Jane Litte's Blog, page 58

End-of-2022 Open Thread for Readers

Credit: tunejadez

Happy New Year to you all! Do you have great reads from 2022 to talk about? What were your favorites? Which books were weakest or frustrated you most? And which books are you most looking forward to in 2023? As always, chatting about stuff in general is welcome.

REVIEW: A Peculiar Enchantment by Kathleen Buckley

What can you look forward to when your only relatives call you ugly, unbalanced, and a scandal? What would you do if your only friend was threatened? Dependent on her half brother, the Earl of Lamburne, Adelaide knows. She wants to escape.

Gervase Ducane, invited to Lamburne’s home to court his daughter, is torn. He needs to marry well and soon but not this spiteful chit. Should he buy a commission instead? Seek a wealthy merchant’s daughter? As a marquess’s brother, he has at least a noble co...

REVIEW: One Night Only by Jayci Lee

Megan Han and Daniel Pak had one night of rhapsody…and now she’s pregnant!

Jayci Lee composes a sexy opposites-attract romance in her new Hana Trio installment.

Will giving into passion free them from their secret…or cost them everything?

Making beautiful music is what chamber violinist Megan Han lives for. But one night with a seductive stranger and a surprise pregnancy could jeopardize her hard work. Especially when that handsome stranger turns out to be Daniel Pak, CFO of her father’s compa...

Review: Sweep of the Heart (Innkeeper Chronicles #5) by Ilona Andrews

Welcome to Gertrude Hunt!

We are so happy to see you once again. Your innkeepers, Dina Demille and Sean Evans, will see to your every need. No matter what accommodations you require, the inn will oblige. Physics are not an issue for us. Our Red Cleaver Chef is delighted to impress you with his culinary mastery. Rest assured that your safety is our first priority.

Enjoy yourselves, relax, and above all, remember the one rule all visitors must abide by: the humans must never know.

Sweep of the...

REVIEW: That Sweet Enemy by Dinah Dean (aka Marjorie May)

A scarred hero… A courageous heroine!

Homebound after the journey of a lifetime, the resumption of the Napoleonic Wars traps Mary Burns and her companions in Switzerland. They find themselves suspected of espionage by the French and must persuade Captain Armand Dufour of their innocence.

Scarred, cold, and sarcastic, Captain Dufour makes no secret of his loathing of the English, but in his interrogations pays a particular interest to Mary. Then he makes a scandalous proposal: he’ll allow her fr...

REVIEW: Felix Navidad by Nathan Burgoine

Felix doesn’t do impulsive anymore. But attending a friend’s wedding reminds Felix he’s the only one of his friends attending solo, and recent losses have him thinking he’s swung too far in the not-impulsive direction.

So, impulse decision number one? Cutting in on a dance with handsome farmer Kevin, the ex of one of the grooms, for a spin at the reception. Impulse decision number two? Planning his first holiday vacation off work. Christmas in Hawai’i will be a gift to himself.

When dancing do...

REVIEW: Hen Fever: A Sapphic Victorian Romance by Olivia Waite

Lydia Wraxhall is on her best behavior every day of the year—except one: the annual Bickerton Christmas Poultry Show. On that day she brushes her birds, sharpens her tongue, and engages in the closest thing the village knows to war.

Harriet Boyne is a soldier’s widow reeling from the worst years of her life. She and her friends have inherited a manor on the village outskirts, and Harriet is looking forward to a quiet holiday far from the anguish of the battlefield.

But a dispute over a flock o...

REVIEW: Duke in All But Name by Caroline Warfield

Secrets and lies threaten to pull them under, but a forced marriage may be their salvation.

Gideon Kendrick grew up as the despised bastard son of the Duke of Glenmoor. Exiled to the mines by his father, he has not only survived but thrived and prospered. He lives apart, wanting nothing to do with the duke, the estate—or anything in his past, except his younger brother Phillip, the new duke.

When Phillip disappears, leaving behind a letter asking his brother to care for his affairs, Gideon can...

Review: After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez

Guapo pobrecito her grandmother calls him. The “poor handsome man.”

Professor Jeremiah Post, the poor handsome man, is in fact standing in the way of Alejandra “Alex” Torres turning Loretta’s, her grandmother’s bar, into a viable business. The hot brainiac who sleeps in one of the upstairs tenant rooms already has all of her Mexican American family’s admiration; she won’t let him have the bar and building she needs to resurrect her career, too.

Alex blowing into town has rocked Jeremiah to his ...

CONVERSATION: 2022 in Review

Janine: Every reading year is different. There are years when we read more books and years when we read fewer. Some years we make a great discovery–an author we’ve never read before and whose books we love. Other years are a drought. Some years a genre trends in a direction that doesn’t work for us; other years it takes an exciting turn. There can be other trends in our reading too.

So I want to have another conversation like the one we had at the end of 2021–I want to hear how 2022 was for you...