Book 29 My Not So Perfect Life & Bared to You

My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella and Bared to You by Sylvia Day fulfilled the category “Two Books Set in Sister Cities” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge.

I’m supposed to create one post for each book. But… Sigh. I’ve read four titles for the two prompts. I didn’t like two of them. Unfortunately, the two left are not from sister cities. So, I’ll post all four, and let you settle it out in the wash. I try hard not to include negative reviews on the blog. I want to share books I think you will love.

Here goes.

My Not So Perfect Life took place in Somerset and London. It’s a funny romantic tale about a woman on the outs with a life plan. Katie Brenner scored a great new job, has a new romance budding, but gets fired for no good reason. She’s forced has to go back home to her parents’ farm. Unfortunately, her parents have turned the family farm into a glamping site. Katie sucks it up and tries to make the best of it, helping her parents succeed. Then her old boss shows up.

The story was fun and interesting. It held notes of women’s fiction and romance. I loved Katie and her not-so-perfect life. Once she gave up trying to be the person she presented on Instagram, life got better. The story kept my attention and didn’t go the expected route of an evil boss and the lowly worker’s triumph over them. I loved this story and highly recommend it.

Bared to You took place in London’s sister city, New York City. It was not my cup of tea. It’s an erotica book from the Fifty Shades era. The novel originally came out in 2012 before the “Me Too” movement. It has many elements a reader might expect in an erotica with a BDSM theme. The characters are more about dominant and submissive behavior than whips and chains. Gideon is a billionaire businessman, and he decides he wants Ava. And he tells her in some vulgar language. That shut me off from the start.

I’m okay with a dom/sub relationship, but the whole “man demanding what he wants and the woman submitting” didn’t sit well with me. As in any erotica, sex drives the story. Every time they get together, it tears them apart. But the book stretched the “conversation” trope too far (i.e. when the couple should talk rather than have sex in the limo). The two did nothing but have sex and fight. At some point, I needed Ava to stand up and ask for what she really needed. In a true dom/sub relationship (in my understanding), the sub has all the power. I didn’t see that. It bothered me.

The book was all the rage when it first came out, and many people recommended it. I didn’t care for it. I didn’t like the relationship between the two characters, and I saw few redeeming qualities about the hero. He was arrogant, demanding, and selfish in my opinion, but the sex was hot.

I give My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella Five Yurts with all the Pillows.

I give Bared to You by Sylvia Day Three Limos with a Giant Backseat.

 

 

 

Book 28 Buzz Off

Buzz Off by Hannah Reed fulfills the category “Book with an Onomatopoeia in the Title” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. Here’s how this novel ended up on the blog. I started with a few choices. (Check out my List Challenge for this year’s reading blog.) I love Terry Pratchett and am trying to read his Discworld series in order of publication. Reading fourteen to get to Thud! this year seemed impossible.

I grabbed Buzz Off from Audible, as I have a ton of credits. We all know how I love a cozy mystery. I worried my fifteen-year-old would not let me listen, as they have a terrible aversion to bees. Then Libby, my favorite app, delivered a book I ordered months ago, A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong.

Crud, I double dipped again.

Buzz Off is a cozy mystery starring Missy “Story” Fischer, an amateur beekeeper and recent divorcee. When Story discovers her mentor in the bee business is dead, she wonders if it’s murder. The sheriff is a terrible pain in the tush, as is her ex-husband. When another woman, her ex’s fiancé, ends up dead too, all fingers point at our heroine.

I enjoyed the book, though the start had quite an info dump to catch the reader up on all of Story’s background. As the first book in a series, I could forgive it. But if Book Two does the same, I probably won’t finish the Queen Bee series. The author took the time to give Story a few unique characteristics. Many cozy heroines are cut from the same cardboard cutout. In Story’s case, she actually doing well with her business and loves to point out facts with bullet points.

Buzz Off was a fun, cozy mystery with a great set of characters.

Since I ended up reading A Rip Through Time before I posted the onomatopoeia post, I’m including it this week. The novel is very different from Buzz Off. This book is more police procedural/Sherlock Holmes-esk with the added element of time travel. Yep, time travel. A detective from 2019 gets caught somehow in a time vortex and ends up in the body of a nineteen-year-old housemaid in 1869.

Mallory, or Catriona as she’s called in Victorian England, must solve her own murder. Apparently, she fell through time because she was attacked in the same place as Catriona, just 150 years later. The culprit is still killing people. Luckily, Mallory ended up in the house of an undertaker who helps the police with crimes. Mallory must hide her intelligence, training, and knowledge of the future while trying to redeem Catriona, who was a naughty girl.

The book had many twists and turns. Mallory trying to be Victorian and still be herself is interesting. The woman never questioned how she got there. In fact, she opts not to tell Dr. Duncan Gray, her boss, as he is distracted by scientific anomalies. She regrets her station, and the personality of the girl who she’s inhabiting. With her new employer and his widowed sister, Mallory is on the case.

The tag line for the novel is “Outlander meets The Alienist.” It’s not quite that. If you enjoyed either of those two novels, you would like A Rip Through Time.

I give Buzz Off by Hanna Reed Four Shiny Yellow Beehives.

I give A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong Five Pen Knives for Self-Defense.

 

 

 

Book 27 The Spy Who Loved My Russian Tea Cakes

 

The Spy Who Loved My Russian Tea Cakes by Marilyn Barr fulfilled the category “Book Set During a Holiday” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. The holiday in the book is Christmas, with cookie exchanges, family issues, and ugly sweaters galore. Happy Christmas in July!

Our story starts with Cassie Morgan trying to live her life free from her condescending relatives. She’s a Reiki practitioner and works at a nursing home, helping to heal the residents through spiritual sessions. As the holidays approach and she tries to avoid the trip home, the local hospital sends over a few overflow patients. One man sets the female staff into a frenzy, even though he’s in a coma.

Cassie finds herself in a pickle. The coma patient’s mother asks her to help heal her son. The woman, Theresa, knows Cassie, with her spiritual healing abilities, will be able to reach her son. Though she’s only working with consent from his mom, Cassie reaches out to the man.

What follows is a whirlwind of hot, erotic scenes as Cassie and Sergei find each other through dream walking. I’ve never read a romance where the first male point of view scene is a total scorching love fest. OMG, this book is hawt. Cassie and Sergei connect immediately. Their story gave me shivers of Bared to You by Sylvia Day (post coming soon) without the dom/sub issues. Cassie and Sergei had a spiritual connection—literally.

The story had other great themes inside it. Family and holidays are hard for some. Cassie must decide how to use her gifts, be herself, and still fit into her estranged family. They don’t understand her abilities because it’s not science, but they still love her very much.

And Sergei’s past—damn. We only get a shadow of it. He’s a spy, a Russian spy! I want three more books about his past and five about their future together. (It’s a romance. You know those two are going to find a Happily Ever After.)

I’ve read a few amazing authors lately who can tell a 500-page story in about 100. This book was one of them. The amount of story and heat Ms. Barr packed into this tale floors me. I need to grovel at her feet for writing lessons.

Check out Ms. Barr’s website https://www.marilynbarr.com/. She might give away a prequel to Sergei with a newsletter sign-up.

I give The Spy Who Loved My Russian Tea Cakes by Marilyn Barr Five Boxes of Delicious Christmas Cookies.

 

Book 26 Root Brew Float

 

Root Brew Float by Sydney Winward fulfilled the category “Book with a Protagonist Who Uses a Mobility Aid” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. In this novella, the hero Clarence Watts walks with a cane after a terrible car accident.

I grabbed this title, looking for a little fun in the sun. It’s part of the One Scoop or Two series by The Wild Rose Press. I’ve read several in the series and loved the lighthearted beachy feel. I was intrigued by the idea of a witch in the mix.

In this story, Josephine Brevil is a witch on a mission. She lands in a town in Massachusetts to remedy a magical disturbance. She’d been to Mass before during the Salem witch trials! In this novella, the witches dwell in another dimension of sorts. They can use their magic openly, fly on their brooms, and live long lives. They can’t have commitments in the other realm, our world.

Josephine takes a job at a local ice cream shop and adds small magical elements to her customers’ orders. Many find the ice cream gives them good vibes, great memories, and the spark of a romance. She likes the town, but she really admires the man who lives in the house she came to cleanse.

Clarence Watts is mourning the loss of his fiancée who died years ago. He blames himself. But Josephine knows better. There’s more than a fluttering romance here. The tale is perfect for the prompt, as Clarence’s injury from the boat accident has a huge part in the story. But I won’t spoil it. Read it yourself.

The book is only seventy pages, but there’s oodles of story. Ms. Winward crafts an amazing world with just a few sentences. I was fascinated by the witches, their purpose, and their loneliness. I wanted to learn more about how their jobs worked, how their spells help the mere mortals, and why they had to keep everything separate. You know I’m going to stalk Ms. Winward’s books looking for more witchy tales!

I give Root Brew Float by Sydney Winward Five Rides on a Broom.