Am I a disaster? Yep. But to be fair, this is an absolutely INSANE semester and I am barely having a chance to read, let alone write my reviews. So here is a huge wrap-up of reviews of books I have read over the past 4 months (at least *sigh*). I am going to break them down by publisher, and I will notate if it was an ARC that I had received. One day I will be better at keeping up with my reviews…..one day….
Entangled
Planes, Trains, and All the Feels by Livy Hart (ARC – Amara)
If this book isn’t the definition of Murphy’s Law, I don’t know what is. Literally everything that could go wrong DID go wrong in this book and yet the characters still made the best out of it. My goodness, this was freaking hilarious and I loved it. I devoured this book in 3 days because I had a hard time putting it down. Are you going on a plane, train, or in a car and need a book to read? Maybe don’t read this one if you are superstitious because I could see this being extremely triggering as EVERY possible mode of transportation Cassidy & Luke try fails in some capacity, but if you aren’t, this is a pretty great travel book. We have Cassidy, a free spirit dancer who gets forced to be with Luke, type-A/my-desire-for-control-isn’t-a-desire-it-is-a-need, as they have to trek across the country because of plane malfunctioning. Then car malfunctioning. Then train malfunctioning. You get the drift. It is a cute rom-com, with sass and some spice, and I would gladly read this book again. Livy is a great writer and I definitely recommend this book.
Accidentally Famous (Hideaway Harbor, 2) by Marissa Clarke (ARC – Amara)
How can Marissa Clarke write such adorable books so consistently? This is the second book in the Hideaway Harbor series, and it stands alone from the other book in the series (Accidentally Perfect), but I think I enjoyed this one a bit more. The fake dating trope is so fun, especially when it is celebrity and “nobody” having to fake date for the paparazzi, and it can be so cliché, but its also so fun! Plus as an added bonus we have HGTV-esq home renovation! I love that. This was overall just a super cute, easy read, that I was able to finish in a day, and sometimes that is exactly what you need.
Avon and Harper Voyager
The Do-Over by Suzanne Park (ARC – Avon Publishing)
I absolutely love Suzanne Park’s writing. I have loved every book I have read by her so far, and I don’t see it stopping any time soon. This book hit a little close to home, as I am also an older student at school with a bunch of younger folx (though I am in a graduate program, not undergrad), but I could relate to Lily’s feelings of “What am I doing here?! Am I supposed to be here?! Do I even WANT this anymore?” and some of the burn it all to the ground and start again feelings she seemed to present. Her reconnection with Jake was adorable, and I really enjoyed seeing how they worked through their feelings & miscommunications. Lily learned a lot throughout this book and it was really enjoyable to read and get a fresh take on an “adult” going back to school. Lily had such a great support system and I really appreciated her character development throughout the book. This was just a nice book to read, easy enough that I didn’t feel bogged down reading it, but not so light and fluffy that I didn’t feel like I was reading something without any purpose. I really enjoyed it.
Harper Collins
St. Martin’s Press
The Second You’re Single by Cara Tanamachi (ARC – St. Martin’s Griffin)
This book was so cute. I love friends to lovers books, and this had the added bonus of it being a reconnection book too. Plus it involved baking, finding oneself, learning it is okay to be single, and a one-eyed pupper. Did I keep thinking of Kingdom Hearts when I read Sora? Sure! But thats a me problem. Sora is a strong woman who really grew as a character and learned to love herself and learn what she needed. Jack is an adorable puppy of a man – plus he BAKES! – and I just wanted to hug him. He also really grew as a character and I thought that was a nice change, since it feels like a lot of the time it is only one of the characters that has a big character development/change. I also appreciated the family dynamics of both characters & their families, the diversity of the characters, and how realistic it seemed. Plus I also hate Valentines Day, so it was nice to see how that was addressed & changed, because I could relate. Overall this was a super cute book and a nice easy romance read.
The Plus One (A Brush with Love #3) by Mazey Eddings (ARC – St. Martin’s Griffin)
This book was everything I wanted it to be and more. It was a cute rom-com, the brother’s best friend/enemies to lovers trope that I was hoping it to be and then some, plus very frank conversations about mental health. I will discuss more about the mental health below, but it is a bit more spoilery, so you can ignore that if you want. The romance in this book was cute, and I realized well after the fact that this was book 3 in a series, but that didn’t impact my ability to enjoy this book at all. I can’t wait to go back to read the other two (A Brush with Love has been on my TBR for a WHILE now anyway), so that is great too. It really was just a cute romantic book with realistic tones all throughout – I could believe all of this would happen without suspending much, if any of my disbelief/reality.
And thank you so much Mazey Eddings for writing a book where we talk about mental health in a way that shows people realistically – we need more of that. Jude and Indira are both dealing with some pretty hard stuff in this book, and there is a warning at the beginning about PTSD/triggering content which I appreciate, and I also appreciate that there wasn’t a magic wand wave and everything was fixed by the end of the book in terms of mental health struggles. Because that isn’t real – you don’t just fix PTSD by going to therapy for a day or two and taking some medicine. The conversations Jude and Dira had were real and I appreciated them so much.
This book is really enjoyable, and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a romance but don’t want standard fluff but still want that happily ever after romance provides.