If The Dress Fits, by Daisy James

Format: e-ARC, 384 pages

Publisher: Carina UK

Published: 12 May 2016

ISBN: 9781474049580

Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction

Back cover blurb: She might be the most famous person in the country, but no one even knows her name…

Callie’s exquisite, glittering silk gown has been shortlisted for the celebrity wedding of the year. But just as all her dreams are coming true, disaster strikes!

Leaving behind the bright lights of London, Callie is forced to return home to sleepy Althorpe. And there’s one man she hopes to avoid – the childhood sweetheart who turned her life upside down. But now she’s back, is it finally time to stop running?

Yet, as Callie faces her past, a Cinderella-like hunt begins for that perfect, pearl-embroidered dress, mysteriously submitted without a name…

My review: The cover drew me in, and I was looking forward to a fun, easy read, especially since there was a wool shop involved, but I didn’t really connect with the characters – and there were so many of them! Callie was a true Mary Sue and her behaviour toward Theo was hugely over the top considering his supposed indiscretion. This is my second Daisy James book, and I was lukewarm about the other one also. Sadly, this may be the last I read of this author.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 3/5

 

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The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale, by Christine Bell

Format: ebook, 25,900 words

Published: April 25, 2011 (first published March 16, 2011)

Publisher: Carina Press

Back cover blurb:

I’m a time pirate—born in 1810, now a 21st-century woman. I travel through time trying to right wrongs without disrupting the fragile balance between what is and what can never be.That’s why it’s vital that I go to 1836 and find the man who conned my brother out of his Time Travel Mechanism as quickly as possible. If the technology falls into the wrong hands, it could change the world as we know it. The notorious Duke of Leister definitely qualifies as the wrong hands. An amateur scientist of the slightly mad variety, he’s bound to figure out how to use the TTM sooner rather than later.

I knew this wouldn’t be easy. But I wasn’t counting on him being as sexy as hell. Or winding up chained to his bed…

 

My review:

This novella was a quick read, free from Carina Press during their promotional week last month. I hadn’t read any steampunk before, and the idea of time pirates was an interesting one.

Dorothy “Stormy” Gale and her brother, Bacon – note to self: never let kids pick their own names – travel back from 2010 to the early 1800s to retrieve Bacon’s time travelling machine which he has lost in a game of cards. Little do the pair know the man who won it off him is someone from their past, someone Stormy wants to be part of her future, too.

The adventure is fun and the romance very sexy, but the bits I enjoyed the most were the out-of-time references – Stormy’s 21st century lingerie confounding her beau, her trying to teach him to moonwalk, etc – and Stormy’s wonderfully colourful language. The story also had a lovely message about helping the less fortunate, and I was glad to see the time pirates kept up their looting so they could help abandoned kids. A fun, light read.

My rating: 3/5