**make sure to do research on the trigger warnings for this book** 

Finalllllly! I finallly read probably the most hyped book in the Tik Tok & Bookstagram world. 
I will say it was not my favorite (I think Reminders of Him edged out just a little). I thought the writing was brilliant and it definitely helped that the author could pull from her personal experience to make it believable.  
I do not want to say too much as it's already been said & I do not want to spoil anything. 

I understand why people loved it so much and why people cried at the end. I did not get emotional from the story itself but what did make my eyes wet was the author's acknowledgements specially her paragraph on her father. It just had hit me in the feels. 

I thought it was creative as to how the author wrote Lily's diary entries to give us a glimpse of the past. 

I cannot wait for the prequel as I am sure we all have falling for the sweet soul that is Atlas. I also cannot wait to see how this movie is adapted & who is cast. I am sure Justin Baldoni is going to do a fantastic job with it. 

It was a beautiful book & I would recommend it if you enjoy complex romances. 

"The people responsible for the best days of my life, and the worst."

1 murder. 6 college friends. 10 year college reunion when the past doesn't stay in the past.

I always get nervous when there are more than 3 character storylines. I fear that I will forget who did what when. I even started a note with who was who and who they dated as they were all connected. But as the story went on it became easier and easier to remember their storyline. 

I thought the story pacing moved pretty quick. I like that there were the dual timelines of the past and present. And when you thought it was going one way, it goes another. You rooted for certain characters and I know I rolled my eyes several times at our main character Jessica. 

If you love a murder mystery with a dash of romance & set in academia, this is the book for you! 

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Elissa Sussman & Random House for an advance copy of this!

"Funny You Should Ask" is out today, April 12th.

"One of the most beautiful men in the world - my personal celebrity crush - was treating me like I belonged. It was an intoxicating feeling."

This book takes place during two timelines 10 years apart between the past and present.  Chani was asked to interview her ultimate celebrity crush which was a whirlwind weekend of partying in which her article ended with the audience thinking "did they or didn't they."  Fast forward 10 years later, Chani is asked to strike magic again by being asked to interview Gabe for an upcoming project. Chani was reluctant as so much had happened between the 10 years since their enthralling weekend. 

This book will likely be in my top 5 books of 2022. I am calling it now. I knew it was going to be a 5 star read just from the first few chapters. I felt like I was reading myself if I were Chani. The parallels of her being a journalist and me wanting to work for Rolling Stone magazine growing up just so I could interview celebs was not dawned on me.  How Elissa was describing Chani’s feelings towards Gabe Parker leading up to her interviewing him is exactly how I would feel if I had to be around any celebrity but in particular Justin Timberlake, Harry Styles or Zac Efron. It was just all so relatable! 

I love the duel timelines and how they intertwine with one another. This helped so much with the pacing of the book and made me want to continue reading to find out what happened next in their story.  And then have the news articles also playing a role in what is happening in the plot was great. It gave me flashbacks to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and Grady Hendrix’s “The Final Girl Support Group”.

Also, not sure what the storyline could be but could we get a spin off with Ollie?! He was a fabulous side character.

Some quotes that made me laugh:
"Until this morning, a shirtless phot of him had been the lock screen of my phone. I had zero chill when it came to Gabe Parker." 

"Even when I was single handedly torpedoing my career, I was still very, very horny for him." 

"We're not even the same species, but tonight, they're letting me pretend that we are." 

"You're ridiculous," I told myself, "No one, is going to waste cocaine on you." 

"You've read them," I say instead. 
"I thought we'd established that I've read everything you've written"  
It's one of the hottest things anyone has ever said to me.

If you love a slow burn with a Hollywood twist. This is the book for you! 
I cannot wait to read more from this author. 

CW: alcohol, rehab, sexual content

Audiobook:

Ya'll this book is not one to read when you are in a happy mood.  This was an emotional punch that I couldn't imagine reading as a high school teen.  I think it's a shame I had not read this prior to Colleen Hoover's "Reminders of Him" because I think it would have made me feel more than I did.  They were not completely identical but they did share some similar elements.

It begs the question, if you could have a lifeline to talk to someone that has past even if it was for a short while, would you? Or would it make it harder to let go & start the grieving process?  It's a question that looms in the back of my mind from time to time.  

You really feel for Julie. I have not lost a best friend or a boyfriend so I cannot imagine what that pain would feel like especially as a teenager. 

It always bears repeating but make sure you tell your loved ones, you love them and how much they. mean to you. 

CW: death, car accident, grief

Audiobook: 

I was really excited for this one as it was full of tropes & short stories from 10 different authors. I love the idea of short stories because you get to the point in a short amount of pages instead of having a story drag out which often cause for a lot of useless dialogues & plot. 

My two favorites were "Bye, Bye, Piper Berry" by Julie Murphy which excited me as this had a fat male MC! We don't often see these written and the representation of it really matters especially in YA books.  And the other was "Shooting Stars" by Marissa Meyer because I love the idea of having a crush on a friend and of course one bed. I would love a full on book for these two the most. 

I thought the first half of the book was more memorable than the last half. If you love YA romance and want to experience the different tropes. This one's for you! 

I really liked the audio of this because each story had their own authors which made it exciting. The downside was that sometimes the story just ended and I often lost track of when it was a new one. There was one missing as from research turns out to be a graphic novel which would not be able to be translated well via audio. 

Thank you so much to BookForward, NetGalley, Claire Kann & Berkley Publishing for an advance copy of this book! 

This book will be published on April 12th, 2022. 

This book came on my radar after it was chosen to be a future book club book so I was super excited to get my hands on it early, 

Joy is a ray of sunshine who would do anything for anyone especially for her best friend Malcolm. They met while in college at an LGBT Alliance mixer and Malcolm was at his asexual/ace book. Joy's lightbulb went off that this might be who she is.  Malcolm and Joy have been super close for the last 10 years and nothing more. They kissed one time and never spoke about it again. Joy feels this pull towards Malcolm and they each will do everything & anything for one another.  Malcolm springs a last minute trip onto Joy and advised that she will be meeting a potential girlfriend (who also will be bringing a friend). Joy is not happy because she wants Malcolm. Joy's twin sister Grace reminds her that she needs to start doing things for herself & that she could be missing out on other people out there. 

Since Joy and Fox are there two friends along for the trip, it only made sense that they would rely on each other while Malcolm and Summer coupled up. Fox knows that Joy is in love with Malcolm and comes up with a plan for Joy to make him jealous by having them fake date. The tension (sexual and frustrated) between Joy, Fox, Malcolm and even a little Summer buzzed throughout their weekend together.  Fox was an amazing fake/real book boyfriend. Also loved that he had salt & pepper hair! Who doesn't love a silver fox moment (pun intended)?!  I even fell in love with his grumpiness and broodiness. And by the end, my goodness he was just so sweet to Joy & followed her lead and made sure she was comfortable. 

I am a proud ally of the LGBTQIA+ community and over the past year within being in my book club that focuses on LGBT books, I am continuing learning and that included what being asexual meant. It even made me question myself and possibly being on the spectrum. This book really dove into what it means to be asexual from two parts of the spectrum - Malcolm has sex for fun & Joy doesn't feel the desire to have sex with another person. Compared to other books, this gave me such a better picture of what it meant to be asexual. 

One thing I loved was how majority of this took place over a couple of days. I like when we are given a short time frame throughout the course of a book. It made the flow of the book go pretty quick. 

Joy made me laugh so much and I found a lot of things she said and did so relatable. She was literally sunshine mixed with a few clouds. I loved her banter with Fox and they just made me smile so much. 

"You showed your cat videos of me." 
"Shut up. Nobody asked for your judgement." 

What got old was just her relentless inner monologue and sometimes conversations with Fox on her feelings for Malcolm, We know she loves him but we didn't need to hear about it over and over again. 

This will be highly recommended to my romance reader friends and I am looking forward to reading future books from this author! 

Audiobook: 
Thank you to HarperAudio for an advance copy of this book! 

This was published on March 22nd, 2022. 

This has been a controversial book among some in the book world. I fall under those with the unpopular opinion that I do not believe that this book is that toxic where I could not finish it. These are my viewpoints as an individual who identifies as being plus size. I do understand why readers are turned off and were triggered by the context of the book. And you should not read something that makes you feel badly. 

Savvy Sheldon is a workaholic who has thrown herself into advancing her career as an underwriter (yay for insurance job rep). She has been with her longtime boyfriend for 6 years and he does not like all the time she puts into her work. They break up and his words linger in her brain making her feel less desirable so she starts doing things that were for other people. In doing so, she started finding her true self and started doing things that made HER feel good for herself. 

I relate to this because even with being a plus size person, movement and eating healthy makes ME feel good. I am doing it for myself and not for anyone else. I like that there was rep for a fat MC who does exercise by doing something she loves - tennis. She may have started doing all that for the wrong reasons but realized it made her feel good. 

Please review all trigger warnings on Storygraph prior to reading. 

Audiobook:  Rachel Lynn Solomon has been one of my favorites in the last year. I love her writing style and the way she develops her characters. 

This had me even more excited because we have Russell a sports reporter who is not only a single dad but is fat! We need more representation out there for men. Reading about built, hunky guys is great and all but I am here for the Dad bods and more. These are more the realistic type and if we pushing for my fat MCs in women, it should be the same for men as well. 

I love that Ari was not the perfect protangionist. She had her flaws and even though as an audience we see her self sabotage, it is a rewarding experience when we see her work through that and recognize it herself. 

The premise of this is also interesting because we have Ari and Russell who pair up to get their bosses back together and in the scope of making that happen, they begin to have feelings for one another. Also I love the jobs of the character! How often in books (at least the ones I read) are the characters reporters! 

It was just such a beautiful book and I highly recommend. Rachel Lynn Solomon will always be an autobuy. 

CW: depression, mental illness, minor fatphobia

Absolutely loved this one! I love the two different parallel universes and how they both kind of intersected. I do wish though that the endings were the same in both or somehow it came back to one universe. I added both leading men to my book boyfriend list.  Also I need a spin off of somesort with Queen Gabby.  

Thank you to the BBBC Philly sub group for choosing this one as a book to read for our book club meetup! 

I love Taylor's writing and it makes me excited to read her other stories prior to the Hollywood series. 

If you love parallel timelines with romance & friendship interwoven, this is the book for you! 

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Sally Hepworth and St Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book.

This was my first Sally Hepworth book so I wasn't sure what to expect. I am not sure if Sally does this in all her books but I really love the 3 different point of views/storylines - Heather, Tully & Rachel . 

Sisters Rachel & Tully each have their own complicated lives while dealing with their mother, Pamela who has Alzheimer's and their dad (Stephen) who is a doctor who is suddenly engaged to a younger woman. Rachel has always been the beautiful & growing up the boys always were after her until suddenly she had no interest. Tully is married to Sonny with two boys who on paper seems to have a perfect life but her life is far from perfect. A bad investment deal turns into them losing their savings & Tully is a kleptomaniac. Heather is an interior designer whom is younger than both Rachel & Tully who essentially is an orphan. She falls for Stephen who is still a married to Pamela. 

Things began not to add up when Heather was experiencing unexplained injuries that seem to occur when she would drink. Even when she would hardly drink, somehow Stephen would twist things around to make her think that she was crazy.  Things really took a twist when Rachel was giving a hot water bottle that contained not just a couple dollars in but almost $100k with two names written down - Tully & a woman by the name of FIona Arthur. Stephen denied not knowing who Fiona was which of course turned out to be a lie. 

I thought the book flowed great & really kept me on my toes and left me wanting more. And like most thrillers everyone was a suspect.  

Where it fell flat for me is that we really didn't get a conclusion on whether or not Stephen really was abusive to any of his wives or was he just a master manipulator? Maybe that is part of the reading where we are left up to our own interpretation but I just don't do well with open ended endings.  Especially for a thriller, I need it wrapped up in a pretty bow.  I also did not get the point of bringing in Fiona Arthur with the exception of her being his first wife & that he "hurt" her and yet he was still her love of her life? I just thought she would play a bigger role than what she really was.

I was though really happy that Rachel has begun to work through her relationships with men & seems to have found a perfect match in Darcy (I was waiting for him to somehow be involved in the mystery). Tully was such a complex mess and I loved her. I don't think I have ever read a character quite like her before. I was so proud of her development by the end of the book and love that her husband stuck with her through it.  

CW: alcoholism, gaslighting, domestic/physical abuse, miscarriage, rape

I am rating this a 3.5 as I just was wanting more from the ending.