Alexander Woodroe has it all: looks, wealth, and fame. The only issue is that his behavior isn’t doing anything to help his career. Since he is starring in a huge tv show, the showrunners have hired someone to keep him in check the entire time he is contracted to work on the show. His babysitter is Lauren Clegg. She is a former ER therapist and after her cousin offers to pay for her apartment and salary she takes up the job of being Alex’s babysitter. She is to keep him in line and make sure he doesn’t let his explosive emotions land him in trouble with the tabloids and public more than they already have. However another scandal lands in Alex’s lap and this time its going to cost Lauren her job. Now they have to go on a road trip up the California coast together and Alex has to find a way to make Lauren fall in love with him the way he’s fallen for her.

This story revolves around characters from the previous book Spoiler Alert, though you can read it without having read the other one. I absolutely adored Spoiler Alert and unfortunately this one did not work out for me. I didn’t enjoy the characters or story as much as I had with Spoiler Alert. Their relationship seemed a bit force and I couldn’t find the chemistry between them. My real issue was Alex. I didn’t like him even though I had enjoyed his character in spoiler alert. Alex came off as rude, childish, and the first thing he says to Lauren when seeing her is that she reminds him of a bird and that she is ridiculous. They did have a lot of chemistry in Spoiler Alert so when reading this one I was surprised by how much it was lacking. I forced myself to finish this book and was just happy I managed to make it to the end. Overall, maybe this one just wasn’t for me but I definitely loved the first book. I’ll definitely be reading more stuff from this author and maybe the next one will be for me. Definitely give it a try because maybe this one will work for you!

*Thanks Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

A girl who is gifted with a magical ability that has the power to destroy everything if she isn’t careful. The story follows Zora Broussard as she has moved to New Orleans to live with her aunt while trying to lie low about the traumatic event that happened in New York. She dreams about having a career in music, but in a time where women, especially a woman of color is treated as nothing more than something to be pretty, silent, and obedient, chasing her dreams will be difficult as her aunt just wants to marry her off. Zora has a secret though, she plays music at a jazz club and one day meets a sweet pianist named Phillip. While Zora begins to fall in love with Phillip, their romance is forbidden as Phillip is White and Zora is black. On top of that her aunt has fixed in on a husband for Zora, whether she wants it or not, and Zora’s leash on her powers are straining as she finds herself continuously being tested. Zora and Phillip have to keep their relationship a secret, but soon find that their families have a connected and complicated past, that could endanger both of them. In an era of segregation and speakeasies, Zora will fight for her own destiny, even if it means losing everything. This was a really interesting story and even though it is the second book in a series, you do not have to read the first book to understand this one ( I didn’t read the first book and could follow this one just fine). The racism and struggles that Zora dealt with was difficult but accurate. She faced so many obstacles while still chasing after the things she wanted. Overall, a sad but good read.

*Thanks Netgalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

*Trigger warnings: discussions of child abuse, abusive environments, and trauma from a past attempted assault.*

“Once upon a time, there was a girl as cunning as the fox in winter, as hungry as the wolf at first frost, and cold as the icy wind that kept them at each other’s throats.”

Vanja is a girl who was given up by her mother to the gods Death and Fortune who have raised her as their own daughter. However, everything comes with a price and now that she is 16 she has only until her 17th birthday to decide which mother she will choose to serve in return for them raising and loving her. Vanja doesn’t want to serve them, she wants to be a daughter not a servant. Vanja decides that the only solution is to raise enough money to run far away from her mothers and live out the rest of her life... and has turned to a life of thieving from the rich aristocrats while pretending to be a princess ( she secretly stole the identity and life of a princess she once served and is using said princess’s magical pearl necklace that essentially just transforms her into a beauty). On one of her jewel heists, she accidentally steals a token from a god and is cursed with only 2 weeks to figure out how to undo it or die. The curse: her body starts turning into jewels, stone by stone, to reflect her greed and she must find a way to pay back her greed or die as a pile of jewels. Vanja must figure out how to break the curse and on top of that a investigative junior detective is on her trail (her secret identity as a jewel thief) and the princess’s fiancee a man twice her age who is power hungry and abusive has come back in town and is over eager to fast track the marriage. From the beginning of the story it is established that Vanja is not a good person, everything she does, she does for herself and that she is a morally grey character. There were a lot of plot arcs (detective plot, princess marriage plot, god-mothers plot, etc) going on in this story and Vanja isn’t exactly the most likable protagonist (which is odd for me since I generally adore morally grey protagonist but I just couldn’t like Vanja that much, she’s even a jewel thief which would generally makes her more likable in my eyes, and yet I just didn’t like her as much as I had hoped). The story felt like it was dragging on for a bit and by the halfway point I just wasn’t as invested in the characters or the story as I would have hoped. It started off great but lost me along the way. Theres a bit of romance, and my favorite character would have to be the daughter of one of the gods who is a shapeshifter, Ragne (she was just the best part of the book for me).

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

A hardened cynic and a hopeless romantic, best friends..... or maybe something more. Harper works at her mom’s wedding shop and after seeing so any relationship squabbles and after a particularly horrible break up she is convinced that she just doesn’t think romance is where its at. Her best friend Theo is the exact opposite, he is constantly falling in love and being dumped. He loves rom coms, is very sensitive, a bit of a dork and really into larping. He believes in loving as deeply as possible. After his most recent breakup Harper offers to teach him how not to fall in love and he makes a counter bet with her that she will fall in love with the guy that she starts going out with ( Felix, a super sweet and cute guy who works out at the gym across from her mom’s store that she’s been running into (literally)). However, the more Harper tries to help Theo work out his relationship the more she finds herself conflicted between her feelings for Felix.... and her relationship with Theo. It doesn’t help that Theo and Harper have always been close, physically and emotionally. After a weekend at one of Theo’s larp events, Harper starts to re-evaluate everything she feels.. and hopefully snag the right guy before its too late. This was a pretty cute romance read. It definitely works the friends to lovers thing well and the issues of mixed signals and messages between two people who are complete opposites but so close to one another that ruining their friendship is something neither of them wants to risk. Though there was a bit of a love triangle/ square (?) everything works out in the end and both guys were really sweet and nice guys, there was no issue with one being better than the other it was just sorting out feelings between someone new and someone who is a lifelong best friend. I had fun reading this and definitely would recommend it for anyone looking for a cute romance read!

*Thanks Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

An accountant arranges to have an arranged marriage with a doctor. Their arrangement rules: this is to be a business relationship, she will tend to his books and finances and live separate from him, they will only consummate their marriage to meet the legal requirements, they are to live separate lives essentially. Jane wants a marriage where she does not have to have a romantic relationship and Dr. Augustine Lawrence fits her bill since he is a man who is known to live in a separate home and is shy and handsome. Within about a day of meeting him ( and offering this arrangement, to which he profusely rejects, she strong arms her way into spending time with him to convince him to say yes) and she basically falls in love with him after a day. Augustine warns her that if they are to be married she must understand that this is strictly a business arrangement and she can never stay over at his family home....in which she strong arms her way into doing that after their wedding. Jane essentially goes back on her entire arrangement and is determined to be in love with him and stay at his home. He warns her that his home is not for her and that it is a messed up place.... but she stays. Soon she discovers that he has more secrets and that the house is haunted.

Spoiler

Here we go: she starts snooping around his house and gets mad at him because he isn’t what she thought of him (mam you married him after meeting him once and basically said yes to everything despite not knowing him, and she feels “ betrayed” and that “he lied to her” yet her attitude coming into the marriage was that this was a business arrangement and she didn’t care. He continuously tries to get her to leave his house but she refuses and then she finds out he had a previous wife named Elodie who had died and now she is even more pissed, and when she confronts him saying he betrayed her he literally says “is it betrayal? or is it jealousy, this fury over Elodie? because you do not own this part of me. I did not offer it in the bargain” and then she goes on to find out that Augustine tried to bring his dead wife back to life by using ritual magic and essentially desecrating her dead body, which it failed and now he is cursed to be haunted by the dead and now jane is seeing Elodie everywhere in the house. Her great idea is to then perform said ritual herself to solve this issue because her stance is “ I can’t leave this guy i am so in love with. He needs fixing and I can fix him” and they both do cocaine and then they both die and then she goes sees some ghosts, goes through the ritual, and tadaahh she comes back from the dead and brings him back too and they live happily ever after.”

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

This beautifully illustrated compendium brings the Bard's timeless tales to life for a younger generation, with wit and panache.

This is a wonderful collection of Shakespeare’s stories, all simplified and each story has illustrations and beautiful artwork! Honestly such a great read for kids or anyone who loves Shakespeare. Includes great adaptations of the original stories as well as being more accessible for younger readers. includes beautiful artwork done by aware-winning illustrator Khoa Le that will just bring a smile to your face.

Stories include:

• Antony and Cleopatra
• As You Like It
• Comedy of Errors
• Hamlet
• King Lear
• Love's Labour's Lost
• Macbeth
• The Merchant of Venice
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Othello
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Tempest
• The Winter's Tale
• Twelfth Night

*Thanks Netgalley and Arcturus Publishing for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

*Trigger Warnings: contains scenes of violence and abuse, suicide ideation, discussion and references to sexual assault ( though no on-page depictions), alcohol addiction, foot binding, and torture.*

In a world where there are giant transforming robots that battle mecha aliens... and boys are paired with girls... in which the survival rate of girls is about 1% and are seen as disposable compared to the boys, one girl is going to destroy it all. Zetian is a 18 year old girl who decides to offer herself up as a concubine-pilot... to work for the man who killed her sister. Her plan: get the role, kill the guy.. and die. To her surprise she doesn’t kill him in his sleep, rather she ends up killing him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is now labeled the Iron Widow- a much fear and much silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to the power of the Chrysalises (robots they pilot) instead. In a world where girls are seen as disposable and used to be sold off and silenced, she is the ultimate threat and in a system that is built to keep her down her defiance will not go unheard. She is thus paired with the pilot known as Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot. He is a prisoner who was sentenced to jail for killing his father and brothers, and no girl who has ever piloted with him has ever survived. It is a literal death sentence... until they find that Shimin and Zetian are compatible as partners. Together they have the power to face the system that has both kept them down and take a few bodies down with them. Let me first say, this book was GLORIOUS! Zetian is everything I could ever want in a protagonist. She is bloodthirsty, strong, defiant, smart, and willing to do anything to get to her goal. Did I also mention there is a polygamous relationship in this book in which everyone actually likes each other ( Zetian, Yizhi, and Shimin). Yizhi is Zetian’s best friend who is the son of the richest man in Huaxia, he is sweet, caring, has skin like porcelain and is the epitome of a soft cinnamon roll. He is the caring one in the relationship and is definitely a nurturer. Shimin on the other had is more of a bloodthirsty killer with a super soft side, exemplified by the fact that he loves to read but destroyed his books to make a shiv to try and stab his guards (he really be out here being the murderous but soft boy). He feels a lot of guilt and remorse for his previous partners and while he does have a rough around the edges aspect to his character he is sweet and caring too. There is chemistry between all three of them which I really appreciate.

Spoiler

I will forever be laughing at Shimin’s attempts to kill his guards, especially when its noted he used his last pair of glasses by smashing the lenses, sharpening the biggest fragment on the floor of his bunker, hiding it in his collar, and trying to slit a soldier’s throat with it, and Zetian is just so impressed hahah. They really are the bloodthirsty couple. and when I found out why he murdered his family, 100% agreed with him, they had to go.

Its great to read a polygamous relationship in which all the parties interact and care for one another. Anyways onto the story, the magic system was great and the story was really exciting. THAT ENDING!?!?! EXCUSE ME??? How am I suppose to wait until the next book??? I NEED MORE! So if you haven’t already added this onto your TBR YOU HAVE TOOO!

Fav Quotes:

“You’ve been living a dream for long enough! Welcome to your nightmare!” Zetian (p. 82)

“It takes a monster to slay a monster” Zetian (p.102)

“He will not kill me. He does not get to make me a statistic” Zetian (p. 105)

“Too bad. I am exactly the kind of ice-blooded, rotten-hearted girl he fears I am. And I am fine with that” Zetian (p. 114)

*Thanks Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Finished with college, no boyfriend, and no job, twenty two year old Jasmine Tran is just trying to get by. She works at her parent’s Donut shop after finishing college and is trying to sort out her life post college. She feels like her days are slipping by and her parents are not letting her live the fact that she doesn’t have a boyfriend or an actual job down. One day she suddenly is set up on a blind date by her best friend with a guy she had a crush on once, and that guy is Alex Lai. Alex is perfect: he’s handsome, sweet, successful, and he’s Chinese, which her parents would approve of. The thing is, he might be a little too perfect and after a disastrous dinner with the parents, Alex and Jasmine find out that neither is as perfect as the other thought. On top of all of this her parent’s store is close to going under and she has to find a way to help keep the store running and navigate an ex who has just reappeared in her life. Romance drama, family drama, and the pains of trying to adjust to adult life post college all come together in this story of a girl who is just trying to live up to her parents expectations and get by. First things first, Jasmine was a really relatable character, her struggles with trying to please her parents and struggling with the difficulties of being in your twenties and trying to find her place. I could see a lot of myself in her difficulties and her relationship with her family. The biggest thing for me from this book was her relationship with Alex. While Jasmine does do a lot of online stalking and then there was the incident

Spoiler

she uses her job to get his information and phone number and call him

, Alex does a lot more questionable red flag things

Spoiler

he comes into her room and goes through her stuff without her permission, he changes her laptop settings and preferences without her knowing, he lies to his mom about her and has a lot of insecurities and jealousy issues despite not talking about his own ex though, yet his insecurities stem from the fact that his ex cheated on him

. I really enjoyed the story aspect of seeing Jasmine grow and her relationship with her family grow too.

*Thanks Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager/ Harper Collins Voyager for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

In a world where mages are being hunted down for their magical abilities, one girl is about to discover hers, whether she wants to or not. Loira has spent her life hiding her magical abilities, particularly her glowing skin. She lives in fear of being discovered by the mage Darius, who uses other mages’ magic to grow his own power. Not only does he essentially rule the kingdom, but he has taken a particular interest in Loira. Instead of taking her after discovering her, Darius takes Loira’s little sister Mina to work for the palace, but essentially is holding her a hostage. To make matters more complicated Loira’s childhood best friend and crush, Evran, has been acting mysterious, disappearing for long stretches of time, avoiding her, and saying cryptic things. When Evran’s mother, a fellow witch who works under Darius, hires Loira as an apprentice, Loira will start to truly come into her power. Things end up taking a turn for the worst when Evran goes missing and Darius becomes a more frequent visitor in Loira’s life. Soon Loira must embark on a journey to stop Darius from destroying the entire kingdom and to finding the powers waiting to be unleashed within her. This story gave me strong Shadow and Bone vibes with the whole “one poor girl with magical abilities related to light and a villain/sort of love interest who is interested in her power and has abilities related to darkness/void, and a childhood best friend who sorta disappears and reappears but has his own thing going on”

Spoiler

it even ends in the same way sort of, Loira ends up with Evran and they go traveling together after defeating Darius and Darius isn’t technically dead just loses his powers

I enjoyed Darius as a villain, he was complicated and had a depth to him that was interesting to unravel. The romance between Loira and Evran was sort of what you expect from childhood best friends who are dealing with their own lives but are supportive of one another. I just didn’t really like how Evran constantly didn’t trust Loira and left her out of crucial plans, that even impacted her, and she constantly justified it and said “oh yeah he was right not to trust me, it’s fine” girl no. He is your best friend, he shouldn’t be ghosting you, leaving you hanging with your emotions, and show up and say cryptic things and then disappear again, and then keep you out of important decisions. I did however like Loira for the most part. She takes things in strides and was willing to make the big sacrifices for her loved ones. She could empathize and see things from Darius’s perspective while also holding onto her own ideals. Overall an okay fantasy romance read. If you liked Shadow and Bone I definitely think you’ll like this one.

*Thanks Netgalley and Inkyard Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*