Angieville

Angie's 2026 Must Be Mine

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 14:08:00 +0000

As ever, begin as you mean to go on. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2026:

And no covers on these yet, but I'm just as excited for each one:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 9 by Beth Brower

Finest Kind of Fate by J.J. Mulder

My Kind of Guy by Sarina Bowen

Ravenous by Kresley Cole

Mastermind by Sarah MacLean

Game of Rogues by Julie Anne Long

Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison

Villain Edit by Rosie Danan

What titles are on your list?

Angie's Best Books of 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 20:52:00 +0000

This year really came through reading-wise. Initially, I didn't know what to expect. And I think I was a little surprised to find myself feeling a strong pull right from the beginning of the year to published books. I tried quite a few new-to-me authors with more abandon than I have in recent years—something I'm proud of and hope to continue. Not all of them worked in just an Angie-like way, but regret never entered the room. I passed them on. To the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood, to the used bookstore down the street that I love, to my own public library in donations. Someone will love them. It didn't have to be me. And I loved giving them that little push along their way to the homes of the people who would soak up their words and hold them tight.

What a gift books are. How much I need them and how grateful I am at the end of this year for the ones that came and continued on their way—but most especially for the ones that came to stay.

And so, as has long been my custom, I record here the list of published books that helped make 2025 worth every swamp we had to slog through to keep on.

(listed in the order in which I read them)

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

Three Wild Dogs (and the truth) by Markus Zusak

Crash Test by Amy James

In a Rush by Kate Canterbary

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison

The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune

The Last Guy on Earth by Sarina Bowen

Back After This by Linda Holmes

The Lady Sparks a Flame by Elizabeth Everett

Where Have All the Scoundrels Gone by Louisa Darling

Fan Service by Rosie Danan

On the Edge and Shots on Net by J.J. Mulder

The Love Haters by Katherine Center

Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood

Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

Copper Script by K.J. Charles

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean

He Falls First by Jill Shalvis

The Last Days of Summer by Sarra Manning

Slipstream by Madge Maril

Pitcher Perfect by Tessa Bailey

Breakout Year by K.D. Casey

The Librarians by Sherry Thomas

Mate by Ali Hazelwood

Claiming the Princess by Charis Michaels

How About Now by Kate Baer

In a Second by Kate Canterbary

FYI, that's 19 contemporaries, 5 historicals, 4 fantasies, and 1 scifi. Of those, 19 are romances, 5 are mysteries, 2 are retellings, 1 is a memoir, and 1 is a volume of poetry. This list includes 14 standalones, while 15 are part of a series or duology. Of the 25 authors featured, one is a debut author (love this), two appear twice on the list each (always a treat), and one appears a whopping three times (!). I actually think that last may be a first in this history of my best of the year lists. Honestly, how prolific (and consistently good) can you be, Hazelwood? And lastly, five authors from my Best of 2024 list make repeat appearances this year.

For a more in-depth (and fun) breakdown of my 2025 reading, go check out my Instagram.

Best Books I Read in 2025 That Were Published in a Different Year

All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair

The New Guy and Sure Shot by Sarina Bowen

Between the Pipes, Changing the Game, and Square to the Puck by J.J. Mulder

Game Misconduct and Home Ice Advantage by Ari Baran

Savor It by Tarah DeWitt

Daisy Haites and Daisy Haites: The Great Undoing by Jessa Hastings

Happy New Year!

Angie's 2025 Must Be Mine

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 22:10:00 +0000

As ever, begin as you mean to go on. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2025:

And we're still waiting for covers on these, but I'm just as excited for each of them:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 9 by Beth Brower

Wish You Were Here by Jess K. Hardy
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher
Pitcher Perfect by Tessa Bailey

Father Material by Alexis Hall

Alchemised by SenLinYu

Breakout Year by K.D. Casey

What titles are on your list?

Angie's Best Books of 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 21:41:00 +0000

Looking back at it now, it was a really solid reading year. I mean, it did its usual (for me) thing and meandered its merry way, here and there, up and down, and in fits and starts across the span of all twelve months. But it really did shape up nicely. Which is a good thing, because it was—shockingly, I know—another year in which we so desperately needed the authors and books and words of the world to come through for us. And they did, didn't they?

I am, as ever, so grateful for them and their willingness to push through every barrier and battle that I know must try to keep them from putting their visions on paper. And so, as has long been my custom, I record here my list of published books that saw me through the year. Gifts, every one.

(listed in the order in which I read them)

The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

Once Persuaded, Twice Shy by Melodie Edwards

Lucky Bounce by Cait Nary

Lips Like Sugar by Jess K. Hardy

The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn

The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett

Funny Story by Emily Henry

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

My Season of Scandal by Julie Anne Long

The Beast Takes a Bride by Julie Anne Long

One Burning Heart by Elizabeth Kingston

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 8 by Beth Brower

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter

FYI, that's 10 contemporaries, 5 historicals, 3 fantasies, and 1 scifi. Of those, 8 are romances, 3 are mysteries, 2 are retellings, and 1 is an urban fantasy. This list includes 11 standalones, while the other 8 are part of a series or duology. Of the 17 authors featured, one is a debut author (which always thrills me) and two appear twice (always a rare treat). Six authors from my Best of 2023 list make appearances on this year's list as well.

Best New Discovery of 2024

Kaliane Bradley

When I say that The Ministry of Time is A RIDE, I mean it. There was no point while reading that book that I had any idea how it was going to play out. Which thing I love. But even better than that, I couldn't feel the strings being pulled. I was so absorbed, and the whole thing was so carefully and quietly crafted, that I was completely knocked flat by the emotion I felt as I read the final pages. To find that in a debut novel is truly the biggest treat for a reader. I look forward to many more to come.

Best Books I Read in 2024 That Were Published in a Different Year

The Atlas Six, The Atlas Paradox, and One for My Enemy by Olivie Blake

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

American Dreamer and American Love Story by Adriana Herrera

Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison

Happy New Year!

Bibliocrack Review | You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Tue, 07 May 2024 13:38:00 +0000

If I'm being perfectly honest with myself, I've done a shamefully poor job of addressing my love for Cat Sebastian's books around these parts. I've certainly noted each time her beautiful stories have appeared on my end-of-the-year best of lists, see: The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes, basically every book in The Cabots series, and of course We Could Be So Good. And the pull is, quite simply, this: nobody is as kind and gentle with their characters and with their hearts than Cat Sebastian. Nobody. I haven't always been one for the gentler stories, but I cannot overstate the absolute gift it is sinking into one of Sebastian's exquisitely crafted historicals knowing that I get to spend the next however many pages watching two idiots pine and deny that feelings exist and just take care of each other as they fall in love. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. Not this one or any other.

Only two things in the world people count by months. How old a baby is, and how long since something awful happened.

Mark Bailey hasn't known what to do for more than a year. Longer than that, probably. But it's been nearly a year and a half since he lost his partner and his will to go on. Which is why, as an arts writer for the Chronicle, he is severely less-than-pleased to be unceremoniously placed on the sports beat covering the story of the New York Robins' hapless new shortstop. Eddie O'Leary was supposed to be the new golden boy of baseball. Traded to a team already circling the drain, in a city that somehow cares even less for him than he does for it, he immediately loses his swing. And things go rapidly downhill from there. Until Mark Bailey walks into the locker room, unwillingly sniffing after a story about the hick from Kansas City. And somehow, these two solitary souls find that they're needed after all. Independent of their stalled careers and the mess of emotional damage they're trailing behind them. Because Eddie can see the few remaining pockets of life slowly draining from Mark's eyes, and Mark realizes his flagging heart may actually have enough life left in it to protect the spark he sees in the struggling young phenom. But whether or not trust of the longterm variety is in the cards, that may take more seasons than Eddie has left to solve.

He thinks that the game may have earned those metaphors. It's slow and often seems pointless. It's beautiful, when it isn't a mess. There's a vast ocean of mercy for mistakes: getting hits half the time is nothing short of a miracle, and even the best fielders are expected to have errors. The inevitability of failure is built into the game.

I confess, I did not see baseball coming and I am so here for it. I'm a longtime fan of the sport, and it was a damn delight reading Cat Sebastian's beautiful take on baseball in 1960s New York, especially as seen through the exacting and incisive eye of one Mark Bailey. Whose faultless fashion aesthetic I may never recover from. Rolled sleeves agenda indeed, sir. After reading (and absolutely loving) We Could Be So Good, my expectations going into Sebastian's next mid-century historical set in the same "world" were sky high. Every one is exceeded. The expert craftsmanship that goes into this novel works a kind of slow-creeping magic on its readers, effortlessly setting us down in an incredibly specific period in time—one not often renowned for its magic—and wrapping us up in the inexorably charming rhythm of taxis called and taken, of baseball fans whose teams have left them, of players who are forced to leave their teams, of the precise cut of a hand-tailored suit, the push and pull of the characters' vernacular, and the uniquely human longing to know we're not alone. An ache took up residence in my chest the entire time I read this book. The kind of ache I felt the compulsive need to press down on so as to keep myself together long enough, to acknowledge through the feeling and the pressure that what I was reading was as beautifully rendered as it seemed. It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me even a little bit that I identified with Mark to a somewhat lethal degree.

Maybe Mark is wrong. Maybe this swing will slip away from Eddie, or maybe it will settle into something just above marginal, something good enough but never great. He knows better than to count on good things lasting. But when he watches Eddie—when he sees that stern set of his jaw, and when Eddie flashes a grin toward the bleachers—Mark thinks he's seeing something that's for keeps.

For all the baseball talk and culture and wonderful history, this is an intensely interior sort of story. It is two people quietly grappling with what it means to be queer in a society and a time that won't allow it, coming to terms with how comfortable they are taking up space in that world and on whose terms, and how to move forward together without giving up the things and the people, the sport and the words that they love. I could read a thousand more quiet, aching pages full of bowls of pasta in unassuming Italian restaurants, aging sportswriters and team managers quietly fighting injustice and time, two ridiculously likable characters bonding over horror novels, milkshakes, and not talking about their feelings. I'll close with my favorite exchange of all, one that coincidentally (or perhaps not, after all) perfectly encapsulates all I ever want from the story of a relationship:

I love you," Eddie says.
"You're a nightmare," Mark returns, in precisely the same tone of voice.

You Should Be So Lucky is out today!

Tell Me More

New York Times review | The Geeky Waffle review | superstardrifter review | cannonballread review

Angie's 2024 Must Be Mine

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 16:31:00 +0000

As ever, begin as you mean to go on. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2024:

And no covers on these yet, but I'm looking forward to them every bit as much:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 8 by Beth Brower
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
Skybriar by Talia Hibbert
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
Father Material by Alexis Hall
The Duke at Hazard by K.J. Charles
Hell's Belle's book four by Sarah MacLean

What titles are on your list?

The Year Fic Saved Me

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 04:59:00 +0000

Once upon a time, January came for us and proclaimed itself supremely uninterested in taking prisoners. Under the sustained assault, there were simply too many avenues of stress tearing into my brain. On one side of the field stood so many books (as they have always been there for me) ready to be read—to help. And on the other side loomed a distressing number of chasms inside me desperate to find solace and reprieve. But the two could not meet. No matter how many peace talks I attempted to broker.

In February, in a move so unprecedented that I can only describe it as a lifeline thrown down into the deepest of the chasms, my exhausted mind decided it would be a good idea to finally give fanfiction a whirl. Now, there's no getting around the fact that for someone who has read as many novels that involve fic in some way or another as I have—seriously, novels that began as fic, novels written by authors who got their start writing fic, novels about characters who write/illustrate/love fic with every fiber of their being, novels about novels about fic—it's ~~somewhat mystifying~~ dead preposterous that I'd never wound my way around to seeing what was out there for me. Because of course there was something.

As it turns out, there was an entire world. And now—now it will always be mine.

So I wandered onto AO3 and pondered which of my favorite fictional worlds I might test the waters in (I'm going to go ahead and wager that those of you who've known me the longest—or the best—have already guessed which ship I boarded). I mean, I certainly have a type. And the thing is, I cannot emphasize to you how dire my inner straits were at the time. To be clear, I want to acknowledge that I'm using the word dire in the context of someone who was not (and is not) actively dying or dealing with a life-threatening illness, someone who was not (and is not) supporting a loved one who is dying or dealing with a life-threatening illness, and someone who was not (and is not) going through relationship-based trauma.

That clearly said, the strain was nevertheless at something of a breaking point and that shimmering gold lifeline whispered calmly, "Remember? Remember how enemies to lovers makes you happy? How your brain basically comes online when the morally grey character takes the stage and proceeds to steal every scene. Remember how you love a retelling down to your soul? How you sign up repeatedly for a redemption arc because, at your most fundamental, you believe in redemption and compassion and forgiveness and the ability we deeply flawed humans have to change. How stone-cold competent heroines and the (highly intelligent, if severly misguided) rakes who proceed to lose every last shred of their minds over them are your baseline kryptonite. How you've lived and breathed inside fantasy worlds since you walked through the wardrobe."

Since I was wholly uninterested in debating any of these perfectly factual statements, I set about doing my research and decided to fight fire with fire. In short, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy felt like not only a good place to start, they felt like the only place to start. I cracked open my first Dramione fic that night. I went dark AU, figuring that if I could swim in the deep end, we might just get out of this hellish place alive.

I don't know that I would exactly recommend as dark as I went as the place to start, but it certainly gave me an idea of the caliber of writing that was just casually floating around out there. These wordsmiths. My word. And that first fic ("Only because you asked.") sent me searching for contrast, for variety, for more—of which I found a wide and infinite sea. At this point, Dramione is my ship and I've accepted that I will one day go down with it. But more importantly, I understand now. I understand how you can read endless incarnations of the same two characters and soak each version up like it is a lifesaving elixir. Which, of course, they were for me—these two idiots in love. Which they continue to be.

I needed them. I needed them so much.

And so, possibly from here on, I will be sharing my best fics of the year. Rather than sticking only to fics that were completed that calendar year, I'm going to simply list my very favorites that I read that calendar year. At the end of this year of discovery and salvation, I do have a current all-time, god-tier favorite. I'll mark it at the bottom of the list. And I'll be sure to let you know if at any point in the future another fic ever takes its place. Right now it feels impossible. But if this year is proof of anything, it's that nothing is impossible. That magic is real and being continuously and lovingly and selflessly crafted in the hands of so many, it makes me tear up every time I think of this community.

(listed in the order in which I read them)

The Right Thing to Do by LovesBitca8

Remain Nameless by HeyJude19

Wait and Hope by mightbewriting

Sight and Seeing by mightbewriting

Breath Mints / Battle Scars by Onyx_and_Elm

Between Certifiable and Bliss by HeyJude19

A Season For Setting Fires by mightbewriting

Apple Pies and Other Amends by ToEatAPeach

Who I Was With You by Curly_Kay

Innocent Monsters by itscometothis

Things We Say In The Dark by rubber_soul02

Clean and Marked by olivieblake

Ten out of Ten by morriganmercy

Meet Your Match by morriganmercy

The Watergaw by smokybaltic

Until The Ink Runs Dry by AccioMjolnir

Love and Other Historical Accidents by PacificRimbaud

Remember One Thing by PacificRimbaud

Of these beautiful, beautiful stories, Wait and Hope is my all-time god tier fic. I think mightbewriting is an immaculate writer, and I am here every hour of every day for a marriage in trouble/Hermione has amnesia/pining Draco tearing doors off of hinges and giving big "My wife" energy like he's never known pain fic. As Sarah MacLean would say, "Put it in my veins."

All but two of the fics on this list are Dramione fics. They will always be endgame for me. Of the two that aren't, one is Dramione adjacent by way of being a novella set in the Wait and Hope world. Sight and Seeing features Theo Nott and Blaise Zabini and is utterly brilliant. The other is a result of the fact that I have rather a large soft spot for Panville (Pansy Parkinson/Neville Longbottom) fics, so I've read a handful of those—the very best of which being Remember One Thing. Oh my word, it's good.

And just in the interest of more stats (my interest, to be clear), this list includes 13 Post-War/GoldenTrio Era, 2 Eighth Year, 2 Wartime, 2 Seventh Year, 1 Epistolary, 1 Time Travel AU (Alternate Universe), and pretty much all are EWE (Epilogue What Epilogue). As always, when you wade into fic, be sure to mind the tags. But honestly, I get lost in the magic of every part of the mosaic, from the tags to the kudos to the fantastically talented artists that create such gorgeous art inspired by these fics.

And so on this the last day of a year that came for the blood of me and mine, I'm saying it in so many words. I had to. I didn't see it coming at the time. I couldn't see past the cloud of pain to see what would save me. But they came. And I knew them.

This magic. This magic is real.

Angie's Best Books of 2023

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 20:25:00 +0000

I've had a number of conversations recently with friends and coworkers. They go something along the lines of "Remember in 2016, when we didn't know what was coming?" followed closely by "Remember in 2020, when we didn't know what was coming?" This shared and recurrent haunting that we seem to be collectively living is simultaneously comforting and unnerving. Which is, perhaps not coincidentally, also a fairly apt description of my adult life. The conversation I have been having primarily with myself this month has gone something along the lines of "Remember in January, when you didn't know what was coming?"

I am actually not all that given to vast quantities of rumination in December regarding how the year has gone. I tend to reserve those thoughts for my reading year, where they trend in the fundamentally happy and filled to the brim with gratitude direction. But this year was somewhat ferociously unique in that my life as a whole was well and truly hijacked in January and, since then, we've been essentially running full-scale battle sprints. At a certain point, I cried "'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war." This entailed, among other things, taking a new job and moving my family across the country.

And just as those things we all didn't see coming in 2016 and in 2020 significantly impacted my reading life, so did the things I didn't see coming in January. For that reason, the books listed below do not (even remotely) encompass the full picture of the reading that I did this year. I think I'll address the highly specific (and massively unexpected) way my reading was impacted in a separate post. But the books listed below brought joy and respite and for now, as always, I record my list of published books that carried the day for me these past twelve months.
These authors. Their beautiful written words. You never let me down.

(listed in order in which I read them)

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

How to Tame a Wild Rogue by Julie Anne Long

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Knockout by Sarah MacLean

Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey

Jane & Edward by Melodie Edwards

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 7 by Beth Brower

Codename Charming by Lucy Parker

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber

The Marquis Who Mustn't by Courtney Milan

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey

The Gentleman's Gambit by Evie Dunmore

FYI, that's 7 contemporaries, 6 historicals, and 4 fantasies. Of those, 10 are romances, 2 are retellings, 2 are fairy tales, and 1 is a mystery. Interestingly (possibly only to me), this list includes 6 standalones, while the other 11 are part of a series or duology. Of the 16 authors featured, one is a debut author (which always thrills me) and one appears twice (always a rare treat). Seven authors from my Best of 2022 list make appearances on this year's list as well.

Best New Discovery of 2023

Curtis Sittenfeld

She's been on my radar as long as everyone else's, and I would just sort of read a chapter of her previous works here and there, never committing fully for some (likely unworthy) reason or other. Then this month, in fact, I picked up Romantic Comedy and could not put it down. I could not put it down. Reading it was a breathless and emotional experience for me. I think it spoke to a lot of my previously mentioned thoughts regarding things we don't see coming, being a woman who works with words who is also deeply mistrustful of putting a voice to feelings in general, and then just being a human who is existing in this specific world as this singular moment in time. I loved it beyond reason. No notes.

Best Books I Read in 2023 That Were Published in a Different Year

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Once Upon a Broken Heart and The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

The Devil You Know and The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Elizabeth O'Roark

Happy New Year!

Review | Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 19:07:00 +0000

It really is a pretty cover. And dragons. I love them so. It's been far too long since I've read a book in which dragons played any kind of primary character role. They do here, and they are probably my favorite aspect of this book. But more on that later. It's probably worth noting that I, like the rest of the world, was aware of Fourth Wing and the collective losing of BookTok's mind over it. I mean, it was kind of thrilling to hear that you couldn't find a copy anywhere—in the sense that I love it when books are being consumed and loved. And when that happens in such a way that it takes publishing by surprise (for lack of a better way to phrase it) so much so that they have to scramble to print more. So I did the sensible thing and bought the ebook. And then I proceeded to do the not-so-sensible-but-extremely-Angie thing and not read it. There was a cross-country move tucked in there somewhere between the buying and the reading, but more on that at a later date. All of this to say, I finally got around to starting Fourth Wing a couple of days ago. And I have thoughts.

I feel like we don't need much in the way of plot summary at this point, no? Violet, being a somewhat withdrawn and bookish sort, wants to be a scribe but finds herself forced (by her mother the general) to follow in her older siblings' footsteps and attend Basgiath War College, where she will either die (most likely outcome) or survive to become a dragon rider (very least likely outcome). It's all very Top Gun if the other flight cadets were also allowed (sometimes outright encouraged) to murder you to get ahead as opposed to just be the better pilot. If you survive training, you get the chance to bond with a dragon (Dragonriders of Pern, anyone?). But not everyone is chosen. And even if you are, the goal is still war and partnering with the dragons, who don't really give a ripped stitch for humans except in the sense that they both want to keep their homeland theirs, to defend Navarre from attack.

So. The comparisons to Sarah J. Maas abound—the A Court of Thorns and Roses series in particular. The romantasy moniker (not my favorite subgenre title, for the record) seems to have been firmly attached, though I really feel like we don't get enough quality either in this case. But. I did go in with certain expectations of what I might find. And somehow I just did not expect to come out feeling so underwhelmed. On basically every level. What I loved was Violet's dragon, Tairn. His voice was a gruff and resentful delight throughout. But it took so very long to even get to his arrival in the story. The global pacing felt off to me. Long swaths of time spent training with actually very little detailed description of the training and how it worked organically to bring cadets together or introduce chasms. Factions formed, wings were assigned, and yet all of the side characters remained hazy at best. I wanted to know them better; I wanted to be able to feel Violet's care for them and theirs for her more. But I felt like we were told they had gelled into a loyal group (and that so-and-so was the villain) but we didn't ever see it happen. It just was and that was meant to be enough. My kingdom for some dialogue with meat on its bones.

Speaking of villains, I longed for increased subtlety on the whole. Xaden, the much vaunted enemies-to-lovers love interest, was so clearly never even remotely trying to kill Violet. I mean, so clearly I could scream. Was he hiding something? Of course. Was he any kind of credible threat to Violet? Heavens, no. And for better or worse, I think he should have been. I adore a good enemies-to-lovers tale as much as (yes, fine, probably more than) the next girl, but this wasn't even trying to be that. It was just all so obvious from the jump that I felt myself skimming—which I just never do. As a rule. Particularly if the wordsmithing is sparkling. That was not the case here. Not that it has to be if the characters are vibrant and the pace is exciting. See: SJM. Pace exciting? Check. Characters vibrant? Check, check. Whereas here, every twist was telegraphed so far in advance, with little to no nuance layered over the top, that it was a challenge to believe Violet was buying any of it either. I liked her. I just never knew her. And I wanted to. Because I believed Tairn—the only creature to jump off the page and sink his claws into me. Because he was Tairn. Which meant she had to be worth it all. I guess, in the end, I just wish everyone else had had claws, too.

I am not here to rain on anyone's parade. I love it when we collectively love tales to utter distraction. I just didn't fall on that end of the spectrum with this one. I'm not sure why this experience prompted me to pop back on and write up a review. I rarely write full reviews of underwhelming reads (though I've had rather a string of such lately). But maybe I'll come back soon with something I loved. Because there have been those, too. As for you, did this one hit the spot? I know I'm in the overwhelming minority.

Tell Me More

SBTB review | Dear Author review | What is Quinn Reading? review

Angie's 2023 Must Be Mine

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 00:32:00 +0000

Begin as you mean to go on, they say. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2023:

And no covers on these yet, but I'm looking forward to them every bit as much:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 7 by Beth Brower

Knockout by Sarah MacLean

Ten Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Diamond Ring by K.D. Casey

The Gentleman's Gambit by Evie Dunmore

What titles are on your list?

Angie's Best Books of 2022

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 23:54:00 +0000

Somehow the end of the year is here. And we're all here. And I still feel like placing this post in this space. So I shall. With gratitude and a certain wistful hope. For us all. But especially for these books, the people that walk them, their words, and their creators.

(listed in the order in which I read them)

Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian

You Were Made to Be Mine by Julie Anne Long

Impossible by Sarah Lotz

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

The Worst Guy by Kate Canterbary

Fire Season by K.D. Casey

Husband Material by Alexis Hall

Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Lore Olympus, Vol. 3 by Rachel Smythe

Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 6 by Beth Brower

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian

Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell

FYI, that's 10 contemporaries, 5 historicals, and 4 fantasies. Of those, 9 are romances, 2 are mysteries, 2 are fairy tales, 2 are retellings, 1 is a graphic novel, and 1 is a collection of short stories. I loved them all.

Best New Discovery of 2022

Cat Sebastian

I mean, come on. Her tagline is "Fall in Love. Eat the rich." I didn't stand a chance. She also appeared twice on my best of the year list, which is quite a rarified place to land! I'm cheating a bit here, because I had actually read some of Cat Sebastian's books prior to 2022, but I feel like this was the year I really discovered what she could do, you know? Holy smokes, the woman can write the hell out of a book. But do you know what I love best about her words? She is so gentle. She is so dashed gentle with her characters and with their hearts.

Best Books I Read in 2022 That Were Published in a Different Year

Fated Blades by Ilona Andrews

No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole

I'm Only Wicked with You by Julie Anne Long

Repeat, Play, and Lick by Kylie Scott

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian

Lover Eternal by J.R. Ward

Happy New Year!

Angie's 2022 Must Be Mine

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 01:03:00 +0000

Hopes, fears. We've got them in spades these days. Today, I'm choosing hope and delicious anticipation. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2022:

And no covers yet on these, but I'm looking forward to them just as much:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 6 by Beth Brower

You Were Made to be Mine by Julie Anne Long

Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

Dreamer Trilogy, #3 by Maggie Stiefvater

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

Which titles are on your list?

Angie's Best Books of 2021

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 09:56:00 +0000

We have come to the end of the year, you and I. It has been even quieter around these parts than last year at this time. And yet I find myself here once more, feeling the familiar and precious gratitude for this space and for all of these words. Despite it all. And so even in the quiet, I leave with you my best books of the year. They have been a light in dark places. Perhaps they also were for you. Perhaps they will be.

(listed in the order in which I read them)

The Sweetest Fix by Tessa Bailey

Roommate by Sarina Bowen

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

Fence: Disarmed by Sarah Rees Brennan

Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater

Subtle Blood by K.J. Charles

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Bombshell by Sarah MacLean

Flirting with Forever by Cara Bastone

Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

In the Ballroom with the Candlestick by Diana Peterfreund

The Geek Who Saved Christmas by Annabeth Albert

After Dark with the Duke by Julie Anne Long

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vols. 4 & 5 by Beth Brower

FYI, that's 10 contemporaries, 6 historicals, 3 fantasies, and 1 nonfiction. Of those, 9 are romances, 3 are retellings, 3 are novellas, and 2 are mysteries. All are just lovely.

Best New Discovery of 2021

Ali Hazelwood

I was hopelessly charmed by Ali Hazelwood's debut novel, The Love Hypothesis. It had been awhile since a book made my heart feel so light. The banter is at once fizzy and deadpan, and it just merrily steamrolls over everything in its way. And yet she makes time for those impossible silences. The ones that stretch. I am such a deep and abiding fan.

What did Adam's fortune cookie say?"
"Mmm." Olive made a show to look at the strip. "Not much. Just 'Holden Rodrigues, Ph.D., is a loser.'" Malcolm sped up just as Holden flipped her off, making her burst into laughter.
"What does it really say?" Adam asked when they were finally alone.
Olive handed him the crumpled paper and remained silent as he angled it to read it in the lamplight. She wasn't surprised when she saw a muscle jump in his jaw, or when he slid the fortune into the pocket of his jeans. She knew what it said, after all.
You can fall in love: someone will catch you.

Best Books I Read in 2021 that were Published in a Different Year

To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn

The Art of Theft and Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas

A Lady's Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

In the Study with the Wrench by Diana Peterfreund

Miracle on Ladies' Mile by Joanna Shupe

Happy New Year!

Bibliocrack Review | The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 19:40:00 +0000

Hi. Hey. Hello there. It's been a . . . well, you know what it's been. We're all still living this together. So I will simply skip to the fact that I couldn't not review this book here. Because reading it was something special. I knew nothing about Ali Hazelwood's debut novel except that it involved women in STEM and that the cover made me smile. I decided to set it aside for myself as a reward. Work has been . . . punishing . . . for the last year, and I have been so exhausted every hour of every day. And so I determined to buy The Love Hypothesis on release day knowing nothing about it. But when I went to the bookstore to get my copy, none were available. In fact, none were available anywhere for love nor money, in store or online. At first I was moderately disappointed. Then I told myself maybe it's not that great after all and I didn't necessarily need to feel this preemptive sense of loss. But it kept gnawing at me. The loss. And so I paused work and read the first chapter online, mostly thinking that it wouldn't grab me as much as I thought it would and I could therefore let go the sense of loss that I wouldn't be able to crawl into bed that night with it. Except, of course, the first chapter utterly grabbed me. I sat there at my computer with a ridiculously dopey grin on my face. So I bit the bullet and did something I virtually never do with unknown quantities. I bought the ebook and ordered a print copy at the same time. As my husband says, every day ends. And come hell or high water, I was going to end this day with something charming.

Are you okay?" He must be really tall. His voice sounded like it came from ten feet above her.
"Sure. Why do you ask?"
"Because you are crying. In my bathroom."
"Oh, I'm not crying. Well, I sort of am, but it's just tears, you know?"
"I do not."
She sighed, slumping against the tiled wall. "It's my contacts. They expired some time ago, and they were never that great to begin with. They messed up my eyes. I've taken them off, but . . . " She shrugged. Hopefully in his direction. "It takes awhile, before they get better."
"You put in expired contacts?" He sounded personally offended.
"Just a little expired."
"What's 'a little'?"
"I don't know. A few years?"
"What?" His consonants were sharp and precise. Crisp. Pleasant.
"Only just a couple, I think."
"Just a couple of years?"
"It's okay. Expiration dates are for the weak.

Olive is considering the possibility that choosing a life in academia was a monumental mistake. On paper it all tracks. She knows why she's pursuing a PhD in biology at Stanford, and her reasons are very personal. Which is fine, because other people have always been somewhat difficult for Olive. She's been on her own for a long time, and while she managed to form two strong friendships with fellow PhD candidates, she always feels most at ease in the lab. Which is why she's so bugged by her current social situation. After weeks of trying and failing to convince her best friend, Anh, that it's okay to date Jeremy, the last guy Olive went out with, she resorts to inventing a fake boyfriend. Honestly, Olive doesn't understand the fuss. Anh and Jeremy would be great together, and Olive wasn't ever that into Jeremy anyway. She's rarely into other people in general. Science is what makes sense. But Anh refuses to hurt Olive, and the ridiculousness of the situation is driving Olive quietly mad. Thus the fake boyfriend is born. Which is bothersome enough in and of itself. But things get suddenly and comprehensively worse when Olive (who is supposed to be on a date with her fictional boyfriend) is hanging out at the lab one night and spots Anh heading her way. Olive panics and does what anyone would do: rush up and kiss the nearest warm body to avoid being caught out in her scheme. And so begins the most tangled, confusing, and oddly exhilarating period of Olive's life. Because the nearest warm body turns out to be none other than Dr. Adam Carlsen, the most intimidating, ruthless professor in the department. Who may actually have a reason or two of his own to participate in Olive's madcap charade.

She was just going to pretend nothing had happened, nod at him politely, and tiptoe her way out of here. Yes, solid plan.
"Did you . . . Did you just kiss me?" He sounded puzzled, and maybe a little out of breath. His lips were full and plump and . . . God. Kissed. There was simply no way Olive could get away with denying what she had just done.
Still, it was worth a try.
"Nope."
Surprisingly, it seemed to work.
"Ah. Okay, then." Carlsen nodded and turned around, looking vaguely disoriented. He took a couple of steps down the hallway, reached the water fountain—maybe where he'd been headed in the first place.
Olive was starting to believe that she might actually be off the hook when he halted and turned back with a skeptical expression.
"Are you sure?

Reader, I am hopelessly charmed. I could not stop grinning for the entirety of the book. I found myself unconsciously bookmarking every single page in my ebook. It has been awhile since a book made my heart feel so light. Olive and Adam are compelling and delightful together, so much so that I had a difficult time wanting to be anywhere but with them. The banter is at once fizzy and deadpan, and it just merrily steamrolls over everything in its way. For two such serious individuals, each new hysterical scenario is an exercise in not running screaming for the hills. But underneath all that, Olive and Adam lock into place with each other in a way neither of them have experienced before. Being the solitary scientists that they are, it remains difficult for them to find and use the words to fit the shape of what's happening. Well, Olive never has a moment's trouble finding words. But the right ones. The ones that aren't so terrifying to utter that you cannot face the prospect. In that arena, she's right there with Adam. The silences that stretch, people. You know I'm a fan. It didn't hurt that I felt such an affinity for Olive's experiences in graduate school as they echoed so many of my own. Not the dating a professor part, fake or otherwise. But the experience of constantly contending with the realities of being a woman in higher education, of being in no way adept at any social aspect of life, and of wrestling with your choices regarding a true and abiding love of academic study and whether or how it will continue to sustain you on an intellectual, financial, and spiritual level for years to come. Layering these achingly real aspects of her life over the headily charming (and very self-aware) fake dating trope made for such a brilliant narrative.

What did Adam's fortune cookie say?"
"Mmm." Olive made a show to look at the strip. "Not much. Just 'Holden Rodrigues, Ph.D., is a loser.'" Malcolm sped up just as Holden flipped her off, making her burst into laughter.
"What does it really say?" Adam asked when they were finally alone.
Olive handed him the crumpled paper and remained silent as he angled it to read it in the lamplight. She wasn't surprised when she saw a muscle jump in his jaw, or when he slid the fortune into the pocket of his jeans. She knew what it said, after all.
You can fall in love: someone will catch you.

My heart is light.

Tell Me More

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The Bookish Libra review | The Geeky Waffle review

Review | To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 03:04:00 +0000

The first book to make it onto my best books I've read so far this year list was actually a surprise. Thanks to Bridgerton's massive success, Julia Quinn's name is everywhere these days. And I'm chuffed about the whole thing. That said, my Quinn reading up to this point has been sporadic at best. And I'd only read two novels in the actual Bridgerton series. So I decided to rectify that at the beginning of the year by starting with Eloise's story (the fifth in the series) because she is my uncontested favorite of the siblings. I had no idea what her story held, but I knew she would be a compelling lead. I also love the title and the role that letters play in the story.

Eloise Bridgerton is tired of everything. She is tired of the endless inane whirl of life among the ton. She is tired of being paraded around and forced to dance and converse with all the wrong men. But most of all she is tired of being suddenly and unexpectedly alone after her best friend Penelope up and marries Eloise's brother Colin. And so when she receives a letter from a man she scarcely knows, she responds without thinking much of it. Thus begins a correspondence that alternately entertains and intrigues both parties. Which is why when the mysterious Sir Phillip writes to invite her to visit his home with the specific goal of seeing if they might suit, Eloise throws caution to the wind and dashes off for the countryside in the middle of the night.

From her window she could see Sir Phillip's greenhouse. She assumed that was where he was, since she hadn't heard him here in the house, stomping about and bellowing at his children. The glass was fogged up and the only thing she could see was a blurry curtain of green—his beloved plants, she supposed. What sort of man was he, that he preferred plants to people? Certainly not anyone who appreciated a fine conversation.

She felt her shoulders sag. Eloise had spent half her life in search of a fine conversation.

Ah, Eloise. I know the feeling. Her spirit and vivacity are my favorite sort, and she is so deserving of a proper adventure. At first somewhat dismaying glance, Sir Phillip does not appear quite the dashing fellow Eloise hoped might await her. It turns out he is a widower with two difficult children. He knows very little of how to be a good father (or a father of any sort), preferring to spend his time working in his greenhouse. And Eloise finds it difficult to find the man who wrote such funny and absorbing letters buried somewhere within the man whose foremost priority seems to be securing a mother for his hellion children so that he may continue his quiet life of solitude and greenery. Happily, Eloise is having none of that. And Phillip finds himself roped into not only participating in his life once more, but talking to the young lady who in turn is not remotely the kind of woman he expected.

There is such a great deal of beauty and depth to this tale. It felt more serious to me than the others in the series, partially because it takes place almost exclusively outside London. And partially because Phillip's history is such a tragic one. And while he makes several dunderheaded moves with regards to his motivations for inviting Eloise to his estate (and while he is decidedly better with the written word than the spoken and with plants than people), I was so proud of him for trying. For reaching out in the first place after life had dealt him such blows. For wanting more for his children than he was currently able to give them. And more for himself (though he cannot even acknowledge it). I found it impossible not to love Phillip. Blind spots and all. Fortunately for him, the woman he wrote was Eloise Bridgerton. Because she frankly carries the day from the very first page. Eloise could talk from sunup to sundown and still not have enough time to express all of the feelings and curiosity and desires of her heart. She is witty and perspicacious and her heart is big enough and strong enough for all of them. It leads her to the right place before she even comprehends why. It falls in love with Phillip and his neglected children and refuses to leave them alone and hurt any longer despite the very real danger her presence at his home places her in. It isn't an easy process, nor is it a painless one. And more than once, the whole thing goes pear-shaped. But it is so touching, infused with so much longing and genuine emotion. It is also, at times, hilarious. Especially when Eloise's raft of brothers make an appearance in peak Bridgerton style. But of the entire lot, Eloise and Phillip are my favorite. They feel like the truest, if initially unlikely, match. A favorite exchange:

"It's not that at all," she said quickly, mostly just to make him stop talking about it. "It was . . . " Her voice trailed off, and she sighed. "It was . . . "

And then she told him everything. All about the marriage proposals she'd received, and the ones Penelope hadn't, and the plans they'd jokingly made to grow old and spinsterish together. And she told him how guilty she'd felt when Penelope and Colin had married, and she couldn't stop thinking about herself and how alone she was.

She told him all that and more. She told him what was in her mind and what was in her heart, and she told him things she'd never told another soul. And it occurred to her that for a woman who opened her mouth every other second, there was an awful lot inside of her that she'd never shared.

And then, when she was done (and, in truth, she didn't even realize she'd finished; she just kind of ran out of energy and dwindled off into silence), he reached out and took her hand.

"It's all right," he said.

And it was, she realized. It actually was.

I'm so pleased to have started off the new year with them. I went on to binge the entire series (Anthony, you rascal, I still believe I will see you in hell), and a fun time was had by all. But To Sir Phillip, With Love will always be my favorite.

Tell Me More

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AAR review

Angie's 2021 Must Be Mine

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 21:55:00 +0000

It's like I don't want to curse anything by saying too much about my hopes for 2021. But I have zero problem talking about the upcoming books I'm excited to read. And so here are my most anticipated novels of 2021:

And no covers yet on these, but I'm looking forward to them just the same:

Neverland by Meagan Spooner

Subtle Blood by K.J. Charles

Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas

Which titles are on your list?

Angie's Best Books of 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:32:00 +0000

It is the last day of the year. Of this year specifically. "Well done," is all have to say if you're reading this. Well done, you.

It's been quiet for awhile now around these parts. For obvious reasons. But I've been reading continuously and ever so gratefully. I have felt such a profound sense of gratitude this year for all of the creators in this world who have been tirelessly and so lovingly creating art for all of us. We have needed it so much. I have needed it so much. And this year of all years, the creation of art has felt like such a fierce act of love. So thank you. And so here I leave my best books of the year. My list stands at fourteen titles. And that feels just right.

photo by @aamith

(in the order in which I read them)

A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer

If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles

Christmas at the Island Hotel by Jenny Colgan

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff

The Sugared Game by K.J. Charles

Fence: Striking Distance by Sarah Rees Brennan

Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Just Like You by Nick Hornby

A Rogue of One's Own by Evie Dunmore

The Duke Who Didn't by Courtney Milan

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 3 by Beth Brower

Missing Christmas by Kate Clayborn

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

FYI, that's 7 contemporaries, 5 historicals, and 3 fantasies. Of those, 5 are romances, 3 are retellings, 2 are mysteries, and 2 are novellas. All quite grand.

Best New Discovery of 2020

Mhairi McFarlane

It happened in March. It was swift and irrevocable. Her writing is endlessly charming and frequently lighthearted (she is so, so witty), but there is also so much depth and weight to it. She writes of how we fight to shape ourselves. And her stories make me want to let fly my own punch of joy, heartbreak, rage, hilarity, and strength.

I'm not carrying it anymore. I spoke the words aloud, used my words, and broke the curse.

Biggest Character Crush of 2020

Eugenides the Thief

He returned. In full glory. And it was so supremely good. It was the highest of triumphs and I am so chuffed I was here for it. I was so extremely fond of how Megan Whalen Turner preserved the relationship between the four monarchs, these adults who laughed and fought together after having survived their youth. They had my heart. But when Eugenides unleashed the power of the god. Oh, my. He can steal anything. So, so. so.

Best Books I Read in 2020 that were Published in a Different Year

Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane

Crash by Ruby McNally

Happy New Year!

Blog Tour Review | Breath Like Water by Anna Jarzab

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Tue, 19 May 2020 14:00:00 +0000

Today, I'm happy to be taking part in the blog tour for Anna Jarzab's Breath Like Water courtesy of Inkyard Press. You are likely familiar with my love for sports and sports-themed novels (may the Giants play again soon). So I was intrigued by both the lovely cover and the concept of an elite swimmer who peaks quite young but is still determined to claw her way to the Olympics.

ABOUT THE BOOK

This beautifully lyrical contemporary novel features an elite teen swimmer with Olympic dreams, plagued by injury and startled by unexpected romance, who struggles to balance training with family and having a life. For fans of Sarah Dessen, Julie Murphy and Miranda Kenneally.

Susannah Ramos has always loved the water. A swimmer whose early talent made her a world champion, Susannah was poised for greatness in a sport that demands so much of its young. But an inexplicable slowdown has put her Olympic dream in jeopardy, and Susannah is fighting to keep her career afloat when two important people enter her life: a new coach with a revolutionary training strategy, and a charming fellow swimmer named Harry Matthews.

As Susannah begins her long and painful climb back to the top, her friendship with Harry blossoms into passionate and supportive love. But Harry is facing challenges of his own, and even as their bond draws them closer together, other forces work to tear them apart. As she struggles to balance her needs with those of the people who matter most to her, Susannah will learn the cost--and the beauty--of trying to achieve something extraordinary.

This is my first novel by Anna Jarzab, so I was curious to see how her writing style and my reading taste would mesh. At first I felt some uncertainty that the very up-front, somewhat utilitarian style of the writing would get in the way of my enjoyment. This is, first and foremost, an earnest story. It is seven layers of earnest. And occasionally (and combined with this year being the dumpster fire that it is) my sometime jaded heart can tune out of heart-on-your-sleeve, earnest tales told in an uncomplicated and open manner. When that happens, it's generally on me and I write it off as an it's not you, it's me sort of reading scenario. Happily, Susannah and Harry and I fell into an easy rhythm, as my always romantic heart will never not find itself pulled into a genuine tale of young love. If it comes with a generous helping of athletics, grit, pain, and reality, so much the better. Which is exactly what Breath Like Water does. But rather importantly, it does us one better and offers up a genuine, open, and honest treatment of mental illness. The book is blurbed by Gayle Forman, after all. You knew the pain had to be lurking around one corner or another. So, bear that in mind. Beyond this point, there be dragons.

But there is also a really solid portrait of two kids falling in love and working their individual tails off in the name of a sport they love (or possibly hate) and doing it all on top of the usual and sometimes unusual troubles associated with high school and under the gimlet eye of just the worst head coach. Seriously, he's the worst. But Susannah and Harry are the best. One of my favorite of their earlier exchanges:

Everything ends eventually, even pain. If nothing else, swimming has taught me that. "Hi!" I say. The sun is in my eyes, and I can't see his expression. "So, Fee is nice. How come you don't want her at meets?"
"We're friends," he says. "We went out for a while, but I haven't seen her in months. Tuck invited them. I didn't even know they'd be here until they showed up. I didn't blow you off for her."
"I didn't think you did," I tell him, nervously zipping and unzipping my coat. "Besides, we're just friends, too."
He stiffens. "That's right."
"So it doesn't matter who you hang out with."
"Back there it seemed like it did a little."
"It doesn't. But you should let her see you swim," I say, because I really am so proud of him, of how good he is when he lets himself be. "Everyone who loves you should see you in the water."
"Okay," he says, looking sort of confused. "Maybe."
I pat his arm in a friendly way. "See you later, Harry."
"Bye, Susannah."
My heart falls out of my chest and splatters onto the sidewalk like a water balloon. I wish he would go back to calling me Susie. But the thing that really breaks me is the realization that he touched my right shoulder, not my left, because the left is the one that always gives me trouble.
Harry would never knowingly hurt me, not even to stop me from walking away.

This scene showcases how right Anna Jarzab gets it when she's writing these two in the moment, in dialogue, when everything matters so much to both characters and so many important things go unsaid or happen beneath the surface. I loved it. Because the truth is, Breath Like Water is the kind of story I am always here for. If you liked Ellen Emerson White's A Season of Daring Greatly or basically anything by Chris Crutcher, it's worth your time to check this one out. Breath Like Water is out today!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anna Jarzab is a Midwesterner turned New Yorker. She lives and works in New York City and is the author of such books as Red Dirt, All Unquiet Things, The Opposite of Hallelujah, and the Many-Worlds series. Visit her online at annajarzab.com and on Twitter, @ajarzab.

BUY THE BOOK

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Google Play | Apple Books

CONNECT WITH ANNA

Instagram | Twitter | Website

Review | The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vols. 1 & 2 by Beth Brower

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 02:08:00 +0000

I feel a bit giddy finally talking to you all about this series. If you'll remember, I fell madly in love with The Q when it came out a few years ago. Now, Beth Brower is writing The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion—a series of novellas set in London in 1883. Each volume is an excerpt from the incorrigible Emma's journals, and the first two volumes are already available with the third on the way soon. I think they'd make rather perfect pandemic reading. Humorous and charming down to their bones, they're just what the doctor ordered to lift your spirits in this uncertain time that just proves to be too much some days. If you're experiencing one of those days, I suggest giving Volume 1 a go (it's only 99 cents on Kindle, $4.99 for a trade paperback copy). It will surprise exactly none of you that I own print and digital editions of both volumes.

Miss Emma M. Lion has waited long enough. Come hell or high water (and really, given her track record, both are likely), she is going to take back possession of her rightful home from her odious Cousin Archibald. Which is how she finds herself setting foot off the train in London (at last) and making her way to the lovely (if rather unusual) neighborhood of St. Crispian's and her lovely (if rather unusual) home Lapis Lazuli House. In the wake of a number of personal tragedies, Emma has been mouldering in the countryside for years with her fatuous and extremely irksome Cousin Matilde, forced to cater to her every whim. Meanwhile, Cousin Archibald has been occupying the home her parents left her when they died and playing fast and loose with her inheritance. Emma is fast approaching her majority and bound and determined to take charge of her own life. But the tyrannical Archibald refuses to give up without a fight, locking up the library, and relegating Emma to the garret.To add insult to injury, it isn't even a whole garret but a portion of one, as Cousin Archibald walled off ten feet of the house, dubbed it Lapis Lazuli Minor, and rented it out to a Tenant in order to pay for his inexplicable morning robe habit. And so Emma is forced to roll up her sleeves and do battle for what should have been hers years ago. And in true Emma M. Lion fashion, she chronicles the ins and outs of her increasingly hilarious and frustrating life with both a critical eye and an abundance of wit.

I've arrived in London without incident.
There are few triumphs in my recent life, but I count this as one. My existence of the last three years has been nothing but incident.

Emma is a singular personality and one that grows on you immediately upon acquaintance. Her unselected journals are positively Wilde-esque, as she employs a cutting, grandiose, yet always self-effacing approach to her treatment of daily life. Every denizen of St. Crispian's is a fully-fledged character in their own right and one that I would follow beyond Emma's eye were I given the chance. From the hapless Scottish maid/cook Agnes to the truly bewitching (though he would abhor the term) vicar Young Hawkes, who was rather abandoned at his post and who mixes poetry and Shakespeare into his "sermons," cheered on by his rowdy Eton and Oxford mates in the back pew. From the habit that objects in St. Crispian's have of regularly going missing and reappearing in other people's homes to the specter of a Roman centurion who haunts the neighbourhood. To say nothing of the forbidding Duke of Islington, who is the unwitting and unwilling author of Emma's greatest temptation and The Tenant himself, with his quicksilver eyes, who moves into the other portion of the garret across the wall from Emma and begins exchanging notes with her written on torn off scraps of paper and slid through a crack between the boards in the wall. I mean, honestly. The entire host of them are revoltingly charming and winsome and they basically each made me want to tear my hair out by the roots at some points and hug them ferociously hard at others. Well, with the exception of Young Hawkes. He never makes me want to tear my hair out, and I always want to hug him. Not that he'd allow it, of course. As it stands, a number of shenanigans are in the works, a number of games afoot, and I would truly love to chat about them with any and all of you. Until such time as you've had a chance to swallow Emma's tales whole, I'll leave you with possibly my favorite exchange (which is saying something) between Emma and The Tenant (taken from Volume 2). Emma initiates the exchange, and The Tenant's responses are in all caps:

Do you have an obscure fact regarding cartography that would catch the attention of a man whose only other interest is the sweet pea?

I PRESUME THAT WAS A SERIOUS QUESTION?

It was.

THE HEREFORD MAPPA MUNDI IS ORIENTED TO THE EAST. PERHAPS A COMMENT ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS? IF HE IS AN ENTHUSIAST, ANY USE OF THE WORD MAPPA MUNDI SHOULD WORK IN YOUR FAVOUR.

Then he sent another:

FAR BE IT FROM ME TO PRY INTO YOUR PERSONAL BUSINESS, BUT ARE YOU CERTAIN THIS IS A MAN YOU WISH TO IMPRESS?

I laughed.

He is moneyed, with a good deal in the funds, three country estates, and would spend his life consumed by cartography and the sweet pea, thus proclaimed an eligible candidate. Alas, not for me, but my cousin, a reality I fully accept.

USE THE WORD THEORY IF YOU CAN. MEN WHO THINK THEY KNOW A GREAT DEAL FIND SATISFACTION FROM THE WORD.

THE VERY LITTLE I KNOW ABOUT YOUR LIFE EXHAUSTS ME.

These journals are a joy, I tell you. I can scarcely wait for more.

Tell Me More

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Flowers of Quiet Happiness review

Bibliocrack Review | Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000

Since I thought I'd start with the two most egregious reviewing gaps, you get Wayward Son next. I hope this is agreeable to all and sundry. And let's just agree not to pull any punches, shall we? I'll start by admitting that this book wrecked my life. To be clear, I am not complaining. It's just that it had been a long time, yeah? A long time since Carry On came out. Just such a very long time since I'd been in the company of these two. And their crew. And I thought I was ready. Don't I always? Must remember to learn from past mistakes. But more than that, I wasn't thinking about the fact that of course Rainbow Rowell would create nothing less than the sequel that would naturally follow the events at the end of Carry On. Which is to say a sequel that would hurt. Because everything about what happened to Simon Snow from the beginning of his life to his graduation from Watford was designed to damage. With the shining exceptions of Penny and Baz. And so the bulk of Wayward Son is composed of one wild American road trip adventure born of Baz and Penny's increasingly desperate and ongoing attempts to revive their friend before he disappears completely.

Simon Snow has given up. Or at least, he's absolutely determined to. It's just that Baz doesn't seem to want to let him. Baz. Who deserves so much more than the erstwhile Chosen One, now couchbound lackluster layabout. Simon is determined to do the right thing by his vampire boyfriend. If there's one thing he knows how to do, it's the right thing. So he'll cut Baz loose. If only Penny didn't go and muck up his plans by proposing that post-graduation trip to America she and Simon always said they'd take. Well, here they are: alive and well (in Penny's case, at least) and there is absolutely no reason they shouldn't cross an ocean, take to the open road, and see where the wind takes them. And so Simon gives in, a course that is proving all too easy these days, and the three of them head to America. And if they run into their old chum Agatha and Penny's longtime boyfriend Micah along the way, so much the better. What they don't plan on is just how vast America actually is. Well, that and the fact that it seems to be home to as many monsters in the night as back home in England. Who knew?

Sometimes Simon kisses me like it's the end of the world, and I worry he might believe that it is.

How could he not? From the very beginning Simon was specifically engineered to face the end of the world. Now that life as they knew it has ended, there is no particle of Simon that knows what to do with himself. I have some experience with depression, and I was—well, slightly blown away at Rowell's painfully compassionate depiction of Simon's depression. The way that she alternates points of view—just as she did in the first book—enhances this multilayered approach as we are allowed to witness the ways in which Baz and Penny experience Simon's struggle. None of them know what to do, and it is staggeringly hard to watch them try and fail and try again and battle against losing hope. But the setting? The three of them coasting down the highway in their rented '68 Mustang (Tahoe Turquoise). Baz teaching Simon how to drive. Penny heckling the slowly unraveling Baz from the back seat. Their inadvertent and hilarious appearance at a Midwest Renaissance Faire. The setting provides such organic and spontaneous moments of ease and helpless delight that it goes a small way toward relieving the ever-present spirit of despair and uncertainty. I welcomed those moments as I did the introduction of Shepherd, a Normal who encounters the crew and inserts himself into their developing quest to find the troubled Agatha and fend off the enemy they didn't know existed.

Simon Snow, it hurts to look at you when you're this happy.
And it hurts to look at you when you're depressed.
There's no safe time for me to see you, nothing about you that doesn't tear my heart from my chest and leave it breakable outside my body.

This is my favorite passage (of so many) from the book. And of course it's from Baz's point of view. If you love Baz as I do, beware. Beyond this place, there be dragons. All Baz wants is for Simon to be okay. And he is so careful in this book. He so carefully tries not to take a wrong step, not to make a wrong move and trigger Simon in a way that might prove irrevocable. With his mother's scarf and his flowered suit, Baz is every inch himself. This is a middle novel. The second in the trilogy. And we all know how that goes. There's complexity and pain, blood and unresolved wanting. And every bit of it hurts and left indelible prints on my weary heart. But it's worth it.

Go ahead and shoot me. This isn't my favourite shirt.

Because Rainbow Rowell knows where I live. And that is a Baz made of fury, issuing iconic lines like this one with not one single thing in this world to lose. Wayward Son leaves you dangling off the edge, and it took me honestly weeks to recover. I may have found myself driving aimlessly around town blasting the book playlist and just trying to cope with the emotional fallout. I may have had to reread it immediately after just to process my feelings. This all sounds overwhelming, and it was. But, my, how I loved it. For being brave. And true to its characters and their arcs. I always admire Rainbow Rowell's storytelling, and I can't wait for the conclusion to the tale. My feelings for Simon & Baz are America-wide. I know it will end in flames. But I can see them coming through them. I can see it. So mote it be.

"The homes are so far apart," Snow says. Now that we're off the motorway, we can hear each other speak again. "It seems a bit greedy, doesn't it? Just to take up as much space as you can?"
"They're not that far apart," I say.
"Not to you; you grew up in a mansion."
"I grew up at the top of a tower," I say. "With you."

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Bibliocrack Review | Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 01:40:00 +0000

I haven't wanted to talk about this. With anyone. But I think I probably need to. That like Georgina, I need to use my words to break the curse. I think that like Sam, I need to believe in my cure. So I'm going to talk about it here, and maybe you can help. Since pandemic type things got real in my neck of the woods, I haven't been able to read. I haven't been able to reread. This has (and I am not exaggerating) never happened to me before in my life. I know it happens frequently to most everyone. And I have certainly always been a mood reader. It's not in any way uncommon for me to drift from book to book, from shelf to shelf in my library, until I land upon the right thing. But that drifting tends to occur over the course of a few hours. Not ever does it occur over the course of a few days or, God forbid, weeks. I feel like I'm losing my mind. And, yes, I am fully aware of where this problem likely rates on the triviality scale in the current scheme of things. But I figured if anyone would understand . . . and perhaps have experienced (or are experiencing) something similar. So I invite your words. As always.

In the meantime, I thought I might use words to review some of the books that slipped through the increasingly large cracks of the past weeks and months. In lieu of reviewing what I would normally be reading in the moment, I thought I'd review some of the gems I read not long ago but neglected to feature here. Naturally, Maggie is the only place to start. I'm sure most of you have read Call Down the Hawk by now, but I've not had the chance to talk about it with that many people. And I would dearly love to. Because this book? This unrelenting adrenaline shot of Ronan in word form sort of exploded all over my life and left me hanging out here on the edge of a cliff until the sequel comes along to save us.

Note: If you haven't read the Raven Cycle yet, I really don't know what to say. I mean. This novel (and trilogy) is meant to stand on its own. And I am sure it does/will. But for the love of Gansey, do the right thing.

Ronan Lynch thinks he can do it. He thinks he can leave the Barns for short, controlled periods of time. Just long enough to visit Adam at Harvard, just long enough to check in on his brothers in DC, just long enough that the nightwash won't arrive and bleed out enough darkness that he won't wake up at all. But short and controlled have never really been in Ronan Lynch's playbook. And the spectacular failure of his first attempt casts the kind of pall they all struggle to shake. Meanwhile, his older brother Declan has broken the rules for the first time in his perfectly scripted life. An expert at short and controlled, he finds himself unable to go on not knowing the truth of the people in his life, his dreamer father, his dreamed mother, and his dreamless self. And as Declan dips his toes in waters deeper than he knows, a woman named Hennessy arrives in town complete with dreams and an agenda of her own. A number of them, in fact. All flawless copies. And as Hennessy's best friend Jordan finds herself tangled up in Declan's search for the past, Hennessy herself is running out of time. Because she and her dreams aren't the only new arrivals in town. A darkness is headed for the Lynch brothers and those unfortunate enough to be within striking distance when it finds them. A darkness with teeth both real and dreamt.

A dreamer, a dream, and Declan: that was the brothers Lynch.

Here's the first brilliant thing about this novel: it's as much Declan's story as it is Ronan's. And that fact thrills me right down to my toes. Because we have simply not been on the receiving end of enough Declan thus far in our journey with the brothers Lynch, and it was high time. And also the perfect time. I didn't expect Declan to be the next Lynch thread to unravel (and in so devastating a fashion), but I certainly admire the boy's style. Call Down the Hawk is a love letter to Declan Lynch and to those like him who love and are inevitably hurt by dreamers and the dreams they design. My heart broke over and over for Declan and the ever-rigid confines of the life his father left him. Which is why Jordan was such a gift to this tale. She's a forger and a thief and exactly the kind of person to whom Declan doesn't give the time of day. And she's placed squarely in the path he's treading toward the truth. Declan and Jordan's story glints in the light and creeps by in the shadows, and I am here for it every day of the week.

Declan Lynch knew he was boring.

He'd worked very hard to be that way, after all. It was a magic trick he didn't expect any prize from but survival, even as he looked at other lives and imagined them his. He didn't fool himself. He knew what he was allowed to do and to want and to put in his life.

He knew Jordan Hennessy didn't belong.

But still, when he came back from the National Gallery of Art to his empty town house, he closed the door behind him and for a moment he just leaned against it, eyes closed, pretending—no, not even pretending. He just didn't think. For one second of one minute of the day, he didn't run the probabilities and worst-case scenarios and possibilities and consequences. For one second of one minute of the day, he just let himself feel.

There it was:

Happiness.

This is the second brilliant thing about this novel: its arc bends toward Ronan Lynch not being alone. And I don't mean just in the sense of Adam Parrish and the Barns and home (though you all know I am never not meaning Adam Parrish and the Barns and home). But I also mean in the sense of his place in the world. We often think it was an oddly lonely thing to be Gansey, and it was so painfully lonely a thing to be Adam. But the Dreamer Trilogy opens reminding us how lonely it is to be Ronan, trapped in the place he loves most in the world and endangering the people he loves most with every night's sleep. And so if there is a ray of light in this wild car chase of a novel, it is that much like Blue Sargent discovering her father was a bit of a tree and magical with it, Ronan finds the world he lives in may not only be manipulable by himself and his father before him. There are other dreamers out there, not all of them (possibly none of them) as benevolent as he. And there are, perhaps inevitably, those who want to kill dreamers and who do so. Violence and a smile made for war. But if he can survive, there may be the hope of forging dreams together for that same boy who, "left to his own devices, manifested beautiful cars and beautiful birds and tender-hearted brothers."

And since it is a trilogy, we'll go with three brilliant things. This is the third one: I remember back when I wrote my review for The Dream Thieves, I said that it filled me with anxiety and murderous affection. Well, these essential elements are alive and kicking and have possibly taken some sort of Kavinsky-approved stimulant. But I know them. As Adam says, "Ronan, I know you." I know these characters, and I know these words and the way they connect to form a new thread in my life. There are new characters I am now coming to know and who I already love. There are those I hate as well. And, taken together, they fill in empty spaces and build up walls. They forge brilliant copies and dream swords to pull out of the air in the arc of my most perfect need. This is the third brilliant thing. Words and the magic they make. Maggie style. Which is to say beautiful from every angle and impossible to be perfectly replicated.

She wanted to stop being afraid, and she wanted to be able to call Declan Lynch and give him something she'd painted with Tyrian purple, and she wanted to have a future that didn't look exactly like her past.

Until we meet again, my friends. Stay alive.

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Bibliocrack Review | Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 06:11:00 +0000

There's really very little to say, isn't there? I hope you are well, wherever you are. I hope that your loved ones are. I hope that you're finding small ways to stay afloat, to remain connected to something, someone, someplace (real or fictional) that sustains you. Dark and difficult times, indeed. I've rather been holding on to this review. I felt so much, so quickly, so irrevocably for this book that it rapidly became hard to talk about to anyone who hadn't read it. And so I hope I can do it justice, just barely enough justice that, if you haven't, you'll run right out and do so. Now is the perfect time. I feel strongly that this book is what you need in your life at this moment. And so. You might want to prepare yourselves. I'm about to wax rhapsodic. But first, and introductory excerpt:

At the end of that session, Fay said, What if it's not what happened with this boy you regret, it's you? It's the you who you left behind. It's who you were at eighteen and the things that happened subsequently, and you look back on it as a watershed. You broke up with yourself.

This hit me as fearsomely true.

I mean, if I was Doctor Who's new companion, and he was agitatedly racing around the Tardis, throwing levers on the control panel, the noise like bellows starting as the time machine mechanism booted up and saying, "Where to, Georgina Horspool?" I'd waste no time in identifying early evening in a crap pub in northern England in the early twenty-first century.

A blond-haired girl in a red dress from Dorothy Perkins and uncomfortable shoes is unsteadily making her way there.

For the time being, she has no experience of managing chronic pain.

Georgina Horspool's life hasn't gone the way she thought it would. She had things well in hand. She fit in wherever she needed or wanted to be. She could charm anyone. She had the wit and enough looks and ambition to make it. And she had, secretly and most importantly, Lucas McCarthy. Assigned to be partners in their senior English class, the bright and bubbly popular girl and the quiet loner Irish transplant boy fell in love quietly and without anyone noticing. And they kept it that way, neither of them sure what would happen to their bond if it found its way into the harsh light of the public sphere. And then graduation night. And all their plans. And the moment when it all fell apart, as quietly and inexplicably as it began. Now thirty and fired from the last in a string of spectacularly dead end jobs, Georgina stumbles home to find her boyfriend has been cheating on her. Unable to bear the disappointment on her sister's and mother's faces, she jumps at the first job offer that comes her way. Serving as a barmaid at the new pub in town, Georgina's walls close in on her further when she realizes the pub is co-owned by two brothers. The McCarthy brothers. And to make matters worse, Lucas does not recognize her. Grown up and as devastatingly himself as she remembers, Lucas McCarthy has no idea that his new employee was the girl he once loved. And the pain, the uncertainty, of not knowing, of not being known is somehow the most anguish Georgina has been forced to feel in twelve long years.

Lucas McCarthy. An unknown, who kept to himself, like all future murderers. Not social contagion, but not who I would've chosen.

He was lean, with a pointed chin; it gave him a slightly underfed look. He was Irish, signaled by the scruffy-short tar-black hair and pale skin. Some wags called him Gerry Adams, but not to his face because apparently his older brother was tough as nails.

Lucas was looking up at me, warily, with dark, serious eyes. I was taken aback by how easily I could read his startled apprehension. Would I make any disgust toward him humiliatingly public? Was this going to be harrowing? Did he need to brace?

Mhairi McFarlane opens with her two protagonists in high school, and I admit I felt a frisson of fear that we might spend too long in the past. But fear is not an emotion you need worry about with this incredible novel. Every storytelling decision is just right. I mean, perfectly crafted. The reader gets the exact glimpse she needs of the past before plunging into the present alongside Georgina. And from then on, it's the most wonderful, agonizing ride. I admire the hell out of Georgina. She is fierce and loud and trying so hard. She has so many reasons to be hurt and afraid and wary, and she simply presses forward. Which is not to say that all the things she does not say aren't taking a toll. And that toll, along with the sudden appearance and apparently now constant presence of Lucas, make up the meat of this story. The thing is, I wasn't prepared. The absolute punch of this book took my breath away. The punch that simultaneously smacked of joy, heartbreak, rage, hilarity, and strength. I found myself barely halfway through and afraid that this book that already held all of my heart might be running under the radar, that its charming cover and lighthearted title might somehow slip by so many readers who needed it. Because it is endlessly charming and frequently lighthearted (she is so, so witty), but there is also so much depth and weight to it. Such an astoundingly slow burn of a romance. And most importantly of all, such a vital treatment of one woman's life (and at the same time all women's lives) in this world that we live in and the ways in which those lives can be forcefully shaped by it and the men in it and how we respond. How we fight to shape ourselves. I wanted to punch something as I read it, wanted to let fly my own punch of joy, heartbreak, rage, hilarity, and strength. That is the kind of weight Mhairi McFarlane is just casually throwing around like it's nothing, when in fact it is everything. Don't You Forget About Me is the best book I've read this year. And, friends, it's not even a close call. It made me feel more than I thought I could, it has one of the most perfect declarations I have ever read (I kid you not, you will not be able to contain your feels), and it's important. It's just . . . important. I'll be giving copies to everyone. A favorite of countless favorite lines:

I'm not carrying it anymore. I spoke the words aloud, used my words, and broke the curse.

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Review | If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 20:51:00 +0000

It's been years since I picked up a Mhairi McFarlane novel, and I'm not really sure why that is. I liked It's Not Me, It's You well enough (it's obvious she's quite a witty writer), but something about the execution felt off and I think I let that keep me from diving deeper into her backlist. Then came an offer to review her upcoming title If I Never Met You, and something about this one seemed to call out to me. As though it was time. As though Laurie and Jamie might be the ones. Spoiler alert: It was and they were. It was the perfect read for a couple of dreary, grey January days. While not perhaps as bubbly as I've Got Your Number, I would definitely recommend it to readers who enjoyed that novel. They share a business setting, two individuals who are more than they know themselves to be, and a wonderfully slow burn romance. Readers who love Sarra Manning and Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare should also take note.

Comedy was tragedy plus time, but there'd never be enough time to make this amusing.

Laurie didn't have it easy growing up, but she's made up for childhood uncertainty with nothing but rock solid stability as an adult. She's a successful attorney at a respected firm. She's been with Dan, the love of her life, for eighteen solid years. They own a home together. They're thinking of having a baby soon. Everything is as it should be. And she is happy. Until, of course, her entire life is upended with one nightmare conversation with Dan, leaving Laurie scrambling to keep her head above water and somehow try to piece together how she could have been so mistaken about her life and the people in it. To make matters worse, she has to continue working in the same office as Dan, where everyone can watch the public disintegration of their relationship. Enter Jamie Carter. Jamie also works for the same firm and is widely known as the office Lothario. Roundly loathed by the men and longed for by the women, Jamie cares first and foremost about his job. Specifically making partner within the year. Which is where Laurie comes in. Jamie hatches a plan that should benefit them both in the form of a fake relationship meticulously crafted to make Dan blind with jealousy and the senior partners secure in the knowledge that Jamie has given up sowing his wild oats and is now happily ensconced in a grown up, committed relationship with Laurie. After the company Christmas party is over, they'll part ways. No harm, no foul. On paper, it reads like the perfect plan. In practice, life gets complicated fast.

I finished it this morning, and I still have a delighted grin on my face. While If I Never Met You takes just a minute to suck you in, Laurie is instantly sympathetic. So much so that it's truly painful watching her give voice to her shocking pain and confusion. But it is also so admirable to watch her. Laurie is vulnerable and brave. And while yes, Jamie's proposition is obviously nowhere in the vicinity of the healthiest option in the wake of her train wreck, I couldn't find it in me to fault her for taking him up on it. Not because he's so handsome he stops traffic. But because he is so kind. They are so kind to each other throughout the entire run. And as neither of them is actively trying to hurt anyone (including each other), neither is so naive as to believe this thing is more than it is. Laurie is consistently aware of the potential for pain should she fall for Jamie, and she's not foolish enough to think he will change. Jamie's respect for Laurie grows with each passing day, as he learns how smart and strong she is. It's so gratifying to watch them discover in the other not only someone that they can talk to but a source of friendship and laughter. So much healing laughter in this book for two characters I am vastly fond of. There is both more gravity and complex pain than I was expecting and more quiet affection, genuine laughter, and honesty than I expected. I find myself satisfied on all fronts.

Two favorite lines:

Laurie," he said quietly. Not a question, or an opening to saying anything else. A full sentence in itself.

and

Please, don't do this. Don't turn one of the best friendships I've had into the shock twist that we sleep with each other for a while, and then fall out when one of us, who, shock twist, will be you, doesn't want to keep doing it anymore. It would turn gold into scrap metal. I don't want to be your millionth fling. This is bigger and better than that.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention that this novel features two absolutely swoonworthy letters from Jamie. One written to Laurie and one not. One quite pithy and one not. Both heavenly. As Miss Austen knew so well, "Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter."

If I Never Met You is due out March 24th.

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Stepback Art Reveal | Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 17:00:00 +0000

Now this one is truly exciting. I'm excited today to be part of the stepback art reveal for the brand new paperback release of Scarlet by Marissa Meyer! Given my choice, I knew I had to pick Scarlet & Wolf's book, as it is easily my favorite novel in the Lunar Chronicles. And let me tell you, Macmillan has done such a fabulous job with these new covers. Happily, all four paperbacks release on February 4th, and I can't wait to get my copies. I can see Aaron's expression now. But honestly, at this point he's made his peace with my multiple-edition collecting habits. As he told me today, he knew what I was when he picked me up. Likewise, love.

And here is the stepback (which just happens to depict one of my favorite scenes in the book):

She did not know that the wolf was a wicked sort of animal, and she was not afraid of him.

And in case you haven't seen them yet, here are the four new covers:

Aren't they gorgeous? Have you read this series yet? If so, which book and/or ship is your favorite? Oh, and do you collect multiple editions of novels and series you love?

Angie’s Best Books of the Decade

noreply@blogger.com (Angiegirl) — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 22:15:00 +0000

I am winded, you guys. Winded from laboring over this list. This is the first time I've attempted to cobble together a Best Books of the Decade list, and I can't say I'll be up to it for another ten years or so. But my, I couldn't resist the challenge (or profound pleasure, if we're being honest). I kept trying to winnow it down, kept forcing myself to be ruthless. Like somehow I could (or should) keep it to a top ten (flat impossible) or at least a top twenty-five (who are we kidding?). But after bidding those constraints good riddance, I really did press myself to take a hard, clear look at what hurts (to mangle my favorite Hemingway quote). Because these novels hurt in the best way. Each entry on this list is a five-star book in my books. Which means I wouldn't change a single thing about a single one of them. They are the ones I call perfect when I recommend them to friends and strangers. They are the ones I have read and reread over the past ten years and smiled at every word, at every character I love with every piece of my crooked heart. It seems more than likely that the appearance of most of the books on this list will surprise none of you, while it's possible that one or two just might. Either way, it is a fact that these books are the most Angie books that were originally published in the last ten years, and I love them to distraction. In almost all cases, I've linked to my review of each book, in case you curiouser and curiouser about any individual title. And with that, here they are broken down by year, and within each year I've listed them in roughly the order in which I read them.

2010

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean

The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan
Jane by April Lindner

2011

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
The Dark Enquiry by Deanna Raybourn
Unraveled by Courtney Milan

2012

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Aristotle and Danté Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
The Chocolate Kiss by Laura Florand
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

2013

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

2014

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

2015

Girl Before a Mirror by Liza Palmer

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Every Word by Ellie Marney

2016

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

The Q by Beth Brower

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

2017

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George

A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
Hunted by Meagan Spooner
The Cafe by the Sea by Jenny Colgan

2018

Circe by Madeline Miller

The Prince by Katharine Ashe

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

The Endless Beach by Jenny Colgan
The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas
The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

2019

Lady Derring Takes a Lover by Julie Anne Long

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

That's 47 titles representing ten years. Not too shabby, I'd say. Most years have about five books each. Interestingly, 2018 has the highest number at seven books that year, while 2014 came in at just one book. None of you will be surprised to see that the author with the most books on my list (six) is Maggie Stiefvater followed by Rainbow Rowell with four. V.E. Schwab and Sherry Thomas both have three books apiece, and Madeline Miller, Leigh Bardugo, and Jenny Colgan each have two. I'm pretty sure all the other authors appear once.

As for genres, the list includes 13 contemporaries, 12 historicals, 11 retellings/adaptations, 10 fantasies, 8 urban fantasies, 6 romances, 4 debut novels, and 1 dystopian. Notably, there are also 4 complete series, which makes me smile widely.

Phew. So would any of these precious-to-me books make your Best of the Decade list?
And which others would absolutely be on your list?