Spring Brides: Three Novellas - Rachel Hauck, Lenora Worth, Meg Moseley

Spring Brides: A Year of Weddings Novella Collection by Rachel Hauck
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really liked the March Bride. Probably because I've read all of Rachel Hauck's books and enjoyed this additional glimpse into the romance/wedding of Susanna and King Nathaniel. I found it to be well written and nicely paced. 4 stars.
I really did NOT like the April bride. First of all, I couldn't handle the characters' names. They about sent me over the edge. The timeline seemed wonky - slow in some places and completely skipped in others. And the whole thing was just beyond far-fetched. 0 stars. I didn't even like it enough for 1 star. And since I'm averaging, I don't have to give it a star if I don't want to. :)
And the May bride was okay. I liked the characters...even the over-the-top mom. I would have liked this to be a full-length story where the characters could have developed and not had everything so rushed. 2.5 stars...maybe 3.
So an average for the book of 2.2...since Goodreads doesn't allow half stars (They really should), I'll round to 2.

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Save Me - Lisa Scottoline

Save Me by Lisa Scottoline
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book had so much potential. The premise of making the choice to save your child or someone else's in an emergency could have gone so many different ways. For me, this book tried to go too many ways, involving too much - various story lines, a plethora of characters and themes. There were also inconsistencies in the timelines. Which is always extra annoying to me in a suspense book. I will say, the suspense reveal ended up being so far out in left field that I never would have guessed it. So I guess that's good?

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The Knight and the Dove (Kensington Chronicles #4) - Lori Wick

The Knight and the Dove by Lori Wick
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was the best book of the series. Definitely the most interesting story of the four. However, weird that we went so far back in time after the first three books.
My gripes for the whole series:
-The covers are ridiculous. The models don't look very true to the description. And definitely not in line with the historical timeline.
-The history in the stories either wasn't very well researched or wasn't very well applied. The speech, mannerisms, etiquette, lack of chaperones, etc. were all wrong.

I didn't enjoy this series at all other than the fact they were great for reading on vacation with regular interruptions from my kids.

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How the Other Half Lives - Jacob Riis

How the Other Half Lives by Jacob A. Riis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is not the version I read. Okay, I gave up after reading about four chapters in. But my version of the book was by LibriVox, which gave me the idea to look for free audio. I got through the book, and it wouldn't have happened any other way. It was tough reading. I don't know if it was the small text or dense pages or the content. Probably all of the above. I fared much better upon switching to the audio (although it was weird with the different narrators - and varying quality of the recordings). Still, I think I didn't really grasp all of what Riis was conveying. And, really, a lot of the issues with tenements in New York back then are still with us today in the inner cities of America.

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The Austen Escape - Katherine Reay

The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I do so hate to write a less than stellar review for a book authored by someone I’m a fan of. But that is where I find myself now, and why I’ve been putting off writing this review since I finished the book about a month ago.

I love Jane Austen. I’ve been a fan of Katherine Reay’s previous books (with the exception of The Bronte Plot). So when I saw she was writing another book with a Jane Austen tie-in, I started stalking NetGalley to request a copy as soon as it was available.

This book just didn’t do anything for me. The romance aspect and its issues were clear from pretty much the beginning. The entire story line was predictable. I can deal with a predictable story line as long as the characters are brilliantly written and engaging. They weren’t.

While the idea of going staying at a Regency area living history “hotel” could be infinitely fascinating, in this story it wasn’t. That part was just confusing as sometimes the characters involved were “living history” and other times they were just normal, modern-day people. Which I think defeats the purpose of paying that kind of money for that specific experience.

I just had issues with the story and the story telling on many levels. And that makes me sad.

I received a free advanced reader copy from Net Galley and the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Alexander Hamilton - Rob Chernow

<Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So I am ridiculously interested in going to see the musical. But as incentive figured I’d read the biography that inspired it all first. I figure 800+ pages should be worth rewarding with a ticket should Hamilton the musical ever come near enough for my viewing pleasure.
I did not expect the biography to be so engaging. It really was quite interesting. Not just Alexander Hamilton’s life but just the politics and the infighting and the beginning years of the United States. Absolutely worth the time investment to read it.

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