What We’ve Been Reading

The Collection

Explore our full library of honest reviews and literary recommendations.

Sea of Ruin

Why did I opt to read a pirate ménage à trois romance? I blame Alexis Hall. His review of Sea of Ruin, which may be found here, is so engagingly…

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Wilder at Last

Serena Bell wraps her her Wilder Adventures series with a frenemies to lovers story. This quintet of books, set in the nicest town in Oregon, Rush Creek, features five brothers…

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The Worst Woman in London

I am thrilled to see Julia Bennet again publishing historical romance. Her first two novels, The Madness of Miss Gray and The Ruin of Evangeline Jones, are four star reads…

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Verity

from The New York Times in October 2022: Colleen Hoover has sold more books this year than Dr. Seuss. She’s sold more books than James Patterson and John Grisham —…

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The Dark King

The Dark King, Gina Maxwell’s urban fantasy romance, invokes the rockstar Meatloaf‘s immortal words: “Two out of three ain’t bad.” The novel has a delicious love story, satisfying plot, and…

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The Stolen Heir

Holly Black’s marvelous trilogy The Folk of Air is so damn good that when I heard she was continuing to explore the world of Elfhame, a kingdom of magical islands,…

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Hell Bent

Have you read Ninth House? Because if not–and you’re a loon if you haven’t–this review is a waste of your time. Hell Bent is the second book in Leigh Bardugo’s…

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Flirting with the Beast

In romance novels, the heroine is almost always under thirty. When older women – those over fifty – appear in romance, it’s usually as a secondary character who, if she’s…

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Spells For Forgetting

On Saoirse Island, a rain soaked isle in the Pacific Northwest, a murmuration of starlings portends death and the leaves on the trees may burst into color all at once….

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Return to Christmas

Anne Stuart’s Return to Christmas is startlingly sentimental for the author while still–for better and worst–having the hallmarks of her work. I enjoyed it but didn’t love it. It’s December…

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Ninth House

The 1800 freshman matriculated at Yale University are likely a storied bunch. Over 35,000 applied to the famed Ivie–those accepted were likely the rock stars of their high schools with…

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Girl, Forgotten

The first book I read by Karin Slaughter was Pieces of Her. Like our reviewer, I couldn’t put it down and, upon finishing it, I read EVERY SINGLE NOVEL she’s…

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