Adorable RomCom

 Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi 

This. Was. So. Cute. I love a cute, witchy, rom-com. Dina and her cafe are delightful. Scott and his museum job are a surprise; you don't expect a MMC to work as a curator at a museum! Together they were magic (pun intended). I loved this being set around Eric and Emmy's wedding and them both trying to play match maker; so cute. I was so frustrated with Dina; I kept yelling at the book to "just go tell mommy so she can fix it!" but she wouldn't listen to me! I adored the house and how it was sentient and was working to help things as best as it could. When we FINALLY got mommy involved, I was surprised but not SURPRISED that Dina was the one who put the hex on herself. That the binding spell didn't take because Rory lost consciousness was interesting, but Dina's guilt being why she was cursed was interesting; and that it wasn't just guilt over the binding spell, but fear and guilt. For being a cutesy little rom-com it was very deep. Her making a grand gesture at his big event was sweet, and Emmy and Eric continuing to do some real wing men work was adorable. I liked that the epilogue was farther in the future and that it sets up a book for Rosemary. This was so cute and I will be reading more from this author! 

African Mythology

Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi 

The audiobook narrator struggled with her male voices but her overall narration was spectacular. The amount of research that went into this book to make it immersive and historically accurate was superb. My only issue that dropped it from a 4* was the ending was predictable; I wanted the ending to happen, but I saw it coming and I ended up being disappointed because I wanted it to happen in a different way. (I listened to the audiobook so I never saw the names spelled and will not disrespect the author or the characters by trying to spell them). FMC is a blacksmith and she is approached by what she thinks is a vagrant, but she is kind to him which impresses him, so he has her kidnapped because he was actually the ruler of their land and he wants to make her his wife. Once she knows this she goes along willingly because anything is better than the life she has been living, but she has one condition: she will not marry him until they can find her mother and she can be there for the ceremony. He agrees and he sends men out to get her mother. One problem, she is missing. And now blacksmiths all across the land are abandoning their forges. Also, his mother is mean and manipulative and is trying to stop the marriage. His first wife the only friend she has, until she doesn't. Because there is a slave uprising and first wife is stuck in the city and she forces him to go after her, but it turns out first wife was the one behind it and she pushes FMC back into a burning building. She has to cut off her hand to escape when she finally wakes up, and when she is walking into the town they are having a masquerade, for her death. But MMC sees her and realizes the body they found wasn't hers. Then, she is finally able to meet with her mother and gets caught and he thinks she was secretly plotting with the blacksmiths so he makes her kill her own mother to prove her loyalty. They finally get married. Then he goes off on a fight that should have been fast, but he is gone for a long time and she starts taking over his duties and the generals listen to her and value her. She is the one to come up with the plan to save him when they finally find out where he is. And the day he gets back, she kills him because he disregards her and her ideas. She gives him a chance, but he basically says you're too pretty for strategy and she tells him I'm the one that saved you and he says thanks now we can go back to the way we were, so she slits his throat. She walks into the throne room, takes his seat, and the generals all fall in line. There was a lot more action, adventure, and political intrigue, but that was the gist of the story. Her revenge on his mom was killing him. We knew she was going to take power, I just wish it had ended differently; that something more had gone down with his mother, that she hadn't slit his throat. Something. This middle and the build up were great, but the finale left me wanting.  

Rushed Ending

 Brokedown Cowboy by Maisey Yates 

I do not mind friends to lovers, what I mind is a rushed ending and this very much had a rushed ending. Liss and Conner have been friends for years so when she needs a place to stay he lets her move into his house. Then he starts to realize that she's very attractive. She has found him sexy forever but has never acted on it. Then they kiss and it's great until he feels guilty the next day and vows that it can never happen again. And she has to convince him that it would be good for him to get back on the horse, so to speak, and that it's just physical and they can still be friends. So he agrees. And the freaks out. And then gets over it. Except she loves him and can't keep it just physical. She ends things with him and moves out. Eli wins his race for sheriff and proposes and then gives Connor a talking to because he's finally come back to life since his wife died. Oh, and Eli knew that Connor was going to be a father but he never said anything because he wasn't sure if Connor knew that Jessie was pregnant when she died and was waiting for Connor to bring it up, but since he wasn't going to now was the time. And Eli tells him that it's okay to move on and that he needs to man up and go get the woman he loves. And Connor does. And Liss just takes him back. Just like that. And they decide to get engaged in the same conversation. Like, what is that? The ending was rushed and I was made. I get that you have loved him for over half of your life, but you were literally just crying over him and now it's fine? No. It's not fine. I liked book 1, but this pissed me off. I hope book 3 goes back to being cutesie and fun of I will be giving up on this series because this seriously irritated me.  

First in a Cozy Mystery Series

 Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns 

I LOVE a cozy mystery. The audiobook narrator struggled with her male voices but her overall narration was great. I listened to almost the entire book while setting up my classroom and then finished the rest once I got home and got ready for school by packing my lunch and things. This was so cute. Maddy inherits her great aunts house, bakery, and giant dog with the catch that she live there for a year and work the bakery before selling everything. But, it seems like the entire town is conspiring to get her to break the will and sell her shop, house, and dog. Then the mayor turns up dead, stabbed with a knife from her shop. Then her shop has a fire. Then a shop owner from across the street turns up dead in her store. The sheriff knows Maddy didn't do it, but is having a hard time figuring out who did. We have two love interests: Mike the vet, and the real estate guy who seems slimey but she keeps giving him a change. Except, then he tries to kill her because he's the killer! So, no more love triangle. I will be reading the rest of this series. This was a great start!  

Still Mad part 2

 Capone II by Jhaquel J.

I listened to this book in two days and the majority of it was while I was setting up my classroom for the new school year. I was SWEATING it was stressing me out! The same narrators were back for this book as book 1 and by the end of the book Erin was the only character I liked. We pick up right where we left off, with Jayden and Joy being shot. Jayden survives and Joy, who seems like she is getting better, dies from a blood clot. That was horrible! Capone moves Erin and Jayden into his house and changes the code so Ella can't just come and go whenever she feels like it; her chapters were the least enjoyable (she's so jealous). Ry was getting on my nerves; she was so caught up in herself and her NBA player boyfriend she couldn't even be there for Erin and Jayden. Capone pays Jo's salary so she can be his full time nurse and she ends up moving in as well when her boyfriend gets jealous of all the time she's spending there and their relationship ends. Capone proposes to Erin and she says yes, and she's pregnant. When she goes to tell Jayden we find out that he already knows; Capone asked for his permission to marry her (which is pretty cute). We find out that Capri has been cheating on Nahiem with Kincade! And then Kincade takes her out to this bar and he gets high on pills and almost gets her kidnapped and sex trafficked, but she had her wits about her and was able to get them back to safety. At that point she realizes she really does want to give it another shot with her husband, but Tasha shows back up. Turns out they didn't actually kill her son Timmy and she buried some stranger and was just pretending at the funeral. She finds Capri and Nahiem while they are at dinner with one of Capri's friends from law school and tells Nahiem that he's going to be a father and that's where the book ends.  I am on hold for the next book and cannot wait to find out what happens because right now, I'm still not convinced about Capone but he's growing on me a little. Erin is still my favorite. Jayden and Jo both need something good in their lives and I can't wait to see what's going on in the soap opera that is Capri and Nahiem!  

Historical Romance

 The Duke I Tempted by Scarlett Peckham 

I was pretty irritated with Archer through most of this book. The ending wrapped things up nicely, but for most of it; he didn't deserve Poppy. Yes, you have a tragic backstory. It sucked that your father was so horrible that he started a fire to kill you first wife and son, but that doesn't mean that you can keep secrets from Poppy after deliberately pulling her into your life. You are the one who decided a marriage was the only option. You are the one who bought her a house. You are the one who built her a nursery for her plant business. Then, you are the one who flirted and charmed her and changed the rules and decided to go back to strictly business. You can't have it both ways. Was she wrong to run into a burning building to try to save some papers? Yes, of course. But, you were wrong to tell her that she has things other than plants to live for when you have literally given her nothing and taken everything else away from her. Maybe, if you had talked to your WIFE about things instead of hiding them from her, you wouldn't be in this position. Then, they had a fight and he stormed out of the house and she her the address so she followed. When she wasn't admitted she broke in and discovered the source of his scars and fled to the house he built for him. And he decided the best way to show her that he loves her is by drawing up divorce papers. He's. So. Dumb. When they finally started to talk to each other, they were able to learn she's not opposed to being his dominatrix. In fact, she went to the club to learn how to do it properly. COMMUNICATION ARCHER! I was irritated, but I will probably listen to book 2, just not immediately.  

First Reads

 For The Ring by Jennifer Hennessy 

I won this from a goodreads giveaway and while it doesn't say so on the cover, I'm pretty sure it was an unedited proof because there were some grammar issues and some typos. I really hope those get taken care of before the actual print and release date because I would hate for tiny issues like that to bring out that to bring out the grammar police and cause this book to get lower reviews than it deserves. I LOVE baseball, which may have clouded my judgement a bit, but this was great. I was smiling and giggling and kicking my feet during most of this book. I can't believe I was teased with the only one bed trope and then it wasn't acted on! How DARE he be a gentleman and sleep on the couch! This book starts out with Frankie (Francesca) working analytics for the Dodgers who just lost the world series to the Yankees and Charlie, the catcher for the Dodgers playing his last ever game. She sees him having a moment after everyone else has left and despite the fact that she thinks he hates her, she goes to him and they walk out together. Then, he says, now that we don't work together anymore, and gives her the best kiss of her life. Fast forward two years and she has moved to New York to work for the Eagles (fictional team) as an assistant general manager and he is now the coach of the team. They have to work together to build a team that can compete, the problem is that the Eagles finished dead last the previous year and the best pitcher in the world is from Japan and they may not be able to get him. Charlie messes up a deal with one of their current pitchers but afterwards they are on the same page. She takes him to Arizona to watch three kids from their minor league team play, which is a huge part of her plan to make the team great, and once he sees them in action he's all in. Then they work on their pitch to Kai, the Japanese pitcher. There's only one problem; his agent. She revamps the pitch; they do it from Charlie's house, then take him to Arizona to meet the three kids and they get on like a house on fire. But the agent doesn't like it so he calls the board and she gets fired. But, Kai doesn't care and fires his agent. He's ready to sign with the Eagles, but he learns that Frankie has been let go and that changes his plans so they frantically call her in and beg her to come back; there's only one problem: the Yankees have already made her a great offer. Charlie says, he supports her in whatever she decides. She goes to the meeting with the Eagles and they offer the GM job, which is her mentor, Stew's, job. He says he will still be around as an advisor but after his heart attack he needs to start slowing down and besides, she's ready. The book ends with her and Charlie heading down to Spring Training with the Eagles, greeting Kai and the other 3 kids.  This was delightful. And while I am a Joey Votto girl through and through, Charlie was peak Johnny Damon (I'm aware Damon wasn't a catcher, but that's his vibe). Jennifer Hennessy has a fan in me!  

Light and Easy

 Part Time Cowboy by Maisey Yates 

The audiobook narrator did not do a male voice very well, so that wasn't great. However, I did enjoy her pacing. I do love a grumpy x sunshine so that was fun. However, I would have liked if they had made the ages of the characters known earlier because I spent a good portion of the book trying to figure out just how much of a gap there was between them. We know that Eli arrested her as a teenager, and I could have sworn it was originally said that she was 17 when the arrest happened, but later it was said that she was 18 because that night her father beat her so badly it ruptured her spleen and she had to have it removed and CPS couldn't do anything because she was an adult. So I would have preferred their ages be established sooner. It didn't matter for the bulk of the story, since she is 27 when the main story takes place, but since they reference their past it is relevant. He is a deputy sheriff, she is renting a house on his family's land and turning it into a B&B. They keep bumping into each other, mostly because his older bother, Connor, is too in his own grief to do the landlord duties and keeps pawning them off of Eli. Turns out, they also have chemistry. And so they decide to act on it, but keep it casual. Except, they can't keep it casual. But, neither of them is very good at feelings and that causes problems, especially when the Independence Day BBQ that she planned on his ranch leads to one of the barns burning down because some kids were playing with fireworks inside of it. Was it her fault? No. Does he blame her? Yes. Does she blame herself? Also yes. She does what she always does, packs up to leave. But this time, she takes time to think and he catches her before she can go, only she had decided to stick it out. They confess their love and he asks her to move in. It was cute, but not great.   

Final Book in a YA Trilogy

 We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han 

The ending was a little rushed, but overall a good finale to the trilogy. I ended book 2 pissed at Conrad and started book 3 pissed at Jeremiah. How are you going to say you love Belly, that it's always been her, and then literally the first chance you get you sleep with someone else?! That is abominable! And then, you decide the only way to make it right, to convince her that you will never do anything horrible ever again is to get married?! I understand Belly. If you, as a teenage girl, haven't made a horrible decision over a boy, were you even really having a true teenage experience? No. No, you weren't. But, damn. And then, he has the gall, the unmitigated audacity to be mad at her for not telling him that she spent a few days in the same house as Conrad over winter break and didn't even see him? Boy, bye. And he throws this tantrum ON THEIR WEDDING DAY. Conrad is the one that finds him. And what does Jeremiah do? Punches his brother, IN THE FACE, and tells him that he can never see Belly again. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Thank god they didn't actually get married. Belly got to have a real college experience. Conrad wrote her letters, which she mostly ignored, and then they ended up getting back together later (not later enough; 23 isn't hardly grown enough, but it's better than 18) and get married and Jeremiah shows up. I feel like every teenage girl everywhere should read this so that they don't try to make the same mistakes that Belly makes because this was so real and relatable. I was so mad at Jeremiah. I was so mad at Belly. I was mad at teenage me for falling into teenage love and making stupid decisions over a boy. Good grief.  

Romantasy

 The Crown of Gilded Bones  by Jennifer L. Armentrout 

A lot happened in this book, but as soon as I finished reading it I forgot every last bit of it. I spent more time being irritated with it than anything. And it wasn't that I was irritated, it was that what I wanted to happen wasn't. Poppy is the Queen of the wolven and all of Atlantis but some people are having an easier time accepting that than others. Alistar plotted a coup and kidnapped her, but Cas found her and rescued her. Her powers are growing. She can telepathically communicate with the wolven. Cas asendes her, but she doesn't turn into a vampyr. Nope, she's a diety. Her brother shows up as an emissary and while he is a vampyr he still has his humanity and he tells her to go to Nyktos to get his guards. So she and Cas take a small contingent of guards into the land of the gods to wake the King of the Gods to ask for his guards, and he only talks to Poppy and tells her she has always had the power, which is super vague and unhelpful. Then they meet with Cas' parents and she says she is taking her crown and they have the most basic ceremony ever because they don't have time for the pomp of it all. Then they meet with the vampyr queen only to find out that she's not actually a vampyr. Nope; she's Isabeth, Malec's queen. Malik is there, not in chains. They always knew who Poppy was and Malik was going to be her present upon her Asencion. Then evil queen kills Poppy's brother and tells her that Atlantis must unite with her. They leave, but on the way in they saw a cave cat in a cage and he turned back into a man. Poppy goes back to the city of the gods and talks to the dragon and finds out that it wasn't Malec like they assumed, and that she's not Malec's daughter but his niece. Malec has a twin and that twin is missing. Also, Poppy is a god and she can control the dragons; Nyktos' guards. So, now she's ready for war which is good because the Isabeth has Cas as a prisoner. And the book ends with her killing King Jalar, Isabeth's current husband, and sending her his head. I'm pretty sure other stuff happened, but I can't remember it because this book was big and A LOT was going on.  

I'm. So. Mad.

 Capone by Jahquel J. 

I was so mad at this book it has taken me DAYS to calm down to be able to write this review. I can't stand Capone! Really, by the end of the book the only characters that I liked were Erin and Capri. Everyone else could go kick rocks. I can't stand a MMC who is domineering. What you're NOT going to do is tell me who I can and can't talk to, where I can and can't go. And he was doing all of this to Erin and THEY. HADN'T. EVEN. BEEN. ON. ONE. SINGLE. DATE. YET. Then, he stands her up for the date he plans and doesn't even have the decency to be like my bad, I was sick. Damn. I understand not wanting to drop the sickle cell bomb on her from the jump, but you could have at least told her you were too sick to even get out of the bed. Something! I will give him credit for telling her the cause; that was good of him. And he does pay attention. Him buying her her favorite car was above and beyond, but chill. I do not like his dynamic with his baby mom. I understand that at his age he is going to have a past and kids, but him still messing with her and leading her on is all kinds of messed up and I don't blame Ella for how she's acting because she has been upfront about wanting to get back together and have another kid. This is all on Capone. Now, for Erin. She DEFINITELY needs to go to therapy. She has been taking care of her brother since she watched her dad kill her mom and then kill himself. I'm glad we, the reader, got some answers about that, but Erin needs some closure too! And some hard core therapy. Jaden is a brat. I don't think the baby is his; I think Timmy is the father the way Joy was acting at the end of the book. I can't believe Timmy shot him. I mean, I can, but damn! And then the reveal that Capone is Timmy's father! So, Capone slept with BOTH of his sister's best friends. His hoe ass is a terrible brother. And now Capri, who is down bad for her husband, is convinced that he's cheating on her, and she's right! And he's cheating with her former best friend! The same woman that Capone had a child with 16ish years ago and didn't realize it!  This book is messy messy! I was mad, but I enjoyed it. I have put in the request for book 2 and now we wait. Also, the narrators were great, but I don't like when you have two narrators and two perspectives but if it's the woman's perspective then she does both voices. Like, you have a male narrator, let him read the male parts during the entire book!