Nicole Jacquelyn hit it out of the park with this book. It is one of the best books I’ve read in a long long long time. The story is about Shane and Kate and five children. Kate had a crush on Shane from childhood but Shane wanted nothing to do with her. In college Shane met her roommate Rachel and married her. We pick up where they have three kids and another on the way. Katie (Kate) is a co-parent because Shane is in the military and can’t just stop what he’s doing at the drop of a hat.  One day Kate gets a phone call from the school sage (daughter of Shane and Rebecca) that she needs to be picked up. Katie jumps into action picking up Sage while trying to reach Rebecca. A phone call comes and Rebecca has died but the baby made it. Katie has to tell Shane. 

Katie steps in as a parent to the four children seamlessly. Shane can come across as a jackrabbit sometimes and I just want to slap him. A year after Rachel’s death Katie goes to find Shane in a hotel room. He’s drunk and she becomes that way too. This one-night stand becomes a lot more. 

Shane has to deploy leaving Katie with four children and pregnant. Which is very hard for Katie. Shane skypes the kids and her when he can but Katie is hiding how really sick she is. Eventually, they go to visit family and Katie gets a break. However this angers Shane. When he returns stateside he goes to bring his kids home. Taking them away from Auntie Katie is not pleasant for anyone involved. 

Shane and Katie have a lot of miscommunications throughout this book however they are there as a real story might play out. I will spoil you and say you get your happy ending eventually.

I absolutely love this book. It’s an easy five stars from me.

Call you mine by Kendra Mase

 

Kendra Mase wrote a beautiful story. Whether it's a romance or a friendship book, I love second chances. The story is just beautiful to me. It's fascinating to see how she seems to switch between past and present with such fluidity, so it doesn't take you out of the story to do this. It also takes place in a small town in Vermont called Marshall Falls. 

After years of completing list as kids through college years. They lost touch when Sylvia went to the Big City to pursue her dream job. However, Sylvia later caught her boyfriend cheating on her and that was enough for her to run home. After a bad first meeting with Kerian again (her long time best friend). As a result, she creates a list of tasks to complete in order to get him back. I will give no spoilers on this one. 

I love this story because it is a duel POV and done so well. This book has such sweet emotions and great descriptions I simply couldn’t put the book down. I can definitely see myself reading this around Christmas time again. 

Thanks Netgally and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

 This book is part of a four-book series surrounding Madison Kate Danvers. MK and her friend Bree snuck away from a party on Halloween night to watch an underground fight. A fight broke out between rival gangs and pandemonium ensued. Madison and Bree were separated and Mk found herself with three guys that seemingly wanted to help her out. One offered her his hoodie, the other said someone would pick her up soon and all three took off. The police arrived and found a key to the locked-down fairground where this fight was supposed to take place. Her father, wanting to set an example about holding everyone accountable for their actions, left her in jail for three months even though everyone knew she was innocent. Her father had political and other aspirations. After three months she was released but sent to her aunt in Cambodia for a year. Her aunt passed away and she found herself back home with the three guys who she thought had set her up. All the ways she had learned to calm herself with her aunt flew out the door as her dad was now engaged to one of the guys' mothers. This story has several tropes such as enemies to lovers love to hate, why choose, reverse harem (kinda) in this one, politics, rich and the poor. And many others I’m forgetting. It's also important that you search all trigger warnings in the book because it might have a few.  

Our main character Madison acts like a new adult/ college age which she is.

Let me just list things about her.

• She’s arrogant

• Resentful

• Vengeful 

• Pulls good and bad pranks

• Maintains that she can give as good as she gets

• Struggles creatively

• Has a silly rich best friend

• She came across annoying people at times. 

The three main guys are:

• Max Steele who we find out has gray eyes. He seems the most focused on the past.

• Kodiak (Kody) who is the joker or good guy of the group.

• And the Archer who is the most guarded and leader of the other two. 

In the year Madison Kate was away, a brand new university called Shadow Grove University was built. As a way to close the divide in their small town. Additionally, Madison Kate's father was able to convince people to come to the college rather than to IVY league schools, which is an extremely difficult task.

Also at this school, no cell phones are allowed. There's something strange about this school. 

In the process of building some sort of friendship between the guys and Madison Kate, a stalker gets thrown into the mix and everything just goes haywire. I won’t give anything else away. Four shiny stars are my rating for this book.

 Here's the truth: I read Hooked and my expectation was high for this book and honestly I was bored. I couldn't get into this story. I am by no means saying it's a bad book, it just wasn't my favorite. I gave this book 3 stars. The tropes in this book were Enemies to lovers, Touch her and you die, Antihero hates everyone but our MC lady, Forbidden love, and a love triangle. I thought the character development was good and so was the plot. I will say read the Trigger warnings for this book.

The Reluctant Bride by Monica murphy

A random search on kindle unlimited led me to this first book. It's been on my TBR for a while and I'm ashamed of that. This book is about our hero Perry and heroin Charolette. There is an arranged marriage between them, but neither knows why. We learn that they have father issues in VERY different ways. Their whole first book is a slow burnish story. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. It's a good choice if you're looking for a book that grabs your attention right away. 

 

TRIGGER WARNING WITH THIS BOOK

I went into this book as blind as possible with so many people talking about it I just wanted to read it myself. Rarely do I say I wish I had listened to the trigger warnings more. This book isn’t for the faint of heart, that's for sure. I is about a seventeen-year-old girl name Terrian whose parents committed suicide and left her to her step-uncle Jake and his two grown men in the mountains of Colorado. Every character in this book is manipulative, has bad family drama, and is abusive. 

Jake is the step-uncle and father figure is abusive in his demeanor and the way he carries himself around his sons. He has inappropriate thoughts and actions about his young inexperienced niece. Honestly, his character wasn’t well thought out in my opinion. 

Kaleb doesn’t speak and yet he might be the worst of the whole lot of them. He almost r*pes her three times, he locks her in her room, he has sex with her whilst she is asleep, and he throws away her birth control pills. 

Noah is at first one of the only guys I saw as redeeming but he’s not. He becomes emotionally abusive and threatens to get her pregnant so she will stay with them. 

Terrain our main character lady doesn’t not have luck on her side. She was isolated and abused in that manner as a child. Now as a teenager, she is forced into a family and she is who brings them all together even at her own expense at times. 

I won’t spoil the ending for you but I wish so much it was different. That doesn’t mean you won’t like it. I’ll keep reading Penelope Douglas's books.

Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams

 

I was hooked from the very first paragraph of this book. There was no doubt in my mind that I would read another Sarah Adams book. In this book, Annie is the main character, a flower shop owner and a self-described horrible dater. Will, our male lead, is the bodyguard for her soon-to-be sister and law and best friend. 

• This is a fake dating book

• The hero doesn’t like commitment

• The small-town vibes

• The characters you meet throughout this book are amazing too.

• Annie only changes in one scenario with her sisters and it’s beautiful.

I can’t recommend this book enough. My rating is five stars.