The Reunion by Kit Frick Review

71kiKvB+TlL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_Summary (from the publisher):

Eleven Mayweathers went on vacation. Ten came home.

It’s been years since the fragmented Mayweather clan was all in one place, but the engagement of Addison and Mason’s mom to the dad of their future stepbrother, Theo, brings the whole family to sunny Cancún, Mexico, for winter break. Add cousin Natalia to the mix, and it doesn’t take long for tempers to fray and tensions to rise. A week of forced family “fun” reveals that everyone has something to hide, and as secrets bubble to the surface, no one is safe from the fallout. By the end of the week, one member of the reunion party will be dead—and everyone’s a suspect.

The peacekeeper: Addison needs a better hiding place.
The outsider: Theo just wants to mend fences.
The romantic: Natalia doesn’t want to talk about the past.
The hothead: Mason needs to keep his temper under control.

It started as a week in paradise meant to bring them together. But the Mayweathers are about to learn the hard way that family bonding can be deadly.

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

Kit Frick quickly became one of my go-to YA thriller authors, having loved her 2022 release, Very Bad People, and her popular novel, I Killed Zoe Spanos. I was so excited then to read an early copy of her 2023 release, The Reunion. 

The Reunion is set during a family vacation at a Cancún resort, where all the teens (& some of the adults) have secrets to hide. The Mayweather family have been gifted a family vacation from their wealthy grandfather & grandmother in honor of Mason & Addison’s mom and Theo’s dad’s engagement. Mason and Addison used to be best friends with their cousin, Natalia, until the three discovered something that they shouldn’t have and Natalia moved across the country. Theo wants to get along with the Mayweathers for his father’s sake, but Addison and Mason aren’t so approving of their soon-to-be stepbrother. The novel transitions between the four teens’ perspectives during the vacation and present day emails, police interviews, and more when one of the Mayweathers is found dead at the end of the trip. 

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Under the Influence Review



under-the-influence-9781668004944_lgSummary (from the publisher):
The Devil Wears Prada meets The Assistants in this compulsively readable debut following a young woman who takes a job working for an enigmatic influencer and quickly discovers there’s an ugly side to being a #GirlBoss.

After a series of go-nowhere jobs in the New York publishing world, Harper Cruz is broke, lonely, and desperate for a salary that won’t leave her scrambling to make rent each month. So when she stumbles across a job posting from an influencer offering triple her last paycheck, she automatically submits her résumé.

Harper may not be familiar with self-help guru Charlotte Green, but her relentless optimism and charismatic can-do spirit has created a cult-like following of women across the country. When she selects Harper among thousands of other applicants in less than twenty-four hours, it’s obvious she sees something she likes. Despite the pressure to accept the offer just as quickly as she’s been given it, Harper decides to take a leap of faith and become the newest member of The Greenhouse.

Accepting the job means a move to Nashville, and Harper is quickly dazzled by the glamorous world Charlotte has built in Music City. The Greenhouse is more than a workplace—it’s a family—and Harper soon finds herself swept into its inner circle. At first, she loves working in such an inspirational environment, where mandatory dance parties, daily intentions, and group bonding activities make up for long hours and Charlotte’s persistent demands for loyalty. But the deeper Harper is pulled into Charlotte’s world, the more she realizes that having it all and being it all comes with a price.

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

I really enjoy reading books set in the media world, let alone a book that has been compared to The Devil Wears Prada, leading me to Noelle Crooks’ debut novel, Under the Influence

Under the Influence follows aspiring writer Harper, who has been laid off from her publishing job. She is one step away from moving back home to help her parents manage their inn, when she gets an offer to work as a “visionary strategist” with popular self-help influencer, Charlotte Green. Harper relocates to Charlotte’s headquarters in Nashville and as soon as she arrives, Harper is met with a tight inner circle of employees and demanding expectations. Although doubtful about this environment at first, Harper soon finds herself sucked in. 

Under the Influence meets The Devil Wears Prada comparisons, set in the influencer world. While I would say Charlotte is somewhat warmer than Miranda Priestly (although she has her moments), the around-the-clock work culture and some of the moments of tension definitely gave me flashbacks to the film. If you enjoyed books set in the media world, such as Cover Story by Susan Rigetti, I recommend checking Under the Influence out!

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The Roommate Pact Review

Summary (from the publisher): 

71Y4u3kacBL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_All of the fun, none of the heartache…as long as they stick to the agreement.

The proposition is simple: if ER nurse Claire Harper and her roommate, firefighter Graham Scott, are still single by the time they’re forty, they’ll take the proverbial plunge together…as friends with benefits. Maybe it’s the wine, but in the moment, Claire figures the pact is a safe-enough deal, considering she hasn’t had much luck in love and he’s in no rush to settle down. Like, at all. Besides, there’s no way she could ever really fall for Graham and his thrill-seeking ways. Not after what happened to her father…

Just as things begin to heat up way before the proposed deadline, Graham’s injured in a serious rock climbing accident—and he needs Claire’s help to heal. She’ll do whatever it takes to nurse him back to health…even if it means moving in to Graham’s bed and putting up with his little dog, who hates her. But with this no-strings arrangement taking a complicated turn, keeping “for now” from turning into “forever” isn’t as easy as they’d planned.

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

I’ve seen Allison Ashley’s Would You Rather in many friends to lovers contemporary romance recommendations, so I was excited to check out her latest release, The Roommate Pact. The Roommate Pact reads as a standalone, but the book can also read as a companion novel to Would You Rather (the two leads in that book are side characters in The Roommate Pact).

As the title suggests, The Roommate Pact follows roommates & friends, Claire & Graham. Claire is an ER nurse  and soon to be nurse-practitioner, who hasn’t had much luck finding the one, and the traumatic loss of her father years ago has made her cautious about who she falls in love with. Graham is a firefighter & adventure enthusiast whose own bad luck in love has made him cautious about giving his heart away. As friends (who have a ton of chemistry), Claire and Graham agree that if they don’t have a significant other in their life by 40, they’ll be partners. However, things start to speed ahead when Graham is hurt in a rock-climbing accident and Claire oversees his recovery. As the two grow closer, the pact seems to be coming a lot sooner than they ever expected. 

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