I'm sad that Amberlee never got her own romance because Good Lord I wanted to smack her every time she was on page).

The world building is good and not all the secondary characters are duds, so what's the problem?  Well, the romance. Hunter and Elizabeth are just so....flat.  They never feel fully realized. They never transcended the page for me. Their back stories are certainly interesting but I never really got how they fell in love other than there was an attraction right away that they both were determined to ignore. It's Insta-Lust that turns into Insta-Love. As a couple they're just both sorta....there.

It's the kind of book I'd DNF out of boredom, not because I'm vehemently hating it. In the end I couldn't help thinking that if the series "stuff" would have been dispatched, if more time had been spent in the pockets of Elizabeth and Hunter as individuals and as a couple - this would have been stronger in category romance form.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2024: The Raven Prince

The Book: The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt

The Particulars: Historical romance (Georgian!), 2006, first in The Princes Trilogy, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Because everybody and their dead grandmother has read this book - except for, apparently, me. In fact, it's my first read by Hoyt ever. Look, I know. I can hear y'all screeching across cyberspace as I type this...

Spoilers Ahoy!

The Review: I have not been reading. And when I do try to pick up a book for some good ol' fashioned eyeball reading? I've been left feeling very meh about the whole experience. Part of it is me and part of it is the books.  That is until I dug The Raven Prince out of my TBR.  I didn't read this so much as inhale it in a matter of hours.

Anna Wren is a respectable young widow who lives in a respectable country cottage with her mother-in-law and an inept maid they hired to save her from the poorhouse. They've been muddling along alright since Peter's death, but the nest egg wasn't all that robust when he succumbed to a fever and now finances are getting tight.  Anna needs a job - the problem being that jobs are scarce for respectable young widows living in the country.

Edward de Raaf, the Earl of Swartingham, is the last of his line - scarred from a small pox epidemic that claimed his entire family as a child.  His first wife died in childbirth (the babe also perished) and it's past time for him to do his duty. He needs to remarry. He needs children. Certainly for the title, but also because deep down, Edward wants a family.  It's why he's back at Ravenhill Abbey, desperately hoping to recapture the sense of home he felt there as a child.  Instead all he's done is cement his reputation for having a bad temper and scaring off secretaries.  He's gone through two already, and he's ordered his estate manager to find him another in an obscenely short amount of time.

We all know where this is going. The estate manager is in a bind. Anna needs a job. Yes, it's highly unusual, borderline scandalous, to employ a mere female as a secretary, but she's a widow (no innocent miss) and frankly the estate manager has no desire to tell Edward he's failed in his mission.  After some minor spluttering and sparring, the arrangement is made. It also doesn't hurt that Anna is intelligent and the best damn secretary Edward has ever had.

I fell right into this story. Grumpy, growly Edward who has lost so much. A widowed Anna who spent her whole life doing the right thing only to end up with a husband who did-her-dirty prior to his death.  Working for Edward is just the first step in a series of choices she makes in this story that upends her perfectly respectable and boring life. What did doing "the right thing," "the expected thing," ever get her? She's done with that. She's going with her gut, and eventually her gut tells her she wants Edward.

One thing I've always heard about Hoyt is that she has a penchant for the Bananapants - and boy howdy, she does.  I loved the set-up but will admit my eyes crossed once we got to the brothel.  Yep, you guessed it! We get the heroine who hides her identity at an upscale London brothel so she can bang it out with the hero. They meet twice (!) and in Classic Dunderheaded Hero fashion, he has no clue who he is boning.  He went there to stop thinking about Anna, had the best damn sex of his life, and failed in his mission. Yep, still getting pants-feelings around Anna.  Then, of course, he figures it out some time later when they're back in the country.  And of course this all leads to a blackmail plot thread that leads to a duel (yes, a duel) in a brothel (yes, a brothel) at the end of the story 🤨

Oh, and did I mention the heroine believes she is barren because she was married for something like four years and never got pregnant?  But of course our hero has a Magic Wang - so just roll with it. 

(I'm actually more forgiving of this nonsense in historical romances because lack of modern medical understanding and all that).

Which makes it sound like I didn't like this book.  I did!  Did I mention I inhaled this in a matter of hours?  Also, there's even a delightful dog in this story - hence me finally reading it during Furry Friends theme month.  An agreeably affable (and giant!) wolfhound / mastiff mix that doesn't have a name until nearly halfway through when the heroine finally goads the hero into accepting one of her suggestions.

In the end, I rather enjoyed it. Some of the bananapants stuff was a bit out there, but I liked these characters, I liked them together, and the love scenes were suitably steamy.  I've already decided that I really need to do my best to plow through the rest of this series at some point this year.

Final Grade = B

#TBRChallenge 2024: The Boy Is Back

The Book: The Boy Is Back by Meg Cabot

The Particulars: Contemporary Women's Fiction / Romance Adjacent, Book 4 in the Boy series, In Print, 2016

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I'm a fan of Cabot's YA Princess Diaries series and I snagged a copy of this ARC from work. Yes, I'm aware the book came out in 2016.  Anyway, the ARC has been in my TBR all this time and it fit perfectly with this month's Once More With Feeling theme, so here we are.

The Review: A couple of things right out of the gate - while this is book four in a series, the series seems very loosely connected.  I have not read the previous Boy books and did just fine reading this one as a stand-alone.  Also, remember when books with illustrated covers actually meant "romantic comedy?"  This one definitely takes some broad strokes and while aspects of the story weren't always "funny" to me (more on that in a bit) - it was an enjoyable reading experience once I reminded myself to not take it so bloody seriously.

Reed Stewart is a golf pro whose game has been on the skids and now he's summoned back home to Bloomville, Indiana - a place he left 10 years ago and never looked back from.  His parents, who disowned him and threw him out on his ear, are in serious hot water.  They tried to pay for a dinner at a local casual dining establishment (think Applebee's) with a postage stamp they told the waitress was worth $100.  Yeah, turns out it was only worth $4, the cops were called, and charges have been pressed.  This is just the latest in a series of incidents with his parents.  Feral cats setting up camp around their home, out of control "collecting" turned to hording, and turns out...they're broke.  Flat broke. His older sister, Trimble, has washed her hands of them and basically tells the middle brother, Marshall, and his wife, Carly, that it's their problem now - hence begging Reed to come home after a 10 year exile.  If nothing else they need his help financially to sort out the mess.

The fly in the ointment? The girl Reed left behind, Becky Flowers. The night Reed's father disowned him happened to be their prom night. Teenage drinking, a golf cart, and a country club swimming pool later - Becky has a dislocated shoulder, Reed hightails it out of town, and she never hears from him again. Now running her father's moving company, Becky specializes in helping seniors downsize and get their affairs in order - which is how she enters back into Reed's orbit. His sister-in-law, Carly, hires Becky to help sort out the mess with his parents. She is also dating the owner of the local wine and cheese shop, although it's a relationship on life support by the time Reed blows back into town.

This is a epistolary retelling of Austen's Persuasion, with the story told through emails, text messages, and group chats. It works surprisingly well and was compulsively readable.  I tore through the majority of the book in a couple hours one evening.

What doesn't work as well?  There are uncomfortable underpinnings to the humor. The situation that Reed's parents are in is not a laughing matter, but is played that way through the tone and some light wackiness. It's a little squirm-inducing at times. Also some of the humor is aging rapidly - like Reed's niece who is obsessed with wearing her Chief Massasoit costume (although there's some funny bits about parenting and cultural appropriation during those scenes).  Again, the only way this really works is if you don't take it seriously, which is generally easier for me to do with a Cabot novel because she tends to keep her tone so light and frothy.

While there is a second chance romance in this book, there's also a fair number of secondary characters and it takes a while for Reed and Becky to cross each others' paths again.  Also, while it was FANTASTIC that Becky and Reed pay lip service to 10 years being a long time, they're not kids anymore, they've both grown up, yada yada yada - they still are incredibly hung up on each other and fall right back into a relationship without too much heavy lifting. It's all right as rain in the end without the reader seeing any real "work" for the two characters to get there.

Is this a good book I would recommend?  Well, it depends. I certainly had issues with it, but it kept me entertained and it hit my brain candy sweet spot.  I don't have a burning desire to necessarily go back and read the other books in this series, but I also don't regret reading this one - if that makes any sense whatsoever.  I had a good time reading it even with the quibbles, even though it didn't change my life.  Oh, and I liked the ending. The resolution to what's been going on with Reed's parents and how Reed and Becky address their new relationship (he's in California, she's in Indiana).  He's not doing all the taking and she ain't doing all the giving.  That was good enough for me.

Final Grade = B-

All Aboard! Sign-Up for the 2024 #TBRChallenge!

I want to thank everyone who took the time to fill out my poll soliciting theme suggestions for the 2024 TBR Challenge. There were a bunch of really great suggestions and this year every single theme came from the poll!

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

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

Participation is as easy as being on social media!

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

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

Sound good?  Of course it does!  So what are the themes for 2024?  So glad you asked!

January 17 - Once More With Feeling
February 21 - Furry Friends
March 20 - Not in Kansas Anymore
April 17 - No Place Like Home
May 15 - With a Little Help From My Friends
June 19 - Bananapants!
July 17 - What a Wonderful World
August 21 - Everyday Heroes
September 18 - Drama!
October 16 - Spooky (Gothic)
November 20 - It Came From the 1990s!
December 18 - It's a Party!

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

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

#TBRChallenge 2024: The Theme Poll Is Now Open!

Y'all it's November. I know! That means it's time to start thinking about planning for the 2024 TBR Challenge.

Back in the halcyon days of 2011, when I took over hosting the TBR Challenge, I came up with all the optional themes. Some got recycled year-to-year, and then I'd sprinkle in a few newbies. Then my job got more demanding, the hellscape that was 2020 happened, and I hit a wall. So a few years ago I started opening up a poll for you all, happy residents of Romancelandia, to throw out theme suggestions - and it's honestly been one of the smarter things I've ever done.  Some suggestions get lifted wholesale, while other theme suggestions get tweaked slightly - but the last couple of years it has made planning the TBR Challenge easier - to which I thank you all immensely.

The poll is now open via a handy Google Form.  I will keep it open through the month of November, and likely close it in early December to finalize the themes and get everything ready for 2024 TBR Challenge sign-ups.