Tag: Book Review

Book Review: Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 464 pages
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 4th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…

OKAY I GET IT NOW.

This wasn’t really on my radar because I figured the spice would overwhelm my enjoyment of the book but a friend read it and her review convinced me that I needed to go for it and I DID AND I LIKED IT A LOT Y’ALL. The book, not the spice, I still skipped that.

BECAUSE, the story was so dang solid. It really was more than the spice. I was hooked on this plot. I LOVED getting all of the swimming/diving knowledge about competitions, practices, etc. I know very little and this is why I love unique sports romances.

And Scarlett with her mental health moments and therapy? Also in love. As an athlete in another life it was incredibly relatable and I loved seeing her move through that journey. SWEET LUCAS. Good heavens. I think the duet narration in the audiobook sold him x1000 for me. Every single moment and interaction between them was incredible.

I could have used a little less of Pen (Penn? Audiobook problems). She kept popping up and adding another dash of drama that I don’t think the book needed. Otherwise though? I’m not even a little bit mad I picked this up. It was amazing.

Overall audience notes:

  • Sports Romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: y’all I stopped counting
  • Violence: low
  • Content warnings: death of a parent (recounted), depiction of trauma and PTSD, bullying

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Book Review: Perfect Fit by Clare Gilmore

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Clare Gilmore
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: October 29th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A hilarious and heartfelt rom-com about having it all, slowing down to see the big picture, and finding out that the person you least expect could be your perfect fit.

Josephine Davis has spent her entire twenties building Revenant: a fashion brand headquartered in downtown Austin. When her biggest investor orders Josie to hire a consultant, the last person she expects to be working with is Will Grant – the twin brother of Josie’s ex best friend.

Sure, Will and Josie may have shared one mistake of a kiss during senior spring break nine years ago, but they’ve never been friends. She remembers him as moody; he always thought of her as shallow. Romance isn’t on the table for either of them until they blink, and realize there’s a reason they can’t stay away from each other.

But there’s Will’s sister to consider – whom Josie hasn’t spoken with since their falling out – not to mention, Will and Josie live seventeen hundred miles apart. And it’s not like she has time for a boyfriend anyway when she’s an overworked CEO. As Josie’s burnout looms while she falls deeper and harder for Will, she contends with the fact that eventually, she’ll have to make a choice: stay alone to be productive, or slow down to be in love.

GREW ON ME.

I am not a corporate girlie so I feel like the beginning was a little lost on me and I wasn’t quite clicking with everything happening. Gratefully this got better over the course of the book and I found myself truly enjoying the story. I think if you come into this with a little more of a fiction lens than romance you’ll like it too. DON’T WORRY, there is romance, but there’s a really big focus on Josie and herself as she grows throughout the book.

I loved that Josie was hardworking and deliberate about who she was and what goals she had AND at the same time could recognize that maybe some of her decisions were creating a lifestyle that was racing towards burnout. That fine balance between work vs. life is hard sometimes and this explored it well.

The romance is very low angst, it’s a sweet story of two old friends running into each other again (literally) and how all of those previous memories resurfaced. I loved how supportive Will was and the way they learned to lean on each other.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: vague open door
  • Violence: low

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Book Review: Deadwood (Secrets of Serpentine #1) by Karley Brenna

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 540 pages
Author: Karley Brenna
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: May 1st, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Auria Tenere has spent her life locked away in the castle she calls home and forced to serve her father, the king of Amosite. Clinging to bedtime stories of extinct fae and dragons in hiding, she believes there’s no hope of ever leaving the confines of the palace. That is, until her father arranges for her to be married to a stranger.
After being able to leave the chasm for the first time in her life with her betrothed, Auria’s group is soon attacked, leaving them no choice but to find shelter in the nearest town. But Deadwood isn’t all that it seems, and the tales she once thought were simply bedtime stories turn out to be more real than she ever could’ve imagined.
Faced with the lies she has been told her whole life, Auria is determined to unravel the secrets being kept by those in this outlaw town. Including those of the closed-off man she isn’t certain she should let close—the one man her father seems scared of. From the moment she set foot in town, he’s had his sights set on her, and Auria wants to know why. But soon, being stranded with him isn’t her only problem. Not when the king decides he wants his daughter back, no matter the cost.

OH BOY DO I HAVE THOUGHTS.

From my understanding, this was the author’s first fantasy book and…you could tell. I am sitting here trying to figure out what any part of this world looked like and I can’t tell you one thing. And it was *supposed* to have this wild west setting (of which is why I picked it up) but alas, the most I got was a few card games gone wrong. DON’T EVEN get me started on the magic system because that made no sense either.

And I’m all for a FMC who needs some space to grow and change over a series, but this gave me no hints at those changes even by the end. Auria was still naive, still couldn’t handle a weapon, and was still a damsel in distress on repeat. I wanted her to do one thing JUST ONE TIME.

I didn’t mind the romance with [redacted for spoilers]. It didn’t have the flair I was expecting, yet it kind of worked? I liked that there were POV chapters from his perspective at least.

It truly wasn’t like I hated this book, it went up and down for me. By the time the conclusion came though, I didn’t feel invested enough to read book two.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: mild
  • Romance: 1-2ish open door
  • Violence: high
  • Content warnings; attempted murder, attempted sexual assault, death, creature attacks

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Book Review: The Quit List by Katie Bailey

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 346 pages
Author: Katie Bailey
Publisher: Eleventh Avenue Publishing
Release Date: April 5th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

He quit believing in love a long time ago. She won’t quit until she finds The One… and he’s everything she’s NOT looking for.

Holly Greene is on a mission to find her happily ever after. And her journey to love does not include a detour to Bad Boy Bartenderville, population Jax Grainger.

Jax may be witty, smart-mouthed, and handsome, but he’s the kind of guy who views love as a four-letter word… and the last thing Holly needs is to waste any more time.

She’s in her seeking Prince Charming era, not her playboy villain era.

But after he saves her from the world’s worst date, Holly sees an opportunity: Jax may not check any of the boxes on her list, but he’s the perfect person to help her find a man who does.

All she has to do is stick to the plan—and stay out of the sexy bartender’s arms.

Easy peasy lemon sque… Oops.

AM I A FAN NOW?

This just goes to show you that just because you didn’t like one of the author’s first books doesn’t mean that you won’t love future books. Because I can easily say I want to continue ready KB books and I’m happy with that.

The Quit List was clever and fun and filled with such great banter. I loved the dynamic between Jax and Holly. It was a really sweet slow burn and even with the plot pieces didn’t overwhelm the relationship that was building. All of the outdoor content was great and I was charmed by it all.

It’s also a great audiobook if you’re interest in that avenue!

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: low
  • Romance: heated kisses
  • Violence: low

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