Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

DEVOURED THIS.

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Ahhhh, another good installment y’all. I love how the Bromance Book Club combines laugh out loud moments with critically important topics as well.

Hello, way super smitten with Noah here. Once again, anther love interest that I adore. Such a tough guy with an absolutely soft soul. I adored his dynamic with Alexis and trying to make sure he was the best he could be for her, and being what she needed when she needed it. Add in the *helpfulness* of his friends and its a recipe for some mistakes, and beautiful growth moments.

I only struggled with one decision. And I can’t speak to it because it would be a major spoiler, but I’m curious what others will think. I understood the affect it was meant to have on the reader, I just don’t know if it was necessary? I DON’T KNOW. I’m conflicted. The theme of forgiveness was huge in this and I think that’s why it’s swayed me to being more okay with it the longer I’ve thought about it. Either way you look at it, it was a tough choice.

Alexis was a strong main character. Her bravery to face down the Karen’s and finding her power again was stunning. I was hoping to see her grasp that SHE mattered too, and I really saw those changes by the end. Love some character growth from both Alexis and Noah. Put them together was fireworks. They were a match. No other way to look at it.

Overall audience notes:
- Contemporary romance
- Language: strong and frequent
- Romance: kisses / heated make-outs; a handful of open-door scenes
- Trigger warnings: remembering sexual assaults, loss of a parent, grief

4.5 stars

Thank you to Jimmy Patterson Books and Netgalley for the gifted eARC. All opinions are my own!

YOU DON’T KNOW IT YET, BUT YOU NEED THIS BOOK.

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I don’t even know how to start this review, I LOVED this book y’all! I enjoyed Maniscalco’s first series, Stalking Jack the Ripper, but mainly for Thomas Cresswell. Seriously, don’t ask me what I think about Audrey Rose. That being said, it made me initially nervous to read this because I worried for the main character again.

And I can say, for at least this first book, I am wrong. I adored Emilia as the main protagonist. She was bold and fierce. Made her own decisions based on what she knew and was told, and yeah, maybe ran off into danger a time or two, but what heroine doesn’t? Emilia was the missing puzzle piece I needed to love this.

Enter in, our Prince of Hell, WRATH. Ohhhh can Maniscalco right a love interest amazingly well. I feel a solidified new book boyfriend coming in over the course of this series. I loved the banter and enemies to lovers dynamic. Being forced to work together to solve witch murders led to some close knit and quiet scenes that I JUST CAN’T HANDLE. Part of his character is left very open-ended and I will sit here anxiously waiting to know if some of my thoughts/assumptions are true.

May be wondering why the half-star take down? For one of the characters involved I could spot from a mile away that they were one of the villains. I didn’t like how quick that was to pick out from the get-go. What I did love was meeting all of Wrath’s brothers. Who knew I was so interested in the Princes from hell? All so cunning and manipulative. Filled with arrogance and doing as they please. Couldn’t help myself, I loved them (and hated them, ya know) too.

There’s a lot of action, heat, and mystery involved here. I was absolutely entrenched in this Italian backdrop atmosphere. It fit this story well and only increased my adoration. Give me book two ASAP.

Overall audience notes:
- Young adult paranormal fantasy romance
- Language: very little
- Romance: kisses / make-outs; a scene where characters are undressed, but that’s as far as it goes
- Violence: murder, torture, animal attacks, physical altercations
- Content warnings: loss of a loved one

STRONG START.

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Eh ending.

I’ve really enjoyed this book series. I found them easy to laugh along with, the side quips from the narrators were charming, and the characters were fun. The whole comedy concept of it is what made me read My Lady Jane when it first came out and continue on. I feel like they’ve kinda fallen from there though.

MCJ started off great. I was into the story, was cool with the paranormal “twist” and wondered where the story would go. I thought everyone was easy to love and liked the found family aspects of the show.

What didn’t mix was that I felt this was focused a lot more on Annie than Jane. Jane was there, often, of course, but she didn’t really get a massive story line like the other Janies. The focus was around Annie and Frank and their very much insta-love, love story. Cute at times, annoying at others is how my thoughts ranged reading this.

I found it continually harder to pick this book up to read and ended up skim-reading the last half. I think if it had been a bit shorter, not filled with random, out-of-place, political comments and had more focus on Jane, her love story, and what she was dealing with, I could have enjoyed it more.

Overall audience notes:
- Young adult paranormal historical fiction
- Language: none
- Romance: kisses
- Violence: guns, murder, animal attacks, physical

FAVORITE ONE [YET].

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I’ve sat on this review for awhile because sometimes I feel like it’s hard to write a review over a book you LOVED and when it’s 900 pages. That’s a lot to cover?!

This might be my favorite Outlander book [yet]. This was also the first one I listened to on audio! Such a great combination. The narration was solid and really brought the book to life. Claire and Jamie were amazing again (no surprise) and I love the simplicity of the story in that, we’re following their lives. Even if the story itself is crazy complicated. I enjoy seeing how life progresses for them and watching them choose each other over and over again.

Some of my new favorites are definitely Roger and Brianna. I might have been more invested in them for this book. I’m smitten for a good love story and this was definitely good. Plenty of intrigue, banter, and romance for them. I was surprised where the story went and love how everything clicked together.

There’s a hundred different things that happened throughout this. Moments that made me smile, one’s that made me enraged, and others that brought tears. I love the writing and the way these stories flow over time. Magical and exhilarating with many, many things in between. I’m trying to intentionally keep this vague because I don’t want to spoil this (and previous books). Plenty of things keep happening here so it was a great continuation of the series!

Overall audience notes:
- Historical fiction romance
- Language: some strong
- Romance: kisses / make-outs; a handful of open and closed door scenes (with ranging levels of detail)
- Violence: physical, swords, guns, explosions, sickness, murder, see trigger warnings for more
- Trigger warnings: [I know I have missed some and I apologize for those I did miss, please research before choosing this series, nothing is left out in regards to detail and some of the awfulness of this time period]: multiple depictions of enslaved Africans and racism (setting from 1760’s), lynching, death from an abortion attempt, animal attacks, rape, racism involving Native Americans, sexual assault, hate crimes

AMAZING.

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This might be the first time I can remember reading a full book in verse. I didn’t know how I would enjoy it, but this ended up being the perfect dynamic for this story. I loved the way it flowed and moved.

Reading the complex and dynamic thoughts of Camino and Yahaira broke my heart. This was raw and real and I felt the emotions they were both struggling with as they coped with significant loss and finding out someone they both loved was not all he seemed. Yet, while they unraveled their father’s secrets, they also remembered to love the man that they did have. And I love how complicated this was. There was room here to feel what they needed to and how they could move forward.

I liked seeing both sides of the story and understanding more how this plane crash affected these communities across an ocean. It caused me to look up, research, and learn more about something that I hadn’t heard of. Clap When You Land was beautiful and a quick read. The musicality of the language brought so much to the surface.

The bond that starts to form between Camino and Yahaira gave the ending light. Finding hope in a tragic storm and looking towards a better future.

Overall audience notes:
- Young adult contemporary fiction
- Language: some strong
- Romance: kisses
- Violence: plane crash, loss of a loved one, physical, sexual harassment

3.5 stars

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the audio book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own!

IT WAS CUTE.

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Since I read this an audio book ARC, I wanted to mention my thoughts on the audio. I thought the narrator was great and found it to be easy listening. I kept it at 1.5x – 1.75x depending on what I was doing at the time while listening. Definitely would recommend reading it as an audio book if you enjoy that option!

I love Marissa Meyer’s books. I am a big fan of her fantasy books. Reading her first contemporary romance? ALL OVER IT.

This was a cute Beatles-inspired young adult romance. I loved the beach setting and marine ecology aspects. It felt relevant without being pushy and I learned a lot just from the setting alone. There was knowledge of rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing multiple marine animals and the center goes about achieving their ultimate goal of getting these animals back to the wild.

Prudence was our dear main character. Oh, how I struggled with her for 80% of the book. I kept expecting some more character growth from her, but felt it happened too close to the end. She leaned towards selfish and so completely single-mindedly focused that I wanted to jump in the book and tell her what she’s missing. With all of the damage done before getting to some evolution in her character it became a bit of a let down.

Quint was precious. And I’m genuinely amazed he was cool with Prudence being rude to him over and over again. I loved his interactions and banter. Quint had a great back story and was clearly devoted to helping the sea creatures in his care. I loved his nature and passion.

I did love their initial at last they kissed moment. It came at the right time and was sweet. I would have loved a longer ending with more of them because by the time I was really feeling it, the ending had arrived.

It’s overall a fun book and I’m happy that I read it. I love Meyer’s writing and will continue to read all the books by her. I’m also hoping for maybe more books with Pru’s brother, Jude (who I adored) and maybe even her friends? I thought there was some open options for more contemporaries in this world and I would love to read those too.

Overall audience notes:
- Young adult contemporary romance
- Language: very little and light
- Romance: kisses
- Violence: injured sea animals that washed ashore, someone breaking their leg from a fall

Thank you to the publisher, Razorbill and Netgalley for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own!

I’D CHASE LUCKY TOO.

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This was a more mature YA book. That’s what I kept thinking every time I was reading this. The main character was a high school senior and I kept picturing her as a college girl home for the summer. Take that for what you will, I still enjoyed the book.

There’s a lot of depth to this novel. It isn’t a super fluffy YA rom-com. The further I read, the more of the inner story unfurled in front of me. And I really like what I got from it. That communication is critically important to maintaining the bonds we value.

And usually, I hate when communication is clearly an issue and a brief conversation would solve all the problems. Bennett does a great job of not making me feel this way. While yes, I got frustrated with them (mostly Josie’s mother), I also understood the pain and heartache that each of the Saint-Martin women were struggling with. Another highlight, the fact that this was also heavily about a group of women in a family learning how to be together and not let differences tear them down. I liked the way reveals and emotions came out towards the end as the real picture of everyone’s past came to light. Josie took in a lot of information in a small amount of time. Did she make some mistakes? YES. Did she also learn from them? YES. And that’s what really sold this book for me.

The trope of choice for Chasing Lucky was childhood friends. Lucky and Josie knew each other back when she still lived in town, but after moving away, lost touch. Enter Josie coming back, enter cute Lucky 2.0. I, for once, dare say, I liked the way this trope was written. There was good banter, a little bit of angst as they figured each other out again and I felt the connection between them. I WILL ALSO SAY, I have rolled my eyes at love scenes in Bennett’s previous books, this was not the case this time. Oh it was so much better, and so much more realistic. I definitely adored this story a lot more because of it.

I constantly found myself wanting to pick this book up to read it. It was a solid YA book and I love the journey this story took me on. I appreciate the sentiments that were expressed and thought the conclusion was everything it should be.

Overall audience notes:
- YA Contemporary Romance
- Language: some strong
- Romance: kisses; one little detailed fade to black scene
- Trigger warnings: someone being arrested for destruction of property; a secondary character posting and showing off a nude photo of Josie’s mother and using it for revenge; car wreck (no one is critically injured)

STELLAR MEET-CUTE.

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Oh so much better than The Friend Zone.

What’s ironic to me is that even if I have some issues with these books, I devour them in a day. The writing is easy to dive in fast and not come up for a breath. Things move at a great pace that has you wanting more. Problems are overlooked and the flipping can’t stop until the happy ending is reached. So yes, while I gave this 4 stars, trust me, it’ll keep your interest.

I’m so happy we got a Sloan story. I liked the way grief was handled in this book. I know it looks different for all of us and I appreciated the way it was woven into this story. Sloan went through a lot (to put it mildly) and I like the way this romance came about in her life. Sweet and flirty text/phone conversations? I’m all of that modern take on romance. Jason had me smiling from moment one, and throwing a cute dog into the mix is definitely a way to my heart.

At times I thought the drama felt over worked and a bit out there. Yet, I guess that’s also part of being a celebrity. While I was frustrated with how Jason handled things, I did at least see his side of it. Sloan and Jason’s relationship wasn’t easy and that’s honestly one of the best parts of THEA. I like seeing couples have to work through things, have the difficult conversation, and really decide if this is where they want to be.

The totally cliche ending did make me incredibly happy. I like a good movie moment in a book and since I was begging this to end well, I’m smitten with how extra it was. Sloan and Jason deserve all the happy ever afters.

Overall audience notes:
- Contemporary romance
- Language: often and strong (one of issues is with the flagrancy)
- Romance: kisses / heated make-outs; a few almost scenes (with detail), and a open door scene (mild detailed, less than The Friend Zone)
- Violence: physical
- Trigger warnings: discussion of losing a loved one, grief and depression

FAIRYTALE.

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No really, this was legit one of those books where everything screamed a fairy tale. A King and Queen, an evil witch, a daring adventure, a noble steed, you think it should be there, it is.

Which was its goodness and its downfall.

I listened to this on a whim because it was available through my Audible account for free (who can pass up free?). I wasn’t expecting much of a little novella. This was cute and sweet and made me laugh a few times while listening to it.

There’s a lot shoved in for a 3.5 hour audio book which was nice. I felt like I still got enough background and information on characters to care what happened and it was a nice story to listen to in-between bigger books. I enjoyed how Ambrose and Imelda remembered how the had fallen in love and got a chance to start anew. Plenty of good tid-bits in here. Some pieces were definitely silly, but I feel if you go into this knowing that and knowing how much of a fairy tale it is, you’ll find the enjoyable pieces too.

Overall audience notes:
- Fairy tale romance
- Language: none
- Romance: kisses, one closed door scene
- Violence: physical, poison

LACKED PLOT.

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I had such a hard time reading this book. Not because of the nature of it, but because it lacked a lot more substance to bring the story home.

This book hurt. I feel like anyone with a significant other will attest to that. It’s not a light read. Grief, depression, devastation, all topics on this scale are discussed. I wanted to connect more to the characters and lives of everyone, but never quite got there.

It was unique to have two different worlds Lydia could live in while she was working through her grief, but I also feel this really hindered her. It slowed everything down and rather than watching her move forward (at her own pace) it felt like everything was held back. I thought a handful of sub-plots weren’t necessary and didn’t fit in with the narrative.

And the ending, I was wishing the entire time that that wouldn’t happen. Then it did, and I felt conflicted? I thought the writing was engaging enough to give hope to the end, even if I may not be completely on board.

I don’t have a lot to say towards this. I think it will hit hard for some and be a miss for others. And while it was a miss for me, it didn’t detract from the pain I know I would feel it something like this happened to me. Everyone does grieve in their own ways and while I may have struggled with this book, I think it brought up a lot of good topics and talking points that could be discussed with others.

Overall audience notes:
- Contemporary romance
- Language: some
- Romance: a few fade to black scenes, nothing descriptive
- Trigger warnings: car wreck causing the loss of a loved one, depression/grief