Hello friends! We’re halfway through March, which is just plain crazy! How’re you doing with your reading goals? Things have been going well for me so far! As of this post, I’ve read 10 books this month and I just hit 50 books read this year, which was my goal for the end of the month so I’m feeling pretty confident right now!
I’m in the middle of 3 books right now and hoping to finish all 3 and start more by the end of the weekend. Last weekend was pretty busy, so I didn’t have as much time to read as I would’ve liked. That being said, I thought that it would be fun to post some mini reviews this week!
The Heartbreak Bakery by A.R. Capetta
They say baking is magic, and The Heartbreak Bakery proves it! I loved this book. Syd is such a likable protagonist who you can’t help but root for. The Proud Muffin sounds like the most lovely, magical and safe place – a place that everyone needs. I was smiling from ear to ear the entire time I was reading. I loved the recipes included in the book and will absolutely be trying some of these bakes in the future! I do wish that it was a bit longer, as I felt that some of the pacing was a bit off, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story. If you’re looking for a fun, creative, diverse and delicious read The Heartbreak Bakery is for you!
Teenage baker Syd sends ripples of heartbreak through Austin’s queer community when a batch of post-being-dumped brownies turns out to be magical—and makes everyone who eats them break up.
“What’s done is done.”
Unless, of course, it was done by my brownies. Then it’s getting undone.
Syd (no pronouns, please) has always dealt with big, hard-to-talk-about things by baking. Being dumped is no different, except now Syd is baking at the Proud Muffin, a queer bakery and community space in Austin. And everyone who eats Syd’s breakup brownies . . . breaks up. Even Vin and Alec, who own the Proud Muffin. And their breakup might take the bakery down with it. Being dumped is one thing; causing ripples of queer heartbreak through the community is another. But the cute bike delivery person, Harley (he or they, check the pronoun pin, it’s probably on the messenger bag), believes Syd about the magic baking. And Harley believes Syd’s magical baking can fix things, too—one recipe at a time.
Links for The Heartbreak Bakery: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | Indie Bound
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
After watching Netflix’s 2018 adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House I became completely obsessed with the story. I love horror films/tv shows and, in my opinion, it’s one of the best. I loved the show so much and it definitely made me want to read the original novel. Well, flash forward 2 years later (I didn’t watch the series until 2020) and I’ve finally read the source material. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the expectations the show had given me. I found the pacing really odd – the entire time I was just waiting for something to happen. I was waiting to have chills, I was waiting to be scared, I was waiting to connect the characters and…I kept waiting. I wanted to like it, really I did, but it simply was not what I had hoped it would be. This is one of the rare instances where I thought the show was better than the book.
It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
Links for The Haunting of Hill House: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | Indie Bound
Fake It Til You Bake It by Jamie Wesley (ARC)
Fake It Til You Bake It it is definitely a fun and flirty contemporary romance! Since I love all things baking related, I couldn’t resist this fake dating story that takes place in a cupcake shop, as it involves two of my favorite things! I really liked Jada and Donovan together – I thought that they did a great job of listening to each other and uplifting the other when needed. Their banter was fun and flirty and they truly did bring out the best in each other. It was great to see how the two of them grew as people as their relationship progressed. I loved the side characters, like Jada’s grandmother, Donovan’s teammates/business partners, Nicholas and August, and the recurring customers at Sugar Blitz were super fun as well! Some of the pacing felt a little slow and I felt that the expected third act breakup happened at an odd time which led to the book being wrapped up a little too quickly for my taste, but overall, I did enjoy the book. If you’re a fan of contemporary romance and fake dating, I would suggest checking it out!
A reality star and a cupcake-baking football player pretend to be a couple in order to save his bakery in this sweet and sexy romance from Jamie Wesley, Fake It Till You Bake It.
Jada Townsend-Matthews is the most reviled woman in America after turning down a proposal on a reality dating show. When she comes home to lick her wounds, Jada finds herself working at San Diego’s newest cupcake bakery, Sugar Blitz, alongside the uptight owner and professional football player Donovan Dell.
When a reporter mistakenly believes Jada and Donovan are an item, they realize they can use the misunderstanding to their advantage to help the struggling bakery and rehabilitate Jada’s image. Faking a relationship should be simple, but sometimes love is the most unexpected ingredient.
Fake it Till You Bake It is a sweet confection of a novel, the perfect story to curl up with and enjoy with a cupcake on the side.
Links for Fake It Til You Bake It: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Indie Bound
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao
We all know how much I love dark academia, but I do have an issue with how white the genre is. Because of that, I had really been looking forward to How We Fall Apart. Unfortunately, for me, it just fell so flat. I felt that the story had no nuance. The book is told in Nancy’s POV, but I felt like I knew nothing about her, her friends or even why they were friends. I didn’t spend any time theorizing about who “The Proctor” was, which really is the most disappointing thing for me in a mystery novel. If I’m not invested enough to try to theorize, something is definitely off. While I do appreciate dark academia stories being told by and about people of color, this one just did not work for me at all.
Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing, and then is found dead. Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends–Krystal, Akil, and Alexander–are the prime suspects, thanks to “The Proctor,” someone anonymously incriminating them via the school’s social media app.
They all used to be Jamie’s closest friends, and she knew each of their deepest, darkest secrets. Now, somehow The Proctor knows them, too. The four must uncover the true killer before The Proctor exposes more than they can bear and costs them more than they can afford, like Nancy’s full scholarship. Soon, Nancy suspects that her friends may be keeping secrets from her, too.
Students at an elite prep school are forced to confront their secrets when their ex-best friend turns up dead.
Links for How We Fall Apart: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop | Indie Bound
Have you read any of these books? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Just got approved for Fake it Til You Bake It this morning. Can’t wait to read it.
Oh yay! I hope you enjoy it! Can’t wait to hear what you think.