Tag: librofm

Book Review: Positively, Penelope (Skymar #2) by Pepper Basham

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 410 pages
Author: Pepper Basham
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: August 1st, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Told mostly through letters, texts, and email, this contemporary romance will charm its way into hearts as Penelope rescues a theater and discovers her true self in the process.

Penelope Edgewood is practically positive in every way, so when, fresh out of college, she is awarded a paid internship to help save a century-old theater on the island of Skymar, she jumps at the chance. After all, a crumbling theater needs the special touch of someone who reveres all things vintage and adores the stage.

Unfortunately, not everything is as it seems at Darling House Theatre. Finances are in shambles, the local theater group is disenchanted, and the two brothers, Matt and Alec Gray, can’t seem to see eye-to-eye about how to run their theatrical business. So, of course, it’s the perfect place for Penelope to shine her own personal brand of sunshine.

With a little help from GK, the person emailing her encouragement along the way, she puts all her heart into helping the Grays save Darling House. But between Matt’s ever-present skepticism, Alec’s tendency to treat Penelope a little too much like the “princess” she thinks she wants to be (until someone actually started treating her that way), a grandfather who is stuck in his grief, and a mysterious person stealing Penelope’s marketing ideas, she’s not sure her optimism is enough to make a happily-ever-after of her own story, let alone The Darling House’s.

Between an adorable little girl, a matchmaker, a sea monster or two, and a copious amount of musical references, can Penelope draw enough confidence from her faith, her family, and her adoration of all things Julie Andrews, to find the thief and save the theater . . . without getting her heart broken in the process?

Thank you to Bibliolifestyle and Thomas Nelson for the gifted copy and LibroFM for the audiobook.

TOO MANY E-MAILS.

Honestly if the 200 pages of inane emails and text messages would have been taken out, I think I would have liked this story a lot more. Good HEAVNES it was TOO MUCH. And I stand by my statement that it didn’t genuinely further the plot or sub-story lines.

Ignoring that aspect, the rest of the book was sweet. I am not the type of personality to connect with Penelope but I honor and love her ability to look on the bright side and be a bit of sunshine to others in her life. She is hopeful and genuine and I loved how hard she worked at her commitments. The romance between her and Matt had some good tender moments. Different scenes felt a bit cliche, but I think that was the vibe of this book in general.

I do not recommend the audiobook. The intense litany of voices and narrators was more jarring than I expected. I loved some of the accents and others were hard to understand making reading at one speed more complicated.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses
  • Content Warnings: infidelity (briefly mentioned), loss of loved ones to cancer

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

Book Review: Can’t Get Enough (Skyland #3) by Kennedy Ryan

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 448 pages
Author: Kennedy Ryan
Publisher: Forever
Release Date: May 13th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Hendrix Barry lives a fabulous life. She has phenomenal friends, a loving family, and a thriving business that places her in the entertainment industry’s rarefied air. Your vision board? She’s probably living it.

She’s a woman with goals, dreams, ambitions—always striving upward. And in the midst of everything, she’s facing her toughest challenge caring for an aging parent.

Who has time for romance? From her experience, there’s a low ROI on relationships. She hasn’t met the man who can keep up with her anyway. Until…him.

Tech mogul Maverick Bell is a dilemma wrapped in an exquisitely tailored suit and knee-melting charm. From their first charged glance at the summer’s hottest party, Hendrix feels like she’s met her match. Only he can’t be. Mav may be the first to make her feel this seen and desired and appreciated, but he’s the last one she can have. Forbidden fruit is the juiciest, and this man is off limits if she plans to stay the course she’s set for herself.

But when Maverick gives chase—pursuing her, spoiling her, understanding her—is it time to let herself have something more?

Thank you to LibroFM for the gifted audiobook.

OH I LOVED THIS SO MUCH.

This was FANTASTIC. What a conclusion. Gosh I am in loooooove. I loved the audiobook too. The narrators are incredible and bring this story to life. BLESS DUAL POV ROMANCES.

I loved the loyal and loving friendships. The bond these women have is incredible. I love the way they raise each other up and show up during the hard and easy moments.

AND THE ROMANCE? Maverick was a man OBESSED and I am here for it. I loved his pursuit that was not over done. He cared and showed that time and time again. The trust and build was swoony and heated. And I loved that he was this strong support for Hendrix. Hendrix can do all the things and is fiercely independent and intimidating so the push and pull between them really brought out so many layers to their relationship.

All of the Alzheimer’s content was deeply moving and brought out all of the emotions. I wasn’t expecting this book to hit as hard as it did and I am blown away.

(My only small thing was that the spice was SPICY, I had to skip more than I like).

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: 5+ open door
  • Violence: mild
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: a parent with Alzheimer’s (strong theme throughout story)

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

ARC Book Review: The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom #1) by Rachel Gillig

GoodeyReads1 Comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy + Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Rachel Gillig
Publisher: Orbit Books
Release Date: May 20th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From BookTok sensation and NYT bestselling author Rachel Gillig, comes the next big romantasy phenomenon: a gothic, mist-cloaked tale of a prophetess who is forced beyond the safety of her cloister on an impossible quest to defeat the gods with the one knight whose future is beyond her sight.

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

Thank you to Orbit Books for the gifted ARC and LibroFM for the audiobook.

OH WOW.

I loved the journey this book took. I admit it was a bit slow on the uptake for me but once the mystery started I was really invested. I love the way that Gillig writes and the torturous atmosphere created by the depths of the storytelling. It has the feeling of sitting in a medieval bar listening to a bard tell a tale.

The romance was filled with snarky banter and that slow burn vibe I often crave. I loved how the character arc for Sybil wove into the romance and how she grew to stand on her own. I love when characters take in new information and really DO something with it. There’s a lot of adventure with a traveling plot as the secrets of the cloister are ripped to shreds.

Honestly I could have seen this being an amazing standalone but I’m not upset that we get more books in this world. I loved the dark ambiance and characters. OH MY GOSH BARTHOLOMEW. I can’t forget about him. There’s seriously so many little aspects of this story that I can’t get out of my brain. The complicated craft of the world x magic system is like none other.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: mild
  • Romance: open door (2-3 scenes)
  • Violence: high
  • Content warnings: drowning (repeatedly), murder, loss of loved ones

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph

ALC Book Review: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

GoodeyReads1 Comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 384 pages
Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: April 22nd, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years–or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.

Thank you to LibroFM for the gifted audiobook.

SO MANY THOUGHTS.

I am kind of all over the place on this one. I did end up enjoying it a lot more than I was expecting (I am a fan of Emily Henry but not a FANNNNN, if you know what I mean).

It did almost lose me in the first half. I am notably not a dual timeline/flashback kind of woman. I love one timeline an every time this went into the past I could feel myself slipping out of the book. I just didn’t feel invested in Margaret’s story. NOW. In the second half, this does finally come together and I am very thankful it did. Things started to click and made sense and I thought it brought the plot to a close beautifully…even if it took too long to get there.

And for the romance! I actually was smitten from the get-go with these two. This is the second book I have recently read that has an instant attraction vibe that I have found works really well??? Who am I? There’s something about the magnetic way EH wrote Alice and Hayden that was insanely dynamic and the perfect banter between a grump x sunshine. There were all of these incredibly soft moments, heated passion, and wanting to shake my book (aka phone) for the audacity. Gosh I love them.

I can absolutely see why this will probably be a more polarizing book for EH readers. It’s not her usual, but I do think it had many hallmark type of things that I have expected in her stories too. Maybe my lower expectations helped this succeed too????

Catch me with everyone else waiting on her next release information.

(and to gauge my feelings from all of her books, my favorites are still PWMOV and BR)

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: multiple open door
  • Violence: moderate
  • Content warnings: loss of loved ones, infidelity (side characters), eating disorders, miscarriage, grief

Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph