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Holding on to Bluebell Lodge by Rachel Bowdler

The owner of Bluebell Lodge, Laurel, has passed away, and she’s left the lodge to Willow, a girl she took in as her own when she was a teenager. The problem? Willow has no idea what she’s doing, is doubting every choice she makes, and Mags (Laurel’s granddaughter) hates seeing her grandmother’s lodge destroyed piece by piece by Willow’s incompetence. Willow finally asks Mags for help, and the two together manage to bring Bluebell Lodge back to life. While they do, they both realize that they didn’t give the other woman credit and start to build a strong connection with one another, as well.

Some Highlights:

I love believable enemies to lovers! This was much less “this person annoys me” (which is what you usually see in a rom com) and felt much closer to the two actually hating one another.
The romance between these two was absolutely lovely. They had good chemistry and, while things did move fast (which is just what happens with a novella), it never felt forced.
Important pets are important! The pet cat at Bluebell Lodge yelling at both Willow and Mags and taking them where they need to be was so much fun.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a short and sweet introduction to Rachel Bowdler’s work. I definitely had some squealing moments, which is always important when reading a romance. All around, this novella was a really fun time.

Content Warnings

Something Fabulous

Alexis Hall

4.5

Valentine, the Duke of Malvern, has proposed to his childhood friend, Arabella Tarleton. But she has no intention of ever marrying a man who doesn’t truly love her. Instead of being trapped in a marriage of convenience, she runs away in the middle of the night. It is now the job of Valentine and Bonny Tarleton (Belle’s twin brother) to try to catch her and convince her to come home. Of course, Valtine doesn’t expect to end up far less interested in Ms. Tarleton in favor of Mr. Tarleton...

Some Highlights:

This book! is! so! funny! I spent so much time laughing. Bonny and Belle are both wonderfully dramatic, and Valentine’s “straight man” role when talking with either of them is always hilarious.
I’m not a fan of a third-act break up, but I do like the way that everything was set up for this one in particular. The fact that a conversation came up earlier in the book between Bonny and Valentine and my reaction was, “Oh, that’s going to come up later in a bad way,” made it slightly satisfying when it actually came around? Of course, it didn’t hurt any less.
I read this as an audiobook, and the narrator, Nicholas Boulton, was fantastic! I love when it feels like the scenes are being acted out and not simply read like with many audiobooks. I went to see what else he’s narrated almost as soon as I was finished reading.
I felt like the book was definitely setting up a story for Peggy (either with Belle or a totally different love interest), so assuming that’s the case, that would definitely be another highlight! I loved the few glimpses of Peggy’s character that we had, so I’d love to see a whole book dedicated to her.

I love everything I’ve read from Alexis Hall, and his foray into historical romance definitely didn’t disappoint. I’d finished this book within 24 hours, and I’m so glad that I did!

Needed in Garoureve

Elle M. Drew

4.0

After receiving a letter from the local retiring doctor, Scarlett arrives in Garoureve ready take over his position as the local clinician, but when she learns that this town hasn’t had a working clinic for 15 years, she realizes that things are more mysterious than she expected. Combine that with the fact that she’s immediately drawn to Mardoc, the wolf shifter who owns the bakery, and her life just got a lot more complicated.

Some Highlights:

We love a fat heroine who isn’t self-conscious about the size of her body. Scarlett does have scars on her body that do make her self-conscious, and I think it was a great addition to really emphasize that Scarlett’s nerves about undressing have nothing to do with her size.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Ariana and Cole in the first book. Now that those characters have been established, however, I really enjoyed how they were used in this one!
The sex scenes are, unsurprisingly, fantastic. I’m a fan of the idea of fated mates, and that being a constant draw for Mardoc and Scarlett was lovely. SPOILER:
I also love how easily Scarlett accepted her fate? Both the fact that she might be trapped in the town and the fact that she and Mardoc were mates. It didn’t feel like it was forced that she was accepting it — more that this all fit some level of what she was hoping for in her life. She wanted to find a small town to settle into and and build her happily-ever-after there, and all of those things just made it that much easier for her....so why fight it?

I really had a fun time reading this book. The first one just wasn’t my thing, so I was afraid the series wouldn’t be but everything I had issues with in the first book was gone for this one. I think Mardoc and Scarlett are both well-developed characters, the pairing made a lot of sense, and any major conflict also made a lot of sense when you consider the scenarios these characters were in. I’m really looking forward to the next book of the series!

Content Warnings

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower

Erica Ridley

5.0

Tommy Wynchester has been slightly obsessed with Philippa York for just about a year now, but she doesn’t know how to talk to her as herself. Instead, she disguises herself her own great aunt and a charming baron, but it doesn’t take long for her to come clean. The two fall for each other while also solving a mystery!

I love queer historical romance so much, but it’s easy to fall into this hole of the story being repetitive because the ultimate concern is having to keep it a secret. I think this book did a great job of working around that particular plot concern and, instead, focusing on other challenges that come with being queer in the 1800s.

Some Highlights:

I really loved the way Ridley depicted Tommy’s relationship with gender and identity as a whole. I thought it was both an interesting character choice and interesting in the context of her relationship with Philippa.
Philippa’s mother! As infuriating as she may have been, she was such a driving force in the story that I can’t help but appreciate her for it.
I really loved seeing the relationship between Tommy and her siblings. I didn’t read the first book of this series, but after reading this one I’m very tempted to read the others just for more of the Wynchester family.

Philippa and Tommy are both truly lovable characters. I found myself rooting for both of them, which I think is one of the most important things in a story. This was my first Erica Ridley book, and it definitely will not be my last.

ESCAPES Rating:
Enjoyment - 10 | Start - 8 | Characters - 9 | Atmosphere - 8 | Plot - 10 | Enjoyment - 10 | Style - 10

Brazen and the Beast

Sarah MacLean

4.0

The Awkward Truth

Lee Winter

4.0

The Awkward Truth is everything I wanted as soon as I finished reading The Brutal Truth! Lee Winter had a wonderful setup to give us Felicity’s story, and I was thrilled when I saw that it was a thing. Felicity Simmons is a lawyer who doesn’t know much beyond the importance of ambition. Before she takes over as acting COO of her boss’s corporation, she’s sent to investigate an animal-centric non-profit. She goes, is reminded that people (and animals) matter, and also falls in love because why not?

I absolutely loved this book! Cooper was such a force to be reckoned with, and putting her together with Felicity was equal parts hilarious, sexy, and adorable, depending on the chapter.

Some Highlights:

Watching multiple people try to convince Felicity that Elena was definitely with Maddie was so funny?
I was afraid that by the time Felicity hit the point of being able to have her happy ending, that the author might change her whole character so much it didn’t feel like Felicity, but I think Winter did an incredible job of keeping who Felicity was at her core and just helping her shed some of the walls that she’s had in place for so long she didn’t even realize they were capable of being knocked down.
Her secret love of animals! So good! The fact that it was a consistent thing and not just something she said at the end? Loved it.

This book had a great romance along with a really interesting mystery to go along with it. I’ve really loved being in the Bartell universe and I hope that we might get some short stories in the future to check in on Felicity and Coop =)

ESCAPES Rating:
Enjoyment - 9 | Start - 9 | Characters - 10 | Atmosphere - 8 | Plot - 8 | Enjoyment - 7 | Style - 10

Count Your Lucky Stars

Alexandria Bellefleur

5.0

What a great way to wrap up the Written in the Stars trilogy! I fell in love with Margot in book one, and seeing her have the chance to find love was everything I needed. This book is about Margot and Olivia, two childhood best friends who had a spring break where they were finally together, and then Olivia went back to her boyfriend. They meet each other again at the start of this book after eleven years of no contact. Attraction and feelings in general are still VERY much there.

Some Highlights:

So many tropes! Second chance romance, best friends to lovers, miscommunication trope (but it’s acknowledged as a thing that’s infuriating and we love when a character is self-aware so I’m not mad about it)
The spice, just, A+
Holy shit, I hated Luke with such a passion even though I’m sure he’s FINE.
The way that they managed to tie together all three stories (Darcy/Elle, Brendon/Annie, and Margot/Olivia) by the end made me really happy.
My only issue and the reason “Enjoyment” didn’t get a 10 honestly just had a lot to do with me? I related to Margot a little too much and honestly I think I ended up jealous of her since she got a happy ending lol. I wish I was joking.

Content Warnings

Ariadne

Jennifer Saint

3.75

I have mixed feelings on this one. It took me some time to get through and was definitely pretty dense. This was a retelling of the story of the family of the Minotaur, but from the perspective of the two younger sisters, Ariadne and Phaedra. It took place over the course of about fifteen years, from the introduction of Theseus into their lives all the way to when Ariadne was turned to stone by Perseus.

My main struggle is that this book was advertised by a lot of folks as a “feminist retelling” and....I don’t really know where that comes from, other than the fact that it gives us a chance to see the perspective and motivations of these two women.

Some Highlights:

I absolutely loved Phaedra. I was hooked from the moment I started to get to read her perspective. I could empathize with her situation a lot more than Ariadne’s
I think the characterization of Dionysus as someone stuck between the feelings that come with being mortal and the expectations that come with being a god was really interesting. I liked watching Ariadne struggle with seeing him change from being basically human to being just as bad as the other gods.
I really liked the epilogue. I obviously won’t get too detailed in that, but I thought if it had to end the way it did, the epilogue was a nice touch.

The main struggle with this is that, at the end of the day, everything about these two women were done at the hands of men. Their deaths were both a result of them finally taking an active role in their stories. I think the author wanted to stay true to the mythology, and that’s great, but it just led to a painful demise for both of these women who the author had me rooting for throughout the book.

ESCAPES RATING:
Enjoyment - 6 | Start - 7 | Characters - 8 | Atmosphere - 5 | Plot - 6 | End - 6 | Style - 7

Content Warnings

Girl, Serpent, Thorn

Melissa Bashardoust

4.0

Mooncakes

Suzanne Walker

5.0

I wanted to squeeze in a graphic novel and did not expect to love Mooncakes as much as I did! Nova (she/her, witch) and her childhood best friend and crush Tam (they/them, werewolf), come across each other as young adults. They fall in love and band together (with Nova’s lesbian grandmas) to battle the dark side!

Some Highlights:

We love cozy casual magic! The whole time I was reading, this felt like a hug in a book.
I love the animation style. It gave me the same vibes that I had when I read Nimona (ND Stevenson) years ago. Again, no matter what they might have been doing, it just felt cozy.
The representation felt easy and natural. Nova is hard of hearing and, as a result, uses a hearing aid. This is mentioned casually throughout the book, but it also takes on a pretty major role in the story? Same thing with Tam. They have a moment where they let everyone know “I use they/them pronouns” and that’s it! Everyone just moves on and it’s not made into some big thing.
THE BLACK CATS ARE EVERYTHING.

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