#Chick Lit Book Review

[elaineadu-poku]

Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn - Book Review

“Where is your husband?” is a question that rings familiar to many unmarried women across the African diaspora, especially after university. This common refrain is at the heart of Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, and is what initially drew me to this book – despite me being somewhat older than Yinka and still unmarried. From the very first page, I felt immersed in…

[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

With The Rom-Commers, Katherine Center has officially cemented herself as one of my must-read authors. Am I a sucker for romcoms about writers? Yes. Will I read hundreds upon hundreds of stories about writers falling in love while they're writing? Also yes. (What can I say? I'm predictable like that.)

Even so, there was something so endearing, amusing, and surprisingly moving about this story featuring two screenwriters - one, an amateur named Emma Wheeler who has put her dreams on hold for a decade to be her father's sole caretaker only to now land the writing opportunity of a lifetime with her idol; the other, a Hollywood legend named Charlie Yates who has won multiple literary awards but can't seem to write a good romcom because he doesn't believe in love, because he thinks it's nothing more than a senseless, distracting affectation.

All in all, this was a grumpy-sunshine, opposites attract, workplace DESSERT of a story. Not only were Emma and Charlie stuck together inside the same house for six weeks, but there was witty banter, line dancing, swimming pool antics, kisses for "research," and an adorable but food-resistant guinea pig called Cuthbert. On top of that, there was nuanced sensitivity paid to issues surrounding ailing health, devastating loss, and family, which I felt added significant weight to the story as well as to the characters.

This was so cute, so sweet! Funny in spades, too. It's definitely the sort of book that makes readers believe, with their whole hearts, that love stories matter. So three cheers to that!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review.

4/5 stars

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[foxlock34]

TITLE REVEAL

Omg, I'm so excited! I just did a huge title reveal on Instagram for my upcoming Wattpad novel!

Falling Facades

Eileen Montgomery has always played it safe, especially when it comes to love. Crushing on the charming Noah for as long as she can remember, she's convinced that she's too ordinary to ever catch his eye. But when a chance to make Noah notice her comes along, Eileen does the unthinkable-she enlists the help of her brother's best friend, Benjamin. Benjamin is everything she's not: confident, easygoing, and maddeningly good at pushing her buttons. Pretending to date him is supposed to be a simple scheme, but the line between reality and pretense quickly starts to blur. As their staged moments turn into genuine connection, Eileen finds herself questioning if Noah is truly the one she wants-or if she's been looking for love in the wrong places all along. But as the walls around their hearts begin to crumble, Eileen and Benjamin must face a new challenge: what happens when the facade they built starts falling apart, leaving them exposed to feelings they never expected?

It's COMING OUT ON NOVEMBER 8th!! MARK YOUR CALENDERS>

[chocsbookblog]

Book Review: Jenny James is Not a Disaster

Title:  Jenny James Is Not a Disaster

Author:  Debbie Johnson

Narrator:  Beth Eyre

Rating:  4/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse Audiobooks for allowing me a copy of this audio book in return for an honest review.

After a series of unfortunate bloody awful events hit single mum Jenny all in one day, getting laid off, her car breaking down, a fight with her 18 year old son, Charlie, and her house falling off a cliff, Jenny needs a break.  So when Luke, the man currently parked in the next field with his massive motorhome and friendly dachshund Betty, suggests she and Charlie join him on his adventures touring around England for a couple of weeks, it doesn’t take much for her to agree, and so the journey of finding her joy again begins.

Beth Eyre did an exceptional job bringing this story to life. She gave Jenny’s bubbly inner narrative a truly believable voice, this was a joy to listen to.

What I liked: I really appreciate a romance where the attraction plays a back seat. This novel was more about Jenny finding herself and dealing with her past than her growing connection to Luke.  I loved the details of the road trip and the descriptions of the places they stopped at.  The relationships between all the characters were brilliant, and the back stories that brought them there left a lump in my throat at times.  

What didn’t work for me: This feels unfair as there was nothing that stands out that I would change about the book, so it’s a very top 4 out of 5 on my personal scale. As much as I enjoyed it, it’s not a book that leads me to being obsessed with it, which is what triggers a 5 star review for me.

Final thoughts: A sweet, entertaining novel about a mum rediscovering herself and facing her past.  Especially helped by the vocal talents of Beth Eyre.

Who would enjoy this book: Fans of light romance (no spice), those who enjoy stories about people rebuilding their lives. Travel fans, or those interested in out of the way spots around England.

[blurryantu]

Categories within youth literature

From the booktok hype, many terms arose like enemies to lovers, grumpy x sunshine.

If you are new to the world of reading, it is possible that you do not know these aspects and if you have been around for a while, you probably know them but do not understand them very well or do not know how to identify them.

In this post I will be identifying each one of these categories, I will explain what they are about and I will also give you some examples of each one.

Dark Academia

Enemies to lovers

Friends to lovers

Chick lit

Epic fantasy

Forbbiden love

Fan-fiction

Flashback

[queenvreads]

REVIEW: Happy Place by Emily Henry

Take all my stars Emily Henry.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"In every universe, it's you for me. Even if it's not me for you."

Harriet and Wyn broke up five months ago, but they didn't tell anyone it happened. They both end up attending their annual week-long vacation with their best friends, Harriet did not expect Wynn to attend.

There, they find out: 1. the vacation home is being sold, and this will be their final stay there. 2. their friends are getting married on this very trip.

In order to make the week as perfect as possible for their friends, they decide to pretend that they are still together for the week.

Who knew a book called "Happy Place" would be about emotional damage, second chances, angst, passion, self-growth, grief, and depression? I was taken completely off guard by this, in the most amazing way. I don't usually enjoy miscommunication and second chance romances, but all hail the queen Emily Henry because there is nothing she can't turn to gold.

I really enjoyed the two different timelines. The past was "Happy Place/Dark Place," and the present was "Real Life." We see how and when Wyn & Harriet meet, what they were like before, and how they got to be where they are today. I LOVE their banter. It reminded me so much of "Book Lovers."

This was also SO STEAMY, the angst was written SO WELL. You could just feel the gravitational pull between Wyn & Harriet. Ugh it was absolutely perfection. Probably the steamiest out of all Emily Henry's books.

They are clearly soulmates, and I was praying the whole way through that they would find their way back to each other. FEAR NOT, as much as this story cuts through the heart, it also soothes it, making it whole again. ❤❤

BRB as I go recover from this intense book hanger. I miss these characters already. 🥲

"Things change, but we stretch and grow and make room for one another.

Our love is a place we can always come back to, and it will be waiting, the same as it ever was.

You belong here."

✍️Befriend me on Goodreads: ⭐HERE⭐

[inabooknook]

Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon

I loved this book! I had never read anything by this author before but I had heard good things so I knew I would be in for a treat. Wren is a woman living in England, who we see leave her home and country to visit her father after a particularly difficult break-up, and stay on her father's farm in the rural midwest. Unlike a lot of chick lit books, this was not predictable in some ways and very much more emotionally relatable. I really felt like the story was believable and far less rote than other books I have read. I would highly recommend this book because it was definitely a sweet story, and unlike most other books actually has the high honor of having made me actually cry during it! Please do yourself a favor and snap this up for summer reading. You won't regret it!

This ebook was provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

[protagonistspub]

Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer

Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer was a library read. This is most definitely a chick lit, beach read book. It was my first book from the author, and let’s be honest, that cover is everything. Carley is a young widow with two small children suddenly facing the realities of building a life on Nantucket. The family home is old and to maintain the family home she decides to convert it into a bed and…

[memoriesfrombooks]

The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George is a light-hearted read about human and non-human characters including an olive tree and Love itself. It is a set of love stories – those meant to be, those that could not be, those that should be, and so on. The books is also a love letter to books and libraries. The book references and the repeating message of love make this a sweet, although sometimes silly, story. 

Reviewed for NetGalley.

[rosecarlsonmemoirs]

Chapter 8: The Fantasy Weekend

David leaned back in his chair, swirling his third whiskey of the evening as the low hum of conversation and clinking glasses filled the dimly lit restaurant. Harper sat across from him, her manicured hands fidgeting with the edge of the menu. The candlelight flickered against her dewy skin, her carefully sculpted features glowing like something out of a movie. “Do you even know what foie gras…

[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Forgive me for starting with a physics pun about a physicist romance, but this was Big Bang-ing cute!

While Hazelwood does serve up a couple familiar tropes from her previous STEM works, she subverts them in fresh and entertaining ways, making it so she's able to strike a delicate balance between navigating academic politics, fake dating shenanigans, and rivals falling in love. There's something about that combination - and the manner in which it's applied here - which gives the story moments of real gravity as well as moments of quirky acceleration.

Like I said, it's a good balance. Makes for a fun, tender, science-filled escape which pins a theoretical physicist against an experimental physicist in more ways than one...😏

The premise is simple yet catching: Elsie Hannaway is a woman who's living a double life. To most, she's an adjunct professor hoping to land tenure somewhere so she can finally afford health insurance, which she needs as a Type 1 diabetic. To others, thanks to her people pleasing expertise, she's a freelancing fake girlfriend who chameleons her personality into whatever a client wants or needs, a job she takes to make extra money so she can pay her bills. (Academia ain't paying much, folks!)

Things start to look up when she gets an interview at MIT for her dream job.

However, as to be expected, things don't run smoothly. Elsie faces an obstacle. A big, tall, muscle-y one named Jack Smith, who not only happens to be an experimentalist who has undermined theorists everywhere, but is also the older brother of her favorite client. Ruh-roh!

Lets just say it makes for quite the nuclear fission!

Anyway, what starts out between them as rivalry, as academic sabotage, soon devolves into something more atomic and quantum, with Jack being able to pierce through to the nucleus of who Elsie is and becoming someone who can give her a safe space to be her authentic self. In a similar vein, she helps him to take accountability for some of his past actions and behaviors, which is long overdue. It makes for a lovely give and take. Not to mention lots of dynamism in terms of growth, characterization, and plot.

As a couple, Jack and Elsie were adorable. I liked how they were a grounding influence for one another as well as an impetus for positive change at times. They kept the smiles coming and those electrons firing! My only complaint is I found some of the steamy scenes between them to be awkward. However, that may be more a matter of preference than anything because I had a similar sentiment when I read The Love Hypothesis.

On the whole, though: RADIOACTIVE WITH CUTENESS!

A big thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

4/5 stars

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[bargainsleuthbooks]

Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Sophie Cousens #BookReview #GPPutnamsSons #ARCReview #ContemporaryRomance #ChickLit

Sophie Cousens is back with a new book, loosely based upon the film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I love that the main character isn't 25, but pushing 40. #BookBlogger #Booksky #BookReview #ARCReview #NetGalley #GPPutnam #IsSheReallyGoingOutWithHim

It’s time for another book review from my never-ending TBR list. Most books mentioned in my reviews can be found at the affiliate links below or try your local library! (Amazon US) (Kindle Unlimited) (Amazon CA) (Amazon UK)  (AbeBooks) (Barnes & Noble) (Booksamillion)  (Audible.com) (Audiobooks.com) A hilarious love story about a disillusioned divorcée who agrees to let her children play…

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Review: The House on Sunshine Corner

Synopsis: This captivating enemies-to-lovers romance about a daycare teacher who clashes with a brooding dad is perfect second-chance love story for fans of Debbie Mason. Abby Engel has a great life. She’s the owner of Sunshine Corner, the daycare she runs with her girlfriends; she has the most adoring grandmother (aka the Baby Whisperer); and she lives in a perfect hidden gem of a town. All…

[blurryantu]

Dark Academy

It refers to a type of aesthetic, an atmosphere created from the passion for literature and libraries.

Some main features are schools with a classic uniform, a touch of mysterious and dark, sometimes magic. Harry Potter would be a prime example within this category.

Examples of books:

Ninth house by Leigh Bardugo

A deadly education by Naomi Novik

Other categories