Book Review: By Any Other Name

 

By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate 📱

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

With a successful career as a romance editor, and an engagement to a man who checks off all ninety-nine boxes on her carefully curated list, Lanie's more than good. She's killing it. Then she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime: to work with world-renowned author and her biggest inspiration in love and life—the Noa Callaway. All Lanie has to do is cure Noa's writer's block and she'll get the promotion she's always dreamed of. Simple, right? 
 
But there's a reason no one has ever seen or spoken to the mysterious Noa Calloway. And that reason will rock Lanie’s world. It will call into question everything she thought she knew. When she finally tosses her ninety-nine expectations to the wind, Lanie may just discover that love By Any Other Name can still be as sweet.

📚💻

This was such an easy, predictable, romcom read and I was 100% there for it!  Something about a book about someone writing a book always appeals to me, I can’t explain it.  I read this ebook in one sitting and enjoyed it from beginning to end.

✍🏻📖

Don’t go into this one expecting swoon-worthy romance or even a dash of spice - you’ll find none of it here. This is more a story about one’s idea of romance and falling in love should feel like. All the while, totally falling for someone you don’t particularly like half the time. Go figure. 

🤷🏻‍♀️

I found both main characters likable as individuals and I was totally rooting for them as a couple.  I recommend this one to anyone looking for a cute and entertaining weekend read.
Thank you to the author along with NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. 

Book Review: The Wedding Season

 

The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall 📱

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Freya Scott is getting married. Her wedding to Matthew, her long-term boyfriend, is the first of eight in her calendar this year, and as someone who prides herself on being meticulously organized, Freya is intent on making it the perfect day to remember.

But when Matthew calls things off hours before they walk down the aisle, Freya’s entire life plan goes up in smoke. Humiliated and heartbroken, the last thing she wants is to attend a summer of other peoples’ nuptials on her own.

Fortunately, her friends have an idea: together they devise a series of outrageous challenges for Freya to complete at each event, designed to distract her from Matthew and what might have been.

By the time the final wedding arrives, she will discover that the road to a happy ending sometimes has unexpected detours, that “I do” is only the beginning––and that perhaps her own love story isn’t over just yet.

💒 👰🏻‍♀️💍🤵🏼‍♂️

I should first say that while this story is cute, funny, and a bit of a romp, the cover and title don’t do it justice. The cover is adorable and our main character does have to attend a series of weddings while getting over a horrendous breakup, but there are so many other unexpected layers. 

❤️‍🩹

Freya’s love life may get top billing but there were important, non romantic relationships - like the not so great one she has with her mother - that are explored and beautifully developed.  Life long friendships, new friendships, workplace relationships, and both strong and broken familial ties add to the complexity of this lovely story. 

🦚 

Not really a spoiler - but maybe - some of the interactions between Freya and her estranged mother had me teary-eyed. While this particular relationship evolves throughout the story, it’s still complicated in the end,  and I very much appreciated that.

💐

As a deliciously entertaining romcom - this book ticked all of the boxes. I love the journey, leading to newfound  self compassion and self acceptance that Freya embarks on and I found some of the plot points to be less predictable than most books of this genre. Ultimately, I was elated to find this story to be more than its cute cover led me to expect and I highly recommend it!  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go read every other book Katy Birchall has written. 

🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Thank you 🙏🏻 to the author along with NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.  

Book Review: The Spanish Love Deception

 

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️3/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Catalina Martín, finally, not single. Her family is happy to announce that she will bring her American boyfriend to her sister’s wedding. Everyone is invited to come and witness the most magical event of the year.

That would certainly be tomorrow’s headline in the local newspaper of the small Spanish town I came from. Or the epitaph on my tombstone, seeing the turn my life had taken in the span of a phone call.

Aaron Blackford. The man whose main occupation was making my blood boil had just offered himself to be my date. Right after inserting his nose in my business, calling me delusional, and calling himself my best option. See? Outrageous. Aggravating. Blood boiling. And much to my total despair, also right. Which left me with a surly and extra large dilemma in my hands. Was it worth the suffering to bring my colleague and bane of my existence as my fake boyfriend to my sister’s wedding? Or was I better off coming clean and facing the consequences of my panic induced lie?

🇪🇸✈️ 💒 

I have to say that I enjoyed most of this book. The enemies to lovers + fake dating tropes = pages of awkward hilarity. I love both main characters independently and enjoyed all of their interactions leading up to the actual “romance”.  I just could not get behind these two as a couple and I can’t really pinpoint why.

Imagine seeing an attractive person from across the room. You’re taking in all of their fine features and thinking “ummm… yes, please” when - record scratch - your great aunt Cheryl is suddenly standing right in front of you, introducing this hottie as your second cousin, once removed. Those butterflies in your stomach turn to piranhas in half a heartbeat, right?  That’s akin to how I felt when Lina and Aaron finally started to hook up.  The slow burn was great fun and I was totally there for it, but by the time everything began to spice up, it was no bueno for me.  The more Aaron called Lina “baby”, the more I internally cringed. 

Book Review: The Suite Spot

The Suite Spot by Trish Doller

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Rachel Beck has hit a brick wall. She’s a single mom, still living at home and trying to keep a dying relationship alive. Aside from her daughter, the one bright light in Rachel’s life is her job as the night reservations manager at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach—until the night she is fired for something she didn’t do. 

On impulse, Rachel inquires about a management position at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, Rachel packs up her daughter and makes the cross country move. 

What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, moody man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel. Especially one that’s barely more than foundation and studs. It’s not the job Rachel was looking for, but Mason offers her a chance to help build a hotel—and rebuild her own life—from the ground up.

🏕🍻💖

Absolutely loved this follow up to Float Plan by Trish Doller! She does such a great job of writing three dimensional, relatable characters.  I actually enjoyed this story even more than the first of the Beck Sisters duology, but had one small complaint that prevented this one from receiving a five star rating.  The resolution to the final conflict seemed rushed to me. I would have liked to have seen more time spent on that whole situation to have felt completely satisfied.

🤦🏻‍♀️

I have had an unfortunate run of disappointing contemporary romance reads over the past couple of months. So bless you, Trish Doller, for this refreshing romance that kept me enthralled from beginning to end!

Thank you 🙏🏻 to the author along with NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a free copy of this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. 

Book Review: A Brush with Love

A Brush with Love by Mazey Eddings

⭐️⭐️💫2.5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Harper is anxiously awaiting placement into a top oral surgery residency program when she crashes (literally) into Dan. Harper would rather endure a Novocaine-free root canal than face any distractions, even one this adorable. 
A first-year dental student with a family legacy to contend with, Dan doesn’t have the same passion for pulling teeth that Harper does. Though he finds himself falling for her, he is willing to play by Harper’s rules.
So with the greatest of intentions and the poorest of follow-throughs, the two set out to be “just friends.” But as they get to know each other better, Harper fears that trading fillings for feelings may make her lose control and can't risk her carefully ordered life coming undone, no matter how drool-worthy Dan is.
Blood, gore, and extra-long roots? No problem. The idea of falling in love? Torture.

 🪥❤️

Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me. The back and forth between Harper and Dan from “just friends” to “I can’t live without you” and back again was very frustrating to me. While I liked both main characters, I reached a point of liking them better apart and no longer rooting for them to be together. 

To be fair, this is a debut novel for Mazey Eddings and I think there was a lot of potential here. I would definitely give future novels by the author a fair chance because it is so satisfying to witness an author’s growth as they hone their craft. Sadly, most of the issues I had with A Brush with Love can be chalked up to “first book flaws”.

🥴

Thank you to the author along with NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review. 

Book Review: Lucky Leap Day

Lucky Leap Day by Ann Marie Walker 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫3.5/5 Star Rating

 The Summary:

After one-too-many whiskeys, fledgling screenwriter Cara Kennedy takes a page out of someone else’s script when she gets caught up in the Irish tradition of women proposing on Leap Day. She thought she might have dreamt everything, until she wakes the next morning with a hot guy in her bed and a tin foil ring on her finger. Her flight is in four hours, her clothes are all over the room, and she has the most important meeting of her career in exactly two days—and on top of everything else, her husband has a dog who thinks Cara is a perfect surrogate mother, despite the fact that she has never been much of an animal lover…

Deciding to work things out stateside, Finn and her new fur baby accompany her to LA, where Finn spends his days going on auditions and his nights charming his new bride, leaving Cara to wonder whether this is real love, or if Finn is another aspiring actor just after her Hollywood connections? With limited time on his tourist visa, will Finn be able to convince Cara that she’s the right girl for him, or will time run out on their Hollywood ending?

🍀

This one was super cute, y’all.  I was very excited about receiving this audio arc from NetGalley and Dreamscape Media in exchange for my honest review. For me, so many boxes were ticked before I even began listening: 

cute cover ✔️ 

love interest with a swoon worthy brogue ✔️

accidental marriage (after which hilarity ensues) ✔️

and the cute Irish dude has a dog that loves our quirky heroine ✔️

So much to love here and it delivered on all of those fronts.  However, I was just not buying into the conflict when it finally popped up. I mean, Finn was basically perfect for most of this book and then the conflict that was finally presented felt contrived to me.  While the book started out strong, I feel like it fizzled out in the third act.

🤷🏻‍♀️

All in all, if you’re looking for a fast paced rom com of a story, I definitely recommend Lucky Leap Day. Kudos to Ann Marie Walker for choosing to keep this story clean when so many authors add unnecessary spice to simply appeal to the masses.  Also internet high five for that epilogue because it was such a fun little twist!

Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 🎧

 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

💍💍💍💍💍💍💍

This is the fourth book I’ve read from Taylor Jenkins Reid and by far the most enjoyable for me.  As a fan of historical fiction, I was quickly drawn in by Evelyn’s storytelling of her life as an up and coming actress in the Golden Age of Hollywood.  When she discloses the name of who she considers to be the love of her life, the plot thickens and it soon became clear that there was so much more to this story than the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

🎥

I tend to have a soft spot for any story that can genuinely surprise me with a plot twist - bonus points if it happens a bit late in the game 🙌🏻 Let’s just say that Evelyn Hugo serves one up just the way I like it! I loved everything about this book and believe it to be the best Taylor Jenkins Reid has written to date.  I highly recommend this to lovers of historical fiction and contemporary romance. 

Book Review: Good Girl Complex

Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️3/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Mackenzie "Mac" Cabot is a people pleaser. Her demanding parents. Her prep school friends. Her long-time boyfriend. It's exhausting, really, always following the rules. Unlike most twenty-year-olds, all she really wants to do is focus on growing her internet business, but first she must get a college degree at her parents' insistence. That means moving to the beachside town of Avalon Bay, a community made up of locals and the wealthy students of Garnet College.

Mac's had plenty of practice suppressing her wilder impulses, but when she meets local bad boy Cooper Hartley, that ability is suddenly tested. Cooper is rough around the edges. Raw. Candid. A threat to her ordered existence. Their friendship soon becomes the realest thing in her life.

Despite his disdain for the trust-fund kids he sees coming and going from his town, Cooper soon realizes Mac isn't just another rich clone and falls for her. Hard. But as Mac finally starts feeling accepted by Cooper and his friends, the secret he's been keeping from her threatens the only place she's ever felt at home.

⚓️

This was my first read from Elle Kennedy and I have heard great things about her previous works.  Unfortunately, this book just didn’t grab me.  I believe that fans of Kennedy’s books may still enjoy this new release because the writing was quite good. My difficulty with this story lay with the hero - I just did not like him.  A common romance trope, it ticks a lot of boxes, but my inability to like Cooper even the slightest bit prevented me from fully enjoying this book. That being said, there were some deliciously funny moments in this story and I would still recommend it for fans of contemporary romance novels with a heaping helping of sexy times.

😏

Thank you 🙏🏻 to the author along with Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.