Laura

I enjoyed this Duet, but not nearly as much as Travis & Viola. I connected with Courtney because she yearned after a man she couldn't have, especially a sexy man in uniform. I'm glad there was some drama and excitement in the plot, the crazy ex kept me guessing. About 2/3 of the way through I was honestly tired of the characters though, and I was ready to move on. Not enough to DNF, which I'm glad I didn't because the craziness near the end made it worth finishing. The spice was hot, but not as hot as T&V, in my opinion. I'm not sure if I will continue the Checkmate series, as I don't really care about Logan and Kayla. shrug

Yet another great menage romance from Katee Robert! I was confused throughout the book about the faction system, but near the middle, I just decided to think of it like rivaling gangs. Lol. Hot spice and exciting plot. I am hesitant to read Broderick because this series is on hold and I don't want book blueballs.

Meh. Dunno if I'll continue this series. Modern-day Romeo & Juliet is how I would describe this. Spice is 2/5 because there's only a few spicy scenes and they aren't lengthy. If you like a more plot driven story, this is more your speed. Personally, I like more spice and I didn't really connect with the characters.

This WOULD have been a five-star review... but the surprise near the end almost fucking ruined it for me. I personally hate the surprise pregnancy trope. I do love a HEA but goddammit, I was having such a good time with Sara and Z's budding relationship. The spice was HOT as hell throughout this book, as Katee Robert always delivers on that front.

Thank you to BookSirens and the author for an advanced copy!
First off, I want to say that I personally know the author and I was SO excited to hear she was publishing her first book! I IMMEDIATELY wanted a copy for myself.

The Marriage Wars is set in a near-future dystopian Sacramento, which is where I grew up. I knew every road, business, and landmark that Melissa mentioned in the book, and it made the story feel more real to me. At first, I was confused about the concept of the Nation, but over the course of the book, it started to make sense. California became the Nation and implemented its own government and started regulating who can get married and have children, in order to rebuild the population after the pandemic. The Nation also implemented a tier system to segregate its citizens by class.

Olivia mostly grew up on a compound, outside of the Nation, where such regulations were not in place. But to have a more stable income, she and her fiance Ethan moved back to the Nation, but their marriage application was denied. Sometime later, Olivia marries Thomas, who is in a higher tier, in order to get her sister cancer treatments.

Ten years have passed since Olivia and Thomas married, and Olivia decides to use her Challenge Pass. This is like a marriage hall pass, where they can go to a Nation Center to have sex with random people for three days, as a reward for being married and contributing to the Nation for 10 years.

I like this concept, it feels plausible, like this situation could actually happen in the future. It felt reminiscent of A Handmaid's Tale.
The plot and writing in The Marriage Wars is strong, but certain parts felt kind of slow. I wanted more action in the first half of the book. Around 70%, things really started to pick up and so much happened. There was one twist around 80% that I did NOT see coming.

Overall, a solid 4 stars.

I got this Uncorrected Proof from a coworker who had won it on Goodreads. I follow a bunch of Instagram illustrators, but not Beth Evans (but now I do), and flipping through it I could see her illustrations were included so I gave it a shot. Finished in two days (three reading sessions) and I enjoyed it a lot. As a person with moderate anxiety, I could relate to SO MANY of Beth's stories, including awkward social interactions, saying the wrong thing and internalizing it for days afterwards, being bullied and thinking it was my fault, etc. Its so refreshing to read that other people struggle with the same issues, especially when you don't have many friends with anxiety, or even the same kind of anxiety as you. I work in a high school library, and I am most definitely putting this book in our collection. I think the teens that read this will realize that even adults suffer from anxiety (even if we are better at hiding it) and its okay to feel that way. The ONLY thing that I didn't care for in this book was the formatting. Occasionally, an illustration (or up to three pages of illustrations) would be in between a sentence, so I would have to skip the pages of illustrations to finish the sentence, then flip back to read the illustrations. It wasn't awful, it just felt like I was being interrupted.

My friend won this book from a goodreads giveaway and she let me read it first! This book was so different from any other dystopian novel I've ever read... And I've read a bunch. I loved the premise of a nuclear apocalypse that results in a mutation where everyone is born in a set of twins, one prefect and the other flawed. The first quarter of the book went by a little slower than the rest, just because Cass was locked up for literally years. Once she escapes though, the book picked up some. It took me longer to read than I expected, but it had an okay rhythm to it. The big twist near the end was lightly hinted at in certain points throughout the book, but I figured it out about 10 chapters before it was revealed. I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel!