The First Date Prophecy by Kate Tamberelli and Danny Tamberelli

Like a lot of rom-com characters, Lucy and Rudy have not been lucky in love. But they haven’t given up, and when they match on a dating app, things are looking up.

Setup 

Lucy is a quirky rom-com writer who can’t catch a break and is instead working as a personal assistant for a writer who has caught all the breaks, and supplementing that with other random gigs she finds on Craigslist. Rudy is a former child star whose star power has dulled a little while his brother’s has only gotten brighter. He’s doing comedy gigs and scraping by. 

A Crystal Ball

Lucy and Rudy connect on a dating app and Rudy plans an interesting first date involving a well-known restaurant with a resident psychic. They go up to get their fortunes told, and the psychic manages a mysterious prophecy about the two of them working together before the session is abruptly ended. 

Working Together

Lucy and Rudy aren’t sure what to make of things, but they decide to follow the advice of the psychic and see what comes of associating together, all while trying to figure out how they can actually work-work together. When Rudy’s living situation implodes, Lucy offers him a comfy closet in her place. With life throwing them together, it’s not surprising that they get close, and it’s nice to see a relatively slow burn finally pay off.

Conclusion

Lucy and Rudy are both great characters with interesting backstories, and I enjoyed watching them come together and both grow over the course of the book. A bonus is the book is pretty funny, too.

The Boyfriend Project (Boyfriend Project #1) by Farrah Rochon

This is my first Farrah Rochon book. I had high hopes because of the blurb on the cover from Kristan Higgins, who has long been one of my favorite authors. And I am happy to say that the book lived up to those expectations. 

The Boyfriend Project book cover

Setup

The Boyfriend Projects starts us off with Samiah Brooks, a high-achieving Black woman working in software at a very well-respected tech company, a company everybody wants to work for. The book doesn’t dwell on this, but we are reminded that she had to work twice as hard as the men, and then twice as hard again as the white people, to land such a lucrative and desirable position. So we know she’s good at her job, and when we learn that she has been working on an idea for a phone app, we have no doubt she could get it done if she just had the time.

The Dating Scene (in Both Senses of the Word)

The reason she doesn’t have time? Dating. It’s not going great, but there’s one guy she’s been seeing who seems okay. But when she finds out he’s two-timing her, she goes to confront him at a restaurant, only to find it’s actually three-timing and the other women are there—and somebody’s recording the whole incident. 

The video goes viral and Samiah is embarrassed, but the three women become friends and make a pact to steer clear of men for the next six months and focus on themselves. For Samiah, this means working on her app.

The New Guy

The problem with this decision? Daniel, one of her company’s recent hires. They have instant chemistry, but she is not in a place to do anything about that. And Daniel has reasons of his own (very good ones—he’s an undercover investigator) for not wanting to get involved in a relationship. But of course, that vow to stay apart doesn’t last. (I mean, we know this is a romance novel, right?) 

The Job

Samiah tries to work on the app and do her somewhat demanding job and date Daniel, and it’s difficult, but she manages it. Daniel continues his work, knowing this won’t last with Samiah because he’ll be leaving town when the job is done. Samiah of course has no idea that this is only temporary for him, but the problem for Daniel is that he doesn’t want it to be. But he has a job to do. 

Conclusion

I loved the resolution in the book—how he betrays her and how they both come to terms with that in a way that is very believable. I enjoyed the tech setting of the book, too (even though some of the stuff they worked on didn’t really make total sense to me, but whatever)—it’s definitely one that would appeal to fans of office romance. I also love to see characters who aren’t white (Daniel is mixed, Black and Korean) star in a book that’s achieved mainstream success. I highly recommend this for fans of contemporary romance. 

New Release! Finally in Tune

I’m happy to announce that the second book in the Coded for Love series is out now! Finally in Tune is Casey’s story.

Here’s the description:

Casey Washington has had well-earned success in her career as a data scientist at a start-up in Portland, but all the data in the world hasn’t made love possible for her. She’s always lamented Adam Raines, the one that got away in college, simply because the timing wasn’t right.

Adam has been able to get back to his first love, music, since his divorce. He’s happy even if life is complicated with his three kids, running his record shop with his brother, and slowly building a name for himself as a songwriter. He has no time for love, but his mind has been going back to his college days, and the woman he’s never forgotten.

When tragedy brings Casey back to Oklahoma and into Adam’s record shop, their entirely different worlds meet head on and everything is turned upside down. Adam offers to help her catalog her dad’s record collection. The energy between them is off the charts, but they both know that Casey’s time in Oklahoma is limited. Nothing real can come out of this reconnection—but they both can dream, right?

The real question is whether or not the dream can come true.

It’s available in Kindle Unlimited and for Kindle purchase or paperback purchase. 

Although it’s not set in stone, I’m hoping to release book 3—Sujata’s story—at the end of the year, or early next. 

Now That You Mention It by Kristan Higgins

I’m a huge fan of Higgins and have read all her romances and am working my way through her more recent novels. I’ve had Now That You Mention It on my TBR shelf for a few years now. Actually, it was technically in a very tall stack of books perched precariously on the edge of a rolltop desk in my bedroom, but I had to move all those books when junk removal took the desk, and this book was the winner. And I’m glad because I loved it.

Now That You Mention It book cover

This book follows Nora Stuart, who escaped a Maine island by winning a scholarship to Tufts, and she’s never looked back. But when her world falls apart after she gets hit by a van, she returns for the first time in fifteen years. She was worried because she figured she was considered a pariah on her home island, and when she reaches it, she discovers she wasn’t wrong. It doesn’t matter that it’s entirely unfair—the scholarship she won was “supposed” to go to her popular classmate and she “stole” it from him. People don’t recognize her because when she left after high school, she was overweight and largely considered a loser, but she’s really sorted herself out in Boston, where she’s shed the weight, has a great career as a doctor, has a great boyfriend, and has a great dog. Well, the boyfriend has gone a bit sideways, as he reveals himself to be a jerk, but everything else is great. However, there is something in her past that has shaken her up quite a bit, which she calls the Big Bad Event (BBE). It takes a while for us to find out what happened, but Higgins paces that reveal perfectly. 

On the island, she doesn’t exactly get a warm reception. Her mom is rather emotionally unavailable, Nora has to share a room with her fifteen-year-old niece who’s living there because Nora’s sister is in jail, and she’s constantly having to explain who she is to the islanders and then field the surprise and questions. But when she gets herself set up on a cute fancy houseboat some Uber-rich guy has moored there, things get better. She gets herself hired at the local urgent care clinic and makes friends there. She knows she’s going back to Boston after she has healed and her leave is over, but she’s settling in. She works hard on getting her very cynical niece to open up, befriends the super-friendly teenage daughter of one of her classmates, engineers a friendship between that girl and her niece, and gets friendly herself with the sexy old classmate, all while trying to avoid the former classmate she “stole” the scholarship from. She also befriends the woman she remembers as the Chinese girl with an accent that joined their school senior year, but she’s now discovered that the woman is hilarious, takes no shit, and throws F-bombs around right and left. I love her. (I love non-aggressive cussing. More people should cuss non-aggressively.)

So there’s a lot going on, and a lot is at stake emotionally, which is what I love about Higgins’ books. It’s great to follow Nora as she figures things out and shapes her future, which is different from what she imagined when she first arrived back on the island. I highly recommend this for fans of stories about taking a hard look at your life and doing better by yourself. 

The A.I. Who Loved Me (The Hive #1) by Alyssa Cole

The A.I. Who Loved Me book coverAlyssa Cole is a seriously diverse writer, in the sense that she writes so many different types of books. Contemporary romance, historical romance in different time periods, sci-fi romance, and she’s even written a psychological thriller. I personally find this really admirable.

But on to the book I’m reviewing. The A.I. Who Loved Me, the sci-fi romance I mentioned, is a very unusual book, which I’ll get to later. It’s set in the not-too-distant future where artificial intelligence is fully integrated into home automation. All appliances have AI capabilities and each home has a built-in chat-bot, basically. The systems can detect emotional and physical traits in the home’s inhabitants and so on.

Trinity lives alone in her apartment, recovering from some sort of trauma. She has a therapist she sees (“sees”—she talks to her through the microphone and speaker built in to her house, rather than going anywhere). She also has a couple of good friends who come over, and she chats with her home AI, Penny, quite a bit. She has a fear of the elevator, which is related to the attack she experienced. But still, she thinks she’s doing okay. Then her older neighbor’s hot nephew moves in. Li Wei is socially awkward but infinitely appealing.

I mentioned above that this is an unusual book, and it’s not because of the story. The story is partially told through Trinity’s counseling transcripts, transcripts of other events, some unusual structured conversations Li Wei has with people, although the rest of the book is regular narrative through Trinity and eventually Li Wei.

The plot is definitely the book’s strength, with lots of questions (What happened to Trinity? Why is Li Wei so weird? etc.) that eventually get answered. It’s clear from the beginning that Trinity’s employer is maybe an evil far-reaching corporation-type entity, and we finally understand at the end.

If you are interested in AI and how it’s really going to interact with us in the future, this book shows one possibility. Plus there’s a nice romance to go along with it. Trinity and LI Wei are both likable characters, and you want to see them figure things out. I recommend this for fans of sci-fi romance in general.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Beach Read book coverI was recommended this book by a friend who doesn’t generally read romance—but she said it was smart and interesting. And she was right. It was very good, definitely right up my alley.

January Andrews is a romance writer who’s gone through quite the rough patch and is currently in need of a completed book manuscript. What she’s got is nothing. She inherited her father’s illicit love nest when he died and she discovered he’d had a mistress. She wants to sell it, so she thinks she’ll accomplish both her goals at once: she’ll head out to the house on a Michigan lake for the summer and get it ready to sell, and hole up and write her manuscript.

January’s old college rival and crush, Augustus Everett, is a famous literary writer also experiencing a bout of mild writer’s block. He’s also her new next-door neighbor at the lake. When the two are reunited at the local bookstore/coffeeshop, it doesn’t go well. He is dismissive of her genre and offends her right away, and then, to my great amusement, she asks him:

What’s it like writing Hemingway circle-jerk fan fiction?

He doesn’t really know what to say to that.

They really don’t get along. But after they both get tricked into attending a book club that is about neither of their books, he drives her home and they warm up just a tiny bit. Then they decide to challenge each other with an odd deal: she will teach him how to write romantic fiction and he will help her lose the happy ending so she can write bleak literary fiction. They’ll help each other with lessons. January will go with Gus to his interviews with survivors of a local cult whose encampment was burned down by its leader. And she will educate him in the ways of rom-coms. What these little lessons amount to are some weird almost-dates, but they relax around each other and start really making progress on their books.

They also get closer. Each of them is damaged, though January is a little oblivious to Gus’s situation for a while (and Gus is just a little oblivious in general). But eventually all comes to light and they finally see each other clearly, leading to another satisfying conclusion.

Like my friend said, this is a smart romance with characters with great depth. It’s well-plotted and should make any fan of feminist contemporary romance happy.

Vegas Baby (Howler Sports Talent Agency #1) by Anne Shaw

Vegas Baby book coverThis series is unusual in sports romances because what ties the books together is a sports talent agency rather than a sports team of some type, but I think it works because you get exposed to different aspects of the sports world, which is interesting.

It’s appropriate that the first book is about Howler himself, the agency’s founder. Xavier Hamilton—better known as Howler for something he did in his childhood—is a successful agent in Seattle. But the book opens with him and Raina—the lawyer for the Seattle Pioneers football team—entertaining a football player named Veer and his fiancé in Vegas, Anaya. And Raina is acting like a party girl, something which surprises and amuses Howler because she’s normally uptight. Raina, Howler, Veer, and Anaya make a complicated agreement that involves Raina and Howler pretending to be happily married in order to help convince Anaya’s father that Veer going into professional football isn’t a bad idea. One thing leads to another and they end up getting married (as you do…). The opening is entirely in Howler’s point of view, which makes sense when we switch to Raina’s. Because the next morning, she has no recollection of any of it, since she’d taken a sleeping pill and gone out afterward.

The next chapters of the book are pretty entertaining, with Raina and Howler taking part in Veer and Anaya’s wedding celebration and acting happily married when they actually sort of hate each other. The background of the Indian wedding is also fun. Raina and Howler of course agree to get a divorce as soon as they’ve gotten back to Seattle after Veer has signed with the Pioneers. Once they’re back, things get complicated by something unexpected. Then we get to see them try to work through everything, which true-to-form they do with a legal contract. There are some heart-wrenching moments in the story like you’d expect in a good book, and it’s great to see how they manage to work through their differences. Both characters are deeply developed and their conflict is real but ultimately surmountable.

If you like sports romances but want something a little different than going through a team’s roster, try this one.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters #1) by Talia Hibbert

Get a Life, Chloe Brown book coverThere’s a lot of deserved buzz around this enemies-to-lovers story. It’s set in England and features a black woman suffering from chronic pain and white troubled artist working as a building superintendent, and it’s definitely interesting and different.

Chloe is a web designer who comes from a rich family and has just moved out of her parents mansion as part of a life-improvement venture. After a near-death experience, she made a list of all the things she should do to make her life better. Things like riding a motorcycle, having a fun, drunken night out, and traveling the world with nothing but hand luggage.

Although she and Red, the building’s superintendent, constantly butt heads, she has sneakily admired him painting while shirtless. After he helps her down from an ill-advised rescue of a cat in a tree, she discovers that he needs a website for his art. She decides he can help her with some of her list, so they agree to a trade: she’ll do the site for free if he helps her “get a life” via her list.

Gradually they get to know each other and discover their mutual attraction, and things go from there. Red is a really nice guy, even though I didn’t find him as appealing as Chloe did, but that’s fine for the story. Chloe finds him very attractive, and their antics show he feels quite the same.

Overall, this is a good story featuring at least one character who’s typically underrepresented in romance (though things are starting to change). If you’re looking for a different but hot story, try this one out.

Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev

This is a followup to last year’s Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, featuring Trisha’s cousin, Ashna.

Recipe for Persuasion book coverAshna wants to save the restaurant she inherited from her father, Curried Dreams. Her friend is in TV and convinces her to be on a cooking-with-celebrities show. She has no idea who she’ll be paired with, but it turns out to be Rico, who is both her ex-boyfriend (from high school) and a world-renowned, just-retired soccer player. Unbeknownst to Ashna, Rico arranged to be her partner in an attempt to provide some closure to their relationship and prove to himself (and her) that he’s over her. Instead, they become fan favorites and the sexual tension between them is strong throughout the book, despite the fact that Ashna pretends to not know him, which annoys Rico. The further they get in the competition, the tenser things get between them, in all ways.

Ashna has a lot of other stuff going on, too. She’s still trying to manage the restaurant, and then her somewhat estranged mom shows back up. The two of them have a very complicated relationship due to the fact that her mom, Shobi, basically left her behind with Ashna’s aunt and uncle to take care of her, while she spent her time in India working on women’s rights. She is about to receive the Padma Shri, which is an Indian national medal given for distinguished service. Shobi is an important character in the book and has a few point of view chapters, even though it’s mostly Ashna’s story. Ashna’s never forgiven Shobi for abandoning her, but she learns that there is more to that complicated story.

The story is told mostly in present time, though there are several important flashbacks to Ashna and Rico’s early days and to Shobi’s, as well. It’s told from three points of view: Ashna, Rico, and a little from Shobi. Despite the intense sexual tension throughout the book, the heat level is lower than I expected, given Dev’s previous books.

Overall, this was a good novel with lots of angst and false beliefs to overcome. If you’ve enjoyed Dev’s earlier novels, you’ll definitely like this one.

Wrong to Need You (Forbidden Hearts #2) by Alisha Rai

Wrong to Need You book coverWrong to Need You is the second book in the Forbidden Hearts series, which deals with the Kane and the Chandler families and their tangled and troubled history. Sadia Ahmed is Paul Kane’s widow (she never changed her name—yay!), which makes Jackson Kane her brother-in-law. That makes for a slightly awkward pairing for sure, which both characters are fully aware of.

Sadia runs Kane’s, the family cafe that Paul ran before he died. She also works as a bartender for extra money, because the cafe isn’t doing great. She doesn’t love owning and running it. She’s been admiring a stranger who’s been coming into the bar for a while. He’s buff and has nice hands, which she thinks is weird of her to notice, but I don’t. So she’s shocked when she finds out it’s none other than Jackson, her long-lost brother-in-law. He disappeared ten years earlier after being cleared as a suspect in an arson incident that resulted in the Chandler’s grocery store burning down. But it turns out things are pretty complicated (as you’d expect in a Rai book).

Sadia’s long-time cook has left the cafe and she’s desperately in need of a chef. As soon as he learns that, Jackson sort of forces his way into the job (not in a bad way). She’s hesitant but agrees for one day, which turns into a longer-term-but-still-temporary situation. Turns out he’s a chef (who knew? Not any of his relatives). Then she, against her better judgment, offers to let him stay in her garage apartment so he’s not stuck in a hotel for the short time he’s in town. Given who wrote this book, you can guess what comes next—some hot scenes. But again, it’s not all that simple. When Jackson learns something shocking about Paul, he’s hurt and his family troubles get stirred up. And when Sadia learns the same secret, it freaks her out, too.

One other aspect of the book that’s important is Sadia’s six-year-old, Kareem. He quickly forms an attachment to Uncle Jackson and both Sadia and Jackson want that relationship to continue. But as far as the two of them are concerned, they’re both certain they’re wrong for each other. As it turns out, that’s not the case. They just have to deal with lots of emotional turmoil to realize it’s okay, and even that dead Paul is probably okay with it, too.

If you like lots of angst, complicated family relationships, and steamy love scenes, you will enjoy Wrong to Need You*. Check it out.

*One tiny caveat. The family thing with the Kanes and Chandlers is seriously complicated. I had forgotten most of it since reading the first book, which left me going, Who? What? Huh? sometimes, so I’d recommend reading Book 1 not long before reading this one.

The Matchmaker’s List by Sonya Lalli

The Matchmaker's List book coverThe premise of this book is simple: Raina, a half-Indian 29-year-old Canadian, has promised her (Indian) grandmother, who raised her, that she will agree to be set up on dates if she isn’t married by 30. Everyone remotely familiar with Indian culture will understand that this is a typical situation for women in their late 20s. Raina’s grandmother, Nani, jumps the gun a bit and starts harassing her early, giving her a list of suitable Indian men for her to contact and even setting up a meeting herself. Raina wants to find someone on her own, but meets some of these men, leading to some pretty funny scenes. To make matters worse, Raina’s best friend is engaged to a perfect guy, and she doesn’t seem to understand Raina’s situation.

There is actually a lot going on in the book. It shows how Indian culture operates, even in Canada, and how much unfair pressure gets put on women. Raina tries to be a dutiful granddaughter but she’s a strong, modern woman who doesn’t think that the only thing she’s good for is marrying and reproducing. She has a successful career in banking and works hard and a lot, and in many ways she doesn’t have time to date. But even more significant is her ex-boyfriend, who she’s very hung-up on. She thinks they might have a chance and doesn’t want to throw that away by settling for someone just for the sake of getting married. So the book deals a lot with the psychology of trying to please one conservative (but evolving) culture while living in an ostensibly more modern one.

I really liked the story, although there are some things that happen in the second half that I didn’t love. Raina allows Nani to think something about her that isn’t true, and Raina lets that little lie go on long enough that it hurts people. That kind of bugged me. This isn’t a romance even though it is a story about love, partially because it’s impossible to tell who’ll she’ll end up with (even though any reader would guess that she’d end up with somebody). I have to admit I felt a little unmoored by this because I wasn’t sure who to care about besides Raina and her family and friends. What guy should I root for? I had no idea. And the romance with the guy she does finally end up with felt a little forced. I didn’t really see their attraction build like I would have liked. Though to be fair, I did really like the guy (much better than the ones she passed on!).

Despite having those qualms with the story, I think Raina herself is a wonderfully complex and likable character. The other main characters (primarily her friend Shay, Nani) are also interesting and well-depicted. There’s some good conflict with both of them that felt very realistic and it was satisfying to see it resolved.

In summary, if you’re curious about/interested in Indian culture in Canada and America, this will definitely educate you while keeping you entertained with a good story. I imagine it’s probably also especially popular with any second-generation+ immigrants who have to deal with two worlds the way Raina does. It can’t be easy.

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

Things You Save in a Fire book coverThere was a lot of buzz about this book—I saw it on several high-profile writers’ recommendation lists. So I finally bought it even though it’s still in hardback. I pulled it off the precarious stack of TBR books in my bedroom and cracked it open.

And I’m glad I did. Although it wasn’t at all what I expected. Let’s face it—a lot of romances (even exceptionally good ones) are a little fluffy. People have problems, but you wonder if maybe they aren’t overreacting just a little to be swearing off relationships for that particular reason. But in this book, I completely bought Cassie’s aversion to relationships, and I also completely bought (and loved) her aversion to all things girly. I also liked that she does not forsake everything she worked for to become some super-feminine flower at the end. She’s still her badass self.

Because Cassie is a badass. She’s a tough firefighter/paramedic who dives boldly into dangerous situations when it involves the opportunity to save someone. She’s only 5’5” (if I’m remembering correctly), but she works out and is very strong. I mean, she can dead-lift 200 pounds and do twenty pull-ups.

The book opens with Cassie at an awards ceremony, where she’s supposed to get an award for rescuing a bunch of kids from a schools in a river. This goes a little wonky when the guy they send out to give her the award turns out to be someone from her past who had done a great deal of damage to her (she doesn’t tell us what he’d done, exactly, but I guessed right) and then chooses that particular moment to grab her ass while they’re behind the podium. This is not a good choice on his part, because she goes ballistic and beats him over the head with the award.

Somehow she escapes punishment from this (she rightly guesses he won’t press charges). But the city wants her to apologize to him and she refuses. So her choices are to be fired, or to transfer to a fire station far, far away. As it happens, the latter works out well because her mom has requested that she go live with her in Massachusetts. So she does, but not before getting some advice from her (female) captain:

If your captain says to run a mile, run two. If he wants you to dead-lift one fifty, do one seventy-five.

Don’t even act afraid. Don’t even hesitate. Don’t ever admit when you don’t understand.

Don’t back down from a challenge, … and if you go up against somebody, make damn sure to win. No fear! If your hands start to shake, sit on them.

New rules: Never admit to being hurt. Pain is for the weak.

Don’t have feelings.

Typical. Cassie’s captain wasn’t wrong about what she’d face as the first woman firefighter in this fire station. It’s rough. A rookie starts the same day she does and they bond a little, but she keeps her distance because she finds herself attracted to him and knows that’s the biggest risk of all for a woman firefighter. But they spend a lot of time together, both getting pranked and on more productive things like training. She faces a lot of trouble, with the pranking, the actual secret harassment from one of the guys (it takes a while to figure out which one), and her new captain being a real hardass. But eventually she earns the respect of the crew, by following her old captain’s instructions—for the most part. She doesn’t manage to quite keep away from the rookie. But then everything appears to be lost when the rookie gets injured in a fire. I won’t give away how that exactly works out because it surprised me.

If you like genuinely tough characters, especially a woman trying to make it in a male-dominated profession, then you will like this. But even if you’re just looking for a tame romance (heat-wise) with some real struggles, you should also appreciate this book. I really enjoyed it and recommend it without reservation.

Moonlighter (The Company #1) by Sarina Bowen

Moonlighter book coverI know I’ve been seriously neglecting this blog. I have been busy and haven’t read a romance lately, so I’ve had nothing to review. But I think I’m over my reading slump, so I’m going to try to do a review at least every three weeks. Starting with one from my favorite author this week.

Moonlighter is the first in a new series, but it stars Eric Bayer, who you may remember from the Brooklyn Bruisers team. His brother and father run a top-notch security company (this also featured in at least one earlier book, too) that occasionally exhibits quasi-legal behavior. While he’s off from hockey, Eric gets guilted into being a fake boyfriend on a short trip to Hawaii for one of their clients.

Alex Engels is the CEO of a big cable company that is expanding into new territory (technology-wise). She’s young and she and Eric have a bit of a history. As kids, they spent a summer together and had a lot of fun, and when they ran into each other as adults, Eric tried to talk to her and she dismissed him coldly because she thought he was hitting on her and didn’t recognize him. So it’s a little awkward when they meet again in the security company office.

This book was full of unexpected twists. The reason that she needs a fake boyfriend is because she’s pregnant by her ex-boyfriend, who hit her so she had broken up with him, and he’s going to be at the conference in Hawaii. But things get more surprising from there. The technology she’s put everything into is a smart speaker called the Butler, which is smarter than any other smart speaker out there, but more importantly, it’s also got the best security on the market. Things go a bit haywire from there, in ways I didn’t expect. It actually almost turns into a romantic suspense after the first half.

The chemistry between the two is hot, and Eric is such a great guy that you can’t help but adore him, even when his first declaration of love is quite juvenile. Alex herself is very cool because she’s worked her way up (sort of—it was her dad’s company, but she didn’t exactly start off as CEO) and she regularly has to deal with the sexism of the industry and the world in general, which she does with style.

Especially if you’re a fan of Bowen’s hockey romances, check out this new series. But any contemporary fan should enjoy it.   

2019 Books in Review

I don’t know what’s going on, but I didn’t read as much as normal over the past year, so my consumption of romance and other adult contemporary is way down. Looking back on the year, I only reviewed seventeen books, when I used to read a romance every week. I’m hoping I can get back to normal. I did still manage to reach my Goodreads challenge—110 books—but a good chunk of those were nonfiction that was work-related, and the others were mostly young adult (I write YA under a different pen name).

Anyway. So I decided to pick the four books that stayed with me the most from this year’s reviews.

One of my earliest reviews, done in January, was for Catch of the Day, by Kristan Higgins. She is one of my favorite authors because she handles character emotions—and consequently reader emotions—so adeptly. It’s just hard not to be moved. In this book, the main character has an awkward and pointless crush on a priest (probably because she knows nothing will ever happen and she’s trying to keep her heart safe) when she gets to know a local and very taciturn fellow who turns out to be a pretty great guy. I’m not saying it’s not a little cliche, but the characters stuck with me.

Another book that really moved me was Superfan by Sarina Bowen, which I reviewed in July. She’s another of my favorite authors because of her masterful ability to handle emotions. When I reviewed it, I said this was one of her voiciest books yet because she does such a great job with two characters in very different places (both very successful in different careers) who of course have very different ways of speaking (and thinking). Although there are some dark things that happen, overall the book is one of her lighter ones.

The second-to-last book I reviewed, Good Luck with That by Kristan Higgins, was another of my favorites. This one isn’t a strict romance, falling into my non-genre category of contemporary adult fiction, but there are two romances that take place in the story. This is a really deep book dealing with body image in a way that I found so powerful. And it’s no coincidence that Higgins makes it on the list twice—her characters experience the ups and downs of emotion that keep the reader going.

The last book I’ll mention is The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai, which was the last book I reviewed, in November. This one is kind of interesting—I didn’t really relate to the heroine, but I liked her and rooted for her. And I especially liked the hero, who was a really good guy who cared about a variety of things that made him very sympathetic.

And there you have my favorite four from the books I reviewed this year.