firewhiskeyreader

Girl Gone Viral: A Spoiler Free ARC Review

It’s not a secret that I’m an Alisha Rai fangirl and so it’s not really surprising that when I got an ARC of Girl Gone Viral, I almost screamed despite being in court at the time. (Yes, I check my email while I’m in the courtroom, but listen, there’s a shocking amount of downtime for me in that room.) Anyway, after Avon/Netgalley made my whole day, I told myself I would wait until I survived 2019 to actually read the book, but lol, that was actually definitely not happening. I think I did make it a month though, so kudos to me for that. And then I read it and… I absolutely adored it. I think I may even have liked Girl Gone Viral more than The Right Swipe, which is high praise given that The Right Swipe was one of my top ten 2019 releases. So let’s break it down, shall we?

March Wrap Up, Part Two

I’ve read an abundance of books this month, that has finally drawn to a close. This entire year has felt like a decade anyway, but this month? Well, y’all lived it too. I hope you’re social distancing and maintaining your mental health to the best of your ability. I’ve been binge listening to audiobooks and taking a long walk on nice days. I’ve also baked biscuits from scratch (who am I??) and have valiantly to limit my trips to the grocery store. Anyway, my favorite book of the month was House of Earth and Blood, but I read a lot of good things!

O.W.L.S. TBR

It’s that time of year again! Aka, time to pretend I’m actually a Hufflepuff preparing for exams and not, you know, a muggle living a life mostly inside because of COVID-19. Escapist reads are the name of the game, y’all, and I’m thrilled that it’s time, once again to participate in Book Roast’s immersive readathon! Her video’s description contains links to everything you will need to participate yourself and I really can’t recommend the experience enough. Also, here’s the Twitter link, which is where a lot of socializing and fun things happen. I’ve chosen to study to become a mind medic, but I also keep tossing around the idea of studying to be a spell creator because that sounds quite awesome as well. Regardless, I plan to complete all twelve courses now so that I have all of the flexibility I may need in August. So, let’s get started!

Dreamers Series Review

I really love Adriana Herrera’s Dreamers series and I’ve been fortunate enough to receive the concluding novel, American Sweethearts, as an ARC thanks to Netgalley and Carina. I really enjoyed my last series review and I decided this was the perfect time to do another. The basic series premise is that it’s about four Afro Latinx friends who live in NYC (Brooklyn, maybe? I ignore geographic tags for some reason.) until Nesto moves away to Ithaca to give his food truck OuNYe a chance to really flourish and shine. The first three books, American Dreamer, American Fairytale, and American Love Story are m/m, but American Sweethearts is m/f. Each of the books tackles some heavier social justice themes, which is balanced by the gorgeous love story, the incredibly developed secondary characters, and a levity that appears almost any time all of the friend group appear on page together. So let’s talk about this series…

Collage image showing slivers of the covers of *American Dreamers*, *American Fairytale*, *American Love Story*, and *American Sweethearts* by Adriana Herrera

Audible Escape Recommendations: Round Two

If you’re surprised I’m back again already, me too. Lol. But I thought I would go ahead and present to y’all another set of ten books (which let’s be real, will be just as obnoxious as the last post and no where close to ten) that are on Audible Escape just waiting for you to pick them up!

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March Wrap Up, Part One

I’ve been doing an awesome job reading in March, despite basically having a book hangover from House of Earth and Blood. I’m also in the middle of like sixteen books because I just am having trouble committing my attention span to much of anything. But at the same time, reading is my biggest comfort in times of high anxiety, which… *gestures at the world* So let’s talk about what I’ve read so far.

Late March ARC Round Up: The Honey-Don't List, If I Never Met You, and Dear Enemy

March is a big month for new releases and I’ve got reviews of three today, two of which you can snap up right now and one of which is out next week. I honestly loved all of these so… Go for broke and support your local Indie? Or The Ripped Bodice or Love’s Sweet Arrow depending on how your local Indie feels about romance books. Anyway, keep reading for my thoughts on The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren, If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane, and Dear Enemy by Kristen Callihan. I was very fortunate and received each of these in exchange for an honest review on Netgalley from the various publishers.

Covers of *The Honey-Don’t List* by Christina Lauren, *If I Never Met You* by Mhairi McFarlane, and *Dear Enemy* by Kristen Callihan

When in Romance: Trade Me and A Knight in Shining Armor

This is quite the mash up of books Dani and I read for this project in late January/February, Trade Me by Courtney Milan and A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux. Our quick thoughts on Trade Me are that it was really good, but ends very abruptly and also was maybe missing something. I’m still holding out hope that we will eventually get Find Me, which I think will address some of the abrupt ending. So if RWA and everyone awful could stay out of Courtney’s life so that she can focus on ice skating and writing and whatever else brings her joy (I’m assuming Find Me gives her joy, here’s hoping) that would be great. Anyway, our quick thoughts on A Knight in Shining Armor are WTF (me) and that it didn’t really hold up the way that Dani was hoping. There will be some plot spoilers related to Knight, so tread lightly if you don’t want to know anything. But also, there’s no way to explain my very strong feelings without telling you about the plot. Anyway, let us proceed…

When Old Meets New A Reading Project Dani's Bookshelf & Firewhiskey Reader reads the text in the center of four pictures two in black and white, one of an old timey scene and one of NYC probably and then two pictures of a drink and a book

Historical Romance Readathon TBR

The historical romance readathon is the brain child of Lisa, Lacey, and Jessica and takes place from March 16-March 22. I am very much looking forward to this because I have a LOT of historical romances languishing on my shelves. The women who created this readathon made a BINGO board for their prompts, which is definitely fun. I went through and chose a book for almost every prompt, but I’m going to focus on my Readathon Row here. So let’s jump in!

February Wrap Up, Part Two

It’s not that I want to wish time away, but I’m kind of glad we’re out of February, that Spring is coming and we’re one month closer to Kiss Con, Taylor Swift in LA, and vacation. Not necessarily in that order. Also I really need to make sure I can take vacation. Adulting is so irritating, tbh. Anyway, you’re not here about my life, but about my reading. I read 25 books this month and five of them were five star reads. Let’s talk about them.