minnaper's reviews
416 reviews

I've listened to all three books in the Out On the Ice series by Kelly Farmer and I think Calling the Shots is my favorite. Both main characters have trust issues, bad relationship role models, and regrets in the past. Both grow as individuals to find their happiness in the book.

Like in all the books in the series, there's no explicit intimacy scenes. 

Thank you to the author for the ARC of the book. Here's my honest review.

Broken Beyond Repair, the first book in the South Downs series, is one of my favorite age gap romances. I was thrilled to get to read the third book of the series, Beyond Her Manner, in advance. I dropped everything on my TBR and dived in. And let me tell you, it didn't disappoint.

I've spent the day thinking what to say about Beyond Her Manner. Two words that describe the novel the best are: real and wholesome. It has a good flow and it's so well written. The romance is heartfelt. In my opinion, the way Gillian describes Viola in the book, describes the book, too.

"...there is more beauty in the subtle, the understated, and the quietly profound; a quiet allure that whispers to you gradually and invites rather than demands your attention. It possesses a kind of grace that lingers in one’s mind." (Beyond Her Manner, page 183)

There's no frills or loud 'look at me' gimmicks. It's just very good pieceful adult love story. It's a romance set in the British countryside with a bit of drama, nasty relatives, side characters that could be straight from a Jane Austen novel, and a lot of self discovery and character development. I think, just like Broken Beyond Repair, Beyond Her Manner will be my reset romance in the future. I either re-read one or think about them when I need to ground myself after reading romances from the other end of the scale.

Beyond Her Manner is a coming out at later age romance with an age-gap (11 years) and celebrity tropes thrown in. The main focus in the book is on the characters and their relationship from enemies to friends to lovers. There's a bit of spice but like in other books in the series, the focus is on building the relationship. 

Gillian is a main character you probably dislike at first because she's a real 55 years old brat in the beginning. She has her reasons but she's also single minded and stuck in the 1800s. I really enjoyed how both Gillian and the villagers could be part of a historical novel but they are there, in the 2020s England. You get to learn more about Gillian through out the book and in the end she's far from one dimensional simple widower she's described at first. 

And Viola is pretty perfect main character/love interest. A powerful modern woman with her own baggage. The main focus in the novel is on Gillian but Viola has also her voice as a second POV. 

I really liked A Roll in the Hay. Lola Keeley writes interesting soft ice queen characters. I listened to the audiobook version which gave an extra level of Scotland setting with Scottish accent narrator.

I wanted to try an "older" sapphic romance and picked One Degree of Separation and its audiobook version (2023). Quinn Riley's narration was excellent like expected. The novel itself was... weird. And I'm not talking about terminology or vocabulary used because 20+ years ago things were discussed differently than nowadays.