Review: No Proper Lady (Englefield, #1) by Isabel Cooper

I am disappointed. I generally love the combination of Historical Romance and Urban Fantasy, so I was excited to read No Proper Lady. I also love time travel, so that just added to my excitement. Unfortunately, the paranormal and sci-fi elements are lacking and as a Romance, it's simply boring.

Joan is from a Post-Apocalyptic future where demons have taken over and destroyed much of civilization. She's been sent back in time to stop the wizard responsible for unleashing the demons to save her world at her own expense. There she immediately meets Simon who is acquainted to this evil mastermind and wants his own revenge. This all sounds fun and exciting, but it wasn't.

There's a six week time jump, which I assume is just Joan's "training" in etiquette and the like. But after that...still nothing. It's boring. Joan is attempting to seduce this wizard, which seemed to take no effort at all. In the meantime, we're constantly told how aroused Simon is by Joan. Their first sexual encounter was brought on by an aphrodisiac that the evil wizard slipped into Joan's drink for no apparent reason (he didn't even make a move on her, just sent her home). It just wasn't good.

No Proper Lady's only interesting character was Simon's younger sister, Ellie. She's the reason for Simon's revenge. This evil wizard had summoned a demon who then possessed Ellie's body! That is screwed up. She's now dealing with the aftermath of that, and I wanted to know more about her.

No Proper Lady had all the makings of an excellent hybrid novel, but it fell short on all elements. The lovers are boring. The relationship took too long to get going and then wasn't believable. The bad guy was also boring and defeated easily. The ending was beyond cheesy.

Review: Odd One Out by Nic Stone

I love love triangles, so I was definitely looking forward to Odd One Out's bisexual love triangle! Jupiter and Courtney have been friends forever. Courtney wants more, but Jupiter is a lesbian. Then Rae moves to town and Jupiter is immediately smitten, but Rae starts falling for Courtney. Clearly, this is going to be a big mess.

Messy is the best way I can describe Odd One Out, and mostly not in a good way. I was certainly intrigued, but everything felt so disjointed. It's almost as if there were three totally separate stories happening here and they got throw into a blender. There's the actual love triangle, which wound up rubbing me the wrong way. Then there's Courtney and Rae's quest which was super weird, but I was oddly into it. That didn't get enough attention though. Finally, there's Jupiter's struggle with her sexuality.

I did not like how Courtney was basically just waiting for Jupiter to reciprocate his feelings. I definitely believed he had feelings for her, but it was kind of gross how he just could not get the fact that she was a lesbian through his head. Of course, this comes into question when Jupiter starts questioning her sexuality. The ending basically felt like straight boy wish fulfillment.

As for Courtney and Rae's relationship, it started out rocky, but then they bond over their childhood hero, Carnival Carl who mysteriously disappeared one day. A day that is etched in both of their memories forever, since that's the same day Courtney lost his father and Rae's mom left. They want to find out what happened to him to find some kind of closure. This could have been its own book with a fun mystery and possibly some high emotions. Instead, it felt kind of thrown in to get these two close to each other and isolate Jupiter.

The last third of the book is focused on Jupiter and her coming to terms with her feelings for Rae and Courtney, and her sexuality in general. This was interesting, but a lot of it felt forced. There is this problem with people assuming lesbians just haven't found the right guy yet, and this is brought up, but it felt like it was mentioned so that it wouldn't look like that's what's happening with Jupiter and Courtney. He didn't "turn" her. It was just very jumbled and like the author was trying really hard to make sure that the reader doesn't think this. That could have been accomplished by spending more time with Jupiter's emotions and confusion over what she was doing with her best friend.

In the end, Odd One Out just didn't work for me. The themes and premise are excellent, but it wasn't pulled together.

Review: Reforming the Cowboy by Marisa Cleveland

Reforming the Cowboy is another "reforming" Romance where there is no reforming. Billy is a washed-up Country singer who's been out of the spotlight for a decade. He's trying to make a comeback, and his first bit of exposure is a weekend gig for the grand opening of Lacey's Cafe. The owner, Lacey, had a crush on Billy when he was still touring, so needless to say, she's quite happy to meet him. Of course, the two start up a whirlwind romance, but when Billy starts getting more opportunities, can they make it work?

One of my least favorite Romance endings is when someone gives up their dream in order to be in the relationship. Reforming the Cowboy almost has this moment, but I was still annoyed because Lacey was more than willing to do it! She spends nearly 200 pages saying how her cafe is her dream and her life and she's going to make it work. But after a week she's ready to move out of state to be with Billy when he says that they don't have to be long-distance? I don't think so! Luckily, the man had a plan that did not involve her closing up her week-old business.

I knew Reforming the Cowboy wasn't going to be my jam, but for different reasons. I actually enjoyed most of it, but toward the end, Lacey just drove me bananas. I had actually been pleasantly surprised at how normal their relationship was going, and then it all went down hill when Lacey purposely misinterpreted Billy's lyrics, didn't even listen to the entire song, and chose to listen to his clearly jealously unhinged ex-girlfriend. All before being too willing to give up her dream for him. Sorry, but no.

Review: Operation Saving Daniel (Melville Sisters, #1) by Nina Croft

For being a Paranormal Romance, Operation Saving Daniel was pretty light on the "paranormal." I mean, Daniel is a werewolf and the ultimate showdown was between him and his pack leader. But most of the build up was Lissa trying to seduce him away from his awful fiancee, and Daniel pretending to be this emotionless robot.

Ten years ago, Lissa and Daniel had one special night together before she ran off. Now, she's back and hopes to get him out of her system for good. I'm not sure how seeing him again after so long is suppose to accomplish that, but okay. The man she finds is certainly not the same one she left a decade ago, but she can tell that something about him isn't right. Meanwhile, Daniel is caught in an engagement of convenience (or so he says) with an awful woman, but he really has no say in the matter if he wants his sisters to live. Of course, all of this is backed by the fact that Daniel and his fake fiancee are werewolves, but the plot could have been exactly the same if they were human.

Once the paranormal elements of Operation Saving Daniel kicked in, it was nearly over. All of the excitement in crammed into the last quarter-or-so, and one of the big bad wolves is killed off the page! That was majorly unsatisfying. At least Lissa and Daniel got their happily ever after...

Review: Operation Cinderella (Suddenly Cinderella, #1) by Hope C. Tarr

Operation Cinderella simply rubbed me the wrong way. It's an opposites attract, nemesis to lovers Romance. Although Ross doesn't know that they're opposites or nemeses, since Macie is undercover to write an expose on him for her magazine after he trashed one of her articles. He's ultra conservative and has some serious issues with teenage sex, and teenage girls in general, so he wants a live-in housekeeper/nanny for his daughter who will uphold his old school values. Macie is anything but old school, but she fakes it to get into his life. Needless to say, her plan fails and they fall in love and live happily every after.

My main issue with Operation Cinderella was Ross himself, and not just because he's a Republican--he actually wins a Republican of the year award, ew. He hires a woman to be a role model for his fifteen year old daughter. As far as I could tell, the only thing the girl did wrong was wear too much makeup, have a few piercings, and wear ripped jeans. Otherwise, she's a normal teenage girl. Later into things, Ross is lamenting about being an awful father because he forgot to pick her up and she wound up in a car accident. Then five minutes later he whisks Macie away to have sex because his daughter probably isn't going to wake up anytime soon. THEN, Macie reveals her issues with sex, and his response is basically that she just hasn't had sex with him (and it works). Gross.

Review: Temptation by Fire by Tiffany Allee

Temptation by Fire is a largely forgettable Paranormal Romantic Suspense novel. It has an exciting premise: physic tries to save a man's life after seeing his gruesome death only to be sucked into a world where demons are real, and the hunters are sexy! Ava has always considered her visions a curse, but it's what brings her to Karson, a demon hunter out for revenge. This is all well and good, but I could not keep my mind on this story for some reason.

Every time I sat Temptation by Fire down and picked it back up, I had forgotten what I had read. Nothing would stick. I just was not interested in these characters. Karson was pretty flat for me. All he wanted to do was exorcise demons and kill the one that murdered his entire family. And have sex with Ava.

Ava was just all over the place. First she sees a man die by fire and warns Karson since he was with the man at the time. Karson explains that what she saw was a demon, but she gets it into her dead that Karson is the demon when she walks in on him trying to expel the demon from the man's body. But then she wants to help, so she goes on an "undercover" date with the demon and then freaks out because something is "off" about him. No duh! He's a demon! I was so frustrated with her!

Of course, in the end, good triumphs over evil. I couldn't begin to explain to you how Ava and Karson beat the demons, because like I said, it's totally forgettable it. I can tell you that Temptation by Fire does have the requisite happy ending though. I just didn't care.