Coming in with some reviews. Lots of them! I have gotten so behind.
Worth the Try by Valerie Pepper
Valerie Pepper is one of my favorite smalValerie Pepper is one of my favorites and here we are with a new Rugby Series?!?! Yes, please!!!! Elodie loses her job and starts nannying during the summer for Ansel Miles, a single dad and star player of the Atlanta Granites. Ansel’s daughter is adorable and of course everyone starts to become attached to each other. Elodie quickly becomes friends with a few of the Rugby ladies, which adds depth and other relationship developments in the mix. Throw in someone from the past who threatens this new bond, and you are in for a fun treat! We of course have Valerie’s signature spice that always hits. This was just such a fun read, charming characters, all around awesome. I cannot wait to read the rest of this series!
Bottom Line: Read it!!!
**I received a copy of Worth the Try from Book Funnel and am leaving my review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Summer on Lilac Island by Lindsay MacMillan
This reminded me a little of an Elin Hilderbrand book, with lots of characters on a small town island where everyone knows each other. The chapters altered POV from different characters, mainly Gigi, her mother Eloise, her grandmother Alice, her sister Rebekah and then there were a few weird chapters from the POV from the island itself. I must say, Gigi wasn’t a very likeable character. She grated on my nerves often, but she did show growth. Overall, I found the book passed the time well enough that I stuck with it and enjoyed it for the most time. I liked the town feel, sounds like a lovely place to visit.
Bottom Line: Read if you enjoy contemporary fiction.
**I received a copy of Summer on Lilac Island from Netgalley and am leaving my honest review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage
I am a huge Golden Girls fan. I watched the show so much growing up and as an adult. So I was really excited to read this one, requested without even reading what it was going to be about. I have to be honest, this is a miss for me. It felt so silly and trying to hard to copy the characters from the show in a book. The writing style wasn’t my favorite, it almost felt like someone asked AI to write a book based off the show and gave weird descriptions from the characters and other things that were just off putting to me. I have to be honest and say I wasn’t that far in when I really just started skimming. I got bored and was ready to move to other books.
Bottom Line: Pass, this just didn’t work for me.
**I received a copy from Netgalley and am leaving my review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Hard to Get by Laura Moher
Andi Salazar is a strong, independent woman who has the voice of her grandmother to not trust men engraved in her mind. Kevin Mahoney is new to town, and determined to show he isn’t so vanilla after a bad breakup with his ex. These two meet one night and hook up and Andi is determined to never see him again, except they get paired together shortly after for work. They form a friendship and help each other work through their trauma. I saw all the twists coming, but enjoyed the ride to get there. There is lots of talk of domestic abuse and red flags, and it is all handled well. The timing/pace of the romance works really well here.
I listened to this on audio book, narration switched between a male and female and it was done well.
Bottom Line: Read it
**I received an audio copy of Hard to Get from Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Leave Before I Love You by Max Monroe
Ok, when I read the description of this book, there wasn’t much to go by. But I do love a brother’s best friend trope so I figured why not?! I didn’t expect this to start with such a….BANG?! Henry and Avery are the only two that can go on a new years trip, after everyone else backs out. There is a plane crash and a remote island situation happening in the first like 5% of the book. It really hooks you in. Obviously, as Henry and Avery try to survive on the island they grow close. But Avery is a rich party girl that doesn’t have much responsibility of her own, and Henry is an experienced man with his own company and this is his best friend’s little sister. This book was quite the interesting ride, I enjoyed it.
Bottom Line: Read it.
**I received a copy of Leave Before I Love You from Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Fake Off by Terra Weiss
I love a hockey romance. This one was a good one! Sydney is trying to land the sports reporter job at her news station and get away from the weather. She is up against a real jerk. Brooks is home nursing a hockey injury and trying to take care of his Meema. Who might I add is just the most adorable Meema ever! Brooks and Sydney find themselves in a fake relationship to save her job and help his Meema’s health. The banter in this one is so good! The book flashes back several times throughout to give you a picture of their history. I just all around really enjoyed this and had a hard time putting it down.
❄️ Fake Dating
❄️ Forced Proximity (One Bed!)
❄️ Brother’s Best Friend
❄️ Mental Health Rep
❄️ Grumpy/Sunshine
❄️ Childhood Enemies to Lovers
❄️ Small Town Return
❄️ Ice King Melts for Just Her
❄️ Found Family, Grief & Guilt
❄️ Laugh Out Loud
❄️ Scorching Chemistry
Bottom Line: Read it!
**I received a copy of Fake Off from Book Sirens and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay
I really enjoyed this one! Alex Finlay has a way of pulling you in immediately. I will say, there are many characters and side plots going on throughout the book, you really have to pay attention to keep up. But the way they weave in and out and all the twists and turns was done so well. This was written in short chapters from several of the different characters POV, my favorite way to read a thriller like this. I loved getting more of FBI Agent Keller, she is definitely always one of my favorite characters in any book she is in!
Bottom Line: Read it!
**I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.**
And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens
I am not sure what I want to say about this one! Sophie always leaves me thinking because her plots usually have something unique thrown in. This time we get an AI robot boyfriend. It took me quite awhile to get used to him? Like a curveball in reading. Because I am sitting here thinking this is totally nuts, but I suppose this could be our future too. But then enter a love triangle of sorts. Chloe shows a lot of growth and development throughout the book as she spends time at her reunion. The true story of this book is one of self discovery as you attend your college reunion.
Bottom Line: Read it! I am not sure that this was my favorite Sophie Cousens book, but it sure did make me think and definitely held my attention, as I wanted to see how this was all going to play out.
**I received a copy from Netgalley and am leaving my review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Wrecked by You by Kate Sweden
I am in the minority so far with reviews for this book, but I didn’t love it. While we get some back story on Max, I feel like I really knew nothing about Rayann. There is very little about her sisters/family in the book as well…so she is just a woman with a chaotic stream of inner monologue with a cool job to me. And the inner monologue? It is too much. I think it was supposed to be funny…but it missed the mark more often than not for me. I had a hard time getting into the book because it starts off with her sister telling her that she is going to do this wedding and their security guy is going with her. Then we are thrown into the chaos leading up to the wedding. I never really felt settled in the story. Now the spicy parts, wow they are spicy! I do like spicy in a book, and here I felt like the author did a good job and it was drawn out and not rushed. Though, I wouldn’t call the book a slow burn. Now the thing that bothered me most about the book? The language. Ya’ll, I have a sailors mouth more than not. I really should be better. But one thing I don’t say? GD. And my goodness was that term used in this book A LOT. A well timed one here and there doesn’t bother me or make me rate a book any lower. But this book is full of them and other holy, Jesus, just lots of religious terms used in a distasteful way. And why? There is really no point. And it became distracting in the book because they are used SO MUCH. In fact, I ended up quitting at about 61%. Deciding that between the GD this and GD that and the lack of development for our main lady and not feeling connected….I had other books to read and decided to abandon ship. And this is why only a 2 star rating from me. The author didn’t have my attention enough to even finish and see where it all went.
Bottom Line: Pass
**I received a copy of Wrecked by you from Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score
This was a cute read. Maggie moves around renovating houses, never staying anywhere for long. She meets landscaper Silas and his dog Kevin. They work together on a house, and usually Maggie is off to the next project…but she catches feelings for Silas. Will she stay?! That is a good question, since Maggie is so afraid of commitment after her failed marriage to her gay best friend…what?! Girl, you should have seen that fail coming! That we really don’t know what she is going to do until the end of the book. But it was a fun ride getting there, if you can get past Maggie’s need to control everything and everyone along the way. But there are a lot of side plots that just made this a good read.
Bottom Line: Read it.
Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon
Now hear me out, I am usually not the fantasy genre type. I am not quite sure how I landed on this book? I think someone recommended it on Instagram that I trust and so I requested it? Guinevere and Oskar’s story was so interesting to me. Guinevere is traveling with a trunk to meet her family and runs into trouble, Oskar helps her and they travel together. Feelings start to develop, but Guinevere is to marry someone else. She is also carrying family secrets that keep them in constant danger.
I did this on audio and the narration really helped me stay connected to a genre that I wasn’t so sure about when I started.
Bottom Line: This was such a fun jump into Romantasy for me. I wouldn’t mind picking up something else by this author. I really did enjoy.
Fahrenheit-182 by Mark Hoppus
As with all memoirs, I did this on audio with Mark reading and it was perfection! Blink is one of my all time favorite bands, and it was so cool getting to know Mark better and hearing stories of their time as a band and just all things from his life.
Bottom Line: Highly recommend if you are a Blink 182 fan!
Offside and Off-Limits by Kate O’Keeffe
I really enjoyed Clara and Cade’s story. This is part of a Maple Falls series, but I haven’t read the others…so you can totally do this as a stand alone. But I loved the town and the hockey team, so I will totally check out more from this series now! Clara is a single mom, who was diagnosed with CFS and has a horrible ex. Cade is a former womanizer who has moved across country to start over and shake his old reputation. This was told in dual POV, thank goodness, because we really got to see how serious Cade was about wanting to settle down. I really enjoyed this one!
Bottom Line: Read it
**I received a copy from Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
The Cinnamon Spice Inn by Harper Graham
This one had all the small town fall vibes that I want right now, loved that! There is nothing quite like a small town romance, is there? When Madison comes home to help save her family’s inn, she runs into her ex Zach. There was a huge miscommunication between them years ago. So this is a second chance/enemies to lovers romance. However, the miscommunication was cleared up in like one sentence and they were pining for each other the entire time…so that was a little bit of a let down. I still enjoyed the story and all the fall vibes though. I just wished the enemies part of the trope was done a little better.
I listened to this book on audio and quite enjoyed the narration.
Bottom Line: Read if you are wanting some cozy small town fall vibes.
**I received an audio copy of this book from Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Let’s Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Isabelle Popp
Sadie goes home to take care of her dad’s pumpkin patch while he is gone to help her uncle. Only when she gets there, she learns the patch was destroyed. Enter cutie neighbor Josh to the rescue. Except Sadie isn’t so sure about him. But as they work together, feelings start to build. Sadie needs to decide if she wants to live the small town life, or go back to the big city. Sadie wasn’t entirely likeable for me, she has a dirty mouth and is quite….crass? I am not sure what word I am looking for. Some of the spice was a little much and cringe. And like many books I read, I feel like we had to cover the checklist of making sure we have certain representations in the book without any real reason in the main plot. Not to mention there was this whole abortion talk towards the end that had it been at the beginning, I would have quit the book. The characters showed growth, but the plot was thin. This ended up being a spicy book in a pumpkin patch…and not the other way around.
I listened to this on audio, and the narrator was fine, but maybe a little too monotoned?
Bottom Line: I could go either way. The cute part of the story where two unlikely people have feelings in the fall at a pumpkin patch was fun…but overall I think there are better seasonal reads
**I received a copy from Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
Merry Little Lie by Sarah Morgan
Why yes, I am jumping in to holiday reading! This novel was a delightful dive into what I am sure will be a long list of holiday reads for me! The book flows through the POV of Becky who is single, and runs into her brothers best friend Will at the airport and ends up traveling with him when flights are grounded, her sister Rosie who is married to Declan and having some issues in their first year of marriage, Hayley who is dating brother Jamie and has a big secret they are about to reveal to the family, and mother Jenny who just wants to impress Jamie’s new girlfriend and hopes that both her daughters are ok. There is lots of family drama throughout, as they are all worried about how their family will react to the issues they are each battling. Plus, their father has just retired from his constant on the go life as a very busy doctor and is struggling with retirement. I do enjoy a family drama, and surrounded by all the wonderful hallmark Christmasy vibes…just bring it!
I listened to this mostly on audio because the narration was done so well and added to the enjoyment of the story for me!
Bottom Line: Read it!
**I received an ebook as well as audio book from Netgalley and am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.**
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