cakemix?

How To End A Love Story

Yulin Kuang

This is the debut novel of writer/director Yulin Kuang whose work I have been following since “Kissing In The Rain” was released onto YouTube.
I was very lucky to gain access to an advance readers copy through NetGalley.
This is a very enjoyable romance with lead characters who are simultaneously both likeable and a little messed up.
The plot has Helen – a successful YA author – turning up in LA to take part in the writer’s room on the adaptation of her hit book series.
She discovers that one of the lead writers in the room is Grant. He was behind the wheel when Helen’s sister threw herself in front of car, leading to her death.
That tragic event informs every part of their interactions as they eventually move from being frosty colleagues to besotted lovers.
When the book ended I had that rare feeling of wanting to spend more time with the characters and I don’t think there’s a higher recommendation than that.

Rating: A-

oceanographer?

True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop

Annie Darling

I received this book for review from Netgalley.
Verity runs admin for the Lonely Hearts Bookshop. An introvert dreamer with a bad break up behind her she’s invented a fake boyfriend to stop the well meaning interventions of her friends into her dating life. Nearly caught out in her lie she relies on the kindness of a stranger to divert her friends. Turns of the stranger thinks the idea of fake dating is a great one and proposes they be each others fake dates for the summer.
Fun book that was total catnip for me. As I’ve said before the ‘fake dating’ trope just works for me. The lead character is easy to root for and the world around the leads is well drawn. The only thing that spoils it is just how dumb the lead male is about his ‘one true love’. I could get it if she was a decent human but she’s just spoilt and awful.

Rating: B

claremont?

The Collapsing Empire

John Scalzi

This is easily Scalzi’s best book since Zoe’s Tale.
The story is set in the Interdependency which is a collective of planets controlled by aristocrats and guilds and connected by a FTL network called the Flow. We arrive to find this fictional world in the midst of political upheaval and finding itself on the brink of disaster. Unusually for a book with many point-of-view characters I enjoyed spending time with all of them. It has to be said, though, that Kiva Lagos is my favourite. I definitely want more of her in the rest of the series.
Indeed the only real flaw of the book is that it feels very much like the set up for a series. I can’t wait for the next one to come out so Scalzi’s got me hooked already.

I should note that I read an advance copy of this book provided by NetGalley

Rating: B+