California
Steven Rowley instantly captured my attention with his witty and sweet-natured The Guncle. The Celebrants, his follow-up book, is a more grown up outing that follows a group of friends who have been close for twenty years - The Big Chill, but with a more present tragedy. And I definitely detected a ...
The winner of multiple awards, Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club is the beautifully written narration of a young Chinese-American teen’s queer coming-of-age in 1954 California. The story is set in a richly depicted Chinese-American San Francisco of the 1930s through 1950s, including ...
Code Name Edelweiss shines a spotlight on American anti-semitism in the years prior to WWII and brings attention to some little-known history in the fight against fascism in America.
Summer 1933: Liesl Weiss is the second generation of her family employed by MGM. The huge movie lots and sound sta ...
For Her Consideration is an endearing romance with a lot of positives, but the narrative moves slowly. Oh so slowly. It grinds down and leaves the reader waiting for more to happen, ultimately resulting in a sense of herky-jerky pacing that puts a damper on the proceedings.
Nina Rice gave up her ...
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Rich and tender in the best of ways, Lunar Love wraps an enemies-to-lovers story around a tale of family devotion and love. An appealing narrative voice and a relatable look into what it means to be biracial add on to an already great book.
Matchmaker Olivia Huang-Christenson is stepping into the l ...
If you like Lifetime movies that include precocious children, rambunctious dogs, and judgmental, shrewish heroines, you will like Marina Adair’s Situationship. Sadly, I like neither Lifetime movies nor this book.
Teagan Bianchi has ditched her gambling-addicted leach of a soon-to-be ex-husband ...
The first two books in the Hot Cannoils series (Hot Seat and Hot Wings) were co-authored by Eli Easton and Tara Lain, but circumstances have led to the authors writing the next two books individually, so Eli Easton is flying solo for this third book in the series. Hot Pursuit is a fast-paced and ent ...
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Earlier this year, while poking around in my TBR pile (it's quite massive), I came across Mia Hopkins’ Thirsty, the first book in her Eastside Brewery series. I started reading it and was totally absorbed, cursing myself for not having read it sooner. In short order, I read book two, Trashed, and ...
There is a single off plot point in Ramón and Julieta, but you’ll be darned to notice it while you’re nose-deep in the thick of reading it. It’s fun, light-hearted, and without the heavy sturm und drang of your usual Romeo and Juliet retelling; it’s got a lot of spirit and enough spice to m ...
A Thorn in the Saddle is Rebekah Weatherspoon’s fun, fresh modernized take on Beauty and the Beast. It’s smart about people, warm, and filled with thoughtful commentary about how to accept growth and change in ones’ life.
Hot-tempered Jesse Pleasant is not like his brothers, in that he’s ...