lizanneyoung's reviews
321 reviews

 

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This is the first story written in second person I’ve read since school. The primary character is from an underwater society, coming to the surface to sign a new treaty between the underwater people and the land people. There is an escort for xem, a guard to ensure the path to the capital to sign the treaty is smooth. 

I wasn’t expecting it to end in such a tragedy, though the signs are there. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I was shook and so sad for the two characters. And, the guard reminded me of Westley from The Princess Bride with their “As you wish,” and I hope that is somehow foreshadowing that everything will work out for the pair one day. 

 

Thank you to the publisher for an eARC and to the author for having me on your street team!

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TROPES
📗 Second Chance Romance
📗 Forced Proximity
📗 Only One Tent
📗 Dual Timeline

Jack and Brooke’s story is an emotional journey. When they first meet, there are boundaries that impact their ability to be together. When they reunite years later, it’s not under the circumstances they thought it would be. What starts as a trek to make a memoir the best it can be turns into a trip down memory lane in the best and worst ways possible. Jack and Brooke are such kindred spirits, and it was wonderful to watch them come back together and work through their feelings of the past as they look toward the future. 

I feel so much for Brooke. To have a goal taken away seemingly by the one person who championed you the most is devastating. I understand why, at the time, that’s where her blame went. While it probably didn’t need to be as drastic a shift in her career as she took, it makes sense why someone who only saw one path forward would assume that the original path wasn’t in the cards anymore after that semester. I’m happy that time on the trail helped her find her voice again. 

Jack is so hard on himself to be what his family wants him to be. Even when he opens up to them, they try to rearrange it to suit their perceived needs. Like Brooke, he finds the courage to take a leap while on the trail and do exactly what he wants. He realizes that “success” may not look quite what he pictured, but that the standard he was holding himself to might not be the only one. 

Hearing about their trip reinforces my desire to visit Scotland one day. I could picture every setting so well thanks to the author’s writing, and the cover beautifully captured one of my favorite visuals. 

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TROPES
📧 Workplace Romance
📧 Forced Proximity
📧 Loathe to Love
📧 Dual POV

It was so fun to dive back into the Best Friends Book Club universe with Angelina’s story. Another workplace place type setting, but instead of being focused on a college environment, the second book of the series is a more rigid workplace. 

Angelina has long held negative feelings about Benjamin simply because of their email interactions. While he knew who she was and what she looked like because of his orientation day at the company, Angelina had gone out of her way to avoid him, so when they finally meet at a company retreat, it’s great to see Angelina’s initial impression. Reading how the two of them interpret their interactions is hilarious.

Both are individuals that struggled in previous relationships, which is directly interfering with how they view this new one. However, it’s nice to see them both realize that and come to conclusions on how to handle it. Are Angelina’s the best conclusions? No, but she figured that out, and that’s what’s great about her character. Angelina is one of the most dynamic FMCs I’ve read in a while. She’s so multi-faceted, and owns that, but also buries parts of herself as a defense mechanism to appear more one dimensional. It’s wonderful to see her open up and give in to her emotional wants. 

Thank you to the publisher for an eARC on NetGalley and to the author for letting me be a part of the traveling ARC team. 

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TROPES

🥭 Second Chance Romance

🥭 Forced Proximity (crashed on an island)

🥭 Dual Timeline

As someone who grew up watching Lost, this book was immediately on my TBR when I heard about it. It’s something different from what’s usually out there, and I was curious about how the premise would work. How would just the two of them end up on an island? How long would they be there? Would these questions even be answered? They were, and all of it made reasonable sense.

Piper is a great character to be in the head of. She’s sassy and confident, though she doesn’t always let that confidence show in certain aspects of her life. Being on the island with Wyatt, someone she’d been forced to let go of without ever knowing the full story, opens her up in an important way. She’s been a yes woman to her parents, even going down a career path she isn’t interested in just to make them happy. It’s wonderful to see her come to certain realizations, even if it took crashing on an island with her ex to make them happen. 

There’s a great balance between survival and personal growth while Piper and Wyatt are on the island. I wasn’t sure what to expect, since reasonably they were going to be on the island for a short period of time, and there was a lot of emotional baggage to look through to bring the two together again. While those talks and thoughts happened, it wasn’t at the loss of the pair actually talking about how to survive and hunting down resources. It was both a believable situation in what they were eating and the struggles they faced, but also in the deep life thoughts that probably come with that experience. 

Thank you to the publisher for an eARC of the traditionally published version! 

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TROPES

🥐 Workplace Romance

🥐 Found Family

🥐 Single Guardian

🥐 STEM Romance

As a museum lover, this was an instant add to my TBR. Millie and Finn work at the same museum, but in different departments. When their paths keep crossing, the two become friends, and then something more.

Millie is a great character to be in the head of. Her inner monologues are things I find myself saying, and her fears are real. She’s worked hard to find herself outside of a toxic relationship, and she doesn’t let herself fall back into it, even when her situation could encourage it. I think it’s important to see her experience documented, as she isn’t the first and won’t be the last woman to have to endure it. As someone who also doesn’t talk to their parents, I feel for Finn. It isn’t something he enjoys or likes, but he is protecting himself and his nieces, and I’m always happy and thankful to see that represented. 

I love the ease at which Millie and Finn’s relationship blooms. They just steadily intertwin their lives until they realize they don’t want to undo it. While they’ve been surviving, they thrive with the help of the other, and it’s nice to see people come together like that. Finn may be one of my favorite MMCs I’ve read, simply because of how smooth he is, even when he’s sick. 

 

 

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TROPES

🧁 Fated Mates

🧁 Grumpy x Sunshine

🧁 Small Town

🧁 Age Gap

🧁 Shifter x Witch

🧁 Dual POV

Everything about this book had me giggling the entire time. I read it in one sitting while rotting in bed one afternoon, and I loved every minute of it. 

You can’t help but respect Netti’s hustle. She’s doing everything she can to do well in school, support herself, and work toward the career she wants, even though it means leaving her family home. I like that there is no animosity between Netti and her family. She didn’t explore her options out of something negative, but rather because she just had other interests, and her family seems to support that. They just don’t like that she moved away and they don’t get to see her as often as they’d like.

In the same vein, Connor also left home to pursue something else. However, this is rooted in not wanting to fight with his brother, since they were both the twin sons of their pack’s alpha. It’s admirable and understandable, even though his wolf seems to be against the decision. That said, I think it’s hilarious that baked goods did not work in his favor, but they forced him to confront what he wants and what he’s meant to be. 

 

 Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours for the eARC!

Dating and Dragons was one of my most anticipated YA reads for this year. I really enjoyed it, and it certainly has delivered on what I was hoping for from it as a great combination of coming of age and Dungeons and Dragons. Quinn is just trying to adjust to a new school, especially as someone moving mid-year, and she’s lucky in that she connects with a friend group right away thanks to her grandmother’s embarrassing antics. I particularly liked that we got to read a lot about the game play. I’ve only ever played DND once, so it was interesting to see how a more put together campaign could run, and the kinds of things that can happen in it. 

My only note is that at times, what Logan says felt like something that would be in an adult romance book. Are there teens out there that could be like that? Maybe? I don’t really know, but I had to do double takes to make sure it was him as himself and not him in his game character. I’m not sure if maybe this was originally designed as an adult novel and then reworked, but it’s just something that stood out to me. 

 

 

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I really enjoyed the structure of this short story. It felt like I was the main character, coming back again and again to serve someone that only saw me for how I could improve their life, not because they cared about me in any significant way. It reminds me of one of the songs from the recent EPIC saga release, and I’d love to read more fantasy stories like this one.

 

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While I was intrigued by the premise of this book, it ultimately did not deliver. As someone who has read a lot of non-fiction on the topic at hand because of my studies, unfortunately the depictions rubbed me the wrong way. Rather than feel like it was shining a light on something, it felt exploitative. As a white woman, I will never claim to know what the lived experience of migrants forced into slave labor is. But, in this book, it felt as though their experiences were used as a marketing gimmick, especially because the story ultimately did little to show their plights or the work that goes into dismantling the organizations or people creating them. 

I also believe this book was too long and did not get to the premise soon enough. While it was interesting to see the main characters as children, and their initial interactions with the Viking stories that would soon play a significant role in their lives, the story dragged on for over 200 pages before it found its pace. So much of what happened was told rather than shown, which really prevented me from engaging with the narrative more. Had we gotten to the core of the story sooner, I think there would’ve been more time to create something with a meaningful impact. 

The positive of the story was the ever-changing POVs. Seeing everything play out through multiple sets of eyes and how each unique view took the details in was nice. The changes of Clara and Emilia from seven year olds to adults after college was helpful in understanding when they were “ready” for what the gods had in store for them, and established how important they were to changing society for the better. I particularly thought the POVs from the gods were insightful. 

Thank you to BookInfluencers.com and the authors for a physical copy!

Thank you to the author for an eARC as a member of the ARC team! 

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TROPES

🥍 Fake Dating

🥍 Childhood Friends to Strangers to Lovers

🥍 Lacrosse Player x Theater Girl

This is such a cute read! I love when childhood friends come together, and Audrey and Parker finding each other again after years apart was adorable. 

So much happens at this one Halloween party so far, and I can’t wait to see how that plays into the rest of the series. The first book, A Not So Prince Charming, and this one take place during the same year, and it’s great to see everything from a different perspective. Knowing now what Audrey was finding her own prince charming at the same time as Ella is so cute. I want to tandem read the two books to see both stories play out at once.

I feel so strongly for both of them. Audrey and Parker have been hurt in love before, which makes them entirely oblivious to what’s in front of them. It isn’t a miscommunication, it’s a denial that someone could care as much as they do. I’m happy that we saw Audrey have justice in that department, not just with Parker but with her ex-boyfriend. It didn’t even come at the end of the book, which, in my opinion, was nice because then it was out of mind as Parker and Audrey dealt with their feelings and focused on each other.