Reviews: LOVE INTEREST & FRIENDS DON’T FALL IN LOVE
Happy Monday everyone! Knock on wood, but I think I finally have the commenting issue resolved on the blog. Some research and hours of troubleshooting eventually revealed the issue to be a bad update to a plugin I was using and as soon as I deactivated it, the comments started flowing in again. I’m not a tech savvy person so it was very frustrating to say the least, as I would have much rather been spending all of that time visiting your blogs instead of trying to figure out why mine was trying to implode, lol. Anyway, I’m back in business now and I’m also back with two reviews I meant to post last week. Both of these books are out in the wild now, so if you like the sound of them, you can grab copies today!
Love Interest Goodreads
Author: Clare Gilmore
Publication Date: October 10, 2023
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Set in Manhattan at a magazine publishing firm, Clare Gilmore’s debut novel Love Interest follows Casey Maitland, a 24 year old finance expert who has decided to spread her wings and apply for a project manager position at her company. Her aspirations for this new career path are dashed, however, when she is passed over and the job is given to Alex Harrison, who happens to be the Chairman of the Board’s son and who also happens to be the mysterious hot guy Casey had an adorable meet cute with before she realized they were vying for the same position. Alex is well educated, charming, and is immediately well liked by everyone at the company, except for Casey, that is, who can’t stand him. Everything changes, however, when the two of them are forced to work on a project together.
I really enjoyed Love Interest. Gilmore’s writing is wonderful, and I especially enjoyed her character development as Casey and Alex slowly begin to open up to one another about their dreams and aspirations. I loved how open and trusting they became with one another, and I especially liked the growth we see in Casey as she realized she has unfairly misjudged Alex, who turns out to be serious book boyfriend material! Some of the workplace scenes weren’t the most entertaining, but the chemistry Gilmore creates between Casey and Alex nicely balances that out and keeps the story flowing smoothly.
Love Interest is a delightful workplace romance that is sure to please fans of the rivals-to-lovers and forced proximity tropes. 4 STARS
Friends Don't Fall in Love Goodreads
Author: Erin Hahn
Publication Date: October 17, 2023
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Erin Hahn’s latest novel Friends Don’t Fall in Love is a friends-to-lovers romance set against the backdrop of the country music industry in Nashville. I enjoyed Hahn’s book Built to Last so much that I requested this one for review without reading the synopsis, so it was a wonderful surprise to realize we were going to revisit my favorite characters from Built to Last.
This story follows Lorelai Jones, a country music superstar who fell from grace when she performed a protest song in support of gun control at a concert. Five years later she decides to mount a comeback and reaches out to the one man who has always been in her corner, her best friend Craig (or Huck as she calls him), who also happens to be a successful music producer.
Huck has issues of his own that he’s dealing with, including a former bandmate who refuses to give him credit for songs that Huck wrote for him. But no matter what Huck is dealing with, he has never been able to say no to Lorelai. In fact, he has been quietly in love with her for years. It is this complicated dynamic between Lorelai and Huck that really made this an excellent read for me. Hahn presents their relationship through both present-day scenes and flashbacks to show just how layered and complicated things are between them and I loved watching their relationship unfold this way and seeing Lorelai slowly wake up to what has been right in front of her all along.
Huck is an absolute cinnamon roll and I adored him, and I’ll always root for an underdog so Lorelai and her comeback story really appealed to me as well. The presence of the gun control debate and the cancel culture that surrounds it was right on the edge of being too much for me since I read romance to escape things like that, but thankfully Lorelai and Huck’s personal journey was enough to keep the story enjoyable for me. I also really appreciated the behind-the-scenes look at the country music industry.
If slow-burn, friends to lovers romances are your vibe, you’re going to want to pick up a copy of Friends Don’t Fall in Love. 4 STARS
Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Before the End of 2023
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is a freebie and I feel like I’ve already posted everything spooky season related I wanted to, so today I’m sharing ten books I’m determined to read before the end of the year.
Also, just a side note, that I have been having tremendous issues with the comment feature on my site since last Thursday. I think it’s related to a Jetpack plugin, either a bad update or a conflict with another plugin, and I’ve been trying to resolve it but I’m not tech savvy and just don’t know who is having issues commenting or what the specific errors are. If you are still unable to comment on my posts, can you either DM me on twitter (x) or on Instagram with any specific error messages that you’re seeing? Thanks!
10 Before the End of 2023
1. CHECK & MATE by Ali Hazelwood – “In this clever and swoonworthy YA debut from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, life’s moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.”
2. A DEMON’S GUIDE TO WOOING A WITCH by Sarah Hawley – “Calladia Cunnington curses the day she met Astaroth the demon, but when he shows up memoryless, why does she find him so helpless . . . and sort of hot?”
3. WOKE UP LIKE THIS by Amy Lea – “Planning the perfect prom is one last “to do” on ultra-organized Charlotte Wu’s high school bucket list. So far, so good, if not for a decorating accident that sends Charlotte crash-landing off a ladder, face-first into her obnoxiously ripped archnemesis J. T. Renner. Worse? When Charlotte wakes up, she finds herself in an unfamiliar bed at thirty years old, with her bearded fiancé, Renner, by her side…Navigating a series of adventures and a confounding new normal, Charlotte and Renner will do whatever it takes to find a way back to seventeen. But when―and if―they do, what then?”
4. THE FAKE MATE by Lana Ferguson – “Two wolf shifters agree to be fake mates but unexpectedly find something real in this steamy paranormal romantic comedy by Lana Ferguson.“
5. BOOKSHOPS & BONEDUST by Travis Baldree – “When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn’t always what we seek. In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, New York Times bestselling author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.”
6. JUST DON’T FALL by Emma St. Clair – “Just Don’t Fall is a small town, closed door hockey romcom with all the fake dating, brother’s best friend vibes. You’ll get smoking chemistry and characters to root for but NO spice. (Yes, you read that right–a low spice hockey romance.) Perfect for fans of sports romance who want a less heat.”
7. THE PREDICTABLE HEARTBREAKS OF IMOGEN FINCH by Jacqueline Firkins – “A beautiful story of friendship, and second chances at love.“
8. HOMERUN PROPOSAL by Maren Moore – “Cocky pitcher. Player on and off the field. The life of every party. And the same guy I’ve crushed on in secret since we were kids. He’s always been out of my league. That is until he signs the dotted line on a proposal that wasn’t meant for him, and offers to teach me… everything. His one and only condition? Don’t get attached. Easier said than done when my heart is involved. Now, it’s a whole new ballgame..”
9. DO YOUR WORST by Rosie Danan – “Sparks fly when an occult expert and a disgraced archeologist become enemies-with-benefits in this steamy romance.”
10. HUNT ON DARK WATERS by Katee Robert – Witches and pirates! “Sail the magical high seas with this first book in a new sexy fantasy romance series from Katee Robert, the New York Times bestselling author of the TikTok smash-hit Neon Gods.”
* * * * * *
Question: Have you read any of these or are you planning to read any of them?
Review – JANE AND THE FINAL MYSTERY by Stephanie Barron
Jane and the Final Mystery by Stephanie Barron 
Series: Being a Jane Austen Mystery Book #15
Published by Soho Crime on October 24, 2023
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 312
Source: the Publisher
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via the Publisher. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
Jane and the Final Mystery is the fifteenth and final installment of Stephanie Barron’s entertaining Jane Austen Mysteries series. As an Austen fan, I was surprised that I hadn’t come across this series before, particularly since the first book was published in 1996, but somehow it flew under my radar and I’m therefore just now beginning my experience with it. I’m actually quite excited about that though because not only does Jane and the Final Mystery work well as a standalone, but it’s a gem of a book that has me looking forward to checking out the other fourteen books.
I absolutely love that the premise of the series is that Austen is an amateur sleuth. At first the idea might seem farfetched, but if you’ve ever read her novels or any of her letters, you know that Austen was clever and especially astute when it came to reading people and situations. While those qualities made her a phenomenal author, I think those same qualities would make her well suited to detective work as well.
This story is set in 1817, and if you are familiar with Austen, you know that’s the year she died. Her struggles with her health are accurately portrayed here, but she cannot resist getting involved with one final case, particularly since the case involves her best friend’s son being accused of murder. I don’t want to give away any spoilers since it is a murder mystery, but I will say that the mystery is well constructed, with plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing.
While I found the mystery very engrossing, what I enjoyed most about this book was the obvious care Barron has taken to portray Austen as authentically as possible. As I mentioned, I read many of Austen’s personal letters when I studied her in college, and this portrayal of Austen is just so well done. Barron has clearly done her research when it comes to Jane, and she has perfectly captured Austen’s way of speaking as well as her cleverness and her wry sense of humor. Barron’s passion for Austen, as well as for the time period she lived in, comes shining through in every page, making this series a treat for any Jane Austen fan.
While I’m sure Jane and the Final Mystery will be a satisfying series finale for those who have been fans of the series from the beginning, it has also made for a wonderful first experience for me and I look forward to continuing my journey with Jane Austen Mysteries.
Thanks so much to the author and Soho Crime for the gifted review copy and to Laurel Ann Nattress from Austenprose for inviting me to take part in this tour.
PRAISE FOR JANE AUSTEN AND THE FINAL MYSTERY:
- “Poignant . . . Elicits deep emotion out of Jane’s struggles against her own mortality. This is a fitting send-off for a beautifully realized series.”— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
- “Barron developed Jane’s narrative voice by reading Austen’s collected and published letters, and it is neither spoiler nor surprise to say that series readers will be sorry to say goodbye to Jane Austen, amateur sleuth.”— Booklist
- “[Barron] has brilliantly combined authentic historical and biographical details with skillful plotting and a credible evocation of Austen’s wry, distinctive voice. She brings the English author’s final investigation to a poignant, unforgettable close. Fans of this historical series will not be disappointed.”— First Clue
PURCHASE LINKS
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | PUBLISHER | GOODREADS | BOOKSHOP
About Stephanie Barron
Stephanie Barron is a graduate of Princeton and Stanford, where she received her
Masters in History as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow in the Humanities. Her novel, THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN (Ballantine, January 22, 2019) traces the turbulent career of Jennie Jerome, Winston Churchill’s captivating American mother. Barron is perhaps best known for the critically acclaimed Jane Austen Mystery Series, in which the intrepid and witty author of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE details her secret detective career in Regency England. A former intelligence analyst for the CIA, Stephanie—who also writes under the name Francine Mathews—drew on her experience in the field of espionage for such novels as JACK 1939, which The New Yorker described as “the most deliciously high-concept thriller imaginable.” She lives and works in Denver, CO.