Business Casual

By: BK Borison
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 384

Amazon Barnes & Noble

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): Nova Porter isn’t looking for love, and she certainly has no explanation for her attraction to buttoned-up, three-piece-suit-wearing investment banker Charlie Milford. Maybe it’s his charm? Or maybe it’s his determination to help her fledgling business however he can. Either way, she’s distracted every time he’s around. With her new tattoo studio set to open in her hometown of Inglewild, she doesn’t have time for frivolous flirtations. 

In an effort to get Charlie out of her system once and for all, Nova offers a proposition. One night. No strings. They’ll kick their uncomfortable attraction to the curb and return to their respective responsibilities. But their explosive night together scatters their expectations like fallen leaves. And with Charlie in town as the temporary head of Lovelight Farms, Nova can’t quite avoid him. 

And Charlie? Well, Charlie knows a good investment when he sees one. He’s hoping he can convince Nova he’s worth some of her time.

First Impressions

I am absolutely obsessed with the Lovelight Farms series. I was so excited to see another book coming out in the series. I think it might be one of my favorite covers of the series but honestly, I love them all.

What I thought

B.K. Borison does not miss!

We are back at Lovelight Farms and this time we get to follow Charlie, Stella’s half brother, and Nova, Beckett’s youngest sister. Charlie is staying in Inglewild for a month while Stella and Luka go on a month long honeymoon. Nova is finally opening her dream of her own tattoo shop. Charlie has been flirting with Nova to get a rise out of her for at least a year. Nova finally decides to flirt back and asks him to sleep with her in an attempt to feel better. This shocks Charlie, but ultimately they mutually decide to try to get each other out of their systems and keep things “business casual”.

I loved Nova and Charlie in previous books, so I was excited to get to know them more. Nova is fiercely independent and feels as though by asking for help, she is showing weakness. Charlie doesn’t believe he deserves to be loved, so he attempts to make everyone happy so that they want to keep him around.

Their banter is top notch. I am a sucker for banter and I loved that heirs wasn’t mean, but just truly flirty with a little teasing. It’s funny how obvious their chemistry is immediately, considering how long they deny it. I wanted to give Charlie a hug this entire story too. He is so sweet and such a good guy, but is dealing with his own baggage.

As with Borison’s other novels in this series, I appreciate that there isn’t a 3rd act miscommunication put in just to add drama. I also love how she seamlessly weaves in the other characters from the previous stories. The town of Inglewild is a character in and of itself, and it’s done beautifully.

I do feel like each book in this series has gotten spicier, but I don’t feel like it’s a bad thing. I don’t think I have anything to complain about in this book other than that it’s over! I know this one is advertised as the final Inglewild book, but I really hope it’s not!

If you haven’t read this series, please do so. All 4 books are lovely and such a good time. I would love to see these stories picked up as a series somehow. I think they would be so comforting and warm.

Sula

By: Toni Morrison
Pages: 174
Published Year: 1973
Publisher: Vintage International

Amazon Barnes & Noble

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Sula and Nel are two young black girls: clever and poor. They grow up together sharing their secrets, dreams and happiness. Then Sula breaks free from their small-town community in the uplands of Ohio to roam the cities of America. When she returns ten years later much has changed. Including Nel, who now has a husband and three children. The friendship between the two women becomes strained and the whole town grows wary as Sula continues in her wayward, vagabond and uncompromising ways.

First Impressions

I heard that Well Read Black Girl was doing a read along for Sula. I had heard of other Morrison books, but never read them. I loved the idea of reading a classic along with others since it ca be intimidating to do so by yourself. The idea of a friendship drama occurring in the 1920s sounded so interesting to me!

What I thought

Um. I don’t know what I just read. I will preface this review by saying I don’t think I am the intended reader for this book. I Feel like I really do need to discuss it with others because I feel like I missed the point.

Sula starts in 1920 and ends in the 1960s. Each chapter is a year until 1927 and then there is a 10 year jump to 1937. Sula is the daughter of Hannah and granddaughter of Eva. However, the book starts with Nel who is the daughter of Helene. Nel is quiet and a bit of a loner until she meets Sula. They become instant best friends. The story checks in with them each year, sort of, until Nel gets married. But mostly, it tells the story of Sula’s insane family until Nel gets married. Sula then disappears for 10 years, and when she comes back, she sleeps with Nel’s husband. Not because she loves him, just because she’s bored and wants to.

I understand this book is supposed to be a commentary on black society and black women in the 1920s, but I got so distracted by the insanity of the characters and what terrible people they were that it completely overshadowed everything else for me. I will admit that Morrison’s writing is great. It made the book easy to read and understand. But boy oh boy was this a rollercoaster.

Eva, Sula’s grandma, murders her own son, loses her leg, and jumps/falls out a window to save her own daughter who is on fire. All within a 176 page book. It made my head spin. I never felt any sympathy towards Sula either because she was unnecessarily cruel. I feel similar to her as I did when I read Wuthering Heights. I will be immediately wary of anyone who says that Sula is their favorite literary character or if they relate to her. I get that she was maybe trying to take back her power in a time and age when black women had none, but to be so unnecessarily cruel to her family and friend along the way? I don’t get it one bit.

I wish I had read this book in high school with a teacher to walk me through it. I feel bad rating this book poorly because I truly think it’s more of a me issue. If you are Morrison’s intended audience you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more than I did. I may look into other books by her because I did like her writing style, but unfortunately, this book was not it.

Funny Story

By: Emily Henry
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 387

Amazon Barnes & Noble

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?

First Impressions

I have read two of Henry’s books previously. One of her adult novels and one of her YA novels and I have loved both. This one sounded right up my alley. I also absolutely love the color of this book so I would’ve picked it up regardless of knowing who she was or having read her previous books.

What I thought

She does it again!

Daphne moves in with her ex-fiancé’s ex-boyfriend after their respective partners leave them to get together. Within a month of the betrayal, Miles and Daphne get invited to their ex’s wedding, she accidentally lies and tells her ex Peter that she and Miles are together. Now they have to hang out and make it look like they’re together, even though they are polar opposites and don’t know much about each other at all. The more they hang out, the more they realize they have in common.

I loved the banter with Daphne and Miles. I also love how Daphne banters with her friend/coworker Ashleigh. Everything about the friendships and the romance feels so easy, even though Daphne has her struggles with building and maintaining relationships. Daphne and Miles each have their own baggage and I love how Henry handles it throughout the story.

There’s a storyline in which Miles wants to make Daphne fall in love with the town of Waning Bay, Michigan. He brings her to a bunch of different places and made me fall in love with the town too. I love when the setting of the story is just as much of a character as the characters are. Henry does a great job with this.

I know that you may be tempted to write this book off because of all the hype that Henry gets. Honestly, I was a little bit too, but this book exceeded all of my expectations. I adored Daphne and Miles. I loved all of the side characters too. Daphne works in a library and the library comes to life when she’s there. They bond over their shared breakups but they also grow and learn together.

I devoured this book. I finished it in 2 days and could not put it down. Henry is a fantastic writer. The way she writes the characters is so well done and the story flew by. I already want to pick it up and read it again. I loved Book Lovers, but I feel like that one is more appealing to book lovers. This one I feel like could be more universally loved. It starts as fake dating (but like a light fake dating) and grows into a fabulous love story. Also, the way the book begins and ends was written so beautifully!

One-Star Romance

By: Laura Hankin
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 400

Amazon Barnes & Noble

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

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A struggling writer is forced to walk down the aisle at her best friend’s wedding with the man who gave her book a very public one-star rating in this fresh romantic comedy from Laura Hankin.

Natalie and Rob couldn’t have less in common. Nat’s a messy artist, and Rob’s a rigid academic. The only thing they share is their devotion to their respective best friends—who just got engaged. Still, unexpected chemistry has Natalie cautiously optimistic about being maid of honor to Rob’s best man.

Until, minutes before the ceremony, Nat learns that Rob wrote a one-star review of her new novel, which has them both reeling: Nat from imposter syndrome, and Rob over the reason he needed to write it.

When the reception ends, these two opposites hope they’ll never meet again. But, as they slip from their twenties into their thirties, they’re forced together whenever their fast-track best friends celebrate another milestone. Through housewarmings and christenings, life-changing triumphs and failures, Natalie and Rob grapple with their own choices—and how your harshest critic can become your perfectly imperfect match.

After all, even the truest love stories sometimes need a bit of rewriting.

First Impressions

The cover honestly didn’t do much for me. I think I’m over some of the cartoon covers. Sometimes they’re great but they also make me feel like it’s going to be a light romance. The summary on the other hand won me over for this book. As soon as I read the synopsis I knew I wanted to review this one.

What I thought

I didn’t realize that this was the same author who wrote The Daydreamers! I started this book and felt like it was so well written that I needed to know what else she had done. When I saw that I had read not one, but two of her previous reads I was surprised. I think I now need to consider myself an official Hankin fan!

Natalie is best friends with Gabby. Rob is best friends with Angus. Over the course of 8 years their lives continue to be forced together for big life events in Gabby and Angus’s lives. What makes this so difficult is that the second time that Natalie and Rob met, she discovered he gave her first published book a one star review on Goodreads. Now they have to continue to be civil as they move through their lives, ignoring the spark they felt the first time they met.

This book follows Natalie and Rob over the course of 8 years. The perspectives do alternate, but not necessarily every chapter. I did appreciate getting to see both sides of this story. I think without it, you would get frustrated with both of the characters. Instead, you get a very solid understanding of who they are and why they act the way they do.

Hankins balances romance, comedy, and serious storylines beautifully in the story. The cartoon cover I feel really lessens the heart of this book. The way that Natalie grows through this book is wonderful and so relatable. It truly is a coming of age story from your early twenties to early thirties. She has to deal with who she thought she was going to be and who she actually became as well as friendships and how they change as you get older and you friend’s life changes as well.

This is the slowest of slow burns with a hint of enemies to lovers. I appreciated that Hankins didn’t rely on miscommunication or other simple tropes to build the relationship or cause conflict. The reason that Rob gives Natalie’s book a one star review isn’t petty which makes him more likable as a character too.

This book is beautiful. Natalie is an author and talks a lot about wanting to write something that people can relate to and how much writing means to her. I think Hankin did exactly that with this book. I saw myself in Natalie, in Rob, in Gabby, and maybe even a little bit in Angus. I highly highly recommend this book. Don’t let the cartoon cover let you think that this is just another romance novel.

The Rom-Commers

By: Katherine Center
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 336

Amazon Barnes & Noble

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): She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?

First Impressions

I love Katherine Center. She manages to find the perfect balance of romance and serious. I also am a sucker for enemies to lovers. The cover is very cute, even if I would’ve personally done a little less variety of colors. But honestly, Center will forever be an auto read for me.

What I thought

This book did not disappoint.

Emma is a ghost screenwriter. She wanted to be a screenwriter, but then her dad had an injury and she had to become his caretaker. When she gets an offer to co-write with her favorite screenwriter (think, picture posted to her wall level of favorite), she can’t turn it down. But when she shows up, he turns out to be a little less than willing to work with somebody, let alone an unknown. His rom-com script is also the worst thing Emma has ever read, and she realizes it’s because he doesn’t believe in rom-coms or in love. So she decides it’s her job to prove him wrong on all accounts.

What I loved most about this book was how transparent it was. A lot of romance novels hinge on silly miscommunications that don’t get resolved or people believing that someone else thinks a certain way about them. Rom-Commers doesn’t stand on this trope. There are some miscommunications or overheard conversations, but Emma immediately confronts them. It still lends itself to conflict, but felt more realistic and complex which I greatly enjoyed.

Emma is a wonderfully written character as well. She is multidimensional with her history and strength, balanced by her passion and her weaknesses. Charlie, the screenwriter, is also a fun character. A lot of the time, Center will save the exposure of a trauma until the end of the story. In this book, she drops it all on you pretty quickly. It shows why Charlie is the way he is and why he might be hesitant, as opposed to Emma just being like “why is this guy being so difficult?!”

It was also fun getting some characters from previous novels in this one. I always enjoy when characters come back. This book made me smile and want to watch a ton of rom-coms, so I think it did its job.

Katherine Center does not miss. I will forever read her novels. If you like romance but sometimes feel they’re either too spicy or a little too fluffy for you, Center’s book might be more up your ally. There aren’t any spicy scenes and there is always a serious note to her stories. I can’t wait to read more of her books!

Tangled Up In You

By: Christina Lauren
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Hyperion Avenue
Pages: 320

Amazon Barnes & Noble

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): A witty and deeply romantic modern reimagining of Disney’s Tangled.

She has a dream. He has a plan. Together they’ll take a leap of faith.

Ren has never held an iPhone, googled the answer to a question, or followed a crush on social media. What she has done: read a book or two, or three (okay, hundreds). Taught herself to paint. Built a working wind power system from scratch. But for all the books she’s read, Ren has never found one that’s taught a woman raised on a homestead and off the grid for most of her twenty-two years how to live in the real world. So when she finally achieves her lifelong dream of attending Corona College, it feels like her life is finally beginning.

Fitz has the rest of his life mapped out: graduate from Corona at the top of his class, get his criminal record wiped clean, and pass himself off as the rich, handsome player everyone thinks he is. He’s a few months short from checking off step one of his plans when Ren Gylden, with her cascading blonde hair and encyclopedic brain, crashes into his life, and for the first time Fitz’s plan is in jeopardy.

But a simple assignment in their immunology seminar changes the course of both their lives, and suddenly they’re thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire on a road trip that will lead them in the most unexpected directions. Out on the open road, the world somehow shifts, and the unlikely pair realize that, maybe, the key to the dreams they've both been chasing have been sitting next to them the whole time.

First Impressions

I love Christina Lauren and I love Disney, so I was excited to see that they had joined forces. This book is actually a part of a series of Disney retellings by romance authors. I haven’t read any of the others, but I was very intrigued by the combo of Christina Lauren and Tangled.

What I thought

This story was very fun.

Ren has spent her whole life living on a homestead with her parents. She has never gone to school and does not have any friends her own age. When she’s 22, she finally convinces her parents to let her go to a nearby college. Their rule, however, is she needs to come home every weekend to the homestead and they will pick her up, she cannot use the internet for anything other than assignments, and no going off campus. She also does not have a phone. When she meets Fitz, who is assigned to give her the welcome tour, he immediately dislikes her optimistic attitude. She’s warned to stay away from his charm, but when she finds out her dad may not be who she thought he was, she joins him on a road trip.

What I liked most about this story is that even though it’s a modern retelling of Tangled/Rapunzel, it feels like it exists in its own world. I could see a lot of the nods from the movie but it didn’t feel like pandering or like the story was being told just to hit story points.

I really loved how optimistic and naïve Ren was, while also just being kind and genuine. Fitz was charming, yet also struggling with his own demons. His story actually confused me the most. There was a lot of backstory which I appreciated, but it unfolded slowly.

Christina Lauren always do a great job with slow burn romances and with chemistry and this book does not miss. It’s a little less spicy than their usual stories, which I think a lot of people will appreciate. I loved the banter and I also liked the road trip aspect where Ren got to experience a lot of things for the first time.

This book was a quick, easy, fun read. I pretty much read it in one go on the airplane. Even though I knew, essentially, how the story was going to end, I was excited to see it play out and see how the ends were tied up together. I loved that the story didn’t just end with Ren/Rapunzel finding out about her real parents too. We got a little after of dealing with some of the consequences and where it felt more like real life. If you like Disney and romance, I highly recommend checking this out. I might go back and read the other ones in this series!

Book Club June 2024- The Door-to-Door Bookstore

By: Carsetn Henn
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Pages: 239

Amazon Barnes & Noble

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): The charming international bestseller about an elderly bookseller who delivers his recommendations door-to-door and an unlikely friendship with a nine-year-old girl that changes his life, for fans of The Midnight Library and A Man Called Ove.

The bookseller Carl Christian Kollhoff delivers books to special customers in the evening hours after closing time, walking through the picturesque alleys of the city. These people are almost like friends to him, and he is their most important connection to the world.

When Kollhoff unexpectedly loses his job, it takes the power of books and a nine-year-old girl to make them all find the courage to rebuild their bonds with each other.

A bestselling phenomenon internationally, Carsten Henn’s The Door-to-Door Bookstore is a feel-good novel about books and friendship.

What I thought

I discovered this book in a Barnes & Noble sale and it sounded right up my alley. It also sounded like a good Book Club choice. I love the cover and thought a book about book lovers would be fun.

Carl has worked for a bookstore in his small town for years. He personally delivers books to his customers and has taken the same path daily. That is until the bookstore owner’s daughter takes over and 9 year old Schascha decides to join him on his walk.

I feel a little bit on the fence about this book. I loved the characters. Carl is a gem and each of his customers is fun and unique. At least at the beginning. I found Schascha to be a bit of a brat. She didn’t take no for an answer and rather than endearing I found it annoying. I also hated the bookstore owner’s daughter, which I know we’re supposed to. I also didn’t love Effi’s storyline, which is one of his customers. Oh, and Sabine, the new book owner/old book owner’s daughter is completely evil.

I don’t know if some of that was the writing getting lost in translation (literally, since this book was originally written in German), or the writing itself. I enjoyed going with Carl on his walks as well as his knowledge and love for books. Whenever he talked about books or why he recommended them, I related. However, the conflict was not my favorite. I also found the ending to be a bit quick in its peak and resolution.

Overall, I enjoyed pieces of this book, but I didn’t love it as a whole. It’s a solid 3.5 stars for me.

What Book Club Thought

We all enjoyed this one. It was interesting because the other members mentioned it had been a little hard/slow to get into, and I hadn’t noticed it on my own, but they were right. It can be a little confusing and overly literary, but gets into the swing of things about 60 pages in. For such a small book, we had a lot to talk about which was nice. I was the only one who didn’t find Schascha charming which was interesting. We all were on the same page about the pacing at the end of the book being a little bit off. I think this is a fun book to read if you are a lover of literature and is a good choice to read with a book club. It’s a fun, easy read, but has a lot of substance to discuss.  

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice

By: Elle Cosimano
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Minotaur Book
Pages: 315

Amazon Barnes & Noble

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero are in sore need of a girls’ weekend away. They plan a trip to Atlantic City, but odds are―seeing as it’s actually a cover story to negotiate a deal with a dangerous loan shark, save Vero’s childhood crush Javi, and hunt down a stolen car―it won’t be all fun and games. When Finlay’s ex-husband Steven and her mother insist on tagging along too, Finlay and Vero suddenly have a few too many meddlesome passengers along for the ride.

Within hours of arriving in their seedy casino hotel, it becomes clear their rescue mission is going to be a bust. Javi’s kidnapper, Marco, refuses to negotiate, demanding payment in full in exchange for Javi’s life. But that’s not all―he insists on knowing the whereabouts of his missing nephew, Ike, who mysteriously disappeared. Unable to confess what really happened to Ike, Finlay and Vero are forced to come up with a new plan: sleuth out the location of Javi and the Aston Martin, then steal them both back.

But when they sneak into the loan shark’s suite to search for clues, they find more than they bargained for―Marco's already dead. They don’t have a clue who murdered him, only that they themselves have a very convincing motive. Then four members of the police department unexpectedly show up in town, also looking for Ike―and after Finlay's night with hot cop Nick at the police academy, he’s a little too eager to keep her close to his side.

If Finlay can juggle a jealous ex-husband, two precocious kids, her mother’s marital issues, a decomposing loan shark, and find Vero’s missing boyfriend, she might get out of Atlantic City in one piece. But will she fold under the pressure and come clean about the things she’s done, or be forced to double down?

First Impressions

I flew through listening to the first 3 Finaly Donovan books last year and was so excited to read the next one. Admittedly, it’s not my favorite of the covers, but it’s still cute and eye catching.

What I thought

I need this book series to be picked up and made into a TV series.

This story picks up exactly where the 3rd on left off. If you haven’t read these books and you want to, don’t read this review because there will likely be unintentional spoilers.

Finlay and Vero need to save Javi and find the car gifted to Finlay by the mob. So they head to Atlantic City. However, Finlay’s ex-husband, mother, and 2 small children tag along. While there, hey get into their usual shenanigans and troubles. They find dead bodies, become in charge of a tiny dog named Kevin Bacon, and of course Detective Nick shows up to continue wooing Finlay.

I adore listening to these books. Angela Dawe does a fantastic job narrating. All of her voices really make the characters come to life and I honestly can’t imagine enjoying them as much as paper books as I do listening to them. I wasn’t as into Nick this book, but I think that’s because there was les of the will they/won’t they, and more of the they’re together so now what. It’s hard because Finlay is tied into murder, coverups, and the mob, so how is this realistically going to work with her and Nick in the long run? It’s probably the hardest plot point for me.

It was also interesting to have more of Steven in this book. I don’t think I needed him, but I understand wanting to set up mysteries for future books in this series. I also love how Vero hates him and finds ways to pick on him.

Without giving spoilers, there were some storylines from previous books that got wrapped up in this one that I was excited about. I think it’ll help move the series along and stop it from getting stale. They weren’t my favorite, so I’m looking forward to what Finlay and Vero get up to next.

This whole series has been a solid 4 stars for me which is pretty impressive for 4 books. Finlay and Vero are great. If you’re ok with wacky, you will enjoy this series. This book might be my least favorite of the 4, but that doesn’t mean I disliked it at all. I just think that it felt a little more like a filler/continuation of book 3 and I’m looking forward more to what happens next!