Montlake – andrea's galley

Stars Collide — Rachel Lacey

“(…) It came down to the age-old dilemma: Do I want to be her or be with her? In this case, it was a little of both but mostly the latter.”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 2 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Discusses dysfunctional families, divorce, emotional abuse, and bad past relationships. Contains explicit sexual content.

Super pop stars meet sexual identity crisis in “Stars Collide”. This novel follows Eden Sands, a recently divorced superstar with more than 20 years thriving in the industry, and Anna Moss, an up-and-coming pop star that hasn’t been able to shake off the childish persona the media wants her to be. In the hopes to boost the sales for Eden’s upcoming world tour, Eden and her management invite Anna to perform in the Grammys with her and they just about perfectly fit. Perhaps even more perfectly than they had originally anticipated.

Told in the third person, we get to experience both Eden’s and Anna’s points of view, really giving a fresh and wonderful dive into the lives of pop stars and artists in the limelight. It was also a beautiful ode to finding yourself in your later years—there’s nothing wrong with exploring and discovering your sexuality after 30.

This sapphic romance is both unique and entertaining. Eden’s and Anna’s slow burn will have you wondering when one of them will finally confess or make a move. I would highly recommend this read if you’re looking for a sweet, queer, celebrity romance.

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“Star Collide” by Rachel Lacey is also available through Kindle Unlimited!

ARC — Too Soon For Adiós — Annette Chavez Macias

“My grandma used to say that the universe worked in mysterious ways. It was the only explanation I could come up with for how I’d ended up becoming a chef just like the biological father I never knew. Or how I ended up eating tacos in his restaurant almost thirty years after I was born.”

Genre: General Fiction, Romance
Actual Rating: 5 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Content Warnings: Discusses parental and child death. Describes a sexual assault and physical abuse. Contains some sexual innuendos, but it’s closed doors.

“Too Soon For Adiós” follows Gabby Medina, an ex-sous-chef, as she learns to live after her mother’s death. She was left without her adopted father at a young age and now loses her mother at 29—she is all alone. That is, until a stranger introduces himself as her biological dad at her mother’s funeral. She wants nothing to do with him, for obvious reasons. But when things take a turn for the even-worse, she wants to leave the only place she’s called home and is driven to Sonrisa, New Mexico, her bio-father’s small hometown, where she’ll meet new people and grow into new places.

Do not be bamboozled by the cute cover: this book follows a heartbreaking story, and it touches on very difficult topics like terminal illness, serious debt brought on by someone else, sexual assault, domestic violence, and so much multigenerational trauma.

The romance portion of this book is closed doors, but gosh, the sexual tension between them is so palpable that although their love was slow to burn, it was 100% worth the 65% wait.

I think these are my favorite types of books—both general fiction and romance sprinkled together. It’s as close to real life as fiction gets. I loved the small town setting, I loved almost every character, I loved watching Gabby grow and learn that being soft doesn’t have to mean being weak.

I cannot recommend this novel enough. Immerse yourself in this story if you’ve enjoyed books like “Georgie, All Along” by Kate Clayborn or “Commonwealth” by Ann Patchett, where life is woven as the complicated thing it can be.

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

Publication Date: March 21, 2023

“Mijita, that’s what love is, (…) losing yourself in someone else.”

Reminders of Him — Colleen Hoover

“Now that I’ve forgiven myself, the reminders of him only make me smile.”

Genre: Romance
Actual rating: 5+ stars
Content warnings: Car accident, death, grief, and suicidal thoughts.

“Reminders of Him” follows Kenna Rowan, a young mother who just spent 5 years in prison, as she looks to be reunited with her daughter. Kenna was separated from her daughter, Diem, as soon as she gave birth and she lost custody to Diem’s paternal grandparents. Then in comes Ledger Ward, a retired football player who was best friends with Diem’s father and who cares for Diem as if she were his own daughter. In an(other) emotionally charged romance, Colleen Hoover has once again torn our hearts and pulled them back together.

No review I could ever write will do this book justice. “Reminders of Him” is so so sad. I would dare to say sadder than most CoHo books. It was perfectly paced, which made it even more enjoyable. It was fast enough that you wouldn’t get bored but slow enough that the anticipation alone made the romance much better.

Then you have a bunch of likable but imperfect characters. Kenna and her grief and perseverance, Ledger and his guilt, the Landrys and their anger. There was so much character growth in this book—sometimes even in unexpected ways. Colleen knows just how to build up tension, and oh was this book tense.

I always say my favorite CoHo book is always the last one I’ve read, and this holds true for “Reminders of Him” one too. This book was all I didn’t know I needed.

I would recommend this book without a shadow of a doubt that the reader will be entranced by it. If you’re looking for a romance book that’ll make you swoon and cry and love and heal, then this book is for you.

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“It proves that time, distance, and devastation allow people enough opportunity to craft villains out of people they don’t even know. But Kenna was never a villain. She was a victim. We all were.”