The Hating Game by Sally Thorne- Book Review

I love love love this book! This was such a fun, laugh out loud read and I absolutely loved it! I enjoyed the characters and the chemistry they had with each other from the first page until the last page. I enjoyed it so much that I had the hardest time putting it down and read it in two days. If you haven’t read this one but a love great and funny rom com then this book is definitely for you! Plus is being made into a movie so it’s a much read before the movie is released! I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.

Synopsis:
emesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome. 2) A person’s undoing 3) Joshua Templeman
Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.
Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job…But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier- Book Review

This was such a great suspenseful psychological thriller that had me captivated the whole time. It was amazingly written, believable characters, and so much depth and emotion from beginning to end. There so many great dark twist and turns that kept me guessing until the shocking conclusion that I didn’t see coming. I couldn’t not put this book down! This book is definitely worth reading! Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillanusa for this ARC. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Synopsis:
All it takes to unravel a life is one little secret…
Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They’re admired in their community and are a loving family—until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken.
A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She’s lost her son; she’s not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix.
Permanently.

The Institute by Stephen King- Book Review

This was my second Stephen King book I read earlier this year and absolutely loved it. I literally couldn’t put it down and read it in 3 nights. I really enjoyed this one because the story was so intriguing with a different twist. I fell in love with all the kids in this book and rooted for them until the very end! This story was engaging and King does amazing writing when it surrounds pure evil. He knows exactly how to get you hooked into a story of innocence and bring out the evil and selfishness of those around it. This one is a definite 5⭐ read!

Synopsis:
In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh- Book Review

I have loved @melindaleigh1 books for years now, especially The Morgan Dane series. She is one of my go to authors because I love both her stories and her characters. I’m excited and already hooked on her new series, The Bree Taggert Series, which debuted in March! The characters are great and so easy to connect with and the story is intriguing with just the right amount of suspense/mystery and a little romance. Thank you to @netgalleyand @amazonpublishing for the ARC. This book came out it March but there is a second book in this series that is scheduled to come out in September and I’m so excited this story continuing. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Synopsis:
For more than twenty-five years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents’ murder-suicide…Until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished.
Bree knows how explosive the line between love and hate can be, yet the evidence against her troubled brother-in-law isn’t adding up. Teaming up with Justin’s old friend, former sheriff’s investigator and K-9 handler Matt Flynn, Bree vows to uncover the secrets of her sister’s life and death, as she promised Erin’s children. But as her investigation unfolds, the danger hits close to home. Once again, Bree’s family is caught in a death grip. And this time, it could be fatal for her.

The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths- Book Review

have loved this series since the first book and the latest book in the series did not disappoint. I love Dr Ruth Galloway’s character once again. I always come back to the series because her. This book offered the suspense and mystery that I love and the ending completely surprised me. This is the 12th book in the series and I love to continue reading about some of my favorite characters. The only problem I had was that this book takes place two years after the last book so I was a little confused and wondering if I had missed something while reading the first few chapters. Thank you to @netgalleyand @hmhbooks for the ARC. If you haven’t heard of this series then I highly encourage you to check it out. This book will be published July 14th. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.

Synopsis:
Everything has changed for Ruth Galloway. She has a new job, home, and partner, and she is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried—but only if Ruth will do the digging.
Curious, but wary, Ruth agrees. March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travelers to their deaths.
Is Ivor March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk? What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it? And are the killings really over?

The Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight- Book Review

Thank you to #partner @harperbooks for gifting me this book! I flew through this one because I couldn’t put it down. It was so freaking good and such a great mystery/suspense book. I loved the main character Lizzie and felt she was easy to connect with which is always a plus when I feel a connection with the main character. @kimberlymccreightdid an amazing job with all the twist and turns in this story and completely surprised me with the ending. The last few pages had me biting my nails as all the truth was coming out! I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.

Synopsis:
Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart. No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was just good at averting her eyes. The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help—even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: his wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect. As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed—and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Brooklyn Country Day school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own. In the end, she’s left wondering not only whether her own marriage can be saved, but what it means to have a good marriage in the first place.

Well Played by Jen DeLuca- Book Review

Thank you to @berkleypub and @netgalley for this ARC. This was another fun read by Jen DeLuca. I read Well Met earlier this year and when I received this ARC I immediately started reading and ended up finishing it in one night. Those sleepless hours were lost but not regreted. I love that this story tied in with the characters of Well Met and focused on Emily’s friend Stacy (Anastasia). I laughed out loud many times trying not to wake my husband sleeping next me. It was such a cute and fast paced read! This book will be published Sept. 22nd. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫.

Synopsis:
Stacey is jolted when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She knew she was putting her life on hold when she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her sick mother, but it’s been years now, and even though Stacey loves spending her summers pouring drinks and flirting with patrons at the local Renaissance Faire, she wants more out of life. Stacey vows to have her life figured out by the time her friends get hitched at Faire next summer. Maybe she’ll even find The One.
When Stacey imagined “The One,” it never occurred to her that her summertime Faire fling, Dex MacLean, might fit the bill. While Dex is easy on the eyes onstage with his band The Dueling Kilts, Stacey has never felt an emotional connection with him. So when she receives a tender email from the typically monosyllabic hunk, she’s not sure what to make of it.
Faire returns to Willow Creek, and Stacey comes face-to-face with the man with whom she’s exchanged hundreds of online messages over the past nine months. To Stacey’s shock, it isn’t Dex—she’s been falling in love with a man she barely knows.

Well Met by Jen DeLuca- Book Review

I really liked this book and thought it was super cute. Emily was a fun character and extremely relatable. It takes you into the whimsical world of the Renaissance Faire and makes you feel as if you are truly there with the characters. The chemistry between Simon and Emily was perfect and made you root for them the whole was through. I also enjoyed there relationship because it showed flaws in it as well as them and that’s definitely part of reality. If you are looking for a cute and fun rom com then I highly recommend this one. There were so many great laugh out loud moments in this one! It’s also a great summer book that you won’t be able to put down. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Synopsis:
Emily knew there would be strings attached when she relocated to the small town of Willow Creek, Maryland, for the summer to help her sister recover from an accident, but who could anticipate getting roped into volunteering for the local Renaissance Faire alongside her teenaged niece? Or that the irritating and inscrutable schoolteacher in charge of the volunteers would be so annoying that she finds it impossible to stop thinking about him?
The faire is Simon’s family legacy and from the start he makes clear he doesn’t have time for Emily’s lighthearted approach to life, her oddball Shakespeare conspiracy theories, or her endless suggestions for new acts to shake things up. Yet on the faire grounds he becomes a different person, flirting freely with Emily when she’s in her revealing wench’s costume. But is this attraction real, or just part of the characters they’re portraying?
This summer was only ever supposed to be a pit stop on the way to somewhere else for Emily, but soon she can’t seem to shake the fantasy of establishing something more with Simon or a permanent home of her own in Willow Creek.

The Night Swim by Megan Golden- Book Review

This book is definitely one of my favorites so far this year and I definitely give this one 5⭐. I was hooked from the first page to last. I love the way it was written in a podcast form in some the chapters and felt it was refreshing to read. The story was so good with so many great twists and turns that kept me wanting to read it faster and faster so I could find out all the answers. I also enjoyed the characters and really connected with them and the subject matter. This book does deal with rape so just a heads up but the author wrote it beautifully. This is a must read if you are looking for a suspense/thriller! This book will be published August 4th. Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the ARC.

Synopsis:
After her true-crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall has become a household name—and the last hope for people seeking justice. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling whenshe finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help. The new season of Rachel’s podcast has brought her to a small town being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. A local golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season 3 a success, Rachel throws herself into her investigation—but the mysterious letters keep coming. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered—and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody in town wants to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases—and a revelation that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.

Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory- Book Review

I absolutely loved this book! I loved the characters, the chemistry and the wittiness! I couldn’t finish it fast enough and at the same time I didn’t want it to end! This book also give you some yummy visions of cake while you read which is always a plus! This was the last book I read in May and it’s was a perfect ending to my rom com month. This book was just published June 23rd and is the perfect go to summer rom com! You will not regret reading this one and I promiss it will put a smile on your face! I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.


Synopsis:
Dating is the last thing on Olivia Monroe’s mind when she moves to LA to start her own law firm. But when she meets a gorgeous man at a hotel bar and they spend the entire night flirting, she discovers too late that he is none other than hotshot junior senator Max Powell. Olivia has zero interest in dating a politician, but when a cake arrives at her office with the cutest message, she can’t resist—it is chocolate cake, after all.
Olivia is surprised to find that Max is sweet, funny, and noble—not just some privileged white politician she assumed him to be. Because of Max’s high-profile job, they start seeing each other secretly, which leads to clandestine dates and silly disguises. But when they finally go public, the intense media scrutiny means people are now digging up her rocky past and criticizing her job, even her suitability as a trophy girlfriend. Olivia knows what she has with Max is something special, but is it strong enough to survive the heat of the spotlight?