You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

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The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.

Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.

Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.

Rating: A-

Set in the same world as We Could Be So Good, Cat Sebastian’s You Should Be So Lucky is another gorgeously romantic and tender story that, while dealing with some heavy topics, manages to be warm, funny, honest and uplifting – and reminds us that although life might suck at times, it can also be wonderful, especially when you find that one special person who can lighten the load.

It’s 1960, and rising baseball star Eddie O’Leary was having a great season with the Kansas City Athletics when he found out, on live television no less, that he was being traded to the New York Robins, a brand new team languishing at or near the bottom of the league. Not surprisingly, his reaction wasn’t the best, and his invective-filled outburst – also relayed live – made for big news up and down the country. To make things worse, he hasn’t played a decent game since and is experiencing a slump that might well be career-ending, his team-mates are ignoring him, and he’s still living in a crappy hotel room, mostly because he doesn’t think he’ll be sticking around long enough to get himself a place of his own.

When Andy Fleming, editor of the Chronicle, approaches arts writer Mark Bailey and asks him to consider penning a high-brow sports-based feature for the paper’s new weekend magazine, Mark is sceptical, to say the least. Andy wants to publish a weekly diary following one of the city’s ball players over the course of the season, but Mark isn’t particularly interested ghostwriting for a ball player, and when Andy tells him that the player he has in mind is Eddie O’Leary, Mark is even less so; he can’t think of anything more likely to get someone to throw their paper directly into the nearest trash can. But Andy is tenacious. He reckons there’s more to Eddie than the headlines suggest, and is sure that Mark is absolutely the man for the job. Mark still isn’t convinced until, at home, he watches the Robins’ game on television and realises that whatever is going on with Eddie O’Leary is a disaster – and that maybe here is something he can write about after all.

The last thing Eddie expects, when he’s summoned to the manager’s office, is to be told he’s to take part in a series of interviews for the Chronicle. He can’t do anything but agree to it, of course, but he can’t help hoping, when the reporter doesn’t show up in the locker-room after the next game, that the plan has fallen through. And then he notices the man standing apart from all the other sportswriters, leaning gracefully against the end of stall and turning the pages of a book, seemingly untroubled by the surrounding chaos. Eddie is completely blindsided by the other man’s casual poise and handsome face – even though Eddie has turned not noticing handsome men (especially in locker rooms) into an art form – but manages to get through the introductions without babbling something ridiculous. But when Bailey suggests they should get dinner, Eddie blurts out a ‘no’ so fast as to be rude – his teammates have enough reasons to hate him without thinking he’s cosying up to a sports reporter. Realising he’s put his foot in it, he quickly suggests he and Bailey meet the next morning instead – although he doesn’t stick around long enough to actually arrange a place and time. When morning arrives, and feeling embarrassed at having behaved like such a dick the previous day, Eddie decides the stadium is where he’ll most likely find the reporter – and is surprised when he steps from the elevator into the lobby of his hotel to find Mark there waiting for him.

You can read the rest of this review at All About Romance.

Rare by Briar Prescott (audiobook) – Narrated by Iggy Toma & Alexander Cendese

This title may be downloaded from Audible via Amazon

One summer changes their lives forever….

Alex Ellison is well-educated, rich, and good-looking. Too bad the ingredients of success haven’t mixed too well for him, and instead of having the world at his feet, Alex has, once again, landed himself in a hot mess of trouble.

The community service his father arranges for him in a wildlife center on the other side of the country comes as a bit of a nasty surprise, though. Being shipped off to middle-of-nowhere, Oregon, is not Alex’s idea of the perfect summer vacation. What Alex never expects is to meet Noah Price. He never expects to be noticed and understood. He never expects to feel valued and special. He never expects to fall in love.

Everything is not what it seems, though, and love that feels invincible turns out to be anything but. But love finds a way, and when Alex and Noah unexpectedly cross paths years later, they will have to risk it all for the love they both deserve and so desperately need.

Rating: Narration – B+; Content – B-

Rare, Briar Prescott’s second novel (after Project Hero, before The Happy List), is an emotional and heartfelt romance that falls naturally into two halves; one detailing the love story that blooms between two young men in their late teens, the other their second chance at love after a long separation. I’m generally a fan of second chance romances; I love the idea of two people who have been apart coming back together and falling in love all over again with who they are NOW rather than who they used to be – but sadly, the author doesn’t get that quite right here, and the book feels somewhat unbalanced. It’s well-written and I liked the characters, but the uneven structure doesn’t do the story any favours.

In part one, nineteen-year-old rich-kid Alex Ellison has got himself into trouble (again) and has spent the night in jail for being drunk, high and urinating in public. On a police car. His wealthy businessman father has so far managed to keep a longer-term jail sentence at bay thanks to his friendship with a local judge, but Alex’s latest escapade is the last straw. He’s given the choice between community service at an animal welfare centre in rural Oregon or being completely cut off financially. He’s so fed up with everything about his life that he can’t even be bothered to care.

You can read the rest of this review at AudioGals.

Impurrfections (Friends of Gaynor Beach Animal Rescue) by Kaje Harper

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Shane

A cat is a man’s best friend, because they can’t be bought or threatened. If they don’t like you, they walk away, showing you their butthole. If they stick around, it’s because they find you interesting. Mimsy’s stayed with me through six years and across half the country, which means I’m not a total loser. We earn our daily bread and fishy treats by busking, and sometimes we get lucky.

Like this abandoned wine-tasting place we’re squatting in. California climate so we don’t need heat, running water still on, all the comforts of home. Sure, there’s a weird guy with mental health issues who shows up now and then, but he keeps life interesting and he’s not bad to look at. We might stick around Gaynor Beach for a while.

Theo

I finally have control of my grandparents’ legacy, which means I can give away all the things they valued more than me. I have enough money to live on without theirs. The vineyard’s easy. I’ll give it to Manuel, the guy who did most of the work while never being allowed in their showplace mansion. I love imagining his kids bouncing on Grandmère’s priceless antiques.

The wine-tasting parlor’s harder. I’d like to burn it to the ground, but the cops frown on arson, plus when I went to check it out there was a homeless guy living in it. Instead of being scared of me— because I admit, I was losing it a bit when he spotted me— he cleaned up the cut on my arm and listened to me ramble. He had no clue who I was and I liked that. Maybe I can turn my grandparents’ showroom into a homeless shelter. Or something for homeless animals. Shane loves his little cat, and I wouldn’t mind if they stuck around for a while.

Rating: B-

Impurrfections is one of five books in the multi-author Friends of Gaynor Beach Animal Rescue series, and I think this is probably one of those series where the books are only loosely linked, so it’s not necessary to read all of them or read in order. This one is a cute, low-angst romance between two guys from opposite sides of the tracks, and as I’m very much a cat person, I really enjoyed reading about Shane’s beloved feline companion, Mimsy.

Shane Webster has lived on the road for the past decade or so going wherever life takes him, and at the beginning of the book, he and Mimsy (who found him and adopted him about six years earlier) have just arrived in Gaynor Beach in California. He’s never been to the ocean before and decides that they should stick around for a while and enjoy the sunshine, maybe do a bit of busking to make some cash – he needs to keep Mimsy in treats and kibble, after all. Wandering around looking for somewhere to hunker down while they’re in town, Shane comes across an abandoned building that looks like it used to be some sort of fancy office space. It’s down a long-ish driveway so it’s quiet and not overlooked, which is ideal; he finds a way in and gets them both settled before heading out to find them some food.

Theo Lafontaine is the owner of the building, which used to be part of his grandparents’ wine-making business. He lived with them after his mother died and his father abandoned him to go and live in Paris, but it wasn’t a pleasant existence, as they regarded him mainly as not-hired help, someone to carry glasses and charm visitors, scrub toilets and clean floors. When they died two years earlier, Theo’s father crawled out of the woodwork to challenge the will that bequeathed everything to Theo, but now probate is complete, Theo can finally take ownership and decide what to do with the business and the properties that go with it. What he wants is to have nothing to do with it; he’s making a good living flipping houses and doesn’t need the vineyard, so he signs the business and his grandparents’ former home over to their production manager as recompense for his years of hard work for little recognition, meaning all that’s left is to deal with is the wine tasting building, a place where he spent a lot of time as a kid and that holds a lot of unpleasant memories.

You can read the rest of this review at All About Romance.

Mystery Magnet (The Last Picks #1) by Gregory Ashe

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He was born to write mysteries. Now, he has to solve them.

When Dashiell Dawson Dane moves across the country to a small seaside town called Hastings Rock, he has one goal: get away from his ex. Okay, two goals – because he wouldn’t mind a little help from his new boss, celebrity mystery author Vivienne Carver. With Vivienne’s mentorship, Dash is sure he can get over this blasted case of writer’s block and start telling his own stories again.

The only problem? Vivienne is murdered on Dash’s first night at Hemlock House. And when police find a secret passage that connects Dash’s bedroom to Vivienne’s, they’re sure they know who did it. Now Dash has to prove his innocence – and the only way to do that is to figure out who really killed Vivienne Carver.

Rating: B+

The cosy mystery is not a genre I’m generally drawn to. I’ve read a few (mostly Josh Lanyon’s Secrets and Scrabble series and a few others) and the words “Gregory Ashe” and “cosy mystery” were not, until now, ones I’d have expected ever to see written in the same sentence. But here we are at the beginning of a new series of cosy mysteries by Gregory Ashe – and I will admit that I wasn’t overjoyed at the prospect of a GA book with no gut-twisting angst, inventive swearing (or sex).

BUT. He’s an immensely talented writer and I’ve reached the stage where I’ll read anything he writes, so there was never a chance I wasn’t going to at least give his latest The Last Picks series a try.

Book one (of a proposed twelve!), Mystery Magnet, is exactly what you’d expect from a cosy mystery. It’s fairly short, the protagonist is endearing with a distinctive voice, there’s a quirky secondary cast, and a decent – though not especially complex – mystery to be solved. I enjoyed it enough to want to read the next book and Mr. Ashe clearly demonstrates that yes, he absolutely can write a successful cosy mystery.

Our narrator is Dashiell (“just Dash”) Dawson Dane, an aspiring mystery writer whose parents are both very successful authors of dark mysteries and thrillers:

I’d grown up with parents who specialized in the macabre, where talking and reading and thinking about things like exotic murders and due process and, yes, homicide interviews were part of daily life.

– and are way too wrapped up in their own drama to be bothered overmuch about their son. After breaking up with his boyfriend, Hugo, Dash gets a job as PA to celebrity mystery author Vivienne Carver and drives across the country from his home in Providence to the small Oregon town of Hastings Rock and Vivienne’s coast-side mansion, Hemlock House. It’s certainly different, and Dash is looking forward not only to starting his new job, but also hoping that the new location will blow the cobwebs off his own writing process, which has been stalled for some time.

You can read the rest of this review at All About Romance.

Undertow by Rachel Ember

This title may be purchased from Amazon

In Sihr, a strange world of endless seas, Aron is a penniless orphan fighting for survival, not looking for adventure. He agrees to smuggle forbidden artifacts in exchange for a fresh start in another village, but the rendezvous goes awry. By the night’s end, a magical accident leaves Aron under the compulsion of Zoral, a steely-eyed pirate who seems to be more shadow than man.

Zoral and his crew only have eleven days to rescue their captain from the witches holding her hostage. He doesn’t trust Aron, but he has no choice but to bring him along on the mission.

As the unlikely pair face haunted ships, kraken battles, and the mysteries of ancient cities lost to the rising seas of their world, they discover a connection that runs deeper than magic.

Rating: B-

I’ve enjoyed a number of Rachel Ember’s contemporary romances – her Wild Ones series was my introduction to her work – and I’ve been wondering for a while if she had anything new planned. Then Undertow popped up for review. It’s a fantasy romance set in a world of endless seas inhabited by terrifying monsters, in which humans live in remote outposts called Towers. The worldbuilding is rich – although there are some things that needed more fleshing out – and I liked the found family element among the ensemble cast, but the romance takes a bit of a back-seat, so perhaps it would be best to think of it as a ‘with romantic elements’ kind of book. Oh – and it has pirates! Can’t forget the pirates 😉

Twenty-year-old Aron is looking forward to getting away from the village in the Leaside Tower where he’s been stuck since the death of his father two years earlier. He’s been eking out a living as a ‘fish’ – someone who swims and dives, tethering ships, retrieving lost items and so on – but hasn’t quite scraped together enough to be able to buy his passage out of there when he’s offered the opportunity to make a tidy sum by delivering an unspecified cargo to an unspecified someone who will rendezvous with him out in the waters at the edges of the world. Aron is well aware that whatever he’s getting himself into is dangerous as well as dodgy, but he decides to go for it. He’s been told not to open the bag he’s been given, but as he’s waiting for his contact, curiosity gets the better of him and he looks inside to discover two metal bands etched with runes, runes lined in black that marks them as Dark artifacts. He shoves them away quickly when he hears oars sloshing in the distance; another rowboat approaches him, the exchange is made and Aron starts to row back towards the tower. But then he sees a trio of sharks making for the other boat. Aron calls out a warning and watches as the three pirates dive into the water leaving the artifacts behind, and watches helplessly as the sharks drag their rowboat beneath the surface. With the artifacts lost, will the pirates want their payment, back, too? Aron doesn’t pause too long to consider his options; without the artifacts, his whole future is in danger and he dives into the deep, dark water to retrieve them. It’s hard to see, but Aron manages to keep out of the way of the sharks – who are more interested in the boat anyway – but he doesn’t have much time. His lungs are almost fit to burst when he finds the two items and grabs them – and is then grabbed from behind by someone who helps him get to the surface and back to his boat, which is now inhabited by the two other pirates.

The big man who helped Aron out of the water tells him they’re going to head back to their ship, and that afterwards, Aron can leave and take the small boat – and his payment – back to the tower, but before they can row very far, they see the water in the middle distance beginning to spin and churn, the swirling current spreading and pulling them back as they try to row away. As they’re drawn closer and closer to the centre of a whirlpool and water starts to cascade into the boat, they see something start to break the surface and watch incredulously as a lichen-encrusted mast, followed by a decayed sail, rigging and then the decks, sides and massive hull of a legendary ghost ship follow. And it’s knifing through the water straight towards the rowboat.

You can read the rest of this review at All About Romance.

Platonic Rulebook (Divorced Men’s Club #2) by Saxon James (audiobook) – Narrated by Nick J. Russo

This title may be downloaded from Audible via Amazon

Griff:

Walking away from my marriage was my idea of a fresh start.

My kid is in college, my ex-wife and I are on good terms…but being single in my 40s is a world different to being single in my teens.

I’m thankful for my best friend, Heath. He’s got my back like he always does and is ready to take me out and show me how the bachelor life is done.

He was never supposed to show me literally.

After we wake up in bed together, I can’t stop looking at him differently, and one thing becomes abundantly clear.

I talk a big talk about wanting to be single, but my platonic rule book has gone out the window.

Heath:

When my best friend comes to me for help post-divorce, I’m only too happy to impart my wisdom to him.

After all, Griffin isn’t my type, but even I can tell he’s a complete lumbersnack. Good with his hands, kind eyes, and a killer smile. All the guys and gals are gonna eat him alive.

But the more time we spend together, the less “not my type” he becomes. I’m the one who can’t get enough of him.

Neither of us is interested in a relationship, so what’s a little fun between friends?

We both know the score.

Rating: Narration – B+; Content – C-

Platonic Rulebook is the second book in Saxon James’ Divorced Men’s Club series, but I don’t think it’s necessary to read or listen to any of the others as each book features a different couple. It’s a best-friends-to-lovers story and I liked that it features two guys in their early forties as leads, but overall, it’s bland, the protagonists have little chemistry and their relationship stays pretty much the same as it’s always been except for the addition of sex to the mix. I was pleased to find that it isn’t one of those ‘I’ve been pining for you forever’ stories; it’s clear that Griff and his soon-to-be-ex-wife had a good marriage, and there’s no sense that Griff was lusting after Heath during it, but the obstacles in their way are so obviously going to be easily surmounted, and I never felt there was much at stake for either character.

But there were, however, a few things about the story that really grated on me.

First. When Griff tells his close friendship group – the DMC (Divorced Mens Club) he and his wife have split up, they’re all about him getting out there and getting it on with someone, going out clubbing and having lots of casual sex, because it’s something he’s never done. He’s spent twenty years married to a woman, but they all think he should be hooking up with men – Griff is bisexual – because he’s never done that, either. It’s very clear that Griff isn’t comfortable with the idea of hooking up in general, and yet they still try to push him into it. I’m so over interfering friends in romances – it’s not funny, it’s not cute, it’s not kind and most of all, it’s not being a friend. When they all turn up at the shopping trip Heath has organised so Griff can get himself some trendy clothes, even though Griff had specifically told them to stay away, I wanted to push them all off a cliff.

Second. Griff and Poppy decide not to tell their son, Felix, that they’re splitting up because he’s a bit highly strung and they don’t want to put him off his stride in his final year of high-school. So they put their lives on hold for a year and outright lie to him, and still haven’t told him the truth by the time he heads off to college. Not wanting him to find out from gossip, they haven’t told anyone else they’re divorcing, either, so when Griff and Heath do get together, they have to keep things very much on the downlow so a) Felix doesn’t find out and b) everyone else doesn’t think Griff is cheating on Poppy. It’s ridiculous – they think lying to their adult kid is better than telling him the truth.

And third – Felix. What a brat.

Nick J. Russo is one of my go-to narrators, but he seems to be a bit off his game here, because there were times I couldn’t tell if I was in Griff or Heath’s PoV because they sound too similar. He does, however convey the depth of the warmth and affection that exists between the two leads, he differentiates clearly between the secondary cast, and his portrayals of Poppy and Felix are excellent (his female voices are always good). He’s great in the sex scenes, but sadly, even he can’t save them from being just ‘meh’.

This is my first book by Saxon James, and it will probably be my last. Contemporary romance, in general, has become so bland and same-y that I tend to stick to the few tried and trusted authors I know can deliver stories with nuanced, interesting plots and characters. Clearly, I should have remembered that before I picked up Platonic Rulebook.

The Mechanics of Lust (Mackenzie Country #2) by Jay Hogan (audiobook) – Narrated by Gary Furlong

This title may be downloaded from Audible via Amazon

I broke the rules and fell in love with my best friend. Newsflash. He didn’t feel the same. I had to stand by and watch him fall for someone else. Moving on hasn’t been easy since we all live and work on the same high country sheep station, but I’m finally getting there.

I’m building a new life, a new set of dreams, planning a different future, just me and my dogs. The last thing I need is Luke Nichols, the sexy, enigmatic, ex-husband of my nemesis, filling my head with a laundry list of cravings. Talk about complicated.

Luke is only in Mackenzie Country for a few months and I’m not about to put my heart on the line again just for a little fun. But the more I’m around Luke, the harder it is to remember exactly why Luke and I are a bad idea, the worst idea.

Things between us are about to go nuclear. Maybe I’m wrong.

Maybe we can keep it simple.

Maybe I can satisfy my cravings and hold on to my heart.

And maybe pigs can fly.

Rating: Narration – A; Content – A

Jay Hogan’s series of romances set in the remote sheep country of the (fictional) Mackenzie Basin continues with The Mechanics of Lust, a poignant, emotional story of two men who have been grieving, in different ways, the loss of family and struggling to make sense of changes in their lives. As with all this author’s books, the leads are likeable and well-characterised, and the situations they face and their reactions to them feel very real; there’s a great supporting cast of familiar faces and the author’s descriptions of the starkly beautiful scenery are enough to have you looking at the price of plane tickets.

Note: This review contains spoilers for the previous book in the series.

It’s been a year since shepherd and dog trainer Zach Lane came out and left behind his home, his family and the future he’d envisaged for himself because he wasn’t prepared to live a lie any longer. And it’s been a tough year; after Zach left Lane Station, his bestie and former friend-with-benefits Holden Miller offered him a home, but that proved to be its own kind of torture when Zach had to stand by and watch as Holden fell for Gil Everton, a grieving father and psychologist from Wellington who had taken a temporary job on the station. It was hard, but as time passed, Zach began to like Gil; he can see how happy Gil makes Holden and how right they are for each other, and lately, he’s found himself envying what they have rather than envying Gil for being Holden’s choice.

You can read the rest of this review at AudioGals.

What Cannot Be Said (Sebastian St. Cyr #19) by C.S. Harris

This title may be purchased from Amazon

July 1815: The Prince Regent’s grandiose plans to celebrate Napoléon’s recent defeat at Waterloo are thrown into turmoil when Lady McInnis and her daughter Emma are found brutally murdered in Richmond Park, their bodies posed in a chilling imitation of the stone effigies once found atop medieval tombs. Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy immediately turns to his friend Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, for help with the investigation. For as Devlin discovers, Lovejoy’s own wife and daughter were also murdered in Richmond Park, their bodies posed in the same bizarre postures. A traumatized ex-soldier was hanged for their killings. So is London now confronting a malicious copyist? Or did Lovejoy help send an innocent man to the gallows?

Aided by his wife, Hero, who knew Lady McInnis from her work with poor orphans, Devlin finds himself exploring a host of unsavory characters from a vicious chimney sweep to a smiling but decidedly lethal baby farmer. Also coming under increasing scrutiny is Sir Ivo McInnis himself, along with a wounded Waterloo veteran—who may or may not have been Laura McInnis’s lover—and a charismatic young violinist who moonlights as a fencing master and may have formed a dangerous relationship with Emma. But when Sebastian’s investigation turns toward man about townBasil Rhodes, he quickly draws the fury of the Palace, for Rhodes is well known as the Regent’s favorite illegitimate son.

Then Lady McInnis’s young niece and nephew are targeted by the killer, and two more women are discovered murdered and arranged in similar postures. With his own life increasingly in danger, Sebastian finds himself drawn inexorably toward a conclusion far darker and more horrific than anything he could have imagined.

Rating: B+

C.S. Harris’ long-running series of historical mysteries feauturing aristocratic amateur sleuth Sebastian St. Cyr reaches its nineteenth instalment with What Cannot Be Said, in which our hero is asked to investigate the murder of a noblewoman and her daughter. With the mysteries around Sebastian’s own heritage and family circumstances now resolved, the last few novels in the series (as well as this one) have more of a standalone feel about them – although I do think it’s an advantage to have some knowledge of what has gone before.

It’s a sunny afternoon in July, 1815, and two brothers are in Richmond Park enjoying an afternoon away from the hubbub at home caused by their sister’s upcoming wedding. When the air is rent by two pistol shots, they immediately wonder if there’s a duel happening and race to find out, but they’re completely unprepared for what they find – a woman and a girl lying in the grass next to the remains of a picnic, their arms crossed over their bloodied chests, their bodies feet-to-feet and the air filled with the stench of fresh blood and burnt gunpowder.

The two victims are Lady Laura McInnis and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Emma, but more disturbing even than the murders themselves is the way the bodies have been posed in exactly the same way as the victims of another double murder fourteen years earlier, that of Julia and Madeline Lovejoy – the wife and seventeen-year-old daughter of Sir Henry Lovejoy, Bow Street Magistrate. But their killer, a traumatised ex-soldier, was apprehended and hanged for the crime – so could these latest murders be the work of a cruel copycat? Or, as Lovejoy is beginning to fear, could they have executed the wrong man?

You can read the rest of this review at All About Romance.

TBR Challenge – Imperfect Harmony by Jay Northcote

This title may be purchased from Amazon

Imperfect harmony can still be beautiful…

John Fletcher, a former musician, is stuck in limbo after losing his long-term partner two years ago. He’s shut himself off from everything that reminds him of what he’s lost. When his neighbour persuades him to join the local community choir, John rediscovers his love of music and finds a reason to start living again.

Rhys Callington, the talented and charismatic choir leader, captures John’s attention from the first moment they meet. He appears to be the polar opposite of John: young, vibrant, and full of life. But Rhys has darkness in his own past that is holding him back from following his dreams.

Despite the nineteen-year age gap, the two men grow close and a fragile relationship blossoms. Ghosts of the past and insecurities about the future threaten their newfound happiness. If they’re going to harmonise in life and love as they do in their music, they’ll need to start following the same score.

Rating: B

Jay Northcote’s Imperfect Harmony turned out to fit this month’s “No Place Like Home” prompt in several different ways. Not only has one of the lead characters recently returned to his former home town, but also, it’s set in the UK (my home), the two leads are musicians (so am I) and one of them is a music teacher (ditto), so the setting felt very familiar to me on many levels.

John Fletcher lost his partner of over two decades a couple of years before the story begins, and he’s still struggling to come to terms with it. He’s just going through the motions day to day, existing rather than living, and has deliberately shied away from something he dearly loves – making music – because it reminds him too much of David and happier times. Around a year later, his mother became ill and John moved back to the family home in the small Cotswold town of Lambury to care for her, which he did until her death months earlier, so to say the last couple of years have been difficult for him is an understatement.

His neighbour, Maggie, is recovering from a having a hip replacement, so John offers to drive her to her weekly choir practice. Along the way, she asks him if singing in a choir is something he’s ever done – she’s known him for years and knows he’s musical – but John makes clear it’s not something he’s keen on. They arrive at the venue and John sees Maggie safely inside – and is immediately captivated by the sound of a beautiful tenor voice singing a familiar song. Maggie tells him it’s the choirmaster, Rhys, whom John is surprised to discover is much younger than he’d imagined – maybe early twenties – and much more unconventional, with his electric blue hair, tattoos and an eyebrow piercing. Rhys welcomes them both with a charming smile and John is surprised to find himself experiencing the first flicker of interest he’s felt for another man in years. Rhys hopefully asks if John is staying to sing – there are never enough men in amateur choirs! – and John finds his initial resistance to the idea waning in the face of the other man’s obvious enthusiasm.

As the rehearsal progresses, John realises he’s glad to be there; he’s enjoying the music and the activity of singing for the first time in years. Rhys is clearly a very talented musician and the members of the choir obviously adore him; he’s confident, vibrant, graceful and full of life (all the things John is not) – and John is smitten. At the end of the evening, he comes away feeling lighter than he has in a very long time.

Rhys Callington moved back to Lambury about eighteen months earlier following the tragic death of his boyfriend, and works as a freelance musician – he runs the choir, a few music clubs in local schools and does some specialist instrumental and vocal coaching. He’s pleased when, at the end of the evening, John says he enjoyed the session, and he really hopes John will come back. There’s something about the quiet, older man that makes Rhys want to get to know him better.

Imperfect Harmony is a gentle, romantic story about two men who have suffered terrible losses helping each other to emerge from the limbo they’ve both been existing in and start to really live again. As they share long walks and meaningful conversations, John and Rhys come to realise that they have more in common than their shared love of music; Rhys is also griveing the loss of someone close to him and can’t help lingering feelings of guilt, even though he knows that what happened wasn’t his fault. Their strong emotional connection and mutual attraction are really well written and there’s no doubt these two are meant for each other. I also really liked the way the author shows John slowly overcoming his reluctance to playing his violin or the piano. Meeting Rhys is undoubtedly the catalyst for his decision to try, but I liked the parallel between John’s move towards playing again and his realisation that maybe he’s finally ready to move past David’s death and start living the rest of his life. It doesn’t happen all in one go of course – it’s a gradual process, but it’s nicely done.

The conflict in the story arises principally from John’s inability to see past their nineteen year age gap (John is forty-two, Rhys twenty-three) and his fears that he’s too old and staid for someone as young and vibrant as Rhys. It’s clear that most of John’s concerns are the result of a sudden onset of panic at the way his life is changing, and he’s going to have to find it within himself to take a chance on life – and on love.

Given the heaviness of the subject matter, this isn’t a melodramatic or overly angsty story, and unlike many of the books I’ve read about music and musicians, where it’s clear author doesn’t actually know how to write about music, that’s not the case here. Jay Northcote’s descriptions of Rhys teaching the choir their parts, of the excitement at hearing them fit together, of the rush of pleasure as John rediscovers the joy of making music, speak to someone who knows their stuff. Imperfect Harmony is very much a ‘vibes over plot’ story about healing, finding new love and moving on, and I really enjoyed it.

Death in the Spires by KJ Charles

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The newspapers called us the Seven Wonders. We were a group of friends, that’s all, and then Toby died. Was killed. Murdered.

1905. A decade after the grisly murder of Oxford student Toby Feynsham, the case remains hauntingly unsolved. For Jeremy Kite, the crime not only stole his best friend, it destroyed his whole life. When an anonymous letter lands on his desk, accusing him of having killed Toby, Jem becomes obsessed with finally uncovering the truth.

Jem begins to track down the people who were there the night Toby died – a close circle of friends once known as the ‘Seven Wonders’ for their charm and talent – only to find them as tormented and broken as himself. All of them knew and loved Toby at Oxford. Could one of them really be his killer?

As Jem grows closer to uncovering what happened that night, his pursuer grows bolder, making increasingly terrifying attempts to silence him for good. Will exposing Toby’s killer put to rest the shadows that have darkened Jem’s life for so long? Or will the gruesome truth only put him in more danger?

Some secrets are better left buried…

Rating: A

Quite a few of KJ Charles’ historical romances have a mystery subplot, but Death in the Spires is her first historical mystery ‘proper’. She’s taken pains to make sure readers know what to expect – that this novel is, first and foremost, a mystery and not a romance – so I’m echoing that here for anyone who hasn’t seen the disclaimers. There is a romantic sub-plot running through the story, but there’s no HEA (although there’s the tentative suggestion that there could be one somewhere down the line) and while it’s an important plot point, it’s not the main focus.

Our protagonist is Jeremy – Jem – Kite, a young working-class man from the Midlands who, in 1892, gains a scholarship to study mathematics at Oxford. On his very first day, he’s sought out by Toby Feynsham, the handsome, charming and generous – though spoiled – heir-apparent to a marquess, and the centre of a group of friends that becomes known as the Seven Wonders.

At that first meeting, Toby is clear about wanting to “collect the interesting people” rather than just “mingle with all the men one went to school with” and at first, Jem can’t quite believe his good fortune in being welcomed into such a bright, witty and popular group of people. There’s Toby’s brilliant, fierce twin sister, Ella, and her quiet yet determined roommate, Prue, who are both studying at the women’s college; Toby’s childhood friend, the louche and waspish Nicholas Rook, whose unrequited love for him is common knowledge (although is never spoken of); Aaron Oyede – the only Black student at the college, whose upper-class background does nothing to protect him from discrimination; and the supremely likeable Hugo Morely-Adams, whose principal defining characterisic is his ambition. Becoming friends with all of them and being known as one of the Seven Wonders is like a dream come true, and Jem’s three years at Oxford pass in a glorious whirl of academic success, sporting glory and wonderful friendship – until the fateful night just before Finals when everything falls apart and Toby is killed. The murder and events leading up to it have a profound effect on Jem, and he never really recovers from the shock, his once bright future crumbling into dust when he fails his exams.

The novel opens in 1905 when Jem, tired, downtrodden and just about making ends meet, arrives at his dreary office job one morning to discover that his boss has received a letter containing three lines:

Jeremy Kite is a murderer.

He killed Toby Feynsham.

Ask him why.

You can read the rest of this review at All About Romance.