Tag: Book Review

Book Review: Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 272 pages
Author: Annabel Monaghan
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s
Release Date: June 7th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Nora’s life is about to get a rewrite…

Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it’s her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it’s picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne’er do well husband Nora’s life will never be the same.

The morning after shooting wraps and the crew leaves, Nora finds Leo on her porch with a half-empty bottle of tequila and a proposition. He’ll pay a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week. The extra seven grand would give Nora breathing room, but it’s the need in his eyes that makes her say yes. Seven days: it’s the blink of an eye or an eternity depending on how you look at it. Enough time to fall in love. Enough time to break your heart.

Filled with warmth, wit, and wisdom, Nora Goes Off Script is the best kind of love story–the real kind where love is complicated by work, kids, and the emotional baggage that comes with life. For Nora and Leo, this kind of love is bigger than the big screen.

ENJOYABLE.

This is another, I wasn’t going to read this book until everyone else convinced me otherwise. And while I don’t have a RAVE review, I do have a solid one that I would still stand on as a recommendation for a short, fast paced romance.

I think this is the first movie star romance that I actually liked. Leo is sweet and caring, and full of charisma that sweeps you up. Nora and Leo get off to a fast pace start that shows truthfully how connection can spark. I adored how Leo fit right into their family and made an effort in being there.

The conflict and how it started made me tilt my head a bit. I didn’t love it because I think a simple, is this true? could have fixed it real fast. I don’t know, the fast nature of their relationship might have played into it being apart of their downfall for a bit, but it still bugged me.

I loved the small town setting, the kids were sweet, and Nora was able to find steady ground again. I like that she found her happiness and the complicated joy that comes from having falling in love.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: some
  • Romance: vague open that fades to black
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: mentions of infidelity (from the ex-husband), spousal and child abandonment, alcoholism

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Book Review: Scarlet Princess (The Lochlann Feuds #1) by Robin D. Mahle and Elle Madison

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: NA Fantasy Romance
Length: 304 pages
Author: Robin D. Mahle and Elle Madison
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: August 27th, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A reckless princess. An enemy kingdom. And a mistake that could cost her everything.

Princess Rowan thought she knew her place in the world.
She never expected to feel like an outsider.
She certainly never imagined she would fall in love, least of all with a man from a barbarian kingdom half a world away.
But when series of missteps lands her in the hands of the people she was brought up to hate, she is forced to reconsider everything she thought she knew about both lands.
And about herself.
After a lifetime of animosity between the kingdoms, will the Socairans ever accept her as one of their own?
Or will her mistakes push her people into yet another war?
*This enthralling story from the Lochlann Realm takes place after The Lochlann Treaty, but can be devoured and enjoyed all on its own.*

GOOD START.

I found myself really enjoying this fantasy read. It wasn’t quite what I was after, but still held a lot of good things.

I loooove short chapters. And these are barely a few minutes long that keep the pace going quick. I flew through it and each chapter kept me wanting more. I enjoyed the writing style and the characters. It is VERY light on the genre fantasy. There’s little to no world building and there might be a magic system? But that also isn’t explained well. While this is a negative for me, I think it would be a solid gateway fantasy for those interested in trying out the genre.

The romance had me shaking my head. I wasn’t here for Theo from the get-go. But you know who I am here for? EVANDER. So that better be where this series is headed or I’m going to quit while I’m blissfully unaware. There’s good banter and kisses. Continual one bed scenarios and plenty of older YA antics.

I think this was a good start to the series. There’s enough open plot lines that I want to continue and I’m happy to have found a KU fantasy series to dive into.

Overall audience notes:

  • Upper YA Fantasy Romance
  • Language: very little
  • Romance: kisses/make-outs
  • Violence: mild
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: kidnapping, physical altercations

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Book Review: Speechless by Lindsey Lanza

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 328 pages
Author: Lindsey Lanza
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: January 17th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

When life’s off-key, go to Malibu

Bestselling author Lucy Gold may write fairy tales for a living, but her own happily ever after is looking bleak. Seeking a fresh start after a sudden divorce on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, she decides to make a new life for herself and her service dog in Los Angeles. But when her living arrangements fall through just before takeoff, a handsome stranger offers to let her stay with him and his motley crew of musicians in Malibu. Her gallant hero? None other than Henry Turner, the award-winning composer whose music has held Lucy together while her life’s been crumbling apart.

Henry might be at the peak of his creative career, but his crippling anxiety throws his personal life completely out of tune. Yet all of that changes the longer Lucy stays with him and his housemates, swiftly becoming one of their own and offering Henry a glimpse of happiness he never thought possible. As their relationship deepens, Lucy’s attraction to Henry cannot be denied, but as she works through the aftermath of her divorce, she’s resigned to give up on love. Henry plays all the right notes and says all the right words. Will Lucy be able to hear them over her fear of the past repeating itself?

Speechless is a swoony saga about finding your people, overcoming your deepest insecurities, and choosing happiness no matter what life throws at you.

WONDERFUL DEBUT.

Ohhh my goodness I inhaled this book on the day it released. I could not put it down and now all I want is Lanza’s second book because this was a fantastic debut.

I LOVED all of the rep here and how both characters worked through and handled things. It wasn’t always linear and I love feeling the real and rawness of both of the main characters.

Henry was the sweetest cinnamon roll who was kind, genuine and there. Always there. My absolute favorite nuance. Lucy showed some beautiful character growth and I really appreciated the author’s note at the end that further made Lucy’s decisions clear.

There was a tender found family here too. I loved that Lucy got the chance to make true and lasting connections that she desperately needed (and deserved).

The whole book just kept me wrapped up in all the emotions. And the ending??? THE FEEEEEEELS. It was beautiful and everything and you definitely need to read this too.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: a little
  • Romance: a few vague, fade to black; low explicit
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: bullying, social anxiety and selective mutism, chronic illness (endometriosis), divorce, loss of a parent, grief depiction

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Book Review: The Lost Metal (Mistborn Era 2: #7) by Brandon Sanderson

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Fantasy
Length: 528 pages
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: November 15th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Return to Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn world of Scadrial as its second era, which began with The Alloy of Law, comes to its conclusion.

For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set-with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders-since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Conflict between Elendel and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate-whose corruption Wax and Steris have sought to expose-and Bilming is even more entangled. After Wax discovers a new type of explosive that can unleash unprecedented destruction and realizes that the Set must already have it, an immortal kandra serving Scadrial’s god, Harmony, reveals that Bilming has fallen under the influence of another god: Trell, worshipped by the Set. And Trell isn’t the only factor at play from the larger Cosmere-Marasi is recruited by offworlders with strange abilities who claim their goal is to protect Scadrial…at any cost. Wax must choose whether to set aside his rocky relationship with God and once again become the Sword that Harmony has groomed him to be. If no one steps forward to be the hero Scadrial needs, the planet and its millions of people will come to a sudden and calamitous ruin.

OMG.

I can’t help but sit in awe each time I read a Sanderson book because HOW DOES HE DO IT. I LOVE the Cosmere world and everything about it. The characters, stories, emotions, relationships. His books have it allllllll. And this era is slept on and I need more people reading this!

I do think it’s important to note that this series (especially this last book) have some key commentary and discussions about the Cosmere as a whole. I won’t say more than that, but read them. READ THEM.

Wax and Wayne are my favorite duo. I love the Western + Sci-fi combination. And for two genres I don’t read a ton of, I should not be surprised that Sanderson has made me love it. I love the gun slinging action, the magic system, and the countdown to the end that had me listening to this book faster than I expected.

Writing spoiler free is hard, especially for one of my biggest waited releases of 2022. I just loved it. I couldn’t comment on one thing about it that I needed to be different. Things ended as I kind of expected, and still filled with all of the hope and love these characters present against impossible odds. This bromance is one that will stand against time and I will now be impatiently waiting for the next Sanderson book.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses + light innuendo
  • Violence: high
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: physical and magical violence, gun violence, explosions, near death experiences, loss of life

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