I am back on land and still recovering from the cruise I went on. 7 days away is fantastic and I need to do it more often. I hope to go through my pictures and post some this weekend. But I can tell you that Bermuda is absolutely beautiful.
My reading goal for my vacation was 4 books. I sort of made that goal when I combined in the extra day off I took from work to recover. Here are the books I read:
Butterface by Avery Flynn– I was worried bout the premise of this book and felt it had the potential for being really bad. It wasn’t bad. I am all for the concept that unconventional beauty is beautiful. Flynn is a new to me author and I am glad I gave her a chance. I had some issues with the book, the secondary characters that the hero worked with were absolutely terrible humans and I don’t understand how multiple characters supposedly in 30-40 age range would still be shitty and make fun of someone’s looks. Their presence in the story really brought it down for me. I was invested in the love story and felt good about how that worked out.
Stripped by Zoey Castile- I really, really loved this story. It hit all the right notes for me. Sweet, emotional, sexy AF, solid love story, and funny in the right spots. All the chapters are titles after songs, so that was cute. Robyn, our heroine, is a teacher, but she is at a crossroads in her life and isn’t really sure where she belongs. The hero, Fallon, is a stripper and is confident with his work, but still feeling some sort of way about it. They meet when their clothes are mixed up at the laundry.
This is an #ownvoices with a Latinx heroine. I learned this week that Castile is a not so secret pen name for Zoraida Cordova.
This story is pretty much two broken people finding each other and learning to love each other and accept love. They don’t achieve or expect perfection once this love is declared. This kind of romance is my absolute favorite. I will give you this quote-
“Robyn Flores, when we met, we were both a little bit broken. I think something in the universe was driving us together. Working to get us to that moment.”
“To when I stole your laundry?”
“The very same moment. And I was wrong. I think that when we’re together, our broken pieces do fit.”
Swagger by Liz Lincoln– This doesn’t release until September 18 but it was on my Kindle and on the cruise I needed something that was already downloaded. This was an okay read. I loved the premise, but the story was just okay. Perhaps if I had read it at a different time and not following up a book I was gaga over, It would have liked it better.
The heroine is in grad school studying physics. The hero is a football player who is injured and working on finishing his degree. She also is his teacher for a course he is taking. We never get to see them in class together. There are some other interactions that happen off page and I would have preferred to see them on the page. The secondary characters, are great and I do look forward to seeing more of them. Good but not great story.
One You Can’t Forget by Roni Loren– I want to start off by saying I acknowledge that the premise of this book is not for everyone. BUT if you can handle reading about survivors of a mass shooting, I strongly recommend this book. It made me tear up. Again this is broken characters finding their way to each other and still being flawed at the end. This book has a lot of heaviness to it, but for those that are able to handle the premise, I think the payoff is worth it. I was very invested in Rebecca and Wes’s love story and HEA. Loren is a new favorite and I can’t wait for the next story in this series.
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