ARC Book Review: Holiday Tides (A Wilks Beach Holiday Novella) by Laura Langa

October 15, 2024October 8, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Holiday Contemporary Romance Novella
Length: 143 pages
Author: Laura Langa
Publisher: West East Publishing
Release Date: October 15th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Don’t get caught kissing Surfing Santa beneath the mistletoe.

Returning to her small beach town, Summer Owens finds herself living next to her former rival, Nick Watson, the renovation foreman who’s as handy as he is irresistible in his custom Santa-red wetsuit. But Summer isn’t falling for Nick’s charm, remembering how he once made her life miserable.

Determined to prove he’s changed, Nick jumps at every chance to fix the things that keep falling apart in her historic cottage—and maybe in her heart too. But nothing can happen under the mistletoe until Summer realizes that her current boyfriend is all wrong for her.

As they enjoy the town’s tree lighting ceremony, holiday parties, and a spirited karaoke competition, the sizzling tension grows. With Christmas approaching, Summer must decide between the wrong man in her life and the one who’s been right next door all along.

Enjoy the playful banter, sizzling kisses, and all the Christmas feels of this he falls first, small beach town, closed-door/kisses-only holiday novella by grabbing your copy TODAY!
Holiday Tides is a standalone novella that shares characters with the Wilks Beach novels.

Thank you Laura Langa for the gifted eARC.

JUST RIGHT.

You know what hits well? A perfectly crafted holiday novella. I love reading novellas during the holidays because when so much is usually going on moving through a quick romance brings a smile to my face. I adored this story.

I thought there was just the right amount of background information provided to really set the scene for the romance and that both characters were easy to love and clearly had a lot of great chemistry and banter together. The beachside small town holiday goodness was in abundance and made me crave all things winter.

Overall audience notes:

Holiday Romance Novella
Language: low
Romance: make-outs
Violence: low
Content Warnings: cheating (not between the main characters), mentions of loss of loved ones

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Book Review: Just a Football Star (Tate Brothers #1) by Deb Goodman

October 14, 2024September 3, 2023 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 260 pages
Author: Deb Goodman
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: June 29th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

He’s a competitive ex-athlete. Which is code for “He’s gonna break my heart.”

When I started my career as a sports trainer for professional football players, I didn’t understand the dangers involved. I thought my knowledge and next-level love for the game would be all I needed to treat and motivate the guys.

Now? It’s all gone. I’m unemployed, unboyfriended, and I’ve rage-booked a week’s stay at a fancy, remote resort to try to heal from the havoc.

Enter Alec. Not only did he used to play for the exact team I’ve gone running and screaming from, but the frustratingly handsome man is harboring a jumbo-sized chip on his shoulder from his career-ending injury.

He’s so broken, I can’t not help him with his knee while I’m here. I’ve always loved a good project.

Except, after awhile, I find myself in irresponsibly close quarters with him. I’m getting glimpses of his goodness and suddenly, I want to know all about him.

What makes him tick?

There is one thing I know.

When I finally figure him out, everything will change.

Just a Football Star is a sweet, small-town, closed-door romantic comedy with all of the sizzle and none of the spice! It lightly touches on the death of a significant other in the past and an addiction in a former relationship. However, there’s also an adorable puppy named Jerry, the meddlesome antics of Aunt Stella, and no one cheats on anyone. Plus, mysteries surrounding those intriguing Tate Brothers will begin to unravel.

MMM.

First, I didn’t like this interpretation of athletic training. Some aspects were correct and other discussions made me cranky.

Secondly, I wanted very much to like this, and did at first, and things slowly went downhill. There were some writing and commentary quirks with jokes that didn’t land. And the continual repetitive nature of Alec and Oakley’s thoughts made me want to skim to actually move the story along (and it’s not even 300 pages). And the balance of heaviness in it didn’t fit either???

I liked the brothers, and the resort setting, and it ended just fine. There wasn’t a whole lot going for me though otherwise. Oakley ran away from her problems instead of having a brief chat with Alec that would have solved all of the problems. And at that point I was through. I don’t think this is the author for me.

AND FINALLY. I can’t count it as a sports romance when not a single game is played. Yes, Alec is a FORMER NFL player, but besides some high school football, that’s all you’re going to see.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: none
Romance: kisses
Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a girlfriend (recounted, grief depiction), mentions of gambling addiction,

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Book Review: Little Monsters by Kara Thomas

October 13, 2024September 6, 2024 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Mystery/Thriller
Length: 330 pages
Author: Kara Thomas
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: July 25th, 2017
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Kacey is the new girl in Broken Falls. When she moved in with her father, she stepped into a brand-new life. A life with a stepbrother, a stepmother, and strangest of all, an adoring younger half sister.

Kacey’s new life is eerily charming compared with the wild highs and lows of the old one she lived with her volatile mother. And everyone is so nice in Broken Falls—she’s even been welcomed into a tight new circle of friends. Bailey and Jade invite her to do everything with them.

Which is why it’s so odd when they start acting distant. And when they don’t invite her to the biggest party of the year, it doesn’t exactly feel like an accident.

But Kacey will never be able to ask, because Bailey never makes it home from that party. Suddenly, Broken Falls doesn’t seem so welcoming after all—especially once everyone starts looking to the new girl for answers.

Kacey is about to learn some very important lessons: Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes when you’re the new girl, you shouldn’t trust anyone.

Thank you GetUnderlined for the gifted copy!

ALRIGHT, I’M LISTENING.

Thriller/mystery books and I have a fraught history filled with me usually feeling a lot of disappointment. Not the case here! I really liked this book y’all and maybe I’m more of a YA mystery fan than adult thriller reader.

This was a fast paced audiobook and kept me on my toes. I honestly wasn’t sure what was going to happen and who the culprit was going to be. I didn’t totally love when the reveal happened but it was sinister and I liked the build up.

I enjoyed all of the grayness surrounding obsession and deception. It won’t be my last book by Kara Thomas.

Overall audience notes:

YA Thriller
Language: low
Romance: none
Violence: moderate
Content Warnings: parental abuse, suicide mentioned, alcohol consumption

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Book Review: An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson

October 12, 2024September 20, 2024 GoodeyReads1 Comment

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Paranormal Horror
Length: 464 pages
Author: Alexis Henderson
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: September 17th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A student will find that the hardest lessons sometimes come outside the classroom in this stunning dark academia novel from the acclaimed author of The Year of the Witching and House of Hunger.

Lennon Carter’s life is falling apart.

Then she gets a mysterious phone call inviting her to take the entrance exam for Drayton College, a school of magic hidden in a secret pocket of Savannah. Lennon has been chosen because—like everyone else at the school—she has the innate gift of persuasion, the ability to wield her will like a weapon, using it to control others and, in rare cases, matter itself.

After passing the test, Lennon begins to learn how to master her devastating and unsettling power. But despite persuasion’s heavy toll on her body and mind, she is wholly captivated by her studies, by Drayton’s lush, moss-draped campus, and by her brilliant classmates. But even more captivating is her charismatic adviser, Dante, who both intimidates and enthralls her.

As Lennon continues in her studies her control grows, and she starts to uncover more about the secret world she has entered into, including the disquieting history of Drayton College, and the way her mentor’s tragic and violent past intertwines with it. She is increasingly disturbed by what she learns. For it seems that the ultimate test is to embrace absolute power without succumbing to corruption . . . and it’s a test she’s terrified she is going to fail.

Thank you Berkley Pub (Berkley Partner) for the gifted copy.

WHO KNEW?

I was not expecting to love this. Nor was I expecting to hate it either. Horror is a new to me genre that I’ve been trying out here and there so I never know what I’m going to feel, but y’all, this was a win!! I was obsessed with listening to this audiobook and trying to figure out where the story was going to go next.

It is a paranormal/urban fantasy vibe set at a mysterious college in the US. I thought the magic system was explained well and worked within the confines of the plot. I don’t remember having gaping questions about how things were supposed to work. I loved the concept of meditation and persuasive control.

Lennon wasn’t always a reliable narrator and that made the story have this haunting edge quality that fits a fall theme perfectly. I loved the twists and surprises and some hard betrayals. The audiobook is definitely the way to go. It’s haunting and enigmatic and fits the dark academia genre well and is officially a new favorite. I want to read more books by this author now.

Overall audience notes: