Hello readers! Welcome to Lovebird Book Reviews where I, Avary King, review/recommend the latest and greatest of everyone’s favorite genre: romance. This is a spoiler-FREE zone!
Welcome back, readers! The fall semester is officially underway and I am already ready for a break. I need a break from homework, classes, and the impending doom of that first exam of the semester. I need a place that is filled with joy, comedy, and fun. I need to escape to a place that shows me pet videos and Taylor Swift edits. I need a place to watch girls my age who look like supermodels get ready for school using an ensemble of face products that cost more than the amount of my last paycheck. I need a place (last one, I promise I’m getting to the point) that gives me book recommendations and AI-generated pictures of my favorite book characters. If only a place like this existed. Oh wait, it does! Social media has its downfalls but to look at the glass half full, it is a lovely place for the book community to gather and pledge our undying loyalty to our fandoms. But it is my opinion that there is no greater social platform for all things book-related, than TikTok. But I do not escape to just plain TikTok my friends, I escape to the wondrous place of joy, magic, and fun known as BookTok. BookTok can be plainly described as a corner of TikTok where book lovers show what books they are reading and recommend their favorites. There may also be the occasional crying, screaming, and rage-throwing of objects. But don’t let this slightly irrational behavior scare you off. You try reading about your favorite characters finally giving into their feelings of desire towards one another, and sealing their fate with a white-hot burning kiss, and then try not to scream and throw your book across the room. BookTok has a trending tag on almost every major news site and has been called a phenomenon by The Guardian, Epigram, Business Insider, and The Oxford Student, to name a few. The point is, this is serious. Books go viral on BookTok and suddenly they are sold out everywhere and you can’t scroll through 3 videos without seeing someone talking about it. Romance books are no laughing matter. Some of these viral BookTok recommendations have led me to some of my favorite books of all time, and others have made me wish I was illiterate. So for this article, I have decided to choose 4 of these viral books and let you know if I think they are worth the hype!
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DISCLAIMER
Read at your own risk! Some of the books that I recommend mention or talk about sensitive subjects that could be considered triggering for some individuals.
Fourth Wing
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Page Number: 500
Release Date: May 2nd 2023
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 5/5 stars
Read the description for Fourth Wing here:
This book had to be first on the list. This book is the reason I became a true believer in the power of BookTok. I love this author and I always said “I never see her books on TikTok.” But then in May, I am just scrolling along BookTok scouring for books to add to my endless TBR. And then I see a TikTok from a BookTok creator screaming over how good this new book is. I see this quote float across my screen “‘Going for blood today, are we, Violence?’ he whispers. Metal hits the mat again and he kicks it past my head and out of my reach. He’s not taking my daggers to use against me; he’s disarming me just to prove he can. My blood boils. ‘My name is Violet,’ I seethe. ‘I think my version fits you better.’ He releases my wrist and stands, offering me a hand. “We’re not done yet.’” After that, I was in a daze of book lust. I had no thoughts, I just wanted more. So I did the rational thing and without a second thought, I went straight to Amazon to order it. But guess what? It was sold out. EVERYWHERE. And believe me, I checked everywhere. Barnes and Noble, Walmart, Books A Million, you name it – I tried it. I tried for weeks to get my hands on this book. However, the influencing powers of BookTok caused every single person on the app to buy it. I didn’t end up getting it until July and I read it in a single day. I sat outside in the summer sun, read the entire thing, and got a sunburn in the process. But it was worth it. Because this book was 100% worth the hype. Everything about this book was perfect, the worldbuilding, the characters, the lore, and most importantly the dragons. Can we spend some time talking about Xaden? We absolutely can cause this is my article and you can’t tell me what to do. Violet and Xaden were a masterclass in the enemies-to-lovers trope, their chemistry was *chef’s kiss*. I should be ashamed because I loved Xaden from the start, even though he very clearly wanted to kill Violet. But just know this, behind every villain is me falling in love with them. To wrap this up I haven’t felt love like this for a book since I read ACOTAR (A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas). And if you know anything about me, you should understand the weight of that statement. At the time of writing this article Fourth Wing is still in stock, so READ THE BOOK.
The Serpent and The Wings of Night
Author: Carissa Broadbent
Page Number: 532
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Release Date: August 30th 2022
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Read the description for Serpent & The Wings of Night:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60714999-the-serpent-and-the-wings-of-night?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_15
This book was an interesting one for me. I went through a long reading stretch where I was reading nothing but intense fantasy romance books. And when you are reading a new fantasy book it can be compared to learning a new language. You have to forget everything you know about the real world and fully immerse yourself in the new language, customs, and territory of the fantasy world. This was definitely one of the higher-quality fantasies I’ve read. The world-building was next level. We all know that nothing will ever top Sarah J. Maas for me, but I was very impressed by this author. I did feel like it wasn’t the most “original” story but I was definitely entertained. And I am willing to overlook a lot if a book is entertaining and this book scored a 9/10 on the entertainment factor. In the book’s defense, I read a lot of fantasy so sometimes it can be hard to not compare different books to one another. It did take me a while to warm up to the love interest Rhain just because I felt that the author was hinting that we shouldn’t trust him. It was fun warming up to Rhain at the same time that our MC (main character) Oyra did. Usually, when the villain first appears on the page I immediately fall in love (I’m looking at you Rhysand). Rhain definitely has book-boyfriend potential, but I think he needs to grow into that role a little more before I bestow the official title on him. At the end of the day, you give me a book about ruthless, sexy vampires and I will read it.
Ice Breaker
Author: Hannah Grace
Page Number: 435
Genre: Adult fiction, Romance
Release Date: August 23, 2022
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Read the description for Ice Breaker here:
When this book started showing up on my for-you page I immediately bought it. I didn’t read what it was about, I didn’t look at the reviews, I just saw a man in a hockey jersey and like a mindless drone hit swipe to order. Nate Hawkins (our male MC) really carried this book for me. He is the textbook definition of a golden retriever boyfriend. Did the entire plot of this book revolve around romance? Yes. Did I still enjoy it? Yes. This book also had some excellent spice. People underestimate the talent it takes to write great spicy scenes. It is a very delicate art form that is easily screwed up. Definitely points on the spice for this one! I did notice a theme in this book and some of the other recent romance novels I’ve read that I do not like. I love drama and fighting as much as the next girl, which is the reason so many people (myself included) have Gorilla Glued their eyeballs to reality TV shows. But there comes a point in those shows that feel you’ve just had enough and the drama/fighting start to feel scripted. Even though this is a book, I couldn’t help but get that same feeling. I didn’t appreciate the constant problems arising for the main characters just to have them solved within 5 pages. It’s almost like the author just made them fight/break up for literally no reason other than writing a makeup scene. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good makeup scene, throw in some groveling with a dash of spice and I am happy. But when I have to read 7 fight/breakup scenes, the makeup scenes just don’t hit the same. I did enjoy how Anastasia (our female MC) had a lot of growth and development throughout this book. Nate and Anastasia had a lot of small moments throughout the book that kept the flame of true love alive. My favorite scene was definitely the Halloween jersey scene. It would be criminal to have a sports romance without some kind of jersey scene. To summarize this wasn’t my favorite hockey romance I’ve read, but it definitely is worth the read. (p.s buy this book based on the cover alone, #gorgeous)
Things We Never Got Over
Author: Lucy Score
Page Number: 572
Genre: Adult fiction, Romance
Release Date: January 12th, 2022
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Read the description for Things We Never Got Over here:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60060431-things-we-never-got-over?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_17
This book is one that is heavily debated on BookTok. Some people LOVE it, other people HATE it. I for one LOVED it. I read this book before it went viral on TikTok so when I started seeing it blow up everywhere I was so excited. But then I started to see a lot of negative reviews on the book and I was confused. So, I reread it, with the negative reviews in mind, and I still loved it. Now I recognize this book had some flaws, but hey so do I. We can’t all be perfect. The only thing I truly did not like about this story was Naomi’s sister, Tina. That woman can be thrown into a volcano for all I care. This book had a lot going for it. It has mystery,it has romance, it has crime. I felt that this was the author’s attempt to avoid the stigma of a book in which the only plot is romance. And I for one am PRO books where the plot is only romance. But all of the different genre elements kept me on my toes throughout the novel. I was very intrigued by the crime/mystery storyline, I don’t read a lot of that genre book so it was quite refreshing. This was one of those books that felt like your favorite comfort TV show. I couldn’t stop picturing Kockmount as Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls. The town just felt so cozy and pumpkin spice, if that makes sense. Lucy Score wrote the side characters extremely well. They were fun and lovable. I was so excited when I found out this book was a part of a series. Because what is better than one book, say it with me folks, two books. I wanna dedicate a section of this review to the beautifully written dynamic of Naomi and Waylay. Both of these characters made a home in my heart throughout this book. Waylay had been through so much and I was so happy she got a stable adult relationship in her life. I legitimately felt my eyes watering at some of their scenes. Just last week I finished reading The Things We Leave Behind, which is the final book in this trilogy and I think it was my favorite of the three. So if you haven’t read this book yet, the good news is once you finish the first one; you don’t have to wait for the next books in the series to release! There is truly nothing like the feeling of reading a completed series so that you don’t have to wait for the next books to be released. Take advantage of this completed series and thank me later.
This is the rating system I try to follow for consistency. In all honesty, I will only recommend books that I like because I consider all readers my friends, so most of the books I recommend will be 3-5 stars because that means I truly enjoyed them and would read again.
