⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s Updates en-US Wed, 04 Jun 2025 18:30:49 -0700 60 ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Friend1423343507 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 18:30:49 -0700 <![CDATA[<Friend user_id=117518033 friend_user_id=152524453 top_friend=true>]]> Comment291386572 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:08:16 -0700 <![CDATA[⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ commented on ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s review of Lady or the Tiger]]> /review/show/7624583923 ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s review of Lady or the Tiger
by Heather M. Herrman

� Livlyy � wrote: "Happy reading ! Hope you enjoy this one📖🩷"

Thank you bb!!💐💝 ]]> Review7621013291 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 11:02:49 -0700 <![CDATA[⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ added 'Summer in the City']]> /review/show/7621013291 Summer in the City by Alex Aster ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ is currently reading Summer in the City (Hardcover) by Alex Aster
bookshelves: contemporary-fiction, pretty-cover-art, romance, buddy-reads, currently-reading
⋆˙⟡ 𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒Ю𝒹: Happy June, everyone!💕☀️What better way to kick off summer than a summery, fun book in New York City?! I'm super nervous to start this because I wasn't the biggest fan of the Lightlark trilogy, but maybe things will change since this is Alex Aster's adult romance debut. (Also, why is everyone freaking out over Chapter 30?! I'm scared lol)

I'll be buddy reading this with some of my lovely friends from the Bookish Babes book club!💐💞� I'll be buddy reading this with ѱԳí, Paula, Charisse, and Nikki! 🌸🤍 ]]> Comment291358379 Tue, 03 Jun 2025 20:13:47 -0700 <![CDATA[⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ commented on ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s review of Hat Trick]]> /review/show/7360932454 ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s review of Hat Trick (D.C. Stars, #4)
by Chelsea Curto

amelie 𝜗𝜚⋆₊˚ wrote: "omg stop this is such a pretty review 💜💜 this series looks so cute I need it!"

Aw thank you Amelie🥹💜This series is probably my favorite sports romance series of all time, I hope you can read it soon because you won’t regret it!!🫶🏼 ]]> UserFollowing328130155 Tue, 03 Jun 2025 19:41:51 -0700 <![CDATA[⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ is now following izzy]]> /user/show/92424043-izzy ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ is now following izzy ]]> Review7624583923 Tue, 03 Jun 2025 12:54:28 -0700 <![CDATA[⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ added 'Lady or the Tiger']]> /review/show/7624583923 Lady or the Tiger by Heather M. Herrman ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ is currently reading Lady or the Tiger (Hardcover) by Heather M. Herrman
bookshelves: historical-fiction, netgalley-arcs, young-adult, thrillers, currently-reading
⋆˙⟡ 𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒Ю𝒹: I'm SO excited to read this eARC; it's probably one of my favorite ones I have to read this month. A teenage killer in the Wild West in the 1800s, killing the men who had wronged her? SIGN ME UP! I support women's rights, but also women's wrongs.🧡🖤🐅

This is ARC 3/11 for my June 2025 ARC reading schedule, and ARC 1/2 for my next deadline of 6/10!

Thank you to NetGalley, Heather M. Herrman, and Nancy Paulsen Books for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Lady or the Tiger will be officially published on June 10th, 2025! ]]> Review7360932454 Tue, 03 Jun 2025 08:32:00 -0700 <![CDATA[⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ added 'Hat Trick']]> /review/show/7360932454 Hat Trick by Chelsea Curto ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ gave 4 stars to Hat Trick (D.C. Stars, #4) by Chelsea Curto
bookshelves: 2025-most-anticipated, contemporary-fiction, kindle-unlimited, romance
જ⁀� 4 stars

"So many things have been almost impossible for me the night my life changed, but Lexi? Lexi is the easiest part of every day."

⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚�
Chelsea Curto has done it again. When I mean "it," I mean create an amazing story with lovable characters you want to root for, the right amount of spice balanced with heart, bringing more awareness to women in a male-dominated sports world, and writing that makes you constantly want the next book in the series to come out sooner rather than later.

She's consistently outdone herself with every new book in the D.C. Stars series that comes out, and I'm so proud to say that I've been with her since almost the beginning of the D.C. Stars series. I'm constantly amazed at the things she's able to do, and Hat Trick was one of my 2025 most anticipated releases that met my expectations.

Full review to come soon!
⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚� ⋆˚࿔ 💜 𝜗𝜚˚�
⋆˙⟡ 𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 (5/27/2025): Happy release day to Hat Trick!💜🏒⛸️ I'm so excited to start this, and I'm 100% aware that I'm reading 4 other books right now. I'm making progress on all of them, I swear! I'm just the kind of person who sees "Chelsea Curto" on a book and immediately drops everything else to read it.

Tropes:

⋆˙⟡� Injury rehabilitation
⋆˙⟡� Sunshine X former sunshine
⋆˙⟡� Friends with benefits
⋆˙⟡� Forced proximity
⋆˙⟡� Boy obsessed
⋆˙⟡� Hockey player X trainer
⋆˙⟡� "Just once to get it out of our systems"
⋆˙⟡� Tiny age gap (he's 26, she's 32)


𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 (5/14/2025:) OMG the cover reveal has my heart🥹💜🪻Can’t wait to read this later this month!

𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 (2/27/2025:) I’m literally foaming at the mouth waiting for this book to drop. May 27th can’t come sooner; I’ve been waiting for Riley and Lexi’s book for too long! (Their sexual tension is off the charts) ]]> Comment291335234 Tue, 03 Jun 2025 08:10:27 -0700 <![CDATA[⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ commented on ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s review of The Knight and the Moth]]> /review/show/7033267643 ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s review of The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, #1)
by Rachel Gillig

Rhianna wrote: "Added this to my list to read in the future!"

Omg yay!!🎉I'm not that far in yet but it's really good so far, I hope you enjoy reading it whenever you get the chance!🫶🏼 ]]> Review7597012087 Tue, 03 Jun 2025 08:02:19 -0700 <![CDATA[⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ added 'The Other Side of Now']]> /review/show/7597012087 The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ gave 4 stars to The Other Side of Now (Hardcover) by Paige Harbison
bookshelves: contemporary-fiction, netgalley-arcs, book-of-the-month
જ⁀� 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Paige Harbison, and St. Martin's Press for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Other Side of Now is available now! (P.S. It’s also available as an add-on for the Book of the Month subscription box for June 2025 in the US and Canada!)

"Out of all the lives I might have, I believe I can make this the one that feels right. I simply have to build it. Nothing as simple as fame could give me what I need. What I need is to be around people I care about. To let people love me. To have small moments, knowing that they're the biggest ones, and not ignore them because I'm too busy looking way off in the distance, either future or past, for some imagined thing."

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
I'm starting June off strong- my first true 4-star read in a long while that I haven't had to round up!

Meg "Meggie" Bryan, popular soap opera actress under the stage name of Lana Lord, has it all. She lives in LA, has enough money in her bank account, has an actor boyfriend, and her dog, Dido. However, not everything is as perfect as it seems on the surface. Her show might get canceled, she has her suspicions of her boyfriend cheating on her, people are telling her to get more work done on her body, and frankly, she needs a vacation. On the night of her thirtieth birthday, she decides to take a flight to Avalon, Ireland. It was the place she was supposed to go to for college, but didn't because of her best friend Aimee not getting into the same college as her back in high school. When she falls asleep in the Uber on the way to her Airbnb, she wakes up only to realize that she's woken up in an alternate reality timeline where she's lived in Avalon for years, complete with an on-and-off boyfriend, Cillian, close friends, and the plot twist? Aimee lives in Avalon too...but she hates her.

This was such a heartfelt read. Some heavier topics get covered in here, like grief, but it's not done in a way that overwhelms you and makes it a super heavy read. I loved seeing Meg try to adjust to her new life in this alternate timeline and how she starts to live life in the slow lane. I loved the small town and countryside vibes Avalon gave me; the setting and the way Paige Harbison set everything up just reinforced why I would love to travel to Ireland one day if I ever get the chance.

I really liked the idea of the "alternate" life aspect of the story. I think it's always interesting to see what life would be like for someone on the other side in an alternate universe, and I think Meg took a lot away from that in the story. She learned to enjoy life, appreciate the people she had in her life, and figured out what she truly wanted from her life away from her Lana Lord persona and her life in LA. She slowed down, took a deep breath, and learned to live in the moment, and I think that's such a wonderful message to have in this day and age where our society is all about hustle culture and moving up in your career.

Something interesting to note: while drafting my review, I was curious and looked up Avalon, Ireland, to see if it was an actual city there. While it's NOT an actual city that exists, I did find it VERY interesting that Avalon is known to be a mystical island in Arthurian legend, and it's known to be a sort of paradise and utopia. I found it quite interesting that Paige Harbison chose that name for the setting of the story because Meg slowly grows to love Avalon, which is the magical place of where her alternate timeline takes place, and the life she's created for herself there. Even if she doesn't fully remember everything that's happened to her leading up to the parallel lives switch, she learned to give into the circumstances and live her life there. Soon enough, she comes to love her life and it becomes her utopia in a sense, and while I have no idea if this was intentional by Paige Harbison or not, I thought it was a subtle, nice touch to the story.

I think the book being tagged as "romance" on ŷ is doing it a disservice, because if you're going into this expecting romance to be the main portion of the plot, you'll be severely disappointed. Personally speaking, I think this is a really good contemporary fiction book! I think this is a trend I've been seeing overall in the romance genre lately, where contemporary fiction books that don't have romance at the forefront of the plot are primarily being marketed as romance, perhaps to appeal to a larger audience. I don't think it's the author's fault, but I did want to make this point known to other readers so they don't walk into this with the wrong first impression. I didn't really feel the chemistry between Meg and Cillian, and while we do get backstories on their relationship through Meg's friend, Kiera, in the story, I feel like their on-and-off relationship was too chaotic for me to believe they liked each other. It was like seeing "Hot and Cold" by Katy Perry personified in a fictional relationship in a book.

Additionally, there was a scene that went down in the book that genuinely gave me the ick. It involves Meg and Aimee's boyfriend-turned husband, Theo, and while I don't want to go into the details (because spoilers), I can see why Meg has so much hatred for him. Aimee's on something else if she knew what went down and she still wanted to marry him.

Last, but not least, I felt that the ending was somewhat abrupt. I can see how and why it ended the way it did; I believe this is one of the very few alternate timeline/time jump stories that I've read where everything has a solid beginning and ending, but given the events leading up to the ending, it was kind of a sudden switch from one scene to the other.

Overall, for Paige Harbison's adult debut, I think she did a stunning job! I can't wait to see what she has in store next. If you're looking for a heartfelt summer read to read this year, I highly recommend you pick up The Other Side of Now.
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
Trigger/content warnings: recounted death of a loved one, car accident, grief depiction, alcohol consumption and illicit drug use, sexual content (probably a 1.5-1.75/5 on the spice scale, but obviously, this rating is based on my own experiences reading sexual content in books and may vary from person to person.)

⋆˙⟡ 𝒫𝓇𝑒-𝓇𝑒Ю𝒹: It's been a while since I read a magical realism book that involved time travel, so here we go!� I always get a little wary with books that involve time travel because there's always something that gets missed, there's a loophole and/or a plot hole that doesn't make sense, or something that doesn't make the story come full circle, so I'm hoping this delivers.🤞🏼🍀

This is ARC 2/10 that I need to read for June 2025, and ARC 2/2 for my next deadline of June 3rd!☀� (I'm definitely trying to get ahead of the curve here so I have time to read other non-ARC books this summer lol) ]]> Comment291334312 Tue, 03 Jun 2025 07:45:15 -0700 <![CDATA[⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ commented on ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s review of Summer in the City]]> /review/show/7621013291 ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆ Kim ⋆˚୨ৎ˚⋆'s review of Summer in the City
by Alex Aster

anh wrote: "Happy reading 💖 hope you enjoy"

Thank you sm Anh!💐🎀 ]]>