lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

I loved this one! I was giggling from the first time I picked it up. The meet cute between Nellie and JP, of course it was when she was a little girl and he was the 12 year old or whatever older brother of her new best friend, it had me laughing out loud! Then there were all the crazy dates that Nellie went on trying to lose her virginity before college, especially after what happened with her ex. There was a lot more than just humor though. Between Nellie’s family and the things that happened along the way with her and them, as well as the crazy guys on the dates, there was a lot going on.

It was definitely a very spicy book for sure though! So if you prefer closed door, you might not be a fan of this. However, this was right up my alley for the type of romance I enjoy. I totally understood Nellie’s thoughts and how she felt about that type of a relationship and guys. And JP was so much fun to see how things went with him, both in his older brother character as well as possibly more than that now that Nellie was grown up and he was too.

I know this is my first book by this author, but it definitely won’t be my last, in fact I see several listed on Goodreads that I need to go back and get my hands on! And I’m very excited for the next book to see just how these two can reconnect and see where they can go! This will be another favorite of the year for me probably!

I've just never enjoyed books with thieves as the characters for some reason.  Sad since this is one of my all time favorite authors.  But it's not bad, just not my type of read.  I'll definitely be back for whatever the author writes next!

Not going to be my type of book unfortunately.  I let all the hype about it and the fact that I enjoyed the author's YA titles to convince me to buy it even thought it really didn't sound like one I'd enjoy.  Oh well.

When I first heard about this book I was so intrigued I made sure to reach out to the publisher about getting an early copy to read, and I am so glad I did! This book kept me turning pages as fast as I could, as well as made me laugh and tear up at times on the same page! This may be this author’s first novel, but I’ll be waiting to read more I hope in the future!

The story starts out with one of the wildest scenes I can think of, a mother whose breasts start spritzing milk as her son is crying while she looks for his pacifier. The craziness of what a breast feeding mom has to deal with really set the tone. I wasn’t expecting that craziness even knowing that it was going to have a single mom as the main character. But it was that sense of humor and looking at the real humor in life that grabbed me and kept me turning pages. 

Hannah’s life as a single mom seemed to kind of be a haphazard things fall into place as the unexpected pregnancy led her and her ex moved in and stayed together for their son Bowie. The whole expected proposal turns into a breakup instead as the blurb points out also seemed uniquely done, if still a standard in romance at times. I did appreciate how Hannah never once actually considered cutting Killian out of their son Bowie’s life, her own lack of a stable family growing up causing her to know it was important Bowie had his father.

Moving back to live with her mom and stepdad did give me one confusing moment or two with the story. I guess her mom and Darryl wanted their grandparent names to be G-ma and Big Daddy. But I guess maybe I read too fast past the part that pointed that out and at first was a bit confused and wondering if Hannah’s grandparents were living with them. And then there was the hot yoga guy her mom told her about, who turned out to be River, the handsome laid back guy who lived in a treehouse near her parents. 

It was easy to understand why Hannah developed a little crush on River. Also easy to understand why she was hesitant about giving into any of those feelings after what she’d just been through with Bowie’s baby daddy, as well as what her mother’s relationship examples had been while Hannah was growing up. And while River seemed like the perfect guy, I mean how he was into her even with the mess she felt she was, even with her having another man’s child, etc., when the issues came up that started to drive a wedge between the two, like not being able to contact him, or at times not hearing from him for a while, the story became even more realistic in my opinion.

Not that Hannah was perfect now that she’d figured things out, she had her own issues to work through to become the person she wanted/needed to be. The story had so much more than just that romance and family issues though. The whole Airbnb project and mystery of how it went downhill even after a perfect renovation was such a great storyline too. And the perfect way to bring our final act make up scene about. Hannah’s best friend Kira and her partner Mattie were great parts of the story too. The lawyer, the fellow parents, the best friends, they fit in to shore up story arcs as well as add some outside drama that in a way I think helped Hannah realize her own issues.

While there were a few things I didn’t necessarily need or care for in the story, there was so much good about it that I had to bump it to a 4.5 from a 4 star rating. Again, even with what I’ve talked about here I haven’t even mentioned all the wonderful characters in this town. There’s so much in this story to enjoy. The romance was steamy, but not over the top, and even though it was a main part of the story it wasn’t the only main part of the story. Overall such a wonderful debut novel!

I was so excited to go back to this world that the author introduced us to in The Way I Hate Him. The small town of Almond Bay has so many characters that I couldn’t wait to get back to. While this one didn’t start out with some of the craziness that has me rolling with laughter on the first page, it didn’t take long before I was laughing out loud as I read! I think that Wyatt Preston is going to be my favorite book boyfriend of the year.

I love the grumpy/sunshine trope, and love it even more when it is reversed so that the man is the sunshine, which we had in this case. Wyatt’s cheerfulness as he was constantly badgering/flirting/breaking down Aubree’s walls was so perfect. His crazy outbursts and opinions and the way he could take any conversation into the gutter in such an extraordinarily unexpected way was what kept me laughing all through the book. Some of my favorites are when he called her his “special love dumpling”. Or the way he would react to her giving him the sarcastic replies like:

“If it makes you feel better, I’ve stuck my head up your ass the furthest.”
“That is one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever said to me.”
“I know.”

Or when he would say he needed her to compliment him, or talk about certain parts of his anatomy, and he would try to embarrass her by telling people who happened in on their conversations that she was talking about that. When he was telling her how dignified he was.

“What do dignified men do?”
“Smoke cigars and talk about their loafers.”

I want my own Wyatt so bad! 

Aubree’s reticence at letting him inside her walls was so understandable. It made sense for her to keep him at arm’s length as long as she did. But I did get a little frustrated that as she opened up to him about her ex and her ex-best friend that he didn’t go ahead at that point and tell her about his own ex issues. Of course that led to some of the final drama, going a little different than maybe I’d expected. And I do feel that sometimes these books are a little long at times, but as I was reading Wyatt’s hilarious banter with Aubree, it kept me going. 

I loved all the characters from the author’s other books that made appearances, even ones I didn’t expect! The way that Quinn connects all her worlds is just so unique and wonderful and exactly one of the reasons I love her books so much. Almond Bay’s townsfolk were as much fun as remembered from book one. And I look forward to another book set in this town, I assume it will be the other brother, Ryland, hopefully getting his own HEA.

I skipped the last book in the series, after it wasn’t working for me, but this one started out better for me. I mean, I am still such a big New Kids on the Block fan, that any boy band story is probably going to be a winner for me. I like the bit of the reverse billionaire romance trope for this one with Scarlett being the heiress. Sure, Tate could have been a billionaire, I mean he was a famous pop star, but when we start the story he’s down on his luck after kind of blowing up his career with drugs and alcohol.

Tate is easy to fall in love with though, he’s worked so hard to get to a better place, and this second chance for him is something you root for right away. Especially when his performance at Scarlett’s birthday party goes the way it does. It’s frustrating how many chances that Scarlett keeps giving her friend Ian, even after everyone gives her advice and tries to help her see how he’s just stringing her along. The dinner she has with his family is the perfect eye-opener for her, and it’s nice that she is able to figure things out about him from that point on.

Some of the stuff is definitely reminiscent a bit with the whole Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce romance going on right now, and so of course that stood out to me. Even if the author didn’t probably write this story with that in mind at all, or at least not when she started it I’m sure. I think maybe I liked Scarlett a lot because at that age I was a lot like her in the lack of experience area. And I liked how things went for her with that. How it wasn’t just a jump in and go for it, how they worked up to it, at a pace that was right, and in my opinion, realistic.

The story kept my interest the whole time as I wanted to see what would happen and how things could go with this fake relationship. In fact the way the secret got leaked and what happened at that point was unpredictable a bit for me. I liked that. I also loved the way Tate made sure to show Scarlett how he felt in the end. Not to mention all the song writing he did with Scarlett as his muse. Hmm, now I’m wondering if Taylor will have any songs with Travis as her muse? lol

I also liked Scarlett’s parents best probably out of all the Lancaster families too. This will be one of my favorites probably of the series for sure!

Oh my gosh, I loved this book so much! It reminded me of the first book by this author, that when I finally picked it up to read, that one I finished in one day. If I’d been off for snow days or any kind of break, that same thing would have happened with this one! And being alone in the library this week, I was so tempted at times to go ahead and just keep my Kindle on my desk and read while no one was there at times. 

The author’s take on vampires and werewolves was quite unique, at least for what I’ve read. I may be out of the know in what other paranormal romances are like. But I liked it! The story had humans, vampires, and weres as they called werewolves, and at least one hybrid between a were and a human. Humans knew about both supernatural creatures in the story, and there were alliances between the different groups. The main character was Misery, and she had been used as collateral between the humans and vampires when she was a child because of the high ranking of her father. She’s since been out of that role and living with her best friend, a human, trying to just get by as a human. Her father decides that they are now doing an alliance with the weres, and has asked her to be in a way a collateral again. Only this time she must marry the Alpha Were. 

Lowe is of course very handsome, and seems like a good guy, other than the fact that it seems like she smells terrible to him for how he acts at first. She agrees to the marriage of convenience because she has reason to believe Lowe might be able to help her find her friend Serena who has disappeared. The reasons she believes this are slowly revealed to us as the time goes by and Misery begins to learn more about her husband’s world and the people/weres in it. 

One of my favorite characters is Lowe’s little sister, and how Misery isn’t quite sure how to deal with a child, but it is humorous and fun to watch because of course Ana immediately adores Misery. As you’d expect there are betrayals and lots of covert missions to discover some things that are afoot in the werewolves world. Including an attempted kidnapping of Lowe’s sister and the other people who are loyal to the Alpha before Lowe. 

I loved this world, all the ways things were handled and the rules and roles of the characters. And it was still a romance as Misery and Lowe fight their attraction to each other as any good marriage of convenience trope should have. Also, when they finally do get together, it was extremely hot! I haven’t read a lot of stories like that, but the way Hazelwood tells it, I might try some others! I agree with other people who commented on my updates on Goodreads as I read this that I would LOVE to have more stories in this world. Be it more of Lowe and Misery and what other fights they might have to go through, or other people finding their own loves, as Hazelwood’s other series/standalone books do different couples in the same world.

Now I just can’t wait for my special edition copy of this to arrive!

Tried the first story. Started the second which was like a dictionary. So tried to skip to the third and just wasn’t feeling it. 

I was worried I might not be able to get into this one since I wasn’t able to read the last one, but as usual these are all standalones and I was able to read and enjoy this one on its own.

The beginning of this was perfect though. I loved how Sarah tried to get Theo to collaborate, and when he refused, she just threw her book and left. Of course when he read it, he had to change his mind. At first he was a bit unlikable as we saw him deal with another woman, but that woman was enough to totally make you not like her, especially later in the book when she came back to make trouble. And when Theo showed up for Sarah in her time of need, unbeknownst to him when he did, that was wonderful as well.

Their relationship was built perfectly through working, and when they took the next step, it flowed just the way you’d expect. The big issue that gave them their moment apart was one that Sarah kind of predicted, but it still sucked. Theo’s begging to get her back also was well deserved in order to get another chance. And I think holding out on him the way she did, and taking it slower that second time made a lot of sense.

Even though I don’t read a lot of romantic suspense, other than when favorite authors like Young write it, I do like that it often makes it so the story doesn’t have that last act of a break up. I like having something else that kind of tests their relationship, but not in that kind of way. The bad guy in this book was scary, and also perfect for the type of people and world that both Theo and Sarah lived in.

Another great story from Samantha Young!