Literary Criticism
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Review: No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby
When this one came up for review it sounded cute and charming. Like it might be a little bit cozy mystery with a little bit of romance which made me excited to read it. Though the cover doesn’t scream ‘cozy mystery’ to me—in fact the cover felt a little blah. But what the cover lacked in eye catching detail, the summery made up for and I was excited to check this debut novel out! I am always a sucker for historical mysteries (cozy or otherwise) and I thought this one sounded like it would be something new to check out. One thing that surprised me about this book was it’s…
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Review: Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl by Renee Rosen
Last year I was part of this cover reveal and since then I have been eagerly awaiting this book! Like many many many girls, the makeup brand Estee Lauder is considered the gold standard in skin care and cosmetics. Growing up, my mother and grandmother always wore Estee Lauder make up and perfume. It was expensive for a girl who was experimenting with makeup but as I grew up, and became an adult with more of a ‘style’, it was also my go to brand. This was the book that I didn’t know I needed. I never once considered the person behind this famous cosmetics brand until this book came…
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Review: Deep Tide (The Texas Murder Files #4) by Laura Griffin
I completely binge read all of Laura Griffin’s books late last year into 2023. I fell in love with her fast paced thrillers that also contained some romance to keep things interesting. Needless to say I had this one on my radar for months before it came out. I loved the other books in the series and was excited to see which characters from previous books would get their own story in this one. These books do not need to be read in order but you will see a few familiar characters making appearances thought out the series. For example, this book features Layla Breda who owns a coffee shop…
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Review: Happy Place by Emily Henry
I absolutely loved Emily Henry’s debut novel Beach Read. But you know, sometimes those amazing debut novels don’t always mean the author will be able to replicate that magic in follow up books. Before I decided to make Emily Henry an auto buy author, I decided to give check out her second book, People We Meet on Vacation, a try and see how the sophomore novel went. It was a great second novel and enough to confirm me as a big fan. But it was truly her novel Book Lovers that made Emily Henry an auto buy author for me! Seeing her latest novel Happy Place was coming out this…
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Review: The Countess of the Revolution by Lana Kortchik
Russia and Eastern Europe have been rife with conflict for years. There have been regimes and empires that have risen and fallen throughout history and it is an area in history that I have such limited knowledge and understanding. Whenever I see historical fiction books set in Russia or Eastern Europe, regardless of the time period, I am usually really interested in. I know that I will learn something new and explore unknown to me history. When this one came up for review, naturally I was intrigued. Lana Kortchik is not stranger to historical fiction, she has written two other books that are set in WWII, both of which are…
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Review: The Haunting of Alejandra by V Castro
I had never heard of La Llorna until I got married. My husband who is Hispanic of course knew all about La Llorna and I absolutely fell in love with the Mexican ghost story. If you aren’t Hispanic you will likely be unfamiliar with the legend but you might be more familiar with the song La Llorna from the movie Coco! I am a big fan of horror and ghost stories and the folklore story really intrigued me so when this book came up for review, I had little hesitation before I screamed YES. The horror or paranormal genre might not be for everyone and that’s ok. I know that…
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Review: A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) by Sarah J Maas (Audible Edition)
After devouring the first book, naturally I moved onto the second one. I basically finished the first book and immediately went on to this one with out any really break in between. I will try to keep this review mostly spoiler free but this series must absolutely be read in order and since the second book is a continuation of the first, there will be some spoilers going forward. So if you don’t want my review to spoil anything, then I would suggest to stop reading after the next few paragraphs. Reader be warned. If you haven’t read this series yet, I will say I thought it was a worthwhile…
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Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J Maas (Audible Edition)
I am 100% late to the party on this one. This series has been on my radar for YEARS. I would have to be living under a rock not to have heard of it or seen it’s massive cult following all over the internet and book world platforms! I have had the books on my shelves for years with the intention of reading them ‘next book’ but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to read them. My number one fear was I would just want to binge the series and I just wasn’t ready to dive into another series to binge after binge reading a number of other…
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Review: Well Traveled (Well Met #4) by Jen DeLuca (Audible Edition)
This series was my favorite obsession last year. I binge read the books and loved them all in their own ways and had no idea that Renaissance Fair romance was even a thing that I would be into but here we are. I honestly thought the third book would be the last as most of the reoccurring characters had indeed met their matches but then this one came up as Dex’s story. If you have read the previous books you will remember Dex as the Ren Fair Romeo who has a ‘girl at every fair’ that he hooks up with. So I thought this one sounded like it would be…
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Review: Murder in PostScript (A Lady of Letters Mystery #1) by Mary Winters
When I see books with any mention of “Bridgerton-like’ in the summary or taglines, I am at once skeptical and yet can’t pass up on said book based on hope of finding another wonderful series that is indeed like Bridgerton! I often get asked what books would I recommend for Bridgerton fans, and that is such a hard question because there are so many historical romances out there that have a Bridgerton feel but aren’t necessaitly Bridgerton like if that makes sense. So sometimes when I see this statement on books, I become skeptical because there is nothing like Bridgerton but yet like so many others I can’t resist finding…