Format: eBook

Recent Reads | The Fiancee Farce and My Husband’s Wife

Posted March 9, 2026 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I made it a goal to read more books with sapphic romance this year and this has been sitting on my shelves for a few years. It called to me so I went for it, and I’m so glad I did! I need to read more of her books immediately. The story follows Tansy and Gemma as they embark on a fake engagement/marriage to help them both out. Tansy used Gemma, a model on a book cover, as a fake girlfriend when making excuses with her family. When she actually meets Gemma in person, she’s shocked to see that Gemma joins the charade and reveals they’re together and engaged. Gemma needs to be married to inherit her family business and she’s willing to do anything to make it happen. What happens from here is a super cute, sometimes corny, love story. It’s not perfect but honestly exactly what I needed in that moment. I absolutely loved them as a couple and how well they communicated. With a plot this “big” where you know that something bad may happen outside of their control, we don’t also need miscommunication or in-couple issues too. The author did a great job of making the conflict work. The premise was over the top but highly enjoyable. I was rooting for them from the beginning and really loved it. This is the kind of book that will be polarizing – a lot of people have loved it and I’ve started to see some negative reviews trickle […]

Recent Reads | The Fair Weather Friend and Out of the Loop

Posted February 16, 2026 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I really enjoyed the twists and overall mystery of THE BUSINESS TRIP and was excited to read more by Jessie Garcia. Her second book also featured a newsroom/weather woman so I was thinking she may turn into a TJ Newman (flight attendant or airplane setting) for me, carving out a specific niche within mysteries. When popular weather girl Faith is found strangled in her car during her dinner break, her superfans, colleagues, and old friends are left reeling in different ways. There were multiple POVs like her previous book and many of the plot lines and characterization were similar. The big twist was good in theory but it was very implausible in practice. I thought the writing was cringey in places and fairly juvenile – the character conversations and inner thoughts were just written in a weird way for me. I definitely enjoyed the ride, as I did with the first book, but it was unsatisfying in many ways – especially the very end. There were certain characters or POVs that got completely lost by the end and we got no closure on. I’m not saying that I had fallen in love with them and wanted to know more about them, but there were a number of loose ends that would have been more satisfying to know about. People weren’t built up enough – especially Faith – for me to care about what happened to her. I’m a sucker for time loop books or what I usually refer to as […]

Recent Reads | Razorblade Tears and Can You Solve a Murder?

Posted February 9, 2026 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I’d heard good things about Cosby’s work but for some reason I assumed he wrote horror novels. It may be the covers or the fact that so many reviews talk about violence and darkness. Either way, we decided to read this one for my mystery/thriller book club and it created a lot of great conversation! Buddy Lee and Ike are two fathers whose sons were married with a young daughter. They’re from the south and of a certain generation/upbringing so they were not supportive of their sons’ relationship with each other. When Derek and Isiah are brutally murdered, Ike and Buddy Lee pair up on a quest for vengeance and to make amends for being bad fathers. I really loved watching Ike and Buddy Lee go on this journey… and I’m not sure what that says about me, rooting for all of the chaos and murder along the way. The book brings Ike and Buddy Lee together – again not only on a quest to avenge their sons deaths and figure out what happened, but also to come to terms with their relationship. The book tackles homophobia, transphobia, and racism. I thought their character arcs were believable and powerful. It was definitely hard to read at times but hard to put down at the same time. This was so brutal but so important. I absolutely loved the ending too. While this is not ~for me~ given all the violence and darkness and male-centered plot, I will be reading all of […]

Recent Reads | The Ghostwriter and Anatomy of an Alibi

Posted January 29, 2026 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I realized I forgot to review this one last year for some reason. I really try to keep track of all the full-length novels I read on the blog so here’s my delayed reaction to this one! I was intrigued by the premise of this and luckily it was incredibly addicting to read. The book follows a couple of timelines and POVs. The Taylor family suffers a major loss in 1975 when two siblings are murdered and suspicion surrounds the remaining sibling, Vincent. He turns into a successful horror writer and eventually decides to write a memoir. His daughter Olivia is a ghostwriter and he refuses to work with anyone else. Cue Olivia’s return home to her complicated relationship with her father and a potential reveal that she is his daughter, something she’s kept secret her entire career. I enjoyed seeing some footage – for lack of a better word, you’ll see if you read it – of the 1975 timeline along with Olivia interacting with her father in present day. I thought the book was incredibly interesting while reading it but didn’t really think it would stick with me too much. Looking back, not a ton happens? There were a couple of twists but for some reason I really thought it was going to be full of them. The plot was generally intriguing and I’m glad I picked it up! Our book club overall really enjoyed this one as well, which was nice. I’ll definitely be curious to read […]

Recent Reads | Mockingbird Court and If It Makes You Happy

Posted November 27, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

As always, I enjoyed this installment! There’s nothing cozier than mystery books featuring woodland creatures as the main characters. I was wondering if and when this series would suffer from the “small town cozy mystery problem” where I start to wonder how it’s possible so many deaths occur right in this cute, picturesque small town. This book – like many do – remedied this by moving Vera into the city and having the death occur while she was there, and then the rest of the action happened in Shady Hollow. The resolution was fairly obvious but I liked the ride. The ending didn’t offer a ton of closure for a final book; I would have wanted a little more circling up of everything/everyone for a last hurrah. I’m sad that this is the final installment in this series because it seems like one that could arguably go on forever, especially with such a unique premise. I wonder what this author duo will write next. I saw this book all over all of my feeds this fall, as it seems to be a recent trend where we all want autumn-specific romances like we get with Christmas/holiday ones (thanks to The Pumpkin Spice Cafe lol). I was sold on the premise in pretty much every way: a girl temporarily heads to her parents’ new small town after her mom dies to run their B&B temporarily until her sister graduates and takes over. She quickly falls in with the hot baker and his […]

Recent Reads | Dead of Summer and No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding

Posted July 7, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I fell in love with Maxwell’s debut THE GOLDEN SPOON. Her sophomore novel was similar – kind of a quiet thriller and a little on the cozy side but not really? She has a very distinct style that was further solidified with this novel. We follow a few characters on Hadley Island – Orla (whose best friend went missing years ago, presumed dead), Henry (the man accused of killing her friend Alice), and Faith (joining her rich boyfriend David for the summer at their mansion). Their POVs alternate to give us a full picture of what’s happening on the island, where Orla is returning for the first time since she moved to NYC. This sets a bunch of things in motion and will eventually tie everyone together and solve the mystery of what happened to Alice. I’m a sucker for a coastal New England kind of book and this had it in spades. It was super atmospheric with the small island setting, everyone-knows-everyone. There’s a lot of build up and scene/character-setting through more than half of the book. Nothing really spooky or edge-of-your seat kind of happens until after 60%. I’m okay with this since I’ve come to expect it from Maxwell’s books. Overall this book was pretty good, albeit predictable. I figured out a few things along the way. I was generally interested the entire time while reading but I don’t think it’s an unputdownable thriller, much like her others! I really enjoyed the first installment in this series […]

Five-Star Recent Reads | All the Colors of the Dark and Atmosphere

Posted June 26, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

It’s taken me a really long time to write this review because there’s SO much within this book that could be discussed. I got it a year ago with BOTM and put it off because of the length. I wasn’t sure how another historical literary mystery would go for me. I loved THE GOD OF THE WOODS but surely this isn’t a genre for me, right?! Very wrong. I loved this book! We picked it for my local mystery/thriller book club and there was no shortage of topics to discuss. Everyone gave it 5 stars with a few 4.5 stars sprinkled in. We love the fact that he tackled so many topics without ever feeling like too much, or feeling like the book was too long for a mystery. It’s very much a character study, a story of the time period, and a mystery all rolled into one. The reviewers who didn’t like this book thought the writing was trying too hard or thought it was boring, and I definitely disagree. I read this 600+ page book in two days and literally could not stop reading it. The short chapters coupled with the way he created suspense even within paragraphs because of the writing style made this impossible to put down for me. I will say, my only complaint is that some passages were confusing because of how he wrote them. Sometimes I had to read things more than once. The author was so careful with his language though because […]

Recent Reads | The Fury and What Happens in Amsterdam

Posted May 22, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

Unlike everyone else on the planet, I actually haven’t read THE SILENT PATIENT yet. It didn’t stop me from grabbing THE FURY in my BOTM over a year ago though – classic Lauren. I thought the premise sounded pretty good without carrying all the hype of his other book. The story is narrated by one of the characters – Elliot – and breaks the fourth wall a lot, along with a stream of consciousness kind of narrative voice. He and his famous friends (Lana and her husband Jason and son Leo, plus their friend Kate) head to Lana’s private Greek island for a little R&R. The story kind of “unravels” from there when one of them is murdered. The setup and format of the storytelling was interesting, but the idea was better than the execution. I think the structure of the book was meant to create tension but really it ended up being boring. I don’t feel like I can say more about how he narrated it without directly spoiling, but it was basically like “oh I told you all this now let’s go back in time to talk more about what happened first” or “I actually left a few things out that you may find important now, so here’s more details.” I can understand why the format was like this – it’s almost like the author knew he wanted to make a very basic mystery more interested by using this kind of storytelling and then figured out what the […]

Recent Reads | Swept Away and Magpie Murders

Posted April 23, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I’ve loved quite a few of O’Leary’s books but actually DNFed her last release – for whatever reason the story just wasn’t clicking for me and I haven’t felt pulled to start it again. I was really hoping to get back on track with her for this novel and I’m happy to report that happened! The story follows Zeke and Lexi as they deal with the aftermath of a one-night stand. They realize when they wake up in the morning that the houseboat they were using has somehow gotten untied and was swept out to see. They don’t have power, they’re running out of food, and – to top it all off – they literally don’t know each other at all. Obviously the premise alludes to a bit of a survival story but for some reason I didn’t realize how intense it would be! I kind of just assumed they’d get rescued in a few days but there was actually a lot of peril and accidents to deal with. Some early reviews had folks unprepared for this and it affected their enjoyment, but I still really enjoyed it. It’s just not a straightforward fluffy romance. The ending had some twists that I didn’t see coming (which makes me feel like an idiot because maybe they were obvious?). It took a little while to get on board with those reveals but I was pretty pleased by the end of the book with how everything turned out. This was a super emotional […]

Holiday Review: The Holiday Honeymoon Switch

Posted January 1, 2025 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Story If you’re a fan of THE HOLIDAY (people switching houses around the holidays) and strong friendship stories, this could be a good Christmassy read for you. Holly and Ivy (lol yes they discuss how funny their names are together) are best friends. When Holly gets broken up with the day before her wedding, she can’t bear the idea of still going on her Hawaiian honeymoon but still needs an escape. Ivy had planned to head to an eco-friendly cabin in NY for her annual two-week art retreat during the same timeframe, so they end up switching places. Naturally some romance occurs in each location for the two main characters. I can’t decide if I didn’t love the characters themselves or if I just didn’t like how the author wrote them (like her writing style for them?). I didn’t feel overly connected to them and thought the writing style was just not great? The concept was good, the friendship vibes were strong, and the third act “breakups” / miscommunication were minimal, which is a plus. Wintery Setting & Holiday Feels The story alternates between a very Christmassy setting in upstate New York and a not-so-wintery Kauai. Both places had nice Christmas vibes though. It was fun because I’ve actually been to both settings in this book! I liked how they made holiday traditions in both settings even though one of them had warm, beachy weather. The small town in New York was really cute and holiday-ish, especially with the parade […]