While I am usually not a fan of
second-chance romances, I am a fan of Emily Henry. I went into this one leery,
though. Emily Henry worked her magic again. I should have known better than to
doubt her. Harriet and Wyn’s story had me literally weeping for the entire
second half of the book.
I was such a mess over them that I had to leave the
room so I could break down in private. This book manages to break your heart,
then slowly piece the whole thing back together, bigger and fuller than it was
before.
'At turns hilarious and wise, another knockout from the champ' Taylor Jenkins Reid, DAISY JONES AND THE SIX 'One of my favourite authors' Colleen Hoover, IT ENDS WITH US 'Smart, sunny, sexy and also a gorgeous story of female friendship' Beth O'Leary, THE FLATSHARE
-----
Two exes. One pact. Could this holiday change everything?
Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple - they go together like bread and butter, gin and tonic, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
Every year, they take a holiday from their lives to drink far too much wine with their favourite people in the world.
For the last couple of years, I have had one rule: no books about Covid! So, it was a
good thing going in that I had no idea what to expect from this book going in.
The main character, Sally Milz, is a lot like you and me, only a lot funnier.
She
has a fear of commitment and a dump truck full of insecurities. One of those
insecurities is that she’s not good enough to date one of the guest hosts on
her comedy show, even if he’s openly flirting. Even if they have all the
chemistry, he’s too good for her. At least, that’s what she thinks.
Years later,
Covid happened, and he sent her an email. And they still have all the chemistry, and he’s still flirting with her. Only this time, she flirts back.
I won’t give
the rest away, but if you don’t finish this book in absolute love with Sally
and Noah, then you’re some sort of unfeeling cyborg person who never had a
crush on a pop star and doesn’t think women can be funny.
There's a pattern to books I love: they make me laugh, they make me cry,
and the female lead is a little bit of a mess. Enter Fizzy, a romance writer
who's never been in love until she meets Connor Prince, the documentary
filmmaker who's been tasked with directing a dating reality show with Fizzy as
his lead.
Christina Lauren's books are a little hit or miss with me, but they
definitely hit with this one. Every moment of the book is so clearly defined as
you read that it's sort of like watching your own mental television show as you
read.
The characters suck you in with their accessibility and warmth, then keep
you there because you are so invested in their happily ever after that you
just have to see it. And this ending is perfect and doesn't let you down even
with the highest of expectations.
Sparks fly when a romance writer and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the ultimate Hollywood love story—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script—from the “divine” (Jodi Picoult) New York Times bestselling authors of The Soulmate Equation and The Unhoneymooners.
Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.
Weaving culinary delights with an honest, appraising look at how we deal with the world when it becomes too much, Closer to Okay is the comfort food we all need in these, well, crazy times.
Kyle Davies is doing fine. She has her routine, after all, ingrained in her from years of working as a baker: wake up, make breakfast, prep the dough, make lunch, work the dough, make dinner, bake dessert, go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. It's a good routine. Comforting. Almost enough to help her forget the scars on her wrist, still healing from when she slit it a few weeks ago; that she lost her job at the bakery when she checked herself in as an inpatient at Hope House; then signed away all decisions about her life, medical care, and wellbeing to Dr. Booth (who may or may not be a hack). So, yeah, Kyle's doing just fine.
Except that a new item's been added to her daily to-do list recently: stare out her window at the coffee shop (named, well...The Coffee Shop) across the street, and its hot owner, Jackson. It's healthy to have eye candy when you're locked in the psych ward, right? Something low risk to keep yourself distracted. So when Dr. Booth allows Kyle to leave the facility--two hours a day to go wherever she wants--she decides to up the stakes a little more. Why not visit? Why not see what Jackson's like in person?
Turns out that Jackson's a jerk with a heart of gold, a deadly combination that Kyle finds herself drawn to more than she should be. (Aren't we all?) At a time when Dr. Booth delivers near-constant warnings about the dangers of romantic entanglements, Kyle is pulled further and further into Jackson's orbit. At first, the feeling of being truly taken care of is bliss, like floating on a wave. But at a time when Kyle is barely managing her own problems, she finds herself suddenly thrown into the deep end of someone else's. Dr. Booth may have been right after all: falling in love may be the thing that sends Kyle into a backslide she might never be able to crawl out of. Is Jackson too much for her to handle? Does love come at the cost of sanity?
