Monique S.'s Blog, page 14

Happy tears for this one!

Un Noël inattendu by Cherylin A.Nash

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Review to come!

Since both the authors live in France I doubt that there is an English version of this (I have not found one), which is a crying shame, because this book is so well written and cute, it had me shedding happy tears for the sheer beauty of it!



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A true marvel of a romance.

Fear of Falling by Georgia Beers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Sophie James never had a normal childhood nor adolescence. Her father left her and her mother when she was four. Her mother, a waitress always struggled to make enough to sustain her daughter and herself until Sophie’s voice was discovered by her later manager Ray when she was thirteen. Her success was such, that Ray and the record company formed Sophie into an image of a sweet and docile, clean girl next door kind of thing singing ballads for a middle age mainstream demographic.

Now, 16 years and some millions of dollars later, Ray has died. Apart from grieving her only ever father figure she has to realise, that she never did anything for herself, not even form her public image or social media accounts or even choose her clothes. She falls apart and gets photographed seriously drunk and swearing in front of a night club. For her this is really a "I need to come off age” situation, but at the age of 29.

Enter Dana Landon, she is at the height of her career at almost 40 and gets hired by the Record company to get their goose laying the golden eggs back into line. Expecting a hard to suffer diva she projects an ice queen image at first. Nevertheless her veneer cracks rather quickly, when she discovers a certainly insecure and deeply hurt, grieving 29 year old woman, who is sweet, friendly, intelligent and wonderfully gifted.

Sophie, after some serious talks with Dana decides to get back into working on her next album to distract her from her emotional pain, but also realises, that she is more than her commercial image. Much more actually, as she realises quickly as the new composer/songwriter team, assigned to her by the record company to do the same old, same old, ballad stuff for her, isn’t anywhere near as stuffy as she assumes. They more and more like her ideas for her new style of music for the next album and their work, together with some of Sophie’s own lyrics, becomes serious hit material.

Now Dana has to learn to walk the fine line between professionalism towards the record company and their expectations, Sophie’s coming off age and future and her more and more troubling feelings for her young client, she simply assumes to be straight.

There is enough trouble and internal conflict here on both sides to warrant a train wreck kind of result. I won’t spoil your read with any further revelations but just say, that it is more than just worth the read, this tale is a marvel of a romance!



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What a story!

Accord Parfait by Mélina Dicci

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ça fait 35 ans que je n’ai pas fait l’expérience a quel point coupe la gorge peut être le business de la musique. Surtout quand les hommes d’affaires non créatifs deviennent jaloux des créatifs. Donc ce livre m’a parlé à plusieurs niveaux.

Noah a fait un erreur de jeunesse, qui lui a coûté sa carrière prometteuse de guitariste et compositrice.

Blake, de l’autre cote, a jette sa carrière et sa vie dans un enfer de drogues, parce que elle n’a pas pu faire face à la perte de son père.

Le destin les a jetés ensemble pour donner à la fois une chance non seulement de traiter leurs propres lacunes, mais aussi de s’aider mutuellement à guérir. À ce moment-là, les deux méchants de l’histoire sont occupés. J’ai aussi eu un Harry dans ma vie et j’ai en fait perdu l’entreprise pour laquelle je dirigeais et concevais de l’équipement. Donc Harry n’était pas vraiment une surprise, mais la méchante ici et ses machinations absolument diaboliques m’ont pris par surprise. A la place de Noah, j’aurais probablement voulu l’étrangler.

La résolution finale était vraiment difficile à lire pour moi, car Noah et Blake risquent perdre presque tout. Sans l’aide inattendue de quelqu’un qui s’intéresse aux deux, ce conte aurait pris fin comme une tragédie grecque.

Tout cela dit, je recommande néanmoins de lire cette romance chaude.



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A worthwhile quick read.

Manhattan Money by Carol Wyatt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read this one in one go, it is a shortish but well worked sort of age gap workplace romance on a great premise with some really unexpected twists.

Both, Kennedy and Jenna are struggling with the results of the same event, the death of male fashion mogul Harry Burke, but both in very different ways. The nice thing about this is, that neither of the two is inclined to make a great drama out of their differences, which makes the happy end all that much more probable. How the two achieve that is well worth reading this.



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rcommended

Whipped: A Lesbian Romance by J.J. Arias

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I always like to try authors I have not read if I find someone in my friend list recommending it. J.J.Arias I didn’t know before, so I had no idea what to expect.

The introduction of the characters raised my interest from the start. What followed is probably the slowest slow burn romance I have read so far, but it kept my interest throughout and the sometimes hilariously funny dialogues carried me through the story. The romance is so highly unlikely, you sometimes ask yourself: why her? But when it finally clicks it is amazing. The development to the climax is very inventive and shows a development in Cheyenne, that absolutely makes her one of my most favourite characters.

I wholeheartedly recommend this.



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Une belle petite histoire.

Un Noël au bord de la Tamise by Anne Perry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


J’avais découvert Anne Perry en traduction Française avec le série de William Monk, et ce petite histoire se joue dans l’hôpital de Portpool Lane de Hester Monk, mais ici le petit orphelin nommé Worm et Squeaky Robinson sont les personnages centrales.

Comme tout la série l’atmosphère est dense et peut être ressenti comme réel. Les deux, Worm et Squeaky sont sont bien crédibles et aimables. L’intrigue se construit lentement et obtient tout à fait élever les cheveux, mais finit bien. Comme d’habitude j’ai bien apprécié la lecture.



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a very entertaining read

The Duke Heist by Erica Ridley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I would not have read this, if I had not read "The Perks of Loving a Wallflower" first. So far Georgette Heyer was the best of writers of historical romance for me, her heroines the most interesting women I read about. That was before i started on lesbian romances.

I think, that if it had not been impossible in her time Ms Heyer might possibly have attempted a lesbian romance after Masqueraders, which is pretty queer and is my favourite one of her books. It nevertheless might not have attained the standard of tongue in cheek humour and cutesy romance of The Duke Heist or even less The perks of Loving a Wallflower.
Perks

Now that I have discovered lesbian romance novels, the sexy scenes of course do not read as interesting any more, in any case I never was able to really get into the straight characters and was more into the adventure parts, especially if the women were the courageous ones.

In any case it was mostly hilarious to discover where Philippa, Chloe, Tommy and the other Wynchesters are coming from, a very entertaining read indeed.



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Frustrating.

One Simple Refrain by Nancy Ann Healy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I stopped reading this at 43%.

You see, there was a time I was counselling people about how the mind has two sides:
1) The analytical side. This side of the mind takes things apart and then makes a list of the parts. In astrology that is called the Gemini side or by others, house III.
2) The comprehensive side. Here the analytical mind has to state the found facts and the heart has to state its desires and impulses. Then the comprehensive side has to temper the hearts desire to ensure the life of the person is not threatened by following the impulse; for example look right and left before crossing a street with traffic. The job is not to tell the heart roads cannot be crossed.

A lot of people do exactly that, because they never learned to trust life, they stay where they are. This gets very, very tiresome for the counsellor, because most minds are terribly stubborn and keep creating horrible scenarios and paralyse the person with fear. I on the other side learned to trust my life, as it one way or another always took care of me, even if I sometimes took years to understand, why life had had to kick my butt to get me moving in the right direction. But by the age of forty at the latest I had understood, perhaps because my sun sign is Virgo, the sign associated with the comprehensive mind, or house VI.

Any way, reading about a character who does keep herself time and again from moving forward through fear caused by not trusting life after 48 years of being a doctor, even if everybody else, who is more experienced (because older and having gone through similar problems) tells her to follow her heart, is not even remotely entertaining for me, but rather frustrating.

So, if you are keen on reading about characters making themselves repeatedly unhappy because their comprehensive mind doesn’t work properly, even if there is a happy end (sort of) promised, go right ahead and enjoy this. I certainly can’t.



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My 2021 top favourite!

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is my most favourite read of 2021!

The writing is smooth and keeps your interest throughout. The characters are all perfectly crafted and are just that tiny little bit larger than life to make you laugh out loud over some of the dialogue and the two main women in the romance in it are so lovable in their imperfection and I felt deeply with both of them. What I also love is that, since Erica Ridley appears to not be following established paths for lesbian romances, probably because as far as I know, this is her first.

While I am normally disappointed with period romances that do not use period language it doesn't matter here, as the characters (Philippa's parents excepted) are either completely besides the societal norm or at least unusually different (bluestockings, lol) and the plot is absolutely fabulous!

Even being rather sure, that the prequel to this does not have any lesbian romance in it, I will go for it to discover the history of Tommy and Chloe, my two favourite characters besides Philippa.

I wholeheartedly recommend this even for fans of heterosexual period romances, it really should not be missed. Erica Ridley, Georgette Heyer would envy you.



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Sweet and fluffy.

In Bloom by Allie Keane

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I never thought I'd sometimes read an age gap romance with that cute and fluffy a plot, but of course there's always a first, and this is it!

Both main characters, Erica, the cute young woman who thinks she's unsuitable for love and has resigned herself to her "fate", and Catherine, who owns half of a bridal shop, are in for a surprise, when Erica delivers the first flower arrangement from her aunt's flower shop for Catherine. Both feel something that they did not expect. For Erica it is more of a challenge, as she never contemplated the posssibility of becomeing attracted to a woman, while Catherine is out as a lesbian. For Catherine the question is whether she's courageous enough, to let herself be young at heart again. The way they deal with it is sweet and the story a wonderfully written piece of fluff.

I recommend this as a light, short and heart warming Read.



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