Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair by Laura Piper Lee started off a bit wobbly for me—the voice is too much IMO at first—but by the end l was cheering for this heartfelt book that’s a bit women’s fiction, a bit romance, with some quality steam & a definite HEA. At the beginning of the book Hannah is a mom to baby Bowie & in a long-term relationship with his dad, who routinely calls her a “mess” (supposedly affectionately). But they soon break up & she takes Bowie to her mom & step-dad’s mountain cabin, despite her reservations about taking on the stress they inevitably cause her. Newly fired & single, Hannah Tate has plenty of motivation to decide what she wants to do with her life. Helping her renovate her mom’s horror AirB&B is River, a relaxed, kind, & very attractive contractor who prefers to live outside of society’s dictates. This book delves into some big topics—inadequate parenting, technology reliance, not respecting FMLA in the workplace, & more are covered in this book—& on the whole it’s skillfully done. I ended up leaning into the quirky, adorable, & imperfect characters, the theme of renewal & finding joy, & the love & acceptance that permeates the book. There are things in this one that I wouldn’t enjoy as much written by another author in a different style, but I think Laura Piper Lee writes it successfully & with obvious heart & good intentions. If you can get past the beginning chapters, which come across a bit too aggressively IMO, I think you’ll find a shining story about a woman who drops the shitty things in her life & chooses happiness. 4.25⭐️. Out 02/13.Please see a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs.
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Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.I’ll be honest & admit off the bat that I was leery of beginning this one bc I was nervous I would encounter a behemoth. But to my surprise, once I read a couple of chapters The Christmas Fix activated my “dislike to lovers” pleasure receptors & I was off. Cat King and Noah Yates dislike each other immediately. She’s a reno expert & reality tv star & he is a starchy city manager who doesn’t want her to orchestrate and film any reno to his storm-ravaged town. But somewhere along the way he realizes that there is much much more to her & also that he has embraced a locked-down life & the fun begins. The Christmas Fix starts off a bit bumpy for me because both leads come across as abrasive. Cat is not willing to take no for an answer & Noah is very judgmental about her profession & interests & lifestyle & in a way that doesn’t feel potentially sexy. But the steam keeps steamin’ & there are some majorly cute moments as Cat introduces him to grocery store & snow adventures. Noah’s unexpected vulnerability is heartwarming, even more so how Cat responds to it. I wanted a bit more from his evolution but overall, it’s nicely done. Some of Lucy Score’s books haven’t worked for me in the past but The Christmas Fix is an adorable & hot & sweet holiday read that actually ties in nicely to the new year despite the title. 4.25⭐️. Out now! CWs: some comments about how clothes fit; past parental negligence/emotional scarring.
Hi and welcome to my blog tour stop for Rosie Danan's Do Your Worst! This is a fun read and I love the cover. A big thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Summary.Sparks fly when an occult expert and a disgraced archeologist become rivals with benefits in this steamy opposites-attract romance from "go-to author" Rosie Danan (The New York Times Book Review). Riley Rhodes finally has the chance to turn her family’s knack for the supernatural into a legitimate business when she’s hired to break the curse on an infamous Scottish castle. Used to working alone in her alienating occupation, she's pleasantly surprised to meet a handsome stranger upon arrival--until he tries to get her fired. Fresh off a scandal, Clark Edgeware can’t allow a self-proclaimed “curse breaker” to threaten his last chance for professional redemption (or his traitorous heart). After he fails to get Riley kicked off his excavation site, he vows to avoid her. Unfortunately for him, she vows to get even. Riley expects the curse to do her dirty work by driving Clark away, but instead, they keep ending up on top of each other. Turns out, the only thing they do better than fight is fool around. If they’re not careful, by the end of all this, more than the castle will end up in ruins. [ID: Jess’s white hand holds the ebook in front of a greenhouse bursting with plants.]My review.The description of Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan totally sucked me in—a curse breaker & an archaeologist who’s very skeptical of her work have to investigate a site together!?!?! Want. The beginning of this book is particularly strong as strangers Riley Rhodes—aforementioned curse breaker—& the more reserved Clark Edgeware—aforementioned archaeologist—meet at a bar. The convo flows & they share a magical kiss outside…before realizing who the other person is & *definitely before* Riley overhears Clark trying to get her fired. Clark’s backstory of betrayal & his urge for professional validation really makes it clear what his insecurities & fears are regarding this job & his involvement with Riley, who seemingly wouldn’t be widely accepted in his own scholarly community. In contrast, Riley’s a force of nature guided by her intuition & feelings, a resilient & also warm person who wants to do the best she can to make use of her gift & to resolve situations that are troubling people. The chemistry between them is great, the dislike vibes are strong & nuanced—particularly because we see how much Clark is still smarting from his past professional humiliation—& the dashes of history thrown in add some zest & unique appeal to this contemporary. This is a fun one! 4.25⭐️. Out now! Please see a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs.Excerpt.While other women inherited a knack for singing or swearing from their grandmothers, Riley Rhodes received a faded leather journal, a few adolescent summers of field training, and the guarantee that she'd die alone. Okay, fine, maybe that last thing was a slight exaggeration. But a unique talent for vanquishing the occult, passed down from one generation to the next like heirloom china, certainly didn't make dating any easier. Her matrilineal line's track record for lasting love was . . . bleak, to say the least. Curse breaking-the Rhodes family talent-was a mysterious and often misunderstood practice, especially in the modern age. Lack of demand wasn't the problem. If anything, the world was more cursed than ever. But as the presence of an angry mob in any good folktale will tell you, people fear what they don't understand. To be fair, Gran had warned Riley about the inherent hazards of curse breaking out of the gate. There was, of course, the whole physical danger aspect that came part and parcel with facing off against the supernatural. Riley had experienced everything from singed fingertips to the occasional accidental poisoning in the name of her calling. As for the personal pitfalls? Well, those hurt in a different way. She'd grown up practicing chants at recess and trying to trade homemade tonics for Twinkies at lunch. Was it any wonder that, through middle school, her only friend had been a kindly art teacher in her late fifties? It wasn't until tenth grade when her tits came in that guys decided "freaky curse girl" was suddenly code for "performs pagan sex rituals." Riley had been almost popular for a week-until that rumor withered on the vine. It was like Gran always said: No one appreciates a curse breaker until they're cursed. Since she couldn't be adored for her talents, Riley figured she could at least get paid. So, at thirty-one years old, she'd vowed to be the first to turn the family hobby into a legitimate business. Still, no one would call her practical. She'd flown thousands of miles to a tiny village in the Scottish Highlands to risk life and limb facing down an ancient and unknowable power-but hey, at least she'd gotten fifty percent up front. Hours after landing, strung out on jet lag and new-job nerves, Riley decided the village's single pub was as good a place as any to start her investigation into the infamous curse on Arden Castle. The Hare's Heart had a decent crowd for a Sunday night, considering the total population of the village didn't break two hundred. Dark wood-paneled walls and a low ceiling covered in crimson wallpaper gave the already small space an extra intimate feel. More like an elderly family member's living room than the slick, open-concept spots filled with almost as many screens as people that Riley knew all too well back home. Hopefully after this job put her services on the map she could stop picking up bartending shifts in Fishtown during lean months. For now, her business was still finding its feet. The meager income she managed to bring in from curse breaking remained firmly in the "side hustle" category-though it was still more than anyone else in her family had ever made from their highly specialized skills. Riley had always thought it was kind of funny, in a morbid way, that a family of curse breakers could help everyone but themselves. Whether out of fear or a sense of self-preservation, Gran had never charged for her practice. In fact, she'd kept curse breaking a secret her whole life, serving only her tiny rural mountain community. As a consequence, she'd never had two nickels to rub together. She and Riley's mom had weathered a few rough winters without heat, going to bed on lean nights-if not hungry, then certainly not full. Riley had never faulted her mom for ditching Appalachia and the family mantle in favor of getting her nursing degree in scenic South Jersey. It was only because she'd never been good at anything practical that Riley found herself here in the Highlands, hoping this contract changed more than the number in her bank account. If word got out that Riley had taken down the notorious curse on Arden Castle, she could go from serving small-time personal clients to big corporate or even government jobs. (She had it on good authority they'd been looking for someone to remove the curse on Area 51 since the seventies). Perching herself on a faded leather stool at the mahogany bar that divided the pub into two sections, Riley had an excellent vantage point to observe the locals. Up front in the dining room, patrons ranging in age from two to eighty occupied various farm tables brimming with frothing pints and steaming plates. Excerpted from Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan Copyright © 2023 by Rosie Danan. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. About the author.
Do you believe in curses? Is this release on your TBR? Let me know and thanks for stopping by!
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC and the publisher for the complimentary hardcopy. All opinions provided are my own. You absolutely have to start Freya Marske’s The Last Binding series from the beginning but if queer romantasy, lots of threads, & relatable, imperfect characters sounds good, have no fear: books 1 & 2 are out now & book 3, A Power Unbound, is out shortly. A Power Unbound picks up where book 2 left off: with the group’s overarching aim—to prevent magic from being gathered/stolen & wielded by the unscrupulous in a tyrannical, violent power move—& with the leads, whom we saw in book 2 as secondary characters. I have been so excited about this enemies to lovers pairing, mostly because the animosity was SEVERE & I couldn’t wait to watch arrogant Jack, a Lord, fall in particular. There is a huge difference in class, status, wealth, & even size for the leads in this book, something one-half of the partnership, Alanzo, a journalist, repeatedly points out. It makes for heated & really interesting convos, as both men learn things aren’t quite as cut & dry as they expected & as Jack becomes more cognizant of his privilege & Alanzo’s lack thereof. My fave moment is maybe unexpected to me—when a character unexpectedly extends grace & understanding instead of anger & judgment. (I can’t reveal more ). This is such a bold, striking fantasy trilogy that basically clobbers you in a good way. There are moments when I was a bit confused or just had a hard time giving it the attention it demands but overall it’s a set of really great romantasy reads that gave me hours & hours of fun (these books are thick). 4.25⭐️. Out 11/07.CWs: murder, blackmail, violence.
Hi and welcome to my blog tour stop for Ashley Herring Blake's Iris Kelly Doesn't Date! I've been loving the Bright Falls series and this is such a good conclusion. Summary.Everyone around Iris Kelly is in love. Her best friends are coupled up, her siblings have perfect partners, and her parents are still blissfully married. And she’s happy for all of them, truly. Iris doesn’t want any of that—dating, love, romance. She’ll stick to her commitment-free hookups…Except no one will just let her be. Everyone wants to see her settled down, but she holds firmly to her no dating rule. There’s only one problem—Iris is a romance author facing an imminent deadline for her second book, and she’s completely out of ideas. Perfectly happy to continue ignoring her problems, Iris goes to a bar in Portland and meets a sexy stranger, Stefania. A night of dancing turns into the worst one-night stand Iris has had in her life. To get her mind that terrible night, Iris tries out for the lead role in a local play, a queer retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, but comes face-to-face with Stefania, whose real name turns out to be Stevie. Desperate to save face in front of her friends, Stevie asks Iris to play along as her girlfriend. Iris is shocked, but when she realizes the arrangement might provide her with some much-needed romantic content for her book, she agrees. As the two women play the part of a happy couple, lines start to blur, and they’re left wondering who will make the real first move.... [ID: Jess, a white woman wearing a blue sweater with embroidered flowers on its sleeve, holds the ebook in front of a screen painted blue & white with a pink flower on a panel.]My review.I’ve been such a fan of Ashley Herring Blake’s Bright Falls series & Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date offers more time with the wonderful group of friends we met in book 1 & in particular irrepressible, vibrant Iris. But despite her passion & her confidence Iris can still be hurt & that’s something that’s definitely explored in this book, as Iris navigates expectations from her family & friends & meets & falls for Stevie, an actor who’s been struggling to get her big break & has problems with her own confidence. Fake dating shenanigans followed by the leads trading lessons in sex & romance ensue & of course added to all of this is the fact that our leads are catching feelings for each other even as they’re starring in a play together. There’s a nice amount of tension in this book as Stevie & Iris wrestle with those aforementioned expectations & how they butt up against their own desires, wants, & needs. The steam is also balanced by the sweetness of their relationship, their moments of bravery balanced by their moments of vulnerability. Stevie’s Generalized Anxiety Disorder is also beautifully explored & something that as an anxious person I’m always excited to see. Though I wish that at one later point of the plot Stevie takes more initiative, overall both leads end up taking a risk in this book & you love to see it. The ending wraps everything up very sweetly with this group of loving friends together again, doing what they do: being there for each other & appreciating each other. 4.25⭐️. Out 10/24.CWs: Iris has some trauma surrounding an ex who lied to her about being married & having a family. She runs into that previous lover on page. Have you read any other books in this series? Let me know and thanks for stopping by!
Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own. One of my fave *fave* romance things is when a lead finds a home by the end of the book & that journey for Ves in Wrapped With a Beau is so heartwarming. I’ve never actually watched a Hallmark holiday movie but the vibes of this book felt similar to what I imagine with the very welcome addition of steam. From Elisha & Ves’s inauspicious meet-cute when she assumes he’s a burglar & threatens him with a candy cane yard decoration to their fake dating / just for the holidays romance to his big gesture at the end, it’s charming & sweet. Not to mention Elisha’s adorable town which celebrates the holidays in a very big way. This book is just cute & also emotional in some ways, like when Ves contemplates his past & the found family he has now. Other things of note? A book-loving hero who is at times self conscious (very refreshing IMO), a heroine who gets things done , and a welcoming community. There’s at least one spot where it verges on being a bit too cutesy for my taste but overall, this is a lovely book that made me feel those warm & happy sensations. 4.25⭐️. Out 09/26.CWs: loss and grief; references to parental manipulation, parental fighting, parental emotional neglect, parental cheating.
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