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2.5 stars

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

Archer Baer had just become a father in the most unimaginable way possible.

Archer is living his dream as a chef in Paris that he has worked so hard for when he gets a call that completely changes his life. It seems five years ago, the restaurant front house woman he had a fling with, got pregnant and never told him. Tragically, she has died in a car accident and with his name on the birth certificate, Archer suddenly finds himself back in the states and in the small town of Dream Harbor trying to raise his young daughter Olive. Iris has always been flighty and doesn't like to settle into things, which makes life exciting but isn't great for her ability to pay rent. Even though she's not the greatest fan of kids, taking on the job of live-in nanny for Archer and Olive, seems like a great summer job. Until the chemistry between boss and nanny gets to be too much.

He didn't know how to make pancakes, or raise a child, and he certainly didn't know how to say no to Iris Fraser.

Fourth in the Dream Harbor series, this could still be read as a standalone, as the setting remains the smalltown but you wouldn't have to know the ins and outs of returning characters relationships, readers of the series will enjoy seeing some old friends. Like with all the Harbor books, this had some sweet moments and spicy. If you're a fan of The Bear for the “Yes, chef” tension, this is steeped in it (a bit repetitive at times). Even though there's a baked in power dynamic favoring Archer as the boss and Iris living in his home, he constantly asks for consent and lets Iris call all the shots on how much and how fast. Iris tries to stay away, thinking she could be messing up Archer's chances at getting full custody of Olive after the six month probationary period but while she spends some of the first half thinking about it, she doesn't put up too much of a fight and teases and pushes until they finally crumble and get physical.

She had every intention of leaving, she really did, but right as she went to turn around, Archer lifted his head.

Olive had her cute moments and brought some emotion with her and Archer's getting to know you vulnerable relationship and Iris realizing she could not only tolerate kids but like them, Olive anyway. The story was over 350pgs and I have to say the beginning later second half did drag as we “Yes, chef” and “we can't, but touch me!” got dragged out too much, there just didn't seem to be enough tension and angst to keep these two apart for more than 200pgs.

He didn't know what Iris wanted in the long run, but if there was an inkling of a chance that she wanted him, then he had to take it.

The ending went a direction that I can't tell felt off and betrayed Iris as a character (there's a little lead in with her evolving relationship with Olive) or if the current real world climate made me personally dissatisfied with it. The majority of the book had Iris not feeling kids were right for her and while she grew to love Olive, it felt somewhat off that in the last 15% she, without much discussion, would decide keeping a baby from a brand new, not even certain relationship, was totally the way to go. I don't know, it just raised some questions for me, but your mileage may vary. Similar to the tone, characterization, and pace of the others in the series, with Archer falling first and trying to play it cool to not scare Iris away and Iris deciding that a life she couldn't fathom before was actually perfect for her, fans of the series will no doubt enjoy this one as much as the others.

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

And at least one death happened here that wasn’t caught on camera.

Twenty years ago, Ella starred in the horror movie Grad Night. A small budget film that became an instant hit and has developed a cult following with the progressive sequels. While the film jump started her career, it emotionally destroyed Ella and after a few years on a popular sitcom, she left Hollywood to take care of her sick mother. Now that her mother has died, Ella's ready to try and revive her career. A middle aged woman has a harder time landing roles, so Ella's agent pressures her to do a Grad Night reunion documentary that fans have been clamoring for, in hopes it will open doors for her. Ella lost touch with her cast mates and has tried to steer clear of anything Grad Night, as one murder happened on set that wasn't filmed. Back at the cabin in the woods that started it all, it seems that the secret Ella and her cast mates worked so hard to keep quiet is known by someone and they're willing to murder over it.

A tall figure stands at the railing, also dressed in a graduation gown and with a blood-spattered lion mask covering the person’s face, an axe with a bloody blade in their hands.

As a big movie slasher fan, I was excited when I read the synopsis of this. It's told in alternating timelines, Then – 20yrs ago with the movie being filmed and Now – present time with Ella back to the film's location and everyone filming the reunion doc. The alternating timelines are to keep moving the story along in the present time but with the mystery kept quiet until the end of what really happened twenty years ago. There's also add-ins of the movie script, which I really enjoyed as a movie fan. I liked how the story was structured and set-up but I'm not a big fan of unreliable narrator and that tactic was deployed to keep the killer a secret; it feels too cop-out manipulating for me. I enjoyed the first half but then the middle and beginning ending started to sag as Ella and her cast mates kind of just moped around. There were some interesting aspects to the secondary characters but as this was told from Ella's point-of-view, everything is from her perspective, so readers never really get to know the cast until the very end. The story started to ramp up around 60% when the present time murders began to happen and we finally got some slashing.

You don’t think about what you’re doing, you just do it.

The vibe of the story felt like a vehicle to go over the #METOO movement and sexism and predators in Hollywood, which, ok, but a lot of the time this was focused on, it felt like the story stopped and we got some awkward fitting pulpit preaching. There were some surprise reveals and just a little head scratching at the who and motives, but still entertaining. Structured interestingly, dragged out in middle because I'm not sure Ella was a strong enough character to carry the story, unreliable narrator, kind of awkwardly fit in preaching, surprising reveals, and some chills and thrills. There were a few call-outs for lovers of the horror movie genre to appreciate but I thought the nine month's into the future epilogue could have used someone popping out of a lake to liven things up.

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

Miss P had seen something in her to handpick her. Her! Lottie Travers! Tomboy extraordinaire.

Look Before You Leap is second in the Miss Prentice's Protegees series but you could start here easily, like I did. Lottie was the tomboy who was raised on a farm with four brothers and lost her mother at a young age, young woman trying to smother her wild streak in order to make it as a governess. She has a leg up by having been trained at the lofty Miss Prentice's but after two failed governess jobs, she was busted sneaking out and riding horses in the morning, along with kneeing a bent on assault heir, her marketability is lessening. She winds up getting placed as a companion to an older “dragon” lady, who also winds up being the aunt to a man she accidentally unhorsed when she ran into him during one of her wild gallops.

Except the sea was now poisoned and he had learned his lesson well that love was for fools.

Lord Guy Harrowby is a Viscount who much prefers to remain isolated on his farm in Kent, where Lottie is originally from. He made a fool of himself when he was twenty-one over a woman who was only using him to attract a duke and has let the shame fester in him over the years. He lost his father when he was younger and now his mother is guilt tripping him hard to let her throw him a thirtieth birthday party because she wants grandkids. It's all shenanigans as Guy's mother and aunt conspire to throw a house party, instead of the one dinner party he agreed to, and rope Lottie into it all. Guy's still angry at Lottie for the unhorsing incident and how she reprimanding him for it but by 40% they've both made their apologies to each other and you can see their friendship start to develop.

He had been engaged in a full-scale war between what his sensible, battle-scarred head and his clearly still reckless but equally battle-scarred heart wanted.

There's physical attraction to go along with that building friendship, a lot of bonding over horses, and some steamy, but interrupted, foreplay (there's an open door scene later on). I was not a fan of how much it was iterated how shallow, dumb, and annoying all the other woman were that were invited to the house party. It becomes very tiring that a chunk of the way you lift your main female character up is to constantly put down the majority of the other woman characters. The series seems to be tied together by a group of friends Lottie had at Miss Prentice's but we don't see a ton of them together, which I missed.

The menace hadn’t just seduced him, she’d thoroughly bewitched him because nothing would shift her from his mind.

The third act breakup had Guy going completely off the rails with how mean he is verbally to Lottie and ended up feeling forced to me. I know he's still dealing with his issues of betrayal from his first love but Lottie so clearly didn't deserve the harsh blame. It had been built and layered that Guy was this man of the little people, had visited her father's farm and had her talking to him about how she sent money back home for them, so readers have been reading about a character that by all accounts understood Lottie couldn't lose her job and would feel compelled to do what her employer told her to do. Instead we get a forced to disregard those building blocks in favor of a snapping Guy. It caused drama but the scene and his actions just didn't feel true to me.

She grabbed a fistful of his cravat. “Just shut up and kiss me.” Lottie dragged his mouth to hers as she simultaneously yanked him inside.

The ending has Guy making that public move he never would have been able to in the beginning but since we've seen him fall in love, doesn't think twice of it for Lottie. Lottie had charm in her stubbornness and I liked Guy until I really didn't when he blew up on Lottie, and with a very abrupt ending, they got their HEA.

Tl;dr: Imperfect characters who made awful and heroic choices and a second half that was mostly about war PTSD

*This is a #TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub discussion.

June's TBRChallenge theme was Road Trip, so I headed to my tbr feeling historical and glancing at reviews to see which ones had people talking about traveling. When I saw this Laura Kinsale's fit the bill, I happily jumped in. I read the first 50% of this in one sitting and then my reading mojo hit a major (for me) snag and I couldn't concentrate enough to read for five days straight. I'm mentioning this because I'm going to, mostly, blame my mojo, but I do also think the second half had some major pacing problems, just tough to parse from own issues. My brain can be a sieve, so that first half I raced through, EONS ago!, I guess I'm saying this review/talking about is going to probably read disjointed and foggy, enjoy!

If you've read Kinsale before, you know you're in for an emotional ride. Sometimes it rips my guts out (The Prince of Midnight) and sometimes I get left on the dock watching the emotions drift away from me (Shadowheart). This one had my eyes filling up and at other times dry eyed wanting to skim, my scatterbrained undecided review, enjoy!

"I loved you." Her voice trembled into a squeak. "I loved you…and you…betrayed me."

I'm going to start this with the author dedication, This book is dedicated to the combat veterans of Vietnam With respect, and love, and hope for healing. While you'll see the beginning of this from our lead Captain Sheridan Drake in the first half, your enjoyment of the whole second half is going to be if you remember this dedication and read it with the understanding that the story is now all about it. Your enjoyment is also going to hinge on if you want/can handle your leads being deliciously, frustratingly not perfect, because boy howdy do both Sheridan and Olympia fuck it all the way up numerous times.

The hero she'd loved with all her being had not died. He'd simply never existed.

The first half has Olympia, our sheltered princess of a small country but has lived all her life in England, setting out to meet her new neighbor, Sheridan. She's heard all about his bravery on his ship and wants to enlist him to use his contacts(???) to help her get to Rome. Why Rome you ask? She's going to appeal to the Pope to stop her betrothal to her uncle (I'd hurry my ass there too!). Her grandfather currently leads the country but he's old and the people have been grumbling for an overthrow to set up a democracy, which Olympia is fully for and plans to help happen. She is the completely young and naive do-gooder that knows the right destination but has no idea what it takes to get there. Readers know Sheridan isn't quite what the papers make him out to be and that he is completely destitute after his father who loved to pull pranks (incredibly dangerous and mean “jokes”) had him invest all his money in a train venture that went bankrupt. There's also the added connection that Sheridan's father's ex-mistress is/was Olympia's governess and tells Sheridan that his father's will gives him nothing, unless he does what she says to do(???). This leads to Sheridan offering marriage to Olympia to save her from her uncle, at ex-mistress' behest and somehow an English ambassador is also involved in telling Sheridan what to do, but she refuses having been poisoned by ex-mistress that she's too fat and unattractive. Sheridan decides to set-up his own plan and agrees to take Olympia to Rome, he sees how jewel rich she is, and then pretend to be kidnapped/killed by a secret assassin group that is after him(???) and steal her jewels riding richly off into the sunset, leaving her behind.

He laughed bitterly. "God, they were idiots. They'd ask how many ships I'd sunk and how many men I'd killed hand to hand…as if I kept a damned running account. They always wanted to know how it felt…" His voice had begun to shake. "But I never told them. They didn't want to know the truth. Not really."

It's a bit of a convoluted set-up, especially since Olympia's country drama winds up being like 10% of the story and doesn't come in at all until again at the end. By 20% we have them going on their road (ship) trip and then it's all on with them getting captured by pirates, shipwrecked, living on a island for months, saved, captured by pirates again, sold into slavery, and surviving a blood drunk mob. Late '80s historical romances aren't to be trifled with! There are dated terms in this and Sheridan's manservant/frenemy Mustafa is a bad characterization, so content warnings abounding again. While I enjoyed the meat of how the author allowed Sheridan and Olympia to make bad and wrong choices, they betray one other more than once, I could see how they would ultimately work together but I'm not sure I'd recommend this for the romance. I liked how Kinsale had Sheridan trying to warn Olympia off of him and how even though he thinks he's not worthy, Kinsale even has him do unworthy things (I'm not talking heinous things here), he always remained redeemable to me, which I think can be a good message. The juxtaposition of broken down tattered Sheridan and the bright shiny heroic younger captain that comes in later to be a romantic wedge between him and Olympia was perfect, especially since the shiny guy turned out to be under it all not so great, which YES, give us readers these emotions to wrestle with! The second half is more of a deep dive into how soldiers can be so lost after coming home from war.

That she would not hate him. That she was glad he was on her side. That he could keep them safe without violence, without hurting anyone. He tried to believe those things. He repeated them to himself. But he was afraid.

Sheridan is a broken man after all he had to survive. As the reader, it broke me how he was a boy who wanted to make music but after a “joke” by his father gone wrong, ends up on a ship in his preteens and is thrust into trying to survive war. I couldn't help thinking of all the current kids who just want to make music and instead have these awful circumstances thrust upon them; Kinsale did a really great job showing and articulating through Sheridan the scars such a life can leave. There was also an eye watering scene where Sheridan had finally let himself love Olympia only for her to betray him and oof, the emotions he went through here:

He should have known. He should have realized. It had been so hard for him to believe it was happening. That she could come to know him for what he was, fully, and understand what he'd done by opening the circle of himself and including her. They'd fought together, survived together, shared the miseries and the laughter and the disasters, and each small morning victory of waking up alive. He'd thought that meant something. That was love, that was the only name he had to give it. Last night, when in the midst of his whining concern for his own skin she'd said she loved and trusted him, he'd been so certain of it. He would have died for her then, he would have killed every man on board to protect her—except this was civilization, not a battle, and all he'd been able to do was make some brainless joke to cover the raw surge of emotion and then retreat before he embarrassed himself beyond recovery. She loved him. It had been hard to believe that; it had gone against every instinct built up in years of solitude, but he'd convinced himself. Aye. And he was wrong.

The love, the betrayal, the pain, just, the THE of it all! Meaty characters.

"Princess." His voice had a plea in it. "Do you understand? I don't know why the world is like this; I don't know why we go out to fight something that's wrong—something so much bigger than we are, something that ought to be fought—and end up creating a thousand little horrors to stop a huge one. Slavery's wrong. Tyranny's wrong. You weren't stupid or naive or trivial to believe that. You're right. Maybe your revolution was right. You just…didn't understand how real it would be."

The end has Olympia experiencing some trauma of her own and realizing her own naivety and a reveal for Sheridan that changes some things. This does end in an HEA but I felt a bit too rung out to have that high lovey dovey feeling for them, it's more of a gritty solemn one. The first half read fast for me but some convoluted set-up while the second half seemed to get lost and repetitive stagnate paced (could have been my no mojo brain!). However, if you remember that dedication and realize this whole story was a cover to talk about war induced PTSD you'll feel Sheridan's pain and probably think of the women and men in your own life who never fully make it back from war. These leads lied to each other, fought and survived together, were mean to each other, saved each other, and loved each other, they weren't perfect characters which honestly felt deliciously meaty to me at times.

"I'm here," she said into his shoulder. "I'm here, and I love you. I love you no matter what."

A critic said, “Gothic tales rely on distant pasts and faraway lands full of people unlike us,” except he was wrong, because the land of this story is everywhere. The people are us, the time is always.

I buddy read this over on a horror Discord.

Quick thoughts and comments:

I'm a big fan of folklore, Gothic, horror, and Bluebeard reimaginings/retellings, so I was pretty much the ideal audience for this. I don't know how, but this felt like a fast read and one that dragged all at the same time. The synopsis/marketing copy talked about it being a feminist take but it takes until the second half for the focus to really be on the wives of the tale. That and the different pov and tense changes feeling needlessly challenging and confusing to try and create a mysterious creepy vibe, was mostly why I had a problem with this. Also, some aspects of the story were focused on (Tristan) that felt  counterintuitive and interruptive  to the story's messaging of how abusive men get societal protection and how women get placed in and manipulated into caretaker and shield roles in abusive relationships.

The first half felt super wonky with how it was structured but the second half read better to me, even though I was annoyed at how it sped through the wives, except for Eunice where I thought the story really settled into what it wanted to be. The focus on the last “special” wife Cherry was back to annoying to me because I think the story lost it's focus again and seemed to want to end the story with stating that Cherry was just as bad as the abusive man, which ok, but then what is this story really about, not what I showed up for based on the synopsis.

I liked this and was annoyed with it, the atmospheric wonky structured folklore parts mostly didn't work for me but since I'm a fan of that type of storytelling, I still found parts I liked, I think a good chunk of readers will struggle with it, though. The first half felt like it focused on everything and nothing and when I finally found the story working for me in the second half, it sped through it to get to the final wife, a character that did nothing for me. I liked how it showed the systems that protect abusers but not sure this retelling did anything new or attention catching.

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

You aren’t going to like me.

Lady or the Tiger was about a young girl surviving in the American wild west and trying to come into her own. Told, mostly, all from her point-of-view with numerous back and forth time jumps, readers travel with her from the beginning at fifteen years old forced to kill a man to nineteen years old and about to be hung as the Seamstress, a serial killer. This was tagged as young adult but I'd go more new adult, there's nothing completely explicit with the sex and violence but with a first husband who is a sadist in the bedroom, I often felt the messaging of don't give up being yourself for men was stylistically written more for adult thinking; I'm a big Judy Blume fan and I couldn't help comparing the two. The “supporting women's wrongs” with claiming fierce feminism when our lead Alice/Belle lures men with her physical wiles to murder them, just wasn't groundbreaking or entertaining for me, your mileage may vary.

For a ghost, he looks very much alive.

Alice gets sent to an asylum after she murders a man and her mother is killed. From there she is forced to marry Reginald, a cop, as a means of escape. She becomes useful to him by helping him cheat while gambling and they travel the west and Europe but he's the sadist in the bedroom and when Alice locks eyes with a boy in Texas, they spend a night together and escape Reginald. Alice then becomes Belle and travels the west and Europe with the carnival of The Damned, falling in love with Cal, the Texas boy, and taming a tiger to dance with. One night things unravel and Belle runs while Cal saves her from a dire situation, but eventually at nineteen Belle turns herself in for the Seamstress murders and wants to be hung because she thinks/knows she's done wrong. Her plan gets ruined when Reginald shows up and says she's crazy, citing the asylum stay, and tries to save her.

And though I have shot two men, kissing a boy here in the fading light, without last night’s irresistible spell to carry me away or my shadow to guide me, feels like the bravest thing I have ever done.

Like I said, the timeline is cut and spliced wildly, Alice/Belle starts off ready to be hung, then you'll go from how she escaped Reginald, her murderous time as the Seamstress, time with Cal, how she married Reginald, and the time at the asylum. There's some unreliable narration going on and an ending that takes a page from the short story it's title is inspired by (The Lady or the Tiger). If you can handle non-linear stories, telling you feminism is simply doing what you want, cool real women historical figures shout-outs, a good message (lost in the story for me most the time) of don't change yourself for love or chance at it, and an open-ended ambiguous ending, then this was something different along those lines.

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

I’ve always been a passive kind of person; it is both my worst quality and the thing that people like most about me.

If you've ever watched the tv show Big Brother and wished it had a darker vibe, then you're going to want to read The Compound. Told from contestant Lily's point-of-view readers wake up with her in a house in the desert. As she finds nine other younger women scattered throughout the house we learn that the ten men who will join them will come from the surrounding desert. They will be filmed constantly, Lily's watched and been a fan of the show, and have to complete tasks as a group for rewards and be able to complete personal tasks for goodies. The goal is to be the last one house-guest, when you'll be able to ask for anything you want and get it, provided you still remain in the house. It all sounds like a fun break to win prizes but as the story went on, competitiveness and darker personalities began to seep in through the cracks.

I was there because I thought that this was what I was supposed to want: the house and the rewards and all the nice things.

As the narrator, you'd think your sympathies will be solidly with Lily, and they are at times, but she works as a mirror to hold up to yourself, consumerism, and influencer culture. Lily's honest with us readers and as someone who works a retail job, lives at home at twenty-five, and has a father she hasn't seen in years because he's off fighting a war, she's on the reality tv show to “take a break” and win prizes she would otherwise never be able to afford. Part of the show's concept is that each night the men have to pick a woman to sleep with in bed, if someone doesn't have a partner the next morning they are banished. This creates competition between the women and sets up a heteronormative dynamic. There is a lot being said in this story and while I think the author started some conversations that need to be had, I'm not sure they all stuck the landing, especially towards the end. There wasn't much outerworld building, it's vague future dystopian with climate change and wars, but if you're here for discussions on some of the topics I mentioned, the microcosm world in the house provides enough different personalities and situations.

He looked around him, his face pinched in sadness. “Do you really want to live here, in this…wasteland?” “It’s no worse than what’s out there! Is that what you want to go back to? Constantly living on the periphery of disaster, just waiting and waiting and waiting for it to finally reach us, doing stupid, dull work to pass the days until then? We’re safe here— we’re removed from all of it.” “It’s still there, Lily. It’s still happening. You think that because we can’t see it, it’s not going on?”

With so many characters the beginning was a little tougher to get a handle on but it becomes clear fairly early who are the contestants to keep an eye on. I liked how Lily had some personality components that we all probably have and don't necessarily like about ourselves and following along with the choices she made works to confront some of those indoctrinated lines of thought. This had some thriller vibes that I enjoyed, the threat of violence was always prevalent. This often felt poised to say something, it got there at times and never quite reached it at others for me. Coated in the bleakness of late stage capitalism, this dark vibed Big Brother starts a lot of conversations on the ever fascinating topics of societal structures and human nature.

After all this time, he would wonder, why now? He wouldn’t know that, today exactly, Evvie had been with him for half her life.

In continuing to limp my way to completing SuperWendy's TBRChallenge, I finally finished May's Older Couple theme book. Now, when I was looking for a book for this theme Evvie Drake was on numerous lists for older couples, it was at my local library, so I could use it for a bingo square for another game I'm playing, and it has been on my tbr for more than five years. Y'all, I think Evvie is in her early to late thirties and I'm guessing Dean is in the mid to late thirties range. Older couple. I feel like dust. Anywhooooooooo

“I do think we should have a deal.” She looked at him expectantly. “You don’t ask me about baseball,” he said, “and I don’t ask you about your husband.”

On the day that Evvie is packing her car to leave her highschool sweetheart husband, he gets into a car accident and dies. This leaves her as the “grieving” widow, stuck in a role that doesn't fit. I'd put this in the women's fiction with romance category and while I enjoyed Evvie and Dean's interactions and chemistry, it was all about that living in quiet desperation with a supposed golden boy who is emotionally and physically abusive. Exploring Evvie's character as she goes through life and interactions trying to maintain her composure, keeping up a facade that she not only can't physically or emotionally do anymore, she's learning that she doesn't need or should have to. I liked how the author showed the nefarious ways it's easy to slip into this role and dynamic, Evvie met her husband while still in highschool and felt “lucky” to be noticed by him, all the while learning (emotional abused) how to keep him happy at the expense of herself (She was the one, after all, who had graduated second in her class, right behind him, after tanking her math final because she knew how much it meant to him to be valedictorian.). Along with emotional abuse there are physical abuse content warnings, this shows how as their relationship went on and her husband felt more comfortable, the abuse was ramping up. Evvie didn't have the language or emotional maturity to fully understand what was happening to her, especially since her abuser was so apt at keeping it hidden and the culture of shame kept her quiet. It's what makes this story/book so important, giving space to talk out and name these abuses.

They wouldn’t have believed that the reasons she rarely felt like dancing with him had to do with the way he was at home. She knew the way he sort of glowed for most people. She probably knew it better than anybody, because she’d traded away more than anybody in return for it.

Dean did have his own issues, he got the yips during his major league pitching career, which ultimately ended it. Evvie's bestfriend Andy is friends with Dean and he pairs them together with Dean renting out an apartment in Evvie's house so he can get away from the spotlight. It's summer so I loved the baseball additive and enjoyed some of the baseball history and lore but the ending to this thread of his was kind of meh, which I guess is another life lesson but meh all the same. This took place over a year, so you could say their relationship was a slow burn and again, I enjoyed them together but not the main reason I gave this four stars.

“Who knows you?” he asked.

The other main relationship was Evvie and her bestfriend Andy and how by her not telling him the truth about her marriage made Andy feel not as close or as important to her as he felt she was to him. It's a great look/discussion in all the ways people work to hide themselves and keep up an image by trying to protect themselves emotionally but end up only hurting themselves more. Also, a great look at how friendships can change over time as romances enter the picture. This was languid at times, insightful, emotional, funny, sweet, and hurt so good. The way it showed and called out a particular form of hidden abuse and how Evvie eventually built up the strength to call it so and work to emotionally navigate through it, will make you want to donate a copy to every library.

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

“You told me something fifteen years ago,” she said, “something that's bothered me ever since.”

Fifteen years ago, when Lucy was seventeen, her father was convicted of murdering three people, an older couple that lived in their trailer park and a girl Lucy's age. The Summer That Changed Everything is about a now grown up Lucy going back to the small coastal town that railroaded her out and investigating the gut feeling telling Lucy that her father wasn't as guilty as everyone wanted him to be.

He had a sinking feeling this summer wasn't going to be the peaceful getaway he'd hoped.

Along with a murder mystery, there's some second chance romance with a boy that Lucy was dating at the time, Ford. Ford's also in town to repair his family's beach house because after his father's death, his mother and brother want to sell it. He hated how he let his parents and the town convince him to abandon Lucy and he's determined to now be there for her. He hires a private investigator to help them but he's also dealing with going through a divorce, with a wife who is pregnant with his child. As a romance reader, the addition of Ford was a nice romantic thread to throw in, I like how he showed up for Lucy this time and was apologetic for his teenage self that wasn't strong enough to be there for her. We don't really get solid flashbacks to show their younger romance, so, much of their romance depends on the reader going along with their stated past feelings and how that leads to them still feeling connected and attracted to each other. I liked them together but I can't say I fully felt a heat or heart pumping connection, especially since the third act breakup involves Ford's wishy-washy on returning to his ex because of the baby. The whole ex situation resolved future, seemed obvious a mile away and I felt myself wishing and thinking that whole side story wasn't even needed.

She still didn't know where this summer would lead---if she'd be glad she'd made the effort, or if the past would sweep her back out to sea, once again leaving her lost and alone and struggling just to survive.

For a beach read mystery, this moved a little slowly for me, I would have liked some pages cut for a more streamlined exciting, thrilling feel but if you're looking for more sedately moving mystery, this would fit the bill. The two murders of the older couple and the murder of the younger girl have connections and differences, as the reader, you'll get some quicker answers with this having multiple povs from different characters, while Lucy had to wait for answers until the end. There were some compelling and entertaining true crime additives, genealogical DNA, with hints and clues to help you make early guesses and be shocked at later reveals. This moved a little too slowly for me and had a lukewarm temperature to the romance and thriller aspect but I enjoyed the one year epilogue HEA and the true crime additives.

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

After all the times I’ve fantasized about running into him again— an actual run-in on the street or a glance over in a restaurant to see him seated at a table beside me where I could lay into him about how shitty he was— I never pictured it being with a group of strangers under the jury equivalent of a gag order, where I can’t immediately say any of the things I’ve wanted to over the years.

Sydney's got the dreaded call for jury duty but she's excited, because one of the Housewives from her favorite reality tv show is on trial. Convinced she knows the housewife enough from the show, Sydney can't wait to help make sure other jurors see the truth. When Sydney sees who else is on the jury, her childhood bestfriend she hasn't seen in ten years, she's suddenly not only contending with making sure an innocent woman goes free but trying to not fall back in love.

We were six years in as best friends, yet also on the delicate cusp of something more.

Courtroom Drama spent most of the time focusing on the murder trial, with Sydney thinking about scenes from tv episodes that influenced how she saw the housewife on trial for the murder of her husband. The times portraying Sydney sitting in the jury with the courtroom scenes were numerous with shorter interruptions of Sydney and Damon having interactions outside the courtroom in the hotel they were sequestered at. To enjoy this, you'll have to go along with Sydney feeling it's highly important that she's on the jury but doing a whole bunch of stuff that could get her kicked off or getting a mistrial called. I didn't fully buy into her actions after we got her thoughts and the lack of, what I felt, was romance development between the two, overall hurt my enjoyment of this. There were a few thought about and talked about with Damon, flashbacks to when the two were kids to show us some of their friendship and how as eventual teenagers they started to feel romantic towards each other, but because they don't get to and aren't supposed to be spending some time together, I had a hard time buying into their rekindled/started adult romance. We get answers to why their friendship broke up (parent drama) but since they were still fairly young, not a strong romantic background. They pass notes back and forth in their hotel rooms but we don't get to “read” all of them, so I never really bought into their romance. There was an open-door scene but with the setup, it was hard to believe and enjoy Sydney risking it all for it to occur.

Finally, he speaks. “Did you have feelings for me? Back then?”

I thought I caught a big clue to the murder trial mystery in the beginning but it was never brought up again, still, I think the verdict was pretty obvious from how the story was getting laid out. There was an ending reveal to shock readers and things get left ambiguous in that story thread regard. The romance got a three months Happily For Now but without feeling much of their connection throughout the story, I can't say I felt big emotions from it.

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 has both their names on it. Fortunately, the driver Lilah was assigned to film, Arthur, has his own grievances and agenda. He'll help her get the doc tanked if she'll help him get his uncle to fire him off the team. The fake dating plan they come up with sounds great, until real feelings get involved.

The enemy of my enemy is a Formula 1 reserve driver trying to break his contract, as the saying goes.

I had just read a Formula 1 book and a very similar dynamic between the main characters a little before I read this and I think that may have lead to me not enjoying this as much. The plan Lilah and Max come up with never quite made sense to me, they're going to fake date but not so much that people can really realize and that is supposed to get his uncle to fire him and get them to trash the doc? Until the end when this plan comes into play, I just ignored it instead of trying to figure it out.

“You know what you remind me of? We used to feed this angry stray cat out in Rome. Micetta, we called her. She bit me every time I pet her.” “Masochist,” I mumble. “You wish.”

This was told all from Lilah's point-of-view and she spends a lot of time pointing out how feeling so different from everyone else, which she puts down to her ADHD, has her constantly at odds with people and wanting to hide away from the world. Of course, there wasn't really any awkwardness with Arthur, he, covertly to Lilah but obvious to readers, clicks with and falls for her immediately. I honestly thought there was going to be messaging at the end how everyone feels weird and awkward and Lilah really wasn't that different but this was more of a women's/lit fiction story where Lilah's issues felt dragged out (352 pages) and rehashed to death. Arthur gets some focus on his family issues and PTSD but his character was not focused on in that a male main character in a romance but women's fiction vibe story. There was an open door scene where Arthur just decided to suddenly verbalize his love, spouting “wife” and the like, for some good pull quote scenes, but Lilah, of course, just passed it all off as “in the moment”.

But when Arthur looks at me like this, I realize maybe being unique isn’t a tragedy if it’s the reason he keeps smiling at me.

Again, if I hadn't just read some similar vibe stories and characters, maybe I would have enjoyed this more but this just felt long, rehashing, and more of Lilah's story than a total romance. She has self-esteem issues to work through, her thinking her ADHD makes her so different from everyone else and how her birth mother gave her up (she got adopted at sixteen and has a great relationship with her adopted parents). She says blunt things to Arthur that he delights in and he's just so immediately interested and into her but she has no idea! There was some Formula 1 world-setting, Lilah (readers) getting explanations from Arthur's team about the sport and some race scenes. Arthur's racing team members gave us some pretty good secondary characters and Lilah getting her place in the “family” was a favorite aspect of this book. Overall, too much of that lit fic internal thoughts focus with Lilah and not enough romantic relationship development with Arthur.

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 former tv star who hasn't really been heard from in years after getting arrested in an airport with party drugs. It's when Marco suggests no strings attached dating for only the month of May, that Nadia begins to realize that even if her life doesn't look the same, it can still be worth living.

He looks at me and sees another sorta-cute local girl armed with a self-fashioned tristate, tough-girl attitude that he knows all too well, well enough to kick right through. But he has no idea what he's up against. Deep in the crevices of my mind, my own chaos demon rattles her chains.

This was all told from Nadia's point-of-view and she has one of those warped, some gallows, sense of humor, I got her and found her funny but I can see her personality not working for everyone. Luckily, it worked really well with Marco's, he loved how she didn't give him the “star treatment” and how it helped him to get out of his head. Marco's was the lost for her but trying to hide it so he doesn't scare her away, who wants to really make a go of things beyond the month and it's Nadia who has to work through her emotional issues. Along with her health issues and the emotional journey she goes on to learn to live with them, there's also discussion of her suicidal thoughts for trigger warnings (it's lightly touched on one or two times until towards the ending of the book where we see her in that suicidal moment). This was more of Nadia's story and while we get some talk about Marco's addiction issues, it isn't until something like the last five pages we get fuller details about his past life. Since it came so late, it felt awkward to me and I actually could have did without them because by that time, it didn't really flush out his character more to me.

Maybe that's what being alive is. You don't get to surface, new. You break away; you start again; you molt old skin, altogether too tight and wrong, and while scars fade, they never disappear. At least not right away.

Along with the romance, which I thought worked as Nadia and Marco played off each other well, but still think this was more of Nadia's journey, we get a look at the complicated sisterly relationship. I'm sure many will relate to the highs of giggling together with the person that gets you and the lows of that same person knowing you so well they know the exact correct buttons to push to anger and devastate you. There was also Nadia's neighbors who brought different perspectives to her life to help round out her character.

I've met a man who takes my picture.

You'll probably want Nadia to tell Marco about her sickness before the latter second half moment she does but the author also did a good job making her understandable to be seen a certain way. This was sweet, funny, emotional, and with an open door scene, sexy. Nadia's walls were fortified with sarcasm, teasing flirting, and vulnerability but Marco had the compatibility tools to finally break through, while also sharing parts of himself to have Nadia also falling in love.

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. Victor wants Santangel to train Luzia for a tournament that will pit magical people against each other for the honor of serving the king directly, if Luzia wins it will also help Victor gain the king's praise. This is set in late 1500s Spain, oh yeah, Luzia is out here being magical during Spanish Inquisition days. Remember that dread and tension I mentioned?

That's the basics but what makes this so atmospheric and emotional is how the author mixed and used historical fiction, fantasy/paranormal, and romance. Luzia and her aunt was a great contrast between life experience caution and young righteous anger, I wanted Luzia to reveal and become her true self as much as I was with Hualit that it made me fear for her, which I loved how the author intermingled it with Luzia's magical abilities and Jewish heritage. Luzia's magical but there's also something with Santangel and with that pairings dynamic, you get old world-weary, naive pride, and attraction. This has numerous povs but you don't really get Santangel's story until the latter second half, but he brings out and works in theater with Luzia's character beautifully.

From the messaging to the funny and emotional author's talent with turn of phrases, this should be on Halloween season book lists. There were some slow parts and the ending will rollercoaster you around in abrupt change of pace, but oof, well worth it. Valentina's journey actually ended up stealing the show for me but long live immortal happily ever afters.

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 appearing randomly through her day and she's starting to wonder if he could be the key.

He doesn’t remember our encounter at the market, but he seems to have a vague memory of me.

I thought this was a really cool concept, in the Groundhog Day movie family but some twists to make it feel fresh. Noelle does find someone who is stuck in the loop with her, so while it was interesting to have that buddy for her, the character of Avery never really seemed to fit in the story for me, I kept waiting for her to be connected somehow (possible sequel?). Told in Noelle's point-of-view as she relives the numerous same Fridays, we also get Cam's pov's. Reader's that catch while in the first half Noelle's povs are all from Friday June 20th, Cam's always starts in a different month, this lead into a second half that has Noelle breaking out of the time loop but jumping straight into the present day, not starting on June 21st. This was kind of wild, our character of Noelle missed seven months but in the alternate reality, a Noelle was there. So, the second half becomes what Noelle learned from letting fear go in some aspects in the different ways she lived her numerous Fridays and trying to figure out how the alternate reality Noelle acted.

It’s amazing how many possibilities there are in a single day.

The story may sound a little out there but it's all done in that fun scifi out there way; it creates a different vehicle to relay some of the common messaging of don't be afraid to try new things, isolating yourself from pain also isolates yourself from joy, and figuring out what's really important to you. There was a little bit of dragging as Noelle couldn't figure out how to get out of the time loop and she seemed to give up herself until, without fanfare, it just happened. I was a little disappointed in this but the ending gives an explanation that just might make your eyes water a little after the emotions behind it all are revealed, so it makes up for it. The secondary characters were a little harder to know, this being all from Noelle's pov, but there was enough to add some to Noelle's character definitions.

You changed me, but you don’t remember.

I'm not sure the romance was the strongest for me, harder in such a stop and start format setup here, but I could go along with Noelle and Cam's initial sparks, if not totally feeling their lasting longevity emotional depth. Some twists on a known concept, personal, family, and romantic relationship discussion, open door scenes, and scific goodness to get you to remember that life's not always all about eyes ahead and the to the finish line, there's a lot of joy to be found on the sidelines.

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 loved ones they lost, which in Shantal's case, causes her to not want to open her heart fully to Darien.

Shantal, a head and half shorter than me with a voice like a Disney princess's, has me off my game.

Darien was pretty much all in for Shantal from the beginning but the author spends a good portion of the first half giving a base for the Formula 1 racing world. I personally am not a follower of the sport, so at times my eyes wanted to glaze over a bit as the story gave more to those aspects than the romance. I thought it felt a little off that Shantal was sent to Brazil by the company to lead the simulator project when she didn't seem to know anything about the sport. How would she have made a fantastic simulator without knowing at least technical aspects of the sport, giving at least a decent look-in to it? It felt a little shaky but works to have her have to ask questions which leads to the reader getting the answers; so you'll learn some about the sport. The middle starts the race season and I did really enjoy the description of the first race, it provided those special aspects and scenes with tense emotion and excitement that you want when you pick up a sports romance like this.

I tell her how much I cannot stand him. And then that turns into something else.

The romance ended up not having enough to it for me, Darien likes/loves Shantal from the start with Shantal being physically attracted to Darien right away but having to work through her grief over her sister before, at the end, she gets help from a family member to help her come to the decision to accept her love for him. I missed Shantal and Darien working through emotional issues/conflicts together, instead of Shantal just having her own thing. Darien does have some father issues, pressure of feeling like he's representing not only is family but also country, and has singular dark moment alone to overcome (which felt gotten over kind of quickly and easily that any emotional upheaval and fight triumph from it just wasn't felt by me), but it wasn't as heavy as Shantal's. They talk and share but the working together to come together didn't feel as strong as I would have liked.

What do I do if Shantal is my centre? What do I do if I can't hold without her?

I felt like the story had a tendency to jump from highlighted emotional scene to highlighted emotional scene without threading them with the foundational glue needed between characters. I need those seemingly innocuous building depth blocks to make those quotable scenes hit me with the feels, otherwise they end up feeling empty flash to me. The ending and epilogue more than delivered on giving the characters HEAs. If you're a reader of the series or are a fan of Formula 1, you'd have a good chance of enjoying this more than I did, in which case, enjoy vrooming around in those race scenes.