charliauthor's reviews
524 reviews

I am a sucker for a billionaire romance so I decided to give this one a try from my friend, Laura.

So without, giving too much away, Isla is separated from her husband Don and struggling to come to terms with her new normal after having been with him for over a decade. For the Love of Art, follows her trying to navigate falling for the gorgeous billionaire Nathan Manning while discovering who she is post marriage.

From the very first page I really enjoyed the banter in this book. I enjoyed the sarcasm from Isla and her two besties in the form of fun loving Lianne and eccentric gay, Frankie. Both were funny and sweet without being caricatures and were the right blend of madness to the straight laced Isla. There were some great scenes in their respective work places and I really liked the New York setting. NYC is one of my favourite places to visit and there was something so subtle about the descriptions and way of life that was very Sex and the City that i really loved. Would this be a high end romance set in NYC if we don't go to the Hamptons atleast once? I don't think so! haha.
I liked the overall story/premise and the hurdles both physical and emotional that Isla had to overcome and by the end I was on her side for finally claiming her happiness and doing the right thing.

This brings me subtly to the fact that before the last part of the book, I wasn't on Isla's side. I found her a bit unlikeable if I'm honest as I couldn't get my head around her attitude towards Nathan from day one. Perhaps if he had done something to her personally or even shown his personality/actions etc. to be anything like Isla presumes, I may have understood her hate for him. Without this hard hitting evidence of his heinous ways, she was judging a man she really didn't know based on what she read in newspapers and that really annoyed me lol constantly jumping to conclusions about him felt a little unfair and i was glad when she finally opened up and explained what was going on with her.

Re. what was going on with Isla, I appreciated the sensitivity of the subject so much and loved its inclusion in this genre. Cant say too much without spoilers but it was a nice edge to an otherwise straightforward love story which i really enjoyed.
Lastly, the smut was smutting and we know I love that. It was a cheeky slowish burn at the start then they were just going at it and we find out that Isla is a bit of a freak which was nice. Dont sleep on this housewives dudes. They got some secret moves! haha

Defo try this one out for an easy, no frills read with heart and banter.

Like so many of you I jumped on this train because I am feral for the tv show so off i went to see how the books would fare.
Now, despite being perfectly enjoyable based on the characters we already know and love, I did appreciate how much better the show had made this book by cutting out all the unnecessary chaff and upping other characters and broadening the world overall.
I will say though, that had i not already seen the show and knew what was going to happen and the characters I liked, i probably wouldve really disliked this.

For me, it was too long, dialogue heavy and not enough heart. I liked show and book daphne but there is something a little unfinished about her in this that i was happy i had taken more from in the show.
Also, and although i know i'm likely in the minority, i didnt think 'that scene' was that deep. I didn't in the show before knowing what people were upset about and I didnt think so in this. She took advantage of him physically sure but he took advantage of her intellectually if thats the right word. Simon knew very well she didn't know what it took to make a child and deceived her anyway. Yes, he was willing to die, blah blah but as Daphne later points out, you were really willing to let a dead man define you and your life. Whatever dude. Grow up.
What I did pick up and that rubbed me the wrong way, was how quickly book Simon resorted to 'a man of his times' by telling Daphne at one point that he owned her and could force himself into her room if he wanted. He didnt, sure, but the fact he even mentioned it was a bit of a red flag for me.

This book is perfectly enjoyable and for lovers of HisRo then its probably standard fare.  Even the epilogue was a short novella! Like wtf?! lol For me, it was too slow and the show was better so I won't continue with the rest of the series as the style just isnt really for me.

 I was looking forward to this one but it didn't turn out to be as hard hitting as I'd hoped.
I've come to expect a lot from LB after the incredible Ninth House and Hell Bent and I'd hoped this would follow in a similar vein but frustratingly it did not.

It started out well enough with a good location, premise and intriguing characters that had a lot of potential but they didn't end up meeting it for me.
Luzia is a scullion living in the home of a petty woman called Valentina who discovers that she has powers. Luzia can be imprisoned and even killed for this so when they conveniently have some kind of tourney to test magic powers, the stakes of the whole thing fell abit flat.
Luzia's aunt is the mistress of a bad dude called Victor who has a weird looking dude who follows him around a lot. We learn that he's his sinister sidekick and while he doesnt do much to prompt fear or passion, Luzia apparently falls for him, her for her and then it turns into some kind of love story.
Where this didnt work for me is that there was no proper build up of their relationship to warrant the story moving in this direction. What was meant to be a stake filled tournament to evade persecution from zealots and soldiers, turned into a romance that was tepid at best.
The whole book felt like it was tittering on the edge of being dark and refused to go over the edge into the abyss of heated passions, black magic and religious inquisitions.

Why I gave this a three is that despite the above leaving me disappointed, the writing was great. At no point was i struggling to read. The chapters were good lengths, the setting was interesting and we finally did get a character who shined a little bit more than the rest. Valentina ended up being the breakout star of this despite what was expected of her from the blurb.

In terms of Leigh's catalogue, its not my favourite and i feel she could have done a lot more with this. However, for those who like historic settings, mild romance and a dash of the occult/magics, then you may well enjoy. It picks up at the end despite a lagging middle but is still enjoyable enough to prompt discussion. 

Disclaimer, this was my first outing with Ms Hazelwood so I had no preconceptions about her stories as I've heard some people have due to her apparent formulaic way of writing romance.
If however, all her books are the same, then sign me up for some tropey trops baby cause this was really fun!

I cackled, giggled, belly laughed and sniggered all the way through this book and while there were some things I would have preferred in regards to the MMC, it was overall a nice fluffy read with some decent smut.

The best thing I found about Bride was the voice of the FMC, Misery. I found it hilarious seeing the world through her eyes and watching her deal with emotions since she's a vampire and never really had to. In comparison, Lowe, the MMC is all about the feels and while it is sweet, I did wish he was a little more feral as his werewolf status would have you believe. He was just a little too nice for me.

The worldbuilding was minimal but I was ultimately fine with this because of the straightforward nature of the story. It wasnt meant to be anything deeper than it was, the eco system and socio political set up of their infrastructure wasnt made a big deal simply because it wasnt meant to be. We were here for the romance and that served in a very neat and digestable way.
I quote liked how clinical Misery was throughout because it just made everything else that much funnier.

With the smut, I had no issue with the knotting stuff. Its really not that big a deal and ended up being quite sweet lol there wasnt however as much smut as I expected and was all meshed together at the end which was a little disappointing. I know its fiction but Lowe was also a little...fast. Like was he experienced or not? I wasnt quite sure lol

Overall, I enjoyed and would pick up Ali Hazelwood again if I needed a little pick me up.

DNF at 38% because im clearly not intelligent enough for this.

What was interesting and clever about book 1 just became repetitive and confusing in this one with no obvious reason why any of this was taking place. I listened to this and while I was influenced by the narrator for Parisa and her irritating voice, there was just nothing else of substance to keep me invested.
I quite like Parisa in the beginning but she just became even more of a mean bitch the longer i listened to her and there wasnt any real reason why. Yes, coping mechanisms  or whatever but there was just no need to be this way endlessly if it didnt serve a purpose to the story or her powers etc.
Lets not even get started on the powers because she doesnt really explain any of them. Yes, we had explanations in book one but where was the growth of those powers. How were they used day to day, offensively, defensively. It was all just very vague and i was just over it.

DNF'd at 76% even though it really hurt me to do so but I just couldn't continue being so incredibly bored!

I'd heard bad things about this book from others but one shining light was another friend who really enjoyed it. I trust her judgement so I thought cool, maybe I'll be of the 1% in this case. Dear God was i not of that percentile! I just couldn't get into it at all and even with only 100 or so pages to go and being part of a readalong, I had no urge to ever pick it up. When a book feels like a chore, its time to say goodbye.

So, this is set in a world with an epic map and very little else. There are things called Spindles that are like portals I think and they can open into other worlds. One world in particular had overly tall immortal people come out of it one time, but then the portals shut and they were stuck in this new world so they would like to get back home. Anyway, some bad dude opens the portals and brings an undead army with him and of course this is bad so they need a special sword and special blood to kill him even though while in possession of said sword and said blood, they didn't kill him the first time. Aaaanyway, this prompts an immortal and an assassin and a squire and a princess to go on a hunt for the blood and the sword and theres where i lost it.

Despite all the above, absolutely nothing happens and you have no connection to any of the characters. There are too many POVs - 6 - and 4 of them are travelling together! So you read the same scene from different perspectives a lot, that serve no real furthering of the plot and its booooring.

While the map is gorgeous and there was some real potential for this, it just didn't live up to the expectation that the map gave. I commented in our group once that the map had more personality than any of the characters and how that happens, I have no idea. Its like the map was created and then she just threw some randos in there to have a reason to walk around.
Very disappointing indeed.

DNF at 76% because it was just not interesting.

This was a very interesting concept about the forgotten sister of King Arthur which I found intriguing but nothing about the actual story actually lifted off the page for me in anyway for this to be interesting or engaging or exciting.

We all know varying tales of Arthur and his knights and Merlin and Guinevere etc., so it was nice to see these characters in a different light i.e. from a different perspective but it just wasn’t exciting enough to warrant any real investment. The pacing was too slow so I wasn’t sure what we were trying to achieve. There were too many names, too many strings of plot that didn’t amount to anything and then the magic that was there wasn’t particularly appealing or seemingly well thought out.

There was little to no romance which again is fine. It’s not a necessity but I tend to lean on romance when other aspects of a plot or characterisation or world building is lacking so when there was no romance it just continued to get more boring. 

At one point, there’s a baby switching scandal that I’m still not sure why it was done because we don’t discuss it much again. There’s somebody switching magic that I don’t know why she’s done it. There was a blood magic book that she was able to read and I don’t actually know how or why she was able to read it. There was some incest that noone cared about so it was just constant confusion with no drama or action or engagement and it was just not pulling me in enough to continue or see how it ends because there was nothing for me to care about ending. 

Thanks, to netgalley for the arc, but this was not for me. 

I really enjoyed this! Very easy read with likeable enough characters and a hot MMC.
I was invested the whole way through but it gets mid marks cause it was almost too easy. Very predictable stuff but with the right edge of profanity and smut, i really dug it.

Freya is born with a drop of blood given to her by the Gods at birth. This can happen to anyone from various gods which was a cool concept but Freya's gift is hidden because a prophecy says her magic will be used to make someone king of their lands.
When her magic is discovered, she is taken by the man who wants to use her to be king along with his hot son, Bjorn. The books is basically Freya trying not to jump Bjorn's bones or pop of at the mouth when she has no business doing so!

This books is hilarious. Its not meant to be this funny of course but i really enjoyed Freya's instalust. It made for some great reading and serious chuckles on my part. Bjorn was a great MMC and was carrying a lot of the scenes on his shoulders but the overall worldbuilding as a great addition and i'd be excited to get back to this world in its sequel.

As mentioned, a lot of the reveals were expected but as i dont think this was trying to be deeper then it needed to be, this worked well enough for me.
The smut was doooope in my opinion. a bit of delayed gratification at the start but the teasers and then final boink fest was well worth the wait hehe

Defo pick this one up for something easy going and if you dont expect to much, you might even have a lot more fun than I did lol 

One of my most anticipated reads for 2024 is now complete and while it was not the absolute desolation i had anticipated, it was a wonderfully atmospheric, intense and dark(ish) fantasy read that I always enjoy. 
Being back on the road with Gabe and Dior was always going to be a treat and I really enjoyed their blossoming relationship and the introduction of some other interesting characters.

While a bit repetitive in parts - the hill Gabe dies on/the fucks he doesnt give/his distaste for religion etc. - there were still so many quotable parts of this that I really really loved. JK has such an incredible way with words that always makes me happy to find something special to take note of.

A big thing about my rating not being a 4 - other than the lack of complete devastation for me - was that i listened to a lot of it on audio book and missed so much! This therefore isnt necessarily a criticism of the book then but instead the narration. Not all books are made for audio and this is one of them. I didnt much like the two voices, thinking they didnt match the characters as well as they could have done. I liked it best when they were speaking Scottish and Irish but others left a little for the imagination.

As ever, hard to talk about sequels if you've not read the others but the revelations I did enjoy were:

Lioness Phoebe being a real girl. I was so here for hte lion/lioness aspect and really enjoyed their relationship. I kept holding on for Astrid not really being dead but this was just as good. I liked that she was more realistic about how to move on from romantic heartbreak and i found this realistic and beautiful. 
I was absolutely devastated when Phoebe's husband was revealed to be the wolf that the Dyvok were stealing blood from in order to be more powerful. I really felt for Gabe as you can tell how much he really liked Phoebe and I wanted them to be a thing if not to get more smut in the last book lol
I was sad when Dior died but more so for Gabe's reaction to it after her calling him Papa more than her actual death since it was kind of made clear from the start that she was going to die. If I had read this rather than listened, i may have been more broken but as it stands, i was kind of robbed of that emotional reaction.
I was annoyed by page 235 namely because others had gassed up Aaron's turning so much that I expected more from the page. When it was simply that he was Dead, it didnt ring that deep.
Now, it may say a lot about my mental state and love of Dark Romances, but i really liked Nikita 
 and thought he was incredibly hot. His treatment of Aaron was wrong on so many levels but when Aaron started telling Baptiste about how he'd been bent like a pretzel by him...i kinda loved it LOL 

Overall, I still enjoyed it but there were very few moments that I didnt see coming or even when I didnt, they werent as impactful. Despite this, I love the writing, i love the world and I love Gabriel. Celene was a great addition but I am still a little annoyed by he antagonism towards Gabe because I dont think its warranted.
Despite clearly being a 'filler' book, its not a bad sequel and I am very interested to get to book 3 with that dope cliffhanger.