To the Edge by Cindy Gerard (★★★★☆)
E-Book • Owned (Amazon) • Romantic Suspense • 2005
This is my third time reading this romantic suspense novel, and I loved it just as much as all the other times. This novel was written in 2005, and the last time I read it was 2015, and things have changed a lot in those 8 years. For example, there were frequent mentions of Mar-A-Lago and I have to imagine most of the characters in the book skew Republican, so it tempered my enjoyment of the book a bit. But still, it was a good, suspenseful mystery with a brooding hero and sassy heroine. It’s about news anchor Jillian who starts to receive death threats, so her father hires Nolan as her bodyguard. And of course, you always fall in love with your bodyguard! Always! It was a decent romance. It won’t change your life, but you will get to enjoy a good love story.
The Measure by Nikki Erlick (★★★★☆)
Print • Library • Fiction • 2022
I really liked this novel, and it definitely made me think about my own mortality. (Which isn’t always a good thing, but in this case, it was!) The novel starts with people around the world over the age of 22 receiving a smaller wooden box right outside their doorstep. Inside the box is a string that measures how long your life will be. If it’s a short string, this means you’ll die earlier than expected. If it’s long, you have a long life ahead of you. This, of course, puts people into categories, i.e., short-stringers and long-stringers. The long-stringers begin to fear the short-stringers: What will they do after finding out they will die early? The novel follows a handful of people, both short- and long-stringers, and I thought the author did a great job of fleshing out each story and making me care for all of these people deeply. The ending was especially poignant. Overall, the book made me think about what I would do: Would I look in my box to see how long my life will be? Would I want my mom, my brother, my cousins, my friends to look in their boxes? Would it give me relief if my mom had a long string and I knew I didn’t have to spend so much time worrying about her? It’s an interesting conundrum, and I thought Erlick did a fantastic job showing how society would react to this kind of revelation, both the good and the bad.
The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (★★★★☆)
Audiobook • Libby • Contemporary Romance • 2022
I don’t normally listen to romances on audio (there’s just something about listening to an explicit sex scene that feels very awkward), but I decided to give this one a go because it was immediately available. And I enjoyed it a lot! This book is about Katrina and Nathan who wrote a bestseller together a few years ago, but something happened to cause a rift in their working relationship and they haven’t written together since. But they are contractually obligated to write one more book together, so they decide to spend a summer at the beach house in Florida where they wrote their first book to hammer it out. In the process of writing about a love story gone sour, they rediscover the love they have for one another. It’s a simple concept for a romance, but what I loved most about this book was getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse of not only writing a book, but of two people writing a book. What does that process look like? How do they work together (or not)? I also loved learning more about the marketing side of the publishing world. Did I have problems with this book? Yes, of course. Katrina could be a bit of a pushover at times (she was engaged throughout most of this book, and her fiance was such a goddamn jerk). I thought the reason for the rift was dumb (just communicate!) But those issues didn’t temper my enjoyment of the book too much. It was a fun romance, and I think these kids will make it work.
What are you reading?
The Measure was so interesting. I wonder if its going to be a movie or series. It would make such a great one!
The Roughest Draft sounds great! I am very curious about how co-authoring works too.
I am reading Sea of Tranquility!
The Measure would be such an interesting TV series, I agree!
We are SUCH opposites. I sent The Measure back without even opening a single page because I decided I am not up for examining my mortality.
I also thought the writing in The Roughest Draft was really terrible. On one hand, it gives me hope for my very talented writerly friends that they will be able to get published with a well-known press because what they write is so much better than that nonsense, but on the other hand, how did that get published?! Oh, well, I’m glad you enjoyed your time with it!
I wonder if it helped that I listened to The Roughest Draft, rather than reading the physical copy. It may have come across better to me in that medium. I may have abandoned it otherwise! There were some stuff that was eye-roll-y, but I was able to handle it better because the audiobook narrators were so good.
I am not a prude. I am really not. But I really don’t like explicit sex scenes in books. Which…maybe makes me a prude? I don’t think of myself that way but I would much rather have a “show, don’t tell” kind of romance. All of which is to say I don’t think I would enjoy a sex scene on audiobook either. Then again, I have never listened to an audiobook! This is probably the most back-and-forth comment I have ever left but I’m not editing it! I am leaving it as is! By the way I listened to your latest episode this morning and I smiled at Bri talking about how cold it is! Lol! You can smile at me when we get our annual “heat wave” (temperatures in the 80s).
Nicole, I used to LOVE a good explicit sex scene in a book and these days, I’m finding myself skimming them more and more. What is happening to me? Am I getting told old for sexy books? AHHH.
Temperatures in the 80s! We’re already getting that kind of weather here in Florida. In February. WAH!
Those all sound interesting and kind of fun! I was intrigued to hear that you had read the first one three times. I rarely reread books anymore. I used to do it more when I was a kid, but now I feel like we are inundated with new material and there are so many books on my TBR list! There are a couple that I have read more than once — The Eight, which is a book about an archeology adventure and has some fun bits of history, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which has been my favorite book since childhood. I just love the main characters spunk in the face of much hardship and poverty.
I am currently reading The Viscount Who Loved Me. It is totally cliché romance novel and you know what is going to happen but it is an easy mindless entertaining read. I am actually listening to it on audiobook and personally don’t mind listening to the sex scenes, although if I am in public it does make me squirm a little (like I feel like people may hear it).
I feel it’s much easier to reread romance novels than it is to reread other books, mostly because I can zip through a romance much faster than a much-loved fiction novel (like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn!). But I don’t do much rereading otherwise!
I read The Measure and liked it! I agree with everything you said in your review. And, I don’t think I would want to look at my string- who really wants to know when they’re going to die??? Not me.
I’m currently reading Central Spaces by Delia Cai. I’m still near the beginning but enjoying it so far.
I don’t think I would look at my string, either. There was a point in the book where the author talked about how anxious some people were when they knew they were getting to the end of their string, and I could NOT live like that!
I also really liked ‘the measure’. It would make a great book club book! I didn’t care for the roughest draft as much as you did. I felt like the book was probably 60+ pages too long. It just really drug at the end for me. But I was intrigued by it since it was written by a husband/wife team!
I’m almost done with ‘better than fiction’ which is a fun romance about a bookstore owner!
The Measure would be an excellent book club book! I’m hoping it will be more easily available later in the year when it’s my turn to suggest our book club selections.
The Measure was really really interesting and although provoking. I did enjoy. it. And yes it makes you think if you want to know.