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Nuts
RECOMMENDED: Nuts by Alice Clayton is $4.99! I know the sale price is a little higher than what we feature, but the book is sooooo worth it. I personally love Clayton’s writing and it’s a great blend of humor and romance. I love the heroine, though I’ll admit the circumstances that send her back to her hometown are a little silly. And the next book, Cream of the Crop, comes out next month and is amazingly hilarious.
From New York Times bestselling author Alice Clayton, the first in a brand-new romance series telling the humorously sexy tale of Roxie, a private chef who gets a taste of love—but is it to stay, or to go?
After losing almost all of her clients in one fell swoop following an accident involving whipped cream, private chef to Hollywood’s elite Roxie Callahan gets a call from her flighty mother, saying she’s needed home in upstate New York to run the family diner. Once she’s back in the Hudson Valley, local organic farmer Leo delivers Roxie a lovely bunch of walnuts, and soon sparks—and clothing—begin to fly. Leo believes that everything worth doing is worth doing slowly…and how! But will Roxie stay upstate, or will the lure of West Coast redemption tempt her back to Tinseltown?
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The Bollywood Bride
RECOMMENDED: The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev is $2.99! This is a recommended contemporary romance and Dev is an auto-buy author around here. Redheadedgirl and Carrie did a joint review of the book and gave it a B+:
CarrieS: My super short review is, As a novel, this book is great, but as a romance novel, it’s not as good because the hero is not terribly convincing as a character. It’s interesting that we don’t get his point of view directly. That would have helped, because his character swings back and forth a lot between angel and jerk.
RHG: Yeah, it’s…. it’s kind of old school in that way? We get very little of the hero’s POV and it’s all about her. And yet decidedly neo-classic in that the trauma the heroine goes through has actual lasting consequences that aren’t fixed by magic wang.
Ria Parkar is Bollywood’s favorite Ice Princess–beautiful, poised, and scandal-proof–until one impulsive act threatens to expose her destructive past. Traveling home to Chicago for her cousin’s wedding offers a chance to diffuse the coming media storm and find solace in family, food, and outsized celebrations that are like one of her vibrant movies come to life. But it also means confronting Vikram Jathar.
Ria and Vikram spent childhood summers together, a world away from Ria’s exclusive boarding school in Mumbai. Their friendship grew seamlessly into love–until Ria made a shattering decision. As far as Vikram is concerned, Ria sold her soul for stardom and it’s taken him years to rebuild his life. But beneath his pent-up anger, their bond remains unchanged. And now, among those who know her best, Ria may find the courage to face the secrets she’s been guarding for everyone else’s benefit–and a chance to stop acting and start living.
Rich with details of modern Indian-American life, here is a warm, sexy, and witty story of love, family, and the difficult choices that arise in the name of both.
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Shadow and Bone
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo is $2.99! A YA fantasy romance filled with Russian elements, Elyse just mentioned this on our 200th podcast episode. It’s the first book in Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy. While readers loved the engaging characters and interesting storyline, most felt the author was in the habit of telling rather than showing. It has a 4-star rating on GR. Has anyone read this?
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.
Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy.
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Three Weeks to Wed
Three Weeks to Wed by Ella Quinn is 99c! Redheadedgirl reviewed this book and wound up giving it a C-:
This is one of those frustrating books where there’s a good idea but it gets bogged down in a total and utter lack of tension or conflict.  As a result, it’s an eye-rolling read.
But if it’s still on your TBR list and you want to give it a shot, it’s hard to beat the price of less than a dollar.
In the first book of her dazzling new series, bestselling author Ella Quinn introduces the soon-to-be Earl and Countess of Worthington–lovers who have more in common than they yet know. The future promises to be far from boring…
Lady Grace Carpenter is ready to seize the day–or rather, the night–with the most compelling man she’s ever known. Marriage would mean losing guardianship of her beloved siblings, and surely no sane gentleman will take on seven children not his own. But if she can have one anonymous tryst with Mattheus, Earl of Worthington, Grace will be content to live out the rest of her life as a spinster.
Matt had almost given up hope of finding a wife who could engage his mind as well as his body. And now this sensual, intelligent woman is offering herself to him. What could be more perfect? Except that after one wanton night, the mysterious Grace refuses to have anything to do with him. Amid the distractions of the Season he must convince her, one delicious encounter at a time, that no obstacle–or family–is too much for a man who’s discovered his heart’s desire…
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Shadow and Bone and the entire Grisha trilogy are very, very good. It had a great usage of Russian folklore, which is not one of those areas that has gotten a lot of play. Really nice depiction of a female that is figuring out how much power she has and actually struggling with how much she likes that power (basically, if she wanted to be a Sith, it just would not be that hard for her to do). I really liked Six of Crows too, which came out last year, and is set in the Grisha universe and is a heist tale.
I enjoyed the humor, and romance, in Nuts so much and am looking forward to the rest of the series. Since my husband and I are part of our local farmers market culture, I was drawn to the story and ended up reading parts of it to Mr. L. Buy local. You may get your own Farmer Pete or “tight purple shirt berry guy” to see each week!
NUTS: I dunno when I bought it but I sure didn’t pay no stinkin’ $5 for it. I have read it three times and it is wonderful every single time. Well worth $5. Feast on it.
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert is on sale for $1.99. I think it may have been mentioned here before
Is the Coincidence of Coconut Cake a good read, @Amy S?
the Bollywood Affair is 3.95 at Audible.
The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne is $2.99 on Amazon. It got an A- review from Redheadedgirl.
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/highwayman-kerrigan-byrne/
I am baffled every time I see The Bollywood Bride on “Must Read” romance lists or generally recommended all over the place. I thought the hero was absolutely horrible and the heroine was pretty much insufferable. Their romance wasn’t believable in the least and the way mental illness was dealt with throughout the book made me want to toss my e-reader across the room. My entire group of online book friends agreed with me. Here is a link to our book club discussion about it: http://cannonballread.com/2016/03/cannonball-book-club-reads-romance-book-chat/
I regret every cent I spent on that book. Romance needs to be actually romantic, this book – not so much.
I bought Nuts by Alice Clayton after you reviewed it here and it was funny, very Kristan Higgins-ish which is a very high compliment from me. I do LOVE me some romcom. Speaking of which, one of the Royal Romance books is FREE right now on Kindle. I recommend it highly, so funny and with a smartmouthed independent heroine and a hot bad boy pilot/prince. https://www.amazon.com/Royal-Rake-Romances-Book-ebook/dp/B01F2LEGMY/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5CY1B17RYY41B4FF5H81#nav-subnav
I got Nuts out of the library, and I’m… enjoying it? Sort of? I like the writing style, but so far the heroine is coming across as extremely condescending, self-absorbed, and catty rather than clever and snarky. A real “my sh*t doesn’t stink, and I’m surrounded by morons” type of character. Maybe she’ll grow on me, or just grow period? A few chapters in, she’s just constantly bemoaning and belittling almost everyone around her in her inner monologue, even beyond that person being obnoxious themselves.
@Dora, I see what you are saying here, but that is what made her real for me. Don’t we humans actually think like that? She is going through a huge loss, definitely believes her life is now downwardly mobile, and she has issues. She has been living with one set of values and is now confronted with different ones. To me, that made her three dimensional.
I enjoy a book much more when I can connect with the characters. Yeah, I don’t want to think of myself as having a bitchy side or a self-entitled side, but I think all of us really do. How we cope with that makes people (and characters in novels) interesting to me.
@Gloriamarie, no, I’m not saying I don’t have a bitchy or self-entitled side, or that these aren’t moods or feelings we all experience. 🙂 I’m saying that, to me, so far, the book has been nonstop complaining, bitching, and condescending about other people… right now, I’m not seeing any dimensions to the heroine other than her dissatisfaction with seemingly everyone and everything around her. She’s coming across less as someone who’s in a bad mood because she’s going through a rough patch, and more as someone who finds everyone and everything irritating and beneath them. Maybe it comes down to first impressions… opening the book with her mentally sniping at (and essentially slut-shaming someone… oh noes, she has big boobs, a gel manicure, is on a “size zero” diet, and her name is Mitzi!) someone for an extended period of time, even if it’s someone who wasn’t a super nice person, doesn’t necessarily endear a character to me. (I also respond better to characters who aren’t better than everyone else simply by reducing all the the other characters to unpleasant tropes… the “vapid” socialite, the manic pixie dream girl mom who made her grow up too fast, etc.)
Like I said, I’m hoping the narrative pulls out of it instead of being negative every step of the way as the first few chapters have been. 🙂 I may have my low moods, but I would hope that we could both say our thoughts aren’t a constant litany of displeasure with the rest of the world!
@Dora, you wrote ” I’m not saying I don’t have a bitchy or self-entitled side, or that these aren’t moods or feelings we all experience. ” I very deeply hope you did not feel as if I was accusing you of that. I was trying to talk about myself and my own feelings.
Yes, I noticed everything you point out. The first time i read it, I had endured something traumatic and it might be that I read all of what you comment on from the perspective of someone who had trauma in their lives and so was more sympathetic to this character. I know I was in a place where in my thoughts I was thinking the most horrible things about everyone I saw, not because they were guilty of anything, but because I was in such a horrible place.
So I guess I was in a very different place than you, the first time I read it. And in subsequent readings, I guess I remember my first response.
Something I value about this group is that we can intelligently, for the most part, express our differing viewpoints.
Although I am still waiting for someone to tell me if any man they can ask the question of has ever had the experience of grenades going off in his balls. Because I am most curious.
@Gloriamarie Amalfitano I don’t know I haven’t read it yet 🙂 Sounds good though
@Gloriamarie, I wasn’t implying that was what you meant at all, just trying to express/articulate why I felt the way I did, and that I, too, could identify with parts of it, if not all of it. Everyone has different experiences… yours are no less valid than mine. 🙂
@Dora, did I say anything to imply your experiences are less valid than mine, because that is how “yours are no less valid than mine” reads to me. I was clearly, it seems to me, speaking about myself and only myself and why I identified with the heroine. That in no way diminishes your experience or invalidates your reaction.
@Gloriamarie … no. When I said “yours are no less valid than mine”, I am literally saying that I acknowledge your feelings and wasn’t trying to state that I felt they were wrong. That’s it. Just literally a “we can agree to disagree, I’m not claiming to be in the right” statement.
@Dora, thank you. This is why I prefer to ask questions rather than make assumptions. Agreeing to disagree is excellent.