Mini-Review Time!

I thought I would have got these both finished in August. I didn’t. I finished the first on the 2nd September and the other the following day, on the 3rd. And they are so far removed from each other, I felt that it should be fun to put them in a same blog post (not sure why). 

The first is Spiced Kisses by Charlie Novak, an MM low angst romance set in the lead up for Christmas and the other is The Doctor’s Widow by Daniel Hurst, sequel to The Doctor’s Wife, a domestic thriller. 

Spiced Kissses is the third book in the Kiss Me series (I haven’t read either the first or second book in this series, Strawberry Kisses and Summer Kisses - will add these to my Kindle wish list) but we follow Ben and Ianto. Ben is co-owner of the Pear Tree pub and is just trying to get through the upcoming hell known as Christmas. But when he breaks his collarbone at rugby, he finds himself spending time with Ianto, who feels guilty for the accident. Unbeknownst to either of them, they have a crush on each other… will Christmas bring this grumpy Yorkshire men and Christmas-loving Welshman together?

In The Doctor’s Widow, we pick up the story several months after the events of The Doctor’s Wife. Fern has gotten away with it. Away with murdering her adulterous husband, framing his mistress for his murder and killing the mistress’s husband to keep the truth from coming out. She just wants to put the past behind her and move on with her life. A new life with Roger, a man she is falling for. But Roger isn’t who she think he is. In fact, Roger isn’t Roger at all… 

The Doctor’s Widow was gifted by the UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, FYI. 

Now, I enjoyed my time with both of these for very different reason. Spiced Kisses because it was cute, low angst and an indie author (I have more of this author’s works on my kindle and I will be making plans to read them soon) and Doctor’s Widow because I flew through the first book in the series and I had to know what was going to happen next. 

Now, both of these I knew what I was getting into. Spiced Kisses was cute, fluffy, low-angst and perfect reading as I seem to be going through a bit of a reading brain-funk at the moment (not a slump, but I need light fun reads at the moment). 

The Doctor’s Widow is the same. I knew what I was getting into here. A popcorn, beach thriller that i can whizz through. But I didn’t enjoy this as much as I hoped. I get why - the book felt like it took a long time to warm up. For a good half of the book, I was waiting for the penny to drop. For the train to go off the tracks and for this to turn into a game of cat and mouse. But it didn’t happen, and when it finally did, the climax was over far too quickly for my tastes…

But this was still fun. Don’t get me wrong. This was a fun read, but I just wish for something more from it. 

Am I going to read more from both these authors? Of course I am. I have an idea of what I might read from both of them. Both were fun reads and that’s all I could wish for.