User Profile

WhiskeyintheJar

WhiskeyintheJar@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 3 months ago

Romance all year, Sept-Oct Horror, all genres sporadic reader.

If I buy the book I give honest reviews. If I'm given the book I give honest reviews.

Blog - whiskeyinthejarromance.blogspot.com/

Mastodon - @WhiskeyintheJar@romancelandia.club

Rating System: 5 stars - Loved, keepers, and will re-read (I'm very stingy giving this rating) 4 stars - Great 3 stars - Liked 2 stars - Ok 1 star - Didn't like

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WhiskeyintheJar's books

To Read

2025 Reading Goal

34% complete! WhiskeyintheJar has read 34 of 100 books.

Madge Maril: Slipstream (EBook, Simon & Schuster)

In the high-speed world of Formula 1, documentarian Lilah teams up with racing driver Arthur …

Internal thoughts focus lit fic style

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

It was already over. I just hadn’t known it.

Lilah has moved down to Texas from Washington D.C. to film a documentary paid for by a Formula 1 team about their drivers. She films with her bestfriend turned boyfriend Max and they're coming off doing an award winning doc about a congressman. Lilah knows nothing about Formula 1 and wants to do important film making, not a puff piece, but as someone diagnosed with ADHD and neurodivergent, she has let Max lead her in things she should like and how she should act. Her plan is to get down to Texas and convince him that they shouldn't do the film but instead he promptly breaks up with her and tells her he's kicking her out of the company that …

Betty Corrello: 32 Days in May (2025, HarperCollins Publishers)

Return to the Jersey Shore with a new romance by Summertime Punchline author Betty Corrello …

Funny and emotional

3.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

Right now, he sees me the way I want to be seen: healthy.

32 Days in May was a story of finding yourself after getting a chronic diagnosis and what that can all mean when falling in love. Nadia lived in New York and had a high paying job in advertising when she starts to feel bone deep tired, losing control of her body leads to losing her job. After getting diagnosed with Lupus, she moves into her family's small duplex beach house in her hometown. Her dad is calling people trying to get her a job, her older sister is constantly pressuring her to “get out” and live, and her doctor just set her up with his cousin, Marco, who just so happens to be a …

Leigh Bardugo (duplicate): The Familiar (Hardcover, 2024, Flatiron Books)

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia …

Atmospheric and emotional

I buddy read this over on StoryGraph but quick wrap-up of thoughts....

Hualit had warned her: the Church owned miracles and their saints performed them, not scullion girls with muddy family names.

Definitely read this in the Fall/Winter months, I think some of it went slower and was harder for me to get into because it was 90degrees and sunny when I was trying to read it. The dread and tension in this demands clouds and howling wind.

Stripped basics: Luzia, a scullion girl, accidentally on purpose reveals her magical abilities and the lady of the house, Valentina, wants to use it as a way to move her up the social ladder. Luzia's aunt Hualit warns her of the dangers of revealing herself but also sees it as a way to gain more favor with her patron, Victor. Victor's our solid villain and along with him is his servant, Santangel. …

Jackie Lau: Time Loops and Meet Cutes (2025, Atria/Emily Bestler Books)

Noelle Tom really shouldn’t have eaten those dumplings at the night market. But the old …

Groundhog Day with some twists

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“You want dumplings? They give you what you need most.”

Time Loops & Meet Cutes was a scifi story that delved into what could be possible if people took the time to stop and look beyond their narrowed focus and didn't let fear guide them. Noelle swore off love six years ago after getting dumped by her boyfriend and going through a depressive episode. She's a mechanical engineer who gives it all to her job and has found herself distanced not only from friends but family. When a random stop at a night market has her eating dumplings that seem to be the cause of her repeating Friday June 20th, she looks for the reason to get herself out of her time loop. A cute guy named Cam keeps …

reviewed Overdrive by Esha Patel (Offtrack, #2)

Esha Patel: Overdrive (Paperback, 2025, Avon)

Racing starts. Rapid hearts. Revved engines.

Shantal knows one thing in life: that success means …

Tense/exciting race scene, weaker on romance

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

My F1 team is coming to my home, and my entire country will be watching.

Second in the Offtrack series, Overdrive stars an F1 driver named Darien who was originally from Brazil but moved to California with his mother after his father died in a car accident and Shantal, an Indo-Guyanese woman living in London who works on a racing simulator project for a company but is still fighting through the grief of losing her sister. You could jump into the series, like I did, as I never felt lost but readers of the first book will enjoy an emotional connection to those previous main character leads as they feature frequently. Told in alternating povs from Shantal and Darien, you'll get two characters who still hold grief over the …

Sloan Harlow: All We Lost Was Everything (2025, Penguin Young Readers Group)

A sexy, dark romantic thriller—with a shocking twist—by the author of Everything We Never Said. …

Young/New adult romance/mystery mashup

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

My mom is gone. My dad is dead. And my life will never be the same.

All We Lost Was Everything was a young and new adult feeling fiction story about how lies and covering up painful pasts can lead to hurting the people you were only trying to protect. Newly graduated from highschool, River has just survived a house fire that took her father's life and all her belongings. She's staying with her aunt as her mother took one of her mental health hikes before the accident and hasn't been heard or seen from since. When her bestfriend Tawny starts a GoFundMe for her, she gets a mysterious donation of two million dollars. Not willing to spend the money before she learns who donated it, she continues working …

reviewed The Payback Plan by Amy Andrews (The Karma Club, #1)

Amy Andrews: The Payback Plan (EBook, 2025, Boldwood Books)

Introducing The Payback Plan, the first installment in this gorgeously spicy series The Karma Club…where …

Cutesy, drama, not much depth

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

‘What if we… took it upon ourselves to exact some… revenge?’

The Payback Plan starts off the Karma Club series, a group of books written by different authors but set in the same world and with the same characters. The books star one of four heroines, Paige, Bella, Sienna, and Astrid, four women who met at a desserts shop in the airport O'Hare and realized they all had horrible exes. Drunk off sugar and alcohol they come up with the plan for each one to take the other's ex and exact a revenge plan, nothing too serious, just enough to severely aggravate the ex. Paige picks Bella's ex Oliver, he texted her the day of their wedding and called it off. Paige's plan is to stay with Oliver for …

Laura Morelli: The Keeper of Lost Art (Paperback, William Morrow)

During World War II, a girl makes an unbreakable connection with a boy sheltering in …

Importance of Humanities, indulged a bit

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“That's the power of art,” the maestra adds. “It can tell a story. An official story. But each one of you might also see your own story in it. At a minimum, you might find hope, even when there is darkness.”

The Keeper of Lost Art was a historical fiction story told from a twelve year old girl's eyes in Italy during World War II. It's a coming of age character story inside a dark historical time period. It's 1942 Italy and Stella has been sent to the countryside by her mother to her uncle and aunt's, in hopes it will be safer for her. Stella has never met them but with two girl cousins around her age, even with an aunt that seems to dislike her, she's trying …

Jayne Ann Krentz: Sweet Starfire (1986)

Sweet Starfire is a futuristic romance written by Jayne Ann Krentz and released in 1986. …

Sweet romance in space, bonus Furry ancestors

3.3 stars

This month's TBRChallenge (I know, I know, late again!) theme was Location, Location, Location. I can't imagine I'm the only one who's first thought was, “Get me the hell off this planet.” So, with that desire, I dove into my boxes of books and found myself on the way to the Stanza Nine system!

"What is it you want delivered?" Cidra cleared her throat. "Myself."

We're in space, folks! With povs from both our mains, Cidra and Teague, readers join them as Cidra is looking to book passage to travel the system in search of an artifact that she thinks will alter her mind to biologically become a Harmonic. While Cidra was born on Clementia to Harmonic parents, she didn't get the gene. In this time and space, humans are divided into Harmonics, intellectually and emotionally advanced, and Wolves, basic normies. Cidra's studied the Harmonic ways but can …

Kelsie Sheridan Gonzalez: The Gods Time Forgot (EBook, Alcove Press)

Irish mythology collides with Gilded Age New York in this sweeping debut enemies-to-lovers historical romantasy, …

Delightful Irish mythology, stagnated pace

2.3 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

Why couldn’t she remember her name?

The Gods Time Forgot had an intriguingly mystery start with leads that had catch your attention flickering chemistry but stagnated too much in the middle and delivered a rushed ending. Told from the leads, Emma/Rua and Finn's point-of-view, readers come into the story as a girl awakes lost in the woods, without her memory. A search party is crowding her and calling her Emma, but she doesn't recognize or feel that name. When the searchers express horror at her standing in a river, without harm, and she flicks water at a man, which in turn burns him, she's frightened into going where they want to lead her. She's brought back to her home and is impressed by the grandeur but still …

Annie England Noblin: Spring Fling (2025, HarperCollins Publishers)

Rekindle your belief in the magic of first love and the charm of small towns …

Lulling low angst

2.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

He's coming back.

It's been ten years since Mylie's childhood friend Ben left and never looked back after highschool graduation. When the small town grapevine let's her know he's going to be back in town, she has mixed feelings. It could be a chance to go for what she always wanted with him, but their problem has always been Mylie loving their small town and Ben wanting to escape it.

After all this time, all these years, here he was, finally, right in front of her.

Spring Fling was a low angst and stakes romance that, at times, lulled me into the storytelling world. Mylie had an absent mother and father who left her with her grandmother and then age gap younger sister that made her feel …

Portia Macintosh: Too Hot to Handle (EBook, Boldwood Books)

One bachelorette party. One stag do. One double-booked villa and only one way to decide …

Madcap immaturity

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

The boys won’t leave. We can’t leave. We have to share the space.

Too Hot to Handle was a first person point-of-view story that loved to misdirect and had a zany tone. Molly has just left a celebration where she helped her bestfriend's boyfriend surprise her with an engagement. High on love, she goes to dinner with her boyfriend of two years and has a moment where she thinks they're going to get engaged, instead he goes on about how he said he never wanted to get married. With a moment of clarity, Molly breaks up with him and then gets depressed with trying to date from apps. After eight months, she's ready to swear off guys and when a mix-up leads to her getting a two week vacation …

Patrice Caldwell: Where Shadows Meet (2024, St. Martin's Press)

Upper young adult high fantasy

3.7 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

She had to take control of her own destiny. She had to act now.

Where Shadows Meet is the first part of a duology where readers are introduced to a fantasy world of humans, vampires, and gods. This would be great as a primer for upper young adult readers you'd want to bridge to adult high fantasy, this had all those elements on a more toned down scale. The beginning, especially before the story actually starts with the family tree and glossary of characters could feel a little overwhelming, my advice, glance over it and then come back after you've read half and look it over again as the names and their positions will be more recognizable and stick with you more. The story follows three point-of-views, …

HelenKay Dimon: The Usual Family Mayhem (Paperback, Avon)

Revenge is a dish best served cold—especially when it comes in the form of one …

Off-beat fun with heart

3.8 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

She looked at the suffering passed in silence from generation to generation and said enough.

The Usual Family Mayhem was a rolling offbeat story with tons of heart. Told all from Kasey's point-of-view, a late twenties woman who hasn't quite found her niche in life, when she gets put on the spot at her latest job, she suddenly finds herself pitching her grandmother's bakery as a possible business for her company to acquire for investors. Kasey's boss gives her two weeks to travel from D.C. to back home in North Carolina to get her grandmother Mags and Celia, her grandmother's partner, in life and business, to sign a deal with them. Taking the paid trip home, Kasey finds herself dipping and dodging questions from Mags and Celia …

reviewed Prophecy by M.L. Fergus (Fractured Kingdom, #1)

M.L. Fergus: Prophecy (Paperback, 2025, Tundra)

A girl who yearns for freedom, a handsome thief . . . and the start …

Goofy, gruesome, and had fun back and forth chemistry

3.7 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“Never attack in anger,” he whispered, his lips so close to her ear that she could feel his breath on her skin. “And never start a fight you can't win.”

Prophecy is an updated and revised fantasy story (The Gypsy King) that follows a girl trying to fight destiny and the way it pulls and pushes her into dire consequence situations. We first meet Persephone as a shackled enslaved late teens girl who is trying to protect chickens from a boy a little older than her that is trying to steal them. When Azriel gets a look at her face in the moonlight, he seems to know her and wants her to come with him, which Persephone refuses. Only to have Azriel show up the next night …