A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst

A couple went boating and got "lost at sea", needing to spend a long period of time on a raft. This was a stressful experience that ultimately made their relationship stronger. They had a few "false hope" near-rescues before they were finally saved. They received a lot of publicity afterwards. The experience proved transformative, and they kept a strong relationship through life.

This book is based on the account of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey. The "lost at sea" experience was only part of the story as the book focuses on the later impact of their life. (At first it felt odd to have it discuss the "post-shipwreck" experiences with so much remaining in the book, but it does make sense in the end.)

The Love Hypothesis

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

A girl runs into a guy when she is visiting campus. She thinks he is a grad student. He gives advice that helps her choose her future path. She doesn't realize that he is actually a professor and he had feelings for her also. She later chooses to kiss a random guy to "allow" her best friend to date her boyfriend. This ends up being the professor. But neither of them realized it at the time. They decide to carry on "fake dating" for a while. They are both oblivious to each other's feelings. It finally comes to a head when they agree to share a hotel room at a conference (in a Platonic relationship.) Things end up being not so platonic. Then there is the episode where the professor's old friend ends up being a scumbag and the professor gets in a fight with him. It makes for a welle-executed, very typical romantic comedy. You jus wish the main characters would stop behaving like middle schoolers and talk about their feelings.

Fourth Wing: Empyrean, Book 1

Fourth Wing: Empyrean, Book 1 by Rebecca Yarros

Sex. Violence. Dragons. Blah.

Fearless

Fearless by Lauren Roberts

This conclusion to the Powerless series is filled with tons of twists and turns - way too many of them. The girl is going to be married to the "wrong" boy. It would have been nice to see her end up with the "true love" instead, but you knew it would not happen. A single twist could have done it. Instead there were dozens. She kills thet rue love, only to later find out it was somebody in disguise. She finds out that she is actually an abandoned royal daughter.  A friend is not actually a friend. There was a plot to spread the plague around and the King was both noble and crazy. In the end, the king dies, she discovers that she is the royal rather than the guy she loves and they get to live happily ever after and have kids. Remove three quarters of the sub-plots and this could be a good book.

Accomplice to the Villain

Accomplice to the Villain: Assistant and the Villain, Book 3 by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

The Villain makes a passing comment about the girl being his accomplice. That gives us a title. The books has a good deal of action, humor and romance. However, there are so many twists, turns and subplots that it is easy to get lost. The families of the villain are all interrelated and both hate and love each other. The end serves to just confuse the plot points. The frog prince seems to be more frog, but then seems to magically appear as a person at the end. The villain shouldn't have been the villain, but the girl should. Their relationship has stepped up a level, so does it really matter what they should have been? There are various conflicts, possible traitors and more along with a lot of one-liners. I still have not bought in to the necessity of what is going on. 

Lovelight Farms

Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison

A woman buys a Christmas tree farm. To help publicize, she enters a social media contest. However, she feels it will work better by claiming her best friend is a boyfriend. She then wants him to be a "fake boyfriend".  They work on their "fake" relationship and make it physical. He is totally in love with her and admits it.  Everyone in the small town (and the social media person) all recognize it, even though she is totally clueless. Finally she admits it and they get together. There are a couple random subplots - one employee had a fling with the social media person. There was also a guy that thought he was going to get the farm to raise animals. He had been sabotaging the farm in hope of getting it back. The book is almost decent. However, the woman is just too absolutely clueless to be believable. And the little subplots are a bit over the top - and then don't really impact the novel at all.  

What Did You Do?

What Did You Do? by Jeneane O'Riley

The book starts with sex, but actually has a little bit of story to hold it together. There is something about being part human and part magical being. The family has different people and she thought she had powers. Only she didn't. But she did. There is half a heart to recover and conflicted relationships all around. It is very much romatacy, but ha a little bit of believability. 

The Last One

The Last One: Last One, Book 1 by Rachel Howzell Hall

This was better than our typical romantasy. It actually had some semblance of a story with characters that were interested in a bit more than just saving the world and sleeping with the enemy. (But only a small bit more.) The protagonist, Kai, cannot remember much of anything about her past. She said once she was "Just Kai" and that left others a name to use. There is a guy named Jaden who she likes. There are your typical save the world stuff as well as plenty of double entendre. People also seem to be keen on stealing her clothes and special amulet. She gradually finds out more about herself and what her mission was. By the end it does devolve into more of the typical romantasy.

The Shadowbound King: Realms of the Covenant, Book 2

The Shadowbound King: Realms of the Covenant, Book 2 by Amy Pennza

There are elves and humans. A girl lives close to the Elf kingdom. The capture her because they want something for her father. Instead they end up falling in love. It didn't seem to matter that there were two guys that were already in love with each other, they freely add the girl also. And in an epilogue there is child. The bit of plot is just enough to provide endless gay and straight erotic scenes. Sex becomes just an activity done for pleasure. Being parents or reproducing seems just incidental. This attitude could explain why people are just not having kids. Why bother doing the hard work after the pleasure? Will humans eventually bread out the desire to reproduce? 

Ash and Feather: Flame and Sparrow Duology, Book 2

Ash and Feather: Flame and Sparrow Duology, Book 2 by S.M. Gaither

How can the female leads in these romance fantasies be so stupid? They totally forget their goal of saving the world and fall in lust with some random bad guy. Here the elf leader learns to fly, and uses that as a chance to have an affair. She later finds her sister, who is aligned with the bad side. Why is that side bad? Well, it just is. She falls for another guy. The sister comes around and they eventually do what they wanted to do. The writing and story are bad, but better than the typical romance fantasy.

Terror at the Gates: Blood of Lilith, Book 1

Terror at the Gates: Blood of Lilith, Book 1 by Scarlett St. Clair

In a religious society, people are somewhat confined by where they stand. The main character lives in an area of sin. She wants to work for a guy. there are conflicts and some romance. There is at least some plot, though the anti-religion gets heavy.

How Does It Feel?: Infatuated Fae, Book 1

How Does It Feel?: Infatuated Fae, Book 1 by Jeneane O'Riley

This book seemed like it had potential at first. There was an interesting story of a woman that worked as a scientist. She was an expert on moths, but had some struggles getting the position she wanted. She met a fellow outcast who had some expertise on mushrooms she needed to help the moths. Alas, as this was building up, there were hints that it was not to be. There were random vulgarities and excess involvement in her romantic life. This was all just a setup for her to end up in some fairy kingdom. There is a cat that is a brave warrior and others that have confused identity. It could almost be a good story if it was not intent and just shoving romance and profanity where it did not belong.

The Frostbound Queen: Realms of the Covenant, Book 1

The Frostbound Queen: Realms of the Covenant, Book 1 by Amy Pennza

Some girl has a kingdom. Some guy wants it. There are elves and other creatures that are not human (but that doesn't stop them from making love to humans.) Everyone is sleeping together, regardless of whether they are elf or human, man or woman. A bit of a plot holds it together, but it is just an excuse for graphic descriptions which seem are more mechanically disgusting than sensual. Take out all of it, and might have a 4 page book with a simple plot.

The Beasts We Bury

The Beasts We Bury by D. L. Taylor

The heroine of this fantasy has a special ability with animals, but the power is related to killing the animals. There is a boy involved. The leaders of kingdom are bad. There is a duel where somebody is killed. The heroes have values that respect life and don't like what the leaders do. They work to overcome the badness. It is all the typical young adult fantasy romance. The animal part is a little bit different. There is a funny part where the girl asks the boy if she can kill him. She doesn't want to really do that, but wants to come close to see if he can be summoned. In the end, there is a big battle where a guy splits into a bunch of parts to complete the battle. It sitll doesn't help.

The Forest King's Daughter

The Forest King's Daughter by Elly Blake

All I remember is that this was a typical young adult fantasy romance. A ring has powers, so there must be some Tolkien influence as well. A girl has this ring. She is bound with it and has power. There is family drama. It goes on for a long time.

The Road of Bones: The Ashen Series, Book 1

The Road of Bones: The Ashen Series, Book 1 by Demi Winters

This is a long, forgettable fantasy romance. It is somewhat viking. They do stuff and yell at each other. I am not the target audience for this genre.

House of Earth and Blood (Part 1 of 2): Crescent City (Dramatized Adaptation)

House of Earth and Blood: Crescent City (Part 1 of 2)  (Dramatized Adaptation): Crescent City, Book 1 by Sarah J. Maas (Author), full cast (Narrator), Robb Moreira (Narrator), Debi Tinsley (Narrator), Lise Bruneau (Narrator), Colleen Delany (Narrator), Kit Swann (Narrator), Danny Montooth (Narrator), Nick J. Russo (Narrator), Torian Brackett (Narrator), Gail Shalan (Narrator), Stephanie Németh-Parker (Narrator), Gabriel Michael (Narrator), Graphic Audio LLC (Publisher)

More junk by this author. The story seemed a bit better than others in the series. The vulgarity gets tedious. These are the rulers of this society? Not as much romance as other books, but still a lot. This is mainly a murder mystery.

A Court of Silver Flames (2 of 2)

A Court of Silver Flames (2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation): A Court of Thorns and Roses, Book 5 by Sarah J. Maas

The second part of the this book is a little better than the first part, but still pretty awful. There is a bit about training and developing Valkyrie fighting techniques. It ends with a battle and a child birth, getting in all the tropes.

A Court of Silver Flames (Part 1 of 2)

A Court of Silver Flames (Part 1 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation): A Court of Thorns and Roses, Book 4 by Sarah J. Maas

A woman has sex and questions whether her partner likes it as much as she does. Then she fights and does violent things. There is also a somewhat sentient house he gives the woman romance novels to read. It is much too long and tedious. The full cast audio with sound effects is the one redeeming grace. If only it was a worthwhile story. This is part one of two, but seems to come to a conclusion.

A Court of Mist and Fury

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

The author of this book has a command of the English language. Other than that it is almost a perfect case of how to write a bad book. First make it way too long. Add in characters that you don't care about along with others that you can't distinguish. Set it in a fantasy world with seemingly different values, but have the main characters adopt trite modern values. The novel seems to be a nonstop discussion of the protagonist's sexual desires and activities. She manages to lust after and sleep with those on both sides of a big conflict. She also is able to go into the mind of people. Some of these "people" have wings. There are also some weird rituals like mating vs. marriage vs. consort. It is just bad and confusing.