Tag: contemporary romance

Book Review: A Love Like the Sun by Riss M. Neilson

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Rating: ★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 368 pages
Author: Riss M. Neilson
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: June 11th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Lifelong best friends spend a fateful summer discovering what might happen if they were to be something more in this radiant, heart-clenching adult debut.

Laniah Thompson is a homebody who craves privacy. Issac Jordan is internet famous and spends his days followed by paparazzi. She runs a small business with her mom in her hometown. He runs an international brand.

And they’ve been best friends since childhood.

When Issac comes home to Providence for the first time in months and discovers Laniah’s dream is slipping out of reach as she and her mom struggle to pay the bills at Wildly Green, their natural hair store, she refuses to take a dime from him. And so, he does what any self-respecting best friend would do: tells the world they’re dating.

Suddenly business is booming, and Laniah agrees to his ridiculous plan to pretend to be lovers for the course of the summer. Just long enough to catch the eye of an investor and get her dream back on track, like she helped him do so many years ago, he reminds her.

Too soon, though, Laniah knows she’s playing with fire, because for as long as they’ve been friends there’s an undeniable pull they’ve never given in to. And as the lines between art and life—real and pretend—blur, it becomes harder and harder to see where friendship ends and something else begins….

Told over the course of three sizzling summer months, A Love Like the Sun is about shared history, those who make us our bravest selves, and love in its many forms.

Thank you to Berkley for the free book.

ESCALATION.

This unfortunately became increasingly more frustrating the further I went on.

I don’t understand how two people that have been best friends since they were children still don’t fully discuss aspects of their lives. Laniah hid some very big pieces of what was happening in her life from Isaac and I struggled a lot with how that part of the plot went down.

And for a romance, the couple spent very little time together. And too many deep comments were made via text. And I know that can work sometimes, but I really wanted to see more of Isaac and Laniah in the same place working through their friends to lovers feelings.

The story felt haphazard. Ultimately, all of the segments didn’t weave together to create a cohesive book. There wasn’t any character growth and nothing pushing this story forward.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 3 open door + some innuendo
  • Content Warnings: missed medical diagnosis from a doctor, loss of a Dad, medical discrimination, kidney disease

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Book Review: I’m Not Charlotte Lucas by Kasey Stockton

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 240 pages
Author: Kasey Stockton
Publisher: Covenant Communications
Release Date: February 7th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Northern California girl Charlotte “Charlie” Lucas has two great loves: Diet Coke and Pride and Prejudice. But her passion for Regency classics is tempered by a very real fear: Charlie is terrified of having to endure the fate of her namesake—spinsterhood. Despite her best attempts to maintain a modern sensibility, she can’t say no when an elderly neighbor asks Charlie to attend a charity ball with her grandson. Blind date or not, Charlie is powerless to resist the allure of a real-life ball. Soon it’s clear that she will struggle to resist the charms of her blind date too.

Liam Connell is every bit the swoon-worthy leading man, straight out of Charlie’s daydreams. But he’s completely unattainable—his last girlfriend was a gorgeous actress and a far cry from Charlie’s world. So after a magical evening with Liam, Charlie is ready to get back to reality, even if her best option right now is a former boyfriend who wants to give it another shot. Unfortunately, despite imagining she’ll never see Liam again, he seems to be everywhere. How is a lady to move past a fantasy when life suddenly seems to be imitating fiction to an alarming degree?

WELL.

I wanted to love this. But I had the hardest time finding common ground with the FMC. She spent so much time comparing herself to everyone, knocking herself down and not listening to anyone around her. By the time things started to change it was really late in the story and I was already ready for it to be over.

Liam and Charlie did have a lot of cute moments. I liked the quiet scenes they had together and some sweet kisses too. Liam was swoony and was clearly enamored with Charlie and I wish Charlie would have seen that sooner.

I did like the audiobook and secondary characters too. It’s not a bad story by any means, I just didn’t connect with some aspects. I’ll still be reading Kasey Stockton books.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses

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ARC Book Review: Beauty and the Beach (Falling for Summer) by Gracie Ruth Mitchell

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 305 pages
Author: Gracie Ruth Mitchell
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: July 17th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Phoenix Park is the man I fantasize about…hitting with my car, that is.
He’s rich. He’s sexy. He’s the absolute worst. But after I fall prey to an internet scam and lose every last penny in my account (please don’t ask), it’s Phoenix who swoops in with an offer I can’t refuse. I’ll marry him for the summer so he can inherit the family company from his dying grandmother, and in return, he’ll drop a hefty sum of money into my bank account.

Buy me a pair of sweatpants with GOLD DIGGER across the butt, because I’m just desperate enough to agree.

Our arrangement is only supposed to be for a few months, until Phoenix’s poor grandmother passes. I can pretend for that long. I can stop insulting him long enough to force a few smiles and some lovey-dovey glances. But with every touch we share, with every kiss we fake, I find the walls around my heart beginning to crack–letting in feelings I’m not prepared for.

And when Phoenix’s grandmother makes a miraculous recovery, leaving us stuck indefinitely in this charade of holy matrimony? That’s when I know I’m really in trouble.

Thank you to the author for an eARC.

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH.

If you need a book that feels like summer, this brought those vibes and the atmosphere I have been craving. This is a GEM. READ IT OKAY.

I have a hard time finding true enemies to lovers in contemporary books. And this DELIVERED. I was obsessed with the snark and banter and all of the nicknames had me hollering. There was this sense that you just KNEW they already loved each other, and getting to see the process of the forced proximity break down those barriers was everything.

There are so many scenes I want to shout about but I also need you to go in blind and trust the moments, because they are MOMENTS. I HAVE NOT RECOVERED FROM THAT HUG SCENE. AND I PROBABLY WON’T. Not to mention the kissing scenes lit my kindle on fire.

I liked the level of chaos that was added from Phoenix’s family. I loved the positive therapy rep. I am obsessed with the chemistry between the MC’s (and it’s dual POV too!!). Everything, I loved everything about this book.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: make-outs
  • Violence: low
  • Content Warnings: an emotionally manipulative grandmother, losing a brother in a car accident

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Book Review: The Last Word by Katy Birchall

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Rating: ★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 384 pages
Author: Katy Birchall
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: May 2nd, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A young journalist puts her career––and her heart––on the line when her former work nemesis is hired in her newsroom, for fans of The Hating Game and Beach Read .

Harper Jenkins is at the top of her game. A brilliant, determined journalist with a well-known knack for getting tight-lipped Hollywood stars to open up to her, Harper loves her job as Celebrity Editor at a newspaper’s glossy weekend magazine and has the best contacts in the business.

But when her awful boss hires talented reporter Ryan to be the new Features Editor, Harper is furious. Because the two have met a decade ago, they were interns at the same publication, where they fell into a whirlwind romance…until Ryan betrayed Harper, and they never spoke again.

Thrown together in a busy newsroom, their dynamic is a disaster from the start. They can’t agree on anything and bicker constantly―Ryan can’t bear how chaotic and messy Harper is; Harper finds Ryan’s condescending nature infuriating. They clash over who’s writing what article, and fight over who’s going to which event.

Yet as they’re forced to spend more and more time together, Harper realizes she may have misjudged Ryan and can’t help but feel a spark growing between them. Long buried feelings start to resurface and, when they’re thrown together on a romantic press trip abroad, their chemistry comes to a head.

But all is fair in love and magazines, and with the news that layoffs across the department are imminent, Harper is left to who will get the last word?

NOPE.

I became increasingly frustrated with this book the longer it went on. There was a reprieve in the middle for a bit where I felt like things were finally jiving and then it lost me all over again.

I hate cheating that can clearly be circumvented in books. And you can tell me multiple reasons why it’s “fine” and it will still bug me. I didn’t like it and wish the FMC of all people would have thought better.

Ryan was occasionally fine. He was pretty sweet and I liked seeing his emotional side too. Some of the flashback moments were cute.

History repeating itself did not work for me. Nor did the poor enemies to lovers banter. It was childish and a bit stilted.

I enjoyed the authors previous book but now I’m hesitant to pick up the next. We’ll see.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: mild
  • Romance: fade to black
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: cheating (main couple), brief mention of death of a loved one

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