melanietalksbooks's reviews
1862 reviews

The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest is messy but really good! The book follows Lily as she starts an online friendship with an author who has lied about a lot of his life. The author then ghosts Lily and she tries to move on with her life. She meets Nick, a neighbor who is the author who ghosted her. Now you might be like me and think that this man followed her and scream out "YOU ARE IN DANGER!!" but he actually coincidentally moved into her building. Nick realizes that Lily was the person he was communicating with and instead of coming clean or leaving her alone he tries ghosting her again. He is too attracted to her to leave her alone and just wants to be friends, yeah right. Anyway, the book is messy as hell but is so good! 

My favorite part of the book was when Nick was so jealous of the guy that Lily goes on a date with, but I'm petty so I enjoyed that. My least favorite part was that Nick was a straight up liar and I am defined by the saying "I forget but I never forgive" because I had forgotten what he did at the start but was mad at him the entire time. I know it sounds like I hated Nick but I swear I don't, like I get why he lied but he is still a liar. I ate this book up because it was so good. I loved the sisters and I am excited to read the rest of the series!

Tropes: friends to lovers, book lovers

The Wagtail Murder Club by Krista Davis is the 10th installment of the A Paws and Claws Mystery. I recommend that you do read the backstory but if this is where you start it shouldn't take much for you to be up to speed. Basically Holly Miller moved to town after her life imploded and now is dating Holmes and runs the Sugar Maple Inn with her grandmother. Additionally, Holly has solved multiple murders as she is an amateur sleuth.

In this book, Holly's ex-boyfriend who once proposed via text nicknamed "The Ben" comes to town along with the majority of his law firm. I already knew I was going to have a lot of feelings about this book because "The Ben" brings out so much rage in my body, it is truly incredible. Holly assumes her boyfriend Holmes is fine with her ex crashing at her place and lets him just stay there. Someone is murdered during their visit and the local police asks her to integrate into the group. Y'all somehow she ends up engaged to "The Ben" to not embarrass him. 

I got so mad that I put this book away for four months because I was in such a rage that I couldn't even read this book. I have one question for Holly and that is: what was that? Because honestly, what even was that?! After four months I came back to the book and it actually was really good. The motive was super interesting, the villain was so well crafted, the story was really compelling. It would have been a 5 star book if Holly hadn't pmo. I'm serious, I had a really good time once things got sorted but I am still mad about her accepting a random proposal so I gave it 3 stars. 

I would highly recommend this book because it was actually really good. I have enjoyed this series a lot so I would really recommend reading the whole thing. I just wish that Holly wasn't such a pushover that she felt obligated to say yes to her smarmy ex. Other than that the book is actually really great!

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley, and Krista Davis for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore follows a very grumpy Kira North and a very helpful Bennett Ellis. Grumpy Kira bought a Christmas tree farm with not much of a plan aside from buying it and not much of an idea of what to do now that she has it. Bennett is visiting his sister and gets roped into helping Kira because he honestly has a pathological need to help others. Together they work to make the Christmas tree farm a success so Kira can keep the lights of the farm on and make it through the winter. 

Laurie Gilmore is becoming one of my favorite comfort authors. I thought this book was sweet and cozy. I did think that Kira was sometimes a little bit of a caricature of someone grumpy. I thought that we got the magic of Dream Harbor but it wasn't the first or the second book. I wish we could have seen Kira get more integrated with the neighbors a little earlier so we could visit with the town more and both of them being outsiders kind of removed them from the town a little. I did think the book was very entertaining and a great addition but it wasn't my favorite of the series. I would recommend reading the first two books to get a feel of the town but if you choose to read this one first, I don't see why it wouldn't be enjoyable. I definitely recommend reading it as it was cozy and sweet. 

Tropes: found family, grumpy x sunshine, small town

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store is exactly what I needed right now. The book follows Hazel who is a risk averse bookstore manager that finds little notes that give her challenges to do during the summer before her 30th birthday. To help her, she enlists Noah. Noah is a new-to-town boat captain who believes himself to be a screw up just because he decided to find his passion rather than follow his father's dreams. Together they take on the challenges and fall in love in the process. 

Laurie Gilmore wrote exactly the type of book that I was craving. I love a he falls first, low stakes romance filled little adventures with no real third act breakup. I really liked Hazel a lot, I thought she was well developed and I could totally identify with her. Noah was such a good book boyfriend, he was so into Hazel and I liked that he had his own story that did not detract from or was in competition with his love of Hazel. I also loved all the side characters and was so happy to get to visit the town again, it just filled me with so much joy.

Now, if you like high stakes and lots of drama this is not for you. I just needed a warm little book to curl up and honestly if that is the type of thing you need right now, this book is for you. I would honestly recommend it to anyone who needs a nice distraction that makes you feel warm and fuzzy. 

Tropes: small town, opposites attract, he falls first, no real third act breakup 

Spiral follows Elias as he is playing his rookie year in the NHL and Sage as she struggles to get auditions as a ballerina and therefore struggling financially. Elias has yet to score his first career goal which has caused the media to question his ability to play the game and question his "party boy" lifestyle which is totally fabricated. Sage is told that if she had more instagram she could get an audition. When they meet an an auction because Sage saves Elias from his stalker they go out on a charity date and the idea is planted: we should fake date. Now let me tell you something about fake dating, it is my favorite dating trope. 

I wanted to love this book so bad but I ended up liking it a lot. I thought the entire setup was so clever but I thought that their backstories were comically tragic. Summer and Aiden had their sad stories but they were just silly goofy, for some reason in the BKBU (Bal Khabra book universe) Elias and Summer's backstories were Greek tragedies, like what was that? Don't get me wrong, the book was really fun whenever we had the fake dating, the forced proximity, and the yearning. I loved the yearning so much! I feel like there's not enough yearning in books nowadays. I would recommend this book to anyone who can just look past the tragedy and focus on how fun the rest of the book is. 

Tropes: slow burn, fake dating, forced proximity, one bed

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley, and Bal Khabra for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I'm always late to the party but I finally got to finish The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore and it is so cozy. The book follows Jeanie as she tries her best to run her aunt's beloved café that she is now the proud owner of. She keeps hearing noises coming from outside each night and that is when she meets the grumpy local farmer, Logan. Logan does not want to get involved but something about Jeanie makes him feel protective over her. Together and along with what feels like the entire town of Dream Harbor they are going to figure out what causes all the accidents happening at the Pumpkin Spice Café. 

This book was absolutely charming, I finished it in a day. I love a good cozy book so this was right up my alley. I enjoyed the characters and the setting a lot. I thought the grumpy x sunshine trope was handled very well. They even made me like the antagonist of the story. I think that if you are looking for a quick cozy read this book might be great to pick up. I did forget how spicy it was and recommended it to my friend's mom so that was a little embarrassing so if you want to avoid spice of any kind do not read this book. Other than that, it is an absolutely delightful little read and I highly recommend it!

Unromance by Erin Connor is absolutely perfect! Sawyer and Mason have a meet cute while briefly stuck in an elevator while he is on his way to get broken up with and she is on her way to put off writing her next book. After both have accomplished their mission they decide to have a one night stand to each avoid thinking about what is going on in their lives. They can't stop thinking about each other and once they run into each other they decide that they should help each other out. Sawyer is a jaded black cat personality desperate for inspiration for her next romance book. Mason is golden retriever hopeless romantic personality that can't stop seeing romance in everything around him and wants to become more jaded. They decide to spend time together in totally not romantic dates where they promise to not fall for each other or hook up again. What could possibly go wrong?

This book is so freaking good that I read it in one sitting this morning. I seriously want every single person to read it.  Sawyer is such an absolute mood and Mason is just the absolute best cinnamon roll MMC that I've seen in a minute. So Unromance isn't a fake dating book but it feels very close to that trope if you enjoy that, and I enjoy that trope very much. It does have miscommunication but it is handled very well, same with the third act breakup, it is written so well. Honestly, I thought the entire thing was clever and refreshing. I cannot recommend this book enough because as I said at the start, this book is absolutely perfect! 

Tropes: sort of fake dating, miscommunication, one night stand, friends pact

Thank you to NetGalley, Forever (Grand Central Publishing) | Forever, and Erin Connor for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

As a woman with a PhD in a STEM field Temple of Swoon by Jo Segura just fell flat, much like Miri does on those vines. The book follows Dr. Miriam Jacobs as she tries to find the Lost City of the Moon in Brazil. While exploring Miri is unsuccessfully trying to imitate her mentor in being a badass, and she tries so hard but she's just too "quirky" and "adorkable." She takes almost the entire book to have an ounce of character development which made me so sad. To top it all off the main love interest is straight up sabotaging and endangering her the entire time. 

I thought this book had so much potential but it spent so long trying to convince us that Miri was just sooo quirky. If there had been only small hints of her being not like the other girls it wouldn't have been that bad but there are just tens of pages drilling this down. I did not like the main love interest at all. He was reckless and put people's lives in danger. He got forgiven for his literal crimes way too easily. I did think the twist was interesting which is why it made it to 2.5 stars but it was a pain to get there. Last, this book was so long but the ending felt incredibly rushed. I really hope that there is a third book so that we can get some of the magic from the first book back though. 

Weekend at Bernie's meets Crazy Rich Asians in Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Meddy is set up on a date by her mom and aunties with a complete sleaze who she accidentally murders. She immediately asks her mom for help who calls in her aunties as reinforcement. Together they must hide the body while also preparing a perfect wedding for a very influential couple. If that weren't enough, Meddy's ex (who she is still in love with) owns the resort where the wedding will take place and mistakes the dead body for Meddy's new boyfriend. 

The whole thing is absolute chaos but in the best way possible. This story had me laughing out loud and cringing the entire time. The entire cast of characters is so endearing and funny that I didn't want this book to end so I took my time reading it. There is one section I did not like that I won't reveal due to spoilers but it was enough to make me shake my head and deduct a star. Other than that, the book was an absolute hoot. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes very silly and cozy books. This is definitely a read that you must disconnect from all reality to enjoy but it is enjoyable once you realize that!