Review: Until I Remember by Karla Sorensen

About the Book

She has no memory of choosing him. Her heart, apparently, didn’t get the memo.

I wake up in a hospital with a year of my life missing—and Grant Hastings at my bedside. I remember him, all right. He’s wealthy. Arrogant. British. And my late brother’s best friend. The last man I’d ever want to marry.

Except apparently I did.

Now I’m living in a beautiful house I don’t recognize, wearing a ring I don’t remember receiving, and expected to play the devoted wife while his aristocratic family, unaware of the gaps in my memory, descends for his birthday. Grant is patient and attentive, dropping hints about an explosive relationship that makes my pulse race. He’s nothing like the cold, haughty man I remember.

Torn between suspicion about this inconvenient marriage of convenience and an attraction to my husband I’m not ready to name, I have to make a choice: leave the past buried or trust Grant to help me find my way back to a life I can’t remember choosing.

The terrifying part? I’m starting to think past me knew exactly what she was doing

Review

Until I Remember was my first time reading the amnesia trope, and I’ll admit I was hesitant going in. Karla Sorensen proved me wrong. This was such a beautifully written and emotionally engaging story about two people finding each other after grief, only to have to find each other all over again after tragedy.

The last thing Mercy remembers before her accident is telling Grant to leave her alone. When she wakes up, she can’t remember the last year of her life. Somehow, she is now married to Grant.

The first half of this book was easily the strongest for me. For much of it, Grant’s POV is withheld. We experience him almost entirely through Mercy. I loved that choice because we know exactly as much as she does. We’re trying to figure out this version of Grant right alongside her.

And Grant? So charming. Even from Mercy’s POV, it was obvious how hard he was trying to restrain himself and give her the space she needed. I loved watching Mercy slowly fall for him while trying to reconcile the man standing in front of her with the version of him she remembers. I wouldn’t necessarily classify their past relationship as hate-to-love. She disliked him, but even that felt more like a mild dislike than genuine hatred.

Mercy was so much fun. Losing a year of her memories never meant losing the personality that made her Mercy. She still had that spunk, and I loved watching her struggle with how to take all the pieces of the Grant she remembered and reconcile them with someone who now felt almost unrecognizable. More than anything, I liked that she had to get to know the man standing in front of her instead of simply relying on who everyone told her he had become.

And the entire scene of Mercy returning to her classroom after the accident? Amazing. No notes. I tear up even thinking about it. I desperately wish we had gotten more of Mercy returning to work and reconnecting with her students because that was one of my favorite parts of the entire book.

Where the book lost me slightly was in the second half. Sorensen had slowly begun this beautiful romance, and the latter half just felt a bit rushed. I wanted more longing. More time. More of them having to find their way back to each other before everything came together again.

I also would have loved more alternating POVs toward the end. Staying firmly with Mercy worked incredibly well in the beginning because Grant needed to remain somewhat unknowable. However, there was a stretch at the end where it was all Grant’s POV. I think alternating POV’s could have maintained some of the emotional momentum that I felt was lost near the end.

Honestly, I think that my biggest complaint is that I wanted more. I wish this book had been longer. There was so much more I would have happily read. Mercy returning to work, more time with her students, more of Mercy and Grant rebuilding their relationship, and more of their life after everything settled. Sidenote, the scene where Mercy returns back to work made me sob.

Can I get a novella? A bonus epilogue? Something? Because there is still so much that could be done with these two.

Final Thoughts

I found Until I Remember to be beautifully written and emotional. I was highly invested in Mercy and Grant’s love story. Despite the rushed second half, I adored these characters and wish I had gotten more time with them.

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Review: Fangbanger by Sophia Travers

About the Book

He’s the brutal gladiator-turned-vampire I’ve hunted for years…and I’m the slayer who will do anything to end him. Marcus Antonius needs to die. The arrogant vampire is an immortal legend—a cruel warrior and beautiful predator. I’m an orphaned slayer with no magic, but I refuse to be his prey.

When I finally lure him to my home, he nearly kills me, and I learn a horrible truth—to avenge my parents’ deaths, I need to partner with my enemy.

Our deal is simple—one week living together in exchange for my revenge.

We share a bed. He sleeps shirtless and tempts me in the night.

And when he needs to feed? I shouldn’t let him bite me.

I shouldn’t start to crave it.

And I definitely shouldn’t like everything he does for me, like rescue me when I’m injured, and feed me when I’ve been fending for myself for years.

Just when I start to trust him, I learn he’s been keeping secrets.

One week, one bed, one deal — and a vampire I can’t kill but can never keep.

Review

I was very excited about the concept of Fangbanger. I’ve read so few stories centered on vampire x slayer, and I thought this would be a fun, engaging enemies-to-lovers story. Unfortunately, the execution just didn’t work for me.

A lot of the story felt forced rather than developing naturally. The lore was also more than a little confusing, and instead of becoming clearer as the story progressed, it left me with more questions. The repeated use of words like “mate” and “slayer” also became annoying after a while.

There was a lot of buildup with the “villain” of the story. It didn’t lead anywhere. Also, it felt like so much filler that added nothing to the overall story. The book felt longer than it needed to be.

I was especially disappointed by the reveal surrounding what happened to her parents. Light spoiler, but Leah got it all wrong. The book reveals it early on. I didn’t particularly love that twist because it felt too casual.  Toward the end, we learn even more about what actually happened the night her parents died, but that additional information didn’t make the storyline any more satisfying for me. If anything, I was left wondering why there had been so much buildup for a reveal that ultimately felt so lackluster.

Final Thoughts

Fangbanger had a concept that really appealed to me, but the confusing lore, forced development, filler, and underwhelming payoff made it difficult for me to stay invested.

Review: Lead Me Home by Catherine Bybee

About the Book

When spreadsheets are safer than people, falling in love becomes the ultimate risk in this powerful novel of trauma, healing, and unexpected courage from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee.

Luna Canning trusts numbers more than people and for good reason. As a forensic accountant who specializes in exposing fraud, she knows numbers never deceive, unlike the toxic family she’s spent a lifetime trying to escape. Now living in her grandmother’s Victorian home, Luna has built a carefully ordered life behind walls she thought were unbreakable.

When her car is stolen from an airport parking lot, former FBI agent turned PI Nate Warren steps in to help and proves more dangerous to her defenses than any thief. Despite Luna’s ironclad rules about mixing business with pleasure, their chemistry ignites, and for the first time, she considers letting someone past her guard. But just as their relationship begins to blossom, Luna’s manipulative mother arrives unannounced, dragging with her a dangerous man and decades of unresolved trauma that threaten everything Luna has built.

Now Luna must confront the ghosts of her past, both metaphorical and possibly literal, as strange occurrences in her historic home suggest she’s not alone. With a violent threat looming and her heart on the line, Luna discovers that sometimes the hardest person to trust is yourself.

Review

When you’ve been hurt by the people who were supposed to love you, keeping your distance feels like common sense. That is the heart of Catherine Bybee’s Lead Me Home, a story about how terrifying and rewarding it is to finally drop your guard.

Our main character, Luna, relies on math to keep her life predictable. As a forensic accountant, she loves numbers because they don't lie, manipulate, or hurt you like real people do. She has built a quiet, safe, totally controlled life inside her late grandmother’s Victorian house.

What makes her journey so compelling is that her guarded nature isn’t presented as a flaw that simply needs to be fixed. Her walls were built for survival. They protected her when the people who should have made her feel safe instead became sources of fear and manipulations. Her perfectly ordered life is about the stability she was never given. Then Nates enters.

Enter Nate, a former FBI agent who steps in when her car gets stolen. He is kind, protective, and immediately throws a wrench into her strict rule about keeping everyone at a distance. Their connection feels natural and effortless, but just as Luna starts to consider letting him in, her toxic mother shows up with a massive pile of trouble and dangerous secrets.

When Luna’s past collides with her present through the return of her manipulative mother, the novel shifts from a tender story of intimacy into a high-stakes confrontation with inherited trauma. By blending real-world danger with the unsettling, haunting atmosphere of her historic home, Bybee mirrors Luna’s internal reality: when you try to bury the past, it inevitably finds a way to make noise in the attic.

What makes this book hit home is how relatable Luna’s fear really is. Most of us haven't had to deal with crime bosses or haunting mysteries, but almost everyone knows what it feels like to protect their heart after getting burned. Bybee balances high-stakes romance and suspense with a genuine, comforting message: surviving trauma is hard, but opening up to love takes a whole different kind of bravery.

Ultimately, Lead Me Home offers a resonant reflection on courage. It reminds us that the hardest part of healing isn't surviving the original wound but allowing ourselves the vulnerability to live beyond it.

Lead Me Home is the first book in the Queen Anne series. Look out for Always Been You coming out early next year.

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Review: The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom by Talya Jankovits

About the Book

In the insulated Hasidic community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, tradition and cultural norms are as sacred as religion. Childhood friendships are cultivated to climb social ladders, matchmakers dictate futures, and young girls are primed for marriage and motherhood. So, when Etty Greenberger, a headstrong redhead and the only child of Holocaust survivors, commits one ugly and thoughtless act, she believes she has sabotaged her opportunity to secure a desirable match. Reluctantly, she agrees to marry Benji Bloom, a fishmonger's son far below her marital aspirations, becoming Mrs. Etty Bloom. With each passing year, Etty grows further from the life she had hoped for, filled with disappointment and delusions of grandeur. As she grapples with loss, grief, and the challenges of motherhood, she also discovers friendship, love, and joy in the most unexpected places. It may take a lifetime, but Etty Bloom finally learns that an unremarkable life can be remarkable after all.

Review

Some stories do not ask us to witness a grand, earth-shattering rebellion, but rather the quiet, persistent friction of living inside a life that feels too small. On its surface this wonderful debut, the story of Etty Greenberger follows a familiar outline of insular community life in Hasidic Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A world led by matchmakers, strict social hierarchies, and the heavy weight of inherited trauma. Yet beneath this tightly woven backdrop lies a far more universal and uncomfortable truth: the quiet tragedy of our own unexamined expectations.

Etty is not a traditional heroine defined by easy grace or noble suffering. As a headstrong, redheaded only child of Holocaust survivors, her inner world is shaped by both intense pressure and an inflated sense of destination. When a single impulsive mistake derails her social prospects, sending her into a marriage with Benji Bloom, a humble fishmonger’s son, she views her new reality as an epic downgrade. For years, she lived in the painful space between who she believed she was meant to be and who she actually is.

What makes Etty’s journey so profoundly moving is that her primary antagonist isn't the strict traditions of her community, but her own resistance to ordinary life. In a culture where you grow up on an expected path of how your life will be, Etty's true battle is learning how to stop measuring her worth against the life she lost out on.

Her transformation doesn't come through a dramatic escape or a sudden rejection of her world. Instead, it arrives through the messy, unglamorous realities of motherhood, grief, unexpected friendships, and subtle moments of joy. Through Benji and the life they build, Etty is forced to confront the arrogance of her early disappointment.

Ultimately, this is a narrative that challenges our obsession with exceptionalism. It asks a profound question: What if fulfillment isn't found in transcending the everyday, but in finally surrendering to it? It takes Etty a lifetime to realize that an unremarkable life isn't a failure, it is simply a canvas waiting for a different kind of appreciation.

Learning that this book evolved from short stories, piqued my curiosity. What I appreciate most about this book is getting a glimpse into a culture that we see often, influenced by assumptions and stereotypes but fail to see how much in common we have despite their cultural restrictions. Her experience and internal conflict are relatable and heart breaking. Often many feel if they were given different circumstances could their life be different but a wonderful life lesson comes out of her experience. The hand you were dealt may not be what you wanted but the life you can make out of it can be your next chapter. If only the latter could’ve prevailed sooner than later for her, the unremarkable would’ve been remarkable.

I appreciate this book coming into my path. Despite moments that pull, there were moments that make you laugh out loud. Etty was quite the character. I’m always curious and appreciate other cultures because there’s something we can learn but most importantly find relatable and in common. One thing to note that was a nice touch having a reference term index in the back to learn what many words and phrases mean. Her new name truly embodied her transformation because she truly bloomed into someone despite her opposition, one that she could be proud of. Her experiences may seem unremarkable, but her journey was unforgettable. 

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Review: Make it a Double by Amber Palmer

About the Book

When small-town bartender Sawyer Sutton catches the eye of Beckett Montgomery, their connection burns as bright as the fireworks at the country fair. She isn’t afraid to tell the wealthy property developer what she thinks of his profession, and he finds her passion for the community endearing, even if old-fashioned. After a fervent one-night stand, they go their separate ways with only memories to remind them of what they shared.

Or so they thought.

Six weeks and two pink lines later, Sawyer and Beckett find themselves tied together in ways they never imagined. Becoming parents wasn’t something either of them had planned, but as the countdown to the due date begins, the two must learn to work together despite clashing personalities. The more time they spend together, the harder it is for them to ignore the sizzling chemistry that got them into this position in the first place. The only thing standing in their way now is themselves.

Review

Make It a Double was a decent read overall. I wasn’t blown away by it, but I didn’t dislike it either.

I felt pretty indifferent about Sawyer. As the main character and part of the romance, I expected to find her more interesting than I did. Her relationship with her grams was sweet, though grams appeared so briefly. Also, I especially enjoyed her friendship with Olivia. Their friendship was sweet and added some nice moments to the story.

As for the romance, there certainly was chemistry. There were a lot of genuinely sweet moments between them. Beckett was supportive; however, he felt a little too perfect at times. I did really enjoy that he asked for Duke’s help to prepare himself for becoming a father. It was a small detail that showed how seriously he was taking that new role. I also loved that Beckett was honest with Olivia and Duke about his father’s plan rather than keeping it a secret. That spoke to his character. Unfortunately, after all the buildup around his father, that subplot ended anticlimactically. I expected a little more from that conflict. I will say I didn’t appreciate Beckett’s nickname for Sawyer. For a city boy, the pet name never felt particularly authentic to his character. I would have preferred something else that felt more natural coming from him.

One of the strongest parts of the story was the pacing. The story flowed smoothly without dragging, but it also didn’t feel rushed or too short. It was an easy book to get through.

Final Thoughts

Make It a Double wasn’t a bad book. There were sweet moments, good chemistry, and some relationships I really enjoyed. I do wish I had loved Sawyer a bit more.

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Review: Sunday's Best by Bailey Hannah

About the Book

A summer on the road.

A relationship on the rocks.

And the one man she shouldn’t want.

Sunday thought this summer would be simple: follow her boyfriend and his brother from rodeo to rodeo, enjoy the freedom of the open road, and confirm what she already suspects—Logan is cheating.

What she doesn’t expect is Holden.

Holden’s steady where Logan is careless, quiet where Logan is loud, and impossible to ignore when sharing close-quarters.

As the miles pass and the nights grow long, the tension between them escalates. Every glance, every accidental touch feels like a risk—and crossing the line could jeopardize everything Holden and Logan have worked for. But the reward is starting to feel impossible to walk away from.

Review

Sunday’s Best was quite frustrating for me.  Sorry, but I couldn’t root for Holden. He knew how much his twin brother had hurt Sunday. Even watched it happen. Yet he still encouraged her to stay with Logan because the team was on a winning streak and thought she should wait until the end of the season to leave him. For why? He was supposedly in love with her.  It felt incredibly weird to me that he didn’t speak up earlier. And why was Logan’s career and the team’s success more important than what Sunday was going through?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of Sunday either. There’s not much character development for her. She is absolutely not responsible for Logan cheating on her, but I became frustrated watching her repeatedly refuse to stand up for herself and choose herself. She knew Logan had been cheating. She had literally watched him cheat. Yet instead of finally ending the relationship, she ended up cheating on him with his twin brother.

A lot of Sunday’s decisions revolved around worrying about Logan and his career. And the explanation for why she remained so caught up in him was pretty lackluster. I needed more to understand why she stayed for so long and why choosing herself seemed so difficult.

The romance was not my favorite either. There wasn’t enough emotional connection or romantic development with Holden and Sunday. And truthfully, Holden was barely a step above Logan for me, especially after knowing what Sunday was going through and still encouraging her to remain in that relationship.

Logan felt like the stereotypical awful boyfriend without enough depth to make him interesting. He cheats, treats Sunday terribly, and prioritizes himself, but there wasn’t much more to his character beyond that. Which I mean is fine. The book is about Sunday and Holden.

Final Thoughts

Sunday’s Best is one of the more frustrating reads of the year. I was supposed to root for the romance, but I never got there. Instead, I spent most of the book frustrated with almost everything.

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