Welcome to the Blog Tour for Max by Izzy James, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
About the Book
Trapped in his conservatory for 250 years by the curse of an enraged woman, Max appears to Olivia just before Christmas. Olivia is a young woman waiting for the right man to recognize her strengths and talents. Can Olivia help Max break the curse without breaking her heart?
PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBubAbout the Author
Izzy James is the pen name of Elizabeth Chevalier Hull. Elizabeth grew up in coastal Virginia surrounded by the history of the founding of our nation. She lives there still with her fabulous husband in a house brimming with books.
Connect with Izzy by visiting izzyjamesauthor.com to follow her on social media or subscribe to email newsletter updates.
Tour Giveaway
(1) winner will receive a print copy of the book and a $25 Amazon gift card!
(1) additional winner will receive a print copy of the book!
Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight January 24, 2023 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on January 31, 2023. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. Open internationally. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.
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My Review
Max is the first book in a short time-travel novella series. I found my reading of it to be light-hearted and entertaining, and I loved how the author used the disparage in time to create minor conflicts (and lots of humor!).
This is a laugh-out-loud book with sweet romance, hints of fantasy, and deeper underlying themes about arrogance and punishment and ultimately, redemption.
One critique I do have is that I found this story to be a little too short. Even for a novella, Max would be considered short, and I think the romance suffered from it. Max and Olivia are great together as a couple, but by my standards, Olivia fell in love with Max way too soon. I mean, she was real serious about marrying him after they’d met for only a few pages! That’s crazy stuff.
Still, I loved the humor this book provided, and my overall experience with it is still positive. Given the chance, I would be willing to try another book by the same author.
Please note that I received a free copy of this book from the author through JustRead Publicity Tours. All thoughts and opinions expressed are completely my own, and I was not required to leave a positive review.
Questions for You!
Please leave me a comment below! I love hearing from you guys. 😊 What is the ideal book length for you? How often do you read novellas? And have you ever read a time-slip book before? Finally, do you generally like book covers with people or no? Thanks for reading today!
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
✩ Books by Starlight ✩ 
Sounds like an interesting book! And I actually hate when there are people on the cover of books but I try not to judge a book for that.
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This sounds like a great book!! Adding to my tbr!
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Awesome! Thanks for visiting my blog today. 🙂
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thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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Thanks for giving me the opportunity!
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i like when romance is backed with an exciting plot!
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Oh, those are honestly the best! 🤩 Thanks for visiting, Nova!
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Max sounds like my kind of book and I am looking forward to reading it, thanks for sharing with me!
Thanks, Books by Starlight, for sharing your review!
Have a terrific day!
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Thanks, Eva! 🤗 I hope you also have a terrific day. 🙂
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I like books around 100k words 🙂 I haven’t read many novellas or time slip books.
I absolutely do like characters on my covers if they’re well-drawn (or the photograph features a good looking model 😆)
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Hi Kyrie, thanks so much for visiting my blog today! I’m just curious, but while we’re on the topic, do you know how many words the first edition of Enemy’s Keeper has?
(I 100% agree with your opinion on book covers, by the way. 😆😍)
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I look forward to reading this.
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It’s lots of fun!
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Thank you for sharing your review of Max, it sounds like a great story and I am looking forward to reading it myself. I do prefer a full-length novel and a series with many connected stories but I do read novellas occasionally. I do enjoy reading stories featuring the time slip trope and I do prefer people or landscapes on the cover of a book. I really don’t like the cartoon-like covers that so many books are sporting these days. Even though I know that the characters in a fiction book are not real I do like to think of them that way while I am reading their story and picturing them as cartoon makes them seem unreal to me
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You’re welcome, Beatrice. ❤️ Thank you for sharing your thoughts as well!
I also prefer full-length novels, but novellas are often nice for me when I’m going through a reading slump or a busier season.
By “cartoon-like covers,” do you mean the type that resembles a sort of Procreate, minimalist, portrait drawing? I’ve seen those around a lot recently on rom-com covers.
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Oh, I can’t remember the last time I read a time-travel book!! Those are pretty fun, though! 😀 And that’s a great question about book covers with a picture of the characters! Lol, I’ve decided that I like it best when the cover shows the back of them, but not their full face (like Rebecca Ross’s The Queen’s Resistance) because it gives me a general image to go off of, but still lets me imagine their features! But there are lots of book covers I LOVE that have the character’s face, so it really depends. XD What is your opinion on that?
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Oh, that’s a very interesting preference! I think it makes perfect sense, though, especially after you made such a good example with the cover of The Queen’s Resistance. (I’m also reading another book at the moment called A Winter at the White Queen that would fit the criteria!)
In my opinion, fantasy, historical fiction, and sometimes contemporary books do great with people on the covers. And I have a serious obsession with good character art on fantasy covers lol (e.g. Bone Crier’s Moon and How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories). I might not even have read the book 😆, but if I like the cover and if reviews are favorable, I will more often than not find myself adding the book to my TBR.
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Oh, that’s a great point!!! I’d agree with that, those genres do great with people on the covers! Oh my goodness, I just looked up those covers because I hadn’t heard of those books before…those are amazing!!!! Ahh! And I just remembered Dreams Lie Beneath, which had a person on the cover, and that’s one of my favorite book covers. So yeah, it really depends for me haha!
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Ooh, I do also like Dreams Lie Beneath’s cover! Honestly, *gorgeous* book covers are such a weakness of mine. It’s supposed to be, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but my brain can never seem to obey the concept. 😄
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i do enjoy when they have a picture of a few of the characters, but then i also enjoy creating what they look like myself, so it usually depends!
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Good answer! I specifically love fantasy with character art on the cover (😍!), but I know historical fiction often puts people on covers, too. Do you usually find you like one over the other?
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