MyTiredBrain

Well written book. Neelu flys to Scotland to attend her somewhat-estranged father’s wedding. She has a one-night-stand with Jacob, who is a nice distraction, but she doesn’t plan to ever see him again. So she’s surprised to see him at the rehearsal dinner, where she gets tipsy and may have said some things that could scare off her dad’s fiancée, Maggie. When Maggie pulls a runaway bride before making it to the altar, Jacob blames Neelu for ruining everything. She, Jacob, and her dad go on a trip to find Maggie. Jacob is a kilt-wearing bagpiper who is also a poetry professor. Maggie’s son was his best friend, but he died of cancer. Jacob’s parents died when he was young, so Maggie is like a mom to him. They met Neelu’s dad when he was getting cancer treatments too, and all became very close. Neelu feels her dad was an absent father, and she feels abandoned by him. It hurts to see him so easy and loving towards Maggie and Jacob, when he is so stiff and standoffish with her. Jacob is judg...

Emery is on the verge of losing her husband, Luca, because she’s so focused on her top-secret research program that she forgets all other commitments. When she sees him die in an accident, she uses her program to save him, and changes her workaholic ways to save the relationship. He has amnesia, so it’s a second-chance for her to build the life they want.  I like the smooth writing. There is a thriller sub-plot that was pretty obvious. Her coworkers conspired to get her research and the life-saving compound. The fact that the killing of Luca was intentional and a set-up seemed very far-fetched, since the timing and injuries would have to be just right. The nosy neighbor, Betty, was kind of cute. 

It was cute. At times it felt like the female main character was too in her head, and we had to read over and over her indecision. Once the case got going it was better. Some of the banter was good.  Danica is a lawyer committed to her job, with no interest in a relationship. She knows Ezra is a playboy, but she can’t seem to stop sleeping with him. She hates him. She has feelings for him. When they become on opposite sides of a big divorce case, their adversarial relationship comes to a head.   Family dynamics played a big part in this book. Ezra’s mom had an affair so his “father” isn’t his bio dad, and constantly treats him like crap. Danica’s parents were friends who decides to have sex once, realized they didn’t have romantic feelings for each other, but got married when they realized they were pregnant. They divorced as soon as Danica went to college, and she felt her whole life was a lie. 

I liked the writing, and the juxtaposition of the MC’s scientific mind against the stupidity of a reality tv dating show. Grace’s mom, dad, and two brothers are all influencers with zillions of followers, so as a scientist, she’s a fish out of water in her own family. To be able to continue her lab’s mission of saving endangered frogs, she goes on a reality tv dating show in the hopes of raising money. She constantly battles with the show’s lawyer, Andrew, while trying to navigate the challenges of reality tv. There were some laugh-out-loud moments.  Some of the conflicts felt contrived, like how the producer forced Grace to ask out another contestant, leading him on and hurting another friend she’d made on the show. And Andrew’s almost leaving felt like a last-minute wrench. It seemed like she could’ve asked her family for help from the start, so the whole needing to be on a tv show angle felt a little contrived too. All that being said, it was funny and I’d happily read another A...

I loved Mrs. Nash’s Ashes, and this kind of wacky romance is right up my alley. I liked the book. I liked the writing a lot. I wish I could have loved the book. I’m not sure what was missing. I liked both characters, Callahan (an antiques dealer who finds himself in possession of an illegal taxidermied goose), and Annie (the niece of Harold, who co-owns the store with Callahan). While I understood it would be connected, I found the chapters going back to the early 1900s jarring, and they took me out of the story, interrupting the flow. Callahan’s journey was fun to read, and even touching in spots. Annie was a little harder to connect to for me.  There was a cute interaction when Callahan is taking off his sweater and gets stuck in it, and he asks Annie to pretend it was suave. There were a few other cute moments that made me laugh, and the outrageous nature of their wild goose chase, once the goose goes missing, was mostly fun to read. (7.75)

I like STEMy romances. I didn’t love the FMC. It started very slow for me, and despite the very steamy nature of this book, I wasn’t sold on the chemistry between Scout and Hudson. It was a lot of tell without the show at first. Scout was a workaholic. A virgin who spent all her time working at a sex toy company, after her last job imploded. Hudson is not really fleshed out. For some reason it’s a big problem for her to be a virgin despite being a user of the company’s products. Does anyone really care? It got better as it went on, but Hudson stayed very meh as Scout started to grow/change. She started out feeling like relationships would make her lose focus at her job. She went on to make friends and accept Hudson’s presence in her life. Scout’s parents seemed comically evil. It was sex-heavy and storyline light.  (6.75)

I’m apparently on a brother’s-best-friend kick, since this is the second book in a row with that trope. The best part of the book may have been Ford adapting to having a daughter. He donated sperm when he was nineteen so he could have money to see Rage Against the Machine, and all of a sudden he gets a knock on his door. His daughter’s dad died and her mother is too depressed to care for her, so Ford steps in. liked the “little storm cloud” description. Ford has always been in love with Rosie, but she’s his best friend’s little sister. He thought all chances with her were done when she moved away to the city and moved in with her boyfriend. She gets fired after being sexually harassed, and shows up back home. And her relationship status is now changed to it’s complicated. Ford is a single billionaire, and he hires her to help with his newest project of starting a recording studio/retreat center. But now she’s his employee, and his best friend’s sister. Rosie is sometimes way too bratty...