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Against the Rules (Gamer Girls #2) by Laura Heffernan

Blog Tour Stop : Kate Rock Book Tours courtesy of Kensington Books

Thanks so much to the author, Kate Rock Book Tours, NetGalley, and Kensington Books for the complimentary advanced copy of this book in exchange for honest thoughts, and participation in this book tour. { partner }

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS :

RISK EVERYTHING … Holly has taken herself out of the dating game since breaking up with her cheating, thieving ex. She barely notices Marc, who comes into the game store every week, hoping to get her attention. Her friends insist it’s time to take on a new role, to leave Quiet Holly behind and embrace her inner flirt. And on paper, Marc’s great: cute, funny, and a hardcore gamer just like Holly is.

Then there’s Nathan. He’s everything twenty-eight-year-old Holly wants…except he’s also her friend’s father. Absolutely off-limits. But as she and Nathan playtest a new legacy game together, they’re growing closer.

The game is complex and intriguing, and there’s no wat to know how choices will pan out. What seems like a good idea could lead to disaster…or sweet victory. But in gaming, as in love, sometimes you have to roll the dice to take your chance . . .

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW (4 STARS) :

Once again I am writing a review on a second book in a series without having read the first book. Come on, Jennifer, get it together. Right? Right. But, like with my last tour book, the description comes along and it just sounds too fun to pass up, even if I did miss the first part of the story! And once again, I was not disappointed.

Holly is an incredibly fun character, and I really enjoyed getting to spend this time with her. She is nerdy and game-minded, yes, but she is also really smart, and strong-willed, feisty, and she has a fierce love for the people around her. When we first meet her she is in the last few months of reclaiming her life from issues caused by and related to her ex, who is in trouble with the law due to his part in their new business was revealed to be less than upstanding. She’s been having a hard time while trying to get back on her feet, working at her local game shop and having weekly game nights with her friends, and is inspired to start putting herself out there more in the world of dating.

While none of the first few dates go very far, some not even making it through the salad course, I had a really good time getting to read about the dates, especially the really cringe-worthy ones whom she had met online. It felt a little bit like gossiping and sharing bad dating stories with your girlfriends, and let me just say that I was all about it. And while we are on the topic, I loved her whole group of friends at the game nights. They are such a tight knit group, and all getting to share in a mutual love of the game and the competition. Also the game that they are playing throughout the whole story sounds really cool. I am not always a huge gamer myself (I had older brothers, so I can play sometimes, but I grew up mostly watching the games instead), but I wanted to try and join in the game too. Take out? Check. Good friends? Check. Awesome sounding board game? Check. All I’m saying is that I’m upset I don’t get to have game nights anymore.

And yes, we couldn’t talk about this book without talking about the love story. Throughout the story Holly has two main love interests that she focuses on – Marc, who stops by the game shop during her shifts, and sweetly plans dream dates to try and woo our lead; and Nathan, who she has had a crush on for years and gives her enough butterflies to fill her stomach twice over every time they brush hands. He seems perfect (hey, they even already live together) except that he is the father of one of her best friends. Yikes. Her whole internal debate between the two men revolves around how her friend, Gwen, would react if she chose Nathan, worrying she’s breaking some girl-code and that her friend may never forgive her. While I’ve never been in this particular situation I think we’ve all had moments where we worried we might hurt or even lose a friend depending on a choice that we made, and so I found that part of the story really easy to follow and found that I could fairly easily relate to the character. And plus, there’s something about a forbidden romance that just makes it that much more fun to read, right?

Overall this book was really enjoyable, and I wanted to jump right into the middle of this friend group. None of the characters were perfect, which I always think makes for a better and more enjoyable reading experience. And while, yes, the central gaming theme may not be for everybody, I found it different and new and thoroughly entertaining. I will definitely be checking out the next book in the series, Make Your Move, which publishes in December and follows another member of this same group.

This book is publishing tomorrow, October 15, 2019!

LINK TO BUY ON AMAZON :

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Coming Home (Chandler Hill Inn – Book 2) by Judith Keim

Blog Tour Stop : Kate Rock Book Tours courtesy of Wild Quail Publishing

Thanks so much to the author, Kate Rock Book Tours, and Wild Quail Publishing for the complimentary finished copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts, and participation in this blog tour. { partner }

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS :

Camilla “Cami” Chandler comes home from France to take over the Chandler Hill Inn and Winery for her recently-deceased grandmother, Lettie, as she’d always promised. Determined to succeed in this new venture, she finds herself in trouble from the beginning when she discovers most of her grandmother’s estate intended for maintaining the inn’s business expenses was lost in a Ponzi scheme. She forges ahead to provide the best wines in Willamette Valley.

After being ditched by her French boyfriend, she decides that being friends with Drew Farley is the safest way to proceed. He loves grape growing and winemaking as much as she does and isn’t looking for anything beyond friendship.

When a bride planning a wedding at the inn tells Cami that she looks exactly like her best friend, life becomes even more complicated. Never having known even the name of her father, Cami searches for a connection and comes to realize how complicated love and family can be.

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW ( 5 STARS) :

I’ll start by saying, this is book 2 of 3 in the Chandler Hill Inn series from this author, and I was not able to read the first book before diving in to this book. While I do think that I probably would have gotten more out of the story if I had read the first book, at no point did I feel like I was completely missing the necessary background. The beginning of this novel gives all information on the characters, setting, and background that was needed for this particular story, so I definitely wasn’t feeling like I couldn’t enjoy this book without having read the first. But again, I do think I may have gotten more out of it with the rest of the story, so take this whole first paragraph with a grain of salt. Basically, maybe read the first book first, but it also wasn’t necessary for me.

All of that being said, I loved this book. I read this entire book in one day, and I am not a fast reader. I was engrossed in the characters and the setting, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Also the story takes place at an Inn and Winery in Oregon, which I love. Having grown up in Washington, I love reading books or consuming other media that takes place in or near my Pacific Northwest. What can I say? The area has my heart. I wanted to hop on a plane back towards home and stay a weekend at the Chandler Hill Inn.

I also (and this will shock nobody who has read any of my other reviews) really loved the characters and their portion of the story. The “villains” of the book (read: people in the story who are working against our protagonist, not exactly super villains) were overall really believable as actual people, which I think always makes the trials in a story more interesting, rather than some totally unrealistic circumstances. And while I’ve never been put in the situations that they put Cami through in the book, so I haven’t known anyone to go to those particular extremes, I definitely feel like everyone knows these exact types of people having come and gone in their lives.

But overall, the characters were just so lovely (I think I fell in love with her grandpa, Rafe, and I will not apologize for it.) Cami, the female lead, is so strong and so sweetly written. I love a story of a young woman really coming into her own, and being a boss. And Cami does both over the course of this book. I wanted to be her friend, or even just work with her at the Inn. (Why yes, living and working at a beautiful and romantic Inn and Winery just may be a dream of mine, why do you ask? All of the wine.) But I mean it, give me all of the strong female characters in all of the media. I was very invested in her life and her story, and I definitely finished the book wanting to know where she was going to go from there.

I would recommend this book to any of my friends that want a character-driven story and a really fun, quick read. I am so excited that I was given the chance to read this book for the author’s blog tour, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book, Home At Last, which is publishing soon! I may even get myself a copy of the first book to see what I had missed out on!

LINK TO BUY ON AMAZON :

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How Sweet the Bitter Soup: A Memoir by Lori Qian

Blog Tour Stop : Kate Rock Book Tours courtesy of She Writes Press

Thanks so much to the author, Kate Rock Book Tours, and She Writes Press for the complimentary finished copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts, and participation in this blog tour. { partner }

BOOK DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS :

Her mom was working as a maid. Her dad’s Alzheimer’s was in high gear. And the rent on her parents’ small Chicago apartment had just fone up. AGain. But Lori was holding it all together: helping care for her dad and pat her family’s bills, figuring out how to navigate graduate school and four jobs on top of her family responsibilities, and, somehow, continuing to believe that there was more to life than this.

And there was.

An exciting job teaching at a prestigious school in China. Although the previous month, she had turned down a job offer in Iowa – thinking it was too far away from her family – she felt completely at ease accepting a hob in China. Grasping on to the fierce determination she’d had since childhood, Lori found herself in Guangzhou, China, where she fell in love with the culture and with a man from a tiny town in Hubei province.

What followed was a transformative adventure – one that will inspire readers to use the bitter to make life even sweeter.

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW (4 Stars) :

I always find that memoirs, these types of memoirs in particular, are difficult for me to review. It’s one thing when you pick up a celebrity memoir of someone that you already have fully formed opinions of, and you buy the book because you love the celebrity and just want to learn more about where they come from. I picked up this memoir having read the description above and knowing that I would be on this tour, but going in to this story without any additional knowledge about the author or her story made this a very personal and emotional read.

I really enjoy learning about cultures and experiences that I wouldn’t likely get to experience for myself, and so the fact that this book is truly the story of the author experiencing these other sights and cultures was really interesting and enjoyable for me. It certainly isn’t all a walk in the park for her (the chapter about the trouble they had leading up to their wedding was crushingly difficult to read.) But getting to follow along with her as she first sees and immediately loves the sights, the sounds, and the people all the way on the other side of the world, was really beautiful to get to see.

Overall I know that memoirs aren’t for everyone, and they aren’t even my go to genre by any means, but I would recommend this one to anyone who wants to dip their toes in and fall in love with China vicariously through the author’s story.

Link to Purchase on Amazon :

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The best books for your summer road trip – SheReads

The warm summer weather is finally on its way, and for many of us, that means hitting the road. Whether that’s a road trip, girl’s weekend, out-of-town weddings or taking the kids to visit family, there are some questions that comes up when we pack our bags – which books should I bring with me, and realistically how many can I take before it gets weird? If you’re in need of some suggestions, here is a list of 12 books that are perfect for a summer road trip.

I had so much fun working on this article for SheReads.com, which went live this morning May 20th, 2019! If you are in need of any summer reading recommendations, or just want to check out some of the fun reads being released in the next few months, follow the link below to see what 12 books are definitely going to be included on my Summer TBR!

https://shereads.com/books-for-your-summer-road-trip/