It’s the last Monday in May.
Wait. WHAT?
I can’t believe how fast this year is zooming by. May was a doozy of a month, so I’m looking forward to June. I’ll be working on first round edits of Risky Return, final edits of Flight Risk, my sister is getting married, and my current work in progress is making me very, very happy.
One positive to May was that I read two really phenomenal books.
Prior Engagement by Karina Bliss. This is the end of her SAS series, and it’s just amazing, phenomenal storytelling and writing. This particular book was emotional, challenging, and explored some tough issues. Bliss does military heroes like no other author out there. It takes a skilled writer to make a back-to-life story realistic, emotionally resonating, and deeply satisfying. Bliss does all three perfectly in this book.
The Rebound Girl by Tamara Morgan. In my Goodreads review I basically said I’d give this story eleventy billion stars. That’s for a lot of reasons. I’ve said it before, and I’ll likely continue to say it. For me, romance is not about escapism. Reading anything isn’t about being taken away on a fantasy (for me, everyone has different reasons for reading, and that’s great. Read because whyever!). I like to read fiction to be taken into a realistic world, and Morgan does that with her heroine. There are times I *hated* what Whitney (the heroine) did, but it was so realistic, so true to the kind of person she was, that it didn’t make me hate her or the book. Cringe, yes, but she was such a believable, three-dimensional, not-perfect heroine and I LOVED that about her.
I also really enjoyed the complexities of the hero. He’s a “beta hero” and a total goody-goody. He’s also sweet and adorable (my hero trifecta!).
In the end, I think I enjoyed this book so much because it took traditional character types and gender flipped them. Whitney was kind of an alpha-hole, and good for her. Matt was kind of a wimp at times, and good for him. We’re all flawed, and I loved that these characters were flawed, learned from mistakes, loved wholly if not perfectly, and found each other on (eventually) equal ground.
Nicole Helm 