I got a free 3-month Kindle Unlimited subscription and I’m going to town! I like KU because I can dabble with self-pub authors. Here are two of my recent KU reads, which both happen to take place in England.
I’ll admit this book got me with its cover. The cover model’s pose is all sophistication and arrogance but the fun lopsided letter lets you know there are about to be some shenanigans and let me tell you there are some shenans in this book.
Mr. Trouble is your basic fake fiancée setup; British playboy heir Jarred Maloney needs a suitable fiancée to prove to his father he’s responsible enough for his trust fund. Graduate student Kinsley Wells needs money to buy her apartment before it gets turned into a condo.The two strike a deal to play engaged until Jarred gets his trust fund back…but, I think we can all guess what happens instead. I never really saw myself as someone who likes the fake engaged trope, but I’m kind of into it–it’s like the hero and heroine are pulling a mini-con but then love pulls a con on them.
This book was a short, straightforward, satisfying read that hit the spot. I’d started reading it in a waiting room and ended up getting sucked into it and totally threw my reading schedule off. Now, this book will fall apart if you look too closely at it. Our British hero and heroine do things like using the word apartment instead of flat and dollars instead of pounds. Also–and I hate to note this–but there are some typos and errors in the text, which took me out of it. I normally let it slide but for a book that had an editor, there were quite a few jarring ones. – ★★★
There is this thing called Baader Meinhoff syndrome where once you notice something you notice it everywhere and I swear that is what is happening with me and Talia Hibbert. I feel like I saw her name on the AAR semifinalist list and now I see her books mentioned everywhere.
A Girl Like Her is the latest book in her new series about the small English town of Ravenswood. Evan Miller is a new-in-town blacksmith who can’t stop thinking about his new neighbor, the seemingly agoraphobic town pariah Ruth Kabbah.
This book is really beloved and I can see why. It features a super sweet beta hero and an autistic heroine which we don’t always see, but I’m going to be a black sheep on this book. I just could not connect with Hibbert’s writing. While I liked her characters overall, she’s much more interested in writing an emotional journey and I need a lot more external conflict. So much of the plot is confined to Ruth and Evan’s apartment.
Also this book hinges a lot around what happened in the past to turn the whole town against Ruth. We find everything out piecemeal and by the time the whole story is laid out I was just kind of confused about everything. –★★★
Sidenote: I am so glad she changed the cover, the other one hints at a raunchier read and makes the hero seem hypermasculine and alpha and Evan couldn’t be farther from that. The new one above is much more representative of the book’s vibe.
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| original cover |