Riverbay Road Men's Dormitory vol. 1 Fei Tian Ye Xiang: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Riverbay Road Men's Dormitory by Fei Tian Ye Xiang

Riverbay Road Men's Dormitory is a contemporary BL novel by Fei Tian Ye Xiang, the author of historical xianxia BLs, of which I’ve started Dinghai Fusheng Records and Legend of Exorcism. It’s set in a large Chinese city and focuses on lives of five men that come together by chance.

Zhang Yuwen is a wealthy man in his late twenties who for some reason that isn’t really understandable decides to abandon a career on a rise as a film director and become an author, for which it turns out he has no true skill. His publisher tells him directly that his characters are not realistic.

He comes up with a brilliant idea. Since he owns a large mansion where he lives alone, he decides to rent out four rooms cheaply and observe his lodgers in order to learn about real people. He chooses only gay men, being gay himself. He thinks he’s chosen them carefully, but he mostly went with their looks. Turns out, all of them have something to hide.

The biggest lie is told by Zhang Yuwen himself. He doesn’t want to disclose he’s rich, so he tells the house belongs to someone else and he’s only a caretaker. He goes to great lengths to maintain the lie.

Yan Jun is an office worker with a fairly steady income. He tells Zhang Yuwen he occasionally needs to take care of his baby niece, hiding the fact that that he’s her guardian and the child lives with him permanently. Obviously, Zhang Yuwen soon finds out the truth.

Zheng Weize is the youngest of the lot at 22. He tells Zhang Yuwen he’s a college student, but he’s never attended and he supports himself, unsuccessfully, with live streaming. He’s in constant need of money and caring attention.

Chen Hong is 29 and moments away from having to close his gym business, but he doesn’t disclose his financial troubles. For him too, cheap housing comes as a saving. Last tenant is Chang Jinxing, a photographer without a steady income. He’s the most handsome of the lot and knows it himself. He pretends to be successful and educated and is neither.

Because of the lies, it takes a while for the group to become comfortable with each other. But Chen Hong is good at forming groups by activating them. He takes them laser tagging and hiking and very soon they start to become a family. A family who needs love and sex and lusts after each other and eventually falls for one or more of them.

Zhang Yuwen has forbidden them from hooking up with one another. But that doesn’t stop emotions from forming. Most of them fall for Zhang Yuwen or Chang Jinxing. Things change though, when a straight guy the group meets in one of their outings, Huo Sichen, turns out to be gay and he and Zhang Yuwen hook up. Drama starts to climax during a New Year’s stay at a resort, but the book ends before we learn what comes of it.

This was a good start to a series. It’s told from several points of view, so we get a good understanding of everyone. The characters with their lies and needs were interesting and easy to root for, even Chang Jinxing. I wanted all of them to find their love and each man seemed to suit everyone else, one way or another. But I think the pairings that began to form here are only the beginning, and everything will change several times during the story.

Author’s views of relationships and sex, gay and straight, were rather odd, based on stereotypes and stiff traditions. These views were repeated and rehashed constantly throughout the story and they were rather annoying, something that would get the story trashed by readers if it was written by a western author. It lessened my enjoyment of the story a little, but not so much that I would abandon it. I have to know what will become of all characters and if they will find their happily ever afters.

Bananapants by Penny Reid: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

Bananapants by Penny Reid

Bananapants is a spin-off of Reid’s Knitting in the City series. It’s time for the second generation to have their romances. Once again, we’re in Chicago, but the date seems to be the present day, as if the earlier books took place thirty years ago. It works fine.

It has been quite a long time since I read the original series, and I didn’t remember all the original characters, but since I wanted to find out if this works without reading the originals, I didn’t do a fresher. It wasn’t needed, but I think the nostalgia factor would’ve been stronger if I’d remembered the originals better.

This book is about Ava Archer (daughter of Fiona and Greg) and Des Sullivan (son of Janie and Quinn). They were the bestest friends in childhood, until he ghosted her. It has left a mark on her and she’s incapable of committing to a relationship.

The two meet unexpectedly at a party where neither of them should be. He’s determined to keep things at that, but she has other ideas. And turns out he might have missed her as much as she has missed him, so he’s not entirely against having her around, especially since he might need her help. If only it didn’t put her in mortal danger.

This was an entertaining book with a secondary suspense plot. It wasn’t entirely satisfying romance though, and it didn’t rise to the level of Reid’s best books. Especially the ending was a let-down. Instead of the romance having its emotional climax, it climaxed with the action plot without proper romantic conclusion. The last chapter is actually an epilogue. I don’t know why it wasn’t named as such, as it gives the reader a false hope that there’s a proper conclusion for the romance yet to come. The couple ends at a good place, but I hoped for more. It didn’t give me the emotional rush I expect of romances.

The characters were fine, but Ava wasn’t much different from some Reid heroines. I liked Des with his mental problems and interesting occupation more than her, but it seemed like the romance was based on childhood memories, nostalgia, and fantasies more than getting to know who they’d become. Other siblings were introduced too, so there’s likely more romances to come. Definitely something to look forward to for Reid fans.

I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The Missing Piece by Kun Yi Wei Lou: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Missing Piece by Kun Yi Wei Lou

The Missing Piece is m/m romance set in modern China. I don’t know how openly gay one can be in China, but here it seemed to be fairly unproblematic, family disownments aside.

Shen Mo is an art graduate in his early twenties. Due to an accident that he cannot remember, he’s lost his ability to paint. The only thing he remembers with any clarity is that he was saved from homelessness by Ji Mingxuan, a wealthy businessman about his own age.

Mr. Ji is utterly devoted to his sister’s happiness, so much so that when the man she wants turns out to be Shen Mo’s ex-boyfriend, he strikes a deal with Shen Mo. They pretend to be lovers so that the ex and Mr. Ji’s sister can pursue their romance in peace. Out of gratitude, Shen Mo agrees, even though his ex and Miss Ji aren’t even in the same country to witness the fake relationship.

When they return to China, things start to unravel fast. Shen Mo’s memories begin to surface even as Mr. Ji seems to want to make their relationship more real. Inevitably, everything steers towards heartbreak for everyone.

This was the best fake relationship romance I’ve read. The past wasn’t at all what it seemed, and the fake romance wasn’t as fake as Shen Mo believed. Much relied on miscommunication, which normally is my pet peeve, but here it worked perfectly.

Shen Mo started as a tragic character who suffered from memory loss and PTSD and worked towards getting his life back in order. Mr. Ji seemed to be a cold, callous man who only used Shen Mo for sex, but the truth about him was different too. Sex scenes were great throughout.

The main story took about two thirds of the book and had a satisfying HEA ending. The rest consisted of ten longish stories about the past and after the HEA. The best story by far was the first, which told the same story from Mr. Ji’s point of view, but others were interesting too. The book left me happy and wistful and a bit sad at the same time. All in all, a wonderful read.

Folk Around and Find Out by Penny Reid: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Folk Around and Find Out by Penny Reid

Folk Around and Find Out is the second book in Good Folk: Modern Folktales, a spin-off series of Reid’s Winston Brothers. The first was a let-down, but this one had a bit more kick to it.

Hank Weller is the owner of a strip club, Charlotte Mitchell a divorced mother of four whose husband left her with one of Hank’s strippers. Bad blood ensued, though not from Charlotte’s side, because she’s wilfully oblivious to gossip.

Charlotte needs an inside access to the club. Her cousin has gone missing and might be working as a stripper there, but the girls are protective of their own and won’t spill the beans to an outsider. First she tries to audition as a stripper, much to Hank’s horror, as she is a church-going teacher’s aide. Eventually, she becomes the bookkeeper. Romance ensues.

The romance was good. It was slow with many complications like boss dating an employee, town pariah dating a respectable woman, and a man who doesn’t like children dating a mother. All the obstacles were won little by little. Hank and Charlotte were believable people, and the romance grew organically. The children were great, with their own personalities instead of just backdrops.

All the rest was a bit off. Hank had a backstory as a rich kid turned a bad-boy, which was referred to, but nothing was made of it. Charlotte had an odd mother who interfered in the beginning, but it wasn’t dealt with in the end. Hank and Charlotte had a bit of history that he didn’t remember, but which meant a lot to her, yet it sort of went away on its own.

Charlotte also had trouble with her ex’s family, but just as it was coming to a climax, a deus ex machina solution in the form of Cletus Winston (who else) was handed outside the narrative and the problem went away. None of the potential drama outside the romance led to anything, and as a consequence the romance itself didn’t quite reach the emotional height it could have, as it was never really tested. The emotional payoff was in the epilogue and involved the children.

This wasn’t a bad book, but something has changed. What felt like a charming, quirky little town in Winston Brothers series has turned into a more realistic version with judgemental people making the life of others difficult, just because they can. The charm is gone and not even Beau and Cletus were able to bring it back. But the preview of the next book at the end promises Isaak’s story which we’ve been waiting forever, so I’ll definitely read that one too.

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

The Heart Principle is the third book in The Kiss Quotient series of romances that follows three Vietnamese American men and their romances. It’s also the best of the three.

Anna Sun is a violinist suffering from burnout caused by sudden fame and lifelong masking of her autistic side to be good enough for her family. When her boyfriend of five years wants to see other people, she goes on a dating app and finds Quan Diep, a businessman recovering from cancer. It’s supposed to be a one-night stand, but they are having trouble in the bedroom, and so they keep rescheduling dates. Anna’s anxieties cause them some problems, but Quan has experience of autistic persons and knows how to give her space and support.

A true test of their budding relationship comes when Anna has to become a full-time caregiver of her father. The pressure of her family and the workload causes her to burn out even worse than before, and before she realises what’s happening, she’s managed to break Quan’s heart. Good thing he’s almost unbelievably understanding.

This was a great book. Unlike the other two, it was told in first person by Anna and Quan both, which gave the characters greater depth. The romance took a backseat towards the end of the book and Anna’s recovery became the focus. It wasn’t made easy or glossed over, but I would’ve liked Quan’s point of view to it too. After all, he was put in the same position as her caregiver Anna had been, and it would’ve been nice to see how he handled the pressure. And while the emotional payoff wasn’t about the romance in the end, it was sweet and satisfying. A good ending for the trilogy.

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

The Kiss Quotient is a contemporary romance set in San Francisco. It follows Stella, a highly successful econometrician and Michael, a male escort. Stella is autistic, but she doesn’t want to disclose it to anyone. With her good coping mechanisms, not many people notice, but it has led into some very bad dates and sexual encounters.

Disgusted with herself, she hires Michael to teach her how to be better in bed. This soon turns into teaching her how to be better in relationships. It turns out, she’s just fine with both. She just needs a partner that takes her needs into consideration. But as she is bad at reading people, and he is keeping secrets from her, what could’ve been a start of a great relationship dissolves into misunderstandings and heartbreak. Both need to do some thinking before the happily ever after.

This is a satisfying romance, with enough angst to give it a bite. Sex scenes are great and there are quite a lot of those, especially in the beginning. I liked Stella and Michael both, but side characters remained somewhat vague.

What I didn’t like, and which almost made me give this one star, is how Michael never told Stella that her romantic problems aren’t her fault. He doesn’t tell her that she’s good as she is, and that her problems with sex stem from her partners. Instead of telling her she should let the relationship grow before sex, he pretty much treats her like a porn object, forcing his needs to make her feel good on her. That she does enjoy everything, eventually, didn’t really compensate for it.

Stella figures it out by herself, in the end, and Michael works on his issue too, but as they do it separately, it lessens the romantic impact of the ending. It was satisfying, but not very emotional. But I liked the book well enough to read the next one in the series too.

Kiss Hard by Nalini Singh: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Kiss Hard by Nalini Singh

Kiss Hard is the fourth book in Hard Play contemporary romance series by Nalini Singh about four rugby playing brothers, and it’s my favourite. Danny and Catie were well matched in temperament and current situation as athletes at the top of their game. Catie being a double amputee was handled well from a drama point of view (no idea if it was true to life). They were fun to be around, and the hot scenes were good. There wasn’t any huge drama or heartbreak, but plenty of opportunities to heal, especially for Catie who had great trust issues. I shed many tears. I hope this isn’t the last of the series, even though there are no more Bishop-Esera brothers left.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Player in New Zealand by Liz Alden: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

The Player in New Zealand by Liz Alden

The Player in New Zealand is the fourth book in Love and Wanderlust series, but it’s a standalone and no prior knowledge of the series is needed.

Claire has come to New Zealand to put as much distance between her and her stalker as possible. She has a job as a bartender, which she can keep for six months and then has to switch them because of visa rules. Tane is a former rugby player veering on a brink of alcoholism. She’s not impressed by him, but he pulls his act together and becomes sober. They are sort of forced together by Tane’s sister, but realise they lust each other and make the most of the situation. Later they decide they love each other and get married for visa reasons.

The description above is a tad spoilery, but that’s how the book played out. There’s a handful of scenes where Claire and Tane interact, with no emotional engagement whatsoever that the reader is made a part of. Most of the book is filler scenes about Claire’s daily life and New Zealand that are told not shown, and which had no impact on the plot whatsoever. The ticking clock of Claire having to switch jobs doesn’t add any tension to the narrative.

Nothing important happens in front of the reader. Tane quits drinking behind the scenes and if it’s difficult for him, it isn’t shown. Claire, whose point of view we follow, presumably falls for him, but doesn’t bother to share it with the reader. For example, we are told of longing phone calls when they’re apart, but we never witness one. Since it’s a romance, the reader automatically infers love, but the emotional payload for reading to the end isn’t there.

I liked Tane and I would’ve wanted to be there for his journey to sobriety, only I wasn’t allowed to, but I didn’t really get Claire at all. She constantly reacted oddly to everything, and I kept wondering if she read situations wrong or if I did. Her trauma for being stalked for years wasn’t dealt with, only the stalker. And since I wasn’t told why Claire and Tane liked each other, I couldn’t really see them as a couple either.

I like my romances light, so this was fine. But I like the emphasis to be on the romance and the couple. And I’d like to feel at least something by the time we get to the I dos.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jackson by LaQuette: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

Jackson by LaQuette

Jackson is the first book in Restoration Ranch contemporary romance series by LaQuette. It’s set on a ranch with the same name near Austin, Texas, that’s been in the Everett family ever since their ancestor was freed after the Civil War. The current owner, Aja, a former hotshot defence lawyer from New York in her late thirties, wants to turn it into a holiday resort, but someone in her town opposes the plan. Accidents plague the construction, and when Aja is almost killed, her family intervenes and calls in Texas Rangers. Enter Jackson Dean, a ranger as protective as he is hot.

There’s instant attraction between the two, but this is a grown-up romance, where both parties bring in a lot of baggage, so neither of them intend it to last. Alongside the romance, there’s the mystery of who’s trying to harm Aja. There are some really hot scenes, but once the case is solved, they go their separate ways—only to realise they need each other after all.

I liked both Aja and Jackson, separately and together. She knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid of going after it, and he wasn’t afraid of letting her be who she is, provided he could be there to save the day and comfort her. The supporting cast remained a little distant and I didn’t really get a hang of them.

This wasn’t a bad book, but unfortunately it suffered from a clumsy execution. We plunge in with a brief action scene when the situation on the ranch has been going on for a while already—and then everything halts. We’re told about the troubles, but we never witness them, and the investigation takes place outside the narrative.

The narrative was on a constant holding pattern. It consisted of filler scenes between brief bursts of action when the bad guys made their moves and the characters reacted. The characters were never in charge of the plot, never proactive, and the reader was an observer. Even the romantic scenes felt emotionally distant. It made the book feel overly long, and even the twists at the end couldn’t really save it. But Aja and Jackson got their happily ever after and it made the ending satisfying.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Neanderthal Box Set by Penny Reid: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Neanderthal Box Set by Penny Reid

I’ve previously read and loved the Winston Brothers series by Penny Reid, so I jumped to download this box set when it was offered for free a while ago. It contains books 1 and 1.5 from her Knitting in the City series, three follow-up novellas with the same characters, and a couple of preview chapters from Reid’s other books. So it’s well worth the expense, even if you pay for it.

The first book, Neanderthal Seeks Human, introduces the main couple, Janie and Quinn, plus all the other characters in the series, a group of women that belong to a same knitting group in Chicago. It’s a fun and not entirely typical romance. Reid has a great knack with writing characters that tend towards unique way of thinking and regarding the world with understanding and love, and making the other characters accept them just the way they are.

Janie is a math-wizard with a habit of collecting data and blurting it out in stressful situations with absolutely zero filters. Sometimes they relate to the situation, but most of the time the workings of her brain baffle people around her. Quinn is different though and he finds her mind fascinating. A great basis for their romance.

Quinn is a head of a private security firm and insanely wealthy. He becomes Janie’s boss, but for the better part of the book she has no idea of it and believes him to be a regular security guard—a plot-line that dragged on a bit too long. The Neanderthal mentioned in the title is Janie, who sees herself as one, because she’s larger than other people with an odd mind. It’s not until the second book that we really learn the reason for her habit. It’s an emotional coping mechanism she’s learned in childhood to deal with physically and emotionally absent parents.

It’s a good book, but long. Really long. According to the author’s own notes, it’s over a hundred thousand words, which is about twenty thousand more than a regular romance novel. It would be fine, if there were side plots to fill the pages, but it’s really just the two of them working towards the happily ever after. There are several side characters introduced, but despite the length of the book(s), they remain distant and two-dimensional. Some of them get their own books later in the series, but Steve the co-worker would’ve deserved a better treatment than he got.

The second book, which is marked as an in-between novel, is equally long. Neanderthal Marries Human starts with Quinn proposing to Janie and then follows the subsequent wedding planning. The actual plans are in the side-lines though. It’s more about family bonds and healing. Quinn has been cast out by his family, so Janie sees the wedding as an opportunity to bring them back together, and maybe gain a family that she’s never really had. It’s sweet and touching at times, but—again—really long.

The three short stories at least live up to their name. First one is about the honeymoon, where Janie decides to rid the tropical island of invasive toad species, much to Quinn’s bemusement. The other two are about Janie getting pregnant and the latter stages of her pregnancy. I haven’t read the other books in the series, so I don’t know if the child is ever born during the course of it, but that might be an amusing story too.

All in all, this was an entertaining package. However, I don’t feel the need to follow it up by reading the rest of the series, with maybe the exception of the last book that has Quinn’s best friend as the hero. I liked him. But there’s a Winston Brothers spin-off coming soon with Cletus as the main character. I’ll definitely read that.

Love Hard by Nalini Singh, A Lovely Drop by Darynda Jones: reviews

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Love Hard by Nalini Singh

 

Love Hard by Nalini Singh is the third book in Hard Play contemporary romance series featuring four rugby playing New Zealand brothers. Jake is the second youngest, a single dad of a six-year-old after his teenage sweetheart suddenly died right after giving birth. His counterpart is Juliet, a wild-hearted best friend of his former love. They didn’t like each other at school, but years later, they are different people and sparks fly. 

I love romance novels with lots of happy tears, and this one made me cry an ocean. Jake and Juliet were a great, balanced and grownup couple despite their young age. Both came with package, on top of which they had the shared past they needed to work through too. All problems got solved fairly easily, but in a satisfying way. And the entire Bishop-Esera family made me want to be adopted by them. This was perhaps my favourite in the series so far, but there’s one more book to come and I have high hopes for it.

4/5 stars on Goodreads

A Lovely Drop by Darynda Jones

 

A Lovely Drop by Darynda Jones is a novella or a short story of about eighty pages. Despite the length, the story is fully developed, and I didn’t feel like anything was missing. The premise is interesting: Andrea has the ability to ‘drop’ twenty-four hours into past and observe everything that has happened. She has operated under radar, helping anonymously to solve difficult crimes. But now she has been caught by the Homeland Security who demand she help them. She’s not entirely willing, a memory of her mother’s downfall in the hands of law enforcement clear in her mind. The agent assigned to her case is compelling, however, and so she complies.

The crime(s) are fairly easily solved. After all, all Andrea has to do is go to the past to see what happened. But there are some twists and turns that stem from her ability, which keep matters interesting to the end. And there’s a romance developing between her and the agent, which spiced things up too. Andrea is an interesting character, as is Agent Strand. The book ends at a good place that makes me wish that there are more stories or even a complete series featuring the two in the works. I’d definitely read them.

A new year, a new reading challenge

Last year, I pledged to read sixty books in Goodreads’ yearly reading challenge, but ended up reading sixty-five. I had compiled a list of sixty-nine books, but in the end I read only twenty books from it. It wasn’t that I had selected uninteresting books to my list, but there were so many new books that I discovered and absolutely had to read right away, that the list ended up to be completely different.

Not everything I chose to read was to my liking. There were a number of books, by my favourite authors even, that I began to read and then didn’t finish. Some because they were disappointingly boring, others because a new book that I absolutely had to read pushed them aside, never to be picked up again. I discovered a couple of new series that I binged, like The Others by Anne Bishop and The Winston Brothers by Penny Reid, and new authors, like Susan Ee and Robyn Bennis, both of which I hope to read in coming years.

Twenty-nine authors, many with multiple books, were women, and only five were men, although I began a couple of books written by men that I then didn’t finish. Only nine authors were other than white westerners, so I clearly have some improving to do on that front.

My favourite books of the year were A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer, a Beauty and the Beast retelling that completely changed my mind about retellings; The Guns Above by Robin Bennis, a steampunk military saga that kept me captivated despite being basically a long description of a military campaign; Written in Red by Anne Bishop that sent me on a binge of a brilliant urban fantasy series that was unlike most series out there; The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black that finished her brilliant The Folk of the Air trilogy; and Unnatural Magic by C. M. Waggoner, a unique take on trolls, magic, and gender relations and norms. On top of that came the perennial favourites, Nalini Singh and J. R. Ward with several books each.

This year, I pledged to read sixty-five books. Since I had slight trouble finishing the challenge last year, I’m not entirely hopeful that I’ll manage to read that many books, but it won’t be for lack of trying. I’ve compiled a list of eighty-one books—so far—so I have plenty to choose from.

Some books, mostly those I already own, were moved from the previous list—or even the one before that—to this year’s list. There are books belonging to series that I want to finish. Then there are a number of books that will be published this year.

One that I’m definitely looking forward to reading is A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer, a follow-up to her brilliant book that comes out next week. City of Stone and Silence is the next book in Django Wexler’s unique Wells of Sorcery series. There will be a new Peter Grant book, a new series from Darynda Jones, and also a new, long-awaited Dresden Files book, not to mention several books from Nalini Singh and J. R. Ward that will keep me occupied. On top of that I added new authors to me that I hope I’ll finally have time to read this year, Elizabeth Bear and Tamsyn Muir among them.

The year began with The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, a brilliant fantasy debut set in a world much like ancient China. I already have the second book in the trilogy, The Dragon Republic, waiting, and the last book, The Burning God, will be published at the end of the year. Although it tells a story of a young woman who discoveres she has powers unlike anyone else and will likely turn out to be the chosen one, the culture is so unique and Rin so unlike western heros that it makes the story feel new. A perfect start for my reading year.

How about you, what will you be reading this year?

Wolf Rain by Nalini Singh: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Wolf Rain by Nalini Singh

The third book in Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling Trinity series (eighteenth overall in the Psy-Changeling series) leaves the first two behind. Not that they were bad books in any way, but as they were set in new places with completely new characters, they had a slightly alien feel to them. Wolf Rain returns to the original characters and settings, and it feels like home.

Alexei is a SnowDancer wolf plagued by a family curse of going rogue, i.e. becoming too feral to be allowed to live. Memory is an E Psy, an empath with unique abilities. She’s been held captive by a psychopath since she was eight, and Alexei is her rescuer.

The book doesn’t follow the usual traumatised victim trope. Instead, Memory is fairly level-headed and capable since the moment she is released, which is explained with her being an empath. The tension and drama in their story therefore stems more from Alexei’s past than hers. Their love-story develops fairly fast, but not unnaturally so, and is delightful to follow. Forces outside them, the psycho who held Memory captive and a nameless nemesis who threatens to incapacitate and destroy the entire PsyNet, try to throw rocks on their path. Both side stories are handled in a satisfying way. And as always in this series, there are plenty of tears for the reader, both those of joy and sorrow.

I liked Memory and Alexei both separately and together. And I liked even more how their story allowed many of the series regulars to make an appearance. One of the reasons I return to the series is to learn what is going on in the lives of the characters I’ve met and loved before, and this gave plenty of opportunities for that.

But the book isn’t riding on nostalgia and repeating the same story over and again. Ms Singh has a wonderful ability to renew her world with every book. In this case by introducing Memory’s singular ability that allows the world to develop further. And as dark clouds are gathering that threaten the existence of the Psy, there are many stories for her to tell yet. I’m going to read them all.

Truth or Beard by Penny Reid

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Truth or Beard by Penny Reid

Truth or Beard is the first book in the Winston Brothers series and the first by Ms Reid that I’ve read, and I loved it. It’s a contemporary romance set in a small town in the Smoky Mountains, Tennessee, with characters that seem to represent the heart of America. Jessica is a maths teacher who is dreaming of seeing the world. Duane is a car mechanic with roots tightly in their hometown.

The book starts with a bang (fairly literally) when Jessica mistakes Duane for his identical twin Beau whom she’s had a crush on since she was twelve. But as she is forced to confront her feelings for Duane, she begins to realise that he’s the one who has held her interest all her life. But as Duane launches an old-fashioned courtship of her, she has to tell him that she’s about to leave the town, maybe forever. It takes a few twists and turns, and a side-plot about a motorcycle gang, before they can get their happily ever after.

This was a great book with fully developed characters that nonetheless had room for change so that they could be together. And there were wonderful side characters, like Duane’s brothers who all get their own book in the series. I jumped straight to book number three, as I absolutely had to read more about Duane’s brother Cletus, who I loved. But I’m sure I’ll read the rest too.