Disclaimer: this is an unsponsored review of an eARC provided by NetGalley.
Red string of fate. Reincarnation. Two souls deeply and passionately in love, yearning for each other throughout time and history.
I've always appreciated a story of reincarnation where a person retains their memories from their previous and past lives, and this is no exception.
Without spoiling the story, Our Infinite Fates follows the tale of star-crossed lovers Evelyn and Arden. As they are reborn and meet in new bodies, with different names, genders, and circumstances throughout history, readers are treated to not just one, but many love stories within a single book.
Although the plot becomes a bit predictable after the initial setup—due to the repetition of the same ultimate ending befalling our two lovers—I still love the idea of two souls being fated in every universe, every life, year after year, millennium after millennium. I particularly appreciated (potential spoiler alert!) that we see Evelyn and Arden in different loving relationships, each free from the limits of gender and sexual orientation. There is something incredibly romantic about knowing that some souls belong so wholly to each other that they find their way back no matter what.
However, I was a bit thrown off by the fantastical world-building. There were some holes that, for me personally, didn’t quite logically work or explain how certain events unfolded. Particularly toward the end of the book, the storytelling felt a bit rushed. Nonetheless, the build-up of tension and longing ultimately wins out for me.
Lovers of Ann Brashares’s My Name is Memory may find this a new favorite! This book was engaging that I started and finished it in one sitting.
Disclaimer: this is an unsponsored review of an eARC provided by NetGalley.
If you walked into a Sephora, or you’ve Googled some time in the last two decades for ways to become healthier or improve your skin, it’s probably safe to say that you have heard of Nicholas Perricone, also known as Dr. Perricone M.D.
Yes, it’s the same scientist who has devoted his life to studying optimal health and longevity, and the one-and-the-same with the skincare line (Perricone M.D. Skincare, for those of you wondering). Nicholas Perricone, M.D., has already penned several books back in the early 2000s which include (but are not limited to) "The Perricone Prescription" and "The Wrinkle Cure." With his new book slated for release in 2025, Perricone reveals in "The Beauty Molecule" the extensive length and research he has personally taken to discover new ways to become healthier.
Perricone shares with us his findings in “The Beauty Molecule” and the significance and impact of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine (ACh) or fondly dubbed the beauty molecule. In a nutshell, the more you have of this beauty molecule in your body, the better your body is able to repair your central nervous system (all things memory and cognition), as well as your parasympathetic nervous system. Both are key in your overall physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
All of the major points of the book ultimately boil down to one key idea: to achieve optimal health (whether that’s fantastic skin, lean muscle, improved strength, better immune system, etc.), you must ensure that inflammation in the body is treated from the inside out.
According to Perricone, inflammation is what ultimately causes signs of aging, the breakdown of muscle and overall flexibility, as well as your mental and cognitive health. For the science-illiterate readers like me out there, Perricone explains very clearly and easily in “The Beauty Molecule” what steps you can take to achieve certain changes in your body and health. Perricone not only makes specific recommendations for particular supplements and exercise movements, but explains what each of them do and what benefit they bring to you.
I am not an annotator, but my copy of this book has been digitally earmarked all over the place, and there are notably three different sections in the book that they’re particularly clustered. One is on the the importance of circadian rhythms and the everyday choices we make that hinder our circadian rhythm. The second is the detailed list of supplements he recommends, where I noted particular ones that I can incorporate as a ‘beginner’ without breaking the bank. The third are dietary recommendations and specific recommended sources of nutrition. As a reader who has tested out some (not all!) of Perricone’s suggested lifestyle and dietary changes- purely in the name of better sleep (i.e. no screens at least one hour before bed, decreased caffeine intake, more conscious movement)- I have seen a marked improvement in my sleep, particularly in the amounts of REM and deep/core sleep as recorded on my Apple Watch. This is an improvement I observed only with a few minor changes made that were very easy to do without thinking too much about it.
Above all, I appreciate Dr. Perricone’s “The Beauty Molecule” for its frank and information-benefits-all approach. Health is wealth, and should be shared as such!! I would recommend this for any health and skincare/beauty aficionados. It's also a great place to start if you're looking for a simple list of changes you can make in your life, or even a shopping list.
If you die for slow build, long drawn-out love stories, reminiscent of One Day and Love Rosie, this book is for you.
I am a goner for any sort of story that’s a romance between friends. Especially friends who have that will-they-won’t-they tension that spans years, decades even. Will and Rosie are one such duo.
Without spoiling the events of the story, William and Rosemary (more affectionately called Will and Rosie respectively) meet in their teenage years as high school mates, each with their own hopes and dreams and baggage. Several major life events and tragedies within the stories lends gravitas and adds an incredibly delicate and complex layer within the story of their relationship. We are no longer reading a simple boy-meets-girl, and more of the boy-meets-girl-falls-head-over-heels-but-timing-isn’t-right-for-years-and-you-want-to-root-for-them-to-find-their-way-back-to-each-other type of love story.
I am a sucker for long drawn out tension and all for spice (hello, ACOSF) but this book was made sweeter by the lack of steamy chapters. It is pure, heartrending, passionate, and one that focuses on the connection between Will and Rosie and the force that keeps them together. Yes, they have chemistry, but their relationship truly only works the way it did for decades because of their affection for each other as people, friends. I love that this book above all focuses on a love between two people who needed to find themselves, figure out what their own desires, hopes, and dreams are individually apart from each other. This may be one of my favourite parts of the book:
But they are themselves. Full of spaces that don’t need to be filled, imprints in the mattress and the carpets of the houses they no longer live in, getting on in ways they had wanted.
I do feel rather robbed of an explicit wrap-up by Claire Daverley with something along the words of “and they lived happily ever after” (damn you Claire!) This book left me feeling a bit achey and consciously aware of a hole in my chest, and the ending didn’t feel as satisfactory as we’re left with a rather abrupt ending. However, it’s incredibly fitting.
I will simply end with sharing a few lines of the book:
“… the geese call from over the trees. Coming home, maybe, or taking off from the nearby fields, two things that are one and the same, really, if he takes a second to think about it.”
“I wish I’d done everything on earth with you.” (Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, 2013 - the epigraph of "Talking at Night")
Disclaimer: this is an unsponsored review of an eARC provided by NetGalley and Atria Books.
Calling all my Emily Henry book lovers, and perhaps also Ali Hazelwood fans!! If you were a fan of fluffy romance stories that you outwardly rolled your eyes at and proclaimed it cringe, but secretly loved and re-read at home in private (hi, this is me) and you want an easy commitment, this book is for you.
Here's the book description:
A bestselling romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery, but the rugged resort proprietor soon has her fearing she’s living in a rom-com plot instead in this earnestly spectacular debut by a stunning new voice.
Beloved romance author Margot Bradley has a dark secret: she doesn’t believe in Happily Ever Afters. Not for herself, not for her readers, and not even for her characters, for whom she secretly writes alternate endings that swap weddings and babies for divorce papers and the occasional slashed tire. When her Happily Never After document is hacked and released to the public, she finds herself canceled by her readers and dropped by her publisher.
Desperate to find a way to continue supporting her chronically ill sister, Savannah, Margot decides to trade meet-cutes for murder. The fictional kind. Probably. But when Savannah books Margot a six-week stay in a remote Alaskan resort to pen her first murder mystery, Margot finds herself running from a moose and leaping into the arms of the handsome proprietor, making her fear she’s just landed in a romance novel instead.
The last thing Dr. Forrest Wakefield ever expected was to leave his dream job as a cancer researcher to become a glorified bellhop. What he’s really doing at his family’s resort is caring for his stubborn, ailing father, and his puzzle-loving mind is slowly freezing over—until Margot shows up. But Forrest doesn’t have any room in his life for another person he could lose, especially one with a checkout date.
As long snowy nights and one unlikely trope after another draw Margot and Forrest together, they’ll each have to learn to overcome their fears and set their aside assumptions before Margot leaves—or risk becoming a Happily Never After story themselves.
Readers, when I say that I devoured this book- I really do mean that I devoured this book. This was the fluffiest winter romance story that I needed, and a fantastic break from the long series I had recently finished (anyone also coming out of an ACOTAR binge?)
As the title makes it blatantly obvious, Lavine packs in every possible romance trope that you can think of into this story.
Unexpected meet cute? Check.
One bed only available? Check.
Need to get naked for survival? Check.
Misunderstanding because of a lack of communication? Check.
Love triangle, specifically 2 Male Leads and 1 FL? Check.
Lumberjack-esque flannel wearing ML? Check. (Bonus points for the sleeves rolled up.)
..... and there are quite a few more.
You get the gist: you name it, this book has got it.
Any Trope but You was such a quick read that I couldn't put the book down until after I finished it. Just like Margot herself wields the power of writing from the heart, Lavine goes beyond just simply telling a story with the goal of stuffing as many tropes as possible in a book, with little-to-no character development or complexity. Instead, Lavine tells a tale of a yearning love between two people who understand each other, and respect each other's past and priorities.
I particularly loved the way immunocompromised people and caregivers were addressed and included in this book; not as a neglectful and dutiful responsibility, but one borne out of guilt, appreciation, regret, and truly above all- love.
Was it a touch predictable? Yes. As someone who devours and have devoured too many of these romance books, I spotted these tropes coming from a mile away. However, that isn't to say that it was still enjoyable to read, as Lavine's FL Margot calls them out as well for readers to spot, and it's fun to be along for the ride. The only thing I am upset at about the book, is that Forrest had made the decision that he did towards the end (what a damned shame). Overall, it was a great feel-good read.
HOT TAKE - the cast of Twilight (in their 20's) could be the cast for Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Just like Lowe, Robert Pattinson has the sharp jawline and cheekbones with a protective demeanour. Blonde Kristen Stewart definitely gives Misery vibes - awkward with a dark sense of humour mixed with honesty and openness.
★★★★
If you've never read fanfiction or dove into stories with werewolf lore like me, you end up being strangely confused but turned on at the same time... without spoiling it, let's just say, I didn't know werewolves did "that".
**Spoilers**
It's great book to read when you just finish an epic world building series and need a light read. But then there were elements in the book that made me question the formula of the book.
How is Lowe an architect but also computer illiterate?
The info dump at the VERY end of the book when her father reveals his master plan all at once - I don't want to be told the plot, I want to be shown the plot
Lowe cruelly lying about being Misery's mate was unnecessary
However, Misery has to be one of Ali Hazelwood's best FMC. She pushed for communication and unlike the FMCs in Love Hypothesis or Love on the Brain, I wasn't fighting for her to make smarter moves.
There was a reviewer or commenter who said "I always keep track of how many mistakes the protagonist makes and after three, I stop reading the story and never look back".
I think about that person pretty frequently. We read for our own enjoyment, and therefore there's no wrong way to read a book so long as you're enjoying yourself, but ... maybe I don't actually believe that. Maybe there are wrong ways to read a book, and this guy found one.
Aren't all the culminations of the mistakes we make what make us innately human?
Mistakes that made us stumble, fall, laugh, learn, and love?
If anything, as a reader, I feel reassured that there are characters who possess the same flawed notion of mistakes— it's reassuring to know that I haven't been the only one to fuck up sometimes. That I'm not alone sometimes.
CURRENTLY READING: "The Beauty Molecule" by Nicholas Perricone, M.D. *
"Any Trope But You" by Victoria Lavine *
"People We Meet on Vacation" by Emily Henry
"Our Infiinite Fates" by Laura Steven *
"Slow Living" by Stephanie O'Dea *
* Starred books are ARCs— I've had the blessed fortune of acquiring quite a few Advanced Reader Copies of books coming out in 2025! My deepest thanks to the publishers for sharing these with me, and stay tuned for my thoughts on these!!
Going from Kindle to Kobo: My Thoughts and how I settled on the Clara BW
I've had my one and only e-reader: the 4th generation Kindle since 2011. That's quite literally over a decade old- 13 years, to be exact.
It's been deemed old enough to justify an upgrade. Not that I had even been needing one, or considering getting a new one; rather, the Kindle had just started glitching on me and freezing this past September. After 13 years, I'd say it's an accomplishment that it took this long for the tech to finally start breaking down on me. Believe me when I say that this Kindle had not been babied by any means whatsoever.
Now, it's been exactly 30 days since I've gone from my Kindle 4th gen 2011 model (thanks Mom and Dad) to the new Kobo Clara BETWEEN. Read on to see what my thoughts are on this upgrade!
I don't think I can go back to the Kindle UX and world, and I truly do see what people are saying about Kobo just being overall better.
For starters, here are the specs between both as a comparison:
(Side note: the 4th gen Kindle is SO old that I had to dig around for a review of it, and found one on The Ebook Reader dot com)
As you can tell from the glaring number of red X circles, the basic Kindle 4th gen does not have as much much going for it compared to my new Kobo Clara BW. But that's okay! Here are some things I LIKED about the Kindle:
The e-ink screen
The physical page turning buttons on the side - I still love the page turners and how I just need to press down on the side. The buttons are very streamlined and a part of the side plastic framing.
The wallpapers when the device is turned off
The battery life (once upon a time, one charge could last me a good 4 months I stg)
The size of the screen (was not willing to go smaller, but was open to go bigger)
Straightforward system and user interface (turn on, find book, read.)
Being able to email epubs and PDFs to the Kindle directly via the Whispernet
Here are some things I DISLIKE about my Kindle today:
Its current extremely short battery life (I don't think a charge can last me two weeks now)
Being locked into the Kindle Amazon storefront and ecosystem - yes, I purchased each and every book on Amazon that I have on my Kindle...
Not being able to make Libby work on the Kindle (as a Canadian reader)
Lack of backlighting options
Anything to do with any sort of typing (I had to physically press the arrow buttons and wait until it landed on the right letter to press enter, then move on to the next letter, rinse repeat. Needless to say, it gets exhausting real quick trying to type out a short word, let alone a title of a book you're trying to find in your Kindle library storage.)
Lack of ad-free options with today's Kindle models (I got lucky with my Kindle 4th gen, where the home screen goes directly to my storage, listing all the books and collection folders I created. I hear this is no longer a thing, and the home page is the Amazon Kindle storefront. Ew.)
So, the Kobo Clara BW does a lot of what I liked about my Kindle - and more! It has quite a lot going for it: a long battery life, multiple backlighting options (reg vs warm lighting), bluetooth (if I wanted to do audiobooks, but I do that on my phone anyway so it's just a bonus for me). The Kobo Clara BW has crisp displays (I've read some manga and comics on it), and the zooming in and text font/size adjustments are super easy to navigate.
I know, I know. No physical page-turning buttons. I still lament the loss of my buttons. I know there are some Kobo models such as the Libra that have the buttons, but I strongly believe that the Kindle 4th gen buttons are superior. I liked that they were a part of the side, rather than a blocky-looking extension, like the buttons on the Libra are. The touch screen was a bit of an interesting thing to navigate in the beginning, but as we use touch-screen phones, it was very easy and quick to get used to it.
Why not the colour option?
Granted, the Kobo Clara colour as well as some other colour alternatives did come out. Why did I not choose the colour option? Yes, colour e-ink and e-readers are pretty to look at, but for someone who uses e-readers purely to read novels and text-heavy documents, it seemed unnecessary for my purposes. In store, I did a side-by-side comparison of the Clara Colour and BW and actually found the lighting to be drastically different at max brightness and warmth. Here's a picture I found online that gives you an idea of what I mean:
As you can see, the Clara BW version (right) has a crisper and whiter background, and the Clara Colour (left) looked a bit orange-red-toned overall.
ABOVE ALL: the Kobo ecosystem has been fantastic for me.
As someone who has been pitifully buying every single e-book on Amazon thus far or loading janky PDFs with too-small-text, the Kobo Clara BW is a breath of fresh air. It was very easy to connect my Libby account in the Settings. I now have an automatic delivery of all my ebook loans to my Kobo (!!!!) (A dream come true for Canadian e-readers!). I also have Calibre downloaded on my laptop and with it, can customize my Kobo to no end. You can see that I've gone ahead and gave my Kobo some wallpapers, which include my favourite The New Yorker covers. I'm happy with how much I can do with my Kobo. The Pocket app feature also came as a pleasant surprise! It's nice being able to read articles during work lunches and save any interesting articles on my computer, and those articles get automatically downloaded to my Kobo.
In true The Latte Chronicles fashion, if I were to give my Kobo Clara BW a rating:
★★★★★
If you're like me as a reader and your needs are similar to mine (and maybe your old Kindle is dying on you) I encourage you to make the jump to Kobo! I haven't regretted my Kobo Clara BW purchase at all. In fact, I've already finished 13 books since I booted up my Clara.
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