What We’ve Been Reading

The Collection

Explore our full library of honest reviews and literary recommendations.

Never Blow a Kiss

Romance readers are a varied lot. We love all sorts of genres, leads, heat, and more. One person’s romp is another’s slog. I was in the middle of this book…

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Heat

Recently, while stuck on a plane for too many hours, I decided to reread Heat. Back in the day, I loved Smith’s complex, morally batshit books. Three of her works,…

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The Maid

In Nita Prose’s The Maid, we are given a first-person narrator in Molly—the Maid herself. Molly, a presumably neurodivergent young woman, finds her sole joy in working as a housemaid…

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First Lie Wins

In the realm of storytelling, every now and then, a book emerges wielding a narrator so specific and wildly entertaining that all one wants to do is shut out the…

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Hate Me Under the Mistletoe

Look, I’m all in for a good time. Who doesn’t adore a fun holiday romance? But this one, while sporadically amusing and occasionally sizzling, dissipates into the realm of insubstantiality…

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The Frozen River

Ariel Lawhon’s latest work is my favorite book of 2023. This whopper of a novel delicately peels back the layers of history to reveal the intricate struggles and enduring resilience…

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Protecting You & Fighting for Us

The Bailey Brothers series, by the prolific self-published author Kingsley, comes highly recommended by some of our readers. Curious what the fuss was about, I decided to give the series…

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Return to Monte Carlo

Cate C. Wells’ latest offering, Return to Monte Carlo, attempts to revisit the sizzling romance novels of the 1980s, but instead, sinks into a morass of missed chances, icky sex…

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After That Night

Looking for a light, fun read? Karin Slaughter’s latest addition to the GBI Special Agent Will Trent and Dr. Sara Linton series is not it. This book, the 11th installment…

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Starling House

Alix Harrow’s latest offering, Starling House, transports readers to the heart of Eden, Kentucky, a town wrestling with the ghosts of its past—racism, environmental decay, and the decline of coal…

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Tom Lake

Set in the crucible of Spring 2020, as the pandemic’s grip tightened, Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake is a marvel. The narrative takes place over a few weeks on a family…

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The Rebel King

The Rebel King is the second in Maxwell’s Deviant Kings series and, like the first, it features a fae king with a penchant for wink-wink kink. Its hero, Tiernan Verran,…

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