True Love Experiment

 The True Love Experiment- Christina Lauren

Simon & Schuster Publisher

Release Date: May 16, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.

Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.

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An unapologetic love letter to romance books and the people who love them, The True Love Experiment may be my favorite Christina Lauren book yet! 

Felicity "Fizzy" Chen is having major writer's block and freaking out. She's past her deadline, fans are waiting, and she has lost her faith in love. romance, and maybe herself. When Connor Prince asks her to do a dating reality show in the tone of voice that tells her he's not only never read a romance or watched a reality show, but looks down on both (and those who read/watch them), she realizes it's a challenge she needs to accept. And maybe rediscover her joy in life and romance while she's at it. 

What happens when you put a romance writer in charge of deciding the kinds of guys she'll date on reality tv? Fizzy challenges Connor to cast all the major romance types- and somewhere between wanting to strangle each other and one-up the other, they discover a friendship full of humor, honesty, and dangerously sizzling chemistry. 

I loved Fizzy. She's so full of life and willing to be herself in any situation. She accepts challenges and starts them, comes at problems with confidence she may not always feel but always knows how to fake, and isn't willing to change to please anyone-not her parents, and not a guy. If they can't handle her as she is, they can get out of the way. I loved how Christina Lauren lets Fizzy passionately defend romance as a writing genre when she has to, saying what any romance reader will agree with, but never gets to the "preaching to the choir" point. And her vulnerability when she realizes she's lost her belief in romance or the joy of it enough to get past her writer's block is completely real. She's got to be one of my all-time favorite characters.  Connor is tougher to pin down until you realize he's exactly Fizzy's Mr. Darcy. They start off on the wrong foot, but once they let themselves try again, he turns out to be pretty great. He listens, he's open to admitting when he's wrong and changing his mind, and he can match Fizzy's sense of humor.

The True Love Experiment is exactly what I want in my romance: humor, friendship, two people clearly meant to be together but trying to deny it (they are producing a dating show for her after all!) and with enough chemistry to scorch the pages even when our heroes are just exchanging glances. Add in a dating show paying homage to real-life dating and romance novels? Yes, please! This one is a must read! 

I don't think you need to have read The Soulmate Equation to enjoy The True Love Experiment, but you'll enjoy it.

Well Traveled

 Well Traveled- Jen DeLuca

Berkley

Release Date: December 6, 2022

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: A high-powered attorney from a success-oriented family, Louisa "Lulu" Malone lives to work, and everything seems to be going right, until the day she realizes it’s all wrong. Lulu’s cousin Mitch introduced her to the world of Renaissance Faires, and when she spies one at a time just when she needs an escape, she leaps into the welcoming environment of turkey legs, taverns, and tarot readers. The only drawback? Dex MacLean: a guitarist with a killer smile, the Casanova of the Faire… and her traveling companion for the summer.

Dex has never had to work for much in his life, and why should he? Touring with his brothers as The Dueling Kilts is going great, and he always finds a woman at every Faire. But when Lulu proves indifferent to his many plaid charms and a shake-up threatens the fate of the band, Dex must confront something he never has before: his future.
 
Forced to spend days and nights together on the road, Lulu’s interest in the kilted bad boy grows as he shows her a side of himself no one else has seen. The stresses of her old lifestyle fade away as she learns to trust her intuition and follow her heart instead of her head. But when her time on the road is over, will Lulu go with her gut, or are she and Dex destined for separate paths?

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Louisa "Lulu" Malone comes from a family of overachievers and has been working so hard to get ahead in her high powered law firm that she longer remembers what its like to enjoy, let alone have, a life. One Saturday the boss pushes too far and she realizes just how ridiculous it all is. Her phone winds up a tub of water and she's having a minor meltdown in the middle of a Renaissance Faire. Fortunately, Stacey (Well Played) and the Dueling Kilts are there and offer her a ride since they're headed to Willow Creek, where Lulu's cousin Mitch (Well Matched) lives. With no job and no electronics, Lulu is forced to unplug and take stock of her life. Which includes not only admitting she hasn't relaxed in five or six years, but includes noticing her traveling companions- like hot guitar player Dex MacLean.

Everyone says Dex is only out for a good time, the Lothario with a girl at every Faire. And at first he flirts outrageously with Lulu, exactly like his reputation. But as she ignores his ridiculous flirting, Dex becomes more like the rest of the band, a casual friend. Eventually, she sees something in him that his family seems to have overlooked. That maybe there's more to Dex than just a good time. 

At first I wasn't sure about this pairing. How was Dex going to become someone we could properly swoon over when readers of the series knew him as a good time guy who is pretty much allergic to relationships? But the answer is to never doubt Jen DeLuca. By bringing in Lulu she gives Dex someone who doesn't know him or his reputation ahead of time, someone both willing to accept what she sees and to see behind the front to the person he's becoming. Dex is adorable as he confusedly discovers he might want a relationship after all and I had to hand it to him- he made far fewer mistakes than many guys make. I loved Lulu as the strong, take-charge-take-names person she is who can also be vulnerable, and discover a softer, mystic side to herself. This was a lovely people-can-change book; not necessarily because of love, but because of opening themselves up to new things, new opportunities, new people, and discovering what does make them happy instead of what they think should make them happy (or make others happy).  

Jen DeLuca is back and she brought the whole Faire with her! What's not to like about a strong woman doubting herself, finding herself (and love), thanks to the magic that is the Renaissance Faire? Nothing, that's what. Huzzah and rejoice and the latest Jen DeLuca romance-Well Traveled is not just a beautiful cover!

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

Curious Minds

Curious Minds (Knight & Moon #1)- Janet Ivanovich & Phoef Sutton
Bantam
Release Date: August 16, 2016

Rating (out of 5):
📚📚

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: Emerson Knight is introverted, eccentric, and has little to no sense of social etiquette. Good thing he’s also brilliant, rich, and (some people might say) handsome, or he’d probably be homeless. Riley Moon has just graduated from Harvard Business and Harvard Law. Her aggressive Texas spitfire attitude has helped her land her dream job as a junior analyst with mega-bank Blane-Grunwald. At least Riley thought it was her dream job, until she is given her first assignment: babysitting Emerson Knight.
 
What starts off as an inquiry about missing bank funds in the Knight account leads to inquiries about a missing man, missing gold, and a life-and-death race across the country. Through the streets of Washington, D.C., and down into the underground vault of the Federal Reserve in New York City, an evil plan is exposed. A plan so sinister that only a megalomaniac could think it up, and only the unlikely duo of the irrepressibly charming Emerson Knight and the tenacious Riley Moon can stop it.

A new series by Stephanie Plum creator Janet Evanovich and co-writer Phoef Sutton introduces us to Riley Moon, a practical woman ready to save the world one bank account at a time.  Riley is full of common sense, a Texas approach to life, cars, and guns, and big dreams of success at one of the top banks in the world.  In other words, the exact opposite of Emerson Knight- a major client she gets stuck babysitting.  Emerson is a hard character to figure out.  Is he brilliant, on a higher Zen level of life, or a complete out-of-touch fruitcake?  If he was a supporting character in any of Evanovich's other books you'd know the answer right away.  But as one of the main characters of a book, he remains an enigma.  Riley is likable, a relatable blend of Stephanie Plum and Kate O'Hare who starts the book off convinced that her biggest problem is a mountain of student debt to Harvard.

I didn't find Emerson to be relatable, especially likable, or unlikeable.  I kept waiting for him to become a different kind of character- mostly, I think, because he's exactly the type who would be a secondary character in any other Evanovich book and I couldn't quite deal with him as a main character.  You never get a handle on him.  Will he become more tangible in future books? The intent is clearly that Emerson and Riley will develop into a will-they or won't-they couple with sparking chemistry.  I didn't detect any of that chemistry actually present in this book, but maybe Emerson is a different enough kind of character that it'll take a little longer to get there.

The mystery also took awhile to get there.  I found it disappointing.  I kept waiting for things to make more sense.  But it was just too grand scale and over the top for me to really get into.  Taking over the world, destabilizing the economy through the international gold supply.  Countries wanting their exact gold bricks back.  Millionaires wanting to see their gold bricks, millionaires hiding gold from each other, millionaires stealing even more gold and replacing it with fakes.  Unlike the simpler, usually crazy but understandable criminals Stephanie Plum deals with, I just couldn't find a way to wrap my mind around caring about the crimes Knight and Moon dealt with here.

In an unusual move for Evanovich, Curious Minds is a third person point of view, not told stream of conscious through Riley's point of view. We even get to see some scenes just among the bad guys.  I thought that worked really well, and look forward to seeing them use that style again in future books.

Overall, Curious Minds was a long book without much of a plan.  Riley and Emerson are clearly not investigators but find themselves investigating a plot on a global scale that never quite connected for me.  The book mostly consists of Emerson's plans (for life as well as investigating): walk into a situation and see what happens.  I'm like Riley- I kept waiting for the plan to take shape and become something more tangible than it ever does.  Not a great start to a new series, but considering Evanovich's abilities with other series I'll have to give this more than one book before I can declare it not worth following.           

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

  

When A Scot Ties The Knot

When A Scot Ties The Knot (Castles Ever After Series #3)- Tessa Dare
AvonBooks Publisher
Release Date: August 25, 2015

Rating (out of 5):
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: On the cusp of her first London season, Miss Madeline Gracechurch was shy, pretty, and talented with a drawing pencil, but hopelessly awkward with gentlemen. She was certain to be a dismal failure on the London marriage mart. So Maddie did what generations of shy, awkward young ladies have done: she invented a sweetheart.   A Scottish sweetheart. One who was handsome and honorable and devoted to her, but conveniently never around. Maddie poured her heart into writing the imaginary Captain MacKenzie letter after letter . . . and by pretending to be devastated when he was (not really) killed in battle, she managed to avoid the pressures of London society entirely.   Until years later, when this kilted Highland lover of her imaginings shows up in the flesh. The real Captain Logan MacKenzie arrives on her doorstep—handsome as anything, but not entirely honorable. He's wounded, jaded, in possession of her letters . . . and ready to make good on every promise Maddie never expected to keep.

I've only recently discovered the joy that is reading books by Tessa Dare, and all I can say to anyone who hasn't tried her books yet is: start now! 

When A Scot Ties The Knot is the third book in Dare's Castles Ever After series- a series that doesn't have to be read in order for you to fully enjoy each book.  It's the story of Madeline Gracechurch, a shy woman more at home drawing or reading than dancing and visiting.  At age 16 she invents a mythical Scottish soldier to explain to her family and friends why she doesn't want to go to London and meet potential suitors.  Why look for Mr. Right when Captain McRight has already stolen her heart? She strengthens this fiction by writing him letters, assuming they will end up in some dead letter box somewhere and that will be the end of it.  Her family believes her story, no one bothers her about London Seasons, and she falls in love with her imaginary Captain Logan MacKenzie over years of letter writing.  Eventually she realizes that the only way to end the lies is to kill off her Scot.  So she's beyond surprised when the real Captain Logan MacKenzie shows up, having read all of her letters, at the castle she's inherited, ready to marry her.

Of course the real Logan is not quite what she'd imagined.  He refuses to believe he has dreams, hopes, or emotions.  He's naturally a little peeved that she killed him off.  He wants to marry her because he and the remaining Scottish soldiers under his command have returned from fighting Napoleon to find their sweethearts have married others, families have died or moved away, and their homes have been destroyed by the Highland Clearances.  Logan needs the castle and land Maddie promised in her letters as a new home for his men, and he's ready to blackmail Maddie to get his way.  After all, what would her family and friends think of the fact that she's been lying to them for years?  They agree to a marriage of convenience, and things promptly get, well, not convenient.

Maddie is a strong and independent woman who thinks she's a shy and weak wallflower.  She has a paralyzing terror of crowds and has let that dictate her entire life.  She's a wonderfully written character full of depth, intelligence, and humor.  She doesn't let Logan blackmail her because she cares about Society, but because she cares about what her friends and family will think, and because it would most likely damage her burgeoning career as an illustrator.  But she's also a romantic and has a hard time hating Logan, especially when she watches him with his men, or when he's talking to her, or when he's . . . anything.

Logan is a far more complex, and it's easy to make the mistake of thinking he's a shallow and underdeveloped character acting more as a prop for Maddie than as his own person.  But by the time you get to the end of the book you realize Logan is, if anything, an even more layered character and more affected by his past than Maddie.  

When A Scot Ties The Knot explores not only a wonderful romance between two people who believe they are very different, but also explores how we can trap ourselves into thinking we are one thing when we've secretly grown into something different, and how the dreams that we once had can change into something different (and maybe better) without our noticing.  How do you choose between new love and old dreams? It's a book of brilliant wit and humor, a beautifully described Highland setting, and more kilted soldiers than you can shake a sporran at.  And of course, a lobster named Fluffy who manages to steal the show without saying a word.

King Maybe- Timothy Hallinan

King Maybe (A Junior Bender Mystery)- Timothy Hallinan
Soho Crime
Publication Date: April 12, 2016

Synopsis: Los Angeles’s most talented burglar, Junior Bender, is in the middle of stealing one of the world’s rarest stamps from a professional killer when his luck suddenly turns sour. It takes an unexpected assist to get him out alive, but his escape sets off a chain reaction of blackmail, strong-arming, and escalating crime. By the time Junior is forced to commit his third burglary of the week—in the impregnable fortress that’s home to the ruthless studio mogul called King Maybe—he’s beginning to wish he’d just let the killer take a crack at him.

King Maybe is my introduction to Timothy Hallinan. Written in a fast paced style that reminds me of Janet Evanovich, it's a fun mystery where the crook is the hero of the story.  Junior Bender (yes, that's his real name) is a talented burglar with great sense of humor, snark, and sarcasm, who spends most of this book not listening to his instincts.  Of course, it would be a much shorter book if he did.  

Things start out with Junior almost getting caught during the theft of a valuable stamp from a professional killer and his day goes downhill from there. He's probably Los Angeles' only thief/unofficial private eye and the kind of decent guy who finds himself constantly dragged into helping people who are only vaguely friends- when they aren't trying to kill him.  In King Maybe he winds up trying to help a "friend" threatening to kill him, then gets forced into a third burglary within the space of four days.  But when the person who hires him for the last burglary is also the person he's supposed to be robbing, and a sociopathic movie mogul, what could possibly go wrong?

King Maybe has a complex number of heists, characters on a sliding criminal scale, and story lines that sort themselves into a brilliant ending where almost everyone gets what they deserve. The only disappointing thing about this book was that- although teased- we never find out what Junior calls his car.

An overall fun book for mystery lovers and a good introduction for those of us who haven't read Hallinan's previous books.  Luckily, there are quite a few to catch up on while waiting for his next book.    

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