Tag: Book Review

Book Review: In the Penalty Box by Lynn Rush and Kelly Anne Blount

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: YA Contemporary romance
Length: 364 pages
Author: Lynn Rush & Kelly Anne Blount
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: January 5th, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The Cutting Edge meets Friday Night Lights in a sizzling new hockey romance from bestselling authors Kelly Anne Blount and Lynn Rush.

Willow
Figure skating was supposed to be my whole world. But one unlucky injury and now I’m down…but I’m definitely not out. I just need to rehab—a boatload of rehab—and who’d have thought I could do it on the boys’ hockey team?

Of course, the infuriatingly hot captain of the team seems to think I’m nothing but sequins and twirls. What’s a girl to do but put him in his place? Game on.

Brodie
Hockey is my whole world. I’ve worked my tail off getting my team in a position to win the championships—hopefully in front of major college scouts, too—so what’s a guy to do when a figure skater ends up as our new goalie?

Of course, the distractingly sexy skater thinks I’m nothing but a testosterone-laced competitive streak. And surely she’s only biding her time to heal, then she’s gone. Game over.

ALERT: RAGING TEEN HORMONES

That’s about the only major thought that kept going through my head. This was a book that couldn’t decide what age group it actually wanted to be apart of. The dialogue, conversations, and inner monologues swayed from young YA and towards NA (new adult). It was weird. Really weird.

What I did like was the hockey story. I love a good sports novel and I LOVE that Willow got be the goalie for the boy’s team. That was awesome and really neat to see. I liked reading about the games and wondering who was going to win.

I also did enjoy Willow’s character progression. Ridiculous thoughts about Brodie aside, she made some great strides in figuring out what was best for her. I think she made the best decisions with the information she could and picked what she truly felt was going to make her happy in the long run.

The wild drama all over the place took me out of the story. I don’t mind a bit of drama, but sometimes it hits a line. This one rolled way past that point. Everything felt amped to try and create an emotional side, and I didn’t feel much of that. I wish I could have felt drawn to some of the inner story more, but it’s fine. This was a quick YA romance that had some good, some bad.

Overall audience notes:

  • Young adult sports romance
  • Language: some
  • Romance: kisses/make-outs
  • Violence: physical altercations
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: difficult sports injuries, sexism, misogyny, loss of a parent through car wreck, parent abandonment, parent incarceration, alcoholism

Instagram || Goodreads

ARC Book Review: Love from Scratch by Kaitlyn Hill

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★☆ (3.5)
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 368 pages
Author: Kaitlyn Hill
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: April 5th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

This summer, Reese Camden is trading sweet tea and Southern hospitality for cold brew and crisp coastal air. She’s landed her dream marketing internship at Friends of Flavor, a wildly popular cooking channel in Seattle. The only problem? Benny Beneventi, the relentlessly charming, backwards-baseball-cap-wearing culinary intern–and her main competition for the fall job.

Reese’s plan to keep work a No Feelings Zone crumbles like a day-old muffin when she and Benny are thrown together for a video shoot that goes viral, making them the internet’s newest ship. Audiences are hungry for more, and their bosses at Friends of Flavor are happy to deliver. Soon Reese and Benny are in an all-out food war, churning homemade ice cream, twisting soft pretzels, breaking eggs in an omelet showdown–while hundreds of thousands of viewers watch.

Reese can’t deny the chemistry between her and Benny. But the more their rivalry heats up, the harder it is to keep love on the back burner.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC.

WELL, I ADORED BENNY.

I really wanted to love this more than my review shows and while I did like a lot of it, there were some aspects that held me back. Something I did love was the setting!! I loved the concept of a company with online cooking videos and the like.

Benny. He was top notch one of the better YA love interests I’ve read in awhile. He was incredibly supportive, realistic, and charming. I love that he was the sunshine between the two and had a positive attitude. Benny was all things sweet and the grand gesture at the end was completely over the top and I loved it.

Reese. I was much slower to warm up to her. I didn’t mind that she was the grump in the relationship and I liked that they got together halfway through! She showed some growth and, but towards the end it got a bit stagnant. I didn’t love the way the conflict was handled and I felt my care for her decisions wane as she became increasingly whiny. It was okay.

I realize this is a contemporary romance and I love that. That’s why I picked it up. That’s what drew me in. Unfortunately the larger agenda of the book felt forced and pushy. Even for things I am all for and in support of, I felt suffocated by that storyline over what I thought was the main aspect of the plot (the romance).

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary Romance
  • Language: light
  • Romance: make-outs
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: skeevy older men, misogyny, slut-shaming

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

Reading Wrap Up: March 2022

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

We’re just going to pretend that I didn’t forget about February’s wrap up and then was too exhausted to make it.

Trying to remedy that by starting March’s earlier!

FAVORITES:

  • All my rereads
  • Every Nichole Van book
  • The Unknown Beloved
  • A River Enchanted
  • Our Last Days in Barcelona
  • Sweet Right Here (A Lost Story Bookshop Novel #1) by Jenny B. Jones
  • [Reread] A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOTAR #1) by Sarah J. Maas
  • Gallant by V.E. Schwab
  • [Reread/Novella] A Court of Frost and Starlight (ACOTAR #3.5) by Sarah J. Maas
  • [ARC] A Symphony of Stars (The Gods of Men #3) by Barbara Kloss
  • Romancing the Rake (Brotherhood of the Black Tartan #2) by Nichole Van
  • The Siren of Sussex (Belles of London #1) by Mimi Matthews
  • [Novella] Evershore (Skyward #3.1) by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson
  • [ARC] The Unknown Beloved by Amy Harmon
  • How to Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan
  • Loving a Lady (Brotherhood of the Black Tartan #3) by Nichole Van
  • Under Locke by Mariana Zapata
  • Daughter of the Deep (The Children of Lyr #1) by Lina C. Amarego
  • Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archives #2.5) by Brandon Sanderson
  • Fly with the Arrow (Bluebeard’s Secret #1) by Sarah K.L. Wilson
  • A River Enchanted (Elements of Cadence #1) by Rebecca Ross
  • Only A Monster (Monsters #1) by Vanessa Len
  • An Impossible Imposter (Veronica Speedwell #7) by Deanna Raybourn
  • Making the Marquess (Brotherhood of the Black Tartan #4) by Nichole Van
  • Just a Heartbeat Away (Forever Yours #1) by Cara Bastone
  • Remembering Jamie (Brotherhood of the Black Tartan #5) by Nichole Van
  • [Non-Fiction] Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alred Lansing
  • [Novella] Under One Roof (The STEMinist Novellas #1) by Ali Hazelwood
  • [ARC] Love Practically (The Penn-Leiths of Thistle Muir #1) by Nichole Van
  • The League of Gentlewomen Witches (Dangerous Damsels #2) by India Holton
  • [Novella] The Emperor’s Soul (Elantris) by Brandon Sanderson
  • [ARC] Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton
  • Queen (Fae Games #3) by Karen Lynch
  • [ARC] Luck and Last Resorts (Love, Lists & Fancy Ships #2) by Sarah Grunder Ruiz
  • Crimson Reign (Blood Heir Trilogy #3) by Amie Wen Zhao
  • The Lady Tempts an Heir (The Gilded Age Heiresses #3) by Harper St. George
  • [ARC] The Rightful Bearer (The Maiden Ship #3) by Micheline Ryckman
  • [Novella] Stuck With You (The STEMinist Novellas #2) by Ali Hazelwood
  • Bride of the Shadow King (Bride of the Shadow King #2) by Sylvia Mercedes
  • [Reread] A Court of Silver Flames (ACOTAR #4) by Sarah J. Maas
  • Love Off-Limits (Some Kind of Love #3) by Jenny Proctor
  • [ARC] The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
  • The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons #2) by Julia Quinn
  • Seatmate (Love Lines #3) by Cara Bastone
  • [Reread] The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

Book Review: The Lion’s Den by Katherine St. John

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: Adult Fiction / Mystery
Length: 368 pages
Author: Katherine St. John
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: June 30th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Belle likes to think herself immune to the dizzying effects of fabulous wealth. But when her best friend, Summer, invites her on a glamorous getaway to the Mediterranean aboard her billionaire boyfriend’s yacht, the only sensible answer is yes. Belle hopes the trip will be a much-needed break from her stalled acting career and uniquely humiliating waitressing job, but once she’s aboard the luxurious Lion’s Den, it soon becomes clear this jet-setting holiday is not as advertised.

Belle’s dream vacation quickly devolves into a nightmare as she and the handful of other girls Summer invited are treated more like prisoners than guests by their controlling host-and in one terrifying moment, Belle comes to see Summer for who she truly is: a vicious gold digger who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Belle realizes she’s going to have to keep her wits about her — and her own big secret closely hidden — if she wants to make it off the yacht alive.

THIS WAS WILD.

My eyes were in shocked mode practically the entire time. I didn’t know what I was going to get from reading this, so an incredible fast-paced thriller was surprising and intense.

Have you ever watched the show Below Deck? Because this felt like instead of watching the crew, you were watching the guests. And the guests had utterly jumped off the deep end. I hated so many of them (and that was entirely the point so I wasn’t upset about it). The very few redeeming characters were the right touch for this kind of story.

I really didn’t see the biggest twist and I flat out shouted at my steering wheel while listening because I was SHOCKED. Which then amped the story even more. I loved Belle’s place in the novel and getting everything from her view. I wasn’t sure about the flashback chapters initially. As they continued and started making much more sense I was just as invested with those as the present story.

Definitely had some raunchiness I didn’t love, but this story was just too good to put down. Loved the audio version and I will be checking out her next book. This was highly entertaining and different from my usual reads which made it all the better.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: kisses, open & closed door scenes
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: sexual assault, rape, murder, drowning, suicide, suicide ideation, being drugged without consent

Instagram || Goodreads