Title: When You Least Expect It
Series: Hope Valley
Author: Jessica Prince

Contemporary Romance; Small Town Romance

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“Tell me you haven’t been thinking about me,” he insisted, bracing his palms on the wall on either side of my head. “Tell me it wasn’t me you were looking for the moment you stepped in here tonight.”

“I was casing the place,” I lied. I hadn’t done that until later. The initial scan I’d made when I entered The Tap Room was all for him.

“Liar.”

Damn it! How did he know?

I clenched my teeth and gritted out, “I’m not lying.” If I kept this up, I was going to be struck by lightning.

“All right. Then tell me you wouldn’t want me to kiss you right now.”

God, what a presumptive asshole! So why did it suddenly feel like the heat had been cranked up in the building? “I definitely don’t want you to kiss me right now.” Didn’t I?

Those unique golden eyes glinted with something that looked almost like a dare. “Yeah?”

I tipped my chin back defiantly. “Absolutely.”

He smiled full on then, and I felt a clench low in my belly. “Then why are you leaning into me like you want to fuse our bodies together, grift?”

Why was I what? Oh holy shit! He was right. Without realizing, I’d not only leaned so close the heat was radiating off his skin and warming my own, but I’d also reached up at some point to place my palms on his hard, solid chest. Now that it had been brought to my attention, there was no way to keep from noticing how firm and round his pecs were. The man’s chest felt like it had been carved from marble, and I was dying to know what he looked like without that heather gray Henley on. I wondered if the rest of him would live up to what his chest felt like, and my lady parts were telling me it absolutely would.

Before I did something incredibly stupid, like drag the tips of my fingers down over his rippled abs so I could count how many were there, I dropped my arms and side-stepped his massive frame.

Once again, because of this man, I was leaving without everything my family needed from me. I couldn’t help but feel like a failure, and that morphed into an overwhelming feeling of desperation that fueled my anger. “Kiss me. I dare you,” I threatened. “Give me a reason to plant my knee in your balls.”

His eyes scanned my face then. “I don’t know what I like better. When you’re spouting ridiculous things, or when you’re all worked up and mad like this.”

I had to get out of here. It was still relatively early; I could find another bar and work that one so this whole night wasn’t a complete bust, but to do that, I had to escape West’s thrall.

“Too bad for you, you aren’t going to see either of them ever again.” Hitching my purse higher, I gave him a snide look and finished with, “Hope to never see you around, Weston.” Then I turned and started for the exit I’d spotted at the end of the hall, silently praying it would lead me right out into the parking lot.

The heavy metal door closed on his voice calling out, “It’s West. And something tells me this isn’t the last time we cross paths.”

Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars

Oh, West! With all of the books in the Hope Valley series, it amazes me that Jessica Prince can continually give me such a swoony hero, a strong heroine, and a great plotline that grips me from the beginning. West and Stella’s story had me hooked from the moment they met when he caught her pickpocketing at the bar.

I loved how conflicted Stella was throughout this book. She loves her family so fiercely, but hates being involved in the cons they run. All she wants is stability, a man she can love and loves her in return, a normal life. West is married to his job at Alpha Omega, so meeting his “grift” and falling so hard is the last thing he expected. I loved how West never looked down on Stella or her family, just accepted her for who she is.

More than that, West had this intense pull to save the Ryans, and that protective instinct was swoony.

There was a perfect blending of her particular skills with his and his by the end of the book, and I loved the ending!

I would love to see Serenity find a guy in Hope Valley! Pretty please?? I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.

Visit Hope Valley
a series of interconnected, standalone romances

Read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Out of My League
Amazon US | Amazon Universal

Come Back Home Again
Amazon US | Amazon Universal

The Best of Me
Amazon US | Amazon Universal

Wrong Side of the Tracks
Amazon US | Amazon Worldwide

Stay With Me
Amazon US | Amazon Worldwide

Out of the Darkness
Amazon US | Amazon Worldwide

The Second Time Around
Amazon US | Amazon Worldwide

Waiting for Forever
Amazon US | Amazon Worldwide

Love to Hate You
Amazon US | Amazon Worldwide

Playing for Keeps
Amazon US | Amazon Worldwide

When You Least Expect It
Amazon US | Amazon Worldwide

Born and raised around Houston Texas, Jessica spent most of her life complaining about the heat, humidity, and all around pain in the ass weather. It was only as an adult that she quickly realized the cost of living in Houston made up for not being able to breathe when she stepped outside. That’s why God created central air, after all.

Jessica is the mother of a perfect little boy–she refuses to accept that he inherited her attitude and sarcastic nature no matter what her husband says.

In addition to being a wife and mom, she’s also a wino, a coffee addict, and an avid lover of all types of books–romances still being her all time favs. Her husband likes to claim that reading is her obsession but she just says it’s a passion…there’s a difference. Not that she’d expect a boy to understand.

Jessica has been writing since she was a little girl, but thankfully grew out of drawing her own pictures for her stories before ever publishing her first book. Because an artist she is not.

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“Small town romance at its best! Absolutely unputdownable. Cowles grabs you from page one and doesn’t let you go. A brilliant tale packed with heat and heart.”
—Adriana Locke USA Today bestselling author

Tattered Stars, an all new enemies to lovers small town romance and first book in the Tattered & Torn series from bestselling author Catherine Cowles is available now!

Be brave. Just for sixty seconds. Twenty breaths.

One night changed them both forever.

Their lives shattered, beyond repair, with jagged edges and pieces askew.

Now, Everly has a chance to make things right. To bring healing to the place where everything fell apart. But it means facing the family her father almost destroyed, and the boy with the dark eyes—now grown—who still haunts her dreams.

Just one breath away from having your life ripped out from under you.

The last thing Hayes wants is another reminder of all the ways he failed sixteen years ago. When Everly drives back into Wolf Gap, his only mission is to get her to leave. For his family’s sake, and for his own, those demons need to stay buried for good.

But everything about this woman is a surprise, from her spine of steel to the sanctuary she hopes to create with the land her mother left behind. And Hayes is powerless to stay away.

As a careful friendship sparks into something more, someone watches. And they’ll do anything to tear it all apart…

Fall in love with Everly and Hayes today!
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Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars

FANTASTIC. Everly and Hayes’ story was captivating, highly emotional, full of hop, healing, and happily ever afters. Tattered Stars was a fabulous start to a new series by Catherine Cowles, hitting all of the gutwrenching beats that I’ve come to expect from her books, with the perfect amount of swoon and suspense mixed in.

Poor Everly has been through so much. She was so incredibly brave as an 11-year-old girl, doing the right thing, and it changed her family forever. Afterwards, Everly was shunned for having betrayed her family, so it’s not easy for her to return to Wolf Gap. By setting up an animal sanctuary on her family’s old property, she is hoping to right some of the wrongs that happened there, but she isn’t exactly welcomed back to town by the sheriff, Hayes.

Hayes definitely has reasons for not liking Everly’s father, but he is super harsh on her at first for something that she didn’t do. Yes, his family was changed, but so was Everly’s. And if she hadn’t done what she did all those years ago, things could have turned out much differently. His parents and sisters get that, but it takes Hayes a long time to warm up to Everly. They build a nice friendship at first as he helps her build the animal sanctuary. And the more time they spend together, Hayes realizes how wonderful a woman she is, how much she’s gone through, and how stupid he was for trying to run her out of town.

It’s a slow, slow burn between them, but once Everly and Hayes get together, it is a payoff well worth it!

I listened to this book on audio, and Andi Arndt had me from the prologue. Then Zachary Webber came in as Hayes, and… that guy brought it. These two wonderful narrators brought Everly and Hayes to life in all the very best ways.

My only complaint about this book is that I wish there would have been more support from Everly’s best friend besides the few phone calls in the beginning, and while older sister Jaycie is mentioned by Everly, there’s no appearance by her in this book. Not even a phone call? Everly lived with her sister after leaving Wolf Gap, and she never updated her on what was happening with their brother and uncle once she moved back to town? That struck me as odd… It didn’t take away from how much I loved this story, but I think it would have rounded out the character more.

Cowles set up great potential for Hadley, Shiloh, and possibly even Addy, and I can’t wait to see how the rest of this series goes!

I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.

Excerpt

I pressed on the accelerator to make it past the final rise, and as I did, the property came into view. My heart seemed to take up acrobatics in my chest, flipping and tumbling, expanding and contracting. My hands gripped the wheel harder as my foot eased off the gas.

The house itself was in worse shape than I’d expected. One of the walls had a gaping hole in it. But the small guest cabin didn’t look too worse for wear. The cottage had been in my mom’s family for generations, but the house had been my father’s construction after they married. She hadn’t stayed long after he went to prison, choosing to move us down to the flats to live on some land my uncle owned.

While the generations-old construction of the cabin had held steady, the barn and paddocks hadn’t fared nearly as well. The entire structure seemed to lean to one side, and a storm had taken down more than half of the fencing. My back hurt just looking at all the work that needed to be done.

I sighed and pulled to a stop in front of the cabin, releasing my hold on the wheel. My phone dinged, and I sent up a mental thank you to the gods of technology that it seemed I had service up here.

Shay: Are you there yet? Text me the second you arrive.

I smiled down at my phone, feeling a little less alone, knowing that I had someone who would drop anything to have my back.

Me: Just pulled up outside. Cabin looks okay. The house and barn are a disaster.

Shay: Are you sure you don’t want Brody and me to come help you get settled? We can be there in two days.

God, I was lucky to have her as a friend, but I wasn’t ready to open all the doors I’d need to if they came to stay. There were too many skeletons I didn’t want to let out into the light.

Me: Thank you, but I’ve got this. Let me get settled, and then you can come for a visit.

Shay: I don’t like that you’re there all alone.

Me: I won’t be alone for long.

Soon, I would have this place crawling with animals. It had always been my dream to build a home for neglected or abused animals of any kind. A sanctuary. It was simply coming more quickly than expected.

I turned off my SUV, rolled down the windows, and the pine air swept in. It was different than any other type, the Ponderosa pines. And as it filled me, tears sprang to my eyes. I’d missed this, more than I’d realized.

I leaned back in my seat and pulled out my letter.

Dearest Everly,

I know much of this will come a day late and more than a dollar short, but better that than not at all. Even once the doctors told me the cancer had a hold, I couldn’t bring myself to call you, to tell you these things face-to-face as I should’ve. So, I’ll take the coward’s way out. That won’t be anything new. There were so many times I should’ve stood up but didn’t.

But that’s not you. You’ve always been the bravest person I’ve ever known. Even before that night. I should’ve told you, but I didn’t—I’m so proud of you, beautiful girl. You made yourself into this amazing warrior all on your own, without any help from your dad or me.

I wish I had a chance to truly see you shine now. That’s the price for my sins. To miss all of your beauty and light shining on this world.

This should’ve come so long ago, but I’m sorry. For not being there for you. For not getting your father the help he needed. For not taking you and your siblings away when things went sideways. I’m so very sorry that I wasn’t stronger. That I wasn’t more like you.

I don’t have much I can give you, but the land’s still mine. I know a lot of pain’s been poured into the dirt there, but there was good once, too. When I spent summers there with your grandparents. As your father and I made it our home. The babies that grew there. The animals we raised.

Maybe you can find your good there, too.

I understand if you can’t. Or don’t want to. But I know if one person is strong enough to do it…it’s you.

I love you forever and always, my little warrior.

Mom

A single tear splashed onto the page. She’d been gone before I even knew she was sick. Buried before I even knew she was gone. My family hadn’t wanted me there. Not my brother—who I was sure still blamed me for everything—my uncle, or any other vast network of relatives still rooted in the area.

To them, I was the enemy, the outsider. And now, I’d returned. The only one who might be happy to see me was my cousin, Addie, but I wasn’t even sure about that. We hadn’t spoken since I’d left. All of my letters came back, marked as Return to Sender in her father’s handwriting.

My mother thought I was a warrior, and I hoped she was right. I would need all my armor if I was going to face them again. Because no one would be happy that I was here. And they’d be downright livid when they learned I was staying.

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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My Funny Valentine by Lydia Michaels is now live!

A blizzard leaves Erin stranded and at the mercy of her childhood nemesis. Trapped, with no electricity or dry clothes, things heat up when two frienemies are forced to share a bed.

From bestselling and award winning author, Lydia Michaels, comes a second-chance bully romance about love and redemption that will touch readers’ hearts!

Giovanni Mosconi has returned to Jasper Falls after years of touring as a standup comedian. When Erin Montgomery, his childhood enemy, heckles his performance at O’Malley’s Pub, he holds nothing back and roasts her in front of the whole town. Emotions run wild and secrets are exposed when hate turns to lust and lines begin to blur.

Can trust form where betrayal began? Or should some secrets go to the grave?

Download today on Amazon, Apple Books, Audible, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Kobo!

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Start listening in audio!

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Narrated by: Amber Battaglia

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 Sunny Shelly’s Review: 4 Stars

I am a sucker for a forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers romance, and My Funny Valentine delivered. I think I cried as much as I laughed reading Erin and Giovanni’s story. I thought I would be diving into a romcom, and while it was funny at times, My Funny Valentine is full of heartbreak, and big, deep emotions.

Erin was a wonderful heroine. Life had really kicked her down, but she refused to give up and was really trying to change. She is carrying around a lot of baggage, having been abandoned by her mom and brother and left behind to essentially be her father’s punching bag. Giovanni, meanwhile, was a bit of a jerk, but I warmed up to him once I realized that he had some demons in his past that he was dealing with. He ended up being a really great guy, a wonderful support system for Erin, and a bit of a teddy bear.

My Funny Valentine is set in the Jasper Falls series. I have not read any of those books, but I didn’t feel like I was missing pieces to the story, so this is a true standalone.

All. The. Feels.

I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.

Lydia Michaels is the award winning and bestselling author of over forty titles. She is the consecutive winner of the 2018 & 2019 Author of the Year Award from Happenings Media, as well as the recipient of the 2014 Best Author Award from the Courier Times. She has been featured in USA Today, Romantic Times Magazine, Love & Lace, and more. As the host and founder of the East Coast Author Convention, the Behind the Keys Author Retreat, and Read Between the Wines, she continues to celebrate her growing love for readers and romance novels around the world.

In 2021, Michaels released the groundbreaking, non-fiction series, Write 10K in a Day, to commemorate her career in the publishing industry. She looks forward to many more years of exploring both fiction and non-fiction writing, teaching about the craft, and learning from the others in the author community.

Lydia is happily married to her childhood sweetheart. Some of her favorite things include the scent of paperback books, listening to her husband play piano, escaping to her coastal home at the Jersey Shore, cheap wine, Game of Thrones, coffee, and kilts. She hopes to meet you soon at one of her many upcoming events.

You can follow Lydia at www.Facebook.com/LydiaMichaels or on Instagram @lydia_michaels_books

Connect with Lydia

Website: www.LydiaMichaelsBooks.com

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Release Date: February 1

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Meet Claudia Burgoa

Claudia is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author.  

She writes alluring, thrilling stories about complicated women and the men who take their breaths away. Her books are the perfect blend of steamy and heartfelt, filled with emotional characters and explosive chemistry. Her writing takes readers to new heights, providing a variety of tears, laughs, and shocking moments that leave fans on the edge of their seats.

 

She lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, her youngest two children, and three fluffy dogs.

 

When Claudia is not writing, you can find her reading, knitting, or just hanging out with her family. At nights, she likes to binge watches shows or movies with her equally geeky husband.

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Just About Over You by
Carrie Aarons is now live!

What’s the worst thing you could hear your best friend, who you’ve always secretly been in love with, say? That would be telling another girl he could envision her being his wife.

I just about died when Gannon Raferty, the boy who used to borrow my pencils in elementary school, said that to the lead of the reality dating show he was cast on. Though he didn’t win her heart, he’s now a bona fide sensation when he returns to our college and moves back into the off-campus house we share.

The torch I carry for him has always been one-sided; I’m head-over-heels, soulmate-level into him while he views me as a lovable kid sister. So I decide this school year will be the one where I move on, where I finally attempt to open my heart to another. After all, if he can make declarations of undying love to someone he just met, but not to me, that’s the biggest wake-up call I could ever receive.

Until one night early on in the semester, when we accidentally sleep together. Because of course he’s going to confess his feelings now, when I was ready to give up on there ever being an us.

But just as Gannon starts admitting exactly what I’ve always wanted to hear, I get devastating news. And suddenly, I don’t want to risk losing him as a best friend. I’ve already lost too many people I love, and am on the brink of adding one more to that list.

If our romance goes south, I don’t how I’ll ever come back from it. Not only the crushing heartbreak, but the fact that we can never go back to how we were again.

Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!
http://mybook.to/JustAboutOverYou

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Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars

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.

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Enemies-to-lovers meets HGTV in this frothy, effervescent romantic comedy from Sophie Sullivan, author of Ten Rules for Faking It.

Interior Design School? Check. Cute house to fix up? Check.

Sexy, grumpy neighbor who is going to get in the way of your plans? Check. Unfortunately.

Grace Travis has it all figured out. In between finishing school and working a million odd jobs, she’ll get her degree and her dream job. Most importantly, she’ll have a place to belong, something her harsh mother could never make. When an opportunity to fix up—and live in—a little house on the beach comes along, Grace is all in. Until her biggest roadblock moves in next door.

Noah Jansen knows how to make a deal. As a real estate developer, he knows when he’s found something special. Something he could even call home. Provided he can expand by taking over the house next door–the house with the combative and beautiful woman living in it.

With the rules for being neighborly going out the window, Grace and Noah are in an all-out feud. But sometimes, your nemesis can show you that home is always where the heart is.

“This is a novel you’ll want to read over and over again.” – USA Today

BUY NOW:

Sunny Shelly’s Review: 3.5 Stars

How to Love Your Neighbor is a fun, enemies-to-lovers, grumpy/sunshine romance that will definitely keep you entertained. Grace and Noah’s romance is a slow simmer, and their story is full of snarky barbs, sizzling chemistry, and tender moments.

But for an enemies-to-lovers romance, I was hoping for more of an explosion between Grace and Noah once they finally got together after all of that tension and the build-up. But when they finally got together… it was a fade-to-black scene that fell flat for me. I honestly felt like I was ripped off or something, and the story dragged out in parts, and that made the difference for me in this being a 4-star read.

Noah is Chris’ brother from Ten Rules For Faking It, so it was nice to get those cameo appearances from Chris and Everly and catch up with them! But in the same way that I thought that Ten Rules was lacking a zing between the main characters, I felt the same way between Grace and Noah in How To Love Your Neighbor.

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press and voluntarily left a review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

SOPHIE SULLIVAN is a Canadian author as well as a cookie-eating, Diet Pepsi-drinking, Disney enthusiast who loves reading and writing romance in almost equal measure. She writes around her day job as a teacher and spends her spare time with her sweet family watching reruns of Friends. Ten Rules For Faking It is her romcom debut novel, but she’s had plenty of practice writing happily ever after as her alter ego, Jody Holford.