Book Reviews & Thoughts |
Goodreads Synopsis: From treadmill to true love? Zara isn’t what Oliver expects when he enlists a personal trainer named “Zee” to shed his Covid kilos. She’s blonde, brainy, and never says no to a Magnum – something Oliver can get on board with being an ice cream lover himself. Suddenly, exercising is less excruciating with Zara slogging it out next to him on the treadmill – even if he is paying her for his pain. Zara isn’t oblivious to Oliver’s charms and, as they become closer, considers breaking her “never date a client” rule for him. But she could be too late to the party. Other women are noticing his newly toned physique and aren’t being shy about it. With Oliver’s ego swelling along with his muscles, and their friendship hanging in the balance, can they even remain gym buddies, let alone grow into something more? A sweet/clean, dual POV, friends-to-lovers romantic comedy for fans of Portia MacIntosh and Beth O’Leary. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/142643267-you-had-me-at-ice-cream Thank you to Angela Pearse, C.G. Lambert, and BookSirens for providing me with an ebook copy of You Had Me at Ice Cream for me to read and review. What a cute, fun, feel-good romance. This story was filled with interesting, unique characters. The character development of the 2 main characters was well written. The story was filled with plenty of awe moments as well as laugh out loud moments. Overall a fun, cute, quick read. 4 Stars!
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Goodreads Synopsis: The first time I see my high school crush since graduation, I’m a thirty-year-old woman laying on the table for a pap smear. He’s the hot, newly single doctor who just moved back to his hometown, hoping to find some stability for his daughter. Meanwhile, I’m a hot mess, just fired from my job and ousted from company housing. I’m living in my old bedroom and trying to get my appointments in before my insurance runs out along with what little is left of my money. That’s when Fletcher tells me we may be able to help each other out. He needs a live-in nanny for his daughter over the summer, and the last three have quit after a day. With no other job options in my small hometown, I quickly accept. After all, I’ve dealt with pigheaded, balding middle managers. I can handle an eight-year-old girl… right? If I can’t help her and set aside my feelings for this hot single dad, I’ll need to find a new job away from my family and outside of the town I love. Hello Doctor is full of sweet moments with a firecracker of a little girl, her dad with a heart of gold, and the woman who brings them both together. Grab your copy of this spicy contemporary romance between a nanny and her smoldering boss today! Hello Doctor by Kelsie Hoss | Goodreads Thank you to Kelsie Hoss and Social Butterfly PR for providing me with an advanced ebook copy of Hello Doctor for me to read and review. Wow! This was such an emotional, addictive, rollercoaster of a story! I was sucked in right from the very first chapter and I did not want to put it down! Great character growth and development throughout the story and it was great to see the vulnerable sides of so many characters in this story. It really gave the plot so much depth. This was the first book I read by Hoss and she is now on my must-read list! Definitely recommend for all romance lovers! 5 Stars! Goodreads Synopsis: Sharp and propulsive, The Damages is an engrossing novel set in motion by the disappearance of a student during an ice storm, and explores themes of memory, trauma, friendship, and identity. What I remember best about that week in January is trying to keep track of all the lies I told. 1997: For Ros, starting university at Regis is an opportunity for reinvention--a chance to be seen as interesting, to be accepted by the in-crowd, and maybe even get a boyfriend. But when she meets her roommate, Megan, with her pleated jeans and horse-print bedding, she sees her as a social liability. Outside of their dorm room, Ros distances herself from Megan and quickly befriends the cool kids, seeking status at all costs. Just after winter break, an intense ice storm hits campus, triggering a reckless, days-long dorm party, during which Megan goes missing. Ros is blamed for the incident and abruptly dropped by her social circle, casting a shadow over the next two decades of her life. 2020: Ros's former partner, Lukas, the father of her eleven-year-old son, is accused of a sexual assault. The accusation brings new details of an old story to light, forcing Ros to revisit a dark moment from her past. Ros must take a hard look not only at the father of her child, but also at her own mistakes, her own trauma, and at the supposed liberal period she grew up in. The Damages is a page-turning, thought-provoking novel about the lies we tell other people and the lies we tell ourselves. The Damages by Genevieve Scott | Goodreads Thank you to Genevieve Scott, Penguin Random House Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced ebook copy of The Damages for me to read and review. This is an addictive, page-turner of a story! I loved seeing the main character during both of the time periods shown and the character growth she has undergone by the end of the story was excellent. The interconnected themes of identity and lies was very thought provoking and this is one of those stories that will stick with me for a long while. 4 Stars! Goodreads Synopsis: William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he's been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery's family declares her missing. Suddenly Stanhope doesn't feel so safe. And William isn't the only one on his street who's hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery's neighbors become increasingly unhinged. Who took Avery Wooler? Nothing will prepare you for the truth. Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena | Goodreads Thank you to Shari Lapena, Penguin Random House Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced ebook copy or Everyone Here is Lying for me to read and review. This was a fast paced mysterious thriller with tons of twists and turns. There was a large cast of characters with a wide variety of personalities and roles that inspired feelings anywhere from sympathy and care all the way to disgust. The chapters being short helped keep the pace of the story fast, but the constant switching between points of view without true distinction was a bit difficult to follow at first. However, I came to really enjoy the small insights into each point of view and they truly helped make the story keep you guessing with the different perspectives throwing theory after theory and suspect after suspect at the reader. The portrayal of ADHD was done poorly in my opinion. The writing of this character makes it seem like every person diagnosed with ADHD will have the same type of challenges and behaviors which is very inaccurate and paints ADHD with an unnecessarily negative brush. This could have been researched better and either made more clear that not all people with ADHD are anywhere near as challenging or a different diagnosis used that would be more singular to the type of personality and behaviors shown by this character. Also, the ending seemed very rushed and ended super abruptly. It was such a quick sudden end that I was left feeling like that wasn't an adequate conclusion and maybe I was missing a few pages. For the most part it was a great, enjoyable story and I would read another by this author in the future. 3.5 Stars! Goodreads Synopsis: MIA He's making me an offer I can't resist. So, get this. I'm slaving away at my waitressing gig, dealing with the world's pickiest customer, when he drops a bombshell. He wants me to be his assistant. Me! I couldn't believe it! I mean, sure, I needed the cash and some time to focus on my art. But seriously, working for this guy? I must be out of my mind. He's got all the looks, like he walked straight out of a romance novel. But boy, does he have an ego the size of Mount Everest. He's the type who thinks he's always right, even when he's dead wrong. But, against my better judgment, I'm starting to think there might be something more to him. Could he actually be the one? --- DEREK I'm doing everything in my power to avoid a colossal business disaster. I made the crazy decision to hire Mia Kamaka as my assistant, and now I can't help but feel a spark of excitement. She's drop-dead gorgeous, and I want to spoil her rotten. But let's face it, things are complicated. We're on a dangerous path, and I'm not sure if it's the right one. Maybe there's a better way, a better match. But what if Mia is the one who can turn my life around? --- Match for the Billionaire is a standalone novel in the Seattle CEO series. You don't need to read the other books in the series, but hey, they're all pretty awesome too. Warning: This book contains sizzling love scenes, saucy language, and lots of grown-up stuff. Match for the Billionaire (Seattle CEO #1) by Eve Madison | Goodreads Thank you to Eve Madison for providing me with an ebook copy of Match for the Billionaire for me to read and review. What an addictive story! I was immediately sucked into the characters world and did not want to put this book down! Match for the Billionaire is filled with an interesting, entertaining plot, great characters, and just the right amount of spicy, sexy adult activities. I loved the strong, sassy attitude of the female main character and the incredible growth that she goes through gaining back her confidence. The male main characters past and challenges are different, but the growth he also went through parallels hers beautifully. Madison also pulled off a couple of excellent twists that I didn't predict and she dropped a couple of well placed red herrings into the story to draw readers minds in one direction before turning them right around when the twist is dropped. Definitely can't wait to read the next one in the series! 5 Stars! Goodreads Synopsis: An explosive guitarist. A fiery temper. A flame that threatens to die with each meeting…and one slip of the tongue that changes everything. I get a call late one night about some band that got ripped off. When I get there in uniform, it’s like showing up to class without pants on. My sneers set them back a notch. I’m no groupie. But this one guitarist in glasses, Spex, isn’t afraid of me, so I bite back harder. Later that night, another call arrives, this time it hits home hard. What Spex shows me makes me look twice at him. And it’s a long, hard look. More than that, it’s a look that makes everything else completely different forever. And I don’t think I’m ready for that. *** We’re being treated like the dirtbags here, but I get the feeling that this Claudia chick uses a broad stroke with people. Doesn’t matter if you’re the guitarist in one of the most popular bands ever. She has a silver tongue but I’ve got ironclad chops. When I follow her to the airport, and back home, having received a mutual call, I realize that her act is just that. My glasses come off and my perspective changes, when I see something in Claudia that I never want to see in myself. My gift to her makes her look twice at me. …but when the flatline sounds in the Emergency Room, all bets are off. Rock star romance Happily Ever After Hate to love romance Medium heat Drinking Drug abuse Swearing Cliffhanger ending Eruption (Big Bands Big Hearts, #6) by Sandra Alex | Goodreads Thank you to Sandra Alex for providing me with an advanced ebook copy of Eruption for me to read and review. Eruption is the 6th book in the Big Bands, Big Hearts series and it was an excellent continuation of the story involving the rockstars! The 2 characters that were the focus of this story were unique, interesting characters with their own fiery dynamic and I was intrigued to see how their chemistry would progress. There were a couple of things in this book that I didn't care for as much. First is something which may be my own personal preference, was the continued use of the word man when characters are speaking to or referring to the female characters of the story. This writing choice appears in a number of Alex's books; it rubs me the wrong way and throws off my reading flow when it happens. Second was the inclusion of a sort of 'teaser' sentence ending each chapter and sometimes ending individual points of view. I wasn't a fan of this as I would rather just discover what is going to happen through reading the story rather than "little did he know...." inclusions. The story itself was good overall though and I am curious to see where the story will go in the next book. 4 Stars! Goodreads Synopsis: Jodie Slaughter's latest rom-com, Play to Win , is a sizzling romance where a winning lottery ticket is meant to be a new start but instead becomes a second chance at love. Miriam Butler’s life is going nowhere in the slowest, most excruciating way possible. Stuck in the same barely-paying job she’s had since she was sixteen and spending every night sleeping in the spare twin bed in her mother’s house, her existence might be hilarious if it wasn’t so bleak. One trip to her favorite corner store upends everything when she finds herself the winner of a Mega Millions Lottery Jackpot. Unfortunately, not even life-altering roses come without their painful thorns. Hers just so happen to be in the form of an estranged husband who has the right to claim his share of her money. It’s been eight years since Leo Vaughn has had a conversation with his wife. When she calls out of the blue, practically begging him to come back to Greenbelt, the last thing he expects her to tell him when he gets there is that she’s come into a whole heap of money. She offers him a life-changing proposition of his own. Take a lump sum, finally sign the divorce papers, and be done with her for good. Only, a forever without her is the last thing Leo wants. So he gives a proposition of his own. One that won’t cost her nearly as many millions, but will buy him the time to do the one thing he’s been hungry to do since he left -- win her back. Play to Win by Jodie Slaughter | Goodreads Thank you to Jodie Slaughter, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an ebook advanced copy of Play to Win for me to read and review. This is the second book by Jodie Slaughter that I've read and this one met all my expectations! It was filled with sassy, snarky, big personalities that excellently complemented the softer, more vulnerable side of the main characters. I loved that even though this wasn't part of a series with her previous novel, this story took place in the same town and included many of the same characters as Bet on It. This gave the story an extra bit of charm for me and it went perfectly with the slow burn, second chance love story of the two main characters. There were a couple of inconsistencies that gave me pause when reading but overall I truly enjoyed this story and flew through it so fast! I definitely recommend this for any reader who enjoys contemporary romance. 4 Stars! |
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