Rhoda Baxter

Five stars simply for the sheer enjoyment I got out of reading this cute and endearing story.
As someone whose idea of gaming is playing Candy Crush on my phone, I found the VR gaming scenes to be very suspenseful and exciting. It juxtaposed very well with the mundanity of real life that Luke and Sam had to navigate. Sam is trying to develop her own business and source funding and Luke is trying to deal with the ending of a business partnership.
Luke is such a lovable guy. He's sort of a Clark Kent kind of character; awkward and shy in real life but a badass in the gaming world. His crush on Sam is cute and you can't help but feel for him when all she can think about is his alter ego, Blaze.
There is a subtle nod to multiculturalism in the story but it's not really part of the narrative. I would've liked to have read a little bit more about Sam's heritage.
Luke and Sam are both very inexperienced and innocent when it comes to relationships and this shows in their interactions. He gets flustered and embarrassed around her and she over analyses all the banter and flirting between her and Blaze.
You have to wait until nearly the end of the book before Blaze and Sam resolve their miscommunications and reveal their true identities but it's a fun read all the way. I couldn't put it down.
I reviewed an advance reading copy.… (altro)

There's a brown woman on a royal romance cover!!! This was advertised on one of the many book emails I get and I was going to pass until I saw the heroine wasn't white. Bought! Devoured it and enjoyed it a lot!

Okay, yes, it's thinly veiled Meghan Markle fanfiction but it was still fun. Kumari is first generation Sri Lankan-British, a doctor, and a humanitarian. She's awesome.

I would have liked a bit more depth, and the plot was more rushed than I'd have liked, but it was still a fun, quick read.

I want more Lucy.… (altro)

A Convenient Marriage by Jeevani Charika

Cultural expectations can play a huge part in how people live their lives...or don’t live their lives. Wanting to please family, even if it means ultimately hurting oneself, is so ingrained from birth that it often can harm the person who lives a lie or gives up the person they love. In this story Gimhana is hiding who he truly is and playing a part and Chaya is afraid to be with the person that probably could have made her whole and the person she was meant to be.

Gimhana and Chaya think they have the perfect solution that will allow them friendship, someone to come home to and also provide stability and normalcy. What is the solution? Why, get married...though just a marriage of convenience. By marrying “suitable” partners they will also manage to get their families off their backs and stop all of the nagging they hear about getting married. And, though again living a lie, though a different one, they do seem to be getting along okay...at least for awhile.

This book had me hoping that Gim and Chaya would eventually find a way to live with the people that truly made them happy. They went through so much for so many years that I was sure they deserved some true happiness. Their lives do eventually turn out okay but they have some tough times before they achieve the HEA they deserve.

Well written and thought provoking I found myself wondering how difficult it would be to give up so much to please parents. Having lived in countries where homosexuality is still a crime I felt for Gimhana in ways I might not otherwise have. I know people that have given up the “love of their life” because of parental pressure and remembering them also came to mind as I read. So, definitely a book that made me think and care and hope the two would find peace after so many years of just existing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hera for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (altro)

Funny, sad and believable: ‘Girl in Trouble’ by Rhoda Baxter is the third in her Smart Girls series and, though some of the characters have cameo appearances throughout the series, can be read alone. Which is what I did, quickly, particularly enjoying the second half of the story. I was worried that the first chapter, in which we meet Olivia at a stag night, meant the book would be too chick lit for me but as the story progresses the themes become darker and complex.
Olivia is thirty, relationship-phobic and surrounded by friends. She is quite independent, thank you very much and does not need a man to look after her. She has never been in love, never allowed herself to be in love and knows this dislike/distrust of men can be traced back to her father who left her and her mother when she was a child. She also has a health issue that makes pregnancy a big risk, though to be honest I was a little in the dark about the specifics of this. Instead she is a serial one-night girlfriend. When she falls accidentally pregnant, Olivia thinks the decision to have an abortion is straightforward and sensible. Of course life gets in the way, in two ways. Firstly her absent landlord Walter, who lives in the upstairs flat, returns home and is hot and funny and makes her feel comfortable in a cosy sexy way; a first for Olivia. And then her absent father arrives on her doorstep.
This is a fast-paced well-written novel which runs the gamut of emotions from chuckles to tears to pain. Relationships within broken families, as the years pass, are not simple and Baxter explores the unresolved tension and anger of Olivia and her mother Liz towards her father Trevor. Graham, her stepfather, has been a calm and loving influence on Olivia since her teens, but she only starts to appreciate this once Trevor returns to the scene. The father/daughter theme is echoed also in Walter’s storyline. His divorced wife Charlotte is to remarry and take their daughter, Emily, to live in America. Walter, absent because of work through many of Emily’s baby years, realises what he has missed just as he is about to lose it.
If you like your girls to be girly then Olivia does not fit that profile. She keeps her thoughts to herself and is quite complex in her behaviour. She does not want children and, in discussions with her friend Ruchi, the for/against options for abortion are explored with Ruchi, at first, unhappy at her friend’s viewpoint. So although the cover design is bright and cheerful, ‘Girl in Trouble’ touches on some serious topics in a balanced and thoughtful manner. I would have liked to know more about Olivia’s work life as a solicitor though, in fact Walter’s career as a marine biologist is explained in much more detail.
If you’re going on holiday, or a long train journey, you will devour this. The first two novels in the series are ‘Girl on the Run’ and ‘Girl Having a Ball’, which I have not read.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/… (altro)