ARC Book Review: A Not-So-Distant Love by Heidi Kimball

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Historical Romance
Length: 288 pages
Author: Heidi Kimball
Publisher: Covenant Communications
Release Date: October 24th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Lady Charlotte Darrington’s path in life is clearly laid out before she will select a suitable husband, marry, and one day inherit her father’s Scottish dukedom. But a growing restlessness has her desperate for a bit of freedom before her all-too-certain future closes in. When the opportunity to travel to America arises, Charlotte leaps at the chance and soon finds herself across the Atlantic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her American hosts and their friends couldn’t be more welcoming―all except one. The insufferable Dr. Galloway captures her eye―and her ire. Life has made Dr. Alec Galloway wary of everyone, including the self-important Lady Charlotte Darrington, who thinks herself above Pittsburgh society. He makes no qualms about voicing his disapproval of Britain’s archaic peerage system, or of a certain peeress herself, though he never intended for his brusque opinions to reach her ears, sparking a conflagration neither could have foreseen. Yet as Charlotte gains insight into Alec’s wounded past, she offers him something that changes everything―her friendship. Despite Alec’s determination to keep everyone at bay, she slowly erodes his defenses, allowing him glimpses of a future he never imagined. Soon he must decide whether to face his past fears and grasp a second chance at love or risk losing Charlotte forever.

Thank you to the publisher and author for an eARC.

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH.

This was exactly what I needed when I picked it up. I was misty eyed finishing those last few pages because this book held so much goodness and powerful themes and that raw human nature of coping with grief and the battering your faith can take sometimes.

I ADORED Charlotte. I loved that she was a take charge type of character and that she knew what she wanted. And Alec? SMITTEN doesn’t even begin to cover it. I felt deeply for his soul and the struggles he was working through. I loved every single moment of their romance. From getting off on the wrong foot, to finding true friendship and falling into that soulmate kind of love.

This was beautiful. I already want to read it again so I can highlight many lines and pages. I love the way Heidi Kimball presented the faith elements and how profound the characters are. The general them of second chances was scattered throughout and with many of the side characters. My heart was fit to burst reading this y’all.

Another incredible book by one of my favorite historical authors.

Overall audience notes:

  • Historical Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: toe curling kisses
  • Violence: moderate
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a spouse, mentions of epidemics, depictions of grief/depression, loss of loved ones

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Book Review: Deja Brew (Deadlights Cove #2) by Aimee Vance and B. Perkins

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Paranormal Romance
Length: 292 pages
Author: Aimee Vance and B. Perkins
Publisher: Revel Books
Release Date: October 1st, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Nimue Fitzpatrick never really meant to leave Deadlights Cove, but after she’d impulsively kissed her best friend, Kit Sayana, it suddenly became easier to take freelance photography jobs out of town. Just what she needed to forget the mess and the amber eyes she couldn’t bear to face anymore in the Cove. Now, after four years away, it might be time to admit that she’s been avoiding him.

The last four years haven’t been the easiest for Kit as the pressure to assume his responsibilities as future Alpha for the Arrowwood skulk takes over his life. Needing space, he moved out of his family home and into the apartment above his tea shop, Immortali-Tea. Despite the closeness among the members of his skulk, there is one thing he hasn’t shared with anyone, even his closest friends: ever since he kissed Nimue all those years ago, he’s known she’s his mate. The problem is that an interspecies mate bond is impossible, so it can never be.

When Nimue returns home for her cousin Blaze’s Halloween party, everything changes. No matter how the two childhood friends try to avoid their feelings for each other, fate has other plans. With magic turning on the shifters, the town is set into a panic that requires everyone to work together — especially Kit and Nimue.

Can they recover their prior friendship enough to come together and solve the next mystery, before it has lasting effects on the shifters in town?

Follow Kit and Nimue’s story, along with the quirky band of local misfits, through the Deadlights Cove series, in book two, Deja Brew.

While each book follows a different couple, the Deadlights Cove series is best read in order. Catch up and find out what Petra and Blaze discover in book one, Smoke Show, first.

FIERY.

I love this quirky town. It’s like my favorite small town contemporaries but make it spooky and I am here for it. There’s all sorts of paranormal creatures running around and I love that there’s different focuses on learning more about them with each book.

Fated mates reallllly worked for me between Kit and Nimue. It was written incredibly well that had me feeling all the chemistry they had for each other. It was hot and sweet and all the things in between.

The outside plot is interesting and I like how it subtly continues. Not overshadowing the romance but upping some intensity and bringing the action. This is a great writing duo and I look forward to the future books in this series!

Overall audience notes:

  • Paranormal Romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: two open door; med-high explicit
  • Violence: med
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: Physical and magical altercations, kidnapping

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Book Review: A Court This Cruel & Lovely (Kingdom of Lies #1) by Stacia Stark

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Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Fantasy Romance
Length: 532 pages
Author: Stacia Stark
Publisher: Self published
Release Date: March 24th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

For years, when I fell asleep, I dreamed of a man with blazing green eyes and a cruel smile.

The day I meet him, the ruthless mercenary leaves me for dead.

Just hours after humans are born, the gods take what little power we have. In return, they protect our borders from the vicious, merciless fae.

The humans who manage to keep their power are known as the corrupt.
And they are burned.

When my forbidden power is discovered, I’m forced to flee my tiny village and the life I adore.

To survive, I make a desperate bargain with the mercenary who abandoned me at my weakest.

Our deal is simple: I’ll help him and his mysterious friends sneak into the city. And he’ll help me learn to wield the strange, dark power I’ve always kept hidden. The power that may just be the key to my survival.

But the ruthless mercenary is hiding secrets of his own. Secrets that threaten the safety of everyone I love. Secrets that could tear this kingdom—and perhaps even this world—apart.

Thank you Dreamscape Media for the audiobook.

THE BONES WERE GOOD.

I wanted to love this more than I did but a few things kept holding me back. What it does have is a really good general fantasy romance set-up. I love hidden identities, some enemies to lovers and warring lands. I just wish the execution was a bit less…repetitive. The same ideas kept continually rotating through the story, they kind of kept doing the same things over and over and even the romance lost some steam too.

I didn’t mind Lorian and Prisca as main characters. They were perfectly fine. I liked the banter that they had and wanted to see them together more often to really feel that chemistry igniting. I did love that it was dual POV and that I saw both sides of the story.

There’s some good plot lines but I am on the fence about continuing the series. Might do the audiobook route again.

Overall audience notes:

  • Fantasy Romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: 2-3 open door
  • Violence: high
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of life/loved ones, attempted murder, executions

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Book Review: Faking the Fall (Sweater Weather #4) by Julie Christianson

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Rating: ★★★★☆
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 318 pages
Author: Julie Christianson
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: September 21st, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

What’s a movie star to do when giving up the spotlight could hurt the ones he loves most?
My agent has this idea—an insanely bad idea—to reboot my Hollywood heartthrob status by having my long-lost love dump me … while I’m proposing to her on national TV.
The theory? Women everywhere will swoon over poor Lincoln James, scrambling to repair his vulnerable, shattered heart.
Trouble is, I don’t have any kind of love—long, lost, or otherwise.
To play my fake girlfriend, my agent enlists Hadley Morgan, my secret college crush. The one who dragged me to an audition that launched my career but left her in the dust.
Upping the ante, she offers Hadley a slot on the show she missed out on years ago. When the alternative publicity ploy is for reporters to dig up dirt on my family, I’ve got no choice but to go along with the ruse.
That’s why I’m in Harvest Hollow now—as one half of the dream couple HadLink—at least until Hadley explodes our relationship during a very public proposal.
Our breakup’s built into this deal. Too bad I’ve got real love for this woman.
But if I come clean, I risk Hadley’s big break, my family’s painful past, and my own rebooted heart.

A SWEET GEM.

I went into this with the best of hopes and I was gratefully charmed by the entire story. I absolutely loved the way LInk was written and how we learned more about his background and reasoning. I’m hit or miss on celebrity romances and I loved the way this one was crafted.

I also really liked Hadley too. These were both just two genuinely kind people trying to make the best decisions with the life they’ve been handed. I looooved the mutual pining and the increasingly tender moments they had as their connection reignited. It’s a sweet story with some good fake dating moments and let me tell y’all, the communication towards the end?? LOVED IT SO DANG MUCH. Exactly what I hoped for, made total sense, and really showed that Hadley and Link trusted and cared for each other. I am smitten.

The fall vibes are once again in this series, immaculate. These authors have all done a fantastic job of creating this world. I found this to be a super fast read and once that made my heart flutter.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: None
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of loved ones (happened prior to book)

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