One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Historical Romance
Series: The Montgomerys and Armstrongs, Book 1
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 372 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle,
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Ballentine Books publisher Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Their clans are vicious enemies but their king wanted an alliance between them, and what the king wants, the king gets...no matter who or what it costs them all.

Montgomery Laird Graeme Montgomery is furious that he's being forced to wed the daughter of the Armstrong Laird. For decades the two clans have warred with each other. His own father was slain in battle by his future bride's grandfather. To add insult to injury, he's heard Eveline Armstrong is...damaged. Mentally. Graeme will be unable to father children and risk his line being brought low by that sort of illness. For the clan Laird it is a bitter pill.

She has hidden herself so well for so long, too well, really, for her deceptions - though for good reason - have become her cage. Eveline knows she is loved by her family, but even they could not save her three years ago, and since her fall and subsequent illness, she has used the silence she endures to give the impression she's touched in the head. It's kept her safe, but it has a high price.

She's not damaged, nor is she stupid or ignorant, and she's definitely not mentally ill. What Eveline is, is deaf.

She knows that her father is unhappy about the king's decree, but once Eveline meets Graeme she can only see the opportunities. Maybe in another household, away from the threat that locked her into the lies she lives, she can be both a good wife and mother, be accepted for who she really is. All she has to do is convince Graeme that she's not what he thinks, and win over a clan raised to loathe her family with every fiber of their being.


This book represents everything I love about Scottish historical romance. Honorable Scot warriors, braw and mighty, and the strong, intelligent women who love them - and are loved by them. It just sets my heart to pitter-pattering, especially when the characters are as eminently lovable as Graeme and Eveline are in this book.

Readers for whom historical authenticity is paramount may not find this book as appealing as I, but I've never been one to quibble over those details. In fact, I often find the more historically accurate books to be a bit too realistic and depressing for it. This book had just enough of a medieval Scottish feel to maintain my willing suspension of disbelief but not so much that I was either annoyed, dismayed, or utterly horrified by what life was really like back then, especially for women.

And it had Graeme and Eveline. I loved them both. Graeme was the perfect alpha male, strong and commanding, but with some truly endearing moments of confusion, uncertainty, and vulnerability. I've always felt it's those less than perfect moments and how the characters respond to them that define my favorite alpha males and make them the most lovable. Graeme is right up there with my favorites.

As much as I loved him, though, it was Eveline who made this book such a rousing success for me. I always appreciate books with a hero or heroine who have to deal with a disability of some sort, and I loved the slant the story took with Eveline's deafness. Her character was completely sympathetic, but not once did she come off self-pitying or weak. The decisions she made in relation to her own clan were extreme, but understandable, and the efforts she made with Graeme and the Montgomerys were laudable. She was smart, resourceful, and independent. I just adored her.

I loved them both together, too, and the arc of their relationship evolution was full of just the sort of heart-touching romance...and sexy intimacies...that I love most in romance novels. That, along with Eveline's challenges in her new home, were the strongest elements of the story.

They were also the majority of the story, and that's the only reason this book didn't quite hit the full five stars for me. For all I loved what was there in the plot, I have to admit that it seemed a bit too straightforward and lacked the depth that could have made it meatier and more intense a read. What little external conflict there was struck me as a bit predictable and lacking in originality.

I liked it well enough, but I knew fairly early into the book just what the conflict climax was going to entail and how it would resolve. When I can see it coming that far in advance, it doesn't leave room for many pleasant surprises.

Obviously, that was only a minor complaint, because I heartily enjoyed this read. It's my first experience with Maya Banks in the mainstream, and I have to say, I'm thrilled by it. This was a wonderfully strong, emotionally satisfying, excellently cast way to kick off a new series and I can't wait to get another shot at the Montgomerys and the Armstrongs both.

Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance; LGBT
Series: Tucker Springs, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 194 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Riptide Publishing via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Life for Paul Hannon hasn't exactly turned out like he thought it would when he first moved to Tucker Springs. First he flunked out of veterinarian school, then his girlfriend dumped him and moved out, and now he's stuck, nearly flat-broke, locked into a lease for the firetrap of a home he can barely afford to pay for with his job as a secretary for a vet clinic.

Not exactly a lot to smile about in all that, but mostly he just wants his ex-girlfriend Stacey back so much he aches. Her birthday is coming up, and Paul sees that as a perfect opportunity to try to get her to come back to him. He just needs the perfect present.

Jaded loner El Rozal is minding his business, literally, when the cute guy with the reddish hair and quirky smile walks into the pawn shop he owns looking for a gift for his ex-girlfriend. It doesn't take fifteen minutes for El to realize how adorably cute but truly clueless and heartbroken Paul is.

El is hardly a perfect angel, though, and when the opportunity to spend time with Paul drops in his lap...for all its less-than-ethical reasons...he shamelessly takes it. And the more time he spends with Paul, the more El crushes on the man. So much, in fact, that he can't help but wish Paul isn't as straight as he thinks he is.

Trying to find out if Paul could ever be receptive to him romantically in a risk-free, subtle way, though, is a far more difficult task than El could have ever imagined. For all that Paul is sweet, funny, kind, and adorable, he's also absolutely and completely oblivious. To just about everything.


Cute and quirky, with one very likable main character and one eminently lovable main character, Paul and El's story made me smile. Cullinan and Sexton kept the plot conflicts from delving into angst-heavy complexity. Problems were mostly taken at face-value, quick to flair up and just as quick to be resolved. I enjoy light, uncomplicated romance now and then so that worked wonderfully for me here. Sometimes, a girl's just gotta have some brain candy.

I loved El. He made the book for me. The things he did to keep Paul coming back to his shop, the way he maneuvered him into spending time with him, both very sneaky and very endearing. He was just so good to Paul, so patient, and when he gets his chance with him, so perfectly in...over his head. I spent most of the tale either amused and/or delighted with him.

And I can't remember any laundry night I've ever had even remotely as entertaining.

El's issues with his sister and mother added a layer or two of depth to both his character and the story, and from the moment he took the dog I was an absolute sucker for them both. I do think that some of the souces of conflict, notably his mother's hoarding, were a bit glossed over, but it did add a twist to his backstory and current family conflicts.

Paul's obliviousness about everything from his sexuality to his job prospects was endearing for most of the book, but there were a few times he seemed more dense than oblivious. He was just a little too gullible for me on more than one occasion. When combined with his self esteem issues, his personality quirks started to wear on me in the latter half of the book, and I couldn't quite embrace his character as thoroughly as I did El's.

I was a little confused by their relationship conflict in the climax of the book. After El's seemingly endless patience and understanding nature when it came to Paul, that struck me as feeling a little out contrived, coming of nowhere. Like everything else, though, it didn't languish unresolved for long. I prefer a bit more work put into the resolutions leading to the end of a book. This one seemed as abrupt as the initial conflict. I have to say, though, I wouldn't have missed Paul's mother explaining her understanding of her son's life for anything. I loved that.

Though Paul and El's romance falls on the lighter and shorter side of a full sized novel, I thoroughly enjoyed their story and my first visit to Tucker Springs. It was just the feel-good, cute, sexy read I needed for a little light entertainment.