lisaluvsliterature's reviews
4196 reviews

Maid for Each Other by Lynn Painter

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I love all things from this author, and this was a sweet romance, with so many nods at 80s rom-coms like Pretty Woman, without the prostitute aspect, lol. 

One thing that Lynn Painter does so well that is my favorite part of any book is clever banter. So many of the interactions between Abi and Declan had me laughing out loud, not just at the beginning when they were at odds, but even at the end when they had their little inside jokes or were riffing on one another to their friends and family. The story has several of my favorite tropes as well: fake dating, just one bed, grumpy-sunshine. 

Both characters had great reasons for not dating, Abi mostly because of her mother’s example as well as having her goals that she wanted most to make sue she was happy with herself. Declan had great examples of happy couples with his parents and it sounds like his grandparents as well. But he’s also trying to do what he can to get ahead in his world. Although yes it is to earn more money, it’s not as selfish as it sounds. 

Declan’s got a secret business going with one of his friends. We don’t find out exactly what it is either until about the same time as Abi towards the end. I have to say that his partner Roman, who I liked, came in with a similar scene from Pretty Woman that had you hating the character in the movie, so I’m not sure how I felt about him being the one to take part in this story. But in the end, when it was time for the grand gesture, well – Abi showed up a bit early – but at that point Roman did make up for it. As well as making up for it when he helped Declan figure things out in the end. 

Another sweet and fun rom-com from Lynn Painter, highly recommend!

The Firework Exploded by Tara Sivec

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I Could Be Yours by Helena Hunting

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I love how Helena Hunting gives us HEAs for so many of the characters that we meet in her stories, in their own books like this one! While this is more of a standalone – not in any of the other series exactly – we do know about our characters from the other series, like the Toronto Terrors, Pucked, All In, and Lies, Hearts & Truths. While our couple in this story aren’t actually a part of the hockey world, they are adjacent. Nate is the brother of Tristan who we met in If You Hate Me, and Essie was also introduced in that story as Rix’s best friend. 

This story takes place around the events of Tristan and Rix’s wedding. Nate and Essie are best man and maid of honor. They did all go to school together, and so there was one kiss, back in high school, that led Essie to have a dislike of Nate. And Nate is just altogether a grump like Tristan was in his book. Nate of course is also dealing with their mother leaving them, and shortly after he dealt with his girlfriend cheating on him and then leaving him. So he doesn’t think that love is real, and thinks everyone will leave in the end. Essie is into all things princess, she’s always been the girl that was bubbly and all the guys wanted to date, but she would fall quick, and of course they never stayed with her either. 

The two have to work together to make the wedding and all the events leading up to it as wonderful as possible for the best friend/brother. Of course working together it is hard for Nate to not fall under the charm of the bubbly Essie. And it’s hard for her to not to see more of him and realize all the things that are behind his grumpy exterior. Both of them have some science type of background with their jobs, and so have that connection. And it doesn’t hurt that we start off with Nate helping Essie get out of a dress she’s stuck in and when it falls to the floor, he sees that she has two piercings. So of course the physical attraction is all there.

So many disasters that the two of them help the other out of and save things for the wedding. And of course both of them are gun-shy at letting it go any further than just a fun fling for during the wedding events. I was of course annoyed that both knew how the other had been hurt in the past, yet both were quick enough to believe the other one if they didn’t immediately cave or agree that it could be more. But I do like how things got solved. It wasn’t one grand gesture to get them back together. Nate finally started talking to someone. Essie waited until she thought he was actually ready and wouldn’t hurt her again, but she didn’t drag it way out. 

So many fun moments in this, lots of steamy moments as well, and a lot of emotion. Another great story from Helena Hunting!

Axe-identally Married by Daphne Elliot

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I’ve wanted to read this series for awhile. If you know me, you know I love a good punny title, and these have some of my favorites so far. I got the opportunity to listen to the audiobook version of this before it came out thanks to Home Cooked Audiobook tours and definitely feel I will need to go back to get the other two to read at some point as well after listening to this one.

Cole and Lila were a great couple. Both had their own issues, but the other stood up for them and helped them to realize that those issues could be and should be put behind them so they could move on. I got so mad at how Cole’s brothers treated him! Especially Owen. I haven’t read his book, which I think is the first in the series, but right now I’m not a fan of him. Maybe I’d feel differently if I’d already read his story first. Willa had a lot to deal with as well, although hers was from exes and not her family as it seemed it might be at first.

She’d been dealing with her father’s health and having to come back to run the medical practice while he was getting better. So that totally put a damper on how she’d seen her career going. Yes she’d planned to eventually take over his practice, but she’d thought she would get experience in other types of medical fields, less being the ONLY doctor. While occasionally people would allude to her being the “good girl” that didn’t necessarily show up to me as a big part of her personality, other than she herself feeling she needed to do everything right. 

Cole had so many issues with his family. He was the bastard son of the father of all these other brothers. What I loved is how the mother of his brothers was such a kind and caring woman, taking him into her family. How she knew it wasn’t his fault what his father had done to her and her family. That is the kind of person you have to love. So because of how his brothers treated him though, he had a lot of self-confidence issues. But I loved how Willa came to bat and got angry for him every time his brothers said anything to him that way. 

Obviously the two characters had a connection and ended up being perfect for each other. This was almost a sports romance as Cole was a former pro-hockey player. There was a mystery that seems to probably flow through the whole series with Cole’s family, and I like that the ending of this had the drama from that instead of a third act break up. I’m definitely interested in reading more of the series for that, as well as for other couples that we are meeting or have met before. 

I did have a little issue with some of the steamy bits. At times some of the things they said or the way it was phrased made me cringe a little. 

The narration was good though, I liked both of the narrators and thought they did a great job bringing the characters to life. I’m scheduled to review an audiobook next month of another one in the series, I think maybe #5? But I look forward to coming back to this world!

Wildflowers: An End of the World Romance by Kylie Scott

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

So the title of this immediately made me think of the line in one of the last seasons of The Walking Dead that I watched before I gave up on the show, “Look at the flowers.” And with Kylie Scott being one of my favorite authors, and having read one other book she wrote about an apocalyptic world, I was psyched to read this one. Now, really, the title had nothing to do with my connection to TWD, but that’s okay, I really enjoyed this book and sped through this story!

While we definitely are going to have to realize a bit of Stockholm Syndrome for the romance at first in this book, Dean definitely works out to be a good guy, even if how he went about saving Astrid was a little dramatic and on the insane side. But the world outside is going away. There’s a virus that is taking out people so quickly there’s not time to prevent it. It’s not a zombie apocalypse, just the end of the world…as we know it. Sorry, couldn’t help myself! As they travel away from the city to find a safe place to set up, there is one radio station playing nothing but end of the world songs. 

As you’d expect there are the bad guys in this world. The looters, the ones who want to take over and control everyone and everything, including all the women – as violently as needed. You have the stupid people who crash cars just because they try to slow down really quickly and are probably drunk or high or something. But of course, while Dean doesn’t want to trust anyone, especially not right away, Astrid is right in that there do have to be other good people out there, I mean if they are good people, then it only stands to reason there are others. 

First they are found by a little girl, Sophie (there is a little girl named Sophia in TWD!), whose mother has passed from the disease and she is now all alone. Of course they can’t leave her. And as they walk on to the place that Astrid thinks would be a good place to build their new life, the soon find some bad people, followed by the first two people they are ready to connect with in that town. Soon they find others. People who have escaped the bad people. People that the new people know and invite to come stay.

It might be weird to say, but it was fun to follow the characters along on their shopping trips, and how they were building their new community. The relationship between Dean and Astrid was one that I enjoyed how it unfolded as well. While he did keep her prisoner until it was kind of all over with the rest of the world, once they were out, he taught her how to shoot and even gave her the choice if she wanted to leave, he wouldn’t stop her. But obviously she knew it was smarter to stay with him for the foreseeable future. Of course that meant that they got to know each other and she was able to get past the beginning. I enjoyed the banter between them and even the fun conversations between them and the other characters, including the kids, and after Sophie, we ended up with several more with each new group of people. 

This was a quick, and as I said, fun read. My only reason to not give it a full 5 stars on my blog was because I would have liked a little more of the story, it was over too soon!

The Great Misfortune of Stella Sedgwick by S. Isabelle

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

So, I almost passed this one up due to time, but I’m so glad I didn’t! I picked this one up and was hooked immediately! I loved the story in how it kind of reminded me what the Bridgerton tv show did with trying to give a little bit more “color” to the past. This was historical, and so it is obvious that for the most part people were still only thinking of people who weren’t white as below them. So seeing Stella being from a background where she was not treated that way, but still dealing with how most people in society were was the perfect way to tell this story. 

Anyone who reads romances very much knows that the whole deal with Nathaniel was going to turn out the way it did, with him having had feelings for her the whole time. It was also a bit obvious what was going on with the Ogden fellow who was courting Stella as well. But with how that went, when the big scandal that almost ruined Stella’s cousin’s chance at happiness went down, he was definitely a possible suspect. There were so many people in Stella’s life though, that showed there were good people out there. Even Ogden wasn’t that bad of a guy, other than he was obviously trying to marry rich to save his estate. He probably would have treated Stella fairly in the end, even though it would not have been a love match as she wanted. 

The family that Stella had grown up with was made up of more than just Nathaniel. There was Gwen, so much like a sister/best friend for Stella as well, and I adored all her parts in the book. I had an inkling about a possible love interest for her early on in the story that was proven true at the end as well. And then there was the oldest sister, Jane. Ugh. She was so easy to dislike. Even with the part she did in the end to kind of make up for what she’d done, still, I wouldn’t be a fan of her, same as Stella. 

Nathaniel had so much more to him though than just the wealthy heir of Fitzroy. Even though there was the one moment he said something to his friends that Stella overheard, we got more that I didn’t guess ahead when Stella and her cousin visited Paris. I liked that little bit thrown in. He definitely won me over even as Stella was being so stubborn and refusing to give him that chance. 

It was fun reading about the parties, the things they did around town during that historical period as well. And I mentioned Bridgerton at the beginning, and there was even more of a little similarity when the column Stella was asked to do became a sort of gossip one, like Lady Whistledown. Picturing the gowns they would wear and the homes they visited, all of that was so much fun for this historical romance. Although the HEA was a bit more of an HFN, there was talk of the HEA in the future. Can’t wait to get this one for my school library and my students to read!

All the Men I've Loved Again by Christine Pride
Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.

Thank you to the publisher Atria and Goodreads I won an ARC of this title. I loved the idea behind it, as it made me reminisce on my own college days and loves. And there were parts that I did like, but for the most part I struggled to keep going. I reread paragraphs because my mind would wander or I was easily distracted while trying to read. I gave up about a fourth of the way in. It's not badly written, or a bad plot, it just wasn't for me, wasn't keeping my attention, so I'm moving on.

The Spirit of Love by Lauren Kate

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

So I have read and loved the Fallen series by Lauren Kate. And I have been so eager to read her new adult contemporary romance books, but this is the first one I’ve had a chance to. I really enjoyed it!

This story has some magical realism that kept me guessing at what could possibly be happening throughout the story. I loved that the tv show Fenny worked on was called Zombie Hospital. It sounds different than the real tv show I was thinking it might be like though. More like a cross between The Walking Dead and iZombie I think. Fenny’s frustration at losing her directorial debut chance thanks to this Jude guy was so understandable! Then the story flashed back to her weekend where she met Sam, and it was easy to see there was something a little off about Sam. I couldn’t decide if he was a ghost, a time traveler, or what.

When Jude reminds her so much of Sam, my mind just kept trying to figure it all out. Was he a twin brother that was long-lost? A twin brother or just a brother that passed away? A ghost of one of Jude’s ancestors? Especially when Jude mentioned something about his dad leaving his mom. Then I wondered if Sam was a younger sibling he didn’t know about because of that. Both Jude and Fenny had issues to deal with themselves before they would be able to accept the other one. All the little coincidental connections between them that kept throwing them together were perfect for the story as well.

So, I didn’t realize that the Venice in California has boats and canals like the real Venice in Italy? Is that true my fellow California bloggers/readers?

In the end, I dropped this to a 4.5 because while I get how it all wrapped up, it was a little abrupt for me and I feel like I would have liked just a little more.

However I know that at least one of the couples we know in the story has their own book, What’s In a Kiss, so I’ll have to get my hands on that one! 

Save Me by Mona Kasten

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Okay, I watched the first season of the tv show based on a German book on Amazon Prime after seeing a bunch of my favorite authors talk about it last year. And I loved it!

But at the time, the book hadn’t been translated into English yet. So as soon as I saw it pop up and then the publisher sent me a widget to read early on Netgalley, I jumped on the chance. I was a bit worried of course, because often the books don’t match what I loved about a show. But honestly, this book, or should I say the show, stayed so on track with the other. Reading this book put me right back into that world that I fell in love with last year.

Another issue I was worried about, but wasn’t an issue at all, was that I’m not always a fan of the whole boarding school storyline. But as with the tv show, I was hooked with the characters and the plot in the story right away when reading this.

I loved the way Ruby honestly did not want to even be seen by these rich people at her school. How she reacted when James tried to buy her off, and all the other things he tried and she was able to blow him off perfectly. Of course there is the slowly building attraction to each other, more than physical, as the story goes along. There are the times that he pulls back and is an arse (have to use that term as it is the one in the book, lol). As well as the in crowd bullies and mean girls, but even they seem to have their own backgrounds and reasons, whether good or not, for behaving the way they do.

I hated putting the book down to do other things, even as I was reading during a time when I had family commitments that forced me to do that. And as I remembered the story as I read along, I couldn’t remember exactly what happened that left us on the cliffhanger at the end of the first season of the show. But oh when that happened, yeah, all my emotions were right back there. I do feel like I remembered something else about the chauffeur that wasn’t mentioned in this book, so I don’t know if it was made up for the show, from another book in the series but added in early to the show, or if I’m remembering completely wrong.

So I decided to go back and rewatch the first season, even if part 2 isn’t until November I think? And as I restarted it, I saw that as usual with shows/movies from books, the show has added things that aren’t in the book. But again I wonder if those are things later in the other books since I haven’t read them. Or it’s possible that they just needed to flesh out a few of the storylines more than in the books. I also noticed that James is a little meaner seeming in the show than in the books. And the show is giving more hints to something that happens at one of the parties in the book that has to do with Ruby’s past.

I also have put in my request for the 2nd and 3rd book on Netgalley, here’s hoping I get those approved!

After We Burned by Marieke Nijkamp

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I have enjoyed the other books I’ve read by this author in the past. They have all been ones that hit so hard with what is happening in the story, whether it is a school shooting, the accidental death of a friend or classmate, or in this case both the death of a classmate and a teacher who is taking advantage of his students and not being held accountable. Not all of those were perfect reads for me, and this one started off slow and I was worried I might not be able to finish it. However, about a quarter of the way in something happened that had me hooked and needing to find out exactly what happened that night when the school burned and one of the characters died.

The author does a great job of building up the story and filling in the details for the reader as the characters who are kind of on the outside trying to solve the mystery find out as well. And it isn’t just the character, Eden, who died that has lots to make her someone we are feeling empathy for. There are other characters that we do feel the empathy for, but in the end they don’t have the compassion/empathy for others if it will cause them to have more issues. So I feel the characters are written quite realistically in that way. Problems for these students also appear at their own homes, the place that should be safe for them.

So I ended up giving this 4 stars in that it had me flipping pages as fast as I could to find out what would happen. (Even if the ARC I was given had the pages falling out as I turned them, not a great copy.). It is one that I will definitely be putting in my school library for my students to read as well. If you like a good mystery, it has that for sure. There could also be some triggers with parental neglect, abuse, and some bullying, as well as the teacher assault aspect of the story.