yourbookishbff's reviews
596 reviews

This debut was uneven at times, but lush and emotional with so much potential, that I'm excited to read more from this author. Above all, this was beautifully queer, with some of the most evocative scenes of queer joy and celebration and resistance that I've seen in historical romance (the Fourth Tier?!). The tension between our main characters was so thick at the start, and I reveled in how they circle and taunt and resent each other, each wounded and wounding. The fall into longing makes sense for these characters, and there is a moment of stunning clarity for our sheltered and naive FMC that felt like a gut punch: 

"You couldn't want something you'd never really seen. You could dream about it, wish for it, hope that it might come. But to really want it - well, that was something else entirely. And now that Loretta had seen it, every bone in her body trembled with want."

And this imagery?! 

"This was how Loretta felt upon reading Charlotte's letter. Her limbs, her organs, her beating heart were not strung with the adrenaline of movement, but of the moment just before. She was coiled and vibrating - like a hungry snake, but without the venom." 

Sunday's writing is so visceral that the longing feels physically painful, and I couldn't get enough of it. 

Where this didn't succeed as fully for me is in plot execution. We drifted through a few moments that weren't fully explained, and then when we revisited them, it wasn't clear what actually happened and when (I don't mind fade-to-black intimacy, but I would swear certain "first times" happened twice?), and we really needed more time to fully develop the third act conflict and its resolution. This is under 275 pages (at least in my copy), and it could have benefitted from being fleshed out more. The relationship became rushed in the end, and it made the HEA feel slap-dash, when the beginning held so much promise. 

Also, I was so disappointed by the editing, and I'm really hoping a lot of this is corrected before final publication. The formatting of the e-arc was so bad that it was truly difficult to read and understand, because line and paragraph breaks were off, chapters started mid-page, etc. There were moments we switched POV and it took me a paragraph to realize, because the break was missing entirely. 

All that said, I will absolutely read Sunday's next book, because I am so optimistic for her future stories and can't wait to return to the world her prose spins up.

This is a beautiful debut by a new historical romance author, and I cannot wait to read more by Sri Savita. In so many ways, this novella felt like a pocket universe - the hero's frequent references to faerie lore, the romantic character of the cottage and its whimsical animal inhabitants, the lengthening of time when the two leads are together and the way it slips away when they're apart. Set in the regency, both leads are Indian, and the language and cultural details woven in created a sense of home and security in Robin Hood's Bay (aptly named, based on the historical details included in the author's note!). This is a story that centers the lives of racialized characters without leaning on racial trauma - it is a kind and gentle story where grief and class divide are the only meaningful barriers to the main characters' happiness. I was so moved by the emotional vulnerability shown by our characters and by how bravely they face both their insecurities and their dreams. This translated into gorgeous, open-door intimacy scenes that reflected the same care and attention to each other, and I was fully swept away in the second half.

The next Wednesbury siblings' story is teased in the epilogue and I am anxious to see how this family's universe continues to take shape.

Thank you to the author for an advanced reader's copy. 

The Finest Print is a next-generation love story for those who've read Erin Langston's earlier works, but it will easily stand alone for new readers. Our female main character, Belinda "Belle" Sinclair, is daughter to Gavin and Emilia (Some Winter's Evening) and niece to Nate and Cora (Forever Your Rogue), and at the story's start, we see the trigger of her societal fall: a broken engagement to a power-hungry bore. The fall-out for her is immediate and sustained, and she becomes isolated from friends and society-at-large, forced to carve out unconventional spaces for herself. Now, several years later, she spends the majority of her days tagging along with her father - now a judge - as he presides over cases at the Old Bailey while writing (and relentlessly revising) drafts of her crime novel. Her life has settled into a well-worn, melancholic groove. 

Enter our male main character, Ethan Fletcher, the (bearded and broad) American heir to a struggling print shop. In his return to London, Ethan discovers he's inherited a shocking amount of debt and a rapidly approaching deadline for paying it off. The two meet by chance and learn just enough to discover they could perhaps be useful to one another - where he desperately needs a fast-selling publication to pay down his debt and keep the print shop open, she is desperate to see her stories in print after years of rejection. While his idea to publish a penny blood is, at first, an insult to our budding gothic novelist, the two quickly chart a path forward as partners, and begin publishing serialized crime stories featuring a housemaid-turned-amateur-detective. Their penny blood project brings to life a fascinating few years in the early Victorian era, when the "knowledge tax" (or news tax) made news less accessible to lower/working classes and genre fiction became a more economically viable and widely accessible route to readers. The inner workings of the press, the trials of female writers of the era, and the prevailing attitudes about gothic literature work together to create a compelling and original backdrop to this class difference love story.

For those who know and love Langston's work, it will be no surprise that her prose in The Finest Print is earnest and lush as she shows two people who are equally hurting and healing learn to trust and depend on one another. I've always appreciated how Langston balances power between her main characters, and the dynamic between these two is particularly nuanced - where Belle is socially outcast, she is still monied and secure, and Ethan, while operating from a blank slate, has no familial wealth or foothold in London, and is struggling to establish himself and his business. Their romance is tender, sincere and direct, and they insist on honesty with one another in their work and in their intimacy (and their discussions of birth control and consent are excellent and sexy as heck). This story cemented Langston as one of my favorite historical romance authors writing today. 

Thank you to the author for an advanced reader's copy. 

When Kim's not on page, I struggle to stay invested, and so there were parts of the first half that dragged a bit for me personally. That said, when things pick up in the second half, it's a race to the finish, and I loved the relationship development between Kim and Will in this installment. Zodiac is an over-the-top criminal enterprise - and I still don't entirely understand its actual goals/motives - but I'm primarily here for the daring rescues, slippery subterfuge and our found family among Will, Kim, Phoebe and Maisie. 

KJ Charles set out to write a 1920s Golden Age pulp fiction romantic mystery and she nailed it. I love how theatric and, at times, over-the-top KJC's mysteries feel and how well they play to earlier styles and plot devices. This is a tight first installment, with a single clear arc, a mysterious external conflict and the dawning of romantic interest between our two main characters. It's an emotional journey in very few pages, and I was giddy and confused and angry and then confused again and then eventually content (or as content as you can be when both characters are probably still in some kind of mortal peril). No-one does betrayal like KJ Charles. Looking forward to the next book!

The third installment in Vincy's Longhope Abbey series focuses on our mysterious artist, Juno, and the Duke of Dammerton (Leo) and their unlikely, class-divide love story. Unfortunately, this story builds on a lot of plot devices/power dynamics I really, really struggle with - a Duke and a woman of a lower class and a conflict that continually reminds us that responsibility to his family will always mean thinking of others as less-than, a constant tangle of miscommunication, half-truths and assumptions, and a woman suffering devastating career setbacks on page (thanks I HATE IT). Vincy's writing is beautiful, and I think her conflict remains faithful to her characters, it just isn't one that will ever sit quite right for me.

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!