Category Archives: Romance

February 2, 2023 · 2:20 pm

The No Show – Beth O’Leary

The No Show – Beth O’Leary

This was a Christmas present and I read while on holiday.

Here’s the blurb …

Siobhan is a quick-tempered life coach with way too much on her plate. Miranda is a tree surgeon used to being treated as just one of the guys on the job. Jane is a soft-spoken volunteer for the local charity shop with zero sense of self-worth.

These three women are strangers who have only one thing in common: They’ve all been stood up on the same day, the very worst day to be stood up–Valentine’s Day. And, unbeknownst to them, they’ve all been stood up by the same man.

Once they’ve each forgiven him for standing them up, they let him back into their lives and are in serious danger of falling in love with a man who seems to have not just one or two but three women on the go….

Is there more to him than meets the eye? And will they each untangle the truth before they all get their hearts broken?

This is a romance novel (there is a happy ending), but not your ordinary romance novel. It has a very interesting structure, which I won’t describe here because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. If you like clever, witty romance novels, then you will appreciate this novel.

A review

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/01/1095799689/the-no-show-is-an-adventure-in-romantic-storytelling

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December 28, 2022 · 5:37 pm

A Duke in Shining Armour – Loretta Chase

A Duke in Shining Armor – Loretta Chase

I got this one from the library. I have already read Ten Things I Hate about the Duke, which I enjoyed. This one was lots of fun too.

Here’s the blurb…

Not all dukes are created equal. Most are upstanding members of Society. And then there’s the trio known as Their Dis-Graces.

Hugh Philemon Ancaster, seventh Duke of Ripley, will never win prizes for virtue. But even he draws the line at running off with his best friend’s bride. All he’s trying to do is recapture the slightly inebriated Lady Olympia Hightower and return her to her intended bridegroom.

For reasons that elude her, bookish, bespectacled Olympia is supposed to marry a gorgeous rake of a duke. The ton is flabbergasted. Her family’s ecstatic. And Olympia? She’s climbing out of a window, bent on a getaway. But tall, dark, and exasperating Ripley is hot on her trail, determined to bring her back to his friend. For once, the world-famous hellion is trying to do the honorable thing.

So why does Olympia have to make it so deliciously difficult for him . . . ?

It’s witty, fun and well-researched. Imagine a sexy Georgette Heyer novel.

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December 13, 2022 · 6:14 pm

Beach Read – Emily Henry

Beach Read – Emily Henry

This is the third Emily Henry novel, Book Lovers and People we Meet on Vacation. I like them all.

Here’s the blurb …

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

This was a fun, witty and easy read. If you read romance, you will enjoy this, and even if you don’t read romance, this novel has a lot to offer.

A review

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