Recent Reads: The Amsterdam Edition

 What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon (2025)

Dani heads to Amsterdam to hopefully get a fresh start in life but doesn't expect to run into Wouter, the foreign exchange student hosted by her family years earlier and who also ended up being her first love.  Their relationship didn't end well, but now Wouter has a proposition for Dani - if they get married, she'll get to stay in Amsterdam and he'll inherit his family's historic house along the canal.  Although they mean to stay professional about it, old feelings start bubbling up.  While I normally don't get on board with second chance romances, I liked this one.  Dani and Wouter were so young when they first dated, and now they're all grown up and very different people.  Yet, they still seem to understand each other.  However, my favorite part of the book was the "trip" to Amsterdam we got to take.  You can definitely tell that Solomon loves living there in real life and was eager for Dani to learn all about it.  4 stars

The Expat Affair by Kimberly Belle (2025)

Two women are drawn into the Amsterdam diamond industry when an employee of a prestigious diamond house is found murdered.  One woman is the one-night stand who was there during the murder; the other is the wife of the dead man's boss.  Who killed Xander, and where are the missing diamonds?  This was an interesting mystery - the inside look at the diamond industry was fascinating.  I liked that we got to see two different sides of the story with chapters from both Rayna (the one-night stand) and Willow (the wife).  I did find the pacing a bit slow and the reveals were too drawn out, but there were definitely lots of twists and turns and the ending did surprise me.  4 stars

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Month in Review: January 2026

 

January was a fairly quiet month.  We all went back to school and work after a nice break.  Work for me was busy as we had a deadline this month that I was involved in.  A big snowstorm dropped almost a foot of snow on us, which is still hanging around because it has been bitterly cold and nothing is melting!  The highlight of the month was a family trip to Medieval Times - our knight didn't win, but we all had a blast!

The Books

And Then There Was You // When the Moon Hits Your Eye // Pitcher Perfect // A Queen's Match

One Italian Summer // Any Trope But You // The Family // The Wager

What Happens in Amsterdam // The Expat Affair

The Posts

My Favorite Books of 2025!

2025 Reading Year in Review!

2025 Goals Recap

Michele's Monday Picks #86

Michele's 2025 Reading Wrap-Up!

Henry's Shelves #10: New Additions

2026 Goals

Fiction/Nonfiction Quick Reviews: The Tudor Edition

Michele's Monday Picks #87

Can't-Wait Wednesday: She Made Herself a Monster

Recent Reads

Indie Bookstore Spotlight: Charter Books

Recent Reads

How are you doing?

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Michele's Monday Picks #88

 Angela is so generous to let me pop in with my series, Michele’s Monday Picks!  I’m not a blogger or bookstagrammer, but I love getting excited about new releases with the rest of you.  Here I’ll be sharing new books I’m really looking forward to!

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Racing Hearts

By Ann Adams

Expected Publication: February 10, 2026

From Goodreads:

When a competitive rower’s losing streak threatens her Olympic dreams, she must train for the summer with a hometown coach to win it all back in this irresistible opposites-attract romance. 

Katherine Parker doesn’t just dream of rowing in the Olympics. She has a carefully crafted plan. With a strict training schedule, a meticulous diet, and no one else in her boat to slow her down, she’s as good as gold.

Then her boyfriend breaks up with her at the starting line of a big race and Kath comes in dead last. She’s swiftly kicked off the team and out of the Olympic Training Center—the only place she’s ever felt at home.

With one shot to win back her spot, Kath returns to her hometown to train with a new coach. The upside? Coach Adrian is hot. The downside? Instead of letting Kath follow her own training regimen, Adrian pushes her outside her comfort zone, urging her to try new things and let go of control.

With her Olympic dreams on the line, Kath will have to choose: stick to her perfect plan, or find out if the key to winning—and happiness—is to embrace the part of rowing that makes it fun, one sweaty, sexy training session at a time.

I don’t choose a lot of contemporary romance for this series, but the rowing aspect sounded fun to me! Do you think you’ll be picking this one up?

Recent Reads

Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine (2025)

Margot is a romance author facing backlash after her "Happily Never After" document is released to the public.  She heads to Alaska to work on a murder mystery and there she meets Forrest, who helps run the resort with his father.  Although there are sparks, both try to avoid an entanglement, until it becomes impossible not to.  This was a cute read that managed to mix in some serious topics; I enjoyed the way the author played with romance tropes and how Margot couldn't escape them.  Forrest did seem like the perfect guy and they kept finding themselves in some cliche situations.  I liked how Forrest really seemed to understand Margot and they bonded over their family members being ill.  But while there was a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor at romance novels, I wish this one hadn't succumbed to some of the more tired romance tropes, like the third-act break-up.  Overall, though, this was a fun read!  4 stars

The Family by Naomi Krupitsky (2022)

Sofia and Antonia are best friends growing up in NYC in the 1930s and 1940s.  Their fathers are both also in the mafia.  When Antonia's father "disappears" one night, their lives are forever changed.  I thought this was an interesting read - Antonia and Sofia are so different but forever linked by their fathers' jobs.  The story follows the girls from childhood to marriage and motherhood.  Their relationship ebbs and flows through the years, especially after Antonia's father's disappearance, and we see the girls questioning the family business and their roles in it and also what they envision for their own lives.  The third-person POV allows us to be with both girls and also other characters as the book goes on, and the writing style is quite elegant and ethereal.  That being said, I often had to stop and remind myself which character I was reading about and the story moves quite slowly.  4 stars

* This post contains affiliate links; I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Indie Bookstore Spotlight: Charter Books

We recently took a family trip to Newport, Rhode Island, so you know my sister and I had to check out a local indie bookstore!  Enter Charter Books, which opened in 2020 and is located in the downtown historic district.  The outside is classic and beautiful, and this aesthetic follows inside!

The inside is warm and inviting, with beautiful wood shelves and floors, and seems to go on forever!  There is a large selection of fiction books right when you walk in, and if you go all the way to the back, you'll find an extensive children's section.  My sister was really impressed with their middle grade selection!

The children's section features these adorable reading nooks, decorated with sea life and flowers.  I love that kids get these lovely spaces to check out their books in.

The store continues on a lower level, and along the staircase, visiting authors have signed the walls - I just happened to notice the signatures of Team W, including one of my favorite authors, Beatriz Williams!

The downstairs level is a little more utilitarian, but still offers a lot!  About half of the shelves downstairs are nonfiction and the rest are a continuation of fiction.  

I snagged a book about local Newport history for myself and a board book about lighthouses for Henry, who is still absolutely obsessed with them!  If you ever take a trip to Newport, definitely check out Charter Books!

Recent Reads

When The Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi (2025) 

What would happen if, one day, the moon suddenly became a sphere of cheese, floating in space?  John Scalzi imagines a world reacting to the news that our moon, as we know it, has been replaced by cheese.  From regular people to astronauts to politicians, he takes us through various conversations and events, showing the wonder, fear, and incredulity that such an unexpected event might inspire.  Each chapter moves to a different POV, keeping the story fresh and fast-moving.  At times humorous, heart-warming, and whimsical, this was definitely an entertaining read, even if the conclusion was a bit unsatisfying for me.  4 stars

And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens (2025)

Chloe feels stuck and unsuccessful in her life, and she's worried about seeing her former best friend, now a successful director, at their upcoming college reunion.  So, she uses a dating service to find an unconventional plus-one for the weekend, hoping to save face in front of her friends.  I love Cousens's books - they are heartwarming with just the right amount of quirk.  Unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me.  I don't know if it's just the books I read, but I am tired of seeing female characters who are always down on their luck, not moving ahead in life, comparing themselves unfavorably to everyone around them.  To a point, I could relate to Chloe, but I also felt exasperated by her situation, and to think she could distract from all that just by bringing a hot date for the weekend was a little heartbreaking.  I also felt no chemistry between Rob (her date) and Chloe (of course, there is a big twist here that I won't spoil!).  I appreciated that the true love story here was quite unexpected, and I'm still looking forward to whatever Cousens writes next!  3.5 stars

* This post contains affiliate links; I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

Can't-Wait Wednesday: She Made Herself a Monster

Can't-Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings and helps us spotlight upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating!

She Made Herself a Monster

Anna Kovatcheva

Expected publication date: February 10, 2026

A heady, dark-hued Gothic gem of a debut in nineteenth-century Bulgaria, a self-proclaimed vampire slayer—actually, a traveling con artist—joins forces with a teenage girl to create a monster deadly enough to vanquish their own demons. 

We make monsters in order to destroy them. For thousands of years, we’ve named witches and burned them, suspected demons and exorcised them. When crops die and children fall ill, who better to blame than a monster?

In nineteenth-century Bulgaria, Yana rides from one desolate town to the next, staging grisly displays while the villagers animal corpses in the public square, eggs filled with blood in the chicken coop. She tells the stricken villagers stories of vampires that stalk the night. Then Yana eliminates the threat, and leaves seeds of hope in her wake.

The village of Koprivici, however, is plagued by exceptional illness and misfortune, its children rarely surviving infancy. There, Yana meets a headstrong orphan who the villagers blame for their curse. As Anka approaches womanhood, the village Captain is grooming her for marriage against her will. Anka is powerless against him—that is, until Yana arrives. Together, the orphan and the vampire slayer hatch a to conjure a monster so vile, it might provide cover for Anka to escape. But their plan quickly takes on a horrifying life of its own...

Inspired by Slavic folklore, She Made Herself a Monster concocts a clever mix of witchery, ghost stories, heresy, and deception to spin a feminist fable about agency and the power of collective action. It is a haunting and astoundingly cathartic tale of two women who will stop at nothing to take control of their fate. - from Goodreads