Tag: Book blog

Book Review: Things I Wish I Said by Gracie Graham

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: NA Contemporary Romance
Length: 543 pages
Author: Gracie Graham
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: October 29th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Lung cancer patient Ryleigh Sinclair wants a boyfriend for the summer.

And my mother wants me to be the one to make her wish come true.

Me. The eternal pessimist. The guy who no longer believes in happy endings after my dad died of pancreatic cancer and my girlfriend dumped me in the same month.

But after weeks of spending time with Ryleigh, she somehow does the impossible. She fills the gaping hole of my father’s absence until I’m the one hoping for a miracle.

I’ve learned my lesson about wishes.

Happily ever afters are a lie.

Yet I’m the one wishing like hell for another outcome for Ryleigh.

I lost my father to cancer; I can’t lose her too.

Thank you to the author for a gifted copy.

THE WAY I BINGED THIS.

For a book over 500 pages I read this at an unhinged rate because the medical anxiety it was giving me made me need to know what was going to happen next. Not to mention, Gracie Graham has such addictive writing. You want to keep turning those pages and fall in love with these characters.

I loved both Ryleigh and Grayson so dang much. There was a lot of trauma and past histories, secrets and turns that brought the unexpected. This is a drama filled book that really has you wondering where it will go next. I loved the banter and relationship between these two and the undeniable chemistry that was present from the first moment they met. Both of the character arcs with filled with a strong impact that hit me square on and I appreciated how the ending all came together.

This is a new adult book (which I loved) but I did struggle with the innuendo throughout. It was crass to me and I didn’t think wholly necessary. The intimate moments were great and worked well with the plot, it was the extra stuff that stood out. And this one does have a LOT [read that again] of language.

Overall audience notes:

  • New adult romance
  • Language: very strong
  • Romance; 2ish brief open door; low explicit + high innuendo
  • Violence: moderate
  • Content Warnings: major theme is cancer (treatments, doctor’s appointments, etc.), loss of a parent from cancer, grief and depression, drug use, underage alcohol use, major car accident

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Book Review: Nightweaver by R.M. Gray

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Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: YA Fantasy Romance
Length: 482 pages
Author: RM Gray
Publisher: Merlin’s Pen Publishing
Release Date: October 13th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Violet Oberon had never stepped foot on land.

Six hundred years after the Nightweavers claimed human lands for their own, the ocean is a haven for seventeen-year-old Violet and her family. Notorious pirates of the Western Sea, the Oberon clan are undefeated in battle—until an Underling murders Violet’s brother, and she discovers there are monsters more fearsome than the Nightweavers that have taken them captive.

When the son of a wealthy Nightweaver shows Violet and her family mercy, offering employment at his estate rather than enslavement, Violet vows not to forget that he is everything she hates. But as she adjusts to her new role as a kitchen maid at Bludgrave Manor, she finds that hatred is a curious thing. Arrogant, entitled, right hand to the wicked prince, William Castor might be the key to avenging her brother-and reclaiming her freedom.

But mercy always comes with a price. As Violet hunts the Underling responsible for her brother’s death, dark secrets threaten to unravel everything she thought she knew about the Nightweavers, herself, and her world. Torn between family loyalty and a chance at revenge, the cost of learning the truth about her brother’s murder could be her life.

STARTED STRONG.

I genuinely went in with the best of hopes for this one. And the first 40% were solid. I was intrigued by the magic system and world and all things pirates. A burgeoning romance was upon the pages and things seem settled for an amazing read.

And then I thought some aspects went downhill. The rest of the book was in one location and I needed more movement. There was also a lot of world building and magic explanations that felt info-dumping because we didn’t really see those in action. Having the book only in one place stopped a lot of expansion opportunities.

Then we had the love interest disappear for a bit on his own adventure which left the progress there become stagnant. I still don’t know if I like them together honestly. It does appear there will be a second book? I don’t have plans to pick it up though.

The last 25%ish picked up with some good twists and reveals. The villain monologues went on a bit but I was surprised by some scenes. I think I’m most obsessed with Captain Shade who absolutely needs his own POV.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Fantasy Romance
  • Language: low
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: high

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ARC Book Review: A Time Traveler’s Masquerade (A McQuivey’s Costume Shop Romance) by Sian Ann Bessey

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Time Travel Romance
Length: 296 pages
Author: Sian Ann Bessey
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Release Date: April 1st, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Romance blossoms when Isla Crawford steps into McQuivey’s Costume Shop in London and is swept back in time to 1605, where she and Lord Bancroft attempt to thwart Guy Fawkes’s Gunpowder Plot.

One moment, Isla Crawford is inside McQuivey’s Costume Shop trying on a Jacobean-style gown for the parliamentary Autumn Ball, and the next, she is standing in an unfamiliar garden, barefoot, coatless, and at the mercy of a fierce storm. Confused, she seeks refuge in a Tudor manor, where she discovers that she has inexplicably traveled back to 1605, mere weeks before the culmination of Guy Fawkes’s infamous Gunpowder Plot.

Simon Hartworth, Lord Bancroft, finds his orderly seventeenth-century life disrupted when a mysterious woman appears on his sister’s doorstep during a storm. Intrigued by the stranger’s quirks and bewildering speech, he feels compelled to protect her and heed her warnings about a fatal plot against Parliament. As Simon is drawn into Isla’s dangerous scheme to stop the evildoers, he can’t help but also feel drawn to her.

With seemingly no way to get back home, Isla uses her twenty-first-century knowledge of the past to try to thwart Guy Fawkes and his coconspirators without altering the course of history forever. She and Simon must race to unravel the threads of the treasonous plot even as they wonder how their hearts will navigate their deepening connection and the seemingly insurmountable four centuries that separate their lives.

Thank you to Shadow Mountain for the gifted ARC.

A GOOD READ.

I liked this one! It’s a quick and easy read with a lot of historical aspects. Flying back to the early 1600’s, Isla is taken in by Simon and his family. I loved the soft and supportive nature of Simon’s family and the trust they had in Isla and hopefully stopping a villainous plot.

There were some POV moments from Guy Fawkes and that did take me out of the story a bit. I didn’t think it was necessary to the plot line to get perspective so those parts stuck out to me most.

I enjoyed the soft romance between Isla and Simon. They were an easy pair to love. I adored all of the interactions they had together and watching them grow to care for one another. There’s some good suspense and I liked how the time travel aspects worked out in this book (aka it stayed mostly in one time period for the book which is my personal preference vs. going back and forth).

Overall audience notes:

  • Time travel romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: mild
  • Content warnings: weapons violence

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Book Review: Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians (Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians #6) by Brandon Sanderson

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: MG/YA Fantasy
Length: 304 pages
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Starscape
Release Date: September 20th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From #1 New York Times bestselling authors Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson comes Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, the thrilling conclusion to the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians saga.

As a Knight of Crystallia, I, Bastille, swore to protect the Smedry clan from the Evil Librarians. (And believe me, screwups like them constantly need protecting.) But when Alcatraz Smedry got strapped to an altar of outdated encyclopedias to be sacrificed to the dark gods, I arrived too late―and instead his father took his place.

Now Alcatraz is a blubbering mess, so it’s up to me lead the charge against his father’s killer: Biblioden, founder of the Evil Librarians―I was sure he died centuries ago!―who’s back to complete his goal of world domination. Now he’s going to use the dark powers he gained from that sacrifice against everyone not under Evil Librarian control. Being burned up from the inside is not how I plan to die, so I’d better figure out some way to stop him or we’re toast!

I know Alcatraz is wrong when he swears he’s no hero. But when a hero falls short, that’s the time for everyone else to step up and do what needs to be done.

BEAUTIFUL CONCLUSION.

I adored this series y’all. I shouldn’t be surprised. Brandon Sanderson can craft so many types of stories across age groups and genres and I am here for them all. I loved the lasting themes and messages and getting Bastille’s perspective turned out to be wonderful! I love her stabby personality and the way she and Alcatraz work together and provide support for each other.

There were some good turns in listening and the audio is seriously the way to go for this. Easy to fly through, always enjoyable and wrapped up everything I needed to feel satisfied with where things landed.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Fantasy
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: low

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