The Reluctant Romance Reader: A Week of Audiobooks and Thoughts on Love

I recently dove into a week-long audiobook challenge, where I picked up five romance novels to get lost in. The books were The Paradise Problem, Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren, a book about depression infertility, and two other titles that flew under the radar. As I settled into my Audiobooks, I found myself immersed in stories of love, loss, and drama.

One of the audiobooks I started with was The Paradise Problem, which had left me perplexed upon reading its back cover. It's a confusing setup that didn't immediately make sense to me. However, as I listened to it, things began to fall into place, and the author revealed a humorous and light-hearted tone. At 40 pages in, I couldn't help but get excited about where this story would go next. Christina Lauren is an experienced duo of authors who have written over 30 books together, including Love and Other Words, which holds a special place in my heart.

I remember loving Love and Other Words, which was one of my top three romance novels ever. When I saw that the author had co-authored The Paradise Problem, I knew I had to dive in. But there's something that still bothers me – I couldn't find my original cover for Love and Other Words on my shelf. It's a small detail that makes my brain hurt, but it's a sign of how much this book has left an impression on me.

As I continued through the week, one audiobook jumped out to me in particular: The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren. This author has written several books that have resonated with readers, and their writing experience shows in every sentence. What struck me was how well-balanced the tone of this book is – it's a mix of funny and serious moments that kept me engaged throughout.

The story follows a girl who gets to go on a vacation with a man she barely knows, pretending to be his wife. Sounds simple enough, but as the plot unfolds, things become much more complicated. Christina Lauren has mastered the art of weaving intricate backstories for their characters without overwhelming the listener. I found myself genuinely caring about the characters' struggles and rooting for them as they navigated the ups and downs of life.

A Conversation with a Reader

I reached out to one reader who had given The Paradise Problem five stars, and they shared some insight into why this book stood out to them. They mentioned that it's perfect for anyone looking for a lighthearted vacation read – whether you're heading to the beach or lounging by the pool.

In fact, I completely agree with their assessment. This audiobook is an excellent choice for summer reading because of its fun, engaging tone and well-balanced mix of drama and humor. While it didn't tug at my heartstrings or leave me feeling deeply moved, it was still a truly enjoyable listen that kept me company throughout the day.

A Thought Experiment

As I reflected on The Paradise Problem, I found myself wondering: why do we often struggle to give fun books five stars? Is it because they don't tug at our heartstrings in the same way as more serious novels? Or is it simply a matter of being a book reviewer and acknowledging that not every read will leave an indelible mark on us?

I decided that I wouldn't be willing to give The Paradise Problem just a few stars solely for its lack of emotional resonance. Instead, I'm going to award it 4.5 stars – it's been a delight from start to finish, and I have no doubt that readers will love it just as much as I do.

Conclusion

As I closed my Audiobooks for the week, I couldn't help but feel satisfied with the mix of emotions and thoughts they'd evoked in me. Whether it was laughter, excitement, or a deep sense of empathy, each book had brought something new to the table.

If you're looking for a romance novel to add to your summer reading list, I highly recommend The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren. With its engaging storylines, well-developed characters, and expertly woven tone, it's sure to be a page-turner that will keep you entertained from start to finish.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enone of the only shelves in my library that I can say that I've read every single book on is my romance shelf it's what I started off with and it feels the most familiar to me it's definitely a comfort zone some of my absolute favorite five star books ever are on the Shelf in this genre so I thought it would be a good idea to read only romance for a week starting off with rereading one of my Five Star reads happy place by Emily Henry this is a reread for me I read it last May absolutely loved it but was so overwhelmed by the fact that there was a new Emily Henry book that I kind of just slacked out the entire time this time I'm going a bit slower I'm tabbing it up I'm highlighting and I'm already 125 pages in so I'm going to go continue it and it down I know I might be headed for tear drops now that you got me started I just can't stop no cuz I love you baby I can't let you go baby I got to tell you that I home I'm on page 170 now eating some pink lemonade sour strips from Joy Ride what a combo perfect coolside summer snack listen to this quote this is just one of many it always surprised me how quickly the ratio of his face could change in a second he can go from that Broody tender look to almost boyish Delight every time his expression changed I used to think the new one was my favorite until it changed again and I had to accept that whichever win was directly in front of me that was the one I loved most for sure no that's fine that's just one of many amazing and quotes I know how quickly he scrubbed me out of his life I don't want to know how fast he got the shrapnel out of his heart hello shrapnel in the heart awesome the tabs are racking up when I was down and L long came you you might be a liar hi Pooky I finished happy place and I never reviewed it two things that stand out to me about this book is that I think it's actually Emily Henry's saddest book I also could never remember actual events that took place and it's cuz it's very chill they go to the grocery store they get stuck in a wine seller they swim I can't I can't remember much past that that's pretty much what goes on but it's very summary so angsty I think this book is five stars because of the writing but in terms of feeling connected to the characters I think this one I actually feel the least connected to the characters out of all of her books which I think is a pretty unpopular opinion but I think the thing that caused that is because whenever she's talking about her past with win it's in a past tense verbage like we did this and we did that and then he did but she doesn't tell it in a present tense so it just makes me feel more detached Emily Henry is perfect if you would let me interview you Emily let me know you can be on the channel anytime I don't think any of us would mind okay five stars goodbye this summer will be different by Carly Fortune except my copy was a victim of my Stanley Cup I had this on my bedside table and then I knocked over my Stanley in the middle of the night but I didn't realize that until I woke up and this book is what soaked up most of the water but I kind of I know some people are going to think this is crazy but I kind of like the water damage It Feels So sturdy in my hands like every page is so fun to hold but anyways last summer I read meet me at the lake by her and the year before that I read every summer after so pretty much every year I read her book The theme that she has with these covers is absolutely amazing and I think the reason that most people enjoy her books are because of the settings that they take place in they're just perfect summery romance books when I read this 3 years ago it felt like a five-star at the time I've since adjusted the rating to like a three and then this one was a two star I felt like she was just telling me things instead of showing me them and I also didn't like that it was based off of a meet this guy one day and that's like the entire reason that you fall in love with him and a little bit of overlap in timelines if I'm remembering correctly and even on Goodreads I've seen a lot of people say that this is kly Fortune's last chance to not ruin her very atmospheric beautifully written books with a dumb decision made by the protagonist because there's really nothing else wrong in the books other than the really morally bad things that the characters choose to do and that's such an easy thing for her to just not write like you can make your characters do whatever you want I feel like it's just what she uses to be the conflict and the driving force in the story which usually it's like an external Factor not an internal one yeah so I started this book very weary I read 17 pages and I was like I just don't want to invest in this book if it's going to be like a two star read for me but everyone who I follow and trust their opinions has been posting on social media that they gave this book five stars it's their favorite book of the year I want to give it a try so I made it to page 55 and so far my favorite thing about the book is the setting once again this one takes place on Prince Edward Island which is in Canada I'd never even heard of it until I looked it up and then someone commented on one of my videos that they've been there and a lot of the places in this book are real places so she's chosen a great setting once again I still feel like she makes her protagonist do something very unnecessary where you're just kind of mad at them and you're like why have you done this it's in the prologue it's the first thing that you read but she meets this guy named Felix at a bar they end up spending the night together and then she realizes that was her best friend's brother and then we're going to go back 5 years to the present when her best friend Bridget is getting married and she has some forced proximity with Felix all over again and Bridget's number one rule is don't fall in love with my brother so awesome that's already going well so that's our whole conflict so far so I'm excited to see why this a five star of people is definitely entertaining so I'm not mad about it at all but I need to keep reading to find out yes I I can't let you go baby good morning guys I made it to I don't ever say guys that just felt strange good morning guys I made it to Page 150 last night and I'm definitely invested in the story now I really want to finish the book today in terms of Summer Vibe so far I would give it four out of five palm tree emojis I do really like the setting I think the beach at night is just always a great scene in a book and the biggest conflict so far is that her best friend Bridget's wedding is supposed to be in less than a week but she suddenly forced her friend to come back home to Prince Edward Island just so she can hang out with her and her brother and she just won't tell anyone what's going on she's not talking about the wedding she's usually super excited to plan it and she's just gone silent about it sometimes she bursts into tears and then she just says I don't want to talk about it so that's really interesting and I really want to figure out what is going on I kind of have a theory it's a pretty outlandish Theory but I feel like it could be a good plot twist so another thing I'm really excited to see what she does is since the relationship between her and Felix started off physical I am really curious to see how she convinces me that they're actually going to fall in love because typically I don't love the romances that start physical but he is doing these really small gestures like having her favorite protein bar in the car picking up something from the store that she loves that she can't get in Canada and those little things those acts of service really do get me in books and he's doing that so far so it is also steamier than I feel like kly Fortune normally dies in her books if I'm remembering correctly but I'm only 150 pages in and there's been two flashback scenes that are pretty spicy so that's new but it's a beautiful sunny Saturday so I'm going to go outside and hopefully just binge read and finish the whole book cuz I love you baby good morning I finished water book I actually finished it next to the water yesterday at the pool my thoughts on this book are definitely a little bit disjointed all over the place I feel like because her book last year was a two star for me I possibly went into this one with a more critical eye than usual but one thing that I know for certain is that the summer setting on Prince Edward Island was absolutely magical and I feel like she just kills it with the setting every single time and honestly most of the time when I'm reading a book especially in the summertime the thing that I care the most about is how atmospheric it feels so she's been getting an A+ in that category every single year the next thing that I was judging in the book is the secret that her best friend Bridget is keeping from her throughout the entire story is such a big pushing force of the plot that I really wanted the reveal of what she was hiding to be worth it it definitely wasn't anything that I guessed if anything it was way I don't know it was kind of underwhelming in my opinion I don't think it was like a total copout it definitely kept me reading the book and then when I found out what it was it just kind of felt like okay why didn't you just tell your best friend that and the same goes with her liking Bridget's brother it's like okay why didn't you just tell her that but I also feel like I don't really care that much like if it was any other author I feel like I just like oh whatever so there were some definitely cute moments whenever the reveals were happening and I think what I'm learning about this author in particular is that I really like reading her books for the atmospheric summer Vibes but it's something that I won't ever personally not ever but it's not something that I personally am like rooting for the characters and I love them together it's more so entertainment cuz I do feel like there's two different categories of book in my head where it's like a book that's a five star is probably going to be something where I'm rooting for the characters personally and I really liked them and I feel kind of attached to them in some way and then there's this category of book where I feel detached from the characters because I don't understand them or their motivations don't agree with their motivations but I'm reading to see what they do it's kind of like watching reality television you don't agree with the way that they're fighting but you're going to watch them fight because it's entertaining so that was this book for me I think she's a great author I think she's talented I think I will continue buying her books so I'm going to give this a 3.75 it's not quite a four to me but it's not a low three so that just feels perfect 3.75 and I can't wait for the cover reveal of her next book because if it's anything like these they're like little paintings next up I'm now 52 pages into love redesigned by Lauren Asher this is part of the lakefront billionaire series one of my favorite categories of Romance Books not like my personal favorite but like it's just so funny and I like I love that it's a thing in the romance genre is the billionaire Trope it's just so ridiculous but I find it amazing that people fully publish books under this Trope and there's like a whole category of readers who will go and buy the book because it's fiction why not write him as a billionaire you can literally do whatever you want and it's just kind of amazing this is my Indie romance bookshelf which I think almost all of them used to be Indie romance and now they're traditionally published because they got super popular but this is my only other Lauren Asher book this is the final offer it's actually book three in her Dreamland billionaire series and I got it because at the time everyone was reading it and people didn't like the first few books as much so I was like okay I can just skip this one read it as a standalone this is going to sound so funny but honestly look at how pretty the pages are like this is half of the reason why I read this book it's so cute when you want a summer Vibe and it looks like this I'm sorry I'm a sucker for it I picked it up and I started reading it and I made it 70% through this book before the spice scene and then I dropped it and never finished it because it was way spicier than I was expecting so now flash forward to this book in her new series I've been told that it's not as spicy and every time I bring it up in my comment section all of you guys say that you love this book and have given it five stars Sarah and Destiny recommended it to me so I'm very curious to see my thoughts I haven't read an indie romance for quite a while like I said I don't even know if this is considered Indie romance anymore but it definitely reads like an indie romance which if you understand what that means I feel like The Vibes of them are just different like an indie reads different L than it traditionally published I'm excited to see my thoughts like I said I'm only 52 pages in and it's over 500 pages so far what I've gathered is that this is about Julian and Dalia they used to know each other back in the day and then she was engaged for 9 years that has come to a close I think the TV show that she was on has come to a close it was like a very popular renov ation type TV show so she's back in her hometown and her life just feels like a mess she doesn't know what to do and Julian's mom encourages him to try to convince Dalia to work on a new renovation project with him which he just wants absolutely nothing to do with for some reason whatever happened in the past is making him want to avoid her so they're being very quippy with each other being very rude but the part that's cute is she wanted to stop for food on the way there and she gets out of the car to get it and he's just going to sit in the car and wait but then she gets nervous and she turns around and just acts like she doesn't want it anymore and he realizes without her saying that she was just feeling anxious about it so he just randomly decides that he also wants that snack and gets out of the car to go with her which is really cute I have to admit I wouldn't I can't even say it I wouldn't be surprised if the gutter started charging me I wouldn't be surprised if the gutter started charging me rent with how often my mind hangs out there that's funny I'm on page 116 now and what I originally considered ridiculous is now making me laugh it's the enemies to lovers that's just so unserious they used to be academic Rivals when they went to Stanford which academic Rivals to lovers is one of my favorite tropes but it's just not in many books maybe I should write one they expect a charismatic billionaire who will whine and dine them around the world but I'm not that guy I prefer listening rather than speaking quiet actions instead of elaborate displays of affection and working hard to share my money with others rather than finding a way to spend it all on myself okay I mean that part is King behavior that part is King Behavior hi guys I would just like to formally apologize for using the phrase King Behavior anyways I find myself in a strange situation and I'm wondering if you can help he pauses classic you may be wondering why I'm holding this book up when I haven't finished this one I am 413 pages into this book a 519 page romance book is a little bit absurd to me espe especially when it's not because we're getting endless backstory tons of emotional depth it's literally just them pranking each other back and forth which is funny and fine and light-hearted but they got together at like a while ago so I just kind of want the conclusion to be happening and I guess if I keep reading it it is it's just a 100 page conclusion so I mean okay I really don't have that much left I'm going to go finish this part up they've been fixing up a house together their families are really close which I think is really cool something I would probably enjoy reading more of in stories there's a lot of Spanish in the book and then there's little cute footnotes that translate the word which is fun I get to put my six years of Spanish to the test which sounds cooler than it is I was like in fourth grade when I started so I don't know that much but yeah I'm not disliking it I'm probably making it sound like I am all day yesterday I was reading it and the day before so I think I'm just kind of feeling like how have I committed this much time and I'm still on like the third day of reading it when it's just this little tiny brick my shorts match look I have a purple theme going on and it'll match my crew neck a little bit this is from Sarah and Destiny's podcast I can't wait to wear it today so cute I'm going to go finish this and then we will discuss but I also just wanted to show you that I had started audio book of The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren and I think the fact that I'm so excited to start this book has me struggling a little bit through this one but I just have a really good feeling about this one so I really want to start reading it let's finish what we started this book teses in how fast I can skin read for real I was going to say I'm joking but I'm not okay I'm not skim reading I'm not like skipping any of the parts I'm just trying to read at my fastest capabilities because I feel stuck let me show you how well I don't want to spoil it let me see if there's a part I could read you that's like funny to read I think I like dollia more than Julian I just don't really like Julian that much which I've said this before I'll say it again if you don't like the person that someone's falling in love with probably won't like the book that much yes they will overcome let's just do it a little faster oh I'm joking I'm joking I feel mean it's definitely fun the scenes are fun and fresh but I think this is teaching me which I think we already knew this actually it's kind of confusing cuz what I was about to say is that this is teaching me that I just really like emotional romances but I also like funny romances well the examples I was going to use are Linn painter and Catherine Center but Catherine Center usually has some subplots of things that are pretty sad and emotional and Lin painter does two in her young adult and I don't like her adult romances as much because there isn't one of those sad deep things so I guess what I'm saying is I want something to be kind of heart-wrenching for me to love it and it's not like this isn't heart-wrenching like we know certain things like she's trying to recover from a 9-year relationship but you don't see it happen so it doesn't really feel like you do get flashbacks of the relationship like you do get to see it in a way but it just doesn't feel the emotional me I don't know why I am thinking out loud here if you can't tell let me show you how fast I can read looks like the reality drops anything better with your not really job it's not really that fast okay the book has been finished after the last clip that you saw of me I downloaded the audiobook and played chess while listening to it because that's how bored I got of it I just couldn't read it anymore and my official review of This Book Is that I have no personal qualms with it and I don't even really want to review it negatively cuz I know a lot of people do really love this book and a lot of this author's work and I totally get that like in another world a very tiny tweak might have made this book work for me but it just didn't and I don't really know why so I don't want to berate it for anything I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with the book it just wasn't working for me there are actually really deep Topics in the book there's depression infertility a lot of different things so it's not like it's just a really fluffy book that I couldn't connect to it has a lot of real life elements and I still couldn't connect to the characters for whatever reason so I think I'm going to give this like a 2.5 but I didn't actively dislike the book or anything it just wasn't grabbing my attention and it just dragged on for so long I wasn't having fun so that happening for 500 pages just made me want to move on so we're going to do that now I started the Audi book of The Paradise problem I love the narration so far I haven't listened to a romance book on audio I feel like ever the setup of this book is so funny I don't even really want to explain it to you cuz I remember reading the back of this book and not really understanding what was going on and that's because it is confusing but it's a confusing and like a fun way where you get the reveal and things start making sense it's very funny and light-hearted so far and I think I'm about 40 pages in and I'm already really excited to see where this book goes so I have a really good feeling about this someone that I love gave this book five stars and they are the authors of Love and Other Words which is a book I like a lot and I just realized I can't find my original cover of this book that's actually going to hurt my brain like where is my original cover of love and other words used to have a yellow cover do you guys see it on my shelf that is going to make my brain hurt for so long where is that book this author has written a five star book for me this was in my top three romance books ever so prospects are high it's the next day after I started this book and it was so good that I barely even got clips of me reading it or reacting to it because I read it so fast I feel like this one is actually perfect for any vacation you're going to go on beach pool great Bing readed it's the perfect mix of funny but still very serious things happening enough backstory for the characters for you to actually care about the plot moving along and it's also about a really rich family and all of the crazy drama that goes on in like billionaire level Private Island drama and a girl who is nowhere near that scene of people is struggling to pay bills struggling to pay for her father's treatments gets to go on this trip with this man and has to pretend to be his wife that's as much as I'll say it's much more complicated than that a little bit but the reveals are really fun so I feel like you should just experience them for yourself and I feel like Christina Lauren the two of them co-authors are just very experienced authors is this like book 30 for them I don't know I was reading the acknowledgements and they were talking about how 30 books in and we sometimes still fumble the ball crazy they had three other terrible attempts that they wrote At first cuz they couldn't get the idea right but yeah I never really notice their writing whenever I'm reading because they're good authors and so it doesn't ever get in the way of anything yeah I feel like one was also spicier than their previous books but I know that their back list I think they started off writing way spicier books and then when they got more into traditionally published books they like toned it back a ton and then this one has a little bit more I really cannot think of a rating for this book cuz I had a really great time and I can't really think of anything that I didn't like about it but it's not a five star cuz I'm not really going to like think about the characters that much after but the thing is I feel like a book should be able to be five stars just for it being fun even though it's not like tugging at my heartstrings and I have the yearning feeling and I'm going to think about it for years after so will I just never give like a fun happy book five stars that feels kind of sad so I don't know I think I'm going to give this 4.5 Stars it's very close and I would highly recommend it for the summer so that's what I'll rate it but that concludes all of the romance books that I read this week we have five stars 3.5 Stars 2.5 stars and 4.5 Stars so really everything across the board this week in terms of romance and I haven't really read this many in a row in a while it feels like so this was really fun very summary let me know what romance book you're reading or which one you think I should read and I will see you guys somewhere else on the internet byeone of the only shelves in my library that I can say that I've read every single book on is my romance shelf it's what I started off with and it feels the most familiar to me it's definitely a comfort zone some of my absolute favorite five star books ever are on the Shelf in this genre so I thought it would be a good idea to read only romance for a week starting off with rereading one of my Five Star reads happy place by Emily Henry this is a reread for me I read it last May absolutely loved it but was so overwhelmed by the fact that there was a new Emily Henry book that I kind of just slacked out the entire time this time I'm going a bit slower I'm tabbing it up I'm highlighting and I'm already 125 pages in so I'm going to go continue it and it down I know I might be headed for tear drops now that you got me started I just can't stop no cuz I love you baby I can't let you go baby I got to tell you that I home I'm on page 170 now eating some pink lemonade sour strips from Joy Ride what a combo perfect coolside summer snack listen to this quote this is just one of many it always surprised me how quickly the ratio of his face could change in a second he can go from that Broody tender look to almost boyish Delight every time his expression changed I used to think the new one was my favorite until it changed again and I had to accept that whichever win was directly in front of me that was the one I loved most for sure no that's fine that's just one of many amazing and quotes I know how quickly he scrubbed me out of his life I don't want to know how fast he got the shrapnel out of his heart hello shrapnel in the heart awesome the tabs are racking up when I was down and L long came you you might be a liar hi Pooky I finished happy place and I never reviewed it two things that stand out to me about this book is that I think it's actually Emily Henry's saddest book I also could never remember actual events that took place and it's cuz it's very chill they go to the grocery store they get stuck in a wine seller they swim I can't I can't remember much past that that's pretty much what goes on but it's very summary so angsty I think this book is five stars because of the writing but in terms of feeling connected to the characters I think this one I actually feel the least connected to the characters out of all of her books which I think is a pretty unpopular opinion but I think the thing that caused that is because whenever she's talking about her past with win it's in a past tense verbage like we did this and we did that and then he did but she doesn't tell it in a present tense so it just makes me feel more detached Emily Henry is perfect if you would let me interview you Emily let me know you can be on the channel anytime I don't think any of us would mind okay five stars goodbye this summer will be different by Carly Fortune except my copy was a victim of my Stanley Cup I had this on my bedside table and then I knocked over my Stanley in the middle of the night but I didn't realize that until I woke up and this book is what soaked up most of the water but I kind of I know some people are going to think this is crazy but I kind of like the water damage It Feels So sturdy in my hands like every page is so fun to hold but anyways last summer I read meet me at the lake by her and the year before that I read every summer after so pretty much every year I read her book The theme that she has with these covers is absolutely amazing and I think the reason that most people enjoy her books are because of the settings that they take place in they're just perfect summery romance books when I read this 3 years ago it felt like a five-star at the time I've since adjusted the rating to like a three and then this one was a two star I felt like she was just telling me things instead of showing me them and I also didn't like that it was based off of a meet this guy one day and that's like the entire reason that you fall in love with him and a little bit of overlap in timelines if I'm remembering correctly and even on Goodreads I've seen a lot of people say that this is kly Fortune's last chance to not ruin her very atmospheric beautifully written books with a dumb decision made by the protagonist because there's really nothing else wrong in the books other than the really morally bad things that the characters choose to do and that's such an easy thing for her to just not write like you can make your characters do whatever you want I feel like it's just what she uses to be the conflict and the driving force in the story which usually it's like an external Factor not an internal one yeah so I started this book very weary I read 17 pages and I was like I just don't want to invest in this book if it's going to be like a two star read for me but everyone who I follow and trust their opinions has been posting on social media that they gave this book five stars it's their favorite book of the year I want to give it a try so I made it to page 55 and so far my favorite thing about the book is the setting once again this one takes place on Prince Edward Island which is in Canada I'd never even heard of it until I looked it up and then someone commented on one of my videos that they've been there and a lot of the places in this book are real places so she's chosen a great setting once again I still feel like she makes her protagonist do something very unnecessary where you're just kind of mad at them and you're like why have you done this it's in the prologue it's the first thing that you read but she meets this guy named Felix at a bar they end up spending the night together and then she realizes that was her best friend's brother and then we're going to go back 5 years to the present when her best friend Bridget is getting married and she has some forced proximity with Felix all over again and Bridget's number one rule is don't fall in love with my brother so awesome that's already going well so that's our whole conflict so far so I'm excited to see why this a five star of people is definitely entertaining so I'm not mad about it at all but I need to keep reading to find out yes I I can't let you go baby good morning guys I made it to I don't ever say guys that just felt strange good morning guys I made it to Page 150 last night and I'm definitely invested in the story now I really want to finish the book today in terms of Summer Vibe so far I would give it four out of five palm tree emojis I do really like the setting I think the beach at night is just always a great scene in a book and the biggest conflict so far is that her best friend Bridget's wedding is supposed to be in less than a week but she suddenly forced her friend to come back home to Prince Edward Island just so she can hang out with her and her brother and she just won't tell anyone what's going on she's not talking about the wedding she's usually super excited to plan it and she's just gone silent about it sometimes she bursts into tears and then she just says I don't want to talk about it so that's really interesting and I really want to figure out what is going on I kind of have a theory it's a pretty outlandish Theory but I feel like it could be a good plot twist so another thing I'm really excited to see what she does is since the relationship between her and Felix started off physical I am really curious to see how she convinces me that they're actually going to fall in love because typically I don't love the romances that start physical but he is doing these really small gestures like having her favorite protein bar in the car picking up something from the store that she loves that she can't get in Canada and those little things those acts of service really do get me in books and he's doing that so far so it is also steamier than I feel like kly Fortune normally dies in her books if I'm remembering correctly but I'm only 150 pages in and there's been two flashback scenes that are pretty spicy so that's new but it's a beautiful sunny Saturday so I'm going to go outside and hopefully just binge read and finish the whole book cuz I love you baby good morning I finished water book I actually finished it next to the water yesterday at the pool my thoughts on this book are definitely a little bit disjointed all over the place I feel like because her book last year was a two star for me I possibly went into this one with a more critical eye than usual but one thing that I know for certain is that the summer setting on Prince Edward Island was absolutely magical and I feel like she just kills it with the setting every single time and honestly most of the time when I'm reading a book especially in the summertime the thing that I care the most about is how atmospheric it feels so she's been getting an A+ in that category every single year the next thing that I was judging in the book is the secret that her best friend Bridget is keeping from her throughout the entire story is such a big pushing force of the plot that I really wanted the reveal of what she was hiding to be worth it it definitely wasn't anything that I guessed if anything it was way I don't know it was kind of underwhelming in my opinion I don't think it was like a total copout it definitely kept me reading the book and then when I found out what it was it just kind of felt like okay why didn't you just tell your best friend that and the same goes with her liking Bridget's brother it's like okay why didn't you just tell her that but I also feel like I don't really care that much like if it was any other author I feel like I just like oh whatever so there were some definitely cute moments whenever the reveals were happening and I think what I'm learning about this author in particular is that I really like reading her books for the atmospheric summer Vibes but it's something that I won't ever personally not ever but it's not something that I personally am like rooting for the characters and I love them together it's more so entertainment cuz I do feel like there's two different categories of book in my head where it's like a book that's a five star is probably going to be something where I'm rooting for the characters personally and I really liked them and I feel kind of attached to them in some way and then there's this category of book where I feel detached from the characters because I don't understand them or their motivations don't agree with their motivations but I'm reading to see what they do it's kind of like watching reality television you don't agree with the way that they're fighting but you're going to watch them fight because it's entertaining so that was this book for me I think she's a great author I think she's talented I think I will continue buying her books so I'm going to give this a 3.75 it's not quite a four to me but it's not a low three so that just feels perfect 3.75 and I can't wait for the cover reveal of her next book because if it's anything like these they're like little paintings next up I'm now 52 pages into love redesigned by Lauren Asher this is part of the lakefront billionaire series one of my favorite categories of Romance Books not like my personal favorite but like it's just so funny and I like I love that it's a thing in the romance genre is the billionaire Trope it's just so ridiculous but I find it amazing that people fully publish books under this Trope and there's like a whole category of readers who will go and buy the book because it's fiction why not write him as a billionaire you can literally do whatever you want and it's just kind of amazing this is my Indie romance bookshelf which I think almost all of them used to be Indie romance and now they're traditionally published because they got super popular but this is my only other Lauren Asher book this is the final offer it's actually book three in her Dreamland billionaire series and I got it because at the time everyone was reading it and people didn't like the first few books as much so I was like okay I can just skip this one read it as a standalone this is going to sound so funny but honestly look at how pretty the pages are like this is half of the reason why I read this book it's so cute when you want a summer Vibe and it looks like this I'm sorry I'm a sucker for it I picked it up and I started reading it and I made it 70% through this book before the spice scene and then I dropped it and never finished it because it was way spicier than I was expecting so now flash forward to this book in her new series I've been told that it's not as spicy and every time I bring it up in my comment section all of you guys say that you love this book and have given it five stars Sarah and Destiny recommended it to me so I'm very curious to see my thoughts I haven't read an indie romance for quite a while like I said I don't even know if this is considered Indie romance anymore but it definitely reads like an indie romance which if you understand what that means I feel like The Vibes of them are just different like an indie reads different L than it traditionally published I'm excited to see my thoughts like I said I'm only 52 pages in and it's over 500 pages so far what I've gathered is that this is about Julian and Dalia they used to know each other back in the day and then she was engaged for 9 years that has come to a close I think the TV show that she was on has come to a close it was like a very popular renov ation type TV show so she's back in her hometown and her life just feels like a mess she doesn't know what to do and Julian's mom encourages him to try to convince Dalia to work on a new renovation project with him which he just wants absolutely nothing to do with for some reason whatever happened in the past is making him want to avoid her so they're being very quippy with each other being very rude but the part that's cute is she wanted to stop for food on the way there and she gets out of the car to get it and he's just going to sit in the car and wait but then she gets nervous and she turns around and just acts like she doesn't want it anymore and he realizes without her saying that she was just feeling anxious about it so he just randomly decides that he also wants that snack and gets out of the car to go with her which is really cute I have to admit I wouldn't I can't even say it I wouldn't be surprised if the gutter started charging me I wouldn't be surprised if the gutter started charging me rent with how often my mind hangs out there that's funny I'm on page 116 now and what I originally considered ridiculous is now making me laugh it's the enemies to lovers that's just so unserious they used to be academic Rivals when they went to Stanford which academic Rivals to lovers is one of my favorite tropes but it's just not in many books maybe I should write one they expect a charismatic billionaire who will whine and dine them around the world but I'm not that guy I prefer listening rather than speaking quiet actions instead of elaborate displays of affection and working hard to share my money with others rather than finding a way to spend it all on myself okay I mean that part is King behavior that part is King Behavior hi guys I would just like to formally apologize for using the phrase King Behavior anyways I find myself in a strange situation and I'm wondering if you can help he pauses classic you may be wondering why I'm holding this book up when I haven't finished this one I am 413 pages into this book a 519 page romance book is a little bit absurd to me espe especially when it's not because we're getting endless backstory tons of emotional depth it's literally just them pranking each other back and forth which is funny and fine and light-hearted but they got together at like a while ago so I just kind of want the conclusion to be happening and I guess if I keep reading it it is it's just a 100 page conclusion so I mean okay I really don't have that much left I'm going to go finish this part up they've been fixing up a house together their families are really close which I think is really cool something I would probably enjoy reading more of in stories there's a lot of Spanish in the book and then there's little cute footnotes that translate the word which is fun I get to put my six years of Spanish to the test which sounds cooler than it is I was like in fourth grade when I started so I don't know that much but yeah I'm not disliking it I'm probably making it sound like I am all day yesterday I was reading it and the day before so I think I'm just kind of feeling like how have I committed this much time and I'm still on like the third day of reading it when it's just this little tiny brick my shorts match look I have a purple theme going on and it'll match my crew neck a little bit this is from Sarah and Destiny's podcast I can't wait to wear it today so cute I'm going to go finish this and then we will discuss but I also just wanted to show you that I had started audio book of The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren and I think the fact that I'm so excited to start this book has me struggling a little bit through this one but I just have a really good feeling about this one so I really want to start reading it let's finish what we started this book teses in how fast I can skin read for real I was going to say I'm joking but I'm not okay I'm not skim reading I'm not like skipping any of the parts I'm just trying to read at my fastest capabilities because I feel stuck let me show you how well I don't want to spoil it let me see if there's a part I could read you that's like funny to read I think I like dollia more than Julian I just don't really like Julian that much which I've said this before I'll say it again if you don't like the person that someone's falling in love with probably won't like the book that much yes they will overcome let's just do it a little faster oh I'm joking I'm joking I feel mean it's definitely fun the scenes are fun and fresh but I think this is teaching me which I think we already knew this actually it's kind of confusing cuz what I was about to say is that this is teaching me that I just really like emotional romances but I also like funny romances well the examples I was going to use are Linn painter and Catherine Center but Catherine Center usually has some subplots of things that are pretty sad and emotional and Lin painter does two in her young adult and I don't like her adult romances as much because there isn't one of those sad deep things so I guess what I'm saying is I want something to be kind of heart-wrenching for me to love it and it's not like this isn't heart-wrenching like we know certain things like she's trying to recover from a 9-year relationship but you don't see it happen so it doesn't really feel like you do get flashbacks of the relationship like you do get to see it in a way but it just doesn't feel the emotional me I don't know why I am thinking out loud here if you can't tell let me show you how fast I can read looks like the reality drops anything better with your not really job it's not really that fast okay the book has been finished after the last clip that you saw of me I downloaded the audiobook and played chess while listening to it because that's how bored I got of it I just couldn't read it anymore and my official review of This Book Is that I have no personal qualms with it and I don't even really want to review it negatively cuz I know a lot of people do really love this book and a lot of this author's work and I totally get that like in another world a very tiny tweak might have made this book work for me but it just didn't and I don't really know why so I don't want to berate it for anything I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with the book it just wasn't working for me there are actually really deep Topics in the book there's depression infertility a lot of different things so it's not like it's just a really fluffy book that I couldn't connect to it has a lot of real life elements and I still couldn't connect to the characters for whatever reason so I think I'm going to give this like a 2.5 but I didn't actively dislike the book or anything it just wasn't grabbing my attention and it just dragged on for so long I wasn't having fun so that happening for 500 pages just made me want to move on so we're going to do that now I started the Audi book of The Paradise problem I love the narration so far I haven't listened to a romance book on audio I feel like ever the setup of this book is so funny I don't even really want to explain it to you cuz I remember reading the back of this book and not really understanding what was going on and that's because it is confusing but it's a confusing and like a fun way where you get the reveal and things start making sense it's very funny and light-hearted so far and I think I'm about 40 pages in and I'm already really excited to see where this book goes so I have a really good feeling about this someone that I love gave this book five stars and they are the authors of Love and Other Words which is a book I like a lot and I just realized I can't find my original cover of this book that's actually going to hurt my brain like where is my original cover of love and other words used to have a yellow cover do you guys see it on my shelf that is going to make my brain hurt for so long where is that book this author has written a five star book for me this was in my top three romance books ever so prospects are high it's the next day after I started this book and it was so good that I barely even got clips of me reading it or reacting to it because I read it so fast I feel like this one is actually perfect for any vacation you're going to go on beach pool great Bing readed it's the perfect mix of funny but still very serious things happening enough backstory for the characters for you to actually care about the plot moving along and it's also about a really rich family and all of the crazy drama that goes on in like billionaire level Private Island drama and a girl who is nowhere near that scene of people is struggling to pay bills struggling to pay for her father's treatments gets to go on this trip with this man and has to pretend to be his wife that's as much as I'll say it's much more complicated than that a little bit but the reveals are really fun so I feel like you should just experience them for yourself and I feel like Christina Lauren the two of them co-authors are just very experienced authors is this like book 30 for them I don't know I was reading the acknowledgements and they were talking about how 30 books in and we sometimes still fumble the ball crazy they had three other terrible attempts that they wrote At first cuz they couldn't get the idea right but yeah I never really notice their writing whenever I'm reading because they're good authors and so it doesn't ever get in the way of anything yeah I feel like one was also spicier than their previous books but I know that their back list I think they started off writing way spicier books and then when they got more into traditionally published books they like toned it back a ton and then this one has a little bit more I really cannot think of a rating for this book cuz I had a really great time and I can't really think of anything that I didn't like about it but it's not a five star cuz I'm not really going to like think about the characters that much after but the thing is I feel like a book should be able to be five stars just for it being fun even though it's not like tugging at my heartstrings and I have the yearning feeling and I'm going to think about it for years after so will I just never give like a fun happy book five stars that feels kind of sad so I don't know I think I'm going to give this 4.5 Stars it's very close and I would highly recommend it for the summer so that's what I'll rate it but that concludes all of the romance books that I read this week we have five stars 3.5 Stars 2.5 stars and 4.5 Stars so really everything across the board this week in terms of romance and I haven't really read this many in a row in a while it feels like so this was really fun very summary let me know what romance book you're reading or which one you think I should read and I will see you guys somewhere else on the internet bye\n"