Maggie Lydon rides the bus to her cleaning job every day. It’s an ordinary existence until she notices him sitting just two rows behind her. She doesn’t know his name, nor anything about him. All she knows is that he watches her and it’s the most exciting part of her week.

Shay Riordan notices her the very first time he takes the bus. She’s captivating, a beauty who moves through the world like no one else can see her, but she’s far from invisible to him. He wants to sit next to her, introduce himself, but it’s hard to do when you can’t speak.

Then, late one Friday evening they both board the bus, and an unexpected occurrence plunges Maggie into Shay’s world, and Shay into Maggie’s.

Quiet Types is a standalone contemporary romance and is book #1 in L.H. Cosway’s Quiet Love Series.

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I wondered what it must feel like to be so powerful and rich no one dared disrespect you. That would never be me. Not only had I started two feet below the bottom rung of the ladder, but I also lacked the ruthless ambition to climb higher.

I’ve been quiet in a world full of sound.

He saw me when, to most of the world, I was invisible. Up until that point, I thought I liked things that way, but now that I was experiencing the sensation of being seen, I realised all that I’d been missing out on.

I always imagined Mr Oaks as someone who didn’t want to know about the live human being who cleaned his apartment. He’d prefer to imagine invisible pixies came in on Mondays and set everything to rights.

Often others saw my mutism as a weakness, something that held me back, but over the years, I realised it could be a superpower, too. People couldn’t draw me into petty arguments, couldn’t use sly conversational tactics to get me to lose face. In those situations, my silence was a strength, more powerful than a witty comeback or wry retort. It made cruel or mean people look like blithering idiots as they talked and talked while I remained a stoic wall of silence.

Talking is such a shallow way to interact now that I’ve known you, Shay. It’s like comparing greyscale to colour. You engage with others on a deeper level. I felt it from the very first time our eyes met. You pulled me into your orbit without ever needing to utter a word.

My Review:

This was an impressively perceptive tale that was thoughtfully written with heart-squeezing poignancy, keenly honed observations, and surprising insights that placed me not only in the characters’ vortex but within their skins. I had never stopped to consider the aspects of mutism this deeply.

The storylines were well-contrived and engaging while populated with authentic and original main characters who quietly existed within their rather meager life space. Shay was a lovely character who saw Maggie as a stunning beauty, while she saw herself as anything but as she was quite anxious, self-conscious, insecure, easily wounded, and highly vulnerable after a lifetime of maternal neglect and emotional abuse and a childhood of schoolyard bullying. I found myself deeply invested in both main characters throughout perusal and continued to mull their story long after reaching the end.

Clara Hill wants to be left alone.
Sitting on her porch watching everyone else’s lives go by is way more fun than dealing with her own problems.

Now that her secret high school sweetheart is her next door neighbor, she’s not so sure anymore.
Being back in Green Valley was hard enough without having her first love right there within touching distance.
Especially when he’s so stubbornly determined to flash his unforgettable smile at her every chance he gets and reminding her of when she thought she’d found her happily ever after.

A football scholarship, his dream girl, and a future so bright he couldn’t wait to get started.
But, like everything else in his life, it all came toppling down.
Now he’s content to raise his kids, teach English, and coach football at Green Valley High.
He has no time for things like romance, and dating, and starting over…
He’s fine being alone.
Who needs love?

But when he catches a glimpse of his new neighbor his quiet little world turns upside down, lighting a fire that makes him determined to reclaim all he thought was gone forever.

After all these years, can he convince Clara to give him another shot?
Or will their love story stay hidden in their past?

‘Passing Notes’ is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #1 in the Teachers’ Lounge series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

You need emergency cheese, and old friends.

My therapist is going to make so much more money off me now…

The shadows in my heart were gone. I’d let everything go to shine in the sun.

My Review:

This was a fun and sassy read that I enjoyed from beginning to end, much as I have every Nora Everly book I’ve been lucky enough to pick up. Her writing is giggle-snort worthy, well- textured, and peppered with amusing snark, heart-squeezes, sizzling steamy bits, and clever wit. This volume was an excellent entry to kick off a new series, I will want every installment that follows.

About the Author

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Nora Everly is a lifelong bookworm. She started reading the good stuff once she grew tall enough to sneak the romance novels off the top of her mother’s bookshelf and it has been non-stop ever since.

Once upon a time, she was a substitute teacher and an educational assistant. Now she’s a writer and stay-at-home mom to two small humans and one fat cat.

Nora lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and her overactive imagination.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Matilda is the friend I know with one hundred percent certainty would help me bury a dead body— but she is also the friend who would critique me on bungling up the murder and buying the wrong kind of shovel.

…the thought of sweating through my dress finally forces me into taking off my coat. Surprisingly, there is no spontaneous sex riot at the sight of me in a formfitting outfit. I relax a little, reasoning to myself that the dress is a bigger deal to me than it is to anyone else.

It probably isn’t a good sign, having one’s sort-of therapist gape in open-mouthed surprise. Considering all the things psychologists likely hear on a daily basis, it has to be something pretty shocking to get a reaction like that. Dr. Sandra recovers quickly, but still, the gape has happened… her voice calm and professional, though I notice she is blinking more than usual.

I feel like in the last hour, I’ve gone from never having had sugar to eating an entire birthday cake by myself. It feels almost surreal, like it couldn’t have actually happened to me.

My Review:

I reveled in this cleverly amusing tale, it was expertly paced, well-polished, keenly insightful, and packed with sparkling wit and sly humor. Could it truly be the author’s first novel? If so, she has hit a home run during her first time at bat. I am eagerly awaiting her next missive.

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author, Emma Hart, has written more than seventy romance novels in the last decade. She loves writing snarky, swoony romcoms with a side of chaos, occasionally venturing into romantic mysteries. Which are exactly the same as her romcoms, just with a dead body or two. That’s the reason for her questionable Internet history—at least that’s the story she’s sticking to it.

She lives on a smallholding in North Wales with her husband and their two children, a clowder of very fluffy cats, one giant German Shepherd, and an undisclosed number of chickens and ducks. Don’t ask her to count them. She will not, thank you very much.

When she’s not writing or chasing ducks in her pajamas, you can find her creating cozy gaming content for her Youtube channel and live streaming on Twitch.

Find her online:

Amazon: https://emmahart.pub/books 

Youtube: https://emmahart.pub/youtube 

Twitch: https://emmahart.pub/twitch 

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Website: https://emmahart.pub/site 

The hot baseball player I’m forced to stay with for my best friend’s wedding is off limits.

Remy Winfield has more muscles than manners, and he’s on a mission to get me into bed by way of the filthiest mouth I’ve ever wanted to kiss. He doesn’t care about my long time crush or my certainty that we’re finally about to happen.

Remy’s sure I’ll break first and kiss him, and he’ll tease me to the limit to make sure I do. I might be a Lady, but I can still play his dirty little game. It’s perfectly safe, totally harmless.

Until I fall for him.

Suddenly, Mr. Long-Time Crush doesn’t matter at all.

And my best friend can never know.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I can’t imagine how she got you so mixed up, even though it’s one of her special skills. But she makes a strawberry pie that’ll make you see Jesus, so we try not to give her too hard a time.

I don’t know if you know this, but you have gotten hotter in the last year. I don’t know what kind of virgin blood you’ve got stocked to bathe in, but it’s working.

And if Henry made a move on her before then, I just might have to kill him and tell God he died.

Cass blinked so many times, I wondered if she was swearing me out in Morse code.

Take care of each other so I can retire my hit list, okay?

No one should be here for this. Tell Jesus to put on his earmuffs, okay?

My Review:

This steamy tale provides a new definition for the word sensual, I needed to turn on all the fans on high and seek libation as I seemed to stay in a constant state of dehydration during perusal… even my Kindle was sweating. The engaging storylines were highly amusing, easily consumable, and delightfully entertaining while populated with a variety of unique, authentic and endearing personalities. I laughed aloud several times and couldn’t keep the smirk off my face when I dared to read a few bits in public.