There is a village near Vision that deals with its sorrows by making cakes and feeding them to someone who is not in a position to refuse them.

This novella doesn't contain the main characters or the overarching plot... and yet I think it might be the best story in the entire series. Ephemera is a fascinating setting and after reading this I feel that it works best when you aren't trying to grasp what's going on. I really enjoyed this.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After a near death experience transforms Diego Martinez into a werewolf, he finds his pack and starts working with them in SWAT. When he responds to a hostage situation in a diner, he doesn't expect to find a teenage werewolf in need of an alpha - or Bree, a mother who desperately needs help with her son. Bree might just be The One for Diego. But first they must survive a crimewave that seems to be catching.

This was a lot of fun to read, though I found it to be a bit Paranormal Lite - I prefer a bit more world-building and more developed pack dynamics in my werewolf romances. Diego was actually quite a sweet werewolf (though I'm sure he'd scoff if I told him this lol) and I grew to be quite fond of him. A nice, easy way to pass the time - and there are enough interesting twists in this book to keep you reading until the end.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

​Hope's twin sister, Jackie, is getting married this week, but she's a wedding planner with another wedding to sort out first. She asks the unthinkable of Hope - take her place and pretend to be her, just until she arrives. It'll only be a day, tops! Hope knows it's all wrong, but she really wants her sister to be happy - and then she starts to fall for Brent and his family...

This was a fun and fresh take on the "marriage of convenience" trope (with twins thrown in for good measure!) and I enjoyed every minute of it. Brent and Hope were written well together, so clearly meant-to-be. You can throw characters together, but you've got to make sure they have chemistry - and boy, do they! I suppose the premise is slightly on the ridiculous side and sometimes I felt as frustrated as Hope as things continued to worsen for her. Still a great read, however.

Faye was so sure she was about to die when she asked Chris, a stranger, for her first kiss. There was no other reason she would ask. But after days of being adrift at sea, they were rescued - and now Faye has to live with the consequences. Including the fact that Chris isn't single!
​
I loved the premise for this one - there are many fictional romances that begin far away from reality and I always wonder what happens when the couples go back to their real lives. I really felt for Faye, who I honestly would have befriended myself, and she felt very real to me (even if some of the plot developments didn't). A sweet New Adult romance with writing that shows a lot of potential.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maria Owens enters the world with disadvantages - she has no identity, she is a woman, and she was born a witch. But there are advantages to being what she is, such as doing as you please and being able to discern one's fate. There are some fates Maria will gladly walk out to meet and other fates she will change, for better or worse. By the end of it, there will be a family curse to haunt her descendants.

I know that Alice Hoffman's works can be called magical realism, but I think they are simply magical. And this is book really is pure magic.

Hoffman deftly weaves together historical truths and fiction until you're convinced her version of events must be the real one, that Maria really did travel across the sea in search of a man who would give her diamonds. I really liked Practical Magic, but Magic Lessons is in a class of its own and I'm suddenly overcome with the need to make a pot of tea and drink it while observing the sunshine. I absolute adore this book. Definitely my favourite release of 2020 by far.

Hannah is a real life witch living in Salem with her parents and the twelve other families that make up her coven. The most challenging things in her life are hiding her many secrets, trying not to get on the bad side of her grandmother, and dealing with an ex who just won't leave her alone. But her problems are about to get bigger. A LOT bigger.

I've read a lot of witchy teen books in my time - I grew up in the 1990s, after all. They're all very samey and unfortunately this one is no different, even if it did have queer representation. The typical 'incompetent adults' were especially incompetent, which I've always found a bit annoying. I think I'm willing to try the second book, since this was a decent enough way to pass the time.

The Adelaides of various universes spend their summers walking dogs, creating a project that might save their grades, and encountering boys who may or may not remain in their lives.

Hmm. Do you ever read something that you know is clever and you really should appreciate it - and yet, you don't? I actually liked how this was laid out and the last part provided the pay-off I was looking for. But the story didn't grab me and I couldn't love it. A good idea let down by execution.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Stung by an ex and the cancellation of her cooking show, Mai Li has come back to her hometown to restore her family's restaurant. She enlists the services of Dale Miller, a contractor who is adamant about never mixing business with pleasure. But the heat simmering between them is about to boil over.

I'll admit I expected something a little different based on the cover. Maybe a greater focus on the cooking and renovation aspects? But I got over my initial disappointment because this F/F romance has drama, miscommunications and delightfully steamy scenes (heat level 100000!). Dale's sons are strong secondary characters. All in all, it was an enjoyable read, but while the physical aspects of the relationship were really good, the emotional side was more "tell" than "show".

​As an author of romance novels, January lives and breathes happy endings. As an author of literary fiction, August is staunchly against happy endings. They've been fierce rivals since college, but now both of them are struck by writer's block. A bet to switch genres may help them out of their respective funks - and may give them an ending of their own, happy or otherwise.

I am a sucker for books about writers writing. I am a sucker for books involving leads who are both a bit broken. I am a sucker for books that feel like comfort food on a cold winter's night (as it is tonight!). So it was enviable that I fell in love with this one. It was so easy to blitz my way through it, but now I wish I'd savoured it a little bit more. Well, that's what re-reads are for, aren't they? :)