Kiraz

I was drawn to How Sweet It Is because of it's cute cover, -which told me this was going to be a cute rom-com, and its premise: a wedding planner (Kate) plans a book release event for a horror book author (Drake). I expected a light, cute & sexy sunshine-grumpy read. And I did get that more or less. But there were a few things that didn't fully do it for me.

There was a good amount that I liked about this book. This is a classic feel good contemporary romance that will put a smile on your face. And I liked the romance, they were pretty cute together, and it got quite sexy at times. My favorite was their first time at the falls, from beginning to end a very romantic, fun and sexy adventure. It made me wish we had a bit more time of them together before the big conflict.

I really liked the plot of the book as well. A horror author, going around doing research and a wedding planner tagging along creates such a good juxtaposition that is immediately endearing. What makes it even better is Drake's side project which makes him a great multi-faceted character.

I also really liked the characters in the book, I especially liked Drake and his family. Drake's brothers were really fun and I'd love to get to know them better. This book was setup in a way that the door is open for one of the brothers and Kate's best friend might have their own book in the future. My least favorite was probably Kate, who seemed to be a woman of contradictions. She kept claiming to not be easily scared, while getting scared of everything, and kept making promises of a classy book release event, while planning a giant mechanical spider coming down the side of a building (though my fiance disagrees and says he'd find it classy), just to name a few.

Now onto what I didn't enjoy as much in this book.
First off, the writing was not really my style. I found it too flowery and overly adjective heavy. Since this is more of a preference thing, I'll give you an example. If the following quote don't bother you, then you should up my rating by at least half a point.

“Kate grinned with delight as the gorgeous red stove ticked several times and whooshed to life, a blue-white flame dancing merrily above the burner.” (tl;dr he turned on the stove)

The other issue I had with the writing was the unnatural/forced exposition. Some examples are, the daughter telling her mother about her work history, which you'd assume the mother would already know about her own daughter. The mother telling her daughter about how the daughter's best friend stayed with them for a year, which you'd expect the daughter to know. Speaking of which the best friend staying with the family comes up at least 3 times in the story, but never seems to have any bearing on it.

Finally, for me, in a romance book, the flirting, the will they won't they, the sexual tension, are the best parts. But in this book, the time where most of that would happen is just basically skipped through. So you see their meet cute, them kind of liking each other, but then all of a sudden it's 2 weeks later and they're much more comfortable around each other and talking about dating, which really comes out of nowhere.

Overall this was a book that was strong on the romance, but not as strong on style. If the author does write more books in this world involving Drake's brothers, I might still read them.

Thank you to Forever publishing and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Quick thoughts:
3.5 ⭐
Kind of slow in pacing. Found the main character annoying. The twist(?) was mostly obvious. Loved the mythology and the gender representation. Enjoyed the romance. It would be exciting to see it really develop in book 2. Might read the next one in the series. Didn't really like the audiobook narrator either, in trying to not be monotonous everything came off as it was super exciting.

Quick thoughts: this was such a cute romance which was low in drama for the most of it. I found it difficult to put down. The only part I didn't enjoy is that the main character gets unbearable at some point but it does kind of align with the kind of person he is. I loved all the Persian food references. It was also really hot

Whenever I think about this book, I find myself having trouble articulating what this book is about. It's about people, about history in Mesopotamia, about relationships, about the Yazidi people, about the visible and invisible connections between people, about love in its many forms -even ones that harm-, about surviving despite your circumstances and the deep scars that they cause, about prejudices and brutality, about the Epic of Gilgamesh, and it's about a single drop of water.

Elif Shafak is great at teaching me bits of Turkish history I hadn't heard much about. The more brutal and ugly parts of it. But she does so beautifully. My heart broke again and again reading this book, for the characters, for the story, for the people in history who actually lived it. It's also sadly a very apt time for a book involving a genocide, one that is not widely known.

If you're not familiar with Elif Shafak's writing, you're truly missing out. Her writing is always so beautiful and somehow very educational, it borders magical realism at times. She writes about strong characters and weaves a story like a tapestry, once finished, forcing you to take a step back to take in the full picture.

This is no different, a story spanning centuries, cultures and countries. There are three main characters across time. Only by reading will you see if and how they're connected.

This is not a book you will read in one sitting. You'll take your time with it, and it'll steep within you, until you're ready to dive back in.

I read this as a mixture of audiobook and ebook, and really enjoyed the narration as well.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Nightmare Before Kissmas is set in Christmas Land. In the world of the book, each holiday is a kingdom, using magic to keep their existence hidden. The King of Christmas decides to match his son, Coal, with the Princess of Easter, Iris, who also happens to be the prince's best friend. The Prince of Halloween, Hex, is invited to court the princess as well. While they have to pretend they're competing for the princess, the two princes get more and more close.

I loved this book! I seriously can't wait for the next one. Something about the writing really resonated with me, sucked me in and didn't let me go. I read it all in one sitting.

The premise is so cute and fluffy, that I thought the book was gonna be a fun and silly (in a good way) read. Which it is, but it's also, so full of passion and love, and it is so evocative, earnest and at times quite deep. While the romance is the main plot, the story is also about family and loss and there are messages in it about the corrupting influences of power and capitalism.

With audiobooks I don't usually highlight sections because it's just annoying. But so many times while listening to this book I had to pause, rewind and replay over and over until I could write them down.

The romance in this is the best. It had delicacy, vulnerability and authenticity. And Coal and Hex are just so frickin cute!! I always love a forbidden romance, with the yearning, the stolen touches and the secret meetings and this was done REALLY well. Their chemistry, banter, and tension, all of it was just so good. Their baggage and misgivings felt very genuine as well.

I loved most of the side characters as well: the Princess of Easter, the other Prince of Christmas, and staff at the palace. I especially loved the brother relationship between Coal and Kris. And together with Iris they make a great trio.

Unlike the movie it's named after, this leans more Christmas than Halloween, in case you like reading books close to their holidays.