yourbookishbff's Reviews (650)

After meeting Arabella in A Wicked Kind of Husband, I was curious as to how Vincy would jump back in time to give us a prequel love story. While initially hesitant, I should never have doubted, because I felt immediately swept into Arabella and Guy's story and found myself so grateful for peeks ahead at their future happiness. Vincy's strength in these first two books lies in how she navigates conflict. She inches characters closer and closer to each other, testing their wounds and pushing them to evaluate their own assumptions and impulses. I've found both of these books so cathartic, because where some authors will allow characters to move past conflict without fully engaging in its underlying cause, Vincy never leaves a thread dangling and never makes the reader wait too long for on-page recognition of harm or miscommunication. The resolution in the third act was so pitch perfect for these two characters, and once again I felt we had every assurance that they had a sustainable happily-ever-after. 

I've read exactly one book since finishing this and have already forgotten most of this plot, which says about everything I can about this book. It's fine but not memorable, largely set during a house party, fairly spicy, with some genuinely mind-boggling decision-making for the male main character. There is a revenge plot, but I almost forgot about it for the first half of the book. This is clearly doing some heavy lifting for series set-up, and I'm excited to see a few of these characters have their own main character moments. 

I loved every single beat of this. Cassandra and Joshua are matched by Cassandra's father in a marriage of convenience (she gets to inherit her family's estate through the marriage, and he gets to have a wife without really "having" a wife, which suits him well because he doesn't want one, thanks). After a few hours in each other's company and two years of separation, these two know nothing about one another, and the immediate tension between them at their reunion is brilliantly done and genuinely hilarious. Vincy balances snappy banter and droll humor with significant character work, as both Cassandra and Joshua have substantial personal and familial trauma. While each of them protects a soft heart, they do so in very different ways - Joshua is acerbic, cavalier, outwardly unfeeling and deeply selfish, and Cassandra is polite, deferential, outwardly serene and deeply selfless. They fight one another off until they fall into bed together, and the weaving together of physical and emotional intimacy is carefully done at every step. 

What started as a fun romp gained a depth I didn't anticipate (but should have!), and I ugly cried through the final 20%. The heartache and longing, the fear and hope - I was just an absolute wreck for these two. AND we have multiple explicit discussions (and declarations) of fidelity, which makes this a perfect five-star read for me. Highly recommend on audio, as it's narrated by the incomparable Kate Reading.

This was such a fun addition to the Tang Dynasty series - a fast-paced, will-they-won't-they, enemies-to-lovers, high-stakes forbidden romance. I loved how the characters circle each other, constantly chasing after one another, for most of the book, and I particularly appreciated the ways their individual character arcs reflect on various interpretations of justice and the rule of law. The romance wasn't quite as compelling for me as the second book in the series, The Dragon and the Peal, which I will not shut up about. I loved our female main character here, but generally found the male main character to be a bit boring and overly starchy. This was a romp, though, and the action scenes are excellent!

This is so hard to rate because there is a lot that I LOVED - primarily, that Braden is leaning all-the-way-in on paranormal/fated mates in this series, and that these get progressively spicier and more absurdly over-the-top. That said, she chose some really dark sub-plots for this one, and I struggled with how these alter the overall tone of the book. I really don't appreciate on-page suicidal ideation without clear content warnings from the author, particularly when it feels gratuitous, and I felt like it was ultimately unnecessary here (we could have had a clear window into the female main character's desperation and trauma without those moments of clear intent on page), and the use of a traumatic scene in the epilogue really kicked me out of the story (the EPILOGUE!). Note on the epilogue in content warnings. If you feel comfortable with the darker content, then there is a lot to love in this story, but I found the reading experience to be a really strange mix of laugh-out-loud absurdity and genuinely stressful content. I love this series, but this is likely my least favorite of them so far.

All that said, I absolutely cannot wait for Rannoch's book.

A My Fair Lady retelling set in the Tang Dynasty, as a son desperate to save his family's honor convinces a teashop girl to pose as his sister and marry herself off to a foreign warlord. This is very character-driven, and the romance is a slow, slow, SLOW burn. There were times I really struggled to stay invested in the romance with the slower pacing. That said, I loved a few of the turns in the third act and felt it was a fitting conclusion to their story. I'm enjoying this series, but the second book (The Dragon and the Pearl) is still my favorite!

Oh I loved this. Our youngest Greene sister, Justine, finally gets the main character moment she deserves, and my favorite side character from Prince of Broadway, Jack Mulligan, is her perfect foil. She's a do-gooder, well intentioned and determined but also overly trusting and still young, and he's a kingpin of lower Manhattan. Scarred and suspicious and willing to cheat, steal and blackmail his way to security, Jack shows Justine the reality of living life in and outside the confines of law and propriety. I loved seeing Justine navigating a path to fulfilling her own purpose - and learning the hard way that sometimes you can't change a corrupt system from the inside - and I was so moved by Jack's desperation to find any path that Justine can walk with him. High stakes and swoony and sexy with a perfect conclusion. Also, my least favorite character in this series, Duncan Daddy Warbucks Greene is vacationing in Europe for all but three pages of this book. Good riddance.

This is easily the hottest installment in the Uptown Girls series and WHEW. The spice is nice. This is a revenge plot, which we know from the very beginning. This is ultimately our primary conflict between Clay, our male main character, and Florence, our female main character, and if anything Joanna Shupe had me *too* convinced of the conflict to buy the resolution. There is a lot that I absolutely loved - a non virginal FMC who is very clearly disinterested in marriage or children and will sacrifice nothing for her career aspirations, some excellently played jealousy and intrigue, and a man absolutely leveled by his partner. I just wish the class difference felt more addressed.

This was exactly the character arc Frank Tripp needed. To see our smooth-talking rogue instantly decimated by Mamie Greene was delightful. He is honestly flailing for most of this story, and I do so love competent women felling men who are a bit too assured of their own competency. While Mamie's charity work/Robin Hood persona felt heavy handed at the start, it builds out in a way that feels a heck of a lot more meaningful and compelling, and I appreciated our murder-trial-sub-plot for accelerating the camaraderie between main characters. This is spicy and tense and funny with some big villainous moments (don't worry, Frank will take care of it). Can't wait for the rest of the Uptown Girls. 

This is one of the quietest love stories I've read - and, perhaps, the most faithful to its Cinderella inspiration. Our female main character, Sophia, is overlooked and unloved, taken in by neglectful relatives and pushed into the shadows of her home and small town, a "mouse" quietly observing as village life unfolds around her. When the male main character, Vincent, blinded at a young age in battle and now in possession of a title, returns to his childhood home, he is almost immediately caught in a wedding scheme concocted by Sophia's title-chasing relatives. The "mouse" saves him from a marriage trap, and he repays her kindness with a marriage proposal of his own. What begins as a marriage of convenience - one that will save her from destitution and one that will afford him greater independence from his family - slowly becomes more. 

This is a story where two people take tender care of each other, where they respect each other's independence and agency, where they fall in love through small conversations and gestures and confidences. It's quiet and earnest from start to finish. Historical romance has a complicated history with disabled main characters, and I was so pleased that this wasn't built as a "scarred hero" story, and that our blind main character is ultimately not the one in need of true rescue. Where it does stray into frustrating commentary on "overcoming" disability and resisting "being a victim" in one encounter, it challenges elsewhere ideas of blindness and disability and champions the ways in which disabled people live full and independent lives (and the ways they've done so throughout history). I love how important accessibility is to this story, as they renovate the estate to better suit his physical needs, and how these modifications are treated, appropriately, not as "gifts" to him - accessibility in his own home is something he deserves to have, full stop. While he is often infantilized by other characters in the story - including his own family members - he is never condescended to by the narrative or his partner, and I appreciated seeing ableism challenged consistently on page. 

This was my first by Balogh, and I look forward to reading the other installments in the Survivors Club series now!