Well. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to review anything. My reader’s block this year has been just awful. I have been mostly doing re-reading which I love, don’t get me wrong, but I definitely want to give new books their due also. For whatever reason, I just haven’t been able to really engage with newer materials.
Except! These two books which I thoroughly enjoyed. First up is Storm Echo by Nalini Singh. This is another book in her long-running Psy-Changeling series. It features changeling Lei and Psy Ivan. Theirs is a beautiful mix of a rather gray world with a colorful, vibrant world. Ivan never expected to meet someone like Lei and then something happens and well, he is shaken to his core. This book helps to propel the larger storyline along too. I was quite impressed with how Ivan’s powers manifested. Reading the description was rather chilling to me honestly! And Lei, I liked her. Her warmth and love of family leaps off the page at every turn. She has some misconceptions about things in her past that will take communication to get past but she puts the work in.
Lei and Ivan’s connection was simply electric and vulnerable to me. Once I started the book, I could not put it down. This remains a huge credit to Nalini Singh and her talent because again, I can barely read any new books in 2022. It’s been an abysmal year for reading for me. I really cannot rave enough about Storm Echo and the powerful love story at its center. It brought to mind some of my favorite Psy romances (Brenna and Judd in particular, though they have a very different story). I’m glad Nalini takes such care with her stories because they remain one a book series I look forward to each year and re-read quite often.
My next book that I have loved this year is Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood. So, I am kind of obsessed with all things NASA. I am a very big fan of the Apple tv show, For All Mankind. I LOVE Emma Barry’s historical romance series, Fly Me To the Moon, which focuses on astronauts and other people involved in space. Well, add Love On the Brain to my to re-read list. Ali Hazelwood won me over instantly with The Love Hypothesis so to say I was thrilled and excited to read this book would be a massive understatement. I was EXCITED. Like Taylor Swift putting out a new album level of excited. Fortunately for me, my excitement turned out to be good.
Levi and Bee are two big science people looking to make a difference in the world. Unfortunately, they butt heads big time at NASA. Bee and Levi are in a love-hate style relationship and sometimes this trope works for me big time. This case? Definitely worked. I enjoyed their chemistry and even their miscommunications that made me want to bang my head sometimes. There is something very sexy to me about this style of relationship but it definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. I also love all the pink on the cover.
I want to thank the publisher for giving me access to early galleys of these books and for not yelling at me every day via email when I didn’t have a review ready. I am very, very rusty at writing at this time.
Treat Yourself with Books 