Review | The Good Luck Café

Description

Moira Green is perfectly content with her life. She has a rewarding career and plenty of wonderful friends, including the members of her weekly book club. Then everything in her life goes topsy-turvy when the town council plans to demolish the site of her mother’s beloved café to make room for much-needed parking. Moira is determined to save her mother’s business, so she swallows her pride and asks Gil Ryan for help.

(Goodreads)


Review

While browsing the Forever Publishing review catalogue, I came across The Good Luck Café. I was immediately drawn in by its beautiful cover featuring the main character in a simple yet stunning blue dress and the serene surrounding water. Honestly, I couldn’t resist requesting it, and I’m glad I did because the story was great! It had all the elements I enjoy – a heartwarming love story, an adorable Golden Retriever, an intriguing enemies-to-lovers plotline, and a compelling campaign to save a local bakery. Lots to love there! Throughout the book, I found myself rooting for the café, the mayoral race, and the blossoming romance between the main characters.

The Good Luck Café was my first Annie Rains book, and I was pleasantly surprised by her writing style! It was so mature and kind, and she did an excellent job portraying the characters’ personal growth while highlighting their positive attributes. It was such a great reminder that everyone generally is trying their best.

I loved Gil’s caring and generous personality, and Moira’s personal growth was pretty inspiring. The supporting characters, including Doug, Darla, and the book club gang, were also fantastic. Reva, the blogger, was quite the character!

The book emphasized the significance of volunteering and community involvement, which resonated with me since I grew up in a small town. Additionally, I felt a personal connection to the story since my family owned a bakery, and I had a Golden Retriever as a pet – what a coincidence! Even if you cannot relate to these aspects, I hope you find them as heartwarming and awesome to read about as I did. At times I would have preferred a spicier narrative and dialogue, but I still appreciate the author’s writing style and wouldn’t want her to drastically alter it.

Overall, I highly recommend this book as a summer read! This is part of a series but can be read as a stand-alone. Let me know what you think of it!

Summary: The Good Luck Café by Annie Rains is a heartwarming love story with an enemies-to-lovers plotline, featuring an adorable Golden Retriever and a campaign to save a local bakery. The book emphasizes the significance of volunteering and community involvement and highlights the personal growth of the characters. The supporting characters, including Doug, Darla, and the book club gang, were also fantastic. The book is recommended as a summer read!

Thank you to Forever and Annie Rains for this review copy. All opinions are my own.

This Book in Three Words

Heart-warming, Light, Meaningful

Values/Themes

  • Romance
  • Working on personal growth and development
  • Campaigns
  • Small businesses
  • Family

Favourite Part

I enjoyed reading the scenes set by the water! It provided a sense of comfort while reading.

Feelings

  • Romance
  • Relaxing
  • Inspirational

My Ratings:

Writing Style: 4
Characters: 4
Plot Development: 3.75
Originality: 3.75
Engagingness: 4
Insightfulness: 4
Comprehensiveness: 3.75
Impactfulness: 3.75
Spice: Mild

Overall Rating

Numerical Rating: 4 stars

QOTD: Do you enjoy reading romances set in small towns? Let us know!

Review | Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant

Description

Rory Perez, a food truck owner who can’t cook, is struggling to keep the business she inherited from her aunt out of the red–and an upcoming contest during Modest’s annual food truck festival seems the best way to do it. The prize money could finally give her a solid financial footing and keep her cousin with special needs paid up at her beloved assisted living home. Then maybe Rory will have enough time to meet the man she’s been talking to via an anonymous online dating site.

Jude Strong is tired of being a puppet at his manipulative father’s law firm, and the food truck festival seems like the perfect opportunity to dive into his passion for cooking and finally call his life his own. But if he loses the contest, he’s back at the law firm for good. Failure is not an option.

Complications arise when Rory’s chef gets mono and she realizes she has to cook after all. Then Jude discovers that his stiffest competition is the same woman he’s been falling for online the past month.

Will these unlikely chefs sacrifice it all for the sake of love? Or will there only ever be tacos for one?

(Goodreads)


Review

I’ll be frank: You’ve Got Mail is one of my all-time favourite movies. I watch it nearly every Christmas, it’s the film that made me fall in love with coffee shops and NYC as a setting, and I cannot think of a better RomCom. Of course, that leaves me searching for a similar read, and I’m always on the lookout for an adaptation with similar vibes.

Betsy St. Amant did a great job with Tacos for Two and crafted two characters I enjoyed reading. You learn that there is much more than meets the eye with these two, especially Jude, who could easily fit into one stereotype but breaks the mould. Pair that with delicious food and cooking scenes, and it combines to make one super cute RomCom.

Perhaps it’s because I know the plot of YGM so well that I found it predictable, but some creative decisions kept me engaged. And it was so much fun to see the cooking lessons unfold!

I recommend this one if you are looking for a cute RomCom with a cooking contest, themes of family heritage, a second-chance romance, and You’ve Got Mail vibes. And if cilantro is a divisive spice in your household, watch the drama unfold!

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

Content Warnings

This Book in Three Words

Scrumptious, Adaptation, Cute

Values/Themes

  • Family Heritage
  • Forgiveness
  • Trust
  • Second Chances
  • You’ve Got Mail Influenced/Adaptation

Favourite Part

I really enjoyed all of the cooking scenes! And Jude coming into his own as a chef.

Feelings

  • Hopeful
  • Lighthearted
  • Cute

My Ratings:

Writing Style: 3.5
Characters: 4
Plot Development: 3.5
Originality: 3.25
Engagingness: 3
Insightfulness: 3.5
Comprehensiveness: 3.5
Impactfulness: 3.5
Spice: Mild
Makes you want to eat? YES (but no cilantro, please!)

Overall Rating

Numerical Rating: 3.5 stars

QOTD: Do you enjoy romance books centred around food? Let us know!

REVIEW | Lore

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.
Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man–now a god–responsible for their deaths.

Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.

The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost–and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.


Reading Vlog / Review

Reading Vlog/Review link

Review

Lore has been on my radar for quite a long time. The cover is so simple, elegant and stunning that it was impossible to avoid purchasing it. That said, the synopsis was a bit hazy. For some reason, I couldn’t wrap my brain around the whole concept. I would pick it up and set it back down again. Finally, I put it as a July TBR candidate, the TBR wheel chose it for me, and I suppose you could say that reading the novel came down to fate.

At the start of Lore, I found it challenging to understand what was happening. I felt immediately thrown into the book, the action began, and I tried to stay afloat while processing it. Essentially, Lore is the main character and reluctantly takes part in the “Agon,” a hunt in which ancient Greek gods and goddesses must roam the earth as mortals as punishment for a previous rebellion. Lore was raised as a hunter, belonging to Perseus’ bloodline (Perseus, the slayer of Medusa). Athena, the goddess of war, is the one pulling her into the hunt. She has some crucial intel and makes an offer to Lore.

The setting takes place in modern times and makes for a curious read. It was a point that I was highly skeptical of enjoying, but for some reason, it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. In reflection, I wonder if I might have enjoyed it more if set in centuries earlier, but I’ll never know.

There were elements I enjoyed. Greek mythology is such a fascinating field. I’m always eager to learn more about this topic. A net positive is that I learned more about the myths and tales of Medusa, Perseus, and Athena. For example, I didn’t know why Medusa became a gorgon.

In Lore, there just wasn’t enough of what I wanted and too much of what I didn’t. In other words, I wanted so much more Greek mythology and world-building and fewer action-packed scenes. I craved background information on the various bloodlines and a greater understanding of the hunt, its origin, and what happened during earlier rounds. Therefore, this resulted in a very rushed feeling with an overall lack of depth. I did enjoy the story, but it felt like it was published a decade or more ago – I was surprised to learn that it was published in 2021. The characters needed more depth to them and fell flat. But overall, I enjoyed the story and conclusion but had several issues with it along the way.

I recommend this to those interested in a fast-paced, action-packed YA Fantasy with Greek mythology elements intertwined.

Content Warnings

Feelings

  • Fast-paced
  • Adventurous

Themes

  • War
  • Power
  • Corruption
  • Family
  • Friendship
  • Mythology

Rating

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REVIEW | A Lot Like Adiós

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Hi Mich. It’s Gabe.

After burning out in her corporate marketing career, Michelle Amato has built a thriving freelance business as a graphic designer. So what if her love life is nonexistent? She’s perfectly fine being the black sheep of her marriage-obsessed Puerto Rican-Italian family. Besides, the only guy who ever made her want happily-ever-after disappeared thirteen years ago.

It’s been a long time. Gabriel Aguilar left the Bronx at eighteen to escape his parents’ demanding expectations, but it also meant saying goodbye to Michelle, his best friend and longtime crush. Now, he’s the successful co-owner of LA’s hottest celebrity gym, with an investor who insists on opening a New York City location. It’s the last place Gabe wants to go, but when Michelle is unexpectedly brought on board to spearhead the new marketing campaign, everything Gabe’s been running from catches up with him.

I’ve missed you.Michelle is torn between holding Gabe at arm’s length or picking up right where they left off—in her bed. As they work on the campaign, old feelings resurface, and their reunion takes a sexy turn. Facing mounting pressure from their families—who think they’re dating—and growing uncertainty about their futures, can they resolve their past mistakes, or is it only a matter of time before Gabe says adiós again?


Review

Second chance romance, friends to lovers, and so much fun!

Two main characters I love: Gabe (gym owner; Peurto Rican/Mexican heritage) and Michelle (freelancer and web designer; Peurto Rico/Italian heritage). Gabe is set to start a new gym in NYC and his business partner unknowingly reaches out to Michelle who has a very complicated past with Gabe.

What I really enjoyed most about this book was just how much fun it was to read and how witty it was! I feel like I just flew through it. I adored both characters, who had backstory’s that had depth to them and truly showed how influential their past has been for both of them, separately and together.

It’s well written, it’s funny, it’s intense – a little too much for me at times haha but it was fun to read, overall!

Content Warnings

Feelings

  • Fun
  • Passionate
  • Emotional
  • Lighthearted
  • Funny

Themes

  • Romance: friends to lovers, second chance romance
  • Family
  • Pursuing one’s passion
  • Confronting the past

Rating

QOTD: do you enjoy
books set in NYC? Let us know!