ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Sigh, I’m back and forth with Brayden’s stories, and this felt more back than forth.
The ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Sigh, I’m back and forth with Brayden’s stories, and this felt more back than forth.
The MCs here are Skyler, a reporter trying to make the next move up in her career, and Carrie, a news anchor. Skyler scores a reporting job at Carrie’s station and the two meet, but don’t instantly hit it off. Well� Sky has always had a thing for Carrie, but Carrie isn’t so impressed to start. Sky also happens to be Sarah’s cousin from Heart Block. Sarah, Grace and Emory feature a lot, as do Kristin and Lucy from Firework.
For the first 25% or so Carrie is stand-offish and Sky is trying to find her feet in her new job. Then they eventually admit their attraction and start a relationship, and I enjoyed that section of the book, and found their banter and chemistry entertaining. But unfortunately, as is generally the case in Brayden’s books, unnecessary drama is inserted around the 75% mark and both characters, though Sky more than Carrie, made idiotic decisions that could be solved by simply TALKING LIKE GROWN UPS. So annoying. This is eventually smoothed over by a completely unnecessary sad event and a big gesture made by the wrong person.
I loved revisiting with Sarah, Emory and Grace and their side story had some real emotional beats. Ty was also an awesome character (view spoiler)[who did not deserve the treatment he got (hide spoiler)]. I liked both MCs, but as usual, found that first person was a limitation here because Carrie was the more interesting character for me, and I would have like to have explored her feelings about what happened with her career, while I didn’t care at all about Skyler’s, and found her meteoric rise unbelievable.
Overall, I found this a bit uneven and found the drama at the end hard to overcome. 3.5 stars, rounded down, because I can’t give it 4....more
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I usually like the celebrity trope, but this one didn’t hit the mark for me. This featureARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I usually like the celebrity trope, but this one didn’t hit the mark for me. This features Lochlan (Loc), a country music star who is staring to burn out after a series of concerts. She goes to a library to write a song and meets Vanessa, a pre-med student studying for finals.
The two strike up some banter and continue to connect via social media and then in person and begin a relationship even though Loc is Narnia deep in the closet. Usually the closeted star thing is annoying because it seems unrealistic that anyone would care in this day and age, but Loc is a country singer, so that part did at least ring true.
Vanessa professes to understand this and says she will ‘protect� Loc about this, but isn’t anywhere near this understanding for long. Loc also has a BFF/manager who does nothing to help this situation, she’s mostly just a nagging bitch. Vanessa has two BFFs and an understanding family, but her BFFs come off as superficial and I couldn’t really warm to them. I did like the backstory about why she wanted to be a doctor, and her family were very sweet.
I think part of the problem I had with this is I felt Vanessa was too young to be able to navigate this situation. She’s pre-med, so I’m guessing about 20-21 and it showed. I don’t think we’re told how old Loc is but she was much more aware of the realities of her world. The requisite drama near the end was a bit much and I found the reconciliation way too rom-comy. Don’t even get me started on the implausibility of the events described in the epilogue.
Overall, this was a bit uneven, I think Grayson tried to do too much in one story, it’s a debut novel so I give her a pass there, but this is an average read. 3 stars....more
ARC received via Ylva in exchange for an honest review.
This is my second book by Brooks, I actually requested it because the sequel was the ARC for tARC received via Ylva in exchange for an honest review.
This is my second book by Brooks, I actually requested it because the sequel was the ARC for this month so I went back to read this because I’d somehow missed it. I enjoyed it, but it does have a few flaws.
This features MCs Tamsyn, a 50 year old actress who fears the downwards slide of ageing in the entertainment industry and has a bit of a dust up with her director. She’s sent to cool off for two weeks in a remote Norfolk location. Here, she meets Maggie, an author in her late 40s who writes hetero historical romances and lesbian fiction under two different pseudonyms. They are staying in two conveniently located cabins by a lake, which is how they meet.
Maggie knows who Tamsyn is right away, but Tamsyn only gets half the story about Maggie, so she knows she’s an author who pens historical romances. The two are pretty much instantly attracted, and even though Tamsyn will only be there two weeks, they agree to a ‘no strings� relationship, and some hot and heavy sexy times take place. There’s also some good secondary characters in Carmen, Tamsyn’s agent and Maggie’s sister Ruth, but the subplot with Tamsyn’s friend Lesley that I didn’t think really added anything to the book
I enjoyed reading about to older MCs, who were both in the process of reevaluating their lives for different reasons. For the MCs and their relationship, the biggest issue is that Tamsyn is Narnia deep in the closest, and that Maggie falls hard for Tamsyn. Tamsyn has to work out what she wants in life, and how to make it happen. The first part of the book was really engaging and the characters had real chemistry when they’re were together but the second part dragged a bit because they weren’t together. They do reconcile of course, but it takes awhile, and then end felt a bit rushed because of it.
Overall, this is a nice romance, and anyone who enjoys the Hollywood/famous person trope should enjoy this. 3.5 stars, but I’ve rounded up....more
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was lukewarm on the first Webber book I read A Chapter on Love, and this was a mixed baARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was lukewarm on the first Webber book I read A Chapter on Love, and this was a mixed bag as well.
The premise of this is that Allie is a massage therapist living in rural Vermont, she’s a lesbian in a small town, and her dating pool is small to non-existent. She signed herself up for a dating app and met ‘Lauren�. The two email, text and talk on the phone but have yet to video chat as this requires Allie to log in at the local library. Even though this raises red flags with Allie’s cousin, Allie continues to make excuse for Lauren until a teenager at the library points out that Lauren is actually an actress named Geena. Allie realises she’s been duped and contacts Geena to let her know that her picture is being used as catfish material.
Enter Geena, a self-centred player of an actress whose only redeeming feature appears to be that she spends six weeks a year working at a kids camp. She’s the star of a web series, but somehow thinks herself so famous that she thinks it’s ridiculous that Allie didn’t know who she was. I think it’s ridiculous that Geena is so freaking full of herself. Upon hearing that Allie has been duped using her picture, Geena’s first thought is that she will set herself the ‘challenge� of bedding Allie for some fun while she’s stuck at the kids camp (she sets a limit on her player-ness by not sleeping with anyone from the camp, what a woman!). She then contacts Allie and they meet up and Geena goes out of her way to play up her fame (though again, I found it highly unlikely that she’d be famous enough for so many people she came in contact with to know who she was). Geena is also thrilled that Allie is, in her words, ‘as good on the outside�. Man, she’s shallow.
While all this is going on Allie has had an epiphany and a makeover, she’s also joined the local roller derby league and is getting out there. I did like Allie’s character growth, I just wish she’d had it with someone else, she deserved way better than Geena. Some of their dates were fun, but this was undercut by Geena still just wanting a superficial relationship.
Anyway, about the 85% mark there’s choices to be made, and I did like that Allie wasn’t written as some clingy person, it was Geena who made the overtures there. It’s wrapped in a nice big bow, but I still think Allie deserved better. 3 stars....more
ARC provided by Ylva in exchange for an honest review.
I was a little worried about this one, I loved Music and the Mirror but wasn’t blown away by MaARC provided by Ylva in exchange for an honest review.
I was a little worried about this one, I loved Music and the Mirror but wasn’t blown away by Major Surgery. Not being a huge tennis fan, I was also worried I wouldn’t enjoy the sports side of it that much.
Turns out I didn’t have to worry on any accounts. While there is a lot of tennis and/or discussion of tennis, I found pretty much all of it interesting. This features MC Elin, a Swedish tennis player who is top of the women’s field and going for the grand slam record. She takes a side trip to a bar before a major game and meets Toni, another lower ranked player from Mexico. This sparks a friendship turned relationship between the pair, but since this is told in first person, we really only see Elin’s perspective of what happens, Toni isn’t anywhere near as fleshed out.
The two do have great chemistry and it’s a nice romance, though tennis plays a bigger part than the romance itself. There’s also some other interesting secondary characters in Elin’s family and some of the other tennis players, especially Celeste, Elin’s ex. I thought she was going to be either a bitch or sketchy but she was lovely which was a nice surprise. Elin’s sister Alice is trans, but one of the few flaws in the book was that much of her story was only hinted at, I would have liked more detail and depth there.
There’s also some sports politics and a bit of a scandal thrown in, as well as a few ups and downs in the romance department and Elin’s path to glory. I also liked that though her mother was her coach/manager, she was not the domineering character I had first thought her to be. Most all of the characters had layers. I might have enjoyed it more had both mains been given equal POV time, but it’s a minor quibble, Elin’s pretty damn interesting as the main POV.
If you love sports books, then this should be a hit for you, but even non-tennis fans should like it. I know I did. 4 stars. ...more
ARC received via Ylva in exchange for an honest review.
I chose this ARC based on so many positive reviews but I didn’t like this as much as I expecteARC received via Ylva in exchange for an honest review.
I chose this ARC based on so many positive reviews but I didn’t like this as much as I expected to.
This features MC Elizabeth (Bess) who is a British actress who has fallen out of favor of the show runners on her medical drama. The other MC is Summer, a former child star who has just started on the same show. Summer has idolized Elizabeth since she was a teen living in England but Elizabeth isn’t impressed upon their first encounter. Through a series of circumstances they are required to fake a relationship and while I usually love fauxmances, the way this was set up and especially the scene where they had to sell this to the director who required them to be girlfriends was really ridiculous. The amount of stuff they didn’t know about each other and the crap they made up about each other was just ludicrous. The guy had to be an idiot to fall for it.
Also complicating matters is that while Summer idolizes Bess, Bess has been pining for her straight mentor Grace for nearly 20 years. I’m not a huge fan of that trope at the best of times but Grace was a straight up bitch who did nothing but demean and use Bess and it just made Bess look like an idiot because she was literally the only one who couldn’t see it.
The two leads do spend a lot of time together and I did enjoy their interactions but Grace took up way too much of the story, so by the time I got to the end I thought a) Summer was Bess� rebound person and b) Summer was still hung up on Bess largely because of her crush. They had chemistry but I just wasn’t convinced about what was motivating it.
Winter is a great writer, the dialogue is crisp and the characters were interesting, especially because Bess was supposed to be an ice queen but really wasn’t (that’d be Grace). Summer was a delight and I enjoyed pretty much every scene she was in. Overall this is an ok romance, but it would have been much better if the Grace storyline had been resolved earlier. 3.5 stars....more
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I had somewhat high hopes for this after being disappointed in Brayden’s last book. I didARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I had somewhat high hopes for this after being disappointed in Brayden’s last book. I did enjoy this more than the last one, but it didn’t jump into my favourites pile.
So, the mains are Carly, a Hollywood actress whose career is in freefall after some diva like behaviour and Lauren, a stage manager at a famous theatre in Minneapolis. Lauren is nice to everyone, she’s good at her job and she’s very focused. She also wanted to be an actress at one point but gave up when she couldn’t get any parts and decided to focus on behind the scenes work.
Not gonna lie, Carly was very hard to take for about the first third of the book. This is a woman pretty much on her last chance who knows she’s not getting work because of her crappy work ethic (she’s one of those ‘everyone will just wait for me� types). So what does she do when given an opportunity to make a comeback? Treats the opportunity like it’s nothing and just continues to show up when she wants. Seriously, what an entitled little shit. Somehow, Lauren manages to fall for her despite this, even though Carly’s character growth amounts to actually showing up on time and crying when another actress puts her in her place.
Then we have Lauren, who turns into a Mary-Sue by suddenly being gifted with a role in the play (I did not buy this development for a second, but it just kept snowballing as one opportunity magically turns into everything Lauren touching turning to gold). During all of this Lauren and Carly banter their way into a relationship, and this part was pure Brayden, sparkling banter all the way.
Unfortunately it all falls apart around the 80% mark. I actually felt kinda sorry for Carly at this point, everything just came too easily for Lauren, and that would have bugged me too. Anyway, both Lauren and Carly have epiphanies and manage to reunite in the last 5% for a somewhat sweet HEA.
Parts of this are sweet, parts of it are fun, but from about the 40% mark, most of what happened with Lauren was too unbelievable for me to buy into. An average Brayden is sill better than most lesfic, so many will enjoy this, but it doesn’t have as much heart as some of her earlier books. ...more
ARC received from YLVA in return for an honest review.
This is a pretty impressive doubt novel. I didn’t pick this up when it first came out because sARC received from YLVA in return for an honest review.
This is a pretty impressive doubt novel. I didn’t pick this up when it first came out because second chance romances aren’t my favourite genre, but this had such good reviews I wanted to give it a try.
Now, the way the story is written, Bridget is made out to be the bad guy in the relationship, at least early on, but she was much more likeable (to me anyway) than the emotionally repressed Alex. And once we eventually got to the ‘why� of the breakup, also the more sympathetic of the two.
I’m not a fan of flashbacks because generally what’s contained in them could be revealed in a few conversations (which is still true here) but they didn’t bother me as much here, although I did chafe a bit at how slowly everything was revealed.
There are plenty of supporting characters, though none of them are terribly well fleshed out, mostly they’re just there to give support to whichever lead requires it at the time. This story is about Alex and Bridget though, and I enjoyed watching them navigate their way back to each other, though I did want to smack Alex for being so closed off!
This is a nice sweet romance, though readers should not that it also features no sex scenes to speak of, so if you’re after sexy times, you won’t find that here, but I didn’t feel this lacked anything due to that. As I said before, it’s an impressive debut, and I look forward to reading more from this author....more
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’m a big Beers fan, but some of her latest books haven’t hit the mark for me, so it’s beARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’m a big Beers fan, but some of her latest books haven’t hit the mark for me, so it’s been a bit up and down, but I loved this one.
MC Sophie is a famous singer whose agent has just passed away. He was a father figure to her, so this hits her hard. MC Dana is a manager/publicist who is assigned to take Sophie on after an ill advised night out.
Both MCs are attracted to each other right away, but the romance is a slow burn with them getting to know each other in ways that unfold fairly naturally and are very sweet. There’s a handful of secondary characters (besties of both MCs and Dana’s family) who aren’t particularly fleshed out but add to the story as needed. Both women are interesting and actually talk to each other, no stupid miscommunications or contrived breakups here. There’s also an age difference, which I always enjoy.
I also liked that even though this is Sophie’s first relationship with a woman, she knows what she wants and there’s no back and forth and melodrama about her feelings for Dana, Sophie’s circumstances are such that it’s entirely plausible that she hasn’t experienced this before, but she also old enough to know what she wants and just goes with it, which I found refreshing.
The only quibble I had was Dana’s ex, that storyline dragged on for too long and made Dana look a bit weak with the to-ing and fro-ing (though I was glad Beers didn’t utilise another trope by making the ex the real baddie).
All in all though, this is a nice, sweet romance and is right up there with my favourite Beers books. 4 stars....more
ARC received from YLVA in exchange for an honest review.
I liked this but didn’t love it. On the plus side, Emily and Diana are fairly well-fleshed ouARC received from YLVA in exchange for an honest review.
I liked this but didn’t love it. On the plus side, Emily and Diana are fairly well-fleshed out characters, they interact a lot, and the romance is a slow burn. I also liked the unfolding of watching how Diana worked her way back into her preferred profession, and the hospital setting is always interesting.
On the down side, I did not buy into Diana’s ‘secret� for even a second. If she’s that well known that her past profession would be an issue for her work then someone would have actually recognised her well before it was revealed in the story (especially since she was dumb enough to keep frequenting places where she’d be reocngnised and also doing the very thing that would have her be recognised). So that plot line fell flat for me. Emily’s hot and cold persona also grated.
I liked Emily and Diana together enough to keep going with the story, and the fact that Emily took steps to allow their relationship to continue at work was also good. I also liked that there was no overly contrived drama towards the end to break them up. Overall I thought this was an ok read and would read more by this author, but I wasn’t blown away. 3.5 stars...more
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