I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers has humor, found family, and lots of heart.

This story follows Vera as she's struggling to keep her World Famous Tea Shop afloat after having only one return customer for months on end. One morning during her daily opening routine, she finds a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. Thus begins Vera's journey to solving the case because the police don't seem to be taking this seriously enough.

Along Vera's journey of becoming an amateur sleuth, she meets people she suspects to be involved with the death of the man found in her shop. Each individual is hiding something, and Vera takes it upon herself to keep them close and slowly uncover the truth. These suspects seem to be entangled more than meets the eye...

Overall this mystery was a fun, and engaging story that had me turning those pages, not wanting to stop!!

I highly recommend picking this up if you're in the mood for a captivating mystery with some laughs, a whole lot of love, and found family within.

The only thing I’ve read from Freida before is the holiday novella The Gift which was inspired by The Gift of the Magi, making this my first full length novel by the author.

After hearing raving reviews, I was excited to pick this up! I’m happy to say that McFadden kept me on my toes and after thinking I knew what was going on, she really said ”hold my beer” and proved that I, in fact, did NOT know the twists she would throw my way.

I look forward to reading more from McFadden and am thankful for the expansive backlist to get through 🥰

Amy Lin’s memoir perfectly captures the essence and the many facets of grief. The writing is beautiful and I appreciate the raw honesty of this book.

After the sudden passing of her partner, Amy shares how her life was thrown off kilter, their further plans not coming to fruition, and overall learning to adapt to a new lifestyle.

~ A few of my favorite quotes woven within—

“Grief finds its way into everything. Makes everything a part of itself.”

“Grief is chronic pain.”

“When he dies, I fall out of time.”

**this one especially hit me hard because it evokes the heartbreak and aftermath of a loved one’s death. Time is meaningless because grief is always there in the shadows.

I listened to the audiobook read by the author herself in one sitting! It was a great/heartbreaking experience to go through alongside Amy Lin while she tells her story as if speaking to a dear friend.

This is a heartbreaking read to say the least. Please be kind to yourself and gentle with your heart before picking this one up.

An absolute soul wrenching read that everyone should be picking up! 

More thoughts to come. 

I thought this was a fantastic sequel showcasing Nick’s coming of age and into his sexuality. The emphasis on empathy and allowing someone you care about to grow into themselves while supporting them with the utmost love and care is so so important. 

I will protect Charlie Spring forever and ever amen.

I don’t have strong feelings about this book one way or the other. It was just very mid but I’m still interested in this authors other works. 

Are you absolutely joking with that declaration of love?! I'm crying, swooning & throwing up over it!

Christopher and Katerina have been enemies since childhood so when a chance encounter between the two during Kate's brief visit home brings them back together, their rivalry begins anew.

No matter how hard he tried to keep their little rift going, Christopher is an absolute cinnamon roll & softie for Katerina at his core. He is the sweetest, most caring gentleman to ever exist. He's a talk her through it kinda man and my goodness was that something.

Katerina is someone that struggles with ADHD and this causes some stress with the way her brain processes information on the day to day. There was a scene during their rivalry that Christopher was going to use against her, until he realized that it was from no fault of her own.

There was some really amazing representation in here with Katerina not only facing struggles with ADHD, but openly expresses on page of her demisexuality. Katerina also discusses how that can get in the way of bedroom behaviors, and we see how ever the gentleman, Christopher, not making her feel any type of way because of it. I appreciated that representation because that's not something I've come across more than a handful of times at best! Christopher is someone that gets terrible migraines, which again, not something that is featured in many books at the length & detail that Chloe Liese does.

My only wish is that we got to see a bit more of their childhood antics against one another to really fuel that lingering fire they kept up well into adulthood. Overall another fantastic read from Chloe Liese!!

✨what to expect—
~ childhood enemies to adult lovers
~ ADHD & demisexual rep
~ age gap
~ he falls first
~ angst
~ "grab the headboard" moment
~ a man that talks her through it