Book Review: Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop
Author: Jenny Colgan
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: October 10, 2023
Print length: 320 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Your most delightful holiday read: the sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller The Christmas Bookshop, from beloved Scottish author Jenny Colgan.

Christmas comes early–far too early–to McCredie’s little Old Town bookshop in Edinburgh. It’s summer, but an American production company has decided that McCredie’s is the perfect location to film a very cheesy Christmas movie. After all, who can resist the charmingly narrow historic street with its Victorian grey stone buildings and warmly lit shop windows?

Carmen Hogan, the bookshop’s manager, is amused and a bit horrified by the goings-on, but the money the studio is paying is too good to pass up. She uses the little windfall from filming to create new displays and fend off a buyout offer from an obnoxious millionaire who wants to turn McCredie’s into a souvenir shop selling kilts made in China and plastic Nessies. Still reeling slightly from a breakup, Carmen’s not particularly looking forward to the holidays. But just as snow begins to fall and the lights of Christmas blink on, all sorts of lovely new possibilities present themselves…for McCredie’s bookstore, and for Carmen herself.

Jenny Colgan’s books are always a ray of sunshine, and this new book is no exception. While Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop is a follow-up to the 2021 novel The Christmas Bookshop, it can definitely be read on its own and enjoyed fully.

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop is set in Edinburgh, Scotland, and centers around a musty old bookshop and its one and only staffperson, Carmen Hogan. Carmen ostensibly works for Mr. McCredie, the shop’s long-time owner, but he’d rather hide out way back in the stacks and read one of the thousands of rare and unusual books he has stashed away back there. Meanwhile, the shop’s finances are precarious, and a local businessman who specialized in tacky souvenirs is hoping to take over. Carmen has to find a way to keep out the Nessie keychains, save the shop, and convince Mr. McCredie to part with his favorite old books.

On top of the bookshop business, Carmen is also dealing with the bossy older sister she’s been crashing with for the past year (and who’d like her house back, thank you very much), as well as the heartbreak of having her boyfriend apparently not want to sleep with her and then depart for a science expedition on the other side of the globe. Between her housing woes, sisterly spats, and romance sorrows, Carmen needs at least her work to go well, but it’s not looking too promising.

Obviously, even from just looking at the cover, it’s clear that this book is going to have a happy ending. What kind of Christmas book would it be otherwise? Still, it’s the fun of getting there that makes this a Jenny Colgan book. There’s quirky dialogue, precocious children, unusual local folks, a terrific setting, and all the Christmas cheer you could possibly hope for.

As I mentioned, this book works perfectly well as a stand-alone. Yes, if you’d read The Christmas Bookshop, you’d already be familiar with Carmen, her family, her boyfriend, and the basic situation… but honestly, you can also just dive right in to this new book without feeling lost.

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop is sweet, funny, and warm-hearted. It makes for a nice reading break in the midst of more serious or darker reads… and definitely makes me yearn for a visit to Edinburgh, which the author describes in loving detail.

6Oct2023

Audiobook Review: The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Wake-Up Call
Author: Beth O’Leary
Narrators: Jessie Cave, Lino Facioli
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: September 26, 2022
Print length: 368 pages
Audio length: 10 hours, 17 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley (eARC); audiobook purchased via Audible
Rating:

Two hotel receptionists–and arch-rivals–find a collection of old wedding rings and compete to return them to their owners, discovering their own love story along the way.

It’s the busiest season of the year, and Forest Manor Hotel is quite literally falling apart. So when Izzy and Lucas are given the same shift on the hotel’s front desk, they have no choice but to put their differences aside and see it through.

The hotel won’t stay afloat beyond Christmas without some sort of miracle. But when Izzy returns a guest’s lost wedding ring, the reward convinces management that this might be the way to fix everything. With four rings still sitting in the lost & found, the race is on for Izzy and Lucas to save their beloved hotel–and their jobs.

As their bitter rivalry turns into something much more complicated, Izzy and Lucas begin to wonder if there’s more at stake here than the hotel’s future. Can the two of them make it through the season with their hearts intact?

Beth O’Leary books have become must-reads for me over the past few years, and after last year’s The No-Show — an absolute 5-star read — I couldn’t wait to try her newest. The Wake-Up Call doesn’t quite hit the emotional highs (and depths) of the previous book, but it’s still a sweet, funny, enjoyable love story.

Izzy and Lucas have spent a year hating each other, which is inconvenient, seeing as they’re coworkers. They work together at the charming, iconic Forest Manor Hotel, a lovely place that’s seen better days. A ceiling collapse right before the holiday season leaves the hotel gasping its last breaths, and its well-meaning owners have little hope of saving the place once the new year rolls around.

Meanwhile, Izzy and Lucas spend their time bickering, shooting eye daggers at each other, and being as irritating as they possibly can. Once the hotel’s dire straits become clear, they’re forced to work together to try to find a miracle… and little by little, they’re also forced to admit that maybe all that burning hatred is really more like smoldering attraction and feelings of insecurity.

The plot is a little on the thin side — I mean, it’s quite obvious that Izzy and Lucas will get together. It’s also obvious that the root cause of their hatred — a disastrous fight at the previous year’s Christmas party — was caused by a major misunderstanding. It takes them pretty much the whole book to figure this out, and meanwhile, they squabble, flirt, sabotage, and second-guess one another… and stay busy reprimanding themselves for catching feelings for the enemy.

The Wake-Up Call is lots of fun, despite the predictability of the overarching plot. The secret sauce here is how great Izzy and Lucas each are, how well their characters are shown over the course of the book, and how cute/funny/silly some of their escapades are.

In terms of the audiobook, however, it was a struggle for me at first. I just did not get on with the narrators right away. Particularly for Lucas’s chapters, I had a hard time understanding just what he was saying (the character is Brazilian, and the accent as Lucas made some of his dialogue and inner thoughts really challenging). I almost gave up on the audio, in fact, but ultimately ended up glad I stuck with it — after a while, I got used to the narrators’ voices and intonations, and managed to get into the rhythm and feel by the end.

Beth O’Leary’s books are always full of quirky, offbeat characters and situations, and The Wake-Up Call is another treat. While there are some more serious plot elements about family loss, grief, and mourning, the overall tone is cute and full of humor, and the chemistry between Izzy and Lucas simply sparkles.

The Wake-Up Call is a great pick for when you’re looking for something light and cheerful, and would also make a terrific choice when the winter holidays roll around.

Smiles guaranteed! Don’t miss it.

2Sep2023

Book Review: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Love, Theoretically
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 13, 2023
Length: 389 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?

Love, Theoretically is author Ali Hazelwood’s third novel… and I think I’ve reached the point of diminishing returns. This book on its own may be fine — but after reading the previous two, I can’t help but feel that Love, Theoretically is just more of the same.

Main character Elsie Hannaway is desperate for a good job in academia — one that allows her to focus on research, earn a steady paycheck, and have the health benefits she so desperately needs she she can afford her insulin supply. Her job as an adjunct professor keeps her finances unstable and her nerves fried, not to mention her reserve of patience absolutely tapped out dealing with the neverending flimsy excuses of slacker undergrads.

Being one of two finalists for a prestigious post at MIT is a dream come true, except one of the members of the selection committee is Jack Smith, the brother of a man she’s been fake-dating as well as someone who’s been ruthless in his criticism of her branch of physics. It seems likely that he’ll torpedo her candidacy, but despite his clear mistrust, he ends up showing her unexpected kindness.

Inevitably, these two supposed enemies are forced to acknowledge their mutual attraction and actual feelings, although there are plenty of barriers to break through before they get there. Elsie has spent her life trying to please everyone, pushing her own needs to the back of the priority line in order to give others what they want from her. She’s never her authentic self (doesn’t even admit to her best friend that she actually hates the art films they watch together), until Jack calls her on her lack of honesty and forces her to be true to herself while she’s around him.

Elsie and Jack have immediate chemistry… and, well, it’s clear from the start where this is going. As in the author’s previous books, the love story is well-established-professional-who’s-maybe-evil vs rising-star-needing-a-break-and-to-break-free-of-internalized-obstacles. (OK, from what I’ve read online, Ali Hazelwood started out writing ReyLo fanfic, and it shows… although I have only the barest of familiarities with that particular ship).

Perhaps I might have appreciated this book more if I hadn’t read the others, but I struggled with a been-there, done-that feeling throughout this particular reading experience. Yes, the particulars of the plot are different, but the overall dynamics are very much aligned.

It didn’t help for me that Jack, while ostensibly empowering Elsie to recognize and express her own desires rather than fit herself to everyone else’s, comes off as domineering and controlling. Further mucking things up for me is that Elsie’s character never actual seemed to make sense — I understood what I was told about her people-pleasing nature, but just didn’t buy it.

Love, Theoretically isn’t a bad read. It goes by quickly and kept my interest. It just didn’t seem to offer much new — so yes, it was fine, but perhaps I’ve just read enough by this author at this point. I don’t think I’ll need to read more of her books, unless she does something completely different and moves away from the love-amongst-scientists theme.

20Aug2023

Book Review: What Would Jane Austen Do? by Linda Corbett

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: What Would Jane Austen Do?
Author: Linda Corbett
Publisher: One More Chapter
Publication date: June 16, 2023
Length: 385 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

It’s a truth often acknowledged that when a journalist and Jane Austen fan girl ends up living next door to a cynical but handsome crime writer, romantic sparks will fly!

When Maddy Shaw is told her Dear Jane column has been cancelled she has no choice but to look outside of London’s rental market. That is until she’s left an idyllic country home by the black sheep of the family, long-not-so-lost Cousin Nigel.

But of course there’s a stipulation… and not only is Maddy made chair of the committee for the annual village literary festival, she also has to put up with bestselling crime author –and romance sceptic – Cameron Massey as her new neighbour.

When Maddy challenges Cameron to write romantic fiction, which he claims is so easy to do, sparks fly both on and off the page…

What Would Jane Austen Do? was a spur-of-the-moment read for me, after seeing positive comments about it by another blogger (and once again, I failed to make a note of where I found the recommendation… sorry). (The $2.99 price tag on the Kindle edition didn’t hurt either…)

This contemporary romance has a sweet, upbeat air as it follows a few well-trodden but well-loved tropes: We have a city girl relocating to a small town, quirky neighbors, and grumpy-sunshine dynamics, to name but a few. Add to that a lovable dog, a ramshackle large house in need of repair, a literary festival to organize, and lots of Jane Austen references, and it’s got all the ingredients needed for this particular type of book.

Main character Maddy is successful in her writing career, writing a “Dear Jane” column for a popular magazine in which she provides “agony aunt” advice by channeling Jane Austen — until she’s let go for suspect reasons and has to figure out next steps. Conveniently, she receives word that the black sheep of the family, cousin Nigel (whom no one has heard from in decades) has passed away and left her his house in the countryside, with the stipulation that she must live in it for at least one year, or forfeit rights to it entirely.

With nothing else pending workwise, Maddy figures she’ll move in, clean the please up, then sell in a year and move back to London. She doesn’t count on the beauty of the old house or the community she’s soon pulled into, nor does she expect to learn that Nigel was totally beloved in this small town where he’d resided (unbeknownst to the family) for over twenty years.

At the same time, Maddy discovers that bestselling crime author Cameron Massey (whose real name is Luke) also lives in the same town, which doesn’t exactly thrill her: They’d had a recent on-air spat when they were guests on a radio show focusing on the romance and crime genres, during which Cameron was gruff and condescending. But Maddy starts to see another side of him when he’s foisted upon her as a lodger while his own home is being renovated. Soon, the two bond over his dog Buster as well as the rest of the shenanigans in their small town.

As if Maddy doesn’t have enough on her plate, she also learns that Nigel had been the chair of a local (unsuccessful) literary festival and she’s expected to step into his shoes, and also stumbles across a decades-old mystery about Nigel’s past and how the family misfit ended up so well-off and well-loved.

What Would Jane Austen Do? is a pleasant, engaging read. There are no major surprises here, but it’s still a fun bit of entertainment. Does Maddy chairing the festival make sense? No. Does the mystery about Nigel — with a connection to a formerly famous rock band as well as one of Luke’s bestsellers — really matter or get resolved in a big, “aha!” sort of way? Nope. Does the Big Misunderstanding of Luke and Maddy’s developing romance feel significant or get explained satisfactorily? No again. But all this is okay — the ups and downs are part of the whole, and overall, Maddy’s experiences adapting to small town life and finding a place to belong are sweet and enjoyable enough to make this a nice escapist read.

A final note: The Jane Austen bits don’t actually make all that much of a difference to the story. There are quotes from Austen’s novels at the start of each chapter (which is really fun), and every once in a while Maddy compares her own experiences to those of Austen characters, but the theme is a bit underplayed and ultimately not very central to the plotlines.

Overall, What Would Jane Austen Do? is a fluffy, light book that I read in a day — a great choice for a lazy summer day when you just want to relax and enjoy a comfort read.

13Aug2023

Book Review: Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Happiness for Beginners
Author: Katherine Center
Publisher: Griffin
Publication date: March 24, 2015
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It’s supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother’s even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can’t imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen’s well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls.

Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen’s own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

Katherine Center has become a go-to author for me, but I hadn’t gone back and read any of her earlier books. My introduction to this author was the 2018 novel How to Walk Away, and I’ve read all her books published since then. Fortunately, I stumbled across Happiness for Beginners, and I’m so glad that I finally gave it a try.

As the story opens, Helen is a 32-year-old teacher whose life for the past few years has, frankly, sucked. She’s divorced from her alcoholic husband and has been stuck in her own sadness for quite a while now, desperately in need of a change. Despite her rocky relationship with her younger brother Duncan, whom she barely tolerates, she grabs onto his suggestion of a wilderness backpacking course as a way to shake up her life, but then is dismayed to learn that Duncan’s best friend Jake will be participating as well — and what’s more, that Duncan has promised Jake that Helen will drive him to Wyoming for the start of the course.

The wilderness course is a 3-week backcountry hiking adventure that has a reputation for being incredibly difficult and dangerous. Helen could have gone to Paris, but she feels like this is how she’ll find a new outlook on life. She does not need Jake tagging along, although she’s surprised to learn just what a great companion he can be during their road trip. Still, an ill-advised kiss later, she decides that any closeness with Jake is a mistake, and informs him that once the backpacking trip starts, they’re to act like strangers.

As the group sets off into the wilderness, Helen finds herself both the oldest in the group and a total outsider. The others are mostly college-aged jocks and sorority sisters, many participating for the sake of college credits, and most are in much better shape than she is. Helen finds herself stumbling along at the back of the pack, picked on by the trip leader, and excluded from the easy companionship she sees developing between the rest of the group.

Her situation improves over time as she proves herself through determination and picking up wilderness skills (she’s an awesome map-reader!), and she becomes friends with a younger woman on the trip whose academic focus is the study of happiness. With Windy’s coaching, Helen begins to learn to center herself with appreciation and being present in the good moments, and the trip eventually brings the personal transformation she’d so hoped for… although she has to deal with heartache along the way too.

At first, I was annoyed by the plot of Happiness for Beginners. I think I may have been ruined for this sort of fiction by Cheryl Strayed’s Wild (which bugged the hell out of me). Call me old-fashioned, but I have little patience for characters who set off on adventures that they’re totally unprepared for and shrug off warnings about the risks — and even less patience for stories where these unprepared characters end up totally fine and triumphant, making it seem like anyone could… I don’t know… hike the entire Appalachian Trail on a whim.

Putting that aside, though, Helen really grew on me as a character, particularly as we learn more about her childhood and difficult family situation. Having her brother’s best friend as her companion and love interest is an unusual set-up. Beyond their great chemistry, one of the elements I appreciated about Helen and Jake as a couple is how her developing appreciation for Jake helped her begin to see Duncan in a new and better light.

The adventure elements are great, and I really enjoyed vicariously hiking up and down trails, camping under the stars, and seeing the glorious sites. (I was happy it was only a vicarious experience, though, given the descriptions of how gross and smelly they all were by the end of the three weeks). In fact, I got a little miffed that we didn’t get even more of the hike — the narrative skips ahead days at a time in some points, and I get it — seeing them hike trails for twenty-one straight days could get repetitive — but at the same time, I wanted just a few more days of hiking.

The characters are terrific, the love story elements are believable and nicely built, and I loved the setting and the overall premise. For fans who’ve discovered Katherine Center through her more recent novels, I definitely recommend checking out Happiness for Beginners too.

Netflix released a movie version of Happiness for Beginners last month, and even though at first glance the casting and tone seem different from what I’d expect after reading the book, I’m up for giving it a shot sometime soon. Here’s the trailer:

What do you think? Would you watch this movie?

29Jul2023

Book Review: With Love, From Cold World by Alicia Thompson

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: With Love, From Cold World
Author: Alicia Thompson
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: August 1. 2023
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher, via NetGalley
Rating:

She has a to-do list a mile long and falling for her coworker isn’t on it–yet somehow he’s become her top priority in this romantic comedy from the national bestselling author of Love in the Time of Serial Killers.

Lauren Fox is the bookkeeper for Cold World, a tourist destination that’s always a winter wonderland despite being located in humid Orlando, Florida. Sure, it’s ranked way below any of the trademarked amusement parks and maybe foot traffic could be better. But it’s a fun place to work, even if “fun” isn’t exactly Lauren’s middle name.

Her coworker Asa Williamson, on the other hand, is all about finding ways to enliven his days at Cold World–whether that means organizing the Secret Santa or teasing Lauren. When the owner asks Lauren and Asa to propose something (anything, really) to raise more revenue, their rivalry heats up as they compete to come up with the best idea. But the situation is more dire than they thought, and it might take these polar opposites working together to save the day. If Asa thought Lauren didn’t know how to enjoy herself, he’s surprised by how much he enjoys spending time together. And if Lauren thought Asa wasn’t serious about anything, she’s surprised by how seriously he seems to take her.

As Lauren and Asa work to save their beloved wintery spot, they realize the real attraction might be the heat generating between them.

In With Love, From Cold World, workplace tension between a pair of opposites hides a chemistry that pulls an unlikely couple together. Lauren is the buttoned-up bookkeeper who likes to keep her head down, focus on her spreadsheets, and — just for fun — do her to-do list items in random order. Asa is the free-spirited, blue-haired, tattooed jack-of-all trades who seemingly does a little of everything at Cold World, has no interest in moving up to a management position, and is ardently devoted to hosting Secret Santa exchanges every year.

Asa also seems to take an odd pleasure in teasingly calling Lauren a robot and trying to wind her up, which she SO doesn’t appreciate. And Lauren fears that she’s made a lifelong enemy due to a gaffe at her very first company holiday part, during which she suggested that Secret Santa was ultimately a waste of money (gasp!).

When Lauren and Asa are tasked by Cold World’s owner to come up with ideas for how to reenergize Cold World and increase revenues, they initially focus on competition rather than collaboration, but as circumstances force them together over and over, their enemy status shows signs of thawing and turning into something more.

There’s really a lot to enjoy about With Love, From Cold World. For starters, Cold World itself! The idea of a Florida attraction where visitors get to ice skate and play in the snow (in summer!) really does sound delightful.

Lauren and Asa themselves are both deeper than they initially appear to be. At first glance, they seem to fit very specific romance tropes — she’s the nerdy, uptight woman hiding her inner fire (and who’s much more beautiful than she realizes); he’s the daring, unconstrained artistic sort who believes in taking chances. They unlock something in each other and reveal their true selves…

And yes, that’s true here, but there’s more going on as well. Lauren was raised in the foster care system from a young age, and while she lucked out in having a kinder foster parent than many others she knew, she still grew up without the support or love of a family. She finds security in her orderly life, and is deeply afraid of opening herself up to rejection if she dares to start truly connecting with others.

Asa was kicked out of his family home after a parishioner sent his pastor father a photo of Asa kissing a boy. At age eighteen, Asa was on his own, cut off from family and support, but found a place to belong at Cold World. No wonder he’s still there ten years later — this is a place where he’s found acceptance, feels valued, and has created a found family for himself.

Lauren and Asa are a slow burn, and they constantly get in their own way when it comes to recognizing their connection and pursuing a relationship. Lauren in particular has a hard time communicating, and her difficulty with trust and defensiveness, creating barriers rather than risking being hurt, threatens to sink their relationship before it really has a chance to develop.

I enjoyed seeing each of them work through the obstacles keeping them apart and start to think about how to take the next steps in their own lives, as well as together. The Cold World setting is quite fun (if a little corny), and the dynamic of the larger friend group is really entertaining as well.

With Love, From Cold World is the second novel by Alicia Thompson, following last year’s Love in the Time of Serial Killers. After enjoying both of these books, I’m eager to see what she writes next!

15Jul2023

Book Review: The Hookup Plan (The Boyfriend Project, #3) by Farrah Rochon

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Hookup Plan
Series: The Boyfriend Project, #3
Author: Farrah Rochon
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: August 2, 2022
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Strong female friendships and a snappy enemies-to-lovers theme take center stage in this highly anticipated romantic comedy from the USA Today bestselling author of The Dating Playbook.

Successful pediatric surgeon London Kelley just needs to find some balance and de-stress. According to her friends Samiah and Taylor, what London really needs is a casual hookup. A night of fun with no strings. But no one—least of all London—expected it to go down at her high school reunion with Drew Sullivan, millionaire, owner of delicious abs, and oh yes, her archnemesis.

Now London is certain the road to hell is paved with good sex. Because she’s found out the real reason Drew’s back in Austin: to decide whether her beloved hospital remains open. Worse, Drew is doing everything he can to show her that he’s a decent guy who actually cares. But London’s not falling for it. Because while sleeping with the enemy is one thing, falling for him is definitely not part of the plan.

The Hookup Plan is the 3rd book in a trilogy about a trio of women who meet by discovering that they’re all dating the same cheating conman, and rather than turning on each other, they connect and become best friends. And while these books are romances, the women’s friendship is the true highlight of the overarching story.

In The Hookup Plan, pediatric surgeon London Kelley is the main character. She works long, stressful days at her underfunded public hospital, and always puts her patients first. She’s kind, caring, and supportive when it comes to the children in her care, but hard as nails and not afraid to take a stand when it comes to the hospital administration.

London has had a long, dry spell when it comes to men. First of all, who has time for dating? And secondly, after the disastrous attempt at dating that led to her meeting Samiah and Taylor, London has mainly given up hope — although the three made a pact early on to eventually find boyfriends by bettering themselves. It’s worked for Samiah and Taylor — both are happily in love. For London, her “boyfriend project” goal is to find a hobby, and while she’s gotten very into crocheting, that’s not exactly improving her love life.

At her 15th high school reunion. London is annoyed to encounter Drew Sullivan, her archnemesis from way back when. She’d been clearly and comfortably #1 in her class until his arrival junior year, but from then on, the two battled for first place and ended up as co-valedictorians. For a girl whose father only paid attention when she won something big enough for him to brag about, “co”-anything just wasn’t good enough. No wonder London resented and loathed Drew as much as she did.

But, adult Drew is charming and very hot (and very rich, although London doesn’t care about that). They have a no-strings one-night-stand after the reunion, which turns into a two-night-stand… until London discovers Monday morning that Drew is also heading up the team set to audit her hospital and recommend whether or not to sell it to a private company.

As the two continue their supposedly sex-only encounters at night and interact professionally during the day, they can’t escape one another’s company, and London eventually has to admit that maybe there’s more to their connection than just the (incredibly smoking) physical relationship. Meanwhile, her hospital’s fate rests in Drew’s hands, and she has big decisions to make about her professional future as well.

I enjoyed London and Drew’s chemistry, but other pieces of the plot felt underbaked to me. Drew is a former hedge fund manager who’s worth hundreds of millions (there’s an ongoing joke about how his fancy New York apartment even has views of Central Park from the bathroom), so why is he doing hands-on work at a county hospital in Texas? His new company and his role don’t make a ton of sense to me.

As with the other books in the series, the plot points regarding the workplace and the complications there hang too heavily over the romantic elements. It’s good to see London in her element as a doctor and a leader, but certain situations (such as struggles with the hospital administration) are left hanging, or are set up but then resolved off the page.

I wished for more time with Samiah and Taylor in this book. While the women’s friendship is still the underpinning of the story, it felt as though we saw less of them in this book than in the previous two. (By the end, it’s clear that they’re both doing well, experiencing great success with the professional goals they set for themselves, and are happily in love!).

London and Drew clearly have great physical chemistry, and even though it takes a while for them to acknowledge that they’ve caught feelings too, their progression from enemies-with-benefits to true partnership and romance is well described and seems well-earned. London’s family situation gets addressed as well, and I appreciated seeing how seriously she takes her role as an older sister and her commitment to making sure her father’s young children don’t have the same sorts of trauma she’s carried with her for so long.

As a whole, I’ve really enjoyed the Boyfriend Project trilogy, and The Hookup Plan works well as a grand finale. The women’s friendship is what really makes these books special, above and beyond the fun romantic entanglements.

Interested? Check out my reviews of the previous two books in the series:

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8Jul2023

Book Review: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Seven Year Slip
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 27. 2023
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: stay busy, work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a really satisfying time slip novel… and The Seven Year Slip absolutely delivers.

Clementine works as a book publicist, and has plans worked out for every aspect of her life. Her aunt Analea — vibrant, spontaneous, vivacious, always provided the spark in Clementine’s life, whisking her away for world travels, ready to explore, to taste, to try, to experience. But after Analea’s death, the joy has leached out of Clementine’s life, and moving into the apartment bequeathed to her by her aunt just drives home how much she’s lost.

Until she returns home one day, not to her stacks of unpacked boxes, but to the apartment as it was during Analea’s lifetime… and with a very cute guy zipping around the place, offering to make her dinner. Iwan informs Clementine that his mother is a friend of her aunt’s, and her aunt has offered to sublet the apartment to him for the summer while she’s off on a journey with her niece — a journey which Clementine and Analea took seven years in the past.

Clementine finds herself reeling — but not entirely unprepared. After all, all her life, her aunt has insisted that the apartment is magic, and even told of her own seven-year-slip romance at a younger age. Clementine never truly believed the stories, of course, but now, the proof is right there in front of her eyes.

She and Iwan connect over food, family, and dreams, and they enjoy each other’s company immensely. Still, she knows that once she leaves the apartment, she’ll be back to her regular life, and who knows if the magic will work more than once?

The plot of The Seven Year Slip unfolds deliciously, with clues and interludes and interactions woven together to form a wonderful, romantic, hopeful whole. For Clementine, so immersed in grief and loss, meeting Iwan is the spark she needs to rediscover her creative side once again and rethink her true sources of happiness. We see the story through her POV, but Iwan is a lovely character and we get hints of what his side of this magical yet strange experience must have been.

The Seven Year Slip is best experienced without too many expectations or foreknowledge. The book zips by, and the plot threads come together in such a rich and unexpected way. The characters are engaging, and getting to see them as different versions of themselves is really a treat.

This story exists in the same world as the author’s previous novel, The Dead Romantics, but it’s not a sequel — there’s a nod to some of the people from that book, but if you haven’t read that one yet, it won’t take away from The Seven Year Slip at all. (Although, it is VERY good, so check that one out too!)

I really enjoyed The Seven Year Slip, and recommend it highly! It’s a perfect summer read, full of hope and love, friendship, family, and romance. After reading this author’s YA Once Upon a Con trilogy and now two of her adult novels, I can definitely say that Ashley Poston’s books are must-reads!

2Jul2023

Book Review: The Dating Playbook (The Boyfriend Project, #2) by Farrah Rochon

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Dating Playbook
Series: The Boyfriend Project, #2
Author: Farrah Rochon
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: August 17, 2021
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

When a personal trainer agrees to fake date her client, all rules are out the window in this delightful romantic comedy from the USA Today bestselling author of The Boyfriend Project!

When it comes to personal training, Taylor Powell kicks serious butt. Unfortunately, her bills are piling up, rent is due, and the money situation is dire. Taylor needs more than the support of her new best friends, Samiah and London. She needs a miracle.

And Jamar Dixon might just be it. The oh-so-fine former footballer wants back into the NFL, and he wants Taylor to train him. There’s just one catch — no one can know what they’re doing. But when they’re accidentally outed as a couple, Taylor’s game plan is turned completely upside down. Is Jamar just playing to win . . . or is he playing for keeps?

What a fun bit of escapism! In The Dating Playbook (the 2nd book in a trilogy), Taylor Powell is thousands of dollar in debt, is trying to resuscitate a floundering fitness business, and can’t seem to find a way to dig her way out of her problems. Sure, her best friends Samiah and London are supportive and more than willing to help, but Taylor wants to do it on her own… somehow.

And then Jamar Dixon shows up at her pop-up fitness class. Jamar is a former NFL player whose promising career was cut short in his first season after a devastating injury on the field. Jamar approaches Taylor with a proposition: He’s seen her YouTube videos, and is impressed with her approach to training. She’s also off the grid as far as the NFL is concerned, which is perfect for him. His goal is to work himself back into playing shape with the help of a private trainer, but keep it top-secret to avoid media scrutiny until he’s ready. He offers Taylor the job, and a hefty paycheck to go with it.

The catch? She has to agree to keep it completely secret. The payoff? In addition to earning enough to get herself out of her financial mess, Jamar will also reveal her as his trainer once he goes public and will endorse her fitness business, Taylor’d Conditioning.

When the two are spotted together and Jamar is questioned about whether Taylor is his trainer, she invents a lie on the spot — she’s not training him, she’s dating him. Despite her personal commitment to never date a client, she decides to see this fake relationship through. It’s better for Jamar this way, and she’ll still get the endorsement in the end when the truth is revealed. Meanwhile, she and Jamar put together a “dating playbook” — a way to convincingly act as a couple while secretly continuing the plan to get Jamar back to football-playing fitness levels.

The fake relationship trope doesn’t always work for me, but it’s done so well here that I was willing to buy it. There are solid enough reasons established to allow me to cheer for the ruse while also waiting for the fake-to-real transition to take place. Taylor and Jamar have oodles of chemistry, the sparks fly right from the start, and it’s only a matter of time before they give in to their feelings and mutual attraction.

One of the things I really appreciate about this trilogy (The Boyfriend Project) is how important the core friendship between Taylor, Samiah, and London is. The first book was Samiah’s story, and the third will be London’s, but in each book, all three women get together to support one another, share their joys and worries, and laugh together whenever possible. Too often, the best friend role in contemporary romance novels is tucked away in the background, but in these books, the friendship between the three women is really central to the storylines and the romantic relationships. It’s wonderful to see strong, smart women who are truly there for one another (and I can’t wait to see what happens with London in the next book).

The Dating Playbook spends maybe a bit too much time describing workouts and food planning for me, but that’s a minor complaint. I really enjoyed the main couple’s dynamics, and I appreciated the depth and seriousness applied to the central conflicts in both Taylor and Jamar’s lives.

Taylor’s situation is particularly well told. She thinks of herself as the black sheep of her high-achieving family, the disappointing child who doesn’t have the impressive careers and credentials of her siblings. As she realizes that a lack of a degree is hurting her professionally, Taylor is forced to finally consider why she hated school so much, including acknowledging that she may have an undiagnosed learning challenge at the root of her struggles.

Yes, I still find the sex scenes in this series to be a bit cringey, but there aren’t all that many, so I can abide getting through those in order to enjoy the rest of the story.

The Dating Playbook is a fun 2nd book in an upbeat series, and I look forward to finishing up with book #3, The Hookup Plan.

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25Jun2023

Book Review: Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Hello Stranger
Author: Katherine Center
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: July 11. 2023
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Love isn’t blind, it’s just little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.

Hello Stranger has one of the most instantly interesting set-ups I’ve read recently. Sadie, a portrait artist, is diagnosed with a problematic brain vessel that requires immediate surgery. But when she wakes in the hospital post-surgery, the world looks very, very different.

Sadie has a condition called acquired prosopagnosia, otherwise known as “face blindness”. There’s nothing wrong with her eyes — it’s her brain that can’t make sense of the faces around her. The surgery has left her with swelling near the brain center that processes faces, and there’s no telling whether this is a permanent or temporary condition. For anyone, this would be distressing. For a portrait artist, this is also potentially career-ending — not that Sadie’s career was going all that well. In fact, right before the surgery, Sadie learned that she was a finalist in a competition that could finally give her her big breakthrough — but if she can’t see faces, how can she paint them?

Sadie’s life was already messy before the surgery — barely making ends meet through her Etsy shop, estranged from her father, stepmother, and truly evil stepsister, living in a rooftop shed that she officially is only supposed to use as a studio.

Now, with face blindness, the entire world has changed for Sadie. She literally cannot understand faces — she sees basically pixelated messes. Sure, she can focus in and see an eye or a mouth, individual features, but she has no ability to make sense of the whole. She can’t recognize people by face at all, and has to rely on hair, clothing, and other cues to figure out who she’s talking to. When dealing with kind people, that can still be okay, but not everyone around Sadie is kind (I did mention the evil stepsister, right?), and the cruelty of some of these encounters is pretty astonishing.

Without going further into the plot, I’ll just say that Sadie’s situation is both fascinating and incredibly difficult to comprehend. I fell down quite the Google rabbit-hole searching for examples of face blindness and how it’s experienced, and learned that there’s a difference between hereditary prosopagnosia (where people have it all their lives, and often don’t even realize it, since that’s how they’ve always experienced the world) and acquired prosopagnosia, usually an aftereffect of traumatic brain injury or illness. After reading stories of people who walk right by their own children without recognizing them or wonder why a strange woman is staring at them before realizing it’s themselves in a mirror, I gained a better understanding of Sadie’s new world too.

Another fascinating element here is Sadie’s conversations with her neuropsychologist about confirmation bias:

Dr. Nicole paused for a good definition. “It means that we tend to think what we think we’re going to think.”

I added all those words up. “So… if you expect to think a thing is true, you’re more likely to think it’s true?”

As Dr. Nicole goes on to explain:

“Basically we tend to decide on what the world is and who people are and how things are — and then we look for evidence that supports what we’ve already decided. And we ignore everything that doesn’t fit.”

As Sadie fits back into her life and tries to find a new approach to understanding the world around her, her assumptions and facts are repeatedly challenged by the need to rethink what she sees and question whether what she understands is true.

Hello Stranger is also a romance, and yes, the romantic plotlines are very good — but for me, it was Sadie’s unique situation and how it impacts every aspect of her life that made this book so compelling to read.

The backstory around Sadie’s family life is the hardest part of the book to accept, because it’s awful and tragic (and yet another great example of confirmation bias and its consequences). I felt so angry on Sadie’s behalf, yet by the end, could kind of see how the situation unfolded from the different characters’ differing experiences of the same events.

The book does explain that face blindness doesn’t necessarily mean the inability to understand expression (which is apparently handled by a different brain area), yet occasionally there’d be lines like:

The smug look had most definitely faded from her face

… that made me question whether this was something that Sadie could actually see or process, or if this was a glitch in the writing continuity.

I’m always fascinated by stories about unusual neurological conditions (such as the novel Left Neglected by Lisa Genova, or any of the writings of Dr. Oliver Sacks, who himself suffered from hereditary prosopagnosia) — but this is my first time reading such a tale in the context of romance.

Sadie’s story is fascinating, and the romance elements add welcome joy and hope to a story that also includes loss and dislocation. Sadie’s romantic escapades can be quite silly, but she’s such a great character that we can’t help but cheer for her. I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance novel quite like Hello Stranger, but it absolutely works.