I don't think KJ Charles likes dukes very much. Which is completely understandable, but then you really shouldn't write about a duke ... Much of the fI don't think KJ Charles likes dukes very much. Which is completely understandable, but then you really shouldn't write about a duke ... Much of the first part of the book was spent going "Severn is really really useless ... mind you there are specific circumstances, that explain why he is so useless (probably even more useless than other dukes), but still he is really useless" and that didn't particularly endear him as a romantic hero. So, I really had to fight my way through the first half. Eventually it did pick up. And nobody writes "Rich asshole gets their comeuppance" scenes as satisfying as Charles, so I really enjoyed the second half. B ut on the whole this book just didn't work for me....more
The plot had potential: Lydia and Gabriel were childhood friends. More than that: Before he left for diplomatic service, he asked her to wait for his The plot had potential: Lydia and Gabriel were childhood friends. More than that: Before he left for diplomatic service, he asked her to wait for his return and promised to propose to her then. Only his stint in the diplomatic service involuntarily turns into a career as spy and assassin for her majesty's government, and now he feels unworthy of Lydia. (OK, and instead of just writing her a "please forget me" letter he ghosts her, but we do not read romance novels for protagonists who make reasonable and intelligent decisions, so I could have forgiven that). But fate throws them together again...and you never guess what happens then!
Now, this could have been good, if it had seriously dealt with Gabriel's PTSD/general fucked-up-ness after what he had experienced and Lydia's reaction to the fact that Gabriel broke his promise to her, left her an old maid and even completely ignored her upon his return, but it didn't. Instead, everything is drowned in the most melodramatic purple prose imaginable. I mean
But all were trivial inconveniences compared to the thing that irked him most: smiling. Damn, but Gabriel loathed smiling.
Yes. That is an actual sentence from the book. I know I just made the "Edward Cullen called and told you to cheer up" joke but seriously? I am expected to take a character serious who whines about having to smile?
And who has monologues that sound like they are lifted from teenage emo poetry?
Gabriel's heart had flared to life, wakened by the taste of her, the sensation of her lips on his. It was if he'd been in purgatory, a ghost of flesh and blood. He wandered through the world, but was dead in every way that mattered.
Not that Lydia is any better:
So she had forged her own protections. Gabriel wanted to shut her out? Very well, let the battle commence. Her heart would guard itself with something more impenetrable than timber; Lydia would smelt it from iron, so he'd never hurt her again. Reinforce that barrier with iron, day by day, year by year. Nobody would know her heart had never healed.
The kissing-scenes, meanwhile, made me long for the simple days of tongues battling for dominance.
She was a battalion meeting his enemy siege. Their lips met like duelling swords, every touch becoming a battleground.
And in-between all of that...I missed any of them seriously dealing with their emotions about the past. There's melodramatic whining, duelling lips then a misunderstanding/Gabriel fucks things up by saying the wrong thing/the B-plot makes a sudden appearance and has to be dealt with, and then it's back to the monologuing but both are so horny that they rather jump each other instead of having a conversation like adults. Rinse repeat. I just fully expect that they will continue this cycle and if they have a disagreement about the curtain colour, both will see it as proof that the other one doesn't love them any more and there will be more melodramatic monologuing....more
Really, I have only one complaint about this book, and that's the fact that there are too many bugs in it for a borderline entomophobic person like meReally, I have only one complaint about this book, and that's the fact that there are too many bugs in it for a borderline entomophobic person like me. It's great that the characters consider it incredibly romantic to look at bugs together, but couldn't they have bonded over any other hobby?
But you know, apart from that: the story is fun (when there aren't any bugs), the main characters are delightful (when they don't talk about bugs), the supporting characters are great fun (and they don't talk about bugs anyway) and the bullies are all horrible, which makes it incredibly satisfying when they get their comeuppance (without any bugs). ...more
My own relation to religion is complicated, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying stories about characters that are religious, and relating to them. My own relation to religion is complicated, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying stories about characters that are religious, and relating to them. If they are well-written. Which this book is not. Spencer's struggles with his faith just don't feel convincing because when he talks about them, he sounds like an alien who only has a rough idea what human emotions are.
My own world, so stilted, so formal, so subsumed by an almost desperate need to be seen as reserved, felt like so many shades of grey beside Donald's world of vibrant colors and mercurial emotions. Was I so much a creature of the grey world that I couldn't indulge in—well, in indulgence?
Yes. Your own world is indeed very stilted. So stilted that I really don't care about it.
And when he's not struggling with his faith in a totally natural and relatable way, he's interpreting plays. No, seriously. Pages of this book read like excerpts from term papers on Equus and Sleuth. I mean, I have discovered some interesting books because they were mentioned in other books, but those didn't read like the author thought it was a shame that all the work they did for a uni-course would only catch dust in a storeroom somewhere.
The character Alan Strang seems to have had a passionate (in every sense of the word) relationship with horses and with Jesus. With God. With God as Equus. If that sounds confusing, well... Strang was confused. And he seems to have confused the hell out of his psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, who was thrown into confusion about his own role in life and his own relationship with religion in general and God in particular. Dysart had questions like, could religious passion be good? If not, was it the fault of religion or the religious? Could Dysart lead young Strang out of the darkness of his twisted creed and into the light?
Who cares? Not me.
"He saw Equus as a God figure, and yet he came all over it. Does that strike you as depraved?"
It mostly strikes me as dull, for I did not pick up this book because I wanted to find out what the author thought about some random play.
But there's not only literature class coursework. There's also bible study discussion questions:
What I wanted to believe, based on those verses from Matthew, was that my feelings for Donald were like a window into the incomprehensibly massive Presence that is God. Isn't that why God came to us as Jesus? So that humans, with our limited capacities, could have a personal aspect of God to relate to?
There is actually a good question hiding behind the verbatiousness that would make Cat Valente yell "Stop please! You're overdoing it!" but I was rolling my eyes too hard at the phrasing to care.
And the whole book is like that. Very little plot, a lot of characters sounding like the mouthpiece of the author who is imparting her wisdom about faith and English literature.
And of course there's this sentence:
I felt my erection as it tried to escape from the captivity of my jeans, of my inhibitions, of my fears and of my father's disdain.
I really could have spared myself and you this whole review and just quoted this sentence. It tells you everything you need to know about this book....more
Dull. I'm usually always there for yearning and characters who are convinced that nobody could love them, but the way it was written didn't make me feDull. I'm usually always there for yearning and characters who are convinced that nobody could love them, but the way it was written didn't make me feel for her at all, I only found it exhausting. And talking about exhausting: the side female characters were all horrible clichés and their main point seemed to be how Not Like The Other Girls our main character was. I also couldn't quite buy that there were genuine good feelings between Jane and Melody, her sister. All we got was Melody acting like a spoiled brat and Jane being jealous of her looks.
And talking about feelings: so much time was spent on the decoy love interest, that the sudden declarations of love with the real one seemed to come almost completely out of the blue....more
This was another delightful pulp story that had everything you could wish for like wonderful plots (partly inspired by English folklore) and more impoThis was another delightful pulp story that had everything you could wish for like wonderful plots (partly inspired by English folklore) and more importantly: horrible fiendish villains who get the best comeuppance possible. It also had a romance that left me somewhat cold. As in: I liked both characters and was moved by the scenes that showed how much they cared about each other. I had absolutely no emotions during the sexy bits and couldn't quite buy that these two people had an actual desire to know each other biblically. Or perhaps just didn't care. Nothing new for me and KJ Charles but one of the more grating examples. Still: pulpy ghosthunting! Yay!...more
This book just didn't work for me. One reason was that I couldn't really buy the romance: Harriet goes to a speakeasy gay bar and hears Rosalie singinThis book just didn't work for me. One reason was that I couldn't really buy the romance: Harriet goes to a speakeasy gay bar and hears Rosalie singing. They exchange a few sentences and the next time they go there Rosalie has already written an entire song about her and after that Harriet's heart aches when she thinks about Rosalie and that she can't be with her, because her family expects her to marry.
That brings me to the second reason the story didn't work: I also couldn't really buy the conflict. Because Harriet's family knows she's lesbian and doesn't judge her for it. They still want her to marry because a single woman would be eyed suspiciously and if she is then also frequently seen with another single woman that would cause such a huge scandal that it would dishonour her cow entire family, and would even ruin the marriage prospect of her nieces and nephews. Because it's not like something happened shortly before the 1920s that seriously decimated the number of young men, no famously there were a shitton of surplus men in that time and if any woman couldn't find one there had to be something seriously wrong with her.
So Harriet keeps talking about her loving family who only wants her to get married for her own good and all the fault is with the evil society that makes her hide her true self and would make her face horrible consequences if it came out. Now that's true in theory...but also Harriet drags her prospective fiancee in the mixed-race speakeasy gay bar because she just has a feeling that he would be fine with it so it doesn't really feel as if she is actually that worried about consequences. (And why would she when even her stuffy conservative aunt goes "Get that hot lady singer's ass before you get married because nothing a lady does before her wedding should matter"). So the conflict/danger/tension/however you want to call it never feels present. Harriet is surrounded by people with fairly progressive views - which itself isn't bad because not every historical novel featuring queer characters needs to cause tension with "my loved ones would despise me if they found out who I really am" but...then it needs a different conflict because people in pretty dresses standing around isn't a story. But that's how this book felt....more
This book was very...twee. Something I wasn't entirely unprepared for, since the cover doesn't exactly scream 'dark and edgy' and if you're familiar wThis book was very...twee. Something I wasn't entirely unprepared for, since the cover doesn't exactly scream 'dark and edgy' and if you're familiar with fanfiction neither does coffee shop. And I wanted something cutesy and twee when I picked up this book. And I got it. I got a book that contained the phrases "He even smelled good, even though the only scent Percy could detect was yesterday's soap, tobacco, and what his mind stupidly and unhelpfully identified as man" and "He felt like he ought to be cataloguing all the ways this was different from kissing a woman but it wasn't." which both poke fun at stuff that you found frequently in fanfiction about ten years ago, yet somehow also shout them out pretty non-ironically. I got a book with cheesy hurt/comfort scenes (including I want to hurt the person who hurt you), Kit having strong feelings for his pet-spider (of course only Percy understands), witty female side characters that of course can hold their own, and did I mention that it's set in a coffee shop?
ho now has to learn to live with a disability and Percy who has just found out that his entire life has been a lie and the things you learn about his childhood and his parents make you want to call Georgian child services. And those two hatch a plan together that could get both of them killed. So not exactly light-hearted. But I kept forgetting about that between the best-of cheesy romance/fanfic tropes this book bombards you with. And then it came up again and I thought 'Dude. Shouldn't you be more affected by that?' So, I guess I would have either needed this to be either less dark or less cutesy, but the combination of both didn't work at all.
I have put off this review for quite a while now because I just don't know how to put my feelings into words. I did like this book but there were alsoI have put off this review for quite a while now because I just don't know how to put my feelings into words. I did like this book but there were also things that just didn't quite work for me. The Wife in the Attic is a story in the tradition of Gothic Novels. Spooky houses, dark secrets...almost every chapter ends with the heroine being shocked by something and half of those cliff-hangers get resolved a few lines into the next chapter. E.g. one chapter ends with Deborah opening and orange and being shocked because blood is coming from it. The next one opens with someone explaining to her what a blood orange is. In most other books I would have rolled my eyes at that but here it fits right into the atmosphere. Because the atmosphere is properly Gothic, mostly because of how great Sir Kit is written. He makes a brilliant gothic villain by being...nice. He is very nice to Deb as long as she does what he wants. Actually he is still very nice is if she doesn't do it...then he smiles and makes sure that she feels very stupid for wanting it in the first place. As someone who has actually an easier time with reading/watching physical violence than gaslighting/emotional manipulation those were scenes that made me very uncomfortable but then that's what they were supposed to do.
And of course The Wife in the Attic doesn't just take ye olden gothic tropes without questioning them. Especially the "Otherness" - in the sense of non-WASP non-English - being the scary thing. Because Deb's family are Portuguese Jews and so for her white (English) people are rather scary. (Not just in a vague sense, her grandmother's family was killed by the inquisition and she suffers from intergenerational trauma). And, more generally the book also has a lot to say about the role of women in that ere and their lack of power...but it does all this while still "staying gothic". Sure, it would be frightening if the villain found out what Deb is doing behind his back. And him discovering that she's Jewish would be even more frightening.
And because everything is so gothic I found it odd that the story continued even after a "proper" gothic novel would have ended. After they escaped the creepy castle. And it doesn't just continue for a bit to tie up some loose ends, the audiobook goes on for over 3 more hours after what I expected the end to be. Now some of it fits together with the modernized gothic tropes, but a lot of it felt like I was suddenly reading/listening to a completely different genre and that made those last hours drag on quite a bit....more
This book was not what I expected from the blurb. I picked it up because I thought it would be a mystery/spy thriller (+ romance) and this was…not thaThis book was not what I expected from the blurb. I picked it up because I thought it would be a mystery/spy thriller (+ romance) and this was…not that. Gennady and Daniel are assigned to investigate a very amateurish assassination attempt on Khrushchev together. Since they’re only decent clue is a scrap from a somewhat obscure magazine they go on a road trip to visit all the subscribers but the story is far more interested in the road trip (during which they experience pretty much every romance trope you can think of…yes they do huddle for warmth in Only One Bed) than the interviews…we only get to see two or three…which is why the case ends up being solved not by them but almost accidentally by the local police. They get back to tie everything up, their working relationship ends, Gennady goes back to the Soviet Union, there’s a time jump to the 1970s when he ends up back in the USA, more romance tropes happen, back to Moscow, another time jump the 90s where they meet again and…well this is a romance novel.
To be perfectly honest: if I had known about this I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. I spent a lot of time during the twee road trip scenes going “Ok but when are you going to do some actual investigating?”. So, no, I’m not the target audience for this book in the first place…however now that I’m here I will also complain about a things that have nothing to do with the fact that this book wasn’t the genre I had expected. Like the fact that this book drowns in romance tropes…now I do love cheesy romance tropes myself but…they have to make sense in context…fit in the story. This books seems on occasions like the author went through a checklist; bedsharing? Check! Christmas together? Check! Major hurt and comfort moment? Check! But it resulted in each scene feeling generic. As if you could swap the order around because there was nothing in it that anchored it at that point in their relationship. (Generally it often felt less like reading about a developing relationship and more like they jumped from one milestone to the next…which can partly blamed on the time jumps but the first part took over half the book there could have been some).
And then there’s…well it’s one thing but it was also so much more than just a minor flaw: One of them gets stabbed at one point and…refuses to go to the hospital for reasons that really make zero sense in context so the other decides to drive him to the FBI headquarter to inform their boss that Dude #1 got stabbed. Because this is the 1950s. Telephones weren’t invented yet. So #2 drives #1 who must be happily bleeding over the whole car because the stab wound has received zero care. He then continues to bleed on the FBI carpet and boss also suggests the hospital but no. So #2 makes a suggestion…
You might want to sit down for this
I have a first aid kit in my car…you know the car I just drove you in. Let’s drive to our motel so that you can bleed a bit more in my car and then I can bandage you up there in the motel…with that kit I have currently in my possession and had already when you were stabbed.
Do you feel my pain?
AND THE STUPID IS NOT OVER YET. Because the caring for the wound involves #1 biting on a belt to stop himself from screaming as if he was a soldier getting his leg sawn off without anaesthetics instead of an agent getting his wound disinfected.
Do you feel my pain?
Do you think that was all?
No, because on the next day #2 gives aspirin and then takes him clothes shopping so #1 can move his body full of a blood-thinner a lot while having a wound that has only been bandaged and not stitched.
Look, I happily accept some leaps of logic to get a good hurt/comfort scene. But it’s not a good scene if I keep wondering how he hasn’t bled to death, yet....more
In just a few chapters we got: - Woman who is so utterly gorgeous that every single man a crowded inn stares at her but who is utterly convinced that sIn just a few chapters we got: - Woman who is so utterly gorgeous that every single man a crowded inn stares at her but who is utterly convinced that she's ugly - A dude who almost orgasms just from...watching her eat - two MCs who keep doing/saying things and then informing us that they totes didn't want to to do that but have been compelled by some primal urge or whatever...
As much as I love reading about people who fall in love while solving a murder, occasionally I do enjoy something less bloody. Especially in times like these. And especially if it is obvious that while the MCs might not solve big world-changing problems, the stakes are still high. Because - let me get sappy for a moment - somebody's happiness is quite a high stake. And the book does a very good job at convincing me that many people in this book (not just the designated couple) would be absolutely miserable if things went wrong. And that kept me glued to the pages and once again awake somewhat longer than I should have because every time I thought "Well, I'll finish that chapter and then go to sleep." the chapter ended on some bombshell-twist that made me go "b...b...buuut how can that still end happily now? NOW I NEED TO CONTINUE".
Of course, that only works if you care about the characters. And I did. A lot. And not only about the main couple but also the side characters: Robin's sister and Sir John's sister and his niece. None of them is just defined by their relationship to the men; all have their own thoughts, feelings and goals and are amazing characters in their own right. But they also have a great relationship with their brother/uncle and you can tell that they all truly care about each other (which is nice because sometimes it seems fiction is much more interested in destructive and unhealthy family-dynamics).
Something else? Oh right, of course, there are also Robin and John. I know, this is getting repetitive but I loved them. And to get repetitive again let me say something else I keep saying about KJ Charles romances: I loved the amount of thought that went into the balancing of the power dynamics between the two leads. John is rich and very privileged (and not fully aware just how privileged) but also shy and very inexperienced where romantic relationships (and to an extend sex) is concerned. He is resigned to not finding - and not deserving - happiness. Robin meanwhile has no privilege and nothing material to offer. But he has experience in other fields and does everything to convince John that he does deserve the kind of nice things that money can't buy. And that's beautiful....more
DNF at 25% Thomas is a respectable solicitor...until he gets caught during a raid on a molly house and imprisoned. He does manage to escape but only wiDNF at 25% Thomas is a respectable solicitor...until he gets caught during a raid on a molly house and imprisoned. He does manage to escape but only with the clothes on his back so he takes to prostitution to earn money for food but eventually, he collapses from exhaustion...and that's the end of chapter one... Fortunately, he gets picked up by a hot Marquess whose library is in need of cataloguing and after only a few more pages Thomas lets the hot Marquess know that he wants to jump him...I had expected him to be a bit more careful after his prison experience but then, the way he talks about it does make it seem like it was mostly uncomfortable beds and subpar food so it probably wasn't that bad anyway...and that's my problem with the book: the characters didn't seem to feel much and so neither did I......more
I guess I am a joyless Grinch but...this was just Too Much. Too much cutesy witty banter between the leads whose only problem was that while they talkI guess I am a joyless Grinch but...this was just Too Much. Too much cutesy witty banter between the leads whose only problem was that while they talked to each other a lot (in a cutesy and witty way), they did not actually talk to each other about the issues they had with each other. Because once they did, and actually explained their emotions and past actions, after about 150 pages of cutesy and witty banter, they quickly realised that the other person really Had A Point and everything was resolved quickly. I am not saying this is bad. Not every romance needs to be high stakes with the possibility of every misstep resulting in misery, death and/or destruction. I also enjoy the odd low-stakes romance...and some witty banter. But...this was so low stakes it could have fit into a novella and as a full-length novel, it just dragged on too long for me....more
>This book was...fun. The magical mystery part was even great fun. The mystery itself was cleverly intertwined with the magical worldbuilding which wa>This book was...fun. The magical mystery part was even great fun. The mystery itself was cleverly intertwined with the magical worldbuilding which was intriguing and full of unusual ideas without being so complicated that I felt I needed to make notes to keep track. I also loved that Edwin was great at magical theory but simply didn’t have much magical power. It was a nice change from characters that are either very good at everything or very bad at everything. (And unrelated to magic: Edwin came up with his own library classification system as a kid. As a library-adjacent nerd I am delighted).
The non-mystery bit, i.e. the romance, was just...nice. I liked Robin. I liked Edwin. I even liked their developing friendship and how they helped each other with their vulnerabilities. But there was simply no spark between them that made me really care about them as romantic couple. In fact, when the big break-up due to an unfortunate series of misunderstandings/stupidity on both sides came my first thought was "Noooo! You're both going to mope now instead of investigating the mystery further and that's what I'm most interested in." which was probably not the reaction the author intended.
The side-characters were a bit hit-and-miss for me. I adored Edwin's colleague Miss Morrisey and hope to see more of her in future books. But his siblings/friends of his siblings mostly stayed somewhat one-dimensional and I did have some trouble keeping them apart (admittedly I also took my time reading this book and perhaps it would have been easier if I had read it quicker). Robin's sister was very much the quirky enlightened/progressive female character that seems to be required in (historical) m/m romance and while I wouldn't call her annoying she simply didn't leave much of an impression.
Overall it was a fun read and I will pick up the next book because I do want to know how the mystery continues. ...more
The first half was very slow, especially because a lot of the conflict stemmed from How dare these older women worry about the marriage prospects of tThe first half was very slow, especially because a lot of the conflict stemmed from How dare these older women worry about the marriage prospects of their daughter/niece, who have completely different things on their minds? when it's also made quite clear that in this fantasy regency world unmarried women who had no support system were just as screwed as those in the real regency.
In the second half, there is finally an older woman who turns out to be not a lazy caricature and the plot does become more interesting, but the moral was delivered with a brick tied to an anvil, tied to another anvil. ...more
I had been very excited for the conclusion of the Will Darling Books and was not disappointed. The mystery is again great fun and kept me guessing forI had been very excited for the conclusion of the Will Darling Books and was not disappointed. The mystery is again great fun and kept me guessing for a long time. Not to mention, it offers a fun twist on the “sleuth investigates because a family member is under suspicion” trope (which I am usually not overly fond of), in that Kim doesn’t particularly care for his brother – or is fully convinced of his innocence – but him getting convicted for murder and executed would mean Kim would end up with the title and all the publicity that comes with it, something he wants under no circumstances. This goes so far that he is seriously considering using his connections to save him, even if it does turn out he’s guilty. Surprisingly, these considerations do cause some tension in his relationship with Will.
This does give us a great set-up. Kim’s brother is so unlikeable, as a reader, you almost want it to be him because the thought of him continuing to run around freely is depressing. (And besides, he doesn’t exactly act innocent). But at the same time, it’s clear that him having actually committed a murder would open an entirely different can of worms. That’s a good way to up the stakes for the grand finale without fabricating stupid misunderstandings or making the case ridiculously over-the-top (I mean…it’s already pulp. The case is ridiculously over-the-top. But in a fun way).
And for the rest: It still has all the things I loved about the first two books: a great couple (that still has to work on their relationship and does so), charming side-characters (I admit I thought Phoebe was fun in book one…now I love her), and delightfully fiendish villains who have hatched a dastardly evil scheme. And a surprising end – in more than one way.
After finishing this book I cam to the conclusion that I can see myself reading future books by this author but probably not her very next one. BecausAfter finishing this book I cam to the conclusion that I can see myself reading future books by this author but probably not her very next one. Because while there were things that worked - her prose is beautiful and she came up with intriguing characters/character constellations - a lot of stuff just...didn't. While I liked Edward and Gabriel as characters, I couldn't really buy their relationship. It felt less like a progress and more like...a constant back and forth. One moment they are yelling at each other and the next are all over each other but barely seem to address the issues that led to the yelling. (Barely...they do sometimes and those scenes - again - are good but a lot just conveniently seems to vanish into thin air). As a result I was honestly more invested in the relationship their long-suffering siblings were developing and wished they had ended up as actual 'beta-couple' instead of just getting some vague mention of 'yeah they're into each other'.
Well and the mystery was just far too rushed. It was only solved by so much fortunate coincidences that you'd think this was set in the country of Plotconveniencia...only to then be halted by a massive dose of plot-induced stupidity (view spoiler)[of course Maurice who is portrayed as being incredibly clever is going to jump to the conclusion of "yeah, this guy who is writing letters in full view of everybody is the spy who is secretly informing our enemy of our whereabouts" (hide spoiler)] and in the end everything got tied up very neatly(view spoiler)[I have a hard time that "having a mistress" even with the additional thievery - which was all they could prove - would lead to such complete social ruin (hide spoiler)]
Readers often know more than the character's they're reading about. One reason for that is that is that they know they're reading genre X and what to Readers often know more than the character's they're reading about. One reason for that is that is that they know they're reading genre X and what to expect of that genre. A dead body at the beginning of a mystery novel has usually been murdered even if it looks like suicide and so some people (or at least me) find it exhausting if the first half of the novel is spend with proving that it really was murder. Of course it is. But the main character does not know that they're in a mystery novel. They shouldn't be as sure as I am. If in that first half the evidence that it's suicide keeps mounting but they absolutely refuse to accept the possibility and insist that it's murder because they just know...it's similarly exhausting.
In romance novels the "I know what's going to happen" is: it will all turn out all right. Nobody will be ruined. The couple will get a happy end. But the characters don't know that....and in this novel that was hard to believe. Because throughout the novel Deb acts as if she is sure that her actions won't have any serious consequences...either that or she just doesn't care what disastrous consequences her actions might have for her - and more importantly her aunt - and that...doesn't make her particularly likeable. So as much as I loved "arrogant guy learns his lessons" stories, I couldn't get into this one. I kept thinking about how high the stakes were and how absolutely idiotic Deb's behaviour would have been in a more realistic setting. ...more
Sometimes you read a book that you just love. And occasionally these books have sequels which you love even more. The Sugared Game is one of those seqSometimes you read a book that you just love. And occasionally these books have sequels which you love even more. The Sugared Game is one of those sequels.
I admit I was a bit annoyed about the relationship at the beginning. While Slippery Creatures left off with Will and Kim in a happy-for-now situation, at the beginning of book two we learn that Kim has ghosted Will for a while now. In turn, Will has given up on Kim - or that what he's trying to tell himself. Usually, I'm not overly fond of this trope but then it's not exactly an out-of-character move for Kim. In fact, if we've learned anything about him in book one it's that this is exactly what he would do. And when they eventually pick up their relationship again they neither just ignore the break and continue where they left off, nor start from the beginning again (both things I came across in romances that stretch over multiple books). Instead, they discuss it and have a (somewhat) healthier relationship afterwards.
The mystery itself meanwhile was just brilliant. I already enjoyed the one from Slippery Creatures but had also managed to guess quite a few twists in advance (mostly because I have consumed far more pulp/mystery fiction than is probably healthy and know the tropes and set-pieces very well). I found that much harder this time. The storyline is still very pulpy and full of fiendish villains and betrayals but all is combined in a way that I went "Wow. I did not see that coming" a few times.
And finally, I have to mention the side characters and especially Phoebe. If you're like me and love pulp mysteries but are also eternally frustrated that in most of them all the women ever do is scream and make the hero's life harder by getting abducted at inopportune moments you will love her. She's still feminine (and into feminine pursuits) and she's not physically strong enough to fight the bad guys but that doesn't mean she won't make their lives as hard as possible. She's everything I ever dreamed of while watching far too many Edgar Wallace movies while growing up.
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