Carla de Guzman – Cannonball Read 17

What was it that Shakespeare said? “Shut up, and let me kiss you”? Probably.

The Last Guy You Kiss by Carla De Guzman

March 25, 2025 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

The Last Guy You Kiss is achingly sweet, honest, and funny. It’s a gorgeously layered romance about the courage of choosing to love when the world makes you want to guard your heart. Carla de Guzman is one of the authors I wish more people read. She’s so good. Her books are like a tapestry with rich and intricate details. The Last Guy You Kiss reminded me a bit of Cara Bastone’s Promise Me Sunshine in that the characters are trying to get through a […]

One of my favorite things about art is how it’s a testament to how much someone was loved, enough that the world needed to see it.

Manila Takes Manhattan by Carla de Guzman

February 29, 2024 by Emmalita Leave a Comment

I was reading a review of a different book and was struck by the reviewer’s complaint about the characters. They felt like the characters were shaped for the plot, rather than the plot shaped by the characters. In contrast, Carla de Guzman drives the action of her story by what her characters would do. In Manila Takes Manhattan, she throws Mon and Olivia into a month of close proximity and the love story feels like it grows organically from there. Mon Mendoza has flown from […]

A Hopeful Romance with Community and So Much Good Food

A Match Made in Lipa by Carla de Guzman

February 8, 2022 by Emmalita 4 Comments

I had to stop reading this a few times to soothe my aching chest. There is an undercurrent of melancholy in Carla de Guzman’s A Match Made in Lipa that gives depth to the sweet and hopeful childhood friends to lovers romance. Kira and Santi played together as children in Lipa until Santi’s grandfather demanded the family move to Manila. Years later, Santi is wandering through Osaka, having just been fired from the family hotel business and cut off from all family money. He runs into […]

She was twenty-nine and had been fully with Team No Boyfriend since birth

Sweet on You: A Filipino Christmas Romance by Carla de Guzman

October 3, 2020 by Emmalita 1 Comment

Sari Thomas does not like change and in the 10 days leading up to Christmas, a lot of big changes come at her. First of all, her sister announces she’s moving out. Secondly, a bakery is opening up next to her café and the baker is a good looking man who plays his music too loud and produces amazing goods. He irritates Sari immediately. Gabriel Campos is trying to prove to his father that he can be a professional and financial success as a baker. […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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