I love the Brown sister’s series so much I almost did not want to finish this series. However, after having a rough June I knew I needed a comedic and comforting rom com to read.
*This post contains affiliate links to bookshop. If you click and complete a purchase through one of my links I earn a commission.
Continue reading “Act your Age Eve Brown is an essential read!”
Before I start this review I wanted to leave some links to support the Asian American community. In case you don’t know what happened in the US this past week 8 people of Asian descent were killed because of ongoing Covid racism and ignorance. If you witness hate aimed at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders you can report the incident to the Stop AAPI Hate website.
To donate directly check out these sites:
Napawf.org (Works for social, political, and structural change for Asian American and Pacific Islander women and girls)
Asian Mental Health Collective – aspires to make mental health accessible and approachable to Asian communities worldwide. Check out their U.S directory if you are seeking mental health services. Check out the Canadian directory.
A few years ago at the Los Angeles Festival of books, I listened to Gloria Chao confess that she named the love interest in American Panda after Sailor Moon’s boyfriend. I found it adorable and never forgot it.
Coincidentally, I stumbled across Rent a boyfriend while browsing and decided to pick it up, unaware it’s penned by the same author.
Rent a Boyfriend is a novel by Gloria Chao that you might recognize from such books as American Panda and Our Wayward Fate.
*This post contains affiliate links. If you click one of my links and complete a purchase, I earn a commission.
Continue reading “Rent a Boyfriend: a cute winter read to say bye to Spring”
Family curses, paranormal investigators, a witch working as a librarian? Black Witch Magic was a novel I knew I needed to read.
Thank you Netgalley for providing me an arc in exchange for my honest review.
Continue reading “Black Witch Magic is a spooky Christmas read”
Hello romance novels! Have you read any good romance novels lately? Well I’ve recently read Take a Hint Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert and loved it! Seriously add this novel to your tbr!
This post contains affiliate links to bookshop. If you complete a purchase through one of my links I earn a commission. If you would like to know more about bookshop’s affiliate program check out my blog post.
Continue reading “Put Down Your Phone And Read Take A Hint Dani Brown”
*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I receive a commission if you click through and purchase the books mentioned.
Hey readers! I hope you have been having a fantastic month! In today’s review, I’d like to talk about my latest book binge; The Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews.
Authors Ilona Gordon and Andrew Gordon penned The Hidden Legacy series, a five part series told through the eyes of two sisters. For today’s post I’ll be focusing on the first three novels.
Continue reading “I finally Picked up an Ilona Andrews’ novel and I loved it!”
Midnight Sun was a dreadful read, but Bet me yanked me right out of my feelings and into a world of bets, Elvis, chicken marsala, Krispy Kreme, and love stories. This enemies to somewhat friends to lovers story will keep you guessing and make you fall in love with all the characters. It might be the best book I read this year. Keep reading if you want to hear what I thought about this romantic contemporary.
Continue reading “Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise cleansed my book slump”
It’s been a while since my last post and safe to say the quarantine stress finally got to me. To combat it, I threw myself into sewing and watching animal crossing streams. That was great and all, but I was not able to focus on reading nor creating content for this blog.
I’m feeling much better now, and I hope to be able to get some bookish crafts up soon. For now, though, here is a book review for Beautiful Bastard.
Beautiful Bastard is one of the first books best writing friends Christina and Lauren published together. The first draft of Beautiful Bastard was a twilight inspired fanfiction written by Christina. Although readers won’t be able to tell while reading Beautiful Bastard. To read more about the origins of Christina Lauren, check out this interview.
Continue reading “Beautiful Bastard was not what I was expecting”
If you read my review of The Swedish Prince on my blog or Goodreads, then you know that Viktor is wild, but Magnus is on another level.
Wild Heir is a spinoff of The Swedish Prince and follows Prince Magnus of Norway.
I don’t always read YA novels, and when I’m not reading them, you can bet I’m reading a contemporary romance! The Swedish Prince piqued my interest because it’s marketed as a Roman Holiday retelling.
However, The Swedish Prince promises a Happy Ever After.
Continue reading “The Plot to the Swedish Prince is ridiculous but addicting!”
The spin off to Helen Hoang’s “The Kiss Quotient” tells the story of Khai, Michael’s cousin, who has autism and has never had a girlfriend.
Khai’s everyday routine is to eat a protein bar for breakfast, run to his office, and keep his garden unkempt to annoy his neighbor. Khai likes his life but his Mom thinks Khai is lonely and old enough to be married, so she decides to take matters into her own hands. Khai’s mother, Co, fly’s to Vietnam and makes a deal with My Ngoc Tran, who later changes her name to Esme, one summer in California to fall in love with her son. If the two are incompatible Esme is free to fly home, but Co knows they will work.
Khai aimed a disapproving look at her shoes
“You’re better off walking barefoot than wearing those.”
“But they’re useful. It’s like having a shoe and a knife.“
Helen Hoang
I was a little hesitant to read this book because how often do you hear the story of someone from aboard coming to the U.S to marry an American in order to secure residency status? Often. It feels icky to reduce the immigrant experience to this and because this same story was the main plot point for this novel I was unsure. Although, after reading the Kiss Quotient I had a change of heart. I love Hoang’s writing style and I was eager to read Khai’s story.
Esme may come to the U.S with the intention to gain a residency status but that changes when she falls in love with Khai. Additionally, Esme has a love for learning and enrolls into night school to get a GED. Soon Esme begins to see a future where she can gain temporary residency as a student. By adding Esme’s ambition to her character Hoang adds this layer to the immigrant experience that is often disregarded and ignored. That there is more to someone than people think.
What I really enjoyed about this story was that complexity of both characters. Khai convinced himself a long time ago that he is unable to love someone however, he is willing to marry Esme so that she can gain citizenship if that is what she truly desires. In reality, Khai is secretly in love with her, he just has not admitted it to himself. On the other hand, Esme is driven by the desire to go to University because some colleges will pay for international student’s family members to come to the U.S and Esme really wants to get her family out of poverty.
One of my favorite scenes in this book occurs when Esme visits 99 Ranch market for the first time. Just by visiting this grocery store Esme is reminded of her home. I think this scene is beautiful because it ties together food and culture: it reminds us that places like the grocery store serve as a time capsule of home.
Overall, I give the Bride test 5 stars and would recommend it for fans of romance novels or anyone who is looking for diverse characters in a novel. This book is also spicy and we have a few mature scenes but in my opinion there are way more sex scenes in the Kiss Quotient.
Until next time continue living in Libros,
Gaby
livinginlibros.com 