Do I Know You?

By: Austin Siegmund-Broka & Emily Wibberly
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 352

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): When a couple starts to feel like they’re married to a stranger, a flirtatious game of pretend becomes the spark they need to reignite their relationship.

Eliza and Graham are anticipating an anything-but-sexy, weeklong getaway to celebrate their five-year anniversary. Nestled on the Northern California coastline, the resort prides itself on being a destination for those in love and those looking to find it. For Eliza and Graham, it might as well be a vacation with a roommate.

When a well-meaning guest mistakes Eliza and Graham for being single and introduces them at the hotel bar, they don’t correct him. Suddenly, they’re pretending to be perfect strangers and it’s unexpectedly…fun? Eliza and Graham find themselves flirting like it’s their first date, and waiting with butterflies in their stomach for the other to text back.

Everyone at the retreat can sense the electric chemistry between Eliza and Graham’s alter egos. But when their scintillating game of roleplaying ends, will they still feel the heat?

First Impressions

This duo is one of my favorites. I first got into their YA books, but they recently started writing adult romance as well. Even though I wasn’t crazy about their first one, The Roughest Draft, I loved the cover and summary of this one. When I was offered to read it for review I was beyond excited to get my hands on it before it was published.

What I thought

I’m not normally one for second chance romances but I adored this one.

Eliza and Graham are celebrating their 5 year anniversary at a resort, provided to them as a gift from Graham’s mom. They’ve been going through a rough patch in their marriage and are both worried that it is slipping away from them. When they get mistaken for strangers early on in their trip, they decide to continue with the charade for the week to try to bring back the spark of dating into their relationship.

I loved the message of never stop dating that this book brought. What drove me nuts were the problems Graham and Eliza were actually having. I also felt like Eliza ended up getting a lot of the blame for their issues, while it felt to me Graham’s issues were the bigger problem. Eliza, basically, shuts down and hasn’t been sharing some of the emotionally difficult pieces with Graham. However, Graham at his core believes that he is not good enough for Eliza and constantly worries he will never live up to being the person that she needs him to be. Basically, if they had gone to therapy and talked just once, then their problems would’ve been solved.

I enjoyed the shenanigans and seeing how Graham and Eliza would play off of each other. They had great banter and it was cute to see their connection and it easily explained how they fell in love in the first place.

One annoyance I had was Graham constantly thinking that Eliza didn’t like him and only wanted the fake version of himself. It felt a little repetitive and annoyed me that even though she and his new friend were pointing out the obvious, he still didn’t believe it. I didn’t understand his self-confidence issues and it just drained on me after a while.

I very much appreacted how the story ended. I think my biggest issue with second chance romances is when they don’t address the issues they had the first time around, and I do think Eliza and Graham did this. I loved seeing their growth and I thought the entire concept of this book was fun.

A few of Wilbberly/Siegmund-Broka’s books have been a miss for me lately which has made me sad because I loved their earlier novels. This one hit just the right way and I was so excited about it. I think the chemistry of the main couple is much stronger than The Roughest Draft. What held me back from 5 stars was the repetitive nature of their issues. I wanted to hit them both over the head. But, I still highly recommend checking this out. It’s fun and sweet and I think it’ll be a good mid-winter pick me up.

Book club January 2023- Hester

By Laurie Lico Albanese
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: St/ Martin’s Press
Pages: 322

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic––leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible.

When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows––while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward's safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which?

In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country's complicated past, and learns that America's ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel's story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a "real" American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of "unusual" women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down.

What I thought

I have never read The Scarlett Letter, so I was a little hesitant to read this book and definitely wouldn’t have picked it on my own. Even though the cover is absolutely beautiful. I appreciated it being picked for book club because I feel like we can get stuck in the types of books we read and I’ve been reading a lot of romance/contemporary novels. I used to love Historical Fiction but haven’t read a much in a while.

Isobel moves to Salem from Scotland with her husband in hopes of starting a new life. She is a master needle worker with synesthesia (the ability to see colors when you hear sounds) and because of this, comes from a line of accused witches. When she ends up in Salem and her husband heads off to sea, she is left to fend for herself. This is where she meets Nathaniel Hathorne (who eventually becomes Hawthorne and writes the Scarlett Letter) and falls in love.

The book started off a little slow for me. It alternates inconsistently between Isobel’s present day (in the 1800s) and the past, starting in the 1600s and eventually catching up to the early 1800s. This definitely confused me. Nothing felt linear or clearly explained and with all of the women having the same two names (Isobel and Margaret) it felt hard for me to keep straight. I also felt a little disoriented every time we would go back to Isobel’s storyline. I understood that need for giving her family’s history, but the way it was done wasn’t smooth to me and I almost started to dread when I saw those past stories.

The present day story however, I greatly enjoyed. Once Isobel made it to Salem the story started to pick up and I wanted to see how she would make a name for herself. I’m sure that I would’ve loved it even more if I had read The Scarlett Letter. I was intrigued by Nat and Isobel’s love story, even though I disliked him pretty much from the start.

This book really surprised me. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected and about halfway through it became a book I didn’t want to put down. I’m thankful for books like these at book club because it reminded me how much I enjoy historical fiction and that I really need to start picking it up again.

What Book Club Thought

We all really enjoyed this one! It was outside of what most of us would pick, but we all ended up really enjoying the story that was told. We all agreed that the flashbacks were a little bit unnecessary, thought I think I was the one who found them to be confusing. The other thing that was satisfying was being able to complain about Nat and Isobel’s husband. Overall, I think this was a great book club pick. Sometimes books we enjoy leave us with little to talk about and that wasn’t the case with this one. Even if this book seems a little out of your comfort zone, I would definitely recommend checking it out.

2022 Reading Round-up

This year I used StoryGraph for the first time. I usually like to do a roundup of how many authors of color I read to make sure that I’m diversifying my TBR, but I thought this was a fun way to look at other stats.

For example, this year I read 73 books. 38 of them were physical books, 26 were digital (e-reader) books, and 9 of them were audiobooks. I love these random facts!

Jumping into my Diverse Reading Stats.

For 2021:
Black- 9
Asian/Indian- 7
White- 37
Male- 7

For 2022:
Black- 9
Asian/Indian- 12
Latinx- 1
White- 42
Male- 5

Out of the 69 authors I read this year (had a few authors who I read multiple times), my authors of color were about 31%. In 2021 I was at about 26%, so that’s a pretty solid increase! I’m proud of myself for that, and also for adding a Latinx author into my reading. I think I fell into that same pattern of being better about reading diverse authors at the beginning of the year, but I think that’s partly because towards the end of the year I read some more holiday reads, a few of which were Hanukkah reads.

I attempted one challenge this year and that was the read 8 books that were from my bookshelf. Ones that I already owned. I managed to knock off 4 of them. Not too bad, but considering the challenge started from one of my friends saying she was going to read one book a month from her shelf, and I told myself I was only going to pull 8, not too good. I also added a lot more to my shelf this year compared to others. I currently have 5 new books that I haven’t tackled, including the 4 left over from last year. Oops.

Another fun stat from my library is that I saved $948 by using my library rather than buying books! So, even though I did spend money on buying books (all used except for the ones I was gifted), I did save almost $1000 on my reading. Not too shabby.

Finally, my favorite and least favorite books of the year.

My Top 5 books this year were

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Sadie on a Plate by Amanda Elliot

Black Love Matters by Jessica P. Pryde

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza

The Cartographers by Peng Shephard

I definitely had more 5 star reads, but some that are from my favorite authors, so I tried to pick ones that stuck with me that weren’t from my tried and trues. For example, I loved Kate Quinn’s new book this year, but that’s almost a given, so I picked different authors that made a lasting impression.

My Bottom 3 books this year were

Exit West by Mohsin Hamed

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss

Overall, I had a pretty good reading year. My average star rating was a 3.79 for the year, 12 of which were 5 star reads. I only had one book I didn’t finish, but I did have 6 books I rated under 3 stars. Last year, my average rating was a 3.56 with only 8 5 star reads. The nice thing about Storygraph is it lets you give half star ratings, so I think my stats this year were a little more accurate. It’s nice to be able to rate something 2.75 stars or 4.5 stars and be able to look back on that.

I love being able to look back on all of this information. I think one of my favorite things that I’ve seen is that by making a direct effort to diversify the authors I read, I’ve added some permanent authors of color to my lists. It has exposed me to some wonderful authors that I might not have picked up if I hadn’t been expressly looking for it. I also love seeing that this year I have enjoyed more of what I read, which I think is shown in the amount of reading I did.

Adding audiobooks into my routine has also increased my reading and my diversity. I forgot how much I love reading memoirs until I got back into them through audiobooks. I’m hoping that I can continue to read different types of books through audio that I’m not tackling with physical books.

What are your favorite/least favorite books of 2022? Do you have anything about your reading habits that surprised you this year?

Home for Christmas

By: Courtney Cole
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Avon
Pages: 352

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Piper McCaulley doesn't know which way is up or down. Her gran, her last remaining family, died two weeks before Christmas, leaving Piper to reevaluate her life. Did she really want to stay chained to the family business just to hang on to this old house? She didn't care that her great-great-great grandpa had built it with his own hands. How could she make huge life decisions if she'd never even been outside of Alaska?

She needs to leave the snowy wilderness that's her backyard and see the world, and since her gran left her a battered old compass, Piper takes this a secret message from her beloved grandmother: to follow her heart.

But before she is even a foot outside the door, Piper finds herself caught in a blizzard and wakes up in 1945 in the original home that her ancestors had built--a time when her gran was just a girl Piper's age. Once she has gotten over the shock, Piper has the joy of getting to know her grandmother in a whole new way, a way that sheds light on everything Piper had come to know and not know about her own past.

Over the course of one magical holiday season, Piper must go on a journey through time to learn the meaning of real love, home, and how a family legacy can connect one another forever.

First Impressions

This is absolutely the most beautiful Christmas book cover I’ve ever seen. I saw it on Instagram and immediately looked it up. Luckily, the summary intrigued me as well, so I added it to my list. This is a book I’d buy just to have on my shelf because it’s so pretty.

What I thought

Piper runs her family lodge in Alaska. Her grandmother passed a few weeks ago, and she’s missing her and feeling lost. When she finds her great grandpa’s compass and takes it out into a storm, she finds herself transported back to 1944 where her grandmother is 22.

I adored the family elements in this book. It was also so interesting to see what life during World War two was like in a remote area. At the beginning of the book I was a little iffy about Piper, but she immediately grew on me. I also loved her grandma, Marina, and the relationship that they built.

Now, I will warn you, this is a book where someone goes back in time and falls in love. There are only a handful of ways that these types of books can end and luckily this one ended in my favorite way. Admittedly, these types of books aren’t for everyone. It did cause me a little anxiety because I knew that eventually she would have to go back 2022 and what was going to happen? I have a friend who doesn’t love time travel stories because of all of the questions the pose, so if you feel the same way, you might not enjoy this book.

This book cemented the fact that I am a sucker for any book set in the Alaskan wilderness. The fact that everyone was stuck at home and had to be self-sufficient added an element of magic to the story. Piper and Lane’s chemistry was immediately evident. I was rooting for them from the start. The only thing that bothered me was that when she first saw him she said (multiple times I may add) that he made her “ovaries twitch.” *gag* Just no. Nobody’s ovaries twitch. And I think later she even mentions that they flutter. I honestly started to question whether or not Cole was a woman based off of those descriptions.

If you’re looking for a Christmas story with the magic and warmth of family and love, this is the book for you. The time travel and the setting make it stand out from others, but it still has a classic Christmas element to the story. I could easily see this being made into a Hallmark movie, so that’s how I know it’s the type of book for me.

Book Club December 2022- Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

This review is going to be slightly different than my typical format. Between the holidays and a short vacation, I just didn’t have as much time as I usually do but I still wanted to put up a quick review since we had book club.

I didn’t like this book at all. Like, so much so that I feel like I can’t talk about it. I found the writing to be extremely boring and I didn’t connect with anything. I didn’t like the characters and found the setting to be bland. It was so predictable (which, I know most romance novels are, but something about this one bothered me) and I ended up skimming the last 100 pages because I just couldn’t do it anymore.

Now, I will say that I know some of it is due to me issues. Such as, there is a suicide storyline that ends up being pretty central to the plot that was difficult for me to read. I also hate insta-love, and even though Nory and Isaac had a history from school, they hadn’t seen each other in almost 20 years and it seemed like they instantly fell in love. I just couldn’t buy into it. I also had some major issues with the characters in general.

Interestingly, we were split 50/50 on this book. I thought for sure I was going to be the only one who disliked it, but another book club member ended up disliking it too. Two other members loved it and tried to bring up some redeeming qualities, but I was probably a little bit of a downer (or curmudgeon as one of our members used in describing the book) and kept just saying why I didn’t like what they did. I did try to listen to what it was that they liked about the book, but it definitely wasn’t anything that would change my mind or make me see the book in another light.

Personally, I can’t recommend this book. But oddly, since two of my friends loved it, I’m sure they would. I don’t love bashing books, which is why I don’t want to keep going on about this one, but it was such a miss for me. I will say, if you are planning on checking this book out, don’t expect it to be a Christmas novel. We all agreed that Christmas was not a central character to the story and that it didn’t have a Christmas feel at all.

Love in the Time of Serial Killers

By: Alicia Thompson
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Jove Books
Pages: 336

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Turns out that reading nothing but true crime isn’t exactly conducive to modern dating—and one woman is going to have to learn how to give love a chance when she’s used to suspecting the worst.

PhD candidate Phoebe Walsh has always been obsessed with true crime. She’s even analyzing the genre in her dissertation—if she can manage to finish writing it. It’s hard to find the time while she spends the summer in Florida, cleaning out her childhood home, dealing with her obnoxiously good-natured younger brother, and grappling with the complicated feelings of mourning a father she hadn’t had a relationship with for years.

It doesn’t help that she’s low-key convinced that her new neighbor, Sam Dennings, is a serial killer (he may dress business casual by day, but at night he’s clearly up to something). It’s not long before Phoebe realizes that Sam might be something much scarier—a genuinely nice guy who can pierce her armor to reach her vulnerable heart.

First Impressions

This cover and the title are amazing. It sucked me in immediately. I’m a sucker for true crime and something about this comic book style cover speaks to me. I was immediately sold on a romance story that features a main character who is a true crime enthusiast.

What I thought

This book was cute! A little slow, but I enjoyed the character development a lot.

Phoebe is working on her PhD by writing a dissertation about True Crime. When she moves back to her deceased dad’s home to get it read to sell, she is immediately distrustful of her neighbor. His weird comings and goings reek of serial killer. But as they get to know each other they both realize that the other wasn’t what the other initially thought.

This book didn’t have quite as much true crime as I wanted it to. Or, I guess, it did, but not in the way I expected. I thought that she was going to suspect Sam of being a serial killer for much longer than she did. I don’t mind shenanigans and I think this story could’ve gone a little heavier on them than it did.

Instead, I think that Thompson chose to focus on the character development and their true motives for why they act the way they do. This book did an amazing job delving into Phoebe’s issues and working through them. I feel like this gets left behind in a lot of romance novels just to move the story forward. I really appreciated how we got to learn about why Phoebe was so into true crime and why she responded to men and other people in her life the way she did.

I enjoyed Sam and Phoebe’s relationship. I wouldn’t have minded a little more build of Sam and a little more tension before things actually clicked. But he was a genuinely good dude and I liked him a lot as a lead male in a romance.

I also adored Phoebe’s brother and the relationship that they had. It was so nice to read about the growth and reconnection they had.

This is a hard book for me to rate because it’s a solid 3.5 stars. I loved the characters (as you can tell since I’ve raved about them this entire time) but the pacing was very slow. I think if it had moved a little quicker it would’ve sucked me in a bit more. I never found myself unable to put this book down. I’m curious to see what Thompson writes next as this is a very solid debut!

Naturally Tan

By: Tan France
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 304

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): In this heartfelt, funny, touching memoir, Tan France, star of Netflix's smash-hit QUEER EYE, tells his origin story for the first time. With his trademark wit, humor, and radical compassion, Tan reveals what it was like to grow up gay in a traditional Muslim family, as one of the few people of color in Doncaster, England. He illuminates his winding journey of coming of age, finding his voice (and style!), and how he finally came out to his family at the age of 34, revealing that he was happily married to the love of his life--a Mormon cowboy from Salt Lake City.

In Tan's own words, "The book is meant to spread joy, personal acceptance, and most of all understanding. Each of us is living our own private journey, and the more we know about each other, the healthier and happier the world will be."

First Impressions

I absolutely adored Queer Eye when it first came out. When I saw that Tan had written an autobiography I was immediately sold. I love the yellow cover. I also listened to this book on audiobook and was excited that it was read by Tan himself.

What I thought

If you are a fan of Queer Eye I definitely recommend this book. It was interesting getting to know more about Tan as a person and about his history. It will definitely make me look at him a little differently in the next season.

I think that there are times where he gets a bit snarky and hypocritical, but also it makes you remember he’s just a random guy. He’s not perfect and he’s not necessarily someone who is meant to be looked at as a hero. He has done some great things and brought a light to a type of person that didn’t have one before, but that by no means means he’s faultless and can do no wrong.

My favorite parts of the book were learning about where Tan came from, how he met his husband, and how he ended up on Queer Eye. He went into a lot of detail about this and I really liked it. The parts I didn’t like were the ones where he was giving advice. I know that he’s in fashion, but it felt like it all came off very harsh. I also learned that he loves Salt Lake City and Mormons and that did explain a lot of it. For example, he is all about modest is hottest. He just sometimes used the excuse of “I’m blunt and honest” a few too many times for my personal taste.

While I now know that Tan and I would never be friends, I greatly enjoyed getting to know him more and understand him on a different level. I highly recommend listening to this on audiobook as it really let me hear the nuance and emphasis of his words. There also were a few bonus moments. If you’re a fan of Queer Eye and haven’t picked this up, you need to. I’m now going to try to devour all of the rest of the boys’ autobiographies.

Audiobook Round-Up

I started a new job in August. This job has pretty much quadrupled my commute, which, while unfortunate, has allowed me to take up a new hobby. Audiobooks. I love Podcasts too and I do have a few of them that take priority, but when I catch up on the new episodes for the week, I need something new to listen to. That’s when I decided to check out audiobooks.

A few of my friends listen to audiobooks on their commutes, so I asked for recommendations. I decided to start with Naturally Tan by Tan France. I get all of my audiobooks from my library. Luckily, I have access to Hoopla Digital, CloudLibrary, and Libby through my library, so there pretty much isn’t any audiobook I can’t get for free.

Since I’ve gone through 5 audiobooks over the last 3ish months, I decided to do a short roundup of what I listened to rather than individual reviews. The only exception is going to be Naturally Tan, because I did write a review for that one I do want to post eventually.

If you’ve never found yourself to be an audiobook person, I have a few recommendations. First, if you’re into podcasts and want to get into audiobooks, try memoirs. They’re usually read by the person who wrote them and are most similar in format to podcasts. It’s also nice because you don’t really have to remember a story so it’s easier to put down and pick up. They’re also much shorter than most fiction audiobooks.

My second recommendation is to speed up the book. While I do listen to my podcasts at normal 1x speed, I find that with audiobooks that moves too slowly. I don’t know if it’s because people slow their speech to sound like they’re reading as opposed to having a conversation, but I started off with listening to my audiobooks at 1.2x speed and now I’ve listened to a few at 1.5x speed.

Ok. Time to share about the ones I’ve listened to.

Naturally Tan by Tan France

Like I said, I do have a full review planned for this one. I’ve been wanted to read this book for a while, so it seemed like the natural first pick (no pun intended). This book was a lot of fun. It was short and easy to get into and I think it was the perfect first audiobook choice.

Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness

This book was a recommendation from one of my friends and I figured it was perfect to keep on a Queer Eye roll after listening to Tan’s book. This book is a bit darker than Tan’s, but was still very interesting to listen to. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but it was eye opening. I’d recommend it if you’re a Queer Eye fan. I think it felt more true to the Jonathan you see in the show, whereas Tan at times felt very different.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harlow

The print copy of this book was a recommendation from the same friend who recommended Jonathan’s book. I decided to tackle it as an audiobook because it was practically October which meant, spooky season! This was also the first fiction audiobook I decided to listen to in a while. Admittedly, I should’ve started with something shorter. This book was a 16 hour listen because it’s a 500+ page book. Oops. I did enjoy the narrator. I found she did a good job changing voices for the sisters and some of the other characters without being too over the top. A good narrator can make or break an audiobook. I enjoyed the story a lot, even if it was a bit long, although I think I would recommend reading this book as opposed to listening to it.

The Rural Diaries by Hilarie Burton Morgan

This was by far my favorite audiobook I’ve listened to so far. The story was fascinating and different from your typical memoir. It’s also one that I think you need to listen to as opposed to read. I’m sure it’s good as a physical book, but the audio brings a magic to it that was undeniable. I didn’t want this one to end and I need to know more about Hilarie’s life on the farm.

If you have any audiobook recommendations please send them my way! I’d love to add them to my list. I also would be curious if there are any fiction recommendations that people have that are shorter. This has been a fun way to refresh my reading and I’ve enjoyed getting to tackle books that have been on my to-read list for a while that I haven’t been able to get to.

Finding Me by Viola Davis

This book was actually brought to my attention by my boyfriend’s mom who I thought said it was amazing, but then later learned she hadn’t read it so I think she actually said she heard it was amazing. I didn’t know much about Viola Davis but I’ve always thought she was talented so I thought it could be an interesting listen.

This is probably the heaviest of the audiobooks I listened to. Viola had a very dark and traumatic childhood, so if you think that would be triggering to you, I would not recommend it. I do think it was a well written and interesting book and I’m glad that I picked it up. However, I think because of the heaviness, it wasn’t my favorite of the books I’ve listened to. I did find it took me a little while to get through because of the content. If you’re a fan of Viola though, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.