Honey Girl is the tale of a Black Queer woman in her late twenties trying to figure out her place in the world after completing her Doctorate. Grace Porter doesn't know what she wants in life and is having trouble communicating with her emotionally distant father and a physically distant mother. After she drunkenly marries her one-night stand, Yuki, in Vegas, Gace begins dealing with conflicts in her personal and professional life.

Despite the drunken one-night stand, this is not a romance regardless of what many readers say. This is a book about self-discovery and self-healing and covers topics of racism, homophobia, and depression. While I enjoyed the plot, personally, I did not like the flow of the writing style, and I think the book would have been better if written in first person instead of third person. It was hard for me to find a good pace while reading and easy to be pulled out once I found one.

Grace's coffee shop family was never given a good backstory. They were just present for the novel. I understand why the author wanted to add a found family in comparison to Grace's parents; however, their missing story made it hard for me as a reader to connect to them. We did learn about their mother, it was not enough to feel introduced to them as a reader.

I enjoyed the book's theme and connected to a struggling 28-year-old adult who doesn't have their life figured out, but the writing style was my taste. Overall, I rate the book 3.5 stars.

I read The Midnight Bargain because I wanted to read a fantasy romance novel, and that's exactly what I got. Set in essentially Regency England, The Midnight Bargain tells the story of a young witch, Beatrice, who wants to continue her magical education rather than get married, collared and forced to have children. Beatrice collects grimoires in hopes of one teaching her how to summon a spirit and become a full-fledged Magus. In doing so, Beatrice meets the Lavan siblings.

This book was good; however, it wasn't as fleshed out as I would have enjoyed. The plot was interesting, and the characters were likable and flawed. The author could have done a better job explaining the magic system, part of this had to do with the secrecy of how a wizard becomes a Magus, but the author never explained why Beatrice summoned a lesser spirit until the end of the book. In general, the beginning of the book was sort of confusing, and as I read, I feel like I just ignored some of my confusion rather than it clearing up.

The author also wrote the story as if Beatrice and Ysbeta had two different goals when they wanted to become Magus. Beatrice planning to become a Magus was kept a secret from Ysbeta, which doesn't make sense. Ysbeta also never suffered any consequences from her brash decision-making skills, and that felt unrealistic.

My favorite part of the book was when the author pointed out the hypocrisy of men and the debate between Beatrice and Ianthe. Beatrice is a competent heroine when many of the men in her life lack competence but refuse to listen to her because she is a woman.

Overall, I rate the book 4 stars and will be reading other books by this author.

I love this book. I loved how it took series of topics about colonization, imperialism, glorification of history, and revenge porn, make them both interesting to learn about without weighing the reader down. That is difficult for the media to do, and Masood succeeded. Like the title suggests, More Than Just a Pretty Face also discusses making impressions just based off someone's physical appearance.

The main character, Danyal Jilani, has all the confidence in the world stemming from his attractive appearance but is continuously belittle due to an overall lack of interest in school. Jilani is extremely capable and intelligent in ways outside of traditional book learning, but this is often overlooked by his peers and parents. Masood's focus on different educational paths other than higher education is a great way of normalizing teenagers not going to college and pursuing other opportunities.

I give this book 4 stars. I had a great time listening to the story.

I enjoyed The Henna Wars, but it was very frustrating to read. The book covers heavy topics of cultural appropriation and homophobia, so if you are not in the right frame of mind for either of those topics, maybe skip this book for now. I thought this book was a cute sapphic romance, but it was a lot deeper than just that. The main character, Nishat, experiences a lot of gaslighting, whether it's from her sister, friends, or love interest. While all these characters are written as flawed, their growth in the book is minimal, and apologies feel inauthentic.

After Flava dismisses all of Nishat's cultural appropriation concerns, it was hard to like her as a character. I wasn't rooting for them a couple. It takes Flava a long time to apologize to Nishat, and by that point in the book, I lost interest in their relationship and felt Nishat deserves better.

I did like the story, and I enjoy Nishat's growth as a character. She found the strength to stand up for herself and was also an incredibly forgiving character. The book itself just didn't feel like a romance and more of a coming-of-age story.

Overall, I would rate the book 4 stars.

Beach Read is a quick and fun romance about two author's rediscovery their writing persona after struggling with writer's block. This is a rivals to romance, with January and Gus meeting in college. They reconnect after January moves into her late father's beach house, and Gus is her next-door neighbor.

In the author's note, Emily Henry adds before writing Beach Read, she did not see herself as a romance author. One of the more complex themes of this book is the idea writers should explore other genres and aspects of genres that may not be their ideal writing style. As a reader, I enjoy when authors explore different aspects of their creative side. I think this can lead to great books that really surprise the reader.

Overall, I give this book 4 stars. It was a light and funny read.

I received an ARC in trade for an honest review.

For Vacation Only by Mila Nick is a quick easy romance that is well written and perfect for a day at the beach during hot girl summer!

The plot was not my taste, but I can see how many readers would enjoy it. I liked the first 30% of the book, but once Jubilee and Black started really hanging out, I began to lose interest. Their relationship was too intsa-love for my personal taste. The majority of the book occurs during a two-week cruise. Jubilee works on the cruise as a singer, and Blake is a guest after being left at the altar. Both characters got dumped by their significant others, making me see their relationship as more of a rebound than a long-standing relationship. I would have preferred if the characters met on the cruise, and then we saw their relationship develop more in the real world than the cruise ship bubble.

Blake, being a white rich man, has a lot of inherent privileges that he does not recognize. Jubilee does call him out on this privilege multiple times and accuses him of throwing money at his problem. While Blake does eventually acknowledge this, it doesn't seem like Blake grows and understands this privilege to me as the reader.

I did enjoy the touring aspect of this book. It was interesting to see Blake and Jubilee travel to different European ports. I also like Jubilee is a person of color and discusses how that affects her life and her relationship with Blake and his family. The book was also very well written. I do plan on reading some of this author's other works with hopefully different romance tropes!

I would rate this book 3.5 stars and if you like the insta-love romance trope, definitely check this book out!

I enjoyed the beginning half of Love Boat Taipei. Ever's relationship with her parents was heartbreaking, and her love for dance was apparent in every word. I wanted to try multiple times during the first twenty pages. I was excited to see Ever grow into her and hopefully fill her dancing dreams.

Once Ever arrived in Taipei for Love Boat, the book began to change. The synopsis made me assume there was no supervision at Love Boat, but that's not true. The students at Love Boat are required to go to class and are constantly sneaking out. Ever is getting in trouble and is racking up demerits and dealing with continual threats of calling her parents. This created a different vibe than the synopsis, but the love triangle between Ever, Xavier, and Rick made my interest in the book start to drift.

Ever spends most of her time in Taipei pinning after an unavailable Rick and uses Xavier with no regard for his feelings for her. Ever does not get called out on this, and while her and Xavier's relationship suffers, it never gets addressed by the author. The character Sophie is also a terrible friend who walks over Ever and doesn't suffer any consequences for her actions.

Overall, I would rate the book 3.5 stars. The idea was good, and the plot was realistically messy, but it feels like the author wrote the easy story to tell rather than the more interesting one.

The Queen of Nothing is the epic finale to The Cruel Prince trilogy and lived up the hype of the series. The reader finally sees the relationship between Jude and Carden develops. Don't be mistaken; The Queen of Nothing is still not a love story. Jude's quest for power lands her banished to the human world, but she must return to Fairy to help her twin sister.

Holly Black does a great job of packing action and adventure into short novels. This story is under 400 pages, but the book is not lacking plot or depth. Jude and Carden keep the reader on the edge of their seats, wanting to know how their relationship works and how Jude obtains the power she has always wanted.

I rate the book 5 stars. This series is not a romance, and if the reader goes in open-minded to reading about a political system, I think they would love the series.

While we are only six months into 2021, The Shadow Between Us might be my favorite book I read in 2021. This is a villain love story. Throughout the novel, Alessandra and Kallias continually do and say things that indicate they are terrible people. They care little for others and put their wants and needs before everyone else, and the reader loves them for this. Tricia Levenseller is not trying to make these characters redeemable, but she does make the reader root for their relationship. Unapologetic in either's quests for power, Kallias continually has his forces invade other countries, and Alessandra plots to become queen by killing Kallias.

The book is well written, and the relationship between Alessandra and Kallias is sweet, both softening to the idea of each other over time. I like the magic system Levenseller created with Kallias' dark powers.

While this book does not need a sequel, I would not be upset if Levenseller writes one. I rate the book 5 stars.