Past Due Reviews [12]

Past Due Reviews exists to help me make peace with my ever-growing backlog—books I received for review that I either read and never reviewed, or read well after their publication date (the struggle is very real). These posts are my way of catching up, one overdue review at a time, and finally giving those books the attention they deserve.

If you have a few reviews lingering on your backlist that you’ve been meaning to get to, I’d love for you to join me. At the end of each month I’ll host a link-up where you can share your own past-due reviews and catch up right alongside me. No stress, no deadlines, and absolutely no judgment—just a cozy little space to celebrate “better late than never” and give those books the love they’ve been waiting for.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

🎧 Julia Whelan

Synopsis (via Goodreads): A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.

I really wanted to like Beach Read, but it ended up being a three-star read for me. I keep hearing how good Emily Henry’s books are, so I was excited to try my first one—now I’m a little hesitant to pick up another. I thought the book started off strong, puttered out in the middle, and then wrapped up with an okay resolution. I wasn’t fully sold on the relationship between January and Gus, which made it hard to really feel the feels. I also didn’t love how Gus treated January in certain parts of the book.

I was much more invested in January’s relationship with her deceased father. That aspect of the story was really well done, and I appreciated seeing her come to terms with the choices of someone she could no longer speak to. She had so many unanswered questions and had to rely on others to fill in the gaps about the kind of person he truly was.

Overall, it was a somewhat enjoyable story—the banter and the race to finish a book in the other person’s preferred genre were fun—but the execution of the romance fell short for me. Honestly, I wish they’d just remained competitive friends that challenged each other to go outside of their comfort zones. (★★★☆☆)

When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

🎧 Marin Ireland

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Anna Hart is a missing persons detective in San Francisco. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns a local teenage girl has gone missing. The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna's childhood, when the unsolved murder of a young girl touched Mendocino and changed the community forever.

As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment. The most difficult lessons of her life have given her insight into how victims come into contact with violent predators. As Anna becomes obsessed with the missing girl, she must accept that true courage means getting out of her own way and learning to let others in.

Weaving together actual cases of missing persons, trauma theory, and a hint of the metaphysical, this propulsive and deeply affecting novel tells a story of fate, necessary redemption, and what it takes, when the worst happens, to reclaim our lives--and our faith in one another.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife comes a novel of intertwined destinies and heart-wrenching suspense: A detective hiding away from the world. A series of disappearances that reach into her past. Can solving them help her heal?

When the Stars Go Dark was a compelling story that easily held my attention from start to finish. The author has a really unique writing style, and Marin Ireland brought the characters to life with her narration. The atmosphere was especially well done—I could clearly picture the cabin, the woods, and all the small details revealed along the way.

Instead of a slow-burn romance, this was a slow-burn mystery. We unravel clues alongside the main character, Anna, and I enjoyed watching the gears click together in her mind. She’s excellent at being a missing persons detective, but she’s also careful not to step on the toes of local law enforcement in Mendocino. She didn’t go there to solve or work on a case; she went to confront her own demons and come to terms with recent events in her life.

Anna’s story is a difficult one to read about, especially as you begin to piece together what’s happening beneath the surface. My heart broke for her and everything she was going through, but I think the missing teenager kept her from fully feeling what she had gone there to escape. I thought the author did an amazing job weaving two stories together—solving a missing persons case while also uncovering what Anna was running from. (★★★★☆)

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove by Rati Mehrotra

🎧 Zehra Naqvi

Synopsis (via Goodreads): To learn what she can become, she must first discover who she is.

Katyani’s role in the kingdom of Chandela has always been clear: becoming an advisor and protector of the crown prince, Ayan, when he ascends to the throne. Bound to the Queen of Chandela through a forbidden soul bond that saved her when she was a child, Katyani has grown up in the royal family and become the best guardswoman the Garuda has ever seen. But when a series of assassination attempts threatens the royals, Katyani is shipped off to the gurukul of the famous Acharya Mahavir as an escort to Ayan and his cousin, Bhairav, to protect them as they hone the skills needed to be the next leaders of the kingdom. Nothing could annoy Katyani more than being stuck in a monastic school in the middle of a forest, except her run-ins with Daksh, the Acharya’s son, who can’t stop going on about the rules and whose gaze makes her feel like he can see into her soul.

But when Katyani and the princes are hurriedly summoned back to Chandela before their training is complete, tragedy strikes and Katyani is torn from the only life she has ever known. Alone and betrayed in a land infested by monsters, Katyani must find answers from her past to save all she loves and forge her own destiny. Bonds can be broken, but debts must be repaid.

I really enjoyed this one! Katyani was an amazing protagonist, and the world-building was breathtaking. The author clearly wanted to make sure we saw and felt everything the main character did. The Indian mythology was well done and incredibly interesting. There were several plot twists I didn’t see coming, and the secondary characters were just as compelling as the MC. I loved their relationships even when they weren't seeing eye to eye.

I do wish there had been more to the romance, but this book easily held its own as an amazing fantasy—and it’s a standalone! It had characters to love and root for, along with a plot that kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat. I thought Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove had a really unique premise that absolutely delivered. (★★★★☆)

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.