This is a great introduction to thrillers for all my romance girlies. The first half reads exactly like a romance would with just a few lines sprinkled here and there to add a bit of unease. Then things really start to take off a little after halfway only to really nosedive at the end. 

As someone who reads a lot of thrillers, this one was fairly predictable just based on the synopsis. Still a fun read because it was set up unlike any other thriller I’ve read. The ending felt a little cheap and too rushed to be fully fleshed out and actually make sense. It almost felt like all the ends were neatly tied up, but then as you got up to go you spied an even bigger tangled mess of loose ends you didn’t even know about. 

Altogether an enjoyable read, but not the most artfully crafted plot ever. 

This was a fun read! I read it all straight through, but it would have been especially fun if I would have let each story settle and read something else in between. I love a good cozy mystery, but it felt like a LOT to run through four in a row, even if they were shorter. I genuinely enjoyed each set of characters and seeing how they all overlapped, as each story revolves around a different food truck in a group that all rents space in the same area. These were all so sweet and exactly what I’m looking for in a cozy mystery!

Just a note: I received a digital advanced copy. There were lots of weird page breaks and typos, but I’m not sure how much of that was just because it was not a finalized copy. Hopefully all of that is fixed now!

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy. All opinions expressed above are my own. 

This is one of the few thrillers that I think actually has a realistic twist. It kept me on my toes, yet it actually makes perfect sense for the most part.

I actually reallly like that 98% of the “twists” are just Brooke struggling with her memory. For a book that started with her *accidentally* working at the same maximum security prison as her ex that attempted to murder her, that seemed shockingly believable. McFadden didn’t go over-the-top trying to make this one shockingly twisty and ruin in. With that being said, the only actually surprising part was the very tail end. Everything else was fairly predictable. Still a fun read, though, but nothing close to what I was expecting from her.

Overall, this is a super quick read that grabs your attention from the very first chapter. I read it in just a couple hours, which was perfect because I wouldn’t have been able to do anything else until it was done!!!

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, because I LOVE The Chicks & especially Goodbye Earl. I was expecting this to be a bit It Ends With Us-ish and make me laugh and then cry and then cry harder. 

Ultimately, this book felt painfully slow to me. I’m hardcore a plot girlie, and this was largely based around character development, so I think that’s what didn’t work for me. The parts I was most excited to see played out took maybe 15-20% of the book and the rest was the girls all falling in love and reuniting and flashing back to high school. It was fine, but not my cup of tea. 

Thank you NetGalley for gifting me an advanced copy of the book. All opinions are my own. 

This morning, my boss surprised us all with a new professional development book & sent us off to read it. (Please note: that literally means that today I got paid to sit on my porch and read a book. In the wise words of Lizzie McGuire, “this is what dreams are made of.”)

After reading this book, I now need to go to the store to replenish my office supplies because hot dang did I run through pens and highlighters and post-its (oh my)! We’re big fans of Seth Godin at my office, but I still hadn’t picked up any of his books myself. Literally devoured this one in three hours, though, so after the store I think I’m hitting the library for his backlog, too. 😂

As a young mixed-race woman, I don’t connect well with many of the popular business and leadership books. Authoritarianism just isn’t for me and I don’t love being told what to do just for the sake of doing it. When I got my first job out of college, it looked a lot like those books recommend and I hated it. I figured I was the problem and office jobs just weren’t for me. Then everything changed, and last week I emailed my boss a hair-brained idea that flipped my job on it’s head all because of something I read in a book (ps pls also add Unreasonable Hospitality to your TBR right now). And she loved it. My “soft skills” make me good at what I do. My creativity and all the things about me that don’t fit the traditional “Professional Person” box make me good at what I do. And this book has helped me realize that we don’t have to create those boxes anymore. People deserve to be fully and unequivocally themselves everywhere—including the office. And our work will probably be better off for it. 

Leadership is helping people to find what sets their soul on fire and to bring that to work with them. It’s capitalizing on their quirks because it makes work more human. 

TL;DR: just go buy the dang book. And make sure to grab a new pack of pens, highlighters, and page flags while you’re at it. 

This book is revolutionary, not because of what it contains, but because of the reminder it gives us that loving and celebrating others in over-the-top, grand gesture kind of ways isn’t just for the cheesy rom-coms in movie theaters. It’s in the everyday, mundane things, which means every single one of us, regardless of our positions or titles, has the chance to change lives, bring comfort, and infuse joy. 

My digital audiobook returned to the library before I finished it. I liked the audio much better than the physical copy, but I’m thinking this book just isn’t for me, sadly. 

Lily Chu has done it again. Seriously, books don’t get much better than hers. I laughed. I cried. I laughed so hard I cried. I even started listening to K-pop because the way she describes it made it come to life for me. This felt like fanfiction, but in the best way possible. Ariadne and Jihoon felt so real and so raw that I felt more like I was in the room with them than reading a book about fictional characters. 
On top of all that, Chu explores Asian identity, which as an adopted half-Asian, I appreciate SO MUCH. Her writing has helped me to make sense of my own identity and put words to feelings that always got too tangled up to be properly expressed. She also continues an incredibly interesting and important conversation on fame, especially within the k-pop world. Celebrities, especially ones as big or as young as idols, experience far more pressure and judgment than I think we give them credit for. They do a heck of a lot more than just look pretty on a yacht, and The Comeback explores the negative side of international stardom for the idols as well as everyone they are seen with. 
Both The Comeback and The Stand-In have quickly become all-time favorites and books I know I will turn to over and over again throughout the years. I talked about The Stand-In so much that I convinced a stranger in Target who overheard my conversation with someone else to buy it, so now I’m off to do the same with this one. You absolutely will not regret picking it up. 

Giiiiirl… if you’re looking for a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers, workplace romance do I have the book for you!!!!!! Literally stayed up until 2:00 am to finish this one because the TENSION was immaculate. If you liked The Hating Game minus some of the weird banter between the MCs, try this one asap. 

This was such an interesting story taking place in the publishing/magazine industry. Honestly nothing could make me love Harper and Ryan less. This wasn’t perfect and there were times that Harper flew off the handle and onto my nerves, but truly I think I love this one so much that I won’t be accepting criticism at this time. She’s golden. 

I love a good culinary cozy mystery, and this one has set itself apart from the rest. This was enjoyable, quick, and captivating to read. I loved that it was a cozy mystery in all the usual aspects, but also set in France post-WWII and incorporated Russian spies (yeah, I was baffled too). Oh, did I mention that it’s also based around Julia Child, the iconic chef?  Truly, this was one of the wackiest books in such a good way!