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Lola Keeley

Teoksen The Music and the Mirror tekijä

7+ teosta 81 jäsentä 5 arvostelua

Tekijän teokset

The Music and the Mirror (2018) 22 kappaletta
Her Royal Happiness (2022) 18 kappaletta
Major Surgery (2019) 14 kappaletta
Slammed (2019) 10 kappaletta
A Roll in the Hay (2020) 9 kappaletta
Presidential (2022) 7 kappaletta
Interlude 1 kappale

Associated Works

Laid Bare: A collection of erotic lesbian stories (2019) — Tekijä, eräät painokset13 kappaletta
After Happily Ever After (2021) — Avustaja — 12 kappaletta

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Sukupuoli
female
Kansalaisuus
UK
Maa (karttaa varten)
UK

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

Recensione su BookLover

ARC provided by Ylva Publishing in exchange for an honest review

Finalmente sono riuscita a leggere un nuovo romance, cosa che non faccio solitamente. Ne ho anche altri sul kindle, quindi aspettatevi un po' di recensioni!

In questo romanzo seguiamo Tess e Susannah. Tess è una veterinaria che è tornata a casa in una cittadina scozzese dopo che la sua vita a Londra si è dimostrata fallimentare.
Lady Susannah Karlson è la propietaria di un vasto territorio e di ulcuni edifici nella cittadina. Da poco rimasta vedova, vuole portare avanti un progetto per quanto riguarda Midsummer, ma è messa in difficoltà dalla cognata Robin.
Tess e Susannah non hanno un buon primo incontro, anzi, e ogni volta che si incontrano finiscono per litigare a causa di incomprensioni e differenze. Riusciranno a superare tutto questo in favore dei loro veri sentimenti?

Personalmente, ho trovato questa storia estremamente interessante e piacevole da leggere, anche se avrei forse preferito che alcuni degli argomenti fossero stati inseriti meglio e che la storia d'amore non fosse così "veloce". Sì, le due donne si scontrano parecchio prima di riuscire a comprendersi, ma fin dall'inizio sono attratte l'una dall'altra e, dopo il loro primo incontro, mi è sembrato un po' irrealistico.
Nel complesso, però, penso che la storia tra Tess e Susannah sia stata ben eseguita, come anche il conflitto tra Susannah e Robin per il destino di Midsummer, un altro degli argomenti principali del romanzo.

Per quanto riguarda i personaggi, sono stata piacevolmente sorpresa di trovare un personaggio secondario non-binary, cosa piuttosto rara. Finn è intelligente e di grande aiuto per Susannah, come anche suo marito Dave.
E parlando di Tess e Susannah... Ammetto che Susannah all'inizio non mi piaceva molto; questo perché è molto chiusa nel suo mondo di aristocrazia e privilegi e a volte non vede e non capisce le persone attorno a lei. Nel corso del romanzo la vediamo cambiare molto, e penso sia una dei miei personaggi preferiti assieme a Babs.
Tess è invece più terra-terra, ed è entusiasta del fatto di potersi occupare di cavalli e altri animali che non si torvano in città. Di sicuro è testarda quanto Susannah, forse anche di più, e a volte l'ho trovata un po' irritante nel suo voler vedere solo quello che vuole (soprattutto in una scena in particolare che non voglio spoilerare).

Lo stile di scrittura è estremamente fluido e si legge con piacere. Sono partita a leggere questo libro senza aspettative, visto che è il primo libro che leggo di quest'autrice, ma sono rimasta piacevolmente sorpresa.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
thereadingpal | Jun 14, 2022 |
So, I've reviewed the first edition of this before (and below in a spoiler tag since that's the only way to keep it semi hidden I have kept for posterity my original review). And, I was in more of a minority because of the fact that I really liked that original book. But, I also understand why it needed to be revised as well. And, I was very happy that this revised edition was a fun read too.

Emily Lawrence is the new head of Cardio at a Washington DC hospital. So, it's she that gets the call when the son of the President comes in to get cleared (he had cardiac surgery as a kid). That brings Emily into Connie's (the sitting President) orbit, and, after that, of course, they get closer and cloesr. But, Emily's early life wasn't easy, and that puts up some roadblocks, also, I mean, Connie is the President of the United States, so, yep, definitely a bunch of different drama there. Heh.

It was an interesting read as well as a fun one in that even though I tried to go in as if this was a totally new book, my brain couldn't help itself and I compared where it was the same and where it was different from the first edition. I liked a lot of the places where it has been changed. I especially liked the character of Emily in this one. Perhaps it's because I'm a sucker for Medical anything because my femslash fandom life started way back in the way back with Kim/Kerry on ER.

There there was, the ghost of the previous book right under the surface on occasion, but, not in a bad way, and, if someone hasn't read the first edition of this, a reader probably wouldn't even notice. But, it was a fun little thing to do while reading this slightly thriller very political very awesome romance.

I was given this ARC by the Ylva Publishing in exchange for an Honest Review.

-------
First Edition Review for Posterity:

I don't know if it's because "The American President" movie has been one of my favorite Hetero romances for many years, or that in addition to reading a lot of novels, I read quite a bit of fanfic too, but, I didn't mind at all that the story hewed close to the movie that it was inspired by (I also didn't read the Acknowledgements --before I read the book, so, I laughed out loud when I got the first wiff that it was inspired by the movie).

I do think that it was different in a lot of respects. The bones were quite alike, true, and some of the beats felt like those in the movie, but, there were also quite a few things that felt different (aside from the more sex than the PG-13 for language movie).

It's the story of Connie and Emily. Emily is a lobbyist for an Environmental lobby that wants to, well, save the Earth from spontaneously combusting in space (okay, okay, slowing and stopping global warming is more the speed of Emily and her boss (who's in a relationship with her sister, that was interesting)). Connie is the first female president. And she has a lot on her plate. While Emily is haranguing her on television, she also has a promise that she made on the trail, to curtail gun violence, hanging over her head too. But, like in the movie, she makes a deal with Emily. You get so many votes on an environmental bill, I will get the rest for you. Which goes as you would suspect since, while gun control and the environment are on the same track for a lot of people, not for everyone. And, Connie has to choose, is she going to lose the gun bill, or lose the woman she's falling in love with?

I think that Keeley definitely addressed some of the more problematic parts of the movie well in the book I thought. (Just 'cause I like a movie, doesn't mean I can't see where it has problems). I was a little annoyed that there wasn't a mention of the fact that, if they're dancing a waltz that sounds like 'Once Upon a Dream', especially at a State Dinner, yeah, it's probably not an arrangement of the Disney song, it's either the original Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty waltz music, or perhaps the piano arrangement for four hands that Rachmaninoff did. (Yes, I know that's little and niggly, but, this is my review, so, pffftt...)

And, a final thought. This has nothing to do with the writing of the book, and it's definitely not Keeley's fault. But, a general question. How the freaking hell are we still stuck in 1995? It's 2020, and yet, when it comes to guns, the environment, to the freaking Republicans and how they comport themselves. How in 25 years have we made no progress here in the United States? How is, in some places, it even worse?? Argh....

I was given this ARC by the publisher in exchange for an Honest Review.

ETA: It looks like Ylva has taken this down from being for sale in an abundance of caution based on some of the reviews it got. I'm very glad I got to read it before then.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
DanieXJ | Oct 24, 2020 |
I was given this ARC by the publisher in exchange for an Honest Review.

Tennis and lesbians. Woo!! And, not just Tennis, but, really, really, really well written tennis. And well written lesbianism too, but, I've read well written lesbian romance fiction, a bunch of it, well written tennis is something harder to come by. Ali Vali's book got four stars, Yolanda Wallace's three, as well as two of Martina Navratilova's mysteries, I won't say the one that got two stars, although, if I recall, that wasn't the fault of the tennis, but the relationship.

But, I digress. In the first few pages of this novel, taking place during one of the Semi-Finals of Wimbledon. I've never been there in person, but, I've watched it almost every year, and every word of those first few pages were so evocative. I felt like I was there. It felt perfect.

Anyway.... sorry, to the actual romantic story. Elin is a superstar, number one in tennis. And she's very very close to breaking Stefi Graf's Grand Slam record. Toni is also a pro tennis player. She's coming back from a massive back injury, and has a slightly, heh, lower ranking in the.

They meet by chance between Elin playing in the Wimbledon Semi and the Final, and then they slowly get closer and closer as they go in and out of each others orbits based on what tournies they're playing and who's being pissed of with whom.

There were a ton of twists and turns which made it a fun read, and the subplot that Keeley wrote. Holy crap. So so so depressingly real, and amazingly written too. And, the characters. It was written in first person, with Elin being the narrator, but, even so, the characters were all real and unique and Keeley got me into them (either hating them or liking them or having a --meh-- reaction to them). It was great. An amazing, amazing read.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
DanieXJ | Oct 15, 2019 |
I was given this ARC by the publisher in exchange for an Honest Review.

I know that this wasn't exactly a Holby City story. And, actually, I quite liked the characters in this story much much more than a lot of the characters that I've seen in the clips of Holby City. But, still, I definitely pictured that hospital while I read this book.

As I said, though, this novel is so much better than what happened on the show. Cassie is a former Army Major and her entrance into the story was one of my favorite parts of the novel. She's a Trauma Surgeon and up for Head of Trauma. Veronica is the head of AMU and a general surgeon, although at the start of the novel she feels like she's more a pure administrative person every day. Then Cassie enters the scene and both their lives are changed so much as they get closer and closer.

Oh, and then there's a doozy of a subplot. Who's trying to take down Cassie and why. That one kept me guessing just enough to make it enjoyable too.

There was a bit more American bashing here and there than I like to see (Actually, pretty much all ERs and EDs in the United States can't just turn down a person in distress and that's why so many of the city ones are in such dire financial straits because they do serve you no matter if you have insurance or not). Thankfully, that sort of thing was just thrown in there by the characters here and there and wasn't a constant thing the characters were harping on.

It was a fun book, and a thoroughly enjoyable read.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
DanieXJ | Feb 14, 2019 |

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Suosituimmuussija
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Arvio (tähdet)
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Kirja-arvosteluja
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ISBN:t
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Kielet
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