GRR Reviews Almost Jamie (The Jet City Kilt) by Gina Robinson

Almost Jamie has great references to the Cosplay/Comicon life, and some serendipitous meeting. However, it did end on somewhat of a just "happy for now" (HFN) with a bit of cliffhanger for further adventures.

Blair Edwards is Seattle's latest cancer doc, after leaving her BF behind in London, since he's not going to commit, and she needed to be in Seattle for her career to move forward. Only her love of romance novels of the fictional Highlander Jamie keep her companion... Until she runs into the next best thing... a cosplay Jamie that is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing... at Jet City Comicon, when she attended in cosplay as Jamie's lady in red! // Austin MacDougall (yes, he's a Scot) is a Seattle Tech Millionaire that cosplay for fun and bragging rights, and being a Scot, he's practically a dead-ringer for the actor playing Jamie, esp. when they are both in costume. But his love life is so bad, he enlisted a dating coach / matchmaker to up his game... just when Blair came to his rescue after a cosplay swordfight at Comicon dislocated one of his fingers. And they can't possibly be better matched... but there's a huge difference between PLAYING lovers... and BEING lovers... but they can adapt, can't they, esp. when a TV producer wanted to push the local romance angle?

Both tech and Comicon references are spot on, and the meet-cute deserves an award by itself. But that meet-cute ended up taking a good portion of the book to resolve, then the story pivoted into a reality TV show angle. Given there are a few more volumes, this ended up as more of an "intro" to the saga between the couple, thus a "happy for now" ending, with quite a bit of angst about problems to come, i.e. cliffhanger.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Two cosplayers meet and it's practically love at first sight, esp. when he's dressed as her favorite fictional hero...

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Remedial Rocket Science by Susannah Nix

Remedial Rocket Science is a geeky romcom with proper pop/nerd culture references, but ultimately falls back to the trope of a rake was tamed by the 'right woman'. Still, the references are right, and the plotting is good.

Melody Gage is a geek girl looking for an NSA one-night stand when her date stood her up... she was hit on by a creepy guy when she was rescued by out-of-towner Jeremy. Jeremy was great, and indeed NSA. When Melody graduated and moved to LA three years later, she was horrified to discover not only Jeremy works in her company, he's actually CEO's son. Furthermore, Jeremy has a girlfriend and a reputation as a playboy. Melody struggles to keep her distance, but series of circumstances, such as Jeremy's GF turned out to be sapphic, Melody needing a fake BF to satisfy her mother, and a latte vs laptop emergency brought them closer together. Melody admitted to herself she has feelings for the son of a billionaire but is the reverse true as well?

Nice, a rom-com, geekette, proper tech references (nothing too deep here), AND a nice slow-burn romance all in one.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Geekette found her one-night-stand is now her new boss and son of CEO, but he's hiding a secret, and she needs a fake BF

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews Dance and Be Glad (Promises from Above) by Melissa Wardwell

Dance and Be Glad is about a second chance at love novel, with a few other tropes like sudden family, single parent, and a weird custody battle. However, the "twist" didn't really work. And the tempo is really slow.

Jillian Matthews dedicated her life to raising her daughter alone after her husband died in the sands of Middle East. She teaches dance to girls, and she hadn't opened herself up for another romance... until her high school sweetheart reappeared. // Michael Emerson had a messy divorce when his now ex wife loved his income as a doctor, not him. When tragedy struck his family, he was suddenly left to care for his 9-year old niece. He's overwhelmed, but he'll do the best he could for the girl. That is until the niece's grandmother decided to contest custody in court. But he's not giving up without a fight, even as the girls settled in and became friends, then decided to play matchmaker to get Jillian and Michael (back) together...

The ending twist was really weird. While it counts as a twist, it seriously came out of nowhere. It's practically a deus ex machina ending, and it didn't really make sense. There were quite a bit of mentioning God, that it felt slightly out of place. All in all, average novel.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Dance teacher single mom widow fell for the ER doc divorcee who suddenly gained custody of her niece after a family tragedy

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Father Found (The Daddy School) by Judith Arnold

Father Found is a touching "sudden baby" story with a bit of common struggle leading to love.

Jamie McCoy is a columnist with a nationally syndicated column called "Guy Stuff". He is thirty and enjoys a carefree bachelor existence... Until he woke up with a baby girl named Samantha on his back porch, left by a woman he had a one-night stand with, at a vacation resort. She did not even leave a real name or number. Overwhelmed by his sudden fatherhood, he called the local hospital, where neonatal nurse Allison Winslow taught him the basics over the phone and invited him to "Daddy School", a class she holds for new single fathers. Allison, expecting a barely employed teenage father, was surprised at the rich well-to-do bachelor. Jamie was expecting a matronly but grouchy woman and was surprised at the amazingly beautiful and confident nurse. Jamie realized perhaps he needed Allison for more than just baby advice, and perhaps his bachelor creds are just frivolous. Allison was touched by Jamie's efforts to be all the dad he can be, but how can she trust a man who got a woman pregnant out of wedlock? When Samantha's mother wanted her back, will Jamie fight for her? And will Allison help him?

The book was poignant and the addition of the common threat to unite them was a masterful plot. it was both funny (fish out of water for the new father) and poignant, at times leaving you with moist eyes and a bit of swoon.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Columnist bachelor suddenly found himself caring for a daughter left by a one-night stand, and falling for the nurse that helped

Overall Rating: 5/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews Men Out of Uniform: 6 Book Omnibus by Rhonda Russell

Men Out of Uniform bundle has the first six books in the author's series, but with previews, blurbs, and more, actual content is probably 100 pages less. And they are actually quite good, with no major fact abuse.

As there are six books, I'm not going to summarize each and every book. They are all about a bunch of ex-rangers now doing security work, like bodyguard, investigations, and that sort. All have good twists upon the standard "undercover" tropes. All are quite good.

Category: Military

Primary Plot: Good collection of six military romance with ex-rangers doing security, bodyguard, and investigative work, and falling in love

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Saved (Honor Bound) by Angel Payne

Saved left me conflicted. While the kink aspects seem to be properly written, the premise, about human traffickers going after military women didn't make sense.

Garrett, a special forces soldier, no longer care whether he lived or died. The love of his life, Sage Weston, was MIA, presumed dead when her medical unit was ambushed in Africa. But one mission in Thailand, where the unit was tasked with the rescue of American women kidnapped by human traffickers lead him to shock of his life: Sage is still alive and rescued. But Garrett is no longer the same. In the dark hours of his soul, he had taken to a BDSM lifestyle that he cannot possibly spoil Sage with, not after her ordeal. But when the human trafficking boss came after Sage and her fellow rescuees again, intending to get revenge, Garrett will discover a new side of Sage that he must take to full advantage to eliminate the threat once and for all.

The kink was properly written, and the military details have no obvious holes in it. The problem is the setup didn't make sense. How did Sage got from Africa all the way over to Thailand? Who pronounced them dead? Why military women who are at least trained with guns and some martial arts, even if they are not soldiers? And how did Garrett and his buddies got so much time off to run off saving Sage again?

Category: Contemporary / Military

Primary Plot: Military woman kidnapped by human traffickers was rescued by her love, but the trafficker's boss came after her again...

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Filthy Rich (Blackstone Dynasty Book 1) by Raine Miller

Filthy Rich, which can be properly subtitled "Billionaire meets his match", is about a billionaire who, well, met his match in a woman who was almost the polar opposite of him, yet everything he wanted, but she doesn't want any male companionship, and he has his own problems...

Billionaire Caleb Blackstone knew the moment he saw Brooke Casterley that she's the one for him, even though he just got his Brioni suit ruined by the cocktail sauce, spilled when a guest got too hands-y on her and she retaliated with an elbow to the nose. He had just broken up with his regular squeeze, who's gotten way too clingy, but he knew Brooke is not the casual sex kind of girl. He was surprised to find that Brooke not only doesn't want ANY male companionship, she actually has a history with the island AND his family... Her grandma used to be a part of the staff for the Blackstone Estate that was suddenly let go. Caleb had to unlearn all his wooing habits and just be a regular nice guy // Brooke knew what a bad man can do to her. She was pregnant by an abusive husband. She woke up 3-week coma having lost her husband and her baby to a car accident... She left it all behind to come home to start over... working multiple jobs to make ends meet to care for her grandma. Falling for Caleb was never in the plan, but fall she did. But when his mother did not approve of Brooke, and his clingy ex is still out there, can there really be happily ever after for this couple?

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: a rake tamed by a totally opposite girl whom he had an instant-crush on

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews Legally Yours (Spitfire Book 1) by Nicole French

Legally Yours is about two damaged people coming together, even though it's also a "billionaire meets ingenue" story. The characters are definitely above average in that they executed minor twists upon the usual trope.

Skylar is a fiery redhead and in her third year at Harvard Law School. She's too busy to think about anything else. When a chance encounter with Brandon Sterling, a top lawyer in Boston, and CEO of his own firm Sterling Ventures, her plans went out the window. Brandon found wealth actually limited his social circle, because he had so much money everybody wanted something from him, and this fiery redhead, while cliche, really took his breath away. And he wanted her... but things are keeping the pair apart. Skylar's father has a gambling addiction and is involved with the mob. Brandon's history means he's intense... He only knew how to buy gifts, and Skylar, after losing her heart to a sociopath years ago, is wary of such a display of affection. Can such different couple come together?

Angst-y, but very polished characters, the book is just a wee bit too long (450 pages!) to sustain the momentum.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Law student fell for hot lawyer and rich guy, but he looks like a sociopath and she... looks like a golddigger (sorta)

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews Double the Pleasure (Prescott Twins) by Jasmine Haynes

Double the Pleasure is a twin-switcharoo erotic romance, but with a twist.

Kristin Prescott is the quiet twin, unlike her sister Kirby. Kristin has a crush on her boss Ross Sloan. With the big three-oh coming on, Kristin was pushed by her sister Kirby into one daring plan... Pretend to be Kirby, and seduce Ross. // Ross wanted Kristin the moment she walked into his office, but he's her boss. When she seduced him while pretending to be her twin Kirby, Ross saw through the disguise (same fragrance, same nails...) but he'll play along if he can teach Kristin to release her inhibitions...

Lots of sexy times, even as they both play at pretending to know and not to know something. Good twist on the familiar trope.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Can the quiet twin pretend to be the wild twin instead to seduce her boss? What if he knew it's really her, not her twin?

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews So Unlike Me (Winning Your Heart Book by Nikki Lynn Barrett

So Unlike Me is an interesting "twin-switcharoo" romance involving a bit of disguise, and a blast from the past (i.e. reunion). And it's clearly going to get volume two since we need a book for the other twin.

Lizette Monroe and her twin Nola had been devastated after their parents' death. Mother was killed by a stray bullet, and father died two weeks later from a heart attack. Being practically heiresses, they have plenty of money... but no love. Nola, normally vibrant, became agoraphobic. And Lizette just had her ex-fiancee jump on a reality TV show and making more drama for her. When Nola won a sweepstake trip to Paris, it seems like a perfect chance for Lizette to get away from all the drama, except Lizette had to impersonate Nola. Then Nola and Lizette discover the winner is going to Paris, Tennessee, not Paris France. And there, Lizette (pretending to be Nola), actually encountered a blast from the past... Dirk Ramsey, Nola's best friend since middle school. When Dirk fell for the girl, did he fell for Nola... or Lizette?

Twin-switcharoo stories are plentiful, but hard to do well. This one is pretty good as Dirk did figure out it was Lizette, not Nola. There were also some parallel plots where Nola, stuck at home, may or may not be imagining threats to them. All in all, good.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Twin pretending to be her sister is headed to a town for vacation, and found a good guy in town she can fall for...

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews The Rancher's Brave Bride by Faith Crawford

NOTE: This book has been removed from Amazon (probably due to page-stuffing). Here is the Goodreads link.

The Rancher's Brave Bride is an extremely BORING mail-order bride story, and it's also very short at only 50 pages. The additional pages were filled by dubious "bonus content".

Theresa Doe was an orphan raised by Sisters of Holy Mercy. She was sent out as a mail order bride to a widower out West. Henry Forth is a quiet rancher in Colorado. He needs a wife, a lady of the house, and mother to his 3-year-old son. Can Theresa successfully make the transition?

BORING AS HECK. A 57-page story where basically Theresa goes from frightened girl accepting her fate and fear what if her husband rejects her, then to "oh please come back to me" fearful wife when Forth was drafted for a posse to hunt down some bandits. And really, that's it. What's so "brave" about this? Add about 400+ pages of "bonus material" doesn't make the story any better.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Orphan mail-order bride must marry a rancher widower w/ 3-year old son, but will he accept her? Can she love him?

Overall Rating: 1/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews The Beginning of Forever by Grace Fisher

The Beginning of Forever spent way too much time on the setup, and not enough on the actual relationship. All the "bonus content" help much.

Hope was groomed to be a pawn in her father's business dealings, despite she, being the only child, grew up fiercely independent. When her father died unexpectedly before she can be married off to a man she cannot love, she ordered the lawyers to liquidate assets and she went out west as a headmistress of a school in Yellow Creek. She fell for Jed, the sheriff, upon her arrival, but she's keeping her wealth a secret. Will Jed still like her when he found out?

There are no twists, and barely any love in the book. The only tension was she's keeping her wealth a secret.

It still has a lot of the bonus content that ballooned the page count to 450+ pages.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Rich daughter whose father just died decided to move out West disguised as a normal woman, falls for the local sheriff...

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews The Baby Doctor (Doctor 911) by Bobby Hutchinson

The Baby Doctor is a "medical" romance between two doctors that's a bit of enemies to lovers plus some bit family drama.

Morgan is an OB/GYN that tries to take care of all others except herself. Her house is big but mostly empty, so she filled it with pets... but pets nobody else wanted. When a teenage mom Terri (15) needed a place to stay, she became a foster parent too. She liked almost everybody... except fellow baby doctor Luke. // Luke is a widower raising a teenage daughter alone. And the daughter is pregnant. He cut off all contact between his daughter Sophie with the baby's father, even though the kid wanted to do the right thing. Working with Morgan is almost torture, for they look at each other, only seeing the facade each put up and envy that, not seeing the pain hiding beneath. And the facade crumbled when Morgan's ex-actress mom India (whom she can't stand) moved in permanently. But India's hiding a huge secret, and when the two girls talked to the wrong people, two families will be turned upside down, and perhaps... unite in triumph against adversity.

This is a great novel because all of the different threads, like teen pregnancy, mom India, Luke's problems with the baby papa, sort of all got tied together in the big ending. And the part about using the facade to hide the pain was very well done indeed, not that I will spoil you the ending.

Category: Contemporary / Medical

Primary Plot: Baby doctors in the hospital seem to hate each other, but both are hiding pain and shame they can't show others...

Overall Rating: 5/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews The Baby Pact by Lexi Whitlow

The Baby Pact relies on some WTF moments and reads more like a revenge fantasy than a romance. The decision process really makes no sense. And the ending was almost "all tell, no show". This book just left me very disappointed and is one of the author's worst books.

Eliza was the homely good girl, and Macon was the nerd back in high school. They messed up at prom, Eliza got pregnant, and Macon was exiled to another state. Eliza had a miscarriage. They met again in college, but then Eliza was with a possessive nerd, who turned out to be an abusive psycho. Ten years later, Eliza's latest escape attempt from her psycho abusive husband sent her back to her hometown, to work as a librarian while Macon became a billionaire. When they meet again, they picked up where they left off... and Eliza wanted desperately to have a child of her own, and Macon promised to pay for fertility treatments for her, and a full security detail. But Her psycho husband is still out there, taunting, waiting...

The scenario sounds desperate, but the detail makes no f***ing sense. Eliza ran, but her husband always finds her... Duh, if she only runs to places she knows! She went to police many times, but she's never hurt ENOUGH to go to a hospital? And the cops got NOTHING on the guy despite REPEATED reports over 10 years? Yet the husband sends email threats that identified himself by name? WTF? How does one rent a car with cash nowadays? (Yes, the psycho rented a car to "visit" her) The way Macon handled the psycho ex was improbable as well... Through hacking, AND bribing, AND favor with the Bratva (Russian mafia), and all this was merely "told". Argh. Not satisfying at all except maybe as a revenge fantasy.

The characters also seem to show lack of polish. Eliza was basically stereotypical "battered spouse" with zero self-respect ("I'm no good, I'm crap, my husband was right...") but somehow still wanted a baby when she can barely care for herself. Macon was a weird mix between rich alpha billionaire and tech geek / psycho devising the plan to trap the psycho ex for good. Add them together, and it's below average.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Abused woman found her first-love, now a billionaire, and wanted a baby, but her crazy ex is still out there...

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Mr. Big (London Billionaires) by Nana Malone

Mr. Big is a pretty typical "my bestie's little sister" romance with the only twist in that it's set in London.

Zach is rich and comfortable after creating a whole series of hit clubs. He can have any women he wanted, but he only really wanted a woman he can't have, Emma, his best friend's little sister. Also, he had a deep dark secret he had yet to share. He can never deserve Emma. When Emma came to London to attend school, Zach was tasked to keep her safe. But Emma wanted Zach for a very long time, and she will have him, and he will not be able to resist for long...

Honestly, the plot is trope, the characters are pretty average, and after reading it, nothing stood out.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Rich club chain owner tasked to keep best friend's little sister safe, but he wanted her, and she wanted him...

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Billionaire's Runaway Bride by Claire Adams

NOTE: The regular e-Book was reviewed, but is currently unavailable on Amazon at time of this review, so the audiobook was linked instead.

Billionaire's Runaway Bride is about a woman who chose not to go through a marriage and a different man who desires a relationship with her. While the setup works, the darkest hour did not work for me.

Molly was an American girl living in London and was about marry Harry, after moving across the ocean for him. But the night before their wedding, her best friend (and bridesmaid) Peyton caught Harry cheating in a local pub. Molly decided she won't marry Harry, after all, two years wasted. But where could Molly go? Enter Harry's bestie Alfie... who's tired of seeing Harry turned into a slug. He knew when he used to be such a slug back in college... and Harry was the responsible one. The roles have switched. Alfie offered up his place for Molly to hide out, and they fell for each other. Molly needs to find her own place in life... but is with Alfie the right place for her?

The darkest hour appears to be a decision over something EXTREMELY trivial, which I can't reveal due to it being a spoiler. And the conclusion was over in a blink of an eye. It could have been a lot better.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman who refuses to marry a cheater fells for the cheater's best friend instead... but is it rebound, or real love?

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews ADELINE - The Strong-willed Bride for Her Lonely Farmer by Faye Sonja

Adeline tried to set up a smart bride giving her groom an unexpected solution, but it seems the author forgot historical research.

In the year 1870, Adeline had to leave New York when her father died in debt and the debtor Lex Baxter, intended to take one of the sisters as payment. Adeline managed to stall the evil man for six months of mourning and answered a mail order bride ad... All the way out in Goldrush, California... // James Blair suffered some poor heartbreak, and is about to be forced off his land if he cannot get a good crop going. Finding a wife was supposed to help him free up more time in the fields, not about love... but Adeline may have some solutions to James' problem, however unconventional they are if James will just stop being stubborn... Or was it Adeline being unreasonable by insisting on hiring the Chinamen to help work the fields?

The story doesn't make sense on multiple levels. The bad guy was willing to wait "six months", really? Also, 90-99% of Chinamen that came over are male, no wives or children at all. Any research would have shown that. Yet the plot was local bad men, hoping to drive the Chinamen away, kidnapped their women and children. That made absolutely no sense at all in itself either.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Mail-order bride tries to help her husband by proposing some unconventional solutions to save his farm and her family

Overall Rating: 1/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Big Beautiful Bride For The Reluctant Preacher by Rosie Attwood

The book Big Beautiful Bride for the Reluctant Preacher pretty much described the plot of the whole book, and kinda hit us over the head, not once but multiple times about how curvy she is. Argh.

Emily is a BBW and nobody wanted her in New York in the 1800's... except Rodrigo, who's after her family business and money. When her friend Katie who mail-order bride herself out West wrote her, she decided she needed to get away for a while and visiting Katie is perfect. Maybe she can even find love there. Except the only guy who really grabbed her attention, Ray Benson, was a preacher who claimed to have no interest in marriage, believing to serve God he needed to stay single. Can Emily convince Ray that being single may not be God's intended path for him?

Eh... not feeling much. At just over 100 pages, the book managed to wrap up with Ray's epiphany, which is basically a deus ex machina. However, the book also ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, when Rodrigo came to town, intending to take Emily back. Meh. There are 3 more books in this series documenting the same couple's trials and tribulations. I wouldn't recommend this book by itself. Maybe if you buy the whole series at once...

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: BBW in Historical West fell for a preacher who believed to serve God he needed to remain single...

Overall Rating: 2/5 (including -1 for cliffhanger and deus ex machina ending)

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Opposites Attract by Zahra Habib

Opposites Attract is about friendship / grief / friends to lovers story that carries a very distinct Pakistani flavor, yet the theme is universal.

Aysa and Fahad had been pranking each other since they were five growing up in Pakistan, but they drifted apart. Aysa moved to London and got engaged. Fahad became a writer and traveled around the world. When Aysa's fiancee died in an accident, Aysa was despondent and her parents relocated the family back to Pakistan, just as Fahad came back to recharge. Fahad will do anything to bring a smile back to Aysa's face... including some epic pranks... And Aysa will fight back, esp. when Fahad's parents arranged for him to meet a different girl...

The cultural references are great and you don't need to be Pakistani to understand the story. The themes are universal, as I said. There are a couple twists here and there that even surprised me. The story is about recovery from grief and moving on. The cover though, seems really generic.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Traveling writer will do some serious pranking to cheer up his childhood friend despondent over loss of her fiancee...

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Beyond Shame (Beyond series) by Kit Rocha

Beyond Shame is an interesting mix of post-apocalyptic dystopia and erotic romance that sets up a very interesting world that's an odd mix of scifi, MC, and different worlds tropes about self-discovery and redemption, and it was certainly interesting.

Noelle Cunningham wanted to rebel against her prim and proper role as councilman's daughter in a closed post-apoc dystopic society, Eden, that turned against immorality so far, pre-marital sex is illegal. After a conviction for fornification, she was dumped out the gates of Eden, with just the clothes on her back, into the gang-controlled sectors that she only read about. Stalked by low-life, she was barely rescued in time by an unlikely savior... // Jasper "Jas" McCray is a bootlegger and cage fighter for Sector 4's boss Dallas O'Kane. He fought his way up from nothing to be the right-hand man of the boss, and sworn into the gang... all for one and one for all. He did not expect to deal with a sheltered innocent city princess who literally fell into his arms. And Noelle is so snow-white innocent... she's still a virgin, and intensely curious about sex. And soon she and Jas will explore every one of her fantasies, with a little help from O'Kane's band of misfits, including Lex, O'Kane's squeeze, to nurture, and accept her own power of sexuality... and embrace it...

The world-building was virtually seamless. You can read the subtext AND the context simply through the actions of the characters, no info-dump needed. There *are* some info-dumps, but not a lot, and the sex scenes are frequent, that this could be termed erotic romance, but the point is outside of Eden, anything goes, and sex is nothing to be ashamed of, except that society tells you. I don't quite get the reason for such extreme morality, but that's why it's a dystopia. I look forward to reading the future volumes. So why 4/5?  It's just a little shy of perfection, as it's a bit too obvious bodyguard story.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: In a dystopic future, a councilman's daughter was dumped out the gates for trying to have sex, and was rescued by gang's top fighter...

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Tempting Love - Haley & Eddie (Crossroads) by Melanie Shawn

Tempting Love didn't leave me with any feelings. it was totally milquetoast lukewarm.

Haley Sloan should have it all. Her lingerie business is booming, but her heart is elsewhere... on the single father across the street. Eddie Thomas stepped up when he became a father, then a single father. He left his wild days behind a woman is the furthest thing from his mind... Until Haley entered his life. Will he realize that perhaps letting her in is the only way to heal the wound in his heart and complete his family?

I didn't sigh, I didn't swoon, I didn't swear, I didn't feel anything after reading this book. This wasn't one of author's best.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Lingerie designer/seller has a crush on the single father across the street...

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Protecting Lily (Guardian SEALs) by Nicole Flockton

Protecting Lily is a pretty typical bodyguard romance but the personalities don't quite fit.

Lily lives by her to-do list every day. She can't work about it. Falling for her hot bodyguard was not on that list. Besides, she can't stand alpha guys. // ex-SEAL Grayson needed the job after his partner ran off with half a million of client funds. He covered it up with his own money, vowing the hunt down his partner first chance he gets. Guarding Lily, the lingerie designer with a ton of diamonds for a showpiece tempted him like no other. // Can Grayson show Lily there's more to life than lists?

Okay, couple problems.

1) Why would a security business be handling 500K of "client funds"? Shouldn't that be like in an escrow account somewhere?

2) If Grayson wants to hunt down his partner so far, shouldn't he be doing it on his off-time, instead of trying to "loosen up" the tight-laced Lily?

Once they got together, the chemistry is there. That's why this is average, not below average.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Lingerie designer, commissioned to do a diamond-studded show-piece, may yet fall for the hunky ex-SEAL bodyguard...

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Cocky Captain by Kelly Moore

Cocky Captain is supposedly a military fiction, but the characters are more immature than teenagers, and reality seems to have been left in orbit.

Kenna is flying to Germany to meet her boyfriend in the US military. Her seatmate, Declan, also turned out to be military... Declan is even more handsome than her BF, and even accidental touch sends tingles up her arm. When she found out Captain Declan was her BF's superior, and her BF had been cheating on her, she hooked up with Declan instead...

This fantasy military base apparently has no security. Not only her BF was able to hook up with another military girl, Kenna was able to "sneak" into Declan's office and hide under his desk to surprise him with a naughty nurse uniform cosplay... while he's ON DUTY. WTF. The insta-lust to love thing didn't quite work either. Kenna's mind is just full of sex. I can't even call this "military fiction". It could be set in a UPS warehouse and the plot would be the same.

Category: Military

Primary Plot: Woman hooks up with hot captain, her BF's superior, after she found her BF cheated on her

Overall Rating: 1/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews A SEAL for Christmas (All I Want for Christmas) by Leslie North

A SEAL for Christmas is a holiday romance, despite the blurb seemingly promising some romantic suspense. The result is confusing... it is romance or romantic suspense?

Murphy Coen is not having any holiday spirit. His sister Aileen is missing, and he believed a certain corporation is responsible. He was about to nab one of their folks for "a chat" when they were interrupted by Shayma, his friend Daveed's former fiancee. Shayma enjoyed being with Murphy, who's got the "tall, dark and brooding" thing down pat. But Murphy is not known for his subtlety, and Daveed had asked Shayma to keep Murphy "out of the way" while he and another friend check out leads to Murphy's sister with a bit more subtlety. Murphy knew he's being kept away, but Shayma was too irresistible. When push comes to shove, will he choose family... or love?

Somehow, this is NOT a romantic suspense. Or it does not follow romantic suspense beats. It has some conspiracy, but it's more about Shayma seducing Murphy and vice versa. The suspense part was actually kinda lame. Thus, I am left confused as for what kind of romance this was supposed to be. Some touches are good, and the plot is certainly somewhat novel, but the confusing genre just confused me.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: A SEAL was kept away from investigating his sister's disappearance by ex-fiancee of his best friend, who's too sexy to resist...

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Breaking the Fall (Summer at Falling Pine Lake) by Vanessa M. Knight

Breaking the Fall was about second chance at love. The grudge held for ten years, however, made the FMC positively immature.

Brice's life is unraveling. She had to divorce her husband when he cheated on her and got a different woman pregnant. When her mother needed some help to run Camp Falling Pines, Brice took her son and moved back home for the summer... Or forever? But her son seems to hate the place. And meeting the man that broke her heart way back when didn't help... // Jason left his high-pressure law career behind to help the camp. It was where his best memories are made... With Brice. But when Brice ran away with no explanation, his heart was broken. He thought he was healing, until Brice stormed back into town, with her son Connor in tow. Jason knew he wanted Brice back, but he should stay away because Jason ran away for a reason... and Brice will bolt when she learned it, just as she did last time...

Angst-y, but somehow, the motivations are not that well polished, as if both characters are just stupid? Stubborn? Pig-headed? The reason is...

SPOILER

I WARNED YOU!!!!!

AGAIN!!!!!

Brice ran the first time because Jason was comforting another girl who's homesick and having family issues (parents divorcing) at cmap, but Brice obviously concluded that Jason cheated on her. And for that, they cut contact for like, 10 years, and hold grudges? What sort of shallow f*** mindset is that?

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Single mother took son to visit her old summer camp (ran by her mom), ran into old love who separated after bad misunderstanding...

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Long Lost Neighbors by Frances Hoelsema

Long Lost Neighbors tries to set up a "reunion" drama by going all the way back to the couple's childhood, only to see them separated and turned into a triangle. I just didn't feel much with this story.

Greg and Alison were best friends and neighbors, but Alison's family looked down on Greg and his family. When Greg's family had to move to a different town (only 30 minutes away), they vowed to keep write each other, but Alison's mother confiscated all correspondence and forcibly kept them apart. Eventually, they lost touch. Fifteen years later, Alison is engaged to Sean, who is sweet, but has no sense of work-life balance... Even while on a date he answers the phone, and brings work on a lake vacation with Alison. Then Alison ran into Greg in the vacation town, and they rekindled their friendship. Alison started to have doubts about Sean being the one... but the wedding was all planned, even as Greg revealed the depth of his feelings for her... just when tragedy struck Alison's family... What path will Alison choose?

The ending is pretty much pre-ordained, but how it got there was so slow as to be excruciating. It seems to be just so... petty for the mother to do that. And Alison can't quite seem to decide what she wanted. Greg is just flat. Didn't feel much for him.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Boy and girl were best friends but lost touch. 15 years later, they meet again, but she's engaged to be married to someone else

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Colorado Golden Sunrise (Peakview) by Jill Haymaker

Colorado Golden Sunrise is a nice small town romance between two unlikely characters, but the darkest hour wasn't really that dark, and the resolution came from a double-mind-flip that feels way too convenient.

Kelly Charm can't stand her hometown of Prarie Nebraska anymore. She's divorced, and her ex has remarried and a new baby's on the way. She, however, needs to stay in town and raise her teenage son Ethan. When an ad about a hardware / general store manager in the tiny town of picturesque Peakview, Colorado came across her search, she had to apply and make it a vacation with son Ethan. // Jake Midnight is Peakview's EMT, and he had been alone for 20 years, after a horrible marriage. He gets by with his menagerie of horses, dogs, cats, and even two pigmy goats. When Ethan had an asthma attack in Peakview, not used to the thin air, Jake came to know Kelly and Ethan, and Jake was furious: how can a parent let an asthmatic kid come to 9000 ft up w/o an inhaler?! And Kelly was furious at Jake for making assumptions about a single parent. But they secretly admire each other... But when Ethan was not quite happy in Peakview, is there a happily ever after between Jake and Kelly?

To explain the problem I have to spoil the ending.

SPOILER

AHEAD

I WARNED YOU

The kid Ethan has no personality. At first he's okay with the move to Colorado. "I want you to be happy, mom". Then after a trip back to visit "dad" who apparently promised a car and more, and after a girl in Colorado dumped him Ethan wants to leave. And Kelly is like "If my son goes I go too." Then Ethan decided he's too selfish and flipped again "It's okay mom, I'll stay." Sheesh!!!!!

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman had to leave her ex and his new family behind and took a job in Colorado, encountered hunky but hostile EMT guy...

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews When The Chips Are Down (Three Of A Kind) by Beth Rinyu

When the Chips are Down is a combination single parent love story, fling to a thing, AND family drama all rolled into one. But unlike the best plots, the B-plot remained a B-plot and had to be resolved separately instead of all resolved together.

Melanie Hanson divorced her cheating ex who traded her for a newer model. Melanie had a one night stand with a cute guy in Mexico on vacation, and what happened south of the border, stays south of the border... Until she realized "Mexico Man" is her daughter's calculus teacher. She is raising her twin daughters who are polar opposites. Melanie found she has major plumbing problems in her house, and the only (not licensed) plumber is Ben Wilder, the boy she loved to hate back in high school, and he's still as charming as ever. Things got complicated when one of her daughters fell for Ben's son Jason... while the other daughter is getting into high school drama between the queen bee (read: bitch) and one of the jocks on the football team when she won't put out. Now Melanie and her daughters Carrie and Gia had to navigate life as they figure things out...

A lot of things happen in less than 300 pages, and the book does end on a good note, but somehow the family and high school drama almost feels as if the parallel plot doesn't really fold back on itself like some of the better-plotted stories. It's not bad, it's just not extraordinary.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Single mom raising twin daughters had to choose between two guys in town even as her daughters got into drama of their own

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews Taming the Beast by Lucy King

Taming the Beast tried to set up a "best friend's hunky brother" romance, but some of the scenario posed is not credible, or at least, begs suspension of disbelief that is beyond my capabilities.

Mercedes "Mercy" Hernandez had a crush on her best friend Zelda's older brother, Sebastian "Seb" Madison, but one disastrous fling, and it's all over for them. A decade later, Mercy and Zel are still best friends, having made it through thick and thin, with Seb now a billionaire managing a charitable foundation, after having disappeared for years. Mercy still finds Seb gorgeous... but strangely cold and aloof, and Seb still felt guilty about the death of his parents and can't deal with his sister... or Mercy. Somehow, the two agreed on a sex only relationship, which morphed into a real relationship, if they will just admit to each other... but can they REALLY have a relationship without resolving the guilt from their past?

Something just didn't add up. A) Seb ran off to join the French Foreign Legion, that means he's a French citizen. So where is this foundation again, and when did he become a billionaire if he spent 5 years in the FFL? B) Mercy got recalled home and suddenly decided her family vineyard is her life, but then, she can spend months in the US, I presume to get her MBA and bonking Seb on the side AND stay besties with Zel? I may have missed some details there, but somehow, this scenario just doesn't grab me as believable.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman who always wanted her best friend's older brother got friends with benefits, which morphed into a real relationship...

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews Changing Her Mind (The O'Malleys Book by Stevie MacFarlane

Changing Her Mind didn't come across to me as "romantic", though there's definitely some unrequited lust and stuff.

Rebecca lost her family early on and grew up with the O'Malleys. She wanted Mason O'Malley for a VERY long time, but he's always treated her as the surrogate little sister. But Becca is all grown up now, and she's determined to put her... womanly gifts to full use. But Mason will not accept one-night stands. he wanted forever, i.e. marriage and all that. And that, Becca is not ready for. But with a few spankings (Mason rather enjoys throwing Becca over his knees...) perhaps Mason can change Becca's mind...

Uh... I don't get this at all. The ending was a sudden shift to a sick/comfort scenario, and the whole idea of using erotic spanking as persuasion is just a bit morally ambiguous, but then he's already morally ambiguous. There's also a secondary plot between Mason's brother Nick, and a different girl, Maggie that didn't mix well with the primary plot. While I like the push-pull, the other elements left me with "WTF?!" feeling.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Can the adoptive little sister have the brother she always wanted when he wanted forever? Would a little kink help?

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews Sophie: Mail Order Brides of Wichita Falls by Cyndi Raye

Sophie feels like amateur fiction filled with the female protagonist performing too-stupid-to-live actions.

Sophie was rescued by the citizens of Wichita Falls after being lured out with other mail order brides by a gang who took over a nearby town. She knew Salem Nightinggale, the saloon guy, liked her, but he's hot and cold, and she promised to a matchmaker in town to be married off as mail-order bride again. After getting a kiss from Salem that promised to ruin her for all men, can she actually leave? What happens when Salem became the new sheriff?

The push-pull feels amateurish. He's deeply ashamed because "I'm just a barkeep, no woman would want me", while she's "but I promised to be a mail-order bride again and I have to see it through". She doesn't know guns, yet she's willing to run, in the dark, to help Salem, then got lost and fell in the river. Argh. Rescue sounds completely improbable. 

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot:  Rescued woman can't decide whether to stay for the bartender or become a mail-order bride again...

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews Lost, Abandoned & Secured by Her One-Armed Hero by Faye Sonja

Lost, Abandoned, & Secured by her One-Armed Hero is, hate to say it, a very boring historical mail-order bride romance.

In 1871, Isabella, a trained doctor in her thirties, had to leave the south after her parents perished in the fire that also gutted the town. She travels to the town of White Elk as a mail order bride to marry Kit. Other towns say bad things about White Elk, about beasts around the land, haunted lake... and ignorant people. Perfect for a doctor, right? What will Isabella say when she finds out her groom, Kit, only has one arm? Or he did not believe in doctors or medicine?

The story just didn't flow right. The theme was basically beat people over the head with facts, rather than slowly come around. Things just happen, not people causing things to happen.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Female doctor went out west as mail-order bride, her groom is one-armed and does not believe in doctor or medicine...

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Beach Rental: An Emerald Isle, NC Novel by Grace Greene

Beach Rental managed two brilliant twists and a shock at mid-book that left me guessing at to which way this story will go.

Juli Cooke is working multiple jobs, and going nowhere in the town of Emerald Isle, North Carolina. One night at her catering job lead her to encounter two extraordinary men, Ben Bradshaw who's dying of cancer, and his cousin, Luke Winters, a local art dealer. Ben offered Juli a deal of a lifetime: become his wife, and be left with a good amount of money to do what she wanted after he died, which won't be very long. Ben did not want his life to be prolonged too much, but he still wanted companionship. But Luke was much wearier of Juli's true intentions. // Then Ben died, but not from cancer... and everything changed, for what he left behind... was not just money, but a chance to start over, if Juli will just take it... if her past didn't catch up with her first.

The ending, as I said, has multiple twists and I won't spoil the story. Let's just say Ben will come to love Juli, and vice versa, and the second twist, which I can't talk about, was absolutely brilliant.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: A poor woman was offered by a dying man to marry him and inherit a lot of money, for her companionship, is it too good to be true?

Overall Rating: 5/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews No Regrets (The Wedding Dress Promise) by Ronnie Roberts

No Regrets set up a very interesting "twist" in the tale of an unlikely couple with plenty of complications to keep them apart.

Darby Walker is a free-spirit. She roamed Canada in her camper, seeking the best photo opportunities of whatever that struck her fancy. She wanted to get a lucrative tourism contract and was heading into Brennan Point when her camper was wrecked by the McKinnon family. She ended up living with the MacKinnon family, who felt responsible... but it's getting complicated... // Joe MacKinnon lost his wife to cancer and is living with his two children. The teenage son is rebelling hard (which indirectly lead to the wreck) and did not want anyone to replace his dead mother. Then Joe realized why he felt a connection to Darby... and the relationship gets VERY complicated indeed... Is Joe really looking to replace his dead wife? Or does she love Darby for who she is? When Darby won the contract, is she leaving, or staying?

Can say more without mentioning the twist, but it's a soap-opera worthy twist. And it was setup really, really well. The characters initially felt a bit simple, but fleshed out later in the book. Enjoyed it.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Photographer / wanderer was stranded with the family that wrecked her camper; why is the father seem to be interested in her?

Overall Rating: 5/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews The Barren Bride & The Abandoned Baby by Faye Sonja

The Barren Bride and the Abandoned Baby seems to rely way too much on serendipity and the author's voice seems to be WAY TOO PASSIVE to make the story exciting.

Sidney is barren due to a childhood disease. She thought nobody would want her, so she was surprised when the mail order bride agency matched her with someone who wanted her with no child (nor expect any). But moments before she's due to get on the train, she found a baby abandoned on her doorstep. As she already gave up her room, she was forced to take the baby along... // Isam and his best friend were mining gold in a small town in Texas. He already buried one wife and child, and his heart is dead. He needed a wife but did not want any children. When Sidney arrived with a baby, however, Isam can't turn her away. But what are the chances the baby will find its way to the real mom when he's halfway across the country?

I honestly don't feel a connection to this story. Things just HAPPEN to the characters, and they react. They don't seem to ever attempt to actively change their situation. Isam is just doing the strong silent type. He didn't want children, but when his "barren bride" showed up with one, he said nothing, because he's a "good guy (tm)". And Sidney... She could have dropped off the baby off at a church or something, but no, she had to make it HER problem by taking the baby along on the train ride across the country. And obviously good things happen to people who are good. Hah. The twist at the end was a deus ex machina.

While I kinda enjoyed the tale, it's just way too passive for me.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Woman who can't have children found an abandoned baby just as she was about to leave town as mail-order bride...

Overall Rating: 2/5  (downgraded, was 3/5)

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews A Drifter's Fortune (Love's A Gamble Boo by Kay P. Dawson

A Drifter's Fortune is an interesting western historical romance, with an interesting twist at the end, but that's more of a deus ex machina.

Harrison needed a bride fast... The ranch's owner died, but instead of picking an heir, he declared a contest instead: whoever among the ranchhands and foremen marry and keep a bride married for 6 months win the deed to the whole ranch. Harrison sent off for a mail order bride... no questions asked. He hoped to convince her to stay six months... // Patience and her brother had been brought up by a family that hated them and exploited them since they were small. Their only way out was for her to answer a mail order bride and go west to marry a stranger... // Patience arrived in town, at the Last Chance Ranch, and Harrison is handsome and kind. But Harrison has a surname that attracted golddiggers (even when he has no money) and there are evil folks in town who wanted Harrison to fail... badly. Patience also kept some secrets from Harrison...

Let's just say Patience's parents were not who they say they are. It's a good adventure, but romance is merely mediocre.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Man needs a mail-order bride to win the ranch, got a young woman and her brother with problems of their own

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

SPOILER-SORTA -- why would her parents want to chase her down? Trip ain't cheap.

Noticed a problem with the mobile version of the website

I blog on the desktop, so I didn't really test the mobile version of this blog, until the other day, and it was then I noticed not only there is no search function in the mobile site, the layout lost my tags. This is obviously unacceptable to me and I am looking into solutions, but it may take me a while, as I'm not a Blogger guru.

In the near future, I'll have to sort through my tropes, clean up my tags, and provide better linking.

UPDATE: Changing the mobile theme to "dynamic view" got the tags back. Search function seems to be hiding. Will need to do further research. 

UPDATE 2: Search is in the upper right corner in the mobile theme. Doesn't have the subscribe buttons though. I guess I may have to move them to pages to make them work on mobile.

GRR Reviews Wild by Lexi Whitlow

Wild is a reporter vs. recluse romance that managed to do a successful pivot once the couple got together into an adventure. With the timely topic of cryptocurrency, the whole thing is handled "decently" well, except the author forgot to hire a tech consultant for ONE fact that conveniently got overlooked.

Zee is an intrepid freelance reporter on the trail of Fox Guthrie, the rumored head of "Encrybit", the cryptocurrency that swept the world. FBI wants Fox found, as he's accused of money laundering and much more by his ex, a fellow hacker, but nobody had heard of him for years. Her clues lead her to this snowy mountain in Utah... when she wandered into a beartrap and she was slowly bleeding out, too weak to move, when a man rescued her and tended to her wounds in his cabin. Is he Fox, even though he denied he is?

Once you got past the rescue and later, the coupling, and admission that yes, he's Fox, the book managed a successful pivot when Fox got away from the mansion and escaped all the way to Vegas, then executed yet another escape plan for Zee to join him. And together, they will have to figure out why FBI was so hot on Fox, since Fox knew he didn't launder any money... The extended ending did explain all that, albeit in a somewhat less dramatic fashion.

With that said, there are two problems that the book didn't address. 1) I just find it horribly convenient that the law enforcement didn't put a tail on Zee since they tried charging her with obstructing justice 2) even if the house is energy self-sufficient (windmills, solar panels, etc.), the cryptocurrency mining is not handled alone. How is Fox getting the internet connection from high up in the mountains? And why didn't anyone track that? That's why this is 4/5

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Reporter chasing after the inventor of cryptocurrency, and was rescued by a stranger, but is he the one she's looking for, even as authorities close in?

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Righteous Lies (Dancing Moon Ranch) by Patricia Watters

Righteous Lies relies on a few too-stupid-to-live moments to drum up the tension, but once you got past some of those "wait, WTF?" situations there are some ingenious plot twists leading to a good ending.

Grace Templeton is a widow, who managed to save some of her dead husband's sperm. Seven months later, fertility clinic informed her and another couple that there was a mix-up. Grace was actually pregnant with someone else's child, and the other woman has her dead husband's child. This was devastating news, as the other couple was hoping to make a baby and have stem cells to save their other child, but the husband's sterile (long story) and was using sperm from his twin, Jack Hansen. This mix-up of epic proportions left both couples reeling. Grace went into early labor due to shock, and when that was resolved, she ended up moving to Jack's working guest ranch where she can be watched 24/7 for any problems. Grace thought she can never love again, but Jack slowly worked his way into her heart, with his domineering but caring ways. But with Jacking hiding a devastating secret, how can she resolve her baby situation with Jack? And what will happen to that other baby?

Grace's TSTL behavior can be blamed on shock and disgust and grief, at least temporarily. The part about moving to Jack's ranch was not that well explained. Once the situation was properly setup (Grace in forced proximity to Jack, and the other couple's own problems) the story started to shine with a couple pretty good twists. There's a reason for Jack's implacable domineering behavior toward Grace (which I am NOT spoiling) and the situation did result in a happy ending all around for the most part. Originally I wanted to give this 5 stars, but the more I thought about it, I think the beginning could have been handled better. I enjoy the twists, but perhaps not the characters that much.

Category: Contemporary  (it's NOT really western)

Primary Plot: Two families are tangled together when they learned fertility clinic mixed up the sperm...

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews No Place Like Home - Love in Seattle by Christina Butrum

No Place Like Home tries to set up an enemies to lovers/reunion scenario but the shift was way too abrupt.

Janelle wanted to bake, but she was railroaded into a journalism career by her mother. She had to get away from her home of a cafe run by her parents in Seattle, and she went all the way to Cincinnati. When her parents agreed to go on vacation, the first time in decades, Janelle came back to help out. She also ran into Colin Davis, an old rival from high school, now a reporter for a Seattle paper. She found the cafe understaffed and one of the employees is worthless. She attempted to make personnel changes, but she was resisted in every way by her mother via remote. In the meanwhile, Colin was slowly working his way into her heart, being sweet and sincere. But Janelle has a career to go back to... unless Colin can convince her to stay...

The flip from "OMG my worst enemy ever" to "OMG he's so sweet" was not handled that well. Neither was the transition of her mother "You can do nothing right" to "okay". There really wasn't even a darkest moment, per se. There was an anticipated problem, except it twisted into a deus ex machina instead. Sorry, this just didn't work for me.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman finally took over her family bakery, but was fought by her mother even as she hates/loves the reporter...

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Noble Love (The Nobles) by Té Russ

Noble Love has a lot of good background details for the family in crisis, and a return to hometown and second chance at love. However, the relationship is sub-par.

The Nobles have been running their natural hair product company for a generation, but the quadruplets, 2 sons and 2 daughters, went off to do their own things, and each found their own careers. Then a threat to the company brought Isiah, the oldest, back to town... and into the bakery shop of Tessa Everett. Tessa was chubby back in high school, but now she's toned and curvy, thanks to an exercise habit, and ability to avoid the baked temptations she had to create daily. And Isiah swept her off her feet... and they quickly became a couple. But when tragedy struck the Nobles, will their relationship survive?

While the descriptions are okay, somehow the relationship just didn't flow for me that well. It's almost insta-lust, and none of the life problems really affect the relationship other than "I can't deal with you right now (I have other more important things I have to deal with)"

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Can the curvy bakery girl fall for the business genius back in town to save his family company?

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Everything To Me (Everything Series) by A.C. Taylor

Everything to Me proves that African-American authors do NOT have to write about gangs or rap to create enjoyable stories.

Hazel needed to escape from her life, having lost her mother. She packed up and left everything else behind... Then she ran into Dom... Dom is a music artist but suffers from a congenital heart condition. After suffering a collapse backstage, he was told to take things easy, so he took a vacation. Dom and Hazel met at a destination and developed a platonic friendship due to shared loss. Family pressure and drama kept them in touch, for they are each other's lifeline in a storm. But can they ever be lovers? Do they see each other that way?

For once, the story does NOT involve all sorts of douchebags with no redeeming quality surrounding the main characters! On the other hand, the story took place over several YEARS as there are some MAJOR time gaps between some chapters. So the story feels a bit slow, despite being less than 200 pages. Characters are nicely nuanced without too many flaws. The supporting characters are somewhat flat though.

Category: contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman needing a new life meets artist told to take it easy; they are the best of platonic friends, can they be lovers too?

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews His Muse by Twyla Turner

His Muse is a novel with a bookend beginning and ending in the present about a daughter discovering her mother's memoir. The story was much more touching than you first expect.

Kari pushed her mother away almost twenty years ago due to jealousy, shame, and later, guilt. Then an email arrived linking to her mother's memoir. Kari started reading, and found what's her mother's side of the story... // Taryn is a 44-year old (black) divorced mother starting over in the South of France. Her ex-husband replaced her with a younger and white woman. Taryn did not expect to fall in love, but Etienne is an artist and a singer and swept her off her feet. But he's only 29 (and a white boy). And she can no longer bear children. How much of her heart can Taryn give, even though Taryn is Etienne's muse?

The book reads a lot longer than it seems. It says only 300 pages, but it felt much longer, which is actually good. I won't spoil the plot, but this is one of those "fated mates" sagas that took some interesting twists. The book-end beginning and ending were somewhat unusual, but it worked in this case.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: An older divorced mother, starting over, was swooned by a younger artist who wanted to love her no matter what... but they are so different

Overall Rating: 5/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Tempted: A Historical Western Romance by Molly O'Keefe

Tempted tries to set up two people in the historical west that have deep personal problems, but the link to the first book in the series was minimal, and the relationship seems to be more about angst than love.

Annie Denoe is a doctor's assistant and a landlady in Denver, Colorado. Her doctor is a chloroform addict, so half the time she's the only one treating the problems, despite the apparent impropriety in doing so. Steven Baywood is building a railroad in the area. Their siblings already knew each other, and neither are aware of each other's feelings. When Annie admit she wanted a family and may be willing to marry the doctor just to see what sex is about, Steven had to admit the feelings he had for Annie. The problem is, Steven is a survivor of the Andersonville prison camp, and he did some unspeakable things there to escape. He cannot tolerate being touched... or touching anyone. But to give Annie what she wanted, he had to overcome that or risk losing Annie to someone else.

The story is mainly about how much agony Steven has to overcome in order to love Annie, while Annie gets tired of covering for the doctor. The actual romance was relatively mediocre. It's all about the inner agony, and I think the author let too much angst though. Most of the book is about angst, and it makes for a very depressing read.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Railroad builder falls for the doctor's assistant in the small town, but he's really damaged on the inside to love her...

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.

GRR Reviews The Barren Bride Claimed By Her Bad Wild Marshal by Faye Sonja

The Barren Bride Claimed by the Bad Wild Marshal had an interesting matchup, but the love between the two characters is unexplained.

It's 1905. Faith Coleman is barren. She moved out West to Perry Lake Kansas to be a seamstress after her first husband left her because of her fertility issues. She took in five children because they needed a home. She never expected to fall in love with the former bandit, now marshal Joshua Reaper. Joshua found God and is mending his old ways. Faith is the woman he needs, but is he what she wanted?

Why did the two fall for each other again? Can the Marshal accept five kids? I honestly don't feel the chemistry here. Things just... happen. Didn't feel much of a struggle at all.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Infertile woman in wild west with 5 foster kids falls for the ex-bandit marshal

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Nevada's Pride (A BBW Western Romanc by Joann Baker

Nevada's Pride is a different worlds / lowly ranch hand vs. rich rancher's daughter contemporary western romance that did manage to set up the scenario, but relied a bit too much on the tropes like overprotecting brothers, weird will, hero falsely accused, and so on, to stand out.

Nevada Sanders grew up in a big family, running the Double Hart Ranch. She lost her parents at a young age, and her overprotective brothers had put a damper on her romantic aspirations for too long. She's about to turn 25, and just inherited granny's land as a separate ranch. She's determined to make a go at running it by herself (with a ranch hand) and hopefully gets out from under her brother's too-tight control. Enter Tanner Jessup, ex-con. Just released from jail due to a false accusation of rape by a rich rancher's daughter because he wouldn't put out. He was just driving through looking for work when Nevada offered him a job: make a go at it on her separate ranch. He knew his reputation would come back to haunt him, and he should never get involved with a rich rancher's daughter ever again, but their attraction was too hot to deny...

Nevada's supposed to be a bit of BBW, but that was mostly lost in the later chapters. You can pretty much guess what's going to happen by the end of the book... it's a trope that practically writes itself. That's why this didn't get any higher rating... no twists, no quirks.

Category: Contemporary / Western

Primary Plot: Can a falsely accused ranch hand find a job and love with a rich rancher's daughter... despite what happened last time?

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Landry's Back in Town (Rocky Ridge) by Margery Scott

Landry's Back In Town sets up a "criminal" trying to fit back into life, and a lady do-gooder trying to rehabilitate his reputation (and failing). The setup was a bit on the simple side.

In the old West town of Rocky Ridge Colorado, Landry Mitchell went to prison for robbing a bank. He didn't actually do it, but try explaining that to the sheriff. He went back to the town after his release to earn his living as the blacksmith but his town wasn't ready to forgive him. Olivia Harding wants to help people, and she cares for the orphans and the less fortunate. Landry saved her from two mean drunks when they caught her out at night. When she saw Landry was rejected by the town, she wanted to help. But Landry doesn't want her help. He's tainted, and he had nothing to offer Olivia... Then his no good brother (the guy that got him in trouble) came back...

I felt the romance was a bit forced, as the FMC basically forced her way into his life, whether he wanted help or not. That's... annoying. The "change of heart" that set up the end was also rather annoying. All in all, it came out as average.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Man tried to live normal life after serving time in jail saved a woman in town. Now she wanted to rehabilitate his reputation...

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Trouble in Texas: Redfish Chronicles Book by Eve Gaddy

Trouble In Texas is an interesting romantic suspense with some good twists and turns.

Mark Kincaid was on a leave of absence, recuperating in the town of Redfish, Texas, trying to fix up the house his uncle left him... that nobody wanted to buy. He was shot in the line of duty as a special agent of the Texas Department of Game and Wildlife, investigating a smuggling ring that deals in exotic birds. Imagine to his surprise that he was awakened by a cacophony of bird calls at 6AM! Turns out his neighbor (and just over the city limits) is Cat Randolph, wild bird rehabilitator. Then Mark's partner stumbled into a lead... the smugglers are bringing in a shipment into Redfish... very soon. And who better to ask than Cat? But as Mark cozied up to Cat, then realized he's got too close and cooled off, Cat decided to escalate by switching seduction mode to high... But things took an ugly turn when Cat's brother's boat was implicated in the smuggling...

The characters are nicely drawn, and properly suspicious of each other. IMHO the end struggle could have been made a bit more exciting, but it worked well enough.

Category: Romantic Suspense

Primary Plot: Game Warden, recovering from injury, falls for his neighbor, bird expert, while dealing with a bird smuggling ring in the area

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews The Wedding Trap (Second Service) by Adrienne Bell

The Wedding Trap managed to combine two very different romance genres: romantic suspense, and rom-com. However, the result is a bit wanting.

Beth Bradley is attending her best friend's wedding... Sans her plus one... Because "Charlie" doesn't exist. Her imaginary boyfriend, with more and more embellishment over the years, obviously can't attend the wedding. And her ex will be there to complete her humiliation, in front of everyone she knew. // Alex Tanner is at the Kensington Hotel in search of a traitor who was selling out to a foreign nation, that nation's rep is using this wedding as a cover to meet with the traitor. He needs an inside connection to the wedding, even as he searched for more intel. When he was busted by Beth checking out one of the cars, Beth blackmailed him into posing as her boyfriend "Charlie". Alex smiled, it's exactly where he needed to be... close to the wedding as a bridesmaid's BF. But when Beth stumbled into seeing the traitor's face (she didn't know it at the time), she became a target for assassins... and the only one who can keep her safe is Alex/Charlie...

The mix sort of works, but not quite. Some of the attempts on their lives were inept, and the ending was way too simple and too fast.

Category: Contemporary / Romantic Suspense

Primary Plot: Woman needs a fake boyfriend to attend the wedding, man needs to attend the wedding to find a spy, can they use each other?

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.