What Can I Say? She’s Got Some Good… Salami | A review of Love You, Mean It by Jilly Gagnon

Ellie Greco wishes she weren’t stuck in Milborough. For a few brief, shining years, she escaped her hometown to pursue her dream career—designing beautiful, elaborate costumes for theater—until her father’s death five years ago called her home to run the family’s decades-old deli. Yes, she loves the place, but she’d always thought she was meant for more exciting things than stocking the right tinned fish. But when Ellie hears that a local landlord is planning to rent to Mangia, the glitzy gourmet food department store, Greco’s Deli’s very existence is suddenly in jeopardy.

She tries to plead her case to Theo Taylor, scion of the property management firm about to put her out of business, but their meeting goes from bad (it’s not her fault he’s infuriating) to worse (no one expects the ceiling to literally fall in).

With Theo out cold, Ellie panics and claims to be his fiancée… and almost passes out herself when amnesia means Theo seems to actually believe her. Soon, the effects of the head injury wear off, but Theo proposes that their “engagement” stick around. If they manage to convince enough people they might both get what they an end to the Mangia deal. Ellie doesn’t trust him (after all, if Theo Taylor wants it, how can it be good for her?) but seeing no other option, reluctantly agrees.

And miraculously, the fake engagement seems to be working—even Ted, Theo’s shrewd, cold father seems convinced—that is until Sam, Theo’s ex-fiance, reappears on the scene. Not only does she see through their ruse, she proposes an arrangement of her own, forcing Ellie to decide between blossoming friendship, her family legacy, and the burgeoning romance she frankly never asked for.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for this review. All thoughts on Love You, Mean It are my own.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

While the premise of this book seemed like it would make for a fun and interesting read, the actual story left much to be desired.

Most of this is just because the book needed to be developed further. The first 40% of the book seemed solid, but it quickly began going downhill as we focused more on the characters and their relationship, rather than the setup.

For one, the relationship between Ellie and Theo felt very unfulfilling. Because it is based on a fake engagement, our main character spends a lot of time questioning whether any feelings involved are actually true, which puts a wall up in between what is actually happening and the emotional significance of it. Any “ship-y” scenes between the main characters felt lackluster and disappointing, solely because we as readers don’t get to treat them for what they are with the looming threat of the fake relationship getting in the way of things.

As well, the ending seemed to just fall into place, with our main character “just so happening” to get everything she wanted. Despite an entire novel’s worth of build up and worry over whether or not Ellie can save her family’s business, the book wraps up this conflict in about 30 pages or so, without the involvement of our main character at all!

I think that the idea behind this book would have made for an interesting read, but the actual execution needed to be done a bit better for me to enjoy this book.

One Of The Funniest Books I’ve Read | The Husky And His White Cat Shizun (volume one) by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

Cruel tyrant Taxian-jun killed his way to the throne and now reigns as the first ever emperor of the mortal realm. Yet somehow, he is unsatisfied. Left cold and bereft, abandoned by all he held dear, he takes his own life… only to be reborn anew.

Awakening in the body of his younger self–Mo Ran, a disciple of the cultivation sect Sisheng Peak–he discovers the chance to relive his life. This time, he vows to attain the gratification that once eluded him: all who defied him will fall, and never again will they treat him like a dog. His greatest fury is reserved for Chu Wanning, the coldly beautiful and aloofly catlike cultivation teacher who betrayed and thwarted Mo Ran time and again in their last life.

Yet as Mo Ran shamelessly pursues his own goals in this life he thought lost, he begins to wonder if there might be more to his teacher–and his own feelings–than he ever realized.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Back in high school (a whole ten years ago!! I’m old.), a friend and classmate introduced me to xianxia novels. I read her first recommendation–translated into English by fans online and eventually published officially as Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation–and immediately fell in love with the genre, eventually branching out into other stories by similar authors.

All this is to say that The Husky And His White Cat Shizun has been on my list of novels I’ve wanted to read for a while, and I was excited to finally get into it.

Like most other xianxia novels I’ve read, The Husky And His White Cat Shizun has a very funny writing style and interesting main characters that really drew me into wanting to learn more about this world. We follow Mo Ran, who once was emperor of the entire world, as he suddenly finds himself in his teenage body, starting his life over again. While he knows generally what is going on and decides to use this advantage to make his life better than it once was, he is soon surprised to find that everything is not as it seems and even the smallest changes can have a big impact on his own story.

While I enjoyed this author’s writing style and getting to know the characters themselves, I also felt like this first volume didn’t have too much going on plot-wise. I found myself a bit bored by reading this, and it took me a lot longer than I thought it would to get through this story!

Still, I know that novels such as this tend to have slower openings, as we have to cram a lot of information into the beginning in order to set up the story, and I am interested in seeing where The Husky And His White Cat Shizun goes. Hopefully, I have a lot more fun in volume two than I did in volume one!

The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi review

Sometimes, when you ask the universe for your soulmate, you wind up with your hate mate instead.

On Nami’s 30th birthday, she’s reminded at every turn that her life isn’t what she planned. She’s always excelled at everything – until now. Her fiancé blew up their engagement. Her pride and joy, the tech company she helped to found, is about to lose funding. And her sister, Sora, is getting married to the man of her dreams, Jack, and instead of being happy for her, as she knows she ought to be, she’s fighting off jealousy.

Frustrated with her life, she makes a wish on a birthday candle to find her soulmate. Instead, the universe delivers her hate mate, Nami’s old high school nemesis, Jae Lee, the most popular kid from high school, who also narrowly beat her out for valedictorian. More than a decade later, Jae is still as effortlessly cool, charming, and stylish as ever, and, to make matters worse, is planning a hostile take-over of her start-up. sharp elbows and even sharper banter as the two go head-to-head to see who’ll win this time. But when their rivalry ignites a different kind of passion, Nami starts to realize that it’s not just her company that’s in danger of being taken over, but her heart as well.

The Takeover gets published January 30th, 2024!

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I love a good enemies-to-lovers romance, and I’ve surprisingly been enjoying a lot of workplace romances recently. With The Takeover being an enemies-to-lovers focused on the main character’s company, I thought this was going to be the perfect book for me!

It… was not.

To begin with, even though I enjoyed the parts of this book that were in the love interest, Jae’s, point of view, I didn’t enjoy Nami’s side to the story. Our main character isn’t happy with her life and doesn’t understand why everything is ending up the way it is, but it’s very easy to tell even from the beginning that all of her misfortunes are her fault.

She has no friends? That’s because she cut them out of her life!

Her company is going under? Maybe she should stop focusing on so many free vacation days and breakfasts. I understand that Nami’s goal is to have a “good” company that takes care of its employees, but sometimes reality has to set in. She just simply can’t afford some of the decisions she’s making.

I also found the ending to be incredibly unrealistic, even though I kind of loved the underlying theme. I won’t say what exactly happens so as to not give spoilers, but it was the strangest blend of deus ex machina and found family that I couldn’t help but be appalled that it was happening… and also kind of grateful.

However, I will say that there were aspects of this book I enjoyed. The relationship between Jae and Nami was very good, and I really enjoyed seeing their goofing around. I also really enjoyed the saga of the kidnapped chair as a background event throughout the book.

I just cannot get over how goofy the ending was.

A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft review

Niamh Ó Conchobhair has never let herself long for more. The magic in her blood that lets her stitch emotions and memories into fabric is the same magic that will eventually kill her. Determined to spend the little time she has left guaranteeing a better life for her family, Niamh jumps at the chance to design the wardrobe for a royal wedding in the neighboring kingdom of Avaland.

But Avaland is far from the fairytale that she imagined. While young nobles attend candlelit balls and elegant garden parties, unrest brews amid the working class. The groom himself, Kit Carmine, is prickly, abrasive, and begrudgingly being dragged to the altar as a political pawn. But when Niamh and Kit grow closer, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more—until an anonymous columnist starts buzzing about their chemistry, promising to leave them alone only if Niamh helps to uncover the royal family’s secrets. The rot at the heart of Avaland runs deep, but exposing it could risk a future she never let herself dream of, and a love she never thought possible.

A Fragile Enchantment gets published January 2nd, 2024!

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

This is one of those books where the description just promised more than the book actually gave.

A Fragile Enchantment, at it’s core, isn’t a bad book. I enjoyed reading the story of Niamh, a Machlish seamstress tasked with creating the outfits for the Avlish prince’s wedding, only to fall in love with him in the process. I enjoyed seeing the conflict between the Machlish and the Avlish, and how everything was a bit more difficult than it originally seemed. And I enjoyed seeing an inside look into the lives of these characters and their drama.

However, the description of this book talks about an anonymous columnist who finds out about Niamh and Kit’s attraction to each other and promises to leave them alone only if Niamh helps them uncover the family’s secrets, and I think that’s where this book goes wrong. Because while yes, that is included in this book, that conflict takes up maybe 1% of the content of this book (and the columnist, to be completely honest, never really threatens Niamh and Kit).

I picked up this book interested in seeing a secret, scandalous relationship get threatened by this columnist. And while I did enjoy these characters and seeing their secrets, this book ultimately isn’t what it says it is.

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center review

She’s got his back. He’s got her heart. They’ve got a secret. What could possibly go wrong?

Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with her bare hands. But the truth is, she’s an elite bodyguard and she’s just been hired to protect a superstar actor from his stalker.

Jack Stapleton’s a Hollywood heartthrob – captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, rising out of the waves in clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity.

When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah – against her will and her better judgment – finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover.

Protecting Jack should be easy. But protecting her own heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done…

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

After reading Hello Stranger and having such strange, mixed feelings about it, I wanted to pick up another one of Katherine Center’s books to try out more of this author’s writing style. And with so many people recently reading (and enjoying) The Bodyguard, I thought this book would be the perfect place to start.

Surprisingly, I had a lot of the same problems in The Bodyguard as I did Hello Stranger. According to both of these books, I seem to dislike the way Katherine Center writes the beginnings of books, though the plot will somehow still pull me in and get better the further I get from that rough beginning.

However, much of this book was bland and forgettable. Even though I finished reading this book about a week ago, the only thought that went through my head as I was gathering the words I wanted to say in this review was “I read it.”

The only real comment that stuck with me for this book was my feelings on the ending. The Bodyguard‘s ending is written as though it’s one of those “where are they now?” slideshows some movies have at the end. The book ends with a scene entirely told to readers, rather than placing us in the moment, which only separates us from the characters and events in the book.

Ultimately, I think this book just proved that Katherine Center’s writing is not for me.

This Cursed Light (The Last Finestra #2) by Emily Thiede review

When the gods make the rules, the players must choose: Sacrifice their love to save the world, or choose love and let it burn?

Six months after saving their island from destruction and almost losing Dante, Alessa is ready to live happily ever after with her former bodyguard. But Dante can’t rest, haunted by a conviction that the gods aren’t finished with them yet. And without his powers, the next kiss from Alessa could kill him.

Desperate for answers, Dante enlists Alessa and their friends to find the exiled ghiotte in hopes of restoring his powers and combining forces with them to create the only army powerful enough to save them all. But Alessa is hiding a deadly consequence of their last fight–a growing darkness that’s consuming her mind–and their destination holds more dangers than anyone bargained for. In the mysterious city of the banished, Dante will uncover secrets, lies, and ghosts from his past that force him to ask himself: Which side is he on?

When the gods reveal their final test, Dante and Alessa will be the world’s last defense. But if they are the keys to saving the world, will their love be the price of victory?

In This Cursed Light, Dante and Alessa face their most daunting challenge yet when the Gods demand they prove their worth by choosing the ultimate sacrifice to save humanity, once and for all.

This Cursed Light gets published December 5th, 2023!

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

After absolutely loving This Vicious Grace, I’ve been highly anticipating This Cursed Light. But instead of getting an ending I loved as much as this series’ beginning, I read a continuation that just had me going “eh”.

To begin with, I will say that This Cursed Light does a good job with it’s characters. After meeting such a close group of fonti in the first book, one of the biggest things I was looking forward to was seeing these characters again. I really enjoyed reading these characters joke around with each other and be there through the toughest moments solely because they cared for each other.

I do also want to point out that, while the first book was undoubtably queer, this book seemed to bring it up to an unabashed level. Very early on in This Cursed Light, we point out that a character from the first book is only attracted to people of the same gender, and while I didn’t get the feeling from either my first or second readthrough of This Vicious Grace, I really did enjoy seeing this character get their own side-story romance throughout this sequel.

(I only wish I could have seen a little bit more of it in the first book. It felt almost out of place here.)

The plot for This Cursed Light, on the other hand, felt weak. At the end of This Vicious Grace, Dante has a vision that Crollo will return, and that they will need help from the ghiottes in order to win against this new threat. Of course, I was very interested in seeing an adventure where our returning characters sought out a race of people thought not to exist anymore, but I felt as though This Cursed Light was a little too vague in this adventure. So many exciting things were happening in this book, but the narration never seemed to dwell on it and make them the big moments they should have been.

I also felt as though the ending of this book was weak, especially on the subject of learning what this new, terrible plot made up by Crollo contained. Maybe it is because this series reminds me of another book series I’ve read before (and no judgement for books being similar to others–with how many books exist in the world, there are bound to be similarities!), but I could very easily tell some of the things that were going to happen before they occurred.

(I wish I could do a side-by-side, spoiler filled comparison of the two series. I find my similar thoughts on the two interesting, but I have no one to share it with.)

In all, I ended this book feeling let down. For how much I was anticipating this sequel, it ended up being just “fine” for me. I didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it.

But I wanted to love it.

This Has Been On My Kindle For YEARS | Defiance by Cheree Alsop

The Fate of a Werewolf
Werewolves are the guardians of sleeping vampires, protecting their masters during the deadly light of day.

Breaking His Chains
But what happens when a werewolf gets fed up with the persecution and tempts fate by breaking his chains and fleeing while his masters sleep?

The First Book in This New, Action-Packed Series
Wounded and desperate, Zev finds himself at the mercy of a family who stumbles upon him during their own quest for vengeance against the demons of the night. 

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I’ve been trying to go through some of the old books I’ve had on my kindle for a long time, and as someone who is a big fan of books about werewolves, it was no surprise to find this book in the depths of my kindle.

Defiance is the story of Zev, a werewolf who is actively escaping his vampiric masters during the opening of the book. Just as he is about to be caught by the wolves on his tail, he gets hit by a car, and the teenage driver mistakes his wolf form for a large dog. Hoping to help, the teenager brings Zed to his sister, who is training to be a vet… and paints a target on the family’s backs as well.

I found this book interesting, but I think it relied a little too much on coincidences to tell its story. The teen who hits Zev with his car just so happens to have a sister who is training to be a vet, and the sister just so happens to remember training with their dead father when she was younger, learning his supernatural-hunting ways. The family also just so happens to know another family that can use magic, and while the enemies are hunting both Zev and the family down, they just so happen to want to deal with Zev first, rather than picking off the defenseless family while he’s not around.

I will say that I enjoyed seeing the world this author was building throughout the book. It’s not often in modern werewolf fiction that I see werewolves enslaved by vampires, and the pack hierarchy was an interesting spin on more traditional roles. The two human families, one of which has history being trained to fight supernatural creatures and the other which has access to magic, was also an interesting inclusion to this book, and I can’t help but wonder how the rest of this story will go on after this first book.

However, this book just didn’t grab my attention enough to make me want to continue on with the series. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. It just… exists.

Idiots In Love | Anywhere For You by Alexis Noel

From the moment they met, James and Maci knew they would be a part of each other’s lives forever.
As friends, of course.
Because anything else would be crazy…right?
As their senior year at Birch Creek University begins, the promise of change is on the horizon. But at least they know, whatever comes their way, they’ll always have one another. After all, when you tell each other everything, what can possibly come between you?
But what if they don’t tell each other everything?
And can one secret be enough to change life as they know it?

Anywhere For You gets published October 20th, 2023!

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

This book surprised me.

When I saw that this book was friends-to-lovers, I had an idea in my head of how it would go. Two friends would slowly realize throughout the course of the book that they really liked the way the other did certain things until suddenly “oh! Is this love? Is that what I’ve been feeling?“

That is not, in fact, how this book went. Instead, I was treated almost immediately upon opening the book to the fact that James is in love with Maci, has been in love with her for a long time, and has no idea how to tell her.

I enjoyed seeing the way this crush played out throughout this book and the way these two eventually get into a relationship. Because James and Maci have a close friend group, seeing the way the side characters stuck their noses into their business brought a lot of humor into the story. It seemed like everyone was rooting for these two to get together, even if they had a bit of difficulty figuring it out.

However, I found that the conflict in this book needed a bit of work. Because the book jumps straight into the plot, I found it difficult to care for these characters and their personal conflicts. Maci needs an internship that pays well enough that she can quit her current job. James wants to move away from his hometown (and his family’s influence). These are both details I know as fact, but there wasn’t enough in this book to let me get to know who the characters were outside of these conflicts and care whether or not they got what they wanted.

It’s very obvious that this author loves these characters and is passionate about telling their story, but that love doesn’t translate through the pages and into the reader.

I Knew My Feelings On This One Before I Started | Barbarian’s Hope (Ice Planet Barbarians #10) by Ruby Dixon

Seasons ago, I resonated to the quietest of tribesmates, a male content to love me from afar while I was the center of attention. We could have been happy. Despite our differences, I loved him and he loved me.

But then a terrible thing happened…and my world was never the same again.

Now resonance is giving us a second chance, but…I’m afraid. What if what I have with my mate is too broken to be fixed? What if there’s no hope left for us at all?

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Being ten books into the Ice Planet Barbarians series, I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on the characters. Which characters who would have interesting stories to me. Which characters I didn’t really care too much about.

Asha and Hemalo have always been the latter to me.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with their story. I’m sure there’s someone out there who has been screaming to see this story (much like I’ve been screaming for a metlak romance. I WILL get it one day!), and I’m happy for them. This story was just one I wasn’t excited to see.

That being said, there were certain things I liked about this book. The yearning between Asha and Hemalo, specifically, and how they want to be together, but feel like they’ve failed the other. This book had a lot of miscommunication, but I enjoyed watching these two learn to speak the other’s language and understand why the other acted the way they did.

However, one giant aspect of Asha and Hemalo’s story is also one that is very incompatible with my tastes in fiction. Because these two are a couple who had a baby before that unfortunately died not too long after birth, I knew going into this book that we were going to focus a lot on children and childbirth. I have so far been doing pretty okay with the depictions throughout this series, but this one was a little too much for me. I ended up needing to skip a scene close to the end of this book, and though that is more of a personal note than a negative against the book, I felt like it should be pointed out to help provide context for this review.

I knew going into Barbarian’s Hope that I wouldn’t enjoy Asha and Hemalo’s story as much as I have any of the previous couples, but I also wanted to try it out because I have been so far really enjoying Ruby Dixon’s writing throughout this series. While Asha and Hemalo aren’t going to be my favorite couple in this series, I did enjoy this book a lot more than I thought I would.

This Isn’t About Them | A Deal With The Elf King by Elise Kova

The elves come for two things: war and wives. In both cases, they come for death.

Three-thousand years ago, humans were hunted by powerful races with wild magic until the treaty was formed. Now, for centuries, the elves have taken a young woman from Luella’s village to be their Human Queen.

To be chosen is seen as a mark of death by the townsfolk. A mark nineteen-year-old Luella is grateful to have escaped as a girl. Instead, she’s dedicated her life to studying herbology and becoming the town’s only healer.

That is, until the Elf King unexpectedly arrives… for her.

Everything Luella had thought she’d known about her life, and herself, was a lie. Taken to a land filled with wild magic, Luella is forced to be the new queen to a cold yet blisteringly handsome Elf King. Once there, she learns about a dying world that only she can save.

The magical land of Midscape pulls on one corner of her heart, her home and people tug on another… but what will truly break her is a passion she never wanted.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

This book has been on my TBR list for… a while.

The second I saw that cover, I knew I needed to read this book. And when I saw a copy recently in my local library, the only option I had was to grab it as I walked by.

But even though I have been highly anticipating this book, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped I would have.

A Deal With The Elf King tells the story of Luella, a human living in a small village near the border to the land of the elves. Every 100 years, the elf king comes and takes one of the human girls as his bride, and it’s the human queen’s duty to bring spring and summer to the elves’ eternal-winter.

It’s very obvious to see why this book is compared to Hades and Persephone.

However, I felt like the relationship between Luella and the elf king, Eldas, wasn’t very developed. The book states that Luella finds him attractive, of course, but there aren’t any details beyond that to help the reader fall in love with Eldas as well. Luella was just attracted to Eldas, and that was that.

I also felt like the conflict in this book was very superficial. Beyond Luella’s attempts to learn more about this world she finds herself in and integrate herself into the society, there is also a political conflict focused around the king’s younger brother. Because this plot mostly follows the brother’s actions, it felt a little odd for Luella and Eldas to have any involvement in it. Harrow (the brother) could have easily stopped it himself, and, in fact, this plot could have been the basis for an entire book focused on Harrow. Having it be such a large part of this book while also not focusing on Luella and Eldas at all made it fit weirdly into the story and feel as though none of it really mattered.

I thought the idea behind this book was interesting, and I wanted to really love it, but it ended up not meeting my expectations.