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

23Feb2025

Audiobook Review: Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Ready or Not
Author: Cara Bastone
Narrator: Alex Finke
Publisher: Dial Press
Publication date: February 13, 2024
Print length: 373 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 50 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Audible
Rating:

A surprise pregnancy leads to even more life-changing revelations in this heartfelt, slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance of found family and unexpected love.

Eve Hatch is pretty content with her life. Her apartment in Brooklyn is cozy and close to her childhood best friend Willa, but far from her midwestern, traditional family who never really understood her. While her job is only dream- adjacent , she’s hoping her passion and hard work will soon help her land a more glamorous role. And sure, her most recent romantic history has consisted of not one but two disappointing men named Derek. At least she always knows what to expect…until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.

The unplanned pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve’s loyal friendship with Willa is feeling off , right when she needs her most. And it’s Willa’s steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help. He has always been friendly, but now he’s checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and is… suddenly kinda hot? Then there’s the baby’s father, who is supportive but conflicted. Before long, Eve is rethinking everything she thought she knew about herself and her world.

Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the next right step in her expanding reality, she begins to realize that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it.

Something about the plot synopsis for Ready or Not seemed right up my alley, just what I was looking for in a feel-good audiobook listen… and I was right. Ready or Not hit the spot, and I had a great time listening to this sweet, funny tale of unexpected pregnancy and unexpected romance, both of which happen in a very unexpected order.

Eve Hatch is in her late 20s, happily living life in Brooklyn near her best friend Willa, working in a job for a non-profit she really believes in, even though she’s stuck in an admin-level job without having the graduate degree needed to pursue the work she actually wants to do. As the book opens, Eve is at the ob/gyn office, waiting for official confirmation of what she already knows thanks to three home pregnancy tests: Yes, she’s pregnant. A hot and heavy one night stand a few weeks earlier (with proper protection) has led to this moment, and all Eve wants is to confide in her best friend.

Unfortunately, Willa takes the news very personally — she and her husband have been struggling with fertility challenges — and is not supportive. But fortunately, Willa’s older brother Shep is staying with her, and immediately jumps in to be there for Eve in whatever way she needs, including going with her to tell the hot bartender (a/k/a baby daddy) that she’s knocked up. Ethan (who, it turns out, is the bar owner) is thrown for a loop, especially since he’s in a relationship (they were on a break at the time of the hookup) and loves his girlfriend.

Ethan is an inconsistent, emotional mess, and Willa is trying to be there for Eve but is clearly struggling. It’s Shep who provides Eve with friendship, encouragement, and foot rubs; Shep who makes sure she has groceries and a shoulder to cry on. He’s a big, floppy, golden retriever of a guy, and he’s just so good you want to hug him nonstop. It takes Eve quite a while to realize that the boy she’s known since childhood means more to her than she realized, and even longer to figure out whether she’s really fallen for him, or if it’s just the pregnancy hormones talking.

Ready or Not is a sweet, engaging listen. Eve’s quirky sense of humor shines through, and her personal evolution over the course of her pregnancy feels believable, as she’s forced to take her life more seriously and figure out what she actually wants, not just accept whatever comes her way.

I press my ear to his chest and isn’t it so wild that you can go forever knowing someone and never really listen to their actual heartbeat until they kiss you behind a tree?

I enjoyed Eve and Shep’s relationship so much — they’re incredibly cute together, even when she’s being completely obtuse and taking way too long to realize how deeply Shep adores her. At the start of the book, we see Willa as somewhat selfish, but over time, it’s clear that she’s struggling to deal with her own pain while also trying to be the friend Eve needs in the moment. Ethan is hard to take — true, he’s thrust into a situation he had no idea was coming, but then again, so was Eve. His waffling and self-pity make him come across as unreliable and pathetic for a lot of the book, but eventually, even he gets a chance to improve.

My main quibble with this book is that Eve does absolutely no reflection about being pregnant at the start of the book. She gets the news, she goes to tell Willa, she reacts to Willa’s reaction, she deals with Ethan’s reactions too… but we never see her pause and consider whether she wants a baby, or what this will mean for her life. She tells Willa right away that she’s keeping the baby, which is a perfectly fine choice for her to make — but it feels as though we should have seen at least a bit of contemplation and consideration about what this big change will mean for her life.

The narration was mostly fun and enjoyable, although I found the narrator a little too over the top during the book’s one sex scene and in the labor scene — the auditory equivalent of TMI, if that makes sense. My other issue with the narration is that it can be hard to distinguish between Eve’s spoken lines and her inner thoughts — I had to rely on other characters’ reactions to figure out if certain things were said out loud or not.

Quibbles aside, Ready or Not is an entertaining, romantic story, and although the friends-to-lovers trope is practically everywhere these days, it still feels fresh here. The pregnancy element adds an unusual element to Eve’s relationship with Shep, and it’s nice to see how things work out with Ethan as well.

Check out Ready or Not when you’re in the mood for quippy banter, great chemistry — and lots and lots of descriptions of the main character’s baby bump!

29Sep2024

Audiobook Review: The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Friend Zone
Series: The Friend Zone, #1
Author: Abby Jimenez
Narrators: Teddy Hamilton and Erin Mallon
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: June 11, 2019
Print length: 372 pages
Audio length: 9 hours 32 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Kristen Petersen doesn’t do drama, will fight to the death for her friends, and has no room in her life for guys who just don’t get her. She’s also keeping a big secret: facing a medically necessary procedure that will make it impossible for her to have children.

Planning her best friend’s wedding is bittersweet for Kristen—especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He’s funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always one chicken enchilada ahead of her hangry. Even her dog, Stuntman Mike, adores him. The only catch: Josh wants a big family someday. Kristen knows he’d be better off with someone else, but as their attraction grows, it’s harder and harder to keep him at arm’s length.

The Friend Zone will have you laughing one moment and grabbing for tissues the next as it tackles the realities of infertility and loss with wit, heart, and a lot of sass.

After loving Abby Jimenez’s Part of Your World trilogy, I knew I needed to go back and read her earlier books. The Friend Zone, the author’s debut novel, is a bit bumpier and less polished than her later books, but it definitely shows the heart and spirit that are such quintessential elements of her writing.

Kristen and Josh have a meet-cute that’s not particularly cute at all: He rear-ends her truck when she hits the brakes without warning. After a contentious exchange, they part ways, never expecting to see one another again… only to come face to face moments later at the fire station where he’s newly stationed.

Josh has moved to LA after a bad break-up back in North Dakota, joining his best friend Brandon at the fire house and hoping to get a fresh start. Brandon’s fiancée Sloan is Kristen’s best friend, so it was inevitable that Kristen and Josh would bump into one another… just maybe not quite so literally.

Putting aside their tension-filled first meeting, Josh ends up taking a temporary job doing carpentry work for Kristen’s home-based doggy supply business. Kristen’s lost-distance boyfriend Tyler is reaching the end of his military service and is due to move in with Kristen once he’s out, but she’s having serious second thoughts. Realizing that Josh is not only fun to be around but also very attractive, Kristen does whatever she can to keep him firmly in the “friend zone”, but there’s no denying that sparks are flying all over the place whenever she and Josh hang out.

Kristen’s life is further complicated by her health. Since her teens, she’s suffered with extreme cramping and heavy, nonstop periods caused by uterine fibroids, and has decided to go ahead with a hysterectomy, scheduled for a few weeks after Sloan and Brandon’s wedding. She knows this is the right choice for her — the only sure way to finally end the constant pain and anemia she’s dealt with for so many years.. But as she and Josh begin to acknowledge their deepening feelings, Kristen’s medical condition gives her yet another source of heartache: Josh comes from a huge family, and has talked frequently of his dream of having a huge family himself. How can she get involved with a man whose dreams so clearly don’t match her reality?

The Friend Zone pulled me in right from the start, although its initial upbeat vibe clashes later with the seriousness of Kristen’s pain and emotional distress. When the plot takes an unexpectedly tragic turn, it feels sort of like two entirely separate books got mashed together.

Parts are very good: I enjoyed the banter and developing connection between Josh and Kristen. Her tactics to keep him in the friend zone are decidedly goofy and quite fun to read about. Flipping between their two perspectives from chapter to chapter gives readers a chance to hear both sides of the story, understand why they act as they do, and see how their decisions and actions affect the other person, whose knowledge in different situations may be limited and missing key information.

Other parts drove me a bit batty. The men in The Friend Zone come across as ultra macho — either military or firefighters, gun owners, hunters, motorcycle riders. There’s a scene where Josh picks Kristen up and carries her over his shoulder to get her to talk to him… and that’s a big no for me.

As for Kristen, I was frustrated by her internalized beliefs. I understand that the author was trying to accurately portray the struggles and emotional distress of what Kristen experiences, but I still found it disturbing to hear Kristen continually think of herself as damaged and less than desirable because of her inability to have children. I might have appreciated hearing this internal dialogue more if it was coupled with therapy or some counterbalance to convey a healthier message. I get that we’re inside Kristen’s head and she’s holding onto unhealthy beliefs about herself, but at the same time, as a reader who’s dealt with fertility challenges, I think seeing Kristen confront these beliefs on the page would present a more well-rounded approach to the issue.

One romance trope that I particularly dislike is when a character makes a decision for the good of their love interest — often, ending a relationship — without actually discussing the situation with their partner. That trope is in full force in The Friend Zone, and it really bothered me. Kristen spends a good portion of the book making decisions that cause deep pain for her and Josh, but never talks with him about what’s going on. So much heartache could have been avoided if she’d been honest with him and trusted him to work through it with her.

Complaints aside, there are also elements that I loved, such as when Josh finally realizes that the way to reach past Kristen’s defenses and get her to hear him is through logic and facts. The way he does this is amazing, and I found it incredibly touching.

Overall, The Friend Zone captured and held my attention, and when the plot takes a turn in the latter part of the book, I could barely catch my breath.

A word to the wise: Proceed with caution if you’re listening to the audiobook! I was on the highway during rush hour when I got to the intensely emotional part of the book, and don’t recommend trying to navigate traffic while choked up and teary-eyed!

As I mentioned, The Friend Zone doesn’t come across as quite as polished as Abby Jimenez’s later books, but it still managed to draw me in and engage my emotions. With her signature mix of humor and traumatic situations and events, it’s a roller coaster ride with a beautiful love story at its heart.

I’m eager to continue the trilogy that starts with The Friend Zone. Next up: The Happy Ever After Playlist.

Caution: DO NOT READ THE SYNOPSIS FOR THE HAPPY EVER AFTER PLAYLIST BEFORE FINISHING THE FRIEND ZONE! I did, unfortunately, and got the spoiler of all spoilers for the major event in the 2nd half of The Friend Zone. Learn from my mistakes!

3Aug2024

Book Review: Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Slow Dance
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: July 30, 2024
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction / romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley + purchased hardcover
Rating:

Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh’s thirty-three, and it’s been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there—and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.

Slow Dance is a sweet, unusual story of best friends who’ve always loved each other, but who’ve taken years and years to realize it.

“What do you want?” he whispered.

She shook her head. “A time machine.”

“I can’t give you the past,” Cary said. He squeezed her hands. “But we could have a future.”

Shiloh and Cary were inseparable in high school, along with their other best friend Mikey. But Shiloh and Cary’s connection was different. They shared every interest (except Cary’s ROTC commitment, which Shiloh hated), spent every free moment together, and even lived in the same run-down North Omaha neighborhood with less than ideal home lives. Nothing should have been able to tear them apart — but as we learn, they’ve spent most of their adult lives not talking to each other, and eventually, we discover why.

When they meet again at Mikey’s wedding, their lives have changed. Cary is a naval officer, with a career that’s taken him around the world. Shiloh lives in the same house she grew up in, with her two kids and her mother (but not her ex-husband). Their initial meeting is tense for both of them… but when Shiloh finally agrees to a dance with Cary, all the old connections between them bubble back to the surface.

Shiloh felt like she was combing his face and body for changes, like her eyes were hands. Or maybe she wasn’t looking for changes — maybe she was trying to find all the ways that he was the same. All the ways she recognized him. The ways he was still Cary.

Slow Dance is a tale of miscommunication and love and second chances, as well as the blunt reality of becoming an adult and having to deal with the messiness of life. Cary and Shiloh seem to have spent their entire relationship making assumptions and not being honest with themselves or each other about their feelings or wants or expectations. As adults, they finally recognize the barriers they’ve allowed to get in their way — but is it too late to try again?

It’s always a pleasure to read a Rainbow Rowell book. Slow Dance is no exception: The writing is sweet, funny, and page-turningly delightful. Cary and Shiloh are good people with hang-ups and issues and complicated lives. We spend the whole book rooting for them, and it can be frustrating to see the missed opportunities from the past, even while we clearly see all the various ways in which things went wrong.

Shiloh had wanted Cary before she’d even known how to recognize want. Before she had words for it. Before she had some sense of these things and their dimensions.

I had a bit of an issue with Shiloh as a character. I’m not sure that I fully understood her — she’s clever and opinionated, socially adept in some ways yet clearly an introvert when it comes to parties and groups of people. She has a hard time with closeness and intimacy, and seems to never fully have allowed herself to experience adult relationships or romance. I couldn’t quite pin down the explanation for some of her behaviors, both in high school and as an adult. Cary is much steadier — not to say that he’s not interesting, but his conflicts and dilemmas seem clearer and more straightforward.

Slow Dance may be a book that’s better the second time around. I tore through it in one huge reading binge, and at the midpoint, realized I might have been better off slowing down (I mean, the title should have made me realize that this is a journey to be savored, not gulped in one sitting). By the halfway mark, I felt that I finally got what these characters’ arcs were really about, and was able to connect the dots between their pasts and present.

I think I’ll be back for a reread. Now that I know where the story ends up going, I think I’ll better able to appreciate how it starts.

Slow Dance is a lovely, quirky book, and I highly recommend it.

3Jul2024

Book Review: Finding Mr. Write by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Finding Mr. Write
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: June 25, 2024
Print length: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Purchased

A fun romantic comedy about a woman writing under a male pseudonym and the man she hires to play the role in public.

Daphne McFadden is tired of rejection. After submitting her manuscript to dozens of agents, she’s gotten rejection after rejection, and now it’s time for something drastic. And so, Daphne submits her manuscript again… under a man’s name.

Imagine her surprise when it sells for big money at an auction and soon becomes a publicity darling. Only she needs a man to play her super macho alter ego Zane Remington. Enter Chris Stanton, who absolutely looks the part of a survivalist and has a talent for pressing her piss‑me‑off‑I‑dare‑you buttons while somehow being endearing at the same time. But Chris has a few secrets of his own, including the fact that he’s really an accountant who has no idea how to chop wood or paddle a canoe. When Daphne’s book becomes a bestselling sensation and they’re forced to go on tour together, Daphne finds herself wondering if this city‑boy geek is exactly what she needs to push her to claim her dreams.

Author Kelley Armstrong writes books I’ve recently become practically obsessed with, including two amazing timeslip series: A Stitch in Time (romantic timeslip with supernatural elements) and A Rip Through Time (timeslip focused on Victorian police procedurals — with a smidge of romance too). Finding Mr. Write is quite a departure — this is the author’s first rom-com… but have no fear! In the hands of this talented author, it’s fun and sassy and just a wee bit outside the norm for the genre.

In Finding Mr. Write, Daphne is a trained architect with the heart of a novelist. She’s been writing stories all her life, but is beyond frustrated. Her novel gets rejection after rejection, leading her to declare to her best friend, in one of the more memorable opening lines of the year:

After reading about a woman author who got five times the response when she submitted her manuscript with a man’s name, Daphne tweaks her book synopsis (“more survivalism, more zombies, less romance”), sticks on a fake man’s name (Zane Remington… hilarious), and sends it off. Lo and behold, she (Zane) gets a book deal, and a big one at that.

The problem is, the publisher wants an author bio and photo. Daphne enlists her best friend Nia (conveniently, a lawyer) to help her find an actor to play Zane, and to ensure that the legal documents are on the up-and-up in terms of her pseudonym. Nia finds a seemingly perfect guy for the role of the swaggering, outdoorsy author — Chris is gorgeous, hard-bodied, and has plenty of game and attitude.

He’s also a fake. Yes, he did a bit of acting way back when, but he’s actually an accountant who’s a client of Nia’s, and nothing warms his heart more than a well-structured spreadsheet. He sprouted from nerdy mathlete to hottie over the years thanks to determination and gym hours, but in his heart of hearts, he’s no more a Zane than Daphne herself is.

All goes well, until Daphne’s book is released (complete with sexy Zane photo on the back cover). When it becomes an instant bestseller, the publisher insists on TV interviews and a full tour schedule, not something Daphne and Chris planned for. A camera crew is scheduled to profile Zane at his Yukon home (i.e., Daphne’s Yukon home), and the unlikely duo have to do a crash-course on learning about each other… and teaching Chris some basics like paddling a canoe, splitting firewood (just don’t!), and what to do when confronted by a grizzly.

Daphne and Chris start with playful banter via text and email. At first, he fully embraces the Zane persona (no, he hasn’t read her book and no, he doesn’t actually read books), but bit by bit, he lets the real Chris come out (who does, in fact, read — and loved her book). They develop a lovely chemistry, but Chris is clear that a fling isn’t what he’s looking for, and Daphne is wary of relationships. Not to mention, he lives and works in Vancouver and she’s loving her solitary life in the Yukon — any sort of lasting connection seems highly unlikely.

Without going much further into the plot, it’s clear that there are two central conflicts looming: First, can Daphne and Chris work through their differences and allow themselves to explore their feelings and mutual attraction? And second, what will happen when, inevitably, the truth about Zane/Chris/Daphne and the authorship of Daphne’s book gets exposed?

Both elements are handled extraordinarily well. We get plenty of goofy scenes of Chris learning to get along in Daphne’s world, and get to see both of them learn that their first impressions and surface-level expectations aren’t the true picture of who they each are underneath. Their time together is flirty, sexy, steamy (some explicit scenes await), and sensitive.

The publishing drama feels realistic, although I had a bit of a hard time buying into the initial setup. Daphne’s book is about a teen girl surviving in the wilderness after a zombie apocalypse. She knows in her heart that it’s YA, and she thinks lovingly of all the YA books she read growing up that inspired her to become a writer. Yet with Zane’s name on the cover, it’s branded as a survival/zombie/action story and placed on the general fiction shelves — but no one seems to question too deeply how this “man’s man” author managed to create such a compelling teen girl protagonist. I’d think someone would have twigged to this anomaly along the way.

In any case, Daphne and Chris have woven a complicated web that starts to unravel once fans start trying to track down Zane’s true identity, and then the race is on: Can Daphne reveal the truth before she’s outed, and how can she step forward without destroying her own reputation and losing all credibility?

One thing I really loved is that the point of view bounces back and forth throughout, with “Chris” and “Daphne” sections alternating frequently, even within the same chapter. When Chris jumps in to try to fix things for Daphne, we understand why he does what he does, and pretty much immediately also get Daphne’s take, letting us know just how badly he’s misinterpreted what she needs. It’s fun and smart — and very clear that despite her public shyness, Daphne is capable of making her own decisions and speaking up when it’s right for her, without needing to be pushed or rescued.

Finding Mr. Write is a total treat. The writing is spirited and clever, the romance zings, but there’s real content here too about women’s treatment in the publishing industry and beyond. Daphne and Chris are both great characters, and I loved seeing how they challenge and complement one another.

Also, kudos to Finding Mr. Write for a totally awesome use of a PowerPoint presentation — something I never expected to mention in a review of a rom-com!

PS – Can someone please explain to me what’s going on with the name Daphne? This is the 3rd book I’ve read within the space of a month — no exaggeration!! — with a Daphne as the lead character. Is Daphne the new Jennifer/Brittany/Emily/insert-whichever-decade’s-hottest-name-here?

22Jun2024

Book Review: Funny Story by Emily Henry

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Funny Story
Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: April 23, 2024
Print length: 387 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?

I’m going to keep this review short (which can be hard for me!): Funny Story is entertaining, heart-warming, funny, and relatable — in other words, a great summer read, and highly recommended.

Daphne and Miles have exactly one thing in common as the story opens: Daphne’s fiance and Miles’s girlfriend, life-long best friends, have realized they’re actually in love in the lead-up to Daphne and Peter’s wedding. Suddenly dumped, Daphne not only loses Peter, but also her home (which is actually his) and her local friends (which are also actually his). With no place else to go, she moves into Miles’s spare room, and two partake in lots of wallowing and pity parties, alone but at least under the same roof.

Daphne had uprooted her whole life for Peter, moving to his small town and into his social circle — and newly single, she faces the harsh fact that she hasn’t built a life for herself apart from him. Yes, she loves her job as a children’s librarian, but she really has nothing else. With a major fundraiser coming later in the summer that she’s responsible for, she can’t leave Waning Bay just yet… but with every chapter in the book, we get a countdown of just how long is left before she can get away.

And yet… Miles (who we first meet as a big, stoned, crying mess) is a sweet guy with a heart of gold who has the rare skill of making everyone he meets feel special. He knows just about everyone in Waning Bay, and the people he doesn’t know are just one conversation away from being his devoted friends too. Miles and Daphne first start hanging out from a sense of mutual sadness and loneliness, but they soon find that they connect as more than just the people who got dumped together. A sweet friendship grows, and each is able to offer the other a shoulder to cry on, a distraction, a companion, and eventually, a deeper connection of support, caring, and affection.

Without going into a ton of detail, I’ll just say that I loved seeing Miles and Daphne’s relationship develop, and one of the really delightful aspects is noticing, without being hit over the head with it, how Petra and Peter kind of fade out of the storyline as they become less and less important to Miles and Daphne.

Beyond the growing friendship/chemistry/attraction between Miles and Daphne, Daphne’s efforts to find more for herself in Waning Bay are also integral to the story. I love that a book about romance gives plenty of space to women’s friendships. Daphne has to force herself to connect and interact, but once she does, she finds a true friend. Sure, there are complications and ups-and-downs, but it’s so important for Daphne’s sense of purpose that she learns how to be present for someone else, and how to open her heart to a whole community of people.

OK, I said I’d keep it brief, so let me wrap up by saying that Funny Story is signature Emily Henry, meaning that the smart, sensitive plot has just enough silliness and humor to keep it bubbling along, without losing sight of the characters’ inner lives and their emotional growth. The love story is delicious, but so is the story of a woman finding herself a place to belong.

As with previous Emily Henry books, I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Julia Whelan, who is just as fabulous as she always is. The narration and the character voices are all spot on, and listening to this book is a total treat.

Print or audio, Funny Story is sweet, emotional, and oodles of fun. Don’t miss it.

17Feb2024

Audiobook Review: Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Yours Truly
Author: Abby Jimenez
Narrators: Kyla Garcia & Zachary Webber
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: April 11, 2023
Print length: 416 pages
Audio length: 11 hours 23 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

A novel of terrible first impressions, hilarious second chances, and the joy in finding your perfect match.

Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin’-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass” scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.

And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,” and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she can’t refuse.

I loved Abby Jimenez’s previous novel, Part of Your World, and just had to stay in that book’s world a little longer by immediately starting Yours Truly. Great decision on my part! I thoroughly enjoyed this sensitive, romantic audiobook.

But before I explain why, I do need to point out that that is a seriously terrible synopsis above. The synopsis makes Yours Truly sound like a comedic war-of-wills workplace romance… and that’s not how I’d describe this book at all.

So let me put my own spin on this book.

Briana is a highly-skilled ER doctor who’s loved by her coworkers and seems on track for a chief position, just as soon as her current boss finally takes his long-awaited retirement. She’s thrown for a loop when she’s informed that he’s holding off on retirement just a bit longer, and that she may have competition for the chief role — the new ER doctor who just transferred to her hospital.

The new doc doesn’t seem to be lining up fans. On his very first day, the nurses have secretly dubbed him Doctor Death. He’s rubbing everyone the wrong way, and manages to thorougly irritate Briana as well.

What Briana doesn’t know is that Jacob is an introvert with social anxiety, who’s just trying to get through his day without further triggering his anxiety responses. Jacob is dealing with stress in his personal life — his brother announcing his engagement to Jacob’s ex-girlfriend — and learning a whole bunch of social cues in a brand new work setting is not easy for Jacob.

Eventually, Briana clues in to the fact that Jacob is not actually some arrogant, sexist jerk, but is really a deeply sensitive man who’s also a terrific doctor. After Bri extends an olive branch by advising Jacob to win over the ER staff via cupcakes, Jacob writes her a thank-you letter. Yes, writes — as in, by hand — a letter — as in, on paper. Briana can’t help being charmed.

Bri and Jacob start exchanging letters, opening up in writing in a way they haven’t been able to in person. Eventually, letters turn into long conversations, and suddenly, they’re spending more time talking with one another than with anyone else.

When Jacob turns out to be a perfect match as a kidney donor for Briana’s ailing brother, she wants to do a huge favor for him in return. Jacob’s family refuses to embrace his brother’s engagement, fearing that Jacob will be too terribly hurt by the whole thing. He’s not… but to convince his family to get on board and be happy for the couple, Jacob decides he needs a fake girlfriend, and Bri is happy to sign up for the role.

As Jacob and Brianna play-act a relationship, they spent lots and lots of time together, even to the point of fake living together. You get where this is going right? Before long, they’ve both caught feelings — but each is 100% sure that the other is pretending. There’s a lot of tormented self-doubt and longing in store for both of them. Ah, if only people in romance novels knew how to communicate!

Yours Truly has lots of funny scenarios and flirty banter, but it’s also rooted in more serious emotions and complications. Bri is still deeply wounded by her divorce, thanks to her jerky ex-husband who cheated on her for years with a woman she thought was a good friend. Between that and the father who abandoned the family when she was a child, Bri doesn’t believe that love can be counted on, and has serious issues around trust and security. Jacob, meanwhile, has learned to manage his anxiety, but he can be triggered by uncertainty and lacks the confidence to feel that he’s worthy of love. While Briana and Jacob fall madly in love with one another, it takes them a very long time to realize that their feelings are returned, in large part because neither is able to believe that they deserve to be loved by someone so wonderful.

The author does a terrific job of developing these two characters and making them likable even while showing their wounds and their flaws. We readers may feel frustrated enough to want to give them each a good shake, but we also understand why they’re having such a hard time believing in the truth of their relationship.

I did feel that the communication issues dragged on longer than necessary, and wished that these two incredibly intelligent people talked honestly a lot sooner. They each make some pretty significant assumptions based on overheard conversations and mistaken beliefs about the other’s feelings, and while we get where they’re coming from, they really could have worked all this out through a simple conversation.

Another quibble is that they’re a pair of doctors, and yet they have unprotected sex! In this day and age, when most romance novels do such a fantastic job of incorporating condoms into sexytimes, its absence in a key scene between Jacob and Briana is a glaring omission. Yes, it’s dealt with later in the plot, but still, given who they are as people, it was not believable to me that they’d have sex in that moment without protection.

That aside, I really did love the characters, the plot, and the overall story. When Bri and Jacob make bad choices, we understand why. The writing balances the zippy, light-hearted moments with the deeper emotional stakes and traumas, and I loved how sensitively they’re able to connect with one another when they open up and truly communicate.

“We’re all a little broken, Briana. We are a mosaic. We’re made up of all those we’ve met and all the things we’ve been through. There are parts of us that are colorful and dark and jagged and beautiful. And I love every piece of you. Even the ones you wish didn’t exist.”

Yours Truly is set in the same fictional world as Part of Your World, and it’s nice to get to visit with that book’s main characters, Alexis and Daniel, and see how they’re doing. Zachary Webber, who voices Daniel in Part of Your World, is back in Yours Truly as the narrator for Jacob’s chapters, and he’s got the role of smart, sensitive, sexy boyfriend down to a science. Kyla Garcia is very good as the narrator for Brianna (and gets her lisp just right in a scene where Bri wears her retainer!). The voices work really well together, and the audiobook as a whole is a treat.

Part of Your World was my first book by Abby Jimenez, and after listening to Yours Truly, I’m all in! I need to read EVERYTHING by this author. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet, do yourself a favor and pick up one of her books!

On a related note…

Amazon’s free story collection for February is romance-themed — it’s the Improbable Meet-Cute collection, and includes a very sweet story by Abby Jimenez, so naturally, I read it immediately after finishing Yours Truly. Worst Wingman Ever is a fast, enjoyable read. Check it out!

The rest of the collection looks great too — have you read any of these stories yet?

30Sep2023

Book Review: The Beginning of Everything by Jackie Fraser

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Beginning of Everything
Author: Jackie Fraser
Publisher: Dell
Publication date: September 26, 2023
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

An irresistible friends-to-lovers novel of resilience, hope, and new beginnings from the author of The Bookshop of Second Chances

After escaping a bad relationship, Jess Cavendish is running and leaving it all behind, carrying just a few treasured belongings in her knapsack. She needs to start over, but that means sleeping where she can and making the most of her slim savings. Luckily, she comes across a recently sold, unoccupied house. It couldn’t hurt to stay there while she saves up enough to get her own place, right?

Gethin Thomas is also looking to move on after the end of a long-term relationship. He’s returned to his hometown, anxious to renovate the fixer-upper he bought and move out of his sister’s cramped guest room. When he walks through the door one morning, he finds Jess, who’s ready to run again, and surprises them both by offering to let her stay. It feels like the right thing to do, but Jess doesn’t want a handout. They strike a deal: Jess will help with the restoration, furnishing, and decorating in exchange for room and board.

While they peel wallpaper and shop for new furniture, an unexpected friendship develops as they bond over music and food, and slowly open up to each other about their pasts. When it’s time for Gethin to move in, he convinces Jess to be his official housemate and she agrees—so long as he lets her pay rent. The connection between them soon shifts to an attraction that seems both inevitable and overwhelming, and Jess must decide what she wants. With so much hurt in her past, can she risk loving again? She was brave enough to reach for a new life—and now a future she hadn’t even dreamed possible could be just within her grasp.

If you’ve read the synopsis for The Beginning of Everything, you have a pretty good idea of the entire book. Jess is in her mid-40s, on the run from an abusive relationship, and decides somewhat randomly to hide out in a small town in Wales, where she hopes to figure out how to start over again.

After living in a tent for a few weeks, she discovers an unoccupied home that seems like a possible temporary shelter and — after picking the locks — settles in as a secret squatter. Her relative safety is interrupted when the new owner, Gethin, arrives suddenly and startles Jess into running again.

Rather than changing the locks, throwing away her possessions, and calling the police, Gethin instead exhibits remarkable kindness and leaves a note asking her to talk to him. When she return to the house to gather the items she’s left behind, Gethin makes an unexpected offer: She can remain as a lodger in his home while it’s under renovation, and in exchange, if she’s willing, she can help with the various repair and improvement projects.

Jess is extremely cautious and mistrustful at first, but soon realizes that Gethin is a rare person who is truly as kind and respectful as he appears to be. With time, Jess eases into a friendship with Gethin, and eventually, she becomes his partner in turning his new house into a true home.

Given Jess’s past, however, she’s skittish when it comes to truly trusting a man or feeling at ease with being close with someone, and when feelings beyond friendship emerge, her sense of belonging and ability to remain with Gethin are threatened.

The Beginning of Everything is a nice, pleasant read, but lacks any true drama. It’s enjoyable to see Jess settle into a new life, although I could have done with fewer descriptions of their decorating process. Gethin is lovely, and possibly verges too far into “too good to be true” territory. Would any person really act this compassionately toward a homeless stranger sleeping in their newly purchased property? It’s hard to understand why Gethin would welcome Jess into his home or support her the way does, so we just have to accept that he’s just that nice and move on.

I expected some sort of dramatic encounter with Jess’s ex, and was relieved that that’s not where the plot goes. The focus is on Jess’s emotional and mental state, her healing process, and her uneven journey toward feeling safety with other people. It can be moving, but I wish it had had more depth, and certain of Jess’s decisions feel illogical, which undermines some of the impact.

The writing, particularly the dialogue, gets annoying in places. Jess and Gethin are both so incredibly tentative when they talk to each other that it made me want to interrupt and tell them to speak in complete sentences! For example:

“No, I … no, I’m just surprised.”

“Good surprised or bad surprised?

“I … good surprised? Of course? It’s … unexpected but…”

“You don’t want to,” he says. “That’s okay. I just thought — “

“No, it’s not — “

“Or do you want to?”

And also…

“Painful.”

“Yes, very.”

“Did — “

“Did I want to talk about it? Nope.”

“You don’t think — “

“No.”

“I only — “

Et cetera…

As I said, this is a perfectly pleasant read. It lacks an element of true excitement or surprise, and the basic premise can be a bit tough to believe. Still, Jess and Gethin are both sympathetic characters, and I enjoyed seeing the developing relationship between the two.

24Oct2021

Audiobook Review: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: People We Meet on Vacation
Author: Emily Henry
Narrator: Julia Whelan
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: May 11, 2021
Print length: 364 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 46 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased (Kindle); Library (audio)
Rating:

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

Poppy and Alex are a delightful pairing in all the right ways. They’re diametrically opposed when it comes to lifestyle and goals. Poppy dreams of travel and freedom; Alex dreams of home and family and being settled. He’s uptight, she’s loose and open. And yet, they bond so tightly that everyone and everything else in their lives are extraneous. So long as they have each other, even if they only see each other during their annual summer trips, then their lives are good.

But something went wrong two summers ago, and they haven’t talked since. And for Poppy, nothing makes sense any more. She has her dream job, working for a high-end travel magazine and basically getting paid to go anywhere in the world and enjoy the hell out of it… but her life has been pretty joyless ever since Alex was removed from the equation.

People We Meet on Vacation is framed around “this summer”, but interspersed chapters take us back to “10 summers ago”, “5 summers ago”, etc. Through these chapters that show past history, we get to experience the depth of Alex and Poppy’s connection, why they mean so much to one another, and get hints of why they are the way they are, as we learn more about their families, their upbringings, and their formative years.

I loved the chemistry and the adorable banter between the two. They’re funny in so many unexpected ways. Any scene that they’re both in absolutely shines.

At the same time, there’s plenty of harder times in the mix as well. Why did their friendship fall apart? Why do they seem to have such a hard time identifying what they want? Why do none of their romantic partners ever work out for them?

The travel segments add crazy fun, as most of their plans end up derailed or taken in unexpected directions, and their random adventures and encounters keep the entertainment value of this novel high.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the masterful Julia Whelan, and it was a delight. I can see why people become fans of certain audiobook narrators. I’ve now listened to more than a few audiobooks narrated by Julia Whelan, and she’s truly gifted. Here, her voices for Poppy and Alex are perfectly tuned to their personalities, and her delivery of their funnier exchanges made me laugh out loud.

I have to admit that it was touch and go for me for the first few chapters. The introduction of Poppy’s best friend, a social media influencer, made me want to duck out, and their discussion of “millennial ennui” was practically the nail in the coffin… but since I really enjoyed my last book by this author (Beach Read), I decided to stick with it. And I’m glad I did!

People We Meet on Vacation is surprisingly insightful for a book with such an upbeat cover and title. It allows its characters to dig into their wants and needs (while also showcasing their outstanding chemistry and dynamics), including introspective moments that give greater depth to the story without ever weighing it down.

This ended up being an excellent audio experience — highly recommended!

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