We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s topic is 2024 Releases I Was Excited to Read but Still Haven’t Gotten To (will you be prioritizing these this year?)
Special thanks to the author and her team for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
In A Rush
Publication Date: 4 February 2025
Genre: Adult Romance
Panda Rating:
(4.5 pandas)
What’s better than a revenge date?
A revenge husband.
Pro quarterback Ryan Ralston has always known two things.
First, he’s desperately in love with his best friend Emme Ahlborg.
Second–and most importantly–he still has no idea how to tell her.
The marriage pact they made in their senior yearbook was the closest he ever came.
Years passed and Emme forgot about their promise.
Ryan never did, especially not on his thirtieth birthday.
Emme can’t catch a break. Always unlucky in love, her cheating ex is a groomsman in her best friend’s wedding—and there’s no way she’s showing up alone.
Ryan offers her the one thing better than a wedding date: a revenge husband. And he’s not just any fake husband but the NFL’s brightest star…and in need of serious reputation rehab.
Playing the part of the happy couple comes easy and soon enough, the lines between real and fake blur. They disappear altogether when there’s just one bed.
All Ryan has to do is save Emme from her ex, find her step-sister an internship, and get his wife to fall in love with him—or fumble the one thing he’s ever wanted:
her heart.
From the author: incidences and discussion of infidelity, incidence of body shaming, parental estrangement, parental divorce, brief mention of parental death (ALS), chronic illness (main character—endometriosis).
Over the years, Kate Canterbary has become one of my favourite go-to romance authors. Now when I pick up one of her books, I know it’ll be a great time.
TL;DR: Reading In A Rush felt like receiving a warm and welcoming hug from an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while and I loved Ryan and Emme! Their chemistry was a simmering explosion just waiting to happen, their friend groups were hilarious, their families entertaining (but also very messed up, at least on Emme’s side) and overall, this was the perfect romantic escape read from the mess of reality. I was all for Ryan’s peak Wife Guy energy that had me swooning all over the place (no joke)! I’m already excited to get more books in the Friendship series (please bless us, KC!).
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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’m spending my Sunday night in bed with The Forest King’s Daughter by Elly Blake. Julie and I realised we’re on the same blog tour for this, so we’re reading it together! We’re not far in but we’re liking it so far although we have many questions. I’m keen to see where the story goes!
I know. I know it’s the first of February and we should probably be leaving behind all the “2024 wrap-ups, summaries, etc.,” but I couldn’t resist giving this book tag a go and I honestly don’t want to wait for that “go” to happen next year. I’ll move on after this, I swear! 😂
Funny story, when I first saw this tag on Jodie’s blog and then Chris’s blog I felt like I recognised the title from somewhere and went to look on my list of saved tags and noticed that I’d first seen it on Queen Timy’s blog back in 2022. Turns out, they’re different book tags (different prompts) with the same name! For this edition, I’m sticking with the “In 2024…My life in Books” tag created by Book’d Out.
The only rule for this tag is that you must complete the prompts using titles from the books you read in 2024. This should be interesting!
(I didn’t hate the book, I hated the foul days!)
(If I even have to clarify: nobody in my family has killed anyone, lol)
And that it’s for my 2024 life in books! Even though I had so much fun doing this, it was so much harder than I thought it’d be and I questioned whether most of these made sense (I hope they do)! 😂 What do you think? How was your year in books?
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 all the past topics if you want to join in the bookish discussion fun.
It’s the last Friday of the month and today’s topic is:
Since I was a bit of a numpty and missed out on the topic two weeks ago thinking it was already the freebie week 🤦🏻♀️ I’m going back to that topic today:
Prompts: What is your favourite place to read? Do you like being around others? Or do you prefer total silence? Do you generally read at home? Or do you read everywhere you go? Do you enjoy books more when reading in certain places or environments?
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Black Water Sister
Publisher: Macmillan
Pub Date: 11 May 2021
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Panda Rating:
(4.5 pandas)
A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy.
Jessamyn Teoh is closeted, broke and moving back to Malaysia, a country she left when she was a toddler. So when Jess starts hearing voices, she chalks it up to stress. But there’s only one voice in her head, and it claims to be the ghost of her estranged grandmother, Ah Ma. In life Ah Ma was a spirit medium, the avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she’s determined to settle a score against a gang boss who has offended the god–and she’s decided Jess is going to help her do it.
Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business. As Jess fights for retribution for Ah Ma, she’ll also need to regain control of her body and destiny. If she fails, the Black Water Sister may finish her off for good.
Gang violence, attempted kidnapping, sexual assault and attempted rape, attempted murder, murder, racism, homophobia
TL;DR: I’m so glad that I finally read my first book by Zen Cho. I’ve heard many great things about Cho’s work and even though this was well outside my comfort zone with all the paranormal activity (ghosts, possessions, etc.), I’m so glad I gave it a chance because I ended up loving it! There was so much to appreciate in Black Water Sister from the strong characters and themes to the simmering rage thrumming through these pages. On a more personal level, the sociocultural elements and parts of Jess’s story were so relatable as they are also part of my experience, which made the story more impactful for me as a reader. I would highly recommend this if you are looking for speculative fiction with non-Western roots, a flawed yet relatable main character, and a thrilling story about revenge, forgiveness, family, and belonging.
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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 New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024.
Special thanks to HarperCollins for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I Am Not Jessica Chen
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub Date: 28 January 2025
Genre: YA Contemporary
Panda Rating:
(4.5 pandas)
After getting rejected by every single Ivy League she applied to and falling short of all her Asian immigrant parents’ expectations, seventeen-year-old Jenna Chen makes a wish to become her smarter, infinitely more successful Harvard-bound cousin, Jessica Chen—only for her wish to come true. Literally.
Now trapped inside Jessica’s body, with access to Jessica’s most private journals and secrets, Jenna soon discovers that being the top student at the elite, highly competitive Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she imagined. Worse, as everyone—including her own parents—start having trouble remembering who Jenna Chen is, or if she ever even existed, Jenna must decide if playing the role of the perfect daughter and student is worth losing her true self forever.
Blackmail, academic cheating, bullying, anxiety
Okay, can we take a minute to appreciate this cover? It’s already one of my favourites this year so far!
TL;DR: This was my first YA contemporary by Ann Liang but it won’t be my last. I now understand why her books are so well-loved and always come highly recommended. This had strong characters, was packed with emotion, and had a high degree of relatability that I think will apply to all readers. In “I Am Not Jessica Chen”, Liang perfectly captures the highly competitive high school and academic experience, including the pressures teenagers face to do better and achieve more as they equate it to success. Jenna is a complex, relatable and realistic character and I enjoyed watching her journey of self-acceptance unfold. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to all readers!
Read More » 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.
It’s another Sunday when I’m not sure what to read next since I finished two reads earlier today. I’m looking for something that’s more “vibes” so I think I might pick up another alien romance that a popular romance author/reader on bsky recommended! But I’m also tempted to start one of two ARCs that I need to read by early February. So let’s see which of these three fits my mood best when I get into bed tonight!
dinipandareads 