Kate
Well I guess there's always one book out of a series that ends up being disappointing. I really enjoyed the first two books in this series so I was looking forward to Jax's story. It took a while for me to get into it and I never quite connected to the characters. The whole book just felt jumbled to me. The exploration of Jax's depression and how a relationship fits into that would have made for an interesting enough story but I felt that the author mostly glazed over that part and threw in other unnecessary plot points. If this had been a stand-alone, I probably would have DNF'd it.
2.5-3 stars. I was looking forward to this book because I'm a big fan of second chance romances but this one left me feeling very meh. There was a lot going on here but I don't want to give anything away so I won't specify what. I just think that a few aspects of this book could have been removed and the scope of the story would still be the same. It alternates between past and present chapters with what seemed like more emphasis on the past. The ending felt very rushed and I would have liked at least a couple more chapters or an epilogue to tie things up nicely. Ho hum.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I really only read this because I want to get to Nate & Becca's book. It was a little predictable but it kept my attention. Some of the hockey-related things that happen in this series are starting to get to me though because they'd never actually happen that way in real life. Goalies aren't captains, goalies don't fight, your enforcers are not the best players, etc.
This did not need to be a 500+ page book. There were a lot of flashbacks to The Bronze Horseman and flashbacks to Alexander's life before the war that caused the story to drag a bit. I almost didn't finish it but I needed to know what happened with Tatiana and Alexander. By the end, I was glad it was over. From reading reviews of the third book, I don't think I'll be finishing this series.
3.5 stars. It took me a bit to get into this book but once I did, I enjoyed it. I couldn't stop picturing Theo as Artem Chigvintsev so that made it even better. I also liked how the author included links to YouTube videos of choreography for certain songs. I liked being able to actually see the dances that the characters were supposed to be doing. I feel like I need to read more dance romances now.
This book. It has a very Behind the Music/Almost Famous feel to it. It chronicles the rise and fall of fictional rock band Daisy Jones & the Six in the 1970s. It's written in the form of one long interview, with band members, former crew members, journalists, etc. recounting their experiences with the band. There are plenty of highs and lows that will keep you hooked on the story and wishing that this was actually a real band because by the end, it felt like they could have been. The author did an incredible job giving each character their own personality and one of my favorite things about this book was reading how each person remembered certain events or had different takeaways from what was actually happening.
I can totally picture this as a television series, with flashbacks to the 70s interspersed with present-day interviews from each of the characters and performances of the original songs featured in the book. I'm really excited to see how Reese Witherspoon & co. adapt this!!
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I am a sucker for enemies to lovers and fake relationship tropes and Lauren Layne combines both of those so wonderfully in this book. Matt Cannon is a Wall Street bigwig who gets into some trouble after pictures surface from a bachelor party he attended in Vegas. In order to spruce up his public image and convince his clients that he can still be trusted with their money, he hires Olivia Pope-esque Sabrina Cross to be his fake girlfriend. Sabrina is not just some random fixer, they have a history together. They hate each other but can't seem to stay away from each other at the same time. Their bantering is layered with delicious tension and it kept me hooked on the story. The slow-burn is here as well as you can clearly tell that these characters have more than just a mutual dislike for one another. I have to admit that I didn't enjoy the first book of the 21 Wall Street series but I am glad I didn't let that deter me from reading this story and I can't wait to continue with Kate and Kennedy's book next!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
900 PAGES AND THAT'S HOW IT ENDS??????????
I'm giving this 4 stars because even though this book left me highly, HIGHLY frustrated at times, it was still a very compelling read and I couldn't put it down. I was rooting for Tatiana and Alexander until the very end so you can imagine why I felt like I had to dock it one star. Onto the next one, I guess.
After absolutely loving Autoboyography and Love & Other Words, Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating became one of my most anticipated reads so I was super excited to win an ARC from a Goodreads giveaway.
This was such a sweet story. Josh and Hazel are new best friends, after briefly knowing each other in college and then reconnecting years later when it turns out that Josh is Hazel's best friend's brother. Josh and Hazel have each had bad experiences with dating/relationships. To break their bad luck streaks, they decide that they'll set each other up on a series of double blind dates. It's all fun at first until they slowly start to realize that maybe the reason why they enjoy enduring these awful dates is because they actually like spending the time with each other.
I want to scream from the rooftops–THIS IS HOW YOU WRITE A QUIRKY HEROINE. Hazel is weird but in a good way. She knows she has eccentricities and she embraces them. At no time did I feel like her weirdness was forced or that the authors threw in certain situations because they thought they'd be ~omg so funny.
Josh, aka Jimin, is super sweet. He's quiet and introspective. Everything Hazel isn't. But the way he appreciates her for who she is, is just heart eyes.
I'm only giving this book 4 stars because I did feel like it got a little slow in the middle, but overall it's a really great read!
3.5 stars. I really liked the beginning of this book. Best friends who both secretly want more but at the same time don't want to ruin their friendship. The tension was there and it was delicious. Then when the relationship turned from just friends to something more, it lost its steam a little bit. The ending was very rushed. Sam was also sort of annoying at times. I'm getting pretty tired of the whole “let's see how quirky I can make this character” shtick that authors have been going for these days because most of the time the character just comes across as childish.
Really enjoyed this one. I wasn't sure if I would because Roscoe had been such a low key character in all of the previous books, I really felt like we didn't know anything about him going into this other than he was a flirt but he ended up being so much more than that. My only complaint is that I wish we got more Simone. There wasn't much of a backstory for her so I couldn't understand her reasoning for certain things but overall I thought she was a fun, spunky character and she balanced Roscoe out very well.
What I loved most about this book was the appearances by the rest of the Winston family. There's so many of them at this point, it's hard to keep up but Cletus was the scene stealer as per usual. Now to endure the long wait for Billy's book.
I recently came across a picture of Stuart Reardon holding a baby. The not-so-logical part of my mind was then convinced that I had to read this book because not only is he the cover model, he also co-authored it. It would do me well in the future to realize that a hottie cover model does not always equal a good book. DNF.
3.5-4 stars. I feel like SD Hendrickson is a bit of a hidden gem in the world of NA/romance. Her books are well written and have always been page turners for me. The Hawks is no different but I felt like the romance took a back seat to everything else going on in this book and I never fully could get on board with Sarina and Javier.
Well that was a ride. I don't even know what rating I want to give this. It was a solid 5-star read at first. Then at one point, I was so angry that I was ready to give it 1 star because COLLEEN WHY DID YOU DO THAT??
All Your Perfects is a gritty, emotional portrayal of life AFTER the HEA we're so accustomed to getting in romance novels. It alternates between Then and Now chapters, telling the story of how Quinn and Graham met and fell in love to where they are seven years later, seemingly broken beyond repair.
I went into this blind, expecting from the blurb a book about a couple that are having your typical marital issues with a few sexy times thrown in as they try to find their way back to each other. What I didn't expect was to relate to Quinn and Graham on so many levels. Let's be real, marriage is hard work. Every couple goes through their fair share of struggles. It was nice (in a sort of morbid way) to see a romance novel go down that road and to show that it's not all butterflies and rainbows after the epilogue. I know part of the reason why we read romance novels is because we want to believe in the fairytale but sometimes that's just not realistic.
What Quinn and Graham face is so common yet rarely discussed. It can make or break a relationship and in their case, I wasn't sure if they were going to make it. There were times in the book that I was so angry at each of these characters for one reason or another. I was ready to put my Kindle down on multiple occasions because how can two people come back from that?? But of course I kept reading because it's books like this, ones that give you whiplash and a metaphorical punch to the heart that are some of my favorites.
“Our marriage hasn't been perfect. No marriage is perfect. There were times when she gave up on us. There were even more times when I gave up on us. The secret to our longevity is that we never gave up at the same time.”
I'm not sure why I waited so long to read this book. It's not your typical romance novel, what with Evelyn Hugo having seven husbands over the course of her life, but her journey is compelling nonetheless. Out of her seven husbands, which one was the love of Evelyn's life? Going into this, I wasn't expecting the answer to that question to be what it was. But we find out early enough in the book and what follows is an epic and at times heartbreaking tale of Evelyn's successes and failures in Hollywood and the sacrifices she had to make in order to become one of the biggest actresses of her generation. Evelyn knew what she wanted and she did whatever it took to get it. I admired her tenacity and her ability to control her own narrative, even up to the very end. However, I also felt really sad for her at the same time. Evelyn Hugo's life has many twists and turns along the way that make this book unputdownable and I highly recommend it.
Jackal > Folsom.
I was really disappointed with the first book of this series. There was super insta-love, women turning into sex-crazed maniacs in the mere presence of an End Man, and not enough character development to really get me invested in the story. But I persisted because this series is partly Tarryn Fisher so how could I not? I'm glad I continued because I did end up enjoying Jackal a lot.
Jackal enjoys his job as an End Man and he has a good time with it until he meets Phoenix Moyo. He is instantly charmed by her but she resists him, which is not something he's used to. Their attraction is palpable and more believable than Gwen and Folsom's. I liked that that Phoenix is her own person and has her own strengths apart from Jackal. She already plays a small part in the rebellion before she meets him, which eventually turns into a bigger part when she teams up with Jackal on a dangerous mission.
Overall, I liked this book a lot more than I did the first one. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat for a good majority of it. There are still a few cringeworthy moments where Jackal is forced to go to his appointments after falling for Phoenix but given the world this story takes place in, I have to remind myself that he doesn't have a choice. We also do get a fair amount of Gwen/Folsom and are introduced to plenty of new characters that keep you wondering if we can trust them or not.
4.5 stars. I laughed, I cried. This book is a beautiful story of finding love and also learning to love who you are as a person. Tanner is bisexual, half-Jewish, and trying to get through his final semester of school in the predominantly LDS town of Provo, Utah. While he fully accepts who he is and has loving and supportive parents, he realizes that his community might not be so open to him so he is still very much in the closet, even from his best friend. In comes Sebastian, who is not only Mormon, but is also the son of a bishop and is heavily involved in the church. The connection between them is so intense from the very beginning and seeing how they navigate their relationship was so sweet yet heartbreaking at times. I loved every minute of it.
I only docked a .5 star because there's a point where Tanner hooks up with someone who is not Sebastian and I feel like it cheapened the romance a bit and I feel like this story could have gone without that part and it wouldn't have changed anything.
I don't usually read anthologies or novellas because I'm never satisfied with short stories, I always want them to be longer. I wanted to read this one though because it meant supporting authors who have been affected by #cockygate and supporting the ongoing fight for authors' rights to creative expression.
As with most anthologies, there were some stories that I really enjoyed and others that I didn't care much for and a few that I skipped entirely because the first few paragraphs didn't pull me in. I'm still counting this as a book read though because this is a big-ass anthology and the stories that I did read I'm sure would make up a regular full-length novel. I'm also giving it 4 stars because even though some of the stories weren't for me, I appreciate that all of these authors were able to come together so quickly and create content for this collection. The way the romance community has banded together to fight #cockygate is inspiring and makes me so happy to be a romance reader.
So after seeing early reviews comparing this book to The Hating Game, it became one of my most anticipated reads of 2018. I'm happy to say that it was quite an enjoyable read.
Stella is high-functioning autistic. She's very self-aware and knows that she isn't the greatest when it comes to romance so she hires a male escort, Michael, for the purpose of learning how to be better at sex and relationships. Of course the relationship between Stella and Michael turns from business into something more or else this wouldn't be considered a romance novel. It was really fun to read how they navigated through their “arrangement”. I appreciated how patient Michael was with Stella and how she took steps outside of her comfort zone for him as well. Michael's family was also pretty great and I'd love a Quan book.
