Donna's Reading Chair

Book Review: This Time Around

Thank you to The Author Agency for my advance copy of This Time Around by Marina Pirlimpou in exchange for my honest review.

This book was such a breath of fresh air for me! We have Madison who nearly collides with a car on a busy city street as Nate, a blast from the past, saves her. Everything goes black and she wakes up in her childhood bedroom. She sees Nate at school and he wants to know what she did to him, they’re now trapped in their past selves!

As the story goes on, Nate and Madison start spending more time together. They start to get closer and then boom, Madison wakes up at the hospital. Will the romance they had living their life as teenagers take hold to the present time? Well…Nate simply has no recollection and leaves when he sees she’s ok.

Can they find what they had? Did they really have it after all? I was so nervous during the present part of this book I was pretty much yelling at Nate to get his act together. Thankfully his friends step in and help jog his memory a little. What would we do without our friends?

4 stars. This is an absolute slow burn complete with spicy scenes at the end. I don’t think you’ll regret reading this one!

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Title: This Time Around

Author: Marina Pirlimpou

Genre(s): Fiction, Romance, Slow Burn

Publisher: Independently Published

Release Date: June 11, 2025

Find it here on Goodreads

Book Review: Catch

Thank you to The Author Agency for my advance copy of Catch by Katie Rae in exchange for my honest review. This is out TODAY!

Loxley has had it. She’s in the middle of a tour and can’t take it any longer so she does what anyone would do in that situation…”borrows” a car and takes off. She is unsure where she is going and what she’s going to do when she’s pulled over in Harmony Haven by Mr. Police Officer Easton.

Easton ends up realizing who she is and takes her to his house so she can lay low. He is determined to make sure no one knows she’s staying there…as well as not allowing himself to fall for her. Will he be able to make both happen?

Things get a little dicey when his boss gives him information that Loxley is missing and he wants him to help look for her. He stays determined and lets Loxley do her thing. The swoon and spice in this one…but will there be a happy ending?

5 stars. This one is a quick read which will have you begging for more. It’s the second book in the Harmony Haven series, but it is a standalone. You’ll just get some bonus content with Easton’s family if you read the first one (which I highly recommned you do as well!). It’s out today, what are you waiting for, go snag it!

Title: Catch

Author: Katie Rae

Genre(s): Fiction, Romance, Slow Burn

Publisher: Independently Published

Release Date: June 10, 2025

Find it here on Goodreads

Book Review: Save The Date

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Audio for my audiobook copy of Save The Date by Allison Raskin in exchange for my honest review. This was released on April 8th and I received it after the release, but have no fear I listened in a timely manner!

Emma Moskowitz is a brave woman. She takes being dumped 6 months before her wedding and turns it into a social experiment. Emma is a therapist and has the breakthrough idea of keeping her wedding date and finding someone else to marry. Crazy right?

The craziest part about it is the support she gets from her friends and family to do it! I could never in a million years get behind this idea if one of my children said this is what they were doing. However, the family trusts Emma and support her. I enjoyed that in this book.

Emma decides to take this quest publicly and gains a lot of attention. She has videos, podcasts, and much more on social media. She has gained a following and even a new beau. Can it go the distance?

4 stars. This one had me laughing out loud throughout it. It’s an enjoyable closed-door romance, so don’t be afraid to let your romance loving teens dive in to this one. It’s a unique book with a very satisfying ending!

Title: Save The Date

Author: Allison Raskin

Genre(s): Fiction, Humor, Romance, Chick Lit

Publisher: Canary Street Press, Harlequin Audio

Release Date: April 8, 2025

Find it here on Goodreads

Book Review: Everything’s Coming Up Rosie

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Fiction Audio for my advance audiobook copy of Everything’s Coming Up Rosie by Courtney Walsh in exchange for my honest review. This is coming out on June 10th!

Rosie sees herself as a failure. She has lost her job AND apartment in the city and on a trip home she sees that everyone else has their life together. She has not admitted to anyone just how unhappy she has been, but keeps a smile on her face and fakes it.

Needing a job, Rosie takes an offer to be a regional theater director, despite how badly she wants to be an actor, and despite the fact that it isn’t in New York City, but in Wisconsin. The humor really starts to pick up in this book when it isn’t just a regional theater, but a retirement community that she’s directing.

She failed to read the job description so suddenly she’s stuck. This is where I really enjoyed the story and it took off for me. Rosie has been so hard on herself that she hasn’t seen what is in front of her. When a few of the members of the retirement community get on her case, can she turn it around?

I also enjoyed the cameo of her friends. They knew that Rosie wasn’t always happy, but were waiting for her to say something. Ah friends, we can’t always hide from them, can we?

4 stars. I loved the growth Rosie had throughout this book. I always enjoyed the romance factor in this one as well. Keep an eye out for this one, it was a fun, light hearted read!

Title: Everything’s Coming Up Rosie

Author: Courtney Walsh

Genre(s): Fiction, Humor, Romance, Chick Lit

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Release Date: June 10, 2025

Find it here on Goodreads

Book Review: No One Was Supposed To Die At This Wedding

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for my advance audiobook copy of No One Was Supposed To Die At This Wedding by Catherine Mack in exchange for my honest review. This was released on May 13, 2025 and I’m a little behind because I was finishing up the first book in this series and I’m so glad I did!

Catherine Mack is an absolutely hilarious writer that will have you laughing out loud while you’re trying to solve a mystery. I absolutely love the perspective she has with this book as she is telling YOU the story. She will drop you hints and give you some behind the scenes perspectives so it feels like she’s with you, telling you this story personally. Does it make it easier to solve the mystery? Ha…good luck!

This book follows behind Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies and picks up where it left off. Could this be read as a standalone? Absolutely. I do feel like you’ll enjoy it more if you read the first one in the Vacation Series because you’ll already have all the background on the characters and situation. She does give you brief backgrounds in case you didn’t read it, but I think this would be even that much more enjoyable paired with it (or maybe you wouldn’t even miss it and I just know what I would have since I read the first one).

Eleanor is attending her best friend’s wedding and everything is great until a note is discovered that says someone will die at the wedding. Eleanor and her gang of friends go into detective mode to try and figure out who is a potential murderer and who the target is.

We also have a love story in the mix with Emma (Eleanor’s best friend) and her movie star fiance Fred Winters, as well as Eleanor with her own love life drama being around her ex-boyfriend Connor while with her new (yet also previous) beau Oliver. Oh the drama with that as well!

4 stars. This will have you constantly chuckling while also playing detective. I failed at guessing who the murderer was in the first book and I failed miserably this time as well. If you read it, let me know if you figured it out because…HOW?!

Title: No One Was Supposed To Die At This Wedding

Author: Catherine Mack

Genre(s): Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Romance

Publisher: Macmillan Audio, Minotaur Books

Release Date: May 13, 2025

Find it here on Goodreads

Book Review: Close Your Eyes and Count To 10

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Audio for my audiobook copy of Close Your Eyes and Count To 10 in exchange for my honest review. I received access to this one after the release date so it’s available NOW for you to read or listen to!

The book was certainly a thriller from start to finish! This was the most intense game of hide an seek!

Enter Adele, a single mother of 2 teens who happens to need money after her husband just disappeared after an apparent money issue. Adele’s teenagers are all about the latest and greatest influencers, as Adele is trying hard herself to become one. So when they stumble upon Maverick Dillon holding a game of hide and seek on Falcao Island (a place where her son happens to know thanks to a friend he online games with), they encourage her to enter. Wouldn’t you know she gets picked to complete?

Bravely leaving her children behind, she embarks on what she thinks will just be a weekend chance to earn money to make all their problems go away. What she doesn’t count on are people on the island warning her to leave before the game even begins. What she really doesn’t know is what is happening behind the scenes with Dillon’s company (he’s kind of like Mr. Beast) AND a HUGE storm is approaching the island.

This is the perfect storm for a page turning thriller you cannot put down.

5 stars. I couldn’t stop listening. I was so desperately trying to piece everything together (I failed, shocker). How she puts everything together is absolutely brilliant and it had parts I just could not see coming. I highly recommend this book for any thriller enthusiast, you will not be disappointed!

Title: Close Your Eyes and Count To 10

Author: Lisa Unger

Genre(s): Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Mystery

Publisher: Harlequin Audio, Park Row

Release Date: February 25, 2025

Find it here on Goodreads

Book Review: Heart Of The Sun

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Audio for my advance audiobook copy of Heart Of The Sun by Mia Sheridan in exchange for my honest review. This one has me wanting to start doomsday prepping!

Mia Sheridan does not disappoint in this dystopian-esque tale where we have childhood friends finding eachother after years apart. Tuck, who is recently out of prison, and Emily, an up and coming popstar, find eachother thanks to Emily’s mom who encourages Tuck to reach out to Emily to apply to be her bodyguard.

Emily has the movie star boyfriend and the beginnings of a fancy Hollywood life. Tuck is a little surprised with her choice of boyfriend, but does his duty as her bodyguard. They are on a private flight across the country when a solar flare hits and they crash, leaving them in survival mode. Tuck, who gets involved a slight mistrust, does his job to keep her safe, even if she doesn’t necessarily want him to.

They do everything they can to make it back to California to check on her parents and get home to where they think they can be safe. They encounter a lot on a the way and the scary part of this book is that one major solar flare or nuclear attack in our atmosphere and BAM, this is reality.

This is a slow burn that checks off so many boxes. Childhood friends. Enemies to lovers. Bodyguard romance. Second chance. I absolutely loved and adored this!

4 stars. It’s a fantastic dystopian romance that will have you unable to put this down. I absolutely could NOT stop towards the end of the book and I just loved how Sheridan ended it. This truly is an absolute gem that also has me doomsday prepping now, so, thanks for that, haha. This is one to add to your collection immediately, it’s out tomorrow, May 20th!

Title: Heart Of The Sun

Author: Mia Sheridan

Genre(s): Fiction, Dystopian, Romance, Chick Lit

Publisher: Harlequin Audio, Canary Street Press

Release Date: May 20, 2025

Find it here on Goodreads

Book Review: Finders Keepers

Thank you to The Author Agency and Nicole Lenz for my advanced reader copy of Finders Keepers. It’s out TODAY…so go get your hands on a copy, trust me!

First I would just like to say how refreshing it was to read this book. This was one of the most well written, well thought out books I have read in a long time. This book is real and relatable and as long as you check the trigger warnings first, one you should put in your hands ASAP.

Bailey has taken her young daughter and made a run from her husband. She ends up in a small town where a complete stranger takes her in and her life starts to begin again. She shares small bits and pieces of her life and we end up getting her entire backstory. I did appreciate the author doing flashbacks of things that happened with her and her husband, it really helped to put things into perspective.

This book also has it all…spice, romance, some mystery, and definitely some suspense. I was kept on my toes for most of it, just waiting to see what would happen. I don’t want to reveal too much, I want you to go out and read it! For what it’s worth, no character annoyed me in the slightest, I just wanted more and more!

5 stars. This debut novel from Nicole Lenz was just so absolutely refreshing, I cannot wait to see what she writes next!

Title: Finders Keepers

Author: Nicole Lenz

Genre(s): Fiction, Romance, Small Town

Publisher: Independently Published

Release Date: May 8, 2025

Find it here on Goodreads

Book Review: Friends With Benefits

Thank you for Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for my advance audiobook copy of Friends With Benefits by Marisa Kanter in exchange for my honest review!

I love a good friends to lovers romance so I was excited to snag an advance copy of Friends With Benefits. The story starts with Evie and Theo, childhood friends finding themselves at a turning point. Theo’s roommates are moving out and in California rent is expensive and his income doesn’t allow himself to qualify to take the lease over on his own. Evie has been living at her grandparent’s bungalow home until they come back from a vacation and say they’ve sold it and she now has to move out. Ut oh.

As friends, Evie and Theo still can’t move in together with income requirements and then…along comes an email which says that Evie has been accepted to a fellowship with a top Foley artist. As much as she would love to take it, she can’t afford to quit her job and lose her health insurance with her chronic illness. Yes…our guy Theo steps in.

Theo proposes they get married, she’ll get on his health insurance, AND because they are married they will meet the requirements to move in to Theo’s place. Has Evie had lingering feelings for Theo? Has Theo had lingering feelings for Evie? Oooh, this slow burn takes us through all of that.

What I really liked about this one was they both had some baggage, but they worked through it. In any other time in their lives, I don’t think they would have worked together. As stubborn and as frustrated that I got with both Evie and Theo at times, I am happy they took the paths they did and worked through what they had to, because then it made them available to love.

4 stars. Friends With Benefits is out this coming Tuesday, May 6th and should be one to look out for and read! This story was spicy (it’s a not a slow burn waiting for that, just waiting for them to realize what they want from each other) and definitely a read that will have you smiling!

Title: Friends With Benefits

Author: Marisa Kanter

Genre(s): Fiction, Romance, Friends To Lovers, Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Celadon Books, Macmillan Audio

Release Date: May 6, 2025

Find it here on Goodreads

Book Review: Give Me A Sign

I chose this book as I participate in a monthly bingo in one of the many reading Facebook groups I’m in. One group had a square for a disability being represented and another had a square for flowers on the cover…I have been wanting to read this one for awhile so I decided it was time!

This was an absolutely FANTASTIC YA read which followed Lilah as she attended a camp for those who are blind and Deaf. Living as a Deaf girl with hearing parents, she has never really been exposed to Deaf culture and finds herself immersed in it. I’m so proud of Lilah in this book!!

I was very eager to read this as I work closely with a colleague who is Deaf. I’ve been picking up sign and challenge myself to learn at least 1 new sign a day. This book helped put some things into a different perspective for me as well. Side note: today I learned the sign for awkward!

I highly recommend this one, the author did FANTASTIC with how she wrote this and I strongly recommend you NOT listen to the audiobook for this, you’d miss a lot! When they’re signing she writes with italics and when people are speaking to Lilah she uses dashes to represent what Lilah doesn’t understand or misses. I thought that was brilliant! I couldn’t tell you how many times I would get frustrated and I thought, wow, great job really getting someone who is hearing to gain a different perspective! Great read!

4 stars. Lilah’s growth was incredible. I thought this book also portrayed everything in this book in a real manner. From how Lilah finds herself, to how Lilah and her friends get treated out in public, and just the overall feel to the book. I look forward to reading more by Sortino!

Title: Give Me A Sign

Author: Anna Sortino

Genre(s): Fiction, Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Reads

Release Date: July 23, 2023

Find it here on Goodreads