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A Princess for Christmas — Jenny Holiday — Christmas in Eldovia #1

“He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it.
Because why not? A cabdriver from the Bronx didn’t have that many opportunities to spend the evening with a princess, and when he did—especially if she was a sad princess—he should probably seize the chance to kiss her hand.”

Author: Jenny Holiday
Narrator: Charlotte North

Genre: Royalty Romance
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Narration: 5 mikes
Spicy Meter: 4 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses parental death, grieving, and economic hardships. Mentions the refugee crisis. Has explicit sexual content.

“A Princess for Christmas” is the first book in the Christmas in Eldovia series, and it follows Princess Marie of Eldovia and Leo Ricci of…the Bronx? Leo is a cab driver that’s just doing his best. After his parents die, he is forced to drop out of college, become a taxi driver, and raise his little sister—while barely making ends meet. Then one day his sister spots a “princess” in distress outside of the UN building and they decide to help, even though he’s technically off duty. That’s when these two unlikely lovers meet, but that’s not how their story ends. “A Princess for Christmas” will take you on a Hallmark movie adventure to the European nation of Eldovia, where everyone can fall in love…with the beauty of nature, amongst other things.

This book was literally the definition of “don’t judge a book by its cover”, because, oh, did I hate this cover (but loved this book). I, honest-to-God, have the biggest crush on Leo. He was the perfect man. Someone who sees their own imperfections and seeks to be better, do better. Marie was also so relatable although she was a literal princess? Its kind of hard to explain.

I adored this audiobook. I will literally listen to anything Charlotte North narrates. I have listened to a few of her recording before. This time around, her voice was soothing but captivating. I legit wouldn’t change a thing, hence the 5 mike review.

So, by the time I’m writing this review, I have already read the others in the series, and I can’t really tell which one I liked best. But to hell with it, it’s the holidays season, grab all the books and enjoy these wintery love stories. You won’t regret it.

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Love at First Spite — Anna E. Collins

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 4 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses cheating, breaking off engagements, and office romances. Describes fires and fire/explosion injuries. Has explicit sexual content.

“Love at First Spite” follows Dani Porter, an interior designer who just broke off her engagement to an entitled, cheating jerk, and Wyatt Montego, an unfriendly (but good-looking) architect that works in the same firm as Dani. When she sees the opportunity to buy and build in the plot beside her ex’s house (that was supposed to be her house), blocking its beach view—she takes it. The only problem is no architect will take her project, except for Wyatt. A serious and critical architect that has lowkey always had a thing for Dani, but she really doesn’t know that. Until she does.

Look, objectively I understand office romances are wrong—but holy, this was so good. All the characters were so likable and the story relatively fast-paced (although the romance not to so much). Dani and Wyatt have great chemistry, although miscommunication was a big stressor here.

The writing was good, but I did see a few plot holes here and there. I don’t want to go into details, but after reading this book, all I am thinking about are those pieces I’m missing.

Overall, I would highly recommend this romance book if you’re looking for a light-ish read that’ll make you go through a great range of emotions in 320 pages.

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Something Wilder — Christina Lauren

“I had to let you go once, (…) you think I’m letting that happen again?”

Author: Christina Lauren
Narrated by: Christina Lauren, Patti Murin, and Jon Root

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis
Narration: 4 mikes
Content Warnings: Discusses parent death, murder, and kidnapping. Describes hiking and violent injuries. Has explicit sexual content.

“Something Wilder” follows Lily Wilder, daughter of a notorious treasure hunter, and Leo Grady, her first (and, really, only) love, as they are reunited by chance in the middle of the wilderness they adored. A series of events sends them through the treasure-hunting trip of a lifetime. This is definitely an adventure you don’t want to miss.

Have you ever wanted to tackle a lovers-to-estranged-enemies-to-lovers trope book? Well, here’s your chance. “Something Wilder” will take you on horse rides and hikes that only few get a chance to see, all while reuniting two soulmates that only drifted apart due to distance and miscommunication.

I liked the narration of this audiobook, but it took me a few chapter to get used to Leo’s voice—it just wasn’t my cup if tea, but then I learned to love it. If you’re going to grab this book, definitely consider listening to it as an audiobook, it helped the visualization aspect for me, which in this adventure book was a plus.

This wasn’t my favorite Christina Lauren book, both plot- and spicy-wise, but I still enjoyed it truly. I found it weird that the villains could rationalize truly insane behaviors, it almost had a cowboy-soap-opera feel to it. The bad guys were just ridiculous.

But either way, if you’re looking for an outdoorsy romance that has its fair bit of adventure, treasure hunting, and code breaking, then “Something Wilder” is for you.

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One Italian Summer — Rebecca Serle

“When you’re just a reflection, what happens when the image vanishes?”

Author: Rebecca Serle
Narrated By: Lauren Graham (!!! Yes!!! Lorelai from Gilmore Girls)

Genre: Women’s Fiction
Actual Rating: 2 stars (and I’m being generous)
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Narration: 5 mikes
Content Warnings: Death of parent, unhealthy grief coping mechanisms, cancer, cheating, and some sexual content.

“One Italian Summer” follows Katy, as she travels to Italy in hopes to reconnect with her mother, who’s just passed away. Leaving her husband behind, Katy sets off to the small town her mother loved—little did she know she would indeed reconnect with her mother, as she literally runs into her, in the flesh, and 30 years younger.

Rebecca Serle is one of my biggest hits or miss. And this one was definitely a miss for me. I came in blindly because I will read anything Rebecca publishes, period, but I lowkey regret doing that.

The only reason this has 2 stars is because of Lauren Graham, THE Lorelai Gilmore, who narrated the audiobook I listened to. Her voice was absolutely perfect. Disliked the story, but loved the experience. So lets get on with the actual review.

The relationship between Katy and her mother is absolutely, insanely, unequivocally unhealthy. Like no, honey, your mother is not your soulmate. And hey, I am all for magical realism, but this book was insane. You’re telling me you run into your dead mother, 30 years younger, and you wait 200 pages to ask someone what year you’re in? This was just ridiculous.

Also, there was some cheating here. Which, as you know if you’ve been following my reviews for a while, is the BIGGEST no-no for me. This novel had literally nothing going for it in my opinion (except for the narrator, 10/10).

I would only recommend “One Italian Summer” if time-travel cheating and dysfunctional, codependent mother-daughter relationships are your jam. If not, please just steer clear.

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“(…) Memory is by definition fiction. Once an event is no longer present, but remembered, it is narrative. And we can choose the narratives we tell—about our own lives, our own stories, our own relationships. We can choose the chapters we give meaning.”

Confess — Colleen Hoover

“There are people you meet that you get to know, and then there are people you meet that you already know.”

Author: Colleen Hoover
Narrated By: Elizabeth Louise and Sebastian York

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis
Narration: 4.5 mikes
Content Warning: Touches on subjects like terminal illness in young people, car crashes, family loss, addiction, teenage pregnancy, and lost custody. Has some stalker-ish aspects to it. Has explicit sexual content.

“Confess” is a heartbreaking story that follows Auburn Reed, a young girl who’s still getting over her lost, teenage love. That’s when she meets Owen Gentry, an artist who paints other people’s confessions. Little did she know, this was not the first time they had met.

“Confess” is eerily similar to “Reminders of Him”. Or, well, that should go the other way around, because “Confess” was published 7 years before “Reminders of Him”, but, you know, my bad for not reading these in their proper order. Anyways, so many of the core components are there. It was pretty predictable.

I listened to an audiobook of this novel and it was almost perfect, I just couldn’t vibe with Owen’s voice in the beginning. I don’t even know how to explain it.

I loved this book, but some characters were just too one-dimensional. Mean for the sake of being mean. And that just didn’t sit well with me. I can’t go into too many details without going into heavy spoiler territory, but basically I couldn’t see the motive behind the “villain”. That just tarnished how I enjoyed the story Colleen constructed.

Anyways, I wouldn’t say this is a bad book, it just wouldn’t be the first CoHo book I would recommend when introducing someone to her backlog.

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“And I need you to remember that anyone can make love, but I’m the only one who deserves to make love to you.”

ARC — Twice in a Lifetime — Melissa Baron

“Okay, she typed. Okay, weirdo, I’ll humor you.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 5+ stars
Spicy Meter: 4 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses and describes car accidents, suicide, and physical therapy. Describes panic attacks. Has explicit sexual content.

“Twice in a Lifetime” follows Isla, an insecure graphic designer that, due to her struggles with generalized anxiety disorder, decides to leave Chicago for rural Missouri. All is well until, one day, she receives a text message from her non-existing husband(?). Isla knows she’s not married but Ewan assures her he is actually texting from the future, in hopes to change their fate. Isla, naturally, doesn’t believe him—until he send her an all-too-real picture of them on their wedding day. In this novel, you’ll get butterflies and heartbreak tied with a pretty little ribbon. Isla’s and Ewan’s story is as unique as it get.

I had not give a book 5+ stars in quite some time, but this book is taking that cake. “Twice in a Lifetime” has been one of my favorite reads this year. With distinct characters and a beautiful setting, sometimes the time traveling aspects of this book weren’t even the most unique part. I fell in love with Isla and Ewan and the love so pure they had for each other—even breaking through timelines.

This fast-paced read delivers on all fronts: it’s steamy and hot, it’s heartfelt, it deals with difficult and uncomfortable topics, it’s sweet, (oh, and did I mention that it’s steamy and hot?). There was a lot of character development, a lot of sincere communication between the characters. You could clearly see how they fell for each other. It truly made me believe in soulmates and that, perhaps, I’ve found the Ewan to my Isla as well.

I would highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a unique, fantastically romance. When reading the description, you might think it’ll be like “Landline” by Rainbow Rowell (which I rated at 3 stars last year), but it couldn’t be further from it.

“Twice in a Lifetime” would be the perfect holiday gift this season. Definitely add it to your cart if you’d like a fast-paced novel that’s more than just a steamy love story.

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ARC provided by NetGalley and Alcove Press in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: December 6, 2022

“One of these days, she’d learned to get comfortable with good things happening to her as well as bad things. One day, her heart and her mind might be able to tell the difference between the two.”

ARC — The Happiness Project — Kirstie Pelling

“It seems the secret to happiness was there all along, a smiling face, winking at me from the froth.”

Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Actual Rating: 3 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses parent death and mental illness. Deep dive into cancel culture. I was honestly struggling so much to read this that I can’t recall anything else.

“The Happiness Project” follows Daisy Blane, a self-proclaimed Happiness Expert while she hasn’t even found happiness herself. That’s all you have to know about this book, really. She gets “canceled” and critiqued for just that a few times. She looks for happiness and love where there is none. But she gets her happily ever after, so at least there’s that.

There are two very unique things about this book: 1) there are no proper quotations just these ‘ ’ little guys and 2) the amount of times the narrator thinks/says “I” will drive you insane. ‘I did this and then I did that.’ It got repetitive and annoying after a while. It almost made me think about DNFing at one point, but I am sort of glad I stuck through.

This is a cute, lighthearted read that is trying to be quirky to a fault. I know we’re supposed to empathize with Daisy, but I just could not connect with her. One would think a panda-looking, adorable dog could save the day, but Doodle really wasn’t enough to save this one for me. This didn’t feel like the Romance books I love, it was much more Women’s Fiction with just a tiny sprinkle of Romance.

I’m not sure I will be recommending this book—unless you’re a big fan of first-person narration, then perhaps this book would be for you.

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

Publication Date: December 1, 2022

A Lot Like Adiós — Alexis Daria — Primas of Power #2

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses serious family fights and abandonment. Has very explicit sexual content.

“A Lot Like Adiós” follows Michelle Amato and Gabriel Aguilar, two childhood best friends who had an almost hookup and then never spoke again. Gabe moved across the country, Mich went for a career in their home city. But then in an unexpected turn of events, 13 years after their fallout, they end up working on together on a project—and obviously, the sparks still fly.

Anyone remember how my first review on this blog was about Alexis Daria’s “You Had Me at Hola”? Well, I’m back with the sequel-ish’s review. And what I mean by sequel-ish is that this book really wasn’t about Jasmine and Ashton, which was a real disappointment. I bought “A Lot Like Adiós” swearing I’d get more of than Jashton goodness, but that wasn’t the case. So, no, this isn’t a sequel, it’s just an adjacent, standalone novel that takes places in the same “universe”, if you will.

It’s good, tho. It’s fun and quirky and you get these flashback of sorts, it’s lovely. It was very spicy, but the spice wasn’t as great as between Jasmine and Ashton if you ask me, hence the 3 fire emoji rating.

Mich and Gabe were cute, don’t get me wrong. They just weren’t what I was looking for. I’ve legit spent a year trying to get into this book and I was just never in the mood. I don’t regret grabbing it, but I just wouldn’t recommend it as highly as I did the first book in this series.

I would recommend this read if you’re a sucker for second-chance romance and those childhood best friend rekindled loves. But if you’re just looking for a romance, grab “You Had Me at Hola” instead.

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ARC — Never Ever Getting Back Together — Sophie Gonzales

“I love you, too, by the way.”
“I thought you didn’t do love.”
“There’s a lot of things I thought I didn’t do.”

Genre: Young Adult, LGBTQIA+
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 2 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Gaslighting, toxic relationships, and cheating are a big thing here. Also, definitely some biphobia and all-round douchebag-ery.

“Never Ever Getting Back Together” follows Maya and Skye as they participate in a new reality TV show called Second Chance Romance, where they’re both competing for their ex-boyfriend’s, Jordy’s, heart. But here’s the thing, back in the day, Jordy cheated on Maya with Skye—and then spread fake rumors about Maya, and how he had actually broken up with her but she turned into a low-key stalker. That’s why Maya’s on the TV show, not for Jordy’s heart, but for revenge, while Skye does seem to have some noble intentions… Until sparks start flying between two characters, and none of those is the dumbass Jordy.

First off, if you’ve been here for a while, you know I’m a big Taylor Swift fan (aka a swiftie)—so it should be no surprise if I tell you that the main reason I was called to click on this book was because of its title, and its title alone. Now, on to the actual review.

This is the first book by Sophia Gonzalez that I have ever read but she has been a long-standing member of my TBR list—and I’ll definitely be grabbing those other books real soon.

I don’t even know how to begin to explain “Never Ever Getting Back Together”. I really like books that are set in a reality TV setting, even though I’m not a big reality TV watcher myself, and this story was honestly all I’ve been wishing to read in one of those for a long time. But if there is one thing I would’ve changed about this book was making it more PG18, rather than PG13. Just for the sake of the plot, which has the characters being in their late teens and early twenties, it just felt weird that this was a YA book.

Disregarding that, I really enjoyed the story and, above all, Sophie Gonzales’s writing. Her writing style is descriptive without being overwhelming, and it has a lot of organic, long conversations. I love when I can really see when the characters fell in love, not just some insta-love trope. (Also, it helped that I absolutely loved Maya).

Maybe its because I’m impartial to the enemies-to-lovers trope, but I just a really enjoyed this read. I would recommend this book to readers who are looking for some sapphic, reality-TV-inspired novel.

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

Publication Date: November 29, 2022

“Me and Maya, we’re a good example of how first impressions don’t always set the tone for the rest of it.”

The Worst Best Man — Mia Sosa

Author: Mia Sosa
Narrated By: Rebecca Mozo and Wayne Mitchell

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4
Spicy Meter: 5 fire emojis
Narration: 4 mikes
Content Warnings: Explicit sexual content. Weird relationship (female character + almost-ex-brother-in-law).

“The Worst Best Man” follows Lina Santos, a Brazilian-American wedding planner (and jilted bride), and Max Hartley, Lina’s almost brother-in-law and the best man who tore her wedding apart (although he has no recollection of this), as they try to work together to stick it up to Lina’s ex fiancé and Max’s brother in a professional competition for a very exclusive job in a 5-star hotel, 5 years after the fated disaster wedding-that-wasn’t.

This book was nothing like how I originally envisioned it would be, but that wasn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world. I clicked on this audiobook pretty much off the cover. So when I read the title, “The Worst Best Man”, I thought it would be about a hidden romance between the best man, ideally the fiancé’s childhood best friend, and the fiancée. And then obviously I thought the best man would be coming in the day of the wedding and just opposing to it. They would runoff into the sunset and they would have their happily ever after. And, well, this wasn’t the case.

Instead, this book took a weird turn making the main female character a jilted bride and making the best man the ex fiancé’s brother. Which, honestly, I thought would bother me more than it did? That’s why writing this review has been so confusing. I would usually hate any kind of romance that involves secret dating between common friends of an ex, so imagine how usually repulsed I am by actual almost-family dating. That would usually be a big no-no for me… but we hate Andrew, Lina’s ex fiancé and Max’s brother, so honestly, I really think Lina was with the wrong brother all along (which in retrospect is a horrible thing to say). But oh, were the spicy moments worth the wait.

This book goes into quite a bit of Brazilian culture, which was so fun for me to hear. I’m latinx, but have actually been minimally exposed to our Portuguese-speaking brothers and sisters. And now that we’re talking about listening to this book, I would say I really enjoyed the narration in this one. I feel like Lina‘s voice was more in-tune with what I would’ve imagined, but Max’s voice was always okay (although I hated Andrew’s perceived voice in that narration, hence the 4 mikes instead of 5).

I would recommend this book if you’re open to learning a little about different cultures and if you can give and ex fiancée and almost brother-in-law a chance. It’s truly a beautiful and pure romance that starts as an enemies to friends to lovers, but ends up being all about soulmates, I swear. I could read 10 more books all about Max and Lina, they’re the sweetest.

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