danadoesbooks's Reviews (954)

Thank you to the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for the review copy of this book.  All opinions in this review are my own.

Kate Sweet is an event planner with hopes of winning an EVPLEX, the most prestigious award in her field.  When her best friend asks her to plan the launch of Drake Matthews, the best-selling horror author, Kate reluctantly agrees.  While the Knight of Nightmares is expected to churn out his next horror book, Drake has been secretly working on a historical romance novel instead.  Kate and Drake first meet in a disastrous way and hilarity ensues from there.

How Sweet It Is perfectly blends sweetness with fun.  I was laughing out loud when Kate and Drake meet for the first time.  Drake is a swoon-worthy love interest with a great family and I love his inspiration for his historical romance novel!  I tore through this book because I enjoyed it so much!

I recommend for anyone who wants to read a romance this summer but can't wait for fall!

I also love that Drake has brothers so there is potentially an opening for more books in the series!

How Sweet It Is will be released on July 13th!

Twin sisters Dorothy and Constance live on a small island off the Scottish coast.  In the midst of the war, five hundred Italian soldiers are sent to the island to work in the prison camp.  Told in multiple viewpoints, The Metal Heart follows both sisters and one of the prisoners.

I highly recommend the audiobook of The Metal Heart.  The narrators do a phenomenal job!  The ending is absolutely heartbreaking and there is a twist I didn't see coming!

The first in a new series, A Peculiar Combination is about Electra McDonnell, a safecracker who gets caught.  Now she must work with Major Ramsey to help him steal important documents that can help the British defeat the Germans in the war.

I am so glad this is a series because I loved Electra and Major Ramsey's dynamic!  I like that while this book is set during WWII, it is more about the espionage in London than the warfront.  I highly recommend if you like historical mysteries.

Jocelyn struggles to keep her life together as the Nazis occupy Paris.  Her husband is called to fight and the threat of books being taken from her beloved library is growing bigger.  Told through her letters to a famous French author, Jocelyn must do what she can to protect her library and her country.

I really liked that this novel was set in Saint-Malo.  In the author's note, Escobar explains his inspiration for the story and how Saint-Malo is not a well-known part of France's history during WWII.

The Echo Wife was the choice for my in-person book club.  A woman's husband is cheating on her with her clone and then he is murdered.  Sadly, it was another book that did not live up to expectations.  Even though it is labelled as a domestic thriller, it doesn't necessarily read as one. This one is partly on me for wanting The Echo Wife to be something it wasn't.

Thank you to Celadon Books and the author for the gifted copy of The Maidens.  All opinions in this review are my own.

I had high expectations for The Maidens because it promised a secret society at Cambridge University that is connected to recent murders.  Unfortunately, the members of the secret society, The Maidens, were hardly in the book!  However, the short chapters allowed me to have that experience of a page-turning thriller because if the next chapter is only a few pages, I'll just read one more, right?

I have been having a hard time figuring out exactly what to say about The Mountains Sing other than you need to read this book!  The writing is absolutely beautiful but the topics it covers are heavy and emotional.  This is by no means an easy read, but it should be a necessary read.  I learned so much about Vietnamese history and the lives of its people in between the major historical events.

Read this book.

Part Black Mirror episode and part Truman Show, Jess Flynn knows something is off when a slim black box with an apple on it falls out of her friend's backpack.  It's 1998 and the first iPhone won't exist for a few years.  Suddenly, Jess is questioning everything around her, including who she can trust.

I read This is Not The Jess Show in two days because it was so difficult to put down.  Not only does this book have an eye-catching cover, but there are so many twists and turns that kept me reading until the last page.  I can't wait to find out what happens in book two!

Told in alternating chapters, Furyborn is a story of two queens living one thousand years apart.  Steeped in elemental magic, the two queens will fulfill a prophecy.  One will be the queen of light and the other the queen of blood.

If you plan on reading Furyborn, I highly recommend making a character list for the two timelines and reading it in larger chunks.  While the two story lines was a cool idea, I found I could not put the book down for long periods of time without forgetting who belonged to which story.  You do learn how the two timelines are connected to each other at the end, but by that point I felt like I read two completely different books.

I really enjoyed Furyborn when I read it and was excited to continue the series, which is why I waited so long to post about it.  However, now I've waited too long and can't remember what happened in each story.  Maybe someday I will come back to this series and read it in quick succession, but for right now, I'm stopping at book one.

The Once and Future King (1958) combines four of T. H. White's smaller novels about King Arthur and his knights spanning Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone to his death.

I have wanted to read The Once and Future King for years.  I was so excited to finally read it, but I think I let it get too hyped up.

I didn't realize how much I liked Arthurian legend until I started to think about all the books I've read that draw on it.  The Sword in the Stone was one of my favorite movies growing up and Legendborn was easily one of my top favorite books of last year.

I recommend reading Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory before reading the final book in The Once and Future King.  White would often reference Malory and use his text as a way to cut out parts of the story.  Since I haven't read Le Morte d'Arthur yet, I felt like I was missing something.  I'm going to have to reread The Once and Future King after reading Malory.