Category: Romance - Alyce Caswell - Author

Alyce Caswell - Author

A Ghost of a Chance

2/2/2025

Girl Haunts Boy by Cesar Vitale

Shortly after she steals a ring from a museum, Bea meets her timely end when a streetcar strikes her down. She regains consciousness as a ghost a century later and finds herself haunting her old house - which Cole has just moved into. Cole doesn't believe in ghosts and he's definitely not in the mood to share a bedroom with one. But maybe he and Bea aren't as different as they seem.

This is your typical YA ghost romance fare. The way it was written reminded me of the kinds of stories I inhaled back in the late 1990s and early 2000s - but I have to admit that some of them, just like this book, badly needed more depth. Bea also didn't seem authentically 1920s. Her dialogue felt forced whenever Vitale peppered it with older phrases. This all said, it was a sweet, short read.

We All Start Somewhere

22/1/2025

How Miss Rutherford Got Her Groove Back by Sophie Barnes

Emily Rutherford's dreams are shattered in an instant - the man she thought she was destined to wed is now betrothed to her best friend. Now her position is precarious. She has very little to her name. Perhaps what she needs is the help of Francis Riley, a man who has forgotten how to smile and would surely be the last choice if she ever were to wed. Surely...

Barnes is one of my favourite Regency romance authors, so of course I decided to check out her earlier works... and I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that this novel is a bit rough by comparison. We have sexual assault on the page, a hero who breaks objects when he's angry (yikes), and a superficial attempt to mix Emma and Sense and Sensibility. But you can definitely see the potential here.

Lost and Found

27/12/2024

The Highlander's Kilted Bride (Clan Kendrick #6)
by Vanessa Kelly

Charlie Stewart has no interest in doing as her parents bid. But with some help, she might be able to behave at her sister's wedding...except that she crosses paths with Kade Kendrick, a Highlander she has quietly admired since childhood. Kade is supposed to be writing a concerto, not being distracted by mad quests to find lost trinkets or lovely lasses. Some distractions are more pleasant than others!

Another enjoyable read from Vanessa Kelly. I have grown very fond of the Kendrick boys, even their grandfather, so this was a treat. I do feel that some of the moving parts didn't align perfectly plot-wise, but I managed to overlook that most of the time. The Highlander's Kilted Bride cheered me up during a rather trying week and I'm glad it's what I chose when I opened my Kobo.

Ghosted

22/11/2024

Haunted Ever After (Boneyard Key #1)
by Jen DeLuca

Cassie may have just made the mistake of her life. She's moved all the way out to Boneyard Key (away from her friends), she's shackled to a mortgage - and oh and her new house is probably haunted. Nick, the owner of the town's best coffee shop, is the main attraction for Cassie. She might have a good thing going here...except that something (or someone...) is getting in the way.

I love ghosts and romance in my books. Even better when they're combined! It's also nice when all the side characters feel perfectly necessary. So this is my favourite Jen DeLuca novel by far and I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to find space for another permanent resident on my bookshelf. Ha! Haunted Ever After was something of a lifeline for me on a not-great day. I'll happily let it absorb me again.

Although I do have one thing bothering me... this trend I'm seeing of FMCs citing their endometriosis as a reason to not need condoms (to be fair, Cassie also uses the pill here). Hmmm. As an endo sufferer who managed to get pregnant without assistance one time, these kinds of sex scenes make me hella anxious. It's also annoying when the FMC's only apparent symptom is infertility.

Successful Submission

27/10/2024

Finding Mr. Write by Kelley Armstrong

Daphne McFadden wrote a novel and didn't get anywhere with submissions... until she invented a male writer named Zane Remington and slapped his name on her query. Suddenly, her book is being published to much fanfare - except now she needs a Zane. She hires Chris Ainsworth to act the part. He immediately riles her up, but that's just his facade... and she might like what's underneath it.

A romcom that's also a witty criticism of the publishing industry? Heck yeah, count me in! And as a nice surprise, it's written by Kelley Armstrong, who is better known for her PNR titles. I did find it a little hard to get into at the start, but Chris and Daphne both won me over. This book is flirty, fun and funny - so basically, it's a great holiday read. I hope Armstrong returns to this genre.

One Wedding & Some Drama

21/9/2024

Arya Khanna's Bollywood Moment by Arushi Avachat

Arya should be happy - her sister is back and planning a wedding to really nice guy. But the more time they spend together under one roof, the more the tension rises. Meanwhile, Arya is trying to get ready for college and fulfil her student government responsibilities, but the boy who won the role of president over her is so annoying. How could he be anything but an enemy?

This book's main strength is how it explores and handles female relationships, particularly familial ones. I always like to see this kind of thing done well. It also helps that the plot is engaging, perfect for YA readers who want spades of character growth alongside the expected romance. There is no absolutely no need for familiarity with Bollywood movies to enjoy Arya Khanna's Bollywood Moment (I think the only one I've seen all the way through is Lagaan!). And enjoy it I did.

Tropetastic

20/9/2024

The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist by Sophie Gonzales

Ivy is a huge fan of a fantasy TV series but she doesn't expect to wake up with one of the characters in her bed. Weston is somehow real - and he thinks they're soulmates! Now Ivy has to find a way to hide his presence from everyone, especially her neighbour and ex-BFF, Mack. But maybe this isn't a story about soulmates. Maybe it's a story about mutual pining...and maybe Mack is Ivy's costar instead.

Gosh, this was cute. And I love seeing another bi girl with a similar haircut to mine on a book cover! As for the story, it's fun and amusing. The teen angst and drama ring true and you can't help but like every character. I did feel that this could have been something more, but sometimes you just want an uncomplicated YA novel to breeze through. As a bonus - I've discovered another Australian author!

A Charming Read 2.0

15/8/2024

One Enchanted Evening by Katie Fforde

Meg is determined to become a professional cook in 1960s England. She has it all planned. But when her mother urgently calls for her help, Meg finds herself working in a kitchen in a quaint Dorset hotel that has seen better days. She soon falls in love with the hotel and its people - except Justin, of course, the owner's son who it seems would rather see the hotel shut instead of thrive.

This is my second outing with Katie Fforde and once again I found myself drawn in by the charming setting she'd created (though I will admit that I find her writing slightly unpolished - the charm helps smooth things over!). I had found the other book too old fashioned for the modern era, so the 1960s setting solved that issue for me this time around. It was a very pleasant read.

Side note - I'd have finished it sooner, had Influenza A not robbed me of my ability to read for a whole week.

A Charming Read

24/7/2024

A Secret Garden by Katie Fforde

Philly and her grandfather have run away from home - that is, moved to England to pursue their independence and indulge in gardening and cooking respectively. Philly's work leads to a friendship with Lorna, who is trying to make a rundown estate respectable again - and trying to move on after decades of unrequited interest. Gardening is rewarding...and so is cultivating new relationships.

This was a charming, uncomplicated read that managed to smooth out a stressful week for me. Philly and her grandfather were my favourite characters, though I really did feel for Lorna. This book was oddly old fashioned for 2017 and seemed to reflect that the author hadn't updated her view of the world (and familial relations) in a really long time. Perhaps it should have been set in an earlier decade.

Oh no. Oh no no no no.

18/7/2024

Icebreaker (Maple Hills #1)
by Hannah Grace

Anastasia is aiming for gold at the Olympics in paired figure skating and she does not have time for a committed relationship - and she absolutely does not have time for Nate, whose hockey team is the reason that Maple Hills now has only one ice rink that everyone has to share. But Nate isn't the type to give up. He's determined to make her like him. He'll even get his face between her legs to do it.

This was... not what I expected - and I really, really dislike it when a blurb misrepresents the story of the book it's attached to. Nate being a stand-in skating partner was such a tiny part of things and could have been excised from this bloated mess. You can't convince me that a structural edit occurred at any stage. As for characters... most of them felt like names on a page instead of actual people. As for steamy scenes... hey I'm usually into that, but I prefer to read books where these scenes are used to convey the development of a relationship. It gets boring when they're just filler.

I've read a lot of debuts. Some can be rough. Few feel so amateurish as this one. Maybe the author gets better with the other books in this series, but I have limited time and I'm not risking any of it on another attempt.

EDIT: Oh. Just discovered that this started as a Wattpad book. This explains A LOT. I avoid these for reason... damn it, I should have checked and saved us all from a grumpy a review.

TW: eating disorder, sexual assault, emotional abuse