The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan

April 9, 2021

The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
Published by Berkley Books on April 6, 2021
Pages: 336
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Naomi and Ethan will test the boundaries of love in this provocative romance from the author of the ground-breaking debut, The Roommate.
Naomi Grant has built her life around going against the grain. After the sex-positive start-up she cofounded becomes an international sensation, she wants to extend her educational platform to live lecturing. Unfortunately, despite her long list of qualifications, higher ed won't hire her.
Ethan Cohen has recently received two honors: LA Mag named him one of the city's hottest bachelors and he became rabbi of his own synagogue. Taking a gamble in an effort to attract more millennials to the faith, the executive board hired Ethan because of his nontraditional background. Unfortunately, his shul is low on both funds and congregants. The board gives him three months to turn things around or else they'll close the doors of his synagogue for good.
Naomi and Ethan join forces to host a buzzy seminar series on Modern Intimacy, the perfect solution to their problems--until they discover a new one--their growing attraction to each other. They've built the syllabus for love's latest experiment, but neither of them expected they'd be the ones putting it to the test.

Damn Danan, back at it again with the sophomore hit. (This is what’s going through my crazy head.) The Intimacy Experiment is so steamy, so sweet, and SO feminist it makes me borderline giddy – zero signs of slump in this follow up to The Roommate. The writing is as easy breezy, yet emotional and thoughtful for the content it covers. We are treated to the same impossibly relatable characters (a former porn star and a rabbi) with chemistry so hot that I was convinced was going to short out my Kindle. And what I’ve come to consider Danan’s signature, it unapologetically embraces women’s sexuality without the slightest tolerance for slut-shaming. I am such a fan.

I’ll leave you with my favorite passage – the turning point from when I went from like to love.

*****

She nodded decisively. “So, why do you get out of bed in the morning?”

Something about the intensity of her voice when she asked pulled the truth out of him.

“There’s a moment, when you’re speaking to someone, and you’re listening to something they said, or actually” –it didn’t even require conversation–“maybe not, maybe you’re just giving them your attention, holding the door open at the deli, and something shifts behind their eyes and you know that they feel seen.” He lowered his chin, feeling goofy. “Not just seen but acknowledged in some way. They know they matter. That they’re not alone. And when that happens, I think about all the times someone has done that for me. The way that interaction saved me, shored me up against a thousand invisible aches I didn’t realize I was carrying.” […] “I guess I get out of bed because I think about the connection that we all have, this fragile humanity, each of us insignificant and at the same time precious. A continuation of a species that is recklessly unique. I remember that life is a finite gift, and I’d be an asshole to waste it.”

*****

XOXO

Review / Short and Sweet

The Bergman Brothers Series by Chloe Liese

March 24, 2021

Only When It's Us by Chloe Liese
on April 1, 2020
Pages: 380
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Prepare for an emotional rollercoaster brimming with laughter, tears, and slow-burn sexiness in this new adult romance that tackles the vulnerability of love with humor and heart.

Ryder

Ever since she sat next to me in class and gave me death eyes, Willa Sutter’s been on my shit list. Why she hates me, I don't know. What I do know is that Willa is the kind of chaos I don’t need in my tidy life. She’s the next generation of women’s soccer. Wild hair, wilder eyes. Bee-stung lips that should be illegal. And a temper that makes the devil seem friendly.
She’s a thorn in my side, a menacing, cantankerous, pain-in-the-ass who’s turned our Business Mathematics course into a goddamn gladiator arena. I'll leave this war zone unscathed, coming out on top…And if I have my way with that crazy-haired, ball-busting hellion, that will be in more than one sense of the word.

Willa

Rather than give me the lecture notes I missed like every other instructor I’ve had, my asshole professor tells me to get them from the silent, surly flannel-wearing mountain man sitting next to me in class. Well, I tried. And what did I get from Ryder Bergman? Ignored. What a complete lumbersexual neanderthal. Mangy beard and mangier hair. Frayed ball cap that hides his eyes. And a stubborn refusal to acknowledge my existence.
I’ve battled men before, but with Ryder, it's war. I’ll get those notes and crack that Sasquatch nut if it’s the last thing I do, then I’ll have him at my mercy. Victory will have never tasted so sweet.

Only When It’s Us is a frenemies-to-lovers, college sports romance about a women’s soccer star and her surly lumberjack lookalike classmate, complete with a matchmaking professor, juvenile pranks, and a smoking slow burn. This standalone is the first in a series of new novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.

I always have tempered expectations when I’m surfing through Kindle Unlimited for some fluff. It’s very rare that I come across something good enough to write anything about, but this is one of those hidden gems I want people to know about. The willful heroine and grumpy (yet actually marshmallowy) hero make for a fun and smoldering enemies to lovers story. There are some heavier subplots around disability and death of a loved one, but Liese balances this into something overall feel good and even laugh out loud funny in spots.

*****

Always Only You by Chloe Liese
on August 4, 2020
Pages: 355
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Get ready for an emotional ride filled with laughter, longing, and a sweet slow-burn in this sports romance about love’s power not in spite of difference, but because of it.

Ren

The moment I met her, I knew Frankie Zeferino was someone worth waiting for. Deadpan delivery, secret heart of gold, and a rare one-dimpled smile that makes my knees weak, Frankie has been forbidden since the day she and I became coworkers, meaning waiting has been the name of my game—besides, hockey, that is.
I’m a player on the team, she’s on staff, and as long as we work together, dating is off-limits. But patience has always been my virtue. Frankie won’t be here forever—she’s headed for bigger, better things. I just hope that when she leaves the team and I tell her how I feel, she won’t want to leave me behind, too.

Frankie

I’ve had a problem at work since the day Ren Bergman joined the team: a six foot three hunk of happy with a sunshine smile. I’m a grumbly grump and his ridiculously good nature drives me nuts, but even I can’t entirely ignore that hot tamale of a ginger with icy eyes, the perfect playoff beard, and a body built for sin that he’s annoyingly modest about.
Before I got wise, I would have tripped over myself to get a guy like Ren, but with my diagnosis, I’ve learned what I am to most people in my life—a problem, not a person. Now, opening my heart to anyone, no matter how sweet, is the last thing I’m prepared to do.

Always Only You is an opposites-attract, forbidden love sports romance about a nerdy, late-blooming hockey star, and his tough cookie coworker who keeps both her soft side and her autism diagnosis* to herself. Complete with a meddling secretary, tantric yoga torture, and a scorching slow burn, this standalone is the second in a series of novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.

*This is an #OwnVoices story for its portrayal of autism by an autistic author.

Book two brings us a badass heroine on the spectrum and a ginger, hockey-playing, Shakespeare-loving hero…there’s not a universe were I don’t love this pairing. Then fate forces these two certified hotties to share the same house when they’re already pining for one another. Egads! This is the funniest (and perhaps the spiciest) book of the three. If that wasn’t enough to make me happy, I think it gets female friendship really right.

*****

Ever After Always by Chloe Liese
on January 12, 2021
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Buckle up for an emotional journey of hijinks, heartache, and a hot slow-burn in this marriage-in-crisis romance about going the distance to make love last.

Aiden

I’ve spent twelve years loving Freya Bergman and twelve lifetimes won’t be enough to give her everything she deserves. She’s my passionate, tender-hearted wife, my best friend, and all I want is to make her happy. But the one thing that will make her happiest is the one thing I’m not sure I can give her: a baby.
With the pressure of providing and planning for a family, my anxiety’s at an all-time high, and I find myself pulling away, terrified to tell my wife how I’m struggling. But when Freya kicks me out, I realize that pulling back has turned into pushing too far. Now it’s the fight of a lifetime to save our marriage.

Freya

I love my cautious, hard-working husband. He’s my partner and best friend, the person I know I can count on most. Until one day I realize the man I married is nowhere to be found. Now Aiden is quiet and withdrawn, and as the months wear on, the pain of our growing distance becomes too much.
As if weathering marriage counseling wasn’t enough, we’re thrown together for an island getaway to celebrate my parents’ many years of perfect marriage while ours is on the brink of collapse. Despite my meddling siblings and a week in each other’s constant company, this trip somehow gets us working through the trouble in paradise. I just can’t help worrying, when we leave paradise and return to the real world, will trouble find us again?

Ever After Always is a marriage-in-crisis, opposites-attract romance about a sensitive, fierce-loving woman and her resilient husband who has anxiety disorder. Complete with island vacation antics, a sibling prank gone wrong, and a steamy slow burn, this standalone is the third in a series of novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.

As much as I enjoyed the first two books, I am always nervous around a second-chance romances. They generally aren’t my thing, but I am really grateful I stuck with it. Under that love subplot were some beautiful dialogue and thoughts around anxiety, fertility, and the power of choice not chance for our lives. It’s an emotional journey, sprinkled with the same light, fun, and all-important steamy kissing, as the rest of the books in this series – and I hope you check them out. I’ll certainly be coming back to this family as the rest of the siblings find their matches.

XOXO

Review

Float Plan by Trish Doller

March 11, 2021

Float Plan by Trish Doller
Published by St. Martin's Griffin on March 2, 2021
Pages: 272
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Critically acclaimed author Trish Doller's unforgettable and romantic adult debut about setting sail, starting over, and finding yourself...
Since the loss of her fiancé, Anna has been shipwrecked by grief—until a reminder goes off about a trip they were supposed to take together. Impulsively, Anna goes to sea in their sailboat, intending to complete the voyage alone.
But after a treacherous night’s sail, she realizes she can’t do it by herself and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to help. Much like Anna, Keane is struggling with a very different future than the one he had planned. As romance rises with the tide, they discover that it’s never too late to chart a new course.
In Trish Doller’s unforgettable Float Plan, starting over doesn't mean letting go of your past, it means making room for your future.

Anna is picking up the pieces of a shattered life; Her fiancé, Ben, took his own life several months prior, but before he did they had made plans to travel around the Caribbean together. Not knowing what else to do, Anna decides to set sail alone. After barely making the first leg solo, she enlists the help of Keane, an out of work, professional sailor with his own stormy past. Together they navigate through paradise and learn how to be these new versions of themselves that circumstance thrust upon them.

The never knowing is lodged in my heart like a stone, a constant dull ache that throbs during moments like these, when I wonder what our future might have been.

I can’t remember the last time I sat down and read a book cover to cover, but from the very first page I was entranced. The beautiful writing, the honesty of emotion and the plot itself are masterful. While the romance is slow and steamy, the absolute highlight of Float Plan is the authenticity and complexity of finding love after/during grief.

It’s a lovely way to live, don’t you think? Letting the present peacefully coexist alongside the past.

I’m new to Trish Doller, but after this, I think I have some catching up to do. If you’re looking for a story of adventure, self-discovery, and second chances (with a side of kissing), be sure to check this one out.

XOXO

Review

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

March 8, 2021

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Published by Avon on March 9, 2021
Pages: 400
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In Act Your Age, Eve Brown the flightiest Brown sister crashes into the life of an uptight B&B owner and has him falling hard—literally.
Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It's time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she's not entirely sure how…
Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry—and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.
Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore—and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.

Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve loved every book of a series, but Hibbert got me with The Brown Sisters. *heart eyes forever*

This woman – he kept waiting for her to hate him more, but she appeared to be hating him less. They were moving backward, firmly away from safe, spiky interactions and closer to something dangerously like friendship.

After several failed starts and being nudged out of the comfortable nest of her family’s estate, Eve Brown is on a quest. It’s finally time for her to figure out who she is and more importantly, who she wants to be. She heads out for a drive, sees a help wanted sign, and let’s fate starting guiding her to where she was meant to be – right into the kitchen of Jacob Wayne’s country Bed & Breakfast. One miserable interview later, Eve is feeling lost when she throws her car into reverse and slams right into Jacob. While he’s on the mend, Eve agrees to run the B&B where she unlocks her true calling and falls in love with the grumpy innkeeper.

“I take care of people,” Eve replied. Nothing had ever sounded so right.

Book three is the absolute SCORCHER of the series. I’m a little glad I can’t read in public at the moment because the thought of my old routine of reading smut in the breakroom of work over lunch for this one…let’s just say I would have proven the existence of spontaneous human combustion with how hot and bothered I was. Congratulations on your hot fictional sex Eve. God dayum.

On the other hand, the momentary swell of love wasn’t actually momentary, because as soon as she thought about him, she felt it again: a flood of tenderness and affection, gentle yet powerful enough to swallow entire cities whole. Familiar, but magnified. Known, but intense. The sort of love you read about in books.

What I like most about Hibbert’s MCs is that they represent a wide range of physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation, religions and races. These heroes and heroines are diverse AF and have such good heft to their characterization – without the tokenism I see in so many other books where I feel like the author is just trying to hit Inclusion Bingo instead of honoring the rich tapestry that is being a modern human. Her characters are written so well and with such authenticity that you can’t help but think, oh, I know a Chloe, or a Dani, or an Eve.

That the things she did – feeding people, helping people, making them feel good – were just as important as counting money or writing contracts. That she respected her own skills enough to use them, fear of failure be damned.

I am sincerely hoping in the time between me writing this and it posting, there is some announcement from Hibbert that there will be more books with this lovely family. I need more – an origin story for the badass force that is Gigi, a spin-off series for Mont and his sisters, something. Pretty please!

XOXO

Anticipated Releases

Anticipated Releases: March & April

March 1, 2021

March 9

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

March 16

The Dating Plan by Sara Desai

March 23

Meet Me in Paradise by Libby Hubscher
The Sister Surprise by Abigail Mann

April 6

The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle
Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez
You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes

April 13

Hot Copy by Ruby Barrett
Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

April 20

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert

April 27

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto
Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

XOXO

Review / Short and Sweet

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

February 27, 2021

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers
Published by Park Row Books on February 23, 2021
Pages: 352
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A refreshingly timely and relatable debut novel about a young woman whose life plans fall apart when she meets her wife.
With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She’s a straight A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that.
This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her father’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows.
In New York, she’s able to ignore all the annoying questions about her future plans and falls hard for her creative and beautiful wife, Yuki Yamamoto. But when reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.

In her debut, Morgan Rogers shows great promise. Her voice is full of poetic prose is this coming of age tale that follows Grace Porter after she makes one HUGE, uncharacteristically rash decision: she drunkenly gets married in Las Vegas to a woman she doesn’t know – and who is nowhere to be found the next morning when she wakes up with a hangover and a ring on her finger.

Romance takes a backseat, so if the fluffy blurb has you thinking this is all about falling in love with your secret wife, think again. Instead, we’re treated to a delicate and moving story about a woman trying to find herself after she’s done everything she was supposed to do, and still feels lost. Grace feels trapped in the shadow of familial expectations; but as she explores the new possibilities after her taste of rebellious freedom in Vegas, she learns there is so much beauty and adventure that’s possible if she starts following her heart instead of her mind – that it’s ok, even wonderful, when life doesn’t go according to plan.

Keep reading for an excerpt of the first chapter…

*****

Grace wakes up slow like molasses. The only difference is molasses is sweet, and this—the dry mouth and the pounding headache—is sour. She wakes up to the blinding desert sun, to heat that infiltrates the windows and warms her brown skin, even in late March.

Her alarm buzzes as the champagne-bubble dream pops.

Grace wakes in Las Vegas instead of her apartment in Portland, and she groans.

She’s still in last night’s clothes, ripped high-waisted jeans and a cropped, white BRIDE t-shirt she didn’t pack. The bed is warm, which isn’t surprising. But as Grace moves, shifts and tries to remember how to work her limbs, she notices it’s a different kind of warm. The bed, the covers, the smooth cotton pillowcase beside her, is body-warm. Sleep-warm.

The hotel bed smells like sea-salt and spell herbs. The kind people cut up and put in tea, in bottles, soaking into oil and sealed with a little chant. It smells like kitchen magic.

She finds the will to roll over into the warm patch. Her memories begin to trickle in from the night before like a movie in rewind. There were bright lights and too-sweet drinks and one club after another. There was a girl with rose-pink cheeks and pitch-black hair and, yes, sea-salt and sage behind her ears and over the soft, veiny parts of her wrists. Her name clings to the tip of Grace’s tongue but does not pull free.

The movie in Grace’s head fast-forwards. The girl’s hand stayed clutched in hers for the rest of the night. Her mouth was pretty pink. She clung to Grace’s elbow and whispered, “Stay with me,” when Agnes and Ximena decided to go back to the hotel.

Stay with me, she said, and Grace did. Follow me, she said, like Grace was used to doing. Follow your alarm. Follow your schedule. Follow your rubric. Follow your graduation plan. Follow a salt and sage girl through a city of lights and find yourself at the steps of a church.

Maybe it wasn’t a church. It didn’t seem like one. A place with fake flowers and red carpet and a man in a white suit. A fake priest. Two girls giggled through champagne bubbles and said yes. Grace covers her eyes and sees it play out.

“Jesus,” she mutters, sitting up suddenly and clutching the sheets to keep herself steady.

She gets up, knees wobbling. “Get it together, Grace Porter.” Her throat is dry and her tongue sticks to the roof of her mouth. “You are hungover. Whatever you think happened, didn’t happen.” She looks down at her t-shirt and lets out a shaky screech into her palms. “It couldn’t have happened, because you are smart, and organized, and careful. None of those things would lead to a wedding. A wedding!”

“Didn’t happen,” she murmurs, trying to make up the bed. It’s a fruitless task, but making up the bed makes sense, and everything else doesn’t. She pulls at the sheets, and three things float to the floor like feathers.

A piece of hotel-branded memo paper. A business card. A photograph.

Grace picks up the glossy photograph first. It is perfectly rectangular, like someone took the time to cut it carefully with scissors.

In it, the plastic church from her blurry memories. The church with its wine-colored carpet and fake flowers. There is no Elvis at this wedding, but there is a man, a fake priest, with slicked back hair and rhinestones around his eyes.

In it, Grace is tall and brown and narrow, and her gold, spiraling curls hang past her shoulders. She is smiling bright. It makes her face hurt now, to know she can smile like that, can be that happy surrounded by things she cannot remember.

Across from her, their hands intertwined, is the girl. In the picture, her cheeks are just as rose-pink. Her hair is just as pitch-black as an empty night sky. She is smiling, much like Grace is smiling. On her left hand, a black ring encircles her finger, the one meant for ceremonies like this.

Grace, hungover and wary of this new reality, lifts her own left hand. There, on the same finger, a gold ring. This part evaded her memories, forever lost in sticky-sweet alcohol. But there is it, a ring. A permanent and binding and claiming ring.

“What the hell did you do, Porter?” she says, tracing it around her finger.

She picks up the business card, smaller and somehow more intimate, next. It smells like the right side of the bed. Sea salt. Sage. Crushed herbs. Star anise. It is a good smell.

On the front, a simple title:

ARE YOU THERE?

brooklyn’s late night show for lonely creatures

& the supernatural. Sometimes both.

99.7 FM

She picks up the hotel stationery. The cramped writing is barely legible, like it was written in a hurry.

I know who I am, but who are you? I woke up during the sunrise, and your hair and your skin and the freckles on your nose glowed like gold. Honey-gold. I think you are my wife, and I will call you Honey Girl. Consider this a calling card, if you ever need a—I don’t know how these things work. A friend? A—

Wife, it says, but crossed out.

A partner. Or. I don’t know. I have to go. But I think I had fun, and I think I was happy. I don’t think I would get married if I wasn’t. I hope you were, too.

What is it they say? What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Well, I can’t stay.Maybe one day you’ll come find me, Honey Girl. Until then, you can follow the sound of my voice. Are you listening?

*****

XOXO

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Anticipated Releases 2021 – First Half

January 5, 2021

Since I shared my Anticipated Releases for January and February yesterday, today is a sneak peek at March through June. I find myself very pleasantly surprised that it was hard to narrow to ten choices (rather than barely coming up with ten!).

March 9 – Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
April 6 – Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle
April 6 – You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
April 20 – The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert
April 27 – Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey

May 4 – Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane
May 4 – Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
May 11 – People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry
May 18 – The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
June 15 – Isn’t It Bromantic? by Lyssa Kay Adams

Can’t wait to see all of your anticipated releases, too! XOXO

Anticipated Releases

Anticipated Releases: January & February

January 4, 2021

January 5

Love Songs for Skeptics by Christina Pishiris
Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan

January 12

Ever After Always by Chloe Liese

January 19

Mr. Right Across the Street by Kathryn Freeman
Shipped by Angie Hockman
Enjoy the View by Sarah Morgenthaler

February 2

Before I Saw You by Emily Houghton
A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel

February 9

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
The Love Square by Laura Jane Williams

February 23

It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake by Claire Christian

XOXO

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Pretty Please Santa

December 22, 2020

I don’t know if there is a stocking big enough for the amount of books I want to welcome into the hoard this year. Santa, pretty please with a cherry on top, can you bring me these?

Books I want now…

A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough
I could listen to Attenborough talk all day and not be tired of it – I can’t wait for Santa (or my next Audible credit) to bring this into my life

The Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens
Missed connections and serendipity and an HEA, I’m frankly surprised I don’t own this already

The Awakening by Nora Roberts
Dragon in the series name, check, fae, check, traveling to Ireland to find yourself after you strike it rich, check

ARCs I want the Galley Gods to bless me with…

The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
After The Roommate, you can count me as eager for future Danan releases

Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia Hartl
Oooooh, the messy hijinks this one promises with a secret service to take down enemies, yep yep yep

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
A lone astronaut has to save the world – sounds familiar but just shut up and take my money already

Stuff I just want to be written already…

How to Be Good by Michael Schur
What I know: a book by one of my favorite television creators of all time, nuff said

Gallant by Victoria Schwab
What I know: Supposedly a Secret Garden retelling meets Stardust, yas

The Jaguar King by C.L. Wilson
What I know: the final book (maybe?) in what is one of my favorite fantasy romance series of all time, I needs it

The one that got away…

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
I don’t know if this one grew wings and flew home to its dragon homeland, but I know it’s missing from my collection – both from its spot and in my heart. Come back sweet book!

XOXO

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Winter TBR (2020)

December 15, 2020

A lot of these books have shown up on past reading challenges (or some future ones planned for 2021, surprise!). Because this year was such a hellscape, I didn’t get a ton of reading done – who knew an existential crisis would be so time consuming? When I glance over my TBR, these are ones that make me most excited to get back to my favorite pastime.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
Meet You in the Middle by Devon Daniels
The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

XOXO