Review: Instamom

Title: Instamom
Author: Chantel Guertin
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 29, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

Fans of Lauren Weisberger and Emily Henry won’t want to miss this funny, sexy, and emotional novel that looks at modern relationships, modern choices, and redefining—not to mention rebranding—your dreams, through the eyes of an Instagram influencer. 

A PopSugar Beach Reads Selection

In this #funny, #wise, #emotionally compelling look at modern love and finding your true path, a proudly kid-free influencer meets the ultimate #dealbreaker . . .

It’s the influencer’s golden rule: know your niche. Kit Kidding has found hers on Instagram, where she gets paid to promote brands and share expertly curated posts about her fun, fabulous, child-free life. Kit likes kids just fine, but she passionately believes that women who choose not to become mothers shouldn’t have to face guilt. Or judgement. Or really hot chefs who turn out to be single dads.

Will MacGregor is aggravating, sexy, persistent, averse to social media, and definitely a bad idea. As soon as Kit learns his parenting status, she vows to put their scorching one-night stand behind her and move on. But Will and Kit are thrown together on an Instagram campaign, and the more time she spends with him—and his whip-smart, eight-year-old daughter, Addie—the more difficult it is to stay away, much less sustain what Will so cleverly calls her “Resting Beach Face.” Kit’s picture-perfect career path is suddenly clashing with the possibility of a different future—messy, complicated, and real. Which life does she truly want? Will she have to re-invent herself? And will love still be waiting by the time she figures it out?

Review:

Kit Kidding is a Toronto influencer who promotes brands and her child-free lifestyle. She’s created a community for women who choose to not have children. When she meets Will MacGregor, a local chef, there’s an instant attraction. They end up working together on a brand promotion. However, when Kit learns that Will has a daughter, she second guesses their relationship. Being seen with a child would ruin Kit’s no-children brand. Even though his daughter, Addie, is smart and lovable, Kit is reluctant to be in a relationship with a man with a child because she doesn’t want to be a mother. Kit must decide if she will choose love or keep up her brand that she’s outgrowing.

Kit Kidding created a community for women who don’t want to have children. I think that it’s crazy that people think they have the right to judge people, particularly women, for their choice not to have children. I’ve heard it so many times, but it’s not anyone’s business if a woman has a child, whether by choice or not. Kit had to create this community so that women had a safe place to go to be with people who also chose not to have children.

Kit was also an Instagram influencer, so this story showed the positives and negatives of influencer lifestyle. Kit got to go to exclusive events and meet lots of people. However, she also had to promote brands that she didn’t want to use. She didn’t cook, but she had a contract to promote a food kit brand. Will solved this problem by cooking the food for her. It can make influencers lose their credibility if they promote brands just for the money and not because they actually like the brand. Kit had to figure out how to adjust her brand so that it suited the person she grew into by the end of the story.

Instamom is a fun contemporary romance!

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

She’s Faking It by Kristin Rockaway

Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley

Have you read Instamom? What did you think of it?

Top Ten Tuesday – Most Anticipated Releases of the Last Half of 2021

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and it is now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is Most Anticipated Releases of the Last Half of 2021. Here’s my list:

1. Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer

2. If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy

3. Cazadora by Romina Garber

4. Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain

5. The Matchmaker’s Lonely Heart by Nancy Campbell Allen

6. Gilded by Marissa Meyer

7. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

8. Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray

9. Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper

10. You Can Go Your Own Way by Eric Smith

(All book covers from Goodreads)

What’s your list of books on your Top Ten Tuesday?

Happy Pub Day – June 29

Happy Pub Day to all of these new books!

The Betrayed by Kiera Cass

Instamom by Chantel Guertin

The Devil and the Heiress by Harper St. George

In Royal Service to the Queen by Tessa Arlen

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

Eat Your Heart Out by Kelly deVos

Samira Surfs by Rukhsanna Guidroz

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

That Weekend by Kara Thomas

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

The Chariot at Dusk by Swati Teerdhala

The Girl Least Likely by Katy Loutzenhiser

What books are you most excited for this week?

Review: The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow

Title: The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow (The Okay Witch #2)
Author: Emma Steinkellner
Genre: Middle Grade, Graphic Novel, Fantasy, Contemporary
Publisher: Aladdin
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 6, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this hilarious and heartwarming sequel to the bestselling and critically acclaimed graphic novel, The Okay Witch, half-witch Moth Hush uses magic to boost her confidence with disastrous results—perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Molly Ostertag!

Moth Hush is starting to settle into her newfound witch heritage and powers, but life at school continues to be rough. Even her best friend, Charlie, doesn’t entirely understand what it’s like for her to always be the one who gets mocked, and things only get worse when Moth’s mom starts dating one of the dorkiest teachers in the school! Then Moth gets hold of a mysterious charm that can unleash another version of herself—one who is confident, cool, and extremely popular. What could possibly go wrong?

Review:

Moth Hush is a witch, but she’s not allowed to do magic at school. She gets teased at school, and it would be easier if she could just use a spell to make herself more likable. The bullying gets worse when her mom starts dating one of her teachers. Then, Moth discovers a magic charm necklace that can make her popular. But every kind of magic has a price.

This graphic novel started out with a recap of the first book. I was really glad to see that because it’s been a while since I read the first book. It was told by her talking cat, Lazlo, who is a hilarious character. I appreciated seeing this brief recap at the beginning of the book.

Moth faced bullying in her school. Her classmates were quite mean. Moth felt like an outsider since she had just discovered she was a witch, but she couldn’t tell anyone except for her best friend. Using a magic charm didn’t solve her problem. It masked it for a while, but it ended up causing a bigger issue in the end. Rather than fighting back or changing what kind of person she was to please her classmates, Moth had to learn how to be herself.

The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow is a great middle grade graphic novel!

Thank you Simon and Schuster for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Just Pretend by Tori Sharp

The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag

Other books in the series:

Have you read The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow? What did you think of it?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? – June 28

This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week.  It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!

What I just finished:

This weekend I finished The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow by Emma Steinkellner.

What I’m currently reading:

I’m currently reading Instamom by Chantel Guertin.

What I’m reading next:

Next I will be reading Tell Me When You Feel Something by Vicki Grant.

What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?

Jill’s Weekly Wrap-Up – June 27

Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:

I did 7 weekly blogging memes:

How was your week? What did you guys read?

Sundays in Bed With… Realm Breaker

The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.

This Sunday I’m reading Realm Breaker (Realm Breaker #1) by Victoria Aveyard.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898.png

Goodreads Synopsis:

A strange darkness grows in Allward.

Even Corayne an-Amarat can feel it, tucked away in her small town at the edge of the sea.

She soon discovers the truth: She is the last of an ancient lineage—and the last hope to save the world from destruction. But she won’t be alone. Even as darkness falls, she is joined by a band of unlikely companions:

A squire, forced to choose between home and honor.
An immortal, avenging a broken promise.
An assassin, exiled and bloodthirsty.
An ancient sorceress, whose riddles hide an eerie foresight.
A forger with a secret past.
A bounty hunter with a score to settle.

Together they stand against a vicious opponent, invincible and determined to burn all kingdoms to ash, and an army unlike anything the realm has ever witnessed.

What book are you in bed with today?

Six for Sunday – LGBTQIA+ Books on My TBR

This meme is hosted by Steph at A little but a lot. The weekly prompts for 2019 can be found here.

This week’s prompt is LGBTQIA+ Books on My TBR. Here’s my list:

1. A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth

2. Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar

3. Never Kiss Your Roommate by Philline Harms

4. May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor

5. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

6. In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens

(All book covers from Goodreads)

Did you make a Six for Sunday list?

Review: Cold Hearted (Villains #8)

Title: Cold Hearted (Villains #8)
Author: Serena Valentino
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 6, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

This was supposed to be her happily ever after… 

It’s a familiar tale: A kind and beautiful young girl, reeling from loss. A doting father, frantic to bring a mother’s love back into his daughter’s life. And the selfish, cruel woman who insinuates herself into that family―a woman so unfeeling, so cold hearted, that when her new husband dies, she makes the girl a servant in her own home.

But who is that evil stepmother, that icy lady of the house? How did she become so closed off that, in the face of a child’s grief, she thought only to seek wealth and power for herself and her abhorrent daughters? Before that fateful ball, before the glass slipper and the prince, there was another story―a story of love and grief, of hope and of dreams dashed. It is the story of Lady Tremaine.

Even the coldest of villains are sometimes wives and mothers, women who loved and lost and hoped for something grander for their lives . . . once upon a dream.

The latest novel in Serena Valentino’s deliciously devious Villains series introduces the most famed and hated wicked stepmother of them all―but turns everything you know about her on its head.

Review:

When Cinderella asks her Fairy Godmother to help her stepsisters, the Fairy Godmother is reluctant to help. She doesn’t agree with the way her stepmother and stepsisters treated Cinderella, so she doesn’t want to do anything for them. The Fairy Godmother has to read the story of the stepmother, Lady Tremaine, to learn why she treated Cinderella the way she did. Lady Tremaine wasn’t always an evil woman. She was a kind wife with a future planned for her daughters, when she met the man of her dreams. She was whisked away to live with him and his stepdaughter. However, things happened in this new life that turned Lady Tremaine into the evil stepmother that we know in the story of Cinderella.

This was a great origin story about Cinderella’s evil stepmother. She wasn’t inherently evil. She was actually a kind lady in London before she met Cinderella’s father. However, after she moved in with him, she became a different woman.

It was interesting to finally see what Cinderella’s father was really like. He is the person who brought Cinderella and her stepmother together, yet he is rarely seen in the stories about Cinderella. He played an influential role in this story and shaped Lady Tremaine into the woman she became.

Cold Hearted is a great origin story for Lady Tremaine!

Thank you Disney-Hyperion for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

So This is Love by Elizabeth Lim

City of Villains by Estelle Laure

Other books in the series:

  • Fairest of All
  • The Beast Within
  • Poor Unfortunate Soul
  • Mistress of All Evil
  • Mother Knows Best
  • The Odd Sisters
  • Evil Thing

Have you read Cold Hearted? What did you think of it?

Review: Blackout

Title: Blackout
Author: Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: June 22, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

Six critically acclaimed, bestselling, and award-winning authors bring the glowing warmth and electricity of Black teen love to this interlinked novel of charming, hilarious, and heartwarming stories that shine a bright light through the dark.

A summer heatwave blankets New York City in darkness. But as the city is thrown into confusion, a different kind of electricity sparks…

A first meeting. 

Long-time friends. 

Bitter exes. 

And maybe the beginning of something new.

When the lights go out, people reveal hidden truths. Love blossoms, friendship transforms, and new possibilities take flight.

Beloved authors—Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon—celebrate the beauty of six couples and the unforgettable magic that can be found on a sweltering starry night in the city.

Review:

One night, in New York City, the power goes out during a heatwave. Six teens are trying to get across the city to a party in Brooklyn. With chaotic traffic and no subways, it’s nearly impossible. On their journeys to the party, they each have a romantic encounter. Some fall in love while some fall out of love. Others discover what they really want in life and how to get it. Throughout the course of the night, each main character has a life changing experience.

I was so excited to read this book when I heard about it. It’s written by six of the best young adult authors of today. The book is made up of six interconnected stories that are woven together. The characters and stories are all related in some way. It was written during the pandemic, which had a similar feel to the blackout in the story. The teens in the story were left without the ability to travel and even communicate with each other sometimes, so it was reminiscent to the feelings of loneliness and disconnect during the pandemic.

Each story in this book had distinct characters and plot. I loved all of these characters and I would love to see more of them! I can’t imagine how difficult something like this would have been to write, with coordinating six different authors and stories taking place during the same time in the same place. However, I would love to see more of these characters again!

Blackout is an amazing new book that I can’t recommend enough!

What to read next:

A Universe of Wishes by Dhonielle Clayton (editor)

A Phoenix First Must Burn by Patrice Caldwell (editor)

Have you read Blackout? What did you think of it?