Only One Regret is another great addition to Natasha Madison’s Only One series. This time, we have Cooper Grant — a third-generation character within the author’s hockey series. (His grandfather is the original Cooper and his father is Matt.)
The story opens as Cooper is about to get divorced. He’s a doting dad to his adorable little girls, but feels like a failure because his marriage didn’t work out. Cooper has always had his best friend Erika by his side, and he relies on her support even more in the wake of his divorce. After a night of drinking tequila at his divorce party, Erika and Cooper cross the line and have an explosive night in bed. But when the sun rises, will they regret their actions? And when Cooper’s wife claims she wants her family back, will Erika bow out?
I really liked the chemistry between them. Because their relationship is rooted in years of friendship, everything between them is effortless and easy. And once they get going, things are really hot and heavy. Wow, Cooper is a dirty talker!
My only complaint about this book is the number of side characters involved from Cooper’s family. I have read some of NM’s books over the years but forgot the connections between many of them. The author provides a Stone family tree, which I kept flipping back to since characters weren’t ID’d as Cooper’s aunt or cousin or sister. But aside from that, Only One Regret checked off all the right boxes.
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Natasha Madison
When her nose isn’t buried in a book, or her fingers flying across a keyboard writing, she’s in the kitchen creating gourmet meals. You can find her, in four inch heels no less, in the car chauffeuring kids, or possibly with her husband scheduling his business trips. It’s a good thing her characters do what she says, because even her Labrador doesn’t listen to her…
Wish Upon a Star, an all-new emotional read that gives all the feels from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Jasinda Wilder is available now!
Grandma always said dying is the easy part; it’s the living that’s hard. I’ve been fighting to live since I was seven years old, and now the doctors say I’m gonna lose that battle soon. I’ve crossed off just about everything on my bucket list—I’ve seen the Eiffel Tower and the Coliseum and I’ve been swimming in the Caribbean; I’ve lived like I’m dying, because I am.
There’s just one thing left on my list: I want
to be a bride. I want to wear white and have my dad walk me down the aisle. I want a first dance and cake and a night to feel like a princess…and I want it with Westley Britton.
The perfect guy. Musician, actor, and every girl’s dream man. My dream man. Only, he doesn’t even know I exist.
It’s the start of a strange, improbable fairy tale. When you’re talking about terminal leukemia, happily ever after seems impossible, but when your celebrity crush and the man of your dreams shows up out of the blue and proposes to you, it makes you feel like anything is possible. Even that hardest thing: living.
Wish Upon A Star is an emotional instalove celebrity/ordinary girl story, compounded by the fact that Jo is literally dying of leukemia. Suspend belief for a moment and jump into a world where a dying girl with literally nothing to lose posts a marriage proposal on TikTok to her celebrity crush and he then knocks on her door to accept. There is an immediate connection, marred by her bad days outnumbering her good ones, but Wes and Jo’s sweet, intense romance had me flipping page after page, hoping that these two would have more than just the here and now.
I really felt for Jo, and her desire to have just a few weeks of an ordinary life. She and Wes both knew that their relationship was insane, but it felt so right to them and that’s all that mattered at the end of the day. Wish Upon A Star is every bit a fairytale come true — but will Jo and Wes get a miracle or are they living on borrowed time?
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Jasinda Wilder NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, WALL STREET JOURNAL and international bestselling author Jasinda Wilder is a Michigan native with a penchant for titillating tales about sexy men and strong women. Her bestselling titles include ALPHA, STRIPPED, WOUNDED, and the #1 Amazon and international bestseller FALLING INTO YOU. You can find her on her farm in Northern Michigan with her husband, author Jack Wilder, her six children and menagerie of animals.
As a prominent divorce attorney and Manhattan’s most eligible bachelor, I’m as sought after in the courtroom as I am in the bedroom. Winning in both arenas is my specialty.
The only thing I ever lost was the nerve to tell the girl of my dreams how I felt about her. Seven years later, I might be getting the opportunity when she moves into my spare bedroom.
Though I used to laugh at the notion of love, her bright blue eyes, soft heart, and quick wit has me . . . feeling things. New emotions.
And I’m starting to realize that if there’s one woman who can change my confirmed bachelor ways, it’s Tealey Bell, aka my Achilles’ heel.
So when did it all go wrong?
For that answer, we must go back to beginning when I promised one friend a favor and fell head over feels for another.
A gentle knock on the door has me sitting up in bed. “Yes?”
“You still up?” Rad whispers from the other side of the door.
Not sure what he’s doing here, I push off the bed and answer it, leaning my cheek against the painted wood. “Hi.”
He smiles. “Hi. The day got away from me before I could talk to you.”
“About anything specifically?” My stomach flutters with the butterflies I brought in from the beach.
His gaze drops to our feet. Everything slows when his eyes meet mine again, and he says, “I’ve been thinking about you.”
I lick my lips and swallow as my spine straightens, not wanting to be slouching during such a confession. Gripping the door, I ask, “You have?”
“I have, and I was thinking . . . wondering . . . Well, I haven’t exactly used words to show you what I’m thinking. And I want to change that. I’ve held back in fear of you saying no. But I’ve been thinking about us and the possibility of more. More of us.” He looks down briefly, and if I didn’t know Rad as well as I do, I’d think he was nervous. But then he looks back up with no hesitation. “I want to know if you’ve been thinking about me . . . aboutus . . . like that as well?”
Do I confess my sin? Tell him how I’ve started to fantasize about him? What turns him on and hoping that damn towel would drop? And that with every touch, cuddle, and smile, I’ve felt more and more attracted to him?
Or do I shut this conversation down and bury my feelings in the sand tomorrow when I go to the beach?
His eyes search mine in earnest, so I say, “I . . .” I take a quick breath and exhale. “I have thought about you. A lot, in fact.” I didn’t know I could shock Rad, but I managed it.
“Really?”
I’ll blame the alcohol tonight for my slippery tongue and deal with the repercussions in the morning. “Terribly naughty thoughts.”
“Even Better.”
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 5 Stars
Head Over Feels is a slow-burn, friends-to-lovers roommates romance with all the feels. It’s also one where the guy falls first, but he is in a fake relationship with another one of their friends, and the secrets he’s keeping from both women could destroy the best thing that’s ever happened to him.
Tealey and Rad have such a great connection. I love that they are part of this bigger group of friends and have liked each other since college but never acted on it. When she loses her apartment, he invites her to move in with him and before long, they both give in to the feelings they have. But because Rad has agreed to pose as Marlow’s fake boyfriend to help her out with her dad, and in return, he’d be making inroads to a partnership at his law firm. Because of the situation with Marlow, Tealey and Rad agree to keep their budding relationship on the DL — which that leads to all kinds of problems for the couple.
I really enjoyed this story. It had humor, heart, heat, and swoon. I liked both characters as individuals and how Tealey and Rad were together. She really did bring out something bigger in him, and helped him see that there is more to life than winning the next case and making partner. They balanced each other out nicely, and had an easygoing rapport.
This book is a spinoff of SL Scott’s Manhattan series — One of the friends in the group is Jackson St. James, the brother of Natalie from Never Got Over You. I loved the shocking news dropped between Jackson and Marlow at the end of Head Over Feels and can’t wait to see what comes next for these friends!!!
I received an advanced 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.
After flying through The Naked Fisherman, I could not wait to dive into The Lost Fisherman and it was everything I wanted it to be! It is a messy love triangle, full of angst and high emotions, heartbreaking truths, secrets kept with someone’s best interest in mind, and lots of love. Complicated doesn’t even begin to describe Fisher and Reese’s reunion!!
I wasn’t sure what to expect about the twist of events that reunited Fisher and Reece five years later. Based on the title alone, it was obvious that Fisher had been handed some sort of crap deal in life and was adrift, right? Well, yes. Yes, he has been handed a crap deal. But I was not expecting the plot twist to be what the plot twist was!
I hadn’t liked Reese very much while reading TNF — mostly because she was so young. But she has grown up so much in the past 5 years. She left Fisher behind because she knew she needed to find herself. And just as she did, she may have lost Fisher for good. She is stuck in an impossible situation, and even though she’s tried to move on, Fisher Mann is still the same guy who captured her heart all those years ago.
Jewel E. Ann brilliantly concluded Fisher and Reese’s story with the second book of this duet. Much like TNF, TLF is full of angst, but the love triangle involved here just amplifies it so much more. It’s a long, messy road for Fisher and Reese to get to their HEA, but they get there. And the payoff was worth all the anxiety I felt and tears I shed crying into my pillow. And that epilogue? Gah! I was hoping that JEA would sneak in a chapter from Fisher’s POV somewhere, and his epilogue was just perfect!
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Jewel is a Wall Street Journal & USA Today best selling author with a quirky sense of humor. When she’s not saving the planet one tree at a time, you can find her role modeling questionable behavior to her three boys, binge-watching Netflix with her husband, and writing mind-bending romance.
Jingle Bell Hell, an all-new awkward meets sexy rom com from New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank and USA Today bestselling author A.R. Casella is available now!
She’s a sexually repressed control freak. He’s a muscular ex-con with heavier baggage than Santa’s toy bag. They’re everything each other never wanted.
Mary I’m usually the first person on my block to decorate for Christmas. This year? Humbug.
My six-year-old son, Aidan, just had a meltdown after learning some hard truths from a drunk Santa impersonator, and I can no longer deny we both need help. Change is hard for Aidan, and right now he’s dealing with several big ones, including A) his father abandoning us, B) our move to Asheville, and C) the Santa snafu.
And me? I’m a control freak, and my life is more out-of-control than a sled on ice.
That’s why I agree to let Aidan join Butterfly Buddies, a group that matches kids with adult mentors.
It’s also why I agree to a mentor of my own—terrifying, pink-haired Nicole, who wants to help me live life on the wild side. Her advice is strangely compelling, especially after I meet Aidan’s new “buddy,” a gorgeous tattooed hunk of a man who makes me wish there weren’t cobwebs in my…well, you know.
********* Jace
Mary O’Shea is sexy as hell, but she doesn’t know it.
She also doesn’t know I’m an ex-con, and if she finds out that I served three years in prison, extenuating circumstances won’t matter to her.
The last thing I should do is get attached to her kid…or her, but I didn’t get in this position by making good decisions.
Jingle Bell Hell is so much fun. I loved everything about Jace and Mary. This book beautifully blended lots of fun with lots of heart.
Mary is struggling to adapt to being back in her hometown and raising her autistic son, Aidan, after her husband walked out on them. She meets Jace when he’s paired with Aidan through a program that pairs special-needs children with volunteer mentors. Jace is a few years out of prison, having made a dumb mistake when he was a kid, and volunteering with Aidan helped ease the ache he feels over losing his connection to his sister and nephew as a result.
Sparks fly immediately between Jace and Mary, even though their relationship gets off to a rocky start. They both have a ton of baggage to unpack, but they soon find that a safe place in each other. Mary is uptight and sexually repressed, having been married to a jerk of a guy, and I loved seeing how she bloomed into a confident woman when she’s with Jace. Meanwhile, Mary helps Jace discover a lot about his past and helps him build a future he never imagined he’d be able to have.
As much as I loved Jace and Mary’s connection, I also adored Jace and Aidan’s friendship. Jace is incredible with Aidan, and I adored the bond those two developed.
This book was quite unexpected, and I enjoyed it from start to finish. This is the second book in this duo’s Bad Luck Club series, but it is a standalone.
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Excerpt
Jace reaches toward my face, and my heart feels like it’s about to beat out of my chest as his fingers near the soft flesh of my cheek. When he tucks an escaped lock of hair behind my ear, I almost melt into a puddle.
“You’re a good mom,” he says. “And you were probably right. It might not be a good idea for Aidan to get too attached to me, and me to him, given that you and I are attracted to each other.”
Shock roils through me. It’s as if I’ve opened my eyes and found myself on a different planet, where the ground is as solid as a bounce house and left is right and right is left.
No, it’s not possible.
I gawk at him, taking in his sparkling eyes, the golden ends of his hair, and that short beard that shouldn’t look good, but oh God, it looks really good…
“Did you just say…?” I start.
It’s then that Aidan bursts through the door, holding something in his hand. He thrusts it out in front of him, scrunching his nose. “Did you get me this, Mom? It came in the box with my game. It was in a container, but I took it out.”
Shock renders me mute and still, like a pillar of salt. Especially since I can feel the intense scrutiny of Jace’s eyes. There’s no way Aidan knows what he’s holding, but Jace must know.
No, no, no, no, no, this can’t be happening.
The vibrator wasn’t supposed to come until tomorrow. Why would they pack it with a children’s board game?
A twisted sense of humor? A lack of reasonable bathroom breaks in the warehouse?
Aidan waves the bright pink vibrator around.
“There’s a little rabbit on it. Is it some kind of toy for Christmas? The package says it’s a magic wand that’s supposed to make people moan, but they spelled magic with a k, and it didn’t come with a spell book or anything.” He pulls a face. “I guess I can just use it with the Harry Potter spells. It does vibrate like it’s doing magic, and it can whirl in circles too.”
A short laugh sputters out of Jace.
My face is so red, it might as well be a fire truck. Magik wand. At least the name offers a reasonable explanation. For a six-year-old. God help me, I can’t bear to look at Jace.
I make a grab for the vibrator, but Aidan evades me.
“Why’d you get it in pink, Mom? You know green’s my favorite color.”
Jace clears his throat, but nope, I still can’t look at him. He’s not laughing anymore, but I know he probably wants to. Who wouldn’t? If he did feel some sort of passing attraction to me before this, he certainly doesn’t now.
“Aidan,” Jace says slowly, his voice husky. “There are toys for adults too. That’s probably something your mom got as a treat for herself, although I’m sure she’ll get you a Harry Potter wand for Christmas if you want one. Let her have it.”
Aidan does, which is what I wanted, but then I have a vibrator in my hand.I think for a moment and then stuff it into my bag. The tip instantly pops out, unmistakable.
What is happening to me?
“It must be some kind of mistake,” I say, finally forcing myself to meet Jace’s gaze. “I didn’t order this. I wouldn’t…”
I thought I’d see laughter there, because he’s only human, but all traces of it are gone, and now he’s looking at me like I’m the last slice of birthday cake at an office birthday party. No, like I’m the first.
About Denise Grover Swank
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Denise Grover Swank was born in Kansas City, Missouri and lived in the area until she was nineteen. Then she became a nomadic gypsy, living in five cities, four states and ten houses over the course of ten years before she moved back to her roots. She speaks English and smattering of Spanish and Chinese which she learned through an intensive Nick Jr. immersion period. Her hobbies include witty Facebook comments (in her own mind) and dancing in her kitchen with her children. (Quite badly if you believe her offspring.) Hidden talents include the gift of justification and the ability to drink massive amounts of caffeine and still fall asleep within two minutes. Her lack of the sense of smell allows her to perform many unspeakable tasks. She has six children and hasn’t lost her sanity. Or so she leads you to believe.
A.R. CASELLA is a freelance developmental editor by day, writer by night. She lives in Asheville, NC with her husband, daughter, two dogs, and a variable number of fish. Her pastimes include chasing around her toddler, baking delicious treats, and occasional bouts of crocheting. Any Luck at All, co-written with New York Times bestselling author Denise Grover Swank, is her first book.
I hope this email finds you well.
Your well-being and personal growth are of the utmost importance to me, as a therapist.
As such, I have decided it is in your best interest to continue individual therapy with another
practitioner.
This is due to the potential for boundaries being crossed between us.
Attached is a list of colleagues I would recommend for you.
Sincerely,
Scarlett Shepard, MS, MFT
Dear Scarlett,
Cool.
Consider our sessions terminated.
Now I can tell you how beautiful you are and how attracted I am to you.
Let’s start crossing boundaries over dinner tonight.
You’ll say it would be unethical, and I’ll point out that we’ve only had a few sessions.
You’ll cite the age difference, and I’ll tell you how hot it is that you’re six years older than me.
You’ll say you’re a mom, and I’ll remind you that I think your son is awesome.
We don’t have to discuss my former attachments to former co-stars ever again.
This is due to the fact that clearly my only personality issue is that I’m irresistible.
Yours in well-being and personal growth,
Dylan Brodie, W.M.H.T.A.T.Y.E.H. (Way More Handsome and Talented Actor Than Your Ex-
Husband)
Multicast duet-style audiobook will release not long after the kindle version. Performed by Zachary Webber and Emily Woo Zeller, featuring Teddy Hamilton, Jason Clarke, Mackenzie Cartwright, Connor Crais and Emma Wilder.
After a dreamy meet-cute that went nowhere three years ago, Dylan and Scarlett get a second chance when fate keeps throwing them together in Attachment Theory. He is a serial dater who loves being in love, and she’s a family therapist who knows that despite Dylan’s smoking-hot body and charming smile, she’s older than him, a single mom, and should stay far, far away. Of course, that’s not at all what happens!
Scarlett puts up a good fight, but in the end, she can’t resist this hunky Brodie brother.
It took me a little longer to get into Attachment Theory than it did with Funny Business (Frankie and Owen), but this slow-burn romcom was delightful in the end. Dylan and Scarlett had a great connection, and despite the age difference between them and their different places in life, I thought that they meshed well. When the big blowup happens between the two, I really thought that Dylan went above and beyond with his grand gesture to win Scarlett back and convince her that she is the only woman he envisions spending his forever with.
Scarlett’s son, Noah, was absolutely adorable, and I love what a great cat dad Dylan was with kitten Mr. Noodles! As usual, Kayley Loring works in some hilarious email exchanges and text threads amongst the characters, and I loved the cameos by some of her other couples. (In addition to Owen and Frankie, we get Nico and Shane, since Dylan played Shane’s brother on That’s So Wizard when he was a kid!)
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Kayley Loring
Before writing steamy romantic comedy novels, Kayley Loring got a BFA in creative writing and had a fifteen-year career as a screenwriter in Los Angeles (under a different name). She mostly wrote PG-13 family comedies that studios would pay her lots of money for and then never make into movies. In 2017 she decided to move to the Pacific Northwest and write about all the fun stuff that she wasn’t allowed to write about in those PG-13 scripts. Now she’s breathing cleaner air and writing dirtier words. It’s an adjustment she’s happily getting used to.
A Moment For Us by Corinne Michaels is now LIVE! New York Times Bestselling author Corinne Michaels returns to Willow Creek Valley in this stunning surprise baby/unrequited love romance.
Download today on Amazon, Apple Books, Audible, Google Play, Kobo, Barnes & Noble!
A Moment For Us is Book #3 in the Willow Creek series, and this time we get grumpy Joshua and Delia, the best friend of his little brother, Alex. Delia has been in love with Josh for as long as she can remember. And while he has feelings for Delia in return, he never acted on them earlier because of her friendship with Alex — and something happened to him in the years while he was gone from Willow Creek that changed Josh forever.
Despite Josh’s declarations that he can’t do relationships, Delia takes whatever he gives her as a no-strings fling. But when a condom breaks and Delia accidentally gets pregnant, they have to have some serious conversations about their future plans now that they are having a baby together.
Josh has a lot of emotional baggage to unpack due to an event in his past, and I kind of hated how Delia just took whatever scraps from him that she can. She was worth so much more than that, and it took her a really long time to come to that realization and push Josh away. By then, she was already attached to him through the baby. But as she tried to convince him that his traumatic past doesn’t have to impact their future as a family, Josh and Delia are struck by a tragic event — and instead of coming together to get through it, they drift apart.
While I think A Moment For Us should have had a trigger warning, I thought it was well-written as Josh and Delia try to come to terms with their relationship and what they really mean to one another. It’s messy and emotional, but it comes to a beautiful happily ever after.
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Whatever Tomorrow Brings is the continuation and conclusion of Will and Tori’s story from Come Back Tomorrow. I guess you could read this book on its own, but there is so much to Will and Tori’s relationship that you really should read the first book in this duet before WTB.
Will and Tori’s friendship was born over movies and raisinettes in his hospital room while he was a terminal cancer patient. Along the way, they fell in love in CBT and Will realized that a life with Tori was worth fighting for. There are no guarantees that the radical treatment will cure his cancer but Will has decided that he doesn’t want to die without trying to fight. I cried for these two in both the first book and the second, wanting them to get a happily ever after!
Much of this book is Will’s medical journey. It’s messy and highly emotional. There are some really graphic and difficult scenes to read as Will struggles, but the love that he and Tori share is inspiring. She literally holds his fractured pieces together as he fights to survive.
I wasn’t sure how their romance would translate once Will was released from the hospital, but I thought that Argent did a great job of writing the difficulties they face as a couple at home dealing with an illness. Will’s vulnerability over needing to rely on Tori to bathe him, his frustrations and fears about what happens next and how Tori supports him through that — it all felt organic. I loved the last chapter, particularly, when we finally get inside Will’s head and got his POV on their relationship.
The Embrace Tomorrow duet was a fantastic offering from a new author. I’d love to see a story for Jason and Jenny, how they fell in love while supporting their best friends!
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Amy Argent
Amy Argent is the author of the Embrace Tomorrow Duet: Come Back Tomorrow and its sequel, Whatever Tomorrow Brings. Amy can honestly say she writes day and night—clinical trial documents as a medical writer by day and contemporary romance as a novelist by night . . . and possibly into the wee hours of the morning. She has a PhD in Genetics that she agonized entirely too much over, but it did result in a fascinating day job—the details of which tend to creep into her fiction.
Amy can be found in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, two teenagers, and two hedgehogs, where she’s most likely planning her next departure from reality—destination: Dragon Con, the closest Renaissance Faire, or the nearest book.
Amy has always been fascinated by the many ways people cope with the human condition. Her stories explore the emotional journey we take when adversity drastically changes life’s course, but being an eternal optimist, she’s found her niche in soulful stories with silver linings. In truth, they can always be found if one is willing to look for them.
Willette Archer has a secret—though some would argue how well kept it actually is. As right-hand woman and best friend to the owner of Bird’s Eye Tattoo Studio, her job has become her whole life. So, she occupies her days with shop decisions to avoid her disappointing dating life.
Of course, that might also have something to do with her two-decade old infatuation with her aforementioned best friend’s older brother.
Derek Tanner is at a loss—with basically everything. His apartment lease is up, most of his belongings are somewhere in storage, and the good doctor has been pulling extra shifts at the hospital due to lack of staff. So, yeah. His life is chaos. Thanks to these wonderful circumstances, dating is nowhere on his radar.
When his little brother suggests he stay in Willette’s spare room for the time being, he’s both grateful and hesitant. Sure, he grew up with Will too, but they’ve never been as close—let alone in close quarters.
It doesn’t take very long for Doctor Derek to start seeing Will in a new light. This makes him think perhaps he should be examined. Will, on the other hand, is this close to feigning injury just so he’ll touch her already.
When boundaries are crossed and relationships are finally taken to the next level, will Willette get exactly what she’s been hoping for since childhood, or will her fantasy be forever ruined?
Will is the second book in Kat Savage’s Men of Bird’s Eye series. Although technically, Will (aka Willette) is a woman, and she’s one of the guys in theory, but she’s our feisty, independent heroine in this story… who has been in love with Hawk’s big brother for nearly 20 years.
Derek’s lease is up, his hours at the hospital are insane, and he needs someplace to crash while he house hunts. So Hawk offers up Will’s spare bedroom, and we have a forced proximity/roommates romance with a bit of secret crush mixed in. Derek has always been a serial dater, never committing because he doesn’t believe in love. Will has always dated losers, because she knows nobody will measure up to Derek. But as they spend more time together as roommates, Derek starts to look at Willette differently and asks her out. There is hesitation from both of them about not wanting to ruin their decades-old friendship… and that is exactly what happens when Derek finds out that Willette has been in love with him since she was a kid. He freaks out, moves out, and leaves Will heartbroken.
I really liked Will and Derek’s story, but I wanted *more* from them. Why is Derek so against love? He’s seen it go bad with his parents, but that was a one-liner and I wanted more about how that affected him. I wanted more of Derek’s inner thoughts when it came to his feelings for Will and his willingness to “hope” for more. The scene was beautiful but I wanted to know how he got there. I also wish that there had been some reference to Will’s family — it would have given her more depth as a heroine. The one reference to her Generalized Anxiety Disorder was kind of a throw-away, and I think there was so much that could have been explored there with how that affects her.
But overall, Will was a great read, and I’m really enjoying this series. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Avery and Hanson! I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Meet Kat Savage
Kat Savage resides in Louisville, Kentucky with her three beautiful children, her hunky spouse, and two spoiled dogs. She secretly has hope of getting chickens one day.
By day, she’s an office manager, pushing paperwork and daydreaming. When she’s not at her nine-to-five, she’s writing. Or thinking about writing. Or preparing books and book stuff. Or quite possibly, designing stuff for other people’s books.
She was driven to writing out of a need to distraction and self-preservation after the death of her sister in 2013. Since then, it’s snowballed into a full blown passion she can’t escape. Even on the toughest days, she wouldn’t want to.
She writes poetry packed with real, raw, and sometimes ugly truths. She won’t lie. Her goal is to make you ache, in that perfect delicious way we often secretly crave.
Shortly after putting her poetry and prose out into the world, she turned to novel writing. Savage is a natural storyteller, getting better with each book. She tries to give the characters in her novels depth, whether they’re serious or comical, she builds them in layers with the hope that you see a little of yourself in some of them.
My name is Easton Donovan, and I massively screwed up.
Waste My Time, an all-new emotional and angsty new adult romance from Kelsey Clayton, is available now!
I should’ve given her the world. Should’ve been everything she deserves. Instead, I broke her like every promise I’ve ever made.
The darkness tells me to let her go. Memories of my past keep me from letting her in. Someone should tell her that loving me is a losing game.
Just being around her is a high I’ve never known. If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll cut me off. Given the chance, I’ll ruin her the way I’ve done to others. But with the bomb she just dropped, she’s here to stay.
She’s flawless innocence. I’m toxic destruction. And the selfish part is, I need her.
Truth be told, Kennedy Lehigh could be the one to save me from myself.
Walking through campus, I keep my head down. The Advil has done as much for my headache as the saltine crackers the school nurse gives you for a broken arm. If there’s one thing I don’t want right now, it’s to make small talk with some shithead who thinks we’re friends simply because Z and I throw the best parties. My only mission is to get to my class, where I can fall back asleep listening to the monotone voice of my professor as he drones on about the fundamentals of programming and problem solving. And yet, when I get most of the way there, I quite literally crash right into someone else. Books fly out of the girl’s hand and land among mine on the ground. “I’m so sorry,” I say, but as I look up, I notice Kennedy staring back at me. Shit. I’ve been trying to stay out of her way. I mean, Tessa found happiness after me, and then I practically destroyed her by trying to get her back. I’d rather die than do the same thing to Kennedy, so if she’s happy with Alec, I’ll force myself to be happy for her. She stares back at me, clearly in shock as I quickly pick up her books and hand them to her. As she takes them from me, our hands touch, and my body reacts to the feel of her skin on my own. The same way it always has. The same way it always will. Seeing her now, my body hurts—literally yearns to pull her back into my arms and just hold her there, never letting her go. But I can’t let myself do that. Not anymore. I go to walk away, to leave her alone like I swore to myself I would, but she stops me with a call of my name. “I actually need to talk to you about something,” she says with a sigh. The air around me feels too thick, standing here with her, but I swallow it down. “Everything okay?” “Uh, yeah. I guess,” she mutters, looking anywhere except back at me. “I, uh…fuck.” A part of me wonders if she’s just trying to keep me around. Keep my attention on her. Like ignoring her the past week was drawing her back to me. But if I’ve learned anything the last week, it’s that she’s better off without me. Where I can’t ruin her life. Letting out a huff, I know I’m going to hate myself for this. “Can you just say what it is you want to say? I have places to be.” She narrows her eyes at me. “It’s not that simple.” “Sure it is. Your mouth forms words, and you say them,” I spit. “Just tell me.” “Easton,” she breathes, and I’m even more sure she just wants to keep me here as long as possible. I roll my eyes. “Fuck it, then. I’ve got to go.” “I’m pregnant,” she announces, freezing up as she realizes the way she just blurted out that crucial information. “According to the doctor, about twelve weeks.” Her words hit me right in the chest. Pregnant. She’s pregnant. And twelve weeks means it’s mine. There’s no way it can’t be, unless she cheated. No. Kennedy is a lot of things, but a cheater is not one of them. That only leaves one person to be the father. Me. “Y-you’re…” Everything starts to spin as the reality sets in that I’m going to be a father. The nausea from my hangover builds in my throat and threatens to bubble over. I try to hold it back. Try to keep it in. But there’s nothing I can do. It all happens in a millisecond. I attempt to turn away but she puts her hand on my arm, keeping me in place as she looks at me in bewilderment. I’m stuck. There’s nowhere to go. Nothing I can do. And that’s when it goes wrong. I bend over, emptying the contents of my stomach all over the ground and Kennedy’s favorite pair of boots. She gasps, holding her books close to her chest and not looking down for a moment. She doesn’t need to. It’s no mystery as to what just happened. “Fuck,” I groan. “Kennedy, I am so sorry.” “It’s fine,” she snips, showing it’s most definitely not fine. As she takes a step away, I stop her. “At least let me help you clean up.” “No,” she barks. “Trust me. You’ve done enough.” With that, she practically runs back toward her dorm, not sparing so much as a glance back at me. I fucked up again.
Sunny Shelly’s Review: 3 Stars
I am so torn about my feelings for this book. I was so looking forward to Easton and Kennedy’s story — more so than any other couple in this series. I fell in love with them from the first NHU book, and the bombshell that Kennedy dropped in Wreck My Plans was jaw-dropping. But the rollout of Easton and Kennedy’s story just felt kind of anticlimactic in comparison to the other books in this series.
A huge part of why I just felt so “meh” about this book had to do with Easton and Tessa. And I confess that I did not read the series that came before this one, so I only know Easton and Tessa’s history from the NHU series. I have not read Tessa’s book. But so much of Easton and Kennedy’s problems are hinged on his past as an addict and history with Tessa, and I felt like there were too many references that I was not aware of. So I had a hard time connecting with that part of this story as a result.
There are a lot of ups and downs for Easton and Kennedy before they get to their HFN. So much miscommunication between these two, and them not talking about their feelings. I felt like I was told more about their feelings for one another than I was shown. I didn’t get Easton’s feelings for Kennedy from his chapters. It left me wanting more.
But that epilogue! Holy moly! Way to set up a next-generation spinoff! I am so intrigued!
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
About Kelsey
Kelsey Clayton is an internationally selling author of Contemporary Romance novels. She lives in a small town in Delaware with her husband, two kids, and dog.
She is an avid reader of fall hard romance. She believes that books are the best escape you can find, and that if you feel a range of emotions while reading her stories – she succeeded. She loves writing and is only getting started on this life long journey.
Kelsey likes to keep things in her life simple. Her ideal night is one with sweatpants, a fluffy blanket, cheese fries, and wine. She holds her friends and family close to her heart and would do just about anything to make them happy.
Sunny Shelly Reads 