“Never Saw You Coming” Erin Hahn

 “The biggest mistake we make is trying to keep God tidy…. He doesn’t mind a mess. He finds messiness beautiful.”

As someone who was raised in the Catholic Church, I grew up learning the message. However, as I grew as an individual, the message from the church didn’t seem to make sense to me in the ways they were delivering it. Coming out as a teenager, the word of the church start to haunt you. You won’t go to heaven. You’re a sinner. You’re going to hell. You start to worry about your place in the world and second guess yourself. Your family is ashamed. Maybe not your immediate family, but your extended family. God made me, so if this is how I am, did He do it wrong or does He not exist? 

This is definitely a different kind of YA romance from Erin Hahn. This is the story of how Meg meets Micah, but it’s also the story of how Meg solidifies her relationship with Jesus and the Church, and how Micah works through trauma and personal growth. 

I loved this story. I think it has such poignant and quotable lines that will make me think and rethink over and over again for years to come. I don’t think you should ever take a message at face value. We were given these beautiful brains of ours to use, to think, puzzle, question, research, not just accept something told to us. We need to think for ourselves. I also like the idea of “take what you need, and leave the rest” mentality. If you need faith and a higher power, take it! Don’t want to worry about the dress code? Leave that behind. Ultimately your relationship with a higher power is yours and yours alone, and no one can take that from you. 

To Sir, With Love

One of my favorite romantic comedies is You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The movie has everything I want: big city vibes but with cozy neighborhood feels, book stores, and letters. It was an obviously choice for me to request To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne when I found that it was pitched as Love Is Blind meets YGM. I hit the request button before reading the entire synopsis. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Gallery Books for granting my request. 

I was so happy to be approved for this novel. 

Gracie is an optimist and a romantic and finds beauty in the hustle and bustle of NYC but she has been unlucky in love.  She has been chatting with Sir, who she met on a blind dating app, but through a weird turn of events he’s actually NOT looking to meet anyone on this MysteryMate dating app.  However, while he’s not looking for love, they still find themselves drawn to each other and keep up conversation. 

Sebastian is the business man who owns the lease to Gracie’s building and is insistent on buying out the remainder of her lease so that he can build a high rise. He’s originally invested in retaining her property for himself, but as they get to know each other and have more personal interactions he becomes more and more intrigued by the owner than by just the building. But can he catch her interest while she’s lovesick over Sir?

My concerns about this novel is that it was pitched for fans of You’ve Got Mail, and as much as I love that movie/story, I didn’t want to read a carbon copy. This book felt a little too close for comfort in this first half. Additionally, I didn’t love that most of the letters between Lady and Sir were instigated by Lady. It made her seem slightly desperate, and having some addressed by him first would have made the flirtation more even. That being said, I really enjoyed it and was happy to fall into this love story.

I think this would have been a 3.5 star book but the end really had me engaged so I rounded up. If you’re looking for a NYC romance do yourselves a favor and get your hands on To Sir, With Love. It’s published on June 29th, 2021! 

Lost, Found, and Forever - Victoria Schade

 Lost, Found, and Forever

Chance, my rescue beagle, is my shadow. I love him more than I ever thought possible. I am a dog person, and if you own a dog you will understand when I say I would choose him over a person any day of the week and twice on Sundays. This dog is my coworker, my copilot, and my snuggle buddy. He’s the best, paws down, and I would do anything for him. 

I’ve followed Victoria Schade’s Instagram for a while and she, too, is a dog person. I really like her media persona, and her dogs Millie and Olive are absolute stars. So, after seeing the arc on Netgalley (and also feeling like a fraud because I hadn’t read anything else by VS) I requested to review “Lost, Found, and Forever”. I don’t really know what I was expecting - something like a hallmark-movie-in-a-book novel where the characters are pure and sweet, with the smallest amount of drama. This story seems so simple on the surface, but there is real depth and levels of tension that had me hooked from page one. I laughed at both dog and people antics, I was drawn to the chemistry, and the cracked-door romance. 

Justine adopted Spencer from a small shelter and they’ve been best buds for a year. She and Spence get the job of a lifetime working as a dog actor on a new tv show, but suddenly she’s thrown for a loop when someone claims that Spencer is their lost dog, Leo. This novel follows Justine and Griffin, who must navigate the custodial battle of their best friend, and Spencer’s break out role as a dog actor. I want to dive into this story and be friends with everyone. Please do yourselves a favor and pick this up when it's published on March 30th. 

Kingdom of the Wicked - Kerri Maniscalco

I dislike the term "Young Adult". The genre "Young Adult" gives off a very watered down kind of vibe to me. The caliber of writing and craft being published these days is really so far away from the old "YA" that I don't think there is even a comparison. I wish we could abolish YA as a genre altogether, and call them what they really are: fantasy, romance, mystery, etc. Calling a book YA and trying to market it to only teenagers does the story a disservice. Sorry, but it needed to be said. 

I love reading Young Adult books, and consider YA to be my genre of choice as far as new stories go. I will always reach for a fantasy or a rom-com, and I find the material much easier to read especially after working at 45+ hour work week at a computer all day long. I don't want to strain my eyes throughout the day and then dive into a dense, sluggish novel because someone has told me that it's more suitable for my age group. Some days I feel 16 - some days, 150. Who is to say what age group I'm really in but me and my heart. 

I recently read and reviewed Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco, author of the Stalking Jack the Ripper series. I hadn't read anything by her before, and though I wanted to get into SJTR and the following books I was hesitant to dive into a series that was already a few books in length having not read the author before. I requested the book on a whim from Netgalley and Jimmy Patterson books happily granted my request. I was shocked, thrilled, and really excited to dive into it. 

Kingdom of the Wicked follows Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria and their family of witches in Sicily, Italy. The two girls are complete opposites. Where Vittoria seeks excitement and adventure, Emilia is content to curl up with a good book after a day of working at their family's restaurant. These twin witches keep their magic at bay because witches are being hunted, but when something evil happens to her twin, something in Emilia snaps and changes her forever. Soon Emilia is practicing dark magic in order to find vengeance and she gets a whole lot more than she bargained for. Literally. 

There was a lot that I loved about this book: the Sicilian setting, the use of the Italian language here and there, magic, and steamy enemies-to-almost lovers scenes with a gentleman we'll call Wrath. 

I admit, I did want more. I wouldn't have minded more steam, more Emilia/Wrath interaction, and more details. I would have wanted to dive deeper into the way their magic works, and how they learned to use it and hone their skills. That being said, I can't wait to see where this series goes, and whether we'll get down and dirty with the Wicked. Definitely will be reading any sequels to come. This book comes out 10/27 so you still have time to pre-order and pick up a copy the day it comes out! 

*Don't forge to check out my Bookstagram: @Val_readsbooks for more quick reviews and bookish content!*

 

Again, But Better - Christine Riccio

 

Hindsight is a really cruel trick. It most certainly isn’t fair to be able to know how a situation ends and be able to review each and every choice you made, seeing where you went right or wrong. Riccio plays with this in her novel “Again, But Better” through Shane and Pilot. 

Shane is a pre-med college girl who creates her own destiny and heads off on a semester abroad to London to study creative writing and intern at a travel magazine. She lives with a few flatmates who all bond and become a group. Shane spends some time awkwardly flirting with Pilot, who seems to be just as interested, and flirts right  back… until his girlfriend Amy shows up. Amy, who had never gotten Pilot’s message breaking things off, and doesn’t know that they haven’t been together. 

Drama ensues. Chaos reigns, and a twenty-something girl flies home to America with crushed dreams, a broken heart, and irreconcilable differences with her family. She spends the next few years following the life plan that was set out for her before London, before she fell in love with Pilot, and left her dreams across the sea. Finally, when we circle back with Shane in the latter half of the book, we learn that her boyfriend has proposed to her and she is currently interviewing for residencies in NYC. Circumstance has lead her to the same city that Pilot currently lives in, and before she can change her mind she confronts him about their potential. They both mention that they wish they could go back in time and do things over, and fate steps in. 

There are absolutely some things that I would go back and re-do if given the chance. I would do high school over, as much as that sounds painful for some, but I certainly didn’t live up to my fullest potential there, and I could have gone to some much better colleges. I would redo some relationships where I swore I was in love. :: insert eye roll here:: I would have applied for jobs and internships in a different career field than the one I am currently in now so that maybe by the time I reached 34 I would be in a little bit of a better spot. 

Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20 - and 2020 doesn’t give anything for free.

In Five Years - Rebecca Serle

Where do you see yourself in five years? What is your long term plan? Do you have a long term plan, or do you not think that far ahead?

"In Five Years" by Rebecca Serle makes her readers think about these questions, and whether or not there is room for deviation. Are you the kind of person who just knows what you're meant to do? Dannie is. She is in line for the perfect job, and dating the perfect guy who she knows will propose to her exactly at the right time for them, and they'll live in the perfect apartment on Central Park, and the world will be theirs. However, the night after the interview for the perfect job to launch her lawyer career, Dannie falls asleep and wakes up five years in the future with a different man, a different apartment, and completely disoriented. How is this possible? Dannie falls asleep once more and wakes back up in her 'normal' life, but with the memories of a completely different future.

I started reading this novel thinking that I was going to find a woman whose future changes dramatically, and to watch as certain events changed her life. I thought this was going to be a magical love story. Fortunately, and unfortunately, I was totally wrong. This is a love story, 100%, but not the kind you're thinking about. No spoilers here.

I loved this story so much. I started reading it on the beach at 9:00 am, and finished it by 3:00 pm. A lady on the beach asked me how I felt about it, and I completely gushed over it. She told me it'd come up on her social media and she couldn't wait to read it, so when I was finished I walked over to her and gave her the book with the hope that she'll pass it on to someone else once she's finished.

TL;dr - read this unconventional love story, come back and tell me your thoughts about it, and where you see yourself In Five Years. I can't wait to hear all about it.

Kingdom of Ice & Bone - Jill Criswell

Sequel to Beasts of the Frozen Sun, I couldn’t wait to read this next segment of Lira and Reyker’s journey. I wondered how they’d find their way back to each other and how they’d be able to defeat Draki, the Dragon war lord set to conquer the world.  

This being the second book in a trilogy, I knew that at the end of this novel I would be left with more questions than answers. I also knew that there wouldn’t be a resolution or happy ending to this story, because our hero and heroine would need to be at the bottom of the barrel emotionally to be able to rise up and overcome  adversity, but I wasn’t expecting the actual way this book ended. I wasn’t anticipating how sad I would be to read how things played out. How will we come back from this!?!

The beginning of Kingdom starts with Lira and Reyker separated and both assuming the other is dead. They both believe theyve watched each other’s demise. They make promises to the other in their mind to live for them and to protect and help their people. On their separate paths they start to learn that maybe the other is alive, which sets them on a journey to find each other. Reyker works with the Dragon’s enemies to attempt to overthrow him, while Lira is with the Dragon and resisting his advances and trying to figure out a way to escape his control. 

Jill Criswell does a really nice job creating new worlds and helping readers visualize her scenery through words. I wish I had Wraith and Vengence of my very own, and to be able to visit Stony Harbor or the glacier in Iseneld. 

Kingdom did start a little slow for me, and took me about 20% to actually get hooked into the story. There wasn’t much of a recap from Beasts, so if you’re reading this with a gap you may want to reread the last few chapters of book 1 to ensure you’re caught up on the small details.  I also, selfishly, wish there was more romance in this book because I love love. This book focused a lot more on getting to know Lira, Draki, the Gods and their gifts, and how they work on different lands. 

Also, format wise, this ebook was hard to read. The first half of the book didn’t seem to have good formatting which made my eyes work harder and made me tired and not want to keep reading. Hopefully this is a pre-publishing issue and will be fixed prior to release. 

Can’t wait for news of book 3 and to hopefully see a happy ending for Reyker & Lira, and the demise of the Dragon.