Zadie Anson and Emma Colley have been best friends since medical school, where Zadie fell in love with their chief resident Nick Xenokostas, who ends up breaking her heart. A couple of decades later, Nick joins the medical team at Emma’s hospital, and his reappearance opens old wounds and threatens to bring long-buried secrets to light.

The Queen of Hearts is a romantic medical drama that reminds me somewhat of Grey’s Anatomy and ER. The author is an emergency medicine doctor herself, which explains the depth and detail of medical knowledge included in the text. I didn’t understand a lot of the terms, but I liked how these scenes made the story feel more realistic and really rounded off Emma and Zadie’s characters as doctors.

I liked Emma and Zadie’s friendship, and the glimpses of their lives in medical school. I liked how Emma’s a really beautiful woman who chooses dorky but confident guys as her boyfriends, and I thought Zadie and Nick had fantastic chemistry.

I really liked the big reveal near the end, which without giving any spoilers away, is related to the reason Nick broke Zadie’s heart and yet has much farther reaching impact amongst the characters. I wish this reveal had happened earlier, because there’s so much I wanted to unpack about it, and I felt like the most interesting parts of the book were all crammed near the end. I’m glad I did read to the end, but I thought it started off slow and most of the book was just okay for me.

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Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In Angel C. Aquino‘s Love at First Run, graphic designer Diana can’t even run a block without breaking a sweat, but when her office crush Paul invites her to join a running club, she figures it’ll be worth the chance to get to know Paul better. To her horror, she learns that members of the running club are expected to participate in a half-marathon only four months away. Fortunately, she realizes she actually enjoys running, and the races they join to train for the half-marathon are a lot of fun. She also meets Josh, a long-time runner who becomes her running buddy and personal cheerleader during training. Her heart races whenever she’s with him, and Diana begins to wonder how much of what she actually feels is just runner’s high.

Will Diana choose Paul, the gorgeous co-worker who inspired her to start running in the first place?

“Hey Diana, you okay? You look so intense.”

My teammate Paul nudged me on the shoulder, distracting me from my breakfast daydreams. Even though we’d both been here since midnight, his smooth, straight hair still fell perfectly over his eyes. The sun hadn’t risen yet but his smile emitted rays of sunlight toward me.

The heat rose from my chest and crept up to my face. If there was one thing that made this thankless job worth it, it was Paul. [p. 5]

Or will Diana fall in love with Josh, the man whose smile radiates such sheer joy that he makes running at dawn seem fun?

Joshua took the umbrella with one hand, put his other arm around my shoulder, and pulled me close so we would both be covered. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

We fell into an easy silence as we walked with no clear destination in mind. I tried not to think about how close he was, how safe and comfortable I felt beside him. I caught a whiff of peppermint and lavender mixed with the smell of ramen on his shirt. He gripped me tightly and I felt the muscles on his chest expand and contract with every breath. [p. 56]

I won’t spoil anything, but here’s a scene that made me super kilig. 😉

“I hope that someday, if I’m ever crazy enough to run a marathon, I’ll have someone like you by my side.”

He moved even closer and turned his face toward me. “Just say when and I’ll be there.”

My face was two inches away from his. It was only now that I noticed how long his eyelashes were, how full his lips. All I had to do was lean forward a little more and they would be mine. [p. 89]

Seriously, I know this is a sweet romance, but Aquino is a master at the slow burn, and I admit I yelled “just kiss already!” at my galley more than once.

Love at First Run is available in print in the Philippines and on Amazon Kindle internationally. Check out my review here.

To learn more about the author, visit www.angelcaquino.com

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Thank you to the author for an electronic advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure: The author is a friend, and I’m super proud of her for writing a novel, but all views expressed on this blog are my honest opinions.

I grew up absolutely loving John Grisham novels, and Runaway Jury was one of my all time favourite legal thrillers. I loved the insight into the complexity of the justice system and I was fascinated by the idea of manipulating the outcome not through dazzling legal arguments but rather by controlling the ‘ordinary people’ tasked to make the decision. I haven’t read a lot of legal thrillers in a while, but Steve Cavanagh’s Thirteen reminded me of why I loved them so much in the first place.

In Runaway Jury, the trial was about the tobacco industry and the jury infiltration raised questions about corporate responsibility, government regulation and other larger scale justice issues. Cavanagh’s novel takes a different slant and introduces us to a serial killer who joins juries in order to manipulate the outcome on murders. Thirteen is the fourth in the Eddie Flynn series about a con man turned lawyer, and in this novel, Eddie is hired to defend a famous actor accused of murdering his wife and her lover in their bed. As Eddie and his colleagues investigate the murder, they realize that there may be ties to other murders in other cities, and that the real killer may be in the courtroom with them. I thought that the psychological profile on the killer’s motives could have been fleshed out a bit better (calling the team from Criminal Minds!), but overall, I found the killer and his infiltration of the justice system to be chilling.

I couldn’t put this book down and devoured it in a couple of days. I loved the legal tactics from Eddie and the prosecuting attorney, and the drama of their courtroom theatrics. I love the strategy that went into building and delivering their cases, and I was fascinated by the spot-on analysis of jury consultant Arnold Novoselic. The courtroom scenes and legal strategy meetings took me right back to me as a teenager when I was devouring John Grisham books and dreaming of becoming a lawyer myself.

I also loved the scenes from the serial killer’s perspective. He’s totally messed up and his priorities are definitely screwy, and it was fun to imagine who he was impersonating on the jury. I like that Cavanagh gives us a bit of insight into his childhood which gives some clarity to his motives without actually making him a sympathetic character. He’s pure evil, and almost gleeful in his cat-and-mouse game with Eddie Flynn. He’s a compelling villain, one for whom the game’s the thing, and it was fun to see how he reacts to finally meeting his match.

Thirteen reminds me of Grisham at his best, with the added thrill of a serial killer twist. It’s just pure fun, and highly recommended for fans of legal thrillers.

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Thank you to Hachette Book Group Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.