Audiobook Review: Rich Girl Summer by Lily Chu

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Rich Girl Summer
Author: Lily Chu
Narrators: Phillipa Soo & Steven Pasquale
Publisher: Audible Originals
Publication date: July 10, 2024
Print length: n/a
Audio length: 10 hours 6 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Audible download
Rating:

Fake heiress. Real secrets. One sizzling summer she’ll never forget.

Event planner Valerie Peng never planned on spending her summer sipping champagne at a lakefront estate, dodging suspicious socialites, or pretending to be anyone’s long-lost daughter. But when a very public, deeply mortifying mishap lands her in hot water—and her career in a hot mess—her uber-wealthy older client makes her an offer she can’t refuse: come to his glamorous summer home and pose as the long-lost daughter he believes his conniving family has hidden from him. In exchange? Time away from her actual life…and the chance to help uncover a long-buried secret.

But Cinderella needs some magic for this big of a makeover. Enter Nico, her client’s maddeningly perfect right-hand man. He’s organized, meticulous, impossible to read, and infuriatingly handsome. But even though he claims this scheme is a capital-M Mistake, Nico’s the only person she can trust to have her back. As they navigate a world of eccentric matriarchs, class divides, and private family feuds, their chemistry is as undeniable as it is ill-timed.

Caught between pretending to belong and unexpectedly finding where she truly fits in, Valerie’s summer is about to get far more complicated than she ever planned.

I’m always delighted when a new Lily Chu book drops as an Audible Original. Rich Girl Summer is yet another fun romp, with relatable characters, out-there circumstances, romance, and in this case, lots of summertime, sunshine-y vibes.

Main character Valerie is a talented event planner. She’s created her own company, Ad Astra, which specializes in creating highly curated and personalized celebrations of life. By all accounts, she’s excellent at what she does. When she’s hired to manage the celebration of life for the recently deceased patriarch of the wealthy Badgerton family, Valerie knows this event could really catapult her business to the next level, and is determined that everything go perfectly.

Unfortunately, a less-than-competent assistant and an ill-timed attack of food poisoning lead to disaster. The event goes viral, but not as Valerie had hoped. Her business may be on the brink of utter ruin. And then she’s approached by Roger Badgerton, who’d originally hired her. She expects reprimands and threats, but instead, is shocked by what he says: She’s physically similar to his long-lost teen girlfriend, and he’s learned since his father’s passing that the family paid her off to leave town and cut ties with Roger when she discovered she was pregnant. Roger is furious and heartbroken about his family’s deception, and also desperate to find his daughter, who would be roughly Valerie’s age.

His proposition: Valerie will spend the summer at the family’s lakeside estate, where he’ll introduce her to the family as his long-lost daughter. All she has to do is be there, interact with the family, and hopefully unnerve someone enough to start spilling the beans about the past. It sounds crazy, and Valerie’s first instinct is to refuse — but her business has dried up, she has no prospects, and Roger is promising to promote Ad Astra at the end of the summer and get her back on her feet. What could go wrong?

Sweetening the deal is the fact that Nico, Roger’s personal assistant, will be spending the summer at the estate too. He’s kind, uber-organized, very attractive. Valerie wouldn’t exactly mind spending more time with Nico…

Rich Girl Summer mixes summer breeziness with more personal moments, as both Valerie and Nico have plenty of family dysfunction and baggage to deal with — all while keeping up the charade of Valerie being Roger’s daughter. It’s highly entertaining to see her trying to fit in with the snooty, rich Badgertons, while also playing amateur detective and seeing what clues she can pick up about which of Roger’s siblings might have been involved in the deception all those years ago.

I appreciated seeing Valerie and Nico’s romance unfold. They each have major personal obstacles to overcome in order to move forward with a healthy relationship, and the story convincingly portrays their progress, their attempts to communicate in a healthy way, and ultimately, the way they support one another in dealing with their family issues.

Valerie is upfront about being a people-pleaser right from the start — and it made me want to give her a major wake-up call. Seeing her inability to say no in situations where she absolutely should have is frustrating — but it’s part of her character development arc, and the narrative makes us sympathize with Valerie’s struggle despite wishing she’d show a little more spine early on.

My main quibble with the audiobook is that the Badgerton family is large, with many siblings, spouses, and children, and I felt like I needed a cheat sheet to keep the characters straight. This wouldn’t be a problem if there were a print edition, but Rich Girl Summer is available only as an audiobook for now. It would be nice if Audible offered a family tree as a PDF extra!

Narrators Phillipa Soo and Steven Pasquale are just as terrific as you’d expect! Phillipa Soo has narrated all of Lily Chu’s audiobooks so far, and she’s a delight to listen to.

Rich Girl Summer is currently available only through Audible. Her previous novels were released the same way, and then released in paperback about a year later. As I’ve said in previous reviews of her books, I always look forward to new Lily Chu audiobooks. The Comeback and The Stand-In remain my favorites, but you can’t go wrong with any of them!

Purchase links: Amazon
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

30Jul2025

Audiobook Review: Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Totally and Completely Fine
Author: Elissa Sussman
Narrator: Patti Murin
Publisher: Dell
Publication date: July 8, 2025
Print length: 448 pages
Audio length: 11 hours 14 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

From the bestselling author of Funny You Should Ask comes an inspiring romance novel about honoring the past, living in the present, and loving for the future.

In her small Montana hometown, Lauren Parker has assumed a few different roles: teenage hellraiser; sister of superstar Gabe Parker; and most recently, tragically widowed single mother. She’s never cared much about labels or what people thought about her, but dealing with her grief has slowly revealed that she’s become adrift in her own life.

Then she meets the devilishly handsome actor Ben Walsh on the set of her brother’s new movie. They have instant chemistry, and Lauren realizes that it has been far too long since someone has really and truly seen her. Her rebellious spirit spurs her to dive headfirst into her desire, but when a sexy encounter becomes something more, Lauren finds herself balancing old roles and new possibilities.

There’s still plenty to contend with: small-town rumors, the complications of Ben’s fame, and her daughter’s unpredictable moods. An unexpected fling seemed simple at the time—so when did everything with Ben get so complicated? And is there enough room in her life for the woman Lauren wants to be? Alternating between Lauren’s past with Spencer and her present with Ben, Totally and Completely Fine illuminates what it means to find a life-changing love and be true to oneself in the process.

Lauren Parker is not, actually, Totally and Completely Fine… although she’d very much like it if everyone would act like she is. Three years after her husband’s tragic death, she and her 13-year-old daughter Lena are muddling along, coping with daily life mainly by not talking about the big, gaping hole in their world, and just kind of pretending that everything is okay.

When Lauren’s movie star brother Gabe — a former James Bond! — invites them to spend a week visiting the set of his new movie, it seems like a good chance to get away and take a break from their small town in Montana… where everyone knows everything about everyone else, all the time. Lena seems happy enough to hang out with her uncle and witness the movie magic, and meanwhile, Lauren seems to find an instant spark with actor Ben Walsh, a Hollywood rising star and total hottie (and sweetheart), who just happens to be at least ten years younger than Lauren. But what difference does age make if it’s just a vacation fling?

In this layered look at love, grief, and second chances, Lauren’s connection to Ben is obviously not just a fling… but it takes her a while to figure that out. Meanwhile, she’s starting to realize that as much as she loves her late husband Spencer and misses him every single day, she’s actually lonely. Could she… should she… consider opening herself up to love (or at least, dating)? And if she did, what would that mean for Lena, whose rocky relationship with Lauren can’t take one more blow?

As the story unfolds, the narrative alternates between now — Lauren’s potential romance with Ben, her efforts to support and reach Lena, and her challenges living in the town where she’s grown up — and then — Lena’s history with Spencer, from childhood friendship through her rebellious teens and all the way to the marriage and early parenting years. The two halves of the story weave together effectively, with the past informing Lauren’s approach to motherhood and the possibility of getting involved with someone new.

If you’ve read Elissa Sussman’s previous books, the character names and even some scenes may ring a bell. Gabe Parker was one of the lead characters in Funny You Should Ask, the author’s 2022 novel about Hollywood, scandal, and unlikely love. I loved that book, so it wasn’t a surprise to find myself immediately caught up in Totally and Completely Fine, immersed in the characters’ lives and relationships, and delighted to see Gabe, Lauren, and others once again.

Ben is a complex, interesting love interest, and I enjoyed seeing his sensitivity and intelligence as he navigates spending time with Lauren and dealing with the ups and downs of her family and community. I really appreciated the depth of Lauren’s character development, as we come to understand the beauty of her marriage to Spencer, the pain of her loss and the unending sense of grief, the sparks of hope when it comes to finding moments of unexpected joy, and the challenges she faces in dealing with small-town gossip, preconceived ideas about who she is, and finding a way to parent a grieving child.

I really have only two small quibbles with this book. The first has to do with the sex scenes, which, to my taste, are unnecessarily graphic. Granted, this is strictly a matter of reader preference, but I didn’t need quite that many details in order to understand that there’s excellent chemistry going on here.

My second quibble is not with the plot or writing, but with the audiobook narration. Narrator Patti Murin does a fine job with most of the story, with Lauren and Lena, and — oddly — with the adult male characters with non-American accents. However, her delivery for Gabe does not work, at least not for me. Gabe is a former Bond! (Yes, he used a British accent for the role, but in his real life, he speaks like the native Montanan that he is). Gabe should sound like a leading man… but here, he comes across as kind of nasal and whiny — he’s believable as an annoying younger brother, but not as the awesome, flawed, grown-up Hollywood star that he is.

Those complaints aside, I enjoyed Totally and Completely Fine very much, and once I started, I just didn’t want to stop. I was immersed enough in these characters’ lives that I was left wanting more — and while the story wraps up quite well and has a satisfyingly definitive ending, I’d love a follow-up!

I’m now three for three with Elissa Sussman’s books! If you haven’t read anything by her yet, you really could pick any of the bunch and have a great time. Her books are funny, layered, emotional, and highly entertaining. I can’t wait for whatever she writes next!

Interested in this author? Check out my reviews of her other books:
Funny You Should Ask
Once More With Feeling

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

28Jun2025

Audiobook Review: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Great Big Beautiful Life
Author: Emily Henry
Narrator: Julia Whelan
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: April 22, 2025
Print length: 432 pages
Audio length: 12 hours, 2 minutes
Genre: Romance
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years–or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.

Emily Henry’s books are quintessential summer reads, and her newest, Great Big Beautiful Life, is no exception. In fact, this book features an historical element that her books typically do not, and at least for this reader, the result is a richer, deeper experience than I’d originally anticipated.

Margaret Ives, the descendant of the powerful, legendary House of Ives, is the last remaining heir to the Ives media empire, which grew from the success of Margaret’s great-grandfather in exploration and mining. By the time Margaret was born, her family controlled the media, had influence everywhere, and was known for its scandals as much as for their wealth and power. But as we’re told, Margaret disappeared from the public view decades earlier, and no one has heard from her since. Still, the public fascination with the Ives family has never truly faded, and speculation continues to bubble up over what really happened to Margaret and her late husband, the wildly popular singer Cosmo Sinclair (dubbed the “Poor Man’s Elvis”).

When writer Alice Scott follows an anonymous tip and locates Margaret, now in her 80s and living alone on a small island off the coast of Georgia, she submits a book proposal and Margaret agrees to hear her out. But when she arrives at Margaret’s door, she finds another author has been invited as well — Hayden Anderson, whose previous book just won a Pulitzer. Alice is dismayed, but Margaret is quick to inform them that they’re both in the running: She’ll meet with each of them, separately and for equal amounts of time, over the next 30 days, after which they’ll each get a chance to make their pitch, and she’ll choose one of them to write her story. Alice isn’t happy with the set-up, but this could be the opportunity of a lifetime, much too good to walk away from. After signing detailed NDAs, Alice and Hayden are in, and they begin their interviews with Margaret.

As the novel progresses, we get chapters focused on Margaret’s story, where we learn her family’s twisty, hidden past — where they started, how their fortune grew, and the fights, scandals, affairs, and mysteries that plagued them ever since.

Meanwhile, Alice and Hayden go from competitors to something like colleagues — unable to share the details of their interviews (those NDAs!!), but still giving one another encouragement and support through their mutual, bizarre process. As they spend time together, their professional respect turns into friendship and attraction, and while they initially resist, their feelings grow in a way that can’t be ignored.

The structure of Great Big Beautiful Life is a lovely balancing act, bringing interest and forward momentum to both Margaret’s story and the contemporary romance between Alice and Hayden. I must admit, however, that the further I got in the book, the more I wanted to stick with Margaret! She’s a fascinating character with a deeply engrossing family story — if only the book about her life were real, I’d absolutely want to read it!

The romance elements are nicely done, although at some point I lost a bit of patience for the will-they-won’t-they dynamic, as well as the somewhat odd insistence that they not sleep together until after the book proposals are done and Margaret makes her choice… because what this actually means is that they become very heavily sexually involved, but refrain from intercourse. Ummm… from my point of view, this is a very silly distinction. But okay…

Alice’s family life and her challenging relationship with her mother comes into play, as does Hayden’s own family background. They have hurdles to overcome if they want a future together, and meanwhile, while they can’t share the details of what Margaret has revealed to them, each has the feeling that she’s not being entirely honest with them. But why agree to a biography and then lie about key elements?

I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by the amazing Julia Whelan — and through her storytelling, the characters and events absolutely shine. She’s an incredibly gifted narrator, and has an uncanny knack for convincing me that I’m listening to individual people, not one person voicing multiple characters. Her depiction of Margaret is especially lovely and powerful.

I really enjoyed Great Big Beautiful Life, and highly recommend it. As I mentioned, I wasn’t quite as invested in Alice and Hayden’s contemporary storyline — it’s a good enough romance, and I enjoyed it, but some of the tension between them felt unnecessary. (However, I did appreciate that the obligatory 3rd act breakup actually made sense and felt like it was based on a realistic, unsolvable problem). For me, Margaret’s story is the true heart and soul of this book, and it’s wonderful. I would happily spend much more time exploring her secrets, her triumphs, and her heartbreaks.

To sum it all up… Great Big Beautiful Life is a wonderful reading and listening experience! Don’t miss it.

Read-alikes:

Great Big Beautiful Life has themes and story arcs that reminded me of a few other terrific books I’ve read — so if this book appeals to you, consider one of these as well:

If you like the poor-little-rich-girl aspect of the story, try… The Thirteenth Husband by Greer Macallister: Historical fiction about an heiress with an incredible life full of scandals and excitement.
If you like the idea of an elderly woman with a secretive past getting two people to vie to discover the truth, try… Drop Dead by Lily Chu: Lighthearted romance featuring writers competing to discover a famously reclusive woman’s secrets, following clues scattered throughout her outrageously lavish estate.
If you like a story about celebrities living in the public eye but hiding secrets, try… The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: The secret stories behind a Hollywood star’s many marriages, finally revealed in the star’s late-in-life interview with a journalist.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

21Jun2025

Audiobook Review: The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Narrator: Dakota Fanning
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: April 8, 2025
Print length: 384 pages
Audio length: 15 hours, 32 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Sisters Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were born just a year apart but could not have been more different. Zoe, blessed with charm and beauty, yearned for fame from the moment she could sing into a hairbrush. Cassie was a musical prodigy who never felt at home in her own skin and preferred the safety of the shadows.

On the brink of adulthood in the early 2000s, destiny intervened, catapulting the sisters into the spotlight as the pop sensation the Griffin Sisters, hitting all the touchstones of early aughts fame—SNL, MTV, Rolling Stone magazine—along the way.

But after a whirlwind year in the public eye, the band abruptly broke up.

Two decades later, Zoe’s a housewife; Cassie’s off the grid. The sisters aren’t speaking, and the real reason for the Griffin Sisters’ breakup is still a mystery. Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, who’s determined to be a star in spite of Zoe’s warnings, is on a quest to learn the truth about what happened to the band all those years ago.

As secrets emerge, all three women must face the consequences of their choices: the ones they made and the ones the music industry made for them. Can they forgive each other—and themselves? And will the Griffin Sisters ever make music again?

Jennifer Weiner’s books can be counted on for memorable characters, intricate relationships, and terrific story arcs. The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits delivers all of these.

In this 2025 novel, we’re transported back to the music scene of the early aughts and the rise of the Griffin Sisters, a band whose one album changed lives. Even twenty years after their sudden breakup, devoted fans still love them, and the use of their music in a popular new Netflix series has brought them back into the spotlight once more.

But who are the Griffin Sisters, and where did they go?

As we learn, Cassie and Zoe Griffin were born Cassie and Zoe Grossberg, the daughters of a young, working class Philadelphia couple. Zoe — full of beauty and sparkle — is a delight from birth, but the surprise pregnancy that brings Cassie along less than a year later is not a welcome development for their parents. Their mother struggles to love Cassie the way she loves Zoe, and Cassie’s differences confuse and frustrate her parents.

Everything changes when a preschool teacher notes Cassie’s uncanny musical ability. Although still basically a toddler, Cassie can play the piano by ear, and has a remarkable singing voice as well — although she’s so silent and withdrawn that she’ll only sing with Zoe. And so it goes: Zoe is pretty and popular, and protects Cassie (when she can) from the crueler comments directed at her by other children. Cassie is large, awkward, unsocial, and doesn’t care about clothes, entertainment, or making friends. Music is her only passion, and eventually, she enrolls in a music school in order to pursue a career as a classical pianist.

But Zoe craves the spotlight and stardom. Her perkiness puts her at center stage, even though her singing voice is passable at best. Her knowledge of music is limited to Britney and Cristina and the Spice Girls. She yearns to be a pop princess — and when her bandmates kick her out right before a Battle of the Bands competition, she begs Cassie to perform with her instead. Cassie has no interest, hates being seen, and just wants to be left alone… but she can’t let her sister down. In their performance, Cassie’s gift shines — her voice is transcendent, and while Zoe is the visual appeal, it’s Cassie’s singing and playing that makes their time on stage magical.

So magical, in fact, that a talent agent rushes to their house the next day and whisks them off to a recording label’s headquarters in New York. In the blink of an eye, the teen sisters are signed to a contract and are being prepped for a cross-country tour of radio stations and small venues. To turn the Griffin Sisters in a hit-machine, they need a songwriter, and Russell D’Angelo enters their lives. In his mid-twenties, Russell has a former band, is a talented guitar player, and a genius for writing songs. He and Cassie immediately click and begin creating together, but Zoe is interested in Russell for entirely different reasons. Once he joins the band, it’s only a matter of time before things get complicated.

We know from the opening pages of The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits — the one chapter told from Russell’s point of view — that something terrible happens to tear the band apart at the height of their success. As the book progresses, chapters focused on the band’s rise are interspersed with chapters set in 2024, through which we see just how differently Zoe and Cassie live twenty years later.

In 2024, two decades past their peak stardom, Zoe is a suburban housewife and mother. Yes, she still gets recognized as Zoe Griffin, but those days are long behind her. Zoe’s 18-year-old daughter Cherry has a musical gift of her own and yearns to pursue her own musical career, but Zoe blocks her at every turn, cautioning her about the cruelty of the music industry toward young women.

Meanwhile, Cassie has fled just about as far as she can go — no one has seen her in these past twenty years. She lives alone in Alaska on private acreage, hiding from the world, venturing out as little as possible, and denying herself anything that would give her pleasure, including music.

It takes a good 75% of the book to unravel the mystery of what happened to the Griffin Sisters and explain how Zoe and Cassie ended up with the lives they have now. Thanks to the author’s skillful development of the characters and their complex relationships, there’s never a dull moment as she weaves together the past and present timelines. By the time we get to the answers, we understand deeply both what happened and why, how each character perceived or misunderstood the key events, and how this affected their lives from that point forward.

I’m sure people will compare this lovely novel to Daisy Jones and The Six (a book that I love) — and yes, there are some similarities: A wildly popular band falling apart after only one album together, with plenty of “where are they now?” speculation. But, while the music industry pressures and excesses may feel familiar at times, the stories are quite different. Here, the beating heart of the story is the relationship between Cassie and Zoe, as well as the shifting, new dynamic that occurs once Zoe’s daughter Cherry makes it her mission to reunite the sisters (and the Sisters).

Cassie and Zoe are both flawed but fascinating characters. I’ll admit that it’s very hard to like Zoe, and she behaves terribly in many, many situations, often causing horrible damage. Still, the author is careful to make sure that readers understand Zoe — and while we may hate much of what she does, we also understand the fears and insecurities that drive her actions.

The audiobook, narrated by Dakota Fanning, is a joy to listen to. While on the lengthy side, it’s so well told that I never felt impatient or frustrated. The narration captures the characters’ personalities very well — they feel distinct and recognizable throughout.

I had only two minor quibbles by the end of the book. First, there a moment — very late in the story — where Zoe raises the issue of whether Cassie might be on the neurodivergent spectrum — and honestly, that felt a bit out of the blue. Yes, Cassie has a great deal of difficulty in social and public settings, but I never had a sense that she might be considered neurodivergent. I felt that if that was the case the author wished to make, there needed to be a lot more breadcrumbs throughout the book to support this.

My other quibble has to do with a plot thread left dangling at the conclusion:

Highlight the black area to reveal text — ONLY if you don’t mind a spoiler: Who is Cherry’s father? Zoe admits that she’s not sure — it could be Russell, but it could also be Tommy, the band’s drummer. As the story wraps up, I expected some sort of resolution, or maybe even just a hint that Zoe and Cherry might reach out to Tommy… but the matter just isn’t addressed again.

This issue is not critical to the overall story, which — big picture — is about Zoe and Cassie and whether they can find their way back to one another — but it still annoyed me at the end not to get an answer to this particular question.

Those small issues aside, I truly enjoyed The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits. I loved the band’s backstory, the dynamics between Cassie and Zoe, each of their personal journeys, and even the “now” parts focused on Cherry’s attempts to break out as a musician.

Jennifer Weiner’s books are always a treat, and The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits is no exception. Highly recommended.

Oh… but one last complaint.

I don’t just want to READ about the Griffin Sisters’ songs. I want to hear them!!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

25May2025

Audiobook Review: One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: One Golden Summer
Author: Carley Fortune
Narrators: AJ Bridel
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: May 6, 2025
Print length: 400 pages
Audio length: 11 hours 49 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley (ebook); purchased audiobook
Rating:

A radiant, new escape to the lake from #1 New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune

I never anticipated Charlie Florek.

Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.

Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.

Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.

Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.

Good things happen at the lake.

And in the case of One Golden Summer, beautiful books happen at the lake too.

It’s no surprise that I give this book 5 whole-hearted stars. If you saw my post about can’t-miss summer reads last week, you’ll know that Carley Fortune is an author whose books I encountered for the first time just six months ago. Now, having finished One Golden Summer, I’ve read all four of her novels, and I’ll be waiting on pins and needles for another new book!

In One Golden Summer, we get a sequel, of sorts, to the author’s first novel, Every Summer After, which I absolutely adored. That book was a decades-spanning love story about Percy and Sam, teen loves who spend their adult years apart until a family tragedy brings them back together and they get a second chance to find the happiness they deserve.

Sam’s older brother Charlie is an important secondary character in that book. He’s full of himself, always up for a good time, someone who stirs things up… but who can be counted on when it matters.

In One Golden Summer, main character Alice brings her grandmother Nan to spend the summer at a cabin at Barry’s Bay, and almost immediately encounters Charlie Florek, who’s looking after the cabin for the property owner. Alice quickly realizes that he’s one of the boys she noticed fifteen years earlier while spending the summer at the lake as a teen. As a 35-year-old adult, Charlie is still gorgeous — so stunning that Alice actually says “whoa” the first time she sees him up close. But more than his looks, he’s funny and devilish — yet also kind and thoughtful.

Their tense, combative run-ins quickly morph into friendship, not just between Alice and Charlie, but also between Charlie and Nan. There’s a sweetness to their time together. Alice is determined to embrace the joy and freedom she wasn’t quite brave enough to pursue as a teen, and Charlie is eager to help, teaching her to jet ski, encouraging her to jump from a high rock into the water, applauding when she puts on a slinky dress that’s way outside her comfort zone, and setting up a perfect place for her to sleep under the stars.

There’s a strong attraction between the two, but both are clear that they only want friendship… maybe with some benefits thrown in. But what they say they want and what they actually want end up looking like two very different things.

Without delving too far into plot, I’ll just say that the romance elements are beautifully portrayed, but even more so, it’s the careful building of trust, the deep sense of caring and understanding, and the little joys in daily encounters that make this book sing. There are obstacles, of course, and there’s one of those pesky 3rd act breakups/breakdowns… but there’s a good reason for it, and it feels organic to the story, not something forced into the narrative to create a standard story arc.

One of the delights of Carley Fortune’s books is the evocation of summer. Reading this book made me absolutely ache for a lakeside cabin, boat rides, swimming, and all the joys of a quiet, lazy, summertime escape.

Charlie and Alice are wonderful characters, with depth and edges and complexities, who bring out the best in one another and are also just plain fun. As an added bonus, Sam and Percy show up on and off throughout the story, and it’s lovely to see them again and to see how their lives are turning out.

Once again, the audiobook narrator is AJ Bridel, and she’s amazing at bringing the characters to life, from Alice to Charlie to Nan, and giving them all distinct voices and letting their personalities shine. If you’re an audiobook enthusiast, these audiobooks should not be missed!

My only complaint about One Golden Summer is that I couldn’t stop listening, and finished it in practically record time (or so it felt)! I don’t want to be done with these characters or with the beautiful world of the lake at Barry’s Bay.

If you’re new to Carley Fortune’s books, definitely start with Every Summer After, and just keep in mind that you’ll have a terrific second book about the Florek family to look forward to! You really can’t go wrong with any of this author’s books.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

16May2025

Audiobook Review: Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Any Trope but You
Author: Victoria Lavine
Narrators: Tim Paige, Jesse Vilinsky
Publisher: Atria
Publication date: April 1, 2025
Print length: 336 pages
Audio length: 11 hours 17 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

A bestselling romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery, but the rugged resort proprietor soon has her fearing she’s living in a rom-com plot instead in this earnestly spectacular debut by a stunning new voice.

Beloved romance author Margot Bradley has a dark secret: she doesn’t believe in Happily Ever Afters. Not for herself, not for her readers, and not even for her characters, for whom she secretly writes alternate endings that swap weddings and babies for divorce papers and the occasional slashed tire. When her Happily Never After document is hacked and released to the public, she finds herself canceled by her readers and dropped by her publisher.

Desperate to find a way to continue supporting her chronically ill sister, Savannah, Margot decides to trade meet-cutes for murder. The fictional kind. Probably. But when Savannah books Margot a six-week stay in a remote Alaskan resort to pen her first murder mystery, Margot finds herself running from a moose and leaping into the arms of the handsome proprietor, making her fear she’s just landed in a romance novel instead.

The last thing Dr. Forrest Wakefield ever expected was to leave his dream job as a cancer researcher to become a glorified bellhop. What he’s really doing at his family’s resort is caring for his stubborn, ailing father, and his puzzle-loving mind is slowly freezing over—until Margot shows up. But Forrest doesn’t have any room in his life for another person he could lose, especially one with a checkout date.

As long snowy nights and one unlikely trope after another draw Margot and Forrest together, they’ll each have to learn to overcome their fears and set their aside assumptions before Margot leaves—or risk becoming a Happily Never After story themselves.

I suppose I should have read the blurb more carefully before deciding that this book looked like fun. Earnestly spectacular?? — I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean… but I don’t think that’s what I got.

In Any Trope But You, Margot Bradley, age 31, is a bestselling author of six wildly popular romance novels. Secretly, though, she’s stopped believing in love after one too many heartbreaks. She keeps a hidden file of Happily Never Afters — alternate endings to her novels, where instead of getting their HEAs, the characters get divorce, unhappiness and even (gasp!) erectile dysfunction.

When Margot is hacked and her HNA document is made public during a Zoom book event, her fans are outraged and demand that she be cancelled. She’s an instant pariah in the romance world, and her publisher drops her. She’s in desperate need of a reset.

Margot lives with her younger sister Savannah, who has a chronic autoimmune disease. Margot’s life revolves around caring for Savannah and keeping her healthy, and she’s aghast when Savannah informs her that she’s booked her into a six-week stay at a remote Alaskan wilderness lodge. How can Margot even think of leaving her sister for that long? But Savannah insists, and finally, Margot agrees that this will be a great way for her to get away and reinvent herself, dreaming up a murder mystery set in Alaska with absolutely no romance.

Things begin to go sideways for Margot as soon as she arrives at Northstar Lodge when, frightened at the sight of a moose, she literally jumps into the arms of the (gorgeous) flannel-shirted man who just happens to be standing there chopping wood. Her savior is Forrest, the son of the lodge’s proprietor, who (unbeknownst to Margot) is actually a top-tier cancer researcher who’s walked away from his career to take care of his injured father and keep the family business afloat.

Of course, there’s instant chemistry… which neither of them wants. Margot has sworn off romantic entanglements, and is horrified to realize how many tropes she’s apparently fallen into: Rugged wilderness man, heart of gold beneath grumpy exterior, secretly a doctor, excellent cook, beloved by animals… there’s even a mountain rescue in which he has to carry her down a mountain, and later, the old “let me save you from hypothermia through the warmth of my naked body”.

Meanwhile, Forrest (and the lodge) were badly burned (not literally! — no actual arson involved) after he had a fling with a guest years earlier, who then trashed him (and the lodge) through her viral reviews, resulting in serious damage to the lodge’s business and reputation. It’s taken years to bounce back, and Forrest has a “no guests” policy now that means that Margot is off-limits, no matter how attracted he is to her.

Any Trope But You has a potentially cute set-up (and I’m always a sucker for a good wilderness romance), but the writing and the story itself go downhill as the book progresses.

There’s just so much that doesn’t make sense. I never for a second believed that Margot could be a bestselling author, and her attempts at writing while at the lodge seem feeble at best. Her getting cancelled felt unrealistic, and where was any attempt at damage control? Surely, she and her publicist and the publisher’s marketing team could have launched an effective effort to explain the HNA document — I mean, she was hacked! Where’s the outrage? Instead, it was straight to cancellation plus loss of her publishing contract. Where are her lawyers?

Forrest’s decision to drop everything for his father is also unrealistic. He’s upset that he wasn’t by his mother’s side when she died of breast cancer years earlier… so he walks away from his groundbreaking breast cancer research to move to Alaska, run the lodge, and take care of his dad’s meds and physical therapy — rather than, I don’t know, hiring a nurse and flying up for visits?

And later, when we actually see the former guest’s review that supposedly nearly ruined the lodge… it feels like a big fat nothing. So one person wrote a bad review? So what? She makes it clear in the review that she slept with the proprietor, that he wasn’t interested in a relationship, and that therefore she’s pissed and wants to destroy him. It’s just so bizarre… almost as bizarre as Margot losing all trust in Forrest after reading the review. What a lame 3rd act breakup device.

Still, I was mostly going along with the story as something to pass the time, strictly a 3-star, sort of okay listen… but then we get to the sex scenes. And oh my heavens, they are awful. Not just open door, but full-on close-up views of every single thing that happens between them… and the scenes just go on and on and on. Maybe it’s not as awful in print, but listening to the audiobook, these scenes are excruciating, both in terms of their length and the writing itself, which I could not stand.

Here’s one of the tamer examples I could find:

She huffs a breath as she centers herself on what feels like the business end of a baseball bat in my pants, and I can’t stop the rusty sound she pulls from me when our lips catch for the first time. It’s just a graze, but the tease of her mint ChapStick may as well be a narcotic.

Granted, if you like your romances with lots of spice (and awkward metaphors), then this book might work for you. But for me, closed door or from-a-distance scenes with just enough to give a sense of the chemistry are really all that’s needed… and if it’s got to be more graphic, then at least try to avoid mentioning baseball bats!

Beyond all that, there are some basic premise aspects that are really irritating. Margot and Forrest both seem to need to swoop in and save their family members… whether or not they want it. They both assume they know what’s best for their ill or injured loved ones, disregard when they’re told otherwise, and are totally committed to giving up their own lives to be caretakers, without ever consulting the people they’re caring for to see what they really want. So, maybe Margot and Forrest really are perfect for one another?

Except even once they’re together, they can only envision having a relationship once Margot leaves the lodge if Forrest goes back to his medical work and leaves Alaska — so when his father has a setback, it means that he cant leave after all, so clearly they need to break up. Ummm, she’s a bestselling author and he’s a doctor — they can afford flights! Long distance is a thing!

I could go on and on… but I’ll stop. Clearly, this book was not the cute, fluffy escape I thought it would be.

Someone asked me why I didn’t just stop if the book was bugging me so much. Good question! I’d invested enough listening hours already that I wanted to see it through… and see if just possibly I’d feel differently about it by the end. (I didn’t.)

Points for a great setting and a few cute scenes here and there… but overall, I stopped enjoying this book well before the end, and just powered through to get it done.

Your mileage may vary. But for me, I’m mostly just glad that I’m done.

27Apr2025

Audiobook Review: Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Say You’ll Remember Me
Author: Abby Jimenez
Narrators: Christine Lakin & Matt Lanter
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: April 1, 2025
Print length: 416 pages
Audio length: 9 hours 59 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

There might be no such a thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong…

. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date—possibly the best in living history—Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.

In what I’ve come to think of as signature Abby Jimenez, Say You’ll Remember Me presents two people who are perfectly, devastatingly in love… but who have family challenges and childhood traumas presenting seemingly insurmountable obstacles to their HEA.

But, as is also signature Abby Jimenez… there is obviously going to be a Happily Ever After, no matter how unlikely, so we can breathe easy as we follow along.

In Say You’ll Remember Me, Samantha and Xavier have a not-so-cute meet-cute, during which she shows up at his veterinary clinic with a sickly kitten (awwww, cute!!) and he rudely (not cute!) tells her that the kitten can’t be saved and should be given a merciful death to avoid suffering. She tells him he’s an ass, and motivated to prove him wrong, raises enough money through a GoFundMe campaign to pay for the kitty’s lifesaving surgery. Xavier, not actually being an ass, not only donates to the campaign, but reaches out to own up to being wrong.

Both Samantha and Xavier felt a spark at their initial meeting, despite the hostility bouncing around the room, and eventually, he asks her out on a date. She agrees, although she can’t stay out late because she has an early flight the next morning. They have a fantastic time, until they get stuck in an escape room (which, for the record, they solved — but they got stuck anyway), and are forced to wait until morning to be let out. During their one verrrrry long date, they open up and connect, and realize they have something special.

Except… what Samantha hadn’t told Xavier earlier was the reason for her flight the next day. She’s leaving Minnesota permanently and moving back to California to care for her mother, who’s experiencing intensifying early-onset dementia. Samantha’s ticket is one-way; no matter how great their date was, she won’t be back, and there’s no point in pursuing anything further. She tells Xavier to forget her — there’s no future for the two of them.

But he can’t, no matter how he tries. They each suffer through weeks of silence before reconnecting, and realizing that no matter how crazy it might be, they want to be together, in whatever way they can. Between Samantha’s family obligations and Xavier’s business (he’s deeply in debt from the loans he took out to open his practice), all they can have is fleeting weekends, whenever one or the other can afford to buy plane tickets. It’s not sustainable, but they also can’t give it up.

Layered beneath and around the love story are the emotional challenges and traumas each has to deal with. For Samantha, it’s seeing her beloved, vibrant mother fade to gray. Despite the entire family — her father, grandmother, and siblings — banding together to care for her mother so she can remain in her home, as they promised her when she was first diagnosed, caring for her is much more demanding than any of them anticipated. The emotional distress of witnessing her mother’s decline is matched by the physical toll of her increasing needs. The family is barely hanging on.

For Xavier, it’s the need to be strong and successful, to prove to his negligent, abusive parents that he’s made it without them. After cutting ties more than a decade earlier, he still feels an intense need to show that they were wrong, that he’s not stupid or worthless, that he was good enough to make something of himself. Part of that, for Xavier, is not letting his practice fail. He’s love to sell it and move to California to be with Samantha — but that would mean losing his investment, not being able to pay off his loans, and most likely declaring bankruptcy. His long-held childhood traumas won’t let him give his parents the satisfaction, no matter how much he and Samantha are suffering from not being together.

That’s the plot in a nutshell. Obviously, there’s quite a bit of nuance, but the overarching theme of Say You’ll Remember Me is: Long distance relationships are haaaaarrrrrrd.

This is not exactly a revelation, and I couldn’t help shrugging my shoulders a bit and feeling like Samantha and Xavier could do with a bit less whining. Yes, they’re both dealing with a lot — but they’re not the first couple in the world to be kept apart by circumstances outside their control. I got a little tired of hearing them describe their relationship as if it were the most special love story ever. I liked them together, and I liked them as people — but they come across as both unrealistic and too couple-centered to be utterly sympathetic.

Especially when Xavier says things like:

I think there are two types of people you fall in love with. The ones who are a good fit. Their lifestyle matches yours, you share the same values and beliefs, you find them attractive and you like spending time with them. It’s good. Great even. You can live your whole life with this person and be madly in love and never want anything different… unless you’ve already met the other type of person you fall in love with.

The One.

The person who was made just for you. And you only ever get the one.

Samantha was my one.

Something about that just got on every one of my nerves. Because the way he describes the first type makes it sound pretty perfect — that’s an ideal relationship! And yet, he’s holding up this ideal of the “the one” as if it’s something holy and destined and somehow above and beyond all other types of relationships. And just, no. Much too self-centered and sanctimonious for me, thank you very much.

There’s a bit of wording weirdness too. Samantha thinks of Xavier as giving her a “contemplative” look… like, a thousand times in the book. And eventually, they even talk about it between themselves, but it’s very overdone — or at least, via audiobook, it jumps out as being very overused.

Samantha and Xavier also discuss wanting to lead “parallel” lives:

“You can’t fake that kind of thing,” she said, softly. “It’s the result of a parallel life. A shared collection of experiences, like a snowball rolling downhill, getting bigger as it goes. And then you get to a point where you’re so far in, you can never replace that person. Not really. No one else can ever be the same kind of witness because you’ve through so much. It really is a once in a lifetime thing.”

First, I don’t think a snowball rolling down hill is a particularly positive metaphor for a relationship. And second, every time they talk about wanting to have a parallel life, I couldn’t help wondering if they understand what parallel means — side by side but never touching. I don’t think that’s what they actually want.

Criticism aside… there’s still plenty to enjoy about Say You’ll Remember Me. Quippy banter, humor in even dire situations, lots of silliness, and oodles of very cute animals (none of whom die or are ever at risk, so don’t worry!).

The audiobook narration is well done, with different narrators for Samantha and Xavier, each getting separate chapters. One thing I really liked is that they do their own characters in dialogue — so even if it’s an Xavier chapter, the Samantha narrator still does Samantha’s lines. (This isn’t always the case in audiobooks, and it can be jarring to switch deliveries for the same character from chapter to chapter).

By this point, Abby Jimenez has legions of fans, and I’m sure most will love Say You’ll Remember Me. I didn’t hate it — but I can’t say it was more than an okay story for me. Maybe it’s just how much Samantha and Xavier come across as special snowflakes… but I found myself running out of patience (and therefore sympathy) for their dramatics.

Still, I’ll be back for whatever this author writes next, whether a stand-alone or another story set in this world. Abby Jimenez writes stories with punch, humor, and emotion, and even when I think they’re only okay, they still hold my attention from start to finish.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

19Apr2025

Audiobook Review: Swept Away by Beth O’Leary

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Swept Away
Author: Beth O’Leary
Narrator: Connor Swindells, Rebekah Hinds
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: April 1, 2025
Print length: 384 pages
Audio length: 9 hours 53 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Audible (eARC via NetGalley)
Rating:

Two strangers find themselves stranded at sea together in this epic new love story by bestselling author Beth O’Leary.

What if you were lost at sea…with your one-night stand?

Zeke and Lexi thought it would just be a night of fun. They had no intentions of seeing each other again. Zeke is only in town for the weekend to buy back his late father’s houseboat. Lexi has no time for dating when she needs to help take care of her best friend’s daughter.

Going back home with a stranger seems like a perfect escape from their problems. But a miscommunication in the dark, foggy night means no one tied the houseboat to the dock. The next morning, Zeke and Lexi realize all they can see is miles and miles of water.

With just a few provisions on the idle boat, Zeke and Lexi must figure out how to get back home. But aside from their survival, they’re facing another challenge. Because when you’re stuck together for days on end, it gives you a lot of time to get to know someone—and to fall in love with them.

Beth O’Leary’s books have become must-reads for me. I love the way she blends engaging, unusual love stories with unexpected real-life situations and complications.

Swept Away offers all this… and in terms of unexpected situations, this one is off the charts. (Sorry, my feeble attempt at nautical humor…)

Lexi works at the local pub in Gilmouth, a small town on the northeast coast of England. She lives with her best friend/practically sister Penny and Penny’s four-year-old Mae, whom Lexi has helped raised since she was born. After a big fight with Penny, Lexi finds herself moping over a drink at the pub when her eye is caught by a gorgeous stranger. Zeke is charming and attentive, and he’s just in Gilmouth for one night. Sparks immediately fly. After a few more drinks, they head back to Zeke’s houseboat, both very clear that all they’re looking for is one great night. Which they have.

Things take a decidedly uncomfortable turn the next morning due to confusion about whose boat it actually is and which of them should leave… which all becomes moot when they head out on deck and see nothing but water in every direction. Due to a misunderstanding (plus fog plus drinks), each thought the other had made sure the boat was tied up properly, and neither actually did.

So what do you do when you can’t escape your one-night stand? The boat has no power, and because Zeke only bought it the day before, it has limited provisions. They expect to be rescued right away, but have no way to signal for help, and no ability to steer or navigate. All they can do is float, repair the things that break, and try to survive on what they have.

The longer they’re at sea, the more they open up. With nothing to do but wait, they talk and get to know one another in a way they hadn’t on their night together — and they agree early on to take sex out of the equation, so talking and sharing is really all they have. At first, they’re hesitant, but especially after a dangerous injury (no spoilers!), they’re forced into an intimacy they hadn’t expected. If they’re going to survive, they need each other, and with each passing day, their connection deepens and strengthens.

I won’t go too deeply into spoilers or divulge the major events of their ordeal or how it ends… although I think you can safely assume, even without me saying so, that given the cover and the marketing blurbs, this is not going to be a tragedy.

There’s a lot to love about Swept Away. It’s such an odd, offbeat setup. Lexi and Zeke’s struggle to stay alive and hold on to hope seems doomed at times, especially once the boat starts to break down bit by bit. And yet, their honesty with one another, their explorations of their pasts and their family tangles and secrets add a poignancy to each day, despite the stress of their dwindling supplies and options. As they come to care for one another more deeply, they each become committed to taking care of the other, and there are some sweet, more light-hearted moments as they find ways to bring joy into their otherwise bleak situation.

On the other hand, there are times when Swept Away feels tonally odd. There are plenty of typical romance beats along the way, and mixing these with a survival story can feel jarring. The more days they spend at sea, the more the dangers pile up — and the more out of place some of these cute romantic exchanges can feel.

Still, my occasional skepticism was overridden by the mounting tension as the stakes got higher and higher. I absolutely had to know what would happen! There’s even a Titanic-esque moment (even though this boat is so much tinier!) where I felt all sorts of dramatic feelings… but as I said, it was a safe bet all along that they’d get rescued, so mostly, it was a question of when and how, and in what condition Lexi and Zeke would be when they finally do get saved.

Now, is it realistic that a houseboat that hadn’t left a dock in years, and was designed for gentle river or canal floats, could actually survive the North Sea? Who knows! I doubt it, but it’s something we just have to go with in order to enjoy the story.

I did have a couple of quibbles with loose ends at the end of the book. We never do find out exactly where they were when they were rescued or how far they’d traveled… and I want to know! Also, there is one particularly scary injury that happens during their journey — we know they’re both fine in the end, but I wanted to know more about this in the immediate aftermath, and didn’t feel like I got closure on this particular element.

In general, though, I really enjoyed Swept Away. This isn’t a surprise — Beth O’Leary is a terrific writer who spins engaging tales about people we can’t help but care about. The survival tale provides captivating moments and a highly unusual story arc for a romance, and because Lexi and Zeke are both such layered, well-drawn characters, there’s not a moment where we don’t feel invested in both their well-being and their happiness.

The audiobook narration by Connor Swindells and Rebekah Hinds flows beautifully. The alternating chapters from Zeke and Lexi’s perspectives work very well as a whole, and the narrators bring out their characters’ personalities through their delivery. The funny bits really work, and the emotional moments are well done too.

Fans of Beth O’Leary will not be disappointed, and Swept Away is also a great introduction for those new to this author. Either way, if you’re looking for a book with high stakes, a love story to root for, and a plot to keep you hooked, don’t miss Swept Away!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

For more by Beth O’Leary:
The Road Trip
The Flatshare
The Switch
The No-Show
The Wake-Up Call

10Apr2025

Audiobook Review: Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Promise Me Sunshine
Author: Cara Bastone
Narrator: Alex Finke
Publisher: Dial Press
Publication date: March 4, 2025
Print length: 416 pages
Audio length: 11 hours 11 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Audible (eARC via NetGalley)
Rating:

Grieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, slow-burn romance by the author of Ready or Not

Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Ever since cancer stole away her best friend, she has been completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with her best friend, and the ever-laminated “live again” list of things she’s promised to do to survive her grief. But maybe if she acts like she has it all together, no one will notice she’s falling apart.

The only gigs she can handle right now are temporary babysitting jobs, and she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. The only catch: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of. . . a walking version of the grumpy cat meme. Worse – he seems to be able to see right through her.

Surprisingly, Miles knows a lot about grief and he offers Lenny a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her “live again” list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doubts anything can fill the void her best friend has left behind, but between late night ferry rides, midnight ramen, and a well-placed shoulder whenever she needs it, Miles just won’t stop showing up for her. Turns out, sometimes your life has to end to find your new beginning.

After listening to Ready or Not by Cara Bastone just recently, I was more than happy to jump at the chance to listen to her newest audiobook as well. Promise Me Sunshine does not disappoint… although I think billing this book as a romance might be a bit misleading. Yes, there’s a love story — but Promise Me Sunshine is very much a book about living with grief and figuring out how to carry on after a tragic loss.

When we meet Lenny, she’s bustling uptown to start a temporary babysitting gig, caring for a cute 7-year-old while her single mom is away on a business trip. Lenny connects with Ainsley and her mom Reese right away, but she’s a bit put off by Ainsley’s uncle Miles, who shows up at the apartment as soon as she does, and seems to just plant himself there. He’s cold and judgmental, and watches Lenny like a hawk. Reese doesn’t seem to particularly want him there, but he stays, and stays, and stays.

Lenny is full of sunshine around Ainsley, but alone, it’s clear that she’s not okay. Her best friend Lou died just six months earlier, still in her 20s, after battling cancer for years. Lenny can’t bring herself to return to the Brooklyn apartment they shared, so instead, during her off hours, she rides the Staten Island ferry all night, dozing on and off until she returns to her job the next morning.

She’s annoyed by Miles’s constant hovering, but a breakthrough comes when he spots a book about grief in her backpack. He’s read it too — and he lets Lenny know that he’s been there. Miles lost his closest family members ten years earlier, and while he’s worked through the immediate pain, he understands how grief changes a person and never truly ends. He offers to be there for Lenny — someone to call in the bad moments, someone to lean on when needed. She’s skeptical at first: Why would he go to the effort for someone he barely knows? It turns out, Miles wants something in return. Ainsley and Reese are all the family he has left, and he doesn’t know how to connect with them. Lenny is such a natural with Ainsley, and Miles wants her to teach him how to build a relationship with his niece.

Lenny agrees, and also agrees to extend the weekend babysitting into a longer-term job. Miles is as good as his word. He refuses to allow Lenny to wall herself off and to continue indulging in riskier behaviors (like sleeping on the ferry all night) — he insists that she stays (for now) at the studio apartment he’s not using, that she calls him if she can’t sleep, and that she starts working her way through the “live again” list Lou left her with.

Lenny and Miles are charming together. She’s funny in an oddball, off-kilter sort of way, silly and ridiculous, yet loads of fun. He’s the typical grumpy half of the familiar grumpy-sunshine dynamic, but he’s lovable too. Yes, he comes across as judgy and walled-off and stiff, but he goes above and beyond for Lenny from day one, and it turns out that his gruff exterior hides a big, squishy heart.

Promise Me Sunshine doesn’t shy away from showing the depths of Lenny’s grief and despair. There are many terribly sad scenes where we see her absolutely fall apart — because loss is like that. Time helps, but there’s no avoiding the seemingly innocuous triggers that wait around every corner, sending Lenny into a spiral of sobs and fresh mourning at a moment’s notice. With Miles in her life, though, she’s no longer suffering alone… and eventually, Lenny is able to start appreciating the sunshine moments again.

There’s a lot to love about Promise Me Sunshine. Miles and Lenny bond right away, and their dynamic is cute in the funnier moments, heartfelt in the sadder times. As I mentioned earlier, this isn’t strictly speaking a romance novel, in my opinion — it’s contemporary fiction that includes a love story, but the romantic element isn’t the whole point. Yes, of course Miles and Lenny fall in love, but it takes the entire book for them to get there, and meanwhile, what we see is a story of two people helping each other find reasons to embrace life again.

Beyond the love story, it’s refreshing to see that Miles and Lenny don’t instantly become each others’ entire worlds. Miles encourages Lenny to make new friends, be open to connecting with people, and even, finally, stop avoiding her parents and everyone/everything who reminds her of Lou. For Lenny’s part, she helps Miles find a way to build trust and affection with Reese and Ainsley, to let go of some difficult chapters from his life, and to start planning for a future instead of living in a sort of holding pattern.

My only quibble with Promise Me Sunshine is that Miles comes across as too good to be true. He’s absolutely selfless, and devotes himself 100% to doing and being whatever Lenny needs. It’s lovely… but he seems more like an ideal than an actual person.

The audiobook narration is quite a lot of fun. Narrator Alex Finke capture’s Lenny silliness and over-the-top delivery, as well as Miles’s stilted, awkward lines in his grumpier moments. As with Ready or Not (same narrator), I sometimes found it difficult to distinguish between Lenny’s spoken lines and her internal dialogue, having to figure it out based on context or whether other characters responded to what I thought she might have said to them.

These quibbles in no way detract from the overall pleasures of listening to Promise Me Sunshine. There are plenty of funny interludes, but the heart of the story is Lenny’s heartbreaking grief over the loss of the friend she describes as her soulmate. The depth of their friendship is beautifully depicted, and Lenny’s journey feels real and powerful. Plus, the love story elements really work, and Miles and Lenny, with all their differences, click amazingly well as friends before becoming much more.

I’m happy to recommend Promise Me Sunshine… and now that I’ve had two great experiences with Cara Bastone’s books, I’ll be on the lookout for more!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
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2Apr2025

Audiobook Review: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: When the Moon Hits Your Eye
Author: John Scalzi
Narrator: Wil Wheaton
Publisher: Tor
Publication date: March 25, 2025
Print length: 326 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 5 minutes
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain comes an entirely serious take on a distinctly unserious subject: what would really happen if suddenly the moon were replaced by a giant wheel of cheese.

It’s a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters — schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians — as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.

If you’re shocked to see a 5-star rating for a book about the moon turning to cheese… well, join the club!

Actually, I can’t even pretend to be all that surprised. We’re talking about a John Scalzi book, after all. No matter how silly or ridiculous the plot synopsis sounds, it’s a safe bet that the execution will be delicious.

So it goes with When the Moon Hits Your Eye. As the book opens, a moon rock on display in a space museum has been replaced by… something. The display case hasn’t been tampered with, and yet, the rock is clearly no longer there. Instead, it’s something distinctly un-rocklike… and why does the sliver of crescent moon visible in the night sky seem so unusually bright?

Within 24 hours, it becomes clear: It’s not just the museum’s artifact (and every other sample of moon rock anywhere on Earth) — the entire moon is now composed of cheese. Or, the NASA scientists put it, an organic matrix. But really, it’s cheese. How? Why? What does this all mean? As the ensuing month unfolds, the effects of this cheesy mystery are felt far and wide.

The story is told day by day, with each chapter highlighting a new setting and group of characters experiencing life following the great moon-to-cheese change. It’s a terrific and bizarre mix of subject matter and people, including a small-town pastor and his flock, a team of astronauts who’d been about to launch on the first moon mission in decades, an egotistical tech billionaire who happens to own a space company (hmmmm…..), the President and his staff, a popular science writer, a cheese shop proprietor, and many, many more. Through these characters, we see how ordinary people’s lives — as well as the lives of the rich, famous, and powerful — are dramatically affected by the moon. Their stories weave together to create a rich, meaningful story of human connection, scientific inquiry, and big helping doses of WTF situations.

I listened to the audiobook, and of course, Wil Wheaton’s delivery make this a funny, fast-moving, totally engaging experience.

I’m finding myself at a loss for what else to say about this book. YES, IT’S ABOUT THE MOON TURNING TO CHEESE. And also, yes, it’s simply awesome and utterly entertaining. You’ve just got to experience it for yourself.

One final note: The author photo on the back flap of the book should win its own award:

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org
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