This book is something I would have loved as a 16/17 year old. It’s written exactly with a teenager’s thought process in mind. Honestly, when I’m reading YA books, I want reckless behavior and not-well-thought-out actions when the protagonist is under the age of 23. But even more so when they’re still in high school. It’s why I read YA books. To fault the book because the teen protagonist is a brat, judgmental, and makes reckless decisions is like getting mad at a waiter for giving you exactly what you ordered. 

Carolina “Lina” Emerson is 16 and just lost her mom (Hadley Emerson) to pancreatic cancer after a very short battle. Lina’s from Seattle and stayed with her best friend’s (Addie) family for the last semester of her sophomore year. Unfortunately, Lina doesn’t have a dad (her mom never revealed his identity) and her grandparents aren’t able to care for her. This is all fine, because Hadley already set up for Lina to spend the summer with her old beau, Howard, in Florence, Italy. 

Howard confirms with Lina’s grandparents that he’s Lina’s father which means they push her to stay with him to try to build a relationship. Of course, as a typical 16 year old, she digs in her heels and only goes because she promised her mom she would. Hadley apparently spent a year in Italy back in the late 90s where she met Howard, a fellow American student at their Italian art school (and conceived Lina). 

With the aid of her mom’s journal from her time in Italy, Lina tries to walk in her mother’s footsteps over Florence and tries to understand how Lina was conceived, how Howard and Hadley fell in love, and why her mother ran away from Italy when she found out she was pregnant and never told Howard why she left. 

Along the way, she meets Lorenzo “Ren” Ferrara. A cute charming Italian teen that joins her on her crazy adventure. And (of course) they begin to fall for one another. 

It’s super cheesy, some of it doesn’t make sense, and it made me cry actual real tears. It had a charm to it that I can’t explain. Lina and Ren both irritated me, but made me laugh and my heart ached for them. I wish Howard were my dad. I don’t get why Lina hated the idea of living in a cemetery because I definitely would’ve loved that at 16 (hell I’d love it now). But Lina’s mom just died and I guess to some, cemeteries are creepy. Being forced to bond with a stranger because you made a death bed promise also sucks. Sometimes you have to just sit back and shit talk about strangers with your bestie to feel better. It’s all the angst of being a teenager without the one person who was supposed to guide you through it. But forreal, if I had the CHANCE to go live in Italy, I’d do it in a heartbeat. 

This book made me laugh, cry, and cringe. It was cheesy and awkward and I loved it. Was it clunky, rushed, and not as developed as it could’ve been? Yes. But I still enjoyed it. I liked that Lina was always on the go from one scene to the other. I always wanted to know what it was like to be a reckless teenager who just fell so madly in love in a way only 16 year old could, and that’s why I read these kinds of books. 

I read this book and I couldn’t tell you why it was written. The writing is pretentious and the story is just so boring. It took forever for me to finish! 

Arthur Less is a privileged white, cis gendered gay man nearing his 50th birthday. He’s an author who’s had some success. He gets an invitation for the wedding of his ex lover, Freddy (not his ex-boyfriend/partner they only slept together). Their relationship lasted nearly a decade and Freddy was sleeping with Arthur at the start of his relationship with his now fiancé. Freddy is the adoptive son of Arthur’s rival, Carlos, so the age gap is cringe. But when Arthur was 21, he also dated a famous poet, Robert, who was nearly twice his age. Robert leaves him high and dry, this breaks Arthur, then turns around and takes a much younger man to be his lover, never to commit to a relationship. Then has the nerve to be upset Freddy is getting married (though it’s gross that Freddy even invited Arthur considering he was cheating on his fiancé with Arthur). Arthur also makes a few remarks about how frivolous young gay people are and their desire to marry. The audacity to cry about losing friends during the AIDS crisis and not see how amazing it is that now gays can celebrate life and love out in the open and in they way they choose.

To avoid the wedding without outright declining the invitation, he books up his year with literary award ceremonies, festivals, guest lecturing, a writer’s retreat, and an article assignment that are taking place around the world, so he can be out of the country during the wedding. The descriptions of the different countries are minimal and through a very stereotypical American tourist’s gaze. The arrogance is just so irritating (yes a lot of Americans are obnoxious, inconsiderate, and insensitive, but jeez this is so irritating). There’s no plot and no life altering revelations. 

Also, as a native Delawarean, nothing annoyed me more than the author’s clear ignorance towards the state. It’s a whole state, regardless of size, no where in the mentions of Arthur’s childhood in Delaware actually mention WHERE in the state he grew up. It’s nearly two-thirds of the way through before he says he’s from Camden, Delaware but it’s the only mention out of the dozens of Delaware references. There’s mostly extremely vague mentions of “the suburbs of Delaware”. My guy, it’s a whole state, what suburb? I’ve never heard an author only mention the state and not a city when referring to a character’s whereabouts after the first moment of establishing the location. It’s just so clear Greer has no knowledge of the state. It’s like when Americans say they’re going to Europe for the summer. 

How Robert or Freddy stayed with this man for over a decade and actually loved him is beyond me. Arthur is boring, arrogant, and the fact he thinks he’s funny when he’s just cringe is so…ugh. I hate it and Arthur is just the worst character I’ve ever read and I’ve read from the point of view of villains, psychopaths, and reckless, selfish teens and liked them. 

When the narrator was revealed, I hated this book even more. It was rushed and so anticlimactic. How could anyone be interested or obsessed in Arthur’s boring ass story is beyond me. 

His name is annoying and confusing as the narrator uses his last name to talk about Arthur. Greer tries to make some clever sentences with Arthur’s name but it’s just annoying. The chapters are so long and boring I was falling asleep (seriously it took 5 sessions to get through one chapter). Why are they so long?! I have no idea how this book could ever win any literary awards let alone a Pulitzer, but I guess that goes to how white and pretentious the Prize Board must be. 

Don’t waste your time on this book. There’s definitely a hundred other queer books that much better you could read. 

Fam, let me tell you. Jesus Christ. This book was eight shades of what the fuck. Like serious I legit was so freaked out I couldn’t sleep without knowing what the fuck was going on. Like what even was this book?? 

I gotta start by saying that books where you’re not sure what’s real or not, really freaks me the fuck out. Like when reality and fiction blur and you don’t know if you can trust your own sense? Nah fam, I’m telling you that’s my nightmare and genuine fear. 

Okay so we’ve got some weird ass names in typical Colleen Hoover fashion: Lowen Ashleigh is a good author but not super popular, she’s broke af (girl same), and her mom just died after she played caretaker for months. The way this fucking book started, shook me and made me wanna vomit. 

“I hear the crack of his skull before the spattering of blood reaches me.” 

Jesus. Ease me in Colleen. I had no idea what this book was about other then people saying is was freaky and the vague references I saw on TikTok had me thinking some Jane-Eyre-wife-in-the-attic vibes. Anyway, Lowen had the most grotesque meet cute on the planet with Jeremy Crawford (probably the only normal name in the book). Turns out Jeremey is going to the same meeting Lowen’s going to! His wife is Verity who’s like the queen of thrillers. Her books are a sensation, she’s a millionaire, and overall bad bitch. Unfortunately, Verity is in a vegetative state after a car crash with three books left unfinished in her series. 

Verity’s publicist and Jeremy are looking for an author to finish the series, but as a co-author, since they’re keeping the extent of Verity’s injuries a secret. Lowen, though doubtful of her skills as a writer, accepts the job cause, let’s be honest, she needs the money. She ends up staying at the Crawford house to go their Verity’s boxes of notes to get in her headspace to finish the series. 

So the Crawford family is messed up every which way til Sunday. Verity’s upstairs in a vegetative state, the couple’s 5-year-old, Crew, is running around doing creepy kid shit, and they recently lost their twin daughters, Harper and Chastin. It’s all very upsetting and the darkness just makes me wanna vomit and/or cry. 

As Lowen goes through Verity’s things she finds a manuscript for Verity’s autobiography that proves to be the most disturbing thing my eyes have ever read. And even though Lowen’s life is sad and a bit tragic and she makes a lot of good points, she’s got the personality of peeling paint. But I can understand how it took a few weeks for her to get through this manuscript, vomiting and crying throughout, because she believed it was the truth. 

Now spoilers. So look away for like 3 paragraphs. 

However, she just casually doesn’t show Jeremy this damning and disturbing manuscript? I get in the beginning she wanted to spare Jeremy’s feelings, but it got to a point that shit didn’t matter anymore and he deserved the truth. All of this is going on and Lowen starts to realize that TV’s are being turned off or muted around Verity when she supposedly can’t move. Doors are locking by themselves, knives are disappearing, Crew is claiming his mother talks to him, oh and Lowen just CASUALLY sees Verity standing at the top of the stairs as her husband is sucking on her titties. GOODBYE. That sent my soul out of my body. Mostly, a lot of my fear came from my own fucked up mind making Crew and Verity look creepy as fuck. But yeah, Lowen would just catch Verity stare at her and I’d have like baby gooseflesh moments. 

“If this bitch turned off that goddamn television, I’m walking out that front door without shoes on and I’m never coming back.” Fam, I would’ve BEEN gone! 

I felt like I was going crazy with Lowen. I half expected it to be all in her head. Or Jeremy was really the psychopath. Part of me genuinely believed she was gonna get to the end of the manuscript and it would be a recent addition that like calls Lowen out. 

I thought the discovery of Verity’s deceit was anticlimactic. The discovery of the letter was a little comical, cliché, and exhausting. Like I highly doubt Verity was actually innocent. You can do a lot of things to survive, but to urinate on yourself REPEATEDLY and stay still for hours with no reaction to movement or sound? And do this for months? Yeah no. You’ve gotta be a whole ass psychopath for that, life on the line or not. Other than the creepy scene of Lowen ending up in Verity’s room (when she doesn’t mention in the letter) what’s the point of her sleepwalking? I was also thinking she’d wake up attacking Verity. Which would’ve been interesting. And what was the deal with those two women at the Target who claim to be Verity’s friends and are never mentioned again? 

Also, why leave the letter? If you genuinely think your life’s at stake and you’re innocent, why leave the letter? And why not put it at the end of the manuscript for the only person who would understand your process and who wasn’t as emotionally invested in the situation to find and help you? Like fam, you have all this time to fake being catatonic but can’t use that time to actually ask for help from either of your two nurses or Lowen? I’m not buying it. She definitely left that letter for Lowen to find to fuck with her. As a last “fuck you” if Jeremy killed her before she could run away or kill him. 

As time went on, dry as a biscuit, Lowen, started becoming mad interesting when she started becoming a crazy ass bitch herself. What is up with this man’s dick that got all these women doing some crazy ass shit over it?! Cause Lowen really did and thought some fucked up shit! Lowen was losing her mind over Verity and threatened the woman! Then she lift her hips to let Jeremy’s magic sperm do it’s work?! How fertile is this man?! How fertile are these women?! Honestly, Jeremy is fucked up too. He comes in a girl he doesn’t know, the way he reacted to the manuscript was sus as hell, he was just crazy obsessed with these two women, and then he casually moves on with another woman and having a baby less than a year from losing his two daughters? He was fucking some chick with his wife in the other room and talked about that guilt right before fucking??? Red Flag. 

The sex scenes were like hot at first but quickly became creepy as hell as Lowen thought about Verity while in the act, bit the headboard to outdo Verity’s bite marks, and did everything to be the opposite of Verity in bed to please Jeremy. Like she took what she learned about Jeremy’s sex skills in the manuscript and ran with it.  

Honestly, other than possibly neglecting her children, trying to abort her twins, and killing her daughter, Verity is the most interesting character in the whole book. Is she manipulative and traumatizing as fuck? Yes. Will Crew need therapy for the rest of his life? Yes. But I recognize the commitment and I respect it. Plus, she made it like her mission to fuck with Lowen, and in retrospect, that shit is funny as hell. Not during, the shit was creepy. But I’ve had time to think back on it these last 71 minutes and have concluded it’s hilarious as fuck.

OKAY YOU CAN COME BACK NOW! No more spoilers

Honestly, this book was a mess. There was a lot of random things that throw you off and seem sus or weird, but are just there. But this thing freaked me out. If you get freaked out over “what’s real and what’s not?” and psychological thrillers where the supposedly vegetative people are running around, then this book will be good to you. I imagine someone who is blasé about that, will find this boring or comical. I mean hell, even I laughed at some parts, and not all of it was nervous laughter. I don’t see how anyone cried doing this book. It was sad that the girls died, but those scenes written from the POV of a psychopath made it easy to be detached from it. 

It was entertaining enough. Book holds its own. I struggled to put it down. So check it out if this kind of shit interests you.

3.75/5 ⭐️ 

I want to start off my saying I really loved this book. It was such a cute romcom. I love Charlie as a character. He is so wholesome and amazing. And I love Dev so much. He’s just this big heart that just made me want the best for him. I have to start by saying the queer and mental health representation was really on point in the book. This is my second Bachelor-esque romcom, but my first queer one. I hate The Bachelor in real life, and I don’t watch any reality TV (aside from cooking shows and home improvement), but it’s clear now I love these kinds of books. 

Okay so it’s pretty straight forward, Charlie is a tech genius who has a reputation for being hard to work with and even talked about as a “head case”. So his publicist/best friend,  Parisa (love of my life right here), gets him on the dating show, Ever After, where 20 women will compete for his love. On this show, Dev, a producer, becomes Charlie’s handler. Almost from the start these two have this cute chemistry that had me melting. Dev is a hopeless romantic who has a rose colored view of the show whereas Charlie believes the show is fake and is only there to improve his image. As it turns out, Charlie has OCD and a panic disorder (but reading Charlie’s POV, I feel he might also be on the spectrum? Just so many of his mannerisms remind me of those I know with ASD, but it could just be overlap from his anxiety disorders) which is why he doesn’t like to be touched or forced into social situations. But Dev somehow is able to calm Charlie in such a beautiful and intimate way. Dev also deals with mental illness and has suffered with depression since childhood (he might also have ADHD). The two have opposite childhood experiences: Charlie’s family made his life miserable for being different and “difficult”, whereas Dev’s family was loving and supportive of him from his queerness to his mental health.  

Obviously, as the show goes on it’s clear the two like each other and they act on those feelings despite contracts and threats of legal action. And the two begin learning about themselves individually and opening up to one another in ways they never did with anyone else. For a moment I was worried about the dependency between the two of them, but that works itself out in the end. By the last few episodes of the season, it’s very clear to Dev (who’s rose colored glasses have been shattered) that Ever After is problematic in more ways than one. 

I found myself laughing and crying so much at this book just because I felt seen. Though Charlie doesn’t definitively define his sexuality, he dances around the idea that he’s demisexual or graysexual but definitely on the asexual spectrum. He’s never felt sexual attraction until Dev, but only ever tried dating women because that’s what he thought was expected of him. I too struggled with my identity as a demisexual woman (and omg the fact this book even said the word “biromantic” had me crying because it took me so long to find the right words for me). But also it’s the mental health representation that had me crying the most. I suffer from both anxiety and depression, and I just saw so many of my own thoughts in Charlie’s and Dev’s. Even though they’re fictional characters, it’s nice to know it’s not just me. I so appreciate that Dev and Charlie learn they’re deserving and worthy of love and not just romantic love but platonic and self love, too. 

Several times throughout the book there’s mentions of Ever After’s issue with having a bisexual winner or a winner of color. It’s the idea of a non-heterosexual winner that gets most discussed in the book. There’s passing comments about the show’s blatant whiteness but the focus in mainly on its problem with heteronormativity. Though the message is clear without it being pointed out, a lot like in Hollywood (and other industries), the people behind the scenes tend to be people of color and the people on screen are white. Charlie, the Prince Charming, is white, most of the contestants are white, in fact, the only one of note is Angie and she’s also the bisexual contestant the show runners refuse to have win the contest. But behind the scenes you have asexual Skylar, a black woman, Jules who is bisexual and of East Asian descent, of course, Dev who’s gay and Indian-American, and even the powerhouse that is Parisa, as Charlie’s publicist, is pansexual and it’s briefly insinuated that she’s a brown Muslim woman. I mean it’s a clear reflection of how POC are always put in the background doing much of the work without being in the spotlight. And how companies will claim they’re tolerant and hire queer people, but they can’t really be out to the public. 


I think this book does great at the queer representation, the ace rep, and mental health representation. But I don’t think it did a good job at representing an interracial relationship or Indian-American representation. And that’s not to say Dev’s parents couldn’t have been total hippies in the 1960s and are chill as parents just because they’re Indian. But there’s just no substance to Dev’s Indian identity. He talks about there aren’t people that look like him on TV and about how his script (which is supposed to be an Americanized Bollywood romcom [akin to the Americanized telenovela, Jane the Virgin]) about what it’s like to be Desi American and how no one will pick up the script because it’s brown and queer, but that’s it. It’s all like the bare minimum of the bare minimum. Just saying a character is Indian or Black or East Asian or Arab isn’t enough. There are cultural aspects and implications that differ from generic white Americans and their experience. I mean I appreciate that the novel points out the racism of Hollywood and white privilege, but if you’re gonna make the love interest a person of color, don’t make it so their character could easily be switched out with a white person without having to change anything to make the switch fit. 

Overall, I think this is a cute queer romcom with great ace and mental health representation. I think it’s a decent try on the POC representation, but I’d like to see more than just “this character is not white” in future characters of colors Cochrun writes. It’s not enough to just have representation it has to be good representation. And not just physical representation it has to have the cultural rep too. 

The Guncle is a decent dramedy. It follows Patrick O’Hara, a 40-something gay man living in Palm Springs. He’s an actor that hasn’t worked in a decade, but he was a star and his show was a hit. After the death of their mother, Sara, 9 year old Maisie and 6 year old Grant spend the summer with their “guncle” Patrick, aka GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick). Their father, Greg, can’t care for them because he checks into rehab after years of addiction to cope with his wife’s illness. Patrick is also dealing with grief as Sara was his best friend from university who ended up marrying his younger brother (Greg). But also, he lost his long-term boyfriend, Joe, 12 years prior. Together, Patrick and the kids work through their grief. 

At first I was a bit annoyed with Patrick, he seemed very blasé about Greg’s request to take the children for the summer. But eventually, I found him to be a very loving, sarcastic, and funny uncle. He talks to the kids as if they were adults but clearly in a joking manner. I think Maisie is great, and snarky. I love that she’s more comfortable in more masculine clothing and Patrick (who wears more feminine clothing) encourages her to wear what she’s most comfortable in. Patrick goes from a single, “kids aren’t my thing”, and not knowing anything about parenting, to this protective and loving uncle. I hate Patrick and Greg’s older sister, Clara, who believed she knew best simply because she’s a stepmother to her husband’s two teenagers. Never mind she didn’t come into their lives until they were teens and they spend most of their time with their mother. Clara accusing Patrick of being unfit and his home being borderline inappropriate for the children, which made me lose all sympathy for her. 

Patrick’s personality is huge and his energy is so high that though I love him on paper, I feel like in real life my social battery would be depleted within 5 minutes. This book had me laughing and crying. It was a heartwarming read. 

I’m not a huge fan of reading books with young children simply because the dialogue of school age characters are cringe, cliché, and/or unrealistic. The dialogue for Grant was pretty cringe. I didn’t see any chemist between Patrick and Emory, and they hardly spent any time together for me to really like Emory. Plus, I’m not a huge fan of age gaps and there’s like 15 years between them. Never mind Emory’s pursuing Patrick. Though I liked this book, it’s pretty barebones where there’s some things that weren’t developed enough and/or rushed through, and other things that too much time was spent on. 

Nice, quick beach read. 

To start, I wouldn’t really categorize this as a rom-com or  contemporary romance (I mean the book itself is labelled as just “fiction”) like others have made it out to be. Really it’s a dramedy with a mild romantic component. Other than a sex dream and quick sex scene at the very end, it’s not all that spicy. People have characterized it as a slow burn, but really it was about two coworkers dealing with real shit that happened to be crushing on one another. 

The story follows Simone, cis bisexual white woman in her late 20s. She’s very Type A, believes in rules, and has a naive belief about how the world works because of her privilege. Ray is her very opposite, loud, funny non-binary coworker. Simone is a pastry chef for a prestigious and snobbish culinary magazine and Ray is the new kitchen manager. The company has decided to start making online content and produce videos to help their failing financial situation. This means hiring a social media coordinator, Chase (aka the biggest douche on the planet) and camera operator, Petey (sweet baby). But Chase is wrong about his approach to social media and it’s Ray that accidentally goes viral and becomes the face of the magazine’s new direction. Ray and Simone end up creating a show they co-host together and it’s a hit. 

At first, Simone believes Ray to be a woman and refers to them as she/her for the first 6-ish months they’ve been working together. But Ray decides to make the tough choice to come out to her close co-workers (they’ve been out for years in their private life). This throws Simone for a loop as she’s made it a point to stay in the closet at work to avoid any negative reactions. But it also becomes about how hard it is for her to get used to Ray’s pronouns. Her roommate, Luna, a trans woman, and her group of friends decide to help her practice using the correct pronouns. But Simone slips up here and there for most of the book until about the last quarter of it. It isn’t Simone’s first time finding the idea of interacting with a trans person difficult. She’s got alot of cis guilt that she feels she has to overcompensate for and it ends up becoming about her feelings which is just so cringe. Even when she first meets Luna, she asks an insensitive question and Luna points out that she’s not there to make Simone or anyone else feel better or be anyone’s trans whisperer (trans people and POC are not there to be your guide to understanding them and your cis/white privilege). But Luna does this anyway when Simone offers to bake for her in exchange for the emotional exhaustion Luna will go through. 

But I digress. When Ray comes out to their co-workers, the crew also seems to have their eyes opened to how gendered the world is and it’s also pointed out by the crew that the only POC that work at the company are the camera crew and the CEO’s assistant (the people behind the scenes). This is when Simone finally checks her privilege and also has this realization. Unsurprisingly, the company wants to shove Ray back into the closet. Simone’s boss/work friend says extremely transphobic things and makes homophobic remarks, to which Simone blows up on her for (I have to admit I love it when someone lashes out at a bigot). Chase and pretty much everyone who’s not camera crew or Simone, deadnames and misgenders Ray for the next few months. Simone and the crew decide to help Ray take legal action, but Ray doesn’t want to do that. Simone calls them a coward, which is such a dick move, given the backlash and hostility Ray would experience if they did sue the company. Ray is only staying with the company for the health insurance that will cover their top surgery. Ray has to explain this to Simone for her to understand Ray’s decision when Simone should’ve respected that it wasn’t Ray’s job to stick it to the man for the people that come after them (because it’s not). 

This book is more about the journey of a cis white woman (who just happens to be bi, but that doesn’t mean she understands anything about the trans community) finally having their privilege checked. I think this book is fine for similar cis individuals to read if they want to be a better ally, if anything just so they can be told via this book that it’s not about their feelings and to just get over themselves. But this is not the book for cis people who are there or anyone looking for a cute F/NB romance. Cause really it’s just stressful to read someone struggle with something that isn’t really a hardship compared to the person actually going through it. Plus, I didn’t really see the chemistry between Simone and Ray. 

Also, I have to say this is my second food/chef book about a blonde enby and brunette bisexual woman getting together and one of them is Type A and the other Type B. Like is this a trope I’m unaware of? 

Anyway, this book had its moments. It has funny moments and even though it had like the cis white woman savior vibe, when Simone stepped up to her boss and the CEO and was ready to rock Chase’s shit, I was a little down. Mostly because I’m tired of the whole “turn the other cheek” and “rise above it” when it comes to dealing with bigots. 

So yeah, read it or don’t. You won’t be missing much. It’s not making waves for the queer or trans community.

I like so many things about this book, but I want to make sure this review isn’t forever long. Okay so the story follows Alyce, a 20 year old half-Vila in the queendom of Briar. And she is known as the Dark Grace. Graces are human-born women magically gifted by the Fae. These Graces cause use their magical blood to mix elixirs that grant beauty, musical talent, wisdom, etc. These Graces are also forced to remain in Briar for their entire lives and they must work for the upper class. Alyce’s gifts create curses. Because of her heritage and the type of magic she possesses, she’s treated as a monster and people exclude, harass and fear her. She is also defined as being “ugly” with scaly skin, thin hair, and a green tinge to her complexion. 

There’s also a curse (surprise!) on the women of the royal family. This curse kills the princesses on their 21st birthday. The only way to break this curse is true loves kiss. This means the young Princess Aurora was forced to kiss hundreds of strange men from the time she was 8 years old. Not only is this curse a problem, but over the generations of Briar Queens, their power has slowly shifted to their husbands. Aurora hopes to change the laws around the Graces and put power back into the Queenship. 

Alyce meets Kal, who tells her of her heritage and magic. He tells her that her magic doesn’t work like the Graces’ and Alyce has been holding back what she can do for all these years. She’s more powerful than the Graces and possible more powerful than the Fae. 

Alyce and Aurora soon meet and develop a friendship based on working together to break the curse using magical means. The beautiful, ethereal Aurora does not see Alyce as an ugly monster, but as an amazing gifted person. She’s in awe of Alyce’s magic and prefers it over Grace magic. And Alyce slowly develops feelings towards Alyce. 

But it becomes clear that the King and Queen will not accept their relationship and neither with the rest of the queendom. The people Alyce thought she could trust betray her in the worst way. And when Aurora falls under a new curse (one that won’t end with true love’s kiss) Alyce is left to become the monster they all made her out to be. 

It’s all very fun and sapphic. I think the chemistry between Alyce and Aurora is great, but when they get to the point where they make their feelings known, it’s a bit clunky. I do like that this is a Sleeping Beauty retelling told from the perspective of the “evil witch” and not only that, but they fall in love with the princess! Aurora is every bit of a powerful Queen in the making. She is stubborn, rebellious, clever, and open minded. She’s the first to really tell Alyce that just because her magic stems from dark magic, that doesn’t make Alyce a monster or evil. As the reader, you get to see Alyce hate herself less and fear her magic less. She becomes more sure of herself and her power, but she still questions her worth and her self-esteem is still struggling the increase. 

I’m glad this is just a duology and not a whole long series, I’m definitely excited to read the next book. I like that this story challenges the whole “good vs evil” and the black-and-white mentality lots of fairytales and hero stories have in them. It definitely challenges the whole “rise above it” or “turn the other cheek”, because at the end of the day, we should all demand respect and to be treated well. I also like that Aurora sees Alyce as being beautiful, because she doesn’t adhere to their society’s beauty standards. 

There aren’t too many downsides to this story, but I think there were more things the author could’ve focused on, like Hilde and even just the middle part of Alyce and Aurora’s friendship. The book does drag on a little longer than necessary and there were some scenes that didn’t flow very well. 

That being said, I think this is an amazing and interesting concept and take on Sleeping Beauty that was executed well. 

Dahlia is a recently divorced queer 28 year old woman filled with sunshine and cute ramblings. London is 26 year old pansexual and recently came out as non-binary who is very serious and precise in everything they do. Both are competing on an amateur cooking show. London decides to come out as non-binary on national television which has both negative and positive responses, and not all of their fellow contestants are accepting of London’s identity. London and Dahlia are pretty opposites in personality and background, but they gravitate towards one another and fall in love. 

I think this was a good queer romance (I love a good romance on a cooking reality show). I do think London and Dahlia have good chemistry, I just don’t see how they could be in love. I like London’s experience as a non-binary person as it seems pretty realistic. They have their sisters and mother who are supportive of them, but their father struggles with coming to terms that this isn’t “just a phase” for London even after being out as non-binary for 3 years. As well, as dealing with misgendering and strangers refusing to accept their identity. I also think the sex scenes are pretty realistic when you have a new partner (especially since Dahlia hasn’t been with anyone since her divorce a year prior and London hasn’t been with anyone since they came out as non-binary). The sex scenes are filled with “is this okay” and “what do you like” and taking it slow. I think the constant communication was great and important to learning the likes and needs of one’s partner. Though they felt awkward (which also seems realistic. I loved that London had the hots for Dahlia while it took her a little longer to realize she was also attracted to London. 

Overall, it was a cute queer romance that was fun to read. 

As a whole, I like the book a lot. It’s about this stubborn seventeen year old Cuban American girl who takes charge in the kitchen and in the lives of everyone around her. Lila Reyes has just finished high school, but not before her abuela dies suddenly, her boyfriend of 3 years breaks up with her days before prom, and she falls out with her best friend all within 2 months. After making her family worried and nearly putting herself into the hospital over her grief they send her to stay with her mother’s cousin, Catalina, and her family at their inn in Winchester, England. Lila hates this plan because she wants to start taking over their family bakery as planned. Eventually Winchester wins her heart and she wins the heart of Winchester with her cooking and baking. She meets new friends and starts blending British and Cuban in her recipes. During her stay she meets nineteen year old tea connoisseur, Orion Maxwell, who knows about a very different kind of loss. They develop a beautiful friendship that turns into something more. 

I think the friendships, the romantic relationship, familial bonds were depicted very well in this story. I like that Lila is this headstrong young woman, and in typical teenage fashion, believes she knows best for herself and her loved ones. Lila thinks the plans she makes are set in stone and struggles when those plans fall through. I related a lot with Lila. I had little to no control in my life, so I made plans for others thinking I knew best. I also know what it’s like to struggle with leaving a place you love so much, in fact, I fell in love with the UK before I even set foot in the country and when I was forced to return to the States during the pandemic, I was heartbroken. I think this book does a good job as a YA depicting different kinds of loss, plans falling through, and just growing into a young adult. 

All that being said, I have some issues with this book. I sometimes find it charming when American authors write about the UK and vice versa, it can be comical at times, but it just started grating my nerves that some of the cultural and language aspects we’re just wrong. But even more importantly, the glaring issue with this book is the references to “Africa”. As soon as I read that Lila’s friend Stef essentially joined the Catholic missionaries for medical aid I was immediately put off. And the very vague references to some remote village in Africa (you know, that huge ass continent with over a billion people and is, in fact, made up of 54 countries?) and the insinuation that where Stef was going wouldn’t have electricity or food? Sure they finally say she’s in Ghana but the racist stereotypes and assumptions just really irritated me whenever it was brought up. If the author actually took the time to learn about the continent and referenced an actual city or town and stopped making these assumptions about the place, then the book would be a 4/5 contemporary YA coming-of-age that I’d recommend. Stef could’ve gone anywhere else in the world (better yet, why have a completely untrained teenager go anywhere in desperate need of aid?) but it’s just this stereotype that “Africa” is completely cut off from modern technology and medical aid. 

The trashiest of trash fanfic turned book and I devoured it. It’s not at all good with its bare bones plot, some grammar/spelling errors, and its sometimes awkward dialogue, but I couldn’t stop reading it! I don’t know what it is about these two books but I couldn’t not read them. Is it the smut? Is it because of the Marvel connections? Is it both? Who knows. But if you’re looking for a smutty, trashy palette cleanser that’s basically lazy AO3-esque Marvel fanfic, this is your book.