Paper Pages

  I’m trying to be less of a people pleaser but I couldn’t let my last blog post set the tone for the end of 2025. So here I am talking about the authors who are always on my radar. Spoiler alert, there aren’t that many. Let me take you through my checklist of authors. Consistent Quality – This was a major deal breaker for the authors who didn’t make the cut in my last post. If they can’t deliver consistently, they don’t get my instant buy stamp. That Signature Style – Every author has to have that unmistakable touch, like some people have a signature scent. Is it the humour, the suspense, the way they craft a scene? Whatever it is, it has to be completely, undeniably, irrevocably theirs. Poetic I know. Re-readability – Their books have to make me want to pick them up again and again. If a story doesn’t hit that re-read standard it’s out. Blind Trust – This comes over time naturally. Once it happens you’re locked in. You see thei...

  I was very hesitant about writing this post, but then I remembered that I didn’t want ARCs anymore, so here I am. I wrote a similar one on my blog before which you can find here , but that belonged to a different era of Vivian. So now I’m back to do it all over again. There are plenty of authors I once swore by, but these days I sidestep their new releases like they are spoilers I never asked for. Okay, maybe that is a little dramatic. Let’s get into the list and the reasons why. First up, we have Megan Brandy. I have read two of her books: Promise Me Not and Bad Little Bride . Both were solid reads — maybe “sustainable” is not the word I am looking for, but you get what I mean. I especially enjoyed Bad Little Bride , featuring Enzo Fikile and Boston Revenaw. The thing is, nothing she has written since has really resonated with me. I also found it tricky to keep up with the world built around Bad Little Bride . She is simply an author I do not gravitate toward much anymore....

  I wasn’t expecting much from The Defender. And then there was Brooklyn being nothing like any other FMC Ana’s written, Vincent being all kinds of swoon-worthy, and Truffle the pig casually stealing the show. My life as a reader was over. I don’t even know where to start. If you read The Striker (which I highly suggest you do to get the full effect from this book), then you would be familiar with who Vincent DuBois and Brooklyn Armstrong are. In short, we have the captain of the Blackcastle football team and a nutritionist intern who also happens to be the coach’s (Frank Armstrong) daughter. An intruder situation puts Vincent in some danger, so he’s hopping from one place to another in order to find a temporary place to stay. Vincent lasted a week at Scarlett (his sister) and Asher’s house because he caught them doing some... different variations of training. Adil was next, and that didn’t work out because he loved to talk, and of course the hotel situation was a hindrance. So,...