Hello, friends – and happy Tuesday! Welcome to another round of new releases that I was lucky enough to get an early copy of, and have either already read or are upcoming on my #TBR.
These books could be gifted from the publisher through sites like NetGalley or Edelweiss+, they could be electronic copies gifted directly to me from the publisher or the author, an early audiobook copy through the publisher or Libro.fm, or even a physical copy that has been sent to me from the author or publisher. I am so thankful for all of the reading opportunities that I am given through these various sources, and I am excited to share these new releases!
In these weekly posts I will include a 20% review if I am currently reading the book, as well as a link to my full review if I have already finished the book. And if I have not yet started the book by the time this is posted, I will leave those spots blank and edit the post to add them in later!
Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead
Author: Elle Cosimano
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary, Adult
Thanks so much to the author, Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for the complimentary advanced e-copy of this book!
Description from Goodreads:
Finlay Donovan is—once again—struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she’s dealt with lately is that of her daughter’s pet goldfish.
On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently. Whatever else Steven may be, he’s a good father, but saving him will send her down a rabbit hole of soccer moms disguised as hit-women, and a little bit more involvement with the Russian mob than she’d like.
Meanwhile, Vero’s keeping secrets, and Detective Nick Anthony seems determined to get back into her life. He may be a hot cop, but Finlay’s first priority is preventing her family from sleeping with the fishes… and if that means bending a few laws then so be it.
With her next book’s deadline looming and an ex-husband to keep alive, Finlay is quickly coming to the end of her rope. She can only hope there isn’t a noose at the end of it…
20% Review:
Y’all, I am so excited to be back with Finlay and Vero! I’m enjoying the story so far, although it’s only now starting to really get into the suspense portion of the story, so I’m looking forward to seeing where that takes the story. If I know Finlay, there will be plenty of bumps and mishaps along the way! I will say that as glad as I am to have Julian in the story so far, I’m really hoping to see more of Detective Nick as the story goes on.
Review:
(This will be added at a later date, once I have finished this book!)
Happily Ever After Cookbook
Author: Various
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
Genre: Cookbook
Thanks so much to Dangerous Press and Valentine PR for the gifted advanced e-copy of this book!
Description from Goodreads:
Immerse yourself in the world of romance with book-inspired recipes! Bestselling authors of your favorite novels teamed up with private chefs to develop original dishes. Now you can cook your way to a happily ever after…
Enjoy New Orleans Gumbo from Kennedy Ryan’s RITA-Award Winner Long Shot. Then bite into Texas BBQ Tacos from USA Today bestselling author K.A. Linde’s The Wright Brother. Follow it up with Diablo Cookies from Dangerous Temptation by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Giana Darling. Finish your evening with an Underworld Cocktail inspired by New York Times bestselling author Katee Robert’s Wicked Villains series.
This sensual journey will surprise and delight readers!
Billionaire heroes and strong heroines come to life with these recipes…
The Happily Ever After Cookbook contains exclusive appetizers, soups, main dishes, desserts, cocktails, breakfast, and bakery recipes. Bring romance novels to life with these literary dishes. It will look great on your keeper shelf next to your favorite books.
FULL LIST OF AUTHORS INCLUDED: Cora Reilly, Laurelin Paige, Adriana Locke, Meghan Quinn, K. Webster, Amelia Wilde, Giana Darling, Katee Robert, Kylie Scott, Alta Hensley, Amo Jones, Sara Ney, K.A. Linde, Jenika Snow, Q.B. Tyler, Corinne Michaels, Maya Hughes, Melanie Harlow, Kelly Elliott, Kandi Steiner, Susan Stoker, Kennedy Ryan, M. O’Keefe, Fiona Cole, Willow Winters, AM Hargrove, L.B. Dunbar, Terri E. Laine, Monica Murphy, Jana Aston, Susannah Nix, A.L. Jackson, Teagan Hunter, M. Robinson, Pepper Winters, Sienna Snow, Emma Scott, Skye Warren, Mia Sheridan, Kate Canterbary, Tasha Boyd, Danielle Romero, Louise Bay, Aleatha Romig
Check out my blog tour with my full thoughts on this book (and several recipes) here!
Thanks so much to the author, Minotaur Books, and Netgalley for the complimentary advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner } All of my reviews can also be found on Instagram @Tackling_TBR and on my blog at tacklingtbr.home.blog
TW: murder, death, gun violence, mention of sexual and domestic abuse, blackmail, custody battles, mention of infidelity
Sassy and sarcastic female lead? Check. Bad ass female friendship? Check. Hot potential-book boyfriends? Check. All wrapped up in a book about book people? Check and check! Oh, and did I mention there is some murder and crime solving thrown in for good measure? This book has it all, and I seriously loved every minute of it!
Finlay Donovan is a bit of a hot mess, and I mean that in the most loving way possible. I feel like I know Finlay, like our souls recognize the hot mess in each other, and we would be good friends. Plus, I know where all of the good hiding spots are, which could come in handy in her new line of work!
Moral of this review so far: I would TOTALLY help Finlay Donovan hide a body!
The characters in this book were so much fun to read about. And they all (for the most part) somehow still felt like real people, even when they were in these seriously crazy situations. Obviously Finlay was my favorite character – sarcastic author-turned-hitwoman, ready to jump right in to the crazy situations that life throws at her, and looking (mostly) fabulous while doing it. But a very close second favorite is Vero, the girlfriend that we all so desperately need in our lives. I always talk about sarcastic or witty banter between love interests in books, and sure there is a bit of that here too, but the book is dripping with that sarcastic banter between these two BFFs too, which makes it all the more fun! I left the book just really wanting to sit down with these two ladies and an entire bottle of wine, and just see what happens.
Overall I would absolutely recommend this book to friends! There is some romance, but it’s not the main focus, so it feels much more like a comedy-thriller, which is just such a fun and gripping combination! I think that it could be a great way to ease people into the romance genre if they are maybe hesitant to read that way. I think the best way to read this book is in a bubble bath that lasts way too long because you don’t want to put the book down, with a glass of wine and maybe a snack. Although I may be a bit biased, since that is how I read most of this one!
Hello, friends – and happy Tuesday! Welcome to another round of new releases that I was lucky enough to get an early copy of, and have either already read or are upcoming on my #TBR.
These books could be gifted from the publisher through sites like NetGalley or Edelweiss+, they could be electronic copies gifted directly to me from the publisher or the author, an early audiobook copy through the publisher or Libro.fm, or even a physical copy that has been sent to me from the author or publisher. I am so thankful for all of the reading opportunities that I am given through these various sources, and I am excited to start sharing these new releases!
In these weekly posts I will include a 20% review if I am currently reading the book, as well as a link to my full review if I have already finished the book. And if I have not yet started the book by the time this is posted, I will leave those spots blank and edit the post to add them in later!
In Love & Pajamas
Author: Catana Chetwynd
Publication day: February 2, 2021
Genre: comics, humor
Thanks so much to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the complimentary advanced electronic copy of this book.
Description from Goodreads:
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Snug and the bestselling Little Moments of Love comes an all-new collection, In Love & Pajamas by Catana Chetwynd of Catana Comics!
When you’ve reached that sweatpants-wearing cozy place in your relationship, it’s all In Love & Pajamas! This brand-new collection of Catana Comics presents some fan favorites and half of the book features never-before-seen comics that delight and amuse readers of all ages. Wholesome, sweet, feel-good humor!
20% Review:
Since this is such a small book of comics, it is a very quick read, so it’s easy to finish in one sitting! So I don’t have a 20% review for this one. But you can check out my full review through the link below!
Thanks so much to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the complimentary advanced electronic copy of this book! I’m so excited for this one, it’s going to be the next book that I start!
Description from Goodreads:
Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano’s adult debut Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a witty, fast-paced mystery series, following struggling suspense novelist and single mom Finlay Donovan, whose fiction treads dangerously close to the truth as she becomes tangled in real-life murder investigations…
20% Review:
This book really goes from 0 to 60! From using duct tape to stick your kiddos bangs back on after they find the scissors to, well, contract killing. You know, as one does. I love a character driven story, and this definitely delivers in that aspect as well. There are so many key players to the story to meet in this first portion, but it’s not done in a way that is overwhelming.
Thanks so much to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for the complimentary advanced electronic copy of this exciting new release!
Description from Goodreads:
Love, romance, second chances, fairy-tale endings…these are the things Annika Dev believes in. Her app, Make Up, has been called the “Google Translate for failing relationships.”
High efficiency break-ups, flashy start-ups, penthouses, fast cars…these are the things Hudson Craft believes in. His app, Break Up, is known as the “Uber for break-ups.” It’s wildly successful—and anathema to Annika’s life philosophy.
Which wouldn’t be a problem if they’d gone their separate ways after that summer fling in Las Vegas, never to see each other again. Unfortunately for Annika, Hudson’s moving not just into her office building, but into the office right next to hers. And he’ll be competing at the prestigious EPIC investment pitch contest: A contest Annika needs to win if she wants to keep Make Up afloat. As if it’s not bad enough seeing his irritatingly perfect face on magazine covers when her own business is failing. As if knowing he stole her idea and twisted it into something vile—and monumentally more successful—didn’t already make her stomach churn.
As the two rival app developers clash again and again—and again—Annika finds herself drawn into Hudson Craft’s fast-paced, high velocity, utterly shallow world. Only, from up close, he doesn’t seem all that shallow. Could it be that everything she thought about Hudson is completely wrong? Could the creator of Break Up teach her what true love’s really about?
20% Review:
(This will be added at a later date, once I start reading this book!)
Check out my full review here:
(This will be added at a later date, once I have finished this book!)
The Survivors
Author: Jane Harper
Audio Publication Day: February 2, 2021
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Thanks so much to Macmillan Audio and Libro.fm for the complimentary advanced copy of this audiobook.
Description from Goodreads:
Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets…
Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.
The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.
Kieran’s parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.
When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away…
20% Review:
(This will be added at a later date, once I start reading this book!)
Check out my full review here:
(This will be added at a later date, once I have finished this book!)
Milk Blood Heat
Author: Dantiel W. Moniz
Audio Publication Day: February 2, 2021
Genre: Short Stories, COntemporary
Thanks so much to HighBridge and Libro.fm for the complimentary advanced copy of this audiobook.
Description from Goodreads:
Set among the cities and suburbs of Florida, each story in Milk Blood Heat delves into the ordinary worlds of young girls, women, and men who find themselves confronted by extraordinary moments of violent personal reckoning. These intimate portraits of people and relationships scour and soothe and blast a light on the nature of family, faith, forgiveness, consumption, and what we may, or may not, owe one another.
A thirteen-year-old meditates on her sadness and the difference between herself and her white best friend when an unexpected tragedy occurs; a woman recovering from a miscarriage finds herself unable to let go of her daughter—whose body parts she sees throughout her daily life; a teenager resists her family’s church and is accused of courting the devil; servers at a supper club cater to the insatiable cravings of their wealthy clientele; and two estranged siblings take a road-trip with their father’s ashes and are forced to face the troubling reality of how he continues to shape them.
Wise and subversive, spiritual and seductive, Milk Blood Heat forms an ouroboros of stories that bewitch with their truth.
20% Review:
(This will be added at a later date, once I start reading this book!)
Check out my full review here:
(This will be added at a later date, once I have finished this book!)
Milk Fed
Author: Melissa Broder
Audio Publication Day: February 2, 2021
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, LGBTQ
Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster Audio and Libro.fm for the complimentary advanced copy of this audiobook.
Description from Goodreads:
A scathingly funny, wildly erotic, and fiercely imaginative story about food, sex, and god from the acclaimed author of The Pisces and So Sad Today.
Rachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, by way of obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting—until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting.
Early in the detox, Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam—by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family—and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey.
Pairing superlative emotional insight with unabashed vivid fantasy, Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we as humans can compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts. Milk Fed is a tender and riotously funny meditation on love, certitude, and the question of what we are all being fed, from one of our major writers on the psyche—both sacred and profane.
20% Review:
(This will be added at a later date, once I start reading this book!)
Check out my full review here:
(This will be added at a later date, once I have finished this book!)
Four Hundred Souls
Author: Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain
Audio Publication Day: February 2, 2021
Genre: Nonfiction, history
Thanks so much to Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group and to Libro.fm for the complimentary advanced copy of this audiobook.
Description from Goodreads:
An epoch-defining history of African America, the first to appear in a generation, Four Hundred Souls is a chronological account of four hundred years of Black America as told by ninety of America’s leading Black writers.
Curated by Ibram X. Kendi, author of the number one bestseller How To Be an Antiracist, and fellow historian Keisha N. Blain, Four Hundred Souls begins with the arrival of twenty enslaved Ndongo people on the shores of the British colony in mainland America in 1619, the year before the arrival of the Mayflower.
In eighty chronological chapters, the book charts the tragic and triumphant four-hundred-year history of Black American experience in a choral work of exceptional power and beauty.
Contributors include some of the best-known scholars, writers, historians, journalists, lawyers, poets and activists of contemporary America who together bring to vivid life countless new facets to the drama of slavery and resistance, segregation and survival, migration and self-discovery, cultural oppression and world-changing artistic, literary and musical creativity. In these pages are dozens of extraordinary lives and personalities, rescued from the archives and restored to their rightful place in America’s narrative, as well as the ghosts of millions more.
Four Hundred Souls is an essential work of story-telling and reclamation that redefines America and changes our notion of how history is written.
20% Review:
(This will be added at a later date, once I start reading this book!)
Check out my full review here:
(This will be added at a later date, once I have finished this book!)
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House
Author: Cherie Jones
Audio Publication Day: February 2, 2021
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Thanks so much to Hachette Audio and Libro.fm for the complimentary advanced copy of this audiobook.
Description from Goodreads:
A debut novel in the tradition of Zadie Smith and Marlon James, from a brilliant Caribbean writer, set in Barbados, about four people each desperate to escape their legacy of violence in a so-called “paradise.”
In Baxter Beach, Barbados, moneyed ex-pats clash with the locals who often end up serving them: braiding their hair, minding their children, and selling them drugs. Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the Baxter Beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom — and their lives.
20% Review:
(This will be added at a later date, once I start reading this book!)
Check out my full review here:
(This will be added at a later date, once I have finished this book!)
Tackling TBR 