Lisabet’s Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2023

7,566

pages read

books read

Lisabet Sarai

Shortest Book

pages

The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carré

Longest Book

pages

Average book length in 2023

315

pages

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

Most Shelved

133,869

people also shelved

Least Shelved

people also shelved

Lisabet’s average rating for 2023

4.1

Highest Rated on Goodreads

4.86 average

Lisabet’s first review of the year

really liked it

Cody Ryan wishes she’d paid more attention to her father on their shared fishing trips. Now he’s gone. As a way of dealing with her grief, she has decided to enter the Loon Lake Fishing Tournament, the way he did every year. Her boat is under-powered and her fishing expertise leaves much to be desired, but Cody is determined to honor Jack Ryan’s memory even if she has zero chance of winning the competition. She doesn’t want the help of the bossy, Cody Ryan wishes she’d paid more attention to her father on their shared fishing trips. Now he’s gone. As a way of dealing with her grief, she has decided to enter the Loon Lake Fishing Tournament, the way he did every year. Her boat is under-powered and her fishing expertise leaves much to be desired, but Cody is determined to honor Jack Ryan’s memory even if she has zero chance of winning the competition. She doesn’t want the help of the bossy, arrogant hunk from New Orleans who seems determined to rain on her parade. It’s just too bad if he kisses like an angel.

Louisiana Coast Guard agent Gage Connor heads to Loon Lake to escape his high pressure job interdicting drug runners. Little does he realize he’s bringing trouble with him, hidden in one of the compartments of his bass boat. As far as he’s concerned, his main problem is the red-headed spitfire who’s assigned to be his fishing partner. Cody is about as relaxing as a bayou gator, but there’s something about her that draws him, too. She definitely disturbs his peace of mind.

Cody and Gage are both nursing broken hearts from their distant past. Their potent attraction and the uncanny sense of familiarity they each feel in the other’s presence aren’t quite enough to overcome their lack of trust. Only when their lives are threatened do they come to recognize their mutual love as the only thing that really matters.

Having read the hilarious blurb, I was expecting a light-hearted romcom from Any Fin for Love. Although the book has its humorous moments, it doesn’t quite have the zany quality I associate with that genre. Both Cody and Gage have serious emotional issues, which turn out to be obstacles to their romance. There’s an enemies-to-lovers vibe as each of them seems to continually disappoint the other. Meanwhile, Gage is keeping secrets that Cody really needs to know. Plus, of course, there are a couple of brutal drug dealers to keep things on the darker side.

The prose is smooth, the pace swift. The plot has quite a number of surprising twists. Some of them work well, while others seem strained. I can’t say more without spoiling the effect, but the final reveal left me a bit incredulous. Others might be more willing to suspend their disbelief.

The small town of Loon is lovingly portrayed, as are the quirky characters who live there. Courtly Doc Taylor, twin innkeepers Velma and Delma, flamboyant femme fatale Lila Tumson and her scheming brother Zeke, local restauranteur Sadie Darling – Ms. McCarty brings them all to vivid life. The wily cajun Dougah is a wonderful creation. I also appreciated the fact that some of the apparent bad guys are redeemed by the end of the tale.

And the kisses...! This is not erotic romance, so there’s nothing explicit, but the author still manages to convey the intense heat between Cody and Gage. There are some truly swoon-worthy embraces scattered through the tale, in between the pratfalls and the arguments.

Overall I enjoyed Any Fin for Love, though toward the end I lost patience a bit with the protagonists. Anyone could see they were meant for one another. As a reader, I wanted to shake them and tell them to wake up to the obvious.

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LISABET’S 2023 BOOKS

it was amazing

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Lucy Bird

The Queen of the South by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

it was amazing

The Wisdom of Beer by Christopher G. Moore

really liked it

Bangkok Bob and the Missing Mormon by Stephen Leather

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

Lisabet’s last review of the year

really liked it

How can love survive without honesty?

Shea O’Bannon broke off a budding romance with musician Trevor Madero when she caught him in a steamy clinch with another woman, but she has never really gotten him out of her system. When she encounters him again, at a club where he’s performing, she is drawn to him more strongly than ever. Though Trevor has a reputation as a ladies’ man, he swears the scene Shea observed was not his choice, that the woman (t How can love survive without honesty?

Shea O’Bannon broke off a budding romance with musician Trevor Madero when she caught him in a steamy clinch with another woman, but she has never really gotten him out of her system. When she encounters him again, at a club where he’s performing, she is drawn to him more strongly than ever. Though Trevor has a reputation as a ladies’ man, he swears the scene Shea observed was not his choice, that the woman (the brassy, bossy wife of a corrupt district attorney) more or less forced herself on him. After he defends Shea against the unwelcome advances of a slimy colleague from her job, she starts to believe Trevor is sincere and lets down her guard. Both physically and emotionally, the couple seems perfectly matched, but Shea senses her lover is hiding something important.

Through no fault of his own, Trevor owes his soul to a criminal organization. He tries to assuage his conscience, delivering drugs to dealers and collecting revenues but not selling directly to users, but that’s a near-impossible line to tread. Now that he’s back together with Shea, he needs to work harder than ever to hide his illicit activities – for her own safety as well as to avoid her negative judgments. But Shea’s too smart to accept his lies. She knows only too well, from her own family history and that of her friends, how criminal associations can poison the ordinary joys of living. Cutting Trevor out of her life is the most painful thing she’s ever done, but she’s certain that if she can’t trust her lover to tell her the truth, she’s better off without him.

Trevor’s Redemption is part of Amber Daulton’s Arresting Onyx series; Onyx is a shadowy, powerful criminal syndicate that has its claws in characters in each book of the series. Though I hadn’t read the previous books, I didn’t find it difficult to follow this one, except at one point when the author pulled in all the heroines from the previous books (who are Shea’s close friends). At that point, I was deluged by references to events in the earlier installments, which I must admit didn’t make much sense.

In any case, that was a minor distraction. The main focus of Trevor’s Redemption is, as one would expect from a romance, the relationship between Shea and Trevor. Ms. Daulton does a wonderful job portraying their intense mutual attraction as well as their affection and concern for one another. Her love scenes are incendiary. The action scenes are almost as good, as Shea and Trevor each take extreme risks to protect the other.

The book offers an unexpected twist at the end which I found surprisingly satisfying. I won’t say more, except to note that this ending provides a resolution to the nearly impossible problem of Trevor’s obligations to the syndicate.

Trevor’s double life, on the other hand, seemed rather implausible from the start. I don’t think it would really be feasible for someone to work part-time as a mob enforcer and part-time doing construction – with time off to perform as a musician. The plot of Trevor’s Redemption requires that the reader believe this scenario. It took some effort for me to suspend my disbelief.

Overall, however, I enjoyed Trevor’s Redemption. Both hero and heroine are adults who understand, from experience, the complex challenges involved in a relationship. In the real world, love does not conquer all. Shea and Trevor don’t expect that their path will be smooth.

Of course this is romance, not the real world. So despite their concerns, they end up with a happy ending.
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