Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey

June 26, 2019June 26, 20198 Comments

Arc was provided by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

What first drew me to this book was because I loved the cover. Just look at it, it’s adorable, I am loving all the illustrated romance covers!This is the first book I’ve ever read by Tessa Bailey and I thoroughly very much enjoyed myself. I expected Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey to be light, fluffy but oh boy was I wrong! There was some really cute sweet moments but this book was so steamy!I ! I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW MUCH I LOVED THIS BOOK!.

This book introduces us to Georgie who is the youngest member of her family. She has been trying to make a name for herself outside of the family’s business. They own a construction company, she works as a clown , yes you read that right ! She is a clown and performs at children’s parties. Georgie is tired of everyone in her family, and community treating her as a child.

Now our leading man, Travis; he is a retired baseball player after having an injury to his shoulder. He was force to move back his hometown, he is also Georgie’s older brothers best friend. She has had s crush on him ever since she can remember. He has been sulking in his apartment since returning home and no one can get him to move on. Enter Georgie, she storms into in throwing old Chinese food at his head, and insults to get inside his head.

“Dammit, Georgie. You had to be exactly what I need, didn’t you”

Travis soon finds himself in line for a new job opportunity but his bad reputation might compromise his chances. Georgie approaches him with a deal to help both of them get what they want. They will fake date, making Travis look like a good guy who can make a commitment and in turn he will help Georgie be seen as an adult and not the child everyone sees her as.

Of course, real feelings start to develop and they find themselves in some compromising situations.The romance is perhaps my favorite part of the book because it was so damn swoony!

I absolutely loved Georgie’s character development, she went from a meek quiet girl to a strong empowered woman. She honestly is one of the best written characters I’ve come across. She is witty, smart, strong yet vulnerable.

There is also a side story with the women in the family, they have started a little club to encourage each other with there goals and to be supportive. I loved all the girl power scenes, which just added so much more love to this already fantastic book.

Tessa Bailey wrote a great romance, and I’ve find a new favourite author soon after reading this book I started picking up her backlist titles. This book was just so stinking cute, with a mix of really hot naughty scenes, I read this whole book with a smile of my face.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

June 16, 2019June 19, 2019Leave a comment

Thank you so much to Dutton, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have read Riley Sager’s previous novels and absolutely LOVED them and this one was no different. I had really high hopes for this book and oh boy did it deliver.

Jules Larsen has recently been laid off from her job, broke up with her cheating boyfriend and finding herself in need of a place to live with little to no money. When she accepts a job as an apartment sitter at one of NYC most famous buildings, The Bartholomew, Jules beloved her luck is about to change. The pay is amazing so she pushes away thoughts that this could be to good to be true. Of course there are a lot of rules she must follow; she cannot ever have any visitors, she must sleep in the apartment each night, no sharing anything on social media as the residents of the building are very private. Which also includes no talking to the residents unless they speak to her first.

“Every so often, life offers you a reset button. When it does, you need to press it as hard as you can. “

So, Jules moves into apartment 12A and meets a young girl, Ingrid. Who lives in the apartment below her in 11A, who is also an apartment sitter. They quickly become friends, and agree to meet in Central Park every day at noon for lunch. Ingrid shares her feelings with Jules about how the Bartholomew frightens her but she needs the money so she stays.

The next morning Ingrid is gone, she apparently moved out during the middle of the night without a word to anyone. Jules tried repeatedly to get into contact with her, texts and phone calls go unanswered. Of course Jules becomes worried about the girl and is curious about how she left. As Jules tries to uncover what happened she starts to uncover a series of dark and disturbing secrets that have been happening at The Bartholomew for quiet some time.

This is a fast paced read, suspenseful and it kept me wanting to pick it back up and read until it was finished. There were a few twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and a few I figured out but it was still an incredible book.I am a huge fan of Sager’s thrillers and I cannot wait to see what he writes next! Definitely recommend if you enjoy atmospheric settings, mystery and shady people.

*Quotes included are from a digital advanced reader’s copy and are subject to change upon final publication

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

June 6, 2019June 6, 20197 Comments

ARC provided by the publisher though Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Like many of you I fell in love with the authors debut, The KISS Quotient last year and was really looking forward to her sophomore novel. I didn’t love this installment as much as I did The Kiss Quotient, but I still think that this book is a gem.I just need ya’ll to know the Helen Hoang is my new romance queen.

“Girl loves boy loves girl.”

Just like The Kiss Quotient, this is an ownvoices novel, Helen is Vietnamese and is Autistic. One of my favourite things about this book is seeing the difference between Stella from TKQ and Khai who is the main character of this book. I love how Helen brings enlightenment to the Autism spectrum and how each person has an individual experience and feelings. As I said in my review for TKQ my brother has Aspergers, and people seem to group everyone with autism in the same category. And this book does an amazing job at showing the differences each person experiences.

The Bride Test is written in dual perspective following Esme and Khai. The premise of this book is that Khai’s mother wants him to get married. Khai does not want to get married but his mom believes if she just finds him the perfect woman he will change his mind.

Khai – Vietnamese, Autistic, he is Michaels cousin from TKQ. He believes he can never fall in love, because he feels differently than other people he doesn’t recognize some emotions he experiences. He is a successful accountant at a large company. I really loved him as a character and thought his ba k story was really well written.

Esme – Biracial (Vietnamese and white), living in Vietnam with as a single mother with her daughter, mother and grandmother.She has never met her birth father. She works as a housekeeper in a hotel, where she meets a woman offering g her a chance to fly to California and marry her son, Khai. As the story goes on she developed real feelings for Khai. I really liked Esme as a character, she’s ambitious and hardworking, while being sweet and funny.

“My heart works in a different way, but it’s yours.”

I adore both Khai and Esme! Their chemistry was amazing and I loved how there relationship organic grew. They’re vastly different, but also worked so well together.I LOVED the relationship between Khai and his brother Quan. I really hope the next book will be his story!

My few complaints: As a parent I really didn’t like how Esme hid the fact that she had a daughter. Her child is a huge part of her life and ordinarily the main reason she agreed to come to California. She wants to give her a better life but yet she doesn’t tell anyone about her. I also wasn’t to thrilled about the Epilogue but I can’t talk about that because I don’t want to spoil anything.

Overall, The Bride Test wasn’t on the same level as The Kiss Quotient but it was still incredibly enjoyable.

Waiting For Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

May 25, 2019May 25, 2019Leave a comment

An ARC was provided by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Waiting For Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey THIS WAS SO ADORABLE AND CUTE!!! I’ve seen a couple of my friends give it a low rating and I can see why some people wouldn’t enjoy it. That wasn’t the case for me. This book is basically a long homage to romantic comedies, which made me realize I have not watched a lot of the movies mentioned, and I quickly wrote them all down to add to my Netflix queue.

This story follows Annie, a screenwriter who is obsessed with rom- coms and finding true love. She especially loves Nora Ephron/Tom Hanks movies, and therefore has very high standards when it comes to men. She wants to meet a kind, loving man with some cut quirks and helps make her life complete. A movie director she admires in coming to town to film his latest movie, luckily for Annie, her uncle knows him. Landing her a job as his assistant. One downside to this job is it puts her in close proximity to Drew Danforth. A heart throb movie star, which she very much dislikes.

Of course following the Rom-Com formula this book has all the fun classic cliches, from an awkward hilarious meet-cute, the denying or the feelings, misunderstanding, and finally the grand gesture. Annie and Drew were so easy to root for, and there relationship developed was paced quite nicely.

This book also has an amazing cats of side characters, Annie’s Uncle is a huge comic fan who plays weekly games of D&D. Then we have Annie’s best friend Chloe, she is fun and spunky. I really liked their friendship, Chloe would call out Annie on her expectations of love. Telling her nothing happens like they do in the movies that she should try and live her life,go on some dates. And Nick, he reminded so much of Luke from Gilmore Girls, which instantly made him one of my favorite side characters. As some of you know Gilmore Girls is my all time favorite show and I love Luke. Nick is the owner of a local coffee shop, where everyone is town seems to gather on a daily basis. Oh, and Chloe works at the coffee shop as well, and I really hope that Chloe and Nick will have a companion novel!

The ending felt a little rushed and there were a few moments where I was really annoyed with Annie. Which is why it only got a four star rating and not a five.This book had me smiling throughout the whole story. Waiting For Tom Hanks is the perfect fun summer beach read!

April Wrap Up

May 5, 2019May 6, 20192 Comments

Hey, loves! I know this is so late! I have been slacking with reviewing and commenting, but hopefully I’ll get that caught up soon. In May I have a lot of blog posts already planned out and many are drafted so I have a really good feeling about this month.

So to get to the books that I read during the month of April. I read some fantasy books this month which I feel great about as it’s my favorite genre but I have been struggling to get into lately, I give many thanks to the lovely ladies who buddy read with me! I have some varied ratings with the books I read starting from 2 stars up to 4 stars. Okay let’s stop talking and get into what books I read in the month of April!

(Like always, you can click the links in each of the titles to read a more in-depth review of each book.)

Caraval by Stephanie Garber – ★★★★

This was a re-read, because I really wanted to get to Legendary before Finale was released. This time around I read this book via audiobook and it was just as amazing as the first time I read it. This book was just absolutely ENCHANTING! From the very first page up until the last, there was never a dull moment.I got to fall in love with the characters all over again. Stephanie Garber is an incredibly talented author, and a master at weaving beautiful lyrical words.

Legendary by Stephanie Garber – ★★★★★

It has taken me over a year to read Legendary, and I am so happy to have finally read the sequel to Caraval. This book is on my must reads of 2019 and I can now say that I love this book so much! I loved being back in this world, Caraval was such a magical story and Legendary was no different. The romance in this book, I was completely living for it! And that ending!?! The big reveal took me by surprise because it felt a little to obvious so I wasn’t expecting it. Needless to say I am beyond excited for Finale!!

Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kauffman – ★★

I want to start this review by saying that I was very fortunate to have been given a EARC, I swear that my neighbors could hear me cheering. With that said, this book disappointed me so much! I really wanted to love it and I really didn’t like it until the last 30% of the book. I loved Jay and Amie’s Illuminae Files and I do enjoy there writing. I just wasn’t connecting with the story.This book was a huge miss for me, I know there is a lot of high praise already. I know I’ll probably get some hate for this but no one is more disappointed with my feelings than I am.

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott – ★★.5

I originally rated this book a three but I took it down to two and a half stars. I only read this book because I want to see the movie. And I only want to see the movie because of Cole Sprouse. Anyway this book is about two teens living with cystic fibrosis, and there relationship. The story overall I enjoyed it, i found it entertaining but the writing was so cringe worthy. I love beautiful prose and this definitely want it.

The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson – ★★★★

I really LOVED this book! The Storm Crow is filled with the potential to be a great, captivating series. It’s gripping within the first chapter, the characters are all amazing and the magic is uniquely written. With a large variety of majestic crows that can control the elements they provide everything needed for it’s country. The crows gave me major How to Train your Dragon vibes. Josephson has created such a rich and gorgeous world!

Wilder Girls by Rory Power – ★★★★

Wilder Girls has been everywhere lately, with its gorgeous cover to amazing synopsis. I have to say this cover is probably my favorite cover of the whole year.I’m going to need all the sapphic horror books from now on. The female-female relationship in this book was everything! I loved these girls so much and was horrified for what they were going through.Rory power’s writing is beautiful yet it does a fantastic job at making your skin crawl, with it’s deliberate descriptive details. Power’s does not hold back on the horror scenes, as a horror movie lover I found some of the horror to be tame but to others it can be quite triggering. That being said this was one of the most unique young adult novels I had the pleasure of reading.

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing – ★★★★

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey – ★★★★

THIS WAS SO ADORABLE AND CUTE!!! I’ve seen a couple of my friends give it a low rating and I can see why some people wouldn’t enjoy it. That wasn’t the case for me. This book is basically a long homage to romantic comedies, which made me realize I have not watched a lot of the movies mentioned, and I quickly wrote them all down to add to my Netflix queue.This book is the perfect summer beach read!

That’s all! I am so sorry this is going up so late! So those are the books I read this month let me know down in the comments what your favorite book was in April.

Aurora Rising by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff

April 13, 2019April 14, 20196 Comments

Many thanks to Random House Kids for sending me an eARC via NetGalley for my honest review!

I want to start this review by saying that I was very fortunate to have been given a EARC, I swear that my neighbors could hear me cheering. With that said, this book disappointed me so much! I really wanted to love it and I really didn’t like it until the last 30% of the book. I found it to be extremely boring. I loved Jay and Amie’s Illuminae Files and I do enjoy there writing. I just wasn’t connecting with the story.

They are not the heroes we deserve. They are just the ones we could find.

Aurora Rising Follows the story of six legion cadets who make up the squad 312, they are chosen to work together during the draft,which Tyler missed. He was to busy saving a girl from a ship he found floating in the fold. He is one of the top students but he is landed with the misfits of the academy who make up his squad..

Tyler: The Alpha, Squad Leader,Scarlet’s brother and captain “hotness”. The amount of times his dimples or attractiveness was mentioned was absurd.

Aurora: An Asian human girl,who was Cryogenically frozen for the last 200 years and was supposed to wake up on Octavia III. She has some wicked powers but she also has no idea how to control them.

Scarlet: The Face, the diplomat and Tyler’s twin sister.She is described as having fiery red hair and is just as attractive as her brother.

Cat: The Ace, the pilot, has been friends with Tyler and Scarlet since kindergarten. She is a strong woman and takes shit from no one. She is covered in tattoos with a Mohawk and not so secretly in love with Tyler.

Kal: The Tank, Syldrathi, he has darker skin and silver braided hair. The Syldrathi are in the midst of a civil war and also have a war history with the Terran people. This boy is full of rage, but oh can he throw down. He was hands down my favourite character.

Finian: The Gearhead, Tech Division. He is Betraskan, his skin is white.He’s bisexual and has a disability for muscle weakness, nerve damage, impaired mobility. He has to wear a exoskeleton suit to help him with his movements. His character also made this book tolerable, he’s sassy and says inappropriate things at the worst times.

Zila: The Brains, Science Division. She is described as having dark brown skin with curly black hair. She loves to wear hoop earrings and can be a little trigger happy.

The six of us? Against the whole galaxy?

The book is divided up into three different parts, I really struggled with part 1 it was incredibly boring and slow moving.Part 2 took place on the world ship, where the squad was a part of a very drawn out heist. We got a little bit of backstory to some characters,but I still wasn’t vibing with the story. It wasn’t until part three where I found myself actually invested in the plot. It was short lived though because then the book needed, just when things were getting good.

I had a really hard time picking up the book to actually read it. The action scenes were well written but because I didn’t care about the characters I was invested in there well being. Well, I did like Kal and Fin, they were the only characters with some personality.

This book was a huge miss for me, I know there is a lot of high praise already. I know I’ll probably get some hate for this but no one is more disappointed with my feelings than I am. I think this book would have been hugely improved by not having seven different POV, if they stuck with just Tyler and Aurora I think it would have been less confusing. I struggled with remembering who was talking in each chapter.

I ended up giving Aurora Rising 2.5 Stars.

Buddy Read with Amy!

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The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

April 11, 2019April 11, 20199 Comments

ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t read to many Christina Lauren books, but these ladies sure can write a good romance. This was such a cute Rom-Com, it will make the perfect summer read. I finished it in two sitting, the pages just flew by. This book was such a fun ride and has me aching to pick up more books from Christina Lauren.

That’s the point of luck; it happens when and where it happens.

The Unhoneymooners follows Olive Torres as she goes on her twin sister Ami’s honeymoon. During the wedding reception everyone comes down with a bad case of food poisoning, except for Olive and Ethan, Ami’s new husbands brother.Olive and Ethan have hated each other from the moment they met three years ago, now on there siblings honeymoon in Maui they must pretend to be newlyweds. They get into some pretty sticky situations, and soon the fake marriage alerts them to the fake that they have a lot of chemistry. That they may have been wrong in hating each other.

“When I signed up for this honeymoon, I had no idea it would involve so much nudity.”

This book has one a my favorite tropes , Hate to Love and this book fueled my love for that trope. Also includes fake dating/fake marriage and a slow burn romance .I was laughing out loud and swooning over Ethan. I was obsessed with there banter, Olive is so sassy and Ethan’s attitude was just to much, I loved them. I really love that Olive is a strong curvy woman who stands up for herself and takes no shit from Ethan. Throughout the story she starts to discover who she really is, and what is important to her. Ethan comes across as a huge jerk at first but honestly that’s what made me love him. As the book progresses we find he is actually really sweet and hilarious.

I had a few issues with the story but those are more personal opinions than the book being bad. I really didn’t like Dane, Olive’s sisters husband, he was honestly the worst! Ethan coming to his defense, I understand where he was coming from but it infuriated me that he was standing up for such a shitty person.

If you’re a fan of rom-coms, and want a funny, cute book, I highly recommend picking this one up. I just loved this so so so so much! Christina Lauren is one quickly becoming of my favorite authors.

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Get To Know Me Tag

April 5, 2019March 31, 201922 Comments

Hello! Since I’ve gained so many awesome new followers in the past two months, which I am so blessed you all subscribed to my blog! I thought I would do this tag as a way to introduce myself.

1. What do you study/what is your job?

First of all I’m a mom to two beautiful kids, my son is 12 and my daughter just turned 15 months old. You can read her most recent update here. Aside from mommying, I work full time as a personal support worker in a mental health special care home. I’m not currently studying but I am halfway through the LPN program, I’m not sure if I’m going to return or not at the moment.

2. What is your favorite social media channel?

Currently it’s Instagram, I’m a visual person. So I love seeing everyone’s photos and there creativity. I’ve been busy trying grow my presence over the past two months and I’m really loving it.

3. If you had another channel, what would it be about?

I would really like to make booktube videos but my anxiety gets the better of me. But I’m hopeful that one of these days to dive into youtube. I’d like to creat book content ,as well as mommy lifestyle content.

4. Do you play an instruments?

No, but I would love to learn guitar.

5. What hobbies do you have other than reading?

I don’t have to much time for much else between the kids, work and reading. But I don’t binge a lot of tv, and I’m trying to get more into photography.

6. Favorite TV Shows?

Here is where I could go on forever but I’ll try and narrow it down a little. My all time favourite tv show will always be Gilmore Girls. I love this show and its characters so freaking much. Another fave is Game of Thrones, who else is excited for the final season?! Hmm let me see I also love The Office, Jane the Virgin, This is Us,Queer Eye and How to get away with murder. There’s more of course but I’ll stop here.

7. What got you into reading?

I have always been a huge reader, I didn’t have many friends growing up. Books ended up being my best friend and shaped who I am today. My dad would take me to the library during the summer and I’d spend hours browsing the shelves.

From goosebumps to the babysitters club. In middle school I became obsessed with Stephen King I couldn’t get enough. Then I discovered Harry Potter and it changed my life! I didn’t read as much in high school then I had Noah. Around the time Noah was 2 I started reading Twilight and it re ignited my love for reading and I never stoped.

8.What are your favorite and least favorite genres?

My heart will always belong to Fantasy. I love huge lush worlds full of magic. Also contemporary is becoming what I teach for the most. My least favourite would have to be historical, steampunk and westerns.

9.What books define your childhood?

I discussed some in an earlier question, but some others include Heartland, The Saddle Club, Shivers and Nancy Drew.

10.Tell us an interesting fact about you!

With The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

April 3, 2019April 3, 201916 Comments

I received a copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links which means that if you click on a link and purchase something I’ve talked about or recommended, I’ll receive a very small percentage of the sale. ]

“Sometimes focusing on what you can control is the only way to lessen the pang in your chest when you think about the things you can’t.”

The first time I saw the cover of this book I fell in love, it is so gorgeous!! This book means so much to me! This story was very empowering. Emoni was such a strong character and full of passion. Also the amount of representation in the book was excellent. Emoni is part Puerto-Rican and Black and a teenage mother, there is also a lesbian side character.

Emoni is told that she has a magic touch when it comes to cooking. She takes a recipe and makes her her own by adding spices she believes will enhance the flavors. I felt such a deep connection to Emoni, she is a badass single teen mom, with a beautiful little girl. Many of you probably don’t know that I had my son Noah when I was 17. I understand her struggles, she wants to provide for her daughter. To make the right decisions so that there future will be secure. I have never felt such a connection with a character before, I cried so many tears throughout this book.

When Emoni discovers she has a chance to take a culinary cooking class as an elective in school. She cannot decide if it’s the right choice to take the class,they will also be going on a trip to Spain at the end of the semester. She already has to keep up with school work, and she works part time to help cover the cost of the baby, plus actually taking care of the baby. Emoni has a lot on her plate. She dreams of becoming a chef and someday working in a restaurant. This book could have been full of stereotypes about teen mother’s, but it wasn’t. It was a beautiful story, about a girl despite her circumstances goes after her dream. Oh my Goodness, I’m crying again just typing this review.

” I want to be able to take care of my own and the only thing I would want to study is culinary arts, but why try to learn that in a school when I could learn it in a real restaurant where I’m making money instead of spending it?””

The side character’s were also an amazing addition to the story, Emoni’s best friend is her rock. She has been there for her all through her pregnancy and remained after the baby was born. She is also a lesbian and has the cutest relationship!

The chapters are also really short which I loved. The start of new sections also has little recopies which I thought was a nice touch.It was next to impossible to put down With the Heat on High.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this book.

Pre-Order With the Fire on High
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March Book Haul

March 29, 2019March 28, 201915 Comments

Hello bookworms! Can you believe Match is done in a few days. I’ve acquired quite a few books this month. I usually don’t buy to many but so many came out in March and April is another big book month. Also I want to say a huge thank you to all the publishers on Netgalley and Edelweiss. Okay enough talking, here are the books I’ve added to my collection this month!