First off, you should know that I didn't finish Mermaid Inn. As far as I know, it's not a bad book. It just didn't work for me. If you want to know why, here are far too many words on the topic.

Mermaid Inn is the first in a new series about a quirky small town in Canada, Matchmaker Bay. As with most first-in-series novels, there's a lot of heavy lifting involved in building this setting and introducing characters and places. Sometimes this is clunky, but Jenny Holiday did a decent job. She had a short video in her Instagram stories about why she wrote a small town and mentioned the second-chance trope, which is apparently her least favorite. Since the story will be magically gone by the time you read this, here's the summary: Matchmaker Bay is a fictional blend of a few different small towns in Holiday's life. She wanted to write about how small towns are affected by suburban creep, urban sprawl, whatever you wish to call it. How towns on the periphery change as cities grow. All of this is fairly standard and expected.

Mini-reviews of The Bookworm Crush, Heart & Seoul, The Gravity of Us, and Prince of Air and Darkness, which means two contemporary YA romances (one m/m and one f/m), one adult f/mcontemporary, and one m/m fantasy (urban fantasy?) romance.

Tweet Cute is a wonderful You've Got Mail retelling for the age of Twitter brand wars, social apps and kids trying to decide whether or not to go into the family business.

If you've ever watched one of those Hallmark movies and wished it was not quite as saccharine, had more kissing, and was generally... better? This is for you.

In the words of a friend, "so now werewolf PNR is getting illustrated covers too?"

Mini-reviews of American Witch, Grim Shadows, Advanced Physical Chemistry, and Tell Me Something Good, which means an two contemporary romances, one 1920's paranormal, and an urban fantasy romance.

Please note that all of these were read as audiobooks.

In Lucky Caller, Emma Mills pairs a friends-to-lovers relationship arc with the story of a complicated family on the brink of change. Nina and Jamie, her childhood friend and neighbor, are both taking a radio class in their senior year of high school. Jamie and Nina were best friends until middle school, when *spoiler* happened and now they're 2 members of a 4 person team working on a show together. Nina's father is a famous radio show host who moved out to LA a few years earlier, but she'd rather be producing than hosting so another member of the team, Joydeep is the voice of the show-- together with Sasha, a bit later. The show is off to a rocky start until they play a couple of songs by a cult favorite grunge band, Existential Dead. Improbably, they attract a small following of Existential Dead fans and when they announce a special guest (Nina's dad) without saying his name? Those fans think the reclusive lead singer of the band is the special guest and hijinks ensue.

Kate Clayborn's books are not light and fluffy. They take me a while to read and I usually cry at least once. They are, however, the sort of book that makes me think a lot about how we connect as humans and what it means to start over, to stand still for a moment, to redirect the trajectory of a relationship or a life.

Alyssa Cole’s smart, sweet and short science fiction romance playfully mashes multiple tropes into a fun and surprising adventure. It is simply excellent.

Mini-reviews of Sick Kids in Love, Winterwood, The Magnolia Sword, Rage, and The Night Country, which means an one contemporary romance, one Mulan retelling and three fantasy novels with romantic elements.