Category: Romance

‘Tweet Cute’ – Emma Lord

I’m perhaps in a minority here, but I wasn’t totally won over by this in the way other readers seem to have been.

It’s a fairly stereotypical romance, with Jack and Pepper seemingly very different then spending time together and realising they quite get on. At the same time they’re developing a close relationship via an anonymous app, so it’s fairly standard that we’d expect them to get together eventually.

What’s being touted as the thing that sets this apart is the Twitter background. To cut a long story short, Pepper’s mum is behind a highly successful burger chain that has gone big after humble beginnings. Jack’s parents run a deli in New York that’s been in the family for years. Both serve a grilled cheese sandwich and it sparks a Twitter war. The whole scenario is preposterous, and it was so unrealistic that it frustrated me beyond belief.

It’s a shame I got sidetracked by this part of the story because the characters themselves and the way they were presented was appealing. I liked them and hoped things would work out, but the attempt to make it more than it was (as a way of tying up some loose ends regarding their parents later) just made it all too much.

 

‘The Happy Ever After Playlist’ – Abby Jimenez

Thank you NetGalley for offering me something a little different. I got the love story I wanted, but so much more besides.

Our main character, Sloan, is the kind of woman you probably can’t help but find intimidating. A talented artist, successful blogger, physically attractive and clearly a good person who inspires love in those who meet her…but we don’t see this immediately.

When we first meet Sloan she’s still mourning the tragic death of her husband two years ago. Her life is on hold, and though her friends are looking out for her she’s not ready to move on. Then, unexpectedly, she ends up with a dog jumping in her car. Soft-hearted she refuses to let the dog be taken to a shelter, and decides to look after it. She gets a contact number for the dog owner and leaves messages, daily, but hears nothing.

That could have been it. But, no, where would the fun be in that? The dog’s owner is a musician who’s been abroad for a few weeks. When he picks up the messages he is immediately intrigued by this woman. And so starts a most unusual courtship.

What we learn pretty early on is that the dog’s owner, Jason, is a star in the making. Totally unlikely, but there’s an immediate bond and it seems pretty deep. Can these two ride out the somewhat inevitable pitfalls to this existence? I’d like to say it’s never in doubt, but the author sure makes her characters work for it. At times it’s ugly, but at times it’s beautiful.

 

‘The Best Laid Plans’ – Cameron Lund

The Best Laid Plans is packaged as a frothy feel-good read, and there are definitely elements of the novel that fulfil that label. However, one thing this book is definitely trying to show you is that labels can be deceptive, and that not everything is easy to define.

Our story focuses on a group of seniors in a relatively small town who seem to have been together as a class for years, feel they know everything about each other and have to come to terms with the fact they’re growing up and will move on. Our main character, Keely, is fixated with the fact that she is the only virgin left in their class. She is obsessed by the fact that everyone around her seems to be so adult and in control of their lives, and is convinced that if she can lose her virginity she’ll suddenly receive the magic key to knowing how adulthood works.

The main impetus for her being so fixated by her status is the attitude of those around her to sex. Her best friend, Andrew, has a reputation as a ‘player’ and her female friends all seem to use sex and their sexuality as the way to define who they are. When Andrew hosts the party for Keely at the start of the book – the party that causes so much of the problem – and someone leaves a condom wrapper by Andrew’s parents’ bed, they jump with glee at the thought their offspring have finally got together. Everything about the attitude to sex in this book seems a little weird to me, and I felt it gave rather mixed messages to the target audience.

That aside, the novel focuses on Keely having a huge crush on an older boy, Dean. In an attempt to look more experienced, she hides the fact she’s a virgin. However, this then means she becomes preoccupied with the physical aspect of their relationship. So far, perhaps so normal – but then someone comes up with the bright idea that Keely should ask her friend, Andrew, to help…what could be weirder, eh?

For me, the entire book is focused on Andrew and Keely coming to terms with who they are, what each means to them and and how this growing awareness might impact on their current relationship. Along the way there are casualties, and characters who are clearly just used to help illustrate the point the author is trying to make.

Reading back through my thoughts, it seems quite negative. That’s not the case. This was such a quick read, and there were some genuinely funny moments. I liked the majority of the characters, and even felt they were genuinely developing as we progressed through the story. I had a feeling which way this would go, and the author definitely didn’t make this quite as easy as it might have been. It’s only afterwards that I start to consider exactly what message is being presented that I feel this isn’t quite as good as it could have been.

 

‘One True Loves’ – Taylor Jenkins Reid

Having read two more recent books by Taylor Jenkins Reid, I was surprised at how different this was. A love story, but not quite what I expected.

Emma Blair always fought against the expectations for her: to manage her parents’ book shop and to stay in her home town. When she ends up dating Jesse, the young man she had a crush on for years, he brings out a side to her that encourages her to do things differently. They are happy together. They travel and enjoy planning for their future. Then, a day before their first anniversary, Jesse takes a flight and we learn his helicopter crashed. He is presumed dead.

We learn that Emma fell apart after this revelation. She, slowly, learned to accept that Jesse was gone and found ways to think of him fondly but also to make changes to her life. She ends up moving back to her hometown, where she starts running the book store and becomes closer to her sister. She is about to marry Sam, a childhood friend who we know has always loved her. Then comes the revelation that Jesse has been found.

I cannot even begin to imagine how this kind of thing would turn your world upside down. How do you come to terms with learning that the love of your life is not dead…and that you have fallen in love with someone else and it’s okay?
The situation is unbelievably tough to imagine. The characters each have things about them that are not particularly appealing, but it was interesting to see how each of them reconciles their past thoughts of each other with the present reality.

Definitely not one to read if you’re feeling remotely wobbly, but it was a great read.

 

‘Betrayals’ – Kelley Armstrong

When Olivia’s life exploded–after she found out she was not the adopted child of a privileged Chicago family but of a notorious pair of convicted serial killers–she found a refuge in the secluded but oddly welcoming town of Cainsville, Illinois. Working with Gabriel Walsh, a fiendishly successful criminal lawyer with links to the town, she discovered the truth about her parents’ crimes in an investigation that also revealed the darker forces at work in the place that had offered her a haven. As if that wasn’t enough, she also found out that she, Gabriel and her biker boyfriend Ricky were not caught in an ordinary sort of love triangle, but were hereditary actors in an ancient drama in which the elders of Cainsville and the mysterious Huntsmen who opposed them had a huge stake.

Now someone is killing street kids in the city, and the police have tied Ricky to the crimes. Setting out with Gabriel’s help to clear Ricky’s name, Olivia once again finds her own life at risk. Soon the three are tangled in a web of betrayals that threatens their uneasy equilibrium and is pushing them toward a hard choice: either they fulfill their destinies by trusting each other and staying true to their real bonds, or they succumb to the extraordinary forces trying to win an eternal war by tearing them apart.

The whole link between Gabe, Liv and Ricky isn’t going away, so we can safely say nothing will get resolved any time soon as they try to figure out the best way forward. Things are still good with Ricky and Liv, but there’s more than a few nods to Liv and Gabe being a potential relationship. So, until that point we keep muddling along with nothing satisfactorily sorted.

This time round Ricky is under suspicion for crimes we know he didn’t commit. Supernatural elements are required to help figure it out, and the backdrop of the two fae forces battles on.

A few dramatic moments and plenty of opportunities for each to come to the rescue of the other. We get a number of past visions thrown in and hints of ongoing plotting by the two fae groups.

This felt like business as usual, but I’m hoping we get some answers soon.

 

‘Deceptions’ – Kelley Armstrong

TRUST NO ONE
Olivia Jones is desperate for the truth. The daughter of convicted serial killers, she has begun to suspect that her parents are innocent of their crimes. But who can she trust, in a world where betrayal and deception hide in every shadow?

RISK EVERYTHING
Liv does have one secret weapon: a mysterious sixth sense that helps her to anticipate danger. The trouble is, this rare power comes with its own risks. There are dark forces that want to exploit Liv’s talents – and will stop at nothing to win her to their side.

FACE THE TRUTH
Now Liv must decide, before it’s too late. Who does she love? Who is really on her side? And can she save herself without burning down everything that matters most?

Part of my issue with this was just as soon as we started to look as if we were getting somewhere, things changed tack and we were back on another new route.

Olivia is increasingly having visions. They seem to be memories of events she’s never lived, but their purpose is evident…to help her figure out the reality of her situation.

She and Ricky are still in a loved-up state, but there’s clearly more to this than we first thought. Her friendship with Gabe continues to be a difficult one. There’s plenty of suggestions that both might want more, but it’s never going to be so straightforward.

The love triangle went on and on and on. The developments with the fae and their feud make it pretty clear there’s no easy answer here. Some interesting developments with regard to Olivia’s birth parents – and not all of it is quite as we expect.

By the end of the book I was more than a little frustrated with the main characters, but also wondering how a group of otherworldly creatures can be so rubbish at sorting things out!

 

‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ – Taylor Jenkins Reid

I’d heard lots about this book over the last few months, and the fictional Evelyn Hugo seems to have created quite a stir. The premise certainly made me curious – I couldn’t imagine what would possess someone to marry seven times – but I was reluctant to start this in case I didn’t feel quite the same way.
From the outset we are spun a story about the woman the world knows as Evelyn Hugo. We learn that her daughter has died and she is going to auction some of her well-known dresses to raise money for cancer charities. For reasons that we are not permitted to know until much later on, reclusive Evelyn agrees to an interview – but she insists on a relatively inexperienced journalist called Monique being the one she’ll talk to.
Though Evelyn holds the cards here, we follow Monique as she meets with Evelyn and prepares to interview her. Upon their first meeting we are told that Evelyn wants Monique to write her biography. We know there’ll be a reason for this, but we don’t get told what it is until we’re truly invested in the situation.
I was intrigued by the press excerpts from the time as they showed the reality of the world Evelyn was part of. We are given Evelyn’s frank account of her relationships and her determination to rise to the top of her profession. We follow Evelyn through her marriages to her co-stars, a well-known singer, a director and her best friend amongst others. We see the price she was prepared to pay for her fame and her feeling of wanting to achieve what she felt she should. What we are told fairly early on is how she sacrifices so much for her true love, the one she has never spoken of until now.
While Evelyn herself was not always the most likeable of characters, she was presented in a way that elicited sympathy. Sometimes she made terrible decisions, but she often made these decisions from a desire to do right by those she loved. I felt quite angry for her and Harry, and so many other characters, that they could not be honest about themselves because of attitudes in the world they inhabited.
Monique was a character that I couldn’t quite fathom. Her interactions with Evelyn allowed us to slowly learn about her life, and the time devoted to her background and situation certainly had me thinking she would be more integral to the story than she initially seemed to be. By the time we have revealed the exact link I was imagining all sorts. The revelation certainly justified Monique’s somewhat ambivalent attitude to Evelyn, and it made sense of her actions towards the end.

 

‘Goddess’ – Josephine Angelini

Having created rather a mess, we now reach the point where the Scions realise they have to use their talents to challenge the gods. Certainly a battle to remember.

Once again, Helen is having to use her skills to do things nobody should have to consider. After the battle in the last book, her, Lucas and Orion have become blood brothers – and Helen has taken on more skills. The question is, can she come up with the answers to prevent the mortal world becoming playthings to the gods?

This reminded me of a game of chess. Characters were each plotting moves, and some of those closest to Helen were being used in the most awful way imaginable. There’s the ongoing love triangle to resolve – though with Helen’s feelings for Lucas never in question, this isn’t much of an issue.

At some points this read like a script for a very high-budget movie. We had all sorts of mythological creatures coming into play, and we get little cameos from everyone…including Zeus.

Having some of our questions answered definitely made certain scenes easier to read. There was a clear sense that not everything was resolved, and the suggestions of what could happen in the future left it in a great place.

 

‘Autoboyography’ – Christina Lauren

I knew very little about this book before picking it up, but I am so pleased that I did.
Our main character is Tanner, a young boy who identifies as bisexual. He is out to his parents, who are supportive and honest with him in such a way that felt like this book should be a call to all parents to read, regardless of their child’s sexuality. His father is Jewish and his mother has had a difficult time, cut off from her Mormon family for supporting her sister when she came out. That family background is crucial to know for this story, as it definitely plays a huge part in how they treat Tanner.
The family have moved to a small town, mostly Mormon, and Tanner has opted to keep quiet about his sexuality. His best friend, Autumn, doesn’t know this pretty important detail about him and he imagines things will tick along until the time he leaves for college…
Then he and Autumn sign up for an elective that involves writing a novel. There’s a student who took the course the previous year who is about to have his book published and who is going to act as a support teacher during the course. The young man concerned, Sebastian Brother, is the son of the local bishop. His life is pretty much set out for him…so, it’s an inevitable complication when Tanner falls for him.
What follows is a time-old story – two people trying to work out how they feel about each other – but the back-drop of the religious background of the characters and the link to the novel-writing process makes this a little more interesting.
I veered from laughing at the cuteness of Tanner and Sebastian as they find the courage to act on their feelings for each other to almost crying at the complications they faced. Throughout, I was struck by the maturity that these characters showed – can’t imagine anyone being so clued-up at that age. Yet there was an underlying bitter-sweet feeling as the shadow of Sebastian’s struggle with his religion never went away.
This was not a book I’d heard much about prior to reading and that feels such a shame as it had such a positive feel to it. It created such a range of emotions, and there was a real honesty to the characters/their experience that I couldn’t help but fall for.

 

‘Love and Other Words’ – Christina Lauren

I don’t know if I really believe in the kind of all-consuming romance that our main characters, Elliot and Macy have. From the time they first meet it seems pretty obvious that they are closer than your average boy/girl pairing. We don’t find out for a long time why they’re not together, but we get to see them re-acquainted eleven years in the future. Things are the same between them, but there’s clearly something big they need to get over.

Told in alternating timeframes we slowly get to see the significance of this relationship.

As a way of forging a new life once his partner dies, Macy’s dad decides to buy them a second home. When they go to look at the house, Macy is shocked to see the boy next door curled up in one of the rooms reading. Rather than being freaked out by this rather odd experience, Macy sees it as a signal to begin what she clearly regards as the most honest friendship she has.

Over time Macy and Elliot realise that their closeness is not just a sign of friendship. We see them take the tentative steps towards lovers…but still no closer in the present to knowing why things went so wrong.

In the present, Macy is living a rather soulless existence. She is engaged but when she sees Elliot in a local coffee shop it’s clear that this is not going to end as she expects. Within a very short space of time the fiancé is despatched and the lack of emotion surrounding this gave one explanation for him seeming such a cardboard character.

I was expecting this to be a story of their romance. It was, but it was also a story of the little details of their lives that led to them not speaking for eleven years.
Perhaps in the real world you’d move on from such an experience. Perhaps in the real world you’d recall this relationship fondly but I cannot see you willingly turning everything upside down on the off-chance that things might still be what they were. Thankfully, this is the book world where we’re not ruled by our heads…