 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.If childhood friends to enemies to lovers + a redemption story is your jam, I recommend Annabeth Albert’s Out of Character. Jasper & Milo were best friends until high school, when Milo had a chance to turn popular jock & believed that necessitated leaving his best friend Jasper, a gamer who had recently attended a Rainbow Alliance meeting, behind. Throughout high school Milo’s new jock best friends harassed Jasper & Milo said & did nothing. Years later, when Jasper is in college & Milo is a college drop-out with a series of bad decisions behind him, they come back into each other’s orbit. This story is sweet & thoughtful, not unlike the main characters themselves. I love seeing how they mature individually, especially Milo, who has a lot to reflect on & who wants to put actions toward becoming the person he hopes to be, & how their personal efforts make them better partners & vice versa. The redemption story works for me, especially how Milo & Jasper have to reckon with his past behavior & figure out a productive & loving path forward, something made more difficult by the continued presence of Milo’s high school best friends—bullies—in his life & the fact that Milo hasn’t come out yet. The characterization of Jasper as someone who constantly wants to be heroic is a little heavy-handed for me but the warm fuzzies this book constantly gave me—the lack of a present-day huge crisis between them (excepting their weighty high school past)—,the loveliness of Milo’s desire to change his life & his behavior—won me over time & time again. 4.5 ⭐️. Release date: 07/06.
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 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Q: what’s your opinion about a You’ve Got Mail situation in books or movies? Lauren Layne’s books always feel so glossy & sophisticated to me—like they’re letting me peek into another possible life—but they’re also still warm & gently amusing. It’s been a couple of years since I devoured her backlist & it’s always a pleasure stepping back into her voice. But To Sir, with Love isn’t an unqualified “love” for me. Likened to You’ve Got Mail & other examples featuring that dynamic, To Sir is about a fairy-tale obsessed woman, Gracie Cooper, who’s taken on a job at her family’s champagne store out of familial obligation & hasn’t found a (reciprocated) love…despite her very romantic nature. But she does regularly correspond with “Sir” as “Lady,” & they share news & feelings & thoughts with each other through an anonymous dating app. But Sir has a girlfriend. His friend entered him on the app as a joke. Sebastian Andrews, the totally awful man trying to buy out the lease on her family’s store, has a gf too. But also Sebastian is handsome & surprises Gracies sometimes with flashes of non-shark behavior. Two men. Two possibilities. & also zero possibilities. The interplay between Gracie & “both” men is charming, particularly between Gracie & Sebastian. I really go for a charmer lead / more uptight lead sighing in exasperation dynamic. The use of 1st person & the overall premise feels really relatable to my look-for-romance under every rainbow personality. But the “You’ve Got Mail”-esque plot complications aren’t executed pleasingly. I often feel frustrated & or question how it’s present in the book—how the leads are acting, what is supported & not supported by the story itself, etc. There’s a conflict moment to me that also feels shallow & kinda “huh?” This is a fun read mainly because of LL’s voice & flair, but it stalls on the You’ve Got Mail angle for me. 4 ⭐️. Release date: 06/29TW:
 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. When I say that Rachel Reid’s Role Model swept me off my feet... If you love > Redemption arcs > A too-handsome-to-be-believed + attractive-in-a-more-approachable-way kind of pairing > Grumpy & the sunshine (who is literally a former apple farmer!) > Ilya you must read this! Notice I didn’t mention the sports. You don’t have to love the sports to love this one . In Role Model, NHL hockey player Troy Barrett has just been traded to one of the worst teams: the Ottawa Centaurs. He’s gotten a lot of heat from his former team & fans, as well as hockey fans in general, for calling his former BFF & teammate a rapist after rape allegations were brought forward against him—& the moment was caught on video & leaked. Instead of rallying behind Troy, his team is supporting the alleged rapist, & Troy, who didn’t realize what his former BFF was allegedly doing but who was undeniably an asshole (& one of the homophobic variety), is left hanging in the wind. The social media manager of his new team, Harris Drover, is adorable, cheerful, & out—he’s nice to everyone, has an “average” physique compared to the ripped Troy, & an annoying loud laugh. Are you as in love as I am? First off, hats off to Reid for really going at how sports culture (specifically hockey in this book’s case) all too often supports the perpetrators of assault & not the alleged victims. There are some people in this book, like Troy & members of his new team, who are very much supporters of the latter, but Reid makes it clear that there are a lot of hockey fans & admins who would rather support the money-making, spectacle of the game than the alleged victims. Second, I adore this lead pairing. Troy tries so hard to be a better person & he has a lot of bad behavior he has to reckon with—not to mention the fact that he’s currently in the closet & not sure how to come out/if he wants to. & he’s drawn to Harris, who likes everyone & wears Pride pins on his jacket. I love how Troy’s reserve meets Harris’s zest & crumbles a little under its charm each day. Third, this book is so funny (cake pops 🤣) & came at me with so much heart. Highly recommend this one for major feels. 4.5 ⭐️. Release date: 08/10 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.TL; DR Review: often funny, w/ two leads who do the work. This one made me feel very positive about my vulva (is that TMI?). Uptight & agent of chaos is one of my fave couple combos *she says very nonchalantly & not as if she has a major internal squee nearly every time she encounters it.* Karelia Stetz-Waters’s Satisfaction Guaranteed does it really well. Starchy gallery owner & manager Cade Elgin doesn’t really know how to lighten up—which makes her a bit of an anomaly in her free-spirited, unconventional family. Selena Mathis is a celibate sex educator who is trying “to get her shit together on her own.” An artist who isn’t making art, she’s haunted by her last relationship—which was emotionally devastating & the aftermath of which led her to make some decisions she’s still wrestling w/. Cade’s aunt leaves her home & struggling sex toy shop Satisfaction Guaranteed to both of them. On the surface it seems that Cade has the business savvy & Selena has the heart & passion but as the book explores, maybe they’re both more than that. This romance offers a real sense of growth for both leads & a winning sense of humor. It’s sex & body positive & really exciting seeing Cade (& Selena!) learn more about their wants. I stan honest convos about female orgasms & in Cade’s case, love seeing how she can finally experience an orgasm with Selena but also how it’s not a guaranteed situation & that’s okay too. Throughout the latter half of Satisfaction Guaranteed there’s a real hopefulness in where things are going between them & where each character is going on her own & a celebration of bravery—taking a chance. It hits so many of the right notes for me. 4.5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/01.CW:
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 & 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 & 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.This rule follower loves the thrill of a heist romance so I grabbed It Takes a Thief by Sloane Steele as soon as I read the description. While I have some quibbles with the execution of this one the steam is applause-worthy & I see potential in the series, particularly for fans of authors like Katie Reus. Jared Towers is a wealthy, sort-of fixer, and also the son of a Ponzi scheme runner who fled the country after stealing from people. Jared & his cousin Mia—whose father is also guilty—come up with a scheme to steal artwork that their fathers own before their fathers can liquidate them. So Jared hires “Data," a hacker he's worked with in the past, who turns out to be Audrey. Audrey knows nothing about Jared's real identity or his motivations behind the theft & she has her own reasons for wanting to be involved. Fast forward to sparks between them erupting into flames & Audrey finding out Jared’s secrets... The premise of this one is intriguing, the steam is delightful, & Jared is a devoted hero. On paper everything is there for me, but the romance loses a lot of power after the conflict, which seems to drag on for a considerable amount of the book & which I didn’t entirely understand (or maybe buy?) the reason for. Some aspects of their relationship also feel rushed to me, particularly at the beginning, when I would have enjoyed more build-up. Overall the romance could have been tighter but It Takes a Thief is a fun read. 3 ⭐️. Release date: 04/27 Thanks to Sourcebooks Casa & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Q: If you were in a rock band what would you want to play? Or would you rather be the lead singer? Xio Axelrod’s The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes is fantastic storytelling plain & simple. Second chance-ish romance; a searingly good rock band; female empowerment: it’s all here. I was completely immersed in this story about a woman who takes chances, who feels music in a way that leaps off the pages. Antonia Bennette, stage name Toni B, was best friends with Sebastian Quigley growing up. She had unexpressed romantic feelings for him but one day he just left. Town; her. Despite all the grand plans they made, they haven’t talked in almost a decade, both keenly aware of his betrayal. But the rock band that he manages, The Lillys, is looking for a temporary guitarist replacement & Toni gets the job, only realizing later that she’ll be working in close contact with the man who broke her heart. The language used for music in this romance is sensational; you can hear the mesmerizing notes of the singer; you can see Toni B totally lighting up the stage in one of her many stellar displays of talent. It’s charismatic. Toni has to deal with the stigma that women can’t rock but every time she & The Lillys take the stage they’re thundering proof of the opposite. Though this book is more about Toni’s journey for me, the slow burn romance between Toni & Sebastian is overall satisfying. Despite the fact that I don’t swoon *completely* for Sebastian —he does something that bothers me in the present-day—there is eventual combustion & I really like their dynamic at the end. Featuring complicated characters who make mistakes; who are trying to find their way & sometimes stumble, but in Toni’s case, majorly shine too, The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes is a romance that feels almost cinematic to me. Though the hero is a *bit* of a disappointment in my eyes, Toni is all that & more (& so are the rest of The Lillys!). 4.5 ⭐️. Release date: May 4, 2021CW:
parental abuse & neglect; drug abuse |
About me.Give me that HEA, please.
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