Book Review Round-Up #37

• Read 6 books a month to hit my reading goal of 75
  • Month Total: 7
    • Physical Books: 0
    • eBooks: 2
    • Audiobooks: 5
  • Year Total: 27/75
• Library vs Ownership
  • Borrow: 6
    • Library: 6
    • KU: 0
  • Own: 1

• Category _{(don’t just read romance)}
  • Romance: 4
    • Witchy Romance
    • Beach Romance
    • Mafia Comedy Romance
  • Murder Mystery Thriller: 3
    • Jane Eyre Adaptations
    • Psychological Detective
• Read more books with POC 👩🏻👩🏼👩🏽‍🦳👩🏽👩🏾
  • Main Character: 5
  • Author: 1

The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

_{Format: eBook | Amazon | Bookshop.org | B&N}

• 🔪 He’s having an affair. After leaving his mistress, wakes up and she’s been brutally murdered. Did he murder her? P.S. … you will hate this man. HATE him.
• ⚖️ She’s the best defense attorney in Washington D.C and her husband’s only hope. Can she save his life even though he’s hurt her to his core? (I almost want to be her in real life… she’s amazing)

💖 THIS BOOK had me so confused the whole time. I couldn’t figure out the killer. I was able to predict a few things throughout the book but for the most part, I kept reading in absolute shock. I recommend this book to anyone new to reading murder mysteries!

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand

_{Format: Audiobook | Amazon | Bookshop.org | B&N}

• 🛎️ Involves multiple people in small town Nantucket who all work at the hotel! Oh! And the ghost of a young woman from the 1800s… but she’s not scary at all and I loved her character!
• 🐚 Sweet little beach read about the beach!

💖 The sweetest cast of characters I’ve read in a while. This is my first Elin Hilderbrand book and I liked it so much I started another. Each character develops throughout the book, regardless of their age or how tiny they have a role. This book gave me a lot of hope for new beginnings.

The Wife Upstairs by Freida McFadden

_{Format: Audiobook | Amazon | Bookshop.org | B&N}

• 🎭 Who’s playing who? Who’s the bad one? The husband or the wife? How many people are dead and who killed who?
• 🔪 Victoria’s husband hires Sylvia Robinson to help care for her but is the reason she’s being sedated and almost in a vegetative state his fault?

💖 This clever play off of Jane Eyre was a wild ride. Truth? I thought this book was by another author with the same title. I picked the other one up from the library immediately after this one. Between the two, I liked this one more! It had me guessing and intrigued through its entirety.

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q Sutanto

_{Format: Audiobook | Amazon | Bookshop.org | B&N}

• 🥸 The best way to describe this is a mafia romance comedy
• 🕵️ The second books with the Aunties and you will love them just as much as the first.

💖 Ohhhhhh Meddy and her posse of Aunties hit home for me once again. They were utterly mischievous and, yet, brilliantly charming as always. Since Meddy is a wedding photographer and she’s getting married, she expects nothing but the best but the whole day goes wildly left and it’s just one wrecking ball after the next.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

_{Format: Audiobook | Amazon | Bookshop.org | B&N}

• 💎 Jane isn’t who she says she is and she’s out to prove that she’s better than her upbringing by becoming a dog walker in the wealthiest neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama.
• ❤️‍🔥 Eddie and Jane start to fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by his recently declared dead wife, Bea.

💖 Another very obvious adaptation of Jane Eyre (Jane, Edward Rochester, Bertha “Bea” Mason), this book worked for me. Though not as suspenseful as the same-titled book above, I thought this was well done and I loved how meddling the ladies at the Thornfield Estates gated community were. I’d say this is a great book for those who want to start reading murder mystery thrillers.

De-Witched by Sophie H. Morgan

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• ✨ Leah is 1/3 of a bar she owns with her two best friends who are witches. She’s sunshine all the time and when Gabriel needs help with his warlock assignment, to take over his family company, she makes a little magic of her own.
• 🐕 Gabriel doesn’t like humans due to a tragic accident involving the loss of his parents. Turns out, it’s because he hadn’t given the right one a chance.

💖 The first book in the series blew me away! It completely shattered my romance hiatus. This is the second installment in the series and it was good! BUT, I was hoping for more of Leah and Kole. Their chemistry and witty flirty banter in the first book had me so excited to continue with the series. However, instead, Gabriel was introduced as the MMC. He totally grows on you!! But… I couldn’t shake off Leah and Kole’s original energy. Obviously, the author is planning to give Kole his own book, which is fine cause I love this magical world Sophie H. Morgan has created. That said, I’m very excited for Tia’s story next. 🤞

Thank you to NetGalley and Sophia H. Morgan for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review!

Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand

_{Format: Audiobook | Amazon | Bookshop.org | B&N}

• 🌴 Irene’s husband is dead. The worst part is not finding out he was in a helicopter crash in the Virgin Islands but that he owned a 9-bedroom villa, had a mistress, and spent every moment he could there.
• 🥥 Brothers, Cash & Baker, both have secrets from their mom and each other. Both fall for the same woman while on vacation and she happens to be the best friend of their father’s mistress.

💖 This book kept me going because there was just question after question I had and they kept getting answered! Elin Hilderbrand does such a great job baiting her audience like that. This book read like it was small-town gossip and I loved that Irene was entering her 60s, healing, and realizing that just because you’re a woman of a certain age doesn’t make you invisible. Definitely interested in the second book!