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booksommelierxiii

@booksommelierxiii

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Reader of everything, lover of murder mysteries
Romanian and English reviews.

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🌚 The best start of the witchy season! 🌚

Looking forward to lose myself in this amazing story!

Thank you for the opportunity, @mattmememaro by @booksommelierxiii

Follow her down - Holly Ryan

Do you have another book with these vibes?
#newreads #darkromance by @booksommelierxiii

Down from the Tower 5✨️

This was a pleasant surprise from the Monthly Reading Challenge I've started doing with my bestie. After a lot of no plot books I have finally found something I enjoyed.

Plot: I have to admit that even though I have tried to guess some parts of it, every chapter left me guessing. There are so many secrets in Mystica so the reader is mostly encouraged to come on a journey in which romance and mysteries connect every step of the way. Rapunzel has lived her entire life in a box built by her parents: obedient, under control, weak. The Big Bad Wolf became a Reaper to bring balance to a world in which the Mad Queen is trying to get ahold of life and death. Once their destinies collide, sparks fly everywhere and their lives will forever be changed.

Characters: While I do love a good retelling, I did wonder quite often at the beginning if this book would have offered much if we stripped away the all too popular names: The Rabbit, Camelot, Robin Hood, Midas etc, but I came to the conclusion that it would have still been an amazing read. I loved all the characters presented, but somehow my mind is stuck on the other Reapers. We know they're four, they all bear the symbols of Wonderland on their bodies ♥️♦️♣️♠️ and they all were brought together by the Shadow Man to stop the Queen. The first volume only deals with two reapers and I'm pretty sure the second one was introduced to facilitate the transition to the second volume, where Raymundo will take the spotlight.

Romance: The scenes are spicy, but I would say you can definitely enjoy them if you usually read romance.

Overall, a very nice read and I definitely added both the author and the series on my list. ✨️ by @booksommelierxiii

Follow her down by Holly Ryan - 2 ✨️

It was indeed the weirdest dark romance book I've ever read.
The overall atmosphere is that of prey and predator: all male interests seem to be out on the prowl, always aware of her location and feelings/mood. In this game of cat and mouse there is also an evil ghost involved! 🫣
The FMC is a woman who went through a very traumatizing experience earlier in life and now she has returned in her hometown to get her sweet revenge.
The question is will she be the prey once more or will she be the predator?
Personally, not really my style, but maybe others will have a different perspective. by @booksommelierxiii

Gradina Ghetsimanilor - Pacatul din Eden
3 ✨️

Autorul isi propune sa urmareasca relatia dintre iubire si suferinta cu "Pacatul din Eden" utilizand in principal poezia.
Ce mi-a placut cel mai mult este faptul ca stilul este unul asemanator lui Eminescu (mai ales ca unul dintre subiecte dezvolta mitul Luceafarului si caderii acestuia).
Desi a fost interesant sa urmaresc mecanismele utilizate pentru a reliefa cat mai bine fiecare poveste, tematica nu a rezonat cu perspectiva mea de viata din acest moment. E o lectura buna daca consideri ca iubirea e strans legata de suferinta si ca ar trebui sa o acceptam ca o dovada acesteia. by @booksommelierxiii

Daddy Issues - 2 ✨️

🤫 Fair warning, this book is not a stand-alone. If you really want to get the full atmosphere and context you have to start from volume 1.
🧨 Plot: Personally, I would have liked a little intensity, a build-up to something more meaningful. I do believe you get a better feel of the plot if you read all volumes, but individually, each focuses on the main MC and FC. Because of that the biker gang business is pretty secondary. It feels like now we have a spicy scene and in the next something connected with the gang appears. Both concepts seem to clash into one another from time to time instead of having something that flows and intertwines beautifully. So, I would say it's a more character-driven story, though the changes in the characters are small and sometimes unwarranted.
👀 Characters: They felt average to me. The typical violence-lover enforcer biker gang member meets damsel in distress who wants to torment herself every single second because everyone she loved betrayed her and somehow that makes her feel unworthy of creating a family of her own with the man she loves.
🌚 Conclusion: The book left me in a state of wanting more, not in the sense that I would binge-read every volume, but more of feeling the story was incomplete and the theme didn't get the chance to reach the level it could have. by @booksommelierxiii

The Circuit - 5 ✨️

Honestly, I'm glad I have finally discovered an author that handles a romance the way I like it: slowly building the connection between the two main characters.
✨️ Plot: We have a beautiful dual POV through which you can see how each character deals with their relationship and professional life. Ana Marcovici is a sales director in a Bucharest company. She leads a strict life - everything is black and white, so the professional Ana does not meet the personal one. But everything changes when she meets James Vance. A CEO of a famous UK based company, James is bewildered when Ana corrects him during one of his presentations.
From then on, the two share various memorable moments during conferences (a little game of cat and mouse) until their feelings grow into something both cannot ignore. It's a book heavy with description, but I felt it definitely enriched the storyline: helping create the characters' universe.
✨️ Love: Their relationship slowly builds in time, however due to their professional lives (both are aware how Ana would be regarded if anyone in their line of work would find out) they initially build a set of rules in place. The book also includes a "he fell first" theme, though I personally felt they were both quite smitten. The love scenes were build quite nicely: you have a certain amount of spice, but not too much that you start analysing the validity of them or your level of vanilla. 🤣🤣🤣
Characters: The author is a pro at building the characters' world and I believe it was the perfect balance between the side characters and main characters: you have enough info to shape the secondary characters' personality - enough to realise their influnce on the main characters' lives and I dare say enough for us to become attached to them, as the author intends to continue the series with Monica as the main character in the next romance.
Overall: It was a very nice read, one that made me gasp in public a little too often and one that actually made me feel satisfied at the end. There's nothing better than a well-built romance with a positive ending. I am quite grateful to have been part of this ARC team! by @booksommelierxiii

I think the best part of travelling is checking out the book shops in that country.

What about you? What do you like doing when travelling? by @booksommelierxiii

Wild for Her - 2 ✨️
😳 A good romance is one where the relationship built between the two characters is believable. If it's not, I'm really not in the mood for it. Unfortunately, Wild for Her didn't make me believe any part of the plot.
🤫 Don't get me wrong I appreciate a one-night stand transformed into a relationship, but the author focuses more on the spicy scenes, than building a valid connection between the two of them. There was a scene that definitely struck me as the perfect example of an attempt to build something, but it instead became quite weird: he was trying to initiate a spicy scene, she blurted out "I'm sorry your parents died in a car accident". Like yeah, you can try building a connection with a guy, but you should preferably do that before or after the spicy moment (just saying).
🧨 Another dual POV, but you can't really tell the difference: they were both thinking too much alike (only about the love-making process or any body part involved). She is a little reserved (they become professionally involved after their one-night stand), but she gets over it quite easily.
I feel like the author wanted to introduce a lot of "positive" triggers for romance girls: cowboy, one-night stand, hero, professional conflict, etc, but did not have the means to actually land this as a successful story.
🫣 If you like something fast, spicy and aesthetically pleasing main characters, this is the book for you! by @booksommelierxiii

12 de Stef Nastase - 3 ✨️

Side note: Ma bucur ca nu sunt fana colindului pe baza caruia sunt realizate crimele din aceasta carte. 🤣🤣🤣

Stef are o usurinta in inlantuirea actiunii si expunerea gandurilor criminalului, astfel incat cititorul nu trebuie decat sa se lase purtat pe aripile colindului pana la finalizarea cartii.

✨️ Plot: Povestea este spusa in mare parte din perspectiva criminalului in serie, astfel incat cititorul afla de la inceput motivatia acestuia, insa identitatea lui este expusa atunci cand in sfarsit se afla fata in fata cu detectiva cazului. Admit, am reusit sa descopar unele elemente despre criminal (s-a aprins un beculet la un moment dat), insa tot a ramas acel element-surpriza care m-a facut sa citesc o anumita fraza de cateva ori pentru confirmare.

🌸 Characters: In primul rand trebuie sa tinem cont de faptul ca fiind o relatare din partea criminalului, celelalte personaje sunt conturate dintr-o perspectiva subiectiva si poate eronata. Insa dintre toate aceste piese de sah, Erin este mult mai bine conturata, nu doar pentru ca este detectiva cazului, ci si obsesia criminalului care are o anumita adoratie fata de ea, considerand-o o zeita demna de a sta alaturi de geniul sau.

✌️ Conclusion: O carte bine scrisa, iti intra putin pe sub piele cand vezi cat de ingamfat si superior se considera criminalul, dar finalul te va bucura cu adevarat. by @booksommelierxiii

James is definitely going up in my list of book boyfriends. ❤️
How about you? Do you have a book boyfriend you want to talk about? by @booksommelierxiii

Happy release day to The Circuit!

I really love the slow burn part of this book. There's something about two people slowly taking off their shields and taking a risk for love. (Especially when you are dealing with people who have always viewed life through sheer facts and data to make decisions)

If you like:

- forced proximity
- workplace romance
- slow burn
- professional rivals
- dual POV

Try The Circuit! by @booksommelierxiii