Hothouse Flower is my favorite book so far in the Addicted and Calloway Sisters series. I’m so glad I decided to read the two series together and in the suggested order. The characters are so deeply intertwined and the timeline is crucial to getting a complete picture.
Krista and Becca Ritchie’s books tend to be on the long side. Kiss the Sky is nearly 450 pages and the audiobook is 14 hours long. I never once felt bored, though, or wanted to story to move faster. In fact, the end is so swoony and satisfying I didn’t want it to end. Talk about getting a bang for your buck!
Now we’re getting somewhere! Addicted for Now was a far more enjoyable read for me than Addicted to You. Giving a series another chance even though the first book didn’t meet all your expectations can really pay off.
I was looking for a book by a “new to me” author and stumbled upon Mercy. It has high ratings, but I was on the fence about reading it because I don’t like my romance on the super dark side. Don’t give me a book full of kidnapping and torture and then try to make me fall in love with the victimizer. Zachary Webber and Muffy Newtown narrate the audiobook, though, and I love them hard so I figured it was worth a shot. I was pleasantly surprised. Mercy is actually a heart melting love story with the perfect amount of darkness to shake things up and suck you in.
The books in the Brooklyn Bruisers series have been hit or miss for me, but Brooklynaire is a friends-to-lovers story that hits all the right notes.
Pucked Up is the second book in Helena Hunting’s wildly popular Pucked series. I had a lukewarm reaction to the first book, Pucked, but decided to give the series another shot. I guess I liked this book marginally more.
Well, Faking It was a tasty treat—a wonderfully light palate cleanser, if you will, after reading some seriously angst-filled books.
Dirty Headlines showcases a softer side to L.J. Shen’s writing, and I liked it. A lot. I swear she’s one of the OG creators of truly despicable alphaholes. Shen’s enemies-to-lovers stories are typically dark, filled with a massive amount of tension and hatred between the lead characters, and yet deliciously addictive. Truthfully, she’s the only author who can make me fall for a character who is virtually unredeemable (Case in point: Vicious). Dirty Headlines manages to keep the alphahole, the feisty underdog heroine, the push and pull, but adds lots of fun.
I’m ashamed it took me so long to read this book. An unarmed black man being shot by a white police officer is something that has become frighteningly common. The subsequent news stories always create a storm of emotions in me, and none of them are pleasant. I needed time to brace myself for what I anticipated would be an uncomfortable book to read. Rather than depressing, I found The Hate U Give to be a profound and uplifting story—one that transcends the Young Adult genre.
Once again L.J. Shen has made me fall in love with an anti-hero. Yes, Bane is a liar, a con, a thief, a bully, and a whore. Guess what? I fell for him anyway.
Overall thoughts on The Fortunate Ones: This was a bit of a mixed bag. It was an easy read that I enjoyed in one sitting, even though there’s too much on-again/off-again going on. I liked the tension between James and Brooke. Their relationship has some complexity, and I wanted the two of them to get together. At the same time, their chemistry tends to be a little off. Brooke’s sister is rather annoying, but this book should suit drama llamas and hopeless romantics alike.
Book: 3 stars Audiobook: DNF @ 50% Pucked was an okay read, but I guess I was expecting more given the popularity of this series.