Review

Kiss My Cupcake

Kiss My Cupcake

By: Helen Hunting

Blurb:

Blaire Calloway has planned every Instagram-worthy moment of her cupcake and cocktails shop launch down to the tiniest detail. What she didn’t plan on? Ronan Knight and his old-school sports bar next door opening on the very same day. He may be super swoony, but Blaire hasn’t spent years obsessing over buttercream and bourbon to have him ruin her chance at success.

From axe throwing (his place) to frosting contests (hers), Blaire and Ronan are constantly trying to one-up each other in a battle to win new customers. But with every clash, there’s also an undeniable chemistry. When an even bigger threat to their business comes to town, they’re forced to call a temporary time-out on their own war and work together. And the more time Blaire spends getting to know the real Ronan, the more she wonders if it’s possible to have her cupcake and eat it too.

As two neighborhood shop owners battle for business, they prove opposites attract in this outrageously funny romantic comedy from the USA Today bestselling author of Meet Cute.

Review:

I boohooed through the end of this book. I’d love to blame my anxiety meds, but I really am just a crier. There were a lot of feels, lots of history, and an old man who had lost the love of his life. I think my tears were warranted.

Blaire is opening up her cupcake and booze shop. It’s her dream, and she’s forgone the money her parents could give her to prove that she can do it on her own. Blaire works herself into what will end up being an early grave at the rate she went. Most nights, she gave herself only a couple of hours a night to sleep, which was odd because she didn’t even bake the cupcakes. She did decorate them, but it seemed strange to me that she didn’t bake them too.

Ronan is in charge of his family’s bar. It’s been in their family for three generations, and it’s very dear to his heart. He lost his parents when he was twenty, and his grandparents were a huge help for him. It’s all charming.

The couple had a rocky beginning, mainly because Blaire kept expecting the worst from him. Anything he did, she hated. It was honestly pretty annoying. She was purposefully misunderstanding his actions and words and it made me dislike her. Thankfully, it didn’t last too long, but I never really warmed up to her. I don’t think I could say I warmed up to Ronan either, but I’m not sure why.

Most of the chapters were written from Blaire’s perspective, with a few sprinkled in from Ronan’s. His chapters were my favorite because hers were just so stressful. She was always doing something or worried about her business. She did think about how sexy he was and enjoyed spending time with him and his family, but the stress always seemed to be there. Meanwhile, most of Ronan’s chapters were getting to know Blaire and enjoying her. His business was established, so he didn’t have those same concerns.

Kiss My Cupcake was a cute story with a lot of sweet parts, sadly I never warmed up to the characters.

3/5

Boyfriend Material

Boyfriend Material

By: Alexis Hall

Blurb:

Wanted:
One (fake) boyfriend
Practically perfect in every way

Luc O’Donnell is tangentially–and reluctantly–famous. His rock star parents split when he was young, and the father he’s never met spent the next twenty years cruising in and out of rehab. Now that his dad’s making a comeback, Luc’s back in the public eye, and one compromising photo is enough to ruin everything.

To clean up his image, Luc has to find a nice, normal relationship…and Oliver Blackwood is as nice and normal as they come. He’s a barrister, an ethical vegetarian, and he’s never inspired a moment of scandal in his life. In other words: perfect boyfriend material. Unfortunately apart from being gay, single, and really, really in need of a date for a big event, Luc and Oliver have nothing in common. So they strike a deal to be publicity-friendly (fake) boyfriends until the dust has settled. Then they can go their separate ways and pretend it never happened.

But the thing about fake-dating is that it can feel a lot like real-dating. And that’s when you get used to someone. Start falling for them. Don’t ever want to let them go.

Review:

Boyfriend Material is the fake boyfriend trope. It also has a bit of only one bed as well. It isn’t quite enemies to lovers, but they have a ton of misunderstandings at the beginning, mainly because Luc is suffering from my serious self-worth worth issues.

Luc is the son of a former rock star and finds himself frequently in the tabloids. Sometimes for things he’s done, sometimes for misunderstandings. He’s at rock bottom. Depressed and filled with self-loathing, he is not a very friendly person. He’s got a solid support system in his mother and close friends, but they haven’t been able to help him. I was kind of annoyed that no one ever seemed to recommend therapy. His issues definitely could have been helped if he’d gone that route.

Oliver is a barrister, vegetarian, and all-around eco-conscience individual, as well as superhot. A mutual friend has tried to hook them up before, but it didn’t work due to Luc’s issues. Then they both find themselves in need of a boyfriend. Luc because he works at a charity funded by homophobes and Luc because he doesn’t want to go to his parents’ anniversary by himself. Things go from there.

The romance was there right from the start. It was clear to the reader that they were both attracted to each other. Luc did everything in his power to push Oliver away and was frequently an asshole to him. He always assumed the worst, and there were a few awkward moments. Oliver ended up building up Luc’s confidence, and Luc started to come out of his depression. It did sort of bother me that Luc started improving because of a man, but at least it wasn’t because Oliver was pushing him to be better. Oliver always seemed to accept Luc for who he was.

The humor was very British, think Bridget Jones’s Diary. I didn’t get several references, and Luc was probably less of an asshole than I thought he was. I’m pretty sarcastic myself, but the British take it to a whole new level.

Boyfriend Material’s end was mostly satisfying. You find out some things about Oliver’s life that explains why he is the way he is. I liked that he ended up having to go to Luc. It was a nice role reversal. I wish there had been more justice with Luc’s father. At least Luc told him off at the very beginning. I also wish there had been an epilogue, maybe a glimpse at how they were doing a couple of months down the road. Something.

I ended up really enjoying Boyfriend Material. Even though it was long at no moment did I get bored or feel like it was lagging. The romance was super sweet, and I enjoyed the characters. It’s a one-shot, and unless Hall wants to continue their story, I don’t see this being the beginning of a story. I’m okay with that, though.

4/5

Loathe at First Sight

Loathe at First Sight

By: Suzanne Park

Blurb:

Melody Joo is thrilled to land her dream job as a video game producer, but her new position comes with challenges: an insufferable CEO; sexist male coworkers; and an infuriating—yet distractingly handsome—intern, Nolan MacKenzie, aka “the guy who got hired because his uncle is the boss.”

Just when Melody thinks she’s made the worst career move of her life, her luck changes. While joking with a friend, she creates a mobile game that has male strippers fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Suddenly Melody’s “joke” is her studio’s most high-profile project—and Melody’s running the show.

When Nolan is assigned to Melody’s team, she’s sure he’ll be useless. But as they grow closer, she realizes he’s smart and sexy, which makes Melody want to forget he’s her intern. As their attraction deepens, she knows it’s time to pump the brakes, even with her Korean parents breathing down her neck to hurry up and find a man.

With her project about to launch, Melody suddenly faces a slew of complications, including a devastating trolling scandal. Could the man she’s falling hard for help her play the game to win—in work and in love?

Review:

Loathe at First Sight was in multiple marketing emails I receive. (This year I’ve used those emails to add a LOT of books to my To-Read list.) I was immediately sold on it because I have a connection to video game studios. I worked for a mobile game company, albeit briefly, my husband works at a large video game company. Several friends work on games and for game companies and just generally as programmers/engineers. I am well aware of the shit women, minorities, and LGBTQ+ people get in the industry. I’ve been a gamer since I was five. This is my world.

My hopes were high for Loathe at First Sight based on the blurb alone, and that’s where I got screwed. The marketing for this book was just plain bad. This was not a romance. At all. This was a female-led book, by a female author, with a tiny little dose of romance. It should never have been marketed as a romance. It was women’s fiction. The main point was not to see Melody fall in love. It was to see her incredible struggle in video game production. If you’re a masochist, you’ll probably enjoy Loathe at First Sight because Melody is thrown hurdle after hurdle, given impossible demands, and struggles with every aspect of her life. She has one nice friend, but the other makes up for that with all of her requests and snide comments. Her parents frequently talk about how disappointed they are in her and that she needs to get married. Her job is a hell dimension. Her love life is nonexistent throughout this entire book.

Loathe at First Sight was a “romance” with no romance. There wasn’t even any loathe directed at the male “love interest.” They had a bad first meeting, but that quickly turned around to Melody, occasionally lusting after his body. Even that was infrequent because she was so loaded down with work. They ate dinner together one night. It was supposed to be a work thing as a thank you to Nolan for all of his hard work, but it was more than that, but not much more. Then she shared one chaste kiss with him after she got stuck in an elevator with another man, one she actually did loathe. Every other interaction was work-related. She somehow knew Nolan was perfect for her based on how well he did his job.

Unrealistic circumstances are expected with romance, and I’m usually all for them, but the level that was reached with regards to the game design side of things blew my mind. There had to have been a ton of research done for Loathe at First Sight because of how well it nailed what the industry is like, but none of that research time seemed to be targeted to making a cell phone game that was the caliber that was mentioned in the story. All kinds of original art, actual story, merchandising, and more were all done in six months, with another game doing a lot of that in even less time. She must have had a huge freaking team, but even that was taken away from her halfway through.

If this book had been marketed as something other than romance, I might have enjoyed it, but as my blog is teaching me, once I have certain expectations, I am easily disappointed when they aren’t met. With that blurb, the marketing, and even the praise from Helen Hoang, was I wrong in expecting a romance??

The ending was about as satisfying as the movie 9-5. This is to say, it wasn’t satisfying. The men in the book didn’t get what they really deserved. It was realistic so there was no justice.

I’m not rating this book. It just doesn’t seem right too. It was well written and well researched. It just wasn’t the romance I was sold.

Axiom’s End (Noumena #1)

Axiom’s End (Noumena #1)

By: Lindsay Ellis

Blurb:

Truth is a human right.

It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.

Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human—and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.

Review:

I picked up Axiom’s End because I enjoy watching Lindsay Ellis’ YouTube video essays. She’s smart and interesting and is great at saying things I think but can’t articulate. I also enjoy Sci-Fi, so I figured I might as well read her book.

It was weird. Interesting, but a bit weird. The aliens always kind of creeped me out because she’d frequently used descriptor words for spiders. They were like a fusion of a raptor and spider or something. They’re aliens, so I’m not sure if the image in my head is right.

I liked Cora, the heroine. She was a good representation of a decent human. She had her weak moments, but she was also strong and smart, and kind. She was who you would want to make first contact after years of watching movies and seeing how shit our government would be at something that important.

Cora’s family was in the book, briefly, and I’m less sure about them. Her father abandoned them for power and fame. Her mother hasn’t handled that very well, even though she was given a choice to go with him. Cora has a younger brother and sister, but they’re too young to add much. There’s also an aunt that comes off as a bitch.

Cora’s relationship with Ampersand, the alien, ended up developing into something I expected but wasn’t a fan of. He could be likable, but a lot of that was because you were seeing him through Cora’s eyes. She feared him, but she was also drawn to him. That’s not an emotional combination I’ve felt before, that I can currently remember, so it’s not something I particularly liked.

I enjoyed Axiom’s End but again, and this is a horrible description, it was a bit weird. I’ve only read a few first contact books, and none of them are ever what I expect. Maybe that’s my problem? Probably. Whatever my preconceived ideas are just don’t match up to what the genre delivers.

3/5

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You Had Me at Hola

You Had Me at Hola

By: Alexis Daria

Blurb:

Leading Ladies do not end up on tabloid covers. 

After a messy public breakup, soap opera darling Jasmine Lin Rodriguez finds her face splashed across the tabloids. When she returns to her hometown of New York City to film the starring role in a bilingual romantic comedy for the number one streaming service in the country, Jasmine figures her new “Leading Lady Plan” should be easy enough to follow—until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez. 

Leading Ladies don’t need a man to be happy. 

After his last telenovela character was killed off, Ashton is worried his career is dead as well. Joining this new cast as a last-minute addition will give him the chance to show off his acting chops to American audiences and ping the radar of Hollywood casting agents. To make it work, he’ll need to generate smoking-hot on-screen chemistry with Jasmine. Easier said than done, especially when a disastrous first impression smothers the embers of whatever sexual heat they might have had. 

Leading Ladies do not rebound with their new costars. 

With their careers on the line, Jasmine and Ashton agree to rehearse in private. But rehearsal leads to kissing, and kissing leads to a behind-the-scenes romance worthy of a soap opera. While their on-screen performance improves, the media spotlight on Jasmine soon threatens to destroy her new image and expose Ashton’s most closely guarded secret.

Review:

I loved Jane the Virgin and after reading the blurb I was hoping for something similar. I was not disappointed. I’m really glad I recently picked Duilingo up because there was a fair amount of Spanish in this book and most of it was not explained. I didn’t always understand what was said by Ashton and his family, but I could get the general gist.

Jasmine is a soap opera star that has earned a starring role in a “Netflix” original series. She’s had an Emmy nod for her last role, but on the heels of that her rock star boyfriend dumps her by way of tabloid. Completely reprioritizing her life she makes a list of things she’s going to do so that she stops repeating a cycle of romantic doom.

Ashton has got bucket loads of anxiety and has seriously chosen the wrong career for the level of privacy he wants. He’s got a secret that he’s hiding from the rest of the world and after a traumatic experience with a stalker he’s not ready to share his secret with anyone. All of that and he’s got a goal to win an Oscar which means he’s taking a leading role in the “Netflix” telenovela adaption.

Sparks are instantaneous with the couple but they are able to resist for a while. It helps that Ashton has bad anxiety. Eventually, though, they overcome their struggles and start a relationship. Kind of. They’re physical, and spend some time in Jasmine’s room cuddling, but they keep it secret. Apart from work they don’t seem to spend much time together that isn’t physical. At least, it’s not shown in the book.

Jasmine does a pretty good job controlling her own anxieties but with everything that ends up happening Ashton basically explodes. He says some things that I felt like ended up being glossed over in his apology, but Jasmine forgives him quickly.

There were a lot I liked about You Had Me at Hola, namely the characters, story, and the setting. The few things I didn’t like, how fast Jasmine forgave and Ashton’s levels of anxiety (seriously dude after eight years he should have been talking to someone or medicated or both), were easy enough to set aside. All in all I’m hoping that this is made into a series and we get books about Ava, Michelle, and even some more for Ashton’s father.

4/5