I read this for Romance Book Bingo 2017: Guy/Girl Next Door square. Though I really did enjoy 2 out of the 3 Dessen books I reviewed yesterday, this one fell very short. It has classic Dessen moments (or what I consider classic). However, the flow of this book was pretty bad. It took me a while to get through it, and I am not going to lie, I started skimming a bit last night because I was seriously bored the whole time. I think the […]
There is More Than One Way Into a Keep
I read this for Romance Book Bingo 2017: Man in a Kilt square. I have to have some happy right now and this book is it. I have been reading this since I was 12 or 13 and still have a copy of it on my shelves. The heroine (Johanna) kicks butt. The hero (Gabriel) kicks butt. We actually have a hero/heroine who thank God do not have any rape scenes between them. They reluctantly fall in love with each other which I thought was […]
Romance is Not for the Faint of Heart
Trigger warning: Rape The only thing that this book had going for it, was that it kept making me think of the Jem and the Holograms song, “Midsummer Madness.” I maybe played that song a lot while reading this book on Saturday. I needed some happy heading my way. Think of this book as the reverse “She’s All That.” Heroine is actually hot and smart young woman (Frances) who doesn’t want to marry the hero (Phillip). Hero marries her anyway though because he thinks she’s […]
King Mark Does Not Equal King Arthur
Trigger warning: Rape The heroine saved this book. Also though the hero did too eventually. A legacy of husbands only bedding their wives for an heir, and for them to wander along the moors being all sad and aloof was just flat out stupid. I maybe said that a few times. A family tradition of being cuckholded is some alt-right (you are Nazis!) crap. We have an appearance by Marcus and the Duchess (also we get to read about Marcus talking about how much his […]
This Trope Needs to Die
Trigger warning: Rape. I read this for Romance Book Bingo: Wedding Bells square. If I have to read this horrible book I am going to make it count towards something. Lord. Some of my favorite romance reads do not age well at all. Can we just say right now, that forceful marital relations (rape) between the hero and heroine is just appalling and gross to read about. I get it, those were the times, but I don’t want to read about it if I can […]
Death Sucks, That is All
This one hit all of the high marks for me. I think that Dessen takes a really good look at grief and how hard it is to bounce back from a death. We have several teens in this book that had tragic things occur and I loved the different reactions by all of them. And I thought the ending, while showing how one can move on, didn’t just slap a bow on things either. Macy Queen is dealing with the death of her father. Her […]