Kiraz

Read if you like: flawed/chaotic characters, Hollywood setting, celeb romance, love triangle, 90s romances (it kinda reads like one), coming of age, figuring out sexuality

I heard about this book when I was doing my research on 2023 releases, I saw it was about an immortal woman who is a descendent of a Chinese goddess and a French half-elf spy and I was already hooked.

It did not let me down! It was such a fun read with focus on romance and with a great backdrop of a well-fleshed out fantastical paranormal world.

I absolutely loved this warm hug of a book. It was super fun, cute, easy to read and hard to put down. It's not exactly cozy fantasy but definitely has many elements of it. I loved the romance, the world, the magic, the characters, the found family!! Just everything, but read on if you want more deets!

Delicious Monsters poignantly highlights how the real monsters in our lives are closer to us and more brutal than any supernatural ones we dream up. The story is about various forms of real-life trauma, the cycle of trauma and how differently we process and get through it, told in a setting of a haunted and paranormal house.

Did you know the name of the plant “Monstera Deliciosa” (Daisy's favorite plant) or swiss cheese plant, literally translates to Delicious Monsters? But that's not the only meaning behind the title of the book.

The main character Daisy's biggest problem according to her is that she sees dead people. But she doesn't see how she has much more real monsters in her life. She has a tendency to trust the wrong people, not trust those who deserve it, and be generally unaware of the trauma around her.

All the characters are nuanced, flawed, and impacted by the abuse they've lived through in different ways. It's difficult to love any of them as the reader but it's even harder to hate them.

The author did a great job of setting the scene with creepy tense vibes. This is a very atmospheric and haunting read. Once things start to happen, it is impossible to put the book down. The mystery and horror of the haunted mansion pulls you in, just like it does the characters in the book.

Daisy's story is interleaved with Brittney's who's looking into the case a decade later, this helps increase the tension of the story since it tells us from the get-go that things aren't going to end well. The parallels and differences between the two characters' situations also help highlight the nuances of their relationships with others.

I really struggled to get through a good chunk of this book. Barely anything seems to happen for the first 40-50%. It didn't help that the MC is insufferable that whole time as well, with the biggest chip on her shoulder. To be fair, she has every right to be that way, and it's absolutely valuable to let characters, especially POC, be angry.

It was difficult to rate this because of how much I struggled at the beginning vs how much I loved it as things started happening. I'm rating it an inexact 4⭐ ranging between 3 and 5.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, Margaret K. McElderry Books and NetGalley for the eARC.

Overall rating: 3.3⭐️

While this is labeled as a romance, the main focus seemed to be the main character's growth. She starts off the book very closed off from everyone. She feels like she's failing at life and keeps people at an arm's length. It was really great to see her grow and realize that people will be there for you no matter what, but also that she's not a failure to begin with.

I loved that the book was set in Seattle and its surrounding cities. I especially enjoyed that it was set in the theater world and that they put on a play. Also, Layla's mom and her journey was fantastic too. Family was really important in this book in general, both Leyla's and Ian's. I loved seeing the family dynamics, the differences between the two families, and how they impact the characters' lives and their actions. Most of what Leyla does, from her job, to her love life and even Instagram profile is mostly to fit in and find her place within her big family.

I also really liked the premise, I don't think it was as cut and dry as some of the other characters in the book made it out to be. I didn't think she was horrible for keeping up the pretense of never having broken up, but clearly different people will have different takes on it, and I love that the book will polarize the readers a bit in that sense.

I did have trouble with the pacing of this book. The first part felt slow; the third person in the love triangle doesn't even show up until about halfway through. This also leaves very little time for that relationship to develop enough for us to be fully invested in the ending.

There were a few other things that felt off to me. Like the fact that she clearly had a shopping problem, but it was never really addressed. And I thought the breakup happened too easily, after everything they go through together.

Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the eARC!

Instagram review

This book is about Simon, an 11-year-old boy, though only he knows that that's his name, and that he's a boy. Simon goes to his grandmother's house with his two sisters for a week and starts to suspect that the house is haunted.

This is a great book for kids to identify and get familiar with the trans perspective and experience from a kid's POV. The book is mainly a family drama at its core, and Simon faces many of the family issues most other kids his age would be facing.

It does get very slightly spooky at times but nothing too scary, even for younger readers.

Lars is Susie's ex's best friend, and is renovating her home. He finds divorce papers inside her wall, with their names on it! From ten years in the future! Is it a prank, or is it something more? Lars would never break the bro code and get together with Susie anyways.

This was a great romance, a perfect valentine's day read. First off, it was really funny, I laughed out loud so many times. It had many likable characters, I especially liked the bestie and the brother. Plus the romance was so very sweet AND steamy. It was such a breeze to read, I couldn't put it down, and basically finished it in one reading.

I found the premise very cool. It added an interesting twist to their relationship; before they were even a thing, they were discussing what they would want from a marriage to figure out why it would even fail. Also, if they did get together, would their relationship be doomed? Overall it caused them to be very communicative from the get go. No miscommunications in this book!

Susie has been burned by a few too many bad relationships, trying to mold herself to be what the other person wants. By the beginning of the book, she's sworn off relationships and especially marriages. As someone who was also against marriages, but is now married, I really liked her character growth in this area, and how her perspective on things changed throughout the book, her journey seemed very similar to mine.

I loved the two of them together, and their friends to friends-with-benefits to lovers romance. They were so cute together from always sharing their food, to their late night chats. It was definitely one of those cases of everyone else can see they're actually a thing but them.

Plus, I loved the HGTV vibes in the first half of the book.

One part I enjoyed less in the book was after they actually start their relationship, and start to commit more to one another. At this point, a lot of other people start to get involved like family and exes and Lars goes through some grumpy asshole phases (his words, not mine). I thought Lars could have done more here to show Susie mattered to her, especially when it came to introducing her to family. He kinda threw her to the wolves.

Something else weird was how the author only referred to men and women as male and female instead. I've only seen this done in fantasies before where the characters are not human.

Thank you to Valentine PR, Graydon House, Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC!

In Just My Type, LP and her high school ex boyfriend, Seth have to go head to head for a job. They're tasked with challenges for the serial monogamist LP to become OK with being single and for Seth to find a long term relationship.

The book was quite enjoyable, especially if I put aside the little things that bugged me about it. I enjoyed reading the main character's personal growth, and I especially liked where the author took the concept of learning to be by yourself, that you don't have to be single to stand on your own two feet.

I was very vested in the workplace drama. LP's boss is... a piece of work. I was really impressed with how that whole arc was handled as well.

The romance was super cute. I love second chance romance, and I could truly feel their connection throughout the book, how much they mattered to each other. How they clearly still loved one another even if they're in denial about it. It all wrapped up quite adorably by the end too.

There were many other great small details like the strong friendships, complicated mother-daughter relationship, and in depth therapy sessions. Like not just saying she went to therapy and have everything magically fixed but having the sessions on page, throughout the book.


Everything that bugged me:
- I couldn't stand the main character for most of the book, she comes across very immature, and thinks the whole world revolves around her.
- The emotional resolution of a lot of the problems are very surface. She attends a single event, and is cured of her anger towards her ex, she attends another and is cured of her resentment towards her mom and so on.These are complex and real feelings that deserve more space to heal.
- I didn't get the resolution of LP and Seth's differences on what happened with them in the past. She seemed to have such strong feelings about how he messed up last time they saw each other. Then when they actually talk about it, she takes all the blame?
- There are a lot of unexplained and unresolved details. Like what happened with #LongTermPotential, why Seth seemingly keeps going hot and cold, why he made the blind date act that way etc.
- Initially I thought it was cool that the MC was using Norse Gods in place of saying God, like “Oh my Loki” but then I realized, no, she means the Marvel characters, and it immediately became cringey.
- Other cringey parts too, especially one possibly problematic one where the MC thinks she'll just make a gay guy kiss her since it won't mean anything to him?! WAT?!...

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Rating: 3.5⭐️ rounded down

This is a very sweet and heartwarming romance, with the focus of their romance on internal personal struggles and growth rather than conflicts between them. Plus it is a sapphic romance with pugs and women in their late 30s.

Immortality is a sequel to Anatomy: A Love Story. In this book, there's more romance and more fantastical aspects. Since Hazel's arc was pretty much resolved in the first book, this is more focused on events that happen to her as she's trying to practice medicine and ends up getting pulled into the London society scenes and a secret society filled with historical figures.

To me, this read almost more like a full-length epilogue to Anatomy, filled with adventure. It was a fun read that was hard to put down.

The Villa is about two friends who go on vacation to a villa in Italy and get sucked into the story of what happened there 50 years ago that resulted in murder, and two very successful works of art. The story weaves the past and the present to slowly reveal what happened and its impact on present day.

This is the second Rachel Hawkins suspense book I've read, the other one being Reckless Girls. I found this book to be less atmospheric than Reckless Girls. I had some issues with that book, but it really did the sense of suspense and impending doom right. In this one, I didn't get that much suspense, darkness or creepiness, and definitely not gothic suspense. It read more like a mystery to me, I don't think this is a bad thing, but I think it helps to set your expectations from the get-go. I think it helped me that I went into the story without knowing anything about it, I didn't read the blurb at all, I just knew it took place in a villa in Italy.

As far as the mystery, I thought it was very good. It keeps you guessing, and even the things you think you know, are not how they seem. You start suspecting each character, even the MCs, and keep trying to figure it all out.

I especially liked the mystery within a mystery aspect of things. There is the present story of two friends at a “murder villa”, there is the past, which covers what happened at the villa almost 50 years ago, then there are various books within the books. This dual timeline is done incredibly well. What I really appreciated was how the analysis of these mysteries by the characters within the story made you think about if any of it is actually a foreshadowing for the main mystery.

I really like how Rachel Hawkins always serves people their just desserts and highlights women empowerment. At the end you feel vindicated, like justice has prevailed somehow. I think those who didn't like Reckless Girls because of how it ended will appreciate this one a lot more. I quite liked the resolution to the story, and how there were a lot of gray areas, and twists, of course.

I also appreciate that her characters are flawed, even the ones you root for are not always nice people. I loved the symmetry between the beginning and ending of the book and how the tables turned, though saying anything more would be spoilery.

It takes a bit at the beginning of the book for things to really get going, but I think reading this as an audiobook really helped with that as well.

Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

Begin Again is about Andie, who transfers to a new school to be closer to her boyfriend and her mom's legacy. She has a clear vision of what her semester at this school will look like, but from the moment she arrives, things don't exactly go according to plan.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a heartwarming, light and cute read that also handled complicated emotions with authenticity.
Even though this is a romance, I don't think that that's the main focus of this book. It is a lot more focused on growth, friendship, family and grief.

✨ grumpy/sunshine
✨ slow burn
✨ college setting

I feel like each Finlay book gets more unhinged than the previous one. This book definitely requires a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief, but what can I say, I REALLY enjoyed it. It was probably my favorite of the series, with higher stakes, and a mystery that kept me flipping the pages.

I would actually recommend reading the other books in the series before starting this one, I even felt like I missed a few things because it had been a year since I read the previous book.

Overall rating: 3.5⭐️ (rounded down)

This is book 2 in the Supernatural Singles series. Even though I read the first book I got confused while reading this because I didn't remember it well enough, so I do recommend reading #1 first. Though there's a handy glossary at the back that I only found when I was done, it's quite funny too!

Just like the other book in the series, this is a good intro to paranormal romance. It's a cute, cheesy, fluffy, funny romance, great for Valentine's day vibes.

Rating: 4.5 ⭐️ rounded down

This was such a cute romance with a newly out trans MC and a fantastic book boyfriend, centered around a piano competition. It's a truly YA read with its awkward characters, and the mess they get themselves into.

This is the third book I've read by TJ Klune, the other two being Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door. I think this was by far the funniest one. I LOVED the first 35% of the book, and if the rest had stayed a cozy fantasy with no romance, it would have been a 5⭐. But as is, the adventure and especially the romance detracted from my experience.

I enjoyed this book so much! It's a sweet and fun romance filled with adventure but also great emotional explorations. I still haven't read Float Plan, but I really enjoyed The Suite Spot (book 2). Though this one is my favorite so far.

The story is so smooth and well paced that before you know it, you'll be reading the last few pages. This book is bound to give you the itch to go out and explore, embrace the great outdoors.

Off the Map is less about Carla and Eamon falling in love, and more about them getting to a place where they can welcome love and relationships in their lives. We start with two messy and flawed characters, both trying to figure out what is important in their lives, what their priorities should be. They jump into bed early on, but the feelings come in slowly, as they get to know each other.

The book definitely does not waste time. Even though I don't like insta-love, the instant connection these two had, from the very first chapter, didn't feel out of place, especially since they start off as just a fling. It also helps that Eamon is easy to love, he's selfless, giving and goes all in on anything he does.

Carla has a badass dad who taught her most of what she knows about how to approach life, especially travel. She has a “here for a good time” philosophy, but doesn't see that her dad is surrounded by people he loves and has kept close. I found her misgivings about having a relationship very realistic and well explored.

Her dad was awesome, I loved hearing stories about him. He's almost as big a part of the story as the romance is. He also has Alzheimer's which is also a big part of the book as throughout the book Carla is mourning the loss of the father she knew, and who knew her.

Thank you to St Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for the eARC!

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Overall rating: 4.2 ⭐

This is the second book I've read by Mazey Eddings and I liked this a lot more than the other, her debut, A Brush with Love. This book has one of my favorite tropes, brother's best friend, and many others I really enjoy. I really enjoyed reading this book, I couldn't put it down!

Love or hate her books, Mazey Eddings is really good at handling mental health in her romances. In this book the MMC is dealing with PTSD and doesn't think he deserves love or can be in a relationship.

I liked that this was a low angst, cozy romance. The main focus was him learning to be emotionally available and vulnerable for a relationship. She was the rock he needed and I loved that! They both took such great care of one another. She was almost too amazing at times in her patience and understanding, but I appreciated that since it's usually the men who are given that role in romance books.

Their chemistry was so good from the beginning, from their banter to the pet names. Their connection felt like it built up in a healthy and solid way. I absolutely loved their love.

At times it felt a bit like one big ad for therapy, but that's not such a bad thing when you consider the stigma still against it.
I really and I mean REALLY didn't like the MC's brother. He was so selfish and annoying.

Thank you so much to St Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the eARC!

The Italian Job finds Anna and Jake having to pretend they're together in order to score a dream job.

I really enjoyed reading this heartwarming book.I couldn't put the book down and was up until 6am reading it!

I loved the setting! Italy, Lake Como, castle?! Does it get any better than that?! I mean I would also pretend to date someone I don't get along with for that kind of a job, don't tell the hubby.

Merged review:

The Italian Job finds Anna and Jake having to pretend they're together in order to score a dream job.

I really enjoyed reading this heartwarming book.I couldn't put the book down and was up until 6am reading it!

I loved the setting! Italy, Lake Como, castle?! Does it get any better than that?! I mean I would also pretend to date someone I don't get along with for that kind of a job, don't tell the hubby.

I think this book is best experienced without knowing anything about its plot. But on the other hand, if you do that, there might be some moments that blindside. It's your choice, but either way my review is safe to read.

This is a beautiful story of two people, at times heartbreaking, at times heartwarming, trying to just make their way in life, and maybe towards each other?

I loved the emotional authenticity of the book. Both of the main characters have things they're dealing with (one more than the other), their emotional journeys through these were handled so beautifully. They don't always make the best choices, and you do want to give them a good shake sometimes, but they always stay true to themselves.

I also loved the way the book handled those giddy feeling of falling in love online. Throughout the beginning of the book where the two main characters don't meet face to face but get to know each other, and have feelings for each other on the phone. Despite the distance, and relative short time that this spans, the author did such a great job making their connection feel deep. I couldn't avoid reading these sections with a goofy grin on my face. It took me back to the excitement of chatting with crushes on MSN (AIM for you Americans).

There were some fantastic side characters in the book. I would LOVE a spin off for at least one of the characters (one of the MC's best friends). But everyone (with just one exception) was just awesome. I especially thought the adorable older neighbor with the very serious coffee rating just fantastic.

I would highly recommend not skipping the author's note in this one. I feel that it adds one more layer to the depth of the emotions in the book, making aspects of it feel even more meaningful.

Now on to what I didn't like. There was one character that I really was not OK with, not only did they stick around for WAAAAY longer than they should have, I didn't like all the body positivity issues they pushed onto the main character. Some said that this was inevitable because of their job, but not only do I not agree with that, I also think, it was a disservice to make this person such an obvious ass

Finally, my biggest issue with the book was that I didn't see the main character go through any growth. She is a bit of a She is a bit of a pushover, and she acknowledges this too, so I really wanted to see her make some of her own choices towards the end. Take her life in her own hands and drive it in the direction she wanted it to. But even to the very last page, it felt like she was being pulled along.

Overall rating: 4.2⭐

Thank you so much to Ballantine, Dell Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC!

I really loved reading this book. This was a very uniquely written romance, almost starting at the end, and slowly revealing the beginning.

I've read everything Sophie Cousens has written, and I gotta say, she just keeps raising the bar with each one.

One Last Gift is a holiday read about grief, loss, and healing. It's also about embracing life, and not being scared to take chances. Among all of this, there is also a romance, but they won't be able to embrace their love until they go through their emotional journey, and a treasure hunt spanning almost a whole year.

It's impossible not to compare Emily Stone's latest book to her previous one. I found Always, in December to be more heart wrenching, more tear jerky, and also more filled with twists. This one, in comparison, was more straightforward. But she is fantastic at emotional authenticity, at handling grief, and the journey to healing.

Don't be tricked by the snow on the cover, this is not a holiday romance.

This book is mainly about the implosion of a marriage that the main character kind of causes, and its effects on all the character in the book. All these characters get their own POV which I thought was great, but there is a clean main character: Marnie, and a clear love interest: Luke.

This is a book with lots of heart, that will give you the warm and fuzzies, great for curling up with. Note: there is an infidelity plotline in this book (not for the main romance) if you believe cheating is absolutely unforgivable, this book might not be for you.

No Two Persons is about a book and 9 people that read it. Each chapter is from a different perspective starting with the author. Each person comes across the book at a pivotal point in their life, causing them to take another look at where they are.

I don't think I'll be able to do this beautiful book justice with my review, but I will do my best.

No Two Persons opens with the quote “No two persons ever read the same book” and then takes you through an author's journey of writing a book: “Theo”, and 9 others' journey of reading it. With each chapter it continuously proves the quote. A different part of Theo resonates with each character but for all of them, it helps them take a look at their life and either make a change or accept it. Theo's impact on all of their lives is undeniable.

NTP is such a poignant book that I felt connected to each character even though for the most part they exist within the confines of their chapter. All the characters gave me something to think about, and most of them got me teary eyed.

Despite how little time you spend with each character in this book, you still get to know them intimately, care for them deeply; all 10 characters leave their mark. (Though I did have favorites). I also loved the little ways the characters' paths crossed one another. I delighted in finding one characters' fingerprints in another's chapter.

Themes of parental trauma, human connection, communication and miscommunication are weaved throughout each of these chapters. It deals with loss, grief, strength, relationships (familial and romantic). And it does a great job of showing the weight and impact of these things on our lives.

This is a book I will be thinking about over and over again, for all the little life lessons that are in it, and all the nuances it manages to highlight.

It also helps that it's beautifully written.