January 2022 Reading Wrap-Up

The aunties are back, fiercer than ever and ready to handle any catastrophe—even the mafia—in this delightful and hilarious sequel by Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of Dial A for Aunties.

Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has arrived, and she can’t wait to marry her college sweetheart, Nathan. Instead of having Ma and the aunts cater to her wedding, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, they find the perfect wedding vendors: a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like theirs. Meddy is hesitant at first, but she hits it off right away with the wedding photographer, Staphanie, who reminds Meddy of herself, down to the unfortunately misspelled name.

Meddy realizes that is where their similarities end, however, when she overhears Staphanie talking about taking out a target. Horrified, Meddy can’t believe Staphanie and her family aren’t just like her own, they are The Family—actual mafia, and they’re using Meddy’s wedding as a chance to conduct shady business. Her aunties and mother won’t let Meddy’s wedding ceremony become a murder scene—over their dead bodies—and will do whatever it takes to save her special day, even if it means taking on the mafia.

Click here to read my full review of this ARC.

Margot Moss, a gregarious and witty woman, lives her life with abandon. She knows exactly what she wants and isn’t afraid to pounce after it with full-throttle ferocity. Although, she can’t quite seem to get it right.

When a coveted promotion falls through, Margot finds herself struggling to actualize her dreams and is forced to reconsider her so-called fabulous future. However, when one catwalk ends, another begins. A job in New York City comes knocking and Margot doesn’t hesitate to seize the opportunity, setting out on a wild adventure towards love, success, and self-discovery.

Unfortunately, nothing is how she imagined it—not the company, the city, or the people. Awaiting Margot is a drama-addicted boss who may or may not be out to get her, and a whirlwind of wealthy men, scams, and scandals. Caught in a cotton candy cloud of sparkling rosé, Margot determinedly navigates her (many) dilemmas with the help of her saucy friends and a healthy dose of buzz-worthy gossip. 

Yet, as if that weren’t enough, Margot’s life is made even more complicated when a steamy new beau enters the picture—and even he isn’t what he seems.

Overflowing with fashion and champagne bubbles, The Manhattan Mishap is a hilarious, stylish, and heartfelt novel that oozes confidence and reminds us that leopards never truly change their spots.

Click here to read my full review.

A debut YA novel-in-verse by Amber McBride, Me (Moth) is about a teen girl who is grieving the deaths of her family, and a teen boy who crosses her path.

Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted.

Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he’ll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones.

Moth and Sani take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors. The way each moves forward is surprising, powerful, and unforgettable.

Here is an exquisite and uplifting novel about identity, first love, and the ways that our memories and our roots steer us through the universe.

This book rendered me absolutely speechless. It was poignant, heartbreaking, and an absolute must-read.

I always knew that I loved prose, but I never knew how much I loved it until I read Me (Moth). This book did something that I’ve never seen before: it took a story and made it feel like a song. Or maybe it took a poem and made it feel like a river – something I had to navigate my way through rather than just reading a line and moving on. All I know is that I’m so glad that I started my year by reading this book.

When I spontaneously picked this up at a local coffee shop, the barista told me that I was making a wonderful decision. That while she preferred non-fiction on most occasions, after reading this book, she’s predicting it will be considered an American classic in the future. I believe that if enough people get their hands on this beautiful book, her predictions could come true. So this is me screaming it from the rooftops: PLEASE READ THIS BOOK.

It’s not an easy read, but don’t let that deter you. It might make you cry (it made me cry), but it’s so worth it. You may even be a little bit confused at times, but it does all make sense by the end – and I can almost guarantee that the moment you close it, you’ll want to pick it back up again. That’s what happened to me.

Me (Moth) is the kind of book that makes you want to get a second, third, and fourth copy to annotate with your thoughts before giving it to your friends (or placing one in each room in the house just to look back on – or cry over – at a later time).

I’d like to just give a long and loud round of applause to the author for producing something so breathtaking. Thank you for this masterpiece.

An accidentally in-love rom-com filled with Renaissance Faire flower crowns, kilts, corsets, and sword fights.

Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart. On the verge of being an empty nester, she’s decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell.

Mitch Malone is known for being the life of every party, but mostly for the attire he wears to the local Renaissance Faire—a kilt (and not much else) that shows off his muscled form to perfection. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favor too: she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more “serious” career than high school coach and gym teacher. April reluctantly agrees, but when dinner turns into a weekend trip, it becomes hard to tell what’s real and what’s been just for show. But when the weekend ends, so must their fake relationship.

As summer begins, Faire returns to Willow Creek, and April volunteers for the first time. When Mitch’s family shows up unexpectedly, April pretends to be Mitch’s girlfriend again…something that doesn’t feel so fake anymore. Despite their obvious connection, April insists they’ve just been putting on an act. But when there’s the chance for something real, she has to decide whether to change her plans–and open her heart–for the kilt-wearing hunk who might just be the love of her life.

I feel like I’ve been counting down the days until I got a chance to read this book! I loved the first two books in the Well Met series so much, but these characters were ones I need MORE OF from the get-go.

In this book you’ve got:
– fake dating
– one bed
– get it out of our system
– age gap (older woman)
– player falling in love

I mean!!!!! It really felt like it had it all for me. I would even go so far as to include “friends-to-lovers” since Mitch and April were technically friends before they fake date. However, they’re more like acquaintances that totally have eyes for each other, and watching how it all plays out is just the cutest thing in the world.

I’ve always appreciated how Mitch was written. Even though he’s known for being a lady’s man, he’s a total softie and is super protective of his people. Those sweeter characteristics make him such a swoon-worthy book boyfriend and I love how he treats April and makes her feel wanted.

This particular addition to the series was much more open-door than the others and I didn’t mind it one bit. The spice was nice and even had some laughter-inducing moments which is always a plus. And it wasn’t a super slow burn either, which I actually really liked (even though slow burn is typically my jam). Their desire to be with one another is so palpable that if it had been drawn out, I think I would’ve literally lost my mind.

The conflict made complete sense and it was kind of what I was predicting. It all wrapped up really nicely and I was pretty thrilled that there weren’t any “perfect ever after” epilogues either. The epilogue was one of my favorite parts!

Well Matched definitely lived up to all of my expectations!

When children go missing, people want answers. When children go missing in the small coastal town of Astoria, people look to Wendy for answers.

It’s been five years since Wendy and her two brothers went missing in the woods, but when the town’s children start to disappear, the questions surrounding her brothers’ mysterious circumstances are brought back into light. Attempting to flee her past, Wendy almost runs over an unconscious boy lying in the middle of the road, and gets pulled into the mystery haunting the town.

Peter, a boy she thought lived only in her stories, claims that if they don’t do something, the missing children will meet the same fate as her brothers. In order to find them and rescue the missing kids, Wendy must confront what’s waiting for her in the woods.

“I think people are more frightening than the dark,” he said. “A person can stand right in front of you and be dangerous without you even knowing it.”

I was only 36% of the way through this book when I determined that it would be going on my favorites list. What a story!!!

Honestly, I picked this up because it was talked about pretty frequently on bookstagram and I hadn’t read many Peter Pan “retellings” (which – this isn’t so much a retelling as it is a magical realism that happens to include Peter Pan in it). It blew me away!

At the beginning of the book, I thought I would be spending my time rolling my eyes at the silly youth and their silly flirting or something like that – but instead, I was completely sucked into a creative story with a wicked twist and a whole lot of imagination.

There were moments that gave me goosebumps, which was unexpected in the best way. It wasn’t “scary” so much as it had a creepy factor to it (there were parts of it that reminded me of The Near Witch by VE Schwab, since it had children disappearing/being kidnapped and taken to the woods).

I loved the fact that while Peter was heroic, he was also flawed, and throughout the book, he had much more character development than I initially expected from a children’s fairytale being that is already so well-known. It made him relatable.

The romance was really well done because it was minimal and sweet. Rather than trying to make you feel all swoony over a children’s character (who is usually depicted as a child himself), you look at him through the eyes of Wendy, who has literally been crushing on him since she was actually a child. It almost felt like a “celebrity crush” in a way. It was her meeting someone that she had treasured as a story for so long and then realizing they were tangible and reciprocated feelings as well. I digress. It was sweet.

The twist at the end was one I did not see coming at all. And let me tell you, I can usually sniff out a twist from a mile away, so if you were to go to my kindle right now, you’d literally see that I annotated “OH.MY.GOSH” when everything went down because I literally didn’t know how to process it. I was so emotional and I absolutely love how Wendy handled everything.

I do wish that this had a sequel. I know that it’s silly because it “wrapped up” at the end, but I became so enveloped in this story that I never wanted it to end. So much love!

A woman struggling with burnout learns to embrace the unexpected—and the man she enlists to help her—in this new New York Times bestselling romance by Helen Hoang.

When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.

That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex—he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she herself has just started to understand. However, when tragedy strikes Anna’s family she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves.

When I found out that Helen Hoang was adding another novel to The Kiss Quotient series, I was so excited. I honestly didn’t think anything could compete with my love for The Bride Test, but this book completely blew me away.

One of the things that I find incredibly impressive is when an author can flawlessly mesh really heavy, challenging topics with humor and romance. That is a skill that I don’t see very often if I’m perfectly honest, which is why so many of the romantic comedies I read are rated with only three stars. They’re fine, they’re cute, but they’re not great.

Helen’s writing is great.

Let’s start with the main character. She’s struggling with her music after going viral, which is something that feels very relatable. Living up to the standard that has been set for you can seem so daunting, so my heart immediately went out to Anna before even knowing much else about her.

Like most of the other books by Helen, there is autism representation and it is incredibly written. While her other books focus on individuals who already know about their diagnosis or happen to meet someone who is on the spectrum, Anna discovers that she is autistic mid-book. It’s a different approach and it wrecked me. The way her family treats her, the way she wants to treat herself but doesn’t really know how, and of course the way Quan treats her – it crashed down on me like a true wave of emotions.

In the midst of all of this, something truly traumatic happens in Anna’s life. In order to touch on this, I’m going to add a spoiler warning because I feel like it’s important for me to mention it but I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone else. *SPOILER AHEAD: Anna’s dad has a stroke. It’s fatal. This was the most challenging aspect of the book for me because my own dad had a stroke several years ago and was in the ICU for a prolonged period of time. I related to the up-and-down feelings of coming to terms with saying goodbye only to be told that he’s stable the next day since that’s exactly what happened with my own dad. However, the death of Anna’s dad is beyond heartbreaking because there was so much pain surrounding the way he wanted to be treated and couldn’t communicate it with anyone in addition to Anna knowing and not being able to fulfill his wishes. My own dad survived, for which I will never be able to express my full gratitude, but reliving the emotions of that period of time while reading this book was incredibly challenging for me. END SPOILER*

I’ll admit that I nearly DNF’d because of the triggering content, but I knew that it would be better for me in the long run if I continued. And I’m glad I did.

There were so many moments where I wanted to scream at Anna to make a different choice. But I know that my screams mimicked the ones in her own mind. It was a really intense book to read, considering how light so much of it was.

Of course, I need to talk about the lightness and the romance aspect as well! Quan is a dream. Truly, he’s an absolutely perfect book boyfriend and I loved him from the minute I “met” him on the page. His desire to meet Anna where she is because of his own “shortcomings” made him all the more wonderful. His insecurities made him feel realistic and he has his own challenges throughout the story too. I really enjoyed reading from his perspective (I love a dual POV in romance) because it gave me a better understanding of just why he was so lovable!

Gosh, I really feel like I could go on forever about this book. It was everything I hoped it would be and so much more. This is a book I’ll want to pick up again and again.

If I Stay meets Your Name in Dustin Thao’s You’ve Reached Sam, a heartfelt novel about love and loss and what it means to say goodbye.

How do you move forward when everything you love in on the line?

Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out–move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail. And Sam picks up the phone.

What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye?

Filled with a diverse cast of characters, the heartache of first love and loss, and the kind of friends that can get you through anything, plus a touch of magic, You’ve Reached Sam will make an instant connection with anyone looking for a big emotional romance of a read.

Okay, I’m readying myself for all of booktok to come for me after reading this review (har har, I know I’m not cool enough for booktok to read my review).

I really, truly don’t understand the hype with this book. After seeing countless mentions about it and how much it made everyone sob their eyes out, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I love when a book can make me cry, so I even went so far as to pick up this book while I was on my period. Is that TMI?? It might be, but hopefully, it puts things in perspective!

In case you didn’t see where this is going: I didn’t cry. I didn’t so much as get glassy eyes or feel a prick in my forehead. There wasn’t a single moment in this book that made me emotional in the slightest.

Maybe this was because of the way it started? It felt like I was launched into the middle of the story at the beginning, so I was majorly confused as to the timeline and what was happening. I couldn’t differentiate between dreams, daydreams, memories, nightmares, and the present reality. Scenes would jump about and I’d quickly get lost trying to play catch-up on what was happening, rather than even really grasping the “emotions” of a chapter.

Then there’s Sam. He confused me so much. His phone calls seemed like they were filled with nuance and yet none of it was ever explained. Why did he make such a huge emphasis on “I’ll always pick up” and what was with all of his constant promises? He’s dead! He can’t fulfill that?! Also, it seemed like he would eventually explain how the call was happening – and he didn’t. There seemed to be constant plot holes.

Julie was a bit of an asshole, so I didn’t like her from the get-go. Sure, I get that she’s grieving, but she treats absolutely everyone around her like crap and makes really cruel choices (like not even going to her boyfriend’s funeral!!! Talk about a red flag). In addition to that, she takes up so much of her time on the phone with Sam just asking him how it’s all happening. Okay, okay, so yes, finding out how on earth you’re talking with your dead boyfriend is important, but maybe not as important as emphasizing how much you love him, how you’ll care for his family, what you’re doing to make him proud (oh wait, that’s nothing because you’re a little jerk who decided that no one else matters anymore). 

Agh. I couldn’t help but feel frustrated the entire time I was reading this book. I waited and hoped that I would miraculously sob in the final chapters, but those just left me feeling more dazed and confused. I wanted this book to be so much more.

It’s been almost two years since Effie’s beloved parents got divorced, destroying the image of the happy, loving childhood she thought she had. Since then, she’s become estranged from her father and embarked on a feud with his hot (and much younger) girlfriend, Krista. And now, more earth-shattering news: They’ve sold Greenoaks, the rambling Victorian country house Effie has always called home.
 
When Krista decides to throw a grand “house-cooling” party, Effie is originally left off the guest list—and then receives a last-minute “anti-invitation” (maybe it’s because she called Krista a gold-digger, but Krista totally deserved it, and it was mostly a joke anyway). Effie declines, but then remembers a beloved childhood treasure is still hidden in the house. Her only chance to retrieve it is to break into Greenoaks while everyone is busy celebrating. As Effie sneaks around the house, hiding under tables and peeping through trapdoors, she realizes the secrets Greenoaks holds aren’t just in the dusty passageways and hidden attics she grew up exploring. Watching how her sister, brother, and dad behave when they think no one is looking, Effie overhears conversations, makes discoveries, and begins to see her family in a new light. Then she runs into Joe—the love of her life, who long ago broke her heart, and who’s still as handsome and funny as ever—and even more truths emerge.
 
But will Effie act on these revelations? Will she stay hidden or step out into the party and take her place with her family? And truthfully, what did she really come back to Greenoaks for? Over the course of one blowout party, Effie realizes that she must be honest with herself and confront her past before she’ll ever be able to face her future.

Hello, hello – Sophie Kinsella does it again! I have yet to be disappointed by a single novel written by Kinsella. Her stories are creative, cute, and comical all wrapped into one and I’m constantly impressed by it.

The Party Crasher had me on the edge of my seat for the majority of the audiobook (which, by the way, was lovely – the narration was fabulously done and I enjoyed every second of it). I was hooked from the minute that Effie decided she would be “attending” (but not attending) the cooling of her childhood home in order to get her hands on a set of Russian dolls that have always been of great importance to her.

There are hijinks! I mean laugh-out-loud hilarious moments of hiding in closets and witnessing people removing Spanx as well as nearly falling from an opening in the attic onto your father and his girlfriend while they’re roleplaying! Absolutely hysterical, I tell you. I was glad that so much of this was listened to while I was driving so I could truly guffaw as loud as I wanted (and I did just that… frequently).

There is second-chance romance! I couldn’t help but just love Joe. Even though Effie could only picture how he broke her heart, I knew there was something more to the story and I held out hope that all would be revealed. Their story within the story is sweet and heartfelt.

There’s family drama! And copious amounts of it, at that. From the very beginning, I absolutely adore Bean. Like, I want an entire book just about Bean – she’s that precious. She’s an incredible older sister with a heart of gold and I want to just protect her at all costs. Her relationship with Effie is so sweet and sincere and I loved how the dynamic between the two of them evolved over the course of the story.

This is the type of book I could consider a comfort because that’s exactly how it felt as I read it: comforting. I could imagine picking it up again if I’m feeling a little downtrodden or when I want to get out of an odd reading slump. It’s a great story and has an excellent combination of depth and comedy!

She’s been the victim and the survivor…

Poppy never dreamed she would find the love she’s found with Prince Casteel. She wants to revel in her happiness but first they must free his brother and find hers. It’s a dangerous mission and one with far-reaching consequences neither dreamed of. Because Poppy is the Chosen, the Blessed. The true ruler of Atlantia. She carries the blood of the King of Gods within her. By right the crown and the kingdom are hers.

The enemy and the warrior…

Poppy has only ever wanted to control her own life, not the lives of others, but now she must choose to either forsake her birthright or seize the gilded crown and become the Queen of Flesh and Fire. But as the kingdoms’ dark sins and blood-drenched secrets finally unravel, a long-forgotten power rises to pose a genuine threat. And they will stop at nothing to ensure that the crown never sits upon Poppy’s head.

A lover and heartmate…

But the greatest threat to them and to Atlantia is what awaits in the far west, where the Queen of Blood and Ash has her own plans, ones she has waited hundreds of years to carry out. Poppy and Casteel must consider the impossible—travel to the Lands of the Gods and wake the King himself. And as shocking secrets and the harshest betrayals come to light, and enemies emerge to threaten everything Poppy and Casteel have fought for, they will discover just how far they are willing to go for their people—and each other.

And now she will become Queen…

*looks back at the notes I sent my friend while reading* Aha! Yes, here we go…

This has been my favorite book of the series so far. There’s a kind of comfort that’s settled in between Casteel and Poppy now that they’re married – and despite the insane cliffhanger that book two left us on, things were cleared up relatively quickly at the beginning of this book.

Okay, so “cleared up” is maybe the wrong term considering the insanity that followed – and that’s where I got a little revved up. Not because I was disliking the story so much as I was constantly confused. There was a lot of information overload in this installation. I found myself constantly looking up the terms because I lost track of the differences between “deities” and “gods” or I lost track of the character names because it seems like someone new is always being introduced. In addition to that, there was a lot of back-and-forth with who the characters were, who they were related to, what they were spawns of, whether they were Ascended, Descenters, masked, Wolven, vamprys, etc. I literally couldn’t keep up.

At a certain point, I just decided to kind of say “screw it” and enjoy the story for what it was rather than trying to piece together every little bit of information because, let’s be real, JLA is totally gonna throw half of it out the window in the next novel and we’ll have to relearn it all again. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just the style she’s chosen for this series. Everything can be undone or retold and you have to get used to never really knowing for sure whether something is set in stone.

Just like the other two books, there were some irritants for me, such as the repetition:
1) Poppy likes violence
2) Poppy has a lot of questions 
We get it. Can Kieren or Casteel acknowledge anything else? Thanks.

There was a lot of sexual content – maybe even more than the others, but at this point it’s not as appealing to me. Not that it was “appealing” before, so much as it was new. Now it’s not and it felt like she was reaching a lot of the time. I found myself just flipping through pages until those scenes ended because I didn’t feel like I was missing anything.

I love Kieren. Honestly, if we could get some books just about him, I think I’d be happy. He’s sarcastic and caring – and even though he pretty much only ribs Poppy about how inquisitive she is, he’s probably the most likable character in the books.

While I can’t say these are my favorite books ever or anything, I definitely stay interested throughout the entire time I’m reading, which encourages me to continue the series. So far, I haven’t had anything really make me think I need to stop where I am. I’m not bored and I’m not disinterested, so even though I’m not obsessed, I’ll be picking up the next book.

This beautifully produced, keepsake coffee-table book is the ultimate celebration of the series, the town, the characters, and the state of mind that is Schitt’s Creek. Capturing the essence and alchemy of all six seasons of what is now considered to be one of the most groundbreaking comedy television series of the last decade, Best Wishes, Warmest Regards is a gift to fans everywhere who have made the show their own.

Included are character profiles from the cast of Johnny, Moira, David, and Alexis, and all of the characters that populate the town, major moments from Moira’s endorsement of Herb Ertlinger Winery, to Patrick and David’s first kiss, to Cabaret and the Rose Family Christmas episode. Also included are special features, such as the complete, illustrated catalogs of David’s knits and Moira’s wigs, Moira’s vocabulary, Alexis’s adventures, and behind-the-scenes moments from Dan and Eugene Levy and the cast of Schitt’s Creek.

I’m breaking my rule about not writing reviews for nonfiction because this book deserves all the praise.

Major props to Dan and Eugene for putting together, without a doubt, the best book I’ve ever read about a piece of media. I’ve had books on the illustration for my favorite animated films, books on how they created characters for a video game, books about recipes from a TV show, etc. But nothing has ever come close to the quality and heart that’s in this book.

I watched all of Schitt’s Creek in the span of a couple of months. I was late to the party, watching it in 2021, but after so many people recommended it to me based on my other favorite shows, I gave in – and immediately fell in love. I persuaded my husband to start it while I was still halfway through season 4, which meant that while I was wrapping up my binge sesh, I was simultaneously starting it all over again with him. And this meant that I basically watched it two times in a row, without a single break in between. Then I watched the documentary twice.

Never have I ever felt so emotionally connected and invested in a TV show. Around our house, Schitt’s Creek is basically a lifestyle. We use the jokes in our everyday conversation, we dressed up as characters for Halloween (I was David Rose in the field – DIY’d my own Helmut Lang hoodie – and my husband was the cheese IYKYK), we recommend it to everyone we know, and we cry over the same episodes together.

Reading this book was like watching the show all over again, but with a totally fresh perspective. While I got to relive some of my favorite moments and learn a little more about the behind-the-scenes (some of which I knew, some of which I learned from the first time) – I also got a chance to really feel the cast’s emotions as they put together this incredible show. Not only that, but there was such attention to detail. From pages and pages of David’s iconic sweaters or Moira’s wigs to the reason why they filmed certain scenes the way they did to a map of all of Alexis’s escapades based purely on her mentioning random things she did across the globe. I just couldn’t get enough.

I read this book over the span of a little over a week. It wasn’t a long book and I’m a quick reader, but I was really intentional with how I read it, taking time to sit and fully immerse myself in it. My husband can attest to the fact that I teared up on multiple occasions while I read it – and there were plenty of times where I just began to read aloud certain passages because he absolutely had to know what I’d learned. I was also laughing along the way at the fantastic memories that the cast shared throughout.

Needless to say, if you’re a Schitt’s Creek fan, this is an absolute must-read. I could seriously talk about it all day.

A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

It really bums me out when I have to sit down and write yet another so-so or “negative” review for a book that seems so widely loved, but I can’t say anything other than my true thoughts.

This book really hit me the wrong way. I would assume that the point of it was to bring about feelings of “just live your life and let people in because everything will eventually be alright,” but that wasn’t the overall effect for me. It felt as though the topic of suicide was very nonchalantly tossed about, without too much care.

Ove misses his wife and wants to see her again. He’s displeased with quite literally everything in the world. So he makes the decision to end his life. Every single day there are detailed descriptions as to how he plans to do this and even how he follows through on some of the attempts. That’s red flag number one for me.

Inadvertently, his new neighbors wind up preventing him from following through on his plans because of random, situational occurrences: needing help with a home project, needing to be driven to a hospital, etc. No one really seems to make mention of what he’s doing, despite very obvious visuals of his plans on several occasions (like when his pregnant neighbor finds him actively suffocating himself in his car… and she doesn’t actually say anything about it? Just ignores it??? Who does that?) Red flag number two was how it was only hijinks that keep Ove from committing suicide.

You’re supposed to feel bad for the man or even relate to him, but instead, I felt irritated and at times, disgusted. He’s rude, thoughtless, and selfish through and through. And yes, while the story takes him on a “journey” and he eventually becomes more loving towards those around him, it didn’t feel like there was fantastic character development, so much as just a general acceptance of him as a curmudgeon from his neighbors and them as less than a problem from Ove. 

Suicide isn’t comedy. It doesn’t matter how it’s sugar-coated. I could not find myself enjoying this book. There were moments of random sweetness, but that’s about the extent of it. If anything, it put me in a really negative mind space, the more that I thought upon it. It makes me sad that I had this experience with it.

From the author of Maybe in Another Life—named a People Magazine pick—comes a breathtaking new love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life.

In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.

On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.

That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.

Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?

Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.

I’m actually really irritated with myself for returning the ebook to the library before writing my review, because I had some excellent quotes highlighted in it, and naturally, I remember none of them now. Super unfortunate, that.

Oh well, moving on. This book was fantastic! But did I expect anything less from TJR? Not in the slightest. I can absolutely put her as one of my favorite authors of all time. I’ve never actually been disappointed by one of her books and I was really looking forward to making my way through her backlist, starting with One True Loves. Unsurprisingly, it was just as satisfying to read as her newer novels.

I didn’t even make it 20% of the way through the book before turning to my husband and telling him how it was going to wreck me. Turns out, I was right. I cried multiple times while I was reading this book. It really tugs at your heartstrings and makes you want everything to work out.

Unlike TJR’s newer books, there weren’t any particularly giant plot twists or shocks along the way, since the “big reveal” happens early on in the book and isn’t even a secret – it’s in the synopsis, for goodness sake. So I did find the story to be somewhat predictable after a certain point. However, that didn’t make it any less enjoyable to read, and I found myself reaching for my Kindle as often as possible to continue pouring over the story.

I really can’t say there was anything I didn’t like about the book. It’s emotional, poignant, inspiring, and hopeful. I’m definitely looking forward to sobbing my way through the movie when it comes out.

Almost everyone in the small town of Splendor, Ohio, was affected when the local steel mill exploded. If you weren’t a casualty of the accident yourself, chances are a loved one was. That’s the case for seventeen-year-old Franny, who, five years after the explosion, still has to stand by and do nothing as her brother lies in a coma.

In the wake of the tragedy, Franny found solace in a group of friends whose experiences mirrored her own. The group calls themselves The Ordinary, and they spend their free time investigating local ghost stories and legends, filming their exploits for their small following of YouTube fans. It’s silly, it’s fun, and it keeps them from dwelling on the sadness that surrounds them.

Until one evening, when the strange and dangerous thing they film isn’t fiction–it’s a bright light, something massive hurdling toward them from the sky. And when it crashes and the teens go to investigate…everything changes.

Okay SO, I feel the need to preface this by saying that the narration of the audiobook had a lot to do with my lower rating. If I had read a physical copy of this book, I believe I would’ve enjoyed it a great deal more. In the future, I plan to do just that in order to see if it will change my opinion. Typically, I do read the physical books for SFF, but when I saw this as a free audiobook on Audible, I decided to go for it since it was already on my TBR. That was my own mistake, truthfully. It just made the story slightly unpleasant. The villains sounded laughable and I couldn’t take them seriously, and the main character was breathy and almost airhead-ish, so needless to say, not a great listening experience. If you plan to pick this up, do yourself a favor and actually read it with your eyes if you have the ability to.

That being said, WOW, this is a massive leap from Emily Henry’s contemporary romances! I added this book to my TBR in the first place because, in her author interviews and online events, she often mentions how this is the novel she’s the proudest of. That immediately made me want to read it because I love seeing which books are an author’s pride and joy.

I knew it would be different, because DUH, it’s a sci-fi story reminiscent of Stranger Things, but I don’t think I was prepared for the level of alien intensity. I mean, it’s a whole “took over your body and gave you powers” kind of thing!

The plot as a whole was kind of interesting to me, but the more I read, the more I wanted to just know how it would end. It seemed like a really slow pace and I was expecting slightly more action from it. Towards the end, it delivered, for sure, but there was way more emphasis on the characters than the plot, which was unexpected.

Again, I would like to read this book in the future as a physical copy to see if maybe it grips me a little more. I’m hoping it was just the narration that threw me off, because I did see Henry’s writing skills shine through, I just couldn’t appreciate them in the way I wanted to.

On the way to Eren’s home, deep in Titan territory, the Survey Corps ranks are broken by a charge led by a female Titan! But this Abnormal is different – she kills not to eat but to protect herself, and she seems to be looking for someone. Armin comes to a shocking conclusion!

Picking up from A Discovery of Witches‘ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night takes reluctant witch Diana Bishop and vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont on a trip through time to Elizabethan London, where they are plunged into a world of spies, magic, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the School of Night. As the search for Ashmole 782–the lost and enchanted manuscript whose mystery first pulled Diana and Matthew into one another’s orbit–deepens and Diana seeks out a witch to tutor her in magic, the net of Matthew’s past tightens around them. Together they find they must embark on a very different – and vastly more dangerous – journey.

Reading this series has been such an experience for me. As someone who grew up with such intense love for YA fantasy, moving into adult fantasy has been a little bit of a struggle. While yes, I find myself relating with the characters a bit more because I’m in their age group, it seems like adult fantasy, as a whole, takes a much slower pace to focus on world-building. I’ll admit that I prefer quicker paces and more focus on character development, but I’m learning to appreciate this genre more and more, and the All Souls books are really helping with that!

Because this was a sequel, it followed the same progression as a lot of fantasy sequels and slowed down a lot to introduce you to the world in which the characters are living. I found myself zoning out a few times, but I think that a lot of that had to do with the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of historical references (which is why I tend to stay away from historical fiction) and so the true immersion into the 16th century was a bit uninteresting to me, personally.

That being said, I did, however, really enjoy how so many of the characters were real people. Maybe it’s not exactly what they were like in reality, but it made the story more fun because it gave me the chance to imagine what they could’ve been like in those circumstances. There were a few really interesting references to well-known individuals that made my mind continue to ponder long after I finished the book (ex: Annie and who she actually was!)

One of the things this series has done is stick in my brain. Just like when I finished the first book, I’ve found myself revisiting the plot of the sequel to consider certain things and how they could play into the future of the story. Even though I might not have been 100% immersed in every single part while I was actively reading, it won’t leave my mind now that I’ve completed it. This alone makes me all the more excited to dive into The Book of Life.

I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth – that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

I’ve been wracking my brain the past few days, trying to remember how many times I’ve actually read this book. I know for a fact that I’ve read it twice before, but there’s a chance it was actually three times. I kept starting this series and never finishing it. Terrible, I know. But it’s officially time to get through all four books and dive into the spin-off!

I was discussing the book with my buddy-read partner this morning and we really covered so many bases as we chatted, so I’m going to dive into those things a little more in this review.

The first of which is that this is definitely a plot-based book more than it is character-based. Aside from some in-depth descriptions about Robbie and Grim, we don’t know a huge amount about the other characters, including our MC, Meghan! This is a little odd to me because they’re really important and yet we know virtually nothing about them – not even hair colors (or sometimes even names in the case of Meghan’s mom). The most we know about Meghan is that she loves her half-brother and wears a lot of old clothing. Oh, and she’s totally unlikeable.

Going further into the last point I made – Meghan is not a character that you feel yourself rooting for. Yes, you want for her to help Ethan, but mostly, you’ll be face-palming over her naivety and teenage emotions that cause rash decisions. What are these decisions, you might ask? How about running straight into faerie courts, kissing people who say they’ll kill you, and not trusting your best friend. Those are just a few examples.

My favorite characters in the book are the ones that have the most descriptions: Robbie and Grim. They’re witty, sarcastic, loving (in their own ways), and want the best for Meghan, even if that means making tough choices to help her grow. 

This book definitely appeals to a younger audience (duh, it’s YA fantasy about a newly 16-year-old) but it’s still fun to read as an adult. I picked it up on a Sunday afternoon and flew through it in one sitting. It doesn’t take a huge amount of brain power or focus to enjoy!

I look forward to finally moving forward and finishing the series!

From the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus and The Editor comes a warm and deeply funny novel about a once-famous gay sitcom star whose unexpected family tragedy leaves him with his niece and nephew for the summer.

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is honestly a bit out of his league.

So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.

With the humor and heart we’ve come to expect from bestselling author Steven Rowley, The Guncle is a moving tribute to the power of love, patience, and family in even the most trying of times.

“Guncle Rule number eight: Live your life to the fullest every single day, because every day is a gift. That’s why people die. To teach us the importance of living.“

When I tell you that I did not expect this book, I mean… I really did not expect THIS book. That seems like a weird phrase, but what I’m trying to convey is that this book looks cute, cheesy even, but it contained so much emotional depth and it has seriously stuck with me and I think it will continue to.

I went into reading The Guncle, expecting a relatively lighthearted story about a gay uncle who takes care of his nephew and niece. Yes, it is that, but it is also so much more. It explores grief in a way that I’ve never really seen portrayed in a book. There were so many different versions of grief. Patrick mourning the loss of his best friend and his brother’s wife. The kids mourning the loss of their mother and, in an odd way, their dad (because he had to go to rehab).

It’s also Patrick’s reflection and revelations about losing his partner. I’ve separated this because it felt entirely separate from the story, yet it also somehow so integral to Patrick’s growth as a person and caretaker. The way that he didn’t even know which title to give Joe when describing their relationship to the kids was such a meaningful moment. There was so much to unpack with this particular part of the plot that really stood out to me.

The dynamic between Patrick and the kids was really special. There were hijinks, weird days, great experiences, and moments of serious anger and fear. Watching how they all grew as a unit and as individuals was incredible. The author really highlighted how navigating relationships can be tricky, no matter what the relation actually is (father and children, guncle and kids, romantic partners, etc.). 

Honestly, I think I could read this book over and over again and still find something new to take away from it each time. Major applause to Steven Rowley for creating such an absolute masterpiece. This book immediately went on my wishlist and I can’t wait to add it to my shelves so I can continue to sob over how perfect it is in the future.

Side note about sobbing: This book is a tearjerker. But it’ll sneak up on you. I’ve never ever had this happen. I was reading and literally had the thought, “why is my face wet?” I realized I had been crying and didn’t even know! YES, IT IS THAT GOOD.

In a most improbable friendship, she found love. In a world where women were silenced, she found her voice.

From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.” When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis–known as Jack–she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.

In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice–and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had.

At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story–a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.

Oh, friends, how I wanted to just adore this book. After reading Once Upon a Wardrobe, I made the assumption that this book would put me under the same kind of magical spell. However, that wound up not being the case.

I’m rather glad I didn’t read this book sooner. I’ve had it on my TBR for several years now and if I had picked it up last summer as I planned, I may not have ever given Once Upon a Wardrobe a try. They are so incredibly different it’s almost startling. Instead, while I was disappointed that I didn’t like this book as much, I’m at least glad that I got a chance to enjoy the other title first!

I’ve always been fascinated by C.S. Lewis. The Chronicles of Narnia were what fueled my love for reading and piqued my interest in fantasy. Reading this book gave me a lot of insight into Joy, his wife, and their lives. What it didn’t give me was a lot of joy, if you get my drift? Not only was the pacing absolutely painfully slow at times, but the subject matter was dense and sad for the majority of the book. Instead of focusing on the good parts of their life, it focused a lot on the truly depressing nature of Joy’s previous marriage and all of the hard times that followed.

While this is marked “historical fiction,” I’m truly not sure what about it was fictional. It read like a biography more than it did like a story. Around the 25% point of the audiobook (on 2.8x speed, mind you), I thought, “Okay, I can’t have much further to go, right?” I was bored stiff while reading this, unfortunately. I really wanted to enjoy it more, but just couldn’t get into it. If I weren’t such a stickler when it comes to reading, I would’ve DNF’d based on my interest in it – or really, lack thereof.

Well, now I know everything I could have possibly wanted (or not wanted) to know about C.S. Lewis and his wife, their bizarre relationship that took way too long to even happen, and how much I actually don’t really care for either of them as people now. Yikes.

The Survey Corps sets a cunning trap to capture the mysterious Abnormal Titan that broke through their ranks. As Arwin tries to determine the grotesque creature’s identity and purpose, scouts report Titans closing in on all sides! But they don’t seem to be after the humans – instead they’re targeting the Titan!

The New York Times bestselling author of the “heartwarming, heartbreaking, and hard to put down” (Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author) modern classic In Five Years returns with a moving and unforgettable exploration of the powerful bond between mother and daughter set on the breathtaking Amalfi Coast.

When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.

But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.

And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.

Rebecca Serle’s next great love story is here, and this time it’s between a mother and a daughter. With her signature “heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic” (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) prose, Serle has crafted a transcendent novel about how we move on after loss, and how the people we love never truly leave us.

Did you know that a story about a 29-year-old could be considered “coming of age”? Because I certainly didn’t before I read One Italian Summer, but now I do.

I’ve been a big fan of Rebecca Serle’s truly phenomenal writing and ability to weave magical realism into a story in the most natural way ever since I read In Five Years. I loved her storytelling from the start and I sobbed my way through The Dinner List. The moment she announced this book, I added it to my TBR, and boy, I’m glad I did.

The book opens with a quote from Lorelai Gilmore. And, if you know me, you’ll know that my favorite show in the entire world is Gilmore Girls, so naturally, this was the sign of a great book. In fact, the audiobook is narrated by Lauren Graham – and I was only three chapters into reading my eARC when I pre-ordered that audiobook because I just knew I would want to listen to it again and again.

Let’s start with a few things to LOVE about One Italian Summer:
– it will make you HUNGRY (I’m talking moments where your stomach will growl aloud because of the phenomenal descriptions of divine Italian dishes).
– it will make you want to TRAVEL (I couldn’t stop myself from looking up flights to Positano as I was reading because I’m now totally desperate to take a trip there, and more importantly, stay at the Hotel Poseidon Positano).
– it will make you crave ROMANCE (there are some majorly romantic vibes throughout this book, and while they’re not the primary focus, they certainly made me appreciate my husband even more).
– it will make you CRY (this was a given, knowing the nature of the book and the way it deals with grief and finding yourself after hardship, but I still wasn’t expecting quite how hard I would sob at times).

Really, truly, honestly, the only thing I did not care for about this book was the focus on infidelity. What I can’t do is go too in-depth about this particular topic because it would lead to some major spoilers, but there were some things that definitely made me uncomfy. However, even if this is a triggering topic for you, I beg you to give it a chance because the ending is 100% worth it!

As usual, Rebecca is the queen of magical realism and an excellent twist. Some have debated that saying there’s a plot twist is a spoiler, but if you’re anything like me, you get excited when you hear that, so I’m keeping it in my review. My jaw practically landed on the floor and it felt so dang good. I love being shocked by a book.

I need to touch on what I wrote at the beginning. This is a coming-of-age book in so many ways. Yes, it’s possible to have that happen at nearly 30 years old. As someone who is just one year younger than the protagonist in this book, I can relate so much to the feelings that she experienced and even the way she decided to handle them. Nothing was perfect, not even close, and she learned so much from the way she dealt with the grief of her mother’s passing, her marital struggles, and wanting to find herself after years of just being who her mother expected her to be. It was wonderfully written and I really appreciated the heart behind it.

Please, do yourself a favor and read this book. It would make an excellent companion at the beach this summer or as an escape during the winter. You won’t regret picking it up!