GeriatricMillennial

Magical

Revisado: 04-16-25

I can’t express enough how much I loved this story. I couldn’t help but be reminded several times of Lamb by Christopher Moore. This story similarly brought historical/mythological characters to life by making them anachronistically relatable in funny ways while also painting their time period in vivid detail that felt well researched. It balanced darker topics like depression, PTSD, and grief with humor so that the reader/listener could explore those thoughts and feelings without becoming mired in them.

The narration was likewise well done, and although a handful of common words were mispronounced (and I don’t mean British pronunciations rather than American ones) it was a pleasant voice to listen to.

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Not a complete story

Revisado: 04-13-25

It’s a real gamble to end a book mid-story. If your audience is not utterly captivated, you risk angering them, as I am. This wasn’t a “tune in to find out what happens next,” it just ends in the middle of the action. Nothing is resolved, it’s an incomplete story and I didn’t pay money for a book expecting to have to pay more money for another book in the hopes that THAT book will provide any kind of resolution. This was a decent story while it lasted, but it wasn’t good enough to compel me to keep going.

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Hapless scamp with a heart of gold

Revisado: 04-09-25

This was a charming retelling of The Six Swans, told from the point of view of Nickolas, a side character in the previous book. It provides some context to his somewhat rakish demeanor and reputation in the first book, and reveals a very sweet and kind of pure soul.

His love interest Jules is smart and practical and caught in the web of a curse she’s working to break. She has with her a bird whose demeanor reveals pretty early in the story (almost from the first paragraph it’s introduced) that it is also under a curse, possesses a working intellect, and REALLY dislikes Nickolas, who is already wary of birds. This relationship, which evolves from man vs. bird hostility (behind Jules’s back because she loves them both), to man-and-bird camaraderie because they both love her, provides a great deal of the subtle humor I enjoyed in the novel.

I was left at the end still pretty confused about what is happening over on the fae prince’s side of things and whether he’s truly the villain or just another victim. I assume that his story will develop with further novels in the series.

The story is deftly narrated with a cheeky sort of humor. I have listened to other books narrated by Mary Jane Wells, and feel like her performances have become more polished over time.

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Enjoyable clean romance

Revisado: 04-09-25

This was a fun story, humorously narrated. I was a little apprehensive about the narrator after I’d listened to another book she narrated which was so peppered with needless *gasps* that it became grating, but that did not happen with this book. This was a nice, occasionally funny, clean fairy tale romance.

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Thinly veiled evangelizing

Revisado: 04-02-25

I don’t mind the expression of Faith in a novel; most of the world holds religious beliefs, after all. I do mind when the sermonizing becomes so overt that it feels like that was the central point around which the story was constructed, but the book wasn’t marketed as Christian fiction.

I also didn’t appreciate that a supporting character described the worst types of people as d*ug dealers and atheists, but they’d prefer the d*ug dealer because you can’t trust someone who doesn’t believe in a higher power.

Yes, say what you will about addicts, at least they’re trustworthy. *eyeroll*

That scene is closely followed by an explicit oral s*x scene, because if there’s one thing Christianity is cool with, it’s premarital sod*my (sorry for all the prudish asterisks, I’m just trying not to get my review banned for “filthy talk”)

I found the concept of the novel interesting, but its execution seemed a bit clumsy, and leaves some somewhat disturbing implications, if you spend any time thinking about it. I found the main character mildly unlikeable, and many of the side characters were like caricatures of “small-town folk”.

The performances were good; I definitely like the duet style of narration, and there were only a few times where it seemed like they’d mixed up who was supposed to be talking. I finished the book, but I won’t be revisiting it.

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Lovable characters

Revisado: 12-28-24

This was a delightful and somewhat unique take on the Beauty and the Beast (BatB) fairy tale. I did wonder how things were going to go down since the “Prince” everyone expected would turn into a beast was already just the sweetest, most thoughtful young man.

The author pulled off an enjoyable story that kept within the framework of the classic BatB story, kept the characters true to their…well, characters…and introduced some novelty to the tale. There were even a couple of tropes turned on their heads. There were some villains, but except for them the townsfolk in and around the main characters’ lives all seem to be lovely, helpful people.

I loved the supporting characters, ESPECIALLY Rosalie’s brothers, who were hilarious. I get the feeling many of the side characters will star in their own fairy tale retellings, and I am here for it!

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Started out strong

Revisado: 12-01-24

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and this one started out strong. I’m not wild about the female narrator, but I really liked the male narrator and the story was interesting and the romance was sweet.

Things took a turn, and after a series of assumptions and misunderstandings that could have been prevented with a combination of patience and communication, I no longer really cared who ended up with who.

Now I feel like the old lady in Princess Buttercup’s dream in “The Princess Bride,” shouting epithets over her faithlessness.

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MMC is so gloriously weird

Revisado: 10-20-24

I know I found the previous book a nice sweet romance, but I don’t remember much from it, including this book’s MMC Reginald (Reggie). I don’t think that’s likely to happen this time. Reggie is just so weird, sweet, and emotionally vulnerable it’s hard not to love him.

I guess it was natural for his “straight-man,” aka love interest, to be an accountant but representation is always nice, even if it’s literary shorthand for “this person is boring/repressed/practical/choose your own dull personality type.”

I think my only complaint might be that Reggie’s origins are kind of teased but never explained and that’s unfortunate because it feels like some of his emotional vulnerability stems from that past. The reader likely knows why Amelia loves Reggie, but the story doesn’t make a great case for why Reggie loves Amelia except that he thinks to himself early in the story that he loves how organized accountants are. I think the author missed a chance to build on why Reggie needs that sense of stability from a partner to give us a chance to love Amelia too, but ultimately romances aren’t typically known for their complexity. This was a fun, sweet romance novel with light spice.

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Always a treat

Revisado: 06-27-24

As always the story was engaging, but it’s the characters who keep me coming back for more. I think the entire book could have been all our old friends lounging about the place drinking…whatever their drink of choice might be… and chatting and my reaction would still be “5/5 stars, wouldn’t change a thing.”

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Another lovely mildly magical romance

Revisado: 06-26-24

My favorite stories are the ones like this which employ what I call (for lack of a better term) ordinary magic. I don’t really prefer elven lords or werewolf packs or vampire covens. What I love are stories about ordinary and practical-minded people stumbling into little pockets of magical oddity in the world and (after the initial surprise) taking it in stride until the magic nearly seems mundane.

This story, about a woman who finds herself in the fictional town populated by the fictional characters of her favorite book series, revisits the theme of adjusting to loss and change. It’s a bit of a love letter to the romance novel industry, authors, readers, and Very Good Friends.

Ashley Poston really had me going at nearly an hour before the end of the story. I was already writing my somewhat disappointed review in my head but in the end I got the HEA I needed to soothe my savage nerves.

I also appreciated the cameos near the end of characters from Ashley’s other book(s). It’s always lovely to unexpectedly run into beloved characters again. I think The Dead Romantics remains my favorite Ashley Poston book, but this one was lovely too.

(Note: I’m not very good at “spice” rating, but I guess this would be approximately two chilis out of five. There is intimacy and it’s not fade to black or anything, but it’s not overly explicit or crude)

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