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 […]
Regular People Falling in Love? How Unusual!
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 […]
The Most Interesting Romance of the Year (Not Best)
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, […]
Who Is This Romance Cover for Exactly?
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 […]
Cletus Is Bold Choice of Hero Name
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 […]