Rhoda Baxter's Blog, page 11

Book review: My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa

I picked this up because it was written by a Sri Lankan author and I was told had a lot about Sri Lanka in it. What I was not expecting the Sri Lankan parts to be set in what Ratmalana, which is an area I know well. And I wasn’t expecting there to be the little references which felt like a little zing of recognition each time I saw one. I really enjoyed that.

It’s been a long time since I read a thriller. And this is an excellent thriller. It has a properly unreliable narrator, where n...

Book review: The Buy-In by Emma St Clair

I had never read anything by Emma St Clair before. I grabbed this book on Netgalley because I saw that it was a sweet or low heat romcom and it sounded like fun. I’m so glad I did.
The Buy In is sweet in every sense of the word. It has a whole lot of heart. The story centres around Lindy who has abandonment issues, and Pat who is a ex pro football player with a tendency to be impulsive (he has ADHD, which is discussed in the context of being part of who he is). It’s a second chance romance be...

The Grooms Wore White by Charlie Lyndhurst

This story is women’s fiction/ general fiction rather than romance and it centres around Jason who is a wedding planner, nearing his 40s and who has a long term partner in Pete; Mel who is in her 40s, suddenly single and grappling with being a single mum after all these years; and Harriet, who is another wedding planner, slightly younger than Jason, who is actively homophobic at the start of the book. Harriet is definitely not the most likeable, but she does go through a huge character chang...

Book review: Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

I spotted this book on Netgalley and requested it straight away. Chicklit, but Nigerian. Brilliant.
Yinka is single and this is not acceptable to her mother… or most of the aunties. Her cousin is getting married and she needs to find a date before the wedding, or she’ll never hear the end of it. And then, just to make things worse, she gets made redundant.

Yinka is relatable as a young woman whose life straddles two cultures. I loved the scene where Yinka’s friends from her two ‘worlds’ ...

Book Review: The Love Hyspthesis by Ali Hazelwood

A book about a biochemist and computational biologist with loads of biochem references – I’m pretty much the exact target audience for this book, so it’s no surprise that I loved it.
I adored Olive’s nerdiness and her passion for her work. I also liked the way Adam was baffled by her. Explicit demi-sexual rep too, which you don’t see that often in US set romance.

Olive doesn’t date, but she needs to persuade her friend that she’s dating someone, so she kisses the first guy she can find, wh...

Playing For Love (by Jeevani Charika) is out today!

My alter ego, Jeevani Charika has a new book out today! Playing For Love is a romcom. Here’s a tweet that tells you all about it (in the style of a Reddit post):

I (28F) am in love w my computer game buddy (??M) but he’s not interested because he’s in love w someone IRL. Also, there’s this IT guy at work (30M) who’s asking me out. He’s cute, but he’s not gamer guy, is he? Advice please. PLAYING FOR LOVE. Out NOW: books2read.com/PFL

Tweet

BUy now

‘LOVED it… Romantic, witty, insight...

Book Review: Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall

Lisa heads up a podcast about true crimes called Murder Most actual. Her wife Hanna is a investment banker. They have been slowly drifting apart over the years and this holiday in a remote Scottish Highland hotel is Hanna’s way of trying to get them back together, except things go very wrong, and one of the guests gets murdered, and then several other guests also get murdered sequentially. Lisa turns amateur detective and uses her expertise from the podcast to try and solve the mystery.
The myste...

Book Review: How To Lose An Earl In Ten Weeks

How to Lose an Earl in Ten Weeks is a delight!
Essie is irreverent, headstrong and witty. Aidan is reserved, kind and very sarcastic. Their conversations were so much fun. I particularly liked how Essie’s voice was vivacious and young – she was believably eighteen.

Can I also say, I love the title!

I was offered an ARC of this book by the publisher (thank you!). I raced through it in a couple of days (which is quite fast for me!). With romantic intrigue and all the talk of the ton, it...

Advent Calendar, Day 25

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Advent Calendar, Day 24

Day 24: Hot chocolate and anticipation.