Month: February 2024

Top Ten Book Covers Featuring Things Found in Nature

Posted February 26, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 16 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic was submitted Jessica @ a GREAT read, and is Covers/Titles with Things Found in Nature. These can be trees, flowers, animals, forests, bodies of water, etc. on the cover or in the title. Thanks for the fun topic, Jessica! As is always my way, I’m going the cover route because I love pretty book covers! My only goal is that I’m trying for covers that scream outdoors and don’t just have a leaf or flower or two on them. Nature is the theme of the design for these book covers. All of these are taken directly from my to-read list on Goodreads! Are we friends there, by the way? I’m looking for more friends there who share similar reading interests! If that’s you, please friend me so I can get more book recommendations!

1. Romancing Miss Stone by M.C. Vaughan
2. The Design of Us by Sajni Patel
3. A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
4. Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb
5. The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
6. Fish Out of Water by Katie Ruggle
7. The Thorns Remain by J.J.A. Harwood
8. Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
9. The Only Game in Town by Lacie Waldon
10. The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman

What’s the best book you featured in your TTT post this week?


Rosie and the Dreamboat by Sally Thorne | Book Review

Posted February 24, 2024 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 0 Comments

Rosie and the Dreamboat by Sally Thorne | Book ReviewRosie and the Dreamboat by Sally Thorne
Series: The Improbable Meet-Cute #3
Also in this series: Drop, Cover, and Hold On, With Any Luck, The Exception to the Rule
Narrator: Bailey Carr
Published by Amazon Original Stories on January 23, 2024
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
Pages: 44
Length: 1 hour and 14 mins
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
Add to Goodreads
Buy on Amazon

For a hopeful and hopeless romantic, it’s love at first sight—with a little twist.

Rosie Whittaker and her sister are up for some Galentine’s pampering at a day spa. Getting locked inside a flotation tank is so Rosie. Enter a firefighter hero determined to pry this luckless pearl out of her high-tech shell. All Rosie has to go on is a dreamy voice and a flirty sense of humor. Remain calm, Rosie. This could be what you’ve been waiting for. Is this the man she’s waited for her whole life?

 

I really thought Sally Thorne was going to be a one-hit wonder for me. I loved The Hating Game, and have DNFed the other two books of hers I’ve tried since. But Rosie and Dreamboat was really fun! It’s a little wacky and pretty unbelievable, but that’s why I enjoyed it. I was in mood to be entertained with a story that wouldn’t take much out of me and wasn’t a huge time investment, and this fit the bill.

One thing I didn’t really consider before jumping into this series (they’re all standalones, so don’t worry about reading them in order), is that the story focuses solely on the meet-cute. That’s it. There’s no watching a romance play out, you’re strictly reading the meeting between the two love interests and the story ends with a happy for now. As such, I found myself a little disappointed that things kept ending right as things were about to get good. But if you can come to terms with that, there are some real gems in this series! Rosie and Dreamboat follows Rosie and her sister, who go to a wellness spa for some pampering. Rosie isn’t at all interested in the flotation tank, which is basically like crawling naked into a dark cave and then being locked in. She decides to be a good sport about it, but when her time is up the tank won’t open. The fire department shows up to help, but the spa says they are not allowed to damage the tank in any way to get her out. And thus begins Rosie’s meet-cute with the adorkably charming cinnamon roll hero, Leo. He’s incredibly sweet and silly, and I really loved him. I loved that they spent hours talking through the wall of the tank while trying to figure out how to get her out, really getting to know one another without the initial physical attraction being the driving force behind their interest in one another. Their conversation was meaningful and I hope they really do live happily ever after!

For being a super short novella that’s essentially cut off mid-story, Rosie and Dreamboat was really well done! The characters were developed enough that I cared about them, and the storyline was unique and kept me listening to find out how Rosie gets out of that tank. lol. I listened the the audiobook version, and thought Bailer Carr did a great job. The production itself was crystal clear, and I felt like a fly on the wall listening to this entire story unfold. I swooned a few times at how wonderful Leo is, and you know how I love the swoons! If you’re looking for something quick and playful, this is a good choice!


Top Ten Bookish Superpowers I Wish I Had

Posted February 19, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 15 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic was submitted by Cathy @WhatCathyReadNext and is about bookish superpowers! What super powers would make your reading life better? Maybe never accidentally buying the same book twice? Perhaps every book you bought would be automatically signed/personally dedicated by the author? Would you like to read faster? I thought this topic would stretch my creativity a little bit, but once I started thinking I was able to whip this post up so fast! Can’t wait to see what you share this week!

1. I want to have a searchable inventory in my brain of all the books I have, where I got them/who I got them from, and the format they’re in. It’d be so much easier to decide what to read next!

2. I’d like the ability to perfectly recall everything about any book I’ve ever read. Book in series, trilogies, and even sequels would not need any refreshers before diving in!

3. I want to instantly have enough money to buy any book I want, the moment I want it. Waiting is hard!

4. I want to be able to scan a book for any triggers that might upset me so I know not to read it.

5. It’d be so much fun to be able to jump into a book and visit the world in that story. I’d never need to buy a plane ticket ever again!

6. I want to be able to bring any book character to life. I could find my soulmate and my best friends between the pages of any book I want!

7. I’d love to be able to scan a book and know if I’ll love it or not. I don’t want to be spoiled, but I’d love to be able to weed through all the books I want to read and read all my favorites right now. My TBR will already take several lifetimes to get through, so this super power would be amazing! I’d never DNF a book again!

8. I want to be able to change a book’s ending if I didn’t like it.

9. I’d like the ability to be able to generate more books by my favorite authors. Maybe they’re not writing anymore or maybe the wait for their next book’s release date is SO long. This power would fix that!

10. I’d like to be able to turn standalone books into series (or add more books to series) if I don’t want to say goodbye to worlds or characters.

What bookish super powers do you wish you had?


Top Ten Books With the Word “Love” in the Title

Posted February 12, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 12 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is a love freebie, in honor of Valentine’s Day tomorrow. I decided to share books five books I’ve read and loved and five from my tbr that I’m SO EXCITED about that have the word “love” in the title!

Books I’ve read and loved:

By Love or By Sea by Rachel Rager
Love, Lucy by April Lindner
Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Books I can’t wait to read and love:

Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe
The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett
All’s Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath
A Cosmic Kind of Love by Samantha Young
Moose Be Love by Jacqueline Winters

Can you think of any books you loved that have “love” in the title?
Sending you a big Valentine’s hug!


Top Ten Books That Can be Read in a Day

Posted February 5, 2024 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 17 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic was submitted by both  Jennifer at FunkNFiction.com and Angela at Reading Frenzy through the topic suggestion form, and is Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short. These can be books under 150 pages (or whatever page number you think works for this prompt), novellas, or books that can be read in one sitting or one day. What a great topic to hit the ground running on those 2024 Goodreads reading goals! I decided to go with books that can be read in a day, which is essentially novellas and short stories for me because I don’t read a ton a day!

1. The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren
I’m sure you’ve seen the Improbable Meet-Cute series all over the place lately, and this was my favorite of the series! Do not listen to it. lol. It’s told through a lot of emails and each email is read out loud like “to randomemailaddress@yahoo.com from anotherrandomemailaddress@gmail to com, date, time” over and over again. If you read the book you can just skim that part real fast but it gets monotonous when you have to listen to it. I abandoned the audio in favor of the Kindle within just a few minutes! The story is pretty adorable and gave me warm fuzzies!

2. Rosie and the Dreamboat by Sally Thorne
This was my second favorite in the the Improbable Meet-Cute series, and I really love the guy in this one. He’s pretty swoony. I liked the audio a lot, too! Bailey Carr is a great narrator.

3. Signal Moon by Kate Quinn
Oh how I loved this time travel historical fiction! Highly recommend the audio.

4. When She Was Naughty by Tessa Dare
A super charming Christmas novella, complete with a man in an ugly Christmas… waistcoat?

5. The Honeymoon Crashers by Christina Lauren
I LOVED this audio sequel to The Unhoneymooners! The audio is done with sound effects and voice actors for all the different characters. It sounded like a movie!

6. Lord Dashwood Missed Out by Tessa Dare
If you need a quick visit to Spindle Cove, this is it. I love this story.

7. Just One Night by Gayle Forman
Do yourself a favor and skip the abomination that was Just One Year, and read this one after Just One Day. You’ll get the heartwarming closure you’ll need to badly after finishing Just One Day!

8. Uncharted by Tracey Garvis Graves
I never see anyone ever talking about Uncharted, but it’s really good. You get to learn more about Anna and TJ’s story and a guy who accidentally became involved in their story himself. There’s a lot of adventure and mystery, too!

9. Your French Kisses by Lauren Blakely
Did I love this because Shane East narrates this? Maybe. lol. But also, any book that takes place in Paris is going to get my attention.

10. A Christmas Bun for Ulysses by Sarah Morgenthaler
I love the Moose Springs books, and this bonus Christmas short story all about the moose I love so much was the icing on the cake for me. LOVED IT.