ARC Book Review: Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber

October 4, 2025October 1, 2025 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Urban Fantasy Romance
Length: 336 pages
Author: Stephanie Garber
Publisher: Flatiron
Release Date: October 7th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

It starts with a class in an old movie theater.

Folklore 517: Local Legends and Urban Myths, taught by a woman called the Professor. Most students believe the Professor’s stories are just fiction, but Holland St. James has always been convinced that magic is real. When she tracks down a local legend named the Watch Man, who can supposedly tell you when you’ll die, the world finally makes sense. Except that the Watch Man tells her she will die at midnight tomorrow unless she finds an ancient object called the Alchemical Heart.

With the clock ticking, Holland is pulled deeper into this magical world in the heart of Los Angeles—and into the path of a magnetic stranger. Everything about him feels like a bad idea, but he promises Holland that her sister sent him to protect her. As they chase clues and stories that take them closer to the Alchemical Heart, Holland realizes everyone in this intoxicating new world is lying to her, even this stranger. And if she can’t figure out whom to trust, not even the Alchemical Heart will save her.

Thank you to Flatiron for an eARC.

CARAVAL REPEAT?

This one was interesting for me. I’m a big fan of Stephanie Garber’s Caraval/Once Upon a Broken Heart series. LOVED both of them and I knew going into this to expect something different. And while yes, that was the case, it also felt like a repeat of Caraval? Just add in older characters and an urban fantasy setting instead. I haven’t decided how that makes me feel about my overall impression of the book.

The romance was 100% lacking on the swoon. Now that I understand this is a series I CAN see what the author is going after but I don’t think that will all click until book two [hopefully]. I didn’t know what direction I was supposed to lean in and that made me pause a few too many times throughout. I will say this was a kisses only adult romance and I appreciated that it wasn’t unnecessarily spice forward.

I’m definitely going to continue the series because I do have questions. I think the folklore aspects were interesting and the POV change made me think too. I have my eyes on a few characters and want to see how they fold into the larger plot. This was a decent beginning but lacking that punch of something to give it an edge.

Overall audience notes:

Urban fantasy
Language: low
Romance: kisses
Violence: mild-moderate

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ARC/ALC Book Review: Total Dreamboat by Katelyn Doyle

June 26, 2025June 4, 2025 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 336 pages
Author: Katelyn Doyle
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release Date: June 24th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the beloved author of Just Some Stupid Love Story, an irresistible rom-com about what happens when a cruise ship romance goes…overboard

Hope Lanover needs a vacation. Her relationship has imploded, her creative ambitions have flatlined, and she can’t seem to locate the badass girl she used to be. So when her best friend—a lifestyle influencer looking for a rich husband—invites her along a luxury cruise, Hope goes along with it…despite hating cruises, and having no interest in a fling with their elderly clientele.

Felix Segrave can’t imagine anything worse than a cruise. Sober, determinedly single and a workaholic chef, he hates leaving his restaurant and routine. But when his parents surprise him and his sisters with tickets to celebrate their anniversary, he can’t say no—he’s disappointed them too many times in his troubled past.

Hope and Felix are prepared to grin and bear it—until they lock eyes at check in. Suddenly, a ten-day fling in the Caribbean with a sexy stranger doesn’t seem so bad, despite all the ballroom dancing lessons and cheesy karaoke nights. That is, until Hope’s romantic demons catch up to her, Felix learns that the woman he’s falling for has not been entirely honest with him, and they find themselves stranded together—and at each other’s throats—in paradise. Forced to work together, not to mention share a bed, they must either navigate the stormy seas of love, or face romantic shipwreck.

Thank you Flatiron Books for the gifted ARC and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook.

KIND OF A MISS.

I did like the audiobook and thought the narrator’s did a good job. The story just didn’t roll out in the best way for me.

Initially interested I enjoyed the idea of a cruise ship romance. There’s some good flirty banter and other moments that I were fine. I think my favorite part was the friendship between Hope and her best friend. There relationship and communication was better than the romantic one.

BECAUSE SO HELP ME THE THIRD ACT. And there was a fourth act too?? I’ll admit the fourth one made a little more sense but the third one had me exclaiming out loud my displeasure. I’m also really tired of ex-boyfriends showing up unannounced?? Repeatedly???? GO AWAY.

I think the chemistry was lacking, the spice came on too soon, and the lack of both of those things made them both immature and inopportune moments.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: moderate
Romance: 3-4 open door
Content warnings: alcohol addiction (recovery and sobriety discussions)

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Book Review: No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall

March 10, 2025February 13, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Mystery/Thriller
Length: 336 pages
Author: Kate Alice Marshall
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release Date: January 23rd, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The author of What Lies in the Woods returns with a novel about three sisters, two murders, and too many secrets to count.

Emma hasn’t told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn’t spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she’s pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red.

That’s when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents’ house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can’t sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there.

Were murdered.

And that some people say Emma did it.

Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don’t want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.

I FIGURED IT OUT.

I might not be a thriller gal, no matter how hard I try. This go around, I figured out what happened in the first few chapters and was only surprised by one twist. I didn’t really care for any of the characters either. Another situation where basically everyone had done something bad so I didn’t feel attached to anyone.

The audiobook narration was great, no issues there.

And also I felt like nothing felt new? The points of the plot were what you would expect and I was hoping for something fresh or to really hold my attention.

Overall audiobook notes:

Thriller/Mystery
Language: moderate
Violence: high
Trigger/Content Warnings: multiple murders, child abuse, gun violence

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ALC Book Review: A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

February 22, 2025February 7, 2025 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Thriller
Length: 304 pages
Author: Kate Alice Marshall
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release Date: February 4th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A woman invited to her wealthy fiance’s family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret—and that she’s been there before, by the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods.

A whirlwind romance.
When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.

Stay away from Connor Dalton.
Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood.

I’ve been here before.
Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the gifted audiobook.

A THRILLER I ENJOYED.

Which, y’all, is hard for me. I am not a thriller girlie but I usually read a small handful each year that either remind me why I don’t or convince me that I should try some more. This one leaned into the more column. I’ve been a fan of KAM’s YA books and loved the audiobook narration for A Killing Cold.

I loved the remote house setting filled with rich people trying to hide secrets. I liked that Theo wasn’t a hard character to like. Of course she’s complicated and hiding secrets, but, she didn’t feel like an inherently bad person and that makes a thriller better for me.

The twists were good and I was surprised by a few of them. I thought the reveals happened at the right times and there wasn’t a lot of drag out moments where I was just waiting for the shoe to drop. I wouldn’t say this had a creepy factor for me but it is suspenseful. I liked the way it ended too.

Overall audience notes: