Reviews: CIAO FOR NOW and SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER

June 12, 2023/10 Comments/by Suzanne

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all were able to enjoy the weekend and, most importantly, spend some quality time reading good books. Today I’m back to share my thoughts on what I think are going to be two very popular beach reads this summer. Between their sunny and vibrant covers and their promise of romance and happily ever afters, I think readers are going to find them irresistible. I know I did!

Ciao For Now: A Romantic Comedy Goodreads

Author: Kate Bromley

Publication Date: June 6, 2023

Publisher: Graydon House

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

In Kate Bromley’s new rom com Ciao for Now, Violet Luciano, a talented student of fashion design, has landed the opportunity of a lifetime. She gets to spend a month in Rome, Italy, interning at a popular fashion house and competing against two of her fellow classmates for the chance to secure a job at a major label back home in NYC. Violet knows this experience will change her life, but she has no idea how much!

What’s the opposite of a meet cute, a meet ugly? Almost as soon as Violet lands in Rome, she manages to trip and fall in a cafe, crash landing on a sexy man, crushing his laptop and dousing him in coffee. He is clearly not impressed and Violet can’t wait to get away from him, but guess what? Turns out he’s Matteo, the grumpy son of the professor who is hosting the students from New York so they’re staying in the same place. 😂

This was such a fun read! I love the enemies to lovers and forced proximity tropes so I had a blast following Violet and Matteo as they awkwardly navigated their way around each other, only to, of course since it’s a romance, eventually develop feelings other than hate for one another. I loved both characters and thought they had amazing chemistry.

I also loved hanging out with Violet and her endearing classmates as they interned in the fashion world. I don’t know much about fashion but it was fun exploring that world with them and watching them design pieces for their contest.

One of my favorite parts about the story though was that Violet is somewhat older than her classmates and has returned to school to find her passion. Her journey to Rome is also a journey of self discovery.

This is my third time reading Kate Bromley and I have yet to be disappointed. If you like rom coms, Italian settings, fashion design, and journeys of self discovery, you’ll definitely want to check out Ciao for Now! 4 STARS

Same Time Next Summer Goodreads

Author: Annabel Monaghan

Publication Date: June 6, 2023

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Oh, how I do love a second chance romance! Annabel Monaghan’s new novel Same Time Next Summer features my favorite kind too – childhood sweethearts who are reunited after years apart. The nostalgic vibes and the sweet flashbacks showing a first love in bloom are just pure catnip for me.

Same Time Next Summer follows Sam, a young woman who has returned to her parent’s Long Island beach house to start planning her wedding. On the surface, Sam’s life seems perfect. Her fiancé is a handsome doctor and she has the perfect job. But the more we get to witness Sam in action, the more it becomes clear that things aren’t nearly as perfect as they seem. There’s trouble with her job, and her doctor fiancé isn’t quite the catch he should be. When Sam runs into Wyatt, her childhood sweetheart who she hasn’t seen in almost 14 years, it becomes clear that Sam has just been going through the motions both personally and professionally.

Monaghan does a wonderful job of alternating between past and present so we can witness the moving story of Sam and Wyatt when they first met, became friends, and then fell in love and then see them reconnect as adults and realize that they still have very strong feelings for one another. It made me sad to see what initially drove them apart but the bond between them is so strong that I felt confident that if Sam were to choose him, they could have a happily ever after.

The romance is lovely, but this is a story that features more than just a second chance at love. Sam’s return home, and everything she experiences while there, serves as a wake up call and a second chance for Sam to have the life she has always wanted professionally as well as personally. This creates a perfect balance between romance and women’s fiction. As someone who loves both rom coms and romances that have a little more meat to them, I loved the extra layers Sam’s personal journey added to the story.

Featuring a poignant second chance romance as well as a moving journey of personal discovery, Same Time Next Summer is a read that will appeal to so many readers. And with its vibrant beachy setting and nostalgic summer vibes, it’s the perfect book to toss in your beach bag this summer! 4 STARS

Reviews: MRS. NASH’S ASHES & MARRYING OFF MORGAN MCBRIDE

June 6, 2023/17 Comments/by Suzanne

Don’t mind me, I’m still playing catch up on my reviews. I thought I was done with May releases but then remembered I hadn’t share my thoughts on these two lovelies yet. Anyway, these really are the last of my May releases and I’ll be back to share some June releases later this week.

Reviews: MRS. NASH’S ASHES & MARRYING OFF MORGAN MCBRIDE

Mrs. Nash's Ashes Goodreads

Author: Sarah Adler

Publication Date: May 23, 2023

Publisher: Berkley Romance

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

As soon as I read the synopsis for Sarah Adler’s debut romance Mrs. Nash’s Ashes and saw it described as “A starry-eyed romantic, a cynical writer, and (the ashes of) an elderly woman take the road trip of a lifetime that just might upend everything they believe about true love,” I knew this was my kind of book. I love road trip books and grumpy-sunshine romances, and I also love quirky twists like someone’s ashes going along for the ride. This book had the added bonus of a dual timeline and second romance featured as a story within the story, which just made this read all the more special.

When the story opens, Millicent Watts-Cohen (Millie) is on a mission to keep a promise to Mrs. Nash, her elderly best friend who has recently passed away. Millie had promised to reunite Mrs. Nash with Elsie, the woman she fell in love with nearly 80 years ago. Mrs. Nash of course dies before Millie is able to find Elsie, but once she locates her and realizes that Elsie is in hospice care, Millie is determined to give these ladies a symbolic happily ever after. When we meet Millie, she is at the airport preparing to fly to Elsie in Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s Ashes in her bag.

A technological glitch causes all the flights to be grounded, so Millie, with no time to waste, agrees to catch a ride to Miami with Hollis Hollenback, whose flight was also grounded but who has a car. Their journey starts off rather awkwardly since Millie knows Hollis through her ex and because Millie can’t believe what a grump Hollis is. Thankfully the more time they spend in the car together, the more comfortable they get around each other and the more Millie is able to bring out Hollis’ cinnamon roll side. The more she is able to coax out that cinnamon roll side, the more Hollis becomes invested in making sure Millie gets to Elsie in time and it soon becomes all too clear that these two are starting to have feelings for one another. Their road trip is full of both hilarious and heartfelt moments, including a side trip to a tiny town where Millie ends up serving as Grand Marshal in a Broccoli parade, haha!

As hilarious and entertaining as Millie and Hollis’ road trip adventure is, I also love that it’s perfectly balanced with chapters that take us back in time to where Mrs. Nash and Elsie first meet and fall in love. Their chapters are just so beautiful and heartfelt, but are also tinged with sadness since it’s nearly impossible for them to have a future together because of the time period they are living in. My heart broke for the two women and it made perfect sense to me why Millie was so determined to reunite them in whatever small way she could.

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes just has so many wonderful layers to it. There’s a strong romcom element, but there’s an equally strong more dramatic one, but then there’s also an element of grief and loss. It’s truly a special book with a little something for every reader. 4.5 STARS

Marrying Off Morgan McBride Goodreads

Author: Amy Barry

Publication Date: May 30, 2023

Publisher: Berkley Romance

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Set in Buck’s Creek, Montana in the 1880s, Marrying Off Morgan McBride is the second installment in Amy Barry’s The McBrides of Montana series, a historical romance series that focuses on the four McBride brothers finding love. There’s just one catch to that – none of the brothers are actively looking for wives. Junebug, their 14-year old sister, has decided she’s tired of being the one to do all of the cooking and cleaning and so she gets the idea that if she secretly sends out advertisements for mail order brides, then maybe she’ll get lucky and her brothers will get married and then she’ll have some help around the house!

This series is such a good time! It might be a historical romance, but Junebug is definitely the star of the show and it is hilarious to watch her pull the strings and orchestrate everything that happens between her brothers and their potential love interests. Junebug’s shenanigans had me chuckling all the way through the first two books in the series. I especially love how she writes these advertisements making her brothers sound like the absolute worst, that way any prospective wife will be pleasantly surprised when she actually comes to Buck’s Creek to meet them.

In this second book in the series, Junebug sets her sights on marrying off her gruff, oldest brother, Morgan. Junebug adores Morgan because since their mom died and their dad ran off years ago, Morgan has been like a father to Junebug. Junebug knows that Morgan is dying to hit the trail and get back to his life as a cowboy and is hoping to secretly find him a wife so that he won’t leave her. And it wouldn’t hurt if this wife happened to be a good cook and an even better baker of pies, haha.

I really enjoyed all the characters in this book. It was fun to see all of the quirky townsfolk again, and I especially love Pip, the woman who answers Junebug’s ad. All her life Pip has been led to believe that she’s not pretty enough or feminine enough to land a husband and had just about given up hope until she saw Junebug’s ad and its cooking requirements. Pip may not be a lot of things, but she is a fabulous cook so this gives her the confidence to head to Buck’s Creek and a new life. I loved watching Pip strike out on her own in search of happiness rather than just let herself be confined to spinsterhood and taking care of her parents who clearly don’t appreciate her. Pip’s chaperone on this trip, Granny Colfax, is also a hoot who could give Junebug a run for her money in the shenanigans department.

There’s obviously a romance as well, and it’s a slow burn one. I really enjoyed watching Pip and Morgan get to know one another. Morgan is pretty determined to send her away so as to discourage Junebug from continuing with her matchmaking antics, but he has to admit that Pip gets under his skin from the moment he laid eyes on her. I liked how Pip was able to get past Morgan’s gruff exterior to reveal the big hearted man beneath. She gets him to open up about emotions he has kept bottled up for years so as not to worry his siblings, namely the guilt and sense of failure he feels regarding his mother’s death.

If you enjoy historical romance with a hefty side of laugh out loud humor, be sure to check out this series. You won’t be disappointed. 4 STARS.

Top Ten Tuesday – Book Covers on my TBR with Summer Vibes

June 6, 2023/31 Comments/by Suzanne

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 Books or Covers that Feel/Look Like Summer. I love a beautiful summer cover so I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorites from my TBR. I’m planning to read all of these books in the coming months and these covers are all just calling to me!

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