lisaluvsliterature's reviews
4122 reviews

This was a short story, I thought from Amazon, but maybe not? Maybe it was a download from the author? Anyway, a really short story. Like only 3 or 4 chapters? Left hanging? But not in a bad way, just in a very basic, okay, now where is the full story way? I would have to pick up the book in the series that this goes with. And I hope to do that some day. I sat and read this one very quickly in the waiting room while my mom was getting her eye exam this past month. 

I really enjoyed the first book, This is Not a Holiday Romance, so I was excited to read this one too. I really enjoyed this marriage of convenience story. The meet cute was a total NOT meet cute, in that both ended up puking in bathroom stalls right next to each other! But it was perfect to lead up to how the story was going to go.

There was so much of the usual miscommunication or not telling the other when the feelings got deeper, just as you would expect from a story like this. In fact it was a whole misunderstanding based on this type of issue that led to the 3rd act breakup. But that also played into the post-partum depression aspect of the story. It was nice how the two of them complemented each other in the relationship. And how Adrian really was trying to help her behind the scenes too.

Now, when we got to the end, I feel like it was a little rushed as well as removed from the situation with the break up and all that, but I wonder if the author was trying to make us feel like Rowena was feeling with her PPD?

In the end another good story from this author, and I think maybe there is a friends to lovers romance on the horizon with some of the characters left in the friend group?

Another winner as part of The Improbable Meet Cute series of novellas. Another author I am loving, Abby Jimenez. In a way had an epistolary aspect as the two only connected through some notes left on a car. However the story itself was told like a normal story with the two characters. I almost wasn’t able to listen though, as the storyline about Holly’s grandmother being in hospice and close to death brought up some feelings from last year with my stepdad, but I know I’ve got to move on because there are things that make me think of that everywhere now. In the end I loved the story, the meet cute, the coincidences that brought them together, all of it. Can’t wait to go on, but it will wait till I no longer have some of the audiobooks I’ve got from the library that keep becoming available.

The publisher reached out to me about this one, and it sounded good, but at first I wasn’t sure if I’d get to it. When I got kind of stuck with another ARC I was reading, I went ahead and picked this one up and was hooked immediately! The characters were so much fun. The whole trip itself, through England and Scotland to get to Ireland eventually, I loved it all! We got this from Ada’s POV, so there were times that I would be so mad at Jack for things he said or did, or didn’t say.

There was a lot there with the family, both Ada’s issues with her sister who used to be her best friend. And not knowing if Jack was good enough based on the other guys her sister had always dated, and she’d had to save her from. It all seemed so fast to Ada. It was Jack’s best friend who was the groom, and while he was all about what a good guy his friend was, he also was unsure about if the two should get married. But that was more based on his own relationship issues.

So many different catastrophes befell these two in their journey to get the veil to her sister, and also be there in time for the wedding, with canceled flights, missed trains or trains being canceled due to the strike, something I think was going on when I was in Scotland! Of course once it seemed like they might be able to move on and have their connection be true, there was a third act breakup, but it made sense the way it happened. And it was such a healthy way for them to get back together at the end. I loved it! I also now kind of want to find a woman to do my next tattoo I want, lol. Not sure why that would matter, but I’m just intrigued!

While the title at first made me think more along the lines of Door Dashers, except in this case maybe people who brought stuff to weddings, that’s not at all what the story was. It was a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend it! I hope to read more by this author in the future!

So I actually bought these e-books on Amazon a year ago? I also bought the collection on Audible for a deal shortly after that too. So when I was in between review books for audiobooks and was having trouble getting into the one for the read-along, I started this one. It is obviously a short and sweet listen and I loved this mostly epistolary style novel, told through emails till the very end. I adored it! And loved the actual in person meet cute after the email meet cute at the beginning of the story. Definitely the perfect story to start these off with!

This was one I should have had read before the Gateway possible nominee vote. I might have fudged a bit and went ahead and gave it 5 stars on the ballot even though I hadn’t read it yet, when normally I just skip the ones I haven’t read. But I knew, and I was completely right that I would LOVE this one. And it is more than just a YA romance. The characters are dealing with divorced parents and how that affects them, and also how it feels when their parents start dating other people or get married, etc. As I mentioned with the adult title, Accidentally Amy, that I just read and reviewed, the banter that Painter writes is sooooooooo good! It made me smile, laugh out loud, and I just adored it! I also loved that the mom in the story was a KC Chiefs fan. Now, at one point towards the beginning, the mom was saying she was a Bobby Vinton fan, and honestly, I think most people with teenage daughters these days are around my age, and Bobby Vinton was before us. To me I’d think maybe Duran Duran or New Kids on the Block, someone from the 80s would be more fitting. I totally at one point was thinking of all the ways I would be so petty and what I would say to Charlie in that third act breakup that was sooooooooo perfectly done and necessary. The whole grand gesture was perfect though, and oh my gosh, I loved all the parts of the story with Puffball the kitten and Charlie. I loved, loved, loved this book! I already bought it for my school library before I got to read it, and now I can’t wait to share it, hand promote it, for my students! Which reminds me I need to do my favorite reads of the past year display at school again!

Technically I already owned this book on audio, and I actually started listening last year on my way to meet the author one day. But at her event, she mentioned that she was rewriting it to have both POVs and republish it with Berkley, and so I put it aside and when I saw the e-galley pop up on Edelweiss, I grabbed it! THEN! I saw a fellow blogger post about reading it on Goodreads, and I started wondering when I needed to read my e-galley. This was January 17th, when I realized that it came out on the 14th, and also after the publisher denied my request for another book by this author for this year, and oops, figured I better read it now! So I started reading it on my phone on my lunch break at work Friday, and of course was hooked, even as I read through the first 25% of the book that I’d kind of already listened to. 

So I loved it. The banter, the hilarious situations, the wonderful friends and family that made up the cast of characters in the book. This book had me laughing out loud, smiling at all the little KC Chiefs references in the book that the author threw in. I always love characters like Izzy, because her scatter-brainedness and run off at the mouth when nervous personality totally remind me of myself. I liked how Blake had to put the brakes on so quickly because of his background of people lying. Now, the whole PSL lie was a little bit extreme for him to be so judgy about, but he did get over that quick enough to be friends. The whole work issue for them not being able to date was realistic though and handled in a way that I also felt was realistic. The two came so close with their friendship to letting it go farther like they both obviously wanted, but I feel neither really got upset at the other or made drama when the other would pull back, again, very realistically and not just drama for drama’s sake. 

The way the big break up in the third act went was perfect. It wasn’t unreasonable, it wasn’t unexpected either, it made total sense. Again I loved the way the author did the big win back moment, from both characters, so maybe more than one moment! I mentioned the banter being great. I’m still giggling over the “I spoiled meat you.” All the times that Izzy would make up words or try to use words and Blake would call her on the non-word or silliness. But in a fun way again, love that banter and sarcasm! 

Once again I loved an adult rom-com from this author, she does so good whether it’s YA or Adult, I’ll read them all!

Okay, so yes, I knew it was a novella, and a prequel. But I was not prepared to be left quite so hanging at the end of it. That’s my own fault. However, it was definitely a good story and it makes me want to read on! From what I can tell about the synopsis of book 1 in the series, which I do have a freebie copy of that as well, it will be about one of the characters we kind of barely met in this one, not the couple from this book. And it seems I’ll be waiting till the 3rd book to get Marcella and Seb’s story from this novella. Although it sounds like that book will be only 6 months after this one, so that is good? Anyway, a fun quick read at only 79 pages. My first book by Liz Alden who I’ve been wanting to read for a while!

Honestly, this was a really good book, especially if you are a fan of unreliable narrator thrillers. It made me think of the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer for one thing. I know my students will love the thrilling suspense and twist of the story at the end. Personally I had a feeling about one or more things that ended up happening, not that it was played out poorly, just again because I had an inkling. My not giving it a 5 stars like I gave the other book by this author had more to do with my own preferences in stories and characters, and I won’t say what the specific issue for me was, because I think anyone who loves a good thriller or the movie I mentioned will really like this one!

Wow, three YA contemporary romances in a row! Fortunately I think, while the last two kind of had a theme about figuring out how to be a better girlfriend/boyfriend, this one might have more to do with just a teen trying to figure things out, and more of a funny enemies to lovers trope to it. This book had me literally laughing out loud once again. The snarkiness and sarcasm between all the characters was perfect. I know some people might not think that is a good way to be, but it is my family and my friends, so I loved it.

I also was cracking up constantly over the little things River would think about Sarang because she was short (I am also very short, only 5 feet tall, so loved this!). When he thought to himself, “Why are short people so scary?” All of the characters were so interesting and full of color and jumped off the page for me. It was totally clear what was going to really come back and bite River in the butt at the end, what would cause the big blowup, but that didn’t matter. Because there were so many other things happening, and with all these wonderful characters, in the end he wasn’t the only one who had to apologize or make up for something.

His family, especially his father, wow, it was easy to see why he was so scared to tell them, even as I kept wanting him to just come clean earlier in the book about his new job. His ex-girlfriend, wow, I wanted to punch her so many times. And then the betrayal by one member of the group at the end hit hard. I couldn’t believe how far she went, even with the way she felt about what drove her to that point. 

This story had so many good parts, so much humor, and lots of emotional bits as well. I once again enjoyed reading about all the different foods. And while I really kind of want to try bingsu, I also just can’t picture beans, even supposedly “sweet” beans, mixed with shaved ice and fruit. Beans, other than jelly beans, are not sweet to me. It’s kind of like the whole beans on toast thing, it just seems weird to me! But maybe some day I’ll try bingsu!