Chloe

Am I breaking my hiatus from Instagram to tell you about the new @jessicajoycewrites book that I DEVOURED over Easter, yes I am. Please indulge me 🥺 I read You, With a View last year and fell in love with the way Jessica writes both locations and people. She writes in a rich and vivid way that makes characters feel real, warm and living and as alive as you or I, and whose love story you really root for. The Ex Vows excited me greatly and it didn’t disappoint ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 Following the story of Eli and Georgia, we learn that the pair had been together previously and felt compelled to pretend like everything was okay between the two of them for the sake of their friendship with shared childhood friend Adam. As Adam prepares to marry his soulmate Grace, things suddenly aren’t going to plan and the best people at the wedding - Eli and Georgia - find themselves being in the throes of carnage together, tasked with many trials to save the day, including getting a new wedding cake and a DJ. The pair must work together to ensure everything is ready for Adam and Grace’s big day but along the way they uncover some truths about their relationship together both in the past and present day. And oh boy, is this a WILD ride 😮‍💨😮‍💨 I loved the chaos that ensued. Georgia and Eli’s relationship felt real and messy and authentic, and showed two people coming back together after a difficult period and growing as a couple by making improvements to their selves first and foremost. I rooted for them and their love, and hoped that all the carnage or the wedding curse (including a cabin being out of action, so there’s only one bed 👀) would lead them back to one another for a second chance at love together. Reading this book was like a balm for the soul and it’s very well paced and structured too!! Obsessed. #TheExVows publishes with Transworld at @penguinukbooks on 18th July and I read this via @netgalley ❤️

🐉 Fourth Wing 🐉 SO I just found a picture I had taken for a Fourth Wing review back in August and then just forgot about…. So we’re just going to pretend this was more punctual okay? 🫣 Firstly my thanks go to my Rom Comms gals @bookswithca and @anataylor_x for encouraging me to read it and getting me sucked into the phenomenon and then buddy reading Iron Flame with me - big love for you both🫶🫶 Secondly, can we take a moment to appreciate the world building Rebecca Yarros has done? Reading about Basgiath and dragons gave me the same pure escapist feeling I got when I read Divergent and The Hunger Games series for the first time !! The pacing was fantastic, learning more about the world and dragon lore was never dull and I found myself gasping at twists and deaths (👀 we all know who I’m talking about). Considering I don’t normally read a lot of fantasy, I found myself completely sucked in from the offset and can’t wait for the rest in the series!! Violet is a FANTASTIC female lead with strength and courage and also compassion, and when her and and Xaden are together 🔥🔥🔥 oh boy! Definitely worth checking out the Xaden POV fanfic that is doing the rounds (if you’ve not read it already, do yourself a favour) 😏 Fun fact: When I went back to Goodreads to see how I reviewed this at the time I helpfully wrote “This is WORTHY of the hype oh boy I am obsessed and this is my whole personality now” so that kinda tells you everything you need to know🐉 At the risk of asking a silly question, have you read this one? #fourthwing #rebeccayarros

🐟🌊 The Catch🐟🌊 After loving Amy Lea’s last book, I had high hopes for The Catch. The story follows fashion influencer Melanie who finds herself in a remote fishing village to kill time ahead of a stay at a luxury resort to promote on her social channels. She hopes the trip will help give her a boost in engagement as she’s petering on the brink of becoming irrelevant. While there she encounters fisherman Evan Whaler, who just so happens to be her Airbnb host, and he’d be charming if it wasn’t for his grumpy demeanour. After a boating incident lands Evan in the hospital, Mel lies to the doctors and says she’s his fiancee so she can stay with him, but soon the lie gets out of hand with even his family thinking the pair are lovebirds. Mel agrees to uphold the fake engagement for a week in order to ease the tension of an old feud in Evan’s family, if he agrees to help her with her social media. What could go wrong? I so wanted to love this but for me, the premise is a little sketchy and far fetched. It doesn’t feel as believable or warm as Amy’s previous books in the influencer series 😭 I didn’t particularly warm to Mel’s character, and felt her backstory was a little too convenient for the plot. I also found the ending a little sudden and unrealistic🙈 BUT - If you like enemies to lovers, and fake dating and even the movie The Proposal then you’ll enjoy this. While it wasn’t my favourite of the trilogy, I did love the descriptions of Canada, and there were moments of Evan and Mel’s relationship that charmed me. AD PR PRODUCT - Thanks to @penguinukbooks and Netgalley for my review copy - it’s published February 15th✨✨

🐬💗 Some recent bookmail 💗🐬 [AD PR products featured) ✨ First up we have Wildfire by @hannahgraceauthor (and after my recent post about Icebreaker you all know how much of a fan I am) I recently read @bookswithca ’s proof copy of this and LOVED! 💘💘 Thank you @simonschusteruk for sending - out October 3rd ✨ Next up @harperfictionpr kindly sent a gorgeous copy of A Holly Jolly Ever After by @andimjulie my way. I read A Merry Little Meet Cute last year and it’s a fun steamy festive story 🎄Published October 4th ✨ And last but no means least, @beckyabshort made my @sophiekinsellawriter loving heart v happy when this copy of The Burnout arrived 💌 Published 12th October this promises to be yet another hilarious romcom from one of my favourite authors Are any of these on your TBR? ✨💛

🏒⛸️ ICEBREAKER ⛸️🏒 Back in April, I (like most romance girlies here) read and LOVED #Icebreaker by @hannahgraceauthor and it’s only now while reading a proof of Wildfire (kindly loaned to me by the romance queen @bookswithca ) that I realised I basically spend a lot of time raving and recommending this IRL but completely forgot to post about it here 🤪 SO, Icebreaker is a friends to lovers romance that follows competitive figure skater Anastasia and ice hockey player Nate. Stassie has been training to get a shot at competing for Team USA, and while at college on a scholarship, she hustles hard to put her all into her time on the ice. When a misunderstanding leads to her splitting her rink time with the hockey team, and her partner getting hurt, Nate - captain of the hockey team - finds himself roped into practicing with her. The pair must work together if Stassie wants a shot at competing, but things get a little complicated along the way 👀 I loved that this was a grumpy vs sunshine and the guy fall first which for me just make this sports romance even BETTER 😍 it’s a spicy one, and the chemistry is palatable. I’d recommend to anyone looking for a dual POV romance, who is intrigued by the skater x hockey player trope. Bonus points given for the no miscommunication element I am seeing used more and more often in the genre✨🤩 Have you read this or have any recommendations of similar romances I might like? 💗💗

❤️Romantic Comedy ❤️ [AD PR product] Thank you to @millspublishing / @doubledayukbooks for the copy of this one which is out now ✨✨ A few months ago you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing this book and I read it amid the hype and had many a conversation about it and then realised I never did post about it here…. Oops 🫣 Romantic Comedy is a love story with a ✨twist✨ that follows a TV script writer meeting an unlikely love interest - a musical guest on the SNL like show she writes comedy sketches for. During the course of preparing the show for the weekend, the pair have a series of interactions (involving a lot of funny sketches) which leads to a spark between them 🥰 Sally is kinda a cynic about love after her fair share of heartbreak so she appears almost reluctant to fall in love with pop star Noah so there’s a real sense of will-they-won’t-they about their love story. If you’re a fan of SNL or other sketch style tv shows, this will be right up your street. I did find my attention for it wavering when it got into their interactions during the pandemic (for me, I read for escapism and don’t really want to be reminded of that) and found the relationship between the two a little rushed after this but it’s still an enjoyable read about finding a partner in an unlikely place ✨ Have you read this one? If so what did you think! 😊

☀️Summer Reading by @mckinlayjenn ☀️ Huge thank you to @penguinukbooks @centurybooksuk for the gifted copy (AD!) of #SummerReading which publishes next week ✨ Summer Reading follows chef Samantha and hot librarian Ben as they spend the summer in a small town working temporary jobs. Samantha is there looking after her step brother and picking up work as a chef after quitting her previous position - she was overlooked due to being dyslexic. Ben is in the area as he’s the temporary interim library manager who is overseeing things. The pair meet on a ferry crossing when Sam drops Ben's book into the sea and their love story grows from there 📖🌊🐟 I enjoyed Sam's budding relationship with her brother as the pair began to learn more about one another and bond as siblings, and Sam's love for cooking really shone through. For me, I felt as though parts of the romantic aspect were a little rushed. I felt aspects of Ben and Sam's relationship suddenly blossomed artificially or from nowhere, or accelerated from casual kissing to being each other's 'person' within the space of a few pages but maybe that’s just me as a romantic cynic 💔That being said it's good summer reading (as the title suggests) and could totally imagine escaping into their world from the comfort of a sunlounger at the beach. I enjoyed reading about a dyslexic character too and learning more about the condition and how Samantha struggled with it. It’s an opposites attract, small town romance all centred around learning to love books in whatever form they’re consumed 💖

💛 Yellowface 💛 Currently you can’t go anywhere without seeing someone reading or talking about #Yellowface and luckily for you I am joining the pack by adding my thoughts on this - spoiler I loved it! (I read this via @netgalley earlier this year - thank you @harperfiction @boroughpress ) Yellowface by @kuangrf follows June Hayward, whose debut novel flopped and who is struggling to come by the idea that will break her out from the pack and make her a big name in the book business. She’s been living in the shadow of literary darling Athena Liu and has always coveted her success, so when Athena dies and June gets her hands on her unfinished manuscript, things begin to spiral…. 👀 As someone who works in the publishing industry I was hooked on seeing how June would cheat the system and the processes surrounding getting her book out into the world. What I wasn’t expecting was the sharp, confident and almost satirical tone as we are given June’s perspective. We begin to understand her reasoning and I almost felt like I was rubbernecking on her ultimate downfall but couldn’t look away. It’s got great pacing, a stellar cast of characters and ultimately feels unlike anything else I’ve ever read, in the best way. Assured, entertaining and incredibly well written. Have you read this? Do I finally need to cave and read #Babel now? 👀

🌊The Girls of Summer 🌊 [AD PR Product - thanks @penguinukbooks for sending me a copy ❤️] If you follow me on Twitter you would’ve seen me recently raving about the compulsive and darkly addictive #TheGirlsofSummer by @katiebishopwrites and I had to share the love on Instagram as well ✨ An all-consuming summer romance that isn’t quite as it appears upon reflection - a look at consent and controlling the narrative with a dark undertone. We follow seventeen year old Rachel during a summer on a Greek Island where she starts a relationship with Alastair, who is twenty years older. She finds herself drawn into his world and faces the consequences. We jump between this timeline and present day where Rachel still finds herself thinking her first love affair. It tackles the themes of power, manipulation and consent while building intrigue and suspense. It is a STELLAR debut ✨❤️

☀️One Italian Summer☀️ If you’ve stuck around here for a while, you may remember I received a Netgalley copy of One Italian Summer by @rebecca_serle back when it was published in hardback, and the lovely team at @quercusbooks have kindly sent me a physical copy to mark paperback publication day 🥰 I am re-sharing my review here in case you missed it before 👉🏼 Following the death of her mother, who was also her best friend, Katy is at a loss. The pair were due to embark on a long-awaited mother-daughter trip to Positano, the place where Carol spent the summer prior to meeting Katy's father. After waiting years to journey there together, the trip looms but now Katy faces making the trip alone. Upon arriving on the Amalfi Coast, Katy is emerged in the world of her mum from all those years ago, and it's a heartbreaking reminder of what she has lost. Until by some unexpected force, Katy comes face to face with her mother – alive, healthy, and thirty years old. For the course of one Italian summer, Katy has her mother back and she's determined to make the most of it. One Italian Summer is a magical read - not simply because Katy's mother Carol is back as a prior version of herself, but because the beautiful, picturesque Amalfi Coast of Italy is brought to life so wonderfully. The experiences and sights and foods are tangible and believable, and it's as though you too are accompanying Katy and Carol on this unexpected adventure they're having. It's pure escapism in literary form. The story charts Katy's experiences of grief and loss, while also delving into the themes of regret and forgotten dreams, and even life's purpose. It's an incredibly perceptive story that challenges the way you may look at your own life and your priorities. It's sweet and heartfelt at times, then full of wonder and anticipation the next, before you're plunged into emotional turmoil. It's a story that, like the waves of the Amalfi Coast, keeps rolling and changing. Sentimental, sweet and with a summery setting - this one is a remarkable story that will stay with me for a long time. Out now 🌊🌊 thank you @quercusbooks for the gifted PR copy

🥼🧬Loathe to Love You 🥼🧬 In case you’re new here, you may not know that I am OBSESSED with anything Ali Hazelwood writes and these novellas were no exception. Loathe To Love You combines together three irresistible short stories that follow three friends Mara, Sadie, and Hannah. They all pop up in one another’s stories, and I ADORED the extra bonus chapter that was included after them too. I loved that the three stories used classic tropes like roommates and close confinement, but mixed themwith Ali’s signature STEM / academia thread. Pure escapism in delightful form, I LOVED these and I love that they all linked together too!! [AD PR Product] Thank you @littlebrownbookgroup_uk for the copy via Netgalley! ✨✨

✨My First Tessa Bailey book ✨ After seeing #TessaBailey numerous times on my Instagram feed and all over Tiktok, I was intrigued to find out what makes her books so popular, and I realise this is part two in a series but my ebook library loan came through ahead of part one but STILL….👀🫣 This was an easy novel to flick through but not my favourite by any stretch. We follow the story of Fox, a fisherman, and Hannah who is working as a production assistant on a movie. The pair have a friendship where lust and longing simmers beneath the surface for months via text before they’re reunited in person and things kick up a notch. Held back by his womaniser image, Fox struggles to commit to Hannah in the way he would like, and the pair’s relationship struggles as a result. I enjoyed the Will-they-won’t-they aspect and the obvious flirting, but the miscommunication got a bit tedious after a while as did some of the descriptions used in the spicy sections because I found myself cringing. 😫 Great bit of escapism but not one I’m bowled over by I’m sorry to say…. Have you read this one? If so what did you think? 🙊