Just My Luck

Happy Monday! Just My Luck is out today, thank you to the author for the ARC. 

There’s not much I love more than a grumpy/sunshine marriage of convenience romance and this one was so good! I think this might be my favorite Lena book yet. 

We know Abel from previous books, he owns the local brewery, and is very grumpy. Sloane is his employee, a sunshiney single mom who overhears that Abel is having trouble securing a business loan to buy out his evil father’s stake in the brewery, so she concocts the perfect plan – they’ll marry so she can get her trust fund early and give him the money he needs in exchange.

The forced proximity of living together worked its magic and the tension between them was so great. Sloane was so upbeat and fun and I loved how grumpy Abel melted for her and her kids. He was so soft for them when he generally didn’t allow softness in his life – due to his heartbreaking past. 

I loved being back in Outtatowner! It was so great seeing both the Sullivans and the Kings and how their overall relationships have changed throughout the series. The subplot that has run through the background of both series continues to grow and I’m dying to see what happens next! Royal’s book is coming and I’ve been waiting not so patiently for him.

Golden Touch

Happy Tuesday! Golden Touch is out today, I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love going back to Vermont! This is book two in the Giltmaker series, which is a spin off of the True North series, but tbh I think you could read this one as a standalone with no problem.

This brings us Livia and Nash’s story, and it was such a fun close-proximity, opposites attract romance. Nash is back in town to keep his father’s brewery afloat while his dad is in the hospital, while Livia is his dad’s right hand woman. They end up bunking together so both can be close to the brewery and while they’ve met before and had a brief flirtation, their second meet cute doesn’t go quite as well and I do love a meet disaster. 

I loved them both. Livia is a total black cat heroine, which is my fave. She’s super competent at her job but doesn’t always make the absolute best choices in her personal life so her walls are up. She’s on the run from a bad ex which brought an element of suspense to the book I wasn’t expecting (but obviously loved.)  Nash was such a fun MMC, he’s so charismatic and flirty.He was very very into Livia and I loved his confidence in trying to win her over. The chemistry between them was so great.

The book overall was pretty lighthearted and funny and I really enjoyed myself while reading it! This is easily one of my favorite fictional worlds and I just loved being back. So so good! 

Side note – I reread Good as Gold in preparation and still really loved it! I did the audio and Jason Clarke is forever my favorite male narrator. 

Change of Heart

Change of Heart is out today! I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I loved this so much! 

Change of Heart brings us back to the Vital Signs world but with a new cast of main characters so you can absolutely read it as a standalone – that being said, if you’ve read certain Walsh and Vital Signs books, you’ll surely enjoy their coworkers. 

Whitney is a talented surgeon who recreationally crashes weddings with her bestie as a stress reliever. She has a steamy one night stand with the best man at a wedding in California, only for him to show up as a resident in her program at the hospital she works at in Boston. Henry hasn’t gotten over their night together so this is excellent news to him but she is technically supervising him and working on strengthening her hospital’s ethics policies so she has to be appropriate. He quietly woos her as they wait for his time in her program to be over and man it was a delight to watch the tension build between them.

There’s not much I love more than when he falls first and Henry is all in. I just loved him and how far gone he was. I love how Kate Canterbary writes a pining man and Henry gives Cal and Noah a run for their money. He’s such a good guy, so easy going in life but determined to win his lady over. 

Whitney was also a great character, she’s super competent and talented in her field but that hasn’t left a lot of room for a personal life outside her best friend so it was great to watch her try to find more balance.

I love their relationship, I love this world, I love Kate Canterbary’s words, I just loved it all. A top read of 2024!

Bourbon & Lies

Oooh did I love this book! This is my first by the author but it certainly won’t be the last. This cover is stunning and what initially drew me to the book but the contents were just as good.

It’s a forced proximity romance between Laney, a woman on the run, and Grant, the youngest son of a bourbon distilling family dynasty. She needs a safe place to hide out for a while and Fiasco, Kentucky is just that place.

I loved both of them individually and together. Grant has suffered a lot of loss in his life which has led him to become somewhat of a recluse, cut off emotionally from his family if not physically. He’s very grumpy about this woman who showed up out of nowhere who he can’t seem to avoid. Laney was so resilient and I love that she did not take Grant’s shit at all, and threw it back at him even harder. They were such a great match! And WHEW the sparks were flying between them from the get go.

This was such a sexy book. The writing, the scenery, the descriptions, all sexy (also, you know, the sex was sexy too). There’s also a bit of suspense which I love! I loved the small town and supporting characters and I’m genuinely so excited to get to read more from this world. 

This is easily my favorite book I’ve read in June and it’s on my top reads of 2024 list! 

Free Fall

Free Fall is out today! Thank you to Hambright PR for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. ⁣
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What a treat! Kathryn Nolan has written a perfect summer read.⁣
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It’s a small town, grumpy/sunshine romance between a straight-laced bodyguard and the charming man he’s supposed to protect. Luke has just inherited his father’s company, and with it a handsome bodyguard & a series of threats. Elijah is up for a promotion so he obviously can’t break the number one rule of not getting personal with a client but as threats draw them together, it gets harder to keep Luke at a distance.⁣
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Ooooh did I love all those forbidden tension filled moments! Elijah is such a serious guy who’s so secretly soft for Luke and I loved how that stoic man blushes. Luke is the life of the party and I love that he didn’t make it easy on Elijah to keep his distance. Both had a lot of family trauma and I love that they found acceptance in each other. They had great laugh out loud banter, a ton of chemistry & heat, and I loved that we got some action in the story as well.⁣
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Overall, I just really had a great time reading this!⁣

Crossroads

Crossroads is out today! Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

She’s done it again! Devney Perry yet again has me packing my bags because I’ve decided to move to Montana, get a job at a resort, and find myself a cowboy. 

Crossroads brings us the story of Indya and West, a love story spanning years between these childhood friends who turn into so much more. Each summer, Indya and her parents visit West’s family’s ranch/resort in Montana and we follow as they grow up and fall in love. With dual timelines, the present day story brings us Indya’s return to the ranch with the bombshell news that she’s bought the ranch from West’s dad. 

The two butt heads as Indya makes changes to the resort and I was living for their banter and tension. They were immediately both drawn into each other again and it was just a delight. Their story packed a real emotional punch as well, there is a lot of grief and loss Indya especially has to work through but West does as well. 

I loved the setting, the side characters, and it sets up really well for book two which I’m already ready for! 

I loved this beautiful story! One thing about me is I take my bedtime very seriously and the fact that I stayed up until 1 am to read it, on a work night, basically in one sitting, tells you how much I really really loved it! It’s easily one of my favorite books by the author and definitely one of my favorite books of the year. 

Funny Story

So … this was definitely an Emily Henry book! If you’re already a fan, I think you’ll love it. If you didn’t like her previous books, this probably isn’t going to be the one to convince you otherwise. 

It was a close proximity fake dating romance between Daphne, a straightlaced librarian, and Miles, a laid back bartender, who both get dumped at the same time when their (now) exes realize they are in love with each other. Daphne has nowhere to go, so she moves in with Miles, despite their very opposite personalities.

I liked the progression of their relationship, they don’t know much about each other other than what their exes have told them so it was fun to watch them discover who they truly were. They start off pretty sad and grieving their lost relationships but it quickly turns into friendship and then more. I didn’t feel a strong passionate love between them, mostly because they are both still pretty hung up on their exes, but that’s okay. 

Miles started as a very Nick Miller type character which I really loved, you don’t see that many romance MMCs who are often high while listening to Celine Dion alone in their bedroom. Daphne is a pretty typical Emily Henry FMC, smart and clever and sad. 

The first half flew by for me, filled with the budding relationship and excellent banter, but the second half felt a bit slow. I expect Emily Henry books to be more on the women’s fiction side but there’s a lot of other stuff Daphne is working through with her friends and family and I just wasn’t that interested in those parts. The third act conflict was miscommunication based and I didn’t love that even though I understood it. 

Overall though it was good! Again, if you love EmHen I think you’ll enjoy it. It fell somewhere in the middle of the pack for me behind Beach Read and Book Lovers. I did the audio and thought Julia Whelan did an excellent job as always. 

The Paradise Problem

I pretty much love every Christina Lauren book so it was no big surprise I loved this one, too. It’s a perfect summer read! 

This follows Anna and Liam, almost five years after they got married to take advantage of family housing in college. Anna thinks they’re divorced, only to find out years later that not only are they still married, Liam needs her help to convince his super rich family that they’ve been happily married this whole time so he can inherit a buttload of money. She needs the money he offers in exchange for carrying out the ruse to take care of her sick father, so she agrees and he whisks her away to the private island where his little sister is getting married for a week of family shenanigans.

I genuinely enjoyed this so much. We’ve got marriage of convenience, forced proximity, and opposites attract, all mixed in with a lot of family drama and rich people problems. Anna is so fun, she’s a free spirited artist who is loyal and true to herself despite the lavish world she is suddenly a part of. Liam is more straight-laced, a serious professor who grew up in the toxic world of extreme wealth but still has a good head on his shoulders. I loved their opposites attract relationship, Liam enjoys Anna for who she is and Anna is on Team Liam the whole way.  

There is a ton of family drama and I ate it up. Liam’s family is seriously full of terrible people and I loved watching Anna and Liam navigate them. They all had me laughing out loud, especially Liam’s sister in law Blair. We also get some steam which isn’t a guarantee in modern CLo so that was a nice surprise! 

I did the audio of this (on Spotify!! I always forget to check there) and it was great. Both narrators did an excellent job, the delivery on the funny parts was just so good.

I really can’t recommend this one enough if you’re looking for a wildly entertaining beachy read! 

The Ride of Her Life

The Ride of Her Life releases today! Thank you to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I’m a big Hallmark fan and the plot of this sounded very Hallmark to me in the best way – city girl Molly inherits a horse farm and goes there with the intent to fix up the farm to sell – only to be met by a hot farrier who doesn’t want her to sell and clashes with her at every step. Only in this one, it’s a sapphic enemies to lovers between Molly and Shani, the hot tenant who knows everything about horses. 

I had mixed feelings about this one. I loved the premise, the setting, Shani, and all the supporting characters at the farm. They have such a great found family centered around the stable where they board their horses. There was a lot of humor and a bit of steam and I loved that we got a character who is a farrier, which is a career I’ve never read about in a romance novel before.  

Molly, on the other hand, was a bit of a struggle for me. When you watch a Hallmark movie, you’re rooting for the small town to win, for the developer to go away, for the festival to raise enough money to save the library or whatever. In this, she’s the only POV and she was the city girl who came to ruin everything which made it hard to root for her. She only cared about her best interests and I just never warmed up to her. 

Overall though it was a cute read! I was curious to see how it would all unfold and work out between them, and like I said I did enjoy the rest of the characters. The writing was light and enjoyable so if sapphic hallmark sounds good to you I do recommend it!

Fragile Sanctuary

One word review – Unputdownable. 

A new Catherine Cowles series feels a bit like the first day of school. Excitement, wonder, new friends, and a little bit nervous because you don’t know what’s going to happen. And boy was this an excellent new beginning. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

This introduces us to Rhodes and her found family in Sparrow Falls. She finds herself growing closer to her brother’s best friend Anson, the grumpy, broody, mysterious fire restoration specialist helping rehab her childhood home. When a series of “accidents” happens to Rhodes, Anson is just the man to help protect her, but Anson is a man full of secrets and those secrets might be the most dangerous of all. 

Both have painful pasts and watching them comfort each other and help bring each other’s (especially Anson’s) walls down was just beautiful. The sexual tension between them built masterfully and when it finally snapped whew it was hot. 

There’s an excellent cast of supporting characters. Rhodes and her siblings and grandma were an amazing found family. They are mostly not blood related but they are a true family nonetheless and I loved their interactions and group texts. I’m looking forward to their stories and already have guesses about who their future love interests will be!

The romantic suspense kept me guessing and I was totally fooled this time. I’m usually great at guessing the “bad guy(s)” in romantic suspense but I didn’t put it all together this time and I love that!  I rarely read a book in one sitting anymore, but I could not put this baby down once I started because I just had to find out what was going on.

I loved loved loved it! I loved it so much I read it first with my eyes then a week later listened to the audio as well which was also amazing and I thought both narrators did a great job!