Book Review: "Is There Still Room in Your Life for Me?" by Will Manwill

If you like romantic, poignant stories of second-chance love and finding the courage to move on, you'll want to check out Will Manwill's Is There Still Room in Your Life for Me?

Jake Ruiz is a chef and restaurateur whose restaurants are struggling because of the economic hardship so many have faced. But that’s not his only problem—his husband died and left him with their five-year-old son, and he’s afraid to go anywhere other than in case something should happen to him, thus orphaning his son. And don’t even think about dating again; his first date left him in tears.

When a family emergency summons him back to Newport, his small Washington hometown, he’s not looking forward to seeing his parents, who disapprove of his being gay and have almost no part in his life. And even though he continues fighting with his angry, highly religious mother to the point he’s ready to leave, he finds that his parents’ restaurant is in desperate need of help as well.

He’s also not prepared to come face to face with Colton Humphrey, his childhood best friend and first serious crush. Jake was in love with Colt through high school, but their relationship hasn’t been the same since one Halloween night during college, when things were said and done.

Being home in Newport for a while reignites Jake’s feelings for Colt. Could this be the chance to finally have what he dreamed of when he was younger? But can he stay in a place where his mother is so constantly cruel and manipulative?

I love friends to lovers stories as well as stories of second-chance love, so Is There Still Room in Your Life for Me? was an enjoyable, sometimes emotional story. It’s told from both Jake and Colt’s perspectives so you see certain incidents through both of their eyes. They’re just great characters and you can’t help but root for them.

This is also an all-too-familiar story of the rejection so many LGBTQIA+ people have to deal with at the hands of family and others, and the importance of chosen family. Like many rom-coms, you know what will happen but I know I loved going on the ride anyway!

Thanks to Pride Book Tours and Will Manwill for inviting me on the tour for this book and providing a complimentary copy in exchange for an unbiased review!!

Book Review: "Ruby Falls" by Deborah Goodrich Royce

Deborah Goodrich Royce's second novel, Ruby Falls, is a twisty, slightly creepy mystery with a gothic feel which really kept me guessing.

In 1968 when she was 6-1/2 years old, Ruby’s father abandoned her in a dark cave, a tourist attraction they were visiting. No one was sure how her father could have gotten away from her, so many thought he drowned in the cavern below.

Years later, in 1987, Ruby, now known as Eleanor, becomes a successful soap opera actress. When her run on the show ends unexpectedly, she flees to Europe, where she meets a mysterious, handsome man named Orlando, and they get married after only a few weeks of knowing each other.

Eleanor and Orlando return to Los Angeles to begin a new life. They buy a picture-perfect little house and Eleanor is ready to continue her acting career. She’s excited to land the starring role in a loose remake of Rebecca.

But as filming begins, she starts to have flashbacks from that day in the cave years ago. At the same time, her husband starts acting strangely, sometimes even meanly toward her. What secrets is he hiding? Is she in danger? What happened to her father that day years ago?

Goodrich Royce definitely kept me guessing for the entire book. I didn’t know what was memory and what was really happening, whom to trust or fear. Ruby Falls was a creepy, entertaining read, and I love the way she writes. (As an aside, since I’m a huge 80s movies fan, reading books by someone who acted in one of my absolute favorite 80s movies—Just One of the Guys—is super cool.)

Thanks to Suzy Approved Book Tours and Post Hill Press for inviting me on the tour for this book, and for giving me a complimentary copy in exchange for an unbiased review!

Book Review: "Razorblade Tears" by S.A. Cosby

S.A. Cosby's new thriller, Razorblade Tears, is a fantastically gripping story of revenge, regret, and transformation.

What is it that makes one author get an enormous amount of hype while another more talented one doesn't get the same recognition? Cosby has written two absolutely electrifying books—Blacktop Wasteland and now this—and if there was any justice, he would be a household name. Maybe this book will do the trick.

“Folks like to talk about revenge like it’s a righteous thing but it’s just hate in a nicer suit.”

Ike is devastated when he learns his son Isiah was murdered along with his white husband, Derek. Ike spent years in prison during his son’s youth, but his inability to accept Isiah’s sexuality and subsequent marriage was his biggest failing and caused the biggest strain in their relationship.

Buddy Lee, Derek’s father, is also an ex-con, and also fought with his son about being gay. Descending from a long line of racist miscreants, Derek was not only gay but married a Black man—double the sin, as it were, in his father's eyes.

But with the police unable to make any headway in their sons’ murders (or do they just not care?), Ike and Buddy Lee reluctantly team up to do some digging. They both know they may cross a line from which they can’t return, but both feel they owe it to their sons to find the person responsible. Along the way, they have to come to terms with their own prejudices and decide whether avenging their sons’ deaths is worth a return to violence.

Powerful, sad, gritty, and utterly searing, Razorblade Tears is easily one of the best books I’ve read all year and it was one of my most anticipated. It’s very violent, so that may be a trigger for some, but it is truly a fantastic book.

Book Review: "Blackout" by Dhonielle Clayton et al.

In Blackout, even love stories can glow when the lights go out.

I love this concept! Six best-selling Black YA authors—Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon—got together and wrote a collection of interconnected stories that all take place when a blackout hits NYC during a heatwave.

Each story focuses on a relationship—a reunion of exes, meeting and being intrigued by someone new, revealing a longtime crush on your best friend, even showing your true self to someone for the first time. Characters in one story are connected to those in another, sometimes significantly and sometimes in passing.

For many authors who usually write heavy, emotional stories, this is an opportunity to share stories of Black joy and Black teen love, and the results are fun, sweet, moving, and hopeful. Jackson’s story, “The Long Walk,” is divided into five parts, and is scattered throughout the book.

I enjoyed all of the stories but my favorites were “Mask Off” by Nic Stone, in which a young man encounters a classmate on a subway train during the blackout and it forces him to come to terms with who he really is; “Made to Fit” by Ashley Woodfolk, about a young woman brooding over an unrequited crush on her best friend when she meets someone new at her grandfather’s senior home; and Nicola Yoon’s “Seymour and Grace,” which recounts the discovery a young woman makes after an intriguing ride share.

You know I love short stories, YA books, and rom-coms, so Blackout was a fun read. Having experienced the NYC blackout of 2003, this brought back some memories!!

Book Review: "Have We Met?" by Camille Baker

Can a dating app really find your soulmate? That's the question at the core of Camille Baker's debut rom-com, Have We Met?

Do you believe there’s one person out there for everyone? Corinne doesn’t have time or energy to think about that—she’s just moved back to Chicago after the death of her best friend; she needs to find a job and figure out her life.

But when a dating app called Met mysteriously appears on her phone and tells her she’ll reconnect with four people from her past and one of them will turn out to be her soulmate, after some healthy eye-rolling she realizes she can’t resist the opportunity. And when she meets two people she hasn’t seen in some time, she thinks the app might be speaking the truth.

As Corinne tries to navigate her demanding mother, come to terms with her grief over the loss of her friend, and find the perfect job (if she can figure out what that is), she’s also been spending time with a guy she met outside the app. But if he’s not her soulmate, should she bother?

I thought Have We Met? was a cute, quirky, creative rom-com. I liked the chemistry between Corinne and her love interest. But what I liked best was the diversity of the characters—there were characters of different races and ethnicities, and a character with a disability, as well as lesbian, bisexual, and non-binary characters. And it never felt like this diversity was there for diversity’s sake.

Of course, the whole app thing seemed a little contrived to me and it never quite was explained exactly how it even wound up on her phone, but I didn’t dwell on the small details! This was a fun story that also touched on the challenges of moving on when you’re grieving.

Thanks so much to Amazon Publishing and Blankenship Public Relations for providing me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!

Book Review: "Survive the Night" by Riley Sager

In thriller author Riley Sager's latest book, Survive the Night, a troubled young woman thinks she may be stuck in a car with a killer, but her mind might be playing tricks on her.

Charlie is obsessed with movies. I mean, she's even named for a character in Shadow of a Doubt. In her tragedy-filled life, they’re the only thing that have given her comfort. Until she met Maddy, her brash, confident roommate, who tried to drag her out of her self-imposed loneliness. And sometimes she succeeded.

But when Maddy is murdered by a serial killer who has been preying on young women near their college campus, Charlie falls apart, her grief and guilt taking her down. She needs to leave college and go home to Ohio, to try to pull herself back together, if such a thing is possible.

She meets Josh at the campus ride board. He's handsome, wearing a college sweatshirt, and he’s looking for someone to drive with him to Ohio, since he needs to care for his sick father. Even though driving in a car for 9 hours with a man she doesn’t know, especially in the wake of a serial killer on campus, may not be the wisest choice, Charlie agrees to ride home with him.

It’s not long into the ride that Charlie starts wondering if Josh really is who he says he is. As she starts catching him in little lies, she knows he’s hiding something—but what? Could it be possible that Josh is the Campus Killer? And if so, what should she do—try to escape or stay and fight?

The entire book takes place over the course of one night in November 1991. Sager certainly captures the mood of that time well and creates a sense of tension throughout the book.

That being said, I thought it took a really long time for Survive the Night to get going, although when it did, it took off quickly. And while there are lots of twists, I cynically predicted whom the killer would be early on, and I really hate being right. (In thrillers, lol.)

Lots of people are loving this and if you’re one of them, I’m glad! Thrillers and me, we just don’t mesh all the time.

Book Review: "Home Sweet Mess" by Allison Ashley

You know I love my fun, steamy, emotional rom-coms, and Allison Ashley's newest book, Home Sweet Mess is a good addition to the list!!

When Logan and Jeni first meet, he’s immediately smitten; she takes a fairly instant dislike to him because she believes him to be a womanizer. But with Logan being her brother’s best friend, it appears she won’t be able to escape seeing him.

When Andrew, Jeni’s twin brother, is diagnosed with cancer, he needs the support of both of them. Little by little, Logan and Jeni grow closer, but she’s not interested in a relationship since her marriage failed. But Logan wants more than friends with benefits; he wants it all, and he wants it with Jeni. Can he convince her to try again?

I loved the banter between these characters and their great chemistry. The smack talk about each other’s football teams totally cracked me up, but there was also tenderness and humor between them, too. Rom-coms that combine chemistry with emotion are always my favorite.

Sure, at times I wanted to shake Jeni and make her realize that Logan wasn’t her ex, but I want to shake lots of people, real and fictional. (It's funny because it's true.)

Home Sweet Mess is Ashley’s second book featuring some of the same characters; I’ll definitely want to go back and read her first book, Perfect Distraction.

Thanks to Kate Rock Book Tours and Allison Ashley for allowing me to be part of the tour, and providing a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!!