Katherine Center, Hello Stranger

Sadie is a struggling artist, barely eking out a living selling portraits on Etsy. So when she’s selected as a finalist for a prestigious portrait-painting competition, she’s convinced her luck has finally changed. Now all she has to do is paint a new portrait for the final judging, but that task becomes a lot more complicated when a brain injury leaves her with temporary face blindness. I have mixed feelings about this book, mainly because I found Sadie frustrating at times. No question, she goes through some really tough struggles, but she also spends a big portion of the book wallowing in self-pity, which is no fun to read about. She’s also incredibly hostile to her family; it turns out she has good reasons to be, but we don’t learn those reasons until quite late in the book. I also felt like her family issues were too big to be resolved as quickly and neatly as they were. On the plus side, I enjoyed the writing style and the extremely adorable romance, so I did actually like the book overall. But there are definitely significant flaws, so I’m glad I got it from the library instead of buying.

Mary Balogh, A Masked Deception

Margaret Wells has been in love with Richard Adair, the Earl of Brampton, ever since they shared a dance and a passionate kiss at a masquerade six years ago. Unfortunately, Richard never learned her identity because she left before the unmasking. Now he needs to do his duty and marry, and he chooses Margaret because she is respectable but (he thinks) dull and unlikely to interfere in his life. Margaret, wanting to reawaken the passion they shared at the masquerade, decides to approach Richard incognito in her old costume. But Richard is surprisingly torn between his masked “angel” and his wife. Despite the ridiculous aspects of the plot, I actually did enjoy this book. I liked watching Richard’s indifference toward Margaret slowly transform into love as he gets to know her. There’s a lot of pining and gazing at each other across the room, which I’m always here for. Plus there’s a sweet secondary romance involving Margaret’s sister. So overall, I’m glad I read this one and liked it better than some of her more recent work.

Connie Willis, The Road to Roswell

Francie is on her way to Roswell, New Mexico, for her good friend Serena’s wedding. Unfortunately for her, Roswell is also hosting a huge UFO festival during the wedding weekend. Francie resents the crowds of alien-obsessed weirdos and thinks their beliefs are totally ridiculous — that is, until she gets abducted by an alien herself. But the alien doesn’t seem to want to hurt her; instead, he seems to be desperately looking for something, and he needs Francie’s help. Connie Willis is one of my very favorite authors, so I’m biased, but I really enjoyed this book! It’s part alien abduction saga, part road trip adventure, part Western throwback, part screwball comedy. I loved Indy the alien and his relationship with Francie; I also loved all the references to movie Westerns and how the characters used them to communicate with Indy. I could nitpick a little about pacing — the book has a slow start and a drawn-out ending — but overall I vastly enjoyed the ride.