Gateway Reviews

  Best                      First Place:             Time After Time Mikki Daughtry                                         ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ In this dual-timeline romance, college student Libby spends her entire savings fund on an old Victorian fixer-upper and settles in to renovate as she connects with a love story that unfolded in this house one hundred years ago. A blending of historical and contemporary love stories, Mikki Daughtry mirrors two romances full of wit and longing and forbidden hopes and dreams. Though jumping between timelines means getting pulled from a favorite cozy love story a few times as readers bounce back and forth, this romance is the perfect sort of home-renovation escapism in which to lose yourself. Runner-Up...

New month, new books for our TBRs! Happy New Year! A new year brings a ton of new books on top of reading goals and challenges. Here are just a few of the books I'm excited to add to my TBR this month! Love Goes Viral Alexandra Berman, Camille Stochitch, & Estelle Laure From the Publisher: Love Thompson went viral. Now she has it all—fifty million followers, brand deals, a Hollywood address, and the fast track to the music career she’s always dreamed of—until…she doesn’t. After Love takes the blame for her influencer boyfriend’s mistake, the fallout goes more viral than the video that rocketed her to fame. By the next morning, she’s already lost sponsorships, ten million followers, and her debut single. Love needs to rehab her image, and that means dating someone a little more homegrown. Enter Austin Grey. Austin is about as homegrown as it gets. His only followers are the regulars at his family’s struggli...

TWIN TIDES When Aria Nguyen gets a call from a police officer in Minnesota, she knows one chapter of her life is finally coming to a close. Her mother's body has been found. It's strange she was found in the middle-of-nowhere Minnesota, absolutely. But that doesn't stop Aria from hopping on the next plane to finally put her mother to rest. But something here isn't right. Because waiting for her at the police station is a girl who looks just like Aria. A girl also here to identify the body of her mother. Their mother. Because Aria Nguyen and Calliste Ha are identical twins. Aria and Calliste have lived drastically different lives. Aria's struggled to stay afloat, barely managing to pay her sick aunt's medical bills while keeping atop her college work. Calliste, on the other hand, has been living as a lifestyle influencer in LA, funded by the food mogul father Aria didn't know she had. Why they were separated is a m...

THE LAST VAMPIRE When Lorena Navarro gets the chance to attend boarding school in an old woodland manor, she jumps at it. It might not be her aesthetic, but she needs to get away from her mommy-vlogger mother. And she'll have her best friend Salma at her side, like always. This once-condemned Victorian manor in New Hampshire has been refurbished to its original glory... mostly. There are still a few wings off-limits to students as construction and rehab take place. Which is exactly what interests Salma and the new friends they've fallen in with. Lorena is done breaking rules and pushing boundaries, but she's not exactly prepared to say no when her friends decide to stay up late exploring. Mostly they find dust. And some cool old passages that don't exactly feel safe. But one of these passages leads into a basement library that feels ancient. And in this library is a box. Well, more like a... coffin. And there's something ...

THE UNINVITED Moving to Paris from rainy Portland, Oregon is a dream come true for 17-year-old Tosh. The city is everything she could want: great public transit, amazing food, incredible sights and public art. And it's far, far away from the trouble she's leaving behind. When she makes friends with a charming expat boy in her building, Tosh finds herself thrown into a side of Paris tourists never see. Dark catacomb tunnels, hole-in-the-wall bakeries, and a cutthroat street art scene unfold before her. In this environment, Tosh feels more alive (and more at home) than ever before. But there's a predator stalking the streets of Paris, one the news rags are calling a "vampire." And as these attacks grow closer and closer to Tosh's new stomping ground, she has to reckon with what kinds of monsters would seek out young women just like her. THOUGHTS ...

TRAIL RIDES & STARRY EYES Wilder Nash has his eyes set on the stars, and he's just scored the role of a lifetime as the teen hearthrob lead in a new prime-time Western mini-series. The only problem? He kinda, sorta told the network that he knows how to ride a horse. Like, born-in-a-saddle knows how to ride a horse. And that's very far from the truth. In a desperate attempt to hold onto this starring role, Wilder's agent sends him to the remote Silver Stallion Ranch where he'll have a summer-long crash course on all things cowboy. But ranch life is far from his cushy Hollywood existence. It's not all mountains and sunset trail rides. It's hard work. Especially with Cassidy as his trainer. Cassidy might not know anything about starring in a Hollywood production, but she's actually grown up in the saddle. And there's a lot of work to do to get Wilder ready for the role he's taking on. A lot of work that ...