ARC — The Sweet Spot — Amy Poeppel

Genre: Women’s Fiction
Actual Rating: 3 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A
Content Warnings:Mentions parental death, cheating, and abandonment.

“The Sweet Spot” follows multiple points of views to tell a story of three women—women at different stages of life and who don’t particularly like each other—as they face the oddest of situations. Lauren is a ceramic artist who’s happily married and has 3 kids. What she was not intending was to cause Melinda’s husband to leave her after 30 years of marriage, simply by giving a small pep talk to the art curator who was having an affair with Melinda’s husband. Melinda worked in HR at a firm for years, but after finding herself forcefully retired after an incident, she ends up working as a school receptionist. What Melinda was not intending was to get Olivia fired after Olivia had a confrontation with Melinda at the mistress’s store and it goes viral on Tiktok. And what none of them expected was to find a baby upon their doorstep.

Getting to meet Lauren first, Melinda second, and Olivia last, these interlacing points of view bring us a story that’s so sad and improbable that it’s comical. These three ladies and a few of the side characters have so many flaws that aren’t regularly portrayed in fiction. Amy Poeppel gives us a very unique story in “The Sweet Spot.”

But I can already see from the reviews on Goodreads that my opinion is the unpopular one this time around. I really enjoyed the whimsicality of the characters, but the story never fully captivated me. I did not DNF this book out of pure willpower and stubbornness, because I honestly was done with this narrative at around 20%.

It’s complicated because the book is really well-written and the characters are thoroughly constructed and fairly unique, yet I did not empathize with any of them. I was not interested in their story and their lives and their problems. Lauren’s struggles with her commissions, Melinda’s grudge over someone steeling her husband, and Olivia’s unemployment after a meltdown inspired barely any emotion in me.

Although this book wasn’t my cup of tea, I would recommend it to readers who have enjoyed books by Sally Rooney, especially “Conversations with Friends”, and books by Frederik Backman, especially “Anxious People” and “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry”.

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ARC provided by NetGalley and Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: January 31, 2023

ARC — The Second You Are Single — Cara Tanamachi

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 2 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Mentions miscarriages in the second trimester, childhood cancer, and cheating. Discusses fat shaming and abandonment issues after divorce and other negative romantic experiences.

“The Second You Are Single” follows Sora Reid, a freelance writer who pitches the concept of ‘Solo February’ after a series of negative dating experiences. Little did she know that it would go viral and that, in the middle of all of it, she’d run into her childhood best friend, Jack Mann. Jack, who is now a pastry chef, had the hugest crush on Sora growing up, and can’t wait to reconnect. But Sora can’t. Solo February, and all… They’ll have to wait ‘till March. Sure, that’s plausible. Unless they don’t.

Well, having been in a stable relationship for the last 7 years, I thought I wouldn’t relate that much to the Solo February challenge, but I was a tiny bit wrong there. This was still a very fun and empowering read, having Solo February branch into self cafe rather than just having it be a men-ban.

I loved all the representation in this book—from different cultures and ethnicities, to different bodies. I did feel like they went a little overboard with Sora’s love for bacon, it seemed satirical at best, but if I kind of block that out this book was near perfect. We got to see how Sora and Jack reconnect and get to know each other as adults, we see the tension and chemistry build, this wasn’t exactly some unrealistic insta-love story.

I would highly recommend this book. It feels like the perfect Valentine’s or Galentine’s Day gift, so definitely add it to your wishlists and TBRs!!

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ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: January 31, 2023

ARC — Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around — Sarah Ready — Josh and Gemma #2

“I loved you yesterday. (…) I love you today. (…) I’ll love you tomorrow.”

Author: Sarah Ready
Narrators: Erin Mallon

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Narration: 5 mikes
Spicy Meter: 4 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Describes eclampsia and memory loss after being in a coma. Contains explicit sexual content.

What happens after the happily ever after? That’s what we’re set to find out in this sequel. “Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around” follows Gemma as she readjusts to the reality that love sometimes isn’t what you think. It isn’t fireworks all the time. It isn’t a fairytale. It is hard, and it changes over time. After a critical event, Gemma is left feeling… nothing? Not even for Josh, the man (and baby daddy) who has always made her feel too much. Josh is willing to give it another go—but is Gemma?

Erin Mallon is something else. She’s slowly becoming my favorite female narrator, that’s all I’m saying. Her voice really took us through this heart-wrenching journey.

But, ultimately, this book is as heartbreaking as it is heartwarming. I am so mad at Sarah Ready for doing this to us, I legit could not handle it. But at the same time I am so grateful that she gave us more Josh and Gemma.

Throughout this book, we get to see more of the characters we loved and hated the first time around. In the first book we got to explore heavy topics like infertility, IVF, and miscarriages. In this second book we get to see what happens when life doesn’t go as expected. How “in sickness and in health” can be applied even before you’re officially married. We see Gemma land in a coma after suffering from pre-eclampsia. We see her lose her feelings. We see her come back.

I cannot recommend this series enough. Yes, it has nice tropes, like dating your brother’s best friend, etc., but it’s so much more than that. These books bring true human emotions, they explore narcissism, they describe trauma—Sarah Ready really exceeded my expectations with “Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around.”

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ARC provided by NetGalley and Swift & Lewis Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: January 26, 2023

Josh and Gemma Make a Baby — Sarah Ready — Josh and Gemma #1

“When you realize you love someone and that you want to spend the rest of forever with them, you want forever to start right now.”

Author: Sarah Ready
Narrators: Erin Mallon

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Narration: 4 mikes
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses infertility, IVF, miscarriages, and parental death, and contains fat shaming. Contains explicit sexual content.

“Josh and Gemma Make a Baby” follows Gemma Jacobs as she decides to take her life and future in her own hands and have the baby she’s always dreamed of—by herself. Well, sort of. In comes Josh Lewenthal, her older brother’s best friend and a family friend since pretty much forever. Josh is easygoing and overall a good person, and was Gemma’s crush when she was younger, but those days are over. He would be the perfect donor/anonymous baby daddy. He could be as involved (or not) as he’d like, and, most importantly, he’s agreed to do it.

Erin Mallon did a great job at narrating this book. I loved her male voices and she sounded just how I imagined Gemma’s voice to be. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for other books narrated by her.

This book made me feel all the feels—it made me laugh and cry and it surprised me in so many ways. It was comical in a sitcom kind of way. In a way that showed that this story was highly improbable and yet so so relatable. I loved aaaall the side characters. From Gemma’s family to the IVF support group, this book had some A+ side vibes.

This is the first book by Sarah Ready that I’ve ever read and now I feel a need to go over her whole backlog. Her writing was fluid and engaging and I could not stop wondering where this story was going. This was the happiest of happily ever afters.

With a sort of childhood friends-to-lovers trope going on and some very serious double pining, you’ll love “Josh and Gemma Make a Baby” if you’ve enjoyed books where one of the main characters has secretly always been in love with the other main character. Just beware that this book brings along many serious topics like infertility and miscarrying after IVF.

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“I guess loving is accepting that it’s about giving and never about taking. If you expect something in return, then love becomes a transaction and it’s not love anymore.”

ARC — Georgie, All Along — Kate Clayborn

“This will be so good for you, Georgie. (…) You’ll finally be able to do all the things you want to do.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Spicy Meter: 4 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discussed unhealthy relationships with parents, vandalism and crime, and being fired. Mentions drug use and fire arms. Contains explicit sexual content.

“Georgie, All Along” follows Georgie Mulcahy, a former Hollywood personal assistant, as she moves back to her small hometown to help her pregnant best friend on her last trimester and to figure out what she wants to do with her life moving forward. Whilst cleaning her besties storage room, they find a notebook they wrote right before starting high school, where they documented all the things they wanted to do back then—and then ended up not doing any of them. Georgie takes this as her sign. This notebook-bucketlist-thingy will help her find herself—and with the aid of her best friend and Levi Fanning, the older brother of her biggest teenage crush who’s crashing at Georgie’s parents’ place, she might accomplish just that.

Okay, so, thanks to this book, Kate Clayborn has become an instant-buy author for me. Like, “Georgie, All Along” was the last book I read in 2022 and yet I still know it will end up in my 2023 wrapped, right among my favorite reads of this year. It wasn’t just the spicy aspect to it, even though it was great—this book had so much character growth and development. The miscommunications are infuriating but justified. The love is not a slow-burn but it takes its time to settle in.

If you’re looking for a book that’ll make you feel things, then look no further. “Georgie, All Along”, in all its small town glory, will make you sniffle quite a bit. I don’t remember ever rooting for two characters as strongly as I rooted for Georgie and Levi. I’m all for a supportive significant other. I would legit date them both.

As Levi is a former bad boy, do expect to read about some triggering events. They don’t go into explicit details with drug use and such, but these things are mentioned, so if that isn’t your speed, maybe be careful about this one—although it, overall, isn’t the most prominent matter.

I would highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy close proximity tropes and former-bad-guy vibes, and who aren’t afraid of some spiciness in their reads. The chemistry between Georgie and Levi is undeniably, and they’re making it everyone’s business (and I’m here for it).

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ARC provided by NetGalley and Kensington Books in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: January 24, 2023

“It’s a bucket list, (…) except you’re doing it to start something, not to end it. What’s the opposite of a bucket?”

p.s. I would give so much for a friendship like Bel and Georgie’s.

ARC — Make A Wish — Helena Hunting — Spark House #3

“Have faith in the power of true love, my dear, it conquers all.”

Author: Helena Hunting
Narrators: Stella Bloom and Jason Clarke

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Narration: 5 mikes
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses age gap relationships, parental death, death during childbirth, dysfunctional relationships, and gaslighting. Contains explicit sexual content.

“Make a Wish” is the third and final installment in the Spark House series, and it follows the youngest Spark sister: Harley. She used to be a live-in nanny for a toddler named Peyton, but that was until she tried to kiss the girl’s widowed father, Gavin, and they upped and left to the other side of the State. Harley never saw them again, she moved on to work with her sisters in their boutique hotel, and that was that. Until Gavin and the now 9-year-old Peyton move back and they naturally reconnect. Will Harley get over what happened years ago and be able to move on to what the future could hold? Or will her embarrassment win this time around?

Hear me out: this book is part of a series, yes, but it works so so well as a standalone novel. And you can trust me with this one, because I have not read any of the other Spark House books and I was not only able to understand what was going on, but I was able to love the novel and all the characters as a whole.

And then when it came to the narration of this ARC audiobook—it was simply perfect. Stella Bloom’s voice was soft and really expressed Harley’s quirkiness, and Jason Clarke… Oh, Jason Clarke. His voice was so so deep. It was absolutely immaculate. I recently found out all the other audiobooks for this series are narrated by this pair and I can’t wait to get my hands on those.

The age difference and change in power dynamics was a bit weird, I’m not going to lie. I sometimes doubted Gavin’s intentions and really thought all he wanted was another live-in nanny. Also, that 9-year-old acted more like a 5- or 6-year-old, it got to be a bit annoying, yet I still honestly enjoyed this book—hence the aaaalmost perfect star rating.

I can’t speak for the rest of the series, but I would highly recommend “Make a Wish” if you’re looking for a romance that leans more towards the complex. Touching topics like childbirth death and losing both parents at a young age, this is a bit of a heavy read—but it still finds ways to be heartwarming.

If you enjoy age difference and second chances at love, then “Make a Wish” is most definitely for you.

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ARC provided by NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: January 24, 2023

Gallant — V.E. Schwab

Author: V.E. Schwab
Narrator: Julian Rhind-Tutt

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Narration: 2 mikes
Spicy Meter: N/A, it’s clean
Content Warnings: Discusses and describes parental death, suicide, ghost/ghouls, and child endangerment and abuse. Contains violence and psychological suspense.

“Gallant” follows Olivia Prior, an orphan who’s only recall of her past life lies in the diary her mother left for her. In said diary, you can clearly see how her mother went insane… but why? With a final, ominous message, to never visit Gallant, Olivia is left with more questions than answers. That is until a letter comes for her at the orphanage. A letter that’ll give her a whole new life, with her uncle, in Gallant.

The premise of this book seemed okay—label it as YA Fantasy and you could almost say I was excited to listen to this audiobook. I usually really enjoy V.E. Schwab’s writing, but this was not it for me. First off, it’s YA, sure, but fantasy? Absolutely not. This was more of a horror or a thriller, if anything. I was absolutely horrified.

The narrator was a little off-putting for me. Who decided this book about a young girl should be narrated by an old British man? Overall, it wasn’t the voice that bothered me—in another context, with another main character and another genre, I could’ve even enjoyed Rhind-Tutt’s narration—I just didn’t like that voice telling this story.

This would not be the first book I would think about when introducing someone to V.E. Schwab’s writing. I’m not even sure if I would recommend it at all. In general, when grabbing “Gallant”, be sure to not have any expectations—unless those expectations are for a thriller-suspense-horror driven story.

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ARC — A Guide to Being Just Friends — Sophie Sullivan — Jansen Brothers #3

“People don’t think California is ever dark. They’re so used to the sun, it’s all they expect. All they see. (…) It reminds me of you. You’re so positive, so upbeat. I forget you’ve been hurt. That you’ve seen the other side of happiness.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Spicy Meter: 2 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses toxic parental relationships, toxic romantic relationships, emotional abuse, and gaslighting. Contains some sexual content, but closed doors.

“A Guide to Being Just Friends” follows Hailey Sharp, a salad shop entrepreneur who’s just moved to town in search for a fresh start after a bad breakup, and Wes Jansen, the oldest of the Jansen brothers (but also the last of them to find love), as they strike up a platonic best friendship based on their need for a break from dating and wish for companionship. Hailey and Wes are both new to town and have fit perfectly together—but only as friends, of course.. right?

I was so entranced by Hailey and Wes and their interactions that every other conversation felt like a filler—when they really weren’t. This book is more than just a romance novel, it’s the story of two very independent characters, as they find themselves and learn to be true and consistent with their dreams. I rooted for every single character (old and new) in “A Guide to Being Just Friends.” I could not get enough of this book.

It’s getting ridiculous but with every new book in this series, my favorite amongst them all changes. First it was Chris, then Noah, and now Wes. How can these brothers just keep getting better and better? This entire series as a whole is wonderful.

I would highly recommend this series if you’re looking for a clean romance series. Also, if you’re a fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, then “A Guide to Being Just Friends” is most definitely for you.

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ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: January 17, 2023

How To Love Your Neighbor — Sophie Sullivan — Jansen Brothers #2

“For showing me that happiness isn’t about where you live or what you achieve. A home isn’t walls, a roof, and a floor. It’s a feeling; it comes with being seen and accepted for who you are. It’s finding the person who makes you feel alive no matter where you are or what you accomplish. The person who makes you feel like you could have nothing and still have everything. It’s unconditional love.”

(Yes, I am sobbing)

Author: Sophie Sullivan
Narrator: Chloe Dolandis

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Narration: 4 mikes
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses toxic parental relationships, emotional abuse, gaslighting, and blackmailing. Contains some sexual content, but closed doors.

“How To Love Your Neighbor” follows Grace Travis, an interior designer trying to make ends meet while she deals with her dysfunctional “family” and is finishing up school, and Noah Jansen, a real estate developer who reaaaally wants to buy off the house next door out of Grace’s hands. But that house is not up for sale. No price will do. You’re not supposed to hate your neighbor, right? But Noah is making it very hard not to—hate him and fall for him all at the same time.

Chloe Dolandis did a great job at bring these characters’ voices to life. I don’t believe I had ever listened to an audiobook narrated by Dolandis, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for her.

I don’t know why, but I’m usually not the biggest fan of found family tropes—well, this book was the exception. I have hated few characters as much as I hated Grace’s mother. There is no room for redemption there. Grace deserves a second chance at life with her found family.

I would highly recommend this read if you’re looking for a comedic, clean romance. The books in this series work as standalones, so definitely don’t hesitate on grabbing this one even if you haven’t read “Ten Rules for Faking It” or the soon-to-be published “A Guide to Being Just Friends.”

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Ten Rules for Faking It — Sophie Sullivan — Jansen Brothers #1

“I’ll choose you again and again and again.”
“I’ll choose you back.”

Author: Sophie Sullivan
Narrator: Rebecca Gibel

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Narration: 5 mikes
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Describes and discusses panic attacks and anxiety. Contains some sexual content, but closed doors.

“Ten Rules of Faking It” follows Everly Dean right after the worst birthday of her life. She caught her boyfriend cheating on her with his assistant and then said occurrence is aired on the radio station she works in by mistake. Now people are lining up to date her and Chris, her cute boss, is set on helping her. As their friendship and trust blossoms in this Bachelorette-style competition, so do other feelings. Feelings that should not be there. Feelings that are quite scary, if you ask Everly.

Rebecca Gibel has now become one of my favorite audiobook narrators. Her character voices were distinctive but not annoyingly so, and her pace and tone just kept you engaged all the way through.

The story in general was entertaining and the characters likable—a bit unreality, but I was still there for it. Although the romance seemed improbable, you could definitely feel Everly and Chris falling in love. So much so I think I fell a bit in love with Chris too. The way he loved her with her anxiety helped me love myself a little bit more in the process.

With its dual POV, this story was told beautifully. I would highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a closed door romance with anxiety representation and some straight-on double pining.

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