This was a great batch of ARCs. I really enjoyed all three of my main reviews, though, there’s also a bonus DNF review tacked on at the end. It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan, Ladies in Hating by Alexandria Vasti, and An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister are all books I received e-book ARCs from via Netgalley. I had both the e and audio review copies for Kiss Me, Maybe and I’m really sad it didn’t work for me. I know I listened to a finished copy of Ladies in Hating, but I think I may have actually read my ebook copies of the other two, which is wild. Anyway, they’re all out now! You can pick them up if you haven’t already.
It’s a Love Story
by Annabel Monaghan
It’s funny to me the way I read this premise like six times before reading the book and never quite managed to understand what I was getting myself into. Then I read it and I devoured it. It’s a Love Story is about Jane, a former child actress who was the comedic side character and has honestly, quite a lot of internalized issues about her place in the world. She has this idea that if she can just shave down everything that makes her too much that she should be able to find someone to love, but that’s not working out. Her focus, though, at the moment, is truly about getting a film made based on a book that she’s really passionate about. The only problem is that the studio she works for says that it’s not got the elements for a Hollywood blockbuster so Jane grasps at the only straw she can, her former connection to a now very famous singer. The problem? She hasn’t talked to him in years and has no desire to either. Somehow, she and her work arch nemesis, Dan, wind up traveling to his home in order to corner famous musician man at this festival he’s going to perform at. Along the way, they fall in love.
Meanwhile, I fell in love. Dan’s family is the absolutely best. They are some of the best side-characters and I could have read six hundred pages of them just all being at Dan’s childhood home for this week. This book was so rich because it felt like these people were real and they filled out the world so much. And watching Dan and Jane come together after all of this built up animosity was so lovely. But Jane’s personal journey? Definitely the winner here. I loved how she slowly, S O slowly learned to let go of some of those insecurities that kept her small and in a box and started to really become more herself. This book solidified that I will be reading so much more Monaghan in the future because I am officially a fan.
Ladies in Hating
by Alexandria Vasti
Georgiana and Cat knew one another once upon a time, when Cat’s father was a… butler (?) in Georgiana’s family’s home. Georgiana had a bit of a crush on Cat at the time. Unfortunately, Georgiana’s dad is terrible, which you may know if you’re read the other books in this series. He pretty unceremoniously fired Cat’s dad and Georgiana has felt really terrible about it for a long time. In the present though, they haven’t seen one another in years, until when Georgiana stakes out Belvoir’s Library to figure out who the author is that is somehow plagiarizing her and the two come face to face. Throughout a lot of very rollicking good times, the two wind up in this haunted gothic mansion situation and it is a delight. As a person who scares easily, I found that the horror was sufficiently horror-y, but not too much for me, a person who could mostly do without it. And the way these two wind up yearning for one another?? Especially Georgiana. She’s so tortured. I loved that part a lot. I would absolutely recommend this one!
An Academic Affair
by Jodi McAlister
An Academic Affair is one of the book club picks for my local romance bookstore and I cannot wait to talk about this with other people because I am genuinely obsessed with it. You may have noticed if you followed along with my end of year content because it featured heavily in my favorites lists. If you want a modern marriage of convenience that makes sense, READ THIS BOOK. And if you don’t want a modern marriage of convenience, can I interest you in academic rivals to lovers? Because this is that too. I absolutely adore this book. I cannot even begin to explain the way that it makes me feel all the things. I just…. I love it so much. Please read it if you haven’t already.
Bonus DNF Review:
Kiss Me, Maybe
by Gabriella Gamez
I sincerely want to love this book. There is not enough ace rep in the romance world! And yet, I just didn’t love this book. I’m not sure that I can really pinpoint why. In theory I should love it. There’s plenty of yearning because Angela is definitely crushing hard on Krystal. But perhaps it’s the way this book is focused actually on Angela having accidentally created a thirst trap about having never been kissed and creating this whole scavenger hunt situation to find someone to kiss. I really enjoyed the first book in the series so I’m certainly not writing off Gamez as a writer! But this book will unfortunately not be getting finished.
The audiobook narrator was doing a good job for the part that I did manage to listen to!
Closing Thoughts
I just want to emphasize one more time how much I love An Academic Affair and implore y’all to read it. It’s SO good. Have you read any of these? Are any on your TBR? Let me know!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 