Tag: contemporary romance

Book Review: A Christmas Spark by Cindy Steel

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Rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
Audience: Contemporary romance novella
Length: 131 pages
Author: Cindy Steel
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: December 5th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

When my best friend found out I’d be alone over Christmas, she hooked me up with a week stay in her family’s cabin in Idaho. I was on a publishing deadline for my latest book and was really looking forward to a cozy week by the fire, cuddled up in flannel pajamas with my laptop and hot chocolate.

Alone.

So imagine my surprise when I arrived at the cabin during a blizzard, and found it already occupied. By an all too familiar face and a fine pack of chiseled abs. Even though it had been ten years since I’d last seen Chase, he had no problem picking up exactly where we left off.

I had a big problem with it.

It didn’t matter what he threw at me—the old nickname, the teasing, his charming grin, or even those chiseled abs (did I already mention those?), I refused to let him get to me after…the incident. Nope, not me. I was made of stone.

Unfortunately, I’m beginning to understand that when you strike Chase against stone…you get sparks.

Lots of them.

NEEDED MORE SPARK.

I’m having mixed thoughts over this. Probably because it’s a novella. And those either hit well for me and still feel developed or otherwise feel like they’re lacking.

This leaned more towards lacking. The initial premise was explained well and I could understand the turmoil and reasoning behind why Penny and Chase hadn’t spoken in years. All the time they spent in the cabin together, I wanted more discussions about that, not just one brief night of actual communication. The banter was was cute and the story was simple.

It was a quick read and had some adorable moments. I think it felt a little rushed, but the ending definitely made me laugh.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Holiday Romance Novella
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: falling through ice into frozen lake

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Monthly Reading Wrap-Up: July 2021

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May have hit a new personal best for the month, 38 books y’all! I did read a lot of graphic novels mixed in with my big fantasy books. But I really love changing the pace between reads. Keeps slumps at bay.

Favorites this month: The Traitor Queen, How to Walk Away, Always Only You, The Poppy War, Otherwise Engaged, Well Matched, The Gravity of Us, Six Crimson Cranes, Falling for Your Enemy, Jade War, The Second Blind Son

Least Favorites: Redemptor, A Lady in Attendance, Gods & Monsters

  • [ARC] Redemptor (Raybearer #2) by Jordan Ifueko
  • Come Back to Me (Waters of Time #1) by Jody Hedlund
  • [Reread] The Traitor Queen (The Bridge Kingdom #2) by Danielle L. Jensen
  • [ARC] Never Saw You Coming by Erin Hahn
  • How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
  • Always Only You (Bergman Brothers #2) by Chloe Liese
  • The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels #1) by India Holton
  • [Graphic Novel] Sheets (Sheets #1) by Brenna Thummler
  • The Mostly Real McCoy (Apple Valley Love Stories #1) by Julie Christianson
  • [Graphic Novel] Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
  • [Graphic Novel] Barely Functional Adult: It’ll All Make Sense Eventually by Meichi Ng
  • The Poppy War (The Poppy War #1) by R.F. Kuang
  • Otherwise Engaged by Joanna Barker
  • Caught Bread Handed (A Bakeshop Mystery #4) by Ellie Alexander
  • Roomies by Christina Lauren
  • Reckless Memories (Wrecked #1) by Catherine Cowles
  • A Lady in Attendance by Rachel Fordham
  • The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus #3) by Rick Riordan
  • The Extinction Trials: Rebel (The Extinction Trials #3) by S.M. Wilson
  • [ARC] Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray
  • [ARC] Well Matched (Well Met #3) by Jen DeLuca
  • [Novella] Pursuing Miss Hall by Karen Thornell
  • On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (The Wingfeather Saga #1) by Andrew Peterson
  • The Gravity of Us (Elements #4) by Brittainy C. Cherry
  • Carving for Miss Coventry (Sons of Somerset #1) by Deborah M. Hathaway
  • Counting Down With You by Tashie Bhuiyan
  • [Non-fiction] Princes at War by Deborah Cadbury
  • Six Crimson Cranes (Six Crimson Cranes #1) by Elizabeth Lim
  • Falling for Your Enemy (Love Cliches #6) by Emma St. Clair
  • Ever After Always (Bergman Brothers #3) by Chloe Liese
  • Jade War (The Green Bone Saga #2) by Fonda Lee
  • [Graphic Novel] Heartstopper, Vol. 3 by Alice Oseman
  • The Second Blind Son by Amy Harmon
  • [Novella] The Twelve Holidates (Love Cliches #4) by Emma St. Clair
  • The Tea Dragon Festival (Tea Dragon #2) by Kay O’Neill
  • Gods & Monsters (Serpent & Dove #3) by Shelby Mahurin
  • [Graphic Novel] Fence, Vol. 1 by C.S. Pacat
  • [Graphic Novel] Fence, Vol. 2 by C.S. Pacat

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ARC Book Review: A Feeling Like Home by Haleigh Wenger

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Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 270 pages
Author: Haleigh Wenger
Publisher: Sword and Silk
Release Date: August 3rd, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Sixteen-year-old Paige Williams can’t stop self-sabotaging.

Not when her dad gets sick, not when her relationship implodes, not even when her parents send her to another-freaking-state for the summer to live with her sister. Paige just wants to have fun, spray paint a few walls, and block out everything stressful, including her growing concern that she might be sick as well. To make things worse, her parents threaten her with boarding school in the fall if she can’t prove she’s changed her bad habits.

Paige’s parents sign her up for a rebuilding project in Texas where her sister lives. Meanwhile, Paige reluctantly befriends her sister’s straight-laced teenage neighbor, Joey, who is a frequent guest. He’s so different from her, but Paige realizes that may not be a bad thing, especially since being around Joey curbs her urge to vandalize and ignore the rules. He even makes her forget about the debilitating stomach cramps she struggles to hide.

Just as Paige begins to feel settled in Texas, her dad’s worsening Crohn’s disease brings her home to Seattle. When her own health fails her, she has the choice of staying at home and receiving care. Or, she could go back to Texas and prove for once and for all that she’s more than her mistakes and more than a disease. Torn between two worlds and two versions of herself, Paige must decide where, and with whom, she truly feels at home.

Thank you to the author for an eARC.

MIXED THOUGHTS.

There’s some good and some bad here. Trying to wrangle my thoughts for this one.

Something I could understand were the emotions coming from 16 year-old Paige. She’s going through a lot and I recognize the thoughts and feelings she would be going through during a hard time in her life.

Now an item I really didn’t love. Paige. While I mentioned above, some stuff was fine, the rest definitely was not. One major issue, cheating. I don’t like it. Ever. I can’t get on board with any reasoning as to “why it’s okay.” It’s not. She dragged on a love triangle that was ridiculous and rubbed me the wrong way multiple times.

This book covered a lot of difficult subject matter (See trigger warnings). It was painful to watch the story unfold searching for hope. I liked the way Wenger brought that out in the end and gave Paige (and her family) a chance to reconnect and find some measure of peace.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loved one with a chronic disease, loss of a parent, being diagnosed with a chronic condition, vandalism, cheating

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Book Review: The Christmas Swap by Sandy Barker

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Rating: ☆☆
Audience: Contemporary romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Sandy Barker
Publisher: One More Chapter
Release Date: October 16th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Chloe, Jules, and Lucy meet at a Maui resort kids’ club, aged 11, forging a lifelong friendship spanning two decades and three continents.

Twenty-two years later, they decide to swap Christmases, none of them expecting the hilarity and romantic escapades that will ensue.

Chloe from Melbourne spends her Christmas with Lucy’s mum and dad in a sleepy village in Oxfordshire, England, stunned to the core when she discovers who grew up across the road from Lucy.

Lucy, who has jetted off to snowy Colorado for her dream-come-true white Christmas, is taken into the fold of Jules’s loud and brash family, discovering more about herself in a few short days than she has in years.

And Jules leaves the cold climes of Colorado to spend a balmy ‘Orphan’s Christmas’ with Chloe’s friends in Melbourne, finding that time away from her mundane life is just what she needed.

Join these three lovable women as they each get a Christmas to surpass their wildest dreams.

JUST STOP.

Oh goodness. I can’t with insta-love y’all. I will admit, I have read good renditions of it, this was not one of those.

There’s 400 pages to cover three entirely separate story lines. It was clearly not enough to actually put any angst or moments into anyone’s romance. I couldn’t get past how quickly everything was happening and wanted it to just slow down. There was no background on relationships and the love interests. All 0 to 100 faster than I could convince myself to read this book.

I wanted to like everyone, and I did for the most part. And the premise was a nifty idea. Switching places with friends to enjoy a “new to them” Christmas celebration seemed enchanting.

I’m going to keep this short because I don’t have any desire to rip into this more. It wasn’t a love story I was on board with.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses; mentions of nights together (but no details)

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