Kaitlyn’s Reading Round-Up: July to December 2025
Warning: Many of the reviews below contain some minor spoilers. Read at your own risk.
Reading Stats for July to December 2025
- Total Books Read: 14 (woohoo!!)
- Reading Mediums: 12 physical books, 2 e-books
- Books Owned vs. Borrowed: 3 books owned, 8 books borrowed from library, 1 book borrowed from friends/family, 2 books pirated as ePUBs
The Teacher by Freida McFadden
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Borrowed from library
Official Synopsis: Lesson #1: trust no one.
Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except… Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye.
Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says. But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet.
My Thoughts: A super quick read that I honestly couldn’t put down, Freida McFadden’s writing style is surprisingly addictive. While I found the story and its ending to be satisfying, I admit that the story as a whole was pretty forgettable.
The insane plot twists almost felt like they were added in for shock value rather than contributing something worthwhile to the story — one of the main plot twists also retroactively added in some plot holes?! That felt a little amateur coming from the author.
The characters were pretty one-note, but were interesting enough that I was invested and wanted to finish their story. I’d say this was a good read overall, but seeing as I am writing this review many months after finishing the book, I can say with certainty that this book was extremely forgettable. I won’t be reading this again, but at least I didn’t feel like I wasted my time reading it in the first place.
My Rating: 3.5 / 5
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Borrowed from library
Official Synopsis: Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.
Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents — his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.
But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.
My Thoughts:
Holy dogshit. This book makes Icebreaker look like Pride & Prejudice.
Ridiculous plot, ridiculous plot holes, absolutely NOTHING in this book made sense. I can forgive things needing to happen for the sake of the plot, but dear God, this was far too unrealistic and nonsensical for even me, an avid romance reader, to overlook. Their fake marriage?? The inheritance clause?? WHAT??
The main guy was extremely boring. The main girl was extremely annoying. Anna was one of the most insufferable main characters I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. She was such a LOSER, and not in a charming way. The narrative also treats her being low income as a valid reason for her to be dumb as rocks, it felt borderline offensive. I mean, Anna mocks the main guy (who was so boring that I forgot his name) by saying “inadvertently” is a “rich people word”, and starts referring to the main guy’s dick as “his Goddamn” — holy fuck, this book was insufferable. Also, why were there multiple scenes of Anna making innuendos about having sex with the main guy in front of HIS MOTHER, RIGHT AFTER THEY MET? God, the secondhand embarrassment I got from every line of dialogue in this book was ridiculous.
The romance and chemistry in this romance book were non-existent, just insta-lust that came out of left field. At least Hannah Grace and Ali Hazelwood wrote somewhat convincing chemistry before, these two had no reason to actually like each other, THEY JUST MET!! The third act conflict was exhausting, took way too long yet was somehow so boring/predictable, I skimmed most of it and felt like I didn't miss a thing.
Now that I think about it, I also hated the characters in The Unhoneymooners, maybe Christina Lauren books just aren't for me. I cannot believe how straight-up garbage this “romance” book was for all the praise I've seen it get — I would have written this book word-for-word if someone challenged me to write a bad Wattpad fanfiction.
Go to Goodreads, look up 1 star reviews for this book — I agree with everything there.
My Rating: 1 / 5
Finders Keepers by Sarah Adler
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Borrowed from library
Official Synopsis: Last week, Nina Hunnicutt was a professor about to move into a gorgeous new apartment with her long-term boyfriend. Now, she’s single, unemployed, and living with her parents. Even more surprising is the fact that Quentin Bell, her childhood neighbor (and okay, fine, crush), is also back in town — and wants to resume the treasure hunt that ended their friendship almost two decades ago.
Hoping the reward promised to whoever finds the rumored riches left behind by the town’s eccentric turn-of-the-century seltzer magnate will help her get her life back on track, Nina agrees. Granted, last time the search resulted in a broken heart and seventeen years of silence. But Nina’s older and wiser now — surely things will be different.
Except, Quentin is also older and wiser… not to mention distractingly handsome. As they resume their hunt, Nina and Quentin begin to rediscover all the things they once loved best about each other. But unlike the treasure, the secrets that left them empty-handed the first time refuse to stay buried. If there’s any hope of finding what they’re looking for — and for a future together — Nina and Quentin will have to be brave enough to excavate their past as well.
My Thoughts: Finally, some good fucking food.
Recommended to me by the ever-lovely Elisa, this book was a drastically needed palette cleanser.
Well-written, well-paced, overall just a good read — this book is absolutely an Emily Henry tier romance. I loved the main couple's dynamic, their inside jokes and banter stemming from their childhood friendship felt so real and cozy and lovely. Nina was a relatable overthinking girlie while Quentin was such a charming love interest, I definitely fell for him too — which is exactly what you want out of a good romance.
I loved Nina's mom and her relationship with Nina but also with Quentin, I loved how cozy and happy this book made me feel.
Overall, I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a lil romance to take the edge off.
My Rating: 4.5 / 5
The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Owned
Official Synopsis: Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.
Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
My Thoughts: Man, I love Rachel Gillig's writing style. She is slowly but surely becoming a romantasy GOAT. Another marvelously unique magic system from Gillig too! I love how rich the magic systems and worlds feel in her books, she has such a talent for making them feel grounded and real.
The romance in this romantasy was a tad bit rushed for my taste — he was devoting his life to her fairly soon after just meeting her — but I was still kicking my feet and twirling my hair over it. Sue me! I love a man who yearns and blushes!
I’m also just forever in love with the very specific Rachel Gillig trope of a female main character + her annoying yet charming beastly sidekick.
I honestly didn’t fully see the plot twist coming at the end, WOW! I thought there'd be some level of deception/betrayal, but not to that extent… I eagerly await the sequel.
Overall, I loved this book, and would recommend it to someone looking for a good romantasy.
My Rating: 4.5 / 5
The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club by Gloria Chao
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Borrowed from library
Official Synopsis: The body in the closet was going to be a problem. Kathryn Hu knew it. Yes, Tucker Jones was a cheating scumbag, and yes, she’d agreed to meet Olivia and Elle — Tucker’s other girlfriends — to exact revenge for all he’d put them through… But then they found him. Dead.
Do they look guilty? Yes.
Do they feel guilty for having wished him dead just hours before? Maybe a little.
But — solid motive and a crime scene covered in their DNA aside — they’re innocent. They swear. To clear their names, Kat, Olivia and Elle team up to find the real killer. But as they go undercover and lie to everyone, including the hot detective working the case, they realize that every person in their ex's life had a reason to want him dead. Will they uncover the truth before they go down for a murder they didn't commit?
My Thoughts: Ugh. I wanted to like this book, it had so much promise with its fun premise. Unfortunately, this book is yet another victim to cringey writing with too many pop culture references.
Every character was flat, one-note — the girls became best friends and began risking their lives for each other literally overnight?! None of their relationships made sense given how little they knew about one another. Also, making your characters quirky is not a replacement for being well-rounded OR an excuse for them making dumb choices! When will millennial writers get that!
I hated the random life story dumps they kept randomly doing — you're in the middle of investigating a murder! I don't care about your childhood right now! I equally hated the forced romance with the main character and the detective, so boring and lackluster.
Logic truly just went out the window for this book, there were so many plotholes that were impossible to overlook. You’re telling me the main character is suspected for murder, but still allowed to continue her amateur sleuthing and getting involved in the active police investigation?! Hello?!
A nonsensical read that somehow had the most predictable ending.
My Rating: 1.5 / 5
Rose in Chains by Julie Soto
Reading Medium: e-Book
Owned vs. Borrowed: Pirated ePub >:)
Official Synopsis: The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead. Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, Briony Rosewood knows that the world as she knows it is changed forever. The dark forces of Bomard have won and her people, the Eversuns, face imminent servitude, imprisonment or death. Her brother, fated to be heir twice over and unite the warring kingdoms, is dead.
Stripped of her Mind Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly auctioned off to the highest bidders in an auction – and as the heir apparent’s sister, she fetches the highest price.
After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven – a high ranking Bomardsun – and her long-time and ill-fated infatuation. Scion of a family known for their cruel control of Heart Magic, the Hearsts are ruthlessly ambitious, and Briony knows they will use her however they can to further their own interests.
Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help – and hope – may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…
My Thoughts: Oh. My. GOD.
I wish I could wash the stench of this book off of me with a long hot bath.
For those unaware, this book was popularized in the online book community after it was revealed to be a very popular Dramione fanfiction that was re-written for traditional publishing… So, yay... We love shipping “baby Nazi x woman he loves to hate crime”! Can you tell I hate Dramione!
The writing was engaging enough in the first half, the plot and world building was interesting enough that I didn't immediately DNF it... but then it just dragged on forever.
The main characters had the dumbest names I’ve ever read, Briony and Toven?! Briony was such a boring character, she had no agency or fight in her even though she's in the middle of a WAR and being SOLD into SLAVERY! Toven was a flat, boring, cookie cutter dark romantasy love interest — am I supposed to feel anything but hatred towards this literal slave owner?! Briony and Toven had ZERO. CHEMISTRY.
The depiction of war and the auction (human trafficking!!! slavery!!!) were so brutally depicted, I felt a bit sick at times while reading this... then the book suddenly wants you to twirl your hair and blush over a so-called romance in some stupid flashbacks?! When Briony and Toven were flirty schoolmates before, you know, HE BOUGHT HER?!
This book felt like someone took Game of Thrones and tried to booktok-ify into a dark romance. Romanticizing “slave x kind slave owner” in this day and age is downright reprehensible.
Dramione fans need to learn that enemies to lovers does not and should not include “person who commits hate crimes/speech x victim of said hate crimes/speech”
This book sparked such a deep anger within me, I'm going to burn it to the ground.
My Rating: 1 / 5
Good Girl by Anna Fitzpatrick
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Owned
Official Synopsis: Lucy tries so hard to be good. She was always a good student, tries to be a good friend, a good citizen, a good feminist, and now she wants a lover who will give her a good beating, preferably after tying her up.
Dating swings from the sublime to the humiliating, but then Lucy hooks up with someone who challenges her to pursue the writing career she has been letting idle. When she discovers a teen magazine from the 1970s, it sparks her imagination and her life finally seems to come into focus; but as she learns more about how women were treated behind the scenes, she has to decide what to do. How to be true to herself, as chaotic as she believes herself to be; how to be good to those around her; how to survive as a young woman in the still messy media culture of 2015.
My Thoughts: I needed a palette cleanser after that Dramione bullshit.
Thankfully, this book was truly a “no plot, just vibes” kind of literary read. I really enjoyed reading about a 25 year old woman living her messiest life in Toronto — so relatable. I loved the writing style, it felt very snappy, quick, and witty. This book was overall a quick read that just flew by in a good way.
I loved the topics / discussions the book touches on (BDSM and how sex affects your every day life, being a good vs. bad feminist and politically active especially in 2015, feeling selfish vs. taking care of yourself) — but some of it felt a bit surface level? I felt like it could have gone much deeper but actively chose not to.
The ending was also kind of abrupt, I was actually shocked when I realized it ended!
The main character Lucy was a good “I kinda hate her but I kinda love her” main character — one of my favourite scenes was Lucy running into her ex-situationship Henry again, and Henry asking her if something serious happened to her while re-emphasizing that the submissive should be the real one in control while practicing BDSM. It felt like such an important moment of realization for Lucy that I wish the book lingered on for longer.
I liked that the ending, albeit abrupt, wasn't a perfect ending with Lucy figuring herself out entirely, learning to love herself, etc. — it felt realistic in how she found comfort in a moment surrounded by people she loved, and didn't need to have it all figured out right then and there to feel happy.
Overall a very good read that I would read again, but I wish it gave me a bit more.
My Rating: 4 / 5
Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Borrowed from library
Official Synopsis: Joni Lark is living the dream. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA… and she can’t seem to write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.
When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark her inspiration. But when she gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is avoiding her, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.
How can she think about writing her next song when everything is changing without her?
Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it — belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with hangups of his own. Surely, he’s a figment of her overworked imagination.
But then the very real man attached to the voice shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s aggravating and gruff on the outside — nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head — and he has a plan: They’ll finish the song haunting them both, break their connection, and hope they don’t risk their hearts in the process. Because that song stuck in their heads? Maybe it’s there for a reason.
My Thoughts: A pretty solid Ashley Poston book — not my favourite from her, but I really enjoyed it.
I really liked the cast of characters, the romance was good — a bit cheesy, but really enjoyable. I loved how the “hearing each other's thoughts” plot was handled in a way that made sense to how people would actually react to the situation without veering into cartoonish territory.
I really liked Sebastian/Sasha as a love interest, the romance was solid overall.
The dementia plotline was handled so lovingly, it was really poignant to read. The main plot was fairly predictable, and many instances of conflict (the couple's third act break-up, the best friends’ fight) felt almost forced for the plot’s sake.
The coastal beach town vibes were so good though, and I really like Ashley Poston's writing style and the way she writes romance, so I did still enjoy the book as a whole.
My Rating: 4 / 5
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Owned
Official Synopsis: Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek: The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld.
Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.
Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams…. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.
With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.
But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.
My Thoughts: Damn. I really wanted to like this book! What a waste of potential and good ideas.
I either hated or didn't care for any characters — the only characters I kind of liked were Elspeth and King Yama, who were very much side characters with little time dedicated to them.
Alice Law was one of the most flat, unlikeable characters I have read in a long time — her total lack of agency, unchallenged internalized misogyny, and lack of perspective for her own privilege was extremely frustrating to read. Every decision that she made was nonsensical, everything about her felt like a flimsy excuse of character motivation.
The “romance”, if you can call it that, between Alice and Peter was horribly portrayed. It genuinely felt like Baby's First Fanfiction level of romance writing.
With extremely heavy-handed and unedited repetitive writing, this book became a slog to read at some parts... I only enjoyed some sections of Kuang's prose, but she desperately needs a better editor who isn’t afraid to tell her when something isn’t working.
The plot was so stagnant, it felt like nothing ever happened as it moved at a glacial pace, and the stakes were so low despite being in ACTUAL HELL! Speaking of, I cannot believe Kuang gave up the “hell is a campus” idea — an original and pretty fun idea — half way through the book. “Hell has no rules” was a very lame excuse for having extremely inconsistent rules for the world you so haphazardly built, Kuang!
An extremely underwhelming and frustrating story to read, only made more frustrating once you remember the potential it had.
My Rating: 1.5 / 5
Flawless by Elsie Silver
Reading Medium: e-Book
Owned vs. Borrowed: Pirated ePub >:)
Official Synopsis: The rules were simple: keep his hands off his agent's daughter and stay out of trouble. But now he's stuck with her. There's only one bed. And well, rules are made to be broken. Rhett Eaton is the face of professional bull riding. The golden boy. Or at least he was until it all blew up in his face after a public brawl. Now his agent says he has to clean up his image, and sticks Rhett with his ball-busting daughter for the rest of the season as “full-time supervision.”
But Rhett doesn't need a goddamn babysitter — especially one with skin-tight jeans, a sexy smirk, and a mouth she can't stop running. A mouth he can't stop thinking about. And he quickly learns that Summer Hamilton isn't just another conquest. She sees the man behind the mask, and she doesn't run — she pulls him closer, even when she shouldn't.
She says this means nothing. Rhett says this means everything. She says there are boundaries they shouldn't cross. That Rhett's reputation can't take any more hits… and neither can her damaged heart. Rhett says he's going to steal it anyway.
My Thoughts: Reading a romance set in Alberta was good for my heart and soul — I love supporting a Canadian author too.
The plot was very predictable, but decent enough to keep me engaged, like a good rom-com movie where you don’t mind if it’s cheesy or predictable so long as you have fun watching the story unfold.
The romance was pretty good but not amazing, I wish there was more time spent on the two main characters being friends instead of jumping immediately into “I'd take a bullet for you” kind of love. However, I will admit: The sex scenes were well-written and very hot.
The main girl’s sister and step-mother were kind of comically evil, but this book was very tropey in general, so it wasn't the most egregious thing to read.
I probably won’t re-read this book, but I enjoyed reading it and will likely read the next book in the series. Overall, it was just an okay/decent read.
My Rating: 2.5 / 5
Mate by Ali Hazelwood
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Borrowed from library
Official Synopsis: Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left — if he’ll have her.
As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe. But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her — and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…
My Thoughts: This book is only for if you are a horny freak (don’t look at me like that), because the only good parts of this book were the sex scenes.
The characters were typical for Ali Hazelwood — cringy and quippy with some good moments and some annoying moments. Her gruff, stoic, and serious main male character was unironically saying shit like “jizzmuffin” and “shartstain” as insults — it took me out of the book SO FAST.
The main romance felt pretty weak in this book, I didn't really feel like the characters actually fell in love, they just jumped into being deeply in love out of nowhere. The lore was also borderline incomprehensible, it felt like Ali Hazelwood really wanted to go in depth with this world's lore but it unfortunately read like a mid-tier Criminal Minds episode.
The theme/commentary on male doctors ignoring and/or misdiagnosing women's health was out of nowhere, but appreciated as it was handled surprisingly with care. The plot was extremely predictable and the characters had some eye-roll dumb moments for the plot's sake, but this is not unheard of in romance, so I was able to overlook this.
The sex scenes were genuinely and unironically the best part of this book — very hot and surprisingly well written, especially compared to the rest of the book. It feels like Ali Hazelwood has really found her groove in writing stellar sex scenes.
However, stellar sex scenes are (probably) not enough to entice me to read this book again. At least I had enough fun reading it that I don't regret picking it up or feel like I completely wasted my time.
My Rating: 2 / 5
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Borrowed from Mom
Official Synopsis: A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever — and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
My Thoughts: Wow. Crazy how this book was genetically engineered to be one of my favourite books.
So so so beautifully written, wonderfully flowery poetic prose for those who enjoy that type of writing (me). I loved every character, each one felt so real and grounded in who they are.
I adored how the story jumped between the present day in New York City and glimpses into Addie's 300+ year life, with interwoven stories of art history and Addie's influence on art history — which was, if I may say as an art history major, utterly iconic. One of the characters is literally an art history grad student, and the meaning / purpose / longevity of art is one of the book's main themes. How could I not love this book!
I loved how the relationship between Addie and Luc (the embodiment of Death in this book) was written, I'm a sucker for “girl and the demon she made a deal with” stories.
I loved Addie and Henry's relationship, their love for each other felt so genuine and beautifully written, not even just as a romance, it was a wonderful tribute to real human connection and how it feels to find someone who wants to understands you.
Truly a wonderful read. I devoured this story so greedily, I already want to re-read it. I was thinking about this story and its characters even when I wasn't reading the book, what a lovely sign for an incredible read.
My Rating: 5 / 5
A Jingle Bell Mingle by Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Borrowed from library
Official Synopsis: Part-time adult film actress/one-time adult film director/makeup artist Sunny Palmer has accidentally sold her very first screenplay to the Hope Channel. That was six months ago. Fast forward to a looming deadline, an uninspired Sunny has returned to the source of her inspiration in Christmas Notch, Vermont, to immerse herself in the local Christmas miracle on which her fever dream of a movie pitch was based.
Isaac Kelly, former boy band heartthrob and the saddest boy in the music biz, is the latest owner of the town’s historic mansion. After his years of heartbreak following his young wife’s death, Isaac’s record label is done waiting for new music. What better place to attempt his first holiday album than a snow-covered mansion where he can become a hermit in peace?
But after their best friends’ wedding leads to them waking up together in a freezing motel room with questionable wiring and a broken shower, Isaac takes a chance and asks Sunny to stay with him at his home. Surely the place is big enough that he’ll hardly see her or her unhinged cat. But when the two discover they’re both creatively blocked, they make a handshake deal: Isaac will help Sunny hunt down the truth behind the local lore, and Sunny will find Isaac a new muse. And with these two opposites under one roof, there’s no way this jingle bell mingle could go off script…right?
My Thoughts: This is the 3rd book of a Christmas romance series that I started last Christmas, and it is 100% the worst one.
1st book was pretty fun, 2nd book was mid, this book was just awful. Should have kept the 1st book as a stand-alone.
The characters in this book were an absolute mess, to the point that at some parts I was missing the characters in Icebreaker — at least they were entertaining! This book's characters were all flattened to one (1) character trait, and they all spoke with the exact same zany, millennial cringe, “I've watched The Office too many times” tone that made them impossible to tell apart, and would make Ali Hazelwood say “okay, let's tone it back on this super cringy sarcasm”. The main girl's first line of dialogue was walking into a room of friends and exclaiming “What's up, tampon strings!” … That's all you need to know.
I beg these authors to find a new writing style. How did the writing in this book series get so bad so fast? It's been a long time since I read a book that was so long and still had nothing to say.
The chemistry in the main romance was non-existent, not just to the point that I was wondering why they fell in love with each other, but to the point that I was wondering how they could not HATE each other. The only foundation for romance was “We were part of a crazy threesome a year ago, isn't that so zany and crazy and cool? Now I need to stay at your house and all we can ever think about is fucking each other”. What an awful romance — even the sex scenes were a let down due to lack of chemistry. They only confessed their love for each other because the book's plot demanded that it was time for it to happen, it did not feel organic at all.
The main characters also pissed me off so much with how non-sensical their decision-making processes were, they made the main characters of Katabasis look competent. Two grown adults who spoke and acted like 13 year olds. What do you mean you are fucking every day, all you can think about is sex with the other person, you keep saying how much you want to be together as more than FWB while fucking, but both people are thinking “There's no way they love me :/” ?!
The third act conflict was so stupid. Actually fuck the main guy for being so downright mean to the main girl. You’re seriously mad at your girlfriend for “distracting you from remembering your dead wife's death anniversary, how dare you make me happy” ?! She should have left him right there and then, it was ridiculous that she was the first to apologize when they inevitably got back together.
Every character was extremely annoying, the plot was extremely predictable, the sex scenes were extremely bad. This book was a waste of time, a clear cash-grab of continuing a popular Christmas romance series.
My Rating: 1 / 5
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Reading Medium: Physical
Owned vs. Borrowed: Borrowed from library
Official Synopsis: Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.
I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of…
My Thoughts: I buddy-read this book with Elisa! A very quick and easy to read, honestly it’s a great remedy to get you out of a reading slump.
Sadly, I did find this book to be very predictable and stereotypical, but Freida McFadden’s writing style still kept me intrigued enough to finish the book.
I feel very “meh” about this book overall. The ending was tied together too nicely and too easily, it didn't feel entirely earned. The characters also felt unbelievable, almost cartoonishly evil or naive — while also being so one note and shallow? I mean, you’re telling me the main girl survived 10 years in prison but still has shitty self-preservation when faced with suspicious behaviour? Come on now.
A disappointingly mid and underwhelming experience for a thriller that was so hyped up.
My Rating: 2 / 5
If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading my Reading Round-Up! This one was long overdue, and I am very relieved to have it done now. :)
I also just realized that this Reading Round-Up starts and ends with a Freida McFadden book, what a coinky-dink.
This has been Kaitlyn’s Reading Round-Up, signing off!