Stormy Cruise. This was probably the fastest read of the entire Valentine’s Inc Cruises series, and one of the shortest in terms of page count. Very fun, mostly light, with a couple of solidly steamy scenes. And I really liked that it tackled seasickness and having named storms (tropical storm or higher) affect a cruise, as both do in fact happen from time to time. Yet again my first from an author involved in this project, and yet again won’t be my last. Very much recommended.
Quick Battles. This is an enemies to lovers tale that also happens to be a very fast read. Cournoyer does an excellent job of quickly showing just how much these two guys *don’t* like each other… and then the hijinks ensue. Great tale of one man being burned by love and another not sure what he is coming together rather explosively. My first from this author, will not be my last. Very much recommended.
This week we are looking at the conclusion of the most recent series from a well known romance author. This week we are looking at The Wonder of Now by Jamie Beck.
I titled the Amazon/Goodreads/ Bookbub review of this one “Arrival To Earth” for a few reasons. This is a book about the journey of two cancer survivors – one who survived a personal battle with breast cancer, and another who watched a parent battle brain cancer. And while I have very little direct experience with breast cancer, I actually knew a man just a few years ago who watched his wife quickly die from an aggressive brain cancer, and I actually knew him in the couple of years after this. From what I saw of that man, Mitch seems very well defined as a character in that type of position. Peyton’s struggles here seem very real in all regards.
It combines to produce a romantic drama of intense struggle against seemingly overwhelming odds, and yet having an indelible hope that things will some day be better – exactly as the Steve Jablonsky-penned “Arrival To Earth” score, which plays in the first Transformers movie just as the Transformers are first coming to Earth. Its climax is when Optimus Prime explains the backstory of the Transformers, and it was the song playing through my head through much of the back half of this book. It doesn’t hurt that it has a near direct tie in that I’ll leave out of this review. 🙂
Truly an excellent book and one of the more stark and yet also real looks at cancer I’ve yet seen in fiction. Very much recommended.
Precise Shipping. This is the first book I’ve seen in the Valentine’s Inc Cruises series to take on the actual staff, and it does an excellent job of showing the lives of the officers at least – at least the lives of two certain officers. 🙂 Precise in details most normally miss (cruise ships don’t actually use actual anchors much if ever any more) and plays with details when needed for the story (debarkation from one cruise is followed within minutes by embarkation of the next cruise, not the next day as shown here). But ultimately both the precision and the license are used very effectvely to tell a great story, and that is what matters the most. The brief descriptions of San Juan and St Thomas in particular are spot on in my experience in both ports, and even better is how well they serve the budding romance between these two. The scene where each realizes who the other is – after a relatively anonymous night together – is worth the price of the book alone, and Phoenix spins an amazing romance tale throughout the entirety of the book. As a romantic drama, one of the strongest in a truly excellent series, and very much recommended.
Jude And Cope Face Their Toughest Case Yet. Particularly with this “spinoff” of Pine’s long running Cold Case Psychic series, she is doing a *great* job of making the cases and battles ever harder with every outing, and if they can get tougher than this particular one… well, Jude and Cope won’t like it one bit. 😉 Continuing her excellent work of showing the professional and personal dramas, this particular book isn’t a good place to start with even this spinoff series… but it could well be a good place to end it…
Great Setup. In this book, Laurence does an excellent job of telling a complete tale that winds up setting up a compelling overall mythos. There are a couple of issues that others may criticize more heavily than I will, but I thought that at minimum these issues didn’t really detract from the overall story. In fact, the one most likely to be criticized actually serves as a plausible motivation generally, that Laurence works to great effect in his telling of this tale. Action fans will love the sequences in this book, which can be very inventive.
Overall truly a strong tale, but unfortunately for me the entire series will be compared to another that wrapped up last year and had a very similar premise (and was astounding) – Brett Battles’ PROJECT EDEN series. This particular effort does well in differentiating itself in key ways from that effort, and I look forward to seeing how this series progresses. Very much recommended.
The universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has generally been regarded as a bad move.
If you enjoyed the trip down this rabbit hole that the top line being in the book sent my brain down and you like pop culture references like the end battles of Avengers: Endgame, the Battle of Winterfell from Game of Thrones, and others… you’re going to love this book. So quit reading this review and go read the dang book already!
Brand New Characters Feel Ultra Deep. (And not always in a sexual way.) This is a MMM romance that is brand new yet feels like it is a continuation of a very deep series – and is very intriguing because of it. The dynamics of the setup of the story work well, then the rest of it falls into place in a very well paced shortish novella. My first from this author (somehow), will not be my last. Very much recommended.
Solid British Police Procedural. This was an excellent book for fans of any combination of mystery, British fiction, or police procedurals. And generally, I’m a fan of all three. But for some reason this book was a bit slower of a read than most books of its size, and I’m struggling to figure out why. MAYBE because it used *several* more British terms that I’m less familiar with, despite reading more and more British fiction these days? (Full disclosure: I’m an American who has lived nearly all of my days in its southeastern corner.) Regardless, truly a solid book and very much recommended, despite my personal difficulties with reading it.
Mischief And Mirth. In this continuation of Evans’ Brighthead Running Club series, we get the story we have been waiting on for a couple of books now – Julie and Cashman. And we learn some very startling things about Cashman throughout, but some of the biggest surprises are right up front… Excellent book, and one that can serve as an introduction to the series with only minimal spoilers at all. Very much looking forward to the next book in the series.
