Bookish Thoughts

Saying that this isn't my favorite Sarah MacLean book is a bit like saying that The Truth  isn't my favorite Discworld  book: it's still pretty damn good. MacLean's books are so consistently good that the variation within them is both heightened and almost meaningless. This is the story of Lily and Alec. Lily is Alec's ward, though Alec doesn't actually discover this until she finds herself in the center of a scandal and he swoops in to repair her reputation as much as he can. This dynamic isn't my favorite thing in the world, but MacLean pulls it off pretty well. Mostly by not having is be a long-established thing. Alec was a bit frustrating as a hero. He's got this tragic backstory that leads to commitment issues. But it drags out so long that when he finally spilled his guts I barely killed. Just get over it and admit you love this girl, I wanted to scream. But other than that, he's a very honorable (possibly too honorable), intelligent, kind ...

Sarah MacLean may officially be one of my favorite authors. One of those "buy a book just because she wrote it" authors. I've read three so far (with two more sitting on my shelf), and I'm in love. This one wasn't about new love, but rather a second chance at old love, after everything went wrong. It's about Sophie's older sister, Sera, who went missing after a traumatic stillbirth. She shows up years later to demand a divorce from her husband, the duke. The only problem is that the minute she disappeared, he realized how much he loved her, and now the last thing he wants is to divorce her. So her sets about planning to win her back. This book is filled to the brim with sweet, sweet angst. Sera and Malcolm have a wealth of issues to work out. Flashbacks help fill in how things went so very, very wrong. And the question hanging over the whole book is whether love is enough. It's a romance novel, so of course love wins the day. But what I appreciat...

Sometimes you just want to be happy and know that everything's going to be alright. Especially with everything going on in the world right now, there's comfort in a formulaic, happy story. I've never read a proper romance before, and I've been meaning to rectify that for some time. Now that I finally have, well, I have half a mind to jettison my current to-read list and read nothing but romance until Trump is out of office. I'm not going to do that. But I'm definitely going to start reading more romance novels. They provide a fantastic anti-dote to the bleakness of the world at large. The one I read, The Rogue Not Taken , was funny and steamy and uplifting. It's about Sophie and King and their journey from enemies to lovers. Sophie and King only know each other by reputation. She's a "Dangerous Daughter", the youngest of a newly-minted Earl who bought his title and whose daughters are doing their utmost to land titled husbands and secure ...