[22] The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
Fiction / Romance / Rock Stars, saw in @aliontherun1’s Insta stories, Kindle

Synopsis: When Solène takes her daughter and her friends to a concert of their favorite boy band, she makes a connection with one of the singers, Hayes, who is 19 years her junior. Solène (who is single and divorced) and Hayes fall for each other and start a clandestine relationship, which has Solène flying around the world to meet up with him on tour, hoping the world (and her daughter) doesn’t find out.

Review: This book is good but the entire tone is foreboding, so you’re just waiting the entire time for their relationship to implode. It’s stressful, but I still felt compelled to read it because I wanted to know what was going to happen to them. (And I feel compelled to watch the movie version on Prime when it comes out in May.)

Recommend? Yes, but proceed with caution

[23] Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Fiction / Fantasy / Romance, green light by Jamie on The Popcast, graphic audio

Synopsis: Violet lived her entire life thinking she’d be a scribe, but her mother, who is the commanding general of the army, has ordered her to try to become a dragon rider. Violet is small, and has some illness (that was never explained) that causes her joints and muscles to be susceptible to injury all the time, but she is determined to bond with a dragon and NOT DIE from training or any of the people who want to kill her because of who her mother is – especially Xaden Riorson, her wingleader, who is a separatists’ child. Wink wink.

Review: Writing a synopsis for fantasy books feels impossible to me. There’s just so much going on. Thankfully, this is a book that gently takes you through it all at a manageable pace.  All that being said, holy sh*t the graphic audio of this was excellent. I LOVED this book. It’s action packed from almost the beginning. It’s doesn’t have any of those major lulls like A Court of Thorns and Roses does. I loved how sassy Violet was, the family she formed with her classmates, and her becoming stronger and figuring out who she is (and who she is in love with, *ahem). So many scenes in this book had me completely enthralled, like when she threshed (spelling? no idea since did audio version) with her dragon, when she found out what her signet was, the big scene at the end. I would honestly listen to this again and I can’t wait to listen to the second book on Graphic Audio when it’s released in May!

Recommend? Yes

[24] Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
Fiction / Romance, recommendation from Snis, Kindle

Synopsis: Fern and Will spent twenty-four hours together ten years ago and promised to meet up a year later, and Will never showed. It took Fern forever to get over him, and she is thrown for a loop when he shows up at the resort Fern just inherited from her deceased mother, and isn’t sure if she wants to run or not.

Review: This took forever to pick up for me. And it did that annoying thing where one of the characters has some “big thing!” that happened in their past and they drag out telling you (it wasn’t even that big of a thing when they did). The author also drug out the twenty-four hours that Fern and Will spent together until almost the end of the book, so you’re wondering what the heck was so magical that made her so destroyed when he didn’t show up a year later (still not sure). And the switching back and forth from present day to their day 10 years ago confused me sometimes and I thought I was in the wrong storyline. Also, Will pissed me off. When my snis recommended this to me she said people liked that the characters were realistic (as in, Will was NOT a knight in shining armour and had lots of issues), and I realize now what that means and it wasn’t for me.

Recommend? No