Title: The Honey-Don't List Author: Christina Lauren Publisher: Gallery Books Publishing Date: March 24, 2020 My Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: Carey Douglas has worked for home remodeling and design gurus Melissa and Rusty Tripp for nearly a decade. A country girl at heart, Carey started in their first store at sixteen, and—more than anyone would suspect—has helped them build an empire. With a new show and a book about to launch, the Tripps are on the verge of superstardom. There’s only one problem: America’s favorite couple can’t stand each other. James McCann, MIT graduate and engineering genius, was originally hired as a structural engineer, but the job isn’t all he thought it’d be. The last straw? Both he and Carey must go on book tour with the Tripps and keep the wheels from falling off the proverbial bus. Unfortunately, neither of them is in any position to quit. Carey needs health insurance, and James has been promised the role of a lifetime if he can just keep the couple on track for a few more weeks. While road-tripping with the Tripps up the West Coast, Carey and James vow to work together to keep their bosses’ secrets hidden, and their own jobs secure. But if they stop playing along—and start playing for keeps—they may have the chance to build something beautiful together… From the “hilariously zany and heartfelt” (Booklist) Christina Lauren comes a romantic comedy that proves if it’s broke, you might as well fix it. MY REVIEW: Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings do it again with their new book, The Honey-Don’t List. The two authors, working under the combined pen name Christina Lauren, always know how to capture a reader’s attention with a good drama-filled story that is also heart-warming and, of course, hilarious. Many readers will enjoy this funny, yet charming, romance novel if they have enjoyed their previous work in the past. Also, if you have a thing for DIY home renovations and are fans of Chip and Joanna Gaines, then this story is right up your alley. The story is about two characters, Carey Duncan and James McCann, who are both working for the design gurus Melissa and Rusty Tripp. Carey has been with the duo for over 10 years since she was sixteen-years-old, and James is their new engineer, who was added to the group after a fall through with his previous job and was looking for something new. Both are helping with the couple’s hit Netflix series, Home Sweet Home, which is basically a remodeling home show to help customers repair their homes (sort of like HGTV’s Fixer Upper). Unfortunately, the Tripps’ love life is falling apart even though, from everyone else’s point of view, they seem like the perfect couple. They are about to embark on an upcoming book tour for their new book, which describes their happy married life as a couple doing what they love to do. In reality, their marriage is not going as planned, and the husband is sleeping with another woman and acting like it’s not a big deal. It is up to Carey and James to save the day. The two work together to try to show off the couple as happy and loving with tour stops all over the country for the Tripps’ new book. Not only are they trying to save the couple’s marriage but soon Carey and James start forming their own relationship as a mutual interest sparks between the two. Will the two be able to save the Tripps’ fame and love life, or will it all come crumbling down, exposing to the world that their marriage isn’t what it seems? The Honey-Don’t List may not be my favorite out of all the other books written by these two authors, but it is still a good pick-me-up book that will capture your attention and give you a few good laughs throughout the book.
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Title: Ask Again Yes Author: Mary Beth Keane Publishing Date: May 28, 2019 My Rating: 4 Stars GoodReads Synopsis: How much can a family forgive? A profoundly moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the bond between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness. Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, two rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne—sets the stage for the explosive events to come. Ask Again, Yes is a deeply affecting exploration of the lifelong friendship and love that blossoms between Francis and Lena’s daughter, Kate, and Brian and Anne’s son, Peter. Luminous, heartbreaking, and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes reveals the way childhood memories change when viewed from the distance of adulthood—villains lose their menace and those who appeared innocent seem less so. Kate and Peter’s love story, while tested by echoes from the past, is marked by tenderness, generosity, and grace. MY REVIEW: After sitting on my shelves for far too long, I finally picked up this book and read it. I heard many great things about this one and it was a good one like everyone said. It is told by multiple characters: Anne, Peter, Kate, Francis. I think that might be all, maybe Brian? but you had to figure out who was speaking once a new chapter started which was kinda confusing but if you were following the story right you would figure out pretty quick who was speaking. This book had family drama written all over it. The story revolves around two families who live next door to each other. The parents dont get along very well but the children do. Two of them actually form a very strong relationship and possibly grow to love each other. But one tragic event was all it took to destroy everything and from that moment on nothing was the same. The rest of the story continues with their lives growing up and how they were managing. There were many heartbreaking moments in this book. I really did enjoy it though, there were some slow spots throughout but overall it was a great read. Title: The Wives Author: Tarryn Fisher Release Date: December 30, 2019 My Rating: 4 Stars GoodReads Synopsis: Imagine that your husband has two other wives. You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this unconventional arrangement, you can see your husband only one day a week. But you love him so much you don’t care. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself. But one day, while you’re doing laundry, you find a scrap of paper in his pocket—an appointment reminder for a woman named Hannah, and you just know it’s another of the wives. You thought you were fine with your arrangement, but you can’t help yourself: you track her down, and, under false pretenses, you strike up a friendship. Hannah has no idea who you really are. Then Hannah starts showing up to your coffee dates with telltale bruises, and you realize she’s being abused by her husband. Who, of course, is also your husband. But you’ve never known him to be violent, ever. Who exactly is your husband, and how far would you go to find the truth? Would you risk your own life? And who is his mysterious third wife? MY REVIEW: Let’s just start off by asking you a simple question. Could you share your husband or wife with someone else? Tarryn Fisher‘s novel The Wives goes down that road exploring what it is like for Thursday to share her husband, Seth, with two other women, named Monday and Tuesday. Why might you ask are they called that? Because those are the days Seth gets to see them. Thursday has never met these two other women and is okay with the whole arrangement, or so we think she is. While she lives in Seattle, the other two live in Portland. One day though, Thursday comes across a note left in Seth’s pocket, and after reading the note, she becomes curious as to who this “Hannah” is. Is she one of the other wives? And why does her husband never talk about the other wives with her? Soon, Thursday becomes obsessed with the other women in Seth’s life and tries to find them. What is she hoping to find? What Thursday discovers shocks her and makes her question who really is her husband? The Wives is a twisted, dark and captivating thriller that will leave you questioning who you can trust and will crush the notion you knew everything by showing that, in reality, you had no idea the entire time. Fisher leaves the reader with many unexpected twists which makes this story that much better and will make you want to read it as quickly as possible to find out what happens in the end. Title: The Arrangement Author: Robyn Harding Publish Date: July 30, 2019 Rating: 5 Stars Synopsis (GoodReads): Natalie, a young art student in New York City, is struggling to pay her bills when a friend makes a suggestion: Why not go online and find a sugar daddy—a wealthy, older man who will pay her for dates, and even give her a monthly allowance? Lots of girls do it, Nat learns. All that’s required is to look pretty and hang on his every word. Sexual favours are optional. Though more than thirty years her senior, Gabe, a handsome corporate finance attorney, seems like the perfect candidate, and within a month, they are madly in love. At least, Nat is…Gabe already has a family, whom he has no intention of leaving. So when he abruptly ends things, Nat can’t let go. She begins drinking heavily and stalking him: watching him at work, spying on his wife, even befriending his daughter, who is not much younger than she is. But Gabe’s not about to let his sugar baby destroy his perfect life. What was supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement devolves into a nightmare of deception, obsession, and, when a body is found near Gabe’s posh Upper East Side apartment, murder. MY REVIEW: This book was so good and it is by far one of my top favs of 2019. This was my first book I have read by this author and I am excited to read more by her. She did an an amazing job writing this story. Thanks to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this to read and I know I will recommend this book to everyone. What I loved about the book was just how well written it was. The story was fast paced, it had short chapters,. Learning about what a life is like being a "sugar baby" is crazy (which I don't know how people can do that!) and just getting both perspectives of Natalie and Gabe by them telling the story in their point of views was great and learning about both of them and how they lived their lives each day. The ending was crazy too! Definitely a huge twist I wasn't expecting! Title: The Last Mrs. Parrish Author: Liv Constantine My Rating: 4.5 Release Date: October 17, 2017 Synopsis (Goodreads): Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted. To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale. Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn't have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces. With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent. My Review: I give this book a 4.5 stars. I read this book in a day and I absolutely loved it! I love a good thriller and this is just what I needed. I like that it went between both characters Amber and Daphne and got to hear from both points of view. I am really glad they included Daphne's side or else I would have totally felt different about her throughout the whole story. It had so many twists in the story which was great and kept me guessing what was going to happen next. Both Daphne and Amber are crazy! Very well written story and I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs a good book to read that will leave you up all night until you finish it. This book would be an excellent movie! Title: How to Hack a Heartbreak Author: Kristin Rockaway Publish Date: July 30, 2019 My Rating: 4 Stars Synopsis (Goodreads): Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster. By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed helpdesk tech at a startup incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers—"Hatchlings"—who can't even fix their own laptops, but are apparently the next wave of startup geniuses. And by night, she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she's matched with on the ubiquitous dating app, Fluttr. But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harrassers and abusers in online dating space. It's called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight. Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez—the only non-douchey guy at Hatch—has no idea she's the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life, and friendships, or change her life forever. My review: Have you ever used a dating app that you had luck with finding "the one"? Most would say no and would be able to tell you some horrible experiences they went through from using the app and that is just what Kristin Rockaway's How to Hack a Heartbreak will do. Like it says, "Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster." Mel Strickland decides to go on a date and ends up getting stood up. Again. Next, she is thrown off guard by an inappropriate picture she was sent after being "matched" with someone on the Fluttr app and realizes she has had enough. Luckily for her she has a background in coding and decides to design her own app. One that will allow users log harrassers and horrible dates they went on with guys that people need to know about. She decided to call it JerkAlert and after launching the website, it becomes viral overnight and she can not believe her eyes. Mel is so happy with the outcome of the website but then it all comes tumbling down when a guy she started seeing, Alex Hernandez has been found among the guys on the list on the website. How could it be? She thought he was perfect. Soon she starts second guessing herself and who wondering who the true Alex is. This story was a very quick and fun read. As each chapter plays out you start to find out the truth behind people's actions and if they are really telling the truth especially when it comes to dating. I feel it will make everyone second guess themselves when it comes to using any sort of dating app. Do they really work? How would you feel if you found yourself on a list of bad reviews? Maybe it'll make you think twice next time you use one. Title: Gretchen Author: Shannon Kirk Publish Date: July 23, 2019 My Rating: 4 Stars Synopsis (Good Reads): Ever since Lucy was two, she’s been on the run alongside her mother. She’s never understood the reason for a lifetime of paranoia, aliases, and lies. All she understands are the rules: never lock eyes with strangers, never let down your guard, and always be ready to move on. Finally, after thirteen years and eleven states, their next hideaway seems perfect. An isolated, fortresslike place in the New Hampshire woods is the new home they share with its owner, a gentlemanly pianist, and his lonely daughter, Gretchen. She’s Lucy’s age and soon becomes Lucy’s first real friend. But Gretchen and her father have secrets of their own—and an obsession with puzzles that draws Lucy into a terrifying new game of hide-and-seek. Lucy’s dark past is about to come calling. And this time, for her and her mother in the house on the hill, it might be too late to run. MY REVIEW; I just have to start off by saying that after reading this book, I will never look at a puzzle the same way again. All because of little miss crazy Gretchen. She is only truly obsessed psycho little, (well not too little she is in her teens) girl. This book had me hooked right from the beginning and the book just had me wanting to keep on reading until the very last page. I love a book that can keep your interest and want to know what is going to happen next. Also I love a book that makes you just want to yell or get mad at a character because they are pissing you off (in a good way). That's how this book made me feel. I really needed a good dark suspense/thriller book to read and this one was perfect. I am very thankful that Shannon sent me this copy herself and I cant wait to read more by her since this was my first book I have read by her. Definitely wont be my last! Title: The Flatshare Author: Beth O'Leary Publish Date: April 10th, 2019 My Rating: 4 Stars Synopsis (Goodreads): Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time. But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window… My Review: I chose this book for the month of June to do a fun buddy read with other book lovers and I am really happy with the choice I made because I really enjoyed this book and story line. At first it started off slow and wasn't sure how I felt about it and the style they used for writing Leon's character but then I started to get invested in the story and ended up loving it and really like how the ending turned out as well. It was the perfect way to end this story. So loving and made me smile with the way it turned out. I liked the use of post-it notes to talk back and forth to each other in the flat since they never actually met and that's how they communicated. (Up until a few months later when they finally did by a very awkward encounter if I might add!!) I don't know if I could ever share a place with someone I never met and feeling like they went through my stuff but they seemed to have it all worked out between the two of them and trusted each other. This was a quick fun read and I definitely enjoyed it and would recommend it to others. Title: Love and Other Words Author: Christina Lauren Publish date: April 10, 2018 My Rating: 5 Stars Synopsis: (Goodreads) Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away. But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her. Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love. MY REVIEW: Yet another one to hit the favorites of mine for 2019 so far. This was such an amazing book and I so wish there was a Part 2 to this story. That's how much I loved it and didn't want it to end. It all comes down to love and friendship. This book is filled with heartbreak and drama. The past and the future. Macy runs into her first and only love of her life Elliot and now she is torn on what to do. She is engaged but now that Elliot has came back into her life after 11 years of not having seen each other, all of her emotions and feelings have came back. What will she do?? Christina Lauren's writing is amazing and she def is on my top list of favorite authors. Title: The Kingdom Author: Jess Rothenberg Publish Date: May 28, 2019 My Rating: 3 Stars Synopsis (Goodreads): Glimmering like a jewel behind its gateway, The Kingdom is an immersive fantasy theme park where guests soar on virtual dragons, castles loom like giants, and bioengineered species--formerly extinct--roam free. Ana is one of seven Fantasists, beautiful "princesses" engineered to make dreams come true. When she meets park employee Owen, Ana begins to experience emotions beyond her programming including, for the first time... love. But the fairytale becomes a nightmare when Ana is accused of murdering Owen, igniting the trial of the century. Through courtroom testimony, interviews, and Ana's memories of Owen, emerges a tale of love, lies, and cruelty--and what it truly means to be human. My Review: I received this book from Henry Holt & Company for an upcoming book tour for the Month of May. This story definitely was a change for me from what I usually read. It had its moments I really enjoyed but other times I felt like the chapter just dragged on for too long. I did like though that it went between interviews and the past that lead up to the present and how everything came together. The Kingdom reminds me of Disney World but with more animals and of course the mix of being half human half I guess robot if that is what you want to call the "fantasists." The fantasists were like all the women you see at Disney World like Cinderella etc but different. They make sure all the guests are happy. I only gave it a 3 star because it lost my interest at some points of the story and dragged on for so long to get to the point. It could have maybe reduced the number of months leading to the "trial". Overall it was an interesting read and if you like fantasy type books then I would recommend this one. |
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