The Wedding Date (Book Review)

Synopsis:
“A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel. Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist. On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend… After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she’s the mayor’s chief of staff. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other…They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century–or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want…”

Review:
I honestly thought this book was incredibly fun to read and I was very invested to see how far things would go with Alexa and Drew. I did not like the constant back and forth of oh its not meant to be, but I really want to be with them, but I can’t be with them.. blah blah blah. Another thing I did not like was how pretty much every time they were around each other, more or less they just had to have sex. The descriptions weren’t in so much great detail to the point it took away completely from the story, but it definitely went into more depth then a lot of other Romance books I have read in the past. This series does have more books, mostly about the other characters that were found in this book, which I cannot wait to get my hands on and read those books as well. The writing style was really good and easy to read, made it feel like I couldn’t put the book down and just had to keep reading.

Overall Review: *****

August 8, 2022 0

Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop (Book Review)

Synopsis:
The trip of a lifetime! Rosie Lewis has her life together. A swanky job as a Michelin-Starred Sous Chef, a loving husband and future children scheduled for exactly January 2021. That’s until she comes home one day to find her husband’s prepacked bag and a confession that he’s had an affair. Heartbroken and devastated, Rosie downs her sorrows in a glass (or three) of wine, only to discover the following morning that she has spontaneously invested in a bright pink campervan to facilitate her grand plans to travel the country. Now, Rosie is about to embark on the trip of a lifetime, and the chance to change her life! With Poppy, her new-found travelling tea shop in tow, nothing could go wrong, could it…?

Review:
I loved everything about this book, mostly because I have secretly liked the idea of having a used book store/tea shop on wheels. My personality also was similar to Rosie, where I am a huge planner and barely ever do anything spontaneously, so I was very invested in seeing how her life would turn around once the least expected happened to her. Once her husband had left her, he said the one thing he did not like about her was that everything had to be by her books and within her timing, everything had to be planned and was predictable. She then felt like she needed to not only prove him wrong, but prove herself wrong and that she can change how she has managed her own life, that is when she spontaneously quit her job and purchased a campervan (under the influence of far too many glasses of wine). She then decided to get on the road and travel, selling different teas and making a whole new life for herself.

I am truly thankful for this book, as it taught me that not everything goes according to plan. And sometimes it is okay for you to be spontaneous and make different plans with your own life to fully enjoy it to the best of your ability. It also covers some Romance with someone she least expected to be with and online dating with someone who pretended to be someone he wasn’t.

Favourite Quotes:

“And one thing I’ve learned is there is no right way to walk this earth, and we can only learn from those in our lives, take whatever lesson we can from it and keep going.”

“It strikes me that we humans build these lives for ourselves that have the tendency to trap us.”

“Bookworms do that a lot, fall for the hero in their latest read and get terribly down about the fact they’re fictional.”

Overall Review:
*****

~*ATBW*~

June 30, 2022 0

Wonder Woman: Warbringer (Book Review)

Synopsis:
Daughter of immortals. Princess Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law-risking exile-to save a mortal. Diana will soon learn that she has rescued no ordinary girl, and that with this single brave act, she may have doomed the world. Daughter of death. Alia Keralis just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she was being haunted by people who think her very existence could spark a world war. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer-a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery. Together, two girls will face an army of enemies-mortal and divine-determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. Tested beyond the bound of their abilities. Diana and Alia must find a way to unleash hidden strengths and forge an unlikely alliance. Because if they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

Review:
Wonder Woman is honestly on of my all time Super Heroes, and any novels to do with heroes.. especially heroes that already exist I find could be a hit and miss in terms of it being good. I overall think that Leigh Bardugo did a wonderful job to capture what Wonder Woman stands for. She was treated as if she was too little to be a true warrior, but when she was going to prove the other Amazons wrong, she had decided to go off course to protect this girl that had a boat which was being attacked.

This book did have some funny moments, especially how Alia would react when it came to Diana’s super strength. I really enjoyed the amount of girl power in this novel and how Diana pretty much tried to tell Alia how she can rewrite her own path and not be the evil she was destined to be.

I really did enjoy Leigh Bardugo’s writing style as well, so I am hoping to read more of her work. I am also looking forward reading more Super Hero novels written by some other amazing authors.

My favourite quotes:

“I am done being careful. I am done being quiet. Let them see me angry. Let them hear me wail at the top of my lungs.”

“We cannot spend our lives in hiding, wondering what we might accomplish if given the chance. We have to take that chance ourselves.”

“You can’t live in fear. You make things happen or they happen to you.”

“We can’t help the way we’re born. We can’t help what we are, only what life we choose to make for ourselves.”

“Because people are always going to look. They’re always going to judge, so you can say nothing or you can at least answer back.”

“A wise warrior learns from her mistakes.”

Overall Review:
****

June 30, 2022 0

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ~Sisterhood #1~ (Book Review)

Synopsis: Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn’t look all that great: they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them.

But Tibby says they’re great. She’d love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they’re fabulous. Lena decides that they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them.

Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything) thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye.

And then the journey of the pants — and the most memorable summer of their lives — begins.

Review: Another book I have had kicking around for quite some time now, I originally read this book last Summer and finally decided it was about time I gave my review before I completely forget about it. I have watched the movie a long time ago, and have full intentions of re-watching it, so I can do a comparison of both the book and the novel together.

Four Best Friends that have never been a part during the Summer came across a pair of old worn out jeans and have decided that even though this Summer was going to be the Summer they spend away from each other, they will mail it out to each other (NEVER TO WASH THEM) and will wear them during the most important or scary parts of their Summer. The pants brought them good luck or even helped to keep them feel secure, kind of as if the friends were still together. What made these pants feel like magic was the fact that they fit all four of them, even though their body types were completely different.

Carmen ends up heading South to go visit her Father, which she eventually finds out that her dad is due to be Married to another Woman, and she also finds out that he has future step-daughters.

Lena and her sister go to Greece to visit and bond with their Grandparents. Lena also learns that not every guy is shallow and that just maybe someone is genuinely interested in her.

Bridget goes to Mexico for a Soccer camp and ends up falling for her coach, a forbidden love for a young girl like herself.

Tibby is the only one of the four girls that is stuck staying at home working her day job, when she meets a younger girl and becomes friends with her despite of the age difference.

I honestly did love this book, and I think it is a series I may want to introduce to my soon-to-be-daughter when she becomes of age to read young adult books.

The author for this book is Ann Brashares and she has written a total of 5 books for this series, which I own most, I cannot wait to get my hands on the last book or two. I will definitely also write reviews for the other books as I read them.

Overall book rating: *****

*~ATBW~*

April 4, 2022 0