Prolixity Julien

Among the Year’s Best? Maybe

Take the Lead by Alexis Daria

December 22, 2017 by emmalita 4 Comments

Cannonballer kdm posted Entertainment Weekly’s list of the best romances of 2017. Some people (Prolixity Julien) found it unconscionable that Lucy Parker’s Pretty Face was not on the list (the link leads to Mrs. Julien’s review). I was surprised that I had read only 2 books on the list, though I only remembered reading one initially. The two books on the list I had read were Alyssa Cole’s An Extraordinary Union and Tessa Dare’s The Duchess Deal. I read and enjoyed Tessa Dare’s book, but had nothing to say about it. The review I linked to was written by Malin, who liked it […]

12/22/2017 emmalita's CBR9 Review No:116 |

Regular People Falling in Love? How Unusual!

Wait for It by Mariana Zapata

September 4, 2017 by Mrs. Julien 2 Comments

Last year, I read Mariana Zapata’s classic Kulti and both I and my kissing book cohorts have been working through her catalogue looking for more gems. It’s unreasonable to expect a classic every time, but I really enjoyed Wait for It and have returned to my favourite parts of the story more than once. No one is titled, famous, or a billionaire. Wait for It is just a really good contemporary romance that takes its time with two “ordinary” people finding love and building a new family. Diana is a hairstylist working at a friend’s salon. She’s just moved into […]

9/4/2017 Mrs. Julien's CBR9 Review No:20 |

The Most Interesting Romance of the Year (Not Best)

When Life Happened by Jewel E. Ann

September 3, 2017 by Mrs. Julien 5 Comments

Winner of Most Interesting Romance of the year, though not the best, I recommend When Life Happened for a change of pace, especially if you can get your friends to read it too for discussion purposes. Parker is lost and trying to figure out a way forward with her life. After her sister “stole” and proceeded to marry Parker’s fiance – and Parker ridiculously dosed her with laxatives at the wedding – she needs a change. When her new neighbour is seeking a personal assistant, Parker leaps at the chance. With her boss traveling a great deal of the time, […]

9/3/2017 Mrs. Julien's CBR9 Review No:19 |

Who Is This Romance Cover for Exactly?

Escorted by Claire Kent

September 2, 2017 by Mrs. Julien 4 Comments

Prostitution plots are the exception to my preference for marriage of convenience stories and Escorted features the first one I have read in long time. There are some interesting ideas in this contemporary romance novel, but despite the rounds of contemplation about the oldest profession it inspired in me, Escorted wasn’t really anything special. Lori is a bestselling romance author in her mid-twenties who, despite her facility for writing about it, has never actually had sex. Eager to get her first time over with, she has gotten a recommendation for a local prostitute and Escorted opens with Lori meeting Ander (short for […]

9/2/2017 Mrs. Julien's CBR9 Review No:18 |

Cletus Is Bold Choice of Hero Name

Beard Science by Penny Reid

March 21, 2017 by Mrs. Julien 10 Comments

A friend (it’s emmalita) and I have a running joke about Penny Reid that she is on probation with us, though we clearly keep reading her contemporary romances and seem to take turns actually paying for them. Reid was on secret probation, then double secret probation, then an unprecedented triple secret probation, before peeling back to regular probation and now she’s on “wait and see” status. That’s all a long walk to say that Reid’s work has been uneven, but can be very enjoyable when the elements in her books come together. The Winston Brothers series has two strong books, Beauty […]

3/21/2017 Mrs. Julien's CBR9 Review No:14 |

A Dude Born Anew

Learning to Feel by N.R. Walker

March 2, 2017 by Mrs. Julien 3 Comments

Short Version: Learning to Feel is a fairly traditional contemporary romance that passed the time, but N.R. Walker’s plotting choices struck me as a bit much. Long Version: In a moment of common sense and self-preservation, sad-sack Nathan leaves his job as an ER doctor in Boston, to take a role in rural Maine. It’s a contract position that he hopes will get his life on track, help him work less, and includes free rent on a farmhouse. When Nathan arrives, he finds a painter finishing up the house and his world promptly turns to colour. Trent is an itinerant […]

3/2/2017 Mrs. Julien's CBR9 Review No:11 |

Wonderfully Sarcastic, Quietly Romantic

Pretty Face by Lucy Parker

February 26, 2017 by Mrs. Julien 6 Comments

Lucy Parker is TWO for TWO! Buy this one! Pretty Face follows the contemporary romance that I hope you’ve already read, Act Like It, in Parker’s London Celebrities series and she continues to mix clever writing and emotional sincerity to gain engaging, recommendable results. Herewith the only note I took while reading, “wonderfully sarcastic”; although, I highlighted several passages, such as, “It’s a lost art, condescension. Most workplaces are so PC these days that you just don’t get patronized in quite the same way.” and “The house looked like an interplanetary prison.” Set in London’s theatre sub-culture, Pretty Face is […]

2/26/2017 Mrs. Julien's CBR9 Review No:9 |

He Smelled Like a Very Expensive Forest

Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas

February 24, 2017 by Mrs. Julien 8 Comments

“He smelled like an expensive forest.” The goddess of romance writers, Lisa Kleypas, has not lost her clever touch. What starts as potential ruination and scandal quickly changes into a fierce love match when Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent, and Lady Pandora Ravenel are caught in a compromising position when her dress is caught in the scroll work of a settee at exactly the wrong moment. Encouraged, but not badgered, by her family, Pandora agrees to spend time with her erstwhile seducer despite her very strong and laudable resistance to marriage and her complete loss of civil rights and public identity […]

2/24/2017 Mrs. Julien's CBR9 Review No:8 |

dAvid on The Situation is a lot more nuanced than that…This sounded intriguing anyway, but as soon as you mentioned Csikszentmihalyi, this one went right onto my wishlist. Seems like exactly what I need right...
MsWas on It’s not you… it’s me.This is a great review - excellent job of laying out the good and bad in the novel and showing who this book is for,...
GetoffmyLawnn on An Effervescent RomanceI am so HERE for this, for all the reasons you listed and that I need to read a good romantic kissing book, I feel...
Orleanas on Right there with yaOf the three Rowell books I've read(ATTACHMENTS, ELEANOR & PARK, and FANGIRL), FANGIRL is definitely my least favorite. I thought it dragged and Cath was...
Orleanas on It’s official: I ain’t got no coothIt's always interesting to hear/read someone else's perspective on a book that you, yourself, absolutely love. I read FRANKENSTEIN a few years ago for the...