~Emmy~ 's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 16 May 2025 03:15:19 -0700 60 ~Emmy~ 's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Bridesmaid Undercover (Bridesmaid for Hire, #2)]]> 210204150
There's only one problem: Everly may have a tiny crush on the dashing businessman. But despite the way Hardy makes her stomach flutter, she's determined to prove herself, both as a bridesmaid and as a matchmaker. That is, until she finds her crush turning into real feelings. Not to mention, Hardy can't help but notice how well he clicks with Everly, and before he knows it, he's not looking for his ex's attention anymore.

But even after their simmering attraction finally rises to the surface, they will have to contend with meddling friends, poor timing, and professional boundaries—and the risk that no one might get a second chance after all.]]>
496 Meghan Quinn 1728294398 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.96 2024 Bridesmaid Undercover (Bridesmaid for Hire, #2)
author: Meghan Quinn
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Wedding Forecast 211780885
She needs a distraction, and Patrick, the wedding photographer, just might be the solution. Everyone has decided he is perfect for her. He is perfect for her. But the arrival of Mac, a not-quite-famous actor who has flown in from New York, complicates everything.

Much-loved YA author Nina Kenwood hits the spot with her first novel for adults. Laugh-out-loud funny with chemistry that jumps off the page, The Wedding Forecast will be the feel-good romcom of the summer.]]>
336 Nina Kenwood 1922790842 ~Emmy~ 0 4.12 2024 The Wedding Forecast
author: Nina Kenwood
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: australian, 2024-reads, borrowed, borrowed-library, chick-lit, community, family, fiction, funny, funny-comedy, hot-romance, humbling, kindle, life, mental-health, psychological, realist, romance, young-adult-read, extras, stalled_dnf
review:

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Nothing to See Here 49809556 The New York Times bestselling novel

Lillian and Madison were unlikely roommates and yet inseparable friends at their elite boarding school. Then Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly in the wake of a scandal and they’ve barely spoken since. Until now, when Lillian gets a letter from Madison pleading for her help.

Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their carer. However, there’s a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth.

Thinking of her dead-end life at home, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—while also staying out of the way of Madison’s buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her. Couldn’t this be the start of the amazing life she’d always hoped for?

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256 Kevin Wilson 1925923037 ~Emmy~ 0 extras, stalled_dnf 3.96 2019 Nothing to See Here
author: Kevin Wilson
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: extras, stalled_dnf
review:

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Razing Reality 70548001 308 Gary Jacobson 1475064268 ~Emmy~ 0 0.0 2012 Razing Reality
author: Gary Jacobson
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: australian, 2023-reads, 2024-reads, adventure, contemporary, diverse, fantasy, fiction, humbling, life, mystery, mystery-thriller, super-natural, extras, stalled_dnf
review:

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New Family Required 59523135
The only blip on the horizon is the upcoming family reunion for her parents 40th wedding anniversary at Chadwell House � the family pile. Sasha just does not fit with her rich family. Her French mother, Delphine thinks everything Sasha does is a faux pas.. And siblings, Adele and Beau, are clearly the favourites, leaving Sasha surplus to requirements

So when Sasha’s husband Ben takes this exact moment to reveal that they are about to go bankrupt, Sasha wants to be anywhere but stuck in a lavish marquee!

Swallowing her pride, and a whole bottle of fizz, Sasha determines to ask her family for help � and maybe even a loan � only to discover that her parents and siblings are all keeping secrets of their own!

Family secrets, warring siblings and a disastrous reunion� what could possibly go right?!

Another brilliant laugh out loud emotional read, perfect for fans of Fiona Gibson, Tracy Bloom and Sophie Ranald!]]>
282 Carmen Reid 1801628025 ~Emmy~ 0 4.15 New Family Required
author: Carmen Reid
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: 2023-reads, american-humour, chick-lit, adventure, contemporary, diverse, funny-comedy, kindle, life, extras, stalled_dnf
review:

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Jasper Jones 8407173
Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress. Jasper takes him to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery.

With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu.

And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse.

In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.]]>
397 Craig Silvey 1742372627 ~Emmy~ 0 4.08 2009 Jasper Jones
author: Craig Silvey
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: adventure, australian, historical, historical-fiction, humbling, life, realist, 2024-reads, 40-before-40-best-list, abuse, alternate-history, biographical, borrowed-library, community, contemporary, crime, fiction, kindle, literature, mental-health, parenthood, psychological, extras, stalled_dnf
review:

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The Club 61123834 From the author of People Like Her comes a smart and sinister murder mystery set in the secretive world of exclusive celebrity clubs.

Everyone's Dying to Join . . .

The Home Group is a glamorous collection of celebrity members' clubs dotted across the globe, where the rich and famous can party hard and then crash out in its five-star suites, far from the prying eyes of fans and the media.

The most spectacular of all is Island Home--a closely-guarded, ultraluxurious resort, just off the English coast--and its three-day launch party is easily the most coveted A-list invite of the decade.

But behind the scenes, tensions are at breaking point: the ambitious and expensive project has pushed the Home Group's CEO and his long-suffering team to their absolute limits. All of them have something to hide--and that's before the beautiful people with their own ugly secrets even set foot on the island.

As tempers fray and behavior worsens, as things get more sinister by the hour and the body count piles up, some of Island Home's members will begin to wish they'd never made the guest list.

Because at this club, if your name's on the list, you're not getting out.]]>
Ellery Lloyd 1529039517 ~Emmy~ 0 3.41 2022 The Club
author: Ellery Lloyd
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: fiction, mystery, life, crime, funny-comedy, currently-reading, 2025-reads, 40-before-40-best-list, adventure, classic, contemporary, cozy-mystery, mental-health, owned, realist
review:

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<![CDATA[Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism]]> 223436601 An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.

From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite.

Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to “lean in.�

Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.]]>
382 Sarah Wynn-Williams 1250391237 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.27 2025 Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
author: Sarah Wynn-Williams
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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Hollywood Hack Job 36111907 Three disparate and deranged tales featuring deluded narcissists, desperate wannabes, cunning fraudsters, lecherous vampires and sociopathic social climbers, in the city where dreams are sold and nightmares are conjured.

FALSE ICONS AND SACRED COWS: Fr. Arthur Gerdtz is on a mission from God. His church is fighting for relevance in the modern world. Attendances are dwindling, atheism is rising, and Instagram celebrities are bigger than Jesus. This veteran priest is in danger of losing his religion - until he brings some Old Testament values into the twenty-first century.

THE HONEY TRAP: Two lost souls are drawn to each other one night via Tinder. He is a successful businessman, searching for a reprieve from a life of solitude. She is a sweet-natured but damaged schoolgirl who just wants to be understood. Both long to connect with another human being. They know that meeting up is a bad idea, and they know their actions could have far-reaching consequences. What they don’t know is that the other hides a secret.

THE SHARPEST KNIVES IN THE DRAWER: Cameron Knight and Eric Haas discover the realities of being a Hollywood screenwriter haven’t quite met their expectations. Their dreams of living the high life have fallen by the wayside and they find themselves hopelessly out of their depth, struggling to finish the lowbrow horror gore-fest they have been hired to write. Do they have what it takes to make it in Hollywood? How far they are willing to go to succeed in such a cut-throat industry? And when you have no limits, how do you know when you’ve gone too far?

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243 Nathan Allen 3743829363 ~Emmy~ 0 3.76 Hollywood Hack Job
author: Nathan Allen
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/11
shelves: 2024-reads, comedy, crime, fiction, google-books, kindle, mystery, short-stories, stalled_dnf, extras
review:

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Love Stories 58464268
A blind man yearns to see the face of his wife of thirty years. A divorced mother has a secret love affair with a travelling priest. A widower miraculously finds a three-minute video recorded by his wife before she died. A tree lopper's heart falls in a forest. A working mum contemplates taking the photographs of her late husband down from the fridge. A girl writes her last letter to the man she loves, then sets it on fire. An ageing gigolo regrets the one that got away. A palliative care nurse helps a dying woman converse with the angel at the end of her bed. A renowned 100-year-old scientist ponders the one great earthly puzzle he was never able to solve: 'What is love?'

Endless stories. Human stories. Love stories.

Inspired by a personal moment of profound love and generosity, bestselling author � and one of Australia's finest journalists � Trent Dalton spent two months in 2021 pounding city pavements, speaking to Australians from all walks of life and asking them one simple and direct question: 'Can you please tell me a love story?' For two straight weeks he sat at a desk with a sky-blue 1960s Olivetti typewriter, on the bustling corner of Adelaide and Albert streets, Brisbane, with a sign saying, 'Sentimental writer collecting love stories. Do you have one to share?'

The result is Love Stories � a warm, wise, poignant, funny and moving book about love in all its guises, including stories, observations and reflections on lovers in parks; people in cemeteries, hospital wards, pubs and bingo halls; and newlyweds walking out of registry offices. There will be stories of people falling into love, falling out of love, and never letting go of the loved ones in their hearts. And woven through it all will be remembrances of Trent's own special moments, and of the people whose love stories have made him the man and writer he is today.

A heartfelt, deep, funny, wise and tingly tribute to the greatest thing we will never understand and the only thing we will ever really need: love.]]>
352 Trent Dalton 146076093X ~Emmy~ 5 4.12 2021 Love Stories
author: Trent Dalton
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/11
date added: 2025/05/11
shelves: 2025-reads, 40-before-40-best-list, australian, biographical, comedy, contemporary, diverse, family, favourites, hardcover, hot-romance, life, literature, mental-health, non-fiction, owned, parenthood, realist, romance, short-stories, factful, humbling, psychological, community, story-time
review:

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Not Quite by the Book 213724356 A bookstore owner discovers that life as a recluse isn’t for everyone in this sharp yet sweet novel about how sometimes you need to abandon the quest for love to find your true passion.

Emma Rini is in a rut so deep she could shelve books there. While her sister awaits her first baby, and her parents kick off retirement with vow renewals and travel, Emma stays put among the stacks of the family bookshop.

In fact, she can’t remember the last time she took a vacation. Or had a romance that hovered above disappointing. When her parents assume she’ll take over the shop for them without a break, she realizes she needs to get away—back to the nineteenth century. Channeling her favorite poet recluse, Emily Dickinson, Emma rents a crumbling manor house outside Amherst where she can learn how to be quietly, blissfully alone.

But becoming a world-weary spinster isn’t easy. She can’t start a fire or reason with the bunnies that are destroying the garden. She finds herself sparring constantly with the grumpy-hot architect who is renovating the manor. And then there’s the secret admirer who keeps sending her complicated floral messages�

No matter what she does, the outside world keeps knocking, and Emma starts to dream about the future. Will she forgo love for the family legacy? And will she shrink away or become the sort of bold person fortune favors?]]>
317 Julie Hatcher 1662523459 ~Emmy~ 0 currently-reading 3.85 2025 Not Quite by the Book
author: Julie Hatcher
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[Blood And Circuses (Phryne Fisher, #6)]]> 4445060 218 Kerry Greenwood 1590585208 ~Emmy~ 4 Was a tad Confusing at times. Very Gender Fluid for its time of publication! Great Australian Referances.
OpShop finds so I’m sure i’ll come across some more! ]]>
3.86 1994 Blood And Circuses (Phryne Fisher, #6)
author: Kerry Greenwood
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves: 1950-s, 2025-reads, adventure, alternate-history, australian, chick-lit, contemporary, crime, danger-magic, fantasy, fiction, historical, historical-fiction, life, literature, mystery, old-hollywood, owned, suspense
review:
Nice Quick Read
Was a tad Confusing at times. Very Gender Fluid for its time of publication! Great Australian Referances.
OpShop finds so I’m sure i’ll come across some more!
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<![CDATA[The Secret Service of Tea and Treason (Dangerous Damsels, #3)]]> 61100920 Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen.

Known as Agent A, Alice is the top operative within the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, a secret government intelligence group that is fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself. From managing deceptive witches to bored aristocratic ladies, nothing is beyond Alice’s capabilities. She has a steely composure and a plan always up her sleeve (alongside a dagger and an embroidered handkerchief). So when rumors of an assassination plot begin to circulate, she’s immediately assigned to the case.

But she’s not working alone. Daniel Bixby, otherwise known as Agent B and Alice’s greatest rival, is given the most challenging undercover assignment of his life� pretending to be Alice’s husband. Together they will assume the identity of a married couple, infiltrate a pirate house party, and foil their unpatriotic plans.

Determined to remain consummate professionals, Alice and Daniel must ignore the growing attraction between them, especially since acting on it might prove more dangerous than their target.]]>
368 India Holton 0593547276 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.95 2023 The Secret Service of Tea and Treason (Dangerous Damsels, #3)
author: India Holton
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The League of Gentlewomen Witches (Dangerous Damsels, #2)]]> 58395042 Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the teahouse...

Miss Charlotte Pettifer belongs to a secret league of women skilled in the subtle arts. That is to say—although it must never be said�witchcraft. The League of Gentlewomen Witches strives to improve the world in small ways. Using magic, they tidy, correct, and manipulate according to their notions of what is proper, entirely unlike those reprobates in the Wisteria Society.

When the long lost amulet of Black Beryl is discovered, it is up to Charlotte, as the future leader of the League, to make sure the powerful talisman does not fall into the wrong hands. Therefore, it is most unfortunate when she crosses paths with Alex O'Riley, a pirate who is no Mr. Darcy. With all the world scrambling after the amulet, Alex and Charlotte join forces to steal it together. If only they could keep their pickpocketing hands to themselves! If Alex's not careful, he might just steal something else—such as Charlotte's heart.

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352 India Holton 0593200187 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.89 2022 The League of Gentlewomen Witches (Dangerous Damsels, #2)
author: India Holton
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Illumination of Thieves (Dangerous Damsels, #1.1)]]> 229059637 A bonus epilogue to The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels!

When Cecilia and Pleasance go shopping for a new lamp, shenanigans ensue. Featuring explosions of the literal & sensual kind.]]>
19 India Holton ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.93 The Illumination of Thieves (Dangerous Damsels, #1.1)
author: India Holton
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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Confess 25041996 308 Colleen Hoover 1471148599 ~Emmy~ 4
Love the Confession slips in the art studio with Auburn and Owen

This draws some close similarities to Reminders of Him with its young mothers and lovers lost.
17 CoHo Reads completed.

I really did enjoy the ARC Twist and the paintings throughout the book!! Could easily re -read for a third time!!]]>
3.98 2015 Confess
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/02
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2023-reads, 2024-reads, contemporary, diverse, dark, fiction, life, psychological, trauma, 2025-reads, chick-lit, coho, community, family, neglect, parenthood, romance, abuse, borrowed, hot-romance, realist, suspense
review:
Great Read. Another Beautiful Crazy CoHo Tale! Read Number 11 done.

Love the Confession slips in the art studio with Auburn and Owen

This draws some close similarities to Reminders of Him with its young mothers and lovers lost.
17 CoHo Reads completed.

I really did enjoy the ARC Twist and the paintings throughout the book!! Could easily re -read for a third time!!
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No Exit 123933 The play is a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters are punished by being locked into a room together for all eternity. It is the source of Sartre's especially famous and often misinterpreted quotation "L'enfer, c'est les autres" or "Hell is other people", a reference to Sartre's ideas about the Look and the perpetual ontological struggle of being caused to see oneself as an object in the world of another consciousness.]]> 60 Jean-Paul Sartre 0573613052 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.13 1944 No Exit
author: Jean-Paul Sartre
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1944
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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All About Love: New Visions 17607 All About Love offers radical new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives. In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassion to our personal and professional lives, and asserts the place of love to end struggles between individuals, in communities, and among societies. Moving from the cultural to the intimate, hooks notes the ties between love and loss and challenges the prevailing notion that romantic love is the most important love of all.

Visionary and original, hooks shows how love heals the wounds we bear as individuals and as a nation, for it is the cornerstone of compassion and forgiveness and holds the power to overcome shame.

For readers who have found ongoing delight and wisdom in bell hooks's life and work, and for those who are just now discovering her, All About Love is essential reading and a brilliant book that will change how we think about love, our culture-and one another.]]>
240 bell hooks 0688168442 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.06 1999 All About Love: New Visions
author: bell hooks
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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Flirting with Disaster 211399750 She needs a divorce from her husband—but a hurricane threatens to dredge up their stormy, passionate past in this sizzling reimagining of Sweet Home Alabama from the bestselling author of Say You'll Be Mine.

It's been years since Meena has seen her husband, Nikhil . . . years since they first laid eyes on each other back home in Texas, years since they eloped in Las Vegas and she felt true happiness. A high-powered lawyer on Capitol Hill, ready to move on (or at least, she thinks so) with another successful lawyer, Shake, Meena has returned home. This time, finally, to obtain a divorce.

But there's one thing Meena couldn't have accounted for: a hurricane forming in the Gulf, veering right toward them, giving them no choice but to hunker down in the home they had built together. Suddenly, she finds herself trapped amid gale-force winds and pelting rain with the man she once loved.

As they spend more time together, Meena begins to remember everything that drew her to Nikhil: His small-town charm, his thoughtful nature. . . his absurdly good looks. But things make sense with Shake. He’s steady and ambitious and wants exactly what she wants. She’ll stick to her plan, come hell or high water. But will her windswept heart make the right choice, when the storm settles and the eye passes over?

With sharp observations about second chances at love, ambition and Indian American identity, and with characters who share an undeniable chemistry, Flirting with Disaster is a modern romance with the sensibility of a classic.]]>
320 Naina Kumar 0593723902 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.55 2025 Flirting with Disaster
author: Naina Kumar
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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How to End a Love Story 212432167 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Two writers with a complicated history end up working on the same TV show... Can they write themselves a new ending? A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang.

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers� room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except�

Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet� the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.]]>
384 Yulin Kuang 0063310686 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.51 2024 How to End a Love Story
author: Yulin Kuang
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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Society of Lies 202102003 How far would you go to belong?

Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion - it's been a decade since she graduated, and this visit is special because she will also be attending the graduation of her little sister, Naomi.

But what should have been a dream weekend becomes Maya's worst nightmare when she receives the news that Naomi is dead. The police are calling it an accident, but Maya suspects that there is more to the story than they are letting on.

As Maya pieces together what happened in the months leading up to her sister's death, she begins to realise how much Naomi hid from her. Despite Maya's warnings, Naomi had joined Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus - the same one Maya belonged to. And if she had to guess, Naomi was likely tapped for the secret society within it.

Maya knows that her sister isn't the first person in the society to turn up dead. Now every clue is leading Maya back to the past . . . and to the secret she's been keeping all these years.]]>
384 Lauren Ling Brown 059372335X ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.48 2024 Society of Lies
author: Lauren Ling Brown
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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In a Not So Perfect World 181110032
Sloane Cooper is up for her dream job as a designer for a top video game company. During the interview, though, she somehow promises the all-male panel that she’ll remain single and fully dedicated to the work. It’s actually fine—after her last boyfriend cheated on her, she vowed to focus on her career anyway.

Enter Charlie, aka Hot Neighbor Guy, a near-stranger who shocks her with the offer of an all-inclusive trip to a Turks and Caicos resort. The catch? Charlie originally planned the trip with his ex, and asks Sloane to pose as his new girlfriend to make his old flame come running back. Against her better judgment, Sloane says yes; she can use the time away to develop a game design that will dazzle the Catapult team and get her a job offer.

Despite sparks flying in paradise, the trip can’t lead to more. As their connection deepens, Sloane is reminded that she can’t fall for Charlie and get knocked off her professional path. Besides, he’s trying to win back his true love.

Can Sloane figure out a way to move past heartbreak, land the job of her dreams, and avoid catching feelings? The zombie apocalypse would be easier to solve—at least she’s prepared for that.]]>
339 Neely Tubati Alexander 0063292947 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.56 2024 In a Not So Perfect World
author: Neely Tubati Alexander
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour]]> 199793676 A rollicking, unforgettable romance about two strangers finding love despite their best efforts as they embark on a sweeping matchmaking tour through Việt Nam, perfect for readers of Carley Fortune and Abby Jimenez.

What’s a few weeks to a lifetime of promise?

Evie Lang’s life is in shambles. On the heels of losing her beloved aunt, she's unceremoniously fired from her poetry professorship by her secret boyfriend. Lacking income and inspiration, she's stuck in Ohio with no idea how to move forward—until hope arrives in a surprising letter.

Auntie Hảo left Evie the deed to her San Francisco row house, a place full of Evie’s happiest memories. The catch? To inherit, she must go on a pre-arranged matchmaking tour in Việt Nam. The last thing Evie wants is to spend time with a group of strangers looking for love. But she can't resist the chance to finally visit her family’s native home.

A world away, Adam Quyá»n has a chip on his shoulder. He’s working around the clock as CMO for his sister’s elite matchmaking business, a job complicated by her insistence that he knows nothing about love. He’s desperate to prove himself, so when she challenges him to join the inaugural tour, he reluctantly agrees.

Adam thinks Evie is chaotic and unpredictable. Evie thinks Adam is grumpy and uptight. But from the bustling streets of Há»� ChĂ­ Minh City to the soaring waterfalls in ÄĂ  Lạt, they keep getting thrown together, their animosity charged with attraction…and they discover that true love may be out there, if they are willing to take a leap.

Two stubborn hearts, one whirlwind adventure, Adam & Evie’s Matchmaking Tour is a story of how loving (and living) bravely can lead you to the most unexpected places—and the most imperfectly perfect loves.]]>
304 Nora Nguyen 0063381508 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.38 2024 Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour
author: Nora Nguyen
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[You'll Never Believe Me: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Things I Should Only Tell My Therapist]]> 211004894
"Kari Ferrell’s memoir is a zippy, intimate account of low-level trickery before the era of scams fully erupted." —The Atlantic

"Raw and riveting. With a combination of bruising vulnerability and self-deprecating humor, Ferrell’s audacious coming-of-age tale pairs the thrill of true crime with the redemptive arc of a good memoir. It’s a deliciously edgy testament to reinvention." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The compelling, edgy, compassionate, laugh-out-loud memoir from Kari Ferrell, formerly known as the "Hipster Grifter"

Before Anna Delvey, before the Tinder Swindler, there was Kari Ferrell. Adopted at a young age by a Mormon family in Utah, Kari struggled with questions of self-worth and identity as one of the few Asian Americans in her insulated community, leading her to run with the “bad crowd� in an effort to fit in.

Soon, stealing from superstores turned into picking up men (and picking their pockets), and before she knew it, Kari graduated from petty theft to Utah’s most wanted list. Though Kari was able to escape the Southwest, she couldn’t outrun her new moniker: the Hipster Grifter.

New York City’s indie sleaze scene had found its newest celebrity—just as Kari found herself in a heap of trouble. Jail time, riots, bad checks, and an explosion of internet infamy and fetishization put her name in the spotlight. Beyond the gossip and Gawker posts, there’s a side to Kari the media never saw—until now.]]>
288 Kari Ferrell 1250288223 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.32 2025 You'll Never Believe Me: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Things I Should Only Tell My Therapist
author: Kari Ferrell
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2)]]> 60393672 BEFORE IT ENDS WITH US, IT STARTED WITH ATLAS.

Lily and Ryle have just settled into a civil co-parenting rhythm with their daughter, Emerson, when Lily suddenly runs into Atlas nearly two years after they last spoke. Elated that the timing finally seems to be right to give what they have together a real chance, Atlas asks Lily on a date.

But Lily's excitement is almost immediately replaced by dread and anxiety when Lily remembers that Ryle, though no longer her husband, is still very much part of her life. And though Ryle would dislike Lily dating anyone but him, Atlas Corrigan is the one man he absolutely will not stand having in his ex-wife and daughter's lives.

Told from the perspectives of Lily and Atlas, It Starts with Us gives readers a deeper look into Atlas's past as he and Lily reconnect and rekindle the love they shared as teenagers while navigating a volatile ex-husband who believes Atlas to be one of the reasons his marriage with Lily ended.

It Starts with Us picks up right where the epilogue for the "glorious and touching" (USA Today) It Ends with Us left off, giving readers the exhilarating sequel to Colleen's bestselling phenomenon they have been begging for!]]>
324 Colleen Hoover 1668001225 ~Emmy~ 5 Not sure about those letters. Or the final vows.
Was a beautiful ending but I think I prefer a little bit more grit than cheese.
I actually was quite intrigued with Ryle Kincaid. I can't wait for the movie to come out so we can meet Alyssa and all their penthouse money!
And see Rylee and Emerson as cute li besties.

Great Read. Thats my romcom genre done for the month of April - now for a little bit of something different.]]>
3.80 2022 It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2023-reads, owned, coho, abuse, chick-lit, dark
review:
Cheesey. Heartfelt. Beautiful.
Not sure about those letters. Or the final vows.
Was a beautiful ending but I think I prefer a little bit more grit than cheese.
I actually was quite intrigued with Ryle Kincaid. I can't wait for the movie to come out so we can meet Alyssa and all their penthouse money!
And see Rylee and Emerson as cute li besties.

Great Read. Thats my romcom genre done for the month of April - now for a little bit of something different.
]]>
Too Late 127475499
Sloan will go through hell and back for those she loves. And she does so, every single day. Caught up with the alluring Asa Jackson, a notorious drug trafficker, Sloan has finally found a lifeline to cling to, even if it’s meant compromising her morals. She was in dire straits trying to pay for her brother’s care until she met Asa. But as Sloan became emotionally and economically reliant on him, he in turn developed a disturbing obsession with her—one that becomes increasingly dangerous every day.

When undercover DEA agent Carter enters the picture, Sloan’s surprised to feel an immediate attraction between them, despite knowing that if Asa finds out, he will kill him. And Asa has always been a step ahead of everyone in his life, including Sloan. No one has ever gotten in his way.

No one except Carter.

Together, Sloan and Carter must find a way out before it’s too late…]]>
400 Colleen Hoover 1538756595 ~Emmy~ 5 4.12 2016 Too Late
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/23
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2023-reads, chick-lit, crime, dark, life, mystery-thriller, psychological, thriller, trauma, coho
review:
Wowzers. CoHo. Colleen Hoover. Dam Lady. Straight to the core. I've actually suggested some slow burn romance ideas to hubby at home
]]>
November 9 60591087 463 Colleen Hoover 1432897292 ~Emmy~ 4 It kept me hooked but it's not my fave Coho.

Its Colleen Hoover read #13 for me - I still find Verity, Layla, Starts and Ends - are my faves.]]>
4.18 2015 November 9
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/05
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2024-reads, borrowed, borrowed-library, chick-lit, contemporary, diverse, fiction, life, literature, realist, romance, owned, coho
review:
That was Alot!
It kept me hooked but it's not my fave Coho.

Its Colleen Hoover read #13 for me - I still find Verity, Layla, Starts and Ends - are my faves.
]]>
Reminders of Him 58346977
The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would riskĚýlosing the trust of everyone important to them.

The two form a connection despite theĚýpressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.

A troubled young mother yearns for a shot at redemption in this heartbreaking yet hopeful story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.]]>
320 Colleen Hoover ~Emmy~ 4 4.36 2022 Reminders of Him
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: cozy-mystery, psychological, life, fiction, 2024-reads, abuse, borrowed-library, chick-lit, community, contemporary, family, hot-romance, mental-health, mystery-thriller, neglect, parenthood, realist, romance, suspense, owned, coho
review:
This was a really beautiful read. Very pro feminism. Just a few little tidbits that were a bit "SOFT" on the ColHo Psycho genre - so if your into a cruisey soft coho read then this is your pick
]]>
Layla 52737423
Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow—another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental for all of them.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love.]]>
290 Colleen Hoover 1542000173 ~Emmy~ 5 Its nice to be a consistent Hoover reader and yet she writes across so many engaging genres - Her books are like a box of chocolates! You never know what you're gonna get!]]> 3.67 2020 Layla
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/31
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: chick-lit, diverse, fiction, humbling, life, 2023-reads, coho, contemporary, trauma
review:
I loved Hoovers foray into the paranormal.
Its nice to be a consistent Hoover reader and yet she writes across so many engaging genres - Her books are like a box of chocolates! You never know what you're gonna get!
]]>
Heart Bones 63028330 368 Colleen Hoover 139852512X ~Emmy~ 5 She never ever dissapoints. And so factful and knowledgeable in her topics and genres too!]]> 4.07 2020 Heart Bones
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/26
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: chick-lit, diverse, fiction, life, romance, 2023-reads, owned, coho, community, contemporary
review:
Gorgeous Read! Love a Coll Hoover!
She never ever dissapoints. And so factful and knowledgeable in her topics and genres too!
]]>
Verity 60217269
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.]]>
321 Colleen Hoover 1408726602 ~Emmy~ 5 Intense.]]> 4.19 2018 Verity
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/09
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: thriller, romance, mystery-thriller, dark, chick-lit, fiction, life, mystery, neglect, trauma, 2023-reads, favourites, coho
review:
Woah! That was intense! What an electrifying read!
Intense.
]]>
Without Merit 33280872 Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.

The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit.

Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her—until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.

Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.]]>
386 Colleen Hoover ~Emmy~ 5 Chaotic family with lots of relatable strong characters.
The Themes were heavy but not at all as rough and gnarly as some CoHo novels can be.

I feel I can definitely re-read this one for the fun in the characters]]>
3.65 2017 Without Merit
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/16
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: contemporary, family, fiction, life, parenthood, psychological, trauma, 2024-reads, abuse, borrowed-library, community, crime, dark, mental-health, suspense, thriller, coho
review:
Published in 2017 - I actually really enjoyed the themes behind this one.
Chaotic family with lots of relatable strong characters.
The Themes were heavy but not at all as rough and gnarly as some CoHo novels can be.

I feel I can definitely re-read this one for the fun in the characters
]]>
<![CDATA[It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)]]> 27362503
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up � she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating� rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan � her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]>
386 Colleen Hoover 1668021048 ~Emmy~ 5 I feel I've read too many domestic abuse novels lately. Think I'll go for something more lighthearted before I venture into Atlas and it starts with Us.

It is really difficult to see into the minds of those at the hands of abuse. I almost feel like it's impossible to really understand their perspective when you're own experience may or may not have comnections to the experiences.

The characters were built beautifully and I will be excited to see the film.

About to read It Starts with Us and have a few more Colleen Hoovers to do aswell. I enjoy her laidback writing style.]]>
4.11 2016 It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/10
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: chick-lit, contemporary, dark, coho, abuse, trauma
review:
Lovely.
I feel I've read too many domestic abuse novels lately. Think I'll go for something more lighthearted before I venture into Atlas and it starts with Us.

It is really difficult to see into the minds of those at the hands of abuse. I almost feel like it's impossible to really understand their perspective when you're own experience may or may not have comnections to the experiences.

The characters were built beautifully and I will be excited to see the film.

About to read It Starts with Us and have a few more Colleen Hoovers to do aswell. I enjoy her laidback writing style.
]]>
Never Never 67354213 The #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Starts with Us joins forces with the New York Times bestselling author of The Wives. Together, they have created a gripping, twisty, romantic mystery unlike any other.

Never stop...Never forget...Just remember.

Charlie Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They've been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning...they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love...every memory has vanished. Now Charlie and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why.

But the more they learn about the couple they used to be...the more they question why they were ever together to begin with. Forgetting is terrifying, but remembering may be worse.]]>
416 Colleen Hoover 0008620490 ~Emmy~ 5 Great Job ]]> 3.23 2016 Never Never
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: romance, contemporary, 2023-reads, 2024-reads, chick-lit, cozy-mystery, diverse, fiction, life, mystery, mystery-thriller, psychological, suspense, coho
review:
Well Done Silas and Charlie.
Great Job
]]>
Maybe Not (Maybe, #1.5) 62967891
Or maybe not.

Especially when that roommate is the cold and seemingly calculating Bridgette. Tensions run high and tempers flare as the two can hardly stand to be in the same room together. But Warren has a theory about Bridgette: anyone who can hate with that much passion should also have the capability to love with that much passion. And he wants to be the one to test this theory.

Will Bridgette find it in herself to warm her heart to Warren and finally learn to love?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Colleen Hoover, the New York Times bestselling author of Maybe Someday, brilliantly brings to life the story of the hilarious and charismatic Warren in this new novella.

]]>
160 Colleen Hoover 1501125710 ~Emmy~ 5 ColHol is definately a fan of possession and love jealousy. I love how she interprets that from so many different angles and perspectives.
New PB of 420 words read per minute!

I like how Maybe Not segways into Maybe Someday ]]>
3.43 2014 Maybe Not (Maybe, #1.5)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/30
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2023-reads, abuse, chick-lit, contemporary, dark, diverse, fiction, life, psychological, short-stories, owned, coho
review:
Quick Little novella that one!
ColHol is definately a fan of possession and love jealousy. I love how she interprets that from so many different angles and perspectives.
New PB of 420 words read per minute!

I like how Maybe Not segways into Maybe Someday
]]>
Ugly Love 19487009
Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.

From Colleen Hoover, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends with Us, a heart-wrenching love story that proves attraction at first sight can be messy.]]>
322 Colleen Hoover 1476753180 ~Emmy~ 5 1. It Ends with Us
2. It Starts with us.
3. Heart Bones.
4. Verity.
5. Ugly Love.

I find that I am so accustomed to Colleens writing style I was already expecting the worst for Miles ARC.
Lots of very confronting and valid opinions and perceptions of general life and trauma.
Will Re Read.]]>
4.12 2014 Ugly Love
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/21
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: chick-lit, dark, diverse, fiction, life, romance, 2023-reads, coho
review:
Wowzers. This was my 5th Colleen Hoover Read
1. It Ends with Us
2. It Starts with us.
3. Heart Bones.
4. Verity.
5. Ugly Love.

I find that I am so accustomed to Colleens writing style I was already expecting the worst for Miles ARC.
Lots of very confronting and valid opinions and perceptions of general life and trauma.
Will Re Read.
]]>
Maybe Someday (Maybe, #1) 62967882
Sydney becomes captivated by Ridge, her mysterious neighbor. She can't take her eyes off him or stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony. And there's something about Sydney that Ridge can't ignore, either. When their inevitable encounter happens, they soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one...

Original music created for Maybe Someday by musician Griffin Peterson can be accessed through the website listed in the ebook and paperback.

From the author of the New York Times bestsellers Slammed, Point of Retreat, Hopeless, This Girl, and Losing Hope, Maybe Someday is destined to be another bestseller and long-lasting fan favorite.]]>
367 Colleen Hoover 1476753164 ~Emmy~ 0 3.80 2014 Maybe Someday (Maybe, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2024-reads, chick-lit, contemporary, fiction, hot-romance, humbling, kindle, life, realist, romance, cozy-mystery, mental-health, psychological, currently-reading, coho
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Finding Cinderella (Hopeless, #2.5)]]> 18631291
When their hour is up and the girl rushes off like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that what happened between them seemed perfect only because they were pretending it was. Moments like that happen only in fairy tales.

One year and one bad relationship later, his disbelief in love-at-first-sight is stripped away the day he meets Six: a girl with a strange name and an even stranger personality. Unfortunately for Daniel, finding true love doesn"t guarantee a happily ever after... it only further threatens it.

Will an unbearable secret from the past jeopardize Daniel and Six's only chance at saving each other?]]>
176 Colleen Hoover ~Emmy~ 5
Hopeless
Losing Hope
Finding Cinderella
Finding Perfect

I would like to read more about
Breckin
Daniel
Six
Holder / Skye & Karen]]>
3.83 2013 Finding Cinderella (Hopeless, #2.5)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2025-reads, abuse, chick-lit, contemporary, family, fiction, hot-romance, owned, romance, trauma, coho
review:
Short little Novella adding onto Skye and Holder 4 book HOPELESS Series

Hopeless
Losing Hope
Finding Cinderella
Finding Perfect

I would like to read more about
Breckin
Daniel
Six
Holder / Skye & Karen
]]>
Hopeless (Hopeless, #1) 63364217
There is something about Holder that sparks memories of Sky's troubled past, those which she would rather stay buried. Little does she know that the mysterious Dean Holder is harbouring secrets of his own . . .

When the truth unravels, Sky must piece her life back together and learn to trust again. Only by facing the revelations together can the two of them begin to heal their emotional scars and find a way to live without boundaries.]]>
Colleen Hoover 1471133435 ~Emmy~ 5 If this book wasn't so triggering. I would 5 star it.

Actually I will 5 star it. Because.
Suffering in silence is NOT OKAY.

Thankyou CoHo for courageously stepping into very terrifying territory.

Be warned. Very disturbing scenes in this book SA and DV]]>
4.16 2012 Hopeless (Hopeless, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: 2024-reads, abuse, chick-lit, dark, family, fiction, life, mental-health, neglect, realist, romance, coho, trauma, owned, hot-romance, contemporary
review:
Ok. So. Trauma. Trauma.
If this book wasn't so triggering. I would 5 star it.

Actually I will 5 star it. Because.
Suffering in silence is NOT OKAY.

Thankyou CoHo for courageously stepping into very terrifying territory.

Be warned. Very disturbing scenes in this book SA and DV
]]>
Gallipoli 21955982 0 Kerry Greenwood 1743621299 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.09 2014 Gallipoli
author: Kerry Greenwood
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Jd Robb Death Series 5- Books 21-25: 5 Books Collection Set (Origin In Death, Memory In Death, Born In Death, Innocent In Death, Creation In Death)]]> 64141481
Origin in Death
Memory in Death
Born in Death
Innocent in Death
Creation in Death]]>
J.D. Robb 9123971983 ~Emmy~ 0 4.62 Jd Robb Death Series 5- Books 21-25: 5 Books Collection Set (Origin In Death, Memory In Death, Born In Death, Innocent In Death, Creation In Death)
author: J.D. Robb
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19]]> 176443740
AIDS, cholera, the Spanish flu—epidemics become catastrophic not only by chance, but by human design. With clear-eyed research and accessible prose, A History of the World in Six Plagues shows that throughout history, outbreaks of disease have been exacerbated by the racial, economic, and sociopolitical divides we allow to bloom in times of good health. These self-defeating practices have time and again undermined public health efforts, and ultimately furthered damage to the already marginalized and vulnerable communities they target.

Princeton-trained historian Edna Bonhomme’s examination of humankind’s disastrous treatment of pandemic disease takes us across place and time from Port-au-Prince to Tanzania, and from plantation-era America to our modern COVID-19-scarred world to unravel the shocking truths about the history of race, class, and gender-based discrimination in the face of disease. From Haitians targeted and ostracized as the alleged source of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, to the creation of concentration camps and depraved medical experimentations in the face of sleeping sickness in western Africa, and to marginalized communities overlooked and scapegoated while the wealthy sheltered from COVID-19 in relative safety, Bonhomme effortlessly shows us the oppressive practices that shape our history and our present. Much more than a remarkable history, A History of the World in Six Plagues is also a rising call to action for change.]]>
320 Edna Bonhomme 1982197838 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.05 A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19
author: Edna Bonhomme
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.05
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip]]> 212426504 A delightfully insightful exploration of our obsession with gossip that weaves together journalism, cultural criticism, and memoir, from the host of the massively popular Normal Gossip podcast.

Can you keep a secret? As the pandemic forced us to socialize at a distance, Kelsey McKinney was mourning the juicy updates, jaw-dropping stories, and idle chatter that she’d typically collect over drinks with friends.ĚýShe realized she wasn’t the only one missing these little morsels and her hunger for this aspect of normalcy took on a life of its ownĚýandĚýthe blockbuster Normal Gossip podcast was born.ĚýWith listenership in the millions and gossip quickly becoming her day job, Kelsey found herself with the urge to think more critically about gossip as a form, to better understand the role that it plays in our culture.

In YOU DIDN'T HEAR THIS FROM ME, McKinney explores the murkiness of everyday storytelling. Why is gossip considered a sin and how can we better recognize when gossip is being weaponized against the oppressed? Why do we think we’re entitled to every detail of a celebrity’s personal life because they are a public figure? And how do we even define “gossip,â€� anyway? She dishes on the art of eavesdropping and dives deep into how pop culture has changed the way that we look at hearsay. But as much as the book aims to treat gossip as a subject worthy of rigor, it also hopes to capture the heart of how enchanting and fun it can be to lean over and whisper something a little salacious into your friend’s ear. With wit and honesty, McKinney unmasks what we're actually searching for when we demand to know the truth â€� and how much the truth really matters in the first place. Ěý±Ő±Ő>
288 Kelsey McKinney 1538757400 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.83 2025 You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip
author: Kelsey McKinney
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy]]> 195790788
Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia Levings learned that being a good Christian meant following a list of additional life principles—a series of secret, special rules to obey. Being a godly and submissive wife in Christian Patriarchy included strict discipline, isolation, and an alternative lifestyle that appeared wholesome to outsiders. Women were to be silent, “keepers of the home.�

Tia knew that to their neighbors her family was strange, but she also couldn't risk exposing their secret lifestyle to police, doctors, teachers, or anyone outside of their church. Christians were called in scripture to be “in the world, not of it.� So, she hid in plain sight as years of abuse and pain followed. When Tia realized she was the only one who could protect her children from becoming the next generation of patriarchal men and submissive women, she began to resist and question how they lived. But in the patriarchy, a woman with opinions is in danger, and eventually, Tia faced an urgent and extreme stay and face dire consequences, or flee with her children.

Told in a beautiful, honest, and sometimes harrowing voice, A Well-Trained Wife is an unforgettable and timely memoir about a woman's race to save herself and her family and details the ways that extreme views can manifest in a marriage.]]>
304 Tia Levings 1250288282 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.30 2024 A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy
author: Tia Levings
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

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Small Things Like These 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]>
128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read, a-wanted 4.13 2021 Small Things Like These
author: Claire Keegan
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: to-read, a-wanted
review:

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<![CDATA[The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books, #1)]]> 57102663 Bridgerton meets Poldark in this sweeping LGBTQIA+ Regency romance from award-winning author KJ Charles

Abandoned by his father as a small child, Sir Gareth Inglis has grown up prickly, cold, and well-used to disappointment. Even so, he longs for a connection, falling headfirst into a passionate anonymous affair that's over almost as quickly as it began. Bitter at the sudden rejection, Gareth has little time to lick his wounds: his father has died, leaving him the family title, a rambling manor on the remote Romney Marsh...and the den of cutthroats and thieves that make its intricate waterways their home.

Joss Doomsday has run the Doomsday smuggling clan since he was a boy. His family is his life...which is why when the all-too-familiar new baronet testifies against Joss's sister for a hanging offense, Joss acts fast, blackmailing Gareth with the secret of their relationship to force him to recant. Their reunion is anything but happy and the path forward everything but smooth, yet after the dust settles, neither can stay away. It's a long road from there—full of danger and mysteries to be solved—yet somehow, along the way, this well-mannered gentleman may at last find true love with the least likely of scoundrels.]]>
331 K.J. Charles 1728255856 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.08 2023 The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books, #1)
author: K.J. Charles
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Truth According to Ember 201752567
Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar—well, not for anything that counted at least. But her job search is not going well and when her resumé is rejected for the thirty-seventh time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets “creative� listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie—a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job on Park Avenue (Oklahoma City, that is).

Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life—and her love life seems to be looking up too: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, seems to actually be interested in her too. Despite her unease over the no-dating policy at work, they start to see each other secretly, which somehow makes it even hotter? But when they’re caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies. She must make the hard decision to either stay silent or finally tell the truth, which could cost her everything.]]>
358 Danica Nava 0593642600 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.68 2024 The Truth According to Ember
author: Danica Nava
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1)]]> 55502861
Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it's a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.

Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he's under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.

When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her--hopefully proving, once and for all, that she's as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.]]>
336 India Holton 0593200160 ~Emmy~ 5 3.64 2021 The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels, #1)
author: India Holton
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: 2025-reads, 40-before-40-best-list, adventure, american-humour, borrowed-library, classic, community, crime, danger-magic, fae, fiction, funny, ghosts, historical, humbling, life, literature, magical-realism, romance, witches
review:

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Things Will Calm Down Soon 212928711 Welcome to the hectic world of beauty and business in this highly relatable novel following a talented hair stylist turned entrepreneur who is juggling family dramas, workplace near-catastrophes and relationship crises. Things will calm down soon ... right?

Hair stylist Kit Cooper is at the top of her game. She does the shows in Milan and Paris, tends to pop stars and celebrities, and has styled enough campaigns and magazine covers to last a lifetime. But Kit is ambitious. Restless. She can't help what's next?

One day, frustrated she can't find the perfect product for a look, she wonders ... could she make it herself?

THINGS WILL CALM DOWN SOON takes Kit from idea to founder of a highly successful hair-care company. Amid spreadsheets, influencers, product launches and a parade of potential investors, Kit is juggling an eager young team, needy family members, a charismatic but unreliable romantic partner, single parenting and far too many school WhatsApp messages. She is certain, positive, things will calm down soon, because how can life possibly keep going at this pace?

As the founder of Go-To Skincare, Zoe Foster Blake has learned a lot in her decade of business. THINGS WILL CALM DOWN SOON blends her love of fiction with the knowledge she has acquired in business, entrepreneurship, and mergers and acquisitions. Part entertainment, part founder insight, THINGS WILL CALM DOWN SOON is an entirely new breed of illuminating storytelling.]]>
0 Zoë Foster Blake 1761189948 ~Emmy~ 0 3.55 Things Will Calm Down Soon
author: Zoë Foster Blake
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.55
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: to-read, a-wanted, australian, chick-lit, realist, life, humbling, fiction
review:

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Any Ordinary Day 40637139 The day that turns a life upside down usually starts like any other, but what happens the day after?Dual Walkley Award-winner Leigh Sales investigates how ordinary people endure the unthinkable.As a journalist, Leigh Sales often encounters people experiencing the worst moments of their lives in the full glare of the media. But one particular string of bad news stories � and a terrifying brush with her own mortality � sent her looking for answers about how vulnerable each of us is to a life-changing event. What are our chances of actually experiencing one? What do we fear most and why? And when the worst does happen, what comes next?In this wise and layered book, Leigh talks intimately with people who’ve faced the unimaginable.From terrorism to natural disaster to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Expecting broken lives, she instead finds strength, hope, even humour.Leigh brilliantly condenses the cutting-edge research on the way the human brain processes fear and grief, and poses the questions we too often ignore out of awkwardness. Along the way, she offers an unguarded account of her own challenges and what she’s learned about coping with life’s unexpected blows.Warm, candid and empathetic, this book is about what happens when ordinary people, on ordinary days, are forced to suddenly find the resilience most of us don’t know we have._____________'Warm, wise and humble.' ANNA FUNDER'Masterfully written, revelatory and genuinely uplifting.' BETTER READING'Asks questions most of us would only dare to think.' THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD]]> 244 Leigh Sales 1760144177 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read, a-wanted 4.14 2018 Any Ordinary Day
author: Leigh Sales
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: to-read, a-wanted
review:

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#No Filter 52886709 In an Instagram world, can you find love just being yourself�

Popular lifestyle blogger, Libby Cartwright, is being boggled by business when help shows up in the shape of gorgeous but shy, Charlie Richmond. Libby’s determined to keep it at â€just good friendsâ€� â€� she’s dated someone from â€Corporate Landâ€� before and it didn’t end well. As she and Charlie begin spending more time together, Libby is starting to waver Ěýâ€� until she discovers something which makes her question if she’s ready for love.

Still reeling, she suffers another blow as her blog is attacked in a national newspaper, for promoting unachievable perfection. Libby knows it’s not true � but the only way to prove that is to strip off the armour she’s been wearing for years.

Is she brave enough to show the world she’s far from perfect? And will Charlie be by her side if she does…]]>
348 Maxine Morrey 1838890319 ~Emmy~ 0 4.19 2019 #No Filter
author: Maxine Morrey
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves: a-wanted, chick-lit, comedy, contemporary, fiction, funny, funny-comedy, life, romance, currently-reading
review:

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The Woman in Me 200627009
In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.]]>
Britney Spears ~Emmy~ 4 This was actually quite a simple biography.
Simple. Yet extremely touching.
Caged up. Like a Bird of Paradise.
A Circus Animal Taught to perform.
Lots of traumatic experiences and no Healing.]]>
3.58 2023 The Woman in Me
author: Britney Spears
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: 2024-reads, 40-before-40-best-list, biographical, borrowed-library, chick-lit, contemporary, factful, family, hardcover, life, literature, mental-health, neglect, non-fiction, old-hollywood, realist
review:
Wow.
This was actually quite a simple biography.
Simple. Yet extremely touching.
Caged up. Like a Bird of Paradise.
A Circus Animal Taught to perform.
Lots of traumatic experiences and no Healing.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper]]> 37570548
What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888.

Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become far more famous than any of these five women.

In this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally gives these women back their stories.]]>
352 Hallie Rubenhold ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.06 2019 The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
author: Hallie Rubenhold
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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Butts: A Backstory 59366123 Butts: A Backstory, reporter, essayist, and RadioLab contributing editor Heather Radke is determined to find out.

Spanning nearly two centuries, this “whip-smart� (Publishers Weekly, starred review) cultural history takes us from the performance halls of 19th-century London to the aerobics studios of the 1980s, the music video set of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back� and the mountains of Arizona, where every year humans and horses race in a feat of gluteal endurance. Along the way, she meets evolutionary biologists who study how butts first developed; models whose measurements have defined jean sizing for millions of women; and the fitness gurus who created fads like “Buns of Steel.� She also examines the central importance of race through figures like Sarah Bartmann, once known as the “Venus Hottentot,� Josephine Baker, Jennifer Lopez, and other women of color whose butts have been idolized, envied, and despised.

Part deep dive reportage, part personal journey, part cabinet of curiosities, Butts is an entertaining, illuminating, and thoughtful examination of why certain silhouettes come in and out of fashion—and how larger ideas about race, control, liberation, and power affect our most private feelings about ourselves and others.]]>
311 Heather Radke 1982135484 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.73 2022 Butts: A Backstory
author: Heather Radke
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Beauty in Breaking 50043108
Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, DC, in an abusive family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn't move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman.

In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken—physically, emotionally, psychically. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process.

The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Harper's journey toward self-healing. Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky. How to tell the truth when it's simpler to overlook it. How to understand that compassion isn't the same as justice. As she shines a light on the systemic disenfranchisement of the patients she treats as they struggle to maintain their health and dignity, Harper comes to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to make peace with the past as we draw support from the present. In this hopeful, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along the precious, necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.]]>
304 Michele Harper 0525537384 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.81 2020 The Beauty in Breaking
author: Michele Harper
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Dry (Aaron Falk, #1) 27824826 A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.

In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.

Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.

But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones.

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336 Jane Harper ~Emmy~ 5 Great Character Creation. The plot was twisty turny.
Bit of a thrill ride in the mystery and suspense.
A really beautiful Australian Bush Setting of Country Life. ]]>
4.04 2016 The Dry (Aaron Falk, #1)
author: Jane Harper
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves:
review:
I actually devoured this book.
Great Character Creation. The plot was twisty turny.
Bit of a thrill ride in the mystery and suspense.
A really beautiful Australian Bush Setting of Country Life.
]]>
<![CDATA[Force of Nature (Aaron Falk, #2)]]> 34275222
Only four come out on the other side.

The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and encourage teamwork and resilience. At least, that's what the corporate retreat website advertises.

Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker, Alice Russell. Because Alice knew secrets, about the company she worked for and the people she worked with.

The four returning women tell Falk a tale of fear, violence and fractured trust during their days in the remote Australian bushland. And as Falk delves into the disappearance of Alice, he begins to suspect some dangers ran far deeper than anyone knew.]]>
326 Jane Harper 1250105633 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.78 2017 Force of Nature (Aaron Falk, #2)
author: Jane Harper
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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Faking Friends 36158853 Your best friend stole your fiancé. Do you run away and hide, or start planning your revenge?

THE TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND THE PERFECT READ FOR VALENTINE'S DAY . . .

'A deftly plotted, witty tale of revenge. It's a romcom with attitude' Mail on Sunday

Best friend, soulmate, confidante . . . backstabber.

Amy thought she knew everything there was to know about her best friend Melissa. Then again, Amy also thought she was on the verge of the wedding of her dreams to her long-distance fiancé.

Until she pays a surprise trip home to London. Jack is out, but it's clear another woman has been making herself at home in their flat.

There's something about her stuff that feels oddly familiar . . . and then it hits Amy. The Other Woman is Melissa.

Amy has lost her home, her fiancé and her best friend in one disastrous weekend - but instead of falling apart, she's determined to get her own back.

Piecing her life back together won't be half as fun as dismantling theirs, after all.

'I've just finished this . . . it's FABALISS. I was SO GRIPPED' Marian Keyes

'Barbed, twisty and full of deliciously dry wit, this is smart stuff to race through' Sunday Mirror

'Brilliant, original, edgy and compulsively readable' Daily Mail]]>
448 Jane Fallon 1405933097 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.88 2018 Faking Friends
author: Jane Fallon
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[I Hate, I Bake, and I Don’t Date! (The Manhattan Svenssons #1)]]> 58842499 I even screamed when it happened. The whole office heard me.
No, not that.
He fired me.
Yep.
Beck Svensson fired me right before rent was due and in the middle of a rainstorm.
That’s why he’s at the top of my hate list, along with pickles, people who steal other people’s lunches out of the office fridge, and trying to fold a fitted sheet.

But you know what? It’s fine—totally fine. It’s freedom! I could do anything! I could start a bakery or farm the mushrooms growing in my soggy apartment carpet.
Or I could just show up at the temp office at hate o’clock in the morning for a new assistant job.

I hope my new boss will be less of a buzzkill than the last.
Except guess who is waiting for me when I show up in the lobby of a swanky office building.
That’s right, Mr. Grumpy Boss himself.
Beck is appalled that I’m back in his life. Again.
I can tell he wants to fire me. Again.

Except now he has two little surprise sisters bouncing around him and no one to watch them except yours truly.
While I strongly dislike kids and actively hate my boss, I’m willing to abandon my principles for a big paycheck and a hefty expense account.
But when Beck needs me to pretend to be the love of his life to keep from losing his sisters, I’m not sure a big windfall is going to cut it.
After all, I bake, and I don’t date. Ever.

Besides, I hate Beck. No way am I pretending to be his girlfriend.
…but I love the little girls.
I also love the huge kitchen in Beck’s swanky penthouse that I claim as mine when I move in.
And I really love running my hands over his washboard abs and that thing he does with his tongue.

Wait! No! I hate it, totally absolutely hate it, right? Right?

This is a full-length, enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy, complete with hot, snarly guys with hearts of gold, a heroine who you’ll want to be besties with, and a happily ever after better than a giant slice of chocolate cake! Though this is intended to be a stand-alone book, it does take place after the recently completed Svensson Brothers series.]]>
555 Alina Jacobs ~Emmy~ 0 3.60 I Hate, I Bake, and I Don’t Date! (The Manhattan Svenssons #1)
author: Alina Jacobs
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: currently-reading, romance, kindle, hot-romance, funny, fiction, family, community, contemporary, chick-lit, american-humour, 2025-reads
review:

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The Burnout 131120162
Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga, and find peace, she heads to the seaside resort she loved as a child. But it’s the off season, the hotel is in a dilapidated shambles, and she has to share the beach with the only other a grumpy guy named Finn, who seems as stressed as Sasha. How can she commune with nature when he’s sitting on her favorite rock, watching her? Nor can they agree on how best to alleviate their burnout ( manifesting, wild swimming; drinking whisky, getting pizza delivered to the beach).

When curious messages, seemingly addressed to Sasha and Finn, begin to appear on the beach, the two are forced to talk—about everything. How did they get so burned out? Can either of them remember something they used to love? (Answer: surfing!) And the question they try and fail to ignore: what does the energy between them—flaring even in the face of their bone-deep exhaustion—signify?]]>
416 Sophie Kinsella 0593730399 ~Emmy~ 5 My ADHD BRAIN got sleepy]]> 3.61 2023 The Burnout
author: Sophie Kinsella
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: spotify-audiobook, 2025-reads, borrowed, borrowed-library, chick-lit
review:
This was a lovely read. Light hearted. Fun. Little far fetched but beautiful nonetheless.
My ADHD BRAIN got sleepy
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Single, Carefree, Mellow 22237215 Single, Carefree, Mellow is that rare and wonderful thing: a debut that is superbly accomplished, endlessly entertaining, and laugh-out-loud funny.

Maya is in love with both her boyfriend and her boss. Sadie’s lover calls her as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counseling. Gwen pines for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tells her that her palm is sweaty. And Sasha agrees to have a drink with her married lover’s wife and then immediately regrets it. These are the women of Single, Carefree, Mellow, and in these eleven sublime stories they are grappling with unwelcome houseguests, disastrous birthday parties, needy but loyal friends, and all manner of love, secrets, and betrayal.

In “Cranberry Relish� Josie’s ex—a man she met on Facebook—has a new girlfriend he found on Twitter. In “Blue Heron Bridge� Nina is more worried that the Presbyterian minister living in her garage will hear her kids swearing than about his finding out that she’s sleeping with her running partner. And in “The Rhett Butlers� a teenager loses her virginity to her history teacher and then outgrows him.

In snappy, glittering prose that is both utterly hilarious and achingly poignant, Katherine Heiny chronicles the ways in which we are unfaithful to each other, both willfully and unwittingly. Maya, who appears in the title story and again in various states of love, forms the spine of this linked collection, and shows us through her moments of pleasure, loss, deceit, and kindness just how fickle the human heart can be.]]>
221 Katherine Heiny 0385353634 ~Emmy~ 0 3.52 2015 Single, Carefree, Mellow
author: Katherine Heiny
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: tbr, 2025-reads, adventure, borrowed, borrowed-library, contemporary, kindle, life, parenthood, realist, short-stories
review:

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Games and Rituals 61387869
In "Damascus," a mother fears her teenage son is making the same youthful mistakes she did, only to realize that he is wiser than she had understood. In "Twist and Shout," Ericka's elderly father mistakes his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew. In "Turn Back, Turn Back," a bedtime story coupled with a receipt for a Starbucks babyccino reveal a struggling actor's deception. And in "561," Charlene pays the true price of infidelity when she is forced to help her husband's ex-wife move out of the family home. ("It's like you're North Korea and South Korea... But would North Korea help South Korea move?")

From one of today's most accomplished bard's of modern life--of waking up in the wrong bed, wearing the wrong shoes, being late for the wrong job, but being loved by the right people--a fresh and satisfying work of glorious humour and immense kindness.]]>
226 Katherine Heiny 052565951X ~Emmy~ 0 3.76 2023 Games and Rituals
author: Katherine Heiny
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: a-wanted, parenthood, realist, short-stories, currently-reading, 2025-reads, adventure, borrowed, borrowed-library, community, contemporary, family, fiction, kindle
review:

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Early Morning Riser 53489729 A wise, bighearted, boundlessly joyful novel of love, disaster, and unconventional family

Jane falls in love with Duncan easily. He is charming, good-natured, and handsome but unfortunately, he has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan. Jane sees Duncan’s old girlfriends everywhere–at restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away.

While Jane may be able to come to terms with dating the world’s most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she did not have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, a woman with shiny hair and pale milkmaid skin, still has Duncan mow her lawn. His coworker, Jimmy, comes and goes from Duncan’s apartment at the most inopportune times. Sometimes Jane wonders if a relationship can even work with three people in it–never mind four. Five if you count Aggie’s eccentric husband, Gary. Not to mention all the other residents of Boyne City, who freely share with Jane their opinions of her choices.

But any notion Jane had of love and marriage changes with one terrible car crash. Soon Jane’s life is permanently intertwined with Duncan’s, Aggie’s, and Jimmy’s, and Jane knows she will never have Duncan to herself. But could it be possible that a deeper kind of happiness is right in front of Jane’s eyes? A novel that is alternately bittersweet and laugh-out-loud funny, Katherine Heiny’s Early Morning Riser is her most astonishingly wonderful work to date.]]>
320 Katherine Heiny 052565934X ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.51 2021 Early Morning Riser
author: Katherine Heiny
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Make Me Wilder (Wilder Adventures, #1)]]> 57865881 This tent is too small for the both of us. And I like it that way.

Gabe
I was minding my business. Literally. I promised my dad I’d take care of the Wilder family adventure business in our little Oregon town of Rush Creek, which also means looking out for my mom, my sister, and my rowdy co-workers, AKA my brothers.

Now the business is in trouble. Overnight, Rush Creek has become a spa-and-wedding destination, and the new tourists aren’t interested in getting dirty—or at least not in the woods.

Then Lucy comes to town, all blond hair and silky blouses and spike heels. It’s her job to give Wilder Adventures a makeover. Camping to glamping, rafting to paddle board yoga, fishing trips to girls� night sunset cruises. If she gets her way, Wilder Adventures will become Wilder Romantic Adventures.

Lucy hates small towns, getting messy, and anything involving the woods or the water—which pretty much makes her Not My Type.

That doesn’t explain why when I see her, I can’t look away. Why when I touch her, I can’t stop. And why, even though I know no one can talk a city girl into small town life, I’m still trying.

She’s driving me wild. All I can do is make her wilder.]]>
298 Serena Bell 1953498094 ~Emmy~ 0 3.77 2021 Make Me Wilder (Wilder Adventures, #1)
author: Serena Bell
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read, a-wanted, comedy, contemporary
review:

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<![CDATA[Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest]]> 27797936
This anthology―which includes work by some of the nation's most accomplished writers, including Sandra Alcosser, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Jane Hirshfield, Linda Hogan, Freeman House, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Kathleen Dean Moore, Robert Michael Pyle, Pattiann Rogers, and Scott Russell Sanders―grows out of the work of the Long-Term Ecological Reflections program and showcases the insights of the program's thoughtful and important encounters among writers, scientists, and place. These vivid essays, poems, and field notes convey a landscape of moss-draped trees, patchwork clear-cuts, stream-swept gravel bars, and hillsides scoured by fire, and also bring forward the ambiguities and paradoxes of conflicting human values and their implications for the ecosystem.

Forest Under Story offers an illuminating and multifaceted way of understanding the ecology and significance of old-growth forests, and points the way toward a new kind of collaboration between the sciences and the humanities to better know and learn from special places.]]>
264 Nathaniel Brodie 0295995459 ~Emmy~ 0 4.22 Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest
author: Nathaniel Brodie
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: currently-reading, 2025-reads, 40-before-40-best-list, adventure, alternate-history, biographical, classic, community, factful, historical, humbling
review:

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<![CDATA[Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (Whimbrel House, #1)]]> 60596112
Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has been trained in taming such structures in order to preserve their historical and magical significance. She understands the dangers of bespelled homes given to tantrums. She advises that it’s in Merritt’s best interest to make Whimbrel House their ally. To do that, she’ll need to move in, too.

Prepared as she is with augury, a set of magic tools, and a new staff trained in the uncanny, Hulda’s work still proves unexpectedly difficult. She and Merritt grow closer as the investigation progresses, but the house’s secrets run deeper than they anticipated. And the sentient walls aren’t their only concern—something outside is coming for the enchantments of Whimbrel House, and it could be more dangerous than what rattles within.]]>
347 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662500335 ~Emmy~ 0 4.14 2022 Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (Whimbrel House, #1)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: 2023-reads, 2024-reads, danger-magic, dark, fantasy, ghosts, historical, magical-realism, kindle, fiction, romance, cozy-mystery, paranormal, alternate-history, currently-reading, 2025-reads, historical-fantasy, mystery, witches
review:

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The Seven Year Slip 62926938 An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.]]>
336 Ashley Poston ~Emmy~ 5 Great Book ]]> 4.17 2023 The Seven Year Slip
author: Ashley Poston
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: fiction, funny, humbling, life, super-natural, adventure, chick-lit
review:
Read for a Second Time.
Great Book
]]>
<![CDATA[Things We Never Got Over (Knockemout, #1)]]> 60060431 Bearded, bad-boy barber Knox prefers to live his life the way he takes his coffee: Alone. Unless you count his basset hound, Waylon.
Knox doesn’t tolerate drama, even when it comes in the form of a stranded runaway bride.

Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the-edges town where disputes are settled the old-fashioned way…with fists and beer. Usually in that order.

Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn’t changed at all. After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected. The niece Naomi didn’t know she had. Now she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no plan, and no home with an 11-year-old going on thirty to take care of.

There’s a reason Knox doesn’t do complications or high-maintenance women, especially not the romantic ones. But since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of him, the least he can do is help her out of her jam. And just as soon as she stops getting into new trouble he can leave her alone and get back to his peaceful, solitary life.

At least, that’s the plan until the trouble turns to real danger.]]>
572 Lucy Score 1945631848 ~Emmy~ 5 Lucy Score has beautifully written the characters in this series and the HEA is just divine.]]> 4.14 2022 Things We Never Got Over (Knockemout, #1)
author: Lucy Score
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: 2023-reads, chick-lit, community, contemporary, cozy-mystery, family, favourites, fiction, hot-romance, humbling, life, owned, parenthood, realist, romance
review:
I love this series.
Lucy Score has beautifully written the characters in this series and the HEA is just divine.
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A Love Song for Ricki Wilde 173404023
Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.

When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.

One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.]]>
352 Tia Williams 153872670X ~Emmy~ 5 Just loved this book for everything it was and said and did and stood for .
Will be looking into 7 days in June by Tia Williams and Also more hex novels on voodoo. That was a fun read!]]>
3.97 2024 A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
author: Tia Williams
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: a-wanted, adventure, alternate-history, biographical, chick-lit, community, contemporary, danger-magic, diverse, fantasy, fiction, hardcover, historical, hot-romance, humbling, magical-realism, mystery, owned, romance, suspense
review:
What a beautiful Love Story with a HEA.
Just loved this book for everything it was and said and did and stood for .
Will be looking into 7 days in June by Tia Williams and Also more hex novels on voodoo. That was a fun read!
]]>
Make Me Lose (Bayshore, #1) 61039834
Born minutes apart on the same day in the same hospital, our parents thought this meant we were somehow destined to be together. We knew were we just destined to beat each other.

Competition boiled over until junior year, when the cold war turned into an unexpected peace offering. Maybe my hormones allowed me to notice his broad shoulders, stormy gray-blue eyes, and soccer star’s chiseled frame. But after I fell for him…he stomped all over my heart.

Ten years later, I’m at the top of the realty game in Bayshore and Grayson is just a distant memory. Until he shows up from NYC, his ego bigger than a skyscraper, and asks me to sell the house he recently inherited.

It’s easy to say no. Even though I want to climb him like the jungle gyms we used to dangle from in strong arm battles.

But I forgot that Gray doesn’t take no for an answer. And that he isn’t content unless he’s defeating me.

He butts into my evenings on the boat. Ropes me into water skiing battles. Even shows up at the bar and creates a scene when I’m scouting a date to the upcoming Bicentennial Ball.

It’s almost like he’s gunning to win me.

But if he wins, that means I lose.

And I’m not ready to cede victory just yet.]]>
264 Ember Leigh ~Emmy~ 0 3.66 2019 Make Me Lose (Bayshore, #1)
author: Ember Leigh
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: 2025-reads, chick-lit, fiction, hot-romance, kindle, romance
review:

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<![CDATA[Something to Talk About (Rose Hill, #2)]]> 50286985 It's the opposite of love at first sight...or is it?

Dairy farmer Tabitha Cooper-Jones has a heart of gold, yet she's the eternal bridesmaid. Everyone's best mate. Despite facing some serious challenges over the years, she's built a successful ice-cream business and cafe, she's adored by her family and is an integral part of her hometown - there's just one thing missing from her life. But the last thing Tab wants is a man - or worse, love - to stop her achieving her dream.

In town for a temporary teaching contract, Fergus McWilliams thinks the small community of Walsh will be the perfect place to stay under the radar but he couldn't be more wrong. Suddenly, the kids' cricket team coached by Ferg is inundated with female supporters - single female supporters - and that's only the beginning.

The only woman who doesn't seem to have her sights set on Ferg is Tabitha. Despite a disastrous first meeting and a visit from a past love, circumstances keep throwing them together. Neither can deny the sparks between them, but can friendship even be possible for these two strong-willed people?

A moving story of overcoming obstacles and learning to love, from ABIA award-winning author Rachael Johns.]]>
316 Rachael Johns 1489261656 ~Emmy~ 0 4.24 Something to Talk About (Rose Hill, #2)
author: Rachael Johns
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: classic, family, literature, parenthood, 2025-reads, adventure, australian, chick-lit, community, contemporary, diverse, favourites, fiction, hot-romance, humbling, life, mental-health, owned, realist, romance
review:

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<![CDATA[Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)]]> 35074096
This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry's distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural context

Celebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire.

This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.]]>
416 Stephen Fry 0718188721 ~Emmy~ 4
I have not been able to finish it as yet. I was unable to finish it last year - But as I have Started watching Percy Jackson series on disney - Im now connecting the characters of the gods and titans - making the beautiful links and remembering how much I loved to read and admire the Greek Godesses and Titanesses of Mythology

Hopefully I can keep at it and finish off the book - If so I may then update my rating!]]>
4.27 2017 Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)
author: Stephen Fry
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: danger-magic, historical-fantasy, historical-fiction, magical-realism, stalled_dnf, 2024-reads, 2022-reads, adventure, alternate-history, classic, factful, historical, life, literature, short-stories, super-natural, extras
review:
I'm unfortunately giving this Read a 4 and not my usual 5 stars.

I have not been able to finish it as yet. I was unable to finish it last year - But as I have Started watching Percy Jackson series on disney - Im now connecting the characters of the gods and titans - making the beautiful links and remembering how much I loved to read and admire the Greek Godesses and Titanesses of Mythology

Hopefully I can keep at it and finish off the book - If so I may then update my rating!
]]>
Bunny (Bunny, #1) 53285047 We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled Smut Salon, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus Workshop where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library]]>
305 Mona Awad 0525559752 ~Emmy~ 0 3.43 2019 Bunny (Bunny, #1)
author: Mona Awad
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: 2024-reads, 40-before-40-best-list, adventure, american-humour, borrowed, borrowed-library, chick-lit, community, contemporary, cozy-mystery, crime, danger-magic, dark, factful, family, fiction, kindle, life, literature, neglect, parenthood, psychological, realist, suspense, trauma, comedy, funny, extras
review:

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Good Dirt 213618132 The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well.

The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. The last thing the Freemans want is another media frenzy splashing their family across the papers, but when Ebby's high profile romance falls apart without any explanation, that's exactly what they get.

So Ebby flees to France, only for her past to follow her there. And as she tries to process what's happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on that day eighteen years ago—the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor. But little does she know that the handcrafted piece of pottery held more than just her family's history—it might also hold the key to unlocking her own future.

In this sweeping, evocative novel, Charmaine Wilkerson brings to life a multi-generational epic that examines how the past informs our present.]]>
368 Charmaine Wilkerson 0593358368 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.03 2025 Good Dirt
author: Charmaine Wilkerson
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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Ghostroots: Stories 200196202 A debut collection of stories set in a hauntingly reimagined Lagos where characters vie for freedom from ancestral ties.

’Pemi Aguda opens her collection of twelve stories with the chilling tale of a woman who uncannily resembles her sinister, deceased grandmother. When the woman shows a capacity for deadly violence, she wonders—can evil be genetic, passed from generation to generation?

Set in Lagos, Nigeria, Aguda’s stories unfold against a spectral cityscape where the everyday business of living—the birth of a baby, a market visit, a conversation between mothers and daughters—is charged with an air of supernatural menace. In “Breastmilk� a new mother’s inability to lactate takes on preternatural overtones. In �24, Alhaji Williams Street� a mysterious disease wreaks havoc with frightening precision. In “The Hollow,� an architect stumbles on a vengeful house.

Evocative, strange, and yet familiar, “the speculative conceits of these stories are elegantly balanced with the gorgeous fullness of human emotion, all the hunger and longing and fear and delight of being a human in the world� (Lauren Groff).]]>
224 Pemi Aguda 1324065850 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.04 2024 Ghostroots: Stories
author: Pemi Aguda
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: to-read
review:

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Girl, Woman, Other 41081373
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.]]>
453 Bernardine Evaristo 0241364906 ~Emmy~ 0 4.27 2019 Girl, Woman, Other
author: Bernardine Evaristo
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: tbr, a-wanted, family, short-stories, contemporary, diverse, factful, funny, fiction, life, psychological, story-time, adventure, alternate-history, biographical, chick-lit, classic, community, historical, historical-fiction, humbling, literature, realist
review:

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<![CDATA[Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1)]]> 7741325 If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.�

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.]]>
260 Rachel Cohn 0375866590 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.75 2010 Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1)
author: Rachel Cohn
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry]]> 18293427
A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J.; or for that determined sales rep, Amelia, to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light; or for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world; or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.]]>
260 Gabrielle Zevin 1616203218 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.01 2014 The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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Convenience Store Woman 36739755 Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura.

Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,� she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction―many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual―and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal� person excellently, more or less. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action�

A brilliant depiction of a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures we all feel to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.]]>
163 Sayaka Murata 0802128254 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.65 2016 Convenience Store Woman
author: Sayaka Murata
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Page Turner 198385441 A young romance writer makes a discovery that throws her elitist family into chaos.

Emma Page grew up the black sheep in a bookish household, raised to believe fine literature is the only worthy type of fiction. Her parents, self-proclaimed “serious� authors who run their own vanity press, The Mighty Pages, mingle in highbrow social circles that look down on anything too popular or mainstream, while her sister, Jess, is a powerful social-media influencer whose stylish reviews can make or break a novel.

Hiding her own romance manuscript from her disapproving parents, Emma finds inspiration at the family cottage among the “fluff� they despise: the juicy summer romances that belonged to her late grandmother. But a chance discovery unearthed from her Gigi’s belongings reveals a secret that has the power to ruin her parents� business and destroy their reputation in the industry—a secret that has already fallen into the hands of an unscrupulous publishing insider with a grudge to settle. Now Emma must decide: As much as she’s dreamed of the day her parents are forced to confront their own egos, can she really just sit back and watch The Mighty Pages be exposed and their legacy destroyed?]]>
336 Viola Shipman 1525804871 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.69 2025 The Page Turner
author: Viola Shipman
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Kookaburra Creek Cafe 39077650 Welcome to the Kookaburra Creek Cafe.

THE PAST

For Hattie, the cafe has been her refuge for the last fifty years � her second chance at a happy ending after her dreams of being a star were shattered. But will the ghosts of her past succeed in destroying everything she’s worked so hard to build?

THE PRESENT

For Alice, the cafe is her livelihood. After Hattie took her in as a teenager, Alice has slowly forged a quiet life as the cafe’s manager (and chief cupcake baker). But with so many tragedies behind her, is it too late for Alice’s story to have a happy ending?

THE FUTURE

For Becca, a teenager in trouble, the cafe could be the new start she yearns for. That is, if she can be persuaded to stop running from her secrets. Can Becca find a way to believe in the kindness of strangers, and accept that this small town could be the place where she finally belongs?

One small town. Three lost women. And a lifetime of secrets.]]>
374 Sandie Docker 0143789198 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read, a-wanted 4.04 The Kookaburra Creek Cafe
author: Sandie Docker
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read, a-wanted
review:

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<![CDATA[The Last Of The Bonegilla Girls]]> 36562340 The war is over, but her fight for a new life in Australia is about to begin�

1954: When sixteen-year-old Hungarian Elizabeta arrives in Australia with her family, she is hoping to escape the hopelessness of life as a refugee in post-war Germany, a life where every day was lived in fear.

Her first stop is the Bonegilla Migrant Camp on the banks of the Murray in rural Victoria, a temporary home for thousands of new arrivals, all looking for work and a better life. There, Elizabeta becomes firm friends with the feisty Greek Vasiliki; quiet Italian Iliana; and the adventurous Frances, the daughter of the camp's director.

In this vibrant and growing country, the Bonegilla girls rush together towards a life that seems full of promise, even as they cope with the legacy of war, the oppressive nature of family tradition and ever-present sorrow. So when a ghost from the past reaches out for Elizabeta and threatens to pull her back into the shadows, there is nothing that her friends wouldn't do to keep her no action too extreme, no confidence too dark.

But secrets have a way of making themselves known and lies have a way of changing everything they touch. Can the Bonegilla girls defeat their past? Or has it finally come to claim them?


Ěý±Ő±Ő>
341 Victoria Purman 1489246851 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read, a-wanted 4.03 2018 The Last Of The Bonegilla Girls
author: Victoria Purman
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read, a-wanted
review:

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<![CDATA[One Day We're All Going to Die]]> 123169105 Sorrow and Bliss meets Normal People in this utterly compelling, darkly humorous millennial coming-of-age novel about a 27-year-old single Jewish woman in Melbourne who must learn to reconcile family expectations, cultural constraints and inter-generational trauma with her own desires. A coruscating new voice.

At 27, Naomi is just trying to be a normal person. A normal person who works at a Jewish Museum, who cares for lost things, found things, sacred things, and her family. A person who finds herself going on bad blind dates, having cringe-worthy sex, a tumultuous, toxic affair, and falling for a man called Moses.

Being a normal person would be easy and fine if she didn't bear the weight of the unspoken grief of Cookie, her Holocaust-survivor grandmother. It would all be fine if she just knew how to be, without feeling the pull of expectation, the fear of disappointing others (men, friends, her parents, humanity), and that pesky problem of being attracted to all the wrong people (according to her parents, anyway).

By endlessly trying to please everyone around her, Naomi can't seem to figure out what she wants for herself, or how to get it. With echoes of the dead and dying all about her, in objects, in story, in her grandmother's firm grasp, Naomi isn't quite sure she knows how to be a normal person, but she is going to try.

This fiercely honest, funny and fearless novel is a deep dive into the complex questions that surround culture, identity politics and generational trauma in contemporary Australia. Both a sadly affectionate and brilliantly unsparing examination of the glorious, awkward, messiness of life.]]>
240 Elise Esther Hearst 1867251272 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.46 2023 One Day We're All Going to Die
author: Elise Esther Hearst
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom]]> 211003829 Timely and thought-provoking, Nancy Reddy unpacks and debunks the bad ideas that have for too long defined what it means to be a "good" mom.

When Nancy Reddy had her first child she found herself suddenly confronted with the ideal of a perfect mother—a woman who was constantly available, endlessly patient, and immediately invested in her child to the exclusion of all else. Reddy had been raised by a single working mother, considered herself a feminist, and was well on her way to a PhD. Why did doing motherhood "right" feel so wrong?

For answers Reddy turned to the mid-20th century social scientists and psychologists whose work still forms the basis of so much of what we believe about parenting. It seems ludicrous to imagine modern moms taking advice from mid-century researchers, yet their bad ideas about so-called “good� motherhood have seeped pervasively into our cultural norms. In The Good Mother Myth, Reddy debunks the flawed lab studies, sloppy research, and straightforward misogyny of researchers from Harry Harlow, who claimed to have discovered love by observing monkeys in his lab, to the famous Dr. Spock, whose bestselling parenting guide included just one illustration of a father interacting with his child. Blending history of science, cultural criticism, and memoir, The Good Mother Myth pulls back the curtain on the flawed social science behind our contemporary understanding of what makes a good mom.]]>
256 Nancy Reddy 1250336643 ~Emmy~ 0 3.65 2025 The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom
author: Nancy Reddy
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read, a-wanted, contemporary, factful, historical, parenthood, realist, short-stories
review:

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Atmosphere 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]>
352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.45 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death]]> 35137915
I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life. The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her daughter--for whom this book was written--from a condition that leaves her unimaginably vulnerable to life's myriad dangers.

Seventeen discrete encounters with Maggie at different ages, in different locations, reveal a whole life in a series of tense, visceral snapshots. In taut prose that vibrates with electricity and restrained emotion, O'Farrell captures the perils running just beneath the surface, and illuminates the preciousness, beauty, and mysteries of life itself.]]>
304 Maggie O'Farrell 0525520228 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.96 2017 I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation]]> 61153740 Ěý
Felix negotiates the misalignments of perception and reality, love and harm, and the politics of heartbreak, both romantic and familial.]]>
240 Camonghne Felix 0593242173 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.78 2023 Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation
author: Camonghne Felix
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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Year of Yes 29540318 Grey's Anatomy and Scandal and executive producer of How to Get Away with Murder and Catch, reveals how saying YES changed her life -- and how it can change yours too. With three hit shows on television and three children at home, Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say no when invitations arrived. Hollywood party? No. Speaking engagement? No. Media appearances? No. And to an introvert like Shonda, who describes herself as 'hugging the walls' at social events and experiencing panic attacks before press interviews, there was a particular benefit to saying no: nothing new to fear. Then came Thanksgiving 2013, when Shonda's sister Delorse muttered six little words at her: You never say yes to anything. Profound, impassioned and laugh-out-loud funny, in Year of Yes Shonda Rhimes reveals how saying YES changed -- and saved -- her life. And inspires readers everywhere to change their own lives with one little word: Yes.]]> 352 Shonda Rhimes 1471157326 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.04 2015 Year of Yes
author: Shonda Rhimes
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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Strong Female Character 59903149
1. I'm diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it.

2. My terrible Catholic childhood.

3. My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed.

4. Homelessness.

5. Stripping.

6. More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns.

7. I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc.

8. REDACTED as too spicy.

9. After everyone tells me I don't look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax.

10. REDACTED as too embarrassing.]]>
288 Fern Brady 1914240448 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.43 2023 Strong Female Character
author: Fern Brady
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted]]> 50743767
In the summer after graduating from college, Suleika Jaouad was preparing, as they say in commencement speeches, to enter "the real world". She had fallen in love and moved to Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a war correspondent. The real world she found, however, would take her into a very different kind of conflict zone.

It started with an itch - first on her feet, then up her legs, like 1,000 invisible mosquito bites. Next came the exhaustion, and the six-hour naps that only deepened her fatigue. Then a trip to the doctor and, a few weeks shy of her 23rd birthday, a diagnosis: leukemia, with a 35 percent chance of survival. Just like that, the life she had imagined for herself had gone up in flames. By the time Jaouad flew home to New York, she had lost her job, her apartment, and her independence. She would spend much of the next four years in a hospital bed, fighting for her life and chronicling the saga in a column for The New York Times.

When Jaouad finally walked out of the cancer ward - after three and a half years of chemo, a clinical trial, and a bone marrow transplant - she was, according to the doctors, cured. But as she would soon learn, a cure is not where the work of healing ends; it’s where it begins. She had spent the past 1,500 days in desperate pursuit of one goal - to survive. And now that she’d done so, she realized that she had no idea how to live.

How would she reenter the world and live again? How could she reclaim what had been lost? Jaouad embarked - with her new best friend, Oscar, a scruffy terrier mutt - on a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country. She set out to meet some of the strangers who had written to her during her years in the hospital: a teenage girl in Florida also recovering from cancer; a teacher in California grieving the death of her son; a death-row inmate in Texas who’d spent his own years confined to a room. What she learned on this trip is that the divide between sick and well is porous, that the vast majority of us will travel back and forth between these realms throughout our lives. Between Two Kingdoms is a profound chronicle of survivorship and a fierce, tender, and inspiring exploration of what it means to begin again.]]>
352 Suleika Jaouad 0399588582 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.40 2021 Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted
author: Suleika Jaouad
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education]]> 101160309 From the New York Times bestselling author who inspired the hit Netflix series about a struggling mother barely making ends meet as a housecleaner—a gripping memoir about college, motherhood, poverty, and life after Maid.

When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, it was called “an eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor� (People). Later it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by 67 million households and was Netflix’s fourth most-watched show in 2021, garnering three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Stephanie’s escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions.

Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.

Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America’s educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.]]>
288 Stephanie Land 1982151412 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.58 2023 Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education
author: Stephanie Land
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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All the Single Ladies 25814394
The New York Times bestselling investigation into the sexual, economic, and emotional lives of women is “an informative and thought-provoking book for anyone—not just the single ladies—who want to gain a greater understanding of this pivotal moment in the history of the United States� (The New York Times Book Review).

In 2009, award-winning journalist Rebecca Traister started All the Single Ladies about the twenty-first century phenomenon of the American single woman. It was the year the proportion of American women who were married dropped below fifty percent; and the median age of first marriages, which had remained between twenty and twenty-two years old for nearly a century (1890�1980), had risen dramatically to twenty-seven.

But over the course of her vast research and more than a hundred interviews with academics and social scientists and prominent single women, Traister discovered a startling truth: the phenomenon of the single woman in America is not a new one. And historically, when women were given options beyond early heterosexual marriage, the results were massive social change—temperance, abolition, secondary education, and more. Today, only twenty percent of Americans are married by age twenty-nine, compared to nearly sixty percent in 1960.

“An informative and thought-provoking book for anyone—not just single ladies� (The New York Times Book Review), All the Single Ladies is a remarkable portrait of contemporary American life and how we got here, through the lens of the unmarried American woman. Covering class, race, sexual orientation, and filled with vivid anecdotes from fascinating contemporary and historical figures, “we’re better off reading Rebecca Traister on women, politics, and America than pretty much anyone else� (The Boston Globe).]]>
339 Rebecca Traister 1476716560 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.99 2016 All the Single Ladies
author: Rebecca Traister
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Hitchcock's Blondes: The Unforgettable Women Behind the Legendary Director's Dark Obsession]]> 78299256
Alfred Hitchcock was fixated—not just on the dark, twisty stories that became his hallmark, but also by the blond actresses who starred in many of his iconic movies. The director of North by Northwest , Rear Window , and other classic films didn’t much care if they wore wigs, got their hair coloring out of a bottle, or were the rarest human specimen—a natural blonde—as long as they shone with a golden veneer on camera. The lengths he went to in order to showcase (and often manipulate) these women would become the stuff of movie legend. But the women themselves have rarely been at the center of the story, until now.

In Hitchcock’s Blondes, bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer offers an intimate journey into the lives of eight legendary actresses whose stories helped chart the course of the troubled, talented director’s career—from his early days in the British film industry, to his triumphant American debut, to his Hollywood heyday and beyond. Through the stories of June Howard-Tripp, Madeleine Carroll, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, and Tippi Hedren—who starred in fourteen of Hitchcock’s most notable films and who bore the brunt of his fondness and sometimes fixation—we can finally start to see the enigmatic man himself. After all, “his� blondes (as he thought of them) knew the truths of his art, his obsessions and desires, as well as anyone.

From the acclaimed author of Capote’s Women comes an intimate, revealing, and thoroughly modern look at both the enduring art created by a man obsessed…and the private toll that fixation took on the women in his orbit.]]>
336 Laurence Leamer 0593542975 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.34 2023 Hitchcock's Blondes: The Unforgettable Women Behind the Legendary Director's Dark Obsession
author: Laurence Leamer
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[If You Can't Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury]]> 177186058 From the James Beard Award–winning blogger behind The Everywhereist come hilarious, searing essays on how food and cooking stoke the flames of her feminism.

When celebrity chef Mario Batali sent out an apology letter for the sexual harassment allegations made against him, he had the gall to include a recipe—for cinnamon rolls, of all things. Geraldine DeRuiter decided to make the recipe, making food journalism history along with it. Her subsequent essay, with its scathing commentary about the pervasiveness of misogyny in the food world, would be read millions of times, lauded by industry luminaries from Martha Stewart to The New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells—and it would land DeRuiter in the middle of a media firestorm. She found herself on the receiving end of dozens of threats when all she wanted to do was make something to eat (and okay, maybe also take down the patriarchy).

In If You Can’t Take the Heat, DeRuiter shares stories about her shockingly true, painfully funny (and sometimes just painful) adventures in gastronomy. We’ll learn how she finally got a grip on her debilitating anxiety by emergency meal–planning for the apocalypse. (“You are probably deeply worried that in times of desperation I would eat your pets. And yes, I absolutely would.�) Or how she learned to embrace her hanger. (“Because women can be a lot of things, but we can’t be angry. Or president, apparently.�) And how she inadvertently caused another international incident with a negative restaurant review. (She made it on to the homepage of The New York Times’s website! And got more death threats!)

Deliciously insightful and bitingly clever, If You Can’t Take the Heat is a fresh look at food and feminism from one of the culinary world’s sharpest voices.]]>
316 Geraldine DeRuiter 0593444485 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 4.05 2024 If You Can't Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury
author: Geraldine DeRuiter
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good]]> 63876551 A groundbreaking exploration of the ancient rules women unwittingly follow in order to be considered "good," revealing how the Seven Deadly Sins still control and distort their lives and illuminating a path toward a more balanced, spiritually complete way to live

Women congratulate themselves when they resist the doughnut in the office break-room. They celebrate their restraint when they hold back from sending an e-mail in anger. They feel virtuous when they wake up at dawn to get a jump on the day. They put others' needs ahead of their own and believe this makes them exemplary. In On Our Best Behavior, journalist Elise Loehnen explains that these impulses--often lauded as unselfish, distinctly feminine instincts--are actually ingrained in women by a culture that reaps the benefits, via an extraordinarily effective collection of mores known as the Seven Deadly Sins.

Since being codified by the Christian church in the fourth century, the Seven Deadly Sins--pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth--have exerted insidious power. Even today, in our largely secular, patriarchal society, they continue to circumscribe women's behavior. For example, seeing sloth as sinful leads women to deny themselves rest; a fear of gluttony drives them to ignore their appetites; and an aversion to greed prevents them from negotiating for themselves and contributes to the 55 percent gender wealth gap. Loehnen reveals how women have been programmed to obey the rules represented by these sins and how doing so qualifies them as "good."

This probing analysis of contemporary culture and thoroughly researched history explains how women have internalized the patriarchy, and how they unwittingly reinforce it. By sharing her own story and the spiritual wisdom of other traditions, Loehnen shows how women can break free and discover the integrity and wholeness they seek.]]>
384 Elise Loehnen 059324303X ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.77 2023 On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good
author: Elise Loehnen
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman]]> 33257571 From celebrity gossip expert and BuzzFeed culture writer Anne Helen Petersen comes an accessible, analytical look at how female celebrities are pushing boundaries of what it means to be an "acceptable" woman.

You know the type: the woman who won't shut up, who's too brazen, too opinionated--too much. It's not that she's an outcast (she might even be your friend or your wife, or your mother) so much as she's a social variable. Sometimes, she's the life of the party; others, she's the center of gossip. She's the unruly woman, and she's one of the most provocative, powerful forms of womanhood today.

There have been unruly women for as long as there have been boundaries of what constitutes acceptable "feminine" behavior, but there's evidence that she's on the rise--more visible and less easily dismissed--than ever before. In Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of "unruliness" to explore the ascension of eleven contemporary powerhouses: Serena Williams, Melissa McCarthy, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian, Hillary Clinton, Caitlyn Jenner, Jennifer Weiner, and Lena Dunham.

Petersen explores why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures, each of whom has been conceived as "too" something: too queer, too strong, too honest, too old, too pregnant, too shrill, too much. With its brisk, incisive analysis, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud will be a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks celebrity today.]]>
234 Anne Helen Petersen 0399576851 ~Emmy~ 0 to-read 3.75 2017 Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman
author: Anne Helen Petersen
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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Make Me Lose (Bayshore, #1) 210272053
Grayson Daly couldn’t wait to break free of high school and prove his worth to his overly critical father, plus show his arch-rival Hazel how little he needed her. Ten years later, he’s well into earning seven figures and enjoying his status as one of New York’s most-desired bachelors. But when his beloved Grammy Ethel passes, leaving him one of her Bayshore homes, he hurries back to sell it. However, there’s only one realtor in town...


Hazel Matheson has the picture-perfect small-town life. She’s the queen realtor in Bayshore, with a Pinterest-worthy home and wardrobe to match. If she could just find the handsome powerhouse soul mate of her dreams, life would be complete. But when her rival-turned-lover-turned-enemy Grayson Daly waltzes back into town, his ego bigger than a skyscraper and needing a favor, she has a new project—making sure she doesn’t give him what he wants.


Grayson’s plan is an easy sell of the house and a speedy return to his beloved big city. Hazel’s plan is to stay the hell away from Grayson and get on with her manhunt. But the harder they fight, the brighter the sparks, until neither one can decide if surrendering to love counts as winning or losing. Maybe, just this once, they can both come out on top.]]>
264 Ember Leigh ~Emmy~ 5 A perfect behinning to the Daly brothers series.

I Found myself reliving Lucy Score in this small town read with lots of character bulding . Hopefully like the knockemout series the next books will referance all the characters we are investing in]]>
3.83 2019 Make Me Lose (Bayshore, #1)
author: Ember Leigh
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves:
review:
A perfect behinning to the Daly brothers series.

I Found myself reliving Lucy Score in this small town read with lots of character bulding . Hopefully like the knockemout series the next books will referance all the characters we are investing in
]]>
Fancy Meeting You Here 58920779
When Evie's not hooking up with her on-again, off-again booty call 'Ever-Ready Freddy' (and sometimes even when she is), she fantasises about what might have been if she'd met Hugo years ago, when he was just a struggling writer.

After Evie interviews a psychic to the stars on her podcast, her life is catapulted ten years into the past. But the grass isn't quite as green as she remembers . . .

Fancy Meeting You Here is a hilarious and heartwarming new book from the bestselling authors of the global hits The Book Ninja and While You Were Reading - a love story about reliving your early twenties and testing out that old saying: be careful what you wish for.]]>
328 Ali Berg 1760879878 ~Emmy~ 5 Wasn't really sure how far down the rabbit hole she'd go.
Loved the ending.
Definately Reccommend this read.]]>
3.31 Fancy Meeting You Here
author: Ali Berg
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.31
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: 2024-reads, adventure, australian, borrowed-library, chick-lit, comedy, community, contemporary, family, fiction, funny, humbling, life, realist, to-read
review:
What a great read!
Wasn't really sure how far down the rabbit hole she'd go.
Loved the ending.
Definately Reccommend this read.
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<![CDATA[Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)]]> 196864520

The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice—unlike anything you’ve read before—now available in all bookstores.


When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of like-minded, pitch-black souls. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.


But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

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360 Brynne Weaver ~Emmy~ 0 contemporary, crime, to-read 3.99 2023 Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: contemporary, crime, to-read
review:

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Girl Friends 60730951 "Men see women in two separate categories. There are the women they sleep with, and the women they fall in love with. And they will treat you differently based on that."

From the day they first meet as teenagers Fern and Jessica are best friends. Despite their differences, they are there for each other throughout everything, navigating the difficulties of growing up and fitting in. That is until Jessica crosses a line that Fern can't forgive.

But now, more than ten years later, Jessica has unexpectedly reappeared in Fern's life.

A lot has changed for them both - but can their relationship be different now they are older? Is it possible for either of them to rewrite the role that they have been cast in? Or will their shared history ultimately be doomed to repeat itself again?

Set between the present day and the past, GIRL FRIENDS is a blisteringly funny and devastating novel: both a joyful celebration of female friendship and a razor-sharp look at the damage we can all cause to those we claim to love the most.]]>
448 Holly Bourne 1529301572 ~Emmy~ 0 a-wanted, to-read 4.06 2022 Girl Friends
author: Holly Bourne
name: ~Emmy~
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: a-wanted, to-read
review:

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