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Book Review: Ashes of You by Catherine Cowles

By Sarah
In 5-stars, Book Review
June 24, 2024
B

The Gist: A heartwarming and suspenseful must-read for fans of the single parent x nanny trope and romantic thrillers, Ashes of You expertly blends love, family, and gripping intrigue in a captivating small-town setting.

Series: Lost and Found, #5*

Release Date: February 8, 2024

Synopsis
Five years ago, I nearly lost everything. But there was a glimmer of hope on that darkest night. There was him—a stranger I could never forget.

Now, I’m finally getting the fresh start I’ve longed for. But when I show up to interview for a nanny position in the small mountain town, the single dad has startlingly familiar blue eyes.

Eyes that have haunted my dreams for the past five years.

Lawson Hartley is everything I know I can’t have. Older, handsome, and my boss. Not to mention the shadows in his eyes that tell me he has demons, too.

Still, he seems to understand me better than anyone I’ve ever met. So gentle and careful of my scars, yet somehow making me believe I’m stronger than I ever thought possible.

And when his lips touch mine, I’m lost.

We find what we’ve been missing in each other. But the terrors of my past aren’t done with me yet, and this time, Lawson might not be able to save me…

Ending
HEA with Epilogue. Married and expecting triplets in extended epilogue.
Representation
• Gay side characters
• Achillean side relationship
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Recounting of child endangerment
• Assault
• Abduction, captivity and torture of Heroine recounted
• Gun violence
• Abduction and captivity (on-page)
• PTSD
• Panic attacks (on-page)
• Sexual harassment
• Sexual assault
• Murder
• Description of murder (what happened to the women)
Safety Rating: Safe
• No cheating
• No OW/OM drama
– Heroine is insecure the Hero still loves his ex-wife but soon finds out that he hates her
– Heroine is periodically hit on by OM throughout the book, but they’re all rebuffed
• Does have the Hero briefly pushing the Heroine away
• No separation
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Rating: 5-stars

*Each book in the series is Standalone

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Book Review: Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

By Sarah
In 4-stars, Book Review
October 26, 2023
B

The Gist: Starling House artfully employs dark academia and an enigmatic haunted house to delve into the racism, sexism and classism that plague a small town.

Series: Standalone

Release Date: October 3, 2023

Synopsis
A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can’t stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

Ending
HFN
Representation
• Bisexual main character
• Mexican Biracial Supporting Character
• Lesbian supporting characters
• Sapphic side relationship
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Grief (Heroine’s and the Hero’s parents died before the book starts)
• PTSD from near-death experience
• Sword violence
• Homelessness
• Incest recounted (by a side character)
• Racism
• Homophobia
Safety Rating: Safe
• No cheating
• No OM/OW drama
• Does have the Hero pushing the Heroine away
• Does have a brief separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 4.25-stars

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Moving and Intimate: Age of Ava by Melanie Moreland

By Sarah
In 5-stars, ARC, Book Review
August 25, 2021
M

The Gist: A moving and intimate opposites-attract romance with a perfectly grumpy Hero and badass Heroine that explores family and the rewards of vulnerability.

Series: ABC Corp, #4*

Release Date: August 26, 2021

Synopsis
AVA CALLAGHAN
A woman working in a male-dominated field.
Organized, strong, and tenacious.
That’s how she has to be to succeed.

HUNTER OWENS
A loner.
He needs no one, has no ties, and his future is an unanswered question mark.
It’s all he knows.
Until the day their lives intersect.

He sees the woman she hides from the world.
She nurtures the part of him he lost long ago.
But they both agree—their connection is temporary.
They are only for now.

Can their stubborn natures allow them to bend and accept that maybe, just maybe, there is more to life than they believed?
That love can heal.
That happiness can exist.
That for now can be forever.

Ending
HEA
Representation
• Side character with a congenital amputation of one of her arms (her right arm is only partially formed)

Possible Triggers: YES
• Death of Hero’s grandparents and mother
• Parental neglect and abandonment
• Verbal abuse (described, in the past)
• Medical trauma
Safety Rating: Safe with Exceptions
• No cheating
• No OW/OM drama
• Does have the Hero (majorly) pushing the Heroine away
• No separation
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: eARC

Rating: 5-stars

*Each book in the series is Standalone

Note: I received Age of Ava from Melanie Moreland’s team in exchange for an honest review.

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Delightful and Loving: Finding Ronan’s Heart by Melanie Moreland

By Sarah
In 4-stars, ARC, Book Review
June 23, 2021
D

The Gist: A delightful and loving sweet contemporary romance that explores independence, family and meaningful connection suffered from repetitive and cliche scenes.

Series: ABC Corp, #2*

Release Date: June 24, 2021

Synopsis
“The boys.”
“The Callaghan Triplets.”
“Three of a kind.”

All his life, Ronan Callaghan has been part of a group. Always looking out for his brothers. Never seen as an individual or judged on his own merits.
When his brothers veer onto their own path, he finds himself alone. Restless.

Then he meets her.
Beth.
A waitress who sees him just for himself. None of the trappings of his wealth or family.
A woman who only wants to know him—Ronan.

She captures his heart, but how will she feel when she discovers the truth he’s holding back?
Can he show her the man he really is?
That he would be rather be hers than anything else?

Ending
HEA with epilogue and a bonus Epilogue from Evan’s (Beth’s younger brother) POV 😭 so sweet
Representation
• Side character with Congenital Amputation of one of her arms (she was born without a complete right arm)
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Sexual harassment
• Discussion/mentions of ableism (btw – the MCs and their family members are not ableist)
• Infidelity
• Hero was victim to a con operation between his ex-girlfriend and his at the time best friend
• Bullying
• Death of parents
Safety Rating: Safe
• No cheating
• No OW/OM drama
• Does have the Heroine pushing the Hero away
• Does have a brief separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: eARC

Rating: 4.75-stars

*Each book in the series is Standalone

Note: I received Finding Ronan’s Heart through Melanie Moreland’s team in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao

By Sarah
In 3-stars, Book Review
March 28, 2021
B

The Gist: A realistic exploration of the complex relationship between US immigrant parents and their American children, making the rom-com a heavier read than expected.

Series: Standalone

Release Date: November 10, 2020

Synopsis
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets The Farewell in this incisive romantic comedy about a college student who hires a fake boyfriend to appease her traditional Taiwanese parents, to disastrous results, from the acclaimed author of American Panda.

Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ’Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents.

Drew Chan’s passion is art, but after his parents cut him off for dropping out of college to pursue his dreams, he became a Rent for Your ’Rents employee to keep a roof over his head. Luckily, learning protocols like “Type C parents prefer quiet, kind, zero-PDA gestures” comes naturally to him.

When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community.

But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew—who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ’rent-worthy—her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything?

Ending
HFN
Representation
• Taiwanese-American Heroine
• Taiwanese-American Hero
• Taiwanese-American Supporting Characters
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Parental abandonment (Hero was kicked out of his house ~18-years-old)
• Really difficult relationship with parents
• Strong themes of sexism
• Brief mentions of homophobia and racism
• Cancer
Safety Rating: Safe
• No cheating
• No OW drama
– But, the Hero does continue his fake boyfriend job, which the Heroine knows about.
• Does have OM drama
– Heroine’s parents are trying to set her up with the extremely sexist only son of their elitist friends
• Does have the Heroine pushing the Hero away
• Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Kindle

Rating: 3.5-stars

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33 Books About Love for Every Trope

By Sarah
In Book Lists, Sarah's Corner
February 20, 2021
3
Flat lay of some of the book covers in this post.

For Valentine’s Day, I dedicated my Instagram stories to a feature of a few of my favourite romances in each trope. However, I realized in COVID a new genre discovery also is an essential component to books on love: self-love. Therefore, I’ve expanded my list of romances to focus more on the theme of love, especially self-love!

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Poignant and Impassioned: My Saving Grace by Melanie Moreland

By Sarah
In 4-stars, ARC, Book Review
February 11, 2021
P
Cover of "My Saving Grace" by Melanie Moreland

The Gist: A poignant forbidden romance packed with some classic romance tropes: married in Vegas, grumpy Hero, employee-boss relationship and a second chance romance. The novel is riddled with angst and sweet moments and explores what it means to find The One at the exact wrong time and a Hero who will do all he can to win his girl back. Unfortunately, the plot suffers from a dumb misunderstanding, which detracted from my enjoyment of the novel.

Series: ABC Corp, #1*

Release Date: February 25, 2021

Synopsis
It’s time for the next generation of Vested Interest to find their Happily Ever Afters.

Grace VanRyan has her life mapped out. Law school, a career with ABC, and a bright future ahead of her.

Until Jaxson Richards steps into the picture. He’s everything she hasn’t planned for. Older, sexy, off-limits.

And her new boss.

When the passion between them explodes, will her life blow up along with it?

Ending
HEA
Representation
• Gay supporting character
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Sexual harassment
• Blackmail
• Child abuse and abandonment
• Reference to drug abuse and a child being a drug courier
• Near death experience in a gas like explosion
Safety Rating: Safe
• No cheating
• No OM drama
• Does kinda have OW drama
– The Hero is never with the OW but she sexually harasses him at work once on-page and becomes an issue later on in the MCs relationship.
• the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does have the Hero pushing the Heroine away
• No separation
– They work together but they do break up romantically for a few weeks
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: eARC

Rating: 4-stars

*Each novel in the series is Standalone

Note: I received My Saving Grace through Melanie Moreland’s team in exchange for an honest review.

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Magical and Entrancing: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

By Sarah
In 4-stars, Book Review
December 9, 2020
M

The Gist: An entrancing standalone epic fantasy; it brings the magic of books to life through the Heroine’s journey to discover who is attempting to sabotage the Great Libraries and made all the more enjoyable by its adorable enemies to friends to lovers romances and themes of friendship.

Series: Sorcery of Thorns, #1

Release Date: June 4, 2019

Synopsis
All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

Ending
HFN
Representation
• Bisexual Hero
• Asexual supporting character
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Murder
• Allusion to torture
• Gaslighting
Safety Rating: Safe
• No cheating
• No OW/OM drama
• Does have the Hero pushing the Heroine away
• Does have a separation between the Heroine and Hero
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 4.75-stars

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Gut-wrenching and Healing: The Cabin by Jasinda Wilder

By Sarah
In 3-stars, Book Review
November 21, 2020
G

The Gist: A gut-wrenching, tear-jerker of a romance novel that transforms itself into a book of healing and convincing second-chance love–although its enjoyability is severely limited by the frustrating characterization of its Heroine.

Series: Standalone

Release Date: October 22, 2020

Synopsis
One year ago, I buried my husband.

One year ago, I held his hand and said goodbye.

Now I spend most of my days lost somewhere between trying to remember every smallest detail of our lives, and trying to forget it all. I fill my hours with work until I’m too exhausted to remember him, to feel anything at all.

One year, 365 days—and then one knock at my door changes everything. A letter from him, a last request, a secret will:

My dearest Nadia,

Trust me, my love. One last time, trust me. Sometimes the epilogue to one story is the beginning of another.

Ending
HEA (married and expecting a baby)
Representation
• Black Biracial supporting character
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Cancer
• Death of loved ones
• Grief
• Depression
• Suicidal ideation
• References of miscarriage
Safety Rating: Not Safe
• No cheating
• No OW/OM drama
— But the Heroine’s husband dies from cancer at ~30% into the novel. So, the reader gets his POV. He’s really the first Hero.
— The Hero (who the Heroine eventually gets with) is also grieving *his* dead wife
• Does have the Heroine pushing the Hero away
• No separation
Note: the Safety Rating is Not Safe because the reader reads the Heroine’s husband — who she’s very much in love with — die on page in both their POVs.
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Rating: 3.5-stars

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