Tag: friends

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#BookReview: Hooked On The Heart by Maddie Evans

Solid Maddie Evans Clean Romance. I’ve been reading Evans’ books for a few years now, and this first entrant in a new series is a perfect exemplar of her style… with references (and a few cameos) to what I think was the first series I read from her (the Brighthead Running Club). And yes, if you like what you see here, that series offers several great books to read while you wait for this trilogy to complete out over the next couple of months. 🙂

What you get here is a small town romance where everyone knows everyone… except when they don’t, because suddenly there is a new guy in town. Foodies will absolutely love all of the restaurant details in this book, and knitters/ crocheters will love all of the yarn talk herein (by an author who is an avid knitter and crocheter herself. Seriously, wait until you see the author’s note at the end here. :D)

Those looking for anything more spicy than a warm glass of milk will be disappointed here, but “spice” and “Maddie Evans” have never really gone together. There are other authors that offer that, but Evans always manages to create a compelling romance that does not shy away from the fact that her characters would *like* to go there… without ever actually going there. So in this book, for example, there is some heavy kissing… and that is as far as anything actually goes. Seriously, my 10yo niece has seen more in the TV shows she watches these days.

There *is* one common romance element employed here that turns some off, but revealing it feels a touch spoilery so I’ll simply note that it is so common that it is used across every trope I’m aware of, which is why I refer to it as an ‘element’ rather than a ‘trope’. So those that are hyper sensitive to this particular one can probably guess what I’m referring to here, but this should note *should* be vague enough that it doesn’t actually spoil anything. 🙂

With the epilogue both closing out this story and blatantly setting the next one in motion, this is absolutely going to be one series where you’ll be glad that the next book is just a few weeks away. (Indeed, I was sent ARCs of all three books at once, so I can personally verify that all three are at least ready enough to release to ARC readers, which is a significant step to making them fully ready. :D)

Again, truly a solid romance full of the joy of creating and arts that will make you fall in love with both these characters and this world, thus serving as an almost “Iron Man” level tale. (Ok, I’m a dude. I had to get *something* in here to save at least a modicum of my man card! :D)

Very much recommended.

This review of Hooked On Love by Maddie Evans was originally written on August 17, 2025.

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#BookReview: Fair Warning by John Sneeden

Fun, Light-Ish, Fast – A Solid Cozy Mystery. For me, the ideal cozy mystery is mostly fun, mostly light-ish, a fast read, and maybe a touch quirky. Solid friend dynamics are always a great thing too. Here, in Sneeden’s first cozy… that is pretty well exactly what we get. It is a murder mystery, so it isn’t *completely* light – someone was murdered, after all – but the overall story isn’t weighed down by the dark and depressing, instead giving over to more banter and quips between friends as they try to solve the mystery at hand together. Oh, and one of them just found that her cat can talk. Which as I’ve told my own cat is a billion dollar idea if he would just learn to speak English in addition to Cat, so hey, maybe Sneeden is about to make his character a sudden billionaire. 😉

At a touch under 200 pages, this is also a very fast read, perfect for those times when you don’t have much time to read but need a fun diversion. Maybe the kids are in the last days of summer break as this book releases (oh, they *are*, well… sounds like you need this book 😉 ). Maybe it is later in the year and you’re frazzled getting ready for the holidays and all the cooking and travelling and just need a few minutes. Maybe it is Every. Sunday. Morning. trying to get ready for church and the kids are a *nightmare* every freaking week and you just need a few minutes to yourself to lighten you mood so you can handle them more effectively. Maybe you’ve just had a break from a community you thought you could call your own and need a chance to decompress and heal a bit. Wherever life finds you, whenever you need a quick break for whatever reason… this book is perfect *right there*. (Also, for readers who track their reading and are behind in their goals… quick, easy read. :D)

Ultimately, I can’t stress enough just how much of a fun, easy read this is – and how perfect that is in at least certain situations. Absolutely a book to have on hand for when you may need something exactly like that.

Very much recommended.

This review of Fair Warning by John Sneeden was originally written on July 31, 2025.

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#BlogTour: Friends To Lovers by Sally Blakely

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a strong enough debut that absolutely entices me to see where the author goes with her second book. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Friends To Lovers by Sally Blakely.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Strong Enough Debut. This is one of those books that could have absolutely used a touch more editing re: making the various timeline jumps a touch cleaner, but otherwise was a reasonably strong debut that absolutely did the singular most essential thing for any debut book: It made me want to see what the author does *next*.

Was this book perfect? No. There’s a fair amount here that various people will criticize for various reasons, but there is nothing really objective about any criticisms here, and I try to keep my own as objective as possible. It technically meets all known RWA / RNA requirements. The spice level is somewhere around a jalapeno, maybe habanero – a touch spicy, but nothing those used to more powerful chilis will even bat an eye at, yet could still give heartburn to those more accustomed to a warm glass of milk.

But there is absolutely *enough* here, even if in near extreme slow burn, “JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER ALREADY YOU MORONS” form, to truly want me to see where Blakely goes next, what setting she may choose next, what pacing, etc.

Other reviewers proclaim this to be a People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry clone, but I don’t exactly read the books that get on all the lists (for the most part) like Ms. Henry’s books – I’m the guy you usually come to when you want to hear about the books that will *never* be anywhere *near* those lists – yet are absolutely as good as anything there, and better than most of them. So I can’t tell you if it actually *is* similar to that book or not – I can only tell you that I truly enjoyed it, and I’ve absolutely read romance novels both not as good as this and much better than this, but this is right in that sweet spot in the middle where I’m still truly glad I got a chance to read this book.

Truly a solid story, one I think many will genuinely enjoy.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: Friends To Lovers by Sally Blakely”

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#BookReview: This Stays Between Us by Sara Ochs

Less Destination-y, Less Thrill-y, Still Solid Sophomore Submittal. Ochs’ debut last year, The Resort, was a book where the exotic tropical setting played nearly as much into the plot as any of the characters themselves, and where the cat and mouse game kept you guessing nearly through the last words (at least per my review I wrote back then – nearly a year and over 200 books between reading this one and that one… I remembered it as solid, but yeah, I don’t retain most details that long. :D).

This one still takes you to the destination, and you absolutely still see the beauty in the various areas of Australia that she brings us to… it just isn’t *as* critical to the overall plot as the destination itself felt in The Resort. The thrills and suspense are still absolutely here, but in a more dual timeline nature where we see stuff happening in each that we know won’t end well in either, rather than the more cat and mouse active timeline investigation of the first book. Not to say that element is completely gone, as there is in fact an investigation here, and there are absolutely several twists even through the last words yet again. It just felt somehow… slightly “less” again. More solid standard than spectacular standout.

This could well be from the sheer fact that an author has a lifetime to craft their debut… and then just weeks, months if they are lucky, to craft their sophomore and subsequent efforts. So this isn’t really a knock on Ochs at all, just the nature of the beast, really. I’m not disparaging this book in any way whatsoever – it really was quite good, and actively better than some. This bodes well indeed for future efforts, as if *this* is *all* the dropoff we get from that phenomenal first foray, Ochs will certainly be an author to watch for the rest of her writing career, however long that may be.

Truly an excellent work that shows off several different regions of Australia well enough for someone who has only ever seen those regions on a screen and has never once so much as seen the Pacific Ocean – or even been within 300 miles (roughly 500 km, for those who refuse to use freedom units) of it. I’m sure my friends and colleagues who have actually been to – or even in some cases live in – the areas depicted might have a different take there, but it absolutely worked well enough for this Southern US man.

Very much recommended.

This review of This Stays Between Us by Sara Ochs was originally written on July 23, 2025.

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#BlogTour: Reports Of His Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated by James Goodhand

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a hilarious and heartwarming absurdist British drama. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Reports Of His Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated by James Goodhand.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Hilarious (If In An Absurdist/ British Manner) And Heartwarming. I’m going to do this review in two parts, because there is a very key similarity between this book and a (possibly now somewhat obscure) movie that was at one time decently well known – but to reveal which movie is a *massive* spoiler.

So here’s the spoiler free part:

This book is going to make you laugh. It is going to make you cry. It is going to make you reach out to speak with and hold those closest to you, and it is going to make you think about your own life. And it is going to do all of that via allowing you to see through the eyes of a loner recluse that nobody gives a damn about who happens to be mistaken for a dead neighbor. Goodhand does another amazing job of telling a story in such a low key way, yet managing to hit exactly the notes he seems to have been going for. Truly an awesome story that will be a great counter weight to both the bubble gum pop or hyper macho action books you’re reading this summer as well as the extreme dark horror tales some (weirdos – joking, to be clear) look to this time of year or even the nonfiction books that a lot of ppl seek to read in the summer. And yes, guys, put down the nonfiction and read this book. It is absolutely for you, and you’re going to be able to have quite a bit of “teh feelz” in a safe space with this book. Ladies, don’t let the last sentence fool you, you’re going to enjoy this book at least as much as the guys, as there is quite a bit here for you too – just not quite as prominent, more in the sub story with some stuff that is going on throughout the book.

And now… the spoilers. DO NOT READ BELOW HERE IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Giving.
People.
Who.
Don’t.
Want.
To.
Be.
Spoiled.
Time.
To.
Leave.

Ok, at this point I’ve given everyone’s eyes a chance to leave before you read what I say next, so HERE COME THE SPOILERS.

Mr. Holland’s Opus has to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Its final scene in particular, where Mr. Holland comes to school ostensibly to pick up his last remaining boxes from his classroom after a lifetime of teaching at this school, only to hear some noise coming from somewhere… then following it to find an auditorium full of his former students and colleagues, all there to celebrate him… simply phenomenal.

If you love that movie, and particularly that scene, as much as I do… well, you’re already in the spoiler section of this review. Suffice it to say, without giving *everything* away, that there is a very similar scene here, and it is just as phenomenal as that one. *Maybe* even a touch better. I don’t *know* that Goodhand was aware of this scene, but it at least seems possible.

Now, my job as a reviewer is to both describe my experience with a book and, ultimately, to try to help sell it, even on books I absolutely detest. So particularly when a book was as excellent as this one, I need to talk about the things that I think could help it sell, and thus I *needed* to mention this movie. Plus, I couldn’t help but immediately think of that movie as the scene here was playing out, so I’m also being true to my own experience with the book in mentioning it. But I do know it is a massive spoiler, so it has been embedded in these spoiler tags.

And.
Now.
We.
Come.
Back.
Out.
Of.
The.
Spoilers.

Ultimately, this was truly an excellent book that I think most anyone will truly have a great time with, and in the lower half of the 300 page range, it isn’t a tome that will take weeks to read either, so it should be accessible to most readers.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: Reports Of His Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated by James Goodhand”

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#BookReview: The Ripple Effect by Maggie North

Solid Sophomore Effort. This book picks up shortly after Rules For Second Chances, the author’s debut, ends – even though even two weeks after release it isn’t listed or marketed (that I’ve seen) as a sequel or series. Which is critical information, because both of our leads here actually debuted there, with one of them (the male) having a decent sized role in that book that helps explain some of his actions in this book.

Here, North shows growth as a storyteller in that she is breaking away from what she knows as an Autistic and is exploring things from neurotypical perspectives… yet still in manners that are all too real for just how messy things can get. From physically messy – mud in a river camp – to emotionally messy (most everything going on with both of our leads and their relationship prior to the beginning of this book, explained briefly in the book’s opening sequences).

Overall this is a solid romance/ women’s fiction tale of healing from various traumas and maybe finding love along the way… with a fair amount of laughs and a touch of spice – let’s call it jalapeno level – along the way. Read the first book first, but then you’ll absolutely be ready for this one, and while it won’t be “I MUST HAVE THE SEQUEL RIGHT THIS SECOND”, I do believe you’ll both enjoy having this book on hand ready to read immediately after and that this book will make more sense for more readers who have read the two books in close succession. I personally read the books a year nearly to the day apart, with 201 books between them, but fortunately I was still able to follow along reasonably well. This may not be a talent/ ability all readers enjoy though as like North, I too am Autistic, so I’m confident that my recommendation to read them closer together than I did will hold more true for more readers than not.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Ripple Effect by Maggie North was originally written on June 30, 2025. (With apologies for the tardiness on this Advance Review Copy. Some major life events happened just before the release of this book that unfortunately delayed me reading it.)

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#BookReview: Friends Are Forever by Kellie Coates Gilbert

Strong “Finale”. I use “finale” in quotes in the title of this review because it seems we are getting a Christmas “epilogue” for this series later this year, at least per book site listings as I write this review nearly a week before this book publishes.

This noted, the story here absolutely reads like a genuine and strong finale of a series that has put its main characters through quite a lot… and has still more for them to go through. The laughs… and dusty rooms… are both timed and executed well, even as many of them seemingly come out of the blue – particularly the dusty rooms. Yet every aspect here remains perfectly true to who each of the main characters are, even as the situations they find themselves in through the course of this series finale are very unexpected.

Even as someone who first came to this series at Book 4, and thus missed the developments of the first three books, this really was very well done – one of the better finale/ wrap-ups/ send-offs I’ve seen done in a series finale in any medium, and certainly *far* superior to the various infamous finales over the years. No one is waking up and claiming it was all a dream here, y’all. 😉

Read the rest of the series before reading this book. But then make sure you have some tissues ready, because when those dusty rooms hit in this book – and yes, I said “rooms”, as in plural – they *really* hit, and you’re going to need them.

Fortunately each book in the series (at least those I’ve read) is at or under 200 pages, which makes them all fairly quick reads, even for busy parents (or others busy with whatever life you may lead).

By the time you get to the end of this one, you’ll be satisfied with where Gilbert leaves these characters… but you’re also going to welcome that epilogue currently scheduled to release in late October 2025. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of Friends Are Forever by Kellie Coates Gilbert was originally written on June 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Other Side Of Now by Paige Harbison

One Of The Hardest Hitting ‘Glimpse’ Tales I’ve Ever Come Across. This is one of those ‘glimpse’ tales – ala The Family Man (the 2000s era movie with Nic Cage and Tea Leoni) or It’s A Wonderful Life, and yet in its specific mechanics, it hit me harder than any I’ve come across before it. There are really only two books I’ve come across before – that I believe I’ve written reviews for over the years – that even come close, but revealing which two gets way too close to spoiler territory. So read this book then look back through my reviews (available on BookHype.com, TheStoryGraph, Goodreads, or my blog at BookAnon.com) and see if you can make the connection yourself. 😀 (Ok, so *no one* is going to do that. But it could be a fun challenge for someone who is particularly bored, maybe? :D) Also, don’t forget to leave your own review of this book after you read it. *Then* go look through mine. 😀

But seriously, this is an utterly hilarious book that happens to have a lot of heart – both of which are hallmarks of this type of tale, and both of which are done particularly well by Harbison.

The selection of exact characterization here helps – a regular girl from Florida who has two different dreams which ultimately become two different realities one day such that she gets to live through both and see what both are really like. Yes, there is a fair amount of Hollywood name dropping and commentary, but again, I’ve seen that in many other books with similar characters, and it works well to establish this exact characterization early, particularly since the real ‘meat’ of the book is actually the *other* life.

What made this hit so hard personally was an event I don’t speak much of publicly, but which has direct bearing on this book – but again, I have to be very vague here in order to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say that my reality – assuming the one I’m typing this review in *is* reality – wound up very different from the one in the book, yet it is also all *too* easy for me to see how my reality could have been a version of this tale, all the way to me becoming a version of our lead character. (Though to be clear, *no one* is casting me as an actor. The one time I acted at all was in a HS play – Midsummer Night’s Dream – and even playing a character who was *supposed* to be a bad actor… damn, I was *really* bad at even that!)

If you’ve never encountered a ‘glimpse’ tale, this is genuinely one of the better ones I’ve come across, particularly in the last few years, so it is a great place to start. Long time fans of the type of tale, like me, will likely enjoy this particular tale quite a bit too.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Other Side Of Now by Paige Harbison was originally written on June 2, 2025.

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#BookReview: Lie In The Tide by Holly Danvers

You Think You Know Me. I fully cop to being one of those people that avoids my hometown in my adult life (other than visiting family members who continue to live there) specifically because high school was hell and I don’t care to catch up with pretty well anyone from that era of my life. (To be fair, the feeling is largely mutual. :D)

So for me, a group of former HS friends deciding to catch up by spending a weekend together to celebrate the upcoming 40th birthday of one of them is… weird.

And yet… Danvers absolutely makes the idea work. The first part of the tale is largely “establishing shots”, with each of our four friends introducing themselves and where they currently are in life as they begin to travel to the meeting point on Cape Cod. This section is admittedly slow… but then, so is this section in many of the best thriller/ horror/ disaster movies or stories.

Once everyone begins catching up, the action begins to pick up – including a scene that reminded me of a long ago college Service Spring Break incident, but to reveal that tale here would get into spoiler territory for the book. Hell, I didn’t even connect it until I began writing that last sentence. 😉 From here, the tale goes less introspective and, eventually, more into “what the hell is going on” / “who can we trust” territory, with a fair amount of exploration of the common theme of “who we are on social media isn’t always who we are in real life” that has been explored so much over the last decade. While Danvers doesn’t really add much to that particular discourse with this tale, she does use it to add a touch of depth to her own story.

I will note that the mystery, once it arrives, was perhaps given away a touch too early with one particular detail that one of the characters revealed in her opening monologue. So for those that just cannot stand solving the mystery before the author reveals it… well… “you think you know me”. In other words… there may yet be more to this tale…

The epilogue in particular offers a stinger that takes this seeming one-off tale and offers the possibility that it could in fact become a series, which those of you who pick this book up with the “Book 1” on its title would already know. (I had received an Advance Review Copy of the text months before publication, though I only read the book about 2 weeks before due to other ARC commitments.)

Ultimately, this actually has a blend of the approaches used in say the “Widows” series by Kimberly Belle, Cate Holahan, Layne Fargo, and Vanessa Lillie – where each author seemingly takes one of four widows and they combine to craft an intriguing and rompy series – and the meta-publishing discussions of say Romantic Friction by Lori Gold – among others – and yet still manages to be fairly uniquely its own thing even with those similarities. It will be interesting to see where Danvers takes this budding series and how long she intends to have it run.

Very much recommended.

This review of Lie In The Tide by Holly Danvers was originally written on May 20, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Love Haters by Katherine Center

Ignore The Haters. Seriously, if one “lesson” can be learned from a rom-com, this is this book’s lesson. But also: Seriously, ignore the haters of this book. They’re wrong, they know they’re wrong, and they can sit there in their wrongness and be wrong. And if they want to come at me, well, I’m a big boy and don’t give a fuck what they think anyway, so they can continue to be wrong in their wrongness while I move on to ever more books. 🙂

This is one of those lighthearted romcoms with a few points, and it is crystal clear that one reason Center wrote this was so that she could expense likely a few trips out to Key West as “business expenses” and have a blast while “researching” this book… And yet even if you want to be so cynical like that… clearly, the research fucking *worked*, because Center absolutely *nails* the entire Key West vibe (particularly the eccentric secondary characters, yes, including the dog who has at least as much personality as anyone else in the book). And while I’ve never been in the Coast Guard, I’ve seen them operating enough from being at sea enough (hello, guy that cruises nearly as much as he reads – and he very much has a reading problem 😉 ) to have a decent idea of the job, and Center nails that pretty solidly as well. From the standoffish “I don’t know you yet” they can project to the closest-friend-you’ll-ever-have once they do get to know you – or if you happen to be their brother and share a tragic backstory. 😉

Come for the eccentric Key West vibes. Yes, no matter what the haters claim, they really do permeate the entire book (says the Florida Man 😉 ). Stay for the serious looks at both body image issues and hurricane survival. The haters do have *one* thing right – even broke clocks get two a day – in that there is never any true “body positivity”, but Center, to me, actually handles these issues in a far more realistic manner, rather than simply glossing over the very real struggles the way so many “body positive” books do. And the hurricane survival bits… again, very, very well done – but Center didn’t exactly have to do as much “research” for this, being based in the Galveston region with its history of hurricanes at least as destructive as those that are known to hit South Florida.

And the dog. My god, the damn dog. Seriously, dog lovers are going to love this dog, and even cat people like me will find this dog fucking hilarious. To the level of damn near stealing most scenes he is in. 🙂

Oh, last note: spice scale: Slightly warmer than a warm glass of milk, I don’t think I’d put this up there with even a jalapeno. Maybe somewhere around a bell pepper or so – enough to have some flavor, but also gentle enough that all but the most sensitive stomachs should be able to handle it easily.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Love Haters by Katherine Center was originally written on May 19, 2025.