Tag Archives: romance

Bear by Marian Engel (1976) – BR00162 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
July 11 2019

Plot or Premise

A historical librarian gets a chance to catalogue the books at a remote island home for a summer in Northern Ontario and encounters locals, free time to figure out her life, and a pet bear.

What I Liked

This book was given to me back in my teens, a gift of quality literature as it had just won the Governor General’s Award for fiction. I knew nothing about it as I started to read it. And I was relatively shocked to see “high literature” include bestiality and graphic descriptions of oral sex performed by the bear on the main character. The historical parts were awesome, as was the descriptions of the island and the passage of the summer.

What I Didn’t Like

I found the romanticization of the relationship with the bear a bit odd, as was the depersonalization of her other sexual partners during the summer. I also felt there were gaps in the ending — we saw what she intended to do, not what she actually did once she was back in Toronto.

The Bottom Line

Bestiality is a strange theme for an award-winner.

The Two-Night One-Night Stand by Ryan Ringbloom (2018) – BR00126 (2019) – 🐸⚪⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
January 27 2019

Plot or Premise

A case of mistaken identity on a blind date leads to a one-night stand.

What I Liked

I don’t normally read romance or romcom, but I grabbed this off Kindle Unlimited because it was free, it sounded like it could be funny, and the initial question of the story — can you turn a one-night stand into a dating partner? — had some great potential. How do you go from sex without strings to a potential relationship?

What I Didn’t Like

The writing is lacklustre, the sexual escapades beyond unrealistic (neither very experienced but both are supposedly MIND-BLOWING in bed — it actually contains the line that he has ruined her for other men), and the characters more stupid than immature. Plus completely inconsistent — hesitant, unsure of themselves, constantly letting their personal squirrels mess with their heads until they’re drunk out of their minds, having sex, etc., and then they suddenly become confident porn stars. And there were only two scenes that were even humourous, with neither rising to funny.

The Bottom Line

More failed romance novel than RomCom

Turbo Twenty-Three by Janet Evanovich (2016) – BR00123 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
January 24 2019

Plot or Premise

Stephanie gets a dream job — undercover in an ice-cream factory — while Lulu, Randy and Grandma are trying to make a naked reality show.

What I Liked

Okay, I confess, if you put Lulu, Randy and Grandma in any situation for a naked reality show, there are going to be some crazy-fun scenes. And ice cream wars are funnier than the NYC pizza wars, maybe because they have ice cream clowns.

What I Didn’t Like

The clowns. I mean, who needs freaky-looking clowns?

The Bottom Line

A decent mystery and some fun characters that don’t try to kill Stephanie.

Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich (2015) – BR00122 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
January 24 2019

Plot or Premise

Men are stressing Stephanie out…a burglar who was covered in bacon grease, a frat boy who assaulted a Dean, Morelli who broke up with her, a businessman who hired RangeMan to protect him and his wife, and a guy who tortures women. And one of them has given her a pimple on her chin the size of Mount Everest.

What I Liked

For once, there is a decent mystery about what’s happening at the fraternity and how everything else is tied to it. Grandma and Lulu are kind of fun, as is a small sub-story about catfishing. But a scene near the end with Mom is absolute gold.

What I Didn’t Like

The off-again relationship stuff with Morelli is nearing the stupid point, particularly as nothing changes between them, and the simple answer to the frat mystery gets messed up with something out of a Tom Clancy novel.

The Bottom Line

An average Plum outing with a great Mom scene.

Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich (2013) – BR00120 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
January 20 2019

Plot or Premise

Stephanie is trying to bring in an aging mob-boss who is Morelli’s godfather.

What I Liked

Everyone loves Uncle Sunny so nobody wants to help…not his goons, not Morelli, not Morelli’s family, not anyone in the burg. But that’s not unusual. But dead old ladies showing up in dumpsters and a giraffe running through the burg? Now THOSE are unusual.

What I Didn’t Like

The plot was okay, although I didn’t find the end motive particularly great, nor the resolution. And the constant focus on the giraffe was just plain odd.

The Bottom Line

Good, but not the best of the series.