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Showing posts from 2020

Review: Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan Blurb from Goodreads : What happens when your love life becomes the talk of the town? As birthdays go, this year’s for radio producer Everly Dean hit rock-bottom. Worse than the “tonsillectomy birthday.” Worse than the birthday her parents decided to split (the first time). But catching your boyfriend cheating on you with his assistant? Even clichés sting. But this is Everly’s year! She won’t let her anxiety hold her back. She’ll pitch her podcast idea to her boss. There’s just one problem. Her boss, Chris, is very cute. (Of course). Also, he's extremely distant (which means he hates her, right? Or is that the anxiety talking)? And, Stacey the DJ didn’t mute the mic during Everly’s rant about Simon the Snake (syn: Cheating Ex). That’s three problems. Suddenly, people are lining up to date her, Bachel...

I love this trope, sub-genre, setting: Cozy Mysteries!

I Love This Trope, Sub-Genre, Setting is a new feature on my blog in which I discuss a trope, sub-genre or setting that I love and tell you about books that are shining examples of said trope, sub-genre or setting.  Feel free to play along and please let me know about your favorite books in this realm and whether you like this trope, sub-genre and/or setting as much as I do! Today I am spotlighting the sub-genre of:  Cozy Mysteries , which I would loosely define as any mystery, usually a murder mystery, solved by an amateur sleuth.  These books are more thoughtful than scary.  This is one of the best definitions I've seen!  I have to confess that I love a good cozy mystery series!  I've actually started listening to a lot of cozy mystery audiobooks lately and they are so soothing.  Bonus points if good food is included!  I know there are a ton of books that I'm missing/haven't read so please let m...

Review: Write Before Christmas by Julie Hammerle

Write Before Christmas by Julie Hammerle Blurb from Goodreads : You’ve probably heard of me. Reclusive fantasy author turned famous when his series got developed into a mega TV hit. Except now I’m way behind deadline, and the whole world is waiting to see what I’ll write next. The pressure is getting to me, and I. Can’t. Write. Cue: small town where people don’t recognize me. Cue: my assistant insisting on a personal chef to keep me fed and nothing more. Cue: finding the first bit of inspiration I’ve felt in months whenever she’s around… Am I a walking cliche now, or what? Dani Cooper seems to have her own hurdles to jump this holiday season. Newly divorced, looking for her next move. She’s the first person who’s seen me for me in way too long. And I see her, too--as way more than just an employee, a divorcee, a cook. She’s becoming my muse… But ...

Review: Never Have You Ever (The Love Game #1) by Elizabeth Hayley

Never Have You Ever (The Love Game #1) by Elizabeth Hayley Blurb from Goodreads : Who is this guy? Sophia Mason's junior year of college isn't exactly off to the best start. The semester has just begun, and the president of her sorority has already ousted her from the house. With nowhere else to turn, she ends up at her brother's apartment--only to find it inhabited instead by a handsome stranger. On paper, Drew Nolan doesn't have much going for him as an uneducated bartender from a sketchy family. But when a spoiled rich kid asks Drew to take over his life so he can travel around Europe instead of attend classes, Drew sees the opportunity to get the college education he's always dreamed of. Forced into a cover-up under the same roof, Sophia and Drew forge an unlikely friendship. As the two grow closer, lines blur and boundaries stretch, and they find comfort ...

Review: The Transatlantic Book Club: A Novel (Finfarran Peninsula #5) by Felicity Hayes-McCoy

The Transatlantic Book Club: A Novel (Finfarran Peninsula #5) by Felicity Hayes-McCoy Blurb from Goodreads : Distance makes no difference to love...   Eager to cheer up her recently widowed gran, Cassie Fitzgerald, visiting from Canada, persuades Lissbeg Library to set up a Skype book club, linking readers on Ireland's Finfarran Peninsula with the US town of Resolve, home to generations of Finfarran emigrants. But when the club decides to read a detective novel, old conflicts on both sides of the ocean are exposed and hidden love affairs come to light. As secrets emerge, Cassie fears she may have done more harm than good. Will the truths she uncovers about her granny Pat's marriage affect her own hopes of finding love? Is Pat, who's still struggling with the death of her husband, about to fall out with her oldest friend, Mary? Or coul...

Review: Why I Held Your Hand by Augusta Reilly

Why I Held Your Hand by Augusta Reilly Blurb from Goodreads : Laura Delaney loves her small mountain hometown of North Powell with its quaint charm, stately Victorian homes and surrounding hiking trails. Unfortunately, when it comes to attracting travel dollars, it can no longer compete with the flashy hot springs and ski slopes of nearby competitors. That’s why she hires a hotshot marketing team to figure out how to inject the old magic back into North Powell’s sagging tourist trade. What she doesn’t expect is for the team to include David Harper. Smart, funny, handsome, and amazing in bed, he’s the perfect man. All she needs to do now is keep their relationship under wraps until the project is over. But that’s easier said than done when she’s assigned to work with Spence Markham, the company’s offbeat “idea man” and David’s professional nemesis...

Review: Supper Club by Lara Williams

Supper Club by Lara Williams Blurb from Goodreads : A sharply intelligent and intimate debut novel about a secret society of hungry young women who meet after dark and feast to reclaim their appetites--and their physical spaces--that posits the question: if you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into? Roberta spends her life trying not to take up space. At almost thirty, she is adrift and alienated from life. Stuck in a mindless job and reluctant to pursue her passion for food, she suppresses her appetite and recedes to the corners of rooms. But when she meets Stevie, a spirited and effervescent artist, their intense friendship sparks a change in Roberta, a shift in her desire for more. Together, they invent the Supper Club, a transgressive and joyous collective of women who gather to celebrate, rather than admonish, their hungers. They ga...

Review: Daddy by Emma Cline

Daddy by Emma Cline Blurb from Goodreads : The stories in Emma Cline’s stunning first collection consider the dark corners of human experience, exploring the fault lines of power between men and women, parents and children, past and present. A man travels to his son’s school to deal with the fallout of a violent attack and to make sure his son will not lose his college place. But what exactly has his son done? And who is to blame? A young woman trying to make it in LA, working in a clothes shop while taking acting classes, turns to a riskier way of making money but will be forced to confront the danger of the game she’s playing. And a family coming together for Christmas struggle to skate over the lingering darkness caused by the very ordinary brutality of a troubled husband and father. These outstanding stories examine masculinity, male power an...