Just Married?
When an English bookseller is dumped by her fiancee for being too predictable she takes a spontaneous journey to Las Vegas.
She wakes the next morning married to a C-List TV actress with a shot at the lead role in the next big movie franchise.
Things happen and the next thing you know we’re in a fake relationship story.
This is a solid contemporary romance novella with a WLW twist. It’s sweet and fluffy with a little bit of family drama thrown in.
The Lemon Sisters
Brooke Lemon’s life is shaken out of it’s routine by the sudden arrival of her sister Mindy (with her kids in tow) at her home in Los Angeles.
Seeing that Mindy is at the end of her rope she volunteers to take the kids for a couple of days.
Ending up in her childhood home in Northern California she begins to confront her past and think about her future with the sexy guy next door.
Solid, entertaining contemporary romance.
Accidentally on Purpose
Elle is a the super savvy manager of a building complex in San Francisco.
She survived a traumatic childhood to get where she is now. Except every day she has to deal with Archer the ex-cop who threw his career away to save her as a teenager.
If only they didn’t have this dangerous chemistry.
Solid, entertaining contemporary romance.
In At The Deep End
This a novel about a woman whose life has become aimless after giving up her dancing career.
Her lovelife is non-existent and work is insecure and uninspiring.
Getting drunk at an arty party she makes out with a woman and the experience brings the realization that she’s attracted to women.
She throws herself into this new world with abandon. Quickly she finds herself with new hobbies, new friends and in a relationship with a woman who encourages her to explore her boundaries.
I life my romances fluffy. This is NOT a fluffy story even if you do get a sweet resolution after the drama plays out.
If you want a coming out story combined with complicated emotional dynamics then you’ve found it.
It’s well enough written – it’s really just not my cup of tea.
Gentlemen
This entry in the 33⅓ series covers The Afghan Whigs estimable 1993 release Gentlemen.
After brief but well constructed introduction to the band members it seemed to me that it became rather by-the-numbers when talking about the recording of the record. The section talking about the individual songs held nothing new and was where the author’s personal opinions began to overwhelm the factual content.
As for the part of the book dealing with the book’s reception after release and it’s lack of sales is chock full of biases about the music industry (Gendron seems to really not get why a difficult to classify album about messed up sexual relationships might not have sold in the early 90s) and is less than even handed when talking about the fallout.
It was worth borrowing from the library. I’d be rather disappointed if I’d paid money for it.
Fear of Music
The follow up to This is Uncool is Mulholland’s choice of the greatest albums since Disco and Punk (the original was just singles).
This book is very similar in style to This is Uncool. It’s tone is much angrier and (to me as someone who was on message boards during the poptimism/rockism thing) it’s a more political than personal in some choices this time around.
I’ve docked it point for the off tangent ranting in some entries and for the rather bleak view takes of even the best music in the final few choices.
It’s a cheap and interesting read for any pop music nerd in your life.
Coming Home to the Comfort Food Cafe
The third Comfort Cafe book tells the story of Zoe. Zoe has taken on the responsibility for her best friend’s teenage daughter Martha after the friend dies from cancer.
Escaping to Budbury to distance her charge from the trouble she’s getting into at home things take an unexpected turn when the kid’s Australian father turns up to help.
Decent story and the extended cast really works.
Sunshine at the Comfort Food Cafe
The fourth Comfort Cafe book tells the story of Willow. A pink-haired young woman who is entirely devoted to the care of her Mother Lynnie who suffers from Dementia. With a little help from the community she’s able to work enough to keep her head above water. Her little cleaning business brings her to an old residential home where she meets the millionaire geek, Tom, who has bought the place.
This is an enjoyable contemporary romance with a great cast of recurring characters
Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe
This is an enjoyable contemporary romance. Part of a series centred on a village cafe in Dorset.
In this one we follow the perspective of Becca. She’s a graphic designer from Manchester and she comes to Bunbury to visit her sister for Christmas.
Notoriously immune to the charms of the festive season She finds herself falling for the charms of the villagers and in particular for the handsome Irishman Sam.
I liked that Becca was less than thrilled by Christmas and that she could be spiky and difficult with people. All too many Christmas romances (both novels and films) have protagonists filled with starry-eyed joy at the prospect of all things Christmas.
I particularly liked that the characters actually talked to each other about their feelings (a pet peeve of mine is the dumb misunderstanding) but on the other hand some of the plot points were clunking and obvious.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
I only read this one because I enjoyed the Netflix movie.
Lara Jean Covey is put in a pickle when her unsent love letters are mysteriously posted. It would be embarassing enough but one of them is to her older sister’s very recently ex-boyfriend.
Almost accidentally she finds herself fake dating another letter recipient called Peter Kavinsky.
It’s a pretty good young adult fake dating story but it doesn’t work as well as the movie.