Emily's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 09 Aug 2025 18:31:13 -0700 60 Emily's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Invisible Husband of Frick Island]]> 51087151 Sometimes all you need is one person to really see you.

Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island—a tiny, remote town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—is nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her darling husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom's crab boat capsized and his body wasn't recovered, Piper, rocked to the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her husband was not only still alive, but right there beside her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the townspeople to do but go along with their beloved widowed Piper?

Anders Caldwell’s career is not going well. A young ambitious journalist, he’d rather hoped he’d be a national award-winning podcaster by now, rather than writing fluff pieces for a small town newspaper. But when he gets an assignment to travel to the remote Frick Island and cover their boring annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he stumbles upon a much more fascinating tale: an entire town pretending to see and interact with a man who does not actually exist. Determined it’s the career-making story he’s been needing for his podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin covert research and spend more time with the enigmatic Piper—but he has no idea out of all the lives he’s about to upend, it’s his that will change the most.]]> 341 Colleen Oakley 1984806483 Emily 5 3.76 2021 The Invisible Husband of Frick Island
author: Colleen Oakley
name: Emily
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/08/09
shelves:
review:

]]> How to End a Love Story 63247365
Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except…

Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet… the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.]]> 384 Yulin Kuang Emily 5 3.57 2024 How to End a Love Story
author: Yulin Kuang
name: Emily
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The Guest List 52656911
The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 319 Lucy Foley Emily 5 3.80 2020 The Guest List
author: Lucy Foley
name: Emily
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/14
shelves:
review:
I loved this. Found it unputdownable.
]]> The Heavens 41182168
London, 1593. Kate wakes as Emilia - the mistress of a nobleman - and finds the plague at her door. Afflicted by premonitions of a burnt and lifeless city, she sets out to save the world. Each decision she makes will change her life with Ben for ever.

A story of love and alternate universes, madness and time travel, The Heavens is a dream bound up in a strange awakening; it is a novel of what we have lost, and what we might yet be able to save.]]> 272 Sandra Newman 1783784849 Emily 0 to-read 3.23 2019 The Heavens
author: Sandra Newman
name: Emily
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Adelaide 60784312
Is it enough?

Does he respond to texts? Honor his commitments? Make advance plans? Sometimes, rarely, and no, not at all. But when he shines his light on her, the world makes sense, and Adelaide is convinced that, in his heart, he’s fallen just as deeply as she has. Then, when Rory is rocked by an unexpected tragedy, Adelaide does everything in her power to hold him together—even if it means losing herself in the process.

When love asks too much of us, how do we find the strength to put ourselves first?

With unflinching honesty and heart, this relatable debut from a fresh new voice explores grief and mental health while capturing the timeless nature of what it’s like to be young and in love—with your friends, with your city, and with a person who cannot, will not, love you back.]]> 304 Genevieve Wheeler 1250280842 Emily 0 to-read 3.90 2023 Adelaide
author: Genevieve Wheeler
name: Emily
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Bodyguard 58724801 Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

They’ve got a secret.
When Jack’s mom gets sick, he goes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judgment—finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, says no one will believe it.

What could possibly go wrong?
Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.]]> 302 Katherine Center 1250219396 Emily 5 3.91 2022 The Bodyguard
author: Katherine Center
name: Emily
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]> This Time Tomorrow 59089704 What if you could take a vacation to your past?

With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a different kind of love story.

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn't just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it's her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?]]> 310 Emma Straub 052553900X Emily 5 3.78 2022 This Time Tomorrow
author: Emma Straub
name: Emily
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/16
shelves:
review:
the rare novel that leaves you torn between feverishly turning pages and setting it down so you can call the people you love.
]]> <![CDATA[Dating Dr. Dil (If Shakespeare Was an Auntie, #1)]]> 57007401 Dating Dr. Dil features a love-phobic TV doctor who must convince a love-obsessed homebody they are destined to be together. 

Kareena Mann dreams of having a love story like her parents, but she prefers restoring her classic car to swiping right on dating apps. When her father announces he’s selling her mother’s home, Kareena makes a deal with him: he’ll gift her the house if she can get engaged in four months. Her search for her soulmate becomes impossible when her argument with Dr. Prem Verma, host of The Dr. Dil Show, goes viral. Now the only man in her life is the one she doesn’t want.

Dr. Prem Verma is dedicated to building a local community health center, but he needs to get donors with deep pockets. The Dr. Dil Show was doing just that, until his argument with Kareena went viral, and he’s left short changed. That’s when Kareena’s meddling aunties presented him with a solution: convince Kareena he’s her soulmate and they’ll fund his clinic.  

Even though they have conflicting views on love-matches and arranged-matches, the more time Prem spends with Kareena, the more he begins to believe she’s the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. But for Prem and Kareena to find their happily ever after, they must admit that hate has turned into fate. ]]> 364 Nisha Sharma 0063001101 Emily 5 3.56 2022 Dating Dr. Dil (If Shakespeare Was an Auntie, #1)
author: Nisha Sharma
name: Emily
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> We Were Never Here 56084054 An annual backpacking trip has deadly consequences in a chilling new novel from the bestselling author of The Lost Night and The Herd.

Emily is having the time of her life--she's in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of their trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she'd been flirting with attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year's trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can't believe it's happened again--can lightning really strike twice?

Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving head-first into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her friend's motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their coverups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can she outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom--even her life?

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781984820464.]]> 304 Andrea Bartz Emily 5 3.45 2021 We Were Never Here
author: Andrea Bartz
name: Emily
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/10/14
shelves:
review:
Oh, boy did this mess with me.
]]> Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? 54703821 THE MOST HOTLY ANTICIPATED DEBUT OF 2022

The Nigerian accent Dictionary
Huzband (pronounced auz-band) noun
1. A male partner in a marriage
E.g. Yinka's younger sister, Kemi, is married to Uche
2. A non-existent man in a non-existent marriage whose whereabouts is often asked of, usually by Nigerian mums and aunties to single British Nigerian women
E.g. So, Yinka. Tell me. Where is your huzband? Ah, ah. You're thirty-one now!

Yinka wants to find love. The problem is she also has a mum who thinks she's better qualified to find it for her.

She also has too many aunties who frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, a preference for chicken and chips over traditional Nigerian food, and a bum she's sure is far too small as a result. Oh, and the fact that she's a thirty-one-year-old South-Londoner who doesn't believe in sex before marriage is a bit of an obstacle too...

When her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find A Date for Rachel's Wedding. Will Yinka find herself a huzband? And what if the thing she really needs is to find herself?

*PREORDER NOW!*]]> 306 Lizzie Damilola Blackburn Emily 5 3.88 2022 Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?
author: Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
name: Emily
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/10/14
shelves:
review:
I find myself comparing books to Bridget Jones's Diary fairly often, just because it's so iconic, but now I think maybe I should've saved the comparison for Yinka. This feels like the spiritual heir to Bridget Jones, while still being so modern and fresh. Yinka is hilarious and relatable, and her mishaps--and meddling aunties--are charming even as they occasionally have you cringing from the secondhand embarrassment. This book is an excellent reminder that we're all a little bit of a mess, and that's okay. Sometimes it's even fun.
]]> Wish You Were Here 57701764
But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.

Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they’d booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.

In the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.]]> 310 Jodi Picoult 1984818414 Emily 5 3.85 2021 Wish You Were Here
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Emily
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/10/14
shelves:
review:
Spectacular. It left an ache behind in my heart.
]]> People We Meet on Vacation 54985743 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows without a doubt it was on that ill-fated final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 361 Emily Henry 1984806750 Emily 0 https://www.josephbeth.com/book/97805...]]> 3.84 2021 People We Meet on Vacation
author: Emily Henry
name: Emily
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/28
shelves:
review:
You can preorder my next book, Book Lovers (coming May 3, 2022 in the U.S.) here: https://www.josephbeth.com/book/97805...
]]> Beach Read 52867387
They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.]]> 358 Emily Henry 1984806734 Emily 0 https://www.josephbeth.com/book/97805...



I wrote this book because I wanted to do something fun but I still ended up making myself cry, so what's new?]]> 3.95 2020 Beach Read
author: Emily Henry
name: Emily
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/28
shelves:
review:
You can preorder my next book, Book Lovers (coming May 3, 2022 in the U.S.) here: https://www.josephbeth.com/book/97805...



I wrote this book because I wanted to do something fun but I still ended up making myself cry, so what's new?
]]> Book Lovers 58690308 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]> 377 Emily Henry 0593334833 Emily 0 https://www.josephbeth.com/book/97805...


The rumors are true: I wrote another book about books, and this one has accidental roy kent energy.]]> 4.06 2022 Book Lovers
author: Emily Henry
name: Emily
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/28
shelves:
review:
Edited to add, you can preorder here: https://www.josephbeth.com/book/97805...


The rumors are true: I wrote another book about books, and this one has accidental roy kent energy.
]]> Verity 41957126
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

A standalone romantic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.]]> 324 Colleen Hoover Emily 5 excuse me what 4.31 2018 Verity
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Emily
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/08/18
shelves:
review:
excuse me what
]]> One Last Stop 54860443
But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.]]> 418 Casey McQuiston 1250244498 Emily 5 LOVE. 3.87 2021 One Last Stop
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Emily
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/06/08
shelves:
review:
LOVE.
]]> The Fastest Way to Fall 56921326 Britta didn’t plan on falling for her personal trainer, and Wes didn’t plan on Britta. Plans change and it’s unclear if love, career, or both will meet them at the finish line.

Britta Colby works for a lifestyle website, and when tasked to write about her experience with a hot new body-positive fitness app that includes personal coaching, she knows it’s a major opportunity to prove she should write for the site full-time.

As CEO of the FitMe app, Wes Lawson finally has the financial security he grew up without, but despite his success, his floundering love life and complicated family situation leaves him feeling isolated and unfulfilled. He decides to get back to what he loves—coaching. Britta’s his first new client and they click immediately.

As weeks pass, she’s surprised at how much she enjoys experimenting with her exercise routine. He’s surprised at how much he looks forward to talking to her every day. They convince themselves their attraction is harmless, but when they start working out in person, Wes and Britta find it increasingly challenging to deny their chemistry and maintain a professional distance.

Wes isn’t supposed to be training clients, much less meeting with them, and Britta’s credibility will be sunk if the lifestyle site finds out she’s practically dating the fitness coach she’s reviewing. Walking away from each other is the smartest thing to do, but running side by side feels like the start of something big.]]> 380 Denise Williams 0593101928 Emily 5 3.99 2021 The Fastest Way to Fall
author: Denise Williams
name: Emily
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/06/08
shelves:
review:
this was just really sweet and nice. A true comfort read, which is one of my favorite kinds.
]]> The Guest List 51933429
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 330 Lucy Foley Emily 0 3.63 2020 The Guest List
author: Lucy Foley
name: Emily
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Lightness 40581591 A stylish, stunningly precise, and suspenseful meditation on adolescent desire, female friendship, and the female body that shimmers with rage, wit, and fierce longing—an audacious, darkly observant, and mordantly funny literary debut for fans of Emma Cline, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Jenny Offill.

One year ago, the person Olivia adores most in the world, her father, left home for a meditation retreat in the mountains and never returned. Yearning to make sense of his shocking departure and to escape her overbearing mother—a woman as grounded as her father is mercurial—Olivia runs away from home and retraces his path to a place known as the Levitation Center.

Once there, she enrolls in their summer program for troubled teens, which Olivia refers to as “Buddhist Boot Camp for Bad Girls”. Soon, she finds herself drawn into the company of a close-knit trio of girls determined to transcend their circumstances, by any means necessary. Led by the elusive and beautiful Serena, and her aloof, secretive acolytes, Janet and Laurel, the girls decide this is the summer they will finally achieve enlightenment—and learn to levitate, to defy the weight of their bodies, to experience ultimate lightness. 

But as desire and danger intertwine, and Olivia comes ever closer to discovering what a body—and a girl—is capable of, it becomes increasingly clear that this is an advanced and perilous practice, and there’s a chance not all of them will survive. Set over the course of one fateful summer that unfolds like a fever dream, The Lightness juxtaposes fairy tales with quantum physics, cognitive science with religious fervor, and the passions and obsessions of youth with all of these, to explore concepts as complex as faith and as simple as loving people—even though you don’t, and can’t, know them at all.

]]> 300 Emily Temple 0008332673 Emily 0 to-read 3.56 2020 The Lightness
author: Emily Temple
name: Emily
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Portrait of a Scotsman (A League of Extraordinary Women, #3)]]> 55053187 Going toe-to-toe with a brooding Scotsman is rather bold for a respectable suffragist, but when he happens to be one's unexpected husband, what else is an unwilling bride to do?

London banking heiress Hattie Greenfield wanted just three things in life:

1. Acclaim as an artist.
2. A noble cause.
3. Marriage to a young lord who puts the gentle in gentleman.

Why then does this Oxford scholar find herself at the altar with the darkly attractive financier Lucian Blackstone, whose murky past and ruthless business practices strike fear in the hearts of Britain's peerage? Trust Hattie to take an invigorating little adventure too far. Now she's stuck with a churlish Scot who just might be the end of her ambitions....

When the daughter of his business rival all but falls into his lap, Lucian sees opportunity. As a self-made man, he has vast wealth but holds little power, and Hattie might be the key to finally setting long-harbored political plans in motion. Driven by an old desire for revenge, he has no room for his new wife's apprehensions or romantic notions, bewitching as he finds her.

But a sudden journey to Scotland paints everything in a different light. Hattie slowly sees the real Lucian and realizes she could win everything—as long as she is prepared to lose her heart.]]> 448 Evie Dunmore 198480572X Emily 5 3.83 2021 Portrait of a Scotsman (A League of Extraordinary Women, #3)
author: Evie Dunmore
name: Emily
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/04/14
shelves:
review:
Ugh. So good. A Beauty & the Beast-esque love story that engages directly with all the complexities of that kind of power dynamic. I also always finish Dunmore's books having genuinely LEARNED something, without it ever feeling like the historical elements are bogging down the narrative or romance. Her books HAVE to take place within their context, rather than the era feeling incidental, and it's clear how much research goes into these books. I can't even understand how she's been publishing at this pace. Nothing is sacrificed--the writing, the characters, the story itself. It's all just utterly intentional. LOVE.
]]> So We Meet Again 55871316
After moving back home to Tennessee to live with her loving but meddling mother and father, she runs into her childhood nemesis - golden child Daniel Choi - at the local Asian grocery store. The smart, charming lawyer appears to have it all...while Jessie has nothing.

Jess begrudgingly accepts Daniel’s help to relaunch her long abandoned Korean cooking YouTube channel Hanguk Hacks, showcasing easy meal prep for busy professionals. But just as she discovers Daniel’s life isn’t as perfect as it seems and there’s more to him than meets the eye, he shows up for a life-changing business opportunity, and their rivalry is back on....]]> 339 Suzanne Park 0062990713 Emily 5 I just had such a nice time. 3.45 2021 So We Meet Again
author: Suzanne Park
name: Emily
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/03/03
shelves:
review:
I just had such a nice time.
]]> <![CDATA[Payback's a Witch (The Witches of Thistle Grove, #1)]]> 55566545 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets The L Word in this fresh, sizzling rom-com by Lana Harper.

Emmy Harlow is a witch but not a very powerful one—in part because she hasn't been home to the magical town of Thistle Grove in years. Her self-imposed exile has a lot to do with a complicated family history and a desire to forge her own way in the world, and only the very tiniest bit to do with Gareth Blackmoore, heir to the most powerful magical family in town and casual breaker of hearts and destroyer of dreams.

But when a spellcasting tournament that her family serves as arbiters for approaches, it turns out the pull of tradition (or the truly impressive parental guilt trip that comes with it) is strong enough to bring Emmy back. She's determined to do her familial duty; spend some quality time with her best friend, Linden Thorn; and get back to her real life in Chicago.

On her first night home, Emmy runs into Talia Avramov—an all-around badass adept in the darker magical arts—who is fresh off a bad breakup . . . with Gareth Blackmoore. Talia had let herself be charmed, only to discover that Gareth was also seeing Linden—unbeknownst to either of them. And now she and Linden want revenge. Only one question stands: Is Emmy in?

But most concerning of all: Why can't she stop thinking about the terrifyingly competent, devastatingly gorgeous, wickedly charming Talia Avramov?]]> 352 Lana Harper 0593336062 Emily 5 3.56 2021 Payback's a Witch (The Witches of Thistle Grove, #1)
author: Lana Harper
name: Emily
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/22
shelves:
review:
This is the kind of book that you just sort of ache to step inside. I want to be thereeeeeee heeeeeelp. It's a PERFECT fall read you want to make sure you've got preordered now.
]]> The Lucky Escape 56025845 ONE CANCELLED WEDDING

When the day finally comes for Annie to marry Alexander, the last thing she expects is to be left standing at the altar. She was so sure he was Mr Right. Now, she has no idea how she could have got it so wrong.
 
ONE UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER

After a chance meeting with Patrick, an old friend who reminds her of who she used to be, Annie takes a vow of her own: she’ll say yes to every opportunity that comes her way from now on.

ONE SPARE TICKET FOR THE HONEYMOON

Could a spontaneous trip with Patrick be the way to mend Annie’s heart? She’s about to find out as she embarks on her honeymoon – with a man who’s nother husband…]]> 368 Laura Jane Williams 0008394113 Emily 5 3.52 2021 The Lucky Escape
author: Laura Jane Williams
name: Emily
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/11
shelves:
review:

]]> The View Was Exhausting 55898102 Faking a love story is a whole lot easier than being in love . . .

The world can see that international A-list actress Whitman ("Win") Tagore and jet-setting playboy Leo Milanowski are made for each other. Their kisses start Twitter trends and their fights break the internet. From red carpet appearances to Met Gala mishaps, their on-again, off-again romance has titillated the public and the press for almost a decade. But it's all a lie.

As a woman of color, Win knows the Hollywood deck is stacked against her, so she's perfected the art of controlling her public persona. Whenever she nears scandal, she calls in Leo, with his endearingly reckless attitude, for a staged date. Each public display of affection shifts the headlines back in Win's favor, and Leo uses the good press to draw attention away from his dysfunctional family.

Pretending to be in a passionate romance is one thing, but Win knows that a real relationship would lead to nothing but trouble. So instead they settle for friendship, with a side of sky-rocketing chemistry. Except this time, on the French Riviera, something is off. A shocking secret in Leo's past sets Win's personal and professional lives on a catastrophic collision course. Behind the scenes of their yacht-trips and PDA, the world's favorite couple is at each other's throats. Now they must finally confront the many truths and lies of their relationship, and Win is forced to consider what is more important: a rising career, or a risky shot at real love?

The View Was Exhausting is a funny, wickedly observant modern love story set against the backdrop of exotic locales and the realities of being a woman of color in a world run by men.]]> 336 Mikaella Clements 1538734907 Emily 5 3.63 2021 The View Was Exhausting
author: Mikaella Clements
name: Emily
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/10
shelves:
review:
I completely loved this. So much tension, angst, humor, and atmosphere, and stellar writing.
]]> Don't You Forget About Me 34109621
Reeling from the indignity of a double dumping on the same day, Georgina snatches at the next job that she’s offered—barmaid in a newly opened pub, which just so happens to run by the boy she fell in love with at school: Lucas McCarthy. And whereas Georgina (voted Most Likely to Succeed in her school yearbook) has done nothing but dead-end jobs in the last twelve years, Lucas has not only grown into a broodingly handsome man, but also has turned into an actual grown-up along the way, with a business and a dog.

Meeting Lucas again not only throws Georgina’s rackety present into sharp relief, but also brings a dark secret from her past bubbling to the surface. Only she knows the truth about what happened on the last day of school, and why she’s allowed it to chase her all these years…]]> 433 Mhairi McFarlane 0008169322 Emily 5
Trigger warning: [spoilers removed] ]]> 3.81 2019 Don't You Forget About Me
author: Mhairi McFarlane
name: Emily
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/10
shelves:
review:
In my real life, I cry from laughing a lot. It's only happened from a book once, and it was this book. A line about an inflatable airplane slide did it, and when I tried to read it to my husband, it took several minutes of wheezing to get it out. For that alone, this book was an instant five stars for me, but as I've come to expect, the emotional weight, angst, sweetness, wisdom of Mhairi McFarlane's writing sealed the deal over and over again.

Trigger warning: [spoilers removed]
]]> If I Never Met You 51213487 If faking love is this easy... how do you know when it’s real?

When her partner of over a decade suddenly ends things, Laurie is left reeling—not only because they work at the same law firm and she has to see him every day. Her once perfect life is in shambles and the thought of dating again in the age of Tinder is nothing short of horrifying. When news of her ex’s pregnant girlfriend hits the office grapevine, taking the humiliation lying down is not an option. Then a chance encounter in a broken-down elevator with the office playboy opens up a new possibility.

Jamie Carter doesn’t believe in love, but he needs a respectable, steady girlfriend to impress their bosses. Laurie wants a hot new man to give the rumor mill something else to talk about. It’s the perfect proposition: a fauxmance played out on social media, with strategically staged photographs and a specific end date in mind. With the plan hatched, Laurie and Jamie begin to flaunt their new couple status, to the astonishment—and jealousy—of their friends and colleagues. But there’s a fine line between pretending to be in love and actually falling for your charming, handsome fake boyfriend...]]> 409 Mhairi McFarlane 006295850X Emily 5 3.74 2020 If I Never Met You
author: Mhairi McFarlane
name: Emily
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Just Last Night 54870201
But then, in an instant, their lives are changed forever.

In the aftermath, Eve’s world is upended. As stunning secrets are revealed, she begins to wonder if she really knew her friends as well as she thought. And when someone from the past comes back into her life, Eve’s future veers in a surprising new direction...

They say every love story starts with a single moment. What if it was just last night?]]> 393 Mhairi McFarlane 0063036851 Emily 5 3.94 2021 Just Last Night
author: Mhairi McFarlane
name: Emily
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/05
shelves:
review:
I wish I'd written this, but then again, I don't think I could stand to give up the chance to read it, having no idea what was going to happen. Be warned, if you're a sensitive sap like me, this might be a gutwrenching read for you, but it's also SO worth it. I absolutely adored this. Mhairi McFarlane's voice is like no one else's.
]]> <![CDATA[Incense and Sensibility (The Rajes, #3)]]> 55577687 The author of Recipe for Persuasion—“not only one of the best but one of the bravest romance novelists working today” (Shelf Awareness)—adds an Indian American twist to Jane Austen's classic Sense and Sensibility in this delightful retelling that is a feast for the senses.

Yash Raje, California’s first serious Indian gubernatorial candidate, has always known exactly what he wants—and how to use his privileged background to get it. He attributes his success to a simple mantra: control your feelings and you can control the world.

But when a hate-fueled incident at a rally critically injures his friend, Yash’s easy life suddenly feels like a lie, his control an illusion. When he tries to get back on the campaign trail, he blacks out with panic.

Desperate to keep Yash’s condition from leaking to the media, his family turns to the one person they trust—his sister’s best friend, India Dashwood, California’s foremost stress management coach. Raised by a family of yoga teachers, India has helped San Francisco’s high strung overachievers for a decade without so much as altering her breath. But this man—with his boundless ambition, simmering intensity, and absolute faith in his political beliefs—is like no other. Yash has spent a lifetime repressing everything to succeed.

Including their one magical night ten years ago—a too brief, too bright passion that if rekindled threatens the life he’s crafted for himself. Exposing the secrets might be the only way to save him but it’s also guaranteed to destroy the dream he’s willingly shouldered for his family and community . . . until now.]]> 400 Sonali Dev 006305180X Emily 5 3.69 2021 Incense and Sensibility (The Rajes, #3)
author: Sonali Dev
name: Emily
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/02
shelves:
review:
Sonali Dev's characters just all feel so real to me--SO charming, and so, so big-hearted.
]]> Blush 55573786 From acclaimed author Jamie Brenner comes a stunning new novel about three generations of women who discover that the trashy novels of a bygone era just might hold the key to saving their family's coastal winery--and to finding the love that's eluded them.

For decades, the lush vineyards and majestic manor house of the Hollander Estates winery made it the North Fork of Long Island's premier destination for lavish parties and romantic day trips. Now the Hollander family fortunes have suffered, and as matriarch Vivian Hollander prepares for the arrival of her daughter and granddaughter for their annual summer reunion, she fears it might be their last. Worse, selling the family legacy to strangers might expose the dark secret she's harbored for thirty-five years....

Visits to the winery have been bittersweet for Leah Hollander Bailey ever since her father refused to let her take her place in the family business. Now a successful Manhattan shop owner, Leah loves the life she's built with her husband and daughter--but with her store, and her marriage, at a crossroads, she can't help but view this year's pilgrimage home as a sorely needed escape.

College senior Sadie Bailey has a thesis to write, and the towering shelves of the manor's library offer endless academic inspiration. But when Sadie discovers evidence that her proper Grandma Vivian once ran a book club dedicated to the scandalous women's novels of decades past, the shockingly outrageous tomes give her new insight into her family's glory days.

Resurrecting the trashy book club begins as the distraction all three women need. But as they battle to save their birthright and heal old wounds, they just might find that the pages contain everything they need to know about how to fight for what they want--and for the life, and love, they deserve.]]> 384 Jamie Brenner 0593085752 Emily 5 3.72 2021 Blush
author: Jamie Brenner
name: Emily
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/12/14
shelves:
review:
This book really got ahold of me. It frustrated and inspired and ached and soothed, and by the end of it, yes, I had ordered all of the books the characters read for their book club.
]]> When the Sky Fell on Splendor 40390513
In the wake of the tragedy, Franny found solace in a group of friends whose experiences mirrored her own. The group calls themselves The Ordinary, and they spend their free time investigating local ghost stories and legends, filming their exploits for their small following of YouTube fans. It's silly, it's fun, and it keeps them from dwelling on the sadness that surrounds them.

Until one evening, when the strange and dangerous thing they film isn't fiction--it's a bright light, something massive hurtling toward them from the sky. And when it crashes and the teens go to investigate...everything changes.]]> 384 Emily Henry Emily 0 3.19 2019 When the Sky Fell on Splendor
author: Emily Henry
name: Emily
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/08
shelves:
review:
Probably my favorite book I've written, probably your least favorite.
]]> <![CDATA[The Kindred Spirits Supper Club]]> 54802068 "A charming rom-com with a supernatural twist...Filled with a strong sense of place, mouthwatering descriptions of food, and a sweet love story (or two), Reichert's latest will surely delight readers." Booklist Starred Review

Named a Must Read for spring by Buzzfeed * Bustle * Booktrib * PopSugar * BookRiot * Midwest Living

Jobless and forced home to Wisconsin, journalist Sabrina Monroe can tolerate reunions with frenemies and kisses from old boyfriends, but not the literal ghosts that greet her in this heartwarming tale of the power of love and connection from acclaimed author Amy E. Reichert.

For Sabrina Monroe, moving back home to the Wisconsin Dells–the self-described Waterpark Capital of the World–means returning to the Monroe family curse: the women in her family can see spirits who come to them for help with unfinished business. But Sabrina’s always redirected the needy spirits to her mom, who’s much better suited for the job. The one exception has always been Molly, a bubbly rom-com loving ghost, who stuck by Sabrina’s side all through her lonely childhood.

Her personal life starts looking up when Ray, the new local restaurateur, invites Sabrina to his supper club, where he flirts with her over his famous Brandy Old-Fashioneds. He’s charming and handsome, but Sabrina tells herself she doesn’t have time for romance–she needs to focus on finding a job. Except the longer she’s in the Dells, the harder it is to resist her feelings for Ray. Who can turn down a cute guy with a fondness for rescue dogs and an obsession with perfecting his fried cheese curds recipe?

When the Dells starts to feel like home for the first time and with Ray in her corner, Sabrina begins to realize that she can make a difference and help others wherever she is.]]> 336 Amy E. Reichert 0593197771 Emily 5 3.70 2021 The Kindred Spirits Supper Club
author: Amy E. Reichert
name: Emily
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/12/03
shelves:
review:
This is SO fun and SO cute. I've always loved Reichert's books, but the magical slant of this one just makes it a next-level read for me. Super cozy.
]]> The Summer Job 53464985
Well Birdy Finch didn't just imagine it. She did it. Which might've been an error. And the life she's run into? Her best friend, Heather's.

The only problem is, she hasn't told Heather. Actually there are a few other problems...

Can Birdy carry off a summer at a luxury Scottish hotel pretending to be her best friend (who incidentally is a world-class wine expert)?

And can she stop herself from falling for the first man she's ever actually liked (but who thinks she's someone else)?

A snort-out-loud romcom for fans of The Flatshare.]]> Lizzy Dent Emily 5
I found Birdy not only funny and charming but endlessly compelling. I probably would've read about her doing just about anything, but watching her pose as a sommelier in an idyllic Scottish setting, fall in love with a warm and handsome chef, and make friendships with the quirky cast of employees at the Loch Dorn hotel all added up to a perfect book for me. I have a huge reading hangover now, and want a half dozen novels just like this one to fill the void.

Funny, sweet, romantic, heartwarming, and altogether lovely. ]]> 3.83 2021 The Summer Job
author: Lizzy Dent
name: Emily
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/12/03
shelves:
review:
I absolutely loved this one. Birdy is around thirty years old, and she is floundering. Being the daughter of an alcoholic father and mother who did everything she could to pretend everything was fine, Birdy has emerged into adulthood with no support system, except for her accomplished sommelier of a best friend, Heather. While Heather has known and worked toward her professional dreams for years, Birdy has spent years cycling through dead-end jobs, simply surviving life--but doing so hilariously.

I found Birdy not only funny and charming but endlessly compelling. I probably would've read about her doing just about anything, but watching her pose as a sommelier in an idyllic Scottish setting, fall in love with a warm and handsome chef, and make friendships with the quirky cast of employees at the Loch Dorn hotel all added up to a perfect book for me. I have a huge reading hangover now, and want a half dozen novels just like this one to fill the void.

Funny, sweet, romantic, heartwarming, and altogether lovely.
]]> <![CDATA[Dial A for Aunties (Aunties, #1)]]> 53310061 What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family?

You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue!

When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. It's the biggest job yet for the family wedding business—"Don't leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!"—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie's perfect buttercream flowers.

But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?]]> 299 Jesse Q. Sutanto 0593336739 Emily 5 3.65 2021 Dial A for Aunties (Aunties, #1)
author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
name: Emily
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/11/24
shelves:
review:
Genuinely funny and completely charming in every way. I loved, loved, loved this one.
]]> Anywhere for You 52848661
A poignant and thrilling love story about one woman’s decade-long search to reconnect with the love of her life who disappeared without a trace—a stirring and heartfelt page-turner from the critically acclaimed author of The Silent Treatment. 

The straphangers of Ealing Broadway station are familiar with Mary O’Connor, the woman who appears every day to watch the droves of busy commuters. But Mary never asks anything from anyone. She only holds out a sign bearing a heartrending Come Home Jim.

While others pass her by without a thought, Alice, a junior reporter at the Ealing Bugle, asks Mary to tell her story. Many years ago, Mary met the charming and romantic Jim Whitnell. She was certain she’d found her other half, until one day he vanished without any explanation. But Mary believes that Jim isn’t a cad, that he truly loved her and will return—especially because she’s recently received grainy phone calls from him saying he misses her.

Touched but also suspicious, Alice quietly begins her own investigation into Jim’s disappearance, unraveling a decade-long story filled with desire, heartbreak, and hope. With Greaves’s signature warmth and charm, Anywhere for You is a romantic and immensely moving novel about the enduring power of love and finding happiness in unexpected places.]]> 364 Abbie Greaves 0062933892 Emily 5 3.48 2008 Anywhere for You
author: Abbie Greaves
name: Emily
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/11/20
shelves:
review:
Both lovely and devastating. Perfect for fans of Colleen Oakley, Rebecca Serle, and Josie Silver.
]]> A Special Place for Women 54985742
“One of the smartest, sharpest, and funniest books I’ve read in years... Some books are meant to be devoured—this one does the devouring.”—Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of People We Meet on Vacation

One of Summer 2021's Most Anticipated Novels
Good Morning America, Cosmopolitan , Good Housekeeping , Real Simple , theSkimm, E! Online, Oprah Daily, The New York Post , Woman's Day , Parade, Bustle, Yahoo!, The Stripe, Popsugar, Medium, Lithub, Book Riot, The Nerd Daily, and more!

It’s a club like no other. Only the most important women receive an invitation. But one daring young reporter is about to infiltrate this female-run secret society, whose bewitching members are caught up in a dark and treacherous business. From the author of Happy and You Know It .

For years, rumors have swirled about an exclusive, women-only social club where the elite tastemakers of NYC meet. People in the know whisper all sorts of Membership dues cost $1,000 a month. Last time Rihanna was in town, she stopped by and got her aura read. The women even handpicked the city's first female mayor. But no one knows for sure. 

That is, until journalist Jillian Beckley decides she's going to break into the club. With her career in freefall, Jillian needs a juicy scoop, and she has a personal interest in bringing these women down. But the deeper she gets into this new world—where billionaire "girlbosses" mingle with occult-obsessed Bohemians—the more Jillian learns that bad things happen to those who dare to question the club's motives or giggle at its outlandish rituals.  

The select group of women who populate the club may be far more powerful than she ever imagined. 

And far more dangerous too.]]> 368 Laura Hankin 1984806262 Emily 5 3.43 2021 A Special Place for Women
author: Laura Hankin
name: Emily
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/11/12
shelves:
review:
Laura Hankin just officially became one of my favorite authors. This book is tense, spooky, unsettling, sexy, fun, and heartwarming all at once. Hankin is a fantastic writer, not to mention truly FUNNY.
]]> <![CDATA[Life’s Too Short (The Friend Zone, #3)]]> 54377375
When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn't expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. For her, living each day to its fullest isn't just a motto. Her mother and sister never saw the age of 30, and Vanessa doesn't want to take anything for granted.

But after her half-sister suddenly leaves Vanessa in custody of her infant daughter, life goes from "daily adventure" to "next-level bad" (now with bonus baby vomit in hair). The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. After all, she barely knows him. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she'd be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua.

Now she's feeling things she's vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.]]> 384 Abby Jimenez 1538715686 Emily 5
I'm not sure anyone but Jimenez could have guided me through a book with that possibility as a major component--but there was so much humor, so much sweetness, and excitement, and FUN that I couldn't stop reading, and I'm so glad I didn't. It's a hard read at times, but it's also a powerful one, about living your life in the now, instead of the what if. As Vanessa points out, debilitating worry about the future can rob you of your present, by making you live out the worst possible outcome before it's even happened. It's such a timely read, as we're all hanging in the balance of Covid, wondering what comes after, trying to understand how to be happy now, and I'm so, so grateful I got to read it, because I really needed the catharsis and hope this story gave me.

I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with these characters--side characters included. I am very much hoping for a Becky book.]]> 4.12 2021 Life’s Too Short (The Friend Zone, #3)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Emily
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/10/26
shelves:
review:
This booooooooooook. Right off the bat, I was hooked. Jimenez's sense of humor, her way with language, and the nuance of her characters were clear from page one. The book just SPARKLES. I will be honest, I'm a person who generally avoids books with strong plotlines about terminal illness, and Vanessa, one of LTS's main characters, has spent most of her life reckoning with the 50% chance that she will develop hereditary ALS.

I'm not sure anyone but Jimenez could have guided me through a book with that possibility as a major component--but there was so much humor, so much sweetness, and excitement, and FUN that I couldn't stop reading, and I'm so glad I didn't. It's a hard read at times, but it's also a powerful one, about living your life in the now, instead of the what if. As Vanessa points out, debilitating worry about the future can rob you of your present, by making you live out the worst possible outcome before it's even happened. It's such a timely read, as we're all hanging in the balance of Covid, wondering what comes after, trying to understand how to be happy now, and I'm so, so grateful I got to read it, because I really needed the catharsis and hope this story gave me.

I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with these characters--side characters included. I am very much hoping for a Becky book.
]]> Second First Impressions 45553600 Distraction (n): an extreme agitation of the mind or emotions.

Ruthie Midona has worked the front desk at the Providence Luxury Retirement Villa for six years, dedicating her entire adult life to caring for the Villa’s residents, maintaining the property (with an assist from DIY YouTube tutorials), and guarding the endangered tortoises that live in the Villa’s gardens. Somewhere along the way, she’s forgotten that she’s young and beautiful, and that there’s a world outside of work—until she meets the son of the property developer who just acquired the retirement center.

Teddy Prescott has spent the last few years partying, sleeping in late, tattooing himself when bored, and generally not taking life too seriously—something his father, who dreams of grooming Teddy into his successor, can’t understand. When Teddy needs a place to crash, his father seizes the chance to get him to grow up. He’ll let Teddy stay in one of the on-site cottages at the retirement home, but only if he works to earn his keep. Teddy agrees—he can change a few lightbulbs and clip some hedges, no sweat. But Ruthie has plans for Teddy too.

Her two wealthiest and most eccentric residents have just placed an ad (yet another!) seeking a new personal assistant to torment. The women are ninety-year-old, four-foot-tall menaces, and not one of their assistants has lasted a full week. Offering up Teddy seems like a surefire way to get rid of the tall, handsome, unnerving man who won’t stop getting under her skin.

Ruthie doesn’t count on the fact that in Teddy Prescott, the Biddies may have finally met their match. He’ll pick up Chanel gowns from the dry cleaner and cut Big Macs into bite-sized bits. He’ll do repairs around the property, make the residents laugh, and charm the entire villa. He might even remind Ruthie what it’s like to be young and fun again. But when she finds out Teddy’s father’s only fixing up the retirement home to sell it, putting everything she cares about in jeopardy, she’s left wondering if Teddy’s magic was all just a façade.

From the USA Today  bestselling author of The Hating Game and 99 Percent Mine comes the clever, funny, and unforgettable story of a muscular, tattooed man hired as an assistant to two old women—under the watchful eye of a beautiful retirement home manager.]]> 343 Sally Thorne 0063007134 Emily 5 3.48 2021 Second First Impressions
author: Sally Thorne
name: Emily
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/10/18
shelves:
review:
Read this the right way (in one day), and miss it so badly all ready. Like being inside Sally Thorne's cute, cozy, whimsically wall-papered brain with a cheeseboard, a bubblebath, and a very soft sweater. No one writes like Sally. No one thinks like her, I don't think. I want to bottle her brain, and drink a sip every night so I can dream her books. Just. So. Sweet.
]]> Breathless 51401773 Before: With graduation on the horizon, budding writer Claudine Henry is making plans: college in the fall, become a famous author, and maybe—finally—have sex. She doesn't even need to be in love. Then her dad drops a bombshell: he's leaving Claude's mother. Suddenly, Claude's entire world feels like a lie, and her future anything but under control.

After: Claude's mom whisks them away to the last place Claude could imagine nursing a broken heart: a remote, mosquito-infested island off the coast of Georgia. But then Jeremiah Crew happens. Miah is a local trail guide with a passion for photography—and a past he doesn't like to talk about. He's brash and enigmatic, and even more infuriatingly, he's the only one who seems to see Claude for who she wants to be. So when Claude decides to sleep with Miah, she tells herself it's just sex, nothing more. There's not enough time to fall in love, especially if it means putting her already broken heart at risk.

Compulsively readable and impossible to forget, Jennifer Niven's luminous new novel is an insightful portrait of a young woman ready to write her own story.]]> 414 Jennifer Niven 1524701963 Emily 5 3.75 2020 Breathless
author: Jennifer Niven
name: Emily
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/10/15
shelves:
review:
Well, it's settled. I have to move to Georgia now.
]]> Luster 51541496
Razor-sharp, provocatively page-turning and surprisingly tender, Luster by Raven Leilani is a painfully funny debut about what it means to be young now.]]> 227 Raven Leilani 0374194327 Emily 5 3.49 2020 Luster
author: Raven Leilani
name: Emily
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/10/14
shelves:
review:
A book that will make you read it in a day, even if you're no sure why, or what (if anything) you're rocketing toward. Tense, sharp, smart.
]]> Separation Anxiety 45859492 From bestselling author Laura Zigman, a hilarious novel about a wife and mother whose life is unraveling and the well-intentioned but increasingly disastrous steps she takes to course-correct her relationships, her career, and her belief in herself

Judy never intended to start wearing the dog. But when she stumbled across her son Teddy’s old baby sling during a halfhearted basement cleaning, something in her snapped. So: the dog went into the sling, Judy felt connected to another living being, and she’s repeated the process every day since.

Life hasn’t gone according to Judy’s plan. Her career as a children’s book author offered a glimpse of success before taking an embarrassing nose dive. Teddy, now a teenager, treats her with some combination of mortification and indifference. Her best friend is dying. And her husband, Gary, has become a pot-addled professional “snackologist” who she can’t afford to divorce. On top of it all, she has a painfully ironic job writing articles for a self-help website—a poor fit for someone seemingly incapable of helping herself.

Wickedly funny and surprisingly tender, Separation Anxiety offers a frank portrait of middle-aged limbo, examining the ebb and flow of life’s most important relationships. Tapping into the insecurities and anxieties that most of us keep under wraps, and with a voice that is at once gleefully irreverent and genuinely touching, Laura Zigman has crafted a new classic for anyone taking fumbling steps toward happiness.]]> 288 Laura Zigman 006290907X Emily 5 3.28 2020 Separation Anxiety
author: Laura Zigman
name: Emily
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/10/14
shelves:
review:
One of the best of the year, for me.
]]> Kindred 60931 The visionary author’s masterpiece pulls us—along with her Black female hero—through time to face the horrors of slavery and explore the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.]]> 288 Octavia E. Butler 0807083690 Emily 5 4.30 1979 Kindred
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Emily
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/10/13
shelves:
review:
Just absolutely required reading. IMMEDIATELY gripping, terrifying, important, and so sharply written.
]]> <![CDATA[To Love and to Loathe (The Regency Vows, #2)]]> 54303829
After his latest mistress unfavorably criticized his skills in the bedroom, Jeremy is looking for reassurance, so he has gone to the only woman he trusts to be totally truthful. He suggests that they embark on a brief affair while at the house party—Jeremy can receive an honest critique of his bedroom skills and widowed Diana can use the gossip to signal to other gentlemen that she is interested in taking a lover.

Diana thinks taking him up on his counter-proposal can only help her win her wager. With her in the bedroom and Jeremy’s marriage-minded grandmother, the formidable Dowager Marchioness of Willingham, helping to find suitable matches among the eligible ladies at Elderwild, Diana is confident her victory is assured. But while they’re focused on winning wagers, they stand to lose their own hearts.]]> 345 Martha Waters 198216087X Emily 5 3.47 2021 To Love and to Loathe (The Regency Vows, #2)
author: Martha Waters
name: Emily
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/09/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Conspiracy in Belgravia (Lady Sherlock, #2)]]> 33835806 The game is afoot as Charlotte Holmes returns in USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas's Victorian-set Lady Sherlock series.

Being shunned by Society gives Charlotte Holmes the time and freedom to put her extraordinary powers of deduction to good use. As "Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective," aided by the capable Mrs. Watson, she's had great success helping with all manner of inquiries, but she's not prepared for the new client who arrives at her Upper Baker Street office.

Lady Ingram, wife of Charlotte's dear friend and benefactor, wants Sherlock Holmes to find her first love, who failed to show up at their annual rendezvous. Matters of loyalty and discretion aside, the case becomes even more personal for Charlotte as the missing man is none other than Myron Finch, her illegitimate half brother.

In the meanwhile, Charlotte wrestles with a surprising proposal of marriage, a mysterious stranger woos her sister Livia, and an unidentified body surfaces where least expected. Charlotte's investigative prowess is challenged as never Can she find her brother in time--or will he, too, end up as a nameless corpse somewhere in the belly of London?]]> 336 Sherry Thomas 0698196368 Emily 5 4.10 2017 A Conspiracy in Belgravia (Lady Sherlock, #2)
author: Sherry Thomas
name: Emily
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/08/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock, #1)]]> 28588390  
With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London.
 
When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old—a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her.

But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.

An NPR Best Book of 2016]]> 323 Sherry Thomas 042528140X Emily 5 3.83 2016 A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock, #1)
author: Sherry Thomas
name: Emily
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/08/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Rogue of One's Own (A League of Extraordinary Women, #2)]]> 49202118
Lucie tempts Tristan like no other woman, burning him up with her fierceness and determination every time they clash. But as their battle of wills and words fans the flames of long-smouldering devotion, the silver-tongued seducer runs the risk of becoming caught in his own snare.

As Lucie tries to out-manoeuvre Tristan in the boardroom and the bedchamber, she soon discovers there’s truth in what the poets say: all is fair in love and war…

A lady must have money and an army of her own if she is to win a revolution - but first, she must pit her wits against the wiles of an irresistible rogue bent on wrecking her plans...and her heart.]]> 448 Evie Dunmore 1984805703 Emily 5 3.98 2020 A Rogue of One's Own (A League of Extraordinary Women, #2)
author: Evie Dunmore
name: Emily
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Mexican Gothic 53152636 An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets... From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes "a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror" (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She's not sure what she will find – her cousin's husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: she's a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she's also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: not of her cousin's new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi's dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family's youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family's past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family's once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 320 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 0525620788 Emily 5 3.65 2020 Mexican Gothic
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Emily
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/07/27
shelves:
review:
Creepy, fun, and sumptuously atmospheric, this book truly held me in thrall from beginning to end. There's no other way to describe my reading experience. I've always been a huge fan of gothics but this is the book I didn't know I needed.
]]> <![CDATA[You Deserve Each Other (You Deserve Each Other, #1)]]> 50027029
Naomi wants out, but there's a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. When Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment, the two of them go head-to-head in a battle of pranks, sabotage, and all-out emotional warfare.

But with the countdown looming to the wedding that may or may not come to pass, Naomi finds her resolve slipping. Because now that they have nothing to lose, they're finally being themselves--and having fun with the last person they expect: each other.

When your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this wickedly funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy debut.]]> 368 Sarah Hogle Emily 0 to-read 3.84 2020 You Deserve Each Other (You Deserve Each Other, #1)
author: Sarah Hogle
name: Emily
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Eliza Starts a Rumor 52629521 The author of Nine Women, One Dress delivers a charming, unforgettable novel about four women, one little lie, and the big repercussions that unite them all.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. When Eliza Hunt created The Hudson Valley Ladies' Bulletin Board fifteen years ago she was happily entrenched in her picture-perfect suburban life with her husband and twin preschoolers. Now, with an empty nest and a crippling case of agoraphobia, the once-fun hobby has become her lifeline. So when a rival parenting forum threatens the site's existence, she doesn't think twice before fabricating a salacious rumor to spark things up a bit.

It doesn't take long before that spark becomes a flame.

Across town, new mom and site devotee Olivia York is thrown into a tailspin by what she reads on the Bulletin Board. Allison Le is making cyber friends with a woman who isn't quite who she says she is. And Amanda Cole, Eliza's childhood friend, may just hold the key to unearthing why Eliza can't step out of her front door.

In all this chaos, one thing is for sure...Hudson Valley will never be the same.

Funny, romantic, raw, and hopeful, this is a story about being a woman and of the healing power of sisterhood.]]> 320 Jane L. Rosen 0593102088 Emily 5 3.78 2020 Eliza Starts a Rumor
author: Jane L. Rosen
name: Emily
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/07/15
shelves:
review:
Absolutely adored this one. So charming, beautifully written, fun, and relatable. Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Laura Hankin.
]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the `80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 Emily 5 4.38 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Emily
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/07/13
shelves:
review:
Just realized I never wrote a review of this, but what even is there to say? This book is divine. I've loved every book I've read by Jenkins Reid, but I was blown away by both the expansiveness and intimacy of this one. I'm not sure how she did, but there are a dozen memorable, fully fleshed characters in this, and even while knowing approximately where this was going (there are seven husbands; you know the story won't stop at number six), I couldn't stop reading it. I loved how complex and thorny Evelyn was. I loved that we were expected to love, admire, or feel whatever else for her while really being shown what a thoroughly normal person she is. Not to say she isn't an extraordinary characters, because she is, but to see so deep down into her, to all of her ugliest and most relatable thoughts, to see her humanity on every level--this book is just so rare. I'm sure you've already read it, but if you haven't, do.
]]> The Season 3751593 When the Earl of Blackmoor is mysteriously killed, Alex decides to help his son, the brooding and devilishly handsome Gavin, uncover the truth. But will Alex's heart be stolen in the process? In an adventure brimming with espionage, murder, and other clandestine affairs, who could possibly have time to worry about finding a husband? Romance abounds as this year's season begins!

]]> 343 Sarah MacLean 0545048869 Emily 5 3.79 2009 The Season
author: Sarah MacLean
name: Emily
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/07/05
shelves:
review:
This has sent me off on a historical fiction kick. I just had so much dang fun.
]]> One to Watch 53103895 417 Kate Stayman-London 0525510443 Emily 5 to-read
]]> 3.85 2020 One to Watch
author: Kate Stayman-London
name: Emily
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:
I was really excited for this one, but it was still so much better than I even expected. The writing itself is fantastic--effortlessly fun and clever, with a multimedia aspect that somehow never felt gimmicky (I'm honestly not usually a fan of these kinds of elements, but... I genuinely loved it? The podcast transcripts were possibly my favorite part of the book). Beyond that, I found the tension impeccable. I truly had no idea how this book was going to end, and that made my reading experience incredibly propulsive. Read it in a day and a half.


]]> <![CDATA[Queen Move (All the King's Men, #3)]]> 48760923 The boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can't have…

Dig a little and you'll find photos of me in the bathtub with Ezra Stern.
Get your mind out of the gutter. We were six months old.
Pry and one of us might confess we saved our first kiss for each other.
The most clumsy, wet, sloppy . . . spectacular thirty seconds of my adolescence.
Get into our business and you'll see two families, closer than blood, torn apart in an instant.
Twenty years later, my "awkward duckling" best friend from childhood, the boy no one noticed, is a man no one can ignore.

Finer. Fiercer. Smarter.
Taken.

Tell me it's wrong.
Tell me the boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can’t have.
When we find each other again, everything stands in our way--secrets, lies, promises.
But we didn't come this far to give up now.
And I know just the move to make if I want to make him mine.]]> 300 Kennedy Ryan 1952457025 Emily 5 4.17 2020 Queen Move (All the King's Men, #3)
author: Kennedy Ryan
name: Emily
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/07/03
shelves:
review:
This BOOK has so much depth. The characters' history, fears, and growth are so expertly drawn, the tension is fantastic, but probably the most impressive aspect to me is the sweetness of Kimba and Ezra's love. Ryan really managed to reach into my heart with this one and make me feel what her characters are feeling, to understand their profound connection and love. This was my first book by Kennedy Ryan, and it WON'T be my last.
]]> <![CDATA[The Boyfriend Project (The Boyfriend Project, #1)]]> 53247257 If you love Jasmine Guillory, Abby Jimenez and Talia Hibbert, you'll LOVE Farrah Rochon!

What happens when three women discover , thanks to the live tweeting of a disastrous date, that they've all been duped by the same man? They become friends of course!

Samiah Brooks never thought she would be 'that' girl. But a live tweet of a horrific date just revealed the painful truth: she's been catfished by a three-timing jerk of a boyfriend. Suddenly Samiah - along with his two other 'girlfriends', London and Taylor - have gone viral online. Now the three new besties are making a pact to spend the next six months investing in themselves. No men, no dating, and no worrying about their relationship status...

For once Samiah is putting herself first, and that includes finally developing the app she's always dreamed of creating. Which is the exact moment she meets the deliciously sexy, honey-eyed Daniel Collins at work. What are the chances? When it comes to love, there's no such thing as a coincidence. But is Daniel really boyfriend material or is he maybe just a little too good to be true?

]]> 352 Farrah Rochon 147227380X Emily 5
The writing has a delicious liveliness, and there's a subplot involving hacking and money laundering that made this extra fun for me. Could one hundred-percent see this being made into a movie, and hope it will be.]]> 3.43 2020 The Boyfriend Project (The Boyfriend Project, #1)
author: Farrah Rochon
name: Emily
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/06/26
shelves:
review:
This book is cinematic, playful, and sweet, with just the perfect amount of intrigue and plot to keep you guessing while still leaving plenty of room for the characters and their relationships to shine. I will admit, I have a specific soft spot for this particular plot device--women wronged by the same man forming a bond and occasionally exacting hilarious revenge--but I was actually pleasantly surprised how little of a part of the three-timing playboy actually played in this book. The story is very much about the bond these women form, and the wake-up call they get from this one bad relationship, how it pushes them toward pursuing their true dreams rather than searching the bleak dating landscape for some missing piece.

The writing has a delicious liveliness, and there's a subplot involving hacking and money laundering that made this extra fun for me. Could one hundred-percent see this being made into a movie, and hope it will be.
]]> Happy & You Know It 52358404
After her former band shot to superstardom without her, Claire reluctantly agrees to a gig as a playgroup musician for overprivileged infants on New York’s Park Avenue. Claire is surprised to discover that she is smitten with her new employers, a welcoming clique of wellness addicts with impossibly shiny hair, who whirl from juice cleanse to overpriced miracle vitamins to spin class with limitless energy.

There is perfect hostess Whitney who is on the brink of social-media stardom and just needs to find a way to keep her perfect life from falling apart. Caustically funny, recent stay-at-home mom Amara who is struggling to embrace her new identity. And old money, veteran mom Gwen who never misses an opportunity to dole out parenting advice. But as Claire grows closer to the cool women who pay her bills, she uncovers secrets and betrayals that no amount of activated charcoal can fix.

Filled with humor and shocking twists, Happy and You Know It is a brilliant take on motherhood—exposing it as yet another way for society to pass judgment on women—while also exploring the baffling magnetism of curated social-media lives that are designed to make us feel unworthy. But, ultimately, this dazzling novel celebrates the unlikely bonds that form, and the power that can be unlocked, when a group of very different women is thrown together when each is at her most vulnerable.]]> 384 Laura Hankin 1984806238 Emily 5
It is smart, but perhaps more importantly, to me, is that it's hilarious. Laura Hankin has such an acerbic wit and sharp viewpoint, and she tells the stories of difficult women making bad decisions so well. I fell in love with the women of the upper east side playgroup so quickly even as I watched their story arcs unfold with a deep sense of dread in my gut.

Just a perfect summer book, with enough edge, drama, and tension to keep you turning the pages no matter how many dishes might be sitting in your (my) sink.]]> 3.67 2020 Happy & You Know It
author: Laura Hankin
name: Emily
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/06/26
shelves:
review:
This one is a big YES for me. I think of this as as sort of literary adult cousin to Gossip Girl meets Liane Moriarty and Celeste Ng. It's a story about women, and the expectations placed on them by the outside world and each other, and about the secret parts of ourselves that we try to hide in the pursuit of perfection.

It is smart, but perhaps more importantly, to me, is that it's hilarious. Laura Hankin has such an acerbic wit and sharp viewpoint, and she tells the stories of difficult women making bad decisions so well. I fell in love with the women of the upper east side playgroup so quickly even as I watched their story arcs unfold with a deep sense of dread in my gut.

Just a perfect summer book, with enough edge, drama, and tension to keep you turning the pages no matter how many dishes might be sitting in your (my) sink.
]]> In a Holidaze 50892287 Un deseo navideño, un héroe cariñoso y toda una vida en juego que te harán creer en el poder de los deseos y la magia de las fiestas.

Es la época más maravillosa del año... pero no para Maelyn Jones, que vive con sus padres y odia su trabajo. Sin embargo, quizá lo peor de todo sea que esta es la última Navidad que celebrará en su lugar favorito del la cabaña nevada de Utah, donde ella y su familia han pasado todas las fiestas desde que nació.

Al borde de un colapso nervioso, Mae lanza lo que cree que es una simple súplica al "Por favor, muéstrame qué me hará feliz". Lo que sigue no es la escena más dichosa del año, sino los neumáticos rechinando, el metal chocando y, después, todo se vuelve negro. Cuando despierta... está en un avión con destino a Utah, empezando las mismas vacaciones de hace unos instantes.

Con un desastre temporal hilarante que la envía de vuelta al avión una y otra vez, Mae debe descubrir cómo liberarse de ese extraño bucle, para poder, finalmente, encontrar a su verdadero amor bajo el muérdago.]]> 307 Christina Lauren 198212394X Emily 5 3.62 2020 In a Holidaze
author: Christina Lauren
name: Emily
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/06/24
shelves:
review:
To me, this is a perfect book. Now give me the movie immediately.
]]> A Song Below Water Sneak Peek 51952412 Legacies meets Nic Stone’s Dear Martin in Bethany C. Morrow's debut YA, A Song Below Water, about two best friends discovering their magical identities against the challenges of today’s racism and sexism. Download a FREE sneak peek today!

Tavia is already at odds with the world, forced to keep her siren identity under wraps in a society that wants to keep her kind under lock and key. Nevermind she's also stuck in Portland, Oregon, a city with only a handful of black folk and even fewer of those with magical powers. At least she has her bestie Effie by her side as they tackle high school drama, family secrets, and unrequited crushes.

But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation; the girls’ favorite Internet fashion icon reveals she's also a siren, and the news rips through their community. Tensions escalate when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice during a police stop. No secret seems safe anymore—soon Portland won’t be either.

“I love this book so, so much! Bethany C. Morrow delivers a blistering modern classic with this gorgeous tale of friendship and power. A Song Below Water somehow manages to be intensely happy and sad at the same time and all in the balance of great, riveting storytelling. The best YA novel I've read all year.” — Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author of Shadowshaper

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 28 Bethany C. Morrow 1250782589 Emily 5 4.20 2020 A Song Below Water Sneak Peek
author: Bethany C. Morrow
name: Emily
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/06/21
shelves:
review:

]]> East Coast Girls 49932258 They share countless perfect memories—and one they wish they could forget.

Childhood friends Hannah, Maya, Blue and Renee share a bond that feels more like family. Growing up, they had difficult home lives, and the summers they spent vacationing together in Montauk were the happiest memories they ever made—campfires on the beach, salt-spray hair and the effervescent excitement of the bright future ahead. Then, the summer after graduation, one terrible night changed everything.

Twelve years have passed since that fateful incident, and during that time, their sisterhood has drifted apart, each woman haunted by her own lost innocence. But just as they reunite in Montauk for one last summer together, hoping to heal those wounds and find happiness once more, tragedy strikes again. This time it’ll test them like never before, forcing them to confront decisions they’ve each had to live with and old secrets that refuse to stay buried.

Told with lyrical prose and sharp insights into human nature, East Coast Girls unveils the dark truths that can threaten even the deepest friendships and the unconditional love that makes them stronger than ever.]]> 336 Kerry Kletter 0778309495 Emily 5
This is the epitome of a book that breaks you down and builds you back up. You will feel anxious, sad, irritated as hell, angry, ecstatic, and healed. It's a beautiful book about friendship and forgiveness, and finding ways to move on. I wish so badly I could be rereading it on the beach with my best friends splayed out on towels next to me, but reading it, period, will make you feel like you are.

----
One of my favorite books of 2020. It's rare that I'm as entranced by a book's language as I am by its characters, but that was absolutely the case for EAST COAST GIRLS. I sobbed.]]> 3.36 2020 East Coast Girls
author: Kerry Kletter
name: Emily
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/05/26
shelves:
review:
This book is out today, and I wanted to elaborate just a bit on what to expect.

This is the epitome of a book that breaks you down and builds you back up. You will feel anxious, sad, irritated as hell, angry, ecstatic, and healed. It's a beautiful book about friendship and forgiveness, and finding ways to move on. I wish so badly I could be rereading it on the beach with my best friends splayed out on towels next to me, but reading it, period, will make you feel like you are.

----
One of my favorite books of 2020. It's rare that I'm as entranced by a book's language as I am by its characters, but that was absolutely the case for EAST COAST GIRLS. I sobbed.
]]> The Caretakers 50786897 In the isolated estate she’s found the perfect getaway. But there’s no escaping the past in this chilling novel from the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl.

Filmmaker Tessa Shepherd helped free a man she believed was wrongly imprisoned for murder. When he kills again, Tessa’s life is upended.

She’s reeling with guilt, her reputation destroyed. Worse, Tessa’s mother has unexpectedly passed away, and her sister, Margot, turns on her after tensions from their past escalate. Hounded by a bullying press, Tessa needs an escape. That’s when she learns of a strange inheritance bequeathed by her mother: a derelict and isolated estate known as Fallbrook. It seems like the perfect refuge.

A crumbling monument to a gruesome history, the mansion has been abandoned by all but two elderly sisters retained as caretakers. They are also guardians of all its mysteries. As the house starts revealing its dark secrets, Tessa must face her fears and right the wrongs of her past to save herself and her relationship with Margot. But nothing and no one at Fallbrook are what they seem.

]]> 313 Eliza Maxwell 1542044588 Emily 0 to-read 4.13 2020 The Caretakers
author: Eliza Maxwell
name: Emily
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:
I want to read this, and I'm scared to read this.
]]> Why Visit America 52079578 Equal parts speculative and satirical, the stories in Why Visit America form an exegesis of our current political predicament, while offering an eloquent plea for connection and hope.

The citizens of Plainfield, Texas, have had it with the broke-down United States. So they vote to secede, rename themselves America in memory of their former country, and happily set themselves up to receive tourists from their closest neighbor: America. Couldn't happen? Well, it might, and so it goes in the thirteen stories in Matthew Baker's brilliantly illuminating, incisive, and heartbreaking collection Why Visit America.

The book opens with a seemingly traditional story in which the speculative element is extremely minimal--the narrator has a job that doesn't actually exist--a story that wouldn't seem much out of place in a collection of literary realism. From there the stories get progressively stranger: a young man breaks the news to his family that he is going to transition--from an analog body to a digital existence. A young woman abducts a child--her own--from a government-run childcare facility. A man returns home after committing a great crime, his sentence being that his memory--his entire life--is wiped clean.

As the book moves from universe to universe, the stories cross between different American genres: from bildungsroman to rom com, western to dystopian, including fantasy, horror, erotica, and a noir detective mystery. Read together, these parallel-universe stories create a composite portrait of the true nature of the United States and a Through the Looking-Glass reflection of who we are as a country.]]> 368 Matthew Baker 1250237203 Emily 0 to-read 3.97 2020 Why Visit America
author: Matthew Baker
name: Emily
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Best Man Plan (Boots and Bouquets, #1)]]> 51789066 New York Times bestselling author Jaci Burton kicks off a dreamy new series with a sweep-you-off-your-feet friends-to-lovers romance.

Three days before Erin Bellini's wedding, her fiancé breaks up with her--in an email! Hurt and embarrassed, she decides to have a fling with veterinarian Jason Callum, who's both the best man and the hottest guy she knows. But Jason wants a lot more than just a one-night stand with the woman he's cared about for years. So he's taking things slow. And hot. And showing Erin what real love can look like.

Suddenly Erin finds herself spending a lot more time with Jason than she intended. Feelings she never planned on having again are wrapping around her heart, refusing to let go. Erin isn't sure she can trust her instincts, though. After all, she made a terrible choice with her ex-fiancé. But Jason intends to convince her that he's the best man for her, and that what they have together is a real love that will last forever.
]]> 352 Jaci Burton 0451491289 Emily 0 to-read 3.58 2020 The Best Man Plan (Boots and Bouquets, #1)
author: Jaci Burton
name: Emily
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Marriage Game (Marriage Game, #1)]]> 51588815
After her life falls apart, recruitment consultant Layla Patel returns home to her family in San Francisco. But in the eyes of her father, who runs a Michelin starred restaurant, she can do no wrong. He would do anything to see her smile again. With the best intentions in mind, he offers her the office upstairs to start her new business and creates a profile on an online dating site to find her a man. She doesn’t know he’s arranged a series of blind dates until the first one comes knocking on her door…

As CEO of a corporate downsizing company Sam Mehta is more used to conflict than calm. In search of a quiet new office, he finds the perfect space above a cozy Indian restaurant that smells like home. But when communication goes awry, he's forced to share his space with the owner's beautiful yet infuriating daughter Layla, her crazy family, and a parade of hopeful suitors, all of whom threaten to disrupt his carefully ordered life.

As they face off in close quarters, the sarcasm and sparks fly. But when the battle for the office becomes a battle of the heart, Sam and Layla have to decide if this is love or just a game.]]> 338 Sara Desai 0593100565 Emily 0 to-read 3.49 2020 The Marriage Game (Marriage Game, #1)
author: Sara Desai
name: Emily
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Muse (Muse, #1) 50622137
The year is 1893, and war is brewing in the First American Kingdom. But Claire Emerson has a bigger problem. Claire’s father is a sought-after inventor, but he believes his genius is a gift granted to him by his daughter’s touch, so he keeps Claire under his control.

As their province prepares for war, Claire plans to escape, even as her best friend, Beatrix, tries to convince her to stay and help with the growing resistance movement that wants to see a woman on the throne.

When her father’s weapon fails to fire on the World’s Fair’s opening day, Claire is taken captive by Governor Remy Duchamp, St. Cloud’s young, untried ruler. Remy believes that Claire’s touch bestows graces he’s never had, and with political rivals planning his demise, Claire might be his only ally.

The last thing that Claire has ever wanted is to be someone else’s muse, but she finally has a Will she quietly remake her world from the shadows—or bring it down in flames?]]> 346 Brittany Cavallaro 0062840274 Emily 5
Well, I finally got to read the rest, and it's everything I hoped for. Both smart and strange, and at turns romantic as it is furious, with writing that crackles and characters sharply drawn in varying shades of gray.

Claire&
Beatrix&
Nikola&
Perpetua&
Remy forever.

Will review in greater detail when we're closer to release, but for now, historical fantasy and alternate history fans get this one on your radars.]]> 3.54 2021 Muse (Muse, #1)
author: Brittany Cavallaro
name: Emily
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/02/20
shelves:
review:
A long time ago, I read the very beginning of this book, then had to wait years for the rest.

Well, I finally got to read the rest, and it's everything I hoped for. Both smart and strange, and at turns romantic as it is furious, with writing that crackles and characters sharply drawn in varying shades of gray.

Claire&
Beatrix&
Nikola&
Perpetua&
Remy forever.

Will review in greater detail when we're closer to release, but for now, historical fantasy and alternate history fans get this one on your radars.
]]> <![CDATA[Real Men Knit (Real Men Knit, #1)]]> 51351884
Jesse Strong is known for two things: his devotion to his adoptive mom, Mama Joy, and his reputation for breaking hearts in Harlem. When Mama Joy unexpectedly passes away, he and his brothers have different plans on what to do with Strong Knits, their neighborhood knitting store: Jesse wants to keep the store open; his brothers want to shut it down.

Jesse makes an impassioned plea to Kerry Fuller, his childhood friend who has had a crush on him her entire life, to help him figure out how to run the business. Kerry agrees to help him reinvent the store and show him the knitty-gritty of the business, but the more time they spend together, the more the chemistry builds. Kerry, knowing Jesse’s history, doesn’t believe this relationship will exist longer than one can knit one, purl one. But Jesse is determined to prove to her that he can be the man for her—after all, real men knit.]]> 336 Kwana Jackson 1984806505 Emily 0 to-read 3.21 2020 Real Men Knit (Real Men Knit, #1)
author: Kwana Jackson
name: Emily
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In the Wild Light 44287012
But when Delaney manages to secure both of them full rides to an elite prep school in Connecticut, Cash will have to grapple with his need to protect and love Delaney, and his love for the grandparents who saved him and the town he would have to leave behind.

From the award-winning author of The Serpent King comes a beautiful examination of grief, found family, and young love.]]> 432 Jeff Zentner 1524720240 Emily 5 4.43 2021 In the Wild Light
author: Jeff Zentner
name: Emily
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/02/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Cool for the Summer 50748473
Except she’s haunted by a memory. A memory of a confusing, romantic, strangely perfect summer spent with a girl named Jasmine. A memory that becomes a confusing, disorienting present when Jasmine herself walks through the front doors of the school to see Lara and Chase chatting it up in front of the lockers.

Lara has everything she ever wanted: a tight-knit group of friends, a job that borders on cool, and Chase, the boy of her literal dreams. But if she's finally got the guy, why can't she stop thinking about the girl?

Cool for the Summer is a story of self-discovery and new love. It’s about the things we want and the things we need. And it’s about the people who will let us be who we are.]]> 272 Dahlia Adler 125076582X Emily 0 to-read 3.71 2021 Cool for the Summer
author: Dahlia Adler
name: Emily
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Trophy Life 40789004 364 Lea Geller 1503904202 Emily 0 to-read 3.56 2019 Trophy Life
author: Lea Geller
name: Emily
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Bette Davis Club 26125835
When the young bride flees—taking with her a family heirloom and leaving behind six hundred bewildered guests—her mother offers Margo fifty grand to retrieve her spoiled brat of a daughter and the invaluable property she stole. So, together with the bride’s jilted and justifiably crabby fiancé, Margo sets out in a borrowed 1955 red MG on a cross-country chase. Along the way, none of what she discovers will be quite what she expected. But it might be exactly what she’s been seeking all along.

From acclaimed humor writer Jane Lotter comes this madcap, laugh-out-loud adventure, The Bette Davis Club.

Revised This edition of The Bette Davis Club includes editorial revisions.]]> 340 Jane Lotter 150396065X Emily 0 to-read 3.85 2013 The Bette Davis Club
author: Jane Lotter
name: Emily
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mr. Malcolm's List 48910455 It is a truth universally acknowledged that an arrogant bachelor insistent on a wife who meets the strictest of requirements--deserves his comeuppance.

The Honorable Jeremy Malcolm is searching for a wife, but not just any wife. He's determined to elude the fortune hunters and find a near-perfect woman, one who will meet the qualifications on his well-crafted list. But after years of searching, he's beginning to despair of finding this paragon. And then Selina Dalton arrives in town…

Selina, a vicar's daughter of limited means and a stranger to high society, is thrilled when her friend Julia invites her to London.  Until she learns it's part of a plot to exact revenge on Mr. Malcolm. Selina is reluctant to participate in Julia's scheme, especially after meeting the irresistible Mr. Malcolm, who seems very different from the arrogant scoundrel of Julia's description.

But when Mr. Malcolm begins judging Selina against his unattainable standards, Selina decides that she has qualifications of her own. And if he is to meet them he must reveal the real man behind...Mr. Malcolm's List.]]> 256 Suzanne Allain 0593197402 Emily 0 to-read 3.21 2009 Mr. Malcolm's List
author: Suzanne Allain
name: Emily
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Party of Two (The Wedding Date, #5)]]> 49099926 A chance meeting with a handsome stranger turns into a whirlwind affair that gets everyone talking.

Dating is the last thing on Olivia Monroe's mind when she moves to LA to start her own law firm. But when she meets a gorgeous man at a hotel bar and they spend the entire night flirting, she discovers too late that he is none other than hotshot junior senator Max Powell. Olivia has zero interest in dating a politician, but when a cake arrives at her office with the cutest message, she can't resist--it is chocolate cake, after all.

Olivia is surprised to find that Max is sweet, funny, and noble--not just some privileged white politician she assumed him to be. Because of Max's high-profile job, they start seeing each other secretly, which leads to clandestine dates and silly disguises. But when they finally go public, the intense media scrutiny means people are now digging up her rocky past and criticizing her job, even her suitability as a trophy girlfriend. Olivia knows what she has with Max is something special, but is it strong enough to survive the heat of the spotlight?]]> 312 Jasmine Guillory 0593100816 Emily 5 3.72 2020 Party of Two (The Wedding Date, #5)
author: Jasmine Guillory
name: Emily
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Oona Out of Order 45046893 A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order.

It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order...

Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met? Surprising, magical, and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore has crafted an unforgettable story about the burdens of time, the endurance of love, and the power of family.]]> 339 Margarita Montimore 1250236606 Emily 5 3.84 2020 Oona Out of Order
author: Margarita Montimore
name: Emily
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/01/17
shelves:
review:

]]> The Deep 46158562 thing, is haunting the Titanic. This is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the ship from the moment they set mysterious disappearances, sudden deaths. Now suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone during the four days of the liner's illustrious maiden voyage, a number of the passengers - including millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, the maid Annie Hebbley and Mark Fletcher - are convinced that something sinister is going on... And then, as the world knows, disaster strikes.

Years later and the world is at war. And a survivor of that fateful night, Annie, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic's sister ship, the Britannic, now refitted as a hospital ship. Plagued by the demons of her doomed first and near fatal journey across the Atlantic, Annie comes across an unconscious soldier she recognises while doing her rounds. It is the young man Mark. And she is convinced that he did not - could not - have survived the sinking of the Titanic...

Brilliantly combining fact and fiction, the historical and the horrific, The Deep reveals a chilling truth in an unputdownable narrative full of unnerving moments and with a growing, inexorable sense of foreboding.]]> 432 Alma Katsu 1473564492 Emily 0 to-read 3.30 2020 The Deep
author: Alma Katsu
name: Emily
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tourist Attraction (Moose Springs, Alaska, #1)]]> 43352294
Two weeks in Alaska isn't just the top item on Zoey Caldwell's bucket list. It's the whole bucket. One look at the mountain town of Moose Springs and she's smitten. But when an act of kindness brings Zoey into Graham's world, she may just find there's more to the man than meets the eye…and more to love in Moose Springs than just the Alaskan wilderness.]]> 352 Sarah Morgenthaler Emily 0 to-read 3.46 2020 The Tourist Attraction (Moose Springs, Alaska, #1)
author: Sarah Morgenthaler
name: Emily
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red, White & Royal Blue (Red, White & Royal Blue, #1)]]> 41150487
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?]]> 443 Casey McQuiston 1250316774 Emily 0 to-read 4.04 2019 Red, White & Royal Blue (Red, White & Royal Blue, #1)
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Emily
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Strange Exit 45044106
No one can get off the ship until all of the passengers are out of the sim, and no one can get out of the sim unless they believe it's a simulation. It's up to Lake to help them remember.

When Lake reveals the truth to a fellow passenger, seventeen-year-old Taren, he joins her mission to find everyone, persuade them that they’ve forgotten reality, and wake them up. But time’s running out before the simulation completely deconstructs, and soon Taren’s deciding who’s worth saving and who must be sacrificed for the greater good. Now, Lake has no choice but to pit herself against Taren in a race to find the secret heart of the sim, where something waits that will either save them or destroy them all.]]> 288 Parker Peevyhouse 0765399423 Emily 5










very smart, very sad meditation on a dying planet that we all love very much, but throw in a lone kernel of brilliant hope.

cue "i just wasn't made for these times" playing over interior shot of a raggedy spaceship with flickering lights]]> 3.25 2020 Strange Exit
author: Parker Peevyhouse
name: Emily
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/01/13
shelves:
review:
THIS COMES OUT TOMORROW. GO GET IT.











very smart, very sad meditation on a dying planet that we all love very much, but throw in a lone kernel of brilliant hope.

cue "i just wasn't made for these times" playing over interior shot of a raggedy spaceship with flickering lights
]]> <![CDATA[A Song Below Water (A Song Below Water, #1)]]> 39085465
But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation; the girls’ favorite Internet fashion icon reveals she's also a siren, and the news rips through their community. Tensions escalate when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice during a police stop. No secret seems safe anymore—soon Portland won’t be either.]]> 288 Bethany C. Morrow 1250315328 Emily 0 to-read 3.71 2020 A Song Below Water (A Song Below Water, #1)
author: Bethany C. Morrow
name: Emily
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:
I AM READING THIS RIGHT NOW AND BETHANY MORROW IS A TREASURE
]]> We Are Not Free 49934666 “All around me, my friends are talking, joking, laughing. Outside is the camp, the barbed wire, the guard towers, the city, the country that hates us.

We are not free.
But we are not alone.” 

We Are Not Free, is the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II.

Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco.
Fourteen teens who form a community and a family, as interconnected as they are conflicted.
Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps.
In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart.]]> 384 Traci Chee 035813143X Emily 0 to-read 4.29 2020 We Are Not Free
author: Traci Chee
name: Emily
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hybrid Creatures 35412466 Hybrid Creatures, Matthew Baker's sharp and innovative collection, follows four very different protagonists as they search for, and struggle with, connection: an amateur hacker attempts to track down his vanished mentor; a math prodigy, the child of divorced parents, struggles with being torn between his two families; a composer takes a spontaneous trip to Nashville while mourning his husband's death and gets trapped on a hotel rooftop with a hipster; and a wayward philosopher accepts a job working for an industrial farming corporation. Through-out, Baker explores the inner dialogue of failed, floundering, and successful bonds between strangers, among family and friends, and even within a person.



Pairing the emotional pursuit of connection with multiple forms of communication, Baker weaves the languages of HTML, mathematics, mu-sical notations, and propositional logic into his storytelling in order to unveil nuances of experiences and emotions. This poignant formal invention articulates loneliness, grief, doubt, and comfort in ways that are inaccessible through traditional language alone.

In both form and content, Baker captures the complexities of breaking and forming connections with other people, and the various lan-guages we use to navigate this inescapable human need--resulting in a moving exploration of interpersonal bonds.--Kevin Wilson]]> 136 Matthew Baker 0807168866 Emily 5 to-read 4.06 2018 Hybrid Creatures
author: Matthew Baker
name: Emily
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Darling Rose Gold 49223060
Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.

After serving five years in prison, Patty begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes. And Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling...

And she's waited such a long time for her mother to come home.]]> 311 Stephanie Wrobel 0593100069 Emily 0 to-read 3.68 2020 Darling Rose Gold
author: Stephanie Wrobel
name: Emily
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)]]> 43884209
• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And... do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…]]> 373 Talia Hibbert 0062941208 Emily 5 3.77 2019 Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)
author: Talia Hibbert
name: Emily
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/12/11
shelves:
review:
So cute and charming! I LOVE a romance that balances heart and humor with some heavier themes, and this did so beautifully.
]]> The Wives 43262893 New York Times bestselling author Tarryn Fisher delivers a pulse-pounding, fast-paced suspense novel that will leave you breathless. A thriller you won’t be able to put down!

Thursday’s husband, Seth, has two other wives. She’s never met them, and she doesn’t know anything about them. She agreed to this unusual arrangement because she’s so crazy about him.

But one day, she finds something. Something that tells a very different—and horrifying—story about the man she married.

What follows is one of the most twisted, shocking thrillers you’ll ever read.

You’ll have to grab a copy to find out why.

]]> 295 Tarryn Fisher 1488054355 Emily 5
]]> 3.63 2019 The Wives
author: Tarryn Fisher
name: Emily
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/12/11
shelves:
review:
The worst thing about this book is that it made me feel like an idiot for sleeping on the Tarryn Fisher train for so long.


]]> You Were There Too 44016297
Determined to understand, Mia and this not-so-stranger search for answers. But when diving into their pasts begins to unravel her life in the present, Mia emerges with a single question—what if?

Acclaimed author Colleen Oakley delivers a heart-wrenching and unforgettable love story about a woman who must choose between the man she loves and the man fate has chosen for her in a novel that reminds us that the best life is one led by the heart.]]> 324 Colleen Oakley 1984806467 Emily 0 to-read 3.84 2020 You Were There Too
author: Colleen Oakley
name: Emily
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women, #1)]]> 43521785 England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women's suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain's politics at the Queen's command. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can't deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.

Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his ducal home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for green-eyed beauty Annabelle. He is looking for a wife of equal standing to secure the legacy he has worked so hard to rebuild, not an outspoken commoner who could never be his duchess. But he wouldn't be the greatest strategist of the Kingdom if he couldn't claim this alluring bluestocking without the promise of a ring... or could he?

Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke....

A stunning debut for author Evie Dunmore and her Oxford suffragists in which a fiercely independent vicar's daughter takes on a powerful duke in a fiery love story that threatens to upend the British social order.]]> 335 Evie Dunmore 1984805681 Emily 5 This was an absolute delight. 3.90 2019 Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women, #1)
author: Evie Dunmore
name: Emily
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/11/25
shelves:
review:
This was an absolute delight.
]]> <![CDATA[Blood Countess (Lady Slayers, #1)]]> 43908877 A historical YA horror novel based on the infamous real-life inspiration for Countess Dracula

In 16th century Hungary, Anna Darvulia has just begun working as a scullery maid for the young and glamorous Countess Elizabeth Báthory. When Elizabeth takes a liking to Anna, she’s vaulted to the dream role of chambermaid, a far cry from the filthy servants’ quarters below. She receives wages generous enough to provide for her family, and the Countess begins to groom Anna as her friend and confidante. It’s not long before Anna falls completely under the Countess’s spell—and the Countess takes full advantage. Isolated from her former friends, family, and fiancé, Anna realizes she’s not a friend but a prisoner of the increasingly cruel Elizabeth. Then come the murders, and Anna knows it’s only a matter of time before the Blood Countess turns on her, too.]]> 293 Lana Popović 1419738860 Emily 5
If you don't like reading about moral ambiguity, people doing bad things, people making bad decisions, then you probably won't like this. Lucky for me, that's the sort of book I can't get enough of.

Like a creepy historical YOU, tinted with shades of Jacqueline Carey.

A perfect fall read]]> 3.45 2020 Blood Countess (Lady Slayers, #1)
author: Lana Popović
name: Emily
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/11/10
shelves:
review:
This book just really worked for me from start to finish. It was creepy and tense and sexy and dark, and most importantly (to me) well told. I've always been fascinated by Elizabeth Bathory but even so, I couldn't tell exactly where this book was going and that meant the tension pulled me along at a break-neck pace, straight through heaps of sinister atmosphere.

If you don't like reading about moral ambiguity, people doing bad things, people making bad decisions, then you probably won't like this. Lucky for me, that's the sort of book I can't get enough of.

Like a creepy historical YOU, tinted with shades of Jacqueline Carey.

A perfect fall read
]]> Layoverland 45726037 Two teens, one stuck atoning for her sins and one destined for heaven, fall in love in purgatory in this darkly hilarious and heartfelt rom-com, perfect for fans of The Good Place.

Beatrice Fox deserves to go straight to hell. At least, that's what she thinks. On her last day on Earth, she ruined the life of the person she loves most--her little sister, Emmy. So when Bea awakens from a fatal car accident to find herself on an airplane headed for a mysterious destination, she's confused, to say the least. Once on the ground, Bea receives some truly harrowing news: not only is she in purgatory, but she has been chosen to join the Memory Experience team. If she wants another shot at heaven, she'll have to use her master manipulation skills to help 5,000 souls suss out what's keeping them from moving on.

There's just one slight problem. Bea's first assigned soul is Caleb, the boy who caused her accident, and the last person Bea would ever want to send to the pearly gates. But as much as Bea would love to see Caleb suffer for dooming her to a seemingly endless future of listening to other people's problems, she can't help but notice that he's kind of cute, and sort of sweet, and that maybe, despite her best efforts, she's totally falling for him. And to make matters worse, he's definitely falling for her. Now, determined to make the most of her time in purgatory, Bea must decide what is truly worth dying for--romance or revenge.]]> 304 Gabby Noone 1984836129 Emily 5
This book is so much better than it needs to be.

I laughed, I cried, I contemplated making coffee jello.]]> 3.70 2020 Layoverland
author: Gabby Noone
name: Emily
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/08/28
shelves:
review:
There's a phrase that several of my writer friends and I use--that sometimes a book is so much better than it needs to be.

This book is so much better than it needs to be.

I laughed, I cried, I contemplated making coffee jello.
]]> Dark and Deepest Red 44218347
Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.

With McLemore's signature lush prose, Dark and Deepest Red pairs the forbidding magic of a fairy tale with a modern story of passion and betrayal.]]> 309 Anna-Marie McLemore 1250162742 Emily 0 3.55 2020 Dark and Deepest Red
author: Anna-Marie McLemore
name: Emily
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/08/01
shelves:
review:
i desperately need this book in my life
]]> <![CDATA[Royal Holiday (The Wedding Date, #4)]]> 44300636 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Proposalcomes a dazzling new novel about a spontaneous holiday vacation that turns into an unforgettable romance.

Vivian Forest has been out of the country a grand total of one time, so when she gets the chance to tag along on her daughter Maddie’s work trip to England to style a royal family member, she can’t refuse. She’s excited to spend the holidays taking in the magnificent British sights, but what she doesn’t expect is to become instantly attracted to a certain private secretary, his charming accent, and unyielding formality.

Malcolm Hudson has worked for the Queen for years and has never given a personal, private tour—until now. He is intrigued by Vivian the moment he meets her and finds himself making excuses just to spend time with her. When flirtatious banter turns into a kiss under the mistletoe, things snowball into a full-on fling.

Despite a ticking timer on their holiday romance, they are completely fine with ending their short, steamy affair come New Year’s Day. . .or are they?]]> 304 Jasmine Guillory 1984802224 Emily 0 to-read i am very ready for this 3.45 2019 Royal Holiday (The Wedding Date, #4)
author: Jasmine Guillory
name: Emily
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/26
shelves: to-read
review:
i am very ready for this
]]> A Pho Love Story 40490871 When Dimple Met Rishi meets Ugly Delicious in this funny, smart romantic comedy, in which two Vietnamese-American teens fall in love and must navigate their newfound relationship amid their families’ age-old feud about their competing, neighboring restaurants.

If Bao Nguyen had to describe himself, he’d say he was a rock. Steady and strong, but not particularly interesting. His grades are average, his social status unremarkable. He works at his parents’ pho restaurant, and even there, he is his parents’ fifth favorite employee. Not ideal.

If Linh Mai had to describe herself, she’d say she was a firecracker. Stable when unlit, but full of potential for joy and spark and fire. She loves art and dreams pursuing a career in it. The only problem? Her parents rely on her in ways they’re not willing to admit, including working practically full-time at her family’s pho restaurant.

For years, the Mais and the Nguyens have been at odds, having owned competing, neighboring phở restaurants. Bao and Linh, who’ve avoided each other for most of their lives, both suspect that the feud stems from feelings much deeper than friendly competition.

But then a chance encounter brings Linh and Bao together despite their best efforts and sparks fly, leading them both to wonder what took so long for them to connect. But then, of course, they immediately remember.

Can Linh and Bao find love in the midst of feuding families and complicated histories?]]> 415 Loan Le Emily 0 to-read 3.76 2021 A Pho Love Story
author: Loan Le
name: Emily
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> No Bad Deed 43721103 “Let her die, and I’ll let you live. And this will change her life.”]]> 320 Heather Chavez 0062936190 Emily 0 to-read 3.67 2020 No Bad Deed
author: Heather Chavez
name: Emily
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Saving Ruby King 44131181 Set in the South Side of Chicago, an epic, enthralling story of a young woman determined to protect her best friend while a long-buried secret threatens to unravel both their families.

Family. Faith. Secrets. Everything in this world comes full circle.

When Ruby King’s mother is found murdered in their home in Chicago’s South Side, the police dismiss it as another act of violence in a black neighborhood. But for Ruby, it means she’ll be living alone with her violent father. The only person who understands the gravity of her situation is Ruby’s best friend, Layla. Their closeness is tested when Layla’s father, the pastor of their church, demands that Layla stay away. But what are his true motives? And what is the price for turning a blind eye?

In a relentless quest to save Ruby, Layla comes to discover the murky loyalties and dark secrets tying their families together for three generations. A crucial pilgrimage through the racially divided landscape of Chicago, Saving Ruby King traces the way trauma is passed down through generations and the ways in which communities can come together to create sanctuary.

Saving Ruby King is an emotional and revelatory story of race, family secrets, faith and redemption. This is an unforgettable debut novel from an exciting new voice in fiction and a powerful testament that history doesn’t determine the present, and that the bonds of friendship can forever shape the future.]]> 352 Catherine Adel West Emily 0 to-read 3.85 2020 Saving Ruby King
author: Catherine Adel West
name: Emily
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Jane Austen Society (Jane Austen Society, #1)]]> 43557477 2020 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction and for Debut Novel!

Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people—a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others—could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.]]> 304 Natalie Jenner 1250248736 Emily 0 3.70 2020 The Jane Austen Society (Jane Austen Society, #1)
author: Natalie Jenner
name: Emily
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/09
shelves:
review:
Well, this is something I need in my life.
]]> I Hope You Get This Message 42282545
When news stations start reporting that Earth has been contacted by a planet named Alma, the world is abuzz with rumors that the alien entity is giving mankind only few days to live before they hit the kill switch on civilization.

For high school truant Jesse Hewitt, though, nothing has ever felt permanent. Not the guys he hooks up with. Not the jobs his underpaid mom works so hard to hold down. Life has dealt him one bad blow after another — so what does it matter if it all ends now? Cate Collins, on the other hand, is desperate to use this time to find the father she’s never met, the man she grew up hearing wild stories about, most of which she didn’t believe. And then there’s Adeem Khan. While coding and computer programming have always come easily to him, forgiveness doesn’t. He can’t seem to forgive his sister for leaving, even though it’s his last chance.

With only seven days to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem’s paths collide even as their worlds are pulled apart.]]> 448 Farah Naz Rishi 0062741470 Emily 0 to-read 3.61 2019 I Hope You Get This Message
author: Farah Naz Rishi
name: Emily
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Fireworks 29523625
It was always meant to be Olivia. She was the talented one, the one who had been training to be a star her whole life. Her best friend, Dana, was the level-headed one, always on the sidelines, cheering her best friend along.

But everything changes when Dana tags along with Olivia to Orlando for the weekend, where superproducer Guy Monroe is holding auditions for a new singing group, and Dana is discovered too. Dana, who’s never sung more than Olivia’s backup. Dana, who wasn’t even looking for fame. Next thing she knows, she and Olivia are training to be pop stars, and Dana is falling for Alex, the earnest, endlessly talented boy who’s destined to be the next big thing.

It should be a dream come true, but as the days of grueling practice and constant competition take their toll, things between Olivia and Dana start to shift . . . and there’s only room at the top for one girl. For Olivia, it’s her chance at her dream. For Dana, it’s a chance to escape a future that seems to be closing in on her. And for these lifelong best friends, it’s the adventure of a lifetime—if they can make it through.

Set in evocative 1990s Orlando, New York Times bestselling author Katie Cotugno’s Fireworks brings to life the complexity of friendship, the excitement of first love, and the feeling of being on the verge of greatness.]]> 336 Katie Cotugno 0062660241 Emily 5 3.35 2017 Fireworks
author: Katie Cotugno
name: Emily
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/02/19
shelves:
review:
Oh, this book made my heart hurt. I admire a lot of things about Cotugno's writing, but in this one, I especially admire her resistance to wrapping everything up too neatly. There is such a familiar bittersweetness to Dana and Olivia's story.
]]> <![CDATA[Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens]]> 42202063
Macho drag kings, magical queens, new love interests, and surprising allies propel Nima both painfully and hilariously closer to a self she never knew she could be—one that can confidently express and accept love. But she’ll have to learn to accept lost love to get there.]]> 374 Tanya Boteju 1534430652 Emily 0 to-read 3.76 2019 Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens
author: Tanya Boteju
name: Emily
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Girls with Sharp Sticks (Girls with Sharp Sticks, #1)]]> 36442895 “Enough plot twists to give a reader whiplash.” —Cosmopolitan

From New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young comes the start of a thrilling, subversive new series about a girls-only boarding school with a terrifying secret and the friends who will stop at nothing to protect each other.

Some of the prettiest flowers have the sharpest thorns.

The Girls of Innovations Academy are beautiful and well-behaved—it says so on their report cards. Under the watchful gaze of their Guardian, they receive a well-rounded education that promises to make them better. Obedient girls, free from arrogance or defiance. Free from troublesome opinions or individual interests.

But the girls’ carefully controlled existence may not be quite as it appears. As Mena and her friends uncover the dark secrets of what’s actually happening there—and who they really are—the girls of Innovations Academy will learn to fight back.

Bringing the trademark plot twists and high-octane drama that made The Program a bestselling and award-winning series, Suzanne Young launches a new series that confronts some of today’s most pressing ethical questions.]]> 400 Suzanne Young 1534426132 Emily 0 to-read 3.94 2019 Girls with Sharp Sticks (Girls with Sharp Sticks, #1)
author: Suzanne Young
name: Emily
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> An Affair of Poisons 40046019 No one looks kindly on the killer of a king.

After unwittingly helping her mother poison King Louis XIV, seventeen-year-old alchemist Mirabelle Monvoisin is forced to see her mother’s Shadow Society in a horrifying new light: they’re not heroes of the people, as they’ve always claimed to be, but murderers. Herself included. Mira tries to ease her guilt by brewing helpful curatives, but her hunger tonics and headache remedies cannot right past wrongs or save the dissenters her mother vows to purge.

Royal bastard Josse de Bourbon is more kitchen boy than fils de France. But when the Shadow Society assassinates the Sun King and half of the royal court, he must become the prince he was never meant to be in order to save his injured sisters and the petulant dauphin. Forced to hide in the sewers beneath the city, Josse’s hope of reclaiming Paris seems impossible―until his path collides with Mirabelle’s.

She’s a deadly poisoner. He’s a bastard prince. They are sworn enemies, yet they form a tenuous pact to unite the commoners and former nobility against the Shadow Society. But can a rebellion built on mistrust ever hope to succeed?]]> 391 Addie Thorley 1624147135 Emily 0 to-read 3.62 2019 An Affair of Poisons
author: Addie Thorley
name: Emily
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Great Unknowable End 35169304
Stella dreams of being a space engineer. After Stella's mom dies by suicide and her brother runs off to Red Sun, the local hippie commune, Stella is forced to bring her dreams down to Earth to care for her sister Jill.

Galliard has only ever known life inside Red Sun. There, people accept his tics, his Tourette's. But when he’s denied Red Sun's resident artist role he believed he was destined for, he starts to imagine a life beyond the gates of the compound...

The day Stella and Galliard meet, there is something in the air in their small town. Literally. So begins weeks of pink lightning, blood red rain, unexplained storms... And a countdown clock appears mysteriously above the town hall. With time ticking down to some great, unknowable end they’ll each have to make a choice.

If this is really the end of the world, who do they want to be when they face it?]]> 384 Kathryn Ormsbee 1534420509 Emily 0 to-read 3.60 2019 The Great Unknowable End
author: Kathryn Ormsbee
name: Emily
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gilded Ones (Deathless, #1)]]> 40024121
But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki--near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire's greatest threat.


Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be–not even Deka herself.]]> 432 Namina Forna 1984848704 Emily 0 to-read 3.98 2020 The Gilded Ones (Deathless, #1)
author: Namina Forna
name: Emily
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> No One Here Is Lonely 39872929
Eden has always had two loves: her best friend, Lacey, and her crush, Will. And then, almost simultaneously, she loses them both. Will to a car accident and Lacey to the inevitable growing up and growing apart.

Devastated by the holes they have left in her life, Eden finds solace in an unlikely place. Before he died, Will set up an account with In Good Company, a service that uploads voices and emails and creates a digital companion that can be called anytime, day or night. It couldn’t come at a better time because, after losing Lacey–the hardest thing Eden has had to deal with–who else can she confide all her secrets to? Who is Eden without Lacey?

As Eden falls deeper into her relationship with “Will,” she hardly notices as her real life blooms around her. There is a new job, new friends. Then there is Oliver. He’s Lacey’s twin, so has always been off-limits to her, until now. He may be real, but to have him, will Eden be able to say goodbye to Will?]]> 352 Sarah Everett 0553538683 Emily 0 to-read 3.51 2019 No One Here Is Lonely
author: Sarah Everett
name: Emily
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:
Well, this concept is screaming to me.
]]> The Beast's Heart 35667081 Beauty and the Beast set in seventeenth-century France--and told from the point of view of the Beast himself.

I am neither monster nor man—yet I am both.

I am the Beast.

He is a broken, wild thing, his heart’s nature exposed by his beastly form. Long ago cursed with a wretched existence, the Beast prowls the dusty hallways of his ruined château with only magical, unseen servants to keep him company—until a weary traveler disturbs his isolation.

Bewitched by the man’s dreams of his beautiful daughter, the Beast devises a plan to lure her to the château. There, Isabeau courageously exchanges her father’s life for her own and agrees to remain with the Beast for a year. But even as their time together weaves its own spell, the Beast finds winning Isabeau’s love is only the first impossible step in breaking free from the curse . . .]]> 304 Leife Shallcross 1473668700 Emily 0 to-read 3.57 2018 The Beast's Heart
author: Leife Shallcross
name: Emily
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Habibi: A Muslim Love Story Anthology]]> 36638346
Very rarely are Muslim women part of the narrative on love in any of its forms and now we're speaking for ourselves.]]> 148 Hadeel al-Massari 1988715032 Emily 5 4.07 2018 Habibi: A Muslim Love Story Anthology
author: Hadeel al-Massari
name: Emily
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/10/05
shelves:
review:

]]>