Rough Country - Lauren Landish
This is the third and final book in the Tannen Boys series and follows singer-songwriter Bobby and new to town Willow. Willow comes to town to reconnect with her uncle Henry and she starts to bar tend at Henry's bar. Bobby is the most eligible bachelor in town and his live music nights at the bar are the place to be. Bobby sees Willow across the room and is instantly smitten. She's not so convinced that this man, who all the other women seem to be throwing themselves at, would be right for her. Bobby shows Willow that he's only interested in her and the two click instantly (the chemistry between these two is fantastic). But then a big Nashville music producer finds Bobby and offers him the record deal of a life time and Bobby is faced with a life-changing decision to either follow his lifelong dream of being a country music star or stay in town with his new love. I absolutely adored everything about this book. By book 3 in a series like this, the reader is pretty comfortable with the cast of characters surrounding the main couple, but we get some more great side characters in this book. I've never related so much with a heroine before so I was rooting for her and Bobby so so hard. Willow is someone who always takes care of others. She like photography, but wants her blog to stay anonymous so she can highlight the little, everyday moments that she finds. She is generally happy with her life and happy to help out those around her. But she deserves someone who thinks she's the whole world and will take care of her. And that person is Bobby. He's a big hunk of man with a soft center which comes out a lot in his songs. He doesn't shy away from showing Willow exactly how much she means to him and makes sure to take care of her when she's taking care of everyone else (and that dirty talk!). I really loved the ending and how much we got to see of these two after the main conflict of the story was resolved. I liked being able to see the characters settle into their new lives a bit and not have the book end basically right after the conflict is finished.
Liar, Liar, Hearts on Fire - Pippa Grant
This is the third book in the Bro Code series and follows single dad Tripp and business woman Lila. After an encounter in a NYC bar where Tripp lies about his identity, the two find themselves working together to revitalize Copper Valley's baseball team. While the series can be read in any order, I would recommend reading at least book 2 first because it really introduces a lot of the recurring characters. Book 1's characters do show up in this book as well, but in a much more minor role. Pippa Grant is one of my go-to authors when I want a fun rom-com with little to no angst and this book is no exception. I really liked how well developed the characters were and how self-aware they were about their flaws. It can get real annoying real fast when reading about a character who doesn't know why X keeps happening and the reader is like "duh, it is because you're doing Y". Not the case in this book. Both Tripp and Lila have their own struggles and while they are both highly aware of them, they keep falling back into old habits. I also liked how their struggles weren't the typical romance tropes that would cause tension in relationships. I'm not a baseball person, so the fact that these two characters are managing a baseball team together didn't really enhance the story at all for me in fact, I wasn't really engaged at all with the baseball talk. I was much more interested in Lila's romance book publishing company. Overall, this was a super cute and fun read, I laughed out loud a few times, and I highly recommend the series overall.
The Perfect Illusion - Winter Renshaw
Meh, this book just wasn't for me. It follows architect, Hudson, and his secretary, Mari. As she's in the process of quitting working for him because he's a huge jerk, he offers her millions of dollars to be his fake fiance. He doesn't take no for an answer and she eventually agrees. Now, fake dating/engagement/marriages are one of my favorite romance tropes so I was all in (I even broke my personal 300 page rule for this book because the summary sounded right up my alley). However, the rest of the tropes in the book are some of my least favorite ones ever (and I can't go into too much detail because they're all spoilers). The worst of which was the fact that Mari has a secret that could derail the whole fake engagement aspect and, of course, she doesn't tell Hudson until the last possible moment. Ugh, angst for angst sake. She mentions numerous times throughout the story that she should tell him but she just never does and at one point she writes off not telling him because she's "living one day at a time" which almost made me throw my eReader across the room I was so mad. And the worst thing is, if she would have told Hudson her secret right at the beginning it could have done a few different things: 1 - it could have gotten Mari what she wanted initially which would be for Hunter to back off, 2 - they could have still gone through with the fake engagement and the second half of the book when we find out more info about the secret would have been even more dramatic and angsty.
Wicked Sexy - J.T. Geissinger
This is book 2 in the Wicked Games series and it was the only one that I was really interested in reading. It follows Tabby, a hacker with a photographic memory, and Connor, a marine, as they work together to track down a sociopathic cyber criminal. This book was fantastic. I found Tabby and Connor to both be super interesting characters and their chemistry is off the charts. They have crossed paths previously so while we don't get to see their initial meeting, their history means we get a kick-start to the romance and the two get together pretty early in the book (around 25%). I was instantly intrigued with the cyber criminal plot line and found it very interesting that Tabby was the 'good' version of the cyber criminal with all her skills and knowledge. I loved Tabby and Connor's banter back and forth and the whole cast of characters that we meet are just great. I thought the twists uncovered during the investigation were really well done and who doesn't love a big alpha marine hero coming to save the day. Loved it, loved it, loved it!
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