Hi, hello friends! I can’t believe 2023 is almost over, and 2024 is just mere weeks away. I’ve been pretty out of the loop lately, but I’m hoping to get back into reading more in 2024, especially given how many incredibly exciting books are on my 2024 radar! Please note: this list does not include any books published by St. Martin’s Press, in compliance with the boycott.
Read moreCaitlyn’s Monthly Wrap Up: November 2023
Hello, hello, happy December my friends! I hope that you’re all doing well. I know I say it every month, but I truly can’t believe we’re now in the last month of 2023??? This year went by SO quickly!
You know the drill, get comfy and cozy with your favorite winter beverage and blanket and let’s chat!
Read moreReview: Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh by Rachael Lippincott
Read moreWhat if you found a once-in-a-lifetime love…just not in your lifetime?
Audrey Cameron has lost her spark. But after getting dumped by her first love and waitlisted at her dream art school all in one week, she has no intention of putting her heart on the line again to get it back. So when local curmudgeon Mr. Montgomery walks into her family’s Pittsburgh convenience store saying he can help her, Audrey doesn’t know what she’s expecting…but it’s definitely not that she’ll be transported back to 1812 to become a Regency romance heroine.
Lucy Sinclair isn’t expecting to find an oddly dressed girl claiming to be from two hundred years in the future on her family’s estate. But she has to admit it’s a welcome distraction from being courted by a man her father expects her to marry—who offers a future she couldn’t be less interested in. Not that anyone has cared about what or who she’s interested in since her mother died, taking Lucy’s spark with her.
While the two girls try to understand what’s happening and how to send Audrey home, their sparks make a comeback in a most unexpected way. Because as they both try over and over to fall for their suitors and the happily-ever-afters everyone expects of them, they find instead they don’t have to try at all to fall for each other.
But can a most unexpected love story survive even more impossible circumstances?
Review: Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons
Was the greatest ever love story a lie?
The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo’s attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life.
Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo’s gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realizes that it is not only Juliet’s reputation at stake, but her life .With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way?
Shattering everything we thought we knew about Romeo and Juliet, Fair Rosaline is the spellbinding prequel to Shakespeare’s best known tale, which exposes Romeo as a predator with a long history of pursuing much younger girls. Bold, lyrical, and chillingly relevant, Fair Rosaline reveals the dark subtext of the timeless story of star-crossed lovers: it’s a feminist revision that will enthrall readers of bestselling literary retellings such as Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
Read morenovember 2023 wrap up // a letter from coco
happy end of november, my sweet friends! i hope you’ve been doing well, and staying safe — and keeping warm if it’s cold where you are!
Read moreReview: The Fall of Whit Rivera by Crystal Maldonado
Could you plan the Fall Formal with your (hot) nemesis? Whit Rivera is about to find out.
Frenemies Whit and Zay have been at odds for years (ever since he broke up with her in, like, the most embarrassing way imaginable), so when they’re forced to organize the fall formal together, it’s a literal disaster. Sparks fly as Whitney—type-A, passionate, a perfectionist, and a certified sweater-weather fanatic—butts heads with Zay, a dry, relaxed skater boy who takes everything in stride. But not all of those sparks are bad. . . .
Has their feud been a big misunderstanding all along?
Blisteringly funny and profoundly well-observed, The Fall of Whit Rivera is a snug and cozy autumn romcom that also tackles weightier topics like PCOS, chronic illness, sexuality, fatphobia, Latine identity, and class. Funny, honest, insightful, romantic, and poignant, it is classic Crystal Maldonado—and it will have her legion of fans absolutely swooning.
Read moreLet’s Talk: 10 Books I Want to Finish Before 2023 is Over
Hi friends! I cannot believe 2023 is already almost over — I feel like I’m constantly talking about how unbelievable it is that time is flying, but it really is unbelievable to me that 2024 is only a few weeks away. I’ve still got a few books I’d like to start (and finish) before the year’s over, and figured that listing them all out would help me prioritize and make sense of things!
Read moreLet’s Talk: Books I Want to Read Before the End of the Year
Hello friends! I hope that your November has gotten off to a great start! November is going to be a busy month for me, which unfortunately, hasn’t helped my anxiety over the last few weeks — that being said, I’m doing all I can this month to keep myself calm and relaxed. Anyway! Even with the busy November (and December) that I have ahead of me, I do have some books that I’m hoping to get read before the year ends, and I figured, how better to keep me accountable than make a post about it?
Grab your favorite snacks, get cozy, and let’s chat about a few books that I’m hoping to get to before the end of 2023!
Read moreReview: A British Girl’s Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak by Laura Taylor Namey
Read moreWinchester, England, has always been home for Flora, but when her mother dies after a long illness, Flora feels untethered. Her family expects her to apply to university and take a larger role in their tea-shop business, but Flora isn’t so sure. More than ever, she’s the chaotic “hurricane” in her household, and she doesn’t always know how to manage her stormy emotions.
So she decides to escape to Miami without telling anyone—especially her longtime friend Gordon Wallace.
But Flora’s tropical change of scenery doesn’t cast away her self-doubt. When it comes to university, she has no idea which passions she should follow. That’s also true in romance. Flora’s summer abroad lands her in the flashbulb world of teen influencer Baz Marín, a Miami Cuban who shares her love for photography. But Flora’s more conflicted than ever when she begins to see future architect Gordon in a new light.
Caitlyn’s Monthly Wrap Up: October 2023
Hello, hello, my friends! Happy November — it’s absolutely wild that we’re in the second to last month of the year! October really flew by and it was a great month, so get comfy and cozy and let’s chat about it!
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