montlake

The Best of All

The Best of All is out today!

I really enjoyed this! This is book two in the series though I think it could totally be read as a standalone. 

This follows Liam and Zoe, who are named co-guardians to their best friends’ daughter Mira after their best friends tragically pass away. Zoe is immediately there for Mira, moving her in and accepting this adorable toddler into her life. Liam struggled a bit more, he never felt he should have a family or children after his own terrible childhood so a lot of the growth in this story is his, to accept love and family into his life. I loved watching his walls eventually fall down, all due to the little girl who melted his heart. 

Liam is a grump, football is his life and he doesn’t need any other distractions, especially living with the woman he’s pined for for a decade. The forced proximity works its magic and the sexual tension between the two of them was intense, though this is a sloooowwwww burn. 

Zoe was an easy character to love, she’s wanted her fairy tale ending ever since she was a kid and though this certainly didn’t follow the traditional path I love that she found her HEA in that broody football player who has secretly had feelings for her for years. 

Much like book one, this is a story of grief alongside the romance, though this one didn’t feel as heavy to me. Both Liam and Zoe (and Mira) were grieving the loss of their best friends but they had Mira to look after which helped keep them afloat. I’ve been looking for a good romance like Life As We Know It and this is the first one I’ve ever read that I thought really worked.

I loved it!

The Best Laid Plans

The Best Laid Plans releases tomorrow, thank you Montlake for the ARC.

This was such an enjoyable romance! It was perhaps a little more grief heavy than I was anticipating, but I enjoyed how emotional it was.

Burke is recently retired from the NFL due to an injury when he gets the news his best friend has tragically passed in a car accident and left him his grandparent’s mansion which is in massive need of a renovation. All Burke wants to do in his unplanned forced retirement is relax with his family in Florida, so a stressful project halfway across the country doesn’t appeal to him.

The house comes with a project manager in charge of the renovation who convinces him to keep the house and oversee the reno in honor of his best friend who wanted the house returned to its former glory. Burke and Charlotte temporarily move in together in the carriage house on the property and immediately butt heads. I enjoyed the sparks and banter between them and their slow burn relationship.  I also really enjoyed their families and the set up for the next book sounds great!

Overall it was a good read, I really enjoyed the setting and the home preservation and I look forward to the next book!

Bad Mother

Happy Tuesday! Bad Mother by Mia Sheridan releases today. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

First thing I need to say- Mia Sheridan has written a lot of romances and romantic thrillers in the past & Montlake had this categorized as romance on NetGalley – it’s not. At least, while there is a romance, it’s a subplot to the thriller plot, not the main event. That’s totally okay,  but was not what I was expecting based on the categorization on NetGalley. 

What it actually is though is a suspenseful thriller, a cat and mouse game from a possible serial killer who enjoys toying with Detective Sienna Walker as she and her partner race to discover what’s going on before more people die. It genuinely kept me guessing who the bad guy was. While I did have some suspicions around certain characters, I had no idea how it was going to play out and certainly couldn’t have guessed how it was going to end. 

Sienna is the new cop in town after getting in some trouble as a NYC detective. She’s sent back home to Reno where she has to readjust to life in the city with a lot of bad memories for her, including those around her ex-fiance Gavin. Gavin broke her heart years before so it’s difficult for her when the clues on the case force her to work side by side with him (this is where the romance comes in). 

Overall a compelling and compulsive read! Just don’t expect it to be a romance