This was my first novel by Sarah Adams and it will not be my last. I loved this one and I could not put it down.

Right off the bat, this story had me hooked and I had a hard time putting it down. I stayed up very late one night to finish it. Sometimes you just crave a good romance and this was it for me. I have to point out that this story got some bonus points because I am so in love with the MC’s name- Amelia Rose. This name is #1 on our baby list! So crazy but it made me love the name even more by the end of the book. This is also a modern take on Audrey Hepburn’s Roman Holiday. I was so excited because I love Audrey!!

Amelia has been in the limelight since she was a teen. She’s adrift, lost, and feels the need to get away. She ends up in this small town and is broken down in a random yard. Turns out, it’s the resident’s cranky bachelor. I got some enemies-to-lovers vibes in this one. We all know that it’s my favorite romance trope! Anyways, of course, things set in motion that keeps bringing these two together, right?!

I loved Amelia! She’s been struggling for years and doesn’t know what to do. She’s so out of touch with the real world but I loved seeing her learn things for the first time. She was so open to helping out, trying something new, and so kind. Her relationship with Noah’s sisters was one of my favorite things about this book. They were crazy and all had their own personalities but were so lovely.

Some things were a bit too predictable. I sometimes can struggle with that but I didn’t mind it as much here. I loved all the relationships in this small town. Sometimes I miss the small town feel because it’s so personal and everyone cares.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one! It was a great introduction to Sarah Adams and I cannot wait to get my hands on more. If you are looking for a sweet, romantic, and fun book- I highly recommend this one. It’s such a quick read too because you will not want to put it down!

Many thanks to Netgalley, Random House, and Ballantine for an ARC to review! 

 

I was excited to read this book because it was about strong Asian women! I didn’t know anything about the historical significance and was excited to learn more about it. I’ve been reading much more historical fiction lately.

This book started so interesting and with a lot of drama! We are learning about their childhood and the hardships they go through. The sisters are not close and it was interesting to see their journey on how they come back together. Both of them are so different but work so well together. There are so many strengths that complement each other.

The romantic relationships that Trung Trac and Trung Nhi have are interesting and I understand them. The problem was that I didn’t feel them. I didn’t feel a lot of things in this book. There are so many huge moments that should have had impact and I didn’t feel much. This story is told to me and it made it slow and a bit dull at times. All the characters were so flat and one-dimensional that I had trouble connecting with them.

The beginning of the book had me, for sure. Once we get to the middle through the end, I was struggling. There are a lot of interesting cultural aspects but it felt like I was reading a textbook and not a work of fiction. My impression was this is about two sisters coming together to protect their people. Most of this book is about their relationship struggles with their men and each other. We finally get to the point of the book and it’s extremely rushed. I would have loved that part to have more detail. It didn’t lend to any emotional attachment!

Overall, I appreciate what this story was about and its significance to history. I just don’t think the author did a great job executing it. The characters and overall story felt bland and I didn’t get attached to any of it. I still enjoyed all the cultural aspects and learning about some of the histories, it’s really interesting!

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing for sending me an ARC to review. All opinions are my own! 

 

I love Taylor Jenkins Reid so much! All of her books have been so fantastic. I think I’ve read most of them at this point. I went into this one completely blind because I honestly don’t even care. I see a new book by her and I know that I want to read it.

This one was cool because I happened to read this during the Western & Southern Open going on five minutes from me! We love going to the tennis matches but haven’t gone in a while since our kiddo is too young. Anyways, this one is completely wrapped around tennis. If you are not a fan of tennis or sports, it might be something that you don’t enjoy about this one. It’s okay but even though this is a huge influence it is not what this story is about.

This story is about the love between a father and a daughter. There are also a few other things thrown into the mix. Carrie is a tough cookie and has one goal in life- to be the BEST of all time, in tennis. Her dad, Javier, is the one who guided and coached her for most of her life. She has one goal focus and didn’t care about anything else. She was amazing and was not shy about letting you know it. She is known to be ruthless! She’s retired and then comes a moment she didn’t think would happen. A younger tennis player is about to smash her record and she can’t have that. She decides to jump back into tennis with her father by her side.

I loved that Taylor takes us back in time to get the full story. We get to see how Carrie became who she is today. There are many things that she sacrificed or went without to be the best. The cost might have been too high. The later part of the book was just beautiful. I was so engrossed and the relationship between Carrie and her father was so beautiful. Sometimes we get so focused that we don’t realize there are many other things in this life.

I love that a lot of Taylor’s books have some sort of connection. In this one, she even references Daisy Jones and the Six! As a fan, it was pretty cool. I only had one big issue with this book and it was the Spanish. Granted, I had a heads up going in but it was a bit rough. I speak Spanish and I know that we all have our slang and dialect for different areas. I was very surprised to see that there were no translations and figured they would be the most basic and easier phrases. I had to stop myself and look up some things and I know/understand the language. I feel like many will just skim past these moments and some of them are important!

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. You do not have to love/like or even know about tennis to enjoy this story. It was such a quick read because I was sucked in from the start. The relationships are so well done and the emotion was running high. I highly recommend this one!

Many thanks to Ballantine Books and Netgalley for an e-arc to review.

 

The world-building was very interesting and had me sucked into the story from the beginning. There are many things that were a bit confusing, but I think that will be explained more in the next book. I loved that this book was so mysterious, gothic, and dark. There are a lot of moments that I thought would be the perfect October read! I got a lot of Romeo and Juliet vibes too, very cool.

I did like many of the characters because they are complex and had a lot going on. I wasn’t sure who you could trust or couldn’t trust. I did have my guesses though. Unfortunately, I did have trouble connecting with our main character, Lilly. She was really impulsive and didn’t think things through. She’s thrust into this new world and thinks she can do it alone. I tend to overthink things though and that could be why I didn’t connect with that.

It was cool to see that Lilly was into multiple characters and genders but it was chaotic. They were these little blips in time and it felt too much like instant love. Is this girl starved for attention that she falls for anyone that looks at her twice, Yes. It’s true and she’s been looking for it all her life since she didn’t have it growing up. Still, it was really hard to connect to any of these relationships because all felt surface level, and there were so many of them. One of my biggest issues with this book is the relationships.

The pacing of the book was a little off and made it harder to keep me completely invested in the story. It started strong and then it kind of tapered, which is okay.

Overall, this story was interesting and unique. There are many things left open that set up the potential for a great sequel. There are a lot of things that missed for me- the relationships and many of the characters in this book. I wanted a lot more and I hope there are more laser focus to develop some of these relationships in the second book. I hope the chaos is tamed a bit for the following book as well. It was fun and I am interested enough to pick up book two!