Sunday, July 14, 2024

Apples Never Fall

            


Title: Apples Never Fall
Author: Liane Moriarty
Published: Henry Holt & Co., September 14, 2021
Pages: 474
Genre: Domestic Thriller

The Delaney family love one another dearly - it’s just that sometimes they want to murder each other....

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father?

This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings.

The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. They’re killers on the tennis court, and off it their chemistry is palpable. But after 50 years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

The four Delaney children - Amy, Logan, Troy, and Brooke - were tennis stars in their own right, yet as their father will tell you, none of them had what it took to go all the way. But that’s okay, now that they’re all successful grown-ups and there is the wonderful possibility of grandchildren on the horizon.

One night a stranger named Savannah knocks on Stan and Joy’s door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend. The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

Later, when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question the one person who remains: Stan. But for someone who claims to be innocent, he, like many spouses, seems to have a lot to hide. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure - but as the two sides square off against each other in perhaps their biggest match ever, all of the Delaneys will start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.

Sometimes I truly love the surprises that I get when I don't read the blurbs for books. Like how I had no clue this was about a family of tennis players. I love tennis. 

I'm not sure why I was totally shocked about the fact that this didn't have a super tragic ending. It's like I'd forgotten the other Liane Moriarty twists. They contain tragedy, but are not super tragic. This was actually kind of beautiful. The story of a family and all of their love and mistakes.

The author is a master of a red herring and so good at leading you down some pretty dark paths. She makes her characters face their very worst selves, and then somehow she's there to remind you that the world will always regress to the mean. It's very very good. 

Ratings
Stars: 4/5

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Past Present Future

           


Title: Past Present Future
Series: Rowan & Neil #2
Author: Rachel Lynn Solomon
Published: Simon & Schuster, June 4, 2024
Pages: 384
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

They fell for each other in just twenty-four hours. Now Rowan and Neil embark on a long-distance relationship during their first year of college in this romantic, dual POV sequel to Today Tonight Tomorrow.

When longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair confessed their feelings on the last day of senior year, they knew they’d only have a couple months together before they left for college. Now summer is over, and they’re determined to make their relationship work as they begin school in different places.

In Boston, Rowan is eager to be among other aspiring novelists, learning from a creative writing professor she adores. She’s just not sure why she suddenly can’t seem to find her voice.

In New York, Neil embraces the chaos of the city, clicking with a new friend group more easily than he anticipated. But when his past refuses to leave him alone, he doesn’t know how to handle his rapidly changing mental health—or how to talk about it with the girl he loves.

Over a year of late-night phone calls, weekend visits, and East Coast adventures, Rowan and Neil fall for each other again and again as they grapple with the uncertainty of their new lives. They’ve spent so many years at odds with each other—now that they’re finally on the same team, what does the future hold for them?

Phew. I didn't see any trigger warnings at the beginning of this book, but I'll put some here. Trigger warning for depression and complicated parental relationships. 

Rowan Roth is back to being an uptight perfectionist. I really do like Rowan, but she also feels like a self-insert of my own consciousness into a book. It's kind of startling really to read your insecurities so perfectly described in a work of fiction. I am not so narcissistic to believe that no one else experiences perfectionism related anxiety, but this character does still make me uncomfortable. 

It's also a little hard not to resent her on Neil's behalf. Which is crazy because I think that Neil would be really offended by that. This could be some of that anxiety peaking through though. But Neil McNair really goes through it in this book. He's dealing with his long distance relationship and moving across the country and being depressed and figuring out how to cut your father out of your life. I mean. He really got the short end of the stick in this book. 

I do love that it all came back to scavenger hunts. Whenever they began to feel unmoored in their relationship they planned a cute little mini-Howl to recapture those feelings of the night they fell in love. And that was some solid A-Plus romance, my friends. 

Ratings
Stars: 4/5
Spice: 1/5

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

       



Title: Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Series: Before the Coffee Gets Cold #1
Author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Publisher: Hanover Square Press, November 17, 2020
Pages: 272
Genre: Magical Realism

In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.

Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?

I love how much this book makes me think. Is the cafe magic? Is it the coffee? Is it the family, or the women specifically? I love it. This is a beautiful modern fairy tale. 

I really enjoyed how the implementation of the rules set the frame of each of their stories. And how it fit so nicely into the importance of tradition and ritual of a coffee service. You see this cafe, and all of its workers and regulars in little snips. You see them on their good days and their bad days. It's really human at its heart, flawed and beautiful and hopeful. 

Ratings
Stars: 5/5

Imagine Me & You

           

Title: Imagine Me and You
Author: Lynn Camden
Publisher: June 2, 2023
Pages: 234
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Simone Larson is juggling it all: running her animal shelter, balancing the needs of a non-profit against the demands of her overbearing relatives. She’s not exactly the manic pixie fat girl she’d always dreamed she’d be.

Her childhood best friend, James Randall, is almost her complete opposite on every level. Lanky where she is round, serious where she’s carefree, meticulous, snarky… and, well, an accountant. But being with him feels like home.

James shouldn’t be this cranky about a weekend at a brand-new resort surrounded by lake and pine trees. He agreed to this fake dating scheme, after all. And the engagement ring certainly wasn’t her idea. That kiss on the dock? Just for show. But now she’s felt his hands on her body, and the perfect press of his lips on hers, she wants so much more. She’s imagining it all. She just has to risk losing her best friend.


I simultaneously want to visit this resort and shut them down with equal urgency. The setting is so beautifully described that I can't imagine never seeing it. But Simone's family sucks and I hope someone more ethical takes over ASAP. (I know it's not a real place, I just really want to visit a Canadian lake town, OK?!)

I loved these two. For best friends, their communication skills are atrocious, but we got there in the end. And when they were communicating, their chemistry and care was top notch. I loved how protective James was of Simone, and how Simone could get James to relax every once in awhile. But my biggest issue was that the way that they both hid from the other right after things got hot and heavy. They would tip just the other side of friendly and be fully in it, but then the tension would break and one or the other would run away. It was pretty frustrating.

Aside from that, this one hit on some heavy topics. I love a fake engagement, and the reason for this engagement was an absolute DOOZY. Are you kidding me? What a ride! I love that James made Simone face the ugly side of her gratitude to her family. Maybe he didn't have to do that quite so publicly, but he was absolutely right that it needed to be done. Just read it. It's really good, and I didn't even get into exactly how hot they are for each other. Chef's. Kiss.

Ratings
Stars: 4/5
Spice: 2/5

The Luis Ortega Survival Club

             


Title: The Luis Ortega Survival Club
Author: Sonora Reyes
Publisher: Balzer & Bray, May 23, 2023
Pages: 315
Genre: YA LGBT Fiction

Ariana Ruiz wants to be noticed. But as an autistic girl who never talks, she goes largely ignored by her peers—despite her bold fashion choices. So when cute, popular Luis starts to pay attention to her, Ari finally feels seen.

Luis’s attention soon turns to something more, and they have sex at a party—while Ari didn’t say no, she definitely didn’t say yes. Before she has a chance to process what happened and decide if she even has the right to be mad at Luis, the rumor mill begins churning—thanks, she’s sure, to Luis’s ex-girlfriend, Shawni. Boys at school now see Ari as an easy target, someone who won’t say no. 

Then Ari finds a mysterious note in her locker that eventually leads her to a group of students determined to expose Luis for the predator he is. To her surprise, she finds genuine friendship among the group, including her growing feelings for the very last girl she expected to fall for. But in order to take Luis down, she’ll have to come to terms with the truth of what he did to her that night—and risk everything to see justice done. 


Pay really close attention to your trigger warnings on this one. The author has done a really good job outlining them at the beginning of the book, but man. This definitely prickled all of my most testy emotions.

This book is somewhat of a nightmare. Beautifully written and compelling and important. But also scary and infuriating. Also full of hope, but then fiction gets to do that. I don't love that it makes me remember all of those news stories (and personal stories) that didn't have quite such a successful ending. 

If you can read something like this, I highly recommend it. If you can't, take care of yourself first. 

Ratings
Stars: 5/5

Iron & Velvet

      



Title: Iron & Velvet
Series: Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator #1
Author: Alexis Hall
Publisher: Carina Press, October 7, 2019
Pages: 258
Genre: LGBT Romantasy

I like my women like I like my whiskey: more than is good for me.

Name’s Kane, Kate Kane. I’m a paranormal private investigator, which is like a normal private investigator except—and stop me if you’re having trouble following this—more paranormal. This business comes with a few basic rules: don’t start drinking before noon, don’t get your partner killed, don’t sleep with the woman who killed him.

Last year I broke all of them.

The only rule I didn’t break was the one that said don’t work for vampires. But then a dead werewolf showed up outside the Soho shag palace of Julian Saint-Germain—a bloodsucking flibbertigibbet who’s spent the last eight centuries presiding over an ever-growing empire of booze, sex and hemoglobin. 

I shouldn’t have taken the job. The last thing I needed was to get caught in a supernatural smackdown between a werewolf pack and a vampire prince. Even if the vampire prince was dangerously my type. But what can I say? I was broke, I’m a sucker for a pretty face and I gave up on making good decisions a long time ago.

What a delightful start to a series. Well, maybe not delightful. Quite a lot of fighting really. But very fun all the same.

Kate Kane is a wreck. But like a hot wreck. A powerful, hot queer wreck of a paranormal investigator. She's funny and massively flawed and I am very looking forward to seeing how things go for her. 

This book did a great job of being really interesting on its own, and making me want to know what's going to happen next. The world building was doled out in a bit of exposition, but because she's an investigator it was acceptable and made sense. There was also a good bit of information about things that happened before, almost enough that I could do with a prequel, and it kind of makes me wonder if this is maybe a spin off series and I haven't realized it yet. If so, I'd read those too. 

Ratings
Stars: 4/5
Spice: 2/5

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Guava Flavored Lies

             



Title: Guava Flavored Lies
Author: J.J. Arias
Publisher: June 17, 2022
Pages: 304
Genre: LGBT Contemporary Romance

Sylvie Campos and Lauren Machado have hated each other since before they were born. For generations, the Campos and Machado families have blamed each other for stealing pastry recipes they claim their great-grandfathers originated before fleeing Castro’s Cuba.

Having spent their lives as rivals, Lauren and Sylvie are now in their early thirties and primed to take over their respective family bakeries. That means working long, hot, seasons of outdoor food festivals where they are forced to endure each other - albeit with a lot of bantering and barb-trading. After all, no one knows how to get under Sylvie’s skin like Lauren.

Sick of dealing with Lauren and her thieving family, Sylvie sets out to unmask the Machados for the traitors they are.

But when the truth is not what Sylvie expects, will the fiery exchanges between her and Lauren turn into something hot enough to melt away generational baggage? Could they get the chance to rekindle what they almost had in high school?

Sapphic Romeo and Juliet with Cuban flare set in Miami?! If that's what you're looking for, this is definitely it. If you really like baked goods, count this as your trigger warning. I wanted every single bit of food discussed in this dang book. And considering both of these women are inheriting Cuban bakeries, there is a LOT of food discussed. 

Ratings
Stars: 3/5
Spice: 2/5

King of Flames

            


Title: King of Flames
Series: The Masks of Under #1
Author: Kathryn Ann Kingsley
Publisher: Tantor Audio, December 31, 2019
Pages: 256
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Everything about my life has been pretty normal working as a forensic autopsy technician. Until the day I woke up with a mysterious symbol tattooed on my arm. 

Suddenly normal no longer existed. The barrier between Earth and a world called Under, dissolved.... 

Now I'm trapped with dozens of other people. Held prisoner by the creators of myths and legends, where the realm is ruled by two masked kings who want to turn us into creatures like them. 

But even though I didn't choose to be here, this new world manages to pull me deeper, affecting me differently than other humans. Unfortunately, King Edu, also known as the King of Flames, notices this and I'm now considered a threat. 

If I want to survive King Edu and the dangers of Under, I need to escape. The only problem is, there's another masked king who seems to have an interest in me. Aon, the King of Shadows, wants me here in this world, and he wants me alive. 

I just need to figure out why.


Sometimes just because something is free doesn't mean you should read it. Even if it sounds like nostalgic catnip. Which this did. And it was fine, but not perfect. I don't think I'll read book 2 though.

Ratings
Stars: 2/5

The Night & its Moon

           


Title: The Night and Its Moon
Series: The Night and Its Moon #1
Author: Piper CJ
Publisher: Bloom Books, September 20, 2022
Pages: 451
Genre: LGBT Romantasy

Two orphans grow into powerful young women as they face countless threats to find their way back to each other...

Farleigh is just an orphanage–at least, that's what the church would have the people believe. But beautiful orphans Nox and fae-touched Amaris know better. They are commodities for sale, available for purchase by the highest bidder. So when the madame of a notorious brothel in a far-off city offers a king's ransom to purchase Amaris, Nox ends up taking her place—while Amaris is drawn away to the mountains, home of mysterious assassins.

Even as they take up new lives and identities, Nox and Amaris never forget one thing: they will stop at nothing to reunite. But the threat of war looms overhead, and the two are inevitably swept into a conflict between human and fae, magic and mundane. With strange new alliances, untested powers, and a bond that neither time nor distance could possibly break, the fate of the realms lies in the hands of two orphans and the love they hold for each other.

What a beautiful world. A terrible world, but wow is it beautiful. 

The terrible bits are bad. This definitely takes you into the medieval type of fantasy. Which isn't my favorite. Ultimately this book feels like quite a lot of set up for an interesting series. As a standalone, it was good. But ultimately, I'm just really curious what's going to happen in the next book. how will being separated for year sad then reunited under duress impact Nox and Amaris in the longer term? 

But also, Amaris is a badass. Nox is a badass in different ways. And I'm really looking forward to see how they both compliment one another, and I'm really looking forward to a fight. I think they deserve to have a good fight and make up.

Ratings
Stars: 4/5
Spice: 1/5

Monday, July 1, 2024

Get it Right

          


Title: Get it Right
Series: Love at Knockdown #1
Author: Skye Kilaen
Publisher: December 1, 2020
Pages: 126
Genre: Lesbian Romance

A butch lesbian parolee. The pretty pansexual nurse who got away. Is this their second chance at a happily ever after?

Finn is finally out of prison, which is great. Having no job, no car, and no place to sleep except her cousin’s couch? Not so great.

Plus, her felony theft conviction isn’t doing wonders for her employment prospects, so she can’t afford her migraine meds without the public clinic. The last thing she ever expected was for the gal who stole her heart to come walking down that clinic’s hallway: Vivi, the manicure-loving nurse who spent two years fighting the prison system to get proper medical care for her patients, including Finn.

Finn could never believe she imagined the attraction and affection between them. But acting on that in prison, especially as nurse and patient, had been a serious No Way. She’s had eight months to get over Vivi, who abruptly left her job without saying goodbye. Finn is over it. Honest! It’s totally and completely fine.

Except Vivi, here and now, doesn’t seem fine. And Finn couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t try to help.

Is fate offering Finn a second chance? Or is finding love as likely as finding a job with health insurance?

This was pretty cute. I love a message about how people still deserve a chance after jail. It is a novella, so I understand that things need to move quickly. I also get that these two worked together and developed feelings off-page, before this part of their story began. But it was a little too fast for me. They had a lot of miscommunication to work through, but I didn't feel like we got those conversations. But pretty good, all the same!

Ratings
Stars: 3/5
Spice: 1/5

The Assassin's Blade

         


Title: The Assassin's Blade
Series: The Throne of Glass #0.5
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, March 4, 2014
Pages: 451
Genre: YA Romantasy

Celaena Sardothien is her kingdom's most feared assassin. Though she works for the powerful Assassin's Guild and its scheming master, Arobynn Hamel, she yields to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. But when Arobynn dispatches her on missions that take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, Celaena finds herself acting independently of his wishes and questioning her own allegiance.

If she hopes to escape Arobynn's clutches, Celaena will have to put her faith in her wits and her blade . . . knowing that if she fails, she'll lose not just a chance at freedom but her life.

This took me three tries to get through the whole thing. It's good, but I think I would have been move invested if I had read more of the main series first. 

Celaena is great, I really like her voice. Kind of a shocking amount really for a female main character. All of these glimpses into her life made her even more likable. Don't get me wrong. She's far from perfect. But she is very likable. 

And what this has done has made me really excited to reread Throne of Glass and to finally get into the rest of the series.

Ratings
Stars: 3/5

Bromantic Puckboy

                                             

Title: Bromantic Puckboy
Series: Puckboys #6
Author: Eden Finley & Saxon James
Published: April 18, 2024
Pages: 274
Genre: LGBTQ Hockey Romance

Bilson 

The idea of moving away from Seattle was a joke at first. 

I have too many failed relationships here. Too much baggage. 

So when I find myself signing with Nashville and leaving everything behind, I’m hopeful a new start will cure me of my attachment problems. 

I fall fast and hard, and I’m quickly realizing it’s not so easy to escape my emotional damage. That follows no matter where I go. 

When my new teammate, rookie goalie Miles Olsen, attaches himself to my side, the media are excited to exploit our bromance. Little do they know, he’s doing me a favor by keeping me away from making mistakes with women.

That’s the deal we made at the beginning of the season, but as time goes on, and we’re both going through a dry spell, Miles suggests a different arrangement. One I’ve never contemplated. One I shouldn’t consider.

One I can’t stop thinking about.

Miles

My first day as starting goalie for Tennessee is made mildly more terrifying by coming face to face with NHL veteran Cody Bilson. Hero worship? Me? Never!

He reminds me of my old frat buddies; loyal, kind, easy to trade banter with. But my dude is lost and trying to find himself again--without getting married this time. 

I want to help him, and while my suggestion might not be conventional, it sure as hell is effective. The only way to make sure he doesn't marry a woman again? Blow off steam with a man instead. 

We're both straight, we're both single, and we're both down for a good time. 

After all, what are teammates for?

Most of the puck boys are gym bros. I mean, they're professional athletes right? But these two take the gym bro cake. Which is probably gross but absolutely JAM PACKED with protein. 

Cody Bilson is quick to fall in love. He knows that getting physical is the first step on the path to a quick marriage and then another divorce. So clearly he's not going to be getting physical with any women anytime soon. And Miles is the rookie goalie on Bilson's new team. Bilson needed to get away from those many exes that he has in Seattle. 

So what do you do when you know that you can't hook up with a new woman or you'll propose marriage, and you're so sick of your hand you might not even get off next time you try. You start a bromance with the rookie goalie, and you both agree to some mutually beneficial satisfaction. You couldn't possibly be tempted to propose to the goalie of your brand new team. Right? Right?!

I loved it! Obviously. And I'm only grateful for every bit of fiction these ladies wish to write for us about these lads!

Ratings
Stars: 4/5
Spice: 3/5