lisaluvsliterature's reviews
3944 reviews

Muffin But Trouble by Talia Hunter

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.5

I enjoyed the first book in the SmartyPants world by this author, Tough Cookie, so I was excited to read another in the Donner Bakery world. It took me a minute to remember those characters, but once we met Mags, Magdalena, and she talked to her sister on the phone, Carla, I remembered her and Noah.

Mags was much different than Carla. Whereas Carla wasn’t much of a social person, Mags was from NYC and was a very loud and big personality. A big city personality. In fact that is why her first meet up with Cy was probably more cute for the readers than for her or Cy. I mean she called him Deliverance! Which most people know is the movie where some hillbillies kind of were scary people. That sucked for Cy as he had dealt with the bad reputation his father gave the family for his whole life.

Her treatment of him made me a little mad at first, and that’s even before we got his side of the story. But as we learned more about her interactions with the contact she had saved in her phone as “scary drug dealer”, her wariness made more sense. And oh my gosh, her ex-boyfriend, a rock star, wow, he was a total and complete loser! But as she kept putting her foot in her mouth over little things with the small town characters of Green Valley, I liked how she ended up handling those things and learning from her mistakes. Not to mention how the small town grew on her, like I think it would any of us who got the absolute wonderful chance to live in this fictional world.

Cy was cautious with letting his niece be known as part of his family. He wants her to have a fair chance in this town without that bad past. His niece is a little bratty, but again, as a teen, it is understandable, especially with what she has gone through and with where her mom is at the moment. Cy was a wonderful guy, and definitely loved his side of the story.

Oh, and I loved the dog that just showed up and made Mags his owner. Another great story from this author in the SPR world and I hope we get more of this family and these characters in future releases!

Happy Medium by Sarah Adler

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

The Pucker Next Door by Sara Ney

funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I was worried now that the author was in such a happy relationship she was not having writing time, but I am pleased to say that is not the situation and Ney is back with another hilarious sports rom-com.

All of the squirrel parts to the story had me giggling! And the bit at the end from the squirrel’s POV reminded me of Clive the cat’s POV at the end of Wallbanger. My hope is that we might get more squirrels in maybe some related stories to this one? I could see both Brodie or Lizzie’s roommates giving us some good stories. Especially Lizzie’s wingman, Sully – one of Brodie’s roomies. If anyone does a virgin hero story right, it is Sara Ney. One of the first books of hers that I read included that exact trope and so yeah, I think I really enjoy when she does it.

The author makes me connect so perfectly with characters, for instance, the fact that the way Lizzie flirted was ignoring, yeah, that’s me! And let me tell you, it has NOT worked for me, lol. And then there was texting humor when people kept saying “ha ha” in texts and Brodie told them to say lol like a normal person. I love how Lizzie would make up words like saying she wasn’t “sportsy”. And Brodie, oh Brodie, what a sweet, but bit of a grumpy guy.

This was a quick and easy read, fun, sweet, and sexy too!

Getting Lucky Number Seven by Cindi Madsen

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Love Algorithm by Camilla Isley

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really enjoyed the last book in this series, Baby, One More Time, and this one even had some of those characters for us, which I loved! Reese was a fun STEM character, in charge of a robotic department of the company that Thomas’s father was the CEO of. Her department sounded like a bunch of fun nerdy people, I’d love to hang out with them! And her AI robot, K-2P, was hilarious! Such a fun part of the story.

Thomas was definitely the sunshine to Reese’s grumpy, although it wasn’t really that she was grumpy. She was just a woman trying to make sure she’d proven herself in a mostly male dominated field. Thomas was more than just sunshine though. He was really a genuinely nice guy, all around charming and easy to be around as well as work with.

They fought their attraction, both having such good reasons for it, and I love that Thomas seemed to fall first in this story. While Reese definitely felt the attraction pretty quickly, she kept him at arm’s length for good reasons based on her past as well as her career. We got a bit of a hint at what would kind of become their big dramatic third act issue with the very first paragraph of the story. But when it happens, it still surprised me because I’d kind of forgotten about it as the story went on and no further mention was made. And I love the way all of the relationship was wrapped up for our HEA at the end. I like that we may have been unsure about Thomas’s family, but the way it worked out was realistic and I loved it.

Another great story from this author, but now I need to go back because I missed the first one in this series, and I need to know Thomas’s brother Gabriel’s story with his girlfriend Blake.

Passing Notes by Nora Everly

emotional 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

3.75

I have loved every Nora Everly book in the SmartyPants Romance world, and this new series set in a school was the perfect place to go with my own background and current job in education. There was so much to love about this book. The characters were great, including ones we knew from the last series in the SPR world by Everly. I loved the setting of the school, although I was so mad that they had an old grumpy librarian who scared people away from coming to the library. Made me really want to write the book idea I had to get my own story into the world with a new school librarian. 

Now, I did get a little tired of the refusal to even talk about what had happened. I know that it would have taken away a major issue between the two, and so maybe it makes sense that the author waited so long. And then because this was a quick read, I might have skipped over some parts as I sped through to find out what would happen, but I swear they’d planned a date, and then all of a sudden there was no talk about it? I probably need to go back and reread that part again and I’ll find I missed a comment or discussion that cancelled that date. 

I’m very excited for the new characters we’ve met with this book, along with those we know from the other books in the SPR world as well as from the original Green Valley series. 

Beastly Beauty by Jennifer Donnelly

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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

4.0

Nun Too Soon by Lissa Sharpe

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved the idea behind this and I remember when Penny Reid was asking for ideas for the title for this book. Even at over 300 pages this was a quick read! Probably because it had me turning pages to find out what was going on with Helen’s brother. Not to mention what a different character from most romance, a former nun! Of course the fact that she was a librarian and writing a smutty romance made me connect with her a bit too, lol. (Not that I’m a nun or ever have been, even if my sex life feels like it lately).

At first I was wondering why we didn’t get Thad’s POV for a few chapters, but then it all falls into place when we learn that Thad is a bounty hunter and only hanging around Helen to try to get to her brother Dean. Of course he connects with her more than he knows he should or thinks he will. So Helen of course thinks he will be perfect to help her check off some of those boxes for things that “normal” people do in the real world now that she’s no longer in a convent. Thad knows that he shouldn’t do those things with her, also he just is so sure she’s a woman and so like every other woman in his life up to this point, he knows he probably can’t trust her.

Both have things to learn, and of course both do over the course of the story through all the adventures and situations they deal with. I like the way the author handles the ending though. As you know I’m normally not a fan of those third act breakups, but the author does it so that it made sense for the story. And she made it so that the make up, getting back together was real, and while not perfectly smooth, also not unrealistically easy. 

I’m looking forward to the next two I assume will be in the series with Helen’s fellow former nun friends. Although one of those friends is going to have to do some stuff to change my mind about her, because I don’t know how much I like her right now.

Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.

Just couldn't really get into it, possibly the third person aspect?  But it's the second book by this author I've tried, so guessing maybe her books just aren't for me.

How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back by Diana Rowland

adventurous dark funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Now this fourth installment was packed with action from the very beginning to the very end! There were tons of twists and turns and so many new details about the zombie parasite or whatever it is that this author brings in this world. And not only is there a ton of action, we get to see the world outside the little bitty Louisiana town that Angel lives in when they must go to New York City to rescue some of the zombies we know and maybe love. For a change, I have to say that I felt some similarities between Angel and myself. For instance, the stubbornness about having other people pay or do things for you, and how it can make you feel like they are looking down on you or not believing you can do something, even if they don’t even mean it that way. And then when she’s walking in NYC with the others and complaining about how her short legs can’t keep up, it totally reminded me of visiting my sister who lived in NYC and her walking so fast, only her legs weren’t that much longer than mine, she was just completely a NYC native at that point.

With all the stuff going on, some traitors, who maybe later we found weren’t actually traitors. And then some that Angel or others trusted until people tried to point a finger at them, and it was hard to know for sure. So many possible double agents, or then again maybe they weren’t! One character mentioned how they’d felt like they didn’t want to “be here” basically be alive, but it didn’t mean he was suicidal, and I get that. I have feelings all the time that I just don’t want to do things anymore, life specifically, but I also am not suicidal. So that really spoke to me.

Something happens late in the story that means we learn a huge load of info on the zombie parasite and how it continues to affect its hosts. We also get histories of Pietro and other older zombie characters and that is fascinating to learn as well. It got really dark with some of the ways the bad guys were treating the zombies they’d managed to lock up. It was horrible and so sad. But again, we learned so much more about their “medical condition” as Angel called it with her dad, as well as other people that had to be let in on the secret in this book.

In the end we have some new zombies that will for sure feature in future stories. As well as Angel who has been doing so well with her new life, finds something that her addictive personality might be able to use to slide back into some old habits. That end of the book made me eager to get started, and I’ll do that in May!