#TBRChallenge 2025: Regency Christmas Parties

The Book: Regency Christmas Parties by Annie Burrows, Lara Temple and Joanna Johnson

The Particulars: Regency Historical Romance Anthology, Harlequin Historical #1689, 2022, Out of Print, Available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Seriously? It's a Harlequin Historical Christmas anthology. The better question would be which ones AREN'T in my TBR? 

The Review: Of course I waited until the last minute to pick out and read something for this month's Celebration! theme. When time is short (typical) I go diving into the cupboard where I horde my stash of print Harlequins and a cursory dig didn't turn up anything inspiring. So to the digital pile I went and immediately stumbled across this anthology that features Christmas parties! I mean, how perfect can you get? And lucky me, this turned out to be a pretty enjoyable anthology overall.

Invitation to a Wedding by Annie Burrows gets us off on the right foot. Clara is a spinster assistant teacher at a boarding school where the students are mainly the children of indigent or decreased clerics, so her former pupil, Isabella "Bella" Fairclough, was a bit of an oddity. Her father being well off and still alive. No, Bella was dumped off at the school because her father remarried and her stepmother didn't want her underfoot, especially after she birthed twin boys. Bella was a handful and Clara was the only teacher who could bring her (somewhat) to heel, although the headmistress is still a bit put out that Clara scored an invitation to Bella's upcoming wedding - to a Duke no less! So off Clara goes, spinning fantasies of her first real Christmas family gathering since her parents died when she was ten.

Lieutenant Hugo Warren meets Clara's carriage and rescues her from the path of an on-coming horse. Naturally Clara is not what he expected, what with her drab clothing, threadbare coat and one small bag. This is the bride's maid of honor? He has reasons for not wanting this marriage to happen, and regardless of what Clara might think, it's not because he's next in line to inherit the title unless Bella spits out a son. No, he's more concerned about the Duke being three times the bride's age and four times her girth. Maybe he can get Clara on his side to talk some sense into Bella? 

Clara is glad she came because obviously Bella needs someone on her side! It doesn't take long to realize it's a nest of vipers around her former student, who is lavishing Clara with a fabulous, albeit "used", wardrobe and making sure she partakes in all the delights the Duke's household has to offer. Bella knows that Clara might feel "out of place" so she's doing everything in her power to make sure she has a great time. This leads to Clara spending more time with Hugo and before you know it, these two are smitten.

This story feels very Traditional Regency with a bit of an edge to it - namely the sour secondary characters and ultimately what we learn about Bella's character and motives. The romance moves along at a good just-kisses clip, and there's plenty of tension to give readers a little sizzle. A very pleasant read.

Grade = B

Snowbound with the Earl by Lara Temple was the highlight of this anthology. Bella (no connection to the Bella in the previous story!) is a poor, orphaned relation living with her "sickly" aunt and her flighty, rebellious, and spoiled cousin, Violet. Violet fancies herself in love with Rupert, who is not yet of age - but no matter they're running away to Gretna Green to elope! Rupert is a nice boy who doesn't deserve to be used by her social climber cousin, and Violet deserves better than a mooncalf mama's boy. Having already set plans in motion to keep Violet at home, Bella arrives at the designated rendezvous site to deal with Rupert - only to find his insufferable cousin, Lord Deverill. Nicholas is also there to thwart the elopement and they both have been trying to break up the couple for months. However, even though they have the same goal they literally cannot stand each other. These two rub each other in all the wrong ways - which we all know what that means.

Circumstances lead to Bella going back to Nicholas' family home to conclude the business at hand but wouldn't you know it? Bella gets snowed in. She'll have to spend the holidays with Nicholas and his family. Gee, whatever shall happen next?

The banter in this story is so delicious. I laughed out loud on a couple of occasions and the tension between these two is thick. Naturally one thing leads to another and they fall in love. My only quibble with this story is the doomed "romance" of Violet and Rupert is dealt with an perfunctory manner and one wonders what those two kids are going to say when Nicholas and Bella 1) end of married and 2) catch wind of what they did to keep them apart. No mistake, I don't feel bad for them. It's pretty obvious it's a "romance" in name only and Violet definitely reads like someone who would move on quickly. 

Grade = B+

A Kiss at the Winter Ball by Joanna Johnson is the last story in the anthology, and also, unfortunately, the weakest. A shame since it's got a very unique premise.

Maria Bartlett is the daughter of a gentleman farmer desperate to get her father to see reason. She's capable of more than just sitting at home doing needlepoint. She wants to work on the farm just like her brother does! So with a bit a subterfuge and the luck of her brother spraining his ankle, she's driving the last remaining Christmas turkeys into the town of Atherby. But, of course, she ends up taking a wrong turn and is rescued by a man who tells her she's on Viscount Stanford's land. With the hour getting late, Alex offers to take her up to Millbrooke Hall for the night. The Viscount would not want a woman traveling alone at night with a storm rolling in. 

We all know where this is going - Alex is, of course, Viscount Stanford and soon the weather turns so nasty that Maria is forced to stay several days at the estate. It's Insta-Love from the jump, which is already not my favorite, but then add in that Alex is engaged to someone else. It's an arrangement agreed upon by his and the bride's parents when they were barely out of diapers. No matter, it doesn't stop him from falling in love with Maria (somehow?) after clamping eyes on her and it doesn't stop Maria from feeling all gooey about him even AFTER she finds out the engagement will announced at an upcoming ball at Millbrooke Hall that of course Alex invites her to attend (my hero, I guess?). 

This just didn't work for me. I get that his impending engagement is not a love match, and his intended isn't crazy about marrying him either (more on that in the story) but it doesn't change the fact that Maria and Alex decide they're in love with each other in about 10 seconds flat.  I understand some folks like Insta-Love stories. I think they're wrong, but to each their own. This was certainly readable and I liked the "walking Christmas turkeys to market" premise - but it was pretty meh otherwise.

Grade = C-

Anthologies are typically mixed bags and even though the final story was my least favorite, the overall reading experience was really solid for me. I've never read Temple before and the strength of that story alone will have me diving into my TBR to see what else turns up. The world-building was strong in every story and left me with the first small glimmer of Christmas cheer I've had this season. I'm calling this one a win.

Overall Final Grade = B

#TBRChallenge 2025: The Bikini Car Wash

 The Book: The Bikini Car Wash by Pamela Morsi

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, 2010, Mira, Out of print, self-published reprint 2020, very loosely connected series, The Business Between Us.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I discovered Morsi through her Americana historical romances and like a lot of historical romance authors, she eventually moved over into contemporary settings. This was one I didn't have in my print TBR, but several years ago I think the digital edition was discounted, which is how it ended up on my Kindle. 

The Review: Pamela Morsi passed away in December 2024 and y'all we lost a frickin' queen. She had a way of writing "cozy" without ignoring harsh realities in her romances, and this book illustrates that perfectly. It's a small town romance that feels cozy and connected, but the author acknowledges the elephant in the room, which is small town living is not all idealized roses and bonbons. 

Andrea "Andi" Wolkowicz had a well-paying corporate job she loved in Chicago but she quits and promptly moves back to her small hometown of Plainview after her mother unexpectedly passes away. Her parents were a great love match, her father is now retired living on a small pile of savings, and is the sole caregiver to her developmentally disabled twin sister, Angela AKA "Jelly." Unfortunately the economy has taken a downturn, and jobs are hard to come by in the area - a lot of folks are out of work, including Andi. After losing out on a part-time job that she was grossly over-qualified for at the local grocery store, Andi is at a low ebb - until she learns that the her father still owns the building where he ran his car wash business for many years.  After her original idea for a drive-thru coffee shop runs afoul of local zoning ordinances, and a villain on the town council, she decides to reopen it as a car wash. The problem is she doesn't have the money to modernize, so she needs a gimmick. Something to get people to show up and pay a little more. That's when she hits upon the idea to hire women and The Bikini Car Wash is born.

Needless to say, women wearing bikinis and washing cars is not met with enthusiasm by all the good townsfolk, but Andi does have one ally on her side - Pete Guthrie. Pete runs the town grocery store, a family business he took over from his father, who he has a strained relationship with. His father never thought anything Pete did was good enough, and that has carried over now that Pete is running a business he's trying to save. The economy being the way it is, his prices being undercut by corporate competitors, anything that will get more traffic into downtown Plainview is a good thing in his opinion. Also, Andi's ability to fill out a tiny red bikini has not gone unnoticed by him.

The dance around Andi and Pete gets off to a rocky start because they went to high school together. Pete was Mr. Popular and kind of a jerk. Andi being a nerd and her sister's disability led to few friends and a fair amount of teasing (bullying feels like too strong a word here - but teenage boys have a gift for being jerks, and that's what Pete was back in the day). Adding to the complication is that Andi had a crush on Pete, and time has only made him more attractive. Also, he's grown-up. Seriously y'all, Pete is a genuinely nice guy but escapes Gary Stu territory because he has some edges to him.

Oh, and did I mention it's Pete's father who does everything in his power to thwart Andi's plans and leads the charge to shut down the Bikini Car Wash? This guy is a very realistic villain, one who suffers from Big Fish, Little Pond Syndrome, who thinks he's Big Man on Campus, and rules over the town with a manipulative iron fist. And just to make him more odious? He's a notorious womanizer who hasn't been faithful to his wife a day of their marriage - an open secret everyone in the town is aware of, which probably explains why Pete's mom has spent retirement avoiding her husband by traveling the globe.

Original cover

This is a curious mix of women's fiction and contemporary romance. The Andi/Pete romance is a main plot thread, but there's a lot of "small town shenanigans" bookending it with a wealth of secondary characters who get page time. I wasn't entirely enamored with the storyline involving Andi's widower father's romance but the two women who work with Andi at the car wash are great, as is the "executive secretary" that Pete's Dad has been using and stringing along since their college days. And Jelly? I'm happy to report that her disability is treated respectfully and she's not shoved into a "mystical oracle" box to serve the story, teaching the non-disabled characters "life lessons" along the way. Jelly has a way of cutting to the heart of a matter when her sister or another character overly complicates the issue, but she's mainly there to round out the story. Also, I'll admit, I loved her obsession with Law & Order. The original, none of that SVU crap. She religiously watches the show and speaks in L&O lingo at times, which this fan found humorous. Also, she's not wrong. Mike Logan is a hothead and I didn't like ADA Serena Southerlyn as much either.

Honestly, it's one of the better small town romances I've read in a while. It doesn't ignore the realities of small town life (struggling economies, less opportunity, busybodies all up in your damn business...) but still retains that cozy charm that Morsi was so well known for. Also, and this cannot be overstated, I inhaled this single title in two greedy gulps. Never, ever discount good world-building. 

Final Grade = B

#TBRChallenge: Wyoming Christmas Ransom

The Book: Wyoming Christmas Ransom by Nicole Helm

The Particulars: Romantic suspense, Harlequin Intrigue #1826, 2018, 3rd book Carsons & Delaneys trilogy, Out of print, Available digitally 

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Helm is a prolific writer and I enjoyed some her SuperRomance work before Harlequin killed that line (RIP). According to my records I picked up a print copy of this book at a library book sale back in 2022.

The Review: Y'all, I have zero reading mojo right now and this month's TBR Challenge snuck up me. I had originally thought to dig out a single title Gothic but time being short, and my mojo being non-existent, I went diving into the Harlequin Cupboard for an Intrigue. Also, and it can't be overstated, I find Helm to be a competent writer. I knew that even if I might not be wild about this story - it was at least going to be competently written and readable. Turns out it was more than that, this is one of the better Intrigues I've read in a while.

Will Cooper has been in purgatory for two years. That was when Bent, Wyoming's coroner, Gracie Delany showed up on his doorstep to tell him his wife was killed in a car accident (it's never explained why Gracie delivers this news instead of the cops - but roll with it. This is the third book in a trilogy that I'm reading out of order). The cops rule Paula's death an accident but Will is convinced it was foul play, especially when he finds out his wife was having an affair. But to the cops it's open and shut - so he starts snooping around on his own.  And Gracie? Poor dumb bunny Gracie - she agrees to help him. Letting him look at files and photographs, going with him to revisit the scene - all stuff that could land her in hot water if her superiors found out.  Well, Gracie has finally hit her breaking point.  She can't keep enabling Will. She's more than half in love with him and he's never going to be able to let Paula's death go - even after two years of amateur sleuthing have turned up nothing. He'll never accept the cops got it right. 

Will can't believe Gracie is quitting on him. He'd be angrier if he wasn't an island, a man on a mission. It's Gracie's abandonment that drives him back to the one clue he's found - buried in an old grocery list on Paula's computer. That's when he notices a pattern - so he goes to the local bar to talk to Gracie, who once again tells him to let it go. It's on his way back to his reclusive cabin that he gets in a car accident in the same spot where Paula died. Someone tampered with his car. Someone wants him dead. After two years with no threats on his life, why now? Then someone takes a shot at Gracie...

This series is set up around a small town, middle of nowhere Wyoming family feud involving the prosperous Delaney clan and less prosperous Carson clan. Gracie is a Delaney and Poor Dead Paula was a Carson. Helm does a reasonable job of getting newcomers up to speed without burying us in backstory that was likely partially covered in the first two books, and while the previous couples do show up (and play significant roles to varying degrees), they don't make nuisances of themselves.

The character backstory here in interesting. Gracie is the poor orphaned cousin, now nicknamed "The Angel of Death" because of her job, who survived a car accident that killed her parents. She bounced around for a bit, finally landing in Bent - with her uncle who can't be bothered with her, but three cousins who adore her. This dynamic felt a little weird to me since it's never explained why exactly her uncle could give two shits about her but it works in giving Gracie some edge so I rolled with it.

Will is the classic Guy Who Is Right But Nobody Is Listening To Him. Gracie's cousin Laurel is a sheriff's deputy and a straight-shooter, and she found no evidence anywhere that Paula's death was anything more than an accident.  However, when she discovers Will's accident was the result of someone tampering with his vehicle, she's not unnecessarily stubborn. Oh, she doesn't come out and admit she was wrong - she's more a "where's the evidence, let's find some evidence" kind of person. 

The emotional aspect to the romance is very interesting because Will is pretty much a brick wall from the jump and Gracie is essentially enabling him. She's also fallen into the classic girl trap of "but I can fix him!" She's starting to wake up to the fact she can't do that with the opening chapters of this story. Fair warning that of course she's a virgin and we have a no condom but it's OK I'm clean sex scene but this is the first one I've read EVER where it didn't completely annoy the hell out of me. Oh, I still hate it, but I hated it a little less here (she's on the pill, he had a full screening done when he found out his wife was cheating and hasn't had sex in two years). The dynamic between Will and Gracie is Messy AF, but Helm does mine it for some emotional angst and by the end I did think these two crazy kids could make it work.

Intrigues are all about pacing, and Helm keeps things humming along at a fast clip. I started and finished this story in a couple hours. I figured out where it was going towards the final third, but it was still an engaging read. I'm typically not crazy about family feud tropes (I realize how shocking this is, given my long history of loving soap operas) and while I'm unlikely to go back and read the first two books in this trilogy, some of the secondary characters featured in this story are part of the spin-off Carsons & Delaneys: Battle Tested series and a few of those characters did pique my interest. Which means it's time to take a deep dive into my Kindle to see if I have already randomly picked up some of those...

Final Grade = B

Note: For readers not crazy about Christmas romances, the holiday is barely a whisper of a mention here - mostly the connection is it's December in Wyoming. Also, Harlequin is getting sloppy with their titles. While there is an abduction, there isn't a "ransom" to be had here.

#TBRChallenge 2025: How to Rescue a Family

The Book: How to Rescue a Family by Teri Wilson

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Special Edition #2675, 2019, Book 2 in multi-author continuity series, Out of print, available in digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had an autographed print copy in my TBR, which means I picked this up at an RWA conference. 

The Review: Reading the author's note in this book I learned this was Teri Wilson's first book writing in a multi-author continuity series, and I'm sad to say it showed. Wilson has written some fine category romances and this could have been one of them - but instead it languished in "OK but with pacing problems" territory for me.  I still zipped through it in one sitting, but it wasn't a terribly memorable read for me, and trying to dredge up thoughts one day after finishing the last page is proving to be a challenge.

Amanda Sylvester grew up in small town Spring Forest, North Carolina and now runs the family restaurant. She has dreams of branching out into higher end catering for events like weddings but her parents have proven resistant to the idea, wanting the restaurant to remain the way her grandmother ran it. This is enough for anyone, but lately Amanda has gotten distracted by a handsome new man in town, Ryan Carter, who is now running the local newspaper.  Ryan comes into the restaurant a lot for take-out and she soon learns he was once a hotshot reporter for The Washington Post and is a single father.

Ryan left his fast-paced life in D.C. after his wife died in a car accident. Since her death, their young son, Dillion, has stopped speaking. Now a single father needing to change his workaholic ways, Ryan relocates them to Spring Forest, but a tornado that ripped through town in the first book of the series has further rattled Dillion.  Ryan is desperate to help his son and decides to take Amanda's advice - maybe visiting the local animal rescue to play with the animals will bring him out of his shell.  Next thing he knows, he's adopting a dog and Amanda is teaching him in the ways of pet ownership.

The official back cover blurb says that Ryan proposes to Amanda, which doesn't happen.  What does happen?  Not much.  The local animal rescue was severely damaged by the tornado, Amanda finds out the sisters who run the place don't have insurance, Amanda decides to host a fundraising barbeque, she helps Ryan and Dillion adopt a dog, Ryan and Amanda are attracted to each other.  Really, that's about it until the final few chapters when Ryan's in-laws show up, decide to fight for custody of Dillion (a suit with no real teeth to it - but whatever...) and AMANDA proposes to Ryan, because having a fiancée will make Ryan look that much more stable. It's tacked on, rushed conflict for like 3 chapters to get our couple to say their I-love-yous and ride off into the sunset.  The problem being I'm not sure they do love each other outside of Ryan being grateful to Amanda for coming up with the dog idea because it gets his son to talk again.

This story could work but the pacing is all off. The first 3/4s of it are tied up in small town shenanigans and continuity series stuff. In order for the romance to work I needed Amanda and Ryan to be in each others' pockets a lot more, and for the conflict in the final 3 chapters to happen a heck of lot sooner.  There's no urgency here, which is a problem with category romance when you have a finite word count you're working with.

Is this a terrible read? No. It's just flat, and pretty boring. It's another in a long line of cutesy, non-descript small town romances. If you can't get enough of these and you also love cute animal companions in your romances? Sure. Otherwise, this one is strictly lather, rinse, repeat.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2025: Tangle of Lies

The Book: Tangle of Lies by Patricia Potter

The Particulars: Contemporary romantic suspense, Berkley, 2005, Out of print, eBook edition by Open Road Media 2015

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had an autographed print copy in my TBR which means I picked this up at an RWA conference, probably in (yikes) 2006 since I don't recall attending in 2005 but it's been 20 years and who even knows anymore.

The Review: Life is pretty darn sweet for Liz Connor. She's just purchased the business (an outdoor adventure company) that had been employing her for several years, she's newly elected to the Santa Fe city council, and she's repairing her strained relationship with her overprotective mother. Then her father calls. Her mother is missing. When he came home he found her, along with their outdated home computers gone.  

Betty Connor isn't missing. She's been arrested by the FBI. They claim she's really Sarah Jane Maynard, a former Vietnam War protestor who, along with her compatriots, held up an armored car and killed the two guards. Frankly it's all so unbelievable. Her mother? The stay-at-home wife who baked cookies for local school bake sales? But it doesn't take long for their traditional nuclear family to implode. Betty / Sarah Jane refuses to see her husband or her two daughters, nor take any part in mounting a legal defense. Then all hell breaks loose. Someone sets fire to Liz's home and steals her computer hard drive. Her niece is nearly abducted when a strange man claiming to be her uncle shows up at her day camp. Then two men walk out of the woodwork claiming they want to help her.  Michael Gallagher, a slick corporate lawyer from Boston who works for Betty's family (never mind nobody knew she had family....) and Caleb Adams, a haunted former Boston cop turned PI who, conveniently enough, lives not far from Santa Fe. 

I realize I just set this up to sound like a love triangle, but it's not.  Caleb is most definitely our hero, and sure enough, he's keeping a Big Secret from the heroine. "For reasons," he's been obsessed with the armored truck heist for years, working the cold case when he was with the Boston PD. Then his wife and son are killed in an explosion and that grief feeds and grows his obsession to bring the fugitives to justice. The reader is clued in right away on what Caleb's backstory is, which means the rest of the story has a Sword of Damocles feel to it waiting for the other shoe to drop and the heroine to find out. And when she does? Well she was focused in finding out the truth before, but after the bombshell drops she turns into a one-woman wrecking crew. I liked her before, I kind of fell in love with her during those final chapters.

Original Cover

The pacing in this story is relentless. Potter doesn't waste any time mashing her foot on the accelerator and we're off the races from the start of the first page. The romance takes more time. Caleb and Liz aren't really on page together for any meaningful stretch until around 25% and the romance itself is pretty light in the pants. It's hard to believe a couple is catching feelings with such a huge Big Secret standing between them, and there's a sizable enough cast of characters involved in the suspense thread that it doesn't leave a lot of time for the lovey-dovey stuff.  Naturally the attraction and lust comes through loud and clear, and there are sex scenes, but it's not what really kept me invested in the story. I'm a sucker for cold case storylines and if you mix in Ghosts of Vietnam Era Radicals Past, I will eat it up. 

Romantic suspense is tricky and there are definitely two camps of readers - those who want more forward facing romance and those who want a compelling suspense thread to take center stage.  This book definitely falls into the latter category, although I still wanted more detail about the crime itself. This is more of a "reactive" story - Liz and Caleb running around trying to uncover the truth and why anyone would now be threatening the Connor family. Is it just a matter of the money from the heist having never been recovered or is there something more sinister lurking under that rock?

The ending got a little cheesy for me and frankly I'm not so sure about the epilogue, but it was a fast-paced, entertaining read that kept me flipping the pages. Lord knows I've unearthed some duds out of my print TBR but this story definitely held my interest.  Also it's amazing how dated 2005 sounds now - smart phones weren't a thing yet and everyone's cell phone was a flip phone 😂.  Excuse me while my bones turn to dust.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge 2025: Rain Shadow

The Book: Rain Shadow by Cheryl St. John

The Particulars: Historical romance, Harlequin Historical #212, 1994, Technically Book 2 in Dutch Country Brides series although it was first one published, Out of print but self-published eBook available.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Cheryl St. John is an autobuy and this was her debut back in 1994.  I was in my first year of college so this one fit the Back In My Day theme this month to perfection.  

The Review: Let's be honest, when you take a ride in the Romancelandia WayBack Machine you just never know what you're going to get and y'all I was pleasantly surprised with this one.  There's a ton of potential minefields in this story but St. John skirts a good many of them and, in some ways, it's shockingly progressive (more on that in a bit).

Rain Shadow is a white woman with no memory of her family.  When she was just three-years-old, her adoptive father, a Lakota Sioux named Two Feathers, found her wandering around the remains of a burned out wagon train heading west. Nobody else survived and Two Feathers knows that this poor child will soon follow that fate once night falls if he doesn't rescue her - so he does. Albeit she has violet eyes, but with her black hair and tanned skinned due to the outdoors, she can pass as Indian (uh, somewhat) and the two eventually land with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. It's the closest Two Feathers can get to a life that is vanishing and, now a single mother to 7-year-old Slade, Rain Shadow plays the role of Indian princess in the show. They're on their way through Pennsylvania Dutch Country to their winter camp site when one of the trains derails. Animals are hurt, as are people - including Slade.  In the chaos, local farmer Anton Neubauer rescues Slade, gets the doctor to set his broken leg, and takes him back home until his family can be found.  It's Rain Shadow who knocks on his door.

Anton is a widower with a young son, Nickolas, right around Slade's age. His marriage was not a happy one, and his mail-order bride died tragically.  He lives on the same land as his father and two brothers (and their families) and they all work the farm together. He knows he needs to remarry, Nicky needs a mother and he needs a wife to keep house, but pickins' are kind of slim and frankly his heart isn't totally in it.  Then he meets Rain Shadow who is so unlike any woman he has ever known, well ever - and naturally these two rub each other in all the right and wrong ways.

Romancelandia does not have a great track record with Native characters, but St. John handles the subject with a lot more sensitivity that other writers weren't in 1994.  Rain Shadow loves Two Feathers and she knows his way of life is vanishing. She also yearns to learn more about where she came from and wants to provide opportunity for her son (mainly schooling), which means learning to adapt in a white man's world. To that end she's going to enter into a sharpshooting contest against the famed Annie Oakley in the spring.  Surely when she bests Annie the notoriety and publicity might lead her long lost family into recognizing and finding her.  The only thing she has from that time?  A heart-shaped locket that she constantly wears.

In order for Slade's broken leg to heal properly they have to stay put in Pennsylvania, with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show moving on without them. Rain Shadow hates the idea but she'd do anything for her son - so stay they must. As Two Feathers and Anton's father become friends, and Slade and Nicky become inseparable, Rain Shadow and Anton are drawn together - just in time for Rain Shadow's past to come a callin' - and let's just say she's not terribly happy to see the man who seduced her, left her pregnant with Slade, and then dumped her when someone better (and richer) came along. 

The romance started out a bit slow and rocky for me given the prickly natures of our couple. Also, to be blunt, Anton has very traditional ideas of marriage and women so someone like Rain Shadow who is hopeless in a traditional white household setting but can hunt, shoot and do men's chores is something he has to wrap his mind around.  Blessedly the author doesn't overly harp on this and once our villain shows up on the page, a lot of the needless bristling between our couple moves along in favor of them working together to defuse the threat.

Original Cover

The setting is lovely, the characters interesting, and the whole thing has a Found     Family-like vibe given Rain Shadow's past and the large, agreeable Neubauer family.  There's not really any red flags, more like rosy-colored ones. The villain turns a bit crazed at the end, complete with leaving a dead kitten for them to find (ugh), Anton's dead first wife obviously had some sort of mental illness but it's not as egregiously handled as I've read in other romances, and the word "exotic" is used to describe the heroine, albeit I only saw the word used once - which for 1994 feels progressive.

Speaking of progressive, Slade is the result of an affair Rain Shadow had and obviously she was never married.  She doesn't lie about this and is very matter of fact. Slade isn't something she's ashamed of so here he is, here she is, go suck eggs if you can't deal.  And for his part? While Anton has ideas about traditional womanhood he never looks down on Rain Shadow nor belittle her for the circumstances of her becoming a mother. He sees it as the fault of a villain who seduced a young girl (Rain Shadow was 16 at the time) and then abandoned her.

It all turns out right as rain in the end, with Rain Shadow competing against Annie Oakley and finally finding out more about her birth parents - which is another notable thing about this book.  St. John solves the mystery for the reader but doesn't pour on a heavy layer of syrup, which I appreciated.  Sometimes less truly is more.

This was a good solid read and if you're a St. John fan I do recommend it.  It was her first published romance and all the hallmarks found in her future books (especially the American-set Harlequin Historicals) are present here. After being in a dreadful slump it was so nice to finally pick up a winner.

Final Grade = B

#TBRChallenge Review: The Wedding Journey

The Book: The Wedding Journey by Cheryl St. John

The Particulars: Inspirational historical romance, Harlequin Love Inspired Historical #131, 2012, First book in multi-author Irish Brides trilogy, Out of print, Available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: St. John is an autobuy. Also I was so intrigued by the premise that I bought the entire trilogy back in the day because why let one book languish in your TBR if you can let three?

The Review: I didn't start reading for this month's Challenge until Sunday evening and I ended up DNF'ing my first choice after the prologue (seriously, here's my GoodReads "review"). Panic officially setting in, I picked up my tablet and went diving through the digital Harlequin stash and stumbled across this book by St. John that fit this month's Road Trip theme to perfection. I had a number of issues with this story but I managed to finish it in one sitting.

Nora, Bridget and Maeve Murphy live in Castleville, Ireland (there's references to a "County Beary" which I've never heard of, but Castleville is in County Mayo so if anyone Irish is reading this let me know if the authors of this trilogy totally ran off the rails) and they've just buried their father, who perished thanks to old friend influenza. Their mother has been dead for a decade and it's 1850, right in the middle of the Irish Potato Famine.  Times are hard and the landlord is throwing the girls out of the only home they've known.  They have a few coins and are well and truly desperate when they uncover a hidden letter in their mother's trunk. A man, who talks like he's a former beau, who says he's settled in Faith Glen, Massachusetts. Along with the letter?  A deed to a small cottage.

The girls have never heard of this man but with zero options they decide to take a flier. There's less than nothing left in Ireland, America at least offers hope. They sell a couple of things their mother saved "for a rainy day" and board the Annie McGee in Galway, headed to Boston Harbor. What money they had paid for their passage so the hope is they can find work on the ship.  That's turning out to be difficult until divine intervention steps in.

A young boy is hurt when the ship's doctor's assistant overturns a load of supplies on the dock. Maeve was a midwife and healer (homeopathic, herbal remedies) back in Castleville and that training leads to her reacting quickly. By the time the ship's doctor arrives on the scene she's fashioned a tourniquet and slowed the bleeding, saving the boy's life.

Flynn Gallagher is the ship's doctor, is from a well-to-do Irish family and is running from his past, hence ship's doctor. He's also smart enough to fire his assistant on the spot and hire Maeve once he learns she's going to be a passenger on the ship. Even better? He has positions for her sisters as well! Nora helping in the galley and Bridget taking a governess post for a family left in a lurch. Jobs squared away, the sisters set sail to America, hoping for a fresh start, and to learn more about their mother's past.

Flynn and Maeve are the featured romance in this story, and if you're wondering why I buried the lede, there's a reason for that - it's rather thin, along with the characterizations. There's quite a bit of telling in this one and while Flynn and Maeve have baggage it all felt surface level. Also Maeve borders dangerously close to Mary Sue territory and while the couple spends time together I felt like it wasn't meaningful time together. I'm not sure how these two fell in love other than they think the other one is kind and nice.

But hey, marriages have been built on less in and out of romance novels and the story moves along at a good clip in large part thanks to the setting.  St. John does a good job with it and features a light "found family" storyline and details about life on the ship. Think of it like a floating boardinghouse and you'll get a good idea of what to expect. There's trials, tribulations and plenty of personalities.  This aspect of the story is definitely what kept me turning the pages, more so than the romance. In fact I was so invested in all these people I met on the ship that the next book I'm reading is the second one in this trilogy.

This is an inspirational romance so I'm going to talk about The God Stuff. Folks, it's heavy and clunky. I am capable of enjoying inspirational romance but I much prefer the ones where that aspect of the story comes through in themes and nuanced characterizations. Here it's a lot of dropped scripture and characters praying when they burn breakfast (OK, not literally - but they pray a lot). It all felt heavy-handed, which is probably a good thing since it was easy to see coming a mile off and I would know to start skimming.

There's a Mean Girl secondary character's redemption at the end of the book that left me unconvinced but at least this is an inspirational where the couple isn't dead below the waist (Flynn and Maeve share a few kisses) and truly, the "life aboard a ship" stuff was really entertaining. Even with all my issues I was invested enough to snarf down the book in one gulp.  St. John has written better but after DNF'ing my first choice (after the prologue!), I certainly could have done worse.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2025: Greek Heir to Claim Her Heart

The Book: Greek Heir to Claim Her Heart by Jennifer Faye

The Particulars: Harlequin Romance #4794, Contemporary romance, first in trilogy, 2022, Out of print, Available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: It's a more recent release and it was in the print TBR, which means this was an impulse buy at either a used bookstore or library book sale (likely the latter).  These days the vast majority of my new Harlequin purchases are in eBook.

The Review: The best way to describe this book is inoffensive but bland. It's the kind of book that starts to fade from my memory the moment I finish the final page. I'm not sure this makes it "bad" but it definitely makes it flat.

Hermione Kappas was all alone in the world (and homeless) when she took a job at an exclusive luxury resort on a private Greek island. This is the kind of place that doesn't need to advertise that magically stays afloat by rich people in the know who talk the place up to their equally rich friends. Anyway, Hermione has worked her way up the food chain and is now the resort manager. She loves her job and has a nice little "found family" among the other resort staff.  The fly in the ointment?  The longtime owner has passed away and her estranged son has inherited the whole enchilada. 

Atlas Othonos runs a very successful security firm and needless to say he does not want to deal with his mother's death nor this inheritance. The woman abandoned him. Just up and left Atlas to be raised by his cold fish father. No contact, no nothing - poof! She's there one minute, gone the next. Needless to say he feels some kind of way finding out his mother owned a resort on a private island and that she built this whole new life where she was well-liked and respected while never giving a second thought to the son she just left behind like an out of season designer dress donated to a charity stop.  His plan is to get in, get out, and sell the resort to the first person with a reasonable offer that comes along. 

Thanks to terrible weather and a car accident, Hermione and Atlas unceremoniously meet and of course she doesn't disclose right away that she's the resort manager - which of course gets Atlas all butt-hurt when he finds out.  This unintended subterfuge doesn't last long but it's the first in many instances of the conflict lacking credibility or urgency. Anyway, he's grumpy and Hermione is determined to have Atlas fall in love with the resort so he won't want to sell and everybody can keep their jobs.  

The conflict here is all internal. Atlas was estranged from his mother and is rather put-out that she was Mary Mother of Private Greek Islands to everyone at the resort. There's absolutely no questions from Hermione of "hey, why are you a jackass and never talked to nor visited your mother?" nor is there any moment of Atlas retorting, "this woman you thought was so great just left me without a by-your-leave and dropped off the planet leaving me to be raised by my asshole father so yeah, my apologies I don't think she was all that and a bottle of ouzo."  Basically he just grumps around and she tries to get him to see how great the island and resort are.

Then there's the fact that Hermione's ex was always undermining her and chipping away at her self-esteem, questioning her choices and implying she wasn't doing something (OK, anything) right.  So when Atlas steps in to offer to help her out (which comes in the form of planning a big Valentine's Day party at the resort) she immediately thinks he's implying she's not capable or competent in her job.  I mean, seriously. She sets the land speed record for jumping to conclusions. This could work as conflict if the author spent any time developing it, but she doesn't. This, along with Atlas' feelings about his mother are written in a "by the way..." manner. It's all surface. I realize the limitations of category length but pages upon pages of angst aren't needed to accomplish this. A modicum of depth would have done the job. One or two heartfelt conversations between the couple or one of them and a secondary character would have gone a long way.

There's a number of secondary characters, including a prince from a made-up country (ugh, I miss the days when Harlequin Romances featured normal, everyday characters....), the resort concierge, and a friend of Atlas', who he is trying to sell the resort to. They're mostly there as sequel bait, although the concierge plays a healthier role as she's trying to throw Hermione and Atlas together as much as possible.

Of course things are torn asunder for a third act break-up and of course Atlas falls into a giant vat of melted Velveeta dialogue to win Hermione back.  Declarations of true love, a marriage proposal and they all live happily ever after.

Is this the worst category romance I've ever read? Hardly. But there's just not much here. The conflict could have worked for me but it lacks any sort of urgency or oomph to make it compelling. A hero with abandonment issues? A heroine with self-esteem issues? I mean, the angst should be dripping off the pages here. Instead it's mentioned in a way that felt like the author was ticking boxes and, as a result, I wasn't emotionally invested.

It's a quick read and I wasn't reading angry, but I was reading to get to the end so I could move on to something more compelling in my TBR.  Very much meh.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2025: The Diary of Cozette

The Book: The Diary of Cozette by Amanda McIntyre

The Particulars: Erotica, Harlequin Spice, 2008, Out of print, Available in audio (Audible exclusive), Book 1 in loosely connected duet

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Y'all my print TBR is a sickness.  This book is autographed, which means I picked it up at an RWA conference and I know it was the 2009 conference because the author dated her signature. Seriously, I have a problem.

The Review: For this month's Rizz theme I thought it would be fun to read an erotic romance since it's literally been forever since I've read one. Why? Well, the subgenre changed. Folks, I'm just not interested in reading about an endless series of kinks without any passion to back it up, and I, personally, felt like that was what the subgenre was devolving into. I need passion. I need emotion. Frankly I need more than sex on the page otherwise what's the point exactly?

This book was published in 2008 and back then it would have been considered a throwback, which means it's very much a throwback in 2025. Told in first person through the written journal entries of our heroine, Anne Cozette, it starts in the summer 1869 and takes us through the spring of 1875. Young Cozette is being shuttled off to live with an aunt and uncle. Her father killed in an accident and most of her siblings dead from cholera, her mother and last remaining sibling are on the brink of death. For reasons she doesn't understand, Cozette has been spared sickness, and it's her mother's dying wish to see her 14-year-old daughter cared for. She can already read and write, and the aunt will make sure to continue her schooling.

Of course life with her aunt and uncle does not go according to plan. Also in residence is a cousin, a lad so foul he once tried to drown a litter of kittens for fun. Naturally he makes advances on Cozette, who manages to fend him off and run away before he rapes her. Of course the sack of garbage spins a tale for Mom and Dad that Cozette is a wayward girl, out to tempt him with her wicked ways, and before we know it Cozette is shuttled off to an orphanage. She's there for a stretch when she meets her first love, a young man named Ernest doing chores around the property to earn money to help his sickly mother. There's a sexual interlude between them where Cozette's "virtue" is left intact which helps to wash away the horrors experienced with her cousin. Of course life in the orphanage is not good, especially for the girls - some of whom seem to be "disappearing." Cozette has largely flown under the radar until one day Ernest overhears there are plans to sell Cozette to a man who came around flashing a wad of cash. He gives Cozette money from his own savings, tells her to flee to London, that he will follow and find her once it is safe.

Ernest, of course, never comes and Cozette is a young girl alone in London. She learns quickly to survive by her wits and with the help of others on the street who take her under their wing. She is soon disguising herself as a boy, making "friends," and working in a brothel, scrubbing floors and "managing" one of her "friends" who has a stripper-burlesque-type act.  Eventually a good deed at a local market leads to employment with Lord and Lady Archibald, who, once realizing Cozette is actually a girl and not a boy, take her in and offer her employment as a maid. This is where the majority of the story unfolds and Cozette soon discovers a family with the Archibald's like she's never known. 

This story is a curious mix of erotica, erotic romance, and coming of age. The style in which it's written harkens back to the lusty bodice rippers of the 1970s/1980s that featured heroines who had several adventures, with several lovers, before settling down with their one true love - all of which was told in an often verbose purple prose style that I will admit, rarely works for me. McIntyre doesn't go full-blown purple here though, it's more like a lavender tinge. Expect a lot of fruit and flower euphemisms for sex and lady parts and you'll have a rough idea of what to expect. 

Cozette takes her fair share of lovers throughout the book - starting with Ernest and including everyone from an untrustworthy Lord next door, but boy he makes her lady parts tingle, a solider before he's shipped off to Canada, and a budding artist (who is the hero in the second, loosely connected book). Then there's Mr. Coven, the man who manages Lord Archibald's stables. A man with physical scars, who wears an eye patch, and starts verbally sparring, sometimes flirtatiously so, with Cozette the moment she arrives at the estate looking like an urchin who probably has lice.

This story reminded me of why erotic romance pulled me in as a reader early on - Cozette is driving this story and her own destiny. Make no mistake, she has luck on her side, but she's making choices, she's calling the shots, and she will let nobody consent to touch her without her say so. She's a heroine choosing passion, does not shirk her desires, and given the series of lovers she enjoys this definitely reads more like erotica. Also, given her age, her trials and tribulations, it's very coming of age. A young girl going through a sexual awakening. She starts this story at 14 (when she is nearly raped by her cousin), her first pleasurable sexual experience is at 16, and her first time with intercourse being at 17. One would expect an "ick" factor here - but I gotta admit, not really for me. I think the historical time period helped tremendously. Certainly a story of this ilk written in present day would not have hit nearly the same way. But the historical setting, the lavender tinged writing style, this one was pure escapism for me.

That said, it does fall apart at the end. There's a big reveal, an A Ha! moment, that just did not work for me. I can suspend disbelief but not to the point where it snaps entirely - and snap here it does. Also, while I can normally take or leave epilogues, I kind of felt like this story needed one. I had grown attached to the odd little Found Family at the Archibald estate and would have liked one final moment for a Where Are They Now? recap.

McIntyre wrote a couple of books and some shorts for Harlequin Spice, most of which are out of print now, and her website is scrubbed of any reference to these works (Because they're out of print? Because she moved on and rebranded? No clue). Most recently she's moved over to writing contemporary westerns and from what I can tell her last book came out in 2019. I'm sorry I left this one languishing in my TBR for so long. It's hardly perfect but damn if this isn't interesting - and frankly an interesting erotic romance is something I haven't read in a long time. It gives me an itch to dig around for more of the sub genre languishing in my TBR.

Final Grade = B- 

#TBRChallenge 2025: Snowdrops and Scandalbroth

The Book: Snowdrops and Scandalbroth by Barbara Metzger

The Particulars: Traditional Regency, Fawcett Crest, 1997, Out of print, eBook publication by Belgrave House 2010.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: This one has been in my TBR for literal decades because of two words: Virgin. Hero.

The Review: For this month's optional theme, Previously, In Romance..., I decided to not only go Old School, but to go with a subgenre that no longer exists - Traditional Regency. For you young'uns, Trads were category length, Regency-set historicals often defined by the manners of the era and "just kisses" romances. They had a hearty following back in their day with numerous publishers having their own lines. By the early 2000s however we were in the final death throes and once Signet killed their line in 2006 it was pretty much over. But you can still find many of them floating around in digital reprints, and, of course, in all the places you can find used books.

I picked up Snowdrops and Scandalbroth, quite literally, decades ago because I am nothing if not trash for a virgin hero - and this story has one. What I didn't realize is that this turns out to be one virgin hero who does his damnedest to turn me off his brethren entirely. A more sanctimonious prig you'll never meet - despite the fact he has one really great scene where he talks about the common double standard between men and women being "pure" until the marriage bed. It's not enough to make up for how insufferable I generally found him.

Kathlyn Partland is in a bind. Her mother, gone for many years, was disowned by her blue-blooded family when she married Kathlyn's father, a poor tutor. He, in the fine tradition of Romancelandia Fathers, makes no arrangements for Kathlyn, financially or otherwise, so when he dies she's quite literally on her own. She manages to secure a job as a governess in London but her mail coach is quite delayed through a series of misadventures and when she finally arrives she finds out the family has given up on her, gone to the country and hired someone else.

Riding to her rescue is Courtney Choate, Viscount Chase, who can't just leave the damsel in distress when he spies her lost, carrying her own luggage, down a seedy London street. She's pretty much accosted in no time flat. Courtney is in a bind of his own. He was engaged, but unceremoniously dumped his betrothed after finding out she's had two lovers already. Our Courtney is very principled and having witnessed the pain his father's infidelities caused his mother has vowed to 1) wait until marriage and 2) to never, ever take a mistress. He has vowed to stay true to his future wife, whomever she turns out to be.  Of course the broken engagement gets tongues wagging, and soon Courtney's manliness and sexual preference is called into question (the author doesn't come out and say "everybody thinks he's queer" but it's definitely implied between the lines). Anyway, Courtney goes off to war, and despite coming back a hero with a bullet wound and gimpy leg, the rumors persist. 

We all can guess what happens next. Kathlyn is flat broke with no options. Courtney needs to convince the gossipmongers and the ton he likes girls. She puts up a token resistance but before you can say bingo-bango, she's going by an assumed name and masquerading as Courtney's mistress - for a new wardrobe and a pile of coins, of course.

This sounds pretty straight-forward but it's actually an Everything and the Kitchen Sink romance. It's a farce y'all. Not only do you have the Fake Mistress thing going on, there's also a jewel heist involved (remember Kathlyn's delayed mail coach?) which brings Bow Street calling, along with the dead thief's compatriots he swindled - and they all think that Kathlyn knows where the missing jewels are. There's also a misunderstanding thrown in - Kathlyn thinks Courtney needs a fake mistress to convince the ton he's "still a man" because she speculates the wartime bullet wound damaged his, uh, "little soldier." Courtney, of course, isn't forthcoming as to the why he needs the fake mistress subterfuge so speculation is all our girl has.

The cast soon bloats like a drunk on a 3-day bender to include future appearances and mentions of Courtney's former fiancée (hello, slut-shaming, followed by fat-shaming - because of course she married a decrepit old man after Courtney dumped her and put on some pounds), Courtney's former nanny, two rascally Lords he pals around with (well, sort of), two Bow Street Runners, three members of the jewel thief gang, the nannie's grandchildren, Kathlyn's loathsome aunt, Courtney's mother, and a partridge in a pear tree.

For the record, Trad Regencies are category length, and this one clocks in at a little over 200 pages. The author takes many writing short-cuts to trim down word count (a lot is mentioned but takes place off page), coupled with the farce and the large secondary cast means very little time is given to the actual romance. Which probably isn't a bad thing since what is on page largely didn't work for me. Courtney has one good scene where he talks about "purity" and the double-standard between men and women and why aren't men held to the same standards, yada yada yada - but otherwise he's entirely too smug and self-righteous for my tastes. There's one really good scene where Kathlyn fires both barrels at him - but otherwise there's just not enough here to make be buy into these two falling in love. A lot of what I would consider "courtship moments" take place off page.  The whole thing is entirely too overcrowded by the farcical comedy (Kathlyn gets kidnapped TWICE!) and the wide cast of secondary characters.  Basically folks what we have here is a screwball comedy set in Regency England and it just didn't work for me.

That said, I know there's a readership out there for farce and certainly it can work very well in a Trad Regency setting. However, Courtney nearly putting me off virgin heroes entirely (which I thought was basically impossible - who knew?) coupled with the strong Not Like Other Girls vibe to Kathlyn and the general overall writing of Courtney's former fiancée (deplorable) means that this is a Old School romance that just hasn't aged all that well.

Final Grade = D+

Note: It's not lost on me that I have referred to a book published in 1997 as "old school." Excuse me while I go crawl into my coffin...

#TBRChallenge 2025: Snowed In

The Book: Snowed In by Jenna Bayley-Burke

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, St. Martin's Press Swerve, 2016, Digital only, Book 2 in More Than Friends duet

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: It's a long buried ARC that time forgot that I unearthed on my Kindle. My best guess? It was an impulse download from NetGalley because I got sucked in by the blurb. As one does.

The Review: I normally like to focus on my print TBR for the Challenge but for this month's New Year, Who Dis? theme I thought it would be good to unearth a random (ancient) ARC from my Kindle by an author I haven't read before. And since time was of the essence, I wanted something category length.  

Marissa Clarke is not that far removed from college and is a burgeoning event planner. She's at her BFF's wedding and like a dope, she let one of their sorority sisters crash in her hotel room when she RSVP'ed at the last minute. Anyway, now Christa is hooking up with a former college "boyfriend" and has essentially kicked Marissa out of her own hotel room. Riding to her rescue is Scott Zimmerman (the blurb names him as Scott Parker but my ARC and the author's afterward say Zimmerman - so way to go St. Martin's copy editors...). Marissa and Scott were friends in college, or so she thought. He was a member of the basketball team, the same team her fiancé was the star player on. Turns out he was a player in more ways than one, cheating on her whenever he was "on the road" and dumping her mere hours before they were set to get married. Marissa was shattered and in the aftermath put some blame on Scott for not giving her a heads up.

Scott realizes he was a first class shit for not telling Marissa her fiancé was a scumbag, but it was complicated. Namely because him squealing would have fractured the team dynamic (not something to take lightly in college sports) and because he's always been more than half in love with her. Well now they're both at this wedding and he decides to shoot his shot. Helping him out in that department? Besides Christa's hormones? Mother nature. He offers her a place to stay (his cabin) after she gets kicked out of her hotel room and showing up shortly after they do? A snow storm. The kind that knocks out power and closes roads.

This starts out pretty great, the getting kicked out of your hotel room by a horndog "friend" is just the kind of thing that could happen when not-far-removed-from-college friends get together. Also the whole wedding hook-up thing is just a fact of life.  Unfortunately the whole thing runs very hot and cold after that - namely the heroine. One minute she's prudish, the next she wants to climb the hero like a jungle gym. I'm talking practically salivating to the point of drooling. He keeps pumping the brakes because he wants "more" but eventually they succumb and the tissue-thin plot is propped up by a bunch of filler sex scenes. I'm talking a lot of sex. And it's only a 200 page book. 

Once the roads are cleared the author then gets back to some actual conflict. Unfortunately that conflict is entirely Heroine Being Stubborn. Scott is definitely pushing for more and, understandably, Marissa's not ready. She already once twisted herself into a pretzel so her life revolved around a man, and that ended in a spectacular disaster. Nope, she's not doing it again. But here's the thing - is that really what she would be doing? Now that her friend and roommate is married, she can't afford the rent on her own in Portland, Oregon. She has an OK job, but her chances for promotion are stuck behind a boss who needs to leave first. The friend spiffs up her resume and sends it to two places in Bend, Oregon (where she, her new husband and Scott all live). Both jobs want her, pay more, and would be a promotion over what she's doing now. But somehow she sees that as "I'm not uprooting my life for Scott who may break my heart even though I'm crazy about him." 

Child, please.

Your BFF lives in town. You've got two job offers that would be a major step up in responsibility, as well as financially. So bloody what if it doesn't work out with Scott?! The author tries to prop this up a bit more by giving Marissa working class parents who have always struggled to get by but that doesn't negate the fact that both jobs in Bend want her, pay more, and would be promotions. Take a flier girl - there's literally nothing keeping you in Portland.

Eventually she comes around but she still wants to pump the brakes with Scott. Yes, they had crazy, wild monkey sex but she wants to get her own place and to actually "date" him. He, of course, gets a little butthurt. While she is stubborn for the sake of being stubborn, he is a railroading hero (my least favorite kind of hero...). Frankly I was annoyed with both of them in equal measure before we even got to the ending.

If you're looking for a snowed in trope with a lot of sex, look no further. This book has both. But I'm well into my Tired Old Sea Hag Era of Romance Reading, and frankly that's just not enough for me anymore. 

Final Grade = C

All Aboard! Sign-Up for the 2025 #TBRChallenge

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

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

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

Participation is as easy as being on social media!

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

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

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

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

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

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