Book Review, Fiction

Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E. Smith ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪

Genre: Fiction

        Gemma, Connor, Roddy, and Jude Endicott were once bound together by the annual trips with their elusive mother, to a different state every year. They are suddenly brought back together by Jude, who initiates a new family trip, though their mother is long gone.

        I finished this book about a week ago and I can hardly remember it. The characters felt unrealistic to me, each one packed with stereotypes to try to make them feel distinct which actually just made them feel one-dimensional. It created a distinct lack of ability to care about what happened to them – maybe that’s also partially because I didn’t care for most of them. I also didn’t buy that they’d all just drop everything to fly to North Dakota.

        Central to the plot is three big secrets that Jude wants to get off her chest to her siblings. This was the most compelling part of the book for me (the rest felt very low on plot). We get flashbacks to the family’s road trips over the year that help to inform and provide context around the secrets.

        I’m kind of grasping at straws as to what else to say about this one because it was so forgettable for me.

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Buy Fun for the Whole Family at an indie bookstore near you

Fun for the Whole Family on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

What a cozy hug of a holiday romance. Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel was the perfect book to be reading on my holiday Europe trip. Anais receives a rundown hotel in her divorce and takes it upon herself to renovate it and open it in time for Christmas. What she doesn’t expect is Noah, who owns the bar across the street and has a lot of opinions about her renovations and how they impact his business.

Although I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style, I could perfectly picture the hotel and found it very immersive. Anais decides on a literary theme for the hotel and as a book lover I appreciated all the cutesy details. The renovation storyline was more interesting and compelling to me than the romance.

I found Anais’s relationship with her ex-husband and every way he appeared in the story to be pretty unbelievable, but I was mostly able to suspend reality in getting through those parts.

This was exactly the kind of snuggly feel good Christmas book with low stakes that I was looking for and I would reach for another book by this author if I was craving a similar vibe.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel at an indie bookstore near you
Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romance

I read Matthew Norman’s holiday romance at the end of 2025 and loved it so I was excited to pick up Charm City Rocks for that reason and because I love the celebrity romance trope. Billy’s meddling son Caleb semi-accidentally reaches out to Billy’s former rock star crush, Margot Hammer. Pushed back into the spotlight by a documentary about her old band, Margot’s PR team encourages her to take the opportunity to travel to Billy’s town.

Billy and Margot’s chemistry was so palpable and I had a wonderful time watching their relationship grow. The descriptions of their behavior while doing regular things together made me root for them so much. I also enjoyed the way social media and the fanfare around them as a couple played into the story – which is unusual for me because I don’t usually like pop-culture making its way into books I read.

All the characters were really lovely. I liked the exploration of Caleb’s non-traditional family life and how strongly all the adults in his life supported him. I also appreciated a romance about characters who were older than their twenties.

Charm City Rocks is exactly what I’m hoping for when I pick up a light romance.

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Buy Charm City Rocks at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Romance

It’s Different This Time by Joss Richard ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

I notoriously love books set in NYC, so that was an automatic plus for me. When June finds out that she and her former roommate/best friend/maybe more, Adam have inherited the brownstone they used to live in together. She flies back from LA to confront her past.

The book is written in both the present and the past, showing us how June and Adam came to live together and how their relationship grew and the aftermath. I found the development of their friendship really beautiful and believable and loved watching it grow. Some of my favorite parts were also seeing how Adam’s family interacted with and embraced June.

While this relationship was central to the story, it was as much about finding yourself and navigating your path in your twenties and into your thirties as anything else. We learn about how each character’s career and aspirations have grown and evolved and I liked seeing the differences between the two time periods. June is an actress and Adam is in the food scene and it was especially fun to read about those two worlds in the setting of NYC.

I find miscommunication in romance books to be kind of annoying, like just talk to each other. But regardless, I enjoyed seeing this relationship unfold.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy It’s Different This Time at an indie bookstore near you
It’s Different This Time on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Rowan washes up on the shores of Shearwater, an island near Antarctica home to the world’s largest seed bank. There, the Salt family nurses her back to health. They are the only ones left on the island as sea levels rise and researchers have slowly left. As they get to know each other, Rowan and the Salts begin to realize that there is more to their chance meeting than they initially thought.

McConaghy’s writing is SO atmospheric and she always picks really interesting settings for her books. The unforgiving nature of the island entirely came to life as we learn, through the main characters, about the animals who live there and the destruction humans have brought over the years. At times I felt like I was reading nonfiction about the island.

There are very few characters in this book due to the isolated setting, allowing us to get to know and deeply care for them – and I did. Rowan spends time with each of the kids who are charming, delightful, and nuanced, as well as their dad, Dominic. Dominic is haunted by the passing of his own wife and in large part, this makes the whole island take on a haunted feeling.

Central to the story is a swirling mystery about how the characters have all ended up together, but I would not call this book a mystery in itself because there’s so much more to it.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Wild Dark Shore at an indie bookstore near you
Wild Dark Shore on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

A Winter Wish by Emily Stone ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

I blindly started this audiobook only to discover the main character’s name is Lexie and a big plot point revolves around a Christmas trip to Vienna – while I am currently on a trip to Vienna visiting my friend Lexie. Totally besides the point, but how wild!!

When Lexie finds out her estranged father left her half his travel company when he died, she wants nothing to do with it. Based on the will however, she finds herself roped into a year of running the company alongside her dad’s (young) business partner, Theo.

There is a lot of focus on Lexie’s relationship, or lack thereof with her father and her stepsister. It became more of an almost character study than I expected. It was interesting to see her grappling with her past and some misconceptions, just not what I was expecting.

I enjoyed both main characters but didn’t really find their relationship that believable. Things seemed to kind of come out of nowhere and felt hot and cold in terms of their chemistry.

A lot of the book focused on the travel agency. The parts about travel and exploring different cities was fun as was the growing friendships between the employees. The parts about office politics were less fun.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy A Winter Wish at an indie bookstore near you
A Winter Wish on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Happy Wife by Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

Nora is working at a country club when she catches the eye of recently divorced Will. Although he’s almost twenty years older than her and in a wildly different tax bracket, the two stumble into a whirlwind romance and are soon married. It seems like a fairytale until Will disappears one morning without a trace.

The premise of a young new wife entering a wealthy society with her successful, established husband is nothing new, but it’s also something I almost always enjoy. Positioning Nora to be very much on her own in her fight to prove her innocence was, as always, an entertaining way to approach the missing person case.

I found all the surrounding characters to be fairly one-dimensional and hard to keep track of. In the long term, it kept me from getting all that invested in the investigation because I couldn’t keep people and their possible motives straight.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Happy Wife at an indie bookstore near you
Happy Wife on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

Grace and Henry are approaching their first holiday season since their respective spouses died. Although their mothers hope to push the two together romantically, Grace and Henry find that spending time with someone else who understands their grief might be exactly what they need. They set out to complete a holiday movie marathon together, often joined by Grace’s two kids.

The movie marathon was an unusual framing for the story but I loved how natural it seemed. It was a believable way for the two characters to be spending time together and bonding initially and their commentary on each film helped organically show their personalities.

I loved seeing Henry get to know Grace’s kids and their dog, Harry Styles. There was a lot of humor throughout this book despite the heaviness the two main characters were dealing with. It made for such a lovely read. Although the romance was sweet and I was rooting for it, it didn’t feel like an overwhelming focus of the book. There was a lot more to it and I appreciated that.

Perhaps the most surprising part of this book for me was finishing it and realizing it was written by a man. Grace’s perspective and the emotion through the whole story were so believable that I never would have guessed it.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon at an indie bookstore near you
Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

An Enchanting Case of Spirits by Melissa Holtz ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Romance/Paranormal
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

Ghosty books are quite often a miss for me, but this one was such a cozy lovely story. Alyssa’s friends drag her out to see a psychic for her 40th birthday. Alyssa initially hopes she’ll have a chance to communicate with her late husband, but finds instead that she awakens a latent power in herself to see ghosts. Panicked, she tries to enlist the help of Nick, an attractive detective who lives next door.

I liked all the elements of this story. The romance was a sweet, slow burn that frankly, I could have used more of. I wish it had been more of a focus of the story rather than the mystery. That said, I found the mystery unexpected and it was an interesting way to tie together all the characters (including the ghosts) and have them work toward a common goal.

Overall, I’d classify this one as fun and cozy but not terribly compelling. I’d consider picking up the second book in the series if I just want something light and easy.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy An Enchanting Case of Spirits at an indie bookstore near you
An Enchanting Case of Spirits on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I don’t usually like pop-culture references in books, but Everyone is Lying to You, which centers around a bunch of influencers, showed me that it really depends on how they’re included. Lizzie hasn’t heard from her college bestie Bex since she was ghosted by her years ago. That is, until one day Bex contacts her out of the blue asking if she’d like to have an exclusive interview with her. Lizzie, a magazine writer, jumps at the chance to get an inside look at Bex’s tradwife-style influencer life.

I listened to the audio version of this and it was so well done. It had multiple narrators and it made the story fly by. Much of the book takes place at an influencer event and the humor around influencing was such a delight. It was unexpectedly funny, particularly how seriously all the characters took things. 

The twist was darker than I expected and I was happy to be surprised by it. It was a good juxtaposition to the perfection all the influencers were trying to sell on their platforms.

This wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it was a really fast popcorn thriller that I read in about a day.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Everyone is Lying to You at an indie bookstore near you
Everyone is Lying to You on Goodreads