Jane Litte's Blog, page 94

REVIEW: Her Pretend Christmas Date: A Cider Bar Sisters Novella by Jackie Lau

She’s home for the holidays with her starchy fake boyfriend…

Although she’s the fun and outgoing one, Julie Tam has always lived in the shadow of her older sister, Charlotte. Now Charlotte has a good career and a great boyfriend whom their parents love, and Julie has neither of those things.

Her blind date with Tom Yeung is disastrous; however, he’s exactly the sort of guy her parents would like—a methodical, strait-laced pharmacist who even folds his underwear and wears paisley ties. So, she ...

REVIEW: Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan

Dear Tashie Bhuiyan,

I picked up your romantic contemporary YA novel, Counting Down with You, after it was nominated for the Goodreads Awards in the Young Adult Fiction category. It didn’t win but I am glad it was nominated because I wouldn’t have found it otherwise.

Karina Ahmed is a sixteen-year-old Bangladeshi-American high school student and her parents are demanding. They expect her to excel in math and become a doctor, to stay away from boys (especially white boys), to not wear anything r...

Review: A Very Genre Christmas by Kim Fielding

Very little is merry in a private dick’s world.

Private detective Nick Bozic works the mean streets of 1950s Portland, Oregon, shadowing unfaithful spouses and nabbing thieving employees. He may be lonely, but at least he’s not crooked. Despite the festive season, Christmas simply means less dough in his pocket.

With the holiday only a few days away, a regular client drops a new case on him: yet another being has come through the Rift and needs help finding his way home. Maybe Evindal the elf w...

REVIEW: Daughter of the Sea by Elisabeth J Hobbes

On a windswept British coastline the tide bestows an unexpected gift…

It was the cry that she first noticed, the plaintive wail that called to her over the crash of winter waves. Wrapped only in a sealskin, the baby girl looks up at Effie and instantly captures her heart.

Effie has always been an outcast in her village, the only granddaughter of a woman people whisper is a witch, so she’s used to a solitary existence. But when Midsummer arrives so too does a man claiming to be the child’s fath...

REVIEW: Saving Meg: A Regency Romance Novella by Jayne Davis

A soldier returns to keep a promise—but it will prove more difficult than he imagined.

Lieutenant Jonathan Lewis is devastated when his best friend, Fred, is fatally injured on the battlefield. He willingly promises to take care of Fred’s sister and mother—after all, he has been quietly in love with Fred’s sister, Meg, for years.

After a grueling retreat across Spain, Jon finally returns to find England in the grip of a snowy winter. Thoughts of Meg have kept him going, but when he reaches her...

REVIEW: The Substitute Bridegroom by Charlotte Louise Dolan

Elizabeth Goldsborough was enjoying a London season that promised marriage to that handsome gentleman, Simon Bellgrave. But an accident involving arrogant Captain Darius St. John stole her happiness. She was forced to accept St. John’s honorable offer of marriage, though she knew he had no interest in her. How was she to bear being married in name only, when she found herself falling in love with her bridegroom?

Regency Romance by Charlotte Louise Dolan; originally published by Signet

Dear Ms....

CONVERSATION: 2021 in Review

Janine: I’ve noticed that my reading habits change a little from year to year. Some years I read more or fewer books than usual. Some years I discover new favorite authors. At times a genre shifts in a direction that isn’t as likely to engage me while another becomes more exciting. There are years when I look forward to tropes that once bored me and years when certain character behaviors become intolerable. My preferences as far as emotional tones can change too–there have been years when angs...

REVIEW: Second Chance Under the Stars by Tara Pammi

Devi Kolleru is about to say goodbye to her oldest friend, Kiran, but something has changed and now it feels impossible. Could this Diwali be the right time for these friends to become lovers under the stars?

Dear Ms. Pammi,

I’m catching up on some holiday fiction I didn’t realize was out there. Readers looking for a short but sweet “friends to lovers” story that includes a bit about Diwali need to check this one out.

Devi Kolleru was helping her “friend since forever” Kiran Reddy pack up h...

REVIEW: Dillon’s Promise by Cheryl Reavis

“Cinda Richards brings you the lovable, roguish, obstinate, utterly unforgettable Scotsman Dillon Cameron. Haunted by a deathbed promise, and shocked to learn that, in a moment of wrenching grief, he fathered a child by his best friend’s American widow, Dillon storms Thea Kearney’s cottage, intent on claiming “his lasses.” But Thea and her baby daughter have little use for such a heartbreaking rover now. Drawing on Scots legends and the magic of the sea swept highlands, Richards weaves a tale ...

JOINT REVIEW: House on Fire by Jenn Burke

He’s done fighting his attraction to the sexy vampire…

To say former firefighter Colin Zhang is struggling to accept his new life would be a vast understatement. He’s bound to a vampire he didn’t choose, living in a house filled with creatures better left to the imagination—there’s a lot to resent. As much as he tries, he doesn’t resent Evan—far from it. But he needs to know that what he feels is real and that requires breaking their bond. No matter the cost.

Vampire private investigator Evan Fo...