arc review

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!⁣

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!

Young Buck


From Smartypants Romance… Young Buck, an all-new slow burn small-town romance
 from Kilby Blades, is now live in #kindleunlimited!

My take –

This was a sweet small town age gap romance. Loretta and Buck had a hilarious meet cute that set up the story really well. I love that she was the older one in the age gap, though Buck didn’t really seem younger in any way. I enjoyed how their relationship grew from neighbors to more and enjoyed the bit of heat we got! 

At times it felt like these were montages instead of chapters, the way things jump around. She’s on a date with a different guy, the next page he’s rescuing someone in her “book club”, then the next chapter something else happens. It didn’t feel like a super cohesive plot in these moments.

I also did not love the third act conflict. I don’t hate them in general but this one had me gritting my teeth.

Overall though it was a good addition to this series!

‘Young Buck’ is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #5 in the Green Valley Heroes series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.

Skies Over Caledonia

Happy Thursday! Skies Over Caledonia released today, I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I love returning to Ardnoch! 

This brings us Jared and Allegra’s story, two characters we’ve met in previous books. We’re now five years in the future from the previous book, and Allegra finds herself about to be kicked out of Scotland for visa reasons. She has a proposition for Jared, whose family farm is failing – they get married so she can stay in the country and she can provide the capital needed to save the farm.

I love a marriage of convenience romance and this one was so good! Jared’s been avoiding Allegra’s attentions for years, she’s too rich and shiny and young for the likes of a surly farmer like him but the forced proximity works its magic and they eventually can’t resist each other any longer.

Jared was so broody and grumpy and I loved it. He boarded on rude at times in his insistence at not growing closer to Allegra and I love that she eventually won him over. He was the king of “my wife” moments that I am an absolute sucker for. Allegra was a character who surprised me, she wasn’t necessarily cast in the best light during previous books but I loved learning her history and watching her come into her own. 

They’re both two lonely souls and I loved how they found belonging with each other. It’s a slow burn but when they finally gave into those feelings it was super hot! There’s also a dash of suspense and I love that it drove them closer together.

It’s always great to return to this world and I thoroughly enjoyed it!. 

I Wish We Had Forever

Happy Thursday! I Wish We Had Forever released today. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. ⁣
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I really enjoyed this small town, brother’s best friend, fake marriage romance! ⁣
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We found out at the end of I Wish You Were Mine that Jen and Abel had eloped and now we get to see what happened from their point of view. I was so excited to find out what happened and it did not disappoint! ⁣
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Abel’s my favorite kind of MMC, he’s grumpy, broody, protective, and a bit broken but still soft for his lady. And man did he have a dirty mouth on him! Jen was a great FMC, she’s strong and I loved watching her to learn to stop people pleasing and ask for what she wants.⁣
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They were such a cute couple, I loved how supportive they were of each other, and I loved all the chemistry between them after years of longing and pining. It’s a Jessica Peterson book so of course it’s super spicy, with lots of food and friendships as well.⁣
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I’m sad this series is over, I’ve loved every book including this one! ⁣