yourbookishbff's Reviews (650)

This is my first by Jess Everlee, and I look forward to returning to her earlier books! There is a LOT happening in this premise, and I was pleasantly surprised it all remained coherent. We've got one main character living contentedly - if not exactly happily - in a lavender marriage, discovering in the opening scenes that her husband's mistress is pregnant and her place in her own home could be in jeopardy. She attempts to make herself invaluable by pretending midwifery experience, an absurd decision that is quickly and thoroughly lambasted by all of her friends. Her foil, the uptight, underestimated, overburdened doctor, is the steady presence who will ultimately help her face down her own insecurities (while battling her own). It's laugh-out-loud funny at points, and deeply emotional at others, as each character has childhood trauma (and a complicated family) to unpack. 

The through-line in plot and character development is an epistolary sequence that helps our characters cross months of time and find deeper intimacy with each other despite their distance. It's so well done and feels right for both characters. Everlee also nails the found family and the dynamics between each of them as they grow closer, and it added so much to the romance arc for our main characters. 

This tiniest quibble - why did Emily make chess pieces? In a plot that already had a lot going on, the occasional mentions of this extremely specific hobby felt unnecessary? But maybe I missed some deeper symbolism here. 

Also - audio is narrated by Ell Potter, a fave. Highly recommend this format!

This was the perfect follow-up to Gareth and Joss's story in The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen. I hadn't realized just how much we needed a happily ever after for Luke, but reading this felt like bringing a small bit of justice to him, even so many years later. I loved the role reversal here - our Doomsday is the submissive, "golden-haired" academic and our earl is described as brutish and crass (as well as honest and kind). They are wonderful foils to each other. Where Luke can code-switch between his Kentish country upbringing and his aristocratic clerking with ease, Rufus repeatedly begs people to speak plainly with him, having no ability to sort out insinuation or subtext. Where Rufus is direct, at times painfully so, he's honorable, and Luke realizes through their relationship that he has grown comfortable with deception to a degree that he can no longer justify. Both characters learn from one another in realistic ways, and it makes their happily-ever-after feel secure and just right. I also thoroughly enjoyed the return of our mystery from book one, some on-page appearances of both Gareth and Joss, and a cast of comedic side characters. Loved this.

I loved this follow-up to Ana Maria and the Fox, and I'm not going to be chill about it. I struggled with the pacing in Ana Maria's story, and the late entry of the marriage-of-convenience set-up, along with a lot of telling vs. showing. I had none of these issues in this installment. I felt the romance was perfectly paced, and I could see at every step how our two main characters' reactions to each other began to shift. The physical chemistry and emotional connection were beautifully balanced, with hints of jealousy and uncertainty and longing and self-denial that always made sense for these characters. Liana De la Rosa has given our middle Luna sister a love story deserving of her independent spirit and tireless desire to prove herself (to herself, more than anyone else). Where Isabel feels unknown because she's often unnoticed, Sirius feels unknown because he's unseen despite being widely noticed. Through introversion (Isabel) and a front of extroversion (Sirius), these two hide in plain sight, until they find each other. 

Once again, the sisters and their relationships shine, bringing humor and levity alongside difficult reflections on family, cultural loss and belonging. And the political subplot felt more nuanced (and ultimately more compelling) in this installment, as we're searching out potential French intelligence, shifting international allegiances, approaching armies and political-leaders-in-hiding. It leads to a happily-ever-after that feels perfectly suited to this couple (and bucks a lot of histrom norms in the best way!). 

If you read Ana Maria and the Fox, you absolutely have to read this follow-up. If you didn't read Ana Maria, you can also jump right into this, as they are loosely connected but most of your backstory will be filled in for you throughout. If it's not clear, I think everyone should read Isabel and the Rogue. So excited for Gabby's story in book three!

This is a classic Milan romp, where everything is hilarious but you're somehow also weeping. A sapphic love story for Mrs. Martin, our side character from After the Wedding, that explores aging, love and friendship, women's agency, and more. A beautiful little story packed with hyjinks and a burn-it-all-down conclusion that had me cheering.

This was such a fun read, and once again, KJ Charles nails the "unloved and forlorn aristo desperate for family and security." I was initially surprised by how we kick off Gareth and Joss's relationship, but it was ultimately the perfect jumping off point for the story, and added tension to their unlikely reunion. I loved the exploration of the Doomsday family dynamics and the tragi-comedy of a community entirely dependent on smuggling. I loved this happily every after so much, and can't wait to see Luke's story in the next book!

This goes down as the one and only perfect mistress proposal (that I have personally read). I typically loathe mistress proposals in a class difference story, for the implied "I want to sleep with you but you aren't high-born enough to be my wife," and Milan so deftly turns this on its head that I was left feeling... Moved? Smite doesn't so much believe himself unworthy of love as incapable of love, and lives with such an overwhelming fear of loss that he prevents attachment and sentimentality and lives as independently as possible. He also (tragically) believes his trauma makes him a better person, and he struggles to embrace healing from his childhood. Miranda is such a perfectly built counterpoint, someone who will push him to step over carefully drawn lines when necessary and who knows how to love a person without undermining their independence and agency. We get some great Dalrymple backstory as well, and I was rooting for these characters all the way through. The secondary plot/mystery wraps up a little too nearly perhaps, but this ultimately didn't bother me. A great conclusion to The Turners!

I loved The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, the first installment in this series, and I wish I had enjoyed this one more! Ultimately, this is a heist book that leans so heavy on the heist that the romance can barely peek out from under it. I loved the gender-bent Robin Hood vibes, the focus on trade unions and worker's (lack of) rights, and appreciated the musical family, but I wanted more time with our two main characters on page together, and left feeling that I didn't understand when they fell in love and why, and how their happily ever after might work. I also felt like we had only the hints of the found family for Maddy and I would have loved more time with this cast of characters to better understand her!

This is my favorite of The Turners so far! I was unsure of what to expect in Mark's story, as I never fully understood how seriously he took himself - or how seriously he wanted others to take him - during his scenes in Unveiled, and I was relieved to see that he was built out into an authentically complicated and flawed character who mostly would like everyone to just forget about him entirely (relatable). This explores some heavy purity culture themes - the meaning of abstention from sex, the burdens women carry after sex vs. men (particularly during this historical period, though it's not too far off today, unfortunately), the ways sexual "chastity" is weaponized against women, etc. Our female main character is a courtesan, and one of the few actual courtesans I've seen as the main character in a historical romance. Her personal, familial and sexual trauma is central to her character development, and Milan works through two separate conflicts in the second half, each critical to helping Jessica find a path back to herself. This is angsty, due to the external conflicts and character backstories, but know going in that these two are exceptionally good to each other, even when they royally eff it up. Milan always allows her characters to assume the best of each other, and these two were no exception.

If anything, I think this could have been more succinct, but the ending is perfect, and this was an enjoyable and compelling read all the way through. 

This is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to asexual and aromantic identities, particularly for allosexual folks (Chen does indicate that this is a primary goal in framing the text). I appreciated how steadily Chen built a foundation for the reader, exploring first what asexuality and aromanticism are not and how our culture understands (and misunderstands) desire vs. attraction before exploring how race, gender identity and more intersect to create different individual experiences (and additional cultural barriers to acceptance). Chen writes of her own experience while also weaving in interviews with a diverse group of aces to help the reader understand the spectrum of asexual and aromantic experience. 

I am particularly grateful for Chen's reflection on compulsory sexuality and amatonormativity (a new term for me - the belief that everyone desires romantic and/or sexual relationships). She breaks down media in ways I hadn't previously considered and provides new insight into what a more inclusive world for aces might look like, where nonromantic partnerships have access to legal protections traditionally afforded only to romantic partnerships, where popular media explores the vast spectrum of human attraction while not assuming romantic arcs are necessary, where asexuality becomes so understood and acceptable that young folks better understand themselves at earlier ages, where aces aren't immediately medicalized by therapists, physicians, friends and family as somehow "wrong" or "broken." 

I highly recommend Ace to any nonfiction reader interested in learning more about asexuality - this is a fantastic introduction to the topic with takeaways relevant to all of us, regardless of our sexual orientation. 

This just didn't work for me as a novella, and it's possible I just can't handle the bully redemption arc. I may have been able to get there had we seen the relationship development between the main characters on page. The time jump in the middle meant we had to trust that the female main character felt differently months later, without actually seeing how he earned her trust over time, and I struggled to make this emotional transition alongside the characters. Also, the male main character's insistence on maintaining a relationship with someone consistently causing harm to the female main character? To the extent of making verbal declarations of loyalty? That was a line crossed for me. I can see how this novella will work for other readers - it just didn't work for me.