Back in 2021, I was tagged by the wonderful Kerri @Kerri McBookNerd to do The Greek Gods Book Tag. Now, three years later, I’m finally getting around to doing it! How quickly time flies because I honestly thought this was a tag from last year… Oops! 🤭
Let’s jump straight to the tag!
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Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is Bookish Superpowers I Wish I Had (e.g. never accidentally buying the same book twice, every book I buy would be automatically signed/personally dedicated by the author, the ability to read faster, etc.) (Submitted by Cathy @WhatCathyReadNext)
Act Your Age, Eve Brown (Brown Sisters #3)
Publisher: Avon
Pub Date: 9 March 2021
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating:
(5 pandas)
Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she’s not entirely sure how…
Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry—and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.
Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore—and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.
Ableism, childhood abandoment recounted, car accident
TL;DR: It took me forever to finally read this book and finish The Brown Sisters series but this solidifies it as one of my all-time favourite romance series and I highly recommend it! Eve and Jacob were so easy to root for and I loved their character arcs. I delighted in their connection and despite a rocky start to their relationship, they had fantastic chemistry and an emotional romance that’s written with so much heart! These two deserved all the happiness and I loved seeing them find it together. 🥰 My heart is so full!
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We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today!
I’ll be rounding off my night with Indigo by Beverly Jenkins. I wanted to spend the day bingeing this and almost did until the afternoon when things got busy. It’s shaping up to be another 5-star read though and it might even be my fave Jenkins so far? Let’s see!
Also, I was looking up the original mass-market clinch cover for this and it’s freaking gorgeous but it is also £400+?! Weeping. 😭
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde #1)
Publisher: Orbit
Pub Date: 19 January 2023
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Panda Rating:
(5 pandas)
A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.
Ableism mentioned, death during childbirth mentioned, blood & injury depiction, emesis, self-amputation of finger, decapitation, death of a sibling recounted, murder, violence, kidnapping, animal abuse recounted
TL;DR: If you are a fan of cosy fantasies with a heaping of slow adventure and a soft romance, then you’ll probably enjoy Emily Wilde! This was just as heartwarming and cosy and wonderful as everyone said it would be and I loved it even more on re-read. 💜 Emily and Wendell are both such amazing characters and I absolutely loved the way this story was told! I surprisingly haven’t read *that* many books about the fae/faeries but this is undoubtedly a new favourite story about them.
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Special thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Time of Your Life (The Millionaires Club #2)
Publisher: Sourcebook Casablanca
Publication Date: 11 April 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating:
(3 pandas)
Second chances always lead to a new beginning! When Everett Nicholls died, he left his millions to the two people he cared about most―the young law student he was mentoring, and his beloved stepson. Eden Marsh and Beck Dennison are instantly suspicious of each other. Suddenly, with all this money at their fingertips, family problems they’ve each been ignoring can no longer be swept under the rug. Beck and his mother have had a strained relationship since tragedy befell the family when he was a young teen, and Eden knows it’s long past time to forge a new relationship with her demanding younger sister. As they begin to confide in each other―and to have fun together―their friendship is an anchor in a stormy new life…
Death of loved one, death of child (recounted), grief, misogyny
TL;DR: My feelings on this vacillated greatly throughout my reading journey. There were moments when I enjoyed our characters and their burgeoning romance but the slow pace, lack of plot, and the total “what the heck is going on” moment of their final conflict almost made the not-so-enjoyable moments outweigh the good. As it is, I’d say this is a solid 3-star read—not bad but not great though I enjoyed it enough to want to possibly read other books by this author in the future.
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Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits, and it’s where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Check out the February 2024 Topics if you want to join in the bookish discussion fun.
This week’s topic asks us:
Prompts: In honour of Valentine’s Day, here’s a romance-related topic! What makes romance in books believable and compelling? What makes fictional romance feel fake? Who are your favourite bookish couples?
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Open Water
Publisher: Penguin
Pub Date: 3 February 2022
Genre: Literary Fiction
Panda Rating:
(5 pandas)
Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists — he a photographer, she a dancer — trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence.
At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body, to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential British debut of recent years.
Racism, gang violence, gun violence, death by drive by shooting
💌 HAPPY LOVE DAY, BOOK LOVERS! 💌
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
dinipandareads 