Book Review: You First by Caitlin Moss

July 24, 2024June 15, 2023 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 378 pages
Author: Caitlin Moss
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: May 30th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

He’s her brother’s best friend…
…she’s his biggest regret.

Genevieve Michaels didn’t realize how much emotional preparation she needed to do for her brother’s wedding. But when Leo Bishop walks into the bar five days before the big day, she’s reminded of exactly why she can’t stand her brother’s best friend…and exactly why she plans to steer clear of him all week.

But within minutes, Leo and Genevieve are back to their usual childish antics. They grew up together, and they have a lot in their love for basketball and her brother, along with their innate ability to pick a fight with each other. But not this week. This week Genevieve is determined to play nice and avoid him as much as possible.

When wedding chaos ensues, Leo and Genevieve are forced to work together to ensure the wedding goes off without a hitch. As they eliminate each disaster, they uncover all the reasons they can’t stand each other, and all the reasons they once thought it could be love.

I LIKED THIS ONE.

New to me author and I am happily hear to say I’d read another book by Caitlin Moss.

This was a really solid friends to lovers, brother’s best friend & second chance romance. The combination of tropes worked well for me and I could feel the tension from the get-go. I liked the chemistry between Leo and Genevieve a lot. The flashback chapters weren’t overwhelming and added the necessary back story to feel all the things throughout this book.

There were a few plot choices that just weren’t my favorite. And a forced sense of drama that I didn’t connect with. Otherwise though, LOVED all of the basketball content, the HORSE concept was cute and I like how that was woven throughout. I sincerely enjoyed this story and look forward to more.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: strong
Romance: 3+ open door
Violence: low
Trigger/Content Warnings: brief mention of miscarriage, loss of a mother (theme throughout), cheating (Gen’s ex)

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ARC Book Review: Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

July 23, 2024April 29, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Slow Dance
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: July 23rd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Attachments comes Slow Dance—a bright, beaming power ballad of a novel about a love so true it refuses to be forgotten.

Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh’s thirty-three, and it’s been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there—and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.

Thank you to William Morrow for the gifted ARC.

HOLY DIALOGUE.

You will rarely find me saying too much dialogue, but y’all, there was too much dialogue. And I didn’t realize how much of a disconnect that created for me in understanding the main character’s emotions and decisions, and even their basic personalities. I struggled so much to FEEL something reading this.

The bones are there. It’s a second chance romance, there’s a lot of real life stuff to work through and talk, and I liked scenes here and there throughout.

This writing style got to me enough I was missing too much to reconcile my overall thoughts. I also think when I’m reading a romance, I want it to be realistic, yet I am cool with a level of romantic delulu because it’s a ROMANCE book and that’s fine. This was almost so realistic that it came across very bland and I watched the day to day of these characters without any true plot line woven in.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: moderate
Romance: 2-3 somewhat cringey open door scenes
Content Warnings: cheating partner (resulting is a divorce)

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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: Heavenbreaker by Sara Wolf

July 21, 2024May 25, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy/Sci-Fi + Romance
Length: 448 pages
Author: Sara Wolf
Publisher: Red Tower
Release Date: May 21st, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

In Synali von Hauteclare’s world, blood is all that matters.

In a massive space station that houses the last of humanity, the king rules. Nobles dance. Commoners starve. And when they aren’t starving, they watch the riding tournaments between the giant robots called “steeds”—once used in the war against the enemy, now repurposed for honorable lance-to-lance high-speed combat with a gravity generator. Only nobles may have the honor of riding. Only nobles may have the glory. Only nobles have the blood.

In Synali von Hauteclare’s world, she’s a bastard; her mother a commoner, her father a duke. And she’s just killed him.

But he killed first.

Seven people in House Hauteclare helped her father hire an assassin to kill her and her mother. Synali survived. Her mother did not. And now Synali will do anything to make them pay, even ally with a noble, her sworn enemy. Now she’s made a deal: for every win she scores in the upcoming Supernova Cup, this enigmatic nobleman will kill one of the seven. She’s never ridden, and the steed her new ally gives her—Heavenbreaker—sings strange lullabies in its hangar. And, increasingly, in her mind.

With her half sibling, Mirele von Hauteclare on her trail, and hotshot pilot Rax who’s trying to get in her bed, Synali has her hands full.

But blood is all that matters. And she will ensure they see much of it.

PRETTY GOOD.

I was swept in by the pretty book and it contained a good read too. I have mixed thoughts on the audiobook though. I thought the narrator was great, but with a multi-POV story it would confuse me about who’s POV I was in whenever I picked the book back up.

I thought the concept was interesting. It gave me Red Rising, Hunger Games, and a dash of Scorpio Races kind of vibes. I loved the jousting element and the tournament was well crafted. I liked the main *main* character Synali a lot. She was someone to root for and I loved the revenge path she was on.

There’s a slow burn romance brewing I am absolutely here for. I enjoyed his POV a lot too. I’m curious about the others and how they will further play out in the series. It was like we got enough hints to be intrigued, but I needed more to really love them.

A truly solid good read, I will definitely be picking up the next one.

Overall audience notes: