Review: The Deepest of Secrets by Kelley Armstrong

July 24, 2022July 24, 2022 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: The Deepest of Secrets
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Rockton
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Source: Netgalley
Trigger Warnings: Violence, buried alive.
Summary: It’s not always easy to live in the hidden town of Rockton, something Detective Casey Duncan knows firsthand. Tucked away in the Yukon wilderness, the community survives—and thrives—because the residents’ many secrets stay just that—secret.

But what happens when these secrets start to come out? Overnight, no one is safe. It’s not a question of if your secret will come out—but when.

Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, need to find the culprit while protecting those who have been thrust into the spotlight. For a place built on privacy and new beginnings, Rockton isn’t handling these revelations very well. People are turning on one another, and when one of the loudest complainers turns up barely alive, it’s clear that their trickster is actually a murderer.

The threat of exposure is reaching its breaking point, and no one knows what’s going to happen next.

Continue reading →

Review: The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary

May 23, 2022May 24, 2022 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: The Road Trip
Author: Beth O’Leary
Genre: Romance/Contemporary
Source: Library
Trigger Warnings: Alcoholism and drug use, untreated mental illness, homophobic parents, sexual assault.
Summary: What if the end of the road is just the beginning?

Four years ago, Dylan and Addie fell in love under the Provence sun. Wealthy Oxford student Dylan was staying at his friend Cherry’s enormous French villa; wild child Addie was spending her summer as the on-site caretaker. Two years ago, their relationship officially ended. They haven’t spoken since.

Today, Dylan’s and Addie’s lives collide again. It’s the day before Cherry’s wedding, and Addie and Dylan crash cars at the start of the journey there. The car Dylan was driving is wrecked, and the wedding is in rural Scotland–he’ll never get there on time by public transport.

So, along with Dylan’s best friend, Addie’s sister, and a random guy on Facebook who needed a ride, they squeeze into a space-challenged Mini and set off across Britain. Cramped into the same space, Dylan and Addie are forced to confront the choices they made that tore them apart–and ask themselves whether that final decision was the right one after all.

Continue reading →

Book List 2022

Review: Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall

February 25, 2022May 24, 2022 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: Murder Most Actual
Author: Alexis Hall
Genre: Cozy Mystery. LGBTQIA+
Source: Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: When up-and-coming true-crime podcaster Liza and her corporate financier wife Hanna head to a luxurious hotel in the Scottish Highlands, they’re hoping for a chance to rekindle their marriage – not to find themselves trapped in the middle of an Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery with no way home. But who better to take on the case than someone whose entire profession relies on an obsession with all things mysterious and macabre? Though some of her fellow guests may consider her an interfering new media hack, Liza knows a thing or two about crime and – despite Hanna’s preference for waiting out the chaos behind a locked door – might be the only one capable of discovering the killer. As the bodies rack up and the stakes rise, can they save their marriage — and their lives?

Continue reading →

Book List 2022

Review: If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales & Cale Dietrich. Read by Ramón de Ocampo

February 14, 2022 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: If This Gets Out
Author(s): Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich
Narrator: Ramón de Ocampo
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Coming-of-age, LGBTQIA+
Summary:

Eighteen-year-olds Ruben Montez and Zach Knight are two members of the boy-band Saturday, one of the biggest acts in America. Along with their bandmates, Angel Phan and Jon Braxton, the four are teen heartbreakers in front of the cameras and best friends backstage. But privately, cracks are starting to form: their once-easy rapport is straining under the pressures of fame, and Ruben confides in Zach that he’s feeling smothered by management’s pressure to stay in the closet.

On a whirlwind tour through Europe, with both an unrelenting schedule and minimal supervision, Ruben and Zach come to rely on each other more and more, and their already close friendship evolves into a romance. But when they decide they’re ready to tell their fans and live freely, Zach and Ruben start to truly realize that they will never have the support of their management. How can they hold tight to each other when the whole world seems to want to come between them?

Continue reading →

Book List 2022 · Reviews

Review: Golden Boys by Phil Stamper

February 4, 2022 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: Golden Boys
Author: Phil Stamper
Series: Golden Boys
Genre: Coming-of-age, Self-discovery, LGBTQIA+
Summary: Gabriel, Reese, Sal, and Heath are best friends, bonded in their small rural town by their queerness, their good grades, and their big dreams. They are about to embark on the summer before senior year of high school, where each is going on a new, big adventure. Reese is attending a design school in Paris. Gabriel is going to Boston to volunteer with an environmental nonprofit. Sal is interning on Capitol Hill for a U.S. Senator. And Heath is stuck going to Daytona Beach to help out at his aunt’s beachfront arcade.

What will this summer of new experiences and world-expanding travel mean for each of them—and for their friendship?

My Thoughts:

I know I promised on Twitter this would be up yesterday but if I’m honest I found myself picking the book up and re-reading some of my favourite parts…which were…almost all of them.

One of the best things about blogging about books isn’t so much this part, it’s really about sinking into a book and memorizing and savouring every little bit that you can from the content. Sure, sometimes it can be arduous and feel like a school project more than something you would do for fun when you work an insane amount of hours already but then you get books like this and you remember why you started this project in the first place.

Continue reading →

Book List 2021 · Reviews

Review: Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

November 3, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: Under the Whispering Door

Author: TJ Klune

Genre: LGBTQIA+, Fantasy

TW: Suicide, heavy on the death.

Summary:

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace Price from his own funeral, Wallace suspects he really might be dead.

Instead of leading him directly to the afterlife, the reaper takes him to a small village. On the outskirts, off the path through the woods, tucked between mountains, is a particular tea shop, run by a man named Hugo. Hugo is the tea shop’s owner to locals and the ferryman to souls who need to cross over.

But Wallace isn’t ready to abandon the life he barely lived. With Hugo’s help he finally starts to learn about all the things he missed in life.

When the Manager, a curious and powerful being, arrives at the tea shop and gives Wallace one week to cross over, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Continue reading →

Book List 2021 · Reviews

Review: Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Saenz

October 27, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World

Author: Benjamin Alire Saenz

Genre: YA

Representation: Latinx, Gay

TW: Transphobia, homophobia, hate crimes.

Summary: In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two boys in a border town fell in love. Now, they must discover what it means to stay in love and build a relationship in a world that seems to challenge their very existence.

Ari has spent all of high school burying who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can’t go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies of all kinds, and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante, dreamy, witty Dante, who can get on Ari’s nerves and fill him with desire all at once.

The boys are determined to forge a path for themselves in a world that doesn’t understand them. But when Ari is faced with a shocking loss, he’ll have to fight like never before to create a life that is truthfully, joyfully his own.

Continue reading →

Book List 2021 · Reviews

Review: The Box in the Woods (Truly Devious) by Maureen Johnson

August 12, 2021October 27, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: The Box in the Woods

Series: Truly Devious

Author: Maureen Johnson

Rated: YA

Genre: Mystery

Summary: The Truly Devious series continues as Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery.

Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer.

But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case.

Stevie agrees, as long as she can bring along her friends from Ellingham Academy. Nothing sounds better than a summer spent together, investigating old murders.

But something evil still lurks in Barlow Corners. When Stevie opens the lid on this long-dormant case, she gets much more than she bargained for. The Box in the Woods will make room for more victims. This time, Stevie may not make it out alive.

Continue reading →

Book List 2021 · Reviews

Review: Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow) by Rainbow Rowell

August 3, 2021October 27, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: Any Way the Wind Blows

Series: Simon Snow

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Rated: YA

Genre: Fantasy

Summary:

In Carry On, Simon Snow and his friends realized that everything they thought they understood about the world might be wrong. And in Wayward Son, they wondered whether everything they understood about themselves might be wrong.

In Any Way the Wind Blows, Simon and Baz and Penelope and Agatha have to decide how to move forward.

For Simon, that means deciding whether he still wants to be part of the World of Mages — and if he doesn’t, what does that mean for his relationship with Baz? Meanwhile, Baz is bouncing between two family crises and not finding any time to talk to anyone about his newfound vampire knowledge. Penelope would love to help, but she’s smuggled an American Normal into London, and now she isn’t sure what to do with him. And Agatha? Well, Agatha Wellbelove has had enough.

Any Way the Wind Blows takes the gang back to England, back to Watford, and back to their families for their longest and most emotionally wrenching adventure yet.

Continue reading →

Book List 2021 · Reviews

Review: Wayward Son (Simon Snow) by Rainbow Rowell

July 27, 2021October 27, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: Wayward Son

Series: Simon Snow

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Rated: YA

Genre: Fantasy

Summary: Simon Snow did everything he was supposed to do. He beat the villain. He won the war. He even fell in love. Now comes the good part, right? Now comes the happily ever after…

So why can’t Simon Snow get off the couch?

What he needs, according to his best friend, is a change of scenery. He just needs to see himself in a new light…

That’s how Simon and Penny and Baz end up in a vintage convertible, tearing across the American West.

They find trouble, of course. (Dragons, vampires, skunk-headed things with shotguns.) And they get lost. They get so lost, they start to wonder whether they ever knew where they were headed in the first place…

Continue reading →