Book Review: Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan

July 22, 2024June 12, 2023 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 320 pages
Author: Annabel Monaghan
Publisher: G.P. Putnam
Release Date: June 6th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The ultimate summer nostalgia read, about an engaged woman who comes face to face with her first love who she hasn’t seen in fourteen years, but who she spent every summer with from age five to seventeen when he broke her heart, calling into question everything she thought she knew about their love story, and herself.

Beach Rules:
Do take long walks on the sand.
Do put an umbrella in every cocktail.
Do NOT run into your first love.

Sam’s life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fire her), and is about to tour a wedding venue near her family’s Long Island beach house. Everything should go to plan, yet the minute she arrives, Sam senses something is off. Wyatt is here. Her Wyatt. But there’s no reason for a thirty-year-old engaged woman to feel panicked around the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen. Right?

Yet being back at this beach, hearing notes from Wyatt’s guitar float across the night air from next door as if no time has passed—Sam’s memories come flooding back: the feel of Wyatt’s skin on hers, their nights in the treehouse, and the truth behind their split. Sam remembers who she used to be, and as Wyatt reenters her life their connection is as undeniable as it always was. She will have to make a choice.

LOVED.

This is my new favorite from Annabel Monaghan! Great second chance romance, I FELT the angst and the chapters in the past were gosh dang sweet and heart breaking.

Often with second chance I feel like I need the reason for the original break-up to make sense. And this one did!! It still hurt my heart, but with all of things surrounding why there was a breakdown, it worked well and I loved seeing Sam and Wyatt work towards a resolution. I love a first love reconnection.

I loved the setting, this really is a great book for summer. It’s fast paced (and short, the audio was 7 hours), brings the feels and a little bit of heat. There were a lot of sweet moments and good conversations, I wish the other guy would have been gone sooner though!!

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: a little
Romance: closed door
Trigger/Content Warnings: cheating (parents, recounted)

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Book Review: I’m Not Charlotte Lucas by Kasey Stockton

July 19, 2024June 10, 2023 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 240 pages
Author: Kasey Stockton
Publisher: Covenant Communications
Release Date: February 7th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Northern California girl Charlotte “Charlie” Lucas has two great loves: Diet Coke and Pride and Prejudice. But her passion for Regency classics is tempered by a very real fear: Charlie is terrified of having to endure the fate of her namesake—spinsterhood. Despite her best attempts to maintain a modern sensibility, she can’t say no when an elderly neighbor asks Charlie to attend a charity ball with her grandson. Blind date or not, Charlie is powerless to resist the allure of a real-life ball. Soon it’s clear that she will struggle to resist the charms of her blind date too.

Liam Connell is every bit the swoon-worthy leading man, straight out of Charlie’s daydreams. But he’s completely unattainable—his last girlfriend was a gorgeous actress and a far cry from Charlie’s world. So after a magical evening with Liam, Charlie is ready to get back to reality, even if her best option right now is a former boyfriend who wants to give it another shot. Unfortunately, despite imagining she’ll never see Liam again, he seems to be everywhere. How is a lady to move past a fantasy when life suddenly seems to be imitating fiction to an alarming degree?

WELL.

I wanted to love this. But I had the hardest time finding common ground with the FMC. She spent so much time comparing herself to everyone, knocking herself down and not listening to anyone around her. By the time things started to change it was really late in the story and I was already ready for it to be over.

Liam and Charlie did have a lot of cute moments. I liked the quiet scenes they had together and some sweet kisses too. Liam was swoony and was clearly enamored with Charlie and I wish Charlie would have seen that sooner.

I did like the audiobook and secondary characters too. It’s not a bad story by any means, I just didn’t connect with some aspects. I’ll still be reading Kasey Stockton books.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: none
Romance: kisses

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Book Review: Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

July 17, 2024June 7, 2023 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Mystery
Length: 400 pages
Author: Angeline Boulley
Publisher: Henry Holt
Release Date: May 2nd, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she’s stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep.

Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all.

But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors’ remains, and Perry and the Misfits won’t let it go on any longer.

Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline’s perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right – for the ancestors and for their community.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter comes a thrilling YA mystery about a Native teen who must find a way to bring an ancestor home to her tribe.

PASSIONATE.

Another beautiful and immersive culture packed read where I feel like I am taught so much and still have so much to learn.

The mystery surrounding some suspicious characters was also intriguing and had me wondering what was happening and why. Those aspects were great and intriguing. I enjoyed Perry as a main character too. She’s hardened and kind and I liked seeing her characters progression throughout the story.

What I struggled with was the overall plot. Even reading at 3x on audio I felt like things were moving slowwww. There were a lot of small scenes that didn’t feel gathered into the entire plot and I spent a bit of time just waiting for anything to happen.

That being said, still a solid read. And I look forward to Boulley’s next book.

Overall audience notes:

YA Mystery
Language: moderate
Romance: closed door
Violence: high
Trigger/Content Warnings: mentions of teen sex, abduction, mentions/recounts of sexual assault, murder, underage drinking, theft

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Book Review: The Duchess Takes a Husband (The Gilded Age Heiresses #4) by Harper St. George

July 15, 2024June 6, 2023 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Historical Romance
Length: 335 pages
Author: Harper St. George
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: May 23rd, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A scandalous arrangement between a London rogue and an American duchess leads to lavish stakes.

Despite her illustrious title, Camille, Duchess of Hereford, remains what she has always been—a pariah. Though her title means she’s technically accepted by London Society, the rebellious widow with her burgeoning interest in the suffrage movement and her American ways isn’t exactly high on every hostess’s guest list. But Camille starts to wonder if being an outcast is not without its perks when the tantalizing answer to her secret fear appears in the shape of Jacob Thorne, the illegitimate son of an earl and co-owner of London’s infamous Montague Club.

Jacob is used to making deals with his club members—he’s just not accustomed to them being beautiful women. Nor have the terms ever been so sweetly seductive as Camille’s shocking proposition. To finally buy his own club and gain the crucial backing of investors, Camille offers Jacob the respectability of a fake engagement with a duchess. In return, the tempting widow has one condition: she wants Jacob to show her if it’s possible for her to experience pleasure in bed.

The lure of such a bargain proves too delicious to resist, drawing the enterprising rogue and the wallflower duchess into a scandalous game and an even more dangerous gamble of the heart.

NICE CONCLUSION.

First of all, who else is obsessed with every cover in this series?? Because SAME.

Any who, I liked this story more than I was expecting from the initial plot set up (I’m just not a fan of benefits situations & the spice was past my personal preference too). What I did love though was the exploration surrounding Camille’s back story and trauma. I loved how Jacob approached everything and the entire time there was a sense of comfort and safety.

There’s not really a larger plot here and I think that’s where I got distracted. Why I LOVE heavy focused romances I missed out on something more moving along in the background. I did love the glimpses of the previous books heros/heroines and where they were in life now. This felt like a good wrap up to the series with some swoony feels and tender moments.

Overall audience notes: