“My goodness, gracious” she murmured. “Did you hear that then?” “Hear what ma’am “ “that emotion” she said. “Pardon? “ “That was the most emotion I’ve ever heard in anything you’ve ever said! This must be a real corker of a death if it’s cracked your demeanor and summoned forth such wild passion!”

I forgot how GOOD the dynamic between Din and Ana is. And the way she’s describes as a feral cat that’s just as likely to lounge in a patch of sun as she is to torture a mouse. Chefs kiss it’s so good

I love Arthurian legends. I have read all the classics from Mallory to the romantic period. I have read and enjoyed the Legendborn series and Kiersten White's Camelot Rising. What I would really like is a fun, cute, somewhat lighthearted take on the legends. With similar vibes to the Merlin BBC TV show. I love Merlin as a character and the TV show is one of, if not my favorite retelling of the legends.

The manhandling of the chair, the closeness, THE HAND ON THE THIGH? The way I would've folded immediately if I were Lucie 😳🤭

I'm having a hard time believing that first conversation was actually viral-worthy. I feel like nothing about it is worth the traction it's getting. And it's such an important part of the plot too..

I do love a book that just throws you right into it. Already super cute!

For someone who was embarrassed to have her dirty laundry aired, Lucie seems very comfortable telling Aiden her personal feelings on love 👀

I think Lucie is too calm. If that was my kid, I would have threatened bodily harm. Removal of body parts through nasal passages. The part where she’s describing his voice, how it was rough and like storms, then saying it was her rage making her think that? wtf. Why would her rage make his voice sound attractive to her? 🙄 😒

Okay. So, I have to start at I really should read the blurbs for books. Because this is like the third time I have picked up a book with characters with a kid. Not a fan of single parent motifs. But, I like how it started. I’m pushing through because of it.

“He wanted to work for the National Weather Service, but had to drop out of his college program to take on full custody of his little sisters when his mom decided to join a traveling harmonica band. He stuck around for the girls. He said they deserved one permanent thing in their life.”

…this one might be tough to get though. Listen, I love a fluffy romance that I don’t have to think about too much. But!!!! One of my huge pet peeves is when a romance/fluff author throws in something unbelievably outlandish, and it’s not an in-world joke, but something—I guess—that’s supposed to be funny to be reader, but it isn’t actually funny??? Like what is this line supposed to do?! I hate this actually!!!

Also I’m so sorry but the guy doing the audiobook does NOT have a radio voice, which is like a main plot point of the book…how did they get this crucial component so wrong.

”The full cycle went like this: When a neighborhood first integrated, property values increased because of African Americans need to pay higher prices for homes than whites. But then, property values fell once speculators had panicked enough white homeowners into selling at deep discounts. Falling sale prices in neighborhoods where block-busters created white panic was deemed proof by the FHA that property values would decline if African Americans moved in.”

so first, this book is just proving to me time and time again that capitalism is truly a plague that drives the greedy to do so many horrible things just to get a better profit. and the system rewards it! it intersects with racism and white supremacy in a way that has kept black people in a lower caste in our country and, with no semblance of “fairness” in the free market.

”But if the agency had not adopted a discriminatory and unconstitutional racial policy, African Americans would have been able, like whites, to locate throughout metropolitan areas, rather than attempting to establish presence in only a few block-busted communities, and speculators would not have been able to prey on white fears that their neighborhoods would soon turn from all-white to all-black.”

and then the government and speculators created such an insidious cycle that we see even today (just in other terms and against an even wider array of minorities), wherein the government reinforces racism systematically through its policy. like this is what people mean by institutional racism. it is engrained into our government’s core and is abused by white supremacists. in this novel, there are examples given of this happening everywhere in the country, north and south, east and west coast, so it’s not just a “deep south” thing. it’s nationwide.