I saw this meme on It’s All About Booksand thought, I like this!! So, I decided to do it once a month also. Many thanks to Yvonne for initially posting this!!
This post is what it says: Places I travel to in books each month. Books take you to places you would never get to. That includes places of fantasy, too!!
Bon Voyage!!
Please let me know if you have read these books or traveled to these areas.
Countries I visited the most:United States, England, France, Scotland
States I visited the most:New York, Washington, Connecticut, Oregon
Cities I visited the most:New York City, Paris, London, Portland
A funny and timeless novel from Luci Adams in the vein of Sophie Cousens and Kelly Harms
*One horrible, “bury your head under the covers” kind of day
*Two adorable children to nanny; and
*Their very hot, very single father
Daisy has realized you really can hit rock bottom when you lose your job, your boyfriend, and are estranged from your sister all at once. Seeking to claw her way out from the very definition of a bad year, her plan is to start by simply looking like she’s clawing her way out of rock bottom. On Instagram. Obviously.
But when she takes a stopgap job as a nanny to help a single father with his two young girls, being immersed in a close-knit, loving family starts to poke holes in her plan. Can making her not-so-picture-perfect life look perfect online really help her derailed career get back on track? Can it mend her relationship with her unreliable and painfully irritating sister? And can it get her back in the arms of her unbelievably beautiful and shallow ex…and as she gets closer to someone new, does she even want to?
A sparkling and bright novel of love, second chances, and finding your way in the age of ennui and influencers, It Must Be True Then is a delight for the millennial and Gen Z age.
First Line
You see, it all CAME down to the data in the end, I squeal, nervously.
It Must Be True Then by Luci Adams
Important details about It Must Be True Then
Pace: Medium
POV: 1st person (Daisy)
Trigger Warnings:It Must Be True Then contains themes that include grief, car accident, bullying, cyberbullying, abandonment, anxiety & anxiety attacks, depression, alcohol consumption, the death of a parent, and thedeath of a spouse.
Language:It Must Be True Then contains moderate swearing and language that might offend some people.
Sexual Content: There is moderate sexual content in It Must Be True Then.
Setting: It Must Be True Then is set around Clapham North, England. Chapters also take place in Paris, France, and Anchorage, Alaska.
My Review
For some reason, I have been avoiding contemporary romances. But when NetGalley sent me the widget for It Must BeTrue Then, I decided to end my dry spell. Now that I have read the book (and enjoyed it), I want to say that I can’t wait to read more books by the author. From the prologue to the end, I laughed at Daisy’s antics or cried with her.
It Must Be True Then’s storyline centers around Daisy. In a matter of a few days, Daisy lost her boyfriend, job and stopped speaking to her younger sister. Giving herself a couple of weeks to mourn the loss of her job (where she worked for 13 years) and to plan on getting her boyfriend back, Daisy decides to look for a job that can tide her over until she gets one in her field (statistics). The job she gets is a nanny to two adorable children. As Daisy settles into nannying, she grows closer to the children and their father. But she has plans, including getting a new job, getting back her ex, and making up with her sister. But things don’t always go as planned.
The author had an interesting way of writing the past year of Daisy’s life. In between the chaos that was currently happening, the author snuck in chapters that detailed how she met Jackson and what their relationship was like (hint:it wasn’t much), what happened to cause her to lose her job, and the reason she wasn’t speaking to her sister. I thought it was brilliant because it allowed me to compare that Daisy to the Daisy presented throughout the book.
Daisy was tough to like. From the beginning, she was selfish and self-centered. The author made it very clear that this was the type of person she was and was very unapologetic about it. But as the book went on and her backstory took shape, I couldn’t help but feel bad for her. Not that it made me like her anymore, but I did pity her.
I wouldn’t say I liked Daisy’s relationship with Archie for the above reasons. It was all take and no give on her side. But, to be honest with you guys and me, she was actively trying to get her ex back, so how she acted made sense. I did find her speech about not wanting children, any children, very distasteful since Archie had two. I also felt her relationship with Archie was a little forced and held no sparks.
As I said above, the secondary characters made the book. I loved Archie, his girls, and his relationship with them. I liked Daisy’s best friend, who wasn’t afraid to call Daisy out on her BS but was also very supportive. I even liked Daisy’s younger sister once she realized her way of life wasn’t working. They made the book for me.
A very important secondary storyline is also centered on Daisy and her mother. I won’t get into it, but I felt bad for Daisy’s mother. Mistakes happen, and she paid dearly for them.
Despite everything I wrote in this review, I did like the book. Daisy’s character progression was terrific to read (she maturedthroughout the book). There were several laugh-out-loud parts (the Instagram pictures had me dying laughing). But the one that stood out the most to me was why she lost her job. It was a well-written chapter highlighting everything wrong with today’s society, and Daisy was correct with everything she said.
The end of It Must Be True Then was sweet, and I loved that Daisy had found peace with herself. The HEA with her and Archie wasn’t forever. It was more of a right now HEA (if that makes sense).
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, NetGalley, and Luci Adams for allowing me to read and review this ARC of It Must Be True Then. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
If you enjoy reading books similar to It Must Be True Then, then you will enjoy these books:
Here is what I am currently reading, recently finished, and plan to read from Thursday to Wednesday.
Let me know if you have read or are planning on reading any of these books!!
Happy Reading!!
What I am currently reading:
The runaway international bestseller–part sweeping historical epic, part legal thriller–following the trial that shaped the life of the young Julius Caesar and gave root to an immortal legacy.
Every legend has a beginning.
Rome, 77 B.C. Senator Dolabella, known for using violence against anyone who opposes him, is going on trial for corruption and has already hired the best lawyers and even bought the jury. No man dares accept the role of prosecutor–until, against all odds, an unknown twenty-three-year-old steps out to lead the case, defend the people of Rome, and defy the power of the elite class. This lawyer’s name is Caius Julius Caesar.
Masterfully combining exhaustive historical rigor with extraordinary narrative skills, Santiago Posteguillo shows us the man behind the myth of Caesar as never before, taking us to the dangerous streets of Rome where the Senate’s henchmen lurk on every corner, submerging us in the thick of battle, and letting us live the great love story of Julius Caesar and his wife, Cornelia.
After Julius Caesar, the world was never the same. I Am Rome tells the tale of the early events that shaped this extraordinary man’s fate–and changed the course of history itself.
What I recently finished reading:
Kezia Cooper Hobson, recently widowed, arrives in New York from San Francisco. Determined to make a fresh start, she has just completed the sale of her Pacific Heights home, not to mention her husband’s venture capital firm, and in doing so, is also freed from her responsibility as a board member of the company. Bringing with her only a few personal treasures, she is excited to move into the blank slate of a beautiful midtown penthouse, in the city that she has always loved. It is also where her two adult daughters now live.
As Kezia settles into her new apartment, she meets her movie-star next-door neighbor, Sam Stewart, whose terrace borders hers. Just a couple of weeks after she arrives, however, a devastating crisis strikes New York City. Kezia and Sam find themselves connecting over their strong impulse to help those in need. As they share a life-changing experience of volunteering, a bond is sparked and a friendship is formed.
Kezia’s daughters, Kate and Felicity, are taken aback by their mother’s new friendship, both more focused on their own love lives than hers. But Kezia is learning that the changes she’s making are just what she needs to open new horizons.
In this powerful and moving new novel, Danielle Steel illuminates the importance of human connection and embracing brave change, proving it’s never too late for a brand-new start.
What I think I will read next:
When the Blitz imperils the heart of a London neighborhood, three young women must use their fighting spirit to save the community’s beloved library in this heartwarming novel from the author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir
When new deputy librarian, Juliet Lansdown, finds that Bethnal Green Library isn’t the bustling hub she’s expecting, she becomes determined to breathe life back into it. But can she show the men in charge that a woman is up to the task of running it, especially when a confrontation with her past threatens to derail her?
Katie Upwood is thrilled to be working at the library, although she’s only there until she heads off to university in the fall. But after the death of her beau on the front line and amid tumultuous family strife, she finds herself harboring a life-changing secret with no one to turn to for help.
Sofie Baumann, a young Jewish refugee, came to London on a domestic service visa only to find herself working as a maid for a man who treats her abominably. She escapes to the library every chance she can, finding friendship in the literary community and aid in finding her sister, who is still trying to flee occupied Europe.
When a slew of bombs destroy the library, Juliet relocates the stacks to the local Underground station where the city’s residents shelter nightly, determined to lend out stories that will keep spirits up. But tragedy after tragedy threatens to unmoor the women and sever the ties of their community. Will Juliet, Kate, and Sofie be able to overcome their own troubles to save the library? Or will the beating heart of their neighborhood be lost forever?
A funny and timeless novel from Luci Adams in the vein of Sophie Cousens and Kelly Harms
*One horrible, “bury your head under the covers” kind of day
*Two adorable children to nanny; and
*Their very hot, very single father
Daisy has realized you really can hit rock bottom when you lose your job, your boyfriend, and are estranged from your sister all at once. Seeking to claw her way out from the very definition of a bad year, her plan is to start by simply looking like she’s clawing her way out of rock bottom. On Instagram. Obviously.
But when she takes a stopgap job as a nanny to help a single father with his two young girls, being immersed in a close-knit, loving family starts to poke holes in her plan. Can making her not-so-picture-perfect life look perfect online really help her derailed career get back on track? Can it mend her relationship with her unreliable and painfully irritating sister? And can it get her back in the arms of her unbelievably beautiful and shallow ex…and as she gets closer to someone new, does she even want to?
A sparkling and bright novel of love, second chances, and finding your way in the age of ennui and influencers, It Must Be True Then is a delight for the millennial and Gen Z age.
Two parents, desperate to find their missing daughter, stand accused of murder. How far will they go to find the truth?
Someone is guilty.
For the last seventeen years, Harry and Zara King’s lives have revolved around their only daughter, Sophie. One day, Sophie leaves the house and doesn’t come home. Six weeks later, the police are no closer to finding her than when they started. Harry and Zara have questioned everyone who has ever had any connection to Sophie, to no avail. Except there’s one house on their block—number 210, across the street—whose occupant refuses to break his silence.
Someone knows what happened.
As the question mark over number 210 devolves into obsession, Harry and Zara are forced to examine their own lives. They realize they have grown apart, suffering in separate spheres of grief. And as they try to find their way back to each other, they must face the truth about their daughter: who she was, how she changed, and why she disappeared.
Someone will pay.
Told in the alternating perspectives of Harry and Zara, and in a dual timeline between the weeks after Sophie’s disappearance and a year later in the middle of a murder trial, Imran Mahmood’s taut yet profoundly moving novel explores how differently grief can be experienced even when shared by parents—and how hope triumphs when it springs from the kind of love that knows no bounds.
A passionate tale of plague, fire, and forbidden love in seventeenth-century London from the acclaimed author of Solomon’s Crown
1666. It is a year after plague has devastated England. Young widow Cecilia Thorowgood is a prisoner, trapped and isolated within the cavernous London townhouse of her older sister. At the mercy of a legion of doctors who fail to cure her grief with their impatient scalpels, Cecilia shows no signs of improvement. Soon, her sister makes a decision borne of she hires a new physician, someone known for more unusual methods. But he is a foreigner. A Jew. And despite his attempts to save Cecilia, he knows he cannot quell the storm of grief that rages within her. There is no easy cure for melancholy.
David Mendes fled Portugal to seek a new life in London, where he could practice his faith openly and leave the past behind. Still reeling from the loss of his beloved friend, struggling with his religion and his past, David finds himself in this foreign land, free and safe, but incapable of happiness—caring not even for himself, but only for his ailing father. The security he has found in London threatens to disappear when he meets Cecilia, and he finds himself torn between his duty to medicine and the beating of his own heart. He is the only one who can see her pain; the glimmers of light she emits, even in her gloom, are enough to make him believe once more in love.
Facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, David and Cecilia must endure prejudice, heartbreak, and calamity before they can be together. A Great Fire is coming—and with the city in flames around them, love has never felt so impossible.
Reading Challenge books I hope to get to this week:
Two souls meet at a dark railroad crossing… there’s no hint this night will be the beginning – and end – of everything.
Lily doesn’t exist any more – old Lily, anyway. That night made her different, rewrote her life, tore up everything she thought she knew and understood.
How do you go back to normal after you’ve met someone who has turned your life upside down? When you fear the passionate connexion but don’t want to live for anything else? When those few moments were the most intense and intimate of your life and it was the barest taste of what you could have together?
How do you find the strength to not run away from something that has the power to shatter your heart?
Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language and situations that some readers may find objectionable (including spanking and bondage). Content intended for adults only. Length: 75,000 + words
After 40 years of marriage, Olivia’s husband unexpectedly passes away. But when Ben’s will reveals a life-altering secret, she suffers a blow no widow should ever experience. As Olivia visits each of her sons to share a final connection before facing a truth that will change their family, she discovers that each has been harboring a painful secret, just like his father. Will the revelations destroy their family or bring them closer together?
Watching Glass Shatter is the 1st book in the Perceptions of Glass contemporary fiction, family drama series. Currently, there are two available, with a third planned in the future. Chapters switch POV between Olivia and each son, revealing different personalities, voices, and struggles not unlike many of us in life. You’ll undoubtedly love some members of this family and experience a fiery angst for others. But in the end, it will tug at all of your emotions.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet and share what you have been and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kid-lit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in those genres – join them.
Personal
Nothing much has happened here over the last couple of weeks. I was busy last week with doctor’s appointments for all 3 kids. I also had vet appointments for a couple of the cats. We are looking at neutering Miss B’s girlfriend’s kitten (Bug), but he needs his kitten shots first. And Snickers had her monthly Solencia shot.
I also have been suffering from migraines over the last couple of weeks, which has affected my reading. I get them in clusters and will bring this up to my doctor at my next appointment. Maybe she can give me something for when they happen. Because it sucks to not be present for my kids (and BK) because a migraine has taken over.
I have been watching reruns of Law & Order: SVU (they have all 25 or so seasons on Peacock), Slow Horses (we’re on the 3rd season and I am loving this show) and my Friday and Saturday night staple, On Patrol Live.
Miss B got recognized by the school board last Monday for her Microsoft PowerPoint perfect score and for beating out thousands of other students to go to Nationals in Fl in June. This was a huge thing because it was the first time in the school district and for her school (a magnate high school).
What I am Reading Now:
The runaway international bestseller–part sweeping historical epic, part legal thriller–following the trial that shaped the life of the young Julius Caesar and gave root to an immortal legacy.
Every legend has a beginning.
Rome, 77 B.C. Senator Dolabella, known for using violence against anyone who opposes him, is going on trial for corruption and has already hired the best lawyers and even bought the jury. No man dares accept the role of prosecutor–until, against all odds, an unknown twenty-three-year-old steps out to lead the case, defend the people of Rome, and defy the power of the elite class. This lawyer’s name is Caius Julius Caesar.
Masterfully combining exhaustive historical rigor with extraordinary narrative skills, Santiago Posteguillo shows us the man behind the myth of Caesar as never before, taking us to the dangerous streets of Rome where the Senate’s henchmen lurk on every corner, submerging us in the thick of battle, and letting us live the great love story of Julius Caesar and his wife, Cornelia.
After Julius Caesar, the world was never the same. I Am Rome tells the tale of the early events that shaped this extraordinary man’s fate–and changed the course of history itself.
Books I plan on reading later this week
When the Blitz imperils the heart of a London neighborhood, three young women must use their fighting spirit to save the community’s beloved library in this heartwarming novel from the author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir
When new deputy librarian, Juliet Lansdown, finds that Bethnal Green Library isn’t the bustling hub she’s expecting, she becomes determined to breathe life back into it. But can she show the men in charge that a woman is up to the task of running it, especially when a confrontation with her past threatens to derail her?
Katie Upwood is thrilled to be working at the library, although she’s only there until she heads off to university in the fall. But after the death of her beau on the front line and amid tumultuous family strife, she finds herself harboring a life-changing secret with no one to turn to for help.
Sofie Baumann, a young Jewish refugee, came to London on a domestic service visa only to find herself working as a maid for a man who treats her abominably. She escapes to the library every chance she can, finding friendship in the literary community and aid in finding her sister, who is still trying to flee occupied Europe.
When a slew of bombs destroy the library, Juliet relocates the stacks to the local Underground station where the city’s residents shelter nightly, determined to lend out stories that will keep spirits up. But tragedy after tragedy threatens to unmoor the women and sever the ties of their community. Will Juliet, Kate, and Sofie be able to overcome their own troubles to save the library? Or will the beating heart of their neighborhood be lost forever?
A funny and timeless novel from Luci Adams in the vein of Sophie Cousens and Kelly Harms
*One horrible, “bury your head under the covers” kind of day
*Two adorable children to nanny; and
*Their very hot, very single father
Daisy has realized you really can hit rock bottom when you lose your job, your boyfriend, and are estranged from your sister all at once. Seeking to claw her way out from the very definition of a bad year, her plan is to start by simply looking like she’s clawing her way out of rock bottom. On Instagram. Obviously.
But when she takes a stopgap job as a nanny to help a single father with his two young girls, being immersed in a close-knit, loving family starts to poke holes in her plan. Can making her not-so-picture-perfect life look perfect online really help her derailed career get back on track? Can it mend her relationship with her unreliable and painfully irritating sister? And can it get her back in the arms of her unbelievably beautiful and shallow ex…and as she gets closer to someone new, does she even want to?
A sparkling and bright novel of love, second chances, and finding your way in the age of ennui and influencers, It Must Be True Then is a delight for the millennial and Gen Z age.
The StoryGraph’s Onboarding Reading Challenge (read a book from your StoryGraph recommendations)—Beautiful Demons—Finished 3-10-2023
The StoryGraph Reads the World (Cuba)—Of Women and Salt—Finished 3-12-2023
The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge (a sapphic romance)—She Who Became the Sun—Finished 3-22-2023
Beat the Backlist 2023 (about dragons or robots)—The Glow of the Dragon’s Heart—Finished 3-22-2023
Scavenger Hunt TBR Book Challenge (what is the most common letter in the title of the last book you read for this challenge. Find a book with a title that starts with that letter)—Even the Moon has Scars—Finished 3-23-2023
Scavenger Hunt (the prettiest book in your TBR)—The Watchmaker’s Daughter—Finished 3-23-2023
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2023 (A book about a vacation)—The Swap—Finished 3-24-2023
2023 TBR Toppler (the first book in a series)—The Last Artifact—Finished 3-26-23
2023 Monthly Themes (March of the Memoirs)—In the Dream House—Finished 3-1-23
2023 Reading Challenge (A book in a series you already started)—Catching Fire—Finished 3-27-23
This meme is what it says: Places I travel to in books each month. Books are lovely and take you to places you would never get to. That includes places of fantasy too!!
Bon Voyage!!
Please let me know if you have read these books or traveled to these areas.
Fairytale meets feminism in Luci Adams’s Not That Kind of Ever After, a frothy adventure of one woman’s journey to claim happily ever after in times of serial dating, swiping right, and the quest to find your soulmate…
Bella Marble’s life isn’t what she imagined. Instead of an author, she’s receptionist at a small press. Instead of happily married, she’s single, and her lovey-dovey parents are divorcing. And to top it off, her best friend of twenty-nine years, Ellie Mathews, is moving out and marrying the heinously boring Mark. (He’s not worthy of her. No one could be). Bella feels rudderless, only slightly soothed by time spent with Ellie’s (not hot) brother, (he’s not hot) Marty (okay, he’s hot. But he’s also the aggravating brother she never had—right)?
When Marty recommends Bella stop looking for “the one” and just have fun, Bella finds a new, empowered side of herself. But when she posts a fairy-tale retelling of a disastrous one night stand on a storytelling app, all of a sudden, Bella has become B.Enchanted. And she’s gone viral.
Now, Bella’s in a fight with Ellie, her new roommates are so, deeply, weird, and the pressure is mounting to find new fairy tales to write about—but she’s got to live them first.
First Line:
It came, unlike me, while I was riding backward cowgirl on what must have been the hairiest man in London.
Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams
Not That Kind of Ever After is the story of Bella and how her life fell apart, got put back together, fell apart again, and got together again. Bella’s life isn’t what she thought it was going to be. She would be an author, live an extraordinary life, and be married. Instead, she’s a receptionist at a publishing house, isn’t living her dream life, and is single. In a matter of days, her life gets turned upside down when her best friend moves out and gets engaged to a man Bella can’t stand. Then she finds out her parents are getting divorced. But there is an upside to everything. She is rewriting her bad dates as fairytale retellings on a storytelling app, and she has gone viral. But as soon as she thinks she has everything, things come crashing down. A fight with her best friend, being rejected for dates (which means no stories), and weird roommates litter her life now. Can Bella get out of her way and get back on track? Or will she be stuck in the same rut forever?
I was not a fan of Bella. Oh, at first, I liked her. She was funny and seemed like a great friend. But she began to wear on me after a chapter (yes, a chapter). She was high maintenance and not in a good way. She always had to be the center of attention and literally pouted when it wasn’t on her (Ellie’s moving out/engagement party). And lastly, she was highly immature. I could have dealt with the other faults and liked her. But it was her immatureness that ruined her character for me. Put it this way, I felt for Ellie’s fiancee and her roommates.
I did like that the author took Bella’s romantic hijinks and had Bella turn them into romance fairytales. It gave me a fresh way of looking at the fairytales and a giggle.
The side characters were well-written in Not That Kind of Ever After. I sympathized with them because I didn’t know how they tolerated the drunken, immature mess that Bella had evolved into.
Bella did experience character growth during this book. There was a point in the book where Bella realized that maybe she was doing everything to herself, and she tried to fix everything. It was nice to read that, but the damage was done in my eyes with her. Like a real-life person, I didn’t want a character to be a constant drama llama, and Bella was.
The romance angle of the book was interesting to read. While I think I figured out who Bella ended up with, I needed clarification. So, I wouldn’t label this a HEA with her on the romance front.
There is a lot of sex in Not That Kind of Ever After. What I liked is that the sex experiences ran the gauntlet. They went from bad to good to out-of-this-world fantastic. The author even threw in a menage for Bella to experience.
The end of Not That Kind of Ever After was interesting. I liked that the author wrapped everything up. I am not going to get into anything other than that, other than the ending was very fitting for the book.
I would recommend Not That Kind of Ever After to anyone over 21. There is language, mild violence, and sexual situations.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, NetGalley, and Luci Adams for allowing me to read and review Not That Kind of Ever After. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
If you enjoyed reading this review of Not That Kind of Ever After, you will enjoy reading these books: