Genevieve

I know I say this every single time… but A. E. Valdez is on my auto buy list for a reason, and this book is another example of why I trust her with my heart every single time.

Winter King walked away from everything he loved and spent the next decade pretending he was fine. Hiding his pain behind his money and work.

Eve Valentine never truly healed from the man who broke her heart. She has her guard up and really trying not to relive her past.

Years later, they run into each other, and Winter is finally forced to face everything he ran from, and the love he never forgot. Eve is still hurt, still angry, and even though she doesn’t want to forgive him, her heart won’t let her forget.

This is a beautifully written second chance romance about Winter and Eve finding their way back to each other after life, loss, and heartbreak got in the way.

The character development of these two characters was done so well. Watching them navigate grief, depression, healing, and growth felt honest, and deeply emotional.

The side characters added so much to the story, his bothers, her best friends, Reign (who needs his own book) made the story real and fun.

The spice level isn’t too crazy, you actually get more than halfway through the book before a spicy scene, and I really appreciate that. You get to know their story first. I can’t wait to read book three in this series!

This one was just okay for me. This is my third read by Nnedi Okorafor, and I think I’m finally accepting that her writing style might just not be for me. The plot itself was interesting, but I didn’t connect with Binti as a character, which made it hard for me to stay engaged.

Binti follows a young woman who leaves Earth to attend the best university in the galaxy. When her spacecraft is attacked by hostile aliens, she becomes the only survivor and must find a way to communicate, survive, and change the course of an intergalactic conflict.

This is book one of a trilogy and a very quick novella, which I appreciated. While I didn’t love it, I can see why this series works for so many people. The ideas are strong, even if the execution didn’t fully land for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lisa Jewell, and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It Could Have Been Her follows a woman whose pretty normal life is flipped upside down when a missing person’s case hits a little too close to home, forcing her to confront secrets from the past and question how well she really knows the people around her.

This is a psychological thriller filled with mystery, suspicion, and some pretty weird characters. For me, it just didn’t fully come together. The pacing was very slow, and there were a lot of characters which made it hard to keep track of who was who. Because of that, I struggled to connect with them or really care about what happened.

I needed more suspense. I wanted to feel the thrill and be pulled into the mystery, but it just never came. While it wasn’t a bad book, it doesn’t top “None of This Is True”, which is my favorite from her. If you enjoy slower, more character driven thrillers, you might like this one more than I did, but it didn’t pull me in the way I had hoped.

This was my first Brittany Cherry book, and it definitely won’t be my last. If I Stayed is a no spice, second chance, friends to lovers story told in dual POVs from Kierra and Gabriel, and it had me emotional way faster than I expected.

We start with Kierra and Gabriel as kids and follow them through their teenage years as their friendship grows into something deeper. Their bond felt genuine and sweet, which made everything that happens later hurt even more. After a tragic accident causes Gabriel to lose his memory, Kierra moves away, and their lives take completely different paths.

Fast forward years later, and Gabriel is now the architect designing Kierra’s new home. By this point, Kierra is stuck in a loveless marriage, raising a child with a controlling husband, and seeing Gabriel again brings up everything she tried to bury.

This book pulled me in immediately with how real the storytelling felt. The emotions weren’t overdone, but they hit hard. Brittany Cherry really knows how to make you feel every missed chance and buried feeling. Definitely check trigger warnings because there are some heavy topics, but they’re handled with thought and care.

What I really loved was the emotional connection between the characters. You could feel the history, the missed chances, and the tension of seeing someone you once loved after so many years and so many changes. The pacing was also great, quick and easy to read, but still filled with emotional moments that make you want to slow down and feel everything.

Overall, this was a beautiful, emotional, and engaging read. It broke my heart a little, healed it a little, and left me thinking about it after I finished.

I hated the main character… and honestly, everyone else too, and that’s why this book was so good. My husband recommended this book to me and Im seriously glad he did! This book is unlike anything I read before.

We follow Juniper, an unsuccessful author who steals her semi friend/enemy Athena’s manuscript after Athena dies in a tragic accident. She makes a few changes and sends it to her agent and into publishing like it’s her own.

This was fast paced, and although Juniper was a horrible character, I also believe Athena wasn’t that great either. Every character was kind of horrible in their own way. We even see her whole publishing team, who seem to not question her legitimacy at all, which was wild to me.

This was my first R.F. Kuang book, and although The Poppy War still scares me, after this I feel like I might finally be ready.

This book was messy, problematic, and so entertaining. It deals with racism, privilege, and a behind the scenes look at what may happen in the publishing industry.