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