April’s reading recap is short and sweet. I didn’t get much reading done and the reading I did do mostly fell flat, unfortunately. I did have my very first ARC, which its review will be posted on here very soon – be on the lookout for that! Without further ado, below is my reading recap for April 2025:
Yours, For Now by Leonor Soliz – DNF @ 54% – Yours, For Now is the story of two very ambitious individuals who come together to both reach their own goals at work. Lina works at her father and uncle’s company but she is ready for more responsibility in a greater capacity – the hope to one day take over the company – but her machista father and uncle refuse to see her talent and potential, and continue to squash her attempts to prove herself. In a last ditch effort to get them to see her professional worth, she comes up with a plan to pitch a partnership that could benefit both companies. Gabe, her acquaintance and billionaire on the CEO track at his father’s company, becomes part of her plan when she pitches her plan to him and his father to form the partnership that could bring her plan to life at her father’s company. Except that at the pitch meeting, Lina’s father thinks she and Gabe are dating. Lina hitches onto this idea, in hopes that having them believe that she and Gabe are together, that it’ll get her project through the door. Seemingly a win-win for both, will this fake dating thing work?
I don’t know if it did because I had to put it down. I really, really wanted to like this book (and finish it). This is my second attempt at reading a Leonor Soliz book, and I DNFed the first one too. Unfortunately, this book didn’t hold my attention enough to warrant finishing it. I found both Lina and Gabe to be boring characters. I understand that this story is centered around their jobs but there wasn’t much happening outside of that. In the half of the book I did read, Lina apparently didn’t have any friends or do anything that wasn’t work. Gabe was similar but he at least had a soccer league and group chat with his buddies. They were both giving cardboard cutout, which was very disappointing. On the fake dating angle, they didn’t interact much to make them starting to fall for each other believable. Granted, I don’t know if something happens later on to make it seem like they legit like each other that way, but I would wager that even for a book that’s classified as a slow burn, that we’d see something by the halfway mark. I feel bad for not finishing this one since I really wanted to like it but I wasn’t enjoying it.
The Summers Between Us by Noreen Nanja – This was an ARC (my first one!) so no sneak preview of my review or rating – which is coming soon!
Just Our Luck by Denise Williams – Just Our Luck is the story of Sybil Sweet, a woman who believes she’s lucky – except the ones around her don’t necessarily subscribe to that same thought. Sybil is seen as the odd one out in her family as she’s seemingly all over the place with no plan or direction in life and is constantly messing up in their eyes. After a night out with friends, she buys a lottery ticket on a whim before heading into a donut shop for a late night sweet treat. In the shop she meets Kieran, who runs the shop and sells her a donut. Sybil and Kieran share a moment that leads to Sybil leaving a note on said lottery ticket for Kieran before running out – like a weird Cinderalla moment – only to find out that Sybil’s ticket was actually a winner. In a bid to get it back to its rightful owner, Kieran gets on social media and he and Sybil go viral. Shenanigans ensue where Sybil concocts the idea of paying Kieran to agree to being in a fake relationship to keep business in Kieran’s family’s donut shop flowing and to help him pay his bills, and to make herself look less like a fuck up to her family. What could possibly go wrong?!?!
I’m usually a fan of Denise Williams’s books but this one was not it for me. I don’t think Sybil and Kieran had chemistry at all. Outside of going 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye, it felt forced. That, and constant double entendres and innuendo from Sybil in almost every conversation she had with Kieran was more cringey than it was sexy or endearing. If it had been the other way around, they would have been a creep to me. Without including any spoilers, the last few chapters felt rushed and glossed over that one big thing that happened too quickly. I gave it three stars because there were a few cute moments but in general, a miss for me.
