November 2022 – Book Dust Magic

Book Review: Something in the Heir by Suzanne Enoch @STMRomance #BookLovers #HistoricalRomance

Something in the Heir by Suzanne Enoch book cover US edition

GIFTED / Today I decided to talk about a book that I have finished recently. It is a historical romance with book-to-lovers and marriage of convenience tropes.

Something in the Heir was published on September 20th 2022 by St. Martin Griffin’s and it has 352 pages. I want to thank publicist Sara from St. Martin Press for inviting me to read and review this book via Netgalley.

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS /

Emmeline and William Pershing have enjoyed a perfectly convenient marriage for eight years. Their relationship is a seamless blend of their talents and goals. They’ve settled into separate, well-ordered lives beneath the same roof, and are content to stay that way—or so Emmeline thinks. And if William has secretly longed for a bit more from the woman he adores, he’s managed to be content with her supreme skills as a hostess and planner, which has helped him advance his career.

Then when Emmeline’s grandfather, the reclusive Duke of Welshire, summons them both for his birthday celebration and demands they bring their two little angelic children, William is stunned to discover that his very proper wife invented not one, but two heirs to fulfill the agreement for living at Winnover. But surely if Emmeline and William team up and borrow two cherubs to call their own, what could go wrong? Enter George, age 8, and Rose, 5—the two most unruly orphans in Britain.

As the insanity unfolds, their careful, professional arrangement takes some surprisingly intimate turns as well. Perhaps it takes a bit of madness to create the perfect happily ever after.

Review:

Not long after I read Never Rescue a Rogue by Virginia Heath I found myself craving for more historical romance (and that crave is still active) so Something in the Heir came to my life in just about the right time.

Suzanne Enoch is pretty popular in my country and now when I finished her book I can see why. Her writing style is witty and I can imagine myself grabbing her work when I need something to make me feel better.

However, although I enjoyed author’s writing style, the story she created this time around didn’t win my heart.
I did enjoy it to some degree, but I signed up for a romance, and in reality I got a family comedy with somewhat shallow protagonists.

The story has tropes that are popular in romance books: marriage of convenience and friends-to-lovers, but the reason I simply reject to call this a romance are children who took the spot from main characters, their chemistry and everything in between.

This story was more about orphan children coming to lives of our two main characters (for a reason that can put a bad taste in readers mouths I am sure) and them winning the hearts of said protagonists than about Emma and Will‘s path to find love with each other.
I mean, there was not even one scene where the reader would witness the chemistry between them or root for them.
It was all predictable in a way, which I don’t mind, but I wish I was swept away by at least one or two moments of love in this story.

So overall, this book was fun but it read like historical fiction because it lacked when it comes to romance.

Movie Monday: The School for Good and Evil #MovieMonday #TheSchoolForGoodAndEvil #Netflix

The School for Good and Evil Netflix movie cover

Movie Monday is a feature here on my blog, in which I’m rambling about movies I’ve watched lately.

Today I want to talk about a movie I watched yesterday and was swept away.

The School for Good and Evil

I remember years ago, back when I started to read in English and was religiously watching BookTube videos, The School for Good and Evil book series was pretty popular. It also found it’s place on my tbr, but as time passed I never picked it up and with time it got pushed away by all the other books that were released.
I had no idea Netflix was making an adaptation of the same, but you can imagine my pleasent surprise when I saw it on my homepage (I guess I should keep up with book/movie news more).
As I never read the books, I can’t compare the movie to them, or say if certain things were changed.
However, I can tell you that I really, really liked this motion picture and 2,5 hourst just passed by so quickly, because I was having so much fun.
I guess I needed some fantasy in my life, a magical world that made me daydream how it would be like if those pararel worlds really existed. I caught myself more then a few times daydreaming about crossing that line that parts our world from the different ones we read only in our books.

The cast was very good. Charlize Theron was probably the most noticable, but there are also Kerry Washington, Laurence Fishburne and Kate Blanchett (who narrates the story).
Young actresses Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie were both amazing in their performance.

This movie is perfect choice for a family movie night, as it is appropriate for younger audience but interesting enough so all generations can enjoy it.
I will admit that I find it to be better than I expected and I highly, highly recommend it.

The one that misguided us: The Ex Between Us by Nicola Marsh #BookReview #BookClub

Today I bring you my review for a book I read with my girls in our book club. We all expected thriller and were left little disappointed. Still, it was a good reading experience. After all, the joy of book clubs is in the discussions and other talks that come out inspired by the happenings from the books.

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS /

he best of friends keep the deadliest secrets…

Jo is my best friend. From high school to adulthood, we’ve gone through everything together. Even when I made a foolish mistake and betrayed her in the worst way, she forgave me. She’s godmother to my son and our lives are intertwined. We want the best for each other, always.

I hope she approves of my new boyfriend Noah. How could she not? Noah is kind, attentive and loves me for who I am. But when I introduce them over dinner one evening, Jo doesn’t look happy. She’s always been protective of me and as Noah clutches my hand, I force her reaction to the back of my mind.

But later Jo tells me that someone is threatening her and she fears for her life. And all too soon, the threats land at my door too. At first it’s small things: my precious roses destroyed, my mail sabotaged. But when I receive a note saying, “I want your life,” I’m terrified.

Someone wants to cause me harm. They’re prepared to take everything I love. But are they closer to me than I could have ever imagined?

Review:

This was October pick in our book club and the five of us were looking forward to read it.
In the end, only three of us managed to finish it, which speaks on it’s own.

By the synopsis, we expected a thriller when in reality we got women’s fiction going all out of it’s way to kookoo land by the end, with thriller aspects at the very epiloque.
Just like my friend Ani stated, if nothing, it read like villain original story or however you call that genre.

The book was written in first person following two friends’ perspectives: Abi‘s and Jo‘s.

This novel had interesting but also awful set of characters, where all the people were toxic to each other and for some reason kept staying together.
They reminded me why my policy is “no friends are better than fake friends”.🙃
The only somewhat normal character was Abi’s son Rob, but the author managed to ruin him too with some of his comments (also, he was gone for most part of the story).

Abi was my least favourite of them all. She was spoiled to death and didn’t even realized her actions and Jo I liked until the very end when the author decided to kill all of her potential and ruin her completely.

I wish Nicola Marsh didn’t decide to jump on that “thrillers are popular” train and wrote coming of age end for Jo.

As for the writing, it was good and it was very similar to Jane Fallon’s.
My friend Amanda and I agree: it felt like we were reading Fallon’s work.

Overall, it was a good book to pass time and I am glad I read it along with my friends because that way I enjoyed it more then I would if I was reading it on my own.