Friday, July 30, 2021

Romance Quick Reviews

To Love a Prince by Rachel Hauck (2020)

When they were children, Daffodil spent a lot of time with the royal family, particularly Prince Augustus, but when she inadvertently stumbles across a royal secret of epic proportions, the Queen banished her.  Now 18 years later, she runs into Gus and they pick up right where they left off, and maybe a bit more.  This was actually a contemporary novel, which I perhaps wasn't expecting at first.  I loved learning about Daffodil's career as an art curator, but the relationship between her and Gus was the heart of the book.  Neither has had great luck in love, and when they meet again, both quickly realize that it's what they've been searching for all along; now they just have to convince the Queen that it's a good match.  This was a sweet and well-written story.  I wanted to know what the big royal secret was, and it was pretty surprising, although not totally dealt with well, in my opinion.  The book is Christian fiction, which didn't really come up often until the end of the book and helped explain some things.  3.5 stars

Squeeze Play by Aven Ellis (2017)
 
Recent college graduate Hayley has found her dream job at a Washington, D.C. nonprofit.  She has no plans to start dating, until she meets professional baseball player, Brody, who challenges her in the best ways.  I didn't love this book, but I did think it was a cute read.  Hayley was a bit of a mixed bag for me - I feel like she tried to portray this really mature demeanor, but she still seemed immature in a lot of ways.  I appreciated that she wanted to better herself and her career, and she seemed to have a pretty solid plan of doing that.  The relationship between Hayley and Brody was sweet with just a little bit of heat.  I loved their banter and the way they challenged each other on what they wanted out of life.  The support and honesty they showed each other was really inspiring.  That said, the writing was a bit simplistic and repetitive.  Their conversations often felt a bit unrealistic and too sugary sweet.  What little drama there was was solved way too quickly and easily.  3 stars


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11 comments:

  1. I wouldn't have thought that To Love a Prince would be contemporary either until you mentioned it. Squuze Play doesn't sound like it was the best read ever but I love banter so at least it had that going for itself. Great reviews!

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  2. I definitely could see myself reading Squeeze Play. The mix of sports romance and the cute cover caught my attention. Too bad the execution wasn't better.

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    1. Yes, this was definitely a cover purchase!

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  3. Based on the cover I was definitely expecting a historical romance on that first novel. Squeeze Play sounds like one I would consider reading because I love romances that feature sports but that is a shame about the writing.

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    1. Yeah, I have one more book by Aven Ellis on my Kindle, but I'm thinking she's not the author for me!

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  4. I have Rachel's book on my shelf as I did enjoy her first royal romance series. Hoping it's a fun read - and thanks for the review!

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  5. To Love A Prince does not seem at all like a contemporary, so that must have been a fun surprise :) I love the cover for Squeeze Play, so sorry to hear the writing didn't live up to the cover.

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    1. It's always interesting to read about modern royalty!

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  6. That to love a prince is a contemporary novel is really surprising -- that cover really screamed that it was something historical!

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