Category Archives: Books

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Ashley - BlessedandBooked
Expected publication: February 2nd 2021 by Minotaur Books – Completed January 6, 2021

✨Book Review✨ Finlay Donovan is Killing It by @ellecosimano

I was so excited that @netgalley allowed me to have an advanced ebook copy of this book for an honest review. So, let’s get started!

First off, this was such a delightful read! Usually you don’t say that for a book involving mystery and murder, but this one is a little bit different.

Finlay is a divorced mom of two small children going through a messy custody battle. She’s also a struggling author trying to write her next book in order to pay her bills, not lose her house, and keep her kids. She meets her editor in a Panera Bread one day, but has to disguise herself, because she had previously been banned from this Panera for life. During this meeting, she comes in contact with Patricia who leaves her with a note. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Patricia has just hired her to kill her husband for $50,000! Not only is Finlay up a creek as now being a hired contract killer, she now has inspiration for her new novel!

Finlay becomes involved in the mob, helping a police investigation, becoming acquainted with a bartender soon to be lawyer, all while trying not to get arrested and finish her novel.

I laughed in so many spots, but there were a lot of serious moment as well. Since this was the first adult novel written by @ellecosimano, it was very well rounded and enjoyable. There seems to be a cliffhanger as well, so I’m hoping she continues on with the story!

Put this on your TBR for 2021! This will be released in February 2021!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

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Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Ashley - BlessedandBooked
Published September 8th 2020 by Atria Books – Completed January 4, 2021

✨Book Review: ✨ Anxious People by Fredrik Backman @backmansk

This is my first completed book of 2021, and wow! What an amazing start to the year!

There’s a bank robbery, an apartment viewing, and a hostage situation. There are also events that take place 10 years earlier which tie into the story, and everyone is connected. This book illustrates the fact we don’t know everyone’s story or what they are going through. It’s easy to make generalizations from the beginning just by appearances. Until you take time to get to know someone, you’ll never find the truth to who they are.

We all deserve a second chance. Maybe even third and fourth chances until we get it right. Don’t give up. Life is too short. We are all anxious sometimes. The world is actually a small place, and we are all connected in the story. Working together will only make it a good one.

Darly Mae and I read a lot of this one aloud. She’s my pup, and absolutely loves to be read to. She snuggled up for this one and didn’t wander around, so I think she loved this one as much as I did!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 (I would give this book all the stars in the universe if I could)

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Review – His Only Wife

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Ashley - BlessedandBooked
I completed “His Only Wife” by Peace Adzo Medie on October 24, 2020

“Elikem married me in absentia; he did not come to our wedding.”

That was the first sentence of the book. I should have known it would be a book that sent me through every emotion possible, anger being the most prevalent.

Afi is a seamstress who comes from quite a large family, and she doesn’t have many prospects of elevating in life. That is until the mother of Elikem Ganyo plans for Afi to marry him in hopes he will leave the woman he is currently in a relationship with. As you can tell from the first sentence of the book, Elikem doesn’t even bother to show up to his own wedding. I wonder how this will all turn out? Afi moves to a fancy flat in Accra, but finds out this is not the house her husband uses as his primary residence. His family keeps telling her what she needs to do in order to get her husband to have only her. There’s so many twists and turns! I truly felt for Afi being thrown into such dysfunction without really having a choice.

Afi is a woman that is brave, strong-willed, independent, and most importantly relatable. She helped make this book illuminate what it means to be a woman in a world that is rapidly changing. She learns to adapt and handle life as it is thrown at her. This was ultimately a wonderful debut novel.

“His Only Wife” by Peace Adzo Medie: 4 stars

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Review – A Rogue of One’s Own

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Ashley - BlessedandBooked

I’m a little bit behind on my book reviews! I completed “A Rogue of One’s Own” by Evie Dunmore on October 23.

A quick synopsis supplied by Goodreads: A lady must have money and an army of her own if she is to win a revolution – but first, she must pit her wits against the wiles of an irresistible rogue bent on wrecking her plans…and her heart.

“A Rogue of One’s Own” by Evie Dunmore is the second book in the A League of Extraordinary Women series. This book focuses on Lady Lucinda (“Lucie”) and her role in the suffragist movement in England during the 1880s. She doesn’t want to get married and she wants women to be equally treated as men. Her old nemesis, Lord Tristan Ballentine, stands in her way. In this book, there is a truth to the saying “All’s fair in love and war”.

This book did not grab me like the first book in the series, as I thought it was a little long winded in its build up of the story. It took me a while to relate with the characters and really engage in what their purposes were. The last half of the book really picked up and saved the overall rating of this book. You’ll definitely have to read this one to find out of Lucie accomplishes everything she hopes to achieve in her role for women’s rights!

“A Rogue of One’s Own” by Evie Dunmore rating: 3 stars

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Review – The Switch

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Ashley - BlessedandBooked

I completed “The Switch” by Beth O’Leary a couple days ago. I had to sit with it before I wrote my review, because I loved “The Flatshare” so much! I kept asking myself if this book was just as good as her debut novel that I completed in one sitting. In the end, this one took three days to read, and yes, it was just as good as ‘The Flatshare”.

This novel takes place in London and Yorkshire. I so love British anything! The main characters are Leena and Eileen Cotton, a twenty-something and a seventy-something. Leena is Eileen’s granddaughter who is so caught up in work that she doesn’t see anything else around her, until she is forced to take a step back. The cool part in all of this is she takes a trip to visit her Grandmother Eileen and they pull a Freaky Friday and trade lives. They don’t switch bodies though! Leena stays in Yorkshire where she can delve into projects other than work, and Eileen moves into Leena’s apartment to try out the dating scene!

I love Beth O’Leary’s writing. She made me absolutely love Eileen with her sass and feistiness! Seriously, Eileen is the character that pushed this book into the 5 star category instead of keeping it in the 4 star category. Leena was a typical twenty-something and sometimes got on my nerves. She was trying to be someone she wasn’t and sometimes thought the world revolved around her instead of seeing the bigger picture. Thanks to Eileen many lives were saved from utter disaster.

This is a fun and quick read that I would definitely recommend to anyone who loves novels set in Britain, romance and comedy, and to just get away for a while. Since both of Beth O’Leary’s books have received 5 star ratings from me, I suppose she is also on the list of favorite authors. I can’t wait to see what she publishes next!

“The Switch” by Beth O’Leary rating: 5 stars

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Review – The Happy Ever After Playlist

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Ashley - BlessedandBooked

So, while I do my job search I am also getting a lot of reading accomplished! I’ve read several books this month, and how crazy is it that during “spooky” month I’m reading a lot of rom-coms!? Go figure. During Christmas, I’ll probably be reading the “spooky” books. Here’s some of what I’ve read….

I just completed “The Happy Ever After Playlist”. Wow! This book is the sequel to “The Friend Zone” written by Abby Jimenez. Sloan is trying to cope with life after a tragedy and is brought back to the land of the living by none other than a little dog who jumps into her car through the sunroof! Sloan finds the owner of the dog who happens to be a musician traveling in Australia, while she is in California. They strike up a bond, but will life get in the way? Both books in this series are gut-wrenching, but oh so good! Abby Jimenez is super witty and has a different writing style than I have ever read before. I gave both “The Friend Zone” and “The Happy Ever After Playlist” 5 stars. Way to go Abby Jimenez. She’s made it on the list of my favorite authors! 🙂

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