The storyline and suspense/mystery was good, although fairly predictable. I thought each chapter had a good progression of the plot unfolding and plausible scenarios.  

I was not a fan of either MC. I really disliked Savannah a lot. She was so self absorbed and self centered, only thinking how everything affected her, was completely void of empathy and grace, and didn’t bother to consider how anything would affect Hez, or caring enough to ask. Every scenario was completely about her. 

Hez was just incredibly oblivious when it came to Savannah, which felt a little too far out of character with his occupation as an attorney. And of course, he also refused to have conversations or ask questions, which again, felt out of character.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions are mine. 

Really hard to put down. I liked Diem as a main character - while reckless and often foolish, she wasn’t afraid to stand up to anyone and it came from care for others. 

The Romance part felt a bit of a cliche with a contrast between male love interests, I thought they were both crafted well, and I liked the story had good moral/ethical dilemmas to (literally) war with. 

Overall I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next one. 

Lots of great concepts and teachings in this book on confidence, authenticity, trusting God, innovation and more. I did feel that the book itself felt fairly repetitive. However, Ms Roberts definitely has a lot of wisdom and helpful insights into moving in a powerful way.

Good themes of making amends to do what’s right, importance of family and friendship, and forgiveness instead of bitterness. 

I liked Helen as a character, and appreciated her end of life (warning for my fellow cancer-survivors or fighters) desire to do the right thing from regrets in her life. 

I was not a big fan of the writing style. It read like a letter or journal entries. Very narrative heavy and not as conversational or first-person experience. The audio I listened to, the narrator did not vary her voice with the characters so if I was not paying total attention to the chapter into, I would sometimes miss that it was from a different character’s point of view and not Helen, and be super confused until halfway into the chapter. Add to it being a slower story rather than a mystery, and I struggled to really stay invested. 

I did enjoy the ending and, while predictable, it was heartfelt and endearing. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions are mine.

I’m not even sure how to rate this one. On one hand, I really liked the immigrant in America perspective and experience, and I thought the dialogue was really great, as well as the characters. 

On the other hand… so immensely confusing. The way there were so many rabbit trails of memory or backstory without any sort of break to let you know whether you were in the present or the past or something else entirely. It was just a lot of work to sift thru, that I was not fond of. It would have been so much better if I understood what was going on or what perspective we were dealing with. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

First let me just say the cover of this is gorgeous. Whoever created and chose that should be applauded. 

I enjoyed reading about the potential of a woman being basically the ghost writer for William Shakespeare. It’s an interesting concept and makes a ton of sense given the time and limitation on what women were allowed to do at the time and how bizarre all the constraints were in society in general back in medieval times. And of course any mystery of that magnitude easily becomes a legend. 

I liked Emilia’s character, although I’ve read multiple historical articles (cuz I deep dive all interesting historical books) that all said she became Hundson’s mistress at 18, not 13. Maybe not a big deal but it sort of feels like a significant difference to me between selling a child vs an adult as a mistress and changes the narrative a bit on the desperation of her circumstances. 

Regardless, I enjoyed her tenacity, her forthrightness and all the nuggets about paving the way and planting the seeds before you for others even if you never see the fruit of them. Really great lessons woven into a great character. 

Melina on the other hand, I did not like. Her story gave the book an undertone of angst and bitterness that I really did not enjoy. 

Melina was self-centered and self absorbed - not just with Andre and the play but with every single person in her life. Yeah, she may be completely right in the discrimination of women in the art world, but she just turned everything she went thru (not just her writing) into a pity party or offense towards herself without remotely examining and considering how others involved were affected or maybe that it wasn’t all about her. I really could have done without her sections it was just all so petty and immature. 

Overall the book was also super long, and I wish it was a little more condensed. But I did like what I learned about Emilia and the possible alternative to Shakespeare and I would recommend the book. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.

This book felt hard to rate in some ways. The writing was excellent - the author painted such a vivid picture of the landscape (physical and emotional) and the characters. It flowed well and you felt what Tilla felt, you hated the villains she interacted with, hoped for her heart to find belonging and real love, and wished you could be on her side.  I really loved Tilla and her character. 

And there were so many deep nuggets of a child looking for a father’s love, struggling with abandonment, and of finding courage in herself despite suffering.

What had me struggling a bit is this was enormously sad. Certainly not unrealistic or exaggerated, but so very heartbreaking with all the abuse, rejection, racism and betrayal. Most of the men and boys were predatory and self-serving, and the girls and women were malicious and vindictive. I don’t think I can say I *enjoyed* the book, but I did really like it. 

I liked this book in the series quite a bit more than the previous two. The characters of Everleigh and Alexander felt more fleshed out and there was a lot more of Elizabeth, Everleigh's roomate and best friend.

I enjoyed both women's interaction and contrast in their personalities. I thought they complemented each other well. Alexander is back in this book more, as he was in the first book. The relationship and interaction between he and Everleigh I felt was well thought out and brought some good character development in each of them especially after the last book.

I thought the mystery itself unfolded well and left you interested and intrigued. Not a fast moving mystery, but enough nuggets to make you invested without being super predictable.

The other 2 books in the series I felt like I could take or leave the following book, but I had received this copy before those so I kept going till I got to this one out of necessity. But the end of this installment left a good cliffhanger without just relying on relational drama like the others, so I am looking forward to reading the next when it comes out.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.

This book was like getting into a conversation with someone where it should take 5 minutes, but ends up being 45 because of all the rabbit trails and side anecdotes that really didn’t matter but were thrown in anyways. And then you realize-mid monologue that you have no idea what you all started talking about in the first place. There were so many things going on and nothing going on all at the same time. Also so many characters it felt impossible to keep track of or remember who was who, and how they were related.

Outside of the last 15% of it that got interesting, I got so bored that I had to take a break and read another book every few chapters. And ironically each time I went back to this one because of all the rabbit-trailing I didn’t even need to try to refresh where I left off because I’d be in a different rabbit trail on this new chapter. 

When it all boils down to it, the story really was very little about the “lost boy” - it was about Franca trying to constantly be savior and navigating a little town in Italy that was very poor, backwards and corrupt, its intersecting and overlapping relationships, and deception. Yeah there was some mystery as she played Nancy Drew at a couple of the townspeople’s request (which was also weird why she took this upon herself honestly) and tried to unravel everyone’s secrets, but again, it was so slow, repetitive and interspersed I never got invested until the very end and then it ended up the way I had figured. It just felt like it went around and around the same details and hurdles time and again without much progress and I lost the plot. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

Super cute and heartwarming romance. I really loved observing Piper’s thought process of being an African American adopted by white parents and not growing up around anyone she could identify with ethnically. I’ve always wondered what that process is like for transracial adoptions and how conflicting that would be so I enjoyed this small insight. 

Also loved the friendships from the rest of the series carry over and the cross over from the In Search of a Prince.