Literary Criticism
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Review: The Me I Used to Be by Jennifer Ryan
I was kind of lukewarm about this one when it came up for review, but I’ve heard such great things about Jennifer Ryan’s cowboy romances so I was interested to see if her romance talents transferred over to a different style of romance novel. I haven’t read anything by her but I was open giving this book a try if nothing else beyond being curious about a new romance. I’ve had great luck with women’s fiction and romances lately so I felt like, why not? Even if I was lukewarm about it initially, I thought the author sounded experienced and the book itself had a fun setting (Napa) so if…
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Review: The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (Audible Edition)
I am about to come at you with an unpopular opinion. I haven’t read Lord of the Rings, I watched the films but was completely lost and hated them so much. I’ve tried to watch them so many times and simply gave up. This is a series that I want to love so so so bad. I have multiple copies of the books but I am afraid to read them because I hated the movies so much and feared I would find the books boring. Having discovered audiobooks recently, I thought this would be a good time to try my hand at reading this classic series especially with this fantastic…
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Review: Relative Fortunes (Julia Kydd #1) by Marlowe Benn
I decided to read this book based purely on the cover art. The cover art suggests a fun historical mystery with a quirky and fashionable lady detective. Plus it was the first in a new series and I couldn’t help but get excited to be one of the first people to read Julia Kydd! The 1920s aren’t really my favorite era to read, but I love the art and fashion and have read a few historical mysteries that have been set in that period and loved them so I am typically open to reading more from that time period. I was excited to see that this was the authors first…
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Review: Chai Another Day (A Spice Shop Mystery #4) by Leslie Budewitz
This mystery series sounded like the perfect cozy book to read with a warm up of tea! I loved that it was set in a tea shop in Seattle’s famous Pike’s Place Market. A place that I have visited on a number of occasions. I thought that a book set in that quirky little market would be idyllic and something very ‘Pacific Northwest’. It was and easy yes for me and I was thrilled when it arrived. Even though it was the fourth book in a series, it sounded like it was going to be more mystery focused rather than focusing on the characters and their lives. So I didn’t…
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Review: The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
This was a book that I almost passed on for my review calendar. I was eager to do a feature and giveaway for it because I know that a lot of my readers are into the show Stranger Things and this book was recommended for fans of the show. But I wasn’t sure that this was going to be a book that I could fit into my summer reading. When the book arrived on my desk for review I looked at it and it was pretty short with fairly direct writing style and I thought about it a little bit but then casually set it aside. The days went on…
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Review: Death and Other Happy Endings by Melanie Cantor
Sometimes persistence pays off. This book was pitched to me at least four times for review and each time I passed. Not because I didn’t want to read it, I just didn’t think I could fit it in anywhere close to the review date. It wasn’t until the book physically arrived at my house that I took some real stock of my review calendar to see if I could accommodate this book. The publicist for this book raved about it with such passion that I felt compelled to work it in. I hate missing out on great books simply for calendar purposes so I made it happen. I snuck in…
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Review: The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews
At Christmas, I had the privilege of reading Mimi Matthews’ holiday novella, Holiday by Gaslight, and absolutely adored it. I read it in like one sitting and often thought about what a great story it was. I wanted desperately to pick up her other books, but that the time I just couldn’t fit them in. Since then she has become a USA Today Best Selling Author, and I continue to see people raving about her books all over my social media. When this book came up for review, I didn’t have room for it, but I knew I just had to work it in somehow. I remembered reading the holiday…
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Review: The Summer Country by Lauren Willig (Audible Edition)
To say that Lauren Willig is a favorite author of mine is the understatement of the year. Everything she touches is like magic for me. She is hands down one of my favorite authors and an author I have on auto-buy. Lauren Willig is historical fiction at its best—plain and simple. When I saw this book was coming out and that it was set in the exotic location of Barbados, I knew it was going to be glorious and I had it on pre-order almost immediately. I was also gifted and early ARC of this book as well, but I knew between the cover and the author, I needed the…
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Review: A Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell
Michelle Campbell is a new to me author, though I have had my eye on her debut novel, It’s Always the Husband, for over a year now. When this book came up for review, I was excited to try something by this author, even if it wasn’t the book that I had had my eye on for so long. I enjoy domestic thrillers and this one sounded like it was going to be one of those books that I would devour in one or two sittings. And based on a number of other reviews that I had read, most people would agree that this book could easily be read in…
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Review: The Undertaker’s Assistant by Amanda Skenandore
The setting of this book instantly caught my eye and made me want to read it. It is set in Reconstruction Era Louisiana and features an undertakers assistant as the heroine. As many of you know, my Masters thesis was on women in Civil War nursing specifically Southern nurses through the Reconstruction era. So to say that this book caught my eye was an understatement—I was practically chomping at the bit to read it! I finished my Masters degree three years ago, and since then I have not read a ton of books set in the Civil War or Reconstruction eras mostly because I felt burnt out but every once…