HAPPY SUPER BOWL SUNDAY AND OLYMPICS & TOP FIVE BOOKS TODAY!! Are you excited about the Super Bowl (or are you watching the Olympics instead?). Or do you intend on reading right through it? Me… a little of both. My favorite teams aren’t playing (Go Bucs!!). I also like to support my friends, so Go Bills, and I do enjoy the two teams with the Disney Prince look-alike-Quarterbacks, with the San Francisco 49ers (I loved HIS story ’cause he was brand spanking new, and had to quarterback against Tom Brady and the Bucs!!!) & the Jacksonville Jaguars (I mean… just look at him. Totally could be a Disney Prince!).
Margie’s Mini Book Review – The Birthday Betrayal by Constantino Fernandes
MARGIE ALREADY LOVES THIS AUTHOR & she highly recommends this recent one!
She says:
Constantino Fernandes: The Birthday Betrayal
I know I recommended this author very early in our emails, but OMG this book, which came out in September 2025, is unbelievably angsty. There’s family betrayal and cheating, MMC cheating and betrayal, and friends’ betrayal. There’s also heartbreaking incest.
This book is something else…it’s 388 pages and I almost binged the entire novel in one afternoon.
The main tropes are:
– Lifelong disintegration of trust and the destructive powers of hidden secrets.
– A FMC who has so far survived her dysfunctional childhood, but is about to face a series of devastating betrayals by her estranged mother, her estranged father, and her boyfriend.
– Maternal manipulation and cruelty to the point of orchestrated betrayal.
– Paternal negligence and complicity.
– Friends’ betrayal through silence.
– Incest.
– Mega emotional turmoil and spiraling.
– A cruel family legacy.
– An appropriate ending for the FMC.
Friday Finds & Reader Recommendations – 02-06-2026
<— HOCKEY ROMANCE & EVERYONE LOVES THIS SERIES!! NEW RELEASE & BOOK #5 (The Wild Card: a single dad hockey romance by Stephanie Archer) IS #2 ON ALL OF AMAZON KINDLE RIGHT NOW!!!
P.S. The February Amazon First Reads are up!! And I got “So Very Lucky” That blurb made me re-read it twice!! It sounds crazy and pretty great!
Throwback Thursday: On This Day on Maryse’s Book Blog – February 5th…
HAPPY THROWBACK THURSDAY!!! I’m loving this list especially because it brings back HUGE wonderful memories. Like, my intense love for vampire romance back when this blog was really stating to grow (and this was one of my BIGGEST LISTS for years!! I posted it below) + a review from my very own sister (also below), which brought back memories from that year.
She spent a few months at my house and we had the BEST TIME EVER!! We were so relaxed, and just living our gentle daily life together, her doing her work remotely from my house, and her hobbies, and me blogging and and reading (she was reading too). Oh and alllllll of the cooking we did, and swimming in the pool, chatting and drinking wine until late into the night. So you KNOW I had to take a photo from that time period that we took it together, and match it to my favorite theme below. 😉 Don’t we look CUTE??? LOL!! P.S. I included the original picture of us below next to her review. 🙂
Margie’s Mini Book Review – Just Desserts by Crystal Nichols
<— HOLY MOLY WAIT UNTIL YOU READ WHAT SHE SAYS ABOUT THIS ONE!! Margie found us this one & OMG when she said this:
“The angst level is high and the betrayal is devastating.”
I already want to throw my Kindle. HARD!!!! I’m in!!!
She said:
I really liked this one! Crystal Nichols: Just Desserts
A great new book about betrayal and infidelity by a husband with a family member, and how the FMC rebounds. Isla, the MFC, has put her professional ambitions on hold to support her husband’s law school and career goals. But his goals of success morph without telling her and he’s dismissive about her plans and distant in their marriage.