Well, this was, as some of my fav reviewers have said, "aggressively fine." The audiobook narrator was fine but also didn't differentiate enough between the many different POV characters so I had a little trouble following along. There is an HEA for one of the main characters, and I liked that romance okay (between foster-siblings which was a bit ehhh but it was fine they met as older teens).

Good enough to listen to while playing Animal Crossing, but would not recommend or consider a "must listen."

Thank you to LibroFM for the ALC.

Waiting for a Scot Like You was a rollicking roadtrip adventure with so much sexual chemistry the carriage should have left flame tracks like a Delorean behind it.

Major Duncan McCameron is a stern rule follower in the streets and rule maker in the sheets, and made sure our Lady Farris was taken care of in all the ways.

I especially appreciated the age-gap (Duncan is 12 years younger than Beatrice who is a widower) and how Lady Farris refused to compromise her position in life.

You all need this, and please DM me when you hit the nod to Footloose!

Thank you to Avon and Edelweiss+ for the advanced reading copy.

Best book to read right now when my heart is hurting and needing a warm hug.

"He wanted inside her confetti-strewn head every chance he got. It was the only foreign country he could remember wanting to visit."

Eve Brown runs off to the countryside and quite actually into a man with her car after her parents cut off her allowance and tell her she needs to get her act together. Fortunately Jacob is okay, but as the sole proprietor and only employee of his B&B, he's going to need some help now that his arm is fractured. Eve, who has dabbled in most careers, decides she'll stay at least through the month to help cook and clean.

What follows is the best, warm hearted falling in love story between two souls quite perfect for each other. Hibbert has created a magical series, each book better than the last, and I'm so happy to read these words about these wonderful sisters. Eve might be my favorite yet.

As an aside, Jacob is autistic, and he helps Eve realize she probably is too. I won't comment on the rep, but this is an own-voices story.

Thank you to Avon for the ARC.

Call me naive but I honestly almost flung my poor, antique Kindle Voyage across the room after hitting the 75% mark in this story.

This second chance romance between two former college sweethearts, told in 1st POV from the romance novel writing heroine Kara Sullivan's perspective just did not work for me at all. I don't care how cute your bull dog is Ryan, good bye to you.

I also personally don't like the "book within a book" trope so I didn't care about the historical romance scenes mirroring Kara and Ryan's romance. I needed more time spent seeing why she'd ever forgive him.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Spoiler

Kara, a romance novelist, is aghast to find out that her ex and former love of her life Ryan is now to spend a week sleeping on her couch before their mutual friends wedding. His bulldog is real cute, but she's concerned her feelings will make it awful. But she's on deadline and the last time and Ryan was the spark that helped her write her first romance all those years ago. Of course, sparks fly, and they soon fall into bed and back into a love that seems to have truly never gone away. BUT, at the wedding, we discover Ryan has been engaged this entire time. to the woman she thought he was cheating on her with the last time they broke up (he wasn't, but now he is. And she's the other woman). GROSS. I was so so so angry at him. And then Ryan has the audacity to claim her keeping a 6 month Italy trip she's paid for and planned for over a year is the at the same level of bad secret keeping (NO IT IS NOT). She goes to Italy, for six months. Has a brief kiss with another man and a date, and then Ryan shows up to drop off ONE letter and a journal, and she forgives him after he she misses him in Italy, so she goes back to him. The end. I didn't buy it. Dislike.

CW cheating, lingering grief issues, drinking, fatphobia

This romance is long, and I could tell the love author Golding has for the sport of extreme motorcycle racing. Her writing is breathtaking and sparkling as Lorelai takes every bend, but for me I wanted way less race description and way more kissing.

I know 0% about the sport, but Golding does a good job giving you details on it. If you love romances with a heavy emphasis on the career this is a great one for you. For me, I found myself skimming to the scenes with Massimo and Lorelai together, and for the amount of sexual tension these two generate I wanted more sexy times!

Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss+ for the ARC

CW: drinking, medical trauma, heroine has a horrific on-page accident early in the book, anxiety and fear over returning to racing/being injured

Prepared to be wooed and hear me well, ye fair ladies, folks, and knaves. This contemporary Ren-Faire set romance is going to delight you while tugging at your bodice strings.

I blew up my ARC reading list schedule because Well Met by Jen DeLuca has been at the absolute top of my most anticipated 2019 romances since I saw that cover and read the words "Rom-Com at a Renaissance Fair." When it landed on my eReader I knew I had to read it right away, and it definitlely lived up to my expectations!

Told in 1st Person POV from the perspective of Emily, a twenty-something who's jerk ex-boyfriend just unceremoniously dumped her, despite the fact she dropped out out of college to work and help him get through law school. Now Emily is essentially homeless and therefore totally ready and willing to help out her much older sister, who needs assistance after having her leg shattered in a bad car accident.

One of the tasks Emily ends up with is volunteering with her teenage niece at the local Renaissance Fair, not exactly what Emily had in mind for the summer, but also not something that sounds too terrible. Especially since it seems there will be beer, jousting, and men in kilts! Too bad the fair organizer is such a grump.

As Emily becomes Emma, bar wench, every weekend, she also discovers she's so much more.

Absolutely delightful from so many aspects. The details of the fair, the cast of secondary characters, Emily's relationships with her sister, her niece, and the new friends she makes. Plus, the romance! I won't say much more because I'll let you fall for the guy-liner wearing pirate yourself!

A must read, definitely worth a pre-order!

I received a free copy in exchange for a fair review!

Readers, I loved it

❤friends to lovers
*12 years of tension in vacations
*oops only one bed and a broken AC
*partner in peril/sick bed tending
*therapy

Definitely a romance, an aching slow-burn.

Professional review to come in Library Journal, but I really enjoyed this one. The story is tightly focused on chaos-sprite Poppy and buttoned up, Reid-from-Love-Lettering-archetype Alex, and their twelve years of summer vacations. Set in present day (not pandemic present) Palm Springs and interspersed with flashbacks from the previous vacations, this was full of so much yearning, so much friendship, and discussions of what it means to find a home.

Henry has a way with language the both grips me, and makes me swoon. I need to go back and highlight a few quotes and will do that soon.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

CW: drinking, lingering grief issues, love interests have other relationships before their HEA, but no cheating.

In order to save their jobs at the Seattle Public Radio station, Shay and Dominic, office enemies, agree to be fake exes in order to pitch a new type of relationship show. Shay is the veteran of the station, having worked as a producer for 10 years and has never had another job. She's still grieving her father, the man who made her fall in love with radio, and while she always wanted to be a host, is feeling guilty the co-host she is now also having sparks with and her are lying to everyone.

Success and a retreat to "cement their story" lead to Shay and Dominic actually falling into a casual relationship, but their lies may mean the end of everything.

I really loved this, my first Rachel Lynn Solomon. There's breathless yearning, and really great buildup in a very slow-burn way. This is a thick read, and you'll be ready for Shay and Dominic to pounce on each other. I especially loved the contrast of Shay being the eternal one to always fall in love first in her various short relationships to Dominic having only had one long term girlfriend who broke his heart.

Shay is five years older than Dominic, but as she was only 29, if they are living in 2020-21, some of her references were more from my high school experience as a late 30s person, so that stuck out to me just a bit, but really that didn't matter at all.

Of note Dominic is Korean-American, Shay is Jewish and white. There are many characters of color in this story, and I really loved the little glimpses we get of Shay's mother's engagement and relationship.

ALSO loved that Dominic was a door leaner, sleeve-roller-upper. Sexy.

Cannot wait to discuss this one with some friends!

I'd been hoarding this one for a long time, and I finally treated myself to it this weekend. I needed to have seen Hamilton to fully appreciate this story of a dressmaker and lady's maid/assistant/writer. SO MUCH YEARNING. I wish it was longer, but their romance was lovely. I need to read the rest of the stories from the original antho now.

Black smith romances are my catnip (please always tell me if you find one) but I'd been saving this Adriana Anders in case of an emergency, and wow did that pay off well for me!

With such a heavy subject matter, I loved how Anders showed Uma reclaiming her power and control, and for Ivan being oh so willing and able to do whatever Uma needed to feel safe and comfortable. Uma's fear of being discovered by her powerful ex, who is a prosecutor and "in bed with the cops" made my heart break thinking about how many people live with that same fear.

Uma learning self-defense, finding friendship, finding love, was so fulfilling. I never felt like Uma went through a "magic" moment of healing, which is what I fear from stories including abuse and trauma, but Anders put our heroine well on the path to finding her happiness and home.

Of special note, I loved how the relationship between Uma and the woman who became her employer played out. Uma didn't take her shit, but also respected her as a human, despite her awfulness/crankiness. I liked how that played out, and I about passed out when we found out her name.

CWs: heroine experienced emotional and physical abuse/torture at the hands of an ex. abuse is detailed, and the ex does return to try and harm the heroine. Hero served prison time for beating his sister's abuser. Drinking, medical procedures (heroine is getting tattoos forced on her by ex removed).