This guest review is from Danielle Fritz. Danielle is a former librarian who has a special affection for children’s lit and books about the funeral industry. She first cut her criticism teeth as a fanfic writer. A resident of the upper midwest, she’s learned to love beer and tater tot casserole and tolerate long winters. Most nights will find her cuddled up with her pups and wearing out her wrists with yet another crochet project. … Continue reading Earls Trip by Jenny Holiday →
Bridgerton season 3 is here! My plan was to leisurely watch one episode a week over the month between the first episodes dropping and the June 13 arrival of the final four episodes. Instead, I devoured all the available episodes in one night and have been soothing myself with Bridgerton thirst memes while I wait for the finale. Anyone else counting down the days? In the meantime, I’ve been rewatching the series, yet again. I … Continue reading Bridgerton, Season 3 →
NB: This is a review for both this book, and the entire trilogy. I adored Jodi McAlister’s Marry Me Juliet trilogy. This contemporary romance series lovingly satirizes the Australian version of The Bachelor while offering a lot of wish fulfillment for fans of reality dating shows. Each book includes at least one moment that I’ve always wanted to happen on The Bachelor—from two bisexuals who fall for each other instead of the lead, to having … Continue reading Not Here to Make Friends →
My Goodness, what have I become? There was a time when I was positively oozing the milk of human kindness. I was so full of empathy that I couldn’t bear to read about a character losing so much as a drop of blood. And yet, somehow, I’ve turned into a person who reacts to a scene of a character’s face being scoured off by tentacles with teeth by chirping, “Oooh! Carnage!” If this is relatable … Continue reading The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey →
CW: Homophobia on the page and mentioned in the past Cat Sebastian is an auto-read for me. She never lets me down. And she certainly hasn’t with this book. Nick Russo is on the city desk at the Chronicle, a progressive newspaper in New York. (Progressive because they don’t toe the party line and they dare to criticise the police.) He’s worked hard to get there and he’s good at his job. He’s brusque, respected … Continue reading We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian →
Midway through A Lady for a Duke, I started to panic. I was so in love with this historical romance and I worried that something would come along and ruin it. So I sighed with relief at the end of the last page. This book is pretty damn close to perfection, bitches. It works on so many levels. This is an exceptionally satisfying friends to lovers story, a queer fairy tale filled with longing and … Continue reading A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall →
Machi has been going along with what other people want for as long as she can remember, but she’s so sick of her parents nagging her to find a husband that she’s ready to marry someone they’d hate to spite them. She wasn’t expecting her best friend Hana to volunteer for the role though! Yep, we’re skipping the fake dating and going straight to marriage. That’s how we roll here. I Married My Best … Continue reading I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up by Kodama Naoko →
Catch is a romance set in Bodega Bay, one of my favorite places. In fact I read some of this in Bodega Bay by complete coincidence. So I was primed to like this contemporary romance and I was not disappointed. I also found that this romance, which deals with pain and rejection, family of both blood and choice, and growing up with an alcoholic parent, touched me in personal ways that I only understood when … Continue reading Catch: A Love Story by Tracy Ewens →
The Duke Who Loved Me is a friends to lovers romance between James Cantrell, the new Duke of Tereford, and Miss Cecelia Vainsmede, the daughter of the man who acted as his guardian during his minority. It has some fun and interesting things going on in the background to the story, but it missed the mark for me for two reasons. The first was James’s insufferable self-centredness, and the second was the failure to resolve … Continue reading The Duke Who Loved Me by Jane Ashford →
I came to Eclipse via these two tweets shared on Twitter. It was the second one which really got me. I love a good magical school story, but the Harry Potter books never quite worked for me. Eclipse, which promised a view from the staff room of a magical school in the 1920s, sounded like my catnip. (Also, the author’s page has a content warning that includes a warning for ‘academic politics including an unpleasant … Continue reading Eclipse by Celia Lake →
The Professor Next Door is the third book in Jackie Lau’s Cider Bar Sisters series, and it stands alone, though it’s a bit more fun if you have already met Nicole’s friends. Like all the other stories in this series, it will make you want to go to Toronto and eat your entire body weight in desserts. Seriously, the food porn in these books is next level. Jackie Lau appears to subscribe to the idea … Continue reading The Professor Next Door by Jackie Lau →
