Biblio.jordyn (2025)

23/08/2025

📚 Book Review: Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell 📚
Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Format: Physical

Thank you to .to.reading for letting me steal your food/setup for this photo 😂

💭 Review 💭
What an easy and fun ride!

Do you like rich people misbehaving? Do you like small beach towns filled with secrets? If so, this one may be for you!

I found this book to be the perfect palate cleanser. It had multiple POVs, twists I saw coming and some I didn’t, and villains you hate right from the start.

My complaint?
The pacing felt too fast, which usually isn’t a problem for me, but here I wanted more suspense and build-up to the conclusion. I felt like I blinked and it was over.

Overall, this is a fast and easy read, perfect for the beach or lakeside when you want to fly through a book.

✨ Read This If You Like:
👥 Multiple POVs
🌀 Twists
⚡️ Fast pacing
💸 Rich people doing bad things
🔪Betrayal

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed
🔹 Loved it
🔹 Really liked it 👈✨
🔹 Liked it
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

How are you doing this week? Reading anything good?

📍

23/08/2025

📚 Book Review: Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino 📚
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Romance
Format: Physical

💭 Review 💭
I DEVOURED every page of this book in one sitting.

This story had everything I needed, from body acceptance and an unbelievably supportive network of women friends to chaotic dating, slightly complicated family dynamics, and both great and terrible men along the way. Sunny Side Up was equally relatable and outrageous.

Sunny was the MC we all want as our BFF. I adored following her journey of self-discovery after her divorce as she learned to love herself, realize she’s a bad ass woman, and navigate everyday life (minus the super cool job she has and having a gorgeous place in nyc, that felt less relatable lol).

When the synopsis says it gives S*x and the City vibes, they are not kidding. If you love that, you will love this!

Overall, as you can tell, I am obsessed with this book. By the end, it leaves you feeling empowered and like you can get through anything.

✨ Read this if you like:
💖 Body acceptance
👗 Plus-size MC
🗽 S*x and the City
👯 Women supporting women
😂 LOL moments
🌟 Stories of empowerment
🎤Social commentary on how we do plus size women wrong, especially in the clothing industry

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed 👈✨
🔹 Loved it
🔹 Really liked it
🔹 Liked it
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

August is flying by! What’s still on your August TBR?

👗

📖 courtesy of the book bar at camp! has blessed me with banger after banger

23/08/2025

📚 Book Review: The Gimlet Slip by Fiona Davis and Greg Wands 📚
Genre: Historical Fiction
Format: Audiobook

💭 Review 💭
This audiobook clocks in at just under three hours, and it was a shortie but a goodie!

Since this is a novella when I reflect on it, there were definitely things I wished for: more tension, more gangster missions, more of the 2 FMCs relationship, and a bit more depth overall. But if you take it for what it is, a snippet of a larger story, it really delivers on entertainment, especially in audio format.

However, while listening and overall, the prohibition backdrop, the two smart and innovative female characters (there’s also a male main character, a cop, but I found him far less compelling), and a twist or two along the way made for an engaging, easy book before bed or while doing chores.

This is one I’d love to see expanded into a full series or novel, especially with the ending setting it up so well.

✨ Read this if you like:
🍸 The prohibition era
👯‍♀️ FMCs at the center
🕵️ Plots of revenge
🔫 Gangs
⚡ Fast pacing
📖 Novellas
🚗 Getaway cars

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed
🔹 Loved it
🔹 Really liked it 👈✨
🔹 Liked it
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

📍 with sliders, Caesar, garden salad, bread and butter, shrimp cocktail, watermelon margs, prosecco, and espresso martinis.

Do you read novellas? What’s a good one?

Thank you to for the gifted copy!

12/08/2025

📚 Book Review: Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Format: Physical/Audio

I read this one for the BOTM pick for July! Thank you to for the free ALC copy!

Which format did I prefer?
Physical!

💭 REVIEW 💭
I am obsessed with this book. Completely obsessed.

Something Dinan does beautifully is portray the trans MC’s, Max, life without her trans identity being the center of the trauma and conflict she experiences or her identity as a whole. At that the heart of this book was about complex family relationships, romantic and platonic relationships, job and life dissatisfaction, getting older and trying to “keep up,” and navigating it all.

The other POV we get is from Vincent, mostly in the past tense. He perfectly represented the ignorance and entitlement that the patriarchy can create in cisgender, heterosexual men. Naturally, there were moments I wanted to scream at him, but I thought he was a necessary and well-written character.

My one complaint is that I was able to predict some of the plot lines, and the sense of impending doom made it tough for me as an anxious girlie.

Overall, I highly recommend this read.

💕Favorite Quote💕

“Therapy. It’s the safe word of the emotionally illiterate, a convenient yet enlightened way to throw the discomfort of care into someone else’s lap, as if each kind of care is interchangeable. But my own cynicism aside, our minds are cluttered houses, boxes piled up to the mold on the ceiling. And the funny thing about the mind is that we’re trapped inside with no way to open the door […] we all have stuff that needs unpacking, and therapy helps us find the box cutters, the bin bags, the shelves. But you can never force people into it.”

READ THIS IF YOU LIKE:
🏳️‍⚧️Trans MCs
🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQIA2S+ community stories
👩‍👩‍👧 Family dynamics with layers
📜 Past timelines & POV shifts
🎭 Multiple perspectives and voices
🔍 Identity exploration with depth

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed 👈✨
🔹 Loved it
🔹 Really liked it
🔹 Liked it
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

What’s the last book you were obsessed with?

📍 with the tinned fish board, sourdough mozzarella sticks, wine, and olives 🫶

07/08/2025

📚 Book Review: IN THE COMPANY OF WITCHES
Genre: Mystery
Format: Physical / Audio

Thank you to for the free physical copy!

Which format did I prefer?
📖 Physical!

💭 REVIEW 💭
This book was the ultimate cozy witchy read.

It had an intriguing mystery, serious topics written with care, small town vibes, and characters I couldn’t get enough of. While this is technically a cozy mystery, at its core it’s a story about grief and loss—and how it forever change you. It’s about learning to navigate life after loss, without the story ever feeling too heavy.

IN THE COMPANY OF WITCHES was perfectly wholesome amidst the chaos of life, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

✨ READ THIS IF YOU LIKE:
🖤 Grief and healing
🧙‍♀️ Witchy vibes
🕵️‍♀️ Whodunnit mysteries
⏳ Race against the clock
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family who would do anything for each other
🌆 Small towns

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed
🔹 Loved it
🔹 Really liked it 👈✨
🔹 Liked it
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

📍 .cherrycreek with their espresso martini

Happy Friday eve!

Any exciting things in store for the weekend?

I’m celebrating my friends bday!

05/08/2025

📚 Book Review: Etiquette for Lovers and Killers by Anna Fitzgerald Healy📚
Genre: Mystery
Format:Physical/audio

Thank you to for the gifted

Which format did I prefer?
physical! There are a lot of notations for words since the main character went to school for linguistics, and I enjoyed diving into that with my eyeballs.

💭 REVIEW 💭
This is a book I definitely picked up just because the title and cover drew me in, and it didn’t disappoint!

Etiquette for Lovers and Killers takes you to the 60s in Maine…back to the days where etiquette was everything, paper fancy invites were used for all parties, and sneaking your way into an investigation was cake.

I thought this book had a fun mix of romance, rich people behaving badly, and mystery told in a setting/way that was new to me.

While, I think it could have been a bit more suspenseful and I just wanted MORE, overall it was a fun, quirky, easy read, and for a debut I think it was pretty well done.

This is a book that I would LOVE to see as a mini series 😍

READ THIS IF YOU LIKE:
🗣️ Linguistics
🕵️‍♀️ Mystery
💘 Romance as a subplot
🕵️ Sleuths
🏡 Small towns
💰 Rich suspects
📖 Quirky storytelling

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed
🔹 Loved it
🔹 Really liked it
🔹 Liked it 👈✨
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

What’s a book you’d love to see as a tv mini series?

05/08/2025

🎧 Audiobook Review: The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
Genre: Suspense | Format: Audiobook

This little thriller was a solid palette cleanser! While I found some of the twists predictable, the small-town-with-secrets setting and the eerie old wives’ tale about the birds had such great potential—I wish that element had been explored more to really amp up the suspense and make it more CULTY (your girl loves a cult).

That said, the audiobook kept me engaged thanks to the strong narration, multiple POVs, and the dual timeline structure. It’s a light, easy listen that might be perfect if you’re looking for something to fill the gap between heavier reads.

If I’m being honest, I kind of wish I’d borrowed this one from the library instead of buying it—but I still enjoyed the ride!

Read it if you love:
📚 Multiple POVs
🎧 Engaging audiobook narration
⏱️ Dual timelines
🏘️ Small towns vs. the greedy rich
🤫Too many secrets to count

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed
🔹 Loved it
🔹 Really liked it
🔹 Liked it 👈✨
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

📍 —espresso martini, red wine, and ceviche in hand. Chef’s kiss!

I need more audio suggestions! What’s been your favorite this year? Because currently reading with my ears has been getting me through.

05/08/2025

🎧 Audiobook Review: The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne🎧

Genre: Suspense | Format: ALC
Thanks to for the love!

This book is chaotic—in a way that feels like watching messy reality TV. The characters? Absolutely terrible. The plot? All over the place. But I couldn’t stop listening. It’s addictive, dark, and weirdly hypnotic.

Think: The Sopranos with a violent matriarch who would do whatever she has to do to make sure her family survives, small-town gang politics, generational trauma, and the ripple effects of PTSD—layered across multiple POVs and timelines.

The novel digs into discrimination faced by Catholics and French Canadian minorities in the U.S., which I appreciated. However, the comparison to anti-Black racism felt off. There’s nuance in discussing marginalization, and while discrimination isn’t a one-size-fits-all experience, equating them in this way didn’t sit right with me. We can acknowledge one group’s suffering without minimizing the Black experience and all the trauma and statistics that show the inexplicable hatred that US has placed on Black people and trauma, and without dismissing the reality of white privilege.

That said, the pace was solid and the narrator kept me hooked.

Read this if you love:
⏳ Twisty timelines
👥 Morally gray characters
🚫 Zero redemption arcs
🔫 Gangland drama
👻Light paranormal stuff
🎙️ Audiobooks with strong narration

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed
🔹 Loved it
🔹 Really liked it
🔹 Liked it 👈✨
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

How are you getting through Monday today?

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️
TW: addiction, alcoholism, murder, discrimination, generational trauma, r@pe, graphic violence

05/08/2025

📚 Book Review: Rebel in the Deep by Katee Robert📚

Genre: Magical Romance | Format: Physical + eARC

Thank you to for a gifted copy of this absolute winner—hitting shelves on 5/20/25!

This book ripped me out of my reading slump. Rebel in the Deep is the third installment in the Crimson Sails series, and I loved it just as much as the first two. All our favorite characters return for the grand finale, and we finally get the slow-burn love story of Captain Nox (of the Audacity), her noble ex-flame Bastian, and the fierce leader of the rebellion, Siobhan.

This finale is packed with everything—yearning, angst, and nonstop high-seas action. If you’re into pirate vibes and found family with edge? Run, don’t walk.

One thing I always appreciate about Katee’s writing is how naturally diverse her characters are—it feels like real life, not a checkbox. The representation (including queer/nonbinary characters) is organic, respectful, and never the character’s sole trait. More authors, please take note.

Read it if you love:
🔄 Multiple POV
🌈 Diverse casts
⚧️ Queer/nonbinary rep
‍☠️ Pirate stories
⚔️ High-stakes action
🔥 Rebellions & romance

My Rating:
🔷Obsessed
🔷Loved it 👈✨
🔷Really liked it
🔷Liked it
🔷 Meh
🔷Not for me

📍 red wine (I went on Wednesday where they half priced bottles 🤤) and snacking on goat cheese + jam crostini

What’s the last book that pulled you out of a slump?

05/08/2025

📚Book Review: The Geographer’s Map to Romance by India Holton 📚

Genre: Magical & Historical Romance | Format: Physical Copy + eBook

Thank you to for feeding my India Holton addiction and gifting me this book!

Friends, I’m such a sucker for this author…the chaos of her characters and the wild situations they get into is catnip to my adhd brain.

In this story, we get another brilliant woman in STEM paired with her estranged, marriage-of-convenience husband. There are so many tropes packed into this book (seriously, so many), but I loved almost all of them. The FMC’s genius really shines through, especially as she wrestles with her own ambitions and the male gaze. This book made me smile, laugh, and swoon in all the best places. My heart absolutely ached for both MCs as they worked through their insecurities and hangups.

If I had one tiny complaint, it’s the heavy use of the miscommunication trope. Had they just talked, half the drama could’ve been avoided… but honestly, we wouldn’t have gotten the slow burn (which I don’t love but I know a bunch of you love it) and hijinks without it! 🤣

If you’re looking for a book that’ll make you laugh out loud, clutch your heart, and binge late into the night with its sitcom meets magic energy, pick this up immediately.

Read it if you love:
📖 Dual POV
🛏️ One bed
💍 Marriage of convenience
🌦️ Grumpy/Sunshine
😂 Sitcom-style chaos & humor
🔬 Women in STEM heroines

Favorite Quotes
“You are not in the world, you are in the universe.”

“There are worlds within worlds, and entire universes in the heart of a woman.”

“It’s always been you for me. No one else ever. You are in every dawn I watch rising over cities and fields. You are in everything I do and dream. You are the heart of the world for me.”

“Number 1: worship her, number 2: adore her, number 3: give her any pleasure she desires.”

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed
🔹 Loved it 👈✨
🔹 Really liked it
🔹 Liked it
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

📍 featuring salted roasted beets and the Amalfi Coast cocktail.

I finally feel like I can read with my eyes again!

What’s been your reading format of choice lately?

05/08/2025

🎧 Book Review: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix 📚

Genre: Suspense | Thriller | Witchy
Format: Physical Copy + Audiobook

Which did I prefer? Audiobook!

Thank you to and for the gifted physical copy and the !

This was my Bingo spot for “giving an author another chance,” and I’m so glad I did!

While, it took me a little while to finish this one, mostly because I kept switching between formats, but once I committed, the audio version helped me fly through it.

This story blends supernatural elements with real commentary on women and their “witchiness.”

Set in the ’70s, it captures a time when women had very little power, warped Christianity was enforced as law, a girl’s virtue was considered her greatest asset, and desperation often pushed people to extremes.

Hendrix does a fantastic job weaving together social critique and witchy vibes without losing the impact of either. This book was suspenseful/thriller in both a real life horrors (how they treat women and medical conditions, how we don’t research, how we don’t listen to them, how the patriarch rules everything) with the supernatural.

I had a couple of complaints: first, as with many coming-of-age stories, I wanted to shake some of the characters at times…second, I thought the final act of the book felt like it dragged and some things could have been cut out.

Overall, I found this book to be an immersive listen, and I liked the FMC’s growth from beginning to end…the naivety felt so real.

Read it if you love:
🪄 Witchy magic
🗣️ Sharp social commentary
✨ Strong female main characters
👻 Spooky vibes
🎒 Coming-of-age stories

My Rating:
🔹 Obsessed
🔹 Loved it
🔹 Really liked it
🔹 Liked it 👈✨
🔹 Meh
🔹 Not for me

📍 with focaccia, butter, and espresso martinis!

Do you read witchy/spooky books year-round, or do you save them for spooky season?

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️
TW religious trauma, teen pregnancy, institutionalization, medical trauma, pregnancy trauma, malpractice against women, sexism, check StoryGraph for more
⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️

05/08/2025

It’s a Monday… send help 🫠🫠

Today, I’m escaping reality with A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn (audiobook edition, thanks Spotify for having such a large collection )!

Lately, I’ve struggled to stick with any book because… *gestures vaguely at the US.* But diving back into this Indiana Jones-esque series with a bada** FMC just might be the cure.

I’ve loved some of the other books in the series, so here’s hoping this one is a winner too. So far? Ive been really enjoying it. Fingers crossed my reading slump days are numbered 🤞

Have you had trouble reading lately? Or just trouble doing things you enjoy in general?

📍 with the Persian Khoresh Fesenjan, West African Shoko, Monaco Stocafi, and Malaysian Sambal Curry

Biblio.jordyn

23/08/2025

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