madeline's Reviews (776)

ow.

This book is <i>angst city, baby</i>, which is not surprising if you've a) ever heard of Romeo & Juliet and b) read the first book.  At times I couldn't figure out how it was going to resolve itself, not because it didn't seem like Gong knew but more because my poor heart couldn't take what I knew was coming.  And yes, I read the same ending you all did and I'm choosing to interpret it differently for my own mental health!!! It's fine, everything's fine. 

Gong is a fantastic writer -- this book is well-paced and full of gorgeous, gorgeous prose.  So much thinking about colonialism and power and labor and healthcare and wow.  I can't wait to pick up her new series when it comes out (but also thank god it's not out for a while because I <i>do</i> absolutely need time to recover and mentally prepare.

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC!

this is very clearly early LK. fiiiine, but if i'm going to read one of her yearning entrepreneur romances, i'd go with mine till midnight or marrying winterborne. i usually detest children in my romances but zachary's relationship with rose is such a highlight of this book, he immediately falls in love with her and i am here for it.

CW:

brief moments of fatphobia and homophobia

tessa is leveling up exponentially with every recent release. she packs so much nuance and character development into this one. it's tender and thoughtful and bonkers hot

Alexander Worthington, Marquess of Brandon, is on a mission to uncover a plot to cheat him out of some of his ancestral lands.  To do so, he's disguised himself as a footman in the home of Roger Fleming, England's premiere mapmaker -- or so he thinks.  Rose Fleming is the true talent behind the mapmaking venture, and allows her husband to take credit so that they won't lose clients when they find out a woman is the cartographer.  Her marriage has been tense for a while, and the handsome new footman only serves to remind her of everything she's missing.  As Alex digs deeper, the feelings between him and Rose grow, but when he finds information that not only reveals the scheme to steal his land, but also could ruin Rose's marriage, which way will their relationship go?

I know a lot of readers will dismiss this book right off the bat because Rose is married to someone else at the outset -- that's not made clear in the plot summary and I think it's a disservice to readers not to let them know.  BUT, I'd encourage people who are firmly in the "no cheating" camp to give it a try, because the way that Rose's marriage unravels is really unique.  It reminded me of a recent Fated Mates episode (3.51) and although I'm not quite sure it's the plot Adriana Herrera was dreaming of, it's something I haven't seen done in historical romance before.

Still, this book was a little stressful.  Obviously you know there'll be an HEA, but Roger's betrayal is viscerally painful and is compounded by the fact that Alex is also being a little deceitful (how does a marquess have the time to be a footman and also do all his marquess things?).  There's a LOT of Romance Reasons going on in this book.

Where this book really works for me is in its exploration of what it means to be mixed race/biracial and how people have varying levels of connection to their different ancestries.  It's really sweet to see people reconnecting with their roots and their realization that they didn't even know how much they missed it.

Anyways, I think this'll be a tough one for some romance readers.  But I think it's another strong installment in this series, and I encourage people to try and work through it.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!

CW:

infidelity, bigamy, racism, sexism, classism, depressive episode, pregnancy

Thomas Ellis, Viscount Griffin has never recovered from two things: the murder of his parents and the injuries he sustained to his arm as a soldier. So he's intrigued when he sees Hanna Zaydan adjust the joint of a handsy lordling in a coffee house -- and even more so when he realizes that she's wearing a piece of his late mother's jewelry. He visits her bonesetting practice to begin unraveling the mystery of how she acquired the necklace, and to his surprise, she's able to heal the pain he's been living with for years. The attraction grows between them, but suddenly everything comes to a boil when Hanna's practice is under attack and it looks like Griff's parents' deaths may be even more suspicious than they initially seemed.

This series really finds its footing in the second book. The first was enjoyable but didn't quite work for me -- I found some plot points pretty tenuous. This installment seems like Quincy has hit her stride, and it's well-plotted and well-paced. Griff is a sweet sunshine child who can't see what's right in front of his nose, and Hanna is a strong, intriguing character who's not afraid to defend herself and her career.

Quincy's writing can lean fairly Old School at some points ("fleshy mounds" and "womanly bounty," anyone?), which is not to my taste. Additionally, Hanna gets fairly exoticized by some side characters which, like, checks out for the people and the time, but is still fairly jarring at points. Finally, I do think that the subplot with

Dorcas wrapped up oddly. I didn't find her shift from calling her an unsuitable bride to "warmly welcoming her" to the family convincing. People certainly grow and accept their siblings' spouses, but that wasn't demonstrated on the page

.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!

Content warnings:

racism, western dismissal of traditional medicine, sexism, death of parents (off-page), death of an animal (minor, not a pet, off-page), references to drug use, chronic pain, PTSD, near-death experience

What a delight!

Alice Lusk has made up her mind: she's not going to be a wallflower anymore, someone who only dances with fortune seekers when her mother demands it.  No, she's going to seduce herself a husband who will fall in love with her.  And who better to teach her how to do the seducing than notorious womanizer Kit Ward?  It's a lucky thing he needs some delicious recipes for his new supper club, and Alice is the only one who can provide.  What starts off as simple tips for temptation is about to evolve into something much more.

I really struggled with Shupe's last series for a variety of reasons, but the character inconsistencies across the trilogy was a big part of it.  I accidentally missed the first in this new series, but I'll definitely be backtracking to read it and picking up the next.  

Alice and Kit are so very adorable together -- I love a rake who falls for a wallflower and thus am primed to love them.  Like, of course you big dummy, of course you're going to fall in love with that quiet girl who happens to be a very passionate kisser!  

This book is fairly light, but I'd strongly encourage people to check out content warnings: the times they're featured are pretty serious.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!

CW:

emotionally abusive parents (one on-page, one off), a parent who limits food consumption (no mention of weight that I can remember), alcoholism of a side character, suicide of a side character and identifying their body, a funeral

Remember that time Meddy accidentally killed her blind date?  Well, she’d love it if you could forget all about it.  She’s getting married to her college sweetheart this weekend in England, and on top of the stress of wedding planning, introducing her family to Nathan’s, and hopefully convincing her mother and aunties to stop talking in a weird Cockney accent, now one of her wedding vendors might be in the mafia.  And of course, they want to kill someone at her wedding, and they’ll tell the police about her (ahem) previous infraction if she tips them off.  Can Meddy make it through the wedding with her sanity intact?

I really enjoyed Sutanto’s debut -- I thought it was funny and thoughtful and just a really fun romp.  But some of the emotional aspects really threw me off, namely that

Meddy doesn’t seem at all affected by the fact that she killed someone.

  I’d have to say that I had the same feelings about this book: I really liked the premise but portions of it were too stressful for me to totally give into the rompiness of it.  

The aunties are back in full force, absolutely hilarious and also a little tear-provoking.  The airplane scene was truly laugh-out-loud funny to me.  But the fact that the meat of this book takes place on Meddy’s wedding day was so stressful to me!  Obviously I knew that it would all end up okay, but if I had to deal with all that she did on my wedding day, I’d simply be a puddle.  I think my stress levels prevented me from enjoying the book as much as I expected to from the first 25%.  

I’m rounding this up from 3.5 to 4 stars because I really do think that it’s a “not you but me” situation.  If this series continues, I’ll definitely be picking up the next installment.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!

CW:

PTSD, kidnapping, attempted murder, drug use, alcohol consumption

 After all the… excitement of solving her ex-boyfriend’s murder, Lila Macapagal is ready for things to return to normal and open a cafe with her best friend and her best friend’s girlfriend.  But she can’t seem to find any baking inspiration, and she’s been roped into judging the local beauty pageant, and -- oh, yeah, there we go.  Another dead body.  Can Lila put those detective skills back to work and solve this mystery?

I have been waiting for this book since I read the first one, and it did NOT disappoint.  Manansala is writing exactly the kind of cozy mystery I’m interested in reading: a diverse cast of characters, a lead who acknowledges 1 - how freakin’ weird it is that they keep finding bodies and 2 - (eventually) that finding murder victims and solving their deaths is kind of traumatizing, a cop who’s increasingly critical of cops, and friends who aren’t afraid to call you out when you’re being a jerk.

There’s a lot of growth for Lila in this book: I will admit to being annoyed a bit in the last book with the way she strung her love interests along and how she treated her cousin.  That continues in this book, but is thankfully called out by her friends and family, and Lila does some introspection there.  I love a fully fleshed out main character, and Lila never feels like a Mary Sue or a random citizen who happens to be really good at figuring out crimes.  I’m particularly interested to see how Lila’s relationship with her body progresses: there’s a lot of thinking about exercise as a holistic benefit in this installment, which I didn’t find problematic, but there’s still comments here and there about Lila’s weight.  I’d love to see her changing relationship with her body become a larger piece of the book.

Anyways, I really love this series and Lila in particular.  The only bad part about reading an ARC (thanks Berkley and NetGalley!) is that now I have to wait even longer for the third one!  

CW:

murder, finding bodies, suspected suicide, parental deaths not on page, police and suspicion of having committed a crime, mild fatphobia, PTSD, brief mention of infertility/miscarriage, sexual misconduct.  Mia’s listed out much of this in her author’s note at the beginning of the book, too. 

 

Orquídea Divina has summoned her scattered family home so that they can attend her funeral.  Simultaneously the center of the family and an enigma, she blesses her descendants with a magical inheritance instead of the information about her past that they crave, and then transforms.  Seven years later, the magic begins to fray.  Three of her grandchildren must travel to Orquídea's home, Ecuador, to understand the woman she was and the power they need to protect their family.

Such a wonderful, lovely, lush book.  Intensely atmospheric, particularly the chapters in Ecuador.  Magical realism is such a fantastic vehicle for Cordova's thoughts about education in the US, its accessibility, and its function as a white institution for people of color, and the way colonizer culture writes off the traditional experiences (particularly craft/art and health) of people of color writ large.

I think this book would have benefitted from a little more sense of timelessness, or of being set in a place without time.  There's no dates ever given, but there are references to texting alongside using a personal CD player, and while I know those things coexisted, any reference to trying to set a time period was kind of jarring.

I loved this book.  It's a great book for transitioning in or out of summer -- things growing, things dying, things transmuting.  If this is your introduction to magical realism, you've got to check out some of the greats (I really love Isabel Allende).  If you'd like more magical realism/fabulism family sagas, try Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim or Emily Henry's YA.

I read this book to confirm that this series was not for me and boy howdy did it.

Odessa Dean is back stumbling into a crime scene and spending more time telling the reader her every waking thought than solving a mystery, and then somehow at 97% revealing a killer like she'd been diligently following up leads the entire goddamn time. It's absolutely bonkers that people are seeing these as viable mysteries.

Instead of doing literally any detective work, Odessa spends much of the book telling the reader her thoughts on important things such as: the geography of New York, ideal styles of luggage, the affordable housing crisis (AGAIN), accessibility in restaurants, the logic of manicures, craft beers, and the benefits of homemade food over purchased food. I'm convinced that Blacke thinks her readers are idiots, because she insists on explaining every little concept introduced like it's absolutely the first time the reader has been exposed to it. I don't think it's news to most folks that there are five boroughs in New York City??? These little diatribes are condescending and patronizing and I'm over it.

These books aren't inherently problematic -- if anything, they lean very hard into the "how do you do fellow kids, I too am Woke" vibe -- and clearly, they work for a lot of people. I'd mention them to someone looking for a modern cozy mystery series, but I am super done with them.

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC.