Review: Ella and the Welcome Home - Volume #2 - Jessica Sorensen - October 2020 Readers and fans of Jessica Sorensen will probably understand why the cover of this review looks a little different from the title I have mentioned in the heading. Let me explain! The book I originally read was The Secret Star Grove Mysteries: The Secret Trunk, and it appears that, some years later, Jessica has taken that story and rewritten it as part of this particular series. This is something Jessica has done on a number of occasions, and I have to admit that, in the beginning, it used to leave me scratching my head. I would start reading a book and think, "Hang on a minute, haven't I read this before?" Only to discover that it had a different title and belonged to a different series! These days, however, I am much more familiar with her little habit, so it doesn't catch me quite so off guard. In the story I read, we catch up with Ella and Micha Scott, who are now newlyweds and settl...

Review: Trick or Treat - Book #0.5 Steinbeck U Prequel - L.A Cotton - October 2020 Some weeks, my reading itch strikes and I can’t decide what to pick up. Too many books on the TBR, too little patience for a doorstopper. If that sounds familiar, Trick or Treat by L.A. Cotton is just the thing. It’s a quick novella, easily gobbled up in one cosy sitting, and it scratched that itch beautifully. We meet Calliope James, a girl who would much rather live life through a lens than in the spotlight. She’s the observer, happily tucked behind her camera. So when she reluctantly agrees to go to a party with her best friend before they both head off to university, the last thing she expects is to find herself on the other side of the camera. Then there’s Zachary Messiah, who left Bay View High School without so much as a word, and now he’s back. He’s not the boy she remembers, but she’s exactly the girl he’s tried so hard to forget. Naturally, they should stay far away from each other. But it’s ...

Review: Nightshade - Vanessa Edwards - July 2026 Nightshade by Vanessa Edwards begins with a heartbreak. Years ago, Mary fell head over heels for a man who treated her like she was the whole world. Then, just like that, he broke her heart by choosing someone else. That someone was Alice, who is now his wife. Fast forward to the present and Ed has Mary back in his life. She makes him feel wanted, and he's planning to divorce Alice and marry the woman he should have picked all those years ago. Alice, however, has other ideas. A divorce would leave her penniless, and that simply won't do for the lifestyle she's grown so fond of. So she gathers up a little "nightshade" (of course she does!) and poisons her husband. Alice is quite certain she's got away with it. But she's forgotten someone. Enter Lina, the nanny, who has seen more than Alice ever realised. When Alice tries to fire her, Lina has her ammunition ready, and things get deliciously tense from ther...

Review: Hana - Book #1.5 Delirium Series - Lauren Oliver - December 2011 I have a confession to make. This book had been sitting on my Kindle since January 2012, quietly waiting, until now. Sometimes a story finds you exactly when it's meant to, and picking up Hana after all these years felt less like reading a novella and more like stepping back through a door I didn't know I'd left open. Reading it transported me straight back to 2010–2012, that golden era when dystopian YA ruled every bookshelf and every teenage heart. It also brought back a memory I treasure, organising a Zoom call with Lauren Oliver herself for a teen reading finale at Tauranga Libraries, right here in little ol' New Zealand. Talk about full circle. Hana gives us the summer before the cure, told from the other side of the friendship at the heart of Delirium. While Lena is pulling away from the noise and risk of the underground world, Hana is doing the opposite  chasing every last taste of freed...

Review: A Merry Royal Layover - Teri Wilson - October 2021 There are some books that feel like curling up on the couch with a hot chocolate, a Christmas movie playing in the background, and absolutely no intention of taking life too seriously. A Merry Royal Layover by Terri Wilson is exactly that kind of book. It’s cute, festive, romantic and completely unapologetic about leaning into all the things we love about holiday rom-coms. As soon as I started reading this novella, I was getting major Love Actually vibes. In fact, there are so many little references and nods to the movie that I couldn't help but smile, especially the infamous Christmas lobster claws. If you know, you know! I love it when an author manages to weave in those little pop-culture moments without making them feel forced, and this book absolutely delivered on that front. But Love Actually isn't the only movie that came to mind. I was also getting strong The Prince and Me vibes, which just happens to be another...

Review: Little Lies - Book #0 - Little Mercies Series - Heather Gudenkauf - March 2014 Heather Gudenkauf has been one of my favourite thriller authors for years now, and there's something so comforting about picking up her books like settling into a well-worn armchair, except the story inside might keep you up past bedtime. Little Lies, a prequel to her novel Little Mercies, is exactly the kind of quick, absorbing read I reach for when I want to be pulled in fast and not let go until the last page. The premise hooks you immediately: the body of a woman is found in a local park, her bewildered four-year-old son sitting quietly beside her, too young to understand what's happened. It's a gut-punch of an opening image, the kind that makes your chest tighten even before you know any of the details. Veteran social worker Ellen Moore is brought in to help the police, and I loved having her as our guide through this one. There's something grounding about a protagonist whose jo...

Review: Ignite - Book 0.7 Legacy Series - Rebecca Yarros - July 2016 Sometimes you just know what your reading soul needs. After powering through a week of dense literary fiction and pulse-pounding thrillers that left my brain feeling like scrambled eggs, I found myself standing before my bookshelf on a Friday evening, craving something entirely different. My fingers landed on Ignite, a slim novella that had been sitting patiently since a fellow bookstagrammer gifted it to me months ago. Rebecca Yarros wrote this Legacy series entry back in 2016, and while I shamefully admit to still having her wildly popular romantasy novels gathering dust on my shelf (despite buying them on release day like the devoted reader I pretend to be), I've devoured nearly all of her contemporary romances. There's something about Rebecca Yarros's writing that feels like slipping into a warm bath after a long day—comforting, rejuvenating, with just enough edge to keep things interesting. Ignite i...

Review: The Study Session - Book #3 The Jocks and Nerds Collection - Darcy Rose - May 2025 Sometimes life throws you those peculiar reading days—you know the ones. Your brain craves the escape of a good book, but every book on your shelf feels as appealing as cold soup. Your eyes glaze over at complex plots, and even your favorite authors seem to demand too much mental energy. It's during these literary doldrums that books like The Study Session become absolute lifesavers. Darcy Rose's third installment in The Jocks and Nerds Collection arrived at precisely the right moment in my reading journey. After battling through several dense literary novels that left me feeling more exhausted than enlightened, I needed something that would remind me why I fell in love with reading in the first place. This book delivered exactly that comfort-food reading experience. The premise is delightfully straightforward: Jax, a football player starting fresh at a new university, needs academic ...

Review: The Band Geek - Book#2 The Jocks and Nerds Collection - Darcy Rose - May 2025 If you’re in the mood for a quick and satisfying HEA (Happily Ever After), The Band Geek by Darcy Rose is a perfect pick. Following on from The Bookworm, which featured Talon's romance, this second installment in the Jocks and Nerds collection shifts the focus to Sawyer—Talon’s best friend as he finds his own unexpected love story. This new adult romance novella pairs Sawyer with Rowena, a self-proclaimed band geek, for a class project that heavily impacts their grades. Rowena is less than thrilled with the pairing. Burned by past experiences with jocks, she’s quick to label Sawyer as just another smooth-talking athlete who only has eyes for cheerleaders and popularity. But she couldn’t be more wrong. Sawyer is refreshingly different from the stereotype. He has no interest in the popular crowd or the cheerleaders like Jessica. Instead, he’s drawn to the intelligent, guarded, and quirky Rowena. Wha...