Book Review: "Fabulous Bodies" by Chuck Tingle

For someone who almost never reads horror novels, Chuck Tingle’s books have been a fun yet gruesome gateway into the genre. There’s always a lot of blood and gore, but he infuses his books with queerness and humor.

Poppy is a fashion influencer. She has more than 215,000 followers on social media, people who want inspiration from her posts, not to mention the occasional thirst trap. She has a five-year-old daughter, Marlo, and she’s determined to give her a better childhood than she had. The influencer gig certainly helps, but her second job makes the difference.

Poppy works nights as a grave robber. Well, it’s not quite what it sounds like—she actually gets paid to transport recently dead bodies to her customers. She doesn’t necessarily know what they do with the bodies, and she’s fine with that.

One night, she is contacted by a mysterious customer offering 5 million dollars if she delivers a body to them. And not just any body: Eddie Michaels, America’s version of Elton John. Eddie is Poppy’s musical hero. He has a fantastic voice, he’s flamboyant and openly gay, and his music has been a huge part of her life.

The job sounds much easier than her usual body retrieval gigs go. Although that seems too good to be true, $5 million would allow her to spend more time with Marlo. Things are going exactly according to plan. And then Eddie wakes up.

This was a fun romp. Eddie is unhinged and utterly hysterical, and Poppy can’t believe what she’s gotten herself into. Plus she’s with her undead musical idol. There are definitely gory parts of the book but they don’t linger too long. Can’t wait to see what Tingle comes up with next!

Book Review: "Big Fan" by Alexandra Romanoff

This book was the first from 831 Stories, a modern romantic fiction company that prioritizes pleasure reading and the genre’s enthusiastic fans. I really enjoyed it and boy, it was steamy…

Maya is a political strategist whose career was on the rise. She was on the verge of guiding her candidate to victory when a personal scandal erupted: her husband cheated on her with a campaign intern. Her candidate won despite the fodder that her life gave the media.

Even though Maya was the victim, she’s the one still followed by gossipers and catty DC acquaintances. When she gets an opportunity to help a gubernatorial candidate, she hopes this will be her ticket back to the work she loves.

At the same time she is contacted by Charlie, who was the lead singer of Mischief, the boy band she was obsessed with as a teenager. In fact, she and her best friend launched a nationwide fan club for the band. Charlie read about her interest in his old band, and he asks for her help in guiding his comeback as a solo artist.

While she can’t take the job to help him, the two strike up a friendship. They both want more than that, but Maya has to be sure she doesn’t get caught in another scandal, or her career will be destroyed. But is a chance at love—especially with your teenage obsession—worth taking, or is it safer to just keep your head down and focus on work?

I really liked this storyline and the complexities of Maya’s world. The chemistry between Maya and Charlie is intense, and the steamy scenes seriously sizzle. I’m looking forward to the next book published by 831 Stories!!

Book Review: "American Fantasy" by Emma Straub

“So often, the word nostalgia felt coated in bile—a nostalgia act. Annie understood and she didn’t. Nostalgia was for the Smurfs, for erasers that smelled like strawberries. Maybe that was what the costumes were about, the goofy T-shirts, but inside her head, which is where she heard the music, it had touched some lever so deep that it couldn’t be reversed, as much as she’d chosen to ignore it. Maybe that was nostalgia after all, that the music was a direct vein to her own childhood, the least complicated part of her life.”

Annie remembered enjoying the 90s boy band Boy Talk when she was a teenager. It was a subject that bonded her and her younger sister together. All these years later, her sister is still a huge fan, while for Annie, Boy Talk is firmly in the past.

Yet here Annie is, about to board the cruise ship American Fantasy, for a four-day cruise with all 5 members of Boy Talk. And her sister isn’t even able to make it, so she’s going solo. But she quickly makes a friend in Maira, a veteran of these cruises, who takes Annie under her wing.

The cruise is unlike anything Annie has ever experienced. There are throngs of (mostly) middle-aged women, screaming and cheering for their favorite band member. Lots of alcohol is imbibed, there is so much clothing and merch with the band’s faces on it, and there are so many opportunities to interact with the band members. Some of them go after these events with gusto, while some can’t wait to go back home.

The cruise gives Annie the opportunity to reflect on what it’s like to be (and feel) middle-aged, and how it feels to relive a part of your younger years. She deals with divorce, career issues, and the uncertainty of what her life holds.

I’ve never gone on a cruise, and Emma Straub’s imagery made me feel sunburned and claustrophobic, lol. The book alternates narration from Annie, Keith (one of the band members), and Sarah, an employee of the production company that organizes the cruise.

Book Review: "Boy from the North Country" by Sam Sussman

“…who you are will change, Evan. That’s what time does to all of us. You will face difficulty. You will need your own resilience. And you will need love. You’ve always been intelligent, but it’s your heart that makes you special. Just don’t forget that, all right? Don’t turn your back on that part of who you are.”

Evan longed to get away from his hometown in upstate New York. He went to college abroad and lived in several different countries. His mother summons him home rather urgently, telling him that she has cancer and needs to have surgery, so she’ll need his help.

Arriving home, he is awash in memories of growing up and spending time with his mother. For a good deal of his childhood and teenage years it was just the two of them, undertaking creative pursuits, enjoying the arts, and believing Evan could be anything he dreamed of. His mother had a few relationships during his childhood, but they always turned bad.

Growing up, people always commented on how much Evan resembled Bob Dylan. He found out that his mother knew Dylan in the 1970s, but she refused to divulge whether he was Evan’s biological father. As his mother undergoes chemotherapy, she shares with Evan the story of her life, her dreams and the challenges that haunted her. And she tells him the full story of her relationship with Dylan.

The book shifts between the present and moments in the past, both in Evan’s childhood and his mother’s life. It’s so beautifully written and it’s tinged with sadness, but the power of a mother’s love runs through the book. For those who have lost a parent or experienced a loved one dealing with terminal illness, the book may be triggering.

Book Review: "Still Into You" by Erin Connor

I. Loved. This. Book.

Erin Connor’s debut, Unromance, was one of my favorites last year. But if possible, I loved her newest book even more. It just made me smile and tear up and laugh.

“It’s the only relationship I’ve ever had that’s actually worth talking about, except for the fact that I absolutely do not want to talk about it.”

Sloane has dreamed of being a music journalist for as long as she can remember. She’s gone from helping her friends’ band with their social media to a freelance writing job, with hopes of landing an actual position with benefits.

She can’t believe she gets offered the chance of a lifetime—to interview Final Revelations, a famed punk band that has not done an interview in 8 years. This could be career-making.

The thing is, the band’s lead singer, Dax, is her ex. Hanging around with the band feels like old times, and she and Dax quickly fall back into passionate flirtation. But Sloane knows that her integrity will be called into question if she doesn’t resist her feelings for him.

Second-chance romance is one of my favorite tropes. Throw in musicians and journalists and banter and steam, and I’m totally sold. I can’t say enough about this book and can’t wait for Connor’s next!!

Book Review: "Chasing Stardust" by Erica Lucke Dean

This sweet, funny, and moving book really warmed my heart. Many of us have imagined what our parents were like when they were younger, but how many of us get a first-hand look?

Zoey is devastated when her beloved mother dies of cancer. She has spent the last few years caring for her, putting her own future on hold while her older sister stayed in college. She knows it’s time to focus on moving forward, but she has one last task to complete for her mom.

Her mother has asked Zoey to spread her ashes following a path between Tennessee and California. Apparently it’s the path her grandmother followed in 1972: David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour. Her grandmother G-Lo was more than a groupie—she and the singer slept together, and that’s how Zoey’s mother came to be.

With her mother’s ashes and her diary in hand, driving her grandmother’s old Cutlass, she’s ready to hit the road. But from the very start she gets into trouble and the car breaks down outside Nashville. At an all-night diner she meets Dash, a handsome young man who’s apparently fleeing his domineering father’s expectations. Dash is more than willing to be a partner on this journey.

“How do I explain that I’m having a hard time reconciling Mom’s memories with my own…that with every word I read, my perception of her changes, dredging up emotions I can’t begin to understand. That I’m caught between this unquenchable desire to know everything about her past, and the fear of what I’ll discover if I spend too much time looking.”

As the trip continues, Zoey learns about her mother, grandmother, and herself. I love road-trip books and thought this was an utterly enjoyable read.

Book Review: "The Frequency of Living Things" by Nick Fuller Googins

“I decided right there to play it safe: one full week to detox from my sisters. Because family and opioids really aren’t so different. Both can make you feel great until suddenly they don’t.”

Even though she’s the youngest, Josie has almost always taken care of her older twin sisters, Ara and Emma. Josie is a scientist, organized and levelheaded (at least when it comes to other people’s lives). Her sisters are musicians, so Josie often pays their rent, schedules their doctors’ appointments, and helps with issues related to their band.

The band, Jojo and the Twins, were once a huge, Grammy-nominated success. But their second album remains elusive, and it’s been years since they opened for famous bands. Their lack of progress in recent years is definitely related to Ara’s problems with addiction and dealing with trauma from an assault. Emma feels as if she’s to blame for the assault, so she’s essentially been enabling Ara’s addiction.

But when Ara winds up in jail, it throws Josie and Emma in a tailspin. Emma decides that the band will record a jailhouse album and hopes that preorders will help pay Ara’s bail. But for the first time, Ara decides she wants to kick her drug habit and her reliance on her sisters, both of which are easier said than done.

Their mother Bertie is a famous lawyer and fighter of injustice. She was too busy building a better world for her daughters than actually mothering them. When she is asked to help Ara, she has to decide whether to come back into her daughters’ lives or let them fight their own battles.

I love books about family dynamics and drama, and this one had a lot of it! It’s a powerful read that evoked a lot of different emotions in me. I felt like the book meandered a bit as it provided background into the characters, particularly Bertie, but the story really moved me.

Book Review: "Famous Once" by Jane Green

This was one of the Amazon First Reads for January. Jane Green’s writing is so lush and evocative, and she always captures the time period of her work and the setting so effectively.

In the 1970s, Astrid Lane was one of the hottest models in the world. Everyone knew her face and her name, and she was often found in the company of the world’s most glamorous stars. When she fell for rockstar Callum Blake, it was a fairytale match, and Astrid was more than happy to step away from her career to raise the couple’s daughter, Zara.

But fame took its toll, and when Astrid and Callum’s marriage fell apart due to his infidelity, Astrid became addicted to drugs and alcohol, leaving young Zara to fend for herself.

Years later, Astrid lives a quiet life as a caterer, and has a somewhat-estranged relationship with Zara. But when a retrospective of 1970s music and fashion raises the profile of the stars of that time, Callum is back in the spotlight. His life is the subject of a podcast, but of particular interest is a tragedy that happened all those years ago.

Zara, who is a globetrotting reporter, wants to dig into the tragedy, even if it might unearth information that could damage her father. Astrid becomes a target of threats to keep any information she has a secret, which includes hours of audio recordings Callum made for her through the years. Zara and Astrid pore over these recordings and other memorabilia, and the truth is finally uncovered.

I thought this was a good story, but it was a little too short to feel complete. Everything was treated with a broad brush rather than detail, but I would love to see this expanded into a novel.

The story will be released 2/1/2026.

Book Review: "Meet the Newmans" by Jennifer Niven

As someone who grew up watching family sitcoms, from The Brady Bunch to Good Times, Family Ties to Full House, I absolutely loved this book. Jennifer Niven wrote one of my all-time favorite books—All the Bright Places—and I’m so glad to read her again!

The Newmans—Del and Dinah, and their sons Guy and Shep—have been a part of the public consciousness for years. The real Newman family plays themselves on their popular sitcom, and are America’s favorite television family. Every problem is solved in less than 30 minutes.

But it’s 1964, and the televised Newmans have gotten out of touch with the world around them. Their ratings are awful, sponsors are withdrawing, and it’s possible that the show might be canceled at the end of the season. And while the future of the show is up in the air, the real-life Newmans are in freefall as well.

When Del, who runs all aspects of the show, gets into a car accident and is placed into a medical coma, the show has two more episodes in the season. Dinah decides she’s going to handle it, so she hires a strong-willed reporter named Juliet to write the script for the finale with her. But Juliet will only do this if Dinah is willing to break the Newmans out of their bubble of perfection. Both women want to write a script the world will remember.

As Dinah takes control of the show, she discovers some secrets her husband has been hiding. Older son Guy has a secret too, but will it be exposed by the tabloids first? And Shep, the heartthrob, is finally realizing his charm can only get him so far. Each of the Newmans are ready for life after the show—but first they want the finale to succeed.

While Niven has said the book was inspired by 1950s stars Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, it also reminded me of the movie Pleasantville. For the first time, Dinah is confronted with the realities that women face in society as exposed to the “ideal” she portrays. I found this funny, emotional, and thought-provoking, and I’m so glad I met the Newmans!!

Book Review: "Loved One" by Aisha Muharrar

Poignant and powerful, Aisha Muharrar’s debut novel will stay in my mind for a long while.

“There was a queasy unease to treading new waters, building the compass as you sailed, every choice a guess. Except it was worse now. Because it was expected at eighteen, or even twenty-five, but at thirty, it was embarrassing.”

Gabe was Julia’s first love. They met as high school students in Barcelona and had a wonderful summer. But Gabe wanted to be a musician, and he didn’t want a relationship to interfere with his career, so they went their separate ways.

From time to time, they would run into each other in Los Angeles. Gabe became a popular indie musician and Julia became a sought-after jewelry designer. Their old feelings would resurface on occasion, but they always seemed to tamp them down. And then, tragically, Gabe died accidentally when he was 29.

Julia is overcome by the waves of grief she feels, especially since their relationship was left at loose ends before he died. As a favor to Gabe’s mother, she travels to London to meet the last woman he loved, to see if she could reclaim some of his belongings. But upon meeting Elizabeth, an icy, guarded restaurateur, both women become protective over their memories of Gabe and the secrets each holds.

The narrative shifts between the present and various memories of Gabe and Julia’s encounters. There is an elegiacal sadness in this book but it’s never maudlin. It captures the frustrations we might have when we wish we had said, or did, something to a loved one whom we’ve lost. This was simply gorgeous.

Book Review: "For the Record" by Emma Lord

Mackenzie was a pop star, part of a trio called Thunder Hearts. She and her two best friends had the time of their lives performing songs she wrote.

Sam was the lead singer of Candy Shard, a punk band. When their agents thought putting the two bands together for a tour might work, they had no idea that the chemistry between Sam and Mackenzie would ignite. Their will-they-or-won’t-they act had fans rooting for them, but after taking a step towards something, it quickly fell apart, and shortly after, both bands did as well.

Two years later, Sam has traded punk for a more acoustic singer/songwriter style, but no label seems interested. While he dreams of a second chance, he’s also happy helping to raise Ben, his young son, whom he found out about around the time his band fell apart.

Mackenzie, too, is looking for a change. After some surgical procedures left her voice altered a bit, she’s not felt comfortable performing, except under a pseudonym who uploads songs online. Seeing Sam again reawakens the complicated feelings she had for him, a combination of rivalry, desire, and friendship. It quickly becomes clear that the only way they’ll both get their second chance is by writing and performing a joint album.

Collaborating again will require them (mostly Mackenzie) to put aside their negative feelings towards one another. As their relationship deepens, the same flames spark again, but both have secrets they’re not ready to share. And on top of that, have they both matured enough to have a real relationship?

Emma Lord’s books are really cute, and Sam and Mackenzie really do have great chemistry with one another. But interestingly enough, while this is an adult romance, it skewed a little YA for me—although that was totally fine. I loved the insights into their creative process and the banter.

Book Review: "The Cover Girl" by Amy Rossi

“The thing about being someone’s idea of beautiful was that because people felt comfortable looking at you, they assumed you felt comfortable in the world.”⁣

⁣ Birdie was 13, and she was living a fairly unremarkable life. Her parents’ marriage was unhappy and her mother often told her she had no personality, so she was lucky she was tall and reasonably attractive. Then one day, while shopping with her mother at a department store in NYC, Birdie was discovered by famed modeling agent Harriet Goldman. And in that moment, her life changed dramatically.⁣

⁣ In the mid 1970s, no one seemed to have concerns about a 13-year-old modeling and interacting with men much older than her. But over the first two years of her career, she came into her own, realizing that she could control what people saw when they looked at her. When she was 15, she posed for an album cover, and the 31-year-old rock star fell head over heels for her. ⁣

⁣ The rock star asked Birdie to go on tour with him, and her parents essentially sign her over to him, making him her guardian. Harriet warns her not to get involved with someone like him, but the excitement is too much to pass up. And when it ends, the experience leaves Birdie reeling.⁣

Some 30 years later, Birdie lives a quiet life outside the spotlight. She gets Botox, contemplates a face lift, and takes Pilates. And then she gets invited to a gala celebrating Harriet’s 50-year career. She doesn’t want to go, as they’ve been estranged for years, but she can’t not go. But doing so means she must finally confront all she lived through, as well as become comfortable with growing older.⁣

⁣ You really feel for Birdie and the many ways people mistreated her or let her down. It’s really quite difficult at times, but ultimately you hope she has the strength to confront her past. The book shifts between past and present, and while it moves slowly, it’s very well told.⁣

Book Review: "He's To Die For" by Erin Dunn

I kept seeing ads for this book, so I knew I had to read it. It was so good! Thanks so much to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

At age 29, Rav is the youngest detective of NYPD’s Homicide Squad. He’s definitely not your typical New York cop, though; he’s the son of a British lord, a fan of sharply tailored and expensive suits, and he’s gay. He’s also a bit of a narcissist, although he has the skills to back up his ego.

When he gets assigned to be the lead detective on a murder case, he’s ready to shine. But while the murder of a record executive seems straightforward, it turns out to be anything but.

The record exec had a feud with a popular band over ownership of their master recordings, so it makes sense that the band members are prime suspects. But the last thing that Rav is expecting is to feel a connection with Jack, the band’s lead singer.

As Rav tries to make sense of newly discovered evidence and multiple suspects, he’s hoping to clear Jack’s name, since Jack is anything but the egotistical diva Rav was expecting. He’s not counting on becoming an object of fascination on social media—or putting his job and his reputation at risk. Is he falling for a killer?

I enjoyed this so much. Rav is a fantastic protagonist and the supporting characters were great, too. In addition to a twisty mystery, there’s some steam and some exploration of mental health issues. I’d love to see this become a series!

Book Review: "The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits" by Jennifer Weiner

This is definitely the type of story I love! Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the advance copy of this.

Growing up, Zoe always craved the spotlight while her younger sister Cassie was painfully shy. But Cassie was a musical genius, and when she does Zoe a favor and performs with her at a Battle of the Bands concert, the duo catches the attention of a talent scout.

It’s the early 2000s, and the sisters quickly get signed to a recording contract. Their ascent is nearly meteoric, and once they start releasing original songs, their fame grows, especially with those who feel seen by their songs.

And just as everything is going well, a tragedy occurs and the band breaks up. Cassie disappears from the public eye—not to mention her family—while Zoe gets married and raises her children, living a comfortable suburban life. But when Zoe’s daughter Cherry wants to pursue a musical career, Zoe discourages her, but doesn’t really explain why.

As Cherry pursues her dreams, she decides to find her Aunt Cassie. In the process, she unearths secrets and misunderstandings that have festered for 20 years. What caused the band to break up? Why did Cassie disappear?

The narrative shifts between the early 2000s and the present, and among Zoe, Cassie, and Cherry. I love the way Jennifer Weiner writes, and I was completely drawn into this story.

The book will publish 4/8/2025.

Book Review: "Deep Cuts" by Holly Brickley

“I think songs gave me a window into a magical life,” I said. “Something bigger, or whatever, waiting out there. And I felt like the only way to get there was through the songs. Like the songs, if I listened hard enough, would show me how to get it right.”

Have you ever met someone that got you completely, someone on the exact same wavelength as you? A person who shares your obsession about a particular subject, which you can discuss for hours?

When Percy meets Joe for the first time in the fall of 2000, they’re both students at Berkeley. Percy loves music—listening to it, not performing—and she is sitting in a bar, commenting about a song, when Joe overhears her. Percy has lots of opinions about music, and a lot of knowledge about musical minutiae, and she’s not shy about sharing them.

Unlike many people Percy has encountered, Joe is utterly fixated on her opinions, and counters with his own. This marks the beginning of a friendship, a collaboration, which will impact their lives tremendously.

Joe is a songwriter, and he asks Percy for her opinion on a song. She gives her thoughts—not always as diplomatically or constructively as she should—and Joe listens. The first song she helps him with becomes the jumping-off point for a relationship shaped by Joe’s need for feedback and Percy’s desire to give it. But does her unequivocal honesty harm their relationship? Does this collaboration put Percy at a disadvantage?

I am a huge fan of music, so much of the dialogue in this book resonated for me. At times, though, I felt like an outsider looking in, because I wasn’t familiar with the bands and/or songs Percy referred to. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic, but I found their relationship to be flawed and fascinating.

Book Review: "The Lodge" by Kayla Olson

“…once you start falling, it’s nearly impossible to stop—you pick up speed, and you might flail a little to course-correct, but at the end of the day you find yourself in over your head.”

Alix is an entertainment journalist who has just landed a huge job, ghostwriting the memoir of Sebastian Green, one of the lead singers of the hugely popular boy band True North. She used to write about True North when the band was together, and in fact, she was the last person to interview the other lead singer, Jett Beckett, before he disappeared without a trace.

To ensure Alix has a quiet place to write the book as quickly as possible, Sebastian arranges for her stay in a penthouse apartment at a cushy ski lodge in Vermont. She spends hours transcribing Sebastian’s voice memos into a narrative, but she has so many questions and can never reach him to get clarification.

To take a break from writing, Alix starts spending time with her neighbor from the penthouse apartment next door. Tyler, the incredibly sexy, romantic ski instructor, awakens feelings in Alix that had remained dormant since she and her ex-boyfriend broke up. She can’t tell Tyler whom she’s writing about, and it appears that Tyler has some secrets he’s not ready to share either.

When a blizzard hits Vermont—a colossal storm called Yeti—it brings with it a storm of paparazzi and gossip. And while Alix is an excellent writer, even she can’t script the revealing of long-held secrets and hurts that follow.

This was a fun story and a sweet, clean romance. I wasn’t surprised with what transpired but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment. While I know her character played a role in advancing the plot, Alix’s sister drove me crazy, and I could’ve done without her completely. But overall, this was a book with characters to root for and a story that made me smile.

Book Review: "From Here to the Great Unknown" by Lisa Marie Presley and RIley Keough

I’ve been an Elvis fan for as long as I can remember. My parents used to play his music, I watched a lot of his movies while I was growing up, and I distinctly remember people being upset when he died. A few years after college, a friend and I even road-tripped down to Memphis and visited Graceland.

As an Elvis fan, Lisa Marie Presley also fascinated me. I enjoyed her music and was always fascinated by her life, and felt it was really tragic when she died. Needless to say, when I heard her memoir, which was finished by her daughter, was going to be published, I knew I needed to read it.

This book was an emotional one. Not only was it sad to read about how devastated she was to lose her father when she was 9, but she struggled her entire life with so many things. Addiction. Depression. Being such a subject of fascination for the public. Finding and keeping love. Grief.

While there wasn’t much in the book that necessarily surprised me (although I had forgotten she was briefly married to Nicolas Cage), it still was gripping to read her thoughts. The counterpoint and further details Riley Keough provided definitely deepened the story through her perspectives.

I often wonder if life in the public eye truly prevents a person from living a “normal” life and enjoying it. Certainly from this book you can see how Lisa Marie’s fierce parenting protected Riley from falling into many of the same traps that her mother did.

This was moving and powerful. I’m so glad Riley decided to ensure that her mother’s story didn’t remain untold after her death. And I feel grateful that the Presleys shared their talent with the world.

Book Review: "Cubs & Campfires" by Dylan Drakes

There’s something about feeling seen when you read a book. I read a lot of M/M romance and for the most part, the main characters are usually gym-toned and muscular. But that’s not me. Which is why Dylan Drakes’ new book resonated so much for me, apart from being romantic and steamy as hell.

Luca has always wanted to be a journalist. But in 2005, news outlets have become more conservative, and they’re not comfortable publishing the sex-positive, queer-friendly type of work Luca has been best at. So he makes a deal with a newspaper: he’ll write a column about staying celibate for the entire summer. The catch is, he has to live what he’s writing, or he’ll get fired.

Since he’s taken a summer job as a fire lookout in a remote part of a forest in Washington State, he feels fairly confident he can avoid temptation and get his article written. But within a day or two, he’s caught in an awkward situation by Artair, a handsome, bearish musician who is camping in the woods nearby.

The attraction between Luca and Artair is immediate and intense. Luca is determined to resist the temptation that Artair presents—a difficult challenge, considering that every time they encounter one another, one of them is barely dressed.

While remaining celibate is tough enough with Artair around, Luca is enjoying his company and flirtation so much. Does he give into temptation and lose the newspaper gig, or embrace the possibilities that Artair presents? And given Artair’s wandering ways, will this just be a summer fling?

I absolutely loved this. It’s a sexy, emotional, body-positive romance with two amazingly appealing characters and an adorable fox. I can’t wait for the next book in this series. Thanks so much to Dylan Drakes for the advance copy!

Book Review: "Heavy Hitter" by Katie Cotugno

It’s a measure of pop culture that Heavy Hitter is the second book I’ve read that is (very) loosely based on Taylor Swift. (The first was The Breakup Tour by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka.) This book parallels Taylor’s relationship with Travis Kelce. I definitely enjoyed this one a bit more.

Lacey Logan is an international megastar of the music world. Every move she makes is followed by paparazzi and her fans, who overanalyze everything she does. She was dating a comedian for two years, only to discover he was a cocaine addict and had a secret girlfriend who was pregnant. So now, when she isn’t performing, she’s pretty lonely.

One night while at a club with a friend, she meets Jimmy Hodges, a baseball player in his last season before retirement. He’s a mountain of a man, totally unlike anyone Lacey has been interested in before, and a few years older than her. But they click right away, and their banter lights a fire in both of them.

After a brief encounter leaves them both breathless, neither expects anything to happen again. But their nightly phone conversations blossom into something more, and they’re both interested in and afraid of seeing what would happen if they got together again.

Even though Jimmy has dealt with the press throughout his career, he’s totally unprepared for what comes with even being near Lacey. And as they try to navigate their lives separately and together, questions arise about each other’s intentions and if they ultimately want to move forward anyway.

I’ve become a real fan of Katie Cotugno’s, having read all three of her adult novels. I thought this was fun and steamy, and it even had some raw emotion, so while at times I wanted to scream at Lacey and Jimmy, I was rooting for them all the same.

Book Review: "Lo Fi" by Liz Riggs

Alison left her home in Michigan to move to Nashville. She’s in love with the city and the opportunity to immerse herself in music, which she loves so much. She works at The Venue, a club where both aspiring artists and famous bands come to play.

“I just work the door. I stamp hands. I’m not even a critic or journalist, not a true insider. I’m not in a band. To even say I write songs wouldn’t be fair, not in a town full of songwriters. If I’m anything at all here, I’m just a fan.”

Al would love to become a musician, but after a disastrous performance at an open mic night (she refers to it as “the incident”), she has no desire to perform again, nor has she been able to find the inspiration to write more songs. So when she’s not working, she and her roommate go to clubs and hear bands, and even get to attend some exclusive parties.

When she is working, Al is also drinking a lot, sleeping with the bartender, talking about music, and flirting with Julien, her coworker. She’s also trying not to obsess over her ex, who is the lead singer of an up-and-coming band, or dwell on the disappearance of a famous singer.

Al has no idea what she really wants, or how to get what she thinks she wants. She knows she wants Julien but can’t seem to fully commit to that, and she wishes she could perform again, but she can’t get past her fear. It takes help from some unlikely sources to move forward.

It took a bit for the book to hit its stride, but then it really clicked for me. Liz Riggs uses a stream of consciousness style at times, but it really puts you in Al’s frame of mind. It reminded me of being in my 20s and going to concerts all the time, barely sleeping and living for music.