Hello and happy Super Bowl Sunday! I need to hurry up and get this post finished so I can watch the game!

I finished four books this week. Two were great and two were meh.

Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score

Contemporary romance

Available on Kindle Unlimited. This book is truly something special, it had me feeling so many things. Knox is the grumpiest grump I’ve ever encountered in a romance novel. I didn’t like him at first but I came around as I got to know him, though he was always a bit too alpha for my tastes. He and Naomi had great chemistry and their witty banter was exceptional. This is a complicated story, about loss and grief and being disappointed by our loved ones. It’s also about hope and fresh starts. All of the side characters were well developed and added to the story, even the “bad” ones. My only complaint is there are a LOT of minor charters and side plots, which was a lot to keep track of and made the book feel long in spots. Overall this is a fabulous, engaging read and I highly recommend it for romance readers.

Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Sutanto

Contemporary fiction/Audiobook

It’s hard to categorize this book. There’s not a mystery, but there’s crime. There’s also fantastic humor, a little love, and a lot of family loyalty. Listening to it was a real treat! The narration is top notch, adding to the emotion and humor of the story. When Meddy accidentally kills her blind date, she turns to her mother for help, then her meddling aunts are recruited to the cause. What follows is a hilarious adventure as the women try to decide what’s the best way to deal with this dead body. At the same time, they must show up for a big wedding, which is the family business. There were many laugh out loud moments as well as suspense. I highly recommend this one!

Hotshot and Hospitality by Nora Everly

Contemporary romance

This isn’t a bad book, but it’s almost identical in plot to the previous book by this author. The hero doesn’t have a journey at all. He starts out crazy about Molly and stays that way through the entire book. Meanwhile, she has a journey but it’s all self induced distress. There were sweet moments but the writing was repetitive and there were many small details that weren’t consistent. I like my romance with conflict and heaviness to be resolved and this one doesn’t have any. I say skip this one.

The Whole Thing Together by Ann Brashares

Young adult general fiction

This novel had so much potential but didn’t deliver. I’m still not sure what the point of it was. This is a family drama. It’s about the effects of divorce and the dynamics of step-families. But it’s also about family secrets and that was a weird, unnecessary add in. I liked all the characters and the way they interacted with each other. But overall the story was flat for me. This had some of the richness of Brashares other novels, and lovable characters, but it was lacking something. I don’t recommend it.

Currently Reading

---