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lisibee815's reviews
828 reviews
In a Rush by Kate Canterbary
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-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
4.0
Funny and sweet (and bittersweet at times), great friends-to-lovers romance with the typical lack of communication and lack of clear boundaries and all of the associated angst that happens before the HEA. (It's not like we don't all know what we're getting when we pick up a book like this, right?) And apparently I can excuse a lot of subterfuge and evasion and intentional miscommunication (and some manipulation but not all of it) if it's in the context of yearning and "he fell first" and "she's my best friend but I want her to be more so I'll trick her into marriage." I am *such* a sap for these tropes but only if they're done well and I'm in the right mood. This book ticked the boxes and I enjoyed it! 2nd in a series but it works fine as a standalone. (I'll be honest, I read the first book but didn't remember I had until I was 25% into this one, and I don't feel like I missed anything when I was reading.)
I would have liked to see more of Ryan and Emme together as teenagers, more than just hints. Also, pay attention to content warnings as there are some serious themes. Very open door; on the one hand, great sex-positivity. On the other hand, the volume of it was a little much for me at times and it didn't always feel necessary to the story (or maybe like the author was over-using it as a plot device to keep Ryan and Emme from communicating). It's delightfully steamy but at some points I just wanted them to ease up on the sex because it felt like a distraction.
I would have liked to see more of Ryan and Emme together as teenagers, more than just hints. Also, pay attention to content warnings as there are some serious themes. Very open door; on the one hand, great sex-positivity. On the other hand, the volume of it was a little much for me at times and it didn't always feel necessary to the story (or maybe like the author was over-using it as a plot device to keep Ryan and Emme from communicating). It's delightfully steamy but at some points I just wanted them to ease up on the sex because it felt like a distraction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Minor: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
The Woman with All the Answers by Linda Green
emotional
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
4.0
Michelle is a nurse and mother of two, in the grips of peri-menopause and midlife frustrations. Her husband Marc, once a competitive journalist now unhappily employed doing technical writing, is struggling with his own existential crises. On top of her nursing job, Michelle cares for her elderly father as well as Marc's mother-in-law, in addition to managing the needs of her two teen children. Like many households, Marc and Michelle and their children rely heavily on the household Alexa, never dreaming that there's more to this device than it seems. It's an interesting premise: what if our Alexa devices were manned by real people? Oh, and they were monitoring us around the clock, listening in and following all of our tech activity? Pauline, a kind-hearted mother and aging voice actor, voices Michelle's Alexa. She knows all the family's secrets and patterns, and is sometimes tested by the limits of her job, especially this close to retirement. And most especially when the family's struggles escalate and they could use the extra help. Pauline sees ways she can help the family, but just how far will she go? It would be easy to use that kind of access for bad deeds, but this isn't that kind of book. Instead it was an imaginative and thoughtful story, with humor in all the right places. It was actually very sweet and surprisingly emotional, and there are some heavier themes so heed the content warnings. The story has a lot of commentary on family roles and life demands in middle age, especially focusing on women's struggles. And honestly, as a mid-life woman juggling all kinds of demands, I'd *love* to have someone anticipating my every need and doing some gentle, behind-the-scenes maneuvering to get me where I need to go. Sometimes you just need someone to believe in you, and sometimes that's your Alexa. Publishes February 26, 2025. Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for providing an eARC of this story, all opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Medical content
The Intergalactic Interloper by Delas Heras
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A light-ish and imaginitive read, even though I found the storyline with Mrs. Butler (and her god-daughter) to be a bit unsettling. Way too many alternating POVs.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, and Kidnapping
Change of Plans by Dylan Newton
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.
DNF at 50%. There was a lot to recommend it but it wasn't grabbing me (the kids were a pro but also a con--especially the oldest one, the use of the miscommunication trope was grating, and the tension with the grandparents wanting custody was dampening my enjoyment). I may try again in the future. I didn't realize it was the third in a series, maybe it would have helped to have read those first?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Excrement, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
The Roommate Mistake by Pippa Grant
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
Meh, got as far as 40% but I don't know. The story just didn't grab me like I'd hoped. There was potential but Holt coming across like an a-hole in the beginning didn't endear him to me. I had the same problem with her last rugby book too, it's like the author is moving into her jerky mmc phase (although Holt was much more likable than the mustache guy). I miss the baseball players. (Side note, how many major sports teams does one relatively small city need? She's got baseball and hockey, now rugby. Is the next series going to be basketball? Arena football?) I used to really love Pippa Grant, her books were such a great blend of humor and heat, always with an HEA and endearing main and supporting characters. But I'm just not feeling her books so much anymore. :(
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
25-year-old Calla is the oldest sister to 22-year-old Dre and 16-year-old Jamie. The siblings are a disjointed family unit, and they all three have lasting emotional damage courtesy of their deeply-flawed parents. Circumstances lead to Calla gaining guardianship over Jamie, and she struggles with the demands of parenting her brother with very little support. (Jamie is a capricious teen with an attitude, questionable judgment and impulse control, and dangerous friends; and Dre isn't helping as much as he'd promised.) The struggles of solo guardianship compete with her job responsibilities and how she supports herself and her brother, compounding her worries. Loving but frustrated, Calla suffers from anxiety-ridden night terrors in which she must continually save her brothers from mortal danger. Then Jamie gets suspended from school for drug possession, and things start getting inexplicably weird for the siblings. After a social protest goes extremely sideways for Jamie, they're forced to flee the Seattle suburbs and hide in a remote cabin in Oregon. Then things *really* get weird.
This book had an interesting premise and execution so I'm going to do my best to avoid revealing spoilers. The author has created a disorienting, tense, violent, and heart-wrenching story. She is clearly imaginative and has a talent for descriptive writing (honestly I felt like this could be a movie, it was that easy to picture events as they unfolded). But please pay attention to the content warnings before going into the story as there was a lot that was disturbing and graphic. Both Dre and Jamie were hard to warm up to at first, and I found Jamie to be especially unlikable for most of the book. (Which unfortunately made it harder to invest in caring what happened to them, even when events escalated to dangerous proportions.) I felt for Calla, the most sympathetic of the siblings. A once-parentified child, Calla does her best with Jamie after being thrust into an impossible situation. All three siblings were negatively impacted by their parents' choices, and are weighed down by childhood trauma and disappointment and the heavy responsibility of love.
The story is told from alternating POVs from all 3 siblings, which lends depth and some structure to what was sometimes a chaotic narrative. I felt like this book didn't always know what it wanted to be: sometimes the writing felt like literary fiction and other times more like a psychological thriller, with a hefty dose of graphic horror mixed in to the whole thing. This was not a quick or easy book and I struggled to finish, although some of that was because the dark themes and content were overwhelming at times. (Also, do not trust the "laugh out loud" part of the book description. There were some moments of humor, largely dialogue, but they were meager and this was not in any way a funny story.) I found the book to be a bit dense at times with uneven pacing, although the pace picked up quite a bit around the 50% mark. The author writes like she deeply understands emotional trauma, and she has created an evocative mix of family dysfunction, horror, and social commentary. It was well-written and the author seems like she knows quite a bit about the extraordinary sacrifices families make for one another. So, if you love imaginative and gritty books that focus on family dysfunction bound up in love, mixed with social commentary and psychological horror, then this is the novel for you. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC of this book.
This book had an interesting premise and execution so I'm going to do my best to avoid revealing spoilers. The author has created a disorienting, tense, violent, and heart-wrenching story. She is clearly imaginative and has a talent for descriptive writing (honestly I felt like this could be a movie, it was that easy to picture events as they unfolded). But please pay attention to the content warnings before going into the story as there was a lot that was disturbing and graphic. Both Dre and Jamie were hard to warm up to at first, and I found Jamie to be especially unlikable for most of the book. (Which unfortunately made it harder to invest in caring what happened to them, even when events escalated to dangerous proportions.) I felt for Calla, the most sympathetic of the siblings. A once-parentified child, Calla does her best with Jamie after being thrust into an impossible situation. All three siblings were negatively impacted by their parents' choices, and are weighed down by childhood trauma and disappointment and the heavy responsibility of love.
The story is told from alternating POVs from all 3 siblings, which lends depth and some structure to what was sometimes a chaotic narrative. I felt like this book didn't always know what it wanted to be: sometimes the writing felt like literary fiction and other times more like a psychological thriller, with a hefty dose of graphic horror mixed in to the whole thing. This was not a quick or easy book and I struggled to finish, although some of that was because the dark themes and content were overwhelming at times. (Also, do not trust the "laugh out loud" part of the book description. There were some moments of humor, largely dialogue, but they were meager and this was not in any way a funny story.) I found the book to be a bit dense at times with uneven pacing, although the pace picked up quite a bit around the 50% mark. The author writes like she deeply understands emotional trauma, and she has created an evocative mix of family dysfunction, horror, and social commentary. It was well-written and the author seems like she knows quite a bit about the extraordinary sacrifices families make for one another. So, if you love imaginative and gritty books that focus on family dysfunction bound up in love, mixed with social commentary and psychological horror, then this is the novel for you. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC of this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
Minor: Vomit
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
I really liked it, I understand now why I had to wait so long for my library hold! This book is set in the world of the Clocktaur War and the Paladin series (the World of the White Rat, Paladins, and gnoles make appearances, as does the Vagrant Hills). But it felt much lighter in tone and was more humorous overall (although some decidedly non-humorous things happen). The book felt more rooted in romance than the other books, which is partly why I enjoyed it so much. Sarkis and Halla were fantastic together and nicely complemented one another. They give great mid-life representation, although I vehemently object to Halla considering herself "old" at 36. (But the vibe is that their world is Middle Ages-ish in industrial development so I guess that fits for life expectancy.) The main storyline resolved very nicely but the fate of the other two swords was left on a cliffhanger. I'm hoping that means there will be more books but this one was published 7 years ago which is not encouraging. (Although on the author's website she says she's hoping to do a sequel someday so fingers crossed!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
Minor: Vomit
Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Jane and Dan are celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary, at a restaurant that's way out of their budget (but Dan has a coupon!), when their restaurant date is rudely interrupted by armed extremists. Jane, the author of one wildly unsuccessful published novel, suddenly finds that life is mirroring events in her book way too closely for coincidence. Prior to the date Jane was gearing up to divorce her husband, the sweet but seemingly clueless Dan. Jane and Dan are just two imperfect people, raising two imperfect children, who have become a bit complacent in the mundanity of their mid-lives but then are thrust into a life-altering situation. Will the shared danger bring them closer or just prove that their differences are too vast to stay together?
This was an engaging and absorbing book with much to unpack re: marital roles, the trials of parenthood, individuality vs. familial identity, and the weight of personal happiness. Domestic drama and existential crises fight for attention amidst the unfolding hostage situation as Jane and Dan try to figure out what's happening and why, both with the divorce bombshell Jane drops and the reason that terrorists have targeted the uber-expensive and exclusive restaurant where they happen to be spending their anniversary dinner. This story was a bit more twisty and tense than I expected, but in a good way, and it was nicely tempered by subtle humor throughout. Dual 3rd-person POVs, alternating between Jane and Dan's perspective. I found that Jane was a tricky character to warm up to. The anger over her marriage initially numbed her to the events in the restaurant, but she was already striking out at Dan before events started happening, and she comes across as self-centered at times. Dan seems earnest but maybe a little oblivious and not terribly introspective, although for large portions of the book neither of them seemed hugely self-aware. I found the ending to be satisfying, with enough surprises along the way to keep me reading to the end. If you enjoy imaginative and dryly funny writing, heists with a few twists and turns, and mid-life existential crises laced with relationship drama then you'll love this book! Publishes March 11, 2025. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an eARC of this book, this is my objective review.
This was an engaging and absorbing book with much to unpack re: marital roles, the trials of parenthood, individuality vs. familial identity, and the weight of personal happiness. Domestic drama and existential crises fight for attention amidst the unfolding hostage situation as Jane and Dan try to figure out what's happening and why, both with the divorce bombshell Jane drops and the reason that terrorists have targeted the uber-expensive and exclusive restaurant where they happen to be spending their anniversary dinner. This story was a bit more twisty and tense than I expected, but in a good way, and it was nicely tempered by subtle humor throughout. Dual 3rd-person POVs, alternating between Jane and Dan's perspective. I found that Jane was a tricky character to warm up to. The anger over her marriage initially numbed her to the events in the restaurant, but she was already striking out at Dan before events started happening, and she comes across as self-centered at times. Dan seems earnest but maybe a little oblivious and not terribly introspective, although for large portions of the book neither of them seemed hugely self-aware. I found the ending to be satisfying, with enough surprises along the way to keep me reading to the end. If you enjoy imaginative and dryly funny writing, heists with a few twists and turns, and mid-life existential crises laced with relationship drama then you'll love this book! Publishes March 11, 2025. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an eARC of this book, this is my objective review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Blood, and Kidnapping
Redshirts by John Scalzi
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
Not my usual but I'm so glad I picked it up! Creative and imaginative, with a depth of emotion in places I wasn't expecting. This is not a funny story but it's helped along by the author's dry wit. And the ending was perfection. :)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail