I love all of Lena’s main male characters. Whip King was no different. I had the distinct pleasure of being sent this book as an ARC, and let me tell you, I was so thrilled to get my grubby paws on it.
I have been dying for the King’s side of the feud and more of their back story. This initial dive into their nuances left me wanting so much more. I cannot wait for this series to continue. As always with interconnected series and standalones, we get glimpses of other characters we’ve met before. Seeing Whip’s relationship with Lee in the fire house and the secret soft spot they all seem to have for Duke.
Back to Just This Once.
Hendrix gives us a spicy, sweet, cocktail with a piercing bite to it. Yes. Piercing is emphasized right there. One of my favorite things about Lena and her writing is her ability to give me just enough spice without compromising her incredible plots. Plus, she writes a killer feud that I’ve been hooked on finding more about for what six books now?
If you haven’t picked this one up yet, it’s available on KU—Here!
It’s been a hot minute hasn’t it? It’s Wednesday, so I’m sharing a quick stack of pink books. I’ve read three out of five of these, which I feel like is actually not bad considering my TBR is endless.
California Holiday – Kate Cann I actually read this book for the first time way back in high school. God bless, the fact that I can say ‘way back in high school’ makes me feel ancient. A UK girl has just finished school and is taking a quick gap year. She sets out to be a live in nanny in the States, but things end up being a bit different than she planned.
I loved this book in high school, but it didn’t quite hit the same as a 27 year old when I read it again last year.
Tropes: Foreign holiday, nanny, fleeing from boss
The Dare – Elle Kennedy I finished this book last week actually and loved every minute of it. Conor and Taylor were perfect. The sorority aspect, while it had some issues, made me think of my own experiences sometimes. Fake dating also gets me every time. I know where it’s going to end up, but gah, it still makes me so happy when they start actually falling for each other.
Conor was freakin adorable in all of his attempts to woo T. Taylor’s mom was interesting, and I 100% did not see her boyfriend coming at all. Sports romances in the fall hit different. It doesn’t even matter what the sport is….(Football is still my fave). I can’t wait to read the rest of Briar U since I read this one, book 4, first.
Tropes: Fake dating, he falls first, sports romance, hockey romance, friends to lovers (kinda), slow burn
Once Upon a Broken Heart – Stephanie Garber We have reached the first of this stack that I haven’t read yet, which is comical because I actually own two copies of this book and have the second book on order. Whoops!
I have been reluctant to read this one because I wasn’t a fan of Caraval. Well, it wasn’t so much that I wasn’t a fan of it, but the whole thing felt like a fever dream that wasn’t really fleshed out. I just couldn’t really get into it, and that’s fine! I know there’s plenty of people that loved Caraval. However, because of this, I just haven’t wanted to jump on the OUABH train.
The Duke and I – Julia Quinn We all know the storyline for this one from the Netflix show Bridgerton. That is absolutely the reason I picked up this series. I bought these special editions before I’d even read the books. I loved Daphne and Simon’s story, a lot of it was raw and emotional, but they also had such a cute courtship.
The Bridgerton world is one of my favorite historical romance worlds. It doesn’t quite live up to my love of WWII romances, but it’s almost there.
Romancing Mr Bridgerton – Julia Quinn The last book in our stack and the second of the books I’ve not read yet. I’m looking forward to this one, and I ought to read it before the next season comes out. I feel like this one will be a cozy winter read for some reason.
What about you? What are your favorite pink books on your selves?
A solid 3.5 sports romance. This book had a lot of things that worked for it and a few things that weren’t so great.
To start, I absolutely love that the cover of this book was not just a shirtless man. The addition of the dog in the photo makes it super appealing plus he actually looks like he’s having fun?
I also liked that the FMC had an unusual hobby/career path. You don’t see a lot of books with a cellist as the main character. She was on the hot mess express for most of the book, which was endearing most of the time but obnoxious at others.
The MMC was great. He seemed mature and well adjusted, which is sometimes a rare find in this genre. I loved his love for Monty. His dares at the beginning of the book were also a big highlight for me. I wish that there had been more dares throughout the book ….seeing that the title has the word dare in it. Plus the word dog….we only ever met two dogs and on some level they weren’t really that big of a part of the plot.
My favorite part of this whole book though was the social life of the senior citizens. They were the stars of this book. I loved meddling Mrs. H.
The things that didn’t work so well for me were things like the poorly translated French. I promise you there’s a world of people who would love to help you translate things instead of going it on your own if you’ve never taken French or don’t speak it. I also don’t really know how it helped the plot…so there’s that.
The chemistry between Luke and Summer was there but it was like a warm pot rather than a scorching read. In the beginning, I kinda thought she was going to end up with Antonio because they seemed to have more in common and better chemistry.
Another thing I struggled with was that while it was a sports romance….the sport didn’t seem to play that big of a part.
I also struggled because every once in a while, someone would call the dog Lillie when her name is Milli and I don’t know if that was intentional…I’m assuming not because I doubt that Summer would forget her own grandmothers dogs name.
Lastly, the characters, while somewhat developed, still fell a little flat. What was Luke’s favorite meal, what pet peeves does he have? We know he likes dogs and dares and football and dislikes his dad but beyond that? No idea.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
You know, despite being titled The Dead Romantics, I didn’t expect the love interest to be a ghost. This book gave me everything I wanted: small town, handsome main male, a disaster ghostwriting main female, banter with sibling. Yet. Yes, yet. I wasn’t sold.
This book was heavy. Another thing I wasn’t ready for was the main plot device being the father’s death. Every page. You never move beyond it because every. Single. Page it’s mentioned. I’m a sap when it comes to the mortality of my family, but this family…..I didn’t really feel or see the close bonds I was told about after the patriarch of the family died. The mom’s response to her husbands death was also a bit out of character in my opinion.
Ben seemed flat to me. She didn’t get along with him, then she’s kissing him in a back alley, and then she’s annoyed because his ghost is following her….next thing you know, “I love you don’t go.” -_- I didn’t feel the pining the love the angst. I just didn’t feel.
This is marketed as adult romance but it has the flowery prose of an old 1900s classic or even older. I love the classics but this was no pride and prejudice. Lastly, the twist. I saw the twist coming from the first time we met benji.
Oh wait. One more. Heather. Her redemption was sooooooooo flip of a switch. Regina George mean girl one night and she gets a talking to from Florence and the next morning “omg I’m so sorry I am a horrible person”
Enough complaints. The idea behind this was fun. Neat. Family has a funeral home, daughter can see ghosts, the ghostwriter bit, romance is dead. I liked the bed and breakfast. Dana was an interesting character (minus the fact that the author used the wrong pronouns for their own character at one point.), I wanted more backstory on Rose, I wished Benji could have gone and haunted Lee or sabotaged his release of his book.
As for spice 🌶 one lowly pepper. My friend. You had options here that could have been worthy of many peppers…as Florence would say, you watched the opportunity sail by you like a ship.
I have been waffling between a three and a four star on this book. It wasn’t necessarily the most well written book, the most interesting book, or exciting. I’m also not sold on the plot, but what I am sold on is the characters and their relationships.
The world that this is set in is actually fairly interesting with the use of the stele and runes. The supernatural creatures that are in the book aren’t unique by any means, but the Shadowhunter take on nephilim is fairly creative.
Clary is fifteen, and I am hoping that she continues to not act that age. I have gotten to the age where I really don’t want to read about people that are early to mid teen range…..maybe because I need some spice in my life. I thought Clary was a little too okay with magic after having grown up with her mother beating into her head that there is no such thing, but maybe Luke saying that her artistic mind had more to do with her seeing things that aren’t there helped a little.
Our villain was just kind of meh. He didn’t really instill terror. I feel like he definitely should have since he was advocating basically genocide and segregation and all that, but he was just kind of like Disney villain level of scary? I didn’t feel there was enough build up to warrant any level of fear or concern on the reader’s part for the villain. Which is why I was low key frustrated that Jace went from being very outspoken, aggressive, kind of assholish to a passive, take information at face value character in his final scene with Valentine?????
What I, and other bookstagrammers that I’ve talked to, really found that Clare did well in this book was the level of attention to the little things within the character development and the relationships between the characters. It was the little things that I enjoyed through this books. The little interactions between Jace and Clary, or Simon, Isabelle, and Alec. Even adding in Lucian and Alaric (brb why am I crying over a side character we met like three times?).
I really liked the relationship between Clary and Luke. I will admit that I hated that I knew he was just being protective when he told Clary off originally. I am really hoping that their paternal relationship continues as we try to save Jocelyn, but even if she wakes up, I hope that this relationship continues to flourish.
Overall, I have very mixed feelings about this set in the Grishaverse. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve really enjoyed my time so far in the Grishaverse, but this set and I had a hard time seeing eye to eye.
I wanted it to live up to the hype so badly, especially so because I really enjoyed the Shadow & Bone trilogy, even the cursed second book that suffered from second book syndrome.
I actually really liked the Oceans 11 vibe that LB was going for in SoC. I thought the heist aspect was actually pretty interesting. One of my hesitations for diving in whole heartedly was that the characters seemed like they should be mid-twenties instead of teenagers. I really and truly can’t see them being in their teens with how they act.
I also felt like some of the descriptions and inner monologues felt clinical rather than emotional or described by the POV we were reading. Which, I hated how much we jumped from POV to POV. Really and truly, in CK, it felt like we saw the same bit of time over and over again because we saw it from multiple POVs. There was also a lot of telling instead of showing of backstories, particularly Kaz.
Speaking of Kaz, (I will get flamed for this I know) I didn’t like him. From what I saw on Booksta, I thought there was going to be some great love story between him and Inej. That awkward moment when I felt like Inej had more chemistry with Jesper or Matthias than Kaz. He was also all bark and very little bite. With all of his threats he made to people, he only carried out a seldom few. On top of that, I found it hard to believe that he was the most ruthless in Ketterdam as a teenager.
Inej was a queen. Nina was great, but her whole fabrication of the lie surrounding why she got Matthias sent to prison annoyed me. I also literally do not remember a description of her including being overweight. Somewhere I remember it being said she was curvy, but I see fan art all over the place where she is overweight. Jesper, I liked him. Sharpshooter, farm boy, secret Grisha. I liked him. He actually seemed relatable to a teenager because he was impulsive when it came to gambling and still had the foolhardy sense to go into shootouts without much fear which relates back to that teenage ideology that “it won’t happen to me.”
Don’t crucify me, I loved baby Wylan……but I forgot he was there a lot. Matthias. I loved him. While I liked Nina and liked the idea of Helnik…..I liked the idea of Inej and Matthias more. The fact that I can see Matthias with someone other than who LB planned is a problem. If she was writing with their end ship in mind, then I shouldn’t be able to say that Matthias and Inej would actually make a better couple than Nina and Matthias.
I say this because they seem like they would have more in common, better chemistry, and a better understanding of each other. the Helnik ship seems to stem from some sense of duty that they have for each other rather than actual chemistry.
….I will get major flames for this, but I almost feel like the book will be better as the Netflix show than the book. The narration style just didn’t do it for me. Also, if they follow the plot and kill my boy Matthias, I will have words.
Madame Labelle annoyed me to high heaven. I said what I said. I get that she is trying to protect her son, but he didn’t know that you were more than the owner of a brothel until five minutes ago, you cannot expect him to have some familial relationship in that time, and he had a relationship with Lou before you. Her constant need to try and undermine his relationship with Lou was exhausting.
I need more about the Blood Witch Coven and the Loup Garou. Their history sounds interesting. I want to know more about Coco and her ties to the leadership of the Blood Witch Coven. She’s a princess, so I want to know about what her life is going to be like once La Voisin dies….if she ever dies because of the whole heart eating thing.
As for the Loup Garou, their culture is probably super interesting. What are their laws like? Do they have some tie to the moon? Can they always shift? I need answers.
Lou and Reid’s relationship. It pained my heart. They were just kind of on different wavelengths it felt like. They worked so well together in the first book, but in this book they were each doing their own thing and not really focusing on making progress in their relationship. I really just wanted them to communicate with each other!
Madame Labelle did her part in trying to create doubt with Reid in regard to Lou. Like shouldn’t she want her son to be happy, shouldn’t she want to help Lou overcome her spiral? Lou had a tendency to martyr herself and once things started to go downhill at all, she sabotaged as much as she could and would say nasty things. Like I just want you guys to love eachother.
Celie and Jean Luc!?!? What You loveeeeeeeeed Reid, but you hooked up with his ‘brother!?’ You also may have done so prior to Reid ending things? I cannot handle this. Jean Luc you’re supposed to have loved Reid with your whole being because he was basically your dang twin growing up, but you turned your back on him and slept with Celie because you were basically jealous of what Reid had. Ugh. Drama.
And thennnnnnn. After Lou saves her she gets all up on her high horse that Lou stole Reid and when she sees Reid she tries to hug and curl up with him. Helloooooooo Jean Luc is in the room too!?
My baby, Ansel. I am distraught. Literally distraught. I think in my commentary about Serpent and Dove I literally said I would die if anything happened to poor baby Ansel.
That was so unnecessary!! He needed to be important, but not that important!
Anyways, I wish that Reid had explored his magic a little more. I am also interested to see how the twins’ magic works since it does not seem that they sacrifice anything for the magic to work, same with Reid. It just sort of happens. It also feels like they do not use patterns to work their magic.
This book didn’t quite succumb to the Second Book Syndrome curse, but it was almost there. It felt as though they kind of wandered around to see new places and people while Reid and Lou argued. I missed Coco and Beau’s comedic relief. Which, coming to that. The love triangle that was never necessary…..ugh. It was almost a freakin’ love square at one point because of Coco’s childhood love. bah.
Anyways, none of my annoyances will prevent me from reading Gods & Monsters, but for now, I’m onto From Blood and Ash.
I loved that this book was French inspired. I took French in high school and literally have never used it, so this book gave me a reason to use all that French knowledge. But really, the names, the words, the love of sweet bread/sticky buns, the architecture even was just *Chef’s kiss.* To start, knowing that it was French inspired, I could totally see in my mind’s eye the way the theater that Lou stayed in looked and the way the town looked from the rooftop of the theater.
Lou and Reid were tense, passionate, and all consuming. It’s no secret that I love enemies to lovers and when you have an arranged marriage on top of that, I’ll just be here fanning myself. I loved Lou literally running into Reid and then slipping away, only to stumble upon him once more and being forced into marrying him. She pushes his buttons in all the right ways, and he helps her to open her mind up to seeing the world from new perspectives. Their slow roll from hatred to love was a tumble that I am here for.
Reid was adorably naive, but he was a strong character. Reid was an orphan raised by the Archbishop and because of that his worldview was extremely narrow. I loved that Mahurin kept true to that and allowed Reid to be a little closed minded before he met Lou. She kept him true to his vow and ensured that he was a little awkward with romance and didn’t know much about the world outside being a Chass. Reid was a definite strong character. He stuck to his values even when he probably didn’t want to, like when Celie wanted him to leave his wife or use derogatory language toward her. The best part about it though was that this was in line for his character as a whole and not a result of a budding romance with Lou.
The world was a little underdeveloped, but that is okay in this instance. I am usually a big stickler in the fantasy genre about having good world building and fleshing out details of the magic systems and the culture. In this particular case, I am glad that we didn’t spend pages upon pages on how that works because it has slowly come out with the plot, and I kind of feel like we are in Reid’s shoes learning about magic and witches with him. It also allowed for Mahurin to keep the pace of the book at a steady chug without having sudden stops in the plot to allow for details to be dumped on you.
Ansel is a precious baby that must be protected at all costs. You should know by now that I am also a lover of side characters. I get attached to them and their stories and I need to know more about precious Ansel. He seems like such an interesting character because he was very gung ho about catching witches, but he was also very open to Lou after he discovered what she was and how he figured out what she was.
I’m anxiously awaiting the next book as well as panicking because what if it doesn’t live up to my expectations!
I fall under the unpopular opinion. I don’t like Nesta. I think people are allowing her a little too much grace because of trauma. Okay, I can see that some of her actions are trauma responses, but despite the fact that she recognizes this also, she only apologizes twice in the entire book. For being a “strong character,” Nesta didn’t live up to that for me. I struggled to get through this book because Nesta acted like she was the only one who had trauma and lashed out against everyone and anyone.
Cassian deserves better. I said what I said. Nesta treats him like dirt, and yet, here he is wanting his mate because of the whole chemical imbalance that causes. I also feel like SJM kind of left Cassian’s development behind in favor of his romance with Nesta that wasn’t really even a romance. Somewhere we lost his strong, badass warrior self and even his flirty comments kind of fell flat for me. I wish we saw more of his role as general since that was supposed to be a huge part of his life and less of him pandering to Nesta’s every whim. I honestly would have rather seen Cassian end with Nesta if they weren’t mates. Wholly because that would mean that he chose her, and it would show that above all of her faults and even how she treated him, he saw that she was a good person and wanted to foster that.
Nesta’s friends Great, I’m glad that Nesta has friends. I actually really like Gwyn and Emerie, but I also don’t think they would really just allow Nesta to be as big of a bitch to them as she was throughout this book. I need more from them though. Sleepover? Cool, but give me some development from them. I liked their determination and drive during the Illyrian mountain killing spree though!
Eris I am here for him. Give me more about what he is doing and what his motives are. What are his plans? I need mas. What was going through his head during the Mor situation. I need more about the Autumn Court in general. Which brings me to Lucien. This poor guy. He wants to impress and woo Elain so badly but she literally just stomps on his heart.
Third person. I didn’t like the switch from first person to third. It made getting into this book very difficult. I really didn’t like that this switch came after three books of first person.
It was a 3/5 for me to be quite honest, I didn’t feel the romance between Nesta and Cassian. Their steamy scenes weren’t all that steamy in my eyes. Like Chapter 55 and Chill was not found in this book. Sorry not sorry. I love Az, I love Lucien, I love Feysand, I love Cassian, I love Mor. I did not love Amren’s changes, I did not love Nesta, I did not love Elain. I wanted more of Eris, I wanted more of Emerie, I wanted more of Gwyn, I even wanted more of Bryaxis. So. It’s a 3 out of 5 for me when the rest of these books have all been 5s.
Overall Feelings: I liked this book, but it wasn’t one I’d add to my pile of I would read over and over again. I will definitely read it again, but it isn’t going to be one that I automatically reach for. I also think some of this is because I’m not a fan of third person point of view.
Lara: So, Lara is an interesting character. She spends fifteen years of her life locked in a palace in the desert learning to be ruthless, a killer, a spy, and the perfect wife to bring Ithicana to its knees. She ‘poisons’ her sisters to grant her the ability to see her father’s plan through. Her father is atrocious, and I feel that she gave him a little bit too much trust and grace after everything that he did. I feel like after fifteen years of training to be an assassin and a spy, she should have done a little bit better of a job. At times, she seemed a little naive, immature, and out of character for what she is written to be.
Aren: I actually liked Aren. He seems like a good guy that cares about his people. His relationship with Jor is fun, and I like the interactions between him and the various soldiers. I like the way his head works, and I wish I got to see more of how he ruled Ithicana. We saw a good bit of Lara without Aren, but in his POVs there wasn’t enough done without Lara. I wanted to see more of him running through the bridge, doing his Kingly duties, and interacting with his soldiers. Low key though, he’s a little too forgiving. Like be angry! Your wife deceived you, was going to overthrow your country, and is a spy, but hey that’s okay. I love you.
Side characters: I thought Jor was a good mentor for Aren. I would like to see more of him. He seemed to be a good person with looking out for Aren and the country’s best interests. I’ve seen people complain about the “crass” language of the soldiers, but that is what makes their characters feel more realistic. Having been around those types in the real world, that is very much how they would speak. There’s a reason people refer to swearing as “like a sailor.” Ahnna…..I don’t know how to feel about her. She was fine, but also a little flat.
Romance: For being listed as “Romantic Fantasy,” I felt like this book lacked romance. There was definitely fantasy, but when the author said slow burn, she meant that there’s only a scrap of romance. They “love” eachother, but when she is doing her whole reveal about the spy life, why didn’t she reveal her sisters and what she did. She loves this man and has seen how he acts and that he is honest, so why does she believe her father over him when her father effectively abused her for 15 years?
I wish that their romance had more sexual tension and more build up to the scene where they did have sex. In addition, when they sneak back into her home country and Aren sees his old fling, I cringed so hard. This scene bothered me because Aren, for being a good guy, seemed like he was getting ready to have his way with her and would have cheated on Lara had it not been for Jor.
World Building: I have a good grasp on Ithicana, but the rest of the world fell a little flat to me. Even Lara’s homeland was a little flat. I thought using the bridge was a neat idea to move goods, but I really didn’t understand the need for secrecy?
I have book two in my cart to buy, but it won’t be on my next to read any time soon.
Hey Bookworms Editing 