This is such a weird mix of books, I feel like. The Art of Loving You by Natasha Bishop and Good at Being Alive by Elizabeth O’Roarke are both contemporary romances with grief elements, so they have that in common, I suppose. And then Echoes of Insurrection is just my little outlier. Regardless, those are the three books I’ll be reviewing for you today! I received the e-ARC of The Art of Loving You but I read a finished physical copy I purchased on my Nashville bookstore crawl. I received an ALC of Echoes of Insurrection but had already read the ebook version earlier this year that I bought so I reread on audio (and enjoyed it more!). And then I received an e-ARC of Good at Being Alive and actually read it before its release date. Amazing! Thank you to each of the publishers for sharing these books with me via Netgalley. So now let’s talk about them.
The Art of Loving You by Natasha Bishop
This book took me ages to read, but I don’t think it was the fault of the book. I picked up The Art of Loving You expecting another novel that was fairly light and sexy like Only for the Week, but I got a book that was full of grief and a second chance romance where Dani and Micah had a lot to work through on their own. Ultimately, this book includes elements like a road trip and various side characters that are all so interesting and fully formed, Bishop could be writing their stories for the next decade. It includes learning to stand up for yourself, panic attacks, support groups, community centers, and so much more. This book is expansive and that’s something you need to be in the right frame of mind to read. I think it’s important to have your expectations well set. Overall, I do think this book balanced all of the various elements pretty well, but there are still things I think I would have liked more time on. I feel like there’s a plot point about Dani being numb in front of the camera that sort of fades into the background in the last third of the book, for example. Anyway, once you have your expectations set though, I think you should definitely pick this one up!
Read this if you want a book that is maybe a smidge lighter than The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn or a smidge heavier than Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun. Also, I just need to be petty for a minute: WHY is Only for the Week so much taller than The Art of Loving You? It’s making my shelf look weird as all get out and I do not appreciate it. I know it’s major First World Problems, but I’m still salty about it.
Echoes of Insurrection by T.A. White
When I first binge read this series in February, I was upset because I had to read this one with my eyeballs alone because the audiobook wasn’t yet out and I was convinced that I didn’t love it as much as the others because of that. Now the verdict is in: I was right. The audiobooks for this series absolutely help me sink into the books and I don’t know why because they are just audiobooks. It’s not a graphic audio situation, but these audiobooks really work for me. And they’re imperfect! I think there are probably mouth noises that will bother other people, but they really don’t bother me, thankfully. But fair warning just in case you’re super sensitive to mouth noises.
As for what this book is about, it’s book 6 in a series that is absolutely connected, you cannot start with this one. Basically, Kira and Jin are best friends and Jin is like, sort of a robot/AI type of person and Kira is more than human. They somehow wind up trapped into this diplomatic mission thing because Kira rescues some Tuann children and then they realize Kira is a Tuann and there’s this whole thing… Anyways, six books later, we have a group of found family in so many different ways with their own relationships with one another and people outside of the circle. We have “family” and we have FAMILY, you know? Probably not, but basically, if you are even remotely willing to give a sci-fi adventure/romance series a shot, PLEASE PICK THESE BOOKS UP. Also, if you, like me, are obsessed with Ilona Andrews Hidden Legacy series, PICK THESE BOOKS UP. And if you stopped reading these for some reason and haven’t picked this installment up yet, do it! There’s so much character development happening with Jin and I’m so intrigued. Anyway, happy reading!
Good at Being Alive by Elizabeth O’Roarke
Okay, here’s the deal: I love Elizabeth O’Roark’s writing so much. I love a grief novel. I love all the dark jokes in here. (I don’t love all the Harry Potter references because even if JKR wasn’t transphobic, there are way too many references to HP.) I love the marriage of convenience where they have some reasons to not like one another. What I don’t love is that Theo has this secret hanging over his head the whole time like a sword just waiting to drop and we get his perspective. I think O’Roark did a great job making this angsty in part because of that, but the thing is, there’s enough going on in this book that I actually think it would have been fine for her to address that secret in a way that’s more integrated into the narrative so that we have more time at the end to see how these two make it work. When 87% of the way through you have Bex asking, “But what do I even know about my husband?” AND the sword hasn’t actually fallen yet, I was already convinced the HEA was going to be too rushed. And ultimately, I think that O’Roark did a good job with the HEA and making it semi-believable, but I, personally, want more time to really be able to believe in it, if that makes sense. So, YMMV, but all in all, I do like O’Roarke’s writing and am hoping to pick up Waking Olivia next.
Closing Thoughts
All in all, these were three pretty good reads, but I’m already excited to tell you about three others so I’ll keep this short and sweet. Have you read any of these? Do you want to? Let me know!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 