May Grider > Recent Status Updates

Hard to stick with this one because the introduction to family is so wordy right now. Can’t these other people’s stories be introduced in their own books? Or more gracefully woven into the story? Must we start out a romance novel with the family tree in paragraph form?
Also, seeing from the title and from the publisher’s blurb that this is a second chance romance story makes me antsy to get to that.

How am I just now reading this book? It is amazing! Lisa Kleypas once again mines her go-to understanding of Gilded-Age Americans in England with great results.

not for me.

See Diana’s 3-star review from April 2020.

There is a lot of “will she, won’t she” in this book. The band of fighters are the worst cock-blockers ever. They seem to have a pattern of interrupting the lovemaking with an emergency, but then the guys sit around talking, sometimes drinking.

APRIL -Grace Burrowes yes
May - Gina Conkle. Kind of a mess, kind of OK?

January - Alyssa Alexander - no.
Feb - Elizabeth Essex - yes.
Mar - Madeline Martin

DNF

Writing style reminds me of Dearest Ivie (sp?). Maybe when main characters aren’t the BDB it makes sense that the interior monologues have a different feel. There is much less of the wildly original phrase-making than we had in early BDB books.
Actually there are fewer interior monologues so more of the narrative is a straightforward depiction of action uncolored by the strangeness of the BDB outlook on life.

Twist, twist, twist, twist and I might be undercounting. Crazy. Ready for the denouement. Narration is good. Not “I’m inspired to listen to everything she’s recorded” good, but good.

I got to this because Kate Reading narrated it. I’m about halfway through and enjoying it very much.

I’m in the first chapter and already wondering about continuing. “Disparaging” was just used when “disparate” was called for. Discouraging!

The awful arrogant hero is pretty funny. He’s got to get a lot more human before he’ll be worthy of any heroine.

Love this dialog.Betsy (Boadicea) is a great character. There is a rather dry and ironic tone the the writing I don’t always associate with Ms. James and that I enjoy.

I don’t feel that I’m giving this a fair shot, but I already know it’s just not for me. Medieval-type HR isn’t my jam. But wow, that guy on the cover. Ummm.
So DNF for me.

Can I just say, who is this cover model? What a great face! Not great hair.

Seems like one of those utopian small town, everybody-knows-everybody type of stories. Trying to think of author it most reminds me of . . . Susan Wiig, maybe? That doesn’t seem quite right. Pretty slow going so far. Mild mystery and mild romance.

“The study of business had never truly held any appeal. . . she was much more interested in marketing.” I don’t think business schools are set up *that* much differently in Australia. !!?! But OK, very minor point.

I started this book because I’ve previously read an Alison Kent book for Harlequin and liked it. And I picked this *particular* Alison Kent book because it was available at my library and for *the cover art*. Yeah. An embarrassing admission! But good gravy what a face!
Actually I don’t like this one as well as I did the first one. But I’m going to finish it.

Mary Jane Wells is awesome as the narrator. Guess I finally got to the point of sufficient familiarity to enjoy her work. Her portrayal of Lady Barrick (sp?) is especially enjoyable.

Looking forward to spending more time with Tom Severin. I’m daring the audiobook version with Mary Jane Wells. She has lots of liveliness, but . . . I’m really bad at the “identify the real Brit” game, so it’s not the authenticity of her accent as much as the implied social class of the characters I wonder about. Those who know: is her accent OK or a bit down-market?

Has there ever been a hero with an uglier name than Lord Swartingham?

OK, I’m remembering a bit now. Still enjoying the re-read, though.

Can’t remember what happened to knock me off reading this one!

I’m paused on this one. I turned it back into my online library and am now back on hold.

Man, I love EH’s old catalog!! And although I’ve read this one before (per Goodreads, thank you old me for making a note of that!), I haven’t remembered it yet, so bonus!!!! Usually not remembering a story doesn’t bode well, but so far I am absolutely captured.

I thought I’d read other books by Kristen Ashley, but I haven’t marked any others in Goodreads. At this point, I’m wondering about the high ratings on this one. Maybe it’s because at this point in the series, only true fans are still reading. Clearly lots of people love this but I’m feeling like brain cells are dying.

Set in 2003 Houston, at the library of “a relatively obscure state university in Texas” which I take to be the University of Houston, where I spent a lot, lot, lot of time in that library at about that same time period. Although not in the rare books room, unfortunately!
So that part’s a fun blast from the past. Author includes the detail of the flat, non-Texas-seeming accent of native Houstonians.

The author writes with a lightly droll tone that makes me smile and occasionally laugh out loud.
I also like her choice of time period, which I guess is Victorian. I don’t read much that is set in that period. I do have a question, or maybe a quibble:
Would a grown man from this time period actually call his parents Mama and Papa? Ewww.