I finished reading Simmer Down by Sarah Smith tonight. I’ll be posting a review hopefully tomorrow.
I’ve got two more books from the library, both of them with heroines named Beatrice oddly enough. For whatever reason the historical romance isn’t pulling me so I am going to try out the fantasy one. The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk. Magic and romance and a heroine that has to make difficult choices. Hopefully, she manages to find a way to have it all.
How to Catch a Queen (Runaway Royals #1)
By: Alyssa Cole
Blurb:
When Shanti Mohapi weds the king of Njaza, her dream of becoming a queen finally comes true. But it’s nothing like she imagined. Shanti and her husband may share an immediate and powerful attraction, but her subjects see her as an outsider, and everything she was taught about being the perfect wife goes disastrously wrong.
A king must rule with an iron fist, and newly crowned King Sanyu was born perfectly fitted for the gauntlet, even if he wishes he weren’t. He agrees to take a wife as is required of him, though he doesn’t expect to actually fall in love. Even more vexing? His beguiling new queen seems to have the answers to his country’s problems—except no one will listen to her.
By day, they lead separate lives. By night, she wears the crown, and he bows to her demands in matters of politics and passion. When turmoil erupts in their kingdom and their marriage, Shanti goes on the run, and Sanyu must learn whether he has what it takes both to lead his people and to catch his queen.
Review:
I have mentioned, many times, that I’m an Alyssa Cole fan. I love her Reluctant Royals series. I’ve re-read each book at least twice. How to Catch a Queen came out on December 1st, and I set aside my stack of library books so that I could read it, and I devoured it.
How to Catch a Queen is set in the same universe as the Reluctant Royals series, and we get to read several mentions of characters from those books as well as some texts. The heroine, Shanti, was actually in Princess in Theory.
Since the age of seven, Shanti’s life goal was to be a queen like her hero, the queen of Thesolo. Everything she’s done in her life is toward that goal. She’s driven and incredibly smart and has made herself the perfect queen. Unfortunately, she had issues finding her king. Until the kingdom of Njaza became in need of one.
Sanyu, the new king, does not want to be king. He doesn’t even want to be in his country. After a pretty harsh upbringing, he’s got some understandable anxiety. He’s also grieving for his recently deceased father. He’s a very sympathetic hero and never does anything genuinely horrible. He does have his chauvinistic tendencies, but Shanti doesn’t let him get away with anything.
The couple is married at the beginning of the book. The story is about them working together to help the country of Njaza and falling in love along the way. It’s an interesting backdrop for a romance, and I enjoyed it.
I am, of course, very excited for the future books in this series and world. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
5/5
I finished reading How to Catch a Queen by Alyssa Cole in record time. I loved it and the review will post tomorrow or the day after.
Now I’m reading Simmer Down by Sarah Smith. Hoping for a good family dynamic, yummy food, and a fun romance.
So, I figured out why I couldn’t remember picking out A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder. It’s because I meant to put a book titled A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem on hold. They’re written by different people and are in completely different genres. I enjoy cozy mysterious and the occasional Agatha Christie novel so I figured I’d give my mistaken choice a try. Twenty pages in and most of it has been explaining people’s position in society and how the main character met them. It’s boring.
I do have a couple more library books to read, but as you can see I’m not reading one. I couldn’t resist reading the new Alyssa Cole book any longer. Love the cover. It looks and sounds like the books from the Reluctant Royals series, but it’s a new series with new characters. I’m hoping it’s like the older series, though.
A Princess for Christmas – I’ve watched this before and it’s as cute as A Christmas Prince. It’s probably better actually. It’s older by a few years and a nice sweet Christmas romance.
White Christmas – A classic with great music, you can’t go wrong here.
Holidate – I thought this one was funny. The couple had great chemistry and the side characters were good too. It wasn’t just a Christmas movie, though, so keep that in mind if you care.
Christmas Crush – This one was kind of weird. She made a wish for her neighbor to fall in love with her and it backfired. There was Christmas magic involved, but it was kind of eh. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a favorite and I won’t watch it again. Also, there’s no way a woman that loved Christmas baking as much as she did would use plastic bowls.
Christmas Catch – The dude was cute in this one, which was nice. The woman had intentional awkward moments. It was fine. I called the twist really early.
The Christmas Chronicles 2 – I liked the first movie a lot and this one was almost as good. Kurt Russell is the hottest Santa ever. No contest. Dude has got amazing hair.
Christmas with a Prince – I bailed on this one. The dude is so much older than the female lead, but he’s supposed to only be a couple years older. Seeing a close to fifty year old play a late twenties person was too difficult for me. Plus, there are kids with cancer. I tend to avoid the Christmas movies that are supposed to make you cry.
A Christmas Movie Christmas – I freaking LOVED the concept for this movie. Sadly, they didn’t quiet pull it off. One sister’s love interest acted way too childlike. It was disturbing. I might end up rewatching it next year cause I really liked the concept.
Die Hard- Is it truly Christmas if you haven’t watched Die Hard?
Dynamite Review 