dermkat's Reviews (2.11k)

Well, this was another one that doesn't have anything wrong with it but for a few reasons isn't for me, so that left me a bit disappointed. Amelia, the titular character, is the prototype for a chaos bi, to the point that her thoughts and behaviors sometimes made me anxious. Also, I think I'm discovering that I have less of a tolerance for YA and books with charcters you get than me because this was the second one the characters would be GenZ and written as someone that age would talk but I just couldn't deal with the slang. So that's a me thing. The only other thing is that I know Albertalli has had people online accuse her of qieerbatinf and it's been a whole awful big thing, and I liked that she wrote that into this book but it felt a little heavy handed or like the supporting evidence was too much (lots of inserts with online discourse, etc). I feel like a jerk saying that because she's probably had to deal with exactly what we see in the book and I'm just annoyed with having to read it. Otherwise, the story of an 18 year old girl going on a road trip with her friends to see a YouTuber she's a fan of and the eventually realizing it's not him she actually likes, it's one of her friends, is a good story and the last 1/4 of it I did really enjoy, and it wasn't annoying enough earlier to DNF by any means. I'm sure the book will find its audience, I'm just not part of that audience, and that's okay. Love the Leni Kauffman cover, though!

I really enjoyed this! I'm not surprised, as I've liked all the books in this series so far, and my memory isn't great so I couldn't come up with details but I knew that I'd been excited for Bridget's story after meeting her as a side character. From early on I could see why: she's outwardly confident and sassy Omega, and gives the guys a hard time (as they deserve in the beginning), but she's also a librarian, plus-sized, and has something "wrong" with her scent that kept her in and out of health care with no one solving it and always being told she's too much and not normal. I immediately wanted to cheer her on, tell her I get some of that, and hug her. When their fake engagement is revealed right as the guys bring in a new Pack Alpha (Adrian), Jesse, Danté, and Colt slowly figure out what a mess they made keeping her to the side and ignoring their feelings. Them moving in to her small place was excellent because of the forced proximity it created and I enjoyed the pack getting to know each other as everything became real. The tension and fear this book gave me about 3/4 of the way through, even though I knew it was a romance and couldn't end the way it was making it seem, was due to really good emotional writing, which was a theme throughout the book. It was easy for me to feel their happiness, sadness, guilt, fear, love, and shame throughout the book and I even teared up once. I look forward to what comes next (apparently in time for Christmas!). 

This was so lovely! It has a soft, cozy feeling while still centering around serious issues like environmentalism and capitalism. Kia and Sullivan were in culinary school together and always in competition, pushing each other to be better. They shared a surprise kiss the evening of their graduation and then didn't see each other again for six years. 
Now, Kia is a food influenced with a food truck and lots of sponsorships. Sullivan owns a ecologically ethical restaurant just on the other side of the area of wild land near her house. The Bois was protected by her grandfather for years and she's shocked when the neighborhood association is about to sell it to Kia, to raze it and build a food truck pod. Before the women can even class, Mega Eats, a huge corporation swoops in and tries to outbid Kia. The only way to stop them? Get married and take advantage of Sullivan's legacy claim. 
The story is sweet, as they get used to being around each other, Kia still very much in her feelings and attraction and Sullivan trying to deny hers. There's a side plot about Kia not being very experienced beyond one lackluster relationship and Sullivan not feeling desirable because of how her last relationship ended, and the women coming together to soothe and heal and learn. The author's said they hoped this felt like a hug for the reader and to me it absolutely did. There were a few moments where lingo characters used made me remember that I'm in my mid-thirties and not GenZ like Kia, but I'll survive that and it didn't detract from the reading experience. 
One thing, that is 100% my own fault (thank you chronic illness brain fog and memory issues): this book is tied to the authors' first one, but it took me until 84% to realize that. Had my brain been cooperating, it would have been obvious that I'd met Kia as a side character in Lillian's story in Second Night Stand, and then more so when we hear about Lillian and Izzy, and Kia's Aunt Eleanor, and her dad who lives on a yacht with his many dogs. Very much distinct characters and not forgettable so I wish I had been able to clue in sooner and enjoy the connections all the way through. You don't have to read the first book to read this one but I still recommend you do because it is really good. 
Thank you to Forever for the ARC! 
•Out July 15/25. 
•BIPOC rep: Black FMC
•Queer rep: lesbian and bi/pan rep

I enjoyed this one enough that I completely forgot I was doing a buddy read and made zero comments on it after a certain point. That said, it has a softer, sweeter vibe than maybe some others in this series, but not in a bad way. It made it feel like a lot was happening but also nothing at all, and allowed the reader to be comfy. The drama was all off the top for the most part (brilliant beginning) as Sabrina blows up her wedding and her life as she knows it. I respected her hustle afterwards and conviction that she was doing the right thing. She spends time with Tyler that evening and then later as her daughters coach and eventual live in nanny (hired/set up by his mom). The kids are cute and smart and funny (I somehow missed their ages but clearly elementary school age), I'm always here for animals and that they fostered kittens was a nice touch, and it was clear from the start that their sex dates to go through her list was not going to stay casual because of their chemistry. Also, he is a total softy simp over her and a real cheeseball (her words), and I loved that.  Overall, not my fave in the series but still a good next book and it got me excited for  upcoming books that were teased in this series and a couple more that will be other series. 

Okay, so I loved this and devoured the entire thing on release day! Amy Award's Kingsman series gets better and better each book and this one is definitely my fave so far! I know I've said that a few times, but this one has a woman about to graduate college who is secretly a super successful romance author and a fan of Shakespeare, and I think her arc of compartmentalizing different versions of herself until she can't anymore and finally lets people see who she really is, gaining confidence in showing her strong self will remain a fave of mine. Tempest paired with one of the cockiest of the Cocky Kingsmans was so great, as she's inexperienced (THIS is the way to do a story with an inexperienced female lead! The word virginity was only mentioned once and only in reference to the patriarchy and misogyny!) and Flynn usually has a rule to only date women for two weeks so nobody gets attached. He finds himself throwing that all out the window to spend more time with her during study dates (he's actually also very smart alongside being super talented at football and about to be drafted), especially after a great meet cute that involves a baby donkey. Her Latino family is just as big and chaotic as the Kingsmans, but not quite as supportive at first when her identity is revealed. Award's typical humor was present, with clever names and references for things without actually naming many real world IPs (FaceSpace, FlixNChill, That'll Do Pig, etc.). My favorite part, as usual, is how inclusive the author is, starting with fat women experiencing love, joy, lust, admiration, etc. as we should. The inclusivity goes beyond just body positivity though, as there are queer and NB characters side characters (some of whom will be getting their own stories, likely), and different ethnicities. Though real world issues and insecurities are mentioned, people get their happy endings and I love it. 

I wanted to like this more than I did. I didn't dislike it because there was something wrong with it, and I'm sure many people will love it, but for me it was just an okay reading experi nice. BUT I can acknowledge that a good part of that is my fault because:
•I requested if after reading the author's previous book and loving it without knowing much about it
•if I did read the blurb at one point, it was long ago because I certainly didn't read it before I started it and I think that had me confused for a large part of it
•based on the cover and the way the story went until very nearly the end, it was unclear to me which guy would win out. It was way too much of a love triangle for someone who prefers for it to be why choose (I knew it wasn't), and because I really liked the other guy she doesn't end up with so I felt really bad for him. I honestly think if I'd read the blurb it wouldn't have felt so unclear how it was going to end and it wouldn't have bugged me as much. That said, I like the cover a lot but they are literally positioned in a triangle and I'm guessing that was intentional, so this book may just be evidence that I don't like love triangle stories. 
This won't stop me from reading more from this author in the future, and I still liked her writing even if this particular story wasn't as for me. I did appreciate seeing characters from On the Plus Side again, though! 

I'm pretty sure I've said this after every one of her books, but this is my fave of hers now! It's been a few years since I read the first one that's linked to this one so I didn't remember anything and it was before I started writing detailed reviews so I had to wait for things to come back through context clues. Some of it did, but I still ended up being surprised by the "reveal" of basically the first books entire plot. Regardless, I enjoyed being back at the lake, this time with Charlie (brother of Sam in the other one) and Alice. She'd been there once as a 17 year old and saw Charlie, Sam, and Percy on the lake but was too shy to say hi so she didn't know them other than the photo she took of them from afar that set her on her career path. Now she's struggling so taking the summer off to take her Nan to the lake to recover after surgery is the break she needs. But then she meets Charlie and he throws her for a loop, then helps her with a bucket list. The way they immediately bantered and teased but also never judged lead to them becoming best friends before anything else and it was lovely. There was a sense of foreboding because it was all in her POV and I could tell he had a secret, and I was right. I cried before we got the reveal and they separated and her family was there for her, and then after we know what's up and they're eventually working it out (because even though emotional and not very spicy ((lots of fade to black or referenced vs explicit and entirely on page)), still a romance). I am always here for a redheaded FMC and I loved Alice's personality as she became more herself. I just enjoyed it so much! 

This YA book was such a lovely combination of emotion, teen angst and self-exploration, and the best kind of ridiculous humor (the side characters and their personalities honestly tickled me). Charlie has arrived as a year two at Valentine Academy as an Excellent Scholar after deferring for one year while he socially transitioned. He has to rank top five by the end of term to stay there on his scholarship, all while worrying that someone will find out who he used to be and he'll be asked to leave,  tutoring others as cover after unknowingly joining a secret society, all this while living with a roommate after requesting a single. And worst of all? His roommate is Jasper, the boy he went to poetry camp with a couple years ago and kissed but was betrayed by, but so far doesn't seem to realize who he is. Their forced proximity from their room and participation in the society, overall awkwardness, and Jasper's unfailing belief in love wears on Charlie and makes him feel alone. But as term moved forward he discovers friendship and maybe even love. I really enjoyed this book AND the freaking cutest thing ever is that the author proposed to his partner in the dedication and then revealed it to them for the first time at one of the book's release events! 

The way Daisy writes about deconstructing & religious trauma is so relatable. I was not in a high control religion like she & her characters were, but I grew up surrounded by many similar beliefs, most notably the condemnation of LGBTQ+ people & the mire that is purity culture. I had a feeling, based on the blurb and knowing her other books, that I would find myself represented in this book, and right away in chapter one I highlighted the statement, "I didn't know I could look at women in a romantic way until..." Ava says this while thinking about the feelings she's now realized in her late twenties after leaving the church and getting divorced, that she's had for her best friend Skylar. 

Sky has been a rock for her the last few years especially, and she tried to explain away her feelings at first, but now that Sky knows she's queer (but not about her feelings) and has somehow agreed to her drunken blurted request that she teach her about being with a woman? Ava's in. What she doesn't even know that Sky has loved her since they were fifteen but never thought she stood a chance because Ava was "straight", and is taking this as a "better a little than nothing" situation. 

Along with the good spice & mutual pining you love in a best friends to lovers romance while they try to stay in denial that it won't change things & it's enough, they also deal with harder stuff including: religious trauma both for Ava & for her kids, who are still forced to attend church with their dad on his weekends; said ex being a real jerk; parental issues, etc. All this in a novella that doesn't feel rushed or incomplete, which is always the best sign of a novella done well, for me. The author always writes excellent fat rep as well, which was present again. 

Thank you for the ARC! It was an honor to read it early (and during Pride Month!), and I appreciate the way you craft a beautiful romance that helps the characters, and no doubt many readers, heal from the religious trauma and purity culture nonsense. 

•Queer rep: lesbian, queer awakening
•Fat rep
•Out June 24/25

Since I read the series a little out of order, this was the last one and I'm a little sad to be done! Not sad, however, was Troy's story arc and his eventual coming out and happy ending with Harris. I had gotten to see some of that from Ilya's perspective when I read the last book earlier but it was fun to fill in the details about how he left Toronto, his parting of ways with Kent, and how everything played out. I also enjoyed getting to know Harris (team social media guy) a little more, too. His heart condition stuff was threaded throughout the story and I liked that it was a part of his life where he always felt a little babied by family, but got what he needed from Troy once he understood he wouldn't hurt him. Again, I'm sad the series is over, but also that I'm pretty sure I've officially read all of Rachel Reid's back catalogue.