Review: Ultimate Journeys for Two: Extraordinary Destinations on Every Continent

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Ultimate Journeys for Two: Extraordinary Destinations on Every Continent, written by the travel bloggers, Mike and Anne Howard bring shares a resourceful book for travelers embraces their experiences traveling across all seven continents. With it's beautiful inviting photographs, you are many resourceful tips to help you plan your next extended adventure.

The book highlights information and practical tips on places to stay, adventures, features from fellow influential travelers, top destinations to see, booking planning, money concerns, accommodations, lodging and getting around locally. The book is broken down by topical features as well as a resource chapter that embraces many of the concerns you might be thinking of with everything regarding preparation and planning.

Overall, anything collaborated with National Geographic is always going to be a go to and I will recommend purely based on it. The only things that I wish was more of a personal touch. In the end, I got a glimpse of who there were and how they began their journey. I would've love to read personal commentary pertaining to some of the destinations. That would've made it more personal rather than your straightforward practical tips and information. We do get small tips from them but I would've loved it to be a blended experience. If you love traveling like me, than you will appreciate the beauty and resources that this book offers. So, for your next trip with your significant other or even a friend, check this out for some great ideas and information.

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Review: The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle

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I thought this was an interesting premise. I’ve rarely come across a story where someone (a common, regular person) falls in love with a bodyguard of the royal family. It’s usually the main character falling in love with a member of the royal family. Or if it’s going to be a bodyguard situation, the other part of the love story is in the royal family. So, I was very intrigued to see how The Royals Next Door. All and all, it was a fine story.

The story centers on Piper Evans who is an elementary school teacher and someone who hosts an anonymous romance book podcast. She takes care of her mother who suffers from mental illness. Her life is pretty average. That is until British royals rent the property next to hers and their brooding, yet very attractive bodyguard comes with them.

I thought Piper was a great main character. I enjoyed her internal thoughts and her determination. Especially towards the end of the book when things aren’t working out in her favor. The podcast isn’t a major factor in the book, until the end, but it does allow for Piper to have a great outstanding moment.

The issue I’ve had with Piper and Harrison’s romance was that it was quite boring. Yes, they shared a few moments of banter, and they sort of had this sunshine/grumpy thing going on. But it still felt uneventful. I found myself enjoying Piper’s other relationships more. I thought the relationship with her mother was endearing and insightful, even though her mental illness could have been handled with much better care. Even her relationship with her fellow teachers was much more interesting than her relationship with Harrison. Piper had so much personality, and Harrison seemed to have very little personality.

It was very clear that the royals in this book were inspired by Harry and Meghan. And that was fun. I thought they were interesting despite them not feeling very royal at all.

Final Thoughts

The Royals Next Door is a book that has a weak romance, but a great main character who shines.

Review: More Bad Days in History by Michael Farquhar

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Publisher: National Geographic (June 8, 2021)

Hardcover: 464 pages

In these gleefully gloomy pages, you’ll find a politically smeared George Washington, a cranky Colonel Sanders, a homicidal Saint Olga of Kiev, a cuckolded Napoleon, a flame-censored Steinbeck, a treacherous Douglas MacArthur, a weeping Einstein, an exasperated Charles Dickens, a humiliated King Henry II, and a faux-contrite Ted Kennedy. And that’s just in July!

From the decadent palaces of ancient Rome to the modern Halls of Congress, this illuminating (sometimes disturbing) narrative features an almost endless array of misbehavior, amusing mishaps, and breathtaking misfortune over the ages and across the historical spectrum. Each less-than-red-letter day of the year is recounted in Farquhar’s wry voice and comes with the enduring lesson The Wall Street Journal found in the first volume of this series: “Bad Days in History may offer consolation to the great mass of quotidian belly-achers . . . whose piddling misfortunes and regrets will snap neatly into perspective when set against [this] record of idiocy and disaster.”

This surprising and sometimes heartbreaking collection of mayhem and malady will leave you amused, intrigued, and horrified by day after day of hilarious catastrophe.

Review:

To my regret, I hadn't stumbled upon the preceding book. More Bad Days in History, is the sequel to Bad Days in History, continuing the entertaining highlights of some of the most unfortunate events in history. Delving through centuries, the book highlights a wide range of figures, personalities and events. Each date entry focuses on an event that happened on that day in history. Between the witty titles and the humor brought to each experience, it was a book that I found comfort in the cliché of someone else had a worse day than I.

The book is long but rich with humor, promising a good time for those who love history, politics, pop culture, religion and sports to name a few. There were laugh out loud moments and some leaving me shaking my head. The illustrations were such a bonus to complement some of the entries. Not sure if there are any more books planned for this collection in the future but I would love to see if there is what's to come.

Review: The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams

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Is it ever too late to leave the friend zone?

Hi, my name is Bree Camden, and I’m hopelessly in love with my best friend and star quarterback Nathan Donelson (as is half of America, judging by the tabloids and how much the guy dates). The first step is admitting, right? Except I can never admit it to him because he clearly doesn’t see me that way, and the last thing I want is for things to get weird between us.

Nothing but good old-fashioned, no-touching-the-sexiest-man-alive, platonic friendship for us! Everything is exactly how I like it! Yes. Good. (I’m not crying, I’m just peeling an onion.)

Our friendship is going swimmingly until I accidentally spill my beans to a reporter after too much tequila, and now the world seems to think Nathan and I belong together. Oh, and did I mention we have to date publicly for three weeks until after the Super Bowl because we signed a contract with...oops, forgot I can’t tell anyone about that!

Bottom line is, now my best friend is smudging all the lines and acting very un-platonic, and I’m just trying to keep my body from bursting into flames every time he touches me. How am I going to make it through multiple weeks of fake dating Nathan without anything changing between us? Especially when it almost-sorta-kinda seems like he’s fighting for a completely different outcome?

Send help.
XO Bree

The Cheat Sheet is a closed-door, sizzling-with-chemistry, romantic comedy that will have you laughing and rooting for these lovable best friends from the first page!

Review

The Cheat Sheet had so much potential. The fake trope is top notch entertainment and can be such a good plot device. Unfortunately, The Cheat Sheet fails to deliver.

The biggest problem that I had was that it felt like a lot of word vomit. Within the first couple of pages, the entire backstory of both characters was revealed. It felt like too much information dumping.

The characters felt a little one dimensional. I like Nathan a little bit more than Bree. However, at times both of them were mature. Also, the miscommunication got a little frustrating. They have been the best of friends forever, and I would think that at some point they would be able to have a clear conversation with each other.

One thing that I will say is that I really liked the few scenes we got with Bree and her students. I wish there had been more because it really brought the entertainment aspect to the books.  

As for their occupations- ballerina and football player? It is so deep in the background that these characters could be doing something else and it wouldn’t change the plot at all.

Final Thoughts

The Cheat Sheet fails to deliver on the sports romance mixed with fake dating tropes and feels very rushed at the end. 

Review: A Deal with the Devil by Elizabeth O'Roark

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Tali is struggling to finish her novel, and when she is asked to be Hayes Flynn’s personal assistant, she can’t really turn it down- even though he is an arrogant jerk. She is struggling with money. So, she agrees. And she learns that there might be something else under that smug exterior.  

I enjoyed this book, and it was a shame that is only 200+ pages. From the beginning, I was hooked and excited to witness this journey. The chemistry between the characters was off the chart and I really loved the build-up of them becoming something more. They had this rapid fire banter. Both Hayes and Tali are two wounded souls who had been burned in previous relationship. Because of that they had lost their trust in people.

At the beginning they had this borderline enemies to lovers relationship. Tali asked to many questions, and Hayes was just grumpy. But something shifted, they developed this sincere friendship, and they had these jokes with each other and found themselves wanting to spend time with each out. This is a romance book, with a happy ending. So, obviously they do eventually get together.

Like mentioned before, I found this to be a little too short. I wanted more. The book is told through the POV of Tali only and I wished we would have gotten insight into Hayes. They both are interesting characters, and I would have liked to have known what was going through his head with all of this.

Final Thoughts

A Deal with the Devil is an entertaining, sexy romantic book with a great romance. 

Review: Donut Go Breaking My Hearts by Shyla Colt

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Donut Go Breaking My Hearts is a cute, fun, and easy read. Most importantly I think it has a lot of potential.

Donut Go Breaking My Hearts is about Dido, whose boyfriend breaks up with her because the passion in their relationship is missing.  And after witnessing her parent’s divorce at a young age, she feels a little cautious about relationships from the beginning anyway. Enter Rowdy, who is a familiar face to Dido and has a secret attraction to her.

One of my biggest issues with this book is the excessive dialogue. The ratio between dialogue and explanation/descriptions was outrageous. And I felt that some descriptions would have given an extra kick to the book. Because of the crazy amount of dialogue everything felt rushed. And the magic of the couple almost got lost. I will say that I really enjoyed the growth shown with Dido as she learned to not let her parent's relationship determine her future. 

Final Analysis

Donut Go Breaking My Hearts had a solid love story with interesting and funny characters. Unfortunately, the excess dialogue almost overshadowed that.