#AudioBookReview: Hot Chocolate on Thursday by Michiko Aoyama translated by E. Madison Shimoda My Review: This interconnected collection of short stories begins, and ends, with a young woman arriving at the cozy little Marble Cafe in Tokyo to order a hot chocolate. On Thursday. Always on Thursday, always at 3 pm. It makes a delightful little treat for her, for the cafe’s manager, and for the reader as well. Because the story in between that manager’s perspective of her and her regular visits at the beginning and her perspective at the end is every bit as round as a marble, just like the cafe’s name.

#AudioBookReview: Hot Chocolate on Thursday by Michiko Aoyama translated by E. Madison Shimoda #booksky #BookReview #audioreview #audiobooks #HanoverSquarePress #harlequinaudio
#relationshipfiction #MagicalRealism #michikoaoyamaauthor @hanoversquarepress.bsky.social #MarbleCafe…

A- #BookReview: The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee by Saki Kawashiro, translated by Yuka Maeno My Review: There are no actual funerals in this book, only metaphorical ones. Considering the state of most of the clients of the Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee, if there actually WERE funerals, there would be a LOT of them, the recently deceased would probably have died in some gruesome way, and this would be an entirely different kind of book.

A- #BookReview: The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee by Saki Kawashiro translated by Yuka Maeno @crownpublishing #sakikawashiro #yukamaeno #relationshipfiction #sadfluff #worldliterature #friendshipfiction #foodiefiction

#AudioBookReview: The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Takami Nieda My Review: I picked this up because I LOVED the author’s first book, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library and was hoping for more just like it. That particular book is one of my favorites among the current trend of mostly light, slightly bittersweet, loosely linked stories that are more about healing and interconnected relationships than they are anything else.

#AudioBookReview: The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Takami Nieda #BookReview #audioreview #audiobooks #HanoverSquarePress #harlequinaudio
#relationshipfiction #sadfluff #MagicalRealism @tnieda.bsky.social #michikoaoyamaauthor @hanoversquarepress.bsky.social

#BookReview: Life And Death And Giants by Ron Rindo (via @stmartinspress.bsky.social). The Dust In The Room Slowly Builds Up.

#amreading #mensfiction #relationshipfiction #family #secrets #smalltown #rural #Amish #Wisconsin #football #prowrestling #men #BookSky 📚💙🖋️

bookanon.com/2025/09/15/b...

#BookReview: Before We Say Goodbye by @boowalkerbooks.bsky.social . Quite Possibly Walker's Best Yet.

#amreading #mensfiction #relationshipfiction #historicalfiction #wine #winery #family #smallbusiness #California #Washington #fame #fortune #Woodstock #BookSky 📚💙⌛

bookanon.com/2025/08/28/b...

A- #BookReview: The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth by Barbara O’Neal My Review: The story begins, as so many of this author’s stories do, with two women of different generations at separate but equally tumultuous crossroads in their lives, going on an unexpected journey together that takes them through dark places towards the light of understanding, healing and hope. Veronica Barrington’s dream of a perfect life was shattered not long after the pandemic ended and things were supposed to be back to “normal”.

A- #BookReview: The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth by Barbara O'Neal #barbaraoneal #amazonpublishing #lakeunionpublishing #relationshipfiction #womensfiction #tlcbooktours

#BookReview: Florida Palms by @joepan.bsky.social (via Simon & Schuster). Update #TheOutsiders To 2009 ish #Florida And You Have This Book.

#amreading #mensfiction #relationshipfiction #family #drugs #gang #hunting #Panther #GreatRecession #poor #BookSky 📚💙⚡🖋️

bookanon.com/2025/07/22/b...

#BookReview: The Second Chance Convenience Store by Kim Ho-yeon translated by Janet Hong My Review: There are a whole series, actually series-es, that are very similar to this one, often translated from either Korean or Japanese. Generally, they are feel good stories about small acts of kindness and building community, set around an unlikely or out of the way place that manifests just for people who need it. Some of those stories, like…

#BookReview: The Second Chance Convenience Store by Kim Ho-yeon translated by Janet Hong ‪@harpercollins.bsky.social‬ #KimHo-Yeon #JanetHong #relationshipfiction #sadfluff #worldliterature

#BookReview: The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill My Review: There are two sayings about home, and they usually contradict each other. There’s the one about home being the place that when you have to go there, they have to take you in, and the one that says you can’t go home again. Darby never thought he’d want to go back to his tiny Illinois hometown, but he’s about to turn 30, the start-up he’s been working for has just folded, and the rent on his New York City shoebox apartment is going up at the end of the month to a point he couldn’t even have afforded when he was working.

#BookReview: The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill @edwardunderhill.bsky.social @bedsqpublishers.bsky.social @avonbooks.bsky.social #fantasy #MagicalRealism #relationshipfiction #sadfluff #timetravelfiction #queerfiction #RandomThingsTours @annerandomthings.bsky.social

Grade A #BookReview: The Stand-In Dad by Alex Summers My Review: I picked this up because of the title. The idea of a ‘stand-in’ dad - for any reason - just sounded so very appealing. The book looked like it would be just wonderfully warm and fuzzy - which is just what I was looking for and also exactly what it turned out to be. Meg and Hannah are engaged to be married when the story opens.

Grade A #BookReview: The Stand-In Dad by Alex Summers @avonbooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social #AlexSummersAuthor #RelationshipFiction #QueerFiction #FamilyLifeFiction #FoundFamilyFiction

#BookReview: Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman My Review: The story begins at the end, which doesn’t mean that either the narrator or the reader is in any way spoiled about how it began. Because that’s the point of it from the beginning. Griffon Keming is trying to understand who his parents really were before they became his parents, now that their larger-than-life personas are no longer there to get in the way of that knowing.

#BookReview: Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman #fantasy #litfic @isaac-fellman.bsky.social @torbooks.bsky.social #ScienceFiction #RelationshipFiction