ShayKay's Review of Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

 

Synopsis from Book

Braden Mack thinks reading romance novels makes him an expert in love, but he'll soon discover that real life is better than fiction.

Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a sous chef at Nashville's hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef-owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she catches him harassing a young hostess, she confronts him and gets fired. Liv vows revenge, but she'll need assistance to take on the powerful chef.

Unfortunately, that means turning to Braden Mack. When Liv's blackballed from the restaurant scene, the charismatic nightclub entrepreneur offers to help expose her ex-boss, but she is suspicious of his motives. He'll need to call in reinforcements: the Bromance Book Club.

Inspired by the romantic suspense novel they are reading, the book club assists Liv in setting up a sting operation to take down the chef. But they're just as eager to help Mack figure out the way to Liv's heart.... even though she's determined to squelch the sparks between them before she gets burned.

Thoughts Before Reading

I really loved the first book in this series and normally when series change their leads I stop reading them but I've recently started opening my mind up thanks to Abby Jimenez's books. The first book set up the second one really nicely by introducing us to both Mack and Liv. Liv is Thea's sister who was the main female lead of the first book, and at the time she lived with Thea so we got to see her a lot and get glimpses of her life through Thea. Mack on the other hand we had glimpses of through Gavin's perspectives but he was a real pain in the butt. In the first book we also even got to see these two interacts but it was the bare minimum. I'm really curious to see how this one goes. I do want more background on Liv because we got to see her in the first book but I don't think we left her on the best foot, and as for Mack I don't know if there is redemption for him. Mack was definitely that playboy like character that had a jerky attitude so I'm really curious to see how this one is going to play out. 

I even picked this book up before I even got halfway through the second one because I was loving it so much and I was already at the bookstore! This also breaks the fact that I hardly ever read series back to back but this one I was dying to read so I'm jumping into it now. Plus I really love these covers and they are going to be so cute on my shelves. I can't wait for the third one to come out and now that I've read the first one I kind of already know who it's about but I'm curious about how this second one will set up the third one and I really hope it does the same as the first one. 

After Thoughts

OMG! I was excited about this book after reading the first one and I couldn't wait to get into this one! I even picked it up before I wasn't even halfway through the first one when I knew I needed to get the second one and read it immediately after! I flew the second one once I picked it up and I loved it. I loved getting to see Mack and Liv going from barely knowing each other to falling in love! But that being said I can see why a lot of people wouldn't like this book as much as the first one. The first one I feel like had a different feeling towards it since it was all about finding out how to save Gavin and Thea's marriage meanwhile this one was definitely an enemy to lovers with a twist of revenge thrown and a lot of people don't like enemies to lovers trope. I on the other hand can like it if it's done correctly. I feel like this one had a lot of layers and wasn't the typical enemies to lovers because I wouldn't qualify Liv and Mack as enemies in the beginning. Liv just really had her guard up the whole time and its hard for her to trust men, which is something we experienced in the first book. I think I honestly loved this one more than the first one, which is another rarety! Normally the first book is always the best because it sets up the series but this one I feel like had more depth. I also enjoyed that the book scenes weren't in this one like they were in the first one. I feel like that one just kept taking me out of the story. Now there were still sections of their book in this one so it wasn't gone entirely, I just think it ran together more smoothly in this one. I really can't wait for the third one to come out! It comes out in October. The only thing that I'm worried about is the next one follows Alexis and I'm not sure how I feel about her however I loved Noah and he is definitely someone that I want to learn more about.

ShayKay's Review of Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyers

Synopsis from the Book

Thoughts Before Reading

So I think I mentioned how I wasn't thrilled about this book and probably wasn't going to pick it up. This lasted about a week. I heard such great things about this book that I was interested in it and even now as I hold it I'm skeptical. It sounds like its an amazing story and I'm certainly curious. I just don't think I'm going to enjoy it. Normally when the same story is told just in another perspective I hate it. I hate rereading a story like that and would prefer to have a new story with their perspective in that world instead. But I promise I'm going into this open-minded and very curious. I just don't know. If I give it a 4-stars or higher I am going to reread the whole series and do a whole collection on it.  I just don't know how today Shay would rate these books today. But I promise if I love this one as much as everyone is telling me I will I will definitely do a reread of them all. 

Halfway Through Thoughts

I'm about halfway through this massive book and I'm loving it! I'll admit that I was really anxious to pick the book up because I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I didn't know if I would love it like I did back in middle school, over ten years ago! Well let me tell you this book pulls me back into this world so flawlessly and I love it. I think the time away has done really good for this world because I really couldn't remember much of the little things that happen in these books/movies since it's been so long and I've loved being back in this world! I have been thoroughly obsessed since I picked up this new book. The weekend following after getting this book it was really rainy where I live so we spent all day Sunday watching all of the movies! I was reminded of some of the things that happened that I've forgotten about. I really feel like if this book keeps continuing where it's going I'm going to have to reread the whole series again. I really want to do book vs movie comparisons. A lot of people have been mentioning that this one is so good because Meyers has grown a lot and you really see that showcased in this book and I want to agree but I need to reread the series to do that. I think one of the things that I'm going to do is pick up the audiobook so that I can fly through them a lot faster than I would if I try to reread them on my own.  We'll just have to wait and see how this goes. I've been mentioning how much I really want to continue on with my book vs movie comparison series and I just haven't done it since Crazy Rich Asians so it is something that I really need to do as soon as possible. I have a lot of books that I can do that with, plus now that I'm thinking about doing rereads of my favorite books growing up it opens a lot more doors for content that I think will come out really good so I really just need to jump into it, such as Hunger Games, Secret Life of a Hollywood Star, and even the Marked series, There's just so much that I could do with it. 

Anyways back to the book I really love how Edward's book feels like a completely different story. Instead of it starting where the first book started we actually start off when we meet them in the cafeteria which makes a lot of sense. He talks about how he feels which is something that we never got to see and all of his experiences are completely different and really a whole new book in itself. Meyers has announced that she wants to publish two more books but neither of them will be in his perspective again. I really want to see more stories in his perspective but if that isn't an option I think it would be really fun to see how their lives continued, maybe do like a 100-year jump or something really distant in the future to see how the Cullens live and moved on from Forks, it would be cool to see how Renesmee and Jacob's story went too, or maybe even a story focused on the Volturi would be really cool. We've gotten glimpses on how the Volturi was formed but I think an in-depth look would be really interesting plus we would get that backstory and maybe even Carlisle's time with them. It would be a different type of story. Then everyone wants Jacob and Renesmee's story and I really agree with that would be really fun to see and to be honest it would tie in the Cullens' story after Forks since she is growing so fast they would have to relocate soon I would think and it would be a process that I think would be interesting to see. So this a few ideas that I would love to see if we won't get any more views into Edward's perspective. I would also love to see an Alice origin story which is another idea that has been really popular and to be fair we really haven't gotten much of an Alice backstory that I can remember anyway. I don't know I have a lot of ideas and reading this book has really made me want to experience all of them. Well let me go finish this book and we'll see how it ends. But as of right now I really want to give it 5-stars and I can't wait to finish it and see how the rest of the story goes. 

After Thoughts

So technically I finished this book over a week ago but I needed time to process my feelings about it. As soon as I finished this book I instantly wanted to give it 5-stars and I was OBSESSED with it! It was such a fun read and it really was able to take me back to when I was obsessed with Twilight. I was a huge Twilight nerd back when the movies were coming out, I mean hello I was team Jacob! Anyways I was very skeptical of this book when it was announced that it was coming out. I really felt like it was just going to be another money grab, much like what's going on with the Harry Potter series at the moment (totally breaks my heart because HP will forever be my fandom). Especially after I heard about it just being a retelling of the first book but from Edward's point of view. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post I really hate when authors retell the same story but from another point of view because they just get boring to me. I want that suspense of not knowing what is going to happen next in the story and with retellings of the same story we already know everything that is going to happen it just has different ideas behind why they are happening. This isn't what happened with this book. 

This book ended up being really amazing! I wasn't bored with reading about the same story over and over. The retelling really was only a minor guideline for the book, and by that, I mean Midnight sun took the basic storyline that happened in Twilight and then expanded on it. I feel like everything that happened in Twilight happened in this book, at least the parts that involved Edward, and then the book expanded on it to add Edward's thoughts. I really honestly loved this book. I don't feel like it was a retelling. I loved being able to see Edward's thoughts towards Bella because neither the book nor movie really accurately portrayed it. I also really enjoyed the backstories of the rest of the Vampire world. I thought it was really fun and tied all of the books together so well. Even though we got to see the rest of the vampire world grow and evolve throughout the whole series, but it wasn't until the last two that really got to learn about the backstories of our Cullens along with their friends. 

I needed to wait to write this because I really needed to think about my feelings. Was I just in love with this book so much because it been so long since I read the series? It has been over 10 years since I've been in this world and to be honest I don't really obsess over this fandom anymore. I can't sit here and watch the movies over and over like I can with Harry Potter. I haven't even reread the books since at least high school if not middle school, but I still have them on my shelves. They mostly stay on my shelves now due to the sentimental value that they hold for me. So I really wanted to think about whether or not this book meant this much to me because of itself or because it reminded me so much of this world, and since I've gotten to think about it I know I love this book because of how amazing it is on its own. I loved it and I think it did the series a lot of justice because it reopened people's eyes to it as well as brought in a whole new generation with it. I think Meyers has more planned and I'm honestly really excited about it! I really want to reread the series now and see how I feel about the books today. The younger me loved the third book the most because its when we got to see the backstories of the Cullens and I felt like really built onto this world. I loved it, but will today me agree with that? I needed to reread them all. The 4th one had potential and I remember loving parts of it, but I felt like it was too dragged out and I couldn't deal with it. The newest book even though its a retelling felt like a new book and I loved it. I was honestly hooked from the very beginning and I cannot wait for the next books to come out.

ShayKay's Review of The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

 

Synopsis From Book

The first rule of book club: You don't talk about a book club. 

Nashville's legends' second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in trouble. He's recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife, Thea, has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it's the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he's let his pride and fear get the better of him. 

Welcome to the bromance book club.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency novel titled Counting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner-hero and win back the trust of his wife.

Thoughts Before Reading

I've been dying to read this book since it came out but I just have never picked it up! I finally picked it up back in May right before I was leaving for my wedding and I have been really wanting to pick it up. I really think and hope that it is going to be 5-stars because it is something that I really want to continue reading. The book is the first in a series. I just think it's an interesting take on a romance novel because we are following a male lead as he tries to get the girl. Plus it has a book club! I think it's going to be so cute and such a fun read! I know each book follows different people in the club and this one is the build-up for the rest of the books. I just think they are so cute and I need to read it now!

I haven't started it yet and I've been carrying it around for a couple days though. I've just been really pretty with work and I've been really trying to catch my other blog up since I've had a mess over there. A little life update for everyone. Plus September is one of my busiest months of the year since it's my husband's birthday and I'm getting ready for our Halloween festivities, and this year I have some final wedding stuff to finish this month. So let's jump into this read.

After Thoughts

So I just finished this book and I hate that I missed the middle of the book check-in but I really loved it so much. I hate that it has taken me this long to pick it up as well but I'm glad that I finally did. This was hands down a 5-star read for me. I loved the humor in this book and overall it was a fun laid back read. Looking back I feel like some of the things were really rushed but I didn't read this book expecting it was going to be the next Shakespeare I read it for fun and something light and this book delivered I really love it and it was a great read. I even picked up the next book before I was even halfway through this one. The books follow this guy whose marriage is failing and he is fighting to save it and it was amazing because of the humor that the bromance club brought to the book! The next one follows the sister and Mack! I hope it is going to be even more fun and cute because there was a moment in this book between the two and I feel like it would be perfect for them. I really loved Gavin and Thea and this book even had a lot of layers in it but some of the stuff I feel like could've been done better. I feel like the end of the book was really rushed and could've been done better.

Last Half of 2020 New Releases that I need ASAP!

September

This one, like a couple others on this list, I have had the first book in the series since they came out and I really want to read them but I just haven't picked them up yet. Sometimes when the sequels are getting ready to come out and they sound good it helps motivate me to pick up the first one and then read the second one immediately after. Not always, but there's been a few times that those were my motivations. This one comes out on September 1, and it is another one that a lot of people really wish is a BOTM pick for September.

This one is just like the one above it and I picked up the first book as soon as it came out and I really wanted to read it because it sounded amazing, but I just haven't done that yet. The book comes out on September 1 and is one that I know won't be a book of the month option because the first one wasn't either. I really want to pick it up soon because the first one really reminded me of the book I've been playing with whenever I have spare time. 

This book is one that I most likely will not pick up, but I really wish I could. Clare's books will always hold a special part in my heart however, I just cannot get into this world anymore and I try really hard! This one is part of the series that follows Alec and Magnus who are some of my favorite characters in the series. This comes out on September 1st. I really wish I could get back into this world and love them as much as I loved the first three but I just can't. Most of the time I just get super bored with them. 

There are so many Twisted Tales books that are out now and I've got almost all of them but I've only read about 4 or 5 of them. Is that going to stop me from wanting this one? Absolutely not. It won't be one that I will pick up the day it comes out but it will be one that I will want to read eventually. A lot of times I can find the Twisted Tales on BookBub a few months after they come out for like $1.99 which I normally always get but I really love them on my shelves because they are so pretty! Anyways this one comes out September 1st, which seems to be a big day in the book world.

There was no way I couldn't put this book on the list. No, I'm nowhere near being ready to read this book but is that going to stop me from picking it up as soon as it comes out? Nope. I honestly should've bought the signed edition but I'm really holding off getting a signed JD Robb for when I can get it done in person. I really need to dive hard into this series because it's my favorite and it's getting hard for me to admit that since I am only book 28ish out of 51. This one comes out on September 8! I can't wait. One of the things I really want to do is reread the whole series but finish it out this time. I have a lot of ideas of things I want to do for this blog but I just haven't had time to actually do them yet. 

This is one of the books that I found while making this list and I've heard nothing about it but it sounds really good. I think it is going to be something that I will love reading and can't wait to pick up. It comes out on September 15 and the best way I can explain it is definitely chick-lit. The book follows a socialite who ends up living with someone who is totally unexpected and they develop feelings. It gives off flatshare vibes, but I never read flatshare either. But I really wanted too I just never picked it up. 

 

Well Played by Jen DeLuca is a book you may have seen a few times on my blog before now. I really loved the first one and I have wanted to read this one as soon as I finished the first one. This is one that I really hope to see in the Book of the Month September books but I just don't know. Anyways this book comes out on September 22, and even though I'm so excited about this book I'm a little bit nervous because this one doesn't follow the same characters that we were. This time we are following Stacey who we saw in the first one but she was only a side character. I wasn't that attached to her in the first book but I really liked the way DeLuca made that book so I'm curious about this one.

I feel like I have this one on my list because in a way I'm obligated to read it. I usually always pick up Sparks works but as I've gotten older I just don't think they are for me anymore. The last one was okay, and even a Book of the Month book. But I liked the real-life stuff behind the book so much more than the actual book. His books have always been hit and miss with me but his newer stuff has been more misses than hits. So I don't know if its something that I will pick up but it is something that I'm curious about. It actually comes out on my husband's birthday, which is September 29. 

The Three Mrs. Wrights comes out on September 29th and it follows what I think is three, maybe four, perspectives. The three women have a lot in common but they have never known one another. But then they all find out that they are all dating the same person. This sounds like a fun laid back read that I really want to pick up but since this list is going to be really long I won't be able to pick them all up but definitely, a few of them will be added to my TBR pile.

October

I have never read a V.E. Schwab book but I have Vicious on my shelves and this one sounds really interesting. I get little Twilight vibes from it since it spans over so long. I think it is going to be really interesting and definitely something I've heard a lot of cool stuff about. I don't know if I will pick this up immediately or read Vicious first to see if I like her writing style. This one comes out on October 6th. 

I've been so curious series since the very first one and I even picked up the first one not too long ago. I just think it seems like a really cute series and something that I will love to so I just need to stop looking at it on my bookcase and read it because of look at how adorable this one looks! Plus I feel like it came out really fast right after the second one. This one comes out on October 27th! 

November

The Cul-de-Sac comes out on November 10th and it is one of those cute books that sounds like something that is right up my alley. I want to pick it up and it is something that I just found while looking up books for this list. I need more cute standalone like this. They seem to be what I read the most of. 

The Awakening is the first in Roberts' newest trilogy and I'm really curious about it. All I know is that its about dragons. It comes out on November 24.

I can't express how excited I am for this book. I really hope it is a Book of the Month pick for November since the first one is and I can't wait to see it. I know nothing about this book and so much has been kept secret about it so the mystery is definitely pulling me in too. I can't wait to see what this one is about. It comes out on November 24th! I've been looking for arcs for this one and I haven't been successful, and after what happened with Clare's book I really think arcs are going to get harder to find. 

December

I haven't really seen anything for December yet that I feel like I have to have so I'll update this list or do another post for it later on in the year.