The Great Misfortune of Stella Sedgwick is a sweet historical YA romance that felt like reading a mix between the Bridgerton show and a Jane Austen movie adaptation but make it black.

Stella is witty and smart and dreams about writing like her mother did. She's also snarky and a bit pessimistic, but in an endearing way. This is also balanced out by how bubbly and positive her cousin Livvie is.

Nathaniel is Stella's childhood friend but who she hasn't talked to for years. While Nate still has his love of art he isn't quite the boy Stella remembers, at least not around other people where he feels a lot of pressure to conform to society. Stella and Nathaniel actually reminded me a lot of Lizzie and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice while also being different enough that this didn't feel like a retelling.

I compared this to Bridgerton, as both portray a British aristocracy that isn't pale as a sheet of printer paper, at least not in its entirety. But unlike in Bridgerton, people of color aren't normalized in high society; they're rather barely tolerated if they're rich, well connected or both. This meant that Stella, Nate, Livvie and our other characters of color get treated as exotic oddities, mistaken for servants and subjected to an array of micro aggressions. This is predominantly a fun and light hearted book but it does so while acknowledging the discrimination that people of color would most likely face in this environment and sees them thrive despite that.

This was honestly so much fun and I'll be looking out for the sequel once it's been released.

Backhanded Compliments is a fun sapphic tennis romance with the twist of being a soulmates story.

Juliette and Luca are professional tennis players and soulmates, meaning that they have each other's names written on their wrists and the first time they touch those names go from silver to black.

Luca has dreamed of finding her soulmate, the person cosmicly designed to love her but things get complicated when she shakes Juliette's hand for the first time after beating her at the Australian Open. Because Juliette has never wanted a soulmate and especially not one who's also her rival.

Overall I found this fun, I enjoyed seeing Luca and Juliette bridge the gap between them and I also liked the relationship between Juliette and her sisters as well as the friendships with other players.

What I didn't enjoy as much was Juliette's initial dislike of Luca, or rather how rude she was towards her for no other reason than that Luca's her soulmate and she doesn't want one. Luckily her sisters call her out on this and she stops but it did bring down my enjoyment a bit.