Chef’s Kiss by Jarrett Melendez, Illustrated by Danica Brine

4 stars A sweet, adorable tale about cooking, finding your passions, gaining confidence, and always having friends by your side. Such a cute story. Melendez provides a fresh, fun look at life after college complete with the struggles of finding a job, dealing with overbearing parents, new crushes, and fights with friends. Plenty of romantic…

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Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier, Illustrated by Val Wise

4 stars A graphic novel featuring cheerleading and LGBTQIA+ leads? Yes, please! A charming story about reconnecting, speaking out, and trying new things. Loved the emphasis on second chances and growing as individuals. Despite the short length, a lot of issues are packed into this wonderful graphic novel. School pressure, unrequited crushes, fitting in, and…

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Let’s Make Dumplings! by Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan

5 stars A mouthwatering collection packed with facts, recipes, and adorable illustrations. Anytime I picked this book up, I instantly craved dumplings in one form or another. This book has everything from savory dumplings, to sweet dumplings, more traditional flavors and some riffs. I really enjoyed the mix-and-match style of the book. Amano provides the…

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Strawberry Shortcake Murder (Hannah Swensen #2) by Joanne Fluke

2 stars Made it through another Hannah Swensen Mystery. When I started out listening to the second book, part of me was conflicted on why I was so disappointed in the first one. The writing is not by any means good and everything is irritatingly overly explained as though Joanne Fluke thinks her readers can’t…

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swenson #1) by Joanne Fluke

2 stars I currently work in a library and this series is quite popular among our patrons. Though I haven’t read many cozy mysteries, I wanted to see what it was all about. There were a lot of cringey moments with bad writing, overly detailed scenes, terrible police work, unethical vigilantism, talking down to the…

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