A cute Hanukkah story for children. I remember having this story read to me as a child during the holiday season. I think it's fun and teaches children a little bit about Hanukkah. I imagine it was written for Jewish children and not non-Jewish children so there was no need to explain the traditions of Hanukkah, but it's easy to follow and it's definitely a conversation starter on how the Jewish people have faced several obstacles trying to practice their faith.

A classic NYC magical romcom where a girl meets a girl on the subway. 

August is a cynical 23-year-old that doesn't believe in magic or emotional attachments. She's transferred to several colleges and just landed at Columbia on her journey. Her mother is an amateur private investigator who has been obsessed with solving her brothers disappearance for nearly fifty years. She raised August as her little accomplice and now she has a sense of detachment and a bunch of criminal-adjacent skills. She quickly finds an apartment with three quirky roommates that accept her immediately with open arms. With their help she lands a waitressing job at a 24-hour diner (a neighbor staple) that opened in 1976. After a rough shift, she meets larger than life, beautiful, badass Jane on the subway. By some miracle they keep running into each other on the Q. Slowly, their feelings for one another begins to grow. It becomes obvious that it was impossible that August should run into Jane every time she's on the subway. She discovers that Jane in displaced in time from the late 1970s and with the help of her roommates, she tries to find a way to free Jane from the Q and send her back to her time. 

I think this was cute and sexy sapphic romcom. It kind of reminds me of The Lakehouse and I think this concept is interesting. Sorry for sounding cliché, but the city was definitely a supporting character in this story. I loved the relationship August develops with her roommates, co-workers, neighbor, and Jane. She went from almost being alone to having a whole village supporting and loving her. The whole book is a corny, cliché, wholesome NYC story. 

I think the story runs on just a little too long for my liking, I could feel it lost some of its steam about 65% of the way through and picking back up around 80%. The cover was definitely deceiving! I thought this was a clean romance, and it definitely wasn't! I loved Jane and I appreciate her punk feminist cinnamon roll attitude. I do think August was rather bland until the very end of the story. I appreciate the queerness that's just oozing from this story. 

I was deeply disappointed in the comment about racism not being as big of an issue in 2020, ESPECIALLY since Jane is Chinese-American and this book was published in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I can understand that August is a young privileged white woman (and I think this was pointed out) who wouldn't experience acts of bigotry firsthand in a city that (for the most part) is accepting of her bisexuality, but come on dude. 

It's also a little disturbing how much sex they were able to have on the subway. I hope you're comfortable with semi-public sex cause that's all their encounters are. Also, the scientific explanation on what happened with Jane and their plan to return her to her time was clunky and repetitive. 

I would definitely recommend this story.

A YA psychological mystery thriller that keeps you on your toes. 

18-year-old high school senior, Mira is on her way home to spend Christmas with her mother. It's Christmas Eve and her flight to Newark from San Diego was nearly uneventful, though she meets glamourous college student, Harper. When Mira lands her connecting flight (and all other flights) to Pittsburgh is cancelled due to an oncoming snowstorm. Fortunately, Harper returns with a rental SUV and three other strangers in tow. Though Mira's uneasy, she chooses to go with these strangers so she can get home to her mother who is still grieving the death of her sister a year prior. From the start there is something off about these strangers. Each have their own motives for being in that SUV and not all of them are innocent. As the storm gets worse and they go deeper into the mountains, it becomes a story about five young strangers trapped together dodging the danger of the roads and the hunter among them. 

I found that I enjoyed the drama of this book and the stress of someone manipulating mistrust between the strangers. The idea of being in closed quarters with a predator with three other strangers is pretty terrifying. However, this was a pretty predictable story. It's definitely for mid- to upper YA audience. I find I like more YA mystery thrillers as they have to rely on other things than shock and gore, but this one lacked the creativity and cleverness that I enjoy in YA mysteries. This was entertaining, but since I could predict the villain from the start, it wasn't as scary. I did like the strategically placed stalker letters that were dated closer and closer to Christmas Eve. 

I definitely enjoyed the read and would like something similar in the future.

An absolutely amazing autobiography. I love MFM and have been a fan for four years now. I bought the hardback a year ago, but I decided to get the audiobook and hear Georgia and Karen's story from their own mouths. This book had me laughing and crying (so much crying) and I learned so much about myself and the other women around me. It made me feel seen and that I wasn't alone in the experiences that I've had with myself, my mother, and my experiences with men and society. These are two incredible women and I want to thank them so much for sharing their story and baring their souls. It's raw, vulnerable, and overall kickass.

A cute fake-dating bilingual romcom. 

Free spirit Solange Perreira can't stay still. She's constantly on the move, looking for adventure and her eventual place in the world. Currently she's working as an adult educator for a nonprofit academy to complete her graduate program while getting ready to move across the country at summer's end. This is when she agrees to help her cousin, a wedding planner, to play makeup assistant for the bride. Strait-laced Dean Chapman is getting married, though it's not for love. After overhearing a concerning conversation between the bride and the man she declared her love for, Solange decides to save Dean from a loveless marriage, not knowing it was a modern-day marriage of convenience. Dean's plans thwarted and in need of a serious relationship so he can be promoted for partner, he ropes Solange into a fake-dating scheme to improve his career prospects. However, Dean's anti-love beliefs are challenged when Solange slowly wiggles her way into his heart. 

This book has romance, comedy, cheesiness, and family. The Perreira family is amazing and so wholesome. I love the Tias so much! This book was a bit cringey, but I did find it funny and cute. I cannot see a group of adult humans believing for one second that Dean was in a serious relationship so soon after his wedding was crashed. I wish there was a little more time in between the wedding and this fake relationship so I could believe the firm was so accepting of the relationship. 

I love the Brazilian representation and that there wasn't an over explanation of what was said in Portuguese or the cuisine. I simultaneously wished I had a family like the Perreira family, while being glad I didn't have a bunch of meddling family members.  

Should I mention the sex party? Cause that was the most out-of-pocket thing I've ever read in a romance novel. 

I'll definitely have to check out the other book in this series.

An incredible health book on sexuality. It was organized well with enough examples and worksheets to make the content understandable. It taught me so much about my own sexuality and I understand so much more about the body and sex. The only thing I wish this book included was sexual orientation, asexuality, and more on sex after trauma. I feel like I learned a lot, but there was just something missing from the book, like there was more to be discussed. I definitely recommend this book to everyone. Men, women, enbies, queer, hetero, singles, couples, everyone. I think it's incredibly important to talk about the societal expectations and the reality surrounding sex. The book focuses on how the physical response doesn't always align with the mental reception and how to understand our sexual brakes and accelerators.

An inclusive Lovecraftian-inspired sci-fi mystery horror.  

Tommy Tester is a hustler from 1920s Harlem. He does what he can to provide a roof over his and his father's head. As a black man, he's cautious and aware of his surroundings and who his customers are. One night, it seems he's hit the jackpot when a mysterious stranger offers him a few hundred dollars for a couple nights' worth of work. That's when Tommy is thrown into a world of nightmares, curses, and magic. 

Full disclosure: I'm not actually familiar with Lovecraft source material. I've seen and read a lot of Lovecraftian shows/movies/books, but I haven't actually read anything by H.P. Lovecraft (and for good reason). I am aware this is a retelling with an alternate ending of The Horror of Red Hook, but I haven't read that book. I will say this was a very compelling story that I ended up loving despite taking me awhile to get into it. I'm new to the sci-fi horror reading scene, so I don't really know the rules and the background, but this was a great story. I appreciate the commentary on race and having a black protagonist in a sci-fi story. 

That being said, I didn't find the story scary so much as being mysterious and creepy with a disturbing scene or two. Truly, the scene that evoked the most emotion from me was his father's death.

I wish it was a little longer. It felt too short and I was just starting to love the chaos! 

I definitely recommend this book to anyone interest in having an inclusive sci-fi horror.

A short holiday romance with a good amount of spice. 

Stella is fresh out of a 4-year prison sentence and looking to start over again. She's a young twenty-something trying to make it in New York City when it appears her parents aren't ready to have her in their lives again. She's insecure and uncertain of her future. Aiden is a thirty year old manager of high end store, Vivant. His family owns the store, but unlike them, Aiden is warm and inviting. He's a total dork complete with Christmas bowties and cheesy Christmas décor. After a meet cute, Aiden hires Stella two weeks before Christmas as a window dresser to fix their unfortunate holiday display. Unfortunately, neither can deny their growing attraction for one another and they must overcome Aiden's moral compass keeping him from breaking rules to be with Stella, and Stella trying to protect both of their hearts. 

Honestly, it's a cute little novella with a decent amount of spice. It's an instalove romance, which I'm not at fan of, but I can accept this as being like a cheesy Hallmark movie. And like all Hallmark movies it's nearly Christmas and the characters have an impossible deadline. Like why couldn't he have hired her the week after Thanksgiving when the original holiday window was probably unveiled? At least then it would be more realistic that he would be hiring a new window dresser and I guess give them an extra couple weeks to fall in love. 

Overall, it was a cute, cheesy, spicy holiday romance that has some cringey dialogue (some during the spicy scenes), but if your guilty pleasure is watching Hallmark movies, then this will definitely satisfy you.

A political historical mystery that takes place in 1971 Mexico City. 

1970s Mexico, much like the US, was in political and social unrest, with many protests and corrupt government operations to undermine citizens and political activists. Separated from all this is Maite, an early 30-something year old, self-centered legal secretary living as a single woman. She's also a compulsive liar, a narcissist, and a kleptomaniac. She lives her life in romance novels and comics, and dreams about a better life she believes she deserves above others. One day, she asked to cat sit her neighbor, Leonora, a young, beautiful art student. All is well until Leonora fails to return and again fails to retrieve her cat after contacting Maite. Suddenly Maite is thrust into the mystery of where Leonora is and what information she has that's worth her life. Opposite of Maite is thug, Elvis. A young man that left home as a boy and has a long history of being emotionally manipulated by older men and women. He's currently been manipulated into being a thug for a shady, off the book group of thugs called The Hawks that undermine political activists (aka they beat up college students). Elvis is also looking for Leonora for incriminating photos she has in her possession. Slowly, Elvis and Maite's stories start to cross as they come closer to solving the mystery of the missing Leonora. 

I had really high hopes for this book after reading Mexican Gothic and I was looking forward to its release, but have only gotten the chance to read it now. Unfortunately, it was very underwhelming and disappointing. It's not uncommon for me to connect with and enjoy terrible or problematic main characters, but Maite and Elvis weren't bringing anything to the table. Maite was completely unlikeable and pretty one-dimensional and Elvis was just boring. The marketing for this book also made it seem like there was going to be a romance between Maite and Elvis, but there wasn't anything like that. I wasn't a fan of Maite constantly being describe as "nothing to look at", I mean I liked that she wasn't the typical over-the-top gorgeous like most women in novels, but it just grated me that she was constantly described like this. 

The mystery of the missing Leonora was also boring. The stakes didn't feel high until the very end and the "villain" was revealed. The ending was also deeply unsatisfying, which to say the ending would've been fine if there was literally anything else in this book that was enjoyable. 

That aside, I think the setting and the premise of this book were intriguing. I love the author's ability to transport me back to 1971 Mexico City, a time and place I've never experienced, and yet I feel like I have (at least a small piece) after reading this book. I wish more of the political and social scenes were explored. I also enjoyed the dual POVs that slowly start to converge. I think that was done rather well. 

So far, this is my least favorite of Moreno-Garcia, but I look forward to reading her other books. Perhaps the fact that her book, Mexican Gothic, was the one that got me out of a six-year long reading slump and was a book that literally had my heart pounding and hairs standing up, is part of the reason this book was such a letdown. I'm sure some will find it entertaining, so I suppose I can't recommend whether or not you should read this one.

 A witchy teen book set in Florida at a magic school. There’s four badass witches and a curse. 

The books follows four witches and two “mundanes” as they set to break their town’s hundred year curse. The curse causes an annual “Haunting” where supernatural wolves awaken and spend two moon cycles killing witches and mundanes alike. Our young witches and their mundane friends set out to end the curse once and for all. But with everyone keeping secrets and centuries of animosity between witches and mundanes, can they trust each other and come together to defeat the true evil in their town? 

I really enjoyed this book and hope there’ll be another set in this universe. I really liked the magic system and the characters were written well. It feels like we’ve only scratched the surface with this world and these characters though! I was happy to see BIPOC witches just basking in their Witchery while still recognizing that POC have additional struggles. I was disappointed that this was advertised as lgbtqia+ when only one character was identified as queer (it wasn’t specified if she was gay/bi/pan/etc) and she just has a really problematic ex, and there’s also a side character that was non-binary. 

I was also disappointed that the build up had inconsistent pacing and the climax and resolution felt rushed. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I REALLY want more! Not at all bad for a debut!