White people's problems for sure.

Appreciated the honesty and bluntness of each lead. She is straightforward about needing to marry a rich man. He doesn't shy away from the truth.

The last scene was wild.

This had such promise! And ended up feeling a bit ham-fisted and clunky in reality.

Goblin & Halfling end up having to share a cottage for reasons, learn how to unpack decades of hatred each race has for the other, insert some cozy nature and baking interludes, insert lots of bigotry, a dash of family drama, and you have this book.

I should have also known that from the title of the book, there'd be some silly puns and silly 2026 phrases included in this, but it was still a little jarring when it did happen.

There is a pig and a kitten in this, which was a nice pet break.

Cutesy characters, forced "enemies to lovers" for plot reasons, awkward plot and world building, lots of mushroom and vegetable gardening. Falls into "a book that I read" territory.

ARC from Netgalley.

I finished the series! And it was just ok!

West was so whiny and jealous, but not in a horny possessive way, in a throwing a tantrum kind of way that made their entire courtship so boring.

For as smart Chase claimed to be, she sure was dumb with emotions, and that's a mood. Not to mention this having an 8 year with the wiseness and philosophical mentality of a 40 year old woman....

Overall, happy for them. But oh brother the plot and wrapping everything up in a bow - aspect of each book got super old.

Was most excited about Temple the killer Duke but this was so meh.

Lavender the pig was adorable

These people fall in love within a week. Insane the timelines

Man says he's a liar and a scoundrel.

Man then lies and does scoundrel things.

Woman is too stunned to speak and hurt by his deception.

What are we doing guys. What is this plot.

Oceans 11 heist shenanigans, bespectacled heroine, ginger man who is tall and lanky and she just happens to have a thing for bones....

Very fun watching the heroine walk this man around like a dog on a leash (it's even kinda quoted!) plus all the times he's on his knees begging her for something.

Pippa is very smart, very inquisitive, and no nonsense. A mood. The actual plot and whatever turned out very meh.

The worlds most dramatic man loses his fortune in a card game, proceeds to plot revenge for the next decade.

Puts his childhood best friend/neighbor into a compromising position to force her to marry him. Continues to fuck with her emotionally, whitefanging, lying to her about his feelings. She puts up with a lot of bullshit but since they wrote letters as kids she thinks he still has some of his adolescent goodness inside him.

The gambling hell was fun to read, the other 3 owners sound like fun books. Very much suspend disbelief and ignore the dubcon.

Lead is stuck in a time loop. Continues to have the same day again and again in an interesting way. A guy she meets also has deja vu every time he re-meets her. Lots of cute moments, a first date with the same guy over and over, FMC learning to let go, not think about work, make a friend, patch up her relationship with her family.

The time loop stories fascinate me while reading them, but aren't really ones that I'd reread again since it's the same day again and again. I think this is a "one and done" read but did keep me entertained for long drives!

There were a couple things that I wished were more fleshed out and discussed - when the other woman in the time loop with the lead began in a depression spiral and had a lot of suicidal ideation, that felt a bit glossed over and mentioned once and never brought up again. Being stuck in the worst day ever is super taxing. The reason for the time loop felt a little lackluster and felt a little disjointed. This also made me reflect on the fact that practically all the books I've read that were contemporary romances with an East Asian FMC has had her in this "super smart, doesn't know how to relax or not penny pinch and be uptight and wickedly smart workaholic" character box, and I would love to read some messy/less "Type A" and workaholic FMCs too.

My face the entire time this romance was romancing: 🤨Ok sure, buddy.

Grumpy x sunshine writers end up pitted against each other to write a memoir of an heiress. Stuck together in a tiny town, insert forced proximity and bumping into each other while trying to work.

Sprinkle in family trauma so that each are in their respective bubbles and freakout for random reasons, then sprinkle in lore from childhood/teenage years that's very relevant as 30 year olds, and you have romance viola.

I did not buy that this extremely grumpy and closed off guy has one coffee and a croissant with the overly happy lady, protects her from being manhandled once, and boom is declaring his undying love within a month of knowing her. I don't buy it. Not convinced.

The plot of the rich old lady really screamed white people problems and I couldn't care less about her paparazzi life, which feels mean to say but here we are.

Very meh about this. I finished it, so I guess the writing/narration was good enough. I didn't really see chemistry between the leads, just wanted to know what the damn mystery was surrounding the old lady, and feel nothing after that.

I'm really glad this was my first read of the year. Been wanting to up my non-fiction reads and this was a great re-education and deeper dive into bias detection and follow up.

I appreciated that there was a balance of case studies and data included along with pop culture moments and personal stories from the author. She mentions working as a DEI consultant and includes examples of topics brought up during corporate trainings that hit home.

In no particular order, some things that stuck with me:

• Figuring out is someone is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated and using that to incorporate into education. Ie - does someone feel internally disappointed in themselves if they say/do something biased and make a change because they don't want to feel that feeling again. does someone not want to be perceived as being biased and will make a change because of their outward appearance? No two people have the same motivations, and accepting that different methods may need to be used to meet people where they're at.
• Corporate businesses seeing the bottom line of biases reducing productivity and profit, hence why many include DEI or "culture" within the company - for the bottom line of making money.
• So many studies and social experiments unintentionally putting white people as the focal point of DEI studies. They're the control in a study without also testing a group of all non-white people. Systemic racism still being woven into diversity.
• Calling out bais, how different ways of pointing something out (passively, confrontational, kindly, etc) can impact if the message is received and if change is made.
• "Color blindness" verses "color consciousness" and how much of sponges kids are.

I have a bunch more items listed out, and will probably revisit this one.

I want to immediately reread this. So many thoughtful ideas and sentiments. Excellent book.

Ouch, my heart hurts.

I've read a couple YA Great Gatsby 'remixes' and this one is probably my favorite. Excellent narration, so much historical context woven in, from Oklahoma to New York City.

There's such care and thoughtfulness into the writing and story, from the glaringly obvious of racism and segregation, to the more nuanced - ie the colorism between Jay and Nick, and Jay having a white dad.

This was deeply romantic!! Definitely not my usual read, genre, or writing, but this was so fun! In a bodice ripper 1990's rogue man x bespectacled wallflower kind of way. I understand the stealing spectacles reference now!

Emotionally constipated leads letting actions slip to show their love is very satisfying. Lots of drama with that damn blonde lady and the gambling club. Loved seeing supportive parents for the heroine, who love that she's a writer and will marry whomever she wants and do whatever she wants. The Lily friendship was also very genuine, and I love when the leads are extra kind and considerate to all the staff.

Definitely check out CWs, there's some dated language and plot devices.

Lily! This was fun. A bit long and dragged out plot wise, but overall enjoyable with the bantering and slower simmering rage to lust to disbelief to lovers happening.

So much plot happened in this though, holy plot for a historical romance. Alex being walked around like a dog was great though.