Contemporary romantic women's fiction
Mira Books, February 2021
Noni Blake is smart, funny, and dedicated to her family, friends, and students. She's also a charming, neurotic mess who uses a list of past lovers to set off on a journey to become her most authentic self. It's a risky and intentional endeavor to navigate adulthood. Near the beginning during a chat between Noni and her bestie, they speculate that “… aging is actually just about getting used to yourself… or fighting against it.”
In a slapstick, absurdist manner that also incorporates emotional nuance and sensitivity, It's Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake taps into prominent themes from Alice Walker’s non-fiction work The Same River Twice as applied to one's romantic past with Cher's “If I Could Turn Back Time" and Willie Nelson's and Julio Iglesias’s “To All the Girls I've Loved Before" (where Girls = People) dominating an imaginary curated playlist. Ultimately, Noni comes to understand for herself a fundamental trait she recognized in someone else on page 51: “I can tell that she doesn't care what people think, but that she cares about people.” Exactly. An old adage says sometimes people are in our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Noni learns how to understand the differences in her own life, and maybe helps readers do the same.
Love At First by Kate Clayborn
Contemporary romantic women's fiction
Kensington, February 2021
Doctor of Emergency Medicine Will Sterling and tech expert Nora Clark are each struggling with loss when their paths cross in a way that makes them adversaries. Their mutual attraction makes their battle for ultimate victory complicated for them and entertaining for readers. In an early chapter when Nora thinks, “… this conversation had taken a golden-hour quality all its own. Secret and special and hers alone.” The sentiment applies to Love At First and this author's compelling, emotionally intimate writing ethos that smoothly integrates teary-eyed depths with laugh-aloud absurdity.
[This is a five-star read despite the almost always annoying and illogical lonely only/neglected/unwanted single offspring trope. Please see One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and The Joy of Being One by Lauren Sandler.]
The Stormbringer by Isabel Cooper
Fantasy adventure romance
Sourcebooks Casablanca, December 29, 2020
“Sleep on it and things will look better in the morning” doesn't apply to a corrupt and vengeful entity who's more than irritated when he's awakened one-hundred years after a confrontation with his strongest foe. When scout, hunter, and guardian Sentinel Darya stumbles upon an ancient warrior preserved in suspended animation, her presence jumpstarts the existence of legendary General Amris in more ways than one. Together with disembodied wizard Gerant they travel through dangerous territory and deadly challenges to warn humankind of the imminent threat. Many harrowing battles ensue.
Reading Hodge Podge
The Highland Laird by Amy Jarecki
1700s romance
A differently abled heroine executes an unconventional rescue.
Who Rescued Who by Victoria Schade
Contemporary women's fiction
A tech genius in the workplace is socially incompetent elsewhere until circumstances cut her tech tether. One word: therapy.
A Wicked Bargain for the Duke (Hazards of Dukes #3) by Megan Frampton
Historical romance
From chapter 2: There was something so active and engaged in how she looked it was appealing, even though the judgemental part of him thought she was forward.
From chapter 4: Was that what marriage was? Wandering about trying to find something in common?
Sandcastle Beach by Jenny Holiday
Contemporary romance
It’s aggravation as foreplay with seniors as instigators and agitators.
Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian
Contemporary magical realism
Layered in lush language, sliding timelines, hard-earned wisdom, tragedy, and acceptance.
The Wedding Date Disaster by Avery Flynn
Contemporary romance
Not enough abject apologies.
Back in the Burbs by Tracy Wolff & Avery Flynn
Contemporary romantic women's fiction
From page 123: I gave away my youth, my hopes, my dreams to a man who would never appreciate…
[Thirty-five isn't old! (Aside from #FertilityAwareness #StartAsking considerations)]
Bad Turn (Charlie Fox #13) by Zoe Sharp
Contemporary suspense thriller
Pragmatic Charlie contemplates her options, maximizes her opportunities, encounters dangerous people, improvises, gets lured into risky territory, improvises some more, faces a personal reckoning, and [spoiler?] survives.
Slightly convoluted intricacy involving the baddies supports the overarching theme plus an intoxicating mix of professional and personal drama make Bad Turn a 100-proof reason this reader hopes it isn't last call on present-day stories in the Charlie Fox series. (More scheduled prequels still TBA?)
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