• Role Model

    Role Model

    Rachel Reid, 2021. Five Stars. This is a book about believing sexual assault victims and unpacking identity. This is a book where a professional hockey star on the first page is traded to Ottawa, one of the worst teams in the league, because he was caught on tape calling his…

  • Just Add Happiness

    Just Add Happiness

    Julie Hatcher, 2025 4.25 Stars for Independence and Pasta This book was inspiring and swoony and uplifting, and I highly recommend reading in a book club setting with other women to talk through the themes and reactions, preferably over cake. Julie Hatcher sets up the plot perfectly in the first…

  • Migrations

    Migrations

    Charlotte McConaghy, 2020 Five Stars, no decay. I’ve read her work in reverse order (third, second, this) and I’ve stepped closer and closer to each one, finding myself almost inside of the work. McConaghy is fascinated with her female heroines going wild, untethering from society and drawing closer to nature…

  • Daddy Issues

    Daddy Issues

    Kate Goldbeck, 2025 4.5 stars for crashing into him. I cannot give this book enough credit for letting the main character fail and make impulsive choices. I think Kate Goldbeck is the queen of normie romance and there is such a need (I deeply feel) for romances with lost souls…

  • Once There Were Wolves

    Once There Were Wolves

    Charlotte McConaghy, 2021 5 stars of absolute perfection. McConaghy builds increasing tension between the scientist team rewilding wolves, the resistant agricultural Scottish society, Inti’s growing attraction to local sheriff Duncan, and her estrangement and intimacy with her twin sister Aggie. It’s an absolute fire between each of the tension points…

  • Alchemy & Ashes

    Alchemy & Ashes

    Amy Yorke, 2025 Four stars for fun that covers the bases as a book one. It’s lighter on fantasy but deeper on feelings (the big squishy love ones) because it’s “New Adult” (think older YA) and the seeds are there for bigger moments in magic. What I wanted was more…

  • Wild Dark Shore

    Wild Dark Shore

    Charlotte McConaghy, 2025 4.25 Stars for haunted, mesmerizing nature fiction. Before writing this review, I drove in the snow to the library to get one of her earlier books, because I’m just that intrigued by Charlotte McConaghy’s voice and narrative style. This one is a stealthy thriller that gives you…

  • The Best Worst Thing

    The Best Worst Thing

    Lauren Okie, 2025 Absolute perfection and one of the top five books I’ve read this year. Lauren Okie pulls through on two major storylines: A wife experiencing infertility and treatments with her dirtbag finance bruh husband, and the crackling dialogue with her old work crush whom she conjures back into…

  • Tourist Season

    Tourist Season

    Brynne Weaver, 2025 So I was not aware that serial killer love stories were a micro genre of romance, outside of some expected monster kink, but here you have it. Brynne Weaver really gives this a flow with the quirky Cape Carnage setting and Nolan as our strong dimpled male…

  • Never Over

    Never Over

    Clare Gilmour, 2025. 5 Stars for Chemistry in Song Absolute five-star read because this defies all the tropes and slashes them to the ground to make way for a slow burning, cauldron bubbling, sweet steamer of a novel with A+ chemistry, solid partner communication, and a family dynamic that felt…