GRR Reviews The Ugly Duckling by Annabelle Costa

Libby dyed her hair blonde and dropped 40 pounds to stop being the ugly duckly, and she mostly succeeded. Her current boyfriend is actually quite nice, very handsome... even has the British accent. That is, until she caught him cheating. That's when she started to notice Will, her BF's roommate. Will is not that handsome, Will has no accent, and Will is paraplegic and moves around in a wheelchair. But Will is nice, charming, genuine, and makes plenty of money as a lawyer (in fact, he owns the flat, not renting) Perhaps, Libby doesn't need a male swan, but just a nice drake (that's a male duck!)...

Not bad, not the first "guy in wheelchair" romance I've read, but this has some of the nice touches.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Jilted woman noticed her cheating ex's roommate, the wheelchair-ridden Will who's nice and genuine

Overall Rating: 4/5

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

GRR Reviews The Real Thing (The Mackenzies Book 1) by Diana Fraser

The Real Thing has some problems with the Chinese references, and both commitment-phobes ended up in HEA was a bit hard to imagine, but the rest was a lot of fun.

Lucia Rossi had a terribly lonely childhood. Her father is Italian, and her mother is Chinese. When her mom decided to leave for China with her little brother after her father was simply too busy to be around, she felt abandoned when she's moved to a boarding school. When her father died, she went to live with her mother in Beijing for a while, but the death of her brother send her fleeing again, this time to New Zealand, where she works as an art restorer. She wanted a real family for herself, including the white picket fences, and she refused to get involved with a commitment-phobe... and that included her last liaison... Dallas McKenzie. Dallas knew he can't be what Lucia wanted, but he thinks he knew who can... Guy Martin, a widower who has yet to recover from the loss of his wife. Guy is also a commitmentphobe, and Lucia would have never gotten involved with him, except they share that pain of loss... and when he invited her home, she noticed that a painting their family hung, what was supposed to be a forgery... may, in fact, be the real thing. But when the inquiry went out to find the owner of "the real that turned out to be fake", it set forth something in motion that may take Lucia and Guy to the one place Lucia swore she will never return to...

Somehow the Chinese references feel slightly off. Also, I can't see one commitment-phobe recommend a different commitmentphobe for a relationship. Still, the rest of the plot is okay...

Category: Contemporary / Romantic Suspense

Primary Plot: Woman may have to return to a place she swore she never would when she discovered a "fake" painting may be the real thing ...

Tropes: commitment-phobe, family pressure, grief, ex's best friend, fish out of water, conspiracy

Overall Rating:  4/5

GRR Reviews Summer in Napa (St. Helena Vineyard) by Marina Adair

Summer in Napa combined a bit of small town, a homecoming, an evil ex, and MMC who's evil ex's best friend. The fast resolution did not distract from this satisfying romance, but let's backtrack a second...

Alexis "Lexi" Moreau owned a New York restaurant with her husband until she caught him sampling the sous-chef (and I don't mean her food) AND made changes that lost the restaurant a lot of money (mostly hers). She ran back to her hometown St. Helena, Califronia, and started the divorce. Six months later, she's still in serious debt from the divorce, and her only way out is to turn her grandma's bakery into her dream bistro, dodging grandma's matchmaking attempts... AND avoiding the oh-so-sexy Marco DeLuca... who's her ex's best friend. Marco wanted Lexi for a long time, but he's not about to get between his best bud and a woman. He's also about to help his family reopen the Grand Hotel in town. Now that Lexi is free, Marc is perfectly willing to stake his claim on Lexi, ostensibly to just ward off grandma's matchmaking. However, he's keeping a secret... something that will shatter Lexi's trust if it gets out... And he started to suspect his best bud ain't quite on the up-and-up...

The evil ex made a GREAT foil against Marco, basically ruining Marco's chances with Lexi while trying to squeeze more money out of her (a "kinder gentler version of blackmail") and the escalation really did scale up, as each step, seemingly forward, seem to result in two steps back... And the darkest hour was dark indeed. As I said, I think the resolution was over a bit too fast, but good Marco, hurt Lexi, and evil Ex made for some interesting and tense moments. Highly recommended.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman trying to turn her grandma's bakery into a bistro must avoid her evil's ex's best friend who wanted her... or should she?

Tropes: vineyard, triangle, evil ex, return, ex's best friend, restaurant/bakery

Overall Rating:  5/5