Tag: witty

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#BlogTour: Here For The Drama by Kate Bromley

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a fun and witty romantic comedy with heart – where the author seemingly read my review of her last book and corrected the issue in this one. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Here For The Drama by Kate Bromley.

Here’s what I had to say on Goodreads:

The One Where The Author Seemingly Read My Review Of Her Last Book. I’ve now had the pleasure of working both of Bromley’s books as blog tours, and this book shows her progression as a writer and storyteller – she is able to make a book that is just as fun and witty as her debut, but add in some serious angst and drama to boot, and in turn morph this romantic comedy into a blend of romantic comedy and women’s fiction. But the most interesting facet of this book, for this reader looking back at his review of her last one, is my commentary on an unnecessary feature in that first book’s epilogue… which gets mirrored (to a degree) in this book’s epilogue. It seems that at minimum, Bromley was aware that this issue existed, and actively chose to go a different (and refreshing) route in the epilogue here. Oh, and this is one of those romantic comedies where the dog dang near steals every scene he is in, if not the entire dang show. Truly a fun and witty tale with heart, and very much recommended.

Below the jump, an excerpt followed by the “publisher details” – description, author bio, and social media and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: Here For The Drama by Kate Bromley”

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#BookReview: The Arc by Tory Henwood Hoen

Interesting And Controversial Story. This is one of those stories that is off-beat enough that it really defies normal conventions in most every way except the obvious: ultimately, it checks every single box to be a romance novel even according to the strictest definitions I am aware of. Now, it turns out to be a very angsty romance novel filled with some unique characters and twists and turns that few romance novels are prepared to attempt, but ultimately it *is* a romance novel. And while I debated internally of 4 vs 5 stars due to pretty heavy handed feminist preaching, one scene in the back of the book redeemed it just enough that I feel comfortable not deducting a star over it – though I won’t detail which scene here. It will be obvious to most readers once they get there. 🙂 Still, a lot of the quirks that other reviewers commonly panned this book over – The Stake women’s club, the cocktus cactus-styled vibrator, even the quick banter ala Gilmore Girls (my own connection, I didn’t see others panning that one) – were things that stood out as interesting and funny enough to keep me interested. Then there is the billionaire our female lead gets tangled up with, who always struck me more as Mike from Madam Secretary but who one character portrays as Gordon Gecko. Absolutely read the other reviews, as this book truly won’t be for everyone. But if you like *late* late night offbeat comedy… maybe give this one a chance. If that type of story isn’t your thing… yeah, you may not like this one. Very much recommended.

This review of The Arc by Tory Henwood Hoen was originally written on February 21, 2022.

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#BookReview: The OC by DP Lyle

Never Bring A Rock To A Gun Fight… Unless You’re A Former MLB Starting Pitcher Turned Private Eye. Full confession here: These books have seemed interesting enough over the years, and they’ve been at the right price points often enough ($2.99 or less, and likely free) that I’d actually picked up the entire series before this book… and never read any of them. So even while I already had the previous four books in this series in my library, this was the first book in it – or from this author at all – that I had actually read. And it totally works as a standalone, as long as you don’t mind commentary that references the previous stories in ways that absolutely spoils many of them.

So far as this book itself is concerned, it was a fun tale full of quite a bit of banter between Jake Longley and his friends and colleagues, with a bit of “oh, crap, our friend is in trouble in a way that we might be able to help with” thrown in. So even while many of the characters are PIs, this isn’t a case they are getting paid for. And it is a stalker case, with only the last few chapters having any real, direct action. Which is actually where the title of this review comes in. Early in the book – possibly when Jake is first introduced, that early – it is mentioned that Jake often travels with baseballs both in case he runs across fans *and* to use as a weapon if the need arises. Well, in our finale… he doesn’t have his baseballs with him. So he gets creative, in ways that even by that point in this book – even if it is your first book in this series – you’ve come to expect. Very much recommended.

This review of The OC by DP Lyle was originally written on August 29, 2021.