Waves of Fiction: Bookish Books Reading Challenge 2025

Showing posts with label Bookish Books Reading Challenge 2025. Show all posts

Friday, June 20, 2025

Review: Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady

Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady

Publication Date: June 3rd 2025 by Berkley

Pages: 432

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★★★

My Thoughts:

Bookstore managers Ryan and Josie each run their own niche bookstore: Josie’s, Tabula Inscripta, catering to literary fiction and Ryan’s, Happy Endings, focused on romance. They’re pitted against each other when the owner decides to consolidate the bookstores into one and keeping only one manager. They get off on the wrong foot and the battle between them begins.

I am not a big fan of literary fiction or tragic, heartbreaking stories, but could totally understand why Josie gravitated to them as her backstory was revealed. And the same with Ryan going for romances.

Ryan and Josie don’t realize that they actually are friends online, confiding on a book community forum, Bookfriends, where they commiserate, trade book recommendations and slowly fall in love. Their romance was a slow burn that turned into a scorcher!

Battle of the Bookstores was an enemies-to-lovers kind of romance, very much in the style of the movie You’ve Got Mail, one of my all-time favorite rom-coms, but with more spice. I appreciated there was no third act breakup. I fell for Ryan and Josie, both likeable and full of heart and was captivated by their journey! A definite recommend!

5 Stars

Book Description:

Rivalry and romance spark when two bookstore managers who are opposites in every way find themselves competing for the same promotion.

Despite managing bookstores on the same Boston street, Josie Klein and Ryan Lawson have never interacted much—Josie’s store focuses on serious literature, and Ryan’s sells romance only. But when the new owner of both stores decides to combine them, the two are thrust into direct competition. Only one manager will be left standing, decided by who turns the most profit over the summer.

Efficient and detail-oriented Josie instantly clashes with easygoing and disorganized Ryan. Their competing events and contrasting styles lead to more than just frustration—the sparks between them might just set the whole store on fire. Their only solace during this chaos is the friendship they’ve each struck up with an anonymous friend in an online book forum. Little do they know they’re actually chatting with each other.

As their rivalry heats up in real life, their online relationship grows, and when the walls between their stores come tumbling down, Josie and Ryan realize not all’s fair in love and war. And maybe, if they’re lucky, happily ever afters aren’t just for the books.

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Review: The Page Turner by Viola Shipman

The Page Turner by Viola Shipman

Publication Date: March 4th 2025 by Graydon House & Harlequin Audio

Pages: 336

Audio Book Length: 9hrs 49mins

Narrators: Katharine Chin

Source: Publishers

Rating: ★★★½

My Thoughts:

Emma Page and her family’s lives center around books, however in very different ways. Emma’s parents own The Mighty Page, a publishing house dedicated to elevated “literary” books, while Emma loves the feel-good romances introduced by her late grandmother. Her sister, Jenna, is a powerful book influencer paid to push books she hardly even reads anymore.

Emma has written a book, but it’s the kind of mainstream, women’s fiction her parents wouldn’t consider publishing. When her parents announce a business collaboration with a best-selling author Emma despises, she’s threatened by him and put in a tough position.

I really enjoyed seeing Emma reconnect with her sister while uncovering some of their family secrets. I loved how they banded together to take down a vile man! Emma’s parents weren’t very likeable in the beginning, mostly her mother, but I understood her better by the end with some backstory revealed.

The Page Turner took a little to get into, with a lot of commentary on the publishing world and some of the narrow views on what constitutes quality reading, but it shaped up to be a feel-good story! I was also moved by the author’s note on what inspired his story.

I enjoyed Katharine Chin’s narration, and I thought she did well with both male and female voices. I listened at 1.75x normal speed.

3.5 Stars

Book Description:

A young romance writer makes a discovery that throws her elitist family into chaos.

Emma Page grew up the black sheep in a bookish household, raised to believe fine literature is the only worthy type of fiction. Her parents, self-proclaimed “serious” authors who run their own vanity press, The Mighty Pages, mingle in highbrow social circles that look down on anything too popular or mainstream, while her sister, Jess, is a powerful social-media influencer whose stylish reviews can make or break a novel.

Hiding her own romance manuscript from her disapproving parents, Emma finds inspiration at the family cottage among the “fluff” they despise: the juicy summer romances that belonged to her late grandmother. But a chance discovery unearthed from her Gigi’s belongings reveals a secret that has the power to ruin her parents’ business and destroy their reputation in the industry—a secret that has already fallen into the hands of an unscrupulous publishing insider with a grudge to settle. Now Emma must decide: As much as she’s dreamed of the day her parents are forced to confront their own egos, can she really just sit back and watch The Mighty Pages be exposed and their legacy destroyed?

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Sunday Post #281

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated reviewer book blog, and is a post to recap my bookish and non-bookish things from the last week. I'm also linking up to The Sunday Salon hosted by Deb Nance @Readerbuzz.

The new fire in Southern California on Wednesday was scarily close to the house my son just moved from and our old house! We lived about two miles from each other. His old house was in the mandatory evacuation area. They had a lot of aerial support and the nearby lake. Thankfully, it's pretty much out now. I really think arson is at play with all these fires. I guess we'll see.

I got my haircut by a new hairdresser on Monday and I was really pleased! It's been almost three years since my move to Northern California and I have had a difficult time finding someone. I feel like I finally landed with someone good!

I bought several vintage Charles Wysocki puzzles on eBay. I already have a lot, but as I was looking up the name for an old one I worked I came across several I didn't own and went down a rabbit hole of looking for ones I didn't have. I now have six on the way! I usually always have a puzzle out that I'm working on. I do them while listening to audiobooks.