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Tag: romance

ILLUSTRATED COVERS ARE GOOD ACTUALLY: A Romance Round-Up

Well, friends, I hope you are all hanging in there. These past few weeks have been hard even by 2020 standards, as the country’s government showed yet again — as if there remained any doubt — that it does not care about Black lives, and will uphold white supremacy at any cost. The protests that resulted have been met all too frequently with police violence. If anyone reading this has felt unsure about the aims and demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, I hope those doubts have been laid to rest in the past fortnight. Our country must confront…

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Review: House Rules, Ruby Lang

Lana has returned to New York after years away, hoping to pursue restaurant work after spending oodles of time learning to make noodles. (You see, I have done a little wordplay there.) Meanwhile, her ex-husband Simon is planning to leave behind his inherited, rent-controlled, teensy-weensy apartment in favor of something new. When they cross paths for the first time in years, they must unwillingly admit that splitting the rent on a beautiful railroad-style apartment in Harlem makes pretty good sense. And moving in together leads them to face the things about them that have changed, and the things that have…

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Police Stops, Brises, and Other Rites of Passage: A Romance Round-Up

Did I have the purest of intentions to read spooky books in honor of spooky season? YOU BETCHA. Did I end up just reading a shit-ton of romance novels in the month of October instead? INDEED I DID. I can always read spooky stuff in November, right? Here are the romances I’ve been putting in my brain, friends. How to Catch a Wicked Viscount, Amy Rose Bennett After an indiscretion at school that leaves Sophie and her three best friends with a reputation for scandal, she never expects to be accepted back into polite society. But when Charlotte discovers Sophie…

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Spies, Football, and Food Trucks: A Romance Round-Up

Cat Sebastian has become one of my go-to romance authors for just consistently tender romance content. (My favorite and most tenderest is The Ruin of a Rake, but they’re all terrific.) Her latest, Hither Page, is set between the wars in England and features a shell-shocked doctor who has retreated to a small English town to escape his memories of the war. Meanwhile the titular Leo Page has been sent to the small English town to investigate a suspicious murder and discover whether there’s any Spy Stuff afoot. Although I don’t tend to like romances that follow a single couple…

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Review: Proper English, KJ Charles

KJ Charles is a favorite romance author of mine, so the occasion of her releasing a new book is always cause for celebration. But the very early standalone Think of England has always been a particular favorite, so I was thrilled to learn that KJ Charles had plans for a prequel novel, an f/f murder mystery set at a shooting party at an English manor house in the Edwardian era. Proper English follows the talented shooter Pat Merton, who is competent and sensible and has never had much time for romance — until she meets her dear friend’s new fiancee,…

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Review: An Unconditional Freedom, Alyssa Cole

Alyssa Cole is one of the best romance novelists working, and a new book from her is always cause for celebration. An Unconditional Freedom is the third in her Loyal League series, which follows Union spies working behind Confederate lines to ensure an end to slavery. Daniel Cumberland joined the Loyal League to seek revenge: Born free, then sold into slavery by white men pretending to be abolitionists, Daniel has never recovered from the psychological scars his years in slavery inflicted. He has no interest in a new partner, let alone one as pretty and vivacious as Janeta Sanchez, a…

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Angst and Ducklings: A Tiny Romance Round-Up

It’s Monday and we all probably all need some romance novels in our lives. Here are two new ones that you might want to pick up if you need something to get you through the holiday season. I received electronic copies of both of them from the publishers for review consideration, which did not influence my review because my good opinion is more costly than ebooks. Wrong to Need You, Alisha Rai (Goodreads link!) Sadia Ahmad owns a cafe, tends a bar, and raises her son. When her dead husband’s brother comes back to town after years of radio silence,…

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The River of No Return, Bee Ridgway

The beginning: I was so excited about the premise of The River of No Return that I checked it out from the library the self-same day I read Alice’s review! It is about a Guild made up of people who have the power to jump forward in time. People usually do it when they are under threat of death; and upon their arrival in the future, the Guild finds them, teaches them how to live in modern times, and sets them loose with a stipend to cover their expenses. This is the only option for people who jump forward in…

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My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier

Verdict: Not as good as Rebecca. Philip, the protagonist of My Cousin Rachel, has been raised by his bachelor cousin Ambrose.  Ambrose goes away to Italy, marries there, and a few years later sends a letter to Philip intimating that he is in danger, and asking Philip to come to Italy straight away.  When Philip gets there, Ambrose has died, and Rachel is gone.  He conceives a hatred for her, believing that she was responsible for Ambrose’s death; but when she comes to stay with him in England, he falls for her straight away.  Is she evil?  Did she poison…

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The House at Riverton, Kate Morton

I am not able to steer myself away from books that deal with the dying aristocracy in Britain before and during and after the World Wars.  Or just books set in Britain before and during and after the World Wars (recently before and recently after, obviously; otherwise that would comprehend the whole of British history).  I love them.  I love books set in Britain in this time period even more than I love books set in the Victorian times.  At least more reliably – there are some books with Victorian settings that are shocking tedious crap. The House at Riverton…

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