This Isn’t What It Said It Was | A review of One Last Shot by Betty Cayouette

From the moment Emerson and Theo met as teenagers, they were inseparable. But just when they finally expressed their feelings to one another, they were torn apart.

Now, supermodel Emerson is nearing her twenty-eighth birthday, and she’s tired of looking for love in all the wrong places. When the calendar reminder for the marriage pact she and Theo made as teens goes off on her phone, she realizes this is it―her chance to rekindle the only romance that ever really made sense. Emerson convinces her grumpy agent to book her as the face of the fashion campaign that Theo, now a fashion photographer, is shooting. The good the campaign is being shot in ridiculously romantic Cinque Terre, Italy. The bad news? Theo might not be as happy to see her as she’d hoped.

The two embark on a four-day campaign that tests not only their feelings, but their ability to keep their hands off one another. But as roadblock after roadblock keeps them apart, Emerson starts to will this photoshoot be the key to getting one last shot at love, or will it be a final goodbye?

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for this review. All thoughts on One Last Shot are my own.

Did Not Finish at 6% (21 pages)

I want you to go ahead and read that book description again. Particularly the line “Theo might not be as happy to see her as she’d hoped.” Maybe even read it a third time. Because that is a complete and utter lie.

It didn’t take me long to realize that this book’s description promised something it wasn’t going to fulfill. Because as our two main characters get the notification on their phones that they made a pact to get married on their 28th birthdays, they also both decide to reach out and find the other after a ten year separation.

Go ahead and read that again too, while we’re at it. They BOTH reach out. The second they get the notification.

Now, its one thing for me to misunderstand a book’s description and realize I’ve made a mistake once I hop into it. I’ve done it before, and I’m sure the possibility to do it again is in my future. But if I can misunderstand a book’s intentions and then go back and find the exact line in the book’s description that states very clearly the same thought process I had?

I went into this book with the understanding that Theo didn’t want to see Emerson again, only to immediately be smacked in the face with his very obvious want to reconnect with her. Paired alongside a very stilted writing style and two characters who were weirdly obsessed with each other, I didn’t even want to give this book a chance to wow me despite its lies.

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.

What A Disaster! A Flower Farm! | A Review Of Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings

Winning the lottery has ruined Opal Devlin’s’s life. After quitting her dead-end job where she’d earned minimum wage and even less respect, she’s bombarded by people knocking at her door for a handout the second they found out her bank account was overflowing with cash. And Opal can’t seem to stop saying yes.

With her tender heart thoroughly abused, Opal decides to protect herself by any means necessary, which to her translates to putting almost all her new money to buying a failing flower farm in Asheville, North Carolina to let the flowers live out their plant destiny while she uses the cabin on the property to start her painting business.

But her plans for isolation and self-preservation go hopelessly awry when an angry (albeit gorgeous) Pepper Smith is waiting for her at her new farm. Pepper states she’s the rightful owner of Thistle and Bloom Farms, and isn’t moving out. The unlikely pair strike up an agreement of co-habitation, and butt-heads at every turn. Can these opposites both live out their dreams and plant roots? Or will their combustible arguing (and growing attraction) burn the whole place down?

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for this review. All thoughts on Late Bloomer are my own.

Did Not Finish at page 87 (26%)

After reading and absolutely loving Mazey Eddings’ previous book, Tilly In Technicolor, I was excited to get into Late Bloomer and get more of this author’s writing!

Unfortunately, Late Bloomer just didn’t end up being for me.

My first clue that this book wouldn’t be for me came in the form of the characters themselves and their viewpoints on life. Our main character, Opal, wins the lottery and is immediately ambushed by a long list of people coming out of the woodwork to ask her for money. The love interest, Pepper, has recently had to deal with her grandma’s death and soon learns that her beloved flower farm has been sold right out from under her. Both of these characters are in rather low points in their lives and think life is terrible, making for a depressing opening to this book that I honestly wasn’t excited to read.

From this opening, however, a lot of this book seems to balance on a reader’s suspension of disbelief in order to tell it’s story. When Opal and Pepper realize what has happened, the two decide they’re just… going to live together. In the same house. Until Pepper can pay back what Opal paid for the farm. And while I think every genre deserves a certain level of suspension of disbelief in order to make it work, I don’t think contemporary romance can survive on quite this much willful ignorance.

Late Bloomer also relies on insta lust in order to get its characters together. Within pages of Opal and Pepper meeting each other, we’re getting descriptions of their attraction to each other, with longing looks and distractions as one is a little too focused on the others’ body. These two have barely had a conversation, yet they’re already holding themselves back from wanting to sleep with the other? Why is Pepper looking at Opal in that kinda way as Opal is saying “I promise I’m not a serial killer lol”??

I ended up not enjoying myself with the beginning of this book, but stuck with it until I was a quarter of the way through before deciding to say enough was enough and DNFed it.

Like A Sports Anime, But Gayer | The Prospects by K.T. Hoffman Review

Hope is familiar territory for Gene Ionescu. He has always loved baseball, a sport made for underdogs and optimists like him. He also loves his team, the minor league Beaverton Beavers, and, for the most part, he loves the career he’s built. As the first openly trans player in professional baseball, Gene has nearly everything he’s ever let himself dream of—that is, until Luis Estrada, Gene’s former teammate and current rival, gets traded to the Beavers, destroying the careful equilibrium of Gene’s life.

Gene and Luis can’t manage a civil conversation off the field or a competent play on it, but in the close confines of dugout benches and roadie buses, they begrudgingly rediscover a comfortable rhythm. As the two grow closer, the tension between them turns electric, and their chemistry spills past the confines of the stadium. For every tight double play they execute, there’s also a glance at summer-tan shoulders or a secret shared, each one a breathless moment of possibility that ignites in Gene the visceral, terrifying kind of desire he’s never allowed himself. Soon, Gene has to reconcile the quiet, minor-league-sized life he used to find fulfilling with the major-league dreams Luis makes feel possible.

I received an ARC of The Prospects, which was published April 9, 2024.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I don’t know if anyone out there has had the same anime-to-books experience I have, but I’m sure a few readers will understand the sort of vibes I mean when I say this book feels like a sports anime.

And for those who don’t, I’ll try to explain it the best I can:

Sports anime are typically very character-focused, rather than focused on the sport itself. Sure, there are bits and pieces of the sport (it’s what our plot is based on), but it’s mostly about the characters growing into their abilities as players and connecting with their teammates.

Sports anime are also, typically, a little bit gay.

The Prospects also fits this sort of description. It’s undoubtedly a book about sports, being centered around a minor league baseball team, but it’s not about the sports as much as you’d think it is. It’s about Gene and Luis and their teammates, and the personal problems they have alongside the season. Love and family and careers and, above all, sticking together no matter what.

I really loved the LGBT elements in The Prospects. For one, we have the relationship between Gene and Luis, which I immediately fell in love with. Despite the two being “rivals” playing the same position, it was easy to tell, even early on, that these two were there for each other. They supported each other, even if they didn’t want to admit it, and that made for a very wholesome read.

But I also loved the way this book treated Gene being trans. As a trans reader myself, I’ve complained in the past about books just not getting it. Making their trans characters have these totally awful, completely transphobic experiences like that’s the only sort of experience a trans character can have. It’s hard to find trans stories where the main character happens to be trans, rather than the entire story being about them being trans, but The Prospects ended up being the perfect example of what I want in a story like this! Gene is trans, and maybe sometimes he has to deal transphobia or has issues with just existing as a trans person, but ultimately, that’s not his story in it’s entirety.

The best example of this is a scene in which Gene has to use his government name in order to sign up for something. In the scene, another character is nearby and, respecting Gene, turns to look away as he types in his government name. At no point do readers learn what Gene’s birth name is, nor is the scene made into a big deal, but the way the author treats it and the idea that sometimes, trans people don’t officially change their name on governmental records really stood out to me!

In all, I really liked The Prospects and the way this author wrote the story! Meeting these characters and seeing the way they interacted with each other–whether in the main romance or in friendships–made for a very enjoyable read, and I’ll be looking forward to K.T. Hoffman’s other works in the future!

Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens review

Seventeen-year-old Ellery is a non-believer in a region where people swear the supernatural is real. Sure, they’ve been stuck in a five-year winter, but there’s got to be a scientific explanation. If goddesses were real, they wouldn’t abandon their charges like this, leaving farmers like Ellery’s family to scrape by.

Knox is a familiar from the Other World, a magical assistant sent to help humans who have made crossroads bargains. But it’s been years since he heard from his queen, and Knox is getting nervous about what he might find once he returns home. When the crossroads demons come to collect Knox, he panics and runs. A chance encounter down an alley finds Ellery coming to Knox’s rescue, successfully fending off his would-be abductors.

Ellery can’t quite believe what they’ve seen. And they definitely don’t believe the nonsense this unnervingly attractive guy spews about his paranormal origins. But Knox needs to make a deal with a human who can tether him to this realm, and Ellery needs to figure out how to stop this winter to help their family. Once their bargain is struck, there’s no backing out, and the growing connection between the two might just change everything.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

With this being my fourth F.T. Lukens book, its not a surprise to say that I enjoyed Otherworldly. But I was actually really surprised, upon the introduction of Knox–one of our main characters–with how much I immediately liked this book!

Otherworldly opens with Arabelle, a woman who wants to be immortal, leaving an offering at a crossroads for a goddess. When the goddess’ shades–minions, basically–comes to listen to her bargain, they gift her Knox, a magic familiar who can help her learn the secret to living forever.

With neither of our main characters being named Arabelle, I was actually a bit confused by this opening. I was expecting to read a story about Knox and Ellery, so who was this Arabelle? Why was she important to the plot?

Turns out, her story is the perfect place to start Knox and Ellery’s own adventure.

Immediately after this opening, I was left with a mystery that needed to be solved. As his goddess’ creation, Knox had access to his goddess through letters during his stay with Arabelle. But his goddess hadn’t responded to his letters in a while, and he became increasingly worried something was wrong.

So, in the first chance he got, he ran.

He soon runs into–literally–Ellery, our other main character. Ellery is the child of farmers, but a five year long winter has left their farm struggling. In order to help try and save the farm, Ellery moves to the city to get a job, but wishes they could figure out a way to stop winter for good.

Thus, a bargain: Knox will help Ellery stop the winter if Ellery helps Knox experience humanity.

I was really wowed by the setup for Otherworldly and how involved it was. It was obvious that there was a lot of thought put into this world and how the conflict would go, even from the beginning pages of this book, and I was excited to absolutely love this story!

Unfortunately, it did have its downsides.

I found this book to be a bit immature, and I wanted to get into the characters’ heads a bit more as they discussed the plot and how to survive the conflict. Maybe its part of growing up, but YA just hasn’t been hitting the way it should for me recently. While I’ve been loving the idea of YA books, I ultimately keep finding the characters a bit hard to relate to and their thought processes childish. For example, Ellery’s crush on Knox throughout this book felt very school-age and self-conscious, with jealousy and questions of “does he like me???” that had me rolling my eyes at times.

Inversely, while I could understand the reason why these characters took some of the actions they did, I felt as though there could have been more description into their thoughts than this book actually had. There was a bit of reading between the lines to follow their thought processes, while I would have preferred everything to be laid out within the pages of the book, even if it would end up veering into being over-explained instead.

While I still love F.T. Lukens’ writing and the worlds they create throughout these stories, it was obvious as I read Otherworldly that this was not going to be the five star book I had hoped it would be. I really loved the idea of the characters and this world, but the writing style (and possibly age rating, though that’s more my fault than the book’s fault) had me wishing this book was bigger than it was.

Midnight Mayhem (Clover Pack #3) by Savannah Lee review

Friends. Family. Mate.

After living most of my life on the run, I’ve finally found a place I belong. A place to call home, with a mate bond I never expected to have. I’d love nothing more than to enjoy it.

But Queen Tantaii won’t rest until she gets what she wants, the ancient ring that will give her the power to destroy the mortal realm, and everyone in it.

And I have it.

I know she’s lurking, biding her time in the shadows for the perfect moment to strike. She’s the mother from hell, and she knows exactly where to strike to hurt me the most.

But her plan won’t work.

I’m done running. I’m done hiding.

I’ll take the fight to her, and end this. Once and for all.

Midnight Mayhem gets released May 1st, 2024!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

One of the first notes I wrote down while reading this book is “if RowanXCallan has 100 fans, I’m one of them. If RowanXCallan has no fans, I’m dead”, and I feel like that’s a pretty good description of my feelings for this series in general.

I really enjoyed the characters in this series and watching them grow throughout! This author does a really good job at making you care for these characters, whether that’s because she’s about to rip your heart out by killing someone you love _{^{(*glares at Savannah Lee. She knows what she’s done.*)}} or because she’s somehow convinced you to have mixed feelings for someone you thought you hated ^(???).

I also really loved how the relationship between Rowan and Callan has developed throughout the books, surprising absolutely no one. This is not a constructive point to bring up in a book review (just me yelling into the void), but there’s a scene very early on in this book where Rowan’s packing a suitcase and Callan’s quietly staring at her ass that has me screaming every time I think of it. Just thinking of how far they’ve come since the first book, when they were attracted to each other but couldn’t do anything because they weren’t mates……………………….

^*yelling*

I also loved how this book called back to previous books in the series, which really helped show just how far these characters have come! Seeing the allies they’ve made along the way continuing to help, even when readers least expect them to show up? Showing how something seemingly small can amount to so much more??? 👌👌👌

That being said, I do think this book could have benefited from better pacing and a bit more length in general. With so much action going on, there’s no time for readers to take a breath and just enjoy seeing the characters in a way I wish we had gotten. We’re jumping from one major conflict to the next without any time between them, and that felt very overwhelming to read.

With as much as I loved the first two books in this series, I was quite disappointed to find that I felt more neutral about this final book’s plot. While I love the characters and world building Savannah Lee has done in this series, I needed a little more fluff and buildup to this grand final battle before I could absolutely adore this book.

The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist by Sophie Gonzales review

Ivy Winslow has the house to herself for a week while her parents are away. She’s planning to use this newfound freedom to binge-watch her favorite fantasy TV show, H-MAD, and hang out with her best friend, Henry. She’ll also have to avoid her former best friend-turned enemy (and neighbor), Mack. But things quickly go awry when Ivy wakes up to find Weston, the gorgeous, very fictional main character of H-MAD in her bedroom, claiming to be her soul mate.

Ivy realizes that her fanfic writing has somehow brought Weston as she’s imagined him to life. But it turns out that the tropes she swoons over in her stories are slightly less romantic in reality, and her not-so-fictional crush is causing some real-world problems. To figure out why Weston is here and what to do with him, Ivy decides to team up with Henry and (against her better judgment) Mack. But with Mack back in her life, Ivy starts to wonder if Weston, her “perfect guy”, is the one who’s truly perfect for her . . . or if that was someone else all along.

Did Not Finish at 20%

I’ll be completely truthful with you guys: this book was a mistake for me to pick up.

You know when you think you have an idea of how a book is going to go, so you pick it up, only to realize that it is actually going a different way that should have been obvious from the description? That was The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist for me.

I found the idea of a girl who writes fanfiction and ends up having her favorite character come to life to be an interesting concept. I’m sure a lot of people out there wish they could interact with the characters from their favorite piece of media, and as someone constantly thinking about the world of their favorite book, I thought this would be a fun book to pick up!

And there was a lot I was intrigued by in this book.

For one, while I didn’t get far enough to understand the relationship between Ivy and her ex-best friend, Mack, I was interested in seeing how their relationship changed from being so close (to the point that Ivy used to have a crush on Mack) to being enemies.

I was also really enjoying the way this book kept jumping between the past and present to show their relationship. As I made my way through the book, the details of what happened between Ivy and Mack in their past were slowly revealed to me, interspersed with scenes of Ivy struggling to figure out what to do with her very fictional favorite character, Weston.

But beyond that, I couldn’t find much else to enjoy in this book.

For one, I did not like Weston. At all. To be fair on the book, the whole point is that the idea of Weston should be appealing to Ivy, but the actual man himself shouldn’t. We’re not really supposed to like Weston. But when we’re confronted by a man who is extremely clingy, aggressive, and possessive of Ivy and are stuck with a main character who is enamored by his presence alone, it becomes a little difficult to read about.

For two, the writing in this book, especially when about Weston and the things he says… pained me. That might be a plus to Sophie Gonzales’ writing, considering how the version of Weston in this book is based off of Ivy’s immature writing style, but the purple prose? At 20% of the way through the book, he says (and I quote) “As long as I’m with you, I could sleep on a bed of molten coals beneath a blanket of thorns, and I’d cry out not in pain, but in ecstasy.”

I can’t. I had to put the book down and never pick it up again from that line alone.

Also? This is me being very open and honest with you guys in a way that’s embarrassing, but I… thought Mack was a guy. Before I started actually reading this book, based off of the cover alone, I thought Mack was the blond boy on the cover.

That’s Ivy. On the cover. Our main character. Mack is a girl, and this is a SAPPHIC ROMANCE NOVEL.

But that just goes to show how incredibly wrong my assumptions of this book were before I picked it up.

This one’s my fault. I’m sorry.

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli review

On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.

Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for.

Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’m sad now.

I’ve been really loving every witch x witch hunter book I’ve picked up recently, so when I saw Heartless Hunter coming out, I knew I needed to grab a copy! I was positive I was going to really enjoy this book, though I am a bit sad to find that I didn’t 100% love it.

Heartless Hunter is the story of Rune, a socialite who spends her nights as the infamous Crimson Moth, a witch helping other witches escape their hunters. In order to gain access to more information about the witch hunters’ plans, she begins flirting with Gideon, a high ranking witch hunter and her best friend’s older brother.

And he, surprisingly, begins flirting back.

I really liked the relationship between Gideon and Rune, despite how “fake” the two promised themselves it was. As characters, these two were really interesting to read about, and I really loved the opposites attract relationship here. A witch and a witch hunter. A rich socialite and a poor seamster. I loved seeing the way these two differed, yet still seemed like a perfect match for the other!

I will say, however, that some of the choices in this book and decisions Rune made throughout seemed a little too convenient for the story. She seemed a lot smarter and genre-savvy than she should have been for the information she had, and there were a few moments than can only be explained by deus ex machina.

That being said, I was very pleasantly surprised by the twist ending of this book! While I could tell certain aspects of the story were going in this direction, there was a large detail I hadn’t considered that brought this entire book together, and I applaud this author for surprising me in that sort of way. I’m very interested in seeing what happens in the sequel, though I do hope the next book is a little bit nicer to Rune and Gideon.

Till There Was You by Lindsay Hameroff review

Culinary student Lexi Berman, 24, has one goal: to make her late mother proud by becoming an executive chef in a Michelin-star restaurant. And she isn’t going to let anything–or anyone–get in the way. But when she meets Jake Taylor, a dive bar musician who charms her with show tunes, she makes a rare exception to her no-dating rule. After a steamy weekend together, Jake leaves for L.A. to record his demo, and Lexi never expects to see him again. And she definitely doesn’t expect him to become an overnight celebrity, with a breakout single that’s almost certainly about her famous blueberry pancake recipe.

As Jake’s star rises and the world speculates about the subject of his song, Lexi keeps the affair to herself. After all, she’s finally found her footing at her new restaurant job, and even has a prospective romance with her coworker. But when a distraught Jake turns up on her doorstep late one night, her carefully-laid plans are thrown for a loop. Though she and Jake try to be friends, things between them soon reheat faster than a bowl of Lexi’s matzah ball soup. But a relationship with Jake means risking her face in tabloids, withstanding cruel internet comments, and worst of all, jeopardizing her career. As Jake’s upcoming tour approaches, and rumors swirl about him and another pop star, Lexi has to decide if holding onto her meticulously-planned future is worth walking away from what could be the perfect recipe for love.

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Honestly? These two just gave off red flags for the entirety of this book.

Till There Was You opens with our two main characters, Lexi and Jake, meeting at a bar. While the two instantly find a connection and are immediately obsessed with the other, I found it off-putting that Jake invites himself to stay at Lexi’s apartment for a few days after the two had a one night stand.

This isn’t the last time our male main character pushes his own ideas on our female main character. Throughout the book, as Jake’s music career begins to take off and he becomes a celebrity, there are multiple moments where he tells Lexi what to think about their relationship. When she begins doubting staying with him amidst the paparazzi and the hit her own career is taking, he tells her that being with a celebrity is difficult, but they need to stick with it because she makes him feel “normal”.

By the time I was 100 pages of the way through this story, I already felt like it should have began to wrap up the plot, only for there to be another 200 pages left! Till There Was You is a story that drags on, to the point where I needed to take a three week long reading break before I could finish this story!

Ultimately, I finished it, but I definitely wasn’t enjoying myself as I read Lexi begin to act irrational and second guess every aspect of her life because of this relationship. This book felt more like Jake was taking advantage of Lexi than it did a romance, though I never got the urge to DNF and fully give up on this book.

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron (Supernatural Singles #3) by April Asher review

Olive Maxwell much prefers teaching about the supernatural world to taking part in it and leaves the magical shenanigans to her two sisters―the Prima-Apparent and Bounty Hunter-In-Training. But after assigning her college students a project designed to nudge them outside their comfort zones, Olive realizes that she’s never once stepped a toe over her own…and it’s about time that changed. Her first trip into the unknown? Moving in with her long-time crush―and friend…tattooed, motorcycle-riding, and pleasantly pierced, Baxter Donovan.

Bax Donovan, Guardian Angel not-so-extraordinaire, has acquired so many black marks on his record it looked like a scantron sheet. He’s given one last chance to keep his Guardian wings intact, a high-profile Assignment he knows all too well. Olive is usually as low-risk as it got. Hell, she wrote the safety manual. But something landed her on the Guardian Affairs radar and his guess was it had something to do with the heart-pounding stunts she’s determined to check off her Dare I Docket list.

Keeping Olive out of trouble is about to be his toughest assignment yet, and not because he’s forced to shake the dust off his feathers and embrace his inner aerialist. He’s at real risk of shattering the only Guardian Angel Code of Conduct Rule he’s yet to Don’t fall in love with your Assignment. And he isn’t so sure that’s a bad thing.

If love didn’t play by the rules, why should they?

Not Your Crush’s Cauldron gets published February 13th, 2024!

DID NOT FINISH at page 75 (20%)

Is it me? Am I the problem?

Having read the first two books in the Supernatural Singles series, I was sure Not Your Crush’s Cauldron was going to be an easily enjoyed book. Returning to this world was sure to be fun, and I had already expressed my interest in reading Olive’s story!

Unfortunately, I started having problems with this book from the very first page.

Maybe I’ve changed. Maybe my tastes have shifted within the last few years and I just no longer enjoy these types of books. Because Not Your Crush’s Cauldron immediately opened up to the same “hilarious”, horny writing I was kind of expecting from this series… and I wasn’t here for it.

There’s something about friends to lovers that just makes me think that immediately being attracted to each other and so obviously wanting to have sex with the other person doesn’t fit the vibes of the story we’re trying to tell here. Despite the fact that Olive and Bax have been background characters in the first two books and we therefore vaguely know what to expect from them, the book immediately opening with Olive receiving a dildo from her sister and Bax needing to leave the room before she notices that he has a boner was not making me want to continue reading.

I was also confused by the humor in this book. Maybe I’m forgetting the writing style of the first two books, but the writing in this book carried that cringy, “boomer”-esque humor that felt like it would fit in better in a Facebook photo post with a Minion in the background. At one point, Olive reveals to her friends(/family) that she’s anxious about an important presentation coming up, to which everyone decides the best remedy is to crank up the music (in the middle of a bar) and dance to Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off.

We might as well slap a medication’s name over this scene and list possible side effects, because it felt exactly like one of those commercials.

The last thing that bothered me in this book was the setup to the plot/Olive’s personal conflict. Olive works as a teacher in a magical college, where she’s getting bullied by her fellow teachers for being boring and never stepping out of her comfort zone. While this is the push she needs to begin experimenting and finding new joy in her life, I’m also questioning everyone’s maturity and age in this book. We’re college-level teachers, and yet we’re still forming cliques and bullying our peers? Just a few chapters ago, we were describing a dildo in the shape of a tentacle, and now we’re falling back on overused teenage plots our characters should be past by this point in their lives?

I tried to stay with this book until the conflict was fully introduced and the beginning was past us, but at 75 pages in, I got to the beginning of a new chapter and realized I could not sit through another word of this book.