Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Goodreads blurb: An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney. Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
My take: 4.75 out of 5. I like Sally Rooney, but I don’t love her, its usually a mixed bag for me. This book however totally got me. I actually was hesitant at the beginning I wasn’t sure where it was going to go, and thought it might be boring. It however took me for a ride and the end is just beautiful. A great story of family dynamics and grief, and how things don’t have to look the way they should just the way they feel right to you.
The Love Haters by Katherine Center
Goodreads blurb: It’s a thin line between love and love-hating. Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can. Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise! But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two. Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher.
My take: 4 out of 5. I wanted to love this book, because the RomCommers was one of my top books of 2024. So when I got this arc I stopped everything I was doing to get to read it. It is a good romance, but I did not fall in absolute love like with the RomCommers, we just had a fling. A really good fling. What works? The MMC is a dream boat, perfection on a page pretty much. I also loved the aunt with her fabulous store and hotel! A fabulous Key West Grandmother. What did I not love? There was a bit too much miscommunication and lying, and those are my least favorite tropes. An really they were not love haters. Also the hurricane storyline, as a floridian, just made me want to shout at everybody.
Goodreads blurb: A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family–and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for–and everything she feared. Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had. But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter–she doesn’t behave like most children do. Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well. Then their son Sam is born–and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth. The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.
my take: 4 out of 5. This books takes you for a trip. Definitely do not read this is you are pregnant. Now that we have that warning out, you will not expect this book. The ending feels very predetermined, and as it is told in flashback you think you know what is going on and what is going to happen. It will surprise you and the ending will leave you stunned. a fast and really good read.
Dream Girl Drama by Tessa Bailey
Goodreads blurb: A steamy chance encounter between a professional hockey player and the manic pixie dream girl he just can’t seem to forget takes a turn when the pair realize that their parents are engaged—in an all-new rom-com by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey. When professional hockey player Sig Gauthier’s car breaks down and his phone dies, he treks into a posh private country club to call a tow truck, where he encounters the alluring Chloe Clifford, the manic pixie dream girl who captivates him immediately with her sense of adventure and penchant for stealing champagne. Sparks fly during a moonlight kiss and the enamored pair can’t wait to see each other again, but when Sig finally arrives to meet his dad’s new girlfriend over dinner, Chloe is confusingly also there. Turns out the girlfriend is Chloe’s mother. Oh, and they’re engaged. Sig’s dream girl is his future stepsister. Though the pair is now wary of being involved romantically, Chloe, a sheltered harp prodigy, yearns to escape her controlling mother. Sig promises to teach her the ins and outs of independence in Boston—but not inside his bedroom. They both know there can never be more than friendship between a famous hockey player and his high-society, soon-to-be stepsister. But keeping their relationship platonic grows harder amid the developing family drama, especially knowing they were meant for so much more…
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher.
my take: 3 out of 5. This is the Third book in the Big Shots series and I was looking forward to this one as you get part of the relationship and a preview of the characters in the second book, The Au Pair Affair. It is a quick, very steamy fun read, and I love the sports elements to this series. however there was something missing for me. It might be that as sweet as Sig and Chloe are, there is something weird about their relationship. It was a bit off in the previous book, but now that we get the whole story, its more understandable but not fully clear. There is something off in their dynamic. Also, Chloe is a tad too clueless for my taste.
Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto
goodreads blurb: Laugh and swoon with the next book in Disney’s Meant to Be collection by bestselling and award-winning author Jesse Q. Sutanto, whose novel Dial A For Aunties Emily Henry called “Utterly clever, deeply funny, and altogether charming.” Mulan is reimagined as a contemporary romance about family expectations, mistaken identity, and high stakes mergers—of both business and the heart. As the right hand of her father’s hedge fund company, Fa Mulan knows what it takes to succeed as a woman in a man’s work twice as hard, be twice as smart, and burp twice as loud as any of the other finance bros she works with. So when her father unexpectedly falls ill in the middle of a critical acquisition, she is determined to see it through. There’s just one the family company in question is known for its ultra masculine whiskey brand, and the brood of old-fashioned aunts, uncles, and cousins who run it—lead by the dedicated but overworked Shang—will only trust Mulan’s father, Fa Zhou, with the future of their business. Rather than fail the deal and her father, Mulan pretends she’s Fa Zhou. Since they’ve only corresponded over email, how hard could it be to keep things moving in his absence? But the email leads to a face-to-face meeting, which leads to an invitation to a week long retreat at Shang’s family ranch. One meeting she can handle, but a whole week of cattle wrangling, axe-throwing, and learning proper butchering techniques, all while trying to convince Shang’s dubious family that this young woman is the powerful hedge fund CEO they’ve been negotiating with? Not so much—especially as she finds it harder and harder to ignore the undeniable spark between her and Shang. Can she keep her head in the game and make her father proud, all while trying not to fall into a trough, or in love with Shang?
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher.
my take: 4.25 out of 5. I am an absolute fan of the Meant to Be Series. They are absolutely adorable, I have loved every single one of them as a Disney and a Book lover, and this new installation, a modern interpretation of Mulan does not disappoint! (past interpretations, which i link here the reviews are Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast, Little Mermaid and Tangled). I was actually cautiously concerned about how they would modernize Mulan, but a woman in a male dominated business really does the trick. I absolutely adored the attention to detail, even quoting parts of Reflection in the text was so good . A beautiful story about not only female empowerment but the blurring of lines and the power of family.
Apart from the Reflection direct lines, Some of my favorite quotes:
- it is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman working in finance must work twice as much and get approximately 50% less sleep than her male coworkers
- whenever a finance bro says “with all due respect” I know what they really mean is: you stupid little girl let me tell you every way in which you are wrong.
Tati's Tidbits 