authorrubyduvall's Reviews (154)

You're the Rogue That I Want

2.0

Overall writing was underdeveloped, and there were a noticeably large number of typos. The story itself was kind of one-note. I feel like the author missed/declined several obvious opportunities to further the MCs' attraction, or for the MCs to have deeper conversations than the one they kept having over and over again: "I prefer studying history!" "And I love to smuggle!" Days would pass in the story's timeline with little expounding on what the MCs did.

Hot to the Touch

Jaci Burton

2.0

A lot of superfluous writing in this book. There was significant time spent describing the meals the characters prepared, and a whole two chapters about Jackson's parents deciding to sell their house and find their dream home, which was barely leveraged into something relating to the MCs (i.e. Jackson asking Becks if she has a dream home in mind). There was also a couple fairly long sequences where Jackson and the other firefighters were responding to an emergency call and—while heroic—neither scene had anything to do with the regular plot. Jackson didn't, for example, help the passengers in a car wreck and have it make him think of his original parents. Besides Becks' insecurity and Jackson's emotional distance, there was pretty much no other tension in the story.

The Blacksmith

Cecelia Mecca

3.0

The plot seemed to overly rely on Lance's guilt over hiding his secret mission from Idalia. There were hardly any difficulties outside of that for either character, the only one being Idalia's mother's illness, and even that was something that never developed much. I expected the priest who was suggesting that her illness was a sign of the devil's influence to rile up some villagers or something, but he never appeared on page and was sent away at the end. I expected someone at Stanton to suspect Lance was sowing rebellion, but no one ever came close. I expected Lance and Idalia to get caught necking, but no one ever did (although several characters figured it out after all the longing glances).

I did like the overall writing style, and the historical/political detail was done with a light touch. Would've liked the sex scenes to be heavier, but that's just personal preference. And I did like that Lance acknowledged Idalia's intelligence beyond what a lady of the time was expected to have, and that he sought to listen to her and see her as a full person.

Wouldn't mind reading more by this author.