Summer Reading Bingo 4

Reading challenge bingo card

Welcome to my summer bingo book series, where I post five short reviews at a time. I'm giving myself the whole summer to finish the bingo card, not just the month of June. This is my fourth set of reviews; you can find the first set here, the second one here, and the third one here.

1. Author born in June. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This will be a short review because I don’t want to spoil any plot points for potential readers and/ or movie-goers. (I plan to see the movie soon via DVD with a group of friends.) This is an amazingly complex and detailed novel about a last-ditch space mission to save life on Earth. Sadly, most of the math, physics, and engineering were over my head, so I skimmed a lot of that. The story did get a little bogged down with this techy stuff in some places, but overall the quality of imagination and research that went into producing this novel has my profound respect. Four stars.

2. Beach on the cover. Beach Wedding by Michael Ledwidge. Fun, fast read with a few twists, but the story was mostly predictable. I didn’t care for the short chapters with weird breaks. The MC didn’t seem too smart for a cop, but I guess they aren’t all geniuses. Three stars.

3. RomCom. No Match Found by Martha Keyes. First, the cover is all wrong: Vivian is the CEO, not a secretary standing in front of her boss’s desk. Second, the trope of a main character running a dating site seems a bit… dated. I mean, we all hate dating sites by now and know they’re full of liars and scammers, right? But this book was published this year. Third, the premise for the couple being thrown together is as flimsy as the heiress in the rain who simply must take shelter with the impoverished duke in the abandoned cabin. Anyway. There were lots of things I loved about No Match Found, which explains my four-star rating. 

I loved both Viv and Grant. They were quirky but not annoyingly so. Despite both of them being attractive physically, it was clear that they had a hard time in romantic relationships because of their emotional baggage. Grant had some issues, which he apparently overcame when he fell for Viv (we can’t know what’s going on in his mind because we never get his POV), but Viv had a lot more. It was harder for her to get past her mental blocks regarding love, and she struggled with self-doubt and self-esteem issues. It wasn’t weird that her life’s work was matchmaking, since she loved data, algorithms, spreadsheets, etc. That all helped to keep her barriers up as well.

I stand by my mantra that romance novels should be written in third person. This one might have been a 5-star for me if we could have had a bit more distance from Viv and some scenes from Grant’s POV. Even so, I liked it a lot, particularly the second half. The ending was great! Regarding the lack of sex scenes, that made it better for me. There was plenty of spice, chemistry, sexy banter, etc., and I didn’t need to see them do the deed. I’m tired of reading the explicit scenes anyway, as they’re so similar book to book.

4. Sports themed. Reckless by Elsie Silver. Meh. This romance was a whole lot of longing looks and lip-licking lust plus a big scoop of contrived silliness to keep the main characters apart, such as the BS with Theo giving his phone to his manager. (He’s a rodeo rider, which is the sports tie-in.) There was no real plot or drama other than Theo having to constantly soothe Winter’s ruffled feelings. I did like the fact that she was a doctor and a few years older than he was, though he often acted more mature. I am not a fan of grumpy x sunshine whether it’s the man or the woman being negative throughout most of the story. Bickering isn’t sexy. Two stars. 

5. Favorite color on cover. Six Days by Dani Atkins. (The cover is turquoise.) At first, I loved this book and truly could not put it down. Since I read so much, I am always looking for something different and interesting, and this story hinted that something big was coming. I was excited by all the clues left scattered around. My imagination went wild with possibilities! And then came the most banal resolution ever. I'm not going to spoil it, but ugh. Seriously. What a total disappointment, both in the twist that wasn't and also in the switch from compelling first person narration by Gemma to someone else. My rating immediately plummeted from a 4-5 down to a 2-3. Three is generous, which is what I gave.

The fifth and final bingo post will be coming soon! I don't have any romance novels planned for my remaining squares, so TG for that. I am heartily sick of them (especially ones written in first person). Regency era romances are an exception, but even those need to have an actual plot, not just a sarcastic duke and a klutzy governess or vice versa. PLOT PLOT PLOT!