Title: 10 Ways to Accidentally Fall in Love Author: Emmy Sanders Series: N/A About this Book: Wingman 101: Make him fall head over heels in love.
Brad What’s a straight guy to do when he accidentally goes on a date with his brand new gym-bro? Offer to be the best wingman ever, of course! It’s foolproof.
Joey needs a man? I’ll find him one.
He wants someone who looks, well, kind of like me? No problem!
Not into watersports? I’ve got him covered.
The issue is, going on all these dates with Joey makes me realize I want more of his time to be spent with me. I like the guy. And his smile. And the way he makes me feel like anything is possible.
Except… I can’t possibly be who Joey needs. He wants his forever person. His great big love.
And no matter how perfect the dude’s abs are or how skilled he is as a cuddle-bro, the two of us will never be more than friends. Because I’m straight.
Title: Cold as Hell Author: Kelley Armstrong Series: Haven’s Rock Trigger Warning: Emotional abuse, cheating (not the MC’s), torture, murder, giving birth in dangerous situations.
About this Book: Haven’s Rock is a sanctuary town hidden deep in the Yukon for those who need to disappear from the regular world. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life here. A resident gets drugged, and then another goes missing and is found dead, and it’s time to figure out not only who committed these crimes but if the screening process they have in place is secure enough.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and honestly? It scared the shit out of me.
Title:Finding Mr. Write Author: Kelley Armstrong About this Book: This is a romance novel by Kelley Armstrong! KELLEY ARMSTRONG! Raise the wicked alarms. Daphne, the MFC, is a writer who struggles to get her book published under her own name. Her sci-fi, adventure novel.
Sounds familiar? It should be, because this happens a lot. So what does she do? She uses a pseudonym and then hires someone to be Zane Remington, author and outdoors person.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and honestly? I cannot wait for Writing Mr. Wrong.
Also, please note if you are Canadian, and reading this, Kelley Armstrong is Canadian, and the link above will lead you to your local independent bookstore to purchase. I gain nothing from putting that link there aside from the knowledge that I am hopefully helping people support their local businesses.
Title:At Her Service Author: Amy Spalding Series: Out in Hollywood
About this Book: This book is queer joy and sapphic love, along with some character building and growth. This book is about Max, who you would have met in For Her Consideration if you read that book (also great). She, like many people, is unsatisfied with her career progression and trying to get ahead. She’s also trying to get the girl, in a way.
You’ll recognize familiar names and faces from the previous book as well.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and honestly? Loved it.
Title: All Rhodes Lead Here Author: Mariana Zapata Series: N/A About this Book: Aurora De La Torre, or Ora to her friends, knows moving back to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, a place that was once home and is now full of bittersweet memories of her late mother, isn’t going to be easy. Starting your whole life over probably isn’t supposed to be.
But after breaking up with her longtime, famous musician boyfriend, hiding out in a small town in the mountains might be the perfect remedy for a broken heart. And checking out her landlord who lives across the driveway just might cure it, too. Only Tobias Rhodes didn’t rent out the apartment to her, rather it was his teenage son, Amos. Fiercely protective of his family and distrusting of strangers, gruff and grumpy Rhodes initially keeps little miss sunshine Ora at a distance. But over days and weeks, long hikes and fireside chats, Aurora breaks down his walls and soon an unbreakable friendship blossoms into a once-in-a-lifetime love.
My Thoughts:
Amos Rhodes is a national treasure and I would fight tooth and nail for him, I just want that to be mad clear. He’s a good kid, a great kid even and I love how different he is from Tobias in manner, and how much he can get under his father’s skin, especially by bringing in someone who will become a big love for Tobias.
This book takes place in a small town surrounded by gorgeous scenery and sometimes dangerous hiking trails. It will make you wish you had a camera and the same surroundings and maybe even want to get out and hike a little while taking photos.
The characters are as different as can be (Tobias kind of gave me Luke Danes vibes), and I am a sucker for Grumpy/Sunshine so it’s not surprising that I ended up loving this book.
That being said if you are hoping for a quick romance you won’t find this here. This book satisfyingly takes the two through an awesome getting to know you stage and a slow burn before allowing them to get together.
And as with all romances we are not without conflict.
Title: Funny Story Author: Emily Henry About this book: Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak. Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads —Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
My Thoughts: Emily Henry is a master at many things but especially at banter and this book is teeming with it in the best way.
Let’s start with the characters:
Daphne: She is a bit judgemental at first, that cannot be denied, and a little uptight but one of the best things in this book is watching her evolve and begin to loosen up and maybe become a little more chaotic in the process. She gives up so much for Peter (I hate him) and gets a lot of despair in return.
Miles: I loved this scruffy stoner from the get-go, listening to his sad music and turning out to be a world class guy despite Petra doing what she did to him.
I can’t ignore that this book also takes place in a library, be still my heart. I love a library setting, it’s above only one bed, and coffee shop romance for me.
This book isn’t heavy, and is filled with wonderful romance, great characters, both main and otherwise, and I am happy to own it.
Title:As Good as Dead Author: Holly Jackson Series: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Genre: YA, Mystery/Thriller
About this Book: This book is a mystery/thriller starring a teenage true crime podcaster set in either Connecticut or England depending on where you live and what version of the book has been sold to you.
It is the third book in a trilogy, about Pip, who started out in book one solving the disappearance of one of her schoolmates and the suicide of another.
In this book she is ready to head off to college, but unlike a lot of her friends and classmates she is a little less than excited, consumed by the last case she worked on.
Title: Lucky Bounce Author: Cait Nary Source: Netgalley Genre: Romance Summary:A single dad pro hockey player falls for his biggest fan—who just happens to be his five-year-old daughter’s teacher—in this fun, flirty romantic comedy from Cait Nary
Ezekiel Boehm is no stranger to teaching kids with famous parents. But when the pro hockey player he’s been thirsting after walks into the Rittenhouse Friends School gym hand in hand with a tiny kindergartener, he figures he must be hallucinating. Spencer McLeod is a lot of things—Zeke’s favorite winger on the Philadelphia Liberty; a menace on the ice; a mumbling, reluctant but somehow captivating-as-hell postgame interview—but he’s not a dad. Except he is. Apparently.
Zeke can be chill about this. He can.
Surprisingly, the more time he spends with Spencer, the easier this becomes. School volunteer events turn into reserved seats at games, turn into…more. And even though Zeke is 100 percent committed to ignoring Spencer’s blush, to ignoring the way he looks in that one pair of gray sweatpants, he can’t take his eyes off him.
Title: The Roommate Pact Author: Allison Ashley Source: Kindle Unlimited Genre: Romance Trigger Warnings: Death Explicit? Yes. Summary:The proposition is simple: if ER nurse Claire Harper and her roommate, firefighter Graham Scott, are still single by the time they’re forty, they’ll take the proverbial plunge together…as friends with benefits. Maybe it’s the wine, but in the moment, Claire figures the pact is a safe-enough deal, considering she hasn’t had much luck in love and he’s in no rush to settle down. Like, at all. Besides, there’s no way she could ever really fall for Graham and his thrill-seeking ways. Not after what happened to her father…
Just as things begin to heat up way before the proposed deadline, Graham’s injured in a serious rock-climbing accident—and he needs Claire’s help to heal. She’ll do whatever it takes to nurse him back to health…even if it means moving into Graham’s bed and putting up with his little dog who hates her. But with this no-strings arrangement taking a complicated turn, keeping “for now” from turning into “forever” isn’t as easy as they’d planned.
Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches Author: Sangu Mandanna Source: My local library Genre: Cozy fantasy Trigger Warnings: None I can recall Explicit? Nope Summary:As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules…with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.
As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for….
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