The Comeback by Lily Chu (2022)

Beware the hot cousins of roommates...

I absolutely loved this story about Ari and Jihoon. She's a lawyer working towards making partner. He's run to Toronto to escape a bad breakup. Being together, at first, is awkward, but soon becomes easy. Soon it feels like home. But his secrets can't stay hidden forever. 

I love how this author writes well-rounded characters facing challenges, who work through those problems to out better, together, on the other side. Jihoon is absolutely swoon-worthy but he's not perfect (always a plus). Ari's strong, smart and capable and isn't perfect either. The challenge they face before their HEA doesn't feel forced, cliche or thrown in there because the third act needs to have one. 

Phillipa Soo did a great job giving voice to the different characters and helped make this a book that I couldn't put down or stop listening to. This is definitely one I'll listen to again. 

4.5 out of 5 stars

Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron by Julia Quinn (2022)

A madcap romantic adventure, Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron has appeared in several Julia Quinn novels and enthralled some of her most beloved characters. Now this delicious tale of love and peril is available for everyone to enjoy in this wonderfully unconventional graphic novel.

Born into a happy family that is tragically ravaged by smallpox, Miss Priscilla Butterworth uses her wits to survive a series of outlandish trials. Cruelly separated from her beloved mother and grandmother, the young girl is sent to live with a callous aunt who forces her to work for her keep. Eventually, the clever and tenderhearted Miss Butterworth makes her escape . . . a daring journey into the unknown that unexpectedly leads her to the “mad” baron and a lifetime of love.

I wanted to like this more than I did. 

Some of it was totally disturbing - like someone getting pecked to death by pigeons, or impaled on a poker and then struck by lightning (because poker as lighting rod, of course). 

Parts were pretty predictable - like her being the girl that the baron's Gramps saved from being impaled by a boar, and that boar then gores Grandpa who then dies from his wounds. (Of course, he wouldn't have been impaled if he wasn't so over-confident in his ability to handle the situation.) Like the cousin being a Bond villain.

The only thing that saved it for me was that it's supposed to be a gothic novel from the Regency period, so these shortfall are forgivable.

3 out of 5 stars