viscountess_black's reviews
393 reviews

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
Spice: 🔥🔥🔥

Short review: Great debut novel, slow burn, badass female mc and goofy/soft male mc, forced proximity, good ending.

Long review:
We have an amazing italian-american female mob boss, the first of her generation, trying to continue her father's legacy while having to deal with the misogyny of the male population in the mafia, and a silly, soft hearted math teacher who's being pressured by his parents to get a date for his cousins wedding, what could ever go wrong?

What can I say? I loved this book. The chemistry between Vanessa and Nate is obvious from the very beginning, the slow romance has a good pace and it made me love seeing their character development. I have to be honest, the ending felt a bit rushed BUT it wasn't bad at all, I actually enjoyed a lot the final events of the book. This is a rom-com, with both having a great balance and making it easy to read.

It was such an amazing work by the author and I couldn't have guessed this was her first book. I can't wait to read the sequel with Mary (my lovely, deadly Mary).

Content Warnings

Cinder Bella ('Tis the Season Book 3) by Kathleen Shoop

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
Spice: No spice. ✨

Short review: Sweet and comforting. Feel good vibes. Good ending. He falls first.

Long review:
This is a historical romance set in the month of December at The Panic of 1893, where our main characters and their friends find themselves trying to do the best they can to survive and have memorable holidays.

In this book we meet Bella Darling, good hearted and loved by everyone she meets who loves stories and loves to read, and has been lucky enough to get for her animals (three hens and a cat) and herself a place to live, as long as her hens lay eggs; then we have Bartholomew Baines, a bankrupt banker who's a bit of a Scrooge that just lost everything he had: his friends, his fiance and his property and money, and has to live in a house with other people as unfortunate that also found themselves in a bad situation in life.

I loved it. It was the perfect book to get my out of my reading slump. Also, the perfect reading to end 2024.
It was sweet, made me immerse myself to the story easily and connect with the characters. I had an amazing time getting to know the characters and their stories, and I enjoyed Bart and Bella's banter and growing romance.

Content Warnings

Christmas in Miracle Falls by Ann Roth

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.

Not feeling like reading it right now.

The Dollhouse by Christina Hagmann

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challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

This was... an interesting reading.
I'd been seeing this book in my email suggestions for weeks and both the cover and the title appealed to me. After reading the excerpt, I decided to read it.

Now, why 2 stars?
Don't get me wrong, the book started really well, both the plot and narration are good.
What made me give it two stars was how fast things seemed to happen, little depth while the events developed and the ending felt pressured.

Thank you for allowing me to read this book for free. I'm sorry I couldn't give it more stars.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Content Warnings

Carry Me Through Christmas by Rachel Holm

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emotional funny hopeful relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Spice: 🔥🔥🔥

Short review: Well written characters, good plot and romance development. Kind of a enemies (corporate) to lovers trope. It involves christmas but doesn't overwhelm you with the theme.

Now, onto my personal review:

I am so in love with this book.

We follow the story of Blaire Greene, a holiday coordinator whose job will be to make the best Christmas festival that might save her dear town charter and to do that, has to work under the supervision of Cole Thomas, next (and enemy) town CFO.

It looks like your typical romantic christmassy comedy, and to be honest, the cover didn't encourage me to expect much of the book (nothing against it, just the cartoonish style doesn't encourage me to read it) but since I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone and read different things, I decided to give it a chance and oh boy, it proved me SO wrong.

We do have a romance in our hands, but the book is well written and the dynamic between the main characters it's refreshing. We have banter; we have attraction, yes, but it develops slowly without dragging the plot. We have work focused characters that act in a logical way, considering the circumstances and NO MISCOMUNICATION TROPE (YAY!).

It's been a while since I read a romance I enjoyed so much in all ways and I certainly took my time reading it but because I didn't want it too finish. The author gift us an extended epilogue if your interested, by the way.

If you like christmas, romance, logical oriented characters, a well done problem solution and of course, happy endings, this book is for you.

Christmas Bet by Emma Lynn Everly

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challenging fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Terrible.
I'm sorry to myself. Why did I think that would be accomplished in 55 pages?

They knew each other for a day and a half. Less than that. And decided to spend the rest of their lives together.

Just not for me.

Snowflakes and Sparks by Sophie-Leigh Robbins

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lighthearted fast-paced