Category: Book Review

ARC Book Review: Stuck With You (Cal’s Garage #1) by Stacy Williams

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 440 pages
Author: Stacy Williams
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: September 15th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

What if you’ve been through hell?
How difficult can it be to start over?

Sarah Atwater is seeking a fresh start. When an opportunity arises that she can’t refuse, the single mom is ready to leave her painful past behind—and perhaps her old self along with it. But sometimes, new beginnings are like learning to walk again, struggling to put one foot in front of the other.

Slade Bennett enjoys his quiet, simple life. The blunt grump is perfectly content running his mechanic shop and working with his best friends. Or is he really? When the sister he raised decides it’s time to move out, Slade may have to admit he’s a bit too closed off.

Will past trauma and grief continue to dictate his life when a sassy professional strolls into his garage and challenges him at every turn? Or will Slade finally be forced to confront the fears he’s avoided?

Stuck With You is a poignant love story that reminds us that only when we’re held to the flame do we discover what we’re truly made of.

Thank you to the author for an eARC.

HAPPY TO BE BACK.

There’s something about reading a new book from one of your favorite authors that just hits the spot. And all of the autumn vibes with some glimpses of holidays set the perfect atmosphere for this time of year (so go read it now!!!).

I love the incredible slow burn each time. It’s reminiscent of Mariana Zapata where the pay-off is worked for and the journey is a few steps forward, back, and filled with growth and tender moments that make you crave the next chapter.

Slade and Sarah were absolute gems. Both holding on and moving through a lot who found each other. AND found a way to do life together. I loved all of the sentiments and quiet conversations they had. You KNOW they were in love in the deepest ways.

And all of the side characters?? Can’t get enough. The love and banter with tough conversations throughout really bonded me to these characters. There’s a lovely balance of heavy and humor that genuinely made for a read that I kept wanting to pick up. I loved how everything came together and there was such a sweet epilogue.

AND LET ME TELL YOU, I am STOKED for the future books in this series!!

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: fade to black
  • Violence: low
  • Content warnings: loss of a parent (recounted), infidelity/cheating (recounted in multiple situations)

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

Book Review: Family of Liars (We Were Liars #2) by E. Lockhart

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 300 pages
Author: E. Lockhart
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: May 3rd, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The prequel to We Were Liars takes readers back to the story of another summer, another generation, and the secrets that will haunt them for decades to come.

A windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts.
A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow.
A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy.
A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes.

Welcome back to the Sinclair family.
They were always liars.

Thank you Get Underlined for the gifted copy.

I WAS BORED.

While I don’t think there was anything WRONG with this book I was just so bored I found very little enjoyment in reading it. After We Were Liars and knowing the twist and the family dynamics in that book it made this one seem very predictable. Of course there was more drama and chaos, but nothing I couldn’t see from a mile away.

Maybe I read these two too close together? I’m not sure. I do have book three so I’m going to read that too and maybe that’ll make me feel differently about the series as a whole.

I did like the audiobook so if you wanted to read this, I’d recommend that format!

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Mystery
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: fade to black
  • Violence: moderate – high
  • Content warnings: attempted r*pe, alcohol consumption, prescription drug use, grief/loss depiction, loss of a sibling, murder, drowning recounted

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

Book Review: Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain #3) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 336 pages
Author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Publisher: Red Tower Books
Release Date: August 5th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Once Upon a Time meets The Office in Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s laugh-out-loud viral TikTok series turned novel, about the sunshine assistant to an Evil Villain…and their unexpected romance.

REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to “Evie” or “Stop that.”

Evie Sage didn’t mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom’s most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,” and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.

Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire—or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.

Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again…neither was falling for The Villain.

A magical office comedy with grumpy bosses, snarky frogs, and definitely-not-feelings.

LOOOOVED.

GOSH, these books are just so fun??! I love them. I love how unique and different they feel and the vibes are immaculate every time. The slowest of slow burns continues to burn at the perfect level and I am continually feral for every tiny interaction between Evie and Tristan.

And I liked all of the other POV’s too. They were a great addition and added more layers to the story and plot and all of the other scenes that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen. The other romances between these characters were cute too!!

Hands down, these have some of the BEST BANTER I have ever read and I love listening to the audiobook (though I will not I wish it had multiple narrators!!).

The ending cliffhanger had the reveal I was hoping for and I am chomping at the bit to hear information about book four!!!!

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: vague fade to black
  • Violence: moderate

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

Book Review: Elizabeth of East Hampton (For the Love of Austen #2) by Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance Retelling
Length: 384 pages
Author: Audrey Bellezza & Emily Harding
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date: August 6th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

This fresh and whip-smart modern retelling of Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice transports you to summer in the Hamptons, where classes clash, rumors run wild, and love has a frustrating habit of popping up where you least expect it.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged—well, by Elizabeth Bennet anyway—that there’s nothing worse than summer in the Hamptons. She should she’s lived out there her whole life. Every June, her hometown on the edge of Long Island is inundated with rich Manhattanites who party until dawn and then disappear by September. And after twenty-five years, Lizzy wants to leave, too.

But after putting her own dreams on hold to help save her family’s failing bakery, she’s still surfing the same beach every morning and waiting for something, anything, to change. She’s not holding her breath though, not even when her sister starts flirting with the hot new bachelor in town, Charlie Pierce, and he introduces Lizzy to his even hotter friend.

Will Darcy is everything Lizzy Bennet is not. Aloof, arrogant…and rich. Of course, he’s never cared about money. In fact, it’s number one on his long list of things that irk him. Number two? His friend Charlie’s insistence on setting him up with his new girlfriend’s sharp-tongued sister. Lizzy Bennet is all wrong for him, from her money-hungry family to her uncanny ability to speak to him as bluntly as he does everyone else. But then maybe that’s why he can’t stop thinking about her.

Lizzy is sure Will hates everybody. He thinks she willfully misunderstands them. Yet, just as they strike an uneasy truce, mistakes threaten Charlie and Annabelle’s romance, with Will and Lizzy caught in the undertow. Between a hurricane and a hypocritical stepmother, a drunken voicemail and a deceptive property developer, the two must sift through the gossip and lies to protect the happiness of everyone they love—even if it means sacrificing their own. But when the truth also forces them to see each other in an entirely new light, they must swallow their pride to learn that love is a lot like sometimes the only way to survive is to let yourself fall.

A NEW FAV.

This might be my new favorite contemporary pride and prejudice retelling??? It was SO GOOD. I was glued to my headphones all morning listening to this book. I loved how true it stayed to the original greatness, but perfectly modernized. It was awesome catching all of the allusions and parallels and I was obsessed with how it played out.

I loved all of these characters. It’s a chaotic blend of family through all of life’s nonsense and the moments when you need to stand together.

Lizzy and Will had dynamic chemistry. That kind of romance that jumps off of the page at you. The enemies to lovers was well written and you could feel the dripping tension between them. I found pure joy in how these authors crafted the P&P moments between them.

And it’s a fabulous audiobook too. I can’t wait for more in this series!

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance Retelling
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 2-3 brief open door; low explicit

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph