Literary Criticism
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Review: Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller
I first discovered Diana Biller when her first novel, The Widow of Rose House, was released back in 2019. I absolutely loved it and thought Biller had an elegant prose that sucked me into the story right away. Plus the romance was sensual, sweet and a little spicy. It was a wonderful mix and I just recall how much that debut has stood out to me over the years. I often recommend it to friends and family, so naturally when I saw this new release, I had to jump on it! This is Biller’s fourth novel and while I have missed the other two (though they are on my book…
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Review: Hell Bent (Alex Stern #2) by Leigh Bardugo
When this book came out, it promoted me to go back and read Ninth House so I could be ready to read this one. I had this whole drama around why I didn’t read Ninth House until now and you can read all about it in my review of Ninth House here. Bottom line, I suspected that I wouldn’t be able to read this latest Leigh Bardugo book before reading the first book in the series and that is absolutely correct. Do not read this book without first reading Ninth House. This book is basically an extension of the first book and it will leave readers disorientated within this book…
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Review: Midnight Duet by Jen Comfort
Growing up, I was a massive Phantom of the Opera fan. In fact as I write this review, I am currently listening to the soundtrack. I love the whole forbidden romance set to music. It’s truly one of my favorite soundtracks and stories of all time. So whenever I see something come up that is a Phantom retelling or something similar I have a hard time passing up on it. That’s how this one landed on my TBR and review pile! I couldn’t resist a retelling though as the weeks passed between review acceptance and time to actually read it, I had sort of forgotten it. I had it on…
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Review: A Tempest at Sea (Lady Sherlock #7) by Sherry Thomas
This series started out as a DNF for me. I couldn’t get into the first book when I picked it up the first time so I put it down as a DNF and almost wrote the series off all together. But it bugged me so bad that I didn’t like this series! So many of my friends around the blog-o-sphere loved it and honestly it SHOULD be a series that I love. So after some consideration, I picked up the first book and decided to try again. I am so glad I did because I loved it and binge read all the books that had some out at that point…
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Review: The Paris Notebook by Tessa Harris
I absolutely adore Tessa Harris! I have read some of her books over the years and I have yet to read a book by her that I haven’t enjoyed! Harris is probably best known for her mystery series, Dr Thomas Silkstone and Constance Piper series respectively. But the book that stands out most for me was her standalone historical fiction, Beneath a Starless Sky. I recall loving how well researched this particular book was, and how much I enjoyed getting to know the characters and exploring their forbidden love story. So naturally when this new historical fiction novel came out but Harris, I was totally on board with reading it.…
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Review: The Woman with the Cure by Lynn Cullen
Author Lynn Cullen has penned a number of historical fiction novels, but I think the one she is best known for is Mrs Poe. I love Poe so naturally I wanted to read Mrs Poe when it came out. I loved it and was so excited to see what other books Cullen put out. Since I read that book, she had come out with a number of other novels, but I think that Mrs Poe remains her most well known book. I love how well researched Cullen’s novels are and she often takes the untold, behind the scenes stories of unknown figures in famous people’s lives and brings them out…
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Review: Stone Cold Fox by Rachel Koller Croft
Normally I don’t like reading books with swindler female leads. I read Pretty Things a few years ago and I didn’t love it. Since then I have been a little gun shy when it comes to books featuring female swindlers but something about this book just kept nudging me to pick it up. Maybe it was the cute title, maybe it was tiger sexy looking cover. Who knows by I finally decided to take a chance and read this one. After all, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover or by other books that might be entirely different than what the current book promises to be. This is also…
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Review: Take the Lead (Dance Off #1) by Alexis Daria
I first discovered Alexis Daria when I snagged a copy of You Had Me At Hola. I loved the premise of the book and the representation of so many Latinx characters and the whole Spanish soap opera angle really hooked me. I thought the stories were good and I loved the romances that bloomed off the pages. So naturally when I saw this new series come up for review, I was all about it! I also liked that this book featured a biracial romance. Overall it wasn’t a hard sell for me to pick this one up! And since today is Valentines Day I think this is an appropriate time…
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Review: Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo
When this book came out, I jumped at it! I have read the Grisha books, specifically the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and while I didn’t love every book, I remember feeling like they had a lot of imagination with ambitious characters and for a YA series, there was a lot to enjoy. But I never really read anything else from Leigh Bardugo after that trilogy. But naturally her books are quite popular and can be found on many shelves around the blog-o-sphere. When I saw this one was coming out, I wasn’t exactly ready to buy it or even put it on my TBR—-until I started seeing all these posts…
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Review: The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
When I was first pitched this book, one thing stood out that made me not pass on it—-Guatemala. My husband is Guatemalan and there really aren’t books out there that feature his culture. Trust me I am always on the look out too! So when I saw that this book would have a Central American theme in it, I was totally on board to not only feature it but also review it! I have been really loving thrillers and mysteries lately, and I have a special place in my heart for psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators. I featured this one back in early January and couldn’t wait to start reading…