Category: Book Reviews

ARC Reviews: Liars Beach and Jana Goes Wild

Posted June 5, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I love Cotugno but haven’t read her latest releases for one reason or another. The synopsis of this one really appealed to me and I liked that she was working in a different genre. There are very few reviews and the overall Goodreads rating is pretty low, which is interesting, but I was still cautiously optimistic. I haven’t read THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES but it’s definitely on my Agatha Christie to-read list now. Linden is off to Martha’s Vineyard to spend some time with his roommate Jasper and his family at their gorgeous house on the beach. He’s hiding a lot about his true background/socioeconomic status but tries to fit in with them nonetheless. He’s on a lacrosse scholarship at a fancy boarding school and has to keep up appearances. His childhood friend (his mom works for their family) Holiday is there too. When a body of a guy everyone hates shows up in the pool, Holiday and Linden set out to solve the mystery. I ended up really enjoying this! It’s a little surface-level and super short, which made for a breezy Memorial Day Weekend read on the porch in just a couple of hours. I don’t actually wish it was longer though – she achieved what she needed to in under 300 pages. There are definitely discussions on class, Great Gatsby vibes/themes, and manic pixie dreamgirl energy, which was all a part of the wider story and message Cotugno was trying to convey. The ending was interesting and […]

Review Roundup | What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez, Fourth Wing, and The Last Word

Posted June 1, 2023 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

This book was lowkey one of my most anticipated for the year. It just seemed like such an intriguing premise! Ruth Ramirez went missing after track practice when she was a kid and her family hasn’t been the same since. When one of her sisters sees “Ruthy” on a reality TV show, they are convinced that it’s really her. The synopsis reveals a bit more information that doesn’t even happen until the end of the book, so I’ll cut it off there. The story alternates between the three remaining members of the Ramirez family (with a few chapters from Ruthy’s POV sprinkled in): Jessica, Nina, and Dolores (their mom). It’s really a portrait of a grieving family and a story about where their lives went in the years since Ruthy went missing. The father of the family died soonafter and the rest had to carry on. It’s more “slice of life” despite the premise sounding a bit more meaty. I appreciated how real and raw it felt but it lacked a bit of depth. It kind of showed them going about their daily lives without going down one more level. The family’s Puerto Rican heritage was front and center throughout the story, which I definitely enjoyed reading about. The synopsis includes that it’s a “vivid family portrait, in all its shattered reality, exploring the familial bonds between women and cycles of generational violence, colonialism, race, and silence, replete with snark, resentment, tenderness, and, of course, love.” – All of these […]

Rereading & Finishing the Throne of Glass Series

Posted May 19, 2023 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

I read and really enjoyed the first five books (this includes the prequel bind-up) in the Throne of Glass series back in the day and never got around to finishing it. Obviously it’s having a resurgence thanks to booktok and all the girlies reading SJM books, so I’ve been really tempted to get back into it. I asked my Instagram followers if I should just read a recap of the books through Queen of Shadows and then dive into the final three books OR reread the series to bang it out, and most people voted for the reread. I have to say, I’m REALLY glad I went that route! My bookish memory has always been absolute garbage and rereading it has been like reading it for the first time. I barely remember ANYTHING that happened. Like…nothing haha. I haven’t read many fantasy books over the last few years simply because they’re usually a time commitment for me – I read them very slowly. A lot of them are loooong too, especially books by SJM. I just haven’t had the ability to do it when my reading has been so bad since 2020. I’m really in a good reading rhythm now and am feeling like my old self, so it’s time to enter my fantasy era again. This has been a great way to do it! Rather than reviewing them all again after rereading, I’m including my Goodreads review screenshots with some updates and links to my original reviews here for the first few […]

ARC Review: Meet Me at the Lake

Posted May 17, 2023 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I absolutely devoured EVERY SUMMER AFTER last year. I was on the fence about reading it and was cautious about the hype, but I literally sat there and finished the book in one sitting on my deck on a sunny afternoon. That was such a wonderful and specific reading experience that I was super nervous to read her sophomore novel. Such high expectations! ESA was not perfect – it was messy in a way that really worked for me. I was curious to see if this novel would have much of the same (not really!) or if the author would branch out a bit. I was happy to still see dual timelines following the lead couple, a second chance romance, and another glorious summer setting. MEET ME AT THE LAKE is centered around the main character’s family resort on a lake in Canada. Fern determined as a college student that she didn’t want to take over the business someday and broke her mom’s heart in the process. Years later, with some success managing coffee shops in Toronto in the meantime, her mom passes away in an accident… leaving the resort to her. Beyond the grief and family feels of it all, the story alternates between past and present with Fern and Will – a boy she had a whirlwind day/night with as a college student. It feels a bit like instalove (especially because the chemistry 10 years ago just wasn’t there for me as much as it was in present […]

Blog Tour: The Boyfriend Candidate

Posted May 15, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Review I had only read IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE before starting this book and really loved it, so naturally I’ve added all of Ashley Winstead’s books to my TBR regardless of genre. I love when authors are able to write both excellent romances and excellent thrillers… not much more I could ask for! 😉 Needless to say, I was excited for the opportunity to read THE BOYFRIEND CANDIDATE! The story centers around school librarian Alexis and her quest to ditch her boring girl persona for one night… and how she ends up in scandalous paparazzi photos with a young hot-shot Texas gubernatorial candidate Logan. His campaign quickly pivots to let everyone know that that the two are actually together and my beloved fake dating trope begins – just long enough to get Logan through the election. It was really interesting to get a peek behind the curtain of how politicians have to work on their image, determine their platform, and deal with other politicians, union leaders, and the public. It didn’t go into a ton of detail but just enough to make the book feel realistic. Alexis quickly impacted his campaign to integrate not just stopping the education budget cuts, but increasing the budget throughout the state. Logan and Alexis had a lot of chemistry and the typical “oh no, they couldn’t possibly be actually into me” vibes were strong. I loved watching them integrate into each other’s lives in a natural way where you could actually see […]

Review Roundup | The Escape Room and Legends & Lattes

Posted May 11, 2023 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 2 Comments

I’ve been working my way through Goldin’s books and she’s quickly become one of my favorite mystery/thriller authors. An absolute auto-read for me. (I’ve got one more backlist title to go now!) THE ESCAPE ROOM was on my radar but I never got around to it because I’ve always thought I don’t like locked room mysteries. I’m definitely curious to keep testing that theory because I think it’s wrong haha – I enjoy ones like this! It’s so intriguing to have two timelines or POVs and see what’s happening separate from the “locked room” (in this case, an elevator). This story centers around a few shitty financial/banking people who get trapped in an “escape room” elevator together. The other POV is Sara, a girl who busted her ass in the company’s graduate program and how she started rising up the ranks. Once the story gets going, there are some good twists and turns – I always found myself eager to check out what was happening in the other POV, which kept me turning the pages. I did finish this book in one day (great audiobook, btw!) but I don’t think I would classify it to other people as unputdownable. I just had the right kind of day to sit down and read or listen to the audiobook while multi-tasking all day. I do think it’s quite predictable overall – I wasn’t shocked by the ending and there was a lot of explanation and backstory when it got toward the end. […]

Review Roundup | Daisy Darker and Wrong Place Wrong Time

Posted April 26, 2023 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

This was such an interesting reading experience – I can now see why this is such a polarizing book haha. This is my first Alice Feeney and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I have really weird expectations for what her other books may be like?? DAISY DARKER follows Daisy and the Darker family as they head out to her grandmother’s island house for her 80th birthday. They all assume they’ll be learning what they’ll be getting for inheritances because her grandmother always expected to die at age 80. It follows the traditional AND THEN THEY WERE GONE plotline where people start being killed one by one. There’s a big ol’ twist that plenty of people predicted but I felt like an absolute idiot because I didn’t see it coming at all. The book itself was really sad, seeing how they treated Daisy throughout her life. It was super depressing. Because I managed to not really predict anything correctly, I can’t help but give this a pretty high rating. BUT the twist itself is kind of cheesy at this point. Even if I’m not sure I liked it in many ways, it’s definitely going to stick with me. I read this book in one day – I listened to the audiobook when tooling around the house and read the physical copy whenever I had the chance. I’m never mad about an unputdownable book, so I won’t complain too much! I’d been told by some friends I really […]

ARC Review: Return to Hummingbird Way

Posted April 20, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

This series has been so lovely – I seriously love Reese Ryan’s writing style and how she set up the picturesque town of Holly Grove Island. This book is the second in this companion series and another winner! The first book featured Dexter and Dakota as they embarked on their second chance romance; this one follows Dakota’s best friend Sinclair and Dexter’s best friend Garrett. Mild spoiler for book one, but Dexter and Dakota are heavily featured in this book as they’re planning their wedding. Naturally Sin and Rett are the MOH and Best Man so they’re tasked with pulling off their wedding planning in short order while also working on a joint bachelor/bachelorette party. (Sidenote: if you’re someone who loves when the first couple in a companion series makes an appearance in the next book, you’ll love this one – Dex and Dakota were major characters throughout the story, so you can see their friendships and relationship develop throughout still.) On top of that, they’re both working on redoing Rett’s grandmother’s house to prepare for sale. Sinclair and Rett are both realtors with construction and/or interior design skills so they collaborate on the fixer upper. The only problem? These two don’t really get along. They butted heads in high school, managed to have a quick one night stand years ago, and have generally avoided each other ever since. Rett is back in town to help his family and decides to stick around to work on these projects, but he’s […]

Review Roundup | Confessions, The Golden Spoon, and Lock Every Door

Posted April 13, 2023 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

I recently shared that there are a number of books I planned to read this year based purely on the hype and their popularity in the community. A bunch of my favorite booktubers have read and loved this one, claiming that there is a twist or big reveal at the end of each chapter (there are 6 chapters across a quick book of 240 pages). I was curious (based on the premise) how they would pull that off and decided to finally go for it. After all, I don’t read a lot of backlist books and this looked promising based on everyone’s feelings! Unfortunately this book wasn’t what I expected and the hype was REAL. I couldn’t get everyone’s voices out of my head while reading. I expected wild jaw-dropping twists but it didn’t really read like that to me? Yes, it is definitely twisty and very well-plotted and well-written, but not in the same way people had built it up. Each chapter reveals some new information from a different person’s point of view so the backstory starts to slowly come together. My jaw literally dropped at the end of the first chapter and the build-up of reveals throughout the rest of the story was pretty great. The ending was strong – surprising and very clever. Again, the plotting made a big difference here and the order in which the author included the different character POVs. I expected a new favorite and ended up with a solid four-star read that […]

ARC Review: Yours Truly

Posted April 5, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I think Abby Jimenez writes the BEST romance out there right now. I’ve enjoyed (even loved!) all of her books and truthfully, I think each one is better than the last. THE FRIEND ZONE was a book I really loved when I read it but those feelings faded a bit over time for a few reasons. And her books have only gone up from there (for the most part). In order of release, they went 3.5 stars, 4 stars, 5 stars, 4.5 stars, and 5 stars again for me. I’ll backtrack and chat about the plot and then get into the gushing. The story follows PART OF YOUR WORLD’s heroine’s best friend Briana. She’s hitting her divorce finalization date after her husband cheated on her and feels like she’s just going through the motions. A new ER doctor, Jacob, joins the hospital she works at and the two do NOT get off on the right foot. Jacob secretly finds out he is a match for her brother as a kidney donor, they start writing letters (which started as an apology letter), and the rest is history. I would categorize this as enemies-to-fake-dating-to-lovers, which was very fun. It’s light on the enemies part but still. I loved watching them fake date (Jacob needed a girlfriend for his brother’s wedding festivities… did I mention his brother was marrying Jacob’s ex? And they got together three months after she and Jacob broke up?) and see their […]