My Plain Jane

I read the first of the novels by “The Lady Janies,” My Lady Jane, a few years ago on a snow day. It was a “retelling” of Lady Jane Grey, the queen for nine days of famous British historic lore, full of magic and shape-shifting and humor gave this tragic story a fun twist and…

The Lost Queen

I have always, always, always been obsessed with the legend of King Arthur. I have read so many retellings of the story. (Mostly fictional – I love it, but I’m not a scholar. Haha.) But seriously, I read T.H. White’s The Once and Future King so many times growing up that the spine broke and…

The Little Paris Bookshop

I picked this novel up at a used bookstore a few years ago and never got around to reading it. It just sounded sweet and the cover is super cozy looking, but for some reason it never called out to me as my “next read.” During the last meeting for my long-distance book club, I…

The House of the Spirits

I have read a number of things by Isabel Allende over the years, starting with Zorro, when I was really probably to young to appreciate Allende’s prose, because my brothers and I were obsessed with the movie The Mask of Zorro, starring Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I cannot tell you how many…

Anna K

This new release was one of the books I managed to grab on my last giant library haul trip before they shut down to the public (so like, two weeks ago or so?). I, like many other readers, thought this (the shelter in place/coronavirus distancing situation) was going to be a great time to read…

The Right Swipe

I have had this one on my TBR as a contemporary romance to pick up next time I’m in the mood for one (I love sprinkling these in for fun between heavier reads). And then I moved it up the list a bit because I won the Kindle version in a Goodreads giveaway. Woot! The…

Get a Life, Chloe Brown

I’ve had my eye on this one since before it came out (not that long ago) because the reviews, from the start, have been so glowing. Everyone who has read it has liked it. And I’m always in for a universally popular contemporary romance. Plus, as a bonus, it also checks a box for The…

Royal Holiday

I read The Wedding Date last year, Guillory’s first novel, and it was so good! I enjoyed the heat and the focus on food and the story in general, especially how strong and ambitious the female lead was. But when her second book, The Proposal, came out, I wasn’t as interested (sports based romance isn’t…

Well Met

The second I hear about this one, I knew I needed to read it: a contemporary romance set at a Renaissance Faire?! YES PLEASE. It took me longer than I had hoped to get my hands on it, since for some reason not everyone was as excited about it as myself, so it was slow…

The Friend Zone

I picked this one up because I was in the mood for a contemporary romance (this has been happening a lot lately and I’m not mad about it) and one of my favorite romance bookstagrammers (whose recs have never led me wrong yet), @diaryofaclosetreader, had raved about it. The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez Kristen…