Tag: contemporary fiction

Yolk | ARC Review

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Title: Yolk

Author: Mary H.K. Choi

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages:

Publication Date: 3/2/21

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Categories: Young Adult, New Adult, Eating Disorder, Cancer, Family, Healthcare, Contemporary

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Jayne Baek is barely getting by. She shuffles through fashion school, saddled with a deadbeat boyfriend, clout-chasing friends, and a wretched eating disorder that she’s not fully ready to confront. But that’s New York City, right? At least she isn’t in Texas anymore, and is finally living in a city that feels right for her.

On the other hand, her sister June is dazzlingly rich with a high-flying finance job and a massive apartment. Unlike Jayne, June has never struggled a day in her life. Until she’s diagnosed with uterine cancer.

Suddenly, these estranged sisters who have nothing in common are living together. Because sisterly obligations are kind of important when one of you is dying.

  • Mary H.K. Choi is a must-read author for me because her stories are complicated and real. Also she just knows how to really get into the scary, vulnerable places of her characters’s mind.
  • World Building: this book is an ode to New York City and a little bit of Texas too. In her last book Permanent Record and now Yolk, New York City is a character. Jayne is enamored of all things New York City, but is struggling to make ends meet there.
  • Characters: Jayne is hurting herself. She is a bulimic. Jayne is trying to run from events in her past and the story shows flashbacks of what happened that could have started her eating disorder. June is her older sister who is smart and successful but now she has cancer. These two sisters have such a tense history. I thought it was funny how they fought, because…siblings fight dirty sometimes! But it was also painful to see because you know they both love each other.
  • This is about Jayne and through her we see New York City, we see how lost she is about school and her goals for the future. Jayne is traumatized by her past: uprooting from South Korea to move to America, her strained relationship with her mother, growing up Korean in America, and trying to figure out how to attain all the riches and dreams of New York City – her ideal American dream. Right now her dream is unattainable.
  • Triggers: cancer, bulimia
  • Obviously, there are hard topics in this story with Jayne having bulimia and June having uterine cancer. So proceed with caution – this is not a happy story. Some parts are funny, but for the most part, it’s heavy reading.
  • There is a little bit of romance but it’s definitely not the main thing about this story. It was realistic too and it didn’t dominate the story.

This story is dark, complicated, emotional, layered and real. I was hooked and yet scared for Jayne as she went through her life lost and in pain but hiding it so well. But one person sees through her mask, her sister June. I loved how these crazy sisters fought, because siblings fight – and I love how New York City comes to life through the author’s words. When everything comes to a clash: Jayne’s past, her present, cancer, family and bulimia – that’s when the hard work starts as these sisters grind through the surface of their tense relationship and find the love that’s been hiding under there all along.

💛 ~ Yolanda

BLOG TOUR } The Little Bookshop on the Seine by. Rebecca Raisin

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: The Little Bookshop on the Seine

Author: Rebecca Raisin

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 232

Publication Date: January 7, 2020

Categories: Romance, Contemporary Adult Fiction, Christmas

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Le Vie En Rose

Bookshop owner Sarah Smith has been offered the opportunity to exchange bookshops with her new Parisian friend for 6 months! And saying yes is a no-brainer – after all, what kind of a romantic would turn down a trip to Paris? Even if it does mean leaving the irresistible Ridge Warner behind, Sarah’s sure she’s in for the holiday of a lifetime – complete with all the books she can read!

Picturing days wandering around Shakespeare & Co, munching on croissants, sipping café au laits and people-watching on the Champs-Elysees Sarah boards the plane. But will her dream of a Parisian Happily-Ever-After come true? Or will Sarah realise that the dream isn’t quite as rosy in reality…

Thank you to HQN and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC and for Harlequin for inviting me to be part of the blog tour.

This book is made to be a Hallmark Christmas movie, it has a bookshop, a little romance, and Paris! A bookshop in Paris during the holidays is a treat and a dream.

Sarah Smith is an introvert, with a gorgeous reporter boyfriend who is chasing the next big story and a small bookshop in Connecticut that she owns. When an opportunity to take over her friend’s bookshop in Paris comes along, Sarah jumps at the chance, because she’s wishing for a little adventure. She gets all that and more when she arrives in Paris, but will this long distance romance with her boyfriend survive all the changes they are going through?

  • PARIS. I loved the setting of Paris! I visited only once and for barely three days but seeing Paris through the eyes of Sarah Smith brought me back. It’s such a magical place and I love everything that was featured in the story from the bookshop, Notre Dame, the restaurants and secret places.
  • I enjoyed the characters in Sarah meets in Paris like Oceane, Luiz, and TJ. Beatrice eventually grew on me at the end, but her relationship with Oceane, Luiz and TJ was pretty great. I’m glad she found her niche and didn’t give up on Paris when times got rough but it’s because of her new friends.
  • Sarah is coming into her own in this book. Her boyfriend is away from her, she’s running a bookshop in a foreign country, she’s usually timid and quiet, but she had to come out of her shell and I was proud of her by the end!
  • It gave me the giddy feelings of the holidays and it didn’t come from the romance story. It came from the story of Sarah finding and making a little family in Paris. She overcame a lot in Paris and got the adventure she was looking for. 🥰
  • It’s a romance novel and though I felt the love on Sarah’s side of her relationship with Ridge, I was distrustful of him. In the end, they have their happily ever after, but most of the book was about them being apart and Sarah finding her way on her own. Sarah’s love story with Paris was more interesting to me than her romance with Ridge. 🤷🏻‍♀️
  • There were some passages in the book, more so in the end that threw me off, like they were just thrown into the story and didn’t flow well with the book! Some paragraphs didn’t transition well and I don’t know if that’s just an error because this IS an arc, o it’s not a corrected copy. But it made me pause and reread paragraphs to try and make sense of what was happening. It felt a bit rushed.
  • I was getting frustrated with Sarah letting people run her over in the french bookshop but I’m glad things worked out in the end and she earned their respect and even friendship.

The Little Bookshop on the Seine was more about Sarah Smith falling with Paris and herself. She was already in love with her boyfriend Ridge but trying to manage a long distance relationship did have many challenges. Despite some of the issues I found with the story with the story not flowing in some parts, it still left me feeling happy and full of holiday joy. If you like Christmas, books and Paris, this is a great book to curl up with this winter.

About the Author:

Rebecca Raisin is the author of several novels, including the beloved Little Paris series and the Gingerbread Café trilogy, and her short stories have been published in various anthologies and fiction magazines. You can follow Rebecca on Facebook, and at
www.rebeccaraisin.com

Twitter: @JaxandWillsMum
Facebook: @RebeccaRaisinAuthor
Instagram: @RebeccaRaisinWrites

Purchase Link: Amazon

ARC Review: No Judgments

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: No Judgments

Author: Meg Cabot

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 384

Publication Date: September 24, 2019

Categories: Romance, Adult Fiction, Contemporary

The storm of the century is about to hit Little Bridge Island, Florida—and it’s sending waves crashing through Sabrina “Bree” Beckham’s love life…

When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island—as well as its connection to the mainland—twenty-five-year-old Bree Beckham isn’t worried . . . at first. She’s already escaped one storm—her emotionally abusive ex—so a hurricane seems like it will be a piece of cake.

But animal-loving Bree does become alarmed when she realizes how many islanders have been cut off from their beloved pets. Now it’s up to her to save as many of Little Bridge’s cats and dogs as she can . . . but to do so, she’s going to need help—help she has no choice but to accept from her boss’s sexy nephew, Drew Hartwell, the Mermaid Café’s most notorious heartbreaker.

But when Bree starts falling for Drew, just as Little Bridge’s power is restored and her penitent ex shows up, she has to ask herself if her island fling was only a result of the stormy weather, or if it could last during clear skies too.

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this eArc.

No Judgments is a lighthearted, sweet, romance revolving around Bree, her love of pets, a hurricane and a love interest, Drew Hartwell.

It took me a few days to finish this one – it’s a perfect summer beach read, but for some reason the story didn’t hook me in immediately and I kept putting it down to read something else. I finished it today though and I thought the latter half of the book was better than the first, only because as a romance, I thought it was going too slowly for my taste.

Sabrina Beckham, Bree, as she’s known in the story is from New York City, fleeing her life there to find her her place on an island in Florida called Little Bridge Island. She loves animals, particularly an old cat she’s adopted. Bree and a few of her friends, decide to weather out the hurricane headed their way.

The story follows Bree before the storm and after it, the actual hurricane hitting the island is glossed over, but the romance picks up as the hurricane is about to hit. For awhile I had to ask myself if this was a romance, because I felt like it was more of a hurricane animal rescue story! I wanted more romance.

I thought the story was cute but I wasn’t attached to any of the characters, except maybe the animals featured in the book. This is definitely a beach read kind of book, perfect for a lazy summer day.

Get it here: Amazon

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Book Review: Sweetbitter

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Author: Stephanie Danler

Format: eBook

Pages: 353

Categories: Food, Coming of Age, Contemporary Fiction

Book Blurb:

Newly arrived in New York City, twenty-two-year-old Tess lands a job working front of house at a celebrated downtown restaurant. What follows is her education: in champagne and cocaine, love and lust, dive bars and fine dining rooms, as she learns to navigate the chaotic, enchanting, punishing life she has chosen. The story of a young woman’s coming-of-age, set against the glitzy, grimy backdrop of New York’s most elite restaurants, in Sweetbitter Stephanie Danler deftly conjures the nonstop and high-adrenaline world of the food industry and evokes the infinite possibilities, the unbearable beauty, and the fragility and brutality of being young and adrift.

MY REVIEW

“Being remade was the same thing as being constantly undone.”

Sweetbitter by. Stephanie Danler

I decided to read this book because I watched season one of the tv series on STARZ just recently. I remember seeing this book cover everywhere when it was published and hyped up a few years ago. I also saw the polarizing reviews of the book, lots of love and lots of hate too. My review might be a bit influenced by what I saw in the show. The tv show itself is interesting, because I’m not sure if I love it. I like it and I am intrigued by it. Tess’s character annoys me, Jake as well, but Simone is pretty amazing on the show. I love the mysteriousness of their characters. And the secondary characters like Sasha, and Ariel are so wild. It’s interesting to see Tess and how she develops, with these people pushing her, molding her from all sides.

As for the book, Sweetbitter, I love the writing. It is gorgeous. I cheated because I watched the show so it gave me a visual of the characters. If I didn’t see the show, I’m not sure how I would visualize Tess. In the book, I might not have been interested in her at all if I didn’t watch the show. She’s boring, bland even and trying to find herself which made me impatient at times. She isn’t sure how to fit in with these dynamic personalities around her. Tess is not sure what she wants in life, she has no ambitions but to get through a work shift, usually high on some kind of drug. She reminded me of twenty-two year old me (minus the drug use), which is probably why she annoyed me at times. 😂

I didn’t even really know her name for a few pages, just “new girl”, she’s in the background getting yelled at and ordered around, whereas the characters around her are so loud. Her character in the show, says the city is “confrontational”, whereas she is not. In the book, I love how she describes how her world starts revolving around her job – she basically starts to eat, sleep and dream about her job.

“My life had been so full I couldn’t glimpse beyond it. I didn’t want to.“

Sweetbitter by. Stephanie Danler

The people around her are so pretentious it was hilarious! I used to work in a massage clinic and then a high-end day spa and we didn’t quote Kant, 😂 but we had to deal with our various bouts of pretentiousness from coworkers or managers. I could relate to the book so much with the work aspect. It made me remember how I used to sell “relaxation”. I sold this idea of body care, but I myself was so stressed and not relaxed, my feet hurt, and my back hurt. I was crazy slammed at work some days but I had to take care of our guests and pretend I was all zen. I used to wash our guests feet before their massages, and guests would tell me I was like the feet washer in Jesus’ day…um okay. 😂🤷🏻‍♀️ The things people would say! It was a crazy place to work, and I could do it in my 20’s, deal with all the b.s. with a smile on my face but I wouldn’t have the patience for it now that I’m 40.

This book reminded me of the people that work in our service industry and how much crap they can take. 🤣 👏🏼 It made me relive memories for sure and that’s partly why I devoured this story.

“And really, would it be as loud? As satisfying?”

Sweetbitter by. Stephanie Danler

Sweetbitter has no real plot but for me, it works. This book is a glimpse of the life of a twenty-two year old trying to find her way in life and is definitely at that age where she is about to learn some harsh life lessons. The people around her are trying to be “somebody” but are they really? They tell her she needs to be somebody. In the end I feel like she becomes one of them or at least has perfected the way to pretend to be like them.

A good part of the book focuses on Tess’s strange obsession with two characters, Simone and Jake. Simone is a server who has been at the restaurant awhile and basically runs the place. Simone is so invested in the restaurant, it is her life. She knows her wines and takes Tess on as an understudy and teaches her what she knows. But there is a guy, Jake. He’s bad news and I just wanted to give her some serious girl talk that would have not made a lick of difference, but Jake and Simone have a strange relationship. They grew up together and some things about their relationship are implied in the end but not confirmed. They remain a mystery, like everyone else in the book I suppose and Tess will never belong with them. It’s a lesson she learns the hard way of course, she starts to unravel but she shows her strength in the end. The ending is bittersweet. It’s not a happy ending, but not a sad ending either.

Sweetbitter made me reflect on my past with some good memories, and plenty bittersweet ones. Even though Tess annoyed me, it’s only because I used to be her in some ways, chasing something – freedom? A different life than the one we were trained to have? It’s a book that crept up on me – I didn’t think I’d relate to it at all, then I was finding things that were resonating deeply with me. I actually really enjoyed this book and will continue watching season two when it is airs. It’s a great book especially if you are in a reflective mood.

Get it here: Amazon

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