Genre: Adult

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 […]

ARC Reviews: Off the Map and The Good Luck Cafe

Posted March 27, 2023 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

`These books were two of my most anticipated contemporary romance reads for this year. They’ve also been sitting on my Kindle for MONTHS and I can’t believe I didn’t read them much earlier than their pub date! Man, this year has flown by. OFF THE MAP is the third (and I believe final?) book in this companion series about the Beck sisters. I’ve loooooved this series so far and am happy to report that I really enjoyed this one! It’s my least favorite of the bunch but still very steamy and swoony and wanderlusty. We follow Anna’s best friend, Carla (so not really a Beck sister), as she is heading to *spoiler for book one* Anna’s wedding in Keane’s home of Ireland. Keane’s brother, Eamon (who we met in the first book) is due to pick her up and bring her to the wedding. Sparks fly between them right away and the night quickly gets away from them in the bar… and then Keane’s apartment. Carla has been traveling most of her life and avoiding her dad’s dementia diagnosis, and Eamon is dying to break out of his routine and do the same kind of thing. You’d think that would make things easier for them but it doesn’t, of course! The two of them take some detours on the way to the wedding and really enjoy each other’s company. They have really great chemistry and I actually like how quickly they hooked up. It was more unique for a romance […]

Review Roundup | The Heart Principle, Mirror Lake, and Remarkably Bright Creatures

Posted March 20, 2023 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 0 Comments

THE HEART PRINCIPLE was one of my most-anticipated releases of 2021. I was thrilled when it was a BOTM selection and I could read it right away! And then… it sat on my shelf until March of 2023. I don’t know why I never got around to picking it up. I think I wasn’t expecting to love this as much as the other two in this companion series? It had a lot to live up to. I rated the first book 4.5 stars and the second book 5 stars, so where would this one land? I didn’t remember the two previous books that well but it’s a companion series, so that wasn’t an issue. We’re introduced to Anna, a professional violinist who is stuck in a major rut with her music. Her longtime boyfriend suggests they have an open relationship for a bit before taking the next step and she’s too angry to argue. She hops on a dating app and decides that if he can have a one-night stand or two, so can she. She’s introduced to our boy Quan (love) and they fail at hooking up a few times but can’t seem to leave it at that. I really loved the relationship that Quan and Anna built – it was so sweet and wholesome! Both of them had some major issues they were dealing with and slowly began to open up to each other. When Anna’s father becomes very ill, she’s tasked with helping him and the family, […]

Review Roundup | The Do-Over, The Appeal, and Cold Clay

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

I’m a sucker for Groundhog Day / time loop stories, as everyone knows by now. I was intrigued by THE DO-OVER when I saw so many people reading it but didn’t set out on a mission to read it until (a) I realized it was a Groundhog Day book and (b) it took place on Valentines Day. I was so determined to read it during Valentines Day that I went to three different stores and attempted two store pick-up orders before I finally snagged it in the fifth and final attempt (another Target store pickup). When Emilie sees her boyfriend cheating on her on Valentines Day, she wakes up the next day only to find it is yet again Valentines Day. Can she stop him from cheating? Does she even want to? The story progresses in a similar way to other time loop stories with the MC trying new ways to live out the day and see if it resets the loop. She ends up getting close to Nick, her surly lab partner, on and off throughout the days and sparks fly on one of her repeating days. All in all, the book was really cute and enjoyable to read! There were absolutely has some cringe-worthy levels of cheesiness toward the end but I got through it. Every Groundhog Day book has at least one day where the MC does whatever they want, damn the consequences, because there ARE no consequences. That particular day for Emilie was definitely cringey. These […]