Literary Criticism
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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.
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Review: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Please excuse me while I fan girl and gush over this book. Mexican Gothic was on my radar months ago and I have been eager to read it ever since I downloaded my ARC back in February. That cover is outstanding and the whole summary spoke to my dark heart. One of my favorite authors is Victoria Holt and I absolutely adore all of her books. The author of this book, Silvia Moreno-Garcia wrote a fantastic piece in the book club kit for this book all about the popularity of novels similar to Victoria Holt. It’s worth reading so you should absolutely check it out. This book was also a…
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First Impression: Wild Wedding Hookup by Jamie K. Schmidt
When I first say this one, I thought it sounded like a fun little sexy read perfect for wedding season. I couldn’t fit it on my review schedule but I did feature it on my IG and then I started reading a little. Next thing I knew, I was a few chapters in and wanted to share with you what I thought so far! I had to set it down since I had a couple of other books coming up to read but I am definitely going to come back and pick this one up soon! If you love sexy, steamy romances set in resort towns—-which if you are anything…
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Review: A Shadowed Fate (Claire Clairmont #2) by Marty Ambrose
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. I absolutely love the cover and I thought the premise sounded fun and different. I knew it was part of a series (it’s the second book) but I figured that it could be read as a standalone since most of the time, authors of series usually do a great job filling new readers in on things that happened in the previous book. The other thing I liked about this one was that it was on the shorter side (just under 200 pages) so more like a novella length so I figured it would be a very quick read for me.
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Review: Shadowborn (Born Prophecy #3) by Katie MacAlister
I started reading this series last year and it’s been a decent fantasy series that had kept me mostly interested. There were some parts of the story that I liked better than others but overall it’s been pretty good and I felt invested enough in the series to see it through until the end. As this book is part of a larger series, I would not recommend picking this book up as a standalone as you would be missing out on large parts of the story.
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Review: Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein
At first glance this book wasn’t eye catching to me. I wasn’t really feeling the basic cover and there was nothing that stood out to me as a reader. As I said the cover was just ok for me and the title wasn’t really unique but as I have said a million times before, I always read every pitch that comes across my desk because you just can’t judge a book by it’s cover, even though I think most of us are guilty of doing just that. If I had gone just on first impression alone, I would have missed a really great rom-com! I loved the premise of this…
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Review: Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough (Audible Edition)
My murder mystery book club decided to read two books this month. The first book we selected for June we all read in like two days so we decided that we would pick a second book and this was it. This book sounded interesting-ish, but then again, many psychological thrillers sound similar so I wasn’t exactly convinced that this was going to be a new and different book than any of the other psychological thrillers out there right now. But I decided to listen to it on Audible and hoped for the best.
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Review: The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls
I love how books find me. I have been eye balling the book The Foundling on Amazon for months now as well as The Familiars but I just haven’t decided to pull the trigger yet. The covers are gorgeous and the premise for each book sounds excellent, but I have been trying to be good and not buy so many new books so I decided to hold off on purchasing The Foundling. Flash forward to March when I was asked to review The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls. I thought it sounded interesting and said yes, all the while I kept my eye on The Founding oh so longingly. When…
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Review: Hello, Summer by Mary Kay Andrews
There are a couple of authors that I instantly think of when someone asks me what beach reads I recommend. Mary Kay Andrews is at the top of that list! She has written a ton of books and many of them carry a distinct summer feel. Reading one just puts me in the mood for summer! This book came out in early May and I was so bummed that I couldn’t read it when it first came out because I definitely needed something warm and sunny to chase the spring rains away! But I was able to pick it up this month just in time for all the big summer…