Melissa

It felt like I was reading two separate books; a baseball romance where the world series is played in what felt like less than 10 pages; and a very spicy femdom romance.

The whole book is worth it for chapter 52, beautiful, stunning, wonderful.

I would have left this at 4 stars because it was a quick read and I did like the side characters, and the fact that both main characters are bi and it's just not a scentence and then it's never mentioned again. No the ex boyfriend is a significant player! It's great and I loved it!

No, we have to have a third act break up! Also the MMC was going to get traded to another team when they were almost at the world series but doesnt?? Why? This was frustrating

Also, Rookie, is used as a nickname about 74 times, give or take, but I counted. And I hated it.

4.5 rounded up to 5

I could read an entire series about these two, or even just the characters as a whole around Teddy's pub. I could feel the love of the alt punk rock scene flow through the pages, and the tenderness and care of the two main characters even more so, especially for the CNC scene at the end which many other writers fail to do. I'll make up my own story of Drew and June in my head. I am definitely going to be reading more from this author.

It may have just been my kindle edition but there were some formatting errors, such as giant blocks of spaces before the next paragraph in the same scene, but I got used to it.

2.75 rounded up to 3

I might be in the minority here, and forgive me for the unorganized thoughts, but I really was unimpressed with Madame.

Spoilers ahead

My first and biggest gripe is that the two scenes with Eden and Jade are either being recorded for Clay, or in a voyeur room with other people watching. Not just for the two of them to be with eachother. We were promised a scene of Jade flogging Eden, a private one on one without Clay there!, that was then taken away by Jade being stupid. It also felt very Gay For You with Jade and Eden. It would have been so easy for Jade to have already had a girlfriend in the past, or less hand wavy of just kissing girls drunk at a party.

I also personally did not like going back and forth between the past and the present between Clay and Eden in small paragraphs. I felt like it would have flowed much better if we got everything with the both of them first, and then the rest of the book.

I also felt like there were too many tropes just packed in here for the sake of either marketing or the author really wasn't interested in writing more books on SPC but was contracted to do so. I think it would have been much better for Jade to simply be Clay's girlfriend and really explore being a Switch, then to shove Age Gap and Boss's Daughter in there too.

I also don't know if its be cause I loved Praise, Give Me More, and liked Mercy (still havnt read Eyes On Me) but really didn't care for and DNF'd Highest Bidder that's clouding my judgement.

This just wasn't my favorite and I'm dissapointed. Maybe Sara Cate's stuff just isn't for me.

I'll put an actual review here once my brain stops screaming, “HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT.”

EDIT: Review

Couple Ed and Tamsyn's daughter Scarlett has fallen into a coma, and with their insurance running out, they are left with little choices. Until they are approached by a company offering their services: transporting their daughter into a new integrated AI body, one that can be a bit better behaved. And things seem to be going well with Sophie, their new daughter. Until Scarlett begins to wake.

–

I've probably been saying this a lot lately, but I dont know how to feel about this one. A few character motivations just didn't make sense to me or add up.

But it was well written and moved quickly, I read it in a day! However, this has to be said. To those who are comparing it to Ready or Not, the movie that came out a few years ago are very, very incorrect. To be upfront about it and possible !!!SPOILERS!!! the actual action happens in about the last 50 pages or so of the book, and the family is pretty much not involved as a whole.

I did enjoy it, but not as much as I wanted to.

Knowing from the authors notes page at the beginning that this is a Dark Royalty romance aided in my enjoyment of Scarred. Like a lot of people I grew up with The Lion King, as well as having the privilege of seeing it on Broadway, there is a framed poster on my wall, Be Prepared as almost at the top of the track list out of the soundtrack. Scar is one of the great Disney Villains, and one of my favorites.

I was, not surprised but more amused at myself, that I really enjoyed this book. That it was easy to read and to follow was great, and as a bit of a slower reader this really only took me a few days to finish. As mentioned previously knowing that this was a Fall for the Villains type book, allowed me to sit back and just enjoy the ride that I was on. Most of the side characters I found endearing, or al least fun to read about. Timothy, Pete, and Simon are the true standouts. However I do wish that the more tragic or terrifying scenes left more of an impact on the characters than they did.

And yes this book was very nice and spicy, but it is a bit of a teasing slow burn! There's also wax and impact play!

I had such a great time with this, read the first few pages in Target, went home, and drove the 30 drive the next day back to get it and I'm so glad I did.

As with Dark Romances, please always heed the content warnings, which are posted on the authors website.

HMRC is a very politically charged contemporary novel about witches, warlocks, and mundanes (us non magical people) living in plain and hidden sight in England. I absolutely loved how magic was described through out, such as the atoms and energy changing around them and what they felt while casting. A personal favorite was the healer using the pain of a victim and inflicting it back onto an attacker, I LOVED that.

The main characters, Helena, Leonie, Niamh, and Elle, were well defined in who they were and had their own arcs through out. Niamh and Theo's relationship was my favorite. I do wish we had more of Leonie and her coven Diaspora, and there were some choices made by characters that just didn't make sense, but overall I loved it.

There is so much that I wish I could go over without spoiling anything, but watching the two sides of the same coin, a character evolving into their true potential with love and trust and a character descending into horrid villainy because of bigotry and being unwilling to admit they were wrong is just so good and done so well.

I am incredibly excited and look forward to the sequel that comes out this year!

I am not sure how to feel about this one, truly. Not a lot actually happens, most of it is internal thoughts and very non descript actions. Which at the beginning I loved. It made me feel claustrophobic, and there was dread seeping out of every scentence. But then it started to drag its feet, with the research crew not even feeling once like scientists either. The worst for me is that I am left with more questions and no answers.

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I was going to. To be real for a minute, I've been having a bit of a bad mental health month and needed something lighter, or as the author himself puts it “pop music.”

I had such a great time with it, the characters were great, the dialouge witty and sciencey, but not in a way that made my eyes glass over, and SPOILERS! there was no twist villain! If you hate greedy billionaires as much as I do you will love this book.

There are also gay, trans, and non binary characters that just get to be, no fanfare no big deal and I love reading books like that.

The only thing holding this book back from being a 4☆ Enjoyment read is that it is incredibly dialouge heavy, with very few descriptions of at all. The plot starts to pick up in the last third.

I loved this book so much and it's exactly what I needed.

I finished this book in about two days; the hold it had on me immense that I could not stop thinking about it.

To get it out of the way, was this the most spectacular writing? No, but that's not what I wanted or needed. It was easy to read, and kept me sucked into the final page. I saw some complaints that the middle was not good and braced myself for it, but I loved the whole of it.

♤

I am a little conflicted on this one.
I listened to the audio book while, still, recovering from eye surgery, and I think that is the best way to go with it. I was not a fan of the flash backs, but that usually is not my cup of tea anyway as the details of those flashbacks are kept clumsily vague until details are revealed to the audience, then are brought up in present day. But I might be getting ahead of myself.

There was a conflict between the mother and the daughter that never felt properly resolved. Miscommunication is all over the place, and certain threads I thought were going to be resolved were brought up and then never touched again. There are major scenes with SH that I personally feel like were not properly warned about, or I would have picked up this book at a different time. Also, the death of a character I really like was relegated to a paragraph.

With all that being said, the audiobook saves this from being a three-star read. Melanie Lee does an amazing job with giving each character their own voice throughout, the daughter being my favorite. I hear a little Kikkimora in there! She gives every word meaning and weight, and you just want to hang onto each of them

Maybe I'll reread/relisten while not recovering from surgery and might like it better.

I think this is now my favorite romance novel and favorite book I've read so far this year. The way that the characters are so clearly defined and feel real is something that I feel is missing from most romances. With that being said, the relationship that surprised me the most was not the main romantic pair of Delilah and Clair, which I will get to, but rather the relationship between Delilah and her step sister Astrid. I have at times been on either side of that sibling dynamic, the one not understanding and the one not being understood. I almost cried at then where instead of the expected romantic interest that shows up to the big event it was her, working to extend the olive branch.


Of course it is the relationship between Clair and Delilah that we are all here for and it was done wonderfully. Usually I am not a fan of the “sisters best friend” trope, but it works very well here. Their rough history with eachother is acknowledged throughout instead of being brushed aside. And the tender moments and other scenes are done very well, with emotion and tension between them a driving force.

Ruby was also a surprise to me, as it is extremely difficult to find well written children characters that act their age. There were even a few moments that I even sided with Josh, don't get me started on how Clair invited her friends to his and Ruby's camping trip!

The one thing that I didn't particularly care for was the ending with Josh and the house, as it didn't really make any sense to me.

Overall, I loved this book and the characters of Bright Falls! I have Astrids book on my shelf that I'm saving for the future, and am very excited for Iris' book!

I loved the idea of this book, but the execution falls flat for me. I want to read about a very toxic love obsessed boy, as I'm sure many of us had to unfortunately deal with in high school. But the writing was way too rushed for me, especially toward the end, and I could have gone without the >SPOILERS drug subplot as I feel what happened in the beginning was enough. I loved that the book did not hand waive away the relationship and portayed it exactly how it was, which I am so glad that the book does that, instead of making excuses for it like a million YA, and even a lot of Adult “romances” and romances in not quotes do. Not sure if it was just my copy, but i did not see a list of resources for readers who may be dealing with similar experiences that occur in the book, which i have wonderdfully seen some authors do, but was lacking in this one which rubbed me the wrong way, but again may have been my copy.  The great premise was there, but the sub par writing did not hold it through. 

Man I feel awful that my feelings can be summarized to “I don't really care” oops. I love books with unlikable characters as they're interesting to read so maybe it's the writing for me just ain't it. They acted all felt like highschoolers and they didn't change much from college to adulthood either.

I am not really a Memoir person. Maybe because I find reading about somebody else's life rather daunting; are they being truthful either in a negative way to make themselves look better or purposefully holding back information that may harm? And I usually only see memoirs from celebrities that I truly do not care about.* However,this was a whole experience in a roughly 2200-pagebook about emotional abuse in a same gender relationship. And it was harrowing, and heartbreaking, and sometimes a little funny ,ut dread seeped it's way in though some of the early chapters. And it is told in such a unique way.

Many of the chapters are told in second person, with us as the reader directly in the authors shoes, one time we were an squid. Each chapter is told, for a lack of a better way to phrase it, in a different lense or writing style or topic all starting Dream House as. One chapter is Dream House as Famous Last Words, the ex girlfriend asking for a physical relationship but wanting nothing more and is a scentence of dialouge, another is Dream House as Queer Villany going over the authors thoughts, as well as providing context through film, of queer coded villains, as well as the history of the term “gaslighting.” Another chapter handles the limited history that is currently available of court cases regarding queer women in abusive relationships.

Dream House as a Choose Your Own Adventure made me feel like I was drowning and hated every second of it.

Dream House as Unexpected Kindess made me cry.

Dream House felt very personal to me, but for different reasons I won't go into here. But having her voice the thoughts that sometimes to show people that hey it was real I have photos to prove it! But you can't do that with the emotional damage that she received is just crushing.

I would reccomend this to everyone to read, but please look Into any TW for this book before doing so.

I love any type of book that plays with the medium, such as epistolary novels that are diary entries, the Dear America books come to mind, told in letters, Ella Minnow Pea, or completely take apart what a book even is, House of Leaves which is on my tbr, and Daisy Jones is no exception.

Told through interviews between that band members of Daisy Jones & the Six, it goes through their forming of the band and their eventual breakup. This was a pretty quick read when I read it back in November and really enjoyed it! The ending absolutely shocked me.

I loved the interview style of the book that hooks you in right away, and the flawed characters were riveting, especially the two leads Daisy and Billy, and how they each battle their own demons and addictions.

With all that being said, I felt like I needed more of something, maybe lean into the interview style a little and include other pieces of media with the band in-between or have asides of the characters moving in their chairs or taking long pauses and having that being noted in the interview.

Maybe I am just incredibly dense or because it is revealed who the interviewer is, but I never got the explicit telling that Billy cheated on Camila with Daisy? The temptation was more than there, but with other comments I've seen online, I guess I must have missed it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, makes me want to go listen to some Fleetwood Mac, but I felt there was something missing.

3.5 rounded up to 4/5

DNF - pg. 142
Three stars for what I did read

This book started off just so strongly. The writing completely sucking me in and making me understand bits and pieces of Wen, Andrew, and Eric. The way that Leonard was interacting with Wen at the beginning, and her internal thoughts with that were just so good. But then it is revealed why they are there and it felt like the wind was taken out of the sails, even with the scene with Redmond. Without spoiling anything, maybe that's just my personal preference but their reasoning for them being there just took me out of it completely. I'll give it another chance sometime down the road but just not right now.

I think my love for The Martian pays when reading other reality grounded science fiction novels. I loved the premise of this so very much: mission control officer and astronaut fall for each other? Yes, please! However, the romance was the weakest part of the book for me. I don't know if it's because of who I am as a person and of what expectations I made for myself with it that made it feel just too fast and slightly uncomfortable with the hero worship and age gap, and I've read and enjoyed books with both!

Maybe I thought more of the inner workings of space travel could have been explored more, or maybe it was Curt that had to do 6 months on the ISS and the bond between Patrick and Curt could have had more time to develop, and that Patrick's want to go to space could have been just from that, instead of idolizing an astronaut and they both learn from each other as complete strangers. I also wish we got more of the life on the Hermes I, really felt the isolation on the ship, and more than just a page and a half of one EVA. I would have loved to learn more of KC and Carmen and not shipping the only trans character off for a chunk of the book.

However, I loved the absolute competence that everyone has with their jobs, how when things had to get serious everyone buckled down and did what needed to be done instead of messing around or cracking needless jokes. I did have a slight fear that toward the beginning the issues they were facing was going to turn into some sabotage route and kean into the fantasy part of the genre, but I'm so glad they didn't. It was also very nice when Curtis accommodated Patrick at the restaurant very easily with no fuss and that was nice to see. The way that space exploration is needed and essential to who we are is a deep appreciation that I have respect for. 

Overall: 3.5/5

Holy fu*k. Told in different characters persectives, and even different formats, with each chapter, every turn of the page, I felt the same thing: dread. As if I was held to the pages themselves by a chain, unable to be set free until I was done. I thought about this book the whole day I was at work, just thinking: “No, there is no way this could get worse.” But it did.

The only small thing, and it might just be I wanted to get it over and done with in the absolute best way a reader wants to finish a book because they MUST KNOW, is that it was a bit repetitive at times toward the end. But what an ending that was.

Sara Cate books, to me, are like junk food, no nutritional value but are so good I can't have just one.

I loved how the religious indoctrination was woven throughout the story and that people in power will always be hypocrites when it comes to what they actually do. And even speaking as a former Catholic turned full atheist, I did appreciate that he still had his faith in the end and didn't fully denounce it completely as that would have been far too unrealistic for that to come about so quickly.

However, much like a lot of her other books, it suffers so much from telling us information verses showing us, or just giving us time skips with what have been good for character development. Another thing that I felt suffered in this is that they didn't feel fully fleshed out as characters either. I could tell you Sage likes tattoos and her book club, but what's her favorite color? What else does she like to do?

But much like Sara Cates other books, I eat this shit up in one sitting, as her books are so easy to read and comprehend. I want a book with the mother discovering her sexuality! We need more books with older MCs!

Also, the nickname Peaches is the fucking worst and brought me out of it every time.

4 stars because her stuff is entertaining, and I can't get enough.

Mind your business!

I feel awful that I was mostly interested in this as a sort of, oh this looks like a haha funny book there is no way that someone would write this. Which was very mean of me to do that! And I don't know if I'll ever get over my shame for that, and I very much regret thinking that way.

Morning Glory Milking Farm was so much more. Yes, there is smut. But there is just the whole town and the people that Violet meets and befriends that makes the whole town feel alive. I love that her job, with the exception of the gruff with a heart of gold and a love for desserts, was clinical and treated with respect that it was her job!

Their chemistry was so nice to see and based off of the mutual respect that they had for eachother, outside of the physical aspects of their relationship too.

I am so glad that this was my introduction to Monster romance, and I look forward to reading all of the authors work!

Have you ever read a book where you can feel the love and passion saturate every single page and scentence and word? Where you know the author poured their whole heart and soul and knowledge into their writing? That is this book.

Xiomara is an Indigenous Mexican archeologist, and Calehan is the architect on the reservation assisting with the building of a museum for the artifacts. This is a romance novel, where I feel like these two have set the bar now even higher of what a respectful and loving relationship should be.

Honestly writing this review is difficult because I loved every aspect of those book, from the culture (I love love love when books have passages on food and how food impacts the characters!) to really seeing what archeology means and what it entails and the side characters that fill out Bunchberry. But, of course, it is the romance that takes the stage here. Calehan is so wonderful and sweet and knows when to tease and to be serious, and I loved that they both felt human and had motivations and complex emotions and its so good!

! Spoilers!

There is a third act breakup, but it works so well here because the characters feel real, and the reasoning behind it feels so true to life. And it takes months! for them to get back together, and the whole time he is just being so respectful of everything and her choice while yes still trying to communicate with her, but not crossing any boundries!

I loved this book and have to do a reread soon as I may just have to break my fear of annotating.

CW: Grief, loss of a parent, loss of a spouse, racism