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Showing posts with the label contemporary romance

Favorite Adult Fiction Books

  So if you've been on my blog long enough you know I mostly read middle grade and YA, but I do still like some adult fiction! Here is a list of adult fiction books I have read so far and loved. Romance  Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley  Funny Story by Emily Henry  Book Lovers by Emily Henry People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry Chef's Kiss by Garrett Melendez She Loves to Cook series by Sakaoumi Yuzaki    Literary Fiction  Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida  Morisaki Bookshop duology by Satoshi Yagisawa  The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett  I Want to be a Wall trilogy by Honami Shirono    Fantasy  Legends and Lattes (and the prequel Bookshops and Bonedust) by Travis Baldree  Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern The Sta...

You Were There Too Review

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Trigger warning: mentioning of miscarriages     Ugh, the book was good until it got to the end... You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley is an adult contemporary romance novel with a dash of magical realism. Mia and her husband Harrison have just moved from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a small town called Hope Springs, thinking life would be easier for them. Instead, Mia has trouble finding a job that she can do with an art degree, and Harrison seems to be hiding something related to his job (he works as a surgeon in a small hospital) from Mia. Even worse, they have been struggling to have children as Mia has already had two miscarriages.  While all of this is going on, Mia keeps having recurring dreams of her encountering a stranger. Well, she's actually been dreaming of this mysterious guy for years. Most of the dreams usually takes place in a carnival, and most of the dreams involve something tragic. Freakier still, Mia ends up finding the guy in real life! His name i...

French Girl in New York Review

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  Oh, this one was just lovely! A French Girl in New York by Anna Adams is about Maude, a 16 year old who lives in Carvin, a small town in the north of France with her foster family, who act coldly towards her and refuse to talk to her about her birth parents. Maude also loves to sing and play piano, but unlike most people her age, she prefers opera and classical music. One day during a school field trip in Paris, she comes across an American social media influencer named Chad, and he invites her to perform inside. Maude sings a cover of a popular pop song, and to her surprise, Chad records the whole thing, and it ends up going viral. The next thing Maude knows, a record label president named Terence and his adult daughter Cynthia show up at her house and want to turn her into a pop star! Maude then finds herself in New York City learning the ins and outs of the music business. She also starts falling in love with two guys at once. One named Matt who is her music partner, and anot...

I finally read Funny Story by Emily Henry!

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I think I love this more than Book Lovers ! I read that book last year. You can read my review for it here . Funny Story by Emily Henry is about Daphne and Miles, who are living together as roommates as Daphne's ex fiance Peter and Miles's ex fiancee Petra break off each other's respective engagements and decide to be with each other instead. Their daily life is largely uneventful: Daphne works as a children's librarian, Miles works as a bartender, they don't interact with each other much...until one day they get a letter in the mail from Peter and Petra to come to their wedding! Shocked that their exes would even think to still communicate with them, the two decide to fake date to annoy Peter and Petra by the time the wedding happens. But very quickly their fake dating turns real, and their motivations and actions become less about getting revenge on their exes and more confronting their true feelings and dealing with their childhood traumas.  It's a very emot...

I Hope This Doesn't Find You Review

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                              (Graphic made in Canva. Pic of book was found on Google Images) This is actually my third book from Ann Liang . The first book I read from her was This Time It's Real , which I read last year but I didn't like it very much. You can read the full review for it here. The second book I picked up was If You Could See the Sun , and I tried reading earlier this month but DNF it. I do believe in giving authors another chance, so I read I Hope This Doesn't Find You , and I really liked it!  This book is about Sadie Wen, who is a top student at her school and her number one nemesis is the other top student, Julius Gong. They've been competing for as long as Sadie can remember. One way Sadie vents out her frustrations with Julius and other students that have done her wrong is through email drafts. She does this because she is a huge goody two shoes and tries to maintain a g...

Moment of Truth Review

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 TW: mentions of a sibling dying young Another new favorite from Kasie West ! The Care Bear figurines were very fitting for this book. Moment of Truth is about Hadley, a girl who is very passionate about swimming and plans to get a swimming scholarship to get into the college of her dreams. But one day, a guy who is dressed like popular movie character Heath Hall crashes her swim meet, and Hadley loses the competition. Annoyed with this fake Heath Hall, she and her best friend Amelia try to figure out who this Heath Hall wannabe is. It turns out he goes to their school, and he runs an Instagram page where is showcases wherever he will strike next. Hadley and Amelia go through every boy they think he could be. One of the suspects is Hadley's ex-boyfriend Robert, awkwardly enough. Another suspect is a guy named Jackson that Hadley frequently butts heads with.  But while the Heath Hall mystery is going on, things start to change between Jackson and Hadley. Especially when Jackso...

I Wish You All the Best Review

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How come it took me so long to get around to reading this? It is an instant new favorite! I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver is about 18-year-old nonbinary Ben, who got kicked out of their house after coming out as nonbinary to their parents. They go to live with their sister Hannah and her husband Thomas. At Ben's new school, they meet another student named Nathan. It takes Ben a while to warm up to Nathan, but when they do they become great friends. Nathan especially loves Ben's art, and loves it when Ben draws and paints pictures of him. Nathan and his other two friends Meleika and Sophie help Ben get used to their new situation while also having fun as friends should. At the same time, Ben's sister Hannah recommends that Ben should see a counselor to deal with his trauma after getting kicked out and other things, and so they start seeing an LGBT-friendly counselor named Dr. Taylor. Things aren't always easy, but things do start to get better for Ben. slowly. T...

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island

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 TW: D3ath My second book from Colleen Oakley ! The first book I read from her was Close Enough to Touch back in 2019.  The Invisible Husband of Frick Island  is an adult romance novel that follows two characters: Piper and Anders. Piper is a woman living on the eccentric Frick Island, which is a small island community in the Chesapeake Bay. Anders is a reporter working for a small newspaper and on the side, has his own podcast where he talks about random weird stuff, but he is struggling to get any listeners.  Piper recently lost her husband Tom, in a boating accident, but she continues to live on as if Tom were still there. In fact, sometimes she talks to him as if he was still there. The rest of the Frick Island community goes along with it so they don't hurt her feelings. When Anders arrives at the island to do a report on a Cake Walk Festival held there, he finds out all sorts of things about Frick Island: how the island is a victim of climate change, a new ce...

Stars in Their Eyes Review

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 TW: The disease that shares its name with a zodiac sign, some ableism Stars in their Eyes by Jessica Walton and Aska is about Maisie, an amputee who goes to her first ever fan convention with her mother. She and her mother love to geek out on all sorts of shows, and Maisie is excited to see an actress from one of her favorite shows, Midnight Girls, who is an amputee just like her. While there Maisie and her mother meet Ollie and their dad, who are volunteers and the convention, and they immediately become friends. Ollie and Maisie find out they love a lot of the same things, especially when they see shows that have people who are like them (nonbinary, bi, and/or disabled).  Unfortunately, the panel Maisie wanted to go to gets cancelled because her favorite actress gets really sick. So she spends more time with Ollie, and they get really close. Maisie wonders how they will stay close when each one of them lives so far away. Everything I that I like in storytelling was presen...

If You'll Have Me Review

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  What's the last sapphic book you read? If You'll Have Me by Eunnie follows Momo--a shy, quiet girl in her first year of college with few friends and a low-key life. One day, she delivers notes and homework for a class to a classmate of her friend and roommate, Kayla. While there, she sees a girl named PG for the first time in the classmate's dorm room. PG has rumors going around about her that she doesn't stay in a relationship with anyone for too long, and she uses people for her own benefit a lot. The truth is, PG is just a shy as Momo is, and has trouble maintaining any kind of relationship, romantic and platonic, due to something that happened to her in her past with an old friend.  Momo and PG meet for real for the first time at a party, and even dance together! From then on out, they start hanging out more and get to know each other better, and fall in love. They both experience stepping out of their comfort zone for the first time and confront their pasts, too...

THIS TIME ITS REAL BY ANN LIANG

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  Uh oh, (semi) unpopular opinion alert... This Time It's Real by Ann Liang is about Eliza Lin, who goes to an international school in Beijing. One day, an article she writes for a class assignment somehow goes viral. The article was about her relationship with her boyfriend. Only here's the thing: Eliza has never had a boyfriend. Yup, she made up the whole thing. So now she feels that has to convince the whole world she is dating someone. She chooses to fake-date the most popular boy at her school: Caz Song, who also happens to be a popular C-drama star. Eliza's viral article ends up also getting her an internship at Craneswift: a popular publishing company. Her main assignment as an intern is to write blog posts about the dates she and Caz go on. With all of this going on, Eliza isn't sure if her relationship with Caz could ever become real, especially since she has trouble getting close to people. Her mother's job requires her to travel a lot, and Eliza has neve...

I FINALLY READ BOOK LOVERS BY EMILY HENRY!

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  Just like the title of this post says. Book Lovers by Emily Henry is an adult contemporary romance novel about a woman working in the book publishing industry named Nora. Nora is trying to help one of her clients, named Dusty, get her book published, but the coworker she is stuck working with to make it happen is a somewhat uptight guy named Charlie.  Nora's sister Libby then invites her to go on vacation so they can unwind at Sunshine Falls, a small town near Asheville, North Carolina. While they are there they try to accomplish a list of things to do that are cliche movie tropes found in small town Hallmark-esque movies, such as going on dates with locals and going to unusual tourist attractions. Nora happens to run into Charlie while there, and it turns out his family lives in Sunshine Falls and he came back to help his family with their family business, a bookstore that's beginning to fall apart. While they continue to butt heads at first, Nora and Charlie slowly start ...

PS I LIKE YOU BY KASIE WEST SPOILER FREE REVIEW

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  Another cute romance book by Kasie West! PS I Like You by Kasie West is about Lily Abbott, who is a junior in high school who likes writing her own songs, but does not like Chemistry class. One day while bored in said class she starts to write song lyrics of a song she likes on her desk, and someone (another person who sits at her desk in a different class period) starts to add on to her writing. Pretty soon she and her secret pen pal start writing old fashioned paper notes to each other, and Lily gets to learn more about him. She then tries to figure out who in her grade her pen pal might be, all while trying to find a date of her own and trying to enter a songwriting contest where she can earn a scholarship for college.  I don't know what else to say except that this book is so wholesome. I like the way Kasie West writes. This is a great romance book if you want something chill and cute in between reading more intense stuff. I gave it 4 stars . So I enjoyed it for what it...

Listen To Your Heart by Kasie West Spoiler-Free Review

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  I just finished reading Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West. This is sweet and cute YA contemporary novel.  It's kind of hard to give a simple summary on what happens in this book aside from the romance, but in this book, you will find (without getting into spoilers):  Our MC named Kate, loves lake activities and her family has a lake activity business that she wants to one day take over. Kate's BFF, Alana, is outgoing, loves to cook, and has a crush on a guy named Diego. A school podcast that Kate is reluctant about hosting at first but then realizes she has a knack for it. A classmate named Frank who's family has a rivalry with Kate's, but he wants to get along better with her. Bonding over magazines at a tutoring center Kate and her big family A little brother named Max and a cousin named Liza with their own fair share of problems. That's all I'll share for now! This was such a cute and fun book! Although it does get serious and dramatic in three of the chap...