Month: December 2020

Maybe This Time | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: Maybe This Time

Author: Kasie West

Format: eBook (borrowed)

Pages: 368

Categories: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary

One year. Nine events. Nine chances to . . . fall in love?

Weddings. Funerals. Barbecues. New Year’s Eve parties. Name the occasion, and Sophie Evans will be there. Well, she has to be there. Sophie works for the local florist, so she can be found at every big event in her small hometown, arranging bouquets and managing family dramas.

Enter Andrew Hart. The son of the fancy new chef in town, Andrew is suddenly required to attend all the same events as Sophie. Entitled, arrogant, preppy Andrew. Sophie just wants to get her job done and finish up her sketches so she can apply to design school. But every time she turns around, there is Andrew, getting in her way and making her life more complicated. Until one day she wonders if maybe complicated isn’t so bad after all . . .

Told over the course of one year and following Sophie from event to event, this delightful novel from master of romantic comedy Kasie West shows how love can blossom in unexpected places. 

  • It’s so refreshing to read a contemporary ya book after reading so much fantasy ones. I enjoyed all the elements in this book: enemies to lovers, small town girl wants to go to the big city, complicated family, and a tight best friend relationship.
  • Sophie and Andrew’s moments together span over a year. They are basically together in scenes when they work a big even in town. Sophie works as an assistant events planner and Andrew helps his chef dad with his website. They don’t get a long at first and I liked the bickering between them.
  • Sophie and her best friend Micah have a fun relationship! Thank goodness for Micah to help Sophie lighten up, especially when it comes to Andrew. They have their struggles but I love that their bond is hard to break.
  • Sophie’s broken family is due to her dad leaving their family. But Sophie wants to eventually leave too, but she doesn’t know how those plans will pan out. She questions herself: she doesn’t know if she’s skilled or talented enough to make it in design school.
  • I’m not sure that anything really resolves between Andrew’s dad and Sophie, but I guess it doesn’t matter, because Andrew finally stands up to him. Still, I just didn’t understand what his problem was with her.
  • The story is spaced out over the year – for example there was a wedding event, and then a fall festival and in between these events Andrew and Sophie never hung out. So there would be a month they haven’t seen each other and I thought that was interesting.

This was a super quick and enjoyable read. It was refreshing to read a YA contemporary romance since it’s been awhile for me! It was nice to see Sophie grow as a person and I loved her hate to love relationship with Andrew. I look forward to reading more from this author.

💘 ~ Yolanda

Monthly Wrap Up | November 2020

Oh November, you wild thing you. I started this month full of bad anxiety because of Election Day which turned into Election Week…of course my birthday fell on the day after Election Day. So yeah…it was the worst week ever. I never want to relive that, ever.😅

Because of all that anxiety – I barely read anything. I couldn’t, so this was the month I read the least I think. This was what my November was like:

Cast in Firelight by. Dana Swift – 5/5

These Violent Delights by. Chloe Gong – 4/5

Parachutes by. Kelly Yang 3.5/5

Grown by. Tiffany D. Jackson – 4/5

Deal with the Elf King by. Elise Kova – 4/5

Unravel the Dusk by. Elizabeth Lim – 3/5

Savage Lands by. Stacey Marie Brown – 4/5

Shadow Knights (Knights of the Realm, #2) – 2/5

Skin Curse (The Gate Cycle, #2) – 4/5

How was your November? What are you looking forward to reading in December? I don’t think I have anything I’m dying to read for December – I just want a nice break and catch up on NetGalley arcs I have to finish, but that’s it. I wish you all a Happy December!

🎄 ~ Yolanda

Light Singer | Book Review

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Title: Light Singer (Kingdom of Runes, #4)

Author: Audrey Grey

Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 476

Categories: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult

Haven escaped the clutches of the new Sun Sovereign and found solace in Shadoria, but for how long? 

Now that the extent of her powers is known, Solis, Noctis, and mortals all hunt her. Meanwhile, chaos reigns across the land. The immortal realm is ruled by a depraved King who will stop at nothing to reclaim Haven as a weapon, while the mortal lands must choose between serving a tyrant or following Prince Bell, the Kinslayer. 

And below, in the Netherworld, a great evil awaits, amassing an army of untold powers. 

Hunted, plagued by doubt, and torn between duty and love, Haven must find a way to broker peace between the nations before it’s too late. 

  • World Building ~ we are back in the world of A Kingdom of Runes, and Haven is trying to assert her role as the Goddess born. She is trying to win allies but has to prove herself along the way.
  • Stolas ~ the thing I loved about this book was Stolas and Haven trying to figure out where they stand with one another. Plus things are always so heated between them, in a steamy way. For the most part, their friendship grows as he helps her control her shadow “beast”. Stolas has a vulnerable moment in the book on his mother’s death anniversary and it was so emotional. For me their relationship was the best part of the book! Give me more of Stolas and Haven.
  • I liked how the ending brought Stolas and Haven into a new adventure – a darker one, and yes I love that he’s this vampire, shifter, fae character – he’s pretty much everything haha. But their new adventure to make her immortal…will it happen? I’m eager to read the next book to find out.
  • Archeron is so evil ugh…glad Haven is finally over him!
  • It was nice to see Bell and the rest of Haven’s friends.

If you like fantasy romance books like ACOTAR, then you may enjoy this one because it has so many similar vibes. This is my favorite book of the series so far and I can’t wait to read the next one ~ I hope we get it soon!

🖤 ~ Yolanda

WWW Wednesday | 12/2/20

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam over on Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is pretty simple, every week you dedicate a post to the three W’s:

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

I have so much reading to catch up on! What about you?

😘 ~ Yolanda

Top Ten Tuesday | 12/1/20

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Please check out her website for more TTT topics!

This week’s topic is:

Books I Want to Read Again

(This could mean books you plan on re-reading OR books you wish you could read again for the first time.)
  1. Legendborn ~ I’ve been re-reading this slowly since I bought the book! Hopefully, I’ll have time to really dig in, after the holidays.
  2. A Court of Thorns and Roses ~ I’ve reread this series so much but with Nesta’s story coming out in February, I may have to reread it again.
  3. The Inheritance Games ~ I’ll read it again before the sequel comes out.

4. Twilight ~ the book that got me into reading young adult novels when I was adult status. I don’t think I’ll read it again, but I do wish I could relive my first time reading it and I was like…”vampires don’t sparkle!” 😂 I was used to Anne Rice kind of vampires or Dracula okay? Burn in the sun!

5. Bring Me Their Hearts ~ will reread this when I buy myself my own copies.

6. Secondborn ~ I reread this SO many times, but to go back to that first time would be awesome.

7. The Vampire Diaries series ~ I was OBSESSED with this series in the early 1990’s. I reread my copies so much the covers fell off. Oh to read it for the first time again.

8. The Secret Circle series ~ Yes, I was obsessed with all LJ Smith books. This was another series I read over and over until the covers tore off.

9. Vampire Academy series ~ sooo addicting! I loved this world of dhamphirs.

10. Tithe ~ my first Holly Black book and what started my love for faeries! Oh the memories.

So I feel like having a blog and reading as many books to review has made me reread book WAY less…😞. I seriously have no more time to reread my favorite books and that’s makes me a little sad. On the bright side, I get to read about all these new worlds in these new books I come across.

What did you have for your TTT? Drop me a link in the comments!

😘 ~ Yolanda