This book hooked me in right from the beginning and never let go. It is an absolutely wonderful story that has fabulous characters and had me laughing out loud more than once. 

Ava is what you think of when you picture a mad scientist. She likes to be alone working in her lab which goes far to explain her total lack of social skills. She also has a huge problem controlling what comes out of her mouth and basically tells it how it is with no filter whatsoever. 

So for Ava to venture out of her lab is a stretch but her best friend Rani convinces her to present her work at a big competition. I have to take a minute to talk about Rani as well. She’s awesome and the friendship between the two was great. They are both fiercely loyal to each other and Rani is just as funny as Ava but in a different way. Anyhow this is how Ava finds herself staying at an actual castle with lots of people who make her uncomfortable and maybe even staying in a haunted room with a ghost or two roaming about. 

It all turns out to be life changing for Ava especially the part where she finds out her AI program decided to create himself an actual human form based on what Ava would want in a man. He’s gorgeous and smart which makes sense since it’s Ava’s program and his one purpose is only to ask Ava on a date. Hold on though because we have Forrest as well who is a pure gorgeous human man. However Ava and Forrest immediately get off on the wrong foot when she spills wine on him. Did I mention that Ava has no social skills and therefore handles the situation badly. As the competition moves forward a Ava is faced with dealing with real life and all the emotions that come with it. Does she pick Hal, the perfect creation who really should be perfect for her, or does she throw caution to the wind and go for the messy real life hunk of man who is Forrest?

This story is so fun and sweet. I adored Ava and her quirky ways and pretty much any time she talked I laughed. Behind it all though is real life emotion and how hard it can be for some to come out of their shells to experience life. I loved how she wanted her AI to be a good force in the world and to help people. To see her find love was just icing on the cake. 

My Brilliant AI Boyfriend is pure escapism and I loved it. It is the perfect book to curl up with in your favorite reading spot and enjoy!

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Previously published on The Gloss.

Laura Anthony’s first historical fiction novel, The Women on Platform Two, earned five stars from me and she’s done it again. The Forgotten Midwife is another five star read for me. I fell into this novel and felt such a multitude of emotions wash over me with each page. When I reached the end and closed the book I knew I had read something special. 

This story is told in dual timelines. In 2025 we have Riley who is getting married and wishing she had more family other than her grandmother who has dementia. On a visit  with her grandmother she has some moments of lucidity and gives Riley a birth certificate of a baby born in Ireland. Everything about it screams that this must be her mother’s birth certificate. Realizing she needs to find out who her mother’s family was, Riley and her fiancé travel to Ireland. Riley finds out so much more than she expected and the revelations have the power to change her life forever. 

 Based on true historical events we go back to 1950’s Ireland and meet Margaret, who because of family obligations, is sent to work in a home for fallen girls. Margaret knows nothing about being a midwife and the conditions and treatment of these girls horrifies her. She is determined to care for these girls with compassion and she sets out to do just that. My heart broke for these girls and the many who were simply lost to this system. They had nobody and were mistreated because they had dared to become pregnant. It’s horrifying to think that homes like this were still in operation in the 1960’s when I was born and even later. Margaret was a truly remarkable woman with a strength and resilience that was inspiring. 

I don’t want to say too much as this is truly a novel worth reading. So many women were forced into lives where they had no voice and no hope. The Forgotten Midwife is my favorite book this year and it is one that will stay with me for a very long time. I can’t recommend this one enough and I think we’ll be seeing it on a lot of bookclub lists with so many topics for discussion. It released on May 12 so grab yourself a copy and I’m sure you’ll be transported to another time and place just as I was. Highly recommended. 

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I love delving into a novel from Maria Semple. Where’d You Go, Bernadette was a favorite of mine and so many others.  She returns with Go Gentle which is not only one I enjoyed, but also one that was picked for Oprah’s Book Club. It’s such a great pick for book club discussions with themes like divorce, single mom and single life, romance, and mid-life issues. 

Adora Hazzard (love her name) is a Stoic philosopher, divorced, and a single mom.  She is living in New York where a group of older women are living on the same floor of an apartment building and have dubbed themselves a ‘coven.’  The goal is that these women will support each other into old age. I loved this idea of women supporting women instead of looking for the next romance. However when Adora meets a handsome man at the ballet she manages to get herself sucked into not only a steamy romance but also an art heist and all kinds of chaos ensues. 

I really liked Adora and really never knew what she might do next. I loved the part of forming the coven of like minded women and her job as a Stoic philosopher since I knew nothing about that. I did find the story somewhat disjointed with all that was going in but I still really enjoyed it. I listened to the audiobook which is read by Saskia Maarleveld who is one of my favorite narrators. She brings so much emotion and feeling to her storytelling and adds that ‘something’ that makes a book so much better. 

All in all this was a good listen for me. There are a lot of themes in this novel that may be triggering for some so take care. Recommended for those who enjoy women’s fiction mixed with a thriller/mystery vibe. 

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

One Second Away is a fast paced and suspenseful thriller and is exactly what I look for when I read one of Rick Mofina’s books. What could be more tense than a ten-year-old boy gone missing, his mother mad with worry, a murder, and cyber attacks linking it all. This was such a rollercoaster of a ride and I flew through the pages!

Jessie drops her son Dylan off at the airport. He’s travelling by himself to visit his father and grandparents. While Jessie is apprehensive, Dylan did travel alone just a month ago. Hours later though Dylan’s grandmother phones in hysterics to say that Dylan has gone missing. The airline says an elderly couple looking like Dylan’s grandparents picked him up but they insist it wasn’t them and Dylan’s AirTag shows him still being at the airport. Where has he gone and who took him?  With Jessie being a cybersecurity expert and her ex-husband a prominent journalist suspicions fall on them but Jessie is determined to uncover every clue to find her son and she has the resources to do so.  Meanwhile in Toronto there is a subway crash that kills and injures many. As the story unfolds we learn that there are many sinister forces at work and seemingly unrelated events are coming together in a much bigger, scarier conspiracy. 

Wow this was one of those books that gripped me from page one and didn’t slow down until the last page. More than once I thought I had things figured out only to find pages later I didn’t. One Second Away is a tense, action packed thriller and showcases Rick Mofina at his best. Highly recommended!

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Such a great title for this book!  I was really excited to see a new Carley Fortune book and of course had to listen to it right away. Once again she doesn’t disappoint with Our Perfect Storm – a friends to lovers romance that had me devouring the pages. 

Frankie is getting married. It’s the weekend of her wedding and the only thing missing is her best friend George. They’ve been best friends since they were eight years old and Frankie would be heartbroken to get married without him there as her best man. Her dreams come true when George shows up and the evening is one of pure bliss. Frankie is floating on a cloud until the next morning when she wakes up to find that her fiancé has dumped her leaving only a note. She’s devastated. He won’t answer her calls or texts and finally she decides to return home to her parents. She finds out that her finance wanted her to go on the honeymoon to Tofino that they had planned and George thinks it would be a good idea for her to get away from it all so she agrees to go along with George. 

The setting of this book was amazing and so perfect for a romance to bloom. Being Canadian I also love books taking place in Canada and while I’ve never been to Tofino, I definitely want to go now. Frankie and George have loved each other since forever but both just couldn’t be straight with each other and say so.  They didn’t want to ruin their friendship which actually makes sense to me. As the story unfolds and the romance heats up, long buried feelings and secrets come to light. I absolutely love friends to lovers stories and seeing Frankie and George finally wake up to each other’s feelings was great. 

I listened to the audiobook which is read by AJ Bridel and Jack Copland. What a great job by these two. They had me walking the beaches and watching the whales with Frankie and George and feeling all the tingly emotions a good romance will leave you with. 

Our Perfect Storm was a great listen for me – I loved every minute. There are some explicit scenes and language so take care if that isn’t your thing. It is mine and I loved it. Be sure to pick up a copy. This is the perfect summer read!

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Awwww mom I wasn’t thinking about chewing your kindle case… I was just going to put the kindle back in for you 🐾❤️

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there – human or fur baby. My mom has been gone several years now but I miss her just as much as I did the day she left. I thought I’d post a picture from back in her younger years. I think she was about fifteen years old in this one.

Hope you all have a wonderful day no matter how you’re spending it. Mine will be quiet and spent honouring my mama ❤️.

How the Story Goes is the debut novel from Andrew Forrester. It’s a story of grief and loss, but also one of hope and new beginnings. I felt such a strong connection to both the main and side characters that I came away feeling like I truly knew them, which is something I always love in a story.

Whit, an author, loses his wife Helen—herself a famous children’s author—to cancer. He is left raising his eight-year-old daughter, who is grieving, while also facing what he calls the monumental task of finishing the final book in his wife’s beloved fantasy series. Whit is deep in his grief and unable to write his own books, let alone hers. As the deadline looms, he becomes increasingly desperate. When he meets Merritt, things begin to shift. Merritt has returned home after a difficult breakup and works at a local bookstore, where Whit discovers she is a devoted superfan of Helen’s books. As luck would have it, she’s also a writer, and she agrees to help him complete the final installment. What follows is a story of two people, both carrying their own pain, slowly beginning to open up through writing and through each other. Of course, things don’t stay simple, and when Whit learns something about Helen’s wishes, everything is thrown into turmoil.

This story really touched me. Anyone who has experienced grief and loss will likely connect with Whit. He’s such a likeable character, just trying to do his best. Watching him slowly come out of his shell and begin to navigate life—and love—again was genuinely heartwarming. I’ll admit there were moments I wanted to shake him a little when he kept second-guessing himself with Merritt, but it also felt very real. Merritt was just as easy to like. After a damaging relationship that upended her life, it was nice to see her begin to trust again and open herself to the possibility of something new.

I also really appreciated the side characters in this novel. They stood out in a way that doesn’t always happen for me. Whit’s sister was quite funny, and his writing friend was a really supportive presence as he worked through his grief.

At its heart, How the Story Goes is a story about hope. From the first page, I was pulled in, and I genuinely felt a sense of sadness when I reached the end and had to leave these characters behind. It’s the kind of novel you want to sink into your favorite chair with and truly savor.

Review copy provided by the publisher. All opinions are my own. Previously published on The Gloss.

Five by Ilona Bannister hits with a bang before you even get started reading with – ‘Five lives. Four will live – one will die.’ That got my attention instantly. What follows is a unique story where you know one person will die but before they do we are invited to look into their personal lives. We become invested in their lives and then we are left to decide who we think is more deserving of the death that is to come.

The five people – one is an old woman who is none too friendly, another is a young woman with a young child that she can’t control. There is a young man struggling with life and finally a businessman. Who will die? I really had no clue as I kept bouncing back and forth with all of them. I finally had more of an idea towards the end but still I wouldn’t have been surprised had it been someone else.

This novel is brilliant in its execution. I listened to the audiobook which was excellent. The narrators – Clare Corbett, George Naylor, Juliet Stevenson, Kristin Atherton, Marlowe Chan Reeves, and Theo Solomon – do an amazing of not only bringing the characters to life, but also the train station itself. I loved that they had boarding or arrival announcements made to break up the stories. The audio production is so well done!

I loved this book. It is unique and different. It was an addictive listen for me and I finished it in a day. I think it would make an excellent bookclub pick as well with many themes to discuss such as grief, loss, motherhood, and addiction. Highly recommended!

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed delving into the history of Abigail Adams as I didn’t know much about her or of the impact she had on history. As expected the research done by the authors is meticulous. Even more it is written in a way that brings Abigail to life for the reader and the story released May 5 comes just in time for the 250th Anniversary of the birth of the United States.

Abigail Adams was wife to one president and a mother to another one. She was such a strong woman and very much ahead of her time. While she may not have been recognized at the time as such, she was a part of many of the decisions made that shaped the country. I admired how willing she was to sacrifice so much of herself to her husband and family, not to mention all the countless others she helped. She did all of this while also challenging the very laws meant to exclude women from so much. Her marriage and loyalty to her husband John Adams was amazing. The love they had for each other spanned decades despite the long separations and distance as John was required to be away so often. As a mother she was fiercely protective of her children. I came away from this story so deeply awed of this brilliant woman.

At the end of the novel the authors tell us what was real and what wasn’t and I really appreciated that. I learned so much from this novel and that’s what I love about historical fiction. I have been a fan of Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie for many years and once again they have given us a fascinating and beautifully written novel. Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction.

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I just love escaping into the pages of one of Kristy Woodson Harvey’s books. They are like comfort reads for me. Summer State of Mind was a great visit to Cape Carolina to meet some lovely people.

Daisy, a NICU nurse, heads to Cape Carolina after experiencing a very traumatic day at her job. She’s still working as a NICU nurse, just at a slower pace or so she had hoped. However on her first day in comes Mason, the high school baseball coach, with a baby that had been left in a dumpster. Things like this don’t happen in Cape Carolina so everyone is abuzz. Daisy is immediately drawn to this baby girl to the point of wanting to foster her. As Daisy grows closer to the baby and to Mason, life changing discoveries come to light that could very well shatter the community.

This story is full of such great characters. I loved Daisy and how caring she was even in her own broken state and Mason was a man’s-man but a likeable one. Then we have Mason’s family, especially Aunt Tilley (she was what one might call the batty Aunty), who were all characters you could see yourself sitting down to dinner with. As the story unfolded I found myself getting ever deeper in these character’s lives. I laughed and cried and there is nothing better than a story that makes you feel so many emotions.

I really enjoyed spending a few hours in this heartwarming novel. Summer State of Mind is the perfect summer read!

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own.