heart meltingly gooood

Like You Love Me – Adriana Locke 

Romance, fiction. 

Holden is in need of a wife to look like he is starting a family for a job position he wants. Sophie needs 5k to save her Bed and Breakfast. When the two cross paths, he proposes an idea. Both of them get married for convenience for each other. He can pay the taxes for the B&B and she can be his wife. She agrees to the terms as long as he agrees to her terms as well. They immediately get married and the interviewer comes into town. He offers Holden a higher-up spot in the company. However, the mere thought of that breaks his heart because that would mean leaving Sophie. He has to make a decision to go with what his heart wants or what is right for him to do.

This was utterly adorable and so cute to read. I was hooked from the first to the last page. I loved the writing and the whole plot. The way that events unfolded was perfectly paced and there were a lot of raw emotions that I felt as I was reading this. I rooted for Holden and Sophie because they were perfect together. I hated that they were like not seeing the bigger picture and had to learn the hard way. I found myself smiling throughout reading this novel. Love happens in the most unusual and unexpected ways. I highly recommend this novel. Like go and find this book and read it.

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this was nice

Never Got Over You – S.L. Scott 

Romance, fiction. 

Rating 7/10

Nick and Natalie meet at a party. Natalie just got out of a bad relationship and swore off men until she had met Nick. She leaves the next morning regretting that decision from walking away from a potential good relationship. Nick is disappointed and angry for not getting her number and she slips away. Months later their paths cross once more but she leaves her number and he asks her out. Their fate and stars finally realigned for the best. 

This was an alright romance novel. I wasn’t too keen on this but I was fine with the plot. The writing is excellent and pacing was just as excellent. I wasn’t hyped up about them always hooking up or nearly hooking up and not actually getting together until half way into the book. I kept getting mad at them for making horrible decisions and when they made the right one is when I started liking them again. Anyways I liked this book and anyone who is a romantic would most likely enjoy this much more than me.

bibliophiles will love this manga

Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 1: Volume 1

Author – Miya Kazuki, Artist – Suzuka, Character Design – You Shinna

Reincarnation, books, librarians, literature, manga 

Rating 10/10

Urano, a young college student, loves books. One day she gets killed by books toppling her during an earthquake. She prays that in the next life, she is able to access literature but fate has different plans for her. She gets reincarnated as a young sickly girl named Myne in a society where books are not accessible at all due to the lower class she was born into. Seeing that books are not accessible, she decides to make books. The first step of making a book is producing paper and she goes to gather necessary materials to make paper.

My boyfriend had watched the anime series and he found the manga books to gift to me and for me to read. I had watched some of the anime but the manga I was interested in reading. This manga is a bibliophile fantasy and really well detailed of how literature came to be plus the process of obtaining a book is never easy. While reading this, I felt that books are so underappreciated today but a hundred or more years ago they were cherished and hard to obtain because only the higher classes such as the noblemen could have these books. The main character is very relatable as we both love literature and definitely book worms. I intend to read more of the series as I come to find them because apparently this is a really hard manga to find. Luckily, as I mentioned, my boyfriend had found the books and gifted them to me. I really recommend all bibliophiles and book worms to venture and find this book. Request your nearest bookstore to bring some copies into the bookstore. 

second chance at love?

A Girl Like You – Cari Scribner

Women’s fiction, comedy, romance, fiction.

Rating 10/10

Jessica is ending her second marriage that was a failure. She goes through the motions of the divorce and trying to come up with a plan. Her children explain that there are dating websites and to get out there. Jessica decides to not let two failed marriages ruin her outlook on life. So, she decides to get into the dating game.

I love this novel a lot. This was hilarious and wholesome. I hadn’t expected this novel to be so heart warming too. I was expecting for it to be interesting and interesting it was. There was a lot of seriousness hidden behind the comedy that sometimes one must look at the bright side of life and to not be so negative about the bad situation. Jessica grows from page one to the final page with her experiences and realizations. Some of the sensual scenes were raunchy but tasteful. The writing style is interesting, and I love it. I would want to see more from this author. I do recommend this novel because there is a nice balance of romance and comedy. There is stuff that one can simply relate to. I want to find more of this on shelves because there is a demographic that can relate or need this book to help one reflect on if they had endured or went through failed marriages. This book shares that it is not the end of the world. Rather there is no definitive ending but for one to start living his or her own life.

eyes on you

Watching You – Lisa Jewell

Contemporary women, family life, suspense, fiction.

Rating 9/10

Joey and her husband move into a new neighborhood after getting secretly married at a beach and had a glorious honeymoon. As Joey explores the new town, her eyes are drawn to Tom, a man who was very physically attractive. She grows close to him to the point of obsession. That obsession led to him being a murder victim and everyone in town is a suspect, including her.

This is a classic who did it with a twist. I loved the plot that led up to the climax and the transcripts of the police reports makes the novel feel so realistic. Even though they wouldn’t be publicized, I loved the chilling aspect. I couldn’t get enough of the plot nor the characters. There are some plot twists but overall, pretty suspenseful as promised from the synopsis and after reading. I suspected the novel to produce another chilling suspense fictional novel. Jewell has a knack for interesting suspense fiction. I do recommend this novel or any of her novels. I’ve read three of her works and found myself loving her work and her writing.

too cliche, such a shame

And Then You Were Gone – R.J. Jacobs

Mystery, thriller, fiction.

Rating 4/10

Emily and her boyfriend Paolo go on a fishing trip together. They are happily enjoying their day but the next day he goes missing. His remains are not found, and he is claimed as dead. She mourns the loss and moves onward with her life. Later on, Paolo is found to be alive but the circumstances of his disappearance don’t make sense. Until he tells her some shocking news that alerts her that her life is in danger. He tried to warn her subtly, but she had to learn the hard way.

The idea of the novel and the synopsis caught my attention but after reading the first hundred pages, felt like a copy and paste cliché. This novel was too cliché and not even with a fresh twist. The whole disappearance because lives are in danger scenario has been overdone. I didn’t bother finish reading because I predicted the outcome because I am all too familiar with this cliché. I was satisfyingly right but disappointed in this novel.

Recovering..

After You – Jojo Moyes

Fiction.

Rating 9/10

Louisa Clark is recovering from the devastating event that impacted her life greatly. Will had opted for assisted suicide due to his incapability to live without pain. Louisa felt like a failure and went into a living of grand adventure then relaxing for a while. She has an accident that made her return home. She discovers how Will had felt when others had to take care of him, and he couldn’t take care of himself. As she heals, she begins to have hope for recovery.

I enjoyed reading this novel and just like the first one, I was emotional through the whole book. There was an excellent amount of complexity and the author maintained that very well. I love the first one a bit more than this one. Overall, I do recommend reading both novels in order. I was happy I have expanded my range of authors I’ve read.

My Heart Couldn’t Handle This..

Me Before You – Jojo Moyes

Quadriplegics, romance, drama, Fiction.

Rating 11/10

Louisa Clark had lived an unextraordinary life whereas Will Traynor had lived an extraordinary life. Will got into a fatal car crash that left him as a quadriplegic. Louisa gets laid off at her job. In attempts of finding a job, she finds one that she, at first, didn’t want to do but lest her only option. She becomes Will’s personal assistant, to entertain and take care of him. Will seems distant but surely becomes attached to Louisa and so does his mother and father. Louisa overhears a conversation that Will wants assisted suicide. Louisa has to do everything she can to not let that happen.

This novel made me overly emotional. The storyline got increasingly complex and I did not put this book down for nothing. I had to continue reading until the end. I was so saddened by the ending but grateful of the ending. I love this novel a lot. I wanted to try out a new author and randomly selected this one and happy that I took a chance with Jojo Moyes. I want to read more of her novels soon. I recommend giving this one a read.