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Book Review 

Title: Call You Mine by Kendra Mase 

Genre: Contemporary, Romance 

Rating: 4 Stars 

Call You Mine wasn’t something I would normally pick up, but I have been coming to enjoy the friends to lovers trope a lot more and decided to give it a go. We are introduced to Sylvia and Kieran who have been friends since they were small children, however, Sylvia moved away from their hometown for work which is where we meet her. In the first chapter alone, she ends up losing her job and finds her boyfriend cheating on her which prompts her to return home for the holidays and give herself time to figure out what she is going to do going forward. One thing to note is that we have dual timelines in this book, bouncing between the past and the present which introduces us to Kieran long before we meet in him in the present. We get to see the childhood and friendship of these two which was honestly, adorable but it indicates that something happened between them, and they haven’t spoken in years because of it.  

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I got a sense that Sylvia had some strong feelings of loss regarding Kieran, but we don’t know why at this time. Upon returning home, Sylvia’s parents are away on a trip, so she is alone. In such a small town it doesn’t take long before she and Kieran meets again but it seems that old wounds haven’t healed with Kieran giving her the cold shoulder at best, and at worst, being outright mean to her. Sylvia is very lonely during this time, and we see from the flashbacks that she felt like she never really fitted in and didn’t really try because she has Kieran. She feels more alone than ever now her life is falling apart and she is craving the support that Kieran used to give her. These flashbacks also strongly hint at Sylvia’s feelings for her best friend, but she never makes a move to act on them.  

Kieran doesn’t seem to realise anything or if he doesn’t, he doesn’t say anything about it. He ends up dating other girls becoming quite popular as they enter their teens which makes Sylvia jealous even though she won’t show it. It is around here that the cracks in their friendship are beginning to show, and we know the reason why even if they refuse to admit it to themselves and each other. In the present, Sylvia decides to go for a drink and ends up running into Kieran again but this time he is at a bar with friends from school who are surprised to see Sylvia. Sylvia ends up getting drunk to the point that Kieran must take her home where she tries to voice her feelings to him, but the words won’t come out. Due to her heating being down, Kieran ends up taking her back to his place for a few nights, but he isn’t happy about it.   

There we can see the pair still care about each other and need to talk about the issues they have, instead Sylvia comes up with the most idiotic plan to get Kieran back as a friend. She creates a list of things to do over the holiday, a tradition of theirs and manages to convince Kieran to do these things with her and surprisingly he agrees despite being angry with her. As we continue to bounce between the past and present, it becomes painfully obvious that Sylvia is in love with her best friend and that he’s in love with her too, but they won’t speak about it or acknowledge it. Sylvia doesn’t want to admit these feelings despite the growing tension between them because she doesn’t want to risk losing his friendship again now, she is slowly starting to earn his trust back. In the past, the pair are preparing for college, and it seems their views have changed. In the beginning, it was Sylvia who was excited to leave the town and now it’s Kieran. It doesn’t help that Kieran has been getting into all the schools he applied for while Sylvia hasn’t, most likely due to her lack of effort in school. She does get one acceptance in New York, and she ends up taking it despite not really wanting to leave.  

Even in college, Sylvia doesn’t have any friends but keeps in contact with Kieran and he even comes to visit her at one point. Her feelings towards him are still there despite the years and now distance between them. She ends up discussing her situation with him about not having any friends and not needing any because she has him. However, we can see that she is still jealous of his on again off again relationship with Amy.  eventually she begins dating Kieran but accepts a job in New York without telling him causing everything to fall apart but she tries to live her ideal life even after distancing herself from him. The reason Kieran is angry with her in the present is that she wouldn’t answer his phone calls after the breakup not even when is mother was diagnosed with cancer.  

After discussing this, Sylvia ends up apologising to Lori for not being there when she was ill and confesses her feelings towards Kieran. Lori as his mother tells her not to wait any longer because she knows what she wants and if she doesn’t take the chance, then someone else will. The pair are learning to be friends again, but Sylvia is slowly moving towards her goal of confessing her love for Kieran. This is a slow burn since it takes almost three quarters of the book for the confession and romance to begin. However, when it does, it really takes off and even the smutty scenes are on point. I adored the romance when it finally began, and I didn’t mind the long build up either as it allowed us to really get to know Sylvia and Kieran. This is the perfect romance to read around the holiday period especially if you like a little angst with your romance.  

Buy it here: 

Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com  

Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com  

Book Review 

Title: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa 

Genre: Translation, Contemporary 

Rating: 4.25 Stars 

We are introduced to Takako and her boyfriend, Hideaki as she learns he is getting married and not to her. It turns out she has been his mistress this entire time and didn’t know. To make things worse, his fiancee is someone they both works with and he wants to continue the affair despite not realising that he has shattered Takako’s heart. When she begins suffering from severe depression from the breakup, Takako ends up leaving her job and becomes a recluse hiding from the world. That is until she receives a call from her uncle Satoru asking her to come back home.  

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Takako with nothing better to do and money running out decides to move back home and moves in above the Morisaki bookshop which has been in their family for generations. She ends up taking an offer to work there in the mornings for room and board which gets her away from her current situation and gives her something to do but her depression is so deep she spends a lot of time sleeping. Despite being surrounded by books on a dialy basis, Takako doesn’t really read anymore as she lost her love for it a long time ago due to the pressures of adulthood, this is in direct contrast to her uncle who acts more like a child than she does.  

Satoru does try and find out what is going on but Takako doesn’t really respond to him. However, he does get her to accept going out for coffee with him where he reintroduces her to the town she has been away from for over a decade. It is here that Takako really ebgins to fall in love with the place and begins to open up more to her uncle. During this time she also rediscovers a love of reading she didn’t realise she had which pleases her uncle and myself as a reader. Takako truly begins to intergrate into the town, getting to know the poeple living there and finding some favourite spots of her own. She even ends up befriending a girl in the coffee shop, Tomo and a boy who has a crush on Tomo, Takano.  

As the months begin to pass, Takako has reconnected with her uncle and fallen in lvoe with the town but a sudden message from Hideaki brings back all the emotions she has been running from. Satoru encourages her to confront him and explain all the ways she has been suffering because of him and they decide to go through with it. She not only outs him as a cheater in front of his soon to be wife, but gets her own feelings on the siutation out as well which was an incredibly emotional moment. It is here that Takako finds the drive to rebuild her life which means moving away once more which Satoru doesn’t want but Takako needs to do it.  

Takako does end up visiting quite often and even begins a friendship with a man named Akira. They bond over their love of books and Takako begins falling for Akira but he is still pining over his ex-girlfriend which is a blow to Takako but she doesn’t fall apart like she did before. After this her aunt returns after up and leaving years before and drags Takako on a trip with her as she wants to find out where her aunt has been all this time. It turns out that she briefly worked at the inn they are staying in and to her surprise they are having a good time reconnecting, the same way she did with Satoru. It turns out that her aunt, Momoko is sick and that combined with the death of her and Satoru’s child made her leave. She is planning on leaving again and Takako encourages her uncle to not stand by and let it happen this time. Satoru ends up taking her advice and prevents Momoko from leaving allowing the couple to reconnect properly for the first time in years.  

In the end, life continues on for Takako as she does end up dating Akira and finding a measure of happiness she hasn’t felt since she was a child not even with Hideaki. They end up being a better match than I could have imagined. The ending was the weakest point in my opinion but it doesn’t impact the story too greatly. I absolutely adored the themes and vibes of the novel and definitely want to visit this place in real life if I can.  

Buy it here: 

Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com  

Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com  

Book Review

Title: Mr. Pushy by B. L. Wilde (Human Mating Site Book 11)

Genre: Erotica, Romance

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Mr. Pushy honestly wasn’t a great instalment in this series with lacklustre spicy scenes but it did set up a nice conflict to be resolved in the final two books. After her wild weekend away with Ava, Bella is back working with her boss’ son, Seth to get some new software implemented in the company. From the very beginning, Bella dislikes Seth because of his pushy nature and how he is constantly commenting on how she does things and trying to pry into her private life, however, Seth is constantly dropping hints that he finds Bella attractive.

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Book Review

Title: Horror Hotel by Victoria Fulton & Faith McClaren (Horror Hotel Book 1)

Genre: Young Adult, Horror

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I didn’t know much about this series before getting into other than it was young adult horror. Now YA horror isn’t something I have had great experiences with in the past but I couldn’t deny the synopsis was intriguing and the cover was gorgeous. The opening to Horror Hotel actually had a really interesting premise, we are following four friends; Chrissy, Chase, Kiki and Emma who run the Ghost Gang which is a paranormal investigation YouTube channel but the catch is Chrissy is actually psychic. She sees and hears the dead all around her and her reactions have made the channel successful even if most people assume it is fake. However, Chase wants to reach a million subscribers so they are going to the Hearst Hotel, where Eileen Warren was found in pieces at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

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