Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital review copy in advance. This book hits shelves today, September 9th.

Within the first couple of chapters, I could tell this book would be something special. The story revolves around a small town in Wisconsin where a boy weights 18 pounds at his birth and only grows more giant over time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the digital review copy in advance. This book, now translated into English, hits shelves today, September 2nd.

As I did with my review for Save Me, let me preface this by saying, I have not watched the television series on Amazon Prime and went into this completely blind. It’s my understanding that the first season of the show roughly follows the first book. This is book two in the trilogy and after the cliffhanger of Save Me’s ending, I was ready for it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Saturday Book for the digital review copy of this book in advance. It hits shelves on September 2.

Set in the same world as Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows, this is another stunning novel from Rebecca Ross. This one can be read without reading the other duology as it shares a few characters but actually serves as a prequel with events occurring far before those of the other books.

I said in my review of Divine Rivals that I had hopes for this installment in the duology to make up for some of my unmet expectations. That was certainly the case here. My main disappointment came from my desire for more worldbuilding and fantasy elements in the first one, and it wasn’t even a large concern because the book still got over 4 stars from me. This one gave me everything I wanted and more.

As I was reading The Return of the Prodigal Son earlier this summer, my husband was reading this book of prayers by Nouwen. there were a couple of mornings when he’d read something aloud to me and I knew this would be my next contemplative nonfiction pick. I had to force myself to go slowly through this because each of the prayers is only a page or two long. It would have been easy to zip through this without giving it a whole lot of thought. Instead, I read only 1-2 prayers per day, often reading them more than once and letting the author’s words simmer in my soul.

This was twisty and genre-bending and I had so much fun with it.

We open with a woman awakening in a bus. She’s disoriented. She doesn’t know who she is, where she is, or when she is.

I ate this up. It was most definitely a teen drama with all kinds of eye-rolling moments. It was angsty and a bit toxic. I hated the ending. The author even apologizes for it in her acknowledgements—not enough, Mona Kasten. These characters better get redemption! It’s a good thing I have book 2 on deck.

I finished this two weeks ago and keep thinking about it.

This took me back to my college English major days. Yes, these two are in an MFA program, but it still put me right back into those classrooms full of writing, creativity, awkwardness, and exposure. Leigh is one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever read. The way she adjusts herself to please the people around her. The way she holds back her comments in class (or isn’t sure she even has anything meaningful to say) were just like me as an undergrad.

I’m so late to the game with the hype surrounding this duology. I kept intending to read it, borrowed it from Kindle Unlimited multiple times and somehow kicked it down the road over and over again. Then I got an email offering for me to read Wild Reverence (releasing in September 2025) as an early reader. I said yes, knowing that I really enjoyed Rebecca Ross’s writing in her Elements of Cadence duology. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the new book is set in the world of Divine Rivals. So here we are, finally picking up a book I always intended to read eventually.

Georgia is in a psychiatric ward of the hospital after being accused of killing her younger sister. She was adopted into a wealthy family as a newborn and has always been at odds with the family’s biological daughter. The twist? The person Georgia seeks out for help is her biological twin, separated at birth, Amanda. Mandy didn’t know she had a sister, let alone a twin, just a couple of hours away. Is Georgia a master manipulator and killer or the sister Mandy never knew she had or needed?

There was so much about this I loved. The premise alone? I mean, what a heart-wrenching opening. I felt the grief in my bones and my family saw the evidence in the tears streaming down my face, especially in some of the closing chapters.

Boy, has this one had some buzz, at least in the circle of Bookstagrammers I follow online. I hadn’t run across any reviews under 5-stars when I started reading, but I don’t think I’ll be completely alone in having some mixed feelings on this one.

I think I liked this even more than the first one. If you haven’t read The Blonde Identity yet (review here), I’d recommend that one first. It had been on my TBR (to be read) list for a while, but the publisher offering me a digital review copy of this one is what final got me to pick it up. I’m so glad I did.

Pure fun, plain and simple.

A woman wakes up in Paris with armed thugs after her. She seems to be on the run? But she doesn’t really know because she can’t seem to recall anything about herself, not even her first name. When she sees a video clip of a “wanted” woman on TV she realizes she must be a spy.

The Anxious Generation is one of the most thought-provoking nonfiction books I’ve read in a long time. The author’s primary question is why has there been a significant rise in the occurrence of anxiety and depression in Gen Z? He has theories.

My original star rating was a 4 because I felt so conflicted about this book. After letting it sit, I've landed on 4.5 because this definitely has some staying power.

The Favorites made a splash when it released at the beginning of the year, and I see why. It was propulsive and interesting. It was one of those books I couldn’t look away from, even when I wanted to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the digital review copy in advance. This one hits shelves on August 19th.

I remember picking up Would You Rather by Allison Ashley back in 2022 and laughing on page one. I also remember how refreshing it was to read a romance that was funny, emotional, and swoon-worthy that managed to keep all the bedroom scenes, well, behind the bedroom door. Falling Into Place is the same.

More of this genre please!

Every time I pick up a humorous mystery I remember how much I enjoy them. This had been on my radar to be read for a while, but it wasn’t until I won an audiobook copy of the second book in the series on The StoryGraph that I finally checked it out from the library.

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I read the first installment of this duology (A Letter to the Luminous Deep) last year, and while I enjoyed it, I wasn’t enthralled. I liked the worldbuilding and the letter-writing and journal style of it, but the pacing was slow and I had trouble with differentiating the numerous characters’ voices. The story was mysterious, a bit romantic, imaginative, and funny, but I had a few qualms.