Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC and the publisher for the complimentary hard copy. All opinions provided are my own.I just wondered what it would be like if someone like Kate Clayborn—who writes so gorgeously & so completely from the heart—hadn’t written books & they weren’t published… Especially when her books make me feel so full. So expansive (read the book to get this reference ;) ). Georgie, All Along is another exquisite portrayal of the best of people & of love. I think it’s also probably the funniest book of Kate Clayborn’s that I’ve read. Not only is Levi totally amazing—I want to hug him & go to his Bday party & drunkenly tell him how much I love him & also write embarrassing wishes regarding him up & down my arms in Sharpie —but Georgie—& her heart & her confusion & friendship—is also beloved to me. Have I ever been uncertain about what I want? About my future? Um yes. This is my favorite kind of romance in that not only is the central love story so wonderful & well-developed, the secondary characters & those relationships are too. Kate Clayborn is one of my fave writers of friendship & I absolutely love how she captures the one between Georgie & Bel, another opposites attract pairing that’s done so well. This book satisfies on every level & made me feel as if I were truly watching/observing/enjoying love in all forms. So if you haven’t read Kate Clayborn yet, please do. She is an author I recommend without reservation & her books are lovely & like Georgie says about Levi, “what I want, but better.” 5⭐️. Out now!CWs: Parental estrangement; parental neglect; parental “cruelty.” References to drug use & emotional abuse at alternative school.
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Thanks to the author for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Some books just leave you feeling & saying “wow” & that’s how I feel about Eliza McLane’s Perfect Match. From the beginning to the end, this novella is just delightful & feels perfectly considered—like everything is working so harmoniously (& maybe also horny-ly) toward a HEA that left me feeling very happy indeed. The novella opens with Rosie—who is smarting from how her business is currently doing & who is not interested in love at all thankyouverymuch—attending a speed dating/dating algorithm party out of support for her BFF. There she meets nice guy Tyler, who wears glasses and is an accountant (*cue all the butterflies bc I do love a hero like this!) & is smarting from a failed relationship. They are paired together & spend one magical & very H O T weekend together. Can they be something more?? You betcha & the Epilogue left me with such a feeling of satisfaction. The communication between leads in this book!! Not a full sentence but I think you get it . If you’re looking for a steamy, wonderfully written novella that gives you that full, complete HEA feeling, check out Eliza McLane’s Perfect Match. By the end of it all, I was in love with Tyler & Rosie, I was feeling the steam, & I was congratulating myself on requesting this ARC . 5⭐️. Out 02/06.[ID: Jess, a white woman, wears a black, white, purple, & blue flannel shirt & holds the ebook.]Thanks to Partner @bibliolifestyle for the complimentary finished copy and the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Every time I open a Jenny Holiday contemporary I’m reminded of how much I like her books. So This Is Christmas really got me going with: ❄️An uptight hero—Matteo Benz, an equerry to the king of Eldovia—who wears three piece suits on the daily, tries to be professional at all times, but is very much annoyed by the heroine. To quote the book: “He looked like a millennial dressed up as a boomer.” ❄️A business-oriented heroine—American Cara Delaney who’s visiting Eldovia & serving as a business consultant for the King. She & her job immediately rub Matteo the wrong way. ❄️Both leads recognizing that there’s more to the other lead than their initial impression & slowwwwly coming to call each other by their first names. ❄️a fun glimpse back at previous characters ❄️Holiday’s deft hand with emotions & nuance & pacing. I feel like I’ve been really blessed on the holiday romance reading front this year & this is another adorable book that warmed my heart. If you haven’t checked out Holiday’s Eldovia series yet I really recommend it—especially book 2 which is a fave. 4.5 ⭐️. Out now!CW: heroine’s mother forced out of home after unwed pregnancy. Cara assaulted at 16 & she fended him off using her high heel shoe.Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.There are some authors who take the risk of always trying something new. Sarah Hogle is one of them. Some of you will really enjoy Hogle’s latest release Just Like Magic. Others of you might be like nope. Where was I? In the former camp. This is a really fun, supremely strange, marvel-filled, very funny book. I’ll be honest: I was a bit worried about where the plot would go, but in the end Hogle handled it really well & my final feeling was of being entertained, relieved, & warm & fuzzy instead of majorly annoyed . Bettie Hughes undergoes quite the transformation throughout Just Like Magic that’s facilitated by Hall, an embodied Holiday Spirit that she ends up meeting because of how she plays her Mariah Carey “All I Want For Christmas Is You” album one lonely night. If just that sentence is too much this book may not be for you ;) . Bettie is spoiled, her family is sometimes not the nicest to each other & often distant, & Bettie herself is on a mission of revenge that’s somewhat unlocked when she realizes Hall can make her wishes come true *Alexa, cue Mariah Carey holiday music.* Even if he sometimes messes her wishes up a tad . Imagine the movie Elf but darker, & those are Hall & Bettie’s opposites attract vibes. Hall is warmth & happiness & love & understanding & vulnerability & being around him helps bloom in ways she never anticipated. There are some truly hilarious lines in here, a fake dating situation, & some moments of defending each other to various members of her family. Plus lots of magic. All big wins on my end! But Hall comes across a bit flat at times, as others have said, one-note, especially at the beginning. Be advised that this book is closed door, which actually made it work better for me. Turning unexpectedly steamy wouldn’t have worked for this book’s dynamic at all. Overall I just leaned into this book & had a really good time. I’m here for the bizarre, hilarious holiday romances . 4.5 ⭐️. Out now!CWs: Former emotional abuse.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC and the publisher for the complimentary finished copy. All opinions provided are my own.If I’m looking for soft & cozy Roan Parrish is always a good bet & the title of this upcoming release--The Rivals of Casper Road—(not to mention those adorable FREAKING PUMPKINS on the cover!!) sucked me in. Give me all the fall stuff. This ended up being everything I said in the first paragraph: soft, cozy. Sweet. Pumpkin-y ;). The basic set-up of this one is that after suffering a big heartbreak Bram Larkspur has moved to Garnet Run, Wyoming, home to some of Parrish’s other beloved characters. His new neighbor is prickly Zachary Glass, a stiff, reserved type who has won the neighborhood Halloween decorating competition several years in a row. Thanks to a couple of unfortunate moments they end up as rivals for a brief moment, & then they become something else (hint: something with smooching). This is just a fast, heartwarming read between a prickly & the sunshine one with an epilogue that ended things on an awww note. I’m really happy that these two Harlequin releases of Roan’s just go for it & these covers make me all kinds of happy. 4⭐️. Out now!CWs: references to former anti-Semitism & bullying. Zachary has self-consciousness and insecurities about appearance now. Zachary’s sister disappeared when they were teens. Bram was cheated on in past.
Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. I think this is the steamiest vampire romance I’ve ever read? Imagine if you took a Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark vampire book, took out a bit of the worldbuilding intricacy & then added maybe 32 sex scenes (I’m exaggerating here )—then you might have Katee Robert’s Court of the Vampire Queen. A poly MMMF romance between one half vampire, half human (a dhampir) & three stunning vampire men, COTVQ is stunningly, fantastically steamy & also makes frequent use of the bite = near orgasmic pleasure motif that can really sell a vampire romance for me . This book kicks off when dhampir Mina is given against her will to vampire Malachi, who hasn’t been able to leave his home in decades. She’s supposed to feed him & bed him, but he stuns her by setting some boundaries & being clear that he wants her consent & her to actually desire him before they proceed any farther sexually. Then the other vampires start showing up at his home one by one & things really get interesting. Not only is the steam in this one winning, so are each of the different personalities & Mina’s varying relationships with each vampire. I love how Katee Robert shows that they get something unique from each other person but how they have something special as a whole. Be aware, there are lots of content warnings for this one that Katee Robert includes in a list at the beginning & a few repetitious moments. (I thought I saw somewhere that this work was maybe published some other way & now it’s being republished but I haven’t been able to find that note again so ). But there’s so much steam (have I mentioned that yet ;) ), an interesting relationship arc as they all find out how to navigate this new relationship, & this fabulous sense of drama & atmosphere. In short, it’s really fun, very bloody, & freaking hot. 4.5⭐️. Out 09/06.CWs: She’s bitten without her consent. She sees men trying to drug her drink and then shortly after helps those men get murdered to feed her lovers. Violence. Murder. Lots of other CWs—I would suggest checking out the author’s list.
Thanks to the publisher for complimentary finished copy and the publisher & Edelweiss for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. [This pic was taken from the fire tower trail in Frozen Head State Park!] I take every chance I can here to shout about Charlie Adhara’s Big Bad Wolf series & the author is back with the opening to a spin-off, Pack of Lies. The lead in this series, Eli, is sly, incorrigible, bold, & provocative & his voice jumps from the page. Now the manager of a mountain retreat owned by Cooper & Oliver (the leads of the books in the Big Bad Wolf series), Eli is brought into a mystery investigation surrounding whatever strange, supernatural creature is targeting a rival lodge owner, & all the while, of course, he must hide that he is a wolf shifter. Easy, right? Also easy is managing his attraction & feelings for actor Julien Doran, who is hiding his own secrets, chiefly his investigation into his brother’s earlier death. Like with all fantastic series it’s such a joy to return to them, to see beloved characters take on new life & to see where they’ll go. Both Julien & Eli have big trust issues & I appreciated that they temporarily set that aside for some steam . There’s a surprising twist, some solid-hitting emotion, & an ending that left me wanting more. Like tomorrow. I highly highly recommend this series if you love PNR—these characters will work themselves into your heart very easily! 4.5⭐️. Out now!CWs: violence, death.
Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the complimentary finished copy & @avonbooks and Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Wow, Sarah MacLean doesn’t play around with Heartbreaker. Honestly it feels like she took some of *my* favorite things & wrapped them in a stunning package & said “please knock yourself out with good feelings, Jessica” . I’m trying to think of how this book could have been any better & it’s just not possible to me. From its seemingly mismatched leads—a thief from the rough & tumble part of London & an uptight duke—to its “chase me” vibes, to its badass group of Belles & the ways said leads show they care over & over again…it’s quite a one-two- to infinity punch. I adore how Adelaide Frampton is written & how Henry, the aforementioned duke, is so aware of her strength, courage, & effectiveness. This isn’t a book where the hero is sleeping on the heroine’s attributes . & Henry is basically a perfect hero. Or at least perfect for me. Coming at the reader with big “not like other toffs energy,” his background gives him empathy, a sense of fun, & sportsmanship & it’s easy to see how they work together despite their difference in status. Who could have suspected that a thief & a duke would be so good together? Okay me. I suspected . Powerfully written, sensual & hot & passionate, funny & romantic & trope-tastic, filled with moments where the leads try as hard as they can to protect each other, Heartbreaker both packs a heart wallop & had me grinning. I’m pretty sure this one’s going on my best of 2022 list! In conclusion this is the first time I’ve been sexually attracted to the name Henry. 5 ⭐️. Out 08/23.CWs: violence. Horrible rich white people—mostly men—only caring about themselves. It’s implied that Adelaide’s father “all but insisted” that she become physically intimate with her former fiancé, who was of his choosing. Kidnapping. Probably others.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. This book isn’t quite Assassin Lite but there are so many things that got to my heart nonetheless. 🌻 Like a deliberately annoying lead + the lead who gets exasperated by him. 🌻 A grumpy & the sunshine combo. 🌻 Forced proximity. 🌻 I have to trust you (even though I shouldn’t) if I want to survive. 🌻 Let’s make a home together. In N. R. Walker’s The Kite Harry & Asher are both assassins who go on the run together once they realize that hits have been put out on both of them. Neither man is quick to trust so that makes the inevitable walls coming down all the better. The steam had me fanning my cheeks, the caretaking scenes grabbed at my heart, & I was genuinely happy to see them at the end, forging a new, safe life separate from the violence of their past. Be warned: there’s a lot of violence in this one & lots of deaths, some committed by the leads. In an effort to establish their own safety Harry also threatens a villain’s family in front of the villain only & while I think he was bluffing I prefer my leads to make less threats against possibly innocent people please & thanks. But on the whole The Kite really satisfied. 4.5 ⭐️. Out now!
Summary.The beloved queen of Regency romance is back with a brand-new series perfect for fans of Bridgerton. Discover New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh’s Ravenswood series. The handsome and charismatic Earl of Stratton, Caleb Ware, has been exposed to the ton for his clandestine affairs—by his own son. As a child, Devlin Ware thought his family stood for all that was right and good in the world. They were kind, gracious, and shared the beauty of Ravenswood, their grand country estate, by hosting lavish parties for the entire countryside. But at twenty-two, he discovered his whole world was an elaborate illusion, and when Devlin publicly called his family to account for it, he was exiled as a traitor. So be it. He enlisted in the fight against Napoleon and didn’t look back for six years. But now his father is dead, the Ware family is broken, and as the heir he is being called home. It’s only when Gwyneth Rhys—the woman he loved and then lost after his family banished him—holds out her hand to help him that he is able make the difficult journey and try to piece together his fractured family. It is Gwyneth’s loyalty, patience, and love that he needs. But is Devlin’s war-hardened heart even capable of offering her love in return? My review.Would you believe that I had never read a Mary Balogh book before Remember Love & I’ve been reading historical romance for about 24 or so years & see her books around all the time? (That’s a rhetorical question since I know we all have authors like that 😆). But this book really got to me, so much so that I found myself being okay with certain things that might have given me pause if written by someone else. Because Mary Balogh’s writing is intricately descriptive (please ask me about Ravenswood Manor & one of the leads’s siblings bc this woman has learned so much 🤣), & the story is marvelously told, & it felt very much Wharton-esque to me but with that HEA. The premise of this book is that “before,” Gwyneth Rhys & Devlin Ware are total opposites & neighbors who have been closely linked throughout their childhoods but only because they’ve been best friends with each other’s siblings. Secretly they’ve pined for each other, though, & they have *one day* of luxuriating in the fact that their feelings are not unrequited before it comes crashing down in heartrending fashion. At 40% into the book, we’re fast forwarded six years & Devlin has returned home where he again meets Gwyneth, the woman he “once loved” (ok yeah whatever Devlin). I mentioned the storytelling, but there’s a lot of other things to commend this one: the bravery of Gwyneth, who is a quiet joy & a bold joy & whom I was cheering on. There’s introspective Devlin, who, as Gwyneth points out, feels so much even while not recognizing that in himself. There are well-rounded secondary characters whose happiness I’m also devoted in, & an overall plotline regarding parents and hero worship that feels relatable & heartbreaking to me. Forcing me to slow down & pay attention, to just really enjoy the immersive story of love & heartbreak & ultimately, always love, Remember Love is lovely. 4.5 ⭐️. Out now. About the author.
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