tabtalksbooks's reviews
542 reviews

Reckless by Lauren Roberts

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.0

• 3⭐️ 1🌶️
• First thought: does anyone eat anything other than stale bread?
• Basically this whole book is a cat and mouse chase. Kai hunting payden. Payden capturing Kai. Both of them working together. Conflicting feelings. It’s exactly what a second book in a trilogy is: the middle. The first book was there lust and working together to build a connection, how their love story started. The second book is after the collapse of the fall out and trying to hurt eachother and never really falling back in love. I’m guessing the third book is going to be them finally coming together, realizing their feelings and looping Kitt into the plot and living happily ever after. lol
• What they do have with eachother is hope and companionship. Everything literally goes wrong and they both don’t make a big deal of it, they just pack up and move on
• the romance was so romantic. The way Kai is with payden is so swoony. It seems so pure, so heartbreaking, so conflicting. 
• The ending I did not enjoy. I sort of saw half of it coming but I just don’t like this whole love triangle thing. Shadow and flame for life. 

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense fast-paced

4.25

• 4.25⭐️ 0🌶️
• The book starts off quick. The first chapter it’s down to the main plot. It’s a British thriller so it’s a lot of back story, the author explaining everything the FMC did during every minute of the day. Her thoughts and inner feelings, what was stocked in the work break room. It seems only British authors do this lol. 
• In a matter of hours. Cams day goes from worrisome to down right horrible. It’s her first day back as a literary agent and also the first day she dropped her daughter off at day care and her husband Luke is no where to be found and not answering his phone. What he did do is leave an extremely cryptic note early in the morning. 
• She ends up dropping Polly off and going to work where she sees police lights and turns to watch the news. It turns out there is a hostage situation where three people were taken and it happens to be where her husbands cow working space is. 
• The cops come in and explain to Cam that her husband isn’t one of the hostages- he’s the gunman. And it all unravels from there. 
• Multi POV from Cam, Niall (hostage negotiator) 
  • Seems like a very real depiction of how a wife would act in this sort of situation

The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl, Vol. 1 by Miyuki Tonogaya

funny lighthearted medium-paced

3.5

* 3.5⭐️ 🚫🌶️
* Things Himuro likes:
Flowers
Cats
Nice people
* He can’t control his emotions. The more he gets worked up or strongly feels for an emotion the more it snows or freezes. There’s ice in the hallways, in the office, on a sunny day lol
* He loves cats but can’t pet them because it stirs up too much emotion and he creates ice, so he watches cat videos to comfort himself
* The FMC brings in stuff and makes stuff for himuro to comfort him so his emotions don’t go crazy. What she does get is she makes his emotions go crazy. He’s in love with her so hard 

The Starlight Heir by Amalie Howard

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

2.5

• 2.5⭐️ 2🌶️
• Oryndhr Has four ruling houses, each with their own attributes. All of which are hard to pronounce or get to stick in your mind, just like every characters name in every fantasy book lol
• Follows FMC suraya who is in house of aldebaran (farmers, craftsman, the poorest and largest house) she receives a letter from the imperial house that changes her life because if something is too good to be true, it might be exactly that. 
• There are competitions the chosen women have to go through in order to prove their worth on being picked by the prince as his wife. 
• There’s a handsome illegitimate prince. 
• Lots of names between houses, people in the houses, names of the people - it was just so confusing. 
• I felt towards the end of the book I was skimming and just wanted to get to the end. 

Recipe for a Charmed Life by Rachel Linden

emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

3.0

• 3⭐️ 🫑
• Starts off in Paris with Georgia being the sous chef on her way to a dazzling career. She’s got the hottest Parisian chef boyfriend according to the magazines and a bright future ahead until she discovers a secret that everyone else in the kitchen knew, besides her.
• Ode to Julia child throughout the whole book
• Her estranged mother sends her a letter asking her to come to a small island town in Seattle to try nd fix their relationship. She moves in with her to hopefully give some space of her Paris life to settle before returning
• She tries to ignite her spark and passion for cooking again while visiting her mom and has a mysteriously hott neighbor Cole who happens to tromp around in bright orange overalls because he’s an oyster farmer. 
• This was filled with magical realism fantasy, humor, lots of secrets and romance. Rekindling of old and new relationships. 

Throne of Secrets by Kerri Maniscalco

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

• 6⭐️ 4🌶️
• Enemies to lovers, steamy Romantasy
• Follows king gluttony
• The book opens up with Gabriel, his most bravest inner circle of men and his brother the prince of wrath sparring with ice dragons that was a structured practice so that the dragons and men could keep up their skills until it takes a deadly turn. 
• Adriana is a reporter for the house of gluttony. Where she also lives. Her and the prince have a love hate relationship. 
• This world is just so fascinating. Especially since everything is indulgent in this sin. The food, the passion, the clothing. It’s just so wild. 
• Gabriel messed up and now he needs to hide that fact by starting a bachelor type show for his kingdom. He is the eligible bachelor and he is looking for someone for his wife. He will have Adrianna be the dedicated reporter of this event so he can keep tabs on her and make sure she isn’t sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. HE has no plans of going through with a marriage but hopes it will stop Adrianna from digging up a secret he’s been trying to keep secret. 
• This book was everything. I only have one other 6 star read. I friggin DMd the author to let her know how much I loved this book. The prose was just so much. I can’t even get my feelings straight. The action, the adventure, the dragons, the enemies to lovers, the romance - THE FREAKING ROMANCE, the plot twists, the misunderstandings, the side characters, the baby dragon and honest to god THE ENDING. My emotions are all over the place. This is a freaking book — I get it I get it but I just cannot fathom another book topping this for me. I have never felt this type of way after reading a book-ever. 

Wild Side by Elsie Silver

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

4.5

• 4.5⭐️ 3🌶️
• Tabitha and Rhys. Gosh do I love a story with a FMC that has my name lol. 
• Tabitha’s sister passes away and she believes that she is going to be the legal guardian of her 3 year old nephew Milo until….in walks Rhys the landlord and a paper that happens to be Ericka’s will. 
• This story is so absolutely touching. Rhys was a foster kid, never staying in one spot for long, never feeling like someone would choose him or want him. Until he meets Tabitha and the whole rose hill crew
• The Thursday bowling crew is back and I love them. 
• Discovered the word manties 🤣
• This made me want to watch wrestling which is something I’ve never said before lol 
• Found family is absolutely front and center in this book. Dealing with grief and learning to love is the main take away. And there’s of course some Elsie silver signature spicy scenes!
• Bash and Gwen is in the last and final book in this series coming out in September. 

The Awakening by Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

5⭐️ 1🌶️

• Opens up with a heist
• There’s two twin sisters. Darcy and Tory. They were foster kids on earth but then once they turned 18 they started to emit a sense of elemental magic that they didn’t know but professor orion on solaria did know. He came to get them from earth and bring them back to solaria which is a mirror copy of earth but one where fae rule. The girls found out they are changelings and are brought to solaria to start their journey at zodiac academy. 
• Darius and Tory are some real enemies to lovers. He is such a huge ahole. 
• There is just so much drama in this school. It’s a college and the kids don’t act 18/19 they act 16 lol. 
• This book WAS WILD! so much deceit. It’s hard when they all have different powers that work in certain ways. 

Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams

emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.5

• 4.5⭐️ 2🌶️
• Emily and Jackson
• Enemies to lovers
• Emily is such a type A perfectionist I love it! Girl needs to get on some SSRIs though and chill a bit lol
• Guessing the fourth book will be about the last sibling Madison who’s in culinary school
• Jack has his own secrets he’s hiding. Coming back after a called off wedding and feeling nostalgia to pick back up with the constant back and forth bickering with Emily. He wants to plant roots in Rome and chases a house - which Emily does not like what so ever. 
• This book was steamy. But it was less about the act and more of the way the author described what was happening in the most romantic prose. 
• I enjoyed this book and this series so much so far! Can’t wait for next one!

First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌶️🌶️🌶️
• First book I’ve read by this author and I’m going to have to start Lovelight farms this fall
• Inspired by sleepless in Seattle movie
• The sexual tension in this book was OMG
• The bashful nervousness Aiden feels when trying to express his feelings being so nervous that Lucien isn’t going to understand what he’s trying to explain. 
• The side characters are so perfect and understanding and welcoming. 
• This book was just so sweet. Lucie was an understand, patient, lovable woman and Aiden had so much love to offer but fear kept keeping him back. 
• I always love stories of single moms but this book really didn’t revolve around that. It was really about Lucie finding happiness and it was good.