I've been following David Gate's work for several years on Instagram. His poetry is sparse and simple while profound. He explores everyday life, justice, home, and care for our fellow humans. I'm a fan. So when Convergent Books reached out with a digital review copy of this, of course I rushed to NetGalley to download it. Thank you!

When I picked up Ivy Fairbanks’s debut novel, Morbidly Yours, late last year, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It did not disappoint.

This was strange and beautiful and left me feeling like I might have overlooked something. I immediately thought I should probably start it over again to dig at its true meaning, and the thing is, I actually would do it.

I wanted to love this more than I did. The concept was intriguing, and I’d heard so many good things about The Measure by the same author. I figured this would be an easy win for me.

You’ve heard of the forbidden love trope. Sometimes it feels a bit tired and overdone, but I’m not sure I’ve ever quite read it like this.

Ellie Palmer is quickly becoming one of my favorite rom-com authors. Four Weekends and a Funeral was one of my favorite books last year, and I have a feeling Anywhere With You will be one this year.

This is one of those books that if I share a synopsis, it spoils the whole thing. I’d recommend going in blind, so how to review this book?

Lana Lord is famous. She’s been acting in Hollywood on a prominent drama that is produced like and often feels like a soap opera. No one even knows her real name is Meg Bryan. No one knows that she and her best friend, Aimee, had planned to study acting in Ireland but ended up staying in Florida. No one really knows Meg at all.

Four strangers get the chance to go back in time for one hour and revisit a moment at random with Aeon Expeditions, or so they think. Once their sixty minutes begin, they realize they’re revisiting the week each of their lives changed forever. When the hour is up and they find themselves stuck in the past, they start to interact in the past and see their paths have been intertwined in more ways than one all along.

Ellis and Wren grew up together and had their son, Sam, as teens. A decade later, their marriage fell apart. Now in their 30s, they still can’t keep their minds off each other. A summer road trip to drop Sam at college is an opportunity to see whether forever might still be possible.

Katherine Center always brings the most joy-filled, zippy rom-coms that make me grin and swoon a little. This was no exception. Katie is asked to film a promo video for the US Coast Guard with her work superior's brother, rescue swimmer "Hutch" Hutcheson.

San Francisco has been slowly sinking for years. The population has adjusted with rooftop markets, bridges connecting high-rises, etc., but the population has also been dwindling as people move to safer places. Bo is one of those who have stayed. Her cousin is coming for her soon, but she can't bring herself to want to leave, not since the disappearance of her mother a couple years ago in a great flood. When a note comes from a resident on another floor, a woman named Mia in her 100s, needing caretaking, Bo takes it as a sign to stay even longer and misses the boat.

Riveting.

I don't typically read history or biographies, but full disclosure, I am an ordained minister in the Foursquare Church, founded by Sister Aimee. When I saw this book, I immediately wanted to read an "outsider's" perspective.

I love it when a book surprises me, not because it had twists and turns I didn't expect (although I'll take that, too), but when I went in without high expectations and they are exceeded. I read Jilly Gagnon's rom-com of 2024, Love You, Mean It, and I had a good time with it, but there were a few parts of it that just didn't work well for me. It was a solid read, but I didn't find myself immediately wanting to read everything by this author.

Xavier is a veterinarian. He’s known for a gruff bedside manner, but he’s also very good at his job. When Samantha comes in with a kitten who has a life-threatening condition, he gives it to her straight; and she serves it right back.

Margot is a famous romance writer, but after several bad experiences with men, she’s started “screaming into her pillow” by writing alternate endings to each of her books in a secret file called Happily Never After.

Elliott is in Omaha for a stem cell transplant. The night before her surgery, her best friend encourages her to get out and live a little. In so doing, she meets Jamie. He’s been stood up on a date and they immediately hit it off. He takes her to the baking lesson he’s booked for the night and they spend hours laughing and talking.

Sarah Lindgate fell off the cliffs of Capri on a family vacation in 1992. Since then the Lindgate family has continued to vacation there and her now 33-year-old daughter, Helen, wrestles with feeling trapped in her very controlled life.

Janeway Sharp is at a college party when she gets the news: her father has died. In the wake of his death and the middle of her grief, Jane sees other news break of a woman murdered in a nearby Florida town.

Since her best friend died of cancer six months ago, Lenny has been taking temporary nanny jobs–a weekend here or there because that’s the limit to how long she can “hold it together.”