Review: "Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor" by Lisa Kleypas

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2 1/2 stars

It pains me to say this, but I didn't enjoy this read. *ducks rotten tomatoes*

The plot is pretty simple and the book description is good enough to give you the gist of it, so I won't bother with writing a plot summary here. What can I say? I liked the premise of the story, but the book didn't live up to my expectations.

As usual, Ms. Kleypas' writing was solid and made the story flow easily. Her description of Friday Harbor was so charming and vivid that it made me want to move there.

As for the characters, Mark was nice, Maggie was nice, little Holly was nice, Mark's brother Sam was nice... When did "nice" become such a bad thing? :-/

Romance wise, Mark and Maggie's relationship was disappointingly underdeveloped. There was some buildup, but no real "tension". Not even the fact that Mark was involved in a relationship with another woman for the most part of the story or that Maggie was still (sort of) "grieving" over the death of her husband made the story less, well, lukewarm. Then, all of a sudden, Mark was free, Maggie was ready to move on and embrace a new relationship, and they all lived happily ever after... "Rushed" doesn't begin to describe the ending of this book.

I'm a huge fan of Ms. Kleypas' historical books, but I'm not sold to her contemporary's yet. If this is an example of what I should expect from the upcoming books in this series, I don't think I'll be buying them.


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Review: "Saving Sarah" by Lacey Thorn

Saving Sarah by Lacey Thorn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


2 1/2 stars



So, what do we have here? Sarah - no last name because, really, who cares? - is found in a very compromising situation and has two choices: go to jail or put her name in the bride lottery. She chooses the latter, of course.

(The bride lottery was very common in a west where women were far and few. Often considered the more delicate sex, men had started objecting when women were brought to trial with the intent to serve jail time. All a woman really needed was a firm hand from the man in her life. She couldn’t be held responsible for actions that could have been prevented by the right man. Thus the lottery was created and religiously adhered to in some small western towns. Sarah’s being one of them.)

Luckily for her, the man who "wins" her in the lottery is Deputy Riley James, who happens to be the man of her dreams and, you guessed it, has had the hots for her since forever.

And that's all the plot you'll get from this book, because what follows is one sex scene after another until they confess they love each other and live happily ever after.

As smut goes, this wasn't a bad one. Sarah and Riley were nice, knew how to set the sheets on fire, and the setup was believable. However, Ms. Thorn's writing didn't do it for me this time. There was too much info dump in the first chapter and too much (vanilla) sex scenes in the remaining ones, when she seemingly decided to ditch any attempt at storytelling and focused on sharing the intimate details of Sarah and Riley's thirty-six-hour wedding night with the readers. Hmmm, why am I complaining? *grins*



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Review: "Healing Hearts" by Taryn Kincaid

Healing Hearts by Taryn Kincaid

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


2 1/2 stars (rounded down to 2 stars because I was disappointed to see a good premise "wasted" like this)



This book has most of the key ingredients to a good romance: an emotionally and physically damaged hero who can't forget the horrors of war + a tortured heroine who blames the hero for her brother's death on the battlefield and is in dire straits due to her father's gambling debts + angsty conflicts heightened by the hero's sense of guilt and inadequacy + steamy love scenes. Unfortunately, all that is crammed into the word limit of a short story - and the overall result is a very rushed romance that failed to grab me.

I wish this had been a full-length book, because I liked Ms. Kincaid's writing and I think I would have enjoyed it better if I didn't feel like I had to run to keep up with Adam and Emma's more than fast "courtship". As it was, it was hard to connect with their emotions because whenever I started to feel an empathy for them, they changed and I was bereft. Adam and Emma spent a lot of time thinking to themselves and not so much talking to each other. Their inner dialogues gave me a good insight into their feelings so I could (sort of) see why one would fall in love with the other, but I couldn't understand how that happened considering their lack of verbal interaction and their inability to read minds. At the end of the day, and I mean that literally because the whole story happens in the span of a few hours, it was hard to buy their HEA.

All in all, I can't say I liked this book. I didn't hate it either, and that's the best thing I can say about it.

Note: I received this eARC from Carina Press via NetGalley. That had no influence on my review/rating.



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Review: "The Bartered Virgin" by Chevon Gael

The Bartered Virgin by Chevon Gael

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


2 1/2 stars (rounded up to 3 stars because I liked the setting)



This story takes place in the early 20th century, when nouveau riche Americans had no qualms about "selling" their daughters into marriage with decadent and near-bankrupt English noblemen for their titles and prestige. Zachariah Percy is one of those nouveau riche Americans and he has a daugther, Winnifred, to barter. David Knightsbridge, the Earl of Wolshingham, is one of those near-bankrupt English nobleman who, thanks to his late father's folly, is in need of funds to restore the Knightsbriar estate to its former glory. So Mr. Percy and David reach an agreement: David and Winn will marry, David will receive her substantial dowry and Mr. & Mrs. Percy's social status will get a boost. It's a win-win situation, except... no one has asked Winn's opinion about it.

Marriage isn't in Winn's immediate plans, especially marriage to a man that she's only met once and doesn't remember that well. However, she can't confront her father - at least, not directly. So she decides to make her unwanted fiancé change his mind and call off the wedding by pretending to be a harlot and convincing him she's an unsuitable bride for him. Naturally, things don't work out exactly as planned... until they do work out too well and Winn finally gets what she wants. Or does she?

I was sold to this book by its premise and setting, and I saw it as a potential 5-star read before I started it. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm dimmed over the course of the story and I didn't feel any connection with David and Winn. Winn was okay but not particularly engaging. Her antics were kind of silly and I suppose I should have found them funny, but alas, they didn't work for me. David was very unlikable at first and I didn't understand what Winn saw in him. I thought he was rather rude in his speech and actions, and I didn't like the way he treated Winn. What kind of (gentle)man takes a woman's virginity and then sends her home in a taxi? Alone. At 3 A.M.! That is not okay in today's age, when (most) women are as independent as they can be, and it was definitely not okay in the early 20th century. Anyway, David got better as the story progressed, but it wasn't enough to win me over.

All in all, this was an okay read. It wasn't altogether bad because the setting was interesting, but I never felt the love between David and Winn. As this is a romance novel, that was disappointing.

Note: I received this eARC from Carina Press via NetGalley. That had no influence on my review/rating.



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