Earl Grey Books

We’re going to go straight into this by saying that I feel really bad that these posts (and one TTT) are the only content I’ve managed to get up lately. I had fully planned to get some other posts out last week and then got struck down by a chest/throat infection thing and basically spent the week asleep.

I’m hoping I can get another 2 to 3 posts out before the end of May as I do have some that are half or three-quarters of the way done and now that I’m feeling a bit better. Anyway, let’s get into these reads.

Written in the Stars (Written in the Stars #1) by Alexandria Bellefleur

With my newly discovered love for contemporary romance this year, I’ve been finding new authors to try left, right and centre. Alexandria Bellefleur was one I’d been keeping an eye on and I finally decided to give this one a go. This was straight-up adorable—I loved the relationship between Darcy and Elle and all the side characters. It’s just a really fun book and I especially loved the different little astrology lists, like which Christmas song are you based on your zodiac sign etc, from Elle’s Twitter. I love seeing those in real life and seeing what mine and my loved ones are, and Ioved that the characters interact with the lists too—they aren’t just there are chapter starters. The only thing that I didn’t love about this was that it is entirely based on the romance, we see basically nothing of the characters’ daily lives and we just get told what they’ve done. I don’t need a four-page description of Elle making memes or Darcy working, I just wish we got to see a few more of their interactions with other characters outside of the big events rather than just being told about it. That said, I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

Lakesedge (World at Lake’s Edge #1) by Lyndall Clipstone

This was a buddy read with my friend, Ash @ Ash’s Adventures in Books and we decided to pick it up because we both got it in a Fable Crate box a few months back. I really loved the start of this—it was creepy, atmospheric, and mysterious so I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, I didn’t love where the story ended up going, mostly in terms of the romance. I didn’t believe in the romance—it felt like a very rushed enemies-to-lovers kind of story and I prefer slow-burn romances for the most part. I also felt like the magic element in this book was very convenient in that everything seemed to happen exactly when it needed to and so the stakes didn’t feel that high to me. At the same time, I recognise that I’m just not really in a YA headspace at the moment and that might be why I didn’t end up loving this as much as the start made me think I would.

The Highwayman (Victorian Rebels #1) by Kerrigan Byrne

Fun fact: when I started this blog two years ago (to the month!), this was one of the first books I talked about and now I’ve finally read it! This was also my first Kerrigan Byrne and I definitely think I’ll be reading more of hers. That being said, I didn’t love this—I enjoyed her writing and the plot, but I’d picked the twist from the start and I didn’t really connect with the characters. Dorian is pretty emotionally unattached due to some pretty horrific trauma and while that’s completely reasonable, I just personally don’t find that romantic or sexy. I love a good rake or even an underground criminal in historical romance, but Dorian just didn’t do it for me. Farah was alright as a character, but I didn’t really feel any connection or sympathy towards her. I hope some of the other couples in this series will end up being more interesting to me.

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

It was finally time to pick up my next TJR book and of course, I had to go with Daisy Jones having heard so much about it (and also with it being the only one on my shelves). I’ll say it right off the bat that I preferred Evelyn Hugo—the sort of 50s glamour of Evelyn is much more me than the 70s drugs, alcohol and rock n’ roll of Daisy. While I really enjoyed the interview style of this, the subject matter just isn’t very me. I loved the music side—my parents grew up in the 70s and had DJ & the Six been real, I bet my parents would’ve made me listen to them growing up. I was definitely intrigued by the story of the band as well, but Evelyn Hugo made me sob like a baby at the end and this was excellent, but I just didn’t have that same reaction to it. I am very excited to see the film, but I’m also kind of worried to see how they’ll represent it with the interview style.

Gouda Friends (Ponto Beach Reunion #2) by Cathy Yardley

I won’t lie—I did buy this solely because of the title. This turned out to be a super sweet and fun little contemporary romance. There are a few hints of more serious topics, but for the most part, it’s pretty light-hearted and like I said, it was a fun read. I didn’t love it and I think that might have something to do with the MC. I really liked Josh, but at times Tam annoyed me. Now okay, the reason for that is that Tam is very lost and unsure about everything in her life and she annoyed me in the way that I get annoyed at myself when I feel that way. In that ‘oh my god, there’s got to be something you want to do’ kind of way, if that makes any sense. Their romance was sweet and I loved the kind of friendship they have as well. Honestly, I don’t see myself reading any of the other books in the series but I enjoyed this.

And there they are!