This was my first 'CLo' book and it was cute enough. I love a good time loop story and I found this one balanced it without making it too repetitious or corny. Mae was a bit to deal with sometimes but she's also 26 and was at a crisis in her life before getting thrown into this time loop. I think the reason for it is subjective but, based on the conversations she had with her mother and then the father of her love interest, it was for her to discover that life is messy and that's okay. Nothing and no one is perfect, there are hidden aspects to people that you will never really know even if you've known them your whole life. Itt's okay to not have it all figured out or to be completely happy every moment of every day.

The one major complaint I have about it was the stuck between two brothers trope. First off, I am not a fan of that in any regard. It just does not do it for me. That said, it wasn't even as big of an issue here as the synopsis made it out to be. I feel it was put in just to have a third act misunderstanding and, while I understand the need for that, something else could have been used. Because what would have been thought of as being a huge deal ended up resolving itself in like tw chapters, max.

Overall though, would recommend if you're looking for a funny, delightful, and heartwarming holiday read. I will pick up at least one other by this duo since I did enjoy it.

Okay so there are some series that you should read back to back just to keep up with the consistency of the characters.

In my opinion this is not one of those series.

And the reason? Because if you do everything about the characters and the plot lines will blend together. There isn't a real way to avoid it. And that doesn't make it a bad series by any stretch of the imagination although there were some books I did enjoy more than others. But it was very formulaic. And while every genre out there follows a formula on some levels, for this one, the proverbial thorn was that on some levels, it was essentially the same basic premise .

Boy meets Girl. There is some sort of texting relationship. Smexy times ensue. Cute animal insert. Misunderstanding or conflict. Resolution.

Honestly, I probably shouldn't have read these 'back to back'. I should have taken at least a month or two in between them. But because they were in the box set and I wanted to finish them all this year, I essentially binged them and that kind of killed it for me. Overall, it was an okay series, hence the three stars. But that is on average because I don't feel all of them were three star worthy.

Here's the break down:

Let's Get Textual: the first and arguably still my favorite. Everything that made this series stand out was still new in this one, and I loved the humor and pop culture references. Plus baby goats. The conflict here was, in essence, the most believable one IMO. Probably the one I would choose to re-read multiple times.

I Wanna Text You Up: so, I appreciated the whole 'girl code' thing here I really did. But six months does not a meaningful relationship make. Six months is enough to realize that you may connect on a physical level but not so much on anything else and move on. So, yeah, that being the main conflict got on my nerves really quickly because it could have been easily resolved had Zoe just gone up to Delia and been honest.

Can't Text This: I don't mind raunchy romance but this was a little much for me in some levels. I found that Monty's innocence and Robbie's vulgarity was too exaggerated at every point in the story. Like, maybe I'm just wired a different way but if a guy I had a one night make out session texted me the way Robbie did? Insta-block. No thank you. Plus, the whole her being the teacher of his child was made to be a bigger deal than it was in the synopsis when in reality it took up two chapters. Not a big deal in the long run.

Text Me Baby One More Time: look, I get people make mistakes. And everyone deserves a second chance or redemption arc. However, every time I was in Shep's head I didn't see that he was deserving of this because in his own brain he was still a sexist, misogynistic jerk. Like, there was nothing there to redeem for me because we didn't even get an external alpha-hole, internal sensitive guy here. Even his reasoning for being a dill-hole to Denny was utter BS. I will admit that I grudge-read this entire book. I was not impressed with this last entry. I don't understand why this was a thing because I could have been content with Shep not receiving an HEA.

Textin' Up My Heart/Let's Get It On: we return to Zach and Delia for these and they were both cute enough and a nice little recap of where everyone was so many years later. It was a nice palate cleanser for me since I disliked Shep and Denny's story so much.

Again, overall enjoyable enough. I will likely never re-read Shep/Denny's story or if I do I will skip all Shep's chapters. But I still maintain to take breaks in between them because the set up is too similar between them all. If you don't, then they will not stand out in your mind on their own.

Another winner from Backman. I really enjoyed this story and most of the characters managed to endear themselves to me, even though it was a rough start. Like, honestly at first the only people I liked were the bank robber and Jim. But as the story progressed and revealed itself, I began to like them all a little bit more.

It all takes place in one do, so it's fairly fast paced, especially for this author. I also love how poetic some of his lines were because there are always a few that just hit me in my feels. Of course I can't recall them now because I was so engrossed on reading that I didn't take note of them but there were more than a few lines that just gut punched me. And this book is full of a lot of those emotional sucker punches, so warned.

There were also some surprises for me, partly because I wasn't trying to figure them out and because the author did a good job of playing on people's expectations of how something should go in a story. Another beautifully written book. Backman has yet to disappoint me as an author.

I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.

And my only complaint about it? It was too short. Like, I'm not even lying. I wanted more from Yolanda and Sam's story. I wanted to see how they interacted at work before this week of team building. I loved the banter, the build up, everything here. This is my second by this author and I can't wait to see what else she has in store for us.

Some of the highlights:

How nature kept coming for my girl Yolanda. That would be in nature. I wouldn't leave my cabin. You bring the team building to me.

Sam's flirting. Man. I fanned myself a few times reading his lines.

How they came to an understanding about each other and grew in their relationship.

So good. I'm so happy with this.

I loved this book and couldn't stop gushing about it as I read it to anyone who would listen. Present Me read this with more than a bit of nostalgia for Younger me because she would have really eaten this book up. I really identified with Tessa, not just in the writing aspect (since I was one who was always writing romance stories growing up, a habit I desperately need to get back into) and I had my own beta reader like she did with Caroline.

I also felt Tessa was written in a believable fashion. She was a shy girl who didn't have many friends, so moving was tough on her. I love that the first interaction between Lenore and Tessa was positive because I don't think that type of female solidarity enough in fiction, regardless of the age it's targeted out. It's becoming more prevalent but still as common as one might like.

I also really enjoyed the slow build up between Sam and Tessa since they started as friends, which is second favorite trope. Sam was the constant for her and even when they got upset with each other, they still had that connection (well up to the end because spoilers).

I also enjoyed the disability representation with Miles, her brother, and how well that was handled. It makes sense when you read the back and see that the author was a Special Education teacher for a period of time. But Elise never resented her brother and even when she got frustrated at the pressure, ultimately she wanted to be there for him and help take care of him because that was her brother. And the way people treated Miles played a large hand in showing Tessa who her true friends here (again won't broach too much into that because spoilers).

The ending is a HEA even if it's not as neatly tied up as one might like. I wavered on whether I liked it because I decided I did because there was a resolution to the romance, but ultimately it was about Tessa becoming confident in herself and her writing, which was an Achilles heel for her throughout the book. It was also about her being seen, both visually and for her work, and that was something she overcame. This was beautiful book that I adored and will recommend to all my friends. I can't wait to see what else Elise Bryant has in store for us in the future.

Another winner from Mrs. Bev!! I really enjoyed reading about woman of the land and rancher Spring and the bookish cinnamon roll she fell in love with. There are tons of cowboy romances out there but not a lot of cowgirls, even though they existed.

I loved everything about this heroine including how independent she was.. It's unconventional for a woman nowadays to not want children, let alone back then. And for that to be something she wouldn't budge on is amazingly progressive for a historical, even by today's standards of the romance novel. But of course, what else can you expect from this author..

Spring 'had a past', which is also another unique thing about this story. That and the fact that Garrett didn't care or even if he did rightfully told himself it was none of his business. I loved that and how he came to terms with the fact that he couldn't change Spring or her mind about things so he had to accept her the way she was.

The conflict was bit rushed, which is the norm for this author but I find myself not bothered by that because honestly in real life it's like that. The thing that is built up so big in our minds ends up taking less time than we think to resolve. And the story was around Spring and her coming to terms with her demons and needing to forgive the family that had wronged her and Garrett realizing that he was truly was a freed man and this included not playing into the expectations of his father, another former slave.

Everything was beautiful about this book and I adored every page.

It was okay. Some of the chapters and cases were really interesting and others less so. The very less one felt like it was tacked up just to have a set number of chapters of pages. The writing style itself was mediocre. It very much read like a string of blog posts that were gathered together and bound in a book. You'll read this and find interesting true crime trivia tidbits and be shocked but it likely won't stay in your memory bank very long.

Charish Reid is fast becoming a favorite author and auto-buy for me. I have never been disappointed with her stories, and this makes it a solid 3/3 I've read. This was another delightful funny and sweet romance, about finding love in and at the most unlikeliest of places. I loved the slow burn between Aiden and Antonia. It was clear the attraction was there, but they built up an easy friendship before moving into romance.

I also enjoyed the dual perspective and how both realized that they didn't need to live their lives for anyone but themselves. They both admitted when they made mistakes and called each other when they fumbled. This helped to set the stage to show how strong their relationship would be in the future since you need accountability in your romantic partners.

The parallels to the Irish and African American, or Black American if your prefer, experience was also well thought out. In some novels, those are just tossed in casually to take up paper space. But it was obvious that the author took a lot of time into researching that to make sure it was a logical connection and enough of one that a university level paper could have been written on it.

Plus, just the idea of being in Ireland? It's a dream trip of mine so I hope to get there one day soon. Highly recommend because you'll fall in love with Toni, Aiden, and Ireland all in one fell swoop.