beckykphillips's reviews
353 reviews

My Best Friend's Honeymoon centers on Elsie, who has just called off her engagement with her fiancé, Derrick, who has steamrolled her into a surprise wedding. With her BFF, Ginny, at her side, the two of them take the would-be honeymoon trip together as they encourage Elsie to figure out what she wants out of life and her own relationships. This is a delightful, sexy, queer second chance romance/best friends to lovers. 

I really appreciated seeing the growth that came from both Elsie and Ginny figuring out what they each individually wanted out of life after being entangled with each other and their respective paths that they felt were carved out for them. This was coupled with the -intense- longing for each other followed by some excellent smutty scenes. The balance between the personal growth & smut I feel is a definite rarity in the romance genre. The author clearly put so much thought & care into illustrating queer relationships and sex while making it so much fun. 

If you are looking for a sexy romance where the main characters work on becoming their own persons while also figuring out their own complicated relationships with themselves and their families, I definitely recommend.  

Thank you very much to NetGalley and to St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy.

Comedic Timing is the next installment in 831 Stories' series of romance novellas. We follow Naina Rao who has just moved to NYC after breaking up with her long term girlfriend, Sofia, back in Chicago. However, her perception of herself gets turned on its head when she meets David, an aspiring filmmaker, and they strike up a friendship trying to encourage either to do more writing. 

I did not enjoy this novella as much as I have others from 831 Stories, I had trouble with Naina and her insecurities that seemed to dominate a lot of the novella where we're in her head. I also felt like the pacing was a bit off in the book with how Naina and David's relationship unfolded, specifically toward the end when Naina starts really being mean to David. There felt like a lot of comparison of the "wrongs" that Naina and David had perpetrated when they really weren't equivalent. That being said, the smut in this book was fantastic and it's a really quick read. 

Thank you very much to 831 Stories and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Hardly Strangers is the next installment in 831 Stories' lovely collection of romance. We meet Shera who has finally (maybe) scored a date with the guy she's been lusting after for ages, when things take a little turn and she instead meets Max King, the frontman of an Irish punk band. 

I enjoyed Hardly Strangers, it's a great quick romance with some great spice and interesting characters. I liked getting dropped into Shera's story and was able to get a good sense of place and her friends (even if they should have told her to ignore Michael) pretty much right off the bat. I will say I did a bit of a double take with some of Shea's reactions to Max, but on the whole, it's a fun romp and I recommend. 

Thank you very much to 831 Stories and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

After loving The Hurricane Wars I was delighted to get to spend more time with Talasyn and Alaric in A Monsoon Rising. We pick up right where the first book left off, Talasyn and Alaric are married and Talasyn is preparing to become the Night Empress. They need to work together to protect the world against the Moonless Dark, despite holding allegiances to complete opposite factions. You get politics, you get a dope magic system, enemies to lovers, the world is set in south east Asia - truly, what more could you ask for and go get to reading! 

Thea Guanzon does such a great job getting the reader inside both Talasyn and Alaric's headspace, while also ensuring that the other characters surrounding them are not just caricatures for them to volley off of. I absolutely adore the relationship between Alaric and Sevaim and was so happy to see more of those two together in the second book. Seeing how Alaric grew over the book with Talasyn doing her best to make her own decisions in a difficult situation was so gratifying. The mutual longing throughout the book is delicious. 

My literal only regret in reading this early is that now I'll have even longer to wait for the next one. And also, what a cliffhanger!! I highly recommend this one and if you haven't read the first one make sure you get right on it!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Avon and Harper Voyage for the advanced copy. 

Every Drop of Blood is Red centers on Murmula Denge, a young muslim woman, and Dareng Pamson, a Christian man who has just recently found out he'll become after after cheating on his wife, Rahela. Murmula begins to entrench herself in Dareng's life as she seeks revenge after he heartlessly stole her father's land leading him to disappear. However, both their lives change after a mass event rocks the lives of everyone throughout the world. 

This book very much focuses on the relationships between the characters and we slowly learn more about their lives and backstories as the story progresses. I think Dareng's backstory was particularly interesting as my opinion of him and what he'd done really took a lot of turns as the story progressed. Murmula was also very complicated with her revenge quest and the aftermath of her decisions. I wish a little more time had been spent meditating on that, but the twist in the story comes about halfway through and kind of rocks everything. As a result, I also wanted more time with the world at large after the event, and particularly more on the religious aspects. I think I also would have gotten more out of the book if I had been more familar with Nigerian politics and the history of the conflicts between Muslims and Christians in the country. 

The narrator does a really great job of reading and I recommend the audiobook. Thank you very much to NetGalley and Brilliance publishing for the advanced copy.

I completely devoured Back After This and cannot wait for it to come out so I can gush over it with my friends. Linda Holmes's writing is lovely  with grounded, real human characters, delicious banter, and of course, an incredible giant rescue dog that kick starts a meet-cute. This book feels like an ode to those of us who may be extremely Type A people pleasers, while also giving us a good dose of reality, while also being just a wonderful romance.

Back After This centers on Cecily, a hard working podcast producer at a fictional firm that is struggling amidst the changing winds of advertising. Her less than great boss, Toby, finally brings Cecily in to host her own show. However, the show centers on Cecily learning on how to find a partner and being taught by influencer extraordinaire, Eliza Cassidy, In service of this show, Cecily agrees, but not before meeting Will via the aforementioned giant rescue dog. Cecily goes on 20 first dates, but can't stop thinking about Will, much to Eliza (and Toby's) consternation. Along the way we meet Cecily's incredible friends and family (and also an incredibly unfortunate ex, Justin, who is also a podcaster and is the type of guy to tattoo the waveform of his voice saying "Hi this is Justin Dash" on his arm - a detail that I truly appreciated). 

This book is just an absolute delight cover to cover. I identified so much with Cecily and her relentless pursuit of forward progress and trying to figure out what all of the "right moves" were. I too have aspirational apples as snacks that are squirreled away and have trouble figuring out what I actually want versus what I should do. Cecily is acerbic in the best of ways and both her inner and outer commentary had me nodding along while I was reading. Holmes puts in so many small details that really make the book - like Eliza not being good at making coffee, but seemingly good at everything else. 

Speaking of Eliza, she really could have been written like an absolute cow, but the humanizing details between her conversations with Cecily and also having Emmy, her sister, give background made her feel so much more real. Many of the side characters, like Molly, Cecily's sister, have these good, inner lives and stories that help ground everyone. And of course, I just adored Will as a character. 

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who needs a romance that will make you swoon and think. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for the advanced copy.

Wow, I should not be in the least bit surprised that Robin Wall Kimmerer has written another incredible piece, and yet The Serviceberry absolutely enraptured me and made me consider how I can better incorporate the principles of the gift economy into my life. I think anyone who may, like me, abhor the fact that they are stuck in end stage capitalism, can maybe even feel leaving optimistic on how to make things just even a little better for yourself and your community. 

Kimmermer presents the serviceberry as an analogy for the gift economy - how the birds who feast on the serviceberry help spread the seeds and allow for the serviceberry to flourish while at the same time ensuring the birds may continue to be nourished; to how people picking the berries may then provide the surplus to their neighbors, who may then make a pie, which is then shared. In the end, the gift economy is about fostering community - "the prosperity of the community grows from the flow of relationships, not the accumulation of goods" 

She ends the book encouraging folks to determine how they can incorporate the gift economy into their own life, and I promise to continue to find ways to do just that and encourage anyone who could use a little hope to do the same and read The Serviceberry. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Scribner for the advanced copy.

I absolutely adored spending time with Eleanore - we follow her as she begins her nascent career as a midwife and herbalist in Avignon in 1347, right before the Black Plague rages throughout Europe.  One fun, relevant fact to the story that I learned - there is a whole period called Avignon Papacy where from 1309 to 1376 seven successive popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. Eleanore befriends the personal physician of Pope Clement VI, Guigo de Chauliac (based on the real Guy de Chauliac), by providing an herbal tonic that helps the pope and spins that into an apprenticeship with Guigo.  

Eleanore and Guigo's relationship as the plague progresses was phenomenal - I loved reading about the mutual respect and the intertwining of herbalism and humour-based medicine. They both felt incredibly grounded and I was delighted to learn that Guy de Chauliac was a very real person who indeed wrote influential books surrounding the plague and medicine at the time. 

I also felt the echoes of the COVID pandemic within this book and Eleanor and Guigo's struggles as they tried to figure out how to deal with the Black Plague, the tireless research and feelings of helplessness with the people who succumbed. One of my favorite glimpses of this is Elea's attempt at encouraging herself after searching through Guigo's books: "Surely medicine has come so far in the last five hundred years, all it will take is one breakthrough--one brilliant reading of an ancient text in which a cure or cause is illuminated--and we shall stop this disease in its tracks." That same helplessness will feel so similar to any reader with even an ounce of empathy. I should not have been surprised to read in the Author's Note in the end that this was in fact quite intentional by Elizabeth DeLozier, even if the idea of the novel came before the pandemic. 

In the shadows of the pandemic though, we get to know Elea and the people that surround her so much more - her sister, Margot, her house keeper, Anes, the Queen, Paolo. There is a rich cast of characters and you grow to care about each one so much. 

Even as someone who is not usually a huge historical fiction fan, this book completely won me over and I highly recommend to anyone - part coming of age, part historical novel, part love story and so much more than can be categorized. Also PS the dog comes out okay (I was so worried the whole time)

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Dutton for the advanced copy.