For the most part, this was an enjoyable book. The story of one man’s life, told essentially in five toasts to the five most important people in his life. The storytelling is good and the tales of love, regret, hope, and sorrow are all touching and relatable. The curmudgeonly main character reminded me of A Man Called Ove.

But the ending. The ending devastated me. To take the entire story, his entire life, and end the book the only way it could have ended… I am not sure I’m over it.

This one hit a little too close to home for me, so it’s not one that I recommend across the board. Not because there is anything wrong with it, but because I don’t want to make anyone else feel the way I felt at the end. And that says a LOT for how much this book did to me.

So many things to love about this book.

Who doesn’t love a story about revenge? The pacing is good, the characters are flawed enough to be believable and yet none are really likable, and the sex scenes are steamy and not overdone (a huge pet peeve of mine).

Add this one to your TBR. Grab it when you are ready for a book to grab you, get under your skin for a little while, and then let you go with a, “Whew! What just happened there!?!?” deep breath kind of ending.

Loved it!!!

Megan Miranda knocked this one out of the park. Believable story and characters, lots of fun twists.

I’ll tell you to add this to the top of your TBR, especially if you’ve been in a rut!

So much hype about this book and IMHO, it is worthy. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but I found it inspiring and enjoyable.

Only 4 stars because she was a little heavy patting her own back at times, but even then I enjoyed the story she was telling.

I definitely recommend you read this. You’ll know right away if this is not the book for you.

I am not generally a fan of short stories. I read this because of a book club and I am so glad I did.

The writing is so good, the stories are engaging, and each story had its own nugget of wisdom to share. My only complaint that short stories are so…. short. Some of the endings were so unsatisfying after I’d fallen in love with the story.

That small dissatisfaction aside, these stories are wonderfully written. Add this to your TBR now

Highly recommend!

Kind of like the Salem witch trials meets the Hunger Games. I was skeptical that this was going to be just another YA dystopian novel, but it’s got an original story that’s engaging from start to finish.

Add it to your TBR!!!!

I had high hopes for this one because I loved We Were Liars so much.

The stream-of-consciousness multiverse writing took a while took get used to (I’ll admit I disliked it at first). I appreciate how Lockhart uses this to show how complex and conflicted our feeling and reactions can be to a single event.

I did not love it like I did Liars, but it was a good book in its own right. Read this one when you are looking for that book to make you think and feel (and maybe shed a tear or two).

This is another one that is hard for me to review. Several friends recommended it; I had seen lots of rave reviews.

I loved the concept of it…. time traveling in and out of your own life, not knowing when you will land or what to expect. I loved the nostalgia and especially all of the music in the book.

But…. I had a really hard time with how poorly developed the “time travel” aspect was supposed to work. I don’t need every detail nailed down, but there were glaring holes that made the plot frustrating and confusing. It didn’t make it less frustrating to have the characters constantly lament that they didn’t understand how it all worked.

This absolutely could have been a five star book and I still enjoyed it despite being frustrated. If you are like me and can still enjoy a book despite the plot holes and wanting to bang your head when things don’t make sense, I recommend this as a sweet, thought-provoking book.

Perfect chick lit!!!

Likeable characters, steamy-but-not-overdone sex scenes, a great romance with a happy ending, and good subplots that don’t distract from the overall story. Though chick lit is not my go-to genre, I loved this book!

I read it for a virtual book club I’m in, so I will advise that this is the second book in a series, of that matters to you. If it does, then read them both!!!

Highly recommend just for the feel-good feels!

I enjoyed this book.

Perfect book if you want to feel better about yourself by reading about a completely dysfunctional family. Seriously, everyone has something going on and all at once, but it worked somehow.

Maybe not worth ALL the hype, but I’m glad I read it.

This was a great thriller with a touch of romance thrown in! The protagonist, Riley Tatum, was both likeable and believable.

When the plot gets a little predictable- PLOT TWIST! Just when you think you know who the bad guy is- PLOT TWIST!

Now I’ve got another author I love and another series that I want to read. I definitely recommend this one!!!

I fell in love with Chanel Cleeton’s Cuba and the women of the Perez family in Next Year in Havana. It’s sequel, When We Left Cuba, focuses on just one Perez beauty, Beatrice.

This novel had a very different feel from the first book, not only because it focused on just Beatrice, rather than alternating between Elise and Marisol, but also because it followed a fairly straightforward timeline rather than alternating between past and present timelines.

Because Beatrice’s story was only connected to Elise’s and Marisol’s by the most delicate thread, this felt like a companion novel rather than a sequel. I loved how Beatrice came into her own in this book- while she was certainly not perfect, she was a character to admire and cheer for.

If you haven’t read Next Year in Havana yet, get on it now so you can read When We Left Cuba. You’ll be sad if you miss these two.

Holy cow, this was a long book. Suffice to say this was not my favorite, or anywhere close to my favorite, of these novels. This is the story of Katherine of Aragon and Margaret and Mary Tudor, who were at one time the Queens of England, France, and Scotland respectively.

Told through the eyes of Margaret Tudor, the story begins when they are children and spans the decades of their marriages, children, and Henry VIII’s formation of the Church of England. The history in the book is fascinating, even if it has been covered in other books.

I found Margaret Tudor to be the most annoying character Gregory has written so far. I cannot count the number of times my eyes rolled so far back in my eyed I was afraid they would get stuck. But her portrayal of the Queen was based on her research and I appreciate how fully developed the character was.

I’m glad I stuck with it, but wow. It was definitely more of a struggle than any of her other books.