Pack of Lies by Charlie AdharaMonster Hunt #1PNRAugust 30, 2022, by Carina Adores ARC Review by Melinda Charlie Adhara’s Big Bad Wolf series quickly became one of my favorite PNR series so I was excited for the spin-off of this, Monster Hunt. Pack of Lies is the first book, starring Eli, Park’s ex from Cry Wolf, the last book in the Big Bad Wolf series. He’s now the manager of a retreat in the middle of nowhere, and the pack plans on using it to help rebel pack runaways. The book starts Continue Reading
Review: The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan BannenFantasyAugust 23, 2022 by Orbit BooksARC Review by: Melinda This book was such an incredible and weird delight to read, I loved it so much. But it has a plot that’s hard to pitch well. Mercy is an undertaker, and Hart kills zombies and is required to take their bodies to specific funeral homes. The two hate each other from their very first meeting, which was a complete disaster. They both are intensely lonely and end up writing Continue Reading
Melinda’s Audio Minis: Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey & The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope
Just Like Home by Sarah GaileyHorrorJuly 19, 2022, by TorAudio ARC Review by Melinda This book begins with Vera coming home to take care of her dying mother. And everything is just…off. Her mother is hostile towards her, there’s something living under her bed, and her father was a serial killer who may be haunting the house, so things are complicated! We get bits and pieces of their backstory revealed, combined with pieces of what’s currently going on; but there are still so many Continue Reading
Melinda’s Audio Minis: We Were Dreamers by Simu Liu & Ruthless Women by Melanie Blake
We Were Dreamers by Simu LiuMemoirMay 17, 2022, by William MorrowAudio ARC Review by Melinda I’m a big fan of celebrity memoirs, particularly when listening to an audiobook with the celebrity narrating themselves. It always lends more of a personal tone to the book and makes it feel more like the celebrity is just sharing stories with you one-on-one. We Were Dreamers is narrated by Simu Liu and he tells his background as a child of immigrants, and how that shaped his childhood and Continue Reading
Audio Review: The Break Up Artist by Erin Clark & Laura Lovely
The Break Up Artist by Erin Clark and Laura LovelyContemporaryJune 9, 2022, by Audible OriginalsAudio ARC Review by Melinda The Break Up Artist is a debut by co-authors Erin Clark and Laura Lovely, who have an interesting background of their own. Clark is a nonfiction writer, a world champion para-pole athlete, a circus aerialist, and a pilot. Lovely is a romance author, a playwright, a pinup performance artist, and a tech founder. The two met and became the comedy duo Flaming Mermaid Continue Reading
Melinda’s Mini Reviews: No Strings by Lucy Bexley & the Roxane Weary series by Kristen Lepionka
No Strings by Lucy BexleyLGBTQ Contemporary RomanceJan 11, 2022Purchased Review by Melinda No Strings by Lucy Bexley is genuinely one of the most charming and surprising books I’ve read! The cover may be one of the worst I’ve ever seen so I would never have picked it up without a friend telling me it was 5 stars for her. Elsie is a puppeteer on a kid's TV show that she basically created…but gets next to no credit OR money for. And when the head of the company dies, his daughter Jones Continue Reading
Audio Review: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
The Woman in the Library by Sulari GentillSuspenseJune 7, 2022, by SourcebooksAudio ARC Review by Melinda I’m always looking for good thrillers, and I think they can be difficult to find. It takes someone really talented to build the suspense necessary to keep a reader invested in the plot, and then even more difficult to have a twist that no one sees coming. The Woman in the Library does the next to impossible and has high tension, a unique format, and is completely addictive. I Continue Reading
Audiobook Review: Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler
Home Field Advantage by Dahlia AdlerContemporary YAJune 7, 2022, by Wednesday BooksARC Review by Melinda Home Field Advantage is a twist on the classic love story between the High School Quarterback and the Head Cheerleader. Jaclyn (Jack) Walsh is recruited to play football at Amber's high school but Jack doesn't exactly fit in right away. The previous quarterback was killed in a car accident and everyone looks at Jack as a not-nearly-good-enough replacement for him. So things are super Continue Reading
Review: Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly
Love & Other Disasters by Anita KellyContemporary RomanceJanuary 18, 2022, by Forever Review by Melinda I've raved about Anita Kelly's first two books and have been really anticipating her debut with Forever. And I loved everything about this book from beginning to end. Dahlia and London are competitors on a cooking show and one of the things I loved so much is that there is no antagonism between them at all. Just encouragement and laughter and love of the craft. I felt like the Continue Reading
Melinda’s Favorites of 2021
I loved so many of the books I read this year so I barely tried to narrow it down. Life's too short for all of that! I did stop reading nearly as much as usual around October so if I'm lacking new releases after that, that would be why. Continue Reading