August ebooks

It is bugging me, but I can never figure out how to capitalize ebook/s. Ebook looks too boomerish, and eBook seems pretentious. Ah well.

After that fantastic reading month, I naturally reverted back to my normal "not reading, and when I do, it's ebooks" status. 

Making Waves by Joane Rock (summary)

Has this happened to you? You download a free romance novel ebook that promises to be steamy, but instead you're forced to read about the two leads bickering and having relationship drama for basically the entire book. Typical dramatic lustiness, and the characters were little more than cardboard. They used to date when she was 20 and he was 25 or 26, which skeeved me out. Not only was everyone in their lives was okay with this, they all actively thought they were perfect together and should get married, but then he dumped her out of the blue without telling her why (it was to go into the army as it was the 2000s). There was one scene where they go at it in a first class airplane sleeper room which makes no sense to me because I think first-class sleeper sections of airplanes aren't enclosed? Like they're not sleeper cars in a train? I have no real idea; my only knowledge of flying first class is watching Crazy Rich Asians. The hero also has some sexist alpha-ness, which is typical for the genre (not as much as others though) and always annoying. Is anyone else sick of reading about contemporary romance novel heroines who are simultaneously virginal and sexy, girlish and a mature woman? I am. I think I need to stop reading contemporary het romances. 3 stars, 3.5-4 chili peppers. Trigger warnings: trauma involving a family member kidnapped by terrorists in I think Afghanistan (past), army veteran hero, the aforementioned age gap, that's it I think

Cinder Ella by S.T Lynn (summary)

I really enjoyed this author's The Little Mermaid retelling, so I was excited to buy this ebook on sale. Like that one, this retelling has a Black trans woman as the lead. There are some Brandy Cinderella vibes. The beginning is as usual, with the step-family's awfulness and abuse including transphobia towards Ella. The ball invite comes from the princess herself, who likes Ella's dog and chats with her for a while. It's very cute. The fairy godmother is a mysterious dress seller whose dress shop-carriage is bigger on the inside. For some reason there's no magic to make her unfamiliar to her step-family at the ball, and, enraged at "him" for his transgressions, they drag Ella out, kick her out of the house and drop her off at the farthest part of town. Why not encourage Ella's interest in the princess so they can be in-laws with the royal family? The step-family is so stupid. The whole "whichever woman can fit into this shoe" thing makes sense in this telling as the princess first met Ella when she was presenting as a man, and she was presenting as a woman at the ball. Ella grows roses, which is nice but also a bit out of the Cinderella lane; they are important to the plot. There's this whole thing about Ella working for/as a baker and making a life for herself that felt like it was starting to go somewhere, but then it didn't, which was, like, 'why, then?' to me. The ending is a bit rushed and fairy godmother ex machina, but it's a nice little retelling that I enjoyed. I'll probably end up buying the other book in this series later. 3.5 stars. Trigger warnings: transphobia, transmisogyny, physical and verbal abuse, forced servitude/slavery as is usual in Cinderella