Romantic Parvenu

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Bees by Laline Paull

What I really think is, this book has a unique idea. However, it’s not enough to make up for mediocre prose and half-done characterization and world-building. Paull tried her best, and The Bees had its moments, but it just really couldn’t ...
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Book Review: Black River by S.M. Hulse

At its surface, Black River is a sleepy, almost lethargic story, and beneath that are dark undercurrents of tension and fear, the kind of emotion that you don’t just read, you feel. I wish I could do this book justice, but I can’t. S.M. Hulse’s ...
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Book Review: Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

Alison Weir is most well-known as an author of historical nonfiction, and Innocent Traitor was her first attempt at a novel. Well. I haven’t read anything else of Weir’s nonfiction or otherwise, but I can certainly say that Weir put the ...
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Book Review: Complicit by Stephanie Kuehn

Kuehn has found a formula that works for her, though with her talent, I think she could easily attempt something new. Kuehn has done the “mental-illness, rich-white-boy, memory-loss” story twice now. She did it well; both Charm & Strange and ...
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Book Review: Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen

Pioneer Girl was a cleverly-written and insightful book that bridges the gap between fiction and nonfiction, and draws surprising comparisons between two very disparate American subcultures. Bich Minh Nguyen did an excellent job with the novel ...
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Book Review: Still the One by Jill Shalvis

Jill Shalvis’s Still the One is neither the best nor the worst of her ongoing Animal Magnetism series thus far, rather ending up quite nicely in the center of the pack. The romance between Darcy and AJ wasn’t my absolute favorite—especially in ...
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