Tag: book review

Categories
Book Challenges Book Reviews Book Series Books

Finishing Series I Abandoned Halfway Through (Part 2): What Changed My Mind

Estimated Reading Time: 4min

I’m at it again! I’m trying to finish series that I started but still haven’t gotten a chance to finish. Here are the final reviews.

Circle Series by Ted Dekker

GREEN

Oh. My. Gosh.
I didn’t think this was where this book would end up and wowie it went into some very dark places indeed. It towed a very razor sharp line spiritually for me, almost like CS Lewis described when he wrote the Screwtape Letters (apologies if you don’t know the back story on that but I won’t go into detail here.. check the forward on his SL book from Lewis if you’re interested).
The parallels with some of the Old Testament Bible stories were interesting. It was pretty clear for Elijah and the alter competition with the priests of baal, but honestly it was so descriptive of some pretty dark things in the entire book that I felt quite icky a lot. The pagan world would have been something else to behold for sure. I don’t like or do vampires, but here we are. Warning for graphic self harm and injury detail… it was a lot.
Having said that, the way things were woven in was incredible. I randomly picked up a book from the Paradise series a while ago and turns out it was the best thing I could have done before reading this, as I feel like some of the things in this book wouldn’t have made as much sense if I hadn’t.
If not for a few really good connection points, I definitely could have skipped this one. Definitely for a fan of darker or more horror like books, but that’s not me. Nice to have the conclusion of the official Circle books, but I don’t think I would read this one again.

Grab the book Here

Elite Bodyguards (Lynette Eason)

WITHOUT WARNING

I enjoyed the story and characters for this book. There was a lot of action from the get go and it was well done. Characters were good, and it was nice to see things like PTSD handled relatively well. I thought the plot flowed pretty well, and while it was interesting and full of action, it did feel a little bit static. I wasn’t desperate to find out what was happening next, maybe because of the break beats in the book, or maybe just because I wasn’t as invested in the plot. It felt a little like a slow investigation, that was partnered with very fast paced action. You couldn’t turn around any corner without something action happening, but at the same time the investigation was moving really slowly. I think that was maybe why I didn’t enjoy it as much. I did like it, but not as much as others. A pretty good read, a pretty good adventure/mystery, and some interesting characters as well.

Grab the book Here

A Time To Die (Nadiene Brandess)

brandes

A TIME TO RISE

Mixed feelings for this one.
The characters are supremely annoying for majority of the entire trilogy and the final book was no exception. Their world may be dystopian but people act the same across all changes in society. That said, when people make odd choices or feel strangely in moments that they shouldn’t, when they don’t make sense it is frustrating. Making silly choices vs unrealistic is different. These ones made unrealistic in my view.
That being said, the plot was way more interesting and engaging than the other two books. I actually liked the plot progression in this one quite a bit, and found myself caring what happened. Unfortunately, that was one of the only saving parts of this for me. It was written quite well too.
This book has a lot more pushy messaging. I love Christian fiction, but… this wasn’t preachy as such, it was more….. smack you over the head every few pages so you didn’t forget that this was Christian fiction. It was a lot more insistent with the messaging than the other two. It makes sense as that’s been the characters journey, but it fully leaned into pushing it quite forcefully in this one.

A little spoilery (so fair warning):

Scully’s storyline made zero sense for me. I see what was attempted but it came so far out of nowhere that I did not buy it whatsoever. The ending also felt too… easy. Not earned.

So, it was hit and miss I suppose.

Grab the book Here

Danger in Shadows (Chapman)

LIGHT OF THE DAWN

Pretty well written but it was basically a book full of side quests. It was one problem on a journey after another. This series was a bit like this throughout. It made it feel disjointed for me. There wasn’t a clear plot driven story, more a character review of how people would react in a blanket destruction. Characters were fine but not too engaging. Stories were good, some more interesting than others but nothing largely fascinating. I was bored quite often.

Grab the book Here

So glad to finally have these series finished off! It was difficult for some, a lovely conclusion for others, but either way it’s done! !

See You in The Adventures!
Christy Grace

Categories
Book vs Movie Books Movie/Pop Culture

The Martian Book vs Movie: Why Both Versions Work in Completely Different Ways

Estimated Read Time: 5min

Firstly, I want to say that I loved The Martian – the book and the movie. The way that Andy Weir writes a story is something special. Science Fiction can be challenging to get through (particularly when you don’t know a whole ton about science), but he makes it easy to understand and fun to experience – even in dire circumstances.

Why Andy Weir’s Writing Works So Well

The way the book and movie start are different. This is something that I noticed all the way along, that the sequence of events is slightly altered. The way that the book started was more interesting, I’m just going to open with that. We start with Mark, already on Mars and already pretty much screwed… yeah it was a great way to grab the readers attention. The film starts with beautiful shots of “mars” and the actual moment of Mark being lost on the planet. While I understand why the film did it this way, it felt like we lost something.

The Opening Scene Difference

That leads me into the next thing that I noticed. The film took a more sombre tone. I know it’s quite a serious situation, but the book had more “gallows humour” for lack of a better word. Mark was funnier in the book, and in the film Matt Damon (who did do a great job) his delivery was a lot more dry, and there was more relatable moments of frustration… that led to a bit of a loss in the humour that Andy writes into his stories.

The Missing Humour in the Film

The film does make things feel a LOT more high stakes. There’s something different about a film being able to use visual, audio and acting elements to bring up the level of life and death! This was pretty great, but there are some downsides too. In order to fit everything into the span of a film, we lost a ton of stuff. Mostly, it was Mark’s explanations of what he was doing, and the little things that went wrong and right. Transforming the Rover, for example, was a much shorter process in the film than it was in the book. The downside to seeing things in a visual medium was the mini operation Mark had to do on himself… yeah that was horrifying.

What the Movie Had to Cut

Understandably, a movie that focusses very heavily on a guy who is basically alone on a deserted planet is going to be more interesting if we focus a bit more screen time on the people who are trying to bring him home. It also adds more lines to those actors… so that’s good I suppose. This meant that because the book focussed a lot more on Mark, we got a better idea to the isolation that he was experiencing. We spent so much time with him, that it was evidently clear of how alone he really was. In focussing on more with NASA and the time to get him back, we filled a lot of empty space – in terms of what we get to see as the movie going audience – but we lost a lot of Mark. He felt less of the main character, and more of an ensemble player.

Why the Isolation Felt Stronger in the Book

One thing that really irritated me in the film was the constant saying what they were typing to each other…. often whilst we see the words appearing at the exact same time. Yeah, that was dumb. I think that could have been done better, but I do understand why they did it. The only way they could communicate with Mark was through written medium, it was just a very frustrating visual.

The Communication Problem

Finally, the ending. The book and movie did differ in terms of where Mark ended up at the end of the book. While the book took a more understandable and realistic psychological ending, the film took the “happy ending” route. In the book, Mark doesn’t like to leave his house, he is constantly checked by doctors because he basically will end up with cancer at some point, and is VERY adamant about no more potatoes.. ever again. While in the film, he ends up teaching other astronaut hopefuls and doesn’t seem to really have that many after affects. While I understand this Hollywood style ending decision, I actually liked the more realistic view into how Mark’s journey would have ended. While the actual moments on Mars were filled with his humour in surviving, now that he was back safe on Earth, he would have more chance to fully go into how he felt and how that is going to affect his life moving forward.

So, which was better? The book or the film? I don’t think if you’ve read this post from start to finish that it will be a surprise to hear that I preferred the book. The humour, the focus and the start to finish themes just worked a bit better for me. While the film was still good, and had amazing points in its favour, the book just had to win out. There was just so much more that it was able to do that the film couldn’t capture.

Grab the book Here

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace

Categories
Book vs Movie Books Movie/Pop Culture

Cruella: A Prequel That Rewrites the Character More Than the Story

Estimated Read Time: 6min

When fashionistas go bad… or were bad from the start… whichever way it was the newest Live Action movie that focuses on the villain from 101 Dalmatians. Regardless of how I feel about focussing so much on the bad guys in media right now, I do like Emma Stone and I had remembered it as a pretty good movie. So let’s compare the film from the subsequent book that came out!

A Villain Origin Story… Again

I usually look at movies that were made based on a book already existing, but this one was different, because the novel adaptation came after the film. So let’s compare, contrast and complain.

One thing I noticed this time around that hadn’t occurred to me watching the film before was just how dreadful Emma Stones accent was in this film. Look, she tried her best, but it was very distracting. I also noticed that both Emmas (Stone and Thompson) kind of over acted in this film. The Horrace and Jasper scenes and actors did a great job and were really funny, but Cruella and Baroness were quite overblown. I understand why the choice might have been made, because they are very larger than life characters, but it was quite an unbalanced film in terms of the acting itself.

The Acting Choices

Another thing that irritated me in this film when I watched it, was the animated/green screen moments. Particularly with the dogs or “stunt” type moments with the actors, it actually looked quite fake. It drew me completely out of the story, and I don’t understand why it looked that way when we have such incredible avenues for creating great films.

That being said, I did feel like a LOT of the funny moments in the film (which I think there was quite a few) were missed in the book. It was nice to see the inner dialogue especially when Estella was younger, but those funny choices the actors made are unmatched. Stand outs for this include Estella’s boss in the retail store – absolute crack up! I loved his snort laugh when he mentions “breeding” – and the Horrace/Jasper moments.

What the Film Did Better

Poor Horrace gets the short end of the stick in the book, and he was so much funnier in the film. I think sometimes you just cant beat an actor and their amazing choices. What they can do with their expressions and tone is something you don’t get in a book. BUT, books do allow for additional exploration of a characters feelings and insights, which is also great!

Some of the standout moments of acting for me was Cruella talking with Anita (“What Glint?”), Estella at the fountain for the last time (“But I do love you. Always”) and Baroness throwing a chair at a maid in frustration (“You’re in… the way”). Something the movie did that I really enjoyed, was the overlay of newspaper articles and headlines. It also focussed heavily on Estella feeling guilty that she caused her mothers death, which is something the book didn’t really touch on.

Standout Movie Moments

Okay, I’ve talked a lot about the film already, but what about the book itself?
I really enjoyed the book (though I will admit that the audiobook person mispronounced ‘valet’ all the time and that did annoy me), and we got actual DIFFERENCES from the movie. Sometimes the novel adaptations end up copying word for word and scene for scene, but this one didn’t. It had a good balance of the tone in the film, and its own new and fresh take on the story. Sticking with the original storyline but giving those extra nuggets is EXACTLY what I look for in the book version of a story. So snaps all around for the author of the book.

The book really highlighted Estella trying to be good like her mother wanted. She wasn’t just automatically ready to be a troublemaker at her school, and she genuinely wanted to try. This was nice, because it gave a bit of a better build up to when she really does lose the plot later on. While the film had WAY TOO MUCH narration over the main film – especially at the start of the movie – the book had a great feel. That’s the nature of inner dialogue in books I suppose.

The Different Feel of the Book

The film had some INCREDIBLE cinematic shots and music choices, and while I love a book that can describe scenes and people well there’s something you miss out from the visual counterpart. I will say that I appreciated less focus on the fountain and Estella always going back to “talk to her mum” – they basically did ONE of these scenes in the book, and otherwise moved away from that choice the film made. I didn’t miss those parts at all. I will say though, the film did make Cruella look a bit more like the Joker than I would have preferred… that make up guys! Ugh.

Final Verdict

If you have a child who really liked the movie and wanted to read the book too, I would say YES! It was great. Even those young in heart lovers of this film would enjoy the additional insights that the book provided as well… While I felt the book excelled with Estella’s early life, it was the film that won the day when she got older and began to really delve into the complicated adult emotions of her situation and the fun fashion side of the story (like that moth reveal scene!).

Stay tuned for some more Book Vs Movie posts, otherwise…

See You in the Adventures
Christy Grace

Categories
Book Challenges Book Reviews Books Great Reads Unfavourited Books

Reading the BEST of a BAD Bunch…

Estimated Reading Time: 4min

Recently, after the personal success of reading only a chapter of books that I own to countdown to Christmas, I found out the strategy worked wonders! I could get a glimpse of whether a book was something I was excited to read, feeling “meh” about, or something I could unhaul… So I’m doing it again.

In a recent video I looked at the books I was LEAST excited to read from my own bookcase, and I found six that I actually wanted to read…

If you’ve watched the video, you have a bit of insight into my thoughts of the first few chapters. If you haven’t, don’t worry because I recap them now… Here are the results!

Broken by Travis Thrasher

I haven’t actually gotten to read this book yet BUT from the first chapter that I did read, it was pretty engaging! It seems like it will be a great story, a mystery to unravel and something that is a little outside my normal reading. So I’m excited to get going with this story!

Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek by Terry Shames

I have actually already read and DNF’d this book. It started out having a great set of characters and location, but I slowly started to loose quite a bit of interest as the story progressed. I wasn’t as charmed by everything once I was part way through the book, and by chapter 10 (or page 75) I was pretty much ready to call it a day with a 2.5 star rating.

Girl Online On Tour by Zoe Sugg

This is also a book I haven’t gotten to read quite yet BUT it is actually on my list of books to read next, so I will do it very soon.

The chapter I read had a fun teenage vibe, and the element of blog content in the layout is really fun. Even though it is the second book in a series – and I haven’t read the first – I think I could still pick it up and potentially enjoy, so we shall see!

Noah’s Law by Randa Abdel-Fattah

abdel-fattah

Again, haven’t had a chance to read this one yet, but from what I gathered in the first chapter it seems like it will be a pretty fun ride. A cheeky guy in school gets into trouble and as “punishment” is thrown into a law firm/adult world scenario to help in the legal case of a real crime, rather than his prank style antics… Sounds fun, and I do love a good smart ass.

Impossible by Sarah Lots

lotz

I am so happy to say that this book was a surprising WIN! I have read it already all the way through (though I did listen to it as an audiobook), and it took a surprising and very fascinating twist. Basically, you can’t share anything about this book without it being a spoiler, so I will just say that it surprised me and took a turn in the relationship that I didn’t see coming… At all…. So yeah. Great one to read.

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

marsden

I also made it through this book too, and it was sort of middle of the road for me. I know I’m not really the target audience in terms of age, but it didn’t fully hit. The idea of teenagers missing a huge apocalyptic attack on their town and country, and then trying to fight back gorilla warfare style was interesting. I just didn’t like the way the book looked back and narrated, and some of the reactions did irritate me quite a bit.

Well, that was an experience. So have you read these books and disagree/agree with me? Maybe you’re inspired to read them for yourselves! Let me know in the comments.

See You in the Adventures
Christy Grace

Categories
Book Challenges Book Reviews Books Special Categories

Falling Down Rabbit Holes and Lonely Islands | Adult Reads Kids Books

Here we go again! There were so many classic children’s books that I had to split this list and come back again!

There are so many books that I hear about all the time, or watched the “Disney” version of and had never realised they were based on books – so I’m thinking it’s about time to read. I have a few hot takes so let’s get into the grit of it…

Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

This book was so chaotic, like an acid/hallucinogenic nightmare. I don’t know how this was for kids. The ideas and philosophies explored are very mature and adult – like Alice having an existential crisis… like, what?
There was such chaotic oddity and it was difficult to follow the train of thought amongst the rubbish.
Alice is just such a brat. She’s rude, easily angry and a know it all. She also LIKES being two people – hello mental health red flag?
Not only does she act like she knows it all, but she also tells herself to stop being silly or sad… those are totally normal emotions when you’re facing the craziness she was.
The audiobook I will admit, was fun to listen to with all the voices.

Stuart Little – E. B. White

Odd little story.
It had no really plot, just a bunch of things happening to a mouse who was supposedly part of a human family… odd, like I said. And everyone seems perfectly satisfied that animals can speak, be substitute teachers and own cars, paying for gas.
It was cute but kinda weird.

Peter Pan – J. M. Barrie

This book is straight up a parents worst nightmare. At least in the Disney movie, the kids were only gone one night, while the parents were away so they didn’t know they went missing… but THIS – they are gone for a long time. Long enough for us to see the parents basically losing their minds at home because all three of their kids have basically been abducted… ummm okay
So right off the bat, this book was so much darker than any other iteration I have seen, and it was pretty disturbing. Peter is both completely oblivious, and manipulative and sadistic. He likes to see kids in pain or trouble, casually suggests and follows through with killing people, and kidnaps kids with no regard to their wishes.. I hate him.
There was a lot more focus on Mr and Mrs Darling than I would have thought, but it made it all the more heartbreaking when their kids essentially disappear. Although I will say, Wendy told her mum that a strange dude was watching them sleep and she did basically nothing about it, except interact directly with Peter and steal his shadow. I thought the whole point of PP was that kids basically dreamt or imagined someone like him, not that he was REAL and that parents actually saw him. Either that, or everyone in the Darling family is Schizophrenic.
Hearing a little bit about how Fairy magic and life works was interesting, but the rest of this book was un-savable for me.

Nim’s Island – Wendy Orr

Cute book, with an unusually brave kid and animals that have a lot more awareness than real seals and lizards. Still, I enjoyed the story and it was good for the proper demographic (not an adult haha!).
I would let my kids read this and hope they got a sense of adventure too!

Well, that was PART TWO of the kids books – and I think I’m done for now… If you want to see more let me know by liking this post or sending through a comment.

Do you enjoy these “classic” children’s books and think my opinion is rubbish? Comment below your FAV of the books I read above and let me know why.

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace

Categories
Book Challenges Book Reviews Books Special Categories

Lions, Pigs and Horses Oh My! | Adult Reads Kids Books

What does it say about your childhood that you haven’t read the classic books that people recount with fondness when they consider their own? Does it say that it was worthless? That you missed out on the brilliant genius that WAS created in simpler times? Or that you were preoccupied with other things so much that you were deprived of those little pleasures.

Either way, I set my mind to reading those “classics” we often hear about, see in movie or television adaptions and more… but I am an adult now, so I don’t know if these books will hit quite the same. Let’s find out!

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia) – C.S. Lewis

cs lewis

Reading this as an adult made no difference. I still really liked this story.
The writing had so many fun aside comments (often in brackets which were more a forth wall break or funny commentary) that added a light element to the book.
I knew the story, but had never read the novel and im very glad I did. I will definitely read all the others now!

Charlotte’s Web -E. B. White

It was lovely to hear about Wilber and Charlotte again.. I only ever watched the film but it was nice to hear the words originally written.

Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomory

This series was a sentimental read for me, having watched the movies with my family when I was a kid. I’m glad I finally read the first book, because I was transported to the world of Anne and Green Gables again!
Written quite some time ago, it was interesting to see the change of culture.
I thought it was quite funny that Matthew was frightfully shy of girls but ended up adopting one. He was always such a love.
Mirilla was a lot nicer than I recalled, and I loved the relationship she had with Anne. It was actually quite nice to see both of them mature and grow with each other.
The writing is beautiful, though I will admit to smiling or rolling my eyes a time or two when something quite outdated was used.
I will say that I don’t quite understand how people so casually called kids ‘wicked’ when they did something they didn’t like or agree with. What do you genuinely think a kid will grow up to be like if you continuously tell them they’re no good..? But anyway..
Anne Shirley with an E, and good old Gilbert – it was such a nice trip to the Lady of Shalott.

Black Beauty – Anna Sewell

Written from the perspective of a horse… if we imagine what horses actually think about. But we also got different owners of BB and the author tried to throw in short and random feeling emotional or plot driven moments of the humans. The problem with this was I didn’t know enough about those characters to care about them. They weren’t the main character. Why would I care about their problems when I barely heard much about them?
On top of that, BBs life was boring.. just so very boring.

The Velveteen Rabbit – Margery Williams

Very sweet. Such a cute little story about the toys we love and what happens when we grow up and change.

Well, there are the offical results of PART ONE. There were so kids books that I had to split this list up. If you want to see my thoughts on some other classics like

Do you enjoy these “classic” children’s books and think my opinion is rubbish? Comment below your FAV of the books I read above and let me know why.

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace

Categories
Book Reviews Books Booktok/Booktube

Daisy Jones and The Six Review | My 1st Taylor Jenkins Reid

Estimated Reading Time: 6min

There are certain authors that are ALL over the book community. Be it Booktube, Booktok, Bookstagram etc – some authors seem to get all the hype, all the time.

So, I decided to find out what the heck the fuss was about and make my way through some of these authors. This is going to take a while (considering just how many seem to come and go), so I decided to start with a simple one.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

So…. what to say about this book. I think I understand why people like it. Taylor has an easy to read writing style, and the structure being written as interviews was really fun. There was just more reasons for me NOT to like this book than to like it.

I am so sick of reading books that are sad, twisted up and un-romantic in almost every sense of the word. Cheating tropes are NOT for me. Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll are NOT for me either. I will do some R&R but I don’t appreciate it being attached to the others. I didn’t like reading about drug addicts who screwed everything and anything on two legs. I didn’t like reading about cheating – because whether you think so or not, emotional cheating is TOTALLY a thing. I didn’t like reading about selfish people who can’t see past their own desires and hurt to actually do the right think.

BILLY

I didn’t like Billy. At all. I appreciated that he wanted to do the right thing by his wife Camilla, and props to him for “mostly” sticking with that once he decided to get sober. But seriously, if someone is becoming a dangerous draw to you while you’re trying to remain sober and stick to your wedding vows – RUN!!!! RUN AWAY!!!! Screw the band, screw the fame and money, just run as fast as you possibly can. Don’t stick around and give her hope there could be something more between you, or that you could keep going in limbo. Just get the heck out.

DAISY

Daisy was so strung out all of the entire book, and I lost my empathy for her. She didn’t care that she was hurting people, she didn’t care enough to get help for herself, and it quite honestly didn’t seem likely that she had that much talent with not that much heart. The book bent over backwards to try and paint her as someone who felt everything very deeply, and was just a “messed up kid” type of character, but she came across as shallow, selfish, irritating and a pain in the backside. I didn’t care about her arc, or where she ended up at all.

KAREN & GRAHAM

This relationship had me rooting for them in the beginning.. but somewhere along the line it lost me. I say somewhere like I don’t know EXACTLY when I decided that one of these characters was the most selfish human being on the planet. I know this is going to be a controversial view point, but I’m honestly so unimpressed with the way their story progressed and the ultimate conflict happened. I think one of them was so utterly selfish, and the other didn’t express their desires in an appropriate way. It’s one thing to make unilateral decisions in a relationship, but it needs to be discussed at length, and also agreed on by all parties. It would be the same if one of these characters wanted to move to mars, and the other didn’t – you wouldn’t just write someone a note and say “see you when I get off the space shuttle in another fifteen years”. I liked them together, until I realised that one person was far more interested in their career than actually building a relationship. So when their conclusion came to a head, I felt like my rooting for them the ENTIRE book was utterly wasted.

EDDIE, PETE & WARREN

Eddie was a dickhead, and Pete was barely there. I liked how there was really only ONE interview from Pete at the very end, telling the author he didn’t care to make much of a comment. It was totally in line with his character.
Eddie was just an absolute tool, and I don’t even know why he was necessary to the story… basically everything could have happened in this book without Eddie, Pete and Warren and it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference that they weren’t there.
Warren was the MOST chill out of all these characters, and quite honestly felt very out of place with the rest of the chaos. But I liked that he didn’t give a crap.

THE RECORD PEOPLE

Background people like agents and record producers (who did hold central to several plot points) were fine and important to the plot but it was hard for me to feel connected to them. There were SO VERY MANY CHARACTERS, it was hard to keep track.

SIMONE

She was the ONLY character in the whole book who I actually liked. She was also the only one with any common sense and self awareness, and she really only popped up every so often. Dragging your friend away from a toxic situation when she can’t do it herself is one of the only sane things that happened in this book… so yup, I liked her.

There was more cussing than I’d appreciate, and a lot of topics that even as a musician and person who LOVES music, I didn’t care about. There were too many characters to keep track of, and too much happening all at once. I did not find myself caring much about anything at the end, and where it ended felt a little like How I Met Your Mother… So yeah, that was my first TJR book.

Grab the book Here

Have you read Daisy Jones & The Six? Do you agree, or disagree with my points? What about the coming television adaption, are you excited or not? Tell me in the comments!

See You in the Adventures
Christy Grace

Categories
Book Challenges Book Reviews Book Series Books

Reviewing All of Bethany Turner’s Books!

Estimated Reading Time: 3min

Okay, so it’s no secret if you’ve been watching my videos on Booktube, but Bethany Turner has become one of my fav authors over the last year or so. I found one of her books and LOVED her writing, characters and stories she comes up with. While there are only about 5 books that she has currently released, I have decided to go through them all with you now and share the TOP and the BOTTOM of the list!

The Do-Over

turner

This is my new favourite love story.
Friends to lovers is just a beautiful trope, and Bethany did an amazing job with this one.
Looking at being independent and not needing a relationship to feel complete, but seeing that it can still make a meaningful difference; that work and love is possible; that family is always there even when you don’t realise it; that love and forgiveness can really make a difference – it was stunning.
Funny as always, beautifully moving, and just something so incredible that it goes up as one of my favourite books of all time.

Grab the book Here

The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck

turner

Okay, Bethany Turner is now one of my favourite authors.
This was hilarious, heart warming, swoon worthy and so beautifully written.
The topic of sex before marriage for Christians has always and will always be a “hot topic” so to speak, and I think Bethany handled it so brilliantly. It isn’t an easy thing to strive for, and you can have romance in a relationship without that part and it still be steamy. It is also something that walks the line in books, movies and tv shows for a lot of Christians as well.
This was absolutely a story that needed to be told and it was SO STINKING CUTE!
Love, love, loved it

Grab the book Here

Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish

turner

This is my FAV Bethany Turner couple by far!
I love, love, loved Max and Hadley, so very much.
The enemies to lovers, dealing with overblown egos, drinking issues and perceptions of others and yourself was just *chef’s kiss 😉
I loved the progression of the story and the characters, the romance and witty banter, plus all the charm and hilarity that Bethany always injects into her stories.
Can’t believe I waited so long to discover this one!

Grab the book Here

Plot Twist

turner

Loved it!
Funny, heart breaking and warming, and swimming with coincidence..
I loved the characters and the progress. I loved that each chapter saw our characters a year later, and chose to read a chapter a day which was a fun way to experience it.
Fabulous as always Bethany

Grab the book Here

Wooing Cadie McCaffrey

turner

Mixed feelings.
The second half was definitely the best half. I don’t ordinarily like the “misunderstanding” trope, so that probably contributed to the plot not hitting as many marks as I had hoped.
Bethany’s writing is always great though, and her incredible humour shone through more so in the second half.
I liked the handling of the serious relationship topics with a Christian perspective. I think she did a great job.
Overall, I think the first half could have been shorter, last half longer or more explored. But it was still a nice little read.

Content warning: closed door romance.

Grab the book Here

If you love a clean romance that’s funny, believable, relatable and isn’t afraid to shy away from real topics… Bethany’s books are for you! Highly recommend!!

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace