Week of May 12, 2025

Hello, my friends!

Last week was a fairly typical reading week for me, although I did mix up my genres a bit more than usual. I got an email from Amazon showing how many Kindle points I had so I did do some book shopping and bulked up my Kindle library quite a bit. I shopped in the “deals” bin and cashed in almost 1500 points so I got about 9 books for free, which was nice. Then I bought a few more for under $3 each, so I’ve got a big bunch to work through for a while. Add in the 20 books that I always have from KU and I have no shortage of things to read. Tori had guests here at the beach this weekend, Jake and Annie, and Annie and I spent some time comparing notes on favorite books. Some of our favorite authors overlap, and she recommended several new titles for me to try from authors that I haven’t read yet. So I’m looking forward to some new reading adventures this summer.

• Here’s my rating scale for your information:

  ⭐️ Did not like this book, would not recommend. Lots of errors, plot holes, not worth the effort to read, most likely didn’t finish. But I’m giving this author a single star for making the effort to publish a book. Not everyone’s even gotten that far, so yay for you.

  ⭐️⭐️ Didn’t really like it, multiple issues with style, plot, syntax or characters. Most likely forced myself to finish it. Would consider other books by the same author but I might have to be convinced.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoyed the book. Perhaps there were issues with plot or style but it was an enjoyable read. I could see recommending it if it were of a specific genre or trope or series. Most of what I read could easily fall into this category and I’d be a happy camper.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a good book. Like a really good book. I will think about this book when I’m finished, and there’s a really good chance I’ll buy it for my personal library if it was a KU read. I’d recommend it to other readers of the same genre or trope. I’ll definitely search out other books by this author, probably as soon as I’m finished reading.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow. Just wow. Amazing book, amazing story. If there were flaws in the book I’m completely overlooking them because in my mind the book was sheer perfection. I didn’t want the book to end and I’m immediately adding it to my favorites and my re-read pile. And if there’s an audio version I might have to buy that, too. I have a book hangover, I miss the characters, and I feel actual, physical loss in my life when this book is finished.

Thanks for joining me this week! Let’s dive in!

1. If This Is Love, by Jewel E. Ann. ⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 446 pages.

   Would I re-read this book? No.

   This is the 3rd book I read by this author, and I have to say I didn’t love this one. There were some story-line inconsistencies which annoyed me, and several areas where you just had to suspend reality for the story to even make sense. At one point the character Rae is described at Ty’s sister and in the next chapter (and for the rest of the book) she is Ty’s daughter. The romance part of the story between Indie and Milo was cute, if not a little creepy in the early part of the book, but the rest of the story fell way short for me. I would have liked the plot to follow through in a much better way. This book was very hollow.

2. In the Eye of the Beholder, by Dianna Roman. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   Kindle Unlimited, 389 pages.

   Would I re-read this book? Maybe.

   This is the follow up to Dianna Roman’s Until I Saw You, each being a standalone MM romance book with overlapping characters. I didn’t actually get really into this book until about 60%, if I’m being honest. Daniel was cranky and so standoffish he was hard to understand. And Eric’s character was so slow to unfold that I couldn’t really get a handle on him. Once their story started to come together, I liked it a lot more. But by the time it did, I felt like I didn’t have enough of them to really get their story. I would have liked some sort of closure with Daniel and his family, but I suppose that’s my naive experience talking, and in reality closure is far less common so that dangling string will have to haunt me and that’s ok. But in terms of this being a redemptive sort of love story, that was definitely there and I loved that aspect of the book.

3. Between Sisters, Kristin Hannah ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Edition, $12.99, 448 pages.

   Would I re-read this book? Absolutely yes.

   I’ve had this book in my Kindle library for several months, and I finally dove in, and Kristin Hannah never lets me down. This book was everything I wanted it to be, as usual. A difficult sibling relationship between Meghann and Claire leads to some emotional issues for Meghann as she navigates adulthood, and as the sisters re-connect they discover they’ve got far more in common than they realized. Kristin Hannah never fails to make me eek out a tear or two as I’m reading, and this was no different. A wonderful redemption story, with each extra character bringing just enough plot to the book to really add depth without mucking up the basic premise. Really well done. A true tale of love, understanding, patience, hope, and forgiveness.

4. The Legend Next Door, by Jesse H. Reign ⭐️⭐️.5

   Kindle Unlimited, 340 pages

   Would I re-read this book? Probably not.

   This was the follow up to Poetry On Ice, although each book is a standalone MM romance book that takes place in the hockey universe. Hockey is very secondary in this book, as Ben, the main character is a retired, widowed, hockey star who ends up falling for his gay neighbor, Jeremiah. The story was certainly “cute” by romance standards, but as far as reality is concerned, I have to call bullshit on this entire story. The journey from heterosexual dad to gay Dom dad was very swift and far too simple a journey for my liking. Again, if you’re just looking for a MM spicy romance, perhaps you’d like this book. Maybe I should just enjoy this for what it is, but I think it still needed a little more conflict.

5. The Missing Half, by Ashley Flowers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   Kindle Edition, $14.99, 263 pages

   Would I re-read this book? Yes.

   I really enjoyed this one! Ashley Flowers is the host of the podcast Crime Junkies, which I used to listen to all the time before my brain got sucked into reading so much, and this is the first book of hers that I’ve read. I thought it was great. Well written, good plot, no crazy unbelievable twists, and a solid resolution. I feel like this was a solid step ahead of some of the more predictable mystery books out there, so I’d absolutely recommend it.

6. Always the Last to Know, by Kristan Higgins ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   Kindle Edition, $7.99, 396 pages.

   Would I re-read this book? Maybe.

   I had really high hopes for this book. When I first started it and was about 15% in, I thought it was going in a very specific direction. It didn’t go there at all, which is fine, but in my mind I kept trying to re-direct the story back to where I thought it should be going. It didn’t flow that smoothly for me, although I did enjoy some of the twists and turns that the plot did end up taking. There were some complex story lines about a mother and her two daughters which I could certainly empathize with on a personal level even though the character’s story is so vastly different that my own. The author wrote this character’s perspective so well that I could almost feel the stress from the character’s point of view. Again, not at all where I thought this story would end up, but well written nonetheless.

That’s it for this week! As always, you can keep up with all of my reading on my Goodreads if you want to. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12921106-karen

Love, Karen