The Neighbor Wager by Crystal Kaswell (ARC Review)

July 21, 2024

Meet River. He used to be the nerd next door…only now he’s all grown up, got a sleeve of tattoos, and women seem to like him. A lot.

Even Lexi, the girl of River’s teenaged dreams, all bubbly sweetness—never noticed him. Until now.

There’s only one problem. They’re not meant for each other.

Now it’s up to Deanna, the super pragmatic, algorithm-fueled brains behind the new dating app Meetcute to make sure they realize it.
River might be certain he knows true love when he sees it, but Deanna knows differently, and the future of her company is riding on it. All she has to do is prove to him that what he’s feeling for Lexi isn’t love. Not even close.

…even if it means making him fall for Deanna, instead.

Challenge accepted… Read More The Neighbor Wager by Crystal Kaswell (ARC Review)

— Adult, ARC review, book review —

Work It Out by Eva Siedler (ARC Review)

July 21, 2024

With the lead role in a huge action film up for grabs, actor Jake Newman has ninety days to get in shape. How does a man grow abs without the tabloids watching his every move? By sneaking off to a high-end health resort in his Arizona hometown to supersize his biceps…Thor style. Oh, and hope no one discovers the real reason he bailed from Los Angeles—or the teeny little health issue he’s hoping to keep from everyone.

Especially his cute, sunshiny, and absolute hard-ass new trainer.

Former gymnast Rayah Summers has poured everything she has into her desert a full-service resort that helps people transform their bodies and lifestyles. But a run of bad luck has her on the brink of bankruptcy —and the Hollywood hunk with insanely sexy dimples is all that’s standing between her and disaster.

Now everything depends on her her future, her roof over her head, and especially her trainers—who are more family than employees. Rayah can’t afford for anything to go wrong… and no one’s able to explain why Jake Newman keeps collapsing during even the lightest workouts. Now it’s a balance beam nightmare, with Rayah trying to keep her business afloat—all while managing her staff’s drama, keeping her celebrity client a secret, and not falling for him or his devilishly sexy grin. And it’s just a matter of time before Jake’s secrets threaten not only her dreams, but the chosen family she’s found…… Read More Work It Out by Eva Siedler (ARC Review)

— book tag —

Mid-Year Freak Out Tag 2024

July 8, 2024

A bit late on the Mid-Year Freak Out Tag this year. But I suppose it’s better than being months late! For those of you who haven’t read my previous freak out tags yet, here are my Mid-Year Freak Out Tag posts from 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2023!

— Adult, book review —

The Hemlock Queen by Hannah F. Whitten (Review)

June 26, 2024

The corrupt king August is dead. Prince Bastian has seized the throne and raised Lore—a necromancer and former smuggler—to his right hand side. Together they plan to cut out the rot from the heart of the sainted court and help the people of Dellaire. But not everyone is happy with the changes. The nobles are sowing dissent, the Kyrithean Empire is beating down their door, and Lore’s old allies are pulling away. Even Prince Bastian’s changed. No longer the hopeful, rakish, charismatic man Lore knows and loves, instead he’s reckless, domineering and cold.

And something’s been whispering in her ear. A voice, dark and haunting, that’s telling her there’s more to the story than she knows and more to her power than she can even imagine. A truth buried deep that could change everything.

With Bastian’s coronation fast approaching and enemies whispering on all sides, Lore must figure out how to protect herself, her prince, and her country before they all come crumbling down and whatever dark power has been creeping through the catacombs is unleashed… Read More The Hemlock Queen by Hannah F. Whitten (Review)

— book review, children's —

Dr. Color Monster and the Emotions Toolkit by Anna Llenas (Review)

June 26, 2024

Today, Nuna doesn’t feel quite right. So, she pays a visit to the Color an emotions doctor who helps diagnose big, challenging feelings. After he recognizes and gives a name to what we feel, this kind and gentle Monster (with the help of his emotions toolkit!) leads Nuna and readers down a path of mindfulness, self-healing, and mental well-being.

This vibrant companion to the international bestseller The Color Monster includes two giant foldout pages featuring more than 30 effective, accessible, and practical tools for soothing strong emotions—strategies for readers of all ages to calm and center hearts and minds. Drawing from her background in art therapy and featuring her endearing, standout artwork, Anna Llenas brings the bestselling Color Monster series to a whole new level with a story both reassuring and transformative. Backmatter for caregivers about understanding emotional regulation is included.… Read More Dr. Color Monster and the Emotions Toolkit by Anna Llenas (Review)

— Adult, ARC review, book review —

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (ARC Review)

June 26, 2024

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It’s supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?… Read More Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (ARC Review)

— Adult, ARC review, audiobook, book review —

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (ARC & Audiobook Review)

June 12, 2024

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future… Read More The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (ARC & Audiobook Review)

— Adult, ARC review, book review —

Wildfire by Hannah Grace (ARC Review)

June 12, 2024

Maple Hills students Russ Callaghan and Aurora Roberts cross paths at a party celebrating the end of the academic year, where a drinking game results in them having a passionate one-night stand. Never one to overstay her welcome (or expect much from a man), Aurora slips away before Russ even has the chance to ask for her full name.

Imagine their surprise when they bump into each other on the first day of the summer camp where they are both counselors, hoping to escape their complicated home lives by spending the summer working. Russ hopes if he gets far enough away from Maple Hills, he can avoid dealing with the repercussions of his father’s gambling addiction, while Aurora is tired of craving attention from everyone around her, and wants to go back to the last place she truly felt at home.

Russ knows breaking the camp’s strict “no staff fraternizing” rule will have him heading back to Maple Hills before the summer is over, but unfortunately for him, Aurora has never been very good at caring about the rules. Will the two learn to peacefully coexist? Or did their one night together start a fire they can’t put out?… Read More Wildfire by Hannah Grace (ARC Review)

— Adult, ARC review, book review —

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (ARC Review)

June 12, 2024

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both… Read More The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (ARC Review)

— Adult, book review —

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward (Review)

May 21, 2024

In a lonely cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood summer companions and the killer that stalked the small New England town. Of the body they found, and the horror of that discovery echoing down the decades. And of Sky, Wilder’s one-time best friend, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, Looking Glass Sound.

But as Wilder writes, the lines between memory and fiction blur. He fears he’s losing his grip on reality when he finds notes hidden around the cottage written in Sky’s signature green ink.

Catriona Ward delivers another mind-bending and cleverly crafted tale about one man’s struggle to come to terms with the terrors of his past… before it’s too late… Read More Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward (Review)