Top Ten Tuesday – Ten Reads That Provided Me an Escape During the Pandemic
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 Comfort Reads (Share which books or kinds of books you turn to when you need to escape. You can either share specific titles if you love to re-read, or you could share qualities of books you look for in a comfort read). I decided to focus on reads that provided me a much needed escape during the Pandemic, particularly as we were going through months and months of isolation. The kinds of reads I’ve highlighted here are reads that feature elements that bring me joy – both real families like the Murphy women of Peachtree Bluff and found families like we find in The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Break Up Book Club. They also feature happily ever afters as in Very Sincerely Yours and The Simple Wild, as well as uplifting themes as in The Garden of Small Beginnings. And finally yes, there are books such as Crazy Stupid Bromance that feature laugh out loud humor. If you ever find yourself looking for a read that will provide you with a much needed escape from the reality of your life, I highly recommend any of these gems.
Ten Reads That Provided Me an Escape During the Pandemic
1. THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA by T.J. Klune
2. THE KINDRED SPIRITS SUPPER CLUB by Amy E. Reichert
3. THE SECRET TO SOUTHERN CHARM by Kristy Woodson Harvey
4. THE SIMPLE WILD by K.A. Tucker
5. THE BREAKUP BOOK CLUB by Wendy Wax
6. VERY SINCERELY YOURS by Kerry Winfrey
7. ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by Talia Hibbert
8. CRAZY STUPID BROMANCE by Lyssa Kay Adams
9. THE GARDEN OF SMALL BEGINNINGS by Abbi Waxman
10. THE LAST CHANCE LIBRARY by Freya Sampson
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Question: Have you read any of these? What kind of read brings your comfort?
Reviews: THE LOVE CONNECTION & THE EMMA PROJECT
Hey everyone! I hope your week is off to a great start. I have a three-day weekend so I’m using the time to relax but also to get caught up on some reviews I had gotten behind on due to busy times in my personal life (end of school year activities, soccer tournaments, an upcoming shoulder surgery for my son, etc.). Today I’m sharing my thoughts on two romances I was able to squeeze in in between all of those activities.
The Love Connection (Airport Novellas, #1) Goodreads Author: Denise Williams
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
Publisher: Berkley
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
You wouldn’t think romance could blossom within the confines of an airport, but in her new novella The Love Connection, part of her Airport Novellas series, Denise Williams not only convinces me love in an airport is possible, but that it can also be quite a magical experience!
The story follows Olivia Wright (Ollie), who, along with her best friend Jess, owns a pet grooming salon in a busy airport. Having just come out of a bad breakup with a cheating fiancé, Ollie is 100% focused on expanding her business and has no interest in putting herself out there for another man. That said, she does enjoy watching the eye candy that passes through the terminal adjacent to her salon, in particular, the sexy guy in a suit that comes through every week, obviously traveling for work. Ollie is quite content to watch this sexy man from afar, but when a runaway soapy dog leads to the most adorable meet-cute in the middle of the airport, Ollie’s life takes a most unexpected turn and one she’s not sure she’s ready for.
I adored Ollie from the moment we meet her. She’s smart, funny, and I love that she’s willing to take a chance on such an unusual business. I mean, really, a dog grooming salon at the airport? I admired her creativity and her determination, and I immediately wanted her to also have a personal life that made her happy because she deserved so much better than her loser ex.
The sexy stranger, Bennett Baker, is pretty great too. His day job is a professional risk assessor, but in his free time, Bennett actually writes historical romance novels. He is experiencing writer’s block at the time of the meet-cute with Ollie, but inspired by his chance encounter with her, he is suddenly able to write more than he has written in months and the two of them start having the most adorable dates in the airport every time he comes to town – coffee dates, dates at the pretzel kiosk, picnics. I was practically swooning at how romantic each of their meetups were and by the flirty texts they start sending each other.
Normally novellas leave me frustrated and wanting more because they’re just so small, but Williams does a phenomenal job with The Love Connection. The character development is wonderful, the banter is hilarious, and the evolution of their relationship is perfectly paced, from meet cute to some deliciously steamy moments. Nothing felt rushed, and Williams also very realistically explores the theme of taking chances after being hurt as well as the obstacles involved in a long-distance relationship. I did want more and was sad when I reached the end, but it was just because Ollie and Bennett were so perfectly suited to one another, not at all because I felt like I had been cheated by a novella.
The Love Connection is fun, fresh, and oh so sexy. If you’re looking for a quick but satisfying romance to read this summer, be sure to check it out! 5 STARS
The Emma Project (The Rajes, #4) Goodreads
Author: Sonali Dev
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
Publisher: Avon and Harper Voyager
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
The Emma Project is the fourth installment in Sonali Dev’s popular Jane Austen-inspired series, The Rajes. The Rajes are a prominent Indian American family, and each book in the series focuses on one of the adult children in the family. This time, it’s Vansh’s turn and Dev tells Vansh’s story in the form of a wonderful gender-bent retelling of the Austen classic, Emma.
Vansh is the baby of the family. He’s handsome, engaging, his family completely dotes on him and so do most other people who meet him. Vansh spends his time working on various charitable projects and has lived a charmed life thus far. The only person who ever challenges him is his long-time friend, Naina.
Naina is a career-driven young woman who up until recently, was fake dating Vansh’s older brother, Yash. This arrangement allowed Naina to focus on her work without her family pressuring her to find a man. When Yash breaks off their relationship because he has met someone he wants to marry, things become strained between Naina and the Raje family, including with Vansh.
The situation between Vansh and Naina becomes even more awkward and tense when one of Naina’s financial backers proposes diverting some of the funding from Naina’s foundation to one of Vansh’s pet projects. After some initial arguing, Vansh and Naina soon realize the only way to move both of their projects forward is for them to team up. Both of these characters were quite likeable and I liked the way they interacted with one another as friends. There’s plenty of fun banter between them, and it’s pretty clear that they have more than friendly feelings toward each other.
As with the previous books in the series, Dev has crafted wonderful characters with so much depth. Naina, in particular, has a complicated and strained relationship with her mother and father, and Dev does a marvelous job delving into that and fleshing out Naina’s character. It became very easy to understand why she seems so aloof and closed off most of the time.
My only issue is with the romance trope used, mainly because it doesn’t quite match up with the original Emma. In that one, Emma and Knightly are friends who are completely oblivious that they have feelings for one another until nearly the end of the book. If you’ve seen the movie Clueless, another Emma retelling, think Cher and Josh. This modern retelling doesn’t really have that same level of obliviousness, or at least I didn’t sense it. It didn’t really hamper my enjoyment of the read since I do enjoy a good rivals-to-lovers story, but if you’re an Austen enthusiast, just don’t expect the read to exactly mirror the original.
With its rivals-to-lovers vibe as well as several scenes that are much steamier than in the earlier Raje novels, The Emma Project concludes the series on a very sexy and satisfying note. 3 ½ STARS.
Reviews: STARRY-EYED LOVE & SEE YOU YESTERDAY
Hey everyone! I know today is usually Top Ten Tuesday but I wasn’t feeling this week’s topic and I’m behind on reviews, so I decided to use this slot to play catch up. Today I’m sharing my thoughts to two new releases that I really enjoyed, one from a new-to-me author, Helena Hunting, and one from an auto-buy author, Rachel Lynn Solomon.
Starry-Eyed Love (Spark House, #2) Goodreads Author: Helena Hunting
Publication Date: May 10, 2022
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Starry-Eyed Love is the second book in Helena Hunting’s contemporary romance series, Spark House, a series that follows three sisters who run a small boutique hotel together.
London Spark is the focus of this second installment, and I loved her from the opening scene when we encounter her and her two sisters, Avery and Harley at a bar together. London has just broken up with her boyfriend and the sisters are celebrating her newly single status. London is ready to focus her attention on the family business and has no interest in dating right now, so when a handsome stranger at the bar flirts with her, she tells him she’s not available. Little does she know at the time, but that man, Jackson Holt, is about to change her life in more ways than one.
I really loved the chemistry between London and Jackson right from that first meeting and was actually disappointed when she blew him off. Color me tickled then when London is invited to a meeting to discuss bringing Spark House on board as a partner for a huge environmentally friendly initiative. If you guessed Jackson Holt is the founder of this initiative, you would be correct. This of course forces London in close proximity to Jackson, whether she likes it or not, and things take off from there. London and Jackson are a great match on pretty much every level and there are plenty of flirty sexy moments between them, but I’ll say now to prepare yourself for a slow burn since they do have a working relationship and there are some angsty moments as they try to figure out how to navigate the professional and the personal.
As much as I enjoyed London and Jackson’s story, I was also a big fan of the relationship between the sisters. They are experiencing some growing pains as the hotel expands and so even though they adore each other, there is still the occasional tension. London, in particular, is in an awkward position. She has somehow landed in the position of business administrator, so she is responsible for bringing in new clientele and planning events. This isn’t her wheelhouse at all, as she is more of a creative type, and as much as she wants to help her sisters with the business and doesn’t want to create drama, this particular job and the way Avery is pushing her and refusing to hire outside help, is running her ragged. I loved how realistically Hunting portrays these relationships, especially the angst and tension, as London comes to terms with the idea that the only way out involves confronting Avery. Hunting hits that perfect and very relatable balance of “I love you more than anything but something has got to give.”
Starry-Eyed Love was my first time reading something from Helena Hunting but it definitely won’t be my last because this book was just such a delight – equal parts charming, and funny, and with a delicious side of drama and angst to spice things up. 4 STARS
See You Yesterday Goodreads
Author: Rachel Lynn Solomon
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
I love Rachel Lynn Solomon’s books and I love stories that feature time traveling or time loops, so you can imagine how excited I was to learn that Solomon’s latest YA novel See You Yesterday features a Groundhog’s Day style romance. I couldn’t hit that request button on Netgalley fast enough and I’m thrilled to share that this book was everything I hoped it would be and more!
The story follows Barrett Bloom, a college freshman who is really hoping this year will be a fresh start for her after a pretty rough senior year of high school. Instead of being a fresh start, however, her first day of classes is an absolute nightmare. She learns that she’s stuck rooming with an old friend she had a falling out with in high school. Then, an obnoxious know-it-all embarrasses her in Physics class, and she goes on to completely blow her interview to be on the school newspaper, and then as if all that isn’t bad enough, she goes to a frat party that night and accidentally sets the place on fire. All she wants to do is crawl in bed and pretend this day never happened. Instead, however, she wakes up and it’s the first day of classes all over again. Needless to say, Barrett is perplexed by this, especially when it keeps happening. After another encounter with Miles, the annoying guy from her Physics class, Barrett soon learns that Miles has also been similarly trapped and has been repeating the same day for over two months now. The two of them set out on an interesting quest to try to fix their timelines and free themselves from this endless loop.
I loved this story so much! Barrett and Miles are adorable together even when they’re plucking each other’s nerves. Their relationship also slowly transforms as they explore all avenues to freedom – researching at the library, trying to right wrongs from their pasts, trying to find closure from events where they’ve left loose ends, etc. While nothing they try works, what does happen is that the two of them get to know each other and grow close, first as friends but then as more than friends. I loved this so much for them because they’re both so lonely and out of sorts, even before being trapped in the loop. It was lovely to see them connect with each other and also so much fun to watch some of the antics they would come up with to pass the time while they’re stuck. There’s also tremendous growth for Barrett as she finally conquers some demons from her past and is able to move forward.
There’s also the huge question of what happens to Miles and Barrett if and when they finally come unstuck from time. Will they still be a couple, will they still know each other? Or will they go back to being alone? If you want to know the answer to those questions, you’ll have to check out See You Yesterday. You won’t regret it! 4.5 STARS