Source: Borrowed

Recent Reads | The Thursday Murder Club and Long Bright River

Posted December 8, 2025 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I’ve been meaning to read this book for years and the new movie adaptation is what finally spurred me to pick it up. I know this series is an absolute favorite of many people so unfortunately my expectations were probably too high. This was kind of exactly what I expected but I was thinking I’d like it more! People warned me it was slow and that wasn’t really an issue for me; I liked the main characters and would be curious to see what they get up to in future books. I think there were overall too many characters for me to keep track of so when reveals were happening, I was kind of lost. I generally liked the audiobook but I’ll admit that it didn’t keep my attention sometimes. I like that there is a little mystery or two around some of the characters and their backgrounds so I hope to continue to grow more connected to all of them, especially because I know the series gets emotional. With elderly main characters, I don’t love the booktubers crying in future books, because I have some guesses about what may happen… All in all, a promising start to a new series for me! Hopefully I’ll continue next year. THE GOD OF THE WOODS was one of my favorite books last year. I didn’t even realize when my friend recommended LONG BRIGHT RIVER that it was by the same author, but that’s what sold me on borrowing her copy! The premise […]

Recent Reads | The Sun Down Motel and We Are All Guilty Here

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

My mystery book club picked this one out for October since it was a spooky paranormal mystery – it was a little out of my comfort zone as a result of that but I enjoyed it! I just don’t read a lot of ghost stories or paranormal mysteries. Simone St. James has been on my TBR for a long time. The book follows two timelines: there’s Viv in the early 80s and her niece Carly in 2017. Viv works the night shift at the Sun Down Motel in a time where lots of girls turn up missing or murdered in the small town of Fell, NY. Viv herself goes missing, which leads to Carly coming to town and trying to figure out what happened to her aunt. It was fairly obvious what was going on about halfway through though; there wasn’t as much suspense or twists as I tend to prefer. The ghosts were a fun aspect – I don’t want to spoil much about them but it was a welcome change from what I expected ghosts to be in a book like this, if that makes sense. The motel and small town settings were really vivid and made the book super enjoyable to read. Overall, really good for spooky season. My book club agreed this should definitely become a show or movie! We all gave it around 4 stars, with the exception of one person. My friend from book club showed up with this book, which she had just […]

Recent Reads | Fangirl Down and The Lost Story

Posted August 2, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

I wanted to conduct an experiment to see if Tessa Bailey could be ~for me~ although I’ve always suspected she wouldn’t be. I read a holiday novella by her and thought it was okay but when this golf-based romance was released, I thought this would be the perfect test for me. I love watching the sport and maybe it would resonate. This was tough to get into from the beginning if I’m being honest. I thought her writing style in general was pretty good and easy to read, but the dialogue and setup had too much cringe for me to overcome. I’d like to start by saying this guy was definitely a jackass the FMC was perfectly fine. I do not like possessive and jealous men; it just comes across as not trusting and I do not enjoy it. I want my husband or boyfriend to treat me like an equal, capable of making my own decisions, and not assuming any guy giving me attention would be able to steal me away. I fully know there are more alpha male type MMCs out there and this just goes to show I would hate to read those books if this bland ass dude bothered me. He said “champagne is for women” and I’d like to kill him, thanks. Their dialogue was super cringe-worthy and he was obsessed with her waaaay too early to be cute or reasonable. He even says in the final few chapters that they barely know each other […]

Recent Reads | Bride and Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice

Posted March 14, 2024 / Book Reviews, Recent Reads / 0 Comments

This book was really something. I kind of have no idea what to make of it. I had previously avoided Hazelwood’s books becuase I just didn’t think they were for me. The Reylo fanfic inspiration and the continuous use of big man/small girl are just not for me. I saw absolute rave reviews for this one and thought maybe THIS is a Hazelwood I could read and get on board with. It’s a paranormal romance with werewolf and a vampire in a world where both species coexist (kind of) with humans. It took a solid 100 pages to get interesting and less confusing but I did get more hooked after that point. The book has an arranged marriage between a werewolf groom and vampire bride to help broker peace between their people for a while. Beyond that, the MC Misery (yes that’s her name) is trying to find her best friend that went missing. So there were two main elements – a romance and a mystery – and I’ll tell ya, the mystery and political backdrop are what kept me reading. The romance absolutely gave me the creeps and thanks to Ali Hazelwood, I’ll never think of a knot the same again. It was just WEIRD. I think the politics and mystery were 20x more interesting than the romance and luckily those were at the forefront of most of the book. I was genuinely surprised by the reveals and events at the end, which is why my rating is decent […]

Review Round Up | Good Girl Bad Blood, They Wish They Were Us, and The Inheritance Games

Posted September 10, 2020 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! After finishing A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER, I knew that I had to read the sequel as soon as humanly possible. I haven’t read a lot of books during this lockdown period (combined with the new puppy period in my own life), so I want to capture that addicted-to-reading feeling as much as possible. GOOD GIRL, BAD BLOOD lived up to that for me, and allowed me to finish a nice, quick, entertaining story in a few sittings after ordering the UK edition from Book Depository. The second installment in the series follows Pip as she tries to find her friend’s missing brother. She’s reluctant to work on another case because the first one fucked her up so badly, but she feels the pull to help her friend Connor and his family. I can’t get too much into the reasons this book isn’t a full five-stars for me, but mild spoiler to follow: you definitely won’t see the ending coming. There’s literally no way to predict it and it kind of comes from left field. This was good and bad – in some ways it felt a little cheap? But in other ways it was incredibly clever and impressive, I think. This was JUST as addicting […]

ARC Reviews: Deadly Little Scandals and Twice in a Blue Moon

Posted October 28, 2019 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I have loved every Jennifer Lynn Barnes book I’ve read, even including the ones that were not necessarily up my alley synopsis-wise. I still have to read THE NATURALS series and I can’t wait to be blown away by those too! In any case, I was sure to read this one relatively quickly to continue the story I loved so much. I didn’t remember that much from the first book but Barnes did a good job of recapping without overdoing it or feeling like an actual recap. I think the biggest issue with these books, which became even more of a problem in this one compared to the first, is that there are SO many characters. I could never keep anyone straight! The book, like the first one, also has chapters in the present and small flash-forward chapters that you’re working up to timeline-wise. This book additionally had some chapters set 25 years in the past, with the parents of all of the main characters. I was constantly trying to remember who was who. On top of the amount of characters, there are so many secrets around everyone’s parentage and family lineage too. Just when you think you’ve figured out who gave birth to someone or is related to someone else, everything changes again. I can’t say much more without being spoilery so I’ll just try to leave it at that. Overall though, this made it challenging to follow the story. There were a lot of big reveals though. I […]

Review Round Up | The Lovely and the Lost, Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune, and Passion on Park Avenue

Posted July 10, 2019 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 1 Comment

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! I’ll be 100% honest: if Jennifer Lynn Barnes didn’t write this book, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up based on the synopsis alone. The MC was found in the woods by a family who trains search-and-rescue dogs, and she quickly joins that family business with them. There’s a survival element here that doesn’t usually appeal to me, but I DID like the idea of tracking down a missing child and solving a mystery in that way. It’s purposefully hard to connect with the main character because she had such a closed-off upbringing. She’s meant to be challenging and distant, so I understood why I wasn’t able to connect with her on the level I usually might’ve when reading a book. I loved her though – she was fierce and extremely loyal to her found family. Jude, Free, and her mother Cady were all fascinating characters. I loved getting to know the people surrounding the state park they went to to find Bella. There were a LOT of twists and turns for a book I would generally consider to be more of a contemporary book than a mystery book. I’m totally counting it as mystery for my challenges ? There were a lot of elements at the […]

ARC Reviews: Her Royal Highness and Don’t Date Rosa Santos

Posted April 22, 2019 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I enjoyed the first book in this series. I think it’s because, despite my overall grumpiness about all things royal, the main character matched those sentiments. I was able to relate to Daisy and get accustomed to this kind of royal-meets-normie tale. I became excited for the f/f companion novel, even though this one directly involves an actual princess, and hopped to it right away. This ended up being super shippy and mostly wonderful. Flora and Millie were an excellent pair. I loved the kind of hate-to-love situation that developed, with Flora being Flora aka not the nicest person on earth? Millie was cute with her love for her dad, love for geology, and general love for Scotland without ever going there. As usual, I would have loved even more family feels, but she had a really nice backstory. This ship sailed its way into my heart for sure. My main issue is how abrupt the ending was. In general, the whole second half-ish of the book was a bit rushed? I could have done with like 50 more pages interspersed in the second half of the book, both around building the ship and chemistry and toward the end. I would venture to say that the pacing here was relatively terrible, with the inevitable fight/breakup/tension (and the usual things that follow) WAY too close to the end of the book. Overall though, a worthy companion to the first book! Give me a book about Seb now PLEASE. I was really […]

Review Round Up | The Fairest Kind of Love, Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee, The Winter Sister, and I’ll Be There For You

Posted March 27, 2019 / Book Reviews, Review Roundup / 2 Comments

In an effort to cut down on posts and burnout, my Review Roundups will feature 2-4 books I’ve read or listened to recently. Sometimes they’re newer releases and sometimes they’re all backlist titles. My ARC reviews usually get the solo treatment. Enjoy the mini reviews! This series is something I would call a guilty pleasure if I believed in that term. I genuinely don’t. BUT it’s a whimsical, short, breezy, easy, and cute series. There isn’t a lot of substance involved but I love the magical beings and seeing what Amber gets up to next! This is the final book in the series, I believe, and it’s one I’ve remained loyal to over the past few years of new releases. I saw it on Hoopla and immediately downloaded it, of course. Amber is gearing up to meet with a matchmaker to determine a few things – can she get her powers back and functioning properly? AND, is Charlie her soulmate? Since her abilities have gone haywire, she’s been trying to figure out how to get them back and move on with her life after graduating high school. I liked that this installment involved fairies, my fave magical creature, and some of the classic elements you’re familiar with (like wishing using fairy dust and having to be very specific about what you want!). This one felt cheesier than the last two. I’m not sure if it’s just because there’s been enough time in between where I forgot what they were like, or if […]

ARC Review: Famous in a Small Town

Posted January 7, 2019 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Initial Excitement & Summary Oh man, where should I begin? I started 2018 with FOOLISH HEARTS because I like the idea of reading a favorite author (one who has NEVER let you down) as the first book of the year. Get the reading year off to a great start, right? It definitely worked last year and let me tell ya – it worked again this year. I borrowed FAMOUS IN A SMALL TOWN from Wendy to make sure 2019 got off on the right foot again. If I could start every year with one of her books, I would and I will. This one doesn’t give much away in the synopsis but it’s about a girl named Sophie and the new cute boy next door, August. She envelops him in her amazing friend group as they try to track down their small town’s most famous person (Megan Pleasant, a country singer) in order to raise money for the marching band. She learns more about August’s mysterious past and about herself, her friends, and her neighbors in the process. Storytelling & Characters The book really felt like another quiet, slow and steady Emma Mills book. They’re my favorites because they spend so much time developing the characters so you really don’t worry much about if there’s a plot. Don’t get me wrong, there’s always a plot, but some are quieter than others? This book definitely felt like it would be a snapshot of time within this amazing friend group and nothing […]