blewballoon's Reviews (763)

Delightful. This book gave me everything I wanted from the premise, and did it with respect and thoughtfulness. Really looking forward to more from this series. The audiobook was excellent, loved both narrators.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book, and I conceptually really liked the two main characters. However, this is a debut novel, and it does show. 

I felt like this book was in need of some heavy editing to straighten out some of the purple prose and to keep the continuity intact. Sometimes stairs appeared out of nowhere, sometimes characters said things that made no sense with the information they had, and these little plot wrinkles would break my immersion. The side characters could have used some fleshing out, they were a bit too flat. I also felt like Lorali cried an excessive amount; I started saying "she's crying again" out loud to my fiance every time it happened, which started to feel like once per chapter as the book went on. It felt a bit incongruous with the personality that had been established for her towards the beginning of the book. 

Complaints aside, this was a fun fantasy story with charming characters, and I liked the world building that was there. I think Elizabeth Skarpnes has a lot of potential as an author and I would definitely pick up whatever she writes next.

This is my first time reading Ali Hazelwood. I picked this book up just after finishing an awesome series of books by another author, so she was starting at a disadvantage. I also had an idea of what to expect based on what I've heard people say about Hazelwood's other books, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about them though. In the end, I liked this one despite everything going against it.

I did predict every single reveal, but to me that's often a sign that a book is well plotted. As someone who reads for characters more than plot, I did like these characters. I liked Jack very much, but that may partially be because we don't get his perspective. Elsie was okay, but she did the thing that annoys me in enemies-to-lovers FMCs where she is overly antagonistic and refuses to give any benefit of the doubt even though the animosity is one sided or could easily be resolved by a rational conversation.

I didn't love the audiobook narrator's actual voice, but I think their narration itself was fun and expressive. It was hard to tell, though, when she had switched from internal monologue to actually speaking out loud.

The proposal scene!!?!? I'm not normally a quotes person but:

"If we marry, I intend to fall in love with you"

followed by

"Be loud. Be opinioned. Be as much yourself as you wish, and then some. Once we're wed, you and I will answer to no one but each other."

Got me on the verge of tears during my work lunch. This book has moments like that AND has Tom Finchley appearances?? What more could I ask for!? That being said, I still feel like I have some unanswered questions and some elements of this book didn't get proper closure, but that may have been intentional since in real life we don't always get the answers and closure we want. 

I am so glad I read the Parish Orphans of Devon series before reading this, I would have missed a lot of context and probably struggled to keep all the characters of Teddy's extended found family in order. It does make me want to re-read the rest of this series to see what else I missed, but this book serves as a bit of an epilogue for both series since there are many glimpses at all the happy couples. I did also cry in my car during this book's epilogue. 

What am I going to do now? I've been deeply invested in this network of characters for 8 books, I would happily read 8 more. Whatever historical romance I try to read after this is going to be at a serious disadvantage. Mimi Matthews sets a high standard for characters, prose, romance, and setting. 

Audiobook narrators were great, although I do think they changed up some accents and some pronunciation of names, unless I'm remembering wrong. It's possible that since I switched to reading text vs listening to audio for the Parish Orphans of Devon, I came up with my own idea of how things should sound.

One thing this book gave me that I've been begging for is a male romantic lead who is NOT mega tall with a thick head of hair and rippling abs. The best things about this book are Kathy's relationships with her (ex) husband, her older female friend, and the soul she's trying to help. I see that this is meant to be the start of a series, but it works quite well as a standalone and I wonder how potential books will be able to match up to the level of character growth and heartfelt bonding that Kathy went through here. 

The mystery was okay, but fairly similar to another book I've read, so it was easy for me to figure out. I also clocked who the real killer was very early, purely based on vibes. If you're reading this for the mystery and aren't looking for the soft stuff I mentioned earlier, you might be disappointed.

The audiobook narrator did a good job, she has a dynamic voice and had a few different voices. I didn't love the voice she used for Simon, and the crying moments for the main character were sometimes awkward, especially since there are so many of them. 

Well, I read this book in one day, so it certainly kept my attention. I was really excited to get to see inside of Neville's head, since his appearances in the past books were limited to the perspectives of the main characters and Neville's speech impediment keeps his inner workings somewhat mysterious. It was also a delight to have more time with the characters from the previous books, since they spend most of this book celebrating Christmas together. Clara is another excellent female lead, a great pairing with Neville, and I adored how their ending played out. One thing all of the women in this series seem to share is that they are capable and hard working, they are managing their own problems and situations, and it's no so much that they need the men to rescue them as it is that having someone you trust to lean on makes things easier. Honestly, this whole series has been so much fun and I'm really going to miss it. I love this little brotherhood of orphans, their fantastic wives, and their expanding families. I might need to re-read the Belles of London series to catch all of the references to these characters.

Alex Archer had a lot to make up for when I started this book. He previously

beat up my favorite character in this series

and at the start of this book his motivations are far from pure. His most heroic act in this story was heavily foreshadowed, practically a foregone conclusion,

rescuing Laura from the sea

and by then he had grown on me somewhat. He improves pretty steadily from there. He's still my least favorite bachelor of the bunch, but I thought Laura was wonderful. All of the ladies in this series are. This would make for a good summer read, the setting for much of the book is sunny and warm and describes how Victorians spent their leisure time during that season.  

This was okay. It wasn't quite what I was hoping for (mostly based on the cover) and I think my expectations were a little too high. This read like a YA book to me, which is fine, but I think my biggest hang-up was that I never really liked Aelis and the book is entrenched in her experiences and thoughts.

I found Aelis self absorbed and entitled, and while some characters responded positively to her more abrasive approach to people, I thought she was unnecessarily rude. She did have some moments where she was more reasonable after insulting people, but it felt to me like there was a lot of room for character improvement that doesn't seem to be coming because she mostly didn't face any consequences for her attitude. 

I didn't find the residents of Lone Pine particularly interesting either, and her interactions with them take up the bulk of the first half of the book. I did like the love interest (who plays a very minor role and is absent for most of the story) and the huntsman/guide she works with for a portion of the second half of the book. I also thought the plot mysteries were fairly intriguing, and they are what mostly got me through to the end.

The audiobook narrator was good, I think they matched the energy the author intended. 

Not sure if I will continue with the series or not, I had a physical copy of this book and I might just donate it.

I was very excited for this book after reading The Matrimonial Advertisement because I found Tom Finchley very appealing as a character. I only came to appreciate him more in his own book. Jenny is also lovely. 

Tom and Jenny both have an intriguing combination of being guarded yet direct in their approach to people, while having personality traits that differ in complimentary ways. Their conversations were always engaging to read because of their unexpected openness and honesty. No miscommunication trope to be had here, and yet there was immense tension from the ever present conflict keeping them from truly being together. 

For historical immersion, I can't think of a romance author who is more devoted than Mimi Matthews to presenting the setting accurately. It was educational and exciting to read about the international travels of the Victorian era in such detail. 

I didn't realize until 44% into the book that Ahmad and Mira were the same from The Siren of Sussex! I was absolutely delighted to get more of their story and it made me want to re-read The Siren of Sussex again with this new context. 

I've really enjoyed the entire Graves Glen series, and I was pleasantly surprised that this one was set at Christmas time since that's when my audiobook hold on Libby came through! My biggest criticism is that I don't really like this narrator and she used the wrong accent for the characters from the previous books. 

I thought Bowen and Tamsyn were incredibly likeable. Tamsyn in particular was refreshingly self aware and open-minded. Their chemistry was great and it was complimented nicely by the time travel plot. A small criticism is that the resolution to the plots/mysteries was a bit lackluster, but that wasn't a big issue for me since I read this series for the romances.