A sweet contemporary romance between a matchmaker and the app creator of a dating service, both centered around Chinese zodiac traits. The beginning oA sweet contemporary romance between a matchmaker and the app creator of a dating service, both centered around Chinese zodiac traits. The beginning of this book started off rocky for me as I didn't love the deceit taking place, but the plot quickly changed for the better and I enjoyed the book a lot more after about 40%. I thought this covered a lot of great topics such as family, loyalty, Chinese zodiac, mixed race heritage, and what makes people compatible. I would definitely try another book by this author in the future....more
So, I am actually really mad at whomever decided to market this book as Romancing the Stone/Indiana Jones because it was neither of those things. ThosSo, I am actually really mad at whomever decided to market this book as Romancing the Stone/Indiana Jones because it was neither of those things. Those are adventure stories with lots of action: this was a boring archeological dig where not much action (other than sexual) happens.
I think this book had a lot of potential, and Jo Segura is a decent writer, but this story itself and the execution of the plot was lackluster. We had two such great characters that had decent chemistry (aside from some ick sex scenes, at least ick to me) and yet the actual story was not good! How do you take the really cool story of what these characters were looking for and then make it boring, I don't know. But after not much happening throughout 80% of the book and then a super-dramatic over the top turn in the last 20% is what brought the book down from 3 to 2 stars for me.
An ALC was provided via the Librarian ALC program at Libro.fm ...more
Christa is a scientist working on a remote island studying sea snails when she gets the call: her father who famously disappeared in a plan 3.5 stars
Christa is a scientist working on a remote island studying sea snails when she gets the call: her father who famously disappeared in a plane crash over 20 years ago has been found... and he's alive. Rushed back to Los Angeles, she is reunited with her mom and two sisters and childhood friend Nate. Her father's story of survival seems farfetched, but the family wants to forgive him. Until some things don't add up and Christa needs to re-evaluate her life and relationships.
This was such a fun and interesting premise, like if Steve Irwin was presumed dead and then came back to life. Christa was a really interesting character and there were lost of interesting family dynamics and growth moment. This is my third book by Abbi Waxman, and while I really do enjoy her books for the most part, plotwise they always seem to lack that big punch. There were lots of missed opportunities between the characters to really dig deeper and Christa almost always ran away from it all. So this book is solidly 3.5 stars because it's better than a 3 but not quite there for a 4 star rating.
Review copy provided by Berkley, thank you. I also listened to audiobook via public library ...more
After visiting Starling House one night, Opal finds herself drawn back to the sprawling spooky mansion. She ends up convincing the owner, A 3.5 stars
After visiting Starling House one night, Opal finds herself drawn back to the sprawling spooky mansion. She ends up convincing the owner, Arthur, into reluctantly giving her a cleaning job. But there's more to Starling House than meets the eye, and the house wants Opal...
I thought this was a great, atmospheric, spooky little book. It came to my attention when I saw the author Alix Harrow speak at the LA Festival of books and I put it on my tbr after her panel. This is one of those books where I really did like it, but it had a stronger start than finish. I thought Opal and her brother Jasper were such fun characters with a great relationship. Arthur was very intriguing. I just think some of the pacing and plot lacked a bit, hence 3.5 stars and not a higher rating....more
While driving to a vacation destination, Elsy gets lost in a rainstorm and ends up in a small town. After staying the night, she wakes up to discover While driving to a vacation destination, Elsy gets lost in a rainstorm and ends up in a small town. After staying the night, she wakes up to discover she's driven into her favorite book series. Now Elsy gets to meet all of her favorite characters and see all the places she's read about. As Elsy gets to know everyone, she notices the characters seemed to be stuck, but Elsy's arrival has changed everything.
This book hit me at the exact right time and I absolutely loved it. It reminded me a lot concept wise of that British TV miniseries Lost in Austen where the main character entered the world of Pride and Prejudice. There's something very endearing about this book with Elsy getting to know her favorite characters and realizing not everything is as it seems. Elsy getting over her past trauma was a big part of this book and I thought it was done very well. I also loved the romance with Anders: I did guess the twist early on because there was a huge hint, but knowing that just enhanced the story for me and didn't take anything away from it.
I've read three books by Ashley Poston and all of them have been a hit for me. I really cannot wait to see what she writes next, she's an auto-buy author now.
Thank you Berkley for my finished copy of this book for review! ...more
The action packed story of the family outcast who finds himself tangled in a web of lies. My first book by Scottoline, I wasn't sure what 3.5 stars!
The action packed story of the family outcast who finds himself tangled in a web of lies. My first book by Scottoline, I wasn't sure what to expect and ended up enjoying the ride of this plot. TJ was an interesting character and narrator as the black sheep of the family and how that all caused things to unfold. This is one of those books where I had a lot of fun listening along to what was happening, but I can tell in a couple of months I probably won't remember the details. Mango the cat was my favorite part of the book, she's a star!!...more
The story of a con-artist fake medium Gretchen who is paid to go and complete an exorcism for a farmer named Charlie on his land. Once there, 4 stars
The story of a con-artist fake medium Gretchen who is paid to go and complete an exorcism for a farmer named Charlie on his land. Once there, Charlie rejects Gretchen as a fraud, but a funny thing happens: Gretchen sees her first ghost. Everett is Charlie's distant relative and warns Gretchen that if Charlie sells and leaves the farm he will die and be stuck in the afterlife. So now, Gretchen has to save the farmer who hates her and think's she's full of it.
I picked up this book as it fits the bingo square for Diners, Drive Ins and Dives for the 2024 Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo challenge, and I am very glad I did. I never would have picked up this book otherwise and it was so good!! I loved the whole story with Everett the ghost and Gretchen's romance with Charlie which was slightly angsty and the perfect amount of sweet. As strong as the romance was with Charlie, I thought the friendship between Gretchen and Everett was the best part of the book. There was a really good amount of character development for all of the characters which I really appreciated as often that seems to be left out of romance. Also Mara Wilson was a great narrator, she really made the book and characters come to life....more
The first 50 pages were really strong, but the lack of worldbuilding or character development made it fall flat for me. Very glad we DNF at about 50%.
The first 50 pages were really strong, but the lack of worldbuilding or character development made it fall flat for me. Very glad we are getting more queer romantasy, especially a FFA one....more
I will start this out by saying I am not the target audience for this book. I read it for a book club and I am actually very proud of mysel 2.5 stars
I will start this out by saying I am not the target audience for this book. I read it for a book club and I am actually very proud of myself for finishing this 19 hour audiobook. Not much to say other than I think I would have liked it more if there had been either a time jump or maybe 200+ pages had been shaved off of this one. It was overly long with subplots that lead nowhere sometimes. At times it reminded me a lot of Robert Jordan's work in that while at its heart I recognize its worth and that there are good parts, but we didn't really need all of that....more
Everything Shy did in this book would be a walking red flag in real life, but this is why romance novels are wonderful works of fantasies. 4.5 stars
Everything Shy did in this book would be a walking red flag in real life, but this is why romance novels are wonderful works of fantasies. I first read this book ten years ago (ten freaking years ago!) and loved it and I loved it the second time around too. I did downgrade from 5 stars to 4.5 stars, but there's always going to be a special place in my heart for Shy and Tabby's story. This made me want to reread all of the Chaos books!...more
Downgrading to 4/5 stars instead of 5/5. It's still a lot of fun and I am reminded about why I love this author so much. If I recall Reread July 2024
Downgrading to 4/5 stars instead of 5/5. It's still a lot of fun and I am reminded about why I love this author so much. If I recall this series got a lot better as it went along, and that's fairly impressive because book 1 is pretty good.
---------------2013---------------- So, to all of those who whine about how this is a rip off of Vampire Academy, you're forgetting one thing.... Jennifer Armentrout wrote this, so it made it a million times better than Vampire Academy!
Anyways, while there were similarities, this book is truly it's own and like all of the other books I've read by this author, I couldn't put it down until I was done. I'm glad I have Amazon Prime, because the other books in the series are going to be here soon for a Half-Blood bingefest....more
Loading...
