A- Reviews / B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Readsactress / British Indian main character / Contemporary / discrimination / fake relationship / flashbacks / friends-to-lovers / POC / publicity / tabloid journalism9 Comments
Dear Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta, I wonder if your debut novel, The View was Exhausting, was published as romantic mainstream fiction. If so it’s a romance regardless. There’s a central love story with a happy ending and emotional justice. That’s a definition of romance that works for me. The ... more >
Conversationsbad dialogue / dual-timeline / exposition / flashbacks / infodumps / nonlinear timeline / prologues11 Comments
Janine: Every book requires exposition (the conveying of background information) but sometimes it’s handled well and other times clumsily. Multiple techniques can be used and authors often employ more than one in the same book. I thought it might be fun to share our thoughts about them. For the sake ... more >
B Reviews / B+ Reviews / B- Reviews / Book Reviewsbeing true to oneself / biracial heroine / clones / diversity / epistolary / flashbacks / genre-bender / hidden identity / LGBTQIA+ / murder mystery / necromancer / POC / portal fantasy / queer / Reading lists / romantic-elements / Science Fiction / space travel / story-within-a-story / sword fighter / YA science fiction6 Comments
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty A spaceship crew of six clones wake up in a cloning vat missing twenty-five years of memories. Of their much older previous incarnations, five are dead and one is comatose. Additionally, the spaceship has changed course. It quickly becomes apparent that one of the clones ... more >
Book Reviews / Reading ListsBiography / boarding school / Classic Murder Mystery / Contemporary romance / Essays / Fiction / flashbacks / Memoir / murder mystery / Reading lists / Suspense / twins11 Comments
Also read and reviewed: Ocean Light and Cadaver & Queen An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet Van Der Zijl I can’t remember if this was recommended somewhere or if I just found it while perusing historical biographies on Amazon, but I know I was initially intrigued by ... more >
A- Reviews / Book Reviewsbiracial heroine / China / English Historical / flashbacks / historical romance / POC / POC author24 Comments
Dear Ms. Thomas, Given the current (rocky) state of my relationship with historical romance, I approached your latest book with a certain amount of trepidation. When I’m in a slump, I’m always afraid that my mood will extend to the next book and jinx it somehow (while of course simultaneously ... more >