Title: The Wildflowers Author: Dorothy Koomson In: I Am Heathcliff (Kate Mosse) Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect) My Bookshelves:Contemporary, Romance Dates read: 6th May 2019 Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Borough Press Year: 2018 5th sentence, 74th page: This time my body remembers how to move and takes a step back and lets in the woman holding a very large knife.
She’s being taken at knifepoint by the love of her life’s mother. A series of flashbacks and ruminations will let her finally understand all that happened ten years ago. And what’s about to happen now with a modern day Heathcliff.
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this short story. Most of the
stories in this collection have been really interesting and engaging. But not the
type of story that I would generally consider “enjoyable”. Which meant that I
was incredibly surprised when I enjoyed this so much. There was just a level of
sweetness and romance to it that the rest of the short stories in this
collection quite frankly don’t have.
I love the idea of a past love that was left, for a variety
of reasons in this case. But, the sweet revenge and poetic justice of the grandfather’s
“Heathcliff” revenge worked brilliantly. The complete turn around and the way
in which a really horrible family was forced to (maybe) attempt to become
better people worked brilliantly. And now I’m kind of sad that it’s over.
Title: Flotsam Author: Caitlin R. Kiernan In: The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2 (Trisha Telep) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Oceans, Romance Dates read: 5th May 2019 Pace: Fast Format: Short story Publisher: Robinson Year: 2009 5th sentence, 74th page: But it’s all the same, really, as I am hers to do with as she will, no strings attached, no farthest limits to my devotion; I made that promise the first night and have not yet regretted it.
Sometimes we make promises that are hard to keep. Other times, it’s the easiest decision we’ve ever made.
I found this tale a little hard to get through. Which was a little weird when I considered that so far, I have loved every Kiernanshort story that I’ve read. And then I realised that this entire story was a single block of text. No paragraphs or breaks of any kind. Just a big wall of sentences and text that reflected the vastness and overwhelming sense that the ocean provides.
There are so many ways in which the ocean is idolised and picturesque.
Yet this story doesn’t really highlight that aspect of the vast horizon, rather
it shows the idea that the ocean likes to take. As well as give. But, in the
case of this story and partnership, it takes and hurts, and in some, weird,
roundabout way, manages to make the giver feel more alive and vibrant. Makes them
feel that they’re vital in ways they weren’t before.
Title: Stepping Back Author: Sara Mackenzie In: The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance (Trisha Telep) Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Australian authors, Romance, Time travel Dates read: 28th April 2019 Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Robinson Year: 2009 5th sentence, 74th page: He was gone, the valley was gone, and when she turned back to the homestead, it was nothing more than a derelict ruin.
Helen wants to run away from a bad husband. Claire just wants to remember her past. Two women, one hundred years apart, and their lives are about to intersect.
The telling of parallel storylines is something that has
been growing on me more and more as I’ve expanded my reading knowledge and
obsessions. So finding one that involved time travel, the Australian landscape
and a woman willing to find herself a new life worked brilliantly for my latest
literary fascination.
This almost read like a murder mystery. The woman in the
present is desperately trying to figure out the history of the past. The woman
in the past is trying to escape a grasping, evil man. Yet, the villain isn’t
quite who you think he is. And neither are the women. They are both similar,
yet different in so many ways. And neither are able to rest until the truth is
finally revealed.
Jake has woken up on the same day in a different year since he turned 32. But, when he suddenly wakes up and finds a familiar face from the past, he begins to hope that his curse is over.
I kind of liked this version of time travel. Rather than
being two people from entirely different periods in history, it’s two that are born
just far enough apart to make their relationship impossible. And it features
the damage that time travel could do to a person. The ways in which being
thrust from your time and place, everyone you know and love can destroy some of
the hope and happiness in a person.
Age gaps in relationships generally bother me. Even when
it’s vampires. (What twenty-year-old wants to date an 800-year-old? It just
seems wrong.) Yet this age gap wasn’t too bad, alright they did meet for the
first time when she was fourteen and he was thirty-two. But the fact that his
time jumping doesn’t slow down until they are actually at the same age and it’s
less… icky was kind of nice.
Most of the time travel stories I’ve read focus on jumping
through a large gap in time. Something a little more permanent. Yet, this is the
repetition of a day again and again. Just in a different year each and every
time. There is no really forwards and backwards movement, but a stagnation of time
for the poor sap.
Title: High Stakes Author: Erin McCarthy Series: Vegas Vampires #1 Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Paranormal romance, Romance, Vampires Dates read: 9th April 2019 Pace: Fast Format: Novel Publisher: Berkley Sensation Year: 2006 5th sentence, 74th page: Did you have a pleasant flight to Nevada?
From the USA Today bestselling author of Bled Dry comes a vampire-meets-girl story about lust and love in the city that never sleeps – except during daylight: Las Vegas…
He’s a bloodsucking freak of nature. But, unlike other politicians, Ethan Carrick is a nice guy – and a hot, casino-owning vampire. It’s election year for vamps, which means he’ll first have to escape his opponent’s hit men and then find a First Lady, like the smart and sweet Brittany Baldizzi. But when her protective sister, Alexis, steps in with a message for Ethan – Bite me – he realizes it’s no-nonsense Alexis who raises his stake. And as much as she denies it, she wouldn’t mind a romp in a coffin with him. But can a mere mortal make a centuries-old womanizer feel something new?
I have had a bad month. I needed something fun and happy to read. So I picked up High Stakes. And it was just amazing! I couldn’t put it down. I couldn’t get my mind off of the story. I can’t wait to open the pages of Bit the Jackpot. It was all just so cute and easy. A great, fun read to sink my teeth into (pun intended) when the world around me just isn’t quite working the way I want it to.
I’m not the kind of woman that most people would consider
“traditionally beautiful and appealing”. I have average good looks and my
personality is full of stubborn, difficult ticks. Especially when I’ve decided
that I don’t want to do something. Which meant that I related very, very well
to Alexis. The fact that she has a leggy, outgoing and social sister who tends
to attract attention frequently just makes me relate all the more strongly to the
lead female. The fact that Ethan decides to choose the difficult, non-traditional
woman over the more outwardly suitable one… I thought it was just sweet. It
shows that we don’t always need what we think we want in life. And that those
little surprises that get you are the ones that make life fun and perfect.
Las Vegas features in so many TV shows and stories about America.
It seems to be one of those destinations that everyone has been to or wants to
go to on a messy weekend. Yet, this is the first story or series that I have read
which is based in this town. It brings a whole less seedy side to light and makes
it a lot more understandable why people like to travel here for a bit of fun.
At least, for me. The use of romance to sit against the flashiness of L.A. works
beautifully and helps to highlight the intensity and fun of each storyline.
If you’re single and alone, this is maybe not the best book
to read. It’s just so damn cute and coupley… I was home alone the night that I
read this and it definitely made me miss my partner. I may have started ringing
him to hurry home, just so I could get an affectionate cuddle and kiss.
Kate thinks she’s met the man of her dreams, but then a visitor from the future comes and asks her to make the ultimate sacrifice. Could he be the key to her true happily ever after?
This didn’t quite go the way I had expected. I was expecting
Patrick to be Kate’s lover and to try to stop her from being attacked or
something horrible on the night that he returns to visit her. Maybe I’ve just
been watching far too many crime shows. So it was kind of nice to find that
that wasn’t the tale of this at all. That it was a far sweeter, simpler and
more beautiful story than I had ever expected.
For the first story in a collection of time travel romances,
this was a great way to start off the collection. Not only is the setting of a wedding
a fantastic way to set a romance vibe, but it was also a soft and gentle
version of time travel. Rather than travelling back or forwards hundreds and
thousands of years, but a mere thirty-odd. The softness and relativity of this
travel is a great way to ease you into time travelling, something that I
honestly haven’t had much to do with yet, and not a genre that I would even
claim to know much about. But now I can’t wait to find out more.
Title: The Glass Casket Author: Jack Dann In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling) Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Easy reading, Fairy tales, Romance Dates read: 1st April 2019 Pace: Medium Format: Short story Publisher: Signet Year: 1993 5th sentence, 74th page: Before him a huge black bull and a red stag were charging at each other.
A Renaissance Italy retelling of a classic Brothers Grimm fairytale. One that doesn’t have a happy ending, but a beautiful bittersweet one.
This short story had an incredibly bittersweet ending. One
that I enjoyed thoroughly. It wasn’t sad, it wasn’t happy, mostly it was just
incredibly lonely. A tale that makes you think about the things that you could
have had, if only you stopped wishing for something just over the horizon.
The wording of this tale and the setting were kind of a nice,
romanticised version of Renaissance Italy. Unlike some of the other preceding
stories in this collection, there wasn’t a heavily sexual component, there were
hints, but it was kind of a floating hint. Something that you can see and find,
but you have to actually concentrate and look for it.
This was one of those fairy tales that made me content
reading it. There was no intensity and chaos, but it was just an easy, happy
and comfortable read. One that I will probably pick up again and again.
Title: Rolling Steel: A Pre-Apocalyptic Love Story Author: Jay Lake & Shannon Page In: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk (Sean Wallace) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Dieselpunk, Easy reading, Romance Dates read: 12th March 2019 Pace: Medium Format: Short story Publisher: Robinson Year: 2009 5th sentence, 74th page: He squinted into the depths of night through the prism that made up Rough Besat’s forward vision block, watching for the mill which loomed close, its fires never banked.
A pre-apocalyptic love stories are just so hard to come by. Except for this one… this one is brilliant and beautiful.
This is my first ever dieselpunk story. And it was a really
good, fun introduction to the subgenre. This was kind of funny, very fast-paced
and had a slightly pragmatic love story throughout. Alright, it’s not the kind
of romance that will make you clutch your chest and sigh, but it is one that makes
you have a little giggle and grin at the end.
I loved the jumpiness of this storyline. It flicks between
the two leads and in this completely alters the way in which the narrative is
told. From a completely sane, but obviously slightly unhinged female, to a bat-shit
insane male as they rocket through space to do… well, I’m not really sure what.
But I loved all of the action regardless!
Title: The Siren Author: Kiera Cass Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Fantasy, Romance Dates read: 26th February 2019 Pace: Fast Format: Novel Publisher: Harper Collins Year: 2009 5th sentence, 74th page: The moment of truth.
Love is a risk worth taking.
I’d waited an eternity for this.
I’d have waited all over again if I had to. I was meant to kiss this boy, designed to be held by him. All the careful postures I held melted away, and I pulled him closer.
We were STARS.
We were MUSIC.
We were TIME.
A heart-pounding romance from the bestselling author of The Selection series.
I was surprised by how much I loved this story. I was
expecting a good, fun bit of fluff. Something that would be easy, cute and only
slightly entertaining. Instead I found it impossible to put down and so
thoroughly enjoyable that I had a huge grin on my face when I finally turned
the very last page. There was just something so simple, cute and just
quintessentially sweet about it.
Kahlen was a really great lead character. She is feminine, sweet
and withdrawn. Throughout the entire story, she highlights the fact that it’s
okay to not want to be the kind of person who clubs or socialises. It’s even
okay to have the desire to just grow up and get married (it’s not my desire,
but I like that it’s hers). I also kind of love how she wears vintage clothing
and loves to bake. She’s the soft, beautiful best friend that I kind of want
for myself. Actually… my best friend is like this in a lot of ways to be
honest…
I believe in love at first sight. I even got that for myself
with my partner. And yet, when I read about it, I tend to find that I just
don’t really believe in it. there is often something so false and overdone in
stories about young love. Yet, there is something about Kahlen and Akinli that
actually makes this completely plausible. Their love has a kind of sweet and
angsty feel, but it also has a genuineness to it. They see beyond the superficial
to something far more deep and meaningful. Something that is integral to a true
relationship. The very reason that I loved their relationship completely. And
can’t stop thinking about it to be honest.
Title: The Carousel of the Margravine of Blois Author: Megan Arkenberg In: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (Sean Wallace) Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!) My Bookshelves:Ghosts, Romance, Steampunk Dates read: 29th January 2019 Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Robinson Year: 2008 5th sentence, 74th page: “I trust your tastes are not so common, M’sieur Saint-Pierre.”
M’sieur Saint-Pierre is in a house that is haunted, but he’s not quite sure who is doing the haunting here…
I’ve never had the soul wrenching experience of losing
someone who I dearly love. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve lost grandparents and
in-laws. But I’ve not lost my partner, I’ve not lost the person I love most in
all of the world. And I honestly can’t even begin to fathom what kind of pain
that is. So a beautiful little story about two people struggling with that loss
and trying to find a way to move on.
Love can be haunting, and so it kind of seemed fitting that this
was a bit of a steampunk ghost story. Or at least, it was a tale of hunting for
ghosts, and mostly finding them. And then realising that the best way to live
is to put the spirits to rest and move on. For both of them.
I found this short story kind of nostalgic and sweet. But it
also had a beautiful sense of hope for the future. One that left me with a
nice, warm feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Earth and Skye 