Can’t Get Enough

Can’t Get Enough. Kennedy Ryan. 2025. Forever. 448 pages. [Source: ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.] This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an unbiased review, and I was dancing a whole jig at the “invite” to read it after missing the “read now”. I’d only been stalking the author and site for months. Since the beginning of the Skyland series, I’ve been saying “Ken...

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The Soulmate Project

The Soulmate Project. Reese Ryan. 2024. Forever. 304 pages. [Source: Public library.] I’m a sucker for a friends to lovers story, so The Soulmate Project was right up my alley. The book starts with a New Year’s Eve love confession by “girl next door” Emerie to her best friend Nicholas. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go as planned and he doesn’t return her affections. Instead of ringing in the new year in a new relationship...

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Church Girl

Church Girl. Naima Simone. 2024. Afterglow Books. 264 pages. [Source: ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.] Admittedly, the cover of Church Girl drew me in, and the story held my interest. Aaliyah is a runaway bride who left her small Alabama hometown to get out from under the thumb of her bishop father. She convinces her cousin to take her back to Chicago, where she’s planning to reinvent herse...

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Stuck Wit’ Chu

Stuck Wit’ Chu. Olivia Shaw-Reel. 2020. 149 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] Stuck Wit’ Chu is essentially a story about a broken marriage and a couple at a crossroads. Keith and Marlow have been married over a decade, are parents to three young children, and have somehow lost their way. They’re navigating the Covid-19 pandemic while facing their own crisis at home, and the book follows their attempt to figure otu whether to s...

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Flamboyants

Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known. George M. Johnson. 2024. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 127 pages. [Source: Public library.] The Harlem Renaissance was a remarkable period in American history, but was pivotal within Black America. The “New Negro Movement” launched the careers of countless scholars, photographers, musicians, and dancers and ushered in a rebirth of racial pride and solidarity, in addition to le...

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Bittersweet
Advance Reader Copy , Women's Fiction / June 30, 2015

Bittersweet. Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. 2014. Broadway Books. 381 pages. [Source: Blogging for Books.] How far will you go to fit in? What secrets will you seek, and what secrets will you keep?  Those are the perennial questions that Mabel Dagmar faces as she finds herself immersed in the lavish lifestyle of her wealthy roommate for a summer. Mabel is a simple girl from Oregon who has the (mis)fortune of rooming with wealthy, party...

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Pay What You Owe?
Not the Review / June 22, 2015

Amazon quietly introduced a new “program” Kindle Unlimited Pages Read, that is billed as a response to author feedback. Specifically, there were concerns about the fairness of payment in relation to length of books and reader completion of said books. The result is a program that pays authors proportionally based on the number of pages that readers complete. Seeing this from the reader’s perspective (I subscribe to both Amazon Pr...

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Gone Girl
Fiction / June 13, 2015

Gone Girl. Gillian Flynn. 2012. 432 pages. Broadway Books.  [Source: Personal copy.] I wanted to like Gone Girl, really.  And I enjoyed most of it, if I’m honest. But sometimes, my enjoyment of a book can crumble in moments, and that’s exactly what happened to me when I finished reading. Gone Girl is the story of Nick Dunne and his wife Amy, who goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary.  What follows is the investigation...

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What You Left Behind: A Novel
Advance Reader Copy , Women's Fiction / May 22, 2015

What You Left Behind: A Novel. Samantha Hayes. 2014. 32o pages. Crown Publishing.  [Source: ARC provided courtesy of Blogging for Books.] I like to think of myself as someone who can forecast a book’s plot twists. I’m usually pretty good at sifting through the little details meant to foreshadow, instead using them to sniff out the real culprit in a story.  Thus, reading What You Left Behind was a challenging read for me.  The au...

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Hot and Bothered
Advance Reader Copy , Contemporary Romance / May 6, 2015

Hot and Bothered. Kate Meader. 2014. 401 pages. Forever. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] Hot and Bothered was such an enjoyable read. I found myself completely absorbed in the story, and feeling incredibly invested in what happened to all of the characters — that’s a feat! Jules and Tad are hopelessly in love with each other, but refuse to admit it. Instead, they’re best friends whose lives are so intertw...