Fiction

How Not to Marry a Duke (Daring Ladies #2) by Tina Gabrielle

This is a sweet historical fiction romance set in Regency England. Adeline moves to her father’s country home after he dies and her despicable half-brother inherits their father’s title. Adeline’s mother was from the Middle East and was not accepted by the ton, and Adeline is not accepted much either. Daniel is the Duke of Warwick and has retreated to his country estate to work on his inventions. When the duo meet-cute courtesy of Adeline’s pet pig, it starts them on the path of a fake courtship for the remainder of the Season; Adeline to avoid a forced marriage by her half-brother, and Daniel to escape his matchmaking godmother and finish his work.

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April 22, 2023 0

Highland Beast (Sons of Sinclair #4) by Heather McCollum

This is a sweet historical fiction romance set in medieval Scotland. This is book 4 in the series, but can be read as a stand alone. This book focuses on the youngest brother, Bas Sinclair, dubbed the fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, Death. Not only a fierce warrior, he is the executioner of the clan’s Justice. He dreads his job but does his duty. However, the way all but his family fear and avoid him weighs heavily on him. He’s resigned himself to lead a lonely, solitary life, until one day Shana falls into his life. Literally.

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April 22, 2023 0

The Countess (The Scandalous Ladies of London #1) by Sophie Jordan

This fun, steamy historical fiction romance is about the lives of a group of affluent ladies reigning over glittering Regency-era London, vying for position in the hierarchy of the ton. They are the young wives, widows, and daughters of London’s wealthiest families. The drama is big, the money runs deep, and the shade is real. Life is different in the ton.

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April 18, 2023 0

Rebuilding Alexandra Small by Mo Fanning

This was a contemporary fiction novel set in England that follows the crumbling of Alexandra Small’s life as she goes through a very public divorce from her famous footballer husband. Alexandra works at a firm handling public relation problems for high profile clients. She and her husband are going through fertility treatments to start a family. We quickly discover that Alexandra’s husband is a bit more invested in starting a family that she is, and he dismisses any hesitation she expresses. We discover that he’s cheating on Alexandra when it’s splashed across the front pages of the tabloids. She moves out of their luxury apartment and into the cramped quarters of one of her best friends and her best friend’s child.

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April 18, 2023 0

Surrendering to the Duke by Stevie Sparks

I am excited to be a stop on Romance Me With Books tour of 𝑺𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒖𝒌𝒆 𝗯𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀. It’s available now on Kindle Unlimited so download it today!

This is a sweet, steamy historical fiction romance. The book touches on issues of grief, physical, sexual and mental abuse, and PTSD. There isn’t explicit descriptions of these triggers, and the author does a good job of focusing more on the path forward than the actual traumas.

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April 16, 2023 0

Blind Spots by Thomas Mullen

This was a pretty good science fiction mystery/thriller set in the near future after a mysterious illness caused the entire population of the planet to go blind. A device was created that approximates vision, downloading visual data directly to people’s brains. Mark Owens, a homicide detective, investigates a murder in which the witness claims that the murderer was blacked out of her vision. He doesn’t believe her until the same thing happens to him. Mark realizes that someone is manipulating the data everyone receives from their tech. This starts Mark down a dangerous path in which more lives are in jeopardy and Mark can’t trust what he sees with his own eyes.

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April 15, 2023 0

The Widows’ Pact by J.L. Cole

This is a slow burn story about two widows, 50 years apart in age. Evelyn is a 71 year old spunky, nosy busybody who isn’t afraid to dispense her opinion about someone else’s life. Evelyn is a recent widow & she befriends 27 year old Lena, who is also a recent widow. Lena is everything Evelyn is not. She is meek, mild, & numbly stumbling through life after the sudden death of her husband. As the two women strike up an unlikely friendship, we begin to learn more about each woman’s life. Lena begins to realize that her marriage wasn’t as idyllic as she thought, & that if she has any chance of a happy life, she needs to deal with her tragic past.

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April 8, 2023 0

Identifiable by Julia Tvardovskaya

3.5 stars rounded up

This is an interesting science fiction/fantasy. In this world people have a chip in their head that brings up everything about them. The first 13 years of your life are controlled by your parents, so you’re stuck with whatever they decide to upload. If you have controlling parents, you can’t control your profile until you turn 18. This happened to MC Rory. People are assigned to a brood. Each brood has defined parameters of what they do, what they believe & how they behave. People do not interact outside of their brood.

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April 8, 2023 0

A Bitter Remedy (The Oxford Mysteries #1) by Alis Hawkins

This is a twisty, engrossing historical fiction mystery/thriller set in 1881 Oxford that captured my attention from the start. The author developed two great characters in Basil Rice, an intelligent, nervous Jesus College fellow with a secret to hide (he’s gay), & Rhiannon “Non” Vaughan, a wickedly smart, fearless, outspoken, determined young Welsh woman newly admitted to university lectures at Jesus College.

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April 8, 2023 0