I am a part time bookseller, full time reader; if you spot me reading in the wild it will probably be Fantasy, Young Adult, or Middle Grade in my hand. I am also the resident Romance apologist. I try to read more non-fiction every year, and am deeply thankful for audiobooks in that regard. I dream of living a soft, slow life with a library to rival Belle's, alongside my pup Paddington THE Bear who will be the first dog to live forever.
For the girls who are too much, the eldest siblings who built walls too thick for even themselves to climb over, and anyone crawling out of their darkest moments...but also happen to love a four chili pepper spicy book - Nesta's journey is for you.
Sarah J Maas' 8 book YA series is a sprawling epic that completely envelopes me every time I pick it up for a re-read. I have read this series no less than 7 times and this world is one I will always fall back into for my own comfort and adventure.
Before the coffee shop, there was a bookstore. A place where Vivian learns to slow down and enjoy the softer things in life. Bookshops & Bonedust is THE cozy fantasy must read of fall.
Keeper of the Lost Cities is everything to me. These books are full of hope, light, and resilience. A middle grade series full of real suspense, and mystery all wrapped in a beautiful fantasy world.
I am so thankful Jessica Joyce put her whole heart and soul into this STUNNING debut. With one book out Jessica Joyce has become an auto-buy author. Theo and Noelle feel like the song Daylight by Taylor Swift, they are golden.
Read this if you want a quiet, non-flashy romance where grown-ups fall for each other slowly, then all at once. These two main characters felt Austenian, as they set aside their own pride to find their way to each other.
It feels unhinged to say this book is like movie popcorn. but it is, you start slowly, one bite at a time. when the movie begins we all try to be better than we are, we’re using napkins and blotting off the excess grease it’s all very tame - but as it ramps up you’re grabbing three to four pieces at a time, still no big deal. but then out of no where it’s as though you’ve never tasted popcorn before. Not only have you never had it, it’s the best thing in the world and you’re shoveling fistfuls in your mouth as though you’ll never eat substantive food again. You have cheap movie theater butter all over your face, hands, and somehow down your bra…that’s what magnolia parks is, at least for me.
Dragons, War, Enemies to lovers, and a rich lore full of magic and history - there was not a single moment from start to finish that I could have reasonably walked away from this book. If you enjoy adventure and fantasy THIS IS FOR YOU.
Samantha Irby is one of my grocery list authors, meaning I will read anything she writes up to and including her grocery lists. Quietly Hostile uses dark humor with a precision I am sure practiced surgeons envy. If you were my friend I would be buying you this for any occasion.
Black girl magic, literally. Two magic systems, love triangle (?) , found family, and a mom's death shrouded in mystery...a 5 star read. Tracy Deonn did not come to play with this story.
If We Were Villains is a tragedy. There is no happy ending. This is not an opinion or up for debate. M. L. Rio treats the greatness of Shakespeare's with the weight and reverence the most recognized playwright deserves.
That Funny Feeling will be your best beach read/poolside book of the summer! Meyer and Farley's story is full of laughs while not sacrificing an ounce of heart. DeWitt is an auto-buy author for me after this read!
I think that maybe, there is not an author writing right now who understands the inner workings of my mind more than Chloe Liese. She writes neurodivergence/chronic illness/and autism in women SO WELL, it’s impossible for anyone a little atypical not to feel unmasked. There are lines in this book that slice through me, a hot knife through butter, reminding me that different does not mean “not worth effort.” Every time I pick up a book by Chloe Liese, I remember why I read romance. An antagonist to lovers, childhood friends, no third act break up and direct honest communication gave me everything I wanted. I truly believe every single book by Chloe is better than her last, and Better Hate Than Never cements that long held ideal even further. As always Liese is an auto buy author, who I will support in all things.
I choked on the first line of this book, from that moment I knew I was all in. This book is an ode to Black joy, love, and culture. A love story that is unapologetically Black. There is no stopping to explain the references or vernacular. The characters speak with each other in every day AAVE and then obviously code switch in certain settings, as a reader it was so obvious and incredibly affirming.
Snowed in with a serial killer on the loose, would seem a little heavy no? NO! This snowy whodunit is laugh out loud funny, reminiscent of Agatha Christie, Benjamin Stevenson's novel creates a technically reliable narrator that regularly makes flawed decisions, and is incredibly relatable in the least relatable situation ever.
The amount of story between these 274 pages will stay with me for a long while. As this family of women traverse through civil turmoil in India in the mid to late 1940s, I was fully immersed in each of their individual struggles, and even when I did not agree with the choices a character made I always deeply empathized with the sisters. This is a book about sisterhood, growing up, and making hard choices; there is something for everyone in this novel.
Hunger games meets Percy Jackson, with a Latinx mythos and a cast of fully flushed developed characters. Through the eyes of Teo a young Jade, one of the lesser demi-gods. Falling in love with Teo as he goes through the trials is the easiest thing to do, and I am waiting anxiously for the sequel.
Sweet and spicy, a subversion of one of my favorite tropes. The mental health and bisexual representation was done incredibly well, cementing Rachel Lynn Solomon as an auto-buy author.
Took the top spot in the Dark Olympus books, I loved these characters and way the relationships come together to form an entire polycule. One of Katee’s spiciest books, I could not put it down.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is an instant classic, a book that is heavy in a comfortable way, a dog who doesn’t know they aren’t a lap dog but you wouldn’t move for the world. I could recommend this book forever and to everyone. I had not yet experienced a story that at its core is simply about friendship. We have more friends in our lives than family, more friends than significant others, more friends than coworkers and yet… the representation of a decades long friendship in the cultural zeitgeist is severely lacking. But no longer - Zevin tackles the subject of love in friendship and what it takes to preserve those treasured relationships.
This novel is a love letter to books, written word, stories, adventure, and to those of us who keep one eye trained on the horizon. Riddled with lyrical prose, and a journey that will keep your eyes tethered to the page - this is the book I would read again for the first time if I could.
Bridget Morrissey has an uncanny way of making readers feel seen and incredibly vulnerable. That Summer Feeling yanks me back to sleep away camp, and has captured the exact feeling of exploring your sexuality later in life. The emotional depth of healing from divorce and the levity of falling in love again is balanced masterfully.