thesandyreader's Reviews (207)

This was a beautiful portrayal of chronic pain and I didn’t know I needed this cozy novella until I read it. 

The writing was absolutely beautiful and the images it painted in my mind were perfect. I loved the whimsical nature while dealing with a painful and tough topic like chronic pain. 

The book itself felt almost whimsical, as she lives at a spa to recover and goes for fanciful walks through gardens. The way she describes interacting with nature is beautiful and the loose flow of it feels so natural and fitting in the context. It makes me feel like I could hear it too as the wind wraps around me. 

The ending was beautiful and sad and just the perfect ending for this book. 

It was a quick read, but lovely and so full in story. 

Oh my gosh I’m in love. 

With this book, with the MC, with the love interest, with his daughter, with the Nantucket beach summer… everything about this book was just beautiful. 

I absolutely loved the thread of choices and reflection through this book. Val is exhausted and burnt out by her corporate life and is looking to take care of her health and rediscover herself. And that hits hard. I feel like we’ve all been there, we’ve all gone through something similar, and seeing her make the hard choice and blossom throughout the book as she finds herself is so beautiful. The moment she hopped back on that bus I was cheeeering for her. 

Her relationship with the MMC is a slow grow and slow burn and I love the was she just slides into his life like she was meant to be there. The contrast between her two love interests is stark and I appreciate the way it so appropriately mimics her past and hopes for the future. Her choice between them and between her job prospects moving forward just feel so mirrored and I love her realizations about it. 

Luna is an absolute joy and I loved the importance of her character. She’s not just the love interests child - she’s her own person, part of the story, and an individual, which I feel gets missed a lot in single parent stories. 

Overall, this is such a cute romance and you should read it. It feels so classic New England summer and I love it. 

The found family in this was adorable.

I love a family connections book, and a book about books, and love that this had both. 

While this is probably categorized as a contemporary romance, the main plot line and strongest element for me seemed to revolve around family and the MC finding herself and happiness. 

The familial connections warmed my heart, and that ending just made me softly smile with happiness for Adeline. 

Overall, I found this book to be cute and cozy and filled with hope and positivity. 

I really enjoyed this!

The style of this writing feels like a mix of historical fiction and fantasy - a blending of real history and present day, with a fantasy twist to it. The story has multiple POVs, shifting between present day and a time in the past, with the lines blurring which is which and what is real vs dreams or imagination. 

 

I was so intrigued by the premise and curious about how the story would tie in the history and the use of sirens. The way the symptoms presented themselves were very interesting and the difference between the two sisters handling in it was a contrast I appreciated. 

I didn’t see the ending coming till late in the book, and it made so much sense but also made me so sad. Melancholy but hopeful. The positivity wrapped up and made me smile. 

This was a cute and unexpected exorcist romance. 

The book started off slow, and had the feel of a cozy fantasy. It has the wealthy but scorned man, the poor and smart partner, and the banter between the two of them was adorable. I loved the commitment and trust between them, and their vision to improve the world. 

The exorcism twist was unexpected and I liked where it went. The irony of their goals being accomplished in an unorthodox manner made me giggle. 

Overall, a cute quick read - a cozy fantasy feel with more depth than typical. 

I will never be the same. 

This book. This series. It destroys.

This whole book I was trying to figure out how it ends. As the whole nation is pulled apart and shattered… who wins? How does it get put back together? How do you win this?

And the answers to all of those… broke me. Because of course it did. 

There are no winners in war. 

“She was a goddess. She was a monster. She’d nearly destroyed this country. And then she’d given it one last, gasping chance to live.”

And she broke my heart while doing it. 🥺 

I have so much more to say. About the characters we followed through all of this. The ones who deserved more, the ones who we never got answers for, but I’m trying to keep this spoiler free so. 

I can’t remember the last time a series so fully emotionally destroyed me. The writing, the characters, the ethical conundrums… and the ending. With hope, with sadness, with heartbreak, with love…

Just read this. 

This was just so dang cute. 

I loved everything about it. 

The meet cute, the fake dating premise, the cheeky best friend, the competition… absolute perfection. 

The book is well written and I found it easy to get lost in their story. The narration was also well done and it made it easy to differentiate people without removing me from the story due to odd sounding voices. 

Freddie is a dream and I love the way he supported Lila and teased her and the way they just seem to fit together. 

Daniel and Evie made me so mad, but I absolutely loved them getting what they deserved and they were a great addition to move the story. 

Lilia’s negativity towards herself and focus on why Freddie couldn’t possibly like her because she didn’t think she was physically appealing was annoying at times, but in actually probably pretty realistic. 

Overall, adorable. Just adorable. 

This was a cozy fantasy adventure with a dash of spice. I really enjoyed it. 

This was described to me as a novel version of DND and they nailed it. It feels just like that with the adventurers stumbling through one thing and another, constantly having hints or prickles that something is wrong but unable to suss out exactly what without stumbling into it, and lucking into avoiding other things. 

The writing is well done and the chapter titles are an especially careful touch that I appreciated. The characters are endearing and the banter is entertaining. 

It was such an enjoyable lighthearted read. 

Did not enjoy trying to keep everything straight through audio 

I could not move past the writing in this book. Some of the lines just gave me such an ick I couldn’t keep reading. 

I almost DNFd at Chapter 5. Pushed to Chapter 14 to see if the story would make it worth it, and didn’t find the interest of the story worth reading for. 

“No Velcro to rasp if he decided to take off his clothes in the house while he looked at Cari Mora asleep”
“He could creep it with the girl Cari Mora asleep in her hotness upstairs”
“He was entitled to some fun. Maybe he could just drip a little on the bedclothes, on her scarred arms, nothing more. Oh, a drop or two on her sleeping cheek, little facial, what the hell? A little might run into the corner of her eye. Hello.”

🤢🤮 

So gross.