Book Review: The Magic of Found Objects

July 18, 2022 | piperreads

“Just take your place in the world with as much grace and gratitude as you can muster and try to see the best in us.”

Conceived at Woodstock in a serendipitous liaison between a free-spirited hippie and farmer’s son, Phronsie Linnelle was born with magical wonder flicking in her DNA and rationally knit into her bones. Torn between the two for most of her life and now that she’s been betrayed by both love and the the mother she once idolized, her rational is winning out. So when her childhood best friend proposes that they give up on romance and marry each other, she couldn’t think of a better idea. What’s better than spending the rest of your life with your best friend who you know won’t hurt you? But as fate has it, right when she’s about to embark on this journey, someone from her past makes a very convincing argument for revisiting romance, Phronsie must look at her own heart to find that the answers that have been there all along.

What a delightful and fun read from beginning to end! I was so invested in the story and had to force myself to sleep or I would’ve stayed up way too late to read more. This book was so wild and entertaining and that’s really what I loved the most because just when I thought I knew what was happening, it would go in the different direction. I really loved how well written the characters were even the secondary characters were fleshed out and felt so human. They were all so deeply flawed and complicated which is so nice to have in books. Phronsie was such a likable protagonist and I really felt for her while she was trying to sort out the events that transpired in her life and I really liked her growth. The plot and how everything tied up nicely in the end was so well done, I really enjoyed this one and I’m going to check out more of Dawson’s work. Highly recommend this!!

Book Review: FLOAT PLAN

July 18, 2022 | piperreads

“I’m starting to understand that some people come into your life when you need them, and go when it’s time.”

Float Plan follows Anna as she navigates through the loss of her fiance to suicide, she is grief stricken at the loss and unable to integrate back into her normal routine. Her life kicks back up when she gets a reminder about a trip that the two were supposed to take together but now she is alone and on a impulse she decides to go on the trip alone. But, it turns out to be too overwhelming for her and she realizes she needs an extra hand, someone who is good with sailing and she finds that Keane, a professional sailor to help. Much like Anna, his life has been thrown into a tailspin and he is trying to make his way through and soon a budding friendship starts to form with the two realizing that their might be more than friendship in their future.

This was such a great book! I binged it in one day as I was glued to my book to find out what was going to happen next and I found Anna so relatable and easy to like. I really felt for her while she was working through her own grief and how she went about it felt very real. Losing a loved one is never easy to deal especially with suicide as that brings out a lot of guilt and shame with thinking about what you could’ve done to help that person. It’s so difficult to process especially with by yourself and i thought the way the author developed the friendship and eventually romance between Anna and Keane was really well done, it didn’t feel so forced especially with the other issues that both characters are dealing with. Overall, I really enjoyed the book so defintely check it out if it sounds like something you’d enjoy!

Book review

July 17, 2022 | piperreads

“Love follows you. It goes where you go. It doesn’t know about social divides or distance or common sense. It doesn’t even stop when the person you love dies. It does what it wants.”

Part Of Your World follows Alexis and Daniel, two people who couldn’t be more different on a journey of love, hope, and finding true happiness within yourself and with others. Working as a ER doctor, Alexis is perfectly content with how her life is now even though her ultra rich parents want her to carry on the family legacy of being world renowned surgeons and while she doesn’t want to disappoint them, she knows that it will be inevitable. But, her life changes in ways that she couldn’t have expected when she meets Daniel Grant and the more time she spends with him, the more she is learning to let go and enjoy being present in the now. But, she knows the longer this goes on the more she will have to make a very important decision? True happiness or sacrificing her new found love for what her family expects from her.

What a beautifully written story about hope, love, and finding true happiness in yourself and others. I really enjoyed this book even if it did hit home at times because of Alexis’s trauma and relationship with her parents which I despised the more I read about them. I think what I found myself feeling for Alexis so much is because of how her parents treated her and it was really great to see her grow into a more confident, assertive, and self-assured young woman by the end. The relationship she has with her parents was difficult to get through because it reminded of my own issues with my mom. I really felt for her and I was glad that she had Daniel, I found their romance very real and steamy. The book flowed really well together with heavy and light moments, it felt very relatable to many issues that people are facing right now. In the end, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone.

JULY TBR

July 3, 2022 | piperreads

Hey everyone! I’m excited to share all my choices with you! This is gonna be a good month!

Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality by Julia Shaw
Genre: Adult, LGBT, Non-Fiction

The Donut Enemy by Sarah Adams
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Float Plan by Trish Coller
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Fiction

The Magic of Found Objects by Maddie Dawson
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The Meeting Point by Olivia Lara
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

No Rings Attached by Rachel Lacey
Genre: Adult, LGBT, Romance

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Mythology

Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

The Wedding Game by Meghan Quinn
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Book review: Book Lovers

June 29, 2022 | piperreads

“That’s the thing about women. There’s no good way to be one. Wear your emotions on your sleeve and you’re hysterical. Keep them tucked away where your boyfriend doesn’t have to tend to them and you’re a heartless bitch.”

Nora Stephens has the best life ever and all of it involves books and while she doesn’t think of herself as a heroine like the ones in the books, her clients would beg to differ. When she’s not reading books, she’s scoring enormous deals for her literary clients including her sister, Libby. When her sister comes to her with an idea to head out of town for awhile, Nora takes it up without even a second chance and before long she finds herself in a different kind of adventure. Once established in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, she is ready to relax and unwind but life has other plans as she is finding herself thrown together with Charlie Lastra, a brooding book editor from back in the city and the two are less than happy about it. But, the more time the spend the more they begin to realize that they might not be so different at all.

This was a fun ride from beginning to end! I have been a fan of Emily Henry’s books for awhile now and although I still have issues with Beach Read but I won’t go into that. I did this reading with a friend and that was a lot of fun as I found it enjoyable reading this with someone else. Buddy reads don’t always go so well but this one did so I was glad that I was able to have that this time. I found the plot very interesting and Emily really does a good job with creating complicated and flawed characters that seem so real you feel like you know them. The tropes were brilliantly done and the dynamics between Nora and Charlie were fantastic! All in all, a very fun and entertaining read!

Book Review

June 25, 2022 | piperreads

So, you’re Cat’s new pet, huh?”

After a difficult year at NYU, aspiring writer Lora Ricci feels like things are starting to turn around when she lands an summer internship with Elle, a famous fashion magazine. Upon her arrival, she meets Cat Wolff, the contributing editor and soon Lora finds herself spending more and more time with Cat. Their friendship over the course of the internship leads to Lora dropping out of NYC to be Cat’s ghostwriter and Lora feels like all this is good to be true but at the same time she’s willing to make the move. But, Lora begins to wonder if she made the wrong choice as Cat’s perfect exterior begins to crack leaving Lora to question who she really is.

This was such a wild ride and I love how it unfolded from beginning to end. I found the way of using text messages, emails, phone calls transcripts as a way to tell the story was very interesting. It did take some time to get used to that because most books aren’t done that way but I did like it for the most part. The plot was super interesting and I did find it hard to put the book down because I had to find out what happened next. As for the characters, I found Lora and Cat very interesting and the dynamics between felt very real and although Cat did some very dumb things, I did feel for her at times. All in all, I enjoyed it and if you’re looking for a good mystery thriller, this is it!

BOOk Review

June 14, 2022 | piperreads

“It occurred to Delilah that this was probably the longest she’d ever really looked at her stepsister. She’d spent years perfecting the art of avoidance, of protection, of never letting Astrid see how much Delilah was hurting. If eyes were the window into the soul, Delilah’s had long been shuttered.”

If Delilah Greene had it her way, she would never go back to that dreadful city that is Bright Falls where her distant and cold step family are and memories of a childhood that she never had. Her life is in New York City where she is making herself out to be a skilled photographer and while she does want a relationship, being with a different girl each night is fine with her. Until the day she gets a phone call from her estranged sister, Astrid who ends up guilt tripping Deliliah into coming home for wedding and although she wants to say no, the five-figure check would be nice to have. Delilah ends up going but is not going to enjoy it. Or so she thinks.

This was an emotionally packed roller coaster from beginning to end and also hit me really hard as I related to Delilah’s heartache and pain from how her cold and distant family treated her. I really felt for her and found her to be a very real and relatable character and not just because of her trauma. In addition to that, I did enjoy seeing her relationship with her stepsister Astrid get better as things were discovered that the two girls didn’t know and ended up becoming closer because of it. Although, I wasn’t a fan of one of Astrid’s friends, Iris who was flat out a bully and treated Delilah like a child and I found myself speed reading whenever she was present. On the other hand, Delilah does become close with Clarie and I found their chemistry very real and loved the dynamics between them! Overall, an enjoyable book with a few bumps in the road but I highly recommend it.

Book review

June 10, 2022 | piperreads

“Maps are love letters written to times and places their makers had explored.”

For as long as Neil Young can remember cartography has long been her passion and it’s one she shared with her father, Dr. Daniel Young who is a legend in the field and Neil’s personal hero. But, the pair had a nasty falling out due to an old map that she had found and haven’t spoken since he fired her and destroyed her reputation. When Neil hears the tragic news that her father was murdered, she soon finds that out that map that drove them apart is incredibly rare and even if old wounds resurface, Neil knows it’s her duty to find out what happened to her father.

Finally got around to reading this and I’m glad that I did. While it did take sometime to get into story, I did enjoy the plot, characters, and how it developed until the end. I didn’t even really know what Cartography was in depth before this book and it actually made me more interested in it. The way that Shepard weaves into the writing added to the plot and it was very interesting to learn and read more about. What really made me invested into the book were the characters and the writing as I found it engaging and each character were well written with flaws, quirks, and I did enjoy the dynamics with each character. Overall, it was a very good read!