August Romance Wrap-Up

 So, I've been reading a TON of romance books.  After years of not reading (thanks, English major), it feels really good to just read for fun and stay up late to finish books.  Most of the romance books I've read I've been able to finish in a night (around 350 pages).  However, I don't feel like I have a lot to say about each of the books individually because I think a lot of what makes a romance book 'good' or 'bad' is personal preference on how much romance, explicit sex, backstory, taboo, plot outside the romance etc more so than other genres like thrillers.  Obviously, every book review is subjective, but I just feel like romance books are way more subjective than other book reviews.  However, I still want to put them on the blog because I'm having just a really good time reading for fun and I think there's a whole world of shame around reading romance that should be dispelled (which is a whole other topic for a whole other day).  So I decided to keep track of all the romance I read during a month and just put short reviews together all in one post.  (EDIT: after actually keeping track and writing reviews for the month, this might need to turn into a weekly wrap up instead because this sucker is loooonnnngggg)

 

The Rise of Saint - Bella J

The Fall of Sin - Bella J

The Sins of Saint - Bella J

 These are the 3 books of The Sins of Saint series by Bella J.  Girl gets kidnapped by big bad business man hell bent on revenge.  Books have a very 50 Shades knock off feel to them but I found the revenge plot interesting.  The first book and first half of the second feature some very graphic questionable consent scenes which does improve as the series goes on.  While reading, they reminded me of this video review by Amanda the Jedi of 365 Days movie on Netflix so maybe give that a watch before jumping into this very dark romance series

 Just Like That - Cole McCade

 M/M age gap romance.  Not my favorite simply due to the fact that I didn't really understand why the characters wanted to be together.  A former student returns as a TA for the teacher he had a crush on years ago and the story progresses from there.  There are scenes where the two characters seem to work on understanding each other and looking past the facade they put up for the world but it just didn't come off as believable for me.

Country Nights - Winter Renshaw

 I do love a grumpy man romance.  Not exactly enemies to lovers, but pretty close. A house rental scam leaves the heroine at the hero's doorstep with no where to stay.  He agrees to let her stay in exchange for helping him work on the ranch and personal growth for both parties starts from there. I enjoyed the way the heroine was able to slowly uncover the story behind the hero and how she brought out his softer side (eventually, after they were done bickering).  I thought they got along well as co-workers on the ranch, got along well as friends, which led to them getting along really well as lovers. **Trigger warning for attempted sexual assault.

Birthday Girl - Penelope Douglas

 Age gap romance - girl falls for her boyfriend's father.  Not nearly as taboo as it may sound, I think Douglas does a good job at building and convincing the reader of the relationship as more than just some guy wanting a young trophy wife.  I really appreciated how the characters take a break from each other to really figure out what they want which makes the romance, again, feel more developed.

The Deal - Elle Kennedy

 This book was just one big *swoon* from start to finish for me.  The heroine was raped at a party in high school, but years of counseling later and she is working on getting past the last hurdles from that event.  Enter star of the hockey team hero who needs the heroine to tutor him.  What starts out as a deal for both parties to get what they want ends up as two people being able to share their truths of their broken past and move forward together.  I loved the fantastic consent in this book and the communication between the two characters when their relationship gets rocky was great as well.

Torn - Carian Cole

Tied - Carian Cole

 Torn and Tied are the two books in the All Torn Up series.  They can be read as stand alones and are connected loosely by the heros in both books being brothers.  I would recommend reading both books, in order, but it isn't necessary. 

Torn is an age-gap romance between a girl and her dad's best friend.  This was a bit more taboo than Birthday Girl because she grew up calling him 'uncle' despite them not actually being blood related.  The book has flashbacks of when she was growing up and he was babysitting her or teaching her to ride a bike so it did set off my 'eww' meter just a bit.  I also felt like the relationship wasn't as well developed as in Birthday Girl so I wasn't quite convinced that these two people were meant to be together but there was a substantial break in the book where the two separate so they can figure out their feelings which was good.

Tied was my favorite of the two books in this series.  The hero in this book is a lone wolf type who is mad at the world for ruining his perfect life back in high school.  An accident followed by drugs, drinking, and more accidents has jaded the hero into being a recluse in his cabin in the woods.  Until he finds a girl that had been kidnapped 11 years prior and saves her from her captor.  She calls him her prince when everyone else in her life is trying to convince her to forget about him.  The story picks up a few years later after she has gotten help readjusting to her life and is trying to figure out what she wants.  The two characters are both incredibly straightforward in their interactions, understanding of each other's trauma, and both learning what type of person they want to be.  Good consent in this one which I was worried about due to the subject matter. 

Rough & Tumble - Rhenna Morgan

 Perfect mix of lovable bad boy and strong heroine.  This is the first book in the Men of Haven series that follows the members of a brotherhood of misfits that love and support each other through their questionable business dealings.  Plot outside the romance was a bit darker and mysterious which I liked.  I also appreciated how caring yet dominate the hero was with out heroine as she figured out what she wanted.  I loved how he supported her in her dreams and didn't turn into one of these 'I have enough money for both of us so you don't need to worry about it' sort of rich dudes.  I love a good bickering couple and both the hero and heroine could give as good as they got which really helped push the narrative of him helping her out of her shell in order to embrace her true self.

Flirting with the Frenemy - Pippa Grant

 So cute! Another frenemies to lovers situation, which is fast becoming my favorite trope.  After both being dumped, the hero and heroine spend one night together before the situation gets complicated.  Six months later, needing a date to her best friends wedding (who is marrying the brother of her ex), our heroine and hero reconnect.  Working through both of their baggage against the fun backdrop of an annual pirate festival, these two are obviously head over heals in love but real world problems such as distance and past trauma get in the way. 

Truth or Beard - Penny Reid

 Don't let the cover throw you off, this is a cute and steamy romance.  First in a series of books that follow the love lives of the Winston brothers, this is a frenemies to lovers story.  Wanderlust heroine returns to her hometown to save up money before following her dreams of traveling the world and runs into our hero who is the twin of her high school crush.  I loved how straightforward and gentlemanly the hero was with is feelings and his intentions.  I found the conflict in the story very believable and it is something I think a lot of couples face (the solution to that conflict, not so much).  The book is marketed as a romantic comedy and I completely agree.  I'll be reading the rest of the series for sure.

Until Harry - L.A. Casey

 This book is all about love and grief and how to go one living after losing a loved one.  I really liked this story, but it was not the sunshine fun romance I thought it would be.  The heroine returns to her hometown for the funeral of her beloved uncle. While there, she needs to face the demons of her past with her family as well with our hero who has his own past to work through.  I felt the flashbacks to when they were growing up really helped amp up the emotion and angst in the book but it was never overdone.  My heart was breaking for the two characters and all they had to go through in order to finally be back together so many years later.

The Real Thing - Melissa Foster

More small town romance?  Yes please!  Our hero is a big Hollywood action star coming back to his hometown to film a new movie as a romantic lead but he needs to clean up his play boy image.  He enlists the help of our heroine to be his fake fiance given their past history growing up together.  Having to keep up appearances for a few weeks while the filming is underway reveals true feelings that were pushed aside years ago. 

Undeniable - Melanie Harlow

 Small town enemies to lovers.  Was a little frustrating how quickly the heroine let go of her anger toward the hero but overall was super cute.  There were flashbacks filling the reader in on what happened so many years ago, but both characters still felt a bit flat for me.  I thought the story overall was cute and well done, but I wish the characters had more depth.

IOU - Kristy Marie

Yet another grumpy hero that melts for our bubbly heroine and makes my heart melt in the process.  Our hero is known around campus for giving out favors and handing out IOU's that he will cash in later.  Our heroine is down on her luck and has no one else to turn to.  Slowly the two of them break down each other's walls and get each other to open up.  The growth from reluctant hero to friends to loves was fantastic and both characters were straightforward about their feelings. Good consent in this one as well.

Vicious - L J Shen

Vicious is often listed as a favorite bully romance and I can see why.  Hello tortured bad boy central!  I loved the strong heroine who stood up to Vicious for way longer than other bully romances I've read and actually gave Vicious time to reflect on what he wants and show her that he has changed. 

Dear Enemy - Kristin Callihan

 Another enemies to lovers / bully romance that felt like a lighter version of Vicious.  Dear Enemy had the strong heroine who was very obviously still hurting from what the hero did to her while they were growing up together.  The first half of the book was both characters coming to terms with their feelings and then the second half was a lot of working through their trust issues with the other.  I love a good groveling scene and our hero laid it all out on the table for our heroine and I just melted.

Savage Beginnings - J. L. Beck and C. Hallman

Dark mafia romance with arranged marriage.  I'm finding these sorts of plots to be just a fun, summer action movie type of plot and I don't really see them as romance.  Sure, there's usually lots of explicit sex (often with iffy consent which isn't great) but I never feel convinced at the growing romance between the two characters.  Savage Beginnings was no different with the heroine being sold by her father to rival mobster, our hero.  Of course, the hero is planning to use the heroine to get revenge and the story progresses from there.  I'm always intrigued by the plots synopsis for these books, but they usually fall flat for me in reality.

Burn for You - J.T. Geissinger

Overall, pretty cute.  This book is described as a Beauty and the Beast retelling and it feel a little short of that for me.  Sure, the hero is nicknamed 'The Beast' and the heroine loves to read books, but other than that, I didn't really get any Beauty and the Beast vibes.  I did love the heroine's tough girl southern charm.  She owns a restaurant in New Orleans that has been getting a lot of attention and the hero hires her to cater an event for him.  Sparks fly and he offers her a deal to marry him so he can secure his inheritance and she can have money that she desperately needs.  I didn't find the main conflict - the hero's parents and his past - at all convincing and the resolution felt way too fast, neat, and clean.  

Scandalous - L.J. Shen

Dark age gap romance. This is book 3 of the Sinners of Saint series and follows Trent Rexroth.  He is a single dad, trying to do his best for his 4 year old daughter, help run a company, and find his daughter's mother who ran out on them 3 years ago.  His life starts to get even more complicated when the 18 year old daughter of the coworker he hates starts working at the office.  Everyone has secrets and secrets are always in danger of coming into the light.  I'm finding that in order for age gap romances to really work for me, I need to be convinced that the two characters connect on a deeper level.  This was not that book for me and it really felt like the hero really only liked the heroine because she was so good with his kid.  This book was also explicit with the BDSM elements but the consent was always there - the two characters even talk about "safe, sane, and consensual".  I did like how developed the conflict in the book was but the resolution was a little hand-wavy and happened mostly off the page and I wish we could have gotten more of the four friends banding together to save one of their own.

Tapping the Billionaire - Max Monroe

 Loved it. This was a super fun and light-hearted romance (but not light on the steamy scenes).  Our billionaire hero is the CEO of a dating app that both he and his head of marketing (our heroine) use anonymously. When he needs a date for an event, he chooses the heroine and sparks fly from there.  The main conflict is realistic and handled well.  There isn't any drama or power dynamics between the two at work and their romance honestly felt like they were meant to be.  No family drama, no work drama, no scandals, just two people who really work well together.  The description on Goodreads states "If you enjoy a good swoon, a hearty laugh, witty banter, and some hot as f*@% f*@%ing, then consider Georgia Cummings your Girl Friday and Kline Brooks your next irresistible book boyfriend" and I 1000% agree.  This is the first book in the Billionaire Bad Boys series and I'll be reading more for sure!

Beautifully Cruel - J.T. Geissinger

I got the feeling that this book was trying to be the typical mobster alpha male forced proximity book but didn't want to go too dark so the whole book felt like it was two books in one.  At the beginning, our hero is a tall, dark, and handsome stranger who visits our heroine at the diner where she works.  He is a true gentleman and the chemistry is off the charts.  But when the two start negotiating what their relationship will look like, the big alpha male comes out and isn't taking no for an answer. It honestly feels like there are two characters.  Not two sides of our hero, but two completely different people and that really wasn't working for me.  Overall, I did like the characters and I'll read the second book in the series about the hero's brother, but there were just a few places where I would have liked a bit more nuance to the hero.

Rich Prick - Tijan

I almost DNF'd this book.  The only thing that made me keep reading was the 4.18/5 rating on Goodreads.  After finishing, I wish I had put it down and picked up a different book.  The heroine was the only part of this book that worked for me, and even she wasn't 100%.  Rich Prick follows high school dick Blaise and shy girl Aspen during the last few weeks of senior year and into the first month of college.  Despite going to school together most of the year and even sharing some classes, Blaise doesn't notice Aspen until she sees him getting a BJ one night during a party.  Then, for some reason, he becomes obsessed with her.  He's a royal jerk who is always getting into fights and has a hair trigger temper.  She's a shy girl who prefers to be camping alone and there's nothing but insta-love keeping the two together from what I can tell.  There is family drama on both sides but that also isn't well explained and I was left at the end a bit confused about what was happening there.  This book felt like it should have been 2 books but instead, the plot points got trimmed down so it could be one book.  The writing wasn't working for me, I had to read whole pages over because I couldn't keep track of who was talking to who or where everyone was in the scene.  There was a big blow up moment about half way through the book that had ramifications that should have been happening all throughout the story but didn't show up until the 80% mark and then got cleared up by the end of the book.  The overall plot in general was interesting, but the way the book was written and the way the plot points were structured just wasn't for me.

Tell Me to Stop - Charlotte Byrd

 Hated it. Probably my fault for not realizing it was the first in a 6 book series but for a 300+ page romance book, I was expecting a lot more romance.  Our heroine receives a mysterious check in the mail for the exact amount to pay off her student loans.  After 30ish pages (30ish!) of back and forth with her friend, she finally deposits it and pays off her loans. The sender of the check then invites her to meet him and tells her in order to repay her debt, she would need to stay with him for the next 365 days. She says no, runs back to her apartment, has some drama with her mom, and eventually agrees to meet him for dinner and that's where the book ends.  There is a flash-forward scene in middle where we see the hero and heroine in bed together, but it honestly felt like a teaser to get us to read the next book in hopes that maybe there will be actual romance in that one.  I won't bother.

Accidental Hero - Nicole Snow

Loved it. Our heroine is an art teacher and has a crush on one of her student's dad who likes her back.  After an interaction with a date gone bad, the hero steps in and saves the heroine and the two keep running into each other from there.  Family drama on her side, gang drama on his side.  I loved the chemistry between the two characters and I especially loved how they came together to solve their problems.  There wasn't a big dramatic breakup because one of them had to go be all broody and try to solve their problems on their own.  Only downside was the kid who skipped like 3 grades and was a 10 year old 8th grader didn't come off as realistic to me.  Sure, she's smart enough to skip 3 grades and is more mature because her dad treats her like an adult, but I would think she still would act like a 10 year old at times.  

Bad Habit - Charleigh Rose

 This is a solid meh book.  It starts off pretty problematic with our 14 year old heroine trying to seduce the 18 year old hero (her brother's best friend) and he is into it but knows it is wrong.  They get interrupted before it goes any farther and then the book jumps 3 years ahead.  The hero has returned home after being gone for those 3 years and the heroine is just graduating high school.  Let the angst begin!  Overall, just about everything in this book was a little flat.  The writing, the characters, the plot, the stakes, etc.  I think the overall plot points were interesting but just not executed well.  The hero keeps making remarks about how the heroine betrayed him, but it doesn't really seem like he's all that upset about it to the magnitude that he should be.  I really think this book would have benefited from being aged up about 4 years.  Have the first contact be when they are 18 and 22, then flash forward to when they are 21 and 25 and I think the plot points, sex scenes, and general attitudes of the characters would feel much more appropriate.

The Player Next Door - K.A. Tucker

Loved it.  Small town enemies to lovers romance where our heroine returns to her home town after about 10 years away only to find the guy who broke her heart in high school lives next door.  I found the characters in this book to be very relatable and complicated in a believable way.  There's one scene where the hero is asking what the heroine wants and she doesn't know exactly because she doesn't want to take him back but she also doesn't want him to see anyone else and I just loved the way the whole scene was written.  There's family drama in this one as well and I found the conflict to be really interesting and realistic in how hard it was to solve.   I also liked how the heroine didn't immediately trust the hero and only after he showed her how much he'd changed did she finally let down her walls.

The Hunter - L.J. Shen

This is the 3rd LJ Shen book I've read this month and I feel like they are all very similar.  They all seem to be shades of angry bad boy needs to be corralled by sassy good girl.  She makes him a little good, he makes her a little bad, they fall in love and live happily ever after together while not really changing their outer selves to the world.  I really liked the premise of this book which is that our hero has a sex tape leak and his father hires our heroine to live with him for 6 months to keep him sober and celibate while the hero learns how to be an adult and work at the family business.  I thought the heroine in this book was really interesting and I was really rooting for her to reach her dream of making it to the Olympic team in archery.  I really appreciated her having something in her life other than the hero.  At first, I was worried by the synopsis that she was just a shy book nerd that would spend all day inside reading and that's why she was picked to keep an eye on the hero.  But in reality, she was so focused on meeting her other goals that she never even entertained the idea of boys.  I have a bit of a love/hate with the ending.  I loved how the two characters get back together at the end in a grand romantic gesture.  However, I hated the reveal about the true reason why she was chosen to watch over him.  It really felt like that reveal took away agency from both characters which I didn't enjoy. 

The Worst Best Man - Lucy Score

Loved it.  Super cute slight enemies to lovers story.  Our heroine is the maid of honor at her best friend's wedding and the hero is the best man.  They get off to a rocky start and the heroine doesn't easily forgive.  However, after working together to save the wedding from impending doom, the two get together.  He's one of the city's most eligible bachelors and the COO of a large company and she's a part time student who helps small businesses. Just like a typical heroine, she doesn't get blinded by the celebrity and calls the hero on his BS when needed.  I really liked the relationship between not only the two main characters, but also the best friends and the heroine's family.  I felt all the characters were really well fleshed out and detailed.  I also liked how the heroine gets called out by her friend about her attitude and how she's treating the hero.  I find in a lot of books, it is the hero that needs to come groveling back and make amends, but in this case both sides made mistakes and the heroine learns that sometimes forgiving and moving on is better than holding a grudge.

Melt for You - J.T. Geissinger

100% pure swoon.  Slow burn frenemies to lovers.  Our heroine is a self described ugly duckling who has been crushing on the CEO at her work for years.  Our hero is a Scottish rugby player who is her neighbor for a few months.  They strike up a deal where he is going to help her get the guy and antics ensue.  The chemistry between the two characters was impeccable.  The hero is charming, rough, and caring.  The heroine is witty, sharp, and vulnerable.  The two are a match made in heaven.  The one part of this book I wasn't quite loving was the fact that the heroine describes herself as fat, and while the hero does help her start exercising and dropping some pounds, he insists from the beginning that she has a warped body image.  It does come out that the heroine's mother and sister are both model-thin and no actual clothing sizes were mentioned so I'm not sure if this was a plus-sized heroine or if this was an Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada sort of situation.  The romance was super slow burn and they really built up a good friendship for the first 3/4 of the book.  

Menace - J.M. Darhower

Grievous - J.M. Darhower

These two books are the Scarlet Scars series and is the story of mob boss Lorenzo and sex worker Morgan.  After a chance encounter, the two strike up a strange friendship.  Lorenzo isn't the typical mob boss, at least on the inside.  Sure, he's ruthless, decisive, and more than a little crazy at times, but he is also witty, caring, and complex.  He isn't the typical alpha male mob boss that shows up in a lot of mafia romances.  He's also blind in one eye due to an injury and his disability comes into play in the story.  Morgan is a down on her luck sex worker who plays everything close to the vest.  She has a secret and is working with the police in some investigation.  She is smart, resourceful, and strong but also sad, closed off, and angry.  Lorenzo and Morgan fit together just right and their unconventional relationship is fantastic.  Neither seems to be interested in it being anything more than what it is and they both have outside threats they're focusing on.  The romance is pretty slow burn but picks up in the beginning half of the second book (but the sex happens pretty quickly in the first) but not in a typical romance sort of way.  Hallmark channel movie romance this is not.  It really is just two puzzle pieces that look broken on the oustide coming together as a whole. The books have their comedic relief elements - mostly Lorenzo's brother and his henchmen - and isn't as dark as most other mafia romances.  There is a third POV in the books of a little girl, about 5 years old, who is kidnapped and those scenes can be pretty hard to read. There's also a good bit of abuse in the second half of the second book that is hard to get through, but of course there's a happy ending.

Brandon - Melody Anne

This is the third book in the Anderson Billionaires series and follows Brandon Anderson and Chloe Hitman.  Chloe is a perfectionist chef and owner of a local restaurant and Brandon is an air force pilot turned electrician.  They team up to help Brandon's uncle and brothers finish renovating a local veterans center.  A previous one night stand left both wanting more, and Brandon seems all in but Chloe promised herself to never be in a long term relationship because relationships are never perfect and she's a perfectionist.  I loved the scenes with Brandon and Chloe just being together in the kitchen making breakfast, out at dinner together, and walking around the town.  I thought they had an undeniable chemistry and their personalities seemed to really click.  However, I did not believe for a second that Chloe, who was so adamant about never wanting a long term relationship because she's a perfectionist, would go down without a fight.  She put up a bit of resistance at the beginning and didn't want to label their relationship until almost the end of the book which is in line with her values, but I was expecting to have a big break up or a big fight.  The perfectionist part seemed way too important to her personality and lifestyle and it felt like she just tossed it away like it was no big deal.  I didn't really see anything Brandon did as convincing her that she could be with him long term and anytime she brought up her fears to her friends about waking up one day and being bored they basically said "yeah, maybe that will happen, but what if it doesn't" which is one argument but didn't feel strong enough to change Chloe's mind.  I needed another 100 pages of Chloe and Brandon really figuring out their relationship past the honeymoon phase.  I needed them to get in a big fight and work through it together, proving to Chloe that relationships get messy but are worth fighting for.  **Brandon comes out 10/20/2020. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC**

Red Sparrow - Jason Matthews

Red Sparrow is book 1 of a trilogy of espionage thrillers from Jason Matthews and I can't wait to read the next two.  This is my first spy thriller novel and I was a little iffy about it at first, but by the end I was completely hooked.  This novel follows threads from the point of view of both the American CIA and Russian SVR.  The two main characters are the American Nate Nash and Russian Dominika Egorova and we follow them as they work through their respective agencies and engage in espionage activities. When Dominika is assigned to Nate to learn the identity of the mole inside the Russian government, the cat and mouse games begin.

This is my first spy novel that I've read, so I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I liked the overall tone and mood of the story.  I've never worked as a spy, but the story did feel authentic and Matthews is described as a veteran CIA officer.  It didn't feel super overdone or commercialized and I could even see how some readers would find it a bit slow and boring compared to something like the Mission Impossible movies.  I enjoyed the explanation of all the behind the scenes stuff from convincing someone to spy against their country to the vetting process to the technology used to transmit messages.  These details were the real flavor of the book for me and I hope this continues in the later books in the series.

 As much as I loved the relationship between Dominika and Nate (and I did really like them together), I was surprised how much I liked the parts of the book where they were separate.  I think Matthews did a fantastic job at building these webs of government on both sides and there were whole chapters where the two main characters weren't on screen.  This enhanced the overall cast as more than just stereotypes and gave the characters depth.  It also enhanced the danger and tension when the reader knows things that the two main characters don't and all the little mentions and breadcrumbs that Matthews lays out during the novel really pay off.

In general, I'm a character-driven reader.  I love stories with complex and rich characters even if the plot is just meh.  This novel, in my opinion, is a little light on the action, but very heavy in character and Dominika was my favorite character by far.  She does start off as a bit of the stereotypical Russian where she is cold and calculating and has that dry sense of Soviet humor where 'everything is just kind of bad all the time but that's just the way things are so no use complaining'.  But through her backstory and actions going forward, we see how she has built walls around her and we get glimpses into how she really feels.  The one part about her character that I wasn't convinced of was her synesthesia.  It makes sense in her backstory where she can see music in colors in the air and it helps her be a very good ballerina.  However, her synesthesia being used as a plot device where she can see a character's mood or intentions as a cloud above their head was a bit far for me and I couldn't suspend my disbelief that far.  If she could only see the colors when someone was talking, sure, but there were numerous times when she would walk into the room and no one was talking and she'd think about the purple cloud over one person and the yellow cloud over another. 

My least favorite part of this novel was the first 10 chapters, which sounds bad, and I almost put the book down.  However, after the first 10 chapters, the story really kicked into gear for me and I was in.  The novel starts off with Nate meeting the CIA mole in Moscow and almost getting caught and then it felt like Matthews slammed on the breaks and we had to sit around in traffic for a while before the story picked back up.  The first 10 chapters were backstory for the two main characters and while that backstory is important to the plot going forward so the reader understands the character motivations, I wish it was worked in throughout the main narrative and not dumped in the beginning. I also think part of my issue with these backstory chapters was the fact that I was listening to the audiobook and the narrator was a bit dry.  Overall, I felt this narration style fit the tone of the novel which was very bureaucratic at times, but going so long without any high action sequences really made it feel like a drag.  At one point, when Dominika was in sparrow school, I remarked to my partner that this was the unsexiest sexy spy book ever.  There are a number of scenes with explicit sex in this book, just as an FYI. 

 

 

 

434 pages

Bit of a slow start, but a very down to earth espionage thriller with great characters all around.  The details of the different options from both sides really made it feel like a cat and mouse game and the reader was just waiting to see who would get caught.

The book was made into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence that has a current rating of 45% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo

Let's get a few things out of the way first.  I'm not a big fantasy reader, I've never read any other Leigh Bardugo book, and I'm 100% completely in love with this book.  Are those three things related?  Who knows.  But from the very beginning of this book I was hooked and it gave me one of the biggest book hangovers I've had in a long time.

Ninth House is centered around Galaxy "Alex" Stern and her investigation into the death of a girl on her college campus.  Sounds pretty straight forward, however, once the secret societies and supernatural elements get added in, it is just fantastic.  I loved how this book is set at Yale and the campus itself plays a very important part in the story.  I think most people are familiar with the Skull and Bones 'secret' society but there are so many others in this book and Alex works for the agency overseeing their activities.  I grew up in New England, but have never been to Yale's campus.  However, from a few reviews I've read, Bardugo very accurately describes and uses the buildings on campus correctly in the novel.  From growing up in New England, I appreciated the overall atmosphere of mixing current day prestige with the ghost stories of the past.  I loved almost everything about this book but I'll try to just point out a few favorite aspects that really elevated this book for me.

 First, mixing points of view changes with flashbacks was expertly done and enhanced the tension and character relationships in the novel.  We know from the beginning of the book that Alex's trainer, Darlington, is not on campus.  We get some allusions to what happened through Alex's internal monologue as well as her interaction with other members of these secret societies.  Flashbacks to before Darlington left show us him and Alex meeting and learning how to work together which lends weight to present day Alex's thoughts.  The POV in the present is Alex, but the flashbacks are from Darlington's POV which gives the reader extra information about the way the societies are run that Alex doesn't know yet.  It also gives us an additional view of Alex and how she presents and interacts with other characters.  We also, in the later parts of the book, get flashbacks to Alex and Darlington when they were younger, before Yale.  Flashbacks usually work for me, but if they come up too often, they tend to feel like they're taking the reader out of the story.  Not so in this case even though just about every other chapter is a flashback.  After reflecting for a while, I decided the reason they were so effective in Ninth House was because we are basically following and trying to solve two separate mysteries: what happened to Darlington and what happened to the murdered girl.  So when one chapter gets us further in the murdered girl mystery, then we switch to a flashback with Darlington, it doesn't feel like we're being taken away from the mystery of the story - we're simply switching to the other mystery. The flashbacks to Alex and Darlington before Yale were also directly involved with the present day plot so even those didn't feel like they were just for backstory or just to increase tension before we get back to the main story.  

Alex, I felt, was one of the most well-fleshed out character I've read in a fantasy book in a long time (fully aware that I don't read much fantasy so not sure how valid this opinion is).  She just felt so real.  She had a hard upbringing and we know she gets involved with drug dealers at some point.  But then she's at Yale and obviously doesn't feel like she fits in.  She is putting up walls between her and everyone else - Darlington, her roommates, her professors, etc - but when those walls start to crack, she has very real fears that people won't like her anymore.  That they will see the true Alex and be scared. She comes from a very different world than the usual ivy league student and she is acutely aware of that in many situations.  However, as the novel progresses, she is able to lower her walls a bit, she gets used to how these secret societies function and how to make the system she was so unfamiliar with originally work for her.  When she messed up with someone she cared about, she went out of her way to fix things.  It wasn't the most conventional way of fixing her mistake, but it was Alex's way of making amends and it just worked so well for me.  I will admit that, at first, it isn't really clear why Alex is so invested in this new life at Yale when she seems to almost hate everyone and everything there, but as the novel progresses and we get more backstory, I think her motivations for staying really come through. I would say I'm a character-driven reader so when characters click with my brain, I absolutely can't get enough of them.

As much as I loved this book, and I have so many other praises for it, it almost fell apart at the end for me and I'll try to explain why in the best non-spoiler way I can.  

So first off, I've never read any of Leigh Bardugo's other books but I was aware that she has a lot of series.  I thought that this was a stand-alone novel, however, that is not the case - on Goodreads, it has (Alex Stern #1) under the title.  If I had known that going in, then I might not have had such a visceral reaction to the somewhat cliffhanger ending.  I also probably wouldn't have read Ninth House before the sequel was available because I sort of really really hate that feeling of having to wait for the next installment (this is also why I primarily wait for entire seasons of TV shows to be available to watch before starting a show).  I do want to clarify that the ending was actually really good, from purely a plot perspective.  We got answers to the mysteries presented so it wasn't like the book is leaving the reader unfulfilled after 400+ pages.  And there was enough aftermath of those answers that would leave the door open to a sequel which I actually really liked.  If the book had ended literally a page or two earlier, I would have been completely fine and had no problem with this book at all.  It would have felt like a stand-alone novel that left a window open for a possible sequel if it sold well enough.  However, the last pages were where I lost my marbles.  

In the last scene, Alex and crew run into someone who helped them earlier in the novel, we'll call her Betty. Alex tells Betty that they need her help with Project X.  Betty says Project X can't work because of A, B, and C.  Alex says that she thinks they can still do Project X because A, B, and C are not what they seem. And then, if this had been a teen movie from the 80s, they would have jumped in the air and it would freeze-framed and that would be the end. Hopefully that description is vague enough to not spoil anything. What bothered me, was that Alex and 'Betty' didn't really have any sort of relationship after Betty helped Alex the one time in the book.  I understand that Betty was the person with the experience Alex needed, but the interaction was overly familiar and didn't mesh with my understanding of their relationship.  Also, Alex saying that 'A, B, and C weren't what they seemed' lessened the stakes of a previous plot point which is one of my biggest pet peeves in books.  If there are huge, life altering stakes of a decision or action and then later in the book those stakes are magically reversed or lessened, then it lowers the tension in the entire novel.  If Y can be fixed, then Z will probably be fixed later so I shouldn't care so much about it now.  I thought there were enough loose ends or open windows to have a sequel that continued Alex's story in a very natural way.  I did not appreciate the heavy handedness with which Bardugo finished off this novel and honestly the fact that my one big issue with the novel was in the last two pages out of a 400+ page novel is both wonderful and wonderfully frustrating.

That being said, this will be one book I recommend to just about anyone who even remotely likes fantasy gothic mystery stuff.

Overall, one of the best books I've read in a long time.  Fantasy, gothic, mystery, thriller, great characters, interesting setting, intrigue, good twists, great structure, stumbles right at the end for me but I can't wait for the next book.

459 pages

The Bone Jar - S. W. Kane

The Bone Jar is a police procedural that starts as with investigation into the death of an elderly woman at a derelict mental hospital outside London. On the same night as the murder, a man who was supposed to be exploring the old building goes missing.  The investigation into the murder and disappearance bring up old secrets and the dark history of the mental hospital and what happened there decades prior.  Overall, this was a solid police procedural with a rotating cast of suspects, alibis, and twists as Detective Lew Kirby and cast investigate these crimes.

This novel employs one of my favorite thriller tropes which is secrets from the past coming back to haunt the present.  I really liked how Kane used that idea in this novel where when the sketchy past of the hospital comes up, the investigators keep it in mind but then still look for present day suspects.  They don't drop everything and start investigating a cold case from the decades before.  I think this is where the other points of view were used the most effectively as they kept reminding the reader of the past while the detectives were talking to present day suspects. 

I thought this novel also had some pretty good character relationships.  We get some banter between Kirby and his partner, some interpersonal tension at work, and Connie's relationship with her urban explorer friends.  I liked how Kirby wasn't a stereotypical jaded or grumpy detective and he didn't have any vices or any dark secret himself.  As much as I love complicated heroes, it is nice to have the hero be an actual good guy.  I do wish we had explored more of Connie and the urban exploration community, but we did get some good interactions between her and her friends.

The main issue I had with this book was the pacing.  For the first half, it was a fairly typical police procedural.  The first 2/3 of the book were pretty slow on the action, but the investigation was uncovering lies and secrets from decades prior - standard police procedural.  The novel does switch points of view between a few characters, only one of whom is with the police, which gives the reader a break from the procedural elements.  However, even these other points of view were paced slow as they investigated their own portions of the mystery.  Now I'm fine with slow build police procedurals.  I really like seeing all the puzzle pieces fall into place and seeing the detectives put it all together so I was reading along with no problems.  But then the last 1/3 of the book kicked into high gear and it was super jarring. All three points of view came together in the same area but were just far enough away that they were still following their different plot threads.  And each of the threads was high action so switching points of view would just continue to amp up the tension.  Which, I'll admit, I would normally be totally into if the first 2/3 of the book wasn't so slow burn.  It was like the first 2/3 ramped from 0 to 20 and then the last 1/3 went from 20 to 100 in just a few chapters.  I have book whiplash, that's the best way I can explain it.  I did appreciate how this book had the few chapters of 'cool down' after the main action conflict of act 3.  I always like to be able to see how characters are able to integrate back into their regular lives after the events of the novel.

At the end, while we do find out who killed the elderly woman, there were more questions left open at the end of the book in regards to Kirby's personal life as well as Connie's sister.  It felt like really obvious sequel bait and it was a bit disappointing.  I have no issues with some unanswered questions, but the novel left off on such an obvious cliffhanger that it felt unfinished.  The reveals at the end were also very important to the characters and it felt like those would have been better suited to be revealed before the third act and then they could have been resolved or at least explored more during the last part of the book.  It felt like these last reveals were brought up and then the characters just left them aside to be dealt with later (in a sequel).  In general, I'm just not a fan of the super obvious cliffhangers at the end of books.  Leave enough open for me to want to explore in a sequel (like DI Kirby getting a phone call about another murder, for example) but this one left a little too much open for my liking.

Slower paced police procedural that really kicks into gear in the last 1/3 of the book.  Obvious sequel set up at the end was a bit unsatisfying but overall a really solid detective novel. 

328 pages

The Bone Jar was published on July 1, 2020.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC