wilks beach – GoodeyReads

Rating: ★★★★.25
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 300 pages
Author: Laura Langa
Publisher: West East Publishing
Release Date: June 6th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Seizing the day is great—but snagging a dating coach is better.

All I wanted was to finally say hi to my longtime crush. Instead, I slipped on a puddle of coffee and landed in the arms of Finn Reynolds—the infuriatingly charming newcomer in town. When I tried again, I got utterly tongue-tied. Now I’m blushing, flustered, and somehow caught in Finn’s ridiculous proposition.

With plans to become our library’s next director, Finn has one major winning over the standoffish locals. If I agree to shift popular opinion in his favor, he’ll become my personal dating coach. I’m more fluent in fictional dukes than real-life flirting, but I’m also ready to step out of my shell.

As we navigate trial dates along the seaside and late-night pep talks, I start to feel more confident—more myself. And the way Finn looks at me? It’s impossible to ignore the sparks between us—or how sizzling those practice kisses are.

But Finn’s hiding a big secret—one that doesn’t stay buried for long. And the truth turns out to be a plot twist I definitely didn’t see coming.

Enjoy the playful banter and sizzling kisses of this dating coach, secret identity, small beach town, closed-door/kisses-only romance by grabbing your copy TODAY!

Seas the Dating Coach is the first book in the Wilks Beach Series, but can be read as a standalone.

Thank you to the author for an eARC.

A SWEET READ.

For someone who is hit/miss on the dating coach trope I enjoyed this book a lot! I thought the banter and flirting were great and let me tell y’all, there were so many kissing scenes??? I love a a good heated kissing scene.

The relationship dynamics between Finn and Vivian were wonderful. I loved that they pushed each other to step outside comfort zones, lean on each other and find that strong bond of trust. I absolutely think these two have a HEA that surpasses the end of this book. There were multiple sweet and tender moments that made my heart squeeze.

I also really appreciated how the third act was handled as well as some of the background reveals between characters. Things could have easily gone sideways and blessed be, they did not. I love when characters communicate and trust the person they have gotten to know to explain themselves first before jumping to conclusions.

Laura Langa continues to deliver fantastic closed door romances.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: none
Romance: kisses
Content warnings: a manipulative father

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Holiday Contemporary Romance Novella
Length: 143 pages
Author: Laura Langa
Publisher: West East Publishing
Release Date: October 15th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Don’t get caught kissing Surfing Santa beneath the mistletoe.

Returning to her small beach town, Summer Owens finds herself living next to her former rival, Nick Watson, the renovation foreman who’s as handy as he is irresistible in his custom Santa-red wetsuit. But Summer isn’t falling for Nick’s charm, remembering how he once made her life miserable.

Determined to prove he’s changed, Nick jumps at every chance to fix the things that keep falling apart in her historic cottage—and maybe in her heart too. But nothing can happen under the mistletoe until Summer realizes that her current boyfriend is all wrong for her.

As they enjoy the town’s tree lighting ceremony, holiday parties, and a spirited karaoke competition, the sizzling tension grows. With Christmas approaching, Summer must decide between the wrong man in her life and the one who’s been right next door all along.

Enjoy the playful banter, sizzling kisses, and all the Christmas feels of this he falls first, small beach town, closed-door/kisses-only holiday novella by grabbing your copy TODAY!
Holiday Tides is a standalone novella that shares characters with the Wilks Beach novels.

Thank you Laura Langa for the gifted eARC.

JUST RIGHT.

You know what hits well? A perfectly crafted holiday novella. I love reading novellas during the holidays because when so much is usually going on moving through a quick romance brings a smile to my face. I adored this story.

I thought there was just the right amount of background information provided to really set the scene for the romance and that both characters were easy to love and clearly had a lot of great chemistry and banter together. The beachside small town holiday goodness was in abundance and made me crave all things winter.

Overall audience notes:

Holiday Romance Novella
Language: low
Romance: make-outs
Violence: low
Content Warnings: cheating (not between the main characters), mentions of loss of loved ones