Book Reviews

A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem (A Lady’s Guide #1)

A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem (A Lady’s Guide #1)

By:

Manda Collins

Blurb:

An intrepid female reporter matches wits with a serious, sexy detective in award-winning author Manda Collins’ fun and flirty historical rom-com!

England, 1865 : As one of England’s most notorious newspaper columnists, Lady Katherine Bascomb believes knowledge is power. And she’s determined to inform and educate the ladies of London on the nefarious-and deadly-criminals who are preying on the fairer sex. When her reporting leads to the arrest of a notorious killer, however, Katherine flees to a country house party to escape her newfound notoriety-only to witness a murder on her very first night. And when the lead detective accuses Katherine of inflaming-rather than informing-the public with her column, she vows to prove him wrong.

Detective Inspector Andrew Eversham’s refusal to compromise his investigations nearly cost him his own career, and he blames Katherine. To avoid bad publicity, his superiors are pressuring him to solve cases quickly rather than correctly. When he discovers she’s the key witness in a new crime, he’s determined to prevent the beautiful widow from once again wreaking havoc on his case. Yet as Katherine proves surprisingly insightful and Andrew impresses Katherine with his lethal competency, both are forced to admit the fire between them is more flirtatious than furious. But to explore the passion between them, they’ll need to catch a killer.

Review:

A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem is the book I meant to check out months ago when I got the wrong book. Finally, I managed to get the right one, and I couldn’t finish it. I read over 40%, so I feel comfortable leaving a review, but I’m not going to rate it or count it toward my yearly total.

I often take a few chapters to get into a book, unless the book is just that good. I’ll read some pages, then set it down, do something else, and return to it. The problem I had with A Lady’s Guide was that I kept putting it down. There was nothing wrong with the book. It was well written, and the premise was interesting. I didn’t even hate any of the characters. I just could not get into it.

I believe the issue was pacing. The blurb makes it sound like a mystery romance fusion with a regency era setting. The first half of the book was almost completely devoid of romance. It was also pretty light on mystery. We knew there was a killer and that the wrong person had been charged with the crimes, but it wasn’t until over a third of the way through that there was any movement on that front either. Honestly, the story moved too slow for me and couldn’t hold my attention.

Accidentally Engaged

Accidentally Engaged

By:

Farah Heron

Blurb:

Reena Manji doesn’t love her career, her single status, and most of all, her family inserting themselves into every detail of her life. But when caring for her precious sourdough starters, Reena can drown it all out. At least until her father moves his newest employee across the hall–with hopes that Reena will marry him.

But Nadim’s not like the other Muslim bachelors-du-jour that her parents have dug up. If the Captain America body and the British accent weren’t enough, the man appears to love eating her bread creations as much as she loves making them. She sure as hell would never marry a man who works for her father, but friendship with a neighbor is okay, right? And when Reena’s career takes a nosedive, Nadim happily agrees to fake an engagement so they can enter a couples video cooking contest to win the artisan bread course of her dreams.

As cooking at home together brings them closer, things turn physical, but Reena isn’t worried. She knows Nadim is keeping secrets, but it’s fine— secrets are always on the menu where her family is concerned. And her heart is protected… she’s not marrying the man. But even secrets kept for self preservation have a way of getting out, especially when meddling parents and gossiping families are involved.

Review:

There is soooooo much food in Accidently Engaged, and I love it. That’s an automatic star for me. The pretend couple trope is also a fun one. This time around, I found it a bit silly and not in a good way, though.

Reena has a slight inferiority complex and definite family issues. If she didn’t have so many issues with her family, her life would have been a lot easier. Of course, then there wouldn’t be a book. Still, their issues were lack of communication which is always a pet peeve of mine. There are so many secrets and fears of judgment from everyone in Reena’s family.

Nadim is clearly instantly attracted to Reena. He has his own family hang-ups but has no problem with his father trying to marry him off to Reena. What makes him a great hero, though, is that when she is firm on not marrying him, he doesn’t push. He’s there, and there’s flirting, but he never steps over the boundary she sets.

As a couple, they’ve got tons of chemistry, and it’s clear from the beginning that they’re great together. Reena is resistant to the point of stupidity when it comes to that happening, though. It reached eye roll levels on several occasions. I enjoyed Accidently Engaged, but it was annoying how hard she resisted. I don’t like doing what I’m told either, but when an obviously good thing comes along, set it aside.

3.5/5

The Once King (FFO#3)

The Once King (FFO#3)

By:

Rachel Aaron & Travis Bach

Blurb:

Leylia’s secret could unite them all or lead them to an eternity of undeath.

After the loss of Bastion, everyone who’s not a zombie has holed up in FFO’s sole remaining safe haven: the lowbie town of Windy Lake. But the undead armies never rest, and it’s only a matter of time before the Once King’s forces come to crush what’s left of life in this world.

But Tina, James, and the rest of the players are facing a crisis of their own. After so long in this world, their human bodies are dying on the other side. If they don’t find a way home soon, they may have nothing to go back to.

With time running out in two worlds, Tina and James face a horrible choice: do they spend their final days looking for a way to get back to their old bodies, or join the NPCs to fight for their new ones. But just when things look impossible, James learns a secret that might change everything. Only one catch: to pull it off, they’re going to have to fight one raid boss no one, not even Tina, has ever beaten.

The Once King.

Review:

The Once King is the climactic conclusion to the LitRPG Final Fantasy Online. It was definitely climactic. What’s more, I got the ending I was hoping for. I’m actually really happy about that. I wasn’t a huge fan of the “epilogue,” but the ending itself was everything I could have hoped it would be.

Tina isn’t as bloodthirsty in The Once King. Her two major conflicts are finally resolved, and all the rage she had bottled up towards people that loved her was finally defused. That went a long way to me not disliking her so much.

James got his moment to shin as well. Though, in my opinion, he’s shinned in this entire series. I would read more books with characters like him. Someone who comes in and appeals to people’s better natures and can convince them that death and destruction are not the only way. Love it.

I’m honestly not sure if I’d read another LitRPG. If anyone has a good one to recommend, I’ll check out the blurb and maybe read a sample; otherwise, I don’t know. My desire to write one is still there, but it’s dimmed a bit. Aaron and Bach put a LOT of work into lore and world-building, and I don’t have the time to do that with most of the books I write. I don’t know, we’ll see.

3.5

Last Bastion (FFO #2)

Last Bastion (FFO #2)

By:

Rachel Aaron & Travis Bach

Blurb:

Bastion was supposed to mean safety. It was supposed to mean a break from fighting for their lives and a chance to talk to someone who might actually know what’s going on. Access to their gold and some beer would have been nice, too.

They got none of those things. When Tina and James arrive in the capital, they find a city on fire in more ways than one. Players and non-players hunt each other in the streets, while the king who controls the city’s all-powerful artifact cowers from the chaos in his castle. Desperate to warn somebody about the Once King’s coming invasion, James wants to try to talk to the king anyway, while Tina just wants to meet the royal portal keepers who might be able to send them home.

It shouldn’t be hard to get an army of the world’s best-geared players through one city, but when they discover that the captain of the Royal Knights has been massacring low-level players in revenge disguised as justice, James and Tina will have to decide what is more important: the lives of their fellow gamers, or the stability of this world’s last great city. Both choices deserve a champion, but with the Once King’s armies closing in, taking the wrong side may doom everyone to an eternity as slaves to the Ghostfire.

Review:

I’m still not sure how I feel about LitRPGs after reading Last Bastion. I can appreciate the amount of work Aaron and Bach put into the lore and world, but I’m not sure how I feel about everything else. I think what it boils down to is that I’m not a fan of the players. Their obsession with stats and levels and shit. It’s obviously a huge part of the genre, so I don’t think it’s for me.

Tina once again annoyed the shit out of me. Her first instinct is to protect her people, which is admirable, but the only way she knows how to do that is through violence. It’s frustrating and pissed me off to no end. The way she and her guild kept calling the native people NPCs made me angry. They’d been shown multiple times that these people were more than that, but they treated them like they weren’t real.

James, on the other hand, continued to fight for peace, and I enjoyed that. One of my big pet peeves with video games is that killing is the only option. Oh, you’ve just made first contact with an alien species? KILL IT! Come on, people, give me some diplomatic options that don’t always lead to killing. I hate it. So anyway, I liked James’s part of things.

All that being said, I still needed to know what was going to happen next. I’m invested at this point. I do like Aaron’s writing. It’s the genre and the one character I’m not sure about.

3/5

Forever Fantasy Online (FFO #1)

Forever Fantasy Online (FFO #1)

By:

Rachel Aaron & Travis Bach

Blurb:

IT’S NOT A GAME ANYMORE…

In the real world, twenty-one-year-old library sciences student Tina Anderson is invisible and under-appreciated, but in the VR-game Forever Fantasy Online she’s Roxxy—the respected leader and main tank of a top-tier raiding guild. Her brother, James Anderson, is a college drop-out struggling under debt, but in FFO he’s famous—an explorer known all over the world for doing every quest and collecting the rarest items.

Both Tina and James need the game more than they’d like to admit, but their favorite escape turns into a trap when FFO becomes real. Suddenly, wounds aren’t virtual, the stupid monsters have turned cunning, NPCs start acting like actual people, and death might be forever.

In the real world, everyone said being good at video games was a waste of time. Now, separated across a much larger and more deadly world, their skill at FFO is the only thing keeping them alive. It’s going to take every bit of their expertise (and hoarded loot) to find each other and get back home, but as the harshness of their new reality sets in, Tina and James soon realize that being the best in the game might no longer be good enough.

Review:

I’ve wanted to read a LitRPG book for a while now. I’ve played the sort of games these are based on, and I don’t think anyone can play them without thinking about writing their own story. I was also part of a writing group for a while that was nothing but people writing these types of books. Since I enjoy Aaron’s other books, I thought I’d try her version of things.

After reading Forever Fantasy Online, I’m not sure if this genre is for me. I can see the appeal of writing this kind of story, but I’m not sure if I see the appeal of reading it. I like a more fantasy aspect, meaning not just magic, but the idea that people aren’t immediately horrible when given freedom. I’m sure Aaron and Bach’s version is much closer to reality, especially with how god-awful gamers are, but I wish there had been more good. It’s like Brandon Sanderson’s The Reckoner’s series, with so many bad, powerful people and not enough good. I need good in my entertainment right now.

The book was divided into two points of view. Siblings, Tina and James. James is a screw-up in real life, but once stuff happens in the game, he is courageous and diplomatic, quickly acclimating to the new way of things. Meanwhile, Tina leans heavily into her tank role and becomes even more of a tyrant than she sounded before things happened. I did not like her. She has MAJOR control issues, and even after she’s called out on them, she gets pissed off at anyone who questions her. She messes up all the time, but still, her way is the best way. She’s frustrating.

I still wanted to know what was going to happen, but I started skimming toward the end. Things were gruesome, and it was sad what was happening to the world they were stuck in. I want to know what happens next, but I think I’ll end up doing more skimming through the following books. Thankfully, they’re all in kindle unlimited.

3/5