(Mini-Review) An engrossing, thrilling mystery that tackles an extremely delicate subject with grace, The Night Swim was truly a gem of a read. I loved the courtroom aspect of it & how it alternated chapters with episodes of the protagonist’s podcast! An excellent read!

(Mini-Review) 4.5 Stars - Easily one of the best thrillers I’ve read this year, The Wives takes you on a wild ride & doesn’t let up for a second! This was crazy, dark, & twisted - I loved every single second of it, especially that ending! Tarryn Fisher officially has a new fan, I can’t wait to read more of her work!

(Mini-Review) If you’re a slasher fan, you’ve got to put this on your shelf! This read like the movie Scream, but with a dash of teen romance thrown in. One of my favorite things about this was that the reveal of “who” wasn’t anywhere near as important as the “why” - that truly made the book all the more effective. & a huge shoutout for the queer representation here! I’m really excited for The Woods Are Always Watching!

(Mini-Review) Hilarious, heartbreaking, & incredibly poignant, Memorial is hands down one of my top reads of this past year! Bryan Washington beautifully captured the highs & lows of a modern day gay relationship. I loved the way this was written - no quotation marks didn’t bother me one bit, it flows so eloquently & naturally that it's easy to follow. Each character was complex & nuanced in a way that made all of them memorable, but Mitsuko really stole my heart! I also really loved how food played a role here - it not only acted as a means of bringing our central characters together, but also was a character within itself. This was one of my most anticipated of the year & it did not disappoint one bit. I can’t wait to see what Washington does next!

What's the best word to sum up The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo? Breathtaking.

I picked this up expecting it to be a fun read full of old Hollywood scandal - while yes, there’s a ton of that within here, this book turned out to be so, so much more. As many other reviewers have put it, this is about everything but the husbands. It’s about femininity, sexuality, race, power, love, heartache - it’s encompassing of so much more than a simple re-telling of one woman’s “scandalous” past. Evelyn is truly one of my all-time favorite characters brought to life by an author - she’s complicated, doesn’t always make decisions you’d agree with, but she’s real & unapologetically herself.

This is easily one of the best books I’ve read in my entire life, the story unraveled so perfectly & it packs a huge emotional punch. If you haven’t read this yet, put it on your TBR lists & move it right to the top, I promise you won’t be disappointed. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a master at her craft!

4.5 Stars

I’ve got to start this off by praising the way Daisy was written - I absolutely loved how it was told as a Behind the Music-esque interview, it really brought each of the individual characters to life!

I love the way Taylor crafts her heroines - much like Evelyn Hugo, Daisy was a complex character who didn’t always make choices I agreed with, but she was incredible nonetheless. While Billy & Daisy’s story is front & center throughout, Karen & Graham’s love story hit me the hardest. Out of all the book’s characters, Camila really stood out to me most - I admired her & her commitment to Billy despite his questionable choices. & a huge shoutout to Simone, the disco diva - loved her so much! The fact that Taylor wrote an entire album’s worth of lyrics & included them in the back added a whole other layer of life to the book - I could almost hear their album in my mind as the book progressed.

This was a fantastic read & an excellent follow-up to Evelyn Hugo! I can’t recommend this enough, especially if you’re a rock n’ roll fan!

I'm still sitting here trying trying to process just how amazing this was - Jonathan Parks-Ramage, what an incredible debut!

When I first saw this floating around, I was like "a gay contemporary thriller about sugar daddies? um, YES!" - & while yes, sugar daddies are a topic presented within Yes, Daddy, this novel encompasses so much more. We don't hear too many #metoo-era stories from a male perspective, but these are situations that happen pretty frequently within the gay community & not talked about nearly enough. The novel did an excellent job of explaining the often complex dynamics between older gay men in positions of power & younger gay men looking to utilize their looks to further their ambition. I also loved the inclusion of religion as part of Jonah's backstory & character arc, these are very real struggles that many gay men who grew up with religion (including myself) grapple with. This does get pretty dark at times, so some fair warning going in - TW for those who are easily triggered by rape, abuse, & discussion(s) of suicide; however, everything was done in an extremely respectful way. I wouldn't necessarily consider this a thriller - go into this with the mindset that it's a dark, gay coming of age story to set expectations accordingly!

Seriously though, what an amazing debut! I can't wait to see the conversations this book strikes up & I'll be highly recommending this throughout the year. Thank you so much to Jonathan Parks-Ramage, NetGalley, & Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing an ARC in exchange for a honest review!