 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.An intoxicating slow burn fantasy w/ romantic elements set in a forest that’s grasping & hungry, Hannah Whitten’s For the Wolf, book 1 in a trilogy, put stars in my eyes. Redarys, or Red, is the second daughter of the Valleydan queen. As such, soon after turning 19 a mark will appear on her skin & she’ll be dispensed to the Wilderwood—a place where the monsters & five kings are held—as a human sacrifice. Maybe the sacrifice will free the kings, maybe not. Either way, this long established custom of sending second daughters of the queen has held Valleydan and its neighboring countries together & fulfilled the initial terms set by the Wilderwood forest & a couple—the Wolf & the first Second Daughter—long ago. Red will be delivered to the Wolf because of who she is. But what her beloved twin sister & others don’t know is that Red is ultimately okay with going. That she possesses a violent power she lives in fear of, given to her by the Wilderwood. What does that mean for the Wolf? Watching the relationships change in this book—seeing the characters change—is captivating. The fierceness of them, the uncertainty, the hope. The terrifying slide of one major secondary character into her worst nature—a slide that initially starts out of love. The rapturous tension between the two leads as they fall, despite the forest’s waiting eyes & limbs. & speaking of the forest. The imagery in For the Wolf has a power, a punch that propelled me through the pages. A sinister quality that’s complicated by Red’s growing awareness of what the forest is & what it wants. A beauty & the beast retelling that entrances, For the Wolf is a 5 ⭐️ read for me. 5⭐️. Release date: 06/01.
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A big thanks to Berkley for gifting me a complimentary copy of the ARC and inviting me to be part of the tour; all opinions provided are my own.  SYNOPSISNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ and more! Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?  MY REVIEWI knew Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation would be a beautifully written way of messing with my heart. Poppy Wright & Alex Nilsen are opposites attract unlikely best friends who have spent almost every year since college going on one major summer trip together. But two years ago, in Croatia, something happened that caused a divide between them, & they haven’t spoken since. After prompting, Poppy realizes she can trace her “last” happy moment to being w/ him, so she reconnects & asks him to go on a trip to Palm Springs. She hopes that she’ll be able to find her lost travel-journalist mojo & rekindle a beloved friendship she’s missed. But of course even when he says yes it’s all more complicated than that. There’s so much to love about PWM: Alex is really nice & dependable & wear khakis & is also a secret weirdo, but only around Poppy. Their relationship is built on inside jokes & moments when they’re only themselves around each other. On tenderness & respect & the more than 1, less than 15% of Poppy’s feelings that are romantic in nature. Yeah right . It’s an ache & a tenderness to see all of the ways they’ve been in love for so long. Their HEA, told from present day & a series of flashbacks, is hard won, & Henry really builds up that tension, showing how they both wanted (want??) different lives. But maybe there’s some overlap. I read each chapter with bated breath, frequently checking how long the chapters were because I wanted to move ahead in the present day story & get them to kissing . By the end, I felt assured that they really knew each other, that figuring things out might not be the easiest thing in the world but the only thing for people who love each other so much. Funny, emotionally lovely & also difficult for someone like me , this book is poignant & as beautiful as I thought it would be. I hope that Alex & Poppy are enjoying a (vaccinated) summer trip soon. 5 ⭐️. Out today!CW: ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thanks for joining me on my stop! To see more of my bookish adventures, you can follow me here. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Sarah Suk’s Made in Korea is a cute enemies to kissing YA contemporary that focuses on the tension between personal dreams & parental expectations. Senior Valerie Kwon is very business-oriented, focused on how she can keep her student-run business V&C K-BEAUTY the most successful at her school. She’s saving her profits from the business she runs with her cousin so she can take her Halmeoni on a trip to Paris. & maybe also so she prove that she’s talented & accomplished in her own right to the mother who constantly compares her to her older sister. But she runs into some competition from Wes Jung, who’s new to her school & decides that selling some K-pop products his mom has gotten from her job (some of which she offered to him personally; none of which she has approved to be sold at his school) is a way that he can finance his music education hopes. He’s a saxophonist at heart but try telling that to his parents, especially his dad who wouldn’t approve of a music career in the slightest. So Valerie & Wes are competitors, each of them eventually trying on some behaviors that aren’t quite aboveboard, but for reasons that would be relatable to many. Of course they’re also attracted to each other & respect each other, which makes their competition a little more confusing for them. Three cheers for a heroine who isn’t immediately “likeable” to everyone; who is ambitious & driven (occasionally cutthroat ;) ) & who makes some mistakes & not-so-great decisions because not only is the business her priority ambition-wise; it’s also related to some family pressures. I did want to see a bit more evidence of growth from Valerie—I wanted that part of the story to be considered a bit more & maybe a little earlier in the story—but in general I’m excited to see more rep of teen girls like this & appreciate how it’s balanced by her softness toward her grandmother & eventually Wes. & Wes is a sweetie, awkward & kind, as Valerie eventually realizes, & the way that he comes to see Valerie’s honesty & confidence as things to emulate are lovely. Suk compellingly offers common ground between them—the judgment they face from their parents, the feeling of not always feeling completely “at home” because Valerie is Korean American & Wes is a Third-culture kid. While there’s a lot to savor about this one, the engagement between leads feels somewhat lacking to me. I didn’t totally buy their romance because I just didn’t feel that they had enough meaningful interaction spread throughout the story. All things considered, Made in Korea was a fun way to spend my time & introduced me to a talented writer, but it also falls a little flat in some respects for me. 3.5 ⭐️. Release date: 5/18. Please read Own Voices reviews. Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.I’ve seen so many rave reviews of Kerrigan Byrne’s Tempting Fate & honestly I don’t know that I can add anything to the conversation . But if you love beauty & the beast/she’s an angel on Earth & I will do anything I can to protect her & keep unpleasantness from her door/virgin leads/a redemption arc, etc. this book is good to snatch up. Felicity Goode is a shy, beautiful, bespectacled heiress who must marry an aristocrat to fulfill the terms of her parents’ will. But she must find a bodyguard first, someone to prevent further threats & attacks against her. Enter Gareth Severand, who is actually Gabriel Sauvageau, former leader of the criminal Fauves. Extremely scarred & with a disfigured face, Gabriel faked his own death, took on an alias, & went through a series of facial surgeries. He’s about to leave England but he’s hired by Felicity when she mistakenly believes him to be an applicant. She has no idea of his real identity, a blessing Gabriel thinks, since she fainted from terror during his previous rescue attempt. Gabriel’s feelings for Felicity are STRONG from the beginning. She is everything to him & she sees him both imperfectly—she has horrible vision & her spectacles are initially broken—but also very well indeed—as someone who can protect her & use his violence & physical prowess for good. This is classic Kerrigan Byrne to me (and therefore quite enjoyable!): an absolutely devoted hero who’s possessive & uber protective & a heroine who is such an ideal that she can bring him into the light somewhat. Make him someone who can feel joy. I’m all about drama but there are moments when the prose feels somewhat heavy-handed, & I felt surprised & a little disconcerted by the ease of the shy Felicity’s intimate emotional revelations with Gabriel. Or maybe just her lack of awareness/surprise of how revelatory she was being. But I really enjoyed my time spent with these two sweeties, especially the Epilogue, which is sweet & lighthearted & made me happy for Gabriel. 4 ⭐️. Release date: 5/11. Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.⭐️ Q: what do you feel like is your most common star rating? A sapphic heist romance between a pianist & a weaver, Olivia Waite’s The Hellion’s Waltz has some sentences that really stand out to me in that wow kind of way 🤩, an intriguing premise, & two leads who find ways to make use of their great talents for the good of others. That sounds divine to me. Ultimately I didn’t swoon as much as I might have hoped for this one but I did find *a lot* to appreciate about the story. Sophie Roseingrave & her large, musically-inclined family have just moved from London to a much smaller town after being taken advantage of by a conman who used musical instruction to pull off his scheming. She hasn’t played piano in the months since, & she’s anxious at the thought. So when she sees a beautiful stranger—who turns out to be Maddie Crewe—apparently trying to pull one over on a local fabric shop-owner, she’s determined to stop it. It turns out, however, that Maddie & a crew of members from the Weavers’ Library are working together to right injustice & take down the fabric shop-owner, who’s been taking advantage of people who have no legal recourse to fight back. Sophie wants to help Maddie. She also wants to kiss her & vice versa. What works for me in The Hellion’s Waltz is first its consideration of social issues & how it includes some pertinent items of material history. Through Maddie & the other members of her library I learned more about factory conditions, the lack of options available to the women who wished to protest them, & Combinations (a term I had never heard of before). Similarly it was cool learning more about pianos & weaving. Emotionally, Sophie has an intriguing arc, facing her anxiety & being brave thanks to applause-worthy moments like her mom’s speech. Later Sophie herself has a fantastic speech about making mistakes & it’s so good I could envision it celebrated on a motivational embroidery hoop. When it comes to the relationship between leads, the pacing was a bit off for me. First, I wanted to see the leads together more & later, when things start really moving they rush a smidge for my taste. But ultimately The Hellion’s Waltz is well-written, wise, & soft & I recommend it. 4 .5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/15. Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop surprised me—it went in a direction that I was *not* expecting—& it makes me so excited to see what exactly McQuiston might write next. August Landry moved from New Orleans to Brooklyn w/ a couple of pit stops along the way because she hasn’t found *her* place yet. She’s left behind her mom & the decades-old mystery that her mom’s obsessed with: the disappearance of August’s uncle. On the subway August is instantly struck by the sight of Subway Girl; Subway Girl gives her her scarf when August—teasingly christened Coffee Girl by the stranger—spills on her shirt. Later, August can’t stop thinking about Subway Girl, Jane, for many reasons. Over time, as they continue talking, & gazing, & flirting, August realizes that (1) Jane is *always* on the subway when she is; (2) Jane doesn’t actually know who she is & most of her memories are gone, only slowly revealing themselves when prompted by something August says or does; & (3) Jane’s last real memories before being on the subway are from the 70s, when Jane appeared exactly the same age. Wow, what a concept. & despite the fact that I knew there could be no “perfect” ending whereby Jane ends up unscathed, McQuiston pulls it off in a way that ultimately feels hopeful. That hopefulness also comes across in Jane’s consideration of the setting itself, since, as Jane reminisces, it’s a pretty different world for LGBTQIA people in modern Brooklyn as opposed to the 1970s (though not entirely without its challenges or difficulties, obviously). The relationship between August & Jane is lovely to watch unfold, as is that between August & her winsome & quirky roommates. I love how this is a story about friendship & found family too, in addition to offering lots of laughs & a couple of moving mysteries that August wants to solve. There are a couple of moments when I personally got a little bogged down by the technical details of time travel, etc., but I think that was more of a mood thing. Either way, this is a fantastic romance that I’m feeling nostalgic about even now. 5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/01 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. When I was a teen I did the slowest side fall off the most docile horse who’s ever existed & yet I am hugely drawn to Carly Bloom’s Once Upon a Time in Texas series...where cowboys & cowgirls find love & actually manage to ride horses successfully. This series has it all: steam, humor, small town charm, & fantastic chemistry & Must Love Cowboys, the latest installment out today, is no exception. Librarian Alice Ann Martin has never felt entirely at home in Big Verde so when a coworker insists she bring a date to her wedding she feels SOL. But then she finds a solution in hunky, vaguely frustrating Beau Montgomery, a ranch foreman & the man whom she used to babysit (she’s 4 years older). He needs help learning to combat the dyslexia that he’s tried to ignore for years, & when he makes Alice demand some kind of payment, she asks him to be her date in exchange. Of course everyone in Big Verde assumes they’re dating for real, which is even more interesting because of Beau’s player rep & Alice’s repeated desire to self-partner. If you love super sweet, stud cowboys who have had strong feelings for the heroine for YEARS w/out fully realizing it, Beau is your man. The moments where he reveals his vulnerabilities about his dyslexia are emotionally stunning & when he ponders whether he’s near tears the first time they sleep together I . & Alice is adorable & original & seeing both of them break out of their comfort zones—her by having fun & seeing how people care for her & vice versa—feels like a romantic movie montage. Also I’d like to applaud her thoughts on romance novels & virginity & many other things she says in the novel 🏻 & applaud her again for taking her happiness & for giving Beau a sizzling anatomy lesson 🏻 🏻. Must Love Cowboys is a fun, sweet romance that doesn’t skimp on emotions & doesn’t have a big crisis that drags on (a win in my book). I can’t wait to return to Big Verde! 4.5 ⭐️ Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Whew. He Said/She Said is quite a ride. Before I really get started I want to make it clear that this book contains disturbing acts of violence toward women, including alleged rape (the latter of which is a major plot point in this thriller). This psychological thriller is told largely from the perspective of Laura and her husband Kit over a period of time starting in 1999 & ending in 2015. Laura and Kit are eclipse chasers & during one viewing when they’re just dating, Laura believes she’s seen a rape. She serves as a witness at the trial where the alleged perpetrator maintains his innocence. During the trial Laura lies in an effort to put the alleged rapist behind bars, an act that she’s desperate to keep from Kit. Also during the trial Laura makes contact with the alleged victim Beth, another thing she must hide. After the trial is over, Beth makes herself part of Laura and Kit's life, only things with Beth aren’t quite as they initially seem & that’s what the book explores in each tense chapter as Laura & Kip wrestle with the past & its shadow over the present. This book is intense, compelling, not entirely easy to read. There are scenes that left me with visceral dismay & distress & at the end I returned to certain details, piecing things together in ways I hadn’t been able to before. The poignancy of Laura & Kit’s relationship is moving & adds a lot to the thriller arc. I definitely think that this book is doing really interesting things & I also can see how there’s a lot of potential to upset many readers by how those interesting things are being done. As one character articulates, whether or not Beth gave consent is questioned throughout the trial—but it’s questioned after, as well—& men’s manipulation (& worse) is considered at length throughout the novel. Though there are some moments that feel a little too simplistic to me overall this is an engrossing read with a well-done twist that left me thinking “nooooo.” 4.5 ⭐️. He Said/She Said is available now.CW:
 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Alexandria Bellefleur’s Hang the Moon elicits one warm fuzzy after another. Brendon Lowell, Darcy’s well-meaning, matchmaking, dating app founding brother in Written in the Stars, is a blushing ginger romantic who enjoys watching proposal videos & crying. When the woman he used to have a crush on as a teen, his sister’s best friend Annie Kyriakos, visits Seattle, he ends up showing her around, determined to change her skepticism regarding romance to something more positive. It doesn’t take long before he realizes he wants to see where their very real feelings can go but his wishes are stymied by Annie’s announcement that she’s relocating to London for work. Hang the Moon is a straightforward, pretty low angst romance that feels warm & lovely. The hero is a blushing prince w/ a talent for oral, the heroine is not going to rush into anything & I stan a woman who needs some time. I really like Annie but in case I haven’t made it clear Brendon is the standout for me—he’s so freaking sweet & his tattoo is everything🥺. Outside of these great leads I absolutely love the poignant story Bellefleur tells about friendships, too. About what happens when your best friend has fallen in love but you haven’t, & you’re no longer their “first” anymore. How the effort Annie makes in friendships—she’s always going the extra mile—has carried over into what she wants & doesn’t want romantically. If you haven’t read this series yet I strongly request that you do. It’s so so good & just a delight. 4.5 ⭐️. Release Date: 05/25 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.In Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia 1920s Harlem is the backdrop for a mystery starring an intrepid 26 year old named Louise Lloyd, also known as Harlem’s Hero. At 16, Louise rescued herself & other Black teen girls from a kidnapper. Now, ten years later, she works at a cafe, loves to go out dancing with her friend & lover Rosa Maria, & is alienated from her family after angering her strictly religious father. But things grow much more complicated for our heroine when young Black women are murdered & placed outside Louise’s work & she’s forced to help investigate their deaths. There are lots of things about Dead Dead Girls that captivate: the intriguing setting & how it’s captured w/ little details; how independent Louise is & her punchy one-liners; her striking observations about how Black women are treated & how white police officers discriminate against Black residents of Harlem. I love when she takes off on her own investigations, how ingenious she is in making use of her clothes for hiding things. The glitz of the flapper lifestyle & Louise’s personality draw me in but overall, the mystery itself doesn’t feel as tight as it could be, particularly at the end. Dead Dead Girls offers a compelling backdrop & a resourceful, glamorous heroine, but the mystery doesn’t hit quite as hard as I’d like. 3.5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/01CWs:
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