Summer Reads 38: The Indian Fan by Victoria Holt

 The Before:

This one was just a bunch of romantic-gothic stories I've collected. I'm at the point of my Summer Reads list where I'll be getting into more of what I would like to be writing.

The Feels:

This book has sucked me right in! There is a good amount of mystery and countryside building. I know that's not a legit term, but it's something I use to describe those novels set in rural settings and celebrate that sublime visual.

The Concerns:

I'm not a fan of the tension built between our main character and the little sister up at the Big House. The little sister is over the top spoilt bratty kid. It gets a bit cartoonish at points.

A little bit of Orientalism, which is not good. Does not read well in a modern context. Holt is a great writing, and this feels like a book that was written in the Victorian era... and there are parts of that that are realllllllyyy bad. I would like to be able to find a way that turns this trope on its head. How? I don't know yet. Maybe a main character that uses these tropes and then we as a reader realize what a pos they are?

Plot: 9/10
Writing Style: 10/10 
Meaningfullness: 8/10

Summer Reads 37: Susanne Weyn Once Upon a Time Books

 The Before:

I've read these before and loved them! I just was in desperate need of a palate cleanse after that nonsense I put myself through. 

The Feels:

Water Song, I think this one is my favorite! Such a pretty story and I remember the ending make me happy cry when I first read it.

The Night Dance, I lied... this one is my favorite. I'm a giant dork and I love the Barbie Twelve Dancing Princesses movies. I think they're fantastic👸. This is like that, but geared to an older audience. 

The Diamond Secret, This one is so pretty! I don't know how else to describe it. If you like the fake story of Anastasia, then you will like this one!

The Concerns:

I always feel a little bad when the tell the story of Anastasia... I mean we know she died tragically and it isn't good to lump her in with the rest of the fairytales. Although, if I died tragically young, I would love for someone to turn it into a romance-fairytale. That somehow I escaped my tragic fate.

Plot: 10/10
Writing Style: 9/10 
Meaningfullness: 8/10

Summer Reads 36: A Stroke of Luck by Andrea Pickens

 The Before:

LAST TRASH BOOK!!! LAST TRASH BOOK!!! (Don't worry there are still more GOOD books to come in my Summer Reads)

The Feels:

The Concerns:

And we end with an accent. OOF! He says the word "Arrghshoorraysir." Like duh f*ck?

Plot: /10
Writing Style: /10 
Meaningfullness: /10

Summer Reads 35: The Haunted Miss Hampshire by Kasey Michaels

 The Before:

GHOST?! yay!!

The Feels:

The Concerns:

When I hear there is a ghost in the book, I think it's going to go one of two ways; full ham Casper or horrifying demon ghost. This book did neither and now I'm sad. 

Plot: /10
Writing Style: /10 
Meaningfullness: /10

Summer Reads 34: The Questioning Miss Quinton

 The Before:

The Feels:

Ok, well this one actually made met think about something. Why are all the leads in these stories thin/slim/willowy and not pretty or crazy pretty? It's exhausting to keep hearing these same descriptions over and over again. I'm going to really have to concentrate on this when describing my characters. 

The Concerns:

Plot: 1/10
Writing Style: 1/10 
Meaningfullness: 2/10

Summer Romance 33: The Luck of the Devil by Barbara Metzger

 The Before:

I have four left of these shitty books. (I know there were originally 60, but some of them were really that bad... I had no words.

The Feels:

The Concerns:

You can't name a character Miss/Mrs. Simpson. All anyone will ever think is "PRoTect THe tHronE!!"

Plot: /10
Writing Style: /10 
Meaningfullness: /10

Summer Reads 32: A Perfect Scoundrel by Martha Kirkland

The Before:

What's a "natural daughter?" (see back cover)

The Feels:

The Concerns:

Brothers are Alex and Tony. What is this a 50s gang in the Bronx?

Plot: Pastrami/10
Writing Style: /10 
Meaningfullness: /10

Summer Reads 31: The Diamond Key by Barbara Metzger

 The Before:

The Feels:

The Concerns:

Torrie short for Victoria... I think not. Especially when the book is about rich asshats. 

Plot: 1/10
Writing Style: 1/10 
Meaningfullness: 1/10

Summer Reads 30: Ruled by Passion by Lois Menzel

 The Before:

The Feels:

The Concerns:

"Anne Waverly sat alone in the library of Wildrose Cottage. It was not actually a library, but a small morning room..." p.1 FIRST.F*CKING.LINE

I'll just let you think about that for a minute.

Plot: 1/10
Writing Style: -1000000/10 
Meaningfullness: 0/10

Summer Reads 29: Miss Chadwick's Champion by Melinda McRae

 The Before:

Yorkshire... better not use the accent.

The Feels:

Reminds me of one of Georgette Heyer's novels

The Concerns:

Yeah... I think she ripped off The Convenient Marriage... Even the hitting a guy in the head and almost killing him. 

Also if Heyer has taught me anything, it is that proper young ladies do not/cannot travel across England alone.  In Sylvester (I think it was?), she literally travels with a STRANGER! 

Plot: 1/10
Writing Style: 1/10 
Meaningfullness: 1/10

Summer Reads 28: The Perfect Fiancee

This one doesn't even get a proper review.

DON'T MARRY YOUR WARD!!!!!!!

That's literally what every bad guy tries to do in every gothic novel and OG fairytale

Plot: 0/10
Writing Style: 0/10 
Meaningfullness: -1000/10

Summer Reads 27: Twice Betrothed by April Kihlstrom

 The Before:

The Feels:

The Concerns:

Lord Stacy is not a sexy man name.

Plot: 0/10
Writing Style: 0/10 
Meaningfullness: 0/10

Summer Reads 26: Marry in Haste by Lyn Kerstan

 The Before:

Meet cute by hitting love interest in the head with a frying pan... That sounds bad, but it also sounds like the Disney movie Tangled!! 👸👸👸👸💖😻

The Feels:

Off to a good start. The dream is actually not too cliche. I like how Kerstan wrote about the lead; she doesn't know how to make hot chocolate and worried to upset the cook if she tries. She decides to make tea. This shows the reader that; 1.) cares about her staff. 2.) self aware as a person 3.) shows her privilege 

The Concerns:

Plot: 7/10
Writing Style: 8/10 
Meaningfullness: 7/10

Summer Reads 25: The Enterprising Lord Edward by Michelle Kasey

The Before:

The Feels:

The Concerns:

Plot is "this guy wants to f*ck my cousin, but she's can't f*ck. I guess I'll have to get him to f*ck me instead.

Plot: 0/10
Writing Style: 1/10 
Meaningfullness: 1/10

Summer Reads 24: The Toplofty Lord Thorpe by Michelle Kasey

The Before: 

The Feels:

The Concerns:

This is basically a continuation of my last post... would also like to add f*ck starting with a letter.

Plot: 1/10
Writing Style: .5/10 (Because of the double whammy of plot dump argument and letter)
Meaningfullness: 1/10

Summer Reads 23: The Ruthless Lord Rule

 The Before:

The Feels:

One upside... The over looks like Miss Fisher.


The Concerns:

*sighs* NO SPIES!! And wayyy too much exposition at the beginning of the book; total word dump. 


Plot: 1/10
Writing Style: 1/10 
Meaningfullness: 1/10

Summer Reads 22: The Shivering Sands by Victoria Holt

 The Before:

Another Victoria Holt novel; let's see if it holds up as well as the last one.

The Feels:
It did! Yay! Another good basic gothic novel. Love the countryside aspect of it. Feels a little like Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I think the perfect analogy is Jane Austen : Georgette Here :: Daphne Du Maurier : Victoria Holt.

The Concerns:



Plot: 7/10
Writing Style: 10/10 
Meaningfullness: 8/10

Summer Reads 21: The Shadow of the Lynx by Victoria Holt

The Before:

From reading the back, this sounds like The Count of Monte Christo meets The Castle of Otranto! 😍

The Feels:
I was not disappointed! I would also like to add in a little dash of The Witch of Blackbird Pond to that mix. This is a well written book and heavy with emotion. Holt has a knack for the sublime and I'm here for it!

The Concerns:



Plot: 8/10
Writing Style: 10/10 
Meaningfullness: 8/10

Summer Reads 20: A Proper Companion by Candice Hearn

The Before:

The Feels:
OOOOOO!! Love this conflict in the plot! The main characters are an elderly lady, her companion and the elderly lady's son. The son is engaged (pretty darn quickly) to a woman the elderly lady doesn't like. She so spends the rest of the book basically trying to set her son up.

The Concerns:
Normally, I don't like books that involve cheating of any sort. However, I don't feel like our two leads are really at fault here. The mom made them do it. Don't get me wrong, cheating is still bad. I just don't think this is exactly it. I've been cheated on and it sucks! I think I would feel differently if the he's mom set him up because she hated me. If she hated me that much, I would not want to be any part of that family!


Plot: /10
Writing Style: /10
Meaningfullness: /10

Summer Reads 19: The Dashing Miss Fairchild by Emily Henrickson

The Before:

The Feels:


The Concerns:
DULLLLLLLLLL

Says that 23 is an old maid. It isn't and wasn't at that time! Also refers to the main character as the Honorable Miss Clare Fairchild... You only use the title "Honorable" if the person is not from the UK...💩💩💩

Plot: /10
Writing Style: /10
Meaningfullness: /10

Summer Reads 18: The Vengeful Viscount by Leigh Haskell

The Before:

The Feels:
I love how observant Felicity, our main character, is. It shows us how self-aware she can be. We start the novel off at a funeral and just see with Felicity sees. She watches the reactions of her different friends and family members at the funeral. We not only see how/what she sees, but it allows for the reader to make snap judgments about the different characters. 

This method also draws us into the story, painting a picture of the world we are entering. Haskell starts the story by describing the town and townsfolk watching the funeral. We get a few random details about how the upper class is perceived before we even get to our main characters. 

The Concerns:



Plot: 4/10
Writing Style: 4/10
Meaningfullness: 4/10

Summer Reads 17: Lady Angel by Roberta Eckert

The Before:

I've been having some mixed luck with these summer reads. Let's see how this one goes.

The Feels:
This book might be trauma informed? I don't know if Eckert realized it or not, but these family dynamics appear to be trauma informed! Evelyn, our main character's mother, appears to be struggling with the passing of her own mother and a father, struggling with the trauma coinciding with the passing of his wife, that is emotionally distant. Evelyn's strategy for coping with this trauma is by acting out in extravagant ways. She strives for the attention she cannot get from her parents. Her sister, on the other hand, appears to cope with her trauma by being perfect. She probably feels abandoned by her parents and sees the negative attention her sister receives. Her way of actin out is by over achieving and striving for perfection as dictated by her social circumstance.  I think our main character, Angel, also falls inline with this idea. The passing of her grandmother has led to a multigenerational trauma. 

My big takeaway from this book is to be more trauma informed in my writings. It develops the characters in such a raw way. It makes them feel more like real, relatable people.

The Concerns
Angel is insulted when her grandfather states that not only does she have beauty and a good personality, but she also has a large dowery for when she marries, so it should be easy for her. Angel says there is more to her than so "prize" to be "bought". I mean... yeah... her grandpa just gave her two other complements. She has money, so what? It wasn't as though he said she was butt ugly and had a shit personality and the only way a man would marry her is for her money.


Plot: 4/10
Writing Style: 4/10
Meaningfullness: 7/10

Summer Reads 16: Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer

The Before:

I.LOVE.GEORGETTE.HEYER

The Feels:
She has not failed me! This is a wonderful book! Wonderfull messy drama with well rounded character. Main character works at her aunt's gaming house, which is frowned upon by the upper echelons of society. Love interest is perfectly broody and looks out for his young cousin. He was unlikeable with out being a total asshat or abusive, and that is always nice. (SOOO tired of abusive men in romance novels. It's harmful, toxic, and sooo unnecessary.) Def an "I hate you, I love you, I hate you, let's get married" sort of romance! 😍 My fave!

Also, upped the age of the main character. I really need to do this in my book. Allows for more self awareness.

The Concerns:
Couldn't put it down so I'm a little behind on housework...


Plot: 10/10
Writing Style: 10/10
Meaningfullness: 10/10

Summer Reads 15: The Runaway Bride by Judy Hedlund

The Before:

Audiobook! Switching things up.

The Feels:
I've made a terrible mistake.

The Concerns:
Just about fell asleep with this one! Weird historical comments that have very little context. Feels a bit all over the place when it comes to the time period. I can't tell you when it takes place. In Canada sometime between 1600 and 1900...


Plot: 1/10
Writing Style: 1/10 
Meaningfullness: 1/10

Summer Reads 14: Death is a Red Rose by Dorothy Eden

The Before:

I think this one is gothic and I've had it for a while

The Feels:
Decidedly gothic!! Love the touch of mystery. I think my novel should have the main plot by a mystery and use romance as a subplot. More people will be drawn to it.

Eden also uses an older main character in this; she's 76 at the start of the book and I'm here for it

The Concerns:



Plot: 7/10
Writing Style: 8/10
Meaningfullness: 9/10

Summer Reads 13: The Marriage Masquerade by Teresa DesJardien

The Before:

I wanna quit my Summer Reads so baadddd😭. This is worse than trying to read all of those Linda Castillo books in a week.

The Feels:
This book is... GOOD? Dare I say it?!?

Love the idea of having characters fall in love after the get married. Something different. She also plays with the female lead's age a bit by making her a little older. Such refreshing ideas!!

The Concerns:
Only major concern is having a real historical figure, Queen Charlotte, as a main character. I just didn't work for me, so I pretended she wasn't a real person. Having her in the book triggers the historian in me and I start to ask too many questions of the book/author as I read.

Not my favorite book I've ever read, but SOOO much better than what I have been reading. 


Plot: 5/10
Writing Style: 7/10
Meaningfullness: 6/10

Summer Reads 12: Susan Carroll x2

The Before:

The Wooing of Miss Masters and The Bishop's Daughter. Not sure if they are in any way related to each other.

The Feels:
BAD BAD BAD DULL BAD

The Concerns:



Plot: 1/10
Writing Style: 1/10
Meaningfullness: 1/10

Summer Reads 11: Miss Prentiss and the Yankee by Susan Carroll

The Before:

I'm regretting doing this whole Summer Reads nonsense.

The Feels:
...

The Concerns:
...

There is a reference to a group of "Creek Indians"... no such thing. There are people that belong to the Cree tribe?

Just googled... There is a tribe called the Creek (aka the Muscogee). Google says they are one of the "Five Civilized Tribes"... That's worse. Gross. 

Plot: 1/10 
Writing Style: 4/10
Meaningfullness: 1/10

Summer Reads 10: The Fortune Wheel by Valerie Bradstreet

The Feels:

.....

The Concerns:
...

What I learned; do not try to write accents unless I am able to speak with someone that knows linguistics. Kept using the world "gel" meaning "girl" and spelled migraine "mergin"... like what? Even using that specific accent it would be "me-grain". Also says Sir Adrian is a marquess... don't make anyone a marquess. That word looks goofy in writing.

Plot: /10
Writing Style: /10
Meaningfullness: /10

Summer Reads 9: Lord Ryburn's Apprentice by Laurie Bishop

The Before:

From my big order of Romance Novels

The Feels:
Miss GEORGIANNA mArland... gee I wonder who that is supposed to be a mix of. I'll give this one a pass, since one of them is from my favorite Jane Austen novel. I'm rather sick of these Austen references though.

The Concerns:
Reference to a woman's dress being "a la mode"? Dear Ms. Bishop, I think you meant avant-garde. A la mode means... with ice cream.

Plot was dull.


Plot: 2/10
Writing Style: 3/10
Meaningfullness: 2/10