Long Way Home
Another free download contemporary romance. This is the story of a young woman returning to her idyllic home town and her estranged family who recovers from tragedy by rediscovering romance.
It’s not hugely well written but the characters are pretty compelling. I couldn’t say it was great but I’d certainly read another book by the author.
A Night To Surrender
This is a well written historical romance with a decent story and very enjoyable leads that is just plain too long.
The female lead runs an isolated community of women who don’t fit in ‘polite’ society and whose ordered life when the male lead turns up looking for a chance to regain his command in the army.
After a certain point I felt the story began to drag and I just waiting for the resolution to happen. I would have rated it higher but for that.
The Brothers Sinister Series
The Brothers Sinister series consists of four novels and three novellas. These are all expertly written historical romances featuring fascinating and compelling female lead characters.
I had read the first novella The Governess Affair a couple of years back as a free download and didn’t think much of it. At the time I didn’t really read romance of any stripe but I was interested in Courtney because of her involvement in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries fandom.
After a couple of years of reading romance I saw the first full length book of the series pop up as a free download too. This time round I thoroughly enjoyed the book and immediately shelled out for the complete series collection after completing it.
If you you’re looking for well-written, funny and insightful historical romance with really great female lead characters then read these. I would read them in order to get best sense of the time lines involved but I’m certain you could read them out of sequence and enjoy them just as much.
From This Moment On
This is an entirely forgettable contemporary romance. Competently written and entertaining enough it just doesn’t stick in the memory at all.
Armada
Cline’s second book, like his first, is guilty of rampant nostalgia for a certain strain of 1980’s US nerd culture.
Unlike Ready Player One this book has next to no charm. Ripping off sci-fi properties like The Last Starfighter and Ender’s Game left and right I found this novel to be empty of original ideas and full of clichéd characters.
The story is incredibly slight but it is very readable. I suspect I’d enjoy it more on a re-read or as an audiobook now that I know not to expect better of it.
Love Handles
Competent romantic comedy about a preschool teacher who inherits a sports clothing company from her duplicitous and manipulative Grandfather.
She surprises her relatives by not selling the business and instead settling in to try and save the ailing company. All this while resisting the schemes (and advances) of the ex-Olympian VP in day to day charge.
It’s a pleasant enough read – especially for a free ebook.
A Hero At The End Of The World
Ewan Mao was the one prophesised to save the world. Instead his best friend Oliver Abrams defeated the magical tyrant ruling their alternative version of contemporary London. Life hasn’t quite gone his way ever since.
Five years later and Ewan is suddenly at the centre of a plot to end the world and his estranged friend is also caught up in events.
This book was originally Kickstarted as part of the start up of Big Bang Press who specialize in publishing original fiction by highly regarded fanfic authors. I bought it as part of a Humble Bundle.
I really quite enjoyed this slice of romantic and humourous urban fantasy and I particularly enjoyed the copious amounts of snarky banter between the characters. It kind of reminded me of Tom Holt or a less out-there Robert Rankin.
Stripping The Billionaire
Benjamin Damon is a billionaire’s heir who has run away from family obligations and money to live a less hypocritical life.
When his gorgeous friend and next-door neighbour invites herself along when his mother asks for his help to remodel her house he finds himself falling for her.
This one is incredibly formulaic but I find Adams pretty readable compared to other authors who give romance novels away for free on iBooks.
Hired Bride
To avoid an incident with the daughter of a potential business partner at a party a callous billionaire announces that he’s engaged to a cash-strapped and compliant young women he’d just met.
They agree to get married to make him seem more respectable and so she can finally afford to restore the family home.
As with all these kind of stories she’s not as compliant as she seems and he’s not so callous and (spoilers) they fall in love for real.
Romancing The Duke
Typically if I’m reading a romance I’m looking for a contemporary piece preferrably one with some humour.
I only read this competently written historical romance because of an intriguing online recommendation that talked about this book’s depiction of fandom in glowing terms.
This seemed a good enough reason to give Romancing The Duke a try.
The heroine is the penniless daughter of a famous writer who made a fictional version of her younger self the star of his novels.
She inherits a castle from a family friend, a fan of the novels. Only to discover that the castle is falling to bits and is still occupied by a blinded Duke who claims the pile is still his.
The fandom bits are the best thing about the book.
I liked the way the author captured the burden and privilege of having a popular public persona.
As examples the limits on who the heroine can appear to be in public and the absolute loyalty she can call on from the fans of the books.
I’ve definitely read worse romances and if you have a background in fandom and a weakness for historicals then you’ll lap this one up.