Sourdough - Robin Sloan

This was an absolutely charming book.  From the author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (which I did not realize when I picked it as my Book of the Month), it's a love letter to food and technology (Mr. Penumbra, similarly, was an ode to books and technology) with its own sense of quirkiness set in San Francisco.

The main character and narrator, Lois, works on programming robotic arms.  She has a diet that consists of a nutritional gel called Slurry and little else, until one night she orders a "double spicy" combo of soup and sandwich from a place that's opened in her neighborhood.  The food is a revelation, and she orders it every night--until the two brothers who own the shop encounter visa issues and depart for Europe, leaving Lois their sourdough starter.  Lois feeds the starter and starts to bake with it, producing loaves with strange faces in the crust.  People go crazy for her bread; she tries to sell it at a farmer's market and ends up at the Marrow Fair, an underground market selling radioactive honey from Chernobyl, cookies made from crickets, all kinds of crazy stuff.  But why is the bread the way it is?  And who is Mr. Marrow?

Lois is an utterly likable heroine.  She has good intentions that sometimes go awry, though she gets herself back on track eventually.  The supporting characters here are all charming in their own ways, as well.  The Marrow Fair is an intriguing setting.  Lois' work with robots sets the tone for the story and her knack for sourdough uplifts it, and it's great to see a female character in a STEM field, because that's fairly unusual.  There are also a few nods to Mr. Penumbra in here, showing that the universe the books exist in is definitely same, though this is in no way a sequel to the first book.  Still, the tones definitely match up with each other, so if you read Mr. Penumbra and were left wanting more, this is an excellent book to pick up even if the characters and story are not the same from one to the other.

This was a book that made me want to bake, or teach a robot to bake, and browse farmers markets, and visit San Francisco, and eat cheeses with strange colors in them, and eat honey that glows in the dark, and eat bread that knows how to sing.  There's this sense of whimsy and wonder and whole-heartedness on every page of this book, and it was an absolutely fabulous read.  I'm so glad that I picked it as my book of the month.

5 stars out of 5.

Slightly Sinful - Mary Balogh (Bedwyn Saga #5)

Plowing along through the Bedwyn books, I've finally come to this: Slightly Sinful, aka the amnesia book.  I call it this on the premise that, if an author writes books for long enough, sooner or later they're going to come to a place where they just have to give a character amnesia.  It seems like Balogh hit that point here, because when we find out where Alleyne Bedwyn has been since he vanished in Slightly Tempted, and that has been cavorting with four prostitutes, one young lady posing as a prostitute, and a one-eyed sergeant, because Alleyne hit his head and doesn't remember who he is.

Our heroine is the young lady pretending to be a prostitute, Rachel York, who ended up with the prostitutes because one of them was her nurse before she was fired and lured into a life of sin.  After Rachel's fiance steals both the prostitutes' money and Rachel's, Rachel is left stranded in Brussels with an approaching war and at the mercies of the prostitutes, who are indeed quite merciful.  When she encounters Alleyne during an attempt to rob the dead and brings him back, the prostitutes even take him into their house, as they do the one-eyed sergeant who helps Rachel retrieve Alleyne to begin with--a sequence that was a nice tie-in to the preceding book.  And when Alleyne can't regain his memory, he decides to help Rachel recover her money one way or another.

The amnesia actually lends a bit of an uncomfortable dynamic to this book for me, because one of the things that Alleyne can't remember is whether or not he's married.  We, as readers, know that he is not.  However, Alleyne doesn't know that.  He doesn't offer to marry Rachel because he can't be sure that he's not married.  And yet he proceeds to engage in a sexual relationship with her, which really made me question his morals.  Apparently the Bedywns are so moralistic that they marry for love and then never stray from their marriages--and while Alleyne can't remember that he's a Bedywn, he can remember everything else, so why does this behavior suddenly seem like it's okay to him?  Hmmmm...

Other than that, this book seemed a bit happy-go-lucky.  The prostitutes all have hearts of gold, the one-eyed sergeant is willing to pay for Alleyne's living until he remembers who he is, the uncle who's blatantly lied to and who the characters are, essentially, trying to rip off forgives everyone and welcomes them into his home.  While the four prostitute characters were absolutely lovely to read about, very amusing and engaging--presumably to replace the other Bedwyns who are missing for most of the book--everything just seemed so sweet and false.  It didn't really ring as a good story with various dimensions, though it was still an enjoyable read and I think still better than the first few in the series.  It probably helps that I'm partial to the amnesia trope, as well.  I didn't like it as much as the book before this, but I'm still planning on finishing out the series--after all, Wulfric is finally up next!

3.5 stars out of 5.

The Winter King - C. L. Wilson (Weathermages of Mystral #1)

Look at this cover.  Doesn't it look like a classic fantasy romance?  It's definitely what drew me to the book; the premise, about a summer princess who can't control her weather powers marrying the conqueror of her homeland who just happens to be a winter prince as cold in personality as magic, was a distant, trope-y second draw, but I do like "opposites attract" stories, and this fit that bill.

Khamsin is a princess of Summerlea, but her father hates her because he blames her for her mother's death, and has kept her away from the court for her entire life.  When Wynter, the king of Wintercraig, demands a Summerlea princess as payment for wrongs wrought against him by Khamsin's brother, the king of Summerlea sees it as an opportunity to rid himself of the daughter he hates.  And so Khamsin ends up married to Wynter, who of course she has immediate chemistry with.  But Wynter doesn't trust her, and has implied that if she doesn't bear him an heir within a year, she'll be killed.  Oh, and Wynter is also possessed by the spirit of an evil immortal king who wants to take over the world and will do so if Wynter doesn't fall in love within a year.

This wasn't necessarily a good book, but it was a fun one.  Khamsin is billed as not being able to control her weather abilities, but it really seems like she just can't be bothered to do so, choosing instead to engage in foot-stomping and head-tossing and curl-tousling, because when she actually tries to control her powers, she does so without much trouble.  Of course there are two realms that happen to have winter and summer powers and are enemies that must be united through marriage, which means that it's a literal ice-and-fire combination.  There's a few blatant conflicts in the plot, such as where the mystical sword of Summerlea is actually located.  And of course the main (human) villain just happens to be a woman who is willing to do anything for power.  And can I mention that Wynter and Khamsin's relationship is actually pretty toxic, with Wynter not trusting Khamsin as far as he can throw her until she literally throws herself in front of a magical ice spear for him?

Still, I did find this an enjoyable read.  I rolled my eyes at the cliches and winced at parts of the relationship, but I did appreciate how Khamsin grew as a character and became a leader in her own right.  This also has some good setup for the next book in the series, The Sea King, which actually appeals to me more in premise than this one did.  If you're looking for a classical-feeling fantasy romance, I'd say this is a good option; probably also good for those who liked the Dennis L. McKiernan's Faery series, which starts with Once Upon a Winter's Night.  The premises aren't really all that similar but the worlds evoked a similar feel.

3 stars out of 5.

My Fair Princess - Vanessa Kelly (Improper Princesses #1)

This was one of the monthly book selections for the Unapologetic Romance Readers group on Goodreads.  We tend to read a lot of historicals, and this is no exception, which makes me happy because historicals are my favorites!

The plot follows Gillian, the bastard daughter of a royal duke (AKA the Prince Regent's brother) who grew up in Sicily and, when we encounter her, is busy hunting down the bandits who killed her beloved stepfather.  Skip ahead a bit, and Gillian and her surviving family have returned to England, where they have enlisted Charles, Duke of Leverton, to help with civilizing Gillian so she can make a good match.  Why Charles?  Because he's apparently some sort of distant cousin; at least distant enough that I couldn't keep any of the connections straight.  Gillian doesn't want civilizing or a husband, she just wants to go back to Sicily, and so our conflict is born.

As far as plots go, this one revolves around a trope that I quite like: the hero trying to find the heroine a love interest, and then falling for her himself.  Charles as a character actually grew on me quite a bit.  Despite being rather bland and proper at the beginning of the book, he slowly starts to come out of his shell, pulled from his comfort zone by Gillian's behavior and the scandal that she stirs up.  Gillian, on the other hand, made me want to slap her upside the head.  She has her own desires, of course, but she acted like such a child, refusing to even see that maybe the way she was going about things wasn't the way to get what she wanted, or that what she wanted might not even be possible.  She dragged other innocent parties into downright dangerous situations, including a child who wanted to impress her.  When Charles tells her that she can't continue acting like that, she basically blows up and says that well, then they can't be together, to which I say, well then, maybe he would have been better off without her.

As for their relationship, there's a rather abrupt shift in it at one point.  In the beginning of the book, they kind of separately admit to themselves to being mildly attracted to each other, but neither is pursuing the other in any sort of active way.  And then, all of a sudden, they're all over each other.  It's not insta-love or insta-lust, but it's also not a slow development, and the switch felt like it came out of nowhere and made the pacing of the relationship just feel a bit off.  The supporting characters help to bolster the weirdness of the relationship, particularly Charles' sister Elizabeth, who was a wonderful supporting character and just the kind of sweet and steady presence both main characters needed.  Gillian's half-brother, Griffin, is also featured, and appears to be a main character in a book in one of Kelly's other series, the Renegade Royals--one of the books of which I have also read!

Overall, I liked this, but it was nothing extraordinary.  Gillian was an infuriating heroine and her revenge subplots kind of dragged down what could have been something absolutely delightful.  However, I would still be interested in reading more from Kelly in the future.

3 stars out of 5.

Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo (Grisha #2)

I wasn't super psyched about the first volume of the Grisha series, but I held out hope for the other volumes.  In this second book, Alina and Mal are fleeing Ravka and the Darkling--until they're not.  And soon, Alina finds herself with a second amplifier and hopes for a third, control of the Second Army, and no idea where the Darkling actually is, but a sense that all is not going to go well.

There's a split in my opinion on this book.  On one hand, there's definitely a case of second-book syndrome going on here.  Not a lot happens in it other than Mal and Alina fighting--and more on that later.  On the other hand, I felt like this book was a bit better than the first because the symbolism wasn't quite as heavy-handed and Bardugo didn't do as much to deliberately manipulate readers and without much art.  The "dark is bad, light is good" dynamic is still there, but because the Darkling isn't present on the page for most of the book, it's not played up as much.

Instead, the focus of this book is largely the relationship between Alina and Mal.  I'm not sure why this is a relationship that Bardugo continues to push, because it's clearly very toxic.  Mal can't accept that Alina has a moral compass that doesn't always align with personal desires (his or her own) but Alina clings to him and refuses to let go of some dream of them being together, because they've known each other their entire lives.  Note: knowing someone your entire life does not automatically make them a suitable romantic partner.  Alina pushes away another potential romantic interest who, though he has his own motivations, is probably also much better for her, just because she's so wrapped up in Mal, who is downright nasty to her for most of the book.

Bardugo did add in some interesting supporting characters in this book, mainly in the form of Sturmhond/Nikolai and his crew.  This is exactly the sort of dynamic that I think this book needed.  Nikolai is a very strong character and I hope we see more of him in the final book, though I suspect that it's going to be a lot of Mal and Alina on their own.  Seeing Grisha who weren't actually part of the Grisha hierarchy was also interesting, and made sense; after all, if Grisha are born in all nations in this world but are only welcomed in Ravka, it makes sense that not all of them would run away to join the Second Army.  I do wish we knew a bit more about this whole dynamic, because Ravka seems like such an isolated country and that's really not how countries work, but I guess that's not something Bardugo really plans on going into, at least not in this series.

So, yes--a stronger book than the second one, and it gives me hope for the third.

3.5 stars out of 5.

Sheikh Romances - Sexy Sheikh Bundle

Oh, boy.  This is one of those things I can't believe I'm confessing to reading.  But one of the romance categories for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' 2017 Reading Challenge was a sheikh romance.  Sheikh romances are notoriously terrible and, it seems, notoriously short.  But I always feel like reading a novella instead of an actual novel is cheating, for some reason, so I got a bundle of three novellas out of the library with the thought that, together, I would have done my due diligence.  Enter the "Sexy Sheikh" bundle.  There are three books in this bundle, all of them put forth by the imprint of "Harlequin Presents."  Oh yes.  They're Harlequin.  All three are contemporary stories, each by a different author and characters--no overlapping or connections here.  Let's take a short look at each of them in order.

The first book is Exposed: The Sheikh's Mistress by Sharon Kendrick.  This is actually the reason I got this bundle, because another reader in the group read a Kendrick sheikh romance and said it actually wasn't terrible, which is high praise for something in this subgenre.  The story here follows Sienna, an event planner whose life is upturned upon the reappearance of Hashim, the guy (and sheikh) she was involved with years before until he found out she'd posed for topless photos in a calendar in order to pay her mother's medical bills.  Clearly, this made Sienna the worst sort of trash in his eyes, and so he dumped her, only to come back years later to torment her/have sex with her.  This will quickly become a theme in this bundle: it's totally okay to hire someone to work for you just because you want to have sex with them, and then sexually harass them until you get what you want.  Oi.  Anyway, Sienna eventually concedes to being Hashim's official mistress, but the scandal is revealed to the media!  Gasp!  I honestly didn't feel that these two had any chemistry, and Kendrick didn't do a very good job of developing plot or character here--another theme in this bundle.  It's totally possible to do a good job with both plot and character in a novella, but none of the authors seemed to feel like doing that here, which was disappointing.


Next up is The Sheikh's Innocent Bride by Lynne Graham.  Heroine Kirsten works at a castle as a servant in hopes of saving up enough money to escape her extremely restrictive and abusive father.  Her world is turned upside down when the castle's owner, Shahir, shows up and becomes interested in her, despite him being her employer.  Things quickly get out of control, Kirsten gets framed as a thief, and runs away to London.  The drama escalates from there.  This engaged in the "secret baby" trope, as well, which is not one of my favorites.  Of course, Shahir finds out and immediately decides that he must marry Kirsten so their child can inherit his country, which really seemed like the flimsiest logic of all time.  I mean, he thought Kirsten was a thief, and wasn't entirely convinced she wasn't a slut even though he knew she'd been a virgin when they got together, and really seemed inclined to think the worst of her in every way, and definitely wasn't in love with her, and yet he rushed off to marry her.  It seemed far more likely that he would have taken the age-old way out of giving her some money and then never speaking to her again.  Again, this book involved copious sexual harassment from a superior and emotional abuse by the hero, and really no development of characters to compensate for the flimsy plot.  They're not in love and then they are, happily ever after, the end.  Meh.  Probably my least favorite of the three.


And finally, there's Stolen by the Sheikh by Trish Morey, which actually appears to be the second in a series of novellas, though this bundle didn't include the first.  Heroine Sapphire is a rising star of a fashion designer in Italy, expected to marry her on-again, off-again lawyer boyfriend.  When Khaled shows up and commissions her to design a wedding gown for his bride, she reluctantly agrees on orders from her boss, and finds herself spirited off to Khaled's home country and palace--because he is, of course, a sheikh.  The plot, that Sapphire is actually the person Khaled intends to marry, is pretty transparent to us as readers, though I actually can't fault Sapphire for drawing the initial conclusions she does, weird as the situation is.  There's a revenge plot going on here as well, of course involving Sapphire's boyfriend.  Morey does throw in a bogus terrorism subplot as well, one that comes out of nowhere and then doesn't go anywhere, either, and mainly revolves on a lot of infodumping about a minor character who was completely unnecessary.  Still, I liked the romance here, flimsy as some of its trappings were, and thought that Khaled and Sapphire had a bit more character to them than the main characters in the other books in the bundle.  This was a tropey book, what with the minor Stockholm syndrome and all, but I think it was the strongest in the bundle and I liked it the best.

Overall, was this a good bundle?  No, of course not.  Was I expecting it to be?  No, not really.  But considering I went to it because I actually had to toss aside the other book I'd planned on reading for the category because it was such trash (the offensive kind, not the fun kind) I guess I got off easy.  I've actually read a few historicals in this genre that weren't absolutely horrible, as far as I can remember, but it seems like tastes for this trope have shifted to the modern, and the quality hasn't shifted with them.  Sigh.  2 stars for the lot--I can't even really justify 3 for Stolen, though it's probably a stronger 2 than the others.

All Night Long - Jayne Ann Krentz

All Night Long was the romantic suspense read for the Unapologetic Romance Readers in August, but it took me a while to get it from the library and then get around to reading it, so I didn't finish it until early September.  The story seems to have a good premise from the summary: having fled her hometown years before after the murder of her parents, Irene is summoned back by the woman who was her best friend the summer of the murders, pulled by a code word that meant something urgent had happened.  But when Irene arrives, she finds that Pamela is dead, too, apparently of an overdose, though Irene suspects more foul play is involved.  And with a sexy ex-Marine innkeeper to help her, she is determined to get to the bottom of things.

There's definitely some suspense here, though the story goes a little sideways and eyebrow-raise-worthy towards the end of the book, complete with a scene of the villain info-dumping all of his motivations and actions to the heroine, which of course gives the hero time to swoop in and save the day.  And the the denouement seems to drag on a bit, as well.  But my main issues with this book were twofold: first, the hero is a total creepy stalker not at all worthy of making this a romance, and second that Irene has absolutely nothing to actually lead her to believe that all of the murders are connected (or are, in fact, murders at all) and instead just forges ahead like a crazy person on nothing more than her gut because--well, there really is no because.

So, first, Luke.  He is not a romantic person.  He is a crazy stalker.  Irene is staying at the hotel that Luke has recently acquired while she's in town, and he immediately begins following her around without her permission, and in fact directly in opposition to all of her wishes, for no reason at all.  Later, after they become involved, he basically shows up and says he's moving in with her.  Their total acquaintance?  A handful of days, at most.  Let me emphasize this for everyone: stalking is not sexy.  It is utterly terrifying, and should not be viewed at all as romantic.  Some books utilize otherwise nonromantic behaviors in a romantic way because the relationships are supposed to be twisted; however, that's not the case here, and Krentz seems to honestly put forth that Luke's behavior towards Irene is attractive and desirable.

And then there's Irene, who's supposed to be an intrepid reporter, but honestly is going on nothing.  The death of her parents was ruled a murder/suicide, which okay, she doesn't have to believe--that's her prerogative.  But there's absolutely no reason for her to believe that Pamela's death is anything but an accident or a suicide, and there's even less for her to go on from there.  Ultimately, of course, Irene is right--because otherwise there wouldn't be a book here--but there's no sense of logical progression in the crimes that form the backbone of this story.

The writing itself is fine, I guess, but Krentz relies on the sensational in order to sell the story and there isn't a lot to propel it along other than that.  The whole book just feels very "thin," from the characterizations of the hero, heroine, and antagonists, to the romance and the very plot itself.  There are some good scenes--a car chase along a winding road comes to mind, as does a confrontation with Luke's family, who were another annoying part of this book--but overall it was nothing to write home about and I don't intend to read any Krentz in the future.

2 stars out of 5.