Book Review: The Fine Print by Lauren Asher

The Fine Print by Lauren Asher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After Rowan and I had a come-to-Jesus meeting and I smacked him around with a baseball bat, I enjoyed this book. I know, I'm not the type of girl that would read a billionaire romance and love it, but honestly, I liked Rowan. He was boyfriend material, I wanted to shake the poor bastard (and yes, I did slap him around a couple of times, he'll be fine) but I still enjoyed this book nonetheless.

So all of this started with a letter from Rowan's grandfather, telling him to be his theme park's director and oversee the project. At first, Rowan was so dang grumpy and mean, cutting almost everything and ensuring everything was running smoothly. Enter Zahra, a Creator who drunkenly sent an application, tearing down a ride and something, and she was hired. Every day Rowan and Zahra kept seeing each other at work, and Rowan thought that she was the most annoying person on the planet. He kept doing and saying things to her to rile her up, but she didn't even move an inch. Instead, she laughed at everything he says to her to his face, which angers her even more.

But slowly but surely, they fall in love, and they even have a date in NYC, where Zahra met her favorite author and they spent that cold NYC day around NYC, doing many things until she got sick. Rowan started getting worried, poor boy almost had a heart attack while he was taking care of her, and when he found her in the floor of his home, face down, that's when Rowan called the hospital and was there for her...until he decided to do some asshole breathing and did the first form on poor, sick in the bed Zahra, and did he feel guilty about what he did?

Yes, yes he did.

Oh, and don't get me started on the fact that he pretended to be 'Scott' so he could find out about her true intentions...which were pure and nothing bad. He even invited her to his house so he can explain everything--his past and all. The spice was good, I'm giving it three chili peppers, but when he revealed everything, Zahra threw up the deuces, told him never to come near her ever again, and even when he tried to win her back after everything he did, she stood her ground and ever broke...until she got a letter from Brady, Rowan's grandfather, about being on the board that will be the final vote.

When Rowan found out about it, he tried to get her to fall right back in love with him, but sadly it didn't work, and when the meeting came, Rowan did a whole presentation to everyone, nearly making Zahra cry of how he presented his information and also mentioned so many people that needed more medical attention and wanted to give them more. I did do a first pump when Zahra told Rowan's father off, and then Rowan invited her to his house again, where he apologized and they got back together, and the ending was just perfect. Very perfect.

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Book Review: The Hidden Moon (Pingkang Li Mysteries) by Jeannie Lin

The Hidden Moon by Jeannie Lin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was alright. It went over my head, the mystery part. I thought, to be fair, that is was a romance between Shen Gao and Wei-Wei, and the both of them solving a murder mystery in the Pingkang Li. There was a murder, that I know of, but then it kinda switched over to the romance between Gao and Wei-Wei. The writing was good, I liked the writing, it drew me in and I was in the Pingkang Li, but the mystery was eh, I didn't really either care about it, or it just flew over my head and it didn't make me want to follow the mystery and find out who did it.

That's all I honestly remember-the relationship between Gao and Wei-Wei, and how Gao has tried, multiple times, to stay away from Wei-Wei, only for her not to do that and she needed to get with Magistrate Li, only for her to go up to the mountains and live with Taoist monks. Gao, who helped catch the who did it and the killers and what not, got money, became the magistrate (a county one) and asked Wei-Wei's dad for permission to marry her. Wei Wei's father was like, "Okay, you can marry her. But go back up to the mountains and get her" and he did, and they got married. That's all I remember.

Ask me about the mystery, I can't tell you a damn thing. But all in all I enjoyed this book.

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Book Review: Unbreakable: A Cloverleigh Farms novel by Melanie Harlow

Unbreakable by Melanie Harlow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First time reading Melanie Harlow, and it blew me away. I thought I wasn't going to like this, but the more I read this book, the more I fell in love with the world of Cloverleigh Farms, and I really loved the relationship between Sylvia and Henry. I loved how they gave each other space and they took the time to understand each other, and I liked how Sylvia and Henry learn about the farm together while she was staying there.

So about the farm...first off, I thought it was an actual farm, with the chickens and the cows and all of that. But when I read that it was a wine farm, I was hooked. I loved learning about how they make the wine and how they distribute the wine, I really enjoyed learning about that, and I wanted to read more.

My favorite character in the book is Sylvia. I loved reading how she got drunk from the many drinks at the country club and told the room to "not be an asshole/dick" to moving back home to figure out what she needs to do now since she and her ex-husband are not together again, and she's now a single mom who needs to think about her kids and her and what she needs to do in order to pick herself up again. I really love how she was straightforward in her relationship with Henry, and how she was sad to break it up because of her and her kids. Honestly, I was cheering for Sylvia for the whole book and I loved it.

Now Henry is my favorite character as well (basically, this couple is my favorite character by far). He's kind, sweet, a hard worker, and someone who gave Sylvia some time to think about what she wanted, and if she wanted him, he was ready to jump in the relationship with both feet. And when Whitney showed up to talk to him and basically told him to be a hero for her mom, and that she needs more than her and her brother to make her feel fulfilled.

All in all, this was such a really cute romance and I might be reading more from this author because this was really good.

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The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my first time reading anything by Katherine Arden, and The Warm Hands of Ghosts was perfect. I don't read WWI books, but reading this one opened my eyes to things I never thought possible. For one, the writing was beautiful. I enjoyed reading about how two siblings are currently in different places and fighting to get back to each other. I like reading books about siblings fighting to get back to each other. I also was very curious about the man Faland and how he's a crossroad demon who wants stories so he can write music for his violin. I kept getting crossroad demon vibes the more he hung out with Freddie and kept asking him stories about his life, and kept asking him about what happened to him and a German soldier named Winter in that pillbox. Why was Faland so curious about him and Winter? Why did he want that story so bad?

Laura...Laura was very pushy and was very strong about wanting to find her brother, to the point that she kept forgetting to take care of herself. When she, Pim, and Mary walked into Faland's hotel and she saw Freddie (or Freddie's ghost, as she believed) she started to go crazy, but then she stopped and even tried to get Pim to stop looking for Faland after Pim looked in the mirror. But the way the book intertwines with the characters and how they're trying to get back to each other-Freddie and Laura in another period for a moment, then somehow Laura hears news about Freddie and how he was this place and he was that place, and when she finally met the German Winter and he told her about Faland, that's when she went to find him, only to have the ghosts tell her where Freddie and Faland was.

And Freddie...poor, poor Freddie. He was stuck with Faland, drinking all the time, sleeping all wonky, giving him story after story. At one point I thought he was gonna turn into Choso for a good second and go mad, but he didn't, thank god, and when Laura finally found him, that's when the both of them went to try and escape the maze that was Faland's hotel, only to come out and find out that Pim made a deal with Faland and is now traveling with him after killing a general who killed her son.

This was a different book than I'd normally read, and I'm glad that I read it because now it's one of my favorites.

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Book Review: We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Even though this took me a long time to read, I have to say, this was a very satisfying read. I enjoyed the action, the romance between Nasair and Zafira was beautiful, and I hope the Lion is burning in hell for what he did to Altair and Aya and Nasair's father, even though Nasair's father was a horrible person to him. I also liked how Lana and Yasmine were in it and somehow grounded Zafira because I had a scary thought that the Jawarat was going to control her and make her do things she would regret, like the time she killed the Demenhune caliph. Was I proud of Zafira in that moment when she did so? Yes, yes I was. But then, was I a bit sad that she did that, but she never really killed anyone other than the things she hunted in the Arz, and now that the Arz is gone, she is no longer the Huntress. She is Zafira bint Iskandar (hopefully I got the name right), and she is her own person.

In fact, I really liked how, in the whole book, they gave her space. She was going through so much throughout the book, along with planning on how to take down the Lion so he can go to hell, and to also find a way to restore magic. It felt like she was struggling--from her thoughts and feelings with the Jawarat near her, her feelings for the Prince of Death, and her feelings about trying to stop the Lion. I'm going to be honest, I really didn't like Zafira and Nasair together, but once I started reading this book, that's when I started to ship them and even loved them, cheering them on with their relationship.

Let's talk about Altair for a minute. I was ready to throw hands when he betrayed them, only to turn around and say that he was trying to kill the Lion, his father, mind you, himself. I was both shocked and still wanted to throw hands at him. But when Aya...sweet, kind, strong healer Aya betrayed us....these hands were rated E for everyone at this point. Because I was so mad at the both of them for betraying the zumra for the Lion, and the Lion taking Altair's eye just about to make me go off. I kinda felt sorry for Altair for watching his father get his heart implanted in, but was damn glad he escaped and turned around to face his father once more.

This duology might be one of my favorite books of all time, and I'm so glad that read it. It was a wild ride and I loved every bit of it.

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