Tag: reading

Book Review:   A Circle of Uncommon Witches, by Paige Crutcher

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:  A Circle of Uncommon Witches  
Author: Paige Crutcher          
Genre: Romance        
Rating:  3.0 out of 5

Doreen MacKinnon is doomed to die of a broken heart – if she can’t break the centuries old curse placed on her family.

Three hundred years ago, Ambrose MacDonald, a powerful male witch, fell in love with a MacKinnon. And when the MacKinnon witches forbade him from seeing his love, by secretly hiding her away, he retaliated by cursing the family and its future generations to never find love. But it wasn’t without a cost. Now, Ambrose is imprisoned by those same witches, trapped in a tempest and doomed to outlive everyone he has ever loved.

But Doreen isn’t like the other MacKinnon witches. As the 13th generation of the MacKinnon line, Doreen is one of the most powerful witches in centuries… and one of the loneliest. So when she discovers where Ambrose has been trapped, she releases him to help her break the curse, once and for all. Ambrose agrees to help, but with his own motive: vengeance. He plans to use her as bait to enact his revenge on her family.

Together, they enter a series of trials, which take them to a castle in Scotland, off a cliff, and into a world beyond their wildest dreams. As they work together, sparks start to fly, but soon Doreen must choose how far she is willing to go to break the curse, and what she’s willing to sacrifice.

Normally I love family saga type stories, but this one didn’t work for me. Family secrets were taken to whole other level, and the flip to “Oh, we were on your side all along” felt completely made up with no supporting evidence. I wasn’t a fan of the insta-love aspect, either.

Paige Crutcher is a former journalist. A Circle of Uncommon Witches is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: I Am the Cage, by Allison Sweet Grant  

Image belongs to Penguin Group/Duttton.

Title: I Am the Cage 
Author: Allison Sweet Grant        
Genre: YA       
Rating:  4 out of 5

Fish Creek, Wisconsin—Beautiful. Quiet. Isolated. Anonymous. It’s all that nineteen-year-old Elisabeth needs, and everything she wants. Cloistered in her tiny cabin, Elisabeth is determined to be alone, hiding from her memories and making sure that no one can ever hurt her again.

But when a massive snowstorm strikes, plunging the town into darkness, Elisabeth finally allows herself to accept help from her neighbor, Noah, the town’s young sheriff. Forced to show him more vulnerability than she ever intended, Elisabeth realizes she can no longer outrun the scars of her childhood, and facing the darkness might be exactly what she needs to let the light in.

I have a hard time with passive people who just let life—and people—happen to them. What Elisabeth went through as a child was horrific and is something no child—or anyone else—should ever have to go through. What the doctor did, and what her mother let happen, was terrible. And what kind of mother lets her child be tortured like that?

But Elisabeth as an adult kind of got on my nerves a bit for a while, with her passivity and hiding from the world and everyone in it. You do not have to let things that have happened to you control your life—you can move past them and grow stronger from them. For a long time, Elisabeth was content to live in the shadow of her past without attempting to heal from it, and that was very hard for me to read. I was glad when she started to embrace who she was now without clutching the horrors of her past around her like a protective cloak.

Allison Sweet Grant lives in Philadelphia. I Am the Cage is her new novel.

(Galley courtesy of Penguin Group/Dutton in exchange for an honest review.)

Sundays are for Writing #317

This was a good writing week! I wrote four book reviews: My Big Fat Fake Marriage, by Charlotte Stein, Mother of Rome, by Lauren J. A. Bear, The Bane Witch, by Ava Morgyn, and His Mortal Demise, by Vanessa Le, all forthcoming.

Maybe I’ll get in some fiction next week.

Happy writing!

Book Review: Never Planned on You, by Lindsay Hameroff  

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title: Never Planned on You   
Author: Lindsay Hameroff       
Genre: Romance       
Rating:  3.8 out of 5

Ali Rubin has a reputation for spontaneity. Like that time she made a drunken bet in London that led to matching tattoos with a stranger. Her joie de vivre is one of her best qualities; she lives every day to the fullest and follows her dreams wherever they take her. And now, they’re taking her from her career as a chef in New York City back home to Baltimore, where she’s interning as a wedding planner.

Despite the occasional fantasy about her British tattoo twin, Ali never expected to see Graham again. So no one is more surprised than she is when he turns up in Baltimore, ordering a latte at her favorite cafe. When they reconnect during an enchanting evening together, Ali can’t help but wonder if Graham might be someone special.

At the same time, she’s desperate to succeed in her new career and prove that she isn’t the family flake. When she gets a job planning a high profile wedding at a historic hotel, it seems like things are finally falling into place. That is, until Graham turns out to be the groom.

Graham’s family owns the once-grand, now struggling Black-Eyed Susan, and he’s returned to Baltimore to help his grandmother get it back on its feet. He’s certain that hosting a wedding at the hotel is just the publicity boost it needs. Ali’s boss agrees, and promises Ali a full-time gig if the affair goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately, Ali and Graham can’t seem to ignore their rekindled chemistry, especially when it’s revealed that Graham and his fiancée are planning a marriage of convenience. Still, staying away from each other is the best thing they can do, since giving in to their growing feelings might cost them everything.

Because when it comes to love, all bets are off.

I liked Ali…except that she thought it was okay to be involved with an engaged man. I wasn’t okay with that. I loved Ali’s family, but her self-identifying as the black sheep/family disaster was kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I liked a lot of the secondary characters, too, but Ali and Graham just didn’t work for me because of the whole he’s-engaged-to-someone-else thing.

Lindsay Hameroff lives in Pennsylvania. Never Planned on You is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Dressmakers of London, by Julia Kelly

Image belongs to Gallery Books.

Title:   The Dressmakers of London
Author:  Julia Kelly        
Genre:  Historical fiction   
Rating:  4.5 out of 5

In 1940s Great Britain, plain and awkward Izzie finds comfort in retreating into the safety of the backroom of her mother’s dressmaking shop. The predictable world of stitches, patterns, and fabric has been a sanctuary from the cruel, chaotic world that took her father in a tragic accident years ago.

Her beautiful sister Sylvia was old enough to watch her father’s tragic death force her mother to give up their respectable middle-class home and open a shop to support their family. That’s why, when she meets the sophisticated, wealthy Martin Pearsall, Sylvia isn’t surprised at her mother’s encouragement to seize her chance for a better life, even if it means distancing herself from her family at Martin’s insistence.

When their mother unexpectedly dies, the two sisters are surprised to discover that her will stipulates that they both inherit the dress shop, stirring up old resentments and hurt feelings. However, when conscription forces Izzie to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service in another part of the country, she realizes that Sylvia is the only person who can save the shop from closure. As the sisters begin an ongoing correspondence, they must confront old emotions to forge new beginnings.

I really enjoyed this read! I didn’t have a favorite POV character like I usually do. I loved both Izzie and Sylvia’s storylines and voices. It was so much fun to watch how they both changed and grew into themselves in the course of the story, and as always, Julia Kelly’s writing is lovely and evocative, and her storytelling is engrossing.

Julia Kelly is a bestselling author. The Dressmakers of London is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Gallery Books in exchange for an honest review.)

Sundays are for Writing #316

This was an okay writing week. I wrote two book reviews, Southern by Design, by Grace Helena Walz and Spring Fling, by Annie England Noblin (forthcoming). Got some less-than-ideal health news that I’m still processing.

Happy writing!

Book Review:  The Perfect Rom-Com, by Melissa Ferguson

Image belongs to Thomas Nelson.

Title:  The Perfect Rom-Com  
Author:  Melissa Ferguson    
Genre:  Romance       
Rating: 4 out of 5

She’s written dozens of smash hit novels as a ghostwriter. Too bad no one knows it.

Aspiring author Bryony Page attends her first writers conference bursting with optimism and ready to sell her manuscript with long-shot dreams of raising awareness for The Bridge, her grandmother’s financially-struggling organization where she teaches ESL full-time. But after a disastrous pitching session, she stumbles into correcting another author’s work in a last-ditch attempt to make a good impression with the agent. And she, as it turns out, is spot on.

No one is more surprised than Bryony when the agent offers her the opportunity to be a ghostwriter for Amelia Benedict, popular rom-com novelist. Bryony agrees on one she’ll write books for this vain, demanding woman just as long as Jack Sterling, literary agent of the legendary Foundry Literary Agency, works to sell her own book too.

What nobody predicted, however, was that Bryony’s books would turn Amelia Benedict into the Amelia Benedict, household name and bestselling author with millions of copies sold around the world.

And just like that, the Foundry Agency can’t let her go.

But on a personal note, Jack is realizing he can’t either.

I wouldn’t quite describe this as a rom-com. The writing is solid, and I like the characters (Except Amelia. She’s terrible.). The interactions between Jack and Bryony are great. I really enjoy their banter. But…very little of this story is actually about their romance. It’s more about Bryony finding herself and her place in the world. That being said, as long as you aren’t expecting a full rom-com, this is a solid read.

Melissa Ferguson is a bestselling author. The Perfect Rom-Com is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  The Queens of Crime, by Marie Benedict

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title: The Queens of Crime   
Author:   Marie Benedict       
Genre: Historical fiction        
Rating:  4.0 out of 5

London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second-class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.

May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden.

This started off pretty slowly, and I almost gave up and DNFed it. It ended up being a decent read, although it’s not fast-paced at all. I enjoyed seeing the author’s version of these famous authors on the page, but the POV felt distant to me, dragging the pace down.

Marie Benedict is a bestselling author. The Queens of Crime is her newest novel.

Book Review: Southern by Design, by Grace Helena Walz  

Image belongs to HarperCollins.

Title: Southern by Design
Author: Grace Helena Walz     
Genre: Fiction        
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Magnolia “Mack” Bishop is staring down the barrel at single motherhood–thanks to an unsolicited personal picture her husband texted another woman that quickly went viral among every mom group in town. But she’s determined to not let it distract her from the professional victory she’s inches away securing Charleston’s prestigious Historic Preservation Design Fellowship, the apple of every local designer’s eye.

But when the final house tour is undone by a host of calamities, Mack’s shot at the fellowship goes up in flames. Smelling blood in the water, Mack’s mother, the original Magnolia Bishop, breezes in with a project lead–strings attached. If there’s one thing Magnolia lives for, aside from maintaining her station atop the Southern social ladder, it’s to control Mack’s life . . . and that includes keeping the identity of the absentee father Mack never knew in the shadows.

While working for her mother is the professional equivalent of moving into one’s parent’s basement, Mack spots an opportunity to make it her own when a television network puts a call out for local designers. Pitching the home renovation TV pilot of her dreams–one with a historic preservation twist–might just be the way to finally prove herself. Still, she’ll have to do it covertly to avoid her mother’s interference.

Just when Mack finds her professional footing, at home she spots an impossibly familiar figure unloading his moving truck into the newly sold house next door. She is furious, floored, and regrettably flustered because Lincoln Kelly is the one who got away. Fifteen years earlier he was a summer romance she inadvertently fell in love with, and when he left, following his dreams to New York, Mack was broken-hearted.

I love Southern fiction, and this fits the bill. Mack’s mom is…terrible. Her ex-husband is terrible. The thought of living in that world with those people made my skin crawl.

I loved the Charleston setting. It felt so vibrant and real, and I wanted to visit immediately! Mack’s friends/coworkers were also fantastic, and her daughter made me want to hang out with a tiny human. Definitely recommend this read!

Grace Helena Walz lives outside of Atlanta. Southern by Design is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  Get Lost with You, by Sophie Sullivan

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:  Get Lost with You
Author:  Sophie Sullivan        
Genre: Romance        
Rating:  3.5 out of 5

Jillian Keller took the long route to her best life, but is now happily settled in her hometown of Smile, raising her little girl alone while helping her brother run Get Lost Lodge. A lover of structure and routine, she doesn’t need anything, or anyone, disrupting her carefully curated life.

After chasing and achieving his culinary dreams, Levi Bright realizes he’s still missing something. Something he can’t find in a big city. Returning home to Smile, he intends to build a different future for himself that includes mending fences with his dad, reconnecting with friends, and creating elevated comfort food for a town he loves.

When Levi and Jilly run into each other one day in Smile, once requited feelings that never had a chance to bloom as teens flare between them immediately. Jaded from her past, Jilly is cautious and convinced that she can handle being just friends, as the two have to work closely together to prepare for Get Lost’s official summer opening, spending time together, camping, laughing, kayaking, and reminiscing. But when her brother hires sweet, funny, ridiculously hot Levi as the new chef at the lodge, and she and Ollie are getting more attached, things are moving more quickly than she anticipated–and Jilly has been hurt before. If she wants to be head over heels in love, she’ll have to learn that the past doesn’t always repeat itself. Sometimes, it just leads you where you’re meant to be.

I don’t feel like there was very much conflict in this read. I mean, Jillian and Levi re-meet, are immediately attracted to each other/admit their past attraction for each other, and Boom! They’re together. Even the potential conflict with her brothers not wanting their friend to date their sister was…underwhelming and resolved in about 25 seconds. The stuff with Jillian’s ex was overblown—and we didn’t even see how it turned out. The characters were fine, this was just an easy HEA.

Sophie Sullivan is from Canada. Get Lost With You is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)