Robyn Reviews: A PORTRAIT FOR TONI by Annette Lyon

From Amazon: Toni has no idea what she’d do without her best friend, Carter. Who else would she be able to vent to about her parents, her job at the dance studio, or her latest relationship woes? When Toni’s father lands in the hospital, Carter, as always, is there for her. 

That is, until he starts questioning Toni, saying he thinks she has an eating disorder. Then she starts dating Clint, the hot new guy at the studio, and somehow that puts a deeper wedge between her and Carter. When she’s hospitalized after an on-stage collapse, and Carter stupidly starts in with advice about food and weight, she sends him away—then instantly regrets it. 

Toni tries to mend the hurt between them, but instead of finding Carter, she stumbles onto proof that he has feelings for her that go way beyond those of a friend. Toni is left with the very real prospect of losing Carter forever, unless somehow she can return his feelings—but that’s impossible. 

Isn’t it?

Audience: Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Length: 295 pgs

Rating: **** (I really liked it)

Review: A Portrait for Toni was a very moving story. It tells the story of best friends who come to love each other despite problems and misconceptions. Toni is dealing with an eating disorder and Carter is trying to figure out how to help her. I thought the way Annette dealt with the very serious issue of Bulimia was very thoughtful and at the same time straightforward. There are also moments of humor which gives the story a real life feel. I was touched by the way the story came together in the end, and how each of the main characters had to change themselves in order to find each other. The story was well developed and you felt like you were part of their lives. I actually, sometimes, found myself wishing Carter would fall for Brooke because Toni was so blind! You will not be disappointed with this book. The characters are real and come across as imperfect, but lovable people, just like real life! Read it, you will love it.

Content

Sex: 1

Violence: 0

Language: 1

Overall Content Rating: PG

Source: Review Copy

Robyn Reviews: SAVING GRACE by Michele P. Holmes (Mirror Press, 2014)

From Amazon: After the death of her grandfather, the Duke of Salisbury, Grace Thatcher wants nothing more than to live quietly in the country with her younger siblings. Her father’s debts thwart those plans, and to protect her sister, Helen, Grace must marry a man of her father’s choosing. 

As each suitor proves less than desirable, Grace comes up with clever schemes, causing each to reject her. While staying at the mysterious Sutherland Hall, a middle-of-the-night mishap sends Grace into the arms of a stranger, Nicholas Sutherland—and provides inspiration for her grandest plan yet—one that will leave her reputation in tatters yet free both her and Helen from all possibility of marriage. 

Too late Grace regrets her rash actions when her father’s last choice, Mr. Samuel Preston, proves to be a gentleman and a friend. But Samuel is the sworn enemy of Nicholas Sutherland, the man responsible for her “ruin.” Now instead of being free, Grace is caught between two men—each with his own agenda.  

Audience: Adult

Genre: Regency Romance

Length: 339 pages

Rating: ***** (Loved it!)

Review:

“An early-morning mist shrouded the grounds of the Crosby estate as Grace Thatcher slipped out the front doors. For a moment, she stood alone in the chill and darkness, cherishing the silence and freedom where no one could see her. Then, blessing her good fortune at finding such cover, she crept down the wide steps and disappeared into the fog.”

With a beginning like that how can you not want to finish this book? One of the main things I loved about this book was the believability of the heroine, Grace.   She is human and fallible and makes many errors in judgment, but ultimately learns from her experiences. Nicholas and Samuel are the two men competing for her affections. Both have difficult pasts to overcome, yet each one goes about forgetting the past in different ways. Grace is the one who helps each of them while she is busy running from awful potential suitors whom her father has lined up for her to cover his debts. She is also trying to protect her siblings from his machinations.  Both Nicholas and Samuel are trying to save Grace, but ultimately, Grace ends up saving them.

This book has some light hearted moments, moments of forgiveness and learning, and moments of heartbreak. You will be uplifted and inspired as you read this book. You may even cry.

Grace’s upbringing helps her bridge the gap between classes and she is an honest and caring young woman who doesn’t always make the best choices. You will grumble and roll your eyes at the way she goes about doing this and sometimes you just want to shake the book and say “open your eyes!”  I loved this book from beginning to end.

I surely hope there is a book about Christopher!

Cons:

Sometimes I felt that there was not enough depth to Samuel and there should have been a few more details about his relationship with Grace’s siblings. Grace’s relationship with Lady Sutherland seems to have been resolved a little too easily, but I actually like the way they went about it. I would have liked a little more suspense for her whole situation with her father and the men he was trying to ‘sell’ her to.

Content:

Sex: 1

Violence:1

Language: 0

Overall Content Rating: PG

Source: Review Copy

You Might Like: “Kiss of a Stranger” by Sarah M. Eden; “Edenbrook” by Julianne Donaldson; Actually, anything by these two authors!

Follow Robyn on Twitter @birdmom8 for 160 character reviews of the books she's reading!

Review: ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE by Gail Carriger (Little Brown, 2013)

From Amazon: It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail's legions of fans have come to adore. 

Genre: YA Steampunk, Fantasy, Historical

Audience: Young Adult

Length: 327 pgs

Rating: ***** (I really loved it!)

Review: Gads, guys, it's been so long since I finished a book. So much other things going on and it hurts me. THIS book was the perfect one to coast in on. Lovely and epic voice. I started Parasol Protectorate (and put it down for personal reasons) and LOVED the voice and the idea and all of it. E&E was so perfect. It had wonderful characters, all of them well thought out, probably all able to have their own story. The execution is hilarious. It felt like the end wrapped up quickly, but it still really worked. Like a cross between Harry Potter and Georgette Heyer--witty, fun, great school world. I'm excited to read the second one!

Content

Sex - 2 (Characters decolletage and bosoms are discussed a few times. It is discussed that certain teachers look more like prostitutes than teachers. The girls speculate that a werewolf teacher may be naked under his coat, and another insinuates that she has heard that werewolves are good in bed, though it is not said bluntly. "I hear they make the best...oooh la la.")

Language - 0

Violence - 2 (There are fights with Flywaymen, with a werewolf, and between spies at a ball. Nothing remotely graphic.)

Substance Abuse - 1 (Some boys spike punch at a ball.)

Content Rating - PG-14

Source - I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

As of writing, ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE was on sale on Kindle for $2.99

Review: DIE FOR ME (Revenants, 1) by Amy Plum (HarperCollins, 2011)

From AmyPlumBooks.comhttp://www.amyplumbooks.com/books/: 

In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.

When Kate Mercier’s parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.

Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate’s guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he’s a revenant–an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Audience: Young Adult
Length: 344 pgs

Rating: **+ (I liked it.)

Review: First off, excellent concept. The idea of people who save the lives of other constantly, who battle evil. I love the idea. I was swept in at the beginning and was right with Kate as she discovers Vincent and who he is. Then in the middle it swung off the tracks for me. I think I wanted something packed with action, and if I'd read this as a basic romance with some thrills, I would have seen it differently. The middle became all about their relationship and much less about the larger plot that involved revenants--and that's what I wanted to explore. So, unfortunately, for me, by the end, the action felt contrived and settled fairly easily. The middle also felt like Twilight, but in Paris. The author began with some distinctions between the French culture, but also as the book went further along, it lost that. The characters--besides Kate and her sister, who are American--all spoke like Americans, using colloquialisms that the author corrected early on. Not sure if I'm interested enough to read the second and third books.

Content:
Sex - 2+/5 She and Vincent cut off a passionate kiss that both infer is very close to leading further. They kiss passionately several times. Kate discusses nude people in art. There is a nude model in Jules' apartment when Kate visits.
Language - 2/5 Constant vain use of "God." Two instances of "Damn"
Violence - 3/5 Lots of discussion of people dying and how they died. Fighting. A detailed and gory fight scene at the end.
Substance Abuse - 1/5 They got to clubs and other characters drink alcohol, though Kate drinks only Coke. She drinks "bubbly" at her birthday dinner.

Source: Bought on Kindle during a $1.99 promotion

Try this. Like Young Adult Paranormal Romance? Read PARANORMALCY by Kiersten White.

Review: TIGER LILY by Jodi Lynn Anderson (HarperTeen, 2012)

From Amazon: In this stunning re-imagining of J. M. Barrie's beloved classic Peter Pan, New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson expertly weaves a gripping tale of love, loss, and adventure.

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair… Tiger Lily. When fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan deep in the forbidden woods of Neverland, the two form a bond that's impossible to break, but also impossible to hold on to. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. However, when Wendy Darling, a girl who is everything Tiger Lily is not, arrives on the island, Tiger Lily discovers how far she is willing to go to keep Peter with her, and in Neverland.

Told from the perspective of tiny, fairy-sized Tinkerbell, Tiger Lily is the breathtaking story of budding romance, letting go and the pains of growing up.

Genre: Young Adult Romance

Audience: Young Adult

Length: 309 pgs

Rating: ***** (Really loved it)

Review: In preparation for this book, I read Peter Pan. It was quick. Loved it. Fun voice. Adorable. Then I read Tiger Lily. Loved it, in a the bitterest way. First off, the idea of Tinkerbell narrating was ingenious. I loved the voice. I loved how Anderson stayed true to the character while still giving it her own spin. Perfect. I LOVED reading about Tiger Lily. I loved how she did Peter. True, but different. Perfect too. ALL the characters in this novel, the smallest of small, were so round and I loved them all. The end is so bittersweet, but if you've read Peter Pan, you know how that turns out. It's such a ride finding out how Anderson spins it all in. And all with such beautiful language too. Honestly, it did have more issues that I really like, but you all know me. I'm not much of a YA, contemporary-issue book person.

It is just that she was fifteen once for the first time, and Peter walked across her heart, and left his footprints there.

Content:

Sex - 2/5 Tiger Lily spends the night with the lost boys and lays down with Peter, but there's no discussion of sex. Rape is discussed.

Language 2/5 

Violence 3/5 Rape. Killing. Suicide. SPOILERS Tiger Lily is involved in *revenge* killings, one that she actually could not have possibly committed, but that the villagers attribute to her; the other it's only intimated that it was probably her. It intimates that another village girl kills a man who repeatedly raped her. (Even though some of these were *justified* they did really bother me in that it seemed like the tone of the book was "they did this and it's okay because the people who died deserved it.)

Heartbreak - 5/5 ;) But it's beautiful. Don't worry.

Source: Free on Kindle during a promotion.

Review: TWELFTH NIGHT by Deanna Raybourn

From www.DeannaRaybourn.com: To mark the passing of another decade, the esteemed (and eccentric) March family have assembled at Bellmont Abbey to perform the Twelfth Night Revels for their sleepy English village. But before Lady Julia and her handsome sleuthing husband, Nicolas Brisbane, can take to the stage, a ruckus in the stable yard demands their attention. An abandoned infant is found nestled in the steel helm of St. George. What’s more, their only lead is the local legend of a haunted cottage and its ghastly inhabitant—who seems to have returned.
Once again, Lady Julia and Nicholas take up the challenge to investigate, and when the source of the mystery is revealed, they’ll be faced with an impossible choice—one that will alter the course of their lives forever.

Genre: Romance, Mystery
Audience: Adult
Length: 51 pages

Rating: **** (Loved it)

Review: First off, I loved the voice of this novel. Lady Julia was a fantastic narrator who drew me in right off. To be honest, the whole thing was just too short! It was really fun and I loved the relationship between Lady Julia and her husband Nicholas. The "mystery" solved itself too easily, I thought, but it was only fifty pages. Having never read any of the others, I felt lost sometimes, but not in a frustrating way--more in a way that I wanted to read the rest of the books.

Content:
Sex - 2/5 (Lady Julia and her husband's nighttime activities are discussed, though tastefully. Lady Julia talks about her sister having lived with another woman as "man and wife, or wife and wife.")
Language - 0/5 (None that I recall...)
Violence - 0/5

Source: Via Kindle during a free promotion

Try this. If you like fun historical romance novellas, read mine, A LADY AND A SPY. 

Review: BLACKMOORE by Julianne Donaldson (Shadow Mountain, 2013)

From DeseretBook: Kate Worthington knows her heart and she knows she will never marry. Her plan is to travel to India instead — if only to find peace for her restless spirit and to escape the family she abhors. But Kate’s meddlesome mother has other plans. She makes a bargain with Kate: India, yes, but only after Kate has secured — and rejected — three marriage proposals.

Kate journeys to the stately manor of Blackmoore determined to fulfill her end of the bargain sooner rather than later and enlists the help of her dearest childhood friend, Henry Delafield. But when it comes to matters of love, bargains are meaningless and plans are changeable. There on the wild lands of Blackmoore, Kate must face the truth that has kept her heart captive. Will the proposal she is determined to reject actually be the one thing that will set her heart free?

Set in Northern England in 1820, Blackmoore is a regency romance that tells the story of a young woman struggling to learn how to follow her heart.

Genre: Regency Romance, Historical
Audience: Adult (Clean)
Length: 320 pgs

Rating: **** (Loved it)

Review: I've had this book for a while in paperback and this presented a problem. Lately, with an almost-two-year-old running around my house and editing to get done on other projects, the only time I read is at night, in bed. So I've been reading my kindle a ton.

As many people have said, Blackmoore is a bit darker than Ms. Donaldson's first novel Edenbrooke. I think it's fantastic and even better than Edenbrooke. There's more depth and just a lot of soul in this novel. I loved the three proposals plot line. There were quite a few "secrets" in the beginning and I began to wonder if we'd get to know anything, but the way the heroine reveals them worked well too. If a couple minor secrets, like why Mrs. Delafield hated Kate's mother, had been revealed a bit earlier, I could have understood Mrs. Delafield a little better. There was a few things I wanted wrapped up better, but still, all in all, wonderful and excellent.

Content:

Sex 0/5
Language 0/5
Violence 0/5

Try this. If you like romances with depth, read Longing For Home by Sarah M. Eden