Tag: fiction

Book Review: Fever Dream (Emerald Lake #1) by Elsie Silver

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Rating: ★★★★.25
Audience: Cowboy Romance
Length: 448 pages
Author: Elsie Silver
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: May 19th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Elsie Silver comes a small-town, forbidden, rivals-to-lovers romance, the first book in the brand-new Western romance series Emerald Lake.

Professional bull rider Emmett Bush is not looking for love. He’s looking for a paycheck to save his family’s farm from bankruptcy. So, when he agrees to be the leading man on a hot new reality dating show, Romance Ranch, he’s already decided it’s all one big performance.

Until Julia Silva walks onto his property. Smart, snarky, beautiful, and off-limits in more ways than one. As the location consultant on set and the little sister of his most bitter professional rival, she’s the last woman who should pique his interest.

Julia has been warned about Emmett. She knows better than to fall for his cocky swagger, broad shoulders, and smoldering good looks. Plus, she’s sworn off relationships.

But as Julia and Emmett work together, mutual distaste grows into an unexpected connection and then… something more.

Soon, they find themselves searching for excuses to spend time together and out of reach of the cameras. Knowing glances. Stolen kisses. Secret rendezvous.

Still, Emmett signed up to play the role of an eligible bachelor searching for the one. His family’s land and legacy depend on him completing the show.

The problem is, he’s already fallen in love.

Just not with a contestant.

WELL HERE WE GO.

Alright, it might surprise many of y’all that I’ve only read one Elsie Silver book. But I ended up listening to my sister when she said to go read it and it’s DUET NARRATION so like, of course I had to??? And yes, I do plan on continuing!! I just really love a cowboy romance y’all.

My nitpicky thing is that I don’t love bachelor-esque plots. I kept getting frustrated over the TV drama and the awful people and wanted to keep going back to Julia and Emmett.

And wow did I love Julia and Emmett. I’ve read multiple books recently where the guy is tearful about something and these emotions are everything??? ILOVEITSO. Emmett is incredibly stoic until he isn’t and I’m here for his head over heels fall for Julia. The forbidden vibes did work for me at least. These two were hella magnetic.

Minus the TV show the setting was stellar. Give me all of the ranch settings with amazing side characters who are a cheering section for the leads. This a small town I can’t wait to see more of and the future pairs too!!

Overall audience notes:

  • Cowboy romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: 4ish open door
  • Violence: mildish
  • Content warnings; mentions of attempted SA through drugging of a drink, attempted blackmail, illegal surveillance

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Monthly Reading Wrap-Up: April 2026

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April showers brings May flowers! And a lot of books. Maybe the most I will get to this year. Have you read any of them?

  • [ARC/ALC] A Deal with a Debutante (London’s Most Eligible #1) by Chelsea Bobulski
  • [ARC/ALC] Start at the End by Emma Grey
  • [Reread] The Assassin’s Blade (Throne of Glass #0.5) by Sarah J. Maas
  • The Speed of Lightning (The Hebridean Shield #3) by Ashley Worrell
  • A Ghastly Catastrophe (Veronica Speedwell #10) by Deanna Raybourn
  • [ARC/ALC] I Could Give You the Moon by Ann Liang
  • Anytime I Want by Meredith Logan
  • Weavingshaw (Weavingshaw #1) by Heba Al-Wasity
  • Rites of the Starling (Shield of Sparrows #2) by Devney Perry
  • [ARC] The Duke’s Bargain by Megan Walker
  • From the Silence of the Shadows (The Veridian Empire #3) by V.B. Lacey
  • [ALC] Stranger Things Have Happened by Kasie West
  • [ALC] Deathly Fates by Tesia Tsai
  • [Reread] Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas
  • Because the Beasts Came (Wells of Istri #1) by Madeline James
  • [ARC] The Commons (The Commons World #1) by Rebecce Ihim
  • Beneath (Rebirth #1) by Ariel Sullivan
  • [Non-fiction] Big Kids, Bigger Feelings by Alyssa Blask Campbell
  • The Wicked and the Damned (Dark Inheritance Trilogy #2) by Rebecca Robinson
  • A Desert of Bleeding Sand (A Desert of Bleeding Sand #1) by Lucia Damas
  • The Last Wayfinder by Ellen McGinty
  • [ARC/ALC] Rolls and Rivalry (Gaming and Romance #3) by Kristy Boyce
  • [ARC/ALC] First and Forever by Lynn Painter
  • Heart Check (Varsity #1) by Emily Charlotte
  • Perfect Wreckage (Wrecked #2) by Catherine Cowles
  • Heir of Twisted Lies (Stonegate #2) by LJ Andrews
  • [ARC] This Silent City (The Grim Empire #2) by A.C. Hobbs
  • A Love Most Brutal (Morelli Family #2) by Kath Richards
  • A Foolish Proposal (The Gentlemen’s Gamble) by Kasey Stockton
  • [ARC] Storm Breaker (Storm Breaker #1) by Nisha J. Tuli
  • [ARC/ALC] Student Union (The Undergrads #1) by Julie Murphy
  • Vengeful (Villains #2) by V.E. Schwab
  • [ARC] The Last Page by Katie Holt
  • [ARC/ALC] Spur of the Moment (Willow Creek #1) by Juliana Smith
  • The Thorn Queen (The Rose Bargain #2) by Sasha Peyton Smith
  • [Reread] Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4) by Sarah J. Maas
  • [ARC/ALC] The Shippers by Katherine Center
  • I’m Only Me When I’m With Him (Sweeter Than Fiction #3) by Amanda Schimmoeller
  • Wrecked Palace (Wrecked #3) by Catherine Cowles
  • Reckless Refuge (Wrecked #4) by Catherine Cowles

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Book Review: Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fiction / Magical Realism
Length: 416 pages
Author: Emily Habeck
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: August 8th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Newlyweds face the unimaginable in this epic tale about marriage, motherhood, and enduring love.

For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams.

At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with a college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds. Woven throughout this bold novel is the story of Wren’s mother, Angela, who becomes pregnant with Wren at fifteen in an abusive relationship amidst her parents’ crumbling marriage. In the present, all of Wren’s grief eventually collides, and she is forced to make an impossible choice.

A sweeping love story that is at once lyrical and funny, airy and visceral, Shark Heart is an unforgettable, gorgeous novel about life’s perennial questions, the fragility of memories, finding joy amidst grief, and creating a meaningful life. This daring debut marks the arrival of a wildly talented new writer abounding with originality, humor, and heart.

WHAT IN THE WORLD.

I feel like this has to be one of the oddest books I’ve ever picked up.

And yet I was kind of into it?

A very interesting concept and one I have truly never considered. I did like the exploration of magical realism and mutations and changes. I was intrigued by how it was handled medically and the coping mechanisms that were involved.

I really enjoyed part one and Wren and Lewis’s story the most. I felt swept away by their love for each other and loving through the hard moments too.

What kind of lost me was the second part where the focus changed and I didn’t feel as invested. The book is on the short side (7 hour audio) and there was a lot crammed into this that I wish would have been explored further. I wanted to feel more of the love story aspects that the title referred to.

The ending wrapped things up well enough. Maybe I just struggle with magical realism sometimes and have way too many questions about how everything works and why (hi, I’m the problem, it’s me). I truly did enjoy this read though. There were good themes and plenty of discussions to be had because of the story.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fiction
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of loved ones, suicide ideation

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Book Review: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Fiction
Length: 560 pages
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: October 18th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

“Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.”

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

Thank you to Harper Perennial for the gifted book.

WHAT A JOURNEY.

The Poisonwood Bible was one of the only books I enjoyed in high school and I thought it was about time I picked up another Kingsolver book. It did not disappoint. While not my usual genre, or preference (hello yes I love romance books), I love when I find something outside those circles that I love. This was that book.

I’m not sure I even have the right words to put into a review besides saying, read it. These kinds of stories are important and hard and one that is worth the thoughts it will bring. The moments that will be unforgettable and how much havoc can be reaped in one’s life.

The audiobook was amazing. I found the narrator easy to listen to juxtaposed to the story that I had a hard time listening to, but also could not put down. I read this much quicker than I expected because I had to know where Demon’s story wound take him. There’s many, many complex characters and the book is just made to be felt.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fiction
  • Language: moderate-high; throughout
  • Romance: a few open door scenes
  • Violence: high
  • Content Warnings (there are a lot and I might miss some so please look up more lists if you are concerned): drug abuse, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, foster abuse, physical abuse, racism, child hunger and poverty

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