Not So Prince Charming - Lauren Landish
This is the second book in the Dirty Fairy Tales series and follows Gabe and Bella. She's a down on her luck waitress and art student, he's a hitman with a heart of gold. While this is a stand alone in terms of the romance, the underlying plot that brings Gabe and Bella together is continued from the first book so I do recommend reading the series in order. Gabe is hired to kill Bella but once he gets close to her, he determines he must to everything in his power to protect her instead. I know hitman turned romance hero might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I loved it. I thought their chemistry was amazing from the beginning (who knew dry humping in the forest could be so hot?) and I liked how we got some cute domestic-y scenes with them together. I do wish we would have gotten a little more of Gabe studying Bella or doing his initial recon of her so we can see how his feelings have changed. The book opens when he has been watching her for a while and has already formed most of opinions of her whereas she has no idea who he is. It would have been interesting to have him think of her one way and then be along with him for the journey as he finds out more about her which leads to him changing his mind. This book is split POV between Gabe, Bella, and Blackwell (the big bad guy across the series). We get more of Blackwell's POV in this book than we did in the first, which I really liked. This book really reminded me of a Nicole Snow type plot where it leans a little into the action-movie space and a bit of suspension of disbelief for some aspects (Bella finding out Gabe's secret, for example) but I'm a sucker for those types of romances so I'm on board 100%. I loved Bella as a character and really respected her trying to make her own way in the world which just made me love Gabe for taking care of her in any way she'd let him. The whole cast of characters surrounding our main couple was really well developed and I really enjoyed the scenes with Bella and her diner family. I thought Gabe's relationship with his brother was really sweet and I thought it was a nice twist on a revenge trope.
Accidental Shield - Nicole Snow
This is the sixth book in the Marriage Mistake series and follows Valerie when she wakes up with amnesia in Flint's home. He tells her that they're married but as her memories slowly come back to her, she realizes the truth about her past isn't as clean cut as Flint made it seem. He promises that he'll protect her - well, him and all his Navy SEAL turned private security buddies. On the surface, this book had everything I love about Nicole Snow's stories. Big, protective, alpha male with a heart of gold. Strong, feisty heroine who isn't content to let the man do everything. Fun cast of side characters. Action plot right out of a summer blockbuster. But where this one lost me was the amnesia plot (which is a pretty significant part of the book). This is the second book I've read where the heroine gets amnesia and it is not a trope for me. The first 40% or so of this book is Val cycling through being happy she's alive, wondering why she can't remember anything, trying too hard to remember and hurting herself, Flint coming in and telling her to rest, her throwing a self pity party, then she takes a nap and feels better. Rinse and repeat. I understand that is probably a realistic reaction to losing your memory, but I didn't need to read about it for 40% of the book when not much else was happening. It would be one thing if we only got that cycle when we were reading Val's POV, but we get it from Flint's POV as well since he's at home caring for her. I also didn't get any chemistry really between the two characters, which was a real shame considering they were housebound together for the majority of the book. I did really like all the secret-ops type stuff we got into right at the end and really wish we had gotten more of that throughout the book. Overall, I was just bored and annoyed for most of the book which made this my least favorite book of the whole series (but I'm in the minority there considering this book is tied for first place based on the Goodreads review averages).
Out of Love - Jewel E Ann
This a NA romance that follows Livy and Slade during their last year in college. After reading some other reviews, this is apparently a spin off standalone from the author's Jack and Jill series and there are spoilers for that series in this book (the hero from that series is Livy's dad). Livy is doing her best to live her life as she wants under the eye of her overprotective father. Slade and his German shepherd Jericho are in one of her classes and she is instantly drawn to him, wanting to figure out his secrets. When those secrets are revealed, Livy will have to make a choice that could disrupt her life forever. So right off the bat, I almost DNF'd this book. I would have, except that I had just DNF'd 2 other romance books in a row and I was determined to not make that 3 in a row. The one thing that kept me going was Livy's relationship with Jericho. I was confused by Livy's characterization and was even more confused why she suddenly was so fixated on Slade. She explains in the book that she has always been fascinated by mysteries and just wanted to know if the rumors about him were true but that didn't feel believable enough to me. If super grumpy heroes who fall for super bubbly heroines are your thing, then this book could be for you. Slade is so grumpy that for the first 20% or so, he barely talks to Livy and just nods instead. There were two things that really knocked this book down a few pegs for me: the lack of Slade's POV and the time jump at the end. I think we get about 5 chapters from Slade's POV and the amount of character development done in those chapters is really fantastic. Slade is so closed off and stoic most of the time he is with Livy that I wasn't convinced he liked her at all until we got his side of things. Also, I just personally hate the large (5yr) time skip at the end of the book. It is just angst for angst-sake. I felt like the exact same decisions could have been made without the time skip and it still would have been very raw and emotional.
***Trigger warning *** Livy was almost sexually assaulted early in the
book but she was saved before anything physically happened although she
does have residual emotional aftereffects. However, this acts as the
catalyst for a lot of the events in the book and is referenced a whole
lot so if that something you want to read about constantly then I'd pass
on this one.
A Very Bossy Christmas - Kayley Loring
This story follows Declan, a corporate lawyer, and his assistant Maddie. He asks her to be his date to three family functions between Christmas and New Years in return to giving her time off during the holidays. She reluctantly agrees and the fun times begin. This book is witty banter central! Declan and Maddie can go toe for toe and each give as good as they get with the sassy remarks and quick retorts. The flirting is off the charts and both are insanely attracted to the other. Once they give in, they are both all in to this relationship. It was so nice to see the hero as a genuinely good guy who may strive for professional excellence but also cares about the people in his life. I loved how integral family was for both Declan and Maddie - both had standing holiday traditions with their families and both seemed to really enjoy spending time at home. Declan has been the first #bookboyfriend I've had in a while so I was all in. I did find the POV switching to be a bit strange and it threw me off quite a few times. I got my bearings quickly enough, but it wasn't as smoothly done as other books I've read. For example, after Declan and Maddie first sleep together, we end in Maddie's POV. Then the next part is in Declan's POV and Maddie is walking in on him dancing naked in his hotel room which is the last place we saw Maddie in her chapter. So it took me a minute to figure out that after the sex Maddie left and went back to her room and now we've flashed forward to the next morning. That sort of jarring jump happened a handful of times for me and it was just enough to take me out of the story that it got a little annoying. I also found the romance moved VERY quickly, much more quickly than I felt either of their characters would actually move in real life. The book tries to explain this away with the "when you know, you know" idea but it didn't quite land for me.
Beauty and the Beast - Georgia Le Carre
This story follows Skye and Luca. Skye's father is sick and in order to pay for his treatments, she sold herself to a man for what she thought would only be a month but turned out to be longer. Luca sees Skye at a party with this man and decides he must have her. Since he is a mob boss, the other man doesn't argue and agrees to let Luca have Skye. Luca and Skye agree that in exchange for her being his for 1 month, he would pay for her father's treatments until he is all better (there's an actual contract involved this time). Skye is swept away to a mansion outside Boston where she'll be staying for the next month and subject to Luca's every whim. What initially intrigued me about this story was the 1 month deadline. In most mafia romances, the heroine is sold/kidnapped/etc with the intention of being with the hero forever and they eventually fall in love. In this case, both parties were aware of the relationship's expiration date. Unfortunately, that one plot point was the only thing I really found interesting in this book. There were a few times where interesting plot points were brought up but there was so little emotional payoff or the potential issue was resolved immediately that it was like the actual issue never mattered. For example, there's a gardener at the mansion and Skye finds out she needs to win him over before he'd let her join him in the garden. Sounds like a great time for some character development, right? Nah. Skye brings him 1 box of cookies and he was suddenly all smiles and let her garden with him. I also honestly didn't understand why either character actually liked the other one besides their chemistry in the bedroom. There weren't really any tender moments where one revealed a small secret or gradually grew closer.
The Christmas Fix - Lucy Score
This is the sequel to Mr Fixer Upper and follows Cat as she tries to get her home improvement TV show to save Merry, CT after a hurricane floods the town. The town manager, Noah, thinks she is just going to use his town as a sob story and he wants to prove that the town doesn't need her help. He eventually relents and Cat's new mission is to show him just how wrong he is about her. I really liked this story and loved both Cat and Noah. Cat is a strong, independent, smart businesswoman who is used to people underestimating her and she enjoys showing them how wrong they are. Noah is a divorced dad of a 12 year old daughter and is a professional risk mitigater with the town budget. It was a little strange to connect more with the hero in a romance book rather than the heroine but I could see so much of myself in Noah. I loved how slowly him and Cat got together. They went from enemies to angry flirting, to regular flirting, to actually being together. I did feel like the book dragged on a bit in the middle because there were so many projects around town that Cat was working on but there was a good mix of character growth and relationship growth scenes intermixed with the construction scenes so it wasn't too much of a drag. I do with there was a bit more of an internal struggle with Cat when she decides what she wants at the end of the book. She's a very internally focused character when it comes to making decisions so she didn't really do much talking it out with other characters so I would have liked to get more of her internal struggle with her decision. I did love Noah's declaration at the end (it made me cry!) and was perfect for his character - not too over-the-top emotional but still 100% authentic and real.
Violent Beginnings - J.L. Beck and C. Hallman
This is the second book in the Moretti Crime Family series and takes place during the same time as the first book, Savage Beginnings. We're following Markus, member of the mafia, and Fallon, the girl he buys at auction. She reminds him of his lost first love and his main struggle through the book is battling his emotions between how he thinks he should treat her and how he wants to treat her. This is a dark, mafia, captive romance so there is a pretty heavy amount of non-con scenes at the beginning as well as some physical and mental abuse. I really appreciated how much we were in Markus's head, especially when he was doing some not great things. I think it really helped round out his character and since he's so stoic on the outside, we needed that internal battle on the page for his change at the end to come across as genuine. I found Fallon interesting because she was so much more stoic than a normal person would be in that situation. Multiple characters notice and remark how she isn't crying or screaming or trying to get away. Fallon initially says she is just trying to play it smart because she knows there's no way she can get away from Markus but we later find out what her true reasoning is. I felt like the first chunk of the book really dragged on. I know it was all establishing their relationship and how they slowly grow to trust one another and maybe even care about the other but I wish we would have gotten more of the main conflict earlier. I was getting a little bored with the domestic scenes. I also thought one of the main reveals at the end was unnecessary and I found it explained in a confusing way so it took me a minute to figure out what, exactly, the 'twist' was. I think the whole ending would have been a lot cleaner if that part wasn't included.
Runaway Road - Devney Perry
This is the first in the Runaway series and follows newly divorced Londyn as she sets off on a cross country road trip from Boston to California to find a friend from her past. She gets a flat tire outside a small town in West Virginia and meets local mechanic Brooks. The two form a friendship that quickly turns flirtatious and then goes from there. I really liked Londyn's backstory as a runaway teen who lived in the back seat of a car for years. I think it really touched on a part of society that many people don't experience and may judge others who have been through those times so to see a character who has come out of that background and is now a fully functioning adult was nice. I do wish we would have gotten more of her relationship with her ex husband. She gives the reader an overview of how they got together and how it ended and throughout the book we get snippets about how he'd treat her if she did X or Y but I didn't feel like that relationship had as much of an impact on the plot as I was expecting it to (especially since it was a very recent divorce). I thought Brooks was a total sweetie and it was obvious that he had his life together and was really looking for a partner. I loved their chemistry together and I really liked how we got a good number of scenes of just them talking about life and their backgrounds and everything. This book reminded me of a less-angsty, less dramatic version of Drive Me Wild by Melanie Harlow.
The Obsession Duet - J.L. Beck and C. Hallman
Cruel Obsession (book 1) and Deadly Obsession (book 2)
These books follow Dove and Zane. She is just a normal girl, he's a mafia hitman who is very protective of her and stalks her to ensure her safety. I picked up this duet after reading a preview at the end of Violent Beginnings. The two books are shorter than I normally look for (book 1 is 196 pages, book 2 is 248 pages) so I sort of viewed them in my head as one longer book and read them back to back. Not much changed for me between the two books - the characters, writing, and plot were consistent. There was so much about this duet that I wanted to like, but the reality just wasn't where I wanted it to be. The pacing of these books was giving me whiplash. It felt like we would accelerate really fast to a high tension/high emotion scene and then the next paragraph would suddenly be slamming the breaks back down to a pretty mundane scene. And this happened a lot throughout the book. I also couldn't get a handle on Zane's character. His chapters were really interesting because we got a lot of his inner thoughts and conflicts about how he's treating Dove and what decisions he needs to make but I never felt grounded, never felt like he came to any real conclusions. It seemed like every time we were in his head, he was constantly wrestling over the same decisions which ended up being frustrating because I just wanted him to pick a lane already. I thought the dynamics and relationships between the different mafia families was well done and they had very clear distinctions. I did get a little irritated at the plot because it felt like Dove was just a pawn that the different mafia families kept stealing from each other but it all came together in the end alright for me. I thought Zane and Dove were really cute together and they really seemed to understand each other despite them living very different lives. I also appreciated how strong of a character Dove was, despite her name, and how she took the initiative to save herself and Zane. She wasn't ever a helpless heroine and she proved herself a handful of times throughout the book to be very resourceful and smart since she couldn't physically overpower anyone.
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