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Review: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa de la Cruz
Let the Christmas reading commence! Some years I have a ton of holiday themed books (like this year) and other years I stretch my ‘scary reads’ from September to January. But this year I have had a lot of Christmas reading come my way and I can’t tell you how excited I am about that! While this book has a nod to the classic Jane Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice, it is a modern retelling rather than a Regency retelling. Darcy Fitzwilliam is 29, beautiful, successful, and brilliant. She dates hedge funders and basketball stars and is never without her three cellphones—one for work, one for play, and one to…
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Review: The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation #10) by Lauren Willig
I don’t know why but I always seem to go into the later Pink Carnation books with a preconceived notion of the romance. With the last book, I was so not looking forward to it but found it was one of the more enjoyable ones! So one would think that I would keep an open mind. But I didn’t. I was not really looking forward to an ‘old person romance’ in this book…not that I’m a spring chicken mind you but still…something about Miss Gwen and Colonel Reid just didn’t scream sexy to me. In my mind, Miss Gwen is this old lady chaperone with pursed lips and grey hair…
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Review: The Silent Fountain by Victoria Fox
There is nothing like fall to make you want to read a mystery or a Gothic novel…..well at least for me! Fall is the perfect time to curl up with a creep or suspenseful book and spend the day lost in the mystery. That’s exactly what I did with The Silent Fountain! I read this book as part of Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, it was hard to break with my Pink Carnation book but somehow I found the ability to read something else, and I was not sad in the least. This book was a great Gothic novel! Hollywood, 1978: Tragedy sends troubled film star Vivien Lockhart into the arms…
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Review: The Garden of Intrigue (Pink Carnation #9) by Lauren Willig
This year I decided to officially participate in Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon for the first time ever. I had some time on my hands and some good books to start reading so I was eager for an excuse to sit and read undisturbed while my husband watched out little one. I started The Garden of Intrigue almost immediately after completing The Orchid Affair and I’ll be honest, I was supposed to read it for Readathon but I almost finished it before Readathon even started! Again, I’ll be honest and say that I was not looking forward to reading this one. Augustus Whittlesby was the singularly most annoying character in The Orchid…
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Review: The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation #8) by Lauren Willig
After diving back into the Pink Carnation series with the sixth book, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, I was eagerly ready to continue reading. I have already read the seventh book so I moved on to The Orchid Affair instead. As with the previous books we meet a likable heroine in a decidedly awkward situation and a headstrong bachelor with the last thing on his mind being love. While many of Willig’s books have a decidedly obvious formula, that has never turned me off to the series. I think what I love most is her ability to make me buy into the romance no matter how odd or challenging…
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Review: A Treacherous Curse (Veronica Speedwell #3) by Deanna Raybourn
I’ve had my eye on this book since before it even had a title! I finished the second book and immediately started counting the days until this one was going to be released. Fortunately I had the good luck to be approved for an ARC way back in Oct, because I literally don’t think I could have waited for the release in Jan 2018! London, 1888. As colorful and unfettered as the butterflies she collects, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell can’t resist the allure of an exotic mystery—particularly one involving her enigmatic colleague, Stoker. His former expedition partner has vanished from an archaeological dig with a priceless diadem unearthed from the…
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Special Feature: LOVE UNCOVERED (Babes of Brighton #2) by Laura Barnard
BOOK BLITZ & GIVEAWAY – LOVE UNCOVERED This week’s special feature is for a charming and romantic novel by Laura Barnard! Have you read Love Uncovered by Laura Barnard yet? This sweet and sexy romantic comedy is the second standalone in the Babes of Brighton series. It follows Brooke and Nicholas and their whirlwind of a romance. myBook.to/LoveUncovered Synopsis: Independent woman to her core, Brooke Archer has always been happy to hit it and quit it with the men in her life. But when her beloved Nan suffers from poor health, Brooke realises just how precious life is and decides it’s time to face her daddy issues and seek out her…
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Review: The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia
There was something about this book cover that reminded me of Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series. I kind of thought that I was going to read a steampunk-esque romance with a little paranormal thrown in. But considering that I have not actually read the Finishing School series, I think I can safely say that I had no idea what this book was going to be about other than maybe something YA with magic. In a world of etiquette and polite masks, no one is who they seem to be. Antonina Beaulieu is in the glittering city of Loisail for her first Grand Season, where she will attend balls and mingle…
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Review: The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6) by Lauren Willig
After the fifth Pink Carnation book, I kind of felt like I needed a little break from the Pink Carnation series. And by little break I mean like five years….thats how long it’s been since I read one of the Pink Carnation books. I love the series as a whole but the last book in the series that I read, just left me a little wanting in the uniqueness category. So I abandoned it in favor of other books, though I always knew that someday I would come back to it because lets face it, I am in love with this series, but I needed little time to step away…
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Review: The English Wife by Lauren Willig
I first fell in love with Lauren Willig with her Pink Carnation series but I never ventured into her other stand alone books because I simply liked her where she belonged—in the Pink Carnation series. Her Pink Carnation series was so fantastic and I didn’t want to spoil it with a stand alone book that was subpar, so I avoided anything by her that wasn’t the Pink Carnation series. That was until this stunning cover screamed READ ME! Just looking at this book promised something fantastic, especially for fall. I needed this book more than I knew and I was reminded exactly why I love Lauren Willig and why I…