georgiasbookescapes's reviews
425 reviews

Cross the Line by Simone Soltani

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Dev and Willow grew up together. Dev’s now a F1 driver and thanks to a spiteful ex-employee is in a bit of a celebrity scandal. Willow loves sports but thanks to chronic pain can’t engage in it how she wanted growing up. So when the right job opportunity strikes to work in F1 she takes it. But it’s not just cars that are racing, it’ll be hearts too!

So I never expected I would get into a book about F1 driving but holy smokes did this one do it for me! And the diversity was beautifully added in and omg I want Dev to sing Bollywood song to me 😍😍😍 this was about to be a 4.5⭐️ but a homophonic quip at the end dropped it for me. I’m delighted knowing this is part of a series so I can get more of this 😍😍😍

Evil Eye by Etaf Rum

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Yara’s been cursed by the Evil Eye. She’s married to a man who provides for his family, she has two beautiful daughters, she’s freer than most American Palestinian women she knows being able to have gone to college and later work. But she still feels restricted in life. 

This was a beautiful and moving story about trauma and the effects of intergenerational trauma. The writing it beautiful, the reflections on discovering yourself when you’ve always felt trapped are beautifully done. This book flooded my feed when it first came out, but little since, and I’d love to see it popping up more again as it deserves the praise it’s received. 

Always Isn't Forever by J.C. Cervantes

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Ruby and Hart have loved each other since they were children. But in a bid to make more money for their sailboat, Hart dies in a tragic accident. But due to divine intervention Hart gets a second chance in the body of bad boy Jameson. Now Hart has little time to find his way back to Ruby. 

Younger me as a teen would honestly have frothed this book about soul mates who met as children! And I think many people will LOVE this book. But unfortunately for me I think I was the wrong age for this youthful soulmates story and found it too young for my preferred taste. If you love YA and soulmates you’ll love this!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for this ARC! 

The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Calla’s and her mother left Alaska 24 years ago. Calla hasn’t spoken to her Alaskan bush pilot father in 12 years. And now he’s sick and she has a chance to reconnect. Her mother warned her about falling in love with Alaskan bush pilots, or as she prefers to refer to them as “sky cowboys”. But sometimes people surprise you, and for Calla that person is the yeti Jonah.

So finding this book was thanks to a book bingo I chose to do, and the prompt was “set in the arctic”. Which let me tell you, finding a book that felt like my jam, that was set in the arctic with what was meant to be help from Google was hard. And when I started this book I wasn’t too sure if I’d even enjoy it, especially the first time “sky cowboys was referenced” 🤣 but man, the way Tucker writes about the scenes of Alaska in this book… I think I need to book my own trip asap! 

I Don't by Clementine Ford

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Clementine Ford is a feminist and in her latest book, she looks at the history and current sociopolitical worlds of marriage with a lens focused on middle class white people. Throughout the book Ford provides numerous references for statistics and historical facts whilst also providing a manifesto like voice to her writing. For those who enjoyed, in particular Fight Like A Girl, you will find a somewhat similar voice here. Ford doesn’t hold back, looking at history, the financial implications and choices that are made, statistics on divorce, pregnancy and divorce, the all too commonly overlooked domestic violence and a chapter on the engagement ring industry alone. Although for me personally, it did not sway me into wanting to marry my current partner (no need for congratulations yet, we’re still to formally get engaged rather than verbally affirm marriage is a entity we’d like to engage in), it was interesting to learn more about the history of the wedding industry and reflect on different aspects of how or why I may want to choose to make this choice. And ultimately, Ford is not telling people they cannot make the decision for marriage for themselves, but I felt, rather reflect on why each aspect is important given in white middle class society we are encouraged to blindly follow the narrative of marriage and what is “normal” regarding it. For Ford that meant realising she does not want to marry and that’s amazing and after reading this book I can see why she has chosen that for herself. I highly recommend this book for all people, those wanting to, or not wanting to marry, learn more about one of the most expensive industries for white middle class populations and reflect more within your own choices on the matter.

My Dream for You by Jasmin McGaughey, Ash Barty

emotional hopeful fast-paced

5.0

 The art work is stunning and the writing by Barty is beautiful. She wrote this for her first child and it beautifully captures all the lovely things a parent has opportunity to share with their child through life. If you’re in need of a picture book for any reason - I highly recommend this beautiful book! 💕

Human Acts by Han Kang

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

In 1980 there was a 10 day massacre following a student being shot at a university based protest in Gwangju, South Korea. This book follows experiences fictionalised of some of those who loved him. 

This book is dark, it is heavy, and all based in a dark reality I still know little about. But ultimately, as the title suggests, it was based on human acts. This was a 12 recommended by 12 friends. And it’s one I think that’s going to sit with me for a long time. I studied history at school, at university and still major historical events like this I only learn about by chance after a novel is written. This only happened 44 years ago. Welcome to being educated in the Western world I guess. Want history outside of a white lens? Work harder to find it I guess. Thanks for the recommendation @readbysez 

This is one I don’t know if I can numerically rate. 

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

4 generations of family, all starting from Palestine. On the night before of Alia’s wedding, her mother reads her future in a coffee cup. Holding some details to herself, all the events pass soon in the Six Day War of 1967. Forced to move about, the story shows different lives of the family and the impact from the invasion of Palestine all those generations back. 

This book is beautifully written. The impacts of colonisation from just the 20th century and the ongoing impacts that have been continuing including to right now and the current genocide occurring in Palestine. The impacts of trauma and intergenerational trauma are hard to move past. As the blurb of my book asks it ultimately boils down to - where do you go when you can’t go home?

Big thanks to Mostly Books for making this a Blind Date With A Book for me to nab! 😍

Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Grace Henderson is a soccer veteran, Phoebe Matthews is the latest rookie on the nationals team and plays the same spot as Grace. What starts for Grace as some possible rivalling and dealing with the fallout of an injury things change swiftly when spice hits the scene between the two women!

This is a cute sports lesbian romance which I didn’t know I needed in my life?!! The banter between the women and the spice scenes were a plenty 🥵 and both very welcome! 😏 for people wanting more fun lesbian stories that touch on heavy issues in a somewhat light manner - this book does it beautifully! I can’t wait for the TV series to come out! 😍😍

An American Immigrant by Johanna Rojas Vann

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Melanie is a second generation Colombian American journalist living in Miami. The last time she visited Colombia was for her Quinceañera 10 years ago. When an opportunity for a story comes up looking at the cocaine imports into Miami and its effects comes up she takes the opportunity to visit family. But she learns more than she ever expected. 

This book was really great for the first 60%. I loved learning through Melanie’s eyes about Colombia (I need to visit asap myself clearly it sounds so beautiful and fun) and through her mother’s journey to America. But the last 40% really dragged and I skimmed the last of it. I think if this was 100 pages shorter and more succinct in its ending it would’ve been a much more incredible book. It had all the right elements - personal story turned into a novel, but the level of detail about Melanie’s work dragged in the end. 

Thank you to NetGalley and WaterBrook & Mutlnomah for this ARC.