I'm just going to come out and say it. **deep breath** A Discovery of Witches is Twilight for adults. **cringes** And y'know what? I liked Twilight better. **ducks as A Discovery of Witches fans throw things at her** C’mon, people! I can't be the first person to draw parallels between Deborah Harkness’ series and the wildly popular vampire books by Stephenie Meyer. SO MUCH of what happens in A Discovery of Witches, the first book in...
Honestly, is it even summer without a Mary Kay Andrews book to read? You all know my love for MKA runs deep, and The Newcomer hit every expectation that I had for my summer beach read: -- dreamy Southern vacation spot along the water? Check. -- a sweet and plucky heroine? Check. -- a predictable but enjoyable romance with a hot, too-good-to-be-true guy? Check. -- a spot of murder for a dash of intrigue? Check. When I told my husband the premise...
Let's jump right into it: I loved The Candid Life of Meena Dave. Like, really loved it. As in, I give it all the stars! You guys know my fondness for the "unexpected inheritance" trope, so when Kaye Publicity asked me if I wanted an ARC of The Candid Life of Meena Dave, I was like, You had me at "inherits a Victorian brownstown in historic Back Bay, Boston." I love Boston, and, like most people, my favorite area of the city is Back Bay with its...
Sunrise by the Sea is the fourth installment of the Little Beach Street Bakery series, and boy, was it worth the wait. Much like one of the “red thinks” (a.k.a., strawberry tarts) from character Polly’s bakery, I devoured this Jenny Colgan novel that brought me back to the fictional Mount Polbearne, a quaint and remote fishing village on an island off the Cornish coast. If you’re looking for a brief review of the first book in this...
The Invisble Life of Addie La Rue was another different type of read for me: fantasy. This creative story by V.E. Schwab is rich and complex; it’s detailed and emotional; it’s sweet and exciting. There are SO many things going on in this behemoth of a novel that it’s hard to pinpoint what to talk about. Let’s start at the beginning, which I actually didn’t love. The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue is slow to start. There’s a lot of...
Christmas Joy is the perfect book to sink into over the holiday season. Last year, I basically swiped right on a bunch of Christmas books available from my local library, and I spent the six weeks leading up to Christmas reading about nothing but candy canes, cookies, holiday décor, and small-town romance. There were some hits and some misses, but Christmas Joy is definitely one of the highlights from that book stack. It doesn't hurt that this...
I'm pretty sure that Party of Two is not author Jasmine Guillory's best work. I know, I know: that's a pretty bold statement to make right off the bat. Guillory’s first book, The Wedding Date, made huge waves when it published a few years ago, but I never got around to reading it. I picked up Party of Two because it was the only Guillory title my library had on hand during COVID quarantine. Given all the fuss surrounding the author and her...
In Five Years isn't the book I thought it'd be. In a good way. Everyone seemed to be reading this Rebecca Serle novel last year during quarantine, so I was excited to score a copy from my library as quickly as I did. I'd just read two heavy books back-to-back, and I wanted -- nay, needed -- a fun, breezy women's fiction/romance to lighten up my mood. Well. In Five Years was NOT the book to pick up for that. But, I'm glad I read it anyway. You'll...
OMGILOVEDTHISBOOK. *deep breath* Ahem. Sorry. But, seriously, guys. I absolutely adored Meg and Jo. I’m a huge fan of retellings, particularly ones that modernize classic stories (see Eligible), but this is the first retelling of Little Women that I’ve read. That being said, expectations were high when I started reading – and I’m so happy to report that Virginia Kantra's reimagining completely surpassed everything I could have hoped for....
Unpopular opinion alert: I did not finish (DNF) Red, White, and Royal Blue. SO many people have raved about this book by Casey McQuiston, readers and bloggers alike. It was all over bookstagram when it published in 2019, and I'm still seeing it appear in bookstack photos of beloved books. As a lover of rom-coms, I was eager to read this relatively new member to the genre: a queer rom-com in which two gay men fall in love. And one of them...
