“Swap and Smell the Roses” (The Swap #1) by Karen Booth (ARC Review)

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Booth, Karen. Swap and Smell the Roses. Toronto, Ontario: Afterglow Books, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1335041647 | $12.99 USD | 288 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

In this deliciously tender, steamy romance, a burned-out musician swaps city life for cottage country only to find that slowing down means a racing heart, thanks to the grumpy guy next door…

When Willow Moore’s lifelong dream of music stardom goes bust, she’s burned out enough to need drastic change. As in, she’s trading her Brooklyn apartment for two months in the Connecticut countryside. Soon she’s baking bread, spending Saturdays at the farmer’s market and stopping to smell the roses, but some things in her new #cottagecore life aren’t so pleasant. Like her landlord, former chef Reid Harrell. As grouchy and reserved as Willow is chatty and outgoing, Reid is an annoyingly sexy keep-out sign. If only Willow was good at staying away.

Something about Reid, a sliver of pain poking through that flinty facade, makes her wonder if they’re more alike than she thought. Reid once chased success, too, and found it—at a price. Now all he wants is to be left alone to garden, but Willow’s not giving up so quick, especially when one of their heated arguments sparks an idea for a song. Her renewed creativity awakens them both, hurling them into a passionate vortex neither expects.

As the summer winds down, Willow is forced to confront her needs, wants and desires, not to mention Reid, the hardest puzzle of all to figure out. Maybe it’s time for the city girl to stop dwelling on dreams dashed and start following her heart—no matter where it might take her…

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I previously read a Harlequin title from Karen Booth, and while I didn’t much care for it, I was open to trying her again. And Swap and Smell the Roses sounded charming. While the trope of a big-city girl exchanging that life for a small town has been done before, I loved the charm Booth infused in this story, particularly the cottagecore vibes.

Willow is an easy protagonist to root for. I really appreciated her reflections on the music industry, both good and bad, and enjoyed seeing her ingratiating herself in rural Connecticut.

Looking back on my initial review of the prior Booth title, a big turnoff for me was the grumpy/sunshine dynamic, so I was a little wary that this had a similar premise. But while Reid had his rough edges that made him hard to like at first, I found myself warming to him. And Reid, like Willow, had his own dreams he put aside for his own reasons. With these serving as a vehicle for their connection and them helping each other realize their dreams again.

Overall, I really enjoyed this, and with this being a “life swap” book, I can’t wait to see what happened to her friend Bailey! I recommend this book if you’re looking for a quick, light contemporary romance.

Author Bio

Karen Booth is a Midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on ’80s music and way too many readings of “Forever” by Judy Blume. Married to her real-life Jake Ryan, she has two amazing kids with epic hair, a very bratty cat, and loves getting up before dawn to write romance. With plenty of sparks.

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“Icebreaker” (Maple Hills #1) by Hannah Grace (Review)

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Grace, Hannah. Icebreaker. 2022. New York: Atria, 2023.

ISBN-13: 978-1668026038 | $17.99 USD | 432 pages | NA Contemporary Romance

Blurb

A TikTok sensation! Sparks fly when a competitive figure skater and hockey team captain are forced to share a rink.

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team.

Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.

Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.

But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.

Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried…because she could never like a hockey player, right?

Review

3.5 stars

The trend of Reading All the Popular BookTok Books From the Last Few Years I Swore I’d Never Read continues with Icebreaker by Hannah Grace, Initially, while I loved the cover (the Leni Kauffman stan that I am), I’m not sold on hockey romance, and this review from Jack Edwards partially in response to last year’s Seattle Kraken/Kierra Lewis scandal did little to further pique my interest, although I as alway appreciated his respectful commentary. So, what did get me to pick this up? People on the Internet (and young people at that) being shocked at the idea that teens and even children as young as 11 are picking up these books and will be “exposed” to sexual content…and parroting Moms For Liberty-esque book-banner rhetoric, instead of expecting that parents should be parenting their own children, not authors/publishers/booksellers/librarians…I could go on ad nauseum about this topic, but I think Nora Roberts put it best in a response to a recent library challenge to her own books: “I’m surprised that they wouldn’t want teenagers to read about healthy relationships that are monogamous, consensual, healthy, and end up in marriage.” Similar can be said of Icebreaker, for the most part: while the book is more explicit than Roberts’ fare, I found this book comparatively tame, considering the range of romance books that come from BookTok. Anastasia, called “Stasia” or “Stassie,” is an easy heroine to root for, and I love her passion for figure skating. Nate is similarly driven in his hockey career. The two have solid chemistry, and while sometimes the enemies-to-lovers aspect felt a little forced, I did like that, once they got together, they had a healthy, consensual relationship. Heck, there’s even a proposal at the end, even if I wasn’t super-invested in that aspect, given these characters are on the younger side.

The one aspect I personally did not care for was the length, especially as there was not a ton happening that would justify the book being over 400 pages. It’s not as bad as another BookTok title that I reviewed that put me off reading hyped books for a long time, but that one was also a lot longer and had much less compelling characters.

Hannah Grace has christened herself a “fluffy comfort-book” author, and she absolutely succeeds in that department. While I had some quibbles with it, it’s a promising debut overall, and I look forward to reading more from her. If you haven’t read this yet and are on the fence.

Author Bio

Hannah Grace is an English author, writing adult contemporary romance between characters who all carry a tiny piece of her. When she’s not describing everyone’s eyes ten-thousand-times a chapter, accidentally giving multiple characters the same name, or googling American English spellings, you can find her oversharing online, or, occasionally, reading a book from her enormous TBR. Hannah is an instant #1 New York Times bestseller of Icebreaker and Wildfire and a proud parent to two dogs.

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“A Gamble at Sunset” (Betting Against the Duke #1) by Vanessa Riley (ARC Review)

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Riley, Vanessa. A Gamble at Sunset. New York: Zebra, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1420154856 | $17.95 USD | 336 pages | Regency Romance

Blurb

Award-winning author Vanessa Riley turns all convention on its head for the first in an enchanting, dazzlingly diverse new Regency romance trilogy featuring a duke, three sisters, and a tantalizing bet with a most desirable reward…

“A triumphant return to romance….Riley renders the Regency in living color, with impressive historical detail and an admirably diverse cast. Historical romance readers will be entranced.” –Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

When a duke discovers the woman he loves was tricked into marrying another, the master chess player makes the now-widowed Viscountess the highest-stakes wager of his life in a last-ditch effort to win her affection: he will find husbands for her two sisters—or depart forever...

Georgina Wilcox, a wallflower with hidden musical talents, is furious when her reclusive older sister—the recently widowed Viscountess—refuses sorely needed help from the Duke of Torrance, the only gentleman who has shown kindness to the bereft Wilcox sisters. Georgina decides to get back at her sister and shock the Viscountess by kissing the first willing stranger she meets in the enchanting gardens of Anya House. Unfortunately, her sister is not the sole witness. A group of reporters and the ton’s leading gossips catch Georgina in a passionate embrace with a reticent composer, Lord Mark Sebastian.

The third son of an influential marquis, the tongue-tied Mark is determined to keep the scandal from ruining Georgina’s reputation and his own prospects of winning the celebrated Harlbert’s Prize for music. Under the guise of private voice lessons, the two embark on a daring gamble to fool the ton into believing that their feigned courtship is honorable while bolstering Georgina’s singing genius to captivate potential suitors. Sexist cartoons, family rivalries, and an upcoming ball test the fake couple’s resolve. Will their sudden fiery collaboration—and growing attraction—prove there’s nothing false about a first kiss and scandalously irresistible temptation?

Review

3 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Vanessa Riley returns to historical romance with A Gamble at Sunset, the first in the Betting Against the Duke series. This new series promises to be rather high-concept, both setting up an overarching plot for the series and including a self-contained romance, which I felt was a somewhat double-edged sword in places here.

Vanessa Riley is well-known at this point for her historical research into Black people in Britain, but I love how she continues to surprise with little nuggets of research highlighting how small the world was and is. The lore of her narrative is based on some characters who are descended from the eighteenth century Russian nobleman Gannibal, who was a former enslaved person who ended up being adopted by Peter the Great. And while the characters in the book are fictional, Gannibal truly does have descendants in the British aristocracy, including the modern-day Unicorn Hot Duke, Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster and George Mountbatten, Marquess of Milford Haven (cousin of Queen Elizabeth II).

But all this lore is perhaps the most interesting part of the book. That’s not to say that there’s not good stuff here, but there’s so much going on that it all feels half-baked. The romance is cute, for example, and gave me similar vibes to Bridgerton book and season 1 but if the dynamics were flipped, with the compromising position occurring before the fake courtship. And Georgina and Mark are nice characters who do have solid chemistry.

But they also share page time with all these other characters, namely Georgina’s sister and the Duke, and what I think will be their overarching plotline over the series, that no one felt well-defined and like they “stuck” with me. The stakes for Georgina and Mark weren’t there, and thus, the whole book fell a little flat.

I am still cautiously optimistic about this series, and will probably read the next to see how the story progresses. But while it was a bit of a letdown, I do recommend it if you’re looking for a well-researched historical romance with Black characters.

Author Bio

Vanessa Riley is an acclaimed author known for captivating novels such as Island Queen, a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, and Queen of Exiles, an ABC View Lit Pick. She was honored as the 2023 Georgia Literary Fiction Author of the Year for Sister Mother Warrior. Her craft highlights hidden narratives of Black women and women of color, emphasizing strong sisterhoods, diverse communities, and power across historical fiction, romance, and mystery genres. Her works have received praise from esteemed publications like the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Publisher Weekly, and the New York Times.

Beyond her literary achievements, Vanessa holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, adding a research-oriented approach that emphasizes inclusivity in her storytelling about Caribbean, Georgian, and Regency eras, resulting in over twenty-five published titles.

As a member of Regency Fiction Writers, Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Christian Book Lovers Retreat, and the Historical Novel Society, Vanessa advocates for diverse voices and storytelling. She’s also working to increase Sickle Cell Anemia awareness. When not writing, she can be found baking, crafting her Trinidadian grandma’s recipes, and writing on her southern porch, fueled by the perfect amount of caffeine.

Sarah Younger of the Nancy Yost Literary Agency represents Vanessa.

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“His Scandalous Lessons” (Private Arrangements #1) by Katrina Kendrick (Review)

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Kendrick, Katrina. His Scandalous Lessons. London: Aria/Head of Zeus, 2023.

ISBN-13: 978-1837930968 | $7.99 USD | 279 pages | Victorian Romance

Blurb

Love and scandal make for a deadly combination…

He is London’s most notorious rogue…

Richard Grey is renowned for his escapades in the bedchamber. But he’s hidden the truth for years: that wicked reputation is a public front to hide his political machinations. So when the prime minister’s daughter arrives on Richard’s doorstep with a tempting proposition, he seizes the opportunity to gather information against her father, his corrupt political rival.

She is determined to escape her past…

Anne Sheffield’s life is dictated at the whims of her domineering father. Considered an asset for her remarkable memory, Anne is privy to intelligence passed between the prime minister and his allies-and he’s determined to keep her close. Desperate to escape, she presents Richard with a trade: help her find, seduce, and secure a husband of her choosing in exchange for political secrets.

As Anne learns Richard’s scandalous ways, she finds herself on the verge of losing her heart. And as it turns out, sharing secrets can lead to dangerous consequences…

Review

4 stars

I first saw a few of Katrina Kendrick’s books at my library a while back, and while they looked interesting, I didn’t pick them up at the time. But I also started following Elizabeth May on social media within the past few years, and my interest was again piqued when I realized she was also Katrina Kendrick. So when I saw the new editions of the books available on Libby, I jumped at the chance to read them, starting with the first book, His Scandalous Lessons. This book is pretty much everything I enjoy in a historical romance, from the richly conveyed historical details and political intrigue, plus a favorite trope, “intimacy lessons.”

I love the multifaceted nature of both leads. Richard presents as a rogue with a reputation as a legendary lover, but he’s also very politically conscious, pushing for progressive ideas, like the right to vote for all men, something which the current prime minister and his political rival opposes, being much more staunchly conservative. Meanwhile, the prime minister’s daughter, Anne, is kept sheltered by her domineering father, and expected to concern herself with her impending arranged marriage to a truly awful older man. But Anne is also very intelligent and has a wonderful memory, which gives her father all the more reason to try to exploit and control her.

There’s a lot going on here, which surprised me, given that this book isn’t super long. But the political intrigue kept me engaged and wanting to know how it would all turn out, especially with each twist and turn in the fight between Anne and Richard against her father and her evil fiance. There’s a lot of sensitive content here, child abuse subjected on Anne by her father to some sexual abuse by her fiancee, so it’s definitely a heavier historical romance.

But the romance at the heart is super sweet and sexy. Richard empowers Anne in multiple ways, from her sexual growth to being able to stand against her father. And after all Anne had experienced, I loved that he was the one who treated her with love and respect.

I really enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading more from the series. I’d recommend this book if you’re interested in a somewhat grittier and politically conscious historical romance.

Author Bio

Katrina Kendrick is the pseudonym for Sunday Times bestselling science fiction and fantasy author Elizabeth May. She is Californian by birth and Scottish by choice, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of St Andrews. She currently resides on an 18th-century farm in the Scottish countryside with her husband, three cats, and a lively hive of honeybees that live in the wall of her old farmhouse.

Katrina’s work is represented by Danny Baror at Baror International.

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“The Hunter’s Daughter” by Nicola Solvinic (ARC Review)

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Solvinic, Nicola. The Hunter’s Daughter. New York: Berkley, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593639726 | $28.00 USD | 384 pages | Thriller

Blurb

A hypnotic, sinister debut mystery about a seemingly good cop who is secretly the daughter of a notorious serial killer.

Anna Koray escaped her father’s darkness long ago. When she was a girl, her childhood memories were sealed away from her conscious mind by a controversial hypnosis treatment. She’s now a decorated sheriff’s lieutenant serving a rural county, conducting an ordinary life far from her father’s shadow.

When Anna kills a man in the line of duty, her suppressed memories return. She dreams of her beloved father, his hands red with blood, surrounded by flower-decked corpses he had sacrificed to the god of the forest.

To Anna’s horror, a serial killer emerges who is copying her father – and who knows who she really is. Is her father still alive, or is this the work of another? Will the killer expose her, destroying everything she has built for herself? Does she want him to?

But as she haunts the forest, using her father’s tricks to the hunt the killer, will she find what she needs most…or lose herself in the gathering darkness?

Review

3.5 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

The Hunter’s Daughter presents an intriguing premise exploring the idea of whether evil can be genetic. While the concept of nature vs. nurture has been discussed to death, in both fact and fiction, Nicola Solvinic presents an intriguing take on it, even if it wasn’t entirely what I expected at the outset.

Anna is a compelling lead, and I appreciate the gravitas with which her trauma was explored, especially since she had repressed it for so long through the means of hypnosis. And while there’s a lot more that could have been said about the cops and the tainted police institution as a whole, with the Internal Affairs investigation into the shooting being a very minor plot line, I can somewhat understand why she might choose to become a cop due to her background. And ultimately, it does serve as a great way to bring her into a situation that could make her question herself as a result of the shooting and regaining those memories of her father.

I enjoyed the mystery following a potential copycat killer following her father’s pattern, and while there were some predictable turns, it complemented Anna’s internal arc well. I did find some of the more surrealist elements a little strange. The ending also left me feeling a tad underwhelmed.

While I had some nitpicks, this is a solid debut, and I’m open to reading more from Solvinic in the future. If you’re interested in a thriller that has both solid character development and a twisty plot, I recommend checking this out.

Author Bio

Nicola Solvinic has a master’s degree in criminology and has worked in and around criminal justice for more than a decade at local, state, and federal levels. She lives in the Midwest with her husband and cats, where she is surrounded by a secret garden full of beehives.

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“Tomorrow is for the Brave” by Kelly Bowen (ARC Review)

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Bowen, Kelly. Tomorrow is for the Brave. New York: Forever, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1538756935 | $18.99 USD | 384 pages | Historical Fiction

Blurb

Based on true events, Tomorrow Is for the Brave is a gripping World War II page‑turner about a courageous woman who risks it all for what is right—perfect for fans of Natasha Lester and Kristen Harmel.

1939, France: Lavish parties, fast cars, and a closet full of the latest fashion—to the average eye, socialite Violet St. Croix seemingly has it all. But what she truly wants is a life full of meaning and purpose. So when France falls to Germany, Violet defies her parents’ wishes and joins the war effort. With her impeccable skill for driving under pressure, she is soon sent to North Africa to shepherd French Foreign Legion officers carrying valuable intelligence through dangerous territory.

But as the Allies encounter one mishap after another, Violet becomes convinced there is a spy in their ranks. And when her commanding officer is murdered, Violet realizes she might be the only one who can uncover the traitor and save the lives of countless soldiers on the front lines. Convincing others to believe her is difficult enough. Finding someone she can trust just might be impossible.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

While I wasn’t a fan of Kelly Bowen’s previous World War II book, I was hopeful for Tomorrow is for the Brave. And the relief I felt when I saw this one was set in a single time period was massive, given that’s what I hated so much about the other book.

And while Bowen’s prior books have felt very similar to what else is out there, I loved that this did something different just by being set in the Middle East and North Africa, a setting that isn’t often discussed in context with World War II, but really should be. It was interesting to learn about the French Foreign Legion, and I was even more impressed when I learned that many of the prominent characters, while fictional, were based on real people.

Violet, for example, is based on Susan Travers, who was the only woman to officially become a member of the French Foreign Legion. I loved her determination to do her bit in the war, despite her family disapproving. She’s strong, intelligent, and capable, and very easy to root for throughout.

There’s a romantic subplot, and while it’s not super-prominent, it’s sweet, and Henri is a pretty solid love interest.

Violet’s POV is interspersed with bits from the POV from the spy, building suspense about their identity. While withholding the spy’s name, or refusing to even give him a pseudonym, resulted in some clunkiness in the sentences in those bits, they still served their purpose.

I really enjoyed this one, and I’d recommend it to historical fiction readers looking for a slightly different World War II story.

Author Bio

Award-winning author Kelly Bowen grew up in Manitoba, Canada, and attended the University of Manitoba, where she earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in veterinary studies. She worked as a research scientist before realizing her dream to be a writer of historical fiction. Currently, Kelly lives in Winnipeg with her husband and two sons.

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“The Angel of Indian Lake” (Indian Lake Trilogy #3) by Stephen Graham Jones (Review)

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Jones, Stephen Graham. The Angel of Indian Lake. New York: Saga Press, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1668011669 | $28.99 USD | 464 pages | Horror

Blurb

The final installment in the most lauded trilogy in the history of horror novels picks up four years after Don’t Fear the Reaper as Jade returns to Proofrock, Idaho, to build a life after the years of sacrifice—only to find the Lake Witch is waiting for her in New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones’s finale.

It’s been four years in prison since Jade Daniels last saw her hometown of Proofrock, Idaho, the day she took the fall, protecting her friend Letha and her family from incrimination. Since then, her reputation, and the town, have changed dramatically. There’s a lot of unfinished business in Proofrock, from serial killer cultists to the rich trying to buy Western authenticity. But there’s one aspect of Proofrock no one wants to confront…until Jade comes back to town. The curse of the Lake Witch is waiting, and now is the time for the final stand.

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones has crafted an epic horror trilogy of generational trauma from the Indigenous to the townies rooted in the mountains of Idaho. It is a story of the American west written in blood.

In the series

#1 My Heart Is a Chainsaw

#2 Don’t Fear the Reaper

Review

3 stars

After reading and largely really enjoying the first two books in this series, to say I deeply anticipated The Angel of Indian Lake would be an understatement. But it sadly failed to deliver what I expected.

The character development is the strongest part of the narrative here. Jade once again centers the story, being the sole POV character after sharing page time in the previous book. She has grown through all that she’s experienced, and I admire her for continuing to face down all these slasher cases that seem to find her and reckoning with all her trauma at the same time.

The interstitial bits also remain interesting. They focus more on observations of Jade this time around, but I like how this highlights the scrutiny she’s been under thanks to everything she’s been through.

But as far as the plot…it really was like “throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.” I can deal with the sometimes gratuitous violence of horror, but there was just a lot going on to the point it lacked much in the way of cohesion.

While I had mixed feelings about this installment, I can respect why certain choices were made, even if they didn’t necessarily work for me. And despite the lackluster ending, I’d still recommend the trilogy overall to horror readers, especially if they’re looking for something with meta slasher references and a compellingly written protagonist.

Author Bio

Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians. He has been an NEA fellowship recipient and a recipient of several awards including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Bram Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the Alex Award from American Library Association. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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“Maya’s Laws of Love” by Alina Khawaja (Review)

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Khawaja, Alina. Maya’s Laws of Love. Toronto, Ontario, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0778305248 | $17.99 USD | 368 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

“A charming, funny, and unique twist on challenging the laws and traditions that shape us.”
—Abby Jimenez, New York Times bestselling author of Yours Truly

A bride-to-be convinced she’s cursed in romance finds her luck changing—at exactly the wrong time.

Maya Mirza is so convinced she’s unlucky in love that she’s come up with a list of laws to explain it. Most importantly…

Maya’s Law #1: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

But that’s about to change. Maya’s headed to Pakistan for an arranged marriage with a handsome, successful doctor who ticks all the right boxes. First comes marriage, then comes love—she’s sure of it. Except…

Law #4: When you think you’re lucky, think again.

From the start, Maya’s journey is riddled with disaster, and the cynical lawyer seated next to her on the plane isn’t helping. When a storm leaves them stranded in Switzerland, she and Sarfaraz become unlikely travel companions through bus breakdowns and missed connections.

Law #6: Trips are never smooth sailing.

And before long, Maya’s wondering whether she’s just experienced the ultimate in misfortune—finally meeting the right man a few days before she marries someone else. And Maya might just be the worst person to keep a secret.

Law #18: If you’re overtired, you’ll always spill your guts.

But maybe, if she’s willing to bend some laws, this detour could take her somewhere totally—and wonderfully—unexpected.

“Rooted in Pakistani and Muslim culture and faith, this romance is a fun romp that features plenty of adventure and plot twists. Recommend to fans of Uzma Jalaluddin.”
—Library Journal, starred review

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. Review based on final copy. All opinions are my own.

Maya’s Laws of Love is a cute Pakistani-Muslim romcom that caught my eye due to the cute cover and the premise. While I can’t speak to the specifics of the rep, with responses being polarizing from ownvoices reviewers, I did appreciate getting Khawaja’s perspective on certain cultural issues through her characters, including the nuances of arranged marriage beyond the propaganda-like horror stories, not to mention the common “people pleaser” mentality many Pakistani Muslim children grow up with.

Maya’s characterization explores these issues beautifully. She’s chronically unlucky in love, which inspired the titular laws of love, and her belief she’s cursed. It has also motivated her to be fine with going along with the “safe” option of an arranged marriage her parents have arranged for her. But it’s clear that she’s not happy living this way, and an opportunity for true, requited love really changes her worldview.

Sarfaraz is a compelling love interest, if not from the initial “meet-cute,” definitely once they began interacting. I didn’t initially expect the connection between him and her fiancee, but it all made sense in hindsight, including him picking up on it before she did. He’s just a generally solid guy who also loves his family and wants to do right by them, but also wants Maya to choose herself for once instead of caving to what others want.

And speaking of the fiancee, I didn’t know what to think of him at first, but he really came through in the end, being really supportive of Maya and Sarfaraz. I don’t know what Khawaja plans to write next, but I hope she has plans for something involving him!

This was a solid debut, and I’d recommend it to readers looking for a contemporary romcom with nuanced Pakistani-Muslim rep.

Author Bio

Alina Khawaja is a Canadian-Pakistani author. She is a graduate from the University of Toronto with a BA in English, History, and Creative Writing, and from Toronto Metropolitan University with an MA in the Literatures of Modernity. Alina lives in Ontario, Canada. When she’s not writing, she’s either reading or trying to keep up with her endless list of K-dramas.

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“A Crane Among Wolves” by June Hur (ARC Review)

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Hur, June. A Crane Among Wolves. New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1250858092 | $19.99 USD | 336 pages | YA Historical Mystery

Blurb

June Hur, bestselling author of The Red Palace, crafts a devastating and pulse-pounding tale that will feel all-too-relevant in today’s world, based on a true story from Korean history.

Hope is dangerous. Love is deadly.

1506, Joseon. The people suffer under the cruel reign of the tyrant King Yeonsan, powerless to stop him from commandeering their land for his recreational use, banning and burning books, and kidnapping and horrifically abusing women and girls as his personal playthings.

Seventeen-year-old Iseul has lived a sheltered, privileged life despite the kingdom’s turmoil. When her older sister, Suyeon, becomes the king’s latest prey, Iseul leaves the relative safety of her village, traveling through forbidden territory to reach the capital in hopes of stealing her sister back. But she soon discovers the king’s power is absolute, and to challenge his rule is to court certain death.

Prince Daehyun has lived his whole life in the terrifying shadow of his despicable half-brother, the king. Forced to watch King Yeonsan flaunt his predation through executions and rampant abuse of the common folk, Daehyun aches to find a way to dethrone his half-brother once and for all. When staging a coup, failure is fatal, and he’ll need help to pull it off—but there’s no way to know who he can trust.

When Iseul’s and Daehyun’s fates collide, their contempt for each other is transcended only by their mutual hate for the king. Armed with Iseul’s family connections and Daehyun’s royal access, they reluctantly join forces to launch the riskiest gamble the kingdom has ever seen:

Save her sister. Free the people. Destroy a tyrant.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

June Hur once again delivers another great Korean historical mystery with A Crane Among Wolves. I love how she digs into the historical record, usually during the reign of the Joseon dynasty. This one is no different, with the story being set around the end of the reign of the tyrannical King Yeonsan. His many abuses of his people, especially women, are starkly captured in the text, as is the movement that would culminate in him later being deposed.

Both leads are impacted by the king’s actions in different ways. Iseul has lived a largely sheltered life until her sister becomes the king’s latest target. I admired Iseul’s determination to do anything she could to save her sister, in spite of not having much in the way of real-world experience. As for Daehyun, he’s the king’s half-brother who abhors his brother’s actions and wants to bring him down. With both of them having goals that aligned, I loved seeing them working together, and their chemistry bubbled throughout.

There was a lot of political intrigue and danger, with high stakes that kept me on edge. But I do have mixed feelings about the ending. As a romance reader, I can’t say I mind too much, as these characters deserve a happy ending. But given how the “death trope” ( is this really what it’s called?) is used to play with emotions, only to pull an Uno-Reverse/Just-Kidding-They’re-Alive half the time? I know I’m being contrarian here, but I can mostly like the ending and still think that the mechanism to get there is ridiculous. *shrugs*

Random confused tangent about the ending aside, this was a great read, and I’d recommend it to readers interested in a book that evokes similar vibes to a historical K-Drama.

Author Bio

JUNE HUR (허주은) is an Edgar Award-winning author of bestselling YA historical mysteries and romances, including The Silence of Bones, The Forest of Stolen Girls, and The Red Palace . Born in South Korea, June spent her formative years in the USA, Canada, and South Korea before studying History and Literature at the University of Toronto and working at the city’s public library. Her work has been featured in Forbes, NPR, The New York Times, CBC, and KBS. June’s upcoming releases, A Crane Among Wolves and Adoration, are set for May 2024 and 2026. She resides in Toronto with her family and can be spotted writing in coffee shops.

You can find her on Instagram and Tiktok @junehwrites

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“A Run at Love” (Love in the Spotlight) by Toni Shiloh (ARC Review)

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Shiloh, Toni. A Run at Love. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0764241512 | $17.99 USD | 352 pages | Contemporary Romance/Christian Fiction

Blurb

A CONTENDER RUNNING FOR THE ROSES

As a Black woman in a field with little diversity, Piper McKinney is determined to make her mark on the horse-racing world. Raised on a Thoroughbred farm in Kentucky, Piper’s dream is for her horse to win the prestigious Kentucky Derby. With the help of her best friend and trainer, Tucker Hale, she gains national attention but must grapple with the complications that arise when a journalist delves into her past as a transracial adoptee.

A BEST FRIEND RACING FOR LOVE

In an effort to win Piper’s heart, Tucker formulates a plan to train Piper’s horse to victory, hoping to prove himself to her, her parents, and his own self-doubts. Then a shocking scandal hits the media, implicating both Piper and her parents, and she and Tucker will have to survive the onslaught to find their way to the winner’s circle–and each other.

A ROMANCE WORTH THE CHALLENGE

“Readers are going to be delighted by this endearing and adorable romance.”–Sarah Monzon, author of the Sewing in SoCal series on The Love Script

In the series

#1 The Love Script

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

A Run at Love is the second in Toni Shiloh’s Love in the Spotlight series. It can be read as a standalone, although I do recommend the first book as well. While I’ve read myriad celebrity romances at this point, the equestrian world, especially related to horse-racing and the Kentucky Derby, were much less familiar. But Shiloh conveys a knowledge for the sport in a way that is digestible for newbies to the sport, conveying the characters’ passion for it, while not going overboard with the technical aspects that could sometimes bog down the narrative.

Piper is an incredible female lead, and I particularly liked how she handled issues with her Black identity in both her professional and personal lives. She’s a Black woman in the horse-racing world, dominated by white men, but she’s also a Black transracial adoptee. I respect how her story highlights the complex feelings someone like her can have, being grateful for the opportunities she has due to the family who raised her, but also being unsettled by the situation, and especially the public’s perception of her.

Tucker is a generally solid guy, and I loved how his romance with Piper developed. They’ve known each other pretty much all their lives, and I love how he’s as passionate about her winning the Kentucky Derby as she is, even making elaborate plans in an attempt to make it happen. They had great chemistry and it was sweet seeing things develop from platonic to something more. I did feel like the marriage proposal came a little too soon, but given how long they knew each other, and how it came rather late in the story, I can accept that it makes sense. And the wedding isn’t necessarily something they’re rushing into by the end, anyway.

This was another heartfelt romance from Toni Shiloh, and I’d recommend it to readers interested in a Christian or sweet (no-sex) romance with a Black lead.

Author Bio

Toni Shiloh is a wife, mom, and Christian fiction writer. Once she understood the powerful saving grace of the love of Christ, she was moved to honor her Savior.

She writes soulfully romantic novels to bring Him glory and to learn more about His goodness.

Before pursuing her dream as a writer, Toni served in the United States Air Force. It was there she met her husband. After countless moves, they ended up in Virginia, where they are raising their two boys.

When she’s not typing in imagination land, Toni enjoys reading, playing video games, watching K-dramas, and spending time with her family.

Toni is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and of the Virginia Chapter.

Website

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“Blood at the Root” by LaDarrion Williams (ARC Review)

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Williams, LaDarrion. Blood at the Root. New York: New York: Labyrinth Road, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593711927 | $20.99 USD | 432 pages | YA Fantasy

Blurb

A teenager on the run from his past finds the family he never knew existed and the community he never knew he needed at an HBCU for the young, Black, and magical. Enroll in this fresh fantasy debut unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Ten years ago, Malik’s life changed forever the night his mother mysteriously vanished and he discovered he had uncontrollable powers. Since then, he has kept his abilities hidden, looking out for himself and his younger foster brother, Taye. Now, at 17, Malik is finally ready to start a new life for both of them, far from the trauma of his past. However, a daring act to rescue Taye reveals an unexpected connection with his long-lost grandmother: a legendary conjurer with ties to a hidden magical university that Malik’s mother attended.

At Caiman University, Malik’s eyes are opened to a future he never could have envisioned for himself— one that includes the reappearance of his first love, Alexis. His search for answers about his heritage, his powers, and what really happened to his mother exposes the cracks in their magical community as it faces a reawakened evil dating back to the Haitian Revolution. Together with Alexis, Malik discovers a lot beneath the surface at Caiman: feuding covens and magical politics, forbidden knowledge and buried mysteries.

In a wholly unique saga of family, history and community, Malik must embrace his legacy to save what’s left of his old family as well as his new one. Exploring the roots and secrets that connect us in an unforgettable contemporary setting, this heart-pounding fantasy series opener is a rich tapestry of atmosphere, intrigue, and emotion.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Blood at the Root ended up on my radar upon seeing a tweet from the author, LaDarrion Williams about wanting to write a book starring a Black that didn’t center on trauma. Williams very much succeeds, evoking familiar tropes, like a teen discovering his magical lineage and powers with a generous infusion of Black boy joy.

I loved the magical university setting, which made it stand out from a lot of other magic-school books, which largely are more skewed toward high school or some other secondary school equivalent. And I liked that the campus life really mattered, and it wasn’t just a vehicle to bring Malik in contact with a greater outside force, upon which the learning takes a backseat. The magic is rooted in Hoodoo and other African traditions, and while there don’t seem to be many hard rules, I appreciated the cultural context.

Malik himself is also quite a likable protagonist. He has experienced some trauma and loss, but I liked that the story was more about him connecting with his family heritage and legacy in an affirming way and finding his place within the magical world.

The plot is engaging with a lot of twists and turns that kept me engaged throughout. There are some reveals that are a tad predictable, but I still really enjoyed how it all came together.

This is an impressive debut novel, and I look forward to reading more from LaDarrion Williams in the future! If you are interested in a magic-school book with a Black boy lead, I’d recommend checking out this book!

Author Bio

LaDarrion Williams is a Los Angeles based-playwright, filmmaker, author, and screenwriter whose goal is to cultivate a new era of Black fantasy, providing space and agency for Black characters and stories in a new, fresh and fantastical way. He is currently a resident playwright/co-creator of The Black Creators Collective, where his play UMOJA made its West Coast premiere in January 2022 and produced North Hollywood’s first Black playwrights festival at the Waco Theater Center. Blood at the Root is his first novel. His viral and award-winning short filmbased on the same concept, is currently on YouTube and Amazon Prime.

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“Snowglobe” by Soyoung Park, Translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort (Review)

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Park, Soyoung. Snowglobe. Translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort, Delacorte Press, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593484975 | $20.99 USD | 372 pages | YA Science Fiction/Thriller

Blurb

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The groundbreaking Korean phenomenon that Entertainment Weekly called “The Hunger Games meets Squid Game”—now in English for the first time!

“An immersive and utterly addictive dark dystopian thriller . . . with the eerie, desperate, and exhilarating vibes of Snowpiercer and The Hunger Games.” —Susan Lee, author of Seoulmates

In a world of constant winter, only the citizens of the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe can escape the bitter cold—but this perfect society is hiding dark and dangerous secrets within its frozen heart.

**The gorgeous first edition hardcover of Snowglobe features two covers in one (a beautifully illustrated hardcover underneath the stunning jacket) and foil-stamped interior papers at the beginning and end of the book!**

Enclosed under a vast dome, Snowglobe is the last place on Earth that’s warm. Outside Snowglobe is a frozen wasteland, and every day, citizens face the icy world to get to their jobs at the power plant, where they produce the energy Snowglobe needs. Their only solace comes in the form of twenty-four-hour television programming streamed directly from the domed city.

The residents of Snowglobe have everything: fame, fortune, and above all, safety from the desolation outside their walls. In exchange, their lives are broadcast to the less fortunate outside, who watch eagerly, hoping for the chance to one day become actors themselves.

Chobahm lives for the time she spends watching the shows produced inside Snowglobe. Her favorite? Goh Around, starring Goh Haeri, Snowglobe’s biggest star—and, it turns out, the key to getting Chobahm her dream life.

Because Haeri is dead, and Chobahm has been chosen to take her place. Only, life inside Snowglobe is nothing like what you see on television. Reality is a lie, and truth seems to be forever out of reach.

Translated for the first time into English from the original Korean, Snowglobe is a groundbreaking exploration of personal identity, and the future of the world as we know it. It is the winner of the Changbi X Kakaopage Young Adult Novel Award.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. Review based on final copy. All opinions are my own.

My interest was piqued by Snowglobe, and even more so because it was a translated book by a Korean author. While I’m not super familiar with some of the comps, like Squid Game, beyond the basic premise, I’m still interested in books that put interesting spins on the dystopian subgenre, and this absolutely does.

I was immediately drawn into the world building and power structures present in the narrative. Set a few hundred years in the future, in a time where the Earth has frozen over, the Snowglobe is the only part of the world insulated from it. There are people working on the outside to power the city, while there’s a reality-show-esque broadcast of inside Snowglobe 24/7. One of the opening pages even features a cast and crew page for Snowglobe, highlighting the heavily manufactured nature of it all.

Chobahm starts off the book as being one of the masses working to power Snowglobe on the outside, living with the dream of possibly becoming one of them one day, in a similar, if grim, parallel, to how we idolize movie stars in their gilded cages. Then, when Haeri dies, and her “character” is viewed as non-expendable, Chobahm is asked to replace her. While this is what she’s always wanted, it’s not entirely what she expected.

/The narrative has a lot of twists and turns, with reveals that serve to interrogate this structured world of the haves and have-nots in the hands of the corrupt Yibbon Corporation. It’s fairly fast-paced, keeping my attention throughout.

This was a solid read, and I’m open to reading more from Soyoung Park in the future, especially as there is a sequel forthcoming. I’d recommend this book if you’re interested a dystopian story set outside the US and the West.

Author Bio

Soyoung Park majored in information and communication at university and has worked as a reporter. She is a winner of the Original Story Award and the Changbi X Kakaopage Young Adult Novel Award. She’s the author of the Snowglobe duology.

Joungmin Lee Comfort is a Korean-English translator based in the United States. Her translations have appeared in academic journals and Clarkesworld Magazine. Her recent publication of Kim Bo-young’s On the Origin of Species and Other Stories (co-translated with Sora Kim-Russell) was longlisted for the National Book Award for translated literature.

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“Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie” by Jackie Lau (ARC Review)

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Lau, Jackie. Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie. New York: Atria/Emily Bestler Books, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1668030769 | $18.99 USD | 352 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

Jackie Lau, author of the “full of heart” (Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author) The Stand-Up Groomsman, returns with a charming rom-com about a young woman’s desperate attempts to fend off her meddling mother…only to find that maybe mother does know best.

Mark Chan this. Mark Chan that.

Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of hearing about the great Mark Chan, the son of her parents’ friends. You’d think he single-handedly stopped climate change and ended child poverty from the way her mother raves about him. But in reality, he’s just a boring, sweater-vest-wearing engineer, and when they’re forced together at Emily’s sister’s wedding, it’s obvious he thinks he’s too good for her.

But now that Emily is her family’s last single daughter, her mother is fixated on getting her married and she has her sights on Mark. There’s only one solution, clearly: convince Mark to be in a fake relationship with her long enough to put an end to her mom’s meddling. He reluctantly agrees.

Unfortunately, lying isn’t enough. Family friends keep popping up at their supposed dates—including a bubble tea shop and cake-decorating class—so they’ll have to spend more time together to make their relationship look real. With each fake date, though, Emily realizes that Mark’s not quite what she assumed and maybe that argyle sweater isn’t so ugly after all…

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Jackie Lau is slowly becoming one of my go-to authors, and Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie sounded particularly fun. I love when authors write about author characters, with a lot of meta commentary about the struggle to “make it.” A fun way this was conveyed was through epigraphs with “advice” from fictional, in-universe authors, as well as little nuggets of Emily’s inner thoughts. And while this book is not a Pride and Prejudice retelling in the traditional sense, there are elements of the story and references that made me laugh.

And Emily is incredibly relatable, both as a writer who is struggling to make it and in the context of her family and love life. Her insecurities over her tenuous position in life while she struggles in pursuit of her dreams rang very true to me, especially considering the rest of her siblings are comparatively more successful. She also has issues with her mother meddling in her love life, trying to set her up with people. But while her mom is overbearing, I respected that this relationship was a fairly nuanced one, and the Hung family, for all their flaws, are more loving than dysfunctional.

Mark took time to get to know, given he was more of a mysterious figure for the first part of the book, which focused on Emily’s POV. But in a stroke of meta genius, a reference to “typical” romance dual POV dynamics segues perfectly into a second part with dual POV between the two of them, as the relationship develops. As I got to know him, I really liked Mark and found him to be a generally sweet guy. The romance overall is cute, with some drama and obstacles, and I found it easy to root for Emily and Mark to figure things out.

I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to readers interested in a very meta multicultural contemporary romance.

Author Bio

Jackie Lau decided she wanted to be a writer when she was in grade two, sometime between penning “The Heart That Got Lost” and “The Land of Shapes.” She later studied engineering and worked as a geophysicist before turning to writing romance novels. She is now the author of over twenty books.

Jackie lives in Toronto with her husband, and despite living in Canada her whole life, she hates winter. When she’s not writing, she enjoys gelato, gourmet donuts, cooking, hiking, and reading on the balcony when it’s raining.

Represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan at Handspun Literary.

Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky, Facebook, and BookBub.

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“A River of Golden Bones” (The Golden Court #1) by A.K. Mulford (Review)

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Mulford, A.K. A River of Golden Bones. New York: Harper Voyager, 2023.

ISBN-13: 978-0063291423 | $28.99 USD | 385 pages | Fantasy Romance

Blurb

From bestselling author and TikTok sensation A.K. Mulford comes the first riveting, enchanting book in the all-new Golden Court romantasy trilogy—A River of Golden Bones begins a journey of self-discovery, romance, and adventure for a young heir as she/they comes out of hiding to save her sister from a malicious, powerful sorceress and her dangerous sleeping curse.

A sleeping curse. A fallen court. A secret twin.

Twins Calla and Briar have spent their entire lives hiding from the powerful sorceress who destroyed their kingdom…and from the humans who don’t know they are Wolves. Each twin has their own purpose in life: Briar’s is to marry the prince of an ally pack and save the Golden Court. Calla’s purpose is to remain a secret, her twin’s shadow . . . the backup plan.

No one knows who Calla truly is except for her childhood friend—and sister’s betrothed—the distractingly handsome Prince Grae. But when Calla and Briar journey out of hiding for Briar’s wedding, all of their well-made plans go awry. The evil sorceress is back with another sleeping curse for the last heir to the Golden Court.

Calla must step out of the shadows to save their sister, their kingdom, and their own legacy. Continuing to hide as a human and denying who she truly is, Calla embarks on a quest across the realm, discovering a whole world she never knew existed. Outside the confines of rigid Wolf society, Calla begins to wonder: who could she be if she dared to try?

Full of adventure, love, gender exploration, and self-discovery, A River of Golden Bones follows Calla’s journey through treacherous Wolf kingdoms, monster-filled realms, and the depths of their own heart in this thrilling romantic fantasy.

Review

4 stars

I heard about A.K. Mulford in passing on Threads, but didn’t really know what they wrote, until I found A River of Golden Bones among the new books at the library. The premise piqued my interest, being a loose Sleeping Beauty retelling with LGBTQ+ rep. There’s a twist on some familiar concepts to create a fairly fresh and engaging story.

The world and its history are engaging, with the world once having been ruled by a pack of wolf-shifters called the Golden Court. There’s also another ally court, the Silver Court, that plays a major role in the story. I did sometimes feel like some aspects were a tad unclear, but as a fairly uncomplicated “romantasy,” it’s fairly comprehensible

Calla and her twin, Briar are the daughters of the cursed deposed queen of the Golden Court, with Briar initially being the prized heir. Calla’s responsibility has always been to stay in the shadows and protect her sister, while her sister makes a match with the prince from the Silver Court, but things change when Briar is put under a sleeping curse.

Calla is a great protagonist, and I really liked seeing them take the lead and try their best for their sister’s sake. Compared to Briar, they’ve been much more sheltered, but I respect how they rise to the occasion. I also loved the bits about their gender exploration, and it’s very rare for a character to use more than one set of pronouns. While I’ve chosen to use “they” for clarity’s sake, I also appreciate how even the blurb used both interchangeably. It was somewhat less pronounced in-text, as it was in first person, but it’s great to see different types of queer affirmation from trad publishing nonetheless.

The romance is fairly sweet, with Calla and Grae being childhood friends, with the complication being he was betrothed to Briar. While I felt the book more heavily centered on Calla’s journey of self-discovery in the wake of her new position, I feel the romantic developments with Grae complemented it very well, with their natural chemistry developing in a believable way.

If the book has one real flaw, I think it’s a little slow paced. There’s simultaneously a lot going on, but also a lot of lull. And given that the romance seems to be self-contained (book two follows a different couple), I did feel a tad disappointed that there wouldn’t be more space to flesh the relationship out, even if in some ways it might be superfluous. But given that the proportion of each genre is a common complaint I’ve had with books that straddle the line between SFF and romance, and this is a more mild offender, I can’t say I’m surprised, and I hope it gets better with subsequent books.

Fairly minor quibbles aside, I enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading more from Mulford in the future. I recommend this if you’re looking for an inclusive fantasy romance.

Author Bio

A.K. Mulford is a bestselling fantasy author and former wildlife biologist who swapped rehabilitating monkeys for writing novels. She/they are inspired to create diverse stories that transport readers to new realms, making them fall in love with fantasy for the first time, or all over again. She now lives in Australia with her husband and two young human primates, creating lovable fantasy characters and making ridiculous TikToks.

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“Lavash at First Sight” by Taleen Voskuni (ARC Review)

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Voskuni, Taleen. Lavash at First Sight. New York: Berkley, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593547328 | $18.00 USD | 304 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

Sparks fly between two women pitted against each other in this delectable new romantic comedy by Taleen Voskuni, author of Sorry, Bro.

Twenty-seven-year-old Nazeli “Ellie” Gregorian enjoys the prestige of her tech marketing job but is sick of the condescending Patagonia-clad tech bros, her micromanaging boss, and her ex-boyfriend, who she’s forced to work with every day. When Ellie’s lovingly overbearing parents ask her to attend PakCon—a food packaging conference in Chicago—to help promote their company and vie to win an ad slot in the Superbowl (no big deal), she’s eager for a brief change and a delicious distraction.

At the conference, she meets witty, devil-may-care Vanya Simonian. Ellie can’t believe how easy it is to talk to Vanya and how much they have in common—both Armenian! From the Bay Area! Whose families are into food! Their meet-cute is cut short, however, when Ellie’s parents recognize Vanya as the daughter of the owners of their greatest rival, whose mission (according to Ellie’s mother) is to whitewash and package Armenian food for the American health-food crowd.

Sworn as enemies, Ellie and Vanya must compete against each other under their suspicious parents’ scrutiny, all while their feelings for each other heat to sizzling temps.

Review

1 star

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Taleen Voskuni’s first book, and I had high hopes for her follow-up, Lavash at First Sight. Sadly, all hopes were dashed, and it’s a severe case of sophomore slump. And while, typically I’d DNF books if I felt they would be this bad, I inexplicably chose to stick this one out to the bitter end.

The writing is serviceable, and perhaps the only thing that kept me going. It’s not the best thing ever, but it’s not a grievance the way other aspects of the book are. Again, I have no idea what compelled me to keep going with this book.

The protagonist, Ellie, frustrated me. I can understand having complicated feelings about your heritage, and I can’t speak to what it is to be Armenian, but I still found her rather insufferable to spend the book with. There was a lot of drama with her ex and her job, and that also contributed to my dislike.

And Vanya was…there? Was this a romance? You could practically delete Vanya and it would make almost no difference.

And for a book with such a punny food title, I didn’t even get the large presence of food and family-restaurant rivalry to the extent I feel was promised.

It was just all-around bland and flavorless, and while I’m clearly in the minority, I suspect a lot of the people rating this highly might not be avid romance readers. I’d encourage anyone who’s interested to go through the reviews and/or read the book for themselves to come to their own conclusions.

Author Bio

Taleen Voskuni is an award-winning writer who grew up in the Bay Area Armenian diaspora. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in English and currently lives in San Francisco, working in tech. Other than a newfound obsession with writing rom-coms, she spends her free time cultivating her kids, her garden, and her dark chocolate addiction. Her first novel, Sorry, Bro, received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, was named an Amazon editor’s pick, and was favorably reviewed in The New York Times. Sorry, Bro is also winner of the 2023 Golden Poppy award for best romance. Lavash at First Sight is her second published novel.

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“A Suffragist’s Guide to the Antarctic” by Yi Shun Lai (Review)

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Lai, Yi Shun. A Suffragist’s Guide to the Antarctic. New York: Atheneum, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1665937764 | $19.99 USD | 326 pages | YA Historical Fiction

Blurb

A teen’s fight for suffrage turns into one of survival when her crew’s Antarctic expedition ship gets stuck in the ice in this historical novel told in journal entries perfect for fans of Gary Paulsen and The Downstairs Girl.

November 1914.

Clara Ketterling-Dunbar is one of twenty-eight crew members of The Resolute—a ship meant for an Antarctic expedition now marooned on ice one hundred miles from the shore of the continent. An eighteen-year-old American, Clara has told the crew she’s a twenty-one-year-old Canadian. Since the war broke out, sentiment toward Americans has not been the most favorable, and Clara will be underestimated enough simply for being a woman without also giving away just how young she is. Two members of the crew know her nationality, but no one knows the truth of her activities in England before The Resolute set sail.

She and her suffragist sisters in the Women’s Social & Political Union were waging war of a different kind in London. They taught Clara to fight. And now, even marooned on the ice, she won’t stop fighting for women’s rights…or for survival. In the wilderness of Antarctica, Clara is determined to demonstrate what a woman is truly capable of—if the crew will let her.

Review

3.5 stars

A Suffragist’s Guide to the Antarctic drew me in based on the title alone. The promise of a story involving women’s suffrage, plus a survival narrative in the Antarctic piqued my interest, being things I’ve read about in the past. And while in some ways, it wasn’t entirely what I expected, it was more or less an enjoyable experience.

I love the historical detail put into the narrative, from the chronicling of the troubles the crew of the Resolute faced and the struggle to survive to the more minute, coloring the time period in general. I was intrigued by details about the roles of women on the Resolute to Clara’s interactions with prominent suffragettes of the day, like Ida B. Wells and Alice Paul, but I was also drawn to how Clara being American was treated (or would be, hence why she concealed it from people). While I knew about Woodrow Wilson’s inconsistency regarding whether the US would enter World War I, I had no idea that it led to a negative opinion of Americans internationally.

Clara is a solid focal point for the book, as she highlights how the journey and disaster impacted a young woman in her position. While I can’t say I was all that attached to her as a character, given “she” wrote in journal entries that were just as much about providing travel and survival advice as conveying story, there is still a hint as to the impact of her experiences throughout.

In spite of lack of character depth, the general intrigue and danger of the journey were well-conveyed, keeping me in suspense for the most part. While it’s a bit simple, it’s also fairly readable, with exception of a few intense scenes, including an attempted sexual assault, showing the variety of dangers women faced and still face today.

While I have my quibbles with some aspects of the execution, it still does a lot that I really appreciate. With the caveat that you’ll probably enjoy it if you like the diary format, I recommend it if you’re interested in YA historical fiction focused both on women’s suffrage and Antarctic exploration and survival.

Author Bio

Yi Shun Lai lives in Southern California, and she can talk to you forever about plants and animals and deserts both hot and cold. She volunteers for ShelterBox, an international disaster relief organization, and was once invited to be a crew member aboard an Antarctic cruise line. She’s the author of novels Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu and A Suffragist’s Guide to the Antarctic and memoir Pin Ups. You can read her essays in Shondaland and Brevity. Find her on the web at TheGoodDirt.org.

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“The Return of Ellie Black” by Emiko Jean (ARC Review)

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Jean, Emiko. The Return of Ellie Black. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1668023938 | $28.99 USD | 320 pages | Thriller

Blurb

“The Return of Ellie Black is a page-turning suspense novel, a shrewd character study, and a captivating mystery, all at the same time. The last fifty pages are magnetic. I couldn’t put it down until I’d experienced every last twist and turn.” —STEPHEN KING

Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.

It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.

Review

2 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I’ve loved seeing Emiko Jean grow as an author and explore different genres. But sadly, while I was hopeful for her first thriller, it was a major miss for me. The premise is great, but there was a lot of missed potential in the execution.

My favorite bits ended up being the chapters written from the “captured girl’s” perspective. While it’s not spelled out specifically, it’s made pretty obvious that we’re in Ellie’s head while she was trapped, with the rest of the story focusing on the investigation into her return.

But sadly (although understandably), those bits were a small part of the book, placed sparingly throughout the narrative, and they only mildly saved this book from being absolutely . The main narrative with the investigation follows the detective Chelsey Calhoun, and I found her much less compelling, with the main interesting thing about her being that her sister also went missing several years back. The way this was conveyed, with occasional jarring flashbacks mid-chapter, down to full reams of dialogue conveyed in italics almost made me DNF a chapter in, before deciding to tough it out to give an author I had previously liked a fair shot.

And while I didn’t expect Chelsey to be fleshed out much, the present narrative didn’t do much to keep me invested in Ellie either. The story moved at snail’s-pace, and I frequently found my attention flagging. And then there’s a plot twist towards the end that had me going “WTF?” and not in a good way.

This was a massive disappointment, especially as it was from an author I’d previously enjoyed. And while I’m clearly in the minority on this one, I realize my tastes in thrillers are rather niche and contrarian, so I wouldn’t discourage you from trying it if it sounds like it would work for you.

Author Bio

Emiko Jean is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novels Tokyo Dreaming and Tokyo Ever After, a Reese Witherspoon/Hello Sunshine pick, as well as the novel Mika in Real Life, which was a Good Morning America Book Club pick. She lives in Washington with her husband and two kids.

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“Finally Heard” (Finally Seen #2) by Kelly Yang (Review)

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Yang, Kelly. Finally Heard. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1665947930 | $18.99 USD | 339 pages | MG Contemporary

Blurb

From the New York Times bestselling author of Front Desk comes the sequel to Finally Seen in which Lina gets a phone and tries to navigate social media, only to discover not everything online is what it seems.

When ten-year-old Lina Gao sees her mom’s video on social media take off, she’s captivated by the potential to be seen and heard! Maybe online she can finally find the confidence she craves. Whereas in real life she’s growing so fast, she feels like microwave popcorn, bursting out of her skin!

With the help of her two best friends, Carla and Finn, and her little sister, Millie, Lina sets off to go viral. Except there’s a lot more to social media than Lina ever imagined, like:

1. Seeing inside her classmates’ lives!Is she really the only person on the planet who doesn’t have a walk-in closet?
2. Group chats! Disappearing videos!What is everyone talking about in the secret chats? And how can she join?
3. A bazillion stories about what to eat, wear, and put on her face. Could they all be telling the truth? Everyone sounds so sure of what they’re saying!

As Lina descends deeper and deeper into social media, it will take all her strength to break free from the likes and find the courage to be her authentic self in this fast-paced world.

In the series

#1 Finally Seen

Review

4 stars

I wasn’t anticipating a sequel to last year’s Finally Seen from Kelly Yang, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear about Finally Heard nonetheless. It was great to see Lina and Co. again, and see more of Lina’s growth in particular, especially as far it relates to the overall arc of the book this time around. She’s still dealing with a lot of similar challenges related to growing up, but there’s a new focus on cyberbullying, and how there’s an impact on her to the point where she fights back in a consequential way.

While issues with social media drama are almost ubiquitous at this point for all ages, I love that Yang chose to tackle it for a young audience, especially since I can’t think of many books tackling it in a way that is very relevant for the tween reader. But I love how it is also written in a way that speaks not just to them, but to their parents and families, especially by providing research and resources related to tweens and teens and social media at the end.

But even with the central narrative slowly escalating toward an intense confrontation, I still liked that there were some “fun” bits. With book banning being such a prominent theme in the prior book, I loved that this theme lived on in a love-fest for other middle grade and YA books, many of which I recognized. Yang even references another of her titles in-text, in a fun, meta bit of “book-ception.”

This was a great follow-up, and I’d recommend it to readers looking for an approachable story highlighting the dangers of social media for younger readers.

Author Bio

Kelly Yang is the New York Times bestselling author of Front Desk (winner of the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature), Parachutes, Three Keys, Room to Dream, New from Here, Finally Seen, and Finally Heard. Front Desk also won the Parents’ Choice Gold Medal, was the 2019 Global Read Aloud, and has earned numerous other honors including being named a best book of the year byThe Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and NPR. Learn more at KellyYang.com.

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“You Could Be So Lucky” by Cat Sebastian (ARC Review)

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Sebastian, Cat. You Should Be So Lucky. New York: Avon, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0063272804 | $18.99 USD | 400 pages | Historical Romance

Blurb

An emotional, slow-burn, grumpy/sunshine, queer mid-century romance for fans of Evvie Drake Starts Over, about grief and found family, between the new star shortstop stuck in a batting slump and the reporter assigned to (reluctantly) cover his first season—set in the same universe as We Could Be So Good.

The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.

Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.

Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

You Should Be So Lucky is the latest offering from Cat Sebastian, and while not in an “official” series, it’s technically a companion novel to her prior release, We Could Be So Good. As such, while it’s a standalone, some of the major characters do overlap (Andy from WCBSG is a supporting character!), so, if you like one, you’ll inevitably like the other.

I love that Cat Sebastian is continuing to explore the mid-20th century, in spite of it not being a massively popular time period in historical romance. And while I’m not a baseball fan, or sports fan in general, I loved getting some nuggets of baseball history amid the fiction. And the narrative continues a thread explored in Sebastian’s previous mid-century works (including WCBSG), regarding the prevalence of homophobia in the 50s and 60s, and how much more complicated it is when you’re a professional baseball player.

The two leads are great, and the central romance is really sweet. Mark is rather closed-off and prickly, while Eddie is much sweeter (although they both have their dickish moments). They’re bonded by their mutual experiences with grief and loss, and provide a lot of support for each other. Their relationship is also full of great banter and humor, as well. Sebastian’s books of late have often been more slow-burn, and largely vibes-based, but this book, like its predecessor, worked really well in that regard thanks to the strong central romance.

This was another enjoyable read by Cat Sebastian, and I’d recommend it to readers looking for a mid-century historical sports romance.

Author Bio

Cat Sebastian writes queer historical romances. Cat’s books include We Could Be So Good and the Turner series, and have received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. Before writing, Cat was a lawyer and a teacher and did a variety of other jobs she liked much less than she enjoys writing happy endings for queer people. She was born in New Jersey and lived in New York and Arizona before settling down in a swampy part of the South. When she isn’t writing, she’s probably reading, having one-sided conversations with her dog, or doing the crossword puzzle.

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“The Notes” by Catherine Con Morse (ARC Review)

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Con Morse, Catherine. The Notes. New York: Crown Books for Young Readers, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593711385 | $19.99 USD | 320 pages | YA Contemporary

Blurb

A reserved Chinese American teen at a Southern performing arts boarding school comes into her own under the tutelage of a glamorous new piano teacher. A moving coming-of-age-novel from a debut novelist about first love, adolescent angst, and academic pressures.

“Compellingly readable. Make room in the boarding-school book canon for a new classic.” – Jeff Zentner, award-winning author of In the Wild Light and The Serpent King

“A moving, highly virtuosic, and heart-rending portrait of an aspiring teen pianist trying to find her way…it made me feel seen.” – Patricia Park, author of Imposter Syndrome and Other Confession of Alejandra Kim and What’s Eating Jackie Oh?

Claire Wu isn’t sure that she has what it takes to become a successful concert pianist.

It’s the fear of every student at Greenwood School for the Performing Arts: becoming a washed-out performer who couldn’t make it big. And Claire’s no Rocky Wong, the ace pianist at their boarding school.

Then Dr. Li shows up. She’s like no other teacher at Greenwood: mysterious, sophisticated, fascinating. Under Dr. Li’s tutelage, Claire works harder and dreams bigger than ever. And her crush Rocky finally seems interested. Maybe she’ll even be “Chinese enough” to join the elusive Asian Student Society.

Everything is falling into place until eerily personal notes about Claire’s bond with Dr. Li appear. Claire starts to feel the pressure. But she isn’t the only one. Everyone is feeling the strain. Especially Rocky, whose extreme perfectionism hides something more troubling.

As the Showcase tension crescendos, Claire must decide if she’s ready to sink or swim. Only then can she discover who she really is and learn if she’s ready to give her all for a shot at greatness.

The Notes is a powerful and poignant debut YA novel from award-winning writer Catherine Con Morse about dealing with academic pressures, falling in love for the first time, and finding yourself.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Catherine Con Morse is a new-to-me author, but I was drawn to the cover and premise of The Notes. I know next to nothing about the world of music, but I appreciated how the pressure of being a musician was depicted, along with dealing with academic pressure, first love, and other issues a young teen deals with.

Claire is a sympathetic protagonist, juggling all these concerns early on in the book. The cultural nuance is also woven through the book, interrogating the common archetype that Chinese Americans excel at everything. I really liked how she came into her own, developing self-confidence in her abilities.

The relationships in the book are pivotal to Claire’s growth. Dr. Li, the glamorous music teacher, is instrumental in Claire pushing herself to succeed and strive to achieve her dreams. And while it’s not a romance, I really liked her growing bond with fellow student Rocky, who she bonds with over the intense expectations placed upon them.

This was an enjoyable debut, and I’m interested to read more from Catherine Con Morse in the future. If you’re looking for a multicultural coming-of-age story, I’d recommend checking out this one!

Author Bio

Catherine Con Morse is the author of the coming-of-age boarding school novel THE NOTES, which was shortlisted for the CRAFT first chapters contest. A Kundiman fellow, she received her MFA from Boston University, where she taught undergraduate creative writing for several years. Her work appears in Joyland, Letters, HOOT, Bostonia, the Racist Sandwich podcast, and elsewhere. Catherine was one of the inaugural Writers in Residence at Porter Square Books.

In high school, Catherine attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, a public arts boarding school, where she was as intrigued with her teacher as Claire is with Dr. Li. Catherine continues to play and teach piano today. Most recently, she taught English at Choate Rosemary Hall, and lives in the Connecticut River Valley with her husband and daughter.

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“Because the Baron Broods” (Rogue Rules #2) by Darcy Burke (ARC Review)

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Burke, Darcy. Because the Baron Broods. [Place of publication not identified]: Zealous Quill Press, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1637261798 | $4.99 USD | 292 pages | Regency Romance

Blurb

Growing up in isolation in Cornwall, Tamsin Penrose looks forward to the one month each year that she spends in an idyllic seaside town with her best friends. She’s shocked to receive a letter from her reclusive father informing her of a potential groom—they’ve never even discussed marriage and she rather expected to be a spinster. But she’s met a charming, if serious, baron and now she’s dreaming of a romantic, wedded life.

During his annual trip to a friend’s seaside estate, broody Isaac Deverell, Baron Droxford finds himself in an objectionable situation: socializing with a group of ladies over several days. He is not prepared for the storm of cheerfulness that is Miss Penrose, nor can he deny that she makes him feel…good.

Because Isaac is an unheroic rogue with a devastatingly sinful secret, he should flee this delightful ray of sunshine. However, he can’t keep his distance, and when her overzealous suitor arrives and won’t take no for an answer, Isaac protects her in a scandalously public fashion. Now he can’t run from her. Can these attracted opposites find a happy ever after, or will the past destroy their chance?

In the series

#1 If the Duke Dares

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the author and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Because the Baron Broods is the second book in Darcy Burke’s latest series, Rogue Rules. It can be read as a standalone, but I do recommend checking out the first book as well, as it’s just as enjoyable as this one.

Both leads are fairly likable and sympathetic. Tamsin has grown up isolated in Cornwall, only permitted to visit with her friends for a month each year, not to mention her father is a recluse who did not have much of a role in her upbringing, and her mother died when she was young. Isaac, meanwhile, isn’t necessarily a rogue as you’d think of him, but he does have a scandal in his past. He did take longer to get to know and understand, given he’s very closed-off, but as I (and Tamsim) got to know him, I really understood him.

The romance is super sweet, and a slower burn than many of the books I’ve read from Darcy Burke in the past. The circumstances of how Isaac and Tamsin are thrown together means they spend a lot of time getting to know each other, and I appreciated that that took precedence, while building the anticipation and tension. While the first kiss occurs rather late in the book, things pick up from there, and their emotional connection translates into great physical chemistry.

This was an enjoyable second installment, and I’m excited for what the next book brings. I’d recommend this if you’re looking for a slower burn historical romance.

Author Bio

Darcy Burke is the USA Today Bestselling Author of sexy, emotional historical and contemporary romance. Darcy wrote her first book at age 11, a happily ever after about a swan addicted to magic and the female swan who loved him, with exceedingly poor illustrations. Click here to Join her Reader Club.

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“The Reappearance of Rachel Price” by Holly Jackson (Review)

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Jackson, Holly. The Reappearance of Rachel Price. New York: Delacorte Press, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593374207 | $20.99 USD | 430 pages | YA Thriller

Blurb

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of the multimillion-copy bestselling A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series and Five Survive comes a gripping mystery thriller following one teen’s search for the truth about her mother’s shocking disappearance—and even more shocking reappearance—during the filming of a true crime documentary.

Lights. Camera. Lies.

Eighteen-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dredged up from the past when the Price family agrees to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And—could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.SEE LESS

Review

4.5 stars

While I didn’t love Holly Jackson’s first Good Girl’s Guide to Murder standalone, I had hope that she’d write another winner soon. And she definitely does this time around with The Reappearance of Rachel Price. It could merely be the similar “true-crime mystery” feel that I simply prefer from Jackson. And while this book was lighter on the presence of multimedia, I liked that there was some at the beginning to set up the eponymous documentary that the major characters are participating in.

Bel is a solid protagonist. She was immediately relatable for how she’s been dealing with having been raised without her mother, and is now dealing with the reopening of those old wounds in the wake of a documentary digging into her disappearance, especially since young Bel was the only witness at the time it happened. I loved the exploration of her complex feelings about the initial incident itself, and how those changed with her mother’s reappearance.

The plot was truly engaging, with so many twists and turns. I loved how it turned from (an admittedly shaky) case of kidnapping by a stranger to something much more sinister highlighting the cracks in the foundation of the Price family. Pretty much no one on that side of the family was immune from suspicion, except Bel and her cousin, Carter (although even Carter is something more than she appears). I admit that some of the choices made to resolve things, while making sense to avoid too much blood on the hands of the innocent characters, felt slightly implausible, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief for the most part.

I really enjoyed this book, and I’d recommend it to readers looking for a fairly fast-paced YA thriller.

Author Bio

Holly Jackson is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, an international sensation with millions of copies sold worldwide as well as the #1 New York Times bestseller and instant classic, Five Survive, and her forthcoming novel, The Reappearance of Rachel Price. She graduated from the University of Nottingham, where she studied literary linguistics and creative writing, with a master’s degree in English. She enjoys playing video games and watching true-crime documentaries so she can pretend to be a detective. She lives in London.

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“What’s Eating Jackie Oh?” by Patricia Park (ARC Review)

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Park, Patricia. What’s Eating Jackie Oh? New York: Crown Books for Young Readers, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593563410 | $19.99 USD | 336 pages | YA Contemporary

Blurb

A Korean American teen tries to balance her dream to become a chef with the cultural expectations of her family when she enters the competitive world of a TV cooking show. A hilarious and heartfelt YA novel from the award-winning author of Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim and Re Jane.

“Park’s novel delivers authentic characters who will make you laugh…and cry. Not to be missed!” –Ellen Oh, author of The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee

Jackie Oh is done being your model minority.

She’s tired of perfect GPAs, PSATs, SATs, all of it. Jackie longs to become a professional chef. But her Korean American parents are Ivy League corporate workaholics who would never understand her dream. Just ask her brother, Justin, who hasn’t heard from them since he was sent to Rikers Island.

Jackie works at her grandparents’ Midtown Manhattan deli after school and practices French cooking techniques at night—when she should be studying. But the kitchen’s the only place Jackie is free from all the stresses eating at her—school, family, and the increasing violence targeting the Asian community.

Then the most unexpected thing happens: Jackie becomes a teen contestant on her favorite cooking show, Burn Off! Soon Jackie is thrown headfirst into a cutthroat TV world filled with showboating child actors, snarky judges, and gimmicky “gotcha!” challenges.

All Jackie wants to do is cook her way. But what is her way? In a novel that will make you laugh and cry, Jackie proves who she is both on and off the plate.

Patricia Park’s hilarious and stunning What’s Eating Jackie Oh? explores the delicate balance of identity, ambition, and the cultural expectations to perform.

Review

3 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I mostly enjoyed the previous book I read from Patricia Park, and What’s Eating Jackie Oh? Sounded similarly promising. And while I liked the ideas presented, I found the execution a tad lacking.

Jackie Oh is a relatable protagonist, and I respect what the story was trying to do in interrogating the “model minority” archetype. I like how we see her grapple with parental pressure, especially as her parents already “lost” one child who failed them, and her true passion for cooking doesn’t fit into the mold they’ve set for her.

And the cooking competition was a lot of fun, and was a solid structure for the book itself, presenting realistic obstacles for her to battle against in her quest to prove her abilities, not to mention providing myriad food-related references.

But in the effort to create such a hard-hitting book, I feel like some of the issues got lost in the shuffle. I kept wondering if her brother being in prison would be developed more, and it wasn’t. Even the pressure and disapproval from her parents felt weirdly sidelined at times. I became very confused as to what exactly the message the reader was meant to take away from the book.

While I didn’t 100% love this, I do like the ideas presented here, even if I wish they had been more fleshed out or focused. If you’re looking for a book that interrogates the “model minority” and follows the journey of becoming oneself, I’d recommend giving this book a chance.

Author Bio

Patricia Park is the author of the award-winning novel, Re Jane (a Korean American retelling of Brontë’s Jane Eyre), and the YA novels Imposter Syndrome & Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim (an NPR Best Books of 2023 and a Gotham Book Prize finalist) and the forthcoming, What’s Eating Jackie Oh? She is a tenured professor of creative writing at American University, a Fulbright scholar, an Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and other awards. She has written for The New York Times, New Yorker, Guardian, and others. Patricia was born & raised in Queens, NY. Her novels are all linked in the “Queens multiverse.”

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“Playing for Keeps” by Jennifer Dugan (ARC Review)

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Dugan, Jennifer. Playing for Keeps. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593696866 | $19.99 USD | 320 pages | YA Contemporary Romance

Blurb

From the author of Some Girls Do comes another heartfelt YA sapphic romance—starring a baseball pitcher and a student umpire who are definitely not supposed to fall for one another.

“Sapphic sports romance perfection. Swoony and romantic, but unafraid to tackle grief, family expectations, and fighting for your dreams, this is a home run of a book.” —Rachael Lippincott, coauthor of the #1 New York Times Bestsellers Five Feet Apart and She Gets the Girl

June is the star pitcher of her elite club baseball team—with an ego to match—and she’s a shoo-in to be recruited at the college level, like her parents have always envisioned. That is, if she can play through an overuse injury that has recently gone from bad to worse.

Ivy isn’t just reffing to pay off her athletic fees or make some extra cash on the side. She wants to someday officiate at the professional level, even if her parents would rather she go to college instead.

The first time they cross paths, Ivy throws June out of a game for grandstanding. Still, they quickly grow from enemies to begrudging friends . . . and then something more. But the rules state that players and umpires are prohibited from dating.

As June’s shoulder worsens, and a rival discovers the girls’ secret and threatens to expose them, everything the two have worked so hard for is at risk. Now both must choose: follow their dreams . . . or follow their hearts?

Review

3 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I often like Jennifer Dugan’s work, but I had mixed feelings about Playing for Keeps. I liked it for the most part, but it’s definitely not one of her better books.

I did enjoy the characters for the most part.. I liked the romantic dynamic between them, starting with a rivalry and developing into friends and more. Things escalated rather quickly, and the conflict was rather dramatic, but it makes sense from a teen’s perspective. And I really liked how they were ultimately able to connect over the common bond of reckoning with grief over losing a loved one to cancer. I am a little concerned at how increasingly common cancer subplots are, but here, it at least was a bonding point for the romance.

I did feel like their POVs and voices weren’t distinct enough, so I would often forget whose head I was meant to be in. The pacing also lagged at times, and I found my attention occasionally flagging throughout the book.

While this was a bit of a letdown, it has enjoyable moments. Provided the issues I mentioned aren’t issues for you (especially the cancer bit), I recommend giving this a chance.

Author Bio

Jennifer Dugan is a writer, a geek and a romantic, who loves writing stories about messy, complicated women and girls. Her debut novel, Hot Dog Girl, was called a “great fizzy rom-com” by Entertainment Weekly and “one of the best reads of the year, hands down” by Paste Magazine, although she is best known for Some Girls Do, her third young adult novel that took Tiktok by storm. She recently released her adult romance debut, Love at First Set about “the most hilarious disaster bisexuals you’ll ever meet” according to the queen of LGBTQ Reads, Dahlia Adler, for Buzzfeed. Jennifer has also written two graphic novels, Coven and the forthcoming Full Shift with artist Kit Seaton.

She is represented by Sara Crowe at Sara Crowe Literary, with film rights being handled by Mary Pender at United Talent Agency.

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“One of Us Knows” by Alyssa Cole (Review)

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Cole, Alyssa. One of Us Knows. New York: William Morrow, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0063114951 | $18.99 USD | 352 pages | Thriller

Blurb

From the critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author of When No One Is Watching comes a riveting thriller about the new caretaker of a historic estate who finds herself trapped on an island with a murderer—and the ghosts of her past.

Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity.

Then a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers—including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect.

Caught in a web of secrets and in a race against time, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island—and their own past—or they risk losing not only their future, but their life.

Review

4 stars

I was so excited to hear Alyssa Cole was releasing a new thriller, I didn’t even care what it was about. But One of Us Knows is not what I was expecting…and that’s a good thing! It’s not the straightforward thriller I was expecting, given my experience with her previous one, and I may not be intelligent enough to grasp some of the nuances here, but I appreciate this book nonetheless.

While I don’t have DID, my interest was piqued when I saw Kenetria, or Ken, the protagonist of the book, was a system with alters who are fully-fleshed out characters within the narrative. So, while I can’t speak from personal experience, I do know what bad rep for DID is from people pointing it out, and I like that Ken and her alters felt much more nuanced. One aspect I loved that really brought Ken and each of these alters to life was the chapters written as a “Groupthnk: Collaborative Journal,” which includes a lot of the documentation from the various alters, although there are some “normal” chapters from some of their POVs as well. I also liked the interactions with one another, and the general concept of how these different headmates could all coexist together in regular day-to-day life.

The plot was where I found myself a little more of a slow-burner for me, and surprisingly, it was the less interesting aspect of it all. The mystery itself took time to pick up, and in the meantime, I was taken in by the interplay between Ken and the various alters. This aspect is relevant to the developing external plot with the murder mystery, and it all contributed to the general sense of “WTAF?” I had while reading. And given that a lot of the book is Ken and the alters trying to figure out what happened, Cole was successful in conveying that, and taking me for a ride.

This was a trippy read, and while I’m not sure this will work for everyone, I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a well-crafted psychological thriller, especially if you’re craving solid DID rep.

Author Bio

Alyssa Cole is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers and romance (historical, contemporary, and sci-fi). Her books have received critical acclaim from Library Journal, BuzzFeed, Kirkus, Booklist, Jezebel, Vulture, Book Riot, Entertainment Weekly, and various other outlets. When she’s not working, she can usually be found watching anime or wrangling her many pets.

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“Winnie Zeng Shatters the Universe” (Winnie Zeng #3) by Katie Zhao (ARC Review)

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Zhao, Katie. Winnie Zeng Shatters the Universe. New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593426654 | $17.99 USD | 288 pages | MG Fantasy

Blurb

In the third book of this epic fantasy series, kids from around the world are summoned to compete at the magical Shaman Youth Tournament! But with all the young shamans away, who will defend the human realm from evil spirits?

“A hilarious tussle between homework, family, and heroism.” —Kwame Mbalia, #1 New York Times bestselling author

If awards were given for multitasking, then Winnie Zeng would come in first place. Between juggling evil spirits and middle school—boy, does she have her hands full. Ordinarily, winter break would be her chance to catch up on anime, but this year marks the return of the Shaman Youth Tournament, where shamans around the world duel for the title of champion!

To prepare, Winnie and her archnemesis, David, train for their toughest battles yet. But when some of their competitors start acting a little stranger—and a lot stronger—than normal, they realize they might be in over their heads.

Soon, it becomes clear that the spirit attacks in Winnie’s hometown were only the beginning of something more sinister than any one shaman can tackle. Now, it’s up to all shamans to take on this task and protect the human world. It just may be the last mission they ever receive. . . .

In the series

#1 Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend

#2 Winnie Zeng Vanquishes a King

Review

4 stars

Winnie Zeng Shatters the Universe is the third (and I believe final book) in this delightful middle grade fantasy series, and I’ve enjoyed the ride. This final book does a great job on a personal front for Winnie and her friends, as well as being truly fun and engaging on a fantasy front. Plus, the foodie element remains present, from confidence cookies to spirit boba, and there’s recipes at the end once again.

Winnie’s coming-of-age has been a major thread throughout the series, and I love how she not only develops in terms of her shamanic powers, gaining new skills over time, but also on a personal level too, with her friendships and even rivalries continuing to develop in compelling ways this time around.

The tournament setup is very cool, and is a great way to present the mythological elements early on, as well as the inciting incident with the attack by the Four Evil Beings. The story was exciting and fast-paced, and a perfect epic conclusion for the series.

This was an enjoyable series, and I hope Katie Zhao writes more in this vein in the future. If you’re looking for a fun middle grade fantasy series with Chinese mythology.

Author Bio

Katie Zhao is a 2017 graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English and Political Science, and a 2018 Masters of Accounting at the same university. She is the author of THE DRAGON WARRIOR duology (Bloomsbury Kids), HOW WE FALL APART (Bloomsbury Kids), LAST GAMER STANDING (Scholastic), WINNIE ZENG series (Random House Children’s Books), THE LIES WE TELL (Bloomsbury Kids), and forthcoming THE DESCENDANTS duology (Random House Children’s Books). She is represented by Penny Moore of Aevitas Creative Management. She’s a passionate advocate for representation in literature and media.

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“The Last Boyfriends Rules for Revenge” by Matthew Hubbard (ARC Review)

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Hubbard, Matthew. The Last Boyfriends Rules for Revenge. New York: Delacorte Press, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593707173 | $19.99 USD | 368 pages | YA Contemporary

Blurb

A queer coming-of-age about three teenage boys in small town Alabama who set out to get revenge on their ex-boyfriends and end up starting a student rebellion. Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Jason June!

Ezra Hayes has always felt like a background character compared to BFFs Lucas and Finley. He would do anything to be seen as a romantic lead, even if it means keeping his boyfriend, Presley, a secret. But when he discovers that Presley is a lying cheater, and his best friends are having boy problems of their own, they want revenge.

Their plans to get even involve sabotaging the largest party of the year, entering a drag competition, and even having Ezra run against his ex for Winter Formal King. Then the school district starts to actively censor queer voices with their Watch What You Say initiative. Taking to TikTok to vent frustrations, Ezra begins “The Last Boyfriends Student Rebellion.”

Between ex-boyfriend drama and navigating viral TikTok fame, Ezra realizes this rebellion is about something more important than revenge. It’s a battle cry to fight back against outdated opinions and redefine what it means to be queer in small town Alabama.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

The Last Boyfriends Rules for Revenge piqued my interest thanks to the bright cover (Pride colors!) and the blurb. The story is also rooted in topics I’ve become increasingly passionate about, like combatting institutionalized homophobia, and the legislation promoting book bans and the stigmatizing of drag shows. But even beyond that, it’s not just a story of queer resistance, but also has time for queer joy too.

I love the central friendship between Ezra and his best friends, Lucas and Finley. I loved their bond, especially how commiserating over heartbreak brought them closer, coordinating plans for revenge, and how seamlessly that also tied into actively fighting against their school district for their homophobic policies.

I also really liked Ezra in his own right. He really comes into his own throughout the book,figuring out his place in the world. And having always been a bit of a romantic, I liked that he also found a guy who was actually a solid person, and their romantic moments were quite cute.

This is a delightful, timely, affirming read, and I’d recommend it to readers interested in a queer coming of age story with strong threads of activism and romance.

Author Bio

Matthew Hubbard writes the kind of stories he wished he’d had as a teen in rural Alabama. He grew up on a mountaintop farm and knows more than he is willing to admit about small towns. He studied English, marketing, and psychology in college. When he isn’t writing, Matthew can be found on a hike in search of breathtaking views, reading as many books as he can get his hands on, and cheering for his favorite hockey team. He lives in Chattanooga with his husband, their dogs Layla and Phillip, and Jay Gatsby the cat. Last Boyfriends is his first novel.4

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“Sound the Gong” (Kingdom of Three #2) by Joan He (ARC Review)

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He, Joan. Sound the Gong. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1250855367 | $19.99 USD | 368 pages | YA Fantasy

Blurb

From New York Times and Indie bestselling author Joan He, comes Sound the Gong, the dazzling and sweeping conclusion to The Kingdom of Three duology.

All her life, Zephyr has tried to rise above her humble origins as a no-name orphan. Now she is a god in a warrior’s body, and never has she felt more powerless.

The warlordess Xin Ren holds the Westlands, but her position is tenuous. In the north, the empress remains a puppet under Miasma’s thumb. In the south, the alliance with Cicada is in pieces.

Fate has a winner in mind for the three kingdoms, but Zephyr has no intentions of respecting it. She will pay any price to see Ren succeed—and she will make her enemies pay, especially the enigmatic Crow. What she’ll do when she finds out the truth. . . Only the heavens know.

Featuring gorgeous map art by Anna Frohmann and black-and-white portraits by Tida Kietsungden, Sound the Gong is the second book in Joan He’s riveting Kindgom of Three duology.

In the series

#1 Strike the Zither

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Sound the Gong closes out Joan He’s Kingdom of the Three duology beautifully. He once again wears her influences on her sleeve, again pulling from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for inspiration, with all its political intrigue and moral complexity.

Zephyr remains an intriguing character, even as she remains morally gray, even truly dark at times. But she is not without principles; it’s simply that she’ll do what she must to achieve her goals. Another character, Crow, also has a much more prominent role in this book, and I became as invested in his fate as I was Zephyr’s…even though I had a feeling it would not end well, even without extensive knowledge of the source material.

While not necessarily fast paced, there’s enough going on with the balance of politicking/scheming and action that I was invested throughout, and felt that He did justice to the narrative she was trying to tell.

This was an epic read, and I’d recommend both books to readers looking for an epic Chinese-inspired YA fantasy.

Author Bio

Joan He was born and raised in Philadelphia but still, on occasion, will lose her way. At a young age, she received classical instruction in oil painting before discovering that storytelling was her favorite form of expression. She studied Psychology and East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania and currently splits her time between Philly and Chicago. She is the bestselling author of The Ones We’re Meant to Find, Descendant of the Crane, and the Kingdom of Three duology, which includes Strike the Zither and Sound the Gong.

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“The Kiss Countdown” by Etta Easton (Review)

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Easton, Etta. The Kiss Countdown. New York: Berkley Romance, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593640227 | $18.00 USD | 336 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

A struggling event planner and a sinfully hot astronaut must decide if their fake relationship is worth a shot at happily-ever-after, in this starry debut.

Risk-averse event planner Amerie Price is jobless, newly single, and about to lose her apartment. With no choice but to gamble on her shaky start-up, the last thing she needed was to run into her smug ex and his new, less complicated girlfriend at Amerie’s favorite coffee shop. Panicked, she pretends to be dating the annoyingly sexy man she met by spilling Americano all over his abs. He plays along—for a price.

Half the single men in Houston claim to be astronauts, but Vincent Rogers turns out to be the real deal. What started as a one-off lie morphs into a plan: for the three months leading up to his mission, Amerie will play Vincent’s doting partner in front of his loving but overly invested family. In exchange, she gets a rent-free room in his house and can put every penny toward her struggling business.

What Amerie doesn’t plan for is Vincent’s gravitational pull. While her mind tells her a future with this astronaut is too unpredictable, her heart says he’s exactly what she needs. As their time together counts down, Amerie must decide if she’ll settle for the safe life—or shoot for the stars.SEE LESS

Review

4 stars

The Kiss Countdown caught my attention due to the cover (I’m here for more Black romances!), and I didn’t know the specifics of what it was about until just before I started reading it. Going in with no expectations, I ended up really enjoying it. I liked that, while it was a fairly light romance, it also touched on tough topics, like grief, familial death, and the impact of chronic illness.

The characters are the strength of the book. Both Amerie, nicknamed Mimi, and Vincent are likable characters who each have family issues that motivate them throughout their personal arcs. While they didn’t have the best initial meeting, I liked how things developed once they got to know each other. They complement each other really well, with her being the slightly more prickly one and him being really sweet. And I really liked how their careers, especially his as an astronaut, played a role in the background. I did feel like some of the impetus for their fake dating got a little lost as things got a little too real, and I wondered why they were dragging things out. However, I enjoyed how things came together.

This was a solid debut romance, and I’m interested to read more from Etta Easton. If you’re interested in a Black contemporary romance with fake dating, I’d recommend checking this out!

Author Bio

Etta Easton is a certified hopeless romantic who now writes contemporary romance. Her stories are full of humor, relatable heroines, swoon-worthy heroes, and Black joy. She lives in Central Texas with her husband and two young kids.

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“Fire & Ice” by Lily Seabrooke (ARC Review)

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Seabrooke, Lily. Fire & Ice. [Place of publication not identified]: Lily Seabrooke, 2024.

ASIN: B0CZVVKN3L | $5.99 USD | 358 pages | NA Contemporary Romance

Blurb

Breaking hearts is risky business. You never know when you might fall in love.
Primrose Carter is a professional heartbreaker. As a member of FIRE, the underground group on her college campus formed of the people who have nowhere to turn but each other and dedicated to getting a leg up against the privileged kids, Primrose is an expert at getting a target to fall in love with her, getting what she needs from them, and breaking their heart on the way out.

But she’s not expecting her target this time to be a woman.

Giselle Lawson, competitive figure skater and the daughter of a finance mogul, has racked up one too many transgressions against FIRE. But from her perspective, she’s just trying to get by, heal from her breakup, and survive the crushing weight of her parents’ expectations—and the gorgeous woman who runs into her on the ice is suddenly the only thing she can think about.

For Primrose, it should be an easy case. But Giselle might just be the one to break her.

Fire & Ice is a 90,000-word college romance with a secret identity and one-sided enemies-to-lovers, featuring a secret organization, a coldblooded heartbreaker turning soft, and some juicy toaster-oven dynamics. Content warnings for on-page sex, a character having to leave their parents offscreen for their own safety, someone stuck in an unwanted engagement because of financial dynamics, a passive-aggressive jerk of a friend, and Ava not liking chocolate but definitely liking to yell at people.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the author through BookSprout and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I don’t read a ton of college romance, but my interest was piqued when I saw that Lily Seabrooke was writing one. Fire & Ice sounded messy, yet charming, and that’s my assessment upon reading it, giving me a similar feeling to a messy teen drama/romcom show with a queer twist.

Both leads are compelling, and I like that the setup is based in the class divide in an intriguing way. Giselle is the rich, privileged figure skater, but she was also the one I immediately liked more, because of how she’s also reckoning with things like parental pressure, not to mention she’s recovering from a relatively recent breakup.

On paper, that would make Primrose’s actions, however well-intentioned, feel icky. And that was a mild concern. But Primrose is coming from a genuine place herself, wanting to right the injustices that have impacted her and her friends. And while the secret is withheld from Giselle for most of the book, she’s never painted as an exploited, blameless victim. Their romance and seeing them bond in spite of their differences was ultimately sweet, even if the road was paved with complications.

The supporting characters are also well-drawn, and I wouldn’t mind reading more about them. The other members of FIRE in particular are quite interesting, and I love how the group dynamics evolve over the course of the book.

I really enjoyed this, and I love that Lily Seabrooke tried something a little different from her previous books. I would recommend this to readers interested in a New Adult/college sapphic romance with a teen drama feel.

Author Bio

Lily Seabrooke is a lesbian, trans woman, and author of sapphic romance that stars food, because odds are, at any given time, she’s hungry.

Her interests include eating food, thinking about food, writing novels about food, and drinking coffee.

You can find her on Twitter to be in the know on everything she’s doing, or you can sign up for her mailing list and be the first to get book announcements and free copies of her books before they release in exchange for honest reviews.

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“The Familiar” by Leigh Bardugo (Review)

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Bardugo, Leigh. The Familiar. New York: Flatiron Books, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1250884251 | $29.99 USD | 400 pages | Historical Fantasy

Blurb

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a spellbinding novel set in the Spanish Golden Age.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024 by The Washington Post, NPR, Goodreads, LitHub, The Nerd Daily, Paste Magazine, Today.com, and so much more!

“A must-read for those who are seeking a little magic in their lives.” —Deborah Harkness, #1 bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches

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 improve the family’s social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the 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 lines between magic, science, and fraud are 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 Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

Review

4 stars

I’ve somehow missed the whole hype train on Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse (they sound good, but I’ve heard that the original series in particular is a tad dated), and I didn’t even touch her Alex Stern books, due to the opinions I’ve heard being much more polarizing. However, when I heard about The Familiar, I knew I had to read it. I’m a sucker for anything vaguely Tudor-adjacent, and Spain and its history and culture was a related passion of mine when I took Spanish-language courses in high school and college.

While I know a bit less about this specific time period, beyond the basics of the Spanish Armada being in recent memory, Bardugo masterfully sets the scene, especially how King Philip’s favor has waned with Spain’s power following that crushing defeat. She also highlights how, politically and in terms of religious policy, not much had changed since the Spanish Inquisition for Jewish people, which is a major focus of the novel, with Bardugo pulling from her own heritage for inspiration. I also liked that the story was so rooted in the time period to a similar extent a “traditional” historical novel would be, with the speculative elements highlighting the way “witchcraft” was stigmatized, while some of these practices were also used in the upper-classes for personal gain.

The characters are all fairly intriguing. Luzia is a compelling protagonist, an orphan from a Jewish family working as a scullion in a noble household, who happens to have the capability to perform “milagritos,” or “little miracles,” like fixing a burnt loaf of bread or lightening the water buckets she carries every day. The skill is first discovered by her mistress, Valentina, who wants to exploit her gifts for her own gain, but Luzia takes the chance to secure her own future when powerful people like the king’s secretary take notice of her.

Pacing wise, this is a tad odd, especially as initially, there is an intent to really highlight the drudgery that Luzia lives in, even if Valentina and her husband aren’t necessarily abusive. But once it gets into the real “meat” of the story, and Luzia gains more agency for herself, it really picks up. And while I can’t say I was super blown away by the romance between her and Santángel, it had its charms, and he definitely won me over as the book progressed.

This was a surprising read, and I’d happily read more in this vein from Bardugo in the future. And while I can’t speak for how avid Bardugo fans of her other work will respond to this book, I think you’ll enjoy this if you’re interested in historical fantasy with a strong romantic subplot.

Author Bio

Leigh Bardugo is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and the creator of the Grishaverse (now a Netflix series) which spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, The Language of Thorns, and the King of Scars duology—with more to come. Her other works include Wonder Woman: Warbringer and Ninth House (Goodreads Choice Winner for Best Fantasy 2019). She lives in Los Angeles and is an Associate Fellow of Pauli Murray College at Yale University.

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“Truly, Madly, Deeply” by Alexandria Bellefleur (ARC Review)

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Bellefleur, Alexandria. Truly, Madly, Deeply. New York: Avon, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0063258532 | $18.99 USD | 336 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

Sparks fly when a lovelorn romance novelist and a divorce lawyer who has sworn off relationships agree to cohost a podcast series offering dating advice to viewers, in Truly, Madly, Deeply, the next steamy queer rom-com from Lambda Literary Award winner and national bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur.

As a bestselling romance novelist, everyone thinks Truly Livingston is an expert on happily-ever-afters. She’s even signed on to record a podcast sharing relationship advice. Little do they know she feels like an imposter—her parents just announced they’re separating, she caught her fiancé cheating, and her entire view on love has been shaken to the core. Truly hopes the podcast will distract her… until she meets her cohost.

Her first impression of Colin McCory is…hot. But then he opens his extremely kissable mouth. Colin’s view on love just pisses Truly off, even if he does have an annoyingly attractive face. Bickering with a cynical divorce lawyer is the last thing she needs—so she walks out, with no plans to return.

A few days later, Truly is surprised when Colin tracks her down, asking for a fresh start. Truly can’t deny the little thrill she gets from Colin begging, so she reluctantly agrees. As they go from enemies to friends to something else entirely, Truly discovers they have more in common than she ever imagined, including their shared queerness. He’s a genuinely good guy—charming, sweet, and equally as unlucky in love as herself—and there’s something about Colin that drives Truly a little wild. When their attraction reaches a fever pitch, Truly is happy for the first time in years. Yet she can’t help but wonder… is Colin truly, madly, deeply in love with her? Or is it all too good to be true?

Review

5 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Alexandria Bellefleur once again delivers another amazing queer romcom (both leads are bi) with Truly, Madly, Deeply, which just might be her best book to date. I loved pretty much every moment of it, from the humor full of Tayloe Swfit references and dirty jokes to the gradual, not-quite-slow-burn, but-also-not-instantaneous-either romance, not to mention the sensitive handling of complex, even dysfunctional family relationships.

My interest was initially piqued by the characters of Truly and Colin. They seem like such opposites, with Truly being a hopeful romance novelist, in spite of having been betrayed by an ex at the beginning of the book, while Colin is a cynical divorce lawyer. But the way the characters evolved and grew subverted my expectations of where this would go from the initial setup. Because of course, once they got over their initial animosity, they realized they had a solid connection. But seeing that gradual deepening beyond flirting/spending time together/hooking up to it looking like it could be something real was beautifully complicated by the other elements of the story and how it impacts them, especially Truly. Her being the one to lack confidence in herself and her value in a relationship felt believable, as did Colin being pretty much gone for her, if not from the moment he met her, at least from the time they started hanging out.

And these complicating factors with each others’ families are interwoven cleverly to complement the romance, and I love how we see both Truly and Colin support each other through these issues. I generally liked Truly’s parents and their quirky show-business ways, including the propensity to quote show-tunes and turn it into a game among themselves. I also felt like the arc around the parents considering separation, even divorce, and Truly’s poor reaction to it was fairly well handled. While I don’t think the parents always respond well to her trying to show her feelings about the situation and how it impacts her, it’s also clear Truly does have some things to work on in that regard too.

Colin’s family, on the other hand…talk about toxic. His brother got with Colin’s ex right after they broke up, and now they’re married and expecting a baby. It was infuriating how Colin did try to set boundaries, but he kept being pulled back into all the toxicity, where even his parents clearly side with his brother, and don’t understand why Colin can’t forgive him.

I loved this book so much, and I’d recommend it to readers looking for a queer romcom with a lot of heat and heart.

Author Bio

Alexandria Bellefleur is a bestselling and award-winning author of swoony contemporary romance often featuring loveable grumps and the sunshine characters who bring them to their knees. Her debut novel, Written in the Stars, was a 2021 Lambda Literary Award winner and a 2020 winner of The Ripped Bodice Awards for Excellence in Romantic Fiction.

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“Blood Justice” (Blood Debts #2) by Terry J. Benton-Walker (ARC Review)

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Benton-Walker, Terry J. Blood Justice. New York: Tor Teen, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1250825957 | $20.99 USD | 480 pages | YA Fantasy

Blurb

Blood Justice is the hotly anticipated sequel to Terry J. Benton-Walker’s Most Anticipated debut Blood Debts.

Praise for Blood Debts:“A conjuring of magnificence.” —NIC STONE • “A force.” —ROSEANNE A. BROWN • “An extravaganza.” —CHLOE GONG • “Powerful.” —AYANA GRAY • “Sings with hope and rage.” —TJ KLUNE • “An unforgettable thrill ride.” —J. ELLE • “Steeped in magic.” —ALEXIS HENDERSON • “Crackles with mystery and ferocity.” —MARK OSHIRO

Cristina and Clement Trudeau have conjured the impossible: justice.

They took back their family’s stolen throne to lead New Orleans’ magical community into the brighter future they all deserve.

But when Cris and Clem restored their family power, Valentina Savant lost everything. Her beloved grandparents are gone and her sovereignty has been revoked—she will never be Queen. Unless, of course, someone dethrones the Trudeaus again. And lucky for her, she’s not the only one trying to take them down.

Cris and Clem have enemies coming at them from all directions: Hateful anti-magic protesters sabotage their reign at every turn. A ruthless detective with a personal vendetta against magical crime is hot on their tail just as Cris has discovered her thirst for revenge. And a brutal god, hunting from the shadows, is summoned by the very power Clem needs to protect the boy he loves.

Cris’s hunger for vengeance and Clem’s desire for love could prove to be their family’s downfall, all while new murders, shocking disappearances, and impossible alliances are changing the game forever.

Welcome back to New Orleans, where gods walk among us and justice isn’t served, it’s taken.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Blood Justice picks up where its predecessor left off, delivering more of the seamless mix of drama, action, and social commentary that made the first work so well. With the first book already highlighting social issues that impact Black and queer teens, I especially liked the focus this time around on the injustices of the prison system.

The Dupart siblings are once again central to the narrative, although there are some other characters thar are also thoughtfully incorporated. Cris’ arc is one of anger and seeking justice following what happened in the last book. Clem, meanwhile, is on a much more tender journey, as he is reckoning with having lost the boy he’s in love with, Yves. and tries to bring him back to life, resulting in some complications. Between the two of them, it’s a solid balance of softness and darkness, high-action and more interpersonal.

Another prominent POV character is the antagonist, Valentina, and she’s a well-rounded, compelling villain, with a lot of nuance. While I don’t necessarily root for her, I understand where she’s coming from, having lost everything, and find her scheming interesting to watch. She also makes an intriguing foil for Cris in particular, as in some ways, they are very similar.

This installment was also fairly well-paced and engaging. I enjoyed the balance of character building and high action, meaning that there wasn’t much space wasted on anything that didn’t advance the narrative in some way.

Also, as the author has disclosed on socials, this is far from the end of the series, although who knows if his vision for the full scope of it will see the light of day. I do hope this publisher (or any suitable publisher) will continue to given Terry J. Benton-Walker the opportunity to continue growing this series and world.

This was a solid sequel, and I’m excited to see where the story goes next, if it happens. If you’re interested in a contemporary/urban fantasy starring Black and queer characters, I’d recommend checking out this series!

Author Bio

TERRY J. BENTON-WALKER grew up in rural GA and now lives in Atlanta with his husband and son, where he writes fantasy and horror for adults, young adults, and children. He has an Industrial Engineering degree from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Georgia State. When he’s not writing, he can be found gaming, eating ice cream, or both. Blood Debts is his first novel. Terry is also the author of Alex Wise vs the End of the World and editor and contributor of The White Guy Dies First anthology.

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“Song of the Six Realms” by Judy I. Lin (ARC Review)

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Lin, Judy I. Song of the Six Realms. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1250871619 | $20.99 USD | 400 pages | YA Fantasy

Blurb

Judy I. Lin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Magic Steeped in Poison, weaves a dreamy gothic romance worthy of the heavens in Song of the Six Realms.

Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her kindly poet uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at one of the most esteemed entertainment houses in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before entering the House of Flowing Water, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of her indenture contract.

With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. Then one night she is unexpectedly called to the garden to put on a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. For a young man of nobility, he is strangely kind and awkward, and surprises Xue further with an irresistible offer: serve as a musician in residence at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.

But the Duke’s motives become increasingly more suspect when he and Xue barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks her away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country noble: He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. There she learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by demonic beasts are growing more frequent.

The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock memories from her past that could hold the answers to how to stop the impending war… but first Xue will need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms.

Review

3 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Judy I. Lin’s debut duology, so I was excited to read more from her. Song of the Six Realms is a promising follow-up effort, showing her talent, but I also found it slightly lacking in places. Other reviewers have said this is the epitome of a book that leans more toward “vibes” than anything else, and I have to agree.

The world building is the best part, and given it’s also something I liked in The Book of Tea duology, that’s a plus. I enjoyed the history and lore conveyed throughout the book, even if at times it overwhelmed the rest of the story, sometimes to its own detriment. And the author’s note providing more insight into the explicit Tang Dynasty influences was great, given it’s the first period of Chinese history that I fell in love with through fiction.

The characters were ok, but not super spectacular. Xue was fine as YA protagonist, but I didn’t feel she had the “it” factor that a lot of truly great fantasy protagonists have that endear me to them. And considering the blurb calls this a romance (at least in a loose sense) and Judy I. Lin was one of the authors who was vocal about her concern about the confusing marketing of “romantasy” on Threads not too long ago, it’s not shocking that while the love interest isn’t offensive or anything, he’s also kind of just there, and the romance isn’t super impactful.

The plot is also fairly simple and predictable, and I found myself finishing the book feeling rather conflicted as to whether I wanted more of this story or not, given how underbaked and underwhelming it was.

While I didn’t care for this book, I also acknowledge I’m not exactly the audience for it. But I would recommend it to readers interested in Chinese-inspired YA fantasy with a heavy emphasis on aesthetics and “vibes.”

Author Bio

Judy I. Lin is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Book of Tea duology. She writes stories inspired by the legends and myths she grew up with in Taiwan and currently lives on the Canadian prairies.

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“The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties” by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Review)

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Sutanto, Jesse Q. The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties. New York: Berkley, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593546222 | $18.00 USD | 304 pages | Contemporary

Blurb

What should have been a family celebration of Chinese New Year descends into chaos when longtime foes crash the party in this hilariously entertaining novel by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.

After an ultra-romantic honeymoon across Europe, Meddy Chan and her husband Nathan have landed in Jakarta to spend Chinese New Year with her entire extended family. Chinese New Year, already the biggest celebration of the Lunar calendar, gets even more festive when a former beau of Second Aunt’s shows up at the Chan residence bearing extravagant gifts—he’s determined to rekindle his romance with Second Aunt and the gifts are his way of announcing his courtship.

His grand gesture goes awry however, when it’s discovered that not all the gifts were meant for Second Aunt and the Chans—one particular gift was intended for a business rival to cement their alliance and included by accident. Of course the Aunties agree that it’s only right to return the gift—after all, anyone would forgive an honest mistake, right? But what should have been a simple retrieval turns disastrous and suddenly Meddy and the Aunties are helpless pawns in a decades-long war between Jakarta’s most powerful business factions. The fighting turns personal, however, when Nathan and the Aunties are endangered and it’s up to Meddy to come up with a plan to save them all. Determined to rescue her loved ones, Meddy embarks on an impossible mission—but with the Aunties by her side, nothing is truly impossible…SEE LESS

Review

3.5 stars

The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties brings Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Aunties series to a bonkers finish, and while I can’t say this book was the best thing I’ve ever read (was it even necessary in the grand scheme of things?) it was still a lot of the fun I love about the Aunties, and ended on a fairly solid note, before things got a bit too old (something I cannot say for another series which I previously loved but shall remain nameless, due to the SMP boycott, among other factors).

And the Aunties are definitely the stars of the show, even if they aren’t the POV characters. I loved seeing them in a new/old environment, with the whole family going back to Indonesia for Chinese New Year. This presents an opportunity for fun family dynamics and general chaos, as you’d expect.

The plot took a weird turn this time around, with mislaid gifts getting them mixed up in the business dealings of rival factions in Jakarta. It was odd at times, but sometimes a bit convoluted, but as strange as it all was, I enjoyed seeing all the characters working together and being brought closer.

Meddy as a “protagonist” is perhaps the one weak spot. She kind of always was, but she at least had something to do in the first two books, for the most part, and book one had the most growth for her. She definitely feels a bit less prominent than the Aunties here, although I did somewhat still like her bond with Nathan and her role as a part of the larger family. And while this is the last book of the series, and I can’t imagine the need for more books, I do like that the story ends on a positive note with hope for the future.

This was a charming closer for the series, and while it has its flaws, it’s definitely bittersweet to know it’s over. And while I know there are some others who’ve loved book one who’ve expressed complaints with book two who might find similar flaws with book three, I think will more or less satisfy ride-or-die fans of the series.

Author Bio

Jesse Q Sutanto grew up shuttling back and forth between Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford, and considers all three places her home. She has a Masters from Oxford University, but she has yet to figure out how to say that without sounding obnoxious. Jesse has forty-two first cousins and thirty aunties and uncles, many of whom live just down the road. She used to game but with two little ones and a husband, she no longer has time for hobbies. She aspires to one day find one (1) hobby.

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“The Spirit Bares Its Teeth” by Andrew Joseph White (Review)

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White, Andrew Joseph. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth. New York: Peachtree Teen, 2023.

ISBN-13: 978-1682636114 | $19.99 USD | 400 pages | YA Historical Fantasy/Horror

Blurb

A blood-soaked and nauseating triumph that cuts like a scalpel and reads like your darkest nightmare.

New York Times bestselling author Andrew Joseph White returns with the transgressive gothic horror of our time!

Mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all.

London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old trans, autistic Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife.

After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium. When the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its guts to the world—so long as the school doesn’t break him first.

Featuring an autistic trans protagonist in a historical setting, Andrew Joseph White’s much-anticipated sophomore novel does not back down from exposing the violence of the patriarchy and the harm inflicted on trans youth who are forced into conformity.

Review

5 stars

I really enjoyed Andrew Joseph White’s debut, but The Spirit Bears Its Teeth has blown that out of the water. While this book also covers similar ground, in highlighting how trans (and neurodivergent) people are targeted, my interest immediately grew when I saw that the book was a historical fantasy-horror, and that it was inspired by the real-life medical experimentation on those deemed “unseemly” to society, from people of color to LGBTQ+ people to disabled people. As a disabled queer Asian woman who loves history, this is an aspect of the past that has always fascinated, yet terrified me, and I appreciate how White explored this dark side of history, and unpacking the intersections of the systemic bigotries at play, while also finding hope amidst all the horror and darkness. And as truly well-crafted horror with a focus on social commentary does, I love the balance between the more explicit gore and the more subtle horror of reality and how it quietly oppresses.

Silas is an immensely relatable protagonist, and I truly felt for him as he bristled with the ways society demanded he conform, from not acknowledging his true gender and being overwhelmed by the neurotypical world they inhabit, yet being made to feel like he’s the problem, simply because who he is doesn’t “fit” with what society expects.

I really enjoyed the stylistic choices here, with some parts of the book being small portions of text against a black box, isolated from the rest of the text. It contributed to the darker feel of the book, and these sections, along with the overall intensity of the book itself, made for an engrossing read that kept me turning pages. Like with White’s prior book, it is rather heavy on the gore (and in this case, medical gore), and as such, I would recommend proceeding with caution if you’re sensitive to that, or at least consult content warnings available on the author’s website, and also summarized briefly in the introductory note from White at the beginning of the book.

This was another engaging, thought-provoking read from Andrew Joseph White, and provided you’re informed about the sensitive content in the book, I’d recommend checking out this book, if you’re interested in historical fantasy/horror.

Author Bio

Andrew Joseph White is a queer, trans author from Virginia, where he grew up falling in love with monsters and wishing he could be one too. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University in 2022 and has a habit of cuddling random street cats. Andrew writes about trans kids with claws and fangs, and what happens when they bite back.

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“The Stranger I Wed” (The Doves of New York #1) by Harper St. George (ARC Review)

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St. George, Harper. The Stranger I Wed. New York: Berkley Romance, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593441008 | $18.00 USD | 368 pages | Victorian/Gilded Age Romance

Blurb

New to wealth and to London high society, American heiress Cora Dove discovers that with the right man, marriage might not be such an inconvenience after all. . . .

Cora Dove and her sisters’ questionable legitimacy has been the lifelong subject of New York’s gossipmongers and a continual stain on their father’s reputation. So when the girls each receive a generous, guilt-induced dowry from their dying grandmother, the sly Mr. Hathaway vows to release their funds only if Cora and her sisters can procure suitable husbands—far from New York. For Cora, England is a fresh start. She has no delusions of love, but a husband who will respect her independence? That’s an earl worth fighting for.

Enter: Leopold Brendon, Earl of Devonworth, a no-nonsense member of Parliament whose plan to pass a Public Health bill that would provide clean water to the working class requires the backing of a wealthy wife. He just never expected to crave Cora’s touch or yearn to hear her thoughts on his campaign—or to discover that his seemingly perfect bride protects so many secrets…

But secrets have a way of bubbling to the surface, and Devonworth has a few of his own. With their pasts laid bare and Cora’s budding passion for women’s rights taking a dangerous turn, they’ll learn the true cost of losing their heart to a stranger—and that love is worth any price.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Harper St. George expands her Victorian/Gilded Age world in a wonderful way with The Stranger I Wed, the first in the Doves of New York series. While there are references to the prior series, mainly to previous characters, this series stands on its own, although the other books are absolutely worth checking out if you’re looking for books in a similar vein to this one.

I love how St. George pays homage to and tackles the issues of the time period, like women’s suffrage and providing for the working class (in this case providing access to running water). While these elements are somewhat fictionalized, I like that this exposes that marginalized people’s access to fundamental rights are also not things that just happened in a vacuum, and that not everyone in the past followed the status quo.

Both leads are solid people, and in addition to their causes, rather likable and relatable. I enjoyed how the story slowly revealed how good a match they are, with both Cora and Leo feeling responsible for their younger siblings when they were young. For Leo, it was more of a foregone conclusion, due to the hierarchy of society (even if psychologically it’s still a burden he won’t fully acknowledge he wasn’t fully prepared for), but Cora still has a mother who is ill-equipped for the task and she also had to grow up faster because of it.

While marriage-of-convenience can be very hit-or-miss for me, I really liked that they established a mutual respect early on. That and the pining and emotional connection were very pronounced, and it felt very much like a slow burn to when they actually consummated their relationship. That could be a turnoff for other readers, but as a grayace reader (and I saw someone say Leo read as demi to them, which does make sense in hindsight), one of my turnoffs in many MOC books is the focus on the physical side, while being like “we will not fall in love!,” so it’s nice to have a book that does something different.

This is a promising start to a new series, and based on what’s been teased, I’m excited for what’s to come. If you’re interested in a slow-burn historical romance with a slightly subverted marriage-of-convenience plot, I’d recommend checking this one out!

Author Bio

Harper St. George was raised in the rural backwoods of Alabama and along the tranquil coast of northwest Florida. It was a setting filled with stories of the old days that instilled in her a love of history, romance, and adventure. By high school, she had discovered the historical romance novel which combined all of those elements into one perfect package. She has been hooked ever since.

She lives in Atlanta area with her husband and two children. When not writing, she can be found devouring her husband’s amazing cooking and reading.

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“Fake It Till You Make It” by Siera London (ARC Review)

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London, Siera. Fake It Till You Make It. New York: Forever, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1538739389 | $9.99 USD | 352 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

Debbie Mason meets Lizzie Shane in this small-town romance where a burned-by-love veterinarian arranges a fake partnership with a down-on-her-luck city girl in order to save his family business.

When Amarie Walker goes for something, she goes big—including starting over. Leaving her cheating ex and entire D.C. life in the rearview, she crash lands in a small town with no plan, no money, and no job. An opening at the animal clinic is the only gig for miles, no surprise considering the vet is a certified grump. If Eli Calvary ever cracked a smile, Amarie might faint on sight from shock. At least his adorable golden retriever appreciates her fabulousness…and shares her love of daily treats!

When Eli took over his late father’s practice, he quickly discovered the clinic was facing foreclosure. So there’s no time for social niceties, especially not flirting, even with someone as gorgeous, bubbly, and business-savvy as Amarie. Yet when Eli needs to invent an investor on the fly, it’s her name that comes to his lips. Now, for the sake of their furry clients, Eli and Amarie hustle to save the clinic, trying to ignore the nonstop sparks between them. Because while their partnership may be fake, their connection already feels way too real.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I’m always looking for new BIPOC authors to try, especially in romance, and I’ve seen Siera London’s name on social media. Plus, Fake It Till You Make It sounded right up my alley, with a fun premise, plus the cute dog. And while this book didn’t necessarily rock my world or anything, it was a lot of fun.

The characters as individuals are definitely a strong point here. Both Amarie and Eli have been hurt in past relationships, and I appreciate how these hurts were depicted, while seeing them make room for new love with each other. The romance, while cringey in places (the dialogue in particular), was rather sweet, if a tad predictable in places, but with fun twists on familiar elements, like the fake dating trope with a grumpy/sunshine character dynamic.

While I was slightly jarred by some of the hyper-modern references (in conjunction with the dialogue choices), it was mostly a smooth reading experience with a fairly engaging story throughout. There was less buildup than I would have wanted between the stages of their relationship from being at odds to being friends to becoming romantically involved, but it does make sense in the narrative context and not being a slow-burn.

This was a solid read, and I’m not opposed to continuing with this series or reading more from Siera London in the future. If you’re interested in a small town romance with an interracial couple, I’d recommend checking this out!

Author Bio

Siera London is the USA Today Bestselling & Award-winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance, romantic suspense, and crime fiction. She crafts stories of diverse characters navigating the challenges and triumphs to find lasting love. Intelligence, wit, emotion, drama, and romance are between the covers of every Siera London novel. Siera lives in Virginia with her husband, and a color patch tabby named Frie. Also, Siera is a Director-At-Large for Romance Writers of America.

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“Hell Followed with Us” by Andrew Joseph White (Review)

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White, Andrew Joseph. Hell Followed with Us. Atlanta: Peachtree Teen, 2022.

ISBN-13: 978-1682635636 | $12.99 USD | 448 pages | YA Horror

Blurb

A furious, queer debut novel about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors.

“A long, sustained scream to the various strains of anti-transgender legislation multiplying around the world like, well, a virus.” —The New York Times

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.

But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all.

Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own. Perfect for fans of Gideon the Ninth and Annihilation.

Review

4 stars

Andrew Joseph White’s books initially caught my interest when I saw them at my library, but my interest was further piqued upon watching Reads with Rachel’s reviewof his debut, Hell Followed With Us. Unlike Rachel and (presumably) White, I don’t have an overlapping experience with religious trauma, but the topic is of interest to me nonetheless, thanks to what I’ve learned from Rachel, and this book is even more relevant in the wake of current events, with Christofascism worming its way into the US government in various states and in some sectors at the federal level, with trans people among the vulnerable populations being targeted. And even with the intense speculative, fantastical, and horrific elements, it’s not hard to see parallels to what’s happening to trans and queer youth right now, with the ideals at the root of some of the practices in the book being very real.

In the midst of it all, the book also centers very flawed, very real, and sympathetic characters. Benjamin, or Benji, is the primary focal point, a trans boy on the run from the fundamentalist cult which raised him. I could not help but root for him, and wanted him to find a safe haven. And even with the realization he was essentially bred to be a weapon for the cultists, he ends up subverting that and turning it against them in such a poignant way.

The story also dips briefly into the perspectives of two other characters. Nick is a member of the LGBTQ+ support group the ALC that Benjy bonds with, who is autistic, and I enjoyed seeing how he was able to be a leader within the ALC, while also having challenges related to his autism, like vocal delays. Plus, his developing relationship with Benji is a nice bright spot in an otherwise intense book.

Theo is only a POV character for a single chapter, but he’s also a strong presence, being Benji’s ex from within the cult, and I appreciate the way the nuances of their toxic relationship were depicted, and their impact on Benji.

The story is much more character-focused than plot-focused, making it more introspective than action-packed. However, in my experience, the characters themselves and the situation somewhat made up for the plot being a little scattered in places.

This book is rather heavy on the gore and body horror, as well as on the religious messaging, so if either are issues for you, this may not be the book for you. I would also encourage you to peruse the list of content warnings (available online as well as in the introductory note of the book itself) to further help you make an informed decision.

This is a solid debut, and I’m eager to continue to read more from Andrew Joseph White in the future. Taking into account my previous caveats, I’d recommend this book if you’re interested in an intense YA horror that centers religious trauma and trans/queer identity.

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“Out of Office” by A.H. Cunningham (ARC Review)

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Cunningham, A.H. Out of Office. Toronto, Ontario: Afterglow Books, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1335041623 | $12.99 USD | 288 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

A.H. Cunningham dazzles in this sensual vacation romance exploring what happens when you step out of the office, take a chance on yourself—and discover your deepest desires.

Genevieve Raymond was born an overachiever. After opening a hot new hotel chain location in Panama, she’s on track for a major promotion. But first, she desperately needs a break, even if her overbearing mother doesn’t approve. For two glorious weeks, Gen’s giving herself permission to explore the beautiful beaches of Colón—and the stimulating attraction she shares with her sexy-as-hell driver, Adrián Nicolas.

After a family tragedy, Adrián’s recently shifted his own focus to prioritizing the life part of a healthy work-life balance. To workaholic Gen, Adrián’s laid-back devotion to his family’s hometown hostel couldn’t be more appealing. Their long-term goals might not align, but two weeks in paradise only calls for seductive physical chemistry, and Gen and Adrián have got that, without a doubt.

But when their intimate connection flourishes beyond sunsets and spice, Gen finds herself questioning whether the career path she’s been on is even where she wants to be. With continents between them, a real relationship doesn’t feel possible. Until fate reveals their futures might be more closely woven than they thought, leaving them wondering whether a two-week fling might have what it takes to last forever.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I hadn’t read anything from A.H. Cunningham before, but I follow her on Twitter, and I was intrigued to hear she was one of the new authors picked up for the Afterglow Books imprint, and while these books have been very hit-or-miss so far, fortunately Cunningham’s offering, Out of Office, was a delight.

I love how well both leads complemented each other. Genevieve has been an overachiever her entire life, always striving for the next great thing, and she’s never really taken time for herself to have “me” time. Meanwhile, Adrian once had a similar life, until tragedy led him to change his priorities. This leads them to meeting when Adrian is serving as Gen’s driver on her vacation.

This setup made for a beautiful romance. They have great physical chemistry, of course, but I also love how they help each other grow and figure out what would make them happy in life. Ultimately, a truly fulfilling life is not purely all work or all play, and I really enjoyed how he helped open her up to fun, and she helped reconnect him with the passion he left behind due to the pain of his past.

I really enjoyed this book, and I’m interested in reading more from Cunningham in the future. If you’re interested in a steamy Black romance that takes place partly on vacation, I’d recommend checking this out!

Author Bio

A.H. Cunningham is an introvert who weaves lovey-dovey romantic erotica. She writes diverse erotic romance centered on Black and multicultural grown folks. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, snacking at odd hours, dancing to some Panamanian song, and playing the metaphorical tamborine as her family navigates a new move.

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“The Diamond Eye” by Kate Quinn (Review)

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Quinn, Kate. The Diamond Eye. New York: William Morrow, 2022.

ISBN-13: 978-0063144705 | $19.99 USD | 448 pages | Historical Fiction

Blurb

The bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.

In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kyiv, wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son—but Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper—a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.

Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC—until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness.

But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.

Review

3.5-ish stars

The Diamond Eye is another solid work of historical fiction from Kate Quinn, and I’m once again blown away by how she brings to light topics that exist in the margins of otherwise well-known historical events. I was particularly intrigued because this was yet another story focused on Russia during World War II, an aspect of The Huntress I really enjoyed. And while mechanics wise, there was much more overlap with The Rose Code, which I wasn’t as fond of, it was still an improvement over the latter, even if it didn’t quite hit the spot quite like the former.

Lyudmila “Mila” Pavlichenko” is a truly fascinating woman, and she truly lives up to her “Lady Death” moniker. It’s also fascinating how much of the book is true, from her early war exploits to meeting and becoming friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. She is perhaps not the most emotionally fleshed out Quinn heroine, but as she’s an actual, real person, not just a fictional analogue for a real person, I’m willing to be somewhat more forgiving.

I also feel like the split-timeline for part of the book had a similar effect to The Rose Code, bogging the story down. There’s slightly more intrigue this time around, but compared to her war exploits, the mundane bits about her friendship with Eleanor, while interesting, weren’t as fun to read about. The book also felt overly technical when it came to sharpshooting itself, and while I like that Quinn did her research, it also wasn’t particularly interesting to me.

While not my favorite of Kate Quinn’s books, it still has a lot to offer. I’d recommend it if you’re interested in World War II historical fiction, especially one largely set outside the more common settings of Germany and France.

Author Bio

Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of Southern California, she attended Boston University, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in classical voice. A lifelong history buff, she has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga and two books set in the Italian Renaissance before turning to the 20th century with The Alice Network, The Huntress, The Rose Code, and The Diamond Eye. All have been translated into multiple languages. She and her husband now live in California with three black rescue dogs.

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“Dear Wendy” by Ann Zhao (ARC Review)

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Zhao, Ann. Dear Wendy. New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1250885005 | $19.99 USD | 368 pages | YA Contemporary

Blurb

Dear Wendy’s Sophie and Jo, two aromantic and asexual college students, engage in an online feud while unknowingly becoming friends in real life, in this dual POV Young Adult contemporary debut from Ann Zhao

Sophie Chi is in her first year of college (though her parents wish she’d attend a “real” university rather than a liberal arts school) and has long accepted her aroace (aromantic and asexual) identity. She knows she’ll never fall in love, but she enjoys running an Instagram account that offers relationship advice to students at her school. No one except her roommate can know that she’s behind the incredibly popular “Dear Wendy” account.

When Joanna “Jo” Ephron (also a first-year aroace college student) created their “Sincerely Wanda” account, it wasn’t at all meant to take off or be taken seriously—not like Wendy’s. But now they might have a rivalry of sorts with Wendy’s account? Oops. As if Jo’s not busy enough having existential crises over gender identity, whether she’ll ever truly be loved, and the possibility of her few friends finding The One then forgetting her!

While tensions are rising online, Sophie and Jo grow closer in real life, especially once they realize their shared aroace identity and start a campus organization for other a-spec students. Will their friendship survive if they learn just who’s behind the Wendy and Wanda accounts?

Exploring a-spec identities, college life, and more, while perfect for fans of Alice Oseman’s Loveless, this is ultimately a love story about two people who are not—and will not—be in love!

Review

5 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Dear Wendy has been one of my most anticipated reads for the first half of 2024, and I’m happy to say it blew me away. In a similar vein to Alice Oseman’s Loveless (which is also referenced in-text), it explores the nuances of aroace rep in a beautiful way, and while it doesn’t claim to be the definitive representation for a spectrum of experiences, it provides a window into what it can look like for some people in the community.

Zhao not only pulls from her own experiences as an Asian aroace person, but also infuses the experience of being a Wellesley College student into the narrative as well. While the topics will still likely be recognizable for young people who are in or have been to college, I loved the little nuances of Wellesley College life, including the prominence of the advice columns and their influence on student life.

And speaking of the advice columns, I love the way these are conveyed. With both Sophie and Jo being the columnists in question, there is some inclusion of these columns and their online interactions in the body of the chapters themselves, and their respective reactions to each other, but I also liked seeing the little interstitial bits showing the slightly different styles two the Wendy and Wanda pages in their own right, along with mock-ups of Instagram Stories highlighting some of their back-and-forths beyond the banter in the comments sections.

As for the characters and their relationship, I loved them. Sophie and Jo are simultaneously very similar, being aroace and having several queer friends, meaning they quickly bond in real life, but they also have some differing opinions when it comes to romance and providing advice for others, as shown in their online interactions. It makes for a fun juxtaposition, and a heartfelt aroace subversion of a common romcom trope. Their secret identities provide a bump in the road for their friendship with each other, as does an attempt to invalidate their advice on-campus due to their aroace identities being revealed. But despite their initial frustration and hurt feelings, I loved seeing how they came together at the end and resolved things, both on a “professional” level and for the sake of their blossoming queerplatonic bond.

I absolutely adored this book, and it gave me all the feels. While it’s not a romance in the “traditional” sense, I’d absolutely recommend it if you’re open to something somewhat adjacent to the genre that pays homage to those tropes through an aroace queerplatonic lens.

Author Bio

Ann Zhao (she/her) is a graduate of Wellesley College, where she studied linguistics with a minor in women’s and gender studies. She enjoys cooking, baking, and knitting, but she does not enjoy cleaning up after herself when she’s done with these activities. Dear Wendy is her debut novel.

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“The Fall of Whit Rivera” by Crystal Maldonado (Review)

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Maldonado, Crystal. The Fall of Whit Rivera. New York: Holiday House, 2023.

ISBN-13: 978-0823452361 | $19.99 USD | 352 pages | YA Contemporary

Blurb

Could you plan the Fall Formal with your (hot) nemesis? Whit Rivera is about to find out.

Frenemies Whit and Zay have been at odds for years (ever since he broke up with her in, like, the most embarrassing way imaginable), so when they’re forced to organize the fall formal together, it’s a literal disaster. Sparks fly as Whitney—type-A, passionate, a perfectionist, and a certified sweater-weather fanatic—butts heads with Zay, a dry, relaxed skater boy who takes everything in stride. But not all of those sparks are bad. . . .

Has their feud been a big misunderstanding all along?

Blisteringly funny and profoundly well-observed, The Fall of Whit Rivera is a snug and cozy autumn romcom that also tackles weightier topics like PCOS, chronic illness, sexuality, fatphobia, Latine identity, and class. Funny, honest, insightful, romantic, and poignant, it is classic Crystal Maldonado—and it will have her legion of fans absolutely swooning.

Review

4 stars

I had previously tried an earlier Crystal Maldonado book a while back, and something about the writing style didn’t click. However, I didn’t write her off completely, as I’m always interested in books that highlight fat rep, especially with an intersection of other identities. And The Fall of Whit Rivera interested me in particular when I was in search of a book from a BIPOC author with chronic illness rep, one of the prompts for this month in a yearlong reading challenge I’m participating in. I ended up really liking this, both for the rep itself and it just being a really solid story that I picked up at a good time.

While I don’t have PCOS, I have some overlapping symptoms with that condition, so I found Whit easy to relate to. I appreciate how sensitively her journey of reckoning with her symptoms and the various doctors’ appointments are depicted, while also showing her going through the regular things a normal teen would. She’s very much a perfectionist, and I love her passion for the forthcoming Fall Formal and the other fall festivities. I also liked how unapologetically girly she is, loving a good pumpkin spice latte and makeup and whatnot…while it’s not completely unheard of, I feel like it’s far too common for female leads, especially in YA, to feel “not like other girls.”

The rest of the cast is also diverse and nuanced, and really felt like real people. Whit’s autistic sister was a particularly touching inclusion, as this was a part of her character without her being infantilized or being seen as a burden.

The romance is also quite cute. She and Zay have a history as friends, but are also opposites, so butt heads. But they also have solid romantic chemistry and I really rooted for them to reconnect while working together.

I really enjoyed this, and I’m interested in trying more from Crystal Maldonado in the future. I recommend it if you’re looking for a YA contemporary with chronic illness rep.

Author Bio

Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author with a lot of feelings. She is the author of romcoms for fat, brown girls, including The Fall of Whit Rivera, which was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection; Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, which was a New England Book Award winner, a Cosmopolitan Best New Book, and a Kirkus Best YA Fiction of 2021; and No Filter and Other Lies, which was named a POPSUGAR and Seventeen Best New YA.

By day, Crystal works in higher ed marketing, and by night, she’s a writer who loves Beyoncé, glitter, shopping, and spending too much time on her phone. Her work has been published in Latina, BuzzFeed, and the Hartford Courant. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.

Follow her everywhere @crystalwrote.

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“You Know What You Did” by K.T. Nguyen (ARC Review)

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Nguyen, K.T. You Know What You Did. New York: Dutton, 2024.

ISBN-13: 9780593473856 | $28.00 USD | 384 pages | Thriller

Blurb

In this heart-pounding debut thriller for fans of Lisa Jewell and Celeste Ng, a first-generation Vietnamese American artist must confront nightmares past and present…

Annie “Anh Le” Shaw grew up poor but seems to have it all now: a dream career, a stunning home, and a devoted husband and daughter. When Annie’s mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly one night, Annie’s carefully curated life begins to unravel. Her obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she thought she’d vanquished years ago, comes roaring back—but this time, the disturbing fixations swirling around in Annie’s brain might actually be coming true.

A prominent art patron disappears, and the investigation zeroes in on Annie. Spiraling with self-doubt, she distances herself from her family and friends, only to wake up in a hotel room—naked, next to a lifeless body. The police have more questions, but with her mind increasingly fractured, Annie doesn’t have answers. All she knows is this: She will do anything to protect her daughter—even if it means losing herself.

With dizzying twists, You Know What You Did is both a harrowing thriller and a heartfelt exploration of the refugee experience, the legacies we leave for our children, and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

You Know What You Did is my first book by K.T. Nguyen, but it won’t be my last. I’m a sucker for an engaging, well-written psychological thriller, and this fits the bill perfectly.

One aspect that I was drawn to immediately was the solid character work. Anh Le, who goes by Annie, deals with OCD, and I love the way her symptoms were depicted, with her spiraling contributing beautifully to the suspense, in a way that has you questioning everything along with her. This, along with the issue of the immigrant experience and how this was reflected in her complex relationship with her now deceased mother was also a highlight.

As you might expect, this was a somewhat discombobulating reading experience. I had no idea where the story was going for at least the first half, with it really taking its time to build suspense. But along with the suspense, came anticipation and a desire for answers, and the story came together wonderfully in the second half.

This was a thrilling read, and I’d recommend it to readers interested in a thriller that also highlights social issues like mental health care and the immigrant experience.

Author Bio

K. T. Nguyen is a former magazine editor. Her features have appeared in Glamour, Shape, and Fitness. She grew up in small town in Ohio and currently resides in a small town in Maryland with her family and their rescue terrier Alice. K.T. is a big fan of native plant gardening, jigsaw puzzles, and the Mets.

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“One Last Word” by Suzanne Park (ARC Review)

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Park, Suzanne. One Last Word. New York: Avon, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0063216099 | $18.99 USD | 288 pages | Contemporary

Blurb

Acclaimed author Suzanne Park returns with a charming and compelling novel about an aspiring tech entrepreneur who goes on a rollercoaster journey of self-discovery after her app, which sends messages to loved ones after you pass, accidentally sends her final words to all the important people in her life—including the venture capital mentor she’s crushing on.

Sara Chae is the founder of the app One Last Word, which allows you to send a message to whomever you want after you pass. Safeguards are in place so the app will only send out when you’re definitely, absolutely, 100% dead, but when another Sara Chae dies and the obituary triggers the prototype to auto-send messages that Sara uploads on one drunken night—to her emotionally charged mother, to a former best friend who ghosted her, and to her unrequited high school crush Harry—she has to deal with all the havoc that ensues and reopen old wounds from the past.

She applies for a venture capital mentorship and is accepted to the program, only to find out that the mentor she’s assigned is none other than her former crush and VC superstar Harry Shim, and her life goes from uncertain to chaotic overnight.

Empowering and laugh-out-loud funny, One Last Word is a remarkably relatable story about a woman in tech who learns to speak up and fight for what she wants in life and love.

Review

3.5 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

My hit-or-miss journey with Suzanne Park continues with her latest adult “romcom” One Last Word. As always, this is a promising book, but the promise gets a little lost in the weeds of trying to tackle too many concepts.

Sara is perhaps the best part of the book. She’s very sympathetic, dealing with the expectations of her rather demanding Korean parents, the sexism she deals with in the tech industry, and not to mention her shambles of a love life. And I really liked how initially the book set all that up with the letters, with each of them addressing her issues. And while I don’t feel the book fleshed out each of these subjects to the best degree, her character remained likable and easy to root for as she continued to navigate challenges throughout the book.

But I felt like both the tech stuff and even the family angle overwhelmed the book, to the point that it’s not necessarily a genre romance. There’s romantic elements in it, but I can’t say they’re particularly memorable. Harry is fine, but rather meh. There’s a fake dating subplot with her best friend which I actually thought seemed a lot more fun, and like a bit of a missed opportunity.

However, as disappointed as I am, I also can’t be too let down, as Suzanne Park’s books have been consistently WF-leaning…although I will say some of her romantic subplots are better than others. I’ll probably keep reading them, as I consistently enjoy her protagonists’ journeys, but just as with most of her work, definitely don’t go in expecting a more prominent romantic arc. But with that caveat in mind, I do recommend it to readers interested in contemporaries about Asian women in STEM and their professional and personal struggles.

Author Bio

Suzanne Park is a Korean American writer who was born and raised in Tennessee.

In her former life as a stand-up comedian, Suzanne appeared on BET, was the winner of the Seattle Sierra Mist Comedy Competition, and was a semi-finalist in NBC’s “Stand Up For Diversity” showcase.

Suzanne graduated from Columbia University and received an MBA Degree from UCLA. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, female offspring, and a sneaky rat that creeps around on her back patio. In her spare time, she procrastinates. Her comedic novels have been featured in “best of” lists in NPR, Elle, Popsugar, Real Simple, Country Living, Bustle, Buzzfeed, Marie Claire, Parade, Shondaland and The Today Show.

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“An Education in Malice” by S.T. Gibson (Review)

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Gibson, S.T. An Education in Malice. New York: Redhook, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0316501453 | $29.00 USD | 368 pages | Fantasy

Blurb

Sumptuous and addictive, An Education in Malice is a dark academia tale of blood, secrets and insatiable hungers from S.T. Gibson, author of the cult hit A Dowry of Blood.

Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua’s College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold.

On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla.

But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.

Review

4 stars

I’ve had A Dowry of Blood on my TBR for a while, but even though I have yet to pick it up (and I really want to soon!), I was intrigued to hear that there would be two new S.T. Gibson books this year as well. The first of these is An Education in Malice, a Carmilla reimagining in a dark academia setting. I had high expectations, and they absolutely delivered. Gibson conveyed the atmosphere beautifully, with her poetic writing engrossing me in the environs of Saint Perpetua’s College.

The characters and the dynamics between them are fairly well drawn. I especially appreciate how it explores and unpacks the complex teacher/student dynamics between Dr. De Lafontaine and both Carmilla and Laura, and how the girls’ fascination with their professor in return lures them into De Lafontaine’s dangerous world.

And while it’s not a genre romance in the strictest sense, I did mostly like the romantic dynamic between Laura and Carmilla. Not a ton of time is devoted to the development of their enemies to lovers dynamic, but given what they go through together, and that both girls are generally likable, I rooted for them.

This was an enjoyable read, and I’d recommend it to readers interested in dark academia and vampires.

Author Bio

S.T. Gibson is the author of A Dowry of Blood. She holds a bachelor’s in creative writing from the University of North Carolina Asheville and a master’s in theological studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. She currently lives in New England with her partner.

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“The One That Got Away with Murder” by Trish Lundy (ARC Review)

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Lundy, Trish. The One That Got Away with Murder. New York: Henry Holt and Co. Books for Young Readers, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1250292162 | $19.99 USD | 384 pages | YA Thriller

Blurb

Be careful who you fall for…

Robbie and Trevor Cresmont have a body count—the killer kind. Handsome and privileged, the Crestmont brothers have enough wealth to ensure they’ll never be found guilty of any wrongdoing, even if all of Happy Valley believes they’re behind the deaths of their ex-girlfriends. First there was soccer star Victoria Moreno, Robbie’s ex, who mysteriously drowned at the family lake house. Then, a year later, Trevor’s girlfriend died of a suspicious overdose.

But the Crestmonts aren’t the only ones with secrets. Lauren O’Brian might be the new girl at school, but she’s never been a good girl. With a dark past of her own, she’s desperate for a fresh start. Except when she starts a no-strings-attached relationship with Robbie, her chance is put in jeopardy. During what’s meant to be their last weekend together, Lauren stumbles across shocking evidence that just might implicate Robbie.

With danger closing in, Lauren doesn’t know who to trust. And after a third death rocks the town, she must decide whether to end things with Robbie or risk becoming another cautionary tale.

This is an edge-of-your-seat debut YA thriller about a teen who is forced to confront her past in order to catch a murderer before she ends up the next victim. Perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

Review

4 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

When I read the premise for The One That Got Away with Murder, I went in expecting one thing, and getting something completely different. The blurb absolutely set me up for some kind of revenge thriller in a sense, or at least a potential “escaping a toxic relationship before you die” kind of dynamic. This book is not that, and while I was a bit disappointed, I’ve read books like that before, so I’m also kind of glad this book went in a different direction (and there was still a covert murderer in the guise of a loving romantic partner, even if it wasn’t who I thought). It was deeply compelling, and I savored each twist and turn.

Lauren is an interesting character with a bit of a dark past, and I appreciated how that came into play, even being exploited to threaten her through the course of the story. She’s also rather jaded and hard-edged, a nice contrast to a common trope of thriller heroines being rather naive and innocent. And while there are some toxic family dynamics, including a complex relationship with her mother and stepfamily.

This was an engrossing read, and I’d recommend it to readers looking for more YA thrillers in the vein of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

Author Bio

Trish Lundy grew up in Rochester, New York and now calls California home. Her debut YA thriller, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY WITH MURDER, publishes April 16, 2024 from Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. She is represented by Kristin van Ogtrop and Stephen Barbara of Inkwell Management. Trish also writes for film and TV. She received her BA in English from UCLA, where she fell in love with the craft of writing. She’s worked in the film industry, in marketing, and is also a former hospice & palliative care volunteer.

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Thorne, Rebecca. Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea. 2022. New York: Bramble, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1250333308 | $9.99 USD (19.99 USD paperback preorder) | 336 pages | Fantasy Romance

Blurb

In the tradition of Legends & Lattes, comes a cozy fantasy steeped in sapphic romance about one of the Queen’s private guards and a powerful mage who want to open a bookshop and live happily ever after…if only the world would let them.

All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters… all complemented by love and good company. Thing is, Reyna works as one of the Queen’s private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives isn’t so easy.

But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility–all the better that her girlfriend is on board. Together, they settle in Tawney, a town nestled in the icy tundra near dragon country, and open the shop of their dreams.

What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. In a story brimming with hurt/comfort and quiet fireside conversations, these two women will discover just what they mean to each other… and the world.

Review

4 stars

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea caught my eye due to all the buzz it was receiving recently, not to mention being picked up as part of the up-and-coming “Bramble” imprint from Tor. Taking direct inspiration from Legends & Lattes, whether this book will work for you will depend on your feelings on L&L, and on fanfiction/derivative works. However, as someone who enjoyed L&L, I enjoyed how this book captured a similar cozy atmosphere and tone, as well as paying homage to tea and books in a fun way.

Reyna and Kianthe are a sweet pair, and while they begin the book in an established relationship, that doesn’t mean they don’t lack challenges, as the story follows them as they’re trying to run away from all the pressures of their lives as a guard and mage, respectively.

The world is well-drawn, and while it lingers more in the background, it colors some of the external action in intriguing ways. There’s not a ton going on, but there are some political elements that come into play, especially at the beginning and end. While it is a tad long to maintain the overly cozy, low-stakes concept, but the charm and charisma of the characters mostly compensates for it.

I really enjoyed this book, and am excited for more in this series. I’m also intrigued to read more from this emerging “Bramble” imprint, whether it’s previously published or a new work. And I’d recommend it to readers looking for a cozy sapphic fantasy romance.

Author Bio

Rebecca Thorne is an author of all things fantasy, sci-fi, and romantic, such as the Tomes & Tea series. She thrives on deadlines, averages 2,700 words a day, and tries to write at least 3 books a year. (She also might be a little hyper-focused ADHD.)

After years in the traditional publishing space, Rebecca pivoted into self-publishing. Now, she’s found a happy medium as a hybrid author, and leans into her love of teaching by helping other authors find their perfect publication path.

When she’s not writing (or avoiding writing), Rebecca can be found traveling the country as a flight attendant, or doing her best impression of a granola-girl hermit with her two dogs. She’s always scheming to move to a mountain town and open a bookshop that serves tea.

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“This Is Me Trying” by Racquel Marie (ARC Review)

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Marie, Racquel. This Is Me Trying. New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1250891389 | $19.99 USD | 368 pages | YA Contemporary Romance

Blurb

Perfect for fans of Nina LaCour, This is Me Trying is a profound and tender YA contemporary novel exploring grief, love, and guilt from author Racquel Marie.

Growing up, Bryce, Beatriz, and Santiago were inseparable. But when Santiago moved away before high school, their friendship crumbled. Three years later, Bryce is gone, Beatriz is known as the dead boy’s girlfriend, and Santiago is back.

The last thing Beatriz wants is to reunite with Santiago, who left all her messages unanswered while she drowned alone in grief over Bryce’s death by suicide. Even if she wasn’t angry, Santiago’s attempts to make amends are jeopardizing her plan to keep the world at arm’s length—equal parts protection and punishment—and she swore to never let anyone try that again.

Santiago is surprised to find the once happy-go-lucky Bea is now the gothic town loner, though he’s unsurprised she wants nothing to do with him. But he can’t fix what he broke between them while still hiding what led him to cut her off in the first place, and it’s harder to run from his past when he isn’t states away anymore.

Inevitably drawn back together by circumstance and history, Beatriz and Santiago navigate grief, love, mental illness, forgiveness, and what it means to try to build a future after unfathomable loss.

Review

4.5 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I’ve quickly become a Racquel Marie fan due to her prior two books, so I requested her next book without thinking about it. The Taylor Swift reference made it all the more exciting. But once I really processed the premise of This Is Me Trying, I knew I was in for a truly emotional experience, similar to the one the song of the same name explores.

I’ve read a number of books that deal with grief of all kinds, but this book stands out in really going hard in exploring the topics. The loss happens prior to the book’s events, but I love how you see the impact on both the leads, Beatriz and Satiago, who lost their best friend, Bryce (Beatriz and Bryce were also dating). Each has a unique connection with Bryce, and their own reaction to what happened, with Beatriz in particular withdrawing from Santiago and the world and taking on a gothic aesthetic as an outward expression of her feelings of grief and isolation.

Even with the bleakness of their situation, I loved observing Beatriz and Santiago slowly coming back together and opening up to each other again about the things they’ve held back from the other, and helping each other heal. Through it all, I also appreciated that they were allowed to be their messy, flawed selves, fully reckoning with the demons they carried, even in their interactions with each other.

And in a roundabout way, this book helped me to respect the Taylor Swift song even more. It’s always been a song I’ve respected, but it, along with “Illicit Affairs,” were kind of the skips from Folklore for me. I had respect for the themes explored on “This Is Me Trying,” but something about the track itself always had a rather sleepy quality, even more so than some other songs on the album. But this book somehow feels tonally like the song, much slower, yet packing that emotional punch in how it takes its time to explore the complex themes poignantly and sensitively. So, I want to thank Racquel Marie for perfectly understanding the assignment, making me think, and helping me grow as a reader, a Taylor Swift fan, and a person.

I really enjoyed this book, and with the caveat that you check the content warnings before diving in, I recommend checking out this book if you’re interested in a hard-hitting exploration of grief in a romantic contemporary.

Author Bio

Racquel Marie grew up in Southern California where her passion for storytelling of all kinds was encouraged by her friends and big family. She received a BA in English with an emphasis in creative writing and a minor in gender and sexuality studies from the University of California, Irvine. There is, unexpectedly, a C in her first name. She is the author of Ophelia After All, You Don’t Have a Shot, and This Is Me Trying.

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“Butcher & Blackbird” (Ruinous Love #1) by Brynne Weaver (Review)

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Weaver, Brynne. Butcher & Blackbird. 2023. New York: Zando Projects, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1638931737 | $18.00 USD | 345 pages | Contemporary/Dark Romance

Blurb

A New York Times and USA TODAY Bestseller

“I want to ruin her so that she’s mine, my beautiful disaster. My wild creature. My goddess of chaos.”

The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and sizzling chemistry―unlike anything you’ve read before―now available in all bookstores

When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, they find something elusive―the friendship of two like-minded, pitch-black souls who just happen to enjoy killing other serial killers.

From small-town West Virginia to upscale California, and from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.

But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love.

Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves?
Or have they finally met their match?

Tropes:
Golden retriever x black cat
He falls first
Touch him/her and die
Friends to lovers
Forced proximity
One bed

Review

4 stars

Butcher & Blackbird was semi-on my radar for a while, but until recently, I did not think it was a book I’d like, as I avoid most dark romance like the plague. But then I took the time to read the blurb, and became intrigued. They’re both serial killers, and they target other serial killers? Where has a book like this been all my life?

Sloane and especially Rowan are absolutely delightful to follow. They’re both morally gray, perhaps even darker than that, but there’s a surprising sweetness to both of them too. Rowan in particular is super-sweet and a great example of a “secret cinnamon roll.” As for Sloane, she’s rather prickly, but I couldn’t help but also find her as endearing as Rowan did.

And the romance between them was great. I loved the developing bond between them, with them starting as rival vigilantes after the same prey, with it evolving into a friendship. And over time, this friendship also evolved beautifully into a surprisingly sweet romance.

While combing through the CWs prior to reading, I saw some things I was concerned about, especially “accidental cannibalism.” But I was pleasantly surprised by how this ended up being incorporated. And overall, I appreciate how Brynne Weaver managed to balance the intense themes with an overall lighthearted tone.

This was an enjoyable read, and I’m excited for what’s to come in the next book. With the caveat that I encourage consulting the CWs prior to reading it for yourself, I’d recommend this book if you’re looking for a surprisingly funny book with morally ambiguous characters.

CWs available here

Author Bio

Writing has always been a hobby for Brynne. Even as a young child, she loved typing out stories on her grandmother’s typewriter. She wrote award-winning poetry and essays, and dabbled in various forms of fiction over the years. In 2019, Brynne committed to publishing more of her works, and released her first non-fiction book (under her real name!). She then began focusing on her first fantasy-romance (or ‘romantasy’) series, The Diviner. Next up was the three-part Shadow Realm paranormal dark romance series. Brynne then partnered with author Alexa Harlowe on the contemporary dark standalone romance, Black Sheep.

Brynne aspires to write female-focused stories about complex, resilient, imperfect characters who struggle with anger, trauma, fear, courage, and love.

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“The 7-10 Split” by Karmen Lee (ARC Review)

May 8, 2024 ~ courtneytonokawa ~ Leave a comment

Lee, Karmen. The 7-10 Split. Toronto, Ontario: Afterglow Books, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-1335041630 | $12.99 USD | 288 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

For fans of Ashley Herring Blake’s Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and Chencia C. Higgins’ D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Weddingcomes an utterly charming and queerly irresistible romantic comedy…where all’s fair in love and bowling.
This is how love rolls…

For teacher Ava Williams, some subjects are not up for debate. Like history—specifically, the one she has with Grace Jones, bowling pro and local celeb. Who is now, for no identifiable reason, teaching at the same small-town Georgia high school as Ava. Once upon a time, they were thick as thieves, best friends, rivals who pushed each other, and total bowling nerds. Then they shared a kiss, sweet and confusing…and after that, they split and nothing was ever the same.

Ava is pretty sure she has every reason to hate Grace. Especially when the school’s soggy potato of a principal announces—finally—that the students can have the bowling team Ava has been pushing for, for years…only to hand it to Grace.

Now they’re expected to be partners and lead their new bowling team to victory in six months. And with that, their rivalry is back. Fierce, ultracompetitive…and with an undeniable attraction that pushes, pulls and crashes together. It’s history. It’s chemistry. And it’s just a matter of time before it explodes…one way or the other.

Review

3.5 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

When announcements were trickling in about the authors releasing books with the Afterglow imprint, Karmen Lee was the one I was most excited for, as I’ve read a few of her indie titles, and enjoyed them. Also, I’ll never stop being excited for Black sapphic representation! And in the sea of relatively “same-y” sports romances, focused on hockey or football, I loved that this one was about bowling, something I know a bit more about, albeit not on the competitive level.

The characters absolutely are the standout here, along with their developing relationship. Ava and Grace have a history as best friends and friendly rivals until they fell apart due to them not being able to reckon with the feelings between them. I enjoyed watching them being thrown back together and being forced to reckon with all the baggage and unresolved tension between them.

But as much as I really liked the romance, I felt like it wasn’t strong enough to fully carry the overall story. Yes, there was also the bowling competition aspect, but the book still felt oddly paced, with long stretches of not much happening.

But the story is sweet overall, and I’m excited that there’s more to come following supporting characters from this world. I recommend this book to readers looking for a Black sapphic romance, I’d recommend checking this out!

Author Bio

Karmen Lee is a lifelong Southerner living it up in Atlanta, Georgia with her kid, her cats, and humidity. When not packing lunches or working her nine-to-five, she can be found drinking coffee too late at night, watching House Hunters International and dreaming up ways to show her readers a good time.

Website

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Eagle Eye Book Shop (signed copies)

“Last Call at the Local” by Sarah Grunder Ruiz (Review)

May 7, 2024 ~ courtneytonokawa ~ Leave a comment

Ruiz, Sarah Grunder. Last Call at the Local. New York: Berkley Romance, 2024.

ISBN-13: 978-0593549063 | $17.00 USD | 368 pages | Contemporary Romance

Blurb

Opposites attract when a free-spirited American singer-songwriter with ADHD teams up with a charming Irishman to revitalize his family’s pub in the next heartfelt romance from the author of Luck and Last Resorts.

Raine Hart is used to the challenges of living with ADHD. It’s why she ditched her life in Boston to busk around Europe as a traveling musician. No boss. No schedule. No one to disappoint but herself. But when a careless mistake in Ireland leaves her unable to perform, she sees no other option but to give up her nomadic life.

Since inheriting the Local, Jack Dunne has wanted to make the pub his own. But the baggage of running a family business and the intrusive thoughts that stem from his OCD make changing things a challenge.

Over a pint with handsome, tattooed Jack, Raine accidentally insults him and the pub. Instead of taking offense, Jack, impressed by her vision of what the pub could be, offers her a job bringing it to life.

But when Raine and Jack develop feelings for one another their opposite lifestyles won’t accommodate, it becomes clear the pub isn’t the only thing that needs reinventing. As the end of their business collaboration draws near, they’ll have to find a way past the limits they’ve placed on themselves or let go of a love that could last a lifetime.SEE LESS

Review

4 stars

I DNFed a prior Sarah Grunder Ruiz book for a reason I now forget, but it wasn’t anything offensive, so I remained open to reading another book from her. Last Call at the Local sounded right up my alley, and I ended up really enjoying it.

A huge draw for me was the ADHD and OCD rep. Both leads are messy, imperfect people, and I very much empathized with how they lived their lives as a fellow neurodivergent person, even if my experience doesn’t 100% mirror theirs. I really liked how Jack in particular unpacked and pushed back against some of the common stereotypes about people with OCD, showing the deeper nuance of what it is to live with it and deal with the related anxiety. Raine is such a chaotic ball of sunshine, although one who has adapted into a nomadic existence to avoid disappointing others and in an attempt to escape the stigma of her diagnosis.

And the romance is just so sweet. The two start off as friends and co-workers at The Local together, and things develop beautifully from there. Their bond is so tender and sweet, and I truly felt the stakes of their relationship and whether things would last once it was time for Raine to leave. I also love how the book conveyed the long-distance aspect of the latter part of the book through their text conversations.

I really enjoyed this book, and I’d recommend this if you’re looking for a cozy romance with a mental health and neurodivergence rep.

Author Bio

Sarah Grunder Ruiz is a writer, educator, and karaoke enthusiast. Originally from South Florida, she now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and two children. She holds an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University, where she now teaches First-Year Writing.

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