Rouge by Mona Awad My rating: 4 of 5 stars **3.75-stars rounded up** Rouge is the 2023-release from Mona Awad. It’s my second novel from this author, the first being All’s Well. I actually felt very similar to this one that I did All’s Well, except I enjoyed the content and messages of this one more. In this story we meet Belle, a lonely shopkeeper, living in Montreal, with a penchant for skincare and watching skincare videos. When Belle’s mother, Noelle, unexpectedly dies, Belle has to travel to her mom’s home in Southern California to settle her estate. As she’s there and begins to dig into ..read more

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston My rating: 5 of 5 stars Last year, after reading the synopsis, I had no idea how Ashley Poston was going to deliver on the The Dead Romantics. How was it even going to work? Not only did she nail that, but it ended up being one of my most memorable books of 2022. I loved it so much and have been eagerly anticipating this new release ever since. The time has finally come for the latest Adult Romantic Contemporary from Ashley Poston. Unsurprisingly, The Seven Year Slip is stunning. I love this story with my whole heart. Poston has such a unique and magical ..read more

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline My rating: 4 of 5 stars Funeral Songs for Dying Girls is equal parts heartbreakingly-beautiful and chest-constricting in its uncomfortableness. This isn’t an easy read and won’t be for everyone. I read this in 2-days and was genuinely moved by it. This novel is told via the 1st-person perspective of a girl named Winifred. It’s the summer she turns 16 and Winifred christens it the Summer of Humiliations. Winifred is at a difficult period in her life. Her mother passed away when she was born, so Winifred has never had a lot of strong female influ ..read more

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang My rating: 4 of 5 stars Babel: An Arcane History is the latest release from R.F. Kuang, beloved author of the The Poppy War trilogy. This is the first I have read from this author. Babel is one of those books that everyone was buzzing about in 2022. It seemed everyone was reading it; your brother, your mother, your cousin, your neighbor, your coworkers, maybe even your enemies. Y’all know, I can’t resist that type of hype. So, I bought it. Then it arrived. What a day! I still remember opening that box. Behold the beauty! Then I lifted it from the box and ..read more

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno My rating: 5 of 5 stars I recently picked up Summer of Salt as Book #13 for my TBR-Haul Project. Checking ’em off feels good! I originally hauled this book in December 2018, receiving it as a Christmas gift from my partner. Since then, even though I have read other works from Katrina Leno and really enjoyed them, I never picked this one up. When I saw this was an option for my next selection for my project, I was so excited. I was looking forward to heading into Leno’s backlist for this magical YA Contemporary novel. From the synopsis, I felt like it would be a ..read more

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow My rating: 4 of 5 stars **3.5-stars rounded up** Tavia is a Siren living in present-day, Portland, Oregon. Due to fear and discrimination against Sirens, Tavia is forced to hide her nature from those outside her home. Navigating the world repressing her true-self presents a lot of challenges for her. It can be frustrating and often feels like the world is closing in on her. Tavia’s best friend, Effie, was taken in by Tavia’s parents after suffering through some tough times. Since then, the girls have come to rely upon one another. It’s them against worl ..read more

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas My rating: 3 of 5 stars **2.5-stars rounded up** Five years ago, Wendy Darling and her two brothers, Michael and John, went missing in the local woods. Six months later, Wendy was found. She had no memory of her time away, or the fate of her little brothers. After she returns, the police question her pretty hard, not sure how much of her story they can believe. Perhaps she knows more than she is letting on. Now in her Senior year of high school, Wendy is working at a hospital and trying to move on with her life, although she is still plagued with though ..read more

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Elena Mendoza is a miracle, literally. The product of parthenogenesis, a virgin birth, Elena’ life has been quirky indeed. As you can imagine, this anomaly made the headlines, making Elena low-key famous. She does her best to just live her life, ignoring the chatter around her, but it hasn’t always been easy. Elena has never really fit in and although she has some close relationships, she’s far from one of the popular kids. When the girl she has been crushing on, Freddie, comes close to losing her life, right i ..read more

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia My rating: 5 of 5 stars Tuesday Mooney, a 30-something researcher, living in Boston is about to have the adventure of a lifetime following the clues on a dead billionaire’s treasure hunt. She is just the sort of character I love, independent, funny, smart, quirky and a bit of a loner; I was happy to go along for the ride. Full of hilarious hijinks and engrossing twists and turns, this story grabbed me by the heart and never let up. I was a big fan of Racculia’s work going in and it certainly didn’t disappoint! Every page is full of intelligent ..read more

When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry My rating: 3 of 5 stars **3.5-stars** This is a tough one. A sort of genre-mash of things I love but together seemed a little disjointed but still good…yeah… A few years back the town of Splendor was wracked by an industrial accident. Pretty much everyone in the town was effected in some way. The plant were the accident occurred literally employed about half the town. There was an explosion and a lot of people were killed. As you can for imagine, for a small town, this had horrible ramifications. People had brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and s ..read more