Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction, Romance

The Love of My Afterlife by Kristy Greenwood ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Romantasy

The Love of My Afterlife begins with Delphie choking to death on a microwave hamburger. So sets the scene for the type of humor that permeates this story. When she arrives in the afterlife at the same time as an extremely hot man who she seems to have an instant connection with, only to watch him be sent back to earth, she’s given the opportunity to go back to the land of the living and stay there if she can get him to kiss her.

The satirical humor made this such a fun read. It reminded me a lot of Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death. I had no idea what hilarious actions or commentary were coming next.

Delphie joins up with an eccentric cast of characters on her quest to stay alive, from her non-verbal elderly neighbor, to an intensely passionate librarian. My favorite was her hot grumpy neighbor who coincidentally needs someone to pretend to be his girlfriend in front of his family. Their antics were almost heist-like at times and truly a joy to read about.

The story dragged on just a tad too long for me, which bumped it down a star or so, but it had such a heartwarming ending and I truly enjoyed spending times with these unique characters. They’ll definitely stick with me in a way that few do.

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The Love of My Afterlife on Goodreads
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Book Review, Fiction

Real Americans by Rachel Khong ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction

Real Americans is told in three parts, first narrated by Lily in her twenties, then by her son, Nick, and then by her mother, Mei. In the beginning, she meets charming Matthew, heir to a pharmaceutical fortune, and we follow their love story. I enjoyed their chemistry and seeing how they connected despite their vastly different life circumstances. It was also clear that for some reason, Lily’s parents disapproved of the couple, and I was intrigued to understand why that was the case.

I was surprised by the jump to the future and by the fact that Nick didn’t know who his father was. The first part of the book is told so much like a romance that I was caught off guard by the change (not in a bad way – it made me eager to fill in the blanks of what had happened over time). I found his teenage boy storyline to be less compelling than Lily’s. Her drive as she strove to make it in New York City made me really like her, and I felt like Nick was missing that piece that made me care about him as much.

The underlying conflict in this book that tied together all the characters was unexpected and fascinating. I especially appreciated learning about Mei’s past, her life in China, and the choices she made to lead her to her life in America. Her section, which read like historical fiction, provided a lot of context to Lily and how the future unfolded. I especially appreciated this and how it was included at the end of the book.

It’s unusual to find a book with three so distinct sections in terms of story and tone. I enjoyed how each of them helped to explain the other sections and how the information we know about the central family grows and changes.

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Book Review, Fiction

The Wedding People by Alison Espach ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Fiction

Phoebe checks herself into the luxurious Cornwall Inn, a bucket list item, fresh off a divorce and at her lowest point. Little does she know that the entire inn has been rented out for a wedding. When she meets the bride, Lila, and groom, Gary, and begins to connect with each of them, Phoebe slowly finds herself drawn into the antics of the wedding and questioning what she is doing there in the first place.

Although much of the content in this book was heavy, I found myself consistently surprised and delighted by the humor and the witty banter. It made me entirely breeze through the story and never want to put it down. As Lila shows up again and again at Phoebe’s door, the strange nature of their conversations lends itself so well to comedy. Phoebe is at a place in life where she feels she has nothing to lose and thus her words and actions are to the point and show exactly what she’s feeling.

I loved the Newport setting and the way the book was contained to the few days of wedding festivities. We get a lot of background on Phoebe, so the limited time and location don’t make character development or understanding feel lacking. The characters were delightful, and even if the ending was a bit predictable, it was how I wanted things to wrap up for the characters I had come to care deeply about.

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The Wedding People on Goodreads
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Book Review, Fiction

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Fiction

The premise of this book? Incredible.

A woman on a plane has an episode where she methodically tells everyone on board how they will die and at what age. The incident is initially expected to have been some sort of mental break until people begin to die, exactly as she predicted.

The plot follows several of the passengers as they, and their loved ones, grapple with the predictions. I appreciated that each person was very different, had a different approach to the situation, and was supported differently by their friends and family. It reminded me a lot of the book The Measure.

There were interweaving chapters telling the backstory of the woman who made the predictions. For some reason, these really did not feel cohesive to the other storylines for me. I had trouble caring about her and I’m not sure why. I think her life was so different from the idea central to the plot that it made it hard for me to connect.

I had no idea what was going to happen with the predictions and I liked being as in the dark as the characters were about their actual fates. Moriarty did a good job showing depth and nuance to each person. For me, this was solid, but not standout.

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Here One Moment on Goodreads
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Book Review, Holiday, Romance

The Plight Before Christmas by Kate Stewart ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪.5
Genre: Romance

Whitney and Eli dated for less than a year in college when he broke her heart without explanation and left her reeling. Now, 17 years later, Whitney shows up to spend Christmas with her family only to find that Eli is her brother’s new friend who was invited to spend the holiday with them as well.

I enjoyed the cozy holiday vibe with the whole family bundled inside surrounded by snow with not much to do. It felt festive in exactly the way I want from a holiday romance. I liked having so much quality time with the family because it allowed me to get to know the characters well. It was sweet to see Eli develop relationships with each person.

At face value, I appreciated that the main characters were a bit older than is often the case in romance books. However, they approached their relationship in such an immature manner that it didn’t really end up bringing much to their story. There were also flashbacks to when they dated in college, which were essentially just excuses for lots of sex scenes.

Overall, I found this book literally laughable. The dialogue was so cheesy that I think I physically cringed several times while reading it. The way the main couple spoke to each other was so unrealistic and uncomfortable. In an attempt to make the story really steamy, they say things no one in their right mind would say. They are obsessed with the 8-months they dated 17 years ago. Excuse me? Has nothing more noteworthy happened to you since then?

Near the end, Eli drops a “bombshell” that is supposed to excuse all his bad behavior. The choice felt like such a copout and was incredibly disappointing.

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The Plight Before Christmas on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: March 11, 2025 (Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC!)

I was struck most by how unique this book is. Set entirely in the same restaurant for the whole book, it could be incredibly slow, but it has enough character introspection that it doesn’t drag too much. Jane and Dan go out to dinner to celebrate their anniversary at a very upscale restaurant they can’t afford. Just as Jane has announced that she wants a divorce, a masked group bursts in and holds everyone in the restaurant hostage. As if that wasn’t surprising enough, the group’s actions are eerily similar to the plot of Jane’s failed novel.

This isn’t a thriller by any means, but I truly never knew what was going to happen next. There were several twists, one of which completely caught me off guard, and those kept me interested in the plot.

This book was funny and charming and unexpected, but not terribly exciting. I really enjoyed Jane’s inner monologue, her humor (often inadvertent) and how she caught herself thinking about things utterly inappropriate for the situation.

Things started to get somewhat convoluted toward the end for no good reason (in my opinion) which made it harder to stay invested. This was definitely unlike anything I have read before, which was fun, but I think it was trying to do a little bit too much at times.

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ane and Dan at the End of the World on Goodreads
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Book Review, Fiction

Good Material by Dolly Alderton ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Fiction

My previous experience with Dolly Aldteron’s writing (Ghosts) was NOT my thing, but I am SO glad I have her another chance. Her writing in Good Material is impeccable: funny, SO relatable, unexpected. I found myself literally wanting to copy down passages from this book.

At face value, not much happens in this book. It follows the fallout after Jen and Andy’s breakup, primarily from his perspective. Andy is shattered after suddenly losing the love of his life and struggles to pick himself back up with very little clarity on what happened to end their relationship.

The story explores his personal life and his career as a struggling comedian and how everything is infiltrated with thoughts of Jen. It summed up so well the difficulty of disentangling yourself from someone your life has been thoroughly intertwined with. Andy is not a likeable main character, but that really made the book work for me. It felt realistic in the sense that he seemed like an actual struggling human. 

I was pleasantly surprised to get Jen’s perspective at the end of the book and what a breath of fresh air. It put all of Andy’s reflections into context. Jen is opposed to the societal pressure to be in a relationship because that’s what you’re ‘supposed’ to do. I loved how different her perspective was from Andy’s and I wish we’d gotten a bit more from her. That said, I thought the unequal distribution of the narration worked really well for the book. It highlighted how one person experiences a breakup and how their thoughts on the situation are completely based on themselves and are never the full picture.

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Good Material on Goodreads
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Book Review, Memoir, Nonfiction

The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Memoir

I was soo pleasantly surprised by The Third Gilmore Girl, by Kelly Bishop, most notable (in my opinion) for her role as Emily Gilmore in Gilmore Girls. This audiobook, narrated by the author, was made all the more wonderful as I’m currently rewatching the series.

I knew nothing about Bishop before starting this book and I really appreciated the parts of her life she chose to highlight. I got insight into her career as a dancer, her time on Broadway and her film and TV debuts. We learn about her personal relationships along the way (and her relationships with her pets) and about her passions (in terms of both social issues and things she personally likes and subscribes to). I really appreciated that she included her stances on issues like abortion, but not in a manner that felt like it was trying to serve an agenda. It is her memoir, and, when faced with situations that were topically appropriate, she addressed her opinion. It added to my understanding and appreciation of her as a whole person, beyond her career.

Bishop explains her successes and failures in a straightforward way that I felt gave a well rounded view of her life. I loved hearing about her time on Gilmore Girls and the close knit nature of the cast. I think there could have been a little more depth to this part of the story (particularly since it’s what she is best known for), and I would have appreciated more general life insight. That said, if she set out to tell her story and have people understand a bit about her beyond her most famous role, mission absolutely accomplished.

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The Third Gilmore Girl on Goodreads
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Book Review, Fiction, mystery, thriller

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Mystery

The God of the Woods is a sprawling mystery that takes place at a summer camp where a Van Laar child has disappeared for the second time. Barbara’s brother, Bear, went missing years before, never to be found. We start the story with Barbara disappearing from her bunk, interspersed with flashbacks to the search for her brother.

I always enjoy a summer camp setting, and the vibes of the forested surroundings and a possible murderer on the loose in the woods added solid elements of suspense. I was excited to try to see threads connecting the two childrens’ disappearances. Much of the context surrounding the past was told through Barbara’s mother, Alice, who we get to know very well. There was extensive character development and her story added much more than just the central mystery to the story.

This should have been a book I loved, but the execution missed the mark for me. There were 1,000 characters who all had distracting unnecessary side quests. It was hard for me to follow the main story and figure out what actually mattered, which made me care very little about what was happening.

There were a lot of layers to the story and I found them each interesting, and much was unexpected from a book I was expecting to just be a straight mystery. I liked the vastness of the intertwining stories, but found it to be a bit much to be truly cohesive or impactful.

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The God of the Woods on Goodreads
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Book Review, Fiction, thriller

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: February 25, 2025 (Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC!)

A classic Gillian McAllister thriller. On Cam’s first day back at work after her maternity leave, the police show up to tell her that her husband, Luke, is involved in a hostage situation. And he is the captor. So begins Cam’s yearslong hunt to figure out what possible motivation Luke could have had for this situation to unfold.

Famous Last Words is a split narrative between Cam and Niall, the hostage negotiator in Luke’s case. Each one, in their own way, is caught up on the situation long after it’s over. We got solid backstory on each narrator and I felt like I understood what motivated them and how the events fit into the rest of their lives.

McAllister is great at creating complex, unexpected twists that tie up her thrillers and this was no exception. There were many layers (maybeee one too many) that I never would have thought of, but did not seem unbelievable. I found myself rooting for Cam and Niall to uncover the truth and was on the edge of my toes watching them do so.

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Famous Last Words on Goodreads