Category: ARCs

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone | ARC Review

Posted June 3, 2024 in ARCs, Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone is truly a slice of life novel. Following protagonist Eve, I found the story to be a beautiful exploration of identity and the transitional space between pre-parenthood and motherhood. The story takes a unique take on a pregnancy story. Eve becomes pregnant via a one night stand with a cute and charismatic guy she meets during a night out on the town. It’s a shock to her perfectly curated, if perhaps a bit too safe, life in New York, with her freedom and perfectly curated apartment and total devotion to her best friend. To […]

The House on Biscayne Bay by Chanel Cleeton | ARC Review

Posted May 21, 2024 in ARCs, Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

I love love love Chanel Cleeton’s historical fiction novels about the Cuban diaspora in the US, and this one didn’t disappoint, with the added bonus of also being a mystery with a spooky slant to it. As with many of Cleeton’s novels, the story is told in two interwoven timelines. The first follows Anna, who is the wife of a wealthy American man who basically wants to be the next Gatsby and moves them from New York to Florida to build an over the top, enormous manor and estate (Marbrisa) that his wife isn’t really a big fan of. The […]

Cozy Mystery Mini Reviews | Four Aunties and a Wedding (ARC) & Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead

Posted June 6, 2022 in ARCs, Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

There’s something about the books in this series that are so absurd, yet they somehow just work. Picking up shortly after where Dial A for Aunties left off, Four Aunties and a Wedding follows protagonist Meddy at her own wedding this time, where (of course) a massive chain of disasters ensue. You know how they say how doctors make the worst patients? That’s basically what happens in this novel, with, you know, your casual mafia twist. Meddy and her aunties run a wedding planning business, and are now looking for vendors for their own family wedding. Meddy doesn’t get much […]

Tokyo Dreaming by Emiko Jean (Tokyo Ever After #2) | ARC Review

Posted May 23, 2022 in ARCs, Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

If you’ve been reading my reviews over the years, you know that one of my absolute favorite series in the whole wide world is The Princess Diaries, and that I am a sucker for the normal-girl-finds-out-she’s royalty trope. Naturally, Izumi’s story of finding out she’s the illegitimate daughter of Japan in the Tokyo Ever After series is right up my alley! I actually found that I enjoyed the second book in this series quite a bit more than the first, because as a reader I adored getting to see how Izumi has adjusted to royal life and what her life […]

Our Last Days in Barcelona by Chanel Cleeton | ARC Review

Posted May 16, 2022 in ARCs, Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

When I tell you that I LOVE the epic story of the Perez family that Chanel Cleeton has created, I am not kidding! Every installment in the series is an instant “add-to-TBR” book for me, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to review an early copy of the newest addition to the Perez family’s history, Our Last Days in Barcelona. In Cleeton’s newest novel, readers follow eldest Perez sister Isabel who’s often been in the background as the dutiful, quiet sister. After a few years from their escape from Cuba to Florida, Isabel has been married off to […]

Pretty Fierce by Kieran Scott | ARC Review

Posted March 8, 2017 in ARCs, Reviews / 3 Comments

Thanks so much to NetGalley and SourceBooks Fire for this review copy! Pretty Fierce is a book with an undeniably intriguing premise, focusing on a daughter of assassins who’s now trying to fit into civilian life after her parents’ mysterious disappearance. I am pretty much always on board for a good spy story, so the second I read the synopsis and saw the juxtaposition of the blurb with the unabashedly pink cover, I knew this was a book that I had to read. As the book’s synopsis states, a majority of this book features Kaia and her boyfriend Oliver on […]

How Could You Be So Heartless?

Posted October 24, 2016 in ARCs, Reviews / 6 Comments

Heartless is one of the most fantastic ARCs I have ever been privileged enough to receive. I waited two hours in line at YALLWest and it was a hot mess getting it (it was pretty much a swarm) but I can’t be more thankful that I acquired it, because it’s a haunting tale that really shows the range of Marissa Meyer’s writing capabilities. Set from the perspective of the Queen of Hearts before she was royalty, Heartless follows Catherine, the daughter of a Marquess in the land of Hearts who wants nothing more than to open a bakery. Baking is […]

The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong | A Psychological Thriller Worth the Anxiety

Posted February 8, 2016 in ARCs, Reviews / 5 Comments

In the YA genre, it’s rare that you get a thriller that’s grueling and graphic, one that makes you wince as you turn the page because you’re not quite sure what you’re going to encounter and how it’s going to affect you. Yet that’s exactly what The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong offers. It’s a story that isn’t bound by genre in it’s realistic portrayal of the realities of a hostage situation, and doesn’t sugar coat the fate of most of its characters. While I times it may be an intense read, I am always one to appreciate when a […]

A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston | ARC Review

Posted October 19, 2015 in ARCs, Reviews / 13 Comments

My Review “Good men fall to monsters every day. Clever men are tricked by their own pride or by pretty words. That is what happened to the king in the tale she tells.” Very rarely do I find myself reading -and finishing- a book that was completely and totally not what I was expecting. Somehow, however, A Thousand Nights slipped through my bookish radar and when I finally got my hands on a much-coveted copy at ALA, I was somehow convinced it was going to be your average, run of the mill, Disney-washed Arabian folk tale retelling that was heavy […]

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle | ARC Review

Posted August 5, 2015 in ARCs, Reviews / 16 Comments

So let’s raise our glasses to the accident season, To the river beneath us where we sink our souls, To the bruises and secrets, to the ghosts in the ceiling, One more drink for the watery road. If there’s one word to describe The Accident Season, it’s atmospheric. Set in Ireland, it follows a family that suffers unfortunate events (everything from scrapes and bruises to deaths) every October, despite their best precautions. It’s a refreshingly unique premise for a YA novel, and while I was anticipating horror, what the storyline evokes instead is a unique sort of whimsical eeriness. The […]