Tag: contemporary romance

ARC Book Review: Recipe for a Charmed Life by Rachel Linden

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Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 384 pages
Author: Rachel Linden
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: January 9th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

After a day of unrivaled disappointments, a promising young chef finds every bite of food suddenly tastes bitter. To save her career, she travels to the Pacific Northwest to reconnect with her estranged mom, and discovers a family legacy she never suspected in this delicious novel from the bestselling author of The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie.

American chef Georgia May Jackson has one goal—to run her own restaurant in Paris. After a grueling decade working in Parisian kitchens, she is on the cusp of success. But in one disastrous night, Georgia loses her sous-chef position, her French boyfriend, and her sense of taste! Renowned for her refined palate and daring use of bold flavors to create remarkable dishes, Georgia is devastated to discover her culinary gift has simply…vanished.

When she receives a surprising invitation from her estranged mother, Georgia flees to a small island near Seattle hoping the visit will help her regain her spark in the kitchen. There she tentatively reconnects with her mom, a free-spirited hippie eager to make up for her past mistakes. But there’s something about the enigmatic island Georgia just can’t piece together. Good luck charms keep appearing in the oddest places. Her neighbor is a puzzlingly antagonist (and annoyingly handsome) oyster farmer. And her mom keeps hinting at a mysterious family legacy.

With the clock ticking and time running out to win her dream job in Paris, Georgia begins to unravel some astonishing secrets that make her wonder if the true recipe for a charmed life might look—and taste—very different than she ever imagined.

Thank you Berkley for my gifted copy.

DIDN’T QUITE CLICK.

Well folks, this one let me down a bit. Started off well and I was interested, and then things never picked up. It kind of felt one note throughout and I was waiting to feel INVESTED and that point never hit for me.

The cooking content was good, I love a book that makes me hungry. I liked the setting and there were aspects of the romance that I enjoyed too. It’s a slow burn with a dash of banter and forced proximity.

All of the family drama and secrets started to bug me too. I was tired of hearing I can’t tell you yet, OHMYGOSHJUSTTELLME. It felt added in to stretch out the book and I felt annoyed by this.

I liked that that Georgia had some growth and found where she wanted to be. I love a good full circle moment and this had the ones I was after.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Fiction + romance
  • Language: low
  • Romance: kisses
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: cheating boyfriend, a mother with drug abuse issues, parental abandonment, driving under the influence causing a car crash

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Book Review: Hands Down by Mariana Zapata

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 550 pages
Author: Mariana Zapata
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: July 2nd, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Before he was Big Texas, he was Zac the Snack Pack.

Bianca Brannen knows time–mostly–heals all wounds. Including those your once loved ones might have unintentionally given you. (Those just take longer.)

She thinks she’s ready when a call has her walking back into her old friend’s life. Or at least as prepared as possible to see the starting quarterback in the National Football Organization. Before the lights, the fans, and the millions, he’d been a skinny kid with a heart of gold.

Waltzing out of Zac Travis’s life should be easy. Just as easy as he walked out of hers.

BLESS YOUR HEART.

There was a lot to love about this, but one bone I need to pick.

Bianca.

I just struggled with her for way longer than I wanted. I’m always initially cool with who the character is in the beginning because GROWTH. But oh my gosh, I was just so tired of hearing I don’t want to be a burden on repeat that I lost focus. Zac is the SWEETEST. And I wanted more of them being together vs. them constantly apologizing to each other.

The friends to lovers is overall fine, even if not my favorite in this context. There were a LOT of nicknames. I actually didn’t mind all of them but one (kiddo). The ending is really sweet and I loved getting the little epilogue too. I even liked seeing a different side to Trevor too. There’s plenty of good nuggets in here at least. And the TWO cameos are without a doubt the best part.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: 1 open door
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: brief mentions of parental abandonment, cheating recounted, death of a love one recounted

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Book Review: Censorshipped (Getting Shipped! #4) by Savannah Scott

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 402 pages
Author: Savannah Scott
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: September 4th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

I am finally over my crush on Duke. Completely done.

Duke’s always been like a big brother to me … a big brother with abs of steel, a heart of gold, and those dimples that make my heart rate double whenever he smiles.

As far as Duke’s concerned, I’ll always be his best friend Chris’ little sister—the little girl who dunked his Darth Vader action figure in Elmers glue and glitter.

Even if Duke noticed me, it wouldn’t matter. I’m so off limits, I may as well be wearing an outfit made entirely of caution tape. We both know Chris would enlist a special ops tactical team to hunt Duke down if he ever pursued anything beyond friendship with me.

Good thing I’m over Duke. One hundred percent attraction-free, that’s me. Well, mostly … until I accidentally send him one of my usual scrambled texts (thank you, autocorrect) … and he thinks I’m hitting on him.

I’m mortified enough to momentarily consider relocating someplace obscure like Greenland. I can never show my face around town again. I’ll buy a parka and an ice pick and learn to love fish. A lot.

But then Duke answers my text …
Am I dreaming? He’s not mad. He’s not even making fun of me.
In fact, it seems like he might be flirting back

I guess I might not be completely over this crush after all.

Just don’t tell my brother.

Thank you to the author for a gifted copy.

SOME GOOD.

Oh y’all. I have tried, but I just don’t think this writing style is for me. There’s a handful of quirks that kept taking me out of the story.

I did like some of the tropes in this one. The forbidden romance was fun and the mutual pining was really sweet. I liked Duke a bunch. He was a swoony lead who was really trying to put his best foot forward into the future he wanted. The years of this tension worked well into many forced proximity moments.

The small town vibes are there and I love the strong connection between friends and others around them. There’s some humor and lightness. It’s flirty and pleasant and a great slow burn.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: brief mention of a fatal car crash

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Book Review: A Deal with the Devil (The Devils #1) by Elizabeth O’Roark

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 314 pages
Author: Elizabeth O’Roark
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: August 10th, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

He might not be the devil, but working under him for six weeks is my idea of hell.

Hayes Flynn is an arrogant jerk known best for his scotch habit and the way he spreads his British “charm” all over Hollywood, never with the same woman twice.

He’s the last person I want to work for, except he has a face I can’t look away from, and the longer we’re together, the harder he is to hate. Because under that smug exterior is a heart he doesn’t want to show—one that was badly broken a decade earlier.

A part of me wants to fix it for him before I leave…but can I do it without breaking my own in the process?

AN INTERESTING HOT MESS.

I feel conflicted by this book (which is how I felt about book two in this series before coming back to this one).

One on side, we have a SUPER sweet grump x sunshine; boss x assistant; slow burn romance. I really liked the chemistry between Hayes and Tali. Fantastic banter and soooo many sub tropes in romances that I flat out adore. The protective alpha vibes totally worked for me and every time Hayes opened up more I was a puddle. Great hero.

Aaaaand the other side was this weird amalgamation of plot things that felt like it was trying too hard. Each side character had to have some intense thing happening in their lives, & I HATED how the Mom thing with Tali was handled. There’s quite a few off-color jokes that did not land well whatsoever and made me cringe. The addition of book stuff from what Tali was writing? And just stuff like that?

Hayes truly carries this entire book and is the only reason it held its four star status. I’m undecided on reading book three at this point as the wild plot seems to be a theme.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: multiple open; med-high explicit + medium innuendo
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: cheating recounted, parent with alcoholism, suicide mentioned, death of a parent recounted

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