Category: Adult Fiction

My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh | Book Review

Posted March 9, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 2 Comments

My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh
Series: Holidays With Hart #1
Published by Sweethaven Press on February 8, 2023
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Pages: 373
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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A chance meeting. A hunky hockey player. A fake romance.
Hardly an ordinary day in the life of Poppy Hart.

My days usually consist of agonizing over my failing restaurant, worrying about my mountain of debt and nursing my broken heart.

Everything changes when I bump into a man in the coffee shop and claim him as my new boyfriend. To my absolute horror, he turns out to be hockey’s most renowned bad boy, Dallas Burke. To my absolute delight, he goes along with my story.

When his no-nonsense manager and meddling grandmother jump in the picture, they see a win-win solution for my failing restaurant and Dallas’s less-than-stellar reputation.

A full-fledged fake romance complete with contract negotiations, pretend dates and phony PDA.

But as I get to know the real Dallas Burke, who is not the man the press says he is, it becomes clear that if this isn’t real. . . someone better tell it to my heart.

My Phony Valentine is my first book by Courtney Walsh, but it definitely will not be my last! I absolutely loved this story! If you’re in the mood for a sweet, romantic, fauxmance between a chef and a bad boy hockey player looking to spruce up his image, look no further! Poppy and Dallas are just the two love birds you need. They have the cutest, cringiest meet-cute ever in a coffee shop, where Poppy grabs onto the first guy she sees and claims him as her boyfriend when the local mean girl decides to rewind all the way back to high school. Dallas plays along, and pretty soon they strike up a deal to fake a romance. Poppy could use a little publicity for her ailing restaurant, and Dallas could use some good news associated with his name for once. It’s the perfect plan, and the small town of Loveland is just the place to get the rumors flying. Throw in a meddling grandmother and a loveable, yet pushy publicist and pretty soon Poppy and Dallas are gracing the front pages of magazines and online gossip columns, and catching some real feelings along the way.

I really loved reading about Poppy and Dallas! They’re both very sweet, wholesome cinnamon rolls who have some trauma in their pasts that give them depth and a reason to root for their happiness. I loved the small town vibes and Poppy’s cute restaurant. I loved Dallas’s Gram, who Poppy cooks for as she recovers from hip replacement surgery. She is spunky and caring. I loved going to hockey games and meeting Dallas’s teammates and their wives. What I loved most of all, though, is the conversations Dallas and Poppy have in the kitchen while she cooks and he watches (and then insists on cleaning up after). I enjoyed their time watching movies and accidentally falling asleep on the couch together. This is a closed-door romance, and I am finding myself loving these more and more as I continually find such lovely ones. There are some pretty amazing, toe-curling kissing scenes, which gave me all the swoons without the steam. And sometimes that’s exactly what I want! There’s also no strong language, another win for me.

All in all, My Phony Valentine was a delight! I loved Poppy’s sisters, and I have a feeling they will each be getting a book in this series in the future. Although. I really hope some of Dallas’s teammates get books as well. I loved them. If you loved The Cheat Sheet, you’ll love this too! Can’t wait for more Courtney Walsh!

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn | Book Review

Posted March 2, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 6 Comments

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Published by HarperAudio on March 29, 2022
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 448
Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
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The New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history's deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.

In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son--but Hitler's invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper--a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.

Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC--until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila's past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.

Hello. I am speechless. Kate Quinn is turning me into a historical fiction lover. Both books of hers that I’ve read have been 5 stars, and this one is even better! The Diamond Eye is stunning, riveting, exciting, suspenseful, romantic, heartbreaking, inspiring, hopeful, and compulsively readable. The audio version is fabulous. I could end my review right here but I probably shouldn’t. As always, my main points are bolded.

1. The Diamond Eye is based on true events. Mila Pavlichenko was a real person, and her personal memoirs were used to write much of this book. That just makes this so much better for me, because she is amazing! The synopsis is great, so I’m not going to go into all the particulars of her life, but Mila is so brave, honorable, and caring. She’s a cold sniper who has no trouble downing an enemy, but she also loves fiercely. She loves her son more than anything. She’s given her own platoon of soldiers to train and lead, and she loves them so much. She loves her sniper partner. She’s patient, sometimes laying in a hidden nest waiting for her target for days, and she’s got a steady hand. She’s cool under pressure, loyal to her country, and extremely talented at her job. She knows her worth as a woman and doesn’t let her male peers or superiors push her around or take advantage of her. She also doesn’t let the reporters get away with asking disrespectful questions. She joined the war in her very young 20s, and I’m in awe of her. She made a famous statement at a conference in the USA during her diplomatic tour that I just love:

“Gentlemen,” she said, “I am 26 years old and I have killed 309 fascist invaders by now. Don’t you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?”

2. The supporting characters were wonderful as well. Well, except for Mila’s slimy husband who seduced her and got her pregnant when she was barely 15, before abandoning both her and their son. She can’t get rid of him, though, and she runs into him a lot during her time on the battlefield. She has a bit of a romance with an officer, which I loved reading about. She has a nurse friend who takes care of her when she’s injured. Her platoon adores and respects her, which was so refreshing to see during this time period. I loved the strong bond she had with her sniper partner, Kostia. They had each other’s backs and trusted each other so intensely. During a time of war and loss, so many beautiful relationships were formed. (Since I listened, I have no idea how to spell most of the names in this book.) I also enjoyed her friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. It was quite sweet and tender, and lasted long after their respective countries no longer recognized each other as allies.

3. The battlefield scenes were so interesting. I loved reading about how Mila scouted out locations to make her sniper’s nest, the camouflage she spent hours meticulously constructing, the dummies she set out as decoys for the enemy, her checklist for how to take out a target, her rituals, and the toll it took on her mind and her body to do this. She’s spent hours hidden in a tree and days laying under leaves and branches in trenches.

4. Mila’s diplomatic tour was also very interesting to read about. She wanted nothing to do with the diplomatic life, the questions, the traveling, even the gifts. She wanted to be in her uniform in the trenches, not in a satin gown at another stuffy event. And honestly, I liked those parts of the book better than reading about her time in the USA. But the things she said in her speeches and the way she carried herself were impressive, and I really respect her.

5. There’ a LOT of suspense in this book, and it was gripping.

6. The reality of war means that some of the relationships Mila forms cause immense heartbreak in the end, and boy did I feel a lot of things during the course of this book. If you’re worried at all, know that I did not cry once. And I cry all the time. The Book Thief made me cry, but this book did not. There’s a lot of happy in the end.

7. The writing is stunning! So many passages took my breath away.

8. Definitely listen to the audio if you can. Saskia Maarleveld does accents and tone so perfectly that I could not stop listening to her.

9. The author’s note at the end of the book is absolutely essential, and tells which parts of the book are taken directly from Lyudmila’s personal memoirs and where Kate Quinn used her artistic license. Do not skip this part!

All in all, The Diamond Eye is a new favorite novel of mine! I’m not a fan of historical fiction, but I love Kate Quinn’s books. The word I keep thinking of when I think of this book is “stunning”. Everything about The Diamond Eye left me breathless and wanting more. From the cold battlefields of Sevastopol, to the glittering city of New York, I could not pull myself away from Mila’s story. I’ve just added Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin’s Sniper by Lyudmila Pavlichenko to my to-read list. I want to learn more about her! And I can’t wait to read more from Kate Quinn!

Snug in Iceland by Victoria Walker | Book Review

Posted February 23, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 7 Comments

Snug in Iceland by Victoria Walker
Series: Icelandic Romance #1
Published by Ever After Books on October 1, 2021
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 234
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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Rachel Richards is stuck in a rut. Her boyfriend Adam barely notices her most of the time and her life in London isn’t as exciting as it should be. When the company she works for, Snug, asks her to oversee the opening of a new store in Iceland, she jumps at the chance for a change of scenery. Exploring Reykjavik with the help of Icelandic tour guide Jonas, Rachel discovers that life is out there waiting to be lived. As she falls in love with Iceland, she begins to see what is important to her and wonders whether the life she left behind is what she wants after all…

Look at that cover. Iceland! Romance! Snug in Iceland had all the makings of a story made for me. Well… buckle up, friends, because I have things to say. And it’s going to be a big mash of words because my head is all over the place. There’s no organization to this review, and I might repeat myself. There also might be some spoilers. A book that does this to me is not worth it, trust me.

Things I Liked:

The cover.
The setting. In theory (more on this later).

Things I Didn’t Like:

The heroine, Rachel. I couldn’t stand her. She’s a major, major doormat. Her boyfriend walks all over her and she absolutely lets him. She has no spine whatsoever. She’s boring, and she’s extremely bland. There’s absolutely no substance to her.
I have no clue what Jonas is like. He seems nice, but there’s nothing to him. He’s a fuzzy blur against a snowy background. That’s it for me.
The romance between Rachel and Jonas was never developed to a satisfying place. Rachel should have broken up with her boyfriend, Adam, way earlier, because I just kept getting annoyed at the double standard. She suspects Adam of cheating on her while she’s been emotionally cheating on him and even kissed Jonas. But Adam is the only one who is doing something wrong, even though she’s stringing him along while trying to decide if she should dump him. Furthermore, I highly doubt she would have even dumped him if a better option hadn’t come along for her to switch over to, and that made me lose whatever respect I had for her (if any). It’s ok to be alone if you’re unhappy with your partner. You’ll be ok not in a relationship. The back and forth of “oh, but Adam but also Jonas but oh no, Adam and I have been together for so long, but wow Jonas is so hot” got very old.
I can probably now write on my resume that I am qualified to open a retail store on my own. There was page after page after page of what was essentially a how-to manual for working retail and managing a new store opening. I was amazingly bored with it all. Why the floors must be restored instead of replaced, how to stock a stock room, how to interview creators, how much stock to order, how to set up shelving, the scientific reasons for why a cash register should be placed here instead of there, which throw pillows should be seen through the window from the outside, money and expenditures, bottom lines, why companies are acquired by other companies, and on and on. There was more time spent on work related conversations and explanations that on anything any reader would actually want to read about, such as romance, scenery, feelings, and character development. And oh my gosh, it took forever for us to learn how to unlock the tricky front door of this store. Why do I need to know the intricacies of unlocking a door?!
I thought the title “Snug in Iceland” sounded so cute and cozy! I was looking for a snuggly read with cuddling by the fire and snowy landscapes. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that “Snug” is the name of this retail store and there’s nothing snuggly about it. It’s like naming a book “Home Goods in Canada”.
This book takes place in Iceland. I should feel like I’m in Iceland! There was so much that could have been done with this stunning setting. The heroine rides long distances in a car, with no descriptions of what she’s seeing. She goes sightseeing, but no visuals are provided about what anything looks like. When Rachel finally sees the Northern Lights, we get a sentence or two about the green ribbon across the sky. That was IT, after the entire book built up hope that she would see them before she left. There was absolutely no creative writing whatsoever.
There were no descriptions of anything. I have no idea what Rachel or Jonas look like except that they’re hot. A knitted hat got more description than anything else.
SO basically, there was no depth.
The writing is just not good at all. The actual sentences and word choices were not good. The dialogue was flat, cliched, and emotionless. We’ve established that the descriptions were non-existent. There was also no character development, no sense of who anyone was or what their personalities were like, and the plot was extremely empty. The same things keep happening and he same things keep being said.
Other reviewers have indicated that the author seems to have done no research on Iceland apart from going there on vacation. I can’t speak to the validity of that, but I did feel that more could have been done to capture the culture and beauty of Iceland. I felt like I was reading a book set in London, and London is fine. Bu London is not Iceland.
The ending is very rushed and unsatisfying. Obstacles that had been there, preventing Jonas and Rachel from being together, simply melt away as soon as a little thought is put into their situation. It was a simple, basic, very frustrating ending. But at the same time, I was so glad it was over.

Well, there you have it. There’s a lot more I can say, but I’m tired of thinking about this book. I would not recommend Snug in Iceland, and I’m interested in finding another book set in Iceland that will do for me what I wish this one had. Any recommendations for me?

How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss by Jenny Proctor | Book Review

Posted February 2, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 3 Comments

How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss by Jenny Proctor
Series: Hawthorne Brothers #2
Also in this series: How to Kiss You Best Friend
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 337
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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Perry Hawthorne is my boss. Only my boss. And I do NOT have a crush.

When one of THE Hawthorne brothers—known by their chiseled jawlines and their family-run farm and event center—hires me to be his virtual assistant, I do everything I can to keep him firmly in the work zone.

His grumpy demeanor helps.

His smoking hot profile picture does not.

But even if I do have a crush (a very tiny one), I can’t catch real feelings for a million different reasons.

Besides the whole business part of our relationship, I’m a single mom. I have to think about what’s best for my son, Jack. And my grumpy, divorced, humorless boss isn’t exactly giving me “ready to be a stepdad” vibes.

When Perry upgrades me from virtual to in-person assistant, I wonder if I’ve gotten him all wrong. He’s actually pretty great with Jack. And with me? Let’s just say the chemistry crackling between us might vaporize all my reasons for keeping my distance.

Trouble is, after his messy divorce, I’m not sure Perry’s ready to bet on a new relationship. But it isn’t just my heart that’s on the line. It’s Jack’s, too. And after everything we went through before my husband died, I’m not sure that’s a gamble I’m ready to take, no matter how desperate Jack is for a daddy.

How to Kiss Your Best Friend is a sweet romantic comedy with all the sizzling kisses you want in a closed-door romance but no explicit scenes.

Ok. Have you ever REALLY wanted to love a book and it just didn’t happen? I cannot tell you how much I wanted to love How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss. After reading and not loving the first book in this series, How to Kiss Your Best Friend, a couple weeks ago enough groundwork had been laid that I really hoped that this second book would be better for me because there’s just something about these Hawthorne brothers and their family farm. Well, it was actually worse instead. As always, my main points are bolded.

1. Just like with How to Kiss Your Best Friend, I loved the setting. And we get to see even more of it in How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss, which means I love it even more! It’s now Fall in Silver Creek, and the Stonebrooke Farm is gearing up for their annual festival. There’s changing leaves, fall decorations, beautiful apple orchards, lots of apple eating, cuddly baby goats, and a troublesome pig. I loved the descriptions of the farm. I felt cozy reading them.

2. But now we get to the hard part. Just like I didn’t like Kate in How to Kiss Your Best Friend, I didn’t like Lila in this book. Again, Lila is so shallow. In the beginning, all readers hear about is how hot/sexy/brother of a hot, sexy celebrity Perry is. She likes his height, his beard, his face, his flannel, his voice, etc. He’s talking about how sweet she is, how smart she is, how her help has done wonders for his business, and yes, the fact that she’s also hot. But at least he mentions more than her looks. Lila takes forever to care about anything but his looks, and has a crush on him as soon as she finds out she’s his virtual assistant. Who cares about his personality, he looks hot in a picture online so clearly it’s time to start figuring out if she’s mourned her dead husband for long enough. I just wanted more substance from her. More depth. I’d like to know she cares more about who he is than what he looks like, but for a very long time that doesn’t seem to be the case. Lila acts like a silly schoolgirl, mooning over and picking apart every interaction she has with him. I also didn’t really like Lila’s son, Jack. He’s precocious and says some cute things, but his personality was a bit too cheesy for me overall.

3. Perry was a pretty flat character, which I wasn’t expecting because of the glimpses of his backstoryI sawi n the first book. He’s supposed to be a grump, but he’s not. lol. I was looking for a super grumpy, hard to like kind of guy who takes time to soften as he learns to trust again. His grump-factor is about equal to “I got 6 hours of sleep instead of 8”. He was grouchy sometimes, but he didn’t have the grump persona so he just came off as occasionally rude. Lila’s curves cure the grumpies for him very quickly, and then he’s a teddy bear. There wasn’t much else to him.

4. Usually with grumpy/sunshine combos in romance, there’s a slow burn that’s so deliciously satisfying. I love watching a grump warm up, but the romance in this goes from 0 to 100 in a heartbeat (much like Kate’s feelings over Brody in the first book). I didn’t even believe this romance. Perry went through a horribly bitter divorce and Lila was in an emotionally abusive marriage that she was days away from ending before her husband was killed in a military training exercise. Lila also has a child. These two people have obstacles and things to work through, but everything becomes so easy for them so quickly. There’s no angst, only instalove. Perry is trying to figure out how to be Jack’s dad after two brief interactions with him. You don’t go from “hey, look at this cute little boy glad he’s not mine” to “hey, I’m this little boy’s instant daddy look how much I love him” in such a short amount of time. Oh, and there’s an ultimatum given very prematurely by one of these characters that rubbed me the wrong way. These two get way ahead of themselves, and I kept rolling my eyes at how unrealistic it was. I’m all for the super cheesy Hallmark, rainbows and sunshine romance but this was too much even for me.

5. Similarly to how I felt with the first book, there’s a lot of repetition in this one. I skimmed a lot during the second half, just to get through it and I feel like I didn’t miss anything. Perry is hot. Lila is hot. Both of them run through exhausting monologues about the same relationship concerns over and over again. And, like the first book, they each have a running list of “what if” questions going through their minds all the time (and we have to read them all the time). And then they hash and re-hash these concerns and questions in their own minds, with each other, and with everyone they know. Multiple times. How is every main character in this series so tied up in knots all the time? It’s exhausting. I understand the reluctance and the worry that comes with a new relationship like this, but their actions do not mesh with their extreme anxiety so why did I have to keep reading the same things about it?

6. Perry and Lila have to do a little bit of a fake dating thing for his overnight high school reunion trip, and I liked parts of that. They have some pillow talk conversations that I enjoyed reading. During those couple chapters I thought maybe the book was turning around for me and that I was getting some real depth. But again, everything happened so fast. It went from fake to real in the blink of an eye. So fast that it didn’t even feel romantic. Oh, and there’s a scene during this part of the story with Perry’s ex-wife, who was so mean that I was actually real life mad about it. And the fact that this issue was “resolved” only because Perry had to go to his ex, a grown woman, and force her to apologize for what she said annoyed me. An apology under duress is not sincere at all, and everyone involved seemed satisfied with it. This isn’t elementary school.

7. I liked the apple puns at first and thought they were a cute flirtation device, but then they got old once the same ones started being reused.

8. I still love the rest of the Hawthorne family. I mean, besides the nauseatingly obvious hints from mama Hawthorne that she wants Perry and Lila to get together (because the family instaloves her too), I still like these people! And seriously, she about as subtle as a freight train. How can I be so torn?? Lennox’s book is next, followed by Flint’s (I’m assuming). And I still really like both these guys. Part of me doesn’t want to continue the series because I feel like plot devices and character traits keep being reused, but a part of me does want to continue because the guys are so great. I just wish these books got better heroines who weren’t so one-dimensional and shallow.

All in all, this book was a disappointment for me. I do think I’ll be continuing with the series, though, since it’s part of Kindle Unlimited. If I had to pay for them individually in order to continue reading, I wouldn’t. I do love those Hawthorne brothers, and there’s a part of me that wants to see how things go for them.

My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid | Book Review

Posted January 26, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 2 Comments

My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid
Series: Sinful Wallflowers #1
Published by Entangled Amara on December 31, 2019
Genres: Historical Romance, Romance
Pages: 375
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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Miss Katherine Danvers is a desperate wallflower. Her family is on the brink of financial ruin, and it is up her to save her mother and sisters from a life of indignities. So she transforms herself into the incomparable Kitty Danvers, the fiancée of the enigmatic and reclusive Alexander Masters, Duke of Thornton—once dubbed the mad, bad, and dangerous catch of the Season.

Ten years ago, society and the woman Alexander Masters loved called him a monster, after a tragic accident left him scarred and confined to a wheelchair. His heart exists in cold, lonely exile, until he learns he has a fiancée—a deceptive, clever, and utterly intriguing woman he's never met. Miss Danvers will now learn the consequences of engaging herself to the beast, for Alexander is determined to make her his. Soon, they are involved in a chase, a clash of wills, and though he once vowed to never love again, he burns for the enchanting Miss Danvers. And denying his heart may cost him an exquisite love that happens only once in a lifetime.

I’ve been on the hunt for more historical romance series to love since I discovered (and devoured) Lisa Kleypas’s books last year. So naturally, I went to Twitter and asked the romancelandia masses what I should do. Someone recommended Stacy Reid’s Sinful Wallflowers series, and since they’re on Kindle Unlimited I decided to give it a shot! My Darling Duke was a very fun book, and I’m definitely interested in continuing on with this series. As always, my main points are bolded.

1. Beauty and the Beast storyline! I love B&B retellings, so this was a major bonus for me. I think my favorite part of the entire book was Alexander’s meddling staff. They were more like family to him, and I loved eavesdropping on their gossip, whisperings, and orchestrations. They reminded me so much of Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, and Cogsworth.

2. I loved the premise of the book. Kitty proclaiming to the entire ton that she’s engaged to the beastly recluse who nobody has seen in years was a unique spin I haven’t read before. I enjoyed watching her try to figure out how to pull this off, especially once Alexander found out he’s engaged to someone he’s never met. It was such a lighthearted, fun way to force these two characters together.

3. I liked Kitty a lot. She’s brave, loyal to her family, and takes matters into her own hands to secure their future. She has absolutely no options for getting married, so she makes up an entire story and convinces everyone that it’s true! She becomes so popular and her sisters become highly sought after ladies. It’s unfortunate that life in these times was minimized to a huge popularity contest, but that’s how it was! Her making a mockery of it delighted me more than I expected it would. She’s funny and has a great head on her shoulders, too. I love how accepting she is of Alexander during a time when people who used wheelchairs were looked down upon or even feared by society. She is not at all concerned about what his accident means for a potential future and family with him, she just loves him. She never sees him as a beast, and that’s how it should be. She also calls him on his crap when he’s being frustrating, which I always applaud.

4. Alexander put me through many emotions. I loved reading about his relationship with his sister, Penny, and how kind he is to his staff. But he can also be very grouchy and self-deprecating. I empathize with him, though. His accident has left him in chronic pain and unable to be intimate with a woman, so of course he feels inadequate and unworthy of Kitty. He wants her to have the husband she deserves and he feels like he’s not good enough. I get it. Maybe I just have a problem with men who think they know what’s best for women better than women do. His constant “I want you, but you shouldn’t want me so bye” attitude was frustrating, but I suppose it’s a pretty realistic attitude to have especially when his previous bride-to-be left him because of his accident. I enjoyed watching him find confidence in himself by finally being loved for who he is. He no longer has to be ashamed of what he sees as weaknesses, but he struggles with breaking the habit of feeling ashamed. The pain he deals with, both physical and emotional, made me so sad for him. His thoughts about Kitty and his proclamations to her are very romantic, and the depth of his feelings for her had me swooning. So, lots of feelings with this guy!

5. The first part of the book was my favorite. I loved the build-up to Kitty’s and Alexander’s first meeting. The book slows down once she moves into his castle, something he insists upon for a little while if she wants him to keep up the ruse of their engagement. He wants a friend. I can see readers growing bored waiting for things to happen,.

6. The romance is a slow-burn, push and pull, high angst kind of romance. Because of Alexander’s injury, he and Kitty spend a lot of time talking instead of in the bedroom. They spend time rowing in the lake, picnicking in the trees, discussing his collection of treasures from around the world, and sitting by the fire. Kitty reads a lot. I really enjoyed their conversations and watching them go from strangers to friends to lovers. I enjoyed the moments of companionable silence. I found their conversations surrounding his injuries and how they have impacted him and how he’s altered his hopes for a future to be poignant and well done. The third-act break-up that inevitably always happens in romance novels was heartbreaking, and the angst felt so real. I could have done with more groveling, though. I love a good grovel. My biggest issue with their romance is pretty spoilery, so if you’re interested in reading my thoughts, continue. If not, jump below the spoiler warning to avoid it!

SPOILER BELOW!

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Alexander’s accident has left him impotent, but Kitty is so desirable to him that all of a sudden he finds himself getting turned on just by being around her, something that hasn’t happened with other women or even if he takes matters into his own hands (literally). And then they’re magically able to have sex multiple times a week and have the family they always dreamed of, the end. This didn’t feel realistic to me, and I wish the author had taken the opportunity to show that happily ever after looks different for many people. I would have loved an epilogue that was filled with ways they made a life together that didn’t involve sex and babies.

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NO MORE SPOILERS!

7. This book has great supporting characters. I mentioned Alexander’s staff before, but I really liked the other ladies in the Sinful Wallflowers club as well. I’m interested in reading their love stories! And I liked Kitty’s sisters, too.

All in all, I’m glad I read My Darling Duke! I enjoyed the unconventional way Alexander and Kitty met, the threads of Beauty and the Beast woven throughout, and the heartwarming cast of secondary characters. I was not completely satisfied with the romance, but it scratched an itch and I’m interested in reading the next book in the series. I hear it’s better than this one!