Search

Search only in certain items:

Mistletoe Miracles (Ransom Canyon #7)
Mistletoe Miracles (Ransom Canyon #7)
Jodi Thomas | 2018 | Contemporary, Romance
10
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Lovable Characters (3 more)
Interesting Plot
Great Worldbuilding
Good Pacing
A Clean, Sweet Read
I'm not usually a romance person, but the synopsis for Mistletoe Miracles by Jodi Thomas caught my attention. I'm really glad I read Mistletoe Miracles because I absolutely adored this book. In fact, Mistletoe Miracles may have converted me to be a romance reader. It has definitely made me a Jodi Thomas fan for sure.

The pacing for Mistletoe Miracles was spot on. It wasn't a fast paced book, but it wasn't slow paced either. It moved at a nice relaxing pace, and I found myself loving it.

The plot for Mistletoe Miracles is a sweet one. It was interesting to see each couple's relationship blossom. Mallory is on the run from her abusive ex-boyfriend. She ends up in a car crash. Her dog is also injured in the crash. Little does Jax know he has her dog, but once he figures it out, it's the start of something sweet. Griffin needs a rich bride in order to save his working ranch that's been in the family for generations. Sunlan, a ranch girl herself, is just the right woman to fill that position. She's also looking for someone to take her away from her overbearing father. Wyatt is a soldier just looking for a place to rest while on leave. With everyone assuming he's Jamie's husband, he is taken to Jamie's house after he falls asleep and has a small crash. Jamie has been out of town, but when she returns, she's gets the biggest surprise of her life. However, she's been telling everyone she's married even though she's not. Wyatt may just be the (pretend) husband she needs. The reader has the pleasure of reading about each immersive relationship and how each one blossoms in its own way. There are no major plot twists, but Mistletoe Miracles is a book that doesn't need plot twists to be enjoyable. All loose ends are also tied up by the end of the book which I was happy about. I also liked that Mistletoe Miracles can be read as a standalone.

I felt that the world building in Mistletoe Miracles was done very well. Jodi Thomas makes it so easy to feel as if you are one of the characters in her book. She puts you right in the midst of everything that is happening, and it is so easy to lose yourself within each page of the story. Mistletoe Miracles takes place in Texas which made me enjoy the book even more! The world building is so realistic in this novel that I would lose track of time whenever I was reading it.

I loved every character in Mistletoe Miracles. I felt each character was fleshed out substantially, and every character felt like they were an actual real person instead of a character in a book. My favorite characters in this book were Sunlan and Griffin. I loved how they started out a bit distant towards each other, but eventually, they warmed up to one another and came out of their shell, especially Sunlan. Don't get me wrong, I loved the other characters too, but it was Sunlan's and Griffin's relationship that I loved the most. I did enjoy reading about all the other character's relationships as well, and I found them to be very interesting. Each character had something to bring to the table to make Mistletoe Miracles the great read it is.

There aren't many trigger warnings for Mistletoe Miracles. I would classify it was a clean romance. There's no swearing and no steamy scenes. There is some violence although it is not graphic. There is some drinking of alcohol as well as kissing. There's also talk about making love but everything is implied and not described in graphic detail.

Overall, Mistletoe Miracles is a very sweet and refreshing read that will warm even the most hardened hearts. It's got very likable and realistic characters characters, an interesting plot, and fantastic world building. I would definitely recommend Mistletoe Miracles by Jodi Thomas to everyone aged 16+ whether they like romance or not. This is one of those books that everyone should read even if romance isn't their preferred genre.

(Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this title in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.)
  
The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre
The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre
Robin Talley | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy, LGBTQ+, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A sweet and diverse YA theater romance
Melody McIntyre loves theater with all her heart. She puts everything she has into her role as stage manager for her high school's productions. But when Mel's love life affects her latest show, she realizes that maybe her romances and the success of the shows go hand in hand. After all, it's pretty well known that their theater is cursed. So Mel swears off love for their current spring production of Les Miserables. Then she meets Odile Rose, a rising actor, who has a role in their spring show. Odile seems as invested in the show in Mel, and she's also kind and funny. Mel can't fall in love, but what if she has no choice?

"Our theater's cursed. That's the rumor, anyway. Strange things have been happening here for years. Unexplainable things."

This book wins the award for one of the most stressful openings ever, as Mel's love life falls apart during an actual show. I was sweating bullets on her behalf. It's a very theater-oriented book and if you like drama or Les Mis, you will adore reading it. Robin Talley writes in her very sweet author's note that she took inspiration for the plot from her wife, who is involved in the theater--totally adorable.

"All right. So be it. If I fall in love, the musical's doomed."

As with nearly any Talley YA read, LOVE CURSE is filled with wonderful diverse representation, cute high school kids, and a sweet love story. There's some high school drama, of course. Here there's much ado about a curse--sometimes too much for this adult--but I could completely see my theater friends in high school being completely into something like this in high school.

As for Melody and Odile, I adored them. Mel put theater first above all and Odile felt pressured as her acting career took off. I would have liked a little more buildup to their love story, but their romance was really touching. I love how Talley always makes it okay to be queer, especially for teens, in her books and works through coming of age and/or coming out in approachable and realistic ways.

Overall this is a cute theater-themed read filled with diverse characters and a touching love story. 3.75 stars, rounded up.
  
Escorted (Escorted, #1)
Escorted (Escorted, #1)
Claire Kent | 2012 | Contemporary, Erotica, Fiction & Poetry, Romance
10
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I'm a sucker for a good romance/love story and, for me, this was just that.

I loved it from the start, when Lori's worrying over meeting Ander and phoning her cousin for advice, to finish, when they are taking things slow and explaining certain points about their times together.

It was funny in places and romantic.

Reading how Ander's changed as he got to know her more was really sweet but Lori was a bit too blind to it from early on and I wanted to scream at her. She eventually realised but by then she was determined to push him away... *sigh* Lori...

Everything worked out in the end, though, so yay!

I devoured this in one sitting, which shows just how into the book I was (finishing it at 1am this morning), and I look forward to reading more from the author.
  
Courting Mr. Cutthroat (Campy Romances #3)
Courting Mr. Cutthroat (Campy Romances #3)
Deborah Camp | 2021 | Contemporary, Romance
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
cute read
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

I enjoyed this, it just didn't blow me away.

It's a lovely sweet, small town, second chance (kinda) romance, with some steam, but not too much.

Cutter's art sounded interesting, and I googled nuts and bolts art to see what came up, and I loved them!

I liked that Gemma still held her crush for Cutter, even after all this time. And Cutter too, to an extent, held his feelings for Gemma but it takes time for him to fully admit to them and give in.

I loved that, while Cutter and his brothers appeared to have everything, being born into wealth, it's clear that money doesn't really buy you happiness.

It was a nice book, and someone will love but I couldn't, and for that I'm sorry!

3 solid stars

same worded review will appear elsewhere​
  
When Dimple Met Rishi
When Dimple Met Rishi
Sandhya Menon | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)
4
7.4 (18 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sweet romance (1 more)
Great commentary about cultural identity
Underdeveloped plot (2 more)
Unconvincing setting
Frustrating main character
A sweet summer romance with potential that just didn't work for me
Sigh. It’s hard for me to decide how to start this review because I found myself confused and disappointed when I finished. I think I suffered a little bit from overhype about this book since it was recommended so highly and talked about like mad over the summer. I wanted to love this book because everything just sounded so perfect: a strong willed STEM girl heroine, a clash between cultures, a sweet summer romance with lots of laughs, and one of the cutest book covers I’ve seen in a long time–I was all over it!

I absolutely adored the first half of this book. I could sympathize with both of the main characters, especially Dimple, whose mother reminded me of my own. I too was that nerdy awkward girl that felt uncomfortable wearing makeup and dresses and found happiness in front of a computer screen grinding out code to make websites and browser games. Like my mom, Dimple’s mother pushes her to be more feminine and doesn’t fully understand modern western culture. Dimple struggles with feeling like an outsider in both of her worlds, an experience shared by many American children with immigrant parents. It made me happy that this duality is explored in the novel as I think it’s important for children and teens that, like me, had difficulties with their cultural identity.

On the other hand there’s Rishi, who embraces his cultural heritage and doesn’t care whether or not he “fits in” with either group. He is still a modern young man adapted to western culture that also values tradition and believes with all of his heart in the fairy tale romance of his parents. He is exceptionally sweet and witty and is pretty much the ideal cute nerd boyfriend. The romance between Dimple and Rishi is swoon-worthy and made my heart melt.. Which was great for exactly half of the book.

With the Insomnia Con setting what I expected was a summer “coding camp” similar to ones like the Make School Summer Academy and others held on college campuses around the country every year. Many of these camps usually offer workshops to practice making programs, opportunities to make professional connections and to meet industry leaders, and very often have competitions where they can create and submit their own apps for a cool cash prize. I guess my expectations were misplaced because What I got, sadly, was high school drama with hook ups and a talent show that turned more into a dance competition? Dance? In a coding camp??

This was the start of when the book stopped working for me.

A large part of Dimple’s story revolves around her desire to develop her own app to catapult her into a successful tech career. The book talks at length about how much this matters to her, how she’s dying to make connections to help her on her way, and how she’s so different from other girls by being interested in coding. The book tells the reader all of these things but fails to actually show the reader these things. It’s easy to forget that the main characters are even at a coding camp because so little time is spent on it. The plot just gets plain weird and doesn’t seem to have any sort of focus, even the romance felt rushed.

Also I’m sorry, the dance competition was exceedingly boring to read. That and, well, the love story has already happened by then so the build up for that is finished as well. So what else was there? I thought heavily about skimming or just putting the book down at that point but I honestly wanted to know if Dimple would win the competition (the app one, not the dance one) and achieve her dream of becoming a high powered STEM girl. I was still optimistic that the book would get back to the code camp, but it never does. In fact, three weeks out of the six week camp is skipped completely as the story fast forwards to the result of the app completion. The more I read the more disappointed I was as the plot became more and more juvenile.

By the 3/4 mark it seemed like there was no story left to tell and was starting to seriously drag. So of course there had to be some drama to keep it going. I hated this part. Dimple’s actions in the later portion of the book quite frankly left me feeling confused because they didn’t make any sense whatsoever. It was frustrating and I quite frankly got a little mad at how Dimple treated Rishi in the latter half of the novel. Such a shame considering how amazing the story set up was and how strong the early chapters were.

The characters drift from dinners, parties, and dance practices with next to no time actually coding and it made for a surprisingly boring and mediocre read for me personally. Even despite my criticisms, When Dimple Met Rishi is still a sweet summer romance that shined in the first half of the book. Just because it didn’t work out so well for me doesn’t mean that it won’t work out for others, in fact I seem to be in quite the minority for this book. This book definitely had a lot of potential and I honestly wish that the tech girl part of the story could have been developed better and for the setting to be a little more convincing.
  
The Happy Ever After Playlist
The Happy Ever After Playlist
Abby Jimenez | 2020 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Romance
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Amazingly sexy and sweet romance
Sloan Monroe's fiance, Brandon, died two years ago, and Sloan is still hurting, a lot. Then one day she finds an adorable dog on the road--literally--and takes him home. His owner never answers her texts, and the dog, Tucker, seems to help Sloan move on. Then suddenly Tucker's owner shows up, via text, and he wants Tucker back. But Sloan's strong enough now that she's not giving up Tucker. As she starts texting with Tucker's owner, Jason, she realizes he really cares about his dog. Then Sloan also recognizes that Jason is a good guy. A really good, handsome guy. This is confirmed once they meet in person. But Jason's a musician with stardom just around the corner. Sloan needs someone here, whom she can count on. Can she really handle someone else who might leave her, again?

"I didn't cook anymore. Everyone knew that. I didn't do a lot of things anymore."

I absolutely adored this book. It was just what I needed at the time I picked it up. Jimenez gives us such a happy and sexy romance with two characters with awesome chemistry. There's the best blend of small mix-ups and humor, and you cannot help but root for Sloan and Jason from the very beginning (especially if you've read The Friend Zone). Knowing that Sloan is completely broken from Brandon's death while Jason is confident and embarking on a new career, it's completely understandable that Sloan can't risk losing herself again. Watching her find happiness--even knowing it could be gone again in a second--is beautiful, and both of these characters are so real, so true.

"I'd been lonely and attached to someone invisible for two years. I wouldn't do it again. I couldn't do it again."

While this book is emotional, it's also very sweet, and, wow, sexy at times. Jason is just a darn good guy, seemingly too good to be true, and I found myself willing him and Sloan together, desperately wanting her to get a second chance at happiness. Throw in the adorable Tucker and there's basically nothing not to love about this book. Great characters, great romance, great humor--it's all there. I loved it from beginning to end. 4.5 stars.
  
Miss Me Not
Miss Me Not
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Note: This has been on my Kindle for years--literally! I've decided every so often when there's not a book I've bought that I'm just dying to read that I'll start reading my backlog of books from the earliest bought. This was #1 - from 2013. I'm not doing bad, I only have one more book from 2013 before I start the ones from 2014. Yay!

*-*-*-*-*

This covers some rather dark topics like suicide and physical abuse. On the first page we learn of a student's suicide and Madison's feelings about it. And then the fact that she has a sort of suicide pact with her only friend. It's quite a punch to the gut that these 17 year olds feel so low due to family situations that they want to end things.

Madison had a very unconventional childhood with parents who took no notice of her at all and in an effort to gain any sort of attention from them she acted out in the past until the unthinkable happened when she was just 13. I understand how stuff like that can warp you when it happens at such a young age.

Then a ray of light appears in the form of Dean--all round good guy. He's been asked to tutor her so she doesn't flunk a class. He's determined to be her friend after watching her for years and seeing her "fade into the background" behaviour. Things progress from friendship into romance over time and we get a rather sweet romance between Dean and Madison. He's very protective of her.

Of course, things don't always go the way you want and someone close to Madison commits suicide throwing her back into the darkness of grief. Luckily, she now has a strong support system in place with Dean and his family and they manage to keep her grounded.

I thought it ended a little abruptly but it was a sweet young adult romance that covered some hard hitting topics.

Another note: Suicide does seem to be a big issue in teenagers around the world and this book does a good job of highlighting it. It doesn't seem fair to me for teens to be that low that they take their own lives. They've barely started living and they ready to die already? That's not right. I've had a few good cries while reading this.
  
Dead of Winter (Aspen Falls #1)
Dead of Winter (Aspen Falls #1)
Melissa Pearl, Anna Cruise | 2018 | Romance, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Dead of Winter (Aspen Falls #1) by Melissa Pearl & Anna Cruise
Dead of Winter is the first book in a new series called Aspen Falls, which is the name of the town Rosie Sweet returns to, even though she swore she never would. Life hasn't turned out how Rosie thought it would, and she seems to have an amazing knack of choosing the wrong men. When this lands her in deep water, she retreats to Aspen Falls, hoping that she will never be found. However, Aspen Falls is suffering a major drugs problem, and the two things just may be connected.

This is an easy-to-read romance suspense, with fade-to-black romance. Written with the combined talents of Melissa Pearl and Anna Cruise, I found their writing styles merged and complemented each other. I don't know who wrote what bit, and that doesn't bother me in the slightest. With no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading flow, I enjoyed the pacing of this book. It felt very smooth as one scene transitioned to another. Definitely recommended by me.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
40x40

Merissa (12902 KP) created a post

Sep 29, 2020  
TAKING THE FALL (Vipers MC #1) by Kally Ash. A steamy contemporary romance that can be read as a standalone. Get ready for this sweet ride with no cheating and no cliffhangers.

❤🔥❤

We weren't supposed to fall in love...

Not with these secrets between us.

But when her past and my present collide,

I have to choose between breaking her or breaking me.

Nick Sobolev is finally a free man.

After wrongfully serving five years behind bars, all Nick wants to do is keep his head down and his nose clean.

But when he meets the mysterious and very beautiful Alexis Cross, he finds himself being drawn back into the life that landed him in prison in the first place.

Alexis Cross is trying hard to escape her father and his influence, but in a city like Detroit, there’s no way to avoid either.

When her past violently collides with her present, it shatters her long-held belief that she’s finally gaining her independence, plunging her into a dangerous game with equally deadly consequences.

---

Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49229464-taking-the-fall

 Get TAKING THE FALL by Kally Ash today! On Amazon https://amzn.to/3f7xqY0 #TeaserTuesday #ContemporaryRomance #MCromance #RomanticSuspense #SteamyRomance #IReadRomance #Romance #Reading #VipersMC #TakingTheFall #booklover #bibliophile #MagicPenBookTours #KallyAshHosted by @MagicPenBookTours
     
DH
Demon Hunts (Walker Papers, #5)
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was my favorite book in the series without a doubt, because I finally get to see Joanne in love! While it is not with her boss, Morrison, whom it is obvious she has an attraction to, it is still a very satisfying romance. Her bubbly happiness is quite enjoyable to read, and it does not get on my nerves despite how sickly sweet Joanne is in the descriptions. At times, her love interest really does seem like the perfect man, and I am thrilled that she gets to have this in the midst of the chaos of her shamanic lifestyle.
I think what keeps bringing me back to this series is that Joanne's narration is both unique and comical. She is refreshingly honest about herself and her quirks and abilities and keeps a running commentary behind the scenes, even as she solves supernatural-size problems while balancing a social life and a job as a detective. Even though I still understand very little of the role of a shaman and all of Joanne's world-jumping, there is something very likable about Joanne Walker.
The other half of Joanne's romance is a man that was assumed to be dead. Aside from the romance, I love that he shows up in this book, as I get to see more of what he can and cannot do and what his personality is really like. Plus, the tension between him and Morrison is quite interesting, as it brings to the forefront the chemistry between Morrison and Joanne and makes her admit to a few things about herself.
The wendigo is the "big bad" for this book, but the final battle ends differently than what I assumed. In a way, the wendigo teaches Joanne that some flaws are acceptable and even useful. I look forward to the next book, Spirit Dances.