MyTiredBrain

This isn’t exactly my kind of book. Who knows what weird algorithms conspired to have this end up in my Libby To-Read list. It’s sort of sci-fi, in that it involves time travel and a time portal, and it also has romance. The (unnamed) “Bridge,” is a civil servant, assigned to help 1847’s commander Graham Gore acclaimate to current times. Their interactions were fun, as Graham adjust to the now, and living with an unwed woman. There were parts of the book that felt dragging to me, then it picked up when they were in danger, dragged again, then picked up. The Ministry itself is sort of a shifting entity. There are themes of colonialism and climate change. Some of the other time travelers add to the book, including Maggie and Arthur, where others slow the pace down. The book held my interest, and I liked the somewhat odd writing, especially how Graham likened the Bridge to a cat. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, which is t a bad thing. (8)

I’ll pretty much read anything Ali Hazelwood writes. I like her intelligent characters. The book had a lot of spice. College-level kinky. Scarlett’s a diver at Stanford who is struggling with the twisties after suffering an injury. Lukas is a golden boy swimmer who was just dumped by Pen, the dive team captain. Lukas and Scarlet bond over a common interest, and start a no-strings relationship. I really liked reading about Scarlet’s mental block with doing a difficult dive. After watching Simone Biles be brave enough to share and conquer her own struggles with twisties, I think more books normalizing mental health concerns among athletes is good. I didn’t like the seemingly forced drama of Pen and Lucas not telling anyone on the swim or dive teams that they were no longer together. It felt like the author needed a conflict, but it didn’t feel natural or realistic especially once Pen was off dating other people. I read a couple other reviews that hated Pen’s character, but I didn’t mind ...

I LOVED the Dead Romantics and I really liked The Seven Year Slip. This book was a little bit of a let down for me, because of how much I enjoyed her previous books. It’s all relative, and it wasn’t a bad book, but it felt somewhat lacking to me. It’s 3.5 stars, rounded up because I like the poetic nature of her writing.  Eileen “Elsy” Merriweather has retreated from life as she nurses a heartbreak. She opts to take a trip to cabin and on the way her car breaks down in a tiny town. She soon realizes the town she’s in is Eloraton, the setting of her favorite romance novels. The series was never finished due to the tragic death of the author. She meets her favorite characters from the book, and for the first time in a long time she feels joy. She also meets a curmudgeonly bookstore owner, Anders, who she doesn’t recognize from the series. Her presence seems to be changing the town, and Anders tries to keep those ripples to a minimum.  It’s a very bookish book, which I usually en...

From the author’s name and the cover of the book, I was convinced this was going to be written by AI. (It was realeased in 2017, so that seems extremely unlikely.) It was a cute read. Melissa “Bernie” Bernard is a librarian who becomes a meme when her disapproving look goes viral. Colin Rodriguez is a writer for a fluff e-zine and convinces the “undateable” Bernie to go on 30 dates in 30 days. Cue the makeover and disaster dates. Bernie’s grappling with the fear of losing herself to be attractive to others felt realistic. Her banter with Colin was cute. There are no surprises in this book, but it was a quick, ok read. (6.5)

There was a lot I really liked about this book. My favorite character, hands down, was the setting of Amsterdam. It certainly made me want to go visit, wander the streets, and eat all the foods. Dani Dorfman and Wouter van Leeuwen fell in love in high school, when he was a foreign exchange student from Amsterdam, staying with Dani’s family in LA. After he returned home, the break up was curt and painful for Dani. For some reason she still decides to move to Amsterdam when a work opportunity arises, and then is determined to figure out a way to stay when the work opportunity falls apart. Dani and Wouter run into each other (literally, which seems to happen a lot in romance novels), and forge a hesitant partnership as Dani needs to find a new apartment after the one she initially had floods, and Wouter has a place for rent. Dani will be booted out of the country if she can’t find a job in 90 days, and Wouter needs to be married to inherit his family’s home. The needs-to-be-married-for-in...

Classic fake-dating trope mixed with The Hating Game. Catalina Martin needs a boyfriend for her sister’s wedding, so the whole family doesn’t look at her with pity. The groom’s brother is her ex, and he’s recently engaged. The only one willing to help is her enemy colleague, Aaron Blackford. Nothing new of overly inventive, although the Spanish flavor was nice. Slow burn and then a fair amount of spice. Aaron seemed to have pretty good people and communication skills once he was fake dating Catalina, so I’m not sure why he didn’t use those skills before to apologize and express his feeling for her. There’s nothing overly memorable about the book, but I enjoyed it. I’ll happily read the next one about Catalina’s best friend. (8)

This was an enjoyable read. Evie Jones gained independence when she got her service dog, trained to help her through her seizures. She now works for an organization that trains and matches service dogs with people in need. Jake broaden’s daughter, Sam, tricks him into meeting with Evie, and ultimately talks him into getting a dog to help manage her epilepsy. Jake and Evie’s start isn’t friendly, and both fight their attraction to each other. Jake’s been burned by his ex-wife, and doesn’t want to put himself out there again, and Evie’s family has put her down her whole life, so it’s hard for her to believe Jake would want her. The book was funny at times and touching at times, especially the found-family moments. Some of the wrap-up felt a little too sitcom perfect, but I liked the dialogue and relationship build-up. (8)