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Continue reading →: Bride is Spicy!
Authored by Ali Hazelwood; Published February 2024; Romance ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️ As you may have noticed, I love romance novels. I tear through them, usually making my way through in two days or less. But, I like a solidly medium level of spice in my romance novels and Bride was…
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Continue reading →: Triptych Took Me by Surprise
Authored by Karin Slaughter; Published in 2006; Mystery ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️ Triptych defied my expectations. The way it shifted perspectives, built up empathy for unexpected characters, plunged me into the daily routine of policing in Atlanta—all of it came together for a compelling mystery. As state and federal authorities pursue…
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Continue reading →: Fangirl Down Gave Me Butterflies
Authored by Tessa Bailey; Published February 2024; Romance ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️ I love the feeling you get when you read a romance novel and you feel the plunge in your stomach because the hero (or heroine) has just admitted how in love they are. Not every book gives me this…
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Continue reading →: Beautyland is Alien. Like, Weird.
Authored by Marie-Helene Betino; Published January 2024; Science fiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️ Beautyland is weird. I wasn’t sure whether to call it science fiction or not—if you told me that it was not, actually, a book about aliens, but about very human delusions, then I would believe you. But more…
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Continue reading →: The Amateur Marriage Feels Like Watching a Train Crash
Authored by Anne Tyler; Published in 2004 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️ There was something about The Amateur Marriage that was oddly compelling: it felt like watching a train wreck in real time. As the main couple, Pauline and Michael, had their first of many fights, I felt myself wincing and swearing…
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Continue reading →: Martyr! Made Me Anxious
Authored by Kaveh Akbar; Published January 2024 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I have an anxiety problem—a version of hypochondria. I’ve lived much of my life in fear of dying of a terrible disease, regardless of how realistic that scenario is. Martyr! simultaneously set off this anxiety within me and relieved it for 300…
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Continue reading →: The Good Part Pushed Me to Give Thanks
Authored by Sophie Cousens; Published September 2023; Fantasy, kind of? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️ The plot of The Good Part, on its face, does not seem too exciting. Like the classics 13 Going on 30 and Freaky Friday, magic pushes a 26-year old into her future self to experience life as…
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Continue reading →: Say You’ll Be Mine Charmed Me
Authored by Naina Kumar; Published January 2024; Romance ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️ Say You’ll Be Mine is a great beach read. Did I know how it was going to end within a chapter? Yes, of course. But did it charm me anyway? Yes, it did. The plot is an old romantic…
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Continue reading →: Crescent City Took Me to a Whole New World
Authored by Sarah J. Maas; final book published January 2024; fantasy ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️ What would it be like to have a world with vampires, necromancers, fairies, and… smart phones? Throw in a dash of oppressive dictatorship and a plucky rebellion, and this series is what you get. I feel…
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Continue reading →: Watermelon is a Rollercoaster
Authored by Marian Keyes; Published 1995; Romance ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️ I listened to Watermelon rather than reading it, and I must say, it was an excellent way to experience the novel. Throughout the whole wild ride of it, it felt like I was catching up with a girlfriend over drinks…