Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (1.11.23)

I kicked off my 2023 reading year with three 5-star reads in a row! I feel like that very rarely happens, so it’s always a pleasant surprise when it does. Here are three books I would highly recommend!

Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis (★★★★★)

This was such a lovely book to start my 2023 reading year. It’s about Noelle and Sam who find themselves spending eight hours together on a random winter afternoon when a blizzard closes down the roads and they find themselves stuck on a highway, waiting for it to reopen. Noelle needs a phone charger and Sam can help with that. They have a sweet time together, getting to know each other while Noelle charges her phone, but then the roads open and they leave, never to see each other again. Except they do. Over the next few months, chance encounters put them together again and again and again, until Noelle has to ask, “Is this fate?” I love the way Lia Louis writes romances (I rated her other book, Dear Emmie Blue, 5 stars as well!) Noelle’s story just pulled at my heartstrings and I love all of the secondary plots happening in the midst of her love story with Sam, which really didn’t take center stage until late into the book. It’s a slow-burn romance with no sexy scenes, so it’s the perfect one if you’re just looking for a sweet story about a girl trying to find herself.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister (★★★★★)

I was hoping to get to this book last year, but I didn’t request it in time. If I had, it most definitely would have been my favorite myster/thriller of the year! (So yes, it’s already a contender for a favorite of 2023.) This book has gotten so much buzz and I was so worried it would fall flat for me, but it lived up to all of my expectations! In this novel, Jen witnesses her 17-year-old son murder a stranger right in front of her. He’s arrested and she goes to sleep that night filled with fear and worry and crushing heartbreak. The next morning, she wakes up and it’s the day before the murder. The next time she wakes up, it’s two days before the murder. Over and over again, Jen wakes up on a day she’s already lived and she soon realizes she’s in a time loop and she doesn’t know why. Is she supposed to stop the murder? Is she supposed to find out why her teenage son becomes a murderer? This novel was filled with so many twists and turns, and I loved every single minute of it. It was such an inventive way to tell the story and the ending was *chef’s kiss*. A must read, if you love thrillers!

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (★★★★★)

This is the 18th (!!) book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, and how Louise Penny continues to write such perfect books so far into a series is beyond me. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details of this book because this series MUST be read in chronological order, and I don’t want to give any plot points away for those of you who are not as far into the series as I am. What I will say about this novel is that the central mystery was excellent and I just love the way Penny plays with these ideas of criminal psychology and fear and love and culture. It all comes together in such a unique way. This book was pretty dark at times, but still, I loved it so very much.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books, Recurring Series

Best of 2022 | My Favorite Reads

And here we are: my favorite “Best of 2022” post to research and write. It’s time for my annual review of my best reads of 2022 (and some fun superlatives). I love putting this post together, going through all of my 5-star reads and trying to figure out which ones deserve to be listed as my absolute favorites. This year, I struggled between two books for my overall favorite book of 2022. I went back and forth between them for days, unsure which one really deserved the top spot. I thought, “Maybe I make them both my favorites?” But I am nothing if not tied to my structure, and I forced myself to choose a favorite. I’m pretty happy with my final decision; it feels right!

Like the past few years, this post is broken down into my overall favorites (favorite overall book, favorite fiction, favorite nonfiction, and favorite romance), my favorites by genre, and then some fun superlatives (many of these categories came from the end-of-year episode from Sarah’s Bookshelves Live). Let’s get into it!

Overall Favorites

Favorite Overall Book

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau – When I came across this title as I was compiling a list of all my 5-star reads from 2022, my heart skipped in my chest. Yes. I remember this book. I remember how it made me feel. I remember these characters and the strong sense of place and the way I felt when I finished this novel. It was a beautiful story about family and religion and chosen family and love and motherhood and music and growing up. Mary Jane is a character I loved from the moment she appeared on the page and I only grew to love her more with every new thing I learned about her. It’s the kind of book that reminds me why I love reading so very much. It most definitely has earned its place as my favorite book of 2022.

Favorite Fiction

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus – The book that oh-so-nearly took my top spot. This was a favorite of many people this year, and I am so happy about that because it’s an excellent read. I loved the main character, Elizabeth Zott, who is trying to be a scientist during a time when women were supposed to stay home and tend to the kids. She encountered sexism, difficult managers, and more, and ultimately, winds up teaching chemistry to mothers via her cooking show. This book was a pure delight (though it is filled with heavy themes; do not be fooled by its fun cover!) and I enjoyed being in this world so much.

Favorite Nonfiction

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad – This book was a masterpiece. Suleika Jaouad has such a beautiful way of writing, and how she managed to write about her cancer diagnosis in her early twenties, the cancer treatment that nearly killed her, and the road trip she took when she was declared cancer-free is beyond me. This book is magnificent. It’s brutal. Suleika doesn’t shy away from showing us all facets of herself: the good and the bad. Cancer patients aren’t angels on earth: they are real humans going through one of the shittiest things a person can go through and aren’t always the most pleasant people to be around. I was sad to learn that Suleika’s leukemia had returned in late 2021, but from her Instagram, she seems to have finished treatment and can now focus on healing and getting her life back. I can only hope she has many, many years of health and happiness ahead of her.

Favorite Romance

Book Lovers by Emily Henry – How could I have any other book as my favorite romance of the year? This book gave me all of the happy feels, and I believe it is the book that has finally edged out The Hating Game as my all-time favorite romance. Nora and Charlie’s banter and the sweet way they fell in love just warmed my heart, and it was the kind of book I coudn’t put down and thought about long after I finished it. I thought it was realistic, completely adorable, and didn’t fall for many of the romance tropes that grind my gears. I loved it!

Favorites by Genre

Favorite Literary Fiction

N/A – I went through my list and I didn’t read too much literary fiction this year and what I did read wasn’t anything I could list as a “favorite.”

Favorite Contemporary Fiction

All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle – This was such a sweet book about a lovable curmudgeon, which is one of my favorite fiction tropes. Hubert Bird is a lonely man who is living alone and sustains himself with his regular phone calls with his daughter who lives in Australia. He lies to her during these phone calls, talking about all the things he’s doing and people he’s seeing, when he’s not doing anything or seeing anyone. The story is about how Hubert forms his own community to ease his loneliness (and prove to his daughter that he does have friends), and it was just so beautiful.

Runner-Up: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Favorite Historical Fiction

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid – I know some people balk at calling this historical fiction since part of it takes place in the 1990s. But y’all, that was 30 years ago at this point and I feel confident calling this historical fiction. This is the story of Carrie Soto, a tennis legend, and her return to the court to win back her title. Carrie is unapologetically herself and, well, she can be a bit of a bitch, but there was just something about her that I loved and couldn’t get enough of. This story was propulsive, fun, and I flew threw it. (Note: There has been some criticism of Taylor Jenkins Reid, a white woman, writing about a Latina character. Since these criticisms are coming from people of color, I do take their criticisms to heart and hope TJR does as well. It’s not that white people cannot write about POC; it’s about the fact that the majority of writers who are POC are not given the same publishing dollars and platform as white authors like TJR. More here.)

Runner-Up: The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson

Favorite Contemporary Romance

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake – Before I read this book, I had yet to read a satisfying sapphic romance. Most of the ones I’d read didn’t feel realistic or were really bland and boring. But this one had everything I wanted in a good f/f romance: witty characters, a propulsive plot, a great meet-cute, and a dark moment that felt totally realistic. I loved it so much!

Runner-Up: The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

Favorite Historical Romance

A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy – This book is a prime example of not judging a book by its cover. The cover is… not great, but the story inside more than makes up for it. It’s a really fun historical romance involving a husband and wife who only saw each other on their wedding day, and the next time they come across each other, it’s two years later on the streets of London… and they don’t even recognize each other. What a fun concept, huh?! I loved it, mostly because enemies-to-lovers is my jam.

Runner-Up: Three Nights with a Scoundrel by Tessa Dare

Favorite YA

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian – This was such a magnificent story about three teens growing up in the middle of the AIDS crisis at the end of the 1980s. Each holds a different connection to AIDS: Judy, whose uncle has AIDS; Art, who documents the AIDS crisis through photographs; and Reza, who is hiding his sexuality because he’s scared of AIDS. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking story about how the AIDS crisis was affecting teens during this time, and I am so grateful to the author for writing it.

Runner-Up: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Favorite Mystery/Thriller

The Maid by Nita Prose – If I was still listing out my favorite books 1-10, this book would be high on the list. It was such a fun thriller and I liked that it was more about Molly, the main character, and the found family she created for herself than the mystery at the heart of the novel. Molly was a character I couldn’t help falling in love with. She was so sweet and I wanted to protect her at all costs. When I finished this book, I hugged it to my chest.

Runner-Up: The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

Favorite Memoir/Essay Collection

You Got Anything Stronger: Stories by Gabrielle Union – This was such a beautiful essay collection from Gabrielle Union, covering so many topics. Some of the more poignant essays were Gabrielle talking about her struggle to conceive and ultimately using a surrogate, her stepchild coming out as trans and how she and her husband (Dwyane Wade) responded, and the time she found herself in a white supremacist bar in Croatia in 2019 and had to run for her life. She is open and vulnerable, talking about motherhood, aging, life in Hollywood, and more.

Runner-Up: A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold

Superlatives

The Most Disappointing DNF

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles – I was really excited to start this book and thought it was going to be a home run, but it turned out, I was really, really bored by the plot and gave it up after about 150 pages. I really gave it a try, but it was not for me. At least right now.

The Most Disappointing Book I Read

The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin – I recently reviewed this book on my blog, so you guys know why I was so disappointed in this book. There were multiple instances of fatphobia, casual racism, and classism. This book was written in 2018, and the author should know better.

The Book I Was Most Surprised to Love

How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love by Logan Ury – I have never had any inclination to read a book about dating, but a friend recommended this to me and I decided I had nothing to lose. Imagine my surprise when I ended up loving this book and taking so much away from it! Logan Ury packs in so much interesting tidbits about the science of dating as well as practical tips for making dating apps work better for you.

The Book I Thought I Would Love More Than I Did

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin – Everyone I know has raved about this book so I jumped into it with high expectations, but it just fell flat for me. I think it was just not the right book for me, but I can understand why other people love it!

Most Deserving of the Hype

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy – This book got all of the buzz in the last quarter of 2022, and I think it was well-deserved. I listened to the book on audio, and while it was a hard book to listen to at times due to the relentless abuse McCurdy suffered from her mother, it was impactful and I am so glad she was able to write this book for herself, if for nothing else.

Least Deserving of the Hype

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz – Ughhh, this book. It was such a slog. The main character, Jacob, was so boring and one-dimensional and the foreshadowing was heavy-handed. I also thought the book within the book (which was supposed to be this best-selling masterpiece) was not really that well-written. Maybe I’m just not into white male protagonists anymore. Anyway, this novel got a ton of buzz in 2021 but I just didn’t get it.

The Book I Loved That Other People Hated

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan – This book has a pretty low Goodreads rating (3.67) but I gave it 5 stars! I think I just read it at the right time because the whole premise just worked perfectly for me, and I flew through the book. I think it’s a book that would be hard to read in the post-Roe America we live in now, though.

The Book I Hated That Other People Loved

Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery – This book has a 4.11 rating on Goodreads, and I HAVE QUESTIONS. This is the kind of book that did not age well, and did not have the same charm as Anne of Green Gables. It also involved a really troubling relationship between Emily (age 11) and a family friend (age 36), especially since he routinely asked her if she found him attractive. Gross.

The Underrated Gem of the Year

Susannah Nix’s “King Family” series – I had a hard time choosing a book for this category, as I didn’t read too many underrated books that I really, really loved. In the end, I chose the King Family series by Susannah Nix. This is a contemporary romance series, and I really want Nix to be a lot more popular than she currently is. She writes such fun romances and I devour each and every one! Plus, how can you deny titles such as “Cream and Punishment,” “Pint of Contention,” and “Mint to Be”? COME ON.

What was your favorite book of 2022? What book did you read in 2022 that you don’t think was worth the hype?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (1.4.23)

The No-Show by Beth O’Leary (★★☆☆☆)

E-Book • Libby • Contemporary Romance • 2022

Gosh, Beth O’Leary is such a hit-or-miss author for me. I loved two of her novels (The Flatshare and The Switch), DNF-ed The Road Trip, and really didn’t like this one. When I finished the book, the only thought I had was, “What was the ever-loving point of this novel?” After a few days to sit with it, I am starting to understand the point but I am still very frustrated by this book. The book begins by introducing three women: Siobhan, a life coach, Miranda, a tree surgeon (?!), and Jane, a volunteer at a charity shop. One by one, the women learn they have been stood up on Valentine’s Day by the same man (Joseph): Siobhan in the morning during a scheduled breakfast date, Miranda in the afternoon during a scheduled lunch date, and Jane in the evening during a scheduled party where she planned to introduce him to everyone. Right off the bat, there is sympathy for these women and disdain for this man who is seeing three women at once. Throughout the novel, we learn more about these women and more about the relationship they have with Joseph, and there are some interesting twists and turns the book takes that I wasn’t expecting, but overall, I just wasn’t a huge fan of the book and the way things turned out. YMMV!

The Verifiers by Jane Pek (★★★☆☆)

Print • Owned (Book of the Month) • Thiller • 2022

The Verifiers was a solid thriller, but not one I am rushing out to recommend. It follows the story of Claudia Lin who has just started a job with Veracity, a dating detective agency. Clients come to them when they want to find out why the person they were dating suddenly ghosted or if they suspect the person they’re dating might be married and want proof. Things like that. When one of their clients turns up dead, Claudia can’t help investigating what happened to get to the bottom of the mystery. Like I said, it was a fine thriller and I think some of the twists and turns the book took were truly interesting. (I also really loved learning more about the inner workings of online dating culture, although some of the stuff in the book is making me question if I should be using dating apps at all!) The ending was a bit anti-climactic. All in all, a good but not great book.

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram (★★★☆☆)

Audiobook • Libby • YA • 2018

Everyone I know who has read this book has absolutely raved about it, so I went into the story with very high expectations. I expected to fall in love with Darius, I expected to love this novel from beginning to end. And… it was just okay. Not bad, not spectacular. Just… fine. The story is about Darius, a half-Jewish, half-Muslim teenage boy who doesn’t fit in at school or at home. He has clinical depression that he takes medication for, and I think the mental health representation in this book was A+. When his family announces they are going to be spending the summer in Iran, Darius is looking forward to the trip and it’s there that he meets Sohrab, the boy who will become his best friend this summer. The novel is a personal journey for Darius: learning more about his homeland, growing closer to his grandparents whom he has never met (only through video calls), and exploring Iran with Sohrab. It’s a sweet story and it was interesting to see Iran from the perspective of a young teenage boy. I think things tied up a bit too neatly at the end for my tastes, though. (Can we let parent/child relationships be complicated without needing to make them BFFs at the end of the book?) All in all, a good book but not a standout.

Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun (★★★☆☆)

Print • Owned (Book of the Month) • Contemporary Romance • 2022

My last book of 2022! I wanted to dip into a cute, Christmassy romance as I finished up my reading year and this book fit the bill. It’s about a woman, Ellie, who becomes fake-engaged to a man named Andrew. He’s the landlord for the coffee shop where she works and when he discovers she’s in dire straits (she’s days from being evicted), he proposed a plan to fake an engagement/marriage so that he can get his inheritance. (His grandfather stipulated that he must be married to get his inheritance.) It sounds like a good deal to Ellie, who is in desperate need of money and it comes with the bonus of not being alone on Christmas; instead, she’ll spend it with Andrew’s family. Only problem? Andrew’s sister is Jack, the same woman Ellie had a one-day fling with last Christmas… and the girl Ellie hasn’t been able to stop thinking about. This was a sweet romance, although the author’s debut novel (The Charm Offensive) is heads and tails above this book. I found Ellie to be a bit irritating at times and hard to root for. And, omg, if I had to listen to Ellie explain demisexuality to me one more goddamn time, I was going to scream. There were times when I think the author sacrificed plot and character development to make sure she was writing the most woke book possible. Not my favorite romance, but a fine one to end the year with.

What was YOUR last book of 2022?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (12.26.22)

The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin (★★☆☆☆)

E-Book • Owned (Amazon) • Contemporary Fiction • 2018

This book had the potential to be so good. It’s about two doctors, Emma and Zadie, who met in med school and became fast friends. One is now a trauma surgeon while the other is a pediatric cardiologist. They both live in Charlotte, NC, and lead happy, fulfilled lives. They’re both married with children, and one of the things I really loved about this book is the way it explored motherhood and marriage that didn’t also involve infidelity. It’s hard to find a book that lets married people just… be married and deal with their problems like adults. The crux of this novel is the arrival of a blast from their past who may upend their careful, perfect worlds. I loved all the different medical scenes in the novel, like a literary Grey’s Anatomy! (Kimmery Martin is a former ER doctor, so she knows what she’s talking about.) It was really fun to read about the different surgeries and patient interactions and felt like I was on the set of Seattle Grace.

However, I cannot give this book a high rating because it was rife with casual racism, classism, and fatphobia. Every single POC was a stereotype (down to the “well-hung” Black man). A group of queer men was referred to as “LGBT-ers.” (Not a terrible insult, but it does show that this author doesn’t have any queer folk in her life.) And the fatphobia was absolutely rampant. There was the woman described as “enormous.” A surgeon screaming about being in a “fat forest” when encountering fat in a patient’s body. And the real kicker was this passage: “Hurriedly, I tried to decide if a weight-challenged person near the back counted as one or two people.” First, you can just call us fat. You don’t need to couch it in terms like “weight challenged.” And secondly, fuck you very much. This is a horrendous and hurtful word choice. I will not be reading anything else from this author, and I hope she learns how to be respectful of all people and all bodies in her novels.

Made in Manhattan by Lauren Layne (★★★★☆)

E-Book • Libby • Contemporary Romance • 2022

I read this sweet romance novel in just over a day; it was hard to put down! Violet has been Edith’s righthand woman for years now, and when Edith gives Violet the job of turning her grandson into the NYC elite he needs to be in order to run her company when she retires, she’s ready for it. Only Cain, Edith’s grandson, is gruff and obstinate… but also incredibly sexy? We all know where this is going! I loved watching Violet and Cain fall in love. Their banter with each other was so witty and fun. This was just one of those sweet, uncomplicated romances that are fun to read, especially on a chilly December evening right before Christmas.

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson (★★★★★)

Audiobook • Libby • Historical Fiction • 2016

I really loved this novel! I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if I had read a physical copy; audiobook is typically the best way for me to consume longer, character-driven novels. And this one, clocking in at 16 hours on audiobook, is definitely a hefty story. The story starts near the end of summer in 1914 and takes place in a coastal town in Sussex, a county located on the southeastern side of England. The characters include Beatrice, a new Latin teacher who has arrived in town mourning the loss of her beloved father; Agatha, the woman who takes Beatrice under her wing; Hugh, Agatha’s nephew who is studying to be a doctor; and Daniel, Hugh’s cousin who just wants to write his poems and travel the world. Unfortunately, soon after Beatrice arrives in town, it becomes clear that the rumblings of war they’ve been hearing about for months are true, and it may be time for Hugh and Daniel to do their duty. This novel just put me in a really happy space for the majority of the book. I loved being dropped into the lives of these characters and getting a glimpse into what life was like in the mid-1910s before a world war upended everyone’s lives. I thought all of the characters were so well-developed, even the side characters. And I was also impacted by the wartime scenes. Simonson did an excellent job placing you right in the action so you could better understand how much we ask of our soldiers. This is a novel that will stay with me for a while, I think.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (12.19.22)

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Print • Owned (Book of the Month) • Fiction • 2022

Oh, I had such high expectations for this book! I expected to love it because many of my most trusted sources loved this book. But it was just not for me. This novel is about Sadie and Sam, who meet as children and then fall out of touch, only to find each other many years later on a crowded subway platform. It’s through this chance encounter that they set on a course that will change their lives: to make a video game together which may be just as appealing as 비트코인 카지노. This video game catapults them to stardom and fame, and we follow the reverberations of this decision to collaborate through the rest of the novel. There were times when I thought this book was brilliant. The way Zevin played with literary tropes and used the nuances of video games to tell a story was genius. But mostly, I was bored by the novel. I don’t care about video games and there was just so much to slog through when it came to that. Yes, the book is about way more than video games, and I appreciated the exploration of characters and their relationships, but man, there was still a lot of video game talk and I was so bored by it. It also seemed like a lot of the issues that arose between the characters centered around miscommunication and not fully expressing what they needed, and it was so frustrating to witness scene after scene of these characters just not communicating. Tell people what you want! It’s just hard for me to really engage with characters who are being obtuse like that. All in all, not the book I was hoping it would be, but I’m glad this book is resonating with other people!

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

Audiobook• Libby • Nonfiction • 2017

Every time I think I’ve dug to the bottom of the well that is the United States’ racist history, something else comes along to remind me that there is so much more I have to learn and so much that has been buried. In this book, Richard Rothstein outlines all of the ways that our government intervened to make sure housing was segregated. Ever wonder why it seems like there’s the “good” part of a city where all the white people live and the “ghetto” where the Black people live? It’s not because Black people can’t afford to live in the other part of the city. It’s not because that’s where they want to live. It’s because they have been systematically disenfranchised by our government. It is because our government enacted laws and ordinances to keep Black people segregated. I took a ton of notes as I listened to this audiobook. I was truly astonished by some of these facts (and not surprising; at the end of the book, Rothstein discusses how this part of our history was hidden in school textbooks):

  • If a white person had an address located in a majority-Black neighborhood, life insurance companies would refuse to sell them policies, forcing them to move to majority-white neighborhoods.
  • Some county laws would prohibit builders from building houses if they weren’t specifically stated to be for whites only. There were many builders who wanted to build integrated housing but they routinely found themselves unable to get the permits they needed and new laws would be enacted that prohibited them from building integrated housing.
  • Let’s talk about our interstate highway system for a minute! Did you know that these highways demolished homes in Black neighborhoods? Black people would find themselves without a home, and the government enacted no laws or programs to help people whose homes were destroyed so that highways could be built where they used to stand. And, of course, these highways largely benefitted white people, giving them an easier way to get to and from work.
  • When Black people moved into majority-white neighborhoods, they were harassed repeatedly by mobs and even police officers. They would graffiti their property, throw rocks through their windows, break into their homes, and much worse. This was happening as recently as the 1980s.
  • The GI bill was supposed to help men coming home from the war find jobs and find homes. Unfortunately, most Black men coming home didn’t benefit from the GI bill as anyone with a dishonorable discharge was excluded. Black people were given dishonorable discharges at twice the rate of white men.
  • From 1973-1980, Black people’s incomes decreased by 1% while home prices increased by 43%. Over the next decade, wages again fell by 1% while home prices again increased by 8%. And since Black people are routinely passed over for skilled, higher-paying jobs, their earning potential has been greatly limited when compared to white people.

I grew up poor. I grew up being evicted from apartment homes, mostly due to my father’s addiction issues and inability to contribute to the family’s finances. But one thing I never had to worry about: Being excluded from certain areas of town because of our skin color. We were able to find new apartments easily because we were white. That was our privilege.

Three Nights with a Scoundrel by Tessa Dare

E-Book • Libby • Historical Romance • 2010

This book was a satisfying conclusion to Dare’s Stud Club trilogy. Julian has been a bit of a villain in previous novels, but I loved the way Dare brought his character full circle in this novel. The heroine of this novel, Lily, is the sister of a former Stud Club member who was murdered at the beginning of the series, a murder that was intended for Julian. For Julian, even though he has feelings for Lily, it’s more important to keep her protected. But Lily, who also fell in love with Julian a long time ago, just wants him to come home to her. It’s a beautiful love story and was just one of those easy, fun romances that doesn’t require too much brainpower but makes me feel good while I’m reading it.

What are you reading?