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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The Academy on Goodreads

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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Buy The Art of Vanishing at an indie bookstore near you
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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
And Then There was You on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Thriller
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Release Date: May 5, 2026 (Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC)

I can always count on Gillian McAllister to deliver a thriller I can’t look away from. Caller Unknown is no exception. Simone leaves the UK to meet her daughter, Lucy, in Texas for a camping trip. On their first morning there together, Simone wakes up to find that Lucy has been kidnapped. What follows is a test of just how far she is willing to go for her daughter.

This story completely hit the ground running. McAllister does an incredible job of, in very little time, investing me fully in Lucy and Simone’s relationship and painting a picture of their personalities. It made me completely buy into Simone’s actions and reactions once her daughter disappears.

I had no idea where this story was going to go from chapter to chapter. There are a lot of different segments to the story that all felt very different to me, but each was just as compelling as the last. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire story.

We’re mostly reading from Simone’s point of view and the narrative does a good job of weaving in her relationship with her husband as well as snippets from her past that round her out really well and help inform her motivations.

This was a five star read until the end, part of which I found to be a touch unconvincing.

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Buy Caller Unknown at an indie bookstore near you
Caller Unknown on Goodreads

Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Fantasy
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

It’s rare that I dive right into a sequel after reading the first book, but I was so excited to get back to this world. In Crown of Midnight, I feel like I got to know Calaena better and appreciated her character development, especially her actions in the face of becoming the king’s assassin.

I also really enjoyed Dorian’s plotline in this book and the changes in himself he’s grappling with. I didn’t see it coming based on his character in the first book and it made me excited to see how his story unfolds and how it changes his relationship with Calaena.

It seems like a lot of people found the ending to be a huge sudden twist, but I..didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Maybe I’m not fully understanding the implications. It’s definitely enough for me to want to keep reading though! I’m excited to see how the mysteries surrounding magic continue to be uncovered and how it changes their world.

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Buy Crown of Midnight at an indie bookstore near you
Crown of Midnight on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Yours for the Season by Emily Stone ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

I was feeling ready for a light read so I picked up my first holiday romance of the year. In Yours for the Season, Mel’s ex, Finn, begs her to go on his family’s Christmas trip to Scotland with him and she…. says yes? From the get-go, I found her character hard to connect with because of that choice. She rationalizes it because she would otherwise be alone for the holidays. Call me crazy, but I’d much rather be alone.

The story bounces back and forth between their present day experience in Scotland and their past relationship. I enjoyed the parts set in the present. The forced proximity made for a cute build up of romance. Everything felt very cozy and festive with Finn’s family and I liked the holiday vibes.

The segments outlining Finn and Mel’s relationship when they were together didn’t do enough to make me care about them as a couple. There wasn’t enough chemistry for me to root for them and Finn’s decision to break up with her and the way he did it felt really poorly thought out.

This wasn’t a total loss because it did help me get in the holiday spirit, but there are other holiday romances that do a lot more.

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Buy Yours for the Season at an indie bookstore near you
Yours for the Season on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Magical Realism

The Second Chance Cinema by Thea Weiss ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪
Genre: Magical Realism

One night, Ellie and her fiancé Drake come across a glamorous old school cinema they’ve never seen before only to discover that the one thing it’s showing is memories from each of their lives. After their first showing, they struggle to decide if they should return and risk uprooting secrets they’ve been keeping from each other.

I love movies and I love magical realism, so by all accounts this book should have been totally my thing. I really struggled with the main characters though. They felt incredibly one dimensional to the point where I didn’t care about them or really buy into their love story. There kept being things set up as big secrets from their pasts and I kept waiting to be shocked, but everything felt very blasé to me.

The main redeeming element of this book was the cinema because I could perfectly imagine its glitzyness and I liked the zany employees there. It felt like much more of a fleshed out world and concept than the rest of the book. I would have loved to spend more time there, rather than out in ‘real life’ with Ellie and Drake.

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Buy The Second Chance Cinema at an indie bookstore near you
These Summer Storms on Goodreads

Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Fantasy
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I have heard sooo many good things about the Throne of Glass series and despite my difficulty getting into fantasy, I’m so glad I picked it up. I think part of what was helpful for me is that there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of worldbuilding at the beginning. It was integrated really naturally throughout the story. 

Celaena is an assassin fighting for her freedom. She has been chosen to compete against twenty-three other people and if she wins, she will leave prison and become the king’s champion. Before too many of her competitors are disqualified, however, they begin to show up dead.

There were so many pieces to this book that made it really bingeable: a love triangle, the competition itself, the mystery of what was killing people, the glamor of the castle and royalty within it, and hints of magic. I found the competition maybe slightly less compelling than the rest of it, but I loved Celaena’s solo adventures through the castle she was staying in and seeing her relationships grow and change.

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Buy Throne of Glass at an indie bookstore near you
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Book Review, Fiction, Science Fiction

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Science Fiction

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

        The Dream Hotel follows Sara as she is detained on her way home from a conference abroad. She lives in a world where the Risk Assessment Administration can monitor people’s dreams and put them in a retention center if it’s believed that, based on those dreams, they could become a threat.

        Sara has a husband and infant twins at home and is desperate to get back to them. She soon begins to realize that all the other women detained with her believe themselves innocent as well and yet their stays are lengthened time and time again by a deeply faulty system.

        There is so much in this book that is reflective of our actual current reality, making this all the more horrifying to read about. The details about how personal data was twisted and used against the women made me uncomfortable and deeply aware of how much of my own data is floating around.

        Despite the really fascinating premise and set up, this book was incredibly slow. I felt like I was reading the same chapter over and over again. I’m sure to some extent this was intentional, to reflect the monotony of Sara’s life, but it was way too extreme. I also found the characters to be kind of one dimensional. They each had their “thing” that defined them, but I didn’t feel I knew them beyond that.

        Phenomenal world-building and ideas, but really challenging pacing and amount of plot.

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Buy The Dream Hotel at an indie bookstore near you

The Dream Hotel on Goodreads

Book Review, thriller, Uncategorized

Count My Lies by Sophie Stava ~ Book Review

Morgan

Genre: Thriller

My Rating: 🍪🍪

Sloane Caraway has been lying about who she is all her life. When she sees an opportunity to becomes the nanny for the wealthy Lockhart family, she jumps at the chance and quickly lies her way into their life.

We slowly learn about the lies Sloane has told in her past and how her obsessive nature has gotten her in trouble and cost her her last job.

The first part of this book is told through Sloane’s point of view and I enjoyed watching her worm her way into Jay and Violet’s life, however, there was a lot of repetition including random allusions to Taylor Swift lyrics like every other chapter?? I’m a Swiftie, but it was really off-putting.

When we switch to Violet’s POV I think it was supposed to feel like some big dramatic twist, but it just fell into a very overdone set of thriller tropes that I have enjoyed in the past, but have been done very well already. It made it hard for me to get through the rest of the book.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf