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Bella Heartwood Book Reviews
💌 Bookish thoughts, cozy vibes, and honest feelings — all in one place. I mostly review romance and romantasy books, from sweet to steamy (and all the messy feelings in between!), but I also like to explore other genres. I hope my reviews help you discover your next favorite read! 📚✨
House of Earth and Blood
TBD
Hold Me
⭐ 4.5/5 stars
Author: Anna Savas
Release date: March 24, 2026
Genres: New Adult | Romance | Women’s Fiction
Spoiler-free review
Hold Me by Anna Savas is a wonderful story that captivated me more and more as I kept reading. It’s truly a beautiful story, but also at times a painful one (please check trigger warnings!), and I’m so happy I got to be part of and experience Zoe and Jase’s journey as they navigate the new opportunity they are given.
Both main characters, Zoe and Jase, are beautifully crafted, with deep backstories. While you learn about them throughout the book, it’s around the halfway point where more and more pieces start to come together—though there are still heartbreaking twists and turns ahead that keep you wanting to fully understand their story. Their shared passion for ballet is also wonderfully portrayed and easy to follow, even for someone like me who isn’t very knowledgeable about it.
The story goes back and forth between the present and one year prior, when something key happened that shaped Zoe and Jase’s relationship as it is now. While this format took me a little time to get used to, it didn’t take away from my reading experience. Once I was fully immersed in the story and more comfortable with the timeline shifts, it became an absolute page-turner.
I really loved this book. It’s sad and painful, deep and intriguing, but also tender and hopeful. It can be a hard story to read at times due to some of the topics included (one in particular that I don’t want to spoil), but it’s also a story that feels incredibly meaningful and worth reading. Hold Me explores themes of family, complicated and broken relationships, as well as new and positive ones—like friendships that are there for you no matter what. Above all, this second-chance story beautifully highlights resilience, self-worth, and love, and how sometimes, if you just hold on a little longer, the right people will appear (or reappear) in your life and make it better.
I will definitely continue the series 🤗
Thank you to NetGalley, publisher LYX, and author Anna Savas. I received an advance copy, and all comments are part of my honest review.
Author: Anna Savas
Release date: March 24, 2026
Genres: New Adult | Romance | Women’s Fiction
Spoiler-free review
Hold Me by Anna Savas is a wonderful story that captivated me more and more as I kept reading. It’s truly a beautiful story, but also at times a painful one (please check trigger warnings!), and I’m so happy I got to be part of and experience Zoe and Jase’s journey as they navigate the new opportunity they are given.
Both main characters, Zoe and Jase, are beautifully crafted, with deep backstories. While you learn about them throughout the book, it’s around the halfway point where more and more pieces start to come together—though there are still heartbreaking twists and turns ahead that keep you wanting to fully understand their story. Their shared passion for ballet is also wonderfully portrayed and easy to follow, even for someone like me who isn’t very knowledgeable about it.
The story goes back and forth between the present and one year prior, when something key happened that shaped Zoe and Jase’s relationship as it is now. While this format took me a little time to get used to, it didn’t take away from my reading experience. Once I was fully immersed in the story and more comfortable with the timeline shifts, it became an absolute page-turner.
I really loved this book. It’s sad and painful, deep and intriguing, but also tender and hopeful. It can be a hard story to read at times due to some of the topics included (one in particular that I don’t want to spoil), but it’s also a story that feels incredibly meaningful and worth reading. Hold Me explores themes of family, complicated and broken relationships, as well as new and positive ones—like friendships that are there for you no matter what. Above all, this second-chance story beautifully highlights resilience, self-worth, and love, and how sometimes, if you just hold on a little longer, the right people will appear (or reappear) in your life and make it better.
I will definitely continue the series 🤗
Thank you to NetGalley, publisher LYX, and author Anna Savas. I received an advance copy, and all comments are part of my honest review.
Booked at Midnight
⭐ 5/5 stars
Author: E. W. Andersen
Release date: March 23, 2026
Genres: Romance | Sci-Fi & Fantasy | Women’s Fiction
Spoiler-free review
E. W. Andersen did it again! Booked at Midnight, book two in the Midnights on the Square series, is a wonderful sequel to The Midnight Book Club, and I loved it!
In Booked at Midnight, we get to follow Aurelia’s journey as a writer, bookshop owner, and now in her relationship with Oliver, which has grown and deepened. When I started reading this book, I wondered if it would follow a similar storyline to book one (with some differences, of course), especially regarding Aurelia’s relationship with the fictional characters—but oh wow, I loved the twist this second book had. I won’t say much because it would spoil key parts of the story, but the different direction this book takes worked so well, and I was completely here for it!
In this second book, we still get that magical realism I loved in book one, set in the beautiful, perfectly suited setting of Aurelia’s magical bookshop. This time, though, we meet a whole new group of literary characters, and they were just as amazing and wonderfully written as those in the first book. I’ll admit that when I first “met” Harriet from Little Dorrit, I wondered how Aurelia would write her story based on Harriet’s personality—but that concern quickly disappeared as I kept reading, which also ties into the twist I mentioned earlier.
I also really enjoyed how Aurelia handled the “complications” of meeting with the characters every night after Oliver moves in with her. There are some very funny moments, along with others that are wholesome, lovely, and sweet. We get to see much more of Aurelia and Oliver’s relationship, and it’s truly heartwarming. Even during moments of tension between them, you can feel the love they share, and I really appreciated that. I also loved Aurelia’s personal journey, which continues beautifully from book one while exploring new layers that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about.
Booked at Midnight has love, grief, tension, sadness, and joy. It’s a wholesome story, and I love its characters and plot so much :) Aurelia is one of my favorite female main characters—someone I can relate to deeply at times, especially in her journey as a writer.
Thank you to NetGalley and author E. W. Andersen for the opportunity to read this wonderful story. I received an advance copy, and all opinions are my own.
Author: E. W. Andersen
Release date: March 23, 2026
Genres: Romance | Sci-Fi & Fantasy | Women’s Fiction
Spoiler-free review
E. W. Andersen did it again! Booked at Midnight, book two in the Midnights on the Square series, is a wonderful sequel to The Midnight Book Club, and I loved it!
In Booked at Midnight, we get to follow Aurelia’s journey as a writer, bookshop owner, and now in her relationship with Oliver, which has grown and deepened. When I started reading this book, I wondered if it would follow a similar storyline to book one (with some differences, of course), especially regarding Aurelia’s relationship with the fictional characters—but oh wow, I loved the twist this second book had. I won’t say much because it would spoil key parts of the story, but the different direction this book takes worked so well, and I was completely here for it!
In this second book, we still get that magical realism I loved in book one, set in the beautiful, perfectly suited setting of Aurelia’s magical bookshop. This time, though, we meet a whole new group of literary characters, and they were just as amazing and wonderfully written as those in the first book. I’ll admit that when I first “met” Harriet from Little Dorrit, I wondered how Aurelia would write her story based on Harriet’s personality—but that concern quickly disappeared as I kept reading, which also ties into the twist I mentioned earlier.
I also really enjoyed how Aurelia handled the “complications” of meeting with the characters every night after Oliver moves in with her. There are some very funny moments, along with others that are wholesome, lovely, and sweet. We get to see much more of Aurelia and Oliver’s relationship, and it’s truly heartwarming. Even during moments of tension between them, you can feel the love they share, and I really appreciated that. I also loved Aurelia’s personal journey, which continues beautifully from book one while exploring new layers that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about.
Booked at Midnight has love, grief, tension, sadness, and joy. It’s a wholesome story, and I love its characters and plot so much :) Aurelia is one of my favorite female main characters—someone I can relate to deeply at times, especially in her journey as a writer.
Thank you to NetGalley and author E. W. Andersen for the opportunity to read this wonderful story. I received an advance copy, and all opinions are my own.
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