2 Book Lovers Reviews
This week's list of new
releases is posted.
Let's read!
A new month means new
books to look forward
to reading! May has a
number of books that are
hitting the shelves and
my TBR list. It’s always fun
to look through the
upcoming releases and
highlight the ones that
have caught my eye.
What books are you looking
forward to reading? Let me
know.
New Releases!
- Spring Fling (Dating Season #1) – By Laurelin Paige & Kayti McGee
I’m on the wrong side of my quarter-life crisis. Dead-end job, lease ending, and single af. It’s made all the harder by knowing exactly who the perfect man for me is: my super hot, incredibly kind, and extremely taken friend Austin. What’s a girl to do but drown her troubles in pinot and let her bestie open her an account on a dating app?
If there are other men for me out there, I’m determined to find them. Spring is for new beginnings, and Finn’s abs are a perfect introduction to dating.
Unless, of course, perfection is as overrated as my new app.
- Desert Alpha: A Lady Boss Press Navy SEAL Novella – By Bethany Lopez
- In Plain Sight: A Lady Boss Press Navy SEAL Novella – By S.A. Clayton
- Redemption (The Brazen Bulls Birthright #1) – By Susan Fanetti - MC romance!
- Fearless – By Abby Brooks
Never date your (sexy as hell) next door neighbor. File that under great advice—not taken.
Especially if he’s hot. And witty. And successful. Did I mention hot? Never mind. The point’s the same.
I moved to Wildrose Landing because my life was a structure fire burning down around me.
They say a phoenix rises from the ashes, new. I crossed my fingers and took a leap of faith, hoping that proved true. After a certain ex who shall not be named, did something so…unspeakable, the absolute last thing I'm looking for is love.
I don't have the energy for complications. I need time to heal. To rebuild.
Alexander Prescott stumbles into my life and doesn't care about any of that. He offers me a dream job without so much as asking for my resume...which I take without thinking. (Hey, a girl’s gotta eat.)
Besides, saying yes to new experiences is the kind of thing you do when you’re rising from the ashes and redefining yourself as fearless.
And Alexander Prescott is the walking definition of new experience...
- Queen Her (King Me Duet #2) – By Terri E. Laine
- Playboy Pitcher: A Hero Club Novel – By Cora Kenborn
- Sexy Sinner: A Hero Club Novel – By Eva Charles
Releasing on May 4th!
- Just Last Night – By Mhairi McFarlane
Eve, Justin, Susie, and Ed have been friends since they were teenagers. Now in their thirties, the four are as close as ever, Thursday night bar trivia is sacred, and Eve is still secretly in love with Ed. Maybe she should have moved on by now, but she can’t stop thinking about what could have been. And she knows Ed still thinks about it, too.
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?
- Before I Saw You – By Emily Houghton
Alice Gunnersley and Alfie Mack sleep just a few feet apart from one another. They talk for hours every day. And they’ve never seen each other face-to-face.
After being in terrible accidents, the two now share the same ward as long-term residents of St. Francis’s Hospital. Although they don’t get off to the best start, the close quarters (and Alfie’s persistence to befriend everyone he meets) brings them closer together. Pretty soon no one can make Alice laugh as hard as Alfie does, and Alfie feels like he’s finally found a true confidante in Alice. Between their late night talks and inside jokes, something more than friendship begins to slowly blossom between them.
But as their conditions improve and the end of their stay draws closer, Alfie and Alice are forced to decide whether it’s worth continuing a relationship with someone who’s seen all of the worst parts of you, but never seen your actual face.
- The Insiders – By Tijan - The first book in a new trilogy!
Bailey is as normal as could be, with a genius IQ and a photographic memory. But still, normal for her. Then, things happen—a guy breaks into her house in the middle of the night to take her hostage. She finds out her father is actually billionaire tech genius Peter Francis, the same guy she’s idolized all her life. She learns all this when she meets dark, mysterious, and electrifying Kashton Colello. He’s an associate of her father’s, and he gives Bailey two choices—go with him and meet her father or survive on her own because those kidnappers are going to try again. It’s a no-brainer.
After this, three things become clear for Bailey:
1. She’s living at her father’s sprawling estate, complete with bodyguards and the best security that money can buy.
2. She’s no longer an only child. She has three siblings and has no idea what to do with them and vice versa.
3. She is being guarded by Kash himself. Personally guarded. And there is a lot of guarding going on there and some of it is going to drive her crazy.
A complete outsider in a world of wealth and decadence, Bailey has to find her way within a family that has more secrets than she could have imagined. One of these secrets could be deadly…
- The Secret Bridesmaid – By Katy Birchall
- Like Cats and Dogs – By Kate McMurray - Enemies-to-lovers romance!
- Family Law – By Gin Phillips
- It Had to Be You – By Georgia Clark
For the past twenty years, Liv and Eliot Goldenhorn have run In Love in New York, Brooklyn’s beloved wedding-planning business. When Eliot dies unexpectedly, he even more unexpectedly leaves half of the business to his younger, blonder girlfriend, Savannah. Liv and Savannah are not a match made in heaven, to say the least. But what starts as a personal and professional nightmare transforms into something even savvy, cynical Liv Goldenhorn couldn’t begin to imagine.
- Leda and the Swan – By Anna Caritj – Thriller!
- The Last Thing He Told Me – By Laura Dave - Suspense!
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.
Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they’re also building a new future—one neither of them could have anticipated.
- Maybe We Will (Silver Harbor #1) – By Melissa Foster
- Better Than the Movies – By Lynn Painter - YA romantic comedy!
Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar—and maybe snag him as a prom date—even befriend Wes Bennet.
The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.
But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own ideas of what Happily Ever After should look like.
- With This Cake (Meet Me at the Altar #2) – By Samantha Chase
- Counting Down with You – By Tashie Bhuiyan - YA romance!
Karina Ahmed has a plan. Keep her head down, get through high school without a fuss, and follow her parents’ rules—even if it means sacrificing her dreams. When her parents go abroad to Bangladesh for four weeks, Karina expects some peace and quiet. Instead, one simple lie unravels everything.
Karina is my girlfriend.
Tutoring the school’s resident bad boy was already crossing a line. Pretending to date him? Out of the question. But Ace Clyde does everything right—he brings her coffee in the mornings, impresses her friends without trying, and even promises to buy her a dozen books (a week) if she goes along with his fake-dating facade. Though Karina agrees, she can’t help but start counting down the days until her parents come back.
T-minus twenty-eight days until everything returns to normal—but what if Karina no longer wants it to?
- The Rise of Fortune and Fury (Chronicles of the Stone Veil #5) – By Sawyer Bennett
- Fair Play (End Zone #1) – By Cathryn Fox
- Definitely Not Dating (Love Lottery #2) – By Christi Barth
Releasing Later This Week!
- May 5 – Harlot (Hush #2) – By Mary Elizabeth
- May 6 – Bright Midnight: A Second-Chance Romance – By Karina Halle
After years of bartending her way across Europe, Shay Lavji has seen almost everything the continent has to offer, but there's one country she hasn't crossed off her bucket list yet: Norway. It's not that she doesn't want to visit the land of the midnight sun--far from it; she's obsessed with the culture and is dying to see the majestic fjords for herself.
What she's not dying to do is run into her Norwegian ex-boyfriend, Anders Johansen, who broke her heart in America eight years ago before returning to his ancestral home. The last time she saw Anders, he was a cocky, rebellious, and tortured teenager who couldn't stop himself from pushing all of her buttons--both good and bad. But Shay isn't going to let Anders stand in the way of her wanderlust, and besides, it's a big country, right?
She doesn't count on Anders seeking her out the moment he learns she's on his home turf. When Shay sees him again, she's shocked at his transformation into a bearded, tattooed farmer and fisherman who values family over everything else. Is it possible that time has tamed this former bad boy? Shay wants to believe that everything can be new and bright again under the summer sun, but she knows, when it comes to Anders, the darkness is never too far behind.
- May 6 – The Heartbreaker – By Claire Contreras - Enemies-to-lovers romance/roommates!
They say you never forget your first.
Jagger Cruz, the popular, gorgeous, athletic, heartbreaker, was my introduction to college flings.
Over the years, I’ve tried to pay no attention to every wicked rumor I heard about him, even though deep down I knew they weren’t just rumors. Unable to face the consequences of what we’d done, if we were ever in close quarters, I ran in the other direction. If we were coincidentally put in the same class, I dropped it. Avoidance was the name of the game and so far I was winning.
That is, until we’re assigned the same co-ed apartment.
Living with Jagger during my last semester was definitely not in my plans, but I’m determined to make it work. As long as I don’t look at him for too long or let his innuendos get under my skin, I should be fine, right? I have to be.
They say hooking up with your roommate can be messy, and losing my heart to Jagger would be disastrous.
- May 6 – The Hate of Loving You (Falling Trilogy #3) – By Maya Hughes
- May 8 – Marked Steel: A Dark Romance (Steel Crew #8) – By M.J. Fields
Happy Reading!
Week of May 3/21
Maybe in Another Life
By Taylor Jenkins Reid
Week of May 3/21
Once in a while I like to immerse myself into a Nordic Noir, these stories have a much different feel from the old standby American mysteries. They are generally darker; the heroes more flawed, blurring the lines between the right and wrong side of the spectrum. The Icelandic novels are colder again, reflected in the isolation, short days and ruggedness of the land and people.
Autumn: Dawn
By David Moody
Week of April 26th, 2021
Book Review:
Slaughterhouse-Five
By Kurt Vonnegut
Billed as one of the 100 best novels of all time, and with my fabulous experience with Galápagos, my expectations for Slaughterhouse-Five were set very high. Did the book meet my expectations? No. Was I disappointed? Again, no. So it goes.
Vonnegut had a way about him. He was, and still is, able to entertain, while at the same time making deep, thoughtful statements about humanity.
*See my full review...
Week of April 19th, 2021
Book Review:
Nöthin' but a Good Time
By Tom Beaujour & Richard Bienstock
Have you every listened to that Audible that made you think to yourself, man I wish that could have been twice as long and a musical? Well, Nöthin' But a Good Time is that book!
In the vein of Ready Player One and The Dirt, this book capitalizes on nostalgia. Every singer, every song, all those bands, each one brought back memories.
*See my full review...
Week of April 12th, 2021
On my Radar!
Near the Bone
By Christina Henry
Releasing April 13th!
Mattie can't remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all.
There’s something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws...
Week of April 5th, 2021
Book Review:
Hollow Kingdom
By Kira Jane Buxton
Every once in a blue moon a book comes along that makes you want, no, not want, need to scream its praises from the rooftops. Hollow Kingdom is one such book. Read this book!
Buxton starts her story off with a unique enough concept: what would a domesticated crow make of a human zombie apocalypse?
*See my full review...
Week of March 29th, 2021
Book Review:
Nameless
(6-Book Series)
By Dean Koontz
When it came to Dean Koontz’s Nameless, I opted for the Audible version, which is a compilation of six short stories. Edoardo Ballerini did a fantastic job of narrating this collection of stories revolving around a man with no name.
The beauty of the Audible version of Nameless was how Ballerini’s narration enhanced the atmosphere.
*See my full review...
Week of March 22nd, 2021
Book Review:
Heroes
By Stephen Fry
Sometimes you just know that a book is exactly what you want and need. Stephen Fry’s narration of his own book, Heroes, hit the spot.
This wasn’t a book about creating something new, a unique story unlike anything people have read before. Stephen Fry created nothing new. This was a book of presentation and Fry’s presentation of these well-known stories was immaculate.
*See my full review...
Week of March 15th, 2021
Book Review:
Bubba Ho-Tep
By Joe R. Lansdale
Now this is what a short story is supposed to be!
Lansdale kept it simple and shocking with Bubba Ho-Tep. Two protagonists and some real toilet bowl humor. I laughed my whole way through this story.
The concept was brilliant. I won’t get into the details, that’s for the synopsis, or I would spoil the whole thing.
*See my full review...
Week of March 8th, 2021
I love a good archaeological adventure; they always bring me back to my dreams of being Indiana Jones: pursued through the jungle while recovering a long-lost talisman from the past. These stories allow for all of the convenience and setting of a modern story with a connection to our past. The Lost Spear brings us back to the world of Genghis Khan.
*See my full review...
Week of March 1st, 2021
Book Review:
The Scarred Woman
By Jussi Adler-Olsen
I’ve now completed book seven in the Department Q series, it really speaks to the strength of Adler-Olsen’s characters that I’m still so invested in the series; I find all too often with a series that it will go stale over time, but these characters are continually refreshed, with back-ground secrets still just around the next turn.
*See my full review...
Week of February 22nd, 2021
Book Review:
The Sanatorium
By Sarah Pearse
The Sanatorium had all the makings of a great story: an isolated location with a serial killer on the loose, a broken detective trying to put herself back together again, more suspects than you can shake a stick at. Unfortunately, I felt nothing.
*See my full review...
Week of February 16th, 2021
New Release:
The Minders
By John Marrs
In the 21st century, information is king. But computers can be hacked and files can be broken into - so a unique government initiative has been born. Five ordinary people have been selected to become Minders - the latest weapon in thwarting cyberterrorism. Transformed by a revolutionary medical procedure, the country's most classified information has been taken offline....
*Read more...
Week of February 8th, 2021
Book Review:
Lore
By Alexandra Bracken
With a gaggle of Greek gods and comparisons to some fantastic YA stories, Lore looked like it was written for someone just like me.
It’s funny how on paper a book can look like a perfect fit, but once you get into it something strange happens: it doesn’t work, you get annoyed at things, you find yourself saying, “That wouldn’t happen!”
*See my full review...
Week of February 1st, 2021
Book Review:
Darling Rose Gold
By Stephanie Wrobel
Some books are adventure stories, more about the “what” than the “who.” I love immersing myself in the adventure, the action and all that goes along with that; but there is something special about stories that revolve solely around the interaction of characters. It takes a talented author who can keep their audience captivated without distracting them with all of the action. Stephanie Wrobel did exactly that!
*See my full review...
Week of January 25th, 2021
Book Review:
We Hear Voices
By Evie Green
We Hear Voices piqued my interest with the mysterious imaginary friend. Where does it come from? What is it? How bad will it get? These are all questions that came to my mind when I read the synopsis of We Hear Voices.
I’ve never read (or listened to) a story that needed a disclaimer like this one.
*See my full review...
Week of January 18th, 2021
Book Review:
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
By George R.R. Martin
Like many other readers, I have been waiting for Martin to return to Westeros, back to the world of the Targaryan’s, Lannister’s and Stark’s. I’m going to assume that you want to return to this world as well; if you have not read A Song of Ice and Fire up to A Dance with Dragons and you have never seen the series, you may find a few spoilers here.
*See my full review...
What he's reading!
What she's reading!