lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

Now, I’m not a cat person. Mostly because I’m allergic, and in college I had a roommate who decided to get a cat while I was gone during the summer. And then when I told her I couldn’t live with one, she skipped out of the apartment and I had to find a new place to live. But, I do think cats are cute. I don’t hate cats. But I also totally get what Kitty thought about dog people. Because yeah, there were some things in the story that were surprises to me about cats. And of course I even learned something new this past weekend from my own sister about how the main allergen from cats actually has to do with their saliva, not the hair/dander, because they are licking themselves all the time the saliva is on those things. But I digress from my review.

Now along her line of thoughts about giving dog loving guys more of a chance, maybe I need to give cat loving guys more of a chance than I have in the past, lol. Kitty and Miles had a total meet cute, even if he was a total grump at first. Now, to be fair, Miles was dealing with a lot with his mom in the hospital. And what is it right now with so many books seeming to have situation similar to what I just went through or am thinking I’ll soon be worrying about with my own parents? And, Miles did come out of his grumpiness and was actually a pretty nice guy, if a bit awkward at times. But in a cute way!

I love that we didn’t necessarily get any of the breaking up bits, especially not in the 3rd act. I guess in a way that might make this not quite a romance exactly. For me though, it seemed pretty realistic, as if it was the way a normal person might fall in love and go about a relationship. At least from most of the examples I’ve seen in my life of relationships that have lasted. We still got a lot of the steamy scenes that Hunting does so well. I’d say this was a win of a story, one I couldn’t put down!

This one grabbed me right away! The banter between Violet and Matteo was perfect! Hit the enemies to lovers perfectly, or maybe a bit grumpy-sunshine as well. There was a part where she overheard him talking about her on the phone, and wow was he a complete and total ass! But the way she chose to get revenge on him, that was so funny! It was so unexpected! But eventually their relationship developed and it was sweet and perfect, until two things happened.

One had to do with one of the other people in the internship, and I think she was being ridiculous, so that made me mad. But then what happened when Violet shared her designs at the end? Well that had me in tears. The author was able to bring out laughter throughout the story, but then so much emotion when necessary as well.

I also loved Matt/Matteo’s career, his writing for a favorite science fiction type of show, and then the Comicon scene was so good.

I have to say I loved this story, and since I’ve wanted to read something by this author for a while now, I know I have to go back and read those books too!

This one you do definitely have to read the first book, instead of being a series where there is a different couple in each book. And wow did this start out with something that I figured would be impossible for Quinn to write about with her usually steamy stories. Although she definitely started this story with a bang, if you catch my drift. But their predicament of waiting until the wedding definitely fed into all the things that started to come between them as the wedding plans progressed.

There was so much drama, and so many things going on. When it all kind of hit the fan about halfway through, I started thinking back to what I’d read and wondering who could be the mole, the person who had sent the letters that made security so important. The majority of the people I started guessing because after the first book I figured it would have to be someone I wouldn’t guess. However the bad guys, well some of them the moles in the castle anyway, were people that I think the author gave us definitely clues to in their introduction as well as just the way they behaved and contributed to the distance between Keller and Lilly.

Now, Quinn found ways to still get some pretty steamy scenes into the book both while they were abstaining, as well as after things really started to pick up with the drama and danger at the end. And she kept me at the edge of my seat wondering how we would get to our HEA for this story with all the things that kept going wrong at the end.

However, even though I know that it adds to the drama and is used by every author pretty much, the miscommunication at the end was so frustrating for me that I ended up going to a 4.5 stars instead of the full 5. While I got it somewhat during the whole wedding planning, in the end it made me so mad that the culprit being stubborn, I won’t say which one of them, was doing that as if they didn’t know the other person that they claimed to love.

I don’t know if the author has any more planned for this world, but I would love to see her cousins get their own HEAs in their own books in the future. Especially since their country celebrates with cheese, the best food in the world, instead of the cod that Lilly’s country loves so much. 

At first this story hit me a little close what with both my parents having been in the hospital only a month ago, and me wondering if I was going to have to do something like have my mom move in with me. But as I love in this type of book, or any book really, the banter between our two main characters was wonderful. I do really love when the female is the grumpy and the guy is the sunshine sometimes, because I feel like I’d probably be the grumpy person in a relationship, so I totally got most of her sarcasm.

I did love how both characters really dealt with things realistically. Other than one part towards the end, there wasn’t really of the over-reacting and pushing the other away that annoys me in stories. And I think honestly that is most realistic. As the story went along I got to feeling better about the mom moving in with her and enjoying just the craziness it brought. Although I totally understood Ivy’s frustration with someone in “her space” and needing her alone time.

Ivy’s art sounded so neat that I wished I could actually see it! Of course I loved seeing her friends Mel and Cam that we met in the first book by this author, Book Smart, and getting their romance kind of in bits and pieces from an outside point of view. I also really liked the fact that she had synesthesia. I have a really good friend with a little bit different form of synesthesia, so I always enjoy reading more about that.

My only negatives were that it seemed a bit long at times for me, and at times Toby’s overly sunshine self was a little bit annoying to me, but I guess as I mentioned above that I would be more of the grumpy person, that probably makes sense. I loved him other than that! Another great story from this author, and I hope to read more from her in the future!

I’ve only read/listened to one other book by this author, but I know that at some point I need to read them all. What I liked about this one, as I did about her first book, is that she takes a time period and place in history that isn’t as well known as so many other historical events and places, and brings it to life. And that she used teens to do it makes it so perfect for me to share with my students. This was something going on during my own teen years. I recognized the name of the gymnast they talked about escaping the country. But you know what, I don’t remember hearing about anything else with this when it was going on. Such a great story, so much emotion and intense events, such great description of a way to try to understand just what the people in this country had to go through. I also love the author’s extra note at the end about what got her to write the story.

This was a short and sweet story from a favorite audiobook author of mine, Cara Bastone. It had me laughing from the start. Definitely had a bit of emotional areas later on in the story. It wasn’t quite as good as the others I’ve listened to by this author, but I still really enjoyed it. The banter was perfect, and I loved the different middle names Robbie would give himself, and the funny way they began each of their recordings. And then the way she called the couple they saw in the library “sex-havers”, lol. I was giggling about that for a while. 

While this definitely was a little weird, I mean the whole furry thing isn’t something I’m really familiar with or know much about, once I got going, I really enjoyed the book. There was a lot to learn about fursonas and the book definitely covered things like LGBTQ+ and even brought out xe and xyr pronouns, which usually it’s just they or them, and I haven’t seen the xe since a book I read probably like 10 years ago. There was a lot of emotional stuff with her mom. Her mom’s hoarding reminded me of another book I read a while back by a favorite author, Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu. Not going into a lot of detail since these are supposed to be mini-reviews anyway, but overall I thought this was a really good book!

This was posted as a free read for the month by the publisher on their website. So one day this month I pulled it up on my computer and read it quickly. It was a quick sweet read. It had been a while since I read the first book, Better Than the Movies, so it took me a minute to get back and realize what exactly was going on. But once I did, I enjoyed it and loved being back with these characters.

This was an edge of the seat roller coaster ride of a story. It was exactly like you were watching a horror movie, and yes it was a lot like one that I have seen in the past. But I liked the way the author pulled in some kind of current event things, like the really rich guy who was funding lots of science things, everyone obviously knows who that is supposed to be like in real life. The climate change issues for why those people went to be a part of this. I also like the way it left the end of the story with questions, and who we thought was kind of our main protagonist possibly being dead? And like any good horror movie looking to create a franchise, it left definite openings for that. Not that I think it would have a sequel to the book, just that it left it the way any of those really good movies leave it. Definitely a good one!

I loved the first book. And I am so tired of so many people who don’t seem to get the purpose/point of what the author was saying. The fact that people think it “romanticized” abuse makes it obvious they did not get the point of the book at all. But anyway, that’s my own pet peeve, and I know that everyone has their own opinion and way that the book they read hits them I guess. Now, I actually started listening to this back in November of last year. But I had audiobooks for review tours I had signed up for, and audiobooks for the Gateway committee I’m on, so it got put to the side and I only put it back on when I was in between books or having problems getting into a current book. But I did love this as well. I liked the way the ending was, how things were solved. While it may not be completely realistic, or at least how things go most of the time, it is a way that would be nice if things could actually happen. And it’s fiction, right? We want the HEA and we want the fantasy, I mean unless we’re reading Stephen King, or Nicholas Sparks, lol.