Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough. Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it! Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up. For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.
So I’ve been slowly working my way through a brick of a book about Vietnam before “our” Vietnam War – basically, it covers the history from the beginning of World War II through the beginning of the Vietnam War, most of which the Communists spent fighting with the French, with the US and China getting more and more involved in the background. It’s genuinely fascinating, but that book weighs a literal three pounds and is over 800 pages long, so while I don’t mind lugging it places if I’m going to sit and read for a while, it’s not really an ideal book to throw in my bag if I think I’m only going to have time for a few pages. So all that to say that I have also been reading quite a few fluff books, and I thought I’d jot down some thoughts on some of them…
Accidentally Married by Victorine Lieske – 3.5*
//published 2014//
Lieske apparently wrote several of these “modern marriages of convenience” stories, all of which are clean, a bit absurd, and good fun. They are together in a boxed set on Kindle, so I thought they would kind of intertwine, but they appear to all be completely independent of each other. Stephanie reviewed a few of these (although, ironically, not this one haha), which is how I first found them. Anyway, this story was pretty fun, with a decently plausible scenario. It seemed like the ending did drag a little bit because Madison and Jared wouldn’t just USE THEIR WORDS so they did that thing where they both assumed the other person wasn’t interested and went home and pouted instead of just having a conversation. I mean, if you think this person is going to break up with you and never see you again anyway, what in the world do you have to lose by telling them how you really feel first?? Despite that, it was still a super relaxing little chick lit read, and I’m always a fan of fake relationships/marriages of convenience, so there is that.
Blind-Date Bride by Jillian Hart – 3*
//published 2009//
This is the first in a series of the crazy Love Inspired books. Thanks to Great-Aunt Darby I have all the books in this series and thought I would give it a go. This one was barely a 3* read, though, as virtually nothing happened in this book except listening to the two main characters angst about how they weren’t good enough for the other person, which was overall quite boring. Weirdly, I did like the characters in this book a lot, and the small town setting was done well, so I decided to still give the second book a go, even though this one wasn’t really my thing.
Collie to the Rescue by Albert Payson Terhune – 3.5*
//published 1928//
I do love a good Terhune every once in a while, and this one has been on my shortlist ever since it came up in my random drawing for my #20BooksofSummer reads, which I am still trying to complete by the end of the year!! This one is quite melodramatic but still a good time, although unlike most of Terhune’s books, this one is definitely way more about Brant than it is about his collie. This one was also interesting because it was published back in 1928 (under the title Loot!), but a big part of the plot is about smuggling and selling drugs. It’s just funny to me because we act like that is such a modern problem, but here’s a story from a hundred years ago where that was still playing a big part. While this was a perfectly interesting and entertaining story, it wasn’t my favorite Terhune, with just a smidge too much drama.
Montana Homecoming by Jillian Hart – 3*
//published 2012//
This was the second book in the series, and because it was just as meh as the first, I decided not to bother with the rest. Again, the characters were very likable, but there was virtually no plot, and honestly Brooke’s “dog training” skills bordered on miraculous, because apparently all she had to do was keep saying the command and the dog just magically started doing what she wanted, which seemed pretty handy.
Reluctantly Married by Victorine Lieske – 3.5*
//published 2015//
This one was also just completely ridiculous but so fun that I couldn’t stop reading it. I really liked both the main characters and liked the way they kept getting more and more tangled up in their situation. Again, I felt like the ending dragged out a little too much, which took away from my overall enjoyment of the book, but it was still a good time. I’m definitely planning to read some more of these books soon. (Currently, the boxed set is available on Kindle Unlimited if anyone is interested.)
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer – 5*
//published 1953//
When all else fails, turn to Georgette Heyer! It had been quite a while since I read this one, so I couldn’t quite remember how everything played out. The dialogue is absolutely hilarious, and Freddy is honestly one of my very favorite Heyer heroes, because he’s so regular. It was also fun because Jack is honestly more like the usual Heyer hero – older, brooding, a bit of a rake – but here we get Freddy, who is younger and just so ridiculously nice that it’s impossible not to root for him. Kitty is lively and fun without being obnoxious, and all of the secondary characters are just as delightful, especially Freddy’s sister Meg – honestly, Freddy’s family really made this book, and I realized while I was reading it that one of the things I like about Heyer’s books is her ability to write families, especially siblings, so well. At any rate, this book is a complete delight, and if, by some miracle, you haven’t picked up a Heyer book before, this one is a wonderful place to start.
The Aroma of Books 