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

MC Over 35 years old - Seize the Fire by Laura Kinsale

MC Works on a Farm - Look Before You Leap by Virginia Heath

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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