Thank you to Bethany House Publishers and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own. 

This was my first time reading a book by Nicole Deese, but it definitely won’t be my last! I loved this book and the depth of this story. 

The Words We Lost reminded me a little bit of Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren except that this story dealt even more with grief and had the added bonus of Christian faith elements. It’s been a while since I’ve found so many memorable quotes within a book, but the writing of this story was just so beautiful. 

This book broke my heart in all the best ways. The grief that both Ingrid and Joel had to deal with was sometimes hard to read about. They both had gone through so much, but I’m glad that their difficult circumstances are what brought them back together. 

One of my favorite quotes from this book was Joel talking to Ingrid saying, “I can’t erase the darkness for you, but I can be the one to hold the light when you’re ready to come home.” This is a great example of what Joel and Ingrid’s relationship was like. I loved how much Joel cared for Ingrid even when she tried to push him away. 

I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you like second chance romances and stories that deal with hard topics. 

One of my favorite books of all time!!! 

Thank you to NetGalley and Bethany House Publishers for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. 

The premise of The Metropolitan Affair sounded fascinating to me. I love learning about ancient Egypt, and I enjoy going to museums. The 1920s is a time period that I’m not super familiar with, so I was also excited to learn more about it. 

What I liked best about this book was that I could tell that the author did a lot of research about ancient Egypt and their art. She was very specific about techniques used and the history behind a lot of their artifacts. 

I also enjoyed the Christian faith elements that were included in this story. 

While there were many redeeming qualities for this book, I also felt that it fell a bit flat in certain areas. 

First, the pacing was very slow and didn’t pick up until almost the end of the story. While I know some readers enjoy slow-paced books, I felt that I really had to push myself to continue reading this story. 

I also felt that there was not very much romance or chemistry between Lauren and Joe. There weren’t many moments where they had interactions outside of the investigation into forgeries. It didn’t really feel like they had a connection with each other even though they were so close throughout their adolescent years. 

The relationship between Lauren and her father was also a bit frustrating. I did not expect what ultimately occurred within their relationship, but I found this aspect of the story to be a bit boring. 

Overall, it wasn’t a terrible book, but I found it to be pretty much average. If you don’t mind slower paced stories, then you might enjoy this book a lot more than I did. 

This book seems so long. I just never feel like reading it. 

I didn’t like Lexi’s sister, and I felt it was kinda cringy. It kept feeling so frustrated with Trevor and Lexi, and I was only a fourth of the way through the story. 

Thank you to the author, Lara Martin, for sending me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

All the Lost Pieces was marketed to me as a fun romance. Although there is a romantic relationship in this story, I would say that this book falls more into the contemporary fiction category. There are a few darker moments in the story, and I have included content warnings at the bottom of this review. 

With that in mind, this story is about Nina, who has just been fired from her restaurant manager job. This isn’t the first job she’s been fired from, and this isn’t the place she thought she’d be by this point in her life. She also has never been able to get her brother’s best friend, Lucas, to see her as more than a friend even though she’s been in love with him since she was in high school.  

While there is romance in this story, I think the main focus is on Nina learning who she is as a person and what she actually wants in life. 

While the pacing was pretty slow, I thought this was actually a pretty quick read. Typically it takes me a long time to read through a slow paced story, but that wasn’t the case for this book. 

I liked both Nina and Lucas as characters; although, I didn’t feel like I ever got to know that much about Lucas since the story primarily focused on Nina’s growth. 

Nina’s brother Ryan and his wife Olivia were fun side characters. I liked the sibling relationship and the friendship between Ryan and Lucas. I however hated Tammy as a character. Why Nina was ever friends with Tammy I will never understand. She was an awful person and a terrible friend. She and Nina had nothing in common, and Tammy made terrible life choices. 

Things I liked: 

Things I didn’t like: 

Overall, I enjoyed this story and would recommend it if you’re looking for a contemporary book with some romance in it.