Admittedly, it was a moment of weakness on my part. But even the strong-willed have been known to fall for a hard body underneath a tailored suit and a five o’clock shadow coating a sharp jawline.
It didn’t matter that Jackson St. James was nothing but trouble. Trouble was just my type.
Been there.
Done him.
Not making that mistake again.
We were friends, a low-key affair we designed ourselves—over before we began. After all, together we made no sense.
Jackson is into sports. I prefer the arts.
He gulps beer. I sip champagne.
While I might not be described as humble, his arrogance is through the roof.
But when he asks if we can talk, my traitorous Louboutins come to a full stop. Although I’ve seen enough movies to know how these conversations go, maybe, just maybe, he’ll surprise me.
He has before . . .
We may have started with a kiss, but how will we end?
Set in SL Scott’s New York Stories series, It Started With a Kiss is Jackson and Marlow’s story, a super sweet friends-to-lovers romance with all the feels.
I have enjoyed getting to know both of these characters on their own in SC’s other books, so I was excited to get to know them even more in this book. And I loved what I read. A bit of a Park Avenue Princess, Marlow had given up on fairy tales after her father’s finances took a hit and life threw her a few curveballs. She had Jackson have had a friends-with-benefits relationship going on for a few months, so when she is evicted from her apartment, he offers his place. He’s been wanting more out of their arrangement for a while now, but will he be able to convince Marlow that he is the prince she’s been waiting for?
These two were absolutely adorable together, and I loved the progression of their story. It was heartwarming and just a simple love story. Of course there are some bumps along the way, but Jackson is super supportive of all that Marlow is going through and is just there for her. It’s as simple as that.
Jackson and Marlow’s path to HEA started with a kiss on New Year’s Eve that turned in to so much more.
I received a complimentary copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet S.L. Scott
New York Times and USA Bestselling Author, S. L. Scott, was always interested in the arts. She grew up painting, writing poetry and short stories, and wiling her days away lost in a good book and the movies.
With a degree in Journalism, she continued her love of the written word by reading American authors like Salinger and Fitzgerald.
She was intrigued by their flawed characters living in picture perfect worlds, but could still debate that the worlds those characters lived in were actually the flawed ones.
This dynamic of leaving the reader invested in the words, inspired Scott to start writing with emotion while interjecting an underlying passion into her own stories.
Living in the capital of Texas with her family, Scott loves traveling and avocados, beaches, and cooking with her kids. She’s obsessed with epic romances and loves a good plot twist. She dreams of seeing one of her own books made into a movie one day as well as returning to Europe. Her favorite color is blue, but she likens it more toward the sky than the emotion. Her home is filled with the welcoming symbol of the pineapple and finds surfing a challenge though she likes to think she’s a pro.
“So tell me, Kelsey, what are you looking for in a man?”
SO NOT MEANT TO BE, a brand new sexy, enemies-to-lovers standalone romance from USA Today bestselling author Meghan Quinn, is Now Available in all formats, including the illustrated hardcover edition!
✓ Enemies to Lovers ✓ Coworkers AND Roommates ✓ Billionaire Alpha Romance ✓ Begging, Infatuated Hero ✓ Smoking HOT Scenes
Get ready to fall in love with this delicious, cocky man and the beautiful, smart-as-a-whip woman he can’t resist! One-click your copy today!
From USA Today and Amazon Charts bestselling author Meghan Quinn, comes a fresh take on a romantic comedy classic, When Harry Met Sally. This steamy, laugh-out-loud, enemies to lovers romance is about an annoyingly handsome coworker and the woman who refuses to be charmed by him.
Am I friends with JP Cane?
Ha! That’s laughable.
Besides the fact that he’s adopted some far-fetched notion from the movie When Harry Met Sally that says men and women can’t be friends and work together, it’s safe to say we’re not friends. He’s annoyingly loud, obnoxiously handsome, and has made an art out of poking all my hot buttons . . . multiple times a day.
So you can imagine how disgruntled I am when I not only have to fly to San Francisco with him for work, but stay in the same penthouse. Yup, we’re sharing the same air, twenty-four-seven. We’re talking full-fledged working roommates.
The man doesn’t know what it means to wear a shirt, thrives off protein bars, and you guessed it, moans loud enough for people to believe he’s Meg Ryan in a restaurant.
Spoiler Alert: I WON’T be having what he’s having.
Tack on his continuous flirting and his polished good looks, and I’m caught staring down the barrel of a seductive temptation that makes it hard for me to sleep at night.
But guess who can control herself? This girl.
Because if there is one thing I know for certain, it’s that JP Cane and I are so not meant to be.
Stella Hunter and Aaron Shedlock are narrating this sizzling hot, hilarious romance in duet, and they are stunning as JP and Kelsey! SO NOT MEANT TO BE is now available on Audible! Dive into this aural sensation today!
The illustrated collection continues with SO NOT MEANT TO BE and is now available! Experience Meghan Quinn’s Rom-Coms like you never have before! With over thirty illustrated scenes, this laugh-out-loud, steamy standalone romance comes to life with vivid imagery. Full of heart, humor and heat, this will be your new favorite way to read romance. Get your ILLUSTRATED COLLECTION hard back today!
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars
“Kelsey hurt my man-feelings.” This wonderful forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers romcom is everything I have come to expect from Meghan Quinn and hit the sweet spot when it came to balancing laugh-out-loud moments with super sweet ones.
JP and Kelsey are the brother and sister of Huxley and Lottie from A Not So Meet Cute. JP is a bit of a playboy, and Kelsey is a plucky, unlucky-in-love heroine who wants nothing more than to be in a relationship. As co-workers, they butt heads constantly, and it is a disaster when they end up being each other’s blind dates through a matchmaking service. They should be a perfect match… and they are. It just takes a lot for them to get there.
I love how MQ built a solid friendship between Kelsey and JP while they were off on a business trip together in San Francisco. They were isolated together and had lots of time to get to know one another outside of the office. And as it turns out, JP was a pretty great non-boyfriend, much to Kelsey’s shock. But Kelsey is a romantic and JP doesn’t do relationships… or does he?
As he tried to woo her, she was resolute in not falling for his charms, and firmly friend-zoned him. That moment when he put it all out there… GAH! I listened to that part over and over again!
Ava Erickson and Aaron Shedlock totally nailed the portrayals of Kelsey and JP. This is the first book I’ve listened to in a duet narration and I loved that format!
Waiting for Kelsey and JP to get together in this slow-burn romance was just as exciting as waiting to find out what JP stands for! This is one book that I will definitely keep in my rotation of re-reads! And getting to catch up with previews MQ couples who made cameos as guests on Kelsey’s podcast was an Easter egg I loved!!
I received a complimentary copy and voluntarily left a review.
ABOUT MEGHAN QUINN:
USA Today Bestselling Author, wife, adoptive mother, and peanut butter lover. Author of romantic comedies and contemporary romance, Meghan Quinn brings readers the perfect combination of heart, humor, and heat in every book.
Never miss another NEW RELEASE, text READ to 474747.
Toes in the sand. Umbrella cocktails. Shirtless hot boys. One fleeting summer. Will your heart survive? It’s about to heat up in here…
Hot Boy Summer: A Charity Anthology is a collection of brand new stories from 31 amazingly talented authors. Each brings to the table their own unique take on the connections we form when we live wildly under the guise of momentary fervor. It’s poolside cocktails with little umbrellas, it’s island vacations, toes in the sand, and the shirtless hot boy making eye contact with you from across the way. Dive in and experience the sizzling passion that erupts in the heat of a fleeting summer.
***HBS is a limited edition anthology collection and 100% of proceeds will be donated to children’s charities.***
This charity anthology is full of bite-sized sexy contemporary romance novellas that will keep you captivated all summer long!
My favorite of the bunch that I read was Jericho by Kat Savage. He is one of the tattoo artists from the Men of Bird’s Eye series, but seeing how that series just ended, Jericho and Kate’s story will hopefully start a new series. Kate is on vacation with her friends — a vacation she didn’t really want to go on to begin with — when she meets Jericho, who is on the same island with his friends, who are all in a band. Having just come off of a breakup, Kate is aloof and standoffish, but Jericho is totally smitten with her. This strangers-in-paradise story left me wanting more, and I hope that we get a full-length book from them!
I received a complimentary copy and voluntarily left a review.
When a sexy, silver, alpha hero returns after years of absence, he discovers someone sleeping in his bed, and she isn’t Goldilocks, but a raven-haired single mother who has him in a tailspin.
A sexy silver alpha hero returns to his family’s lakeside cottage to find a single mother in his bed and her presence just might be the second chance he needs at love and family.
Archer McCaryn has been a mystery to his family. At forty-five, he isn’t certain who he is anymore. When he returns to the family’s lakeside cottage, he finds there is someone in his garage apartment. In fact, she’s in his bed, and he doesn’t have a problem with the beautiful, single mother staying there as long as she doesn’t want into his heart.
Jenna Davis is self-aware – she’s a teacher, a mother, and a widow. Now in her early forties, this once free-spirited woman considers herself a responsible adult and works hard to keep life put together. So when a college friend invites her and her two little girls to come for a visit, she’s ecstatic about a vacation. Only she’s placed in the garage apartment of her best friend’s older brother. Being attracted to him hadn’t been on her itinerary, but there’s no going back when hearts become reckless.
+ + +
Welcome back to Lakeside Cottage.
What to expect:
Alpha hero returns
Single mother of adorable little girls
Small town beach vacation
One shared apartment
Second chance at love
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars
LB Dunbar delivers another great addition to the Lakeside Cottage series with Loving at 40. I’d been really curious about Archer after getting bits and pieces about him in the previous two books, and the guy I met in this book was a force to be reckoned with!
Archer and Jenna definitely get off on the wrong foot when he finds the raven-haired beauty asleep in his bed and nicknames her “Locks” — as in Goldilocks. But their romance evolves nicely and I fell hard for this pair. Archer has a lot of baggage he’s carrying around due to his job and a mission gone wrong, and everything about his life is all that Jenna fears due to the way her late husband died. They try to fight their feelings for a long time, but it becomes too much for either of them to deny. Unfortunately, when Archer’s past catches up with them, it makes a huge impact on their future.
There is some groveling that Archer has to do to make things up to Jenna, but man, once he decided he was all in, he was all in! His tattoo! Gah! I also really loved how smitten Archer was with Jenna’s little girls, and how the three of them made him feel at home for the first time in a really long time.
Trigger warning: This book states that there is some gun violence and the presence of guns around children. I thought LB Dunbar handled that very well, and it blended nicely with the greater story and all that Jenna had gone through previously.
This book ended on a whopper of an epilogue teasing Anna’s story with Mason to come next. And I have been waiting for it since the very first book!!
I received a complimentary copy and voluntarily left a review.
A steamy second-chance romance set in the world of competitive skiing…
Once upon a time I had it all: an Olympic gold medal, a career as a professional ski racer, and a happily ever after so close I could almost touch it. Then my perfect life imploded in one tragic weekend.
Five years later I’ve rebuilt my life with the best girlfriends, the perfect new boyfriend, and a new career. Now my ex—the one who wrecked everything five years earlier—is back as the newest member of the National Ski Team and I’m forced to be his physical therapist.
My days are filled with him. He’s constantly shirtless and sweaty and sexy as sin, and trying to make me fall in love with him again.
But I built these walls around my heart for a reason—and his presence is threatening to undo everything I’ve created without him. With the stakes this high and the sexual tension this hot, this could all go so very wrong.
Or, maybe we’re on the edge of getting everything we ever wanted.
I love a good second-chance romance when there is a lot of hurt and history between the characters and Julia Connors delivered with her debut novel.
It’s been five years since Nate broke Jackson’s heart, and he really goes all out to make it up to her and win her back in On The Edge. Does she want him to? No. She’s got a boyfriend. Does she make it easy for him? No, he has to work for it. But it’s a great journey as these two characters work out their issues, talk about their messy past, and find a way to move forward.
On The Edge is a sweet slow burn with lots of tension between Jackson and Nate, a swoony hero and a great Grand Gesture to prove once and for all that she’s his endgame. I thought Julia Connors wrote a well-developed story with likable main characters and a nice set of secondaries who piqued my attention for further books to come down the road!
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Julia Connors
Julia Connors grew up on the warm and sunny West Coast, but her first decision as an adult was to trade her flip-flops for snow boots and move to Boston.
She’s been enjoying everything that New England has to offer for over two decades, and now that she’s acclimated to the snowy winters and finally found all the places to get good sushi and tacos, she has zero regrets.
You can usually find her in front of her computer, but when she stops writing she’s most likely to be found outdoors, preferably with a pair of skis or snowshoes strapped to her feet in winter, or on a paddleboard in the summer.
To learn more about Julia Connors and her books, please visit here!
Have you ever felt as though you were having an out-of-body experience? An ethereal feeling that you were floating in the atmosphere looking down on a situation? If not, let me tell you, it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Imagine you were at your best friend’s engagement party in Vegas. You were super excited because you were the maid of honor and the best man was the hottest football player you’d ever seen. Even this guy’s position as tight end was appropriate for his, well . . . tight end.
Anyway, there was something about his cocky attitude that ruffled your feathers and turned you on at the same time. Maybe it was the way he challenged you or because women seemed to flock to the gorgeous man. But according to him, he only had eyes for you. It didn’t matter if he was kidding or not, because you weren’t in the market for a serious relationship.
Then, for some reason, you engaged in a drinking game. Because why not, right? You were in Vegas after all. Well, let me tell you why not, because the next morning you noticed a silver band on your left ring finger. And adding salt to that tequila-induced wound, there was one on his too.
Yes, you read that right. Me, Alexa Barton, preferably always the bridesmaid and never the bride, married the uber-sexy, and let’s not forget cocky, football player, Jackson Cartwright.
I was a cliché. A married cliché. Whose “husband” wasn’t in a hurry to get an annulment and vowed to prove that we were meant to be together.
What happened in Vegas follows Alexa and Jackson home in this indulgent romcom by Carina Rose. There’s an underlying attraction between Alexa and Jackson, as their best friends are engaged, but neither of them ever acted on it. Besides, she is fiercely independent as a boss babe with no desire to get married, and he only plans on getting married once and is in no place in his life or career to tie the knot.
Except… when they accidentally get married by an Elvis impersonator, Jackson convinces Alexa to stay together until after Reese and Trent’s wedding — and plans to use that time to convince her they are meant to be.
This story is all kinds of sweet and swoony. I laughed at the visual of Jackson sleeping on her couch, and I swooned when he showed up to help out at the bakery. There is some drama that occurs thanks to his horrible father, but it’s resolved relatively quickly with a wonderful kiss and make up.
I did not read Love in the End Zone first — I wish I had because I loved Married to the Tight End so much and would have loved to seen Alexa and Jackson as Reese and Trent’s best friends. But this book easily stands on its own merits.
Adorable.
I received a complimentary copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Carina Rose
Carina loves everything about romance. To her, it’s the little things that matter.
She also believes in insta-love, since she knew her husband was the one the first day she met him.
When it comes to books, she uses them as an escape from reality. . . . to get swept away. Carina hopes her words do the same for her readers.
She’s a mother and wife and loves spending time with her family. She enjoys meeting new people, traveling, reading, watching sports, and, of course, relaxing on a beach.
Carina looks forward to sharing more love stories in her future novels.
This summer was supposed to be an escape from the city and the demons lurking within it. Too bad the minute I arrive at the beach house I’m sharing with friends, the guy I swore I’d never talk to again in my life walks through the door.
Now I’m not only stuck hiding out from an ex who won’t leave me alone, but with someone who screwed me over before he could even be considered an ex.
That’s right, two years ago Campbell Whitlock double booked me on our fourth date. As in, had a girl show up to the table where he was feeding me off his own fork and barely disguising it as foreplay. Meanwhile, my head and heart had been completely on board to make our relationship more serious.
But a leggy blonde foiled that plan, and I’ve hated him on sight since. The ex-Marine turned millionaire restauranteur didn’t even have the decency to follow me with an apology as I ran out of his own establishment.
It’s just my luck that I’m forced to room right next door to my nemesis, who couldn’t be acting more like a saint if he tried. And then the impossible happens; my ex hunts me down to deliver loaded threats and the fear I thought I’d left behind in Manhattan. Who is the only person to witness it? Campbell, of course.
His apology tour apparently extends to offering himself up as my fake boyfriend to scare off my stalker. While the plan is moronic and means having to spend more time with him, the danger I feel is real. Having a hulking, intimidating boyfriend, fake or not, might be exactly what I need.
With every passing day, pretend date, emotional gaze and midnight run-in, our relationship starts to feel less like a deal and more like something very similar to the connection I thought we had years ago. Even though I promised myself I’d never give him a second chance.
But what happens when the person protecting me starts to feel like the one I want to trust forever?
And how will I recover if his favor was done only to gain forgiveness, instead of a chance at falling in love?
Now that I have finished Kiss and Fake Up, I love the cover of this book even more! It perfectly captures everything that I love about Campbell and Heather! This book is set at the same Hamptons beach house as Love at First Fight, and has crossover characters, but Campbell and Heather’s fake relationship story is a standalone.
I really disliked Campbell after reading the prologue where he double books Heather on a date. How was Carrie Aarons going to make me like him? Seriously, not even halfway through the first chapter, I was hooked on this guy. He puts forth a tough exterior, but he is a troubled soul somewhat adrift. Lonely from a lack of love in his childhood, a failed Navy SEAL, cocky to cover up his vulnerability…. YES, PLEASE!
So two years after their failed attempt at dating, Heather and Campbell are spending the summer at their friends’ Montauk beach house. For Heather, it’s more than just a summer at the beach since she had a horrible breakup with a controlling ex. Who is now stalking her. Campbell offers to be her fake boyfriend for the summer to get her ex to back off, but he has an ulterior motive: He knows he made a mistake with her two years ago and is hoping that he can get back in her good graces and get a second chance to date her.
They fall into an easy routine as the lines of their fake relationship get blurry, and it’s not long before Campbell realizes that despite being a declared bachelor, a life with Heather wouldn’t be so bad. But can he convince Heather that his feelings for her are real? Will the danger of her crazy ex-boyfriend cast a shadow over any future they might have together?
I really adored this couple and how close they grew. How sweet he was of her when she needed him to play nurse. How much she realized she had the wrong impression of him and Campbell was so much more than the cocky restaurant owner he presents to the rest of the world. I devoured this book, and can see myself cracking it open again this summer because it is a perfect beach read complete with wonderful characters and a happily ever after.
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Carrie Aarons
Author of romance novels such as Fool Me Twice and Love at First Fight, Carrie Aarons writes books that are just as swoon-worthy as they are sarcastic. A former journalist, she prefers the love stories of her imagination, and the athleisure dress code, much better.
When she isn’t writing, Carrie is busy binging reality TV, having a love/hate relationship with cardio, and trying not to burn dinner. She lives in the suburbs of New Jersey with her husband, two children and ninety-pound rescue pup.
That’s what I tell the social worker when my pre-k student and his baby brother need an emergency foster placement. I’ll do anything to keep the brothers from being split up. But my apartment’s flooded and there’s only one house I can take them to on such short notice…his.
Knox Daniels, my older brother’s best friend, offers his new place without hesitation. He’s not moving back to our tiny town until next month—that’s when all our hotshot firefighters are returning for their one and only chance to rebuild our fathers’ fallen, iconic crew.
It doesn’t matter that I’ve been silently in love with Knox since we were kids. It can’t matter that we pretend that reckless prom night kiss never happened. It won’t matter that my feelings for him could destroy his lifelong friendship with my brother and threaten the certification of their hotshot crew. Because I’ll be out of his house long before he gets back.
Except Knox just walked in…a month early. And the icing on this awkward cake? He’s gorgeous as always and I’m covered in baby puke. He takes one look at the boys and tells me we can make this work—
We can temporarily fake a relationship to keep them from being separated by the system.
Suddenly, everything matters.
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars
Reason to Believe is perfection. I was hooked on Harper and Knox’s connection from the very first chapter — her senior prom when they shared a kiss that would soon lead to him pushing her away for seven years — and was there for all of it as these two found their way back together thanks to a fake marriage in order to be foster parents for her preschool student and his infant brother.
Despite the fact that they weren’t a legit couple, Knox and Harper were perfect together. I loved that it snuck up on Knox just how much he was actually in love with Harper and had been for all these years. With his troubled background, he didn’t think he was capable or worthy of being loved, but Harper was the one woman who had always had his heart. Harper has been in love with Knox since she was a teenager, but she had no idea that he had feelings for her as well and it was her brother’s fault that Knox never made a move on her.
In creating a safe place for Liam and Jamie, Knox and Harper along the way created a family unit for themselves. There are lots of obstacles along the way before these two find their happily ever after — Harper feeling like he’s only with her because of the kids, Knox feeling abandoned when Harper walks out after a fight — but these two were so worth fighting for!
Reason To Believe is the start of a new series in Legacy, Colorado, focusing on a group of hotshot firefighters. I definitely want to go back and read the previous two novellas that came before this book, and can’t wait to see what comes next with the rest of the group!
I received a complimentary copy and voluntarily left a review.
About the Author:
Rebecca Yarros is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of over fifteen novels, including Great and Precious Things and The Last Letter. “A gifted storyteller” (Kirkus), she is also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward from her Flight and Glory series.
Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for almost twenty years. She’s the mother of six children, ranging from kindergarten to law school, and is currently surviving the teenage years with three of her four hockey-playing sons. When she’s not writing, you can find her at the hockey rink or sneaking in some guitar time while guzzling coffee. She and her family live in Colorado with their stubborn English bulldogs, two feisty chinchillas, and a Maine Coon kitten named Artemis, who rules them all.
Having fostered then adopted their youngest daughter who is nonverbal and on the autism spectrum, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October, which she co-founded with her husband in 2019. To learn more about their mission to better the lives of kids in foster care, visitwww.oneoctober.org.
To catch up on Rebecca’s latest releases and upcoming novels, including The Things We Leave Unfinished, which just received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, visitwww.RebeccaYarros.com.
Auschwitz, 1941: It was her father’s job to save the lives of the SS. But she chose to risk everything and save the lives of prisoners.
In Nazi-occupied Poland, Sofia cannot look her father in the eye. Sofia’s mother, her papa’s cherished wife, is Jewish—how dare he work as a doctor for the SS? She cannot forgive him, even if the bargain was made to spare their lives.
In the middle of the night, Isaac emerges from a packed train with hundreds of others. Beneath Auschwitz’s barbed wire, soldiers surround them, and gunshots pierce the dark sky. The SS decide prisoners’ fates on the spot—and Isaac is chosen to work, rather than to die.
Every day, Isaac and his fellow inmates are sent to a nearby farm. From sunup to sundown, they toil the land with barely a scrap to eat. Every breath feels like it could be Isaac’s last, so when he sees a beautiful auburn-haired girl peering out of the farmhouse window, it feels like a dream…
Sofia refuses to accept what she is seeing. Disobeying her father and evading the guards, she risks her life to sneak a letter to the green-eyed boy outside. She explains that she has hidden them food, and that she’ll do everything in her power to save them.
This secret exchange sparks an escape that should have been impossible—and a love story that is unforgettable. But is love enough in the face of evil? And when Sofia and Isaac are concealed underground, holding their breath as the Nazis hunt them, will they survive?
Fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Choice, and Orphan Train will be utterly gripped by this heartbreaking and unputdownable tale. This tear-jerking page-turner shows that even if your freedom has been robbed, and your loved ones torn from you, nobody can steal your hope…
The Doctor’s Daughter is another fantastic WW2 historical story by Shari J. Ryan. Sofia and Isaac both showed so much strength despite the horrible surroundings around them and found a sweet, beautiful love in the darkest moments.
The story is primarily told through the POV of Sofia and Isaac, but there are a few heartbreaking chapters from his little sister, Olivia, as well. Sofia is a Jewish girl protected under the “Privileged Marriage” of her mother and father, an Aryan doctor who is now training the Nazi doctors in 1941 Poland. Meanwhile, Isaac and his family are trying to survive living in the Warsaw Ghetto before they family is broken up and he and his sister are sent to Auschwitz. When Isaac is one of the laborers sent to work at Sofia’s family farm, there is an immediate connection between them just through her bedroom window. She may be living in her family home, but it’s still something of a prison. Why should she be inside and not outside with him?
Determined to help Isaac, Sofia and her parents open up their home to him. But with danger lurking around every corner, are they really all safe?
Once again, Shari Ryan delivers a heartbreaking story set in the time of the Holocaust. I cried as these characters clung to hope and felt inspired as they found little bits of faith to get them through such horrible times. Ryan’s words paint a magnificent picture, and I can’t recommend The Doctor’s Daughter (or any of her other books in this genre!) enough! I do hope that we get a story about sweet Olivia some day!
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Shari J. Ryan is USA Today bestselling author. She lives in Massachusetts with her wicked awesome husband, and two wild sons who fill her life with non-stop comedy.
With a life full of love, writing, drawing, TV binging, reading, and Starbucks, Shari is living her best life.
“A top must read for 2022” —Samantha Young, New York Times bestselling author
Falling Embers, an all-new must read moving romance from Catherine Cowles, is available now!
I’ve loved Calder Cruz from the moment he taught me how to fly. Racing down a mountain and giving me the release I so desperately needed. My understanding. My safe space.
Hadley has fought for a life of her own ever since her sister’s kidnapping. When she was drowning in expectations and family pressures, Calder was always the one who understood her.
Until one night changed it all. From best friends to strangers in a single breath.
She’s like a fire that lives inside me. Even when I thought it was all burned out, there were still embers that lived in my bones.
Calder knows what it’s like to almost lose the people he loves most. He’ll never make that kind of mistake again. Working at the fire station and taking care of his daughters are the only things he needs.
All it takes is a single moment to make him realize how wrong he is. A split second of coming close to losing the woman he has always loved.
But as long-buried embers light anew, there are those who lurk in the shadows. And they’ll do whatever it takes to extinguish that flame for good…
Heat flared to life in Hadley’s eyes, a mix of anger and frustration. She whipped her shirt over her head, leaving her in nothing but a pale pink lacy bra. I wasn’t blind. I knew that Hadley had curves, that she was beautiful, but the sight in front of me had my mouth going dry. I fought the urge to lean in closer. “Cat got your tongue?” I scowled at Hadley through the mirror. “Took me by surprise is all.” “Sure.” I returned my focus to her back, cleaning each scrape meticulously. “Hold your shirt to your chest?” “Too much boobage on display for you?” I chuckled, the sound a little rougher than normal. “I need to unhook your bra. That might be too much boobage for you.” Hadley rolled her eyes but held her t-shirt to her chest, keeping her bra in place. I unhooked the little tines, letting it fall open. I cleaned the rest of the gashes and moved for the antibiotic ointment. As gently as possible I spread it over the worst of her scrapes. Hadley trembled slightly. “Did that hurt?” “No, I’m fine.” But her breathing was more shallow than usual. Her gaze focused on the counter in front of her. Apparently I wasn’t the only one affected.
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars
I was invested in Hadley and Calder’s story by the time I was done reading Shattered Stars, and Falling Embers did not disappoint!
Everyone in Hadley’s family had a different reaction to how they coped after Shiloh’s kidnapping all those years ago. And Hadley felt like nobody in her family understood her, especially her mom and the right grip Julia kept on her. The only peace she found was in the extreme sports she and Calder did together, but after an accident ripped his world apart and he focused on being a single dad, Hadley felt adrift without her anchor. She finds a new family of friends in the secret life she led doing bike stunts, but when Calder finds out, it widens the gap between them even more.
A scary situation for Hadley and the return of Calder’s ex, however, brings these two back together and they realize just how much they mean to each other. Of course, it’s not quite smooth sailing, but I loved how these two came to depend on one another and worked things out. Hadley had such a wonderful, nurturing relationship with Calder’s daughters, Sage and Birdie, and my heart melted when they became a family of their own.
As for the narration, Joe Arden and Vanessa Edwin brilliantly brought this story to life. They each perfectly captured the nuances of Calder and Hadley’s personalities, and I enjoyed getting lost in their telling of the story.
I received a complimentary copy and voluntarily left a review.
About Catherine Cowles Writer of words. Drinker of Diet Cokes. Lover of all things cute and furry, especially her dog. Catherine has had her nose in a book since the time she could read and finally decided to write down some of her own stories. When she’s not writing she can be found exploring her home state of Oregon, listening to true crime podcasts, or searching for her next book boyfriend.
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