This romance novel takes the historical niche’s Reformation of the Rake plot full boar with its contemporary counterpart, in this case in a new adult story, The Pig Becomes a Person. Romance novels have a limited number of tropes, to which I have no objection, but there is one, The Reformation of the Rake, which has to be handled particularly carefully. The hero, who generally has been shagging anything that moves finds a magical woman who, often in their first encounter, so rocks his libidinous world that […]
The Hottest Old Curmudgeon in Town
Read this book. When an obnoxious stage actor needs a boost to his reputation which will both encourage business and improve his public standing, his costar is selected as just the right woman to be able to put up with him for the media’s gratification while secretly being rewarded with money for her charity at the same time. There are several ways an author can reform an asshat, but a partner who gives as good as he/she gets is the most fun, as is a reverse Taming of […]
Tropes, Types, and Tortes
I am a sucker for free or inexpensive ebooks, and lately, I have been collecting contemporary romances – apparently a lot of them involving food. In this case, uptight perfectionist baker and up and coming TV style maker meets troublemaking athlete and his immature siblings. The whole reason I picked this up was that it opens with a highly publicized wedding going horribly awry on live TV, which is pretty much pure catnip for me, because I am not a nice person. The epic wedding […]
Soft and Fluffy
In my on-going quest for lighthearted contemporaries I was steered to Shannon Stacey. I had read one of her novellas before, but this was my first novel of hers. It was good. Not great. Not remarkable in any way, but good. And some days you can’t ask for a whole lot more than that. This is the first book in what is apparently a beloved series (the Kowalskis). It is a second chance romance between former high school sweethearts. Keri Daniels and Joe Kowalski were […]