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Category: B reviews (Page 66 of 74)
Why I read it: My book twin Brie told me it was one of her favourite books from 2011 so I had to read it.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Beth and Jennifer know their company monitors their office e-mail. But the women still spend all day sending each other messages, gossiping about their coworkers at the newspaper and baring their personal lives like an open book. Jennifer tells Beth everything she can’t seem to tell her husband about her anxieties over starting a family. And Beth tells Jennifer everything, period.
When Lincoln applied to be an Internet security officer, he hardly imagined he’d be sifting through other people’s inboxes like some sort of electronic Peeping Tom. Lincoln is supposed to turn people in for misusing company e-mail, but he can’t quite bring himself to crack down on Beth and Jennifer. He can’t help but be entertained-and captivated- by their stories.
But by the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late for him to ever introduce himself. What would he say to her? “Hi, I’m the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you.” After a series of close encounters and missed connections, Lincoln decides it’s time to muster the courage to follow his heart . . . even if he can’t see exactly where it’s leading him.
Written with whip-smart precision and charm, Attachments is a strikingly clever and deeply romantic debut about falling in love with the person who makes you feel like the best version of yourself. Even if it’s someone you’ve never met.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): This is an unusual book. Lincoln and Beth don’t actually (knowingly) speak or engage with each other until very near the end of the book. Usually, I’d hate that kind of story. I hated Sleepless in Seattle with a passion – Tom and Meg had like ONE SCENE together!! (Ditto with Serendipity). But, for the most part, it worked for me here. I think, that is mostly because the book is told from Lincoln’s POV. When I’m reading Beth and Jennifer’s emails, he is reading Beth and Jennifer’s emails. Lincoln is very present in the story – in the chapters comprised of emails, the reader IS Lincoln. In the other chapters, we are in Lincoln’s head.
The story is set in 1999/2000 and recalls the furore of the Y2K bug (which turned out to be nothing) – a time when not everyone had a mobile (cell) phone and social media was fairly new. It seems like such a long time ago now! When Lincoln first starts reading Beth’s emails, she is in a long term relationship and it does seem hard to imagine that there is a HEA at the end. But, hang in there, there really is.
It took me a little while to get a handle on Lincoln because he came across to me at first as being this uber geek with a monobrow and no personal hygiene. But, it turns out he‘s a handsome but very shy and sensitive nerd. He’s smart and funny but he lacks confidence to the degree that he finds it very difficult to socialise and setbacks have a greater impact on him than they would perhaps on others.
I liked Lincoln. He was uncomfortable with the voyeurism attached to reading Beth and Jennifer’s emails, even if at least part of it was his actual job. But he was also understandable. He was lonely and longed for connection and witnessing Beth and Jennifer’s friendship gave him some by proxy. Also, once he worked out that Beth called him “My Cute Guy” – well seriously, who wouldn’t look then?
The story didn’t wash that all away in a tide of Tru-Luurve (TM) which I was glad about – over the course of the book, Lincoln made quite a few changes in his life, culminating in steps which meant he was separated from Beth for a while. When they did get together, it was a healthier scenario than if they had hooked up immediately after he was reading her email.
I also liked Beth and Jennifer and some of their emails were hilarious.
<<Jennifer to Beth>> Now that I think about it, we’ve known each other six years, and I’ve never seen you in a bathing suit. Or a tank top.<<Beth to Jennifer>> Not a coincidence, my friend. I’ve got the arms of a Sicilian grandmother. Arms for picking olives and stirring hearty tomato sauces. Shoulders for carrying buckets of water from the stream to the farmhouse.<<Jennifer to Beth>> Has Chris seen your shoulders?<<Beth to Jennifer>> He’s seen them. But he hasn’t seen them.<<Jennifer to Beth>> I get it, but I don’t get it.<<Beth to Jennifer>> No sleeveless negligees. No direct sunlight. Sometimes when I’m getting out of the shower, I shout, “Hey, look, a bobcat!”<<Jennifer to Beth>> I’ll bet he falls for that every time.
There was a subplot involving Jennifer which was kind of hard for me to read because it is one of my personal hot buttons.
The idea of a man falling in love with you because of who you are, without even knowing what you look like, what your voice sounds like, how tall you are, what you smell like – that’s pretty attractive I think and when Lincoln does see Beth, he likes (loves) what he sees, so his devotion to her is rooted in all the best things. And, given her relationship history, someone who will love her this way is just what she needs and I don’t believe she will ever take it for granted. Their relationship is not one of gratitude though – there is genuine liking, attraction and sympatico between the two.
What else? I enjoyed the secondary characters – Doris the lady who refills the vending machines, Lincoln’s Dungeons and Dragons friends and Justin (his clubbing buddy) and I enjoyed watching the changes Lincoln made in his life.
But even though this book worked for me, I would have liked more of Lincoln and Beth together, so I’m going with a B for the grade.
Grade: B
Why I read it: I’m a fan of Sarah Mayberry books and when I saw Dear Author had a review up (which I haven’t actually read yet) it reminded me that I hadn’t bought this one yet. So I rectified that, stat. After the previous book I finished reading, I felt like a reliably good contemporary so I opened it up.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) The definition of a happy man? The guy who knows exactly what he wants and has it. That’s Harry Porter. He’s got the perfect job, the best buddies and no commitments beyond the next good time. It’s the ideal life.Then he stops to help Pippa White when she’s stranded by the side of the road. He’s known—and liked—her for a while, but as the ex of a friend, she’s entirely off-limits. And as fun as the banter with her is, Harry knows single moms are out of his league.So why all the excuses to see Pippa again
and again? And why can’t he stop thinking about her? But most puzzling of all is how Harry suddenly wants to swap a night with the boys for one with
only Pippa!
What worked for me (and what didn’t): How unusual is it to have working class main characters? Pippa is struggling to finish her teaching degree and working part time in a gallery as well as raise her 6 month old daughter. Money is tight. Harry is a mechanic. No billionaires or CEO’s in sight. It was a refreshing change to see a couple who could have grown up down the road from where I did get their own story and HEA. The depictions are realistic – I grew up at the lower end of the socio-economic scale and this felt familiar to me. Also, my best friend from school married a mechanic. (He still fixes my car).It was also nice to see a couple in their thirties. Not all that much was made of their ages – Pippa is even a whole year older than Harry and it wasn’t featured at all in the story arc. I didn’t get married until I was nearly 31 so again, I can relate.Harry likes to be unencumbered – and not just relationally. Over the course of the book, Harry realises that maybe it’s time to re-evaluate the whole “footloose and fancy free” deal. His father owns a workshop – Harry did his own apprenticeship there but he has never wanted the hassle of owning his own business and so after he finished his apprenticeship, he deliberately sought work elsewhere. He’s made it clear for years that he doesn’t want the burden of the workshop. When Harry’s father decides to take yes for an answer however, Harry is surprised how this makes him feel. There were a number of things in the story pushing Harry to change, not just his relationship with Pippa. He sees his best mate Steve in a new light (and yeah, okay that indirectly has something to do with Pippa, but…), his thoughts about his employment future. These things, combined with Pippa, seeing how she has had to embrace “being a grown-up” because of her daughter; all these things have an impact on Harry.
Pippa doesn’t change much through the story. She falls in love but there isn’t much by way of character growth required. It is Harry who has to shift to be HEA material. I love stories like this because I’m mostly all about the hero. Harry is always a good guy – he doesn’t treat people badly or lie to women about what he’s up for but, essentially, he has to grow up and realise that there’s more to life than being Peter Pan. And, over the course of the book, he finds that those things are things he wants. That it’s time. I spent enough time in Harry’s head that I understood and believed his progression.
Pippa deals with the realities of single-parenting and she’s not blind to the relationship-killer that a small child can be.
Alice was utterly dependent on Pippa, and if listening to her daughter cry made Harry break out in hives and want to shimmy out the window on a rope made of sheets…well, this was going to be the shortest-lived inappropriate affair in the history of the world.
Fortunately Harry is not fazed by a crying child and neither she, nor I, had to hate him.
Harry is good with his hands – he can tune up cars and women (especially Pippa) with equal ease. I love a good handyman, don’t you? 🙂 The build up of sexual tension was fun and the scene where Pippa gets an eyeful of Harry’s crotch when he’s on a ladder fixing her ceiling was hilarious. Come to that, there is a bit of physical humour in the book which I enjoyed – not over the top slapstick, but the sort of thing that actually happens (not that I’m admitting anything, mind you).
He frowned, then entered the room fully. She slid farther away, instinctively wanting as much distance between herself and the source of her humiliation as possible, only to overbalance and slip backward into the tub. Her head hit the wall behind the bath with a thunk and she wound up with her ass in the tub and her legs bent over the side. She pressed her palms to her face.
If the world exploded in a ball of fire right this second, she would be grateful and happy. She wanted to die.
I got the impression that Pippa isn’t a stick figure. Not a lot is made of her physique in the book. She is large breasted and full bottomed and I got the impression of an average woman, complete with a belly and everything. Harrydoesn’t notice any physical flaws and Pippa doesn’t have a poor body image, so it wasn’t a big deal. I like the idea of a heroine who might have a bit of cellulite. It is somehow comforting.
One thing I did notice in this book (and actually, also in Within Reach) was the Pippa didn’t seem to have any close female friends. I’m not sure if it is more about the category word count, but it struck me as a little odd that she wouldn’t have a close female friend or two. Instead, apart from her mother, Pippa was very much alone, until Harry comes along.
Steve is a piece of work but Ms. Mayberry does manage to show his motivations. While they don’t make him any less of a douche, it did provide context and dimension to his character. I wondered whether Harry would adopt Alice at some point and what that might do to his friendship with Steve. And, speaking of Steve, it wasn’t quite clear to me how Harry and Steve were going to manage their friendship going forward. That’s okay, the story wasn’t about Steve and Harry after all, but even though there was some resolution between them about Harry hooking up with Steve’s ex girlfriend and the mother of his (heretofore unacknowledged) daughter, the mechanics of it were unspecified and it was something I was curious about. I grew up in a working class suburb and I’m sure this kind of thing actually happens.
What else? I really need to read All They Need now because that features Harry’s sister Mel and it is apparently where he first appeared. Mel and Flynn made important cameos in this book and I’m curious about their story. Note to self: dig it out of Mr. TBR.
Grade: B+
Why I listened to it: I’ve listened to all of Molly Harper’s other books and realised I had missed this one. So I picked it up from Audible and pressed play.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Baring It All. Generations of werewolves have been secretly residing in a secluded valley a stone’s throw from Grundy, Alaska. So when a snooping Outsider comes to Grundy to investigate rumors of lycanthropic shenanigans in the area, the valley’s pack alpha, Maggie Graham, resolves to chase him away, even if doing so takes a quick bite on the butt. What a pity that researcher Nick Thatcher turns out to be so drool-worthy, and that his kisses make Maggie want to sit up and beg. Maggie just can’t seem to convince Nick to leave . . . and even worse, she can’t convince herself to stay away from him. Cross-species dating is problem enough for a harried alpha female, but on top of that, a rival group of werewolves is trying to move into the valley. With interpack war threatening, Maggie can’t afford to be distracted. Combining romance and a career can be tough for anyone; for a werewolf in love with a human, it may be disastrous. . . .
What worked for me (and what didn’t): I actually enjoyed this one more than the first book in the series. Maggie seemed to have undergone a personality transplant since the events in book 1 and I was grateful as I realy didn’t like her much before.
There do seem to me to be a lot of similarities between the various Molly Harper heroines, so I guess they are best read or listened to with some space between them, but they are reliably good fun listens for me. Ronconi nails the narration as usual and delivers the humour with impeccable timing and a dash of snark; just as it was meant to be I’m sure.
I think I missed the bit where Nick fell for Maggie – the story seemed to skip over that bit and jump right to he was interested. I went with the flow but really, there wasn’t much explanation as to why he was so immediately fascinated by her, particularly as she wasn’t at all encouraging. Nick was a bit different to the other Harper heroes I’ve encountered – maybe he’d be described as beta? He came across as very confident and capable but also completely not threatened by Maggie’s own authority and he was not interested in undermining her or taking over. He wasn‘t wimpy, but a buff sexy nerd with a lot of patience and persistence. I found his confidence in his own feelings for Maggie and his willingness ot wait for Maggie to catch up refreshing and adorable.
I suppose the werewolf mythology in this series is a little out of left field, particularly given the ending. It didn’t bother me but maybe purists would have an issue?
I don’t think there is anything earth-shattering about this book but it gave me quite a few laughs and when get that out of a book, I count it as a success.
Grade: B
Why I read it: I picked this one up from NetGalley. I have enjoyed the others in this series and I like LB Gregg’s writing style.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Holden Worthington’s globetrotting days are over. Once the host of a popular adventure show, he hasn’t ventured past his own front door in more than a year. Then the arrival of a sexy new gardener sparks something Holden hasn’t felt in a very long time—an interest in the world outside his window.
Holden tries to resist the attraction. But painfully shy yet definitely interested Adam Morgan has Holden longing to conquer his debilitating anxiety and live again. After a grisly discovery on the grounds of the estate, the town of Smithfield turns a suspicious eye on the reclusive Holden—and the two men must trust in each other to bring the truth out in the open.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): LB Gregg has a quirky writing style which mostly suits me I think. Even though her characters are very different from book to book and series to series, there is an overarching authorial style which bleeds through. The style is simple and direct and easy to read and funny, sometimes in unexpected ways which make me back up and re-read to fully appreciate it.
The dog gave a miniature bark. “I need to take the dog out,” my brother said as if he owned a dog.
“Holden, I got a dog.”
I suppose that Adam has Aspberger’s syndrome but it isn’t explicitly spelled out. He has difficulty reading social cues and this has made it challenging for him to be openly gay as misunderstandings can lead to fist fights. What it did though, was force Holden to be direct and specific so that Adam clearly understood his message. (I actually heard someone on a podcast recently suggest that all men would benefit in being spoken to as if they had Aspberger’s because it would stop a lot of misunderstandings). Adam wasn’t weak though – it is Holden who can’t leave the house. It made for a nice balance between them and gave an opportunity to show Adam as being strong and smart when he was the younger (by 16 years) and less experience partner. Because both of them had their weaknesses, I found it easier to believe they would also see each other’s strengths and the age difference would therefore not have a huge impact. I think if Holden hadn’t been agoraphobic he could easily have seen Adam as less than equal. As it was, he was forced to acknowledge his own weakness and Adam’s greater ability in that area and that evened things out I think.
I like how the Men of Smithfield series is only loosely linked – you could really read any one of the books out of order and miss nothing of any significance. Trooper Tony Gervase only appears when he has a job to do in the story and there are no cameos without a plot driven reason, which is nice to see.
The mystery made sense and had a satisfying ending and by the end of the book, I was confident that Holden had started to get a handle on his agoraphobia and would eventually be able to enjoy life outside even if I wasn’t convinced he would ever be a world traveller again. The story does take place over only a few days so there is a bit of suspension of disbelief necessary to accept the mutual “I love you” exchanged so early, but I was prepared to go with it.
I don’t quite have a picture in my head of how big Smithfield is but I hope it has a large gay populations because I’d love to read more stories set here.
What else? There was one thing I found a bit difficult to reconcile. Holden describes himself during the course of the book as a gay man who “flames” and also as a “rugged and manly” man. He also doesn’t like gay men who “swish”. I thought flaming and being swishy were version of the same thing but I’m no expert on the subject. I can’t quite get my head around a rugged flamer combo. This made it a little difficult to get a handle on Holden actually. I felt my mental piture of him was unclear. It’s a small niggle really I guess and I did enjoy the book even if the whole romance was tremendously fast.
Grade: B
Why I read it: I bought this one after seeing a B+ review from Ridley (who doesn’t hand out the high grades willy-nilly). She promised me tears but a happy ending, so I bought it. She was right.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) “I’m going to miss you. Every minute of every hour…” With those words, Julia’s husband stepped into his taxi and was gone. Evan McDonald. Julia’s lifeline–and the doting father of her two beautiful children. From the moment she’d first spotted him in high school so many years before, Julia had “known” they’d always be together.
Now…Evan’s business trip to Colombia becomes deadly when he’s kidnapped, and Julia is thrown into a tailspin of horror…and waiting.
For five tortured years Julia does whatever it takes to bring Evan home. Despite her grief and rage at losing the man she loves, she vows to keep struggling. Until she receives a call that shatters her hopes of Evan’s return. “But then…”
What worked for me (and what didn’t): There were tears. Julia loves (loved?) Evan so much and they had such a happy marriage – not perfect and unrealistic but genuinely a happy partnership, filled with love and affection and passion. I’ve seen them about the place from time to time (- I like to think, in fact, that I have one myself.) When Evan is kidnapped soon after arriving in Colombia, Julia starts a 5 year long campaign to bring him home. Her hopes are finally dashed when she is given the news that Evan has died.
After fighting for his safe return for so long, after keeping her hope up, Julia is left with nothing to hang on to. She has been writing intermittently to Evan since he left but she can’t do that anymore. She knows she had to be strong for her children and somehow find the strength to move on with her life but her grief is unbearable. (Just as well my hubby didn’t see me bawling, he laughs at me when I cry in books or movies).
She was worn down from the need to be strong for Shelly and Jason, from pretending she believed she could build a life worth living without Evan and from getting up every morning knowing the fight was over and that she’d lost.
When, about halfway through the book, we meet David Prescott, a writer who is caretaking the cottage Julia is staying in, I was seriously worried. How could the author pull a HEA out of this? It may have been 6 months since Julia found out Evan had died but, for me, in page time, it was more like 6 paragraphs. Too soon! Nooooo! I tweeted that I was seriously doubting the HEA promise. I didn’t think I could accept David as a new partner for Julia; not so soon. I only had 80 or so pages to go. I wanted to wail some more. I mean, I liked David. I wanted him to be happy. But with Julia? Could I get on board with that?
What made it harder for me to accept a potential new partners is that the letters Julia had written to Even in the previous 5 years were still being interspersed throughout the book – making it that much harder for me to be ready for Julia to move on.
And I’ll tell you that I love you, over and over again, so often that it will echo in your mind when you’re sleeping.
I do it now.
Can you hear me?
*sobs*
I won’t say how, that’s to be discovered in reading the book, but, there IS a happy ending. That’s not to say that I didn’t have some questions right at the end or that I thought parts of the ending were a little under-developed, but, the story being told in this book was complete and it did end up happy.
There were a couple of unfortunate editing/typo errors which bugged me quite a bit – main character’s names were mixed up at crucial times and it had the effect of diluting the emotion for me. I was settled in for an angsty tearjerker read and I didn’t like being yanked out of the story that way.
What else? This book didn’t work quite as well for me as it did Ridley. Partly that was because (even though I knew this going in) Julia and Evan aren’t together in the book very much – that’s something that will usually keep me from reading altogether as it’s not my favourite thing. That I did read it and gave it such a high grade, says something. While this book was very much Julia’s story, I would have loved to have seen more of Evan and what happened to him. Although, I accept that would have made the book a very different story indeed.
Still, Ridley did promise tears and a HEA and that’s what I got so I’m not complaining. 🙂
Grade: B
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