romance novel

Northern Twilight – Samantha Young

Northern Twilight is out today! Thank you the author for the ARC. 

I always love returning to Ardnoch! 

In this we get Lewis and Callie’s story, who we first met in their respective parents’ stories, and now it’s their turn to shine. This is a second chance romance, they were childhood friends to teenage lovers, but wanted different things post school. They reunite briefly and their one night stand results in an accidental pregnancy.

This was very much an “it’s always been you” kind of romance, you just knew these two were meant to be and I loved all the angst and longing this brought. They’ve had seven years apart, and neither managed to quite move on successfully so suddenly being back in each other’s lives is quite an adjustment – at least for Callie.  

Lewis was more all-in, and what’s not to love about a tatted, man bun wearing, motorcycle riding architect who knows what he wants (and has quite a dirty mouth on him!)

I loved how their relationship progressed and that we got flashbacks to where it all went wrong. It was sweet, it was steamy, there was some angst, and we got to revisit some of the other characters from previous books, so I loved it!

The Truth According to Ember – Danica Nava

The Truth According to Ember is out now! Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.

I was very excited to dig into this romcom from Danica Nava – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a traditionally published contemporary romcom from a Native author with two Native main characters. 

Ember is our main character, she’s working at a bowling alley cleaning toilets and serving nachos, desperate to get a job as an accountant but no one wants to hire her.

She makes a few creative adjustments to her resume, which leads to a new career based on a bunch of lies. She starts at her new office and runs into Danuwoa, the IT guy who she’s immediately attracted to but the office has a no-dating policy so the two start off as just friends which turns into more, though she has to keep lying to him to uphold her original lies.

I love that we get a book about Native joy and love. I enjoyed the exploration of microaggressions Native people face in a mostly white workforce, though not pleasant to read, it is so important.   

I’m not always a fan of books where the central plot is based on lies, and there were certainly times where I just wished Ember would be honest. So many of her lies were pointless, but I did understand the desperation that led to the first lie and how it can easily snowball from there. I spent most of the time worrying about when the other shoe would drop and all her lies would be found out (because they always are!)

Overall though it was a cute romcom from a fresh new voice and I love that I got to read a different perspective than I ever h

Bananapants – Penny Reid

Bananapants is out today! Thank you the author for the ARC.

Whew this book surprised me in the best way! It starts off very rom-commy, with lots of jokes and lightness, but eventually it hits you with all the emotion and you find yourself crying on a plane next to a stranger (that might just be me??) 

This features next-gen characters from the author’s Knitting In The City series, our FMC is Greg and Fiona’s daughter and the MMC is Janie and Quinn’s son, so our KITC favorites do show up here as supporting characters. 

Desmond, the MMC, has bipolar and ADHD, currently under control, but it has caused a lot of problems for him in the past. There’s exploration of how this affected his relationships, first with Ava, but also with his family and that’s what had my heart breaking. 

It was really interesting to read about, and I feel like I learned a lot. It did not shy away from the realities of living with mental illness so please check out the trigger warnings if needed. However, it also was a good message that everyone is deserving of love, regardless of what your brain tells you. 

Ava is a bit of a quirky girl, she’s a straight laced tax attorney but is quite naive about life. She never quite got over her childhood bestie leaving her and moving away at 15, and never managed to find that connection with someone else again. Though it’s never explicitly stated I think she’s demisexual and it was nice to read about that. 

I loved them together, they accidentally run into each other again after a decade apart and both immediately have big feelings again. Once Des realizes Ava might be into him too, the entire course of his life changes and I just love how all in he was. 

It was funny, it was tender, it was smart, it made me cry. I loved it! 

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!

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! 

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. 

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!