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.

 

Connect with Emma

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmmaHartBooks/

BookBub: http://bit.ly/2Dr0atq

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2Dq42ez

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2EBbZNe

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2D91d3T

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmahartauthor/

Stay up to date with Emma by joining her mailing list: https://www.emmahart.org/newsletter

Website: https://www.emmahart.org/home

 

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

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B072KHZS5W 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susannahnix/ 

Facebook Reader Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/160037207970579/ 

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/susannah-nix 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susannahnixauthor/ 

Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16880740.Susannah_Nix 

Twitter: @Susannah_Nix 

Website: https://www.susannahnix.com/ 

Connect with Smartypants Romance

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2kvDnb4

Twitter: http://bit.ly/2lzyduO

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2lGdIMQ

Instagram: http://bit.ly/2kwKsYK

Website: https://smartypantsromance.com/ 

Newsletter: https://smartypantsromance.com/newsletter/

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.

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Josie, just… don’t move. You could have broken something.” Colten flies down the stairs after me. I broke something alright. My pride, her sister Dignity, and Dignity’s cousin Self-Esteem. It’s taken Colten less than a week to reduce me to the young, shattered-ego girl I was the day I left for college. He’s a perpetual thorn in my side. He’s necrotizing fasciitis— a flesh eating infection that can’t be contained.

Now, I’m imagining the largest penises I have ever seen and mentally placing them onto my dad like part of a Mr. Potato Head. I’m ruined. Scarred for life.

His gaze sweeps over my face, the way someone takes in a breathtaking view. I feel it everywhere.

My Review:

 

Jewel-E-Ann is found treasure, she churns out heart-squeezing and intricate tales featuring complicated, infuriating, and endearing characters with profoundly poignant insights and breath-stealing romance. I am enamored and captivated with her latest couple and have vastly enjoyed their verbal sparring and clever quips.

Weaving in and out of their childhood histories, past and present romance, and their lives apart, were threads of family drama, intrigue, and a centuries-old crime with a paranormal twist. Yikes, I wasn’t expecting such a heinous cliffhanger which has me stamping my little foot in pique! Thankfully the wait is just a few weeks, I might not be able to bear it otherwise.

 

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I thought of about twenty things I should have said. At least five of them were such intense burns, he would’ve needed skin grafts to recover.

Uber Stan… He didn’t actually work for Uber, just passed out a card with his phone number and told us all to text him if we needed a ride. Even made a fake Uber sign for his back window. Nobody told him that wasn’t quite how it worked, too proud of the sweet old man for managing to figure out texts and Venmo to break his heart.

Evangeline sighed and rolled her eyes. “God, sometimes I’m so thankful I’m not attracted to men. Y’all are dumber than a bag of hair.”

It’s so strange, being with him. It’s like a time machine back to when things were simpler and a glimpse into a future I can’t have. And I’m caught there in that place of wishes and lost dreams. I can’t make myself walk away.

My Review:

 

I think each new book I read by this author is her best and my favorite until I read the next one. Run For Your Honey is definitely my favorite, for now. The dichotomy of the characters’ conflict was perfectly pitched and so real it felt tangible. The amusing storylines were laced with broad humor, breath-stealing steam, and keen snark. I am not exaggerating when I say I adored every well-chosen word. I smirked and giggle-snorted my way through this well-nuanced and evocative read and finished with a sigh. Staci Hart has crazy good skills and I greedily covet and plan to amass, all her clever and entertaining arrangements of words.