The Scandal of It All
Written by: Sophie Jordan
Release Date: 7/25/2017
Reviewed by: Heidi*
Genre: Historical Romance
Rating: 3.5 Younger Men
Recommended for: Women over 20 who still have a libido
Graciela, the widowed Duchess of Autenberry, is 36 and tired of feeling like her life is over before it ever really started. When one of her friends passes away suddenly, she decides in a moment of madness to go to a pleasure house just to see what she’s been missing. There she runs into her stepson’s best friend, 29 year-old Lord Colin Strickland who has apparently had a crush on her for years. Despite her hesitancy over the scandal and their age difference, they fall headfirst into an affair that is hot in the way only the best historical romances can be. REALLY HOT. If you’re looking for a sexy read with a cover you’ll probably want to hide from your family (my daughter saw this book sitting out and asked it if was about princesses) then The Scandal of it All is for you. Buy it.
*arc provided by publisher in exchange for honest review
Aftercare Instructions
Written by: Bonnie Pipkins
Release Date: 6/27/2017
Reviewed by: Angela*
Genre: Young Adult
Rating: 5 Playbills
Recommended for: Everyone
Genesis walks into the waiting room after her appointment at Planned Parenthood to see that her boyfriend of about 18 months has abandoned her there. In New York City. She lives in New Jersey. That is just on the first page. I could not put this book down. We follow Genesis in the aftermath of her life changing afternoon as she deals with the feelings from the abortion, her boyfriend’s betrayal, an unstable home life, and drama at her high school. And, what really stood out to me was that throughout the novel, Pipkins gives us pieces of Genesis’s past written as acts in a play, as well as beginning chapters with the “aftercare instructions” given to her from Planned Parenthood. I applaud Pipkins for taking a subject that is usually glossed over in YA–or, worse, used as a scare tactic–and really showing the reality of what happens next, both physically and mentally, and turning it into a gripping story that I believe should be required reading by everyone, no matter their age. Buy it.
*arc provided by publisher in exchange for honest review
Trust
Written by: Kylie Scott
Release Date: 7/18/2017
Reviewed by: Heidi*
Genre: Young Adult Romance
Rating: 3.5 Reformed Bad Boys
Recommended for: Everyone who remembers their first lust
Allow me to preface this review by saying, this is not the kind of Kylie Scott book you’re used to reading. Trust is firmly in the Young Adult genre. There are no rock stars, there is no bar, but there is the really intense connection between the two main characters that we’ve come to expect from one of our favorite romance writers. In Trust, seventeen year old Edie’s life is blown apart when she’s held hostage in a traumatic convenience store robbery. In the aftermath of her experience she leaves her private all girls school to attend the local public school. There, armed with her knew devil-may-care perspective on life, she befriends the older boy who saved her life during the robbery. John is a reformed bad boy with the sad backstory to prove it. He’s also really hot. Trust is the story of Edie and John learning to move on from tragedy when their entire world has been changed. It’s a story of first lust, first love and self-discovery. Plus, when has Kylie Scott ever let us down when it comes to a hot bad boy? Buy it.
*arc provided by publisher in exchange for honest review
The Dream Keeper’s Daughter
Written by: Emily Colin
Release Date: 7/25/17
Reviewed by: Leanne*
Genre: Romance
Rating: 3 Treehouse Trysts
Recommended for: Time travel intrigued history lovers who don’t have time to read 8 Outlander books. Romance meets the supernatural in Emily Colin’s second book. Portals, psychics and visions all play a role in this tale of lovers separated by time. Isabel has suffered two tragic losses but has built a beautiful life for herself. She has a great job with the College of Charleston’s Archeology Department, a sweet daughter, supportive dad and caring best friend. Life is pretty good, until the past comes back to haunt her. A cryptic phone call and a strange discovery send her reeling. Is she losing her mind or is there a chance of finding the two people who vanished from her life?
The action alternates between modern day Charleston, SC and the sugar plantations of Barbados in the early 1800’s. The characters seem a little slow on the uptake resulting in some unnecessary misunderstandings and one element of the time travel is troubling, but the story is engrossing nonetheless. Buy it.
*arc provided by publisher in exchange for honest review
Katherine of Aragon – The True Queen
Written by: Alison Weir
Release Date: 5/31/2016
Reviewed by: Danelle*
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 4.5 Crown Jewels
Recommended for: Lovers of anything from the Tudor era in England
This is the first in a series of books about Henry VIII’s six wives called Six Tudor Queens. (I received this book along with the second in the series, which I appreciated – it gave me a lot of perspective. I actually read it AFTER the one about Anne Boleyn and it made me even more sympathetic towards Katherine because she had no idea what was going on for what seemed quite a long time.)You can tell a couple of things from the beginning of this particular installment: 1) Alison Weir is a gifted historian who knows her stuff, and 2) she genuinely loves Katherine of Aragon and her story. She builds the love story of Katherine and Henry into something you truly believe will last. Then she takes it all away in a devastating manner. I physically felt the heartache suffered by Katherine when Henry moved on to Anne Boleyn. I love to read anything about old British kings and queens and this book definitely did not disappoint. The reason for the 4.5 rating is because the book had places where one chapter covered years of her life, which made me feel like it skipped over some things we might have found to be interesting. Buy it.
*arc provided by publisher in exchange for honest review
Anne Boleyn – A King’s Obsession
Written by: Alison Weir
Release Date: 5/16/2017
Reviewed by: Danelle*
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 4.5 Calculating Mistresses
Recommended for: People who love the stories of Henry VIII and his wives
This is the second installment of the Six Tudor Queens series and I received it to review along with the first. In this book, the talented Alison Weir makes it very clear that Anne Boleyn was basically a spoiled rotten little bitch who was hated by most of the people of England. I have always found the story of Anne to be very interesting; it is intriguing to me how she became Henry’s mistress through a veil of secrecy and how she completely and totally had him in her grasp, even though it was for a short while. Weir makes it very clear about how conniving Anne was, and that she was not truly interested in Henry himself, but was very interested in the power available to her as his mistress and later his queen. The book made me dislike Henry more because although he was a charming king, he was also a weak and spineless man who changed his mind frequently depending on who he was dealing with. I felt a lot of m antipathy for Anne until the very last part of this book. When Henry starts to move on from her and she is upset, I felt like karma slapped her in the face, and it was painful to read about. I think Anne deserved a lot of what happened, but not the rigged trial and subsequent beheading. At the end of her life, she seemed much more likable – I feel like she was trying to turn opinion around, but it was, of course, too little too late. It was a great book. The reason for the 4.5 rating was the same as for the first installment – some chapters covered very large pieces of time and I felt like that caused some disconnect. Buy it.
*arc provided by publisher in exchange for honest review
