3.5 stars! This was cute and fun! I read every single thing that Cara Bastone writes, so when I saw this new audible original drop, I had to jump in. 3.5 stars! This was cute and fun! I read every single thing that Cara Bastone writes, so when I saw this new audible original drop, I had to jump in. This is a quirky, fun, full cast narration and tackles time travel with a twist!
If you’ve tried this author’s other audible originals, then this is similar in having quirky convos and characters who don’t actually spend time together (like in the same room/same place) until a lot later into the book. We get a lot of fun conversations instead that almost feel like a podcast you are tuning in to or a phone call between two people you accidentally overhear. Very conversational, quirky, and fun! Not my favorite thing by this author, but a quick cute time. ...more
Phantom in Time was such an entertaining ride! This is a historical romance with time travel and phantom of the opera vibes…all my fav things!
The booPhantom in Time was such an entertaining ride! This is a historical romance with time travel and phantom of the opera vibes…all my fav things!
The book opens in New Orleans in 1996, Bella has recently moved from New York to New Orleans to be closer to her ailing grandmother. Her grandmother’s hope is to see Bella become prima donna and see her wow the crowd one day. Bella actually comes from a prolific musical family, but has always had stage fright herself. On her first day at the opera house she thinks she sees a ghost and is told later that is the opera house’s very own phantom, Jacques LeFevre. Jacques was a brilliant tenor who woo’d the ladies back in his day but was mysteriously murdered during a performance of Kaleidoscope when the opera house opening a century ago. She’s surprised of the coincidence since she’s auditioning for the centennial restaging of that very revue!
While practicing on the stage, Bella ends up thrown back in time 100 years and meets Jacques in 1896. She gets hired as a chorus girl at the opera house and Jacques is very intrigued by her from the start. He loves her voice and sass and likes how she pushes back, unlike the other ladies who throw themselves at him. Bella is equally drawn to Jacques, but also wants to keep her distance because she knows what his fate is to be…although she does wants to try and save him from said fate if possible too!
This was such a quick read and just so entertaining! I liked how many nods there are to Phantom of the Opera, but this was also different enough too. Jacques is an absolute ladies man who is ready to throw everyone else over for Bella. She is the one who holds back and says she’s afraid because of knowing what will become of him. I liked the time travel aspect as well and how it all came to play out! Super fun!...more
Timeborne is a debut, fantasy romance from a new author. I heard it involved time travel and Ancient Rome and I was super intrigued!
We meet Olivia wheTimeborne is a debut, fantasy romance from a new author. I heard it involved time travel and Ancient Rome and I was super intrigued!
We meet Olivia when she’s just 10 years old and she sees her mother get killed. The story then jumps to 14 years later and Olivia has been training and become quite the fighter to protect herself. Her father shows up and drops a surprise on her…he tells her he’s been studying time travel and believes she’s “timeborne” aka was born on a specific day during a specific event allowing her to time travel. Olivia is shocked but things move quickly from there when her loving boyfriend of a couple years ends up betraying her and attacking her and her father. Then things get interesting when Olivia travels back in time to 207 A.D. to Ancient Rome! She ends up running into Roman, a former gladiator and bodyguard to the emperor, who takes her home with him.
“I don’t want to possess you…but I intend to devour you and give you pleasure, unlike any other man. I want to mark you and make you mine forever.”
I think this does read as a debut, while it has a lot of strong ideas happening I did have some issues with the story. Besides being told we are in Ancient Rome, I didn’t feel like the writing/story gave us much to make it feel like that. It did kind of throw me off that they’re in Ancient Rome and the hero’s name is Roman too, but maybe that is just me. The romance was fun and we definitely get steam, but it was insta lovey which isn’t my fav. I will say the time travel is super interesting and how the dagger is involved as well, I always like when a cover/images on the cover play into the story! I did really like that Olivia is a badass heroine who is a trained fighter and Roman was a strong, likable hero! The duet narration for this really worked, great job by the narrators (Liam Price, Sarah Sampino). Be prepared for a cliffhanger! I’m intrigued where the story will go from here.
Thanks so much to Forever and Always PR for an audio ARC, all thoughts in this review are my own. Timeborne releases May 2, 2023! ...more
This takes “right person, wrong time” to a whole new level! Imagine falling in love with someone who is living 7 years away from you. I love the way tThis takes “right person, wrong time” to a whole new level! Imagine falling in love with someone who is living 7 years away from you. I love the way this author uses magical realism and a special house that has the ability to slip through time.
Clementine is a book publicist who is grieving the loss of her beloved aunt. She moves into her aunt’s house and finds a man there the next day who says he sublet it from her aunt for the summer. After some confusion and thinking he’s playing a cruel joke, Clementine realizes she has slipped 7 years into the past…and slowly falls for him.
I adored this book to pieces right from the start! The way he calls her “Lemon”, their connections, him wanting to become a chef, his stories about his grandpa and how he fell in love with cooking, her stories and memories of her aunt who had a zest for travel. The sweetest hero and just such a magical read, and not just because the house of the house! I loved The Dead Romantics from this author last year, and loved this one just as much…if not slightly more! Cannot wait for whatever this author writes next.
Thank you so much to the publisher (Berkley) for an ARC, all thoughts in this review are my own.
I loved the first 2 books in the series so much but feel like this series just went downhill as it carried on. Book 3 I liked but then this book was jI loved the first 2 books in the series so much but feel like this series just went downhill as it carried on. Book 3 I liked but then this book was just like watching a spiraling plane taking its time crashing to the ground. This book, and book 3, were already kind of a hard sell to me as I don’t really enjoy storylines set during WWII. Book 3 had enough swoony, sweet, angsty moments that I really enjoyed the beginnings of that romance between Amelie and Henri. But then this book really jumps into WWII action which was just kind of boring to me. We watch the characters trying to survive during the beginnings of France being occupied during WWII and Henri in the war.
This book was just not what I expected as part of the series; it was filled with drama, ow drama, bad choices, character disappointment, lots of sad moments (that don’t get better), more drama, more bad choices, deaths, killing sprees, a finger being chopped off, trying to stay alive during war times, etc. There was just so much going on that I didn’t care about and not a lot of happiness or even romance for the characters. But I kept going because I wanted to see how this pulled back around to Quinn and Nick, which we finally see a bit at the end but it felt lackluster by that point. Even some of the explanations behind the time travel were blah and/or more questions than answers. This honestly felt more “love story during wartime with time travel and bittersweet moments” and was just not what I wanted for these characters of the overall story. ...more
Book 3 in the Parallel series and I’m still loving this time travel, soul mate romance series. This book “All I have ever wanted was for you to stay.”
Book 3 in the Parallel series and I’m still loving this time travel, soul mate romance series. This book starts out in 1987 and follows Sarah/Amelie as she travels 50 years into the past and pops up in 1938 France. In her dreams, her dead sister has been pushing her to go back to this time to help someone. She meets Henri and his sister Marie and ends up staying with them for quite some time. This was sweet, angsty, full of swoony moments, slow burn, and just a banter-filled romance between Henri and Amelie. The ending leaves off on a cliffhanger that will have you jumping right into book 4 after. This series is on KU and I’d definitely recommend reading in order. ...more
“In this lifetime and all the other ones, I will only want you.”
This picks up right where Parallel, the first book in the series, leaves off. I loved “In this lifetime and all the other ones, I will only want you.”
This picks up right where Parallel, the first book in the series, leaves off. I loved the first book so much and this was another solid read! This is a contemporary romance series involving time travel and soul mates. Things do get explained a bit more in this book, but I’m definitely left wanting to know more so I’ll be continuing the next book in the series right after this. Lol Love this story and characters!...more
This is the second book in the Stokehurst series and takes place 7 years after the first book, Midnight Angel, which I read earlier in the book. The cThis is the second book in the Stokehurst series and takes place 7 years after the first book, Midnight Angel, which I read earlier in the book. The characters and story was introduced in that book and the heroine, Emma Stokehurst, is all grown up now. Her father and stepmother’s romance was book 1. This book is told in 4 parts and I had heard it was wild beforehand, but on my journey to read all of Lisa Kleypas’ backlist, I was going in regardless. And it delivered on the bonkers, it has an old school romance vibe with that 90s storytelling and this story involves time travel and a bit of reincarnation! Honestly these earlier reads of Lisa Kleypas do not read like her newer work since Bow Street Runners and Wallflowers and on.
Emma is now almost 20, just about 6 ft, a vegetarian, and has flaming red hair. Prince Nikolas has been in her life since she was 12-years-old as he’s a relative to her stepmother, both from Russia. In the first book he gifts Emma a tiger cub after coming to England after his exile from Russia. Emma still has that tiger and has a whole animal menagerie on her family’s estate.
So now to the story. I was surprised when Nikolas and Emma get married at 30% in, honestly the story was going really good at that point and I was really entertained. But things took an odd turn when all of a sudden the charming, protective, obsessed hero becomes very distant and cold after their 3 months of marriage. Like he ended her engagement to be with Emma but then cheats on her! Don’t get me wrong, Nikolas’ character has a lot of trauma and abuse from his past (at the hands of his father) and is definitely a complex character.
This is also around the point of the story that he starts getting glimpses and “pulls” into another life/scene/the past. When a painting in his home is uncovered, Nikolas gets pulled into the past…going back to 1707 Russia, 170 years in the past. But he’s still himself and knows he’s in the past. And then Nikolas seemed more into Emelia (who I’m pretty sure was his distant great (times however many) grandmother. Like dude what?! He is obsessed and in love with Emelia who he does later describe looks just like Emma (his wife in the future). But he falls for Emelia hard in the few months he’s with her in the story and even once he comes back to present day with Emma, he’s still thinking and searching for what happened to Emelia. But he’s supposedly a changed man since he’s return (which lasted 1 hour in present time, but months to him in the past) and is back in love with his wife and ready to take on his duties. But all while thinking of Emelia always in his POV?! Like I wanted so much more for Emma here! Emma was a much better, stronger heroine! They aren’t even the same besides looks and both being vegetarians. It just all felt so weird and like whose romance is this book supposed to be?! I’ve heard LK said in interviews she had never written a good and proper time travel story and would avoid doing them in the future. And I think that’s honestly best because what was this book lol...more
I really enjoyed this read! I will honestly pickup anything from this author and probably have an equally great time being transported by the storytelI really enjoyed this read! I will honestly pickup anything from this author and probably have an equally great time being transported by the storytelling. I am late to the game with this author, after only having (finally) read Station Eleven last spring. I didn’t realize until after finishing Sea of Tranquility that characters in this book are also featured in the author’s previous book, The Glass Hotel. I do think this story stood on its own without that background/info of the crossover character moments and was very enjoyable, but I will for sure be going to back to read TGH now. This leans more into the sci-fi of speculative fiction and I just was instantly interested in the story. Told in multiple POVs and different times, the story is told over five centuries and deals with time travel, metaphysics, and humanity. I listened to this on audio from the library and definitely recommend, it had a full cast and I felt like it just added another element to the storytelling. ...more
“I think…no matter what universe we land in, we land there together.”
Quinn’s parents started taking her to a psychologist when she was 4 years old. Sh“I think…no matter what universe we land in, we land there together.”
Quinn’s parents started taking her to a psychologist when she was 4 years old. She’d wake several times a week, crying for her “husband, Nick”, and claiming they’ve been separated by someone. She’d insist she “isn’t supposed to be here” for hours and sometimes days afterward. In her life, Quinn would continue to know things she should not know…memories that she shouldn’t have. When she finally meets Nick one day at the hospital, and he’s also dreamed of her…things get complicated, because both are with other people but can’t stop remembering one another instead.
I loved this book so much! The angst and fated aspect. It kept me on the edge of my seat reading it, I binged it in a night because I had to know what would happen next. I love time travel and soul mate level romances and this one felt epic. I’m so intrigued with everything happening and need to know more! Book 1 leaves off unresolved, so you’ll definitely want to jump in 2 next. Which I’m off to do! ...more
“Were I to die tomorrow, my soul would remember you.”
A Knight in Shining Armor was my first read from Jude Deveraux and I picked it up since it was a “Were I to die tomorrow, my soul would remember you.”
A Knight in Shining Armor was my first read from Jude Deveraux and I picked it up since it was a historical romance book club pick. This is a time travel romance, the hero is from 1564 and the heroine from 1988. It starts with the hero coming to the future first which brought so much humor and fun as this Earl from the 16th century comes to learn about the modern 1980s. (Reading this in 2022 definitely made me laugh at some of the 80s moments). This was definitely entertaining and filled with lots of drama and intrigue. It gave me vibes of a movie I adored when I was younger, Kate & Leopold.
The book starts out in England, it’s 1564 and Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck, is holed up in a tower awaiting his execution for treason when he hears the faint cries of a woman. Somehow he travels through time and finds the crying woman and comes to realize he is now in the year 1988. Dougless Montgomery (seriously this name for a heroine was so strange to me) is a 26-year-old teacher on vacation in England with her boyfriend and his teenage daughter. Said boyfriend and daughter treat Dougless terribly and she is a complete pushover to the most irritating degree. After using and abusing her love, they end up ditching Dougless at a church and take the ride, her purse, money, passport, everything. It is when she’s sobbing on a grave in the churchyard wishing she could just finally find her own knight in shining armor that Nicholas arrives, clad in armor. Once Dougless believes Nicholas is from the past and he comes to terms with things in the future, they decide he must be there for a reason and it’s to find out and put a stop to his execution in the past. Which leads them to a deep dive into Nicholas’ past, family, and legacy. Along the way they start to fall for one another, but what will happen he leaves and can either choose to stay?
“Time has no meaning. Love will endure.”
The drama of this in the beginning with Dougless and her boyfriend and his daughter was so much. Like they were awful to Dougless but she was just as frustrating since I just wanted her to ditch them already. But once Nicholas shows up, it was so charming and cute seeing him love all the modern things. I did like this kind of take on soul mates through time and did enjoy their friendship and relationship as it slowly builds. While not everything was my favorite, I could overlook most of that and focus on the parts I did enjoy. I can definitely see why this is a favorite of so many readers. ...more
This book was wild and had so much going on. It is definitely long, very wordy and descriptive about everything. I still don’t know how I fully feel aThis book was wild and had so much going on. It is definitely long, very wordy and descriptive about everything. I still don’t know how I fully feel about this book. I mean it’s definitely 1991 bodice ripper level of storytelling (which has its place in romance book history), the story did feel meandering and so very long, for entertainment level I was invested and finished it, but then the actual romance I found so lacking sooo. ...more
I’ve been waiting for this book for 6+ years and still can’t even believe it’s finally here and I’ve read it. This is one series I’ve reread so many tI’ve been waiting for this book for 6+ years and still can’t even believe it’s finally here and I’ve read it. This is one series I’ve reread so many times over the years and I do love this world as a whole so much. That said, and maybe the fact that so much time has passed in waiting for this book or my reading tastes have changed, but this book just was a let down for me and my least fav in the series.
While life is never dull for the Fraser’s and at Fraser’s Ridge and we do see so much of the slice-of-life moments, it still just felt like nothing happened in this book…or nothing important I should say. This just felt like a stepping stone to get to book 10, but I wanted more (a build up or something to happen or something to lead into that final book) and this was just a let down. It didn’t seem like this book had a plot or anything to actually propel the story forward and for 900+ pages, that is a lot of things are happening but nothing is really happening. Even something I thought was going to be interesting or set something up, was just kind of taken care of and underwhelming.
It wasn’t all bad and there were plenty of things happen that were I thought were fun or sweet. All the conversations…Roger and Claire, Bree and Jamie, Jenny and Jamie, Claire and Jamie, Bree and William, Roger and Jamie. The POVs for William and Lord John Grey were not it for me. This book did deliver just enough memories/recaps of the past books. Other moments: the bear, Fanny, Claire’s medical adventures, J.H.R.C., Jenny, the bees....more
I loved One Last Stop. I didn’t know much about this before starting it, hadn’t even read the synopsis so I was just along for the ride and really becI loved One Last Stop. I didn’t know much about this before starting it, hadn’t even read the synopsis so I was just along for the ride and really became invested with this read. I did read this author’s previous book Red, White & Royal Blue and while I didn’t enjoy that one, I’m so glad I tried again with this book.
August is 23-years-old, bisexual and has recently moved to NYC. She is trying to find a place, meet new friends, and figure out what she wants to do with her life. While taking the subway one day she meets Jane and they have an instant connection. Soon August realizes the mysterious Jane doesn’t just look like a super cool old-school punk rocker, she’s actually displaced in time from the 1970s and can’t leave the subway…
This book was so sweet, magical, and just exactly what I wanted. I really enjoyed August’s roommates, coworkers, and friend group and the found family aspect of the story. The side characters and Jane & August’s stories really made this book for me, the mystery part I could have done with less of and it did make the story feel long in the middle. I loved the LGBTQ+ rep and history woven into this story. I listened to the audio and I really enjoyed the narration....more
This was a disappointing read for me. I was looking forward to this one and I feel like this was described as a certain kind of book and really went aThis was a disappointing read for me. I was looking forward to this one and I feel like this was described as a certain kind of book and really went another direction. I thought this would be more romance heavy from how it was marketed and described and it really wasn’t at all. I wouldn’t even describe it as a romance. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fine enough story but not what I was expecting or wanting, which is why I was disappointed. This story is more about the main characters friendship with her best friend. I didn’t connect with the characters and really didn’t like the choices our main character made...more
This story is so beautiful and still sticks with me. This was my first Amy Harmon read and I feel in love with her storytelling and writing because ofThis story is so beautiful and still sticks with me. This was my first Amy Harmon read and I feel in love with her storytelling and writing because of this book. This is a time-traveling historical fiction romance and it was perfection. It is so eloquently written and the story was just so poetic. I couldn’t love this one more or recommend it enough! Go in not knowing much and just be swept away by this epic tale. ...more
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Christi (christireadsalot)
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