Contemporary – Jill's Book Blog

Review: Beth Is Dead

Title: Beth Is Dead
Author: Katie Bernet
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: January 6, 2026
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Beth March’s sisters will stop at nothing to track down her killer—until they begin to suspect each other—in this debut thriller that’s also a bold, contemporary reimagining of the beloved classic Little Women.

When Beth March is found dead in the woods on New Year’s Day, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer.

Suspects abound. There’s the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two of the girls. Meg’s manipulative best friend. Amy’s flirtatious mentor. And Beth’s lionhearted first love. But it doesn’t take the surviving sisters much digging to uncover motives each one of the March girls had for doing the unthinkable.

Jo, an aspiring author with a huge following on social media, would do anything to hook readers. Would she kill her sister for the story? Amy dreams of studying art in Europe, but she’ll need money from her aunt—money that’s always been earmarked for Beth. And Meg wouldn’t dream of hurting her sister…but her boyfriend might have, and she’ll protect him at all costs.

Despite the growing suspicion within the family, it’s hard to know for sure if the crime was committed by someone close to home. After all, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight months ago when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own daughters. Beth could have been killed by anyone.

Beth’s perspective told in flashback unfolds next to Meg, Jo, and Amy’s increasingly fraught investigation as the tragedy threatens to rip the Marches apart.

Review:

This is a fantastic reimagining of Little Women. In this story, the March sisters’ father wrote the book Little Women about his daughters. Beth died at the end of that novel, but she was alive in real life, until New Year’s Eve when she’s found dead. This story was thrilling and suspenseful. It kept me guessing until the end. I loved this story!

Beth Is Dead is a great retelling of Little Women!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book!

Content warnings: death, murder, sexual assault (off page), grooming

Have you read Beth Is Dead? What did you think of it?

Review: The Basketball Tournament of Dreams (The Super Hoopers #1)

Title: The Basketball Tournament of Dreams (The Super Hoopers #1)
Author: Alberto Casamayor, Palma & Kako
Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Publisher: Editoria el Pirata
Source: Bookinfluencers.com
Format: Paperback
Release Date: February 13, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Basketball has never been so much fun! Meet the Super Hoopers, the most unusual basketball team you can imagine. Although the Super Hoopers are far from being the best team, their friendship and fun-filled adventures fill their novels. The Super Hoopers is a series about basketball with lots of humor, starring a group of nine-year-old boys and girls who go to the same school. You don’t need to be a basketball expert to have the time of your life with Joel and his awesome group of friends. All pages feature colorful illustrations and include dialogue in comic-style speech bubbles. The story is fast-paced and full of humor. It is recommended for children aged 8 to 11. In The Basketball Tournament of Dreams, Joel and his best friend, Bermú dez, will have to step up their game if they want to pass Physical Education this year because their new teacher, Coach Evans, is stricter than a sergeant. It’s time to get in shape, and to do that, they come up with the brilliant idea of… forming their own basketball team and winning a championship! Something that would undoubtedly be much easier if any of the diverse team members had the slightest clue about playing basketball.

Review:

This is a fun middle grade story! It begins with a couple of friends who want to pass their physical education class easily, so they decide to form a basketball team. However, they aren’t good at basketball. They must figure out how to make a successful team. I liked that this book was illustrated so it would be more accessible for reluctant readers. It’s a fun start to this series!

Thank you Bookinfluencers.com for providing a copy of this book as part of a sponsored campaign!

Have you read The Basketball Tournament of Dreams? What did you think of it?

Review: Joy to the Girls (She Gets the Girl #1.5)

Title: Joy to the Girls (She Gets the Girl #1.5)
Author: Rachael Lippincott, Alyson Derrick
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, LGBTQ
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: September 30, 2025
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

For Alex and Molly, the last three years have felt like Christmas every day. So what better way to celebrate their final winter break of college than a romantic holiday getaway in a town right out of a Christmas-card?

Aside from sampling all the holiday cheer Barnwich has to offer, Alex and Molly have an important mission this weekend: to help their friend, Cora, get her crush to fall for her. But in between ice skating, snowball fights, and matchmaking schemes, it becomes obvious that both of them have another mission this weekend: to not reveal the huge secrets they’re each keeping from the other. Secrets about their post-college plans that just might threaten to tear them apart.

Will these two be able to help Cora get the girl and keep theirs—or will this be the last Christmas of Alex and Molly’s love story?

Review:

This is a cute holiday novella. It’s a companion novella to the novel She Gets the Girl, however it can be read as a stand-alone. There was a fun cameo appearance of the characters from Make My Wish Come True. There was romance and lots of tension because both of the main characters were keeping secrets from each other.

Joy to the Girls is a fun holiday novella!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me a copy of this book.

Other books in the series:

She Gets the Girl (She Gets the Girl #1)

Have you read Joy to the Girls? What did you think of it?

Review: A Heart for Christmas

Title: A Heart for Christmas
Author: Sophie Jomain
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: September 30, 2025
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A teen reclaims her independence and opens her heart to Christmas with the help of a handsome ski instructor in this swoon-worthy young adult holiday romance told in a groundbreaking advent calendar format, with chapter-a-day reading making it a true slow-burn!

When eighteen-year-old April heads to the foothills of Mont Blanc in the Alps to spend her first Christmas at her father’s chalet, she’s hoping for a change. Ever since her heart operation two years ago, she’s lived as carefully as possible. Supervised exercise, green tea, rice cakes, focusing only on her studies. But now, she’s healthy and there’s a world out there that she’s missing.

When April’s ski instructor turns out to be her best friend’s older brother, Augustin, it feels like a sign. As Augustin encourages April to build up her strength, April feels drawn to him in ways she wasn’t expecting. Augustin is daring and gorgeous, and April doesn’t want to let her life pass her by any longer. But is her just-healed heart ready for a Christmas miracle?

With this book’s unique advent calendar format, each of the twenty-four chapters is sealed by its own perforated enclosure that readers can gently tear open—by hand or with the help of a ruler—to read a chapter a day in the weeks leading to Christmas!

Review:

This is an advent story, with 24 chapters. Each chapter is sealed so they can be opened and read in the 24 days leading up to Christmas. Each chapter ended in a way that made me want to keep reading. April had a heart transplant 3 years earlier so she had to protect her heart both literally and figuratively. This YA romance had a heartwarming holiday romance.

This is a great advent YA romance!

Thank you Simon and Schuster for providing a copy of this book.

Content warnings: heart transplant, hospital scenes, attempted suicide (mention), bullying (mentions)

Have you read A Heart for Christmas? What did you think of it?

Review: Avarice (A Hollywood Mystery #3)

Title: Avarice (A Hollywood Mystery #3)
Author: Britt Lind
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Bublish
Source: iRead Book Tours
Format: Ebook
Release Date: August 21, 2025
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Taking a long-awaited holiday in Pacific Beach, California, ex-cop, now prosecutor, Rosemaria Baker and her fiancé, singer-songwriter Josh Sibley are enjoying the sun and each other, anticipating a few days of focusing on the good things in life, but their vacation is interrupted by an attempt on Rosemaria’s life. The assassins escape while Rosemaria is hospitalized severely injured. The police cast a wide net and clues lead them to investigate suspects amongst the wealthy denizens of Beverly Hills, former roommates who lived in drug infested squalor in the worst part of Hollywood, and criminals Rosemaria helped convict. Working with her ex-homicide-detective father, and her former partners in the Beverly Hills Police Department, Rosemaria helps track down possible offenders who have fled California while all her instincts tell her that the person who wants her dead is much closer to home.

Review:

This is an intense thriller. I think it could be read as a stand-alone, even though it’s the third in the series. Most of the characters were new to this book, and there were some references to what happened in the past. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and some had similar names so that could get confusing at times. I enjoyed this thriller.

Avarice is a great thriller.

Thank you iRead Book Tours for providing a copy of this book as part of a sponsored campaign.

Content warnings: gun violence, death of parent (mentions), drug use (mentions)

Other books in the series:

Deception (A Hollywood Mystery #1)
Malevolence (A Hollywood Mystery #2)

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

Review: Stones River

Title: Stones River
Author: M.F. Jones
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Fieldwood Books
Source: iRead Book Tours
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 26, 2025
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

When Jessie Gibbs meets Lemuel Sanders, she thinks she has finally found her ideal man—until she discovers that he is the ghost of a Civil War soldier. For 144 years, Lem has kept vigil at his unmarked battlefield grave, seeking someone to complete a personal mission so he can go to his final rest. As love grows between them, Jessie is torn. If she succeeds in fulfilling Lem’s wish, she’ll lose him when he passes into the afterlife. But if she fails and he remains in the world, she’ll never be free to find intimacy with a living man. A riveting story of faith, passion, and selfless devotion, Stones River shows the power of love to overcome all obstacles—even death itself.

Review:

This is a beautiful story about love and loss. Jess falls in love with her perfect man, but he turns out to be the ghost of a soldier from the Civil War. I liked this supernatural romance. I was rooting for Jess and Lem, even though it seemed impossible for them to have a future. This story was fast paced and exciting!

Stones River is a beautiful story.

Thank you iRead Book Tours for providing a copy of this book as part of a sponsored campaign.

Content warnings: war, death, cancer

Have you read Stones River? What did you think of it?

Review: The Bali Bucket List

Title: The Bali Bucket List
Author: Ava Wilde
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Independent
Source: Bookinfluencers.com
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 21, 2025
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

After HR’s favorite good girl, Jasmine, gets dumped three months before her wedding, she escapes solo to Bali with a bucket list of everything she’s been too scared to try.

Caught between three irresistible men and a hostel crew of beautiful disasters, she starts writing her way through heartbreak, lust, and self-destruction—one filthy blog post at a time.

When her anonymous sex blog goes viral and threatens to expose her, Jasmine has no choice but to confront the woman she’s become. Because sometimes, finding yourself is the only way to find the love you’ve been searching for.

Review:

This is a very spicy romance about discovering your true self. Jasmine travels to Bali after an unexpected break up with her fiancé of eight years. She decides to document her wild sexual experiences in an online blog. However, there are some consequences to her actions and her posts online. This was probably the spiciest book I’ve ever read. Check the content warnings before reading.

The Bali Bucket List is a spicy romance!

Thank you Bookinfluencers.com for sending me a copy of this book for a sponsored campaign.

Content warnings: break up, BDSM, polyamory

Have you read The Bali Bucket List? What did you think of it?

Review: Free to Be Me

Title: Free to Be Me
Author: J.D. Webb
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 7, 2025
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Tawnya Davitakov is ordered to either convince the KGB’s US money launderer to begin work again or eliminate him. In her nine-year career, no one has ever been nice to her. Not anyone in Russia, Europe, or the Middle East. In her first assignment in the US, everyone is nice.

Weary from her dangerous and stressful work, she decides to quit and become an American. It seems easy. Not so much.

She teams with an ex-fighter pilot to confront a Spetsnaz assault team, then travels to Russia one final time as an assassin.

Review:

This is an intense spy thriller. Tawnya is a former Russian spy who is on the run in the United States. She’s been through a lot in her career and personal life, and she has had to look out for herself. There were a lot of traumatic things that happened to Tawnya throughout her life so check the content warnings before reading!

Free to Be Me is a short and fast paced thriller!

Thank you The Wild Rose Press for providing a copy of this book as part of a sponsored campaign.

Content warnings: stalking, death of parents, death of child (mentions), stabbing, bombs, surgery, sterilization

Have you read Free to Be Me? What did you think of it?

Review: Divided Heart

Title: Divided Heart
Author: K.M. Daughters
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 30, 2025
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Cassidy Finnegan, a widow, returns to her hometown Redbird, Illinois after inheriting a book store from her mother. Ty Martin, a celebrated gallery artist and a member of the fantastical Sisters of the Legend Binder family, has moved to a home a straight shot from Cassidy’s across Redbird Lake.
Cass meets Ty at his book signing at her store the same day that she is visited by the ghost of her dead husband, Sawyer, whom she met at Cozy Nook Books, too. It was love at first sight with Sawyer…and maybe with Ty.
When Sawyer visits Cassidy, their perfect love is rekindled. When she is with Ty, all she wants is the new love blossoming between them.
Ty learns he is the unwitting third in Cassidy’s spectral love-triangle. He has no problem competing with flesh and blood men. But the heaven-perfected spirit of her loving husband? Nothing in Ty’s realm of experience prepares him for that contest.
Cassie is forced to choose in order to mend her divided heart.

Review:

This is a cute cozy romance! I love books about bookstores. A lot of this book took place in Cassidy’s bookstore, where she met Ty. This book is part of a series but it can be read as a stand-alone. There was a supernatural twist at the end of the story which I wasn’t expecting, but it tied everything together.

Divided Heart is a short and sweet cozy romance!

Thank you The Wild Rose Press for providing a copy of this for a sponsored campaign.

Content warnings: death of spouse, death of parent, cancer

Have you read Divided Heart? What did you think of it?

Review: Eat Dessert First

Title: Eat Dessert First
Author: Michelle Paris
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Apprentice House
Source: Bookinfluencers.com
Format: Paperback
Release Date: May 7, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Can a plus-sized, big-hearted baker discover the recipe for happiness? Abbey Reilly has heard “you have such a pretty face” enough times to know that it’s code for “if only you’d lose weight.” Giving up her architectural career to care for her ailing mom and working in a bakery to make ends meet, she is convinced no one will ever find her attractive. So she’s stunned when a handsome regular customer not only shows interest but asks her on a date.Devastated when she learns her would-be beau is married, Abbey resigns herself to a lonely future. But the insecure woman can hardly believe her luck when she draws the attention of a dreamy guy at a bachelorette party… until his horrible ex plots revenge. Will Abbey claim the confidence she deserves and find a keeper who recognizes her true beauty?With light humor and loving insight, Michelle Paris weaves a delightful tale of learning to believe in yourself. Juggling elder parent care, tight finances, and hating the image in the mirror, Abbey Reilly will charm any reader fond of rooting for an underdog.Eat Dessert First is a heartwarming work of women’s fiction. If you like relatable heroines, chasing a dream, and finding hope and happiness, then you’ll adore Michelle Paris’ sweet story of fulfillment.

Review:

This is a great romance with a plus-size heroine! I could relate to Abbey’s struggles with her weight and finding a partner who liked her for herself. Abbey was the primary caregiver her mother who had dementia. I helped look after my grandmother who had Alzheimer’s for 9 years, so I could relate to that part of her life too. Abbey was a great baker, so I recommend having some yummy baked goods on hand while reading this book!

Eat Dessert First is a yummy romance!

Thank you Bookinfluencers.com for providing a copy of this book as part of a sponsored campaign!

Content warnings: bullying, dementia, death of parent, hospital scenes, broken bone

Have you read Eat Dessert First? What did you think of it?