I just finished Charity Trickett is not that Glamorous by Christine Stringer and here are my thoughts. It’s 1997 and Charity has gotten the job of a lifetime… Assistant to the director of the biggest movie of the year… The trouble is that life isn’t what she was expecting. The backstabbing and disaster love life is just the tip of the iceburg.. When a mistake costs the studio hundreds of millions of dollars and there is now an FBI investigation that could land her in jail… Charity knows she needs to keep her head down and change her fate. You know this one started off strong. I was really drawn in, loved Charity and I was ready to be blown away and then fizzle…. It just started to drag. It was monotonal and the story didn’t seem to be going anywhere and I almost DNF’d it and then…BOOM it was like it came back online. I likened it to dialing… it was like waiting and waiting for the good stuff haha. I loved the plot. Hollywood… The hustle and bustle.. The glitz.. Glamour and the darkness. It’s always great when you dive into a book where you don’t know much about how the setting works. I love movie set books. They always teach me something. The writing was great when it was great and repetitive in the middle. It felt like someone else wrote the middle.. It was a weird feeling. All in all I did like the characters and the story was interesting enough that I did enjoy it by the end. 3.75 stars Thank you to @netgalley and @sparkpress for my gifted copy. #charitytrickettisnotthatglamorous #christinestringer #sparkspress #netgalley #bookreview #bookishreview #bookreader #ebookreader #kindlegirl #kindlereader #digitalreader #bookishblog #bookalorian #litdulterous #bookishpodcast

I just finished Outclassed - How the left lost the Working Class and how to win them back by Joan C Williams and here are my thoughts. Just so you know, I do not like books that lean one way or the other with political view points. I like books that will give you both sides and are rational. This book is a left leaning book of propaganda but I gave it a fair shake but when it has things that sound like this… “The far right manipulates class anger to undercut progressive goals and liberals often inadvertently play into their hands” The left does the same thing with social issues. They are both ridiculous and this author did a horrible job with balance. THUMBS DOWN. I rarely post reviews of books that I think are terrible but this one deserved to be put on blast. The next thing is they attempt to create arguments on how the left could potentially win back the working class Americans that after 4 years were made to feel unimportant… There was no power of conviction in her words and half assed. Blaming a political party into pulling the wool over their uneducated eyes… GROSS! If a book is gonna lean one way or the other, at least make it interesting. I am fairly certain Professor Binns would have done a better job of engaging their audience. It was so boring. I don’t recommend books with no balance and I don’t recommend books that condescend. If you are a working class American... I highly doubt any of these would trick you into voting left. 2 stars #political #leftleaningtripe #boringbook #badbook #bookalorian #lionessofliteracy #litdulterous #bookreview

I just finished Come As You Are by Dahlia Adler and here are my musings. When Evie is accepted into a boarding school she feels like it is her second chance. Until she arrives on campus to find she has been placed in the boys dorm. The only person who seems to get her is outcast adjacent Salem and they balance each other… The lifeline neither of them knew they needed. I love a good character driven YA especially when it comes with really witty banter. This book had it all. It was funny…. It was emotional… It was real and it was entertaining. I thought it tackled the sexual elements well and it all felt very real. I love that in a book. The dorms are a great place to set a book and I loved the boarding school angle. Now my biggest problem with the rushed romance at the end. I don’t think it was fleshed out enough and honestly, that was a big disservice. The characters were all great though and I loved the dynamic with Salem and his sister Sabrina… (My inner teen was jumping up and down like a wild animal). All in all I enjoyed the heck out of it. It was well written and clever! 4 stars Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress @wednesdaybooks for my gifted copy #comeasyouare #dahliaadler #ya #yabook #netgalley #kindlebook #netgalleyreader #smpreader #stmartinspress #booklover #booklorian #lionessofliteracy #literaryinfluencer #yareader

I just finished Invisible No More - Embracing your read to recover from long covid and other complex chronic illnesses and here are my thoughts. Firstly, If I was planning on buying this… Putting the words ‘long covid’ in the title, would have been enough for me that I would have put it back. Include it in the book, great but trying to sell off a time that had the whole world divided and all the lies and turmoil.. I feel icky to be honest. Putting my feelings aside, I have RA so I cracked it open and sat down to read. As someone who put my RA into FULL REMISSION with some of the things the author talks about, I believe that what she has to say is valid, because I have lived it. I was on cancer meds to keep my immune system down. I was so ill. I was so sick I couldn’t walk, hold a fork. You can call it pseudoscience all you like but cancer drugs didn’t cure me. Moving my body even when my joints felt like crushed glass… helped me. Whole foods and finding the right vitamins for me. The cancer drugs made me so sick I had to come off them so lifestyle changes saved my life and my kidneys. Pharma is a bandaid and if you don’t want a real solution or aren’t willing to go in with an open mind… this book isn’t for you. Now a lot of the recommendations made are outrageously priced. How do you expect anyone to afford it and it’s not covered by insurance. Honestly I don’t know what this book was trying to accomplish but I don’t think it did what it was supposed to do. It was an interesting book, well reasoned and written but there's nothing here that can help anyone in my opinion without them already having their minds set on going this way. This book won’t guide anyone to make these choices. Real shame though. 3 stars Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy #nonfiction #bookreview #bookish #bookalorian #litdulterous #bookblog #readerblog #bookblogger #literaryinfluencer #bookinfluencer #smp #smpreader #booklover

I just finished Best Summer Ever by Jessica Cunsolo @jessicacunsolo from @wattpadbooks and here are my thoughts. Jenna is feeling stagnant. Everyone is making changes and she feels like she is being left behind. She decides to throw a party at her family’s lake house… The kind of party for the ages. Her cousin Olivia has her own burdens to bear but this summer will change everything for the both of them. LOVED LOVED LOVED the dual POV of the cousins Jenna and Olivia. It was done with real skill because I detest multiple POV normally but this worked really well. College is the next big adventure for them both and having that last hurrah is what they both need. It was a really easy read and I needed that kind of book in my life. The pace was a bit slow for my tastes but sometimes you need to slow down and smell the roses so I enjoyed the book for that. I do love a good YA but this one had a lot of drinking in it so that is a TW for anyone who is sensitive to drinking. It comes up a lot. I loved Jenna and what she was going on with her dad. It felt real.. I loved the book more than I thought I would because summer reads aren’t normally my thing but I felt really drawn to this book and got sucked right in. Read this if you like Forced proximity Childhood rivals One bed Exe’s best friend… teeheehee 4 stars Thank you to Jessica and Wattpad books for my gifted copy and my thoughts are my own! Out now! #bestsummerever #jessicacunsolo #wattpadbooks #yaread #summerread #romanceread #romancereader #bookalorian #bookish #wattpad #bookinfluencer #literaryinfluencer #litdulterous #bookblog #bookishblogger

I just finished Tell Me How You Really Feel by Betty Cayouette and here are my musings. Maeve and Finn have a hit podcast… All about sex and relationships… He has the star quality and she has the knowledge… They are about to be brought but they cannot be in the same room. Maeve feels betrayed and Finn wants to prove himself to her but can they get past themselves to be honest with each other… The way they are honest with their audience? I actually enjoyed this one more than others seemed to. I thought it was lighthearted and super fun! I did a lot of laughing which is exactly what I want from a rom-com. Now, I will confess there wasn’t much in the way of romance but I did like the build up. Friends with sexual chemistry is always a win for me. I wasn’t a fan of Finn. He was an epic nepo baby, a bit of a brat but I do think he balanced out with Maeve which pleased me immensely. Now I am well known for my hatred of miscommunication and honestly, they were both the issue here. She put the brakes on, asked for space for a set amount of time and then the time crept passed and still she didn’t give him an answer. She basically ghosted him. So when someone points this out… he asks, and she sends him to be with someone else. So he did. UGHHHHH. It is not my jam but there was enough good stuff that I could get past the miscommunication. I thought the writing was good and I will look for more from this author but I was hoping for a bit more. Maybe less drama and slightly more likeable characters then this would have been a true win. I bet the audio would have been great! 3.5 stars Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress #tellmehowyoureallyfeel #bettycayouette #romcom #romancereader #friendstolovers #secondchanceromance #netgalley #stmartinspress #bookreview #literaryinfluencer #ebook #bookalorian #booksbooksbooks #bookloversofig #booktokcanada #litdulterous

I just finished Friends with Benefits by Marisa Kanter and here are my thoughts! Evie has dreamt of this kind of fellowship.. With her medical issues, she needs insurance. Her friend Theo needs a new roommate that hits a certain wage threshold… They can fix each other's issues with a simple marriage of convenience.. What can go wrong? It’s cute! Warm and really emotional with a serious undertone of heat. This is my kind of friends to lovers read because the needs they have aren’t silly. These are real problems real people have and I am here all day long for it. I like how understated the romance is. That it isn’t all flashy. It was sweet. Cute inside jokes and quiet moments that really took the intimacy to a whole other level. I will say it was slow and I wish the story had moved a little quicker in spots but it was a really solid book. I did struggle connecting with Evie and Theo… They weren’t as robustly portrayed as I usually like in these kinds of books but… it actually worked quite well. I liked the disability rep and how well it was done. Read if you like: •Forced Proximity •Friends to Lovers •Marriage of Convenience •Childhood Friends It was almost 4 stars but the pace was not great! 3.75 stars Thank you @netgalley and @celadonbooks for my gifted copy #forcedproximity #friendswithbenefits #marriageofconvenience #celadonbooks #celadonreader #netgalley #kindlereader #kindlebooks #booklover #bookalorian #bookreview #bookblog #bookpodcast

The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Elise Hooper DONE I just finished The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Elise Hooper and here are my thoughts. Tildy Barrows is the bead curator at a beautiful library in San Francisco… The library is on the verge of closing from bankruptcy and Tildy is bereft.. That is until she finds 2 never seen before dollhouses.. Tildy knows that this could be what the library has been looking for to help bring in people to see the exhibit but the more Tildy digs for clues, the more she realizes that some secrets should remain buried. I wanted to love it. I really did but it missed the mark for me a bit. Too many POVs for my liking and it wasn’t as exciting as I was hoping for. I was hoping for more from the mystery but it was straddling timelines and POVs and it was too messy for my tastes. Now the audiobook was done really well and I could more or less keep up with who was who but it could have been the best book of the year for me… It should have been but the story was too muddled. Too much going on but nothing really happening. SIGHH! I did love Tildy but the romance they had for her was boring and flat. The pace was too slow and it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I did like it… I just didn’t love it. 3.5 stars

I just finished The Night Birds by Christopher Golden and here are my musings… Ruby never expected her night to include a dead sister, a nephew she didn’t know she had, a frightened woman who claims to be a witch running from an ancient evil.. She definitely didn’t expect the one place she would run to would be to the man who broke her heart… But evil is lurking and they want the baby and they will stop at nothing to get him… OK if you don’t know Christopher Golden… Are you really a horror reader? It is a horror thriller, I know it seems to be labeled as a thriller but it has some excellent horror tones to it and I said what I said. First off the setting is dark dark dark!!! It was so ominous I loved it. Charlie took Ruby and her charges to a secret location.. A half sunk freighter… Genius right? Trouble is they are running from a cult with dark magic and it freaked me the heck OUT! The witches need the baby to sacrifice him and the mother (Ruby’s sister) and the girlfriend are doing everything they can to protect him. It was a ride and a half. It was fast paced, it was mildly terrifying and I couldn’t put it down. Now It isn’t character driven which I know can be an issue for some readers but it didn’t detract from the story because all the magic is in the ambience… It’s all in the details.. Imagine if a book was a dark misty moor… This would be it. It has all the elements you need for a really great horror thriller that keeps the story moving. The ending was the bee's knees…. I highly recommend this book! 4.5 stars Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for my gifted copy #thenightbirds #christophergolden #horrorreader #horrorread #horrorthriller #booklover #tbr #bookloversofig #igreader #bookstagrammer #booktokcanada #bookishcontent #booktalk #bookalorian