Bethany M. Sefchick

Ok, so, of course I liked it, Julia is a scarred and rather insecure heroine, there are Regency Regina George(s), and I enjoyed the teasing of mystery around the origin of her scars. But, I think I would have preferred for things to have been a bit more simple, it felt like it got a bit cluttered with drama. There were a few too many threads to me, and I think I would have liked there to have been a more narrow focus with more depth, rather than shallow hops from drama to drama. And at times, the protagonists’ behaviors toggled between repetitive and inconsistent. But short stories do have some limitations as a format, so some of my criticisms are to be expected. It had some nice steam, and hits on some favored tropes, so overall a win for me.… (plus d'informations)

My feelings about this book are all over the place. There are a few things that are a bit “off,” like the misuse of a title, and the throwing around £50,000 casually as if it is not over SIX MILLION DOLLARS. But there is an insecure, disabled heroine and angst and misunderstandings like I like, so it won me over in the end. The subplot with the sister-in-law Sarah’s behavior put a damper on my enjoyment however. She’s the heroine in the previous book, so it struck me as odd that she would be such an ass in this one. Ruining Miri and Will’s relationship in order to protect her future children from possible scandal? What a selfish bitch! The writing felt a bit inconsistent as well, like that some parts had been well-edited and others less so. At multiple times I was getting bored with things being repeated over and over for multiple paragraphs, but then other parts made me tear up, they were so lovely. Overall though, I liked this.… (plus d'informations)

This was a tough one for me to rate. I rounded up a half star cuz I liked it more than my review implies. I do have a deep dislike of instalove, and this is the most instant instalove I’ve come across. Now, I am definitely willing to overlook some ahistorical bits or modern ideas used to move the plot along when it’s well-written and within reason - suspending my disbelief and all that. But for this book, the inaccuracies just made the hero seem, well, weak. Perhaps I’m mistaken, but I believe primogeniture in regency England was pretty non-negotiable. Like, maybe if the heir is deemed incompetent, or gay (which was considered the same in that era), but you couldn’t just write a will threatening to bypass the entail if the son didn’t marry according to his mother’s wishes. And you wouldn’t need a lawyer to figure that out. Maybe if there had been something in the codicil about a vast unentailed fortune that was necessary to keep the estate afloat, I might be more forgiving, but even that is unlikely as it still makes the hero seem kinda pathetic, or at least not very in love with the heroine. Also, I really, really wanted Elizabeth and Angeline to get their comeuppance! I picked this up despite my intense dislike of love triangles because I suspected this to be not a true one. Meaning, I expected the sister to be a villain and that I would have no qualms at her being disappointed. Which was definitely the case, but I still wanted to see the Regency Regina Georges have to eat crow! Just one scene with them being disappointed in the outcome was not enough to satisfy me. Also, a touch of editing would have helped but it wasn’t egregious. The inaccuracies mostly chaffed because they hindered my enjoyment of the characters rather than bolstered the plot.… (plus d'informations)