It pains me to write this book review of The Friends We Keep. Many of you know that I’m a huge Jane Green fan; I’ve read all of her books, and I’ve recommended quite a few of them on the Tart. Whenever I hear she has a new book coming out, I immediately get on the waiting list for it at my local library. (And, there’s always a waiting list for her new books.) However…after reading The Friends We Keep, I have to finally acknowledge that...
I've never been happier to be an only child than after reading I Owe You One. The latest novel from Sophia Kinsella is a romantic comedy, like most of her novels, but it’s also about a young woman finding her own voice and learning to stand up for herself against bullies -- most of whom are her own family members. There’s a charming little IOU game that runs back and forth between main character Fixie and love interest Seb, and this...
I delved into Desperate Girls expecting a good thriller, and instead I ended up reading a romance novel tinged with a little bit of suspense. I can’t remember why I decided to add Desperate Girls by Laura Griffin to my TBR list. I think I saw a targeted ad for it somewhere, but I can’t be sure. Whatever the prompt -- add it, I did, because the Goodreads book description made it sound like this book would be a sharp, intense thriller that...
The Unhoneymooners is your next perfect beach read. I originally toyed with giving it a brief mention in my recent Quick Look Books post on Vacation Destination reads. However, in the end, I had to write a full review -- and, of course, give the book its own book-inspired recipe! This newest novel from writing duo Christina Lauren is your quintessential rom-com: two characters who loath one another somehow find themselves on a vacation in...
Well, we made it to summer, everyone! If you’re like me, you're dreaming about what vacations you want to take. Warm weather always makes me think about jet-setting somewhere exotic -- or, really, to anywhere that’s different from what I see 24/7 in my daily routine. The past few years have yielded a lot more daycations than vacations for me, though, so I’ve been getting my vicarious vacation fix through books. Which brings me to this...
Well. I'm never visiting a health resort. EVER. I'm just going to start this review by saying that Nine Perfect Strangers did not go at all where I thought it would. A lot of people said they had a hard time getting through this entire book, and I didn't quite understand what they meant until about halfway through -- which is about halfway through the titular "nine perfect strangers'" experience at a luxury spa and health resort called...
As so often happens, I started reading The Endless Beach on a grey, rainy, Saturday morning, snuggled up in bed between a husband and a cat. I had only gotten a little into the book when I had to wrench myself away in order to find some breakfast. Seriously, the only thing that could have made me stop reading this book at that moment was hunger. I was only about 15 pages in, and I was already lost in another world from which I didn’t want to...
Glory Road is the first book I was able to read after my concussion, and it was the perfect novel to reacquaint me with the pleasure of losing yourself in a story well-told. Go ahead and judge this book by its gorgeous cover. Glory Road is just as lovely and enchanting as first glance would lead you to believe. I first fell in love with Lauren K. Denton’s writing when I read The Hideaway, and her newest novel is full of the same easy, familiar...
I think I seriously missed out on a life experience by not rushing a Southern sorority. That's something I never thought I would say, since I pretty much mocked sororities every chance I got back in college. And, for a good halfway through Rush, I was feeling pretty darn smug about my decision to eschew all Greek life when I had the chance. By the end of this amazing book, though, author Lisa Patton had completely sold me on Southern sorority...
I read All We Ever Wanted the weekend I wasn’t supposed to read a book. I had decided to take about a week off from my TBR list in order to concentrate on revising my query letter. However, in true CJ fashion, I woke up super early on Saturday morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t think that editing my query letter at 5:30am was a stupendous idea, so I grabbed my copy of All We Ever Wanted, climbed back into bed, and began...
