Spotlight

A Lot Like Adiós, Alexis Daria (2021)

This delightful romance is the second book in Daria’s ‘Primas of Power’ series, which began with You Had Me at Hola (2020). This installment tells the story of childhood neighbours Gabe and Mich, who reconnect when Gabe’s gym hires Mich to do some marketing for the launch of their new New York location. Come for a steamy friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romance, but stay for the realistic portrayal of the challenges of family life and the sacrifices we make to be ourselves.

Read this if you’re interested in:

• Latinx (Own Stories) representation
• Bisexual representation
• Family drama
• Aftermath of the ‘coming of age’ tale
• Open door romance
• Friends-to-lovers
• Enemies-to-lovers
• A New York story that lets the Bronx shine

My Rating: 8/10

Weekly Roundup

• Where the Drowned Girls Go, Seanan McGuire (2022), 10/10: Book 7 in the ‘Wayward Children’ series, and probably my favorite so far! This follows a student who goes to a very different kind of school for wayward children… (YA, adventure, novella)
• Hotel Iris, Yoko Ogawa (1996), 7/10: This is the story of a lonely Japanese schoolgirl who develops an obsession for a middle aged man who is thrown out of her mom’s hotel. It’s well done, but is even more disturbing than it sounds. (literary, creepy, backlist)
• When Brooklyn was Queer, Hugh Ryan (2019), 8/10: This non-fiction work is a comprehensive history of queer culture in Brooklyn. It’s very well done, but perhaps a bit too comprehensive for my interest level (nonfiction, history, LGBTQ2S+)
• The Soulmate Equation, Christina Lauren (2022), 9/10: A fun and thought-provoking romance about two people who get matched on a new DNA-based dating service (romance)
• Count Your Lucky Stars, Alexandria Bellefleur (2022), 7/10: Book 3 in the ‘Written in the Stars’ series, this is Margot’s story, as she reconnects with her hold teenage crush Olivia (romance, LGBTQ2S+)
• Hollywood Heroine, Sarah Kuhn (2022), 7/10: Book 5 in the Heroine Complex series; I always find these books a bit heavy-handed in their themes, but they are always enjoyable and this one, which follows Evie and Annie to Hollywood as they visit the set of a new series based on their lives, is no exception. (adventure, superheroines, Asian American Own Voices)
• Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus (2022), 6.5/10: This book is getting a lot of praise right now, and I can see why, even as it didn’t quite work for me. This book has a lot of well-deserved feminist rage in it, as its protagonist — a female scientist in the 1960s – faces sexual harassment institutional misogyny at every turn. But, I’ve seen these issues handled in a lot of books over the years, and often with greater care elsewhere. (feminist, historical, women in STEM)