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: 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

Sunday Funday: Spouses Who Don’t Read #Marriage #Reading #Husbands #Wives #Spouse #Bibliophile

Raise your hand if you are married (or dating/in a relationship) to someone who does not read…

If you are in the same boat I am…welcome aboard! If you happen to be in a relationship where the two of you enjoy reading, well, la-di-da (KIDDING, but I am super jealous!!!!!).

I will say, my husband is supportive of my reading and he doesn’t give me (too much) crap about it. When we go out in our travel trailer he will even take the kids out so I can get a few hours in, alone, of reading time in the outdoors. I get the occasional…why are you buying another book, you have so many already…but then I also get the, hey I saw this book you need to read it (few & far between)

I also enjoy sliding a book into our Amazon account. He has turned into an Amazon freak! He is always buying something! I have started to place some books I really, really, really, REALLY want in the cart (thanks to all of your freakin’ amazing reviews I read daily) and I just leave them there. When he goes to buy something he just leaves it there and VOILA, new book! Just remember, technically *I* didn’t buy it…he could have taken it out of the cart, but he kept it in and bought it. I just have happened to be putting in all pre-orders so I have yet to physically get a book…I am going to be surprised when they all finally show up, hahahaha.

I would love it if my husband would pick up a book and read, but for now at least I’m enjoying getting lost in a good book. Anyone else out there like me? What do YOU do?

May Wrap Up

10!!!!!

That is the amount of books I read during the MONTH of May!!! Don’t ask me how that happened, but I’ll take it! Here are my stats…

4: Ebooks

6: Physical Books

3,395 pages

I have fallen behind, so behind, on all my reviews of what I’ve read so expect my blog to be jammin’ with some content this month! Thankfully I have the time off where I can play catch up!! Here’s a collage of what I read…

What did you read in May? Have you read any of these or are any on your TBR??? Drop me a line and let me know!

Coming Soon: Tell Me Goodnight

Super stoked! I am part of Kelsey Kingsley’s advance reader team and at 1:00am this beauty was in my inbox! Her last book gave me all the feels so I cannot wait for this one! In fact, I’m putting the current book I’m reading on pause just for this! Are there any certain authors you’ll pause a current read for to read their book? Let me know!! I will have this reviewed as soon as I finish!

Busy, busy, busy!

WOW! The classes I was taking ended up sucking me in and taking me away from the fun things I like to…like read and then write about it! With this school year wrapping up and winding down I am looking forward to endless days of reading….haha, I have kids, that won’t happen either! In all seriousness, my classes are OVER and I’m ready to take back some me time!! WOO HOO!!

Since we last spoke I have read 6 more books…yikes…that’s 6 books I need to review!

My Goodreads Challenge is currently at 17 out of 52 books. According to them I am only 1 book behind schedule!

Here’s a preview at the books to come reviewed shortly…

There are some pretty good books in that mix!!! Make sure you come back on Monday, May 20th to catch The Scent Keeper blog tour HERE!

What have you all been up to lately?