A Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Christina C Jones
This is the first book in the Serendipitous Love series and follows florist shop owner Simone and coffee shop owner Roman. The two own businesses on the same street, but meet by chance when Roman comes into Simone's shop to help his friend buy flowers for his wife. The two have instant chemistry but also some personal baggage that threatens their relationship before it really can begin. I liked all the pieces of this book, but needed the pacing to slow way down. I thought the conflict was interesting and handled well, I loved the side characters, Simone and Roman had a great amount of chemistry. But I just needed an extra 100 pages where the reader can have some breathing room. The relationship gets physical really quickly and then a reveal has Simone pushing Roman away. He then, over the course of a month, shows Simone what kind of guy he is and is proving to her that she can trust him. I wanted to see more of that month! We get a few little tidbits about how he would walk her home every night and they slowly got to know each other more, but we only get those tidbits over the course of a page or two. I wanted chapters of a more slow-burn build up to get them back to where they were. Also, later in the book where there's a big conflict, the reader knows why Simone is so upset, and I think she mentioned her past history to Roman once, but I was expecting much more conversation about her past as an explanation of why she feels the way she does about the situation. Since Simone's history never really comes up on page between her and other characters, it was a bit strange to me to have it be in the book at all. I knew from the page count (about 260) that this book would be a bit fast paced for me, but the other books in the series are around 100 pages longer and even though I know each book in this series is a stand alone romance, I still like to read as many books in a series as possible. I really enjoyed the writing and plotting, I just wanted some pieces to be more fleshed out which I hope I'll get with the other books in the series.
Dirty Player - Mira Lyn Kelly
This story is a friends to lovers sports romance that follows NHL player Greg and NFL reporter Julia. During their senior year of high school, they agreed that if they were both single at the 10 year reunion that they would finally kiss. Reunion day is here and there are no significant others. After years of friendship, the kiss was a Pandora's box and the two fall hard. Only problem is Julia's personal rule of not dating anyone in the sports sphere so it doesn't tarnish her professional image. This book was super sweet, swoony, and sexy in all the ways I love. Only problem was that I wanted more build up and exploration of their friendship before they get together. This book is about 200 pages long, which is 100 pages shorter than my usual preferred length of romance. I wanted them interacting a bit more together before the reunion, maybe going out with friends or she comes to one of his games and the two hang out afterward. I also think Julia's personal abandonment issues could have been much more fleshed out. It really didn't feel like she was having any issues until the very end when suddenly everything was going wrong. I wanted more little issues that get resolved quickly to build up the tension. Once Greg and Julia are together, I really love how sweet Greg is. He's obviously 100% into Julia and wants the relationship to work no matter what. I thought their chemistry was great and I liked how supportive their friend groups were to them.
Tempted - Ava Harrison
This story follows recovering addict Bailey as she tries to get her life back on track. Asking for a favor from her sister's fiance, she gets a job at Silver - a high end club run by Drew (who is no stranger to drugs or their downsides himself). The two start working together and are drawn together but aspects of their pasts that they thought they had dealt with come back with a vengeance. TW/CW: drug use, drug abuse, relapse, overdose. I knew that Bailey was a recovering addict when I picked this book up, but I wasn't expecting just how much that fact would affect the story. I did find the way that addition was handled in this book to be pretty well done. Bailey is actively in recovery and attends NA meetings (she's 2 years sober at the beginning of the story). We see staying sober is a struggle for her, at times, but Drew's love doesn't 'fix' her. She stays sober for herself and both her and Drew know that the only way for an addict to stay in recovery is to do it for themselves and no one else (although Drew does have a bit of a savior complex that I didn't love). I do wish we would have gotten a bit more build up with Bailey and Drew's relationship. It felt like as soon as they were alone at work they just couldn't keep their hands off each other and the relationship grew from there. I really liked Bailey's friendship with her coworker but it felt like as soon as she and Drew got together, we didn't get much of her outside relationships. I also wanted more from Bailey's sister and her fiance since they were a key reason why Bailey ended up working at Silver in the first place. I did like Drew and Bailey together and thought that their chemistry was really well developed but I would have liked more development in other parts of the story as well.
Baby, It's Cold Outside - Kait Nolan
This story follows former Army Ranger Harrison and thriller writer Ivy as the two cross paths on what they both planned would be isolation get-aways. Harrison rescues Ivy after a car crash and the two end up snowed in together at Harrison's cabin. The two have more in common than they initially expect and quickly get to knowing each other more. But when the snow clears, they both need to come to terms with their own internal battles and figure out how to live their lives outside the cabin. I really enjoyed this read. I've been in a bit of a romance slump the last half of March and into this first half of April so this quick and pretty straightforward read ended up being really refreshing. It is only 200 pages, which is usually too short for my preference but I think the length ended up just about perfect for the plot. There wasn't a lot of angst or conflict between the two characters and the one conflict that does come up is solves pretty easily because these two actually talk to each other and just explain what happened. I really enjoy my lumberjack heroes and cozy cabin settings so I was pretty much sold from the get go. I think Harrison and Ivy just really clicked together for me from the start and they had such great chemistry both in and out of bed.
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