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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Book Review, Fiction

The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

The Academy reminded me of a grown up version of The Clique books (complementary). In classic Elin Hilderbrand fashion, we are introduced to a bunch of different characters and explore their evolving social dynamics and the ensuing drama. The difference from her other books is that, with her daughter as a co-author, the setting has shifted to a boarding school and the focus is its students.

I found some of the characters to be overly stereotypical in their actions and descriptions, but honestly it helped me keep them straight. We have the new girl who doesn’t fit in, Charley, the young new teacher, the popular girl slash influencer and the bad boy recluse (plus a few others, but you get the point). Despite there being many people to keep track of, I felt like I got a lot of background on each of them and was able to understand their motivations, even if I disagreed and/or thought they were terrible ideas. It kept me fully invested.

The setting of Tiffin Academy was so vibrant that I felt completely immersed in it. Over the course of the book you get to know the campus really well, primarily learned through the eyes of both students and staff. When I stopped reading, I couldn’t wait to pick the book back up and return.

As per my Clique reference, something about the boarding school setting plus extreme drama reminded me of series that I read in middle and high school, but elevated. I can’t believe I have to wait a year for the sequel.

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Book Review, Fiction, Magical Realism, Romance

The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Pager ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Romance/Magical Realism
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

The Art of Vanishing is such a lovely story. Claire begins a new job cleaning at an art museum. She finds herself especially drawn to one particular painting and it just so happens that Jean, the man in the painting, feels the same way. When Jean realizes Claire is able to visit him in his painting, they begin an unexpected romance.

The way this was narrated by the two main characters made it especially interesting. Jean’s very limited perspective often left the reader in the dark about everything going on in the outside world and I appreciated trying to piece things together with him. It allowed for one or two twists that I didn’t expect. Because of these twists, the story did get a little heavier than it seemed like it would be for the first third or so, but the way it was written still largely left me with cozy feelings. The fact that it almost exclusively took place in the museum helped with that. I could image the gallery perfectly and enjoyed spending time there.

I didn’t feel like there was actually all that much chemistry or believable romance here and I found the world-building with the living paintings a little unexplained, but overall I enjoyed this unusual story.

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Book Review, Fiction, Romance

And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction

And Then There was You was such an unexpected take on a romance. On the surface, it looks like a typical romcom: Chloe is embarrassed at the idea of attending her ten-year college reunion while in a dead-end job and fresh off a break up. When her friend recommends an elusive new dating service, Perfect Partners, Chloe decides to take a chance on her match, Rob, as her plus-one to the reunion. But there’s a catch to her so-called Perfect Partner, and it’s a big one. (I didn’t know what it was going into the book, so I’m not including it here, but if you look up other reviews you can see what the deal is – it could be a turn off for some).

I found Chloe to be wonderfully charming and funny. The book includes excerpts of her pros and cons list which added a lot of character. It was interesting to see her grappling with the ethics surrounding the dating service and how it fit into her future. I also appreciated her growth and how she seemed to understand and appreciate herself more as the story progressed.

The romance was a slow burn that didn’t really pick up until later in the book, but it was really lovely. Maybe not the most fiery romance, but very sweet, as I’ve come to expect from Sophie Cousens.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy And Then There was You at an indie bookstore near you
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