Short & Sweet: Yearbook and The Last Letter from Your Lover

September 15, 2021

Yearbook by Seth Rogen
Published by Crown Publishing Group (NY) on May 11, 2021
Pages: 288
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Hi! I’m Seth! I was asked to describe my book, Yearbook, for the inside flap (which is a gross phrase) and for websites and shit like that, so… here it goes!!!
Yearbook is a collection of true stories that I desperately hope are just funny at worst, and life-changingly amazing at best. (I understand that it’s likely the former, which is a fancy “book” way of saying “the first one.”)
I talk about my grandparents, doing stand-up comedy as a teenager, bar mitzvahs, and Jewish summer camp, and tell way more stories about doing drugs than my mother would like. I also talk about some of my adventures in Los Angeles, and surely say things about other famous people that will create a wildly awkward conversation for me at a party one day.
I hope you enjoy the book should you buy it, and if you don’t enjoy it, I’m sorry. If you ever see me on the street and explain the situation, I’ll do my best to make it up to you.

I don’t have anything objective to say about Yearbook – it’s fucking fantastic. I am such a huge fan of Seth Rogen already (which most people would probably be surprised to learn), and this still managed to exceed my expectations. The audiobook is absolutely the the way to go; Seth and friends come together to bring his stories to life, and it’s just a great and hilarious time.

The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
Published by Pamela Dorman Books on July 7, 2011
Pages: 390
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A sophisticated, page-turning double love story spanning forty years-an unforgettable Brief Encounter for our times.
It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply "B", asking her to leave her husband.
Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance.
A spellbinding, intoxicating love story with a knockout ending, The Last Letter from Your Lover will appeal to the readers who have made One Day and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society bestsellers.

Solid and typical Jojo – it will pull at your heart strings, make you ooh and ahh, and trigger waterworks. I wasn’t as captivated as Me Before You (which still stands as my rubric for Moyes’ works), but it was a lovely way to pass some time nonetheless. And, the movie is everything.

Anticipated Releases

Anticipated Releases: September & October

September 1, 2021

September 2

The Meeting Point by Olivia Lara
The Library by Bella Osborne

September 7

Witch Please by Ann Aguirre
The Dating Game by Sandy Barker
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore
The Five Year Plan by Jodi Gibson
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
A Spot of Trouble by Teri Wilson

September 14

A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
With You Forever by Chloe Liese
Fuzz by Mary Roach
She Kills Me by Jennifer Wright

September 21

When Sparks Fly by Helena Hunting
First Love, Take Two by Sajni Patel
On Location by Sarah Echavarre Smith

September 28

Sweet Love by Lauren Accardo
No Words by Meg Cabot
Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis
The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

October 5

Two Houses by Suleena Bibra
Not Your Average Hot Guy by Gwenda Bond
Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist by Codi Hall
Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper
The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox
A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli
Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan
Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words by Annika Sharma

October 12

Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant
The Sweetest Remedy by Jane Igharo
The Party Crasher by Sophie Kinsella
Always, in December by Emily Stone

October 19

A Season for Second Chances by Jenny Bayliss
Well Matched by Jen DeLuca

October 26

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
All the Feels by Olivia Dade
Nightwolf by Karina Halle
Duke, Actually by Jenny Holiday
Donut Fall in Love by Jackie Lau
Meet Me in Madrid by Verity Lowell

Anticipated Releases

Anticipated Releases: July & August

July 1, 2021

July 6

Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev
The Very Nice Box by Eve Gleichman & Laura Blackett
The Comfort Book by Matt Haig
Too Good to Be Real by Melonie Johnson
What If You & Me by Roni Loren

July 13

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
The Rehearsals by Annette Christie
How Sweet It Is by Dylan Newton

July 20

Hot Under His Collar by Andie J. Christopher

July 27

Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron
It’s Raining Men by Julie Hammerle
Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia Hartl
One Week to Claim it All by Adriana Herrera
The Man Ban by Nicola Marsh

August 3

Love at First Fight by Mary Jane Baker
The Dating Dare by Jayci Lee
The Mix-Up by Holly McCulloch
If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy
So We Meet Again by Suzanne Park
Live and Let Grow by Penny Reid

August 10

Miss Lattimore’s Letter by Suzanne Allain
The Other Me by Sarah Zachrich Jeng
Wait for It by Jenn McKinlay

August 17

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker
The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon

August 24

The Paris Connection by Lorraine Brown
The Woods Are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins

August 31

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson

Review

Beach Read by Emily Henry

June 3, 2021

Beach Read by Emily Henry
on May 19, 2020
Pages: 361
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A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.
They're polar opposites.
In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.
Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

I had set myself up for heartbreak and now I suspected there was nothing I could do but brace myself and wait for it to hit.

If I had picked this up first, I might have been hesitant to read People We Meet on Vacation. The vibe of these two books could not be more different. They have the same delicious, slow burn of attraction and romance with cutesy heroines and broody heroes, but that’s the extent of the overlap. Beach Read is darker, moodier, complex. Unless you’re into true crime, dark family dramas, with a smallish side of kissing, this book is anything but the beach read the title and cover suggest. There is a heaviness – much like the humidity of a Midwestern summer – that just seeps into everything. It’s not often that I would choose to pick up a book about dead mothers (his) and cheating fathers (hers), but this scratched and unknown itch amid my parade of fluffy cotton candy books. Despite its flaws, I didn’t want to stop reading.

The rain fell all around us, and I let go of everything that wasn’t Gus, wasn’t this moment. I lost myself in him, and instead of trying to convince myself that someday everything would be okay, I focused on the fact that, right now, it already was.

Emily Henry’s writing is gorgeous. I could read her prose nonstop and never tire of it. She writes some of the hottest make-out scenes I’ve read in ages that left me feeling like a raging hormone-monster teen all over again (but in a good way, if that exists?). I could have done with way less of the New Eden cult secondary plot line; it was full of abuse and trauma that I frankly didn’t feel was necessary, and ultimately is responsible for the missing stars in my rating. There was already sufficient evidence to support the “we’ve both seen some shit, but let’s bang it all better” that was always going to happen between Gus and January. Unless their joint investigation somehow wrapped back around to directly impacting our MCs, the only cult I’m interested in when it comes to romance is that of Meg Ryan.

I know no matter how long I get to love you, it will be worth whatever comes next.

Review

Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley

May 26, 2021

Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley
Published by Graydon House on May 25, 2021
Pages: 320
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Inspiration can come from the most unlikely—and inconvenient—sources.
Kara Sullivan’s life is full of love—albeit fictional. As a bestselling romance novelist and influential Bookstagrammer, she’s fine with getting her happily-ever-after fix between the covers of a book.
But right now? Not only is Kara’s best friend getting married next week—which means big wedding stress—but the deadline for her next novel is looming, and she hasn’t written a single word. The last thing she needs is for her infuriating first love, Ryan Thompson, to suddenly appear in the wedding party. But Ryan’s unexpected arrival sparks a creative awakening in Kara that inspires the steamy historical romance she desperately needs to deliver.
With her wedding duties intensifying, her deadline getting closer by the second and her bills not paying themselves, Kara knows there’s only one way for her to finish her book and to give her characters the ever-after they deserve. But can she embrace the unlikely, ruggedly handsome muse—who pushes every one of her buttons—to save the wedding, her career and, just maybe, write her own happy ending?

“I just had to believe that I would see you again someday, and then all the waiting would be worth it.”

Kara is on a deadline. Chapters for her next romance novel are due ASAP but she has a bad case of writer’s block – until a chance encounter with her ex, Ryan, at her best friend’s pre-wedding party. Fueled by old love (and hate) for Ryan, Kara gets the spark of inspiration for her next story, and she’ll keep hanging around him if it means more pages. When Ryan gets kicked out of his hotel the week before the wedding, Kara invites him to crash with her before she realizes what she’s done…anything to finish her book. But with forced proximity, it’s only a matter of time before enemies become lovers again.

Success has come relatively easy to you. Now it’s time to fight for it. Only you can decide how bad you want this.

I am a new fan of Kate Bromley. There was so much I liked about this book: fun premise with true LOL moments, amazing friend group with ample girl power moments, book within a book yaaass, VERY hot sexy times (I mean, they act out a scene she wrote fans self forever). This is another case of a strong debut by a clever and talented writer that I’m excited to read more from in the future.

“I have tried to move on from us. I tried but no matter what, I always looked for you, for what we had, in every person I’ve dated since you left, but it doesn’t work. It can’t work because they’re not you. No one will ever be you and you’re the only person who is right for me.”

I will fully admit, the “Big Thing” our MCs must overcome had me compound swearing in a manner that even Samuel L. Jackson would have been like, “Damn girl.” I have a zero-tolerance policy for cheating; there’s no amount of true love that will ever make me feel like the cheater doesn’t deserve to be bitten by fire ants on their fun parts until their dying day. I have never rooted so hard for a character, but against their HEA. I think the situation was written beautifully, with a lot of relatable emotion and growth and feeling, but I ultimately couldn’t overcome the plot point in my lasting impression of the book.

“When making an important decision, I find it’s useful to think abut the life that you want to have. Sit and visualize it, and ask yourself if the choice you’re about to make will help you or hinder you in getting to where you ultimately want to go.

This a quick and satisfying read. It has a bulldog that gets up to some hijinks, scenes eating pizza for breakfast in Italy #goals, and historical AND contemporary romance. It happens to have an MC who makes very bad choices and is a bad communicator…and should momentarily have his peen turned into a lightning rod as penance. That said, would I still recommend this book? Absolutely! It’s perfect for your next weekend getaway or beach bag this summer.

Review / Short and Sweet

Short & Sweet: The Soulmate Equation and You Love Me

May 17, 2021

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
Published by Gallery Books on May 18, 2021
Pages: 368
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Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. Raised by her grandparents—who now help raise her seven-year-old daughter, Juno—Jess has been left behind too often to feel comfortable letting anyone in. After all, her father’s never been around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before Juno was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close, but working constantly to stay afloat is hard...and lonely.
But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands.
At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98% compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Pena. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Pena. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess—who is barely making ends meet—is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond” pairing that could make GeneticAlly a mint in stock prices, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist—and the science behind a soulmate—than she thought.
Funny, warm, and full of heart, The Soulmate Equation proves that the delicate balance between fate and choice can never be calculated.

I have no complaints on this one. The Soulmate Equation is pretty predictable yet still charming and not at all unsatisfying. And let’s face it, if DNA based dating existed, I would totally sign myself up for those potential shenanigans! If you’re looking for the familiar ease of CLo without anything terribly earth-shattering, this is an enjoyable beach read.

*****

You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
Series: You #3
Published by Random House on April 6, 2021
Pages: 400
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Joe is done with the cities. He’s done with the muck and the posers, done with Love. Now, he’s saying hello to nature, to simple pleasures on a cozy island in the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in a long time, he can just breathe.
He gets a job at the local library—he does know a thing or two about books—and that’s where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe won’t meddle, he will not obsess. He’ll win her the old-fashioned way... by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, they’ll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after in this sleepy town.
The trouble is... Mary Kay already has a life. She’s a mother. She’s a friend. She’s... busy.
True love can only triumph if both people are willing to make room for the real thing. Joe cleared his decks. He’s ready. And hopefully, with his encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him.

Joe is back at it again with his signature alluring yet terrifying self. He’s like the human equivalent of Taco Bell: it might sound good, but probably you’ll wish you were dead later. There’s not much that is new or shocking with this third installment of the You series – it’s the same twisty turny stalkerfest I’ve come to enjoy. I, for one, am glad Kepnes keeps cranking these out so I can keep watching Penn Badgley bring this creeper to life in upcoming seasons of You.

Review

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

May 13, 2021

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing on September 20, 2011
Pages: 352
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Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.
Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.

The only word I know to describe this book is: art. Like with Circe, I was awestruck by The Song of Achilles. I am a real sucker for the Greek epics, and I feel strongly that if Homer had written like Madeline Miller, a lot more people would be, too. She has a gift for making the gods as real, as complex, and as flawed as we mortals, and it is giving me LIFE. This reimagining of Patroclus and Achilles is nothing short of brilliant. For a tale as old as The Iliad, this is the first version that made me feel. I felt love and hope and sorrow – for a story I knew the ending of all along.

I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.

I would like to think that someday I’ll write a proper review, worthy of this book. More realistically, I think I will hold it in my heart. I will remember the drives I took while listening to it, the beauty I saw around me and felt from the book itself. I’ll regard it, as I have beautiful paintings in a gallery (back when that was a thing I could do freely), feeling that small link that exists across all of humanity to something wonderful, something created by a master to capture a glimpse of what it is to be human. I think I’ll simply choose to remember it fondly for a good long while.

Review

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

May 11, 2021

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Published by Berkley Books on May 11, 2021
Pages: 384
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Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

Happy book birthday to my new favorite contemporary romance! Yeah, you read that right. For a few years I have been waiting for a new book to dethrone my reigning favorite, but I wasn’t ready or expecting it to be this one. I guess that’s how it happens when you fall in love sometimes.

“My life turned out how I hoped it would, and now I just miss wanting something.”

Alex and Poppy are best friends. Every summer, they go on a trip together. Despite being polar opposites (hello, modern When Harry Met Sally alert!), these week long vacations sustain their relationship over a decade – until something happens and they stop speaking altogether. Two years later, Poppy has a realization during a bout of “Millennial ennui”: without Alex, nothing has that sparkle any more. So she sends him a hopeful text, an invite for another vacation to save the friendship.

Ninety-five percent of the time, I see Alex Nilsen in a purely platonic way, and I’d guess his number hovers a bit higher. But for that other five percent of the time, there’s this what-if.

The story alternates between This Summer, where Alex and Poppy are trying to salvage what once was, and all of the Summer Trips that came before it. There is a delicious tension as you see their relationship blossom and drift in and out of that grey area of could they be more? Through highs and lows, and trips all their trips around the world, we get these little glimpses of yearning and oh-so-many opportunities to yell “OMGGG just kiss already!” at your preferred reading format.

When I look at that photo, I don’t remember what Alex said to me to elicit that face, or what I yelled back at him. But I feel that same rush of warmth I get when I think about any of our past summer trips. That crush of happiness, that feeling that this is what life’s about: being somewhere beautiful, with someone you love.

Though many of Alex’s and Poppy’s issues could have been solved with more alcohol…I mean, conversation, frankly I’m glad they weren’t. Instead, we get an honest look at self-doubt and a reminder that sometimes you have a to take the big risk for big happiness. And it’s that journey of discovery that makes this my favorite book of the year.

Review

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

May 5, 2021

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Published by Berkley on April 27, 2021
Pages: 320
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A hilariously quirky novel that is equal parts murder mystery, rom-com, and a celebration of mothers and daughters as well as a deep dive into Chinese-Indonesian culture, by debut author Jesse Q. Sutanto.
1 (accidental) murder2 thousand wedding guests3 (maybe) cursed generations4 meddling Asian aunties to the rescue!
When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is accidentally shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working, at an island resort on the California coastline. It’s the biggest job yet for their family wedding business—“Don’t leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!”—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie’s perfect buttercream cake flowers.
But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy’s great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?

Since she met and lost The One in college, Meddy has been tight-lipped about dating with her family. Her mom decides to help Meddy find the perfect man…by posing as her daughter on a dating app. When Meddy shows up to a blind date with a too-eager suitor thanks to her mom’s messages being quite literally lost in translation and him being general d-bag, things go badly – dead date in the trunk level bad. A hilarious romp around a glamorous wedding ensues while Meddy and the Aunties scheme to dispose the body, unveil a thief, and find a second chance at love.

I head for the front door, still in that weird I-must-be-dreaming state of mind. I don’t even know what to say to my aunts. Thank you for coming to help figure out what to do with this guy I killed?

Dial A for Aunties is the Weekend at Bernie‘s I always wanted, and much much more. It’s so funny and so full of heart that I found myself forgetting this was a debut. For the past year (plus), it’s been hard for me to focus on reading anything other than my daily news doom-scroll; somehow this book about a dead body helped me find that spark again thanks to Sutanto’s effortless writing. I was nothing short of invested in Meddy and her comedy of errors. If you’re looking for an easy, funny read, I have zero hesitation recommending this one.

XOXO