Tag Archives: Clean

ARC — Planning Perfect — Haley Neil

“I can practically see a Pinterest board version of the reception coming together with fairy lights and mismatched vintage china settings and a simple white cake with berries dotted along one side for a pop of color.”

Genre: Young Adult
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A, it’s clean
Content Warnings: Discusses racism, queerphobia, and ace-phobia.

“Planning Perfect” follows Felicity (Fe) Becker, a high schooler who’s in the asexual spectrum, as she helps plan her mother’s wedding. Looking for a venue for a destination wedding, Felicity’s long distance friend, Nancy, offers up her house and adjacent apple orchard and so it’s set. But as they spend more time together, Felicity’s and Nancy’s friendship blossoms into something more… But what could that something be, given Felicity’s asexuality? Anyways, she doesn’t have time to date because one of the wedding guests is an event planner with a very competitive internship program so Felicity has no time for anything else but to plan the perfect wedding.

This book really resonated with me, as a new adult, because I am currently in the midst of planning my wedding and I now know all too well the hassles and stresses of planning such a particular event. It was also super interesting to listen to Felicity’s inner monologue. My brother is within the asexual spectrum and seeing how Felicity thought really gave me another perspective as to how that could feel and the struggles they can face.

I really enjoyed how these chapters were being separated, instead of just “Chapter One” etc. etc., they used chapter divisions to give context about when things were happening, life for example “Two hours and six minutes after the engagement” or “Twenty one days until the wedding” and so on and so forth. That made flashbacks and the timeline in general more understandable and I loved it.

This was such a unique YA read. I feel like it’s the perfect gift for young readers who are just starting to get into the world of reading and romance. With a very diverse set of characters that goes through extensive personal growth, we get to see a lovely story unfold in a beautiful forest-y setting.

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ARC provided by Holly Ruck and Bloomsbury YA through Edelweiss Plus in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: February 14, 2023

“Sure, Nancy knows that I’m on the ace-spectrum, but I don’t think she realizes what that means.
She wants intimacy; she wants passion. I can’t be the one to give those things to her.”

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

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 — The Wilderwomen — Ruth Emmie Lang

“The birds are singing… I’m here to stay.”

Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A, it’s clean
Content Warning: It revolves around parental abandonment, but also includes car accident, pregnancy, and injury details.

“The Wilderwomen” follows, well, the Wilder women—Nora, and her daughters, Zadie and Finn. Well, it mostly follow Zadie and Finn, as Nora has been missing for the last 5 years. But Zadie and Finn aren’t your normal 23- and 17-year-olds, respectively—they’re somewhat magical. Zadie can see the future (of sorts), while Finn can relive other people’s memories, something they call “echoes”. So when, after being missing for so long, Finn can sense an echo from their mom, she convinces Zadie to go on a roadtrip, as she’s sure Nora wants to be found.

I feel like I could’ve enjoyed this book more at another point in my life. For instance, a year ago, I loved reading some nonsensical magical realism (I’ll blame it on me rewatching Jane The Virgin), but right now it just didn’t resonate with me.

Don’t get me wrong, “The Wilderwomen” is exceptionally well-written, and will keep you hooked, I just felt like I wasn’t fulfilled after reading this book.

Zadie and Finn are very likable characters, but I couldn’t care less about Nora, so I was just annoyed half the time. I liked the Sixes, the people who have a sixth sense, that they met in their roadtrip. I loved loved loved the writing. I just didn’t love the story as a whole.

I would recommend this book to readers looking for an escape, a magical read that’ll make you question if you’re the sane one or if magic is really real. If you’ve enjoyed other magical realism reads like “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by T.J. Klune or “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig (which also has a character named Nora, lol), then you’ll love “The Wilderwomen”.

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

Publication Date: November 15, 2022

Without Merit — Colleen Hoover

“With or without Merit?”

Author: Colleen Hoover
Narrated By: Candace Thaxton

Genre: Romance, Young Adult Fiction
Actual Rating: 2.5 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A, it’s clean (although lots of talk about spicy stuff)
Narration: 4 mikes
Content Warning: Describes a suicide attempt, depression, sexual assault, accidents, hypochondria, terminal illness, and very very toxic family relationships.

“Without Merit” follows the Voss family, a dysfunctional family living in a repurposed church out of spite, but it specifically follows Merit Voss, as she deals with being a teenager in love dealing with depression and a lowkey estranged twin. In this coming-of-age novel, you’ll get to live through adolescence over again—with its ups and downs and its indecisiveness and struggles.

I… kinda hated this book? It’s weird because I loved the audiobook narration and I love Colleen Hoover as a writer and I like YA clean romance novels once in a while—but this was something else entirely. I am part of a dysfunctional family and love reading about them as much as the next guy but, damn, was the Voss family above all that. There is dysfunctional and then there is that family, holy. It was all so weird it was distracting. This is as fiction as fiction can get. In no way could this family exist in real life, I swear.

Anyways, I would not recommend this book as your first or even fifth Colleen Hoover read, but if you’ve got nothing else to do and are looking for a filler novel then you could hypothetically grab “Without Merit”, I guess.

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“I used to feel like I was on the top of the world. Then one day, I noticed that it felt like I was no longer on the top of the world. I was just floating around inside of it. And then eventually, it felt like the world was on top of me.”

That’s what depression is.

The Last Thing He Told Me — Laura Dave

“Maybe we are all fools, one way or another, when it comes to seeing the totality of the people who love us—the people we try to love.”

Genre: Mysteries and Thrillers
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A, it’s clean.
Content Warnings: Discusses mobs, fraud, parent death, fake identities, disappearances, and hit and runs.

“The Last Thing He Told Me” follows Hannah Hall as she sets to find her missing husband, Owen Michaels, who left her a single note that wrote “Protect her”. That ‘her’ is Bailey Michaels, Hannah’s husband’s daughter, who perhaps isn’t the fondest of Hannah. Pretty quickly, they both realize Owen perhaps isn’t who he said he is.

I really enjoyed this read. I’m actually a bit sad I rated it this low, but I’ve got my reasons. Hannah and Bailey are great, they’re complex and clever and honestly, just like two people you could truthfully run into in real life. They weren’t two-dimensional, it wasn’t all black and white, I loved that. But—and it’s a bit but—I did not like the ending. At all. After seeing them fight to find Owen they just…didn’t do what I expected them to do. The whole thing felt really out of character.

Nonetheless, I would highly recommend this read if you’re looking for a mystery novel. It reminded me of “The Guest List” by Lucy Foley and “The Maid” by Nita Prose, but not because of their plot, because of the way they made me feel—like I knew a lot, only to be blindsided by the truth.

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“This is the thing about good and evil. They aren’t so far apart—and they often start from the same valiant place of wanting something to be different.”

ARC — Christmas at the Ranch — Anita Hughes

“You’re afraid of being afraid. (..) You’re braver than you think.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A, it’s clean
Content Warnings: This is all about two emotionally cheating characters, I hated it all. Other than that, they also discuss abandonment and extreme poverty.

“Christmas at the Ranch” follows Samantha Morgan, a best-selling adventure/action author who’s faking to be as adventurous as her main character, as she is invited to attend her publisher’s monumental Christmas party. In the plane, she meets Drew Wentworth, the nicest guy amongst all other nice guys, only to find out that he is her publisher’s son, who is engaged to a gorgeous woman. But that gorgeous woman does not want the same things from life as Drew wants right now—so, is she the one for Drew? That’s for him to find out and for Samantha to stay out of, because it’s none of her business… right?

“Tomorrow she’d wake up and worry about the future. Right now, it felt like a Christmas miracle.”

A Christmas miracle??? Really? That you’re a homewrecker?? That you legit ripped apart an engaged couple? A Christmas miracle? Really?

Here’s the thing. This book was losing from the get-go. I hate the whole cheating or the falling-in-love-with-someone-while-in-a-relationship-with-someone-else trope. And this is exactly what this book was about. Yes, it’s set in a Winter wonderland, surround the holidays. But that doesn’t stop Samantha and Drew from being the douchiest of bouchebags. Technically there is no physical cheating, but the emotional cheating was there, alright?

In regards to the writing, this book is exceptional written and very entertaining. A bit slow-paced in the beginning, but then it picks up. The characters are interesting and lovable (if you ignore Samantha’s and Drew’s biggest flaw). Jackson Hole is a lovely town to set this book in. The bits of mystery woven into this story were great. The older characters and their advice were priceless.

I would recommend this book if you’re looking for a December or Winter-y read and don’t mind the cheating trope—which I do. Anita Hughes seems like an amazing author and I won’t shy away from some other of her books. It’s just this one wasn’t it for me.

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

Publication Date: September 27th, 2022

“Native Americans have many legends about love. My Ojibwe friend taught me the story of a young girl named Dandelion. Her hair is the color of spun gold and she’s so lovely, the South Wind and East Wind both fall in love with her. The South Wind is too shy to reveal his intentions, but the East Wind is very confident. He loves to hear himself talk, so when he courts her, he blows parts of her away. After a while, her golden hair is gone, and all that remains is her heart. Dandelion stops being a girl and becomes a flower instead. There’s nothing more important than love when it’s nurturing, but love can also be the reverse. It can sap your energy and leave you with nothing.” (…)
“I never heard anything like that.” (…)
“It wouldn’t sell many Valentine’s cards but it’s a good lesson. You have to choose the kind of love that works for you.”

A Pho Love Story — Loan Le

“There’s so much in your life that you can’t control.… So maybe you can use this chance to do something for yourself.”

Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A, it’s clean
Content Warnings: Discusses racial discrimination and xenophobia. Mentions war and death.

“A Pho Love Story” follows Linh Mai and Bao Nguyen, the children of two immigrant Vietnamese families who own rivaling pho restaurants. They’re on their last years of high school and are just trying to find themselves—Linh loves art and Bao loves writing, but those don’t sound like acceptable careers in their culture. Will they follow their dreams, and perhaps forget their family’s rivalry for a moment? Might they even become friends? Or more?

“A Pho Love Story” is a multicultural, sweet, high school romance story that lives up to all of its potential. Just reading the premise I knew I would be moved, and oh was my heart warmed. But here’s the thing: I knew exactly how it was going to pan out. Hence the low-ish rating.

Ignoring its predictability, this was an very entertaining read. Loan Le is an amazing writer and I can’t believe this is her debut novel. Well, she’s also an editor at Atria Books, so perhaps her love and devotion to books made her an amazing rookie.

I would recommend “A Pho Love Story” to readers who enjoy multicultural books and clean love stories. Also, if you’re just looking for a somewhat predictable, feel-good read, this book is for you.

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“But in anything you love, isn’t there always some bit of sadness, some essence of suffering? That, to me, is what makes art worth it.”

Tweet Cute — Emma Lord

“It’s weird, how you have no idea how far you’ve come until suddenly you can’t find the way back.”

Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A, it’s clean
Content Warnings: Deals with teenagers under a lot of pressure, grandparent sickness, and high school bullying.

“Tweet Cute” follows Pepper and Jack, two high school seniors that are under waaay too much pressure. Pepper is the captain of the swim team and the social media manager for her family’s massive food chain business. Jack lives under his twin’s shadow, who’s the captain of the dive team, but the one thing he has that his brother doesn’t is the authority to manage his family’s small restaurant’s Twitter account. When the two Twitter accounts go into full-on feud mode over a grilled cheese sandwich recipe, Jack and Pepper aren’t aware that they’re actually fighting against themselves. Until they are. And things get messy.

This book felt exactly how it felt like to be a teenager: everything was the end of the world and people-pleasing tendencies were at their all-time high. But I loved it. It’s clean, so no spicy content there, but it’s sweet, with its own happy ending and all.

The amount of plot twists we get is almost troublesome, but since the book is written in two points of view—Pepper’s and Jack’s—we also know things that the other doesn’t, making it all a bit more exciting. It’s like you’re in on a secret that you know will come out, you’re just not sure when.

And can we talk about how this was Emma Lord’s debut novel? That’s crazy. It’s so so good, I can’t wait to get my hands on the 2 other books she’s published since (and the 4th book that’ll be published by early 2023).

I would highly recommend “Tweet Cute” as a gift for a young reader. It’s fast-paced but will keep you on your toes. It’s a love story but it also touches deep and relevant subjects for their age, like finding yourself and what you love, standing up to your parents—in a respectful way—to let them know maybe the path they’ve chosen for you isn’t the one you’d like to chose for yourself. I would highly recommend this YA read.

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“A stolen day. The kind of day that ends too fast but stays with you much longer.”