Isobel Starling

Pure escapism. Isn't that the first and original obligation of a romance novel? This novel provides it in spades.

Declan, a grumpy Scotsman, is one of two best men for his brother Oliver's wedding. The other is Sam, sister of Oliver's bride, and son of the real estate mogul that Declan words for. They have been communicating for a year before the wedding, but don't recognise each other when they are on the same plane to the castle where the wedding is being held.

Despite the wary start, they fall in love with abandon and it fills the grumpy Declan with happiness. A river of happiness.

Lots of good banter, and the two MCs are constantly quoting their favourite movie, The Princess Bride. Unfortunately, I don't know it, but the quotes were humorous and intriguing.

Gary Furlong does the honours again.

On Hoopla this book has a review score of 3.7 / 5 from 18 reviews. I usually don't borrow anything below 4, but I wanted to read the first in the series before reading #2, which has 4.3 from 3 reviews. So I guess that means that only those who liked the novel continued to #2. Count me in.… (más)

I listened to the audiobook version.

A quick, funny, holiday story starring Christopher Miller, a pastry chef, and Robin Summers, the owner of Fred, a chocolate lab. The book is told in third person from Chris and Robin's pov.

An accidental meeting brings Chris and Robin into contact again after a one-night stand they had many months ago. The meeting also destroys the special cupcakes Chris created for a movie star Chris idolized. Things heat up again as Robin offers to help Chris remake the cupcakes.

I enjoyed the humor of this short fic. The narrator did a good job with the accents, it was easy to tell the characters apart. However, he spoke a little too fast so I had to lower the audio speed.

As to the writing, I noticed instances of head hopping that weren't proceeded by long enough pauses to indicate that the pov was switching. If I was reading the book instead, I'm guessing there weren't any separators or warnings of pov changes, so this would be a head-hopping flaw. I noticed the author tended to use the descriptors, 'older man' and 'younger man', quite often, which I wasn't a fan of. Finally, I picked up the incorrect use of the name, Robin instead of Chris, at the end of the book.

Overall, the humor was good, but the head-hopping was noticeable. The narrator spoke a bit too fast. Still this was a fun story to listen to for the holidays.

I give this an overall rating of 3.5 stars, but since I can't use half stars, I rate it 3 Stars

I received a free copy of 'Fred and Ginger' from the author for an honest and unbiased review.… (más)

Have you ever eaten a phallic-shaped cupcake?
ME NEITHER!!! ;D
Even the notion is ridiculous. An edible cock in my mouth. So obscene! XD lol But it sure would taste good. Wouldn't it? ;)



Unfortunately it was ruined by the alternating POV's (written in third person past tense), which was happening almost paragraph by paragraph without warning, and I had to go back a few sentences to find out where exactly the switch happened. This back and forth was confusing. But no one seems to mention it in their review, so maybe it was just me?

Overall it was amusing and delightful, and I had fun.… (más)