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And the fairytale retold?

From Cinderella To Countess Book Cover From Cinderella To Countess
(Mills & Boon Historical)
Annie Burrows
Fiction, Historical, Romance
HarperCollins UK
May 28, 2020
368

From Cinderella in the shadows To Countess in the spotlight?

Lady’s companion Eleanor Mitcham longs to escape her unhappy life. Having been told she’s too lowly to speak to Lord Lavenham, Eleanor defiantly accepts his challenge to teach her employer a lesson—by marrying him! He is an eligible earl after all! However, his determinedly cynical view of marriage makes her dissolve their convenient betrothal and flee—leaving the drama of the household behind and Lord Lavenham hot on her heels!

A sweet and sappy romance that lifts the spirit with its daft dowager who has servants who adore her.

And a naive beyond belief heroine, and the cynical hero – who recognised the truth of most of society’s  marriages – that they are purely for gain – wealth or land ,and that after the production of the heir and spare, the two ‘combatants’ need rarely see each other and can continue with their own amusements.

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Nasty Chimera returns – or does he?

Zinnia Book Cover Zinnia
Bk #3 of Angelbound Offspring
Christina Bauer
Young Adult Fiction
Monster House Books
July 30, 2019

"YOU HAVE TO READ ZINNIA! This book definitely surpasses my expectations ... which were pretty high because Bauer's novels are just that amazing. Grab this book. You know you wanna!" - Haddie's Haven As the last dragon shifter, I live alone, hiding in one of Earth’s sacred deserts. My human handlers tell me that I have no parents, no name, and no purpose other than to train for battle and one day become a vessel for the reincarnation of Chimera, the greatest dragon shifter of all. Sadly, Chimera’s rebirth will mean my own death. But my handlers say this sacrifice is a noble fate that will rebuild the dragon shifter world. I shall die on my seventeenth birthday. That’s five days from now. Then I hear music thumping across the desert. I take my mortal form, follow the sound, and find humans dancing in what they call a rave. There is a stage and a rock band. One thing quickly becomes clear: Unlike the audience, the musicians are dragon shifters, just like me. And one of them, the guitar player Rhodes, makes my knees turn watery. The lead singer, Kaps, has something strangely familiar about her. It all adds up to one conclusion: My handlers lied to me. I’m not the last of my kind. Memories reappear. I had parents once. Portia and Tempest. I even had a name. Zinnia. Perhaps I have a reason to live as well. I step past the dancing humans to confront the players. I will find out the full truth, no matter what. "Sweet mother of mercy ANGELBOUND is beyond fabulous!" - For Your Literary Pleasure Blog Angelbound Origins In which Myla Lewis kicks ass and takes names. Nuff said. 1. Angelbound 2. Scala 3. Acca 4. Thrax 5. The Dark Lands 6. The Brutal Time (Fall 2019) 7. Armageddon (already here, long story!) 8. Quasi Redux (Fall 2020) Angelbound Offspring The next generation takes on Heaven, Hell, and everything in between 1. Maxon 2. Portia 3. Zinnia (Summer 2019) 4. Kaps (Summer 2020) 5. Huntress (Summer 2021) Angelbound Lincoln Angelbound Origins as told by Prince Lincoln 1. Duty Bound 2. Lincoln 3. Tricksters Also From Christina Bauer - Fairy Tales of the Magicorum, a series of modern fairy tales with sass, action, and romance - Beholder, where a medieval farm girl discovers necromancy and true love - Dimension Drift, a dystopian adventure with science, snark, and hot aliens Don’t Miss Out Get your FREE copy of Christina’s novella, BEVERLY HILLS VAMPIRE, when you sign up for her personal newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/bauersbooks ***Not available in stores***

As often happens this book was published out of order – as further/later books in this series have already come out. But it was worth waiting for as it I found it better than some of the others in this series – right up to last 20% where it began to ‘fail’.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed Zinnia as a character – her confusion about the outside world, her general character trained as it was by her captors, and her interaction with the band. Her sister was less interesting and seemed to be a very clumsy treasure hunter considering how long she had been undertaking it.

Bauer is an author who is inconsistent in her writing quality – some is excellent and some lacks that pazzazz that makes you want to read more – which was how I started with AngelBound – the Offspring have often been a little lacklustre. This one less so, so 4 stars.

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A Birthday in Hell

Fashionably Fooled Book Cover Fashionably Fooled
Hot Damned #13
Robyn Peterman
Romantic Comedy, Paranormal Vampire, Devils and Demons
Independently published
(23 Mar. 2020)

A day in the life of the Devil should be exhilarating—lying, stealing, cheating at poker and finally beating Mr. Rogers…
Life should be wonderful.
Right?
Wrong.

The love of my dastardly immortal life is eating everything that isn’t nailed down and tried to behead me over a chocolate croissant. While I take chocolate croissants very seriously, I do believe decapitation is somewhat harsh.

My daughters, the Seven Deadly Sins, are driving me to drink. Getting them mated off and the hell out of Hell is at the top on my agenda.

The one thing that is keeping me sane—sane being a relative word—is my upcoming special day. After living a millennium and never knowing the date I came to be, I have sussed out the information from my certifiably insane, pole-dancing mother. She’s swears on her empty head that my birthday is April 1st.

Soon, April 1st will mean something. I’m no fool. I plan to make my birthday far more famous than my do-gooder nephew’s. That day in December will be forgotten when I get done making my womb eviction day the most important in the history of the Universe.

I shall simply go about business as usual. Punishments must be doled out and chaos must be encouraged. A vacation would be lovely, but there is no rest for the weary… or the evil. Luckily I know how to have an outstanding time doing outrageously bad things.

Thank Hades, I’m a handsome bastard.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to me.

Another Robyn Peterman delight.

So Satan decides that as he once didn’t exist, he must have been born, and thus had a birthday. Note that his brother, God, has one too.

If you have a birthday, then it only stands to reason you should have a party to celebrate that birthday . But when Satan asks his mother when he was born, his mother is very shifty and won’t tell him exactly when he was born. So, he decides to invent his birthday so that he can have a birthday party. In Hell. And so things develop from there. As you can imagine this book is full of humour, full of strange ideas, full of weird happenings. Robyn Peterman has a really strange imagination, but one that is very funny.

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Baseball metaphors

Stealing Home Book Cover Stealing Home
(A Sweet Magnolias Novel, Book 1)
Sherryl Woods
Fiction
HarperCollins UK
November 1, 2011
400

Coming to Netflix May 2020 Maddie Townsend might live in a town called Serenity, but there's been nothing calm or peaceful about her life since her marriage broke up.

This stay-at-home mum has no job skills, an out-of-control sixteen-year-old son, a talkative fourteen-year-old who's suddenly gone silent, a six-year-old daughter whose heart is broken, an ex-husband whose younger girlfriend is expecting their baby and two best friends who think she's somehow qualified to help them open a fitness spa for women.

But if Maddie is a tad on edge with all that on her plate, it's nothing compared to the chaos that ensues when she discovers that her son's baseball coach has feelings for her and the whole town disapproves. Maddie's faced a lot of challenges lately with strength and resolve, but Cal Maddox may turn out to be more than she can handle. Then again, he could just be the one man in all of South Carolina who can help her find serenity.

This is a metaphor title, for those who recognise it, for baseball. The very special feeling that ball players get when they advances to a base which they are not entitled to, and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner – them. … Successful base stealers are not only fast but have good base running instincts and timing.

There is a film called Stealing Home and a famous book about the Los Angeles Dodgers too. So a metaphor that would be familiar to US readers – but not UK I’m afraid.

However, the story gradually explains the very special feeling that baseball runners get when they ‘steal’ this run, and how important it is for them to play.

What is also interesting is how this story explores what it means to be a woman many years older than her lover/boyfriend and society’s reaction to this  combination – yes discrimination again as it is common among men and not commented on – other than sometimes salaciously by other men.

And adolescents and their hormones and their actions and reactions to their mother with a new life.

I thought the story was told empathetically and enjoyably. Well written in its genre.

nb re-issued due to Netflix Series – but don’t think it is quite the same as the book – it isn’t!

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A late mate

Pegasus Marshal’s Mate Book Cover Pegasus Marshal’s Mate
US Marshals-shifter series #2
Zoe Chant
Fantasy Romance, Psychic romance
Kindle

Her new beginning is off to a bad start…

Tiffani's first marriage was a disaster. And now her first day of her new life as a court reporter has involved a jackass judge, a bomb threat…and a sexy silver fox of a US Marshal. One who tempts Tiffani to give up her new determination to prove she doesn't need a man. But if she's going to show everyone she's more than just air-headed arm-candy, she can't just fall into those gorgeous, muscled arms…right?

Pegasus shifter Martin thought he'd never find his mate. After losing his wife, he gave up on love entirely. But one look at Tiffani and he knows he needs this smart, funny, gorgeous woman. All he wants is to give her the romance she deserves—and the protection she just might need.

Between the trial of the century, petty dictator bosses, and a senior citizen flash mob, Tiffani and Martin will have to steal time for their second chance at love. But who better than a pegasus shifter to sweep a woman off her feet?

The Pegasus Marshal's Mate is a standalone paranormal romance. If you love shifter romances full of passion, thrills, and humor, one-click today!

A romance for the (slightly) older generation – say 40s and up. And a second chance romance with, dare I say it, unexpected family additions.

A gentle style of writing with some humour that produces a smile.

This is set around a white collar crime court case, witnesses and Marshals doing protection work.

3.5 stars

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