madeline's reviews
776 reviews

So many people I have similar taste to really enjoyed this one that I'm surprised I didn't like it more, especially with my favorite kind of hero - a grump who refuses to publicly acknowledge that he's in love! I think it's largely a "me not you" problem: the pacing was off for me, a slow burn that burns too slowly, and I don't think we had time for a truly satisfying resolution to the bleak moment (I'm a firm believer that they should all occur in the 83-87% range so we get a good grovel AND a good look at how the behavior changed/they're avoiding the situation that caused it/whatever in the future). But I did also find the characters to be fairly flat, and I was much more interested in some of the secondary figures than our hero and heroine. 

Still, I love a historical that's not in England or Paris, and I would definitely give Biller another try - her book THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE has been on my tbr for ages and I'm looking forward to getting to it!

Thank you Berkley and Edelweiss for the ARC!

Incisive, thorough, intersectional, and thought-provoking - if you thought you understood poverty in America, think again. Desmond neatly and efficiently breaks down not just how the American poor are kept down, but how doing so keeps the rich getting richer. It will inform you and infuriate you, and inspire you to keep learning and get engaged in your own community. 

Thank you Random House and LibroFM for the ARC!

This book was <i>so</i> fun! Vera Wong is a widowed tea shop owner in San Francisco, largely ignored by her lawyer son and whose only customer is her friend Alex, who stops in briefly each day before returning to his sick wife. Vera has nowhere to funnel her energy: no children who will take advice, no friends to dispense wisdom to, no customers to enjoy her world-famous tea - until one day, she wakes up to a dead body in her shop front. The cops seem uninterested in the crime, but Vera's identified four suspects, and it's time for her to take matters of both criminal investigation and improving the lives of her suspects-turned-friends into her own hands.

I simply adored this book. Vera is a little overbearing but so filled with love and care, and she's able to find some people who really benefit from her kindness (and her cooking). I did figure out the mystery at about 70%, which is unusual for me, but I was so interested in understanding the motivation that it had me on the edge of my seat until the very end. The only way this could have been better is if it had been a full-cast narration: we get the POV from Vera and all four of her suspects and I'm a big stop-and-starter, so it would have been a bit easier for me to pick back up each time if I immediately knew whose brain we were in. But the single narrator does an absolutely incredible job, and I absolutely recommend this on audio!

Thank you LibroFM and Berkley for the ARC!

CW:

murder, obviously, of an emotional abuser and gaslighter whose abuse is remembered on page in detail; death of a parent; death of a spouse; death of a sibling; a break-in; also the murder victim is pretty shitty about his toddler who it seems like may have autism, but everyone else is very protective of her and keeps his shittiness away from her.

I've really enjoyed Tarah's books, but they all definitely need a better edit (particularly this one - girl if you paid someone to copy edit this, ask for a partial refund). Tarah sets up these big personal conflicts for her characters that get underexplored, and then when they're not useful to the plot anymore, they're just kind of handwaved away. Like, here:

Tait's mom ends up being the Big Bad here - she thinks her dad just had no interest in a relationship with her and her sister after her mom left him, but really her (now dead) mom was preventing any contact between anyone. That's not cool! And Tait's relationship with her dad has obviously suffered and they're working to overcome that, but when the extent of her mother's manipulations is revealed, she's just kind of like "huh! Well, not what I thought, I guess. What's for dinner?" These conflicts are not functional and you could excise them for a much tighter book, plot-wise.

I'd love to see more from Tarah, because I think she has a lot of talent. A traditional publishing house would give her the tools she really needs to shine, but if she continues self-publishing, spending the money on a very good developmental editor could get her to basically the same level. 

I think this needed a tighter developmental edit - they spend a lot of time being just so <i>angry</i> with each other for reasons they could hash out pretty quickly because they don't always make a ton of sense, and each of their conflicts with their family either needed a lot more air time or to be excised. I also spent a ton of this book just being really stressed out, money-wise. Stick to a budget, LaRynne!

listen, a lot of this was tenuous and/or underbaked - but i just had such a <i>fun time</i> reading it, you know?

Basically everything about this is underbaked - Stella's relationship with her dad, Luka's relationship with <i>his</i> dad, the sabotaging of the farm, the whole influencer contest thing - but I did have a nice time reading it! I just got to the end and was like "...that's it?" The danger of a very hyped book, I suppose. A very low-angst read.

Thank you Berkley and Edelweiss for the ARC!

A thrilling new voice in historical romance, perfect for fans of Adriana Herrera and Evie Dunmore!

Ana Mara and her sisters have been sent to London to escape the French occupation of Mexico, instructed to keep their true identities as family members of top Mexican officials a secret. London society isn't eager to accept the three young women - nor is it eager to accept Gideon Fox, an up-and-coming Black MP working to abolish the slave trade. Ana and Gideon can't seem to stop running into each other at all sorts of events, and a tender understanding develops between the two. When Ana's background is revealed and she's put into danger, a marriage to Gideon is the only thing that can keep her safe. Will the two find more in common than their politics?

I was really looking forward to this debut, and I think what didn't work for me were really things that didn't work for <i>me</i> - I really prefer a romance where the love interests spend a lot more time on the page together than Ana and Gideon do, which was a big downside for me. I also love love love a marriage of convenience, and this one doesn't start until like 65% of the way into the book! I feel like you could have flip-flopped them getting to know each other and the marriage and had just as sweet of an arc to their relationship. 

I'm loving the setup for the second book, though, and will absolutely be reading and recommending more from De La Rosa. I can't wait!

Thank you Berkley and Edelweiss for the ARC!

I literally cannot emphasize enough how much of a <i>delight</i> this was - it's so, so funny and sweet. Frederick, Cassie, Sam, and Reginald are all incredibly fun to read. It's single POV, but Levine cleverly uses Frederick's texts, journal entries, even his Google search history to give us some insight into his old-fashioned vampire brain, and I could not get enough of it. Like, this book could have been fifty pages longer (both for enjoyment and a few underbaked threads) and I would have loved every minute of it. A truly sparkling debut, and my fingers are crossed for a book on Reginald!

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!

Incredible, incredible, incredible.

Alexei and Ben are both hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in an effort to find themselves - Alexei's just lost his job and is working through his emotions about being disowned by his conservative, religious family after coming out as gay. Ben's just passed the NCLEX and is taking a break after several non-stop years of caregiving and studying. When they run into each other (almost literally) on the trail, they're immediately attracted to each other, but have no idea what to do with it, besides hike together and get to know each other.

This book is so truly <i>wonderful</i> and tender and kind and heartachy and perfect. Loving Ben and Lex is irresistible and God did they melt my dumb little heart. They're so cautious and careful with each other, so gracious about boundaries they don't know they need to set until they're setting them, and I've literally never been so entranced by BIRDS in my whole life. 

This is a heavy book - Alexei in particular is dealing with A Lot of religious trauma, certainly around his own sexuality, but also around the way his whole childhood was quite sheltered. I've never seen someone so able to capture my own complex feelings about religion (and mine aren't even really compounded by my childhood faith's view of my sexuality!) and the way that something you once thought so fundamental to you becomes something you don't even recognize anymore, except in its purest, best, most love-filled form in the quietest, awe-filled moments. Ben is a geriatric nurse who truly loves his calling, but still has to reckon with a lot of tough patient losses on top of some poor romantic choices in the past. Each of them ends up in some very well-deserved therapy, and I think that all of their trauma is treated with the deftest, kindest, most respectful hand.

I wish I could say more about this book, but I truly don't have the words. This'll likely end up on my favorites shelf at the store.

Thank you Forever and Edelweiss for the ARC!