The Bergman Siblings series is getting better with each book, and the Chloe Liese hype train continues. Ever After Always is the story of Freya and her husband, Aiden. Their marriage is in crisis.

Of all of the romance novels I have read recently, the conflict in this one felt the most realistic and gripping. I was completely invested in Freya’s and Aiden’s relationship. Their arguments are deep and realistic, the rift in their relationship is incredibly plausible. Watching a marriage crumble is harrowing, but so satisfying when done well and Liese has done it extremely well. That said, if you are looking for a light-hearted read, this might not be for you right now. Read the content note at the beginning of the book and mine below as well. As always, I’m happy to answer in detail questions you might have if you are considering this book but unsure of the content warnings, just hit me up in DM!

There is a really compelling side plot involving Aiden that I can’t even really mention without spoiling - let’s just say I was on the edge of my seat for the last quarter of this book for multiple reasons.

This book is much spicier than the first two in the series - although the sex scenes are more emotionally fraught. I really enjoyed older, married characters. As much as I enjoy reading about young love, getting into a mature relationship with history was refreshing.

A key highlight of this story for me was Viggo, one of the youngest Bergman brothers, vehemently promoting and defending romance as a genre as well as reading and loaning out Lisa Kleypas novels to his brothers, his dad and Aiden. (Thanks to you, fellow readers, I actually know who Lisa Kleypas is!) Austen fans will also enjoy several references to Persuasion, which Freya is reading throughout the book.

Raybearer is one of those books that first made me feel a little jealous of the kids today, for having such amazing literary options, but then I felt thankful that I could read and experience this book, too.

Jordan Ifueko has really done something here, folks. She built a rich world with detailed politics, history, magic, religion and characters. The main character, Tarisai, is seriously relatable and also a complete badass. There are complex relationships of all stripes: romantic, platonic and familial. The magic system is super cool. There’s a nuanced and detailed look at sexism and gender roles. There are several LGBTQIA+ characters including an ace character. I mean, this book has everything.

The plot is A++. This book pulls you along quickly. I was continually surprised by the twists, turns and reveals throughout this novel. And now, I am super excited to read Redemptor.

This book absolutely lived up to all of the hype and then some. Wow. I stayed up so late to finish it last night, and cried several times at the end.

Many folks have said so many things about The Firekeeper’s Daughter that there isn’t much new I can say, other than to add my voice to the chorus of praises for Angeline Boulley and this wonderful, heartbreaking, uplifting, dramatic and beautiful story. Although this is YA, Boulley doesn’t soften the very heavy themes in it, so please check the content warnings in the comments.

In her author’s note, Boulley mentions that contemporary Indigenous stories aren’t told enough, and I agree with that. I think so often about representation and the impact it can have on us as readers. I’m so grateful for the variety of stories being published now, and I hope that this book reaches and resonates with young readers who want to see themselves on page. I also hope that the success of this book encourages publishers to seek out and continue to promote diverse stories told by the communities represented.

It *is* a privilege for us to be able to read about the Native customs and traditions in this book, and Boulley shared something incredibly valuable with the world in writing it. For that, I am thankful for the window she provided in this telling.

Although on the surface I have almost nothing in common with Daunis, the protagonist, I related so much to her and the environment she was in. She’s only a couple of years younger than me, and I, too, lived in a rural area devastated by methamphetamine in the early 2000s. It was a harrowing visit to a time in my life I hadn’t thought much about recently.

When I was a kid, I had a book about epidemics called something like Medical Mysteries. I read it many times, fascinated by the work of epidemiologists who had figured out things like Legionnaires disease (which infected an entire conference of military vets through soggy ductwork at a hotel) and a mysterious case of poisoning in a town linked to an adulterated shipment of blue jeans.

In short, I’ve always been interested in diseases, epidemics and plagues. It’s not been incredibly thrilling to live through the present one, to put it lightly, but reading about plagues is still something I take a strange enjoyment in.

Jennifer Wright has a humorous and insightful take on many plagues from the past. In this book, I learned a ton, and Wright humanized historical figures in a way I really appreciated. More than anything, I felt hopeful and amazed a little bit by humanity. I even laughed a few times. Laughing? While reading a book about horrible diseases? It’s more likely than you think.

Generally humans don’t change much, but for every disease, there have been people fighting as hard as they can, many times with near-miraculous results, like vaccines and antibiotics.

If you decide to pick this book up, please be sure to read the epilogue, where Wright addresses the AIDS epidemic and it’s grievous mishandling by the US government in the 1980s. I can only imagine what she has had to think about COVID, and part of me would love to take a time machine to 100 years from now to read about this time through the same lens we are able to view smallpox and the Spanish Flu now.

⚠️WARNING⚠️
Do not start this book when you have other things to do, because after about chapter 5, putting it down will be torture.

It’s hard to write a review for Project Hail Mary without spoiling it so I will say this: it is compelling, interesting, “hard” science fiction (by that I mean there are whole passages about math and physics and biology). It is emotional on a “Earth is in peril” scale as well as a personal “my friend is in danger” scale. It’s like The Martian, The Andromeda Strain and Turner and Hooch (a buddy cop movie from the 80s) got together and had a book baby.

I was fully ready to skim over some boring science stuff but didn’t have to, and I’m not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination. I know other reviews have noted that the science in this is heavy, but I didn’t feel like it was beyond what I was expecting and it was well explained, not too dense.

The amount of stress on Poppy’s behalf I felt reading this book: 8/10

grades are everything, learn this, be the best, life is competition, you need a sport for your college applications!

go to college, go to the best college, go in the most debt for the best college!

work hard, work even harder, sacrifice everything for your career, grin and bear it as you are continually passed over for promotions, downsized, rightsized, understaffed — but it could be worse!

go back to school for a masters, a PhD, just to get where your parents would have gotten for going to college, constantly worry about the cost of things that should be reachable for everyone like childcare and housing and healthcare and your awful student loans, but it will pay off!

work more, strive for work-life balance but what that really means is always be reachable, optimize yourself in every way, make sure you cultivate your image, keep your body in perfect shape, be the best at everything you do, leisure is laziness, don’t forget to put money in your 401(k)!

optimize your sleep, optimize your family, optimize your wardrobe, outsource everything, except for parenting - you have to do that all by yourself!

be a brand, be yourself, be funny, be attractive, don’t be a b*tch, don’t rock the boat!

try harder and eventually this broken system will work for you…

…and other lies we were sold.

Also know as: Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen

Read this.