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[vvendyreads]

Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca

*Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.*

Cassie may have overreacted when all of her friends started getting married and having children while she was still single and about to lose her apartment. This overreaction results in Cassie buying a house in a small Florida town known for being haunted. Cassie doesn’t believe in ghosts but is alarmed when her house, or more accurately something in it, tries to change her mind. Nick is the grumpy owner of a coffee shop who, like all natives of Boneyard Key, knows that ghosts are real. He especially knows this since his roommate is a ghost. As Cassie and Nick investigate the previous owner of Cassie’s house, they get closer to answers about why it’s haunted and closer to each other.

I definitely didn’t intend to read two books about ghosts in a row, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. Between the time that I requested this book and actually being approved, I completely forgot that this was Jen DeLuca’s new book. I adored her Well Met series and was excited to see what she did next. This book does not disappoint. I really appreciated that this book was almost completely different from her first series and yet I still felt like it was her writing. Unlike in the Well Met series, this one has dual narrative and is written in the third person instead of first. The shift really helped me see this book as different. It also made it slightly more mysterious, which helped with the paranormal vibe.

I had a lot of fun with this book. It walked the fine line of being realistic while also including fantastical elements. Cassie doesn’t believe in the ghosts right away, but changing her mind isn’t too drawn out. I also thought it was fun to see the male character as the believer and the female character as the skeptic, since I feel like it’s often the reverse in fiction.

This book does something very cool in that it shows actual sympathy towards the ghosts. It acknowledges that they were once people who had feelings and that those should be taken into account after their death. Often in books, ghosts are just a device to make a character complete an objective. This ironically felt more fleshed out (get it? A ghost is the opposite of fleshed out).

I liked that there was a bit of a mystery in this book with enough clues that you can anticipate where it’s going if you try. In many romance novels, the rest of the plot often feels like an after thought or just in the way, but I actually enjoyed going on the journey with this one.

All around this was an enjoyable book and I’m excited to see what Jen DeLuca does next.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[vvendyreads]

Happy Medium by Sarah Adler

Thank you to Net Galley and Berkley Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Con artist Gretchen is a fake spirit medium who lives by one rule as her moral compass: She only takes on a client if she can leave them better off than when she met them. When her best client offers her $10,000 to help her bridge partner cleanse his presumably haunted goat farm so he can sell it, she can't really say no. Gretchen is surprised on her arrival that Charles "Charlie" Waybill, the bridge partner, is actually an attractive man around her age how does not believe in the supernatural whatsoever. After he kicks her out, Gretchen is even more shocked to learn that there actually is a cursed ghost haunting the farm and only she can see him. Gretchen has one month to convince Charlie not to sell the farm, or else he will meet the same cursed fate.

I was so excited for this book. The plot sounded like fun and I loved the cover. I was even more excited when I learned that it was written by Sarah Adler, who wrote one of my favorite books from last year- "Mrs. Nash's Ashes." I was hoping that this book would be just as good and it didn't disappoint.

I usually don't love morally gray characters, at least not in my romances, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the character of Gretchen. She does bad things, but she tries to not actually hurt anyone. I found myself buying into her rule and appreciating that she grappled with what she was doing. It made her journey more interesting and you appreciate where she ends up in the end.

The author has said that this book was partly inspired by flipping the relationships in the movie Ghost and I definitely felt it while reading. Gretchen is Whoopi Goldberg's character, the fake psychic medium who suddenly can talk to a ghost and has to convince someone that they're not lying this time. Instead of reconnecting lovers, the medium in this one falls in love with the one who is still alive. It was a fun take on it and I think it worked really well. I also got hints of Meg Cabot's "The Mediator" series with the way that the medium interacted with the often annoying ghost.

I also enjoyed the goat farm aspects of the book. It's not a setting that I've read before and was a good vehicle for putting things into perspective for Gretchen.

I liked the male lead Charlie. He took a while to listen to Charlie but his skepticism felt very believable. Wouldn't most of us not believe a woman claiming to be a psychic? He was clear with his intentions and expectations and communicated pretty well. I'm a sucker for good guys in books and he definitely was one.

Sarah Adler is a wonderful writer. I love her use of imagery and her wide variety of references to other media. I trust any book that she writes in the future.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[vvendyreads]

Degrees of Engagement by Jennifer Hennessy

Thank you Headline and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bianca Dimitriou is the friend who is always there at the drop of a hat for her friends. She flies to different continents to be in weddings or babysits with hardly any notice. She has many close friends who she would do anything for. She is therefore incredibly hurt when none of her friends or family go to her party celebrating the fact that she successfully defended her thesis and is now a PhD. One of the few people who does come is her classmate, Xavier. Xavier was Bianca's only friend in her academic program, but he pulled away upon learning that he would soon be moving to Greece for a fellowship. When Bianca suggests that her family and friends would have dropped everything if she was getting married, Xavier suggests that they should pretend to be engaged. Bianca agrees and well, you probably see where this is going.

Another fake dating book (you know I can't get enough of those) but this time it's a fake engagement! I think this book had a lot of positives and a few negatives that took me out of the story a bit.

Pros:

I liked how much the Bianca and Xavier respected each other academically. I liked that their friendship was formed from challenging each other. As the story goes on, both characters comment on how brilliant they think the other is and it was nice to see "could be rivals" acknowledge each other's strengths.

Xavier was so supportive of Bianca throughout the book. Is only reason for suggesting/agreeing to the fake engagement is because he was a good friend and was mad at Bianca's other friends for not being there for her. He repeatedly shows that he wants her friends to be supportive of her and defends her when they are not.

I liked that each of Bianca's friends were at a different stage in relationships. It was fun seeing her interact with friends who have reached different milestones.

I enjoyed this book in general. The writing was good and I wanted to keep reading it.

Cons:

I get annoyed when pretty much the only conflict in a book is that the characters won't communicate. Bianca goes into this fake engagement to teach her friends and family a lesson, but she spends most of the book not even telling them how she feels. All she had to do was say, "It hurt me that you weren't there to celebrate the massive accomplishment that I made." She also continually semi-communicates with Xavier about their feelings for each other, but they never actually say what they mean and always immediately change their minds when they set boundaries.

While the different friends showed up every so often, I felt like I didn't really know any of them. The characters felt like they were in a bubble.

Overall it was a solid read.

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[vvendyreads]

Once Upon a Workday: Encouraging Tales of Resilience by Elizabeth Pich and Jonathan Kunz

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Humorous and heartwarming tales of resilience, self-care, and mental health from the popular webcomic  @warandpeas.

Imagine a mix of Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss but writing about the everyday stresses of working adults. That gives you a pretty good idea of this book.

I love War and Peas, so I was excited to see this book. Each poem/story tells a humorous tale of a likely burnt out adult just trying to survive another day. For example, the first one entitled "A Job is a Job" begins: "Another day breaks, you pour out of bed. Not a minute awake and in creeps the dread." I can't think of anyone I know who hasn't experienced.

This books tells stories of the mundane and at times exhausting parts of life in a fun way, with whimsical illustrations attached.

My favorite poem was "Sincerely Yours" which was almost too relatable. It tells the story of someone trying to figure out how to sign a work email. It contains evocative lines such as: "There must be a line that perfectly sums it up. One that shows how I feel but not too much."

I think this is a perfect book to keep in a home office to remind yourself to keep strong while not forgetting to be a little silly.

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[vvendyreads]

But How Are You, Really? by Ella Dawson

Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for the honor of reading this book in exchange for an honest review.

Charlotte hates her job. Instead of being a graphic designer, she's an assistant to a demanding tech journalist you keeps dangling a transfer to the art department over her head. When he is chosen to be the commencement speaker at her alma mater, Charlotte gets roped into going ahead of him and attending her five year reunion. Charlotte made a great group of fellow queer and absent parent having friends in her time at college. She has been terrible at keeping in touch with them because of her demanding and disappointing job. One in particular is Reece, the guy she had a fling with after leaving her abusive ex. Charlotte is forced to re-examine her life and her choices when she's her friends again and decide where she wants to go from here.

This book was such a breath of fresh air. It watered my crops and cleared my acne. It gave me hope when I had none. I'm being a bit dramatic but that is how much I loved this book. I adored seeing a book with so many queer characters. I saw myself in the characters of this book in a way I never have in a book before. Although I thankfully did not have homophobic parents like Charlotte does, I really felt like I understood her.

This book felt very millennial, which I appreciated. The characters' references were my references and the burnout that they experienced is all too common in my generation. I could feel the disappointment in not achieving your dreams yet when everyone around you seems to be doing well. I felt like this book was very much written for me. It takes place in 2018, which takes a second to adjust to, but makes sense for where the characters are in their lives based on their references.

This book handled a lot of difficult topics. These included homophobia, grief, alcoholism, abusive relationships, anxiety/panic disorder, sexual harassment. These were handled so impressively. I felt the character’s panic without ever feeling unsafe. I applaud the author for not shying away from these topics while also giving the book lighter moments. It was an emotional book but I would not call it particularly dark.

I appreciated that the characters communicated with each other, at least eventually. When a character's feelings were hurt, they communicated that so that the other could apologize. Characters were clear in their intentions and interacted like actual people. This does not always happen in books.

I also enjoyed the character of Reece, who felt like a normal, decent guy. There could have been some melodramatic moments in the story if he reacted the wrong way, but he listened and was a rational person.

I don't want to say too much about this book, because I think that it should be read. Overall I’m just so glad that this book exists.

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[vvendyreads]

Given Our History by Kristyn J. Miller

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

Clara is a history professor whose supervisor just suggested that she apply for tenure. When he asks if she'll share her desk with a visiting scholar, she thinks saying yes will help win her brownie points. She is dismayed to learn that the visiting professor is none other than Teddy, her former best friend from summer camp who she once was in love with. They haven't spoken in years after a falling out, but when Teddy comes to campus they both try to be civil. As they work together and reconnect, we see flashbacks of their relationship as kids and find out what went wrong in their history.

This book was solid. I like the recent popularity of romance novels about people in academia. I thought that the specialty in history was a nice tie in to the fact that a lot of this book is made up of flashbacks. It highlights the importance of looking at the past in order to not repeat the same mistakes, something pretty crucial for a second chance love story.

Speaking of flashbacks, I think that the book had a good balance between those and the present. It wasn't every single moment of the past but it still gave you a clear picture of everything that happened. I thought that the author did a good job of tying things from the past into the present. For example, Clara gets a compliment early on for a My Chemical Romance shirt she wears. In a later flashback we learn how she came to like the band.

I wish that there had been a little more animosity between the characters. If you tell me that they had a falling out and haven't spoken since, I expect a little more tension. For the most part, they seem to immediately get along and work together fine. Other than clearly still having feelings for each other, there isn't really a problem between them in the present.

My only other gripe is that I didn’t really understand the point of all of the back and forth, especially in the past. The characters make big deal about debating whether they should be together even though they clearly love each other and there isn't much of a reason not to. I feel like there could have been a bit more to the plot than that.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, enough to give it 4 stars immediately after, but it isn't the most memorable book for me.

Sidenote: Theodore must be making a comeback, because this is the second book I've reviewed where the male lead was named Ted.

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[vvendyreads]

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

"A surprise pregnancy leads to even more life-changing revelations in this heartfelt, slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance of found family and unexpected love."

Eve Hatch is surprised when a one night stand with a stranger leads to an unexpected pregnancy. She had previously been fairly neutral about having kids and certainly wasn't ready for one at the moment while working an ok but not great job at her dream company. Someone who very much wants kids is her married best friend Willa, who has been trying to get pregnant for a long time. Eve surprises everyone (Willa, Willa's human equivalent of a golden retriever brother Shep, and baby daddy Ethan) by deciding to "keep being pregnant." The story follows Eve's pregnancy as her relationships with Willa and Shep change. Willa struggles with the idea that her ambivalent friend is pregnant before her, while Shep majorly steps up to support Eve. Meanwhile, Eve tries to navigate keeping Ethan in the loop while figuring out if he will stick around and be a father to this baby.

Things I normally don’t like:

Books where the main character gets pregnant

Books where the main character has two potential love interests

Slow burn romance

Friends to lovers

To say that I was shocked that this is my first 5 star book of the year is putting it mildly. You may be wondering why I even picked up this book in the first place, given all of these things I listed are pretty much in the book's summary. That reason is the author, Cara Bastone. I adored her story "Seatmate", which is an Audible exclusive, i.e., I can no longer listen to it since cancelling my membership :( When I saw that she had a new book coming out, I figured I would at least give it a shot. I am so glad that I did.

Bastone does an excellent job of making you feel what her characters are feeling. I could feel Eve's growing feelings for Shep as the story progressed. I could feel her hurt and frustration when people reacted in a negative way to her pregnancy. I felt everything and loved every minute.

Bastone also does a remarkable job of making you like all of the characters without sugarcoating faults. Some of the characters make bad or selfish decisions. But these characters also learn from these mistakes and are accountable for them. Willa, for example, is the first person Eve tells about the pregnancy and she has a bad reaction. Eve rightly feels frustrated with this reaction. Willa eventually apologizes and it feels like an honest apology. Ethan spends the book waffling about whether he wants to be in the baby's life. He has a "good" reason for it, but I found that I never fully trusted him, because Eve didn't either. There's only one character who is actually labeled a "bad guy", but he's only in one scene.

The book doesn't fully reach a love triangle (or the two possible love interests trope that people call love triangles), Eve is pretty clear from the beginning that she doesn't really see a romantic future with Ethan. But I appreciated the intricacies of how Eve, Shep, and Ethan were still intertwined, given that Eve is having Ethan's baby but Shep is always going to be around.

My issue with slow-burns is that I typically am not invested enough in the rest of the story to patiently wait for the romance to occur. I enjoyed going on the journey with Eve, so I didn't mind waiting, and it made the romance all the better.

My beef with friends to lovers is that I had too many close male friends growing up, so the concept of the trope just feels awkward to me. This one had the benefit of also being "best friend's brother", which I am more on board with.

Shep was such a good male lead. I'm partial to the golden retriever love interest (I have one of my own) and am disappointed that grumpy seems to be having a moment. I was happy to see Shep be devoted, caring, and just a good guy.

I've never had a baby, but the pregnancy journey that Eve takes feels very real. The author initially thought of the idea for the book when she was about to have her first child and then finished it while pregnant with her second. I imagine a lot of the story comes from the author's experience.

I'm so happy that I gave this book a chance. I highly recommend.

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[vvendyreads]

Fake It 'til You Make It by Laura Carter

Abbey thought that she was about to have the best night of her life. Her boyfriend, who was also her childhood friend, asks her to dinner and she thinks wedding bells are coming. She is shocked to find that instead of a proposal he actually wants to break up and he's been cheating on her with someone else. To make matters worse, she then quickly loses her job. Abbey decides to turn things around by spending all of her savings on 6 months rent in her dream luxury apartment building. While there, she runs into her ex, who is now dating someone who lives in her building. She's saved from embarrassment by her suave star baseball playing neighbor Mike, who has been bugging her since she moved in. When Abbey and her ex are both invited to her parent's vow renewal in Canada, Abbey decides that she needs a fake boyfriend to bring. Mike volunteers. What Abbey doesn't know is that "Mike Thomas" is actually Ted Thomas, Mike's brother who has been hiding in his brother's penthouse ever since his fiancée cheated on him with his business partner. After Abbey mistakes Ted for his brother, he decides to pretend to be him, fooling Abbey and everyone else.

Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes for this one. I love a good fake dating story. Unfortunately, this one was just not for me. Pros:

Fake dating is always a must read for me. Literally. Tell me a story has fake dating and I'm all in. I love the romantic potential of dating someone you normalize wouldn't in a low stakes way. Even better if the characters initially can't stand each other. How else will they learn to get along? I think this trope is so fun, even if it doesn't really happen nearly as much in real life as media would make us think.

Dual POV: I love getting both characters' perspectives in a story. The great thing about books as opposed to real life, is that you can know exactly what another person is thinking. Especially with how this story goes, I think Ted would have been pretty irredeemable if we hadn't gotten his POV.

Interesting settings: I enjoyed the diversion to Canada. This book was set in New York, which I think is having its moment right now. The author didn't really explore that setting much, so I appreciated that she moved the characters to a different location, so we could at least explore that.

Cons: (Unfortunately, there are more of these than pros for me)

Mistaken identity- I really hate mistaken identity. I honestly wish I had known going in that it would be a part of this book, as I may not have read it. I included it in my summary but the official one for the book only describes Mike/Ted as a "hot neighbor". I would have forgiven the mistaken identity if it had been corrected quickly, but he doesn't come clean (read: get found out) until nearly the end of the book, which made me anxious and frustrated for most of the story. I didn't buy his reasons for keeping up the ruse to Abbey.

Too many Britishisms: I understand that Boldwood Books is U.K. based, so this may be nit-picky and not an actual issue. I would maybe buy that Canadians might have similar ways of speaking to British people and many characters were Canadian, so perhaps those instances were normal. That's all fine, but when the same phrases were coming out of an American character's mouth, it took me out of the story. The American born Ted said things such as "feck" and "join the queue" and "a kilo of strawberry jelly" to name a few. I feel like an editor could have caught this (or hope that one will now!)

Ted was very superficial. He spent a lot of time rationalizing that he wasn't this shallow guy but the brother he was pretending to be is, so he must also act this way to be him. He spends so much time focusing on the looks of the Abbey and his ex and using this as a way to judge them. Ted also spends much of his initial interactions with Abbey deciding that she is superficial for doing really normal things, which felt very hypocritical. He's supposed to be the nerdy, shy guy but he just came off as a jerk. He also repeatedly mocks Abbey's period underwear that she accidentally dropped in front of him, which made me kind of hate him.

The book felt somewhat incomplete. There were story lines that started but didn't go anywhere. For example, Abbey desperately needed a job. A legitimate company wants to offer one and tells Ted to have her contact them, but he never tells her about it. The book also ends pretty quickly. I would have appreciated an epilogue to know how it ends.

Neutral?

I think that my ultimate issue is that this felt like a mid 90s-early 2000s chick lit/romance. The characters fell into a lot of the boxes of this time: the guy is a jerk, the girl is in distress, there's lots of talk of shopping and a glamorous life. This kind of book was incredibly popular and I'm sure that plenty of people will appreciate it. I think there was a lot of potential in this book, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[vvendyreads]

Hey there! I’ve been reading a lot lately (averaging around 50 books a year for the last couple of years) and thought it would be fun to have one central place to put my reviews.

Reviews will be a mix of books I get from the library and ARCs that I receive from NetGalley. All reviews will be honest.

A little background on me:

I’m a 30-something grad student who loves reading and writing. My favorite books of all time (in no specific order):

1. Pride and Prejudice

2. The Princess Bride

3. The Percy Jackson Series

4. Nancy Drew Mysteries

5. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

6. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Since starting grad school, I’ve read almost exclusively romance novels in order to give my brain a break. Other genres I love are mystery, fantasy, and graphic novels.