morganthebee's Reviews (489)

The Road Trip Agreement by Tiana Warner is a slow burning, meandering adventure up and down (or down and up, I suppose) the Pacific Coast. Coral, a van life vlogger from Canada with a small but growing following, is in trouble: she’s got a deal with her parents and if she doesn’t meet the terms, she’ll lose the lifestyle she loves. She’s full of adventure, and her vlog shows it. American vlogger Ruby, on the other hand, is a bit of a perfectionist, whose videos are slow and laid back, and focus on her vegan cooking and her rescue dog, Calvin. She’s got her own problems, though, and this leads her to agree to Coral’s proposal despite already having over a million followers already: go on a joint road trip together to bring in new subscribers, and by extension income, to each other. 

 

The trip brings out different sides of each of them, with Ruby tempering Coral and Coral bringing out Ruby’s more adventurous side. There are quite a few tropes happening here, with fake dating, opposites attracting, and secrets being kept all while they’re stuck together in a van with only one bed, but it works. There really aren’t a lot of side characters with much face time, but we do get Calvin the dog, who has a big personality and helps bring the women even closer. Ruby’s mom and Coral’s sister are the two other characters we get to know the best, and they’re both supportive but a wee bit one-dimensional—mostly because we just don’t get to know them very well as the majority of the story takes place on the road. 

 

Warner brings us some lovely imagery, with descriptive writing and a nice ebb and flow between calm, restful moments and adventurous escapades. There are some hilarious mishaps, but also some more serious moments throughout the book, but it feels really balanced and nothing is too overwhelming. Despite being a super slow burn we do get there, and it culminates in a lovely spicy scene. Overall I really enjoyed The Road Trip Agreement, and I’ll definitely be checking out more of Tiana Warner’s books. 

Lee Winter is an expert when it comes to ice queens, but in Vengeance Planning for Amateurs she shows she can also step out of her usual weighty tales and right into romantic comedy with the best of them. The story pairs Olivia Roberts, a sweet pushover of a woman who runs her own muffin baking company, with Margaret Blackwood, an isolated ice queen and former academic who owns the bookstore where Olivia runs a weekly book club. 

 

Olivia is smart but naive, and her exes have taken advantage of her kindness. When an incident happens and her latest ex steals the taxidermied penguin that belonged to her nana, she decides she’s had enough and posts a notice for a henchperson to assist her in exacting revenge on said exes. She gets a few applicants, including Margaret, the bookstore’s owner. They embark on a series of hilarious hijinks along with some quirky side folks, with a lot of character development for the two leading ladies along the way as Olivia learns to stand up for herself and Margaret begins to open up. It’s a really funny story but there are some serious elements here, and it’s all handled beautifully with Winter’s deft hand. I listened to the Audiobook and highly recommend it, Cat Gould was an excellent narrator.

There’s a lot happening in Stars and Soil. It’s got political intrigue, competing religious sects, forbidden magic, and deals heavily with grief. It’s all told from the POV of Caitlyn, the successful daughter of two merchants who works for the family business, although more out of a sense of familial obligation to her fathers than a true desire to do the work. The story is mostly told in the present, but there are some chapters that are memories of past events.

I liked Caitlyn as a character and empathized with her, but found myself struggling to believe the depth of some of her relationships, as there’s a lot of time spent on worldbuilding and politicking and not as much spent on developing those connections. I think it’s interesting that the world itself is very diverse, with plenty of LGBTQ couples, non-binary characters, and even a couple of non-human races, but it’s still rather misogynistic and patriarchal.

My copy was an ARC, but this is an edited republishing of an existing novel, and the eBook contained numerous grammatical errors throughout. Not enough to make me DNF or not recommend the book, but enough that I’m going with a 3.5 star rating.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley, but my review is unbiased and left voluntarily.

Loved A Pirate’s Life for Tea just as much as Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea. It’s as cozy as the first book, and I adored Kianthe and Reyna even more if that’s possible. The audiobook was fabulous, I loved the quality of the narration with the voices and accents. There’s even a deliciously spicy little oneshot story after the epilogue for those who are inclined to listen, which I most definitely was. Can’t wait for the next installment!