5-Star Archives - The Litertarian

Book Review:: This Story Might Save Your Life | Tiffany Crum

If you have the chance to read This Story Might Save Your Life, do.not.waste.it. It is frigging phenomenal. I was hooked immediately and giddy the entire way through.

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum Book Cover

When Benny’s best friend and podcast co-host disappears, he stops at absolutely nothing to find her. She may have been the one that got away, romantically, but she’s still the most important part of his life, despite her overbearing husband, who happens to manage the podcast empire they’ve been building for years.

The tension is fabulous. Not just the present timeline urgency to find Joy, who has severe narcolepsy, but also as we learn the backstory of their friendship and how they ended up in the situation they’re in. The format is absolutely perfect, and I ate up every single word.

It’s really hard to talk about a story that is about the unfolding of it, but I love these characters. I mean, I’d have them over on a weekly basis, best-friend, talking-late-into-the-night, kind of love. I could not stop turning pages to figure out what happened to them. If things resolved, and resolved in a way I could accept, spiritually, you understand.

Though I received a free digital copy through netgalley to review, I pre-ordered my own hardcover copy for my shelves before I was halfway through. Tiffany Crum, you may be my next favorite author to watch!! With a debut like this…I seriously can’t wait to see what you come up with next. Whatever it is…cowboy western, travel diary, space opera…I’m going to read it.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title::This Story Might Save Your Life
Author::Tiffany Crum
Genre::Mystery Thriller (Romance)
Publisher:: Flatiron Books
Length:: 357 pages
Published:: March 10th, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Book Review:: Won’t Back Down | Harper Jackson

Some books you read for the escape of it all. Something you can sink into, be transported, and find a satisfying plot with just enough tension (sexual, and otherwise), to keep you captivated and turning pages because you care about what happens next. If that’s you, I have to say, Won’t Back Down by Harper Jackson might be one of the best options out there. It’s romantic without being cheesy, suspenseful without being scary, and wholesome enough to keep it endearing. And man…it’s just a good daggum story!

Won't Back Down by Harper Jackson Book Cover

After losing her grandparents in quick succession, the only family she’s able to rely on anymore besides her brother, currently deployed in the Navy, Willa’s steady, reliable world is changing. Maybe once upon a time that wouldn’t have been a big deal, but now, she has enough psychological damage to deal with.

When she was a teenager, she drowned. Actually, fully drowned. But she was saved by her brother’s best friend, Sawyer. She has a lot of lost memories from around that time, and intense trauma from the years afterwards. She avoids thinking about any of that stuff at all. But now Sawyer is back on island, come home from his own stint in the Navy, and he’s there to help her cope, in any way he can. Emotionally, physically…legally.

Gosh darn it, this book got me. It is jam packed with all the good stuff, as I mentioned before. The sexual tension is present and done so well. The mystery elements are executed to perfection. There are lots of side characters I’m sure have and will pop up in other books in the same series (which I need to get my hands on immediately). It’s everything you want in this kind of book, which I like to call ‘candy’. The kind that just hits the spot. Refreshing, in many ways. Delicious!

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Won’t Back Down (Wayward Sons #2)
Author:: Harper Jackson (Kait Nolan)
Genre:: Romantic Suspense
Publisher:: Take the Leap Publishing
Length:: 331 pages
Published:: September 6th, 2024
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

All the Missing Pieces | Catherine Cowles
Obsession Falls | Claire Kingsley
These Summer Storms | Sarah MacLean
Leave Before I Love You | Max Monroe

Book Review:: Stranger Things Have Happened | Kasie West

Kasie West’s books almost have that 90s rom-com feel. The situational, emotionally stunted but slowly falling anyway, long-story kind of feel. The kind that so many others have been struggling to tap into for decades since. I’m not saying she’s the next Nora Ephron, but there is something about her books…that x-factor sort of feeling.

Stranger Things Have Happened by Kasie West Book Cover

The concept: Sutton agrees to fake couple’s therapy with her best friend’s fiancée’s brother, because said fiancée is against it himself. They have this bet, see, that the therapist is a quack and won’t even be able to tell they don’t know each other. He wants to prove a point.

Why does she agree? Well, she needs therapy — and apparently doesn’t have anything better to do.

I adored this book. The set-up is weird, it’s fake dating without actual fake dating (the best kind, in my opinion, lol), but the characters are beautiful. I just believed it, you know? Elijah felt whole and convincing, and I was seriously rooting for them the whole time.

Beyond the romance, though, Sutton has some issues to sort out with her mother, who is a piece of work. She’s still nursing wounds from when her husband left, about a million years ago, and new wounds from being in an accident, which is why Sutton is back in her hometown.

At this point I will read anything Kasie West puts out. She knows her way around a romance, and I’m happy to recommend her books to anyone looking to step into a compelling romance that feels fresh and perfectly sophisticated.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Stranger Things Have Happened
Author:: Kasie West
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: Saturday Books
Length:: 352 pages
Published:: April 14th, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

We Met Like This | Kasie West
Where You’re Planted | Melanie Sweeney
As A Last Resort | Kristin Wollett
The Slowest Burn | Sarah Chamberlain

Book Review:: The Heart of Everything | Marc Levy

The Heart of Everything is a magical tale of fathers and sons and the intricacies of families.

The Heart of Everything by Marc Levy Book Cover

Thomas’s father passed away five years ago, but he still thinks of him at every concert he plays in as a professional pianist. But when he sees his ghost, literally, in the crowd one day, he cannot believe his eyes. And when he sees him again in the dressing room afterward, he cannot believe his request.

This novel is a testament of the complexity of the human animal, but not in a deep, philosophical, brooding, way — it is packaged in a deeply moving, farewell adventure between a boy and the ghost of his dead father. There is a clear goal, and plenty to thwart the achievement of it, and the heart lives in the spaces in between.

I cannot overstate the importance of reading this as an audiobook. Simon Mattacks is incredible. The accents, the tone, the pace of it all was just — impeccable. I will remember this and it will certainly sway me toward any title with his name on it!

Everyone should read this book. I can’t think of a single fault. It’s concise, heartful, expressive, thoughtful, hopeful, and somehow melodic, in its own way. It’s lovely.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: The Heart of Everything
Author:: Marc Levy (translated from French by Maren Baudet-Lackner)
Genre:: General Fiction
Publisher:: Brilliance Audio / Amazon Crossing
Length:: 208 pages
Published::January 1st, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife | Anna Johnston
The Last Love Note | Emma Grey

Book Review:: How the Story Goes | Andrew Forrester

What happens when an author dies before finishing a beloved series? *ahem, Martin* In the case of an uproariously popular children’s fantasy series by Helen Longacre, she left that monumental task to her mystery-writer husband, Whit, who, for the record, has no idea where to even start.

How the Story Goes by Andrew Forrester Book Cover

This is a story about the kind of displacement that happens when you lose something you love. Something you thought you’d have for a lot longer than you did. The publisher is on a major deadline (which, wtf fictional publisher), but they have to concede to the last wishes of Helen, who wanted her precious story to be left in the hands of the man who didn’t even really read the books. Not because he was a bad husband. Because marriage doesn’t have to be everything for every person. They shared a love for writing, not a passion for writing the same thing.

I liked the straight-forwardness of the prose and Whit’s attitude. He is who he is, and though he tells a few fibs to get the agents and editors off his back, he’s a very honest person, and that gets him far. The woman he ends up asking for help has her own story, and a past that won’t stop haunting her.

In some ways, this story felt refreshing. While it has common elements of things I’ve loved before, it felt like something entirely new. The voice was direct, with lots of personality. The characters were well formed, intelligent, and trying their best, and the premise itself lends itself to the kind of deep grief that if we haven’t felt ourselves, can at least vividly imagine and empathize with.

Through the grief is healing and the remembering of good memories and trying to live up to being the person someone once thought you could be. Through the healing, comes a different kind of new beginning. A continuation of a story after a mid-point plot twist.

I adored this book. And I will keep my eye out for more from this phenomenal debut author. Congratulations, Andrew. This book is perfectly special.

Also, the narrators were top-notch and brought this story to life in a beautiful way. James Fouhey, especially, I felt brought the exactly right voice for Whit’s character.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title::How the Story Goes
Author::Andrew Forrester
Genre::Contemporary Romance
Publisher::Avon
Length:: 368 pages
Published::May 5th, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Where You’re Planted | Melanie Sweeney
Thank You for Listening | Julia Whelan
The Last Love Note | Emma Grey
Promise Me Sunshine | Cara Bastone

Book Review:: Jitterbug | Gareth Powell

I really need to read more science fiction.

This political space adventure was delightful.

This is a self-contained propulsive novel that felt like the best episodes of Firefly with maybe a bit of Mass Effect (the game) or Halo (yep, the game) mixed in. (Can you tell most of my sci-fi reference is in video games, not fiction?)

The captain of the Jitterbug is Copernicus Brown — Copernicus! He and his crew survive this futuristic landscape as bounty hunters. They’re scrappy, but legit. Until Amber Roth.

While the prose read sometimes a little distant for my usual tastes, I would have really loved some more interiority, this was still such a worthwhile read. It’s a fun adventure with momentous stakes, but it was the personal stories that really got me, and the journey of the ship itself was genuinely moving.

It also tied in some edge-of-our-understanding science that played a huge role in the plot, and while it got a little confusing (by nature), it added an element that just seemed to fit.

I follow Gareth on Threads and he seems like the chillest most generous dude. I can’t begin to describe the relief I felt that I genuinely enjoyed his writing, as well. If I found out he decided to expand this story into a series, I’d be first in line to buy the sequel.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Jitterbug
Author:: Gareth L. Powell
Genre:: Science Fiction
Publisher:: Titan Books
Length:: 336 pages
Published:: March 3rd, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

The Ministry of Time | Kaliane Bradley
The Book of Lost Hours | Hayley Gelfuso
All That We See or Seem | Ken Liu

Book Review:: Rules of the Heart | Janice Hadlow

Have you ever been swept up in an engrossing historical timepiece that runs on romance? If not, you need to pick up Rules of the Heart by Janice Hadlow. If you have, you’ll understand exactly why I’m telling you to pick up Rules of the Heart by Janice Hadlow. Lady Harriet Bessborough is a triumph and Hadlow structures her story in a way that keeps your heart in your throat the entire time.

Rules of the Heart by Janice Hadlow Book Cover

What can I say about this book? I certainly didn’t expect to be under its spell so quickly and entirely. I tend to enjoy an odd historical novel here and there, but rarely am I gripped by them the way this one gripped me.

There is passion, risk to reputation, promises and broken promises, jealousy, heartbreak, motherhood, friendship, protection, longing, betrayal, guilt, and love, so much genuine love it cannot be stopped, despite the risks and unconventionalities.

To be honest, I read this book months ago, and I still think about it. It is one of those haunting stories based on real-world characters and their lives that might seem flat if encountering them in a textbook format, but writers like Hadlow bring those often-flat biographies and paint them with vivid, exquisite detail in novels like this one.

Please don’t miss this. Even if you think you don’t like historical novels. This one is a straight banger.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title::Rules of the Heart
Author::Janice Hadlow
Genre::Historical Fiction
Publisher::Henry Holt & Company
Length:: 480 pages
Published::January 20th, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Daughter of Ruins | Yvette Manessis Corporon
The Cheesemaker’s Daughter | Kristin Vukovic
Babylonia | Costanza Casati
Buckeye | Patrick Ryan

Book Review:: Handle With Care | Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

This book is like, if locked-room mystery was a thriller, and the psychology of everyone in the room is the story. In other words: excellent.

Handle With Care by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen Book Cover

This is my second title by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, and I already knew after Every Moment Since that I’d read everything she put out. This one is a very different vibe, but still under the same sort of suspense umbrella. (Also, LOOK at that cover! *drools*)

This is a story about an impromptu hostage situation at the united states postal service. It’s told by an omniscient, present-tense narrator that give the entire thing a very unique vibe, and it is organized into the parts of a letter.

If you read the ‘header’ you won’t be able to stop. It’s too good. It’s stunningly good. I’d even say an intro like that is a masterwork. It got me, hook, line, and sinker.

In a thriller, it’s especially important to avoid any spoilers. Discovering the story is the joy of it. So I won’t. Maybe I’ll just stop here, actually. The shortest review ever written! But if you do read it, and I really think you should, just don’t forget…

This is a story of hope.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Handle With Care
Author:: Marybeth Mayhew Whalen
Genre:: Suspense Thriller
Publisher:: Thomas Nelson
Length:: 288 pages
Published::April 14th, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Every Moment Since | Marybeth Mayhew Whalen
The Unraveling of Julia | Lisa Scottoline
The Night We Lost Him | Laura Dave

Book Review:: Fallen City | Adrienne Young

A city is falling – it’s inevitable – but the man who started it is also the one who cannot leave. Not without her.

Fallen City by Adrienne Young Book Cover

Maris and Luca, oh my my. This book has political tension, mystical mysteries, warfront tactics, rivalries, brotherhood, courting, and a love so deep and true it’ll have you aching for more and afraid to find out what happens next.

The pacing and reveals in this book are its crowning achievement. Young pulls you through the novel with sparse inner-chapter hints and last-line gut-punches that keep that sense of discovery feeling constant through just about the whole book. It’s propulsive. It’s a valuable lesson for writers (like me).

I honestly feel like the plot is secondary here, though there is plenty of it to sink your teeth into. But it’s the characters that make it unforgettable.

Will I read the next installment? You don’t even have to ask.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Fallen City (Fallen City Duology #1)
Author:: Adrienne Young
Genre:: Romantasy
Publisher:: Saturday Books
Length:: 416 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 19m
Audiobook Narrator:: Dylan Reilly Fitzpatrick & Leela Bassuk
Published:: November 4th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross
Heartless Hunter, Kristen Ciccarelli
Our Infinite Fates, Laura Steven
The City in Glass, Nghi Vo
What the River Knows, Isabel Ibanez

Book Review:: Caller Unknown | Gillian McAllister

Love makes fools of us all, and we all know nothing is stronger than a mother’s love. Simone and Lucy just wanted to have a nice mother-daughter holiday camping in the west Texas desert.

Note to self: never book a holiday in west Texas.

Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister Book Cover

Lucy is snatched from her bed in the middle of the night, with nothing but an outdated flip phone in her place. When it rings, it’s an unknown caller, and they’ve ransomed her daughter. Simone and Lucy are in a time of transition. Lucy is preparing to go off to college, and Simone is feeling the absence of her more than ever, making the ache of intense love only a mother can understand more tender than ever. Perhaps it is this specific texture of feeling that leads to what happens next.

What would you do, when pressed into a corner, to recover one you love?

Gillian McAllister is so good at what she does. Her thrillers have an atmosphere and a desperation and a logic that propels you through the pages relentlessly. It’s a story about familial love, it’s a story of desperation, it’s a story about having to move without knowing if it’s safe, where it’s safe, or who is safe.

Don’t miss it.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title::Caller Unknown
Author::Gillian McAllister
Genre:: Thriller
Publisher:: Willam Morrow
Length:: 336 pages
Published::May 5th, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars