stephsbooktalk's Reviews (915)

Thank you so much to the author Sophie Andrews for an advance copy of this book!

This book will be out on May 1st.

That's tough talk for someone who was born in the Keebler Elf tree."
"Yeah, I was born sweet."
"I'll bet."

Once again Sophie Andrews has done it again! In her promotion for this book she would mention that the MMC has the vibes of Captain von Trapp from the Sound of Music and I have never seen the movie but now I am tempted to!

I really love the meet cute between Griffin and Andi. Andi just was not having the best of luck lately in anything. She had no job, far from her family, driving from West Coast to East Coast when her car breaks down and the gentlemen Griffin stops to help her out. But not only does he help getting her a place to stay but pays for her lodging as well as pay majority of her car bill (also shout out to a Dylan cameo).

Andi was such a fun FMC! Probably one of my favorites FMCs that Andrews has written. She was determined, independent, funny and just charismatic. And then on the other hand you have Griffin who is a little bit grumpy, has routine, family man and is just totally smitten by Andi. He hasn't allowed himself to fall for anyone in awhile but there was something about Andi that drew him in. And as luck would have it, she applied to be the nanny of his twins. I absolutely loved the relationship the kids have with Andi!! It was a little rocky at start with some twin shenanigans but they eventually smooth things out and had a great relationship.

"You've ruined me."
"Good."

It is no surprise that one of my favorite scene is everyone at the firehouse fundraiser. The way that Andi seamless just fit in with his family. And I thought it was so genius of Andrews having this moment between Andi & Griffin that in theory should not be sexy but who knew doing an ice bath competition would be so DAMN SEXY!

As I have mentioned on other books I've read by Andrews, her spice is *chef's kiss*. The way that she creates her characters chemistry and the conversation around sex. Griffin was super considerate of how nervous Andi was and she expressed her inexperience in the bedroom.

I just love the way that Andrews writes and how relatable her characters feel. I also love that you don't necessarily have to suspend belief in this book (or in her other books). I just really loved the relationship that Griffin and Andi had. They communicated effectively and Griffin in the end just wanted what was best for Andi and her dreams. But Andi also knew what was best in her heart and where she wanted to be.

The way that the book ends sets up for the next one and I'm super excited to read Taryn and Dante's story (at least I'm assuming that is who is next).

If you are a fan of insta love, found family, single daddy x nanny - give this one a read!

4.5 -  I had seen this book when it first came out last month but it was not on my radar until it was announced that she would be the host of a talk with fellow author Fredrik Backman at a localish venue. I thought let me take a listen to the book just incase they talk a little about it. Those that I saw who have read it and loved it! And I agree I thought the book was super different and well done! 

Julia Whelan did the narration and if you are an audiobook listener you know that she can do no wrong. She was able to manipulate her voice for each of the characters so well. And mixed with the story itself, made you want to keep listening. Theo Solomon also provided narration for the past timeline. I was not familiar with his narration previously but I really enjoyed his parts! 

In the author's note, Henry talked about where the idea for this book came to be and how it is based off a real life story which is so bonkers! I have never heard of it before. In this book, I was engaged from the very beginning and interested in learning about Clara wanting to know more about her mother, Bronwyn. Especially during this era of time, there was no internet and everything was done by mail, libraries or a place with historical documents. 

This book has a little of everything - adventure, mystery, romance, grief, found family all! 

If you decide to read this, I do recommend the audio but I'm sure it would be equally as delightful reading with your eyes. 

Thank you so much to Harlequin for the advance copy of this! 
Thank you so much to Harlequin 

As you may know I am a huge fan of Timothy and his writing and I was super excited to learn that he was writing a burly man character! I am an advocate of all size characters in books but I feel like bigger men are lacking in representation. I thought Timothy did a great job with describing Ethan's body size and also not making him ashamed of his body. He was authentically himself and aware that he is a bigger size. I also love that he made Ethan a divorcee bisexual with a teenager! I was happy to see that Janovsky explored that aspect to his writing as in his prior books they are usually young, childless and still figuring themselves out. Taylor is a little bit younger than Ethan and still trying to decide if he always wants to be an assistant or if he longs for more.  

Normally I love the chemistry Janovsky creates between his characters but for this one something was off. I am not sure why I didn't feel the spark between them. I normally don't have an issue with insta lust/love but for this it might have felt too rushed? I can't pinpoint it. I rolled with it though and the two were cute together. I know they both felt like it was a forbidden attraction as Taylor is the assistant to Ethan's ex wife. I thought the way Janovsky wrote that revelation and resolution was really well done. 

I thought the premise of the book and the setting of the story was very charming! I love the idea of having this story book setting where couples can live out this fantasy that you only see in movies. I like that we get to see Ethan attempt to have this new relationship as he really hadn't since his divorce. Starting over can be intimidating but he and Taylor (as mentioned above) were attracted together from the start. 

I really wanted to love this one more and it had such potential. Perhaps I needed more time with the characters to get to know them both separately and then together for me to love them more. 

3.5 

Mini Audiobook Review: Thank you SO much to Celadon for a copy of this book! 

I was exposed to The Beatles as a kid when my dad would listen to the oldies station out of Philly 98.1  and on Sundays would be Breakfast with the Beatles. And then in middle school, if you didn't have the "1" album, you weren't cool. 

I am always fascinating with the songwriting process and in this case some of the most prolific songs of all time came from the minds of these two men. This is the first book I read about any of the Beatles (though I do have another thats been on my TBR) so I felt like I learned a lot about each of them. Like who knew John was very much a grump and was VERY competitive/jealous of Paul. I also learned that they would start to communicate to one another through songs towards the end of the Beatles but then continued on into their solo works. 

What always boggles my brain is how YOUNG all of them were during their peak of fame. They had accomplished so much before the age of 30 and changed music forever. At one point the book states how Paul and John were purposely being so ridiculous in their writing and sounds and yet it became so popular! They tried to fail and just couldn't. 

This is a long audiobook around 14 hours and I was doing chunks at a time. I felt that the pacing was pretty good and had a good mix of them as people, as a celebrity and as musicians.  

I really enjoyed this one and I think anyone who enjoys the Beatles or music history would also enjoy this! 

*I do not rate Non Fiction books.*

Audiobook Review: I am a millennial so of course I was familiar with Blink 182 and was actually a rather big fan during the Enema of the State and Take off Your Pants era. Tween me could've sworn that Mark Hoppus wrote "The Party Song" about me ("So when you see her standing there, With green eyes and long blonde hair") and even had a screen name dedicated to my crush on Mark. So I was very excited to get the audiobook for Mark's memoir (which of course he read).  

The audiobook itself is very short coming in a little over 7 hours so I was able to digest it all in a days time. Mark spoke about his childhood, the good and the bad (his parents divorce, mom's domestic violence relationship) and then into his adulthood. I thought Mark breeze through the timeframes in his life giving just the right amount of information and feelings during that time without it stretching too long. 

Of course the part that interest me the most is when he decided that he wanted to start a band. At one point him and his friends created a band and made posters but didn't even have instruments to play. He self taught himself out to play bass. I felt like he was pretty honest throughout the book on his experience trying to make it and then when the pop punk explosion happened in the late 90s. I did feel bad for him when everything with Tom took place. They had been friends since they were teens and at some points they were talking through management. I really would love to read Tom's book to get his perspective on that whole time period when he was in and out of the band.  

I think the most shocking thing I found while listening was hearing that Mark went on a date with Melissa Joan Hart prior to dating his now wife. OH this is not shocking but I had no clue his wife worked with musicians! Mark would introduce her to other musicians and they would already know her. I do want to check out the physical because one of my favorite thing is to look through the photos that often times accompanied memoirs. 

I recommend this book if you are a fan or even casual fan of Blink 182 and just want to learn a little bit more about the front man. I recommend the audio because memoirs best read by the author. 

*I do not rate Non Fiction books.* 

Mini Audiobook Review: Thank you so much to Scribner Books for the complimentary copy of this book!

This book is out now.

Sigh. I wanted to like this one. I fear this is more of it's not you, it's me.

I just was not really sure the point of the book? Perhaps I was not the right audience for it which is why it was so hard for me to enjoy. I was waiting for more to happen but then nothing did.
It sadly was not memorable for me. I know there will be others who love this.

I will say as my parents are getting older and have been empty nesters for quite sometime now. WIth my father recently retired, the tension between my mother and him are sky high. So I could really relate to hearing the mom and dad in this bicker back and forth because I know that will be them in the near future.

There was a paragraph that I felt was very poignant:
"When you're little, you're dependent on your parents. But as you grow up, the fear creeps in that at some point they will become dependent on you. Twenty years of looking after your own children, and then just as they finally left home and you can do what you want, your parents start to fall apart. It would be nice to have a few years of freedom in between the two. A few years of not caring. Not caring, and not caring. For others."

I had done the audio of this narrated by Harriet Walter and even she couldn't save this book for me. The book is very short and the audiobook is under 6 hours so it was a quick listen which is why I had not DNF it.

I feel bad for rating this book so low but I just felt lost while consuming it.

Mini Book Review: Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for the complimentary copy of the book!
Thank you so much to PRH Audio for the complimentary ALC!

This book will be out on April 29th.

This book had such nostalgia from start to finish. A group of teens who just graduated high school and are figuring out what their future looks like. Trevor and Sarah decided that they wanted break into all the houses that have swimming pools. Until they went to a pool where they were caught by a owner who told them about a natural pool hidden. There with a few other friends they find themselves at the pool reflecting on their lives.

There was a side story happening before each chapter. We are never told whose point of view it was but at the end I think it is Sarah after she decided to leave the pool.

I thought Starmer got the feelings of being a teenager during that phase of life. You just want to hold on to that youth and not having responsibilities for as long as you can.

I thought the magical realism in this was pretty cool and was not expecting it. I would love to have known more of the why but I guess you don't always have that with magical realism and it just has to be what it is.

I read this one in tandem with the audio and Kelli Tager did the distorted voice of the extra tidbits and Michael James Bell narrated the rest. Michael James sounded so youthful and made Trevor especially sounded his age. I thought he was a really good fit for this book.

The book and the audio are very short so this is super bingeable! If you love a "historical fiction" set in the summer of 1994, coming of age told from a 3rd person POV - give this one a try!

Mini Audiobook Review: Thank you so much to Simon Books for a copy of the book!

Wow!!! I read House of Eve last year for book club and I wanted to go back to read this one as a reader friend from the club praised it. So when Simon was kind of enough to send me a copy, I knew it was time.

This book is very heavy. I highly recommend checking the trigger warnings before reading. Sadeqa wrote with such honesty and gave such an image of what life was like for Black men and women during the time of slavery. The beginning confused me for a bit but then the light switched and I was invested in this story of Pheby and her life on a plantation. She was counting down until she turned 18 and was freed but instead she ends up at Devil's Acre and becomes the "wife" of the head jailer.

I know this is a fictional book but I imagine most of what happened within the book was what happened during that time in history. In the author's note, Sadeqa was inspired by Mary Lumpkin who was the wife of Robert Lumpkin who ran a jail in Virginia.

Despite the heaviness, I also found a sense of hope. Pheby knew had this hope that it wouldn't be forever and she was just surviving.

I read this one via audio and thought Robin Miles did a fabulous job! I was not familiar with their narration previously bought she was able to bring the strength, vulnerability and resilience through her tone to channel Pheby as well as the other characters.

Highly recommend!

Thank you so much to MacMillan Audio for the complimentary copy of the book!
Thank you so much to St Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for the complimentary copy of the book!

I was drawn to the premise of this book because hello I love me a band and I am self proclaimed fangirl. So I knew that this book would be for me.

This book is told from two timelines - the past (1986) and the present (2011). It took me a bit to get used to the timelines. Mostly because the timelines are told from two different perspectives. In the past we are in the perspective of a young Cassie and in the present timeline we are in the perspective of her older sister Nicole.

The premise doesn't really say this but I would say that when we are in the past timeline, I would say a theme of that is obsession. Cassie is only 16 years old and has this admiration for Secret Oktober specifically for the lead singer Ben Edwards. And it only progressed as she got a taste of what it was like to be near him. And a cycle of events that occurred changed the course of everyone involved lives.

In the current timeline, Nicole lives a simple life with her husband and daughter in California and all is normal until her daughter does not get off the bus. The school claims she had been picked up by her aunt in which Nicole had previously authorized. But we learn that there couldn't be an aunt that picked her daughter up. Between the disappearance of her daughter and being visited by a journalist, Nicole starts to spiral thinking back to the incidents that occured years ago.

I was pretty invested in the storyline. Because the perspectives were every other chapter or so, I would be left wanting more which kept me going with the story. I wouldn't say that there was anything jaw dropping when some of the reveals were brought to light. I'm trying to be vague without spoiling but the way Sandie wrote left things up for interpretation until you got the answer. I think for me with the last quarter of the book, things were moving so fast that I was trying to piece together everything that was happening (total me thing and no fault of the author).

Imogen Wilde was the narrator and I thought she did a pretty good job handling both perspectives. I would have loved a 2nd narrator to help distinguish the two a bit more. But I thought Imogen brought an emotional side to her tone especially when Nicole was going through the motions of not knowing where her child was. Mixed with Sandie's writing, the audio listening experience kept me on edge and I credit that to Imogen's narration.

This is my first Sandie book and I am looking forward to reading more from her!

Thank you SO much to the author Kayla Grosse for the advance copy!

This book will be out on April 17th.

This is my 2nd book from Kayla and I think it has become my new favorite (I know I know I still have the backlog to work through). You could really tell how personal Kayla was with this book and how much she put into it. And if this didn't pull on your heartstrings (pun intended) then I'm not sure if we read the same book.

"You really want to do all this with me?"
"What else am I going to do, hang out here with all the ghosts?"

I was unfamiliar with Kawasaki Disease and everything that came with it so I appreciate Kayla taking a topic that isn't talked about enough (esp in romance books) and bringing it to light. I know Kayla herself has the disease and as I mentioned above, you could tell the amount of research and the vulnerability within the lines and that this book meant a lot to her. I thought it was done so well and didn't feel like it was information overload on the disease.

Jesse had gone through a lot in such a short time. She was still adjusting to this new life and the last thing she wants is a relationship. Jesse had 2 heart attacks and now has an ICD implant (which is still healing) and it has given her a new perspective on her life. She decides to make a Change of Pace bucket list because morbidly she doesn't think she has time and wants to complete this list before she runs out. First on the list that she goes for is to have a one night stand. Enter Asher. Asher is this tall, burly man with curly dusty blond hair with a brown beard and she is taken by him. And equally, Asher is taken by her. The whole moment in the nightclub was just so great! I have mentioned in other reviews how dancing in any setting has become such a favorite micro trope of mine so I was elated to see it happening on page.

"Well, I figure if you murder me, at least my family and friends will be able to find my body. I also have a security camera."
"The only thing I'm going to murder is that pussy of yours."

Jesse thought she wasn't ever going to see Asher again after she woke up the next morning alone after the best night she had in awhile. He did leave her number but she did not want to complicate things. But fate had other plans. Turns out Asher is her roommate/best friend's brother! One thing leads to an another and suddenly Jesse will be living out her bucket list with the help of Asher and his RV!

I love that we got both Jesse and Asher's point of view. Asher had it BAD for Jesse from the moment he saw her at the bar. He knew when he saw her that she was the one for him. Asher has ADHD and with that he tends to go all in on what he wants. And in this case it was Jesse. The way he left his number on her bucket list - swoooon! Pretty much everything he had done was swoony. Jesse was very adamant that she didn't want to be coddle and treated any differently on their trip and Asher tried really hard to respect that. I think also Asher was just such a nice guy and he had the means to do things and wanted to share that with Jesse.

I was a little frustrated with Jesse as a reader because we all could see how perfect Asher was for her and she would just keep pushing him away. I just wanted to scream HE IS THE ONE FOR YOU. I understand completely why she was scared to let him in but I'm guessing she also didn't realize that even as friends, he and everyone else in her life would be sad if something does happen to her. I will say there was a few times I find myself relating to Jesse. One moment came closer to the beginning talking about herself, "But the trauma of living in a bigger body in a society that tells you it's wrong doesn't go away overnight. I'm not used to men calling me stunning in bars or wanting to hook up with me." And another came towards the end of the book when she says "And you don't deserve to have someone defective. You deserve someone whole." This line specifically cut me deep. I had in the past referred to myself as defective in my inability to have children so it really hit me. I know now that is not the case and my husband loves me either way just like Asher loves Jesse and would never think that of her.

I know this has become a rather long review. But this was such a good and fun read with of course the signature Kayla spice thrown in there. I love all the moments of Jesse and Asher together! Asher really brought out this confident side of Jesse. I love seeing all their adventures and I had to laugh at the world tallest file cabinet visit as I have seen this in person LOL Asher truly made this experience for Jesse worthwhile and I was glad he had not given up on her.

This is a stand alone book. I recommend this book if you love one nights stand - friends to lovers, best friend's brother and a road trip from coast to coast!