Tag: Book Review

Book Review: The Trustworthy Groom (Texas Titan Romances) by Cami Checketts

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Rating: ☆☆
Audience: Contemporary Sports Romance
Length: 180 pages
Author: Cami Checketts
Publisher: Birch River Publishing
Release Date: January 18th, 2018
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A lonely football player, a damaged bride, and the fake marriage that can heal them both.
Hailey Knight has two choices: fall prey to a predator who is out to own her and destroy her football team, or marry a man she’s just met. True, her fake husband can make her quiver with a touch, gets her jokes, and is patience personified, but she knows better than anyone how quickly charm can turn ugly.
Brady Giles has dealt with a sweetheart stalker for two years and has no hope of shaking the annoyance. He steps in to rescue the beautiful and feisty Hailey Knight from a leering idiot and somehow ends up engaged to her.
The marriage is supposed to help them both out of sticky situations, but instead turns into a media hailstorm with lies and attacks coming from all sides. When Hailey falls in love with her fake husband and danger lurks around every corner, she knows it’s time to run, but Brady has never given up on an impossible battle.
Can these two trust each other or will the media and predators tear them apart?

RANT INCOMING.

Full stop. This book was utterly ridiculous. Oh my gosh. I didn’t like it at all, but it got 2 stars purely for the entertainment it gave me for a morning of reading. I kept running to my spouse shouting YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.

First of all the book wouldn’t have even needed to happen if there was on small change in the second chapter. The set-up for this marriage of convenience was worthless and sooo not necessary.

Also I hated how Hailey treated Brady. She was the one who used him to pretend he was her fiance and then was the one who was cool with the fake marriage. Why in the world would you spend most of the book then worried he was going to “steal your virtue” (books words) like he was this terrible guy. He gave you no inclination of that kind of behavior and I was upset over that.

AN ATHLETIC TRAINER IS NOT A PERSONAL TRAINER. Good heavens I hate when something is clearly not researched. Absolutely maddening. Use google and get your terms right.

Everything got oddly dark FAST and I didn’t realize I was apparently reading a romantic suspense. I mean seriously, a stalker blew up part of the guys house. WHAT?…WHAT? I can’t even begin to follow the process of thought that led to this being part of the ending scenes.

There’s just so much iffy stuff in this book y’all. Wouldn’t recommend whatsoever.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary sports romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses, some implied closed door scenes
  • Violence: house explosion
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: Brady has a creepy stalker, sexual harassment, Hailey remembers a rape scene from someone she dated (brief description)

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Monthly Reading Wrap-Up: April 2022

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A wishy washy reading month. I threw away way to many DNFs, but there were some diamonds in the rough here.

Favorites: The Godborn and the King, Double or Nothing, The Love Connection, Long Story Short, Lodestar, A Brush with Love, The Saltwater Heir, Heir of Fire, The Diamond Eye

  • [ARC] The Godborn and the King (The Raven and the Dove #4) by Kaitlyn Davis
  • The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
  • Mr. Hoa (Fake It #1) by Carina Taylor
  • [Novella] Inheritance (American Royals #0.5) by Katharine McGee
  • Souls of Fire and Steel (Frozen Sun Saga #3) by Jill Criswell
  • The Atlas Six (The Atlas #1) by Olivie Blake
  • [ARC] Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle
  • [Novella] Passion or Penalty by Leah Brunner
  • [Novella] Falling for Your Brother’s Best Friend by Emma St. Clair
  • [ARC] Double or Nothing (A Pride and Pranks Romance #2) by Cindy Steel
  • [Novella] There Goes the Groom (Romance of Rank #1.5) by Esther Hatch
  • The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time #4) by Robert Jordan
  • [Novella] The Love Connection (Airport Novellas #1) by Denise Williams
  • The Ace of Hearts (Larkhall Letters #1) by Ashtyn Newbold
  • One for All by Lillie Lainoff
  • [Novella] Below Zero (The STEMinist Novellas #3) by Ali Hazelwood
  • The Fine Print (Dreamland Billionaires #1) by Lauren Asher
  • [Novella] Somewhat of a Ruse by Jess Heileman
  • Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor
  • Lodestar (Keeper of the Lost Cities #5) by Shannon Messenger
  • [Reread] Air Awakens (Air Awakens #1) by Elise Kova
  • [ARC] Long Story Short by Serena Kaylor
  • My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen
  • In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer
  • Four Aunties and A Wedding (Aunties #2) by Jesse Q. Sutanto
  • A Brush With Love by Mazey Eddings
  • Scarlet Princess (The Lochlann Feuds #1) by Robin D. Mahle and Elle Madison
  • [ARC] The Dachshund Wears Prada by Stefanie London
  • The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa
  • [Novella] Finding Cinderella (Hopeless #2.5) by Colleen Hoover
  • Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez
  • Tarnished Crown (The Lochlann Feuds #2) by Robin D. Mahle and Elle Madison
  • An Offer From a Gentleman (Bridgertons #3) by Julia Quinn
  • The Saltwater Heir (The Blood and Water Saga #1) by Cassidy Clarke
  • [Reread] Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas
  • Pretending at Love (Greenbank Romances #2) by Karen Thornell
  • The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
  • Terms and Conditions (Dreamland Billionaires #2) by Lauren Asher
  • Crimson Kingdom (The Lochlann Feuds #3) by Robin D. Mahle and Elle Madison
  • Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson
  • The No-Show by Beth O’Leary
  • [ARC] When in Rome by Sarah Adams

Did we read any of the same books? See any you want to read? Leave a comment!

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Book Review: Only When It’s Us (Bergman Brothers #1) by Chloe Liese

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Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: Contemporary Sports Romance
Length: 382 pages
Author: Chloe Liese
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: April 1st, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Prepare for an emotional rollercoaster brimming with laughter, tears, and slow-burn sexiness in this new adult romance that tackles the vulnerability of love with humor and heart.

Ryder

Ever since she sat next to me in class and gave me death eyes, Willa Sutter’s been on my shit list. Why she hates me, I don’t know. What I do know is that Willa is the kind of chaos I don’t need in my tidy life. She’s the next generation of women’s soccer. Wild hair, wilder eyes. Bee-stung lips that should be illegal. And a temper that makes the devil seem friendly.

She’s a thorn in my side, a menacing, cantankerous, pain-in-the-ass who’s turned our Business Mathematics course into a goddamn gladiator arena. I’ll leave this war zone unscathed, coming out on top…And if I have my way with that crazy-haired, ball-busting hellion, that will be in more than one sense of the word. 

Willa

Rather than give me the lecture notes I missed like every other instructor I’ve had, my asshole professor tells me to get them from the silent, surly flannel-wearing mountain man sitting next to me in class. Well, I tried. And what did I get from Ryder Bergman? Ignored. What a complete lumbersexual neanderthal. Mangy beard and mangier hair. Frayed ball cap that hides his eyes. And a stubborn refusal to acknowledge my existence.

I’ve battled men before, but with Ryder, it’s war. I’ll get those notes and crack that Sasquatch nut if it’s the last thing I do, then I’ll have him at my mercy. Victory will have never tasted so sweet.

Only When It’s Us is a frenemies-to-lovers, college sports romance about a women’s soccer star and her surly lumberjack lookalike classmate, complete with a matchmaking professor, juvenile pranks, and a smoking slow burn. This standalone is the first in a series of new novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.

FOUND A NEW SERIES.

I have sat on this series since the first book came out last year. I was worried the spice was going to be too much for me. And it was at the end (and I’m talking 90%) where I could easily skip past. But it was also less than I was thinking, So if that’s a possible hang up for you, I’ll mention as well that this story was FANTASTIC and definitely worth the read.

Ryder and Willa were the definition of frenemies. Forced to work together in a college class where the game became teasing/pranking each other until they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. I loved it. The banter and chemistry. The heated glances and moments caught under a waterfall. All amazing stuff.

There were a lot of deeper conversations about disability, coping with loss, grief, depression and more. It’s heavily character driven plot (my fav) and brought about many heart-filled moments where I wanted to yell at the characters, and also hug them fiercely. This will bring out plenty of emotions.

And I loved that Willa was the soccer star! It was different from the majority of sports romances and I am here for it. I really enjoyed this writing style and how involved I became in Willa and Ryder’s lives. I’m happy I picked this one up and have already grabbed book two.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary sports romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses to very open door scenes
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a parent, cancer, depictions of grief and severe depression

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Book Review: Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

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Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Crystal Maldonado
Publisher: Holiday House
Release Date: February 2nd, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard.
Harder when your whole life is on fire, though.

Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.

People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it’s hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn’t help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter.

But there’s one person who’s always in Charlie’s corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing–he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS.

A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.

REALLY ENJOYABLE.

I flew through this book quickly. The writing led to a easy and great paced story for a coming of age teen, Charlie.

The conversations throughout hit me deep in many ways. Some I could understand and connect with and others I won’t ever be able to understand, but appreciated seeing it in a book to help me understand more. There was a lot of great dialogue here and I’m grateful that I had the chance to read this.

Within the bigger and tougher discussions was an adorable romance. I thought Brian was precious and I loved all of the dates and interactions and the chemistry between him and Charlie. Some of the dialogue is very high school, though I wasn’t too affected by it. I thought everything felt pretty authentic to a 16/17 year-old without being over the top.

What I didn’t love was how the conflict went down with Brian. It just seemed liked it could have been addressed better and not dragged out as long as it was for the sake of the drama. A conversation after cooling down would have nicely moved things along rather than trying to force a grand gesture at the end.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses / heated make-outs; discussion of sex
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: fatmisia, body shaming, diet culture, disordered eating

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