Olivia is a mess. After one too many drunken nights out, the heiress is shipped off by her parents to work on her aunt’s farm in the middle of no where in Georgia. Olivia plans to appease her parents by working hard on the farm so she can get back to her normal NYC life as soon as possible. But life on the farm is something she’s never experienced before. And meeting Landon, the hostile but handsome farmhand, might just throw a wrench in Olivia’s plans. 

Thank you to @sunnybabepr and @authordckile for the ARC! This was a cute and hilarious romance that was a quick and fun read!

Read this if you love:

🤠 small town/cowboy romance 

🎭 opposites attract 

☀️ grumpy/sunshine 

👩‍❤️‍👨 dual point of view 

🌻 he falls first 

🤣 romantic comedy 

🌶️ some spice 

Seventeen year old Icarus Gallagher is a thief; he steals priceless art and replaces it with his father’s forgeries. For years, one man has been the Gallaghers’ target in revenge for his role in the death of Icarus’s mother. To keep their secret, Icarus adheres to his own strict rules to keep people, and feelings, at bay: don’t let anyone close, and above all, don’t get caught. Until one night, he is caught, by their target’s mysterious son Helios. Instead of turning Icarus in, Helios bargains for something dangerous—a friendship that breaks every single one of Icarus’s rules. As reluctance and distrust become closeness, they uncover the history that has trapped their families for years. But Icarus’s father’s thirst for revenge shows no sign of fading, and it may force Icarus to choose: the escape he’s dreamed of, or the boy he’s come to love.

Thank you as always to @netgalley, @harpercollins, and @k.ancrum for the ARC!This book was so good and I really enjoyed it. It reminded me so much of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, which I loved, but was geared towards a younger audience and focused more on Icarus’s relationships. Icarus was such a complex character; we are introduced to him as a young adult who has hardened himself against the world as a survival mechanism, and throughout the book we see him thaw and find strength in vulnerability with his friends and Helios. His development was so moving and beautiful. Ancrum also has a beautiful way of depicting the intensity of late teenage/early adulthood emotions, where everything feels so large and final. The prose was breathtaking and I really enjoyed everything about this book. To top it all off, there was great representation and diversity among the characters. Be sure to look for Icarus in bookstores in March!

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors. It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love. 

This book was a little bit of everything: witchy fantasy, family drama, murder mystery, and a romance. I really loved it! The story was so unique and unlike anything I’ve read before. All of the characters were so well developed and had so many layers. June was such a well rounded character and her emotions and inner thoughts were portrayed so well. The plot was fast-paced and super engaging, and I couldn’t put the book down! Every new piece of information revealed made me want to get to the bottom of everything even more. The ending nicely resolved everything, but still left me with things to think about! This was a great read with perfect autumn vibes, highly recommend!

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together, and her best bet to do so is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette. To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish―into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold yet handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle. 

This book was on my TBR for a while, and I’m glad I finally got to it! Like Fourth Wing, this book has been quite popular on Booksta, and I was nervous that it wouldn’t live up to the hype, but I really enjoyed it! The rivals to lovers plot line was so deliciously developed, and I loved Roman and Iris’s characters both individually and together. The writing was smart and beautiful and the plot fast-paced and exciting. I really loved all of the letters between Roman and Iris, they were so beautifully written and really propelled their relationship along. The story was laced with magic, grief, and love. I knew the ending would be somewhat of a cliffhanger as this is part of a two-book series, and without giving any spoilers, I kind of predicted a part of the ending but I’m excited to see where the story picks up in book two!

Everything Is Not Enough follows the loosely intertwined and messy lives of Kemi, Brittany, and Yasmiin as they interrogate themes of place, prejudice, and patriarchy in Europe. Powerful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi has finally found the man she needs, but Tobias Wikström thinks she’s selfish for asking him to give up his life in Sweden and move to the US for her own comfort. As things begin to sour and challenge her relationship with Tobias, someone else moves back into the picture. Brittany-Rae von Lundin struggles as she seeks a divorce from her wealthy and highly connected husband. Brittany gave up her career and came with nothing into Jonny’s kingdom. But with a man obsessed with a ghost, trying to get away isn’t going to be easy. And the deeper she digs into his past, the darker the secrets she unravels. After fleeing her home through a client to seek a new life in Sweden, Yasmiin finds love in the arms of Yagiz Çelik while carving out her own small corner. But as someone from her past forces Yasmiin to become a caretaker before she’s ready, she now must confront and move beyond her teenage history, while following her dreams of becoming a makeup artist.

Thank you @netgally, @williammorrowbooks, @customhousebooks, and @lolaakinmade for the ARC! This was a beautifully written novel that tackled some intense subjects in a very well crafted manner. The book is a sequel to In Every Mirror She’s Black, but could be read as a stand-alone as I didn’t find any knowledge from the first book necessary to understand and enjoy the characters and their stories. Each woman was so well developed and I couldn’t help but cheer for and sympathize with each of them, despite their own flaws and mistakes. What I really enjoyed was that each woman was able to rise up and find her own power, even in the face of prejudice and adversity. Lots of drama, secrets, and regrets made the plot very gripping and engaging. I really loved the way the book was written with the perspectives of each woman. A great read that I definitely recommend, Everything is Not Enough comes out next week!

Set against the backdrop of gentrifying 1950s San Francisco, On the Rooftop is novel about a mother whose dream of musical stardom for her three daughters collides with the daughters’ ambitions for their own lives. Ruth, Esther, and Chloe have been singing and dancing in harmony since they could speak. Thanks to the rigorous direction of their mother Vivian, they’ve become a girl group whose shows are the talk of the town. Vivian has scored a once-in-a-lifetime offer from a talent manager, but sometime between the hours of rehearsal and the weekly gigs, the girls have become women, women with dreams that their mother cannot imagine. Vivian, who has always maintained control, will have to confront the parts of her life that threaten to splinter.

This was the first book my new girl gang book club read and it was fun to kick off a new book club together! The premise of this story was interesting but I found myself having a hard time getting into the story. This was better in the second half as the plot got moving a bit more, but overall it was slow. Our book club all agreed that there were a lot of plot points and background information that weren’t fully developed, and had those points been fleshed out a bit better we would have liked the book more. It was hard for me to like Vivian’s character for this reason; there are little snippets of her backstory that are dropped in the book, but having a fuller picture of her history would have helped make her motivations more understandable. 

Erika Germoglio is a self-made woman who has it all—a fancy New York City job and the perfect fiancé. Out of no where, an Italian grandfather she has never met wills to her Casalvento, a house and a vineyard, and Livernano, a medieval village turned bed-and-breakfast, both in Tuscany. When Erika travels to Italy to settle her late grandfather’s affairs, she meets Paolo, Casalvento's handsome estate manager and wine maker. Erika learns that her inheritance comes with a catch—before she can keep or sell Casalvento and Livernano, she must live there and learn the business of the two estates for five months. Should she uproot her life and embrace all Italy has to offer? And if she chooses Italy, which man will be by her side?

Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC. I listened to this on audiobook and the narration was great. The story itself was…fine? The description of the book sounded interesting but in reality it played out as anticlimactic. The most exciting plot points happened within the first 50% of the book, and the remaining portion was basically everyday life on a vineyard and it got boring until the novel’s very end. There were a ton of detailed descriptions of recipes and wine making, which were interesting initially, but got tiring after the first fifty times. Overall the character development was lacking and the writing style and dialogue weren’t particularly engaging to me. Paulo’s character didn’t really have anything interesting to him. His job is just wine. The relationship between Erika and Paulo lacked any modicum of development or nuance; it was sort of just like oh he’s handsome and we’re in love without any sort of relationship building. It just sort of happens, which is basically how the whole book felt—everything just happened without much development, which made me not really care for anything that was going on. 

Charming, handsome Trey Anderson balances the pressures of school popularity with a job at his family’s beloved local bookshop, Wonderland. Quirky, creative Ariel Spencer needs tuition for the art program of her dreams, and an opening at Wonderland is the answer. When Trey and Ariel learn that Wonderland is on the brink of being shut down by a neighborhood gentrifier, they team up to stop the doors from closing before the Christmas Eve deadline—and embark on a hate-to-love journey that will change them forever.

Thank you to @netgalley, RB Media, and @abiolabello for the ARC! If you’re looking for a fun and sweet Christmasy YA read full of heart and a little drama, look no further! I loved the storyline of two teens working together to save a family-owned Black indie bookshop. The setting was so cozy and I loved it. I really loved Ariel’s character; she had a lot of layers and felt super relatable and well rounded. Trey was a little bit harder for me to like as I felt he dragged out a relationship he was wishywashy about to begin with for much longer than necessary, but he and Ariel really complimented each other well. The dual point of view was a nice touch, and the narrators did a great job with the audiobook performance. Overall this was a cute and quick read that I think you’ll enjoy if you love YA and Christmas! Love in Winter Wonderland is out now! 

Sasha has had it with her job and desperately needs a break. Armed with intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga, and find peace, she heads to the seaside resort her family loved as a child. But it’s the off season, the hotel is in shambles, and she has to share the beach with the only other occupant: a grumpy guy named Finn, who seems as stressed as Sasha. When curious messages, seemingly addressed to Sasha and Finn, begin to appear on the beach, the two are forced to talk—about everything. How did they get so burned out? Can either of them remember something they used to love? And the question they try and fail to ignore: what does the energy between them—flaring even in the face of their exhaustion—signify?

Thank you to @netgalley, @randomhouse, and @sophiekinsellawriter for the ARC! This was a fun book that I think a lot of us career/corporate girlies will be able to relate to. The book had a lot of laugh-out-loud funny moments that really balanced out the stress that Sasha was going through. The humor was also balanced out by the sweet storyline that unfolded in the beach town, brining Sasha’s past memories to the future as she and Finn tried to uncover who the messages on the beach were from. I loved the small beach town and all of the hilarious characters and situations Sasha encountered. I also really appreciated how the situation with Sasha’s job ended up working out and the changes that were implemented when she spoke her truth. Finn and Sasha had a lot in common and I loved their banter and how they were able to open up to each other. Overall this was a hilarious and heartwarming story I definitely recommend. 

⚠️ content warning: crimes against children, murder, violence against animals (small scene)

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. Then a year after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history while trying to solve the murders. Charon is Titus’s home. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning. 

Cosby has become an auto-buy author for me after this book. I absolutely loved Razorblade Tears and was excited for an other intense thriller. Cosby has a wonderful way of incorporating humanity alongside somber subject matters and I really appreciate the diligence with which he crafts his protagonists. Much like Razorblade Tears, this book also focuses on a protagonist trying to right a wrong, though this time on a much larger scale and in the capacity of a sheriff. This lent to a wonderfully complex character in Titus, who tries to follow the rules while also grappling with his own identity as a Black man and a law enforcement officer, which more often than not are in juxtaposition with each other. Set in a small town in Virginia where racism is very much still alive, the themes of learning from history and good versus evil/man’s true nature were especially poignant. The religious history driving the moral justifications of the town members and the ultimate serial killer set the finishing touches on the perfectly crafted thriller. Highly recommend this one, but definitely pay mind to content warnings.