For the month of June I am reading all LGBTQ+ books. I read LGBTQ+ all throughout the year but I thought for Pride I would really focus on these topics and books I have been dying to read or have been on my shelf for awhile. This book was one my boyfriend gave me for Christmas and I thought the synopsis sounded so cute and so I finally dove in!
“I’d date Ms. Maybe to find out if she could be Ms. Right, but not if I already know she’s wrong for me.”
Direct Quote From The Book
About The Book
Author: Rachel Lacey
Publisher: Montlake
Published Date: December 1st, 2021
Page Count: 331 Pages
Main Genres: Romance, LGBTQ+, Contemporary
GoodReads Rating: 3.79
“So, more often than not, she curled up with a book and read about fictional characters falling in love instead of putting herself out there.”
Direct Quote From The Book
Synopsis
Rosie’s whole life has been centered around books. She grew up in her moms bookstore surrounded by all the stories she loves. When her mom passes away Rosie takes over the shop which has so many wonderful memories of her childhood and special moments with her mom. All that Rosie is missing is her own romance story, But she thinks she has found that too when she strikes up a conversation with her favorite author Brie on Twitter.
Everything feels like the stars have aligned until the day Rosie gets a letter telling her that the Bookstores lease will not be renewed and that she has till December to find a new home for her beloved store. Rosie pushes love to the back burner in hopes to save her store but why can’t she have it all?
“And right now, you’re having too much fun flirting with her on Twitter,” Lia teased. “It’s chatting, not flirting,”
Direct Quote From The Book
Rating
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Review
Possible Spoilers Ahead
I honestly had very high hopes for this book because any book about a book store just sounds so cute! Like this book could have been a booklovers dream but it failed to keep me entertained.
Rosie and Jane (AKA Brie) were not compatible at all! Mostly because Janes family business are the ones who are tearing down the bookstore. This causes so much animosity between the two characters that I just didn’t want to root for them to be together. I get the bookstore is special to Rosie but seriously grow up and realize that Jane had no choice in the matter. Also there was one scene where Rosie invites Jane to coffee they have a great five sentence conversation and Rosie who literally invited Jane out stood up and said “Sorry I can’t do this” and left… Like WTF?
Also, don’t even get me started on the pacing of this book. There were things that needed a lot more detail and things that could have used less detail. There were scenes, especially the sex scenes, that were like two sentences and they were already at completion, no that’s not how this works. Then right after the sex scenes there wasn’t much connection between them like we were already moving onto the next day.
Their relationship just felt forced and they really had no time together that was written well enough to make you care about their relationship. All you know about their relationship is that Rosie was always in love with Brie’s writing but hates Jane because of her job. You can’t hate and love someone, one side will always win. And again, all their conversations come back to Janes family business destroying the building, like we get it, can we get some other dialog?
I would have loved this book if Rosie was in love with Brie and they started an online relationship but secretly Brie is Jane, a book lover who comes into the bookstore once or twice a week and they each have secret crushes in real life and in the online world. That would have been amazing! But the whole plot line of destroying the bookstore just built too much animosity that made their relationship unbelievable.
Overall, Rosie’s character was annoying and Janes character had no back bone and both characters combined fell flat. I would love more about Lia and her back story, she was by far the best character who actually did most of the work at the bookstore and to try and save the store. Like Rosie this is your family business and you hardly can even show up to work because you are too busy Hating and loving Jane at the same time to even try and save your store. I just don’t think this is a book you need to read and you should probably skip over this one as a whole.
Wow! May was a pretty productive month for me reading wise which is great because I know June is going to be a very sad reading month due to my move! I Read/Listened to a total of 9 books in May which added up to about 3,000 pages! I am very excited to share with you all the books I loved and or hated this month. Make sure to check out my full review for the books, I will have links placed below the books I have a review for. So lets dive in!
Physical Books
“I Kissed Shara Wheeler” By Casey McQuiston
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Chloe has one thing on her mind: being Valedictorian. She is so close she could taste it! All that’s standing in her way is her rival Shara Wheeler. Shara is the most popular girl in school, not to mention the principals daughter, but Chloe lives and breathes beating Shara in all that they do. But when Shara kisses Chloe out of the blue and then vanishes, Chloe’s main goal is to find Shara so she can beat her to Valedictorian fair and square.
Chloe quickly realizes that she’s not the only one Shara kissed and ditched. There’s Smith, High school quarterback and Shara’s long term boyfriend. Then there’s Rory, the class bad boy and Shara’s next door neighbor. Together, they must work to solve cryptic clues left in some very creative places in order to find Shara and get some answers.
Along the way, new friendships are made, and old friendships are put to the ultimate test.
Nora’s whole life has been centered around books and her little sister Libby. They basically grew up in a book store so it was no surprise to anyone that she became an agent for authors, helping them get the best editorial and publishing deals. But unlike most book characters she’s not that happy go lucky girl who gets the dream guy. Instead, all her relationships fall apart because she is too focused on taking care of Libby and making a career for herself to really focus on her personal life.
Libby is a lot different than Nora. She has always been a romantic and she thinks her sister needs to experience that small town romance all romance book characters get to have. So her and Nora pack up for a month long trip to Sunshine Falls, the small town featured in one of Nora’s clients books. With a bucket list of book tropes to complete will Sunshine Falls finally help Nora find her true self?
Nessa has always known she had a special gift to hear the dead but when she got married and had kids her power seemed to go dormant due to the craziness of every day life. But with her husband dead and her two kids off at college she finds her life finally slowing down and one day she wakes up to the sound of a dead girl calling for her help.
Something inside of her tells her that she won’t be able to help this girl on her own and so her intuition brings her to find two other women with special gifts as well. Jo, a retired business woman who now owns a local women only gym who is filled with heat and rage. Then there is Harriet, the local “Witch” who knows the secrets of the wildlife and plants around her. Together these three women will bring justice to the girl calling to Nessa.
I have not made a full review for these books yet but now that I have read all four (Book five has not been released yet) I will be posting hopefully this week a full blog post about my thoughts and feelings to kick off pride month!
I absolutely love these books and honestly probably like these two better than the first two. Now that Charlie and Nick’s relationship is official you will see them struggle to find the best time and way to announce their relationship. You will also see them struggle with mental health and eating disorders which are already a really tough topic but were written in a great way.
Audio Books
I have not written full reviews for the Audio Books that I listened too and honestly I don’t really plan too so if you would like a synopsis for these books I recommend checking good reads. I will post my rating and Initial thoughts for these books down below.
“The Honey Don’t List” By Christina Lauren
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I love Christina Lauren and the way she portrays her characters! I really liked this book and felt like the relationship was cute but the ending was kind of a let down which is why it is only getting 4 stars and not 5 stars.
“Shipped” By Angie Hockman
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I am not really an enemies to lovers fan but this book handled the trope pretty well. I also really liked the sister relationship this book offered. Only four stars for this book just because it was enemies to lovers and the start of the relationship was rough but over all the book ended perfectly!
“In Five Years” By Rebecca Serle
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
This book started off so good! I was hooked immediately! However, it was not the book I thought it would be. It got really sad and made me cry, which was great! But the ending was just terrible and I really wish it had a different ending. Also the main character was very annoying!
Poetry
“F%#k it! why not?!” By R.S Green
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
I read this book at 3 am one night when I couldn’t sleep. I am not one who typically reads poetry or really even know what good poetry is. But honestly this was not great poetry and I couldn’t relate to anything that I was reading. I highlighted maybe two passages but the rest was just not great. Maybe if I knew more about poetry I would have enjoyed it but I really don’t recommend this poetry book to anyone and I think it could be a waste of your time.
Wow, that was negative. I apologize but honestly don’t waste your time on this one.
DNF
I don’t DNF (Did Not Finish) books. I almost always either read two chapters and decide its not the right time for the book and come back later or I push through the book because I am already halfway so why not just finish it and give it a review. Well the book Down below made me realize life is too short to force yourself to finish a book you just can’t stand. This is my opinion on the book and if you loved it, great! If you hated it, great! If you want to read the book please read it cause you might enjoy it!
Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy–yes, that Wendy. She’s running a successful skincare company; her son, Jack, is happy and healthy; and the tragedy of her past is well behind her . . . until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing from the estate where she’s been long tucked away. And, worst of all, Holly knows who must be responsible: Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but more dangerous than anyone could imagine.
Eden’s disappearance is a disaster for more reasons than one. She has a rare condition that causes her to age rapidly–ironic, considering her father is the boy who will never grow up–which also makes her blood incredibly valuable. It’s a secret that Holly is desperate to protect, especially from Eden’s half-brother, Jack, who knows nothing about his sister or the crucial role she plays in his life. Holly has no one to turn to–her mother is the only other person in the world who knows that Peter is more than a story, but she refuses to accept that he is not the hero she’s always imagined. Desperate, Holly enlists the help of Christopher Cooke, a notorious ex-soldier, in the hopes of rescuing Eden before it’s too late . . . or she may lose both her children.
This book was just a chore to read. I went in thinking this would be a dark, mysterious, Peter Pan retailing where he is in our world and less of Neverland. Well, yes that is the book but literally nothing happens in this book! I made it a little over halfway and I had no clue where this book was going. I had no connections to the characters and honestly didn’t care how the book ended. When I looked at this book sitting on my nightstand I was just not excited to read it. I have so many books on my TBR and it just didn’t make sense to keep reading something that did not bring me joy. So with this book I have started to DNF!
I Posted a TikTok video explaining why I DNF’d this book in more detail so if you’d like go ahead and check that out!
Favorite Quotes
“Every recipe is a spell and all cooks are witches”
From “The Change”
“Yes, you’re afraid of me because I’m better than you are. And if you give one talented woman the power she deserves, another will follow. Then another. And together they’ll show that their way is better. Then your whole fake f*cking world will come tumbling down.”
From “The Change”
“You’re in books. Of course you don’t have a life. None of us do. There’s always something too good to read.”
From “Book Lovers”
“She feels like the spine of a book about to crack and spill out all the love story guts.”
From “I Kissed Shara Wheeler”
Coming Up
Ok, I have a lot of stuff coming up in the near future! We are just a few weeks from my one year blogging anniversary and I have some fun stuff planned for this so stay tuned! June is Pride Month so I will be posting my June TBR and I bet it all will be LGBTQ friendly! I also will be moving this month so blog posts might be few and far between but I will be back once life calms down.
So far this month I have finished seven books, three of which have been audio books and one was a poetry book. I haven’t done any official reviews for these yet but I think I might throw them all into one blog post later and do some mini reviews for them. It’s not that I don’t think they could all have a post dedicated to them but I just feel my audio book reviews tend to be less detailed than my physical book reviews for some reason.
“The Change” was a book I picked up from my Book of the Month subscription box this month and I was very excited to dive into it! To be honest I don’t read too many books that are over 400 pages, this is mostly just how the cards fall, I don’t have too many books on my shelf that are longer or if they are sitting on my shelf their size just feels intimidating! They take longer to read, obviously, and I tend to have a short attention span but I heard even though this book is long the story itself moves pretty fast which made it easier to dive into.
“One day, your life will grow quiet, and that’s when you’ll be able to hear them again. Like my auntie used to say, the gift arrives after the curse ends.”
Direct Quote From The Book
About The Book
Author: Kirsten Miller
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Published Date: May 3rd, 2022
Page Count: 480 pages
Main Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Thriller
GoodReads Rating: 4.33
“Yes, you’re afraid of me because I’m better than you are. And if you give one talented woman the power she deserves, another will follow. Then another. And together they’ll show that their way is better. Then your whole fake f*cking world will come tumbling down.”
Direct Quote From The Book
Synopsis
Nessa has always known she had a special gift to hear the dead but when she got married and had kids her power seemed to go dormant due to the craziness of every day life. But with her husband dead and her two kids off at college she finds her life finally slowing down and one day she wakes up to the sound of a dead girl calling for her help.
Something inside of her tells her that she won’t be able to help this girl on her own and so her intuition brings her to find two other women with special gifts as well. Jo, a retired business woman who now owns a local women only gym who is filled with heat and rage. Then there is Harriet, the local “Witch” who knows the secrets of the wildlife and plants around her. Together these three women will bring justice to the girl calling to Nessa.
“Witch is the label society slaps on women it can’t understand or control.”
Direct Quote From The Book
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
“Every recipe is a spell and all cooks are witches”
Direct Quote From The Book
Review
This book got four stars for one reason really. First I would recommend this book to all my friends as it was really well written and had a very interesting storyline. But if I liked it so much why not give it five stars? Well, yes, I did enjoy this book a lot but there were so many characters that a lot of the time I had to stop reading just to remember who that person was at the beginning of the book when they were first introduced. In fact, in the last 100 pages we still had new characters being introduced and it got exhausting at times. Now, these new characters were important to the story so I can mostly forgive this situation. Other than that I really didn’t have too many hang ups with this book.
The three main characters were all bad ass! They each had very unique gifts and overall I really enjoyed learning their back stories. I think Nessa was my favorite character just because I really felt her emotions and could tell how drained she would get having to witness the dead girls. Jo’s character was really powerful, she had my favorite back story and I really loved her relationship with her daughter. That brings us to Harriet, probably my least favorite character of the three. I didn’t care for her back story as much as the other two and I found her just kind of annoying. I felt her character was mostly there to just foreshadow events. However, her powers were extremely cool but also just felt unbelievable at times.
This book moved pretty quickly and had a lot of really great twists and turns around every corner. I liked how empowering it was for women of all ages and I think the author couldn’t have written a more powerful story. I highly recommend it to all my fellow friends and followers,
Trigger Warnings
Rape, Sexual Assault, Murder, Kidnapping and sexual Harassment
QOTD: If you could have a superpower what would it be?
Things are getting crazy around my house lately because we are getting ready to move at the end of June. So the closer we get to our moveout day the less active I will be but I promise to be more active here starting in July! I just really need to focus on packing and cleaning which makes less time for reading and even less time to type up reviews. Stay tuned!
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and I am very thankful for each prompt she hosts! It makes blogging just that much easier.
Top Ten Quotes
“The Hate U Give” By Angie Thomas
“What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?”
“Your voices matter, your dreams matter, your lives matter. Be the roses that grow in the concrete.”
“At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.”
“Lucky” By Merissa Stapley
“The world’s like that. What matters in one moment, it doesn’t matter the next. Things that fall apart eventually come back together again. Everything passes. You can be sure of that.”
“No problem. People deserve second chances. And third chances. All people do is make mistakes. If we never forgave, we’d all be alone.”
“It Ends With Us” By Colleen Hoover
“There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.”
“All humans make mistakes. What determines a person’s character aren’t the mistakes we make. It’s how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.”
“Just because we didn’t end up on the same wave, doesn’t mean we aren’t still a part of the same ocean.”
“Weather Girl” By Rachel Lynn Solomon
“The only things I kept from him were for his own good. Although lately, I’ve been wondering how happy I really was with him if I hid that much of myself.”
“Crescent City” By Sarah J. Maas
“It sucks that everyone just…moves on, and forgets. They expect me to forget. But I can’t.”
Well that’s all ten of my favorite quotes so far from this year. As you can tell my most favorite books had some of my favorite quotes such “The Hate U Give” and “It Ends With Us” Both had very powerful stories and the quotes will stick with me forever!
QOTD: What is your favorite quote so far this year?
Emily Henry is probably my second favorite author after Casey McQuiston and it just so happened that they each released their third books on the exact same day, May 3rd. Like most books I read, I don’t really read the back of the books, I typically go in blind only knowing the main genres and of course I did that with this book. I knew this would be a romance book just like her other two books before this, I also heard it was the enemies to lovers trope about thirty minutes before I started. In the past I haven’t loved that trope so I was interested to see how I would rate this one.
“You’re in books. Of course you don’t have a life. None of us do. There’s always something too good to read.”
Direct Quote From The Book
About The Book
Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Berkley
Published Date: May 3rd, 2022
Page Count: 384 Pages
Main Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
GoodReads Rating: 4.55
“That’s the thing about women. There’s no good way to be one. Wear your emotions on your sleeve and you’re hysterical. Keep them tucked away where your boyfriend doesn’t have to tend to them and you’re a heartless bitch.”
Direct Quote From The Book
Synopsis
Nora’s whole life has been centered around books and her little sister Libby. They basically grew up in a book store so it was no surprise to anyone that she became an agent for authors, helping them get the best editorial and publishing deals. But unlike most book characters she’s not that happy go lucky girl who gets the dream guy. Instead, all her relationships fall apart because she is too focused on taking care of Libby and making a career for herself to really focus on her personal life.
Libby is a lot different than Nora. She has always been a romantic and she thinks her sister needs to experience that small town romance all romance book characters get to have. So her and Nora pack up for a month long trip to Sunshine Falls, the small town featured in one of Nora’s clients books. With a bucket list of book tropes to complete will Sunshine Falls finally help Nora find her true self?
“Sometimes, even when you start with the last page and you think you know everything, a book finds a way to surprise you.”
Direct Quote From The Book
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
“She wonders whether what comes next could ever live up to the expectations. She doesn’t know. You never can. She turns the page anyway.”
Direct Quote From the Book
Review
I mentioned above that I heard this would be an enemies to lovers type book and to be honest I was a little worried to actually start it for that reason. However, I felt like the characters had some slight animosity towards each other and just a small misunderstanding of each others feelings. Over all I really loved Nora and Charlies relationship. They had really cute banter and I felt like they were the most perfect couple! Their relationship didn’t feel forced which is something I find happens in a lot of romance books but Emily Henry really just nailed this couple and wrote them in a way that you could literally feel their connection while reading.
I gave this five stars but to be honest I was on the edge of giving it four stars and the reason why is because I didn’t love the disconnect between Nora and Libby. Their relationship honestly felt exhausting. I couldn’t really love Libby’s character because every time she came into the scene it felt like she was finding an excuse to leave. Their background story is heart breaking which really helped build their characters but I guess I wished they had more scenes together even though this is a romance book and should be mostly focused on the love interest but this was so much more than just a romance read. Their was a lot of family aspects in this book so I just felt like I needed more of the sisters and Libby’s husband and kids.
The ending of this book, OMG! I cried so hard at the end of this book and I felt like all loose ends came together by the last chapter. I think I need a second book because I need to know how their lives all turn out!
Over all This was a really great book that any book lover will enjoy! If you are on the edge to read this just pick it up and read it! I know you won’t be disappointed!
“The last-page ache. The deep breath in after you’ve set the book aside.”
Direct Quote From The Book
QOTD: Do you wish you could have a small town romance?
Casey McQuiston is my all time favorite author! They wrote “Red, White and Royal Blue” Which I read pretty early on in my reading journey and probably the first romance read I had ever picked up and immediately I was hooked on their writing! When “One Last Stop” came out last year I knew I had to buy it and of course I fell in love all over again with their writing and their characters. “One Last Stop” Is still one of my all time favorite books to this day. I pre ordered “I Kissed Shara Wheeler” Back in early February and I have been not so patiently waiting to get my hands on my copy! Well I got it on Monday and read the book in about two and a half days! Lets see how this book held up.
“Shame is a way of life here. It’s stocked in the vending machines, stuck like gum under the desks. Spoken in morning devotionals. She knows now that there’s a bit of it in her. It was an easy choice not to go back in the closet when she got here, but if she’d grown up here, she might never have come out at all. She might be a completely different person.”
Direct quote from the book
About The Book
Author: Case McQuiston
Publisher: ST. Martin’s Press
Published date: May 3rd, 2022
Page Count: 320 pages
Main Genres: Romance, LGBT, Young Adult
GoodReads Rating: 4.24
“While she does like boys, she generally finds the traits of a compelling villain—arrogance, malice, an angsty backstory—tedious in a man. Like, what do hot guys with long dark hair even have to be that upset about? Get a clarifying shampoo and suck it up, Kylo Ren. So your rich parents sent you to magic camp and you didn’t make any friends. Big deal.”
Direct quote from the book
Synopsis
Chloe has one thing on her mind: being Valedictorian. She is so close she could taste it! All that’s standing in her way is her rival Shara Wheeler. Shara is the most popular girl in school, not to mention the principals daughter, but Chloe lives and breathes beating Shara in all that they do. But when Shara kisses Chloe out of the blue and then vanishes, Chloe’s main goal is to find Shara so she can beat her to Valedictorian fair and square.
Chloe quickly realizes that she’s not the only one Shara kissed and ditched. There’s Smith, High school quarterback and Shara’s long term boyfriend. Then there’s Rory, the class bad boy and Shara’s next door neighbor. Together, they must work to solve cryptic clues left in some very creative places in order to find Shara and get some answers.
Along the way, new friendships are made, and old friendships are put to the ultimate test.
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
“She feels like the spine of a book about to crack and spill out all the love story guts.”
Direct quote from the book
Review
Possibility for light spoilers nothing you couldn’t guess by the back of the book though. Read Cautiously.
You might be thinking to yourself, “Hmm What’s with all the Taco Bell?” Well let me tell you, this book is full of a lot of Taco Bell! It only felt right to ask my local Taco Bell for as many sauce packets as I could get and I believe they gave me like 70 packets! I am not someone who eats at Taco Bell and I don’t think that before today I have ever even had one of their tacos but now I can say I have, all because of this book!
Ok, but really, lets get on to the stuff I know you all came here for. The book review!
Like I said at the beginning of this blog post, I have read all of Casey McQuiston’s books at this point and I waited with much anticipation for this one to be released however, this one is my lowest ranked book of theirs. I really loved their writing as usual but for me it really came down to the characters. So the reason this book is getting four stars rather than five is because by page 200 I was still not in love with Chloe and Shara. I was however invested in all the sub characters and their story lines. I could really use a book about Rory and Smith or even Georgia and how their lives are after high school. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but I just had a hard time really falling in love with Chloe and Shara both as individuals and them as a couple. I am not really an enemies to lovers trope person so that might be why.
What I really loved was the mystery behind every clue Shara left behind. It was a really fun and unique story line. Also every book Casey McQuiston writes is extremely LGBTQ friendly and this book especially felt like a great book for teens who felt like they were unable to come out in high school now or even 30 years after graduating. This book will be one that touches many people for the rest of their lives.
Even though the main characters weren’t for me, this was still a really cute read that I would highly recommend to everyone!
QOTD: What is your favorite fast food Mexican chain?
World of Bai 