wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

Mackenzie is in a bit of a bind when she tells her grandmother, whose very insistent on her settling down, that she has a boyfriend. She manages to rope in hot but aloof doctor Noah Taylor to pose as her fake beau to appease her grandma but in turn must help Noah by pretending to be his mate to the hospital board and staff when his job is on the line. As the two become closer and begin to explore their bond, emotions start shifting.

This was fun and a bit sexy and I did like my time reading it. I liked Mackenzie and Noah - there was a bit of grumpy/sunshine pairing going on which I do enjoy, and I did find Noah very cute especially when we had his POV and we could see how anxious and how much second guessing he had going on which for a big, strong guy was a nice vulnerability to see.

The werewolf part in this for me was slightly disappointing as I would have liked to have seen more actual werewolf bits rather than it all be focused on the sexual nature of things. I would have liked to have known more about their shifting, growing up as a werewolf, how it worked more rather than just knowing about alpha/omega bond and knotting which is honestly quite gross.

While I liked this, I don't think there was much new in this one for me and I did feel like apart from the werewolf element and a few tweaks, the book was extremely similar to The Love Hypothesis from the scientific/medical setting, the type of characters, the friendship groups and even the 'villain' of the story. Also I've never known a book to overuse the word 'slick' so much.

 

In 1836, Prussia, Hanne is living a stifled life with her family, learning how to grow under her mother’s stern expectations, as well as dealing with all the feelings that come with a changing body and the expectations upon her as a woman. Then Hanne befriends Thea, a new neighbor to the Lutheran community. Hanne and Thea form a strong bond, which threatens to break when their community emigrates to Australia and sickness boards the ship with them. But the bond is more than nature can break, and Hanne soon discovers so much more than life beyond what she could have imagined. 

 

I love Hannah Kent’s writing so much - it’s soft and lyrical, while also embodying so much human experience and emotion. I love how she takes moments and people in history, and creates such compelling stories. The pacing of this novel was quite slow and you feel like you are slowly but very pleasantly digesting Hanne’s way of life and her relationships with a number of people and her growing and with Thea. We learn about the strict religious community she lives in, and the piety of her father - and how the jealousy of neighbors could pose a risk to Thea and her family. 

 

The twist in this book halfway through definitely surprised me but I didn’t hate it. I actually liked the supernatural element of it and how the steps Hannah Kent took with Hanne brought in the naturalist element of this book even more. There is a real emphasis on nature in this book from both Hanne’s connection with it but also just the gorgeous descriptions of the woods in Prussia, the stream and fields, the waves and whales seen from the ship and then the golden, harsher environment of Australia but just as beautiful in its own way. I do think at this point in the book the pacing suffered a little bit as Hanne was quite literally stuck in where she could go and what she could do or wanted to do. 

 

I appreciated how Hannah Kent wrote the Indigenous population of Australia - how they treated the immigrants coming and taking their land, literally helping them and showing them how they could survive, and how in turn they were treated less than a decade later - being run off the land with guns by white people. It was so upsetting to read how these people were treated but so important to learn about as well. 

 

I wasn’t really crazy about the ending. As Thea’s life progressed, I feel like we saw an immaturity and selfishness in Hanne - seemingly wanting Thea all to herself which was impossible for so many reasons, and in turn this making it seem like she wanted Thea to be alone. The ending made me sad as while Hanne and Thea seem happy, I couldn’t help but think of all the grieving people left behind including a baby who would grow up without a mother - and that the women in the community who treated Hanne and Thea so badly never seemed to get their comeuppance (other than apparently being a spinster). I would have much rather read a story where we see Hanne more at peace with her situation, and watching Thea grow with her family and eventually reunite after a long and happy life rather than one cut short far too soon. 

Marion is a 50-year old woman who lacks social skills and still lives with her brother in their childhood home. Marion loves John but is also scared of his temper, and so turns a blind eye to what he keeps in the cellar - he is the only person she has after all.

This is a very character-focused novel as we follow Marion through past and present timelines. We learn about her childhood and her relationship with her parents, in particular her cold and controlling mother, and we also learn about her relationship with her brother John and what he was like as a child, and what he's like now as an adult. Marion never had friends, and was bullied in school and so, lacks a lot of social skills other people have and also looks decades older than she is. We see her focus on fantasies she has about a different kind of life with friends and family.

This book reminded me a bit of a Liz Nugent novel as Liz is a master at a morally gray character and unsettling quiet plots. However, I think the blurb of this novel completely throws off reader's expectations - we are told Marion is faced with a decision about the cellar when John has a heart attack but this doesn't happen till over 80% into the book so I was reading it expecting this to happen much sooner and became frustrated when it didn't.

Roman and Iris were separated following the devastating attack on Avalon Bluff. Now Iris is back in Oath with her brother, desperately hoping for news of her Kitt while Roman has woken up not even knowing who he is and under the service of the god Dacre. As words and magic letters once again become key to Iris and Roman’s relationship, war comes closer and closer to Oath and there is still no sign of Enva who is the only divine being who could stand up to the might of Dacre. 

 

Ooh I just loved this. I think if you enjoyed the soft romance between Roman and Iris in Divine Rivals, especially their connection through words, you will still love this one. The tensions and the danger is even higher in this one as Roman is quite literally behind enemy lines and at the start of the novel, he doesn’t even know that Dacre is the one he was originally fighting against and now is fighting for. 

 

There’s something about the connection, the love and the longing between Roman and Iris that just moves something in me when I read about them - there’s a fierceness between them as well as a beautiful vulnerability. They will fight for each other to their last breath but surrender to each other with the softest of sighs. It’s just gorgeous. I’ve read 4 of Rebecca Ross’s books now and I think she excels with this blend of fantasy and romance, giving a wonderful relationship as well as an intriguing fantastical storyline to go along with it. 

 

My only complaints about this book are that 1. I would have liked Roman and Iris to have been a bit older. I think they both read older than they were and given everything they go through in the book, the very adult responsibilities (including a marriage) that they take on, it would make more sense for them to be in their early-mid twenties rather than 18/19 years old. 

 

I also think the conclusion with Dacre was a bit fast and Dacre himself was often naive at times or overlooked Roman a little bit too much. It could be brought down to the fact he was a god and had the arrogance no-one would betray him but still. I loved Attie and Tobias - and I also really loved seeing Eva in this book and how she was there even if people didn’t realize. 

 

This made me hope and fear for my favorites, it broke my heart in a way I didn’t expect and left me feeling happy but also bittersweet for those that were taken too soon. 

In the third installment of Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, we once again follow Lucy as she embarks on a trip with her ex-husband William and we learn more about William’s life, childhood and some secrets from his mother’s past. 

 

I find the audiobooks for Lucy Barton (or all of Elizabeth Strout’s audiobooks as they are all narrated by Kimberly Farr who is fantastic) really relaxing and there’s something about Lucy and how she sees and responds to people that feels very real and relatable. 

 

This is very much achievable character focused book rather than plot and the timeline meanders back and forth as Lucy focuses on her trip with William to visit his older sister, and also on her past with William and her relationship with his mother. We also see glimpses of Lucy’s girls and the lovely bond she has with her now grown up daughters who are trying for families of their own. 

 

There’s not much I can say about this series except that with each book, it feels like having lunch with a friend. There’s something very warm and open about Lucy even in the ways she closes herself up sometimes and thinks so little about herself. These books are very comforting and I highly recommend them.