The Love Plot

 The Love Plot- Samantha Young

Berkley

Release Date: August 29, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: There's a magnetic attraction when a happy-go-lucky gig worker agrees to a fake relationship with a rich, uptight New Yorker in this steamy romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Samantha Young.

Star Shine Meadows is all about freedom, thanks to the hippie parents who raised her. Juggling her jobs as a professional costume character actor and a line sitter, she believes in no expectations, no stressful ambitions, and no-strings-attached relationships. So when she meets a birthday girl's grumpy uncle while working a princess party, she can't help but needle him. She'll never see him again, and honestly, he's pretty hot.

Rafe Whitman may be a veterinarian with a great bedside manner, but that doesn't mean his patience extends to anyone with opposable thumbs. His family will not stop nagging him about finding "the one," so when he runs into obnoxiously cheery Star again, he makes her an offer: He'll pay her more than she would make doing her odd jobs if she'll pretend to be his girlfriend at family gatherings. She can stop sitting in line waiting for someone else's new phone, and he'll get his family off his back.

When the tension between them heats to a breaking point, Star's desire for "no strings" is tested against Rafe's staunch stability. They say opposites attract, after all....

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Possibly the most grumpy-sunshine of relationships I've seen since Good Omens 2, Star and Rafe are total opposites, and accidentally perfect for each other. She always looks for the positive in things, doesn't think a career is for her so has two unconventional jobs, doesn't do long-term relationships because she doesn't think she can do committed, and her greatest goal in life is to be happy. He went the conventional route, likes animals more than people, and is going crazy because his mother and sister-in-law are aggressively trying to set him up without asking him how he feels about it. When they meet at Rafe's niece's birthday party, you could not find two more different people. Rafe's idea to hire Star to be his pretend girlfriend has predictably surprising and entertaining consequences: his parents like her, and Rafe discovers he likes Star more than he expected. They do say opposites attract. . . .

Star is a quirky, delightful, believably flawed and wonderful person. Her parents are self-proclaimed hippies who taught her not believe in committed relationships, careers, or tying herself down to anything long-term. While that works in the short-term, and Star is quite happy with her jobs as a character actor and line-sitter, Rafe and his stability start making her question if she's limiting herself. I love how Star works to see something positive in people, gives them the benefit of the doubt, and to put happy out into the world to improve the lives of others. She practices what she preaches. The times when she tries to be something she isn't, she's miserable, reminding both Star and us that being our authentic selves is the best life.

I can best describe Rafe as a Mr. Darcy- only more outgoing when he's happy. Shy and quiet around strangers, better with dogs than people, it's no wonder that he's going crazy with his mother and sister-in-law throwing random women at him! He's a guy who believes in commitment if he's going to be in a relationship, so he and Star come at pretty much everything people-related from different angles. But I loved how he doesn't just dismiss Star's views based on his own experiences, he listens to her thoughts and frequently found himself changing his mind because of her viewpoints. They'd catch themselves in arguments and try to explain what the problem was exactly because they came at things so differently. I don't think I've ever read that in a romance before, where the main characters so continually work like real people to make a real relationship happen and I really enjoyed it. Even when they mess things up, it is real and relatable. 

Rafe's rich family doesn't know what to do with Star and her bohemian ways and polyamorous friends at first. Do they change her to fit with them or do they accept that she makes him happy as is? I loved how Rafe stood by Star when she dealt with her family crisis and started facing her defining childhood, and how she was willing to do anything to ensure he didn't break with his family because of her. It was clear they loved each other long before they admitted it, but that was kind of the point. Star has lots to teach Rafe and his family, but they have some things to show her as well. 

This was a lovely, funny, heart-warming book and I definitely recommend it, not just to Samantha Young (Much Ado About You, A Cosmic Kind of Love) fans, but to anyone looking for a beautiful romance.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Medusa's Sisters

Medusa's Sisters- Lauren J.A. Bear

PenguinRandomHouse/Ace

Release Date: August 8, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Even before they were transformed into Gorgons, Medusa and her sisters, Stheno and Euryale, were unique among immortals. Curious about mortals and their lives, Medusa and her sisters entered the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly found themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry and learned—too late—that a god's love is a violent one.

Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags, damned and doomed. But they were sisters first, and their journey from sea-born origins to the outskirts of the Parthenon is a journey that rests, hidden, underneath their scales.

Monsters, but not monstrous, Stheno and Euryale will step into the light for the first time to tell the story of how all three sisters lived and were changed by each other, as they struggle against the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace.

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This was a powerful retelling of the story of Medusa and her sisters, and is kind of what I'd looked for in Natalie Haynes' Stone Blind but didn't get. The story alternates between Stheno's first-person narrative and a limited third-person narrative for Euryale, which took some getting used to. At first I found it jarring, but I got used to it the longer I read. As I didn't really like Euryale, I was happy not to be in her head for her chapters.

The first third of the book or so was a little slow for me. They are born and growing up and not much is happening except to show us immortality, the relationship between the sisters, their mother, and a few of their other relations. As the sisters (who can pass as human at this stage) decide to travel and learn about humans things pick up. Other stories are woven in and we learn the sisters' personalities as they learn about humans. Stheno is the protector, Euryale the self-absorbed flirt, Medusa the ever-curious and innocent. 

This story probably has the best reason (if you can call it that) for why Athena cursed the sisters after Poisidon raped Medusa of any version I've read. Certainly the most personal, selfish, and heartbreakingly awful one. The author doesn't shy away from reminding us that Greek culture, like the myths, didn't place much importance on women and rape was a regular thing that men were not usually held accountable for. Or that women were generally blamed for. There is certainly victim blaming for Medusa. So consider most of the book a trigger warning, if you hadn't already assumed that by the idea that this was about Medusa and her sisters. The author doesn't gloss over much.

Without giving away spoilers, I can't get too specific on much. I was surprised to learn this was a debut novel- the writing was mostly better than I expect from debut novelists (although there was a lot more "if I had but known" writing than I needed). At the same time, I'm not sure the author had quite figured out how to end the book and it seemed to get a little awkward again towards the end.

The women take their stories back here in ways you expect and also in stories and ways you don't expect. Medusa's death and what comes after are powerfully and emotionally written and actually brought me to tears in a few places. This is definitely one of the most powerful retellings I've read.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The Royal

 

The Royal (Game of Chance #2)- Susan Stoker

Montlake

Release Date: August 8, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Former military man and member of a royal family Callum Redmon can’t deny his sense of responsibility. So when his cousin’s latest love interest claims to have a stalker, Cal reluctantly meets with the young woman and her mother. He wants to write off the situation as a complete farce—if only his feelings for another member of the household could be as easily dismissed.

Since her father’s death seventeen years ago, Juniper Rose has been at the cruel beck and call of her stepmother and stepsister. Her fantasies of escape mean leaving behind her father’s beloved home, but enough is enough: when Cal offers her a way out sooner rather than later, June takes the leap.

Cal’s home in Maine with his military brothers seems like the safest place to start fresh. But as Cal and June’s fairy-tale romance blossoms into something real, they find that the dangers stalking them may have been real all along.

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I'm always a sucker for a Cinderella retelling and this was a great one! June has been a servant in her own home since her father's death, thanks to the emotional abuse of her stepmother and stepsister. Seventeen years later she's gotten the courage to try and leave when fate brings Cal Redmon to the house. He's been strongarmed into going there to check out a stalker situation for his cousin, who has been "dating" the stepsister, and while it takes about a day to see through that ploy, it takes less for him to become fascinated by June.

She's observant, calm, intelligent, and Cal wants to help her out. So when he leaves he convinces June to go with him. What starts out as just helping turns into more on both sides. Both have massive insecurities- both emotional insecurities and body insecurities- and are convinced the other won't want to be with them long-term. It was really interesting to see Cal so hung up on his body since we don't usually get men in romance books who are so unsure of their looks. Connected the way it is with the torture he went through and you can understand how painful and self-conscious he feels about it and you feel so bad for him. I was so happy June was able to see straight to the heart of him and what a great, caring guy Cal is. She seemed to instinctively know just the right things to say, even if Cal wasn't always quite ready to hear them, which I thought was great. She knows it isn't about the outside- her steps are gorgeous women and horrible- though she never quite internalizes that for herself. 

This was more a book about finding yourself and internal healing for both Cal and June, and Cal freaking out about falling in love, than it was a fast-paced mystery or thriller the way some of Stoker's books are, so you have to go into it with a bit of a different expectation. You don't have to have read The Protector first, though all Cal's friends show up again so you see familiar faces if you did read it. I loved how protective the guys are of each other and how they embraced June once they were sure she was right for Cal. And we get a tease for the next book that promises major action ahead!

An enjoyable, lovely romance with Cinderella vibes that were just enough for me without being over the top, great friends turned family, and two damaged people learning to trust themselves and each other enough to fall in love and admit it. 

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review