My May Reading

Over the last year and a half, I have read many books on immigrant experiences and about people from different cultures, and I have enjoyed learning about the cultures, the food, and the languages. Google has been my friend as well as various friends as I looked to understand the books at a deeper level. When you read a book like this, there is one story where you treat the characters as just American, and then there is the other story, where the characters are hyphenated Americans with their cultures and histories and background just as much a part of them as their Americanness. I looked to read the latter story which was richer and far more meaningful to me.

Snow Angel by Mary Balogh
Category: Traditional Regency Romance
Comments: In a sudden spate of interest in traditional Regencies, I've been diving into the Baloghs that are newly available in digital.

Lady Rosamund Hunter is a recent widow of a baron. She married at 17, by choice, to a man 30 years older and never regretted it. Theirs had been a fulfilling marriage. Now nine years later, she's being coerced by her brother to marry a younger man of the cloth, who Rosamund finds boring. In a fit of pique, she steps from their carriage into a snowstorm only to be stranded with Julian , the Earl of Wetherby, in a hunting box.

Wetherby had planned to arrive in the wilds of Northhamptonshire with his mistress, who had to cancel at the last minute due to illness. Now Wetherby and Rosamund find themselves at loose ends and strongly attracted to each other. It is a time out of time. They have only given each other their first and last names, not their titles, and no other personal details—they don't plan to see each other ever again. They have a marvelous fling—his last before his betrothal to a young girl, her first with a young man. Both are irrevocably dazzled with each other. Then they part ways...

...only to meet a month later at a house party as the aunt of his betrothed. Mayhem ensues. Balogh keeps the suspense right through to the end whether they will end up together. (I mean, of course, but still, the suspense is well done.) Aiding the couple is Wetherby's best friend, but Wetherby cannot honorably cry off from the betrothal arranged from his salad days; only his betrothed can.

Christmas Collection by Carla Kelly
Category: Traditional Regency Romance Short Stories
Comments: Every time I read a Carla Kelly traditional, I fall in love with her stories all over again. This is a collection of her short stories previously published in other anthologies.

I love Kelly's Oxford-set stories. The Christmas Ornament is one such tale. The hero is a brilliant scholar at All Souls College but hapless and untidy with low esteem in his dealings with women. She is a brilliant scholar of geometry but chafing at being surrounded by unintelligent people who think she's an oddity. They are set up by their parents. Being told that the other is the right person for them creates a sense of intimacy and immediacy to all their interactions. She is forever forgiving his bumbling manners and he is forever forgiving her managing ways. I enjoyed seeing this beta, even gamma, hero and awkward heroine achieve their HEA.

Make a Joyful Noise is all about the choir. The hero is charged in finding good singers for their parish's dismal choir and she is the perfect soprano to cross his path. This is a story of such tenderness from him to her, her to him, and them to his children. He's a marquis with a large estate, but he calls himself a farmer and labors from morn to night. What I liked best about him is how grateful he is for the life he has even if he misses having a wife dreadfully. He is grateful for his children, for his land, for his health, and for his mother's help. The heroine is a pregnant widow who has helplessly battened herself on her dead husband's family. She has no recourse but to put up with their abuse. There is music, including my favorite Handel's Messiah, and the magic of Christmas. The lone sour note is Kelly's depiction of the Welsh race being composed of naturally-talented singers and the hero managing to serendipitously collect them all for his choir.

An Object of Charity is a travel story about a much-decorated but now furloughed navy captain and his dead first mate's orphaned wards. He decides to convey them to his mother's house, because as a bachelor he has nowhere else to take them to. He has been estranged from his family since he was fourteen, all of them mired in despair and bitterness. His brother's hatred of him and his father's unbending pride in his lineage made him a pariah to his family despite his repeated pleading as a teenager to be allowed to return home. He is now set on a collision course with his family and to deal with the objects of his bitterness. She is a person of sunny disposition, always ready to look on the bright side of things despite her desperate situation. Who is the object of charity? She, because of her destitute situation, or he, because of his failure to make peace with his soul. Who is taking pity on whom when they fall in love? Or is neither? They bring out the best in the other. This story has two unfortunate stereotypes about the Scots and the Indians with a dose of Orientalism.

The Three Kings has an authentic look and feel of the war of 1812. The hero and heroine are fleeing with the French army in hot pursuit. She feels it is because of the astounding scholarly discovery of Columbus that she made in Salamanca and he, because, as a Spanish spy, he is carrying vital strategic information for the British. Their story unfolds while they're on the run to the British army situated in Ciudad Rodrigo. This story was unfortunately disappointing. The story started out well enough, but ultimately ran out of steam and had to wrapped up hurriedly off-page with an unconvincing declaration of love. For most of the story, the hero waxes eloquent over his now dead wife and how much he misses her. At one point, he finally says, he now misses her less. But at no point, do I see any attraction between the hero and heroine or any romance. The HEA was thus a bolt from the blue.

Love & War by Carla Kelly
Category: Traditional Regency Romance Short Stories
Comments: After the success of the above collection, I decided to try another one of hers. This was less successful. Perhaps it was the tenor of the stories—they felt underdeveloped, hurriedly dashed out, and somewhat disappointing. Talent leashed is the best way to describe them.

The Light Within is a lovely story about a Quaker widow and a British lord. Whether one of them converts in the end is left to the reader's imagination. They meet when he mistakes her for his older brother's light-o-love. He certainly comes to earth with a thud when he meets her and realizes his mistake. But on the basis of that misunderstanding their connection begins. He helps her get redress from the British Admiralty; she impresses him with her industry and sound business sense. He quickly realizes that a life trying to corral the excesses of his older brother is not one worth living, and he decides to follow his heart across the Atlantic Ocean.

A Hasty Marriage was the least satisfying of the collection. I just didn't see the romance developing. She's a spinster lady living in her family home who has only one ancient marriage prospect, so like a debutante, she runs away from home to her governess. There she meets an American merchant ship's captain with grown adult children (who could any day bring him home wives) and a small child. The child draws the two together, but I just didn't see what he sees in her beyond that or what she sees in him beyond his enterprising and commanding ways.

In Something New, an artillery major and a war widow bond over a French war orphan he brought back from Badajoz to England. He has accompanied his lieutenant to be married to her sister. The sister turns out to a shrew with no compassion for an orphan because she was a camp follower's child, but the heroine is all understanding and sweetness towards the child, just as, after two years, he cannot bear to put the four-year-old in any old orphanage he passes by in the English countryside. How they both come to realize that really the best thing for both of them and for the child is for them to marry is the where the story is. One of the sweetest moments is when she whispers a thanks to her previous husband: "Your grace in love gives me the confidence to try again."

The Background Man is a tender story of a shy son of a vicar in his 40s, who is used to being overlooked. He secures his place in the world by being useful and working hard. He is currently the manager of a wealthy hotel in London. His past claim to fame was the time he spent with Wellesley (later, Duke of Wellington) in India. Into his hotel comes a quiet lady of thirty, whose father was also a vicar, and who refuses to be a maiden aunt and a burden on her family, so she's seeking out a life as a governess. But before she embarks on that life, she's giving herself a week's holiday in London taking in the sights and living in comfort. While not quite Remains of the Day circumspection—our hero is a little more daring and dashing by comparison—this is a story of nuance and shadows and wry, quiet observations and sweet romance. The first time the hero meets the heroine:

He knew he should say something, but he continued instead to helplessly smile at her while his brain protested somewhere inside his skull that he was looking stupider by the half second. Oh, please, don't let her be encumbered with something as distasteful as a husband. I will have to remember how to shoot and then call him out. I wonder if she smiles at every man like that. A man can only fight so many duels in one lifetime.

My biggest disappointment with this collection is the Orientalism that is not on the characters but on the author herself. Here is what happened in The Background Man. The hero is contemplating why he didn't marry in India:

Clerking for the East India Company had plunked him down in a corner of the world that while exotic offered little opportunity for matrimony with a proper British lady. And come to think of it, the Hindi women hadn't been eager to give him any of their time, either. The Mogul ladies? They were only a rumor, shadows on the street in their head-to-toe wraps, and otherwise kept behind high walls like mad uncles in England. India wasn't the place to find a wife; he might as well have lived on the moon.

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: This is my best book of the year so far. Hoang writes the neurodivergent character and immigrant experience with such sensitivity and nuance. It's an arranged marriage by an expat between a Vietnamese woman and her Vietnamese-American son. The hero is an utter delight. His constant feeling of WTF when dealing with the two women is hilarious to read, and yet, he is respectful of his culture and loyal to them. The heroine, a teen mom, attacks the golden opportunity she's been given to make a new life for herself in America with determination and optimism. Her eventual empowerment towards the latter part of the book as she realizes that she doesn't need someone else to forge a good life for herself had me cheering. The hero's journey in the last third of the book is heartbreaking as you see him struggling with the negative stereotype he's internalized about himself: Because he is autistic, he cannot feel anything. I loved how much care his brother shows in teaching him how what he is experiencing is not the flu but grief and love and loss, and that he is capable of loving and being loved. My review is here.

There's Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon
Category: YA Romance
Comments: I love Menon's voice and style of writing. Her books are joyous and optimistic with characters who are resilient and overcome their difficulties with a strength of purpose. Many adult romance characters could take notes from Menon's teenage characters.

Sweetie Nair is a Malayali-Indian-American girl, who’s a star track athlete at Piedmont High. She’s also crafty and talented in making decorative boxes and arrangements for her mother’s famous Indian sweets business. Her squad of three multicultural friends have been close for a number of years and share a talent for making music together. Despite her immense gifts, Sweetie has been dogged for years by fatphobia from people who think she is less than them because of the way she looks. She is not at all ashamed of her body—in fact, she is proud of her athletic prowess—but she is deeply hurt by her mother’s attitude towards it. Amma’s one purpose in life is for Sweetie to lose weight so she thinks she will be acceptable to society and dateable.

Ashish Patel is an Indian-American boy, who’s a star basketball player at Richmond, a prep school for the über rich. He and his group of three multicultural friends have been close since grade school, and I thoroughly enjoyed how their personalities meshed and differed. Ashish is recovering from the loss of his girlfriend, who cheated on him. He had been in love with her, despite their differences in experiences and personalities, and he has now lost his mojo and confidence in his dealings with girls and on the basketball court. My review is here.

A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: What I like about Cole's writing is her ability to seamlessly stitch together reality and fantasy, thus making for a very believable fairytale. The first book of her Reluctant Royals series, A Princess in Theory made my Best Books list last year.

Nya Jerami is the much-maligned daughter of a criminal, who has imprisoned for poisoning Naledi, the future princess of Thesolo, a small country in Africa. After her father's arrest, Nya fled to NYC in defiance to lead a life on her own terms. Now she is very reluctantly journeying to Thesolo for Ledi's wedding to Prince Thabiso, because as Ledi's cousin, she is part of the wedding party. She is filled with dread, because under the guise of being concerned for her and guilting her over the death of her mother in childbirth, Nya's father has always talked down to her and controlled her.

Johan Maximillian von Braustein is the stepson of the king of Liechtienbourg, a European Principality, and a playboy prince known for his attractive looks, jet-setting parties, fancy cars and a revolving door of supermodels. Despite the intervening ten years, Johan has continued to be devastated from the loss of his beloved mother and has vowed never to love again. Better to lead a superficial life than to make yourself vulnerable. My review is here.

The Key to Happily Ever After by Tif Marcelo
Category: Women's Fiction
Comments: This is a story of adversarial sisters and their romantic interests. Marcelo has a keen understanding of the relationship space of sisters, how birth order affects that space, and how personal and professional emotions overlap when you have to work with your relatives.

Filipina-American sisters Marisol, Janelyn, and Pearl de la Rosa are co-owners of a preeminent wedding boutique, Rings & Roses, in Old Town Alexandria near Washington DC. The shop had been their mother's baby, but upon retirement, she settled a third on each of her daughters. With their mother's safety net of experience and expertise whisked away, the sisters are now on their own. Mari likes to be in charge, and with her formidable organizing skills, is the main planner of their top clients' weddings. As the logical, even-keeled middle sister, Jane has to always keep the peace between Mari and Pearl in their tempestuous relationship.

And this relationship is the central thrust of the story. I was disappointed that for most of the story, their relationship does not change and thus there is no forward drive to the story. There are love interests for both of them, which are some moments of grace in the story, but otherwise there is constant bickering and acrimony with no self-reflection. Thus, despite the good writing, the book was a letdown for me. My review is here.

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
Category: Women's Fiction
Comments: To some, this book will read as a contemporary romance, but to me it read as women's fiction with a large romance sub-plot. The romance isn't the point of the story, rather it is the heroine's journey as outlined by mythologist Joseph Campbell and author Christopher Vogler—from estrangement with a call to action to challenges to a black moment to atonement, and finally, to reconciliation and acceptance. This book is all about relationships: her sister (caring), her cousin (generous and accepting), her grandmother (loving), her brother (distant), her mother (complicated), her father (hostile), and the hero (also hostile). Dev does a splendid job contrasting how confident Trisha is as a neurosurgeon versus how unsure she is as a member of her family. However, her arrogance, unknowingly, comes to the foreground where the chef hero is concerned. How she resolves all the negativity surrounding some of her relationships is where the heart of the book is. My review is here.

Best of Luck by Kate Clayborn
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: Imagine, a world-class photojournalist who's been in every hot spot in the world capturing unimaginable images and stories is now helping a woman learn how to use a camera and take her first shots. Now imagine, a hospital social worker with serious health issues of her own and with great compassion for people in need is now urging the intrepid world traveler to seek help with his panic attacks. These two are coming at life from such different angles and lenses. And yet, their one focal point, his sister who is also her best friend, serves as the pivot around which they build their relationship.

Clayborn's story is all about textures and light and filters, much like a photograph. The filter through which one views someone one is attracted to changes when there is a tear in the fabric, and then changes again when the seams are sewn up. Our conception of who the people around us is varying all the time. Clayborn does a great job of showing shifting expectations and assumptions and growing understanding and acceptance between the hero and heroine and also between them and their friends and families. As people come and ago in the hero's and heroine's lives, they illuminate or darken different facets of their personalities. Clayborn's skill as a storyteller is for the reader to feel like they're on an exciting scavenger hunt to uncover the hero's and heroine's characters.

Benji, the Bad Day, and Me by Sally J. Pla, illustrated by Ken Min
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: A beautiful book of an older brother of a neurodivergent boy. Benji is used to Sammy getting far more attention that he does. But one day, he has a bad day and is desperately in need of some loving attention. But Mother is busy with her work and Sammy is hiding in his box house because he is feeling overwhelmed. Benji's bad day continues at home, and when he spills milk is trying to get a snack, he bursts into noisy tears of despair. And then comes the beautiful part of the book. Sammy creeps out of his house and gives Benji a hug and swaddles him up in a blanket because Sammy knows what makes him feel better. The love of his brother rights Benji's world.

Don't Let the Beasties Escape This Book! by Julie Berry, illustrated by April Lee, commissioned J. Paul Getty Museum
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: A gorgeous book on medieval manuscript artwork by the Getty Museum. The book drew its inspiration from the museum's exhibit "Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World" and features illustrations from their collections.

The main story is sure to delight young children. The story is fun and fresh, and the artwork is beautiful—detailed, colorful, and mimics medieval scribal techniques. For older children, the book has a section on medieval life in a castle and the medieval bestiary with actual illustrations of beasts and explanations as to their meaning. As a fan of children's picture books and an amateur student of medieval manuscripts, this was a book after my own heart.

The whimsical story follows an ordinary peasant boy dreaming of life as a valiant knight in the Late Middle Ages (thirteenth century): Sir Godfrey the Gallant, Sir Godfrey the Glorious, Sir Godfrey the Goodhearted. His favorite book is about medieval bestiaries but filled only with pictures. He is hoping that when the castle scribe ultimately finishes the book, it will tell a heroic tale of a bold, brave knight. As he goes about his chores, his imagination takes flight, and the mischievous animals walk out of the pages of the book, causing him to flex his knightly skills. Some of the beasts help him with his chores and interact with the regular farm animals.
[Pub date: September 2019]

Livi & Grace by Jennifer Lynch, illustrated by Missi Jay
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: What a lovely story of hope, joy, and acceptance. It features Lynch's daughters, Olivia and Grace. The two girls are sisters and best friends, but they are completely different from each other. This is a book of acceptance of differences and of love that recognizes that the other person is just as valuable despite being different from you. You can be you, your own unique self, and there will always be someone who will treasure you, who will celebrate who you are.

Livi and Grace feel mystified that people feel that they should be the same because they are sisters. The reality is that they consider themselves and each other to be special in their own way—they are who they are, and they feel free to be who they are because they are confident that they are loved for who they are. What makes these girls so happy with themselves and each other? It's a secret: Our differences are beautiful—they're blessings through and through. There's no one way that's best to be, so be the you that's you!
[Pub date: June 2019]

Punctuation Celebration by Else Knight Bruno, illustrated by Jenny Whitehead
Category: Children's Nonfiction Poetry Picture Book
Comments: This is a much-loved book in our house. Punctuation and its uses are explained through poems and whimsical illustrations.

"Quotation marks come two by town.
Use two before, two when you're through.
Enclosed are words said by another,
Like, "Clean this messy room!" yelled Mother.

and

"Alas, the poor apostrophe
Has two big jobs, it seems to me.
In order to help words possess,
It tags along and adds an 's."
(Like Mickey's mess or Della's dress.)
And when one word, not two is better,
It happily replace letters.
Whatever's left is not a fraction.
We'll call the new word a contraction.
(Like can't or we'll or it's or she'll.)

My April Reading

Life as a reviewer for USA Today Happy Ever After used to be chaotic since my two columns (for historical and contemporary romance) had no deadlines and would run whenever I was done reading the books and writing them up. Thus I'd end up having some blah days and some days when I was rushing to catch up. With Frolic Media, I have a weekly commitment to one or two reviews. As a result, some order has been brought on my reading and writing, and instead of having a whole month of reading to do, I have weekly goals with deadlines. This has not only allowed me to plan my reading (all the way through December!!) but also to intersperse it with personal reading as opposed to just review reading.

A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings
Category: Poetry
Comments: As I mentioned before, Rumi's poems seem to show up for me exactly when I need them. This poem was a good reminder to let go of my anger before it twists me up inside and turns me bitter about that particular person. Easier said than done, of course, and it's a work in progress, but reminders like this snippet from "Wax" are perfect.

I must have been incredibly simple or drunk or insane
to sneak into my own home and steal money,
to climb over my own fence and take my own vegetables
But no more. I have gotten free of that ignorant fist
that was pinching and twisting my secret self.

Day of Love by Mary Balogh
Category: Traditional Regency Romance Anthology
Comments: Balogh has put together three of her Valentine's Day novellas in this collection. If nothing else, this anthology has convinced me what a master storyteller Balogh is. I know, water is wet, but honestly, it's in her trads that she shines, and these novellas are top-notch. The stories are complex and complete in and of themselves without feeling rushed despite the obvious short form.

Golden Rose is set in Bath where the Master of Ceremonies seeks to enliven the dreary winter days with a masked ball on February 14. Each gentleman is encouraged to send a valentine to the lady of his choice with the request that she carry some favor of his to the ball to be reclaimed at the end of the evening. In the true spirit of the festival, the card is to be anonymous. A twelve-year-old boy decides to take matters into his own hands and delivers his rakish cousin's valentine and favor—golden roses—into the hands of a destitute companion of their aunt's instead of the bored beauteous widow who is the valentine's original intent. Surprise at the unmasking! And the start of a relationship.

A Waltz Among the Stars is about two souls finding Valentine's Day the most unbearable of days in the year, because the day is a celebration of love and both have lost their loves, one to death in childbirth and the other to the Battle of Talavera. The heroine has been ostracized from her family for having lain with her lover on V-Day before he headed off to war and died, leaving her with child. She lives in the dower house at her father the duke's mercy, shunned and forgotten.

The hero has been invited to a house party at the duke's manor house to propose marriage to the younger daughter. There the hero and heroine meet on the grounds of the estate. The two are drawn to each other, partly because of attraction and partly because only they can understand what the other has lost and what it means to survive the loss and move on in life. Such a quiet story of intense feelings.

The local spinster has been hurriedly called in to replace an unexpected no-show at a house party in The Substitute Guest. She knows that the hostess has a reputation for being fast, but she is determined to grasp at this one chance in a lifetime to have a short adventure to enliven her declining years. Unfortunately for her, the crowd she finds herself in is rather risqué, and she does not know whether she should turn tail and run or stay and try to enjoy herself. Luckily for her, she is rescued by a bored duke who decides to set himself the challenge of seducing a virginal spinster. But he is rather shocked how fast his feelings for her change and how protective he is of her innocence and reputation. Thus the seducer is seduced.

An Unacceptable Offer by Mary Balogh
Category: Traditional Regency Romance
Comments: This story is warm and tender and...just perfect. Best of all, the two little girls in the book are not plot moppets. They're integral to the story and go towards the characterization of both the protagonists. In fact, that is true of the four major players. The cast of secondary characters is small—only three—and their roles are minor. This is a trad in the best sense because the focus is on the people and on characterization rather than plot.

She fell in love with him five years ago, but he had eyes only for another. Now he's widowed and back in town for a wife. She realizes she still loves him but he now has eyes only for her beauteous cousin. So she's taken by surprise when he proposes to her and angered when she realizes that he proposed marriage because she was sensible, conversable, and good with children. She rips up at him in tears, "I am not a footstool. I am a person. My happiness matters to me." Marvelous scene! When she turns around and accepts his best friend, he is thrown first into the sullens (he's never been refused by a woman before) and then into the doldrums (too late, he now realizes he loves her).

A Chance Encounter by Gayle Buck
Category: Traditional Regency Romance
Comments: The story starts out with a very interesting premise. Our hero is drunk and driving his phaeton recklessly along the North Road when he rounds a corner sharply and throws a woman into the ditch. He rescues her with the right amount of contrition, but then recklessly abducts her with the purpose of marrying over the anvil at Gretna Green. He would much rather marry a down-on-her-luck stranger who remonstrates with his behavior, than do his duty to a dynastic marriage arranged since his short-coat years to an imperious miss. After much persuasion, she perceives that marrying this stranger is better than trying her hand at being a governess.

So they marry at an inn and he proceeds to take her off to his grandmother to rehabilitate their reputation, avoid scandal, and make the marriage palatable to his parents. All right and good and rollicking fun so far. But when the threesome go to the family seat, the rapid pace of the novel slows down and is taken up by a whole slew of people. The loud protestations to the marriage, anger, hysterics, and jealously are all well and good, but what is sacrificed is the romance of the two. Pity!

Meet Cute by Helena Hunting
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: Going from a pep talk about visualizing success to lying flat on her back hugging her teen idol and fangirling all over him is not how Kailyn Flowers thought her first morning of law school would go. Unfortunately for her, this does not prove to be the case where the most embarrassing moment of her life can be locked up and the key thrown away. Her Embarrassment is in every class of law school, and he enjoys debating and competing with her.

They meet again five years later, when she sets up a trust for his much younger sister. Both are lawyers now, she odes trusts and wills, he's an entertainment lawyer. A few months later, they meet again when both his parents die in a horrific car crash, and he finds himself as a guardian of her young teen.

What I loved best about this book is how Hunting balances bone-deep grief with growing love. Humans are meant to be happy, according to the Dalai Lama, and Hunting shows that beautifully in this book. My review is here.

The Takeover Effect by Nisha Sharma
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: This is another story with lawyers. He is very much a take-charge man and she is a take-charge woman, so I wondered who would be the alpha in the relationship. It was very interesting to see how they actually manage it between them. They pass the baton back and forth between who is in control and who is acquiescent. It was wonderful to see that someone who is used to getting their own way doesn’t always have to have it that way. They can cede control and take it back depending on the circumstance.

What I really liked about this book is the language and cultural history they have in common that allows them to instinctively understand each other without having to explain with words. They appreciate that aspect of their relationship very much as it brings not only them closer, but also their families. Sharma has highlighted the immigrant outlook to life very well — what is important to them as a family and at work, how they relate the culture of the old nation to the new country, and what they inspire in their children. My review is here.

Unlaced by the Highland Duke by Lara Temple
Category: Regency Romance
Comments: The Lochmore Legacy series of books is about the Lochmore Castle through the ages and a bitter feud between the Lochmore and McCrieff clans. The castle has been a witness to it all: the battles, the betrayals, the weddings, the wild passions… The four books telling its stories are: His Convenient Highland Wedding by Janice Preston (set in the Victorian era), Unlaced by the Highland Duke by Lara Temple (Regency), A Runaway Bride for the Highlander by Elisabeth Hobbes (Tudor), and Secrets of a Highland Warrior by Nicole Locke (Medieval).

I read the Temple book for Frolic, and my review is here. I will be reading the Locke book for All About Romance in a couple of months.

The widowed current Duke of Lochmore is in need of a companion for his young son. A windowed destitute relation of the Uxmores is urged to take up one more job of usefulness by becoming a governess to her dead cousin's husband Lochmore. What starts out as servitude quickly becomes a relationship of equals. This is a story of how a mousy woman becomes a fierce advocate for herself and what she believes in when shown respect, equality, and trust. Lovely story!

The Madness of Miss Grey by Julia Bennet
Category: Victorian Romance
Comments: This is an exquisite story of torment—the torment of doing the right thing and the torment of being right and unable to do anything about it. In a bid to hide his extramarital affair, a duke has his orphaned by-blow wrongfully imprisoned in a mental "hospital" in Yorkshire. There, in the care of a barbarous doctor and a sadistic nurse, Helen has endured a harrowing existence for ten years. When Dr. Will Carter arrives, she is on the ropes of despairs.

Where he is all consideration and understanding, ten years have made her mistrustful and manipulative, always looking for an advantage. The more he gets to know her, the harder he falls in love with her. But she does not know how to interpret her emotions any more. What is she feeling? Should she be feeling something? The beauty of the book is in how Bennet navigates the power imbalance between them—he is her doctor after all—and how she equalizes that power and also how Helen learns to trust again—herself and Will—and thus discover that she can receive and give love again. My review is here.

The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: This is Parker's fourth book in her London Celebrities series. I have loved every one of her books. Her characterization, her voice, and her sense of humor work perfectly for me. A bubbly, sassy, perennially optimistic actor is paired with a dour, curt, glacial theater critic—how fun! And Parker spins this into an edge-of-the-seat, rollicking tale with drama, intrigue, and a soft, tender romance.

A soft, tender romance with someone whose scathing review calls her an "overexposed, chronically confused crowd-pleaser who's built a career riding on her family coattails"? Yes, indeed. He has hidden depths of loyalty and empathy and affection, which she has to drill down to discover, and to my enjoyment, she did it with self-possession and a protective concern for him. These two really fancy each other, and Parker proceeds to convert the reader's "no way" to their relationship to "of course." My review is here.

Fumbled by Alexa Martin
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: From tragedy to intimacy, from distrust to tenderness, from anger to love, Fumbled has it all. Ultimately, this story is all about joy—the joy of living and the joy of loving.

Poppy Patterson is a teen mom who has survived ten years on her own by working nights at a club while dedicating her waking hours to raising her son. TK Moore has spent those same years following his dream in becoming a football star in the big leagues and making pots of money. They were high school sweethearts, till a misunderstanding drove them away from each. Now ten years later, a chance meeting makes them realize that the magic between them is still there and just as strong as ever. But they are now adults with careers and responsibilities…not to mention a son.

You would think that acrimony and past hurts would've made them bitter and the book would be full of angry exchanges between them. But the strength of these characters is their ability to transcend the past and focus on who they are now as people and on the son they have in common. And to focus on happiness in life. My review is here.

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
Category: Children's Picture Book Memoir
Comments: This book has gorgeous artwork! Morales was born and raised in Mexico and immigrated to the United States to be reunited with her son's father, who is a US citizen. She spoke no English when she arrived, but through the amazing world of the public libraries of San Francisco, she not only learned the language of her new country, but she mastered it and honed her artistic talent. She has put together fabulous children's picture books, which have gone on to bring her many accolades and awards. The title of this book doesn't refer to the political term dreamers, but rather for dreamers of the world who immigrate to new countries: migrantes soñadores.

Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: What is a name? A name is powerful, a link back to your ancestors and the heritage you bring into your life. This little girl's name is Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela, and she despaired of having such a long name to write everywhere till her daddy tells her the story of her name: who she is linked to and who they were. Sofia for her grandmother, Esperanza for her great-grandmother, José for her grandfather, Pura for her great-aunt, and Candela for her other grandmother. And Alma just for her—she will make her own story.

As a child, the author herself thought she was stuck with the most old-fashioned, harsh, ugly, and way-too-Spanish name in all of Lima, Perú, where she grew up. Nut now that she is in United States, it feels unique and reminds her every day where she came from.

Yaffa and Fatima: Shalom, Salaam by Fawzia Gilani-Williams, illustrated by Chiara Fedele
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: A lovely tale of friendship that celebrates their differences and finds commonality in thought and action. Yaffa, a Jewish woman, and Fatima, a Muslim woman, are neighbors who are friends with each other while also leading their own religious and communal lives. They share their joys and their lives with each other. So when tragedy strikes in the form of a failed date harvest, which is essential for their living, their thoughts are not on their own hunger and their own future, but on the other's hunger and her future. Thus, they are friends in plenitude and in strife.

Deep in the Sahara by Kelly Cunnane, illustrated by Hoda Hadadi
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: Set in Muslim Mauritania, this is a story of a young girl's longing to wear a malafa (long veil), the ultimate symbol of beauty, fashion, mystery, empowerment, tradition, religion, and adulthood to her. But she is considered still too little by her society to wear it. So she asks the women of her village: Why do they wear it? The women all tell her their reasons and how the malafa is everything she thinks it is and much more. I loved how this story seeks to shift the misguided assumptions that the veil is all about the oppression of women to how integral it is to the women's identity.

The book has some Hassaniya (an oral Arabic dialect) words along with a glossary. I love books with other languages in them—I am fascinated by their sounds. I had always hoped that one day, I would be able to add many more languages to my six. But alas! Not yet. But when I next have a chance, Arabic, especially, classical Arabic is at the top of the list. Zaiyn (good)!

My March Reading

March was a time of illness and days of alternately lying in bed and rushing around to help other members of the family. For me, illness always means comfort reading, and that means, sinking into traditional Regencies. I read three: Carla Kelly, Balogh, and Andrea Pickens.

I wrote about four multicultural retellings of my favorite book Pride & Prejudice by Ibi Zoboi, Soniah Kamal, Sonali Dev, and Uzma Jalaluddin. I also collected a list of romance novels by authors of color that I reviewed from January 2018 to now.

A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings
Category: Poetry
Comments: Waking up from a long sleep of unconscious living into purposefulness and the rewards of that awareness is a common theme in Rumi's poetry. Here's an excerpt from "The Worm's Waking":

This is how a human being can change.
There is a worm
addicted to eating grape leaves.

Suddenly, he wakes up,
call it grace, whatever, something
wakes him, and he is no longer a worm.

He is the entire vineyard,
and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks,
a growing wisdom and joy
that does not need to devour.

Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career by Carla Kelly
Category: Traditional Regency Romance
Comments: I loved this book! It is set in Oxford and is focused on scholarship—a marquess and a squire's daughter who have nothing but learning on their minds. He bargains a year of fellowship at All Souls from his mother before assuming his duties. She escapes her forbidding father's house for a girls' schoolat the gates of Oxford. Whereas he is allowed to study whatever he wants, Oxford at that time, forbid women from its elevated environs. Despite it, through the guise of her scapegrace brother, she manages to research and write notable Shakespearean papers.

The black moment comes about because he has hidden his noble identity from her and presented himself as a mere mister, because he is afraid that she will be scared away by his august title. And that proves to be the case when she finds out. Oxford has always fascinated me—in my salad days, I dreamed of going there, but like many dreams, that one went by the wayside—so I was interested from the get-go, and Kelly fulfilled the promise of her premise. I highly recommend it.

An Unlikely Duchess by Mary Balogh
Category: Traditional Regency Romance
Comments: As I discussed on Twitter, Balogh has books that suit every mood, and her trads have been largely successful for me. This one, unfortunately, was less so. Since I wasn't in the mood for a serious story, I picked up this farce. The first half of it was quite entertaining, a paean to Heyer. However, it went south in the second half. All those intermingled story threads and earnest to-ing and fro-ing of the people involved had to be resolved and it felt tedious at times without the humor of the first half.

Paul Villiers, the Duke of Mitford, is all that is proper. When the weight of the title and duties settled on his teenage shoulders, he took them all on with a grave sense of responsibility. In that same vein, he agrees to marry a girl his maternal grandfather suggests, sight unseen. Josephine Middleton is the oldest daughter of an earl, and as far from the ideal of a serious, circumspect duchess as there could be. With Mitford traveling incognito up north to propose and Jo traveling south to escape from the arranged marriage, they chance to meet, where else, at an inn.

And Mitford's mind suffers a shock. He is appalled that the dutiful girl he was supposed to marry is in reality this harum-scarum girl with nary a thought to respectability. But despite this, he becomes embroiled in her schemes and finally, for the first time in his life, has a rousing adventure.

Code of Honor by Andrea Pickens
Category: Traditional Regency Romance
Comments: Sebastian, the Earl of Branford is a dissolute rake. When we first meet him, he's drunk and in bed with his mistress, whom he proceeds to have sex with before giving her her congé, which shows just the kind of insensitive man he was. Thus his makeover is that much sweeter, (though it comes sooner than is possible). After his night of debauchery, he drunkenly makes a wager to seduce a supposedly bold piece of goods from the country. When he meets her at the ball, he is struck by how innocent she is—all she is interested in is discussing botany of which she is passionate—and he strikes his wager foo White's books.

Unknowing about this wager, Alexandra Chilton dances and chats with Branford at every ball. They're both charmed with each other's interests, intelligence, and fascination with the other, and Alex disbelieves the rumors about Branford's black character and The villain of the book is one Earl of Hammerton, who is desperate to orchestrate the death of Alex's brother. (I bought a published book, and the eBook was riddled with errors that could've been avoided with a copyedit.)

Can't Escape Love by Alyssa Cole
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: This book is all about happiness — happiness in love, happiness in work, happiness with life as it comes at you. Cole is a highly skilled writer, who can convey a wealth of emotion and meaning with a few well-chosen words. And yet, her books are not self-conscious and cautious, but rather, filled with a joie de vivre that is enchanting. If you are a fan of comics, anime, superheroes, and puzzles, this novella will be a delight.

Regina “Reggie” Hobbs is a super fan of Reject Squad Ultra and she knows everything that is to be known about the anime show — even her house is filled with reminders of the show. Reggie is a strong, independent woman who uses quirkily-designed wheelchairs to get around because of her ataxia. She is the founder of GirlsWithGlasses, and through talent and sheer hard work, she has made her fledgling pop culture and social media enterprise into a hugely popular site.

Gustave “Gus” Nguyen is a neurodivergent, gifted puzzle master who loves solving complex problems. His day job is being an architect, but in his spare time, he designs escape rooms. He has recently been hired for a dream project: designing a multi-room escape experience for Reject Squad Ultra. Unfortunately, he knows next to nothing about anime, romance, or the show. Not only that, but he has a tight deadline for the project, and the disparate parts of the project that he has designed are just not coming together as a whole.

I have followed Cole’s Reluctant Royals series from its first book, and I’ve loved every single one of them. This book is one of two novellas between books two and three. They’re all standalone books, but you don’t want to miss a single one of them. I rarely recommend an entire series of books, but this is one of those times. My review is here.

Desire Lines by Elizabeth Kingston
Category: Medieval Romance
Comments: No one does medieval romance as superbly as Elizabeth Kingston. Desire Lines is a thing of beauty: complex in essence, rich in detail and characterization, with every word indispensable to the story. This is the third book in her Welsh Blades series, and every book is a treasure.

Told in crisscrossing storylines, this novel displays the intricacy of the history and personality of the protagonists by turns revealing and concealing details, always teasing the reader with glimpses of this or that. Kingston is remarkably skilled in keeping the reader always on tenterhooks as her story wends its way through circumstances, events, and people.

The Welsh word hiraeth is what this book is all about. It is a deep abiding hunger for what one has lost and that means everything to who they are. Both protagonists are searching for a return to the days of their youth, when they were safe and protected, when life was simpler and wants were more commonplace. While he yearns for the home he left behind in Wales, she yearns to be reunited with her younger sister. Their journey together towards their destiny is one strewn with love and heartbreak. My review is here.

Kiss and Cry by Mina V. Esguerra
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: Calinda “Cal” Valerio is a figure skating superstar in the Philippines, having won numerous gold medals in various competitions. From a very young age, she has been hyper focused on the ice. And her parents made sure she stayed focused by not allowing her to date — not seriously, not casually. Now Cal is retired and no longer competes; instead, she choreographs routines for other figure skaters and puts on shows and performances. She also courts donors to help fund skaters who cannot otherwise afford to pay for this expensive sport.

Filipino-American Ramirez “Ram” Diaz-Tan is an award-wining star of the Philippine national hockey team. Living part of the year in Houston, where he is an English teacher, and part of the year training and playing in Manila, Ram leads a busy life moving seamlessly between his two worlds. Using his time and money, he has also helped other kids take up the sport. However, money has always been tight for him, and he is tired of not being able to hold down a steady job, since hockey has always come first for him. So he is retiring from playing the sport.

Cal and Ram used to be great friends when they met ten years ago. But when rumors of their friendship reached her parents’ ears, they were adamant that she stop seeing him, and Cal and Ram’s relationship died aborning. Over the years, they have kept abreast of each other’s careers, because after all, the world of winter sports in a country with no winter was a small world. Now, ten years later, they meet on the set of a video shoot of thirty most accomplished people in their thirties. My review is here.

American Dreamer by Adriana Herrera
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: Nesto is a Dominican-American chef who owns a Caribbean food truck in NYC. His teenage afternoons spent with a chef who was more father to him than his own missing one, have left Nesto with a hankering to make a living feeding people with food handmade with love. So he chucks his office job goodbye and starts a food truck. When the story opens, Nesto has decided to try his hand at making a success in Ithaca, where his mother and sister live.

Jude is a youth services librarian in Ithaca. He works by day at the local library with his best friend, Carmen. By night, he retreats to the house he owns and which he has made into a haven with carefully chosen furnishings and art he’s collected from his travels. When the story opens, he is working on getting his mobile library project passed by the library board.

While Nesto has always been accepted openly by his family, Jude has only faced ostracization, so he is a bundle of insecurities. Nesto is comfortable in his own skin and shows in every way possible how wonderful he finds Jude. The best part of this book is seeing how Jude starts to trust Nesto and slowly comes out of his shell. My review is here.

Highland Crown by May McGoldrick
Category: Scottish Regency Romance
Comments: Isabella Murray Drummond studied to become a physician and surgeon in Würzburg, Germany with the blessings of her father. Seeking a safe marriage, Isabella moves to Edinburgh with her physician husband where she practices medicine and surgery with her husband’s support. But her husband has secret revolutionary leanings that put Isabella’s life in grave danger.

When her husband is killed by the English, Sir Walter Scott aids her in escaping the English soldiers and Scottish rebels who have both put a bounty on her head. Both sides think Isabella knows too much and consider her a danger to their cause. With Scott’s help, Isabella heads to the coast of North Sea from where she will board a ship to Halifax, Canada.

Cinaed is a smuggler and captain of the Highland Crown that roams the North Sea from Canada to Scotland. He smuggles arms to the Highlanders. In his childhood, he had been a Highlander from Dalmigavie Castle, high above the hills of Inverness. Cast from home and hearth, he goes to the sea. The life of a sailor suits him and he quickly rises through the ranks. But unknown to him, he has a scandalous past that will link him forever to the Highlands.

They meet when Isabella rescues Cinaed on the lonely coastline of the North Sea. She saves his life; he returns the favor. There are soldiers and rebels chasing them and there's the mystery of Cinaed's ancestors. A great read of deep historical research, mystery, fast-paced action, and a sweet romance. My review is here.

Spring Skies Over Bluebell Castle by Sarah Bennett
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: This story is sweet, tender, and laugh-out-loud funny. When a rugby-playing baronet with an authentic castle stuffed with ancient historical paintings and knick-knacks and an art historian meet, there's love and hijinks to be had in the stone circle replica in the backwoods as well as around the shelves of a Beauty and the Beast library.

Named for King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, with a bona fide giant round table in the great room, the denizens of the Camland "Bluebell" Castle are au courant even as their lifestyle and environs are steeped in centuries-old tradition. Sir Arthur Ludworth is one of a triplet of siblings and on whom the weight of the title and lands have fallen, including the state of near bankruptcy on which they hover. They want to see if any of their ancient, dusty paintings and knick-knacks can yield treasures that can either be sold or used to create an Arthurian legend to draw in paying visitors.

Lucinda "Lucie" Kennington has a degree in art history and specializes in pre-Raphaelite paintings. When the rare painting she discovers is set up as the star of a highly respected auction, but turns out to be a fake, she's accused of stealing the original and replacing it with a forgery. She is summarily dismissed from her position. Now, at loose ends at home, Lucie spies an advert for an art historian and archivist wanted at Camland Castle. My review is here.

"The Champa Flower" from The Crescent Moon by Rabrindranath Tagore, illustrated by Jaikar Marur
Category: Children's Picture Book, Poetry
Comments: A beautiful way to introduce a young child to poetry through the voice of a naughty child. The champa flower is a very fragrant flower of India; a variety of it is the frangipani or plumeria of Hawai'i. One day, a little boy decides to become a champa flower high up on the branch of the big tree right where it grows in his backyard. While he plays in the wind with spring leaves, he asks his mother if she knows that he is up there. The poem is a one-sided conversation the boy has with his mother as he observes her going about her regular day, commenting on the ordinariness with fresh eyes and a new perspective. He is naughtily enjoying hiding from her, but when it is evening, he jumps down from the tree as a boy again, ready to be cuddled by his mother before going to bed.

Danza! by Duncan Tonatiuh, Amalia Hernández, El Ballet Folklórico de México
Category: Children's Picture Book, Biography
Comments: This is the true story of Amalia Hernández, the founder and artistic director of El Ballet Folklórico de México, the most famous dance company in Mexico and well-known all over the world. Amalia was fascinated by the art, culture, dances, and history of the different regions of her country. Folkloric dancing is an integral part of festivities and celebrations all over Mexico. Drawing inspiration from these traditional dances, Amalia founded her ballet company in 1952 on the principles of preserving and capturing the spirit of these folk dances, adapting them to be enjoyed in a theater setting, and encouraging people of Mexican origin to feel pride in their roots. The book is biographical from when she was little girl to her death.

In the author's note, I found out that during her lifetime, Amalia had been criticized for appropriating and misrepresenting the dances.

Holes in the Sky by Patricia Polacco
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: This poem brought me to tears time and time again. It talks about a little girl who loses a beloved grandmother only to find a new grandmother in her friend's grandmother. It is also a story of diversity and how what matters are friendship, caring, and love, not the color of your skin.

The Russian-American girl grew up in Caucasian Michigan. Her babushka always said that "the stars in the sky are holes in the sky. The light of heaven is showing through them from the other side." When it is her time to go, she will always look upon the girl through those holes. After her grandmother passes away, the family moves to Oakland CA, where the girl meets people from all over the world and enjoys making friends with them and visiting their houses. Her best friend is Stewart, an African-American boy who has the kindest grandmother, Miss Eula. Through Miss Eula, the girl learns about being kind to others, helping others, and how love is the best gift.

Books by Authors of Color that I have Reviewed (with links)

These are the romance novels by authors of color that I've read since January 2018, and most of them I have reviewed for USA Today Happy Every After, Frolic, and All About Romance.

1. Kiss and Cry by Mina V. Esguerra (link)
2. American Dreamer by Adrianna Herrera (link)
3. Crashing into Her by Mia Sosa (link)
4. The Fearless King by Katee Robert (link)
5. The Matchmaker’s List by Sonia Lalli (link)
6. Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal (link)
7. Their Perfect Melody by Priscilla Oliveras (link)
8. Tikka Chance on Me by Suleikha Snyder (link)
9. Not Another Family Wedding by Jackie Lau (link)
10. Couldn’t Ask for More by Kianna Alexander (link)
11. Untouchable by Talia Hibbert (link)
12. A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole (link)
13. Tender Secrets by Ann Christopher (link)
14. Adam and Eva by Sandra Kitt (link)
15. From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon (link)
16. Rogue Hearts anthology (link)
17. The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (link)
18. A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole (link)
19. Tempest by Beverly Jenkins (link)
20. A Distant Heart by Sonali Dev (link)
21. Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole
22. The Butterfly Bride by Vanessa Riley
23. Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau

My February Reading

Being marooned at home with inches of snow on our steep hills made for good reading progress. It being Valentine's Day, I read some V-Day-specific Harlequins that I had not read before. The only themed books I'd read before were Christmas books, and I love those. Now after reading these two V-Day books, I'm more inclined to try other holiday-themed books. You already have emotions surrounding holidays, so tying a romance to those emotions makes the book immediately accessible.

While these are not reviews, I want to share these two pieces that I'm particularly excited about: an interview with the amazing Lisa Kleypas and stories about their experience of the Romance genre by passionate denizens of Romancelandia: readers, bloggers, authors, editors, librarians, and scholars from all over the world.

A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings translated & edited by Coleman Barks
Category: Poetry
Comments: I am really enjoying reading my way through this book, a poem a day, some very simple, some complex despite the paucity of words. I'm convinced most of what he had to say is going over my head. I thought to read to understand Rumi, instead Rumi is explaining my life. Whatever is going on in my life, I see in his poetry.

The Matchmaker's List by Sonya Lalli
Category: General Fiction
Comments: I was really looking forward to this book with its promise of cross-cultural highs and lows, an exploration of the immigrant experience, and a look at traditional arranged marriages in modern society. Unfortunately, it ultimately failed to live up to its pledge because the heroine quite sank the story.

Raina is biracial, having a barely-there Indian mother and an absent Caucasian father. She was born in Toronto when her mother was sixteen, and she has been raised by her traditional immigrant Indian grandparents. Raina spends all her life trying to be a good Indian girl while also fighting against the restrictions imposed by the expectations of her Nani’s (grandmother’s) culture.

It’s clear from the way the book is written that we are meant to sympathize with Raina and follow her trials and tribulations with a smile. Unfortunately, I could not do it. She’s an utterly self-absorbed, selfish woman, who does not take the time to examine how her words and actions affect the people around her and takes their care and love for granted. While there are moments when she is nice to them, most of the time, we hear her carping about them or saying and doing things that hurt or anger them. Her feelings and her concerns take up all her attention and she has none to spare even for Nani. My review is here.

The Fearless King by Katee Robert
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: The heart of The Fearless King is a lifting up of the two protagonists as better people in themselves, because they’re together as a couple. Love, the rare equalizer of all humans, paradoxically allows the individual to shine uniquely.

Journey King is the COO of Kingdom Corp. in Houston. Along with her brothers, Anderson and Bellamy (and silent partner sister Eliza), they collectively own enough shares to successfully lead the company. In their childhood, they’d been badly abused by their father, Elliott. When their mother, Lydia, finds out, she runs Elliott out of Houston and helms Kingdom Corp., while raising her children. Now Lydia is out of Houston, leaving the company to her children, and…
Elliott is back in town to take over Kingdom Corp, as—to their shock—the majority shareholder.

The only way for Journey to deal with Elliott’s threat to herself personally and to Kingdom Corp. is to ask Frank Evans for help. Frank is a real estate mogul who is a power to be reckoned with in Houston. Many powerbrokers are in debt to him because he is the holder of many secrets and deals in information. Journey is convinced that if there is something to be discovered about Elliott, Frank would be the one to find it.

I really liked how the author showed how two strong personalities learn to rely on each other, their vulnerability not diminishing each other in the least. My review is here. I am pleased with how this review turned out.

Lady Notorious by Theresa Romain
Category: Historical Romance
Comments: Cassandra Benton is an unofficial Bow Street Runner and partner of her twin Charles. She enjoys investigative work and solving problems, and above all, being useful — to Bow Street and to Charles, who needs looking after. While she enjoys being needed, contradictorily, it is also a burden that she wishes somebody would take off her shoulders.

George, Lord Northbrook is the Duke of Ardmore’s heir. He lives at home and is a fancy-free gentleman who enjoys no responsibilities to anything or anyone and is simply waiting in the wings to become the duke someday. In the meantime, he’s dabbling in this and that. He’s convinced that he is a useless fribble and has learned to navigate society’s tonnish ways with a joking manner and careless mannerisms.

There are two things I loved about this story. The first is their absolute belief in the other person and the value they bring to everyone around them. The second thing is that the falling in love happens when they are together and just as much when they are apart. Many books have the romantic resolution happening mostly when the two people are together on the page and not much reflection when they're apart. I enjoyed the contemplative nature of this book. There's the murder mystery and then there's the frantic attraction and lovemaking, but there is also the quiet, thoughtful parts of the book. My review is here.

Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas
Category: Victorian Romance
Comments: In this The Ravenels meet The Wallflowers book, Kleypas connects two of her most popular series. The book is also set in the world of Sebastian, now the Duke of Kingston, from Devil in Winter. My review is here.

Phoebe, Lady Clare, is Kingston’s oldest daughter. When the book opens, Phoebe has been widowed for two years, and after living with her parents for all this time, she is just coming out of mourning. She has two small children who she is henceforth determined to raise at Clare, the seat of her older son, Justin’s viscountcy. As our story starts, Phoebe is out of mourning and is traveling with her family and children to the Ravenels’ estate where her brother is marrying Lord Trenear’s ward. It is there that she meets West Ravenel.

And her mind and body are stunned—that was the only word that came to mind. He is so completely out of the realm of experience. With her first husband, Henry, she had shared a loving, gentle relationship. He was everything a gentleman should be, with the emphasis on gentleness and noble pursuits. West is reformed ex-rake who energetically pursues estate stewardship and continually challenges Phoebe's preconceived notions about herself. She slowly begins to believe that she is capable of many things, not just of being a wife. Just as he bucks her up, she bucks him up into believing in his reformation and not being blighted by his previous profligacy.

Crashing Into Her by Mia Sosa
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: Biting humor really works in catching my attention. Pair that with sharp characterization and sharper dialogue, and I am hooked. Anthony Castillo is a Hollywood stunt professional for TV and film and an instructor at a stunt training company. He lives at home with his father and is hoping to buy a home, but his non-steady income makes it difficult for him to get a mortgage. He is adamantly, uncompromisingly determined that he wants to remain relationship-free.

Eva Montgomery is a fitness instructor. She lives in the shadow of her father’s concern — a concern that can be as smothering as it is manipulative. After a scumbag of a boyfriend tried to force her to marry him by attempting to impregnate her, she is single-mindedly resolute in avoiding future serious entanglements.

They meet at the wedding of Eva's best friend and Anthony's cousin's wedding. They spend a passionate night together and vow to let the hookup go no further. But when life throws them together, despite their best intentions, their attraction to each other only deepens. They reminded me of magnets every time they're in each other's proximity—magnets for rampaging libidos and sarcastic comments. I liked how they retained that sassiness right through to the end and didn't dissolve in a gooey puddle despite the "awww" moments. My review is here.

Best Friends, Secret Lovers by Jessica Lemmon
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: This is a sweet, hot story between college friends who impulsively share a kiss on Valentine’s Day that sends shockwaves in their relationship. Sabrina Douglas has been Flynn Parker’s best friend since college. They cannot recall a time when they had not shared their thoughts and time with each other. Along with Gage and Reid, the four of them have been an inseparable quartet, especially now that they all work for Monarch Consulting, a management consultancy firm.

But it is with Sabrina that Flynn feels most like himself, and likewise for Sabrina—they’re attuned to each other’s thoughts and feelings. It is a friendship that has sustained them through various changes in their lives, large and small. For three years, while Flynn was married to Veronica, their friendship had somehow stumbled along, but now that Flynn is divorced, Sabrina and Flynn are back in each other’s lives stronger than before. And he is desperately holding on to her generous, empathetic, sunshiny nature to avoid drowning—emotionally in the aftermath of his divorce and the intense pressure of stepping into his father's dominating shoes as head of Monarch.

Neither of them wants to jeopardize their friendship, but neither can they resist the siren call of love. How will they juggle their sexual relationship, their friendship, and their working relationship? My review is here.

Her Secret Texas Valentine by Helen Lacey
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: Jake Brockton is the wealthy owner of the Double Rock Ranch, a large cattle ranch outside Houston. When his father died, Jake dropped out of college to work the ranch and support his mother and sister. He later finished his college online and got an MBA. However, he generally conveys a sense of being a down-to-earth cowboy, except in elevated circles. His previous failed marriage, where his ex-wife took him to the cleaners, has left him cautious to trust anyone. His requirements for a new woman in his life are someone who is organized, hardworking, passionate about her work, and independently wealthy.

Valene Fortunado works as a real estate agent in her family’s real estate agency that her father has built into a force to be reckoned with in Houston, with offices in Austin and San Antonio. She used to be a party girl in the circles she moved in. However, a failed relationship, where her boyfriend was more interested in romancing her father to get into the family business than romancing her, has left her cautious to trust anyone. Her requirements for a new man are money, a college education, and a good job.

Jake and Valene meet thanks to a dating app, and they hit it off from the first date, despite the fact that they are both exactly the opposite of their stated preferences. And in spite of the black moment in the second half of the book, theirs is a sweet story, with a heaping of sweetness from him. I really enjoyed seeing how their requirements of an ideal mate changes the more they get to know each other. My review is here.

My January Reading

This month's reading roundup has been a long time coming. We've had many snow days here, which means, everyone has been at home, and I've been the default entertainment center. On to my blog post...

This month's children's books were selections sent to me by my friend in India. She's the founder of the NEEV Literature Festival for children's and young adult books and the festival's corresponding awards. The festival attendees and awardees are Indian authors, writing about Indian children, and published by Indian publishers.

"The NEEV Book Award recognises outstanding writing that leads to a fuller understanding of India, Indian lives, and Indian stories. The award spotlights stories that offer Indian children reflections of their own lives and experiences. It also invites children around the world to explore and better understand India. We hope that this award will encourage and promote Indian children's literature globally. The award winners are chosen from a shortlist of literature that illuminate a changing India. The authors give voice to India's evolving characters and the challenge her children face. An independent jury selected three books after months of deliberation, and the awards were given out on September 29 at the NEEV litfest."

See below for my thoughts on three children's picture books.

A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings translated & edited by Coleman Barks
Category: Poetry
Comments: This is going to be an ongoing read: a day-by-day poem-after-poem read throughout the year.

The Scoundrel and I by Katharine Ashe
Category: Pre-Victorian Historical Romance
Comments: Every review of an Ashe book should include: "A! Go read it!" Honestly, she writes stellar books, and this novella is no different. This is a story of a girl born of humble origins who is raised into the ton by an ardent suitor. She is truly downtrodden, dreaming of happily-ever-after while working at a low-paying job at a printing press and looking after an ailing grandmother and watching the lonely years pass on by. The hero enters into her life in a hurricane of aristocratic insouciance that changes to genuine concern and on to attentive romantic interest. He wants to lift her up to his life, but she is an independent soul who will not be bamboozled by his wealth and rank. Convincing her of allowing him to help her is a Herculean task. I liked how strong both characters are and how encouraging and supportive they are of each other. I also liked the cast of secondary characters.

The Weaver Takes a Wife by Sherri Cobb South
Category: Traditional Regency Romance
Comments: The hero is a true low class hero with a low class accent and ill-fitting, though expensive, clothes. He moves on the outer ton circles because of his vast wealth. After being bought from the workhouse to work in a cotton mill, he is raised up the chain of command to the very top through his hard work and smarts. And yet, despite his keen intelligence, he falls hard for a supercilious duke's daughter and succeeds in buying her from the duke in a marriage of convenience. How she comes to recognize his worth and he hers is a tender romance. But right to the end, the hero retains his accent and his connection to trade. He will be a tradesman and Cit all his life, but he will have the love of his high-born wife.

The Storybook Hero by Andrea Pickens
Category: Regency Romance
Comments: The hero is a wastrel to the nth degree—that is, a rake who truly behaves like a rake. He's a gambler and a promiscuous alcoholic. It took to freezing his arse off in the Russian countryside in the dead of winter to come to the realization that maaaybe, just perhaps, this was not the fastest way to put a period to his existence. Unless he wanted to eat the business end of a pistol, he was better off shaping up. And he sure cleaned up nice. The hero became a wastrel when he was unable to save his oldest brother from drowning and was then made to feel like he should've been the one to die by his family. Lovely family! Anyway. In order to jerk him out of his hellish ways, his uncle sends him off to Russia to rescue a young orphaned male relative whose life is in danger.

In the meantime, the heroine is on her way to Russia to be a governess because hard circumstances, in the guise of a vengeful, sexually-thwarted owner of the house where she works, means there is no other option open to her. She's going to be teaching a young orphaned girl. As coincidence would have it—and in romance novels, they always do—the hero and heroine meet on the boat from England to Russia. Then they part ways.

They don't meet again till chapter 8. This may bother some people who like their protagonists to be in regular contact after the meet-cute. However, to me, the strength of this book is how much time it spends in individual character-building so that when they meet again, you already know who they are. It makes their interactions all the richer, because the basics are out of the way, and the author gets into more of the complexity of the characterization. Russian winter is beautifully shown in this book. It is one of the highlights of the story.

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal
Category: General Fiction
Comments: This is a modern-day retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice set in Pakistan. It is so clever and so witty, while also being tender and heartwarming. Kamal’s writing is smart, bright, and fresh with wonderfully well-placed humor and a deep dive into contemporary Pakistani society and culture. Like a musical refrain, Kamal returns again and again to the Pride & Prejudice text to build a filigree of interconnections between it and Unmarriageable. Where the two stories march together is just as fun as when the stories diverge allowing Pakistan to shine through the fabric of the book.

Kamal’s comprehensive and thorough understanding of Austen’s Regency-era culture and social norms and those of Pakistan’s today, allows her to draw many parallels between the two—how in essence, the women have the same concerns, anxieties, triumphs, sacrifices, compromises, and limitations. Their lives are just as hemmed in today as they were two hundred years ago. Marriage is the culmination of womanhood and a woman is nothing without that status—whether she is happy in that union or not is immaterial. Like Austen, Unmarriageable is not a romance genre novel. It is a sharply observant and witty commentary on Pakistani society and culture and the myriad relationships among the people who live in it. My review is here.

Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles
Category: Late Victorian Romance
Comments: Charles' books are near-perfection! I know you're rolling your eyes at my hyperbole, but I can't think of saying it in any other way. The juxtaposition of menace and affection, control and submission in this book are as exquisite as they are irresistible.

Lord Alexander Greville de Keppel Pyne-ffoulkes, the second son of the Duke of Ilvar, is now known simply as Mr. Alec Pyne. He has come rather down in the world and works as a lowly sketch artist for illustrated papers and books, toiling in his studio under London’s skylights. On this late Victorian June evening, he is at the Grand Cirque presumably to attend a performance, but in reality, to meet the Lilywhite Boys AKA professional jewel thieves. He wants to commission the theft of an obscenely expensive diamond parure gifted by the Duke of Ilvar to his duchess.

This is how the book starts. The story unfolds as Alec and one of the thieves embark on a relationship while setting up the heist. The story is told with Charles' characteristic precision of detail and economy of words. The details and the twists and turns—oh, there are a few of those—are too delicious to spoil. My review is here.

99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: Those readers who loved Sally Thorne’s début The Hating Game and expect a similar style of story told in that same authorial voice will find this second book, 99 Percent Mine, a totally different story. While I enjoyed that first book, I liked this one very much. The first book was everything writ large, whereas this novel looks inward. It is all about the inner growth of Darcy from insecurity to confidence. It is a tale of how a person can grow up surrounded by love yet feel not worthy of it. How is such a person to be convinced that not only are they deeply loved but that they can love deeply in return?

The charm of this book for me was that they are both so outwardly self-assured and capable, but within the privacy of their twosome, they feel uncertain of every step they take. They know they love, but are they loved in return? This anxiety changes as the book advances to: The other person loves me, but are they willing to be in a forever loving relationship with me, because one does not follow the other? In most books, the I-Love-Yous are immediately followed by marriage vows, but that progression is completely uncertain in this story. My review is here.

Three Little Words by Jenny Holliday
Category: Contemporary Romance
Comments: What is a relationship? And what constitutes a good relationship? There are infinite varieties of human connections, and in this book, Holiday gives her protagonists the onus and latitude to explore the depth and breadth of these two questions and how they pertain to the two of them. Gia Gallo and Bennett Buchanan are bridesmaid and best man, respectively, in their best friends’ wedding. This is the only tie they have.

Their lives couldn’t be any different. Gia is a super model with no fixed home. She lives out of a suitcase in fabulous locations all around the world — her exceptional beauty translating into wealth. Bennett is a Southern transplant to NYC with deep roots in Charleston. He is a celebrated chef serving superbly crafted Cajun food in his restaurant to high-paying and non-paying clientele. She does not know what to do with her riches; he does not know how to pay for his dream of opening a charitable restaurant. You would think that this would be the meet cute of their relationship. But nothing by Holiday is as obvious as that. My review is here.

Trailblazer by Anna Schmidt
Category: Victorian Western Romance
Comments: It is a tender, gentle tale of love blossoming between two people who’re not searching for it. Someday… oh, sure, someday, they want that special someone in their lives who will bring them joy and companionship, someone with whom they will walk side-by-side on the road of life. But at this moment in time, they are not looking for marriage. They are not even looking for love. And yet… love catches them by surprise.

Grace Rogers decides to move west to earn her living as a Harvey Girl at the Harvey Eating Houses along the Santa Fe Railroad. She is yearning for adventure away from the loneliness and poor prospects eking out a living at her family farm in Missouri. She also wants a good job that will allow her to send money back to her parents to aid their impoverished circumstances.

Nick Hopkins is a foreman at a cattle ranch in Juniper, New Mexico. He enjoys the trust and respect of his employer, but he dreams of owning his own land and his own ranch. He has been saving every penny he can so that one day he can turn his aspiration and ambition into reality. He has already staked out the land that is going to be his.

On the train from Kansas City to Juniper, Grace and Nick chance to meet. My review is here.

Our Incredible Cow by Mahasweta Devi, translated from Bengali by Devi, illustrated by Ruchi Shah
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: This is a cute story of a naughty cow called Nyadosh, who was a family's cow but considered herself a pet. She would boldly enter the house, and she loved to chew up and digest the children's books. One day, Nyadosh discovered the taste of fish, and she was all over it. In vain, the lady of house remonstrated with her that cows don't eat fish, but Nyadosh refused to eat her regular food. She loved chicken and developed an über-sophisticated taste for lobster and crab.

Raiding the kitchen wasn't her only misdemeanor. She loved to go to the banks of the River Ganges and push any policeman who loitered around there into the water. Nyadosh was possibly the only cow in British-ruled India to have police cases lodged against her. And so on and so forth—the story talks about all the naughty doings of this cow.

I Will Save My Land by Rinchin, illustrated by Sagar Kolwankar
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: This won the New Book Award 2018 and is a beautiful story of how a girl and her grandmother stand up for a woman's right to work. Little Mati loved to help her father, Ba, and grandmother, Ajji, work in their potato farm. But Ba doesn't allow Mati to do much in fear that she will spoil the crop. So Mati asks for her own plot of land to plant her own crop.

When Ba demurs, Ajji speaks up strongly in support: "How much I had to fight to keep my land. Just to plough it I had to go against the whole village. They used to laugh at me. It has taken me so long to get my rights. And now you say things like this? You, who have been brought up alone by your mother?"

Ajji went to court and fought the upper caste villagers for her farm, and now she is pleased that her granddaughter has inherited her spirit and stubbornness. Seeking advice from Ajji, Mati grew all kinds of vegetables in her successful doli-khet farm. She also attended meetings with Ajji about village politics and rich people usurping land. Great story of strong women standing against the depredations on their livelihood.

Bhimrao Ambedkar: The Boy Who Asked Why by Sowmya Rajendra, illustrated by Satwik Gade
Category: Children's Picture Book
Comments: This is the true story of one of India's famed social workers who was also a beloved teacher and respected lawyer. Little Bhim was a mahar, of the untouchable class—a shameful practice that continues to this day in this highly striated society of classes and castes. As a child, Bhim was ostracized from participating in all the ordinary activities of other children. He was not allowed to drink from the same pot or sit with the other children or plays with them. Yet, he did not allow himself to be discouraged.

He was an intelligent child, a hard worker, and kept a positive attitude. His diligence paid off, and after college, he won a scholarship to study in America. There, he finally found freedom from his caste. He could sit anywhere, drink from the same glasses, and go everywhere. But when he returned to India, the oppressive stigma of his caste pressed down upon him again. After getting a degree in law from London, Bhim returned to India determined to seek justice for his people. He worked very hard and advocated for equality among the classes. After India became independent, he became India's first Law Minister.