emmreadsbooks's Reviews (1.28k)

This book was amazing! Y'all know that I'm a sucker for multimedia in books and this had it all - podcast transcripts, Facebook threads, texts and DMS, oh my! Listening to this as an audiobook would be purely divine.

But more than that, this book also touched on islamophobia, microaggressions, and even hate crimes. This book made me angry on Hana's behalf by just reading about these transgressions. It's abhorrent that people have to deal with this in their daily lives.

If you're looking for a modern love story with a focus on family, culture, and food, this one's for you.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I'll be honest - while reading this book, I decluttered my house. And it was cathartic and so fitting with the book's theme. Taking on an issue like hoarding with a focus on the grief behind it rather than painting a caricature of Amy was so refreshing. I loved having the alternating timelines and getting to see what the past was like for Tim, Amy, and Chantel. While parts of it were a little predictable, it was still overall an enjoyable book.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I'm torn in how I feel about this book. In one hand, it's a poignant novel exposing the lives of politicos in DC and their salacious exploits. On the other hand, it doesn't feel as if it does enough to serve as a cautionary tale. While white privilege is explored, not much of anything comes out of it and no comeuppance is dealt. At the end I'm left with so many loose threads in the storyline that I'm unsure if this was intentional by the author. However this is a compulsively readable novel that would be perfect for fans of Scandal, just beware of hanging chads.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

You know how usually sequels aren't as good as the original book? That's completely wrong here. Roni Loren manages to create a compelling sequel with a few nostalgic callbacks to the original, while still standing completely on its own. Amazing!

This book is wholly focused on trauma and that only makes it a better love story. Plus there's nothing sexier than enthusiastic consent in a romance novel. Add in the themes of trusting your instincts and facing your insecurities and you have a perfect book focusing on a horror-loving heroine. The way she characterized Andi's anxiety rang true to my own experiences with the disorder.

And if you know me, you know that I love it when food is a character in books. Give me those steak tacos and dragon noodles please! Or the sexy firefighter cooking them, I'm not picky.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I cannot believe that I put off reading this book for so long. It's got superheroes, espionage, themes on corruption, the whole deal! Add in 2 compelling characters who are just trying to figure out what happened to their families while falling in love with each other and you have a bonafide super-powered soap opera. I absolutely LOVE it.

I'm going to preface this review in that I did not read the first installment of this series. However I didn't feel as though my reading experience suffered in any way. This is a scorching hot novel with themes of feminism and women empowerment from the male perspective. Plus I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the chicken's anatomy, so there's that!

Hoooooooly crap this was a crazy book. I've always apologized to inanimate objects and this has me questioning that tendency. At times it's hard to follow, but it feels like a story being told to you that has its own tangents and context. Truly there's nothing like it.

I picked this book up because of my love for the Naturalist series and I wasn't disappointed with the results. This book is a zany action movie full of government corruption, scientific anomalies, and some good ole Theo Cray rational deduction. Even though it lost a bit of its Naturalist charm by incorporating the FBI and a more nefarious villain, I really did love it at the end.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This book has it all - alligators, a subzero cold case, punchy action sequences, and of course... a serial killer! Plus I loved the little easter egg of referring to The Naturalist series midway through. Sloan is such a wonderful choice of heroine - she's smart, sexy, and so devoted to her job. She really takes each of the crimes to heart in trying to solve them and that's something I don't feel like we see much in thriller series. Overall a great follow-up novel and I can't wait to read the third.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*