Wallbanger by Alice Clayton is a fluffy, reasonably entertaining, and quick contemporary romance. It is the first book in her Cocktail series about twenty-something professionals building careers and finding life partners. The book had very little conflict and read like a romantic sitcom: she is an interior designer and he is a nature photographer; they each have two friends that are perfect for their counterpart’s two friends; they have no money concerns despite living in notoriously expensive San Francisco. Caroline has a noisy neighbour. The […]
Another Historical Romance, But with Social Anxiety
Short version: “I need to finish this book so I can stop reading it.” Long Version: When a Duke Says I Do is a historical romance with a lot going on, some of it interesting, but that gets lost in the details. The best way to explain is to summarize the plot and that will involve SPOILERS: 1. Elsie is 20 and has been engaged to the heir of the Duke of Stanhope (villain alert) her entire life. 2. Elsie cannot sleep in her bed […]
Reasonably Inept Romance, Reasonably Ept Erotica
I don’t really know where the rumple in the sheet lies between romance and erotica, but these books are billed as the latter. I would have thought that the main difference was in courtship by coitus and the point at which emotions become involved, but there are plenty of romances where sex precedes love, so it really just comes down to the level of detail. The Beautiful series love scenes were not much more explicit than a fairly typical romance other than greater frequency and […]
Another Historical Romance, But with a Review in Verse
I know, I’m sorry, I was bored. Let’s pretend it never happened. If you really must read it, and as your lawyer I advise against it, visit my blog. Other reviews (none of which rhyme, thank God) can be found on my list of books by author or The (Shameful) Tally 2014 which includes recommendations and author commentary.
More Contemporary Romance, But with One and a Quarter Tirades
All of the books in the Chicago Stars contemporary romance series are built around the world of professional athletes and the women who want to climb them like trees. It’s a rarefied wealthy bubble that allows for the same kind of lifestyle fantasy as the aristocratic and wealthy world of historical romance. Almost every story also features an older couple getting a second chance at love. It Had to Be You Heaven, Texas Nobody’s Baby But Mine Dream a Little Dream This Heart of Mine […]
Another Historical Romance, But a Master Work of Romantic Fiction
In a genre that wallows in cultural necrophilia, you have to love characters fighting actively against the aristocracy and existing power structures. Or at least I do. Apparently, so does author Courtney Milan because she is doing it again in a novel that is easily one of the best historical romances ever written and one that simultaneously subverts and embraces the genre. Never afraid to beat romance tropes about the head and shoulders, The Suffragette Scandal, like The Countess Conspiracy before it, takes feminism and […]
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