One Naughty Christmas Night by Janet Berry

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After finishing The Front Runner, I didn't want to get into a book hangover. Since I was still in a cozy feeling, I wanted to pick up another historical romance. Nothing was really sounding good, so I went through some newer releases that were holiday based that would have naughty or nice in the title for Banging Through the Snow. I ended up finding One Naughty Christmas Night by Janet Berry. I was also able to use this for the hot cocoa prompt for the Merry + Bright Readathon and new author prompt for Winter's Kiss.

Victoria and Heath have been best friends since childhood. Their parents are friends and being the youngest of each group of children they were commonly left together growing up. Every Christmas Heath's father hosts Christmas festivities. After being jilted earlier in the year, Victoria is feeling left on the shelf and doesn't want to marry except for love. Heath also wants a love match and they both lean on each other for support. When they are reading in the library one day, Heath's older brother and wife sneak in for a tryst. Victoria and Heath hide and the sounds of Heath's brother and his wife getting intimate cause their desires to rise. When they both give in and kiss, a new door has opened between them. When Victoria approaches Heath for passion lessons now that she's a spinster, their relationship starts to change.

This was a cute and quick novella. I didn't look too much into this before I started reading outside of it being a childhood friends to lovers regency holiday novella. I hadn't ever heard of Janet Berry before and was intrigued by the premise. Unfortunately, it didn't quite meet my expectations. There were bright spots in this for sure and it had a lot more steam than I expected. That was a definitely a pleasant surprise. My enjoyment was kind of hindered though by the writing. It wasn't bad, but it felt newer. There were a few times where the same thing would be reiterated in the same sentence, but in a different way. It also got a little bit repetitive at times. It also felt a little bit rushed in the non-steamy scenes. I would've been completely okay to have closed door or fade to black or even just casually mentioned that they got together again last night to have more development outside of the bedroom. I don't know, it just was missing something for me.

If you are looking for a quick, steamy, historical holiday novella, certainly give this one a try. I did enjoy it and am interested to read something full length from Janet Berry to see what she can do with more pages. I'm still glad I picked it up and it's always fun to find a new indie published historical romance author.

Have you read One Naughty Christmas Night?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: One Naughty Christmas Night, Janet Berry, 3-stars, 0 days, eBook, 133 pages, published in 2021

The Front Runner by Elsie Silver

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After getting through my book club books and the Historical Romance Readathon, I knew I had to finally pick up The Front Runner by Elsie Silver. I sped through the rest of the series last month and was so happy to see that The Front Runner would be out December 3rd! This is the third book in her Gold Rush Ranch series. I was able to use this for the prompt book Shelby made a post about for Winter's Kiss, The Grinch (enemies to lovers) prompt for Merry + Bright and small town romance prompt for Banging Through the Snow.

Mira is the veterinarian for the horse ranches nearby and also friends with Billie and Violet. While she doesn't have the disdain for Stefan Dalca that Billie does, she does recognize he doesn't always make the best choices. When a mare passes giving birth at Gold Rush Ranch and shortly after a foal dies on Stefan's ranch, they want to try to get the mare and foal together to save the foal's life. Stefan proposes to take Mira on three dates and they make a deal. As Mira learns more about Stefan and who he really is the attraction for him she's held back starts to boil over.

Oh my gosh, this book. I couldn't put it down and only did because I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I loved the tension between Stefan and Mira. And the things that Stefan would say, oh gosh. So freaking hot. I loved seeing past the façade that Stefan perpetuates and how strongly he loves the people he lets in. There's a lot in his backstory and holds onto a lot of guilt, even when he probably shouldn't be feeling guilt for it. We also get to see DD's first colt (DD is the main horse in Off to the Races). Speaking of, I want to give a trigger warning for pet death. We see the aftermath of a red birth of a foal that doesn't make it. We aren't quite connected to this foal like other horses in the series, but I wanted to mention it because it's really sad. There's also talk about a mare dying. So DD's colt loses his Mom and they are looking for a mare to try to take to him so he can get the nutrients he needs. When Mira shows up at Stefan's ranch to help, but is late she has the idea to try to fit the colt with the now childless mare. Thankfully she takes to him and Stefan ends up naming him Loki.

Loki is the freaking cutest ever and I loved the relationship that formed between Loki and Stefan. So freaking cute and broke my heart when Stefan would get worried about him. I also loved getting to learn more about Mira. She's half Indian and I loved how Stefan stood up to her family. The connection between them was just everything. There's more drama that I don't want to spoil, but I love how much that Stefan loves Mira. They were just completely drawn to each other. Also, we know Billie from Off to the Races and how Stefan tried to underhandedly buy DD from her. She has hated him since then, but her grudge did bother me a little bit here. I just felt she took it a little too far, even for her. I did like that she came around and started to back off for Mira.

We also get to meet Stefan's younger sister Nadia there was a blurb in the back of the book that she is getting a book and it's potentially coming in March. I can't wait and am so intrigued on who she's going to be paired with. I can't wait to see what Elsie does next and am so freaking excited. Seriously, read this book, read this series, join Elsie's newsletter and follow her everywhere. I am officially obsessed!

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Front Runner, Elsie Silver, 5-stars, 1 day, eBook, 313 pages, published in 2021

Loving the Mountain Man by Adriana Anders

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The December prompt for the Smart Women Read Romance's patreon exclusive review was Winter. The book that won the poll was Loving the Mountain Man by Adriana Anders. This is the 3rd book in her Love at Last series. I was able to apply this to the Winter Wonderland (white on the cover) prompt for Merry + Bright, facial hair prompt for Winter's Kiss and trapped in a snowstorm (only one bed) prompt for Banging Through the Snow.

Christa drives up to a holiday party at her boss's cabin in the mountains. When she arrives and finds out that she wasn't notified that the party was cancelled and he makes unwanted advances to her, she escapes. When driving back down the mountain quickly, she hits some black ice and ends up going over a cliff. Before her car can completely hit the bottom, she gets saved last minute by another cabin owner Micah. He takes her home and they call the police and her family. When a blizzard shows up overnight, she's stranded with the burly mountain man until the roads become passable. Micah is a recluse after serving in the army and losing one of his legs. He hasn't had much contact with women and feels a pull towards Christa that he hasn't felt in years.

As I mentioned before this is the third book in her series. I have not read the first two and didn't have time to squeeze them in with all the readathons and challenges I participated in. This read well as a standalone and I don't think that it connects too much to the other books outside of Micah maybe being friends with the heroes. Maybe? I'm still not sure. Anyways, this is also the first book I've read by Adriana Anders. Loving the Mountain Man was a quick instalust read. It was cute and there was a lot going on, but I wish that either it was longer or didn't take too much on. We have the sexual assault on Christa, Micah's a disabled veteran, Christa is plus size (or more normal size) and then we have the stress of her surviving death and being snowed in together. 

I think that Christa and Micah had good chemistry when they were getting intimate, but I did want more emotional development between them and more conversations. This is a hard one to rate for me. I'm thinking maybe a 3.5-star but rounded up to 4. I just was felt wanting in the end and don't know if I believe in the HEA. Yes the HFN, but not the HEA. There just some times when we were being told and not shown. I also wanted some recognition of the fact that she was so turned on as apart of the adrenaline/aftereffects of almost dying. She mentions that's partly why she's into him, but not in the way that I felt it should've been addresses. Or at least also factored in. But it was good.

I would definitely be interested in trying more of her works. It looks like the other two books in this series were novellas that were added to and rereleased, so I don't know how different I'd feel about those. I know she has a suspense series that some booktubers I follow liked, so maybe I'll try those. I'm always happy to try a new author and while this was set at Christmas, it wasn't super Christmas-y. If you're looking for a holiday set novella that isn't fully holiday based, certainly give this one a try. I had a lot of fun during the live review and can't wait to see what books get chosen next year!

Have you read Loving the Mountain Man?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Loving the Mountain Man, Adriana Anders, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 236 pages, published in 2019

Any Rogue Will Do by Bethany Bennett

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The fourth and final book I read for the Historical Romance Readathon was Any Rogue Will Do by Bethany Bennett. This is the first book in her Misfits of Mayfair series and covered the prompts green/red on cover, in a series, new to you author, clinch cover, rogue in the title, rec'd to you, lady heroine and book you own. I was also able to apply this to the Winter's Kiss prompt green on cover, Merry + Bright prompt Baby It's Cold Outside (dual perspective) and Banging Through the Snow Prompt red or green cover.

Charlotte, aka Lottie, is returning to London from her country home. Her father has started to come out of mourning and has decided it's time for her to marry. He arranges for her to marry friend's second son, but she is not in agreement. She has until November to find another acceptable husband. When there's an accident on the way, she runs into Viscount Amesbury, Ethan. He was a suitor during her first season, but ends up ruining her with a nickname. As they continue to run into each other, they propose a fake engagement to at least get Lottie's father to stop pushing the horrible man he wants her to marry.

Oh my gosh, this book was so wonderful. I mentioned this during my wrap up, but I own this because I heard good things about the second book, West End Earl, and picked it up at Walmart. When I got home and realized it was book 2 in the series, I immediately added the first book so I would have them both. I pulled this as a secondary option for my readathon tbr. Someone commented on my post and mentioned that they really loved this and that the hero was Scottish. I immediately raised it up in my tbr and when I saw it would be a book that would give me a bingo, I knew it would be my last book for the readathon. Even though this isn't a Christmas book, it at least gives the vibes with a green and red cover!

But about the book. First off, this is Bethany Bennett's debut novel and that just blows me away even more. I absolutely adored Ethan. He was so sweet and pining for Lottie. I loved how he kept putting her first, at first due to his guilt but at the same time knowing and trying to ignore the attraction he's had for her from before. Lottie was such a great heroine. I feel like a lot of the more recent historical romances push the feminism threads more than needed and it almost becomes the focal point to the story and not the romance. While there is that here, at the same time I enjoyed how Lottie immediately regrets pushing Ethan away and tries to make it up to him. They both agree to come to a compromise to be in a healthy relationship but also give her what she wants in life. It didn't bother me as much here outside of that I wish that her father wasn't as against Ethan. That would be my only downside of the books was that her father was an antagonist on top of the villain of the guy he's trying to marrying her off to. Then that leads to her breaking up with Ethan and I just didn't like that as the extra conflict. It just felt like a little too much for the final conflict, but I did like how it also forced Lottie to really open up to Ethan and figure out what she really wanted.

I really enjoyed this book and immediately pulled West End Earl. I want to pick it up soon and am so intrigued by who Cal is going to be paired with. I have an idea, but I don't want to read the blurb before going in. I am so happy to find another new author and am excited to see how her writing is going to grow and evolve. Such a great debut!

Have you read Any Rogue Will Do?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Any Rogue Will Do, Bethany Bennett, 5-stars, 1 day, Paperback, 352 pages, published in 2020

My American Duchess by Eloisa James

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The third book I read for the Historical Romance Readathon was Eloisa James's standalone My American Duchess. This is also the December pick for the Rake Appreciation Society hosted by Crystal and Jen! I was able to apply this to the prompts green/red on cover, new to you author, rec'd to you and book I owned. I also was able to use this for the friend gave 5-stars prompt for Winter's Kiss, and Last Christmas (bought last year and never read) prompt for the Merry + Bright Readathon.

Merry is in London after two failed engagements in Boston. As an American Heiress, she's having trouble fitting in and ends up agreeing to marry a duke's second son, Cedric. At the same ball, she goes to get some air on the balcony and ends up running into the Duke of Trent without knowing he is the duke and also her future brother-in-law. When their cute banter is over, Trent decides to approach Merry as the woman he want to court as his wife. When he goes to get an official introduction, he is surprised to see that the woman he wants as his wife is his future sister-in-law. As Cedric continues to belittle Merry, both her and Trent fight the feelings forming between each other. Merry just can't break a third engagement and bring the scandal upon her Aunt and Uncle.

I have been wanting to read Eloisa James for a while now, but just didn't quite know where to start. I own quite a few of her books (for the gorgeous stepbacks) and have heard good things about her books. When the Rake Appreciation Society announced this was December's book I was pleased. It's a standalone so a good way to try her writing. Now, this is my favorite trope wrong sibling. It just usually hits all my buttons. However, even though I gave this book 5-stars, I don't know if it hit everything I want from that type of trope. If I were to be really specific, I would rate this more 4.5-stars.

I loved the connection between Merry and Trent and how their relationship just kept evolving, even when they were trying so hard to stay friendly as future siblings. It doesn't always happen this way, but Eloisa was very smart in how their relationship was progressing but didn't really get physical until it seemed that Cedric and Merry were no longer together. I did want that to come sooner in the book. I also didn't like how mean Cedric was. I've read other historicals with this prompt and much more prefer the version where the other partner is just agreeing to the marriage for business reasons and has no romantic or even platonic feelings for the heroine. I understand that part of the reason he was shown like this is to get the reader to be okay with Merry breaking off their engagement, but he was just a little too much for me. I'm going to try to be as spoiler free as possible, but I also didn't really like the wedding scene. I was very much in my feels and feeling so bad for Merry and that she didn't have anyone to turn to and as a reader I didn't like being thrown for a loop as much as Merry. What made that an issue for me was I was left wanting more from Trent in apology/explanation. Merry was more accepting of what happened, which is fine. Since it was written in a way that really put you in Merry's perspective and blindness to what was happening I felt like the grovel/explanation also needed to be partly towards the reader. I don't know, maybe it's just me. Either that or make her veil easier to see through so she had even a moment more to deal with what was happening.

Despite my rantings over those two things, I really did enjoy the book overall. I will definitely be picking up more of Eloisa James's books. I'm not sure where I'll start next, but there's quite a few options. I'm thinking one of her older series that's already complete. If you haven't tried her before, I don't know if this is the place to start since it's definitely more angsty and I'm not sure how her other books are, but it is a standalone so there's that. I had a lot of fun (as always) chatting with everyone about the book. If you weren't able to make the live the video has been posted!

Have you read My American Duchess?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: My American Duchess, Eloisa James, 5-stars, 2 days, Paperback, 402 pages, published in 2016

Daring Miss Danvers by Vivienne Lorret

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The 2nd book I read for the Historical Romance Readathon is Daring Miss Danvers. This is the first book (outside of the prequel novella) for Vivienne Lorret's Wallflower Wedding series. This counted for the prompts in a series, wallflower, book you own and clinch cover. I also read applied Daring Miss Danvers to the Winter's Kiss board 1  prompt fake dating, Merry + Bright Readathon prompt Elf on the Shelf and Banging Through the Snow prompt hot chocolate (warm, steamy and cozy).

Emma is the straight-laced daughter of two peerage turned artists. After her parents were snubbed after her father starting painting those not in the ton, they've been pushed out. Emma has fought against the prejudice and tries to be the perfect debutante to not bring further shame upon her family. Oliver, Viscount Rathburn, has been friends with both Emma and her brother for the longest time. His grandmother has froze the inheritance he was supposed to receive upon gaining his majority, but has put several conditions on it's receival. The most recent is to marry someone that she approves. Emma is the only one so Oliver proposes a fake-engagement scenario to her parents. They whole-heartedly agree and Emma agrees to help. When they seal the agreement with a kiss they become aware of each other in a new way and are forced to face the feelings that they've been denying.

I really loved this story. Such a great mix of friends-to-lovers, fake-dating and mutual pining. I loved seeing both perspectives and how much they noticed about each other. I also loved that they both constantly were still finding out new aspects of each other and became insatiable. Especially Oliver; he just wanted to see the core of Emma and get her to open up to him completely. If I were to be really strict with myself, maybe this is closer to a 4.5-star rating, but the way that I feel when I read Vivienne Lorret's writing just gives me more excuses to round it up to 5.

I did think that the final conflict was a little stereotypical, but at the same time the way it was resolved was not. Spoilers incoming: Emma hears a rumor that the actress that was Oliver's former mistress ran away with a man with a lot of money. Since at this point Emma is still under the impression that Oliver only received his inheritance after marriage, she worries that it was Oliver. Even more so since he was cold in the morning because he wants her so bad to say she loves him. (Nevermind he hasn't quite said it yet either.) I loved that it wasn't drawn out. Emma came home, he was there and was open about where he was all day. Emma trusts and believes him and it's not made into a bigger deal than it should've been. I just loved that it didn't follow the typical plot line.

Back from spoilers! I did glance at the other two books in the series and it looks like we are focusing on Emma's other two friends in their needlework club Merribeth and Delaney. I wasn't sure if her brother would have a book or not, but I did see a Mr. Danvers on my shelf as well. When I pulled it to find the names he is book two in The Rakes of Fallow Hall series. That's a series I haven't read yet either and am happy that I am reading these in order. I think I might reread the ones I already have and just go through her backlist in order. It might take a bit, but maybe I can get through everything by May 24th. It was recently announced that that'll be the release date of book 4 in her Mating Habits of Scoundrels series and I've already preordered it! I can't wait!

Have you read Daring Miss Danvers?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Daring Miss Danvers, Vivienne Lorret, 5-stars, 3 days, Paperback, 288 pages, published in 2014

Merry + Bright Readathon Wrap Up

 Happy Thursday! Yesterday ended the Merry + Bright Readathon hosted by Chandler, Zoe and Spencer. They had a list of 5 prompts and the readathon went from Dec 9th through the 15th. If you missed my tbr post, I'll show you the original prompts below!

As you can see, they are all based on holiday themes and songs! Since this overlapped with the Historical Romance Readathon, I tried to read books that would work for both sets of prompts! I ended up being able to pick up a couple more books after then and they ended up working for the remaining prompts! I saw that Zoe had a tbr story template on her instagram, but I ended up using it as a this is what's read. I'll show my completed story below and list out the books read in order starting at the top left corner and going row by row!

🎄 Winter Wonderland (white on cover) - Loving the Mountain Man by Adriana Anders

🎄 Hot Cocoa (cozy vibes) - One Naughty Christmas Night by Janet Berry

🎄 Elf on the Shelf (already owned) - Daring Miss Danvers by Vivienne Lorret

🎄 Last Christmas (purchased last year) - My American Duchess by Eloisa James

🎄 The Grinch (enemies to lover or unreliable narrator) - The Front Runner by Elsie Silver

🎄 Baby It's Cold Outside (dual perspective) - Any Rogue Will Do by Bethany Bennett

I think that my favorite read is hard to choose, probably either Any Rogue Will Do or The Front Runner. They were both so captivating and had me hooked from the start. I had a lot of fun participating even though I only participated tangentially. I loved the name of the prompts and how easy they were able to meet. While specific prompts can be fun and get me out of my comfort zone, this was perfect for this time of year when my reading time is short and I want to do more mood reading. I can't wait to see what readathons they do next year!

Did you participate in the Merry + Bright Readathon?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

Merry + Bright Readathon TBR

Update: Wrap Up is posted!

So... I said I might be backing off on doing readathons this month, but I have another one I'm going to tangentially participate in. One of my favorite booktubers that reads more than just romance is chandlerainsley. (Side note, follow her on instagram for the best fluffy kitty photos). She is hosting the Merry + Bright Readathon with Zoe and Spencer. It will run Thursday December 9th through the 15th.  The have some reading prompts which I'll show below. There's no bingo board or anything, so that's helpful. Since I was planning on reading some winter/holiday romances this month anyway, I thought I could focus on those during this readathon. There's also some instagram photo prompts and more info on their instagrams.

🎄 This readathon starts during the Historical Romance Readathon (which runs through the 12th). I had a few holiday and Christmas ideas for that one, including the group book Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish. I'm going to try to shift those option to later in the week so it can easier cover prompts for both readathons. I'm also hoping that I can get books that'll work for both readathons as well as prompts from the Winter's Kiss reading challenge.

🎄 Looking at some releases from 2020 that I purchased pretty quickly after release, I came up with a quite a list, but only pulled a few of the ones that sounded the best at this time. I have a couple historical options: Any Rogue Will Do by Bethany Bennett, A Good Duke is Hard to Find by Christina Britton and A Duchess a Day by Charis Michaels. 

🎄 I also have the SmartyPants Romance releases that came out in spring 2020. For some other contemporary options, I was also thinking maybe Not My Romeo by Ilsa Madden-Mills, Dear Ava also by Ilsa Madden-Mills and Space Junk: Houston We Have a Hottie by Sara L Hudson.

🎄 For a recent Christmas release that I have I might look at picking up No Ordinary Christmas by Belle Calhoune since I bought it upon release. A lot of books on my tbrs are in eBook, so I'd like to get at least a couple of the Christmas/Holiday physical books I have read this month.

My tbr/idea list is a lot shorter this time, but I could use almost anything from the other two readathons that will be happening at the same time. Like I mentioned before, I'm  not going to necessarily go out of my way to hit all the prompts, but depending on how things sit after the Historical Romance Readathon I'll see what prompts I have left. Thankfully the hosts went with more generic prompts that have seasonal names!

Will you be participating in the Merry + Bright Readathon?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎