Tag Archives: challenges

Book Review of As You Wish, by Isobel Starling

While Isobel Starling and I don’t know each other personally, we are in the same online book group together. When she posted that she had a novella coming out for a ‘Love is an Open Road‘ event, I offered to read it. She kindly sent me a copy of As You Wish for review.

Description from Goodreads:
1 wedding, 2 best men, one hell of a love story!

Declan Ramsay’s brother Oliver was marrying Annabelle Aiken at a fairy tale Castle on the banks of Loch Ness in Scotland. The bride and groom decided, so that he didn’t feel left out, Annabelle’s gay younger brother Sam Should share the best man duties with Declan.

Declan had never met the kid who was to be his joint best man.
Sam Aiken was abroad, working as an interpreter and finishing his studies. He wouldn’t meet Declan until a few days before the wedding, so the best men communicated and planned their speech by email for more than a year.

But on meeting Sam Aiken, Declan is surprised to realise the kid isn’t a kid at all, but a tall, blond and athletic young man. Declan is sure he’s straight, so he’s alarmed by the ferocious attraction he feels for Sam. And as the attraction is reciprocated, the events at Dunloch Castle change everything Declan has ever believed about himself.

But is Samuel Aiken all that he appears to be?

Review:
There is something about a man in a kilt. Hmmm, yes there is. Honestly, I think there is something about a man in just about any traditional costume. It seems to push the same buttons as a man in a well-tailored suit. Yum. So the very premise of this story ticked a couple boxes for me. And believe me, if kilts tickle your fancy, you need this book. There are some scenes…..

It also has two cute, likable leads. I enjoyed them and their irritation, embarrassment and eventual working out of differences.

The story kind of lost me at the end though. I understand that the ending opens the story up to further books. It would make a good series. But, for me, it was too sharp a left turn. It diverged too far from the story I had come to expect. But that’s probably a personal quibble, I’m sure others will love it.

The writing was clear and concise. There was humor, warmth and a HEAish ending. Worth picking up a free copy here.

Review of A Darkness Forged in Fire (Iron Elves #1) by Chris Evans

I got a copy of A Darkness Forged in Fire, by Chris Evans, from the library.

Description from Goodreads:
We do not fear the flame, though it burns us,
We do not fear the fire, though it consumes us,
And we do not fear its light,
Though it reveals the darkness of our souls,
For therein lies our power.
— Blood Oath of the Iron Elves

First in a stunning debut series, A Darkness Forged in Fire introduces an unforgiving world of musket and cannon…bow and arrow…magic, diplomacy, and oaths — each wielding terrible power in an Empire teetering on the brink of war.

In this world, Konowa Swift Dragon, former commander of the Empire’s elite Iron Elves, is looked upon as anything but ordinary. He’s murdered a Viceroy, been court-martialed, seen his beloved regiment disbanded, and finally been banished in disgrace to the one place he despises the most — the forest.

Now, all he wants is to be left alone with his misery…but for Konowa, nothing is ever that simple. The mysterious and alluring Visyna Tekoy, the highborn daughter of an elfkynan governor, seeks him out in the dangerous wild with a royal decree that he resume his commission as an officer in Her Majesty’s Imperial Army, effective immediately.

For in the east, a falling Red Star heralds the return of a magic long vanished from the earth. Rebellion grows within the Empire as a frantic race to reach the Star unfolds. It is a chance for Konowa to redeem himself — even if the entire affair appears doomed to be a suicide mission…

and that the soldiers recruited for the task are not at all what he expects. And worse, his key adversary in the perilous race for the Star is the dreaded Shadow Monarch — a legendary elf-witch whose machinations for absolute domination spread deeper than Konowa could ever imagine….

Review:
This was a middle of the road read for me. Some aspects of it I quite enjoyed, like the dwarf and the spectacled kid, as well as a few of the other low ranking soldiers. And I thought it had a quite dramatic ending.

But there were other aspects that didn’t work for me. There is NO chemistry in the romance, none. I thought no one reacted realistically to the odd things happening around them and I thought the battles went on and on and on.

I think I’ll probably read the next one in the series, since it’s in my library and I can do so for free, but I’m not really racing out to get it as soon as possible.

Review of Wolf, WY (Wolf #1), by A.F. Henley

I received a copy of Wolf, WY (by A. F. Henley) from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
There’s nothing like a fresh start, and for Randy, still nursing wounds left by a cheating ex and harboring a deep mistrust for all things corporate, Wolf, Wyoming seems like the perfect place to start over. Secluded, quiet, and self-sufficient, Wolf is bound to not only inspire, but to bring Randy the peace he needs. The view’s not bad, either.

Vaughn O’Connell and his family are Randy’s only neighbors for miles, and while Randy knows it’s somewhat unlikely that a man with three kids is gay, it doesn’t hurt to look. When a misunderstanding brings Randy face to face with both Vaughn and his eighteen year old son, Lyle, Randy’s not sure what to feel about either of them.

But things are not what they appear in Wolf, and the closer Randy gets, the stranger the O’Connell family seems…

Review:

This is a hard book to review, because there were some aspect of it I really liked, some that got on my nerves and then there was the ending which I thought fell apart. But on which of these do I base a review?

What I liked, I quite liked. I liked that Randy wasn’t a pushover, even if he was out of his element. I liked that Vaughn put his family first. I liked seeing Lyle’s situation. The scene in which Vaughn obliquely tells Randy about it is one of my favorite in the book. I thought the sex was sexy.

What I didn’t like was the cliche, status-greedy mother (How many times can we read the same character?) and everything after Randy leaves Wolf. I had two main issues with the last bit of the book. The first was that if felt like it was simply trying to deliberately open the universe to allow for sequels. Two, it just got too saccharine and sweet for my tastes.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the book and Henley’s writing style. I’ll be up for more.