Category: Book Reviews

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Book Review: Play Smart (Work For It, #5) by Aly Stiles @aly_stiles @SmartyPantsRom

Play Smart
(Work For It, #5)
by Aly Stiles

 

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.

About the Author

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Goodreads
Website
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From angsty and dark to snort-laugh funny, Aly writes romance from her soul to yours.

Connect with Smartypants Romance

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Book Review: Big Duke Energy by Emma Hart @EmmaHartAuthor @jennw23

 

Big Duke Energy
by Emma Hart 

Amazon  / B&N 

She can’t fall for the duke.

Easier said than done.

Big Duke Energy, an all-new hilarious, opposites attract romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Emma Hart is out now!

When bestselling romance author Ellie Aarons finds herself with chronic writer’s block, she’s pretty sure all she needs is a change of scenery. A beautiful lakeside cottage with her cat seems like a good idea.

She’s wrong. She needs more than a change of scenery—she needs a muse.

Which is why it’s so irritating that she’s drawn to the enigmatic but grumpy Duke of Windermere who owns the estate she’s staying on.

They don’t get along—not in the slightest. They could not be more different, which is why it’s so irritating that Max seems to be the muse she’s been looking for. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t help but picture him as the hero in her next book.

Oh, well. There’s really not a lot she can do about it. The muse wants what the muse wants.

Except Sir Winston Purrchill keeps exploring the goat barn, and Max’s delivery of him for the fiftieth time means he sees her manuscript open on her laptop.

He knows instantly that she’s writing about him. The story she’s written reflects their entire relationship until now, but that spicy scene?

That hasn’t happened. Yet.

Max is ready to compromise—he’ll give her the inspiration she needs for her novel, but she has to stop asking why he’s so against the relationship his grandmother desperately wants him to have.

With her deadline looming, Ellie has no other option but to agree.

She just hopes that she won’t do what her heroine is doing.

And fall in love with the duke.

Download your copy today on Amazon and free in Kindle Unlimited!

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.

About the Author

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

 

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Book Review: Lost Track (Common Threads #5) Lost Track (Common Threads #5) by Heidi Hutchinson @SmartyPantsRom

Lost Track
(Common Threads #5)
by Heidi Hutchinson

Amazon  / B&N  / BB

 

Lost Track, an all-new friends-to-lovers slow-burn romance from Heidi Hutchinson, is available now in Kindle Unlimited!

Sabine Debois likes her wine pink and her life predictable. As a private tutor for the rich and famous, she doesn’t get starstruck. But when a tattooed espresso fiend saves her from death by sweater, she’s a little bit… grateful. That’s all. Just grateful.

Sunshine Capone just had the best album of his career, and then his girlfriend burned down his house. Well, his ex-girlfriend now. So he moved to Chicago to focus on his music and avoid the drama of relationships.

He should not be creating any excuse to hang out with the sweet teacher with the hazel eyes and bright smile. She doesn’t need his kind of confusion in her life.

But Sabine’s about to teach this superstar a thing or two about peace, love, and understanding.

Lost Track is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #5 in the Common Threads series, Seduction in the City World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Wow. Didn’t even know buses ran through here until you threw me under one, Piper.

Was the codependency bad if both parties were happy with the outcome?

Her entire body rejoiced at being near him again and she could swear that individual cells inside her body were high-fiving each other.

She made a very unladylike noise. “You point me at anyone who makes fun of you and I will knock them out. I know I sound very calm right now but inside I’m a complete rage monster. I’m not joking. Stop laughing.”

She sat in stunned silence, her heart suddenly too big for her body.

My Review:

 

This was my first exposure to the mad skills of Heidi Hutchinson, where have I been? The writing was smooth, easy to fall into, insightful, witty, and bewitchingly engaging. I absolutely adored all the characters and am completely besotted with the featured couple. I need more of this and have added her entire listing to my TBR. I have a new favorite author!

 

About the Author

Heidi Hutchinson creates funny, clever, slow-burn romance for readers looking for a guaranteed happily ever after.

She hopes the stories she writes inspire her readers to take their hearts on one more adventure.

She lives in the Black Hills with her alarmingly handsome husband, their fearless child, and a rather large and spoiled dog.

She is fueled by her unwavering and perfectly normal devotion to Dave Grohl and coffee.

And a whole lotta love.

Find Heidi online

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

Website: https://www.heidih.net/

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

Connect with Smartypants Romance

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Book Review: Good and Gone by Britney King  @britneyking_

Good and Gone
 by Britney King 

 

 

In this deviously volatile, deliciously creepy thriller from the bestselling author of The Social Affair and HER, a young woman must uncover the haunting truth about the turn of events that left her forever marked…

On a crisp fall morning in Austin, Texas, it is a day no different from any other for young mother Hailey Adams. Until it is. She goes out for her morning jog and does not come back.

When Hailey turns up weeks later with no recollection of where she was—and either unable—or unwilling—to explain what happened to her, those closest to her first question her mental status and then her motives. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media, as well as her loving husband, the popular fitness influencer begins to have flashbacks.

But the more Hailey continues to dig, the more reasons she uncovers to keep the truth hidden—from the law, from the media, and especially from her family. She soon realizes she’s not the only one to recently disappear under mysterious circumstances—and her nightmare may be far from over.

My Rating:

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?

About the Author

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Britney King lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, children, two dogs, one ridiculous cat, and a partridge in a pear tree.
When she’s not wrangling the things mentioned above, she writes psychological, domestic, and romantic thrillers set in suburbia.
Without a doubt, connecting with readers is the best part of this gig. You can find Britney online here: 
To get more– grab two books for free, by subscribing to her mailing list at  bit.ly/britneykingweb
Happy reading.

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Book Review:  Not Since Ewe (Common Threads #4) by Susannah Nix @Susannah_Nix  @SmartyPantsRom

Not Since Ewe
(Common Threads #4)
by Susannah Nix 

Amazon  / B&N / BB

 

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

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Book Review:  On the First Day of Christmas by Faith Hogan  @GerHogan  @Aria_Fiction

On the First Day of Christmas
by Faith Hogan

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

A gorgeous new festive read from the Kindle #1 bestselling author of The Ladies’ Midnight Swimming Club

When Liv Latimer says goodbye to her colleagues and finishes work for the holidays, she’s looking forward to a Christmas to remember with her boyfriend Eddie.

But before she makes it home, her phone rings, calling her back into work. And Liv is faced with a choice. Does she do as she’s always done, and put herself second? Or, will she say no, so she can finally begin the life she’s dreamed of?

Liv’s decision will turn her world upside down in ways she could never have imagined.

Because whatever choice she makes, Liv is about to discover, fate finds a way…

From the bestselling Irish author of The Ladies’ Midnight Swimming Club, comes an emotional and uplifting festive story about love, family and how a split-second decision can change your life.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

Go ahead, eat that frog.

My Review:

 

I struggled with this one and needed to ruminate for a few days before I could write a coherent review as I was rather disgruntled upon reaching the conclusion of the mystery. The book was unusually plotted with puzzling parallel timelines and similar events with the same characters. I was a bit baffled and bewildered with each shift, yet I was also quickly invested in the story and fell right into this wily author’s trap.

Multiple theories were developed, discarded, and circled yet again during my perusal – including parallel universes, dissociative personality, coma dreaming, reincarnation, paranormal spirits, etc. The characters were as thoughtfully constructed as the storylines with the beleaguered main protagonist being perversely stubborn and desperately clinging to her fantasy with an exasperating case of denial as a bonus. I wanted to give her a few hard whacks with my Kindle to dislodge her gray matter from her colon long before she got there on her own. But despite my irritation, I must give this crafty author her due, Faith Hogan is a perceptive and gifted scribe who kept me engaged and immersed in her story, even when it vexed or displeased me.

 

About the Author


Faith Hogan is an Irish award-winning and bestselling author of five contemporary fiction novels. Her books have been featured as Book Club Favorites, Net Galley Hot Reads, and Summer Must Reads. She writes grown-up women’s fiction which is unashamedly uplifting, feel-good, and inspiring.

She is currently working on her next novel. She lives in the west of Ireland with her husband, four children, and a very busy Labrador named Penny. She’s a writer, reader, enthusiastic dog walker, and reluctant jogger – except of course when it is raining!

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Book Review: Timelock by Howard Beck   @TLCBookTours

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With crime rampant in the near future, the President authorizes a controversial program: TimeLock, a cellular acceleration process that instantly ages prisoners the total number of years of their sentence. In other words-three strikes and you’re old . . . very old.

Despite ongoing public outcries, two years later the program is up and running and crime is already on the decline. But what happens if you’re innocent?

Falsely convicted of murder, 23-year-old Morgan Eberly is sentenced to be aged 40 years in a TimeLock capsule. When a riot interrupts his processing, Morgan–now 43 years old–manages to escape.

With powerful forces on his trail, Morgan enlists the help of Janine Price, the FBI agent who arrested him. Together, they investigate the murders of ex-prisoners who were transformed by TimeLock and soon discover why Morgan is certain to be next.

Can Morgan and Janine unlock the truth about TimeLock before it’s too late?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Three strikes and you’re old – very old.

Our tour guide is so upbeat and bubbly, you’d think she was welcoming her group to a warped new addition to Disney World. Aging Land.

…her condo is surprisingly colorful. Artistic even… I’m impressed. And beyond grateful we couldn’t go back to my dump of an apartment where the closest thing to fine art is the Three Stooges screensaver on my laptop.

Walter, we’ve got a big-time emergency here! You don’t want J. Edgar to turn over in his dress, do you?

My Review:

 

While this is not my usual genre, I vastly enjoyed this quick read as the story was somewhat futuristic yet surprisingly realistic at the same time. The writing was keenly honed and smartly detailed with descriptions that pulled sharp visuals to my mind’s eye. In sum, was a well-plotted and shrewdly paced action-packed thriller featuring slightly frayed characters and storylines that were cleverly laced together with wry humor and witty snark. All my favorite things!

 

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Book Review: Here With You (A Willow Bay Novel Book 2) by Kelly Collins  @kcollinsauthor

 

Here With You
(A Willow Bay Novel Book 2)
by Kelly Collins

 

Amazon /  BB

A swoon-worthy family drama filled with heartbreak, happiness, and a happily ever after…

Emmaline Brown had been in love once, but when Miles McClintock cracked open his family’s secrets, he ruined a lot of lives and crushed Emmaline’s dreams. With Miles no longer an acceptable suitor in her family’s eyes, she chose the life she was born and raised for—to run The Brown Resort. As part-owner and operator of Willow Bay’s largest luxury property, she’d been delivering happily ever after to the hundreds who flocked there each summer. She thought she was content to live her life alone, but that all changed when Miles McClintock came back to town.

Paramedic Miles McClintock left Willow Bay decades ago in disgrace. One honest decision lost him everything, including his family’s honor and the love of his life, Emmaline Brown. Luck had never been on his side until the day he was summoned home by his ill mother. One stop at the Five and Dime would change his life. An opportunity to run the resort next door puts him exactly where he wants to be—straight in the path of Emmaline Brown. She had once loved him when he was a wealthy rancher’s heir, but could she fall in love with the poor man he was pretending to be?

He feels abandoned. She feels betrayed. Can their love for one another douse the burning rage that keeps them apart?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Her anger disappeared in an instant. When a person had nine toes inside heaven’s gate, there was no room for petty squabbles.

Tilly touched the crinkled corners of her eyes. “You don’t have crow’s feet. Yours are more like sparrow’s feet.” She thumbed the corners of her eyes. “Look at me. I have pelican claws.”

By tomorrow, she’d have to shove this year’s butt in last year’s jeans. It would be like putting ten pounds of taters in a five-pound sack, but what did she care? No one was looking at her taters, anyway.

Not everyone was cut from the same cloth, and poor Margot was burlap in a room of Egyptian cotton.

“I’m the ash man.” He gave him a sly smile. “Seventy years ago, I could have dropped the h and added an s.” He chuckled. “The mind is still willing, but the body gave up long ago.”

In her other hand was a little black dress. It was so tiny that if she bent over, she would become an underwear model.

Miles entered the house. It smelled like dusty curtains and death. Anyone who told him death didn’t have a smell had never experienced it. It was sadness, anger, and unfulfilled dreams mixed and left in the sun to rot.

 

My Review:

 

Another engaging and enjoyable small-town, second-chance romance from the insightful and witty pen of Kelly Collins. Her uniquely flawed yet endearing characters frequently have me wanting to give them a good pinch or ten, but I trust they will eventually see the error of their ways and retrieve their craniums from their colons as Ms. Collins is a guaranteed happy-ever-after raconteuse. She has never failed to bring a delighted smirk to my face during perusal.

 

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

 

  Goodreads  / Website  / Amazon / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Bookbub

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: Home Sweet Christmas by Susan Mallery  @susanmallery @HarlequinBooks

 

Home Sweet Christmas
Wishing Tree #2
by Susan Mallery

Amazon  / B&N / GP/ Apple / BB

With twinkling humor and heartfelt Christmas spirit, two friends find love in a town called Wishing Tree…

Until Camryn Neff can return to her “real” life in Chicago, she’s in Wishing Tree to care for her twin sisters. She’s not looking for forever love, not here. But handsome hotelier Jake Crane is a temptation she can’t resist, so she suggests they pair up for the season. No golden rings, no broken hearts. At his side, she sees her hometown through Christmas-colored eyes. The cheer is cheerier, the joy more joyful. She thought she had put her future on hold…but maybe her real life was here all along, waiting for her to come home.

New in town, River Best is charmed by Wishing Tree’s homespun traditions and warmhearted people. When she’s crowned Snow Queen, she’s honored but wary. Dylan Tucker, her king, seems like the stuff of sugarplum dreams, but she can’t shake the feeling that he’s hiding something big. As they perform their “royal” duties—tasting cookies, lighting trees—Dylan’s good humor and melty kisses draw her to the brink of love. But she can’t let herself fall until she uncovers his secret, even if her lack of faith means losing him forever.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Future nannies shouldn’t trash their ex-boyfriends on Facebook,” she murmured, copying several fairly hostile posts. “And wishing his dick falls off is never a good look.”

I’m like a hothouse orchid. Slightly odd and unable to survive outside.

Sadly, you fight like a kid, saying things you shouldn’t. You really need to up your game in the arguing department. There’s a way to do it productively. I’m sure they have online classes.

My Review:

 

I know it is far too early to start reading Christmas books but when it is Susan Mallery, it really doesn’t matter what the calendar says. I enjoy her smooth, amusing, and easy-flowing style of storytelling as much as I do her lovable characters, they somehow remain endearing even when they are being obnoxious. She has definitely mastered the nuances of small-town living while also being extra crafty and clever deployment of her well-honed skill set to imbue each small hamlet, resident, and tale with uniquely entertaining quirks and precious pets.

About the Author

 

Amazon
Goodreads
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram 

 

#1 NYT bestselling author Susan Mallery writes heartwarming, humorous novels about the relationships that define our lives – family, friendship, and romance. She’s known for putting nuanced characters in emotional situations that surprise readers to laughter. Beloved by millions, her books have been translated into 28 languages. Susan lives in Washington with her husband, two cats, and a small poodle with delusions of grandeur. 

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Book Review: Number One Fan by Meg Elison  @megelison

Number One Fan
by Meg Elison

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

A headlong rush of a thriller/horror that is Misery for Millennials, about a bestselling author who is abducted by her biggest fan and must figure out who he is, where she is, and how to survive and escape, set against the backdrop of fan and convention culture, the literati and the #metoo movement.

 

Bestselling fantasy author Eli Grey gets into a cab without checking it’s hers, and unquestioningly accepts a drink from the driver. Then she wakes up chained in his basement. With no close family or friends expecting her to check in, Eli knows she’s on her own to save herself. She soon realizes that her abduction wasn’t random–she was targeted. And though she thinks she might recognize her captor, she can’t figure out quite why, or what he wants. But it is clear that he is very familiar with her work, and deeply invested in the fantastical world she created in her books. What follows is a test of wills as Eli pits herself against a man who believes she owes him everything and is determined to take it from her.

 

With unflinching prose, NUMBER ONE FAN examines the tension between creator and work, fandom and source material, and the rage of fans who feel they own fiction.

My Rating:

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

It was a line that she had hated. Had, in fact, told the screenwriter that it dripped with cheese like a plate of truck stop nachos…

Some men have a way of eating you with their eyes, and she had been gobbled up before. She knew that look. He wouldn’t look anywhere but her face. He blinked slowly, like a creature of the depths of the sea that rarely saw the sun.

… relief welling up in her like an intensity like she’d never known. It was like every safe plane landing she’d ever had, the feeling when her credit card went through, the fall into a comfortable chair with her bra off at the end of a hard day all rolled together and sharpened into a needle.

My Review:

 

Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, what did I fall into? This was a tense and distressingly and painfully realistic read that was skin-crawling creepy. Much like coming upon a bad accident or train wreck, I was compelled to look but didn’t want to see at the same time. I cringed and flinched while reading but was also intrigued and couldn’t seem to leave it alone, and finished with ragged cuticles, my shoulders in my ears, and a sigh of relief. Tomorrow needs to be a spa day to work the knots of tension out of my neck. Meg Elison is one twisted sister but weaves a mighty tale.

 

 

Meg Elison is a California Bay Area author and essayist. She writes science fiction and horror, as well as feminist essays and cultural criticism. She has been published in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Fangoria, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Catapult, and many other places.

 

She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and the National Writers Union (@paythewriter).

Her debut novel, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife won the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award. Her novelette “The Pill” won the 2021 Locus Award. She is a Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards finalist. She has been an Otherwise Award honoree twice. Her YA debut, Find Layla, was published in fall 2020 by Skyscape. It was named one of Vanity Fair’s Best 15 Books of 2020.

 

Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley.