Mood Reader Mama

📚Love in Plane Sight by Lauren Connolly
🎧ALC Review(Copy gifted by )
🚨While reviewed copy is gifted, opinions are always my own.
Status: Available December 16, 2025, Not KU

🥰Enjoyment: As soon as I saw the author and narrator (Karissa Vacker) combo, I was in. Went in basically blind and was even more delighted to find we had a “brother’s best friend has always had it bad for her, and she doesn’t have a clue”. The stoic yearning as he repeatedly shows up for her?! Yes. Even better was that it lacked the classic “my brother will be so mad” that is usually a staple of the trope. Loved that.

📢Narration: If I see Karissa Vacker on Narration? I’m gunna at least give it a try. She is one of my favorites. No regrets.

QOTD: What is a trope you love to see?

So excited to visit my old friends in Tilikum this Christmas! I love Claire Kingsley’s way of telling a story so I think this is going to be the perfect pick-me-up I need right now! Thank you for including me in this mailer!

On a personal note:
If you are still here, thank you. I’ve been struggling to balance all the things life demands of single working mom in the middle of especially unprecedented times. I still don’t know how to get back to this space as carefree as I once was, but I’m still here lurking and of course reading.

QOTD: It’s been a while, tell me what’s new or exciting for you, or a release you are excited for.

This one comes out tomorrow!

Discover more than 50 queer-friendly places guided by the communities that live there.

Packed with insights, itineraries, and inspiration, this panoramic compendium will introduce you to LGBTQ+ locals who share, in their own words, the things that make their destination sparkle - with lesser-known attractions and off-the-beaten-path destinations that are inclusive and welcoming to LGBTQ+ travellers.

Thank you so much to & for allowing me the opportunity to get an early peek at this one.

QOTD: What travel destinations are currently too of list for you?

🎉 Pub Day Review!!🎉
📚Story of my Life by Lucy Score
🎧ALC Review(Copies gifted by )
🚨While reviewed copy is gifted, opinions are always my own.
Status: Available Now, on KU

🥰Enjoyment: I was so looking forward to this one and I’m so happy to say it met my high expectations. I loved this quirky little town and the cast of characters that we got to meet. Despite the chonky page count that I think puts some people off I feel like this was such a fast read. In someways I almost wanted more of the falling in love but I still loved every bit that we got. I can’t wait to see what more Story Lake has in store for us.

📢Narration: I’ll preface this by saying that I tend to listen on the slower end of the spectrum, especially when I’m having a good time. You can usually find me around 1.3x, if I go to fast it adds to my perpetual state of overstimulation… So this book was a bit of a conundrum for me. I found the female narrator had a much slower cadence than the male narrator. For her I needed to be at 1.7x to feel at pace, but then the POV would switch and it was too fast for me. I asked other and this wasn’t something that everyone was bothered by, but if you are sensitive to pacing like me just buyer beware. Aside from that the performances were great and no complaints about the actual narration.

QOTD: if you could live in the setting of a novel you’ve enjoyed, where would you be?

(Also thank you so much to & Lucy for this autographed arc edition! I was SO surprised not only to get selected to recieve it but when I realized it was signed?! 👨‍🍳💋)

Not only am I slumping ✨hard✨ right now, but some real life stress is making me feel guilty when I attempt to escape into a book. Comfort re-reads never make me feed bad for not giving them my laser focus and so it felt like the perfect time to revisit the Agitator boys.

Kiss And Don’t Tell is actually the only one in the series that I didn’t previously own in audio form and I had some spare credits I wanted to use, so all circumstances considered told me it was the perfect time to remedy that.

Forever grateful to for giving us this lovable team of hockey boys. (And so curious to see how/where OC will pop up with his own story.)

QOTD: Do you have any comfort reads?