Heartbreak Incorporated - Alex De Campi

 

This fantasy/mystery/paranormal romance follows down on her luck journalist Evie as she tries to get enough temp jobs to make ends meet while posting articles to the internet in hopes of getting an actual journalism job one day.  Her most recent temp position is at Heartbreak Incorporated - a private investigator office where the mysterious and magnetic Misha specializes in breaking up relationships.  Need your spouse to have an affair so you can get out of your prenup? Misha is your guy.  He always follows the letter of the law, but as Evie finds out, there's more going on beneath the surface. When their most recent client is found to be delving into the occult, Evie and Misha travel from NYC to San Francisco to try and stop a disaster.  Evie then needs to decide what path she wants to take - follow her journalism path and leave all this PI stuff behind or fully accept that not everything is at it seems and follow Misha as he searches for monsters in the shadows.

I really liked the balance of genres in this book.  It is primarily a fantasy mystery with the romance secondary.  It was pretty light on the fantasy/paranormal elements which was a plus for me since I'm not a very big fantasy reader.  I really liked how the book starts by being grounded in a reality where Misha is just a little weird and there's something off about him but then more and more details get revealed about the supernatural elements that exist in our world.  I really liked the non-traditional choice of supernatural creature in the book that gave the book something a little extra special.  I also found the way the explanation and history of the creature and conflict in the book was really well done.  It was woven into the romance sub-plot very well and with enough other plot happening in between information sessions that it never really felt 'info-dumpy'.  The magic (or powers, or whatever) system in this book is pretty soft with not too much known about exactly what the limit to the creature's power is but this didn't bother me at all.  I was glad this story focused on just one creature type and we didn't get the sort of 'underground society of creatures' that I think we get in a lot of urban fantasies.  For a relatively short book (300 pages), I think that adding any more creatures would have made the narrative really rushed and overly complicated.  For me, this book felt split 60/40 between fantasy and paranormal romance.  Again, neither of those genres I really gravitate toward so my meter may be off on those percentages.

The romantic elements in this were a little underdeveloped for me.  I think there was a good amount of development of Evie and Misha's relationship as coworkers and as friends but I wanted just a little bit more.  I didn't quite understand why Misha was so trusting of Evie just because she asked if he was okay a few times.  We only get Evie's POV in the story so maybe those little caring questions really meant that much to Misha but it seems like for someone so used to being a loner that he would have needed a bit more time to warm up so much toward her.  I would have liked them to work another case together before the big supernatural case in order to build the rapport and their trust. Evie admits to having a crush on Misha but doesn't want to go any further at first because he's her boss and she thinks it is just because he's so handsome.  Again, apart from a few friendly remarks, I didn't really understand the jump from her crush to being full on in love with him.  Just a couple extra chapters with Misha and Evie working together and getting closer would have really made this for me.  I also didn't love how open ended the ending was in regards to their relationship but I'm hoping maybe this was a choice because they wanted to have sequel potential.  It wasn't a cliff hanger ending or anything, it just was a little open to interpretation so even if there isn't a sequel, there is enough in the ending for me to feel comfortable imagining them having a happy ending.

I really liked the characters in the story - I thought they all were really well developed and worked well together.  Each character we're introduced to immediately had a strong personality that I could grab onto and know exactly who this person is.  I think De Campi's strength is her character work and as a character-focused reader, I greatly appreciate the craft.  I also loved how casually the queer representation was worked into the story through the various characters.  Misha is bi, Evie's best friend is a lesbian, and there's some interesting gender-queer/non-conforming/non-binary aspect in the story as well (can't elaborate because of spoilers).  I can't speak to the accuracy of that representation personally but I noticed it and I really appreciated aspects like that being worked into the story so easily.  I think every character were used to their fullest extent and none of them felt cookie cutter or like they were just taking up space in the narrative. Even the group of priests, who are sort of the antagonists who join the story in the 3rd act, are really well developed and actually brought a good amount of humor to the book with their banter back and forth within their group as well as Evie. 

I think the pacing in this story was spot on which is really impressive considering how many moving parts we had in such a low page count.  I would have expected a story like this to be more around 400 pages but instead it sits at 300 so every line is really used to the max.  I think the real testament to the pacing is the fact that the first like 30% is mostly Evie doing office work and thinking about how weird Misha is acting. But I was pretty much instantly drawn into the story and kept flipping pages.  I read this in an afternoon and wasn't bored at any point.  There's a pretty constant rotation between plot lines that kept me hooked as we would get little clues or reveals in one plot line only to then switch to another and get some reveals in that one and then switch to another etc.  For example, we would get a little bit more information on the mysterious Misha then cut to Evie trying to make her big break in journalism, then to the agency's newest case, then Evie's crush on Misha - rinse and repeat.  All of these plot lines are also so intertwined that it never feels like we're leaving the 'main' plot for some random side plot.  Everything feels like it is building to a greater whole and that's what really keeps the pacing up.  

Overall, this was a really fun fantasy/paranormal romance.  Great character work, excellent pacing, fun premise.  Romance plot was a little lacking in development for my personal tastes but still very good.

 

Thanks to NetGalley and Solaris for the ARC in exchange for review

Expected publication date is June 22, 2021

A Dark and Secret Place - Jen Williams

 

This thriller follows Heather as she returns home after her mother took her own life.  Going through her mother's things, she finds letters between her mother and a man - Michael Reave also known as the serial killer Red Wolf.  Despite being locked in prison, women have started being murdered in the same way as the Red Wolf killings decades prior.  The letters she found may help open some doors and the local police agree to let Heather talk to Michael to see if she can get him to open up at all. Heather may not be ready to hear some hard truths about her mother, Red Wolf, and their connection but as more women are killed, the pressure is on to find something that can help put a stop to the murders.  

CW/TW: suicide, animal death, physical abuse, sexual abuse, serial murders

I think this book takes a really interesting angle on the typical serial killer story.  I think most serial killer thrillers follow either a police detective or a journalist.  And while Heather technically was a journalist, she was fired from her job so is really acting as a civilian in this story.  Her journalism background only really comes up when she's trying to think of how to phrase her questions.  She does eventually start her own investigation, but since the case is so personal it doesn't feel like a journalist investigation, it really feels like a daughter trying to find out more about her mother.  The split POV/timeline between Heather in present day and Michael in the past was also interesting.  We get snippets of Michael growing up and these chapters help the reader see him as a person (at least a little) and not just a serial killer.  Now, we (or the other characters in the book) are in no way sympathetic toward Michael but when we're able to see the circumstances and situations that came together to create him it does add more humanity into his character.  This story has a really obvious parallel to The Silence of the Lambs where our main character meets with a serial killer who often seems to go off on tangents but is actually giving relevant information about the current string of murders.  However, in this story, since we have that additional view of Michael we get an extra layer of characterization and empathy.  

This story does not shy away from the more horror aspects and I can see that really turning off some readers. I really liked how far the book went and I think it really helped build the overall atmosphere of the story.  We get, in multiple chapters, women being stalked and abducted and we know they end up being killed (although the murder doesn't happen on page).  I thought it was a really interesting choice to be in the POV of the women and not the killer in these chapters but it worked incredibly well.  There's an underlying question throughout the book on if this new string of murders is a copy cat, an accomplice from the original killings, or if they arrested the wrong killer years ago.  These chapters really feel like the opening to any crime show (CSI, Criminal Minds, etc) where we know something bad is going to happen to them but we just don't know exactly what or how it will happen.  A lot of the horror elements really work well together to create a very suspenseful and tense read that had me flipping pages like crazy.  I also really liked the fairy tale element was incorporated. Michael would tell Heather stories from Grimms' Fairy Tales that are very bloody and horrifying in their own right.  At one point, Michael asks Heather if she knows the story of sleeping beauty but the real version and not the sanitized Disney version.  I thought it was an interesting parallel to draw between Michael's 'real story' and the sanitized version we get of serial killers in the media.  Getting Michael's POV chapters and the thoughts behind some of his actions in the past really help give a fuller picture to the horrors that happened.  There's a real atmosphere of gritty reality to this book that I think works really well.  These horror elements reminded me very much of the Hannibal TV show so if that was up your alley then I think this book would work for you too.

Where I felt the story did fall a little short for me was the character work.  I'm a character driven reader and I felt like this book felt more plot-focused than character focused.  I do find this to be the case with a lot of these more detective thrillers / police procedural thrillers but since this one had the family connection with Heather and her mother, I was expecting a bit more character focus.  I felt like most of the characters were pretty flat and could be categorized as 'the best friend' and 'the detective' but they were both so involved with the story that I wanted some more depth to them.  Even Heather felt a little flat for me and we're told she had a tense relationship with her mom and was fired from her job due to some 'incident' but I just didn't see those traits coming out on the page.  I wouldn't say the characters were underdeveloped - I actually really liked the information we got about them - but I just wanted a little more from them.  It is like I can list off a bunch of facts about each of the characters and those facts seem like they should manifest in the actual character actions or thoughts on page but don't (or at least they don't in the way I'm looking for).  I thought Michael was the most developed character and that was mostly due to the fact that we saw him grow up from a child into the serial killer in jail we see in Heather's chapters. 

While the characters were a little flat to me, I thought the plotting was really well done. We started out the book when Heather arrives at her mother's house and she finds the letters pretty quickly.  There isn't a lot of 'downtime' in this story even though most of the first half is just Heather talking to Michael and then Googling other serial killers with her best friend.  It really felt like each scene was laying down another breadcrumb for Heather (and the reader) to follow to the truth.  And there were underlying elements of psychological horror/thriller like Heather may or may not have seen someone outside her house in the dark.  I did find a few of the middle plot points to be a bit convenient (Heather having sudden flashbacks to her childhood type of convenient) but they were pretty small in the grand scheme of the story so I wasn't too bothered by them.  I really liked the amount of agency Heather had in the plot - she wasn't just some pawn that was being used by Michael and/or the police. The pacing was also really consistent with clue after clue being revealed at a pretty steady rate.

The ending reveals were fantastic and this is the first thriller in a long time that made me want to start reading it immediately after finishing so I could follow all the breadcrumbs.  The ending reveals made everything suddenly click in place in the best way.  For example, Michael would usually tell Heather a fairy tale during her visits and he would tell her that he's given her the information she's looking for but she isn't really listening.  At the time, it really does seem like he's just telling her stories and maybe playing mind games but once we get to the end, we can look back at those stories and see how they line up with the truth. One part about the ending that I wasn't sure about is how much we were supposed to be questioning if these current murders were connected to the past murders.  There's a small question posed earlier on in the book of if Michael was imprisoned incorrectly and maybe the current murders are being done by the same killer from the decades before (Michael has always said he was innocent).  However, that particular issue wasn't really ever a question that the police or Heather really considered for more than a fleeting thought.  So I just wasn't sure if the answer to that question was something we were supposed to be surprised by in the ending or not. 

Overall, this was exactly what I want from a serial killer thriller.  It was a dark and twisty read with great pacing and great reveals.  

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC in exchange for review

Expected publication date is June 8, 2021.

The Forever Home - Sue Watson

 

This domestic psychological thriller follows Carly as she navigates her husband of 25 years, Mark, leaving her for a much younger woman.  Mark is the face on a very successful home renovation and design show and Carly always supported him from behind the camera.  Mark got his start when he and Carly moved into their 'forever home' - a cliff side house Carly's mother left to her.  Now that their marriage is dissolving, Carly makes it clear that she will keep the house but when threats start to arrive it seems like someone doesn't want Carly staying there.   Is it Mark's new girlfriend?  Is it a fan of the TV show?  Is it the handsome contractor 12 years her junior that is working at the house every day? 

The character work in this story was really great.  We open on Carly and Mark's 25th anniversary party which quickly allows us to see into their current state as well as some flashbacks to how they were over the past 25 years of marriage.  The party also acts as an easy way to introduce us to other characters in their close circle such as their kids, Carly's best friend, and Mark's co-host.  None of this felt contrived or like we were just getting a big list of people to try and remember - it was very natural and each person was introduced at just the right pace that I didn't have trouble remembering who was who.  As the story progresses, we see these relationships evolve and secrets get revealed.  I really found even the side characters to be pretty well fleshed out.  I think Watson did a really great job at really honing in and telling the reader just enough details about what each character wants or where their loyalties lie in order to ground that character in the reader's mind.  I also liked how there were conflicting motives for many of the characters so we weren't entirely sure who was a friend to Carly and who maybe was trying to get something out of her. Carly herself was a very dynamic character who was great to follow around as she navigated through this whole situation.  I could really emphasize with her and her situation and while I didn't agree with all her decisions, overall I was rooting for her to 'win' the whole time which I think is key for these domestic thrillers.

I thought the twists and reveals were really well done and well situated which kept the story moving along at a nice clip.  There was just enough foreshadowing before each reveal that the tension and anticipation was steadily growing as I read.  I prefer to have breadcrumbs or foreshadowing to the twists in thrillers so that even if I don't catch on right away, once the reveal is done I can look back and see what I missed.  I'm not a huge fan of the sudden reveal that comes out of nowhere (but I know some readers are).  I think there was a good mix of big and little reveals which I liked.  I think sometimes thrillers get into a pattern where each reveal needs to be bigger and more shocking than the last and that can build up the tension really quickly but often can overflow into the side of unbelievable or over-the-top.  In this case, I think the smaller reveals proved to be more impactful because they were the most constant reminder of something being wrong.  I do think the full extent of each reveal isn't fully explored every time, but the smaller twists really kept the overall tension level raised and then the larger reveals came in to add onto that base tension level.

I wish the psychological thriller elements would have been a little stronger.  This really felt to me more like a straight up domestic thriller.  For every strange happening or threatening package, it seemed like Carly was sure it was Mark/his girlfriend so she never really seemed scared or worried.  It almost seemed like these incidents were more an inconvenience than an actual threat.  I think Carly being so sure about the culprits (despite not having any actual evidence) lessened the tension in the story.  There were times where she thought it could be someone else but most of the time she was pretty sure it was Mark's new girlfriend.  There were a few early scares that I really liked but didn't really seem to go anywhere.  For example, at one point early on, Carly sees someone outside her house at night and then sees two hands press onto the window.  The tension in that scene was great but it was pretty much forgotten about for the rest of the book.  At first, I thought maybe that was to plant the seed that Carly might be an unreliable narrator but everything else was so concrete that it ended up being a scene that just didn't carry its weight in the story.  In psychological thrillers, I'm really looking for more questions than answers.  I want scenes like "I've never told anyone about that, how'd this person know?" or "I changed all the locks, how'd they get in the house?" or even "I think someone is moving stuff around in my house but maybe I just misplaced that very important thing and forgot where I put it".  In this book, instead, we get a list of reasons why it was X, Y, or Z person every time something happened which just isn't what I prefer to have in my psychological thrillers.

Immediately after finishing, I wasn't sure how I felt about the ending.  Upon reflection, however, I've come to the conclusion that I really liked it and I think it fit the overall narrative well.  I did find the ending twist to be the one that I needed to suspend my disbelief the most for which was a little strange.  I thought the overall twist was good, but the little details that we got left me with a lot of questions (that I can't go into detail because of spoilers) mostly revolving around how could anyone else not notice what happened.  The ending wrapped up most of the plot threads nicely and we got all the answers we were looking for from the main story line which is always nice.  I don't need my thrillers to wrap everything up in a tidy bow, but I do like having the main questions of the plot answered.  I really liked how the book ended on a mostly cheery note but there was a bit of a sinister undertone in regards to one character that didn't get completely tied up.  Since everything else was tied up nicely, this one character felt sort of like a loose end that stood out.  I would have liked maybe a bit more of an open-ended sort of ending with some of the lesser plot threads left not quite so tidy.  I really liked how the ending mirrored the beginning, in a way, and this gave me both a sense of completion and dread that was a really interesting note to end the book on.

Overall, I really liked this character-driven thriller but found it to be much more domestic than psychological.  I thought the reveals were well paced and the ending worked well overall.  I did feel like some of the psychological elements could have been stronger and there were a few plot threads that got dropped prematurely but overall this was a really solid read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for review.

Expected publication date is June 4, 2021.

His & Hers - Alice Feeney

 

This is a twisty psychological thriller following Detective Jack Harper and news reporter Anna Andrews when bodies start appearing in their sleepy childhood village.  Both have personal ties to the case and as more people are killed, more secrets come to the surface and both are suspected of being involved.  They say there are three sides to every story - yours, mine, and the truth.  This is one of those types of thrillers where I think knowing less is better but there are some strong TW/CW for grooming and sexual assault.

The pacing for this story was impeccable. The book is on the shorter side with only 304 pages but there is a lot packed into those pages.  Bodies start falling right away and our main characters get thrust into the story without too much set up.  We get a lot of backstory sprinkled into the narrative as the characters interact and the tension starts creeping up.  There are 3 POV in the story and the timing of when to switch between them was always at the perfect moment.  There were reveals in each POV that kept the overall plot moving as well as individual character arcs.  There wasn't really any 'downtime' in the narrative that we sometimes get with other thrillers.  It felt like this was a constant and steady turning up the dial on the tension machine and that really went a long way into keeping me flipping the pages as fast as I could.  The more thrillers I read and compare, the more I'm finding that overall pacing is more important to me than the twists and endings. Feeney, for my tastes, has pacing down to a science.  It felt like every reveal and every plot point came at the exact perfect time. This is my first Alice Feeney book, but with pacing and structure like this, it won't be my last. 

The characters are where I think some readers might lose interest - pretty much everyone in this story is unlikable and unreliable in some way.  I really enjoy a good unreliable narrator so getting two was just incing on the cupcake for me.  I really liked how the characters were just unreliable enough that the reader would question what was reality, but not too unreliable where we would just pretty much ignore them.  In the beginning, Anna reminded me a bit of the protagonist from The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins but Feeney kept Anna much more grounded so we didn't get too far down that rabbit hole.  Jack was the sort of stereotypical British detective who is always disheveled and trying to get his life together but I love that trope so much I can't complain.  I also loved the added layer of all these characters being connected because of small town life where everyone knows everyone (or thinks they do, at least).  So the whole time we're getting these added layers to all these characters and it just kept me guessing to who the killer was which is all I can really ask for from a thriller.

The part I liked the least, unfortunately, was the very last twist.  All the twists up to that point had been great, I really enjoyed the reveals and a few even got me to gasp out loud while I was reading alone on my couch.  And I think my main issue with the last twist is that I didn't feel like the breadcrumbs were there so it sort of felt like I was blindsided which I know some readers like.  I prefer to have the twist revealed and then me to be able to immediately look back on the little snippets of information throughout the story so far and see the build up - which is what I felt we had with all the other twists in the story. I love being able to learn a twist and then go "ah! So that's why X did Y in that one scene".  Maybe there were some clues that I missed, but the fact that all the other twists had those breadcrumbs I was looking for and the one at the end didn't just disappointed me a bit.

The psychological thriller elements were really well done and this was the first thriller in a while that literally raised my heart rate.  The different POV and the unreliable narrators really help build the layers of tension but then we'd have little reveals like items not being where the characters remember leaving them to really start those mind games that are my favorite part of a psychological thriller.  I did find it a little strange that Anna wasn't more concerned with these events - we did get a bit of an explanation in the book but it didn't quite feel believable to me. That being said, Anna being a cool-headed reporter as a sort of direct contrast to Jack's more emotional response was pretty interesting and I think the responses were, at the end of the day, authentic to both characters.  I can't emphasize enough how these little psychological thriller elements really got me so drawn into the plot and if this were a movie I would have slapped the person next to me in surprise.  

Overall, this is one of the best psychological thrillers I've read.  I loved (most of ) the twists, the characters, and the pacing. The very last twist didn't work 100% for me, but it didn't break my overall enjoyment of the story.

Romance Wrap-up 5/1/21 - 5/15/21

 Call Me Crazy - Melanie Harlow

This is the third book in the Bellamy Creek series and follows long time frenemies Enzo and Bianca.  Their families are close which means the two of them have grown up together and know just how to push the other's buttons.  As adults, they have similar businesses and often find themselves bidding on the same jobs or properties.  Now, they've found themselves in a bit of a situation.  Enzo needs to be married in order to inherit the family business and Bianca wants a baby. The two bury the hatchet and agree to marry with the plan of divorcing within a specific time frame.  It doesn't take long for feelings to blossom and the two find themselves in an awkward predicament of actually falling in love with their spouse.  I absolutely adore this whole series and Enzo and Bianca's book was the one I was most anticipating.  Throughout the previous 2 books, we see them interact and are witness to the constant button pushing and witty comebacks that seem to be their own language.  We get a lot of that banter in the beginning and I was a little disappointed that it didn't permeate more of their relationship.  I loved how they both were high functioning adults and pretty much had their lives together which meant that they could come together as equals to be together.  Bianca does have some fertility struggles and while I personally don't have any experience in that area I thought it was handled well.  It was interesting to watch Enzo learn about how getting pregnant actually works and how time sensitive it can be.  I also really liked the representation of having a conception journey because I feel like way too often heroines in romances are like super fertile and will get pregnant after a single slip up of not using contraception (which I know can happen but it happens a lot in romance books).  I wish we would have gotten more of their families throughout the book since they were such a big part of the engagement/wedding at the beginning.  We do get a good amount of the couples from the previous 2 books since they are all friends so that is always fun to see. 

Cinnamon Roll - Anna Zabo

This is the book that broke my romance reading slump!  This is the 9th book in the Bold Brew series and follows Max and Tom.  Max is a professor at the local university and Tom is a divorce lawyer.  They are both in the kink scene and have run in the same circle for years but never interacted.  Tom, after a string of bad Doms, puts a message up at the local kink-friendly coffee shop looking for a new partner.  Max, initially hesitant, eventually does agree and the story progresses from there.  This is a M/M queer romance that is full of kink and heat.  This is the first book in this series that I read so I did feel a little lost in the world but there were enough context clues that I got along fine.  It helped that anyone important to the story was pretty well introduced so I didn't feel like I was missing out too much on the main couple's romance.  The BDSM kink elements were explicit and extensive throughout the story, which I really liked.  Max is a sadist, Tom is a masochist, and the story does not hold back from them exploring those roles.  If you don't like BDSM pain play then this book isn't for you.  The dialogue at the beginning is a little stiff but it is Max and Tom working through the very important details of their kink relationship and once those details are ironed out, I felt their relationship flowed much more organically.  I absolutely loved Max and Tom together.  They really seemed to complement each other's personalities really well and of course their chemistry was off the charts.  I also appreciated how they were older (Max is 39 and Tom is 36 I believe) so they are really well established in their lives and careers.  I absolutely loved how romantic Max is with how he takes care of Tom - it made me well up with tears a few times just because Max is so sweet.  I think my favorite part of this story was how emotional the BDSM scenes were.  Not in a bad way, but it really came off the page how important that element is to both Max and Tom and how the two of them being together was really like finding their missing puzzle piece.

Ruthless Creatures - J.T. Geissinger

 

This story follows Natalie as she's trying to heal 5 years after her fiance disappeared right before their wedding.  At the same time, a huge mountain of muscle named Kage moves in next door and Natalie, despite the urging from her best friend, isn't interested in using him as a rebound.  However, their lives soon become intertwined in more complicated and dangerous ways than Natalie could ever imagine.  This is technically a mafia romance, but is really light on the mafia elements.  I do wish we would have spent more time in Kage's POV (we only get a few short chapters sprinkled here and there in the book).  Kage isn't your typical mafia romance hero - he's possessive and alpha for days, sure, but he also is oddly romantic and respectful.  He falls for Natalie when he first sees her (insta love for days) and is very upfront with his feelings and who he is (more or less). I thought Natalie's character arc was really interesting.  She goes from this very good girl image of herself to a woman who is able to let go and love a mafia boss.  I really liked Natalie and Kage together, they really balance each other well and seem much more like equals than most other mafia romance's I've read.  I do wish the mafia elements were a bit more developed or at least that we spent more time in Kage's head. 

The Belle and the Beard - Kate Canterbary

This modern take on Beauty and the Beast follows Jasper, a disgraced political campaign strategist, and Linden, a broody loner arborist.  After a mic accident on national TV, Jasper needs a place to hide and figure her life out.  The cabin in the woods left to her by her deceased aunt sounds just perfect for the job.  Only trouble is her grumpy, bearded, and broody neighbor next door.  The two butt heads over just about everything, but they slowly start to unravel each other and figure out that maybe the lives they had been leading were all wrong.  I absolutely adored this book, it is a long slow burn romance with tension for days but pretty low angst.  I really enjoyed how Jasper and Linden get to know each other slowly and how they each choose to let down their walls.  Jasper wants to do everything for herself and has a real hard time letting anyone get close or see her vulnerabilities.  Linden likes to be alone and after getting his heart broken years ago, is wary of letting anyone else get close so he doesn't have to lose them too. I found their characters to be deeply developed and complex and the relationship slowly grows overtime as they grow more comfortable with each other.  This is my favorite sort of slow burn where the characters know they are both into each other, but don't want to get together until they have more of their personal stuff figured out.  But there's lots of lingering touches, innuendos, and heavy make out sessions to bridge the gap.  I really liked how the relationship didn't 'fix' the personal issues they are both working on but they do bring out the best of each other and help be sounding boards for the other person to work things through.  Also, I love me a big burly lumberjack with some nerdy tattoos.

The Apocalypse Seven - Gene Doucette

 

This science fiction story follows a group of seven people after they each wake up and find themselves the last people remaining on Earth.  All of them went to sleep the day before and woke up like normal, except suddenly there are no other humans, the animals and vegetation have taken over the cities, and infrastructure like bridges and buildings have begun to collapse.  Set mostly in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the seven people eventually must come together and work to not only survive but also find out what happened to them and the rest of humanity.  Our cast of characters are: Touré, a twenty-something Cambridge coder; Robbie and Carol, two equally disoriented Harvard freshmen; Paul, a preacher as quick with a gun as a Bible verse; Win, a young professional with a horse; Bethany, a thirteen-year-old juvenile delinquent; and Ananda, an MIT astrophysics adjunct. 

My favorite part of this story was the world building.  Sure, we aren't on some sort of futuristic space ship, but there are enough strange things going on in this new Cambridge that the characters (and the reader) need to get a handle on.  I really loved how, in the beginning, each of the characters would have multiple moments where they'd think about needing to get something or do something and then have the reality of how complex that is now going to be.  At one point, they are looking for food and Touré makes a comment that it doesn't matter where they go for breakfast if all the restaurants are locked up and they'd have to break in anyway.  I think Doucette uses these little inconveniences and parts of every day life that have been messed up by the apocalypse to his advantage.  It was almost like the reader was going around and gathering all these small ways that life is so different now and then, after a while, there are so many little things that we start to get the bigger picture of what is going on in this new world.  I also liked how many of the aspects of this new world are just different enough to be concerning.  Like the animals are all the normal animals that someone would expect in that part of the country but they are acting just a little strange or are just a bit different than what the characters are used to.  Again, it is more of the idea that all these little differences add up to a really good sense of something being wrong.  The actual physical descriptions of the places were also really effective.  Doucette would give just enough detail to ground the reader, but no so much that it got boring or took away from the tension of the immediate situation of trying to survive.  Again, since the book is based in current day reality there isn't too much extra stuff to explain.  We get settings like a farm house, a grocery store, a dorm room, a college lecture hall, a library, etc.  Personally, I enjoy this sort of more 'realistic' sci-fi story where I can stay relatively grounded and see the fantastical elements to the story instead of being overwhelmed by everything being so futuristic or fantastical and not knowing exactly what to focus on.  

I think the overall tone of the book was really well done and I found it a bit refreshing.  This story had a sort of optimistic vibe to it where the characters worked together.  I think a lot of these sort of survival stories (sci-fi or not) often have groups of people pitted against one another or double crossing each other for survival.  That just wasn't the case in this story and I never really felt like it was even hinted at being an option.  Maybe it is because there are so few of them that there just aren't enough people to make separate groups to fight but it was a nice change from the usual sort of survival stories that I've come across.  This book reminded me of the movie The Day After Tomorrow because the main group of characters are younger (college aged), there is some weird weather stuff that happens, they're running around a city, and there's a focus on science and using that information to survive.  Now, this book isn't nearly as severe weather-wise as that movie, but there were multiple times were I was reminded of that movie which I haven't seen in at least 10 years, if not more. Outside of a few tense moments, I found this book to have a pretty light tone.  It have very 'back to nature' vibes since the animals had pretty much taken back over the land.  There were some dangerous animals (boars and wolves, mostly), but most of the time there were mentions of squirrels or deer running around.  It was oddly peaceful at the same times as being a bit unsettling thinking of how much had changed suddenly for these characters.  But in general, I didn't find this to be a dark or depressing sci-fi story like some of the genre can swing toward.  

As a character-driven reader, I was a bit torn on the characters in this book.  On paper, they are pretty interesting and unique.  They each brought something to the group and they were diverse enough in their backgrounds to help figure out the problems they faced.  However, in the narrative, they just didn't really stand out from each other.  The story is told in third person but there are just so many characters that we follow that I would have found it helpful if the different characters were a bit more distinct from one another.  This did get a little better the further along in the story I got, maybe because I had just gotten used to the narrative style, but initially, I kept forgetting who we were following.  The character's speaking styles weren't really that different from one another and if there were more than 2 people talking, I had a hard time keeping track of who was speaking.  I also found the narrative sort of jumped around to the different characters within the same chapter a lot.  Now since this was 3rd person POV and it wasn't super close to the characters, I didn't have that much of an issue and there were usually scene breaks when we would hop over to follow a new character.  However, since I was having a somewhat difficult time distinguishing the characters' voices from one another, I wished there would have been a harder line (like a full new chapter) when we switched characters.  There also wasn't a whole lot of room for significant character growth with following seven different characters and then dealing with the big questions and resolutions at the end of the book.  One character - Robbie - did have a pretty good arc, but he ends up changing so rapidly in the last few chapters that I really wanted more of that development earlier.

The main part of the book that really didn't work for me is the pacing.  We spend the first 75-80% of the book getting to know these characters and watching them survive their first few months in this new world.  Then in the last little part of the book, it felt like we found out what probably happened to them, get confirmation that this theory is correct, get a plan together to solve the issue, have the plan put in motion, then we have an epilogue.  I skipped over some plot points for spoiler reasons, but that's a lot to get through in only 20% of the book.  As much as I enjoyed the characters, I really think we didn't need to have that much time spent with them gathering supplies and food.  Especially when there wasn't that much action or really anything happening in the first 50%.  Sure, they had some bad luck and had a few interesting situations arise, but nothing really substantial that felt threatening.  The pace picks up a bit at the 50% mark where we get some information dropped in that sort of reframes what the reader thought was going on and hints at the larger situation of how they are all here in the first place.  If the events in the last 20% were more developed and spread out a bit say from the 50% mark to the end, I think it would have been a lot more engaging of a story.  I understand that they couldn't really focus on figuring out the larger picture until they had shelter and food lined up, but I think the two aspects of the story - the survival element and the question answering element - could have been more balanced.  I think plot focused readers wouldn't enjoy this book as much due to this very slow build up to the main reveal.  I also think squishing in all the events at the end lead to plot points being less developed than I think they needed to be.  

I really liked the way the science was incorporated into the story.  It was a big part of the group discovering what had really happened, but it was never presented in an overly scientific way.  For example, we find out the approximate year by Ananda looking at where the stars are in the sky.  She observes that they aren't where she would expect them to be and thus determines that the year is approximately X.  I, as the reader, have no idea how that sort of math/science works or how exactly she was able to get to the answer she did, but I trust that she is correct because I know she is an astrophysicist so I can rely on her expertise.  Now a reader who likes harder sci-fi with a lot of explanation might call this vague and hand-wavy but I really enjoyed how we get the information and then get on with the story. 

Overall, this was a nice read - interesting premise, good world building, low interpersonal tension, and pretty seamless science integration.  However, the pacing and character distinction really left a lot to be desired for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC in exchange for review

Expected publication is May 25, 2021.

Goblin - Josh Malerman

 

Goblin is a novel told in six novellas all following different characters in the town of Goblin, Michigan.  Through these different stories, we get to find out more about the lore behind the town and the odd events that occur there.  Some of these events are stranger (and more horrific) than others.  

Short fiction isn't really my go-to and I often prefer longer fiction works (300-500 pages is my comfort range).  However, I did have a goal this year of re-trying short fiction (novellas, short stories, etc) to see if I still don't prefer them.  I thought this would be a good place to start because since the stories are connected by the same town, I thought it would give me a bit more substance to grab hold of.  Also, these being novellas instead of short stories was also a bit of the wading into the sea of short fiction.  My main personal issue with short fiction is that, by the time I really find myself sinking into a story it ends.  I rarely find them a satisfying read and often times just leaves me with a sort of itch I can't scratch where I want more of the world or the characters but I literally can't have any more because it was only a short story.  Again, I thought that Goblin would help scratch that itch by way of the stories being somewhat connected and I was pleased that the book worked out exactly how I had hoped and I ended up really enjoying it.

I figured the best way to talk about this book would be each novella on their own and then the novel as a whole.  I also put in my ratings for each story which I don't normally do.  However, I think in this case it would be interesting to see how I felt about the different pieces of this novel as well as the novel overall and the easiest way would be with rating scores.

A Man in Slices: A man proves his "legendary love" to his girlfriend with a sacrifice even more daring than Vincent van Gogh's--and sends her more than his heart.

I liked how this story focused on just two people in the town - long time friends Richard and Charles.  This novella was told out of chronological order which I thought worked well to build up tension.  We're told at the beginning of the novella that Charles has confessed something horrible to Richard and Richard is considering going to the police.  We then bounce back and forth in time as we see the two meet in childhood and grow up together.  We get glimpses into their somewhat unconventional friendship and how other people around them react to it.  We get examples of Charles acting like a sociopath (although he's never diagnosed as such in the story) and how the two of them always reconnect when they're both in town.  I thought it was interesting to focus on such a specific relationship inside the town and just give little hints at some ways the town might be a little weird.  I also thought that having Charles and Richard be kids during the beginning helped build the atmosphere because as a reader, it isn't clear if the observations they're making are because they just have a child's imagination or if those observations are facts.  I really enjoyed the horror elements as well and I thought that they were the perfect balance of vague yet visceral for my personal tastes.  This, I found, to be the most straightforward gore story where as the others I found more psychological or at least the violence was done off the page in a sort of hand-wavy way.

5/5

Kamp: Walter Kamp is afraid of everything, but most afraid of being scared to death. As he sets traps around his home to catch the ghosts that haunt him, he learns that nothing is more terrifying than fear itself.

I really didn't enjoy this novella nearly as much as the first.  I wasn't drawn into Walter's world really at all and found his sort of steam of consciousness hard to follow.  I had to re-read multiple passages to figure out what was really going on.  I did like the way the town history was integrated into this story, but it felt very much like an infodump was needed and Malerman created the rest of the plot around that one need.   I did find the actual town history very interesting and I think it worked really well.  I almost would have preferred if the novella was maybe just the local historian writing a book about the town's history or something.  The horror elements and the historical elements felt really disjointed to me.  I think, since most of the time is spend in Walter's apartment, that for the story to work he needed the reader's sympathies and I just didn't have that connection with him.  

2/5

Happy Birthday, Hunter!: A famed big-game hunter is determined to capture--and kill--the ultimate prey: the mythic Great Owl who lives in Goblin's dark forests. But this mysterious creature is not the only secret the woods are keeping.

 This novella was really great and I think it did a lot of the same things Kamp was trying to do but it did them much more effectively.  In this story, we get more town history that builds on what we know from Kamp.  However, this history was framed around a character and situation that I found much more dynamic and interesting.  Neal Nash is turning 60 and his wife is throwing him the biggest birthday bash the town has ever seen.  Neal, however, is obsessed with the Great Owls who live in the forest outside town - the forests that people are forbidden from entering.  Neal is a trophy hunter and he has successfully hunted just about every type of game on the planet.  We get the history of these Owls and one of the founding members of the town through Neal's obsessions and this is the first novella where we actually see how the town itself is a bit twisted and magical.  I loved the way the decadent party contrasts with the brutality of hunting. We get a good amount of the party on page and see these adults and, in some cases, pretty important figures in the town devolve into absolute debauchery.  It was like a frat party gone bad which I thought was a really interesting contrast to how most 60th birthday parties end up.  I did find the ending to be a bit of a let down because it took away some of the agency from Neal which I didn't like.  The reader was basically rooting for him, for better or worse, to have a successful hunt and when we get to the ending it sort of feels like the events of the story suddenly mean less and Neal (and the reader) get the rug pulled out from under him a bit.

4/5

Presto: All Peter wants is to be like his hero, Roman Emperor, the greatest magician in the world. When the famous magician comes to Goblin, Peter discovers that not all magic is just an illusion.

For me, this novella spent a lot of time focused around a character that I didn't really care about.  We start off the novella at a magic show by Roman Emperor in a town nearby Goblin.  We find out that Goblin is the magician's next stop and then we switch to following Peter, a boy in Goblin who wants to be a magician like Roman.  Maybe if we would have started off with Peter and then flipped over to Roman I would feel differently, but I was a bit let down when we got to Peter.  I just don't find stories from kid POVs very engaging for some reason and the fact that we know something is off with Roman just made me want to skim over Peter's parts to get back to Roman.  We find out how Roman's magic works and I wanted so badly for the story to take a turn that maybe his magic works differently in Goblin because Goblin itself is so weird and magical.  I didn't find that Peter's POV added really anything (tension, perspective, etc) to the story for me.  Roman's POV, however, I was really interested and invested in and I wanted so much more of it. 

3/5

A Mix-Up at the Zoo: The new zookeeper feels a mysterious kinship with the animals in his care . . . and finds that his work is freeing dark forces inside him.

This novella, for me, was like a fever dream.  I couldn't quite get a handle on exactly what was happening but I think I liked it okay overall.  I liked the general premise of this beloved zookeeper who is slowly becoming unhinged.  I really liked the choice to make him fairly popular in the town which I think makes his fall from grace even more impactful.  I really liked the parts that were his dreams/hallucinations but I had a hard time when it was time for those dreams to integrate with reality.  I could see what Malerman was going for but the final execution of that effect didn't really work for me.  It ended up feeling a little bit too much like a disgruntled employee snapped one day rather than a slow descent which is what I feel like the story was going for.

3/5

The Hedges: When his wife dies, a man builds a hedge maze so elaborate no one ever solves it--until a little girl resolves to be the first to find the mysteries that wait at its heart.

 This novella is a heck of a strong way to finish this collection and I really enjoyed how it put some puzzle pieces together.  Throughout the previous 5 novellas, there were two aspects of Goblin that kept being mentioned but no one really went into any great detail - the hedges and the Goblin police.  We see these last two aspects of the town in this last story and I thought it was an interesting choice to leave them until the end.  I think this story does a good job at giving the reader one last look at the town as a whole and some of the more structural elements like the police.  I found this story the most emotionally impactful because the whole reason Wayne even built the hedge maze in the first place was in memory of his dead wife.  I also thought it was interesting how something that started out so personal could grow to become the town's main tourist attraction.  I thought this story did a good job at integrating the different elements of the town that we'd already seen (the Great Owls, the forest, the witch legend, etc) and gave the reader one last look at this weird town and the spooky forces inside it.  I also found it interesting that we get the Goblin police actually interacting with the characters on page because prior to this story, they were only mentioned by characters as something to stay away from.  Side note, the police are described as having sort of a weird rubbery appearance and, for whatever reason, I pictured them as those weird thumb monsters from the Spy Kids movie. I liked how little we knew about the police force - they felt almost alien compared to the other townspeople.  We don't get any background information on how they came to be the police like how we got background info on pretty much all of the other weird parts of town (Great Owls, for example).  In the end, I liked the dichotomy at the end of the fear of the unknown vs fear of the known that was played with a lot during this story and found it a really fitting and strong way to finish.

5/5

 

 Thoughts on the novel as a whole

The best way I've been able to describe the atmosphere and tone of this book is if the podcast/show Welcome to Night Vale took place in Stephen King's Derry Maine.  It is weird and fantastical and unsettling in the way that Night Vale is but has a really dark and, at times, brutal edge to the stories that reminded me of prime time Stephen King.

I really enjoyed the structure to these interconnected stories and liked how each new story had a little piece of the previous story for me to grab onto as I was exploring this new part of the town.  As I said above, I really like to be able to sink into a book and I think having the stories all be somewhat connected helped the book live up to the tagline "a novel in 6 novellas".  I did feel like we got a whole story by the end and while that story might not have the traditional structure of a single plot thread or the traditional beginning, middle, and end, I think it did tell the story of this town in Michigan.  

Outside of the six novellas, there is a prologue and epilogue that are two halves of the same story.   This story follows a delivery driver as he is tasked with very specific instructions to deliver a mysterious box to an address in Goblin.  When he arrives, the contents of the box aren't at all what he expected.  I think the prologue does a good job at very gently inviting the reader into this mysterious world.  It is clear that the events and rumors of Goblin have reached other towns so it almost lets the reader know that the upcoming events are true, no matter how outrageous they may seem.  It also set up the general atmosphere and horror elements as something spooky in the shadows that isn't exactly known except for the fact that something is off and that tone carries well throughout the rest of the book.  The epilogue was just a nice way to finish off that plot thread and leaves a real sense of openness to the ending that was interesting.  

I found the horror elements to be well done, but I didn't find them over the top at all.  I think each story had a different edge to the type of horror it employed, but the entire book had a feeling of dread cast over it where we knew that these stories most likely aren't going to end up all sunshine and roses.  I would describe the horror elements as uneasy feelings, unsettling, and light gore but individual mileage may vary.

For someone who doesn't really enjoy short fiction, I think these interconnected stories really help bridge the gap.  I did find that my overall enjoyment of each novella was pretty dependent on if I connected with the main character of that story.  I am more of a character driven reader as opposed to more plot driven so I think with such few pages to work with, if I don't connect with a character choice it has a bigger impact overall on my reading experience.  If I take my average rating of the individual novellas, I get a 3.6/5.  However, I think the overall cohesiveness and world building of this novel in six novellas was really well done and deserves a 4/5 final rating.

Overall, this was a really great collection of interconnected novellas that work both at an individual level as well as a whole.  I think the quieter horror elements work really well to help immerse the reader into this town in Michigan without asking them to suspend their disbelief too far. 

 

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Ray Books for the ARC in exchange for review.

Expected publication date: May 18, 2021

(original publication was November 1, 2017)

Every Vow You Break - Peter Swanson

 

This is a domestic thriller following newly wed couple Abigail and Bruce.  The couple is on their honeymoon on an island when the man Abigail had a one night stand with during her bachelorette weekend shows up. The man insists that their one night together meant something more and he wants to prove it to her by tracking her down.  Abigail then has to decide to either tell Bruce and ruin her honeymoon or find some other way to get her stalker off the island before he ruins her marriage.  

I really loved the atmosphere of this book, specifically the island.  I think Swanson did a fantastic job at setting the scene but giving us enough little inklings that something creepy might be going on to really set up an uncomfortable atmosphere.  While they are in the city and getting ready for the wedding, the tone of the book was pretty normal.  It didn't feel too over the top excited or too sinister.  But once they get to their honeymoon island, I immediately felt something was off.  I think a big part of this feeling was how easy it is to picture that sort of situation.  Abigail and Bruce are on a luxury retreat on a private island that is a no-technology zone.  It is marketed as a way for stressed out business men to relax and recharge but something about picturing most people (myself included) having to give up their cell phones and find other activities to do was just unsettling enough to set the mood for the rest of the novel.  Of course, there are similar sorts of retreats set up all over the place which just meant that the whole set up for the thriller aspect was just that much more believable.  I think that sometimes with commercial thrillers there's an amount of suspension of disbelief that the reader must have but that wasn't the case in this story for me.  As Abigail goes about the first few days at the resort, she also notices small details that, by themselves, aren't much to worry about but when they all add up together it really helps build that tension and uneasy feeling.

This book felt like it had two distinct halves that were fine on their own but didn't quite fit together and made the overall story feel a bit disjointed.  The first half is Abigail's past history and family life with her parents and the second half is all the events that take place on the island.  The first 30% or so of the book is a lot of backstory on Abigail.  We spent a lot of time with her in childhood, remembering growing up at her parent's small theater, and watching her sort through her feelings now that the theater is closed and her parents are separating.  We also see her grow from a college student with these artistic desires to someone who is a bit more pragmatic and how that change affects her relationship with her long term boyfriend at the time.  Then we get to her sort of whirlwind romance with Bruce and the more thrilling aspects of the novel pick up from there.  At first, I felt all that backstory was pretty much filler and maybe, at best, got us to be sympathetic to a character who cheated on her fiance.  However, during the climax of the book, Abigail mentions a game her and her father used to play called 'what movie are we in' where they present situations and think back through the movies they'd seen to find one that best matches.  This is the first time in the book this game was mentioned and I think something like that could have been so much more impactful if Abigail were doing it all along.  I think it would have been an excellent device to show not only how the events were making Abigail feel, but also give the reader more proof of how connected she is with her parents.  When the book did introduce this game to the reader, I honestly had forgotten that her father was so into films and upon reflection, it really made the whole first section of the book feel pretty meaningless if I had to read through all of that only to come out with this little nugget of information that was actually relevant at the end of the story.

Another part that fell flat for me was the thriller aspects in the first 3/4 of the book.  The only thing I knew going into the book was basically the back cover description.  So I was expecting a lot more thrills or tension from this person Abigail slept with.  At the very least, I was expecting some domestic drama.  Instead, I found that his character was pretty nonthreatening and fell pretty flat.  Sure, he verbalized that he would tell her husband if she didn't do X, but I never really felt like that was a real threat.  I was also sort of expecting maybe some psychological thriller elements to be included where maybe he's threatening from afar and she's trying to figure out who he really is and what he wants.  But, again, those elements weren't really there for me.  I could see his characters and his actions on paper but I never felt like I got the gravity or importance of the situation that I should have gotten.  Now, the last 25% of the book is a completely different matter and that section is where all the thriller aspects are.  I was intrigued enough to keep reading during the first 75% by the little hints that something sinister might be going on underneath the surface of this resort.  However, I could see how some readers would be a bit bored and might be tempted to put the book down.  I thought the payoff in the end was worth it but I also find a 300 page thriller to be a pretty low time commitment so individual mileage may vary on this point.

I really liked Abigail as a character.  Yes, she cheats on her fiance during her bachelorette weekend, but I don't have any problems with following an unlikable protagonist. Even if she is a bit unlikable, I still found her super compelling and complex.  I think the amount of background we get on her relationships growing up and her previous long term relationship made her a really compelling character.  It was also interesting to see her navigate other people's opinions on her and Bruce's relationship especially when the question of if she was just marrying him for his money. Once things start to go down on the island, I loved that she wasn't really a stereotypical horror movie girl where she would more or less just sit around and wait for her fate to befall her.  Instead, she took matters into her own hands and was really smart about her decisions.  I think the way she handled herself during the climax was consistent with her character developed throughout the book up to that point.  Again, since we got so much background information on her I think the reader has a really good sense of her character.  Also, this story is entirely following her so we really get to settle into her head as she navigates the book's events. It was interesting to get her character growth from her childhood to marriage and then see how that growth and those events shaped her into someone who would get into this type of situation but also be able to navigate it to the best of her abilities.  

Finally, as with most thrillers, the twists and the ending are often the make or break aspect of the book.  For the big twist in the third act, I do have to say that I saw most of it coming from a mile away. There's one specific detail that Abigail notes a few times during her time at the island that immediately made a red flag go up in my brain.  However, some of the nuances I didn't guess and were surprised by, so that's always a nice surprise.  I think that maybe less seasoned thriller readers wouldn't necessarily pick up on the clues ahead of time because I think they were very well integrated into the overall story.  Swanson I think did a really great job at giving enough little details that seem innocuous at the time but when the big reveal comes at the end, all those details come together like puzzle pieces.  I will say that the ending didn't go as far as I thought it would - it stayed pretty grounded in reality.  And while I can understand that and I think it does match the rest of the tone of the book, I was fully expecting this ending to get cranked up to 11.  I don't want to give away any specific guesses I made, but if you're a fan of pretty realistic thrillers and don't really like having to suspend your disbelief too far then I think you'd like this ending.  There's also a good amount of the aftershocks of the books events which I always appreciate.  We find out a lot of the fall out and what happens to most of the characters we'd been following all along.  Again, the resulting actions are very grounded in reality and I think consistent with the character development we'd seen in the book's events.  

Overall, I thought this was a very intriguing thriller with a good atmosphere and compelling protagonist.  The narrative was a bit disjointed and low on thrills during the first 3/4 but really ramps up in the end.  I think if you are interested in the premise and don't mind a bit of a slower build up to your thrillers, then I would recommend this book.  This was my first Peter Swanson novel and I do plan on reading more in the future.

Romance Wrap-up 4/16/21 - 4/30/21

 Forbidden Touch - Iona Rose

This story follows long time best friends Brooke and Blaze.  They grew up together, work at the same company, have just bought a house together, and they always put their friendship first.  Blaze needs a date to his brother's wedding in Hawaii and instead of bringing one of his many short term girlfriends along, he invites Brooke.  Tropical setting, warm weather, skimpy bikinis, what's not to like about Hawaii?  As they inevitably give into their attraction for one another, they then have to grapple with the question of what crossing this line means for their friendship and how to proceed once they return home.  Overall, I liked this book.  Friends to lovers is my jam and I really got the feeling that Brooke and Blaze were really good friends.  They seem to have a genuine connection and we know from both POVs that while they do find the other incredibly attractive, neither wants to risk losing the friendship.  Where this book lost points with me is the characterizations and how the series of events played out in the story.  We're told that Blaze seems to work his way through a lot of short term girlfriends and that makes Brooke basically unable to see him as a viable long term partner.  But we never see that part of Blaze or really any indication that he's any sort of player.  But the issue comes up again and again with Brooke so it does seem like a pretty significant part of Blaze's personality that the reader just doesn't get a good picture of.  Also, having the relationship start during a week vacation/destination wedding almost made the stakes too high in the beginning so when they returned back to their normal lives, it was a little bit like the tension wasn't as high as I was expecting it to be. I think if we would have gotten more lead up of them being friends and maybe getting a little extra close as they renovate the house together (maybe seeing Blaze start and end another relationship) then have the wedding as more of the climax in the middle where they finally give into their feelings would have been more satisfying.  

Baking Me Crazy - Karla Sorensen

This story follows best friends Levi and Joss.  Levi's family has a 'curse' where the men fall in love only once and they fall hard.  Levi fell for Joss the moment they met but she was still recovering from an illness and getting used to her new life as a wheelchair user so she only wanted a friend.  They've been friends for 5 years and a new guy in town flirting with Joss at her bakery job has her feeling like she might be ready to actual start dating.  Levi now wants to find a way to show Joss that he's been in love with her for years and that he can be more than just her friend.  Friends to lovers is a preferred trope and this was one of my favorites I've read.  I really liked how the first 1/3 of the book is just Levi and Joss being friends.  We know Levi's feelings for Joss, but he is 100% respectful of her timeline and the two genuinely have a great friendship.  Sorensen has a note at the beginning of the book about her research and sensitivity readers she used in regards to Joss's condition (Transverse Myelitis) and her wheelchair use and how the focus was Joss's journey and how she is living her life.  I can't speak directly to the representation, but as an abled body reader I didn't find the book to be condescending toward Joss or getting into an 'inspirational' type of story.  I really enjoyed getting to see so much of Joss and Levi's friendship and the transition from that to a dating relationship.  However, I do wish we would have gotten more of a transition because I felt like the shift was a little too fast. I wanted them to do more dating or smaller things together while testing the boundaries of this new relationship.  I felt like once Levi decided to try and actually woo Joss that he did like 2 things and then kissed her and confessed his feelings and then boom they were dating and sleeping together.  I just wanted a bit more romance, more wooing, and more time for Joss to see Levi in this new light.  I did like the relatively low angst in the book and how supportive Levi's family and Joss's coworkers are.

 

Lessons in Corruption - Giana Darling

This is the first book in the Fallen Men series and follows 18 year old King and his 26 year old teacher Cress.  The two meet after Cress leaves her husband and moves to a small town to teach at an elite private school.  King is the son of the president of the local motorcycle club and new student at the school.  The two have an instant connection and chemistry but their situation is complicated by their student/teacher dynamic and Cress trying to find her true self after being labeled as the 'good girl' for years.  I'll admit, the student/teacher dynamic made me really hesitant to pick up this book and the scenes of King and Cress at the school were my least favorite parts.  I loved their relationship outside of school, but I just had such a hard time getting onboard with the scenes at school.  King reminded me of Heath Ledger's character in 10 Things I Hate About You where he was this sort of scary, cocky, super handsome guy who seemed to take any attention in stride.  Of course, as this is a MC romance, King is an alpha hero but he has such as sweet and poetic side as well. As much as I liked them together, I didn't love how hot and cold Cress was when it came to their relationship.  She kept trying to stand her ground but then would melt when King would do something romantic. They kept having the same conversation over and over about their relationship and the potential repercussions and I just wanted them to finally have one big blow out to figure things out.  I really liked the second family Cress found in the other members of the MC and I'm excited to continue in the series.

 

Didn't Mean to Love You - Christina C Jones

This is the second book in the Serendipitous Love series and follows Viv and Carter.  At the opening of the book, Viv finds out that her boyfriend has been seeing another woman at the same time and is now engaged to the other person.  Carter - Viv's neighbor and friendly acquaintance - comes along to be a friend and help cheer her up.  The chemistry is undeniable and the two quickly fall into a routine but when they start falling into bed together, they both will need to face their fears about relationships and figure out if they can be together even if they didn't mean to be more than friends.  I really liked Carter and Viv together, they are pretty similar outgoing and ambitious people.  They really seemed to support each other in their professional lives and were cheerleaders for each other.  I loved their friendship and especially loved how easy they managed to just click and work together pretty much from the beginning.  There were a few time jumps throughout the book, usually just a week or two, but it happened frequently enough that it made the pacing feel a bit choppy.  While I do appreciate how the main conflict revolved around Carter's feelings and anxieties around labeling the relationship, I would have expected those to come up in smaller ways earlier in their relationship.  Like maybe a stranger making a comment about how they're a cute couple and Carter correcting that person a little too strongly that they aren't in a relationship or something.  It just felt like the emotional side of the conflict came a bit out of the blue for me.