Review: House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Started reading: July 31st 2022

Finished the book: September 21st 2022

Pages: 805

Genres: Fantasy, Romance

Published: February 15th 2022

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.52

My score:

Synopsis

Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar are trying to get back to normal―they may have saved Crescent City, but with so much upheaval in their lives lately, they mostly want a chance to relax. Slow down. Figure out what the future holds.

The Asteri have kept their word so far, leaving Bryce and Hunt alone. But with the rebels chipping away at the Asteri’s power, the threat the rulers pose is growing. As Bryce, Hunt, and their friends get pulled into the rebels’ plans, the choice becomes clear: stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight for what’s right. And they’ve never been very good at staying silent.

In this sexy, action-packed sequel to the #1 bestseller House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas weaves a captivating story of a world about to explode―and the people who will do anything to save it.

Review: House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Started reading: July 19th 2022

Finished the book: July 26th 2022

Pages: 803

Genres: Fantasy, Romance

Published: March 3rd 2020

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.48

My score:

Synopsis

Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.

Review: Welcome to Ferry Lane Market (Ferry Lane Market #1)

Author: Nicola May

Started reading: June 9th 2022

Finished the book: July 8th 2022

Pages: 384 / 8:53:00

Genres: Romance, Fiction

Published: July 22nd 2021

Source: Storytel Audiobook

Goodreads score: 4.11

My score:

Synopsis

Although thirty-three year old Kara Moon loves her hometown of Hartmouth in Cornwall, she has always wondered if she should have followed her dream of leaving to study floristry. But she couldn't bring herself to leave her emotionally delicate single father, and has worked on Ferry Lane Market's flower stall ever since leaving school.

When her good-for-nothing boyfriend cheats on her and steals her life savings, she finally dumps him and rents out her spare room as an Airbnb. Gossip flies around the town as Kara welcomes a series of foreign guests to her flat overlooking the estuary.

Then an anonymous postcard arrives, along with a plane ticket to New York. And there begins the first of three trips of a lifetime, during which she will learn important lessons about herself, her life and what she wants from it - and perhaps find love along the way.

Review: People We Meet on Vacation

Author: Emily Henry

Started reading: July 1st 2022

Finished the book: July 4th 2022

Pages: 364

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Chicklit

Published: May 11th 2021

Source: Ebook

Goodreads score: 3.99

My score:

Synopsis

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Review: Awakening (Queen of Spades #1)

Author: E.J. Dawson

Started reading: June 22ne 2022

Finished the book: June 27th 2022

Pages: 280

Genres: Science Fiction, Romance

Published: April 10th 2020

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads score: 4.38

My score:

Synopsis

Ayla is a villain. With a gift that allows her to see when anyone will die, she’s remorseless in her profession as the perfect assassin. When she wakes up in a cryo-tank three thousand years in the future, and no idea how she came to be there, all that matters is survival.

Rescued by Leith and the crew of the Nuria, Ayla discovers a far evolved world of space ships and galactic colonization. But everything comes with a price, and though Ayla is no princess locked in an icy tower, she still has to pay for the rescue she didn’t know she needed.

Given over to Leith, a darkly handsome man who reads Ayla far easier than she’d like, they must work together if Ayla is to repay her debt. As the pair come to learn how dangerous one another are, so too grows a lustful bond that comes with rules of its own. Fighting to learn why she was frozen, Ayla’s dragged into Leith’s past with a criminal organization seeking to take over this sector of the galaxy. In order to survive, Leith will need Ayla’s help, but Ayla doesn’t know if she’s willing to pay what it will cost her…

Review: A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4)

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Started reading: May 14th 2022

Finished the book: May 21st 2022

Pages: 757

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult

Published: February 16th 2021

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.40

My score:

Synopsis

Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she's struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can't seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.
The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre's Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta's orbit. But her temper isn't the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.
Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.

Review: Beautiful World, Where Are You

Author: Sally Rooney

Started reading: April 26th 2022

Finished the book: May 19th 2022

Pages: 356

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance

Published: September 7th 2021

Source: Ebook

Goodreads score: 3.62

My score:

Synopsis

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

Review: Cracked Kingdom (The Royals #5)

Author: Erin Watt

Started reading: December 11th 2020

Finished the book: March 2nd 2021

Pages: 305 / 09:04:57

Genres: Romance, New Adult

Published: March 1st 2018

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 3.90

My score:

Synopsis

Ever since Hartley Wright met Easton Royal, her life hasn’t been the same. There are enemies behind every corner and dangers beyond each door. When tragedy strikes and steals her memories, she can’t trust anyone, not even the blue-eyed boy who promises her that everything will be all right.Because while Hartley’s memory is full of gaps, her instincts tell her Easton is dangerous. She doesn’t know if he’s the snake in the garden or her chance at salvation. The chaos he brings wherever he goes is too much to handle, the intense feelings he evokes are too confusing to unravel.
Easton wants her to remember. Hartley thinks it’s better to forget. She might be right.

Review: Always and Forever, Lara Jean (To All the Boys I've Loved Before #3)

Author: Jenny Han

Started reading: February 6th 2021

Finished the book: March 2nd 2021

Pages: 325

Genres: Romance, YA

Published: May 2nd 2017

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.10

My score:

Synopsis

Lara Jean is having the best senior year. And there’s still so much to look forward to: a class trip to New York City, prom with her boyfriend Peter, Beach Week after graduation, and her dad’s wedding to Ms. Rothschild. Then she’ll be off to college with Peter, at a school close enough for her to come home and bake chocolate chip cookies on the weekends.Life couldn’t be more perfect!

At least, that’s what Lara Jean thinks... Until she gets some unexpected news. Now the girl who dreads change must rethink all her plans—but when your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?

Review: P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before #2)

Author: Jenny Han

Started reading: December 25th 2020

Finished the book: December 28th 2020

Pages: 337

Genres: YA, Romance

Published: May 26th 2015

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.10

My score:

Synopsis

Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter. She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever. When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I've Loved Before, we see first love through the eyes of the unforgettable Lara Jean. Love is never easy, but maybe that’s part of what makes it so amazing.

Review: Harmony's Embrace (Deerbourne Inn, #23)

Author: Amber Daulton

Started reading: November 23rd 2020

Finished the book: November 29th 2020

Pages: 126

Genres: Romance, Christmas

Published: November 16th 2020

Source: Digital copy from the author

Goodreads score: Not enough ratings

My score:

Synopsis

Divorced dad Birley Haynes is too busy raising his children and running his family’s music academy to start a relationship. Then Harmony Holdich, his high school sweetheart, returns home to Willow Springs, Vermont for Christmas and falls into his bed. She brings light and fun back into his life, but he can’t brush aside the threatening incidents around his workplace.

Harmony hadn’t expected a complication like Birley, especially so soon after the death of her unfaithful husband. With her life a mess, she plans to move across the country and start over. All she can offer him is a fling, but her heart yearns for more.
When the threats rise, how will Birley keep his children safe and convince Harmony to give love another chance?.

Review (re-read): To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before #1)

Author: Jenny Han

Started reading: October 21st 2020

Finished the book: November 22nd 2020

Pages: 421

Genres: YA, Romance

Published: August 7th 2014

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.15

My score:

Synopsis

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed.

But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh.

As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

Review: Fallen Heir (The Royals #4)

Author: Erin Watt

Started reading: October 6th 2020

Finished the book: November 13th 2020

Pages: 300 / 07:50:13

Genres: Romance, New Adult

Published: August 28th 2017

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 3.88

My score:

Synopsis

These Royals will ruin you.
Easton Royal has it all: looks, money, intelligence. His goal in life is to have as much fun as possible. He never thinks about the consequences because he doesn’t have to. Until Hartley Wright appears, shaking up his easy life. She’s the one girl who’s said no, despite being attracted to him. Easton can’t figure her out and that makes her all the more irresistible.
Hartley doesn’t want him. She says he needs to grow up. She might be right.

Rivals. Rules. Regrets. For the first time in Easton’s life, wearing a Royal crown isn’t enough. He’s about to learn that the higher you start, the harder you fall.

Review: Tarnished Crown (The Royals, #3.5)

Author: Erin Watt

Started reading: September 20th 2020

Finished the book: October 1st 2020

Pages: 192 / 4:45:00

Genres: New Adult, Romance, Novella

Published: August 18th 2017

Source: Storytel

Goodreads score: 3.61

My score:

Synopsis

Two years ago, one mistake cost Gideon Royal the girl of his dreams. Since then he’s become jaded and stoic, caught in a spiral that has him dealing with blackmail, heartache and loss. When he left for college, he hoped to start over. But fate has other ideas, placing Savannah Montgomery in his path again.

Savannah believes there’s no coming back from Gideon’s betrayal. He thinks she’s wrong.
Forgiveness. Hope. Redemption. Gideon has vowed to win back the only girl who owns his heart. And when a Royal makes a promise, he’ll go to the ends of the earth to keep it.

Review: The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2)

Author: Lucinda Riley

Started reading: August 2nd 2020

Finished the book: August 25th 2020

Pages: 608

Genres: Fiction, Historical, Romance

Published: March 22nd 2016

Source: Bought the book

Goodreads score: 4.27

My score:

Synopsis

Ally D'Aplièse is about to compete in one of the world's most perilous yacht races, when she hears the news of her adoptive father's sudden, mysterious death. Rushing back to meet her five sisters at their family home, she discovers that her father - an elusive billionaire affectionately known to his daughters as Pa Salt - has left each of them a tantalising clue to their true heritage.

Ally has also recently embarked on a deeply passionate love affair that will change her destiny forever. But with her life now turned upside down, Ally decides to leave the open seas and follow the trail that her father left her, which leads her to the icy beauty of Norway...

Review: Twisted Palace (The Royals #3)

Author: Erin Watt

Started reading: July 2nd 2020

Finished the book: August 22nd 2020

Pages: 370 / 10:03:47

Genres: Romane, New Adult

Published: October 17th 2016

Source: Audiobook from library

Goodreads score: 3.97

My score:

Synopsis

Ella Harper has met every challenge that life has thrown her way. She’s tough, resilient, and willing to do whatever it takes to defend the people she loves, but the challenge of a long-lost father and a boyfriend whose life is on the line might be too much for even Ella to overcome.

Reed Royal has a quick temper and even faster fists. But his tendency to meet every obstacle with violence has finally caught up with him. If he wants to save himself and the girl he loves, he’ll need to rise above his tortured past and tarnished reputation.

No one believes Ella can survive the Royals. Everyone is sure Reed will destroy them all. They may be right.

Review: Lost in Amber (An Out of This World Paranormal Romance #1)

Author: Esther Rabbit

Started reading: July 20th 2020

Finished the book: July 29th 2020

Pages: 364

Genres: Romance, Science Fiction

Published: January 17th 2019

Source: Digital copy from author

Goodreads score: 4.18

My score:

Synopsis

She just wanted to mope over her breakup, but the universe had other plans for Zoey Mills.

Twenty-four year old Zoey is at that particular point in her life when everything seems to be going sideways. Over the course of one week her boyfriend breaks up with her and she finds out she’s been genetically altered with enhancements foreign to her world.
Jasper’s first earthbound mission seemed simple enough: clean up the mess the former Interplanetary ambassador left behind, retrieve the altered survivors and capture the scientist who went rogue.

Meeting her changed and challenged everything he’d ever known.

Review: Single in Southeast Texas

Author: Gretchen Johnson

Started reading: July 15th 2020

Finished the book: July 19th 2020

Pages: 203

Genres: Humor, Romance

Published: August 14th 2017

Source: Physical copy from the author

Goodreads score: Not enough ratings

My score:

Synopsis

Gretchen Johnson gives a sensitive and humorous account of dating in Southeast Texas. Paige, the heroine of the novel, is a young, recently divorced transplant from Minnesota and a professor of English Literature at Lamar University. She's fascinated by the culture(s) of her adopted state and trying to find a suitable mate. Her "take" on singleness and the dating scene in Beaumont is alternately witty, hopeful, resigned, and philosophical. The dozen men Paige dates are as real as any of J.D. Vance's hillbillies and as individualized as the folks old Studs Terkel used to interview. Her attitude toward Texas is overall optimistic, though she's aware of the racism, sexism, and classism which her students, her would-be lovers, and at times she herself see as simply natural. Johnson has a poet's keen eye and ear, and something of Sarah Silverman's sense of humor.

Review: Broken Prince (The Royals, #2)

Author: Erin Watt

Started reading: June 17th 2020

Finished the book: July 1st 2020

Pages: 370 / 08:50:43 hours

Genres: Romance, New Adult

Published: July 25th 2016

Source: Audiobook from library

Goodreads score: 4.06

My score:

Synopsis

Reed Royal has it all—looks, status, money. The girls at his elite prep school line up to date him, the guys want to be him, but Reed never gave a damn about anyone but his family until Ella Harper walked into his life.

What started off as burning resentment and the need to make his father’s new ward suffer turned into something else entirely—keep Ella close. Keep Ella safe. But when one foolish mistake drives her out of Reed’s arms and brings chaos to the Royal household, Reed’s entire world begins to fall apart around him.

Ella doesn’t want him anymore. She says they’ll only destroy each other.

Review: Paper Princess (The Royals #1)

Author: Erin Watt

Started reading: June 3rd 2020

Finished the book: June 16th 2020

Pages: 370 / 10:00:44 hours

Genres: Romance, New Adult

Published: April 4th 2016

Source: Audiobook

Goodreads score: 4.01

My score:

Synopsis

These Royals will ruin you… Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone. Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from. Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals. He might be right.