Title twins two-fer: Battle of the books about battles between bookstores

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Two new releases with titles so close to being identical that I’m constantly having to check to see which is which!

It looks like battling bookstores are all the rage… or at least, the hot topic of summer 2025, as both of these new books seem to prove.

I’ve read them both. Neither ended up being a stellar read for me, but I have a clear preference between the two. Which battling bookstore book comes out on top? Read on for my thoughts!

Title: Battle of the Bookstores
Author: Ali Brady
Narrator: Karissa Vacker, Brandon Francis
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 3, 2025
Print length: 432 pages
Audio length: 9 hours 32 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley; audiobook via library
Rating:

Rivalry and romance spark when two bookstore managers who are opposites in every way find themselves competing for the same promotion.

Despite managing bookstores on the same Boston street, Josie Klein and Ryan Lawson have never interacted much—Josie’s store focuses on serious literature, and Ryan’s sells romance only. But when the new owner of both stores decides to combine them, the two are thrust into direct competition. Only one manager will be left standing, decided by who turns the most profit over the summer.

Efficient and detail-oriented Josie instantly clashes with easygoing and disorganized Ryan. Their competing events and contrasting styles lead to more than just frustration—the sparks between them might just set the whole store on fire. Their only solace during this chaos is the friendship they’ve each struck up with an anonymous friend in an online book forum. Little do they know they’re actually chatting with each other.

As their rivalry heats up in real life, their online relationship grows, and when the walls between their stores come tumbling down, Josie and Ryan realize not all’s fair in love and war. And maybe, if they’re lucky, happily ever afters aren’t just for the books.

This was one of my most highly anticipated summer reads, given how much I enjoyed this author duo’s previous three books. Sad to say, Battle of the Bookstores just doesn’t measure up.

This story about rival bookstore managers — one manages a romance bookstore, the other a store focused on literary fiction — embraces pretty much every trope under the sun. It’s done in a cute, self-aware sort of way (the characters talk about how they’re living out the enemies-to-lovers trope, for example). The story also includes the stereotypical extremely tall male love interest, fake dating, just one bed, corresponding with someone online without realizing they know each other in real life, and so much more.

On the plus side, the focus on reading, books transforming lives, and getting to truly know a person by reading the books they love all really appeal to my book-loving soul.

However — what I loved about the other Ali Brady books was the strong focus on friendships and family dynamics as the central storyline, with romantic plots being more secondary. Here, the romance is all there is. Honestly, we barely get to know anyone else in either main characters’ lives, and all issues and considerations are secondary to their enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story trajectory.

Add to that some over-the-top sex scenes and awkward lines (“My pants grow tight in anticipation”), and I just couldn’t get past the sense that this story was somewhat (to use one of Josie’s put-downs) run-of-the-mill.

The audiobook wasn’t fabulous either — the narrators are okay, but a few mispronunciations (like saying the CH in “Chanukah” like the CH in “cheese”) felt like sheer laziness to me.

Overall… Battle of the Bookstores get a lukewarm “meh” from me. Which makes me sad — as I’ve said, I adored Ali Brady’s three previous books and recommend them wholeheartedly!

Title: The Battle of the Bookshops
Author: Poppy Alexander
Publisher: Avon and Harper Voyager
Publication date: August 19, 2025
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A charming literary-themed novel about a young woman determined to save her great-aunt’s beloved bookshop from extinction by the shiny new competition—which also happens to be run by the handsome son of her family’s rivals.

The cute, seaside town of Portneath has been the home of Capelthorne’s Books for nearly a hundred years…

The shop, in the heart of a high street that stretches crookedly down the hill from the castle to the sea, may be a tad run-down these days, but to Jules Capelthorne, the wonky, dusty world of literary treasures is full of precious childhood memories. When her great-aunt Florence gets too frail to run it alone, Jules ditches her junior publishing job in London and comes home to make the bookshop’s hundredth birthday a celebration to remember.

Jules quickly discovers things are worse than she ever imagined: The bookshop is close to bankruptcy, unlikely to make it to its own centenary celebration, and the lease on the building is up for renewal. With a six-figure sum needed, the future looks bleak.

To make matters worse, the owner of the property is the insufferable Roman Montbeau, from the posh, local family who owns half of Portneath. The Montbeaus and Capelthornes have feuded for years, and Roman has clearly not improved since he tormented Jules as a child. Fresh from a high-flying career in New York, he is on a mission to shake things up, and—unforgivably—proves his point about Capelthorne’s being a relic of the past by opening a new bookshop directly opposite—a shiny, plate-glass-windowed emporium of books.

Jules may not be able to splash the cash on promotions and marketing like the Montbeaus, but she’s got some ideas of her own, plus she has a tenacity that may just win the hardest of hearts and the most hopeless of conflicts.

Let the battle of the bookshops commence…

I did NOT realize this was going to be a Romeo and Juliet retelling before picking up the book (guess I didn’t read the synopsis very carefully… Montbeaus and Capelthornes, indeed!). I still would probably have requested this ARC, but might not have groaned out loud once I realized the central plot device.

In this battling bookstores book, Jules’s family has run Capelthorne’s Books for one hundred years, but it’s getting shabby around the edges. And now the wealthy Montbeau family has opened up shiny new Portneath Books right across the street — and what’s worse, they own the land on which Capelthorne’s stands. It seems that this small town isn’t big enough for two bookstores, but which will prevail?

Jules wants to hate Roman Montbeau — for everything his family stands for, for his perceived snobbishness, and for trying to ruin her aunt’s business — but she’s also had a crush on him since they were teens, and it appears that he’s felt the same way all these years. Jules and Roman go from business adversaries to lovers in the blink of an eye, but they still have to contend with centuries of animosity between their families.

I did so want to like this book! Sadly, it was pretty much a bust. Jules and Roman have no chemistry, and we only know that they’ve fallen in love because they tell us so. There’s no discernible build up or early sparks or any sign of growing feelings. Very unconvincing.

I also intensely disliked this moment of high drama (spoiler: there’s a fire) when Jules seems intent on fulfilling her role as a Juliet stand-in:

It was too hard to breath, too hard to keep going. Roman must have perished, and Jules knew, in that moment, life without him was impossible. She was done.

I’m sorry, what? I just can’t…

Meanwhile, the families’ feuding and backstory is a yawn, mainly just a device to shoehorn in the Romeo and Juliet theme. Some intrigue about an antiquarian book found on the Capelthorne’s premises seems to be meant to add excitement — but again, it’s just not particularly convincing

There’s a sweet, small-town-UK vibe to the story, and the village and its people are rather charming. A nice setting doesn’t compensate for lack of an interesting plot. Unfortunately for me, I have two other books by this author in my Kindle library (grabbed based on cute covers and steep price drops) which I now doubt that I’ll want to read.

So which book comes out on top in the battle of the bookstore battle books?Save

Save

Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady

Is this a perfect book? No.

Is it this author duo’s best book? Again, no.

But, in the battle of the bookstore battle books, this is the one that kept me entertained, had a fun, upbeat tone, and made me care about the characters and their silly competition (and their romance).

Also, the Ali Brady book clearly revels in a love of books, with the characters engaging in endless swooning over their favorites novels and authors and characters, and with plenty of terrific mentions of great books. The Poppy Alexander book is sadly lacking in this area, which is downright odd for a book about bookstores.

As I mentioned right from the start, Battle of the Bookstores is not my favorite Ali Brady book — I adored their three previous novels, and wholeheartedly recommend any or all of them. But, as a light piece of summer entertainment, this book is sure to please booklovers with a soft spot for book-centric love stories.

Final verdict: If you’re looking for a bookstore battle book for your summer reading, check out Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady!Save

28Jun2025

Audiobook Review: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read-alikes:

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

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

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

19Jun2025

Book Review: Never Been Shipped by Alicia Thompson

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Never Been Shipped
Author: Alicia Thompson
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 10, 2025
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A band reunion may be enough to change two musicians’ tune on love in this electric romance from USA Today bestselling author Alicia Thompson.

Micah’s relationship to music is complicated. As teenagers, her band took off after being featured on a popular TV show, but the group barely released their sophomore album before breaking up. Now, over a decade later, the band is reuniting for one more performance on a themed cruise, and Micah is determined to learn from her past mistakes — no losing herself in the music, and no losing her heart along the way.

John misses playing in a band, and mostly he misses Micah, who’d been his best friend until the music stopped. Back then, he didn’t take the lead, either in his guitar parts or while he sat back and watched her date another bandmate. John’s never been one to rock the boat, but he’s faced with another chance now that this cruise has brought music — and Micah — back in his life.

Onboard, Micah can’t help but see John with brand new eyes, and John’s feelings only intensify as the discordant band’s tension grows to a breaking point. With five days at sea, there’s a ticking clock on anything that might develop between them, and they’ll have to decide if their relationship is destined to be more than a one-hit wonder.

I’m going to keep this review short, simply because I’m not sure I have all that much to say. This story of second-chance love, set on a cruise ship, skims the surface of former teen bandmates and best friends reuniting after more than a decade without contact, reigniting all the unspoken, unacknowledged feelings from all those years ago.

While I really enjoyed this author’s three previous books (ratings of 4 – 4.5 stars), something about this one just never took off for me. Maybe it was the description of the band’s rise to stardom while the the characters were all teens. Maybe it was the awkward interactions between main characters Micah and John. Maybe it was simply feeling that I didn’t actually get these characters in some fundamental way. In any case, the story simply didn’t ring true for me, and I never got more than a surface sense of involvement.

That said, there are some cute set-pieces, including a shuffleboard tournament on board the cruise ship and the fact that the entire cruise is a fan experience for a once-popular teen show about shapeshifters (which felt very much like a Buffy reference in certain ways). But with the core plotline not truly grabbing me, the book simply didn’t rise above a solid 3-star, “it was okay” rating.

I’ll also note that the sex scenes in this book are very up-close and graphic, and there are a lot of them. Definitely not my preference when I read romance, but your mileage may vary. (This bothered me less in the author’s previous books, where I was more caught up in the plot and characters. Here, it was just one more thing to annoy me.)

Will I read more books by this author? Most likely, yes. Her previous books all had quirky, clever setups that engaged me right from the start. So, I’ll think of Never Been Shipped as a one-off letdown, and will still want to at least consider whatever she writes next.

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

**Save

Save

3May2025

Book Review: The Love Haters by Katherine Center

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Love Haters
Author: Katherine Center
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: May 20, 2025
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.

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

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

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

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

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

Katherine Center has become a must-read author for me. Her books include a wide variety of people and interesting or unusual situations, and it’s always a treat to see where she’ll end up taking us each time a new book is released.

In The Love Haters, Katie is a talented videographer who makes corporate videos for a living (think CEO interviews, brand introductions, etc) but whose passion is documentary filmmaking. She’s found a following on YouTube with her “Day in the Life” series, in which she spends 24 hours filming people going about their normal lives — except these are all people who’ve done something heroic. She blends their voice-over interviews exploring their moment of heroism with footage of daily life, creating a unique series of six-minute videos that are compelling and popular.

Not that that’s going to save her job, once layoffs loom.

But Katie’s company has been selected to shoot a promotional video for the Coast Guard — specifically, her supervisor Cole has been requested by the person the film will focus on, a rescue diver who certainly fits the hero profile Katie so loves to explore. Except… the rescue diver is Cole’s brother, and Cole absolutely refuses to do it. He cajoles Katie into going in his place: It’ll help save her job, and might even give her Day in the Life footage, if his brother Hutch agrees.

Cole describes Hutch as a “love hater” — someone stoic, upright, and with no sense of fun, let alone any sort of human emotion.

“He’s morally upstanding and physically unstoppable. He does two hundred push-ups a day. He can hold his breath underwater for thee minutes. He has never had a cavity. He’s more of a machine than a human. He just goes around all day doing good deeds.”

“So, he’s… too likable?”

“He’s the opposite of likable! He’s perfect.”

“Not sure those are opposites.”

But there’s history between the brothers that Cole doesn’t share with Katie, and as Katie soon learns, Hutch is not at all as Cole describes.

As Katie arrives in Key West, she’s warmly welcomed by Cole and Hutch’s Aunt Rue, a live-life-to-the-fullest sort of older woman who immediately coerces Katie into ditching her standard black jeans and tees and embracing the island, floral vibe. Katie faces another problem besides her dark clothing: Whoever makes this video will be going out on the rescue helicopter with the team, and being able to pass a water safety test is required. And Katie can’t swim.

Naturally, Hutch is there to save the day. He teaches Katie to swim, and patches her up after some unfortunate incidents with his very affectionate Great Dane (who seems to think he’s a lap puppy). Hutch and Katie are quite cute together, although Katie isn’t sure whether the vibes she thinks she’s picking up are actually there.

Meanwhile, Katie struggles throughout the book to overcome a devastatingly damaged sense of self-worth and complete lack of body positivity. After her then-boyfriend become insta-famous thanks to the viral success of a song he’d posted, Katie found herself accompanying him to red carpet events — and the internet was brutal to her. Between the trolls who savaged her appearance, and his then dumping her for a pop star (only to later regret it and continue releasing songs about her), her self-esteem is garbage. With the love and support of her cousin/best friend/sorta sister Beanie, she’s trying to get her mojo back… but it’s hard for Katie to imagine ever finding love again when she can’t find anything to love about herself.

There are plenty of interwoven story threads in The Love Haters. We have Hutch and Katie’s growing chemistry, Katie’s journey to reclaim herself and her body, Cole and Hutch’s relationship, and Katie’s professional life. Late in the book, Cole shows up on the scene in Key West spouting a pack of lies, theoretically to help both his and Katie’s careers, but his timing is terrible. Forcing Katie to go along with his lies damages the trust she’s been building with Hutch, and it’s questionable whether the damage can be repaired.

Without getting too deeply into spoilers, I do want to mention that this is the second book I’ve read in a month in which a houseboat getting lost at sea is a pivotal plot point. (See Swept Away by Beth O’Leary for the first). Just a weird coincidence, but it made me laugh.

Note to self: Stay off houseboats. Second note to self: If you must go on a houseboat, triple check that it’s securely tied to land.

The Love Haters is a sweet, often funny, charming love story, as well as a relatable tale about a woman working to reclaim belief in herself and her own beauty and value. I loved Katie and Beanie’s relationship, and Rue and her gang of Gals are a lovely, lively set of characters who instantly provide Katie with a place to feel wanted and accepted.

I was less thrilled with the plot elements involving Cole and the lies he tells (and forces Katie into) — none of that felt particularly necessary, and seemed like a stretch in terms of needing some sort of 3rd-act obstacle to derail Katie and Hutch’s love story.

Overall, though, The Love Haters is an entertaining, heart-warming book, and will make a great summer read. It does feel a little slight relative to some of Katherine Center’s other books — somehow, it feels like there’s not a lot of there there — but I still found plenty to enjoy.

Recommended for fans of the author as well as anyone looking for a nice beachy, summery escape.

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

Interested in this author? Check out my reviews of other Katherine Center books:
The Bright Side of Disaster
Get Lucky
Happiness for Beginners
Hello Stranger
How to Walk Away
The Rom-Commers
Things You Save in a Fire
What You Wish For

10Jan2025

Book Review: The Christmas You Found Me by Sarah Morgenthaler

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Christmas You Found Me
Author: Sarah Morgenthaler
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication date: September 24, 2024
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Sarah Morgenthaler is back with a heart-mending contemporary romance featuring a single dad you’ll fall for; a satisfying slow burn love affair; found family you’ll root for; small town holiday magic; and all the quirky animals and snowy rustic scenes your heart desires.

Sienna Naples’s family has taken care of their wild Idaho land for generations and Sienna can’t imagine any other life. But at Christmastime, with her parents gone and her painful marriage finally over, it’s full of memories…and incredibly lonely. Until a tall, handsome stranger and a little girl walk into her life and suddenly the holidays are alive again.

When single father Guy Maple shows up as the result of an ad meant to be a joke, the handsome Montana construction worker isn’t joking. Money is tight this Christmas, and Guy’s four-year-old daughter Emma has stage-five chronic kidney disease. She needs a kidney transplant, but if Guy can’t prove that he can afford Emma’s anti-rejection medications, his daughter isn’t going to stay on the transplant list. Guy’s willing to do anything, including marrying a stranger, to keep her safe. It’s an impulsive marriage of convenience, and Sienna knows this isn’t real, no matter how much she adores Emma, how well Guy fits in to the ranching life—or how much light and laughter is coming into their lives as a result. But the more time she spends with her new family, the more she fears losing the fragile, feisty little girl and the kind, devoted, hard-working, incredibly attractive man who is her husband—but is it only in name?

When you pick up a holiday romance, certain things are for certain: Christmas spirit, lots of cookies and twinkling lights, and a happy ending. The Christmas You Found Me provides all of these ingredients… but adds in moments of near-tragedy and oodles of tears too. (But no fear! It’s not a spoiler — just look at that cover! — to promise that all will be well in the end.)

On the day Sienna’s divorce is final, her best friend Jess publishes an add in the local paper:

Wanted: Husband for Hire

Temp to full-time position, based on satisfactory job performance.

Eligibility requirements: Ability to lift, push, or pull 50 pounds. Willingness to perform ranch work in extreme weather without whining. Experience with livestock a plus. Broad shoulders preferred.

Benefits include medical, dental, 401(k) matching. Salary negotiable.

Current husbands need not apply. (Previous husbands of Sienna Naples are ineligible for the position.)

And sure, Jess means it to be a cute joke to lift Sienna’s spirits and get the entire (tiny) Idaho town to laugh along with Sienna… but the ad leads to a few random propositions, and one sincere applicant.

When Sienna reluctantly agrees to meet Guy Maple, she already feels bad. She’s not actually looking to hire a husband, after all. But then she gets a good look at Guy — a hot, attractive, polite, but apparently underfed man with a desperate air to him. He’s embarrassed but determined: if there’s any chance this job is a real thing, he wants it. Guy is a single dad with an adorable 4-year-old daughter who’s in end-stage kidney failure. Dialysis multiple times a week isn’t enough any more; she needs a new kidney, or she won’t survive.

Health insurance isn’t the problem, but money is. Because of their ongoing medical crisis, Guy is only able to work short-term gigs, and has no family to fall back on for assistance. Emma absolutely qualifies for a kidney donation based on her medical condition, but to stay on the transplant list, Guy has to be able to demonstrate the financial means to afford the ongoing anti-rejection medication that will be required… and he can’t.

Sienna’s heart breaks hearing him talk about his daughter, but she really isn’t looking to hire a husband. Except later that night, thinking about Guy and Emma, she realizes she really could help. Sure, she’s cash-poor at the moment, having lost most liquid assets in the divorce, but she’s kept her beautiful family ranch and some livestock. The value of the property would more than meet the financial requirements for Emma… so not quite believing what she’s doing, Sienna calls Guy and offers to marry him the next day.

What Sienna doesn’t count on is how lovable Emma is and how much of a sweetheart Guy turns out to be. When she realizes they’re living out of a seedy motel while he looks for local work, she insists they move in with her at the ranch. Et voila! Insta-family… and before long, insta-love as well.

Super cute scenes of family time at the ranch, Emma bonding with Sienna’s dog and mule, and Guy doing his workouts in the kitchen ensue. It’s all quite adorable, but Emma’s dire health looms large. When a medical crisis arrives right on Christmas Eve, well… even a curmudgeon like me had to fight to remain dry-eyed. (I lost that battle…)

The Christmas You Found Me is a sweet, romantic story — but extreme suspension of disbelief is required if you want to enjoy it. I was more than willing to go along with it all and let the love and holiday spirit float me along, but seriously, some story elements are a bit hard to swallow:

If an unattractive man had approached Sienna with the exact same circumstances, would she have considered marrying him?
It’s lucky for Sienna that the husband-for-hire turned out to be the sweetest, most respectful, most supportive man on the planet.
Absolutely no stepmother/stepdaughter adjustment phase — the insta-love aspect applies 100% to Sienna and Emma’s relationship.
As they enter the courthouse to get married, Sienna agrees to change her last name! Which she never did during her first (real) marriage! Because her family has a longstanding history in the region and the Naples name means something! But okay, she’ll change it for the guy she met less than 24 hours earlier.

Things work out much too perfectly… but that was okay with me, for the most part. Reading The Christmas You Found Me is like partaking in a Hallmark Christmas movie in book form. You can predict the plot beats all the way through, and you know more or less what some of the important elements will be — but it still feels like a nice holiday treat to sit back and enjoy.

I’d read Sarah Morgenthaler’s previous trilogy of books (the Moose Springs series, set in small-town Alaska). This author does a great job presenting heartwarming rural, rustic life, capturing the quirky traditions, hard-working locals, and a sense of a community that’s really there for one another. Reading her books makes me yearn for a cabin of my own, with cozy flannel, a warm fireplace, and fluffy socks.

Overall, I enjoyed The Christmas You Found Me. Realistic? Nope. A bit predictable? Yup. But also, romantic and sentimental and satisfying in a very cozy, wintery sort of way. I’d happily read more about these characters and their Idaho ranch.

Note: Goodreads lists The Christmas You Found Me as book #1 in the Heart of the Wilderness series. I’m curious to see where the series might go — more about Sienna’s friends and neighbors? Or unconnected wilderness-based Christmas romances? I guess we’ll have to wait and find out!

30Dec2024

End of year two-fer: My final two books of 2024

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

As I wrap up my year of reading, I’m squeezing in my final two book reviews for 2024! I finished both of these (one audio, one e-book) right before New Year’s Eve… and didn’t quite have the time to put together full reviews for each one. Here’s my quick take on my last two books of 2024:

Title: Meet Me at the Lake
Author: Carley Fortune
Narrator: AJ Bridel
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: May 2, 2023
Print length: 336 pages
Audio length: 9 hours 56 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in Toronto. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t.

At thirty-two, Fern’s life doesn’t look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern’s back home, running her mother’s Muskoka lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend’s the manager, and Fern doesn’t know where to begin.

She needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern’s going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern’s not sure she wants to know what it is.

But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?

This second-chance love story is warm and touching, and made for an engaging, emotional listening experience! Will and Fern spend one perfect day together, and agree to meet one year later to reconnect, after giving themselves time to get their lives on track and start working toward fulfilling their dreams.

It never happens. Fern shows up, but Will doesn’t, and she’s heartbroken. But ten years after their initial meeting, shortly after the tragic death of Fern’s mother, Will checks in at the lakeside resort which Fern has inherited. Her initial reaction to seeing him again after so many years is anger and hurt, but as the two spend time together, their chemistry and connection is rekindled. The question is — can they get past the past?

I really enjoyed this summer-infused tale of love and family and belonging. Some of the communication issues between Fern and Will were annoying, but ultimately, there were reasons for all the ways things went wrong, and it feels good to see how Fern grows enough to figure out what she wants and what she needs to do and say to support that.

The setting is lovely, and made me yearn for a summer retreat to a beautiful lake. Carley Fortune was a new-to-me author in 2024, and I’m looking forward to more in 2025!

Title: The Spellshop
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publisher: Bramble
Publication date: July 9, 2024
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

I bought a pretty hardcover edition of The Spellshop a few months ago, and finally got a chance to sit and enjoy it in all its cozy warmth and adorableness!

Without going too much into plot (just see the synopsis above), the main things to know about The Spellshop are: 1) cinnamon rolls 2) jam 3) flying cats 4) merhorses 5) a vine-covered cottage 6) talking plants 7) LOTS of books. Are you convinced of this book’s coziness yet?

The Spellshop is a sweet, lovely read, not terribly serious or strenuous. Even when bad things occur (or seem likely to occur), the characters use wits, creativity, friendship, and love to overcome and thrive. There are some uplifting messages about community, respect, and honesty, delivered with kindness and without getting overly saccharine.

All in all, a warm, snuggly way to wrap up the year!

Save

25Dec2024

Book Review: Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Love You a Latke
Author: Amanda Elliot
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: October 8, 2024
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Snow is falling, holiday lights are twinkling, and Abby Cohen is pissed. For one thing, her most annoying customer, Seth, has been coming into her café every morning with his sunshiny attitude, determined to break down her carefully constructed emotional walls. And, as the only Jew on the tourism board of her Vermont town, Abby’s been charged with planning their fledgling Hanukkah festival. Unfortunately, the local vendors don’t understand that the story of Hanukkah cannot be told with light-up plastic figures from the Nativity scene, even if the Three Wise Men wear yarmulkes.

Desperate for support, Abby puts out a call for help online and discovers she was wrong about being the only Jew within a hundred miles. There’s one other: Seth.

As it turns out, Seth’s parents have been badgering him to bring a Nice Jewish Girlfriend home to New York City for Hanukkah, and if Abby can survive his incessant, irritatingly handsome smiles, he’ll introduce her to all the vendors she needs to make the festival a success. But over latkes, doughnuts, and winter adventures in Manhattan, Abby begins to realize that her fake boyfriend and his family might just be igniting a flame in her own guarded heart.

Let’s hear it for a Hanukkah romance with heart! Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot combines holiday cheer with the fake dating trope, then adds in deeper emotion and meaningful moments related to community, identity, and assimilation. Does that sound too serious? Never fear, Love You a Latke is fun and has an overall upbeat tone… and plenty of Hanukkah joy.

Abby runs a coffee shop in a small Vermont town, but worries that the tourist trade has fallen off, which may imperil her business’s future. When the head of the local merchant association basically ropes Abby into planning a Hanukkah festival as a tourist draw (after all, any town might have a Christmas festival — but nowhere in Vermont is there a Hanukkah festival!), Abby reluctantly agrees, but quickly realizes she’ll need help to pull it off. Unfortunately, the only other Jew Abby can find in her area is Seth, the annoyingly cheerful customer who comes into her shop every day.

With no other options, Abby asks Seth for help — and he agrees, but with one condition: He’ll help her connect with all the great food and event vendors he knows in New York, who’ll be sure to be perfect for the festival, and in exchange, she’ll come spend Hanukkah with him and his parents. A fake girlfriend is just what he needs to get his mother to ease up on the matchmaking pressure. Desperate for Seth’s help with the festival, Abby agrees to the fake-dating scheme. How hard could it be?

Over the eight days of Hanukkah, Abby warms to Seth and his parents, and rekindles her connection to her Jewish roots. Due to an incredibly toxic relationship with her parents, Abby fled not only them, but the entire Jewish community with which they seem so inextricably linked. Through her time with Seth, as well as by experiencing myriad Jewish and Hanukkah settings and events in New York, Abby begins to realize that she can reclaim an important element of her past — her Judaism — without falling prey to the harshness and negativity of her upbringing.

Of course, there are also romantic sparks being kindled as Abby and Seth light the menorah each night. Their chemistry is lovely, and while Abby struggles to avoid entanglement for way longer than I’d wished, her resistance is understandable given the pain of her past. When Abby and Seth finally do connect, it makes the waiting absolutely worth it.

A subplot throughout the book is Abby’s involvement in the Hanukkah festival. Even though she is nominally in charge, it’s clear that the woman who assigns the job to Abby really wants to retain control — and her idea of a Hanukkah festival is essentially a Christmas festival, but maybe add in a game of dreydel. Part of Abby’s evolution over the course of Love You a Latke is learning to take a stand, claim her own heritage, and refuse to be marginalized or forced to assimilate. It’s all quite awesome.

I just didn’t want Christmas in my Hanukkah, the same way I didn’t want to dip a grilled cheese in my cinnamon roll latte. Both were delicious, but I didn’t want them together

Love You a Latke deals with serious themes about emotional abuse and the lasting damage it can inflict, but the book is not a downer in any way. As Abby starts coming to terms with her life, her past, and her hopes for the future, and recognizing that her life feels richer once she reconnects with the Jewish community she thought she’d left for good, she blossoms and is able to start creating meaningful friendships and romantic connections. She and Seth are great together, but it’s also wonderful to see her connecting with new friends and feeling open to a more positive way of living her life.

The Jewish elements in Love You a Latke are handled very, very well. I loved seeing the community and the holiday represented in non-typical yet very positive ways. Too often, I’ve seen Jewish characters included in romance novel in a tokenized or stereotypical way, but I feel that’s been changing more recently. Love You a Latke brings the Jewish without ever resorting to tired old cliches, and even shows how a new generation of young adults find ways to connect to their heritage and community in all sorts of modern, fresh ways.

Love You a Latke is just the book I needed in this week leading up to Hanukkah! As I light the menorah for the first night of Hanukkah tonight, I’ll be thinking of Abby and Seth and their celebrations too!

For anyone looking for a sweet holiday romance that has something to say, do check out Love You a Latke! Highly recommended.

6Dec2024

Book Review: The Comeback Summer by Ali Brady

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Comeback Summer
Author: Ali Brady
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: May 9, 2023
Length: 475 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction / romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Two sisters have one summer to crush their comfort zones and save their grandmother’s legacy in this sweet, sexy, and heartfelt novel by Ali Brady, author of The Beach Trap.

Hannah and Libby need a miracle. The PR agency they inherited from their grandmother is losing clients left and right, and the sisters are devastated at the thought of closing. The situation seems hopeless—until in walks Lou, an eccentric self-help guru who is looking for a new PR agency. Her business could solve all their problems—but there’s a catch. Whoever works with Lou must complete a twelve-week challenge as part of her “Crush Your Comfort Zone” program.

Hannah, whose worst nightmare is making small talk with strangers, is challenged to go on twelve first dates. Libby, who once claimed to have period cramps for four weeks straight to get out of gym class, is challenged to compete in an obstacle course race. The challenges begin with Hannah helping Libby train and Libby managing the dating app on her sister’s behalf. They’re both making good progress—until Hannah’s first love rolls into town, and Libby accidentally falls for a guy she’s supposed to be setting up with her sister.

Things get even more complicated when secrets come to light, making the sisters question the one relationship they’ve always counted on: each other. With their company’s future on the line, they can’t afford to fail. But in trying to make a comeback to honor their grandmother, are they pushing themselves down the wrong path?

The Comeback Summer is so much more than just a story about completing a challenge! This tale of sisters finding their own paths while navigating their relationship and their sense of family obligation is funny, touching, and highly entertaining.

Hannah and Libby have always been close, even more so since their parents divorced while they were still young. When their parents seemed to have mostly checked out of parenting, the girls relied on one another and on their wonderful grandmother Gigi. Gigi was a woman ahead of her time, a powerhouse businesswoman who owned and ran her own PR firm, which she left to the sisters upon her death.

But now, a few years after Gigi’s passing, the company is faltering and the sisters are floundering. Despite their hard work, the firm is losing clients, and without landing some major new accounts, they may lose the business altogether. When a fast-charging podcaster named Lou enters their office, she seems to be the answer to all their business problems — except she’s not quite ready to sign with them on the spot. To land her business, they have to complete her signature challenge — Crushing Your Comfort Zone. Hannah and Libby would rather just give Lou their business pitch, but she insists: They need to commit to her 12-week program, which she’ll monitor over the course of the summer. Only after they finish the challenge will she consider signing with them.

Given the state of their finances, they have no choice but to agree — even though the challenges ahead of them seem daunting. Shy, introverted Hannah — still aching after a traumatic breakup five years earlier — will have to set up a dating app profile and go on twelve dates. Libby — outgoing, energetic, and definitely not into anything more physical then ordering her favorite coffee drink on her way to work — will have to train for, and then compete in, the “Down & Dirty”, a mud-filled obstacle course race to be held at the end of the summer. Both will also be required to keep a “Crush Your Comfort Zone” journal, to explore and challenge the beliefs and approaches that hold them back.

As they move through their challenges, Libby and Hannah are forced to confront their dynamics. As the older sister, Libby has always seen herself as Hannah’s protector, but that has led to both of them getting pigeonholed into roles that seem to no longer be serving them. Libby interferes for Hannah’s own good, rather than trusting Hannah’s agency and instincts. Hannah hides behind Libby’s sociability, letting her do the parts of their work that involve connecting and generating relationships and ideas. Neither quite knows how to break out of their roles without hurting the other, but both start to realize — as they crush their comfort zones — that they way they’ve been living isn’t actually good for either of them.

But wait! Where’s the romance? Yes, there is romance — two romances, to be exact. Hannah’s ex, who broke her heart years earlier, is back in town and wants to reconnect. Hannah has never stopped loving Josh, but Libby is furious. She’s the one who picked up the pieces when Hannah fell apart after the breakup, and she has no intention of letting Josh hurt Hannah again… but is it really her job to still be the protector and make decisions for her sister?

As for Libby, she offers to manage Hannah’s comfort zone challenge by handling the dating app for her — she’ll set up the profile, select matches, and arrange the dates, and Hannah just needs to show up. This is meant to spare Hannah the anxiety that dealing with all this provokes, but it backfires in a major way when Libby finds a connection with one of the men she meets… as Hannah. Libby and Adam flirt and chat via the app, but he thinks he’s talking with Hannah. When Libby realizes that she has feelings for Adam, she’s in quite a bind — admit she’s been pretending to be her sister, let him go, or keep up the charade until it blows up in her face?

The Comeback Summer is yet another highly enjoyable and entertaining read by author duo Ali Brady. What I love about their books is that the women characters’ relationships are at the heart of the stories. Yes, there’s also romance, but those storylines tend to be secondary. What’s really important is the connection between the women. Here, it’s the complicated way in which Hannah and Libby love and need one another, yet also get in one another’s way. The Comeback Summer is at its strongest when it show them growing as individuals and facing the fact that they need to break free from their established roles and change their relationship if they want to lead their best lives.

The Comeback Summer combines emotional connections, sisterly bonds, and a strong sense of fun. Check it out!

I’d never read an Ali Brady book before 2024, and now I’ve read all three! Their next book, Battle of the Bookstores, will be released in June 2025, and I can’t wait to read it!

1Dec2024

Book Review: A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Novel Love Story
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 25, 2024
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction… literally.

Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…

Because it is.

This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.

What book reader hasn’t dreamed of living inside a fictional world? Maybe entering a stone circle and falling through time to meet the Scot of our dreams, or getting invited to the ton‘s ultimate social event of the season?

What about finding ourselves in a cheerful small town that’s quaint and cute, has amazing cafes and shops, and where the townsfolk are immediately warm and welcoming to a complete stranger?

In Ashley’s Poston’s newest book, A Novel Love Story, main character Eileen (Elsy) gets to experience a dream come true when she gets lost on a road trip and finds herself in Eloraton, New York — a town that exists only in the pages of Elsy’s favorite romance series, Quixotic Falls.

Elsy has had her share of heartbreak and loneliness over the past several years, but has found refuge in the pages of Quixotic Falls — a series left unfinished after the tragic death of its author, Rachel Flowers. The series has been a solace to Elsy in her darkest days, as well as a source of joy. Through Quixotic Falls, Elsy met her book group, a random, quicky bunch of strangers who found connection in their shared love of this fictional world. But this year, the group’s planned one-week vacation has fallen apart, and only Elsy ends up traveling to their rental cabin — except she never arrives.

Instead, her car breaks down in a town that seems oddly familiar. With shock, she realizes that she’s in Eloraton, meeting the characters whose lives feel real to her. There’s Junie, the main character from book #1, and Ruby, the heroine of book #2. In fact, Elsy can place everyone she encounters, except the grumpy bookstore owner she keeps running into (literally — she hits him with her car during a rainstorm).

Elsy soon learns from Anders, the bookstore owner, that no one in Eloraton knows that they’re fictional, and that they’re also unaware that they’re living in stasis. Each day is the same as the previous one. Yearning lovers never quite manage to connect, and household problems never get fixed. As Elsy comes to realize, the unchanging status quo is due to Rachel Flowers’s death while working on the final book in the series. For all of these beloved characters, their stories remain unfinished — but with Elsy’s arrival, tiny changes suddenly begin to appear. Elsy has to figure out her role in all this, how Anders fits in… and whether the connection she feels between herself and Anders could possibly be real, considering they’re living in a fictional world.

A Novel Love Story has a Brigadoon-esque feel — our main character stumbles into a town that can’t possibly exist, cut off from the world that she knows, yet feeling more vibrant and real to her than the life she left behind.

This town looked like every good part of every lovely town I’d ever seen, all jigsawed into one.

Readers shouldn’t worry too much about the how and why of it all — a hearty suspension of disbelief is required. If you’re going to enjoy this book, you have to simply accept “because magic” as an explanation and move on.

Themes of purpose and finding courage inform Elsy’s experiences. After being badly hurt in a previous relationship, she’s lost confidence, no longer trusting herself to take chances. She goes with what’s safe, in her work life and in her relationships (or lack thereof). But in Eloraton, she starts to realize that playing it safe isn’t working for her, and isn’t bringing her joy or any sort of truly fulfilling life. Both in Eloraton and back in the real world, she’ll have to take chances if she wants to be happy.

There’s a lot to like about A Novel Love Story. The phrasing can be spot-on perfect, with sentences that feel specifically crafted to appeal to readers who love the world of romance fiction.

Sometimes, a book can change your life. It’s hard to explain that to someone who doesn’t read, or who has never felt their heart bend so strongly toward a story that it might just snap in two. Some books are a comfort, some a reprieve, others a vacation, a lesson, a heartbreak. I’d met countless stories by the time I read a book that changed my life.

And here’s an example I just adore:

I’d met plenty of handsome men before, whose eyelashes were just as long, and who wore scars like pickup lines.

Elsy’s sense of deliberate denial is also delightful to read:

Today, he wore a loose heather-gray T-shirt and dark blue jeans that he most definitely looked horrible in. He didn’t have an ass for jeans, I told myself, and I didn’t take note of the way he fit in them. Not at all.

At the same time, the book seems to suffer at times from sloppy editing. I stumbled across sentences throughout the book that I had to read more than once, because something in them just didn’t work. And then there are plot oddities: On one page about midway through, Elsy is in the town diner:

“Ruby,” I called, putting down a ten for my lunch and scooting out of the booth.

She follows Ruby to the door so they can talk, and Ruby agrees to walk out with her.

But, as they leave, this happens:

So I put a ten down on the table for my food and followed her out of the Grumpy Possum and down the sidewalk toward the center of town.

Hmmm. Either someone in copyediting missed this, or Elsy overpaid for her lunch!

That aside, the story itself suffers under the weight of its “because magic” premise. I don’t need 100% logic or a scientific explanation to appreciate a fanciful romance, but the internal logic of the story felt to me like it was trying too hard. Elsy’s acceptance in the town, her romance with Anders, the explanation for the town’s existence and the characters’ lives — it’s all a bit crazy-glued together, and ultimately, the randomness of it all didn’t quite work for me.

However, I still found plenty to enjoy, despite the book’s flaws. Who can’t relate to Elsy’s sentiments about her surreal experience?

Every reader I’d ever known had wanted nothing more than to fall into the arms of a book boyfriend, some fictional Darcy, a shade of a Byronic hero, all their own. So I did.

Her real-life emotional distress feels all too relatable as well:

I was tired of being stagnant, I thought. I wanted to be a main character in my own life again.

While Elsy’s experience in Eloraton isn’t all that believable, the sadness of her past and her fear about taking chances again feel true-to-life, and it’s lovely to see her take steps to start risking her heart and embracing a more challenging future.

Overall, I’m happy to have read A Novel Love Story. While I didn’t love it as much as the previous two novels by this author (The Dead Romantics and The Seven Year Slip), I still found it a fast, engaging story with some unexpected, creative twists. And now, I’m looking forward to checking out Ashley Poston’s upcoming 2025 release, Sounds Like Love!

17Nov2024

Book Review: The Beach Trap by Ali Brady

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Beach Trap
Author: Ali Brady
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 14, 2022
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction / romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Two best friends torn apart by a life-altering secret. They have one summer to set the record straight.

When twelve-year-olds Kat Steiner and Blake O’Neill meet at Camp Chickawah, they have an instant connection. But everything falls apart when they learn they’re not just best friends—they’re also half-sisters. Confused and betrayed, their friendship instantly crumbles.

Fifteen years later when their father dies suddenly, Kat and Blake discover he’s left them a joint inheritance: the family beach house in Destin, Florida. The two sisters are instantly at odds. Blake, who has recently been demoted from regular nanny to dog nanny, wants to sell the house, while social media influencer Kat is desperate to keep the place where she had so many happy childhood memories.

Kat and Blake reluctantly join forces to renovate the dilapidated house with the understanding that Kat will try to buy Blake out at the end of the summer. The women clash as Blake’s renovation plans conflict with Kat’s creative vision, and each sister finds herself drawn into a summer romance. As the weeks pass, the two women realize the most difficult project they face this summer will be coming to grips with their shared past, and learning how to become sisters.

I’m a sucker for books with a connection to summer camps… and from the opening chapter, when twelve-year-old besties spend a glorious summer at camp together, only to have their friendship end disastrously, I knew The Beach Trap would be a book for me.

When Blake and Kat meet at Camp Chickawah**, they become best friends right away — but when Kat’s father comes to pick her up early due to a death in the family, the girls make a shattering discovery: Kat’s dad is Blake’s dad too. Blake’s mom had been “the other woman”, and while Blake has happy childhood memories of time with her dad, that all ended when her mother died in a tragic accident, and her father never came for her. Rather than bringing the girls closer, the discovery of their half-sister status permanently drives them apart, and Kat refuses to respond to any of the letters Blake sends her in the months following camp.

**If the name Camp Chickawah seems familiar, then perhaps you’ve read the authors’ most recent book, Until Next Summer, in which the camp and its staff members take center stage. (It’s a lot of fun!)

Fifteen years later, their father has died, and his will reveals a startling bequest: He’s left the family’s Florida beach house to both his daughters, to share 50/50.

Blake is a stressed-out nanny for a wealthy family, working long hours to pay for her grandfather’s assisted living facility. Kat is a social media influencer (ugh), making enough to support herself, but not quite at a point where she can count on financial security. Blake assumes they’ll sell the beach house, or Kat can buy her out — but either way, the proceeds will help ensure that she can continue to care for her grandfather. Kat sees the beach house as a reminder of rare happy childhood memories, and wants to keep it — and also, it might make a great home reno project to enhance her feeds and help her nab a coveted corporate sponsorship.

When Blake and Kat meet at the beach house, they’re dismayed to find the place in shambles. The only way to turn it around and make it at all viable for sale is to repair, renovate, and redecorate. Kat has the funds; Blake has the time (since the family she nannies for is spending the summer in France) and the skills, thanks to the years she spent learning at her grandfather’s side. While there’s palpable tension and animosity between the two women, they know neither can move forward without the other’s cooperation, and they work out a deal. They’ll alternate weeks at the house, Blake will handle most of the actual work, and Kat will have final say on all decor decisions.

After achieving a tense détente of sorts, they move forward. As the summer progresses, and they start having to communicate and spend together, tentative connections are rebuilt. They once loved each other — who will they be to one another now?

I really enjoyed seeing Kat and Blake work their way back toward friendship, and more. Both grew up lonely; both grew up hungry for the love and attention of a distant father, who cause each one intense emotional pain in the aftermath of the big revelation years earlier. While having very different backgrounds and upbringings, Kat and Blake connect on a deeper level. It’s lovely seeing them work through the hurt and misunderstandings, and start to realize how much time they both spent blaming one another for things outside of their control.

Each woman also finds romance over the course of the summer, but one thing I really appreciate in this book (and in the other Ali Brady book I’ve read, Until Next Summer) is that romance is secondary to friendship. The romantic relationships and storylines are great, but it’s the friendship and sisterhood between Kat and Blake that drive this book and give it its emotional impact and joy.

Where The Beach Trap falls a little short for me has mainly to do with Kat’s character. Bluntly put, she’s hard to like. First off, having a social media influencer as a main character is an instant turn-off for me. (Side note — I feel like contemporary romances have a higher proportion of influencers as characters than is representative of the demographic in real life…) Kat’s whole shtick for most of the book is summed up by her tagline, “life is a fashion show”. She eventually learns to appreciate the messiness of life and what it means to connect, and revises her philosophy — but it’s a fairly quick turnaround, not entirely believable. I’m glad she ended up in a better place, but her attitude for much of the book is very hard to take.

Overall, however, I liked The Beach Trap a lot. The story moves quickly, the setting is terrific, and I loved the dynamic of these sisters finding a way to salvage the defining pain of their separate lives and find a way forward together.

I’ve now read two books by this author duo, and look forward to more! There’s one more book I haven’t read that’s currently available (The Comeback Summer), and an upcoming new book to be released in 2025 (Battle of the Bookstores). I plan to read them both!

About the authors: Ali Brady is the pen name of writing BFFs Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey. The Beach Trap is their first book together. Alison lives in Chicago and works as a VP creative director at an advertising agency. She’s the author of You and Me and Us and Little Pieces of Me. Bradeigh lives with her family in Utah, where she works as a physician. She’s the author of the psychological thriller, Imposter.