Romance Wrap-up 5/16/22 to 5/31/22

Maggie Moves On - Lucy Score

This small-town romcom follows YouTube house flipper Maggie as she starts her next renovation project.  The giant house in Kinship, Idaho is going to be her biggest project yet and she's going to need help to make it all come together.  Silas's landscaping company is hired for the job and Silas is in love with Maggie from the moment he first sees her.  Only problem is convincing Maggie that he and her should be together forever.  Maggie has always left town after flipping a house - on to the next project and next adventure.  But when the small town of Kinship starts making space for her, she starts wondering if this little town in Idaho is where she can find a real home.  Lucy Score is an auto-read author for me and, no surprise, I absolutely loved this book.  Like stay up past 2am on a worknight loved this book.  I was giggling by chapter 4 with Silas's shameless flirting and his dog Kevin's silly antics.  I really enjoyed how complex Maggie was as a character and there were some moments that particularly resonated with me when Maggie would be expressing how she is a romantic at heart, but just didn't think that her life could fit something like that.  I loved her and Silas flirting back and forth and the build up of their relationship was really cute.  I did find Silas toed the line for me of being a bit of an alpha-hole at times (like when he wouldn't interact with her outside of work until she apologized).  However, I think because he eventually had that attitude challenged and finally understood that he couldn't stonewall her into loving him, I could forgive some of his more alpha-y behavior.  More importantly, he and Maggie would always come back together after these moments and have a new understanding with each other.  Also, bonus points for Kevin, the best dog I've ever read in a book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC.  Expected publication date is June 21, 2022

Rafe - Rebekah Weatherspoon

This is the first book in the Loose Ends series and follows cardio-thoracic surgeon Sloan when her current live-in nanny suddenly quits.  Sloan has just a week to find a replacement but perfect timing that Rafe had just recently declined to move internationally with the family he was nannying for.  Sloan is instantly attracted to Rafe - both physically and from his resume - but more importantly, her six year old twins are also enamored with the tall, tattooed, bearded man.  Everything seems like a good fit and then Rafe confesses that he's never been attracted to one of his employers before.  The feelings are mutual and the two work together to navigate this new relationship.  I really enjoyed this read, but the pacing didn't quite work for me.  I loved Sloan and Rafe - especially when they were all sweet and familial with the girls.  We get a good amount of side characters on both sides and I liked how integral these side characters are in the main story.  I really loved how Sloan and Rafe's relationship developed and how they were equally focused on getting to know each other on a personality and physical level.  I did find they fell into bed together pretty quickly which didn't exactly line up with what the characters were saying that they wanted to be cautious.  The ending was also very abrupt and when I turned the page, I was surprised to get the epilogue instead of another chapter.  The epilogue did tie up the loose ends in the story, but I didn't feel like the main story had enough of a climax/resolution for it to be epilogue time already. 

Fake It Till You Bake It - Jamie Wesley

This fake dating romance follows reality star Jada and NFL/cupcake bakery owner Donovan.  After turning down the final proposal on her dating reality show, Jada is doing her best to hide out and ride out the onslaught of negative opinions.  She starts working at Donovan's bakery and when a nosy journalist starts pushing Jada for the reason she turned down the proposal, Jada says Donovan is the reason.  The two agree to a mutually beneficial fake dating ploy to increase sales at the bakery and rehab Jada's public image.  Only as the weeks progress, they find this fake dating is starting to feel all too real.  I really enjoyed this read and loved Jada and Donovan together.  I'm not a fan of reality dating shows so I was pleased that this story took place after Jada's show and we got to see some of the aftermath of reality TV from her perspective.  We get a fantastic cast of side characters as well and I'm so glad the ending set up one of these side characters for their own book in the future.  What didn't work for me was the 3rd act breakup. It happened around the 90% mark and really felt like it came completely out of left field.  I generally like the reason for the break up when it has come up in other books, but in this case I didn't feel like those reasons were introduced previously very much.  With this specific issue, I like there to be a gradual build up of tension or for there to be some recurring issue that keeps poking at the characters until they can't ignore it any longer.  Then, because the breakup happened so late in the book, there wasn't much time on page to see the characters grow and develop.  We're told they're apart for 3 months before getting back together and we're told they've grown as people, but we don't really see that growth on page like I personally prefer. 

Thanks NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.  Expected publication date is June 21, 2022