YVONNE’S SHORTIES #270 – The Little Cafe In Copenhagen // The Nothing Man // Life’s Too Short

Time for another round of Yvonne’s Shorties! Since I have a huge pile of backlog reviews of the books I read during my break, I will be featuring an extra book in my shorties posts until I’ve caught up. This time around the first book in a romance series I enjoyed, a thriller that surprisingly didn’t work for me and a romance read I loved.

Title: The Little Cafe In Copenhagen
(Romantic Escapes #1)
Author: Julie Caplin
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: February 1st 2018
Publisher: HarperImpulse
Finished reading: November 27th 2021
Pages: 410

“It’s not where you come from, it’s where you’re going that counts.”

This series was a recommendation by Nicki @ Secret Library Book Blog and I can definitely understand her love for this series now. I always love a travel angle in my stories, and the fact that part of the story takes place in Copenhagen and we get lots of wonderful descriptions of not only the city but also the Danish lifestyle is a huge bonus. It’s true that it took me a little time to properly warm up to the story (especially when Josh is in the picture), but once the story travelled to Denmark I was fully hooked. While I could have done without that hint at a love triangle vibe (thankfully it never became the real thing) and the sexy scenes weren’t for me, I did enjoy the rest of the story. Kate took a little while warming up to, but most of the rest of the cast is easy to like and I enjoyed getting to know them. The story was wrapped up nicely too, although there is a hint at what will happen in book two that makes me want to continue the series sooner than later.

Title: The Nothing Man
Author: Catherine Ryan Howard
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
First published: August 4th 2020
Publisher: Corvus
Finished reading: November 28th 2021
Pages:

“Even if you were already falling, you were technically okay until you hit the ground.”

Right… I guess it’s unpopular opinion time again! I honestly didn’t expect this to happen as I love a good serial killer thriller and I love stories with a bookish element, but sadly I liked the concept of having a true crime memoir within the actual story a lot better than the execution. The Nothing Man left me mostly underwhelmed and with mixed feelings… While I did find the part focusing on Jim intriguing, there was just something about Eve’s POV and her true crime memoir that didn’t work for me. Like I said, it’s a great idea, but I was just rather bored by it all most of the time and I was never able to connect to her character at all. I still can’t put my finger exactly on the why, but it probably has to do with the somewhat dry or at least distant tone of her memoir and the fact that a lot of the time the focus is on other characters in play. There is also no real suspense in the actual story for a loooong time as we already know the identity of the killer, and while things did improve in the final part, as a whole The Nothing Man mostly left me wanting for more. It might just have been the wrong time for me to read this story though, as most people do seem to enjoy it a lot better… I’m still curious to see how I will react to her other titles, but I might just wait for a couple months before I pick up another of her books just to be safe.

Title: Life’s Too Short
(The Friend Zone #3)
Author: Abby Jimenez
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: April 6th 2021
Publisher: Forever
Finished reading: November 29th 2021
Pages: 384

“If you spend your life dwelling on the worst possible thing, when it finally happens, you’ve lived it twice.”

I really like the way Abby Jimenez writes her romances, and I’ve been looking forward to read the third book Life’s Too Short after having a great time with the sequel. And I think this might just be my favorite of the series! Sure, there might be some cliches involved including the male lead being insanely attractive, the friends to lovers trope as well as the fact that neither seems to realize they are attracted to each other. BUT. Somehow I didn’t really care about all that as I was too busy getting to know Adrian and Vanessa better and seeing their connection grow. I loved how important both Grace and the dog were during the story, and how the story deals with serious topics including ALS and addiction on top of the romance. The writing makes it really easy to fly through this story, and there is a great balance between the lighter moments and the more heavy topics. The ending was a tad cheesy, but perfect for this story and it was just the (mostly) fun romance read I was craving.