Book Critic
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Review: Pretty Things by Janelle Brown (Audible Edition)
This book was all over my Instagram and was a pretty hyped book when it was released back in April. Not to mention the cover is pretty memorable and eye catching right? My murder mystery picked it as our July read and we were all eager to start it because it sounded like it held so much promise. I went with the Audible edition because both narrators had soothing voices in the sample I tried and I will admit, the Audible edition is a great listen. I loved the narrators! But what about the story itself?
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Review: The Sight of You (The Sight of You #1) by Holly Miller
At first glance, I almost passed on this book. It just didn’t stand out to me as unique when I was looking at the cover. Don’t get me wrong I love the colors in the cover, but it just seemed generic and I just didn’t find it that memorable. But the summary convinced me otherwise. As soon as I read the summary I was eager to crack it open and get lost in a romantic story. I liked to idea of the two characters falling in love and one of them having prophetic dreams, that combo sounded interesting and new. So needless to say it took little convincing for me…
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Review: The End of Her by Shari Lapena
I have only recently discovered Shari Lapena and I have enjoyed the last couple of books I have read by her. When I saw this one was coming out, I initially couldn’t fit it on my calendar for review but then COVID happened and a lot of my summer releases got moved to fall by the publishers so summer opened up and I was able to squeeze this one in! I am so glad that it worked out because I would have hated to miss another book by Lapena!
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Review: The Guest List by Lucy Foley (Audible Edition)
This book was a Book of the Month pick a couple of months ago, but I had gone with another book. Then after all the books shipping, it was all over my social media and people were raving about it. I was so sad that I didn’t pick this one when it was a BOTM pick, but when my book club was looking for something to read, we all decided that this one sounded so good and picked it for our July read in addition to one other book. I was so eager to start this one and couldn’t wait to see what all the hype was about.
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Review: Barefoot on a Starlit Night (Rendezvous Falls #3) by Jo McNally
I have never read anything by Jo McNally but I am very familiar with her name. McNally is a prolific writer of romances and I see her books often at the local bookstore and supermarkets. When this book came up for review I had no problem agreeing to it because with a name as long standing as Jo McNally, it proves she has staying power as well as a big fan base. I was fortunate enough to have an opening on my summer calendar thanks to so many books being put off for publication until fall, so this book was an easy yeas for me.
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Review: Fair as a Star by Mimi Matthews
Mimi Matthews is another author who has been placed firmly on my auto buy/read list! I discovered her by chance and have loved everything she has written! When I saw this one was coming out, I was thrilled and looking forward to another delicious Victorian romance full of sweetness, love, and of course chemistry between the two characters. What I didn’t know until I started reading this one was that it was a novella rather than a full length novel. That said it’s still around the 200 page mark but still shorter than a conventional novel but don’t let the length fool you, there is plenty to enjoy in this…
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Review: Mr. Malcolm’s List by Suzanne Allain
When I saw this one on Netgalley, I thought it was eye catching and sounded interesting so I downloaded it. Then I got the pitch for it a couple of weeks later and suddenly I moved it up on my review timeline. I had already planned to review this one in July but wasn’t planning on reading it until a little closer to the release day, but then all the news started breaking about the upcoming film and I moved this baby right on up! This upcoming film is going to feature Constance Wu and Sam Heughan along with a number of other diverse cast members and will be releasing…
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Review: Paris is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay
This year has been an incredible year for reading. With the unprecedented COVID situation, I have had a lot of time to get more than some extra reading done. I have really been loving all the quick romances, women’s fiction, and beach reads. Back in the early spring, my summer calendar was all booked up with upcoming releases, but then many of my July books got their release dates pushed back to the fall leaving July wide open. I decided not to fill up my July calendar too much and instead just keep with the original reading schedule and maybe add a couple of releases that sounded interesting. Enter this…
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Review: Defy or Defend (Delightfully Deadly #2) by Gail Carriger
If there is one author that I have always had good luck reading—-it’s Gail Carriger. I discovered her Parasol Protectorate series years ago and fell head over heels in love with it. Since then I have read may of her other spin off novels and series most set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate series. I adore her spunky and sassy characters that make up her world but I also love that many of her characters are LGBTQ, while others are not. She isn’t afraid to write bold characters and doesn’t conform to traditional gender roles in her novels which I love. I also know that whenever I…
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Review: Lady Rights a Wrong (Manor Cat Mystery #2) by Eliza Casey
I had the pleasure of reading the first book in the series last year and it wasn’t bad, but some of the things in the story were a little reaching. That said the first book had a lot to recommend itself and I was open to reading the second book in the series to see how thing shaped up with a little bit of polish and experience under the author’s belt. This series boasts likable characters with sass and sweetness and I was excited to see how Lady Cecilia Bates and her maid Jane, solve crime in this latest installment.