Seven days before Sophia aka "Sofa" has to leave Tokyo and move back to the USA, a boy from her past returns, causing her to question her current friendships, her feelings, and what she truly wants from life.

This was okay. The setting was Japan, which I was excited about, but I was really feeling the lack of actual Japanese characters. All of the characters speak English and none of them are actually from Japan. There are a lot of Japanese vocabulary words thrown in to describe/name certain things, but they are not always well defined or described enough for you to understand what they mean.

Also, I found the whirlwind romance unconvincing and overall felt the main character was unlikeable, which can be fine in the right circumstance, but I do not think it was what the author intended.

The ending will infuriate some, and satisfy others. I liked that it ended on an indefinite note.

Besides the Japan setting, the book reminded me of a poor version of [book:Anna and the French Kiss|6936382].

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Cute story of two teens who get locked in the library over a long holiday weekend and fall for each other, though one is struggling with an anxiety disorder and the other is waiting for the day he'll be free of the foster system.

I thought the "locked in the library" plot point was fairly ridiculous despite the many attempts to try and explain how the two kids really just couldn't escape. I cannot believe there were no phones, or fire escapes, or security cameras. But, suspending that disbelief it was a cute story, and I liked the slow build to the ultimate pairing up of the two, especially since Autumn also has a crush on one of her other friends and feels obligated to pursue something with him after he is in a terrible car accident.

A quick, light read.

A divorce lawyer who doesn't believe in love and investigative journalist who isn't looking for a relationship work together to find the man who got the journalist's sister pregnant after a one night stand. Naturally, sparks fly as they also figure out they are neighbors and have the hots for each other.

I enjoyed the Chicago setting, but the overall storyline wasn't my favorite. James writes great, independent heroines which was no exception here.

Former beauty queen turned physics professor meets hot Airforce pilot Lance on the day he is left at the altar. They kiss, but he runs off. They meet again at a catapult competition and again sparks fly. Both aren't looking for a commitment, but Lance is seriously into Kaci's energy, smarts, and her potato gun (not so much into her elderly cat Miss Higgs). Plus, Kaci needs to get over her fear of flying so she can attend an important conference in Germany that will help her secure tenure at the university she teaches at, so Lance seems like the perfect helper. Too bad he hasn't told her he deploys in a matter of weeks...

I seriously had a lot of fun reading this. The cover is pretty lame, but the characters are smartly written and had great, sassy dialogue and awesome chemistry. It is also splendid to see a scientist heroine, and the perils of being a woman in academia touched upon. I'd definitely read upcoming books in this series.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

The collected short stories featuring Simon's path to becoming full-fledged Shadow Hunter, in audiobook format! Originally published one at a time, each tale had a new narrator which was a bit disconcerting at first. Overall I enjoyed the majority of the stories but especially liked the ones which focused on Simon instead of the ones that went back in time to feature other characters from Clare's 'verse. Damn, that ending though! Not expecting

Spoiler

poor George to melt into a pile of goo like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harsh.

Aubrey was a mean-girl beauty queen in high school, but mostly as a coping mechanism to deal with the various disappointments in her life, especially her parents' divorce. Years later, she is back in her hometown and trying to renovate her deceased Aunt's beloved bookstore. She can't afford much, so her uncle secretly hires Ben, Aubrey's former crush to do the work. Ben is also recently returned after a long stint working on building water systems in dangerous parts of the world, a job he took after the death of his wife. Sparks fly, but Ben doesn't know he is on Aubrey's list of people to make amends with...

A sweet story, with lots of heat.

Every time McLean moves she adopts a new persona. This is her fourth move in less than two years, but this time maybe she'll try to be Mclean again if only she herself could figure out what that means.

Not my favorite Dessen, as I found the overall story arc to be a bit bland. Mclean has struggles and she handles them nicely and fairly neatly, which lends to the lack of excitement.

American Gods was a total slog for me. I always go into a Gaiman thinking the premise sounds very intriguing, but his style just leaves me cold. I really struggled for the first 500+ pages and was ready to give up and FINALLY the last two hundred pages caught my interest, and I finished. I'm glad I'm done and I'll never read it again.

I think Gaiman may be one of those authors you need to read at the right moment in time and for me, that time has been never.

A classic case of I read too many rave reviews and my expectations were too high. I found this London theater actors romance okay, but nothing mind-blowing. The acting and theater details were nice but the actual romance featuring a cranky Darcy-type and a hardworking and heart-broken actress were not my favorite couple.

Lovely Children's Librarian Darcy is having hot sex with a local handyman who hasn't defined their relationship, when she learns her ex, the smarmy Boyz, is renting the Nantucket mansion behind hers. Plus, another handsome neighbor and his charming grandmother are renting the mansion next door. Poor beautiful Darcy gets sucked into various melodramas of the summer set included love squares, heroin use, and affairs, among others, and ends up with a HEA you can see coming from miles away. Not my cup of tea, as the storytelling style left me feeling cold, especially regarding the various relationships, and as a main character Darcy is annoyingly perfect. So perfect she even calls it out herself in the text.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC.