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JUNE RECAP // back on the blogging game ft. some new fave reads, a book event but nothing much really oops
Doing pretty well with these recaps lately. Aren’t you proud? It would be mean if you weren’t, just sayin’ Anyways, not much to waffle about so we’ll just jump right in! — Happy Place by Emily Henry {★★★★★}: thank the heavens I got off my butt and actually read this freaking book. I thank you all for your endless patience on waiting like 6 months for me to review this. I’ve done a whole review already so go read that for more in-depth thoughts. But I will say shame on the Internet for making me doubt Ms Henry for a hot minute because I was scared for a second. But that was not necessary because she was as good as I needed her to be and I want to cry on the floor at how good this freaking book was omg!!! I love you Viking Books & Penguin SA, ty for my gifted copies! Something More by Jackie Khalileah {★★★☆☆}: sad she was exactly what I wanted but still recommend if you’re looking for a fun debut YA romance with some stunning autism rep. Big thanks to Colored Pages Tours & Tundra Books for the eARC! GR review right over…
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TWICE SHY BY SARAH HOGLE // spoiler-free book review: a cinnamon roll of a contemporary romance that you absolutely need to warm your cold hearts <3
Read this literally a year ago and I have only just managed to get my hands on a physical copy and I need to yell at you all about this delightful book. Ugh, it’s so good and underrated and let’s just get into it!!!! Title: Twice ShyAuthor: Sarah HoglePage count: 302Date published: 6 April 2021Genre: Adult contemporary romance 🌳 Synopsis: Can you find real love when you’ve always got your head in the clouds? Maybell Parish has always been a dreamer and a hopeless romantic. But living in her own world has long been preferable to dealing with the disappointments of real life. So when Maybell inherits a charming house in the Smokies from her Great-Aunt Violet, she seizes the opportunity to make a fresh start. Yet when she arrives, it seems her troubles have only just begun. Not only is the house falling apart around her, but she isn’t the only inheritor: she has to share everything with Wesley Koehler, the groundskeeper who’s as grouchy as he is gorgeous—and it turns out he has very different vision for the property’s future. Convincing the taciturn Wesley to stop avoiding her and compromise is a task more formidable than the other…
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LAST VIOLENT CALL BY CHLOE GONG // book talk: died and went to heaven reading these masterpiece novellas from my fave series
Finally being the obedient fan that I am and caught up on my fave hence these reviews are very close together. Did you all know I love Chloe Gong? Didn’t know if it was obvious or not haha Quick disclaimer: I’m actually not spoiling this book in particular, but the entire plot is a spoiler for previous books in the series, especially Our Violent Ends, hence me titling this a book talk. However, if you’re up to date with the series, I’m not spoiling anything *wink wink* Anyways, this has been a long time coming and I’m excited to get into this! Title: Last Violent CallSeries: Secret Shanghai book #3.5Author: Chloe GongPage count: 233Date published: 28 February 2023Genre: New adult historical fiction ☎ Synopsis: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Chloe Gong come two captivating novellas surrounding the events of Foul Lady Fortune and following a familiar cast of characters from These Violent Delights. In A Foul Thing, Roma and Juliette have established themselves as the heads of an underground weapons ring in Zhouzhuang, making a living the way they do best while remaining anonymous in their quiet life. But when they hear about Russian girls showing up dead in nearby…
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HAPPY PLACE BY EMILY HENRY // spoiler-free book review: the most perfect summer read from my queen mother ft. stunning best friends on vacation & heartwrenching second chance romance
Let us ignore that I could have read this book months ago but I was too much of a scaredy cat lmao But I shall cease to be in awe of the Henry magic and I shall now spend the rest of my days shoving this down your throat. You’ve been warned! Let’s dive in ; ) Title: Happy PlaceAuthor: Emily HenryPage count: 388Date published: 25 April 2023Genre: Adult contemporary romance ☀️ Synopsis: A couple who broke up months ago pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends. Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t. They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends. Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the…
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IMMORTALITY BY DANA SCHWARTZ // spoiler-free sequel book review: my new fave YA gothic historical fiction series that you all need to read!!!
Eeeep so excited to finally rave about this book with you all. I’ve been holding it in for a hot second and it’s finally my time! Warning: since this is a sequel, the synopsis does contain spoilers for the end of book one aka Anatomy by Dana Schwartz! The spoiler-free section shouldn’t be too spoiler-y so you’re good there, but maybe skip the synopsis if you haven’t read it yet. Without further ado, let’s get right into it <3<3<3 Title: Immortality: A Love StorySeries: Anatomy Duology book #2 Author: Dana SchwartzPage count: 389Date published: 28 February 2023Genre: Young Adult gothic historical fiction 🧠 Synopsis: Hazel Sinnett is alone and half convinced the events of the year before—the immortality, Beecham’s vial—were a figment of her imagination. She doesn’t even know if Jack is alive or dead. All she can really do now is treat patients and maintain Hawthornden Castle as it starts to decay around her. When saving a life leads to her arrest, Hazel seems doomed to rot in prison until a message intervenes: Hazel has been specifically requested to be the personal physician of Princess Charlotte, the sickly granddaughter of King George III. Soon Hazel is dragged into the…
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MAY RECAP // a lot of essay writing, cute new books & some romance to relieve the stress
Who doesn’t love when Ruby only does recaps? Definitely not you, because you love me no matter what I do right? I’m full of myself I know. Please just ignore me. Let’s get into this already ; ) — Sabrina September Is A Liar by Nikki Lincoln {★★★★☆}: never going to get over how stunning this cover is and you all so need to read this absolutely fabulous debut romance! I was SHOCKED it was a debut because the writing is blow-you-socks-off good and I’m so excited to see Nikki flourish. Tysm for gifting me with an ARC and a finished copy!!! Click here for the GR review xoxo! Meet Me At The Lake by Carley Fortune {★★★★☆}: Another stunner of a cover, gosh these pinks are getting to me, man. This was an excellent follow-up to Every Summer After, which I really liked last year. She almost had the potential to get a higher rating but something was holding me back. But I loved the characters, and the writing was wonderful and I literally want to go to Canada rn. Love that for me. I’m truly going haha. Click here for more thoughts With Love, From Cold World by…
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INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR NIKKI LINCOLN // chatting to local author of Sabrina September is a Liar about this gorg debut romance
Moment of silence for this cover that could honestly whack me over the head and I’d be thankful for it. The cover gods BLESSED US and I shall absolutely never recover from the stunningness. Which is indeed a word, in case you were wondering. Find it in the Ruby dictionary. Anyways, ecstatic to have the wonderful Nikki Lincoln with us on the blog today to celebrate her debut Sabrina September Is A Liar which has been out for just over a month and you all NEED to read it!!!! Title: Sabrina September is a LiarSeries: The Summer Fall book #1Author: Nikki LincolnPage count: 370Date published: 28 April 2023Genre: Adult contemporary romance 🏝️ Synopsis: An emotional second-chance romance story about the strength of love, life-changing friendships, and forgiveness. Sometimes perfect love finds you at the most imperfect time. At least that was what she’d spent nine years, eight months, and six days telling herself. But when it comes to her true feelings, Sabrina September is a prolific liar. Their love had arrived at the perfect time, but fear was a destructive force in matters of the heart. Ten years ago, she arrived in Japan, broken, and desperately searching for a way back to…
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MARCH RECAP // graduation, moving, some reading & other chaos
Quite chuffed with my incredibly inventive title if I do say so myself *wink wink* We all know that I am a comedian by nature. God I need to shut up now. Anyways, back to your irregularly scheduled belated recap, as per usual, due to very obvious reasons in the title. I honestly don’t remember what happened last month, it was all very blurry but I shall try my best to recount it to you. Into the chaos we go! Last Violent Call by Chloe Gong {★★★★★}: I was never prepared for this book and I have read it and am still not prepared. Chloe never misses and this book was perfection, as is everything she writes. My heart stopped beating for approximately 200 pages and I need to tattoo this book onto my forehead. It was stunning and I will have a full review up hopefully soon, GR review here in the meantime *screams for eternity* The First Move by Jenny Ireland {★★★☆☆}: The lovely people at Penguin SA had an eARC available and I needed a smol pick me up so I read this on a whim. Devoured this in like a day and agh what a cute…
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JANUARY & FEBRUARY RECAP // somehow i read 15 books ft. graphic novel mania, readalongs, lots of new books & back to uni
It’s the way I forgot to post my January until halfway through February and decided another two weeks was worth waiting. I mean what else is new here? Ruby Rae Reads: perpetually late to everything Lmao love that for me Anyway, I have lots to talk about, so let’s jump right in! Seven Percent of Ro Devereux by Ellen O’Clover {★★★★★}: started off the year strong with this absolutely stunning YA debut contemporary romance ugh it was SO SO SO GOOD!!!! Absolutely everything I ever wanted from this book about creating an app, familial tension, angsty emotions and childhood friends to enemies to lovers. It was *chef’s kiss* and you all need to read it RIGHT THIS SECOND!!!! Big thanks to the author for sending me an eARC via Netgalley, click here for my GR review <3<3<3 Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman {★★★★½}: decided to get off my butt and finally read these and ugh I had the bestest day literally just reading all of these comics. A stunning first instalment and I do love how accurate the show is. It’s kind of scary. Big thanks to Pan MacMillan SA for the review copy xoxoxo Heartstopper Volume 2 by…
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POPULAR BOOKTOK BOOKS I RECOMMEND // 10 viral tiktok books i actually like that you could read if you want
I don’t know what I’m doing today but I am unhinged and we’re just rolling with it. Spur of the moment decisions over at Ruby Rae Reads today *hides* I could be here talking about the worst BookTok books because I know there are many but I don’t want to put myself through that amount of pain. Very rarely will you catch me pushing through god-awful books and oof I know which ones those are. Avoiding them like the plague in this household. Anyways, I shan’t waste time on the opinions I have concerning this platform because frankly, I don’t know what I would say. It has been both very amusing watching books grow on TikTok whilst also being really cool for the book industry. So there are my two cents, maybe I’ll come back for a discussion? This post is just going to discuss books I rated basically higher than 3 stars. Some are not amazing and a few by authors I wouldn’t support anymore, but I wanted to talk about. Let’s just get into the books. There are more than I anticipated so I’ll be as brief as possible! CONTEMPORARY — It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover:…