Category: ARC Copy

Just Some Stupid Love Story by Katelyn Doyle

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

🌶️🌶️/5

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💖2nd chance

💖High School Sweethearts

💖Enemies to Lovers

💖Opposites Attract

💖Grumpy vs Sunshine

💖Long Distance

Just Some Stupid Love Story was a quick read that I really enjoyed. It’s perfect for the beach or if you need something funny and sexy to read.

Grumpy vs. Sunshine is one of my favorite tropes, and usually, it’s the guy who is grumpy and unavailable. I absolutely love when it’s flipped around!

Meet Molly – she’s emotionally unavailable, with a host of problems she’s working through, including anxiety, depression, and some really deep dad issues. (Her dad sucks.) In a delightful twist, she writes rom-com screenplays and is very successful at it.

Meet Seth – an eternal optimist in search of true love. He’s loyal, funny, and just a tiny bit over the top. All he wants is a family of his own. He’s a divorce lawyer who tries his best to help his clients and their families get through a horrible moment in their lives without causing chaos.

The book spans from when Molly and Seth meet up again at their 15th high school reunion in November 2018 through their 20th in 2023. This is quite a time span for one novel, but I feel it was well done and not rushed. I enjoyed the email and text exchanges we got to read. It’s challenging when the characters are apart for a significant portion of the book, as they are here. But between their correspondence, chance encounters, and planned meetings, it was handled very well.

If you’re a fan of Katherine Center, Abby Jimenez, or Ali Hazelwood, I think you’ll love Katelyn Doyle too. The writing is quick, funny, and flows so well. I also really like dual POV in my romance books, so I was happy we got to bounce between both Molly and Seth. There’s also a great cast of side characters that we get to know and love.

The author Katelyn Doyle writes historical romances under the name Scarlett Peckham, but this is her Rom-Com debut. I can’t wait to see what comes next!

A huge thank you to the author, the publisher Flatiron Press and NetGalley for sending me this amazing book for my review. It’s on sale now and you can pick up your copy by clicking here.

Darling Girls By Sally Hepworth

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

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Ready for a wild ride? Because Sally Hepworth is about to take you on one with Darling Girls. This is one twisty thriller, my bookworm friends. Jessica, Norah, and Alicia were all told how lucky they were to end up at Wild Meadows with the lovely Miss Fairchild. Turns out that lady was bananas with a capital B. At first, it’s just Jessica, but she’s joined shortly after by Norah and Alicia, and the three form an unbreakable bond. It grows stronger when Amy arrives, as does Miss Fairchild’s crazy factor. The girls manage to engineer a breakout, but there are consequences to crossing a crazy lady. Like suddenly, poof, no Amy.

Years later, Jessica owns her own house-cleaning business where she steals pills from her clients, Alicia is a social worker trying to help foster kids like herself, and Norah is still always in trouble. The girls are called when a body is discovered buried in the basement of Wild Meadows, forcing them to rehash memories they thought were long buried.

The book is told from multiple POVs, from Jessica, Norah, Alicia, and an unnamed narrator, and bounces between the past and the present.

It’s really hard to write spoiler-free reviews of thrillers because I don’t want to inadvertently give anything away. But I’ll say this: that last chapter came out of LEFT FIELD for me. Not because I didn’t suspect who the unnamed narrator was (I did), but because I totally bought the original story. Not that it made me feel any better about it, but holy cow, Miss Fairchild is a psycho.

On sale now, you can grab your copy here. It’s available in KU and also as BOTM.

As always, I encourage you to read this book and form your own opinions, just as I have. Thank you to the author Sally Hepworth, the publisher St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the ARC copy of this book.

You’ll Never Find Me by Allison Brennan

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

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So, the month of June has been one big romance rabbit hole for me. I needed a nice police procedural to mix things up. Lucky for me, Allison Brennan just released the first book in what looks to be an exciting new series.

Margo Angelhardt is a private investigator in the middle of a family spat with her mom and siblings, who own Angelhardt Investigations. Margo has split from them and is running her own operation. She’s hired by Brittany to prove that her husband, Logan, is having an affair. Margo tracks Logan to his meetup with Jennifer, where she encounters her siblings Jack and Tess, who are running surveillance on Jennifer for stealing company secrets. Things get sticky when Margo and Angelhardt Investigations are forced to work together for the sake of their clients. Throw in the fact that Margo has a psycho cop looking for her (she has a side hustle helping abused spouses get out of bad situations) and that nothing is what it seems, and you have a classic Allison Brennan mystery.

The book is told in multiple POVs, primarily from Margo, Tess, and Jack. We also get the POVs of Peter Carillo (the cop), The Thief, and Theo Washington (a side character who works for Margo), to name a few.

I love this book for so many reasons. First off, Allison Brennan is a story-crafting goddess. I know that when I’m looking for a good police procedural whodunit cop PI book, I won’t be disappointed if I pick one of hers. I am also a huge fan of series. I don’t like getting attached to characters and then never hearing from them again. This book perfectly sets up the series. Margo’s dad is in jail for murder, and his refusal to fight the charges is what causes the Angelhardt family split in the first place. Our book ends with Margo coming back into the family fold and setting up the rest of the series.

On sale now, you can grab your copy here

As always, I encourage you to read this book and form your own opinions, just as I have. Thank you to the author Allison Brennan, the publisher Harlequin Trade Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC copy of this book.

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

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GUP is back and he’s abroad! Patrick, Maisie, and Grant are bouncing around Europe as their dad prepares to remarry.

Set five years after the events of The Guncle, Patrick is trying to teach the kids about love as they struggle to accept their dad’s new soon-to-be wife.

The Guncle Abroad is chock-full of everything that I loved about the first book and more. The Guncle Rules are back, along with Guncle Love Languages.

Once again, I laughed, I teared up, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

The Guncle Abroad captures the essence of what it means to be a family, with all its imperfections and beauty.

Thank you so much to the author, Netgalley and the publisher Putnam Books for giving me this opportunity to read an ARC copy, especially because I loved The Guncle so much.

The Guncle is out now and you can grab your copy here.

The Seaside Sisters by Pamela Kelley

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

🫑/5

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Part romance, part women’s fiction, The Seaside Sisters is an ode to sisterhood in all its messy forms. Sisters Hannah and Sara are mourning the loss of their mom, while their Aunt Maddie is grieving her sister. What better place to do that than on the Cape?

Set on Cape Cod for one summer, Maddie attempts to save her marriage, Sara struggles to find her place as a working mom and wife, and Hannah just wants to get her next book written after a breakup.

Cape Cod is my happy place, so I’m always delighted when it’s the setting for a good book, especially with our annual summer vacation there coming up soon.

I loved this book so much and really identified with Sara and her struggle to be seen and appreciated. This was my first Pamela Kelley book, but it won’t be my last.

As always, I encourage you to read for yourself and see how you like it. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Thank you to the author, the publisher St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for sending me and ARC copy. It’s on sale now and you can pick up your copy by clicking here.

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

🫑/5

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💖Closed Door Romance

💖Forced Proximity

💖Grumpy vs Sunshine

💖Strangers to Lovers

💖 Workplace Romance

🏠 Hollywood Setting

🚫No spice (hence the bell pepper 😂)

Just finished The Rom-Commers and wow, what a ride. Seriously, the ups and down in this book. I can’t even. Even though I usually read romance books with a lot of spice, I adore Katherine Center’s books. The characters she creates jump off the page and come to life. This was no exception.

Emma is so strong and selfless. I instantly wanted to give her a hug. And I also kind of want to shake her. The poor girl has put her whole life on hold to take care of her dad, blaming herself for his accident and the loss of her mom. I really hate that she was manipulated into working with Charlie. Logan sucks. He’s sneaky and tells half-truths and keeps secrets. Thank goodness he somewhat redeemed himself. But he was a pretty awful friend for a while.

It took me a little bit longer to warm up to Charlie. He’s kind of a jerk for the first half of the book. I have to admit I was pretty nervous about his cough, though. As someone who is familiar with sarcoma and its recurrence, as soon as he started coughing I had to stop myself from skipping ahead to make sure he was okay. It’s sweet how he takes care of his guinea pig. By the end of the book, I had heart eyes for him. 😍

I love this ode to romance and rom-coms and the joy they bring. Hands down one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. I would have liked it to be dual POV, but if you check out the audio, you get a little sneak peek into Charlie in one of my favorite scenes (the diving board!!!).

As always, I encourage you to read for yourself and see how you like it. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

A huge thank you to the author, the publisher St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for sending me this amazing book for my review. It’s on sale now and you can pick up your copy by clicking here

Mr. Wicked by Marni Mann

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

🌶🌶🌶🌶/5

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Book #2 in Marni Mann’s Hooked series follows the second of the Hooked boys Grayson after a paparazzi scandal. With the company in jeopardy due to his poor choice of words, he’s forced to face his biggest fear: commitment. In order to restore his reputation, his business partners decide he needs to get married. They hire an image consultant who picks the perfect fake wife. Too bad Jovana also happens to be one of his infamous one night stands. And the one night seems to have an impression on both of them.

I absolutely LOVED this book! It was flirty, funny, sexy and absolutely HOT 🔥. Grayson is a complete 🍆 most of the time, and I think it’s great how Jovana not only doesn’t put it up with it, but she sets him straight. She’s convinced she’s going to be the one who changes the forever bachelor.

I loved the twist at the end (didn’t see that one coming) when it turns out Jovana is also hiding a secret of her own.

With a HEA and the promise of Holden’s story in book 3, Mr. Wicked won’t disappoint. Bonus: both the ebook and audio are available in KU!

💖Fake Marriage

💖Billionaire Romance

💖Grumpy vs. Sunshine

💖Forced Proximity

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher Montlake and the author Marni Mann for the ARC copy of this book.

Mr. Wicked is available now in KU. Grab your copy here!

Almost Pretend by Nicole Snow

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

🌶🌶🌶🌶/5

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I really wanted to like this book. But something felt off about it from the beginning. Like, why is a millionaire/billionaire flying business class on Delta? And it just kind of went downhill from there.

We start off with Elle, suffering from a blistering migraine, making her way back to the west coast. She just happens to be seated next to “The Fixer” August. She passes out, he feels compelled to take care of her, and someone splashes pictures of them all over the internet. In a bid to repair his reputation, August proposes.

I enjoyed the story itself, but I had a hard time connecting with the characters and finding them and the situations believable. There is a ton of spice and open-door sexy time, so this is a red hot read for sure.

Overall it was a quick read with a meh story line with characters who just didn’t do it for me. It felt like the whole book was trying too hard. Almost as if they were trying to hit every popular trope. Also it was long for a book that didn’t have much to offer plot wise.

If you’re looking for lots of sexy time with minimal plot and character development, this book is for you.

I’m pretty sure that this review perfectly sums up how I feel.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. But as always, I encourage you to read for yourself.

RED HOT READ ALERT: this book is a sexy sexy red hot read that might jusy leave you blushing.

💖 Fake dating

💖 Fake engagement

💖 Grumpy vs sunshine

💖 Age gap

💖 Billionaire Romance

💖 Boss-Employee

Almost Pretend is available now in KU. Grab your copy here

Thanks to Netgalley and Montelake for the ARC copy of this book.

Still See You Everywhere By Lisa Gardner

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

🌶️ 🌶️ /5

This site contains affiliate links to products. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you.

While I do my best to make sure my reviews are spoiler-free, I may inadvertently reveal information that can help you connect plot points. So, here’s my TL;DR spoiler-free review: soild thriller with good twists, reaches a little too far for my liking, villian’s end is a cop out.

Oh man, oh man, my girl Frankie is back! Still See You Everywhere is the third book in Lisa Gardner’s Frankie Elkin series. And if I thought things couldn’t get any worse for Frankie than they did in Wyoming, boy, was I wrong. I highly suggest you go back and read book one, Before She Disappeared and book two One Step Too Far before diving in to Still See You Everywhere

This time around, Frankie is off to an atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, outside of Hawaii. She’s been recruited to find the younger sister of Kaylee Pierson, a condemned serial killer nicknamed The Beautiful Butcher. Leah disappeared 12 years ago while fleeing from an argument Kaylee was having with her then-boyfriend, Sander MacManus. With just weeks until she’s set to be put to death for killing 18 men and feeding them to her pigs, Kaylee has one dying wish: Find her sister.

It turns out that Leah is now MacManus’ ward, living a life of luxury no other 17-year-old girl could dream of. MacManus owns the atoll and is developing it into an eco-friendly resort—the same one Frankie has just been sent to. As in the other books, the cast of characters Frankie makes her family are eccentric, lovable, and just a little shady. One also happens to be an FBI agent deep undercover. I’ll let you guess who, but I called it from the start, just not the reason why they were there.

Chaos ensues when MacManus arrives on the island ahead of schedule with extra security. Turns out The Beautiful Butcher has escaped. Thought she couldn’t find her sister on an atoll in the middle of the ocean, cut off from all communication? Guess you’re wrong. After grievously injuring her attorney, Kaylee has stowed away on the plane and is now on the atoll.

As is typical in the Frankie Elkin books, bloodshed ensues, Frankie gets hot feelings for a hot guy, lots of people die, and Frankie finds the missing person. Out of the 3 books so far, this one was my least favorite as I felt it went a little too far sideways. From Boston to Wyoming to the Pacific is a far distance for Frankie, who doesn’t drive, to travel. I was also hoping that we would see more of a certain fella from Boston, but he doesn’t turn up. Sad face.

I still thought it was a great read, full of twists and turns, and an unpredictable ending that I didn’t call. (But it kind of felt like a cop-out.) I’m once again amazed at Frankie’s ability to maintain her sobriety when faced with certain death, but it felt weird that there are no AA meetings for her to attend, as the previous 2 books relied on them heavily.

On sale now, you can grab your copy here.

As always, I encourage you to read this book and form your own opinions, just as I have. Thank you to the author Lisa Gardner, the publisher Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC copy of this book.

A Pie To Die For By Gretchen Rue

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

🌶️/5

This site contains affiliate links to products. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you.

While I do my best to ensure my reviews are spoiler-free, I may inadvertently reveal information that could help you connect plot points. So, here’s my TL;DR spoiler-free review: A cute cozy mystery set on an island with touches of romance and magic.

My latest cozy read is my first venture into Gretchen Rue’s storytelling, “A Pie to Die For.” This book marks the beginning of her new series—a blend of cozy mystery, a touch of romance, and a dash of magic. Este March runs the family-owned Lucky Pie Diner, situated on Split Pine Island, a quaint island town in Northern Michigan. The island buzzes with activity during the tourist-packed summer season but is essentially isolated from the rest of civilization through the winter.

Each pie Este bakes holds something special. But, notably, two “lucky pies” are baked daily, promising unparalleled fortune to those who eat them. Everyone is on the hunt for these lucky pies, yet only Este knows which ones carry the magic. She honors a family tradition by keeping it a secret, although she’s been known to steer someone she feels could use a bit of luck towards one of these extraordinary pies. Conversely, there are those she believes should never receive a special pie, as they are simply not deserving.

The mystery in “A Pie to Die For” revolves around a valuable piece of property Este owns, a determined real estate developer who wants to seize it, and a new, unreliable produce man who fails to deliver and then turns up dead.

When all signs point to Este as the person of interest, she finds herself in a predicament. Determined to clear her name, she hasn’t been formally charged or implicated in the crime. Nonetheless, in a small seaside community, rumors spread quickly, and Este keeps stumbling upon clues.

I absolutely love this book. There’s something about cozy mysteries that just resonates with me. The premise of “A Pie to Die For” is particularly charming, and I found it to be a swift, enjoyable read. I had my suspicions about the real culprit and spotted several red herrings, but I didn’t piece everything together until the very end, which is always a satisfying conclusion. Gretchen Rue has crafted a solid four-star book. I eagerly anticipate reading more of her work in the future and continuing with the rest of the series.

On sale now, you can grab your copy here.

Thank you to the author Gretchen Rue, the publisher Crooked Lane Books, and NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book.