Susan’s Book Blog

The Sizzle Paradox  by Lily Menon Pub Date June 28, 2022 👩🏼‍🏫 3.5 stars out of 5 👨🏾‍🏫 Cute, fairly standard, run-of-the-mill contemporary romcom. The writing is a little cheesy and so is the basic premise but it’s also charming and the love story is sweet. I was definitely rooting for Lyric and Kian.  Lyric and Kian are a couple of Columbia University grad students, roommates, and long-time friends. Lyric wants to figure out why none of her romantic relationships (in all her many, many 24 years of life) have worked out. She evaluates her dates like Sheldon Cooper ranks Star Trek characters: logically, ruthlessly, and methodically using a scale she made up herself. It’s called The Sizzle Paradox Scale. It’s also what she is working on for her doctorate: analyzing data collected from happy couples to determine what makes their relationships work.  She decides to enlist the help of her never-without-a-partner BFF Kian. A fake dating/tutoring scheme is initiated. Shenan...

Happy birthday to this lovely book! I very much enjoyed reading this one and highly recommend it. My review is posted below. Do consider buying or borrowing this one. It's a keeper. ❤ ❤ ❤ The Suite Spot by Trish Doller Release date: March 8, 2022 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin ✨✨ 4.5 stars out of 5 ✨✨ OMG this gave me allll the feels 🥰🥺 I’ve never read anything by Trish Doller before (Float Plan is high up on my TBR) but I love the characters she created here, the story she told, and her writing style. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of her work after this. Rachel Beck is a single mom who finds herself in need of a new job and decides to make a big life change to get it. This is a follow-up to Float Plan (the MCs of both books are sisters) but can absolutely stand on its own. (For Float Plan fans: Anna & Keane make cameos.) There was honestly so much I appreciated and enjoyed about this book. I loved Rachel’s strength and tenacity and her big heart. I love...

  The Suite Spot by Trish Doller Pub Date: Mar 8, 2022 St. Martin's Griffin ✨✨ 4.5 stars out of 5 ✨✨ OMG this gave me allll the feels 🥰🥺 Have you ever felt like an author has taken a look around the inside of your head and been like “I think I know just the thing” and then written a book that feels tailored to your personal tastes and interests? That’s what this book felt like. I’ve never read anything by Trish Doller before (Float Plan is high up on my TBR) but I love the characters she created here, the story she told, and her writing style. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of her work after this. Rachel Beck is a single mom who finds herself in need of a new job and decides to make a big life change to get it. This is a follow-up to Float Plan (the MCs of both books are sisters) but can absolutely stand on its own. (For Float Plan fans: Anna & Keane make cameos.) There was honestly so much I appreciated and enjoyed about this book. I loved Rachel’s strength a...

How to Hate Love Your Neighbor   by Sophie Sullivan Pub Date Jan 18, 2022 The setting and premise were enough to hook me on this one. I loved seeing two characters with interesting professions working on home renovation and design projects - it was like watching my favorite HGTV home reno show. And I thought the rivals/enemies-to-lovers aspect was done well. (I hate when they are needlessly vicious to one another and that wasn’t the case here.) I would call them more rivals than enemies though. Noah is a real estate developer (sweet but with overprivileged douchebag vibes because of course) who is looking to buy the home next door - the home Grace inherits and moves into. Grace is a soon-to-be design school grad and ends up renovating her new neighbor Noah’s home, and romcom shenanigans ensue. There's plenty to like about the book including Noah’s friend Josh; I thought he was a good side character. I liked, too, that Noah and Grace were in constant close proximity and worked toge...

 I can’t help but appreciate how much effort publishers put into getting eyeballs on their books. And Wednesday Books / St. Martin’s / Macmillan has done good with If This Gets Out .  The book is about a boy band called Saturday and one of the items is a bookmark that looks like a concert ticket. How cute is that? I love both the bookmark and the sticker and am so glad I was able to catch this offer!  Have you ever received goodies for a preorder incentive? The only other one I’ve done so far is the poster for TJ Klune’s Under the Whispering Door (you can see it in my post about it   here ). I think it’s also an amazing way to engage fans and get them excited about these wonderful books. So a big THANK YOU to the publisher for these adorable items!