Review: The Rivals by Vi Keeland

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I enjoyed myself while reading The Rival. It was highly entertaining and highly addicting.

In The Rivals, the Lockwood and Sterling family have been enemies for some time. It all started decades ago when two men from each family both fell in love with the same woman. The love affair resulted in a joint business venture in creating a classy hotel named The Countess. Weston Lockwood and Sophia Sterling come to the hotel in hopes of securing control of the hotel for their respective families. While they anticipated the hard work, what was unexpected was how quickly they learned that they might not hate each other after all.

Again, I found this to be an entertaining read. Both POVs keep me captivated and I really enjoyed the backstory of the hotel. I thought that history was nicely woven in. In addition, I really loved the dynamic between Sophia and Weston. They have this amazing chemistry and bounce off each other very well. And the banter is to die for.

Also, both of them are trying to prove themselves to their family.  Sophia is trying to prove to her father that she can handle it, and that her brother is not better suited for the job. Weston is trying to prove to his family that he’s changed from his destructive ways and can be dependable.

And surprisingly, this story does have a few emotional moments. Both of them have sort of tragic past.

Final Thoughts:

The Rival is a perfectly crafted enemies-to-lovers romance. 

Review: The Prince’s Bride by J.J. McAvoy

Like the first book, I was completely captivated by this world and the characters. This book takes place 6 months after the events of the first book. During those six months, Odette nor Gale had been in contact with each other. Gale is still dealing with the aftermath of his brother’s death and adjusting to his new title in the monarchy. Odette is stuck, back in Seattle trying to find a sense of the normalcy she had prior to meeting Gale. Until one day, she decides that she is going to catch a plane to Ersovia and end the whole thing once and for all.

I enjoyed this book. And I think I might have enjoyed it more than the first one. For starters, it is much longer than the other book. And with this book we got to dive more into the history of Ersovia and the royal family. Gale’s younger sister, sister-in-law, and mother are all highly important characters in this book. And they rightfully get a decent amount of scene time. It was interesting getting to know them. I particularly enjoyed his relationship with his sister and mother. They are part of a monarch, but there were nice wholesome and relatable family moments blended in there. That made them all seem a tad bit normal.

I do wish that there had been more regarding Sophia, Gale’s sister-in-law. Throughout the book, she is described as a widow in mourning and bitter. At times, it felt one dimensional, and I don’t think she was explored as much as she could have been.

This book is mainly told through the POV’s of Gale and Odette. And although they spend a significant time apart, those few moments where they were together were magical and the chemistry was off the charts. And I found it particularly interesting reading about Odette’s transition from commoner to future queen.

What she had to go through was intense. And she had to go through it with the public not on her side and tabloid rumors. Her reactions felt extremely realistic, especially for someone thrusted in that lifestyle. Not once did it seem that she was overreacting. And although she was being treated unfairly she held her ground. As for Gale, he’s faithful to Odette and so deeply in love. There is no doubt in my mind that he wouldn’t do anything for her.  

There are other character POVs in this book too.  I will admit at first, I was confused why there were sprinkles of chapters in the supporting cast’s POV, but as the book progressed, I got used to them and welcomed them. Especially, towards the end when the big, real climax happened.

This book was surprisingly heavier than the last book. It does deal with death, but it’s heavy on the mourning. And in the later book, there’s sort of an unexpected twist that sort of turns this into a light mystery. Although unexpected, I welcomed the surprise and was emotionally attached to the journey. Recently, the author announced there will be another part in this world, and I can’t wait to continue on this journey.

Final Thoughts

The Prince’s Bride is a magical sequel to a story about a sort of arranged marriage that turns in a beautiful, emotional love story. 

Spotlight: Honoring Your Lane: There’s Less Traffic There by Kevin Ray

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One day on twitter, I tweeted that I was looking for a book to read. Within a matter of minutes, someone tweeted back that I should check out this one. I had no idea who the person was, nor had I heard of the book. But still, I decided to check it out. Honoring Your Lane is an inspirational book with a sprinkle of biographical elements and self-help. It’s not a terrible book. I don’t harbor any negative feelings towards it. It simply was fine for me.

It’s a typical inspirational book. And yes, it does offer great encouraging words. But again, it’s typical and almost unoriginal. That doesn’t mean it’s a terrible book by any means. It just means that I wish the author added more things to make it stand out and make this book theirs. For me, I was intrigued with how the author set up the book by talking about Birmingham and their complicated relationship with it. I wish that aspect had been woven more into it.

I did enjoy the voice of the book. It felt very personal. And I will admit that I was a little taken when the pandemic was mentioned. It was a brief mention, but this was my first book that I’ve read that had acknowledged the current situation.

Final Thoughts

Honoring Your Lane is a typical inspirational book that is fine and one that struggles to add anything new to the genre. 

Review: My Darling Arrow by Saffron A. Kent

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This book was frustrating, and it made me very uncomfortable at times. I had gone into it with high expectations and unfortunately, they were not met.

Salem has been in love with Arrow since forever. She lives and breathes him and is extremely crushed when he starts dating her other sister. So crushed that when she hears that he is planning to propose to her sister she plots a plan to run away. Her plan doesn’t work, and she gets sent to a reformed school. But then Arrow gets suspended from his soccer team for punching his assistant coach and ends up being the coach at her high school.

I knew going in that this was going to be a forbidden type of love story. However, I wasn’t aware of how young Salem was going to be. I thought she was going to be much older. She’s eighteen, and there are several times where she sounds like she is 12. Arrow is like five years older than her, and it felt uncomfortable reading about them lowkey flirting on campus. Especially since he was in a position of power and many times it felt like he did cross that line.

And it doesn’t help the situation that Salem is so madly in love with him. She sounds like overly obsessed and dramatic fan. So reading in her POV felt awkward. Everything was about Arrow. Everything she did was for him. If he would have told her to rob a bank, she would have done it. No questions asked.

And Arrow’s POV was also frustrating because rarely did he think about Salem. He mostly thought about soccer or Sarah.

Arrow and Sarah (Salem’s sister) dated for 8 years. I felt like the author took the easy road with them. The word “convenient” kept being tossed around to describe their relationship. But they spent 8 years together and it took Arrow that long to figure it out? It felt as if the author was trying to come up with an easy way to make Arrow’s leap from Sarah to Salem in a short amount of time okay.  

Sequentially, this book was trying to sell the romance between Salem and Arrow. And rarely did Arrow ever think about Salem or what she wanted. Quite honesty, he was a jerk to her and a little possessive. He was constantly telling her what to do or what to wear. And like several things in the book, it made me feel uncomfortable. This book is 500+ pages, yet I was 100% not sold on this romance at all. They lacked any real chemistry. And Salem felt more into Arrow than he was into her.

Separately, neither Salem nor Arrow have any major character development. For the entirety of the book, they remain as two dimensional characters without any growth.

In addition, the words “witchy” and “pouting” were overused so many times, it was getting annoying. The words were beginning to feel like characters.

Final Thoughts

My Darling Arrow features a frustrating and severely lacking story of a forbidden love story. The romance doesn’t have any real chemistry, the book is unnecessarily long, and the characters felt two dimensional.

Review: Made of Steel by Ivy Smoak

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This book was a lot. And I’m not sure it I can accurately described my feelings towards it. But I can wholeheartedly say I was excited to read it. I thought it would be an interesting and well-constructed second chance romance with an interesting plot about a vigilante guarding the people of New York. I was very wrong.

Made of Steel is about Summer, who was a normal kid who had a crush on her neighbor, Miles. After her parents are tragedy killed, she is sent away. Her and Miles try to keep in contact, but ultimately fail. New, ten years later after she lost her parents, she is in the witness protection program. She has a new name (Sadie) and a new life. She isn’t allowed to speak to anyone from her previous life, but that rule becomes hard to follow when she finds out that Miles is attending the same university as her.

This book has a lot of moving parts that don’t flow very well together. It felts discombobulated and confused about what it was trying to accomplish.  There is so much going on and it often feels cliché and overly dramatic. Everything bad that could have happened to Summer (Sadie) happened to her.

I found the vigilante aspect to be the most interesting; however, it was underdeveloped and spotty. It would disappear and be overshadowed by another plot. And then it would come back up. I understand that this is a series, but I don’t find myself continuing it. I have no desire to see what happens next.

In addition, it has a severely lacking love triangle. I didn’t feel the chemistry with Miles/Summer (Sadie) nor did I feel the chemistry with Eli/Summer (Sadie). There was no real development between either. Everything just happened so fast. And quite honestly, I’m not sure why any of the parties are so deeply drawn to the other.

Final Thoughts

Made of Steel felt like a book filled off half developed coincidences. 

Review: Autumn Skies by Denise Hunter

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There isn’t a book that I’ve read by Denise Hunter that I haven’t loved. I hadn’t gotten a chance to read this series before this book but will back read to get a better picture of everything that led until this moment. Autumn Skies can be read alone and get a could grasp of what is happening but I recommend reading the preceding novels to appreciate more of the progression of the events in the series.

In the conclusion of her series, Autumn Skies brings us to the Bluebell Inn. Secret Service Agent Wyatt Jennings after an incident has been off his game and was told he had to take a mandatory leave of absence from his job. Triggering a childhood trauma, he has been unable to maintain focus on his critical job. Trying to cope and amend his past, Wyatt finds himself at the Bluebell Inn, a place where his past and present collide.

Grace Bennett, one of the siblings who own the inn, has a lot going on in her life. She has her own business as well as running the inn. When Wyatt Jennings comes strolling in looking for refuge all handsome and reserved, Grace finds herself taken back by his presence. Upon hearing of his interest in hiking, Grace decides to offer her services both helping her business and him do something fun. As the two get to know each other, a secret from her past collides with Wyatt unexpectedly that changes their lives forever.

Overall, despite not knowing their backstory, I feel based on what I read in this book, this was a great ending to what seems like a wonderful series. The Bennett family seems like one that you will fall in love with. I love their relationship as siblings and reading glimpse of their past make me anticipate what I need to catch up on. Like I said before, I think you should start from the beginning because it sounds like each book is going to be one that you will dive right into because there has been so much that has happened to them. She always has such lovable characters that you want to root for because she bring so much into them that you just can’t help to keep turning.