Book Review: Too Easy

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5 

Too Easy by Jamie Bennett follows the story of Blake and Ryan. Blake who has been traumatized beyond all logical reason, Ryan just doing his best to figure it all out. 

When Blake arrives in the small northern Michigan town she was supposed to move into with her long-term boyfriend, she's basically given up. Everything has gone wrong for her, she doesn't have any friends and she doesn't know what she's doing with her life. When she meets Ryan, their unconventional friendship quickly takes root. They both have their hang ups but they help each other through them and end up becoming a fairly cohesive pair. 

Trauma is easily overdone in these sorts of the books to the point where it no longer feels real. But this is the sort of book where it fits, despite how dramatic it felt I was still on board 100%. Like the last book I read by Jamie Bennett, the protagonist sort of felt autism-coded but I think we're also supposed to just understand that she has had very limited socialization or any sort of access to educational or psychological support. So I allow it. I generally still liked it and liked the characters, it's a quick read but fun and easily addictive. 

Book Review: The Ex Hex (Ex Hex #1)

Overall: 3.75/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5 

Ten years ago, Vivienne accidentally got a little drunk and cursed the ex love of her life. She never thought anything came from it, but skip to present day and his return to her small home town is accompanied by a string of disasters. Disasters impacting him and the very magical source that maintains the power of her little world. 

I think this was a cute and quirky read, it was super quick and a little rushed through the end, but fun to read. My new niche is these paranormal rom coms, they're just your usual romcom but with that dash of Sabrina the Teenage Witch magic themed disasters. I don't usually like second chance romances, but I'll make an exception for relatively short teenage flings. At that point, you can both respect the growth you've gone through and acknowledge that you're only better of for having waited. 

I'd recommend this one, I think it's short enough to be appealing yet long enough to give you a little adventure threaded into the romance. I don't know if I'll read the other books in the series just because I like reading these romances as standalones, but I did enjoy this one. 

Book Review: The Bodyguard

Overall: 3.5/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 4/5 

The Bodyguard is a little reverse of what you might expect if you're thinking of the sort Whitney Houston style Bodyguard of the 90s. Cause though Hannah is smaller than you might assume a bodyguard would be, she's perfectly capable of handling any threat. Including threats to her latest client, Jack Stapleton. Only, it doesn't quite feel like a regular assignment. She has to pose as his girlfriend in order to be close and casual enough to protect him, but it's not always feeling like pretending. 

I think this is a cute read in line with the other books I've read by Katherine Center. She has a nice way of making a slowburn feel significant all the way through, like you're not just building building building waiting for them to kiss but that you're building a foundation outside of physical intimacy and any sort of romance. She also seems to have a thing for workplace romances that she does her best to represent ethically. 

Generally a fun read with a bit of a twist on the traditional. I liked the characters despite how dense they could be. The best friend ex-boyfriend situation was a bit underdone to me, felt like it should've been more important or shouldn't have existed. Other than that, a quick book that won't feel like a waste of time. 

Book Review: Undercover Bromance (Bromance Book Club #2)

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5 

Undercover Bromance is the second book in the Bromance Book Club which I did not read the first book in. Liv is a pastry chef, she works at a fancy restaurant for a jerk of a boss. When she spills the dessert on the night of Mack's very important dinner date and sees her boss making moves on a young server, she quickly loses her job and finds herself blacklisted. Now, she's enlisted Mack and his friends in taking her jerk of a boss down. 

The real chemistry between these two came from the fact that they are totally unlikeable and thus deserve each other. Liv is just annoying all the time and whiney and purposefully unhelpful, Mack thinks he's the best for the fact that he reads his little romance novels. It was way too much pandering in an attempt to cater to what one might think romance readers want from a man. Getting the jerky boss in trouble was great, but the way Liv tried to brutally bully the victims into coming forward was disgusting and even more unlikeable. 

I won't be continuing in the series. It's a cute premise it just didn't need to be forced down our throats the whole time. 

Book Review: More Than Anything (Broken Pieces #1)

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5 

More Than Anything follows Tina and Harris, two adults who were romantically involved as teens, one of whom was much more impacted by the relationship than the other. Now they're both trying to figure their lives out in some way, and trying to figure out if they still have places in those lives. 

I give this book bonus points for making me cry. It was sort of overdone, making me wonder about how realistic everyone's apathy would be or if it was more of an attempt at continuing to force trauma on an already traumatized female protagonist. I nearly DNFed a couple of times because I was just tired of the sort of cloudy way all the emotions were being portrayed and received. Like it was all about target practice on Tina. None of the other characters had any chemistry and I was frankly a little confused about the family dynamic that I had jumped into. 

But yes, the defining success of the story was how they handled her ultimate trauma and revelation. I was crying at 2AM by the end, which is how you know it's at least good enough to be addicting. So I don't know if I would continue the series, but what I read here was fairly enjoyable. 

Book Review: Love on the Brain

Overall: 2.5/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5 

Love on the Brain is Ali Hazelwood's second book and pretty much just as quirky and ridiculous as her first but in the most addicting sort of way. Addicting as in it's like a car crash, you just can't look away. Bee gets her dream job heading a program that could be her saving grace, the only catch? She has to do it with her academic nemesis Levi. 

The biggest problem with the plot is that there was absolutely no mystery and suspense. We as readers knew that Levi was just in love with her the whole time, even more than we would usually know in a contemporary grumpy sunshine book of this variety. And if anyone read this and had any doubts about the identity of the anonymous and somehow equally viral identity of her saving grace blogging friend, you probably don't get out too much. Don't even get me started on the convenient placement of the fainting fits- I feel like a neuroscientist should be a bit more concerned about the effects of repeating black outs on your brain function but maybe that's just me. 

I can say it's pretty much what I expected. It's by no means poorly written, just with some questionable decisions by the characters and a tad too much forced drama. I can't say that I wouldn't ever read her books again, they're just addicting like that. But I wish she would give some more depth to them without making them all so needlessly quirky. 

Book Review: All Rhodes Lead Here

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5 

All Rhodes Lead Here is the most chronologically recent release in the Zapataverse. It follows Aurora and Rhodes as they navigate sort of cohabitation when Rhodes' son secretly leases out their apartment. All Aurora wants to do is get away, get away from her flopped relationship and get closer to the mother she lost so many years ago. And if she has to live in the apartment of a man who couldn't want her around less, so be it. 

I think this book had so many unique elements. It felt different from Mariana Zapata's other books, probably because it was one of the few not set in Texas. Plus the characters were a tad older than they usually are and I think you feel that maturity. I loved Aurora's relationship with Rhodes' son it was so wholesome and built on such a mutual love and respect. And I also loved how special the whole family dynamic was, I haven't seen anything like it before. 

My only issue was the pacing of the big reveal. It felt the last forty pages were simultaneously too long and too short. The rest of the book was perfect, but the very end dragged. Other than that, it's an easy five stars and I will forever be obsessed with Mariana Zapata. 

Book Review: Love in the Time of Serial Killers

 

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5 

Love in the Time of Serial Killers centers on Phoebe Walsh, a PhD candidate dealing with the death of a father she never really liked all that much. She has to clear out his house in the middle of writing her dissertation and dealing with her disaster of a personal life. Oh, and her dad's neighbor might possibly be a serial killer. Not probably, but possibly, signs definitely point to maybe. Except that he's not, actually he's one of the sweetest most down to earth male protagonists in a romance that I've ever read. 

Phoebe definitely had her moments where I was reading this and I wanted to shake some sense into her, but those moments were authentic to the characterization that was designed for her. I loved all her little quirks and I loved the way her interests were threaded into the narrative. I could tell that the author really took the time too look into academia and true crime and make it a realistic element of Phoebe's life- if the author isn't super invested in either of those things herself. It was all extremely realistic but extremely whimsical at the same time. You're reading about this love story and thinking about how cute and sweet and amazing it all is and how it's that sort of once in a lifetime story but it's definitely something you could see happening between two real life individuals. As basic as that sounds, I think it's a point that many contemporary romances struggle with when they're trying to add that cute factor. 

So I definitely loved it, I feel like we had a great balance of platonic and romantic relationships. I wish that Sam had gotten a bit more screen time without that end of second act conflict but that and a couple of overdone quirks were really the only things that kept it from five stars. 

Book Review: From Lukov with Love

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5 

From Lukov with Love is another installment of the Zapataverse following Jasmine as she pushes herself to the gold in Olympic figure skating. One issue though, she doesn't currently have a partner and she's a pairs skater. When one of the best pairs skaters in the world asks her to be his partner, it should be an automatic yes as it could be her last chance to get a true title. The only issue? He's been her public enemy #1 for a literal decade and she would rather do just about anything than work with him for hours every day. 

I think that my issue here was that Jasmine was type casted too much in Dear Aaron so she had to really play up being obnoxious in this one. While I feel Zapata books usually have a moment where everything becomes clear and their true love is declared and the slowburn is finally fulfilled, we got more of Jasmine's complaining and we were supposed to accept a lot more of their interactions on the premise of the significance of their history. So I wasn't as into it as I usually am with her books. 

That being said, she still had her moments where I was giggling and screaming so I think she still did her job. I also feel that, based on the hype I had seen for this one versus her other books, I was expecting a lot more but I just didn't connect with them as much as I've connected with other characters she's written. So still super good as I'm highly biased towards loving Zapata, but definitely could have been better.  

Book Review: Chick Magnet

Overall: 2.75/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5 

Chick Magnet was a definite adjustment from what I usually read because it's extremely contemporary. We have an influencer who makes her living teaching people online about the joys of keeping pet chickens and a vet who is sick of people encouraging people to get exotic pets. We have mentions of the pandemic and TikTok and all of the things I don't expect to see in books, so very extremely contemporary. 

I have a hard time with these books cause I feel like they force the pandemic down our throats and they also simultaneously try to say that everyone is fine and the worst has passed. I think it's a tricky perspective to take as an author and easier to pretend that it never happened. As it stands, it took away from the near fantastical element I feel with these sort of contemporary romances. I still liked the enemies to lovers vibe and the central plot, but I feel it could've been better without all that real life. 

So it was unique and interesting, not necessarily bad just not my absolute favorite. I did learn a lot about chickens so that definitely helped and it was probably a bit of my bad for reading something that looked so incredibly current. 

Book Review: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

Overall: 5/5

Plots and Themes: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5

This is my second time reading this book this year, but I didn't review it the first time so I felt like I'd do it justice here. The Wall of Winnipeg and Me follows Vanessa Mazur, assistant to Aiden Graves AKA the Wall of Winnipeg. He's an NFL superstar and he's been annoying her for two year with his random demands and lack of gratitude. So she's quitting, not in a dramatic way (at first), just in a way that allows her to finally pursue her dream of freelance graphic design work. That is, until Aiden Graves decides he wants her back and is willing to do anything to rehire her, even if it's as his temporary wife to fulfill his visa requirements. 

This book isn't some super deep masterful book, but it's extremely entertaining and I think that's worth more than any classic. If you're the kind of person who appreciates all your standard tropes like marriage of convenience or trauma bonding, this is the one for you. It's not exactly like all the books you see on Tiktok with this trope though, because Vanessa is a well-rounded protagonist who makes her own decisions. She's a little weird at times, but she's entirely realistic and totally relatable. Mariana Zapata has a gift for writing situations that are obviously made for romances but animating them through female protagonists that feel like real people. 

I love Mariana Zapata and this is largely known as her best work. I think it definitely has a chokehold on me and it's just super comforting and I could read it a million times and find all new reasons to love them.  

Book Review: Hate Notes

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

After walking in on her fiance cheating on her, Charlotte breaks that off and subsequently quits her job at his company. She's trying to sell her dress when she finds a beautiful note sewn inside another and decides to stalk the dude on social media. Their embarrassing first encounter leads to her getting a job, though she doesn't realize till later on that it's at his family's company. With a scheming grandmother throwing them together every chance she gets, they have a hard time battling their chemistry. But Reed has good reason to avoid attachments, no matter how hard it feels. 

I don't know this one is pretty slow. I understand Reed's hesitance, obvious trauma from his previous relationship and fear of the future. It was decent representation of a scary diagnosis. But it just felt like it dragged so much and I'm kind of sick of that "grumpy" protagonist that would be an immediate red flag in real life the way he sort of leads her on then snaps at her about it. It was a nice and realistic ending, but nothing that really stands out as all that special of a love story.

Book Review: Book of the Most Precious Substance

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a standalone. It's a thriller, the sort of thing I feel like people who liked Verity would be all over. Lily Albrecht is alone. Her husband has all but left her due to an illness outside of anyone's control and she sells books as a way to make enough money to support him and all the medications he needs. When she learns about the Book of the Most Precious Substance, she is initially intrigued by the huge commission she could get for securing it. But she soon learns that there are things about the world beyond her understanding, and that in addition to money the book could give her her husband back.

This book was freaky. It was paced in such a strange way, like the side by side journey to find the book and to get to the end of the book and be granted her wish. It felt almost like reading two separate trains of thought. I thought it was interesting, but I also feel it gave the whole thing a dream-like quality that made it difficult to understand at times. And the chronology of it all further confused me and emphasized that dream-like quality, I never knew how much time was passing and if the achievement of the events coincided correctly with that timeline. It made it all a bit jarring and hard to assign significance to the events.

I did like it though, I think it's original and weird in its own way. Kind of dark academia without the academia, but that same sort of literary take. How much I liked the ultimate message was a different story, but I can respect the way that it got there.

Book Review: A New Shade of Summer

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 1/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

A New Shade of Summer is a contemporary romance, set as third in a series but can be read as a standalone as I didn't even know it was third in the series. It follows Callie Quinn, an artist who loves to travel and is against setting any sort of roots. Visiting her sister and her niece and nephew in Lenox every summer is about as sedentary as she gets. Until she meets Davis and begins to wonder if maybe there's a better way.

I'd like to start off by saying there's a big difference to me between a clean romance and Christian fiction. This book wasn't marketed to me as Christian fiction, maybe I didn't read into it enough but it was frustrating to bring all the talk of religion in so far into the book and trying to make it into a facet of morality and integrity. Now maybe I'm just not the target audience, but it didn't seem like Callie was either so it felt very out of character for her to just jump on the religious bandwagon. Maybe that's just me being judgmental though. 

A big issue was character arcs for me. I didn't see growth that was realistic to who they were at the starting point. No spoilers, but I felt Callie just ditched everything that made her unique in favor of a more conventional life. I don't feel like her hangups or her personality should have allowed for it and it felt very forced. That wasn't a problem till like the last fifth of the book, but it really took away from the conclusion. So I liked it at first, but the whole resolution just wasn't good for me.

Book Review: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Overall: 5/5

Plots and Themes: 5/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 5/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is contemporary with a paranormal twist. Witches exist, they manipulate golden waves of magic that dance around them to do all sorts of things from potions, to fire, to flying on broomsticks. Oh, and they're always orphans. Mika Moon uses her solitude and her magic powers to run a semi-popular video account where she teaches her followers real magic tricks that no one would ever guess were real magic. When someone does recognize the realness of her magic, she is recruited to an odd home filled with three young witches to guide them to self control of their own magic. Only, witches are always meant to remain alone, but Mika can't help but want to help the little family stay together. Even if the distrustful librarian of the house doesn't seem to want her anywhere close. 

This book made me feel nostalgic which is so weird considering I've never read it. But it was so wholesome, found family with a dash of romance with the best sort of pacing. The characters were all so eclectic and unique yet fit with each other so well. It was the perfect mix of quirky and serious, everything I want from a book trying to run the line between magic and contemporary. This book also handles diversity so nicely, rather than making a big deal out of it, they all find their places perfectly in a natural narrative where everyone belongs. 

I would totally recommend this book, it's the coziest of fantasies. There's really no word for it outside of wholesome, and I know that these characters will be living rent-free in my mind for quite a while. 

Book Review: Most Valuable Playboy

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

It's the annual charity auction - FOR THE CHILDREN - and football superstar Cooper is being threatened by a radio personality who could destroy his reputation. He doesn't want to upset her but he definitely doesn't want her to win a date with him. Thankfully, his good friend Violet was able to use his money to win the date for herself. But it looks like their little hometown romance is benefitting them both, so they decide to play it up for a bit. 

This book was original as far as these books go as it was entirely narrated by the man. I don't know if I've ever seen a book in this genre do that. That also might have been why everything felt so quick, women are written with so much more self-doubt than he was. I don't even know if he hesitated a second, it was all about his wants rather than hers. Kind of rubbed me the wrong way. 

There was no real conflict, no drama, everything just sort of fell into place. It was also like the starting point kept shifting and I found myself wondering why they had never discussed being together in the first place. It was strange and weird pacing. I didn't hate it, it was entertaining enough, but I would have liked to see more depth. 

Book Review: Digging Up Love

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 2/5

Digging Up Love is a standalone contemporary romance that follows Alisha, a baker who feels trapped by her familial obligations, and Quentin, a paleontologist desperate to prove himself. They meet when Alisha's grandparents accidentally discover bones in their backyard and the chemistry is pretty instant. 

It was a cute story. I don't feel like I've ever read a book featuring a paleontologist and the dedication of both characters to their careers gave them depth. It was original in that respect and it was fun. The only issue, which really interrupted the flow for me, was the lack of conflict. It felt like we were just rehashing all of the reasons why it shouldn't work without really backing up those thoughts. And maybe that's personal preference, I can totally see this happening in the real world outside of the fact that I doubt there are many 33-year-old hot paleontologists out there that would be sent to a discovery of this magnitude. But it was just all too real without any of that gut-dropping whirlwind sort of thing that I love to see in a romance. 

So definitely average with decent characters if nothing else. But also probably not one I'd recommend for people looking to use romance as a way to escape the monotony of life. 

Book Review: King of the Court

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

I'm so desperate for sports romances at this point that I'm really reading a basketball romance. King of the Court follows a basketball team spending some time in a small Texas town to train for the Olympics. It's your typical basketball superstar meets small town poor girl and tries to solve all her problems. But here, we have kind of a broken part one and part two with the added benefit of a time jump just to avoid actually maybe, I don't know, developing their relationship. 

That seems harsh, but it did feel like a cop out. I also don't know enough about basketball to gauge if this is anywhere close to a realistic portrayal of how a basketball superstar might be treated. It felt way overdramatic. It was pretty entertaining up until the cheat of a plot-twist. Beyond that, everything felt rushed and half-hearted. It's definitely not in my top tier sports romances, but was also not the worst. 

Book Review: Dear Aaron

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

Dear Aaron is what I think people refer to as a Dear John story. The protagonist, Ruby, starts writing a soldier through a program decided to comfort those who are deployed. But they talk a lot more than she ever has with any of them before and they get to know each other beyond the words. It's set in 2008, but I feel it's more reminiscent of like a Tumblr love story of 2012.

At this point, I've read quite a few Mariana Zapata books and I'm a fan of the formula she has established for writing these books. It's a slowburn that is isolated to a standalone, so she has to get through all the character-building separately while pushing them to be together. Dear Aaron throws the additional challenge of trying to get us to understand these characters through their messages exclusively rather than any sort of additional dialogue. I think it's not my favorite of her reads, but it's definitely fun and different to feel like you're meeting the characters as they meet each other. You don't have any of that reader's omniscience that allows you to see into their heads and gives you that told you so feeling. 

So, not my favorite of the Zapatas but definitely not the worst. I still need to read From Lukov and I know these guys get a feature so I'm excited to see how they've progressed. I was deprived of my usual Zapata married with children epilogue and I'd love to see where they end up. 

Book Review: The Guest List

The Guest List

Lucy Foley

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 4/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 4/5

Attention-grabbing: 3/5

The Guest List is your typical murder mystery who-dunnit type story. A celebrity wedding on a rural island out in the middle of nowhere packed with guests bringing all kinds of baggage. Julia just wants her perfect happy ever after and Will is the perfect groom. Her sister Olivia just wants to get away. Charles is Jules' best friend and married to Hannah, the unfortunate plus one. While Johnno is the childhood bestie who can't seem to catch a break. All of them combined with the wedding planner, Aoife, make for an interesting and random group of chaotic individuals. 

I think that the beginning was kind of hard to get into and the pacing was off across the board. We were obviously trying to hold the reveal off till the very end to be more dramatic, but it just made for a whole lot of boring and pointless exposition at the beginning. I love reading books like this for the way that all the elements combine into something convoluted and impossibly complicated at the end, and while this book nailed that, we could have done with a lot less of the attempted red herrings. 

I was also mad about the ending. I think that considering all of the tedious introduction we should have gotten a bit more insight into the consequences of each of the characters' actions. Without spoiling anything, I feel like we got the reveal and then we got kicked off the set. That was disappointing for me as I was more invested in the arcs of the characters rather than just the act of the murder. I don't know if I would never recommend it to anyone, but it's definitely not the best mystery ever.