Romance – Nonfiction and Nonsense

Love At First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi

I have never truly done spooky reads in the month of October, but this year I wanted to start making that a new tradition for myself. If you frequent my blog you will see that I did get a bit sidetracked this month, but I finally got around to reading a book that was on theme for the month. I don’t know if this genre is a large one, or if it even exists, but I am going to say that this book falls in the cozy, spooky, romance category.

Rosemary can see and interact with ghosts, the gift runs in her family. Not many people know, just those closest to her, and her ability doesn’t have much of an effect on her daily life. Rosemary has become a successful writer, one of her books was picked up by a production studio and is being made into a movie. She agrees to go to England at the request of the production company so they can pick her brain while filming, but she mostly goes because she believes that the lead role has been miscast and she wants to see if there is anything she can do to change the director’s mind. Ellis, a world famous movie star, has a resume full of starring roles in action flicks, and personal life to match. Rosemary doesn’t think that the tall, tan, and handsome Ellis will be able to convincingly play the thin and reserved male character from her story. Rosemary’s ability to see ghosts does come into play later in the book.

I was anticipating the spice to be spicier since a major plot point is Rosemary going on and on about how badly she wants a man to dominate her. Ellis is honestly a very respectful and playful dom, which I appreciated. But with the way Rosemary reminisced about her disappointing doms of the past I was expecting the intimate moments between them to go a little bit harder, a lot harder actually. It was mostly verbal domination, making her follow his orders, and not so much the hardcore physical domination that I feel like most people would associate with the word. In other words, I feel like I was a little bit misled. I expected fire and I got an electric blanket that was on the lowest setting.

So the book ended up being a cozy ghost story with romance on the side. I would read it again, it was pleasant enough. But now that I know that it is a little bit vanilla in the spice department I will only reach for it when I am in the mood for something that is lower in intensity. I would say that this is a good book for someone who is curious about the romance genre, I would call it introductory level in regards to spice.

Quicksilver by Callie Hart

Fiction

I decided that I needed to read this book to see if it was appropriately hyped. I also felt like I had been missing a little bit of magic in my life lately. While I have been reading a lot of romantic fiction over the past few months, they have all been realistic romantic fiction, no magic, fae, witches, vampires, no other worldly creatures of any kind. I was missing stories that involved intertwining the supernatural with romance, with adventure and intrigue on the side, and I was hopeful that this would provide me with what I was longing for. It did.

Saeris lives in a ward called The Third in the city of Zilvaren. The planet is dry and hot, with two suns that never set, making water more valuable than gold. The people of The Third are expected to survive on a daily ration of the smallest portion of the filthiest water out of all the residents in the entire city. Life is hard, so much so that Saeris steals cleaner water from another ward, as well as other things, to ensure her and her younger brother’s survival. The story begins with her taking something that is a little bit too valuable, leading the queens guard to invade her ward, something they usually avoid at all costs due to rumors of The Third being full of disease. After being captured by the guards and interrogated by the queen, she is sentenced to death. But something strange happens after Saeris is stabbed, and after passing out from her wounds she wakes up cold for the first time in her life.

Kingfisher, the fae male who arose from a pool of liquid silver as Saeris lay dying, returns to the kingdom of Yvelia after a decades long disappearance. Everyone has questions, where was he, why was he gone for so long, and why does he have a human female with him? But most importantly, how did he travel though the quicksilver pool when they have been sealed shut for over a thousand years? Saeris, it turns out, has the ability to unfreeze the pools, she just needs to learn how to do it with purpose rather than through a near death experience. Overnight, she becomes the most valuable being in the realm, an alchemist. Thought to have become extinct, she has the gift to activate the pools which makes travel between realms possible. And the fae of this realm desperately need to travel elsewhere to trade goods so that they can win and end the war that has been going on for centuries.

This novel really had everything that I was looking for, and I am optimistic that it will end up turning out to be a very good series. There were mystical creatures, but not too many that it was overwhelming, conflict, war, excellent tension between Saeris and Kingfisher, which lead to amazing intimate scenes, and a good overall plot. I placed a lot of post its throughout the book to mark things that I thought were important or bits of information that I found a little tricky to understand and knew I would want to go back to. I found that the way the curse was described made it harder to understand than it should be and I ended up reading that passage a few times. There is also a lot of information about swords and the magic they used to have as well as who they belonged to versus who owns them now, it was a lot.

I do appreciate that the author put a pronunciation guide for both people and places at the beginning of the book, but I found myself not caring so much about that as I did the map. Not all of the places mentioned in the novel are marked on the map, so you do have to try and estimate where they are based off of where the characters are coming from and where they are headed. I don’t know why, and I am sure I am not the only one, but I like to trace the path that the characters travel along. Even though we are only in Zilvaren for a short period of time, Saeris’ home city does not have a map at all. While I like to think that I have a very active imagination and was able to create a basic picture in my mind of what all the wards surrounding the central palace looked like, a map would have been nice. Maybe we will get one in the upcoming second book. An expanded or improved map of Yvelia and the rest of that realm would be nice too.

To bring this post to an end I just want to mention that I did originally buy the book in paperback, because it was less expensive. But after reading it and enjoying it I decided to buy the hardcover so that it will look nice next to the copy of Brimstone, which I preordered almost immediately after finishing Quicksilver. So I will say, if you enjoy fantasy, go ahead and buy the hardcover because you will enjoy this series and want to have a nice, matching set.

Pucking Sweet by Emily Rath

Fiction

I knew I was going to love this book before I read it. I did some serious speed reading when I was getting through Pucking Wild and its accompanying novella, because I was anticipating this story so much. And I did not disappoint myself. I loved this novel just as much as I was hoping I would.

The poly relationship in this story felt exactly right to me. Three is the magic number in my opinion, any more than that just feels like a little bit too much, but I am not going to rain on the love parade that consists of anyone in a poly relationship involving more than three persons. We have our female main character, Poppy, and the two men she finds herself equally attracted to and can’t decide between. On the one hand, she has an honest and open relationship blossoming with a man that she has known for a few years, but who has only now confessed his feelings towards her. He is direct with her, telling her exactly how he feels and what he wants from her. But then she finds incredible passion between herself and the team’s potential public relations nightmare, a man who seems to have never had a serious, loving relationship with a woman, a real playboy. By all rights they should abhor the other, but there really is a fine line between love and hate. After these two have what was meant to be a one night stand they can’t deny that there is something chemical drawing them towards each other. You really get the best of both worlds in this story.

I have to go on a rant about the side plot, that being all the drama between Poppy and her family. The way Poppy was treated by her entire family made me so furious. Her younger sister was bratty and a bit narcissistic. Her mother was prude, withholding, demanding, and controlling. Her father just didn’t seem very aware or observant regarding anything that was going on with his family, he was fully focused on his political career. Why have four children if you aren’t going to know their likes and dislikes, or pay attention to any of them? The brother, who didn’t make much of an impact at the beginning, turned out to be a huge jerk too. He was a bully who loved to run his mouth, but at least someone shut it for him in the end. The only sibling who didn’t seem like they were mistreating Poppy was the oldest sister, who was only mentioned briefly in the beginning. If she managed to stay out of all this drama, then good for her. It seems like she accomplished what Poppy should have done years ago and ignored her overbearing, manipulative, snotty, Kennedy-esque wannabee of a family.

I can’t recall from memory all the times I have gasped aloud or shouted in surprise or glee over something that I had read in a book. You could say that not a lot shocks me, or that the moments are so few and far between that they are lost to time and memory. But I did gasp at a huge plot twist that happened towards the end, I screamed when I read it. However, after this one line no more mention was made of it, and it was kind of a big deal. Think relationship ending, perspective altering twist. Even though there were several other more pressing matters occurring at the same time that may have needed immediate attention, I was surprised that no one brought this one confession up after the other matters were taken care of. That one line is really going to bother me. I am hoping that the novella that we were promised will include a chapter that covers what went on here.

Speaking of that third novella, it was supposed to come after this book. It is listed in the indexes of both Pucking Ever After Volumes One and Two, which says to me that the author was committed to writing it. But it has not been released and I cannot find any information hinting at a release date. Pucking Strong does have a release date, August, and I already pre-ordered it, but there has been no word on whether or not the third novella is coming out before, after, or not at all. Maybe the author decided not to write a novella starring these particular characters? Maybe she was in a scramble to get this latest installment out and had to put Pucking Strong Volume Three on hold? I do hope that I get to read that novella one day, and I really hope that the one cliffhanger I was personally left on is addressed. Until the news drops on that, I just have to wait until September to read about the boys in Pucking Strong. I fear that I may have gone a little overboard with this blog, but I do tend to do that when I really enjoy a book. Next week, I have a thriller that I want to tell you about.

Pucking Ever After Volume Two by Emily Rath

Fiction

This novella has one more chapter than Ever After Volume One, but is about twice as thick. The author decided to put a little bit of extra care into these stories, in my opinion, and I am all for it. I think that overall you will notice a big difference in tone here. Volume One was mostly playful and sexy, Volume Two is serious, powerful, and heart stirring.

If you aren’t interested in a heavy read, maybe you should skip this one. I would say that every single one of the chapters in this novella touches on a serious issue or plays through a tense situation. The one serious topic, which required two chapters of plot, involved a life threatening medical issue with Tess. While I myself did not relate to the issue at all, and was not disturbed by what I read, the author was right in putting a warning at the beginning of the novel for anyone who might be sensitive to the issue. As for the other situation that required two chapters worth of narrative, it was less dramatic, not life threatening, but a delicate issue none the less. It focused on our moody, tight lipped Caleb, and the solemn Ilmari. These two chapters were more about longing and heartache, and they ended up being sweet and romantic and the guys worked through their issues. These two chapters ended up being my favorite in this novella.

Having finished this novella I fell right into the third novel in this series. If you want to find out who the love interests are in that book, come back tomorrow.

Pucking Wild by Emily Rath

Fiction

We get introduced to Rachel’s best friend, Tess, in the very beginning of Pucking Around. I could tell just from that first chapter that Tess was going to be a main character later on, even though we barely get mention of her throughout the entirety of the first book. This story started off right where Pucking Around ended.

Tess is having a cute moment with Ray’s forward Ryan, dancing, flirting, conversing with a comfortable banter. They have explosive chemistry, despite their age difference, vastly contrasting lifestyles, and the ban Rachel has put in place forbidding Tess from hooking up with any of the hockey guys. Oh, and on top of that Tess is married, albeit separated from her husband, and has sworn off men and serious relationships. Tess doesn’t need or want another complicated relationship right now, but Ryan wants her badly and he will do anything and everything to make her his.

There was a lot of drama in this novel, a very different sort than what we saw in Pucking Around. Rachel thought she was getting too much of a good thing, Tess doesn’t think she deserves anyone that wants to be good to her. Rachel shies away from relationships because of her celebrity connections, Tess doesn’t want a relationship because the last one she had resulted in her being legally bound to a cheating, abusive spouse. The tension in Pucking Around makes you gleefully anticipate what is going to happen next. In this story, you feel tense and anxious as you turn the pages, wondering how much more of the story involves the situation getting worse before it gets better. I did have anxiety as I was reading some of the chapters when it seemed that things were going to turn out badly, all of them involving confrontations or ultimatums between Tess and her ex husband. The man seemed to possess every terrible quality a human could have, he was narcissistic, arrogant, entitled, cruel, threatening, and smug, and I could go on. I don’t understand how a person as bubbly as Tess got involved with him to begin with.

If you don’t mind being a little frustrated and a little worried, but hopeful as you root for the good guy, this is the perfect romance for you. And it’s just the start of this series. This is only novel two of what looks like is going to be at least a five part series, full of supplemental reads in the forms of novellas and short stories. This author is in the process of creating what I expect to be a much loved fictional universe.