Quick Thoughts: Marlowe Banks, Redesigned by Jacqueline Firkins

Marlowe Banks, Redesigned

by Jacqueline Firkins

October 25, 2022

Goodreads Summary:

In Marlowe Banks, Redesigned, Jacqueline Firkins wonderfully captures the messiness of failure, forgiveness, and embracing a second chance on life and love.

Marlowe Banks’s life has come apart at the seams. Her engagement ended abruptly. Her latest costume design was shredded by critics. Her student loans are overdue. Her parents have never been more disappointed. Desperate to hide from her failures, Marlowe flees New York City to embrace invisibility in Los Angeles as a menial Production Assistant on a popular TV show. While sorting socks and taking care of her boss’ spoiled Weimaraner, no one can confront her poor artistic choices or the end of her engagement, the end her ex refuses to accept.

When a costume mix-up requires Marlowe to step into in a scene, the camera catches a heated look between her and Angus Gordon, the show's arrogant bad boy, thrusting Marlowe into the spotlight. As the pair is forced together on set, Marlowe learns she's not the only one hiding. Walls come down for both of them, revealing a life Marlowe isn't sure she's ready for, and when her past comes calling, she has to decide if she's going to stay invisible or if it's time for a redesign.

Quick Thoughts: Room to Breathe by Kasie West

 

Room to Breathe

by Kasie West

 January 6, 2026

Goodreads Summary:

From the critically acclaimed author of Sunkissed comes a new swoony YA romance. Indy and Beau’s friendship is shattered, but getting accidentally locked in a bathroom together just might be what's needed to reconnect.

When the walls close in, the truth comes out.

When Indy’s life came crashing down, she made a no one could know. To the world, she’s still the same Indy—cool, calm, unshaken. But behind the scenes? It’s chaos.

Her tight-knit crew—Beau, Caroline, and Ava—were once her everything. Now they’re strangers she can’t seem to reach—especially Beau. And the only person she talks to these days is Cody, a skater-boy she used to think was so not her type. Funny how everything changes when your world flips upside down.

And then, as if things couldn’t get weirder, Indy finds herself literally stuck in a school bathroom with Beau. After months of silence, and there’s no escape. If they want out, they’ll have to face the messy truth about what happened between them and find a way back to what they once had. Or maybe even more . . .

My Thoughts: Witch Season (Broken Coven #1) by Julia Bianco

*I received a copy of this book from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

Witch Season

(Broken Coven #1)

by Julia Bianco

June 30, 2026 

Goodreads Summary:

Exhilarating, dangerous, and seductive, Witch Season is an action-packed and fiercely romantic contemporary fantasy from debut author and screenwriter Julia Bianco.

That is the price of magic - not just the blood, but the pain to bring it out.

Katherine Barnes is an enforcer, charged with upholding the rules of the notorious Los Angeles-based Aestas coven. It's her job to maintain order and bring unsettled witches - people who aren't aware they have magic until it explodes out of them in a catastrophic burst - into the coven's fold. As a former unsettled witch, Katherine owes her life to Sylvia Page, coven leader and silver-haired rebel who founded Aestas years ago.

When Silas Khatri, heir to Noctis, the most powerful coven in the world, arrives to take Aestas to task for some of their more unconventional practices, Katherine's dislike for him reaches blistering levels. She hates his money, his good looks, and his coven's dangerous attitude towards unsettled witches. She can absolutely overlook that he sets her off in more ways than one.

But a powerful threat is about to rise. Stronger than any one coven. More insidious than the decades-long power struggle that exists in the hidden witch world. One that will pull Katherine and Silas together despite their differences. And one that will lead to an all-out war.