Kiss Hard

 

Kiss Hard (Hard Play 4)- Nalini Singh

TKA Distribution

Release Date: May 3, 2022

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Daniel Esera is a young god on the rugby field, a sexy and charming man who's got the world at his feet. There's just one problem: his sudden potent attraction to his number one nemesis--Catie River. No. Just no. Not happening.

Catie River is on her way to Paralympic gold, and she's not about to allow Danny "Hotshot" Esera to derail her plans. Too bad her body isn't cooperating. Even worse? Her heart might be coming along for the ride. No. Nope. Never.

The pair are united in their desire to remain enemies... until a stranger's reckless action threatens both their careers. Now, the only way out for Catie and Danny is to pretend to be in a relationship. How bad can it be? They're adults in full control of their hormones and their hearts. There will be no kissing. No PDA. And definitely no falling in love.

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Anyone who has been along for the ride as Nalini Singh introduces us to the Bishop-Esera men and the women they love (Rock Hard, Cherish Hard, Love Hard) will enjoy Kiss Hard, where Danny Esera, young rugby star, and Catie River, a professional runner, finally change their relationship status from frenemies to lovers. Anyone new to the series will be hard pressed not to instantly fall in love with this closely knit family and cheer for the youngest brother to get his happy ending.

 Danny and Catie have known each other since they were teens and always had the kind of snarking, pranking relationship that best friends or siblings might have. As adults the snark and humor is part of their brand on social media and their fans love the banter that everyone is sure is flirtatious fun. When a situation comes up where they need to pretend to be dating, everyone outside the family buys the act and are happy to cheer the relationship on. But what happens when it becomes more than an act- for both of them?

Fake dating, enforced proximity, enemies to lovers- they may sound like stereotypes that have been done to death but here Singh makes everything fresh and new, and makes you hope for the moment when the heroes are ready to push past their fears and admit they want a real relationship. Catie has been hurt before, learning as a child never to emotionally depend on or reach out to anyone based on an emotionally distant mother and a feckless gambling father. She's not sure how to break down her walls and allow herself to be emotionally vulnerable to anyone outside of her tiny circle, even for Danny. Singh makes you cry for her as she struggles between her new love and her ingrained need to never allow anyone to hurt her. She has plenty of confidence in herself, yet still finds herself wondering if/when Danny will get bored and move on because she learned from her father that this is what men do. I also really loved how emotionally vulnerable Danny could be at times- his worries about living up to his brother's lives and standards, even though no one in the family is pushing him to do so, are something I wouldn't have guessed a confident looking man would have in his head, yet here it is, messing with him even though it shouldn't be an issue. Danny does a great job (or Singh, through Danny) as an example of how everyone needs help once and awhile, and you can only hope more real life examples stand up to help erase the stigma around treating our mental health the way we do physical health. 

The chemistry between Danny and Catie are sizzling, even when they don't want it to be there, the emotions leap off the page and wrap around you in the best possible way.  A wonderful story of two people battling more than others would expect to find exactly where they need to be, and exactly who they need to be with. 

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

Book Lovers

 Book Lovers- Emily Henry

Berkley/Penguin Group

Release Date: May 3, 2022

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Nora Stephens' life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

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Confession- this is the first of Emily Henry's books that I've read, despite knowing that they are hugely popular and selling about a million of them as a bookseller. That said, I wasn't sure what to expect from the book. Was I going to love it because everyone loves Emily Henry's other books or be really disappointed because everyone loves Emily Henry's other books?

The writing style wasn't one I was a fan of- it went a little too stream of consciousness and heavy on the descriptive metaphors for me. Because of that it took me awhile to get into the book, but when I did, I really enjoyed the plot.  It's a clever reverse on the typical romance book trope. Nora is the character who is career driven, focused, problem solving, loves NYC, and usually the one in movies or books the hero ultimately leaves for the small town heroine. Its happened to her multiple times in fact. Her married sister Libby is more the typical romance heroine- flighty, fun loving, the Marianne to her Eleanor. The two are incredibly close, but lately things have been off so when Libby wants to take a sisters' vacation, Nora agrees and hopes they can reconnect. Libby sets up a bizarre, small town get-away with a list of things for them to do that are classic small town romance book items and Nora isn't sure about she's going to enjoy her vacation. But in comes Charlie, her professional nemesis from New York, also in town for the month. And suddenly she finds herself having more fun than she'd planned.

Nora and Charlie are not your typical main characters or romance heroes, and that's why I liked them so much. They are sharks in the literary world- Nora is a cutthroat literary agent and Charlie is a killer editor- and at first meet are far too similar to even politely pretend to stand one another. But beneath the shark smiles are deep vulnerabilities they refuse to allow anyone to see, and heavy protective needs towards the few they love. These are people who don't want to change, don't want kids, don't want to work less and party more- they like their lives (mostly) as is, despite what society may tell them about being wrong. It takes a lot of courage to be that person, and Emily Henry peels back some incredibly insightful layers about how much courage that really takes. Henry reminds us that even the people who seem to have it the most together on the outside, or the ones we think we know the best, have hidden vulnerabilities, hidden pieces that make them the way they are, and that even the strongest of us need love and support from family and friends to make it through the tough times.

A love story to New York, to the power of books, the power of family, and the power of love- in all its aspects, this was a delightful plot with twists on the typical tropes that will keep you smiling.

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

Pandora's Jar

 

Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths- Natalie Haynes

Harper Collins

Release Date: March 29, 2022

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: The tellers of Greek myths—historically men—have routinely sidelined the female characters. When they do take a larger role, women are often portrayed as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil—like Pandora, the woman of eternal scorn and damnation whose curiosity is tasked with causing all the world’s suffering and wickedness when she opened that forbidden box. But, as Natalie Haynes reveals, in ancient Greek myths there was no box. It was a jar . . . which is far more likely to tip over. 

In Pandora’s Jar, the broadcaster, writer, stand-up comedian, and passionate classicist turns the tables, putting the women of the Greek myths on an equal footing with the men. With wit, humor, and savvy, Haynes revolutionizes our understanding of epic poems, stories, and plays, resurrecting them from a woman’s perspective and tracing the origins of their mythic female characters. She looks at women such as Jocasta, Oedipus’ mother-turned-lover-and-wife (turned Freudian sticking point), at once the cleverest person in the story and yet often unnoticed. She considers Helen of Troy, whose marriage to Paris “caused” the Trojan war—a somewhat uneven response to her decision to leave her husband for another man. She demonstrates how the vilified Medea was like an ancient Beyonce—getting her revenge on the man who hurt and betrayed her, if by extreme measures. And she turns her eye to Medusa, the original monstered woman, whose stare turned men to stone, but who wasn’t always a monster, and had her hair turned to snakes as punishment for being raped.

Pandora’s Jar brings nuance and care to the millennia-old myths and legends and asks the question: Why are we so quick to villainize these women in the first place—and so eager to accept the stories we’ve been told?

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In Pandora's Jar, author Natalie Haynes (A Thousand Ships) explores the different versions of some of the most well known of Greek women in mythology, and how those women have been changed throughout the generations, rarely for the better. Going back to the original Greek, to Homer, Ovid, and scaps of stories before them, Haynes looks at Medusa, Pandora, Helen, Jocasta, Penelope, Clytemnestra, Eurydice, Phaedra, Medea, and the Amazons. Who are these women, both in relation to their original stories, the stories we know best, plays or more modern movies, or perhaps even modern reincarnations or retellings? 

Some of my favorite chapters had to be the ones focused on Medusa, Medea, and the Amazons, although Penelope and Clytemnestra came close behind. With a sharp wit and occasional sarcasm to help keep her reader engaged, Haynes shreds whatever claims to the title hero men like Jason and Theseus have (and you really have to agree with her, especially about Theseus) to bring the story back around to the women. Medusa was hanging out in a cave not bothering anyone, having already suffered being sexually assaulted by Posiedon and cursed by Athene, she's sleeping and along comes this jerk with no personal grudge against her to chops off her head and weaponizes it. Every visual interpretation of this Haynes can find tends to make this moment both violent and sexual. What's that about, really?

Clytemnestra and Medea win Greece's awards for "worst wife" and "worst mother" because, Haynes points out, Greek men were terrified of powerful women. It kind of makes you want to travel back to when the plays were first performed and watch the male audience shake in their sandals- especially over Euripides' Medea. Or would they have been more afraid of Clytemnestra?  A woman with no magical power, no assistance from the gods, just ten years of rage over her husband sacrificing their daughter so he could go off to war and no one saying anything against it. He kills the kid, spends ten years at war making a name for himself and enjoying raping other women, then comes home (with his war "bride" in tow) and expects his wife to be happy about it? I'd have voted justifiable homicide if I was on that jury. 

There's something for everyone in these chapters- from original interpretations of Greek and how they can change meanings that stick with us down through the ages to the dangers of "sanitizing" myths to tell them to children. From descriptions of visual representations of myths in ancient pottery to what Medea's dragon chariot at the end of her play actually meant to the Greeks (which I thought was pretty great even if the male audience might not have); and modern operas of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice to modern Amazons together-we-are-powerful symbolism in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the exploration into some of Greek mythology's well known (and a few lesser known) women should resonate with women across all levels. 

As Natalie Haynes says, we keep retelling these stories because we find new questions they raise and new voices wanting to be heard, and each generation will undoubtedly continue to do so. But discovering some of the origins makes those stories even more interesting to me.