Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey | Book Review

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Title & Author: Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey 

My rating: 5/5

Publisher: Harper360

Publication date: 13th February 2024

Blurb:

Wells Whitaker was once golf’s hottest rising star, but lately, all he has to show for his “promising” career is a killer hangover, a collection of broken clubs, and one remaining supporter. No matter how bad he plays, the beautiful, sunny redhead is always on the sidelines. He curses, she cheers. He scowls, she smiles. But when Wells quits in a blaze of glory and his fangirl finally goes home, he knows he made the greatest mistake of his life.

Josephine Doyle believed in the gorgeous, grumpy golfer, even when he didn’t believe in himself. Yet after he throws in the towel, she begins to wonder if her faith was misplaced. Then a determined Wells shows up at her door with a wild proposal: be his new caddy, help him turn his game around, and split the prize money. And considering Josephine’s professional and personal life is in shambles, she could really use the cash…

As they travel together, spending days on the green and nights in neighboring hotel rooms, sparks fly. Before long, they’re inseparable, Wells starts winning again, and Josephine is surprised to find a sweet, thoughtful guy underneath his gruff, growly exterior. This hot man wants to brush her hair, feed her snacks, and take bubble baths together? Is this real life? But Wells is technically her boss and an athlete falling for his fangirl would be ridiculous… right?

Review:

This is one of those books I'd seen everywhere for ages and now that I've read it, I am fuming that I didn't read it sooner. Although maybe the universe planned for me to read it this year because I would understand it more.

Josephine runs her family's golf shop and is a pretty big fan girl of one high-profile golfer, Wells Whitaker. Once upon a time he was at the top of his game but his downfall is currently happening. Josephine's loyalty has never wavered though.

Events ensue and Wells hires Josephine as his caddy for the next tournament. She is the one who has always believed in him, plus, with a hurricane wiping out the golf shop, she needs the money for renovations.

Imagine my surprise to read that Josephine has type 1 diabetes. As the parent of a child who was diagnosed with T1D at the beginning of this year and our lives have been consumed with it, I knew Bailey had lived experience with this and it wasn't just written through research alone. If you don't know anything about T1D and love a romance novel, this book is so factually accurate, it made my heart happy.

What also made my heart happy? The development of Wells' character with Josephine's help and their relationship as a whole. 

Just beautiful and I am getting stuck straight into the rest of the series.

Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R Weaver | Book Review

[ad/gifted - I received a proof copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.]

Title & Author: Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R Weaver 

My rating: 4/5

Publisher: Bantam

Publication date: 14th August 2025

Blurb:

Who would you trust with the future?

The year is 2050. In the teeth of a climate catastrophe, the world is left with a drastic solution: one global leader to steer it through the coming apocalypse.

The final two candidates are ex-US President Lockwood, and Solomon, the world’s first political artificial intelligence.

As whispers of a global conspiracy emerge, investigative journalist Marcus Tully find himself at the centre of it – when Solomon’s creator turns up murdered.

Overnight, one investigation becomes two, and it’s not just the result of the election that’s at stake but the future of the species. Suddenly humanity must make an impossible choice – between salvation, or freedom.

Review:

It's the year 2050 and there is a global election about to take place. Who would you vote for - an ex-U.S. president or an A.I. artilect?

Marcus Tully is an investigative journalist who lost his pregnant wife in a deadly heatwave on the Persian Gulf a decade prior. Never wanting to give up on finding out the truth about what really happened to his wife and what caused the heatwave, Tully starts to unravel information that suggests that it was a conspiracy.

When Martha, the A.I. artilect's creator is killed, Tully is brought in to try and find out who killed her and why, but then both this investigation and the investigation into his wife's death start to intertwine.

I have never read a book like this before and I loved it. I don't read dystopian fiction for ages but then when I go back to it, I remember how much I love it. This is in the not too distant future but how the technology works feels like it could be real and that honestly scared me a little. 

Not only is it dystopian, but it mixed in another genre I love - murder mystery. I love that shock of finding out information and twists and a little bit of doubt like, is this a red herring?

Really enjoyable and thought-provoking!

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo | Book Review

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Title & Author: They Never Learn by Layne Fargo 

My rating: 5/5

Publisher: Vintage

Publication date: 3rd July 2025

Blurb:

Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor and an even better serial killer. She’s made it her mission in life to track down predatory men on campus and kill them and she’s preparing for her biggest murder yet.

Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year at college – keeping her head down and focussing on work. But when her roommate Allison is assaulted at a party Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay.

When police start investigating the spate of local deaths, Scarlett starts to realise it’s only a matter of time before her secret life is exposed and everything she’s built comes crashing down with it…

Review: 

Layne Fargo can do no wrong. I became a little obsessed with The Favourites when I read it back in January so I was very excited to read They Never Learn, even though the genre is very different.

They Never Learn is dual POV with alternating chapters from Carly, a new university student and Scarlett, an academic at the university. 

Carly becomes quick friends with her roommate Allison and Allison's childhood friend Wes. She is a bit of a wallflower and doesn't really capture anyone's attention whereas Allison is the opposite. 

Scarlett is a serial killer whose focus is on men who mistreat women or abuse their powers. The opening to this book totally gripped me and never let go, right up to the final page.

The two stories come together in a way that surprised me and as someone who doesn't really care for men except my husband, these men made me ANGRY, more so because every single one felt real. These situations are real situations that people currently experience and HAVE experienced for years.

If you are a fan of Dexter but want more queer, feminist, vigilante type women who seek revenge on men, this book is for you. There were moments where my jaw dropped and I had to stare at the wall, the build up and chase had me locked in and the short, plot heavy chapters kept me hooked.

Bravo! (Trigger warnings for murder, rape and sexual abuse.)

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk | Book Review

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Title & Author: Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

My rating: 4/5

Publisher: Sceptre

Publication date: 10th April 2025

Blurb:

Linda makes $20 an hour as a content moderator, flagging comments that violate a tech conglomerate's terms and conditions. Each night, she returns to the windowless room in a garage that she rents from a family who pretend she isn't there.

But once a month, she escapes to San Francisco International Airport for a clandestine meeting on the cheapest flight out that night. Linda's secret is that she's sexually attracted to planes: their intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages and powerful engines make her feel a way that no human lover ever could.

Linda believes her destiny is to someday 'marry' one of her suitors by dying in a plane crash, a catastrophic event that would unite her with her soulmate plane for eternity. So when her co-worker Karina invites her to join a group of women using vision boards to manifest their desires, she can't resist the chance to hasten her romantic fate. However, as the vision boards seem to manifest items more quickly - and more literally - than Linda had expected, the carefully balanced elements of her life begin to spin out of her control, and she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy or launching herself headlong towards her greatest dream.

Review:

I went into this book because the blurb said it was about a woman who was sexually interested in planes and that piqued my interest as someone who loves a "weird girl fiction" book. I absolutely loved this.

I listened on audio and whilst I did think Linda's sexual description of the planes from her point of view were very strange. I ended up loving her character. Her inner dialogue was quite funny and blunt.

Linda works at Acuity moderating comments on social media sites. It's a mundane job but she is good at it and it earns enough money that she can take one flight a month. She lives in a small windowless "cube" and we find that she doesn't really get a lot of human interaction, aside from her colleague-turned-friend Karina.

Karina invites Linda to a vision board meeting, explaining that she needs to create a picture board of the things she wants to achieve that quarter so she can manifest them into the world. Not wanting to "out" herself too much, Linda includes photographs of pilots and the owner of Airbus, making it seem like her goal is to date a pilot when in reality she wants to marry a plane - by getting into a plane crash.

I ended up finding this story very sweet with regards to Linda's developing friendships. It surprised me and I loved how it was written. She is very much an odd character who just needs to be understood.

Dearly Unbeloved by Sophie Snow | Book Review

[ad/gifted - I am a member of Sophie Snow's Street Team and received an eARC copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

Title & Author: Dearly Unbeloved by Sophie Snow 

My rating: 5/5

Publication date: 1st July 2025

Blurb:

She needs a wife to secure a promotion. Her roommate needs a wife to claim her inheritance. A marriage of convenience is the perfect solution—if only they didn’t hate each other.

Rose Cannon might not be thriving, but she’s doing her best. Her relationship with her family is rocky, she’s not great with people, and sometimes she can’t make herself get out of bed. Work is the one place she’s perfect—until she lies to her boss and pretends to be engaged to the messy roommate she loathes.

Sierra Hayashi has bigger problems than her stuck up roommate. The deadline for the inheritance she’s counting on is fast approaching, and she still hasn’t done the one thing she needs to do to claim it: get married. Easier said than done, considering she ends every relationship after three months.

When a drunk night in Vegas presents Rose and Sierra with an answer to their problems, they face a new challenge: can they survive staying married when they despise each other? Or will pretending to be in love unravel everything they think they hate about each other?

Review:

I absolutely adore Sophie Snow's books and as soon as I delve into a new one, I instantly know it's going to be a hit.

Dearly Unbeloved is the third book in the Spicy in Seattle series and it is a sapphic romance featuring Rose (Jazz's sister from False Confidence) and Sierra who works for Cal (from Legally Binding). If you haven't read the first two books, I highly suggest you do because they are fantastic and it really helps if you know the background for Dearly Unbeloved.

This book is enemies to lovers and we really FEEL it, getting drunkenly married in Vegas and staying married as a convenience. It is spicy - Snow can write a fantastic scene - but also focuses on some really deep topics such as depression and family issues.

The family issues especially hit me hard and I feel like they were written so well and believably. I love a book that pulls as your heartstrings as well as having you fall for the characters.

Rose and Sierra's little notes to each other made me laugh and I loved the snippets of what's happening with the other characters in the series. Bring on the next one!