Thank you to Simon Teen for the ARC of This Book Might Be About Zinnia by Brittney Morris. All opinions are my own. 

For years I’ve been fascinated with stories about adoption and reuniting families, so that was my main reason for choosing to read this book. While it wasn’t quite what I expected, I overall enjoyed this book and would recommend it to other people. 

While this book has some light moments, it’s an overall pretty serious and emotional story about characters experiencing a lot of difficult circumstances. 

This book is split between two timelines and points of view. There’s Zinnia, who’s a high school senior preparing to go to Harvard. She’s had a relatively easy life with her adoptive parents and never thought to track down her birth mom until she sees similarities between herself and a character in a new book. 

The other timeline follows Tuesday, who’s a teen mom struggling with the fact that she gave her baby up for adoption and is dealing with a mom who constantly gaslights her. There’s also a lot of secrecy around her dad and his connection to the baby’s father. 

I enjoyed reading from both perspectives, but I think I liked Tuesday a little bit more just because of her strength and bravery. I didn’t dislike Zinnia, but it frustrated me how much of her life revolved around herself to the point that she didn’t pay attention to the struggles of her best friend and that she dismissed her mother’s worries for her safety. 

I liked how the two timelines came together in an interested and unexpected plot. It was fun trying to piece things together throughout the story. 

Overall, I think this was a solid book. If you like stories with complicated family dynamics, flawed characters, and platonic relationships, then I think you’ll like this story. 

Thank you to Simon Teen for the ARC of Island Creatures by Margarita Engle. All opinions are my own. 

Island Creatures is the first story I’ve read that was written in verse. It made for a unique reading experience. Because there were less words, I was able to read it quickly while still getting an interesting story. 

I think maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I understood poetry better. The formatting and the specific words chosen didn’t always make sense to me, so I felt like I was missing out on something that I should’ve known. 

What I loved about this book was reading about the animals and learning more about them. I’m a big animal lover, so this was my main reason for picking this book up. This aspect of the story did not disappoint. 

I’m not sure if it’s because of the format or length of the novel, but in many ways this story felt incomplete. By the end of the book, I felt like I didn’t know or understand the main characters well at all. I also felt like the plot was kind of all over the place without explanation of how or why things happened. 

Overall, this story was decent. I do think I would give novels written in verse another try because I didn’t mind this style of writing. Unfortunately, I don’t think this story will be very memorable for me down the road. 

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC of Friends to Lovers by Sally Blakely. All opinions are my own. 

Friends to Lovers is a story about two childhood best friends that have been estranged from each other for over two years. The plot switches back and forth between present day and the different weddings the two have gone to over the years. 

I am a big fan of friends to lovers in romance books, so I was excited to have the chance to read this book early. While I enjoyed certain parts of this story, I also had several issues with it. 

The Oregon setting was picturesque and was easy to imagine with the way the author described it. I enjoyed the different scenes that the characters spent outdoors and would’ve loved to spend even more time in those places. 

Ren was an interesting main male character, and I appreciated that he had a unique job that I haven’t seen in other stories I’ve read. He was such a kind friend to Joni, and I felt bad that he didn’t always have the confidence in himself when it came to his job. I also enjoyed the relationships he had with his siblings. 

Joni was not as enjoyable for me as a main character. I had a hard time understanding why she kept her job loss a secret from everyone almost the entire story. It seemed immature, and honestly kind of shallow to think that her lack of a job would be such a big deal to people that loved her. Joni’s character was one of my biggest issues with this story because I found her so unlikable and honestly not worthy of Ren. 

I did however enjoy the sister relationship between Joni and Stevie. I often see a lot of negative sibling relationships in books, but I liked the bond these two had even if their relationship wasn’t perfect. I thought they both did a good job looking out for one another and I thought they had a lot of sweet moments together throughout the story. 

Another issue I had was the conflict. Most of the story was spent going back and forth between present day issues and a mystery of what happened in the past to break the friendship between Ren and Joni. When the big reveal happened, it was honestly such a stupid reason. These two characters were supposed to be best friends since early childhood yet they allowed themselves to stop communicating over one stupid conflict. 

Overall, this book was a miss for me. I do think some people will enjoy it, especially if the issues I mentioned don’t bother them. If you like books such as People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, Every Summer After by Carley Fortune, or Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren, then I think you should give this book a chance. 

Thank you to Bethany House Publishers for the ARC of Of Silver and Secrets by Michelle Griep. All opinions are my own. 

Of Silver and Secrets is book two in the Time’s Lost Treasures series, but it can be read as a standalone. Characters from book one (Of Gold and Shadows) make an appearance in this book, but you don’t need to know anything about their story in order to enjoy this book. 

This book is about Eva who is on the brink of losing everything unless she can come up with the money to pay the taxes she owes. It also follows Bram, a man from Eva’s past that is trying to save his uncle’s job as a college professor by discovering the legendary Christian Roman settlement in England. 

From the very beginning I felt for these two main characters because they had both been through so much and were continuing to deal with terrible situations. I liked that they both had selfless attitudes and were willing to put the needs of others before their own desires. 

I also appreciated the subtle message of trusting in God that Bram helped Eva remember throughout the story. These characters were tested in such difficult ways, but I loved that they held fast to their faith. 

The archeology aspects of this story were interesting, and I definitely learned a few things. I also enjoyed how Bram allowed Eva’s little sister to be included in the archeological dig. 

At times I felt that this story was maybe a bit too slow-paced (especially the first half of the book). I did end up enjoying the story a lot though. 

The romance in this book was sweet and had such a slow burn. I liked that Bram worked hard to prove to Eva that he wasn’t the careless boy from his childhood, and I appreciated that Eva realized that she couldn’t hold grudges against Bram when she didn’t know the full story about his departure during their childhood. 

This book does contain some darker topics, so please be aware of that going into this story. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.