Category: 5-Stars

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Book Review: Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend by Penny Reid  @ReidRomance 

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Winnifred Gobaldi and Byron Visser are not best friends.

Yes, they’ve known each other for years, but they’re not even friendly. Winnie considers them more like casual, distant acquaintances who find each other barely tolerable, especially when he’s being condescending (which is all the time).

The truth is, they have nothing in common. She’s a public school science teacher with stars in her eyes, and he’s a pretentious, joyless double PhD turned world-famous bestselling fiction author. She loves sharing her passion for promulgating women in STEM careers and building community via social media, and he eschews all socialization, virtual or otherwise. She’s looking for a side hustle to help pay down a mountain of student debt, and his financial portfolio is the stuff of fiduciary wet dreams. So why are they faking a #bestfriend relationship for millions of online spectators?

When a simple case of tit-for-tat trends between nonfriends leads to a wholly unexpected kind of pretend, nothing is simple. Sometimes, it takes a public audience to reveal the truth of private feelings, and rarely—very rarely—you should believe what you see online.

Ten Trends to Seduce Your Bestfriend is a full-length, complete standalone, adult contemporary romantic comedy.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Byron Visser was the human manifestation of caution tape holding a red flag and a flare while setting off a smoke alarm.

I expelled his name, rancor commensurate to the surge of resentment within me permeated each syllable. Shutting my eyes, needing a moment, I wished I’d installed a trapdoor beneath wherever he presently stood, leading to a dungeon complete with giant bloodthirsty crocodiles. Perhaps donning laser beams atop their heads.

Winnie was a reprieve, not an obsession. She wasn’t air, she was a cool breeze. She wasn’t sunshine, she was a rainbow. She wasn’t water, she was rain.

Nothing is ever certain. There is no concrete flooring in matters of the heart. It’s all sand.

He’s got banana pants for you.

You feel like what I imagine bliss would if I could manifest the word as a tangible, touchable thing.

My Review:

 

Another delightfully consuming read from Penny Reid, I never fail to become hopelessly enamored with each and every one of her adorable yet complicated, highly intelligent, and multi-textured characters. I tend to savor rather than devour her deftly witty yet unpredictable tales as they typically include several deliciously contrived conundrums to solve.

I quickly lost myself to these characters’ brilliantly constructed vortex and when forced to emerge from their world into mine, I ruminated on their insightful inner musings and shrewdly plotted encounters until once again able to rejoin their engrossing chronicle. I covet Ms. Reid’s highly amusing storytelling skills and marvel at her wickedly clever pacing that kept me reeled in while taunting and teasing my curiosity, as well as frequently smirking and gleefully entertained. Penny Reid continues to hold the top spot on my list of favorites.

 

 

Penny Reid is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes kissing books. Penny is an obsessive knitter and manages the #OwnVoices-focused mentorship incubator/publishing imprint, Smartypants Romance. She lives in Seattle Washington with her husband, three kids, and dog named Hazel.

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Book Review: One Hundred Chances (An Aspen Cove Romance Book 21) by Kelly Collins  @kcollinsauthor

One Hundred Chances
An Aspen Cove Romance Book 21
by Kelly Collins

 

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Welcome back to Aspen Cove, where there is always a second chance for a first love…

Veterinarian Sara Arden made a mistake when she was a sixteen-year-old girl. The mistake wasn’t in falling in love with rancher Lloyd Dawson. It wasn’t even in getting pregnant. Sure, that part could have waited, but the mistake was in never telling him she had his daughter. Now, thirty-two years later, she’s back in Aspen Cove with her daughter, Reese. And this time, there won’t be any denying the truth.

Lloyd Dawson had lost a lot over the years. He’d had two great loves in his life—Sara Arden, who’d left him thirty-two years ago without a word, and Carol, who died in his arms several years ago. One was never coming back, but the other is sitting right there in front of him. But all he can see is the woman sitting next to her—the younger woman who is staring right back at him with eyes just like his. With betrayal twisting in his gut, Lloyd knows he’ll never be able to forgive Sara for robbing him of watching his child grow up.

When things go bad at the ranch, and Lloyd needs a veterinarian, Sara is his only choice. Will his crisis give her the chance she needs to make things up to him? Or will it be just another opportunity for her to betray him?

My Rating:


Favorite Quotes:

 

You need to work on your social game. Do me a favor. When you open your mouth, taste the words before serving them to others.

Sara glanced around and wasn’t sure which were the pets and which were the owners. In one chair was an older woman carrying a cat wearing a superman onesie. Next to her was a little girl nearly strangling a poor pug.

Babies do crazy things to a body. I used to have abs, but now I have flabs.

With five women in the house, he’d learned to keep his opinion to himself. If a woman said she needed moisturizer that cost twenty dollars when Vaseline cost a couple of bucks, he didn’t argue. One of the biggest fights he had with Carol was over skin cream. It was the only time she ever threatened to leave him, and after that, his house had a steady supply of Olay until the day she passed. Come to think of it, his daughters had taken over where Carol left off, and he was sure a good portion of the food budget went to anti-aging skincare routines, but he wasn’t stupid enough to touch fire twice and never said a word.

“Do you think we’re grounded?” “I hope so.” When she was a kid, naps and getting grounded were the kiss of death, but as an adult, she was overjoyed at the prospect.

My Review:

 

Kelly Collins has conjured up another fun and lively tale from Aspen Cove, an odd little enclave she has created from her deft and imaginative brain. I have become unabashedly attached to the quirky collection of unique yet accessible and realistically eccentric yet endearing residents and eagerly await each new entry to the series. Like all previous installments, this entry was quick and easy to read and full of amusing and insightful observations and clever snark. Sara was a piece of work but she had become painfully aware of her missteps and prickly personality. I enjoyed her journey and envied her second chance with the Big D rancher.

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

 

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International bestselling author of over 30 novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.

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Book Review: Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson  @aliciabooks @BerkleyRomance

Love in the Time of Serial Killers
by Alicia Thompson

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Turns out that reading nothing but true crime isn’t exactly conducive to modern dating—and one woman is going to have to learn how to give love a chance when she’s used to suspecting the worst.

Ph.D. candidate Phoebe Walsh has always been obsessed with true crime. She’s even analyzing the genre in her dissertation—if she can manage to finish writing it. It’s hard to find the time while she spends the summer in Florida, cleaning out her childhood home, dealing with her obnoxiously good-natured younger brother, and grappling with the complicated feelings of mourning a father she hadn’t had a relationship with for years.

It doesn’t help that she’s low-key convinced that her new neighbor, Sam Dennings, is a serial killer (he may dress business casual by day, but at night he’s clearly up to something). But it’s not long before Phoebe realizes that Sam might be something much scarier—a genuinely nice guy who can pierce her armor to reach her vulnerable heart.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I had no idea what my face was doing. In my mind, my eyes were wide with disbelief, my mouth opening and closing like a fish, my nostrils flaring with a barely contained exasperation. But outwardly, I must have been maintaining some semblance of control, because my brother was grinning at me like they’d just presented me with the greatest gift.

A four-year-old had lapped me twice and I officially left the last of my dignity back with my real shoes. I wasn’t going to see it again as long as I was wearing these wheeled bad boys.

Pat did appear to like animals way more than people. I had no doubt that she’d dangle a small toddler in front of an alligator if one came up the street.

I don’t regret giving you my heart, Phoebe. I just wish you’d taken more care with it.

My Review:

 

No serial killers were harmed, nabbed, or met during this story, although the main character of Phoebe had a somewhat disturbing lifelong fascination with them, to the extent of making them the focus of her doctoral dissertation on True Crime. Can you say, twisted sister?

These cleverly constructed and slyly paced storylines contained an odd dichotomy with an extremely angsty, graceless, and dark main character fleshed out and implanted into wryly humorous observations, heart-squeezing inner musings, a fledgling romance she wanted no part of, smoking hot sensual love scenes, and smirk-worthy comedic scenarios.

Phoebe was an acquired taste and difficult to fully appreciate most of the time as she was a smart yet prickly nerd with a sharp tongue. She was socially awkward and inwardly focused, yet self-sabotaging. I wanted to give her a pinch or ten and smack her with my Kindle more than once. Although she began to grow on me, bit by bit. Alicia Thomspon is a wily and insightful raconteur.

 

 

About the Author

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Alicia Thompson graduated from the New College of Florida in 2006 with a degree in psychology and wrote her debut novel in between pulling all-nighters on her senior thesis. Her short stories, “Abby Greene for President” and “Stealing Mark Twain,” have appeared in Girls’ Life magazine. Currently, she is working on an MFA in fiction writing at the University of South Florida, where she still pulls the occasional all-nighter.
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Book Review: Someone Else’s Honeymoon by Phoebe MacLeod   @macleod_phoebe @BoldwoodBooks

Someone Else’s Honeymoon
by Phoebe MacLeod 

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Perfect for fans of Jo Watson, Mhairi McFarlane, and Portia MacIntosh.

When Charley finds herself suddenly single on Christmas Day it feels like her world has fallen apart.Forced to move back in with her parents, she embarks on a journey of re-invention. When she meets Ed, who is on honeymoon alone after being jilted at the altar by a bride he’s never met, it looks like her life may be taking a turn for the better.

Fate, however, has other ideas, and she and Ed are forced apart.

Will she find her way back to him, or are they just not meant to be?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

…she’s generally pretty chilled, but on the rare occasions I’ve seen her riled, she’s been terrifying.

My Review:

 

This was a refreshingly light, whimsical, and enjoyable read from start to finish. It was easy to follow and I didn’t mind the predictability of some of the plot lines as it proved to be just what I needed. Their route was still engaging and fun while remarkably remaining upbeat and humorous despite the inevitable bumps in their road. The writing was breezy and delightfully amusing as it laced the tale together with wry humor, a best revenge break-up make-over, and a surprisingly easy holiday romance. I enjoyed these endearing characters as much as their storylines.

Phoebe MacLeod is married and lives just outside Sevenoaks in Kent. She has two grown-up sons at university and a disobedient dog. She enjoys reading, cooking, playing the piano, and walking the dog. She’s also keen on vintage and classic cars and can often be seen behind the wheel of her own classic – a 1928 Ford Model A.
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Book Review: You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa @AmandaJayatissa @berkleybooks

You’re Invited 
by Amanda Jayatissa 

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From the author of My Sweet Girl comes a dangerously addictive new thriller about a lavish Sri Lankan wedding celebration that not everyone will survive.

When Amaya is invited to Kaavi’s over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: She must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost.

But as the weeklong wedding celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya’s past begin to swirl, she can’t help but feel like she also has a target on her back. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya.

However, nothing is as it seems as Jayatissa expertly unravels that each wedding guest has their own dark secret and agenda, and Amaya may not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after…

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Often, things we were in awe of when we were younger feel oddly unimpressive as adults. I used to think my house was a palace. I used to think my mother was the tallest woman in the world. Food laid out for me was a feast. Things change as you grow. As you understand the world for what it is. That we overcompensate in our memories because we didn’t know any better at the time.

Why was I like this? Why could I never be the Amaya that existed in my head? The version of myself that never made an entrance when I most needed it, instead of this watery, half-boiled counterpart?

A little mountain of, of course, Louis Vuitton clutch bags was nestled on the table between them, and they were all dressed in some variation of colorful, flowy maxi dresses. I couldn’t have felt more out of place— a crow in the middle of a flock of exotic flamingos.

Why was it so wrong that I tried to seek out a trophy husband? The only difference was that my golden trophy turned out to be cheap old brass underneath his glossy exterior…

It’s all a bit cliché now, of course. I didn’t see it at first. It was almost like, well, like those rocks that get shaped by the river. How could something as soft, something as beautiful as a river have the ability to change the complete structure of something as hard as a rock?

My Review:

 

Silly me, I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this one but I was soon sucked into a baffling, prickly, complicated, and distressingly compelling vortex filled with a vile and shallow cast of characters. This was an uncomfortably intriguing tale with storylines that eventually connected and entwined.

I was tossed into an intricate and unfamiliar caste system that had me looking in one direction and then another while no one was above suspicion and everyone was disappointingly annoying and guilty of at least subterfuge. I wanted to stick pins in fetish dolls for every one of them.

The main character was critically OCD and constantly looking for numerical patterns to determine if the time was going to be lucky for her or not by whether the numbers were repeated or sequential while she took deep breaths and counted to five. She also distracted and amused herself by visualizing the somewhat gruesome demise of people she found vexing. There must be something wrong with me to have found that entertaining, but I deflect all blame to this author’s sly and evocative word craft.

 

When she isn’t recovering from a self-induced book hangover, Amanda runs corporate trainings on Communication Skills Development and works tirelessly as the Chief Taste Tester at the cookie shop she co-owns. She grew up in Sri Lanka and has lived in the California bay area and the British countryside, before relocating back to her sunny island, where she lives with her husband and two Tasmanian-devil-reincarnate huskies.

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Book Review:The Highland Hens by Judy Leigh  @JudyLeighWriter @BoldwoodBooks

The Highland Hens
by Judy Leigh 

 

 

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In the imposing Glen Carrick House overlooking Scotland’s famous Loch Ness, lives eighty-eight-year-old Mimi McKinlay, cared for by her three adult sons. Hamish has inherited his mother’s musical talents, Fin is the responsible brother, and Angus has the complicated and brooding personality to match his dashing good looks.

But what all the brothers share is a concern that their beloved mother is living in her memories of her days on stage, while letting her present days pass her by.

Jess Oliver is at a turning point. Amicably divorced after years of being married, this trip to the Highlands is the first taste of independence. It isn’t long before the beauty and hospitality of Scotland capture her heart.

When Mimi and Jess’s paths cross, a friendship is formed that will change both women’s lives.  And as together they find ways to look forward instead of to the past, long forgotten dreams are within reach, and every new day is fresh with possibilities.

Take a trip to the Highlands with Judy Leigh for an unforgettable story of glorious pasts and fabulous futures, of love, friendship, family, and fun. The perfect feel-good novel for all fans of Dawn French, Dee Macdonald, and Cathy Hopkins.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Mimi immediately refilled her glass to the brim. ‘A good Chardonnay is like a good man,’ she said, taking a swig as the diners on the next table turned to listen. Isabella agreed. ‘Both are best if they are transparent and expensive.

‘I was so keen on a hot romance and now it’s just too much like hard work, getting dressed up to go out and having to be on my best behaviour. I can’t be bothered. No…’ She shook her head. ‘I think I’d be better off with a dog. I’m getting quite attached to this young man.’ Heather rubbed Thor’s ears. ‘He’s loyal, no trouble and easy to manage.’

‘I’d dress up in my costumes and drink wine all evening. I called it my Chardonnay Show Time.’ She sighed. ‘Loneliness is a disease, Charlie. And it’s contagious– that’s why people stay away from you, in case they catch it too.’

…always is a very long time… All we have is now.

My Review:

 

I honestly revere and adore Judy Leigh. This was an insightfully bittersweet tale, written with profound inner musings and perceptive observations and laced together with clever prose that alternated between heart-squeezing tenderness and smirk-worthy humor.

Ms. Leigh magically conjures unusual yet lovable characters who never fail to endear as well as delightfully entertain. I treasure and covet her word skills. Book after book, I have reveled in her authentic characters and the thoughtful development of Mimi in this one was simply brilliant. And, of course, I totally agree with her about wine.

 

About the Author

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Judy Leigh is the bestselling author of Five French Hens, A Grand Old Time, and The Age of Misadventure, and the doyenne of the ‘it’s never too late’ genre of women’s fiction. She has lived all over the UK from Liverpool to Cornwall but currently resides in Somerset.

Newsletter sign up: http://bit.ly/JudyLeighNewsletter

 

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Book Review: Waiting For Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey  @KerryAnn

Waiting for Tom Hanks

by Kerry Winfrey 

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A rom-com-obsessed romantic waiting for her perfect leading man learns that life doesn’t always go according to a script in this delightfully charming and funny novel.

Annie Cassidy dreams of being the next Nora Ephron. She spends her days writing screenplays, rewatching Sleepless in Seattle, and waiting for her movie-perfect meet-cute. If she could just find her own Tom Hanks—a man who’s sweet, sensitive, and possibly owns a houseboat—her problems would disappear and her life would be perfect. But Tom Hanks is nowhere in sight.When a movie starts filming in her neighborhood and Annie gets a job on set, it seems like a sign. Then Annie meets the lead actor, Drew Danforth, a cocky prankster who couldn’t be less like Tom Hanks if he tried. Their meet-cute is more of a meet-fail, but soon Annie finds herself sharing some classic rom-com moments with Drew. Her Tom Hanks can’t be an actor who’s leaving town in a matter of days . . . can he?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

As usual, he’s wearing a novelty Star Wars T-shirt, because I’m pretty sure he doesn’t own any other kind of shirt. Sometimes Don feels less like my fifty-something uncle and more like a twelve-year-old boy who got a gift card to Hot Topic and went wild.

You’re calling me dramatic? You literally just rubbed your hands together like you’re a bad guy in Scooby-Doo.

“He looks fine… wait, is that sweat?” “Yes. He ran here.” Nick looks at me in shock. “That’s what that smell is? Thank God. I thought the sewage pipe backed up again.”

Did I even make my bed today? Is there underwear on the floor? I’m not in the habit of leaving any clothing on the floor, but I’m sure this is the one time that all my underwear flung itself out of the drawers and onto the floor for the express purpose of embarrassing me in front of Drew.

My Review:

 

This cleverly paced little tale was slyly comical and perceptively humorous and laced together with a cast of authentic characters who were endearingly odd and more than a bit eccentric. I enjoy Ms. Winfrey’s amusing wit and deft word skills. Her storylines were as entertaining as her unusual yet curiously appealing characters. I’ll never look at internet content written for hemorrhoid cream the same again, I had never stopped to consider that it is actually someone’s job to create these snippets, or what would drive them to do so.

 

About the Author

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Kerry Winfrey grew up in Bellville, Ohio, where she spent most of her time reading inappropriate books at the library. Not much has changed. Kerry writes for HelloGiggles. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, their son, and their dog, Merlin. Love and Other Alien Experiences was her first novel.

 

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Book Review: Just Another Love Song by Kerry Winfrey   @KerryAnn

Just Another Love Song
by Kerry Winfrey

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Two high school sweethearts get a second chance at their perfect ending in this charming new romance by Kerry Winfrey, author of Very Sincerely Yours.

Once upon a time, Sandy Macintosh thought she would have her happily ever after with her high school sweetheart, Hank Tillman. Sandy wanted to be an artist, Hank was the only boy in town who seemed destined for bigger things, and they both had dreams of escaping town together. But when Sandy’s plans fell through, she stayed in their small town in Ohio while Hank went off to Boston to follow his dreams to be a musician, with the promise to stay together. Only that plan fell through, too.

Fifteen years later, Sandy runs a successful greenhouse while helping her parents with their bed and breakfast. Everything is perfect…until Hank rolls back into town, now a famous alt-country singer with a son in tow. She’s happy with the life she’s built by herself, but seeing Hank makes her think about what might have been. There aren’t enough cliché love songs in the world to convince Sandy to give Hank another chance, but when the two of them get thrown together to help organize the town’s annual street fair, she wonders if there could be a new beginning for them or if what they had is just a tired old song of the past.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Baileyville’s star quilter, Hotpants Ed (so named because if it’s above sixty-five degrees, he wears the shortest shorts you’ve ever seen everywhere he goes— and he’s a six-foot-tall man with a ponytail and a gray beard, so it’s a striking look).

How am I supposed to live vicariously through you if you won’t even share any details? I’ve already read all the Amish romance novels at the library, Sandy. I need drama.

I want to protest, but there are no words in my mind right now, just random bursts of punctuation. My entire body is an exclamation point.

I’d make a great mom. Sure, my kids wouldn’t know what vegetables are, and they’d probably get scurvy, but at least they’d be happy.

I know I’m always talking about how desperate I am for a man’s touch, but I’m not that desperate. I know what that man’s touch feels like, and unless he’s improved his technique in the past fifteen years, it mainly involves boob honks.

 

My Review:

 

This was a fun and lively tale that sparkled with clever wit and snarky banter that kept me smirking and giggle-snorting with glee. I fell right into the breezy and crisp storylines populated with an entire community of authentic yet recognizable small-town quirks and complications. I adored this from beginning to end and hit this talented wordsmith’s listing to see what else I could score as I definitely need more of this in my life.

 

 

About the Author

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Kerry Winfrey grew up in Bellville, Ohio, where she spent most of her time reading inappropriate books at the library. Not much has changed. Kerry writes for HelloGiggles. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, their son, and their dog, Merlin. Love and Other Alien Experiences was her first novel.

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Book Review: Some of It Was Real by Nan Fischer  @nanfischerauthor @BerkleyPub

 

 

Some of It Was Real
by Nan Fischer 

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A psychic on the verge of stardom who isn’t sure she believes in herself and a cynical journalist with one last chance at redemption are brought together by secrets from the past that also threaten to tear them apart.

Psychic-medium Sylvie Young starts every show with her origin story, telling the audience how she discovered her abilities. But she leaves out a lot—the plane crash that killed her parents, an estranged adoptive family who tend orchards in rainy Oregon, panic attacks, and the fact that her agent insists she research some clients to ensure success.

After a catastrophic reporting error, Thomas Holmes’s next story at the L.A. Times may be his last, but he’s got a great personal pitch. “Grief vampires” like Sylvie who prey upon the loved ones of the deceased have bankrupted his mother. He’s dead set on using his last-chance article to expose Sylvie as a conniving fraud and resurrect his career.

When Sylvie and Thomas collide, a game of cat and mouse ensues, but the secrets they’re keeping from each other are nothing compared to the mysteries and lies they unearth about Sylvie’s past. Searching for the truth might destroy them both—but it’s the only way to find out what’s real.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

My memories are a nest of spiders suddenly caught in bright light. They skitter to dark corners.

“Scott and I have been divorced for three years. Heart problems did us in.” “Was he sick?” “No. He thought I was missing mine.”

My Review:

 

I have a new favorite author who has scribbled out an exceptional piece of writing with uncommonly engaging prose and evocative arrangements of words that smacked me around and squeezed my insides. I could see and hear these people and their revelations and interactions gave me chicken skin! The unpredictable yet realistically unbelievable while believable storylines were laced together with a powerfully emotive writing style that kept me on edge, nibbling on my cuticles, and anxious and even somewhat fearful to keep reading. I generally despise angst but this was fantastic!

 

 

About the Author

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Nancy Richardson Fischer is the author of the young adult novels When Elephants Fly and The Speed of Falling Objects (HarperCollins/Inkyard Press). Her new novel, Some Of It Was Real (Penguin Random House/Berkley) was published under the name Nan Fischer.

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Book Review: Strictly Business by Carrie Elks  @CarrieElks

Strictly Business
by Carrie Elks

 

 

One office. Two enemies. And a secret he CANNOT find out…

You know that post-vacation glow? Where you’re all sun-kissed and optimistic and determined to make changes in your life?

Well, mine lasted for about five minutes. Until I walked into the office and saw Myles Salinger sitting in my boss’s chair.

One look at his scowling face was enough to make me want to fly straight back to Europe. And no, he’s not getting any of the donuts I brought it for the team. He doesn’t deserve them.

You see, on paper, he’s my contemporary. But in reality, he’s been my workplace nemesis for the last two years.

Lucky for us we’re usually separated by five hundred miles.

But now he’s here in my face, throwing his impressive weight around and driving everybody crazy with his demands.

Especially me.

Good thing he doesn’t know the big decision I made while I was away.

That I’m going to try for a baby. Alone.

If he ever finds out he’ll never let me hear the end of it.

So let’s keep it between us. Okay?

Strictly Business is a steamy enemies-to-lovers romance. Expect some hot scenes, a little cussing, and two characters whose heads you’d love to bang together…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I learned pretty quickly not to bring men home to meet my mother. They usually left shaking and talking gibberish.

I shiver at the thought of my mom serving time in prison. Not so much for her but for the other inmates. They’d all be begging for an early release to escape her.

My Review:

 

Oh – what – fun! I smirked and giggled-snorted with glee from beginning to end and didn’t want it to stop. The storylines sparkled with wit and insightful humor, eccentric and unexpected family situations, unusual yet engaging predicaments and storylines, and a delightfully complicated office romance. I adored all these unique and authentic characters and am eagerly anticipating the next installment. Carrie Elks has outdone herself with this one.

Carrie Elks writes contemporary romance with a sizzling edge. Her first book, Fix You, has been translated into eight languages and made a surprise appearance on Big Brother in Brazil. Luckily for her, it wasn’t voted out. Carrie lives with her husband, two lovely children, and a larger-than-life black pug called Plato. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can be found baking, drinking an occasional (!) glass of wine, or chatting on social media.