madeline's Reviews (776)

Neither Dani Martinez nor Maximillian von Hansburg, Baron of Laudon, have much interest in love - Dani has sworn off men after her (almost) ex-husband ran off with a student half his age; Max's father is pressuring him to marry as the heir to the dukedom and Max simply detests doing what his father wants him to do.  After meeting through mutual friends (the couple in A Princess for Christmas) the two spend a year cultivating a long-distance friendship.  Gradually they realize that friendship is the least of what the two want from each other, and when they meet up again for their friends' wedding a year later, there's no denying the sparks.  But they have jobs, and responsibilities, and obligations - can they risk it all for love?

For some reason, I didn't anticipate liking this book.  I'm not much of a holiday reader, and this seemed fairly holiday-y.  But it surprised me, initially.  The holidays are backgrounded, and they spend the better part of a year talking on the phone and through text, with occasional meetups.  It's a very slow-burn friends-to-lovers scenario.  I was enjoying this much more than I thought I would, and it was well on its way to a five-star read for me.

Two things combined in its downfall for me, one much more ridiculous than the other.  The ridiculous thing: at one point Max pulls out a sheaf of antique papers for Dani to look through, and a pair of white cotton gloves.  You do not wear gloves to review papers, particularly ones of that age.  If you cover your fingertips, you can't feel when you're about to rip the pages!  Clean hands suffice.  Any librarian who's ever been in the same building as an archives class could tell you that.

The more serious thing:

Max's brother Sebastian is gay.  He reveals this to Max, who then basically promptly tells Dani.  We do not out people.  Max is very cool with his brother being gay, Dani is very cool with it and tells Max she'll keep it to herself, and Max is like "oh neat thank you, yeah, I was trying to protect his confidence."  Uh, maybe... don't tell her, then?  Later, Sebastian reveals his sexuality to their awful, horrific, abusive alcoholic father as he tries to disown Max as a sort of "gotcha, no heirs from me., buddy!" moment, and the father promptly passes away.  If it had just been Max outing his brother to Dani, a person he trusts and a person he processes complex emotions with it, I might have let it slide with a strong side eye and four stars.  But the one-two punch of outing and heart attack was a lot to me, and I'm surprised Avon let it slide.

Overall, I liked this book a lot, and I wish I could have rated it higher.  Now please, give me Sebastian and Torkel's story, which will ideally wrap up the WWII sub-plot that I was surprisingly invested in?

Thank you Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!

CW:

ex-partner infidelity, alcoholism, abuse, homophobia, non-public outing, death of a parent

I thoroughly enjoyed this one - I love a gothic novel and boy does this deliver.  This book has everything: magic, math, the occult, a crumbling mansion, the ghost of a first wife, medicine, an alternate version of England.  It's all jammed in there.

Other reviewers had problems with pacing; I didn't find it a slow start, but could have used like three more pages in That Chapter to make things a bit clearer.  I don't have a head for fantasy and a math-based magic scheme is designed specifically to thwart my understanding of it, so I could have used a little more exposition.  But wow if this book doesn't just beg to be read in front of a roaring fireplace as rain pounds the windows.

Thank you St. Martins & NetGalley for the ARC!

A cute premise is let down by some tenuous plot points and unrefined writing, but ultimately keeps the holiday cheer.  Even for being a YA novel, the characters seem very young, and I'm just not ready to accept that Lila's parents were doxxed after a tree branch fell on their business and neighbors suspected they'd done it for insurance money.  Surely there were easier ways to make them protective of her time on the internet?

Still, we love a heroine with a book blog, a love interest who's super into bouldering is new to me, and I do love that their town is an homage to a Christmas movie filmed there.

Thank you Random House & NetGalley for the ARC!

There's a lot that I like about this book - Olga is a complex character, not necessarily unlikeable but she's definitely not concerned with whether or not you <i>do</i> like her, which I found refreshing.  It's incredibly feminist and anti-colonialist, recognizing a lot of nuance within those two labels.  But I feel like it's maybe being mis-marketed?  Or at least poorly summarized - I anticipated her mother's return coming much earlier into the book, and so spent a lot of time feeling like I was waiting and waiting for her to show up.  

I'd say this book is more slice-of-life than it appears on its face: a lot of events are attended and meetings are had.  I can see myself potentially returning to this someday with a clearer understanding of the plot arc and enjoying it more than I did this time.  I don't know if the misunderstanding was mine or if there would have been some benefit to a different summary, but it doesn't change that I think many, many people will love this book.  There's no doubt that it's a powerful debut, and I look forward to what's sure to be a promising career from González.

Thank you Flatiron and NetGalley for the ARC!  

What a lovely little novella.  A fun meshing of several fairy tales with some wonderful characters (including a cloak who thinks he is a horse).  I would have read 50 more pages of this - it's delightful, but also I would have loved to see a little more between Imelda and Ambrose.  

Thank you Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the ARC.

Ruben Montez and Zach Knight are eighteen years old and two of the most famous people in the world.  As half of the wildly popular boy band Saturday, they're touring the world with their two best friends Angel and Jon, playing to sold-out crowds every night, surrounded by adoring fans, and just generally living the dream.  Except - they're not.  Ruben is frustrated he has to keep his sexuality a secret, Zach wants management to take his songwriting talent seriously, and Angel and Jon are feeling the pressure of what seems like an unending tour, too.  Add into the mix that Zach is increasingly unable to deny the feelings he has for Ruben, even if he isn't sure what the name for those feelings are.  It's make or break, not just for the band, but for the four boys' friendships, and for this brand new thing between Zach and Ruben.  Can they all stand together when it feels like the whole world is trying to keep them apart?

What a delight.  From the opening chapter, you can't help but love all four of these boys.  Ruben and Zach are the only narrators, but you get such a great feeling for all of them and their relationships with each other.  This book is a pretty unflinching look at what fame and industry can do to vulnerable teenagers, but also at how resilient people can be if they have friends willing to support them through anything but also call them out on dangerous choices.  Ruben and Zach are infinitely sweet, and it's a real pleasure to watch them both grow in their relationship.

There were a few loose ends here that I wish had been tied up earlier or eliminated - I think the book was about 30 pages too long.  Jon's religion is wielded weirdly, and Zach and Ruben's relationships with their respective mothers aren't really fleshed out until it's almost too late.  None of this detracts from the reader's enjoyment, though, and I think this book will find fans just as supportive and invested in its success as Saturday did.

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

CWs:

drug and alcohol use, drug abuse, non-narrative character is injured while high, homophobia and the threat of homophobia used as a reason to stay closeted, the inability to come out, emotionally manipulative parents

Three years ago, Katrina Freeling and Nathan Van Huysen finished a book that rocketed them to literary fame.  That was the last time they saw each other.  These days, Katrina can't seem to write anything, and Nathan can't seem to sell whatever he <i>does</i> write.  They're going to have to write the second book their publisher contracted them for, whether they like it or not.  Back in the humid Florida house where they found success - both professionally and interpersonally - the first time, can they recapture the magic in their writing, and in their relationship?

I think this was a 3.5 or 3.75 star read because overall I did find it pretty enjoyable.  Still, it wasn't a book I really felt I could lose myself in.  I found the premise to be kind of self-insert (an author couple writing an author couple, regardless of how loudly the characters are shouting that they don't like each other), and the prose was pretty self-indulgent at points.  Nathan in particular was a fairly unlikeable character for me: as much as he was respectful of his relationship with his (ex-)wife, he seemed like someone who would describe himself as a Nice Guy.  He drives a Porsche, for God's sake.  We get much more character development from Katrina.

The central conflict, the thing that broke them apart, is so hyped up and can only be one thing, and it falls kind of flat on delivery.  I also think that Katrina's experiences with depression and anxiety, as well as her fear of failure, are backgrounded until they're useful tools.  They don't come out of nowhere, but it's clear that they're plot devices rather than something the character experiences.  

This makes it sound like I didn't enjoy the book.  I did!  I like books about writing, there were moments of truly gorgeous prose, the tension was well-paced, and I really enjoyed seeing Katrina come into her own.  I just wanted more nuance.

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!

CW:

non-narrative character experiencing financial instability, narrative character with depression and anxiety, no infidelity but a non-narrative character condones it.

Grace Travis is *thisclose* to finally finishing her degree in interior design, after years of delays, hardships, and a million odd jobs.  Once she's done, it's time to move into the house left to her by the grandparents she never knew and make a home for herself.  That is, if she can resist the sexy new neighbor who's desperate to buy her lot and build a pool.  Noah Jansen has come back to California after living in NYC, ready to make a name for himself in real estate separate from his father's influence.  He can't afford to get distracted by the attractive woman next door, but sometimes the universe (and a magazine editor) has other plans, and suddenly their feud is complicated by long days together, and feelings that are quickly turning from warring to warmth.

I liked this!  It was totally unclear to me that this is, if not part of a series, related to Sullivan's first book ([book:Ten Rules for Faking It|53137916]), and so I did wonder why Noah's brother was getting so much airtime for a bit.  Just checking in on the couple from the first book.  It might be helpful to read that one first, and I'm really hoping that the next book is someone coming along to flap the unflappable Wes, the heroes' oldest brother.

This is a 3.5 star read rounded down.  Overall, pieces of it felt really underbaked: Grace is 28 and finishing her degree but only moved to the area 4 years ago, and I don't think we learn what she was doing in the meantime.  She inherits her house from her mother's parents, whom she never met, and there's no mention of how they knew she was around to leave it to.  She also spends a lot of time imagining them doing various things in their home, but again - never met them.  Noah has a tenuous relationship with his father that's also underexplored.  

Anyways, this was a fun closed-door read.  I'd definitely pick up another book by Sullivan.

Thank you St. Martin's and NetGalley for the ARC!

CWs:

poor relationships with parents.

Thomas Sharpe has been looking for a wife for two years - and not just any wife.  He must marry well to support his family after his father lost their fortune in a bad investment.  Lady Jane Capel has been <i>off</i> the marriage mart for two years after her fiancé broke off their engagement.  Now she's living with her half-brother, already a scandal, but she wants more.  Thomas and Jane strike up an agreement: Thomas will show Jane the wilder things of the world, and Jane will find him his perfect wife.  Obviously, they fall in love.

This book is... fine?  I think it's trying to make A Statement about patriarchy and the way women of the ton were sometimes sort of sold off to the richest contender, but it doesn't really make it all the way there.  It's a tenuous premise.  Neither Thomas nor Jane is well-off, which is the "will they won't they" here, and the solutions to this issue are several Hail Marys that Frampton throws very late in the game.  One of them is something that definitely should have been explored earlier, and the other is simply too convenient.

Stylistically, this not my favorite author.  I think the writing is a little unrefined, and she repeatedly does this thing where "Character X completes a task.  Completes a task.  Completes a task." that I think is meant to provide a sense of immediacy or propulsion to a scene, but it reads more like stuttering, incomplete sentences.  It's nitpicky of me to point out and I don't think it's universally bothersome, but I know at some point I'll wonder why I don't love this author, so here it is for me in writing.

Listen, I will say this, though: I see your carriage sex, and I raise you one over-the-clothes heavy petting orgasm in a hot air balloon.  That alone would have made me pick up the book.  Let me know if it does the same for you.

Thank you Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!