How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
Goodreads blurb: Two writers with a complicated history end up working on the same TV show… Can they write themselves a new ending? A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever. Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except… Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up. Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all. When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet… the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.
My Take: 4.5 out of 5. I totally got swept up in this romance, a beautiful story that is beautifully written. To top it all of, the name does not give false advertisement, the ending is absolutely great. I loved all the interactions, all the behind the scenes TV show writing and the way their relationship progressed. It is one of those books that I read way too fast and wanted it to be longer to be in their world longer.
Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
Goodreads blurb: Every serial killer needs a friend. Every game must have a winner. When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?
My Take: 3.75 out of 5. This book is weird as hell but I kind of dug it. I was not supposed to like this but it intrigued me and i totally went for it. The full page trigger warning at the beginning of the book is hilarious, but i mean there is a lot of gore and weirdness, but i went for the ride and enjoyed it. I am also loving the potential second book and want it out now (do not worry, this book is fully closed and finalized by the end of the book… no cliffhangers here, its just a related story). By the way the book is also sexy as hell – some of the best written smut I’ve read in a while, with some very curious piercings.
Fresh Water for Flowers ( El secreto de las Flores) by Valerie Perrin
Goodreads blurb: Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Random visitors, regulars, and, most notably, her colleagues—three gravediggers, three groundskeepers, and a priest—visit her as often as possible to warm themselves in her lodge, where laughter, companionship, and occasional tears mix with the coffee that she offers them. Her daily life is lived to the rhythms of their hilarious and touching confidences. Violette’s routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of a man—Julien Sole, local police chief—who insists on depositing the ashes of his recently departed mother on the gravesite of a complete stranger. It soon becomes clear that the grave Julien is looking for belongs to his mother’s one-time lover, and that his mother’s story of clandestine love is intertwined with Violette’s own secret past. With Fresh Water for Flowers, Valérie Perrin has given readers a funny, moving, intimately told story of a woman who believes obstinately in happiness. Perrin has the rare talent of illuminating what is exceptional and poetic in what seems ordinary. A #1 best-seller in France, Fresh Water for Flowers is a delightful, atmospheric, absorbing fairy tale full of poetry, generosity, and warmth.
My Take: 4 out of 5. I was recommended this book by a friend of mine who I absolutely trust her taste and she was not wrong here. This is a quite, beautiful recount of a woman’s journey. I think my favorite line pretty much says a lot about the book: The ultimate luxury is being owner of your own time. Plenty of thoughts on death, circumstance and fate under a funny umbrella.
Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
Goodreads blurb: A steamy game of cat and mouse between witch and witch-hunter, played out against a backdrop of opulence, secrets, and bloody history. On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is. Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for. Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting? Kristen Ciccarelli’s Heartless Hunter is the thrilling start to a romantic fantasy duology where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch…is falling in love.
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher.
My Take: 4.25 out of 5. I’m giving you fair warning here, I was an absolute fan of this enemies to lovers tale, but a hater of the total cliffhanger ending. Having to wait until the second installment comes out to know how the stories of Rune and Gideon are going to play out its going to be torture. If you want things to go smoothly wait until the second book comes out and read it one after another. If you are a masochist like me, then dig in and lets discuss. Because it really is a smart book. I really liked the depth of both characters. They have to paly so many roles that their depths are wonderful to read. I did foresee the twist a bit before hand, but it still was a very smart way to take the story and throw everything for a loop. I really enjoy books when its not so clear who you want to root for, and trust me by the end of this that is how you will end up. Also the ending – tissues, so many tissues, that’s all one can say without ruining it.
Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Goodreads blurb: In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?
My Take: 3 out of 5. It felt like a book that I should just have invested 2 hours of my time a la Hallmark movies and mysteries movies and not really over 9 hours of listening to the audiobook. It is clearly very popular and the new movie coming out with its incredible cast kind of shows it. But is this because we really don’t have that many great books and characters of seniors, or is it because its a great murder mystery story? i do believe hallmark is making the normal people solving murders genre very well, and might just stick to that. am i going to read the others? probably not let them make movies out of them and Ill watch. And maybe so should you, just wait for the Helen Mirren Pierce Brosnan movie that is coming out.
Tati's Tidbits 