Review: The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

I hadn’t yet read Bianca Marais before this year, but I had heard from a few trusted book friends that her books were just too good. So, when I had the chance to review The Witches of Moonshyne Manor, which was being described as Golden Girls meets Practical Magic, I hopped on it. And I’m really glad I did! Marais’ latest novel, which published on August 23, is a great, feminist, well-written addition to plethora of witchy books being released lately.

Here's the book’s description:

A coven of modern-day witches. A magical heist-gone-wrong. A looming threat.
Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor. All eyes turn to the witch in charge, Queenie, who confesses they’ve fallen far behind on their mortgage payments. Still, there’s hope, since the imminent return of Ruby—one of the sisterhood who’s been gone for thirty-three years—will surely be their salvation.
But the mob is only the start of their troubles. One man is hellbent on avenging his family for the theft of a legacy he claims was rightfully his. In an act of desperation, Queenie makes a bargain with an evil far more powerful than anything they’ve ever faced. Then things take a turn for the worse when Ruby’s homecoming reveals a seemingly insurmountable obstacle instead of the solution to all their problems.
The witches are determined to save their home and themselves, but their aging powers are no match for increasingly malicious threats. Thankfully, they get a bit of help from Persephone, a feisty TikToker eager to smash the patriarchy. As the deadline to save the manor approaches, fractures among the sisterhood are revealed, and long-held secrets are exposed, culminating in a fiery confrontation with their enemies.

It did take me awhile to get really into this story. It was hard to keep track of each of the witches. They had their own personalities, but I read someone else’s review that said their “voices” weren’t distinctive enough in writing and I think I must agree. There were also a lot of secrets and pieces of information that was being kept from the reader that I didn’t really think was adding to the story in any way. Give me all the details and move on with telling me the current story. Once pieces fell into place, I was able to enjoy the story more and was completely invested in the ride and was desperately hoping the women would be able to save their home and their town.

I love reading magical, witchy books and part of it is seeing how the magic is described and performed. Each of the witches in this book had slightly different types of magic that they excelled at, and I loved it so much. Nothing was overly complicated (other than the game the witches play that even the name escapes me because that scene dragged on for far too long) and it all made sense – as much as magic and witches can make sense.

This novel is intensely feminist without really beating you over the head with it. Kind of how I hope I live my own life, but I don’t think I’m as vocal in my beliefs as these gals were. And that includes Persephone. I hope more teenagers are like this fictional one because that will bode well for humanity.

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor won’t be a book for everyone but I really enjoyed the novel Bianca Marais wrote. It was smart, funny, and magical which is what I ask from every witchy read I pick up. I’ll definitely be checking out what Marais writes next – and probably her backlist too!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.* 

Review: Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake

I hadn’t read Mazey Eddings’s A Brush With Love, which was released earlier in 2022, and didn’t even realize Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake was part of the same world when I requested it to review. A trusted blogger had said she loved it and that was good enough for me! The novel was fun and sexy with some heavy undertones that gave the romance some depth.

Here’s the book’s description:

Lizzie has made endless mistakes. Kitchen fires, pyramid schemes, bangs (of the hair and human variety), you name it, she’s done it… and made a mess of it too. One mistake she’s never made is letting anyone get closer to her than a single hook-up. But after losing yet another bakery job due to her uncontrolled ADHD, she breaks her cardinal rule and has a two-night-stand that changes everything.
Once burned, twice shy, Rake has given up on relationships. And feelings. And any form of intimacy for that matter. Yet something about charming, chaotic Lizzie has him lowering his guard. For two nights, that is. Then it’s back home to Australia and far away from the pesky feelings Lizzie pulls from him. But when Lizzie tells him she’s got an unexpected bun in the oven, he’ll do whatever it takes to be a part of his child’s life… except be emotionally vulnerable, obviously. He’s never going to make that mistake again.
Through a series of mishaps, totally “platonic” single bed sharing, and an underground erotic baking scheme, Lizzie and Rake learn that even the biggest mistakes can have the most beautiful consequences.

So, here’s the thing. I had absolutely no idea that this was an accidental pregnancy story. I don’t know if I missed it in the description when I requested it, didn’t read the description, or had read a totally different and not yet finalized description (I requested the book way back in March or April). Whatever the reason, I did not know going in that Lizzie would end up pregnant. Was this a total dealbreaker? No. But I tend to avoid any books that are about pregnancies or include kids. It’s not my kind of read and there are too many other books out there. But by the time Lizzie realized she was pregnant (and, my god, sex ed really needs to be stepped up if (spoiler alert?) a 27-year-old woman who has lots of sex doesn’t realize that condoms expire and should not be kept crumpled at the bottom of a giant purse.), I was already pretty deep into the story. I am glad I continued because Eddings wrote a fun romance, but I still can’t help but be frustrated that I didn’t pay closer attention. *shrugs*

Eddings writes in her acknowledgements that she, like Lizzie, has ADHD. It hurt my heart that Lizzie’s family were so horrible to her and that her mom seemed to think that more medication and being “less” (lazy, loud, wild, etc.) would “cure” Lizzie (I was also thankful that Eddings’s mom was not like that, as also noted in the acknowledgments). I will also admit that things made a lot more sense when it was revealed (really early on) that Lizzie has ADHD. This is not really an admission I’m proud of because Eddings had a really great line later in the book where Lizzie was essentially saying that it’s hard to be a diagnosis and that her personality, what makes her HER, only makes sense to people once they realize she has ADHD. Ableist much, Kaley? In a perfect world we’d be accepting of all sorts of personalities and abilities, but our society is just not set up like that.

As for the actual romance in this romance novel? Oh, it was so fun. Rake and Lizzie are thrown together in circumstances that scare the ever-living shit out of me (if you haven’t figured out that I don’t have kids and don’t want them, you haven’t been paying attention) but they were able to work out a system through the chaos. And chaos it was. I loved that they were both, mostly, honest and were both really committed to making the co-parenting thing work. Of course, they were totally lying to themselves when they were trying to keep their hormones in check. Injuries would have been avoided if they had just given into their desires (seriously…there’s a bit of a mishap involving masturbation, a shower, and a pair of underwear). But both Rake and Lizzie had some commitment issues to work out and, to be totally fair, they hardly knew each other. It was so great to read, though, as they did get to know each other. You could tell that they were so well suited because Lizzie opened Rake up and he, in turn, understood her beautiful brain and they just worked so well together. If only they would realize it!

I had a good time reading Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings over the course of a summer long weekend. It kept me entertained and I think I’ll have to check out her backlist and whatever novel she comes out with next!

*An egalley of the novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: The Ghosts of Paris

I had heard of Tara Moss’s novel The War Widow when it first came out but never got around to reading it. When I saw that book two, The Ghosts of Paris, was being released, I thought maybe I should check them out. I listened to The War Widow and it was a fine story but didn’t totally blow me away. I was intrigued, though, and wanted to read The Ghosts of Paris anyway. I’m glad I did because I liked it more than the first!

Here’s the book’s description:

It's 1947. The world continues to grapple with the fallout of the Second World War, and former war reporter Billie Walker is finding her feet as an investigator. When a wealthy client hires Billie and her assistant Sam to track down her missing husband, the trail leads Billie back to London and Paris, where Billie's own painful memories also lurk. Jack Rake, Billie's wartime lover and, briefly, husband, is just one of the millions of people who went missing in Europe during the war. What was his fate after they left Paris together?
As Billie's search for her client's husband takes her to both the swanky bars at Paris's famous Ritz hotel and to the dank basements of the infamous Paris morgue, she'll need to keep her gun at the ready, because something even more terrible than a few painful memories might be following her around the city of lights . . .

I can’t put my finger on what it was about book one that didn’t thrill me. The story was interesting - I’m all for Nazis getting their comeuppance - but Billie still felt…unknown to me. Which, I suppose, did make some sense. She has a good reason for being super guarded. She had her heart broken after the war, not to mention all the trauma of living through the war as a reporter (and, just, you know, a human). Maybe it's because I already had a basic understanding of her, but book two just worked better for me, even if the mystery itself wasn’t as impactful as the one in the first.

I do really love Billie. She’s what I hope I would have been like after the war, I think. She worked throughout and did not accept that she had to go back to her little corner with the rest of the women and not make noise. No, sir. That’s not happening. She’s smart and talented, but she’s broken. This book shows the cracks and rips her open even more. It’s an emotional ride, let me tell you.

This may be a historical fiction, with a hefty dose of mystery and intrigue, but there is some romance sprinkled in as well. (Duh, of course I would read a book like that.) I can’t decide which of the three (!) men in Billie’s orbit I want her to end up with. All of them have solid reasons for being worthy of her but she’s not quite ready for any of them. Clearly I’m all in for the next book already!

I liked that Billie is Australian. It adds another perspective to the bazillion World War II novels out there. Sure, it’s yet another Allied country that is very similar to Great Britain, Canada, and the US, but every country had their own unique worries and concerns and I’d like Moss to focus on Australia's a little bit more in the next book.

The historical elements of the novel were really interesting. I’m leaning more into the post-WWII stories lately because there’s a ton of hardship that still happened after the war officially ended that we don’t often focus on. Maybe it’s because we’re dealing with our own global trauma at the moment with the pandemic that these types of things hit a bit harder (no, war does not equal global pandemic but it’s the closest we, in North America, can come to understanding things right now). Moss, thankfully, seemed to tone down explaining every single outfit Billie was wearing but I still got a good sense of the fashion of the time. The description of the flight Billie and Sam had to take from Sydney to London was a hoot and I don’t know how anyone would have been able to deal with such a stupidly long flight with so many stops (I think Billie listed every one when she was talking to her mother and it was…a lot).

The Ghosts of Paris was an entertaining read and I enjoyed the look at post-war Sydney, London, and Paris that Tara Moss provided. Billie Walker continues to be a heroine I’m loving and I’ll for sure pick up the next book in this series. 

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Rich Girl, Broke Girl

I don’t know about you, but trying to think about finances and all that goes with it makes me feel pretty dumb. I’m good with money but investing and retirement savings and all that *waves arms* make my mind turn off. My hope going into reading Kelley Keehn’s book Rich Girl, Broke Girl was that it would give me some good tips to apply to my own finances - and I did learn a few things along the way.

Here’s the book’s description:

Do you want to know how to pay off that debt and start saving?
Ready to negotiate a salary raise or better benefits?
Do financial terms and options make your head spin?
Here’s the good news: we as women have more financial freedom and money now than ever before. Here’s the bad news: when it comes to money, many women become paralyzed by financial management and sometimes even defer big decisions to other people, much to their detriment.
What’s the solution? Financial empowerment.
In this handy guide, you will learn how to:
-Discuss money with your partner
-Determine realistic and attainable goals
-Negotiate for the salaries and benefits you deserve
-Splurge occasionally while still saving money
-Understand financial risks and make good investments
-Gain control of your financial destiny
With years of experience as a personal finance educator, bestselling author Kelley Keehn will give you the tools you need to keep and grow your wealth, even if you don’t have much to start from—yet. This unique book brings to life the most common financial conundrums women face, teaching you how to save, spend, invest, and plan for a strong financial future.

This book is written specifically for women, which I really liked. It’s still a pretty broad approach and not everything is going to be applicable to everyone but having it written with women in mind, by a woman, is so helpful. All women know there are certain things we have to deal with and stereotypes and beliefs about who can or should control finances is one of them. I’m lucky that I don’t have to deal with that in my own life but I know others do so I’m glad this kind of book exists.

As I said, this is a pretty broad approach to finances. There was a lot that did not apply to me at all. The sections I was most interested in had to do with investing and preparing for retirement even if it seems so far away (Adulting is no joke, yo). While I still don’t really know what I want to do with my savings, reading this book helped me understand a little bit more. Obviously, I know I need to talk to a financial advisor or planner or someone who’s not, you know, the Internet to figure out how best to sort out my life, now that I’m in a more stable job. But this book explained the basics yet again and it made a little bit more sense this time around.

I liked how Keehn laid out this book. Each chapter introduced someone (who didn’t really exist but was a composite of some of Keehn’s past clients) who was dealing with a particular financial issue. Keehn laid out the issue, what the person was doing wrong, and how it could be fixed. Any jargon was broken down and explained with lots of helpful information along the way. And lest you feel stressed that you’re in the same situation as this fictional person, Keehn also lets us know how they were doing after they got themselves out of the financial pickle. This all helped the book from becoming too dry and it allows the reader to really feel connected with the tips and see how they could be applied to their own life.

Rich Girl, Broke Girl is a great book to check out if you’re still new to figuring out your finances or even if you’ve been managing your money for years and think you could be doing better (I’m a mix of the two, personally). Kelly Keehn has written an interesting and helpful book for anyone who wants to get on track and prepare their finances so their future selves are in good shape.

*An ARC of this book was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: A Rip Through Time

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I was late to the Kelley Armstrong game. I knew who she was, of course (you can’t work in a bookstore and not know popular Canadian authors) but I had just never picked up her books - until the Rockton series. I loved that one so when I saw she was writing a new historical mystery series, I knew I wanted to check it out. A Rip Through Time is the first and it did its job - I REALLY need to read the next book!

Here’s the book’s description:

May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She’s drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness.
May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she’d been strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one-hundred-and-fifty years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot.
When Mallory wakes up in Catriona's body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it's too late.

This book wasn’t exactly the greatest literary work. The number of times Mallory’s “hands itched to grab her phone” was used made me want to throw my eReader out the damn window. The timeline may not have been as smooth as it should have been, and characters did things that didn’t always make sense. But, damn, if I don’t desperately want book two already! Armstrong wraps up the mystery in this book but leaves several dangling threads so you can’t help but want to know what happens next. And I thoroughly enjoyed my reading time (other than when Mallory wanted to check her phone All. The. Time.) so that is a win in my book.

I don’t read a lot of fantasy and definitely do not read much science fiction. Except when it comes to time travel - that’s the only sci-fi I can handle and I absolutely love it. I have no idea how accurate Armstrong was with 1869 Edinburgh, but it felt accurate enough. There was also the added twist of a modern-day character being thrust into the time while looking like someone from that time (how’s that for a mind-bender?). Not only was that a tricky thing for the character to figure out (HOW will she get home?) but having Mallory be the fish out of water allowed Armstrong to explain some historical things without it becoming an awkward info dump. Mallory is us, the reader, in this scenario and she can ask the questions we want to ask so we’re not left in the dark.

Given Edinburgh was my last big trip before the world shut down, I enjoyed the setting of this story. I didn’t get to explore much in my short trip but some of the streets Mallory mentioned were familiar. And it reminded me of how old the city is with so many modern additions. The charm and the long history of the city is everywhere, even now. Being able to “visit” the city in 1869 was a lot of fun and, no surprise here, I can’t wait to get back to visit Edinburgh in the future (but, like, not the future-future. I don’t need to time travel, thank you.)

A Rip Through Time was a really fun and thrilling read. I was drawn into Kelley Armstrong’s mystery and was rooting for Mallory to figure out the crime and get back to her own time (hey, I made a rhyme!). Enjoy this book for what it is - a sci-fi historical mystery caper - and you’ll have a great time reading it. Looking forward to book #2!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: All Fired Up

I just loved Dylan Newton’s novel How Sweet It Is when I read it last year (review here). I was really excited to revisit the characters and town in All Fired Up and Newton did not let me down!

Here’s the book’s description:

As a successful book publicist, Imani Lewis works night and day to promote her authors.  It’s her dream job, but she’s become a total workaholic. So when her grandmother invites her to stay for the summer as she recovers from surgery, Imani happily agrees. But being back in the same small town as her one-night stand may not be quite the relaxing break she envisioned…
Zander Matthews wakes up every day determined to enjoy the present because he knows from his time in the Marines that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. But he’s never gotten over the beautiful woman who blew through town a year ago, then disappeared. And he doesn’t want to be hurt again. So they agree to a deal: he’ll help Imani fix up her grandmother’s house as long as they stay firmly in the friend zone.
Whether it’s repairing tiles in his ceramics studio, dodging nosy neighbors, or soothing the most obnoxious parrot ever, Zander never fails to make Imani laugh. And soon their friendly banter is turning ever flirtier. But since Imani’s stay is temporary and Zander can’t be tied to anything beyond the most tenuous plans, will she be able to handle it when things get all fired up?

The reader has to get over some miscommunication in this romance because Zander and Imani refuse to have a full conversation about how they felt about their one-night stand and what that means for a relationship going forward. Sometimes that drives me absolutely up the wall, but I think I was in a good space when I read this one and I was able to let it go. I also really wanted the pair of them to work out and realize they were totally right for each other so maybe that allowed me to ignore their issues with communicating!

Thinking back, I think the relationship that stole the show in this book wasn’t Zander and Imani but Imani and her grandmother. Their bond was so strong and I love seeing relationships like that in books. I also just loved her grandmother so much! She was one feisty and smart lady and was too much fun to read about.

I was totally rooting for Imani and Zander to get together but knew it was SO important for them each to figure out their own lives first. Imani was clearly not happy at work, even though she was hella competent and so amazing at her job. Zander also had a great thing going but he hadn’t quite gotten a handle on the whole Adulting thing (not that I’m judging – I’m still struggling with a few areas of Adulting myself!) I knew once they sorted out their shit, the romance would follow and the pay off would be so worth it. (Spoiler alert: it was!)

The first two books were pretty connected with the women being best friends and the men being brothers. I’m not sure how book three will feel since we don’t know the third brother too well and there was no obvious love interest introduced. I’m still looking forward to it!

Content warnings in this one include the death of Imani’s mother in a house fire – which occurred when she was young but is discussed and there’s a triggering incident for her – and a complicated birth/labour scene near the end of the book.

I very much enjoyed All Fired Up and am eagerly awaiting Dylan Newton’s next novel. She’s created such a wonderful small town and characters that you just can’t help but fall in love with!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Forever, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Every Summer After

My word, THIS BOOK. It’s hard to believe that Every Summer After is Carley Fortune’s debut novel. I’m sure you’ve been seeing this one everywhere and let me tell you, my friends. The. Hype. Is. Real. If you read only one more book this summer, make it this one.

Here’s the book’s description:

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.
They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of spending summers in cottage country, on the glittering lakeshore of her childhood, she stays in a stylish apartment in Toronto, keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.
Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.
For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant, Percy and Sam had been inseparable. And when Percy returns to the lake, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until she can confront the decisions she made, they’ll never know whether their love is bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.
Told over the course of six years in the past and one weekend in the present, Every Summer After is a gorgeously romantic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

It’s hard to say exactly what my favourite part of this book was. I just loved everything about it. The writing. The characters. The romance. The setting. The depth of emotions. Gah. SO GOOD.

So, let’s start with the setting. Barry’s Bay is a real place in Ontario, the province I live in. While I didn’t grow up in that exact area, my hometown is on a bay so I had no problem picturing the cottages and what life would have been like there. I loved how easy it was to place myself in Barry’s Bay and found myself kind of nostalgic for past summers, before adulting got in the way.

This novel is, essentially, a romance. But to call it such will signal, to some people, that it’s a simple tale. It is not. Percy and Sam’s story is far from simple, even though it starts out that way as they become friends, and then something more, after Percy’s parents buy the cottage next to the house where Sam, his older brother, and mom live. Something Major happened to cause the pair to break up and, while it’s hinted at throughout and I felt like I knew the reason, the actual revelation was a shock. The pair did not have an easy road to travel to get back to each other but reading as they figured it out was so satisfying.

There’s a lot of grief in this book. Sam’s dad had died a few years before he and Percy meet, and the reason Percy goes back to Barry’s Bay in the present is a tough one to handle. While I do think everyone and their cousin needs to read this book, if you’re going through a particularly rough patch, perhaps wait to read this one.

I really liked how the book was written and the story was told. It started in the present and then moved back in time. It all made sense, with each chapter clearly labeled so you know what timeline you’re in. The story moved forward with each past section providing more information and insight into the now chapters.

The Readers’ Guide in the back of the book was also a great read and shed a bit of light on the how and why of Fortune’s novel. Fortune and her family moved to Barry’s Bay when she was eight and, while her parents sold the house many years ago, she and her husband and children, rent a cottage nearby every summer. In the summer of 2020 (*shudders*), they were able to have an extended stay and she was hit with the need to write a book. Every Summer After is the result. I could feel the nostalgia when I was reading the book and learning more about Fortune’s background made it all make so much sense.

Every Summer After is a must read. I wanted to dive back into Carley Fortune’s debut novel the second I finished it and have plans to reread it next summer. Buy this book, read it, love it, tell everyone you know about it. You won’t be disappointed.

*A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*