This Chicks Sunday Commentary: My Top 5 Most Anticipated Book Releases- June’24

Are you gearing up for a vacation this summer? There are some great book releases in June, just in time for you to grab one or two and take them with you! These are the books I’m really looking forward to reading.

If you like romances with a hint of magic you should pick up an Ashley Poston novel. Most recently she’s had big hits with The Dead Romantics and The Seven Year Slip. A Novel Love Story’s synopsis seems to fit this magical realism genre. I can’t wait to sit on a beach and dip into this book!

Synopsis: Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…

Because it is.

This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.

Click this link to purchase this book!* A Novel Love Story

The best-selling author of The Sun is Also a Star and Everything Everything, Nicola Yoon’s newest novel One Of Our Kind gives me a ‘something’s wrong in the burbs’ vibe.

Synopisis: Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles.

Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents’ outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life.

Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined?

Thrilling with insightful social commentary, One of Our Kind explores the ways in which freedom is complicated by the presumptions we make about ourselves and each other.

Click this link to purchase this book!* One Of Our Kind

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I was lucky enough to receive an arc of this novel and enjoyed it tremendously. Another women in STEM romance with sizzling heat and intellectual smarts. Great characters and plot too!

Synopsis: Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.

Click this link to purchase this book!* Not In Love

Ah Christina Lauren, how I do love thee, when your books are good that is. Tangled Up In You is the fourth installation in the Meant To Be series . Each author spins a romance from a fairytale and in this case the story is Disney’s Tangled. Always willing to give one of their novels the benefit of the doubt, I’m excited to jump into this story!

Synopsis: Ren has never held an iPhone, googled the answer to a question, or followed a crush on social media. What she has done: Read a book or two, or three (okay, hundreds). Taught herself to paint. Built a working wind power system from scratch. But for all the books she’s read, Ren has never found one that’s taught a woman raised on a homestead and off the grid for most of her twenty-two years how to live in the real world. So when she finally achieves her lifelong dream of attending Corona College, it feels like her life is finally beginning.

Fitz has the rest of his life mapped out: Graduate from Corona at the top of his class, get his criminal record wiped clean, and pass himself off as the rich, handsome player everyone thinks he is. He’s a few short months from checking off step one of his plans when Ren Gylden, with her cascading blonde hair and encyclopedic brain, crashes into his life, and for the first time Fitz’s plan is in jeopardy.

But a simple assignment in their immunology seminar changes the course of both their lives, and suddenly they’re thrown out of the frying pan and into the fireon a road trip that will lead them in the most unexpected directions. Out on the open road, the world somehow shifts, and the unlikely pair realize that, maybe, the key to the dreams they’ve both been chasing have been sitting next to them the whole time.

Click this link to purchase this book!* Tangled Up In You

Based on the synopsis and the title I’m hoping I’ll get a few laughs from this book. Katherine Center has written two of my favorite comedy rom-coms so the chance is there! The synopsis looks good so I’m all in.

Synopsis:

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies—good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates—The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!—it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone—much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script—it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter—even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules—and comes true?

Click this link to purchase this book! The Rom-Commers

Pick up a book and get reading!

Deb

This Chick Read: Attached at the Hip by Christine Riccio

Orie Lennox has graduated from college but life just isn’t what she thought it would be. She’s a social media influencer with her sister, is dating someone she doesn’t love, and is having trouble figuring out what she’s going to do with her life. When she sees a casting call for a Survivor-like television show, she decides to submit an application and within months is off to Fiji as one of ten contestants. If she’d read the fine print on her contract she’d have realized that there was a chance that she would actually be in a spin-off and finds herself in a Survivor-ish speed dating reality show with no showers, deodorant, or makeup and literally attached at the hip to another contestant. When she finds that first contestant is her high school crush, Remy she thinks it’s her chance to get her life back on track.

I love discovering a new author that can balance the “rom” with the “com”. Christine Riccio had me laughing out loud at Orie and the other contestants antics. Orie was so easy to like and her alliances in the reality show were a lot of fun to read. I kind of wish this program was real because I’d totally be watching it every week and Orie would’ve been who I’d be tuning in to see. She was a mess in her real life, but has an addiction for Survivor that makes her the perfect contestant. Remy was a good foil for Orie, and truthfully there wasn’t a character in their game I didn’t like. I appreciated that every person Orie interacted with made her grow as a character and helped her determine her life’s goals. Seeing her grow was really what made this story so successful.

There were so many favorite moments in this book that it’s hard to pinpoint a few, but here goes. Look for the tree episode for a great bit of comedy and sweet interactions, the secret handshake between new friends, and pretty much any time Orie surprised people by kicking their butts. LOL This was a really fun read and I’m curious how it will sound as an audiobook so I’ll probably go back and give it a re-read and listen to it.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Attached at the Hip

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chick Read: Liar’s Point (The Texas Murder Files #5) by Laura Griffin

It’s par for the course when a murder cuts short the first date Nicole Lawson has had in months. A body has been discovered at Light House point and a yoga instructor called it in. When Nicole interviews the woman she feels as if their only witness is holding something back. Lead investigator, Emmet Davis, has been Nicole’s rival and secret crush but when another body turns up she needs to set aside those feelings and work with Emmet to find out who is targeting their hometown.

I’ve enjoyed The Texas Murder Files series and have watched Nicole and Emmet tip-toeing around each other through four other books. I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure how Laura Griffin was going to pull off a mystery and a romance between these two, but Liar’s Point had an ease to it that gave the story a casual feel that fit the beach setting. The only tension, really, was the kind of high strung Nicole. As the only female detective in her department she feels like she’s fighting for position among the men but really she is the best detective they’ve got and her instincts are spot on.

The mystery itself wasn’t difficult to follow and I enjoyed the interactions between the characters, but I’ll admit it was the dynamic between Emmet and Nicole that I looked forward to reading. Readers have been waiting a long time for these two to get together. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest.

Click this link to purchase this book!* Liar’s Point

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chick Read: Mind Games by Nora Roberts

Every June, the Foxes drive up into the Appalachian mountains to drop their two children off with their Grammie. This year, as they head back down the mountain, they don’t realize it’s the last time they’ll see their children. When twelve year old Thea goes to sleep that night she dreams of their murders back home in Philadelphia and through that special kind of sight, connects with the killer. It’s her vision that puts him away in a maximum security prison for the rest of his life, but through that connection he continues to haunt her until she figures out a way to stop it.

Nora Roberts is the queen of many romantic subgenres and romantic suspense is one of my favorites. She writes great characters and her settings span the entire country. Mind Games takes place in the Appalachian mountains, which are pretty close to where I live and have driven through many times. I loved the vibe of that setting and how the evil that haunted Thea jarred with that easy country living and created this jarring note every time he entered the scene. Ms. Roberts always sets the tone so well.

I enjoyed all of the characters that made up Thea’s family and friends. The love story aspect of the book happened a little too late, to my taste, and the childhood trauma a little too long. I had wished that a little more time was spent in the current time but understand why the author chose to build upon Thea’s early childhood and build the suspense that would carry through to adulthood. I still wish we had gotten a little more romance and a little less evil prisoner.

I have read so many Nora Roberts novels and I have strong opinions about what makes a good NR story and when they are just average. I think this one falls kind of in between. Mind Games reminds me of some of her earlier novels where they feel a little less fleshed out. I still enjoyed it but it’s not one of my favorites. ❤️❤️❤️❣️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest.

Click this link to purchase this book!* Mind Games

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associates- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chick Read: Unsteady by Peyton Corinne

Ever since Rhys Koteskiy took a brutal hit during the Frozen Four he’s suffered panic attacks every time he steps on the ice and is getting little sleep at night. The only time he feels calm is when Sadie Brown’s brand of chaos hits the ice. After witnessing one of his panic attacks during an early morning skate, Sadie and Rhys start a friendship. He feels too much and she feels too little but together they create the calm that each other needs.

I came across a review for this book that made me curious. A hockey player with panic attacks and the chaotic ice skater with behavioral issues? How will this author convince the reader that these two are the perfect match? Rhys’s problems were easy, a concussive hit that blinded him temporarily would scare anyone. I think we can identify with that, but Sadie’s back story could easily have painted her in the wrong light. Drunk father, caretaker to her two brothers, working multiple jobs to help pay bills, uses casual hook-ups to take the edge off, and is on Waterfell University’s ice skating team? Hmmm. How was this author going to pull over this Cinderella story? Sadie’s reputation was in tatters, but this hardworking college kid was in an untenable situation and her love for her brothers just shone through all of the grittiness of her character. After a while that light is what I saw. Mission accomplished.

I always enjoy stories that include children, especially if they are cute and add humor or heart. Sadie’s brothers both created tension but also gave the plot a release of sorts with their heart tugging moments. Rhys’s parents were also great side characters and their non-judgemental attitude was refreshing in a novel that is geared towards a younger reader and those characteristics were a great contrast to Sadie’s own deadbeat dad. Their involvement in the story created a roundness that made this novel feel more complete and not just a new adult college romance novel. I’ll admit I’ve been on a bit of a college hockey binge lately so these things set this novel apart from a lot of the others I’ve read. This was a well done and well thought out story.

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Unsteady

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chick Read: The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

A few years ago Anna Green married Liam “West” Weston for access to the subsidized family housing at UCLA. When they split up two years later she thought the paperwork she’d signed were divorce papers. When West shows up on her doorstep almost five years later, it’s to inform her that they’re still married, and that he needs her to come with him to his sister’s wedding to be his wife in front of his family. Oh, and they needed to stay married until September so that he can receive his 100 million dollars inheritance. Anna is no longer the med student he new but a starving artist who is trying to sell her artwork in order to help pay for her fathers doctors bills. After he offers Anna money to maintain this charade for his family she packs her bags for a trip to Fiji and hopes she can convince his uber-wealthy family that they’re on their way to a happily ever after.

I think it would be really hard for me to dislike a Christina Lauren novel. I can always count on some fun dialogue and our two main characters chemistry to be off the charts. The Paradise Problem definitely hit those notes, so why did I feel a little dissatisfied? It could be that I don’t typically buy into the Billionaire romance genre, and this novel has elements of that but just skirts the edges. West could’ve been seen as “saving” Anna with his money, but in fact she ends up saving him. So I don’t think that’s it. Their relationship felt pretty equal. Maybe it was that his family was truly unlikable? Even his brother who was the person to introduce them to each other back when they first got married was a bit of a turd. His father was certainly no prince charming and his mother seemed to be the stereotype of a wealthy mother. I don’t know for certain, but call me surprised, this novel is probably the one I’ve liked the least in this author duo’s repertoire in a good long while.

Despite my feelings, above, it was a brief escape from reality, so in that manner it did what it was supposed to do. I just didn’t feel as entertained as I normally would by one of their stories. However, their writing skills were still superb and there were a couple of characters that I truly liked, including Anna. So not totally a throw away and one that I think more people will like than dislike. Such a recommendation, right?

❤️❤️❤️❣️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* The Paradise Problem

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chick Read: Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie by Jackie Lau

As the last unwed daughter out of five, Emily Hung is getting tired of her mother’s attempts at setting her up with the perfect man. Her newest attempt is Mark Chan. When they meet at her sister’s wedding Emily is not impressed with this boring engineer. At her mother’s second attempt at tricking them into a date Emily decides to fight back and convinces Mark to fake date her, but her mother has spies everywhere so they have to step it up. They start going on real fake dates and Emily finally see’s behind Mark’s sweater vest wearing persona. Maybe mother does know best?

This author has a great sense of humor! Emily’s inner dialogue often had me laughing and her characterization of Mark, before she got to know him, was quite spot on. Until she saw behind the sweater and could read his slight facial expressions. This stoic engineer had a sense of humor but found it hard to open up to people. Well, everyone except Emily it seemed. Their cute interactions and made them easy to root for but it was their idiosyncrasies and the way that they supported each other that sold me on the story.

As you got to know these characters the reader was given insights into their characters, making these sweet and funny moments more poignant. Both of them were fighting against insecurities and challenging family dynamics giving the story some much needed conflict so it wasn’t just about a fake dating scheme. As with most of our own lives Emily and Mark’s were balancing acts and throwing “finding love” into the mix caused ripples both good and bad. The author’s spin on this story was fun and cute, but the real-life problems resonated for me and I think it will for other readers as well. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chick Read: This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune

The first time Lucy met Felix, she was grabbing a bite to eat alone while waiting for her friend to arrive on their island vacation. She spent an amazing night with Felix and the next morning put the pieces together that he was her friends brother, Wolf. Each year when she escapes to the island, she vows to stay away from Felix and every year ends up in his bed. Despite their intense connection, Lucy always kept her heart out of it until the week before her best friends wedding, when Bridget asks her to come out to the island.

Carley Fortune writes wonderfully emotional beach-centric novels. Or lake-centric, but the local always involves sand, water, and great seafood. Those things certainly set that laissez faire mood which I think is required for a great beach read. This Summer Will Be Different felt, well, different, more intense and kind of frustrating.

Lucy, our heroine, is dealing with the trauma of losing her aunt and trying to make a go of the flower store her aunt left her. She is also harboring the secret of a years-long vacation relationship with her best friends brother. Felix, or Wolf, is on the island going about his life but you just know that he’s living for those moments with Lucy that are few and far between. This novel had boat-loads of conflict to work through and despite my impatience to get to that final conclusion, it was done really well and my turbulent feelings were worth the experience. But it was exhausting, truly. I needed a vacation after reading my vacation book!

Every year I look forward to Carley Fortune’s newest book release and this year is no different. There were so many great moments in this book (the chemistry! the great best friend relationship!) but there was something holding me back from an all in five star rating. I liked it a lot, but I’ve liked other books by this author more. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* This Summer Will Be Different

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chick Read: The Boy Who Cried Bear (Haven’s Rock #2) by Kelley Armstrong

Finally at home in their new Haven’s Rock, Casey and Eric are sheltering a family from the Witness Protection Program that includes two children, one a ten year old names Max. While on a nature walk through the woods Max spots a bear trailing their group. When he later goes missing they are fearful that they have a predator tracking their group, but is it of the animal variety?

I’m a big fan of Casey Duncan, the main protagonist in this series. A very smart investigator and interesting human, I’ve watched her character grow, fall in love, deal with family issues,find murderers, etc. in both the Rockton series and now this spin-off of Haven’s Rock. In this novel we dig even deeper into Casey’s psyche opening up some of her secret fears to the reader. She was already pretty humanized, but I love these additional glimpses into her person. She and her husband Eric are still together, in love, and now in a new environment. They are no longer sheriff and investigator but they continue to act in that capacity and this mystery is especially intense because it involves a missing child.

We are still getting to know some of the newer characters in Haven’s Rock and not all of them are respectable. The group of miners not too far from Haven’s Rock adds an eerie, dangerous vibe to the story. Their interactions are fraught with tension and the developing drama between them and Haven’s Rock is setting us up for future transgressions. I love it.

If you like somewhat dark relationship novels, I think you’ll love the quirky landscape that is Haven’s Rock. I’d start with the first book in the series, but this one carried on in the mysterious tradition and I know I’ll keep following where this author leads me. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* The Boy Who Cried Bear

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

This Chick Read: Happy Medium by Sarah Adler

Gretchen Acorn’s fake spirit medium business is going well so when her most lucrative customer asks for her help for a friend, she agree’s to go off to the country to “help” vacate a ghost from a farm. What she doesn’t expect is to actually see that ghost, hear why he is haunting the farm, and stick around in the country for a month to try to convince the cute, young, farmer why he can not sell his farm and move to the city.

It’s kind of unconventional to have your heroine be a con-woman. I’ll admit that have a fake medium business is probably on the low end of the con spectrum, but I did have a little trouble buying what she was selling. Of course, so did the young farmer, Charlie. He however because charmed by her good looks and spirit whereas I remained skeptical that a romance between the two of them would ever be believable.

I’ve enjoyed Sarah Adler’s books in the past so I was somewhat surprised I was having so much trouble with Happy Medium. The redeeming character was Everett, the ghost. He was a quirky character but added some much needed humor and was a foil to Gretchen making her seem reliable and “normal”. He was a ghost with questionable morals after all.

Happy Medium, for me, was just an ok story. As I mentioned, I had trouble with the main character and if I can’t love the heroine I’m not going to love the story. I’m sure there will be plenty of other readers who will adore this story, but I have to go with my gut on this one and give it a three rating.

❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book! Happy Medium

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.