Jane Litte's Blog, page 60

Review: Stone Wings (The Gargoyles of Arrington #1) by Jenn Burke

His curse can only be lifted with true love, but can true love come from a fake date?

Being the personal assistant to a trio of cursed gargoyle brothers who sleep for a hundred years and wake up for twenty-five wasn’t a career proposed by Josh’s high school guidance counselor, but it’s a job that he’s eminently suited for. Not to mention a job his family has been doing for generations. The brothers are truly excellent bosses, but Josh is surprised when Drew offers to pretend to be his date ...

What Janine is Reading: The Devils Series by Elizabeth O’Roark, Books One and Two

In September and October I read (or in one case tried to read) the first three books in Elizabeth O’Roark’s Devils series (book four comes out December 1st). They’d been recommended to me by no less than three people and a couple more friends have recommended them since then. Here are reviews of the first two books.

A Deal with the Devil

Tali, a blocked novelist whose manuscript is due soon, is not quite a stereotype but certainly a romance genre archetype: the down-on-her-luck young woman who d...

CONVERSATION: Meet Cute or Meet Horrible?

Janine: Sometimes the first meeting between two protagonists is cute (they are walking their dogs toward each other and the leashes get tangled–I think I’ve seen that somewhere) and sometimes it’s horrible (she thinks she’s catching he’s breaking in and greets him with a baseball bat). Which do you enjoy more? Why? What are some of the cutest and most horrible first meetings you’ve come across? What are your favorites? Which ones were memorable failures for you?

Jayne: I enjoy a good “meet cute....

REVIEW: Widow 1881 by Sara Dahmen

Proper Boston widow Jane Weber moves to the Dakota Territories under layers of lies to save her reputation. Stirring up controversy, Jane rooms with the last Blackfoot Sioux in town while navigating a mercurial friendship with the fiercely independent town grocer.

In Flats Junction, though, everyone has an untold story. Battling her shortcomings, falsehoods, and swallowing her inherent curiosity, Jane must choose how she will truly reinvent herself, and where she belongs.

CW – There is a misc...

JOINT REVIEW: Moira’s Pen by Megan Whalen Turner

Janine: Megan Whalen Turner completed her Queen’s Thief series two years ago, and the essays, stories and vignettes in Moira’s Pen, a new collection of set in the same world and featuring some of the same characters, are a bit like the big crumbs and smears of ganache left on your plate when you’ve finished an amazing slice of chocolate cake. The cake was so good that even the crumbs are tantalizing and you can’t let them go uneaten.

This is my perspective as a huge fan of the series. With that ...

Open Thread for Readers for December 2022

Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Care to share your favorite books and other entertainment sources of 2022? Just want to chat about stuff in general?

REVIEW: While You Sleep by Jennifer Maruno, illustrations by Miki Sato

Breathtaking collage art and exquisite rhyming couplets showcase fantastical dreams as the natural world is prepared for a new day in this gentle bedtime book.

As the day ends and a little girl is put to sleep by her mother, night-helper bunnies work their magic to tidy and polish the world. These helpers paint flowers, dust butterflies, and charge rainbows to make the world a beautiful place to wake up to.

Miki Sato’s collage art, which combines paper, textiles, and embroidery silk, creates a...

REVIEW: The Cat in the Christmas Tree by Callie Smith Grant

Christmas is a time for joy, wonder, and a little bit of mischief. Does any creature manifest these attitudes better than a cat? Their fascination with all those breakable ornaments on the tree and their appreciation of a cozy spot to nap seem made for the season. The way they alternate between calm and crazy echoes the way we all feel at Christmas, doesn’t it? And that’s just what you get with The Cat in the Christmas Tree.

This collection of true, feel-good holiday stories by various writers...

REVIEW: On My Honor by Patty Smith Hall

A Girl Scout Troop Joins the Battle of the Atlantic

Full of intrigue, adventure, and romance, this new series celebrates the unsung heroes—the heroines of WWII.

Ginny Mathis was finished with nursing school and had no intention of staying rooted in the Outer Banks—then war broke out. With her father away, she feels duty-bound to stay and help her mother and younger sister. While working as a clerk for the Oregon Inlet ferry, naval officers ask Ginny and others to be watchful for German U-boats...

REVIEW: Home for Hanukkah by Rebecca Crowley

He’s looking for one last miracle…

Zach Strauss may be down, but he’s not out. His Bay Area biotech start-up has crashed, leaving him broke, but it’s only temporary until he can raise more money—or so he tells himself. Failure isn’t an option, and Zach’s always been able to sell anyone on anything. But back in his hometown, he finds himself in the unfamiliar position of needing a job.

After a childhood of instability, Noa Jacob purchased Second Chance, a thrift store-turned-boutique in Orchard...