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.

 

Every Duke Has His Day by Suzanne Enoch was a fun read for me. My favorite characters are those that are quirky and different. Both were provided in this book. Michael our Duke is a scientist and has his way of doing and saying things as does the Diamond of the season Elizabet “Bitsy”. Without their dogs, the two probably would not have interacted. There is also a story that these two poodles have, which makes the book that much more enjoyable. The part of this book that bothered me the most was how little time she would have spent alone with Michael in that society. It would have been necessary for her to have a chaperone. 

This book had a great story and it was a slow burn which I adore. Character development was also quite good. I would give this book 3.75 stars, rounding up to 4. It’s a great read for those interested in a historical romance.

 

I enjoy a good slow burn, and Lucy Score didn't disappoint. We have two main characters (MCs) in the story: Ally (Ally) and Dominic (Dom). Their lives are filled with many challenges. Throughout the book, we discover more about them. As I don't want to spoil anything or give too much information away, here are a few things I love about this book.

• Angry banter between the two

• The plot in its entirety

• The setting of this story

• A trope in which enemies become lovers

• I liked the spice as well as the tension between these two

• The side characters helped make this story more believable.

• The ending of course.

The only problem I could find with this book is that some parts seemed to drag with that being said I finished this 550-page book in one day so it wasn’t that bad.

The Obsession by Nikki Sloan

 

This book for me was hard to read. I don’t say that because the writing is bad or that even the story isn’t a good one, because Nikki Sloane can write characters amazingly. The hard-to-read part came in with Macalister; he was vile, demeaning, and controlling to the tiniest detail. I hated him in both books. That being said his son Royce wasn’t much better. He and his father fought over Marist like she was a toy and they were little boys. UGH!

So this book like the last was all about power, influence, status, and dominating control. This book had more twists and turns than my favorite reality shows. I couldn’t wait to finish this book. I wanted Marist to stand up for herself and yet when she did it only served to make things worse for her. She could have become passive and boy men might have stopped their desperate need to have and control her. That would have made for a boring book too. I didn’t see that ending coming at all but I kinda liked it. It hasn’t made me want to pick up the third book yet. There's only so much of the Hale family I can take at once.

This book earned four stars! And my only complaint would be all the Greek mythology analogies throughout this whole book. It pulled me out of the story some.

 This book leaves me feeling conflicted because of the characters, plot, and all the little details. I want to say don't read this one, it's only about greed, negotiations, and the need to control. I am constantly drawn to those things at the same time. I felt like I was reading about the rich and famous in everyday life but with a bit more insider information.

    Among the world's largest banks, Hale Banking and Holding Company upholds centuries-old sordid traditions. The majority shareholder is Macalister Hale and he is just about the worst person you could find. Dealing with his disgusting ways is also what this book revolves around. Our Heroine Marist didn't fit into the lifestyle she was born into, and yet as the book goes on she proves that she is not to be messed with. She falls for our Hero and Prince of the Hale dynasty Royce Hale. They share an Insta connection. Even though our hero is supposed to share that bond with our heroin sister.

As the story progresses, we learn that each character in this story is driven to control and manipulate whatever they can for their own reasons. Watching this drama play out was grossly entertaining. I will say that the characters did not disappoint me and sometimes outright surprised me. 

    Nikki Sloan, our author, writes these flawed characters so well. I will be reading the 2nd book because I can't look away. That is ultimately why this book got four stars🌟🌟🌟🌟. I didn't connect with this kind of wealthy drama, but it is fun to read. 

So I recommend this book to others who love the tabloids of the rich and famous.

Still Beating by Jennifer Hartmann.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This book is not written for the faint of heart. I wouldn’t suggest this one to anyone under age at all. I would also check ALL the trigger warnings because this book deals with a lot of hard horrible topics. 

This book is about the relationship between our heroin Cora and the hero Dean. When we first meet them they are at Cora’s sister's birthday party at a bar. Mandy Cora’s sister is happy to have her and her fiance Dean both there. Since Cora and Dean admit they don’t like each other and are constantly insulting each other and pulling pranks on the other one. After Mandy and Dean leave the bar Cora stays behind to finish drinking and her wallet is stolen. So she has to call someone for a ride and that someone happens to be Dean. When Dean shows up a man who has been bothering Cora asks Dean if Cora was his girl and he yells NO! As they are going home they get pulled over and before they both know it they wake up handcuffed to poles in a dark basement. They slowly realize what is happening. When the man from the bar boots hit the stairs and then they see his face they know they are going to suffer. And without giving any details they become each other’s lifeline. They are tortured for three long weeks in that basement and are so sure this will only end in their deaths. Thankfully that didn’t happen!

As they get free and are rescued from the basement life starts forcing them apart. Neither is ready for that to happen because they really became so much to the other. Dean has to deal with his relationship with Cora’s sister Mandy and how that affects him. Cora has to deal with feeling alone and scared without Dean. They both have an attachment to the other that is unhealthy and they have to heal. This is a powerful, traumatic, surprising, and unstoppable love they have developed. Just when you are sure what is about to happen it doesn’t. I will tell the Happy Ever After comes but not without a whole lot of pain for all our characters. 

Jennifer Hartmann writes characters that are so raw and real that you have to see them through. This book has been called a slow burn but it’s more like a non-rushed timeline. This book gets 5 stars from me.