This post is sponsored by Isobel Starling and the Demons of Wynchwood, out now!
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Who is Amy Schneider?: Questions on Growing Up, Being Curious, and Winning It Big in Jeopardy by Amy Schneider (4th)
A young readers edition of the inspirational and bold memoir from the most successful woman ever to compete on Jeopardy!—and an exploration of what it means to ask questions…
Thank you so much to the author for sending me a copy of this one! All thoughts are my own.
This is easily my favourite romance series ever and Elizabeth Luly has, once again, knocked it out of the park.
I loved every moment of this book. It’s full of so many delightful tropes it should honestly be overwhelming but they work in perfect harmony with each other. We have fake dating as the main one and an age gap that doesn’t come up very often (11 year gap with the youngest in her 30s and no power imbalance). Then there’s the almost one night stand, friends with benefits, and grumpy x sunshine to top it off.
Olivia is such a beautiful ray of sunshine. I love her so much. Her passion for flowers, romcoms and quark was so utterly adorable. To say I was smitten would be an understatement.
Roz is SUCH an upright grump. I absolutely love it. She comes across as so prickly and she’s put up so many personal walls that the people of Sapphire Springs take a while to warm to her, especially her employees at the farm she just bought. But she makes an effort to be more personable and Liv brings out the light in her which I really love.
Reading these two falling for each other had me giggling and kicking my feet like a fool. I definitely laughed out loud multiple times as well.
Thank you so much to the author for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Elizabeth Luly is easily one of my all time favourite authors so it’s no surprise this was another five star read for me.
I adored George in Not Just Gal Pals so getting her story here made me so happy. I loved getting to know her more, learn about her dreams and insecurities, her past and everything that makes her her. She’s such a loveable character, an absolute cinnamon roll as Hannah so aptly described her, and I loved seeing her get her happy ending.
Hannah was instantly loveable. Her aversion to tough conversations, the way she kept putting them off and justifying it to herself, was honestly so relatable. Her anxiety and the situation she let it put her in made ME anxious but it also just made me love her all the more because she felt so real.
Hannah and George were such a perfect match and I just felt absolutely giddy watching them fall in love and work out how that would work between them. Every concern they had was not only realistic, but really well handled on the page. Their open communication, even if it took a bit to work up the courage to get there, was so good to see.
I also just really enjoyed all the author details. I love books about books and books following authors are just so much fun to read about.
If you can’t tell, I absolutely can’t recommend this book enough.
Yeah, I dunno, I feel like "keeping your relationship quiet" might call for a little less... spending every sleeping moment and most of the waking ones together.
Seriously? I listened through several minutes of sex scene for no confirmation?
Like, I get that there are lots of cis lesbians, and even more cis people in general. And there's nothing saying every author has to include a trans character sooner or later, even if they're writing specifically queer stuff. But I hyped myself up so much for this, especially since, if it panned out, I'm moderately sure she'd be the first fictional trans character between the ages of 30 and 60 that I've encountered.
(I'm going to put the "evidence" as I remember it under the cut, because I want to.)
Roz's voice initially came from a "they", before Olivia turned around to see her
Olivia's narration several times refers to Roz's androgyny and "small breasts"
She's remarkably casual about taking off her shirt in the women's room, even given that Olivia spilled her drink all over it, but her pants stay firmly on until well into the (first?) actual sex scene (not counting fantasies or the time that was interrupted by someone else coming into the restroom)
Her mother is perfectly well aware that she's not into guys, but still expects her to settle down and have kids (is the technology for egg-egg IVF even developed?)
Olivia's friend group remember knowing about that family having a son, but did not know about a daughter
She had a falling-out with her parents around age 20, something that her brother agrees involved the parents being out of line
So, nothing conclusive, but since I was wanting it to be true...
(I know there's still the possibility that she's had bottom surgery and it might come up later, but at this stage I doubt the probability percentage even hits two digits.)
Oh, that's why you're so transactional about all that stuff. It's not lawyer brain or anything about business sector whatever - it's "I hate feeling like I owe anybody anything"
