Tag: book blog

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – Story of My Life (Lucy Score)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

Don’t worry, this week’s book will not leave you in tears! I’ve had this one saved for a little bit, and I finally said screw it and jumped right into reading it. It is a bit longer book than the others I’ve read in the past, 510 pages. That’s also nothing compared to her second book of this series, which is over 600 pages long!

However, it was so worth it! I loved every minute of reading it!

The story is about Hazel, who was once a famous romance writer who hasn’t written anything since her divorce, and needed a new inspiration to get back to being on top. She decides to move to this small town in Story Lake, Pennsylvania. After realizing the house she bought is in desperate need of being fixed up, she hires the Bishop brothers’ company to get her house in order.

Since Hazel bought the house from the mayor, who is 17 years old, she also got a seat on the town council, as the small town itself is struggling to gain more tourists and people who want to move there.

Anyway, her first few days don’t go as well as planned, between getting attacked by the eagle, known as Goose, crashing her car into the town sign because of said eagle, and being accused of murdering Goose. She didn’t have the warmest welcome, but the Bishop brothers and their family helped her clear her name.

Campbell, otherwise known as “Cam”, Bishop is the oldest and grumpiest Bishop brother who starts to warm up to Hazel, especially after she asks if he can take her out on a fake date, since she needs some more inspiration, and she didn’t start getting some until she met him.

Of course, he declines at first, but then, when she says she would ask one of his other brothers for help with this, he agrees. Their first date starts off as rocky as Cam thought she would be one of those girls who loves the fancy restaurant he chose, but she then tells him she wanted him to take her out on a “Cam Date”, so she can see if this grumpy man was capable of being romantic under all that brooding.

Honestly, I loved Cam’s idea for a first date, simple yet romantic! Got subs, stole, or, as he called it, “borrowed” his brother’s boat, and they ate subs under the stars with some beers. Cam actually treated it like a date, too, because he opened up to her and she opened up to him. She did bring her notebook with her to write notes, but he wanted her to enjoy the date in the moment, which I thought was sweet.

Then, towards the end of the date, his brother, Levi, caught them in the boat, and they both fell in the water together. When Cam brought Hazel home, he took a second to decide whether or not he was going to kiss her, and then he did, which I was waiting for! You can’t go on a good date like that and not have a good night kiss!

This is the start of Hazel getting back into writing her new book. Her best friend, Zoey, is all excited, since she is also Hazel’s literary agent and just lost her job because she was helping Hazel get back on her feet.

Without getting further into it, I thought this was a very cute and hilarious rom-com book! I haven’t found another one of these in a while, and I’m really glad I did! I’m currently working on reading her second book, which is about her best friend Zoey, and there is a third one that is coming out next year, which I’m wondering who it will be about this time.

I also love how the relationship builds with Hazel and Cam, the book is in both their POV, which is my favorite! I loved how Cam was not about Hazel, and over time, he grew to like her. There are some scenes that get a little spicy, but again, I like it when it doesn’t take over the entire book.

They grow to like each other, even after all the bickering and fighting they do; it’s so funny what they are arguing about. They are a very much opposites attract couple, especially since she is a writer and he’s a contractor. Plus, he does an over-the-top romance notion to get her back, as most romance novels tend to do!

I think the star of the book and most of the humor comes from the small town shenanigans and how nosy they all are. Of course, can’t forget all the trouble the eagle, Goose, does to Hazel and Zoey, and other people that upset him.

Honestly, after reading this book, I wouldn’t mind living in a small town. Especially, one like this one. Everyone is always so friendly and helpful, but if you do anything to upset them, they have your back, or if you have pissed them off, you’ll end up getting potatoes thrown at you.

Although I was shockingly surprised to see a lot of mixed reviews about this book, like I know it’s a long book and not a lot of people are fans of “rom-com” stuff, but I honestly think it depends on what type of books you like to read. I was zoned in once I started reading it.

Plus, you have to like the author’s writing style too, which I found out she’s got a lot more books that she’s written that I will need to check out for sure! Some people say she has better ones than she has written before, which has me curious.

Overall, I loved this book, and it will be going on my bookshelf for sure! I also really love cheesy romance stuff like this, too. Plus, the bickering between Hazel and Cam is hilarious, not to mention that when you see Cam bickering with his siblings is even more entertaining!

I really can’t wait to find out how the second one turns out and what the author is planning for the 3rd one, since that one won’t be out until next year in March. What did you think of this rom-com book? Is it something you’d want to read, or if you have read it, what are your thoughts? Let me know down below!

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – The Last Letter (Rebecca Yarros)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

So, this book was recommended by my friend, and she told me it was a good read, but man, I was bawling at the end of this book! Normally, this isn’t a book I would choose on my own, but I’m honestly glad I did.

I’m going to do my best and not spoil it for those who want to read it. What happens in the end, it was not what I was expecting, and I think it hit me harder because of what I’ve been through, again, trying my hardest not to spoil it for you!

The book starts out in both Ella and Beckett’s POV. So, each chapter switches back and forth, and they also begin with a letter they have been writing back and forth to each other. Ella’s brother, Ryan, is Beckett’s best friend; they are both in the military together, and Ryan gets his sister to write Beckett a letter.

Beckett was also completely against having a pen pal or opening up to anyone emotionally, but after losing someone else in the army, he finally decides to open up and reply to her. They start being pen pals, but Ella only knows Beckett as his military nickname “Chaos”.

They build this friendship through writing back and forth to each other and start to grow feelings for each other. Then, Ryan dies in battle and leaves a letter for Beckett asking him to be there for Ella and her kids. Beckett also doesn’t send Ella another letter as he feels guilty for what happened to her brother.

The letter Ryan gives Beckett, I thought that was sad because I got teary-eyed reading that! Anyway, Beckett goes to the cabin resort that Ella owns, she took over from her grandmother when she passed, rents a cabin, and meets Ella and her twins. He doesn’t tell her that he’s “Chaos” right off the bat.

When he does meet Ella, he tells her he knew his brother and gives her the letter her brother left for him. Ella, of course, refuses his help as she is dealing with a lot. Her daughter, Maisie, is going through treatment for cancer, and she’s trying to manage keeping the business afloat while drowning in medical bills for Maisie’s cancer treatment.

Plus, you also find out that Maisie and Colt’s biological father walked out on Ella when she was 8 weeks pregnant, and then ended up getting divorced. This makes me understand why Ella has trust issues and has issues with people lying to her. Which makes sense why she doesn’t want to trust Beckett right off the bat.

Of course, Ella starts to fall for Beckett, especially when he starts helping Ella with the kids and being there for her, whether she asks for it or not. Of course, the kids start welcoming Beckett into their lives, and my heart warmed when Colt told Beckett, “This is what having a dad feels like.” They had never had a dad in their life and Beckett was the closest thing they had to a father.

Eventually, he offers to adopt Ella’s kids, so they can have his military insurance since the treatment Maisie needs is covered under his insurance, versus Ella having to pay out of pocket for it. The way he gets the twins’ biological dad to sign his rights out was just badass!

Without spoiling it, I will let you guys read it for yourself. Tissues are recommended towards the end because I was bawling. I ended up waking up early and figured that I would read since the kids were still sleeping. Little did I know that I was at the end of the book, and I couldn’t stop crying.

My poor mother heard me crying from the other room and thought something was wrong with me, and all I could tell her was “It’s my book.” Of course, she started laughing because I’m also currently pregnant and wasn’t sure if it was something else that had me crying. Which made me so overemotional when I read the end of the book.

I honestly loved the love story that builds between Ella and Beckett. I also haven’t read a lot of books that shows how a single parent finds someone that not only there for them, but also for their kids as well. I do have a few saved in my Pinterest Board to check out; this was the first one that I truly felt was an amazing book.

Overall, I loved the story, hated the ending, but you do have to give the author credit that she did an amazing job building up the relationship between Ella and Beckett and didn’t rush right to it, like some other authors tend to do. There is one spicy scene, but it was well needed because you could cut their sexual tension with a knife!

It also talks about how hard it is to get your life back on track when you lose a loved one in the military, like with Beckett, how losing his best friend affected not only him, but also how it affected Ella and the twins.

Let me know down below if you have read this book and what your thoughts are! Also, I did find out they are turning this book into a movie and I honestly can’t wait! Hopefully, they won’t screw it up, but I know I’ll be crying for sure at the end!

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – If He Had Been With Me (Laura Nowlin)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

I’m so sorry for missing last week’s post! We had a beautiful weekend that I couldn’t pass up, and plus, I hadn’t finished a book yet either, I completely forgot! Don’t worry, I’m back! I’ll make sure I have some others pre-planned just in case I space it again!

Since I got Kindle Unlimited, this title came up as a recommendation, and I figured, why not? I’ll give it a go. Then, when I mentioned to one of my friends that I was reading this, she was like, “Oh man, you are going to lose it when you get to the end.”

Mind you, I just started the book, and the way the beginning started, I kind of figured out what might be happening. Then she showed me some TikToks of people absolutely losing it when they got to Chapters 84 & 85. When I mean they were losing it, I mean like balling uncontrollably.

I also had no idea this was even popular. I don’t have TikTok, never installed it, or signed up for an account because anything that was shown on TikTok showed up on Facebook or YouTube, so I didn’t see the need to have it. Plus, most of my book recommendations come from Pinterest or Kindle Unlimited.

Anyway, this book wasn’t what I was expecting, but it is something I would reread again. So, it’s about Finn and Autumn, how their mothers were best friends and pretty much were raised together. Its best friends turned to lovers, but it doesn’t happen right off the bat.

The book is completely in Autumn’s POV, so you start to see that he’s more popular than her, and she backs away from their friendship, which can happen, especially during middle school and high school. That’s when you start finding groups of friends more like you.

By the way, this only happens when Finn kisses her, and she doesn’t know how to react and doesn’t want him to use her, which I completely understand, but she basically pushes him away and stays with her little group of friends.

Then, at the beginning of freshman year, you see Finn start dating Sylvie, eventually Autumn meets Jamie, and they start dating as well. They still see each other a lot, but this distance has been created, which makes it difficult for them to co-exist and still be the best of friends that they once were.

Without trying to spoil the entire thing, they don’t confess their feelings until the summer that they graduated, and that’s when they both realized that Finn had been in love with her since they were 11. Autumn didn’t start feeling it until 2 years before, but doesn’t say anything since she’s with Jamie.

One thing I want to point out about Jamie is that he had so many red flags that she just ignored, but I do understand because of the fact that they were in high school, and when it’s your first love, you tend to look over everything.

Anytime he didn’t agree with something she said, he would argue with Autumn about it, as if he didn’t care about her opinion. Kept pushing her to have sex with her when she told him she wasn’t ready. He was a douche bag anyway because of what he did to Autumn in the end.

I was waiting for her to break things off with this guy from the moment he started treating her like crap. Then again, you do dumb stuff when you’re young and have to learn from your mistakes. Plus, I’m pretty sure he was love-bombing her too.

Of course, when the book starts in the beginning, I kinda had a feeling that something happened with Finn, that we weren’t going to know for sure until the end. If you have read as much as I have, then you would be able to put two and two together about what happened.

I did get teared up when I read Chapters 84 & 85, but not as bad as I saw others do. Which is shocking because when I read that part, my 1-year-old was sleeping on my chest and my eyes watered, but I didn’t full-blown cry over it. I’m also pregnant, so it really didn’t hit me as hard as I expected.

It could have had to do with the fact that the TikToks kind of gave it away, which is one of the reasons why I don’t have it, because it spoils a lot of books for people. I mean, I get ideas from Pinterest on different book suggestions, but I haven’t run into a pin that has spoiled it for me.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad book; the writer’s style was something to get used to, but it was readable for sure. I highly recommend it, although once you finish that one, there is a sequel that gives you Finn’s POV for a few chapters, which gives you more of an inside on how he was feeling about Autumn.

What did you think of this book? Did you happen to read it because it was on TikTok, or were you like me and happened to have it recommended? Let me know in the comments!

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – Of Earth and Flame (Elayna R Gallea)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

So, I kind of went down a rabbit hole and found that there are books that are sort of similar to one of my favorite franchises that my siblings and I used to watch, which happened to be the Barbie movies.

Thanks to Pinterest and some research, I found books inspired by those movies. Of course, I made a list of each of these books and which movie they are inspired by. I also decided to get Kindle Unlimited because it just made sense for me to have that versus buying books that I may or may not like.

I will be making a post with all the books and which movie was inspired by them in the future, but let’s get started with this one!

Now, this book is actually a series, which I didn’t realize until I looked more into it, and it’s fantasy, which has been rare for me lately because I’ve been reading more romance/smut stuff recently.

This book is actually an inspiration for Barbie as Rapunzel!

If you haven’t seen this one, let me give you a brief overview of what the plot is about.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the movie!

So, in some of the Barbie movies, there is a conflict before the story is told, which in this case is Kelly talking about how she doesn’t know what to paint and thinks that she won’t do a great job. That’s when Barbie tells the story about a girl who loves to paint, Rapunzel.

Rapunzel is stolen and lives in a manor with Mother Gothel, who has strong magical powers that she uses to keep Rapunzel trapped in the manor. She also treats Rapunzel like crap and uses her as a maid. Then Rapunzel finds a secret staircase that goes down into a basement, where she finds a hairbrush that’s engraved with:

“Constant as the stars above, always know that you are loved. To our daughter Rapunzel on her first birthday. With love forever, mother and father.”

Which confuses her since she’s only known Gothel as her mother figure. Then her friend dragon breaks a hole in the floor, and they find an underground tunnel that leads directly to the village. She saves one of the princesses, and the prince thanks her.

She goes back to the manor, and overnight, the hairbrush turns into a magical paintbrush where she can paint anything and magically appear. She does this with dresses, and she is able to paint a portrait of the village where she can walk into it and be in the village.

Since the prince invited her to the ball, Mother Gothel finds out and ends up locking her away in the tower, and goes as Rapunzel to the ball to trick the prince. Rapunzel escapes and then confronts Mother Gothel and finds out that she stole her as a baby to get back at her father.

That’s just a brief overview of the movie, but I highly recommend checking it out because, honestly, it was a different twist on the Rapunzel story. This wasn’t my all-time favorite Barbie movie, but it’s up there as one that I would rewatch over and over again.

Anyway, back to the book, it starts out as any other Rapunzel story does, locked in a tower. When the book first starts, Aileana is literally escaping the tower as she has been locked in there for 23 years and is arranged to marry the prince of an evil king, who is even more evil.

Aileana is also an elf, which I was really excited about because I’ve never read a book where the main character is an elf. So, once she escapes, she meets this guy Xander, whom she happens to stab when they first meet, since she doesn’t want to be captured like she was before.

They team up, since the land they are in, females can only be accompanied by a male figure, and in order for them to lead the country, they pretend to be a fake husband and wife. They also find out they are soulmates too.

The more time they spend together, the more they start to fall for each other, which I love! I honestly think more authors should do this, like just because their soulmates build up the chemistry!

Plus, their pretending to be husband and wife makes the connection, I think, stronger in a sense. Not to mention the interesting thing, you find out what Xander really is because he heals quickly. I honestly thought he was going to come out as a werewolf, but boy, was I wrong!

There was also a lot of other stuff that happened in the book, but I really didn’t want to spoil too much. The way the book ended, it really makes me want to read the second one, which is also on Kindle Unlimited!

Overall, between the book and the movie, they only have a few things in common: the Rapunzel factor of being locked in a tower, magic, dragons, and, of course, it takes place in a kingdom. It’s a different spin on Rapunzel, but I really like it!

I also wanted a break from the smut I’ve been reading. I just finished a quick series that I’m going to do a review on, but this was a breath of fresh air for me. I’m also a big fantasy fan, so it’s been nice to read something different for a change.

I’m also really excited to read the next book from the list! Let me know how you liked this book and if you were big fans of the Barbie movies when you were a kid.

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – One Last Chance (Reno R. Mist)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies! I was so excited to do a review on this book because I literally finished it less than 2 days! One of my co-workers actually was the one that told me about this book and I was very interested in it right away.

So, the story is about a man named Levi, where he ends up leaving his wife to be with his mistress and then wakes up after dying in a car crash to find out he is back where he was 12 years ago when he first left his wife and realizes this is his second chance to fix everything that he knows will happen if he stays on the path he was before.

Now, I’m not the type who enjoys reading about affairs or cheating, but when the book mentions about pretty much bending over backwards to fix his marriage and his kids lives, I was so intrigued.

It shows a lot of character growth of Levi when he talks about the past 12 years he’s already lived and shows his wife, Sloane, the effort and williness to make the marriage work the second time around. Plus while he is trying to fix his marriage, his mistress, Angie, is causing hell to get Levi back for herself.

Angie is one of the reasons that makes this read worth it because you really want to know how far she goes to try and win back Levi. When I mean this chick is crazy, I mean shes CRAZY. The amount of stuff she does to Levi and his family is just unreal.

The whole waking up back after dying and giving a second chance is what really intrigued me because I haven’t read a lot of books that have that factor in them. Not to mention, it got me thinking about writing a story with the similar concept of what a second chance would look like.

The author really did keep me glued to every word she wrote, I mean I was so zoned in and invested to find out what happened that if I would’ve started it on a rainy day first thing in the morning, that it would have been finished the same day.

I will mention, there are some spicy scenes, which I didn’t know were in the book, but its not like its every other page. Its what I like to call a happy medium. I honestly don’t mind spicy scenes or ‘smut’ in books, however, I don’t like it when it takes over the entire book.

This author did it perfectly, there was enough going on drama wise and the spicy scenes inbetween was like a bonus honestly. Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I can see myself rereading this book over and over for sure.

I also did want to mention that this is also a series! Of course, this is the first book of the series and I really can’t wait to see what is next! I ended up following her on Amazon, so that when the next book is out, I’m going to be buying it as soon as it is out!

Let me know in the comments if you’ve read this yet or want to start reading it!