Tag Archives: book recommendation

2022 Book #31 – The Minotaur Sampler by Various authors

Posted in Book Genre, Book reviews, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller by

Title: The Minotaur Sampler
Author: Various authors (is the start of 8 books)
Date finished: 7/7/22
Genre: Thriller, suspense
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: March 8, 2022
Pages in book: 291
Stand alone or series: Stand alone sampler – some of the individual books within the sampler may be parts of series though. And I guess it is the 5th Minotaur sampler
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Looking for a new book that will make your heart race? The fifth edition of The Minotaur Sampler compiles the beginnings of eight can’t-miss novels–either standalone or first in series–publishing Spring/Summer 2022 for free for easy sampling.

Standalone: A gripping debut domestic suspense novel, Nora Murphy’s The Favor explores with compassion and depth what can happen when women pushed to the limit take matters into their own hands.

Standalone: Four friends head into the Icelandic highlands in the middle of winter. The first day they get caught in an unexpected snowstorm, and end up in an abandoned hunting lodge. Outside is a chilling new standalone thriller from Ragnar Jonasson.

First in Series: Katharine Schellman’s captivating Jazz age mystery series debut, Last Call at the Nightingale, beckons readers into a darkly glamorous speakeasy where music, liquor, and secrets flow.

First in Series: James Byrne’s The Gatekeeper introduces Dez Limerick – “a welcome blast of freshness”* and “the most exciting new character I’ve read in years”** — in the most anticipated new thriller in years.

First in Series: A Rip Through Time mixes romance, mystery, and fantasy with thrilling results. In this series debut from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, a modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland—in an unfamiliar body—with a killer on the loose.

Standalone: The Things We Do in the Dark is the brilliant new thriller from Jennifer Hillier, the award-winning author of the breakout novels Little Secrets and Jar of Hearts – The secrets of the past come back around when a woman, long believed dead, turns up alive.

First in Series: Mark Pryor’s Die Around Sundown is the first entry in an exciting new mystery series set in World War II era Paris, where a detective is forced to solve a murder while protecting his own secrets.

Standalone: From Sandie Jones, the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick The Other Woman, comes a gripping new domestic suspense novel. In The Blame Game, a psychologist working with victims of domestic abuse suddenly finds she may be being targeted herself: She knows she’s telling the truth. But the evidence says she’s lying.

My rating:  4.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I really like getting to read samplers because you get to kind of “try on” a bunch of different books to see if you like them before you have to commit to reading and reviewing the whole book. Some of the books in this collection I wouldn’t have requested anyways because they weren’t appealing to me personally but it was still interesting to read the first few chapters of them – except for a couple of them I really just didn’t like. The ones I did really like though were the first two – The Favor by Nora Murphy and Outside by Ragnar Jonasson. I was thinking I might request one or both of those to read and review or maybe suggest one of them for my book club. There was another one too that I really thought was an interesting book – A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong – I’m just not sure if it’ll resolve itself in a way that I will enjoy. Overall a lot of the books in this sampler were very interesting though and I liked the sampler overall!

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2022 Book #28 – Wicked Beauty by Katee Robert

Posted in Book Genre, Book reviews, Contemporary romance, Fiction, Paranormal romance, Romance by

Title: Wicked Beauty
Author: Katee Robert
Date finished: 6/19/22
Genre: Erotic romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: June 7, 2022
Pages in book: 402
Stand alone or series: #3 in the Dark Olympus series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

She was the face that launched a thousand ships, the fierce beauty at the heart of Olympus…and she was never ours to claim.

*A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Helen of Troy, Achilles, and Patroclus that’s as sinful as it is sweet.*

In Olympus, you either have the power to rule…or you are ruled. Achilles Kallis may have been born with nothing, but as a child he vowed he would claw his way into the poisonous city’s inner circle. Now that a coveted role has opened to anyone with the strength to claim it, he and his partner, Patroclus Fotos, plan to compete and double their odds of winning.

Neither expect infamous beauty Helen Kasios to be part of the prize…or for the complicated fire that burns the moment she looks their way.

Zeus may have decided Helen is his to give to away, but she has her own plans. She enters into the competition as a middle finger to the meddling Thirteen rulers, effectively vying for her own hand in marriage. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather see her dead than lead the city. The only people she can trust are the ones she can’t keep her hands off—Achilles and Patroclus. But can she really believe they have her best interests at heart when every stolen kiss is a battlefield?

My rating:  4.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I had read the other two books in this series so far, all were categorized as erotic romance but this one that I thought really fit the bill with that category. This book was definitely steamy – there were lots of classic romance tropes too that were really well executed (forced proximity, both enemies and friends to lovers, bodyguard romance, etc.). This book was also really interesting for me because I honestly couldn’t figure out as I was reading the book how the author would have everything work out in the end. It seemed impossible that we’d be able to find a happy ending but it did happen and it was great. This book was a masterfully well done romance novel and I really enjoyed reading it.

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2022 Status Update – March through June

Posted in For the love of books by

Last time I posted a status update was for February. Work was pretty crazy after this and between that, my son having surgery in April, and just generally not getting as much reading done and not having as many updates – I decided to do these updates more on a quarterly basis than monthly. I have been getting more reading this past month but still not where I might normally be. My family and work have been taking a precedence over reading – plus I have been watching a couple new shows. For anyone that hasn’t watched Ted Lasso – I highly recommend it, it is so wholesome! Anyways, here is my reading progress for the last couple months.

Reading Stats:
# books read this update: 19
# pages read this update: 6,144
# books read year-to-date: 28
# pages read year-to-date: 9,251

Other Posts this post:

No other posts

Favorite books from this post:

Fix Her Up and Tools of Engagement – both by Tessa Bailey

Upcoming TBR List:

  • Catch up on books I missed in the last couple months
  • The Hookup Plan by Farrah Rochon (8/2)
  • Something in the Heir by Suzanna Enoch (9/20)
  • A Merry Little Meet Cute by Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy (9/20)

I have a vacation coming up next month (August) that will be very reading focused, which I’m looking forward to. Work will take up a lot of my time until then but I’m trying to find a balance! Hope everyone out there is enjoying the summer so far and has been finding something good to read. Happy reading!

2022 Monthly Status Update: January

Posted in For the love of books by

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And so we begin another new year! 2022 is already a headache for me – January itself was busy as I try to get used to working a lot of hours with a baby at home. And to close out 2022 everyone in the house has come down with COVID. Being sick during busy season is always tough for me and I’m struggling to get my hours back up to where they need to be. All that to say – January wasn’t my most stellar of reading months! But here is my reading progress for January:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 6
# pages read this month: 1,746
# books read year-to-date: 6
# pages read year-to-date: 1,746

Other Posts this month:

Love at First Spite BLOG TOUR!!

Favorite books from this month:

Nothing I’d call amazing from this month

Next Month TBR List:

  • The Best Kept Secret by Tawna Fenske
  • Hook, Line and Sinker by Tessa Bailey (VERY EXCITED)

I am hoping to still be able to find time for reading during the next couple months even though I’ll be in the trenches of busy season. Even if I only am able to eke out small amounts of time for reading I’m looking forward to some great reads this month! Happy reading!

2022 Book #5 – Electric Idol by Katee Robert

Posted in Book Genre, Book reviews, Contemporary romance, Fiction, Romance by

Title: Electric Idol
Author: Katee Robert
Date finished: 1/20/22
Genre: Contemporary romance, erotic romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: January 18, 2022
Pages in book: 350
Stand alone or series: Dark Olympus series #2
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

He was the most beautiful man in Olympus.
And if I wasn’t careful, he was going to be my death.

*A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Psyche and Eros that’s as sinful as it is sweet.*

In the ultra-modern city of Olympus, there’s always a price to pay. Psyche Dimitriou knew she’d have to face Aphrodite’s jealous rage eventually, but she never expected her literal heart to be at stake…or for Aphrodite’s gorgeous son to be the one ordered to strike the killing blow.

Eros has no problem shedding blood. Raised to be his mother’s knife in the dark, he’s been conditioned to accept that he’s more monster than man. But when it comes time to take out his latest target…he can’t do it. Confused by his reaction to Psyche’s unexpected kindness, he does the only thing he can think of to keep her safe: he binds her to him, body and soul.

Psyche didn’t expect to find herself married to the glittering city’s most dangerous killer, but something about Eros wakens a fire inside her she’s never felt before. As lines blur and loyalties shift, Psyche realizes Eros might take her heart after all…and she’s not sure she can survive the loss.

My rating:  4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I read the first book in the Dark Olympus series and enjoyed it so I decided to try the next book in the series too. This was an interesting read – it was definitely steamy but I wouldn’t say that I’d classify it in erotic romance. It just felt like a really steam contemporary romance to me. I love that the characters in this series are all based on characters from mythology and that it loosely follows along with some of the old stories while bringing a modern spin to it. The dichotomy between old and new is so engaging. This book was especially intriguing to me as there were echoes of traditional fairy tale stories as well – Aphrodite telling Eros to “bring me her heart” like in Snow White and also Beauty and the Beast is even referenced in the book. This book also spoke to a narrative around body positivity in a number of places and I loved it. I especially loved that when we’re getting Eros’ point of view he never had thoughts that were like “oh well she’s chubby but I like chubby” – his thoughts were just straight about how beautiful Psyche was with no qualifiers. I thought this was a great book and I’d definitely recommend it.

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2022 Book #2 – Love at First Spite by Anna E. Collins

Posted in Book Genre, Book reviews, Contemporary romance, Fiction, Romance by

Title: Love at First Spite
Author: Anna E. Collins
Date finished: 1/8/22
Genre: Contemporary romance, romantic comedy
Publisher: Graydon House
Publication Date: January 4, 2022
Pages in book: 298
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Falling in love is the ultimate payback in this delightful, breezy romcom about an interior designer who teams up with an enigmatic architect at her firm to get revenge on her ex the only way she knows how: by building a spite house next door

They say living well is the best revenge. But sometimes, spreading the misery seems a whole lot more satisfying. That’s interior designer Dani Porter’s justification for buying the vacant lot next to her ex-fiancé’s house…the house they were supposed to live in together, before he cheated on her with their Realtor. Dani plans to build a vacation rental that will a) mess with his view and his peace of mind and b) prove that Dani is not someone to be stepped on. Welcome to project Spite House.

That plan quickly becomes complicated when Dani is forced to team up with Wyatt Montego, the handsome, haughty architect at her firm, and the only person available to draw up blueprints. Wyatt is terse and stern, the kind of man who eats his sandwich with a knife and fork. But as they spend time together on- and off-site, Dani glimpses something deeper beneath that hard veneer, something surprising, vulnerable, and real. And the closer she gets to her goal, the more she wonders if winning revenge could mean losing something infinitely sweeter…

My rating:  3.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

One of my all-time favorite tropes is enemies to lovers, even better if they’re work place enemies. So when I saw the description for this one I was so excited to read it. I really liked the book at first too – there was some great banter, I loved the concept of the revenge rental property and it was entertaining! Dani just got to be too much for me – she was a little too whiny for me by the end. And her and Wyatt had like zero communication skills. By the end of the book I just had trouble believing that they were going to be able to make it work. This was still a very entertaining read and I’d recommend it because I did like it – it just wasn’t a great read for me.

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2021 Recap and 2022 Goals

Posted in For the love of books by
2021

2021 was such an eventful year for us! My husband and I welcomed a little baby boy in July and he has been such a joy for us. I had a few months of maternity leave during which I actually got a LOT of reading done. I had gallbladder surgery and then went back to work right in the midst of a busy season so had to dive right into things. We were so blessed this year and it’s hard to believe how much of our life has changed.

So anyways! On to the meat of this post – to recap on the goals list that I had set for 2021:

  1. Participate in certain reading challenges:
    1. Bout of Books Challenge – BOB 31 (May 2021) – Did not participate in this challenge, was very busy with work and the last few months of pregnancy
    2. Book Bingo challenges! I’d like to participate in at least one bingo challenge again this year. Maybe the Ripped Bodice summer bingo but I’ll be busy in July and August so I’m not sure if that’ll work. We’ll see how things pan out but I do so much enjoy those so I’d like to participate in at least one. – I did the Ripped Bodice summer romance reading bingo, I was off for two months in the summer and it was fun!
  2. Keep reading my backlog list! At least one book per month – I was definitely able to accomplish this, I actually read 26 books of my backlog which I was super happy about. I still have 42 books to get through so I have to stick with it !
  3. Keep reading from my personal library! At least one book per month – I did this one too! I might’ve even gotten through more than one a month a couple times, but I also bought more new books in 2021 than I read from my library so have not yet been able to deplete my library at all
  4. Write at least one non-review and non-blog tour post a month – can be one of the structured posts like Top Ten Tuesday or it can be informative or whatever I feel like! – I did this for January, February, March, and April and then I kind of lost track of it. I had a great time writing the posts that I did get out though, especially the Girl Scout Cookie, wine and book pairing post I did in March.

This year was very different for me since we added a new family member. My maternity leave included a lot more reading than I ever would have expected but those late night feedings it’s so easy to read on a Kindle!

In looking back on my year of reading this year, I was able to read a comparable amount related to previous years. Below is a chart of the books I read by month this year vs previous years:

I also really like the functionality of the Goodreads Year in Books summary for giving an overview of what happened during my year for reading. I don’t record 100% of the books I read on here so it doesn’t always match up with my own figures but I love having all the covers in one place, it makes for a neat graphic.

And just for fun! Here are a few of my favorites from 2021:

Favorite Reads from 2021

  • The Hating Game by Sally Thorne – 5.0 stars – Also I watched the movie and I really liked it! There were pros and cons to it but overall I think it stayed really true to the book and it is definitely enjoyable
  • Beach Read by Emily Henry – 4.75 stars
  • Block Shot by Kennedy Ryan – 4.75 stars
  • Runaway Girl by Tessa Bailey – 4.75 stars
  • The Invited by Jennifer McMahon – 4.75 stars
  • It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey – 4.5 stars
  • Getaway Girl by Tessa Bailey – 4.5 stars

Best New Author I Read in 2021

Last year’s best new author was Tessa Bailey and, even though she wasn’t a new author to me in 2021, I feel like I still have to mention her since I’ve been just gobbling up her backlog. I love a lot of the books I’ve read by her. But best new author I read in 2021 is a tie between Emily Henry (loved Beach Read!) and Nikki Sloane (who I heard about on the Fated Mates podcast).

Here we close out the 2021 year and we look ahead to the New Year!!

Happy New Year!

Looking ahead to 2022, I feel so grateful for all the ways my life has grown this past year. Some of those things will take away from my reading and blogging time and that’s an adjustment I’ve been getting used to over the last few months. Reading is still very important to me so I want to make time for it where I can, but many of my 2022 goals are going to be personal goals for outside the blog. That being said, there are some reading goals that I’m still hoping to achieve.

Looking ahead to 2022, here are some of the goals I plan to work on:

  1. Participate in certain reading challenges: Book Bingo challenges! I’d like to participate in at least one bingo challenge again this year. Maybe the Ripped Bodice summer bingo since I’ve done that one the last couple years and have enjoyed it.
  2. Keep reading my backlog list! At least one book per month
  3. Keep reading from my personal library! At least one book per month
  4. Write at least four non-review and non-blog tour post during the year – can be one of the structured posts like Top Ten Tuesday or it can be informative or whatever I feel like! I wasn’t able to keep up with the one a month schedule this past year so I’m hoping doing just four during the whole year will be more manageable.

I wish everyone love and joy in 2022, Happy Reading!

2021 Monthly Status Update: December

Posted in For the love of books by

December-1

December went by in a flash. Between Thanksgiving last month and the holidays at the end of December, plus all the work to get done before the 12/31 deadline, it was a hectic month! The holidays were so wonderful, it was great to see our son’s first Christmas experience – even though he’s still too young to really know what’s going on. I didn’t have as much time as I had hoped to read over my “vacation” time but I did get some reading done. And I watched the new Hating Game movie, I thought it was pretty good! Here is my reading progress for December:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 6
# pages read this month: 2,099
# books read year-to-date: 110
# pages read year-to-date: 37,366

Other Posts this month:

Nothing to report from this past month!

Favorite books from this month:

Beautiful Secret by Christina Lauren – 4.5 stars

Next Month TBR List:

  • Love at First Spite by Anna Collins
  • Made in Manhatten by Lauren Layne
  • How to Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan
  • Electric Idol by Katee Robert
  • You Can Run by Rebecca Zanetti

I’ll be posting a summary of my year sometime in the next couple days – I always like looking back at the past year and thinkin about what I want to accomplish over the next year. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Happy reading!

2021 Book #106 – Here and Gone by Haylen Beck

Posted in Book Genre, Book reviews, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller by

Title: Here and Gone
Author: Haylen Beck
Date finished: 12/8/21
Genre: Thriller, suspense
Publisher: Crown
Publication Date: June 20, 2017
Pages in book: 304
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Here and Gone is a gripping, wonderfully tense suspense thriller about a mother’s desperate fight to recover her stolen children from corrupt authorities.

It begins with a woman fleeing through Arizona with her kids in tow, trying to escape an abusive marriage. When she’s pulled over by an unsettling local sheriff, things soon go awry and she is taken into custody. Only when she gets to the station, her kids are gone. And then the cops start saying they never saw any kids with her, that if they’re gone than she must have done something with them…

Meanwhile, halfway across the country a man hears the frenzied news reports about the missing kids, which are eerily similar to events in his own past. As the clock ticks down on the search for the lost children, he too is drawn into the desperate fight for their return.

My rating:  4.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I had originally requested this book because it sounded very interesting. I haven’t read anything or even really heard much about this author before but the plot of the book sounded too intense to pass up. And intense it sure was! It was even a struggle for me to read it at first because of how frustrating I found it. Imagining what Audra was going through and (as a reader) putting myself in her shoes felt almost traumatic at points. If you push through that struggle at the beginning though, wow what a great ending! The reader will get the vindication of justice and also a couple great twists. I couldn’t put it down and just had to know what happened during the last like 1/2 of the book. I thought it was a really interesting book and, while I have trouble saying I “enjoyed” it just because of the subject matter, I would definitely recommend it.

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2021 Monthly Status Update: November

Posted in For the love of books by

november-top-10

November was such a busy month. Work has been steadily ramping up for me over the last month and I’m trying to really push through before the holidays and get everything done. Thanksgiving was a great celebration this year and we had so much to be thankful for. I didn’t get to read a ton this month but I have been enjoying the books I’ve been reading. Here is my reading progress for November:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 7
# pages read this month: 2,397
# books read year-to-date: 104
# pages read year-to-date: 35,267

Other Posts this month:

Nothing to report from this past month!

Favorite books from this month:

I re-read Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night by Kresley Cole and still loved it. Also have been reading some of Nikki Sloane’s backlog and it is just fantastic.

Next Month TBR List:

I do have one schedule read for next month – its part of the Harlequin Dreamer series blog tour! Stay tuned for more details.

Other than that I am hoping to catch up on books for my Fated Mates podcast that I follow. They’re already into Season 4 and I am still reading along with Season 2 so I have a lot of catching up to do!

I always love doing my year end summary posts, looking forward to those later this month. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Happy reading!