Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.I’ve long waited for Matthias & Pet’s book & Codename Charming has some great moments that pulled at the ole heartstrings. Starting with the fact that Matthias is a security guard for royals & becomes VERY protective of Pet, their royal assistant, & including the fact that to everyone else, their romance is beauty & the beast but to Pet, he is beauty & strength & dependability. & it didn’t quite pull at my heartstrings that Matthias has chest hair but I liked it, okay? Codename Charming also has a fake dating, opposites attract (but really they have compatible backgrounds) premise, a slooooow burn, some humor, & a story of two people creating this world where they can feel comfortable, together. Add to that an investigation into Pet’s father’s family & a meddling set of Royals & you have a cheery romance that is—as the title says—charming. 4⭐️. Out 08/15.CWs include: an emotionally abusive father; knife attack flashback; attempted knife attack in current book. Death of friend & feelings of responsibility. An unknown father that Pet discovers in book.
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Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.You, Again by Kate Goldbeck is quite the emotional ride. If you’re an angst-lover, jump in, the water’s very warm. If you’re like me, you might read this one with that Chrissy Teigen cry-grimace-smile on your face because objectively you can acknowledge it’s a great book but subjectively you need the pain to be over & the HEA to hit you with sweet relief . Compared to When Harry Met Sally, this book features leads who keep bumping into each other over a series of years, at first fighting & disliking each other & gradually moving into friendship. This is where the book really got to me, in seeing the characters change & in seeing that the characters *have changed* since we saw them last. The leads’ first clunky forays past animosity are wonderfully revealing & sweet. Of course the leads don’t stay in the friendship zone—& I didn’t want them to!—but both have a lot of baggage to work through before the reconciliation. It’s the way the baggage is worked through that caused me secondhand distress as a reader: see paragraphs above about angst. But the story is compelling & the characters feel real & the ending is lovely & unique & something I won’t likely forget . I think a lot of people will love this one, & a lot of people will be moved by this one. It definitely makes an impact. 4⭐️. Out 09/12.Please see a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs.
Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.I love how KJ Charles doesn’t shy away from introducing ethical conflicts between her leads & how usually both leads—the righteous one & the scoundrel—realize they have something to learn by the end . In the case of A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel, said scoundrel is helping said nobleman work through his disheveled mess of ledgers & records, all the while deceiving him as to his deeper reasons for being there. (I love this kind of deception btw bc of the promised grovel that happens later & that scene is so touching in this book.) That’s the surface plot of this book &—minus one minor-ish element I’m still a bit confused about —it’s great. But where the book really gets to me is in its tender moments, the steam, the way that KJ Charles infuses her characters with nuance & appeal. These leads really come to life in this book, they shine & their HEA is one I was so delighted to watch. Happiness-inducing & sweet as candy (with a dastardly relative or two thrown in the mix to add a little trouble.) 5⭐️. Out 09/19.CWs: past parental abandonment; reference to a lead’s mother being raped in past; a lead is a former POW; one lead has difficulty reading & has been made fun of for that & feels ashamed. Attempted murder.
Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.The way my brain works so hard to try to keep up with a time loop or time travel book :o ;) . When a strange cute man tells Gemma Peters that they’ve met over & over again, part of her is dismayed & scared bc she’s never met him. But the other part feels this wisp of familiarity that grows as they spend more time together, with both leads running all over LA. While most time loop books I’ve read share multiple of the days on page, The Déjà Glitch keeps it on the simple-ish side: Gemma Peters & Jack experience only two days together on page—all other iterations of the same day they’ve been living over & over again for 5 months (!) are just referred to. Those two days they spend together are full of so many emotions: yearning & wistfulness, annoyance, broken-heartedness, pride, & love—some of it betwee the two of them & some of it with other people as Gemma works through some big baggage she’s been carrying—that the book itself doesn’t feel superficial. It feels like a microscope has been pointed on the things weighing Gemma down & she’s ready to finally tackle all of them. But the romance arc doesn’t have the same effect for me, unfortunately. While the growth Gemma experiences is heartwarming, I was overall a bit less convinced by the romance. Still, this is a sweet read—closed door—with a heroine who goes through a lot of emotional work on this time loop day & who finds her way to something—dare I say, even more magical: love ;). 3.5⭐️. Out now! CWs: Gemma’s dad cheated on mother previously & has been emotionally negligent in past. Jack’s dad died previous to action in book.
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