tabtalksbooks's reviews
545 reviews

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. 

Fragile Sanctuary by Catherine Cowles

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

• ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 🌶️🌶️
• My first Catherine cowles book
• So much family. Found family everywhere
• Rho and anson. Rho has a traumatic past and anson is just a walking question mark was an FBI profiler but something happened to him in his past to make him go from carefree college kid to grumpy straight laced lone wolf now
• Anson being territorial. 
• Downfall is I felt it took way too long to get Rho and Anson to actually talk and seem interested in eachother. I was almost lost
• His nickname for her:reckless
• Everyone is so happy to see Rho and there’s every guy in town coming around but I thought she always lived in town and saw everyone all the time anyway but everyone is making it seem like she just moved back from out of state
• Very much a spicier hallmark movie vibe. It’s like the hallmark and murder and mystery channel with spice
• The ending was kinda anti climatic, but still good.
• The bonus two years later epilogue. Pure chefs kiss.  

Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su

1.0

* Debut
* Coming of age
* Socially awkward FMC who makes me feel depressed. She’s lost and isn’t going anywhere fast. She runs before she gets the chance to face uncomfortable situations which has ruined most of her relationships
* Almost DNFd at page 70. It just wasn’t doing anything for me. Vi was such an uncomfortable character. I just felt pity for her. She’s jealous of everyone and doesn’t ever seem to want to better herself
* The book really pushes boundaries. It’s more a magical realism fever dream book
* Recapping her multi year relationship with her ex Luke I guess to figure out what went wrong? Which we never find out. 
* I didn’t like the ending. I didn’t get the ending. Wtf

A Sign of Affection, Volume 10 by suu Morishita

hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

4.5

• They make up their own signs together
• Very unseen plot twist!
• Everyone’s getting so mature!

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

3.0

• Murderbot is back now disguised as a security consultant Rin. New group of characters. Another bot named Miki. Lots of inner dialogue that’s very sophisticated for a machine lol
• Combat bots, new planets, perfect amount of adventure, action packed to the last second

What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella

emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

* This is a strong story about having it all and being blessed to the maximum and then having it all come crashing down momentarily. Makes you take a pause on your life and make sure you’re really living in the present and trying not to hold grudges
* Memory loss. Cancer. Vulnerable, Raw
* Eve and nicks relationship. Tear jerker
Sophie Kinsella was one of the first authors I’ve ever read from. Her shopaholics series was what enlightened and opened my world to books. 

Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play, Vol. 1: Priestess by Yuu Watase

funny lighthearted fast-paced

2.5

• ⭐️⭐️.5 🚫🌶️
• Book 1: the priestess
• Miaka is in jr high and taking cram school lessons after school in order to get the highest scores and be accepted into an elite high school that her parents want her to go to. She wants to go to the high school her friends are going to. 
• Dual timelines between present day and ancient China. 
• Her and her best friend Yui find this book in the do not enter part of the library and it ends up transporting them to ancient China
• Overbearing single mom wanting her child to never date or look at a guy and is very strict. 
• Tamahome is the MMC in the ancient China timeline
• She needs to gather all seven warriors in order to go back home. And each warrior’s name correlates to a constellation.

Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

2.0

• ⭐️⭐️🌶️
• Follows signs who had been orphaned since a little baby. 
• Death has followed her but is unable to claim her. 
• Very regency tone mid 1800s
• Deaths Nickname for her is little bird
• Gore
• Interesting twist but too slow for me
• Unlikely partnership forms
• She is with the hawthorns who are not doing a healthy or a good job of mourning the death of their wife/mother Lillian