Erin Connor is proving to be an absolute master of the romance genre for me. I read and loved Unromance last year but her second novel Still Into You has solidified Connor as an auto buy author for me. She writes emotion and physicality in ways that make me as the reader feel so present in every moment the characters are experiencing. I will be shoving Still Into You into the hands of all of my fellow millennial friends who grew up scream singing Linkin Park and Dashboard Confessional in their cars, dreaming of going to Warped Tour, and plotting out their trips on MapQuest. This made me nostalgic in the best ways. I loved that this wasn't so much a second chance as it was more specifically right person wrong time in the initial relationship, and i think Connor does a great job of letting the reader into that previous relationship enough to understand the emotions of present day without bogging the story down with two timelines. The chemistry between Sloane and Dax is ELECTRIC and absolutely sizzles off the page. Dax Nakamura is down BAD and as much as Sloane doesn't always see it Connor does an excellent job of conveying it to the reader even though the book is single POV. The absolute YEARN fest between these two had me blushing and kicking my feet for most of the book My only real complaint is that much is made about how no one can know they dated/they can't date now because it would bring into question Sloane's journalistic integrity and then when it does finally come out it's resolved rather easily. It felt like a bit of a let down narratively but with the focus at that point really on Dax and Sloane i do understand why this was the route taken. And it didn't kill my overall love for the story. Thank you SO much to Forever and Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for this honest review

i was absolutely charmed by Agnes, Havelock and the cats at the shelter. This is just my kind of cozy fantasy - the stakes are high enough to feel the tension but they're awash in the charm of the magical Montreal setting that Fawcett brings to life here. The push and pull taut camaraderie between Agnes and Havelock is catnip for me as a reader - Havelock is exasperated at the furry intruders into his magical workshop but can't help but be fond of Agnes and the strays (even though he'd deny it with every sneeze). And Agnes' determined diligence that morphs into care for the (supposedly) evil Witch King is such a smooth slide, though she can't possibly address it right now because there are cats to care for. And the cats! They're all over this book winding their way through the narrative and burrowing into my heart the whole time, i absolutely wanted to adopt all of them. Fawcett is a queen of this genre for me, her novels always strike the perfect balance between enchanting snug settings and narrative stakes that carry the weight of the story forward. Thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for this honest review.

to be quite honest every time i sit down to write the review for this book i think of that quote from Emma 'if i loved you less i could talk about it more' this book grabbed me by the heart and did not let go for 370 pages. Lenny is a girl of my heart - drowning in the grief after her best friend dies and just generally not doing great. and that's the thing to know about this book, it does not pull a punch on you while you're reading. if you have lost someone approach this book with care for yourself. but Bastone manages to put that experience into words that made me feel seen and viscerally remember what it was like to be in the early months after loss. And Miles. his care for Lenny and the lengths and DEPTHS he goes to for her are absolutely delicious for me as a person who loves an act of service, loves a yearn. as lenny herself says: he goes into hell and drags her back out and as a reader that experience is emotional and devastating and delicious. i loved this one so much. if you, like me, want a romance to hurt your feelings while you read it then i implore you to pick this one up. and then call me and cry.

Okay so here's the thing - the character development in this book is absolutely phenomenal. A second chance romance between two former child actors who fell in love on the set of their breakout show and then fell apart because of the demands and pitfalls of Hollywood and the way it treats young women. This is told as a single POV from Annie/Andy's point of view - she ran away from LA and Nikki 5 years and has been hiding out in a florist shop in small town Maine ever since. But her whole world gets turned upside down when she finds out that Nikki is working on a memoir that will expose their past, and she's writing it from that very same small Maine town. These two have A LOT to work through. There was a lot of hurt on both sides of this relationship in the past and Dugan does an incredible job of allowing the reader to understand Andy's hurt while also seeing the gaps where she's being a little bit selfish and bit of an unreliable narrator. The way Dugan weaves Nikki's growth into this story through Andy's POV is absolutely masterful and had me really rooting for Nikki despite Andy's reservations about her. Here's my thing - this falls into the biggest pitfall that often challenges a second chance romance for me. I don't know that i actually really wanted these two people to get back together? I really wanted them to get closure and have those big talks, and being on that journey with them was SO satisfying. But I don't know that i believe that the two of them getting back together is really the best option for them. But if i'm their best friend and they tell me it's what they want? I'm only here to support. so if you love a second chance, or you love a romance with some GREAT character development over the course of the story arc i HIGHLY recommend this one. Thank you to Avon and Lavender PR for an advance copy.

I think this was a case of the pacing emphasis being placed on the wrong things in this book? I found the secondary plot of the 'mystery' really interesting but it didn't start to get really developed until a little later into the book, and then it was resolved in a way that left me feeling slightly unfulfilled. i wish there had been a better balance of it along with the romance. I liked the dynamic between the 4 characters - I loved that they all had their own flaws and traumas that played into what everyone was dealing with, and i liked that i could really see why Sam liked each of the men on their own and why she didn't want ot pick just one of them. to be totally honest this also wasn't as spicy as i feel like i was lead to believe it would be?? and maybe that's on me and my expectations. i know i was reading an advance copy but there were enough copywrite errors that it often took me out of the book, especially from a bigger publisher.

overall a bit of a mixed bag for me, and definitely check the trigger warnings. but i mostly had a great time while reading so if you're looking for a why choose hockey romance with high stakes outside the romance this is a great one to pick up thank you Forever for the advance copy in exchange for this review

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy from a Goodreads Giveaway!

Whidbey focuses on three women who have all been affected by Calvin Boyer, a convicted child sex offender, two of his victims and his mother and the ways in which he influences and affects their lives. While the overarching subject matter of this book is certainly heavy Madden writes in a way that reader doesn't feel that weight, and i mean this in a good way. I found this compulsively readable despite the topic and this absolutely comes down to Madden's prose and more specifically her character work. All 3 of the women are complex and distinct, and even though I didn't really like Mary Beth (Calvin's mother) i found her POV chapters really compelling. Birdie is the heart of the first 2/3 of the book and I loved the journey of discovering the ways in which she has coped and worked to protect herself in the aftermath of Calvin's release. Her intense fixation on Linzie and the memoir. And then to slowly get introduced to Linzie with the preconceived notions because of Birdie's POV and then the slow draw of learning the truth of Linzie too. The way reveals are woven into this book are absolutely masterful and I have a lot of thoughts about the intentional choices of tense and POV, and the shift in Part III into a more narrative almost podcast like tone was so effective and interesting. An incredible exploration of abuse and its affects on the victims as well as those on the periphery. Definitely check content warnings, the book does not shy away from the truths of these experiences but is worth picking up if you are able.

I love when a book weaves a bit of magic into historical events, and Junie does it so deftly I could have believed the magic was real. This book overall was a great read, and I highly recommend the audiobook. Angel Pean's narration was captivating and incredibly emotive - capturing Junie's youth as well as her determination so well. I absolutely loved Junie as a main character, she gets to be so flawed and real throughout the whole book. There were moments where I was so stressed and didn't know what she was going to do not because the character isn't well built but because she has the impulsive nature so inherent to teenage years. This whole book is such a great exploration of her character growth in that pivotal stage of late adolescence and going through that with Junie while she's battling her feelings about her recently passed sister Minnie who is actually still around as a spirit and needs Junie's help to be at rest. And more specifically searching for her own identity while being enslaved and working in a white family's house where the expectation is for her to not exist as much as possible. It all made for such compelling listening at Pean's skilled storytelling. The budding relationship between Junie and Caleb was so tender and sweet and i appreciated in the author's note that Eckstine mentions leaving it open ended after early readers asked for the hope of it, and the ability to instill that hope through fiction where there wasn't any in the real life version I know this one was everywhere last year, but everyone was right, this was a great read. And if you're late to the party like i was i highly recommend giving the audio a try.

I am so delighted to be living in the timeline in which Kiersten White is writing historical fantasies with queer characters! I loved Lucy Undying last year and this one topped it for me i think. This the story of Anneke Van Helsing who found her father dying in his study 5 years ago and ever since has been hunting for the strange woman who was crouched over his body with no luck. Until a strange murder in Amsterdam connects to a grotesque scene in Budapest and Anneke is hot on the trail of her father's murderer across Europe, except not everything is as it seems. I was nervous at the start of this because it is quite gory to start - White doesn't shy away from the realities of the murder scenes Anneke is helping to investigate and i am in fact a baby. But as the momentum of the investigation really gets underway those descriptions dwindle and I was absolutely sucked in. White renders turn of the century Europe so acutely that i felt i was there, her descriptions of the cities are a lush and welcome foil to the atrocities of the murders Anneke and her friends are investigating. And i LOVED her collection of friends so much, absolutely some great found family happening and I am going to hope White is willing to turn this into a series because I would love to see them solving paranormal mysteries across Europe. The only thing that didn't quite work for me were all of the interspersed vignettes of the World's Fair, i don't know that they successfully built the tension of that space in the way intended and i sometimes found that they killed the momentum of the story. there were some i felt were more successful than others but overall i think if they didn't necessarily add much for me. thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for the early copy in exchange for my honest review

The thing that worked the least for me about this book is the device with which it's setup, which just meant I overall struggled with the book unfortunately. Daughter of the Hunt is a reimagining of the story of Iphigenia, who is sacrificed to the goddess Artemis. In this version Iphigenia is telling the story to Psyche (the protagonist of the first book) and this is what doesn't work for me. I don't generally love a book with a lot of fourth wall breaking or cheeky asides of 'you might think i did xyz' or 'let me tell you's and this book has a lot of meta commentary. It was the relationship between Iphigenia and Artemis that kept me reading though, and when she's not offering tongue in cheek asides Rivera weaves some really lovely prose into their developing relationship. I also liked that Iphigenia is ace and the ways in which that intersects with Artemis' identity as the unsullied maiden. And even more so I enjoyed the ways in which they incorporate bondage kink into what that relationship looks like. The care that Artemis shows for Iphigenia throughout the book was absolutely swoon worthy to me, and truly the element that kept me reading through to the end. Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for this review

Short form fiction continues to be a challenge for me - I enjoy a novella every once in a while but this has proven to me that short story collections just aren't generallly for me. i miss the long form throughline of longer fiction every time i try. As always there were stories I loved and didn't want to end so quickly, and stories that I found myself less connected to. Amal El-Mohtar's writing is still lyrical and beautiful and flows through my brain as though it was made to be there. Her prose never fails to resonate with me, even in some of the stories i didn't care for as much. If you love a story collection I think this is a great one to pick up, I think if you already love El-Mohtar (as I do) there's plenty here to enjoy, but I don't know that anyone who doesn't fall into either of those categories is necessarily going to love this thank you to tordotcom for the earc in exchange for this review