Title: A New Life

Series: West Meets East #1

Author: Merry Farmer

Publisher: Self-Published

Published Date: July 14, 2017

Format: E-book

Page Count: 92 pages

Source: Own copy

Date Read: May 25-26, 2020

Review

Millie Horner is a Old West saloon girl who gets the chance to move to England (Cornwall) and get a job as a junior maid for the estate known as Starcross Castle. There she meets Own Llewellyn, a footman with dreams of becoming a foreman on a mining crew. They fall in lustful love pretty damn quickly, but the book was only 92 pages long. There are some obstacles, namely the Lord of the castle's nephew (and heir) and the senior maid Jane. The baddies are stereotypical in their actions and words; there is no depth there. The "love" between Owen and Millie is pretty superficial, but the way the head butler and head maid help the lovebirds make their way. I will say Owen was a fine, if bland hero; Millie cried at the drop of a hat and needed to grow a damn spine - she was a constant damsel in distress looking for someone else to solve her problems. 

I was not convinced that this series is for me and I am not interested in the spin-off/ interconnected series that come from this first book. 

Title: Howard Haskell Takes a Bride

Series: The Brides of Paradise Ranch #0.5

Author: Merry Farmer

Publish Date: July 20, 2016

Publisher: Self Published

Format: Kindle

Page Count: 91 pages

Source: Kindle store, personal copy

Date Read: February 2-14, 2020

Review

A waste of time and effort, both on my side and the author's side. Seriously this is a contemporary erotic romance crudely and sloppily disguised as a historical novella. Even the cover is way too contemporary. Everything about this novella annoyed me - the characterizations were so shallow, you didn't want to jump into the pool for fear of hitting your head; the plot was so thin I wondered why the author bothered with having one at all. 

Elizabeth is the spoiled brat of wealthy Cincinnati high society parents who wants adventure on the frontier and keep her money at the same time. Her parents were pushing her to accept and move forward with an engagement to one of her father's young business associate. This young associate gave a big whiff of being possibly gay, so yet another historical romance with an evil, possibly gay boyfriend coming in between the hero and heroine - I do not like this trend at all. 

Elizabeth meets her "hero" Howard Haskell at a ball. There is a crap ton of telling about how physically attracted the two are to each other and how they found their one. This goes on for pages. One dance and then more monologuing about how attracted they are to one another. Howard is a blowhard egotistical ass, but honestly, Elizabeth is no prize either so I could see them having a HEA - for the rest of us not having to be in a relationship with either of them. There is a ton of sex scenes, mostly the outdoorsy type. There is a ridiculous foot race between bad boyfriend and hero to prove who was more worthy of Elizabeth's hand in marriage *eye roll*

There is no connection between this novella and the series it supposedly was the prequel for. So there is no reason to read this story to complete the series; there is no reason to read this dreck at all.

Book: Skip

Task #1: Dreidel

I went with having all biographies or memoirs. My choices were:

Nun - Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revoluntionary by Anita Anand

Shin - Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper

Hei - Living and Dying in Brick City by Dr. Sampson Davis

Gimel - This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jenkins

On December 15, you spun the Dreidel and got a....

Gimel!

I will be reading This Will Be My Undoing come January 1st!

Task #2: Recipe for Latkes - uh we just fry up a Rosti latke packet, with applesauce on the side. 

Task #3: Skip

Task #4: As a family, we have donated 10 cans to the school food drive in November and four more cans and four toys to the local food bank via the town's Tree Lighting ceremony on December 12th.

Date Published: January 7, 2016

Format: Ebook

Source: NOOK store 

Date Read: February 1-3, 2019

Blurb:

For Corva Collier, life as a mail-order bride in the quirky town of Haskell, Wyoming is her last chance for escape. She longs for a peaceful life away from the darkness of her past where she can create the paintings that are close to her heart, and where she hopes she can grow to love her husband. But how do you love a man who was persuaded to marry you against his will?

Franklin Haskell never planned to marry. What woman would want a man who was crippled due to his own arrogance? But when he is offered the chance to help a woman in crisis, he agrees to wed. Corva is so much more than he expected, and when a baseball game gives her the chance to shine, he loses his heart. But how do you tell a woman you love her when she deserves so much better?

The game of love has never been so hard to play...or so worth winning.

______________________________________________________________________

Review: 

I liked this first installment in The Brides of Paradise Ranch series (10 books + 1 novella). Franklin was a great beta and Corva was drawn with more realistic attitudes than most mail-order bride books. I loved the baseball scene and the villains were actually awful but powerful, so there was real tension that is not resolved totally by the end of the book (seems to be the overarching arc through the series). I personally chose the sweet version of this story (the steamy version is titled His Perfect Bride) because I am tired of chapter length sex scenes and just wanted a good story to escape into. I think this would be a good introduction to Farmer's work, either the sweet or the steamy version.

Yay for Snakes and Ladders for getting me back into reading mojo. My TBR went to crap and for the second month in a row, I DNF'ed a book from my Science reading list. Luckily, I impulsively downloaded an audiobook from my wishlist on RB Digital that I did finished. I didn't even get to my Nixon reading list, so I am doubling up in March. Right now, I just can't with fiction (or most fiction) and just gorging myself on non-fiction from a variety of disciplines. 

In somewhat reading related news, I got into grad school this month and started building my Wordpress blog (there is nothing there yet, but when it is ready, I will drop a link). I deleted my Blogger account and blog as I wanted to move away from Google. I am not wanting to make money off my blog, just want a place for my book and craft stuff that is not at the mercy of the big tech-media companies or small sites that might go poof in the night (*side eye* BL *cough*). 

Challenges:

BL/GR: 21/75

Nixon Reading List: 0

Science Reading List: 1

Non-Fiction Physical Shelf: 0

5 stars: 

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy (audiobook)

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder

4.5 - 4 stars:

Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection by Jacob Silverman

Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger by Rebecca Traister

3.5 - 3 stars:

Corva: The Perfect Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch #1) by Merry Farmer

Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond Sonia Shah (audiobook)

1 star

The Hot One: A Memoir of Friendship, Sex, and Murder by Carolyn Murnick

DNF:

Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs Mysteries #1) by Jacqueline Winspear

The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman