Book Review: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Seven Year Slip
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 27. 2023
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: stay busy, work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a really satisfying time slip novel… and The Seven Year Slip absolutely delivers.

Clementine works as a book publicist, and has plans worked out for every aspect of her life. Her aunt Analea — vibrant, spontaneous, vivacious, always provided the spark in Clementine’s life, whisking her away for world travels, ready to explore, to taste, to try, to experience. But after Analea’s death, the joy has leached out of Clementine’s life, and moving into the apartment bequeathed to her by her aunt just drives home how much she’s lost.

Until she returns home one day, not to her stacks of unpacked boxes, but to the apartment as it was during Analea’s lifetime… and with a very cute guy zipping around the place, offering to make her dinner. Iwan informs Clementine that his mother is a friend of her aunt’s, and her aunt has offered to sublet the apartment to him for the summer while she’s off on a journey with her niece — a journey which Clementine and Analea took seven years in the past.

Clementine finds herself reeling — but not entirely unprepared. After all, all her life, her aunt has insisted that the apartment is magic, and even told of her own seven-year-slip romance at a younger age. Clementine never truly believed the stories, of course, but now, the proof is right there in front of her eyes.

She and Iwan connect over food, family, and dreams, and they enjoy each other’s company immensely. Still, she knows that once she leaves the apartment, she’ll be back to her regular life, and who knows if the magic will work more than once?

The plot of The Seven Year Slip unfolds deliciously, with clues and interludes and interactions woven together to form a wonderful, romantic, hopeful whole. For Clementine, so immersed in grief and loss, meeting Iwan is the spark she needs to rediscover her creative side once again and rethink her true sources of happiness. We see the story through her POV, but Iwan is a lovely character and we get hints of what his side of this magical yet strange experience must have been.

The Seven Year Slip is best experienced without too many expectations or foreknowledge. The book zips by, and the plot threads come together in such a rich and unexpected way. The characters are engaging, and getting to see them as different versions of themselves is really a treat.

This story exists in the same world as the author’s previous novel, The Dead Romantics, but it’s not a sequel — there’s a nod to some of the people from that book, but if you haven’t read that one yet, it won’t take away from The Seven Year Slip at all. (Although, it is VERY good, so check that one out too!)

I really enjoyed The Seven Year Slip, and recommend it highly! It’s a perfect summer read, full of hope and love, friendship, family, and romance. After reading this author’s YA Once Upon a Con trilogy and now two of her adult novels, I can definitely say that Ashley Poston’s books are must-reads!

25Jun2023

Book Review: Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Hello Stranger
Author: Katherine Center
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: July 11. 2023
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Love isn’t blind, it’s just little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.

Hello Stranger has one of the most instantly interesting set-ups I’ve read recently. Sadie, a portrait artist, is diagnosed with a problematic brain vessel that requires immediate surgery. But when she wakes in the hospital post-surgery, the world looks very, very different.

Sadie has a condition called acquired prosopagnosia, otherwise known as “face blindness”. There’s nothing wrong with her eyes — it’s her brain that can’t make sense of the faces around her. The surgery has left her with swelling near the brain center that processes faces, and there’s no telling whether this is a permanent or temporary condition. For anyone, this would be distressing. For a portrait artist, this is also potentially career-ending — not that Sadie’s career was going all that well. In fact, right before the surgery, Sadie learned that she was a finalist in a competition that could finally give her her big breakthrough — but if she can’t see faces, how can she paint them?

Sadie’s life was already messy before the surgery — barely making ends meet through her Etsy shop, estranged from her father, stepmother, and truly evil stepsister, living in a rooftop shed that she officially is only supposed to use as a studio.

Now, with face blindness, the entire world has changed for Sadie. She literally cannot understand faces — she sees basically pixelated messes. Sure, she can focus in and see an eye or a mouth, individual features, but she has no ability to make sense of the whole. She can’t recognize people by face at all, and has to rely on hair, clothing, and other cues to figure out who she’s talking to. When dealing with kind people, that can still be okay, but not everyone around Sadie is kind (I did mention the evil stepsister, right?), and the cruelty of some of these encounters is pretty astonishing.

Without going further into the plot, I’ll just say that Sadie’s situation is both fascinating and incredibly difficult to comprehend. I fell down quite the Google rabbit-hole searching for examples of face blindness and how it’s experienced, and learned that there’s a difference between hereditary prosopagnosia (where people have it all their lives, and often don’t even realize it, since that’s how they’ve always experienced the world) and acquired prosopagnosia, usually an aftereffect of traumatic brain injury or illness. After reading stories of people who walk right by their own children without recognizing them or wonder why a strange woman is staring at them before realizing it’s themselves in a mirror, I gained a better understanding of Sadie’s new world too.

Another fascinating element here is Sadie’s conversations with her neuropsychologist about confirmation bias:

Dr. Nicole paused for a good definition. “It means that we tend to think what we think we’re going to think.”

I added all those words up. “So… if you expect to think a thing is true, you’re more likely to think it’s true?”

As Dr. Nicole goes on to explain:

“Basically we tend to decide on what the world is and who people are and how things are — and then we look for evidence that supports what we’ve already decided. And we ignore everything that doesn’t fit.”

As Sadie fits back into her life and tries to find a new approach to understanding the world around her, her assumptions and facts are repeatedly challenged by the need to rethink what she sees and question whether what she understands is true.

Hello Stranger is also a romance, and yes, the romantic plotlines are very good — but for me, it was Sadie’s unique situation and how it impacts every aspect of her life that made this book so compelling to read.

The backstory around Sadie’s family life is the hardest part of the book to accept, because it’s awful and tragic (and yet another great example of confirmation bias and its consequences). I felt so angry on Sadie’s behalf, yet by the end, could kind of see how the situation unfolded from the different characters’ differing experiences of the same events.

The book does explain that face blindness doesn’t necessarily mean the inability to understand expression (which is apparently handled by a different brain area), yet occasionally there’d be lines like:

The smug look had most definitely faded from her face

… that made me question whether this was something that Sadie could actually see or process, or if this was a glitch in the writing continuity.

I’m always fascinated by stories about unusual neurological conditions (such as the novel Left Neglected by Lisa Genova, or any of the writings of Dr. Oliver Sacks, who himself suffered from hereditary prosopagnosia) — but this is my first time reading such a tale in the context of romance.

Sadie’s story is fascinating, and the romance elements add welcome joy and hope to a story that also includes loss and dislocation. Sadie’s romantic escapades can be quite silly, but she’s such a great character that we can’t help but cheer for her. I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance novel quite like Hello Stranger, but it absolutely works.

24Jun2023

Book Review: The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The True Love Experiment
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication date: May 16. 2023
Length: 416 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.

Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.

Christina Lauren books can be counted on to deliver zippy dialogue, great chemistry, entertaining characters, and unexpected plot points… and The True Love Experiment exceeds expectations with all of these! In fact, The True Love Experiment might just be my favorite Christina Lauren book yet.

Fizzy Chen is a character we’ve met before — she’s the main character’s zany best friend in The Soulmate Equation. Apparently, fans have been clamoring for more Fizzy ever since the earlier book, and now she gets her own chance to shine!

Fizzy is a very successful romance author in her late 30s, who’s reveled throughout her adulthood in her casual, open-to-anything approach to sex and dating. But as The True Love Experiment opens, she’s realizing that she may finally have just plain run out. She’s never been in love, and (in a very funny scene) she explains to best friend Jess that she may in fact have now dated every single man in San Diego. With these eye-opening revelations, Fizzy hits a major writer’s block — how can she write compelling romance when she’s not sure she actually believes in it anymore?

We also meet Connor, a gorgeous guy (whom Fizzy initially categorizes as romance tropes Hot Millionaire Executive, Hot Brit, and DILF) who’s a completely devoted divorced dad and the producer of environmentally-conscious documentaries. When his boss gives him an ultimatum — produce a money-making new dating show to save the production company, or be out of a job — Connor has to weigh his professional integrity against the reality that if he loses this job, he’ll have to move to LA to find work, which means giving up his role in his daughter’s daily life. Reluctantly, he commits to the dating show concept.

When Fizzy and Connor meet, they initially rub each other the wrong way… but we know that won’t last, because there are instant sparks amidst the bickering and button-pushing. Between them, almost as a dare to see who can come up with the craziest concept, they develop a framework for the new show: Fizzy will be the star, and the show will cast “heroes” who fit into defined romance archtypes — the bad boy, the hot nerd, the cinnamon roll, the one who got away. Fizzy will date each of them, the audience will vote on her true soulmate each week and determine who gets eliminated, and in the end, the audience will select a winner who’ll receive a cash prize. But there’s another twist: Fizzy and all contestants will also take the DNADuo test (see The Soulmate Equation for more info), a genetic screening test that identifies relationship compatability and defines matches on a scale (Base, Silver, Gold, Diamond, etc). At the show’s finale, the DNADuo match results between Fizzy and the finalists will be revealed, and then Fizzy will get to decide who she truly wants to be with.

As you might expect, all does not go according to plan. How is Fizzy supposed to fall in love with one of the show’s heroes when she’s distractingly attracted to Connor? The more time they spend together, the clearer it becomes that this isn’t just a matter of physical connection — but falling in love isn’t an option when (among other reasons) it would breach her contract with the show.

Okay, that’s the basic plot outline. What that doesn’t tell you is the insanely great connection between Fizzy and Connor, the absolutely hilarious dialogues that occur throughout the book, Fizzy’s amazingness as a person, and how utterly loving Connor is, as a dad, a friend, and a person who’s mad for Fizzy.

The book is told through both Fizzy and Connor’s POVs, so we know what’s going on inside and out. There’s the obligatory big obstacle that seems to tear the two apart late in the book, and I was very frustrated at first — but getting to hear from both characters why the incident blew up the way it did, how it triggered them and what past issues it brought up, and how internally conflicted they were in the aftermath helped me accept what had happened, even if I disagreed with how both of them behaved in the moment.

The show itself is lots of fun, although I question whether a show like this would be as successful in real life as it is in the story. The show starts with eight heroes and unfolds over just six episodes — is that really enough time to find true love? (OK, I need to admit here that I have never watched a single episode of The Bachelor or other dating shows, so I take anything of this sort with heaps of grains of salt).

I listened the audiobook, which has different narrators for Fizzy and Connor, and they were both wonderful! The downside of listening to the audiobook is not being able to highlight the parts that made me laugh out loud (there were plenty!) and share them here.

The True Love Experiment is so engaging, charming, and funny. I love that the characters are clearly amazing people, and that we get to see them in other roles (parent, aunt, best friend, daughter) to get a view of their lives outside the relationship as well. Fizzy and Connor are each fantastic on their own, and their connection together is not only full of physical chemistry but also based on emotional honesty and empathy.

Overall, The True Love Experiment is a joyful, entertaining read, with plenty of humor but also sincerity and intelligence. Highly recommended!

3Mar2023

Audiobook Review: The Highland Hens by Judy Leigh

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Highland Hens
Author: Judy Leigh
Narrator: Phyllida Nash
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Publication date: August 4, 2022
Print length: 352 pages
Audio length: 11 hours 4 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

In the imposing Glen Carrick House overlooking Scotland’s famous Loch Ness, lives eighty-eight-year-old Mimi McKinlay, cared for by her three adult sons. Hamish has inherited his mother’s musical talents, Fin is the responsible brother, and Angus has the complicated and brooding personality to match his dashing good looks.

But what all the brothers share is a concern that their beloved mother is living in her memories of her days on stage, while letting her present days pass her by.

Jess Oliver is at a turning point. Amicably divorced after years of being married, this trip to the Highlands is a first taste of independence. It isn’t long before the beauty and hospitality of Scotland captures her heart.

When Mimi and Jess’s paths cross, a friendship is formed that will change both women’s lives. And as together they find ways to look forward instead of to the past, long forgotten dreams are within reach, and every new day is fresh with possibilities.

I read my first Judy Leigh book last year, after seeing so many bloggers rave about her. That book was Heading Over the Hill, which I found delightful. Quirky, lovable characters, mature love, great friendships — so much fun!

Naturally, I was eager to experience more, so when I saw that her 2022 release was set in the Scottish Highlands, it seemed like a natural choice for me.

In The Highland Hens, while there are many characters, life revolves around Mimi McKinlay (stage name Mimi Solitaire), a spritely, spirited 88-year-old who spends her days glorying in memories of her life on the London stage. Wearing high heels and feathered headdresses, Mimi can still belt out showtunes and kick up her heels for a chorus-line number. But Mimi is getting frailer, and her eccentricities have driven away the family’s housekeeper.

Mimi’s three sons adore their mother, are committed to keeping her safe and comfortable in her own home, and are getting a bit frantic. They advertise for a companion, and that’s where Jess Oliver enters their lives.

Jess, a divorced 59-year-old, is vacationing in the Highlands while her cottage is being renovated. But when she hears that renovations will take much longer than expected, she’s left with no place to live for the next several months. Still, she’s loving her time in the Highlands, and taking a job as a companion to a darling older woman in a gorgeous home seems like a terrific temporary solution to her problems.

Jess and Mimi click instantly, and Jess seems to intuitively know how to give Mimi the attention and affection she needs, while also making sure she eats healthy foods and goes easy on the Chardonnay. Mimi’s sons welcome Jess to the family home eagerly, although middle brother Angus, recovering from a serious motorcycle accident, is initially gruff and off-putting.

The Highland Hens follows most of the plot beats you’d expect. Jess becomes close to everyone in the family, forms a close bond with Mimi, and makes life at Glen Carrick House better for everyone. She’s supposed to be returning to her own little cottage in time for Christmas, but the more involved she becomes with the McKinlays, the harder a separation will be.

This is a pleasant book, but I do have some quibbles. Without getting too spoilery:

Pretty much everyone is coupled up by the end, and most of the romances are half-baked and underdeveloped. A book this long could have shown the developing feelings more convincingly.
The end of the book, as it relates to Mimi, is NOT okay with me. It was not necessary. Not saying more about it, but just no.
There’s a hint of a deep dark secret from Mimi’s life, which ends up revealed very close to the end and really is more or less a big fat nothing.
The cover and title imply that the book will be something it isn’t. It isn’t about a bunch of women friends romping around the Highlands. There are friendships and outings, but that cover image doesn’t even come close to depicting Mimi, and I don’t know who the third character is supposed to be.

A major complaint is that this book is much longer than it needs to be. I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was fine — but so little actually happens that I ended up listening at 1.75x speed (which I never do!) just to get through it.

I’m not mad that I read this one, but I did feel let down. I had high hopes after my last book by this author. As I said, The Highland Hens is perfectly pleasant… but not a lot happens, and the romantic entanglements feel more like there was a need to match everyone up rather than true emotional connections.

I learned about this author from seeing her books featured on other blogs, and she does seem to have devoted fans. I’m not ruling out reading more of her books (and would welcome suggestions on which ones to try). The Highland Hens was fine (hence the three stars)… but not something I’d go out of my way to recommend.

22Feb2023

Book Review: Mr. & Mrs. Witch by Gwenda Bond

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Mr. & Mrs. Witch
Author: Gwenda Bond
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication date: March 7, 2023
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

In Mr. & Mrs. Witch, the next novel from bestselling author Gwenda Bond, a couple discovers at the altar the surprising secret identities they’ve kept from each other.

Savannah Wilde is a witch, a very powerful one—an identity that only her fellow witches know. Following a whirlwind romance that surprised herself and her family, Savvy is all set to marry the love of her life. But she isn’t the only one with a secret that needs to be kept, even from her soon-to-be husband.

Griffin Carter is a top agent for a clandestine organization that, well, used to primarily hunt witches, but now mainly tries to shut down supernatural threats their own way. He can’t wait to lay his eyes on the woman he’s about to spend the rest of his life with.

As Savvy walks down the aisle to Griffin, the wedding quickly goes from blessed day to shit show when their true identities are revealed. To say there’s bad blood between their factions is putting it mildly. Savvy and Griffin are tasked to take the other out, but when they discover a secret that could take down both of their agencies, they realize the only way to survive is to team up. With assassins hot on their trail, will Savvy and Griffin make it out alive to try again at ‘I do’?

If you’re looking for a deep exploration of the perils of modern love and marriage… this is not that book!

BUT, if you’re a fan of the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, love silly contemporary romances, and want some powerful witchcraft (and adorable familiars) thrown into the mix… well, Mr. & Mrs. Witch may be the perfect choice.

We open with Savvy and Griffin’s wedding day. They’re each ecstatic, about to marry the person of the dreams, their one true love, their everything — until the day absolutely and completely goes off the rails. Savvy is a talented witch and an agent of CRONE (a secret society of witches, obviously), and Griffin works for HUNTER, an equally secret society dedicated to fighting supernatural threats, with a dark history of hunting witches. Savvy and Griffin have no idea about one another’s true vocations, and things are about to get ugly.

The plot goes back and forth between “now” — the wedding day and beyond — and the past, from the couple’s first meeting, through the development of their relationship, and finally catching up to the present. They each get POV sections, so we get to know them as individuals as well as together, and also get to see just how much they’re hiding.

Mr. & Mrs. Witch is truly silly fun. As for my earlier reference to Mr. and Mrs. Smith — a movie about a married couple who are ignorant about each others’ careers as professional assassins, and end up with orders to kill each other — well, that kind of gives you the main story arc of this book. Savvy and Griffin are on opposites sides of a secret war between witches and hunters, but it turns out that the bosses of each of their factions may have ulterior motives. Once Savvy and Griffin get past their shock and hurt feelings about the secrets hidden in their relationship, they realize that their only hope for survival (not to mention their postponed Happily Ever After) is to join forces to fight the big bads.

On top of all the silliness, there are great friendships, interesting family dynamics, and awesomely adorable familiars (including a capybara named Captain Bear, because why not?).

In terms of the romance and steam factor, I’d classify this book as graphic: Sex scenes are explicit, but they do tend to be brief. For me personally, I tend not to appreciate super graphic sex scenes in my romance novels, but these were minimal enough that they didn’t get in the way of enjoying the book.

Having read Gwenda Bond’s two previous novels (Not Your Average Hot Guy and The Date From Hell), I was fully prepared for the funny, ridiculous, over-the-top tone of this romantic adventure, and I was not disappointed.

Mr. & Mrs. Witch is not at all a serious book… but if you’re looking for good escapist fun, this might be a perfect fit!

15Jan2023

Book Review: The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Holiday Trap
Author: Roan Parrish
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication date: September 6, 2022
Length: 442 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Purchased
Rating:

For fans of Alexandria Bellefleur and Alexis Hall comes a charming, hilarious, and heartwarming LGBTQIA+ romcom about two separate couples finding love over the holidays from acclaimed author Roan Parrish!

Greta Russakoff loves her tight-knit family and tiny Maine hometown, even if they don’t always understand what it’s like to be a lesbian living in such a small world. She desperately needs space to figure out who she is.

Truman Belvedere has just had his heart crushed into a million pieces when he learned that his boyfriend of almost a year has a secret life that includes a husband and a daughter. Reeling from this discovery, all he wants is a place to lick his wounds far, far away from New Orleans.

Enter Greta and Truman’s mutual friend, Ramona, who facilitates a month-long house swap. Over the winter holidays, each of them will have a chance to try on a new life…and maybe fall in love with the perfect partner of their dreams. But all holidays must come to an end, and eventually Greta and Truman will have to decide whether the love they each found so far from home is worth fighting for.

The Holiday Trap has some cute moments, but is far too long and has way too many implausible plot points and annoying characters moments to rise above a 3-star read.

Our two main characters, Greta and Truman, are stuck in lives that clearly aren’t working for them. Greta’s large family is smothering and overly involved and controlling, and living on an island in Maine, there’s really no escaping their endless interference. Truman thinks his life in New Orleans is going well, until he discovers that his boyfriend of one year actually has a family, and Truman is just the bit on the side.

When a mutual friend suggests that they swap places for the holidays, Greta and Truman both agree — because really, it couldn’t be any worse than their current situations. And of course, in their new locations, they each find exactly what they’re looking for — love, community, and purpose.

Greta falls immediately in love with an outspoken, quirky woman who demands honesty and teaches Greta about stating one’s own needs and listening to others. She also finds meaning through a local gardening club, and becomes involved with a community garden and the beekeepers she meets.

Truman arrives on the island with low expectations, but soon discovers that his very favorite author may once have lived there, and then stumbles across the man of his dreams at the local florist shop.

For both, true love seems to arrive within approximately three weeks, so that before their brief swap agreement is even over, they’ve both resolved to make it permanent and start their lives over in their new locations. They’ve also changed themselves in significant ways, learning to speak up and pay attention to what they really want and what makes them happy.

Also (and annoyingly) in this brief time, they find themselves overflowing with amazing new ideas for how to improve their friends’ business ventures, which the friends seem to appreciate and embrace. (If I were in any of the friends’ shoes, I would find this intrusive and presumptuous AF, but hey, maybe that’s just me).

There are sweet interludes and funny moments, but overall, this romance drags on, has too many personal epiphanies crammed into such a short amount of time, and takes its perfect romances far over the edge into not-at-all-believable territory. And the fact that Greta and Truman seem to always have the perfect idea that perfectly solves other people’s challenges… so incredibly annoying.

I’m not sure why this is called The Holiday Trap. It’s not especially about the holidays, other than taking place during December when holidays are happening, and I have no idea what “trap” has to do with anything. Nobody ends up trapped in their new locations or relationships. May The Holiday Swap was already taken?

In terms of steaminess, this book’s sex scenes are graphic, so be aware of that if you prefer understated steam rather than outright step-by-step descriptions of intimate encounters.

Overall, the plot really doesn’t hold up particularly well. Truman is an endearing character and Greta is okay, but their huge personal awakenings and finding of soulmates just don’t feel plausible. The Holiday Trap is good entertainment, but I’ve read a lot better.

10Dec2022

Book Review: The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Dead Romantics
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 28, 2022
Length: 366 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston.

Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.

When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.

For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.

Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.

Romance is most certainly dead . . . but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.

This was a good one!

The plot synopsis is almost too complicated, but once you get into the story, the pieces fit. Basically, Florence is a ghostwriter for one of the most successful romance writers in the industry, but she’s behind on turning in the last book she has under contract. After a harsh betrayal and break-up a year earlier, she just can’t envision true love and happy endings any more. But the clock is ticking, and not finishing is really not an option.

Florence’s family owns the funeral home in a small southern town. She grew up with parents who were infuriatingly romantic and in love, and their home was filled with joy. Florence also has a secret — she sees dead people. Both she and her father have the gift of seeing and being able to interact with ghosts, but when this becomes public during Florence’s teens, she faces so much ridicule and bullying that she swears never to return to her hometown again.

Now an adult living in Manhattan, she’s stayed away for ten years, but is forced to go back and deal with the past when her father dies suddenly. Amidst the turmoil of family grief and planning a funeral, the ghost of Florence’s brand new editor shows up on her doorstep, which is especially concerning since she had no idea that he’d died.

Dead Romantics is a love story, but it’s so much more. It’s a loving depiction of a family that celebrates life and views death as just another part of the journey. It’s also a look at the internal life of a writer, and it’s a study of what it means to feel lost and hopeless and burdened by shattered illusions.

I love how Florence’s family is shown, and I love the rituals they invent and embrace to celebrate the life of a man who seems like the perfect husband and father. I also really enjoyed the strangeness of Florence getting to know the ghost of a man she’d only met once, and how their connection is able to develop and bridge the obvious gap between a living woman and a man who’s passed on.

I won’t give anything away… but I couldn’t see how there could be a solution to their situation that made sense.

There were no happily ever afters between an undertaker’s daughter and her ghost.

Surprise! The ending totally works, satisfied me, and left me feeling upbeat and cheery.

The writing is quite lovely, and having suffered a family loss recently myself, I found that certain passages really resonated:

I’d always written how grief was hollow. How it was a vast cavern of nothing. But I was wrong. Grief was the exact opposite. It was full and heavy and drowning because it wasn’t the absence of everything you lost—it was the culmination of it all, your love, your happiness, your bittersweets, wound tight like a knotted ball of yarn.

There’s a certain character who deserves to suffer some truly bad karma and I felt a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see that happen… but then again, that’s not what this story was really about.

Overall, I’m really glad that I picked up Dead Romantics and gave it a try. It was just the right mixture of sentiment, humor, sadness, and joy that I needed this week. Having read this author’s Once Upon a Con YA trilogy, I was curious to see how she’d do with her adult fiction debut. I’m happy to report that she nailed it!

4Dec2022

Book Review: Husband Material (London Calling, #2) by Alexis Hall

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Husband Material
Series: London Calling, #2
Author: Alexis Hall
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication date: August 2, 2022
Length: 432 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Purchased
Rating:

In BOYFRIEND MATERIAL, Luc and Oliver met, pretended to fall in love, fell in love for real, dealt with heartbreak and disappointment and family and friends…and somehow figured out a way to make it work. Now it seems like everyone around them is getting married, and Luc’s feeling the social pressure to propose. But it’ll take more than four weddings, a funeral, and a bowl full of special curry to get these two from I don’t know what I’m doing to I do.

Good thing Oliver is such perfect HUSBAND MATERIAL.

This Summer 2022, you’re invited to the event(s) of the season.

After giggling my way through Boyfriend Material earlier this year, I just knew I needed the sequel in my life. And for the most part, Husband Material does not disappoint… except for the ending. But more on that later.

Blatantly modeled on Four Weddings and A Funeral**, the plot of Husband Material follows Luc and Oliver, the extreme-opposites-extremely-attract couple from the first book as they navigate being in a healthy long-term relationship (a first for both of them) while seeing all of their friends embracing wedding planning and baby making.

Two years into their relationship, Luc and Oliver still have separate flats but are together constantly. They’ve each made progress with their own personal hang-ups and issues, love each other very much, and are still funny as hell. As they attend wedding after wedding, some of their differences seem more concerning — especially when it comes to gay identity vs mainstream norms, and whether finally being able to officially and legally go the traditional marriage route means that they should.

And that’s not even addressing the rainbow elephant in the room — Luc embraces the glitter and rainbows of his ideal of gay community, but Oliver finds it all too commercialized and judgmental. If he doesn’t want a rainbow balloon arch at his wedding, does that make him a bad gay? But if he denies Luc the balloon arch, is he forcing Luc to give up part of his own identity? (Seriously, they spend A LOT of time on the balloon arch debate…)

After an unplanned panic-driven proposal (from Luc, of course), the couple decide to get married, but their cute differences as a couple seem to morph into fundamental problems as they try to navigate actually planning a wedding.

I love Luc and Oliver as characters and was very happy to reconnect with them and see how their lives have progressed since the first book. Husband Material, as a second book, assumes that we know these people, so there’s less time spent on character development and much more on plot shenanigans, which is fine, but creates a shallower reading experience. We still get a taste for the two as individuals, but their escapades (and the ridiculous goings-on surrounding the various weddings) take center stage for perhaps too much of the book — so when we do get deeper character moments, the tonal shift can be a bit jarring..

As in Boyfriend Material, the writing is heavy on word-play and humor, and most of the time, that’s truly a reading treat — don’t we all need more silly and clever and laugh-out-loud funny moments in our serious lives?

A few little samples:

“As your token gay friend, it is my duty to say that you are a fierce, sickening, incredible woman and that when you find a man who deserves you, he’ll make you feel like a princess every day of your life in a way that somehow manages to avoid reinforcing problematic gender stereotypes.”

… I couldn’t tell if we’d had a fight of not, and if we had, whose fault it had been. I mean, I had kind of dropped him on extra-special date night. Like a dick. Except I’d only done that because I needed to take care of my friend. Like definitely not a dick. Fuck. I was in a grey dick area.

I was increasingly convinced that weddings were just an elaborate cycle of vengeance that had got really out of hand. Some pair of selfish bastards had forced their friends to come to a tedious party two thousand years ago and their selfish bastard friends had decided to pay them back by forcing them to come to a tedious party, and then some wholly independent group of selfish bastards had built an industry around it and here we were. An eye for an eye leaves the world overpaying for table settings.

I made the air-quotiest air quotes that ever air-quoted.

All fun aside for a moment, I will say that I did not care for the ending, not even a little bit. And without getting into spoiler territory, I suppose it was meant to show that Luc and Oliver works best when they forge their own path and do what’s really right for the two of them — but all I could think was that they could have avoided all the angst and mess if they’d only had a real conversation months earlier. So while I think the author meant for the ending to come across as nonconventially romantic, I was just unsatisfied and a little saddened by it all.

I had thought this was the final book of a two-book story, but it looks like more is on the way. According to Goodreads, there are two more related books yet to come, although I believe the focus will shift away from Luc and Oliver to others in their friend circle.

Despite my feelings about the ending of Husband Material, I enjoyed the writing and characters enough to want more, so I’m sure I’ll check out whatever comes next.

Spoiler ahead — look away now if you don’t want to know!

**Spoilery bit: I’d completely forgotten that the main couple in Four Weddings and a Funeral decide to have a life together without getting married at the end. I guess if I’d remembered that, then I wouldn’t have been so surprised / let down by the ending of Husband Material!

17Nov2022

Book Review: Ship Wrecked (Spoiler Alert, #3) by Olivia Dade

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Ship Wrecked
Series: Spoiler Alert, #3
Author: Olivia Dade
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: November 15, 2020
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley

After All the Feels and Spoiler Alert, Olivia Dade once again delivers a warm and wonderful romantic comedy about two co-stars who once had an incredible one-night stand—and after years of filming on the same remote island, are finally ready to yield to temptation again…

Maria’s one-night-stand—the thick-thighed, sexy Viking of a man she left without a word or a note—just reappeared. Apparently, Peter’s her surly Gods of the Gates co-star, and they’re about to spend the next six years filming on a desolate Irish island together. She still wants him…but he now wants nothing to do with her.

Peter knows this role could finally transform him from a forgettable character actor into a leading man. He also knows a failed relationship with Maria could poison the set, and he won’t sabotage his career for a woman who’s already walked away from him once. Given time, maybe they can be cooperative colleagues or friends—possibly even best friends—but not lovers again. No matter how much he aches for her.

For years, they don’t touch off-camera. But on their last night of filming, their mutual restraint finally shatters, and all their pent-up desire explodes into renewed passion. Too bad they still don’t have a future together, since Peter’s going back to Hollywood, while Maria’s returning to her native Sweden. She thinks she needs more than he can give her, but he’s determined to change her mind, and he’s spent the last six years waiting. Watching. Wanting.

His shipwrecked Swede doesn’t stand a chance.

Ship Wrecked is the 3rd book in Olivia Dade’s romance series centered around the fictional TV series Gods of the Gates, a not-at-all-veiled reference to Game of Thrones. Gods of the Gates is one of the biggest television phenomena ever, but once the show moves past its book source material, the showrunners manage to complete derail the storylines and character arcs.

Ship Wrecked‘s story overlaps time-wise with the first two books in the series. Here, we meet new characters who join the show for its second season — Cyprian and Cassia, shipwrecked enemies who spend years learning to work together in order to survive on a deserted, treacherous island, and who naturally fall madly in love.

Peter Reedton, a character actor with a respected but not-flashy career up to this point, knows that his shot at Cyprian could finally show that he has what it takes to be a lead actor. But when he auditions against an unknown, inexperienced Swedish actress, he worries that she may drag him down and ruin his chances.

But that’s not really why he’s upset… The night before the audition, Peter has an amazing one-night stand with an incredible woman named Maria, who then disappears in the morning without leaving a note, contact information, or even her full name. And of course, the Swedish actress he meets the next day turns out to be Maria, and Peter’s anger is really all about his feelings of abandonment.

Still, the two have amazing chemistry on camera, and before they know it, they’re off to a remote Irish island to start what will be years of filming together. They soon discover that they like each other and work well together, but Peter is determined that, for the sake of the production, they should not get romantically involved.

Ship Wrecked continues the entertaining behind-the-scenes look at a huge TV production introduced in the first two books, and introduces two compelling new characters, Peter and Maria, who are easy to love and to root for. Their personality and culture clashes are funny, and I really liked their dynamic together.

The overall plot is perhaps a bit less engaging than the other books, as we see less of the rest of the cast — but when we do get snippets of the cast text threads or quick appearances, they’re always good for a laugh.

Maria and Peter’s relationship, when they finally get there, is steamy as well as rooted in true caring and affection. I didn’t quite buy the tropey breakup required in all romances before the big reunion and romantic finish — their relationship troubles didn’t seem as dire as they presented them to be, and reasonable adults should have been able to work through their issues without torpedoing the relationship.

In terms of steam factor, this book definitely falls on the graphic end of the scale. Sex scenes are explicit, no filmy curtains or fade to black. In fact, the very first paragraph of the very first chapter should give you a good idea about the content of the rest of the book:

When Maria’s hazy brown eyes blinked back open after her orgasm, Peter held her gaze for another dozen thrusts. Then, braced on his forearms, fingers tangled in her hair, he pushed deep one last time and groaned into her mouth.

If you find that completely off-putting, then this may not be a great reading choice for you. I don’t usually go for graphic in my romance reading, but these books are just so much fun that I didn’t mind the occasional cringing brought on by the more detailed scenes.

Ship Wrecked has great characters, plenty of laughs, and is decidedly fat-positive and body-positive, which is refreshing and (sadly) still not all that common. Peter and Maria are both great characters, and I love how the author depicts them as both fat and sexy.

I’ve seen other readers refer to Ship Wrecked as the final book in the series, and I don’t actually know if that’s correct or not. The world of Gods of the Gates is just so much fun — I’d gladly read more about these and other characters.

If you’re interested in Ship Wrecked, I’d really recommend starting from the beginning and reading Spoiler Alert and All the Feels first. Ship Wrecked could work on its own, I suppose, but then you’d miss out on the deliciously ridiculous bigger picture of Gods of the Gates, and really, that would be a shame.

27Oct2022

Book Review: The Stand-Up Groomsman by Jackie Lau

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Stand-Up Groomsman
Author: Jackie Lau
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: October 25, 2022
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A bridesmaid and groomsman put their differences aside to get their friends down the aisle in this opposites-attract steamy romantic comedy.

They say to never meet your heroes, but when Vivian Liao’s roommate gets engaged to her favorite actor’s costar, she has no choice but to come face-to-face with Melvin Lee again. He’s just as funny and handsome as he is on-screen…but thinks she is a snob and a sellout. It’s none of his business how she chooses to live her life, no matter how charismatic he is.

Mel is used to charming audiences as an actor and stand-up comedian but can’t connect to Vivian. She’s a smart, talented artist–which is why he thinks she’s wasting her life as a corporate finance drone. The only thing uniting them is their goal for the wedding to go off without a hitch.

As they collaborate on wedding cake and karaoke parties, Mel realizes he might have seriously misjudged this bridesmaid, while Vivian discovers the best man might just be as dazzling off-screen as he is on. With the wedding underway, maybe more than one happily ever after is in the future.

In this follow-up to Donut Fall In Love, a self-contained finance professional falls for a loud, outrageous stand-up comedian, and sparks fly — despite the fact that on the surface, at least, they’re complete opposites, and what’s worse, had an awful first meeting.

When Vivian meets Mel, she’s thrilled to be meeting the star of one of her favorite sitcoms. I mean, she’s done fan art about him! But he makes the mistake of assuming she’s like he used to be — someone pursuing a corporate paycheck rather than taking a chance and following their muse. Vivian is furious and would be happy to never see him again. Unfortunately for her, they’re going to be forced together over the coming year, as her roommate Lindsay has just become engaged to his best friend Ryan, and they’re both going to be in the wedding party.

As the wedding events seem designed to throw Vivian and Mel together, they form a tentative sort of connection, realizing that their outward differences mask some life experiences and personality quirks that make them more alike than they realized. Of course, the more time they spend together, they more their chemistry heats up, and it’s only for so long that they can deny that they’re better off as lovers than as enemies (or even frenemies).

The Stand-Up Groomsman is lots of fun, with tons of cute flirting, silly gift-giving, and shedding of inhibitions and defense mechanisms. I was impressed with the author’s ability to peel back the outer layers of the characters to show us how they’ve ended up where they are. Vivian confused me for much of the story — why was she so closed off? Why did she seem so unable to make connections or get involved with other people? But eventually, we learn more about her childhood and her parents’ expectations of her, and it finally all clicks and makes sense.

Melvin himself is all sorts of adorable. He and Vivian are both bisexual, and their frank conversations about sexuality are very refreshing — I haven’t come across all that many contemporary romance tales with such positive bi representation. (Mel’s bi identity is one of the many pieces of himself that becomes fodder for his stand-up routines, and it’s both sweet and funny to see how he works it into his set).

As the title indicates, Mel is a stand-up comedian as well as being a comedic actor. We see his stand-up shows throughout the book, and while some bits are quite funny, this is actually one part of the novel that perhaps didn’t work all that well for me. Reading a stand-up routine as part of a book’s narrative is just not the same as seeing a stand-up performance — and without the personality and physical presence, I just didn’t feel like the comedy translated all that well to the printed page.

That’s really just a minor quibble. Overall, The Stand-Up Groomsman is silly, sweet, and romantic, with some sexytimes in the mix too. (In terms of just how sexy, I’d rank this one as somewhere between steamy and graphic on my non-scientific, inexact ratings scale — it’s detailed and shows everything, but doesn’t cross into downright overly anatomical descriptions, if that makes any sense.)

On Goodreads, The Stand-Up Groomsman is listed as Donut Fall In Love, #2 — and yes, it is a sequel, but if you’re interested in this book, no need to get too hung up on reading the first book first. The couple from the first book are the wedding couple in this one, but really, you can read The Stand-Up Groomsman as a stand-alone and it’ll work just fine. (That said, Donut Fall In Love is super enjoyable, so why not read both?)

I’d definitely recommend The Stand-Up Groomsman for anyone looking for a light, contemporary romance with unusual characters and a sense of whimsy. Really a fun read!