This is a book that had been on my TBR for a long time after reading Alexa Martin’s first two books. She writes books in the football (American) universe, so characters are usually a football player and a woman. This followed the same format in that regards. The man was a footballer and the woman was a bar owner in the same ecosystem as the characters in the first two books. I really found it hard to get engaged because the story wasn’t very engaging to me, especially compared to the first two books (and particularly the first). I didn’t buy into the love story and the male protagonist raised a lot of red flags that were brushed under the carpet and maybe I’m just too old to find stuff like that romantic. The story just dragged and dragged and it felt a bit like it was written because it had to be? Not like the author really connected with the story. There’s a new instalment coming later this year and I’m still going to read it because, black love.
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Sick Bay- Nova Weetman
This book is about two girls who often end up in the school sick bay and become friends. It’s a middle grade book and it’s really cute, even when dealing with some weighty issues. It’s also one of the few times i’ve read an Australian author.
I read this during the peak of my covid anxiety and managed to stay engaged. Tiffany has to go and live with her dad that she finds out about after her mum dies. Just before she leaves, another man shows up that could also be her dad. Before she can find out for sure in a week, she has to try and settle into a new life that may or may not be permanent. I’m often not a fan of books set in a rigid time frame as the plot can get long winded, but this really worked. The characters were flawed and interesting and it was really engaging. Recommend!
This is one I had in my library for ages and finally decided to read and I’m glad because it was really fun. When A bride and groom are unable to go on their honeymoon, her twin sister and his brother have to step in to take their place. They spend the honeymoon falling in love until (obviously) disaster strikes. You have to read the rest in the story.
This is a book that details the end of a friendship going between now and then. It reminds me a lot of one of my top books from last year, but is also a great book in it’s own right. I love books about friendships ending because it’s always so subtle and complex. Sigh.
When three couples in a four couple friendship group get divorced, the last couple is feeling the pressure and decide to open their relationship in order to save it. What could go wrong? I really enjoyed this one because it looked at marriage, relationships and ageing in a realistic way, but it all wasn’t too heavy. I really enjoyed it.
This really annoyed me to be honest. I only bought it because a really big book club recommended it as like a MUST READ and was like “if you love Cameron and Lauren’s relationship, you’ll love this”. Firstly, I don’t care about Cameron and Lauren’s relationship one way or the other but I bring it up to say that it is NOTHING like Cameron and Lauren’s relationship and secondly, Cameron and Lauren are the most successful couple from Love is Blind. This is a book about a women who meets a man briefly in a cinema and then some amount of time later, he turns up as her best friend’s boyfriend and then roommate. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that they fall in love (obviously while trying not to cross any lines). Lol. Yeah, no.
When Eden’s best friend runs away with her boyfriend, who turns out to be a teacher, she keeps her secret. As police get involved and parents get more and more worried, she starts to wonder if she made the right call. The book focuses on Eden protecting her friend, rather than the relationship between teacher and minor which I think made the plot stronger. Really good read.
This is really hard to review. It’s a fictional book about a girl who gets into a relationship with her teacher when she’s 15 (aka is groomed and molested) and then is forced to question that relationship in her 30s when it surfaces that he did it to someone else. Abuse is a very hard subject to write about especially in fiction and I don’t know how successful this was in doing that, which for me feels hard to say because it’s such a weighty subject but it’s also fiction. I have to ask myself, what was the author’s intention? Because I don’t know. It left me with a taste in my mouth, I can’t explain it. I don’t feel like the main character was written as a whole person but maybe that was the author’s intention.