witching_hour_reads's reviews
582 reviews

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyage for providing the ARC.

So I am torn about this book. I got invested in it. I liked the characters well enough, I liked the story okay, but for a book this long, there were parts that I felt were rushed or even unfinished.

I feel like the book was trying to set up a situation where Aiden had feelings for Vanessa long before she ever quit or they got married. But I felt like it was a detail that never quite got fleshed out or explored or even handled well in the context of his past behavior. Also, I felt like many of the secondary characters simply existed to add trauma and drama to Vanessa's story and that the story would have been just fine without any of the extra emotional involvement.

Overall, I liked it fine for it's somewhat enemies to lovers marriage of convenience situation, but it just felt like too much extra in a book that didn't really need it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing the ARC.

So, I am a bit obsessed with Rachel Lynn Solomon. Because of that, I requested this book without reading what the synopsis was or anything about it. And if someone had told me that I was getting a delightful sex tutor rom com, I'm not sure I would have believed you. But oh boy am I so glad that I picked this book up.

After a disastrous one night stand (and I mean absolutely awful) the last person that Chandler Cohen expects to run into is the man she snuck out on. But here he is requesting (or begging) she be the one to write his memoir. And when the conversation turns back to that ill fated night, Finn Walsh learns some devastating news: he's terrible in bed. So what does any good Samaritan do? She offers up her expertise in the form of practical sex lessons.

I've always found the sex tutor trope a bit weird, if I'm honest, only because people seem to be incapable of doing it without it coming across as creepy or inorganic. Solomon does a fantastic job at not only building up the trust between these two characters before there's ever a conversation about it, but also stresses the absolute importance of communication. And it results in some of the best (and hottest) romantic scenes I've ever read.

The story surrounding it as well is just as good. You have two characters stuck in a career that they feel is stagnating with no where else to go. They are vulnerable right from the get go, and they can see each other reflected in everything they do. There is power in this level of openness and it absolutely makes this book just that much better to read.

Absolutely wonderful book and Rachel Lynn Solomon is an insta buy author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for providing the ARC.

I will preface that I did not realize this book was part of a series until after I finished it, but it didn't really affect the story in any way.

I want to start off by saying that I love Hazel and Alex. I thought they were adorable characters and their friendship was really something amazing to see. However, I felt like this book had all the makings of a friends to lovers story, but it never quite hit the mark.

The first half of the book felt really rushed to me. It seemed the author was trying to build up the tension between Hazel and Alex with their blind date situation, but because the pacing was so fast, it didn't give me enough time to get on the same page. Additionally, one of the best things about friends to lovers stories is seeing the realization when the person who falls first realize that they love their friend. Alex was already smitten the minute he met Hazel, and while he became her friend, there was always an undercurrent of non-platonic love for her. So we did not get that pivotal scene.

The last 40-ish% of the book was where most of the meat was and also where the author's pace slowed down significantly. It is here where you see how Hazel and Alex's relationship develops and how Hazel begins to understand the feelings she has. But because the foundation was missing from the beginning, this part did not really live up to expectations.

I did like the book. Like I said, Hazel and Alex are great characters and I loved the premise of the story. I just wish the pacing issues were fixed and the beginning fleshed out a bit more than it was.

Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Crown for providing the ARC.

I love Sarah Ready. Josh and Gemma (both books) are on my top 10 favorite reads because of how viscerally personal and authentic Ready makes them feel with her writing. I love that she is writing more books, this time with a very dramatic feel.

I have a love/hate relationship with second chance romances. Often times, it's because of a deep miscommunication between the characters, which can usually be solved with a phone call. Or because of infidelity, which is a no go for me. But this story is both of those things and neither of those things without getting too much into spoiler territory. This story, taking place over the span of fourteen years, shows young love, what happens when it is rekindled at the wrong time, and when things are finally right. Jace says it best: "Do you ever feel that you've ended up exactly where you were meant to be?" In this case - yes. I think this story led both the characters and the reader to exactly where they were meant to be at the end of it.

It's full of love, promise, heartbreak, sadness, anger, and forgiveness. Although at times parts of it felt rushed, one thing that Ready doesn't skimp on is the emotional development of her characters. You want to celebrate with these characters, love with them, cry with them, grieve with them, shake them until they understand their mistakes, and wrap them up in a warm cocoon of acceptance at the end of it all. It's hard to do that in the span of a few hundred pages, but I think Ready takes on that challenge and masters it.

Josh and Gemma will always hold the number one place in my heart for how real their story is and how much it affected me. However, I think Jace and Andi will have a hold on me for a long while.