Tag: romance

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#BookReview: The Last Hart Beating by Nattie Neidhart

Among The Best Wrestling Memoirs Ever Written. I’ve been reading wrestling memoirs roughly as long as Niedhart has been a professional wrestler – beginning roughly in 2001 when we were both in our late teens, maybe slightly earlier – whenever Mick Foley’s first book hit mass market paperback. And yes, I’ve read both of Foley’s early books. I’ve read at least one of Jericho’s books, I’ve read Batista’s book and at least one of HBK’s books. I even read The Rock’s dad (“Soulman” Rocky Johnson)’s book and Hornswoggle’s book. More recently, I’ve read Rousey’s 2024 book along with Lynch’s book released at nearly the same time. Earlier this year, I had a chance to do an Advance Review Copy of Killer Kross’s book that released about a month ago as I write this review.

In other words, I have a lot of experience reading wrestler’s memoirs, though there are still several I’ve yet to get to.

And y’all, I absolutely put this one right up there among the top.

This one is full of everything that makes a good wrestling memoir great – the history, the peeks behind the scenes at various points and from Niedhart’s view from whatever age she was at the time growing up, her own story from the first time she ever picked up The Anvil’s championship belt through becoming a multi-time Champion within WWE herself. We see more of her struggles with her dad than even Total Divas really had any capacity of showing. We see her fears – shared by fellow third generation Superstar who also wrote a forward to this book, “some kid named Dwayne” (as Soulman said in his book) – of whether she could live up to her family’s legacy. We see how that legacy shaped both the woman and the professional Neidhart has become – for good and not so great. We even get a friends to lovers romance for the ages that few even fictional romance authors can replicate, showing the first time TJ first showed up at Hart House through their struggles together when he broke his neck in the ring and beyond.

This book seems very transparent – yes, many of us thought we knew Niedhart particularly from Total Divas (though as with all “reality” shows, that one became quite obviously *barely anything resembling reality* rather quickly, particularly after the first season), but here we see even more of her story, particularly her absolute love and admiration for her dad… and all the heartache this caused as his mental condition deteriorated over the years.

Bookending with the 2019 WWE Hall of Fame Induction of Neidart’s uncle Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart and her dad Jim ‘The Anvil’ Niedhart as The Hart Foundation seems a deliberate editorial choice, a way to stop before the pandemic / “Thunderdome” era of WWE… and perhaps lay the groundwork for a later memoir to pick up exactly there, ala Foley, Jericho, and even HBK’s follow-up books?

Wrestling fans of any stripe are going to love this book. There’s simply too much history here for you not to, including Niedhart’s own interactions with one Vincent Kennedy McMahon, Jr over the years. More than that though, this is going to be one for a lot more people. For the Millennial cat moms – yes, Niedhart briefly touches on why she chose not to have human children. For the woman afraid to stand up for herself in her own career – Niedhart shows that even with a legendary legacy in your industry behind you, standing up for yourself is still daunting, but sometimes absolutely must be done. For those interested in women in sports – Niedhart shows the path she made through some family connections but also several shit tons of hard ass work… and a bit of luck even, at times.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Last Hart Beating by Nattie Neidhart was originally written on September 6, 2025.

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#BlogTour: All The Ways You Save Me by Melissa Wiesner

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a strong, emotional romance that packs quite a punch. For this blog tour, we’re looking at All The Ways You Save Me by Melissa Wiesner.

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

Strong Tale Packs A Punch – And Leaves Enough Left For An Exciting Followup. This is one of those books that packs *such* an emotional weight that I think the best comparison I can make goes back nearly a decade now – to Laurie Breton’s Coming Home, which I read circa 2017 or so and was the first book I ever used the term “tour de force” to describe.

This one doesn’t hit *quite* as hard as that one, but it’ll still land a few haymakers. Maybe Mike Tyson vs George Foreman when both were in their primes. In other words, “mere mortal”, prepare for an emotional beatdown with this book… in the best possible ways.

Seriously, this has “summer romance that can go so much further” written *all* over it, and thus its release window – just before Labor Day in the US, after at least some kids (including my nieces and nephew) have started back to school already but right there as college Fall Semester is starting up and summer is coming to a close – is damn near perfect for exactly this story. Even now literally 20 yrs post college and having been married for the vast majority of that time (18 yrs this Fall vs graduating 20 yrs ago this past May), I don’t know, for some reason this season of the year just evokes those kinds of emotions for me, and always has.

There isn’t really any comedy here, so the levity is more in the fact that we’re not in the middle of an emotional scene and are thus riding the swell to the next one (ha! a surfing metaphor, in a book that *does* include some surfing!). And yet the book works perfectly well *because* of this, rather than in spite of the lack of comedy. Not all tales need to be romcoms, and this one in particular is well served by keeping the comedy out. It allows the emotions to have the heft and also the breathing room they need to really work well.

Some may argue that in at least one somewhere between jalapeno and habanero scene that “they’re only 17!!!!”. A valid point, in that exact scene. But it also reflects *reality* going back essentially as long as humanity itself, and that scene helps give the overall tale the weight it needs for what happens later in the timeline. (I don’t remember where this exact scene is in the actual storytelling.) If you’re going to 1 or 2 star this book over that scene, it really says more about you than Wiesner, her storytelling abilities, or this tale in particular, and now that I’ve told you the scene is there, it really is on you, the reader of my review, to just avoid this book if that truly is a dealbreaker for you. I’ll tell you right now you’re depriving yourself of one of the more emotional romance tales I’ve read in my life – maybe even beating out Nicholas Sparks on the emotional side – but that is completely on you, and you do what you need to do. Just don’t be unfair to this book when I specifically made you aware of the existence of this issue here. 😀

Overall, again, truly one of the more emotional and thus stronger overall romances I’ve read in quite some time, and even though it leaves a few threads unanswered, it does so in ways that make it clear that they will be explored in Book 2… which I am very excited to get in my hands ASAP. Per Wiesner herself on social media gearing up for the release of this book, that one is titled All The Ways You Break Me and releases in February 2026 – roughly six months from now. I tell you now that unless Bookouture (the publisher) or Wiesner prevent me from doing so, I will be reviewing that book and on its blog tour as well. I *wish* it were already in my hands. And you’re very likely going to say that last sentence yourself if you read this book near release date, as hopefully you see this review in time to do. 🙂

Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: All The Ways You Save Me by Melissa Wiesner”

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#BookReview: Well Actually by Mazey Eddings

Some Will Love It, Some Will Hate It, Nothing Objectively Wrong. This is one of those hyper-“progressive” Gen Z TikTok obsessed romances where how you identify with the characterization of the book itself earlier in this sentence largely tells you how much you’re going to enjoy this book, at a very broad, general level at least. Obviously everyone is different and even those generally inclined to love this book may actually hate it or vice versa, but at a review level to give you, the reader of my review, an idea of what you’re considering getting yourself into… I think it is a completely fair generalization here.

The author has “content warning” spoilers at the beginning of the book – always a mistake to my mind, as to me, they should be available on the author’s website with a message in that spot to look there. This is at least in part because these spoilers are impossible to avoid on eReaders in this location in particular, and I and at least some other readers prefer to go into books unspoiled. Now, even if one wants to try to argue back at me “but aren’t you doing exactly that in this very review”… 1) It isn’t at the front of the book at hand. No matter where you are reading this review, you actively came here away from the book. You’re not reading it immediately before reading the actual text of the story. 2) I’m also not being anywhere near as specific in my warnings as the author did, intentionally to avoid spoilers while also allowing readers of this review a chance to better determine if this book may or may not be something they are interested in spending their money and time (but I repeat myself) on.

For what it is, it works reasonably well. There’s lots of (progressive/ Gen Z/ TikTok style) banter, there’s habanero level “spice”, there’s a fair amount of “coarse language” yet also a metric shit ton of “therapy speak”, there’s some literal laugh out loud level comedy, and there is ostensibly a romance in here that will hit harder for some than for others – same as pretty well any romance book out there. In short, if you can withstand the biases and worldview of the story itself (or even actively agree with them), you’re probably going to like this romcom as much as you do a “generic romcom”. There’s nothing wrong here – but the only things that make it stick out from the pack at all are also the divisive elements that will attract some readers and repulse others, so those elements come out as a wash to my mind as an overall judgement.

Because my “subtractive method” of rating, wherein every book starts at five stars and I need specific, describable, and *preferably objective-ish* reasons to remove stars explicitly states that star removals need to be based on something resembling objective criteria, I have nothing to hang a star removal on here. Again, all flaws here are incredibly subjective and utterly dependent on the reader’s worldviews and even moods at the time of reading this book. Some will see no flaws at all, others will want to defenestrate the book almost from page 1. I hope I’ve done enough here to give you an idea which you may be, and if so I think I’ve done my job as a reviewer.

If you do choose to read this review, please do also leave a review of it in the same place you’re reading this one. I’d love to see what you thought of it, and all reviews help the author sell books – and help the author *not* sell books to those who might not enjoy the book, thus helping the author to avoid further negative reviews where possible. No matter what you think of the book and no matter how you write your review, *someone* will think you’re an idiot and buy the book to spite you and your review, and *someone* will think the author is an idiot and choose not to pick the book up to begin with. Yes, that even includes people reading this review and concluding that *I* am the idiot in question. 😉

So hey, if you’re all about the progressive/ Gen Z / Tiktok / therapy talk vibe… absolutely pick this book up, I really do think you’ll enjoy it. If you’re not completely opposed to those things, pick this book up and give it a try. I think it is at least plausible that you’ll like it. If you’re more solidly/ completely opposed to those things… maybe just skip this one and avoid the headache. There are other books out there more your style, and I can help you find some of those too. 🙂

Recommended.

This review of Well Actually by Mazey Eddings was originally written on August 3, 2025.

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#BookReview: Hot To Go by Kristen Bailey

Hilarious And Spicy Beach Read Romance. I don’t normally proclaim a book to be a “beach read” as by definition, *any* book you bring to read on a beach is a “beach read”, and I don’t know what books every reader is bringing to every beach for all of known humanity, thus I can’t possibly proclaim what a “beach read” is.

That noted, this is *absolutely* a book I could personally envision myself or many others enjoying at a warm beach (again, not all beaches are warm – anywhere sufficiently north or south on the globe yet along a large body of water will have a beach that will be cold) or perhaps poolside on a warm day or perhaps even on a cruise in some warm location. The reason being the two parts (of 5) of the book that travel specifically to warm Spanish locations – Mallorca and Seville, where the warmer-than-the-British-Isles location actually plays a role in how some of the events come to be.

Now, for those wanting a *quick* read… this aint that. This book clocks in at nearly 400 pages, and it takes nearly 100 of them to get to Part II – after Mallorca. For those less interested – for whatever reason – in the day to day banalities of being a K12 classroom teacher… know that this book deals fairly significantly with these in the back 2/3 of the book, as that is one of the drivers of the rest of the tale – the couple from Mallorca find themselves working down the hall from each other in a school, in the same department. (In the description so not a spoiler, btw. :D)

For those readers who can barely tolerate a warm glass of milk spice wise, know that this tale is somewhere between a Habanero and a Ghost chili – you’re *going* to see and feel it, and you might come to regret all that you saw and felt. Which is actually where some (much?) of the comedy comes in, particularly in Mallorca and to a lesser extent back in Seville. The London and Paris sections were seemingly relatively less “spicy” and it was within these sections that we get a lot more of the non-physical drama and romance.

Overall I thought this was particularly well done, even at its length. The romance was enough to be both playful and heartfelt. The spice was enough that you may want either your partner or a towel – no shaming here – nearby. The comedy was everywhere from chuckles to damn near literally “I can’t read right now because I’m literally rolling on the floor laughing so hard my gut may well explode and my ass may literally fall off”. And for those reading this because the title is apparently a Chappell Roan song? No idea there. The most recent music I regularly listen to is now seemingly at least 15 yrs old, with newer stuff from John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri, and a few other film composers thrown in along with the *occasional* random find on Spotify. Let’s face it, you’re coming to me for *book* recommendations, not music recommendations. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of Hot To Go by Kristen Bailey was originally written on July 28, 2025.

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#BookReview: Perilous Tides by Elizabeth Goddard

Solid… Mystery/ Christian Fiction? Christian Fiction/ Mystery? This is one of those action/ mysteries where both the mystery and the action pick up almost from the first words… and then you’ll hear the characters involved in actively hiding (or hunting, as the case may be at times) also actively praying. It also picks up a bit after the events of Book 1 and actively continues some of the threads left dangling there, so if you’ve already read Book 1 (and you really should), you largely already know what to expect from Goddard’s style here.

On the mystery/ action side, this book was 100% spot on. Great use of the Pacific Northwest setting in all of its environments, including both on the water and in the forests. Solid pacing throughout, it is really going to make you feel like you’re reading a more explicitly Christian Matthew Reilly or early Jeremy Robinson book at times – the pacing can get *that* frenetic. But it isn’t sustained throughout the book, and thus isn’t *quite* as “balls to the wall” as those authors tend to do. Still, their fans would likely find quite a lot to like here, and particularly with Robinson’s early works being more overtly Christian themselves… yeah, a really good fit action wise there. 🙂

The Christian side is admittedly where some will absolutely *LOVE* that these facets are included, and others will at best roll their eyes or even actively defenestrate the book over. Hence emphasizing this side of the book in the review – if you truly detest all things Christian, know up front this is NOT the book for you, and that is *perfectly fine*. There are many other awesome books for you without this focus, please just let those who do want this to have it, and follow me wherever you’re reading this review and I guarantee you I’ll show you something more to your liking at some point. 🙂

Ultimately truly a strong sequel, and I’m very much looking forward to the next book in the series -= apparently currently scheduled for February 2026!

Very much recommended.

This review of Perilous Tides by Elizabeth Goddard was originally written on July 28, 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 / PageBound.co / 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: Falling For You Again by Kerry Lonsdale

Lonsdale At Her Absolute Best. Gah. These past couple of weeks. So very much going on. My wife had a widowmaker type heart attack, survived while having 2 stents placed in arteries 90 and 100% blocked, and is having a stent placed in her 80% blocked widowmaker artery later this week. Lonsdale herself suffering an unimaginable personal tragedy that is unfortunately all too common – even one of my own aunts has suffered it, and then we get to the dozens of people – including kids – dead in the Texas flash floods less than a week after Lonsdale’s tragedy. Bill Goldberg is facing his retirement match in Atlanta this weekend, and his own father died a week before that match. All the neverending political bullshit. Even I’m facing direct challenges in my own life that in some cases even my wife isn’t as fully aware of just how much they’re weighing on me as maybe she should be, things that few beyond family would even care about – if even them – and which I doubt I’ll ever publicly discuss.

And then we get to this book.

Escapism at its absolute finest, but with so many layers so expertly and intricately crafted that it pulls at the heart just enough for catharsis without delving into pain. That exquisitely powerful balance that the singular best description I’ve ever found of it (so far?) was the moment in XMen: First Class where Charles is teaching Erik to harness his full power and move the (60s era giant) satellite dish some distance away. Lonsdale, in this second chance romance book with various things that will irk various readers, manages to capture that feeling so well without ever even acknowledging it.

This is a romance for the real person. The flawed person. The one with flawed parents. Even the one without parents any longer. The one who just wants to do their job, do it well, and go home to be with their cat and their friends. (Sorry, dog lovers. This is a cat book. Read it anyway.)

If you need your romance books characters to be some idealized Superman or Wonder Woman, well, this book isn’t really for you – but you should still read it anyway, because it will pull at even your hardened heart strings.

If you need ghost pepper level spice in your romance books, again, this book isn’t really for you – but read it anyway and discover how there is so much more to love than just the physical.

If you need your books to have some kind of political messaging, again, not the book for you. Read it anyway and discover the power of *real* relationships, where love and community hold sway over the raw desire for domination and subjugation.

Read this book because as excellent as Lonsdale’s books have been over the years, whether it be the early “Everything” trilogy of romances or the more recent women’s fiction books of the “No More” trilogy and Find Me In California, this really is Lonsdale at her absolute best yet.

And I am 100% honest in saying that of the 90 books I’ve read this year upon finishing this one, this is absolutely in contention for best of the year, certainly for best of the year so far.

Very much recommended.

This review of Falling For You Again by Kerry Lonsdale was originally written on July 8, 2025.

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#BlogTour: Grave Birds by Dana Elmendorf

For this blog tour, we’re looking at another strong Southern Gothic tale that serves as an emerging author’s sophomore effort for adult readers. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Grave Birds by Dana Elmendorf.

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

Strong Southern Gothic Tale. Perfect for those who love to start “spooky season” on July 5th (with no other major (decorative, at least) holidays in the US before Halloween), yet also has a strong small town mystery and even a touch of romance, this is one book that checks a lot of boxes – yet manages to do them all quite well.

Even as a native of the South, specifically the borderlands between southern Appalachia and exurban Atlanta, I had never heard of the concept of a “grave bird”, yet Elemndorf both (quickly) explains it well… and then uses it particularly well throughout the novel whose title notes that it is all about these creatures. 😉

But seriously, the titular grave birds give this tale a magical realism/ fantasy tone that is exactly what one would expect in a Southern Gothic tale, but really the core of this book is one woman’s dreams and the depths she will go through to achieve them – even if it means unravelling a decades old town mystery so well hidden that virtually no one even actually knows there is a mystery to solve!

Truly a strong and stirring sophomore effort (for adult audiences, at least), this really is a strong tale told particularly well, and one that is both familiar enough to be understood and even relatable, yet innovative enough so that the reader will still be caught quite breathless at times.

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: Grave Birds by Dana Elmendorf”

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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: All Roads Lead To Rome by Yamile Saied Mendez

Solid Dramatic Romance Marred By Mismatched Cover/ Description. I’d had an ARC of this book for a few months before publication, despite only finishing it on publication day due to both life and a rather insane pace of reading – it was my 81st completed book of the year and 11th of the month. At least through this point, even the next day, the cover of the book and the description of the book both hint at a lot more visual and visceral travel based romance than what is delivered here, to the level that I felt the star deduction was warranted for this mismatch – a mismatch that can be corrected at any time, perhaps as soon as even within the very time I’m writing this review. Thus, if the cover and description have been updated by the time you read this review and reflect more of what I’m about to tell you, heh, my reason for deducting a star is no longer there and I would consider it a five star read instead.

Now, as to what this book actually is… prepare for some very dusty rooms. While there is a lot more telling than showing here, due to the nature of how Mendez chooses to tell the story, and perhaps the events of the book – both good and bad – could have landed even harder with a more first person / showing narrative, the story still works quite well as is and I have no actual problem with it. Yes, some people won’t prefer it, but others wouldn’t prefer it if it *were* done in the first person/ showing kind of manner, so meh, your mileage will absolutely vary there.

Still, the story as presented is powerful, if one of those romance tales that spans several years. This is far from an insta-romance, yet I’m also not sure that I would classify it as slow burn. Instead, this is a tale of life molding two people – mostly one of them – to the point where they *finally* realize they are what each other always wanted… even if they had to go through so much pain and hardship (along with fun and adventure) to get there. Thus, it actually works as a more serious balance to so much of the more “bubblegum pop” types of romances that are out there and thus a solid tale to stay within the romance space yet get a different taste and texture from a story than may be your typical. (Or perhaps this is your typical and you *need* some bubblegum pop. While that isn’t this review, find my other reviews wherever you see this one and you can likely find some recs for some of those too. :D)

This is one of those books where you need to be ready to read about life continually knocking our main character down… and sometimes she stays down perhaps longer than is healthy or wise. And that isn’t the kind of book everyone can read at every stage of their lives, so you need to be prepared for that. It gets *deep* into the stages of grief and loss of different elements of our main character’s life, and if that is too much for you… go grab some of that bubblegum. Heal up. Come to this one when you can handle this kind of tale. Because it *is* a good tale that deserves to be known,

Overall truly a strong tale that I perhaps have a quibble or two with the manner in which it is told and a more serious problem with how it is currently marketed at release time, neither of which actually seriously detracts from the power of the story itself.

Very much recommended.

This review of All Roads Lead To Rome by Yamile Saied Mendez was originally written on June 25, 2025.