Tag Archives: romance

Sweet Disorder

Book Review of Sweet Disorder (Lively St. Lemeston #1), by Rose Lerner

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Sweet DisorderI bought a copy of Sweet Disorder, by Rose Lerner.

Description from Goodreads:
Nick Dymond enjoyed the rough-and-tumble military life until a bullet to the leg sent him home to his emotionally distant, politically obsessed family. For months, he’s lived alone with his depression, blockaded in his lodgings.

But with his younger brother desperate to win the local election, Nick has a new set of marching orders: dust off the legendary family charm and maneuver the beautiful Phoebe Sparks into a politically advantageous marriage.

One marriage was enough for Phoebe. Under her town’s by-laws, though, she owns a vote that only a husband can cast. Much as she would love to simply ignore the unappetizing matrimonial candidate pushed at her by the handsome earl’s son, she can’t. Her teenage sister is pregnant, and Phoebe’s last-ditch defense against her sister’s ruin is her vote—and her hand.

Nick and Phoebe soon realize the only match their hearts will accept is the one society will not allow. But as election intrigue turns dark, they’ll have to cast the cruelest vote of all: loyalty…or love.

Review:
I keep wanting to love Regency romance (so I keep trying them), there are so many out there, but every time I read one I’m reminded that this isn’t a genre that really works for me. Having said that, I liked this a lot more than most.

I liked that it was focused on middle-class people and small political machinations. I liked that Pheobe was given a lot of agency and that she was plump but still described as attractive. I liked a lot of the small ah-ha moments the book allows—the entrapment of manliness being as damaging as the rigid rules of femininity, the way men can coerce women into sex by playing on their socially engrained need to please without it being force but still be wrong, a real discussion between women about sex being enjoyable, etc. I liked that there were quite a lot of modern ideas discussed without it feeling anachronistic (often a particular pet peeve of mine). I liked that the characters, even the side characters, were almost all well developed.

There were aspects I didn’t like too, but few of them originated in this being Regency. I disliked the evil mothers. I didn’t understand why Pheobe’s was so horrible and I thought Nick’s held echoes of ‘you can’t have it all.’ While I appreciated that a mother was allowed to be as absent as a father, I also felt like it was one more message of ‘if you want to succeed in a career you can’t also succeed as a mother.’ Women can and do do both. Thank goodness Moon had a positive mother or I might have thought mothers villainized in general.

I didn’t think the person who caused the whole mess was adequately punished either. This wasn’t his story and I understand that, but I felt he was a shadow even in the reveal.

All in all, for being a genre I don’t love, I found myself charmed by this novel. Or rather not as viscerally put off by it as I am with most Regencies and that is saying a lot for it.

Hemovore

Book Review of Hemovore, by Jordan Castillo Price

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HemovoreI bought a copy of Hemovore, by Jordan Castillo Price.

Description from Goodreads:
Ten years ago, the Human Hemovore Virus blazed through the world, and left the few victims who survived unable to eat, allergic to sunlight and craving the taste of blood.

Mark Jensen used to think V-positives were incredibly sexy with their pale, flawless skin and taut, lean bodies. Not anymore. Not since he’s been stuck procuring under-the-counter feline blood for his control-freak boss, Jonathan Varga. Why cat blood? Mark has never dared to ask.

It’s not as if he’s usually at a loss for words. He can dish an insult and follow it with a snap as quick as you can say “Miss Thang”. But one look at Jonathan’s black-as-sin gypsy eyes, and Mark’s objections drain away.

So he endures their strange, endless routine: Jonathan hiding in his studio, painting solid black canvases. Mark hurling insults as he buffs the office to a shine with antiviral wipes and maps out the mysterious “routes” he’s required to drive.

Then a blurb in Art in America unleashes a chain of events neither of them saw coming. As secrets of Jonathan’s past come to light, it becomes clear all his precautions weren’t nearly enough.

Review:
This is an excellent new (or at least different) take on the vampire story. There is just so much to appreciate in this novel. It’s fast paced, though more so in the last half than the first and there is a little bit of a lull toward the middle. It’s tightly plotted with an interesting shift in emphasis between the beginning and the end.

The characters are engaging, though I never quite felt I knew Jonathan as well as Mark, the primary POV. Plus, Jonathan seemed to have a little character drift between him in the beginning and him at the end. But I very much liked them both. I also very much appreciated the sexual tension, but the fact that there is very little actual sex.

The idea of vampirism as a disease isn’t a new one, but I don’t know that I’ve ever read a book in which it is so clinically addressed. I liked it. However, for a disease with an 85% mortality rate it seemed an odd forgone conclusion that the character in question would survive. I felt very little angst around this.

All in all, I really quite enjoyed this. But I’ve yet to read a JCP that I didn’t, so no big surprise there.

In the Middle of Somewhere

Book Review of In the Middle of Somewhere, by Roan Parrish

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In the Middle of SomewhereI bought a copy of In the Middle of Somewhere, by Roan Parrish.

Description from Goodreads:
Daniel Mulligan is tough, snarky, and tattooed, hiding his self-consciousness behind sarcasm. Daniel has never fit in—not at home in Philadelphia with his auto mechanic father and brothers, and not at school where his Ivy League classmates looked down on him. Now, Daniel’s relieved to have a job at a small college in Holiday, Northern Michigan, but he’s a city boy through and through, and it’s clear that this small town is one more place he won’t fit in.

Rex Vale clings to routine to keep loneliness at bay: honing his muscular body, perfecting his recipes, and making custom furniture. Rex has lived in Holiday for years, but his shyness and imposing size have kept him from connecting with people.

When the two men meet, their chemistry is explosive, but Rex fears Daniel will be another in a long line of people to leave him, and Daniel has learned that letting anyone in can be a fatal weakness. Just as they begin to break down the walls keeping them apart, Daniel is called home to Philadelphia, where he discovers a secret that changes the way he understands everything.

Review:
This was one of those novels in which I adored some of it and was annoyed by other bits. And some of both features are personal and subjective. I love the whole gentle giant trope and that definitely defines Rex. But I hate when characters start throwing around “baby” this and “sweetheart” that as soon as they have sex. I liked that the characters had such visceral reactions to one another, but couldn’t really get down with the insta-lust.

Contradictorily, I love that the book was a good solid, long read but it felt a little overly long at times. I like a hot sex scene and there are some smoldering ones here, but I thought there were more than I needed. I liked that both characters had issues and problems, but I also sensed that some of the past traumas felt like throw-aways, tossed out for an interesting emotional punch but serving very little real purpose in the plot. It was like the author tried to get too much in.

I loved the language and writing here, but the repetition of stock phrases really got on my nerves. I liked and could relate to a lot of Daniel’s grad school/university experiences but also thought it read like a lecture on working for a university at times.

So, as you can see, I’m torn about how I feel about In the Middle of Somewhere, but when it comes right down to it I liked Rex and Daniel, as well as the side characters, and I’d be interested in reading the sequel(s).