Welcome to another Bite Sized Books post where I talk about a couple of arcs I received where each had me ready to book a plane ticket abroad somewhere whilst also making me swoon over an adorable romance.
Mismatched in Manhattan – Tash Skilton
Published: 26th May 2020
Source: Netgalley
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
My Rating:
Leave it to the experts - to break all the rules.
Online Dating Ghostwriting Rules to Live by
Dumped by his fiancée, not only is Miles couch-surfing across New York City, but downsizing has forced him to set up shop at a café. Also, he no longer believes in love. Not a good look in his line of work . . .
Do not present a 'perfect' image. No one will trust it. Nor should they.
Zoey's eccentric L.A. boss sent her packing to New York to 'grow'. But beneath her chill Cali demeanor, Zoey's terrified to venture beyond the café across the street . . .
Think of your quirks - such as cosplaying B-movies from the 1980s - as a 'Future Honesty'. Save these as a reward only for those who prove worthy.
The only thing Miles and Zoey share is their daily battle for Café Crudite's last day-old biscotti. They don't know they're both ghostwriting 'authentic' client profiles for rival online dating services. Nope, they have absolutely nothing in common. . . . Until they meet anonymously online, texting on the clock . . .
Never remind the client you're their Cyrano. Once you've attracted a good match, let the client take over ASAP.
Soon, with their clients headed for dating disaster, both Miles and Zoey's jobs are at stake. And once they find out their lines have crossed, will their love connection be the real thing - or vanish into the ether?
The perfect love letter to Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher and all the wonderful rom-coms that act as a pick-me-up when we most need it.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Where to start? I enjoyed it. It was swoony and fun and the perfect rom-com read. I loved Miles and Zoey instantly, they were fun and awkward and brilliant. Hell, I liked Miles immediately and I knew I'd connected with him when I was cringing when he made a rookie mistake at his job. And Zoey? When she was ready to argue and pay for a free day-old biscotti at the coffee shop? That's how I knew she was my kind of girl, she was competitive and never willing to give in, even when she knew she'd lost. The person she was arguing over a day old biscotti with was obviously Miles and when he took the best seat in the coffee shop as well? Well, that just meant it was war for Zoey, she had to make sure she got that table and beat him. She was my level of petty.
So the premise is simple on this one. Both Zoey and Miles work at competing ghostwriting dating agencies. They help their clients draft their online dating profile and even help them with those awkward initial first contact to help them make the best first impression and weed out the duds. It actually sounds perfect, why can't I have someone do this for me it would definitely make dating sound way more appealing if someone took half the work away from me. I think it's obvious that Miles and Zoey will start working for client's who start dating each other, right? It gives this You've Got Mail type premise a slightly different take as it's almost like a love square as each Miles and Zoey fall for their client's date without realising they weren't even speaking to them.
I want to get my negative out of the way and it ties in with the above. This book dragged in the middle, it felt way too long even though it wasn't that long and the reason? I got fed up of the pair mooning after the wrong person. I wanted one of them to catch on to the other or for them to start speaking more in real life which wasn't them glaring at over a table. It got a little dull for a while. I told myself at 50% I would give myself another half an hour of reading and if it didn't pick up I'd have to DNF. Thankfully, it got moving not too long after that so it was worth it, but no book should have you contemplating giving up on it, I hate when you notice how long you've been reading, that shows the book hasn't grabbed enough of your attention.
Now on to the good stuff because I really did enjoy a lot of this book. If it hadn't had some squiffy pacing issues towards the middle I would have been able to push the rating up a touch higher. I had a great time bouncing between the perspectives of Miles and Zoey. As I said, they were both easy to like from the beginning. They were flawed, but I got them. Miles was a die-hard romantic who was coming off an awful breakup. It left him a bit jaded and rough around the edges but he comes back from it. And Zoey's an LA transplant who hate New York, and change... and is also too scared travel than a few blocks away from her apartment. She was forced to move to New York by her ex-boss (who she was still friends with) and is being slow about adjusting. I actually thought Zoey would be one I would struggle with liking but she's just hella stubborn and I respect that. I quite enjoyed seeing her slowly discovering there were good things in New York and when she finally rode the subway (she has legit reasons of being scared of it ok) and she was with Miles when she did? Honestly, it was so cute. Those are the moments which made this book worth reading.
I think I read it at exactly the right time for me to enjoy the rom-com vibes of this one. It transported me back to the streets of New York where cars never seem to stop at the lights (seriously, US traffic lights confuse me, what is this whole turning on red business?) and it made me want to walk the streets again and discover new things to love there. I don't know if lockdown has just made me more susceptible to wanting to travel after reading books are what but it definitely had me wanting to book a ticket to New York… except there's a global pandemic. It was good, it wasn't a perfect book but it was good and I am glad I read.
Marrying His Runaway Heiress – Therese Beharrie
Published: 28th May 2020 (UK)
Source: Netgalley
Genre: Romance
My Rating:
A diamond isn’t forever…
…until it’s from the right man!
For journalist and heiress Elena John, heading to Italy on assignment is her chance to avoid her impending arranged marriage. But Micah Williams, the star of her article, is nothing like the uptight tycoon she’s been told to expect, and alone in Italy she falls under his charming spell. Their time’s almost over, but Micah’s not ready to let her walk away… His proposal? A convenient counteroffer!
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Therese Beharrie does it again. This book swept me away and had me swooning at Micah and his effortlessly charming ways and had me ready to break lockdown and fly to Italy so I could hang out with Elena and do me some sightseeing... and see if the European pigeons are more civilized (UK ones aren't so I won't delude myself). It was rather unfair this book was released in the middle of a global pandemic as Therese always has me wanting to jet off to whatever location she has set her books in. She had me wanting to holiday in Greece (genuinely, before lockdown happened I had hoped to holiday there this year) and you know she's had me wanting to go to South Africa with her previous books. She always has me googling the price of plane tickets after finishing one of her books, she just makes every location sound so wonderful so how could I not? Her descriptions of Italy were there having me crying because I couldn't go on holiday but it also meant I got to add another country to my future holiday list.
The book centres around Micah and Elena. Elena is a journalist who will be travelling to Italy with Micah for a story about him and his business. What she doesn’t realise until she’s stepped on the plane is that Micah specifically requested her to write the story because her dad is rich and she’s part of the John family. It’s kind of a slap in the face when she knows she is good enough to write the story and she’d rather that not be another thing she got simply because of her family. It meant the two got off to a frosty start, but don’t worry Therese soon had sparks flying between the two. Micah obviously wanted to know Elena wanted to know more about why Elena doesn’t want to succeed due to her family name and Elena knows there has to be a reason Micah requested her, why did her family name make a difference?
The pair were obviously at odds from the start so it was fun seeing them fight the attraction between them. Along with them not wanting to like each other they each had a heap of family baggage too, which plays a significant role in the story. They each strove to have love and approval from their parents and pursued it at the detriment of other areas of their lives. That is until they met one another and noticed the tension between and they slowly found that their attraction to the other actually held more of their attention than trying to get their families approval. Of course, they each came to that realisation at different points and that led a to a big stumbling block in their relationship. I suppose it didn’t help they negotiated themselves into a marriage which was meant to be of convenience except feelings totally got in the way.
This was an example of characters who didn't use their words (a pet peeve of mine) but it never bothered me as we had backstory and explanation and I got it. They had issues to get through. Even when Elena revealed her love and said she needed to step back because she couldn't strive for love from another man and not get it. I got it. She was growing and learning she deserved to be loved. I was cheering her on just as I was cursing her for the hurt it caused Micah. And Micah by saying he loved her than even though he did? Yeah, I wanted to smack him upside the head but I was also waiting for him to take that final step. He was protecting himself and I knew he would be slower to realise he needed to open himself up to pain in the hope of also receiving love.
Basically, this was a really great read. I loved reading this during a little UK heatwave out in the sun (didn't get sunburnt) an excellent summer read. Hopefully, I'll be able to read her next release chilling by a pool as that was the only thing missing for me.
Have you read either of these books? What did you think? And what was the last book you read which had you wanting to book a plane ticket?
At this point I’m not even surprised that I am here writing a Sunday post… on a Sunday. My plans to becoming a blogging pro and not constantly be running behind on posts? Yeah, my ability to stay motivated had something to say about that. But anyway, this has been a mixed week, which is probably why I am only typing this post up on a Sunday.
The good? We have had some lovely weather here in the UK. It arrived when I’ve got to be sat at my computer from half 8 til 5 but we still had good weather. I even cracked out the shorts and bared my pasty white legs to the world… they are now a slightly darker shade of white so it was totally worth it. I took advantage and during my half hour lunch break and once I finished working to sit in my garden and read. Also avoided sun burn so really, I deem that a success. During my time sat outside in the sun my missing garden chair also arrived! I didn’t get the advance warning I was told I was going to have about the delivery so the knocking at the front door did scare the bejeesus out of me. A delivery driver has probably never had someone so happy to receive a chair, though. Put a massive smile on my face… of course a couple of days after the delivery I was stacking those chairs in a corner as I worried the ridiculously strong winds we’ve had here might blow them away (they didn’t).
Sunny weather and happy deliveries have definitely made this a good week. Talking about deliveries, I got my food shop in on Friday and I could have kissed my delivery person. For the past 2 months any time I have done a food order or gone into my little local shop I have checked to see if there has been any flour. Flour is like gold dust, it is simply not on the shelves. So when plain flour arrived in my delivery, I was about ready to throw a party. I have been wanting to bake ever since I moved into the house so of course, when I finally decide to start what happens? Lockdown. And then there wasn’t flour on the shelves. Just typical. I’ve already decided my first bake will be some white chocolate blondies as they have been on my baking list for so long. I’ll report back if they’re a success…. and if not… well, we won’t talk about them.
Now for the bad. It’s not even bad, I’ve just feeling meh. I think I’ve officially been stuck at home for too long. I mean, I thought other weeks were rubbish and have been getting me down but this week? I think it hit me that this isn’t ending any time soon. My office has told me to consider working from home as ‘the new normal’ and so it looks like we’re in it for the long haul. We’ll probably only return to the office for meetings and training for a while. This means I now need to talk to my boss about work equipment because I’m using my own laptop to work on and I’ve bought a few things so I won’t end up with a terrible back and have even worse posture than I started with. I actually don’t mind working from home. I like that I can get up a little later, that as soon as I finish working I can walk to my living room and start thinking about what’s next, I just don’t like that it had to come from a pandemic to make it happen because now I can’t get any social interaction in after finishing work. I know everyone is in the same boat and I am making the effort to arrange calls and chat with friends but I definitely miss going places. It’s one of them, I guess. It probably doesn’t help this weekend is a bank holiday weekend and yet I can’t make plans like I usually would.
Talking about bank holiday weekends, as it was a long weekend I thought I better try and occupy my time at home. I originally planned to paint my bedroom. When I first began decorating rooms in the house I bought a giant tub of cheap white paint as I needed a fresh base for the walls in the living room. I planned to put that in my bedroom to get rid of the hideous magnolia walls, but the first step in even starting to paint that room was to move some furniture. I’ve a chest of drawers which I feel like are a little in the way but I most definitely need. I don’t have any bedside tables at the moment so I figured I could move it to one side of my bed and it would be a rather tall side table. Great idea. Now, I have carpet in the bedroom (a hideous beige but recarpeting/replacing flooring was an expense I was not willing to cover when I needed to furnish the house) so moving furniture on your tod is not the easiest. I ignored all sense though and decided moving furniture by myself would be fine. I took the drawers out and started doing some little mini shimmies to move it across the carpet. It was almost in the right place a few inches back… and then I broke one of the wooden pieces that sits on the drawers. I mean, I couldn’t make this streak of bad luck up. I moved it to where I want, I’ve put the drawers back in and looks like at some point I’ll need to get a piece of week cut to replace it but seriously, wtf? Who have I offended recently for this bad luck? It’s safe to say after that disaster I’ve chosen not to paint, I just can visualise a disaster happening, the magnolia can live to see another day.
What I’ve Been Reading
Not much reading done, I had plans to read more but then I just seem to be watching TV all the time on a night. This is partially because I need to have the TV on to drown out the background noise that comes from next door. From the hum of their TV to her kids playing. It distracts me from reading so then the TV goes on and I get sucked in to a show. I’ve been watching The Great British Sewing Bee (I know, I’m not sure how that happened either) and cooking shows. TV has become a strange place. Anyway, we’re here for books. What I’m saying is I’ve wanted to read but my attention span said no. Therese Beharrie once more graced us with a lovely read which had me wanting to travel the world and then I read a Kindle Unlimited borrow and it was so cute (it’s in the name). I have just started another book but I’ll include it next week as I literally started it this morning when I wasn’t quite ready to drag myself out of bed (yes, that’s where my motivation is right now).
New To Me
And then I did some book shopping. only two purchases, but more than I’ve done in the past couple of weeks. And a couple more arcs for my shelf as well. Mismatched in Manhattan is the book I’ve just started, I’m a chapter in and we’ll see, it’s called Ghosting: A Love Story in the US, I think. And then as soon as Olivia Dade tweeted about being able to request copies of 40-Love I was there. I mean, it sounds good but also that cover! I am loving her cover artist, she’s used them on a few of her releases now. It’s Leni Kauffman for those wondering and if I could I would just have her artwork throughout my whole house.
And that is my week… along with a lot of Sims 4 playing. I’ve even preordered the latest expansion pack even though I am certain my computer will not be happy about such things but I need something to keep me entertained stuck at home and thus Sims. What have you been reading lately?
Date Me, Bryson Keller – Kevin van Whye
Published: 21st May 2020
Source: Netgalley
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
My Rating:
What If It's Us meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before in this upbeat and heartfelt boy-meets-boy romance that feels like a modern twist on a '90s rom-com!
Everyone knows about the dare: Each week, Bryson Keller must date someone new--the first person to ask him out on Monday morning. Few think Bryson can do it. He may be the king of Fairvale Academy, but he's never really dated before.
Until a boy asks him out, and everything changes.
Kai Sheridan didn't expect Bryson to say yes. So when Bryson agrees to secretly go out with him, Kai is thrown for a loop. But as the days go by, he discovers there's more to Bryson beneath the surface, and dating him begins to feel less like an act and more like the real thing. Kai knows how the story of a gay boy liking someone straight ends. With his heart on the line, he's awkwardly trying to navigate senior year at school, at home, and in the closet, all while grappling with the fact that this "relationship" will last only five days. After all, Bryson Keller is popular, good-looking, and straight . . . right?
Kevin van Whye delivers an uplifting and poignant coming-out love story that will have readers rooting for these two teens to share their hearts with the world--and with each other.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
It’s not often I review a book straight after reading but… I had to. I needed to. This book was so good! I’m not going to lie, I was excited about this book anyway, I was planning on buying it as soon as it realised but when I saw I was approved on Netgalley, who was I to say no to reading it early? I’m so glad I did because this just gave me all of the happy feelings, it was exactly what I needed after a week of feeling grumpy and unmotivated. It’s not often I read YA now, I just don’t feel as much of a draw to a lot of YA releases, but gems like this one remind me why I always like to go back. I would like to say, I haven’t even tried to avoid spoilers in my review, there’s just so much I want to talk about
The premise is simple, Kai Sheridan is in the closet, his friends and family know nothing about him being gay. Bryson Keller is one of the most popular guys in school and he got roped into a silly dare where he must say yes to the first person who asks to date him at the beginning of each school week and they will then date for exactly 5 days. Kai probably doesn’t sound like he should be asking Bryson out at all, but impulsively he does. Bryson Keller becomes the only person in the school who knows Kai is gay and (apart from Kai’s friends) he couldn’t have picked a better person. Bryson could easily have been some popular douche who grows and develops and becomes a better person through the book (kind of Peter K type development, don’t even lie, I love the boy in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before but he needed a touch of emotional growth) but Bryson is popular and a genuinely lovely guy. He was so supportive of Kai, even before he realised he had feelings, he was there to help Kai realise things about himself. He joked with him and had fun, even talked about a crush that Kai had. And not once did he reduce down to Kai simply being ‘the gay one’ as Kai worried would happen when if he came out.
I did wonder how this book would effectively write Bryson, a straight character falling for Kai (because we all know they’ll end up together) but, actually, that was a narrow-minded assumption on my part. At one point in the book, Kai is talking about how his crush is straight and Bryson full-on asks him why he assumes guys he has a crush on are straight? It’s something which Kai ponders a lot too. Straight is defined as normal based on societies expectations. From a young age, we are taught that normal is a man and a woman in a relationship, we see it on TV and in magazines, it’s everywhere. But why is straight normal and anything else deemed as different? At no point are we told that Bryson is straight, it’s just an assumption I made and an assumption that those at his school make to. When the dare was made for Bryson to date people no one said it had to be girls, but only girls asked him out. I consider myself to be pretty open-minded, I don’t want to be that stereotypical white girl here, but one of my best friends is gay, yet I realise that I do tend to make the assumption about people I meet being straight and why should that be the case? I liked that this was brought up in the book because it’s a valid point, I know I’ve seen before that it’s unfair that coming out is not something you get to do just once, but instead is something you must do again and again because as you go through life you will meet more people and they will once more make the assumption you are straight, but having it rephrased to question why you assume people are straight, it’s crazy but true.
Anyway, it was a refreshing take for me and I appreciated reading it. I suppose I should have noticed more of the hints about Bryson. He was such a great and accepting person, and maybe he hadn't considered his sexuality at that point. I mean, his sexuality is not explored as in-depth as Kai’s as this was very much kai’s story, but it was silly that I made an assumption. I mean, Bryson showed hints of jealousy at one point, and he held Kai’s hand! Bryson didn’t even need to pretend to date kai really, but he did, he took him out for breakfast, he bought him lunch! I mean, Bryson was an amazing fake boyfriend and who would put in that level of effort if he didn’t have to? I just thought he was an amazingly good guy, but I think he realised quite quickly there was something there.
I think it’s obvious that this book also addresses Kai coming out to those around him. He was scared to come out, the only people he’d tried come out with before were his best friend’s in middle school and they rejected him and blanked him after that. It’s easy to see why he was unwilling to try that again. Unfortunately, he ends up having to. many things happen which mean he comes out to his parents and his school before he was willing to and that was sad. His parents' reaction is probably one which isn’t as uncommon as we might hope it to be. It is not all hugs and kisses and we accept you, not immediately. I got that, I suppose Kai’s parents had their own dreams and expectations about how Kai’s life would go and Kai’s family are regular churchgoers, he even says he’s heard his parents discussing how homosexuality is a sin. You get why it kind of went down like a lead balloon. Thankfully, Kai’s little sister, Yazz, is an absolute darling. She’s the hero in this one instantly accepting Kai and showing her support and she helped to bridge the gap between Kai and his mom and that was brilliant. I will say, Kai’s parents do show support in the end. Kai’s dad accepted him quite quickly after the shock wore off he was there showing his support, but Kai mom? She was a bit slower. And then the fact that Kai was forcibly outed at his school by nasty ass witch and she goes all mama bear. She was slower to come around and remember Kai was still her soon who she adored completely, but she got there and then she was on it being the parent she had always been.
It was interesting to see a very different reaction from Bryson's family. They were just so chilled about it and lovely. They took everything in their stride and that level of acceptance was amazing. I especially loved how Crystal, Bryson’s sister, was all smirking and teasing about it as any self-respecting older sibling would be. I think I liked the acceptance even more because Bryson’s mom was quite absent. She worked and she was successful but this meant sometimes she was away and wasn't physically there for him but you could tell she was always emotionally supporting him. That was obvious from how she called him at least once a day checking in and I liked that. It wasn't that his mom was absent she certainly cared but her work meant sometimes she wasn't there. It was good to see this didn’t fall into the trope of absent parents which I always hate in YA, but instead showed a different kind of parenting.
And Kai’s friends! I worried when they were acting a little funny around him that there would be some shaming when Kai came out but they were instantly there to support him. I think I appreciated that with the characters you saw people's true colours with how they acted. Some of Bryson's friends were idiots before with their homophobic remarks which were 'just jokes' and when they reacted badly to being called out you could see they just didn't get it. But then Donny and Priya, Kai’s best friends, just did. They knew their best friend and they were there waiting for him to be ready to talk to them. They had his back and they would have fought for him if that’s what he needed. Love best friends like that.
This was an adorable romance and I had a great time reading. I would have read it in one sitting but honestly, I needed to sleep. This is definitely a book where you need to read the author's note and acknowledgements because they just made me appreciate the book even more. I didn't realise the author was also from South Africa, like Kai's dad, and mixed race, like Kai, and the book was partially inspired by his own experiences. Got to show some love an excellent own voices read. I strongly recommend reading it. It started a little slow setting the scene with the dare but as it progresses and Kai's awkward adorableness came out swinging I was a goner.
Have you read this, do you agree with my thoughts? What are your favourite #ownvoices LGBTQ+ books?
It is week one thousand in lockdown. It feels like 10 years since life was normal. I haven’t ventured outside f my neighbourhood in weeks.. I can’t drive and as we’ve been told not to use public transport (although, I really feel like the government is giving us mixed messages on what we should and shouldn’t be doing) I can only go to places I can be bothered to walk to. I am very lazy so I’m not exactly getting very far. I saw my stepdad and dog this week though! We were told from Wednesday we were allowed to meet up with one other person from outside our household as long as it was in a public place and you keep a 2m metre distance. I suppose I preempted the government announcement as I’d actually done this a couple of times before because I missed my Milo. Fingers crossed folks don’t go crazy and the infection rate goes down so I can see my family properly. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced it will because I’m certain people will act stupidly and take advantage since people have also been told to return to work and certain shops, are now allowed to reopen. I just worry so I’m not really getting out any more than when the rules were eased slightly. I’m holding off for visiting other households.
Sorry, this isn’t about lockdown. But since I don’t do really do much in a week anymore we inevitably end up talking about it. I say we like this is a conversation, but you know what I mean.
I suppose I should address the elephant in the room, I blogged not a thing this week. I actually tried to type up a post a couple of times but I had nothing to type about. I tried to think of something, I had things I vaguely wanted to put in a discussion but I had no point to make, it would have been me rambling. But it’s not even that, I had things I wanted to write but no clue how to put my thoughts into words. It was a writer's block of sorts, I suppose. It was so weird, left me in a weird funk. I’ve not had proper writer's block this when blogging for a while. It’s usually laziness stopping me writing posts, and there may have been a touch of that too. I have ideas and have put words to a page the past couple of days so there is hope for next week.
What’s happened this week other than not blogging and lockdown changes? I bought a lawnmower and a garden seating set! I have never cut grass before apart from maybe helping my nan cut her lawn when I was little. I used to love when she did her grass because she had a petrol lawnmower and there is something about that smell of grass and petrol that just reminds me of summer days at her house. I know that's weird but we all have her weird memories. Honestly, her lawnmower was so old, it was this old school one with the blades showing and it was so heavy and had this massive roller which flattened the grass. It was amazing it still worked she must have had that ever since she owned a house. So it was an experience cutting my own grass for the first time. I thought I had a before and after picture but turns out I only have after… oh well.
I also said I got seating, I would take a picture… but when it got delivered they forgot to send a whole chair. The set has two chairs, a bench and two little coffee table type thing. It’s all very cute, and the company missed a chair. The delivery driver almost forgot to give me another parcel, he drove off and had to come back and hand me that as well. I called the company and they said the chair was at the store they’ll send out the same day and should arrive the next morning at the latest. It did not. So then I call again and they say it’ll have to come from the spares and replacements warehouse now and can take up to 4 weeks as there is a backlog. What the hell! I will now have to wait 4 weeks and if it doesn’t arrive call again, I feel like it’s a delay technique in the hopes I’ll forget about it. I’m thinking this is my third piece of bad luck. Two broken electronics and a messed up delivery. And here was me thinking it would be a simple thing ordering a seating set… not so much.
I’ve also been attempting to organise my Goodreads shelf. I have cleared off a lot of books from my buy list/tbr. I should probably have made that into a post but it’s kind of boring saying I deleted this because I can’t remember why I wanted to read it. Usually, it’s because someone wrote a really good review of it, but I can’t always remember who that was or what specifically made me add it from their review. It was only books from my maybe buy list that got cleared, next is the must-buy list, I might move a few books into the maybe list rather than deleting them and I know a lot of books have been on that last for a while if I’ve not bought them after two years are they really a must-buy? But yeah, it got to the point that tidying my Goodreads shelves sounded like fun, that’s where I am in lockdown.
What I’ve Been Reading
Still not in full reader mode. It took ages for me to finish Catching Fire, like 3 days! I forgot how slow the opening was but it picked up by the end. I then read Date Me, Bryson Keller and loved it! Review will be up next week but such a fantastic read. Then back to the Hunger Games reread as I started Mockingjay yesterday. Turns out, I kind of hate the rebellion but I’m only 20% of the way in so we’ll see how my thoughts change. I remember being a bit let down by the ending but also remember speeding through the book because so much happens. This one is definitely more fast paced than Catching Fire.
New To Me
Still no book purchases but I did get approved for two books on Netgalley and I am so excited for both. I mean, was there ever any doubt about me reading a Therese Beharrie book? I don’t even think so. And I also got approved for Take a Hint, Dani Brown! I’m pretty sure I must have requested it the same day it went up and I got approved within half an hour! Amazing! I was going to drop everything and start reading ASAP but had to start the Mockingjay reread, but these two books will undoubtedly be read next week.
And that was my week. I miss doing things more exciting than talking about deliveries but what can you do? What have you been reading this week? Any new books I need to know about?
Welcome to another Sunday post which I am typing up last minute because I am lazy!
This week was actually a good week for me mood-wise. I chilled out and figured a low-pressure week was exactly what I needed. This was made even easier to achieve as the first Ma bank holiday was moved to Friday to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE day. It definitely made it easier to switch off from work at 5 every day as I knew I only had 4 days to get through. That being said, I think it also added to my laziness because I figured I could use my three day weekend to catch up on things I’d not done. Except, that didn’t happen because but the laziness was too strong. I think it didn’t help that the weather was warm and warm weather just makes me want to laze about and do very little. Most things do. But I don’t feel too bad about it because, honestly, better to be in a good mood and be lazy than organised and hating life.
What’s happened this week? Well, I seem to be cursed when it comes to electronics. My beautiful yellow house phone has started making a weird buzzing noise so I’ve had to unplug it. Not great, but no one calls me on the landline anyway. Then a milk frother I bought and used a handful of times went and stopped working. So then I had to contact the manufacturer and it was a whole thing. I’ve had it less than 2 weeks, so now I’m in a waiting game for them to respond to me. I’m just waiting for a third thing to break (please don’t be my laptop) because we all know bad luck comes in threes.
During my small bursts of attempting to be productive over my three day weekend, I decided to try and weed my garden. I have basically not touched my garden at all beyond sorting my washing line out. I don’t own a lawnmower yet so it’s almost an experiment to see how long my small patch of grass grows. But this lack of attention to my gardens means these giant weeds have been allowed to grow out of control. Seriously, they’re huge:
So I decided to tackle these weeds when I was sat at my computer on Saturday… I am not a gardener and turns out you can’t impulsively decide to pull giant weeds because those big ones have properly dug down under the gravel. I got rid of some so when my washing is on the line it won’t be dropping into weeds at least. Now I just need to tidy up the little paved area I have, sweep and such, and then I can sort out a little spot for seating and reading out in the sun.
I almost forgot the other highlight of my week! Vera messaged me the other day asking if I’d ever listened to a podcast, The Magnus Archives. I hadn’t and asked about it. it sounded cool so I figured I’d listen, she’s that excited to ask about it should probably show willing and give an episode a listen. I started on Tuesday and I’m on episode 68 already. I should probably have been listening to it while I was weeding. Missed a trick there. It is so good! Honestly, so glad she even mentioned it to me. I’ve never really been into podcasts before but this one is genuinely that good. I spend the 8 hours a day I work listening to it and honestly, I am always tempted to just carry on roaming my house and keep listening. Check it out.
What I’ve Been Reading
I’m actually impressed I’ve read anything this week considering my time has been taken up with Netflix and podcasts. I’ve not finished Catching Fire yet, honestly, I’ve hardly started it, but I will get to finishing it over the next day or so. I’ve continued the Psy/Changeling reading with Blaze of Memory and… I was so unimpressed with that book that I sort of want to stop reading. I’m going to power through and try and reading another one in the series next week, though. It was a book I thought I would enjoy more as the idea of the character of Dev should be really interesting…. but I just was so disinterested in him when I was reading. It’s a strange one, I don’t know if it’s just that I didn’t enjoy reading outside of the Snow Dancer and Dark River packs. I don’t know. But then I started rereading Hunger Games with Vera and honestly, it’s amazing how a series can hold up with age. I forgot how much I enjoyed them. Hunger Games I pretty much read in one sitting Friday morning as my neighbour was being noisy gardening (maybe that’s what inspired me) but Catching Fire I’m taking a little slower. mostly because I was feeling all kinds of lazy Saturday and spent a lot of my day watching Netflix and Youtube.
New To Me
Nothing. I haven’t bought a book all week. Check out me and my self-restraint! I do have a few which are on my maybe buy list, the tabs just sat open on my browser waiting for me to click buy but honestly, books haven’t been the thing I’ve wanted to buy this week.
And that is my week. Being lazy and chilled and getting a little obsessive over a podcast. I mean, that is just so me when I think about it. What have you been doing this week?
Undercover Bromance (Bromance Book Club #2) - Lyssa Kay Adams
Published: 10th March 2020
Source: Netgalley & Purchased
Genre: Contemporary Romance
My Rating:
The first rule of book club:
You don't talk about book club.Braden Mack thinks reading romance novels makes him an expert in love, but he'll soon discover that real life is better than fiction.
Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a sous chef at Nashville's hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she catches him harassing a young hostess, she confronts him and gets fired. Liv vows revenge, but she'll need assistance to take on the powerful chef.
Unfortunately, that means turning to Braden Mack. When Liv's blackballed from the restaurant scene, the charismatic nightclub entrepreneur offers to help expose her ex-boss, but she is suspicious of his motives. He'll need to call in reinforcements: the Bromance Book Club.
Inspired by the romantic suspense novel they're reading, the book club assists Liv in setting up a sting operation to take down the chef. But they're just as eager to help Mack figure out the way to Liv's heart...even though she's determined to squelch the sparks between them before she gets burned.
It’s been a little while since I’ve done a standalone review. And I feel like the pressure is on since I’ll be talking about just one book. Really need to make sure this review is good. Also, this is the first post I'm editing on the new Blogger's updated post editor so this is a true test of if it's any good.
Where to begin with this one? I have to say, I was impressed at how much story was packed into a book which felt like it flew by when I was reading. It doesn’t feel long and honestly, as I was reading I kept thinking to myself ‘just one more chapter’. It was definitely an easy read.
This one focuses on Mack and Liv and I had some reservations about that. I liked Mack in the first book. he was charming, a smooth talker, and he seemed fun. He was always going to be easy to like (even if he occasionally felt a little too slick and a little superficial) but Liv? I kind of hated her. I mean, she was kind of the worst in the first book. So unsupportive of Thea and Gavin and so very against Thea even speaking to Gavin. Even if they hadn’t gotten back together in that book the couple would have always had to interact as they had two children to think about and Liv seemed to be against any interaction. It was rather upsetting considering Liv and Thea grew up with parents who weren’t together, they knew the strain that puts on kids. But anyway, I digress, the point was I didn’t like Liv and was not all that happy to see her here. Thankfully, once you get to see things from Liv’s perspective, it’s far easier to like her. I mean, she still needed calling out on her shit (often) but it helped to hear her own thoughts to explain some of her negative nelly attitude, you know?
Liv was always the difficult one to like and it was still true when she got her own book. I didn’t always understand her. She refused help from anyone but expected others to accept her help. And when I say help I mean her forced assistance and shoving her nose into other people’s business. That’s not a bad thing, she was calling out sexual harassment in the workplace, but she went in full bull in a china shop with everything she did. She didn’t think at all and she frequently opened her mouth without ever engaging her brain. She was called out on a lot of her comments. From the casually sexist comment, we all make like 'man up' and 'don’t be a girl' to the comments which were basically victim-blaming when it came to speaking to someone who was a victim of sexual assault. I mean, she just didn’t think things through at all. It was all kinds of frustrating and although I loved her romance with Mack and the growth she had through this book, she was still not going to be my absolute favourite character ever.
Thankfully, Liv was balanced out with a man who was all about the charm. A smooth-talking nightclub owner who was a fan of romance books. What’s not to like about Mack? I was excited to meet him because he really was easy to like and didn’t he just know it. But, as some of the women he dated said, it did often feel like he was putting on an act and when we got to know him more and past! Hot damn, did I understand why he was always putting on a show, he had a lot of things he was carrying around with him. Scars from his past and his family that meant he didn’t want to allow anyone too close. But still, I liked him best when he wasn’t trying to follow the romantic guidance of a romance novel or trying to find the perfect line for Liv. But when he acted on impulse and allowed his emotions to take over.
Liv and Mack together? They were great. Mack was all pretence and outward appearances whilst Liv was kind of what you see is what you get. She was blunt and straight to the point (most of the time). I liked to see these opposites get together.
And the best part? The feminism throughout every page. I mean, I knew it was a winner when the book opened with our little book club making their first trip to an actual book shop rather than ordering their romance online because they wanted to tackle the whole concept of toxic masculinity and any shame they might feel in walking into a bookshop to purchase romance for themselves. It was even better when they were despairing at the woeful romance selection with a single small section dedicated to romance. These men need to come to the UK where you will fail to find any romance section in pretty much any bookshop. I can't talk for independent ones of course, but big book chains like Waterstones and Foyles? Yep, you aren't finding a romance shelf. Might as well go home now. But I digress, basically, I loved the fun lighthearted opening of these men complaining that there isn't more romance. I loved that these small moments of the guys talking openly about how toxic masculinity and patriarchal concepts are the very same things holding women back. When Hop lamented the fact he could no longer make jokes about women as if it was political correctness gone made yet said he hoped to have a female president in his lifetime was great because when the guys came back at him and said that those jokes might be the very reason there hasn't been a female president. I was practically cheering because Adams so easily put into words concepts I struggle to explain to others. And she does it so well throughout the book.
The story was good as well. I kind of don't want to spoil too much because I actually went into this one totally blind and probably enjoyed it more for it, but the story was good. I was never bored by any of the plot development. I didn't find anything too farfetched or skim through a part of the story. I was just swept along the whole way laughing and just plain old enjoyed myself. This was just so damn enjoyable. I cannot stress it enough how much fun this was to read. I mean, I'm smiling writing the review. How can I be smiling writing a review of a book?
I'm sure I've not done this book justice here, I always hate putting into words the ways in which a book has gone right but honestly, give this book a go and you'll see what I mean.
Have you read this already, did you enjoy it as much as I did?
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