Reviews by Kristen Donnelly
Beth O’Leary’s The Road Trip should have ticked all my boxes - I love a road trip book, forced proximity is fun, and I’m a sucker for second chances. Additionally, Ms. O’Leary’s first two books were delightful. This one? Not so much. Why? Well, let’s get into it.Dylan and Addie met i ...
A dog groomer (Juliet) does a friend a favor and ends up sitting next to her biggest celebrity crush (Noah), who she pretends to not know at all. They hit it off, he ends up hiring her for dog care, they fall into something north of lust and south of love and the truth comes out. Will they be able t ...
Friends, I tried with this one. I TRIED. I tried so hard that my husband started referring to Faking It as ‘that book’. I read other reviews that were glowing and I could not figure out what was wrong with me, because this one is just a big fat fecking NOPE from this reviewer.The premise was ...
Second chance romances, while one of my favorite tropes, often require a deft hand. The reason the relationship didn’t work out in the first place has to be handled with care so that audiences are still rooting for the couple. I don’t love stories where someone cheated, for instance, but stories ...
One of my students recently asked me for some reading on asexuality - she’s thinking it’s a label she may want to own, and wanted to know if I could recommend some fiction books to help her understand it better. I couldn’t, so I headed to the direct messages of some friends and asked for their ...
B-
Mia Wallace had her professional hockey dreams dashed several years back, but she’s ready to get back on the ice. With a spot on the Olympic team in her grasp, she just needs some extra oomf in her training. Enter Cal Foreman, the newest member of the Chicago Rebels, and Mia’s brother’s old fr ...
In Marriage on Madison Avenue, the third installment of Ms. Layne’s Pact in Central Park trio, we have a friends-to-lovers, fake dating extravaganza that includes an Instagram influencer, a wedding at the Plaza, and a controlling mother. Combine that with Ms. Layne’s ability to write female frie ...
Have y’all ever read graphic novels? I didn’t for a really long time - I wasn’t sure where to start, I thought they were all comics, I had no idea what to do… It all felt overwhelming. I’m not a huge action fan so I didn’t want to read any that focused on that. However, over the past sev ...
One of the greatest gifts of These Times to me has been my discovery of how much I love K-Pop. Short for “Korean Pop Music”, it’s a behemoth industry that I am many years late to the party on, but ever so grateful to be here. The boyband BTS is the major name in this space and they made quite ...
I am a sucker for an Amy Andrews book. After reading as much of her back catalogue as I can get my hands on, Ms. Andrews is an author that I just know is going to provide me a happy escape and a satisfying ending. Playing With Trouble is no exception. Additionally, it’s a creative bridge between t ...