Book Review: Weather Girl

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.
In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.
Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?

☔️

Another easy and fun read from Rachel Lynn Solomon! I loved everything about this one and especially appreciated that - FINALLY - we get a male love interest who is an average attractive guy. 

👏🏻🙌🏻

I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to have our MMC be something other than the dude whose muscles have muscles. Good for the dudes with the ridiculously sculpted abs, but shout out to all of those soft belly guys who are no less hot! 

🌧 

I always love when those of us who have less than perfect bodies are represented well in a l romance novel. Thank you for that, RLS!

💜

 

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: Bone Deep

 

Bone Deep by Charles Bosworth, Jr. & Joel J. Schwartz 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

First responders concluded that Betsy was dead for hours when Russ discovered her. No blood was found implicating Russ, and surveillance video, receipts, and friends’ testimony all supported his alibi. Yet incredibly, police and the prosecuting attorney ignored the evidence. In their minds, Russ was guilty. But prominent defense attorney Joel J. Schwartz quickly recognized the real killer.

Bone Deep takes readers through the perfect storm of miscalculations and missteps that led to an innocent man’s conviction—and recounts Schwartz’s successful battle to have that conviction overturned. Written with Russ Faria’s cooperation, and filled with chilling new revelations and previously undisclosed evidence, this is the story of what can happen when police, prosecutor, judge, and jury all fail in their duty to protect the innocent—and let a killer get away with murder.

🔪😵💀 

I went into this audiobook having no prior knowledge of the murder case it details. I like the occasional true crime book or documentary and decided to give this one a listen.  The first half of this audiobook was tedious at times because it’s basically a transcript of Russ Faria’s hours long interrogation by police. At just over the halfway mark, the overall vibe changes when the court proceedings begin to unfold. That is when this story went from “meh” to downright insane!  

😱

This is a must read for true crime fans and I promise you that the second half of the book more than makes you for the shortcomings of the first. It wasn’t until near the end that I realized this is the same murder case that has inspired the new NBC mini-series “The Thing About Pam”, starring Renee Zellweger - the trailer for which I had already seen and planned to watch.

Thank you to the authors along with NetGalley and Tantor Audio for this 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: All That You Are

 

All That You Are by Elicia Roper 📱

The Summary:

This novel tells the story of Athena and Caiden.
Caiden is strong willed and self-less, he puts the needs of his family and friends above his own.
Athena is a firecracker with a kind-hearted soul.
As they go through the journey of life you will see how Athena and Caiden bring comfort to each other, as they learn to cope and mend with the pain of loss and heartbreak.

💔

DNF after 10 chapters. When I purchased this ebook, I did not realize it was an unedited ARC. 

I tried to overlook the spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors and give it a read because the cover is so cute & I wanted to enjoy a light romance read. Sadly, there were also issues with the pacing, story structure, and interaction between characters that prevented me from being able to continue past chapter 10. 

Unfortunately, this one is not yet ready for public release, but I wouldn’t be opposed to reading it once it’s been edited and the final draft is due for publication.  Until then, I will refrain from giving it a star rating and further critique. 

This is my second DNF of 2022, but I can definitely say this one wins best cover of the two.  Isn’t it gorgeous?!

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: Out Front the Following Sea

Out Front the Following Sea by Leah Angstman 📱

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5 Star Rating

The Summary;

Out Front the Following Sea is a historical epic of one woman’s survival in a time when the wilderness is still wild, heresy is publicly punishable, and being independent is worse than scorned — it is a death sentence. At the onset of King William’s War between French and English settlers in 1689 New England, Ruth Miner is accused of witchcraft for the murder of her parents and must flee the brutality of her town. She stows away on the ship of the only other person who knows her innocence: an audacious sailor — Owen — bound to her by years of attraction, friendship, and shared secrets. But when Owen’s French ancestry finds him at odds with a violent English commander, the turmoil becomes life-or-death for the sailor, the headstrong Ruth, and the cast of Quakers, Pequot Indians, soldiers, highwaymen, and townsfolk dragged into the fray. Now Ruth must choose between sending Owen to the gallows or keeping her own neck from the noose.
Steeped in historical events and culminating in a little-known war on pre-American soil, Out Front the Following Sea is a story of early feminism, misogyny, arbitrary rulings, and the treatment of outcasts, with parallels still mirrored and echoed in today’s society.

🌊🌊🌊

Wow! 

Leah Angstman has penned one of the most gripping historical fiction novels of 2022 with Out Front the Following Sea.  This is a story of perseverance in the face of a myriad of hardships: death, ridicule, loneliness, and the unfortunate fate of being born a woman in 17th Century America - just to name a few.  Ruth Miner’s colonial world comes to life on the page as it is full of both adventure and heartache.  I laughed and I cried - I gasped and raged for a couple of chapters - then I cried some more.  

🌊🌊🌊

Thank you, Leah Angstman for not only writing such an incredible book, but also sharing in the Author’s Note some interesting facts about the Pequot language and culture. I loved everything about Out Front the Following Sea (including that stunning cover that I could gush about for days) and plan to purchase a hardcover copy for my bookshelf.  It’s always such a rare treat to be blown away by an author’s debut novel and it makes me excited for what is to come. 

🌊🌊🌊

Thank you to the author along with BookSirens and Regal House Publishing for a free digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.