Michelle

This children's book is very sweet. There's not much to it. There's just representation for families of all kinds.

The writing was absolutely beautiful.

Edie....the way I feel about the MC of The Coldest Winter Ever is the same way I feel about Edie.

I'm so happy I wasn't like this in my 20s.

Rebecca, girl, leave him!!! Akila 😭😭😭 girl, good luck.

I felt like reading a second-chance romance with older main characters, so I picked this one up. Our main character is on the cusp of her 40th birthday at the beginning of this novel.

Simone is one of those women who are fiercely independent. She has her husband, her son, a thriving business... she's doing well. But when troubles in her marriage come to a head, the dynamics she witnessed with her parents throughout her childhood lead her to course-correct in her marriage to Jackson. She files for divorce.This story begins two years after the divorce is finalized.

Simone and Jackson successfully co-parent their teenage son, they are cordial/friendly to each other, and Jackson shows up for her whenever she needs him to. But on the edge of her 40th birthday, Simone is starting to feel overwhelmed with her life and career choices. She has a client from hell, and she's feeling more lost than ever.

On the advice of her friends, Simone travels to Jamaica for her 40th and while there, she links up with Jackson... you know how that goes.

This story is about Simone dealing with the trauma of her past and how that shaped her relationship with Jackson. She deals with how she exploded her life and lost touch.

This journey is messy. Simone and Jackson are messy. It takes them a while to figure out their shit, but it was nice to see them actually work through this and come to terms with how they both contributed to the failure of their marriage.

This book has a fair bit of spice. In romantasy, those scenes are always so cringey for me. But this??!?!?! This right here?! Sensual af. I loved it.

TW: Childhood trauma that leads to depression, self-harm (cutting), and panic/anxiety attacks. Simone has been in and out of therapy since her teens. Simone's son dates a girl that mirrors Simone's younger self. There is a scene where Simone helps her through an anxiety attack.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this novel.

I've been in a bit of a slump with eARCs, but this one was really good. The story centers around a family that has sent its two eldest daughters to “The Outer Country,” aka the US. The family has created a weird dynamic of competition between the daughters who are all seeking their parents' approval. The second eldest, Siripon, was sent to Los Angeles (over the eldest daughter, Manda) after college where she found a husband and had the first living son of the family, Ben (Rattawut).

The story begins when Manda arrives in LA to “help” Siripon raise her son. We follow that son from childhood through to college. What his mother doesn't know is that when Ben was about six years old, his aunt and father, Kamron, led an exorcism to rid Ben of the spirit that made him gay. That one act has ramifications that follow Ben as he grows up.

I really felt for Ben and for his mother. Siripon was made into a people pleaser, taking care of everyone and leaving herself with nothing. As Ben changes, Siripon begins to change as well.

This novel was so good. I'm getting a copy ASAP.

Based on this one, I expect the third one to get real and a little scary.