Book Critic
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Review: Meet Me in Bombay by Jenny Ashcroft
I absolutely love seeing more and more exotic locations in the historical fiction genre. Most historical fiction novels are set places like England or America with the occasional France thrown in for fun-sies. But there are many compelling stories coming out of exotic locations recently and I am so excited to read those stories. One of my new favorite settings in historical fiction is Bombay. In the fall I read Murder in Old Bombay and it felt like such an exotic treat for me and when I saw this one was coming out I jumped on it, mostly for the location, but also because I never met a WWI romance…
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Review: An Offer From a Gentleman (Bridgertons #3) by Julia Quinn
After binge watching the Netflix series, Bridgerton, I renewed my promise to read all the Bridgerton books immediately! I read The Duke and I when word of the show started circulating. I didn’t love The Duke and I but I liked it enough to consider reading the other books in the series, but I wanted to wait and see how the show was before I went back to reading the Bridgerton books. Well I swooned for the series and quickly nabbed a copy of The Viscount Who Loved me (Anthony’s story) which was incredible. Anthony Bridgerton will probably reign for a while as as favorite romantic hero of mine. Before…
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Review: Beauty Among Ruins by J’nell Ciesielski
Last year I read one of J’nell Ciesielski’s novels and fell in love. She writes such wonderful historical fiction and when I saw this book was coming out, I cracked it open the second it arrived. The cover is absolutely stunning and I thought this one sounded so good. I love WWI romances and Downton Abbey and that’s basically what this book sounded like…..a nice little war romance for fans of Downton Abbey! As soon as I started it I couldn’t put it down! It was such a great read and for the most part read fairly quick. I loved the characters and of course the romance! I also have…
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Review: The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons #2) by Julia Quinn
Like everyone else in the world, I binged watched Bridgerton on Christmas Day. It was incredible and I absolutely loved it. Even my husband watched with me and immediately wanted to know where the second season was (as did I!). Earlier in 2020, I read The Duke and I in anticipation of the upcoming show and to be honest the book was only ok for me. The show was so much better! While I had adored the book to start with, as it went on, something about it started to draw me down and I just didn’t love it by the end of the first book. I wasn’t exactly dying…
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Review: A Deadly Fortune by Stacie Murphy
This was a book I was really looking forward to. I loved The Alienist and this book was recommended for fans of that book so I was eager to check this one out. The Alienist was probably one of the more dark and twisted historical mysteries that I have ever read so putting that as a ‘recommended for fans of The Alienist’ was a pretty tall order. This is also Stacie Murphy’s debut novel, so I wasn’t sure what to expect beyond something with occultist undertones that was a darker mystery. I was still coming off the Christmas/holiday reads hangover so something with a little more meat to the story…
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Review: Not My Boy by Kelly Simmons
It’s a new year and this is my first official book review of 2021 and I must say, I was thrilled to start the year off with a bang when it came to my first read of the new year! I have read only one other book by this author and it was pretty good so I was looking forward to picking up another by her! While I loved the cover (the little boy with a red coat is just so eye catching), I think it was the summary the truly sold me on this one as a potential read. Whenever a review pitch comes across my desk I always…
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Review: The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss
Unless you have been living under a rock, this book has been just about everywhere. At least on my social media it has been! Its seems like everyone has been reading this one and raving about it. So needless to say, in all my holiday reading I decided to jump on the bandwagon. I thought for sure this was going to be a book that I would breeze through and it would leave me feeling all full of Christmas cheer and happiness. But instead this one left me feeling a little like a Scrooge. I didn’t love it. It wasn’t awful but it definitely wouldn’t have been my pick for…
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Review: Christmas in Harmony Harbor (Harmony Harbor #9) by Debbie Mason
I picked up this book for a couple of reasons. One, I was looking for all the holiday romances I could get my hands on, two I say that RaeAnne Thayne recommended this book, and third it had an adorable dog on the cover. I was super excited to check it out. I love enemies to lovers troupes and this one sounded like it had a little bit of a You’ve Got Mail vibe going on so I was obviously looking forward to something like this to help get me in the Christmas spirit. I noticed that it was part of a series but I also know that often in…
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Review: Christmas at Holiday House by RaeAnne Thayne
RaeAnne Thayne was an author that I didn’t think I was going to like when I picked up one of her books for the very first time. The cover reminded me of something that my grandma might read…..a small town country romance with cliche characters. After reading the first book by Thayne, I fell in love with her books and have read a number of them since the first one! I especially love her holiday romances. JOLLY. GOOD. I have devoured them in single sittings and this book was no different. This one is a standalone so I was really really excited to check it out and I absolutely fell…
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Review: The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda (Audible Edition)
For the month of December, my book club decided to read this book and I had seen a lot of reviews about this one and was super excited to check it out. I have never read anything by this author before but I have seen a number of her books and often thought about picking them up to see what all the buzz was about, but then for some reason fell back to other authors that I knew or had read before. Well after reading this one, Megan Miranda will be an author I read more often. This was a great read and I was often sitting there wondering what…