I threw up in my mouth a little every time the protagonist thought about how much she loves the US. Couldn't finish.

Too much hard scifi and too political . . . but I loved it anyway.

Holy hell. Usually I finish a celebrity memoir and think I wouldn't like to meet them because they're boring, but this one left me legitimately terrified of ever meeting Shannon.

The book opens with the car crash that resulted in the deaths of her mom and sister, so I expected it to be sad, introspective, using comedy as a way out of one's sorrow. I kept expecting her to learn from her mistakes, grow, and realize that her father is a horrible man and abuser. But she just kept doing shitty things and never emotionally dealt with any of them.

This felt like reading a selfish high schooler's diary, not an adult memoir.

Love the worldbuilding. The gunpowder fantasy is just such a cool idea, and I love that even with a big cast everyone's motivations are believable. The tensions were very high.

Love that this is set in a future where online games are where people spend most of their free time, but it doesn't forget that real life is where the best story happens.

It's a battle cry.

I loved the idea that fairies and other similar myths are all actually shape shifting creatures from another dimension; fabulous. But the book was too short to really sink my teeth into and it gave me college fiction class vibes.

RE: the scene where the 16 year old girl is getting ready for a date. Deodorant does not sting when applied to freshly shaved armpits. And what 16 year old girl would struggle putting on a bra? Does Soule not have a single friend with breasts or shaved armpits who would beta read for him?

I gave this to page 67 and I can't handle any more of this drivel. The only thing I hate more than guy-who-won't-stop-cheating-on-his-wife is teen-boy-who-can't-speak-around-hot-girl and this book managed both.

Kleypas admittedly writes standard romance fare: the rake inherits a title and lands, falls in love with his dead cousin's widow, is the first man to ever woo her like she deserves, happily ever after. And yes, you can argue that it's not fair that the women are always virgins and never have to improve their character, but I'm not going to argue that because Kleypas does such a good job of making these characters so compulsively readable that you find yourself thinking, God, if every man was this devoted to improving his life to find a woman, I'd have a lot fewer "sorry he sucks" conversations with my girl friends. The side characters in this book are what make it perfect: Trenear's younger brother who throws himself so into the role of helping fix the land that he ends up adopting a piglet out of the goodness of his heart, the wild twins, the forthright businessman and his interest in the quiet Lady Helen. It's a fun read for anyone looking for a nice historical romance.

Jones is simply the best.