Cece > Recent Status Updates

Alice Coldbreath is one of my favorite authors but this isn’t it — Jeremy Vance is a HUGE asshole but it’s impossible to truly reckon with his (past and present!) assholery when the book is constantly excusing or minimizing it. The FMC’s justifiable anger has been 100% swept aside.

Oh, no. No, no, no. 😩 And this started off so well!

I’ve been watching way too many historical Chinese dramas lately because I CANNOT get on board with all this “let’s just forgive the MMC!” stuff. Why hasn’t he let her stab him!? Why hasn’t he taken the knife and dug it in deeper to atone for this cruelty!? Why isn’t he kneeling outside for days in the rain and cold!?

I’m struggling. I don’t even know quite how to say this — I need softness or warmth or emotional vulnerability ASAP. For the first 150 pages, it’s ALL rough edges, black humor, sarcastic retorts, prickly main characters, violent death, unfeeling perspectives, and hopeless circumstances. I’m on 100% board, but I need contrast or tonal balance or a brief reprieve somewhere…

I thought I knew what I was getting into (LOL) -- I DID NOT. The beginning is super Catholic/medieval...? The second bit is "The Hunger Games...? I'm loving this wild ride though!

This reads a little like Jane Austen’s Emma but if Emma was in a friends with benefits sexual arrangement with the man she was matchmaking for? Which feels...odd.

I LOVE the first 170 pages of this, it reminds me of Laura Kinsale mixed with Evie Dunmore and it's got lots of Victorian gothic vibes (so the cover is a poor fit in that way) BUT it's taking a turn I don't like -- I'm so tense over it!!

I thought this was a better-than-average YA romantic fantasy and then I got to the post-ball/demonstration bit and it got A LOT more interesting!

I just realized — I’m...James. Whatever sub-species of a**hole he is, I’m that too. I love nothing so much as climbing atop a moral high horse, am rigid and inflexible in relationships, and unforgivably sh*tty things come out of my mouth when I’m emotionally discombobulated. So, yeah, definitely a James-type.

Um, ok. I’m feeling a little perverse now because I’m loving this and it, uh, has come to my attention that not all of you do. Either this blows up spectacularly in my face (ALWAYS a possibility) or I’m going to get my defender-pants on in the review. 👖

While this is FAR from perfect, the parts I'm liking, I'm really liking. Looking through the reviews of this from people I follow, it seems I'm in the minority though, which I'll have to think on.

Everything's well written here, but it's become a slog with bland characterization, too little conflict, and meaningless details that drag on the pace. I'm intent on rating/reviewing it though, so I'm persevering!

Oof, maybe my expectations were a touch too high for Bateman's 2016 debut...? So far, the hero has been negging the heroine in a way that feels super unappealing. Here's hoping that turns around soon.

Beautifully written I suppose, but I'm not sure if I'm on a staircase to nowhere. Also very "romance adjacent" which is my term for books that function like romances but don't want to be.

Gosh, I'm just not gelling with this as much as the romance Booktube community has, but I'm holding out hope that it eventually picks up.

Um, better title: A Duke, The Lady, and Breastfeeding? I don’t know, the baby has been mightily upstaged by its breast milk...🤷🏻‍♀️

Best first line in a historical romance EVER: "It began, as so many stories do nowadays, with a duke."

Bwahahaha! YUP.

Getting strong "Evie Dunmore knock off" vibes, so far.

I keep feeling as if this needed something different to work for me. Multiple first person point of views? A new central romance?? I don't know, it's okay, but a little too much of a slog at the half-way mark.

I feel like this book cracked open my skull and licked my brain. In a sexy way? But also, Y I K E S, internalized misogyny. How does that translate into a 5 star-based rating system...?

I'm reading a story from this collection aloud every night to my roommate/best friend, Jonah. Then, we discuss. So far, my favorite has been Mary Cholmondeley's "Let Loose" for its corporeal scares, strong characterization, and powerful imagery. Last night, we read Charlotte Perkin Gilman's "The Giant Wistaria" and while it had great bones, I didn't like the centrality of dialogue.