Book Reviews / Conversationsarranged-marriage / believability / fake relationship / forced proximity / high stakes / marriage-of-convenience / maturity / motive / tropes23 Comments
Janine: In our April open thread I lamented the omnipresence of fake relationships in contemporary romances so this seems like a good time to have a conversation about the trope. I’ve sometimes seen it discussed along with the marriage of convenience trope (readers compare them or group them under the ... more >
B- Reviews / Book Reviewsarranged-marriage / author heroine / family relationships / Historical / marriage-of-convenience / RegencyComments Off on REVIEW: The Viscount’s Lady Novelist by Alissa Baxter
Harriet Linfield is a lady novelist who has been disillusioned by love. She sets out to write more realistic tales about the emotion when she returns home to Linfield Court for the summer. Vowing to avoid any romantic entanglements along the way, she focuses instead on her writing and her ... more >
B- Reviews / Book Reviewsarranged-marriage / calligraphy / Contemporary / dysfunctional family / family relationships / holiday novella / Islam / London / Muslim / novella / POC / POC author / Ramadan / Ramadan Nights series2 Comments
Hafsah Simpson is different from some of the women she knows. She’s not interested in falling into someone arms, just because her parents think she should. Neither is she aching for love. Finding that the men who’ve approached her, have done so because their parents arranged the meeting, she’s fed ... more >
B Reviews / Book Reviews1930s / arranged-marriage / businessman / dysfunctional family / family relationships / fashion designer / Great Depression / marriage-of-convenience2 Comments
A pretend marriageA passion that’s anything but… The great depression has left heiress Jolie Cramer’s family destitute! To save them, Jolie must abandon her dreams of independence and marry wealthy Randal Osterlund. Thank goodness Randal only wants a wife to secure a business deal and shares her feelings about love—nothing ... more >
B- Reviews / Book Reviews1820s / arranged-marriage / disability / Disabled Heroine / England / inheritance / inspirational / neurodiverse / Regency / teacher heroine2 Comments
Hazel Stillman is a woman of rare independence and limited opportunities. Born with a clubbed foot, she was sent away as a child and, knowing her disability means a marriage is unlikely, she devoted herself to scholarship and education. Now working as a teacher in an elite private girls’ school, ... more >
B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Readsarranged-marriage / business / Business woman / England / London / matchmakers / non-fiction / World War II5 Comments
A riveting glimpse of life and love during and after World War II—a heart-warming, touching, and thoroughly absorbing true story of a world gone by. In the spring of 1939, with the Second World War looming, two determined twenty-four-year-olds, Heather Jenner and Mary Oliver, decided to open a marriage bureau. ... more >