Review: Sour Cherry

Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A critic said, “Gothic tales rely on distant pasts and faraway lands full of people unlike us,” except he was wrong, because the land of this story is everywhere. The people are us, the time is always. 

I buddy read this over on a horror Discord. 

Quick thoughts and comments: 

I'm a big fan of folklore, Gothic, horror, and Bluebeard reimaginings/retellings, so I was pretty much the ideal audience for this. I don't know how, but this felt like a fast read and one that dragged all at the same time. The synopsis/marketing copy talked about it being a feminist take but it takes until the second half for the focus to really be on the wives of the tale. That and the different pov and tense changes feeling needlessly challenging and confusing to try and create a mysterious creepy vibe, was mostly why I had a problem with this. Also, some aspects of the story were focused on (Tristan) that felt  counterintuitive and interruptive  to the story's messaging of how abusive men get societal protection and how women get placed in and manipulated into caretaker and shield roles in abusive relationships. 

The first half felt super wonky with how it was structured but the second half read better to me, even though I was annoyed at how it sped through the wives, except for Eunice where I thought the story really settled into what it wanted to be. The focus on the last “special” wife Cherry was back to annoying to me because I think the story lost it's focus again and seemed to want to end the story with stating that Cherry was just as bad as the abusive man, which ok, but then what is this story really about, not what I showed up for based on the synopsis. 

I liked this and was annoyed with it, the atmospheric wonky structured folklore parts mostly didn't work for me but since I'm a fan of that type of storytelling, I still found parts I liked, I think a good chunk of readers will struggle with it, though. The first half felt like it focused on everything and nothing and when I finally found the story working for me in the second half, it sped through it to get to the final wife, a character that did nothing for me. I liked how it showed the systems that protect abusers but not sure this retelling did anything new or attention catching.

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Review: Sterling Hearts

Sterling Hearts by L. Speckhals
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Sterling Hearts was a first person point-of-view contemporary story of a young woman trying to find her footing in life. Evie has broken up with her emotionally abusive boyfriend and decided to move to the Appalachian area after she fell in love with a town her and the ex had passed through during a vacation. It's a small town but alive enough that she thinks an independent bookstore can be successful, her dream. Evie works to stay walled off, she wants to have a professional persona as a business owner and is still recovering from her abusive relationship, but when a man she dubs “The Cowboy” buys a children's book from her store, she can't help but let him a little. 

This had sweet and cute moments but so much of what kept Evie and Blake (the cowboy) apart was misunderstandings that extremely easily could have been cleared with one simple asked and answered question. This read like a slice of life story with a romantic thread as Evie is very focused on getting her store running and worrying about her business persona in town. When her bestfriend comes to stay with her, we get a more livened up version of Evie as the friend pushes her to get out more and give Blake a chance. 

There's a little bit of a mystery plot with some mysterious person who, through a sort of broker, Evie lets sell jewelry in her bookstore, that will have readers guessing and more than likely know the identity before any reveals. Evie and Blake spend some moments together with helping each other fix cars and redo a bathroom but they talk about everything but Blake's life, his secrets felt needlessly drawn out and ultimately made his character feel kind of blank to me. This was closed door with some hot and heavy making out but the way Blake's character never really revealed things about himself, kept him and his trying to build relationship with Evie feel distant and I never felt emotionally drawn to it. 

The so easy to clear up misunderstandings Evie had that could have been taken care of with one question asked to Blake made Evie's reluctance feel dragged out and kept a large part of their relationship from developing. This was a slice of life with a very to be continued feeling ending that unfortunately didn't develop as much emotional depth in characters and relationships that typically pull me into stories.

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The voices said No

I'm just going to say what I did on Bluesky:

If you've been involved with democratic causes in the last decade in MN, you knew Speaker Hortman and her tireless work to make life better for every Minnesotan. I'm devastated that a continued to not be reckoned with domestic terrorism American ideology has led to the political assassination of her and her husband and the attempted assassination of Sen. Hoffman and his wife. 

The St. Paul rally went forth because our AG Ellison said he was still showing up. Other rallies closer to Brooklyn Park and Champlin were canceled. 

The way some of you almost, gleefully, repost information that has yet to be confirmed, fix your hearts too. Personal bias and acceleration thirst helps no one. I don't want any of that along with thoughts or prayers. I will take your courage and body out in your own communities doing the work. 

Today, I'm not getting out of my jammies, decompressing, grieving, uplifting with all the pictures and videos posted from yesterday, and only accepting to add a few things to a schedule I previously cleared for the week. 

Do the work, take the rest, get back to it

Love and solidarity

Reading Update: Page 1

 

Creamsicle season! This summer I went with cookie form and paired it with a contemporary romance. 

Evie's opened a bookstore that everyone's warned her will be a challenge but she's throwing herself into the adventure. 

There's also the guy who keeps visiting that she thinks of as "The Cowboy" who might turn out to be her biggest adventure of all. 

A contemporary closed door with a cowboy and bookstore? Diving in!

Sterling Hearts by L. Speckhals purchase link

could only find for sale on Amazon

Creamsicle Orange Cookies recipe

Review: Lady or the Tiger

Lady or the Tiger by Heather M. Herrman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

You aren’t going to like me. 

Lady or the Tiger was about a young girl surviving in the American wild west and trying to come into her own. Told, mostly, all from her point-of-view with numerous back and forth time jumps, readers travel with her from the beginning at fifteen years old forced to kill a man to nineteen years old and about to be hung as the Seamstress, a serial killer. This was tagged as young adult but I'd go more new adult, there's nothing completely explicit with the sex and violence but with a first husband who is a sadist in the bedroom, I often felt the messaging of don't give up being yourself for men was stylistically written more for adult thinking; I'm a big Judy Blume fan and I couldn't help comparing the two. The “supporting women's wrongs” with claiming fierce feminism when our lead Alice/Belle lures men with her physical wiles to murder them, just wasn't groundbreaking or entertaining for me, your mileage may vary. 

For a ghost, he looks very much alive. 

Alice gets sent to an asylum after she murders a man and her mother is killed. From there she is forced to marry Reginald, a cop, as a means of escape. She becomes useful to him by helping him cheat while gambling and they travel the west and Europe but he's the sadist in the bedroom and when Alice locks eyes with a boy in Texas, they spend a night together and escape Reginald. Alice then becomes Belle and travels the west and Europe with the carnival of The Damned, falling in love with Cal, the Texas boy, and taming a tiger to dance with. One night things unravel and Belle runs while Cal saves her from a dire situation, but eventually at nineteen Belle turns herself in for the Seamstress murders and wants to be hung because she thinks/knows she's done wrong. Her plan gets ruined when Reginald shows up and says she's crazy, citing the asylum stay, and tries to save her. 

And though I have shot two men, kissing a boy here in the fading light, without last night’s irresistible spell to carry me away or my shadow to guide me, feels like the bravest thing I have ever done. 

Like I said, the timeline is cut and spliced wildly, Alice/Belle starts off ready to be hung, then you'll go from how she escaped Reginald, her murderous time as the Seamstress, time with Cal, how she married Reginald, and the time at the asylum. There's some unreliable narration going on and an ending that takes a page from the short story it's title is inspired by (The Lady or the Tiger). If you can handle non-linear stories, telling you feminism is simply doing what you want, cool real women historical figures shout-outs, a good message (lost in the story for me most the time) of don't change yourself for love or chance at it, and an open-ended ambiguous ending, then this was something different along those lines.

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Reading Update: 50%

After leaving Lady Isadora, Elizabeth went to her room to fetch her pelisse and the small pistol that her father had given her to protect herself. 

‘I do not think you will have cause to use it,’ Sir Edwin had told her when he taught her to shoot straight as a young girl. ‘But it is possible, Elizabeth. You like to walk alone and I would not have you afraid—but if you should be attacked, shoot the rogue and be damned to the consequences!’

Happy early Father's Day to Sir "be damned the consequences!" Edwin

Review: The Compound

The Compound by Aisling Rawle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

I’ve always been a passive kind of person; it is both my worst quality and the thing that people like most about me. 

If you've ever watched the tv show Big Brother and wished it had a darker vibe, then you're going to want to read The Compound. Told from contestant Lily's point-of-view readers wake up with her in a house in the desert. As she finds nine other younger women scattered throughout the house we learn that the ten men who will join them will come from the surrounding desert. They will be filmed constantly, Lily's watched and been a fan of the show, and have to complete tasks as a group for rewards and be able to complete personal tasks for goodies. The goal is to be the last one house-guest, when you'll be able to ask for anything you want and get it, provided you still remain in the house. It all sounds like a fun break to win prizes but as the story went on, competitiveness and darker personalities began to seep in through the cracks. 

I was there because I thought that this was what I was supposed to want: the house and the rewards and all the nice things. 

As the narrator, you'd think your sympathies will be solidly with Lily, and they are at times, but she works as a mirror to hold up to yourself, consumerism, and influencer culture. Lily's honest with us readers and as someone who works a retail job, lives at home at twenty-five, and has a father she hasn't seen in years because he's off fighting a war, she's on the reality tv show to “take a break” and win prizes she would otherwise never be able to afford. Part of the show's concept is that each night the men have to pick a woman to sleep with in bed, if someone doesn't have a partner the next morning they are banished. This creates competition between the women and sets up a heteronormative dynamic. There is a lot being said in this story and while I think the author started some conversations that need to be had, I'm not sure they all stuck the landing, especially towards the end. There wasn't much outerworld building, it's vague future dystopian with climate change and wars, but if you're here for discussions on some of the topics I mentioned, the microcosm world in the house provides enough different personalities and situations.

He looked around him, his face pinched in sadness. “Do you really want to live here, in this…wasteland?” 

“It’s no worse than what’s out there! Is that what you want to go back to? Constantly living on the periphery of disaster, just waiting and waiting and waiting for it to finally reach us, doing stupid, dull work to pass the days until then? We’re safe here— we’re removed from all of it.” 

“It’s still there, Lily. It’s still happening. You think that because we can’t see it, it’s not going on?” 

With so many characters the beginning was a little tougher to get a handle on but it becomes clear fairly early who are the contestants to keep an eye on. I liked how Lily had some personality components that we all probably have and don't necessarily like about ourselves and following along with the choices she made works to confront some of those indoctrinated lines of thought. This had some thriller vibes that I enjoyed, the threat of violence was always prevalent. This often felt poised to say something, it got there at times and never quite reached it at others for me. Coated in the bleakness of late stage capitalism, this dark vibed Big Brother starts a lot of conversations on the ever fascinating topics of societal structures and human nature.

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TBRChallenge Review: Evvie Drake Starts Over

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After all this time, he would wonder, why now? He wouldn’t know that, today exactly, Evvie had been with him for half her life. 

In continuing to limp my way to completing SuperWendy's TBRChallenge, I finally finished May's Older Couple theme book. Now, when I was looking for a book for this theme Evvie Drake was on numerous lists for older couples, it was at my local library, so I could use it for a bingo square for another game I'm playing, and it has been on my tbr for more than five years. Y'all, I think Evvie is in her early to late thirties and I'm guessing Dean is in the mid to late thirties range. Older couple. I feel like dust. Anywhooooooooo 

“I do think we should have a deal.” 

She looked at him expectantly. 

“You don’t ask me about baseball,” he said, “and I don’t ask you about your husband.” 

On the day that Evvie is packing her car to leave her highschool sweetheart husband, he gets into a car accident and dies. This leaves her as the “grieving” widow, stuck in a role that doesn't fit. I'd put this in the women's fiction with romance category and while I enjoyed Evvie and Dean's interactions and chemistry, it was all about that living in quiet desperation with a supposed golden boy who is emotionally and physically abusive. Exploring Evvie's character as she goes through life and interactions trying to maintain her composure, keeping up a facade that she not only can't physically or emotionally do anymore, she's learning that she doesn't need or should have to. I liked how the author showed the nefarious ways it's easy to slip into this role and dynamic, Evvie met her husband while still in highschool and felt “lucky” to be noticed by him, all the while learning (emotional abused) how to keep him happy at the expense of herself (She was the one, after all, who had graduated second in her class, right behind him, after tanking her math final because she knew how much it meant to him to be valedictorian.). Along with emotional abuse there are physical abuse content warnings, this shows how as their relationship went on and her husband felt more comfortable, the abuse was ramping up. Evvie didn't have the language or emotional maturity to fully understand what was happening to her, especially since her abuser was so apt at keeping it hidden and the culture of shame kept her quiet. It's what makes this story/book so important, giving space to talk out and name these abuses. 

They wouldn’t have believed that the reasons she rarely felt like dancing with him had to do with the way he was at home. She knew the way he sort of glowed for most people. She probably knew it better than anybody, because she’d traded away more than anybody in return for it. 

Dean did have his own issues, he got the yips during his major league pitching career, which ultimately ended it. Evvie's bestfriend Andy is friends with Dean and he pairs them together with Dean renting out an apartment in Evvie's house so he can get away from the spotlight. It's summer so I loved the baseball additive and enjoyed some of the baseball history and lore but the ending to this thread of his was kind of meh, which I guess is another life lesson but meh all the same. This took place over a year, so you could say their relationship was a slow burn and again, I enjoyed them together but not the main reason I gave this four stars. 

“Who knows you?” he asked. 

The other main relationship was Evvie and her bestfriend Andy and how by her not telling him the truth about her marriage made Andy feel not as close or as important to her as he felt she was to him. It's a great look/discussion in all the ways people work to hide themselves and keep up an image by trying to protect themselves emotionally but end up only hurting themselves more. Also, a great look at how friendships can change over time as romances enter the picture. This was languid at times, insightful, emotional, funny, sweet, and hurt so good. The way it showed and called out a particular form of hidden abuse and how Evvie eventually built up the strength to call it so and work to emotionally navigate through it, will make you want to donate a copy to every library.

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Quickie Thought Review: Special of the Day

Special of the Day by Elaine Fox
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars  

All the leads needed to do was talk to each other but story rested on the FMC having to learn to trust. 

Random Declaration of Independence mystery thrown in, was wild but kept me reading lol

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Review: The Summer That Changed Everything

The Summer That Changed Everything by Brenda Novak
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

“You told me something fifteen years ago,” she said, “something that's bothered me ever since.” 

Fifteen years ago, when Lucy was seventeen, her father was convicted of murdering three people, an older couple that lived in their trailer park and a girl Lucy's age. The Summer That Changed Everything is about a now grown up Lucy going back to the small coastal town that railroaded her out and investigating the gut feeling telling Lucy that her father wasn't as guilty as everyone wanted him to be. 

He had a sinking feeling this summer wasn't going to be the peaceful getaway he'd hoped. 

Along with a murder mystery, there's some second chance romance with a boy that Lucy was dating at the time, Ford. Ford's also in town to repair his family's beach house because after his father's death, his mother and brother want to sell it. He hated how he let his parents and the town convince him to abandon Lucy and he's determined to now be there for her. He hires a private investigator to help them but he's also dealing with going through a divorce, with a wife who is pregnant with his child. As a romance reader, the addition of Ford was a nice romantic thread to throw in, I like how he showed up for Lucy this time and was apologetic for his teenage self that wasn't strong enough to be there for her. We don't really get solid flashbacks to show their younger romance, so, much of their romance depends on the reader going along with their stated past feelings and how that leads to them still feeling connected and attracted to each other. I liked them together but I can't say I fully felt a heat or heart pumping connection, especially since the third act breakup involves Ford's wishy-washy on returning to his ex because of the baby. The whole ex situation resolved future, seemed obvious a mile away and I felt myself wishing and thinking that whole side story wasn't even needed. 

She still didn't know where this summer would lead---if she'd be glad she'd made the effort, or if the past would sweep her back out to sea, once again leaving her lost and alone and struggling just to survive. 

For a beach read mystery, this moved a little slowly for me, I would have liked some pages cut for a more streamlined exciting, thrilling feel but if you're looking for more sedately moving mystery, this would fit the bill. The two murders of the older couple and the murder of the younger girl have connections and differences, as the reader, you'll get some quicker answers with this having multiple povs from different characters, while Lucy had to wait for answers until the end. There were some compelling and entertaining true crime additives, genealogical DNA, with hints and clues to help you make early guesses and be shocked at later reveals. This moved a little too slowly for me and had a lukewarm temperature to the romance and thriller aspect but I enjoyed the one year epilogue HEA and the true crime additives.

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Review: Courtroom Drama: A Novel

Courtroom Drama: A Novel by Neely Tubati Alexander
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

After all the times I’ve fantasized about running into him again— an actual run-in on the street or a glance over in a restaurant to see him seated at a table beside me where I could lay into him about how shitty he was— I never pictured it being with a group of strangers under the jury equivalent of a gag order, where I can’t immediately say any of the things I’ve wanted to over the years. 

Sydney's got the dreaded call for jury duty but she's excited, because one of the Housewives from her favorite reality tv show is on trial. Convinced she knows the housewife enough from the show, Sydney can't wait to help make sure other jurors see the truth. When Sydney sees who else is on the jury, her childhood bestfriend she hasn't seen in ten years, she's suddenly not only contending with making sure an innocent woman goes free but trying to not fall back in love. 

We were six years in as best friends, yet also on the delicate cusp of something more. 

Courtroom Drama spent most of the time focusing on the murder trial, with Sydney thinking about scenes from tv episodes that influenced how she saw the housewife on trial for the murder of her husband. The times portraying Sydney sitting in the jury with the courtroom scenes were numerous with shorter interruptions of Sydney and Damon having interactions outside the courtroom in the hotel they were sequestered at. To enjoy this, you'll have to go along with Sydney feeling it's highly important that she's on the jury but doing a whole bunch of stuff that could get her kicked off or getting a mistrial called. I didn't fully buy into her actions after we got her thoughts and the lack of, what I felt, was romance development between the two, overall hurt my enjoyment of this. There were a few thought about and talked about with Damon, flashbacks to when the two were kids to show us some of their friendship and how as eventual teenagers they started to feel romantic towards each other, but because they don't get to and aren't supposed to be spending some time together, I had a hard time buying into their rekindled/started adult romance. We get answers to why their friendship broke up (parent drama) but since they were still fairly young, not a strong romantic background. They pass notes back and forth in their hotel rooms but we don't get to “read” all of them, so I never really bought into their romance. There was an open-door scene but with the setup, it was hard to believe and enjoy Sydney risking it all for it to occur. 

Finally, he speaks. “Did you have feelings for me? Back then?” 

I thought I caught a big clue to the murder trial mystery in the beginning but it was never brought up again, still, I think the verdict was pretty obvious from how the story was getting laid out. There was an ending reveal to shock readers and things get left ambiguous in that story thread regard. The romance got a three months Happily For Now but without feeling much of their connection throughout the story, I can't say I felt big emotions from it.

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Review: Slipstream

Slipstream by Madge Maril
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

2 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

It was already over. I just hadn’t known it. 

Lilah has moved down to Texas from Washington D.C. to film a documentary paid for by a Formula 1 team about their drivers. She films with her bestfriend turned boyfriend Max and they're coming off doing an award winning doc about a congressman. Lilah knows nothing about Formula 1 and wants to do important film making, not a puff piece, but as someone diagnosed with ADHD and neurodivergent, she has let Max lead her in things she should like and how she should act. Her plan is to get down to Texas and convince him that they shouldn't do the film but instead he promptly breaks up with her and tells her he's kicking her out of the company that has both their names on it. Fortunately, the driver Lilah was assigned to film, Arthur, has his own grievances and agenda. He'll help her get the doc tanked if she'll help him get his uncle to fire him off the team. The fake dating plan they come up with sounds great, until real feelings get involved. 

The enemy of my enemy is a Formula 1 reserve driver trying to break his contract, as the saying goes. 

I had just read a Formula 1 book and a very similar dynamic between the main characters a little before I read this and I think that may have lead to me not enjoying this as much. The plan Lilah and Max come up with never quite made sense to me, they're going to fake date but not so much that people can really realize and that is supposed to get his uncle to fire him and get them to trash the doc? Until the end when this plan comes into play, I just ignored it instead of trying to figure it out. 

“You know what you remind me of? We used to feed this angry stray cat out in Rome. Micetta, we called her. She bit me every time I pet her.” 

“Masochist,” I mumble. 

“You wish.” 

This was told all from Lilah's point-of-view and she spends a lot of time pointing out how feeling so different from everyone else, which she puts down to her ADHD, has her constantly at odds with people and wanting to hide away from the world. Of course, there wasn't really any awkwardness with Arthur, he, covertly to Lilah but obvious to readers, clicks with and falls for her immediately. I honestly thought there was going to be messaging at the end how everyone feels weird and awkward and Lilah really wasn't that different but this was more of a women's/lit fiction story where Lilah's issues felt dragged out (352 pages) and rehashed to death. Arthur gets some focus on his family issues and PTSD but his character was not focused on in that a male main character in a romance but women's fiction vibe story. There was an open door scene where Arthur just decided to suddenly verbalize his love, spouting “wife” and the like, for some good pull quote scenes, but Lilah, of course, just passed it all off as “in the moment”. 

But when Arthur looks at me like this, I realize maybe being unique isn’t a tragedy if it’s the reason he keeps smiling at me. 

Again, if I hadn't just read some similar vibe stories and characters, maybe I would have enjoyed this more but this just felt long, rehashing, and more of Lilah's story than a total romance. She has self-esteem issues to work through, her thinking her ADHD makes her so different from everyone else and how her birth mother gave her up (she got adopted at sixteen and has a great relationship with her adopted parents). She says blunt things to Arthur that he delights in and he's just so immediately interested and into her but she has no idea! There was some Formula 1 world-setting, Lilah (readers) getting explanations from Arthur's team about the sport and some race scenes. Arthur's racing team members gave us some pretty good secondary characters and Lilah getting her place in the “family” was a favorite aspect of this book. Overall, too much of that lit fic internal thoughts focus with Lilah and not enough romantic relationship development with Arthur.

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Review: 32 Days in May

32 Days in May by Betty Corrello
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Right now, he sees me the way I want to be seen: healthy. 

32 Days in May was a story of finding yourself after getting a chronic diagnosis and what that can all mean when falling in love. Nadia lived in New York and had a high paying job in advertising when she starts to feel bone deep tired, losing control of her body leads to losing her job. After getting diagnosed with Lupus, she moves into her family's small duplex beach house in her hometown. Her dad is calling people trying to get her a job, her older sister is constantly pressuring her to “get out” and live, and her doctor just set her up with his cousin, Marco, who just so happens to be a former tv star who hasn't really been heard from in years after getting arrested in an airport with party drugs. It's when Marco suggests no strings attached dating for only the month of May, that Nadia begins to realize that even if her life doesn't look the same, it can still be worth living. 

He looks at me and sees another sorta-cute local girl armed with a self-fashioned tristate, tough-girl attitude that he knows all too well, well enough to kick right through. 

But he has no idea what he's up against. Deep in the crevices of my mind, my own chaos demon rattles her chains. 

This was all told from Nadia's point-of-view and she has one of those warped, some gallows, sense of humor, I got her and found her funny but I can see her personality not working for everyone. Luckily, it worked really well with Marco's, he loved how she didn't give him the “star treatment” and how it helped him to get out of his head. Marco's was the lost for her but trying to hide it so he doesn't scare her away, who wants to really make a go of things beyond the month and it's Nadia who has to work through her emotional issues. Along with her health issues and the emotional journey she goes on to learn to live with them, there's also discussion of her suicidal thoughts for trigger warnings (it's lightly touched on one or two times until towards the ending of the book where we see her in that suicidal moment). This was more of Nadia's story and while we get some talk about Marco's addiction issues, it isn't until something like the last five pages we get fuller details about his past life. Since it came so late, it felt awkward to me and I actually could have did without them because by that time, it didn't really flush out his character more to me. 

Maybe that's what being alive is. You don't get to surface, new. You break away; you start again; you molt old skin, altogether too tight and wrong, and while scars fade, they never disappear. At least not right away. Along with the romance, which I thought worked as Nadia and Marco played off each other well, but still think this was more of Nadia's journey, we get a look at the complicated sisterly relationship. I'm sure many will relate to the highs of giggling together with the person that gets you and the lows of that same person knowing you so well they know the exact correct buttons to push to anger and devastate you. There was also Nadia's neighbors who brought different perspectives to her life to help round out her character. 

I've met a man who takes my picture. 

You'll probably want Nadia to tell Marco about her sickness before the latter second half moment she does but the author also did a good job making her understandable to be seen a certain way. This was sweet, funny, emotional, and with an open door scene, sexy. Nadia's walls were fortified with sarcasm, teasing flirting, and vulnerability but Marco had the compatibility tools to finally break through, while also sharing parts of himself to have Nadia also falling in love.

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Review: The Familiar

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I buddy read this over on StoryGraph but quick wrap-up of thoughts.... 

Hualit had warned her: the Church owned miracles and their saints performed them, not scullion girls with muddy family names. 

Definitely read this in the Fall/Winter months, I think some of it went slower and was harder for me to get into because it was 90degrees and sunny when I was trying to read it. The dread and tension in this demands clouds and howling wind. 

Stripped basics: Luzia, a scullion girl, accidentally on purpose reveals her magical abilities and the lady of the house, Valentina, wants to use it as a way to move her up the social ladder. Luzia's aunt Hualit warns her of the dangers of revealing herself but also sees it as a way to gain more favor with her patron, Victor. Victor's our solid villain and along with him is his servant, Santangel. Victor wants Santangel to train Luzia for a tournament that will pit magical people against each other for the honor of serving the king directly, if Luzia wins it will also help Victor gain the king's praise. This is set in late 1500s Spain, oh yeah, Luzia is out here being magical during Spanish Inquisition days. Remember that dread and tension I mentioned? 

That's the basics but what makes this so atmospheric and emotional is how the author mixed and used historical fiction, fantasy/paranormal, and romance. Luzia and her aunt was a great contrast between life experience caution and young righteous anger, I wanted Luzia to reveal and become her true self as much as I was with Hualit that it made me fear for her, which I loved how the author intermingled it with Luzia's magical abilities and Jewish heritage. Luzia's magical but there's also something with Santangel and with that pairings dynamic, you get old world-weary, naive pride, and attraction. This has numerous povs but you don't really get Santangel's story until the latter second half, but he brings out and works in theater with Luzia's character beautifully. 

From the messaging to the funny and emotional author's talent with turn of phrases, this should be on Halloween season book lists. There were some slow parts and the ending will rollercoaster you around in abrupt change of pace, but oof, well worth it. Valentina's journey actually ended up stealing the show for me but long live immortal happily ever afters.

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Reading Romance Bingo Challenge

 That's What I'm Talking About (Twimom227) 2025 Romance Reading Bingo Challenge

BINGO! 

Halfway through the year, hopefully I can get that blackout this time!

*clicking on book title takes you to my review

Sports - The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan

Snow/Ice on cover - Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey

Forced Proximity - A Cowboy to Remember by Rebekah Weatherspoon

SciFi/Fantasy - Order of Swans by Jude Deveraux

Non-US/UK setting (real country) - A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera

TBR over 1 year - The Liar's Dice by Jeannie Lin

LGBTQ+ - Les Normaux by Janine Janssen with S. Al Sabado

Non-US Author - Gate to Kagoshima by Poppy Kuroki

One Word Title - Prophecy by M.L. Fergus

Royal MC - Where Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell

MC name starts with a "M" - Too Hot to Handle by Portia MacIntosh

Shirtless Man on Cover - Sweet Starfire by Jayne Ann Krentz

Food on Cover - Time Loops & Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau

Borrowed From Library - Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Review: Time Loops & Meet Cutes

Time Loops & Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

“You want dumplings? They give you what you need most.” 

Time Loops & Meet Cutes was a scifi story that delved into what could be possible if people took the time to stop and look beyond their narrowed focus and didn't let fear guide them. Noelle swore off love six years ago after getting dumped by her boyfriend and going through a depressive episode. She's a mechanical engineer who gives it all to her job and has found herself distanced not only from friends but family. When a random stop at a night market has her eating dumplings that seem to be the cause of her repeating Friday June 20th, she looks for the reason to get herself out of her time loop. A cute guy named Cam keeps appearing randomly through her day and she's starting to wonder if he could be the key. 

He doesn’t remember our encounter at the market, but he seems to have a vague memory of me. 

I thought this was a really cool concept, in the Groundhog Day movie family but some twists to make it feel fresh. Noelle does find someone who is stuck in the loop with her, so while it was interesting to have that buddy for her, the character of Avery never really seemed to fit in the story for me, I kept waiting for her to be connected somehow (possible sequel?). Told in Noelle's point-of-view as she relives the numerous same Fridays, we also get Cam's pov's. Reader's that catch while in the first half Noelle's povs are all from Friday June 20th, Cam's always starts in a different month, this lead into a second half that has Noelle breaking out of the time loop but jumping straight into the present day, not starting on June 21st. This was kind of wild, our character of Noelle missed seven months but in the alternate reality, a Noelle was there. So, the second half becomes what Noelle learned from letting fear go in some aspects in the different ways she lived her numerous Fridays and trying to figure out how the alternate reality Noelle acted. 

It’s amazing how many possibilities there are in a single day. 

The story may sound a little out there but it's all done in that fun scifi out there way; it creates a different vehicle to relay some of the common messaging of don't be afraid to try new things, isolating yourself from pain also isolates yourself from joy, and figuring out what's really important to you. There was a little bit of dragging as Noelle couldn't figure out how to get out of the time loop and she seemed to give up herself until, without fanfare, it just happened. I was a little disappointed in this but the ending gives an explanation that just might make your eyes water a little after the emotions behind it all are revealed, so it makes up for it. The secondary characters were a little harder to know, this being all from Noelle's pov, but there was enough to add some to Noelle's character definitions. 

You changed me, but you don’t remember. 

I'm not sure the romance was the strongest for me, harder in such a stop and start format setup here, but I could go along with Noelle and Cam's initial sparks, if not totally feeling their lasting longevity emotional depth. Some twists on a known concept, personal, family, and romantic relationship discussion, open door scenes, and scific goodness to get you to remember that life's not always all about eyes ahead and the to the finish line, there's a lot of joy to be found on the sidelines.

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Review: Overdrive

Overdrive by Esha Patel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

My F1 team is coming to my home, and my entire country will be watching. 

Second in the Offtrack series, Overdrive stars an F1 driver named Darien who was originally from Brazil but moved to California with his mother after his father died in a car accident and Shantal, an Indo-Guyanese woman living in London who works on a racing simulator project for a company but is still fighting through the grief of losing her sister. You could jump into the series, like I did, as I never felt lost but readers of the first book will enjoy an emotional connection to those previous main character leads as they feature frequently. Told in alternating povs from Shantal and Darien, you'll get two characters who still hold grief over the loved ones they lost, which in Shantal's case, causes her to not want to open her heart fully to Darien. 

Shantal, a head and half shorter than me with a voice like a Disney princess's, has me off my game. 

Darien was pretty much all in for Shantal from the beginning but the author spends a good portion of the first half giving a base for the Formula 1 racing world. I personally am not a follower of the sport, so at times my eyes wanted to glaze over a bit as the story gave more to those aspects than the romance. I thought it felt a little off that Shantal was sent to Brazil by the company to lead the simulator project when she didn't seem to know anything about the sport. How would she have made a fantastic simulator without knowing at least technical aspects of the sport, giving at least a decent look-in to it? It felt a little shaky but works to have her have to ask questions which leads to the reader getting the answers; so you'll learn some about the sport. The middle starts the race season and I did really enjoy the description of the first race, it provided those special aspects and scenes with tense emotion and excitement that you want when you pick up a sports romance like this. 

I tell her how much I cannot stand him. 

And then that turns into something else. 

The romance ended up not having enough to it for me, Darien likes/loves Shantal from the start with Shantal being physically attracted to Darien right away but having to work through her grief over her sister before, at the end, she gets help from a family member to help her come to the decision to accept her love for him. I missed Shantal and Darien working through emotional issues/conflicts together, instead of Shantal just having her own thing. Darien does have some father issues, pressure of feeling like he's representing not only is family but also country, and has singular dark moment alone to overcome (which felt gotten over kind of quickly and easily that any emotional upheaval and fight triumph from it just wasn't felt by me), but it wasn't as heavy as Shantal's. They talk and share but the working together to come together didn't feel as strong as I would have liked. 

What do I do if Shantal is my centre? What do I do if I can't hold without her? 

I felt like the story had a tendency to jump from highlighted emotional scene to highlighted emotional scene without threading them with the foundational glue needed between characters. I need those seemingly innocuous building depth blocks to make those quotable scenes hit me with the feels, otherwise they end up feeling empty flash to me. The ending and epilogue more than delivered on giving the characters HEAs. If you're a reader of the series or are a fan of Formula 1, you'd have a good chance of enjoying this more than I did, in which case, enjoy vrooming around in those race scenes.

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Review: Pommeroy

Pommeroy by Cate Charleston
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I buddy read this over on StoryGraph, so a quick wrap-up here, 

I'm not sure I would label this romance genre, it's more along the lines of a Heyer and what I, think, is called Traditional. 

You're going to get povs from ALL the characters, it actually reminded me more of a PBS period piece tv series. You're also going to get solid, almost impregnable, walls of text. We spend a vast amount of time in the characters' heads during their povs, only broken up occasionally by dialogue, and for me, it made it hard to read and stay engaged. The pov changes also had no warning, just flowing one into the other so that I'd read a couple sentences before I realized I was in another character's head. 

If you can handle the formatting, and don't mind a Traditional(?) romance that felt like reading a PBS show, the characters and story had some highlights. 

The commentary on the Boer War, one of the characters fought in it, was really good and a historical event I don't usually read in romances. There were also some good turns done by the slow burn (I'm talking sloooooooooow and I'm not sure the heat for a burn ever came): He was aware of Lily’s skirts brushing the shoe on his outstretched leg as she passed in front of him, and of an odd tightening of his throat and chest. 

I love its hitting them moments like this. All it takes is a brush of skirts on shoe and the man's lost! 

There was also some classism and the cultural and societal changing from the Victorian to Edwardian era. 

Basically, this felt like it wanted to focus on everything but the romance between the two characters I thought were supposed to be leads, everyone was much too restrained for my modern sensibilities self, and the walls of text formatting about broke me. I like watching PBS period shows but my brain is not about reading them, your brain mileage may vary.

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Reading Update: Page 1

Having myself a themed weekend, Overload Oreo brownies and Overdrive, a racing romance. 

Shantal is moving from London to Brazil to test out her racing simulator on Formula One drivers. 

Darien will do anything for his racing career and moving back home to Brazil is one of the easiest. 

But how will two people who's passion for their careers is everything, react when sparks fly in their high stakes world of Formula One racing? 

Overdrive by Esha Patel purchase link

Overload Oreo Brownies recipe

Review: All We Lost Was Everything

All We Lost Was Everything by Sloan Harlow
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

My mom is gone. My dad is dead. And my life will never be the same. 

All We Lost Was Everything was a young and new adult feeling fiction story about how lies and covering up painful pasts can lead to hurting the people you were only trying to protect. Newly graduated from highschool, River has just survived a house fire that took her father's life and all her belongings. She's staying with her aunt as her mother took one of her mental health hikes before the accident and hasn't been heard or seen from since. When her bestfriend Tawny starts a GoFundMe for her, she gets a mysterious donation of two million dollars. Not willing to spend the money before she learns who donated it, she continues working at the local cafe, where she can't keep her eyes off the new employee Logan, but he seems so angry towards her and she can't figure out why. 

Because if she knew who I really am, what I’ve done? 

It would be the end of everything. 

The first half of this leaned into those young and new adult feelings and issues of not quite knowing what to do with yourself after highschool and having the hots for a boy. River was previously dating someone that she thought she was going to marry but he broke up with her out of the blue, so she's dealing with trust issues between the ex and her disappeared mom. The story is mostly told from River's point-of-view but the middle brings in Logan's pov and readers learn that he has feelings for River but there's a mystery reason that makes him feel like he should stay away from her. The middle loses itself to focusing in on the physical relationship, kisses and having the hots for each other, between River and Logan for awhile, but the latter second half races on as numerous reveals start happening and the reader gets a bit of whiplash from it all. 

Someone who loved me enough to walk through fire. 

Some of the reveals you'll probably see coming and others will most likely be a surprise. They all were worked in believably but there were some that also felt like a soap opera sweeps week, especially when they are revealed and then moved on from fairly quickly, not letting the reader absorb and try to feel some emotion about. River had that late teen angst attitude at times that colored her with some narcissism, she wanted everyone to act the way she wanted them to act but when the reveals happen, they were so dramatic, it turned me back to her side. This bounced from keeping me engaged in the beginning with the introduction to these characters, to wanting more depth developed in their relationships between them, to barely hanging on for the soap opera drama reveal ride. I could see a younger audience (mostly making out with one open-door scene) enjoying this more as a starter that could lead them into reading Gillian Flynn or Oyinkan Braithwaite. Most of the story was hiding and only sort of working to unfold the mystery, and then raced through the reveals too quickly for them to really emotionally hit, but younger and newer readers might enjoy this step into a romance and mystery mashup.

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Review: The Payback Plan

The Payback Plan by Amy Andrews
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

‘What if we… took it upon ourselves to exact some… revenge?’ 

The Payback Plan starts off the Karma Club series, a group of books written by different authors but set in the same world and with the same characters. The books star one of four heroines, Paige, Bella, Sienna, and Astrid, four women who met at a desserts shop in the airport O'Hare and realized they all had horrible exes. Drunk off sugar and alcohol they come up with the plan for each one to take the other's ex and exact a revenge plan, nothing too serious, just enough to severely aggravate the ex. Paige picks Bella's ex Oliver, he texted her the day of their wedding and called it off. Paige's plan is to stay with Oliver for two months in Cornwall and be a deranged Mary Poppins like character to drive him nuts. However, as she gets to know the slightly uptight, and walled up emotionally guarded son of a famous actor, she finally starts to feel like herself again, after her own emotionally fraught four years of trying to heal after her ex posted revenge porn photos and videos of her. 

She was going to Cornwall to live in the house of a famous dead British actor to mess up his son’s charmed life. She certainly hadn’t had that on her bingo card for next year. 

This was along the lines of a quick beach read, there's some emotional base to the characters, Paige withdrawing into herself after her ex exposed her so horribly and finally coming out of her shell and Oliver letting go of the expectations, pressure, and pain of growing up in the public eye and with a narcissist father. Your mileage will vary with the humor of Paige's antics, making a mess of Oliver's neat as a pin kitchen, bringing a hamster and stray dog into his living space, and generally creating goofy havoc. It wasn't really my sense of humor but some of it lead to cute byplay between the two. These antics were mostly their relationship development, there wasn't much depth to hang your reading expectations on but if you're looking for something quick and cutesy, this would do. 

And the last couple of months, she’d allowed herself to be that woman again. To be herself again. 

The latter second half has them kissing and then the guilt of betraying Bella, you'll still get an opendoor scene as they can't fully fight their feelings. There's a third act breakup where Paige flies off the handle a bit about how Oliver's public profile affects her for some dramatics and Oliver has to simmer down after learning the real reason Paige was staying with him before you get the eventual HEA. There wasn't much depth but there was some cute, drama, and a set-up that leads you to wonder how the other members of the Karma Club are faring.

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Review: The Keeper of Lost Art

The Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

“That's the power of art,” the maestra adds. “It can tell a story. An official story. But each one of you might also see your own story in it. At a minimum, you might find hope, even when there is darkness.” 

The Keeper of Lost Art was a historical fiction story told from a twelve year old girl's eyes in Italy during World War II. It's a coming of age character story inside a dark historical time period. It's 1942 Italy and Stella has been sent to the countryside by her mother to her uncle and aunt's, in hopes it will be safer for her. Stella has never met them but with two girl cousins around her age, even with an aunt that seems to dislike her, she's trying to fit it. Her uncle was the driver for the owners of the villa but with the English owners escaping to Switzerland, Stella's family is left in charge. It makes her uncle's decision to agree to hide paintings from the Uffizi Galleries even more brave and dangerous. As the war rages on, even the countryside begins to feel it's effects as German soldiers and then all nationalities descend on their villa, all while Stella gets a front row seat to the vagaries of human nature and the importance and meaning of cultural art. 

All they want is an end to the interminable suffering, a solution that will bring their husbands and sons and fathers back to them. And they just want to go home. 

Having the story told from a twelve year old girl's eyes, who ends up fifteen by the end of the story, added a naiveté that worked to allow the author to add historical explanations and emotional building while keeping the gritty and darkest tones at bay. The aunt knows the threat of violence specific to Stella and her cousins but Stella doesn't quite comprehend it, as she ages she emotionally grows and it starts to creep into her conscious but the tone and direction of the story was more about how works of art, cultural touchstones, can inspire and give people reasons to hope during dark times. The works hidden at the villa focus on Botticellis', specifically his Primavera. When Stella befriends, Sandro, a refugee boy her age, his interest in art builds her own and we get looks at how much art can mean to people. 

“You mean we risk our lives to save the paintings,” Sandro says. 

Signor Fasola stands silent for a long time. “Yes. That is the reality of it. But we can't let them take or destroy whatever they want.” 

“But...why us?” Sandro asks. 

“Why not us?” Signor Fasola says, the twin frames of his glasses reflecting the glowing light. “If we don't take some action---any one of us---then who will?” 

I thought the middle and latter half dragged a bit as the story began to, not quite wax poetic, but indulge in the emotional hope and uplifting of cultural art. As it's told from Stella, there's allowance for a less outwardly scope but these people were starving and living in threat from all avenues, so the continued art talk started to drag-on. Even though Stella and her specific family were fictional, the historical events and villas in the Italian countryside hiding art to protect it from war, were all true. Each chapter started with a fictional entry from Botticelli's diary and an American Captain from the famed Monuments Men and Women division that worked to save and recover cultural artifacts. This was a good additive as Botticelli's musings from the 1400s echoed the Captain's from the 1940s, showing shared importance and circular problems humans create for themselves. 

A long chain of people who cared enough to risk their lives, to devote their whole careers, to preserving the things that matter. Artist or no artist. 

You'll begin to care for Stella and the characters that start to make-up her family, part of the dragging issues in the latter half I discussed involve abandoning these human characters in favor of the art, and realize that, yes, saving the Humanities, is extremely important. The ending delivered sadness and hope, with Stella taking what she learned during those three years and having the courage to chase those wants and dreams.

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Reading Update: 32%

He was aware of Lily’s skirts brushing the shoe on his outstretched leg as she passed in front of him, and of an odd tightening of his throat and chest. 

Buddy Reading this over on StoryGraph! 

I love, it's hitting them, moments like this. All it takes is a brush of skirts on shoe and the man's lost 😂 

But oof, just about lost in the wall of text format this author does.

#TBRChallenge Review: Sweet Starfire

Sweet Starfire by Jayne Ann Krentz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.3 stars 

This month's TBRChallenge (I know, I know, late again!) theme was Location, Location, Location. I can't imagine I'm the only one who's first thought was, “Get me the hell off this planet.” So, with that desire, I dove into my boxes of books and found myself on the way to the Stanza Nine system! 

"What is it you want delivered?" 

Cidra cleared her throat. "Myself." 

We're in space, folks! With povs from both our mains, Cidra and Teague, readers join them as Cidra is looking to book passage to travel the system in search of an artifact that she thinks will alter her mind to biologically become a Harmonic. While Cidra was born on Clementia to Harmonic parents, she didn't get the gene. In this time and space, humans are divided into Harmonics, intellectually and emotionally advanced, and Wolves, basic normies. Cidra's studied the Harmonic ways but can never really be them, she feels emotions in a way that doesn't cause her to be catatonic for hours. As a trained archivist, who focused on the First Families of their civilization, she thinks there's a “Ghost” artifact that can help her alter her brain. Teague's a postman and she wants to book passage on his ship to take her around to the different planets to search for it. 

Teague Severance hadn't been quite what she had expected, and Cidra had been trying to adjust to that fact. 

It's a set-up for a road romance between opposites attract, except Cidra and Teague are more alike than they want to admit, Cidra can't stop feeling those debased normie lust feelings and Teague is more kind and protective of Cidra than a Wolf should be. 

His mouth came down on hers with the urgency of a man who was running toward the promise of safety in a wild and uncontrolled land. 

On the cramped ship, these two have plenty of time to get to know one another and I enjoyed their calm, sweet, and frustrated with each other at times chemistry. There was humor and heart to Cidra being a little naïve and Teague doing some underlining talk but Cidra also pleasantly surprises with staying out of Mary Sue and waif territory. Her background of feeling lonely with not fitting in on her planet and Teague having lost a brother who was a Harmonic deliver some depth to their emotional characterization and provide for a villain in the wings. The villain thread delivered some danger and action but this was more of a sedately paced romance that took time to lean into the scifi world-building (that, ok, slowed it down a bit too much at times for me), but I accepted it because this is the start of the series and I imagine it's all building for a purpose. 

He had forced the Wolf in her to the surface after she had spent years struggling to suppress that part of her nature. 

Around 60% Cidra and Teague can't fight their chemistry anymore (not so bad lowering yourself to be with us normies now is it, Cidra!?) and we start getting sex scenes. There's more lore added to their Ghost ancestors (they were cats??? need more on this STAT, lol) and we get the calmest third act breakup when Teague is scared Cidra would regret leaving Harmonics for him. Cidra Rainforest would never waver and we get our space HEA. This was fun and had some wildly interesting additives, the aforementioned Furries, Fred the rockrug dog?cat?, a Chekhov's mantis, and the mutie evil alien dinosaurs. Cidra and Teague had just enough depth to them to pull me in and were sweet with a dash of spice to have me enjoy the ride in Stanza Nine. 

“You’ll have to trust me to come back, just as I’ll have to trust you to be waiting."

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