Review: Careful Flowers by Kieran York

A slow build with a satisfying resolution, but lacking in technical skill. 3 stars.

Careful Flowers starts out awkwardly in the middle of a conversation. A case of taking en medias res a little too far. Context arrived quickly but my investment in the story took much longer. I enjoyed the extended supporting cast in this novel, from former hippies to the estranged extended family; everyone was believable and colored the conflict well.

My biggest disappointment in this story came from the craft. Pacing worked well, but the sentences didn't vary much. There's also constant jumping between simple past (I ate food) and past perfect (I had eaten food) that muddied the enjoyment of reading.

I appreciated both the resolution of the mystery and the romantic conflict. I worried that the romantic conflict would resolve by forcing only one party to change rather than compromise from both, and I'm glad to see I was wrong!

TL;DR: 3 stars. This is a solid book with excellent characters, but it's lacking a few style points.

Review: The Way Home by Anastasia Vitsky

A piece of art as much as a story to enjoy, 4 stars.

The first thing that struck me about The Way Home was the format in which this story is told. There's a very non-traditional series of time jumps that, at the start, can be hard to follow. The blurb description does this story an injustice. It sets up a plot expectation that the format doesn't fill, and the novel is so much more than that.

At the heart of the narrative is a friendship-maybe-more that grows over the kind of timespan you simply do not encounter in most romance books. And this is a romance, make no mistake. There is a domestic BDSM aspect (power exchange, spanking) that hints at some sexual overtones near the end of the story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

[trigger warning: major self-harm]

The major critique I had of this story surrounds the dominant conflict. Kat has depressive tendencies which culminate severely in two suicide attempts via sleeping pills. Either the format or the writing or both got in the way of my fully understanding this aspect of Kat. I didn't see a build-up to this kind of behavior so it caught me off guard. I'm not sure the first attempt was on-screen-- if it was then I didn't recognize it for what it was.

Anyone who enjoys the craft of writing, if you're into Tolstoy and Hemingway for their format as much as their content: read this book. If you're on vacation lounging for hours with nothing to interrupt you: read this book. There are beautiful scene pairs and excellent pacing throughout.

TL;DR: 4 stars. Beautifully written and as such, requires focus to enjoy.

Review: A Taste of Vanilla by Leigh Ellwood

Cute motif, but the craft isn't practiced. 2 stars

A Taste of Vanilla starts off well with a basic meet-up-for-sex premise. The vanilla/chocolate motif is a cute way to highlight the interracial pairing, but the writing itself was inconsistent. Only a thousand words into the story the POV becomes very muddled. Chapter one is supposed to be from Hailie's POV while chapter two is from Cecile's, alternating from there, but once the action moves from conversation to intimacy, the POV falls apart and it becomes very difficult to figure out who is doing what.

The character voice of both chapters is the same, despite a shift in POV. This only muddies the POV problem further, as I couldn't rely on vocabulary or dialogue differences to clue me into each character. For some reason, two supporting characters had almost identical names: Thora and Thea. With how difficult to was to keep just the main characters straight, this was unnecessary to manage as well.

I did enjoy the details of Thora's cooking and some of her backstory, but I feel like I know her better than the main characters! An entire opportunity to explore them is glossed over with 'Cecile felt she learned quite a bit about Hailie' telling rather than showing the reader their development.

TL;DR: A sexy story is buried in POV/voice issues too deeply to enjoy. 2 stars