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THE BEST OF 2025: BOOKS, MOVIES & SHOWS // ranking my top 10 of last year ft. honourable mentions
Oop long time yet again. I’ll talk about my big goals and regrets in my recap post but I do think it’s pertinent to mention that Ruby is really trying to be more active,,, cross your fingers for me!!! In any case, I shall be spending my days churning out all the content for you guys, as I catch up with my favourite posts to put together every year. Still crying tears that I never got around to the mid-year tag last year, so I hope the next few posts make up for that tragedy. As is becoming my tradition, may I present you with my favourite books, films and shows of 2025, all told in journal spreads <3<3<3 best of 2025: shows In order: Stranger Things S5, True Detective S4; The Empress S1 & S2;The Summer I Turned Pretty S3; Adolesence; Heated Rivalry S1 best of 2025: movies honourable mentions: Sabrina (1955); Sabrina (1995); Jane Eyre (2010); Heat (1995); The Fugitive (1993); Se7en (1995); Primal Fear (1996); Inception (2010); Frankie and Johnny (1991) ; Groundhog Day (1993); Great Photo, Lovely Life (2023) In order: The Life List (2025); The Gorge (2025); Mom Jayne (2025); Mickey 17 (2025);A Real Pain…
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AUDREY LANE STIRS THE POT BY ALEXIS HALL // blog tour book feature: it’s been a while and i need to read more from this author!!!
Hi hello friends to those who still remember me because tbh I certainly wouldn’t! I act as if I’m going to be sticking around with a life update but in all honestly it’s the first week of December and I have -100% battery so you’ll see me another day. I also want to screech about how excited am I for this book so let’s do that instead <3<3<3 Big thanks to Colored Pages for having me on the blog tour for Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot xxxx Title: Audrey Lane Stirs The PotSeries: Winner Bakes All book #3Author: Alexis HallPage count: 448Date published: 9 December 2025Genre: Adult contemporary romance 🧁 Synopsis: Audrey Lane is perfectly fine. Really. So what if she left her high-powered job as a Very Important Journalist—and her even higher-powered long-term girlfriend—to live a quiet life as a reporter for the second-biggest newspaper in Shropshire? And so what if she keeps hearing the voice of that same higher-powered long-term now-ex-girlfriend in her head night and day, constantly judging just how small Audrey’s allowed her life to become? She’s fine. She’s happy. She’s perfectly within her groove. Do not-in-their-groove people get weekday drunk and impulsively apply for the…
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BETTER HATE THAN NEVER BY CHLOE LIESE // spoiler-free book review: the feisty childhood enemies to lovers romance you didn’t know you needed in your life!!!
This one definitely *wasn’t* read some time ago,,, no idea what you’re talking about! Here let me divert your attention to THESE Moving on and into this scrumptious little book gem that I have been waiting a while to shove in your faces <3<3<3 Title: Better Hate Than NeverSeries: Chloe LieseAuthor: Chloe LiesePage count: 336Date published: 10 October 2023Genre: Adult contemporary romance ❤️🔥 Synopsis: Childhood enemies discover the fine line between love and loathing in this heartfelt reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Katerina Wilmot and Christopher Petruchio shared backyards as kids, but as adults they won’t even share the same hemisphere. That is, until Kate makes a rare visit home, and their fiery animosity rekindles into a raging inferno. Despite their friends’ and families’ pleas for peace, Christopher is unconvinced Kate would willingly douse the flames of their enmity. But when a drunken Kate confesses she’s only been hostile because she thought he hated her, Christopher vows to make peace with Kate once and for all. Tempting as it is to be swept away by her nemesis-turned-gentleman, Kate isn’t sure she can trust his charming good-guy act. When Christopher’s persistence and Kate’s curiosity lead to an impassioned…
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THE FAVOURITES BY LAYNE FARGO // spoiler-free book review: the angsty figure-skating romance of my dreams, you need to read it!
If you think about it, I’m only a few months late to this one! Look at the pub date, the book only *just* came out… she says as they drag her away. Cue the tears in this review,,, Title: The FavouritesAuthor: Layne FargoPage count: 464Date published: 16 January 2025Genre: Adult contemporary romance ⛸️ Synopsis: To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession. An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship. Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end. As the ten-year anniversary of their final…
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ORDINARY LOVE BY MARIE RUTKOSKI // blog tour book feature: happy pride!!! here’s a sapphic romance to add to our neverending tbr piles
Let’s talk about another book I haven’t read yet but she willll be lovedddd. Hopefully. At least you can enjoy my poor Maroon 5 performance. Let’s dive right into my spot on the Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski blog tour <3 Title: Ordinary Love Author: Marie RutkoskiPage count: 400Date published: 10 June 2025Genre: Adult romance 🌈 Synopsis: HERE’S NO SUCH THING AS AN ORDINARY LOVE STORY When Emily catches sight of Gennifer Hall at a party, she is transported back to the moment they fell in love as teenagers. Their connection was electric, and they thought it was forever. Twenty years later, Gen is an Olympic runner, the career she strived for, while Emily is living a picture-perfect Manhattan townhouse, two young children and a wealthy husband, Jack. But Jack’s controlling behaviour is spiralling, and Emily has lost sight of who she once was. Now, despite Emily’s fracturing marriage and the pressures of Gen’s career, they are drawn back together by a magnetic attraction. After years of heartbreak, missed chances and misunderstandings, will they finally get a second chance at first love? 🌈 🌈 Big thanks to Little Brown UK for the eARC via Netgalley & having me on the tour!…
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VILEST THINGS BY CHLOE GONG // blog tour book feature: yelling about one of my fave authors and how i need to start this series yesterday!
Indeed I am extremely late but my life is far too chaotic for my own good and here is my personal apology to Chloe Gong. You can yell at me all you want about me not having started this series but I promise you I’ve had a thorough talking to myself already. Anyways, of course, I couldn’t miss posting about this during release week and,,, I’m on the blog tour. Ha there’s that too. I do deserve to be shunned for this but let’s not dwell on the negatives here,,, Anyways, big thanks for joining me and TBR and Beyond Book Tours to celebrate the release of Vilest Things, book two in a trilogy I am terrified but excited to sink my teeth into *insert devil emoji* Title: Vilest ThingsSeries: Flesh and False Gods book #2Author: Chloe GongPage count: 384Date published: 10 September 2024Genre: Adult Fantasy Sci-fi 💫 Synopsis: Calla Tuoleimi has succeeded in the impossible. Despite the odds, she has won San-Er’s bloody games and eliminated King Kasa, her tyrant uncle and the former ruler of Talin. She serves now as royal advisor to Kasa’s adopted son, August Shenzhi, who has risen to the throne. Only Calla knows it…
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CAREFUL WHAT YOU WITCH FOR BY EMMA JACKSON // blog tour book feature: i need this grumpy-sunshine witchy rom-com in my life right now ft moodboard aesthetic <3<3<3
Hello and welcome to my stop on the Careful What You Witch For blog tour, where I am late but excited nonetheless! As always ha! Big thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for having me on the blog tour. As I touched on, I have not finished this read but just about everything I can see and have read on it (yes those are words) have me SO FREAKING EXCITED so I thought I’d share with you in the meantime xoxo Title: Careful What You Witch ForAuthor: Emma JacksonPage count: 406Date published: 1 August 2024Genre: Adult romantic comedy 🪄 Synopsis: Two complete strangers. One life-changing spell. Becca Ashworth’s family is in trouble and with their magical legacy under threat, it puts their small village of Biddicote at risk too. So going against the witching tenets to summon an ancestor for help seems like a small price to pay to fix the problem…at first. Connor Lynch is the Witches Council’s secret weapon and he’s just been deployed to find out exactly what the Ashworths are up to. But how he ends up posing as Becca’s fake husband at a magical inn in Cornwall as they hunt down a magical artefact is…
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THANK YOU FOR LISTENING BY JULIA WHELAN // spoiler-free book review: took me long enough but i adored this book about audiobook narrators falling in love from the queen herself!
Look at me posting semi-regularly? I so appreciate all of your undying and heartfelt faith in my posting capabilities,,, C’mon folks, you know the drill. It’s sarcasm for everyone in Ruby’s house. I’ll stop talking and jump right in! Title: Thank You For ListeningAuthor: Julia WhelanPage count: 432Date published: 2 August 2022Genre: Adult contemporary fiction 🎧 Synopsis: For Sewanee Chester, being an audiobook narrator is a long way from her old dreams, but the days of being a star on film sets are long behind her. She’s found success and satisfaction from the inside of a sound booth and it allows her to care for her beloved, ailing grandmother. When she arrives in Las Vegas last-minute for a book convention, Sewanee unexpectedly spends a whirlwind night with a charming stranger. On her return home, Sewanee discovers one of the world’s most beloved romance novelists wanted her to perform her last book–with Brock McNight, the industry’s hottest, most secretive voice. Sewanee doesn’t buy what romance novels are selling–not after her own dreams were tragically cut short–and she stopped narrating them years ago. But her admiration of the late author, and the opportunity to get her grandmother more help, makes her decision…
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LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT BY JESSICA GILMORE // blog tour book feature: an adorable summer rom-com to add to your tbr ft a moodboard aesthetic <3
Hello and welcome to the final stop on the blog tour of Love At First Sight *insert happy dance* Huge thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for having me on the blog tour. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to finish this read so instead I thought I’d grace your presence with some other cute things <3<3<3 Title: Love At First SightAuthor: Jessica GilmorePage count: 333Date published: 4 July 2024Genre: Adult romantic comedy Synopsis: She’s in love. Just with the wrong man… Nora is done with dating, but still dreams of finding the one. So when a handsome stranger comes to her rescue one night and vanishes leaving only a business card, it’s like a scene out of a movie… It doesn’t take long for the two to ‘bump’ into each other again, and Nora falls for the perfect-on-paper Gabe. Only a few weeks later, he invites her to Sicily, and she cannot believe her luck! Until Gabe is forced away for work, leaving her alone with his big and warm family in gorgeous Sicily who welcome her with open arms. Everyone but Luca, his older and distrustful brother, who is always around. Soon Nora finds herself on a dreamy, romantic…
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JUST LAST NIGHT BY MHAIRI MCFARLANE // spoiler-free book review: another banger from my fave that’ll make you laugh and swoon and sob uncontrollably… have fun!
Hush you with your judgement. I shall not be taking it as this time otherwise we shall run out of time. Into the review! Title: Just Last NightAuthor: Mhairi McFarlanePage count: 393Date published: 1 April 2021Genre: Adult contemporary fiction 🪴 Synopsis: Eve, Justin, Susie, and Ed have been friends since they were teenagers. Now in their thirties, the four are as close as ever, Thursday pub trivia night is sacred, and Eve is still secretly in love with Ed. Maybe she should have moved on by now, but she can’t stop thinking about what could have been. And she knows Ed still thinks about it, too. But then, in an instant, their lives are changed forever. In the aftermath, Eve’s world is upended. As stunning secrets are revealed, she begins to wonder if she really knew her friends as well as she thought. And when someone from the past comes back into her life, Eve’s future veers in a surprising new direction… They say every love story starts with a single moment. What if it was just last night? 🪴 🪴 Big thanks to William Morrow Books for the eARC via Netgalley! All thoughts and opinions are my own.…
