Who is the sexiest character you have ever seen on TV or in a movie? If your answer is Ned Flanders then I have a treat for you!! Connie distrusts a "nWho is the sexiest character you have ever seen on TV or in a movie? If your answer is Ned Flanders then I have a treat for you!! Connie distrusts a "nice guy" mainly because whenever she lets her guard down she finds out they are not so nice after all. she has stories of awful encounters coming out her ears. But since she likes sex and always hopes the next one will be different she keeps trying to find someone who is even a tiny bit decent. In the meantime she keeps encountering her incredibly cheery and neat as a button neighbour Beck. Beck seems like the ultimate "nice guy": always polite, doesn't even swear, and likes to present her with homemade pies...but he is holding onto a not so dark secret. Beck is in a pickle. He has been single his whole life but thanks to the machinations of his workplace bully he somehow ended up fibbing that he has a wife. Now there is a work retreat for his publishing company and if there is no wife Beck is going to be exposed!. A little fib at a cocktail party has Connie and Beck pretending to be happily married for a whole week. All the while both of them are trying to pretend that the other person isn't exactly the type they always hoped to be with!
This is sexy romance and is great to find sexy romance without a toxic main (usually male) character. There are some very descriptive sex scenes so this is definitely for adult audiences but is also sex positive, with a FMC who knows what she wants and isn't shy about asking for it. Beck is a blushing MMC who comes across as far too innocent for this world and it is nice for once to have a male character who is the inexperienced one. The end is predictably saccharine but what good is a romance without a happily ever after?! Read if you want a palate cleanser from the overwhelm of dark romance making the rounds but still want some hot sex in your novels!...more
This is a feel good book about a serious and timely topic. It manages to be entertaining and warm-hearted while at the same time attempting to tackle This is a feel good book about a serious and timely topic. It manages to be entertaining and warm-hearted while at the same time attempting to tackle racism, book-banning, bigotry, sexism and wilful ignorance....more
Question: Those of you who have rated this highly, WHY?? So I picked this one for book club. I expected a cute / cosy Scifi story that would be a easyQuestion: Those of you who have rated this highly, WHY?? So I picked this one for book club. I expected a cute / cosy Scifi story that would be a easy, gentle read. The cover is doing some seriously heavy lifting for this book because while the story was cute and cosy it was trying really hard to be cute, the cuteness felt forced and false. And I suppose it could be classed as cosy but that's only because NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS!! Scout is a space archaeologist (a job that apparently consists of watching recordings and knowing how to do rubbings (frottage) when the incredibly powerful computer can't read a wall map - mind you this computer can supposedly translate vocab from completely alien races including partial words without having a key, but, okay... yeah, sure, whatevs). Scout is working with their brother who is a pilot, engineer, computer guy, safecracker, and everything actually useful. They also have a cat that has it's own space suit, Pumpkin. (IMO Pumpkin carries this boring-arse book). In this universe humanity has reached for the stars only to find that once thriving worlds are devoid of life. Not just the dominant species destroyed but all life has been erased...on world, after world, after world....and no one knows why. Scout and Kieran work for an underfunded non-profit trying to work out what happened by combing through destroyed worlds for caches of information. Their quest is complicated by rival June and her profit driven employer who have better tech, better weapons, and zero motivation for the greater good. In the episodic feeling plotline, Scout and co. reach cache and get stumped by June, and then again, and well, I won't spoil the end, but it is breath takingly predictable if you have ever watched a kids TV show. While all this is going on Scout is processing grief over their mother's death, offering (what for an American author) is deep and profound commentary on a greed-driven medical system. I know that in a few years (if it is still in print) I will probably pick it up again because of that fabulous cover and start reading and about 50% of the way through realise that A) it sucks and B) I have read it before but because it is such a non-event, filled with such unmemorable characters I won't remember a thing. You could read this in an afternoon, or like me you could take ten days to get through it because you lack all motivation to read about completely unmemorable characters. There were also editing issues with the author sometimes switching between first person and third person for Scout's POV. I don't care which an author uses but don't flick between them. There were also randomly awkward sentences as August tried not to use any personal pronouns for Scout's character, not even they / them. I am not sure why? Are they trying not to put off readers who might not try a book with a gender fluid character? If so, pronouns could have been avoided by staying entirely in first person POV. ...more
I started reading this in October 2024 and only just finished it (April 2025). I am not a slow reader. I have finished about 50 other books in that tiI started reading this in October 2024 and only just finished it (April 2025). I am not a slow reader. I have finished about 50 other books in that time period. This story is not objectively bad. I just didn't care. I thought I wanted a non-toxic romance but all of these characters were so cautious to avoid offence that they came off as completely fake. And boring, really, really boring. Even the sex scenes were boring. Every time I contemplated picking it up and finishing it my brain rebelled. I would nod off after 3 pages. On the upside I have been having some insomnia so it did help with that. On the surface I loved the premise: Chloe is in her early twenties, a freelance graphic designer and starting to build her career, when she gets a call from Child Protective Services. Her junkie mother has just given birth to Chloe's half-sister. If Chloe doesn't want to take on responsibility for her sister she will be placed in foster care. Chloe herself grew up in the foster system before being adopted by a loving but distant and somewhat critical couple who never quite understood her needs, wants and loves. There is no way Chloe can let that happen to her sister. But being a freelancer means no fixed income, combine that with her age she isn't an ideal foster parent, even if she is related. Warren is also in his early 20s. He aged out of foster care but his Deaf teenage brother is in a home that doesn't want to accommodate his needs. While he has a stable job, affordable apartments are few and far between in the district his brother's specialised school is in. So when Child Protection announces a new initiative to help foster carers that teams Warren and Chloe up - he has the income, she has a stable apartment with extra rooms - all they have to do is deal with each other for 6 months and prove to Child Protection they are capable and caring foster parents. Shouldn't be too hard, right?
Like I said this book is so careful to not offend but at the same time ignores so many MAJOR issues, like how the heck can a 20-something freelancer In the United States afford health insurance for an infant with a heart condition that was born addicted? Why would anyone think putting a strange man and 15-year old teenage boy into a house with a woman and an infant is a good idea? How is Warren's income relevant to Chloe's ability to adopt? They aren't sharing incomes!!! Ok he might help pay the rent / bills for 6 months but that is very short term. Why is CPS doing this without offering ANY form of psychological support to new foster parents (Warren especially could do with some major therapy, but Chloe's got shit to deal with too). I know, I know, "But Smitchy", I hear you say, "if too much real life intruded it wouldn't be a romance! Every book needs you to suspend disbelief in some way!" Yes I know but I could forgive a lot of things if the characters where at all believable. Warren starts out surly and distant and seemingly overnight turns out lovely-dovey. Like he had a personality transplant. Chloe has major, unresolved issues about her own adoption and relationship with her parents - even her best friends don't know her history - but these just get resolved... like just by the end of the book they aren't issues anymore but she never really confronts them. There is the mandatory miscommunication (for once not between the MMC and FMC, but between Warren and his brother) throws Warren completely off the deep end and he runs away? Like just straight out runs off thinking Chloe telling him to "Warren, you need to go calm down. Now", he objects and then she yells "Just leave!" (He punched a wall - please insert the red flag guy). Warren in his wisdom decides she means forever, not just as she very clearly said, to calm down. Yeah chickie, that is a stable guy to raise a kid with.... the bar is on the fucking ground if we think this guy is Hero material. I so wanted to like this.... I hope to god her other ones are better for her sake and her readers....more
Eleanor dash is a high flying author. Her best selling Vacation Mysteries series has been going for 10 years and has nine books so when her publisher Eleanor dash is a high flying author. Her best selling Vacation Mysteries series has been going for 10 years and has nine books so when her publisher decides that a promo tour through key locations in Italy is just the thing to celebrate a decade on the best seller lists Eleanor doesn't think twice! But she was not counting on rival authors, a stressful relationship with her sister (who is also her assistant), two ex-boyfriends, passionate fans, a stalker, oh, and someone trying to kill her!
Dazzling scenes set in the tourist hotspots and glitzy places on the Italian coast serve a backdrop for Eleanor and her fellow authors to puzzle out the mystery of who wants her dead before someone actually succeeds.
This is a fun beach read, or if like me you are here in the Victorian winter and you want to dream of hotter climes, the undemanding story and colourful cast of characters make it easy to enjoy the setting.
Like in Benjamin Stevenson's books (Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone & Everyone on This Train is a Suspect) the narrator is constantly breaking the fourth wall to let the reader know little extra things about themselves or others in their life, and Eleanor straight out tells us she is an unreliable narrator.
I did find the authors constant asides (I was listening to the audio version so couldn't skim over the footnotes), inane pop culture references (I think this was meant to make it feel "current" but honestly is just going to date the book really badly), and their recaps (like an American reality TV show you could hardly go a chapter without some sort of recap) just a tad obnoxious. But I don't know, maybe I am in the minority?
I didn't find the "twist" particularly surprising, but I enjoyed the journey....more
OMFG how is this a best seller! I don't care if this is ground-breaking statistical concepts I could feel my brain trying to escape my ears to get awaOMFG how is this a best seller! I don't care if this is ground-breaking statistical concepts I could feel my brain trying to escape my ears to get away from the boredom. If it wasn't for having to lead a book club discussion I would not have finished this and I would have zero regrets. This book represents hours of my life I will never get back
If I had to pick a single word to describe this book that word would be 'convoluted'. While things get tied together at the end it is not a plot that If I had to pick a single word to describe this book that word would be 'convoluted'. While things get tied together at the end it is not a plot that would hold together in anything other than book-land. This is still a YA read (older YA, but YA) with some older themes (sex is implied not explicit), a death, and lots of family angst. ...more
This is actually the first Ali Hazelwood I have read but it won't be the last! This is a fabulous contemporary romance with strong lead characters whoThis is actually the first Ali Hazelwood I have read but it won't be the last! This is a fabulous contemporary romance with strong lead characters who aren't afraid to demand what they need - in and out of bed. Rue is a successful bio-engineer at Kline. A job that has given her financial stability, a good friend and the freedom to pursue her dream project; which is finally almost ready to take to market. Dating isn't her thing, however sex definitely is. With a few rules: He has to follow her lead in bed and never, ever meet up again. So when she connects to Eli for a no strings attached evening she doesn't expect to see him heading up the hostile takeover of Kline the very next day. Eli is as surprised as Rue. He never expected to see her again and isn't going to let this lucky chance get away. But taking over Kline has been years in the making and nothing can get in the way as it is not just his financial investment that has to be recouped. But the attraction is undeniable and as long as they keep this tryst on the downlow there is no reason not to act on it, is there?
Here is a steamy romance with minor angst and a believable plot. Lots of sex scenes which were more imaginative than most romances (all respectful/ consensual - which I am currently finding is not always guaranteed in contemporary romance so that was nice) and female centred. Rue is clearly neuro-divergent and it is great to see an author who has not made neuro-spiciness the character's entire personality. Eli and Rue have great chemistry and the minor characters were fleshed out enough that I actually had to check that some of them had not turned up in previous books (they have not). Points off for repeated use of the words 'filthy' and 'obscene' while doing things that were not actually that...more
I enjoyed the artwork and narrative style of this story. The blend of Classic European and Asian fairy-tale narratives mixed into the story of Tein, aI enjoyed the artwork and narrative style of this story. The blend of Classic European and Asian fairy-tale narratives mixed into the story of Tein, a 14-year old Vietnamese American boy who is struggling to find the words to come out to his mum. At the same time Tien is dealing with his sexuality and being different to his friends due to being a first generation new American - bridging the old world and the new and the gaps between his parents' views and his own are the fairy-tales he reads with his mum to help them both improve their English. I loved the clarity of the artwork and the two different colours used to differentiate between the fairy-tales and the main story....more
Fun and funny historical romance in the wilds of 1880's Montana. Junebug McBride is sick of being the only girl in a family of annoying and bossy big Fun and funny historical romance in the wilds of 1880's Montana. Junebug McBride is sick of being the only girl in a family of annoying and bossy big brothers when she learns about a newspaper dedicated to Matrimonial matters she decides that it is the perfect way to get one of her brothers a wife. With honestly only little sisters can have her advertisement attracts the attention of fortune hunter Willabelle Lascalles who arrives in town with her maid Maddy Mooney in tow. Maddy has only followed Willabelle this far because she has been promised that back wages owed will be paid by Willabelle's new husband-to-be. A few misunderstandings later and Willabelle has found herself a better prospect - abandoning Maddy with some dirty dresses, a dog, and absolutely no money. Maddy feels she has no choice but to approach Willabelle's mail order husband to explain what happened and beg for enough money to get back to civilisation. An accident, a snowstorm and Junebug are all determined that one of her brothers is getting a wife and Maddy is going to stay!
I really enjoyed the language in this book, Junebug and her brothers seem to be the most literate frontier family in the west! This book has classic rom-com vibes and lots of romance without any spicy scenes. Fun characters and a good story will leave you wanting to know more and I will be reading the next book as soon as it comes out!...more
This one wasn't bad, it just wasn't riveting. I feel the story could have done with a few less "snarky / sarcastic" comments from Fran and more actualThis one wasn't bad, it just wasn't riveting. I feel the story could have done with a few less "snarky / sarcastic" comments from Fran and more actual plot - the main one really doesn't make a lot of sense even after all is revealed. ...more