Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn’t be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.

Soon their plan is in place: Fake date obnoxiously and convinces the meddlers they’re madly in love. Then, break up spectacularly and dash their hopes, putting an end to the matchmaking madness once and for all.

To convince everyone that they’ve fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing lovers becomes easier than not, they begin to wonder, what if Cupid’s arrow wasn’t so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Jamie smiles. It’s soft and small and crooked, but it’s there. I watch it unfurl, and my heart morphs into a gilded balloon that bursts, a shower of gold-leaf glitter sparkling in my chest.

“Don’t downplay your work,” she says fiercely. “Don’t make yourself small just because someone else has.”

He’s stuck around. Like a bug on fly paper.

…you are exquisitely precious to me.

My Review:

 

I delighted in this cleverly penned tale and have added this crafty author’s entire listing to my TBR as I have become her most rabid and fervent fangirl. Her deft storytelling kept a smirk on my face and caused the little pea in my brain to spark as I fell into her bewitchingly engaging tale which featured deliciously quirky yet authentic characters that were well-textured and are now indelibly etched on my gray matter. I adored them and their amusing vengeance plot of having an “Instagrammable romance”/fauxmance that quickly morphed into something much more carnal and delightfully steamy. I have a new favorite author to add to the top of my To Do list.

Allie is the author of the Suncoast University series, the Bishop Brothers series, and the Lessons Learned series. She lives in sunny Florida with her husband, daughter, and two cats. A librarian by day, she spends her nights writing happily ever afters. She enjoys reading, playing video games, and all things Disney.

Find Allie Winters online

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Sure, excluding the kitchen staff and bouncers, my co-workers were all mostly naked and covered in glitter, but that didn’t bother me any. I worked with kindergartners nine months out of the year. They also liked to take off their clothes and paint their bodies with glitter.

This kid made no sense. Kids weren’t supposed to be interested in interesting things. They were supposed to be interested in pointless things, making too much noise, spreading disease, and telling stupidly long stories that had no ending and made no sense.

It was rare for me to be at a loss for words. I felt verbally bankrupt at the moment.

How much worse can my reputation get? I’m the town pity-project, as my mother loves to remind me all the time. I’m on the bless-your-heart bingo card.

Everyone knew Jackson James didn’t throw parties, or drink, or eat good tasting food, or have fun. If he were a paint color, he’d be beige. If he were a food, he’d be dry, white toast. How a firecracker like Charlotte had ever dated his boring ass, I had no idea.

My Review:

 

Reading Penny Reid’s cleverly penned missives is always good fun and a guaranteed smirk-producing activity. I adore her complex, multi-layered, and well-textured characters and the couple featured in this sparkling installment has become my new favorite. Even the secondary characters were brilliantly imbued with authentic and brain-snagging idiosyncrasies. I continue to be totally enamored with Hank days after finishing his tale.

Ms. Reid’s storytelling never fails to dazzle and delight me and I sank into this engaging tale as if I was sitting in the corner watching it occur. I may even have hissed a few times when the plagues of real life intruded upon my perusal.

And to prove my mother wrong in her stance that reading fiction was not educational and a waste of time, I am pleased to report that I learned a new word with “dingly” as well as a plethora of text emoticons, which I was required to Google to fully appreciate. As such, I owe Ms. Reid my undying gratitude for continuing to plug the holes in my knowledge that my scholarly endeavors have left sorely lacking. Obviously, future Reid editions are now compulsory reading.

Knock Out
(Fighting for Love, #4)
by Jiffy Kate 

In the blink of an eye, Willow Bernard goes from stocking shelves at the Piggly Wiggly to kicking butt at Viking MMA.

Willow Bernard has taken a lot of hits in her twenty-two years but always manages to come back swinging. Hoping to fly under the radar for a change, she relocates to Green Valley. Her strategy works until one fateful phone call initiates a series of events that shakes up her quiet existence.

Tattooed adventure-seeker Ozzi Erickson goes where the wind takes him. When he blows into Green Valley for his big brother’s wedding—and to figure out his next move—he isn’t prepared for the knock-out punch coming his way.

With Ozzi sticking around the Tennessee mountain town, his brother gives him a temporary assignment as Willow Bernard’s trainer.

His job is to teach her how to fight. But will she have the skills required to protect her heart?

‘Knock Out’ is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #4 in the Fighting for Love series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.

Start the Fighting For Love series of standalones!

Read for FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

My dad laughs. “I hate to break it to y’all, but she never oohed and ahhed over any of you like she does this baby. What they say, about grandkids being your reward for making it through parenthood, is right.”

Those Erickson boys are finer than a frog hair split four ways… or five, I guess.

I will not cry today. I know the old song about it being my party and I can cry if I want to, but I don’t want to.

My Review:

 

The storylines were carefully built and slowly paced although still engaging. The storylines featured and carried over endearing and authentic characters from previous installments. The main character of Willow was admirable yet also rather heavy on the angst, which isn’t one of my favorite things, although I enjoyed the arc of her blossoming confidence and steamy romance and appreciated the welcome hits of wit and humor provided in the other characters’ encounters. There is one more brother to go, the grumpiest of the bunch, I’m already curious.

 

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

Sadie, we both know forbidden love is the hottest kind. You have no chance. The more you fight it, the hornier you’ll get for each other. Y’all are like Green Valley’s Romeo and Juliet without the death. Well, maybe not Romeo and Juliet since you’re both hella old and our families get along, so never mind. Ahhhh! This is so hot. I’m excited for you. I would give anything to be in a sexy forbidden relationship!

I’m sorry I didn’t tell you immediately. I couldn’t figure out how to tell you without making your head blow up. I don’t want your head to blow up. You have enough going on, and I don’t want to clean up that kind of mess. I’m sure brain goo stains.

“Sadie is nothing like Leeann,” he pointed out. “For one, Sadie has never tried to run me over with her van. And for another, the flames of hell don’t trail behind her whenever she enters a room.”

Look in my eyes and memorize the way I see you. I don’t want you to ever forget it. No matter what happens, I will always love you. Always…

My Review:

 

This was a fun and lively tale that keep a smirk on my face throughout the majority of perusal, despite the inclusion of one of my least favorite tropes. I’m more than a bit rueful to leave this family behind as this volume completes the Monroe family saga, with the sweetest and kindest brother saved for the finale, and ooh la la, Ms. Everly ended the series with a bang as Barrett Monroe was nothing less than a delectable treat. The storylines were entertaining and engaging while laced together with clever wit, snarky humor, authentic and well-textured characters, and sensual scenes hot enough to melt my Kindle.

 

 

Play Smart, an all-new enemies-to-lovers rockstar romcom from Aly Stiles, is now available in Kindle Unlimited!

Nash Ellis knows music. Producing, performing, writing—if it involves the creative process he’s there for it. He knows nothing about copy machines. Or financial reports. Or anything related to the stuck-up business world his best friends have been chasing since they were kids. But Nash also needs money, so when his roommate gets him a paid internship at Reedweather Media, he reluctantly agrees. At least his know-it-all intern competitor is kind of cute in a nerdy-librarian sort of way—especially when she’s being tormented by an angsty rocker she can’t stand.

The only thing Paige Andrews hates more than failure? Nash Ellis. She has little patience for incompetence and zero tolerance for indifference. He clearly doesn’t belong in their corporate world, so why does he insist on ruining her dream job? And the worst part—he’s not what he seems. In fact, it’s all the things he’s hiding behind those electric blue eyes that make him straight-up captivating in an ironic-slacker sort of way.

But their smoldering friction bursts into open flames when the feuding interns are forced into a high-stakes mission that requires intimate knowledge of the music industry. Yep, what could go wrong when the least-qualified candidate to ever walk the halls of a major corporation becomes their only hope of success?

‘Play Smart’ is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #5 in the Work For It series, Educated Romance World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

You didn’t get me a job. You sent me through a wormhole to Hell…

If lust was a competitive sport, pretty sure I just made Nationals.

He doesn’t look at me as he gets lost in some distant recess of his head. As usual, a part of me wants to follow him there. The other part is relieved I can’t.

We are fire and gasoline, and we’ve become addicted to the flames.

Another win for Zeros Being Heroes, I guess. We’re like the Accidental Avengers. We’re so bad at shit it goes full circle and kinda works.

My Review:

 

I enjoyed the clever humor, cunning snark, and crisp banter between Ms. Stiles’s complex characters. I delighted in the volatile chemistry and blossoming romance between the two main protagonists. Still, I got a bit lost and disinterested in the corporate politics, espionage, and double and triple spies storylines. I so wanted to befriend Nash Ellis, he was quite the tasty treat despite being anathema to his coworker Paige upon meeting. Both were whip-smart, more than a bit fractured, and had complicated personalities. The writing was emotive, heart-squeezing, as well as scorch the sheets and gasp producing steamy.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I just like calling them naughty books because it drives my grandson crazy. He thinks I’m too old to read about two people bonking, but it’s not like I’m getting any myself, so here we go.

That’s what my brain was like, though. A back and forth with myself until I’d boarded the mental train at one station and gotten off on another planet. That pretty much summed up my entire life, actually.

“You, tooting your own horn.” I shrugged. “Someone has to toot my horn. Until I’m a billionaire and can buy my own band to do some tooting, I have to do it all myself.”

“Every dress should have pockets.” “What for?” “Snacks and weapons of mass destruction, obviously. What else would a woman put in her pockets?”

“You’ve got a face like a pornstar’s arse,” Grandma said, walking into the living room. “I beg your pardon?” I blinked at her. “Spanked far too many times to be comfortable.” “You could have just gone with a smacked arse, you know.” “That’s boring. I wanted to spice it up. You were supposed to laugh, you miserable sod.”

I told her that her dress was far too tight, and she looked like a stuffed sausage in a vacuum bag.

There’s no possible way for there to be someone else on this Earth who I could ever love the way I love you.

 

My Review:

 

I’ve only recently discovered the massively talented jottings of Ms. Emma Hart and of those of her tales I’ve had the delightful pleasure to peruse, this is the best yet. Her characters were endearing, well-nuanced, and adorable while ranging from drama llama siblings to sassy and brassy upper-crust senior citizens discussing porn. I haven’t had this much fun in ages!

The plot was shrewdly paced and smartly written and laced together with a writing style that was deliciously witty and hilariously funny with snarky rib-tickling humor that kept me smirking as well as giggle-snorting and laughing aloud. Even the secondary characters’ dialogues sparkled with next-level banter par excellence! I need more of this in my life and as I see she has a treasure trove of books I have yet to obtain, I must devise a plan to amass her body of works even if I have to shake down my couch cushions, check under my car seats, and crack open all my piggy banks to find enough coin to achieve my goal.

Emma Hart is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over forty novels and has been translated into several different languages.

She is a mother, wife, lover of wine, Pink Goddess, and valiant rescuer of wild baby hedgehogs. She lives in North Wales with her family, three cats, one very large dog, and an undetermined number of chickens and ducks.

She’s known for her hilarious, sarcastic romantic comedies with wildly inappropriate grandparents, and has been dubbed “The RomCom Queen” by her readers.

 

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Favorite Quotes:

 

But life will go on. We like to think we are special, but in the grand scheme of things? We’re not.

The corners of his eyes are folded in like origami boxes about to pop open with a new thing inside. If a face could conjure the sound of shattering glass, or the scent of dawn on a wintery day, Tyler’s would be the one that did it best.

My Review:

 

This artfully cunning trickster has sucked me into another of her crafty tales with her unique blend of realistically creepy chicanery that kept me on edge. I was nibbling on my lips and tugging at my cuticles the entire way through. I will also confess that I was so caught up in her tale I might have been holding my breath a few times as well. Ms. King’s writing is bewitchingly compelling while also tense, itchy, and prone to prickle my skin. Her authentic tales usually involve complicit corruption and something diabolically horrible happening which results in the need to exact vigilante revenge. Their reprisal is at once satisfying yet bittersweet. What does it say about me that I’m always rooting for them to get away with it?

 

Not Since Ewe, an all-new heartwarming second-chance romance from Susannah Nix is available now in Kindle Unlimited! 

 

Tess McGregor doesn’t need anyone. 

 

So what if she doesn’t have any close friends or family anymore? Her successful consulting business keeps her so busy she barely has time to be lonely. She’s got her life organized exactly the way she wants it. 

 

Until the daughter she gave up for adoption 30 years ago tracks her down. 

 

Tess doesn’t know anything about being a mother, but now that she’s met Erin, she’ll do anything to stay in her life. 

 

Even if it means facing the life-ruining jerk who got Tess pregnant in high school and broke her heart. 

 

Donal Larkin would do anything for a second chance.

 

He’s divorced, his kids hardly talk to him, and he works so much he barely has time to eat. But when he’s united with the daughter he never had a chance to know, he vows to make up for past mistakes. 

 

Step one is proving to Tess he’s not the same unreliable kid she knew 30 years ago. 

 

And maybe if he’s lucky he can win back the heart of the girl he never got over…

 

Not Since Ewe is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #4 in the Common Threads series, Seduction in the City World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

While I didn’t condone body-shaming, I did feel free to judge their poor photography skills and lack of imagination. If you were going to hang your entire seduction technique on a photo of your hairy hot dog, at least put a little effort into it.

I’d made a hobby out of hating Donal. Hating him had gotten me through a dark time in my life. I’d clung to my hate to keep me sane. For the last thirty years, I’d been lugging my hate around with me like a piece of battered old carry-on baggage with a glitchy wheel.

The two of us were like oil and water. No, scratch that, we were more like vinegar and baking soda that erupted into a volcanic mess when you put us together.

My mother collected information about people the same way she collected Precious Moments figurines and spoons from around the world.

The longest relationship of my life is with Microsoft Excel, and it’s love-hate at best.

When’s the last time you had a massage?… Some of these knots feel like they’re starting to fossilize.

My Review:

 

I do loves me some witty banter and this couple had exceptional mastery of the snarky repartee. I giggle-snorted and gasped my through this sizzling thirty years later second-chance romance. The storylines were engaging, easy to follow, shrewdly paced, and hot enough to scorch the sheets. Ms. Nix’s writing style is cleverly perceptive, smooth, and enticing; causing me to ignore ringing phones and the call of my pillow. Her characters were realistically flawed and so well fleshed out I would recognize them on the street. I can’t wait to see whom she takes on next.

 

About Susannah Nix

Susannah Nix is an award-winning author of contemporary romances featuring smart women and swoony men, including the Chemistry Lessons series of romcoms about women who work in STEM fields and the Starstruck series of movie star romances. 

Susannah resides in Texas with her husband, two ornery cats, and a flatulent pit bull. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, cooking, knitting, watching stupid amounts of television, and getting distracted by Tumblr. She is also a powerlifter who can deadlift as much as Captain America weighs.

 

Find Susannah Nix online

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The Rise
(Hollywood #1)
by Shari Low and Ross King

 

Usually he could talk his way out of anything. His teachers said he talked too much. His mum said she couldn’t hear herself think for him sometimes. Even his gran would deliberately take out her hearing aid when he’d been in her house for more than ten minutes.

It was a bad day when the nobodies in this town cut off ties. Even the pizza delivery service wouldn’t return his calls. He was toxic.

Pippa had been around for a few months– a remarkable achievement given that his girlfriends usually had a higher recycle rate than the paper bin in his office.

Having Hollywood’s top scandal hound as a friend had many advantages– great insider info, fast news and a network of spies that could rival the CIA during the Cold War.

This was the kind of one-off event that journos talked about until someone scattered their ashes over the news desk.

My Review:

 

This tale was an interesting balance of clever snark, angst, fragile facades, edgy humor, toxic family drama, and the every ratcheting sense of impending doom. The characters were uniquely obnoxious yet oddly endearing, I couldn’t help but care about them – even when they were annoying me. The storylines were gritty and tense and kept me intrigued yet on edge. I was primed for any little tidbit to uncover the mystery of what had caused the trio of friends to implode. I conjured and tossed several theories, but was only partly correct by the conclusion. I love when that happens.