Lately I feel like I’ve been having a tough time getting through books. Even books that I’m enjoying, it seems like it takes me weeks instead of days to complete them. The only exception being romances. I’m not sure why, but I can zip through a romance in a couple of days while every other genre is a slog and this month I just decided to lean into that all the way. So without further ado, here are mini-reviews for some of the romances I’ve read this month so far.
Billy & Me by Giovanna Fletcher
This book was fine. The writing seemed a bit immature at times and I thought Sophie and Billy’s relationship developed REALLY fast. I didn’t love that the conclusion seemed to be that a compromise between their careers wasn’t possible. But on another note, seeing as how Gi is married to Tom Fletcher from the British band McFly, it makes me really wonder how much of Sophie’s experiences here are autobiographical. The press and people on social media can really be terrible—it’s disgusting. 3/5
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Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore
Coming off of watching Enola Holmes on Netflix, it was interesting to learn a little more about women’s suffrage in England. I liked that the romance didn’t get bogged down by the history and vice versa. I’m not going to pretend like the love story between our main characters was super realistic, but it was still enjoyable. I thought they were both pretty good characters. Let’s get Hattie her own book though, mmmkay? 4/5
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Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
I thought this book was so sweet and was exactly what I needed right now. I liked Evvie as a character a lot and her relationship with Dean seemed to progress at a good pace. I like that they had adult conversations and there were no angsty misunderstandings. I liked the ending too! I felt like it was realistic but still sweet. Lastly, I just wanted to say that I feel Monica is extremely underrated as a character. Her friendship with Evvie was really great and she just seemed like an awesome woman in general. 4/5
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The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
This book was surprisingly funny. I thought the narrator’s voice was super cheeky and really added to the story, though I don’t know that I would want to read a million books like that. Nina was equal parts charming and infuriating as a protagonist. She made quite a few decisions that I wouldn’t have, but then some decisions that I really liked as well. Overall, I liked the combination of her having to deal with her father’s death/inheritance/new family and figuring out how she felt about Tom. It gave the story more dimension to kind of have two different storylines going on at the same time. 4/5
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If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
I really liked this book! It took a little while to really get going, but I think that eventually ended up being really important in understanding who Laurie is as a character. Jamie as a love interest was a little too perfect at times, but I still liked him and the scenes of him and Laurie together just talking were always really fun. While this book is ultimately a romance, I appreciated how it talks about some heavier themes and specifically about being mixed race. As a mixed race person myself, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gotten the, “Where are you from?” question. Born in America same as you random white person, thanks. And like…why do you even care? Does my heritage change anything about our relationship? Anyway…bit of a triggering topic for me I guess, but there you have it. 4/5
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What's She Reading? 