Book Review: Meant For Now

📚 Book Review: Meant For Now

Allison Speka

🗓️ Publication Date: May 29, 2025

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

📚 My Review: This was pure delight from beginning to end. The writing is effortlessly engaging, and the characters felt wonderfully relatable and real!

While it's definitely a sweet romance.. it’s also a story about growth, about letting go, and about finding joy in the unexpected. I loved the chemistry and the banter between Frankie and Oliver and it was a great reminder that sometimes life’s best moments arrive when you least expect them. An absolute must-read!

Thank you to Allison Speka for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: For the first time, Frankie has found her carefully crafted life veering way off course. Career-driven, ambitious, motivated—these were the pillars she had built her entire identity around. Now, fresh off a layoff, she’s struggling to figure out what’s next for her.

Then, on a chance encounter one evening, she meets Oliver. He’s charming and attractive, but as soon as he opens his mouth, Frankie realizes the two could not be more different. He’s an impulsive daredevil, a true free spirit—not her type in the slightest.

But as fate would have it, the two have found themselves in the same small town for the time being. With her desperate to find her next plan, and Oliver completely planless, the two strike up a deal. Oliver is determined to show Frankie a good time, while she’s hoping she can fracture this carefree front he puts on.

As the two try to find cracks in each other’s beliefs, unexpected feelings begin to surface. Pretty soon, neither can deny the pull between them.

Even though everything about them isn’t meant to be, maybe they’re meant for now…

Book Review: All Our Missing Pieces

📚 Book Review: All Our Missing Pieces

Sophie Ranald

🗓️ Publication Date: May 29, 2025 

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

📚 My Review: I enjoyed parts of this book, but overall, it didn’t quite hit the mark for me. With multiple points of view, I often found it difficult to keep track of who was speaking—I think having character names at the beginning of each chapter would have helped. I also felt like we didn’t get the full story for each character, which left things feeling a bit unfinished. It’s not a bad book by any means, maybe just not the right fit for me.

Thank you to Storm Publishing via netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: When Orla Clifford inherits her grandmother’s crumbling Georgian house on Damask Square, she sees a chance to rebuild her life while restoring its faded grandeur. But beneath its peeling wallpaper and weathered floors, the house holds more than just memories.

To make ends meet, she takes in Luke, a handyman with artistic dreams; compassionate Livvie; and Beatrice – young, privileged and haunted by the question of her own past.

As Orla pours her heart into her morning journal, Beatrice searches through the house’s hidden corners, coming dangerously close to uncovering what Orla has spent decades concealing. What will happen when the secret Orla has carried for twenty years finally comes to light? Will it destroy the fragile bonds forming beneath this roof – or become the missing piece they’ve all been searching for?

Book Review: The Love Haters

📚 Book Review: The Love Haters

Katherine Center

🗓️ Publication Date: May 20, 2025

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 My Review: I've come to expect nothing less than perfectly sweet love stories and beautiful life lessons from everything Katherine Center writes and this was no exception! While there was a heavy focus on body image and self-love (don't miss the author's note at the end for additional insight) Hutch, Rue, and George Bailey made me smile and I've decided we all need friends like "the gals" with unabashed conga lines!

The perfect mix of charm, chaos, and courage. A reminder that love, like life, is worth showing up for, even when we feel like we’re in over our heads. Add this one to your summer list!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. 

The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can. 

Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!

But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.

Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last

Book Review: My Friends

📚 Book Review: My Friends

Fredrik Backman

🗓️ Publication Date: May 6, 2025

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 My Review: Some books don’t just speak to you—they settle into your soul. This one completely stole my heart. I cherished every single page and didn’t want it to end. I even made myself stop reading in the middle of the night just to stretch out the experience for one more day!!

Fredrik Backman has an extraordinary gift for weaving together friendship, loss, grief, love, and hope—wrapping them all in "long stories' laughter, tears… and even farts! This book was everything. Beautifully messy and unforgettable. All the stars—then all of them again!

Thank you to Atria Books via Netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There’s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there’s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art

Book Review: A Sharp Endless Need

📚 Book Review: A Sharp Endless Need

Marisa Crane

🗓️ Publication Date: May 13, 2025

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

📚 My Review: I’m always drawn to a good coming-of-age story, and this one had so much potential with themes like grief, first love, and identity. I think I'm in the minority with my rating because while some moments resonated with me, others, including the ending, felt a bit rushed.

I was on a lot of teams in high school, but this story leaned quite heavily into basketball terminology, which was a little overwhelming for me since I’m not particularly into the sport. I also think LGBTQ+ readers might find certain moments more meaningful and relatable than I did.

Overall, it’s not a bad read, just not one that kept me completely hooked.

Thank you to @The Dual Press via @netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: Star point guard Mack Morris’s senior year of high school begins with twin cataclysms: the death of Mack’s father and the arrival of transfer student Liv Cooper. Playing side by side for their high school basketball team, Mack and Liv discover an electrifying, game-winning chemistry on the court. Off the court, they fall into an equally intoxicating more-than-friendship—one that feels out-of-bounds in their small Pennsylvania town. Mack teeters on the precipice of adulthood as desire and grief collide with drugs, sex, and the looming college signing deadline. Caught between the dual impulses of ambition and self-destruction, Mack must decide what kind of life they want to fight for.

Book Review: Parents Weekend

📚 Book Review: Parents Weekend 

Alex Finley

🗓️ Publication Date: May 6, 2025

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫

📚 My Review: Parents Weekend kept me hooked! (even if it wasn’t a perfect read for me) The premise was intriguing, and the duel timelines worked. However, with so many characters navigating their own struggles, the chapters felt a bit overwhelming and crowded. While I was curious to see how everything played out, I never formed a strong connection with any of the characters. Still, the mystery was compelling, and if you like multi-POV thrillers then you'll likely enjoy the journey!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books via Netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.

One More Day of Us

📚 Book Review: One More Day of Us

Shari Low

🗓️ Publication Date: May 2, 2025

📚 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 My Review: I absolutely loved this book! It swept me away from the first page and was full of emotion and nostalgia and lovely characters. The writing is warm, vivid, and filled with heart.  This was my second book by Shari Low and it definitely didn't disappoint. Moira’s journey is both poignant and empowering, and the themes of friendship, choices, and second chances were handled with such care. This is one of those books that will linger long after you've turned the last page. A total gem!

Thank you to Boldwood Books via Netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📚 Goodreads Synopsis: 1990: In a hot, humid Hong Kong summer, three young singers are loving life, performing to packed crowds every night in a swanky hotel bar. Twenty-three-year-old Scottish songbird, Moira Chiles is living the dream alongside Carina Lloyd and Lisa Dixon. They work hard, play hard, and always stick together… until one day Moira has to make a choice that changes everything.

Fast forward to…

2025: In a wet, chilly, Glasgow summer, Moira has just retired after singing in Glasgow pubs and Caribbean cruise ships for three decades. Now she’s ready for a new adventure – one that takes her to Hong Kong to revisit a world she left behind. Moira hasn’t seen Carina or Lisa for over thirty years, but will an invitation to join her on a holiday of a lifetime rekindle the friendships that changed her life? Or will stepping back in time expose secrets that could break their hearts